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Speaker 1: Now here's a prediction for you. Watch that Ykuttel University

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Speaker 1: Medical School cost blowout. I reckon, it's going to blow out.

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Speaker 1: They're all the sides. This thing is going to blow out.

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Speaker 1: Even when the y Cuttle University was itself putting in

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Speaker 1: less money, which is one hundred million dollars, there were

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Speaker 1: questions about whether it could afford it because Wycuttle University's

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Speaker 1: debt level is just it's maxed out at the moment.

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Speaker 1: So everybody looked at it and went, are you actually

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Speaker 1: gonna be able to afford it? Will? Now it not

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Speaker 1: only has to put in one hundred million dollars, it

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Speaker 1: has to put in one hundred and fifty million dollars

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Speaker 1: between itself and some philanthropists. It needs to find. Now,

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Speaker 1: what do you think happens if for whatever reason it

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Speaker 1: cannot quite find that money? Who do you think is

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Speaker 1: going to be called upon to fund the gap? M

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Speaker 1: the long suffering taxpayer. That's a blowout for us. Now,

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Speaker 1: that's not even to mention that, not even mentioning the

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Speaker 1: chances that this thing costs much more than what they

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Speaker 1: say it's gonna cost. I'm very suspicious about how it

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Speaker 1: is that a three hundred and eighty million dollar project

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Speaker 1: suddenly got cut down to two hundred and thirty thirty

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Speaker 1: million dollars with out anything actually being cut out of it.

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Speaker 1: How did that happen? And even at the higher estimate,

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Speaker 1: which was three hundred and eighty million dollars, I was

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Speaker 1: already worried that that wasn't really going to cover it,

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Speaker 1: because there were warnings then that it was going to

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Speaker 1: blow out because the thing is being rushed. Treasury said

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Speaker 1: that whenever we rush things like the Dunedin Hospital build

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Speaker 1: we end up with unexpected quote unexpected and often urgent

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Speaker 1: cost escalations. Now I am incredibly cynical about the fact

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Speaker 1: that the government has somehow managed to radically cut the

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Speaker 1: costs of a scheme that was being questioned for being

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Speaker 1: too expensive and unnecessary, when we already have two medical schools.

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Speaker 1: And I worry very much that we have been presented

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Speaker 1: the best case scenario to get us across the line

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Speaker 1: on a National Party election promise that actually wasn't stucking

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Speaker 1: up anymore, and that once we've invested in this and

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Speaker 1: the shovels are in the ground and the costs start

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Speaker 1: to blow out, we go well, we're already pouring money

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Speaker 1: into it. We simply will have to continue pouring money

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Speaker 1: into it, which is how this always goes. So I

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Speaker 1: hope that this comes in under budget, and if it,

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Speaker 1: I absolutely will apologize for what I'm saying right now,

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Speaker 1: but I don't think it will. For more from Hither

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Speaker 1: Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to News Talks it B

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Speaker 1: from four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio