1
00:00:00,160 --> 00:00:02,600
Speaker 1: Here's a question for you. Was your first reaction to

2
00:00:02,640 --> 00:00:05,160
Speaker 1: the news of that sewage pumping into Wellington's water something

3
00:00:05,200 --> 00:00:07,720
Speaker 1: along the lines of, oh, well, I suppose these kinds

4
00:00:07,720 --> 00:00:10,840
Speaker 1: of things happen. Now, I'm asking you, because I've been

5
00:00:10,840 --> 00:00:12,880
Speaker 1: fighting the urge for the last twenty four hours to

6
00:00:12,880 --> 00:00:15,080
Speaker 1: simply waive this one away as one of those unfortunate,

7
00:00:15,200 --> 00:00:18,200
Speaker 1: unforeseen things that just happened from time to time, you know,

8
00:00:18,320 --> 00:00:21,279
Speaker 1: mistakes happen. I'm very glad that I did resist the

9
00:00:21,360 --> 00:00:23,439
Speaker 1: urge because the latest news on it is actually that

10
00:00:23,520 --> 00:00:25,960
Speaker 1: this facility at more Point is run by a private

11
00:00:26,000 --> 00:00:29,720
Speaker 1: contract of Violia, and there have been years of warnings

12
00:00:29,760 --> 00:00:33,120
Speaker 1: that it was non compliant. Since January twenty twenty six,

13
00:00:33,440 --> 00:00:37,280
Speaker 1: two years ago, it has been non compliant every single

14
00:00:37,760 --> 00:00:41,400
Speaker 1: month except for two. That's a pretty poor rate. Issues

15
00:00:41,440 --> 00:00:44,640
Speaker 1: have included discharges that shouldn't have happened. Issues have included

16
00:00:44,680 --> 00:00:47,960
Speaker 1: odor problems and multiple issues with per bacteria. A review

17
00:00:47,960 --> 00:00:49,400
Speaker 1: three years ago had to look at all the water

18
00:00:49,400 --> 00:00:51,480
Speaker 1: treatment plants the slot runs about four of them across

19
00:00:51,520 --> 00:00:55,279
Speaker 1: the Wellington region. Found understaffing, inexperienced operators, in the fact

20
00:00:55,320 --> 00:00:58,280
Speaker 1: that frontline teams were basically being forced to deal with

21
00:00:58,320 --> 00:01:02,160
Speaker 1: complex problems all by themselves without any executive help. Now,

22
00:01:02,240 --> 00:01:05,280
Speaker 1: given that we don't actually know what exactly went wrong

23
00:01:05,280 --> 00:01:08,080
Speaker 1: with the pipe yesterday, we don't know if the warnings

24
00:01:08,200 --> 00:01:10,680
Speaker 1: were related to what went wrong, as if had we

25
00:01:10,760 --> 00:01:13,280
Speaker 1: acted on the warnings, this mightn't have happened. We don't know.

26
00:01:13,560 --> 00:01:16,240
Speaker 1: But clearly what was happening anyway wasn't good enough. And

27
00:01:16,240 --> 00:01:19,560
Speaker 1: so what it brings me to is mine, mine ours

28
00:01:19,600 --> 00:01:23,640
Speaker 1: everybody's default reaction, which is to give counsels a free pass.

29
00:01:23,720 --> 00:01:26,240
Speaker 1: I don't know why we do that. I suspect we

30
00:01:26,280 --> 00:01:28,760
Speaker 1: do it because actually we're pretty fair minded people in

31
00:01:28,760 --> 00:01:32,240
Speaker 1: this country. We try to accommodate other people's errors counsels.

32
00:01:32,680 --> 00:01:35,600
Speaker 1: Maybe also counsels are a monopoly. If we don't like

33
00:01:35,680 --> 00:01:37,480
Speaker 1: what they do, we've really got nowhere else to go.

34
00:01:37,560 --> 00:01:39,680
Speaker 1: So what's the point in getting upset about it? So

35
00:01:39,720 --> 00:01:42,880
Speaker 1: what our reaction is simply to increasingly lower our standards

36
00:01:43,040 --> 00:01:46,520
Speaker 1: to meet counsels crappy standards. But really we shouldn't do that.

37
00:01:47,000 --> 00:01:49,840
Speaker 1: Wellingtonians should be angry about this, as should the residents

38
00:01:49,880 --> 00:01:52,720
Speaker 1: of the of Christ Church about their Bromley stench, which

39
00:01:52,720 --> 00:01:55,680
Speaker 1: has been going on for years now. Voting, as we know,

40
00:01:55,880 --> 00:01:58,080
Speaker 1: for more competent people is probably not going to fix

41
00:01:58,120 --> 00:02:00,720
Speaker 1: this problem and never does. Probably all that is left

42
00:02:00,720 --> 00:02:03,880
Speaker 1: for Wellingtonians and everybody else and the media is to

43
00:02:03,880 --> 00:02:07,040
Speaker 1: get cross and then shame the councils and shame their

44
00:02:07,040 --> 00:02:11,560
Speaker 1: contractors into doing better. For more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive,

45
00:02:11,720 --> 00:02:15,160
Speaker 1: Listen live to News Talk Set B from four pm weekdays,

46
00:02:15,240 --> 00:02:17,440
Speaker 1: or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio