National’s Matt Doocey and Labour’s Reuben Davidson joined John MacDonald this week for Politics Friday.
They discussed Hagley College’s idea to trial a flexible model, with students working from home two days a week – how does this fit in with the Government’s plans for attendance?
Will increasing the visitor levy be the answer to funding issues, or will it be a silver bullet to the tourism industry?
Does the Government support the Mayor’s letter, asking them to crack down on pokie machine jackpots and add limits to machines in Christchurch?
Plus, what really happened with Matt Doocey’s interview mixup on the Mike Hosking Breakfast?
LISTEN ABOVE
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Canterbury Morning's Podcast with John McDonald
from News Talk zed B.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Type for politics Friday Labour's Reuben Davidson Morning, Reuben.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
Good morning. It's really politic Friday now? Is it enough?
Speaker 2 (00:18):
What it is? Because I'm wondering in fact, Matt Deucey's
arrived here of.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
The century getting into the podium.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Yes, the Steve par your age, now he's the Steve
Parr of what end there is? Hey? Did you get
a call from marin Z saying that you didn't need
to turn up today or something? No comment? How come
you have come? You have arrived so long?
Speaker 4 (00:40):
I was actually at the police station, but for a
professional reason on my.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Apologies are in Z. They finished the bird call and
they thought, right, we'll bring up Matt Doucy again and
say get a mate. They put on a voice trying
to sound like Z Yeah, get mate, damn zib here.
John McDonald doesn't need to see.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
You, mate. Is this about yesterday morning with Hosking?
Speaker 2 (01:04):
What happened? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (01:07):
Well I rung up and the person just said news room.
So I didn't actually know I was ringing the wrong station. Yeah,
And I told them what I was there for and
they said, oh, you're not needed. So I was a
bit like God, because you just rung me late last
night to come on the show. But anyway, that's all
i'm gonna say. Only other people worked that out.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Did they let me clarify this because there's been a
bit of stuff this morning? Well, no, hold on, you
do know because you're on the end of the line.
Speaker 4 (01:33):
Look, I've already strained probably too much into let the
two stations work it out. I'm staying out of them.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Did they say you're not needed to talk to Mike
Hosking or say oh, no, you're not needed.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
Yeah, I'm gonna that's how I'm going to say.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
Seven o'clock in the morning. It's hard to remember what
anybody says.
Speaker 4 (01:50):
I've rushed into it.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
But what would you have said, Ruben?
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Well, interestingly, I got a similar phone call this morning.
I got a phone call this morning from a number
I didn't recognize, so I packed it up and they said,
now we've got a gap this morning. We can fit
you in at ten past ten.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
What show was that? Oh? This one?
Speaker 3 (02:03):
This was mo Dentist and.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
You chose me over your dentist. You're trying to make
me feel good.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
I thought, what's better than pulling teeth? And I thought
coming in and doing politics Friday with Matt docy and
John McDonald.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
Yeah, I'll tell you what. And that's a great sign.
Under a national government, you're getting faster access to deal
service man.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
You put anything on turn anything on its head. Also,
I'm looking forward to this this morning because Ruben, you've
got to say thank you to Matt Doucy for getting
the money for your pages. Right over bridge.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Well, that's an interesting topic and I'm really pleased that
you've bought it up because we have got thirteen million
dollars towards a sixty five to eighty million dollar infrastructure
project that needs to happen in christ Church East. And
that's a victory for the community who stood up and said,
oh we need support here. So yes, I'm pleased to
(02:56):
see a contribution. I'm disappointed it's not more. It's less
than twenty five percent of the budget.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Isn't there a suggestion though it could be as much
as fifty million coming from the government for the bridge?
Speaker 4 (03:06):
Well, I think that's quite right. When you look at
that much money you'll need to build a bridge.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
It's going to be fifty more.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
All I'm saying is it's going to be a bigger
fiscal envelope than the original thirteen million dollars committed. But
I must say well done this government delivering it in
ten months when the last one had six years and
didn't do it.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
I thought it was going to say well done Ruben
for campaigning for it.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
No, No, it's politics, Friday Jiant.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Of course, it's politicals only till ten thirty.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
So what was it about the last labor caucus that
couldn't get over the line? But Reuben comes in and
it does.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
So you're confirming today that there's going to be something
more like fifty million coming from the government for the pages.
Speaker 4 (03:43):
All I'm saying is the Land Transport Fund is for
the next three years, and clearly there will be the
need to talk about future funding in the next land
Transport Fund from what will that be twenty twenty eight
to thirty one.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
I'd like to think we'd have a bridge before then,
given the current NBS rating on it.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
All right, they's talk about Haggy Collin. We had six tears, Ruben, Hey,
Hagiy College are doing this trial year twelve students, three
days in class, two days working from home. How do
you feel about that, Matt Ducie, you're grimacing.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
Well, I suppose I've got to just think ahead of
what I'm going to say, and now I'm going to
get in trouble. Clearly, boards of trustees hold some responsibility
for deciding the character and the.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Rules of a school.
