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Speaker 1: Morning. So another crack the big picture infrastructure this morning

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Speaker 1: from the Infrastructure Commission, who's latest report tells us we

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Speaker 1: spend too much for very little return. This is a

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Speaker 1: thirty year draft plan. Chris Bishop, Infrastructure Ministers with us,

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Speaker 1: Good morning, Good morning. The comments yesterday about how useless

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Speaker 1: we are, do you reckon in your capacity here and

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Speaker 1: now you can actually move the needle?

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Speaker 2: Yes, I do, and I'm intending to do that over

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Speaker 2: the next eighteen months. In fact, we've done quite a

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Speaker 2: lot already to improve the system, but there's a long

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Speaker 2: way to go. As you said, it's a thirty year problem.

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Speaker 2: We're in the top ten percent for spend. Everyone says

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Speaker 2: we don't spend enough. We actually spend a truckload on

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Speaker 2: infrastructure across local and central government. We get very bad

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Speaker 2: value for money from that spend. We're in the bottom

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Speaker 2: team percent for value for money in the OECD. So

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Speaker 2: we've got to improve.

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Speaker 1: So the trans government thing that you talked about yesterday

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Speaker 1: as well, do you think that's real that someone's going

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Speaker 1: to pick up and run with your idea so it's

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Speaker 1: not your idea, it's everyone's idea. Do you think that's

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Speaker 1: real or realturistic.

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Speaker 2: No, I think we can do it. And one of

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Speaker 2: the things I talked about yesterday was moving away from

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Speaker 2: the sort of rhetoric that we needed by partisan pipeline.

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Speaker 2: We do need that, but I pointed out at the

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Speaker 2: summer yesterday and I put it out all the next

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Speaker 2: the things we're going to start in the next six months.

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Speaker 2: If you look at the list, I don't reckon any

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Speaker 2: political party in Parliament will disagree with anything that the

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Speaker 2: government is spending money on. You've got Malling, You've got

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Speaker 2: Otachi to north of starting, You've got a couple of

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Speaker 2: government capital projects starting. Everyone's going to agree on that.

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Speaker 2: The issue is not that. The issue is you, I reckon.

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Speaker 1: So the issue is let me just counter it for

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Speaker 1: one moment, and I don't want to, but I have to.

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Speaker 1: They will say I want some trains and some trolleys

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Speaker 1: and some cycle lanes and I'll need the money for that.

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Speaker 1: And once I'd love to build your road, but now

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Speaker 1: that I've got all that stuff, I can't afford your road.

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Speaker 1: And that's how it's going to unfold, isn't it.

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Speaker 2: I reckon. There'll be a bit of debate between the

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Speaker 2: Greens and National and things like that, and labor on

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Speaker 2: things like cycle ways. Right, so national government is never

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Speaker 2: going to be as into cycle ways as a green

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Speaker 2: government as for example. So but eighty percent ninety percent

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Speaker 2: of this part one week and agree on. What we

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Speaker 2: do need to agree on are things that the people

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Speaker 2: have been saying for thirty years. We need to do.

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Speaker 2: Focus on asset maintenance. We have neglect that. That's folk.

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Speaker 2: We have rotten hospitals, we've got mold in our schools,

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Speaker 2: you know, police stations falling apart around the country because

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Speaker 2: we don't look after what we've already built. So there's

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Speaker 2: a whole range of recommendations in there around that. I'll

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Speaker 2: tell you one thing that shocked made that I learned

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Speaker 2: half of central government capital intensive agencies do not have

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Speaker 2: an asset register. What I mean by that is they

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Speaker 2: don't even know what they own and they don't know

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Speaker 2: what the state of what they own is. Now it's

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Speaker 2: ridiculous when you think about it, because we say to

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Speaker 2: local government and they get a bad rap. But we

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Speaker 2: say to local government, this is legislated. You've got to

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Speaker 2: do a ten year capital plan, you've got to do

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Speaker 2: a long term asset maintenance plan, and there are some

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Speaker 2: performance standards you've got to meet. We don't even do

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Speaker 2: this do that for ourselves in central government, so things

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Speaker 2: like that. It's got to change.

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Speaker 1: Tell you what is changing. And congratulations this fifteen stories

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Speaker 1: in Auckland. That's sort of overriding councils. Get them out

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Speaker 1: of the way, get on with this stuff. But is

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Speaker 1: someone wanting to live on floor thirteen next to a

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Speaker 1: railway station? If you build it, will they come?

