Act leader David Seymour was in Tauranga this week to talk to local businesspeople about his proposal to downsize the Government and discuss their concerns about the local economy.

In his speech, Seymour looked back on the first half of the Government’s term. He discussed his proposal to create a smaller and more “focused” executive to have a Government that delivered core services efficiently and gave taxpayers “real value for money”.

A Q&A session followed his speech, during which local businesspeople addressed issues within their specific industries.

Seymour’s thoughts on local issues

Infrastructure

Adam Ross, from Sabre Construction, asked about Seymour’s direction for Tauranga’s infrastructure woes.

Ross said the biggest challenge the Western Bay faced was infrastructure.

He said housing affordability was a major issue for employers in attracting people to Tauranga, and some of his workforce had started to live in Waikato because it was cheaper to commute over the Kaimāī Range to get to work.

Seymour said it had taken 15 years to gather a rational consensus about housing and the demand problem.

“The truth is, it was never a demand problem, it’s always been a supply problem.

“It’s all about supply, it’s about land consenting, it’s about infrastructure consenting and funding, and it’s also about building materials. I think we’re doing absolutely the right thing.”

GDP decline

Greg Pert, from Tranzliquid Logistics, asked Seymour how he would use his position regarding New Zealand’s GDP per capita decline, calling it “especially concerning”.

“It signals not just a cycle downturn, but a potential structural weakness in productivity and competitiveness in New Zealand.

“How are you going to leverage your position and how is New Zealand going to find its way out of this?”

Seymour said the Act Party believed New Zealand was punching below its potential.

“I think there’s a real paradox in our national identity that we all come here as pioneers.

“There is a central conflict in our character as a nation, which is between pioneers and bludgers.

“Part of the problem we have is that we have a whole lot of people who remain pioneers but they’ve taken their pioneering off to a new country – I think this is existential for us.”

After the meeting, Pert told SunLive he attended the meeting primarily to see where Seymour was aiming to place himself and how he would influence what was required for the New Zealand economy.

“It’s about productivity and efficiency. How do we get our goods to market effectively and cost-effectively?” said Pert.

“Productivity is going down the gurgler, and this area … it needs to have that free flow of goods."

Congestion charging

Seymour said he supported congestion charging because “somebody has to pay”.

“You’ve got to consider congestion charging if you’re serious about having the infrastructure.”

He said if you’re opposed to congestion charging, you must find another way to pay for infrastructure, such as targeted rates or for the central government to share more GST.

“The conversation and the debate need to be started with the assumption that somebody has to pay. Then you can have a rational conversation.”

Marine precinct sale

Seymour said the No 1 concern about the marine precinct sale was what the council would use the money for.

“You’d want to see that money going into infrastructure to relieve congestion.

“I appreciate there’ll be people there who currently use the marina and they’ll be annoyed,” he said, adding that if it was a choice between that or upgrading critical infrastructure, then you had to ask what was in the best interests of the city as well as the best interests of some individuals.

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Doctors on strike

Seymour said some people would say more money needed to be spent on the health sector.

“The truth is that the health budget is $30 billion. It’s up from $18 billion in 2019. It’s a 66% increase in six years.

“Why are people so frustrated? In my view, it’s because all the policy reform in the last five years has been what I call the macro level,” he said.

“There hasn’t been a real focus on the micro level.”

Seymour said the real answer was better organisation, which he thought Health Minister Simeon Brown was doing now.

He said the Government could pay doctors more if less was spent on bureaucracy.

“In my experience, people tend to be worried about money, but also about quality of life and the length of the hours they have to work, and the satisfaction – ‘am I making a difference?’”

Council building deal

Seymour said people often thought it was cheaper for a council or government to own the building they operated in, but they forgot how many costs there were.

“The basic idea of getting someone else to build it, someone else to do the maintenance, someone else to take the risk and just paying a flat fee.”

Seymour said getting a third party to build, maintain and manage the risk of the building while paying a flat fee was cheaper than owning the building.

Seymour’s thoughts on Tauranga

“Tauranga is different from the rest of New Zealand because the problems in Tauranga are mostly how we manage our growth, which is a different problem for most of the country.

“I think people are really looking to the Government to give a bit more hope and a bit more stimulus, so hopefully we’ll see that soon.”