Latest / The Muster on Hokonui / The Muster- Penny Simmonds: A Busy Time At The Beehive

Transcript

The Muster- Penny Simmonds: A Busy Time At The Beehive · The Muster on Hokonui

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the muster. Penny Simmons is MP from
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Vicargo and she is the Minister for Science, Innovation and Technology. Penny,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: good afternoon. I haven't spoken to you for a while.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: I suppose there's been quite a bit going on up
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: there at the Beehive.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, look, it does feel like a while since
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: we've talked, but yes, we're going to have a busy
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: couple of weeks. We've got the last two sitting weeks
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: of the term, so it's going to be very busy
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: as we seek to get a number of our pieces
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: of legislation through that we need to before the end
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: of the parliamentary term. But just coming off the back,
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: so I'm in Wellington today, but just coming off the
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: back of a recess week, and it's been wonderful to
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: actually have most of the recess week in Southland. I
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: don't normally get that, but had a great week with constituents,
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: opened on behalf of the Minister of Energy, Simeon Brown.
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: opened the Kaiwera Downs wind farm, which was pretty incredible,
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: to be inside one of the turbines. I was driving
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: up to Telford the day before the opening to turn
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: a sod there, and there's a wee story behind that.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: But as I was driving past, it was a beautiful,
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: clear day, not a breath of wind, and not one
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: turbine was moving. However, by the next day, it was moving. But, yeah,
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: headed up to Telford the day before that and did
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: a sod turning for them up there. There's quite a
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: bit of refurbishment being done. They have been given $ 2. 4
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: million to upgrade particularly the accommodation in Telford, and it
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: was great to see good numbers of domestic students there.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: also a handful of international students, so it's starting to
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: pull in some international students there. A lot of the
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: domestic students are from the North Island, a number from
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: Northland and Auckland who aren't from farming families, so that's
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: great to see, kids from towns getting interested and wanting
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: to be involved in our farming sector, our rural sector.
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: So Yeah, it was great to do a couple of
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: those things and just be in amongst the local constituents
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: a bit more. But a busy couple of weeks in
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: front of us. There's a lot of legislation that we
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: want to get finalised. And so, yeah, we'll have a
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: busy old time in Parliament for the next couple of weeks.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: When does Parliament actually break up as such before the election?
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so 24th, and then we have a six-week run
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: up to the election. There'll still be Cabinet meetings, but
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: they'll be done online, and ministers are still ministers through
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: that period, so there's still a few things that we
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: have to come up here to do as part of
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: our ministerial obligations, but we generally for most days of
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: most weeks running up to the election, we'll be in
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: our electorate doing our very best to ensure that we
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: get elected back in again. And so, yeah, I'm looking
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: forward to having that time down in Southland.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: Telford, would you say it's in a good place? Of course,
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: the SIT affiliation, which you're no stranger to.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: Yes, look, it is in a much better place. They've
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: got work to do to bring it up to standard.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: It had pretty much been left when it was under
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: Te Pūkenga, so they've got some work to do. They
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: will put in a little bit more accommodation so that
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: they can have up to 136 students, I think, and
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: it needs to have that many, one, to ensure there's
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: enough graduates coming out into the sector, but also to
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: keep it viable. So, yeah, really pleased with the work
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: that they are doing there.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: One thing about young people in agriculture, Country Calendar last
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: night did an episode on fielding high school, which incorporates
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: working farms into its curriculum. It was fantastic. And, you know,
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: you've just got to look at the benefits of something
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: like that. I'd love to see ag brought into more
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: curriculums throughout the schools in New Zealand.
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so would I, and it is, and our vocational
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: pathways change as it is. The agricultural sector did an
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: unusual thing. They complained when it was part of the
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: vocational pathways and wanted it part of the higher education qualification,
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: which I think was a mistake because it really is
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: that sub-degree level where we do need to have those
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: young ones getting their qualifications so they actually go out
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: on the farm. You tend, for those that go to
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: degree level and above, they tend not to actually go
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: on the farm. They go into research or they go
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: into rural banks or they go into valuation or something
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: like that. So, yeah, I was a bit disappointed in
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: that push. But, look, we'll keep going with the trades academies,
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: which gets those young people involved. interested in agriculture, the
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: primary sector, and then keep really challenging to get them
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: through Telford because it's such a good story comes out
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: of Telford. They're residential. They come in. They're fully integrated.
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: They have their dogs and there's a farm there. It's
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: a 500 hectare farm. It's a huge property. So it's
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: a great introduction, particularly for those kids who aren't off farms.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: Fast-track legislation. Is it fair to say the government's pushing
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: too much through in too short a time frame, given
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: that this term is about to come to an end?
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: No, look, I don't think so. When you look at
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: the fact that in terms of renewable energy, so solar
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: and wind, we have put more through fast-track in the...
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: three years that we've been in government than the 10
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: years prior to that. And we must get more energy.
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: We must get that to push prices down to enable
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: industries to stay and enable more industries to come here.
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: So we've got to stop chasing our tail in terms
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: of not having enough power. We must get... more generation
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: of power so that we can have more industries here
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: and we can put downward pressure on the price of power.
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: But is it ignoring democracy the way that it goes
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: through without proper consultation with the public?
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, look, it does have proper consultation, but it is restricted.
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: Does it? Yeah, it's restricted to just around the neighbouring properties.
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: What we had before with the RMA was that people
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: in Auckland could be submitting and complaining about a development
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: in Southland, and it was really... suiting a lot of
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: the non-government organisations, the environmental organisations that wanted to complain
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: about everything and so they had a right to be
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: holding up processes for developments way outside of their geographic location.
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: So we've put a stop to that. Yeah, sure, I'm
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: getting a wee bit of pushback at the moment from
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: a wind farm over in western Southland where they're saying
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: it's too narrow, the boundary is too narrow for those
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: that are being consulted on. But we had to put
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: a line in the sand somewhere and we really had
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: to put a stop to these people from outside of
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: Southland or outside of a region being able to slow
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: up processes in another region.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: Good on you, Penny. You're busy week ahead. Always appreciate
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: your time.
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: Lovely to talk. Bye, Andy.
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: Penny Simmons, MP for Invercargill and Minister of Science, Innovation
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: and Technology, which is pretty busy. Ben Dooley's up next.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: Farming just out of Wyndham. Sheep, beef and YouTube farmer.
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: You're listening to The Muster.