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Nick Leggett: Infrastructure NZ Chief Executive on the Government announcing review into the CRL · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Old plated cost blowouts. The government's doing a review now
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: on why the CRL has cost us so bloody much.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Former SERAH boss Sean Sweeney has told The Herald it
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: could have probably been done for two billion dollars cheaper,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: two billion cheaper total costs five point five.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: I think we could have delivered this for half the cost,
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: but it would have looked different.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Neck Legget Infrastructure, New Zealand CEO with us this morning.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Hey Nick, how are you on the money?
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: I wouldn't be arguing with anything, Shawan Sweeney said. I
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: think that when he was close to the project, he
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: knows the decisions that were made and he says now
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: that based on his experience, it was over specified and
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: over designed. And look, I think that it does happen
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: quite a lot of infrastructure in New Zealand. We don't
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: have the proper controls and sometimes we take too long
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: to plan, or we don't plan enough and we let
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: things drag on. And you know, he also makes a
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: really key point and let us get the right people
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: with the right expertise on at the start, and that
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: is that's another change. We don't do some of these projects,
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: Ryan often enough. If you think about it, When was
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: a metro rail, When was a metro rail project done
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: in New Zealand like this, it's hard to remember. So
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: we don't have the expertise often on shore, and we
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: don't line things up properly, and it's sort of a
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: bit of a continuous cycle. And I think we've got
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: to learn from it.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: But isn't the irony of all of this that he
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: himself probably shouldn't have been a hide because he says
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: he didn't have the experience to know that this meaning
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: that was being done probably shouldn't have been done.
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: I think if you look at the project, we're going
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: to get a very high quality project. But ultimately, the
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: people who specify the design and agree to it, you know,
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: the people that contract these sort of projects, they're the
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: ones that are ultimately in control role. So you know,
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: he's said, look, I didn't know enough. Fair call who
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: was better, and uh, look, it's just the case that
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: we've just got to lift our game as a country.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: And is it the designers, the designers, the geotech.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: No, it's it's it's not. It's it's the who contracts
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: the job, who pays for the job. That's the question.
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: You know those are those are the things we've got
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: to look at. And are they just questions.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: A JV between the government and the council, which this
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: was not a good idea.
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: Well, I think jvs are a good idea. We should
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: be doing more. But what we've got to do is
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: make sure that they're specifying the right designs, that they're
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: they're focusing on getting the right cost controls and not
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: you know, as he uses this word gold plating. You
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: know some of these stations, you know, a couple of stations,
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: as you know, the same size as the biggest ones
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: in the London underground, two hundred meters long. That's right, right,
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: And I've just I'm actually not in New Zealand, which
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: is why I sound so bright and bright eyed and
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: bushy tailed. I'm in Norway. I've just looked at we
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: just looked at a metro development today. It's twice as
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: long as CRL and it's got twice as many stations,
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: and it's costing the same And so we can lock
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: to international expertise. The other thing, though, after giving ourselves
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: a short sharp kick, we've got to change our behavior
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: with the stuff. We've also got to remember that CRL
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: is going to be awesome for Auckland. The next challenge
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: is to make sure that we get the best out
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: of it, which means getting more housing around it, got
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: more jobs and growth. That's that we should hold ourselves to.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: Now, don't waste the very expensive opportunity leg at infrastructure
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: in New Zealand and CEO.
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen live
• 3:54
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• 3:58
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