Tangi Utikere: Labour Transport spokesperson on the Government scrapping the road cone hotline

Labour's calling the Government road cone complaints hotline a complete waste of public money.

It's wrapping up six months early - after site visits showed 86 percent complied with the rules on cone quantities. 

Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere says the pilot cost $150,000 by September, after beginning in June.

He says there were and more effective solutions to the issue.

"They should have picked up the phone, had a conversation with councils, worked with them to get the information that they needed - it certainly wouldn't have cost them more than $150,000."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The road Cone Hotline. I know you loved it. You
might have called it. Well, it's been shut down half
a year early, after only six months of operation, so
basically half its life and nearly ninety percent of the
reports that people that they got about the road cones
they were actually compliant with the council approved traffic plans. Now,
Labour's upset about this, calling it absurd, waste of public money,

(00:22):
et cetera, et cetera. Labor Transport spokesperson tang it's a
kiddy is with me tonight? Good evening, Tangy, Nice to
have you on the show.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Oh, curw iter Ryan, good to be with you.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
Now. Well, yes, it was a bit of a gimmick
I suppose. But was it a complete waste of money?

Speaker 2 (00:37):
Well, I think it was. I think it was an
absolute face and the fact that the government have moved
duly to shut it down later this week is a
pure indication that it's a complete waste of public money.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
So how much did we waste?

Speaker 2 (00:52):
Well, sort of, as of the end of thirtieth or September,
it was just shy of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
It's bent on the hotline If you look at the
number of complaints that were actually logged to that point,
it was just over a thousand, so you know, it
soon adds up. But what could have happened as the
government could have simply picked up the phone had a
conversation with counsels and others about, you know what the

(01:13):
rate of non compliances. But instead, instead we find ourselves
the bill will be over one hundred and fifty thousand,
and then of course you've got starting and contractors brought
in to train these staff over the road cone hotline
a complete waste of money.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
It does seem like a little bit over the top.
But the ministers is giving people a voice, tanguing, giving
people the public of voice. The problem, I guess is
that they are saying, actually most of the complaints that
were made they were compliant. So do you think, like
does the labor think that we have a problem with
the rules that allow so many road cones or do

(01:48):
you think the public are just miss overegging it.

Speaker 2 (01:53):
Look, I don't think anyone likes to have too many
road cones, as they had it hit about the place.
But what the government's answered who this was was to
simply pump some money, put some resource into a hotline.
That clearly has been a failure of all of the
callouts that actually went out. So when someone actually lodged
a complaint and then someone was displashed to the site,

(02:13):
it's about ninety three percent of those callouts indicated that
the cones there was nothing wrong with them. So you know,
this is again a waste of public money. Nobody likes
too many road comes. But this was certainly not the
way that the government should have solved the issue. They
should have picked up the phone, had a conversation with counsels,
worked with them to get the information that they did,
and it certainly wouldn't have cost them at more than

(02:35):
one hundred and fifty grand at the end of the day.

Speaker 1 (02:38):
Tell you there will be people listening to this who
will be saying, oh my goodness, this is a labor
empre I mean pot kettle black, a labour mp going
on about wasteful spending.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
Well, the bottom line is this, this is a government
that is all about priorities and it's chosen to pump
one hundred and fifty thousand dollars or more than one
hundred and fifty thousand dollars into something that has been
a complete failure. I congratulate the government monthing and that
is on calling it quits for the hotline rather than
being silly and continuing to roll it out into next year.
They've seen that this has been a failure and they've

(03:09):
decided to basically pull the plug later this week rather
than continue the staff moving into next year.

Speaker 1 (03:14):
TANGI, I appreciate you being on the show. Thank you
very much for that, and Merry Christmas and to you
have a good one. For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive,
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