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Speaker 1: Right now, the country's largest sewerage tunnel is officially bored.

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Speaker 1: Tunnel boring machine that's been digging Auckland's sixteen kilometers central

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Speaker 1: interceptor broke through this morning. It comes as water Care

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Speaker 1: has announced a huge fourteen billion dollar investment to renew

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Speaker 1: aging and failing pipes over the next decade. But the

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Speaker 1: question is how much is that going to cost Aucklanders.

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Speaker 1: Jamie Sinclair is Watercare's incoming chief executive. He's with us tonight. Hello,

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Speaker 1: good evening, Ryan, Greg, to be with you, great to

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Speaker 1: be with you too. Now, how much are water bill

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Speaker 1: is going to go up by in Auckland in the

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Speaker 1: next year and in the next five years, in the

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Speaker 1: next ten years, do we know?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? Look, Ran, Well, this is part of our business

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Speaker 2: plan which we're really excited to release this week, which

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Speaker 2: articulates all of the investment for thirteen point eight billion

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Speaker 2: dollars of investment that we're making in water and wastewater

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Speaker 2: infrastructure across Auckland. And obviously as part of that we

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Speaker 2: are outlining to Auckland is how we're going to finance

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Speaker 2: that and from that, and that includes the prices that

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Speaker 2: we charge for water, water and wastewater services. So for

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Speaker 2: next year, that is our ticulator in our business plan.

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Speaker 2: The price will go up by seven point two percent

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Speaker 2: for the wastewater and water tariff charges that we charge

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Speaker 2: to Auckland customers. It's a similar quantum the following year

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Speaker 2: and then it drops to five point five percent for

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Speaker 2: the next couple of years.

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Speaker 1: So we're looking at increases of at least five percent,

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Speaker 1: so well ahead of inflation. But what do we get

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Speaker 1: for that.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's that's right. That what the plan articulates at

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Speaker 2: that level of investment. And I think what we've done

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Speaker 2: is identify what we need to both renew and repair

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Speaker 2: and upgrade our aging infrastructure and also allow for growth.

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Speaker 2: We know that Auckland is growing rapidly the last five

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Speaker 2: years at one hundred and twenty thousand people came to

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Speaker 2: the city and about the size of the need and

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Speaker 2: that puts pressure obviously on the network. So we are

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Speaker 2: allowing for that in the business plan. So that the

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Speaker 2: projects is about a thousand projects included in our plans

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Speaker 2: and that thirteen point eight billion dollars of investment. So

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Speaker 2: what you'll what Orkland this will be able to see

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Speaker 2: is a continuation of the service they get with us,

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Speaker 2: but also the will we will replacement?

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Speaker 1: Will we get no more poo in the ocean for

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Speaker 1: that price?

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Speaker 2: Well, thankfully we've Today is a great day for Aukland,

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Speaker 2: I think and for and for water care with the

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Speaker 2: breakthrough of the Central Interceptor Tunnel at point Erin, and

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Speaker 2: I highlight that because both it's a it's a really

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Speaker 2: a project that we're really proud of, but it also

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Speaker 2: will dramatically, once we connect all the pieces up, dramatically

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Speaker 2: reduce the number of overflows that we see into our

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Speaker 2: into our harbors. So we're really proud of that. And

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Speaker 2: that's exactly the investment.

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Speaker 1: Still still a little bit, but not you can't get

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Speaker 1: rid of it completely. We'll never stop, we will never

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Speaker 1: stop the waste going into the water completely wet.

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Speaker 2: Our net work is in some parts a combined network,

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Speaker 2: which means that stormwater and wasteble to combine when there's

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Speaker 2: a lot of rain. Our system is designed like that,

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Speaker 2: but obviously we need to we need to continue to

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Speaker 2: reduce that.

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Speaker 1: When you look at the debt that you're having to

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Speaker 1: take on, I mean you are trebling your debt levels.

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Speaker 1: To put that in perspective, it is more than the

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Speaker 1: debt of all the big four power gen tailors combined.

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Speaker 1: Is this risky? I mean? And how expensive to pay back?

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Speaker 1: And the numbers you've given us for how much we

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Speaker 1: are going to have to pay each year presumably haven't

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Speaker 1: taken into account whether your debt servicing costs might go

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Speaker 1: up rapidly at one point or another.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, no, we have. We' we've fected about all that

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Speaker 2: into our financial model and you're you know, it's very

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Speaker 2: you know, by the very definition of what we're try

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Speaker 2: to do is we need to balance that pressure on

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Speaker 2: customers versus the long term financing that we can access

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Speaker 2: now through the work that was done through Council and

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Speaker 2: government on the financial separation water care, which really has

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Speaker 2: enabled this capacity that we've got now. And look, we

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Speaker 2: are very mindful of the debt level. We will be

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Speaker 2: managing that vary very carefully and conservatively. It is I

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Speaker 2: appreciate it, it's a lot, but this is what's needed

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Speaker 2: to spread the cost of that long term infrastructure investment

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Speaker 2: over generations as opposed to lumping it all on today's

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Speaker 2: open much higher charges. So there's that balance that we

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Speaker 2: have to always have to manage between pressure on customers

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Speaker 2: today versus making sure that the value that is accreted

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Speaker 2: through those assets is realized over time.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I think people are going to agree with you

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Speaker 1: in a funny way, even though you have to pay more.

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Speaker 1: We look at places like Wellington and you think, well,

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Speaker 1: I'd rather actually have functioning pipes. What about the housing

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Speaker 1: developments in the north and the south of the south

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Speaker 1: of the city right now were you actually can't get

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Speaker 1: water connections. What needs to happen so that that can

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Speaker 1: be done.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's for capacity maps and capacity constraints that we

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Speaker 2: published last year, and I think that's a good example

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Speaker 2: of us being much more open and transparent with actually

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Speaker 2: what is happening across the city in terms of those constraints.

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Speaker 2: Because we need to unlock all of that. That takes time,

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Speaker 2: and what we're doing is articulating and giving developers in particular,

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Speaker 2: but also those who are looking to build information to

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Speaker 2: make decisions, and we'll be giving more information around the

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Speaker 2: time scales and the projects that are need to unlock

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Speaker 2: those capacity constraints. So look, I can't see a future

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Speaker 2: where there is no capacity issues across Auckland. But I

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Speaker 2: think what we are doing is being more open and

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Speaker 2: transparent with what we're doing to resolve those and the timelines.

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Speaker 1: All right, Jamie, appreciate you coming on the show. Jamie Sinclear,

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Speaker 1: the incoming Water Care Chive executive. For more from Hither Duplessy,

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Speaker 1: Allen Drive, listen live to news talks. It'd be from

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