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, there's a huge demand out there. It's not going

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Speaker 2: to happen straight away like it's you know, we're going

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Speaker 2: to make the council do it, and they'll do it

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Speaker 2: by October, which is good progress by the way, But

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Speaker 2: it's not like, you know, next next week or something,

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Speaker 2: there's going to be like a big apartment by Kingsland

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Speaker 2: train station. But over the next three, five, ten years.

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Speaker 2: This is the way people want to live, or at

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Speaker 2: least the way some people want to live, right. Some

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Speaker 2: people want to live in a single story house in

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Speaker 2: the suburbs. That's all good, We need more houses like that.

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Speaker 2: Some people want to live in a terrace house, that's fine.

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Speaker 2: Some people young people are older couples, the kids have

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Speaker 2: moved out They just want a nice apartment by a

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Speaker 2: train station. And here's the thing. We're building this five

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Speaker 2: billion dollars sea rail link. It's going to be rapid

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Speaker 2: transit for Auckland. But Kingsland train station is going to

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Speaker 2: have trains running through it every five minutes at peak.

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Speaker 2: It's going to be phenomenal. People are going to want

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Speaker 2: to live near the station, get a coffee on the

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Speaker 2: way of the train.

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Speaker 1: Chris, you've taken the pills. Have you seen the trains

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Speaker 1: in Auckland lately? They don't run. There are no trains

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Speaker 1: in Auckland. They're permanently not on.

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Speaker 2: Well. The part of the reason for that is that

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Speaker 2: they're getting ready for city rail links. So I'm not

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Speaker 2: pretending it's going to be perfect right away from day one,

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Speaker 2: but there's a huge event going into upgrading the lines

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Speaker 2: down to train so we can get ready for it.

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Speaker 1: Right, are you ready for this morning scandal?

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Speaker 2: Look?

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Speaker 1: Hit me, Hit me with that far now, Aura, right, farner,

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Speaker 1: Aura give money to pacifica Medical Association group. What do

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Speaker 1: they do with that money?

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Speaker 2: Chris, I'm sure you to tell me.

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Speaker 1: They fund Moana Pacifica, the rugby team. Now I'll ask

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Speaker 1: you this in your capacity as minister formerly a Minister

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Speaker 1: of sport. What the hell is an agency that's supposed

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Speaker 1: to uplift the community? Firstly, it's a race based funding,

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Speaker 1: which you said you'd stop. Why are they funding professional sport?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a complex. Is this funding picture a because? Well,

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Speaker 2: because you've got funer aora that the fun Aura groups

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Speaker 2: do all sorts of different things and sometimes it's quite

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Speaker 2: difficult to untangle the contracts a set as delivery from

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Speaker 2: everything house. So is it I'm with you.

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Speaker 1: Well, well you're in charge with Chris, you're the government

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Speaker 1: who is going to fix all of this a year

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Speaker 1: and a half and why are we discovering this this morning?

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Speaker 2: I'm not a judge of that, but I know that

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Speaker 2: my colleagues are looking at it because I agree with

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Speaker 2: you in principle, and I'm sure they are looking at it.

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Speaker 1: But as Minister of Sport, which you were, did it

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Speaker 1: not bother you or did you not know that professional

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Speaker 1: rugby teams in a country with no money were being

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Speaker 1: funded by an agency that's supposed to on a race

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Speaker 1: based way it will process uplift their community.

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Speaker 2: Yeah? I found it strange. Well, what did you do

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Speaker 2: about about it well. As I say, there are contracts

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Speaker 2: in place, and as I say, disentangling all of the

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Speaker 2: various different funding streams that go into final or from

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Speaker 2: some of the money that goes out the door, as

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Speaker 2: we've discovered in other areas I'm thinking of the other

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Speaker 2: issues that we've cropped up is not as easy as

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Speaker 2: it sounds.

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Speaker 1: I appreciate your time, Chris Bishop, and you got caught

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Speaker 1: there slightly. Now, the other aspect of this is the

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Speaker 1: charity aspect. So the company or the business or the

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Speaker 1: charity specific medical association group is a charity, so they

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Speaker 1: don't are they charity? When you fund a professional rugby team,

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Speaker 1: are you a charity still? And if that rugby team

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Speaker 1: didn't exist without your funding, are you still a charity? Jeez,

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Speaker 1: there's a lot of questions on this morning, Mike. So

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Speaker 1: the saga continues with Maray getting more and more money

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Speaker 1: to do well. It's not just Marrio's specifica to do

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Speaker 1: what they want. When is it going to stop? Not

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Speaker 1: a bad question, it's I think, as you heard Chris say,

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Speaker 1: it's more difficult than you think.

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