1
00:00:00,360 --> 00:00:02,680
Speaker 1: Councils are starting to freak out a little bit at

2
00:00:02,720 --> 00:00:05,400
Speaker 1: the idea of the government's floated of putting a cap

3
00:00:05,440 --> 00:00:09,240
Speaker 1: on future rate increases. Forget you're fifteen percent, or you're

4
00:00:09,240 --> 00:00:12,320
Speaker 1: twelve percent, or you're eighteen percent. If you're really unlucky,

5
00:00:12,840 --> 00:00:15,440
Speaker 1: it'd be more like two or three. It's just a

6
00:00:15,480 --> 00:00:18,439
Speaker 1: proposal at the stage. We have no concrete details, but

7
00:00:18,560 --> 00:00:23,520
Speaker 1: Local Government New Zealand unhappy. Last week Ratings Agency SMP

8
00:00:23,680 --> 00:00:28,400
Speaker 1: downgraded eighteen councils and three CEOs council controlled organizations across

9
00:00:28,440 --> 00:00:32,160
Speaker 1: the country. Now ALGAE and Z is saying things could

10
00:00:32,159 --> 00:00:33,920
Speaker 1: get worse if you put a cap on our rates.

11
00:00:34,040 --> 00:00:36,840
Speaker 1: Sam Broughton is the President of Local Government New Zealand.

12
00:00:36,840 --> 00:00:39,800
Speaker 1: He's with me now, Hi, Sam, Yeah, good afternoon. So

13
00:00:39,880 --> 00:00:42,040
Speaker 1: what's the problem. What's what don't you like about a

14
00:00:42,120 --> 00:00:42,720
Speaker 1: rates cap?

15
00:00:43,520 --> 00:00:46,159
Speaker 2: Well, councils do want to see more affordable rates for

16
00:00:46,200 --> 00:00:48,600
Speaker 2: their community, so that's something as a country we definitely

17
00:00:48,600 --> 00:00:51,040
Speaker 2: need to address. And one of those ways is to

18
00:00:51,040 --> 00:00:53,600
Speaker 2: provide more funding tools for councils. So at the moment

19
00:00:53,840 --> 00:00:57,040
Speaker 2: the government really only gives councils one way of paying

20
00:00:57,040 --> 00:00:58,760
Speaker 2: for the services that we need to and that's around

21
00:00:58,840 --> 00:01:01,680
Speaker 2: collecting rates, a little bit of user charges and then

22
00:01:01,760 --> 00:01:05,840
Speaker 2: using debts to fund and a generational infrastructure. But rates

23
00:01:05,880 --> 00:01:07,360
Speaker 2: is the only thing. If we could have a share

24
00:01:07,360 --> 00:01:09,880
Speaker 2: of the GST on new builds, or use some congestion

25
00:01:10,040 --> 00:01:13,080
Speaker 2: charging or rate powers assistant scheme which we're talking to

26
00:01:13,160 --> 00:01:15,679
Speaker 2: the government about stuff that the Crown is interested in

27
00:01:15,720 --> 00:01:19,559
Speaker 2: the share of Crown mineral royalties, then that would actually

28
00:01:19,560 --> 00:01:21,760
Speaker 2: reduce the burden that's on rates at the moment. We

29
00:01:21,760 --> 00:01:24,959
Speaker 2: could take a more user pays approach. The thing with

30
00:01:25,720 --> 00:01:29,200
Speaker 2: a rates cap is really it's an artificial tool. That

31
00:01:29,240 --> 00:01:31,400
Speaker 2: would mean that we wouldn't necessarily be able to invest

32
00:01:31,480 --> 00:01:33,880
Speaker 2: in the community infrastructure that we need to. And New

33
00:01:33,959 --> 00:01:37,240
Speaker 2: Zealand's got a mess of you know, a billion dollars,

34
00:01:37,760 --> 00:01:40,600
Speaker 2: billions of dollars of infrastructure deficit at the moment because

35
00:01:40,640 --> 00:01:43,120
Speaker 2: we've kept rates artificially low over duperation.

36
00:01:43,319 --> 00:01:45,520
Speaker 1: See here's the thing. I buy all of your argument

37
00:01:45,640 --> 00:01:49,200
Speaker 1: up until you say we could have done this well,

38
00:01:49,320 --> 00:01:51,480
Speaker 1: we could also have not wasted a whole bunch of

39
00:01:51,520 --> 00:01:54,000
Speaker 1: money on raised site raised crossings.

