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Speaker 1: From one set a good news to a whole bunch

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Speaker 1: of more good news. The Mill Road upgrade in South

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Speaker 1: Auckland is one step closer to actually happening. What's happened

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Speaker 1: here is that the NZTA Board has approved about ninety

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Speaker 1: one million dollars and that money is going to be

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Speaker 1: used to complete the design and then secure consents for

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Speaker 1: stage one of the upgrade. Now, this road is the

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Speaker 1: one that one of the ones that Grant Robertson famously

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Speaker 1: promised and then famously cut. Chris Bishop is currently the

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Speaker 1: Minister of Transport Bush.

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Speaker 2: Hello.

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Speaker 1: Hello, So you guys going to toll this?

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Speaker 2: Are you? We will told it. Yeah.

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Speaker 3: Look, all of the new roads of natural significance we

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Speaker 3: want to build around the country, we've said as a

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Speaker 3: starting point, they will be told. And that's because it's

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Speaker 3: a way of bringing forward the investment and allowing the

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Speaker 3: users who use the road to help pay for the

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Speaker 3: cost of the road.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, can I can see that that makes

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Speaker 1: complete sense if you're actually building a new road. But

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Speaker 1: you're not building a new road here, right, You're just

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Speaker 1: upgrading an existing road. Do you think you're going to

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Speaker 1: get the backs up of people who currently use this road.

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Speaker 3: Mill Road will be a largely four lane offline new

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Speaker 3: road once it's built in its entirety, it will be

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Speaker 3: a twenty one and a half kilometer new road from

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Speaker 3: Menikau to Drury and the existing Mill Road will become

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Speaker 3: a local road administered by the Auckland Council. So you

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Speaker 3: know Mill Road at the moment, anyone who's putting mill

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Speaker 3: know we're going to have two mil roads? Well yeah,

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Speaker 3: I mean yes, when we people talk about the Mill

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Speaker 3: Road road, it is essentially a new four lane offline

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Speaker 3: highway connecting Manacaw and Drewy in its entirety. That the

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Speaker 3: first stage that the Board has approved the investment case

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Speaker 3: for is about six and a half seven kilometers and

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Speaker 3: that's what they're getting on with now. And then obviously

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Speaker 3: stages two and three are a bit further away, and

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Speaker 3: there's a whole bunch of design work and consenting and

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Speaker 3: designations to go through around that.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, we've been talking about this now for a fair bit.

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Speaker 1: When are you guys actually going to start?

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Speaker 3: Hoping to start construction mid to late twenty twenty six.

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Speaker 3: Stage one has had designations in place since I think

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Speaker 3: it goes all the way back to twenty nineteen, actually

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Speaker 3: even twenty sixteen.

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Speaker 2: So talked about for a long time.

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Speaker 3: A lot of work's been done on stage one, got

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Speaker 3: the designations in place. They'll get on with consenting, you know,

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Speaker 3: later in this year, and then it will almost certainly

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Speaker 3: use the fast track approvals at regime for the consenting

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Speaker 3: and then hoping to start construction late next year. We're

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Speaker 3: getting on with the detailed consenting and design work right now.

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Speaker 2: So it's good progress.

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Speaker 3: You know, we're not there yet, you know, these things

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Speaker 3: go on stages, but it's good progress.

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Speaker 2: Thrilled.

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Speaker 1: Now, listen, if you caught up on this High Court decision,

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Speaker 1: re yourselves.

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Speaker 2: In movement, what the judicial review of the speed limit changes.

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Speaker 1: So these guys are the ones who tried to stop

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Speaker 1: you guys from lifting the speed limits back up. They

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Speaker 1: took it to the High Court and they've just been

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Speaker 1: basically had the thing tossed out, haven't they.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so they took an interim well they applied for

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Speaker 3: an interim ruling to essentially try and stop us, and

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Speaker 3: that they are understanding is they lost in the High Court,

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Speaker 3: but there's a full hearing later in the year.

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Speaker 1: I think, yeah, okay, well, what does this initial hearing,

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Speaker 1: then mean.

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Speaker 2: It means that the speed limit changes are going ahead.

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Speaker 2: I see.

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Speaker 1: Sorry, So there is the substantive hearing later in the year,

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Speaker 1: but in the meantime they were trying to stop you,

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Speaker 1: and now they've basically they can't stop you. So you're

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Speaker 1: just going to go full speed ahead. Well, you just

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Speaker 1: got to get a whole bunch done before the next hearing.

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Speaker 3: Right, Well, yeah, I mean they sought what's called on

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Speaker 3: as I understand it, they thought what's called an interim injunction,

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Speaker 3: which would essentially have been a stay on us going

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Speaker 3: ahead with the speed limit changes, and the councils too,

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Speaker 3: by the way, because it's both state highways and the

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Speaker 3: council controlled.

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Speaker 2: Roads as well.

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Speaker 3: And there's a there's a substantive hearing later in the year,

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Speaker 3: and you know they'll play outs that don't want to

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Speaker 3: comment on that. But you know, obviously they lost in

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Speaker 3: the interim hearing.

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Speaker 1: I mean, you must be feeling pretty stoked that they lost,

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Speaker 1: right this, This this obviously sets the scene for you

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Speaker 1: to just win when the next one.

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Speaker 3: I would have thought, well, look, our position is that

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Speaker 3: we you know, it was actually some me and Brown

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Speaker 3: who did it, But now it's a government move. You know,

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Speaker 3: we changed the setting of speed limit rule, which is

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Speaker 3: one of these technical rules that you know applies to

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Speaker 3: both ENTERTA in terms of state highways and also councils

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Speaker 3: as road controlling authoritais. We went through a very proper

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Speaker 3: process to change it. There was consultation, there was a

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Speaker 3: proper process through the cabinet process.

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Speaker 2: And yeah, when we stand by what we did, and

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Speaker 2: we stand by.

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Speaker 3: The decisions to reverse Labour's blankets speed limit reductions.

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Speaker 2: And you know it's going down really well around the country.

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Speaker 3: You know, you just think about that section of State

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Speaker 3: Highway too over in the wire wrapper, you know, Featherston

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Speaker 3: to Carleton to Masters and it went down to eighty

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Speaker 3: k it's basically flat road. You know, that's gone back

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Speaker 3: up to one hundred and a whole bunch around the

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Speaker 3: country that have gone back up.

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Speaker 2: And you know, I don't think it's been very popular. Brilliant.

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Speaker 1: Hey, listen, Bish, thanks very much for talking to us.

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Speaker 1: Appreciate There's Chris Bishop, the Minister of Transport. For more

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Speaker 1: from Heather Duplessy, Allen Drive listen live to news talks.

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Speaker 1: It'd be from four pm weekdays or follow the podcast

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