Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
You're listening to a podcast from Newstalk ZEDB. Follow this
and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio, rewrapad.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
And Welcome to the Rewrap.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
For Friday, all the best buts from the mic hosting
Breakfast on Newstalk ZEDB. In a sillier package, I am
Glen Heart.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
You're still with Heather for the last couple of weeks
of the year, and she wants a word about Solar
zero's collapse. We also need to discuss acc levees because
they're changing some of the rules for that, upping some
of those levees.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Fairies versus tunnels? Have we been backing up the wrong
tree here and keeping things maritime? The Vineyard quarter bridge
is finally open. But before any of that, Papa New
Guinea gets an NRL team.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
We don't.
Speaker 4 (01:05):
Well, it looks like we were never really in with
a chance where we'd get a second alongside the Warriors
into the NRL because it was always going to go
to P and G, wasn't it. It was always going
to go to P and G because it wasn't actually
a rugby league decision in the end, it was a
political decision. We now find out turns out, and they've
been pretty explicit about this, they are giving P and
G the NRL team to keep P and G out
(01:25):
of military and security deals with China, and if P
and G signs any kind of deal like that with China,
then they will automatically lose the team. And that also
goes some way to explaining why the Aussie government is
giving them six hundred million dollars to fund the team. Now,
obviously this is really great for regional geopolitical maneuverings to
cut China's lunch, but I'm not sure this is going
to be good for the NRL at all, because do
(01:45):
you actually think this team's going to be any good?
I mean, think about the logistics of this Who's going
to want to join a team based in Port Moresby.
It's got one of the highest crime rates in the world.
Probably not a lot of players. Definitely no players with families,
I would say, which is probably why this team is
getting a tax exemption so the players can keep more
of their pay packets, thereby making it more attractive for
them to join the team. It's definitely why the team
(02:07):
is building a gated compound for their players. So are
the fans. I mean, if they've got away games in PNG,
the fans are ever going to travel there to watch
the games? Are the fans even going to bother watching
the games? On tally? If this team's games perform at
the level that it is expected, it remains to be seen. Obviously,
you never know. Miracles can happen, but you could probably
hazard a guess and how this is going to play out.
So sure, absolutely smart political move to cut China's lunch.
(02:30):
But the NRL does not exist to cut China's lunch,
does it. It exists for the fans to enjoy a
game of footy, and I don't know that you can
say that this decision is great for the fans.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Yeah, And then we had Peter fitz Simon's on the
show talking about this. He claimed that there's a lot
of raw athletic talent coming out of Papa New Guinea.
Is there because they spend so much time running away
from each other because they're shooting each other? Is that racist?
Or is it just might be? If it is, I'm
sorry forget I seen it rewrap right, So yes, Solar zero,
(03:05):
So I didn't really understand exactly what the arrangement here
it was too that you leased your solar panels.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
How is that ever going to work? Now?
Speaker 4 (03:14):
Isn't the solar zero story starting to look very much
like a salient lesson? And why taxpayer money should not
be used to prop up or subsidize the latest coup idea,
because what we've now found out is that the chair
of the government fund that pumped money into Solar zero
has stepped down from her job. And the clear suggestion
here is that government ministers are not happy about the
way that our money was invested in Solar zero, and
(03:35):
fair enough because there are now real questions about how
careful this lot at the New Zealand Green Investment Finance
outfit were with our money. Just remember that New Zealand
Green Investment Finance so I think you can hear a
bit about them. What happened as they pumped one hundred
and forty five million dollars of taxpayer lending into Solar
zero in August, right, But by August there were already
(03:56):
some pretty clear warning signs the company was in trouble
because they already started laying off staff, laid fifty off
in April, and there were reportedly raised arguments a monkst
management in front of staff and stuff like that. Now,
I don't think it's going to be a sh to
you to consider the possibility that people who run government
departments are not as careful with money as people who
run private businesses, because, of course, in private business, every
(04:18):
dollar is a hustle, you know the meaning of it,
whereas in the public sector. I don't know if you
know this, but money comes from a never ending money hose,
So no problem there. Now. I suspect that we are
not going to be very happy when what's going on
here with the happy go lucky money hand around, when
we finally get the full details from the liquidators in time.
(04:38):
And I don't think that it's going to be a
wild prediction from me to say that the conclusion that
many of us will reach is that government just should
stay the hell out of funding the latest cool thing,
whether it's subsidizing Tesla for deslas for rich people, or
subsidizing solar panels or whatever it is. If the business
is solid, the private sector will invest in it if
they need money. If the business needs government money, then
(05:02):
it might be a sign that we should not invest
government money. Just look at solar.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
Zero off the back of this. Harrison's, who install solar panels,
sent me a long email talking about how successful they are,
that they make heaps of money doing it, and people
who would install the solar panels are saving heaps of
money doing it, and solar panels are great. So I
(05:30):
guess I've told you that now. Also, guys, don't email
me about the news. I don't take any notice of
the news.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
You know that.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Rewrap now tweaking the ACC.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Levies because yeah, as we discovered throughout the year, is
quite a big debt hole with ACC and we need
to fill it up with money yours and mine on.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
The ACC fees. So what's going on here is we're
all going to have to chip in a little bit.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
You know.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
It's like has pass the hat around. It's one of
those We're going to have to chip in a little
bit to plug the seven point two billion dollar deficit
in the ACC. And for most of us, it's just
a little bit here and there. When you're you're probably
not even going to notice it. I mean, if you're
an average worker on seventy thousand dollars a year, you're
paying about eighty cent s extra a week. I know
it adds up. But you know, eighty cents extra a week.
Cars are going to go from this is your rego,
(06:16):
by the way, that's what ACC is up to there.
The rego goes up forty two dollars to forty nine
dollars and stuff. But whoa if you're riding a bike
a motorcycle, geez, you're paying, aren't you. The levy for
a five hundred cc motorbike is going to go up
by twenty three bucks next year, it's gonna hit three
hundred and twenty one. Then it's going to go up
another one hundred and twenty one dollars the next year,
(06:37):
So now we're at four hundred and forty two dollars,
and then it's going to go up the following year
another ninety one dollars, so it at five hundred and
thirty three. So it's going from three hundred and twenty
one dollars next year to five hundred and thirty three
dollars a couple of years from there. Big money.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Convenient that they can increase the levees on motorbike owners,
they also need to do it on mountain bike owners.
I reckon who else? Snowboarders, rugby players. I mean I've
talked about this before. Yeah, I think you get one
free pass, one hospital visit as a result of your
stupid recreational activities. After that user pays.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
I reckon the rewrap.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
Right, a lot of anks about the cost of fairies
and maintaining fairies and what we're going to do with
the fairies. Maybe we shouldn't be doing fairies at all.
Speaker 4 (07:27):
Listen to if you just to the back to the
ferry debate that we've been having yesterday. If you think
that the four billion dollars for the two mega ferries
and the port's upgrade is too much money, right, it's
four bill Get a load of this. In Norway, they
are building what will be the world's longest and deepest
undersea tunnel. It will be four lanes, it will run
for twenty six k's and they are going to spend
(07:48):
on it eighty billion dollars. So you take your four
billion dollars and think about how tight we're being in
New Zealand. Eighty billion. To be fair, they're rich and
we're poor, but still eighty billion dollars. And why because
they're sick of the fairies. Because the current route that
they have to do is like about one thousand k's
or something like that. They've got across seven different Fords
and new seven different fairies, and the winter, when the
(08:09):
weather's bad, the fairies don't run. So they're like, no,
we don't want fairies anymore. We are going to get
ourselves a giga tunnel.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
How long is it?
Speaker 4 (08:16):
Twenty six k's?
Speaker 3 (08:17):
You see, cook straight, it's only fifteen Well there you go.
Speaker 4 (08:19):
We could do it if we just had the money.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
Hey, yeah, so, I mean our tunnel is shorter, it
would be heat cheaper, probably not cheap enough, I guess.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Three wrap all.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
So, I don't think a fifteen k tunnel is one
of those ones that you can hold your breath until
you get down the other side either. All right, we're
just going to finish up here. We're going to move
from tunnels to bridges.
Speaker 4 (08:36):
I have got some good news for the people of Auckland.
I'm sorry to everybody else, but just really quickly for Auckland.
The walking bridge from the viaduct to the wind you
caught it. It's just been announced that they're going to
open it, and they're going to open it seven thirty
this morning. Now, look like you I'm I'm shocked because
this thing has been down since March. We have been
(08:58):
nagging Ekipinuku. This is why Ekipanuku is being wound up
by the council by the way, been I've been nagging
these guys to get this bridge up and running again
and they're like, yeahah, and it's going to open on
the thirteenth of December, open on the thirty in the December.
And then yesterday they were like, so it's going to
open tomorrow, but we're going to make a decision tomorrow
about when it's going to open tomorrow. So they have
made it like literally on the day they have made
a decision about thirty five minutes before the bridge opens
(09:21):
to open the bridge. Now, I'm not going to complain.
I'm stoked the bridge is opening, but only Ekipinuku would
leave it till the very last minute.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
Yeah. So for those of you who don't know what
this is, it's kind of a drawbridge and for some
reason it has to open and close because you know,
there are some folks with tall masts that go in
and out of where the bridge goes across. So the
whole thing is kind of what's the word ridiculous anyway,
it's going to be working for some of the time,
(09:48):
not all of the time, because why would it. I
am Glen hat I work for some of the time,
when not all of the time, So which is why
I get a weekend off and then I'll be back
here again on Monday.
Speaker 4 (09:58):
See event.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
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