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Speaker 1: Ever do for c Ellen's Higher Order House in New Zealand,

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Speaker 1: Chief executive Andrew McKenzie has quit. He's going to leave

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Speaker 1: the agency in October with a three hundred and sixty

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Speaker 1: five thousand dollars payout. He apparently agreed with the new chairperson,

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Speaker 1: Simon Mouter, that it was time to step down as

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Speaker 1: the agency prepared to undergo significant changes in the chair

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Speaker 1: Simon Mooter's with.

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Speaker 2: Us now, Simon, Hi, Heather.

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Speaker 1: Did he come to you and say I want to

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Speaker 1: quit or did you go to him and say it's

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Speaker 1: time that you quit?

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Speaker 2: Oh? No, Look, given that given the extent of change

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Speaker 2: going on in this organization, with the changes through the

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Speaker 2: government's budget allocations to KO and the and the findings

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Speaker 2: of the independent review, it was only right that we

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Speaker 2: that I sat down with Andrew McKenzie and had a

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Speaker 2: conversation about his future and given the change to his role,

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Speaker 2: we came to the conclusion that it was the right

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Speaker 2: time for him to move on after eight years doing

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Speaker 2: a very good job for the business.

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Speaker 1: He seems like a really smart guy. Was he just

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Speaker 1: not up to it?

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Speaker 2: No, he's very I think he's been a very effective CEO,

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Speaker 2: and I think If you look back at his achievements,

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Speaker 2: there were many. He's done a terrific job. He was

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Speaker 2: there at the birth of the king Or organization and

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Speaker 2: led the organization. Yeah, I know, he's done an amazing job.

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Speaker 2: Building the biggest construction program for new for residential in

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Speaker 2: New Zealand. The organization will deliver around three and a

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Speaker 2: half thousand new homes this year. Was an extraordinary achievement.

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Speaker 1: But then ko is massively in debt. So was that

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Speaker 1: that smart?

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Speaker 2: Well, No, that's the that's the financial settings that are

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Speaker 2: agreed with the government that new construction is funded one

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Speaker 2: hundred percent by debt. So that's that's been a decision

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Speaker 2: made between all of the parties, the ministries and king

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Speaker 2: Or over the last few years. And if you build

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Speaker 2: a lot of houses, you will increase the debt. And

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Speaker 2: now that debt's becoming expensive to service, and that's part

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Speaker 2: of why the government and the Independent Review have called

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Speaker 2: for a new plan that make sure we live with

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Speaker 2: inside a manageable debt cap and that we run the

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Speaker 2: business in a financially sustainable way. And we'll be delivering

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Speaker 2: that report in November. How we're going to do it.

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Speaker 1: What's kind of been lost in the story with Andrew

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Speaker 1: McKenzie today is that there's also five board members who

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Speaker 1: have quit. Why did they all leave it once?

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Speaker 2: Well, no, they the board, some of the board, the

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Speaker 2: board members we were in the process, says, you know,

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Speaker 2: the review report recommended there be a refresh of the board.

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Speaker 2: So the Minister, the Ministry and I have been working

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Speaker 2: through those changes. There will be a set of new

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Speaker 2: board members appointed later this week. And some of the

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Speaker 2: board members who who finished up yesterday their terms had

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Speaker 2: actually ended some time ago, and we're just staying on

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Speaker 2: for this process to take its course. And one head

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Speaker 2: resigned of their own volition earlier. So I think it's

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Speaker 2: just that change process occurring now, which was called for

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Speaker 2: in the report.

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Speaker 1: Simon Ko has earned a really bad reputation of Lake.

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Speaker 1: Do you think it's all deserved?

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Speaker 2: Look, I think the independent review particularly called out governance issues,

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Speaker 2: and governance in a state owned business is complex. It's

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Speaker 2: a three legged stool between the government, ministers, the monitoring

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Speaker 2: units and the board. And you know, I can see,

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Speaker 2: I can see how things have gone wrong in there,

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Speaker 2: and they've rightly been called out and it's my job

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Speaker 2: to help get those sort of but actually operationally, I

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Speaker 2: think king Or does a pretty sound job. It's not

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Speaker 2: an easy job running seventy three thousand homes with two

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Speaker 2: hundred thousand New Zealanders in them, and many of whom

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Speaker 2: have special and demanding needs. And so you know, I

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Speaker 2: think from what I've seen in my short time involved,

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Speaker 2: it's actually a pretty well organized business and managed by

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Speaker 2: people who really do care and want to do a

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Speaker 2: great job. And that's a good platform to build from.

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Speaker 1: Simon, thank you so much for your time, appreciate and

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Speaker 1: best of luck turning this thing around. That Simon moved

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Speaker 1: to the Caying auto chair. For more from Hither Duplessy

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Speaker 1: Allen Drive. Listen live to news talks.

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