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Speaker 1: Yesterday it was health. Today it's education. More money, four

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Speaker 1: hundred and thirteen million of it. We've got fifty eight

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Speaker 1: million on operating maintenance, two hundred and fifty five for

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Speaker 1: rural and isolated schools, one hundred million over five years

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Speaker 1: for urgent infrastructure work. Andrew King is the president of

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Speaker 1: the Rural Schools Leadership Association as well. It's Andrew morning

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Speaker 1: to you.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, Mike.

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Speaker 1: This inphasite. I'm well, thank you. This emphasis on rural

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Speaker 1: and isolated. Is this a sector that's been neglected?

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Speaker 2: Yes, I would say that there's been a lot of

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Speaker 2: need there for a long time around basic infrastructure and

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Speaker 2: the cost of getting trades people out there has been

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Speaker 2: an issue, and I think this will boast and enable

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Speaker 2: schools to get things done.

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Speaker 1: Good. Do you have a specific sense of what it

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Speaker 1: literally buys you and what it actually solves?

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Speaker 2: Not yet. I guess the devil will be in the detail,

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Speaker 2: which has yet to come. But there's a lot of

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Speaker 2: things that we're that rural schools try and do on

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Speaker 2: their own. But of course you don't have the economies

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Speaker 2: of scale when you're trying to individually purchase drainage or

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Speaker 2: lighting or carpet or whatever. And so this program coordinatkohurd

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Speaker 2: iknew that's getting extra investment will enable schools to pull

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Speaker 2: together and get things actually done.

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Speaker 1: That's encouraging. I don't want to make it too political,

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Speaker 1: but when the government, the previous government was spending money

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Speaker 1: like there was literally no tomorrow, how come none of

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Speaker 1: this got done? Then?

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Speaker 2: If this is just repair work, well, the program was

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Speaker 2: put in place in twenty twenty, I think it was,

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Speaker 2: but this has boasted the boasted the fund. Really, it's

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Speaker 2: put extra money in there so more things can be

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Speaker 2: done through it.

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Speaker 1: Because the difficulty is that how much of its patchwork

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Speaker 1: versus how much of it's actually enhancing or improving something.

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Speaker 2: That's a very good question. I think it is pretty

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Speaker 2: much basic services to ensure that. I think what's happened

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Speaker 2: in the past is rural schools have not got things

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Speaker 2: done simply because of the cost of getting trades people

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Speaker 2: out there to get the work done. So a lot

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Speaker 2: of it is basic and structure. I think it might

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Speaker 2: also include things like water services and effluent services, which

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Speaker 2: is a big issue and need for rural schools to

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Speaker 2: get up to scratch.

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Speaker 1: While I've got you to the sector changes coming in

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Speaker 1: from the Minister in terms of subjects, curriculum etc. You

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Speaker 1: broadly on board, Yeah, broadly on board.

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Speaker 2: Yes, yep.

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Speaker 1: Good, appreciate you getting up early too. That is Andrew King,

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Speaker 1: who was the president of the New Zealand Rural Schools

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Speaker 1: Leadership Association with US out of South Korea. He is

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Speaker 1: a nominee, of course, for the Simon Watts List of

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Speaker 1: getting up early in the morning.

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Speaker 2: For more from the mic Asking Breakfast listen live to

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Speaker 2: news talks.

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Speaker 1: It'd be from six am weekdays, or follow the podcast

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Speaker 1: on iHeartRadio.