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Speaker 1: The huddle with New Zealand Southeby's International Realty. Find your

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Speaker 1: one of the kind.

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Speaker 2: On the huddle of that's this evening we have Morris Williamson,

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Speaker 2: Auckland Councilor and Craig Rennie c to chief economist Doello, you.

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Speaker 3: Two, good evening?

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Speaker 2: Fair enough?

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Speaker 3: Fair enough?

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Speaker 2: On the post day?

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Speaker 3: Morris, Ah, yeah, Look the world's changed. I mean, who's

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Speaker 3: still got a checkbook? Who's still got a landline? And

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Speaker 3: post is something that had its day and was incredibly

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Speaker 3: useful and everyone relied on the post. But I don't

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Speaker 3: know whether i've ever last.

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Speaker 2: Say yeah, what do you think, Craig?

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Speaker 4: I think you're absolutely read. The post is declining, physical

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Speaker 4: posters declining, but parcels are going up. We are sending

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Speaker 4: more parcels as more Internet shopping than it's ever happening before.

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Speaker 4: The key thing is how do we protect the workforce

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Speaker 4: because the Post has been getting rid of postal workers

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Speaker 4: and in recruiting a lot more couriers who don't have

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Speaker 4: the same protections as the postal workers had. So it's

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Speaker 4: about making sure that we don't, you know, balance a

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Speaker 4: union is at Craig, It is indeed a union thing

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Speaker 4: and by buns and the cost of that change on

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Speaker 4: those workers.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, how long, Morris, if you could take a punt,

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Speaker 2: How long do you reckon it is before we finally

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Speaker 2: get rid of postal days like delivery days all together,

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Speaker 2: and we're just required to go and pick up whatever

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Speaker 2: mail we have every few months at a central location.

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Speaker 3: Well, I'm trying to think of whether there's any mail

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Speaker 3: you need any more any rate. I mean, every one

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Speaker 3: of our bills comes via internet. I've watched my wife

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Speaker 3: go back to the to the letter box, pull the

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Speaker 3: stuff out, walks over the yellow lid trow.

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Speaker 2: I mean, I think, Morris, you need to get your

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Speaker 2: regio in the mail, but that can come via courier.

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Speaker 2: Like everything that you really need in the mail, you

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Speaker 2: just career it.

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Speaker 3: Yes, well I think that may change to and be

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Speaker 3: actually be electronic. They're doing a whole lot of stuff

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Speaker 3: with new warrants and even the digital license. Yeah. Look,

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Speaker 3: I just think you've got to accept that things have changed.

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Speaker 3: And you imagine trying to tell people thirty years ago

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Speaker 3: to go without a checkbook.

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Speaker 4: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: True, that's a very good point, Craig. How do you

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Speaker 2: feel about the protesters out Winston's house. Do they need

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Speaker 2: to call this off?

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Speaker 4: I really think they do. I'm a fully paired up

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Speaker 4: member of the Union for Politicians and advisors and people

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Speaker 4: who work in Parliament. You can't protest, I say, people's

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Speaker 4: homes this way. It's not the right thing to do.

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Speaker 4: It doesn't help the campaigns. I personally don't support this.

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Speaker 1: What about you, Morris?

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Speaker 3: Oh, it's an outrage, absolutely outrage. I don't think Winston

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Speaker 3: would have even been there because it was a cabinet day,

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Speaker 3: so his wife jan who's just a lovely lady, she

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Speaker 3: would have been intimidated by a group of people out there.

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Speaker 3: They had a loud hailo blearing away and so on,

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Speaker 3: and I thought they went till some hour in the night,

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Speaker 3: which is it's just disgraceful. You want to go to approach,

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Speaker 3: go down to Victoria Park, do your protest. You know what,

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Speaker 3: do you ever stand on the side of the main

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Speaker 3: road do it. I'm not going to try and restrict

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Speaker 3: anyone's right to protest, but doing outside of any politicians

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Speaker 3: home is just wrong.

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Speaker 2: Craig, do you think the Labor Party is going to

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Speaker 2: support that legislation that makes this kind of thing unlawful.

