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Speaker 1: Now the Acts Party is rolling out policies ahead of

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Speaker 1: their first shot at local elections, and one of their

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Speaker 1: proposals is to scrap voting rights for unelected council members.

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Speaker 1: We're talking about man A Fenawa appointees, youth councilor positions

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Speaker 1: and so on. Neil Holdham is the mayor of New

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Speaker 1: Plymouth and with us.

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Speaker 2: Hey, Neil, get a, Heather, how you doing.

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Speaker 1: I'm very well, thank you. Did you guys have do

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Speaker 1: you have unelected positions on your council?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? Absolutely, yeah, we've got well look they've been elected

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Speaker 2: by their own people. But yeah, we have a committee

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Speaker 2: that's got five councilors and a representative of each of

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Speaker 2: our five EWI and you know they make decisions. They

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Speaker 2: do things like road naming, allocating funds to MURRAI, they

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Speaker 2: make recommendations on a whole range of council issues and

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Speaker 2: it's been we've been doing it for eight years. Works

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Speaker 2: really well. And I mean I look at this whole thing.

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Speaker 2: You know, you've got these political parties in Wellington and

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Speaker 2: they're laying awake at night. You know, we've got cost

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Speaker 2: of living issues, the inability to build infrastructure. People haven't

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Speaker 2: got homes to live in, and this is the stuff

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Speaker 2: that's keeping them up at night. You know it's a joke,

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Speaker 2: And I mean you know that they don't the.

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Speaker 1: Cost of living for you. I mean, like it is possible,

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Speaker 1: isn't it, Because how much.

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Speaker 2: Can they can you give us an example of one

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Speaker 2: example where having an EI representative on a council committee

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Speaker 2: has caused a problem for somebody or somebody's messed out. Well,

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Speaker 2: hold on a good policy.

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Speaker 1: Didn't you just say the act Party and people in

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Speaker 1: central government should be focused on the cost of living?

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Speaker 3: Yeah? Absolutely, okay?

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Speaker 1: So who so how many you've got five of these

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Speaker 1: mane offeneral positions?

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Speaker 2: Have you? Yes? Correct?

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Speaker 1: And who pays the wages of these man of feneral positions?

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Speaker 2: Well? Look, yeah, we pay them an hourly rate for sure,

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Speaker 2: and if we if we didn't, I think it's I

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Speaker 2: think it's about eighty or one hundred dollars an.

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Speaker 1: Hour neil eighty or one hundred eighty or one hundred

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Speaker 1: dollars an hour. That's like twice what you pay for

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Speaker 1: a senior builder. What are you doing?

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Speaker 2: Well, I don't know. I mean, didn't we pay forty

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Speaker 2: four thousand dollars to fly a couple of prime ministers

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Speaker 2: to the top of them.

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Speaker 1: It doesn't mean you're just as somebody else is making

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Speaker 1: a stupid decision. So anyway, point, so we're paying, we're

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Speaker 1: paying possibly up to five hundred dollars for these people

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Speaker 1: who are unelected to sit there around the council and

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Speaker 1: give their vibes on things that pushes up your rates.

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Speaker 1: Do you go cost of No, I think that.

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Speaker 2: I think what you're saying is if we if we,

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Speaker 2: if they weren't there, that we wouldn't have people in

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Speaker 2: those sets because we would be prank counselors.

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Speaker 1: So are you telling me that you have just taken

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Speaker 1: five enough positions away to put uneliketed Literally just asked

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Speaker 1: me the question Neil before you said, who are these

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Speaker 1: people taking things from? And I can tell you it's

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Speaker 1: elected positions now because you're just been.

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Speaker 2: Talking about such a minuscule amount of money on the

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Speaker 2: on the bigger picture, you know this is not going

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Speaker 2: to materially change the cost of living. Ye council people up,

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Speaker 2: you know when we pick up your rubbish, how often

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Speaker 2: we mow the lawns. Know we were replacing pipes down

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Speaker 2: the street and you've got these micro managers in Wellington

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Speaker 2: that now want to determine what the committee structures are

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Speaker 2: we have, What was your structures?

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Speaker 1: What was your rating? What was your rating?

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Speaker 2: Average rate increased for newponments District Council this year was

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Speaker 2: about seven point five percent.

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Speaker 1: That's not bad. At seven point five percent.

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Speaker 2: That's correct.

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Speaker 1: And what was it last year?

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Speaker 2: I was about twelve?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, but but I think you know, if you're

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Speaker 3: if you're a hold on, but if you're trying to

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Speaker 3: draw a connection between you know, EWE representatives on council

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Speaker 3: and those numbers, you know, you know, I could tear

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Speaker 3: that argument to pieces here that it's an absolute nonsense.

