January 14, 2026 • 8 mins
Penny Simmonds reflects on the life and times of the late Sir Tim Shadbolt.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Next thing I remember lopping down the stream of doing
all right with the fires.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Penny Simmons is MP from Vicago. She's Minister for the
Environment amongst other portfolios. Enjoys us for the first time
in twenty twenty six, Penny, welcome to the musta once again.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Yes, happy new year to you and all your listeners.
And it's been an interesting so the summer for us,
hasn't it. It's not one of our best summers, I
don't think, but then we didn't get some of those
extremes at the North Island we're getting. So yeah, we've
been pretty happy down here. I was down at Riverton
and you can certainly get down on the beach amongst
(00:41):
the rocks and enjoy the sun, even if there's a
bit of a call wind around now.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
The song we started with us called Late in the
Evening by Paul Simon, which is kind of relevant because
Parliament was sitting in an urgency and you were going
to like about two am in the morning, trying to
get a few things past for the regarding the National
Policy Statements.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Yes, we were, indeed, so that a couple of very
busy weeks before we finished before Christmas getting prepared for
the new Resource Management Act and as you say, getting
these national directions for councils pass. So national policy statements
give direction for councils in terms of their consenting and
(01:21):
a lot of them come into effect today. So that's
around things like quarrying during that we can be getting
the aggregate out of the ground that we need to
be building roads, a lot of infrastructure and renewable energy.
National policy statements also around land use for the LUCK
(01:46):
luc soil types one, two and three allowing a little
bit more flexibility around LUCK three land. So a lot
of this national direction is part of thees around the
RIMA and it's giving that direction to councils to ensure
(02:07):
that things are freed up. Can sense a freed up
so we can be getting the infrastructure happening that we
need to, the roading, the aquaculture occurring that we need
to So just part of that RIMA freeing up consenting,
getting things moving in this country so we can build things,
(02:28):
we can make things, we can get more productivity going
for our country. So it's good to see this coming
into effect now, and it is payment for those long
hours and those couple of weeks before Christmas getting it
through the legislation through, So what is.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Going to be the biggest effects. So we notice regarding
farming with these changes, I.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Think people will be interested around the land use classification
being able to free up that class crew category three land.
It's really important that we protect the one and two
which is our highly productive land that we grow a
lot of our horticultural products on food on LUCK three
(03:14):
was causing some issues around not being able to subdivide
off houses. If farmers built a neighboring farm and they
wanted to subdivide a house and a few acres off
for a local contractor or a small business that wanted
to have that way better land, they were often prevented
from doing that. So I think around that LUCK free
(03:35):
land they will see some differences there from councils and
the consenting that consents they allow.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
So regarding the arimays, the changes there, this all comes
into effect as well.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Yeah, well a lot of the rim stuff has still
got to work through. This is setting the platform for
the RIMA changes. So the actual RIMA change legislation still
has to go through the select committee process, but we've
done this ahead of that. So that councils are getting
a very clear direction on where they should be heading.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Yeah, that's a big thing. You have a couple of
weeks out of the job, you're trying to read jig
what actually went on, because decev it just seems like
a big blur. Penny.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Yeah, well, that urgency week, certainly for us, was a
big blur going through. I think we did treen o'clock
at night, twelve o'clock at night, twenty to two at night,
and then another twelve o'clock. So yeah, it was a
big blur, but there were things that we knew we
had to get through, and these national directions really are
very much the platform for saying we need to see
(04:40):
mining happening, we need to see quarrying happening. We need
to see more flexible land juice, particularly around the less
highly productive. We need to see renewable energy occurring. We
need to see freeing up of things like the grannie
flats that comes into effect today not having to get
(05:02):
consent to build granny flats up to the size of
seventy square meters, So freeing up a lot of things
means councils don't have to be doing the same amount
of work on it. That takes some pressure off councils,
It takes pressure off builders, takes pressure off developers. It
pulls costs out old things that we're doing that aren't
(05:23):
that cost productive. It wasn't adding anything to it. And
so now we free that up and we get things
moving and.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Just finally, Sir Tim Shecherbolt. His funeral is tomorrow. You've
had a lot to do with Tim over the years.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Yes, yeah, Look it's a real privilege. I've been asked
to speak at it. I had a lot to do
with them over twenty five stash is. I don't think
we'll see the likes of Sir Tim in politics again.
