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Speaker 1: Three rate payer funded exhibitions at Wellington's one hundred and

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Speaker 1: eighty million dollar Convention Center. Yes, I did say that correctly.

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Speaker 1: Nearly two hundred million dollars for this thing have flopped.

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Speaker 1: The latest failed to break even. The Doctor Who Worlds

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Speaker 1: of Wonder ran from June to October, displaying props from

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Speaker 1: the show set. Wellington City coun Council documents show the

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Speaker 1: exhibit made a loss, but the council is refusing to

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Speaker 1: say how big the deficit was. It comes after a

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Speaker 1: Marvel and a Jurassic World exhibition earlier also failed to

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Speaker 1: break even or they missed their targets. Counselor Diane Colvert

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Speaker 1: is with me this evening. Diane, Hello, Hi Ryan, This

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Speaker 1: sounds like a bit of a sad story. Really.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I mean I think it's sad also because

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Speaker 2: we're just trying to get information that should be available

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Speaker 2: publicly ort least some of us. I can understand some

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Speaker 2: of the commercial sensitivities about perhaps some of the visitor numbers,

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Speaker 2: but repairs, you know, have a right and to know

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Speaker 2: how much does it cost them against what was actually

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Speaker 2: originally budgeted for, Because if we don't deal with this openly,

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Speaker 2: how can we look for improvements and how can we

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Speaker 2: action those improvements that I'm sure you know we can do,

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Speaker 2: because look, I went to the Marvel one and I

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Speaker 2: was bitterly disappointed. I think it costs was about eighty

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Speaker 2: five dollars ahead, and yeah, it just it just was

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Speaker 2: not value for money.

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Speaker 1: Okay, So you're saying the council has put some money

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Speaker 1: in at some stage to this doctor who thing to

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Speaker 1: make it to get it here.

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Speaker 3: I believe so.

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Speaker 2: But again, you know, we when we saw the news

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Speaker 2: article this morning, it obviously came to surprise to a

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Speaker 2: number of us, and so I know and others have

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Speaker 2: gone back asking for information and we're still trying to

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Speaker 2: obtain that.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I was surprised to see that as well. I

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Speaker 1: mean saying it's commercially sensitive to say how many people went.

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Speaker 1: I mean what implication would that have for a commit operation,

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Speaker 1: especially one that's already been held.

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Speaker 3: Look, I can't answer that, but what I'd also be

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Speaker 3: asking is why why would we be agreeing to something

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Speaker 3: like that as well, especially when redpairs funds you know,

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Speaker 3: are a risk.

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Speaker 1: So who how are they able to do this?

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Speaker 3: You know?

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Speaker 1: Laterally? Do they not have to ask for your permission

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Speaker 1: or do you are you giving them too big a

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Speaker 1: budget that they're able to throw money at doctor who?

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Speaker 2: Well you could you know, Look, I think we just

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Speaker 2: need to find out how these things get approved. I

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Speaker 2: know there was there's generally a small committee that will

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Speaker 2: approve these exhibitions. And look, sometimes you do take a

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Speaker 2: bit of a risk, but when you you know, if

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Speaker 2: things don't turn out, you need to be open about

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Speaker 2: saying what could we have done differently, what could we

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Speaker 2: have done better? And if we've had three exhibitions that

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Speaker 2: have not delivered, we really need to say what are

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Speaker 2: we not doing right in these things? And we really

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Speaker 2: we haven't had that conversation or even see the information.

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Speaker 1: Diane, Thanks for your time doing covit the Wellington City

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Speaker 1: councilor on the convention Center and Wellington doing not so well.

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Speaker 1: But more importantly, the fact that the council thinks they

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Speaker 1: can just say commercial sensitivity like it's some magic wand

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Speaker 1: and you don't get to ask any questions about where

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Speaker 1: the money's going. That's not how it should be working.

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Speaker 1: For more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive Listen live to

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