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October 1, 2024 8 mins

A walking and cycling upgrade between Johnsonville and Tawa in Wellington has been put on pause - but when will the council reassess the project? 

Also, there are still further public service cuts to come for police staff - when will we know how many jobs will go? 

Newstalk ZB reporter Azaria Howell joined Nick Mills for the Capital Letter.

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Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Wellington Mornings podcast with Nick Mills
from news Talk.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Said B.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
Taking the pulse of the city. The Capital Letter on
news Talks ed B.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
We do the Capital Letter every week at this time,
normally with Georginia Campbell. Now she's been away and hasn't
done anything since she's been back. She's only just got back.
I'm not saying she hasn't done anything since she's been back,
but she hasn't got any stories. So steppen. Azariah Howe,
who is news Talk, said B's reporter and New Zealand
Herald's reporter, and she comes up with some really big stuff.

(00:38):
Morning Ice, good Now, get your microphone on goo.

Speaker 3 (00:43):
There we are, Yes, I said, good morning, how are
you good?

Speaker 2 (00:46):
We Areari. I called her Ice, but we'll call it
Azaria for this part of the segment so that we
don't get confused. There be some people out there that
will welcome this news, some that won't welcome the news.
But a big cycleway project has been put on pause. Zaria.

Speaker 3 (01:03):
Yeah, an interesting one from the Wellington City Council. They've
been doing this cycleway rollout for quite some time, I
think since twenty twenty two. The Wellington City Council's confirmed
it's not going to invest any money into the Middleton
Road walking and cycling route, which is between Javill and
Tawer for the next three years. And it's quite interesting

(01:25):
as well. It comes after the government's National Land Transport
Program which essentially cuts some funding for walking and cycling.
It's quite an interesting one as well because you've got
Counselor Tony Randall, who's admitted to me he's not usually
a big fan of cycleways, saying, look, this actually needs
to go ahead. He's saying that it's really important for safety.

(01:47):
It's a seventy kilometer an hour road and some people
bike on it because they have to, but it seems
like it's relatively dangerous in terms of cars and buses
just sort of passing people by. He estimates it to
cost around eighteen million dollars as well.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
So they haven't canceled it. They just put it on
paws to win until they've got some more money and
they've in the good books with the government. Again.

Speaker 3 (02:09):
Yeah, they haven't fully canceled it. It is on hold,
but as I say, Counselor Tony Randall not that confident
it will actually go ahead changing government priorities. Also, council
cost savings estimated to cost eighteen million dollars, which, in
the sense of the cycle way doesn't seem that cheap.
It is a.

Speaker 2 (02:29):
Pretty fun Have you been down there. It's a really
long and windy road. Excuse the pun for the song,
but it's a pretty dangerous part. I mean, I don't
want to use dangerous, but you don't have space.

Speaker 3 (02:40):
To walk in. Yeah, I haven't. Actually, I've never inned
a car, so I've never really been up that way,
and I suppose I've got no reason to go to
Johnsonville Mall. To be honest, I used to live in it.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
I lived on Middleton Road for a while, so I
understand that I actually lived in an Ironside Road, which
is pretty close. So I understand why they are probably
a little bit disappointed by that. Also, Azara, you've been
doing a story about more public cuts, public sector cuts.
This time it's police. Now. I've had window this a
while ago. It seems to be like I've heard people

(03:12):
talking and coming up with plans. These are many people
having to take redundancy from the police headquarters. Tell us
what's going on there?

Speaker 3 (03:20):
Yeah, So it's corporate police stuff, so it's not sort
of the people you'll see out and about in uniform
and things like that. But there's been a staff survey
which I got under the Official Information Act, which has
honestly become my best friend doing these sorts of stories.
It's also how I got the next piece we're going
to talk about. But essentially the survey has got more

(03:41):
than a thousand responses of these corporate police staff, and
fifty four percent of them were not interested in voluntary redundancy,
but forty six percent of them were. So that's quite
a decent chunk of more than one thousand people who
were surveyed. It's not really expected to come out for

(04:01):
the next couple of weeks.

Speaker 2 (04:02):
You know, the sort of numbers I mean, how many
we're talking.

Speaker 3 (04:05):
Yeah, we're not able to say how many people will
actually have taken voluntary redundancy. It's fair to say forty
six percent of those thousand people were interested, but whether
or not they actually sort of took the bait, We'll
see a lot of people were keen to know what
sort of payouts they'd get as well, So.

Speaker 2 (04:24):
What happens if they don't get the numbers that's required
by the government to get rid of.