He was incredibly unique, an amazing orator. You know, he
could communicate with anyone, fantastic comedian. But I guess one
(06:02):
of the things that I appreciated the most was his
compassion for people. And you know, he went out of
his way to help students at SIIT, to help people
things like the Disability Enterprise down here and in Vicago.
He used his casting vote to ensure that they kept
(06:24):
the recycling contract. He had a real fashion for people,
and I think that under pinned everything he did you'll
find that his comedy was never nasty and vindictive and personal.
His communications were always taking the mickey out of himself.
(06:45):
And you know, he just had a really nice compassion
for people that with the foundation of everything that he did.
So yeah, very very sad to be farewelling him. Just
an absolute eye for us. Spent so many years as
mea down here. There are people that it's been their
(07:05):
whole sort of life time that he was twenty six years,
twenty four consecutively, twenty six years as mayor. You know,
there are people in their thirties and forties that knew
no other mayor for most of their lifetime.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
And that's something. He's somebody who's been synonymous. Doesn't matter
where you live in New Zealand, you knew who was
more of in Chicago exactly.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
And I don't know if we'll ever get that again.
And it was a wonderful thing for in Chicago and
a number of institutions in in Chicago, like es I,
because he bought an awareness, he bought marketing that you
could never pay for, Yeah, that you could never pay for.
So you know, we'll always be grateful to him for that.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
Penny Simmons MP from Picago. Thanks for your tom on
the Muster once.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Again, Thanks Andy Buye.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Penny Simmons. They're affecting on the life of times of
Sir Tim Shedbolt, Sir Tim's funeral, helping tomorrow and the Cargle.
You're listening to the Muster from Beef and Lad New
Zealand Dan Bryah. He's on next
Next thing I remember lopping down the stream of doing
all right with the fires.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Penny Simmons is MP from Vicago. She's Minister for the
Environment amongst other portfolios. Enjoys us for the first time
in twenty twenty six, Penny, welcome to the musta once again.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Yes, happy new year to you and all your listeners.
And it's been an interesting so the summer for us,
hasn't it. It's not one of our best summers, I
don't think, but then we didn't get some of those
extremes at the North Island we're getting. So yeah, we've
been pretty happy down here. I was down at Riverton
and you can certainly get down on the beach amongst
(00:41):
the rocks and enjoy the sun, even if there's a
bit of a call wind around now.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
The song we started with us called Late in the
Evening by Paul Simon, which is kind of relevant because
Parliament was sitting in an urgency and you were going
to like about two am in the morning, trying to
get a few things past for the regarding the National
Policy Statements.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Yes, we were, indeed, so that a couple of very
busy weeks before we finished before Christmas getting prepared for
the new Resource Management Act and as you say, getting
these national directions for councils pass. So national policy statements
give direction for councils in terms of their consenting and
(01:21):
a lot of them come into effect today. So that's
around things like quarrying during that we can be getting
the aggregate out of the ground that we need to
be building roads, a lot of infrastructure and renewable energy.
National policy statements also around land use for the LUCK
(01:46):
luc soil types one, two and three allowing a little
bit more flexibility around LUCK three land. So a lot
of this national direction is part of thees around the
RIMA and it's giving that direction to councils to ensure
(02:07):
that things are freed up. Can sense a freed up
so we can be getting the infrastructure happening that we
need to, the roading, the aquaculture occurring that we need
to So just part of that RIMA freeing up consenting,
getting things moving in this country so we can build things,
(02:28):
we can make things, we can get more productivity going
for our country. So it's good to see this coming
into effect now, and it is payment for those long
hours and those couple of weeks before Christmas getting it
through the legislation through, So what is.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Going to be the biggest effects. So we notice regarding
farming with these changes, I.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Think people will be interested around the land use classification
being able to free up that class crew category three land.
