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Speaker 1: A timely reminder, an important one too for me. Last night,

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Speaker 1: I'm in Wellington, as I mentioned earlier, flew into the

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Speaker 1: shammozzle storm yesterday for an event last night. It's easily

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Speaker 1: one of the most beautiful cities in New Zealand, is

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Speaker 1: it not? Can we all agree on that? With the

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Speaker 1: hills jutting out of the harbor, all of the bushs

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Speaker 1: surrounding it, it is stunning. And the weather was good,

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Speaker 1: so that helped. It was absolutely beautiful flying in and

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Speaker 1: then you land and there's the road cones and there's

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Speaker 1: the uber driver not happy, and the mayors and meltdown,

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Speaker 1: and the government's taking over and the council is all

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Speaker 1: over the place, shambles, shamozl all that stuff. But then

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Speaker 1: this event last night featured and honored a couple of

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Speaker 1: Wellington business people, among them Brian McGuinness, whose family have

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Speaker 1: either built or refurbished basically half of Wellington, including Government

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Speaker 1: House by the way, which I found fascinating. Been in

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Speaker 1: business for decades, you know, more than fifty years. Doug

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Speaker 1: Hodak was a name you will know. He was honored

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Speaker 1: there as well, great Wellingtonian. Many were honored there. Speeches

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Speaker 1: particularly got me last night, got me right in the guts. Actually,

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Speaker 1: these are guys who have seen it all, Wellington at

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Speaker 1: its best, Wellington at its absolute worst, but when it's

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Speaker 1: the crown on the jewel, when it's the butt of

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Speaker 1: our jokes. And their message essentially was politics is temporary.

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Speaker 1: Like any city, the real pulse, the real engine room

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Speaker 1: is private enterprise, always has been, always will be. And

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Speaker 1: there was a tech guru, John Daniel Trask, who spoke

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Speaker 1: last night. He said we shouldn't always look to the council,

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Speaker 1: to the government to fix our problems or to make

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Speaker 1: things better, because for the most part we can actually

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Speaker 1: do it on our own. We can solve problems on

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Speaker 1: our own. Sure, there are some issues that only government

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Speaker 1: can and council can look after that only government and

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Speaker 1: council have a purview over. But for most things we

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Speaker 1: can actually do it ourselves. And so that is true

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Speaker 1: of Wellington. Wellington is no exception. Wellington will come back,

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Speaker 1: and probably doesn't help that people like me sit in

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Speaker 1: front of microphones in Auckland and bleat about the place.

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Speaker 1: But you know, it's fun from a distance, quite different

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Speaker 1: up close. For more from early edition with Ryan Bridge,

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Speaker 1: listen live to news talks. It'd be from five am weekdays,

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Speaker 1: or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio