well hi everyone and welcome along to uhvirtual super blues for the north shoreobviously because uh we're in lockdownwe can't be beating sadly uh in personbut look we've got a really uh excitinguh show this morning we've got thehonorable simon bridges who's going tobe joining us uh to answer a number ofquestions uh in regards to hisbackground and experience which is uhreally really exciting i wanted to justsayi hope everyone's doing okay duringlockdown it's been a period of nearlythree months and i know it's been veryvery difficult for some people uh interms ofum that process but look really uh youknow i've been out busy i've been makinga number of phone calls to businesses tocheck in to make sure they're all doingokay church hitting with principals uhin the education system as well and anumber of otheraspects as well look i'm heading back toparliament uh next week uh first time innearly three months so uh we'll lookforward to that but let's get simonbridges on board and uh let's starthaving a chatmorning good to be with you simon it'sum and uh you know i'm sure things aregoing great uh over in north shore thereyeah well look it's been we've been inlockdown a little bit and umbut look it's it's great to have you uhhere with us uh today look super blueshere on the north shore has been goingfor about a year now uh and sowe thought we'd save the best to lastfor this year uh soobviously we can't be in person but umyou know it's good to catch up so solook look obviously just for the peoplein the inwatching here uh simon's been uh the mpfor tauranga since 2008 uh leader of theopposition uh 2018 to 2020 and leader ofthe national party uh wall ministerunder uh key government for economicdevelopment transport uh andcommunications so a widerange of um portfolios and huge depth ofexperience there is married to natalieand i think simon you've got uh threekids two boys and a daughterso umit's really uh good so simon's currentlythe spokesperson for justice pike riveruh and also maori crown relationsuh and our offices are uhare just down the hallway from eachother uh so uh look simon's been reallyum helpful uh and supportive to me as anew mp coming in uh always available touh you know have a little bit of banterbut also a little bit of advice uh andthat's really really important for a newmp uh coming through so um so look simonwe're gonna keep it pretty casual todaybut but really keen i guess for maybe alittle bit about your background uh andalso you know how do you see thingsgoing for new zealand at the momentwell uh look when i say i'm sure thingsare great i'm not sure don't get mewrongi think unlike jacinda i do have a senseof some of the issuesuh up in your part of the awards neck ofthe woods and you know have seen the thethings that your business associationtakapuna are doing and the the realissues there um look in terms of my uh papa if you like uh i grew up inwest auckland so i'm a westie i'm afather's baptist minister my mum aschool teacher and uh that was that havea lot of connections to the shore thoughumwhen i think about it you know there'sthere are even though i spent you know24 25 years living in auckland there areparts of auckland i don't know well ifeel like i do know the shaw very well ihad a girlfriend over there for fouryears that was oneuh attraction uh but also um appearanceuhfor um quite a long period of time livedin stanley point which you'll know wellas simon so yeah i know that know thatarea um well look at germs in newzealand i suppose um if you did watchthe media and believe the media there'sonly one show in town and that's covert19 and obviously the the situation inauckland i can give you a pretty clearstraightforward viewand that's that seems to meuh when i look at what's happening inour our capital of commerce um you knowour biggest population center um the thethe issues whether it's and you know somuch about this with your background andhealth the thousands of people whoaren't getting surgeriesa couple of hundred thousand kids whoaren't at school but need to bethe long-term effects of thatum the the mental health issuesthe businesses going to war the warwhether it's the small ones themedium-sized ones and so oni come to a conclusion that prettystraightforward matters that the thenegatives of this very strictum almost religious approach of thegovernment that the negatives outweighthe positives and i i think it's time touh set a date um and uh no not not sortof suddenly be wholeness bolus but openup and that that's true for thoseinternal borders i mean there's thisridiculous situation you know all aboutbut we'reyou're going to have to go get yourselfin some miq lottery to work out if youcan come to the coromandel um which iknow you know well um and then join herif you want to massachu or whether it'smiq right itself which is past is usedby day and uh yeah we we're for a primeminister who loves to say she's kind umwe're we're a team of six millionactually and there's there's a lot ofpeople overseas are desperate to gethere and people like my wife um natalieshe's a pom she wants tosee um her niece for the first time inthe uk love to be reconnected with herparentsi'm not soi'm not soconcerned about seeing my father-in-lawbut looki'll go too so you know i think i thinkyeahin all seriousness this very strictapproach isn't working anymore um it istime to start seeing some opening up itseems to meso simon look i mean only uh in therecent you know day or so we've heardthe government come out and say lookaucklanders might need to apply for a aslotuh to to leave auckland to go on holidayuh down to the to the beautifulcoromandel and and baya plenty whichwhich just seems uh you know completelyuh ridiculous a bit of a flashback tothe to the days where uh only on certaindays could you drive your car uh forfuel uh restrictions for many in theroom we'll we'll remember those days butbut i guess if you if we fast forward alittle bit you know no one's got acrystal ball but you know how do yousort of see the early part of 2022uh starting to develop i guess by thetime we've got that vaccination level upum what do you think what do you sort ofsee as the priorities um you know for uhfor new zealand and i guess for nationalin the early part of next yearwell i suppose we look a bit toaustralia and um i'm not i'm notsuggesting simon that that australia hasbeen perfect you know i think anycountry between the ukwould like to think about a bit with theunited states canadasydney aussie no that's perfect but youare seeing they're a much freer countryand economy now and you know you'reseeing the trip start they can they canbut they've opened to new zealand evenif we haven't opened to them atsingapore to other countries so i thinkthere's something uh in all of that ithink for the national party we need tobe thinking about aa world uma post-vaccination i don't want to saypost covert because i think the realityis that is that is with us and we're inthat age for a period of time butyou know john key as you know he'stalked about the things that matter andi think we need to be thinking about thethings that matter that that isn'taren't just about a covert they areabout a stronger economy they are abouta good health system they are abouteducation they are about infrastructureandyou know i sit thereand i think for new zealand i i i thinka bit about this i think there's acouple of words that are reallyimportant one is sustainabilityand whenyou're you hear that you're probablythinking environment and of coursethat's important and uh you you knowthat better than most with yourbeautiful beaches uh on on the on theshore there whether it's you knowcheltenham or some of those smaller onesor takapuna um but i'm also thinkingeconomic sustainability and call meold-fashioned but you know a country hasgot to earn its way in the world and ina country right now where we've borrowedtens of billions of dollars effectivelyto pump steroids into the economy at themoment so yep unemployment's low and andand you know at one level andi appreciate this is not the positionfor so many businesses but one level yousay well things are ticking alongbut that can't go on forever we've gotan economy that's export driven umthat's at the moment also driven by debta public debt and and and low interestrates two another three of those thingsare not sustainable and so we aseconomic leaders uh need to be thinkingabout how we get new zealand a moresustainable footing the other word um ifi can use one at the moment is unity andyou know i i see an approach from thegovernment simon that i'm suresuper blue's listing will agree with isis divisive um i should see that a bitin the covert stuff and i'm not sayingit's easy uh the mandate issues areuh complicated and um i i go some waywith it but i think you know it has itsits limits in in in terms of how long itcan go like in my queue it couldoutstand welcome but also think aboutissues of raceuh and in the enda country wherea government is hell-bent on delivering50 50 for maori and non-maorithat's not a unifying positionand it's not commensurate it's notconsistent with aliberalmulticultural democracy which youcertainly are on the shore in torontotoowith so manyindians uh new zealanderschinese new zealanders uh other asianuh new zealanders who are contributingso much and and so this this50 50 approach we're seeing in water andhealthand other areas that that to me is nota unifying position for our countryyeah thanks simon and i think that willresonate with many uh watching this aswell it's it's an area that we get youknow a lot of questions on and a lot ofconcerns and and rightly so i think toyour point you know we um we can see thebenefits of uh you know of a one systemapproach uh and that's importantlook i guess um coming a little bit backto tauranga we talk about uh the goldentriangle uh tauranga hamilton aucklandum why why is it important i guess forpeople what you know here watching thatyou know we get that golden trianglereally uh operating because you knowtauranga punches above its weight youknow in terms of um you know what itachieves and yeah what's your thoughtsaround thatwell thank you for saying that i mean ithink though the truth is you know townhas some great natural advantages umone of them let's be honest is it hasn'tgot the terrible unionized localgovernment control port system that youhave and so that's been a real strengthfor toronto i think the truth is what'salso true it's got a great climate umbut also um its proximity to the bigsmoke to auckland and soi i think if you look at new zealand andyou want to let's be a bit generous tolouise upstate the mp for toppo um taupoupthat is where you know fully half of newzealand now resides that will onlyincrease some population terms anddemographic terms i think in terms ofsome natural advantages it's hugelyimportant when i think of the goldentriangle assignment i think ofinfrastructureum i think of the need to ensure there'sgreat connections in terms of road andto some extent rail but primarilyroading um the broadband all of thesethings and we're going to get moving youknow my view of the economy is maybe abit simplistic but i kind of say youknow what don't tax too much take whatyou need to have a good healthcare andeducation uh system but you know keepthat low and this government fails onthat uh account umless cost less compliance for businessesthey can innovate and be creative andget ahead in infrastructure and i've gotto tell you and i'm not just saying thisbecause i know i've got the right mp andthe right audience to say itnumber one i i reckon at the momentof things we should get on to in aninfrastructural sense uhacross actually new zealand butcertainly the upper north island is asecond harbor crossing and i just thinkit's a the kind of bold umtransformational that's a word the primeminister uses a lot but when i say it iactually mean it transformationalproject that we could get on with thisthis idea of light rail down dominionroad is barking madin terms of timecost the opportunities that will be lostin doing it it's wrong you could do youcould do a harbour crossing and a bunchof other projects in whangarei intauranga in hamilton and aucklandand possibly have a bit of change leftover actually simonyeah without talking about you know 1415 billion dollars i mean that's that'sthe health budget for the entirety ofnew zealand uh for a year nearly rightand by the way14 billion it'll be 18.and that's rightlook you talked before aboutsustainability and particularlyfinancial sustainability andand i'm absolutely with you on that it'sa huge part of what i saw when i wasworking in the dhb system of lack offinancial sustainability but but part ofit's having an idea of where you aretoday today and where you need to be inthe futurea planuh consequences and incentives uh tomake sure that the bureaucrats aregetting there um but you know alsoministers that are active and you knowyou you've been a minister you've you'vebeen there done that transportparticularly what do you think you knowyou think you look remember back onthose i guess the golden days uh andlooking at what's going on now i mean ifyou're giving some advice i mean youknowi know you don't want to do that but youknowwhat why are these guys just completelyincompetent around deliveryyeah you know i think your word aboutactive active and active ministers averystrong point umi you know deliberately uh and settingout what ithink and what you know i think nationalthanksuh from judith collins down um havetalked about some some positive things ithink we could do um but i think what istruewhen we think about the labor party andat a level it's not their fault butyou do have ministers who let the realworld experience the business nowand so what i think happensis they've got into government they putout press releases and they think that'sjob done they think by saying you knowlight rail 14 billion that's kind ofgoing to make itself happen well itdoesn't umwe've got some good public officials whotry their bestbut whether it's a dhb that you'veworked in whether it's a large transportproject whether it's an economy itrequires active leadership that stays onthings that demands accountabilitiesthat measures progress all of thesethings and there's something thegovernment spectacularly has failed atum i'm very confident for nationalbecause i see a situation where when weare past covertand yep some very real issues but also abunch of fear that the government has ithink actively uhpoked and tried to create when we arepast that we look at a country with somuch potential so much going for it butwhere there hasn't been progressand all of the things we've talked aboutand more the stuff the things that thatmatterand it's only party like national withguys like you being cfo of a large dhbwho who know how to get your hands onthe machine and make it work dear i sayguys like me um who now been ministersin many areas and and worked with otherslike john and stephen and bill and andseeing what does and doesn't workto get on and get the progress we needin housing and transport and health andeducation and law and order um and tobring that the sustainability um it'sthat word and the unity that i think newzealand requires at this timeso i mean you your background uh it wasa spokesperson for justice but obviouslyyour your professional background beforecoming into politics uh in terms of apublic prosecutor i think there'd be noone else and caucus that sort of youknow put more crims uh where they needto be uh than than youlaw and order and crime actually locallyis a big issue um on the people's mindsparticularly here on the shore gangs youknowtalk to me a little bit around you knowwhat yousee is i guess from your experience aswell as as as a problem but also ouropportunity therewe know umi i don't want to sound like aself-serving politician buti would say this and i wouldn't say itoften but i'd say in this context umi saw this coming uh and uh you knowbefore nowthe period that national's been inopposition i've been banging on aboutgangsand um you know as i say i i saw itcomingi predicted where we would be right nowand that's a situation with thissubstantially more violent crime guncrime gangs have grown and grown andgrown andi i don't think that the answer is alljust tough on crime right um sometimesyou'll hear thatthe commentators and the the newspaperson television say that that's you knowsort of where around national comes fromit's not um i totally believe in astronger education system welfare systemhealthcare system all of those things iunderstand these complexities in termsof why gangs grow and these things andso there are responses in that regardthat need to happenbut what is also so trueis that you do have tohit these things hard otherwise gangswill grow gun crime will growmore violence will happen you will seemore theft more fraud and so on becausethere aren't as you said in the housesthere aren't the incentives anddisincentives there isn't the um thedeterrence that needs to be theremy view on gangs is pretty simpleyou might get an individual gang memberthat every so often does some goodbut overall there are social people umand if i can make perhaps a uh anelegant uhcomparison but gangs are a cancer andjust as with canceryou have to hit it with chemotherapy tokeep it in check and to shrink theproblem so with gangs actually we haveto be out there disrupting them andgoing at themevery day i look with real disgustactually at what's happening right nowfrom the very serious crime through towhat some may say is not a big deal buthundreds ofgangs on bikes going over the harbourbridgehooning around tauranga where no oneelse is legally allowed to do that and apolice commissioner a police ministerand a prime minister who wants to softpedalon those issuesthat sends the wrong message toall new zealanders into those gangs andi say actually we should be out therepolice on our behalf who do a good jobwith the resources they've got but theyshould be out there hitting them hardthat's the only waywe'll stem thissignificantuh growthuh and and continued growth uh in gangsviolent uh crime um shooting crimethat's going on in new zealand at themomentwell i i can give the uh fullreassurance to to anyone watching thatthe two simons are completely uh on thesame page in terms of uh law and orderand crime i'm you know i fully supportwhat you say and i guessi was out actually on an ambulance onfriday night simon doing doing a shiftas i do and one of the jobs involved thepolice how they do a great jobyou know but um the air cover thatthey're getting at the moment uh is amassive issue and that leadershipuh is so important and uhyou know um we just you know zeroappetite around uh letting those guys uhgangs in particulargrow that we need to i think cancer is agood expression that you use there uh asmuch as you can look you've got youngkids i've got primary school-aged kidsas well um the education system littlelittle bit of touch on that um you knowfrom for us i guess once our kids are inthe system it's a bit like oh it'snearly getting a bit late umbut yeah what do you think around thatspaceuh i got strong views and um uh yeah igot very strong views of the educationit's because it matters so much you knowfor me as a kid growing up in shiatsu inwest auckland uh you know i know that mymini ticket was a good public stateeducation uh and and that allowed me youknow to do well to go to university togo offshore um to come back to newzealand and and be a real contributorand have a good life uh with my you knowwife now now three kids england harryand jemima so i feel very strongly aboutitthere's a couple of issues um almostmore than a couple actually but wehaven't got we haven't got all dayi mean one isuh there's a very real issueat the moment where you know two andfive kids aren't at schoolit's higher than that actually withwhat's happening in auckland lockdownbut if we forget that for a second on anormal day in new zealand um a verysignificant proportion of kiwi kidsaren't at school by the waywe know they're disproportionately brownright and so that is a very real issuethat needs to be tackled if they're notin school they're not learning anythingor probably nothing good anyway andwe wonder then why we have gang problemsand growing gangs and we've talked aboutthoseissuesso that's important we've got to getkids in school and we have to have a azero tolerance approach to that and sayno you're gonna be in school and we'llpick you up we'll do whatever it needsto be done to do that because otherwisethat intergenerational underclass willgrow and grow and grow and that'shappening right now under jacindaardern's watch i think the second thingis what's happening in school and manywill disagree and you can email me atsimon.bridges at parliament.govtdot nz if you do butyou know i i personally haven't thoughtquite a bit about this i read read itfor a bit about it and seeing whathappens with my kids have a uh a strongview that our education system been abit of an experiment for some time andthat is an experiment without going tothe detail where we've been child-ledrather than teacher-led and in theselarge classrooms with kids sprawled outdoing kind of what they want i don'tthink is working uh for a lot of newzealand kids and it means we fallfurther and further behind in the globalrace the talent umcompared with the aussies um theamericans the palms let alone thesingaporeansuh the the the japanese and so on we'rein southeast asia things are you knowmuch stronger in terms of performancehere's why this mattersit matters becausethe end of the daythe child doesn't do wellat our schoolsthey're not going to go on to that greatbig job they're not going to be able tobe a surgeon they're not going to go onand be able to be even a mechanicalsomething which is so computerized thesedays they're not going to be able tofill their god-given uh talents and i iwhat saddens me so much simon is we areincreasingly in a scenario in thiscountry where when you and i went toschool it kind of yeah it mattered at alevel but it didn't matter as much whatschool went you we would come out and beable to be a surgeon or whatever it wasthat we kind of had within us um i fearthat's not true even in your electorateeven in my electorate there are schoolswhere umthey've given up they're not doing maththey're not doing science in the waythat they should nashville's got tochange