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Speaker 1: To the ongoing issue of school buses being cut. A

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Speaker 1: rural school bus review has some parents facing our long

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Speaker 1: drives just to get their kiddies to school. In the

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Speaker 1: Gisbane area. More than one hundred students could be affected.

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Speaker 1: And one of the parents there is Toby Williams, who's

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Speaker 1: with us now, Hi, Toby, Hi here? Okay, so what's

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Speaker 1: going on in your situation?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, So there's been a review going on for about

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Speaker 2: eighteen months from the Ministry of Education's Transport Division around

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Speaker 2: the eligibility of kids for going to school and the

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Speaker 2: Gisman reviews just come through and they've scaled the buses

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Speaker 2: right back and it's really affecting our rural kids and

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Speaker 2: we can't get our kids to school now and efficiently

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Speaker 2: without taking them ourselves. And for me, there'd been our

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Speaker 2: during the each day, each way, each day to get

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Speaker 2: them into there. So it rumined the productivity on my

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Speaker 2: farm to try to get the kids to the education

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Speaker 2: they need.

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Speaker 1: So the school bus a your school bus has been

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Speaker 1: cut or scaled back?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, our school bus has been scaled back, is that man?

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Speaker 2: So they've shortened the area so used to drive past

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Speaker 2: our gates, our kids would bike two k's down the

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Speaker 2: road every morning and catch the bus and the main road.

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Speaker 2: Now that option isn't there anymore. We've got to put

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Speaker 2: them in a car and drive them either to the

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Speaker 2: next bus stop which is close enough to town that

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Speaker 2: we may or drive the more the way to town

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Speaker 2: and then and drive home again. And there are other

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Speaker 2: rural areas have been done same. So they've sort of

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Speaker 2: turtled the entire bus route in so you're picking up

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Speaker 2: more urban kids.

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Speaker 1: But less rural kids. Okay, And so is this basically

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Speaker 1: is it a supplying demand thing that there weren't that

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Speaker 1: many kids catching this particular that the bus on this

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Speaker 1: particular route near your house.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well there's forty five kids that utilize their bus

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Speaker 2: that goes past our gate. We've done a survey of

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Speaker 2: the community from the pick up point. Some parents bring

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Speaker 2: their kids in, you know, from relatively you know, from

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Speaker 2: half an hour away to that bus stop to save

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Speaker 2: them in that you know, an hour and a half

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Speaker 2: duney to town.

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Speaker 1: It seems a lot, Toby, how many how many would

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Speaker 1: it take? How many kids would it take to make

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Speaker 1: the bus run?

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Speaker 2: Well, that's what we're going through with go Bus at

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Speaker 2: the moment. Our local bus companies. How do we actually

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Speaker 2: fund this ourselves as a community if the ministry is

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Speaker 2: now not going to would.

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Speaker 1: You be prepared?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we are, that's question. We are the community and

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Speaker 2: we need to get a price back from the bus company.

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Speaker 2: But we've got seven weeks to sort this out. We've

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Speaker 2: been told last week that on the first day of

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Speaker 2: term two that bus is no longer going to be

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Speaker 2: there and you have to have you know, your kids

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Speaker 2: have to find a way to school some other way

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Speaker 2: or somehow. So we're scramming to try to do this

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Speaker 2: and to be fair to the ministry, the government's reviewing

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Speaker 2: this at the moment, but what we're asking for is

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Speaker 2: them to pause these reviews, pause the rollout of the

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Speaker 2: review while we're looking at the policy as a whole.

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Speaker 2: So get the Ministry of Ministry of Education Transport Division

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Speaker 2: to stop the changes until maybe the end of the

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Speaker 2: year when we've got a clear picture of what it

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Speaker 2: looks like and the schools and parents.

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Speaker 1: To be fair, I mean, how long do you guys,

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Speaker 1: how long do you actually really need to make a

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Speaker 1: decision on this? I mean, surely it's as simple as

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Speaker 1: you call the bus company, you go how much does

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Speaker 1: it cost for you to do this thing? And then

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Speaker 1: you split it between the parents who want to use it.

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Speaker 1: That doesn't take all year.

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Speaker 2: No, it doesn't take all year. But we're working with

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Speaker 2: the schools on this as well, and there's some leading

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Speaker 2: time for the parents to understand. And there's people in

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Speaker 2: our community who can't afford that. The moment's been a

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Speaker 2: free bus and parts of.

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Speaker 1: Attribut So Toby, am I right in thinking that actually

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Speaker 1: you want to pause it so you can lobby against it.

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Speaker 2: No, we're not lobbying against it at all, because I've

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Speaker 2: been when it's the Federated Farmers. We're lobbying for this

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Speaker 2: review to happen and providing some changes of what looked

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Speaker 2: like and that was cost sharing with the communities to

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Speaker 2: make sure we had the excess there. At the moment,

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Speaker 2: we've got parents now saying that their kids aren't going

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Speaker 2: to be going to school on some days because it's

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Speaker 2: not worth them taking them to school.

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Speaker 1: How much does it? How much do you reckon it's

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Speaker 1: going to end up costing each family?

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Speaker 2: I can't. I don't know that at the moment.

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Speaker 1: Then how do we know if parents won't be able

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Speaker 1: to afford it?

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Speaker 2: Well, I've surveyed them and asked would affordability of a

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Speaker 2: bus be a concern for you? And about quarter of

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Speaker 2: the suve has come back saying yes that it would be.

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Speaker 2: And it's also the fact that the bus and some

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Speaker 2: of our days of school has only half a day.

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Speaker 2: So there's you know, trying to feed it in around

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Speaker 2: and make sure that you know, we can get the

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Speaker 2: kids to their and they've got the excess to education

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Speaker 2: is worked actually there, do.

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Speaker 1: You know what I wonder? I mean, obviously it seems

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Speaker 1: to me the solution probably does lie on you guys

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Speaker 1: having to fund it yourselves, unfortunately, but I imagine that

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Speaker 1: this is actually going to pose a bigger because this

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Speaker 1: is happening around the country right This has got to

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Speaker 1: pose a problem for rural communities where it must be

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Speaker 1: hard to get people working on your farm if they've

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Speaker 1: got kids and they don't know how they can to

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Speaker 1: get their kids to school.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, one hundred percent. One of the big drawer cards

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Speaker 2: of having a farm having a bus go past your

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Speaker 2: gate is you can say to people, hey, look, high

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Speaker 2: school bus or primary school bus go is passed by

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Speaker 2: gate and you don't have to fork out private school

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Speaker 2: fees to get your children educated. The Act, you know,

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Speaker 2: was a nineteen eight act. This has been based on

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Speaker 2: and it's been looking to be modernized and we need

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Speaker 2: we think there needs to be some consultation around the

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Speaker 2: modernizing with communities and schools figure out how can we

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Speaker 2: cost you it, because no one's asking for a guaranteed

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Speaker 2: free bus that's unrealistic in the climate. But how do

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Speaker 2: we actually make sure we've got the excess first? And

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Speaker 2: communities are.

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Speaker 1: Consulted on this and that's what's not happening. Hey, Toby,

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Speaker 1: it's good to talk to you mate. Good luck with

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Speaker 1: sorting this one out. Toby Williams, Gisbane Farmer. For more

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Speaker 1: from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to news Talks

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Speaker 1: it'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast

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Speaker 1: on iHeartRadio