Latest / Best of Business / Business Panel: Hutt Valley chamber CEO Patrick McKibbon and Metco Engineering director Paul Jessup

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Business Panel: Hutt Valley chamber CEO Patrick McKibbon and Metco Engineering director Paul Jessup · Best of Business

• 0:09
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  Speaker 1: Monday's Mean Business. It's the Business Panel on Wellington Mornings
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  Speaker 1: Visit Quinovic dot co dot INSD.
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  Speaker 2: Let's get done, let's get don.
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: Character join us for the business panel. This week is
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: Hunt Valley Chamber of Commerce CEO Patrick mckippin. Did I
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: get that right? Patrick?
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
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  Speaker 4: Mostly?
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  Speaker 3: Mostly mostly? And met COO Engineering Director Paul Jesse. I
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: I card to get that one wrong, Paul, isn't it?
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: Did I get that right?
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  Speaker 2: That's all good.
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: Don't forget to come to your microphone? How many times
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: do I have to explain to people that you're going
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: to come to your microphone? And then as soon as
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  Speaker 3: we start, oh, lean back, okay, Paul, start with us
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: telling us what you do? What does met Co met Co?
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: Do I pronounce it right? Is it cod engineering? Engineering?
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: What do they do? What do you do?
• 1:13
  Speaker 5: Everything to do with the engineering from aerospace to civil
• 1:17
  Speaker 5: to roading, to traffic, agriculture, automation, robotics, gosh, designing it.
• 1:31
  Speaker 5: So we're trying to get into our own products. At
• 1:33
  Speaker 5: the moment, you building trailers to compete with the Chinese market.
• 1:38
  Speaker 5: We can cut a whole trailer in six minutes, get
• 1:41
  Speaker 5: you know, work that one out.
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  Speaker 3: How's it going? How how is life in the engineering world?
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  Speaker 2: Engineering compared it to pre COVID engineering is good. It's
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: everything else.
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  Speaker 5: Insurances, you know, power gas prices has just gone through
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  Speaker 5: the roof staff having four, you know, ten days sick
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  Speaker 5: leave instead of five, you know, that hurts you every
• 2:06
  Speaker 5: every week. There's look at Monday today, I think we
• 2:10
  Speaker 5: had six guys sick.
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  Speaker 3: Had six jobs that don't get done's.
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  Speaker 2: And you've got to deal with that.
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  Speaker 5: So time to actually reschedule those roles. And you know,
• 2:21
  Speaker 5: since the ten days, it's been hard. It's really hiss.
• 2:27
  Speaker 5: But the engineering side, you know, we're probably in a
• 2:30
  Speaker 5: in a spot in life where it's the development of
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  Speaker 5: the engineering is accelerating at such a phenomenal rate technology wise,
• 2:41
  Speaker 5: with AI and the machinery that we're dealing with for
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  Speaker 5: my job is keeping up with that technology. It's absolutely amazing.
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  Speaker 2: Loving it.
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  Speaker 5: You should go fifty eight years old and I'm loving
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  Speaker 5: I've got goosebumps just talking about it. At the moment.
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  Speaker 3: Good on you, good on you love it and happy only.
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: Chamber of Commerce CEO patrickman Kippen. Hopefully I am getting
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  Speaker 3: that right, Patrick. Let's let's call call you Patrick. How
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: how businesses in the Hut Valuy? Now you look after
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: the upperhead as well.
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  Speaker 4: We're across the whole of it.
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  Speaker 3: So you've got the big brute town mansions and all
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: that stuff. All you've got, that's all you as well.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, so we were with businesses across the whole of
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  Speaker 4: the Hut Valley and look, how's it going. It's still
• 3:27
  Speaker 4: pretty tough out there. I think when we're out and about,
• 3:31
  Speaker 4: and I'm out and about quite a lot businesses are
• 3:34
  Speaker 4: generally saying it's okay. And look for a business to
• 3:37
  Speaker 4: say it's okay. Is okay? But actually where they want
• 3:41
  Speaker 4: to be is they want to be busy. They want
• 3:43
  Speaker 4: to have a forward pipeline of work, and they want
• 3:45
  Speaker 4: to be employing people. And at the moment, some of
• 3:48
  Speaker 4: those things, you.
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: Know, what's holding your businesses up? What are you mostly
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: getting from people saying, you know, if only we could
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: do this, things would change.
• 3:58
  Speaker 4: Look, I think it's the economy is just coming back
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  Speaker 4: much slower than anticipated we've just done our business confidence
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  Speaker 4: And in March about fifty percent of the businesses were
• 4:12
  Speaker 4: saying that they were going to be confident. Now that's
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  Speaker 4: down to sort of thirty percent of businesses are saying
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  Speaker 4: they're confident. And so, you know, I think it's just
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  Speaker 4: a lot slower. It will survive in twenty four and
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  Speaker 4: thrive into twenty five.
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  Speaker 2: You know.
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  Speaker 4: Now people are talking about, you know, twenty six being
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  Speaker 4: the point at which things might start to pick up.
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  Speaker 4: So it's just been a lot slower.
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  Speaker 3: But Paul, you're saying, and you're a business in the
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  Speaker 3: hut belly, you're saying, business is fine, it's just all
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: the costs that go with it.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, we're down thirty percent.
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  Speaker 3: Whoa thirty percent? In my world's your profit.
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  Speaker 2: One hundred percent? Yeah?
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  Speaker 5: And then when you've got power and gas going up,
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  Speaker 5: yep and the works.
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  Speaker 3: When you started the show by saying things are great,
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  Speaker 3: the business is good.
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  Speaker 2: It is good.
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  Speaker 5: But we've we're in a situation where we own our
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  Speaker 5: own buildings and we've been smart. You know, we've been
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  Speaker 5: business twenty two years, so we don't carry a lot
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  Speaker 5: of debt. We've got money in the bank. So you know,
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  Speaker 5: it's been it's been hard, but we've as as business people,
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  Speaker 5: we've done really well so to get through situations like this.
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  Speaker 5: But yeah, it is. It is tough, and you know,
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  Speaker 5: I think one of the big things is, you know,
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  Speaker 5: the government buying New Zeala made would help everyone out.
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  Speaker 3: Yep, go on, what do you reckon is the major
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  Speaker 3: thing that's caused jaw downturn? What do you think if
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: you could put it down to one thing, was it COVID,
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  Speaker 3: whether it was the recession after COVID, whether it was immigration.
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  Speaker 3: You know, talk take the costs out of it. What's
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  Speaker 3: stopping that thirty percent people of buying a storm?
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  Speaker 2: Isn't it?
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  Speaker 5: It's a perfect storm, and it's it's so the whole
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  Speaker 5: twenty two years in business, we've never seen anything like this.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, lots of people are saying it's worse than in
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  Speaker 4: the financial crisis. And you know, I think Pool's right
• 6:07
  Speaker 4: that we're hearing is insurance is going up, electricity is
• 6:11
  Speaker 4: going up, rates are going up. You know, so all
• 6:13
  Speaker 4: of these cost input that businesses have to factor in,
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  Speaker 4: and most of that is their margins. It's just hard
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  Speaker 4: work trying to make a buck at the moment, you.
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  Speaker 5: Know, and then and then you've got the tax, so
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  Speaker 5: you know, we had a good march, and then banging,
• 6:28
  Speaker 5: O account's ringing me up, going you've now exceeded your
• 6:33
  Speaker 5: provisional text. You need to pay text next month. You know,
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  Speaker 5: it's like, yeah, okay, we've had one good month out
• 6:39
  Speaker 5: of twelve and bang. Because you know about business, our
• 6:44
  Speaker 5: text works.
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  Speaker 3: Thanks, thanks for brigging being very nice of you. Appreciate it.
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  Speaker 5: It's yeah, and there's you know, there's so many moving
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  Speaker 5: cogs in a business. It's just it's full on. You know,
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  Speaker 5: I'll tell you what to be honest check GBT. Having
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  Speaker 5: that tool now available on a day to day basis
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  Speaker 5: is a bit of a game changer as.
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  Speaker 3: A So just showy our listeners because I can see
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  Speaker 3: listeners like me saying how can you use chat GPT
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  Speaker 3: in an engineering business? Do you just say? Can you
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: design me this new tailor? Can you design me this?
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  Speaker 3: Tell me how we know?
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  Speaker 5: Just a you know, I'm an engineer, I'm not I'm
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  Speaker 5: not a lawyer, not an accountant. I haven't got a
• 7:26
  Speaker 5: business degree. So that tool brings me up to that
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  Speaker 5: level very quickly.
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: So you have a legal problem you ask chat, GPT.
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  Speaker 5: Legal, responding to letters, responding to certain emails. That's usually
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  Speaker 5: I would have to go to a third party for advice.
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  Speaker 5: It's a game changer, it really is.
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  Speaker 3: Do you reckon it? Could do things like change your
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: legal cost for a year.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, we had we had an event last week actually
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  Speaker 4: where we had somebody come in and talk about the
• 8:01
  Speaker 4: way in which they're using all of the AI tools
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  Speaker 4: that are now and there's so many of them, and
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  Speaker 4: he talked about being able to produce a full website
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  Speaker 4: within thirty minutes. Now that sort of thing used to
• 8:14
  Speaker 4: take a lot of pictures on walls and designing and
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  Speaker 4: so you know, then he's now able to do that
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  Speaker 4: in thirty minutes and kind of iterate from that, which
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  Speaker 4: makes things a lot easier and quicker.
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  Speaker 3: Can I be the Devil's advocate onness to both of you?
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  Speaker 3: How do you trust it? Because I mean I got
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: asked for some information for the show once and they
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: told me that a particular or black that I was
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: looking for some information on went to some pets in
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: silver Stream, when I'm in fact on you he went
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: to some pets in town. So how do you trust it?
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  Speaker 2: Well?
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  Speaker 4: I think you just have to use the tool, but
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  Speaker 4: use it sensibly as much as you know where you're
• 8:51
  Speaker 4: getting written information, you know, check it. We we use
• 8:55
  Speaker 4: CHATPT a lot to do some of our marketing, but
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  Speaker 4: actually we're using it in a way which helps us
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  Speaker 4: to go quicker and then check the information that we're
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  Speaker 4: putting out there.
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  Speaker 5: It's still only the common sense, So GBT will answer
• 9:08
  Speaker 5: to certain questions and it will miss things out that
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  Speaker 5: you then have to remind it. Hey but what I yeah?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, So if you've got the tools to be able
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  Speaker 2: to do that and ask those questions, you'll get the
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  Speaker 2: perfect answer. Yeap. And you've got to You've got to
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  Speaker 2: have that common sense.
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  Speaker 3: Yes.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's too good to be true, you know usually is.
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  Speaker 3: So you're an engineer and you say you're not an accountant, Paul,
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  Speaker 3: you're not a lawyer. How's your written skills are you?
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  Speaker 3: Are you good with that? Waters chat GPT help you?
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  Speaker 5: You're at fifteen years old? So how did as soon
• 9:40
  Speaker 5: as I turned fifteen? Yeah, I was out.
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: It's funny because can I just say I did a
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: proposal a couple of weeks ago or a couple of
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: months ago now for someone I needed to you know,
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: it was a deal that I was trying to put together,
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: and I wrote out the deal and then put it
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: to chat GPT and it came back with how it
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: should be sent out, and I've we're a family business,
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: so I sent it to the family to see what's
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: going I said, gosh, that was brilliant. How did you
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: do that? You're not I can't hear you, and you're not.
• 10:07
  Speaker 5: In the key is is I know how something needs
• 10:11
  Speaker 5: to be written, but for me to put it into words,
• 10:15
  Speaker 5: yeah without their education side, very difficult. So chet GPT
• 10:22
  Speaker 5: pulls virtually pulls those words out of my mouth and
• 10:25
  Speaker 5: puts them into written form. It's a game changer for me.
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: Game changer for a lot of business. Because I watched
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: on Q and A this guy, Welly Innings will Ings
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: talk about education and he talks about you, and he
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: talks about me, probably not you, Patrick, but it was
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: all about how education is not helping those who are entrepreneurs.
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: So that's exactly what you're saying. Yeah, but then let's
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: take a short break and come back, because I'm very
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: interested and it's great to hear chat GPT being used
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: in an engineering firm. I mean, you wouldn't even think
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: that that would apart from the odd letter that you
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: had to tidy up or clean up. You're listening to
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: the business panel. We have Hut Valley Chamber of Commerce
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: CEO Patrick McGibbon. I'm trying to get that right. I'm
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: not getting it right. It's all good with Kibbin and
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: metco Engineering director Paul Jessop. We've talked a lot about
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: Wellington City on the show, but we're having a couple
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: of Hut Valley business people involved. Tell us, Paul, what
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: is the actual feeling like in Lowerhart and Upperht the
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: Hut Valley. What's the vibe like? Compare it to pre covid,
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: what's the vibe like?
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  Speaker 5: I think the big one is the lack of spending infrastructure.
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: It's like, what's happened? Why have they got it so wrong?
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: You know?
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  Speaker 5: Why are we smilling sewer and see view? You know
• 11:52
  Speaker 5: why when I go home at five point thirty at
• 11:55
  Speaker 5: night on State Highway One going north and to turn
• 12:01
  Speaker 5: off at the Haywoods, it's banked up, Yeah, to get
• 12:05
  Speaker 5: through Upper Hearts, So what's gone wrong there? I lived
• 12:09
  Speaker 5: in Upper Heart when there was no river road. They
• 12:13
  Speaker 5: put on River Road. Then they put lights in. It's
• 12:15
  Speaker 5: a bottleneck. It's stuff like that. That's so wrong, that espernad.
• 12:20
  Speaker 5: Why is that bottleneck morning and afternoon It's it's choked.
• 12:26
  Speaker 5: So it's points like that is they need to be fixed.
• 12:30
  Speaker 5: You know, you need that flow through your city, you
• 12:32
  Speaker 5: need you need your fresh water, our hot river. I
• 12:36
  Speaker 5: remember swimming in the Hat River off Wakataki Street when
• 12:40
  Speaker 5: I was a kid. It was one of the best
• 12:42
  Speaker 5: spots to swim. It's gone that it's polluted. It's the
• 12:46
  Speaker 5: flows not there.
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  Speaker 2: What's happened.
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  Speaker 5: What's happened. It's like there's a boom of housing houses
• 12:53
  Speaker 5: being put up with no thought of the infrastructure that's
• 12:57
  Speaker 5: supporting it.
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  Speaker 3: Surely, with Chris Bishop being a very powerful politician, Patrick,
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: that should be high on their priority list.
• 13:08
  Speaker 4: I think it is. So I guess my perspective on
• 13:12
  Speaker 4: where the Hut value is it's it's definitely been tough,
• 13:14
  Speaker 4: and it's definitely still tough and things are a bit slower,
• 13:17
  Speaker 4: but the next ten to fifteen years for the Hut
• 13:20
  Speaker 4: Valley actually looks amazingly prosperous. So, you know, we've just
• 13:26
  Speaker 4: completed a strategic report over the next for the next
• 13:30
  Speaker 4: ten years, looking at the business community and whether we've
• 13:32
  Speaker 4: got that right or wrong. We're predicting a thirty five
• 13:36
  Speaker 4: percent growth in GDP, so three point five billion dollars
• 13:40
  Speaker 4: on top of the ten billion dollars that we already have.
• 13:43
  Speaker 4: And very few people know that we have ten billion
• 13:45
  Speaker 4: dollars worth of economy going on in the Hut Valley
• 13:47
  Speaker 4: and it's you know, there are so so many amazing businesses,
• 13:51
  Speaker 4: but kind of underpinning that kind of infrastructure stuff is
• 13:55
  Speaker 4: the Reveralink project. Yes, it's taken a long time to
• 13:58
  Speaker 4: get to where it's got to, but we're nearly there.
• 14:01
  Speaker 4: We've got Cross Valley Link, we've got Patonia, Grenada, and
• 14:05
  Speaker 4: all of that could be you know, seven to eight
• 14:07
  Speaker 4: billion dollars worth of spend coming into our community. And
• 14:11
  Speaker 4: if we can retain that spend with our business community
• 14:15
  Speaker 4: and with our community, things are going to look a
• 14:18
  Speaker 4: lot better than they were. You know, true COVID and
• 14:22
  Speaker 4: coming out of COVID.
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: Paul, you say, turned North Transmission Gully. What's that done
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: for the Hut Belly for capity?
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: That's awesome. I love there. So we brought their being finished.
• 14:37
  Speaker 5: But again you know that that kind of gives you
• 14:39
  Speaker 5: an understanding of Caperity. Infrastructure. Infrastructures is pretty damn good,
• 14:45
  Speaker 5: except for Capiti Road needs sorting out. Transmission. But again,
• 14:52
  Speaker 5: what happens was transmission Gully going south Bottleneck? You know,
• 14:57
  Speaker 5: did any want to think about that one?
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: No?
• 15:00
  Speaker 5: So seven thirty in the morning, Yeah, Transmission Gully going
• 15:04
  Speaker 5: to work in town.
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: Bottleneats does it still bolden it does it?
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: Ye?
• 15:15
  Speaker 5: So if you're catching an early flight, you've got to
• 15:17
  Speaker 5: allow for that extra hour.
• 15:20
  Speaker 4: Yeah and c Yeah, Certainly going home on State IRA
• 15:23
  Speaker 4: two or coming into town on State I two in
• 15:26
  Speaker 4: the evenings can be a lot you know, it's a
• 15:27
  Speaker 4: lot different than going out the other way first thing
• 15:30
  Speaker 4: in the morning. So you know, certainly a lot of
• 15:33
  Speaker 4: traffic moving at peak hours.
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: How can that be helped? How can Hunt Belly be
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: helped by that? I mean, that's a big basin, isn't it.
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: When you put the whole basin Upper Lower hut Y
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: New Eastbawn, it's a big basin.
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 15:46
  Speaker 4: Look, I think I mean we've got the train network
• 15:49
  Speaker 4: could be used more. You know, it's actually I think
• 15:51
  Speaker 4: they've just put the prices up on the train network,
• 15:53
  Speaker 4: and that's that can't help people.
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 15:57
  Speaker 4: I think I was amazed by the number of cars
• 15:59
  Speaker 4: going into Wellington City in the morning. I have no
• 16:02
  Speaker 4: idea where all those people parking because.
• 16:05
  Speaker 5: Half the problem the parks are full. A need more
• 16:09
  Speaker 5: car parking, they need capacity.
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: We're in the hut Belly.
• 16:13
  Speaker 5: Yeah, you know all those Potoni station, all the stations.
• 16:18
  Speaker 5: Need you go past any of those White Waterloo the Fall.
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: How do you feel? How do you feel about the
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: development that's been going on in the Hut Valley? I
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: mean I described it, you know once it's Coronation Street
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: in thirty years time, some of all those thousands of
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: townhouses that have been built. How do you feel doing
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: business out there?
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: Port?
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: Is it going to be okay?
• 16:43
  Speaker 5: I think CV is amazing the whole We're at the
• 16:46
  Speaker 5: location for us YEP as perfect to get to main
• 16:51
  Speaker 5: freight and ends carriers, and that's critical for us. Most
• 16:56
  Speaker 5: of our business goes to Auckland's. It's always freighted, so
• 17:02
  Speaker 5: to be able to get there, yeah, fifty percent of
• 17:07
  Speaker 5: our jobs need to go out that day, you know,
• 17:10
  Speaker 5: four o'clock. We're struggling to get them finished to be
• 17:14
  Speaker 5: shipped out.
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: Overnight.
• 17:15
  Speaker 5: So being close is vital. It's just that esperanade really
• 17:21
  Speaker 5: for us and the cost, you know, insurance. You know,
• 17:28
  Speaker 5: my insurance bill for my business is around nearly half
• 17:32
  Speaker 5: a million dollars a year and in Auckland it's about that.
• 17:40
  Speaker 5: How does that work?
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: Why?
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: Because the earthquakes and Wellington.
• 17:45
  Speaker 5: So instead of the the government stepping in there and
• 17:50
  Speaker 5: balancing the insurance costs nationwide, it's zoned.
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: That's a massive cost.
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: Massive cost. Heart Value. Chamber of Commerce CEO Patrick mckibbon
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: and metco Engineering director Paul Jessup joined us for the
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: Business panel today. Wellington businesses are facing serious cost pressures,
• 18:11
  Speaker 3: particular with commerce, particularly with commercial rates that Wellington Hut Valley. Sorry,
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: the Wellington City Council is proposing another twelve point two
• 18:19
  Speaker 3: percent rise in twenty twenty five twenty six. Patrick, what's
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: the Hut doing? And is our commercial rates in the
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: Hut so such huge as they are in Wellington?