40
00:01:55,040 --> 00:01:57,400
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think if you look at the million council

41
00:01:57,440 --> 00:02:00,360
Speaker 2: spend and I use my counsel. As an example, over

42
00:02:00,400 --> 00:02:05,480
Speaker 2: eighty six percent of our capital spends is on transport,

43
00:02:06,000 --> 00:02:07,640
Speaker 2: order and wastewater infrastructure.

44
00:02:07,680 --> 00:02:11,240
Speaker 1: You know what exactly, really key exact how many raised crossings?

45
00:02:11,960 --> 00:02:14,440
Speaker 1: You know how many cycle ways that no one uses?

46
00:02:14,760 --> 00:02:16,960
Speaker 1: This is what the problem that you'll run into when

47
00:02:16,960 --> 00:02:18,480
Speaker 1: you're coming out and saying no, I don't want a

48
00:02:18,520 --> 00:02:21,680
Speaker 1: rates cap because of X y Z, people will say, well,

49
00:02:21,680 --> 00:02:23,920
Speaker 1: maybe if you didn't spend money on dumb stuff, we

50
00:02:23,960 --> 00:02:24,720
Speaker 1: would agree with you.

51
00:02:25,680 --> 00:02:28,120
Speaker 2: Yeah, and rates caping is just not the tool what

52
00:02:28,200 --> 00:02:30,520
Speaker 2: we're saying, we do want more affordable rates. But we've

53
00:02:30,560 --> 00:02:35,320
Speaker 2: seen international examples and Australia is them. South Australia doesn't

54
00:02:35,360 --> 00:02:38,080
Speaker 2: have rates capping, Victorian New South Wales do. When you

55
00:02:38,120 --> 00:02:41,560
Speaker 2: compare the rates costs for those two communities, what about

56
00:02:42,600 --> 00:02:43,520
Speaker 2: on dumb lower?

57
00:02:43,639 --> 00:02:46,640
Speaker 1: What if we cap spending on dumb stuff would help?

58
00:02:46,720 --> 00:02:50,119
Speaker 2: But you know, I think I think that's what councils

59
00:02:50,120 --> 00:02:52,800
Speaker 2: do as they think through their transparent way of talking

60
00:02:52,800 --> 00:02:55,200
Speaker 2: to communities. We have long term plans. We have people

61
00:02:55,200 --> 00:02:56,920
Speaker 2: coming in and talking to us about what they do

62
00:02:56,960 --> 00:02:59,079
Speaker 2: and don't want us to spend it. I think you're right.

63
00:02:59,120 --> 00:03:02,720
Speaker 2: The transparency council decision making is important, but are camping

64
00:03:02,760 --> 00:03:03,440
Speaker 2: doesn't solve that?

65
00:03:04,280 --> 00:03:08,680
Speaker 1: Sam, what do you say to people like Margaret Murray

66
00:03:08,720 --> 00:03:11,920
Speaker 1: beinge who was on this program last week Western Bay

67
00:03:11,960 --> 00:03:14,880
Speaker 1: of Plenty Council they've pulled out of local government New Zealand.

68
00:03:14,880 --> 00:03:17,959
Speaker 1: They say that you're just a left wing propaganda machine.

69
00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:22,960
Speaker 2: Yeah, ah Man, Local government New Zealand has made up

70
00:03:22,960 --> 00:03:26,040
Speaker 2: from people from councils all across New Zealanders, a full

71
00:03:26,080 --> 00:03:29,840
Speaker 2: mix across political spectrums. And yeah, to say that just

72
00:03:29,880 --> 00:03:31,760
Speaker 2: doesn't sort of let's go on to the reality of

73
00:03:31,760 --> 00:03:32,280
Speaker 2: what ELG.

74
00:03:32,200 --> 00:03:35,960
Speaker 1: And Z is. Okay, so you wouldn't consider yourself a

75
00:03:36,040 --> 00:03:37,720
Speaker 1: left wing propaganda.

76
00:03:37,200 --> 00:03:41,000
Speaker 2: Machine, no way, okay, all right.

77
00:03:41,200 --> 00:03:43,640
Speaker 1: Sam, thanks for your time. Sam Bratton, who's the president

78
00:03:43,760 --> 00:03:47,120
Speaker 1: of Algae and Z not a left wing propaganda machine.

79
00:03:47,840 --> 00:03:51,000
Speaker 2: For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to

80
00:03:51,120 --> 00:03:54,120
Speaker 2: news talks it'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow

81
00:03:54,160 --> 00:03:55,960
Speaker 2: the podcast on iHeartRadio.