November 30, 2025 • 9 mins
James Meager balances his Ministerial hats to have a catch up regarding his trip to Stewart Island which was part of his recent trip down south.
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
James Meagher is a Minister for the South Island. He
has also got a few other portfolios including Minister for
Hunting and Fishing, for Youth and as well Associate Minister
of Transport and joins us this afternoon. James, good afternoon,
Thanks for catching up once again.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Any great to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
So it sounds as though you've had a busy week.
You were down Stuart Island. How's everything down there? From
your perspective, it was good.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
It's actually my first visit to Stuart Island. I mean
as a kid, we probably got as fars out as Nina,
never eventually any further. So it was really awesome to
be able to go down there. That was on the
back of a trip to Fjordland. Actually went to the
Wappity ballot that night. I'll tell you what, I have
not seen grown men squoil and delight as much in
my life when they win a ballot for the Woppiti ballot.
(00:55):
So congratulations all those guys that won their ballot. Then
we shot down to Stuart Island and just I had
a really good day. They met plenty of the locals,
saw some of their infrastructure needs, but also saw some
of the awesome environmental outcomes on Olvera and then some
of the pretty pristine hunting opportunities that are down there
for whitetail too. Didn't find any found a few tracks,
(01:17):
to be fair, I didn't walk too far from the
hunter's hut, but definitely keen to go down there next
year and see what we can catch.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Well, that's a great thing about your portfolios. I suppose James,
you get around the South Island and get off the
beaten track.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Yeah, And I mean I had got the opportunity to
spend the weekend at Sinano in Nelson, Tasman as well.
All portfolio work of course, and I mean hunting and
fishing means you have to be on the ground to
see what's actually happening. So it can be a hard
life sometimes getting up at six o'clock to go and
wander down the river for about seven or eight hours.
But you know someone's got to do it, and I'll
(01:49):
do it for you. I'll do it on your behalf endy.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Now, the big talk over the past ten days or
so has been all around council amalgamations. I had Rob
Scott on the program last week's Southland District council mayor,
he's all for this occurring. Depending on who you speak to,
especially in the farming fraternity, it seems to be mixed
as far as views.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Yeah, so we take a step back a second when
we release the RIMA reforms in the next couple of weeks,
and let's not be around the bush here. This is
going to totally turn the resource management system on its head.
You're talking massive reductions in the amount of consents that
people are going to need, massive savings and costs, hugely
simplified planning system. With a simplified planning system, we're going
(02:31):
to need a simplified system of local government. And questions
have arisen, i think over the past two years quite
rightly from locals about the role of regional councils and
about whether it are fits the purpose anymore. And so
on the back of the RAMA reforms, we've taken this
step of saying, right, if the community wants to change,
will allow them the opportunity to have changed so quick summary,
(02:51):
replacing the regional councils that council laws with the elected
body of mayor's the mayor's job that those groups will
then be to determine what the local government looks like
in the area. So if you take the Acan catchment,
it might be, for example, that you have unitaries in
and around the Greater Cristich area, then it might be
that's for South Canterbury. Amalgamation is not what they want
(03:13):
and they still want a layer of regional council over
the top of that. But ultimately that'll be up for
the mayors to come together and decide with their community
and they put that pitch to ministers for all regions
in the country.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
One concern around the amalgamations James as the staffing issue
and the worklow concern of rationalization was on the cards.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Yeah, there's the thing with regional councilors is that they
still do do things right, so they are still carrying
out functions that are provided to them by statute, So
that the changing of the elected officials at the top
won't have an immediate uphauling of the structure of the
councilors themselves. That'll be have to be worked through as
(03:53):
we go through IRMA reform and figuring out what functions
properly lie with an a regional council structure, what functions
should be with the two territorial authorities or your local councils,
and what kinds of functions can we keep back to
either you as the landholder to be responsible for your
own water quality or your own environmental quality, or a
wider environmental regulator, like if you're talking air pollution, whether
(04:15):
we kick that back to a national regulator. So all
of those conversations and discussions have to be had and
what that will mean for there will be some change
for the staffing and the regional council structures, but that
happens in private enterprise all the time. People have to
change and adapt and move with what the demands of
their customer are. And in this case, the customer is
the voting public. And I think the voting public has
(04:37):
seen enough of regional councils that haven't been as enabling
and as proactive around resource management as what they could
have been.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
So the government at the moment they're hoping to implement
changes towards us over the next couple of years, is
that right? Or start making movements toward this.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Yeah, the plan is to first to prioritize RMA reform,
So the first change of those or the main change
of those changes will be coming out the side of
Christmas and off to Slept Committee. That'll be what fundamentally
changes the system. Then you'll need to have that local
government reorganization off the back of that, because it'll be
hard to determine exactly what the regional council or the
(05:15):
replacement functions are until you know what RMA looks like.