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Speaker 2: Government have been putting non elected members on things like,

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Speaker 2: I mean, district health boards. The acting National Party were

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Speaker 2: quite happy to support those for years and guess who

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Speaker 2: they put on their non elected members? Government appointed and

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Speaker 2: they were making decisions about money. This is actually about

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Speaker 2: Mary bashing. This is about climbing over the fence and saying.

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Speaker 3: Yes it is.

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Speaker 2: It's about climbing over the fence and saying we're doing

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Speaker 2: such a good job in Wellington of getting the economy going,

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Speaker 2: getting the housing built, getting the cost of living down

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Speaker 2: that we've got time to climb over into that eight

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Speaker 2: percent that counsels manage and tell them how to do it.

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Speaker 2: I'm waiting for that policy on what days we have

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Speaker 2: to mow the lawns. But we need to be told

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Speaker 2: trouble well, what don't we need to We get to

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Speaker 2: be told every three years the same as them by

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Speaker 2: our electorate. But they micro managers, Neil. And the reality

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Speaker 2: is if they were doing a kick ass job down there,

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Speaker 2: and then then I'd say, yep, okay, look, you know

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Speaker 2: I've got a lot to learn from you, because you

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Speaker 2: guys are smoking it. You know you're doing amazing.

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Speaker 1: I think you make a fair point. I think you

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Speaker 1: make a fair point. But hear me out on this. Okay.

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Speaker 1: So what you're saying is it's Mardi bashing, and I

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Speaker 1: really object to that.

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Speaker 2: It's not because they're used it in their example.

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Speaker 1: Well, hold on a tack. But they also use the

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Speaker 1: youth councils, didn't they the youth council say that?

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Speaker 2: But it's I'm nearily focused because I think one.

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Speaker 1: Example, Neil, because you're you're very compelling and very likable

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Speaker 1: until you start cherry picking stuff and then I start

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Speaker 1: losing patience.

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Speaker 2: Well, you start cherry picking stuff. My daughters were saying

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Speaker 2: they were looking forward to the.

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Speaker 1: Sum Okay, so do you remember when Hawks Bay did

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Speaker 1: that thing, one of the Hawk's Bay counselors and they

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Speaker 1: had that you we went like we rained hell fire

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Speaker 1: on them for the youth counselor's thing. So to say

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Speaker 1: it's just Mardi bashing is not fair because when other

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Speaker 1: examples crop up, like the youth counselors, they get just

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Speaker 1: as much grief for it. And also, what I would

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Speaker 1: say to you is, I know that you you think

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Speaker 1: that that you can't really draw a line necessarily between

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Speaker 1: this and what happens with rates. But I would put

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Speaker 1: to you that it's an attitude problem that we have

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Speaker 1: at local council where if it's not you pay these

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Speaker 1: guys over the going rate for things and then necessary.

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Speaker 2: People to stay aligns with government's fees. You know, they've

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Speaker 2: got a fee schedule for all of the boards that

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Speaker 2: they allocate people, and our fees are well in line

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Speaker 2: with them, so so our in terms of what we're paying,

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Speaker 2: it's consistent. But but I mean, I'll just oh, you know,

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Speaker 2: in the big picture of things, we're working really well

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Speaker 2: with Marty and it's delivering results for our people. We're

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Speaker 2: getting projects done, we're cutting through a lot of the

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Speaker 2: rebound you makings. Well, no, no, because what it is

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Speaker 2: is about a group of people in Wellington that you know. Well,

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Speaker 2: I'll let you know. The public decide how efficient central

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Speaker 2: government is that they're so confident in their own abilities

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Speaker 2: that they're micro know what you're doing.

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Speaker 1: You're doing that annoying thing that kids do to parents, Now, Johnny,

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Speaker 1: wasn't that good either. Well, I just want better from

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Speaker 1: both of you, Neil. I want you guys at local

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Speaker 1: government to do a better job band Central.

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Speaker 2: So are you're saying it's better not to have you

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Speaker 2: don't believe that we should be able to bring in

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Speaker 2: the people that we feel will add value.

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Speaker 1: To our unelected positions. Get rid of all of them.

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Speaker 2: Really?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, one hundred percent. Okay, thank you for asking me, Neil.

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Speaker 1: It's lovely to chat to you. Neil hold him, but

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Speaker 1: he regrets that now I got the lone and that's

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Speaker 1: not what his daughters wanted. A mayor of New Plymouth.

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Speaker 1: For more from Heather Duplessy, Allen Drive listen live to

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