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Speaker 1: We've got more race based trouble at council level, this

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Speaker 1: time in horror Fenua. A couple of councils are calling

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Speaker 1: out a proposal that would give E we first write

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Speaker 1: a refusal at market rate when the council sells certain properties.

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Speaker 1: Now the council votes on this tomorrow. Claim is it

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Speaker 1: only got this far because the public were locked out

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Speaker 1: of a meeting last year. A similar first of its

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Speaker 1: current policy for council land was adopted apparently by Towering

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Speaker 1: back in twenty twenty one. Anyway, Local Council of Sam

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Speaker 1: Jennings is with a Sam very good morning to you.

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Speaker 2: Morning Mike how I a.

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Speaker 1: Very well thank you any land or certain land No.

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Speaker 2: So this is a default policy that would see all

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Speaker 2: of council's land that is suitless land that's deemed non

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Speaker 2: core to be offered first to EWE.

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Speaker 1: Why were the public locked out of the meeting?

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Speaker 2: So this is a proposal that was first cooked up

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Speaker 2: by a couple of councilors back in two wenty twenty three.

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Speaker 2: It was a sort of piggybacked off another another decision

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Speaker 2: and it's taken almost two years for it to navigate

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Speaker 2: its way through the through the council machine. But it's yeah,

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Speaker 2: it's ultimately just a really ill thought out policy that

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Speaker 2: that you know that that two years sort of indicates

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Speaker 2: how how much trouble there has been in trying to

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Speaker 2: get something ready to put in front of counsel.

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Speaker 1: Has the public had any say on this at all?

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Speaker 1: Would the public be widely aware of what's going on

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Speaker 1: locally or not?

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Speaker 2: Not at all? This? Look, this the first direction to

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Speaker 2: the CEO to go away and think about this was

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Speaker 2: was done in public? Excluded? And yes there's been a

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Speaker 2: couple of workshops that have happened since, but no, look,

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Speaker 2: this is on the on the public agenda tomorrow. I'm

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Speaker 2: certain that the vast majority of our population would have

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Speaker 2: absolutely no awareness of this at all.

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Speaker 1: Of those who think this is a good idea, what's

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Speaker 1: their argument?

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Speaker 2: I think I think the argument sort of stems from

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Speaker 2: this idea that in some ways it's a it's a

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Speaker 2: form of redress, or or it's it's you know that

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Speaker 2: we get this this phrase it's the right thing to do,

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Speaker 2: and you know that that's problematic from from my perspective

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Speaker 2: and from some of my colleagues perspectives, where we say

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Speaker 2: this is about betting privilege or a right into council policy.

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Speaker 2: And that's contrary to this whole obligation of stenness, transparency

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Speaker 2: and that whole.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and the financial if it's any land, I mean,

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Speaker 1: if you were arguing with me that, look, this was

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Speaker 1: land they once held and there's a claim in the

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Speaker 1: tribunal and there's been a dispute over this particular piece

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Speaker 1: of land, I might have some sympathy. But if you're

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Speaker 1: telling me it's literally any chunk of land that you

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Speaker 1: go to sell and Mari get firsts, that's just straight

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Speaker 1: up and down racism.

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Speaker 2: Correct. And we and we have a property portfolio that

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Speaker 2: has small, sort of weird slivers of land through to

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Speaker 2: large pieces of land that have significant development potential. And

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Speaker 2: I'm with you if the better approach would be to

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Speaker 2: simply understand what the level of interest is across various

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Speaker 2: pieces of land, if there's some that have courts of

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Speaker 2: significance or something like that, But that doesn't take away

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Speaker 2: from our obligation to ratepayers to.

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Speaker 1: Getting the best price for the land and put it

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Speaker 1: out to tender and whoever pays the most as bad.

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Speaker 1: So how do you think the vote will go tomorrow?

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Speaker 1: Because he's the Democratic. Then do you think you'll win

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Speaker 1: or lose?

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Speaker 2: Well, look, I think it's a pretty finally, finally balanced

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Speaker 2: decision and so that's that's going to be my message,

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Speaker 2: is that hoping that our ratepayers come out and request

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Speaker 2: speaking rights and tell us what they think, because this

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Speaker 2: is the only opportunity to do that.

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Speaker 1: Where's the mayor on this, Look.

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Speaker 2: Don't know, I don't don't know. He wasn't there for

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Speaker 2: the original it was the one, one and only meeting.

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Speaker 2: I think he's had to be absent for and he

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Speaker 2: missed the vote on whether they go and sending the

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Speaker 2: CEO away to do some work on this. But as

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Speaker 2: I say that, that was a surprise to many of

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Speaker 2: us at the time.

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Speaker 1: On related matters, do you have Marie wards or seats?

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Speaker 2: Yes, we do, we have two mightywards.

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Speaker 1: And you're putting those to what a referendum, the local

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Speaker 1: body election or you abscraping them.

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Speaker 2: So yeah, no, it's going to a referendum.

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Speaker 1: And do you reckon it'll win or lose?

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Speaker 2: Look again, I think the vote will be pretty finely

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Speaker 2: balanced here in if you yeah, it's I think it's

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Speaker 2: going to be closer than people might think.

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Speaker 1: That's interesting. Well good luck with it. I mean, I

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Speaker 1: don't know. See, here's the thing. We had to old

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Speaker 1: Simon brown on earlier, and he's busy telling councils to

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Speaker 1: get back to the basics and get on with being

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Speaker 1: a council and stop you know, dabbling in these sort

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Speaker 1: of areas. It doesn't seem to be landing. Do you

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Speaker 1: guys listen to central government at all or you don't

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Speaker 1: really care.

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Speaker 2: Or well yeah, this is the thing is that I

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Speaker 2: feel certainly our council at times gets very distracted with

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Speaker 2: some of the very soft, fluffy identity politics and not

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Speaker 2: on the the you know, the big important stuff, the

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Speaker 2: strategic infrastructure decisions. So yeah, look, I think it is

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Speaker 2: a council wide problem.

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Speaker 1: Right, Well go old Marat. I wish you're the best.

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Speaker 1: Sam Jennings, who is one of the councilors in Horror Fenway,

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Speaker 1: I know what you do. See it goes back to

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Speaker 1: the government swimming swimming, and can say that till he's

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Speaker 1: blue in the face. But if people ignore him, you

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Speaker 1: look like a weak government, don't you. For more from

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