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Speaker 1: New Zealand First have introduced a bill to restore powers

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Speaker 1: of fluoridation back to local communities. Their decision to fluoridate

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Speaker 1: drinking water currently rests with the Director General of Health,

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Speaker 1: but the bill would allow locals to decide what they

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Speaker 1: want in their water through binding referendums. Fung Ray is

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Speaker 1: the only one of fourteen councils not to fluoridate it's

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Speaker 1: water since the government's twenty twenty two directive. Mayor Vincent

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Speaker 1: Cocarilla joins me. Now, thanks for your time this morning.

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Speaker 2: Vincent, good morning, How are this morning very good?

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Speaker 1: Thank you? Are you happy to see this bill put

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Speaker 1: in the ballot.

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Speaker 2: I think it's a very good step forward. I have

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Speaker 2: to say that it's great to have a central government

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Speaker 2: backing behind local government again.

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Speaker 1: Why should this decision rest locally?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Look, it's one of those things, especially with fluoridation,

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Speaker 2: there's a lot of controversy that a lot of people

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Speaker 2: with strong opinions from both sides and what it in days.

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Speaker 2: By putting it back to the people, it actually gives

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Speaker 2: the people to start the say whether people like the

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Speaker 2: decision at the end of the day. It's sort of

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Speaker 2: like when you have a binding refereeingdum it makes it

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Speaker 2: very clear that the community have spoken. So whichever the

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Speaker 2: decision may be, the community has spoken and the community

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Speaker 2: accept the decision. When they're when the decision is imposed

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Speaker 2: on them, they are always going to rebel from it.

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Speaker 1: How do you think fan I would vote in a referendum?

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Speaker 2: Oh, now that's a very hard answer on that one. Look,

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Speaker 2: I have I have heard from both sides of the sense,

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Speaker 2: and I have had very passionate people from both sides

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Speaker 2: of the sense, both in the medical and non medical

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Speaker 2: side of things, and both have very clear views and

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Speaker 2: opinions about it.

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Speaker 1: Are the options that mean that everybody gets what they

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Speaker 1: want when it comes to this debate.

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Speaker 2: Look, by allowing as I said, by allowing the community

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Speaker 2: to have a say, actually makes the decision back onto

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Speaker 2: the community, so they actually take ownership of it. That's

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Speaker 2: what the big thing is, and that's why when you

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Speaker 2: impose something onto a community you will always get people

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Speaker 2: resenting the government for it. Whereas you if you give

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Speaker 2: them the decision and give them the power to actually

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Speaker 2: make that call, they generally accept what has been decided.

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Speaker 1: But have you got on it?

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Speaker 2: May not like it?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, except this so yeah, exactly. So, Look, if fluoridation

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Speaker 1: gets put into place where you are, have you got

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Speaker 1: an option for people that don't want it? If it's

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Speaker 1: not put in place, is there another option there for

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Speaker 1: people who do want it?

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Speaker 2: And that's something that the councilor has to decide when

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Speaker 2: that time comes. At this present moment, we have we've

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Speaker 2: never floridated inny Fang today ever so, and this has

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Speaker 2: been through a referendum in two thousand and two, so

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Speaker 2: we've actually been through that process a while ago, and

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Speaker 2: it's probably a good time to redo that referendum and

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Speaker 2: it's probably a very good smart idea.

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Speaker 1: About Was it about sixty five percent sied no in

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Speaker 1: that referendum.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's correct, and it was a lot of good

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Speaker 2: counselors at the time actually were quite surprised by the result.

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Speaker 2: They thought it the other way.

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Speaker 1: Have you got in trouble for not doing this once?

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Speaker 2: The interesting thing is we have broken no laws at

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Speaker 2: the present moment. And to say the same thing as

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Speaker 2: many some of the other councils who have been asked

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Speaker 2: to thaorroidate haven't actually started sauroidating either. So as of

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Speaker 2: the twenty eighth of March. That's when the mandate actually

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Speaker 2: has to happen. Until then, we've still broken broken no laws.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so it's getting It's getting close, isn't it. How

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Speaker 1: content Yeah? How contentious do you think that this bill

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Speaker 1: will be?

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Speaker 2: Look, I I don't know about central government. I don't

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Speaker 2: know how they will all or political parties will vote

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Speaker 2: on it. I can't answer that one either. Whether it's contentious, yes,

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Speaker 2: I do, And again I do say it's because there

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Speaker 2: are very passionate people from both sites.

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Speaker 1: You're spoken to other councils. Are they happy with this

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Speaker 1: bill as well?

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Speaker 2: There are a lot of councils who are very very

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Speaker 2: happy and the main reason is because they actually would

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Speaker 2: prefer to have their community have a say as well.

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Speaker 1: Thanks, appreciate your time this morning. Nice to talk to you.

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Speaker 3: That was Faday Mayor Vince co Courio there talking about

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Speaker 3: New Zealand First have introduced a bill to restore the

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Speaker 3: powers of floridation back to local communities.

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Speaker 2: For more from early edition with Ryan Bridge, Listen live

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