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Speaker 1: If the Coalition was looking for an endorsement of its

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Speaker 1: rates cap idea, then they got it. At the weekend

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Speaker 1: of the eighteen councils that whacked ratepayers will double digit

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Speaker 1: hikes this year, thirteen elected new mayors thirteen of the

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Speaker 1: eighteen high taxing council mayors. Gone newsroom has great coverage

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Speaker 1: of the results over the weekend. I don't know if

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Speaker 1: you saw that, but Mackindo won Hamilton. If the name

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Speaker 1: sounds familiar to you, he's a former national MP. Rates

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Speaker 1: rowse there forty one percent in three years, so go figure.

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Speaker 1: Voters aren't stupid and they should never be taken for granted.

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Speaker 1: Rates hikes are driving domestic inflation. We know this. Not

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Speaker 1: only do you pay more to your council, you also

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Speaker 1: pay more in interest rates because it helps keep them higher.

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Speaker 1: It's a double burn in the back pocket and voters

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Speaker 1: know this. Ratepayers know this, and next to your taxpayers

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Speaker 1: will remember it. Our most important city councils in Auckland,

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Speaker 1: christ Church and Hamilton Sorry Wellington, are now led by

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Speaker 1: right of center me The results speak for themselves, but

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Speaker 1: their problem, of course, is that these results are a

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Speaker 1: very small sample size. Seventy percent of us roughly didn't

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Speaker 1: bother voting, and you can ask ten pundits why and

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Speaker 1: you will get ten different answers. But I think the

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Speaker 1: problem is pretty simple. The size and scope of local

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Speaker 1: government is completely out of control. In a small Pacific

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Speaker 1: island nation at the bottom of the world. We just

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Speaker 1: elected fifteen hundred people to sit around on seventy eight

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Speaker 1: different councils. Mayors are one vote at the table, so

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Speaker 1: they aren't really that special. Low turnout is not a

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Speaker 1: rejection of the candidates. I don't think it's a rejection

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Speaker 1: of the whole system. It's too big, there's too much compromise.

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Speaker 1: It's all who know, Dewey. If the coalition listens to

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Speaker 1: the thirty percent who did vote and caps rates, which

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Speaker 1: they are gonna do, they ought to listen to the

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Speaker 1: overwhelming silent majority who didn't means throwing entire councils I

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Speaker 1: think in the bin, chuck them in the rubbish. Have

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Speaker 1: the number of counselors that remain and give the mayor

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Speaker 1: a veto power vote so there's actually accountability and there's

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Speaker 1: a vision and something worth voting for. The lowest voter

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Speaker 1: turnout in thirty six years is a mandate for change,

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Speaker 1: and change looks like a giant local government bonfire. For

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Speaker 1: more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, Listen live to

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Speaker 1: News Talks at B from five am weekdays, or follow

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Speaker 1: the podcast on iHeartRadio