Speaker 3 (04:27):
Yeah, so police I've been asked to make savings of
fifty five point one million dollars. Reducing their staff numbers
is a significant portion of it, but there's also a
couple of other cost savings on the board. I think
we've talked a couple of months ago now about sort
of getting rid of coffee machines and things like that,
So it'll be those sorts of savings as well. You'd

(04:49):
assume any.

Speaker 2 (04:50):
Talk about what concerns the people like talk to on
this is that means that you've got yes, you're getting
rid of back off of staff and everything, but that
means if you've got rid of them the police, you know,
the uniform police have to go and do their do
the work that they're doing. As they much talk about that.

Speaker 3 (05:05):
Yeah, there's been a bit of can from the Police
Association essentially that cutting these roles may lead to frontline
police officers doing more sort of paperwork and roles that
are seemed kind of back office. So we'll have to
see what the impact will be. Police adamant that this
will not be a cut to the frontline, saying that

(05:26):
there's ongoing financial pressures as well, so it'll be one
to keep an eye on in terms of what that
impact will be.

Speaker 2 (05:32):
Yeah. I've been hearing this rumblings for a while. Apparently
there's been a lot of work on this, and a
lot of people have been offered redundancy and are negotiating,
as you said, the deal, whether it's worth them taking
it or not, or going to Australia or doing whatever.

Speaker 3 (05:45):
Yeah, Australia is always tempting for the likes of police
teachers as well.

Speaker 2 (05:50):
Working in the back office, they know how the systems work.
You've written a few interesting stories about Kim dot Com
this week. Tell us a bit more. We don't know
a lot about Kim dot Com apart from that mansion
and the fact that he read that ran a mega
download company and he's going to be kicked out in
New Zealand. What's the latest on him?

Speaker 3 (06:10):
Yeah, So I feel like Kim dot Com is such
an interesting person to cover. I kind of linked him
to like the reading cinema of Wellington, where it's just
sort of there's always something new about him and people
are always going to talk about it. So have you
talked I haven't. I have not talked to him. I
would like to though, Kim, if you're listening.

Speaker 2 (06:29):
Yeah, yeah, what's going on around He'll be.

Speaker 3 (06:33):
Absolutely getting the pulse of the capitol. But yeah, essentially
there's confirmation that Justice Minister authorized any police officer power
to arrest him in that surrender order that he signed.
I want to say about mid August, So Paul Goldsmith
signed that surrender order essentially listing it to every police
officer in New Zealand, authorizing them to take Kim dot

(06:57):
Com into custody, also suggesting that he should essentially be
deported to the USA as soon as possible, facing a
number of allegation.

Speaker 2 (07:06):
Now that's shifted, though, hasn't it.

Speaker 3 (07:09):
So?

Speaker 2 (07:09):
I mean it was you're right, anyone walking past them
or seeing him, they could arrest him and send them
my back. But now that's changed, they can't do that.

Speaker 3 (07:16):
Yeah, that's not the case anymore. So since that extradition
order has come out, Kim dot Com has launched a
judicial review, meaning police will not be acting on it
kind of immediately. So he's book now. I'm not one
hundred percent sure. I believe, I believe it's not recommended,
but I'm not one hundred percent.

Speaker 2 (07:37):
Sure they would have known where he was. If they
really wanted to arrest him, they could have got it, mate, probably.

Speaker 3 (07:42):
I mean, I believe, I believe there's a view that
he's in Queenstown. I think was the latest. But I
mean with sort of billionaires like this, I guess you
never really know.

Speaker 2 (07:54):
I'm getting in my ear that he lives in arrow Town.
But I mean, you know, you can't tell me that
police don't know where he is, you know, because that's.

Speaker 3 (08:01):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, surely. I mean, I mean, he
is such a relevant person, so you've got to kind
of be aware as to where he is.

Speaker 2 (08:09):
Hard to hide to.

Speaker 3 (08:10):
Well, yeah, I actually yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah it is.
And also on that, there's a new survey that's come
out from Talbot Mills that says forty six percent of
people surveyed think he should be extradited to the US
forty seven and a number of people, i'm sure twenty
three percent saying no, he should stay in New Zealand.

(08:30):
So it seems like there is a bit of public
opinion about it. I mean, this legal saga has been
going on for more than a decade, is it ten years?
I think it's twelve years actually, So thanks. Yeah, it's
been going on for a while.

Speaker 2 (08:43):
Appreciate you coming in and sharing those stories with our listeners.
News Talks There Bees reporter and New Zealand Herald reporter,
Wellington reporter Izara how Azaria how get my name's right? Thanks,
I appreciate you.

Speaker 1 (08:56):
For more from Wellington Mornings with Nick Mills. Listen live
to News Talks It'd Be Wellington from nine am weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
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