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Speaker 1: A political war of words is erupted over a police

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Speaker 1: operation that targeted trolley theft. In thirteen arrests, nineteen trespassed,

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Speaker 1: forty five trolleys returned. Police have confirmed that some of

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Speaker 1: those arrested were homeless, and this is the point of contention.

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Speaker 1: The Maori Party says it's a direct attack by the

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Speaker 1: government on impoverished people. That MP Tom McClay says police

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Speaker 1: aren't targeting anyone, they're just focusing on combating theft and

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Speaker 1: antisocial behavior. That otto d ameha Is Tanya tapsil jioda

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Speaker 1: good afternoon.

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Speaker 2: Cure to Ryan.

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Speaker 1: Do you have a problem with police doing this?

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Speaker 2: Absolutely not. In fact, we are incredibly grateful for the

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Speaker 2: police action in this because honestly, we're a small town

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Speaker 2: so when these trolleys get left around, it looks really

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Speaker 2: messy and we've tried a lot as counsel. By the way,

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Speaker 2: cost us five thousand dollars a month when we were

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Speaker 2: trying to fix it up. Our businesses have been fantastic.

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Speaker 2: They're trying their best to achieve trolleys within forty eight hours.

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Speaker 2: But end of the day, these homeless are stealing somebody

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Speaker 2: else's property using it in an appropriate way and then

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Speaker 2: just jumping them in places. It's been a mess.

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Speaker 1: You don't just not arrest someone because they're homeless.

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Speaker 2: Right, Oh, absolutely, And actually, to be fair, the police

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Speaker 2: alongside council, we've gone really hard on reducing homelessness. So

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Speaker 2: you know, the council has managed to reduce the motels

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Speaker 2: way up to eighty percent, so we don't have as

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Speaker 2: many homeless as we used to, by the way, But

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Speaker 2: actually when we do come across homeless, they're given support,

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Speaker 2: they're connected to services that they need. Even we have

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Speaker 2: City Safe Guardians that walk around and we've just sent

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Speaker 2: them out with nurses as well, because you know, some

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Speaker 2: of these homeless do need help and that help is

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Speaker 2: there if they want it. Some choose not to take it.

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Speaker 1: Why was it costing five thousand a month to pick.

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Speaker 2: Up the trolleys because there was a lot, so up

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Speaker 2: to two hundred and sixty on an average month. But

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Speaker 2: what the problem was is we were having to employee start

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Speaker 2: well direct, redirect stuff from the core business they should

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Speaker 2: be doing to actually take their trucks pick up these trolleys,

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Speaker 2: dropped them off to the right supermarkets or kmarts, and

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Speaker 2: it was taking a lot of time. You add that up,

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Speaker 2: that's five thousand dollars a month that we do not

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Speaker 2: want to keep spending.

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Speaker 1: What do you think of to Party Mardy who said

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Speaker 1: that this is an attack by the government on poor.

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Speaker 2: People, absolutely ridiculous, to be honest, and that's really unfair

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Speaker 2: on this government who has prioritized reducing crime. And if

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Speaker 2: you do the crime, then you should be caught and

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Speaker 2: you should have some consequences. And I agree with that

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Speaker 2: because in also we got sick of having these social

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Speaker 2: issues that came from homelessness. We are very lucky to

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Speaker 2: live in a country where there is support available, either

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Speaker 2: financial or through emergency housing. You do not have to

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Speaker 2: be homeless, but if you choose to steal other people's

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Speaker 2: property act in intimidating ways. Now, remember it did say

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Speaker 2: in the articles it was made public that some of

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Speaker 2: these people being arrested already had other issues for arrests

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Speaker 2: such as trespass, violent offenses, the breaching bail conditions. Some

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Speaker 2: of these people are not helping us, but they're not

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Speaker 2: helping themselves either.

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Speaker 1: Will see decisions Tanya taps or Amir, thanks for your time.

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