The Country 29/04/25: Shane Jones talks to Jamie Mackay

The Mighty Matua, the Prince of the Provinces, illuminates and entertains on subjects as diverse as Mike Hosking, co-governance, the tightest Budget in a decade, why the Government's not taxing Bishop Brian, and why are we spending so much of our precious little money in Northland?

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Here's the Prince of the provinces, Shane Jones, Martua, Shane
and Shane. You've got to do me a favor. Hoskin
keeps cutting my lunch. I arranged an interview with you
a day or so ago. This morning I hear you
first thing on Hosking, have you no shame well?

Speaker 2 (00:14):
I and my leader, Winston Peters, have a deep level
of affection for your listenership and you in particular. However,
one third of the country's population do live in Auckland,
and a fair swag them do listen to Mike Hoskins,
so you know needs must What is.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
It about you New Zealand First, guys, you all call
Hosking Hoskins.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
Yeah, it could be a dialectoral thing from us from
the north. Too much pooh and power and Delhi red wine.
I can't fully account for that.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
Okay, Now, the reason you were talking to Mike Hoskins
this morning was about co governance and the white tacker
is I thought co governance was sort of so twenty
twenty three we were past that.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
Yeah, yeah, you know we've moved beyond the co governance
fiasco elevated by Nanaya Mahute when she stuck away to
the un and bought all sorts of nefurious things back
into the New Zealand political system. We're not having any
more of that. But the super City Council, dominated by
labor identities, they have tried to sneak it through. Unfortunately

(01:19):
for them. I was onto it. No disrespect to the
local Huppoo, but look, we're not having tiny Huppu dislodge
the tenets of democracy and the twenty seven thousand hectares
on the outskirts of Auckland is a dual belonging to
all Aucklanders. Now. I don't want to deny any tramper,
any runner, any hiker, and there needs to be some

(01:40):
more hunters and thecas. There's a whole lot of feral
pigs running around spreading carry DIBC disease. But I do
not want to see any Huppoo overplaying their hand. They're
entitled to look after historic sites and celebrate that part
of their heritage hangy pits and midden heaps and other
such things, but not to topple democracy.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
Hey, Shane, you realize that the hunters in the White
tackeries and runners along the tracks could end in tears.
I just thought i'd remind you of that one. Hey,
pre budget speech Nicola Willis this morning, we're cutting billions
off our operating spending. She's described it as the tightest
budget in a decade. And apparently these numbers that she's

(02:21):
come up with were pre the Trump tariffs. So how
bad of a situation are we in?

Speaker 2 (02:28):
Well, I think Winston was absolutely correct what he said,
let's not overreact as to where the final results emerge.
In respect of our trading relationship with America, the last
shot has not been fired in that regard. But in
terms of our own economy, sadly, the size of the

(02:48):
state has expanded and our operational burden has grown since COVID,
and we've got to go for grace, which is why,
naturally I'm one of the budget ministers working with me.
She has exclusive authority to talk about the budget. But
we also need to bear in mind those of us
that come from the primary sector, from the regions, that

(03:10):
without economic growth, without the regional powerhouses generating export revenue,
we are not going to have the surplus to pay
for these fanciful theory dreams called climate change.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
Shane Jones, the Prince of the province is with us
a hot topic on this show. Well, yesterday anyhow was
dairy conversions. Does New Zealand first support more dairy conversions?

Speaker 2 (03:33):
Hell, yeah, of course we do.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
What about the environment, Chane.

Speaker 2 (03:36):
Well you should trust in science and technology. Science and
technology means that farming is getting smarter, just as coal
mining is getting more sophisticated, just as the gold mining
in Otago's going to generate. Well, stop all us catastrovization
and exaggerating the downsides of economic growth. Without growth, without

(03:57):
export revenue, where is the surplus and to come from
to build the Dunedin Hospital.

Speaker 1 (04:03):
I know where you could get some tax revenue Shane.
This is where you say where Jamie, And where you
could get somemers from Destiny Church you could tax them
or sanitarium.

Speaker 2 (04:17):
Well, there are a variety of people who have that
privileged status. I think the most prominent of all is
the nightA who tribe down on the South Island. And
then there are various religious groups. But then a lot
of those groups do a lot of good. For example,
the Anglican Church as the Melanesian Trust, and they do
a tremendous amount of positive things in that part of

(04:39):
the Pacific. So, just just as the Minister of Finance,
Nikola has said, let's take our time and get it right,
because tax can be very obscure and very tricky. Naturally,
I support that more cautious approach that she's initiated.

Speaker 1 (04:57):
Here's the question for you, because you're a parochial Northland
theer a bit like Winston. To be perfectly honest, are
you guys getting sweetheart deals for your home region? This
Brian Durwin thing one dollar in every ten and infrastructure
spend over the next decade or so will be on
that road. Why don't we just build a road around
the side of the Briandeurans.

Speaker 2 (05:19):
No, the road that you're referring to is going to
stretch from Warkworth up to far At eight. Now we
have a subtropical temperate climate. Is about one hundred and
ninety five thousand of us who call home in the
Far North, and it's on the outskirts of Auckland. We've
got the largest deep sea port in the country and
we need to open up that part of New Zealand

(05:40):
to more investment, more residential development so people can enjoy
the climate in the North and stop exaggerating that everything
that we're going to develop is never ever going to
generate upside or revenue. This is what's wrong with the
New Zealand. Rather than seeing investments as a possible of
nation building, exercise was sort of reduced to an abacus.

Speaker 1 (06:04):
I'm just looking out for the blind frogs and the
skinks and the lizards.

Speaker 2 (06:09):
Now we're not having any more deification, any more elevation
in some scriptural way of these critics and the bush
overwhelming economic growth or the advancement of our people. We
should respect the owls, the frogs, the swans. Actually, when
I was a kid, I think they used to cut
the breast of the swan out bunch away on it.

(06:30):
I didn't care for it much. They eat too many
flounders where I come from. Anyway.

Speaker 1 (06:34):
Hey, Sean Jones, thanks very much for your time on
the Country. Always entertaining. And next time mister Hoskins asks
for an interview, tell them you've already been booked for
the country.

Speaker 2 (06:43):
Okay, country first, Hoskin second. By bye,