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Andrew Little: Wellington mayor on Wellington's new water entity receiving double the board's original pay · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from news Talk zed B.
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  Speaker 2: The new Wellington Water Entity is going to pay its
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  Speaker 2: board members twice as much as Wellington Water did. The
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  Speaker 2: Wellington Water chair is paid sixty thousand dollars a year,
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  Speaker 2: but the new Tiaki Why chair will get one hundred
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  Speaker 2: and ten thousand dollars and the chief executive position goes
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  Speaker 2: from about five hundred and fifty thousand dollars thereabouts to
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  Speaker 2: six hundred and forty five thousand dollars. Andrew Little is
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  Speaker 2: Wellington's mayor. Hi Andrew Hi et are these pay rises deserved?
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  Speaker 3: You know, there's not a lot of difference between Wellington
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  Speaker 3: Water at the moment and Chaki Why. The difference is
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  Speaker 3: that Tiaki Why the new entity is going to own
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  Speaker 3: the assets, whereas at the moment went to work to
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  Speaker 3: really fill and manages them. But actually that's the main thing.
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  Speaker 3: The main thing people want is to know that water
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  Speaker 3: is flowing through the pipes into the houses and the
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  Speaker 3: waste water is flowing away from the houses. That's the
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  Speaker 3: job of willing to water. That'll be the primary job
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  Speaker 3: of Shaku Why So it's to be honest, it's a
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  Speaker 3: little bit disappointing to see it. I think the thing
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  Speaker 3: is that they're gone out to consult over their sort
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  Speaker 3: of future pricing, and by saying, you know, they're under
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  Speaker 3: huge cost pressure, well and then you see the cost
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  Speaker 3: that they haven't posed on themselves. So I was frankly
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  Speaker 3: just disappointed to see it.
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  Speaker 2: Now just because it's a bad look, and just because
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  Speaker 2: the job load isn't increasing doesn't mean it's not deserve right, So,
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  Speaker 2: and I'm not arguing it is, but what is your
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  Speaker 2: take on it? Given the assets that they are in
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  Speaker 2: charge of, were they actually maybe underpaid or was it
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  Speaker 2: a fair level of play?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm never going to be that's the sixty four
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  Speaker 3: or six hundred and forty thousand dollars question, depending on
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  Speaker 3: how you look at it. There's always that you know,
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  Speaker 3: we know, we can say with a degree of confidence
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  Speaker 3: that's the last thirty forty years water assets haven't been
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  Speaker 3: well managed. They haven't been maintained properly, all that sort
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  Speaker 3: of staff investment has been a bit patchy, and quite
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  Speaker 3: a bit of money's gone into fixing them up over
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  Speaker 3: the last few years. But there's still plenty more to do,
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  Speaker 3: so I've got their work cut out for them, there's
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  Speaker 3: no question about it. But at the end of the
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  Speaker 3: day too, they are effectively a public entity. They're owned
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  Speaker 3: by five councils who get their most of their income
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  Speaker 3: from rate payers and residents, and therefore these guys are
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  Speaker 3: in the public sector. So it does have to be
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  Speaker 3: some recognition that you know, and they're a monopoly too,
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  Speaker 3: there's no they're not competing with any other business, so
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  Speaker 3: there does have to be some recognition of all met
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  Speaker 3: and and so I do just wonder whether the incomes
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  Speaker 3: are slightly overpriced.
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  Speaker 2: Listen, have you guys got water meat, Like, have you
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  Speaker 2: got plans for water meters across the region yet?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah? Well, that's that's part of the job is to
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  Speaker 3: look at that they put or at least will into
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  Speaker 3: water is put together a business case that'll go that
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  Speaker 3: will transfer to the new entity when they take over.
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  Speaker 3: The expectations we will do. They tell me it'll take
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  Speaker 3: five to six years to implement once they once they
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  Speaker 3: sort of start. But I think, and you know, increaseing
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  Speaker 3: me when I talk to people, people want it because
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  Speaker 3: they were people who are who use very little water,
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  Speaker 3: say why should they pay. They're saying, with somebody who's
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  Speaker 3: got a swimming pool or a sparpol and all that
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  Speaker 3: sort of stuff. So I think that there's good reason
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  Speaker 3: for it. They also say it helps with managing leaky water,
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  Speaker 3: so that's a good thing too. We will have water
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  Speaker 3: meter it eventually.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, do you think that the bill that people are
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  Speaker 2: facing now of what is it like, twenty four hundred
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  Speaker 2: dollars annually? That seems like that seems incredibly steep. Is
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  Speaker 2: that fair?
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  Speaker 3: Well, what they tell us is that, I mean it's
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  Speaker 3: twenty one one hundred dollars, will get up to twenty
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  Speaker 3: four hundred next year. But they say even that doesn't
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  Speaker 3: really pay the true cost of supplying water and taking
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  Speaker 3: waste water away and or so taking storm water away.
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  Speaker 3: There's you know, the.
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  Speaker 2: True Andrew in allland we don't. I mean, I reckon
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  Speaker 2: that I would pay half of that, and I've got
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  Speaker 2: a family. How does that work?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think because the reality is, and Wellington, we're
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  Speaker 3: doing a lot of stuff now that should have been
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  Speaker 3: done right a long time ago. Over the last three
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  Speaker 3: or forty years. A big catch up happening at the moment,
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  Speaker 3: and I think after the co caught it is crack
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  Speaker 3: in twenty sixteen, probably a lot more damage done to
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  Speaker 3: the pipes than was evident in the months that followed,
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  Speaker 3: but that's now becoming apparent, and so it is more
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  Speaker 3: to be fixed in the shortest space of time.
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  Speaker 2: Now, Andrew, I need to talk to you about this
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  Speaker 2: business with the I frankly am appalled at what the
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  Speaker 2: unelected guys have done to you people in this new building,
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  Speaker 2: putting you on the bottom level and them taking the top.
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  Speaker 2: And I know you don't want to spend the money
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  Speaker 2: because you have said that rates have to be kept down.
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  Speaker 2: But I just wonder if actually this is a principle
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  Speaker 2: you should abandon for the sake of just the standing
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  Speaker 2: of the mayor in Wellington. I think you should force
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  Speaker 2: a redesign. What do you think?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, because it will cost money. And you know I'm
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  Speaker 3: disappointed too, But my egos are so bad that you know,
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  Speaker 3: I think I need to have the prime space and
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  Speaker 3: the office building and all the rest of it, So
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  Speaker 3: I'll let it go. I've got more important things, so
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  Speaker 3: things that are more important to rate thousand residents. That's
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  Speaker 3: what I'm focused on. But I you knows me I
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  Speaker 3: entertained a lot of dignitaries, a lot of a lot
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  Speaker 3: of peop who want to see you Wellington and see
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  Speaker 3: the best that Wellington's got. We have a building that's
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  Speaker 3: right on the waterfront. It would make sense you would
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  Speaker 3: have thought to have an office. But the mare can say, look,
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  Speaker 3: here's your amazing Harper, here's our amazing waterfront, here's the
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  Speaker 3: beautiful city that we've got. I won't ever stands to
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  Speaker 3: do that, but I'll find a way to do it somehow.
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  Speaker 2: Andrew, as always, thank you for your time. Appreciate your
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  Speaker 2: adherence to your principle. There Andrew Little, the Wellington Mayor.
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