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Speaker 1: Certainly is on government officials and ministers this week, it's

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Speaker 1: scrutiny week in Parliament. Before we get to that, our

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Speaker 1: local MP James Meaga, morning.

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Speaker 2: Morning, coming to you from a miserable, wet morning here

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Speaker 2: at Parliament.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, you see, I wasn't complaining about that here yesterday

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Speaker 1: because we could do it with the rain. Get some

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Speaker 1: color back in the lawn super quick. The four percent

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Speaker 1: rates cap on councils, is it actually going to work

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Speaker 1: or are they just going to find other ways to

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Speaker 1: sting us. For instance, a visit to the EA pools

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Speaker 1: goes from seven bucks to twenty five dollars. Registering scruffy

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Speaker 1: the dog goes to eighty dollars. You know.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, look, we think it's a way that we can

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Speaker 2: send a signal to councils that they need to stick

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Speaker 2: really to the basic And there are models that have

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Speaker 2: happened overseas where there's been a flat cats over in

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Speaker 2: Australia that did a flat cap on rates and that

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Speaker 2: did lead to a little bit of a gif jeggery

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Speaker 2: pokery around infrastructure investment. So there are a couple of

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Speaker 2: things that can help with that. One is that councils

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Speaker 2: can ask for exceptions when they have pretty good, valid

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Speaker 2: reasons for it, and that may well be for infrastructure investment.

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Speaker 2: The second thing is that of course water is set

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Speaker 2: aside from this with the new way that local water

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Speaker 2: done well is happening, so there will be more room

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Speaker 2: on council's books to move there. But at the moment

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Speaker 2: it's a proposal, we'll put it out there. We'll take

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Speaker 2: the feedback from councils. But I think rate payers and

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Speaker 2: the wine of public have been demanded some control on

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Speaker 2: rates for a while, particularly as they add such a

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Speaker 2: large component to inflation in the cost of living.

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Speaker 1: Well, don't we know that. I think compared to other councils,

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Speaker 1: we're probably in unfortunate space given that we've managed to

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Speaker 1: stay on top of Ashburten infrastructure for the most part,

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Speaker 1: although we do have this new road to build up

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Speaker 1: to the new bridge, which makes me a little nervous. Anyway,

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Speaker 1: we'll cross that when we get to it. But back

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Speaker 1: to that scrutiny week at Parliament, as all the ministers

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Speaker 1: and big bosses hauled in front of select committees to

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Speaker 1: be grilled over their performance. Does that include yourself? Have

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Speaker 1: you been in the box seat made to squirm.

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Speaker 2: I have met in the box seat. Yeah, I do

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Speaker 2: get to make a very sure guest appearance tomorrow morning

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Speaker 2: in my role as Associate Transport Minister alongside Minister Bishop,

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Speaker 2: wearing my Aviation and Maritime hat. But yeah, it's been

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Speaker 2: a big week in Parliament. They have two of these years.

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Speaker 2: This is the week where they look at the annual

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Speaker 2: reports of all the government agencies and rarely scrutinize over

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Speaker 2: the past five months. How well have they performed? Have

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Speaker 2: they been living up to expectations? Are they spending your

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Speaker 2: money effectively and wisely? And it's a good part about

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Speaker 2: political process where members of government like myself are hold

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Speaker 2: to account for that spending.

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Speaker 1: So long as the school lunches and the police keep

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Speaker 1: pulling focus, you'll be right.

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Speaker 2: But apparently if you don't don't have enough morning tea

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Speaker 2: your afternoon tea, you can get a bit touchy and

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Speaker 2: saw that with Nikola willis Oh getting harangued by some

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Speaker 2: of the opposition. But now I've got an appearance tomorrow

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Speaker 2: for Transport. For some reason, the opposition don't seem to

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Speaker 2: have a lot of interest in South Island for father

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Speaker 2: or hunting and fishing. But you know, I'll just get

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Speaker 2: on and keep knocking away at my job.

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Speaker 1: It's quite nice to fly under the radar. You mentioned

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Speaker 1: Chris Bishop. Was there a leadership coup lately? And who

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Speaker 1: cyber you on? Were you team Bush?

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Speaker 2: There was no leadership copen then you can tell us

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Speaker 2: it was interesting looking at all of the speculation from

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Speaker 2: obviously outside the building and just seeing how far off

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Speaker 2: the mark so many people were. It's nice, I guess

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Speaker 2: when you're a bit bored in Eary this week to

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Speaker 2: have a bit of a tottoo round. But no, no, no,

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Speaker 2: there's no leadership. Cu Prome Minise is doing an excellent

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Speaker 2: job and of course he's the one that gave me

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Speaker 2: the opportunity to serve in his ministry and to be

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Speaker 2: able to work on the behalf of South Islanders. So

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Speaker 2: I'm really proud to be part of the government and

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Speaker 2: I'm really proud to support unconditionally a PM well scripted.

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Speaker 1: We still love the luks, Hey super quick A topic

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Speaker 1: of the sporting too. Center photos are they still a thing?

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Speaker 1: It was it for you? Do you have fond memories

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Speaker 1: James Meager are being hauled along to get a photo

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Speaker 1: with Center I don't know.

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Speaker 2: If I have fond memories or any memories at all,

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Speaker 2: but if it did happen, I don't think they would

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Speaker 2: be fine. I haven't really seen a lot of photos

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Speaker 2: out there where the the kids on the knees are

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Speaker 2: looking particularly happy. I know my nephews go along there

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Speaker 2: every year, go to Santa and get a picture on

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Speaker 2: the knee. One of them is about fifteen now, so

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Speaker 2: I don't know if he's going to be suitable for

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Speaker 2: sitting on Santa's knee at that age. But it's all

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Speaker 2: a bit of good fun and it's a nice way

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Speaker 2: to remember a nice family moment, and I think it's

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Speaker 2: still where it's for a lot of people.

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Speaker 1: Mister Fifteen's probably more the selfie and the dab or

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Speaker 1: the mud a wave, getting the mud a waven with

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Speaker 1: center that'd be quite cool.

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Speaker 2: Maybe we end up with ai center and then you've

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Speaker 2: got nice, smiley, happy children and some sort of Santa

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Speaker 2: Claus with some two beards and seven fingers or whatever.

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Speaker 2: It is.

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Speaker 1: That what an age we live. And I'm getting correspondents

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Speaker 1: that perhaps I wasn't the most willing participant when it

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Speaker 1: came to Santa photos too, which We'll find out more

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Speaker 1: before eight. For now, it is our local in Pete

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Speaker 1: James meet