July 6, 2025 • 8 mins
Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop is also stopping in Houston, Texas to look at how they've implemented affordable housing.
He's speaking to local experts about their planning, funding and tools that have allowed them to deliver effective housing.
Can the same elements be brought to New Zealand?
ZB Political Editor Jason Walls speaks to Andrew Dickens...
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
You're listening to the Weekend Collective podcast from News Talks dB.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
The Infrastructure Minister Chris Biship's not just stopping in New
York to look at congestion prices. He's going all over America.
He's going to Houston, Texas, and over there he's going
to be looking at how they've implemented affordable housing. Of course,
there's been floods in Texas, terrible, terrible floods in Texas
over the course of this weekend, so maybe he could
be looking at the changes to prepare us for natural
(00:31):
disasters as well. So what else is Chris Bishop up to.
Let's be joined by Jason Walls, our political editor, Lovely
to hear you on a Sunday Jays.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Oh, good afternoon, lovely to be here.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
So congestion pricing first, do you take it from Chris's
visit that it's coming.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Oh, it's definitely coming. I mean this is something that
Auckland Council said that they're keen on. This is something
that the government is actually actively looking at legislating on
as well. So it's coming, whether we like it or not.
And Chris Bishop going over to New York just to
see how it's wrong out over there. They've recently adopted
some level of congestion pricing, so he'll it's going to
be looking into how it's working so far, some of
(01:13):
the kinks, some of the ways that New Zealand can
work to battle some of what could have been some
unforeseen issues that they had over there in the Big Apple.
I mean, we're Auckland's not New York by any stretch
of the imagination, but it still will be good to
be able to gauge what it is that we can
do right and what it is that we should be avoiding.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
I think the problem is the infrastructure that we already
have is at capacity. And when people will phone talk
back and say we'll just build more roads, I'm afraid
in the areas where it's at capacity, I don't know
how you could build more roads unless you made the
roads double dickers. And you know that's a huge impost
on a country where at capacity, something has to happen.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Yeah, and I think, I mean the government would argue
that they've got the city rail link in Auckland that
is going to help take a little bit of some
of that pressure off and as well as this congestion
charging as well, But you know, we'll have to see
how that all works out. You made a great point,
or one of your texters did, about London and its
extensive railway and tube network, and obviously if this works
(02:14):
out well and people like it, they might look at
expanding it. But you're right, there's not exactly a lot
of space for new roads up there in Auckland, that's
for sure.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
And we'll make a mockery of the governments claim that
they're that the we're we're the no taxation party, because
whether they like it or not, congestion pricing or levees
or or there's indirect taxation, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Yeah. I mean if if it walks like a duck,
it quacks like a dark as a duck, and it's
the same thing with a levee or attacks. And so
this is one of the ones that the government, you know,
they look more favorably at. I guess we could.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Say, now, okay, so let's move on. He's also looking
at housing in Texas. Now what do you think he's
looking for.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
Well, I mean, there's a number of things he's housing minister,
but he's also got a great deal to do with
infrastructure and obviously the RMA as well, so there's the
actual physical building of the houses and then there's all
the maintenance that goes around it in terms of the
pipe and the zoning and all sorts of issues. And
Houston is an interesting example. Again it's not the same
(03:17):
league as a Wellington or an Auckland in fact as
well above the league of that, but it's still an
opportunity for him to be able to talk to some
of the lawmakers and he's talking to a professor over
there as well, just about how they've done things in
terms of zoning and of various other issues. So it's
very much a good use of recess week. Recess weeks
(03:37):
down here, there's no nothing happening in Parliament next week,
so it's a good opportunity for ministers to go out
and get some practical experience about how they can actually
get their a into g in terms of getting some
of these issues sort of.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
So he'll be looking at I understand he said, we're
looking for a flexible land markets at a liberal planning system.
So some people get the conniptions about that because you know,
it suggests intensification wherever we can find it.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
Yeah, I could and that he's going to have a
big job on his hands coming back into explaining what
it is that he learned and how he can get
put it into practice in New Zealand.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Absolutely, all right, I want to go to what happened
over the course of this week because we're talking politics,
you know, and it was fascinating in that Paul Goldsmith
basically booked a regular slot on Mike Hoskins show. He
was there Monday, he was there Monday, he was there Tuesday,
he was there Wednesday. There was basically four days of announcements,
three days of appearances, or basically to make some changes
(04:39):
to the law and order stuff. And you say the
House is in recess next week. The sitting that the
Parliament was actually in recess over the course of this
past week as well. They were doing only select committees.
So the government managed to absolutely monopolize the headlines as
they drip fed out all of their policy. Was this
(05:00):
a good move?
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Well?
Speaker 3 (05:02):
I think, I mean, listen, it's been happening this week.
We're talking about it now. You said you just said itself.
Goldie was on Hosting's show. Three was at three or
four times this week. I mean, it's hard to keep up.
So yeah, if you look at it from that matrix,
then yes, it was. They got a lot of headlines.
They got they were able to demonstrate their government's message
on law and order. They were able to fulfill a
(05:24):
couple of their commitments that they'd made in terms of,
you know, to Winston Peter's the King Hit, the Coward's
Punch and some of the retail stuff, and they even
managed to sort of have a bit of a crack
at the Greens. I mean, Thomas Paul came out and
said basically, you know, she said a lot. She was
against everything that the government was doing. And I think
a few people might have raised their eyebrows a little
bit when the Green Party was talking about shoplifting and
(05:44):
maybe that's a discussion that they should have stayed out of.
But yeah, I think it was a great use of
the government's time this week and there was nothing else
politically going on, so have at it, I guess was
their perspective.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Absolutely, And I thought the interesting thing, did I hear
right that Jilly McDonald actually came out and said, if
Labor gets into power, we will not actually take these
laws off the books, for they were storm and national
around the show.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Yeah, I did hear Ginny Anderson talk about the fact
that she'd have to take things to caucus to discuss.
But you would have to be pretty nuts to decide
to walk some of these back. I mean, especially the
coward's punch. It's not exactly going to have a lot
of people that commit these violent acts do not have
a lot of public sympathy, and their argument, well, the
Greens argument tends to be like, this is not going
(06:30):
to help with prevention, but you know, it takes these
awful people off the streets and put them in jail
so they can't do these sorts of things again. So
I think most New Zealanders would think that's.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
A win, yes, but not, as I say, not for Labor.
They're not getting any headlines, they're not getting any traction.
I know that Chris Hipkins is on with Kerry Woodham
on Tuesday, so finally we'll hear something out of his mouth,
but it's almost like they've just disappeared.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
Well, I mean, there has been somewhat a bit of
a strategy from Labor to not bark at every passing
car because people tend to get a little bit sick
of that, and we are still about eighteen months from
an election, so we probablyably wouldn't be expecting any policy
or any big ideas just yet. You kind of reserve
those four the election years so they're freshened people's mind.
But it has been quite quite quiet. I mean it's
(07:14):
not for lack of trying. We do talk to Chris
Hopkins relatively frequently. I mean there's about four opportunities we
have to talk with them between Monday night and Thursday afternoon.
But it's just there's not a lot of It doesn't
seem like a lot of interest in terms of the
things that they are talking about at the moment. Not
that that's a bad thing. As I said, there's a
lot of time for the election, but they're going to
(07:34):
have to start ramping up pretty soon. I'd say, yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Yeah, you don't get anywhere just sitting on your hands
saying nothing, and you've got to start at some stage.
So that is true. Jason Wallis is our political editor
This is Politics Central on the Weekend Collective and Jason,
Jason's counting down to when he starts a new job.
