Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Environment Minister David Parker present new accelerated projects for job creation

Three projects identified for acceleration today are private sector projects, says Environment Minister David Parker.

Parker and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern are in front of the media in a weekly post-booth press conference, detailing projects that will bypass the Resource Management Act.

The private projects are a mixed-use development on Dominion Rd in Auckland, a foam factory in Huntly and a large development in Auckland.

Earlier in today’s conference, Ardern said he had a “warm and positive” phone call with US President-elect Joe Biden and invited him to visit New Zealand.

In June, the government announced that it would accelerate 11 highway, rail and housing projects so that works could begin as soon as possible.

The three private jobs were all “big projects” and, if passed, would go through recently passed legislation that he says does not compromise environmental results, Parker said this afternoon.

That law had three ways in which projects can be accelerated.

Ardern said housing developments that could be accelerated would be triggered by developers who come forward. Parker added that there has been a steady stream of such apps, including retirement homes.

He said the 200 permanent jobs the three projects could lead to were mostly factory-related.

Ardern told the media that the call to Biden had included a conversation about the coronavirus.

“We talked about Covid-19 and the president-elect spoke positively about New Zealand’s response to the pandemic,” Ardern said.

“I offered him and his team access to New Zealand health officials to share their experience on what we have learned on our Covid-19 journey.”

She said they also discussed climate change, including their 2050 goals, the Pacific region and trade goals.

He said Biden wanted to “revitalize” the relationship between the United States and New Zealand.

Ardern added that fighting Covid-19 will require a joint, global effort, and while New Zealand had many advantages in keeping communities free from the virus, we also successfully used practices such as successfully managed isolation and quarantine.

He did not say whether she had been invited to the White House.

When asked if he spoke about Donald Trump, he said the conversation looked to the future and to common interests, including trade.

“From the statements made publicly by the president-elect that the number one priority was the response to Covid-19. He spoke very favorably about what he had seen happening in New Zealand.”

She said Biden also had an interest in the Pacific, speaking of the time her uncle served in the war in this region and his interest in having the United States engaged “around the world but particularly here.”

“I sensed a great deal of enthusiasm for the relationship we already have, but also the potential of that relationship.”

He noted that he had already recognized the election result in the United States and that the phone call was a follow-up to that.

He said he had used the term “revitalize the relationship” to characterize the essence of the phone call.

Ardern said Biden invited to visit New Zealand. Biden has already been invited to visit Australia on the occasion of Anzus’ anniversary.

“He spoke of his fond memories of visiting New Zealand years ago. He was very happy to be invited to come back here.”

He doubted that Biden would have said he wanted to discuss to further address Covid-19 if he did not intend to pursue that.

Ardern said New Zealand had a “natural advantage” but “we had also used it to a positive effect.”

“No country’s experience has been linear or perfect.”

New Zealand’s experience was based on testing, contact tracing and isolation, as well as work done at the border, he said.

Technology has also been used, but in New Zealand “with the permission of the people.”

She thought it was “positive” to have received the phone call so soon after the US elections, and she intended to strengthen the relationship with the United States.

Biden’s transition team posted a brief summary of the phone call:

Ardern said he kept his conversation with Biden as a “general” rather than pushing for a free trade agreement or mentioning the TTP.

It was a 20-minute conversation, he said.

On Biden praising her leadership after the March 15 attacks and on Covid-19, as well as being a role model and a working mom, Ardern said: “It wasn’t the things I decided to highlight.”

He added that those were things that lent themselves to “strong personal relationships” and showed that Biden knew what was going on in New Zealand.

In response to today’s release of the Children’s Commissioner report on Oranga Tamariki, he said Kelvin Davis was meeting with the commissioner to discuss the best way forward.

She said the way the state raised children had been “enormously problematic,” and Parker said the new alcohol and drug court in Hamilton would have jurisdiction in Family Court as well as criminal matters.

The key recommendation in that report was a Maori-for-Maori solution, and Ardern said some of that work was already happening. But a sudden change in the way more than 5,000 children are handled in the state’s care would cause problems.

In terms of fast track projects, legislation has already been passed which meant that projects, which included the Auckland Harbor Bridge Skypath, were able to bypass the RMA.

This was part of the government’s Covid-19 recovery plan and was aimed at stimulating the economy by creating jobs for people working on the projects.

Ardern said it could generate up to 1,200 jobs.

Parker said at the time that he expected the government to accelerate more projects in an attempt to get them up and running more quickly.

Many of the problems revolved around the exercise of the “big decision” around the arrival of a child into state care. Some of those issues have been criticized “rightly,” he said.

Ardern said it is infuriating that 5 to 10 percent of the land is being deposited at a time when the housing market was exploding. He was looking for advice on what to do with land banking.

Tauranga Town Hall

When asked about the possibility of bringing in a commissioner for affairs with the Tauranga City Council, he said that what was happening there was cause for concern and that the Minister of Local Government, Nanaia Mahuta, was investigating it.

COVID-19

Ardern said a New Zealand-based cabin crew member had tested negative on November 18 and then tested positive on November 22 as part of routine tests while in China.

She understood that the person was asymptomatic and isolated, as is the case with the entire crew when traveling to China.

It was also possible further testing, he said.

Ardern said the crew member’s contacts were being traced as a precaution.

They are being retested and a source will be sought to ensure that everyone that needed to be isolated can be isolated.

Call for taxes on previous assets

The Greens’ co-leader and Associate Minister for Housing, Marama Davidson, has already asked Ardern to consider implementing a wealth tax again.

Davidson said this would help cool the housing market, where prices have risen 20 percent in one year.

Davidson said a wealth tax must be on the table or the “massive divide between the haves and the have-nots” would only widen.

But Ardern has repeatedly said that a government she leads would never implement a wealth tax.

“I’ve said the same thing about this policy no less than probably 50 times. I’ve discarded it,” Ardern said during the campaign.

PM call with Joe Biden

Previously, Ardern spoke with the President-elect of the United States, Joe Biden, by phone.

In an Instagram post, Ardern said she congratulated him on behalf of New Zealand.
“We talk about climate change, Covid-19, trade and our region.”

Ardern said Biden talked about how well he remembered his visit to New Zealand a few years ago.

“I can’t wait to talk again!” Ardern said.