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Speaker 1: So they're getting an observer. This is Wellington City Council.

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Speaker 1: Following the council's decision to make big changes to its

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Speaker 1: long term plan and a failed vote to sell a

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Speaker 1: stake in its airport shares, the Local Government Minister Simon

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Speaker 1: Brown will appoint a Crown observer to the local Council

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Speaker 1: following advice from the Department of Internal Affairs. The council

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Speaker 1: has ten working days to respond. Tony Randall's the Wellington

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Speaker 1: City Council. He's with us this morning, Tony.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, Good morning. How are you.

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Speaker 1: I'm very well. Thank you. Any rumors on who this

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Speaker 1: observer might be.

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Speaker 2: Well, look, just random rumors and Tolly was the name

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Speaker 2: that was thrown at me, just randomly. But I've got

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Speaker 2: no reason to think that it was that it would

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Speaker 2: be her, and I think in fact it may there

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Speaker 2: may not be anyone at the moment, because an observer

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Speaker 2: can't be appointed until after we've responded back to the minister.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and you're obviously going to respond favorably.

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Speaker 2: Yes, oh, yes, that's right. I think the Council accepts

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Speaker 2: the Minister's decision and while we might give some feedback

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Speaker 2: on the terms of reference, our principle of having a

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Speaker 2: Crown observer is accepted I think by the majority of

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Speaker 2: the councilors, and we're going to go from here.

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Speaker 1: Is Wellington going to elect Tory Faro again?

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Speaker 2: No, that's a big decision. I'm not a fan, but

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Speaker 2: you know, election times, who knows. I think she's I

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Speaker 2: think she's had some challenging times and it's you know,

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Speaker 2: her record isn't necessarily the best record, but also depends

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Speaker 2: who our stands against her.

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Speaker 1: Of course, the argument that we will go from observer

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Speaker 1: to commissioner I don't think holds much weight. What's your feeling.

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Speaker 1: I mean, we've got a year to the election.

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Speaker 2: I agree, I absolutely agree. I think the threshold for

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Speaker 2: a commissioner is that we literally have breached the Local

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Speaker 2: Government Act. We haven't done that yet. And the minister's

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Speaker 2: outline though that we're obviously having trouble getting our fin

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Speaker 2: answers and order, and so he's kindly come along and

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Speaker 2: said he's going to help us out.

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Speaker 1: Why are you funding water infrastructure through rates not debt?

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Speaker 2: Well, that's an interesting claim and I can't get my

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Speaker 2: head around exactly what he's saying. I do know though,

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Speaker 2: that we need to cut some of our projects and

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Speaker 2: that we aren't forty funding all the money that Wellington

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Speaker 2: Water would wind us to fund. Water is not the

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Speaker 2: top priority and it should be and we're going to

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Speaker 2: get there, I think through this long term and amendment.

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Speaker 1: Tony. Thank you very much for being on the show

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Speaker 1: this morning. Great to have you Tony Randall. See I

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Speaker 1: told you he was good Wellington City councilor they do exist,

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Speaker 1: good Wellington City councilors. For more from Early Edition with

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Speaker 1: Ryan Bridge, Listen live to news talks. It'd be from

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Speaker 1: five am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio