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Speaker 1: D day of sorts for Wellington Local Government minister meets

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Speaker 1: with the mayor work out where to go. There was

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Speaker 1: an urgent meeting yesterday with the council. Of course, Councilor

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Speaker 1: Nikola Young is with us Nickeola, morning.

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Speaker 2: To you, Good morning match.

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Speaker 1: Did you get any circuit breaker type vibes out of

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Speaker 1: yesterday's meeting?

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Speaker 2: Well, I'd have to say there is certainly an acceptance

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Speaker 2: by the councilors that they have to stop spending, they

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Speaker 2: have to make some spending cuts. The question is where

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Speaker 2: they make the spending cuts. The mayor is committed to

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Speaker 2: the Golden Mile, which of course most Wellingtonians we believe

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Speaker 2: don't want. She's talking about selling the ground leases which

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Speaker 2: are worth nearly two hundred and fifty million, but didn't

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Speaker 2: mention the fact that they're actually a major source of

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Speaker 2: revenue for the council. So the other thing is we

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Speaker 2: haven't actually got any idea how big the fiscal hole is,

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Speaker 2: and we've been told two hundred million, four hundred million,

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Speaker 2: six hundred million over ten years. So I think they're

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Speaker 2: aiming for a figure of five hundred million, but there's

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Speaker 2: no factual basis for this figure, and when I asked

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Speaker 2: about this what it was based on. I was told, well,

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Speaker 2: it's more it's an art, not a science. Well, actually,

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Speaker 2: money is all about science.

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Speaker 1: This is very much the case. Does she have anything

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Speaker 1: do you know to convince Simmy and Brown this morning

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Speaker 1: not to pull the trigger?

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Speaker 2: I don't think so. I mean, we haven't got a plan.

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Speaker 2: We've just got a vague agreement that we need to

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Speaker 2: address this, and the reality of where the cuts come

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Speaker 2: have not been identified. But you know, I mean three

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Speaker 2: of us who changed our vote. You know why we

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Speaker 2: changed our vote, the three fiscally dry councilors, because we

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Speaker 2: had the ability to borrow another two hundred and fifty

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Speaker 2: million in the case of an emergency. It's called the

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Speaker 2: insurance debt headroom, and this was agreed unanimously that wouldn't

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Speaker 2: be touched. And then a week later after the vote,

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Speaker 2: we found out that it would be in place, It

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Speaker 2: would be touched for the next nine years. It was

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Speaker 2: already factored into the spending, and that's why we voted

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Speaker 2: against it, because we're trying to stop the spending.

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Speaker 1: What's your gut do you think Simming and Brown will

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Speaker 1: do something or not?

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Speaker 2: I hope so good?

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Speaker 1: All right, Nichol appreciate it very much. Nichol Young. A

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Speaker 1: lot of coverage some people talking about an election. There

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Speaker 1: will be no election. I don't know why they've come

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Speaker 1: to the conclusion that there could be a snap election.

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Speaker 1: Think it through. A snap election solves nothing because you

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Speaker 1: don't know what the election is going to provide. The

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Speaker 1: only thing the government will do if they pull the

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Speaker 1: trigger is put an observer in. Personally, I think they

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Speaker 1: should put a comisioner and noal commissioners and do a

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Speaker 1: tower on or doing a Canterbury regional. But they could

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Speaker 1: put an observer in initially, but there's no election. So anyway,

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Speaker 1: next time you hear about the possibility of a snap election,

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Speaker 1: and forget that people don't know what they're talking about.

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Speaker 1: For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to

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Speaker 1: news talks they'd be from six am weekdays, or follow

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Speaker 1: the podcast on iHeartRadio.