But we can kind of do it at the same time.
So you're looking mid twenty six, which is next year,
for the RMA to go through, and then legislation to
start making those changes around regional councils at about the
same time. So there is a bit of a sequence
in challenging to get this all lined up, but we
think we can do it, and we think we can
(05:36):
get change that is probably long overdue for a lot
of people.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Now putting your hunting and fishing cap on now, James.
The stouts that were seen in the past between South
and Fishing Game and South Confederated Farmers has been pretty
quiet on that front over the past couple of months,
so perhaps they're finally on the same peace pipe.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Yeah, I hope. So, I hope it's not a seasonal
thing and that we're not just heading into a bit
of a winter lull thing have been all right, but
I think I think the two organizations are working much
more closely together. There has to be some change in
and around staffing and around leadership, and I think of
of course, looking forward to a reform of the wider
Fishing Game Organization has probably put it at the front
(06:18):
of Regional Council's mind that change is coming and that
if they want to continue to have sort of that
social support to operate as a regional council, they need
to be able to be working more closely and more
proactively with the key stakeholders and whether that's sort of
your airports or local farmers or local environmental groups. We
want them to be the voice for anglers and game
(06:40):
boot hunters on the ground and to do that that
that key work that I think we all want them
to focus on. If you if you pay your license,
we want that money to go into you know, maintaining
the fisheries and increasing the bird numbers and increasing the
fish numbers so there's good hunting opportunities and less of
that airgro on that back and forth. And I think
we have seen that.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Now your other hat you're to put on today the
Associate Minister of Transport. Now, the roads down here in
the south, particularly between Gore and Vcagle State Highway one
going up Edendale Hill, which is a very important link
going down in v Cargo than the south of the country.
As such, it's in diabolical need of an upgrade. Now
we're hearing about infrastructure happening up the country, which is great,
(07:19):
but can we expect anything meaningful regarding State Highway one
in the south.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Yeah, So there's a couple of things there for state highways,
both one and across the board. There is the significant
amount of money we put into the pothole both maintenance
and prevention funding. Now every winter that turns into a
bit of a dog's breeface because it's hard to do
decent amount of work on the road with the weather conditions.
So you do a bit of INtime maintenance, a bit
of patching here and there, try and get things through
(07:46):
the summer, and then do a significant amount of work
over summer. So you'll see some large roading programs in
repair programs underway over the summer when the weather's a
bit good. I've always thought we could probably push a
bit harder and get a bit more done over the
Christmas period when traffic is a little bit lower, when
there are a fewer trucks on the road, So we'll
see if the opportunity to have a bit harder along there.
(08:07):
But then you're right. You also mentioned some recent announcements
around State Highway sixth on the west coast that will
help feed all the way through down to Southend as well.
And there's a slipping amount of resource and money going
into a new road up near the Eptaft Slip, and
there's a series about six resilience projects coming through a
Targo and South and two. But ultimately we all know
(08:29):
what it comes down to, and it comes down to
a limited amount of resources and being able to spread
that across quite a significant amount of infrastructure needs. So
we need to think more carefully about how do we
raise the revenue that we need to invest in the
infrastructure that they've run in demands. And we'll be thinking
very carefully about that over the next few years, including
things like value catcher and transitioning white user vehicles onto
(08:50):
road user charges and tolls and all the things that
we can look at to try and get the revenue
to fix the roads.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Good on you, James always appreciate your time on the Master.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Join your things and.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
James Meagher, he wears a lot of hats, must have
a pre big closet. Minister of the South Island Hunting
and Fishing as well as Youth and Associate Minister of Transport,
be great to get his thoughts on the muster this afternoon.
