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Speaker 1: If hospow wasn't hard enough, we now have ourselves in

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Speaker 1: el Fresco debates. So council's raking it in from business

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Speaker 1: through outdoor fees. Queenstown there's a claim the outdoor overheads

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Speaker 1: are more than the restaurant's rent to how long and

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Speaker 1: having trouble as well. Hospital in New Zealand CEO Steve

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Speaker 1: Armitage or the Steve Morning.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Mike.

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Speaker 1: This old sitting on the street. For those of us

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Speaker 1: who have been around a while, we've argued for this

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Speaker 1: for the years. Is this just a land slash money

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Speaker 1: grab for councils who are short of doe at the moment.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think you've covered over a long period of

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Speaker 2: time the predicament the local government faces. They've got significant

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Speaker 2: cross pressures and obviously limited ability to raise revenue. But

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Speaker 2: you know, public spaces give restaurants, cafes and bars a

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Speaker 2: chance to expand their businesses and to attract customers. That's

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Speaker 2: to benefits for the hospitality businesses. So we're not arguing

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Speaker 2: against paying fair charge to use public space, but a

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Speaker 2: hospitality businesses just can't weather these increases at this current time.

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Speaker 1: Around which is there variability around the country. I mean,

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Speaker 1: do they make it up as they go along.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, there is variability, and as you've highlighted, yeah, obviously

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Speaker 2: there's been a bit of a focus on hot on it.

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Speaker 2: But Queenstown's where we're seeing most acutely. And one of

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Speaker 2: our members the year is highlighted that their annual costs

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Speaker 2: have gone up from three thousand, two hundred dollars a year,

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Speaker 2: so more than fifty one thousand. What you know, that's

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Speaker 2: sixteen one thousand callers correct.

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Speaker 1: How many tables and chairs they have on the footpath they.

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Speaker 2: Have to sell. They're telling us they're having to sell

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Speaker 2: another sixty thousand drinks per year just to pay that off.

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Speaker 1: For a week.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it's hard to get your head around. And

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Speaker 2: as I say that, there's no there's no approach to

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Speaker 2: this in a graduated sense. So it's just people are

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Speaker 2: getting their renewed licenses and being hit with us in

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Speaker 2: one and it's it's going to hollow out our cities

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Speaker 2: and town centers and and.

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Speaker 1: They don't the councils don't see the value of having

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Speaker 1: you know, I don't know successful businesses in their area,

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Speaker 1: et cetera. It's just a money grab.

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Speaker 2: It's it's hard to see it in the other way.

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Speaker 2: But as we all understand the cost pressures that the

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Speaker 2: local government's facing, they're finding it hard to generate revenue.

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Speaker 2: But there has to be a common sense approach to this.

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Speaker 2: You can't just do this in one.

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Speaker 1: Day, going look, I know you want to charge me

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Speaker 1: six bucks for my coffee, but I'm a bit tight

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Speaker 1: at the moment, say look, I'll give you three and

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Speaker 1: you go okay. I mean that's not how it works.

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Speaker 1: You don't just go around, you know, making bills up

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Speaker 1: depending on what your mood is or what your bank balances.

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Speaker 2: No, so it'd be fascinating for you to get the

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Speaker 2: relevant balances on to explain the process that they've undertaken

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Speaker 2: you because the consultation has been a pretty.

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Speaker 1: Shambolic Okay, all right, we will. Actually it's a very

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Speaker 1: good challenge. Sam onto it please, counsels, Let's get some

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Speaker 1: Let's get some Steve Armitage there by the way Hospitality

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Speaker 1: in New Zealand.

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Speaker 2: For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to

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Speaker 2: news talks.

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Speaker 1: It'd be from six am weekdays, or follow the podcast

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Speaker 1: on iHeartRadio.