Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Sam Uffindell: Tauranga MP on the damning Mt Maunganui landslide review

Transcript

Sam Uffindell: Tauranga MP on the damning Mt Maunganui landslide review · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So pretty damning findings, you'd have to say. From the
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: fatal Mount Longinery Landslade inquiry that we heard about yesterday,
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Totaling a city council warned repeatedly for more than twenty
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: five years but failed to act.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: This tragedy was in the end preventable. In my view,
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: the hazard was known that an effective and an expensive
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: means of managing the risk mitigating the risk imposed had
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: twice been recommended, and the council that had every opportunity
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: to put it in place.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: Sam Uffindale is MP for Totong that joins me live
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: this morning. Sam, Good morning, Good morning Rayan. What does
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: accountability look like to you? I mean a lot of
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: people texting the show this morning saying that CEO he's
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: got to go.
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: What do you think? Well? I think that remains an
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: open question right at the moment, A police some cranial
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: processes underway alongside the government's inquiry. You know it's wrong
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: to premp those processes, but the report's findings are deeply concerning,
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: and right now my focus is on understanding the ensuring
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: accountability it belongs and making sure the implementation the recommendations
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: are implemented.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: It's pretty bad these geotech reports saying you know, risks
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: to life. I mean two of them commissioned in the
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: last few years, one December twenty three, one June twenty five.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: So is there are there any other reports that you know,
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: we're aware of that have got risk to life written
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: on them that haven't been bumped up the food chain
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: at this council or any other council.
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: No. Look, it's unforgivable, really right, and it shows a
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: cultural and systemic failure at totong A City Council and
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: they need to be having a really good look at themselves,
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: including their personnel. It's very challenging, and your thoughts have
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: to go first and foremost to the victims and their
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: loved ones because they will be doing it extremely tough
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: right now. And the judge was quite clear this was preventable.
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: This was a preventable tragedy and six people should still
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: be here today and they're not and that's tragic.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Who do you think is ultimately responsible? Because you know
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: when a minister does something, when a ministry does something wrong,
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: ultimately the minister takes responsibility for it. That's how it
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: works in central government. What about local de reckon.
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: Well, in this case, it's the organization and the head
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: of the organization, it's the CEO.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: You think you should go.
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: Like, I'm not going to. I know what you want
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: me to say, right and well I don't.
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: I don't want you to say anything. I'm just curious what
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: you think, because I mean, everyone has an opinion in total,
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: and they're texting me right now.
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: I've been I've been critical of the CEO for a
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: long time on a number of local issues, and this
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: is a massive problem. And we've got a very tragic
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: situation where six people have lost their lives in a
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: preventable situation due to systemic failure within the organization, and
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: a huge question marka has to hang over the CEO.
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: But you know, right now the reports come out, I
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: haven't read through the whole report, over two hundred pages.
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: There's a number of other reports underway, including a government inquiry,
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: and I don't want to preempt those processes. I want
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: to understand all the findings, ensure accountability rate belongs here.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: Enough, Hey, what about the businesses that you know? Any
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: idea when the thing is going to reopen? Were spoken
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: speaking to a pizzeria yesterday. Is looking at closing.
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: Yeah, well I understood that they were closing. And there's
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: the two four that's down there that's got ninety percent
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: patronage down I've gone and talked to a lot of
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: those businesses around there, and it's very sad. You know,
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: all of them have the same story. They all feel
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: let down by the council. They feel that, you know,
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: that their businesses are suffering. There hasn't been any rates relief,
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: with rates being based on what the income they might
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: have coming over, You're going to lose some of those businesses.
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: It's very very sad for for them and for the
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: local community and for and for everybody to us. But
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: I mean, let's not let's not get away from what
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: the the tragedy is here and that that six people
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: have lost their lives and their families will be heavily grieving.
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: Sam, appreciate your time this morning, Sam Ufandell MP for
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: Total On.
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: It's for More from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge.
• 4:18
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• 4:20
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• 4:23
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