Jones highlighted issues like expensive electricity and unreliable shipping, impacting the Chathams’ cost of living and livestock transport.
He promoted a mobile abattoir proposal, emphasising urgency before funding runs out, despite local leaders’ surprise.
Not many politicians can get away with bringing their own band to introduce them on a ministerial visit.
Then again, Shane Jones is not your typical politician.
The resplendent blazers and glistening instruments of the Rātana band, who’d left Northland at 1am to make the flight, weren’t even the mostnovel part of Jones’ delegation to the Chatham Islands on Wednesday.
That belonged to the chilly bin stuffed full of kūmara that’d made its way down the country from the Far North.
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones gift to the people of the Chatham Islands. Photo / Adam Pearse
What initially seemed a thoughtful koha was soon revealed as a shameless ploy from the seafood-loving Jones, who had hoped to return with a bounty of Rēkohu’s renowned kaimoana.
Jones, to his credit, fessed up: “I am emptying its contents out in the assumption that you are filling it up when I go home,” he said to a laughing audience.
But aside from the chilly bin, Jones also brought with him a plea and a warning to the people of Rēkohu/Wharekauri – decide what they want Government funding for and do it quickly, before the money runs out.
Dubbed the Minister of the Chathams, Jones led a sizeable delegation aboard a Defence Force Hercules plane to his adopted territory in his capacity as Regional Development Minister.
The reason for the flying visit: Jones’ national roadshow encouraging applications to his $1.2 billion Regional Infrastructure Fund (RIF).
Jones made stops in Auckland and Wellington to ensure he had a full entourage for his day trip to the Chathams.
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones was accompanied by members of the Rātana band. Photo / Cameron Pitney
Alongside the band and a healthy NZ First contingent, Jones brought representatives from various industries, including fishing, water, housing, local government and energy, as well as a handful of media.
Heavy hitters in the public service also attended, namely Commissioner Sir Brian Roche and MBIE boss Carolyn Tremain.
Labour’s Peeni Henare came in a show of bipartisanship, but, as former defence minister, he seemed to get just as much enjoyment from a ride in the new Hercules purchased under his watch.
Rural Communities Minister Mark Patterson had laid the groundwork, having arrived a couple of days early, later admitting to “eating his weight” in seafood.
By the time the plane left Rongotai, the crowd was so big it would increase the total Chatham’s population by 12%.
What the delegation found was no shortage of issues on the islands that could be helped with a healthy cash injection.
Like almost everything on the Chathams, electricity is expensive and relies almost solely on diesel, which is not always well-stocked.
Some houses have solar panels, but they are rare and costly. The main island is in the early stages of renewable energy production, three windmills can be seen on a headland beyond the main island’s town centre.
Minister Shane Jones presents before members of the Chatham Islands community. Photo / Cameron Pitney
Water infrastructure is another key challenge. A centralised system connecting all 600 residents presents as a very expensive endeavour, but its leaders admit current drinking water and wastewater services fall below acceptable standards, the council blocking a 22-property development because the system didn’t have capacity.
The cost of living crisis takes on another meaning off the mainland. It can be $12 for a loaf of bread, $25 for two litres of milk.
Even the effects of Donald Trump’s trade war are felt in the Chathams, which is reliant on China to buy its crayfish and pāua.
But at the heart of nearly all the Chathams’ pressures is their beleaguered boat, the Southern Tiare.
The Government is currently looking for a new shipping service to replace the 39-year-old Tiare, now older than the minister tasked with replacing it, James Meager.
It is frequently out of action for maintenance and repairs. Last year, the Tiare couldn’t operate for nearly three months, in which time the islands almost ran out of fuel, and more than 5000 stock had to be culled because they couldn’t be shipped to the mainland.
With reports suggesting it might not be replaced for another two years, the Tiare’s unreliability threatens almost every aspect of life on the Chathams, the transport of stock chief among them.
While speaking at the Norman Kirk Memorial Reserve, Patterson referenced a local farmer with 12,000 stock who hadn’t been able to transport anything since January.
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones walks with Chatham Islands Mayor Monqiue Croon. Photo / Adam Pearse
Jones mentioned the issue multiple times, lamenting the thousands of cows that were culled last year.
“I grew up on a farm near Kaitāia, and the thought of 5000 animals going to waste, rotting in the paddock, I think fair-minded Kiwis would say if that happened in Niue or if that happened in the Cook Islands, they’d demand that the New Zealand Government did something about it.”
It provided a handy platform to urge islanders to support a RIF proposal for a mobile abattoir or slaughterhouse, which he declared had the stamp of approval from Chatham Islands mayor Monique Croon and council chief executive Paul Eagle, also a former Labour MP.
“I’m strongly urging you to support Paul Eagle and Her Worship [Croon] and come up with a proposal so that we can create here a portable mobile abattoir.”
The only problem was Croon and Eagle weren’t quite expecting the minister’s comments.
“The kind of announcement was a little bit of a surprise in terms of the type of abattoir that we’re looking at,” Croon said.
Croon explained there had long been a debate about the type of abattoir that would meet the islands’ needs.
She acknowledged a portable facility would be cheaper, but in being exposed, it could perish sooner to the harsh elements.
Croon also said previous attempts to set up an abattoir had fallen victim to excessive energy prices and the need to connect water and waste disposal services.
But with possibly 18 months before the next election, Jones encouraged expediency.
“We need to move our projects, in the event that you want to work with us, sooner rather than later. Please put in that application.
“Once we get to July, August next year, it is constitutionally difficult to allocate capital.”
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones carries his chilly bin full of seafood with the help of press secretary Lucy Bennett. Photo / Adam Pearse
A primary driver behind Jones’ warning is the fear smaller communities with fewer resources won’t be agile enough to respond and remaining funds are sucked up by the larger centres. Jones, however, promised the remote regions of New Zealand would not be “written out of the script”.
Asked how he would ensure this, Jones retorted: “I rely on common sense and the level of influence that I hold within this Government.”
Jones may well be relying on this “common sense” in his advocacy of the mobile abattoir proposal, but he should be wary of the reasons why such a project hasn’t yet been progressed and whether other ideas that may be more costly in the shortterm could reap long-term benefits, enabling future projects like the abattoir and best-serving the people he claims to represent.
As for the chilly bin, a quick peek inside before the flight home revealed the kūmara had been replaced with stacks of blue cod and pāua, plus the leftover crayfish and kina from the day’s lunch.
Not a bad haul for five hours’ work.
Adam Pearse is the Deputy Political Editor and part of the NZ Herald’s Press Gallery team based at Parliament in Wellington. He has worked for NZME since 2018, reporting for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei and the Herald in Auckland.
