Latest / Best of Business / Matt Cowley: Tauranga Business Association CEO on the Port of Tauranga project being halted

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Matt Cowley: Tauranga Business Association CEO on the Port of Tauranga project being halted · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talks'd be follow
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  Speaker 2: So, as I told you yesterday, the Port of Todunger
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  Speaker 2: has had another snag in its efforts to extend the
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  Speaker 2: wolf its sulfur point. The port has been trying to
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  Speaker 2: get this consented for years. It's had to fight objections
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  Speaker 2: from local EWE and the Environment Court, made an application
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  Speaker 2: to be fast tracked, but then found out that the
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  Speaker 2: application is on hold after a judicial review. Matt Cowley
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  Speaker 2: is the CEO of todung A Business Chamber and with
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  Speaker 2: us Hey, Matt, Hey, Heather, I imagine this is hugely disappointing.
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  Speaker 3: Look, Leonard is a very cool, calm and collected guys
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  Speaker 3: you would expect from many publicly listed company, but for
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  Speaker 3: them to issue such a statement shows the level of
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  Speaker 3: frustration out there.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, because what are they frustrated by the fact that
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  Speaker 2: they'd left a couple of words out of the application
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  Speaker 2: and as a result of that the judicial review scrupped it.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, you wouldn't believe that they managed to get inside
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  Speaker 3: Shoesual two of the legislation. They missed out a few words,
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  Speaker 3: so the High Court obviously said, nah, it doesn't flit
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  Speaker 3: the scope. And it's amazing how a little insignificant sand
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  Speaker 3: during has gotten the way millions of dollars coming into
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  Speaker 3: our economy.
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  Speaker 2: Does the E we have edie, Is there any merit
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  Speaker 2: to the ewe's objections here?
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  Speaker 3: Oh, I don't know the ewe's case that much, but
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  Speaker 3: burn mitigation. So even the Environment Court has said that
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  Speaker 3: the environmental impacts are negligible long term, so the mitigation
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  Speaker 3: is kind of what's holding it up, which of course
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  Speaker 3: can happen while building is happening in underway. It's been
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  Speaker 3: five years and there is a lot of frustration up there,
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  Speaker 3: particularly missing cargo and shipping lines to the Americas, which
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  Speaker 3: is obviously a big part of me and Brown's talk
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  Speaker 3: around lining up with China's Belt and Road initiative.
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  Speaker 2: What does it mean to get this, to get this
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  Speaker 2: wolf done, the extension done. What would it mean for business?
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  Speaker 3: It will obviously have a long term impact in terms
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  Speaker 3: of greater capacity because soon there's going to be bottlenecks
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  Speaker 3: and the last thing we need is supply chain bottlenecks,
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  Speaker 3: you know, with ships either being delayed or staying left
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  Speaker 3: out at sea. Just waiting for their anchorage to come in,
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  Speaker 3: and it's just that time delays which really impact and
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  Speaker 3: having to tune ships away because the capacity is a
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  Speaker 3: big no no, not what we need for this economy.
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  Speaker 2: No, jeez, not at all. Now we are waiting. Obviously,
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  Speaker 2: they were supposed to have the fast track hearing on
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  Speaker 2: the first of September. Do we have yet any idea
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  Speaker 2: when it will once they've managed to refile the paperwork
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  Speaker 2: when we're looking at for that.
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  Speaker 3: Ideally the government would amend the legislation immediately to clear
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  Speaker 3: this up so they don't need to go through judicial review.
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  Speaker 3: That's the ultimate bolve.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, well, here's hoping, Matt. Thank you very much. Matt Cowley,
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  Speaker 2: toting a Business Chamber of CEO.
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