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Speaker 4: No, because it's badly written, because well it doesn't set

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Speaker 4: out what is a protected area. So there's the Keat

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Speaker 4: Shepherd departments directly across the road from Parliament, which have

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Speaker 4: as some of their tenants and honors a number of

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Speaker 4: politicians that would then make any protest at Parliament illegal.

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Speaker 4: And it's it's as it's written, it doesn't work.

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Speaker 2: So would the would the Labor Party Craig help in

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Speaker 2: the submissions process which is what we're going through at

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Speaker 2: the moment, and actually rewrite it so it is workable.

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Speaker 4: Well, I would. You'd have to ask the Libor party up.

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Speaker 4: My guess is that they will. But as it's currently

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Speaker 4: written it doesn't work.

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Speaker 3: What do you think, Marris, Well, if there's got some

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Speaker 3: problems in the in the fine detail, that can be

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Speaker 3: tiied up through solect committee process and so on. But

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Speaker 3: I think the straight principle of it, as you know,

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Speaker 3: take me on when you want to in public meetings,

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Speaker 3: take me on and public things at the ATA Square

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Speaker 3: or Victoria Park, but you just stay away from my home.

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Speaker 3: Hither I was one of those in p who was

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Speaker 3: threatened to have my house and my family blown up,

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Speaker 3: and after a big investigation, the police court. The guy

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Speaker 3: in Avondale he had detonators dynamite in the lot and

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Speaker 3: went to court. He got five no, he got seven

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Speaker 3: years jail in the end, and my family were living

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Speaker 3: on the edge because of that, because we first of

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Speaker 3: all thought it was a pranky left voicemail message on

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Speaker 3: the tape. Fortunately we kept the tape and played it

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Speaker 3: back and the police followed through and finally caught it.

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Speaker 3: It's just wrong. If you disagree with me, fine and

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Speaker 3: tell me I'm wrong and you disagree with but threatening

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Speaker 3: that sort of stuff or just intimidation is just there's

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Speaker 3: no room for it, no room.

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Speaker 2: For It's totally looney behavior.

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Speaker 1: The huddle with New Zealand Southeby's International Realty, the global

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Speaker 1: leader in luxury real estate.

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Speaker 2: Right on the huddle we have Craig Rennie and Morris Williamson. Craig,

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Speaker 2: when you are the Minister of Finance, will you scrap

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Speaker 2: all of the local board politicians and the local body

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Speaker 2: politicians we have and just go to a manageable number.

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Speaker 4: In that fantastically hapathetical universe at now.

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Speaker 2: Oh well, no, you don't have my vote, bait, You've

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Speaker 2: just why wouldn't you say yes just for the popular vote.

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Speaker 4: No, local democracy is really important and local representation is

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Speaker 4: really important.

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Speaker 2: We've got too many, though, Morris, haven't We We.

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Speaker 3: Got far too many. Auckland Council has way more members

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Speaker 3: elected than Parliament.

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Speaker 2: How many count them up?

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Speaker 3: I think there's one hundred and seventy two for Auckland, yes,

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Speaker 3: but there's more because we've got quite a big stack

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Speaker 3: of people who come from the independent MARI Statutory Board

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Speaker 3: who get votes on the committees, so you can add

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Speaker 3: all of them. I think there's a dozen or so

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Speaker 3: of them as well, so you're one hundred and eighty

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Speaker 3: four or whatever, and there's what one twenty members of Parliament.

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Speaker 3: So for a city, we've got way more elected than

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Speaker 3: the country. It's wrong.

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Speaker 1: You're not going to count that.

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Speaker 2: You're not even counting the Licensing Trust. Yes, carry on?

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Speaker 3: Please, no, no, no. What happened is that this would

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Speaker 3: propose some increases during the process last year, and I

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Speaker 3: just was so objecting in my how it board out here.

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Speaker 3: We had nine local board members. The proposal will go

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Speaker 3: to eleven. I voted against it. I voted against it,

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Speaker 3: and I was one of about three and the whole

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Speaker 3: rest of the council voted to increase the number of

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Speaker 3: people in our local board, to have eleven local board

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Speaker 3: members rather than nine. I just think it's insane and

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Speaker 3: most people don't know their names to start with, Craig, do.

