Speaking to The Front Page ahead of the penultimate summit today in Tauranga, Jones said each region he’s visited has reiterated concerns about economic decline.
He is firm in his stance on advancing these centres.
“No one is going to go to bed tonight doubting where I stand in relation to the centrality of growth and the priority that the country should place upon development.”
Jones made headlines earlier this year for comments in the House while debating the Fast-track bill: “Gone are the days of the multi-coloured skink, the kiwi, many other species that have been weaponised to deny regional New Zealand communities their right to a livelihood, their entitlement to live peacefully with their environment but derive an income to meet the costs of raising families in regional New Zealand.”
He told The Front Page he is not looking at a “mass extinction drive”, but stands by the view that projects shouldn’t be impacted due to a need to protect a native species.
“It’s about time, I think, that Kiwis embraced more of my pragmatism, because our resource management system has been hijacked by too many special interest groups to the detriment of jobs, growth and economic resilience in regional New Zealand.”
He believes future-proofing against climate change and regional development can happen alongside each other, but that New Zealand needs an economic surplus if society is going to adapt to meet climate goals.
That includes revoking the ban on oil and gas exploration, which Jones said is key for the country to enjoy economic resilience. And he isn’t interested in what those against the policy have to say.
“I don’t pay much attention to these screeching voices who are trying to confuse our young people in the education system that the planet is boiling.
“All of that is self-serving rhetoric designed to boost the Green Party’s appeal to the voting public and there hopefully more and more people are accepting that you need balance and common sense in these issues. We don’t need any more bouts of verbal diarrhoea.”
He isn’t disputing climate change as being an issue, but said it is not the “be all and end all” of New Zealand’s problems.
“Climate change in my view, over the last regime, has been turned into a religion and when I want a religious experience, I’ve got other ways of enjoying that.”
Listen to the full episode for more from Shane Jones on climate change, soaring power prices, and what he makes of how he is viewed by climate activists.
The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am. The podcast is presented by Chelsea Daniels, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in world news and crime/justice reporting who joined NZME in 2016.
You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
