Latest / Best of Business / Shane Jones: Regional Development Minister unpacks the future of small town New Zealand

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Shane Jones: Regional Development Minister unpacks the future of small town New Zealand · Best of Business

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  Speaker 2: When it took office, Governing's about choices. Governing is about choices,
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  Speaker 2: and in the eyes of those in the Lower South,
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  Speaker 2: this choice will not be forgotten or forgiven any time soon.
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  Speaker 2: Nine two ninety two is the text number if you
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  Speaker 2: want to flick me a note this afternoon jacket Newstalk
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  Speaker 2: SDB dot co dot nz is the email address. Yes,
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  Speaker 2: the focus continues to be on the future of small
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  Speaker 2: town New Zealand Regional New Zealand, with a leading academic
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  Speaker 2: adding to the conversation this morning saying that quote, tough
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  Speaker 2: conversations are needed. So we've seen Windstone Pulp close in
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  Speaker 2: the u a Pehu district. We've now got Alliance proposing
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  Speaker 2: to shut its meat works in Tamudo. That alone is
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  Speaker 2: hundreds of jobs gone, potentially hundreds of people flying off
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  Speaker 2: to Australia. Senior Lecturer of geography at Otago Universe, the
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  Speaker 2: Doctor Sean Connolly, says the towns can be built back
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  Speaker 2: up if they're prepared to adapt to a new reality.
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  Speaker 2: So is there anything the government can do to help
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  Speaker 2: with the Shane Jones as the Minister for Regional Development
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  Speaker 2: guild up.
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  Speaker 3: Greetings, folks, are you worried.
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  Speaker 2: That we are going to lose some of our small towns.
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  Speaker 3: Well, we're going through a major structural adjustment, whether we
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  Speaker 3: like it or not here in our economy. It's not
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  Speaker 3: just to do with COVID, but land use changes are
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  Speaker 3: taking place. Energy prices largely driven by the need to
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  Speaker 3: achieve certain climate goals, sadly driving industry, if not to
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  Speaker 3: a smaller size, potentially out of New Zealand. And I
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  Speaker 3: don't like it.
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  Speaker 2: So hang on. You think that the decline of regional
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  Speaker 2: populations is all down to the response to climate change.
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  Speaker 3: Well, if we're not going to maintain access to gas
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  Speaker 3: and coal during a managed transition, and we're going to
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  Speaker 3: continually make it more difficult through regulations for farmers to
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  Speaker 3: sustain production, we are going to see a contraction of
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  Speaker 3: the economy around some of our small towns.
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  Speaker 2: We've been experiencing a contraction in those populations for decades though,
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  Speaker 2: haven't we.
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  Speaker 3: Well. What keeps those populations going though, is the local economy.
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  Speaker 3: And one thing that we've been really good at in
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  Speaker 3: New Zealand, or certainly in my lifetime anyhow, has been
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  Speaker 3: the production of food. Like I just had the people
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  Speaker 3: from the vegetable growers in my office last week. They
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  Speaker 3: find that the regulations pertaining to their water utilization, the
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  Speaker 3: application of fertilizer has become so restrictive that they fear
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  Speaker 3: that we're going to go towards importing more food rather
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  Speaker 3: than growing at ourselves. So it's time for a reset.
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  Speaker 2: So what else can the government do from a policy
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  Speaker 2: perspective to keep those small towns thriving?
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  Speaker 3: Oh, I think they've I personally, I think I've delivered
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  Speaker 3: because a lot of those small towns you refering too
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  Speaker 3: silly on the coast, they depend on aquaculture. And when
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  Speaker 3: we take a pragmatic view of regulation, for example, I
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  Speaker 3: extended all the marine farming permits through to twenty fifty.
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  Speaker 3: That leaves more money in the business people had the
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  Speaker 3: confidence to invest. And that's growth industry for New Zealand,
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  Speaker 3: and it is going to sustain a lot of small
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  Speaker 3: towns that have been yeah in Strugglers Gully.
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  Speaker 2: What other from a migration perspective, are there immigration settings
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  Speaker 2: that you could tinker with that might help to support
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  Speaker 2: Regional New Zealand.
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  Speaker 3: Well, I don't know how many of the workers associated
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  Speaker 3: with Alliance Networks where we're kiwis and how many were say,
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  Speaker 3: not RC workers, but migrant labor. There is a need
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  Speaker 3: in some cases for migrant labor. But my main point
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  Speaker 3: is land use change is taking place. There is a
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  Speaker 3: situation where a lot of dairy dislocated sheep farmers, some
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  Speaker 3: forestry dislocated sheep farmers. But these are the owner of
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  Speaker 3: land and property making decisions that they feel are in
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  Speaker 3: the best interests of them and their families, and that's
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  Speaker 3: having an impact on local industry. Okay, so what do
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  Speaker 3: we do. Do we go through to a central planning
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  Speaker 3: model or do we give more power to local government
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  Speaker 3: to stop land use changes. One of the great gems
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  Speaker 3: of genius in our system in New Zealand is that
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  Speaker 3: you've been able to change the way in which you
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  Speaker 3: use land to chase outcome that generate the best economic return.
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  Speaker 2: Hey, I'm not sure if you saw at the weekend
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  Speaker 2: they had a couple of massive public meetings around one
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  Speaker 2: Overtu and Orfena regarding the prospect of road tolling. What
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  Speaker 2: is your response to that?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I got questioned on that during my using at Bulls.
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  Speaker 3: All I'd say to your listeners is that I come
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  Speaker 3: from Taie Tolkiado and every time we even airpulies, every
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  Speaker 3: time we drive north, we pay a toll, and we've
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  Speaker 3: been doing that for a long time. A toll was
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  Speaker 3: never imposed on the Golden Highway in the Golden Triangle
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  Speaker 3: when Stephen Joyce upgraded the roads in and around Hamilton
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  Speaker 3: down towards Cambridge, and perhaps an opportunity was missed there.
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  Speaker 3: But you know, I'd call for a bit of penis here.
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  Speaker 3: Obviously any toll has to be informed by equity. But
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  Speaker 3: I'd remind the people of Munoa two, those of us
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  Speaker 3: who live in Taytalkido in the north, we already pay
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  Speaker 3: a toll every time we leave Auckland.
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  Speaker 2: And finally I saw you got into a bit of
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  Speaker 2: a scrap this afternoon. Wow, not really a scrap, but
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  Speaker 2: you a bit of a barney on Lampton Key with
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  Speaker 2: some climate protests. What happened?
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  Speaker 3: Oh, look, I went down to get a haircut. They
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  Speaker 3: were originally they were originally in front of Parliament and
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  Speaker 3: I missed them, so I was going down for a haircut.
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  Speaker 2: So you ended up giving one instead.
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  Speaker 3: Well, they were pretty keen to figuratively sculpt me. But
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  Speaker 3: that was a bit of war of words, but nothing,
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  Speaker 3: nothing too damaging. But hey, you know, I'm a rhetorician,
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  Speaker 3: so I should expect a bit of the return fire
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  Speaker 3: from time to time.
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  Speaker 2: Fair enough, Thank you very much for your time. We
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  Speaker 2: appreciate it. That is Shane Jones.
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