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Speaker 1: And Business. Canterbury's chief executively Anne Watson is with us now, Haley, Anne, Hey, Heather.

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Speaker 1: Now this is good news. I mean for any place

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Speaker 1: getting a second of anything. This is fantastic news, isn't it.

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Speaker 2: Oh? Absolutely, And as you've said, you know, this has

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Speaker 2: been a very long awaited second bridge. So getting that confirmation,

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Speaker 2: Yestad of the government funding has been really welcomed right

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Speaker 2: across not only the local Ashburton business community, I'm sure,

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Speaker 2: but right across Canterbury and infect the South Island because

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Speaker 2: it's a really important piece of infrastructure.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. And for an important piece of infrastructure, how many

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Speaker 1: times has it been washed away lately? Oh?

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Speaker 2: Well, certainly at least two or three times that I

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Speaker 2: know of, the latest back in twenty twenty three. And

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Speaker 2: the effect that that has on you know, as I say,

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Speaker 2: not only the South Island, sorry the Ashburton, but the

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Speaker 2: whole of the South Island is pretty significant. So it

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Speaker 2: is a bit of a lifeline to get not only

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Speaker 2: people in and out of Ashburton, but of course also

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Speaker 2: freight and there's a significant volume of freight that was

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Speaker 2: across that bridge every day heading up to you know,

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Speaker 2: both CHRISTI che Port and the Littleton Port and so

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Speaker 2: it has a significant impact right across the whole business

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Speaker 2: community when it is you know unavailable.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, when bridge number one goes down and the freight

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Speaker 1: can't get across, what's the alternative?

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Speaker 2: So there is another bridge, but it's about twenty seven

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Speaker 2: kilometers away, So of course you know that's a significant

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Speaker 2: diversion and you know that costs money, it cost time,

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Speaker 2: and it's just a real inconvenience. But you know, even

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Speaker 2: you know, if you're traveling through Ashbooton, you know you

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Speaker 2: can be stuck waiting to get across that bridge for

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Speaker 2: sort of anywhere between you know, sort of half an

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Speaker 2: hour to an hour in peak time. And you know,

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Speaker 2: when you think about that from a business perspective, if

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Speaker 2: you've got you know, freight being moved you know daily,

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Speaker 2: you know that is a significant extra cost and delay

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Speaker 2: to move freight across that sort of main state highway.

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Speaker 2: So yeah, this is a really significant announcement and you know,

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Speaker 2: take my head off to the local leaders, the likes

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Speaker 2: of you know, mere Neil Brown, you know who has

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Speaker 2: been campaigning, as to say, for a couple of decades

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Speaker 2: to get this piece of infrastructure underway. So it's really

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Speaker 2: great to see that the government have actually finally made

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Speaker 2: that commitment. Lee.

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Speaker 1: And by the way, while I've got you that GDP

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Speaker 1: figure out yesterday, did that surprise.

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Speaker 2: You, Yeah, it was pretty disappointing. You know, we've certainly

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Speaker 2: seen some challenges out there for many sectors. But what

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Speaker 2: it did surprise me, I guess is we've just recently

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Speaker 2: also done our own quarterly business survey and it was

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Speaker 2: in contrast to that because actually what we're seeing is

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Speaker 2: record high levels of optimism heading into twenty twenty five.

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Speaker 2: So it was a bit concerning. But I think, you know,

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Speaker 2: we are certainly seeing some real strong signals from cannery

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Speaker 2: businesses about the future, not only in terms of the economy,

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Speaker 2: but also in terms of their own performance and starting

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Speaker 2: to just see a bit more commitment and confidence in

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Speaker 2: investing in new staff, new plant and equipment. It's not

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Speaker 2: coming up quite as fast as what we would like,

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Speaker 2: So yeah, we're a little concern to see that, but

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Speaker 2: you know, cannery business seemed to be bucking the trend

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Speaker 2: a little bit. Yeah, so let's hope that that continued.

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Speaker 1: Well, you are doing very well as originally and thanks

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Speaker 1: very much, really appreciate the Green Shoots and news there.

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Speaker 1: That's Leanne Watson, Business Canterbury Chief Executive. You're so on

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Speaker 1: this a case. So yesterday the number, I mean, Jesus, well,

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Speaker 1: we're expecting what zero point four percent was kind of

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Speaker 1: or zero point two percent depends on where you sat,

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Speaker 1: but it was definitely towards the zero, not towards the one.

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Speaker 1: So when it came in at Won that was something

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Speaker 1: of a shock. But what was also equally a shot

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Speaker 1: was the revision of the Q two data, which we

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Speaker 1: were told was oh, well, yeah it had gone back

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Speaker 1: with zero point two percent. Suddenly it's one point one percent.

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Speaker 1: What's going on at Stats New Zealand because yesterday I

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Speaker 1: was just telling you Stats New Zealand were like, a, yeah,

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Speaker 1: Wellington lost twenty thousand workers. Yeah oopsno sorry two two

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Speaker 1: thousand Yeah sorry, slight, slight revision in the order of

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Speaker 1: magnitude of ten times. And then they do basically the

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Speaker 1: same thing with the GDP data, where they're like, it's

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Speaker 1: just a little decline. No, but lord, it's a massive decline.

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Speaker 1: How what's going on? Steps Come on, guys

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