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Speaker 1: Right well. Water Safety New Zealand has had its funding

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Speaker 1: pulled by ACC. ACC is cutting more than a million dollars,

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Speaker 1: saying it can't see any measurable reduction in drowning related

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Speaker 1: injury claims. Gavin Walker is the acting CEO for Water

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Speaker 1: Safety New Zealand. Hey, Gavin, hi there, pea. Is it fair?

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Speaker 1: So ACC's argument is basically they can't see that it's

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Speaker 1: helping it all, so they're pulling the funding. Is that fair?

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Speaker 2: Well, it depends what you look at. So ACC's got

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Speaker 2: a really interesting challenge on its hands. The schemes under pressure,

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Speaker 2: and from their point of view, a lot of what's

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Speaker 2: driving cost in the water space. Costs for their scheme

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Speaker 2: is a whole lot of things like twisted knees, sprains

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Speaker 2: while out on water craft, and concussion and injuries. That

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Speaker 2: stuff's really important, but it's not what we're focused on.

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Speaker 2: We are focused on helping New Zealanders be safe in

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Speaker 2: the water and reducing loss of life, reducing drowning, and

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Speaker 2: we think that that needs to continue to be part

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Speaker 2: of the picture here. We understand ACC's challenge, but actually

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Speaker 2: the work that we've done over the last twenty five

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Speaker 2: over the last twenty years together has made a measurable

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Speaker 2: difference to reduce the drowning risk for New Zealand, and

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Speaker 2: we're worried that all of that is put at risk

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Speaker 2: without some continuation of funding.

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Speaker 1: Are you able to replace this funding? I mean it's

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Speaker 1: a lot of money, isn't it. It's about one fifth

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Speaker 1: of what you get.

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Speaker 2: Oh, it's absolutely It's a big part of our funding

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Speaker 2: for both our organization and the network of community partners

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Speaker 2: that we have. We're working really hard to with ministers

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Speaker 2: and others in New Zealand to see if we can

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Speaker 2: find alternative ways to replace this funding. But there's no

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Speaker 2: hiding from the fact that stuff really hurts.

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Speaker 1: Right Gavin, I really appreciate your time mate this Gavin Walker,

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Speaker 1: Water Safety New Zealand, Acting Chief Executive. For more from

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Speaker 1: Hither Duplessy Allen Drive.

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Speaker 2: Listen live to Newstalk SETB from four pm weekdays, or

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Speaker 2: follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.