This transcript has been edited for clarity and readability.
Aaron
You’re running for the Waikato constituency, for the Waikato Regional Council, we’re down in the bottom of that area, down here in Raglan. Which part do you live in?
Rhys Craig
Well, you live in a nice place, mate. I live in Te Hoe, out near Morrinsville – Huntly way.
Aaron
Okay, and I presume you’re farming out there?
Rhys Craig
I’ve got a little bit of a lifestyle block. I’ve got two horses and an annoying cat and two dogs.
Aaron
I see in your personal statement, or candidate statement, you talked a bit about farming. So we’ll get into that. But first of all, just tell us why you decided to run for council this election.
Rhys Craig
Yeah. Well, you know, everyone says you should get involved, and in the adverts they want you to take part. And I thought, well, why not, you know? Why not give it a go, put my hat in the ring and see where it goes. Because you just never know. Not to say that I’ve always been interested in politics. But well, if people can elect Trump, you know, I might have a chance.
Aaron
That’s a funny way to look at it. So tell us a little bit about yourself and some stuff that might be relevant to this job.
Rhys Craig
Well, believe it or not, I was driving trucks for a while. I’ve worked at St John’s previously in the Auckland region, but then driving trucks. And I just thought, you know, it’s a bit of a physical job. So I thought I might just, as I say, put my hat in the ring and give it a go. I think I’ve got a few policies I think people would generally agree with. You know, now’s not the time for sudden rash changes, massive policy shifts, shifts towards climate change and massive spending. You know, we need to tighten our belts. And I think that we need some common-sense policies. Just tighten the reins up a little bit, and let’s see what the future holds for us.
Aaron
So you talk about common-sense policies – what sort of thing do you mean?
Rhys Craig
Well, I’ll refer to a colleague, [fellow candidate] Gary McGuire – he’s put on his profile and hope he doesn’t mind – but $16.9 million was spent on consultants. And I think that’s pretty ridiculous. That’s almost like spending $600 million and not getting the ferries, you know what I mean? Quite a lot of money, you know.
Aaron
Does Gary say what those consultants were doing?
Rhys Craig
No, he doesn’t.
Aaron
Okay. I’d be curious to know what they were doing. Then we might know better if they were doing something useful or not.
Rhys Craig
That’s a lot of money, though, you gotta admit.
Aaron
I wanted to check just a little bit more about yourself first. You grew up in the Te Hoe/Orini area, or you’ve got family there … a little bit more about your story as well.
Rhys Craig
Actually, I grew up in Te Awamutu. Went to College up there quite a while ago.
Aaron
So back to the things we were talking about. You’ve written “resist new climate action policies.” Why have you got that?
Rhys Craig
I don’t think now’s the right time to be introducing, you know, any more regulation and climate policies towards farmers in this current climate. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for clean waterways. High levels of nitrates in the waters and all that, and phosphorus, it’s not great but in the times that we’re in now, I think we’re better to focus on what we can do well, and when times are better I think that’s the time when we should look at seeing how we can improve practices, looking at being more efficient. Looking at doing that when times are better – when we’re in a better position financially to be able to deal with those things, rather than trying to deal with that now, because I think that’s probably a bit too much in the current climate.
Aaron
So climate action and water quality, they’re two different things that you can attack separately. Is there stuff that the Regional Council has done lately about climate action that you think was too much?
Rhys Craig
I guess you’d have to ask the farmers about that. The only thing I have issue with at the moment – I don’t know, it’s hard to [apportion] blame – is the biosecurity factor. Like, let’s not talk about how we got clams in the Waikato River! you know what I mean?
Aaron
Yeah, that’s not been good.
Rhys Craig
No, no, it’s not. I don’t even know if you can eat them. I wouldn’t, but I don’t even know if you could. I mean, that there could be a farming product for all I know, but I don’t know.
I mean, how’d they get there? I don’t know. And then what happened is MAF – initially we can blame them – but then they’ll put it on the council. So now it’s our problem to fix.
Aaron
Is that something that can be fixed, that particular issue?
Rhys Craig
Look, mate, don’t put your boat in the river alright! (laughs) Yeah, I don’t know. Do we increase funding for that?
Aaron
Is that something you think? I mean, you’re talking about tightening belts or no unnecessary spending. But do you think that’s one of those things that is a necessary spending place?
Rhys Craig
I think it might be. Plus we have to protect our eco – our fish there as well, don’t we? We have to protect the eels and stuff. So, I mean, if we have to spend extra on biosecurity, I think that’s definitely worth it.
Aaron
You mentioned before about clean water and keeping the Waikato River clean, and I presume that includes all the other waterways in the region as well.
Rhys Craig:
Yeah
Aaron
The government has this website, I think it’s called LAWA (Land, Air, Water Aotearoa), where they put the test results of the waterways for all around the country, and it doesn’t look great for the Waikato region And there’s people saying there’s a conflict between farming and clean waterways. How do you think we should handle that?
Rhys Craig
For the moment, I think we should – sorry to say it – for now I think we should turn a blind eye. Only because of the situation we’re in. Once we’re in a better financial situation, I think that’s the time we can address these issues and come up with new ways to be more sustainable – when everything’s better.
It’s easy to do things when times are better, you know what I mean? It’s not so easy to do when things are hard, like they are now, that just compounds the problem. I think we can find a solution all working together. I think it’ll come when things are a bit better, that’s all.
But also, just want to bring up, you know, you live in a pretty affluent area, old Raglan, but I’d say…
Aaron
It’s a bit of a mix, really. But yeah go on.
Rhys Craig
Yeah, it’s pretty flash! You know what I mean. What I’m trying to say is that, you know, with the flooding we’ve had in Tasman and the Hawke’s Bay and all that, I think it’s prudent that we increase our Disaster Relief Fund. Because Raglan, yourselves and Thames-Coromandel, you know, are potentially, possibly at risk. And we need to have funds available to prepare for it I think.
We’ve got six million in there at the moment. I think we need to double it.
Aaron
You mentioned in your candidate statement about the Tasman region and Hawke’s Bay and their natural disasters. I haven’t looked at any of that. Do we know… did they end up spending way more?
Rhys Craig
I don’t know what their official budget is, but all I know is that we have a fund, and that’s six million dollars in there. And I’d like to see that at least double. At least then if something happens – touch wood – we’ve got the money to cover it.
I mean, you guys are a fairly affluent area, but you’ve still got that effluent pipe that hasn’t been fixed.
Aaron
It’s on the way.
Rhys Craig
(laughs) Interesting how they pass the buck from one to the other. But if it ends up in the ocean, then all of a sudden it’s Waikato Regional’s problem. So yeah, it seems like… fix it once, fix it right. Get it done.
But yeah, for disaster relief, I think that we should definitely… it’s better to have the money in the kitty and not need it, than have something horrible happen and then have no money. You know what I mean?
Aaron
I have to admit, here in Raglan we don’t seem to suffer from flooding. I think because we’re so close to the water and the hills are pretty steep, everything just goes straight in the harbour. But I get what you mean about the Thames-Coromandel area. That whole northern Waikato area, parts of that are below sea level. So that’s… I don’t know how much of a potential that is for disaster, but it doesn’t sound ideal.
Rhys Craig
No, that’s right.
Aaron
So one of the things we used to have – we used to have a regional councillor for this area who was based in Raglan, Fred Lichtwark, who did a lot of work with an organisation called Whāingaroa Harbour Care out here – planting out waterways – and it cleaned up the harbour really well. Our fishing quality improved from one of the worst in the country to one of the best. Just as an example of what happened.
And so we’ve had good experience at cleaning up waterways here. You’re talking about keeping the Waikato River clean. One of the things that happened when he was still a councillor was – they called it Plan Change One or something like that – It was about getting farmers to fence off their waterways. There was a lot of negotiation, and they ended up putting the fences a metre away from the edge of the water, which is too close to be effective. It needs to be a few metres back but people were like, oh, it’s taking up a farming area.
If you’re interested in waterways, would you be interested in revisiting that issue to see if we could do a better job?
Rhys Craig
Oh, absolutely. What’s a few metres? What’s five metres? You know, to me, that’s just common sense. You should keep your waterways clean.
Because, you know, the government wants us to find new ways to generate money. Enforcement’s a good one. But yeah, I mean, it’s things like that, the little things that farmers can do, that mean a great deal in the scheme of things. And it gets people off their backs as well, you know?
Yeah, to me, that’s just a no-brainer. The least we can do is try and keep the waterways clean. And then the farmers can just focus on farming and not feel like they’re getting constant pressure. Mind you they’re getting good payout so far, so you know, they can afford a few fences, I’m sure.
Aaron
You did seem concerned about farmers – it’s not good economic times, not the time to be spending on climate action and things like that. But are they saying they’re struggling financially, the farmers? Or is this payout going to turn things around?
Rhys Craig
I’m hoping the payout’s going to turn things around. A few have got a few worker issues, but apart from that, yeah, I think they’re fairly optimistic., I mean, the OCR has gone down a bit, interest rates have decreased a little bit, so they might be feeling a little bit of relief. But I still think there’s way more room for improvement.
And then I think we should look at changing things to be more sustainable and make everything a bit more clean and green, if possible. Don’t get me started on the Paris Accords. But anyway, that’s not our purview.
Aaron
So, you know Raglan, there are a lot of people here who are quite passionate about climate change issues and things like that. They probably want to hear a bit more about why you’d put that off. They would say it’s a pretty urgent issue.
Rhys Craig
Would they?
But you guys live in such a pretty nice area. You guys are rich like Cambridge, right?
Aaron
Rhys, I have to say, we are not. We’re not rich like Cambridge. In the last few years we’ve had a few rich people turning up, but we’ve also got a housing crisis where the people who make the coffees in the cafes can’t find anywhere to live anymore. And historically it’s been a very poor community, and there’s still a lot of that around. So we’re kind of mixed, is what we’re like.
But you must be aware that a lot of people are very concerned about climate change.
Rhys Craig
Oh yeah, absolutely. I’d love to have the magic wand and wave it. It’s one of those things, trying to please different groups, you know what I mean. But the thing is, as I say, we need to do something. I just think the timing needs to be right, that’s all. And I think once the economy gets better, I think then is the time to make those changes. That’s what I think, in a way. Not everyone has to agree. You’re all allowed to disagree.
Aaron
That’s the nature of politics.
Rhys Craig
Yeah. I just think things are easier to do when things are easier for people, rather than when things are harder. People are more reluctant to change or commit to change when things are hard. That’s all I’m saying. That’s what I meant to say – I’m trying to articulate that.
Aaron
You’ve talked about the Resource Management Act changes coming from central government. I haven’t looked at that much, I must admit. But one of the things I did have a quick look at was people suggesting there’s going to be more central control, more control from central government rather than locally. What do you think about that aspect of it?
Rhys Craig
Yeah, well, we’re not too sure exactly what that’s going to imply yet, and how that’s going to impact all the councils, to be honest.
Aaron
Actually, you’ve written that you think there’ll be more autonomy. So I guess opinions are varying on that.
Rhys Craig
From what I’ve picked up, the central government would like us to be a bit more autonomous, and of course they’d like us to generate our own income. But you know, it’s sort of limited. How can we do that? Do you remember when we had black and white police cars? We might bring them back (laughs) – regional police cars. making money!
Aaron
That’s an important question isn’t it. If they think we’re going to make money in the regions…. well, rates would be the way, wouldn’t they?
Rhys Craig
That’s not very popular at the moment.
Aaron
I know but that’s what council’s do though isn’t it? …. Isn’t that normally what they do?
That’s right. But you know, there are a few action groups out there that will oppose that, and I can totally understand that. But I do have a slight solution. We can put more in our investment assets fund, try andgenerate more income. But then, you know, that has a whole different moral kettle of fish.
But then again, if your fund is making money and you’re reducing the rates for the ratepayer, well, you know, that can’t be a bad thing.
Aaron
That would mean council would have to spend a bit more money into the investment fund first, wouldn’t it?
Rhys Craig
That’s right, yeah.
How much we put in? Five hundred million bucks, that’ll cover us (laughs). It depends what we invest in, though, you know what I mean. How moral do we be, or immoral? If you want to be immoral, you can make a lot of money, I guess.
Aaron
Yeah, it’s a bit hard for councils to do sneaky things. Everybody’s watching them normally.
Rhys Craig
That’s right, you know. We’re not allowed to… Investing in weapons and oil is probably not a good idea.
Aaron
You’ve talked about public transport as well. You think it does a good job. There are some proposed changes. I don’t know if you’ve seen those.
Rhys Craig
No, I haven’t. But I quite like the double decker buses. I like Raglan’s got its own little bus there, and similar to Cambridge, there’s one in Te Awamutu. I quite like the transit network. I think it’s quite good. But hey, what do I know?
Aaron
I was going to say, one of the things they proposed… Well, right now a lot of kids go to school in Hamilton from Raglan, and the buses don’t just stop at the central part of Hamilton. They go through to places like St John’s College in Hillcrest, and over to Fairfield, places like that.
The new system they’re proposing would stop that. Kids would get dropped in central Hamilton and have to get another bus. And there were a lot of submissions from Raglan. Parents are upset their kids would be dumped in the middle of Hamilton and then have to get on another bus. That’s just a little taste of the kind of issues you’d be facing on council. What do you think about that?
Rhys Craig
I’d be pretty happy for the status quo. I don’t see why you’d have to change it. I don’t see why the kids can’t stay on the same bus if they’ve been doing it already.
Aaron
Yeah. Do you think in general council does a good job of listening to people?
Rhys Craig
I think they try, to be honest. I think they do what they can, of course. But I guess… that’s the thing in politics, everyone has their own agenda. And for the Regional Council, because it’s such a large area, … The constituencies are large for the Waikato Regional Council. It is what it is, I guess.
Aaron
So what do you think is the number one issue that needs to be sorted out for the Regional Council, in the stuff that they do?
Rhys Craig
I reckon the number one issue… it’s interesting you say that because I think all these other regions and towns have their own little issues, all except Morrinsville of course, because it’s still in the 1950s really. (laughs) Oh, they’ve got a Subway.
Yeah. It’s a hard one for me though. I think… for me it’s the clams in the river, and it’s reducing the spending, keeping the status quo, and just stop the crazy spending basically.
Let’s just keep what we’ve got going well, and invest in diverse… and other things we have to do, and address climate change, the fund. That’s where I sit.
Aaron
You mentioned the crazy spending. We haven’t talked specifically about that. What are the examples of overspending or crazy spending, as you said?
Rhys Craig
Yeah. Well, look, to be honest, you know, I’d love lobster for lunch, but I’m happy to take a sausage roll – I’m joking.
Aaron
(laughs)
Rhys Craig
But overspending – 16 million on consultants, for example, was a little bit ridiculous. I think we need to just tighten our belts in areas where we can. And also… in the planning consent as well. We definitely need to address where the taxpayers’ money is going and really think about, do we really need to spend this amount of money?
Aaron
Okay. Rhys, it’s been really good chatting to you this morning. Are you – is there anything else you want to, any thoughts you want to leave us with at this point?
Rhys Craig
No, I just want people to get out there and actually vote. That’d be good. It would be neat if we could all go to a polling booth on the day instead of having to mail it in.