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Speaker 1: Infrastructure looks like it's going to be the government's focus

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Speaker 1: for what is left of this year. The Prime Minister

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Speaker 1: released his Quarter four Action Plan yesterday. Plenty of the

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Speaker 1: targets are focused on getting things built and infrastructure. New

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Speaker 1: Zealand CEO Nick Legg is with us now, Hey.

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Speaker 2: Nick, Hey, Heather.

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Speaker 1: It feels to me like the most important thing on

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Speaker 1: that list infrastructure wise, is passing the Fast Track Approvals Bill.

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Speaker 1: What do you think.

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Speaker 2: I think that is definitely a biggie that will help

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Speaker 2: unlock and speed up infrastructure projects that might otherwise have

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Speaker 2: sat around for a long time. But then you can't

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Speaker 2: ignore the replacements to the RAMA. You can't ignore the

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Speaker 2: National Infrastructure Agency, which is going to be that shop

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Speaker 2: front for foreign direct investment, and then those funding and

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Speaker 2: financing tools to get more housing built. It's going to

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Speaker 2: be really important as well. Hither there's a lot there.

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Speaker 2: I guess that's the message and the government. You know,

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Speaker 2: with infrastructure, it's obviously a long term game, but you

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Speaker 2: need the settings and the policies to unlock infrastructure at

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Speaker 2: every step, whether it's funding it, designing, planning and actually

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Speaker 2: delivering it. And the government are in this position where

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Speaker 2: they've got to walk in chew gum at the same time,

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Speaker 2: the system needs work. That's because New Zealand doesn't have

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Speaker 2: a coherent system. That's actually not the fault of any government,

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Speaker 2: but we've got to have a coherent system that works together.

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Speaker 2: So they've got to do the system changes, and then

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Speaker 2: they've got to keep getting the projects into the market

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Speaker 2: and building the things that they said they would and

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Speaker 2: building those projects that are going to help make New

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Speaker 2: Zealand more productive and improve our economy.

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Speaker 1: Now, given the upset and hortus anywhere at the moment,

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Speaker 1: how do you think the tolling plans are going to

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Speaker 1: go down?

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Speaker 2: Well, look, I think there is. We're going to need

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Speaker 2: to change our mindset on tolling. If we want things,

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Speaker 2: there isn't this magical money theory that's going to come

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Speaker 2: down from the sky and just deliver them. We are

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Speaker 2: in a tight fiscal position, but it is also about

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Speaker 2: fairness and equity and those that use these in this case,

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Speaker 2: roads should pay a little bit more for those. What

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Speaker 2: we do in New Zealand is that we tend to

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Speaker 2: build stuff and then forget about it. And what we

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Speaker 2: know is that internationally we're in the bottom four countries

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Speaker 2: of the OECD in terms of the way we manage

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Speaker 2: our assets, and so we don't renew, we don't maintain.

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Speaker 2: I think Key Wes can feel that with things like

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Speaker 2: roads and water. So actually taking some money aside every

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Speaker 2: year from the users of a road and you know,

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Speaker 2: putting that towards either the capital cost or maintenance and

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Speaker 2: repairs and renewal will actually go a hell of a

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Speaker 2: long way to keeping these assets fit for purpose over time.

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Speaker 2: We've got to take this longer term view of the

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Speaker 2: country and yeah, it is going to take a shift

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Speaker 2: in mindset. But if we want these things, you know,

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Speaker 2: we've got to learn that we've got to pay for

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Speaker 2: them out of our own pockets as we go as well.

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Speaker 1: Nick, really quickly, do you have a view on why

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Speaker 1: dn Eden's hospital has blown out the way? Does? Is

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Speaker 1: this a problem with the contractor.

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Speaker 2: No, it's these problems tend to be right from the

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Speaker 2: outset head when you know the way the project was

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Speaker 2: was shaped and structured from the outset, you didn't They

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Speaker 2: didn't link the design and the builders together, which they

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Speaker 2: should have done, and you're seeing that play out there.

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Speaker 2: But you know it's like it's like anything. There are

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Speaker 2: multiple reasons, you know, obviously an obsession with where it

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Speaker 2: was cited, lots of detail that added cost that probably

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Speaker 2: if a rational human was looking at it, we go, oh,

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Speaker 2: we don't really need that. I think that we've got

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Speaker 2: to get in better to standardization in this country across

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Speaker 2: everything we build buildings, roads, bridges, whatever it might be,

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Speaker 2: because if you can, if you can standardize a design

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Speaker 2: more often, it's much easier and cheaper to produce, and

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Speaker 2: you're not compromising standards.

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Speaker 1: That's a fair point. Hey, thank you, nick A Shiate.

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Speaker 1: It's a negligate of infrastructure New Zealand. For more from

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