Speaker 4 (04:36):
My natural response when I hear what you're stating, John,
as it does concern me, I think, yep. Look, I
suppose at the end of the day, if it's about
educational achievement and kids are going to learn online to
meet that, then partly that could be why they're moving
towards that. But I would have thought also school was
(04:59):
about the engagement of other people, building up a peer network,
learning the girls of turning up to a place on
time and prepared, which actually is a good skill to
go out into the workforce for as well. So there's
a there's a lot to unpack there.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
I think, yeah, but.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Turn up on time. Let's just go back two minutes.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
He did correspond to school obviously, Matt Doucy, but also
with your head on, as a mental health minister had
the college is saying this is for students who suffer anxiety,
and I mean, I mean, what's your take on that.
Speaker 4 (05:38):
Yeah, it's it's hard to generalize because everyone is unique
and the situation is specific. Because yep, for some people,
anxiety can be a barrier to school, and what we
want them to do is continue to learn. But it'd
also argue for some people, going to school can help
them manage things like anxiety and learn the skills to
(06:03):
deal with anxiety that maybe school provokes. So it's very
hard to kind of look at it with a sort
of a blanket lens when actually it's it's quite specific.
But from what I hear you saying, John, it looks
like the whole school is moving to that.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Is it? No, no, no, try a twenty oh year
twelve and the works. They'll apply it for you year eleven,
year thirteen as well. Reuben, what do you think about it?
Speaker 3 (06:25):
Yeah, Ultimately, I think education can and needs to innovate.
And I think that at school, some of the most
important lessons I learned didn't happen in the classroom, and
that's possibly the same.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Thing it happened at school.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
They did happen at school, and one of the really
important things that happens at school, I think is a
sense of community, how you fit into it, how you
contribute to it, how it works, how it doesn't work.
And those are some of the lessons that potentially you
cannot learn in isolation. But I think we've got to
keep this in context. This is a pilot project for
twenty students at Hagley High School. I think if we
(06:57):
come back to that idea of education innovating, then it's
great to see education leaders and schools trying new ideas
and seeing what the result and ultimately supporting students.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
It's all right. So yeah, I know you're saying it's
a let's see it for what it is. But already say,
we've got the deputy principal at Avonside Girls High School saying, well,
this could be good for us. So it's not you
know this, this has got a life of its own.
This is going to take.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
Off, well, not necessarily. I mean, I think people will
watch with interest and will want to see what the
results are. And I think when you're looking at we're
talking about year thirteen students, right, So.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
These are year twelve agli right, so close.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
To then going on to potentially tertiary study or work.
So they're sitting at a they're sitting at a at
a point where you're not talking about primary school children
studying from home.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Imagine that. Matt Durcy, of course, with the minister who
had on he's the only government minister in the South
Island or from the South Island is Minister of Tourism
and Hospitality. And hospitality and the international visitor levy is increasing.
You are increasing it, Your government's increasing it. The tourism
sect that reckons forty eight thousand less people will come
here because of that, you believe them.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
Because there's no evidence of that. And the advice I
received is that there was no evidence that raising the
levee will impact on the number of tourists arriving. Why
are they saying that then, well they'll need to answer that.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Are you saying you don't believe them?
Speaker 4 (08:21):
No, they've been told very clearly by the NB Tourism
officials that there is no evidence, so they will need
to respond why they are saying that. But the advice
I've got is it won't impact on the numbers. And
when you look at it, it's a legislative five year review.
It was up for review this year. We went out
to the public. We received well over eleven hundred submissions.
(08:44):
Ninety three percent of submission supported increasing it, two thirds
supported it increasing it to one hundred dollars. It works
out to be something like two percent of what an
average tourist will spend over the course of visiting New Zealand.
And if you're in America, I think it's the equivalent
of about forty US dollars. The increase the United Kingdom
(09:05):
about third equid. So clearly you can see it's not
going to have an impact on what we do have
in tourism. Is some pressures on things like mixed use infrastructure.
You think of smaller towns with high tourism numbers, and
the resounding result of the consultation is they want the
funding to go towards supporting those pressures.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Go to that though.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
Yeah, so we want to.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Use it to back so it's ring fenced.
Speaker 4 (09:30):
Yeah, yeah, it's hypothecated fifty That mean, well, it's a
flash term for ring fenced. I thought I just throwed
in there.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
J or get away with that story. I'm not bright enough.
Speaker 4 (09:41):
Before I become the Tourism minister, I didn't know that
term either, but hypothecated, So it's hypothecated fifty percent tourism
and fifty percent conservation. So currently it generates about forty
million for tourism forty million million for conservation every year
under the rate increase on the first of October goes
up to one hundred and fifteen for tourism.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Okay, so room dabs and Stuart Nash, Labour's former tourism
he wanted to put it up to two hundred bucks.
Is that Labour's position? Now?
Speaker 3 (10:09):
You know that was that was quite a while ago,
two years ago, And I think what we're looking at
here is a tourism sector that set about seventy five
percent of what it was pre COVID eighty five.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
We're about two years ago when your government wanted to
do it, it was possibly in a worse position.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Yeah, but we're talking about a two hundred percent increase
to that levee.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Now it's about It's about being realistic, isn't it. Though.
I mean you could say, oh, look, we only charged
thirty five bucks and that was great, but it wasn't realistic.
And you could say we're going to charge one hundred
bucks now, and you might say, well, that's not great,
but a little bit great, but it's still not realistic.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
Yeah, there's also I mean, and this comes back to
your fancy word hypothecated or ring fenced funding, right, and
that's going towards conservation. So this is this, This is
the same coalition government that.
Speaker 5 (10:56):
Come back to the question that's to dark that it
gets boring. Can I just want to ava, what is
labour's position. Do you still want to go to two
hundred bucks or you're happy with a hundred bucks or
you think it should still be thirty five bucks.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
I think that the tourism sector needs to be supported
to fully recover before we look at risking cutting the numbers.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
So supporter, what's to answer the question?
Speaker 3 (11:19):
So the answer to the question is that what you've
got here is a situation where conservation funding has been slashed,
jobs for nature has been peered right back. We know
that one hundred percent pure in New Zealand's natural environment
is one of the biggest attractors of foreign visitors to
this country. And now what we're saying is because we've
(11:40):
taken that money to give away in tax cuts and
to land. So what should the leg Now we're going
to need to bring visitors and charge them a whole
lot more. So, what should come and visit?
Speaker 2 (11:52):
What should it be?
Speaker 3 (11:53):
Look, I think there's definitely a case for increasing it,
but I think that needs to be date needs to
be done really carefully and cautiously so we don't lose
visitors and lose revenue that we need so.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Is quickly you believe tourism sector. Unlike Matt Doosey, you
believe believe the tourism sector that forty eight thousand less
people will come here because of the increase.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
All right, Look, if they're telling us that, then I
think that has to be listening to.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Look at what the Christian City Council is calling for,
asking for change when it comes to pokey machines. So
the Mayor has written to Internal Affairs Minister suggesting a
couple of things, one of which is reducing the number
of pokey machines and lower socioeconomic areas in christ Church
and also putting a limit or reducing the jackpot totals
on these machines. Mate, do you see what's your response
(12:36):
to that?
Speaker 5 (12:37):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (12:37):
I can understand that. I mean, when you look at
the harm caused to some people who use Pokey Machines.
The reality is so, and I have some responsibility here
as a mental health minister. I'm responsible for the gambling
arm levy and we're just out for consultation on the
gambling harm strategy at the moment. What's interesting the advice
(12:59):
I get is gambling as a country has play out,
if not slightly dipped.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
On some phones. I think I zed ringing to apologize.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
That's that's just a vibration of of my phone.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
At the leaders a long reaching in the studio door,
trying to pull.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Is it the casino calling say you've left a last night?
Speaker 4 (13:24):
My mum put her on, put it on and I
know my mom listen.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
So I'm but worried did.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
I swear or something I haven't been the punctuality, it
will be raised you better than that.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Actually, back in the day, you never would have walked
in thirty seconds after the thing started.
Speaker 4 (13:42):
That's a fair comment, and now I'm prepared for that, Pokemone.
So the reality is what we'll probably see with more
online gambling, and the government's just moving now to regulate
it and they'll start paying the online gambling levy, is
that there's a substitution effect going on so so actually
we can.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Focus on a lot of lingo today. Sorry, so do
you do you agree with what you're sitting falling forward? Well,
the direction of travel. The problem you've got though is
actually by focusing on Pokey's people are just going to
shift more as they are to the online games, which
is even more unregulated. It's one of our callers said yesterday,
who's a regular gambler? So, Reuben Davidson, this reducing the
(14:23):
number's lower economic areas that this would impact the area
that you represent.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
Yeah, look, it will affect all of our communities across Canterbury.
And I think that the ask from me Phil is
a really straightforward one. He's asking for central government to
be more ambitious. That means that he's asking for central
government to do more in this space. And I think
that it's all well and good for Matt to talk about,
you know, that gambling shifting to online, but let's not
forget that this was this was this map from the
(14:50):
same party that talked about using those online gambling proceeds
to bank roll Landlord's tax carts and have also recently
gone chop chop chop at the DIA, including the gambling director.
So the very very people body and organizations that are
there to prevent the harm that we know happens from gambling,
whether that's in pokey rooms or online, is being eroded
(15:14):
and losing their ability to actually step in and intervene.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
What are you doing on your phone, Matt? I was
just checking were you We're seeing your mum texts?
Speaker 4 (15:22):
Yeah, I was just wondering what she was.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
She want a pint of milk? It's all right, you
can't get Not many people can get The only Cabinet
minister in South Island to pick up milk on the
way home for the may That is impressive. Can we
finish off looking at this announcement from the government yesterday
to allow more and cheaper building supplies to come from overseas,
Matt Doucy, My understanding is that building supplies only make
up twenty percent of the cost of doing a house build,
(15:45):
so this wouldn't it's not going to fix it as well.
Speaker 4 (15:48):
My understanding is that when you look at building supplies
that can increase the cost of a house by up
to fifty percent compared to Australia. I mean this is
a recommendation from the Commerce Commission, so I think you're
starting to see the Commerce Commission, whether it be this
in supermarkets, starting to show its teeth a bit. And
really what it is is about supply and demand, and
(16:08):
if there is a restriction in the in the supply,
the price goes up. And quite rightly what it's saying
if you look at maybe jurisdictions like Australia where some
building products are certified, why don't did we just adopt
their certification and let that come into the country, Because
at the moment, I think the approval process is greater
than two years. We saw what happened with the JIB crisis,
(16:31):
and that's all what that's about. And I think most
people would say it's common seen.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Was that a crisis, Ruben Davidson. I remember Megan Wood's
intervening or trying to intervene to get more cheap of
products here. Was that a JIB crisis? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Look, I think ultimately that there's a there's a risk
here that what we do is deregulate and deregulate and
deregulate the building industry until we create homes that we're
building that are not warm, safe, or dry, and they're
not good for people to live in. And we've we've
had issues in this country before when we had the
leaky home issue. We've still said, you know, legacy, legacy
(17:06):
issues and problems off the back of that. And we've
seen in other countries, like in the UK, the absolute
horror of what can happen when you deregulate housing industry
to the point where you have incidents like the Grenfell Tower,
where far too many people lose their lives because buildings
are being built that are not safe to occupy. So
I think whilst it's all well and good to talk
(17:28):
about cutting corners and cutting costs, what we actually need
to see is a government that's prepared to invest in
enough housing so that people have homes to live in
that are safe. There is a difference between There is
a different side. There is a different side between cutting
costs and cutting corners. There is, but ultimately they can
both lead to building homes that are absolutely not fit
(17:52):
or suitable.
Speaker 4 (17:53):
For people to want to I'm not sure I do
agree with that framing. I think there's a difference between
having something that is cheaper by allowing the market to respond,
meaning you can still have a high level of quality
with certainification. You're just increasing the access to those products
so cheaper verse cheap. I'm not I don't think we're
(18:13):
saying to allow cheap or low quality products to come in.
All we're saying is if something is certified in Australia
and we've got our own certification, that takes two years.
Quite rightly, the Commerce Commissions come out with a recommendation
saying maybe we should accept Australian certified products.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
You know, they're I think it's not a bigger problem.
But just as much of a problem is waste on
building site sites. It amazes me how much stuff get
gets thrown out. We did a reno years ago at home,
blew me away. What was getting thrown out? New stuff,
you know, maybe it wasn't quite right to fit here
or whatever, but chucked out. And maybe it's just easier
to chuck stuff out. But I think that's another thing
(18:51):
that I don't know if it's the thing for the
government to look at, but it strikes me that there's
an awful lot of waste in construction.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
There absolutely can be, but there's also some amazing technological
innovation locally here in Canterbury too, where you've got building
that's happening off site and in effect context and the
systems that build that are able to track and trace
every single piece of building material. I'm not sure that
there's a single wheel wheelbarrow left over at the endivice.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
I saw that on Grand Designs recently, and the house
was being what is smarter? I saw?
Speaker 4 (19:22):
Is that a linear TV program?
Speaker 2 (19:23):
I saw it on Very Good, I saw it on Green.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
We know that we know that you struggle with linear time,
so can understand you might not have seen a linear show.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
And they've built and they built this house inside of
factory and then they ship it out and the homeowner
gets a blooming apple or a QR code. Every every
detail of that home, right down to the last detail
is on that thing and they're away laughing.
Speaker 4 (19:43):
Yeah, I'm not sure, Ruben wat does that program? Probably
Treasure Island, I would have thought would be the labor
party program.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
At the moment. Rubert anyway, and you've been on demand
viewer scheduled viewing times would not be up your street.
The Minister of a lateness. Nice nice, Ruben Damson.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
Invitation sneaking an invitation and if I may, we're having
a we're having a barbecue to celebrate the great work
our local community and New Brighton did calling on extra
funding for our bridge eleven thirty to twelve thirty at
the New Brighton Roundabout a celebration of people power.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
That'll be there. I'll tell you what.
Speaker 4 (20:18):
It's great to see the acknowledgment that this government is
listenable to the people.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
And it's great to see confirmation there's going to be
fifty million bucks coming instead of the thirteen.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
Well you're hear it all first on this show, John,
don't you people need to tune in when you turn up.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
Thank you for more from Canterbory Mornings with John McDonald.
Listen live to news Talks It'd be christ Church from
nine am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Canterbury Morning's Podcast with John McDonald
from News Talk zed B.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Type for politics Friday Labour's Reuben Davidson Morning, Reuben.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
Good morning. It's really politic Friday now? Is it enough?
Speaker 2 (00:18):
What it is? Because I'm wondering in fact, Matt Deucey's
arrived here of.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
The century getting into the podium.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Yes, the Steve par your age, now he's the Steve
Parr of what end there is? Hey? Did you get
a call from marin Z saying that you didn't need
to turn up today or something? No comment? How come
you have come? You have arrived so long?
Speaker 4 (00:40):
I was actually at the police station, but for a
professional reason on my.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Apologies are in Z. They finished the bird call and
they thought, right, we'll bring up Matt Doucy again and
say get a mate. They put on a voice trying
to sound like Z Yeah, get mate, damn zib here.
John McDonald doesn't need to see.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
You, mate. Is this about yesterday morning with Hosking?
Speaker 2 (01:04):
What happened? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (01:07):
Well I rung up and the person just said news room.
So I didn't actually know I was ringing the wrong station. Yeah,
And I told them what I was there for and
they said, oh, you're not needed. So I was a
bit like God, because you just rung me late last
night to come on the show. But anyway, that's all
i'm gonna say. Only other people worked that out.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Did they let me clarify this because there's been a
bit of stuff this morning? Well, no, hold on, you
do know because you're on the end of the line.
Speaker 4 (01:33):
Look, I've already strained probably too much into let the
two stations work it out. I'm staying out of them.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Did they say you're not needed to talk to Mike
Hosking or say oh, no, you're not needed.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
Yeah, I'm gonna that's how I'm going to say.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
Seven o'clock in the morning. It's hard to remember what
anybody says.
Speaker 4 (01:50):
I've rushed into it.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
But what would you have said, Ruben?
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Well, interestingly, I got a similar phone call this morning.
I got a phone call this morning from a number
I didn't recognize, so I packed it up and they said,
now we've got a gap this morning. We can fit
you in at ten past ten.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
What show was that? Oh? This one?
Speaker 3 (02:03):
This was mo Dentist and.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
You chose me over your dentist. You're trying to make
me feel good.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
I thought, what's better than pulling teeth? And I thought
coming in and doing politics Friday with Matt docy and
John McDonald.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
Yeah, I'll tell you what. And that's a great sign.
Under a national government, you're getting faster access to deal
service man.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
You put anything on turn anything on its head. Also,
I'm looking forward to this this morning because Ruben, you've
got to say thank you to Matt Doucy for getting
the money for your pages. Right over bridge.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Well, that's an interesting topic and I'm really pleased that
you've bought it up because we have got thirteen million
dollars towards a sixty five to eighty million dollar infrastructure
project that needs to happen in christ Church East. And
that's a victory for the community who stood up and said,
oh we need support here. So yes, I'm pleased to
(02:56):
see a contribution. I'm disappointed it's not more. It's less
than twenty five percent of the budget.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Isn't there a suggestion though it could be as much
as fifty million coming from the government for the bridge?
Speaker 4 (03:06):
Well, I think that's quite right. When you look at
that much money you'll need to build a bridge.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
It's going to be fifty more.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
All I'm saying is it's going to be a bigger
fiscal envelope than the original thirteen million dollars committed. But
I must say well done this government delivering it in
ten months when the last one had six years and
didn't do it.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
I thought it was going to say well done Ruben
for campaigning for it.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
No, No, it's politics, Friday Jiant.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Of course, it's politicals only till ten thirty.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
So what was it about the last labor caucus that
couldn't get over the line? But Reuben comes in and
it does.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
So you're confirming today that there's going to be something
more like fifty million coming from the government for the pages.
Speaker 4 (03:43):
All I'm saying is the Land Transport Fund is for
the next three years, and clearly there will be the
need to talk about future funding in the next land
Transport Fund from what will that be twenty twenty eight
to thirty one.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
I'd like to think we'd have a bridge before then,
given the current NBS rating on it.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
All right, they's talk about Haggy Collin. We had six tears, Ruben, Hey,
Hagiy College are doing this trial year twelve students, three
days in class, two days working from home. How do
you feel about that, Matt Ducie, you're grimacing.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
Well, I suppose I've got to just think ahead of
what I'm going to say, and now I'm going to
get in trouble. Clearly, boards of trustees hold some responsibility
for deciding the character and the.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Rules of a school.
