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Speaker 1: Well, good afternoon. Wellington's worst kept secret is out. Former

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Speaker 1: labor leader Andrew Little wants to become the city's man.

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Speaker 1: He's with us now, Andrew, Helloa, why on earth do

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Speaker 1: you want to do this?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? Look, it wasn't what I wanted to do. At

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Speaker 2: the end of last year, when I was first approached

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Speaker 2: about it, I was quite happy being a lawyer, quite

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Speaker 2: enjoying it, quite enjoying being out of the public limelight.

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Speaker 2: But as time has gone on and I've seen a

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Speaker 2: number of issues, the airport Sheese issue, the failure to

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Speaker 2: even put in a bid for a regional deal with

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Speaker 2: the central government, and a number of other things, and

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Speaker 2: just talking to people, it's become pretty apparent that the

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Speaker 2: councilors have become somewhat directionless. And probably in the last

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Speaker 2: three or four weeks, I've just had so many people

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Speaker 2: from across the spectrum and from so many different set

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Speaker 2: of backgrounds approaching me. I thought, actually, I do have

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Speaker 2: to think about this again, and I thought, actually, I

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Speaker 2: do have a set of skills that I think can help,

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Speaker 2: and so I made the decision to put mate in

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Speaker 2: the ring.

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Speaker 1: Do you reckon you can win it?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? I'm comfort I can look the ever since the

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Speaker 2: premature disclosure last week and certainly after today, just the

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Speaker 2: overwhelming feedback I've had from again from a whole variety

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Speaker 2: of people. And when I say that, you know, in

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Speaker 2: the political speeture, it's not just the labor people, it's

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Speaker 2: national people. It's Greens saying to me, we do need

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Speaker 2: to change and we need somebody who can bring things

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Speaker 2: together and give us a bit of direction and have

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Speaker 2: a serious relationship with central government, which I'm coming from

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Speaker 2: I'm capable of doing.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so what would you do about the Golden Mile?

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Speaker 1: Would you scrap it?

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Speaker 2: No? I wouldn't scrap it. The contracts have been let

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Speaker 2: for the first part that's can have to go. My

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Speaker 2: concern is that right now the Wellington economy is pretty fragile,

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Speaker 2: particularly for retail and hospitality, and the project will cause

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Speaker 2: major disruptions. I'm of the view that we just those

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Speaker 2: businesses just cannot absorb that level of disruption. We don't

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Speaker 2: have to do this straight away, we don't have to

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Speaker 2: do it quickly. We can do it over a longer

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Speaker 2: period of time. So I say, let's RePhase this in

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Speaker 2: a way that there's as less disruptive as possible, but

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Speaker 2: you know, allows the central Willington economy to get it

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Speaker 2: on its feet again as we get through these difficult times.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so you do it, but you just do it

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Speaker 1: a little bit more slowly. What about cycle ways? Would

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Speaker 1: you keep plowing yourhead with that massive cycle way project?

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Speaker 2: Look what, I'm not going to touch any of the

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Speaker 2: existing cycle ways. And look and principle the cycle ways

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Speaker 2: are important because it means people on bikes can travel

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Speaker 2: safely around the city. I do question the implementation of

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Speaker 2: some of them. I go look at Molesworth Street. It's

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Speaker 2: now down to one lane. I'm not sure how useful

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Speaker 2: major arterial route that gets you onto the motorways and

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Speaker 2: to the western suburbs is doing that.

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Speaker 1: And likewise, what to do Andrew? Because that is I mean,

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Speaker 1: that is horrific. What's happened to Molesworth Street? So what

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Speaker 1: would you do?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? So I want to look at it. I mean,

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Speaker 2: I'm not a fan of spending a whole lot more

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Speaker 2: money to kind of turn it all back again. I

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Speaker 2: do want to look at the rest of the program,

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Speaker 2: and I don't want to that happened.

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Speaker 1: If you were the mirror at the time, would you

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Speaker 1: let that project go ahead in the way that it.

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Speaker 2: Has no This is the way I think that part

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Speaker 2: of the failure has been. I don't think this is

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Speaker 2: a council that listens. And I know it does a

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Speaker 2: lot of consultation. The comment I've had so many times

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Speaker 2: for people to say, yeah, look, people turn up and

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Speaker 2: they have the clipboards and all the rest of them.

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Speaker 2: We talk to them, but nothing ever changes. And I

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Speaker 2: think what people feel now is that this is a

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Speaker 2: counsel that sort of goes through the motions, but it

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Speaker 2: doesn't listen. And I would want to lead a counsel

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Speaker 2: that says, right, we're going to do something and it's

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Speaker 2: going to be big, tell us how you think it

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Speaker 2: should go, tell us you know what the impact will

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Speaker 2: be on you, and let's adapt it. Let's make sure

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Speaker 2: that we are putting people on the back food and

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Speaker 2: causing congestion and disruption and all the rest of it.

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Speaker 2: Because I'm confident there are ways of doing these things

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Speaker 2: that can meet multiple objectives. But we've got to take

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Speaker 2: people with us, because I don't think people have had

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Speaker 2: a chance to sort of get into it.

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Speaker 1: Yep, Andrew, listen, goodluck and thank you. Very much for

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Speaker 1: talking to us, Sir Andrew Little, Wellington's mayoral candidate. For

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Speaker 1: more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, Listen live to news

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