It's really important that we protect the one and two
which is our highly productive land that we grow a
lot of our horticultural products on food on LUCK three
(03:14):
was causing some issues around not being able to subdivide
off houses. If farmers built a neighboring farm and they
wanted to subdivide a house and a few acres off
for a local contractor or a small business that wanted
to have that way better land, they were often prevented
from doing that. So I think around that LUCK free
(03:35):
land they will see some differences there from councils and
the consenting that consents they allow.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
So regarding the arimays, the changes there, this all comes
into effect as well.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Yeah, well a lot of the rim stuff has still
got to work through. This is setting the platform for
the RIMA changes. So the actual RIMA change legislation still
has to go through the select committee process, but we've
done this ahead of that. So that councils are getting
a very clear direction on where they should be heading.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Yeah, that's a big thing. You have a couple of
weeks out of the job, you're trying to read jig
what actually went on, because decev it just seems like
a big blur. Penny.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Yeah, well, that urgency week, certainly for us, was a
big blur going through. I think we did treen o'clock
at night, twelve o'clock at night, twenty to two at night,
and then another twelve o'clock. So yeah, it was a
big blur, but there were things that we knew we
had to get through, and these national directions really are
very much the platform for saying we need to see
(04:40):
mining happening, we need to see quarrying happening. We need
to see more flexible land juice, particularly around the less
highly productive. We need to see renewable energy occurring. We
need to see freeing up of things like the grannie
flats that comes into effect today not having to get
(05:02):
consent to build granny flats up to the size of
seventy square meters, So freeing up a lot of things
means councils don't have to be doing the same amount
of work on it. That takes some pressure off councils,
It takes pressure off builders, takes pressure off developers. It
pulls costs out old things that we're doing that aren't
(05:23):
that cost productive. It wasn't adding anything to it. And
so now we free that up and we get things
moving and.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Just finally, Sir Tim Shecherbolt. His funeral is tomorrow. You've
had a lot to do with Tim over the years.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Yes, yeah, Look it's a real privilege. I've been asked
to speak at it. I had a lot to do
with them over twenty five stash is. I don't think
we'll see the likes of Sir Tim in politics again.
He was incredibly unique, an amazing orator. You know, he
could communicate with anyone, fantastic comedian. But I guess one
(06:02):
of the things that I appreciated the most was his
compassion for people. And you know, he went out of
his way to help students at SIIT, to help people
things like the Disability Enterprise down here and in Vicago.
He used his casting vote to ensure that they kept
(06:24):
the recycling contract. He had a real fashion for people,
and I think that under pinned everything he did you'll
find that his comedy was never nasty and vindictive and personal.
His communications were always taking the mickey out of himself.
(06:45):
And you know, he just had a really nice compassion
for people that with the foundation of everything that he did.
So yeah, very very sad to be farewelling him. Just
an absolute eye for us. Spent so many years as
mea down here. There are people that it's been their
(07:05):
whole sort of life time that he was twenty six years,
twenty four consecutively, twenty six years as mayor. You know,
there are people in their thirties and forties that knew
no other mayor for most of their lifetime.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
And that's something. He's somebody who's been synonymous. Doesn't matter
where you live in New Zealand, you knew who was
more of in Chicago exactly.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
And I don't know if we'll ever get that again.
And it was a wonderful thing for in Chicago and
a number of institutions in in Chicago, like es I,
because he bought an awareness, he bought marketing that you
could never pay for, Yeah, that you could never pay for.
So you know, we'll always be grateful to him for that.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
Penny Simmons MP from Picago. Thanks for your tom on
the Muster once.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Again, Thanks Andy Buye.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Penny Simmons. They're affecting on the life of times of
Sir Tim Shedbolt, Sir Tim's funeral, helping tomorrow and the Cargle.
You're listening to the Muster from Beef and Lad New
Zealand Dan Bryah. He's on next
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