Speaker 4 (04:36):
My natural response when I hear what you're stating, John,
as it does concern me, I think, yep. Look, I
suppose at the end of the day, if it's about
educational achievement and kids are going to learn online to
meet that, then partly that could be why they're moving
towards that. But I would have thought also school was
(04:59):
about the engagement of other people, building up a peer network,
learning the girls of turning up to a place on
time and prepared, which actually is a good skill to
go out into the workforce for as well. So there's
a there's a lot to unpack there.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
I think, yeah, but.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Turn up on time. Let's just go back two minutes.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
He did correspond to school obviously, Matt Doucy, but also
with your head on, as a mental health minister had
the college is saying this is for students who suffer anxiety,
and I mean, I mean, what's your take on that.
Speaker 4 (05:38):
Yeah, it's it's hard to generalize because everyone is unique
and the situation is specific. Because yep, for some people,
anxiety can be a barrier to school, and what we
want them to do is continue to learn. But it'd
also argue for some people, going to school can help
them manage things like anxiety and learn the skills to
(06:03):
deal with anxiety that maybe school provokes. So it's very
hard to kind of look at it with a sort
of a blanket lens when actually it's it's quite specific.
But from what I hear you saying, John, it looks
like the whole school is moving to that.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Is it? No, no, no, try a twenty oh year
twelve and the works. They'll apply it for you year eleven,
year thirteen as well. Reuben, what do you think about it?
Speaker 3 (06:25):
Yeah, Ultimately, I think education can and needs to innovate.
And I think that at school, some of the most
important lessons I learned didn't happen in the classroom, and
that's possibly the same.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Thing it happened at school.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
They did happen at school, and one of the really
important things that happens at school, I think is a
sense of community, how you fit into it, how you
contribute to it, how it works, how it doesn't work.
And those are some of the lessons that potentially you
cannot learn in isolation. But I think we've got to
keep this in context. This is a pilot project for
twenty students at Hagley High School. I think if we
(06:57):
come back to that idea of education innovating, then it's
great to see education leaders and schools trying new ideas
and seeing what the result and ultimately supporting students.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
It's all right. So yeah, I know you're saying it's
a let's see it for what it is. But already say,
we've got the deputy principal at Avonside Girls High School saying, well,
this could be good for us. So it's not you
know this, this has got a life of its own.
This is going to take.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
Off, well, not necessarily. I mean, I think people will
watch with interest and will want to see what the
results are. And I think when you're looking at we're
talking about year thirteen students, right, So.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
These are year twelve agli right, so close.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
To then going on to potentially tertiary study or work.
So they're sitting at a they're sitting at a at
a point where you're not talking about primary school children
studying from home.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Imagine that. Matt Durcy, of course, with the minister who
had on he's the only government minister in the South
Island or from the South Island is Minister of Tourism
and Hospitality. And hospitality and the international visitor levy is increasing.
You are increasing it, Your government's increasing it. The tourism
sect that reckons forty eight thousand less people will come
here because of that, you believe them.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
Because there's no evidence of that. And the advice I
received is that there was no evidence that raising the
levee will impact on the number of tourists arriving. Why
are they saying that then, well they'll need to answer that.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Are you saying you don't believe them?
Speaker 4 (08:21):
No, they've been told very clearly by the NB Tourism
officials that there is no evidence, so they will need
to respond why they are saying that. But the advice
I've got is it won't impact on the numbers. And
when you look at it, it's a legislative five year review.
It was up for review this year. We went out
to the public. We received well over eleven hundred submissions.
(08:44):
Ninety three percent of submission supported increasing it, two thirds
supported it increasing it to one hundred dollars. It works
out to be something like two percent of what an
average tourist will spend over the course of visiting New Zealand.
And if you're in America, I think it's the equivalent
of about forty US dollars. The increase the United Kingdom
(09:05):
about third equid. So clearly you can see it's not
going to have an impact on what we do have
in tourism. Is some pressures on things like mixed use infrastructure.
You think of smaller towns with high tourism numbers, and
the resounding result of the consultation is they want the
funding to go towards supporting those pressures.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Go to that though.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
Yeah, so we want to.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Use it to back so it's ring fenced.
Speaker 4 (09:30):
Yeah, yeah, it's hypothecated fifty That mean, well, it's a
flash term for ring fenced. I thought I just throwed
in there.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
J or get away with that story. I'm not bright enough.
Speaker 4 (09:41):
Before I become the Tourism minister, I didn't know that
term either, but hypothecated, So it's hypothecated fifty percent tourism
and fifty percent conservation. So currently it generates about forty
million for tourism forty million million for conservation every year
under the rate increase on the first of October goes
up to one hundred and fifteen for tourism.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Okay, so room dabs and Stuart Nash, Labour's former tourism
he wanted to put it up to two hundred bucks.
Is that Labour's position? Now?