So I've got some questions to ask him, and I'll
do that right after the break here on news Talks
ABB For
Speaker 1 (07:56):
More from the Weekend Collective, listen live to News talk
edb weekends from three pm, or follow the podcast on
iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Weekend Collective podcast from News Talks dB.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
The Infrastructure Minister Chris Biship's not just stopping in New
York to look at congestion prices. He's going all over America.
He's going to Houston, Texas, and over there he's going
to be looking at how they've implemented affordable housing. Of course,
there's been floods in Texas, terrible, terrible floods in Texas
over the course of this weekend, so maybe he could
be looking at the changes to prepare us for natural
(00:31):
disasters as well. So what else is Chris Bishop up to.
Let's be joined by Jason Walls, our political editor, Lovely
to hear you on a Sunday Jays.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Oh, good afternoon, lovely to be here.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
So congestion pricing first, do you take it from Chris's
visit that it's coming.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Oh, it's definitely coming. I mean this is something that
Auckland Council said that they're keen on. This is something
that the government is actually actively looking at legislating on
as well. So it's coming, whether we like it or not.
And Chris Bishop going over to New York just to
see how it's wrong out over there. They've recently adopted
some level of congestion pricing, so he'll it's going to
be looking into how it's working so far, some of
(01:13):
the kinks, some of the ways that New Zealand can
work to battle some of what could have been some
unforeseen issues that they had over there in the Big Apple.
I mean, we're Auckland's not New York by any stretch
of the imagination, but it still will be good to
be able to gauge what it is that we can
do right and what it is that we should be avoiding.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
I think the problem is the infrastructure that we already
have is at capacity. And when people will phone talk
back and say we'll just build more roads, I'm afraid
in the areas where it's at capacity, I don't know
how you could build more roads unless you made the
roads double dickers. And you know that's a huge impost
on a country where at capacity, something has to happen.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Yeah, and I think, I mean the government would argue
that they've got the city rail link in Auckland that
is going to help take a little bit of some
of that pressure off and as well as this congestion
charging as well, But you know, we'll have to see
how that all works out. You made a great point,
or one of your texters did, about London and its
extensive railway and tube network, and obviously if this works
(02:14):
out well and people like it, they might look at
expanding it. But you're right, there's not exactly a lot
of space for new roads up there in Auckland, that's
for sure.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
And we'll make a mockery of the governments claim that
they're that the we're we're the no taxation party, because
whether they like it or not, congestion pricing or levees
or or there's indirect taxation, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Yeah. I mean if if it walks like a duck,
it quacks like a dark as a duck, and it's
the same thing with a levee or attacks. And so
this is one of the ones that the government, you know,
they look more favorably at. I guess we could.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Say, now, okay, so let's move on. He's also looking
at housing in Texas. Now what do you think he's
looking for.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
Well, I mean, there's a number of things he's housing minister,
but he's also got a great deal to do with
infrastructure and obviously the RMA as well, so there's the
actual physical building of the houses and then there's all
the maintenance that goes around it in terms of the
pipe and the zoning and all sorts of issues. And
Houston is an interesting example. Again it's not the same
(03:17):
league as a Wellington or an Auckland in fact as
well above the league of that, but it's still an
opportunity for him to be able to talk to some
of the lawmakers and he's talking to a professor over
there as well, just about how they've done things in
terms of zoning and of various other issues. So it's
very much a good use of recess week. Recess weeks
(03:37):
down here, there's no nothing happening in Parliament next week,
so it's a good opportunity for ministers to go out
and get some practical experience about how they can actually
get their a into g in terms of getting some
of these issues sort of.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
So he'll be looking at I understand he said, we're
looking for a flexible land markets at a liberal planning system.
