Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
The huddle with New Zealand Southeby's International Realty achieve extraordinary
results with und parallel reach.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
On the huddle of this evening we have Connor English,
director at Wellington government relations firm Silverye and Mike Munroe,
former Chief of Staff, to just send a hello you too.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
You know, how are you very well?
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Is that you Connor? That's you? Oh Mike, Mike, you
muted yourself again, Lord these boomers? Oh Mike, now still
muted Mike. Okay, We're going to let Mike just take
a minute and figure out the phone. Connor, I wanted
to talk to you first anyway. What do you make
of Nicholas budget and the tiny, tiny spending allowance.
Speaker 4 (00:39):
Well, it just shows how tough and how tight the
situation is for the government. But I think you've got
a beer in mind that the government has never spent
more in the history of having governments in New Zealand.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
So whilst there's not much extra, there's still.
Speaker 4 (00:54):
A lot of government spinal taking place, and I think
the ministers now looking to focus on value for.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Money and you know, be portrayed as.
Speaker 4 (01:02):
A careful manager of the of the government's books and
you know, They talk a lot about focusing on growth
to get more revenue in so you can spend more
after you've got the revenue in.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
I agree with you on this, Connor, But what would
you suggest like and she's cut her spending allowance, her
operating allowance from two point four billion to one point
three billion, would you have paired it back even further?
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Ah?
Speaker 4 (01:25):
Well, I'm not the Minister of Finance and I don't
have all the facts available to me that she would have.
But I think the notion that we should be looking
for more value for money if you just focus on
one of the inputs, which is cash, and not on
the outcomes or even the outputs. You know, if everyone
(01:46):
says there's a problem, we just need to have more cash,
you don't look for innovative ways. You're not looking for productivity,
you're not looking for other ways of solving the solving
the problem. And I think what her challenge is to
the public sector is how can you solve these problems
or body services in a smarter way? And there's an
enormous number of smart people in the public sector are
very capable of doing that.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
And I think she's just setting up the framework that
she's going to.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
Put a little bit of pressure on to enable them
to put a bit more thought into there.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Mikey you with us?
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Now? Can you hear me?
Speaker 2 (02:18):
It's not stay with us, Mike. What do you make
of what Nicholas done?
Speaker 5 (02:22):
Really about it?
Speaker 6 (02:24):
It feels like austerity, Heather, It probably is. You know,
a couple of months ago the message from luxon.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
For this year, what's growth growth, growth, Well, from.
Speaker 6 (02:36):
Today it is cuts cuts, cuts, And as Thomas Cogden
wrote in The Herald, today willis is going to in
order to fund the growing cost of existing services. And
you start to wonder what's going to be sacrific child
(02:57):
poverty measures? Will it be the climb its public transport?
Something has to give, as the Brits showed with the under.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
No, I pulpin, I pulpin I can't I tried, I tried.
Did you try? We all tried, didn't we? What we're
going to do is we're going to take a break
and we're just going to help the situation out by
calling Mike back.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
So just bear with the huddle with New Zealand Southeby's
international realty the ones with worldwide connections that perform not
a promise.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Right, we're back with the huddle. Mike is back on
the phone. Mike, please carry on, because I actually wanted
to hear what you had to say.
Speaker 5 (03:33):
Look, I'm not quite sure how much you heard of
me previously. So I was just making the point that
that Luxlan talked about growth, growth, growth, making steperary this year.
Right now, it's going to be cut, cut, cuts, as
Cogan Thomas Cogan wrote about in the heral today. Now
Williason is going to have to cut a hell of
a lot billions of dollars of spending across the government
to fund the growing cost of existing services that you
(03:55):
talked about today. And you start to wonder what's going
to be sacrificed to pay for them. Is it going
to be police, child poverty, climate, school repairs, public transport.
Something has to give, because you know, reprioritizing it's one
of those weasel words the government's use that means we
have to take the money from here and put it
over there, and nothing much has them to change, and
you don't address their qualities and health. By reprioritizing, you
(04:18):
make a good point. You make a good fixed up
schools reprioritizing.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
You make a very good point, but I think we
can all accept that there is some bloating where there's
a lot of bloating actually that happens in any part
of the public sector, and that sometimes just going over
it and starting to cut a few things that are
not needed anymore is not a bad thing, right. This
is just a bit of a school discipline.
Speaker 5 (04:37):
But it tends to be around the margins, I find.
I mean, governments over the years have talked about razor
cans and making these sorts of cuts, and when they
get down to it, it's tough around the margins that
goes and it's not billions of dollars as well as
it's talking about today.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
Yeah, So what she's.
