Nick Mills: We were offered free money and our councils didn't want a bar of it

OPINION

What is it with Prime Ministers from Auckland giving us a bad rap?

First it was John Key telling us we were dying. He of course was right - he just got his decades wrong.

Now we have Christopher Luxon calling us "lame-o".

I haven’t heard that phrase since the 90s, but that aside, he's dead right.

Why?

Well last year the government announced it would be offering councils the opportunity to sign up to what they called 'regional deals'.

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Episode Transcript

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

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Said, b what is it with prime ministers that come
from Auckland giving us a bad rap? First it was
John Key telling us we were dying. He was right,
he just got his decades wrong. Now we have Christopher
luxing and calling.

Speaker 1 (00:28):
Us this, well, it's pretty lamo.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
What the hell does lame o mean? Lame o? I
think he means lame. He just can't, you know, can't
quite get it in the call word lame lame mister
prime minister in a modern world. You know, I haven't
heard that phase since the nineties. But anyway, if he
says we're lame, let's go with that. He's got lame o.
What the hell that means? I don't know if it

(00:52):
does mean that we're lame? In to be fair, he's
damn right, isn't he.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
Why?

Speaker 2 (00:58):
Well, last year the government announced it will be offering
counsels the opportunity to sign up to what they're called
regional deals. These would be a ten year plan based
on a thirty year vision, which provide a range of
options for funding, maybe toll roads, maybe a new train line,
maybe a new tunnel. Whatever it might be, it had

(01:20):
to be big and it had to be great. The
idea was to try and help the regions with high
cost of infrastructure and unlock a bit more productivity. A
hell of a good idea. Anyway, it's early days and
they were just planning with some ideas from the regional councils.
Give us a plan. We got some money, we want

(01:41):
to make it happen. Give us a plan. The government
invited councils around the country to come up with ideas
by the end of February, from which they would select
five regions to put forward. They would look at more
in depth proposals with those five regions and possibly a
truckload of cash. Basically, this was free cash for a

(02:04):
big idea and a very good opportunity for Wellington. But
guess what, we didn't suggest anything. Eighteen proposals were submitted
last month from around the country but zero zip none.
We're from Wellington. Well Prime Minister Christopher Luxon didn't like that.

(02:27):
That's where as lame o comment came from Chris Hopkins
even criticized our council too. He said, our council need
to get it together. Luckson said, every other region had
been able to come together work together for the last
six months, Wellington hasn't even shinn up with a proposal.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
Well, it's pretty lamo as my view of this.

Speaker 2 (02:51):
Here we have a government doing everything it can to
make sure that we attract capital to this country and
you can't even get Wellington councils to submit a regional
or a city deal. Now, why are you and I
not surprised by that? And what it really demonstrates to
me is that our councils simply can't work together. How

(03:11):
often have we on this show said we need a supersity.
How often have we had the discussion that the fact
that our mayors are not all on the same page
recent history Wellington Water, they couldn't keep track of all
these cost blowouts, they couldn't agree on what to do
with Nick Leggett, and now we find that they can't

(03:34):
agree on what is essentially free money for a big
project for our city. And as I say, the rest
is history, well not quite history. The name calling hasn't
stopped Wellington. Meyr Torifano said the comments were poor form
for a Prime minister, and I quote her with due respect.

(03:57):
Prime Minister we will deliver a deal, it will just
be on our time frame. We are determined to get
this right. Right to that, I say, yeah, right. This
is the government's money dished out to you and you're
dictating on the terms. Whatever that means. Apparently they were

(04:17):
told by the Crown Observer to concentrate on their water
issues and not put a submission together. Well, it's very
clear our councils have really been focused on the water.
How good are our water issues? Well, we don't need
a big plan. We've got our water under control. We're okay.
Whatever you want to listen to. The relations between the

(04:40):
government and Wellington councils have sunk to a new low.
Now they as low as trading jabs. What is it
with the Wellington region? Why is it they can't work
together for something as simple as putting a proposal together
to get a big dollar of money from the government
to do a big something anything in the region, something

(05:05):
good for our region with the government helping us out financially.
And why do we have to keep talking about combining
Poru Rual, Lower heart Uppert Wellington Wellington into one council.
It's a no brainer. Look at Auckland took a while,
had their issues, but look at it now, it's flying.

(05:25):
We have to actually put it into one council, lower heart,
upper heart potty to Wellington, one mayor one council and
ever we need a confirmation that that's required. Look at
this week, no unanimous decision on the future or willing
to wad it, no discussion to submit something to the

(05:48):
government's regionals and city deals. These deals were actually quite
literally money for nothing and we didn't even want it. Frankly,
we are lame, lame. Oh if you want to quote
the Prime Minister, I hate that Lamo. I've never even
heard it before. I think he just got it wrong.
It's lame. We're lame for not grasping that with both hands,

(06:11):
and it just confirms to me how desperately neat We
need one council, one council table to look at the region,
not four individuals fighting against each other one one. It's
common sense, isn't it.

Speaker 1 (06:28):
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.