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Speaker 1: The Government is calling in the Commerce Commission to help

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Speaker 1: fix Wellington's water issues. Wellington Water is going to have

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Speaker 1: to report details of its financial management to the Commerce

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Speaker 1: Commission and the Commission will make sure that Wellington ratepayers

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Speaker 1: aren't getting ripped off. But how exactly are they going

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Speaker 1: to do that and do they have the powers? Simon

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Speaker 1: Watson's the local government minister, Minister good evening, Hi, Ryan Howe, good,

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Speaker 1: thank you. So what is the well? First of all,

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Speaker 1: is this just for Wellington Water or will eventually all

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Speaker 1: water entities get this attention from the ComCom?

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Speaker 2: Well and eventually all water entities will get this attention.

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Speaker 2: But we're bringing forward the economic regulation for Wellington Water

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Speaker 2: because of our concerns with their financial and operational performance,

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Speaker 2: which have been well documented over the last few weeks

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Speaker 2: and actually actually over the last few years.

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Speaker 1: And what will the ComCom actually be able to ask?

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Speaker 1: You know, what information can they request?

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Speaker 2: Well, the ComCom have a number of powers in regards

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Speaker 2: to information disclosure. They're also going to be implementing an

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Speaker 2: imposing economic regulation on Wellington Water and basically what that

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Speaker 2: means they're going to put belts and braces in regards

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Speaker 2: to their financial and operational management, basically ensuring and mitigating

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Speaker 2: some of the risks that have been identified in the

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Speaker 2: reports in the past, but get it an effect match

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Speaker 2: fit for what it needs to be when it transitions

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Speaker 2: later this year.

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Speaker 1: Because the big ripoff or the big rought from your

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Speaker 1: ratepayers perspective is the fact that they were purchasing pipes

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Speaker 1: or contracts that were more expensive than market rate. So

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Speaker 1: that information is commercially sensitive. Can the ComCom ask for that?

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Speaker 2: Well, the ComCom will have a full suite of its powers,

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Speaker 2: and it does have a wide range of powers. I mean,

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Speaker 2: the key thing that we've identified and we've been concerned about,

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Speaker 2: and I've been concerned about and Cabinet have agreed is

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Speaker 2: that we need to increase public accountability at Walington Water

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Speaker 2: now and that is the decision that Cabinet took this week.

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Speaker 2: We need to increase the amount of transparency on the

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Speaker 2: performance and the financial management and that is important for

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Speaker 2: Wellingtonians because they need to see that and that's not

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Speaker 2: been the case.

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Speaker 1: All right, are you worried about any other entities?

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Speaker 2: Look, this is the main concern for me at the moment.

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Speaker 2: You know, I'm watching all councils pretty closely in terms

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Speaker 2: of their operation and financial performance, and I have no

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Speaker 2: hesitation to act if we feel like they're not in

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Speaker 2: the right place.

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Speaker 1: Are there any others on your radar?

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Speaker 2: Not at this point, but you know we are actively

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Speaker 2: monitoring that at the moment.

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Speaker 1: All right, Minister, appreciate your time. That's Simon Watts, who's

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Speaker 1: the local government minister. For more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive,

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

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