Speaker 5 (04:53):
Got in mind is something a lot more substantive.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
I suspect it's going to have to be big stuff. Now, Connor,
what did you think of Tory pulling out of the race?
Did Toy pull out of race because we were too
mean to her? Or was it because she was actually
just stinking, stinking she was going to get beaten by
Andrew Little?
Speaker 5 (05:07):
Ah?
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Well, I mean Tory is the only one that knows that.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
But I suspect that she saw the riding on the
on the wall, and I'm not sure what the local
poles have said about it.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
But also with Andrew little standing in the race.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
You know, you saw back in twenty sixteen when Joe
Codlin it hams to be my gorgeous wife stood for
me here and so did Nikola Young and Nick Legott,
and that split that vote that sort of because Joe
was an independent, the scene as sort of center center
right a little bit, and that split that vote. And
so I guess the Greens and Labor didn't want to
(05:43):
split that vote and want to consolidate it around one
one candidate.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
So now they've sort of done that, and I wouldn't
be at.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
All surprised if Tory comes back as deputy mayor.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Now, Mike, well, jeez, hang on, attack, I hold on, Connor, Connor,
are you is this just among coming from the right.
Speaker 4 (06:01):
There's no free lunch. There's no free lunch, is there?
So if you if you're going to stand down, you're
going to want something and return for that.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Well, what about just saving your own dignity?
Speaker 3 (06:13):
Well, as I say, I mean, Tory.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
Has her own reasons, but if you look at it,
you know, from a strategic perspective, that makes sense that
you only have one candidate on the on the left.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
Not too okay.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Now here's the thing, Mike, we've gone to. We've gone
to Andrew Little because we didn't want to ruin things
for him, you know, with with conspiracy theories and stuff.
And we've asked him, is Tory going to be your deputy?
And he's come back and said he's not given any
thoughts to who's going to be the deputy, and he's
focused on winning the election and so on. So what
do you think is he going to make Torri his deputy?
Speaker 5 (06:44):
I would very much doubt it. Tory's Toy's first or
brand has been very badly damaged by numerous incidents over
the last three years, and I don't think Little would
want to associate that with his meyalty. She went against
the Greens Labor and voted in favored the Council selling
its airport chairs, which is which I thought was a
(07:05):
good decision, but of course, you know, it incurred the
wrath of the Greens and Labor, and I just think
Andrew Little won't want that sort of stuff to resurface
during his campaign, So I'd be very surprised that the
entertained thoughts of having Toy anywhere near his ticket.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
What do you think, Mike, of what Chippy's been saying,
which is that we're just mean to her because she's
a lady.
Speaker 5 (07:32):
No, I don't really agree with that, Heather. I think
I Tori's brought a lot of these problems upon herself.
The funny thing is funny. The sensible thing is is
that Toy's actually got a story to tell. Despite all
the Tory haters out there, She's actually had some pretty
solid accomplishments during her term. You know, the district plans
and how to point with, there's a lot more housing going up.
(07:52):
The library and town Hall refits are almost finished and
he's going to get to cut the ribbon on them.
Cycleways have been rolled out around the city, mild project underway.
So just a story to tell, but it's all been overshadowed.
I think by this the personal misdemeanors that Tory experience
over the last three years, and so that's not mean
it's just shed to trouble.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
I think there's there's I'm sure she's done a lot of.
Speaker 4 (08:19):
Good things and I'm sure she's very well meaning, as
probably everyone instance for counsel is, but there is a
pretty harsh reality is that Wellington isn't actually in that
good of shape and a lot of the things and
initiatives that you've mentioned have ended up not working well
for the community.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
They've been implementing things that they haven't.
Speaker 4 (08:40):
Listened to the community on and we've ended up with
a lot of expenditure and not much value for money.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
Wellington Water where they talked about a culture of.
Speaker 4 (08:50):
Learned hopelessness, you know, and now we're getting these massive
rape bills. So it's a legacy that I'm sure there's
some very good positives in it, but there's also some
challenges for whoever comes in next that have been the
result of some very poor decision making by by the
Council over the last several years.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Guys, it's been lovely to talk to you. Thank you
so much, and Mike, thank you for It wasn't Mike's fault.
I just feel like I need to clarify this wasn't
Mike's fault that the phone did the funny robot voice. Okay,
that was just electronics. That's just life that happens. But
Jesus frustrating, isn't it way? Mike, thank you for tolerating
us and making fun of you as a boomer. That's
Mike Munroe, former chief of staff to Jasinda dun And
(09:32):
Connor English, director at Wellington government relations firm Silver Eye.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
For more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to
news Talks. It'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.
The huddle with New Zealand Southeby's International Realty achieve extraordinary
results with und parallel reach.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
On the huddle of this evening we have Connor English,
director at Wellington government relations firm Silverye and Mike Munroe,
former Chief of Staff, to just send a hello you too.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
You know, how are you very well?
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Is that you Connor? That's you? Oh Mike, Mike, you
muted yourself again, Lord these boomers? Oh Mike, now still
muted Mike. Okay, We're going to let Mike just take
a minute and figure out the phone. Connor, I wanted
to talk to you first anyway. What do you make
of Nicholas budget and the tiny, tiny spending allowance.
Speaker 4 (00:39):
Well, it just shows how tough and how tight the
situation is for the government. But I think you've got
a beer in mind that the government has never spent
more in the history of having governments in New Zealand.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
So whilst there's not much extra, there's still.
Speaker 4 (00:54):
A lot of government spinal taking place, and I think
the ministers now looking to focus on value for.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Money and you know, be portrayed as.
Speaker 4 (01:02):
A careful manager of the of the government's books and
you know, They talk a lot about focusing on growth
to get more revenue in so you can spend more
after you've got the revenue in.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
I agree with you on this, Connor, But what would
you suggest like and she's cut her spending allowance, her
operating allowance from two point four billion to one point
three billion, would you have paired it back even further?
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Ah?
Speaker 4 (01:25):
Well, I'm not the Minister of Finance and I don't
have all the facts available to me that she would have.
But I think the notion that we should be looking
for more value for money if you just focus on
one of the inputs, which is cash, and not on
the outcomes or even the outputs. You know, if everyone
(01:46):
says there's a problem, we just need to have more cash,
you don't look for innovative ways. You're not looking for productivity,
you're not looking for other ways of solving the solving
the problem. And I think what her challenge is to
the public sector is how can you solve these problems
or body services in a smarter way? And there's an
enormous number of smart people in the public sector are
very capable of doing that.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
And I think she's just setting up the framework that
she's going to.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
Put a little bit of pressure on to enable them
to put a bit more thought into there.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Mikey you with us?
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Now? Can you hear me?
Speaker 2 (02:18):
It's not stay with us, Mike. What do you make
of what Nicholas done?
Speaker 5 (02:22):
Really about it?
Speaker 6 (02:24):
It feels like austerity, Heather, It probably is. You know,
a couple of months ago the message from luxon.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
For this year, what's growth growth, growth, Well, from.
Speaker 6 (02:36):
Today it is cuts cuts, cuts, And as Thomas Cogden
wrote in The Herald, today willis is going to in
order to fund the growing cost of existing services. And
you start to wonder what's going to be sacrific child
(02:57):
poverty measures? Will it be the climb its public transport?
Something has to give, as the Brits showed with the under.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
No, I pulpin, I pulpin I can't I tried, I tried.
Did you try? We all tried, didn't we? What we're
going to do is we're going to take a break
and we're just going to help the situation out by
calling Mike back.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
So just bear with the huddle with New Zealand Southeby's
international realty the ones with worldwide connections that perform not
a promise.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Right, we're back with the huddle. Mike is back on
the phone. Mike, please carry on, because I actually wanted
to hear what you had to say.
Speaker 5 (03:33):
Look, I'm not quite sure how much you heard of
me previously. So I was just making the point that
that Luxlan talked about growth, growth, growth, making steperary this year.
Right now, it's going to be cut, cut, cuts, as
Cogan Thomas Cogan wrote about in the heral today. Now
Williason is going to have to cut a hell of
a lot billions of dollars of spending across the government
to fund the growing cost of existing services that you
(03:55):
talked about today. And you start to wonder what's going
to be sacrificed to pay for them. Is it going
to be police, child poverty, climate, school repairs, public transport.
Something has to give, because you know, reprioritizing it's one
of those weasel words the government's use that means we
have to take the money from here and put it
over there, and nothing much has them to change, and
you don't address their qualities and health. By reprioritizing, you
(04:18):
make a good point. You make a good fixed up
schools reprioritizing.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
You make a very good point, but I think we
can all accept that there is some bloating where there's
a lot of bloating actually that happens in any part
of the public sector, and that sometimes just going over
it and starting to cut a few things that are
not needed anymore is not a bad thing, right. This
is just a bit of a school discipline.
Speaker 5 (04:37):
But it tends to be around the margins, I find.
I mean, governments over the years have talked about razor
cans and making these sorts of cuts, and when they
get down to it, it's tough around the margins that
goes and it's not billions of dollars as well as
it's talking about today.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
Yeah, So what she's.
