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Speaker 1: Here the d Despite Wellington City Council and its mayor

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Speaker 1: constantly insisting that they're putting the highest ever amount of

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Speaker 1: money into fixing water pipes, it turns out they're not

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Speaker 1: paying that much, are they. They're only paying enough to

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Speaker 1: fix about one k of pipes a year, and that's

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Speaker 1: despite the fact that they've got two hundred and thirty

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Speaker 1: seven k's of pipes in a very poor condition and

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Speaker 1: one hundreds more k's of pipes that need fixing less urgently. Now.

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Speaker 1: Ben McNaulty is a Wellington City councilor.

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Speaker 2: Hi Ben, Hi, Heather, thanks for having me.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, thanks for joining us. Listen, why are you guys

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Speaker 1: putting in so little money?

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Speaker 2: So? Wellington Water are our trusted advisor in terms of

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Speaker 2: where the money goes. So I just want to stipulate

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Speaker 2: that we don't choose on are we going to replace

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Speaker 2: x kilometers pipes fixed x amounts at lex We put

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Speaker 2: the money in and then they decide from that pool

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Speaker 2: where that money should go. So in the first instance,

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Speaker 2: the decision to do less than a kilometer sits very

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Speaker 2: much operationally in their hand. At the same time, yes,

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Speaker 2: there is a point that we're not putting enough funding

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Speaker 2: in the earlier years of our long term plan, it

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Speaker 2: ramps up, it gets considerable, especially for the other years.

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Speaker 2: But right now, the big culprit that's actually gobbling up

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Speaker 2: all that spare cash is the town Hall. That project

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Speaker 2: is gobbling up hundreds of millions of dollars of our

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Speaker 2: borrowing capacity over the next three years. And that's borrowing

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Speaker 2: capacity that should be going to pipes, and it's going

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Speaker 2: to an old building instead.

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Speaker 1: Didn't Wellington didn't Wellington Water tell you, guys, you need

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Speaker 1: to fund them sufficiently to replace forty k's of pipes

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Speaker 1: every year.

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Speaker 2: Yes, they've told us that, and why are you borrowed?

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Speaker 2: We've borrowed to the maximum that we can. But councilors

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Speaker 2: don't make decisions in the vacuum here, and they've made

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Speaker 2: decisions on other spending priorities sort have gobbled up the

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Speaker 2: debt headroom and ability to put money into there. And again,

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Speaker 2: the town Hall is just such the prime culprit that's

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Speaker 2: sitting in those first few years at the LTP that

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Speaker 2: even though that town Hall is not there, we wouldn't

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Speaker 2: actually have the sufficient capital to address it. And it

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Speaker 2: goes to the point of why is government doing water reform,

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Speaker 2: while was the past government doing water reform because the

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Speaker 2: way that council funds its water is fundamentally broken.

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Speaker 1: How much money are you putting into replacing the pipes

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Speaker 1: this year?

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Speaker 2: I believe it's about eighty million dollars of capital investment.

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Speaker 2: But that is again, we give Wellington Water about eighty

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Speaker 2: million dollars of capital and then they make the decisions

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Speaker 2: of where they're going to diverge that funding through there

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Speaker 2: so's going to fundamental the going repairs.

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Speaker 1: I know, I know the town hall is hugely expensive,

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Speaker 1: and that is a fair point to make, But why

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Speaker 1: don't you guys cancel your absolute weird obsession with ripping

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Speaker 1: up roads and replacing them with cycle ways and all

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Speaker 1: and the Golden Mile and stuff and put that money

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Speaker 1: into the pipes instead.

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Speaker 2: Well, those are the discussions that are happening in the

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Speaker 2: LTP Amendment. Right, the officers had stipulated that the Golden

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Speaker 2: Mile should be looked at in terms of the cost saving,

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Speaker 2: but nonetheless at the financial situation. I don't understanding you.

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Speaker 1: I just don't understand you, guys, Like you're sitting there,

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Speaker 1: it was if it was your house, right and your

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Speaker 1: pipes were crappy and busting the whole time. You would

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Speaker 1: deal with your pipes before you dealt with like putting

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Speaker 1: yourself a nice, flesh new driveway. So why did you

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Speaker 1: guys not in the first instance make that decision that's

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Speaker 1: so bizarre to me.

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Speaker 2: Well, in the first instance, the decisions about cuts now

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Speaker 2: around having financial resilience. So what we've been told by

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Speaker 2: k MG, by the auditors of the world as actually,

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Speaker 2: we need to have a billion dollars of headrooms should

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Speaker 2: an earthquake hit and all the spending cuts that we're

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Speaker 2: planning for our LTP minute.

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Speaker 1: But you're not talking about the that's not the same

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Speaker 1: thing as me. What I'm saying to you is it's

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Speaker 1: an opportunity cost here. Why didn't you when you first

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Speaker 1: sat down and say we're not going to do the

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Speaker 1: Golden Mile because we're going to use that money for pipes.

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Speaker 2: Well, that money wouldn't have gone into the Golden Miles.

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Speaker 2: What I'm saying, so our pressing issued, the advice that's

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Speaker 2: sitting in front of us is between water and having

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Speaker 2: enough money for our resilience. Actually, resilience is where the

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Speaker 2: money has to go through. That's the professional opinion.

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Speaker 1: Makes it works like that means you had two things

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Speaker 1: that should have taken priority over the Golden Mile, and

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Speaker 1: you picked the Golden Mile.

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Speaker 2: Anyway, again, though, let's take the Golden Mile just from

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Speaker 2: the City Council's perspective, that is fifty percent government funded.

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Speaker 2: So you have to look at and there's thirty million

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Speaker 2: dollars of pipe replacements within that project that are half

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Speaker 2: being government funded. So I just want to make the

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Speaker 2: point there that actually the Golden Mile has quite a

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Speaker 2: substantive water infrastructure component and Wellington ratepayers are getting half

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Speaker 2: of that component from the government. If that deal actually, yeah.

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Speaker 1: I know that. I don't buy it. Hey, listen, tell

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Speaker 1: me something. You guys have got this big council meeting

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Speaker 1: tomorrow where you need to decide what you're going to

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Speaker 1: cut to be able to afford everything. Any idea, what's

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Speaker 1: going is the Golden Mile going?

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Speaker 2: I think everything's going to be a matter of discussion

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Speaker 2: up until the votes. At the moment, there are texts, messages, emails,

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Speaker 2: meetings flying left, right and center, people trying to put

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Speaker 2: things in, people trying to take things out, and honestly, Heather,

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Speaker 2: I just don't know quite where the others are.

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Speaker 1: A lot of lobbying at the moment is there.

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Speaker 2: It's going to be a lot of phone calls and

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Speaker 2: things into the evening. I'm sitting in this weird camp

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Speaker 2: where you know, there's cuts coming from our officials, there's

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Speaker 2: cuts coming from the mayor's office, and there's cuts coming

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Speaker 2: from the right wing counselors, and I'm sort of just

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Speaker 2: drifting in between. I will vote for things that I

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Speaker 2: think are a poor waste of our poor usage of

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Speaker 2: our city's money, and I'll vote put in the things

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Speaker 2: that I think are wise to keep putting through. That's

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Speaker 2: about all I can do. But yeah, we have lots

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Speaker 2: of camps saying cut lots of differently.

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Speaker 1: Have you had have you had any good advice from

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Speaker 1: the observer yet?

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Speaker 2: I think the observer is actually yeah, Look he's sitting

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Speaker 2: back right now, and he's saying, it's not my turn

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Speaker 2: to tell you how to do these things. I want

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Speaker 2: to spend the first month or two really understanding how

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Speaker 2: your council works, what the dynamics are, and then you know,

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Speaker 2: as you get further into the LTP process, I will

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Speaker 2: involve myself a bit more. But I think that's why

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Speaker 2: for him to actually he's been put in because there

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Speaker 2: is an issue, there's a problem. I totally accept for

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Speaker 2: meirationalepha Saman sometervention. So you don't just come in and

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Speaker 2: start calling the shots. You come and you see how

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Speaker 2: things are working, what's causing the problems, and then you

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Speaker 2: actually go through. So no specific advice from your deserver,

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Speaker 2: but I think the approach he's taking is prudent so

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Speaker 2: that you don't just call the shots before you don't

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Speaker 2: know what's that short of problem.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Ben, thank you for talking us so I really

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Speaker 1: appreciate it. Ben McNaughty, who is the Wellington City councilor.

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