Speaker 3 (10:09):
You know that was that was quite a while ago,
two years ago, And I think what we're looking at
here is a tourism sector that set about seventy five
percent of what it was pre COVID eighty five.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
We're about two years ago when your government wanted to
do it, it was possibly in a worse position.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Yeah, but we're talking about a two hundred percent increase
to that levee.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Now it's about It's about being realistic, isn't it. Though.
I mean you could say, oh, look, we only charged
thirty five bucks and that was great, but it wasn't realistic.
And you could say we're going to charge one hundred
bucks now, and you might say, well, that's not great,
but a little bit great, but it's still not realistic.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
Yeah, there's also I mean, and this comes back to
your fancy word hypothecated or ring fenced funding, right, and
that's going towards conservation. So this is this, This is
the same coalition government that.
Speaker 5 (10:56):
Come back to the question that's to dark that it
gets boring. Can I just want to ava, what is
labour's position. Do you still want to go to two
hundred bucks or you're happy with a hundred bucks or
you think it should still be thirty five bucks.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
I think that the tourism sector needs to be supported
to fully recover before we look at risking cutting the numbers.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
So supporter, what's to answer the question?
Speaker 3 (11:19):
So the answer to the question is that what you've
got here is a situation where conservation funding has been slashed,
jobs for nature has been peered right back. We know
that one hundred percent pure in New Zealand's natural environment
is one of the biggest attractors of foreign visitors to
this country. And now what we're saying is because we've
(11:40):
taken that money to give away in tax cuts and
to land. So what should the leg Now we're going
to need to bring visitors and charge them a whole
lot more. So, what should come and visit?
Speaker 2 (11:52):
What should it be?
Speaker 3 (11:53):
Look, I think there's definitely a case for increasing it,
but I think that needs to be date needs to
be done really carefully and cautiously so we don't lose
visitors and lose revenue that we need so.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Is quickly you believe tourism sector. Unlike Matt Doosey, you
believe believe the tourism sector that forty eight thousand less
people will come here because of the increase.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
All right, Look, if they're telling us that, then I
think that has to be listening to.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Look at what the Christian City Council is calling for,
asking for change when it comes to pokey machines. So
the Mayor has written to Internal Affairs Minister suggesting a
couple of things, one of which is reducing the number
of pokey machines and lower socioeconomic areas in christ Church
and also putting a limit or reducing the jackpot totals
on these machines. Mate, do you see what's your response
(12:36):
to that?
Speaker 5 (12:37):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (12:37):
I can understand that. I mean, when you look at
the harm caused to some people who use Pokey Machines.
The reality is so, and I have some responsibility here
as a mental health minister. I'm responsible for the gambling
arm levy and we're just out for consultation on the
gambling harm strategy at the moment. What's interesting the advice
(12:59):
I get is gambling as a country has play out,
if not slightly dipped.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
On some phones. I think I zed ringing to apologize.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
That's that's just a vibration of of my phone.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
At the leaders a long reaching in the studio door,
trying to pull.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Is it the casino calling say you've left a last night?
Speaker 4 (13:24):
My mum put her on, put it on and I
know my mom listen.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
So I'm but worried did.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
I swear or something I haven't been the punctuality, it
will be raised you better than that.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Actually, back in the day, you never would have walked
in thirty seconds after the thing started.
Speaker 4 (13:42):
That's a fair comment, and now I'm prepared for that, Pokemone.
So the reality is what we'll probably see with more
online gambling, and the government's just moving now to regulate
it and they'll start paying the online gambling levy, is
that there's a substitution effect going on so so actually
we can.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Focus on a lot of lingo today. Sorry, so do
you do you agree with what you're sitting falling forward? Well,
the direction of travel. The problem you've got though is
actually by focusing on Pokey's people are just going to
shift more as they are to the online games, which
is even more unregulated. It's one of our callers said yesterday,
who's a regular gambler? So, Reuben Davidson, this reducing the
(14:23):
number's lower economic areas that this would impact the area
that you represent.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
Yeah, look, it will affect all of our communities across Canterbury.
And I think that the ask from me Phil is
a really straightforward one. He's asking for central government to
be more ambitious. That means that he's asking for central
government to do more in this space. And I think
that it's all well and good for Matt to talk about,
you know, that gambling shifting to online, but let's not
forget that this was this was this map from the
(14:50):
same party that talked about using those online gambling proceeds
to bank roll Landlord's tax carts and have also recently
gone chop chop chop at the DIA, including the gambling director.
So the very very people body and organizations that are
there to prevent the harm that we know happens from gambling,
whether that's in pokey rooms or online, is being eroded
(15:14):
and losing their ability to actually step in and intervene.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
What are you doing on your phone, Matt? I was
just checking were you We're seeing your mum texts?
