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Speaker 1: Jordan Williams Taxpayers Union and Alie Jones read pr hire

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Speaker 1: you two good day. Heather, Hi there, Jordan, you were

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Speaker 1: in that room at the time.

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Speaker 2: I'm literally for my sins at the old GenZ conference

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Speaker 2: and the Wally Thomas Nashy just had on as a

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Speaker 2: classic example of a whole sector that actually just lacked

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Speaker 2: any self awareness. The room yesterday was incredibly rude to

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Speaker 2: the Prime minister. And you know they talk about, oh,

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Speaker 2: that our costs are going up. I'm sorry, look at

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Speaker 2: the stats. Local government is driving inflation up. It's not

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Speaker 2: that costs are going up to that putting up rates.

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Speaker 2: Their rates are going ahead of inflation. And what at

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Speaker 2: the prim Oh, I'm sorry, didn't have some Pennessee a

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Speaker 2: future vision gobbledygook. He said, simply what rate payers across

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Speaker 2: the country is saying and thinking, as you guys have

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Speaker 2: to get a grip. We put out the We've never

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Speaker 2: done this before, but we put out the whole Prime

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Speaker 2: Minister's speech to our two hundred thousand subscribers. We've had

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Speaker 2: more engagement in the last twenty four hours of people

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Speaker 2: coming back. When I went to bed last night and

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Speaker 2: woke up, there was eighteen hundred more email people are absolutely.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, because he just said what we think, hey little

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Speaker 1: how would they root him?

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Speaker 2: Oh? When Kim Hill thanked him when he got down,

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Speaker 2: there was literally laughter in the room. There were people

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Speaker 2: scoffing at him when he was saying, you know that

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Speaker 2: the party's over, you need to get back to basics.

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Speaker 1: I mean I think he should just withhold the money

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Speaker 1: for that, eh, I.

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Speaker 2: Mean, Edil, But I recalled two years ago I was

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Speaker 2: on your show when they banned the Taxpayer's union in

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Speaker 2: my board, including some sitting councilors, because they were concerned

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Speaker 2: that we might criticize them. And I said on your show,

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Speaker 2: if algnzed and the local government sector aren't careful, they

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Speaker 2: are going to lose their public mandate. And you can

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Speaker 2: see with this conference it literally even themed Labor read

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Speaker 2: that that is exactly what is happening.

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Speaker 1: Alie, what do you think? I mean? Yeah, you've been

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Speaker 1: involved in council stuff.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I have. And that's what I found absolutely

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Speaker 3: extraordinary about the speech. I wasn't in the room, so

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Speaker 3: Jordan does have the advantage of me. But the so

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Speaker 3: called wally he's just described, I thought held his own

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Speaker 3: very well up against against you, Heather. I think they

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Speaker 3: both made some very good points and it was great

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Speaker 3: to hear a robust but respectful conversation. I agree there

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Speaker 3: are always ways to tie on the belt right, there

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Speaker 3: is always money to be saved. But this is just

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Speaker 3: dog whistle bollocks. Actually, when you've got counselors, counsels and

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Speaker 3: this is what we're having to do at the moment

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Speaker 3: in christ Judge on our community board having to pay

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Speaker 3: for mental health counselors to go into schools because the

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Speaker 3: central government is not wearing that cost. When we're having

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Speaker 3: to pay money to change street layouts to slow traffic

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Speaker 3: down because police are not resourced enough to do their job,

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Speaker 3: then I say that the government should not be throwing

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Speaker 3: stones and glasshouses. They need to actually step up and

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Speaker 3: spend some of the money on the things that they

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Speaker 3: need to spend on and not put it on local government.

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Speaker 2: Mcpolling is really clear on this that New Zealanders trust

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Speaker 2: central government more than local government around delivering and if

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Speaker 2: if counsels were delivering their core services, well that that

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Speaker 2: argument might fly. But an environment where on average rates

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Speaker 2: when out fourteen percent this year, our infrastructure is crumbling

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Speaker 2: because a smaller and smaller percentage of council budget is

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Speaker 2: actually going for what they say it's going for.

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Speaker 3: Well, but your new consulating issues, your conslating issues here,

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Speaker 3: I agree, No, no, no, no, hang on, you had a

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Speaker 3: really good go here. The problem is that our ratings,

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Speaker 3: the system that we use to get rates is flawed. Okay,

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Speaker 3: rates is the sole source of revenue for councils. Is unsustainable.

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Speaker 2: So now taxes are going to solve this issues. People

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Speaker 2: don't want to give counsel with any taxing powers because

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Speaker 2: they'll know that I've use it. You can't spend the

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Speaker 2: money that you've got as it is, and frankly, the

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Speaker 2: public don't trust local councils with more.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, well that may be the people were asking, but

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Speaker 3: that's not what I'm hearing from ours. I know that

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Speaker 3: rates are too high, and I know rates cannot every

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Speaker 3: year go up, you know, I mean, it is unsustainable.

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Speaker 3: People can't afford them.

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Speaker 2: So only going to que produce a different way doesn't

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Speaker 2: solve the problem. We're just going to tap a different way,

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Speaker 2: of course, not it's coming from the same community, Elly.

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Speaker 3: Can you do? That's what I'm saying. It needs to

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Speaker 3: come from the government more, it is wrong to the

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Speaker 3: Prime Minister to say, come on, guys, tighten your belt

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Speaker 3: when they're passing a whole lot of costs onto local

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Speaker 3: government themselves by not doing their job.

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Speaker 1: All he explains something to me. The reaction from the

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Speaker 1: mayors and the counselors last night was that genuine shock

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Speaker 1: that he would deign to say something like that, or

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Speaker 1: is that because they genuinely believe that their spending is awesome.

