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Speaker 1: Back here, double digit rate rises. You would have seen

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Speaker 1: this if you live in say Hamilton, you've got nineteen

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Speaker 1: point nine percent increases. Wellington you're getting about sixteen percent

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Speaker 1: to need in seventeen and a half percent. It hurts right,

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Speaker 1: and there are big issues like infrastructure and climate resilience

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Speaker 1: that need to be paid for. But a new report

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Speaker 1: out this morning from Local Government New Zealand and NZII

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Speaker 1: says that government policy changes are costing council's millions. They

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Speaker 1: say that one size fit all policies from central government

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Speaker 1: don't consider the impact and the cost for local government.

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Speaker 1: It's death by a thousand cuts. Joining me this morning,

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Speaker 1: Campbell Barry, Vice President of Local Government, New Zealand and

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Speaker 1: Lower Hut Mayor Campbell, thanks for being with me. Can

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Speaker 1: you give us an example of one of these issues

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Speaker 1: that central throws onto you and you guys have to

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Speaker 1: pay for.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, good morning. The first example I can give you

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Speaker 2: is the speed restriction changes that were brought in by

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Speaker 2: the previous government for us at Lower Hut that cost

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Speaker 2: US five hundred and seventy thousand other three years to implement.

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Speaker 2: We're now being told by the new government to reverse

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Speaker 2: that or to go through a process to confirm our position,

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Speaker 2: which will cost another five hundred and seventy thousand dollars

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Speaker 2: over three years to implement. In my mind, that's just

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Speaker 2: the definition of insanity and a waste of money.

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Speaker 1: That's madness. Can you not just why does it cost

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Speaker 1: so much to change the speeds? Can you not just

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Speaker 1: rip the old signs down?

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Speaker 2: Basically, the national policy statement in that space, or the

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Speaker 2: policy that the government put forward, requires us to go

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Speaker 2: through a certain process and implementation.

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Speaker 1: There's a range of different things that part of it.

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Speaker 1: I mean, that's incredibly frustrating. I feel immediately annoyed just

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Speaker 1: hearing you say it, and what a waste. So do

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Speaker 1: you what are you asking for that? When government makes

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Speaker 1: changes like this, they actually cost it and then reimburse you.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, they should fund it. We need to put an

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Speaker 2: end to unfunded mandates. They are having a serious impact

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Speaker 2: on the bottom line, either they contribute towards the rate

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Speaker 2: increases that we're seeing or simply councils suck it up.

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Speaker 2: They absorbed that cost, and it means that there's an

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Speaker 2: impact on services and other places which communities are expecting

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Speaker 2: us to do things. So another example I could give

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Speaker 2: you is the National Policy Statement on Urban Development seven

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Speaker 2: hundred and fifty thousand dollars for us to implement, and

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Speaker 2: also delayed our full district FLAN review by eighteen months,

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Speaker 2: which had a number of other file on effects. We

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Speaker 2: could go on all day, and councils have been feeling

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Speaker 2: this for decades.

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Speaker 1: Do you have a total figure? Have you worked out

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Speaker 1: how much these death by a thousand cuts changes are

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Speaker 1: costing local government in total?

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Speaker 2: What the report found? It was really difficult to put

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Speaker 2: a number on that, but it undoubtedly is in the

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Speaker 2: tens of millions. We know it's a lot. The reason

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Speaker 2: for not being able to put a number on it

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Speaker 2: is because so often councils just suck it up, They

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Speaker 2: absorbed that cost and it has an impact on other

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Speaker 2: areas of council services. So we don't necessarily we aren't

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Speaker 2: exactly able to point to it, but there are a

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Speaker 2: number of anecdotal examples which councils could give you of

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Speaker 2: this happening over such a long period of time.

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Speaker 1: All right, thanks so much for your time this morning,

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Speaker 1: Campbell Barry. For more from News Talks EDB listen live

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