these things and paul goldsmithour education spokesperson at thecurrent time he he i know agrees withthe heart of what i'm saying and this isone of you know several of the bigthings that matter that new zealandneeds national on to make a realdifferenceyeah it's so important you know for youremily you're harry your jemima my jackand callum um look it is so importantfor that for the people watching theirgrandkids and their children's you knowchildren um education criticalparticularly if we want to move up thecurve in terms of that you knowtechnology space we've got to have thesekids equipped with the right skills andum you knowhaving being a participant in the systemat the moment uh it's a significantconcern and um i think even the teachersare starting to cry out and say lookactually you knowwe're getting a little bit sick andtired of this as well so i meani like teachers my mum's a teacher mybrother's a teacher my this is a teacherumat a level they are caught up in anexperimentfostered on them uh by the ministry ofeducation and um and dare i say it uhsuccessive governmentsit sort of reminds me of what the uh theuk actually came or had what happened toaround 2010 wasn't it they had exactlythe same issue curriculum was gettingtoo loose they were falling out of theranking order because of decisions madein the 1960s it feels like new zealand'son that same trajectory just a decadelaterand the uk turned it around and we couldyeahso look one one last question um look iguess probably just think what do youenjoy you've been in the role you knowbeing this job 12 years nearly uh whatdo you enjoy most about what the rolewhat gets up gets you up in the morningand um and into work um i think it's 13years i think i think something came upon my facebooktelling me i've been inpalm for 13 years and i thought well howdid that happenum you knowi i i meet every now and again maybe youdo too with people and say yeah i'd liketo get involved or something about itand uhwithout trying to sound falsely no butit's it's not for everyone it's not ait's not always uh an easy gig you knowit has its ups and downs and thenthere's a lot of hurley bullyas they say but it's endlesslyinteresting and it is important um it isyou know um in the enda role where we can make a differenceand umi like people i like uh i like gettingout and helping individual communitiesbut i also lovei feel a great privilege as i'm sure youdo simon uhin the sense that i can go out and makea difference and help shape this greatcountry for the better and the economyand health environment and educationthese things that really do uh matterthat's what gets me up in the morning umthat's what keeps me going to parliamentuh even in those sort of cold winterdays of uhof uh of of this year in opposition andwhen we're allowed um according totrevor mallard of course um but uh yeahthat's i still makes my heart beat istill feel it's an important job we doand i just say simonthank you to all theuh your your supporters how your yourfriends and colleagues andand memberson the shore who are part of that sameteam effort that we're part of that arepart of trying to make a difference forour country because we care about it webelieve about it um i say and i don'tknow i don't want to make a shamelessplug for my book although i like thefact that you've got it on your so yourwalk you're you're um your wall behindusi love you i love you um but but youknow i i i say in the book i think boththe end and the chat drama politics youknow new zealand needsbut joiners are people whoget involved and stay involved andthat's true very much for politicalparties sothat's why i do it's why you do it andthat's why those of you watching rightnoware watch angles you believe you join upum you want to contribute to this greatlittle country of ourswell what a great way to to finish simonlookthank you very very much for uh formaking the time to to have a chat todayuh you know really really appreciate itand and i think uh what's pretty clearto those watching and to all of oursuper blues is that we're we're sofortunate to have uh someone with thedepth of experience and capability uh asthe honorable simon bridges within ourcaucus uh and uh you know we reallyreally umi look forward to uh seeing hopefullyseeing you up here in person uh in thenew year or next year at some point uhand we'll go from there i've got a copyof of the book simon i won free for uhfor one of our watches uh here so um ifuh if you're watching and you want toget a copy of that uh send me an emailand put uhput simon bridges in the subject lineand uh you'll go into the drawer and uhi'll even get simon to sign the book foryou as wellall right yeah fantastic i'm i'm lookingforward to it already by the way you canbe coming to parliament next week orwhat's going on i am yeah you know whatright um you know what i i mean it was abit of a obviously kid's aunt at schoolso so the conversation with uh withshannon my wife was uh was a bitchallenging but look i think it's theright thing to do you know team'simportant right and i think umi think gosh it's nearly been threemonths and uh you know i'm really eagerjust to get down one to to get down andyou knowdo the work and and contribute uh youknow with the rest of the team but alsojust to to catch up and and see everyoneand um you know we've got a hell of alot of work to do uh these guys aremaking mistakes all over the place andwe need to capitalize uh and yeah i'mi'm super excited about uh you know theyear ahead and and christmas coming inas well sooh well simon have a great day in intauranga and uh we'll see you again soon