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Speaker 3: Look, I think it's probably political, Heather. You know, I

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Speaker 3: know when I look at the community board makeup in

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Speaker 3: christ Church, there's a very central left makeup of those

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Speaker 3: community boards. And I imagine I think as was alluded

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Speaker 3: to in the conversation you had before that, but there

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Speaker 3: was probably a very center left feeling at the LGNZ conference.

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Speaker 3: I just texted one of my council colleagues who's very

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Speaker 3: center right, and I said, what was your take on it?

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Speaker 3: And he said, I actually agreed with every word he said. So, Look,

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Speaker 3: I think I do think it's a political thing, but

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Speaker 3: we've got to have this conversation without this month slingeress slinging.

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Speaker 3: I did agree with that, What the hell did that achieve?

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Speaker 3: Yesterday coming from the Prime Minister.

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Speaker 1: I know it made me feel really good. I'm hoping

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Speaker 1: that I have makes some rain in their spending, because

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Speaker 1: otherwise I ain't going to get more money. Right, we're

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Speaker 1: back of the huddle, Jordan Williams and Ali Jones. Ali,

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Speaker 1: this falling out between Raiser and Leonor's obviously big enough

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Speaker 1: for one of them to have to depart. Is this

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Speaker 1: shaking your faith in the Razor era?

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Speaker 3: Well, look, I'm no expert on rugby go the Welsh,

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Speaker 3: but I do remember Leon mc donald was stoked to

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Speaker 3: get the assistant coaching job. I think when it was

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Speaker 3: announced last year he said, You've got to be really

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Speaker 3: really ready to be the coach of the All Blacks.

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Speaker 3: It's not something you rush into. So yeah, I guess

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Speaker 3: you got to ask yourself why were key things like strategy, style, direction,

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Speaker 3: whatever not discussed and understood. That's kind of the sense

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Speaker 3: that I'm getting. I mean, if you start going out

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Speaker 3: with someone, if you marry someone, don't you ask them

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Speaker 3: if they want.

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Speaker 1: To have kids. That's the problem, isn't it. That is

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Speaker 1: the problem right there?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean these are guys that are both credible

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Speaker 2: in their own right, clearly there's been some sort of

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Speaker 2: falling out and we'll probably won't know or we'll have

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Speaker 2: to pay the forty bucks to buy the book and

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Speaker 2: in ten years time cannot wait.

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Speaker 1: I'm genuinely shocked, Elie, that kids can't even talk properly

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Speaker 1: when they go to school because of how much time

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Speaker 1: they're spending on screens.

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Speaker 2: What about you?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, look, I think it's really really sad. You know,

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Speaker 3: I was thinking about my kids and you know, they

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Speaker 3: were at Kindian preschool in the early two thousands, and

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Speaker 3: I mean they were real chatterboxes. Know who do you

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Speaker 3: say earlier? You know, once they get into preschool and

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Speaker 3: that socialization, you just can't stop them. I mean, both

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Speaker 3: of mine are great talkers. They could talk, could glass

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Speaker 3: eye to sleep. But you know, you didn't have the

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Speaker 3: internet and iPad some smartphones as much in those days.

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Speaker 3: Maybe we need to teach this stuff at school. Maybe

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Speaker 3: there needs to be you know, parenting taught at school

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Speaker 3: and this is part of that. And at the same time,

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Speaker 3: let's teach kids about finances and cooking. I don't know

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Speaker 3: we roll it together.

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Speaker 1: I mean, Jordan, I don't know what the solution is.

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Speaker 1: I don't know how you teach parents to just not

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Speaker 1: be dud parents.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, I don't know if I got that far,

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Speaker 2: but my the acorn does not fall far from the

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Speaker 2: tree and thing, as you can imagine, my kids have

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Speaker 2: not struggled with the talking.

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Speaker 1: I can believe that. Are you limiting their screen time?

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Speaker 3: Jordan?

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Speaker 2: Yes, yes, very very much. So how much you're giving them?

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Speaker 2: The other half is a is a pediatric nurse. So ever,

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Speaker 2: I am just the passenger in this.

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Speaker 1: Okay, we'll give us give given that you're basically married

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Speaker 1: to an expert. What is she recommending? What's the what's

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Speaker 1: the allowed amount?

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Speaker 2: But it's very very generally only if one of them

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Speaker 2: sick or am is sick, that that one of them

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Speaker 2: would that that get very much TV at all. I

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Speaker 2: think I'm more told off for my stream time than

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Speaker 2: probably the kids are.

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Speaker 1: Are you one of those parents here?

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Speaker 2: And I travel I traveled so much. My oh my

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Speaker 2: boys now figured out the phone that because I do

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Speaker 2: FaceTime every day when I'm when I'm traveling, and of

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Speaker 2: course I have to come down to Wellington most weeks.

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Speaker 2: But the boy at Little Henry, who is nearly two,

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Speaker 2: he gets he's now figured out the face time and

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Speaker 2: little was he's nearly five.

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Speaker 1: No, I can't believe that he's nearly too. Gezu, are

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Speaker 1: you how old?

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Speaker 2: How old is now?

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Speaker 1: Mustig's two and a half.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: And he said to me the other day, I said,

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Speaker 1: do you want you? Shall we go? And he said

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Speaker 1: not yet? And I was like, oh, I'm so proud

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Speaker 1: of that sentence right there. But you know, because boys

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Speaker 1: like you always worry about boys and they're talking, they

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Speaker 1: take a while. Guys, thank you for chatting to me.

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Speaker 1: Appreciate it. Jordan Williams, Taxpayer's Union. Alie Jones read per

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Speaker 1: not yet, Oh You're so clever.

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Speaker 3: For more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to

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Speaker 3: News Talk sa'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow

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Speaker 3: the podcast on iHeartRadio