Next we're away to the Gold Coast of the South,
the South proclaimed gold Coast of the South. We are
catching up with Andy Dennis
James Meagher is a Minister for the South Island. He
has also got a few other portfolios including Minister for
Hunting and Fishing, for Youth and as well Associate Minister
of Transport and joins us this afternoon. James, good afternoon,
Thanks for catching up once again.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Any great to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
So it sounds as though you've had a busy week.
You were down Stuart Island. How's everything down there? From
your perspective, it was good.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
It's actually my first visit to Stuart Island. I mean
as a kid, we probably got as fars out as Nina,
never eventually any further. So it was really awesome to
be able to go down there. That was on the
back of a trip to Fjordland. Actually went to the
Wappity ballot that night. I'll tell you what, I have
not seen grown men squoil and delight as much in
my life when they win a ballot for the Woppiti ballot.
(00:55):
So congratulations all those guys that won their ballot. Then
we shot down to Stuart Island and just I had
a really good day. They met plenty of the locals,
saw some of their infrastructure needs, but also saw some
of the awesome environmental outcomes on Olvera and then some
of the pretty pristine hunting opportunities that are down there
for whitetail too. Didn't find any found a few tracks,
(01:17):
to be fair, I didn't walk too far from the
hunter's hut, but definitely keen to go down there next
year and see what we can catch.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Well, that's a great thing about your portfolios. I suppose James,
you get around the South Island and get off the
beaten track.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Yeah, And I mean I had got the opportunity to
spend the weekend at Sinano in Nelson, Tasman as well.
All portfolio work of course, and I mean hunting and
fishing means you have to be on the ground to
see what's actually happening. So it can be a hard
life sometimes getting up at six o'clock to go and
wander down the river for about seven or eight hours.
But you know someone's got to do it, and I'll
(01:49):
do it for you. I'll do it on your behalf endy.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Now, the big talk over the past ten days or
so has been all around council amalgamations. I had Rob
Scott on the program last week's Southland District council mayor,
he's all for this occurring. Depending on who you speak to,
especially in the farming fraternity, it seems to be mixed
as far as views.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Yeah, so we take a step back a second when
we release the RIMA reforms in the next couple of weeks,
and let's not be around the bush here. This is
going to totally turn the resource management system on its head.
You're talking massive reductions in the amount of consents that
people are going to need, massive savings and costs, hugely
simplified planning system. With a simplified planning system, we're going
(02:31):
to need a simplified system of local government. And questions
have arisen, i think over the past two years quite
rightly from locals about the role of regional councils and
about whether it are fits the purpose anymore. And so
on the back of the RAMA reforms, we've taken this
step of saying, right, if the community wants to change,
will allow them the opportunity to have changed so quick summary,
(02:51):
replacing the regional councils that council laws with the elected
body of mayor's the mayor's job that those groups will
then be to determine what the local government looks like
in the area. So if you take the Acan catchment,
it might be, for example, that you have unitaries in
and around the Greater Cristich area, then it might be
that's for South Canterbury. Amalgamation is not what they want
(03:13):
and they still want a layer of regional council over
the top of that. But ultimately that'll be up for
the mayors to come together and decide with their community
and they put that pitch to ministers for all regions
in the country.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
One concern around the amalgamations James as the staffing issue
and the worklow concern of rationalization was on the cards.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Yeah, there's the thing with regional councilors is that they
still do do things right, so they are still carrying
out functions that are provided to them by statute, So
that the changing of the elected officials at the top
won't have an immediate uphauling of the structure of the
councilors themselves. That'll be have to be worked through as
(03:53):
we go through IRMA reform and figuring out what functions
properly lie with an a regional council structure, what functions
should be with the two territorial authorities or your local councils,
and what kinds of functions can we keep back to
either you as the landholder to be responsible for your
own water quality or your own environmental quality, or a
wider environmental regulator, like if you're talking air pollution, whether
(04:15):
we kick that back to a national regulator. So all
of those conversations and discussions have to be had and
what that will mean for there will be some change
for the staffing and the regional council structures, but that
happens in private enterprise all the time. People have to
change and adapt and move with what the demands of
their customer are. And in this case, the customer is
the voting public. And I think the voting public has
(04:37):
seen enough of regional councils that haven't been as enabling
and as proactive around resource management as what they could
have been.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
So the government at the moment they're hoping to implement
changes towards us over the next couple of years, is
that right? Or start making movements toward this.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Yeah, the plan is to first to prioritize RMA reform,
So the first change of those or the main change
of those changes will be coming out the side of
Christmas and off to Slept Committee. That'll be what fundamentally
changes the system. Then you'll need to have that local
government reorganization off the back of that, because it'll be
hard to determine exactly what the regional council or the
(05:15):
replacement functions are until you know what RMA looks like.
But we can kind of do it at the same time.
So you're looking mid twenty six, which is next year,
for the RMA to go through, and then legislation to
start making those changes around regional councils at about the
same time. So there is a bit of a sequence
in challenging to get this all lined up, but we
think we can do it, and we think we can
(05:36):
get change that is probably long overdue for a lot
of people.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Now putting your hunting and fishing cap on now, James.
The stouts that were seen in the past between South
and Fishing Game and South Confederated Farmers has been pretty
quiet on that front over the past couple of months,
so perhaps they're finally on the same peace pipe.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Yeah, I hope. So, I hope it's not a seasonal
thing and that we're not just heading into a bit
of a winter lull thing have been all right, but
I think I think the two organizations are working much
more closely together. There has to be some change in
and around staffing and around leadership, and I think of
of course, looking forward to a reform of the wider
Fishing Game Organization has probably put it at the front
(06:18):
of Regional Council's mind that change is coming and that
if they want to continue to have sort of that
social support to operate as a regional council, they need
to be able to be working more closely and more
proactively with the key stakeholders and whether that's sort of
your airports or local farmers or local environmental groups. We
want them to be the voice for anglers and game
(06:40):
boot hunters on the ground and to do that that
that key work that I think we all want them
to focus on. If you if you pay your license,
we want that money to go into you know, maintaining
the fisheries and increasing the bird numbers and increasing the
fish numbers so there's good hunting opportunities and less of
that airgro on that back and forth. And I think
we have seen that.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Now your other hat you're to put on today the
Associate Minister of Transport. Now, the roads down here in
the south, particularly between Gore and Vcagle State Highway one
going up Edendale Hill, which is a very important link
going down in v Cargo than the south of the country.
As such, it's in diabolical need of an upgrade. Now
we're hearing about infrastructure happening up the country, which is great,
(07:19):
but can we expect anything meaningful regarding State Highway one
in the south.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Yeah, So there's a couple of things there for state highways,
both one and across the board. There is the significant
amount of money we put into the pothole both maintenance
and prevention funding. Now every winter that turns into a
bit of a dog's breeface because it's hard to do
decent amount of work on the road with the weather conditions.
So you do a bit of INtime maintenance, a bit
of patching here and there, try and get things through
(07:46):
the summer, and then do a significant amount of work
over summer. So you'll see some large roading programs in
repair programs underway over the summer when the weather's a
bit good. I've always thought we could probably push a
bit harder and get a bit more done over the
Christmas period when traffic is a little bit lower, when
there are a fewer trucks on the road, So we'll
see if the opportunity to have a bit harder along there.
(08:07):
But then you're right. You also mentioned some recent announcements
around State Highway sixth on the west coast that will
help feed all the way through down to Southend as well.
And there's a slipping amount of resource and money going
into a new road up near the Eptaft Slip, and
there's a series about six resilience projects coming through a
Targo and South and two. But ultimately we all know
(08:29):
what it comes down to, and it comes down to
a limited amount of resources and being able to spread
that across quite a significant amount of infrastructure needs. So
we need to think more carefully about how do we
raise the revenue that we need to invest in the
infrastructure that they've run in demands. And we'll be thinking
very carefully about that over the next few years, including
things like value catcher and transitioning white user vehicles onto
(08:50):
road user charges and tolls and all the things that
we can look at to try and get the revenue
to fix the roads.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Good on you, James always appreciate your time on the Master.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Join your things and.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
James Meagher, he wears a lot of hats, must have
a pre big closet. Minister of the South Island Hunting
and Fishing as well as Youth and Associate Minister of Transport,
be great to get his thoughts on the muster this afternoon.
Next we're away to the Gold Coast of the South,
the South proclaimed gold Coast of the South. We are
catching up with Andy Dennis
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