Speaker 5 (04:53):
Got in mind is something a lot more substantive.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
I suspect it's going to have to be big stuff. Now, Connor,
what did you think of Tory pulling out of the race?
Did Toy pull out of race because we were too
mean to her? Or was it because she was actually
just stinking, stinking she was going to get beaten by
Andrew Little?
Speaker 5 (05:07):
Ah?
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Well, I mean Tory is the only one that knows that.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
But I suspect that she saw the riding on the
on the wall, and I'm not sure what the local
poles have said about it.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
But also with Andrew little standing in the race.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
You know, you saw back in twenty sixteen when Joe
Codlin it hams to be my gorgeous wife stood for
me here and so did Nikola Young and Nick Legott,
and that split that vote that sort of because Joe
was an independent, the scene as sort of center center
right a little bit, and that split that vote. And
so I guess the Greens and Labor didn't want to
(05:43):
split that vote and want to consolidate it around one
one candidate.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
So now they've sort of done that, and I wouldn't
be at.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
All surprised if Tory comes back as deputy mayor.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Now, Mike, well, jeez, hang on, attack, I hold on, Connor, Connor,
are you is this just among coming from the right.
Speaker 4 (06:01):
There's no free lunch. There's no free lunch, is there?
So if you if you're going to stand down, you're
going to want something and return for that.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Well, what about just saving your own dignity?
Speaker 3 (06:13):
Well, as I say, I mean, Tory.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
Has her own reasons, but if you look at it,
you know, from a strategic perspective, that makes sense that
you only have one candidate on the on the left.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
Not too okay.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Now here's the thing, Mike, we've gone to. We've gone
to Andrew Little because we didn't want to ruin things
for him, you know, with with conspiracy theories and stuff.
And we've asked him, is Tory going to be your deputy?
And he's come back and said he's not given any
thoughts to who's going to be the deputy, and he's
focused on winning the election and so on. So what
do you think is he going to make Torri his deputy?
Speaker 5 (06:44):
I would very much doubt it. Tory's Toy's first or
brand has been very badly damaged by numerous incidents over
the last three years, and I don't think Little would
want to associate that with his meyalty. She went against
the Greens Labor and voted in favored the Council selling
its airport chairs, which is which I thought was a
(07:05):
good decision, but of course, you know, it incurred the
wrath of the Greens and Labor, and I just think
Andrew Little won't want that sort of stuff to resurface
during his campaign, So I'd be very surprised that the
entertained thoughts of having Toy anywhere near his ticket.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
What do you think, Mike, of what Chippy's been saying,
which is that we're just mean to her because she's
a lady.
Speaker 5 (07:32):
No, I don't really agree with that, Heather. I think
I Tori's brought a lot of these problems upon herself.
The funny thing is funny. The sensible thing is is
that Toy's actually got a story to tell. Despite all
the Tory haters out there, She's actually had some pretty
solid accomplishments during her term. You know, the district plans
and how to point with, there's a lot more housing going up.
(07:52):
The library and town Hall refits are almost finished and
he's going to get to cut the ribbon on them.
Cycleways have been rolled out around the city, mild project underway.
So just a story to tell, but it's all been overshadowed.
I think by this the personal misdemeanors that Tory experience
over the last three years, and so that's not mean
it's just shed to trouble.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
I think there's there's I'm sure she's done a lot of.
Speaker 4 (08:19):
Good things and I'm sure she's very well meaning, as
probably everyone instance for counsel is, but there is a
pretty harsh reality is that Wellington isn't actually in that
good of shape and a lot of the things and
initiatives that you've mentioned have ended up not working well
for the community.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
They've been implementing things that they haven't.
Speaker 4 (08:40):
Listened to the community on and we've ended up with
a lot of expenditure and not much value for money.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
Wellington Water where they talked about a culture of.
Speaker 4 (08:50):
Learned hopelessness, you know, and now we're getting these massive
rape bills. So it's a legacy that I'm sure there's
some very good positives in it, but there's also some
challenges for whoever comes in next that have been the
result of some very poor decision making by by the
Council over the last several years.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Guys, it's been lovely to talk to you. Thank you
so much, and Mike, thank you for It wasn't Mike's fault.
I just feel like I need to clarify this wasn't
Mike's fault that the phone did the funny robot voice. Okay,
that was just electronics. That's just life that happens. But
Jesus frustrating, isn't it way? Mike, thank you for tolerating
us and making fun of you as a boomer. That's
Mike Munroe, former chief of staff to Jasinda dun And
(09:32):
Connor English, director at Wellington government relations firm Silver Eye.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
For more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to
news Talks. It'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.
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