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Luxon seeks Australian help to make progress on critical infrastructure
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has been talking to media in Sydney, on the first stop on his third visit to Australia since taking office.
Luxon began by saying the country has “an infrastructure deficit” which the government wanted to get on top of.
Along with three of his ministers, he had met the New South Wales premier Christopher Minns on Thursday to pick up ideas on how the state had progressed its housing, schools, roading and public transport projects.
Christopher Luxon, left, and Christopher Minns in Sydney today. Photo: Supplied
New Zealand needed to be able to open up to private funding for the work, Luxon said.
“Some of the regulatory settings here in New South Wales enable infrastructure to be built in a much quicker, lower cost, faster way of working and also make it more attractive for investors.”
The New Zealand government was intent on establishing good governance for the projects and a meeting with Infrastructure New South Wales this morning had been useful for shedding light on “good mechanisms” for this.
The management of private finance within public projects had also been on the agenda.
He said mechanisms could be put in place with the agreement of other political parties so that projects could continue smoothly even if there was a change of government.
Luxon added that the politics needed to be taken out of infrastructure.
“That’s the way in which we get a long-term pipeline of projects well defined.”
Its role, independence and the way the commission prioritised projects would also need to be clearly defined, he added.
Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop who is also in Sydney said the Infrastructure Commission was working on drawing up a list of credible projects for the next five to 20 years.
The concept had been taken from Infrastructure Australia and Infrastructure New South Wales and the latter’s approach had been discussed with some of its staff this morning.
“We’re deliberately building up that institutional capability within the Infrastructure Commission of New Zealand right now and that’s some of the ideas we’ve picked up from Infrastructure New South Wales and it was good to talk about that with them this morning.”
The NSW government is building the Cowra water storage project so the region can share water when it hits critically low levels. Photo: New South Wales government
Plea to public over meth ‘lollies’
Luxon said the meth ‘lollies’ issue was “incredibly deeply concerning” and the government was very worried about public safety.
“Please please please check check check that actually what you’re feeding your children is safe and make sure you know what these lollies look like so that you can actually remove them.”
The police would be doing their best to find out how the lolly bags came to be donated to the Auckland City Mission, Luxon said, but the more important issue at this point was safeguarding the public.
The prime minister was also asked about criticism from UK environmentalist Jonathan Porritt, who called Luxon “a hypocrite”.
His comments were reported today by RNZ.
Porritt, a former chair of Air New Zealand’s sustainability panel, is annoyed the airline has backtracked on its 2020 emissions reductions target.
He is also unimpressed Luxon has not maintained an earlier commitment to sustainability issues since becoming prime minister.
Luxon refused to comment except to say he hadn’t seen the comments and was no longer chief executive of Air New Zealand.
Security and defence will be front and centre when Luxon later meets counterpart Anthony Albanese, amid concerns over any potential AUKUS involvement.
VIA RNZ
The chief executive of the Parliamentary Service is confident there will be enough room to accommodate the increased number of MPs and their staff coming into Parliament.
On current numbers, up to 131 MPs could be sitting in the Chamber following the election, brought on by a record overhang result.
Clerk of the House of Representatives Dr David Wilson told the Spinoff that currently the debating chamber had enough chairs to seat 124 MPs – including the Speaker of the House – and work was being done to accommodate more by altering the seating arrangement.
In a statement, Parliamentary Service chief executive Rafael Gonzalez-Montero said planning for a larger Parliament had been going for “some time”.
“Now that the election results have confirmed an increase to the number of members we are looking at several options.
“We are confident we will be able to accommodate all members within the Chamber.”
VNP / Phil Smith
Gonzalez-Montero said office accommodation for members and their staff would be “stretched” for a short time, but the new Members’ Building was only a few months away from “practical completion”.
That building – located behind Parliament – was due to be ready to occupy in April next year and had capacity to accommodate around 30 backbench MPs.
“All members should be in fit-for-purpose accommodation from that point,” Gonzalez-Montero said.
Following the 2023 election, 123 MPs sat in the Chamber – a record number at the time. That decreased to 122 following the resignation of National MP Judith Collins.
Collins held the seat of Papakura and stepped down in May and Parliament voted against holding a by-election because it was too close to the election.
The election result also meant high-ranking National Party MPs like Chris Bishop, Paul Goldsmith, Nicola Willis and Gerry Brownlee – Speaker of the House and an MP for 30 years – would likely not make it back into Parliament.
Only resigning or retiring MPs were permitted to give a valedictory speech meaning none of them would get the chance to give a valedictory statement.
Asked if their would be special allowances for valedictories, Wilson said in a statement that normally only MPs were allowed to speak in the House but the House could suspend its own rules or temporarily alter them.
“It could do so to allow former members to address the House.”
Wilson said no such arrangements could be made until the next Parliament opened and members sworn in.
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