Speaker 4 (15:22):
Yeah, I was just wondering what she was.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
She want a pint of milk? It's all right, you
can't get Not many people can get The only Cabinet
minister in South Island to pick up milk on the
way home for the may That is impressive. Can we
finish off looking at this announcement from the government yesterday
to allow more and cheaper building supplies to come from overseas,
Matt Doucy, My understanding is that building supplies only make
up twenty percent of the cost of doing a house build,
(15:45):
so this wouldn't it's not going to fix it as well.
Speaker 4 (15:48):
My understanding is that when you look at building supplies
that can increase the cost of a house by up
to fifty percent compared to Australia. I mean this is
a recommendation from the Commerce Commission, so I think you're
starting to see the Commerce Commission, whether it be this
in supermarkets, starting to show its teeth a bit. And
really what it is is about supply and demand, and
(16:08):
if there is a restriction in the in the supply,
the price goes up. And quite rightly what it's saying
if you look at maybe jurisdictions like Australia where some
building products are certified, why don't did we just adopt
their certification and let that come into the country, Because
at the moment, I think the approval process is greater
than two years. We saw what happened with the JIB crisis,
(16:31):
and that's all what that's about. And I think most
people would say it's common seen.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Was that a crisis, Ruben Davidson. I remember Megan Wood's
intervening or trying to intervene to get more cheap of
products here. Was that a JIB crisis? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Look, I think ultimately that there's a there's a risk
here that what we do is deregulate and deregulate and
deregulate the building industry until we create homes that we're
building that are not warm, safe, or dry, and they're
not good for people to live in. And we've we've
had issues in this country before when we had the
leaky home issue. We've still said, you know, legacy, legacy
(17:06):
issues and problems off the back of that. And we've
seen in other countries, like in the UK, the absolute
horror of what can happen when you deregulate housing industry
to the point where you have incidents like the Grenfell Tower,
where far too many people lose their lives because buildings
are being built that are not safe to occupy. So
I think whilst it's all well and good to talk
(17:28):
about cutting corners and cutting costs, what we actually need
to see is a government that's prepared to invest in
enough housing so that people have homes to live in
that are safe. There is a difference between There is
a different side. There is a different side between cutting
costs and cutting corners. There is, but ultimately they can
both lead to building homes that are absolutely not fit
(17:52):
or suitable.
Speaker 4 (17:53):
For people to want to I'm not sure I do
agree with that framing. I think there's a difference between
having something that is cheaper by allowing the market to respond,
meaning you can still have a high level of quality
with certainification. You're just increasing the access to those products
so cheaper verse cheap. I'm not I don't think we're
(18:13):
saying to allow cheap or low quality products to come in.
All we're saying is if something is certified in Australia
and we've got our own certification, that takes two years.
Quite rightly, the Commerce Commissions come out with a recommendation
saying maybe we should accept Australian certified products.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
You know, they're I think it's not a bigger problem.
But just as much of a problem is waste on
building site sites. It amazes me how much stuff get
gets thrown out. We did a reno years ago at home,
blew me away. What was getting thrown out? New stuff,
you know, maybe it wasn't quite right to fit here
or whatever, but chucked out. And maybe it's just easier
to chuck stuff out. But I think that's another thing
(18:51):
that I don't know if it's the thing for the
government to look at, but it strikes me that there's
an awful lot of waste in construction.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
There absolutely can be, but there's also some amazing technological
innovation locally here in Canterbury too, where you've got building
that's happening off site and in effect context and the
systems that build that are able to track and trace
every single piece of building material. I'm not sure that
there's a single wheel wheelbarrow left over at the endivice.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
I saw that on Grand Designs recently, and the house
was being what is smarter? I saw?
Speaker 4 (19:22):
Is that a linear TV program?
Speaker 2 (19:23):
I saw it on Very Good, I saw it on Green.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
We know that we know that you struggle with linear time,
so can understand you might not have seen a linear show.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
And they've built and they built this house inside of
factory and then they ship it out and the homeowner
gets a blooming apple or a QR code. Every every
detail of that home, right down to the last detail
is on that thing and they're away laughing.
Speaker 4 (19:43):
Yeah, I'm not sure, Ruben wat does that program? Probably
Treasure Island, I would have thought would be the labor
party program.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
At the moment. Rubert anyway, and you've been on demand
viewer scheduled viewing times would not be up your street.
The Minister of a lateness. Nice nice, Ruben Damson.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
Invitation sneaking an invitation and if I may, we're having
a we're having a barbecue to celebrate the great work
our local community and New Brighton did calling on extra
funding for our bridge eleven thirty to twelve thirty at
the New Brighton Roundabout a celebration of people power.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
That'll be there. I'll tell you what.
Speaker 4 (20:18):
It's great to see the acknowledgment that this government is
listenable to the people.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
And it's great to see confirmation there's going to be
fifty million bucks coming instead of the thirteen.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
Well you're hear it all first on this show, John,
don't you people need to tune in when you turn up.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
Thank you for more from Canterbory Mornings with John McDonald.
Listen live to news Talks It'd be christ Church from
nine am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.