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Speaker 1: So the details on the rates cap are out. Implementation

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Speaker 1: still years away, of course, but consultation is as of

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Speaker 1: this morning apparently, and you'll rate limit of two to

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Speaker 1: four percent water excluded. Any council wanting to go above

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Speaker 1: four percent will need regulatory approval. Next Smith is the

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Speaker 1: mayor of Nelson and it's with us Nick, morning to you.

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Speaker 2: Are you good morning, Mike?

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Speaker 1: How doable?

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Speaker 2: Oh, it's going to be challenging and it's certainly going

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Speaker 2: to require a real culture change within the local government sector.

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Speaker 2: About eighty percent of our costs are infrastructure and the

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Speaker 2: real driver if you look over rates going up over

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Speaker 2: the last three years, average across New Zealand is thirty

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Speaker 2: five percent. It is a bit of a shoka and

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Speaker 2: we shouldn't be surprised with the government having to make

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Speaker 2: a heap of hard decisions. You know, every government agency's

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Speaker 2: got to squeeze on them that that come after us

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Speaker 2: and are putting these caps in place. But if we're

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Speaker 2: going to be able to deliver them, they are going

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Speaker 2: to need to work with us around getting those costs,

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Speaker 2: particularly in the construction sector down. You get to things

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Speaker 2: likes of households would just be gobsmacked to know that

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Speaker 2: over the whole of New Zealand, we average spanning about

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Speaker 2: five hundred dollars per household on things like temporary traffic management,

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Speaker 2: things like areas likes of waste levees. Actually councils end

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Speaker 2: up paying a big part of those. So the only

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Speaker 2: way this plan is going to succeed is actually if

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Speaker 2: we engage with government and saying actually some of the

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Speaker 2: regulations that have been put in place, particularly over the

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Speaker 2: last decade are adding to those costs and if we

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Speaker 2: are going to be able to deliver on your two

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Speaker 2: to four percent, we need to work together to deliver it.

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Speaker 1: Do you need every one of the years till twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty nine to make it work?

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Speaker 2: Each council will be in a different position. We had

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Speaker 2: a big storm through in twenty two and I know

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Speaker 2: areas like gisbans and those and the fix up costs

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Speaker 2: for those those do take several years. To be fair

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Speaker 2: to the government that've given us an exemption in that area,

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Speaker 2: I think it's going to be a big stretch to

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Speaker 2: get there by twenty nine hour timetable. And my challenge

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Speaker 2: to our sector would be, hey, look, don't try and

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Speaker 2: fight the government. Work with them. They are simply reflecting

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Speaker 2: the frustration from New Zealanders that the sector's costs, which

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Speaker 2: is not uncommon for a monopoly sector, have not got

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Speaker 2: under control in the way that households and businesses have

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Speaker 2: had to change in response to the sort of post

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Speaker 2: COVID recession.

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Speaker 1: Good stuff, mate, nice to catch up Nick Smith, who

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Speaker 1: is the mayor, of course, of Nelson. For more from

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Speaker 1: the Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to news talks that'd

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Speaker 1: be from six am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.