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Speaker 1: This move of the week. I reckon Housing Minister Chris

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Speaker 1: Bishop dropped the bombshell on local body operators yesterday that

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Speaker 1: the government's decided to give them the power to intervene

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Speaker 1: in local body decision making run housing. Mind you, we

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Speaker 1: could argue scrapping the calamitous census was a good move,

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Speaker 1: or indeed, I'm a MASSI fan of reporting inflation data

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Speaker 1: on a monthly basis, sort of making us look like

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Speaker 1: a first world country. All good decisions, I would have thought.

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Speaker 1: But as regards counsels and housing in the broader interests

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Speaker 1: of the small country finally getting its fiscal act together,

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Speaker 1: this move cannot come soon enough. Simple truth is we're

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Speaker 1: over counseled. We have ludicrous numbers of local do good

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Speaker 1: as and vast array of fivedoms making decisions that may

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Speaker 1: or may not make any sense locally, far less incorporating

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Speaker 1: themselves into the bigger national picture. Part of the problem

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Speaker 1: is too often counsels have not been up to much.

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Speaker 1: Too many councils a little with acriminy in infighting, progresses

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Speaker 1: stalled or watered down, or major workers ignored in favor

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Speaker 1: of more headline grabbing material that makes the local representatives

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Speaker 1: look good, not all, of course, but too many. Taro

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Speaker 1: at a Wellington Christ Dutch to Invercargol. The infighting and

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Speaker 1: dysfunction now legendary. What you can say about central government

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Speaker 1: that you can't say about local government is most of

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Speaker 1: us took part in the democratic process, ie we voted,

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Speaker 1: and as a result, this government, rightly or wrongly, has

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Speaker 1: a mandate to get on and do stuff, mainly stuff

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Speaker 1: that got cocked up by the previous government. If there's

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Speaker 1: been a constant theme of this current government, even from

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Speaker 1: its broad based supporters, it's that they haven't done as

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Speaker 1: much as they might have. They've got plans and ideas

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Speaker 1: and announcements and KPIs what they don't have is a

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Speaker 1: vast array of results, tangible things that have been changed,

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Speaker 1: leading us to quite clearly being better off. It would

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Speaker 1: appear with the bishop announcement that message and lack of

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Speaker 1: traction is finally hitting home and they set around the

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Speaker 1: cabinet table and worked out that they've been in well,

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Speaker 1: they've got about a year left, I reckon to put

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Speaker 1: some major runs on the board so that election time

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Speaker 1: is about delivery and not promises. The country basically is

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Speaker 1: too small for this many councils and committees. A lot

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Speaker 1: of decisions have major national economic implications, of course, and

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Speaker 1: as such central government has or should have a say,

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Speaker 1: or they'll hate it. Of course, they'll nation whale and

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Speaker 1: known about local democracy. But guess what big picture economic

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Speaker 1: success is more important. The big picture generally is more important.

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Speaker 1: The national story is more important. Christ Church learned that

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Speaker 1: last week over their intensification scrap which lasted years cost

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Speaker 1: them millions, that this government is serious and on a

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Speaker 1: central v local head to head, only one side is

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Speaker 1: coming out on top. For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast,

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Speaker 1: listen live to News Talks at B from six am weekdays,

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Speaker 1: or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio