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Speaker 1: The pressure is growing on Wellington Water to let trained

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Speaker 1: plumbers help them fix the city's water problems. Previously, Wellington

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Speaker 1: Water said plumbers were underqualified to fix these kinds of leaks.

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Speaker 1: They claim that to work on the public water network

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Speaker 1: you need specialist knowledge and specialist qualifications. But now the

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Speaker 1: plumbing industry body has confirmed actually plumbers are more qualified

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Speaker 1: than the usual Wellington Water contractors. Greg Wallace is the

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Speaker 1: Master Plumbers Chief Executive and with us now.

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Speaker 2: Hey Greg, afternoon, Heather.

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Speaker 1: Are any private plumbers helping Wellington Water at this stage?

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Speaker 2: Yes, they are. They've been approved contractors for many a

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Speaker 2: year and they didn't have to do an extra qualification.

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Speaker 2: They got their plumbing qualification recognized.

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Speaker 1: How did they get their qualification recognized? And others can't.

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Speaker 2: It's a really good question, and they have Wellington Water

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Speaker 2: or the councilor who own well with the water haven't

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Speaker 2: been able to answer that question.

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Speaker 1: How many of them are there?

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Speaker 2: Very few because they have a long protracted health and

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Speaker 2: safety and other compliance document you have to go through.

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Speaker 2: My members have told me it's twenty four pages of tickboxing.

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Speaker 2: But when they've got to the qualifications, they've proved that

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Speaker 2: there were certified licensed plumber under the PG board, and

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Speaker 2: they've said that is fine and acceptable. Now, I suppose

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Speaker 2: my other point is our Workplace Development Council, who's the

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Speaker 2: independent body, have agreed that the unit standards in the

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Speaker 2: Q eight unit standards that plumbers do more than what

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Speaker 2: the infrastructure and water qualification is that well into water

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Speaker 2: is required.

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Speaker 1: So basically your argument from the sounds of things is

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Speaker 1: just get rid of all the paperwork and just say yes,

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Speaker 1: you guys can do it. Is that right?

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Speaker 2: Okay? We work at water all the time, drinking water

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Speaker 2: every single day, we come to your house with fix

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Speaker 2: your taps were fixture water mains exactly saying we're talking.

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Speaker 2: We're going to remember in February when I first had

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Speaker 2: the well meeting was well into Water and got some

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Speaker 2: interest from councils. They told us we had they had

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Speaker 2: a workforce crisis and they couldn't fix the three thousand,

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Speaker 2: five hundred and seventy two leaks at the time because

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Speaker 2: of the workforce. We said, understand that the plumbers are

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Speaker 2: also rate players and we want this resolved. So we're helped.

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Speaker 2: We're willing and able to help, particularly when the Toby's

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Speaker 2: are in private property, and since that we've had red

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Speaker 2: tape and compliance and nonsense put to us to try

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Speaker 2: and say that the plumbing set there aren't qualified and

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Speaker 2: that's just simply not true.

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Speaker 1: What's the real reason that Wellington Water's been so weird

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Speaker 1: about it.

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Speaker 2: They have a contract, they have a contract with third

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Speaker 2: party supplies. I think there's some probably some conflict in

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Speaker 2: that contractor whether they want other private contract involved in

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Speaker 2: fixing it. They make things as difficult as possible when

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Speaker 2: we think, you know, we're talking about Toby's and private property,

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Speaker 2: it's just just an isolation valve. It's not complex at all,

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Speaker 2: and plumbers are licensed under raging and it's been proved.

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Speaker 2: The other point is only forty one percent of their

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Speaker 2: own workforce cause the qualification, and of subcontractors that they employ,

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Speaker 2: they don't keep any records and so this has been

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Speaker 2: another hurdle to try and delay. What we should have

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Speaker 2: been doing is just concentrating on fixing the lead.

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Speaker 1: Truth so Greg is the truth that they actually don't

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Speaker 1: have enough money to be able to employ plumbers. Because

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Speaker 1: what's happened is Wellington City Council, being the type onds

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Speaker 1: that they are, have only given Wellington Water this much money, right,

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Speaker 1: and that basically is enough to keep all of their

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Speaker 1: contractors busy. So if they then got you guys, and

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Speaker 1: they would actually just run out of money really quickly

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Speaker 1: and everybody have to stop it.

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Speaker 2: Ye, and Wellington City Council's plumbered around the funding the game.

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Speaker 2: But Campbell Barry from Hut City Council has been very

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Speaker 2: adamant that extra funding was given from Hut City Council

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Speaker 2: on the basis that plumbers would be important, good, interesting,

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Speaker 2: and that happened and so yeah, look, I think they've

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Speaker 2: leveraged the plumbing community to try and extract funds and

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Speaker 2: they never had any intention of using plummers. They just

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Speaker 2: use out of political football to try and increase the

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Speaker 2: funding they get. It's still not affordable. What you know,

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Speaker 2: the efforts repair from run in to water is five

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Speaker 2: thousand and five leak. It's quite ludicrous. And I keep

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Speaker 2: saying our plumbers are paying rates from commercial property and

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Speaker 2: at their home and all they see is just delays

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Speaker 2: and length and it's just and no one's taking ownership.

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Speaker 2: And we've got to remember the council's own run into water.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, do you know what, Greg, You're The frustration in

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Speaker 1: your voice pretty much sums up how most Wellingtonians feel.

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Speaker 1: I think, thank you so much for your time, mate,

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Speaker 1: and best of like trying to beat your head against

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Speaker 1: this brick wall. Greg Wallace, Master Plumber's Chief Executive. For

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Speaker 1: more from Heather 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