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Speaker 1: So the Prime Minister means business and we know this

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Speaker 1: because he says it every time he talks growth. Growth, growth, growth, growth,

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Speaker 1: growth growth. His latest announcement about growth is a two

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Speaker 1: day summit to entice interest in New Zealand projects. One

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Speaker 1: hundred world high profile investors, business leaders and construction companies

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Speaker 1: are expected to visit next month. Here's the PM. We

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Speaker 1: want people from all corners of the globe to know

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Speaker 1: that there's now a culture of saying yes in New Zealand,

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Speaker 1: yes to investment, yes to innovation, and yes to getting

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Speaker 1: stuff done. So Infrastructure New Zealand CEO Nick Leggett joins

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Speaker 1: me this morning. Come morning to you. Nick. Hello, have

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Speaker 1: you been invited?

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Speaker 2: I told Climb the target at the Target audience here.

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Speaker 1: Well, you're there to talk. I thought that your whole

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Speaker 1: job was to talk up New Zealand and infrastructureing and

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Speaker 1: surely as infrastructure in New Zealand, you want some of

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Speaker 1: these overseas investors coming in to help you out.

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Speaker 2: Well, I think what's important is that this is the

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Speaker 2: kind of a vent that shows that New Zealand is

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Speaker 2: open to business and that we are welcoming of people

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Speaker 2: who can help us build more infrastructure. Infrastructure you, as

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Speaker 2: we often talk about Andrew, is an enabler to not

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Speaker 2: just economic growth but also social progress. We've got a

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Speaker 2: big deficit in this country. We know we need more

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Speaker 2: transport infrastructure, we need schools, hospitals and also if you

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Speaker 2: think about water, there's a massive gaping hole there as well.

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Speaker 2: So across the board we need to invest. And when

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Speaker 2: you think about projects that we talk about here, the

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Speaker 2: missing link is often the funding. Where is the money

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Speaker 2: coming from? And we've had we've gotten into this habit

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Speaker 2: of openly planning and putting together business cases, but the

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Speaker 2: money sort of side of things is what kills it.

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Speaker 2: In Auckland, light rails a good example, and if you

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Speaker 2: think about it, let's get well moving. But we talk

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Speaker 2: big and we don't deliver and that has to change.

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Speaker 2: And so I think the Prime Minister's got it right

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Speaker 2: in terms of actually who are the people that can

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Speaker 2: help inject some funding but also bring some other expertise

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Speaker 2: so we do infrastructure better. And we know we have

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Speaker 2: a new culture of not just funding but actually building.

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Speaker 1: That's why I asked you are you going do we

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Speaker 1: need to know who's coming to figure out how effective

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Speaker 1: this summit might be because if we're inviting the wrong people,

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Speaker 1: if the wrong people are not coming, the right people

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Speaker 1: are not coming, then it's then it's just virtue signaling.

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Speaker 2: Well, I mean, I think that it's about it's a

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Speaker 2: new habit that we have to get into, right, It's

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Speaker 2: not all going to be fixed in one two day summer.

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Speaker 2: But what we need to know, I think more importantly

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Speaker 2: is do we have projects that are ready to be

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Speaker 2: funded and built and once people actually show interest in

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Speaker 2: New Zealand, are the policy settings right? And so I

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Speaker 2: think there's still work to do there. And I think

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Speaker 2: that what we'd be more interested in is that something

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Speaker 2: comes out of the summer and that there's an ongoing

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Speaker 2: interest in the country, not just for two days in March,

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Speaker 2: but next year, in five years time, so we can

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Speaker 2: really build that effective pipeline that we know we need

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Speaker 2: to build. We get the efficiencies out of actually having

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Speaker 2: more than one project on the garden and that ongoing pipeline,

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Speaker 2: because that's the best way for New Zealand to overcome

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Speaker 2: all the challenges it's got. We don't build infrastructure well here,

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Speaker 2: we don't line the funding up, we don't line the

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Speaker 2: projects up there's also I want to make this really clear,

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Speaker 2: it's not just about foreign direct investment. There is capital

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Speaker 2: in New Zealand that is keen to invest if you

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Speaker 2: think can we savor ewe Mardi. There are a whole

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Speaker 2: lot of opportunities and we've got to be open to

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Speaker 2: all of them if we're going to get our infrastructure

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Speaker 2: builds done.

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Speaker 1: Nick Legantt, I thank you for your time. Nick Leggantt

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Speaker 1: is the CEO of Infrastructure in New Zealand. And yes,

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Speaker 1: we can invite the people, but do we have the

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Speaker 1: projects ready to go? Do we have the infrastructure ready

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Speaker 1: to go? Do we have the plans that we can

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Speaker 1: say to these people, this is what we're thinking about.

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Speaker 1: Do you want to be part of it? And that's

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Speaker 1: all on the government.

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