Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
You're listening to a podcast from News Talk Said B.
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Speaker 2 (00:24):
Hello, maybe double beanies and welcome to the bean for Thursday.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
First with yesterday's news, I am Glen Hard and we're
looking back on Wednesday the infrastructure Plan.
Speaker 4 (00:33):
We're back to this again. Now.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Look, you love talking about infrastructure day.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Policies an election year and how much people say a
lot of stuff and then they don't always have the
money side of it. Yeah, they sort of say that
they do, but they don't always. And some people are saying, well,
can we have somebody who adds it up and to
see if the policy is connect to you've paid for
(01:00):
or not.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
So here there's got a view on that. And then
piggy bar talk.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Who's doing piggy bar talk.
Speaker 4 (01:06):
At the end of the podcast, Ah, Marcus.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
But before any of that, Hey, Ukraine, is it actually
going alright at the moment?
Speaker 4 (01:14):
Assuming you want Ukraine to beat Russia?
Speaker 5 (01:17):
That is, I would say that things have changed significantly
with drone technology and the innovations that Ukraine under the
cauldron of war. You know, innovations don't happen in any
other element of under war, the stress of war. How
am I trying to say this? You advance quicker when
your life depends on it then any other time.
Speaker 6 (01:39):
Right where all the major wars would prove that.
Speaker 5 (01:42):
So just this month, Ukraine drones have hit Moscow region's
largest oil refinery, Saint Peterburg's oil terminal this month as well,
and that happened during Russia's flagship economic forum, So Saint
Petersburg there was just big flames in the distance. Well,
you know, Peutin was trying to show off the economic
(02:04):
situation of Russia. And also this month they drone attacks
have hit fuel facilities in southern Russia, contributing to fuel disruptions.
They've been smashing up bridges and transport transport networks. They're
basically cut off Crimea from being resupplied. So stalemate.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (02:25):
I would say that Ukraine is doing stuff they never
dreamed they would have been able to do just a
year ago.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
It's I think we've all just ever of got used
to it, haven't we.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Russia and Ukraine firing stuff at each other and buying
stuff up all the time. I don't know how it's
used to it. That they've got in Ukraine or in
Russia for that matter. Hard to not just go, oh, yeah,
another day in the Ukraine War. If Ukraine's doing better,
(03:03):
does it mean it's going to end sometime soon?
Speaker 4 (03:05):
That would be the ideal. So I suppose news talk
has it been right?
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Let's talk infrastructure. This always comes back to.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
This whole We want nize things but can't really afford
them in New Zealand, doesn't it because our economy is
just not quite big enough to have women eight lane
highways everywhere you look.
Speaker 7 (03:27):
Now here's our problem. New Zealand spends heavily on infrastructure
but ranks poorly on efficiency and asset management. You know,
in terms of what we spend on infrastructure, we're at
the top of the tables. In terms of what actually
comes out and how much it costs, we're at the bottom.
So Minister christ Bishop says the government's now acting on
ten priority areas, including reviewing transport funding, legislating long term
(03:49):
investment plans, improving national infrastructure data and strengthening public sector
project leadership. And further work is needed on predictable funding
signals yes please, multi year budgeting yes please, and coordinated
Workforce planning. Absolutely yes, please, Treasury and NB are going
to report back in twenty twenty seven. But finally, finally,
it might be that we're going to stop the stop
(04:11):
nature of developing this country and that will make everything quicker,
more efficiently, and most importantly cheaper. And finally, I have
to say this, congratulations. The so called grown ups in
charge of the country are actually being grown up and
ditching infrastructure as a way to define themselves politically.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
Tell you what I was talking about being dated about
Ukraine before. If you live on the High Business Coast,
which is an area just sort of north of Auckland,
it's technically part of Auckland that we don't really think
of ourselves as being part of Auckland. We just sort
of got swallowed up when the supercity happened.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
But we've been.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
Waiting for this thing called PenLink, which is a sort
of a turnoff from the Northern Motorway and then it
goes across a bridge that's the Fairy Anyway and it's
now running three years late, I think. And if you're
on the Fungapara Peninsula halfway along were it's supposed to
(05:10):
come out, they dug this massive whole, and they just
seem to be moving dirt around various bits of it.
And there's a lot of cones, and there's a lot
of disruption and you can't turn right at busy times.
And if this cross party agreement or an infrastructure can
(05:30):
get that finally happening.
Speaker 4 (05:32):
Oh my goodness, qu's talk, sibby.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
Does Kerrie Woodham see a light at the end of
the infrastructure tunnel too? Now?
Speaker 8 (05:40):
Hopefully the next generation won't have to see money literally
disappearing down drains. Karen McNaughty in his forward to the
Infrastructure Commission's plan, both the government Chris Bishop, Karen macnaughty
and Julian Genter from the Greens wrote her forward to
(06:02):
the plan. Karen macinaughty put it very well. He said
both Labor and National led governments had announced projects without
funding them, watched costs balloon and then scrapped what the
other side started. He said, every time the plan changes,
we lose time, we lose money, and we lose the
skilled people who build these things, too many of them
(06:23):
to Australia. That's the problem this plan sets out to fix.
He said. The plan offered a long term, evidence paced
path that did not belong to any one government, a
prize bigger than any single policy that is very well stated.