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Speaker 2: You change your mind yet?

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Speaker 1: No?

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Speaker 2: Come on, come on, How can you say that it's

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Speaker 2: okay to have more people running Auckland than there is

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Speaker 2: running the country.

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Speaker 4: Well, I didn't I say that you can. You can

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Speaker 4: have as many. You can have an argument about whether

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Speaker 4: or not there should be more or less, But to

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Speaker 4: not have them there's a different argument.

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Speaker 3: Oh no, no, it was reducing, not getting rid of them. No, no, no,

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Speaker 3: you don't get.

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Speaker 2: Rid of them all together. But you don't need that many.

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Speaker 2: I mean, for example, look at this, Craig. Okay, so

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Speaker 2: Kaikoda District has got eight elected members for four thy

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Speaker 2: four hundred people, which means they've got one person for

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Speaker 2: every five hundred and fifty. That's silly.

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Speaker 4: That does seem to be quite a lot of councilors

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Speaker 4: to be I don't think, yeah, you know, I'm going

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Speaker 4: to brook much argument from me there.

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Speaker 2: I don't need to go through the example of Southland.

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Speaker 4: Then we think I think in terms of but you know,

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Speaker 4: we undervalue local government and we get the local government

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Speaker 4: that we get because we undervalue you know, the expertise

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Speaker 4: and the people that we should be looking to get

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Speaker 4: onto these committees. And you know that possibly means giving

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Speaker 4: them more power, but that probably means having fewer often.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I suspect it.

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Speaker 3: Can I quickly, can iine that two of your stories together, postal.

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Speaker 2: And local goal postally connectors go.

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Speaker 3: It is absolutely insane that we vote using postal voting anymore.

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Speaker 3: Most people get it from their letter box and they

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Speaker 3: go straight on the rubbish bin. Most people have put

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Speaker 3: them on the fridge and never see them again. And

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Speaker 3: the participation rate right now, do you know how many

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Speaker 3: people who voted in an organ and your chances of

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Speaker 3: seeing it by mail closed off yesterday? Right now, seventeen

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Speaker 3: percent of all voters have voted. Seventeen percent. So that

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Speaker 3: just makes a mockery of the system. We've got to

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Speaker 3: go to either a technology based and give you a

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Speaker 3: you know, a secure code that you can use, or

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Speaker 3: we've got to go back to go to a place

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Speaker 3: like you do for central government and going vote there.

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Speaker 3: But postal voting is insane. And it's so out of date,

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Speaker 3: and the fact that New Zealand posts have closed down

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Speaker 3: a whole lot of their operation today makes it even

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Speaker 3: more outrageous.

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Speaker 2: Craig, have we convinced you, I mean, at the very

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Speaker 2: least like it does need massive reform, doesn't it.

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Speaker 4: Craig, Oh, local government absolutely need nice and performance government.

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Speaker 4: We got him there, we got I reckon, but local

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Speaker 4: government financing particular, that needs huge reform. Massive governments of

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Speaker 4: being asked up, local government of being asked to do

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Speaker 4: things that they simply do not have the financial tools

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Speaker 4: to do.

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Speaker 2: By the way, Craig, have you voted?

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Speaker 4: I have voted.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, good and you Morris?

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Speaker 3: Oh absolutely, yes'm I voted for a fantastic candidate. I

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Speaker 3: know him well.

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Speaker 2: Oh is it is it that that Williamson Chap, that's

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Speaker 2: william Yeah, he's not bad.

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Speaker 3: Not went together.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I've got a text here, Morris, Williamson makes so

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Speaker 2: much sense X Matamata College Champions. So I feel like

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Speaker 2: you're getting some votes anyway, lads, listens, good to talk

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Speaker 2: to you, Thank you very much, and I'm pleased that

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Speaker 2: we've already set up the future Minister of Finance to

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Speaker 2: do our duty work for US. Morris Williamson and Craig

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Speaker 2: Reennie our huddle this

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Speaker 1: Evening for more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, Listen live

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