1
00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:03,520
Speaker 1: Now common sense has prevailed in Wellington. Today, Wellington City

2
00:00:03,560 --> 00:00:05,920
Speaker 1: Council has voted down a plant defence off most of

3
00:00:05,960 --> 00:00:09,160
Speaker 1: the waterfront at Queen's Wolf and Komutoto around the tesB area.

4
00:00:09,440 --> 00:00:12,159
Speaker 1: Councilor Tim Brown is the chair of the Environment and

5
00:00:12,240 --> 00:00:15,960
Speaker 1: Infrastructure Committee. In with us right now, hate Tim good evening.

6
00:00:16,079 --> 00:00:17,200
Speaker 1: Why did you vote it down?

7
00:00:19,000 --> 00:00:24,000
Speaker 2: Because I felt that we had met our responsibilities and

8
00:00:24,079 --> 00:00:27,600
Speaker 2: respective safety by spending the vicility of eight million dollars

9
00:00:28,200 --> 00:00:31,160
Speaker 2: to improve the lighting around the waterfront and a number

10
00:00:31,160 --> 00:00:34,559
Speaker 2: of other additiatives, and that the best thing for us

11
00:00:34,600 --> 00:00:37,400
Speaker 2: to in terms of, as you said, common sense approach,

12
00:00:37,560 --> 00:00:40,159
Speaker 2: was to sit back and have a look at the

13
00:00:40,200 --> 00:00:43,640
Speaker 2: effective of what we've already done before we do what,

14
00:00:45,880 --> 00:00:48,320
Speaker 2: before we decide if we'd need to do something additional.

15
00:00:48,520 --> 00:00:51,519
Speaker 1: Yeah, see if the lights work. Basically, what did you

16
00:00:51,600 --> 00:00:53,760
Speaker 1: make of the fact that the officials wanted you guys

17
00:00:53,800 --> 00:00:56,240
Speaker 1: to rush this through without talking to the public first.

18
00:00:58,200 --> 00:01:00,320
Speaker 2: I think they were taking a very very through, very

19
00:01:00,840 --> 00:01:04,240
Speaker 2: risk averse approach, you know, which is reasonable because I

20
00:01:04,280 --> 00:01:07,440
Speaker 2: mean public servants are both local and central, are not

21
00:01:07,920 --> 00:01:11,080
Speaker 2: paid to take risks, and so they were taking a

22
00:01:11,240 --> 00:01:15,919
Speaker 2: very very low risk approach, which of course would mollycoddle

23
00:01:16,040 --> 00:01:19,080
Speaker 2: us to the maximum possible extent. And that's the road

24
00:01:19,160 --> 00:01:23,479
Speaker 2: cone problem that we all constantly encounter. So I mean,

25
00:01:23,520 --> 00:01:25,560
Speaker 2: it was perfectly reasonable for them to actually do that,

26
00:01:25,640 --> 00:01:27,800
Speaker 2: but I think that's where we had to apply a

27
00:01:27,800 --> 00:01:28,960
Speaker 2: slightly different lens.

28
00:01:29,520 --> 00:01:32,720
Speaker 1: So do you think that, I mean, are you of

29
00:01:32,760 --> 00:01:34,639
Speaker 1: the view that there is a balance to be struck

30
00:01:34,640 --> 00:01:38,280
Speaker 1: here between Yeah, a reasonable amount of safety but also

31
00:01:38,400 --> 00:01:39,560
Speaker 1: personal responsibility.

32
00:01:41,480 --> 00:01:45,240
Speaker 2: Not necessarily, I didn't really look at the personal responsibility thing.

33
00:01:45,640 --> 00:01:48,200
Speaker 2: I don't think that's a contributing factor to the thinking

34
00:01:48,280 --> 00:01:50,400
Speaker 2: I think it is. It is very much a case

35
00:01:50,440 --> 00:01:52,880
Speaker 2: of saying we've spent, as I say, about eight million

36
00:01:52,880 --> 00:01:56,920
Speaker 2: dollars improving the safety of the waterfront. Let's see if

37
00:01:57,160 --> 00:01:59,080
Speaker 2: what the effect of that is. I mean we're not

38
00:01:59,120 --> 00:02:01,639
Speaker 2: we don't really, we're not taking into account why people

39
00:02:01,880 --> 00:02:05,680
Speaker 2: fall into the sea. You know. It's but if they

40
00:02:05,760 --> 00:02:07,760
Speaker 2: still continue to fall into this c even if we've

41
00:02:07,760 --> 00:02:10,200
Speaker 2: now lit the place very well, then a obviously have

42
00:02:10,320 --> 00:02:12,639
Speaker 2: to do something differently. Oh okay, So I mean it's

43
00:02:12,639 --> 00:02:14,400
Speaker 2: not just and it's not just about lighting. I mean

44
00:02:14,400 --> 00:02:17,040
Speaker 2: we've also got things like CCTV. So if we if

45
00:02:17,040 --> 00:02:20,560
Speaker 2: we see behavior that is reckless or risky, we're not

46
00:02:20,639 --> 00:02:23,200
Speaker 2: going to say, oh my goodness, these people are being reckless.

47
00:02:23,240 --> 00:02:25,880
Speaker 2: Therefore that's a tough luck. We're still going to be

48
00:02:25,960 --> 00:02:29,120
Speaker 2: very concerned about anybody who might end up in dangering themselves.

49
00:02:29,440 --> 00:02:31,079
Speaker 1: Tim, it's good to talk to you. Thank you, Tim Brown,

50
00:02:31,120 --> 00:02:35,280
Speaker 1: Wellington City councilor for more from Hither Douplassy Allen Drive,

51
00:02:35,440 --> 00:02:38,880
Speaker 1: listen live to news talks it'd be from four pm weekdays,

52
00:02:39,000 --> 00:02:41,160
Speaker 1: or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.