So some people get the conniptions about that because you know,
it suggests intensification wherever we can find it.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
Yeah, I could and that he's going to have a
big job on his hands coming back into explaining what
it is that he learned and how he can get
put it into practice in New Zealand.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Absolutely, all right, I want to go to what happened
over the course of this week because we're talking politics,
you know, and it was fascinating in that Paul Goldsmith
basically booked a regular slot on Mike Hoskins show. He
was there Monday, he was there Monday, he was there Tuesday,
he was there Wednesday. There was basically four days of announcements,
three days of appearances, or basically to make some changes
(04:39):
to the law and order stuff. And you say the
House is in recess next week. The sitting that the
Parliament was actually in recess over the course of this
past week as well. They were doing only select committees.
So the government managed to absolutely monopolize the headlines as
they drip fed out all of their policy. Was this
(05:00):
a good move?
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Well?
Speaker 3 (05:02):
I think, I mean, listen, it's been happening this week.
We're talking about it now. You said you just said itself.
Goldie was on Hosting's show. Three was at three or
four times this week. I mean, it's hard to keep up.
So yeah, if you look at it from that matrix,
then yes, it was. They got a lot of headlines.
They got they were able to demonstrate their government's message
on law and order. They were able to fulfill a
(05:24):
couple of their commitments that they'd made in terms of,
you know, to Winston Peter's the King Hit, the Coward's
Punch and some of the retail stuff, and they even
managed to sort of have a bit of a crack
at the Greens. I mean, Thomas Paul came out and
said basically, you know, she said a lot. She was
against everything that the government was doing. And I think
a few people might have raised their eyebrows a little
bit when the Green Party was talking about shoplifting and
(05:44):
maybe that's a discussion that they should have stayed out of.
But yeah, I think it was a great use of
the government's time this week and there was nothing else
politically going on, so have at it, I guess was
their perspective.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Absolutely, And I thought the interesting thing, did I hear
right that Jilly McDonald actually came out and said, if
Labor gets into power, we will not actually take these
laws off the books, for they were storm and national
around the show.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Yeah, I did hear Ginny Anderson talk about the fact
that she'd have to take things to caucus to discuss.
But you would have to be pretty nuts to decide
to walk some of these back. I mean, especially the
coward's punch. It's not exactly going to have a lot
of people that commit these violent acts do not have
a lot of public sympathy, and their argument, well, the
Greens argument tends to be like, this is not going
(06:30):
to help with prevention, but you know, it takes these
awful people off the streets and put them in jail
so they can't do these sorts of things again. So
I think most New Zealanders would think that's.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
A win, yes, but not, as I say, not for Labor.
They're not getting any headlines, they're not getting any traction.
I know that Chris Hipkins is on with Kerry Woodham
on Tuesday, so finally we'll hear something out of his mouth,
but it's almost like they've just disappeared.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
Well, I mean, there has been somewhat a bit of
a strategy from Labor to not bark at every passing
car because people tend to get a little bit sick
of that, and we are still about eighteen months from
an election, so we probablyably wouldn't be expecting any policy
or any big ideas just yet. You kind of reserve
those four the election years so they're freshened people's mind.
But it has been quite quite quiet. I mean it's
(07:14):
not for lack of trying. We do talk to Chris
Hopkins relatively frequently. I mean there's about four opportunities we
have to talk with them between Monday night and Thursday afternoon.
But it's just there's not a lot of It doesn't
seem like a lot of interest in terms of the
things that they are talking about at the moment. Not
that that's a bad thing. As I said, there's a
lot of time for the election, but they're going to
(07:34):
have to start ramping up pretty soon. I'd say, yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Yeah, you don't get anywhere just sitting on your hands
saying nothing, and you've got to start at some stage.
So that is true. Jason Wallis is our political editor
This is Politics Central on the Weekend Collective and Jason,
Jason's counting down to when he starts a new job.
So I've got some questions to ask him, and I'll
do that right after the break here on news Talks
ABB For
Speaker 1 (07:56):
More from the Weekend Collective, listen live to News talk
edb weekends from three pm, or follow the podcast on
iHeartRadio
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