Ryan Bridge: Wellington will come back from this

A timely reminder, an important one too, for me last night. I'm in Wellington, flew into the schmozzle storm yesterday for an event. 

It's easily one of the most beautiful cities in New Zealand, is it not? Can we all agree on that? With the hills jutting out of the harbour, all of the bush surrounding it. 

It is stunning and the weather was good, so that helped. 

It was absolutely beautiful flying in, and then you land and there's the road cones, and there's the Uber driver not happy, and the mayor's in meltdown, and the government's taking over, and the council is all over the place. 

Shambles, schmozzle, all that stuff. 

But then this event last night featured and honoured a couple of Wellington business people. 

Among them was Brian McGuinness, whose family have either built or refurbished basically half of Wellington – including Government House, which I found fascinating. 

Doug Hauraki was a name you will know, he was on there as well. Great Wellingtonian. 

Many were honoured there, but the speeches particularly got me last night, got me right in the guts. 

These are guys who have seen it all – Wellington at its best, Wellington at its absolute worst. When it's the crown, the jewel, when it's the butt of our jokes. 

And their message essentially was politics is temporary. Like any city, the real pulse, the Real Engine Room is private enterprise. Always has been, always will be. 

And there was a tech guru, John Daniel Trask, who spoke last night, he said we shouldn't always look to the Council, to the Government, to fix our problems or to make things better because for the most part, we can actually do it on our own, we can solve problems on our own. 

Sure, there are some issues that only government and council can look after that only government and council have a purview over, but for most things, we can actually do it ourselves.  

And so that is true of Wellington, Wellington is no exception. 

Wellington will come back, and probably doesn't help that people like me sit in front of microphones in Auckland and bleat about the place. But you know, it's fun from a distance, quite different up close. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
A timely reminder, an important one too for me. Last night,
I'm in Wellington, as I mentioned earlier, flew into the
shammozzle storm yesterday for an event last night. It's easily
one of the most beautiful cities in New Zealand, is
it not? Can we all agree on that? With the
hills jutting out of the harbor, all of the bushs
surrounding it, it is stunning. And the weather was good,
so that helped. It was absolutely beautiful flying in and

(00:22):
then you land and there's the road cones and there's
the uber driver not happy, and the mayors and meltdown,
and the government's taking over and the council is all
over the place, shambles, shamozl all that stuff. But then
this event last night featured and honored a couple of
Wellington business people, among them Brian McGuinness, whose family have
either built or refurbished basically half of Wellington, including Government

(00:47):
House by the way, which I found fascinating. Been in
business for decades, you know, more than fifty years. Doug
Hodak was a name you will know. He was honored
there as well, great Wellingtonian. Many were honored there. Speeches
particularly got me last night, got me right in the guts. Actually,
these are guys who have seen it all, Wellington at

(01:07):
its best, Wellington at its absolute worst, but when it's
the crown on the jewel, when it's the butt of
our jokes. And their message essentially was politics is temporary.
Like any city, the real pulse, the real engine room
is private enterprise, always has been, always will be. And

(01:28):
there was a tech guru, John Daniel Trask, who spoke
last night. He said we shouldn't always look to the council,
to the government to fix our problems or to make
things better, because for the most part we can actually
do it on our own. We can solve problems on
our own. Sure, there are some issues that only government

(01:51):
can and council can look after that only government and
council have a purview over. But for most things we
can actually do it ourselves. And so that is true
of Wellington. Wellington is no exception. Wellington will come back,
and probably doesn't help that people like me sit in
front of microphones in Auckland and bleat about the place.

(02:14):
But you know, it's fun from a distance, quite different
up close. For more from early edition with Ryan Bridge,
listen live to news talks. It'd be from five am weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio