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Speaker 1: Big bucks for potholes is what we're talking about. Four

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Speaker 1: billion to prevent in repair potholes across the country over

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Speaker 1: the next three years. Just over two billion for the

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Speaker 1: state highways, one point nine billion for the local roads.

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Speaker 1: Legat is Infrastructure New Zealand Boss, of course it and

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Speaker 1: is with us? Nick, very good morning to you. Is

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Speaker 1: he with us or no? We hang on? Maybe I've

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Speaker 1: done the wrong thing there as well. On Nick, my apologies.

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Speaker 1: How are you hi?

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Speaker 2: Mike?

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Speaker 1: You like it? We do?

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Speaker 2: We do. Look, we've talked before and you know, people

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Speaker 2: listening will obviously be familiar with the fact that so

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Speaker 2: much of our infrastructure and the roading networks a classic case.

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Speaker 2: You know, we build it, we set it, we forget it,

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Speaker 2: and we don't invest in renewing and maintaining road services

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Speaker 2: as much as we should. And this is a long

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Speaker 2: term reduction in the amount spent. So over the last

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Speaker 2: sort of five to six years, it's cost us about

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Speaker 2: an extra thirty percent to maintain a kilometer of state highway.

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Speaker 2: So not only you know, have the increases not being

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Speaker 2: big enough, you know, we're actually spending less and we're

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Speaker 2: not getting as a bigger bang for our buck. So

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Speaker 2: I think that this is a really good indication. And

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Speaker 2: it's not just the state highway network obviously, which essentially doubles,

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Speaker 2: so you know, they call it pothole prevention. It's really

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Speaker 2: road surface improvements and people feel that, you know, the

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Speaker 2: damage their cars and just the general rundown nature of that,

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Speaker 2: but it's that those local roads as well. I'm breaking

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Speaker 2: it down by region. People will see that the extra

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Speaker 2: money that's going to go into maintaining local roads, and look,

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Speaker 2: it's better for resilience in the face of really more

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Speaker 2: extreme weather, safety and those guaranteed travel times, and it's

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Speaker 2: going to take a while. There'll be a lot of

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Speaker 2: road cones, I suspect, but it's a good boost for

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Speaker 2: an infrastructure industry that has been suffering because you know,

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Speaker 2: we're in tighter economic times and those small and medium

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Speaker 2: businesses will will get the benefit of being able to

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Speaker 2: work on roads. They're doing God's work in terms of

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Speaker 2: the country and they're they're keeping the head above.

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Speaker 1: Water exactly just in thirty seconds or not. Do you reckon?

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Speaker 1: We get bang for buck and does that worry you?

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Speaker 1: I mean, it's all very wellt thying for big but

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Speaker 1: I mean you know how many holes.

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Speaker 2: You're fee well, this is the thing. It's that's why

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Speaker 2: I made that point about that. You know, everything is

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Speaker 2: costomers more, isn't it, So you get it bigger, you

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Speaker 2: get a bigger injection like this, It isn't going to

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Speaker 2: go as far as it would have a few years ago,

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Speaker 2: but that's because everything's grown in price. So we do

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Speaker 2: have to watch that. But the more we invest and

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Speaker 2: the more we line this work up and we program

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Speaker 2: it properly, the better efficiency you know we're going to get.

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Speaker 2: And you know, you build a workforce, you get gear bought,

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Speaker 2: you get people trained, it makes it much easier it

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Speaker 2: to sort of program that work and that that's what

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Speaker 2: we need to be looking at across the infrastructure industry.

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Speaker 2: And it's not just obviously building positive new projects in infrastructure.

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Speaker 2: It's maintaining what we have. And there was an injection

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Speaker 2: in this budget as well for rail maintenance, so getting

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Speaker 2: getting those those tracks and Wellington and Auckland that slowed

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Speaker 2: out commuters, Getting that sort of it's all part of

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Speaker 2: the same picture and it's great to see that's been

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Speaker 2: grasped and so we will be looking for more of course,

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Speaker 2: but we're also looking for the you know, to look

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Speaker 2: back at the industry and say, well, how can we

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Speaker 2: get better bangs for UK, how can we get some

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Speaker 2: better efficiencies into them, because that's what people will be

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Speaker 2: looking for.

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Speaker 1: I reckon, good on you, Nick, you have a good week.

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Speaker 1: I appreciate it very much. Nick Legget, who is Infrastructure

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Speaker 1: New Zealand Boss. For more from News Talks ed B

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