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Speaker 1: Government has finally killed its road cone hotline, which despite

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Speaker 1: the name, actually wasn't a hotline at all. As of September,

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Speaker 1: about one hundred and fifty thousand dollars had been spent

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Speaker 1: on it, works out at about one hundred and thirty

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Speaker 1: six dollars per complaint and ninety three percent of the

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Speaker 1: road cones were actually within the rules. Brook van Velden

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Speaker 1: is the Minister for Workplace Relations in Safety and with

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Speaker 1: us Morning Brook.

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Speaker 2: Good morning here.

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Speaker 1: Why'd you kill it?

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Speaker 2: Well, after six months we had six months of data

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Speaker 2: and it was pretty clear what the data was coming

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Speaker 2: back with, which was that, you know, even though there

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Speaker 2: weren't people on the ground putting out excessive use of

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Speaker 2: road cones, eighty six percent of them were compliant with

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Speaker 2: council approved temporary traffic management plans, which really pointed the

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Speaker 2: finger the fact that the council have excessive use with

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Speaker 2: their plans. And so after having such consistent data month

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Speaker 2: on month, we decided, you know what, we don't need

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Speaker 2: another six months. Let's save some money from here. But

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Speaker 2: it also shows that the work that we've got underway

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Speaker 2: with NZTA, having councils complying with new NZTA guidance by

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Speaker 2: next year is really where the problem lies, that the

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Speaker 2: Council's signing off on having too many cones in the

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Speaker 2: first place.

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Speaker 1: Okay, you seriously telling me that you didn't realize that

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Speaker 1: it was the traffic management plans until you did the

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Speaker 1: tip line.

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Speaker 2: Well, I think there's two things here here that you know. Firstly,

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Speaker 2: when I did my Health and Safety road Code Half

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Speaker 2: and Safety road show last year, road cones were the

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Speaker 2: number one issue on people's mind. Was just so much frustration,

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Speaker 2: and so having this tip line has allowed for people

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Speaker 2: to have a bit of an outlet or a voice.

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Speaker 2: But secondly to that, it has actually been quite useful

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Speaker 2: because what it has shown is that it's not you know,

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Speaker 2: the people on the ground wearing ppe putting out the

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Speaker 2: cones who are just doing too much, which was one

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Speaker 2: potential outcome. It's actually that they were doing their job

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Speaker 2: very correctly the plans that the council was.

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Speaker 1: What I'm saying, I know, but what I'm saying to

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Speaker 1: you is you didn't need the tip line to tell

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Speaker 1: you that because you already knew that, right, because Bush's

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Speaker 1: office already knew that. So so what we've got at

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Speaker 1: the moment is we've got the old traffic rules traffic

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Speaker 1: management rules, and we've got the new traffic management rules.

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Speaker 1: The old ones were the ones where there were so

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Speaker 1: many road cones. The new ones have fewer road cones.

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Speaker 1: The problem seems to be the councils aren't all switching

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Speaker 1: yet to the new ones. Do you have any idea

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Speaker 1: how many councils are still on the old ones.

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Speaker 2: I'm sure I can probably get you that data. I

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Speaker 2: don't have that in front of me, But the hope

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Speaker 2: here is that they will do. We know that they

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Speaker 2: haven't yet gone up to play with all of them.

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Speaker 2: But of course you know you do want risk based

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Speaker 2: proportionate at traffic management. Let's not be all fixated on,

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Speaker 2: you know, putting out cones every two meters, bang bang bang,

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Speaker 2: there they go. Let's actually deal with the problem that

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Speaker 2: you're seeing on the ground and whether or not the

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Speaker 2: cones are actually going to make it any more safer

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Speaker 2: for people working now they're just there.

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Speaker 1: What I can't quite get a grip on is how

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Speaker 1: much do the new rules reduced the proportion of cones

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Speaker 1: that are being laid out by.

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Speaker 2: Well, I'm not an expert in the specific new temporary

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Speaker 2: traffic management system. That is the role of n z TA.

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Speaker 2: But I'm sure we can. We can come and find

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Speaker 2: you that. But my understanding is that for the councils

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Speaker 2: that have already reduced their cone use, it has saved

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Speaker 2: them millions of dollars, but we can always follow up

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Speaker 2: with it.

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Speaker 1: Are there fewer cones? Because I mean, this is the like,

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Speaker 1: this is the absolute nub of the issue, isn't it Brook.

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Speaker 1: It's that you guys had rules that made too many cones.

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Speaker 1: Now we've got rules that lay out fewer cones, but

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Speaker 1: we don't know how many fewer.

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Speaker 2: Will that to come out, and that will come out

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Speaker 2: in the future, Like I say, the government's rules requiring

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Speaker 2: or n z ta's rules requiring councils to follow the

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Speaker 2: new guidance doesn't come in until next year, so that

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Speaker 2: information is in. Sorry, twenty twenty seven.

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Speaker 1: Have you been on the turps last night or something?

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Speaker 1: I'm only teasing you. I know there was a very

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Speaker 1: big party that was going on. Did you go to

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Speaker 1: the Press Gallery party?

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Speaker 2: I did go to the press Gallery party, but I

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Speaker 2: only was.

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Speaker 1: It good from you as you should.

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Speaker 2: Now.

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Speaker 1: My problem with the press Gallery party is it always

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Speaker 1: turns into something like a scarfy affair. But I'm told

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Speaker 1: it was a bit more classy. They were aiming for

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Speaker 1: something a bit more classy this year. Did they manage

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Speaker 1: to deliver?

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Speaker 2: Oh? I think it was a great amount of fun.

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Speaker 2: You know. I saw a whole bunch of people who

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Speaker 2: were there. Was there a jazz banding off? There was

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Speaker 2: a jazz band. Okay, So I think you know, the

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Speaker 2: press gallery party did a fabulous job.

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Speaker 1: They tried a little harder. Yeah, Brook, thank you.

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Speaker 2: It hadn't been a long year for them, so so

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Speaker 2: thank you to all the media.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm sorry to tell you this, Brook, but you're

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Speaker 1: going to have to work harder on the road cone thing.

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Speaker 1: I'm not convinced at all that this is solved. Thank

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Speaker 1: you for your time, though, Brook van Velden, Minister for

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Speaker 1: Workplace Relations and Safety. Listen, if you drive around and

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Speaker 1: see too many road cones, it may well be because

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Speaker 1: the new role that require fewer road cones still require

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Speaker 1: too many road cones. So we may be right back.

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Speaker 1: But who would know, Minister doesn't know. For more from

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Speaker 1: the Mic Asking Breakfast listen live to news talks.

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Speaker 2: It'd be from six am weekdays or follow the podcast

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Speaker 2: on iHeartRadio