Green Party Infrastructure spokesperson Julie and Jenner said the party
(06:47):
supported all sixteen recommendations in the plan and said the
party overall welcomed the government's intention and urges that this
commitment to long term planning and evidence informed decision making
continues to drive investment in long lived assets. Now, Labor
and the Greens have some reservations, but not enough to
(07:07):
put a folken the wheel, not enough to hold up
this fantastic blueprint for the future. Ultimately, they have come
together to support a long term vision for the country
that will benefit all future voters, whatever party they support.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Yeah, it would be good to see a lot more
of this sort of thing, when you know, you don't
just disagree with the other guys because the other guys
and that sometimes you know there are things that everybody
can do together because it's the right idea. I mean,
that's that's your ideal scenario, isn't it. But I'm not
(07:44):
quite sure that's exactly how the system is set up
to work.
Speaker 4 (07:49):
Right.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
So, going back to parties having different ideas about things,
we've had obviously policy being announced sort of from labor
from the last week or so, from gyms and drabs.
Most people seem well, certainly most people around New sorts
a B teen to agree that they can't afford any
(08:11):
of the stuff that they're saying they can. And that
means that once again, it's been proposed that there's an
independent body that runs an advacus over these sorts of
announcements to see if they actually are affordable.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
What's wrong with that?
Speaker 6 (08:28):
Should we set up a special unit that costs each
party's election promises independently? And the answer to that question
should be the same as it always is, which is no,
we should not do this. There is no point in
doing this. This unit will not be independent. It will
be stacked with the same people that stack the public service,
predominantly left leaning public servants who will overestimate what a
(08:52):
capital gains tax will bring in because they love a
capital gains tax, and they will underestimate the benefits of
cutting red tape because they are the red tape. To
believe this unit's numbers, you would have to first believe
Treasury's numbers, because it is probably people from Treasury who
will go and work in a unit like this, leave Treasury.
Here's a word of advice. Go outside at midday with
a stick and a string and see what the spirits
(09:13):
tell you is going to happen in the future, because
that is about how useful the numbers out of Treasury.
Speaker 4 (09:18):
Are for you.
Speaker 6 (09:19):
If you want to know what a biased referee looks
like in election year, this is the biased referee an
independent costings unit, in which case, if we were to
set this thing up, all we were going to do,
all we'd end up doing is the same thing that
we do with the Treasury numbers was argue all the
time about whether they're right or wrong. Actually, you and
I are really good arbiters of where the costings add up.
(09:41):
We all spotted immediately that Labour's sixty five million dollars
for the public transport policy was not enough money. We
didn't need an independent unit to tell us that. We
looked at it and went, that's not enough money, mate,
You're gonna have to do those numbers again. We all
knew last election. We talked about it for months that
National had completely overestimated how much money they would get
from a foreign house sales tax. And where we write yes,
(10:02):
we were of course we were. We don't need another
unit that costs us more money in bureaucracy and stacked
with more bureaucrats. We don't need another unit to tell
us what we can already figure out ourselves.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
Yeah, I mean, that's why we've got people light here
that and Mike Husking. Isn't it to add that stuff
up for us and to tell us whether it's supportable
or not. That's how it works, isn't it. We've already
got them. We don't need another lot of them.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
Surely News talk.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
Ze bean right quite excited about this. Marcus wants a
word about pinky bars, because why wouldn't he?
Speaker 9 (10:38):
Well, I was at the supermarket look for something that
wasn't there today on the way to work, and I
succumbed and brought myself a pinky bar. I would have
had one of those for four How did that still exist?
Who would buy a pinky bar? You never see them advertised?
Speaker 2 (10:57):
And is it for children?
Speaker 4 (10:59):
Who'd buy one?
Speaker 9 (11:01):
And my kids have never asked me for a pinky bar?
Who would buy those? Who were they targeted to? I've
never seen a commercial for them, but they are much better.
Things have disappeared like Jefferson tangy fruit shit. The pinky
bar just exists and exists and exists and never goes away.
(11:22):
It's probably better than a chocolate fish.
Speaker 4 (11:26):
But how could that?
Speaker 9 (11:27):
How could it still survive? Can youone answer me that?
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Why doesn't it die?
Speaker 9 (11:39):
Maybe I'll tell you something other pinky But I've never
heard anyone say, oh, they're great, you can cook with them.
I've not not want to anyone say anything interested about
a pinky bar.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
You see, you can always count on Mark Us for
a hot take. I mean, I think he's completely wrong
about that, doesn't he? I mean, not about cooking with them.
Obviously you can't.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
I don't. I would agree that. I don't think I've
heard anybody with.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
Adding pinky bars into the recipe or something. But I
think people are quite passionate about pinky bars, aren't they.
And they supposed to be one of those chocolate bars
that's sort of eir quotes a bit better for you
than some other chocolate bars because the because I think,
isn't marshmallow not the worst thing in the world for you,
(12:27):
it's sort of lower. I think it's still obviously it's
mostly sugar, but not so much fat. The caramel bit
is a bit worse for you. I think, is that
just like a have I Mandella affected?
Speaker 5 (12:42):
That?
Speaker 3 (12:42):
Is that an urban myth? It Perky Nana was the
other one, isn't it. I think that's supposed to be.
I've probably got all that wrong, but yeah, I know
that people do love a pinky.
Speaker 4 (12:56):
I was.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
The Jikito is one of my favorites. That's sort of
the complete opposite. That's got absolutely everything that you could
put in the.
Speaker 4 (13:02):
Chocolate bar in it. And that went away for a
while and then came back.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
I was very pleased to see it come back, and
obviously everybody else was as well, because it hasn't gone
away a second time. I'm relieved about that. So now
I've had hot takes on chocolate bars as well. Who
knows what the hot tags will be tomorrow. Come back
then to find out.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Us Talk is talking zied Bean. For more from news
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