• 18:30
  Speaker 4: I think as a proportion they're slightly lower in the
• 18:34
  Speaker 4: Hut Valley than in Wellington. Nick, So, I think my
• 18:40
  Speaker 4: understanding is that the proportion of rates that businesses playing
• 18:44
  Speaker 4: Wellington is about forty three percent of the total rate
• 18:47
  Speaker 4: take in the Hut Valley it's less than that. I
• 18:50
  Speaker 4: think in Auckland it's even less than that, So that
• 18:53
  Speaker 4: there is a there is a toll on on businesses
• 18:55
  Speaker 4: for rates and the rates are going up along with
• 18:59
  Speaker 4: as Paul said, just about every other cost input that
• 19:03
  Speaker 4: businesses are facing from electric bati.
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: Our business is commenting to you that did the the
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: rates are just getting out of control and what can
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: be done about it? Are you getting the feedback?
• 19:13
  Speaker 4: Look, I think businesses do comment from time to time.
• 19:19
  Speaker 4: What they want to see is business is the council's
• 19:23
  Speaker 4: kind of being responsible with their spending and that's the
• 19:29
  Speaker 4: way that we can certainly do that. The Heart City
• 19:32
  Speaker 4: Council is taking steps to kind of reduce costs for
• 19:35
  Speaker 4: some areas such as the building building costs. Are they
• 19:39
  Speaker 4: frozen some of the the developer levees in recent times
• 19:44
  Speaker 4: and that's important. But you know, councils across the board,
• 19:50
  Speaker 4: across the country are increasing the cost for businesses and
• 19:54
  Speaker 4: that's that's not not a great thing.
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: Paul, you own your building, you just said that before.
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: I mean, what do you think when you see your
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: rates bill?
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: It's just it's waste. You know, I think being a
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: business owner.
• 20:09
  Speaker 5: You you look after your pennies. Yeah, and we know
• 20:16
  Speaker 5: how every every job that comes in the door, we
• 20:20
  Speaker 5: we we look after that whole process.
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: So, you know, counsel demand arise.
• 20:28
  Speaker 5: They I don't think the majority of people on the
• 20:34
  Speaker 5: council really understand wastage in spending on dealing with that wastage.
• 20:42
  Speaker 5: You know when you drive down the motorway and see
• 20:45
  Speaker 5: four trucks and one law mar yeah, mowing the lawn,
• 20:51
  Speaker 5: that drives me insane, you know, So what's the lawmark
• 20:56
  Speaker 5: costing us? But what about the three trucks yeah, or.
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: Four trucks following?
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: You.
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: Guys are all in for a big change, particularly well.
• 21:05
  Speaker 4: Particular there's going to be a lot of change over
• 21:08
  Speaker 4: to be a new mayor.
• 21:09
  Speaker 3: Yeah sure, I mean what are your thoughts on that? Patrick?
• 21:12
  Speaker 4: Look, I think it will be different. Campbell's obviously been
• 21:17
  Speaker 4: there for six years and you know he's well known,
• 21:21
  Speaker 4: so we are going into the unknown. We have talked
• 21:24
  Speaker 4: to three out of the four candidates so far around
• 21:27
  Speaker 4: what they're kind of thinking about for businesses, and certainly
• 21:31
  Speaker 4: that engagement has been good, but remains to be seen
• 21:35
  Speaker 4: about kind of how that will play out really over
• 21:37
  Speaker 4: the next few months.
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: Paul, your thoughts. You've got a new mayor. Did you
• 21:41
  Speaker 3: know the old one? Did you work with the old one?
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: You're a big business in the area.
• 21:45
  Speaker 5: Not really, but interesting. We had a discussion over the
• 21:48
  Speaker 5: weekend about this. Is you know, what are council's really
• 21:50
  Speaker 5: there for. You know, we're here for a short time. Yeah,
• 21:55
  Speaker 5: I honestly believe there to make sure that there's infrastructure
• 22:00
  Speaker 5: for our children. You know, the Avalone skateparks an example,
• 22:06
  Speaker 5: capitally amazing.
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: Also more of that.
• 22:10
  Speaker 5: You know you got to ride a row and see
• 22:11
  Speaker 5: all these big mountain bike parks and stuff for people
• 22:16
  Speaker 5: to do in the weekend and after work. You know,
• 22:18
  Speaker 5: that's what keeps you your sane. Yeah, and keeps your
• 22:22
  Speaker 5: children busy in that family time. I think that's the
• 22:25
  Speaker 5: important thing of life. That's what they should be focusing on.
• 22:28
  Speaker 5: And the infrastructure, you know it. Don't keep building buildings
• 22:31
  Speaker 5: if you haven't got the infrastructure. Come up with a
• 22:34
  Speaker 5: new idea. You know, if you're building, if you're Milk
• 22:37
  Speaker 5: and Gillies and you're about to put in another two
• 22:40
  Speaker 5: hundred homes, make sure it's sustainable. Within that two hundred
• 22:44
  Speaker 5: homes have its own sewer system, have its own water system,
• 22:48
  Speaker 5: have solar panels. Why put that onto the main structural grid.
• 22:53
  Speaker 3: A lot of that does happen, though, doesn't it a
• 22:55
  Speaker 3: lot of the requirements. Yeah, well, I know a particular
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: developer that had to spend like two hundred and fifty
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: thousand dollars on a sewer project and a little development.
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: But is it a.
• 23:03
  Speaker 5: Pump, Yeah, pump into the main system. That's just it's
• 23:07
  Speaker 5: not adding to if you go down south and see
• 23:11
  Speaker 5: some of these composting sewer systems, they're out there, the
• 23:16
  Speaker 5: tools are out there unless the councils actually get their
• 23:20
  Speaker 5: heads around it.
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: So so the change of mayor, have you got anyone
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: that you like? Do you think will be good? Do
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: you think that the city's in good?
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: You know?
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: Instead, it's a hard job.
• 23:34
  Speaker 4: I think. You know, we've got some good, good candidates
• 23:36
  Speaker 4: putting their hand up in instantly in Hut City. So look,
• 23:41
  Speaker 4: it will be I think it will be a tight
• 23:43
  Speaker 4: race between a number of them, and it remains to
• 23:47
  Speaker 4: be seen whether there'll be other candidates putting their hands
• 23:50
  Speaker 4: up in the next couple of weeks. Because it's not
• 23:52
  Speaker 4: far away the deadline.
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: It is the business panel. We have Paul Jessup and
• 23:58
  Speaker 3: Patrick mckibbon in the building in the studio. Let's talk
• 24:03
  Speaker 3: about amalgamation. I'm going to come to you, Paul. You're
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: a Wellington business, Lower Hut business, Wellington businessman, keep to
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: the region malgamation. Does it rattle your cage? Do you
• 24:14
  Speaker 3: like the idea of there being one councilor one sort
• 24:17
  Speaker 3: of I don't know, super City, Wellington, Lower Upper Hut
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: and Potty.
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: Do it if it's done right, If it's.
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: What's done right, mean to you.
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: That that each you.
• 24:29
  Speaker 5: Know, Pirra Upper Heart Lower Heart store needs a leadership
• 24:35
  Speaker 5: team that's pushing for for what they need. But I
• 24:39
  Speaker 5: think the the lawyer, the buying, the selling, the CFO
• 24:47
  Speaker 5: CEO can be combined, you know, the that's we're going
• 24:52
  Speaker 5: to save your money, you're buying power of a group.
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: And surely we should only have one rule for you
• 24:57
  Speaker 3: running your factory. If you had a factory in Wellington
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: had different rules to the factory of Heart, you know,
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: surely we should have you know, united rules.
• 25:05
  Speaker 5: But on that as well, the council should be helping
• 25:08
  Speaker 5: you set up a business from my experience, it's the opposite.
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: You hit a brick wall.
• 25:13
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, you're going to employ people, You're going
• 25:16
  Speaker 3: to create wealth for your area. Ball you don't get.
• 25:21
  Speaker 5: You know, you then have acoustic engineers, traffic engineers, fire engineers,
• 25:27
  Speaker 5: and it just goes on and on and on, and
• 25:29
  Speaker 5: all they wanted to is top the secut you know,
• 25:33
  Speaker 5: a lot of it is.
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it's not good.
• 25:38
  Speaker 4: I think business A lot of people underestimate the contribution
• 25:42
  Speaker 4: that businesses make to our region, that through that employment,
• 25:46
  Speaker 4: through the jobs they create, through the money that is
• 25:49
  Speaker 4: moving around not only with the business but with their employees.
• 25:53
  Speaker 4: And you know, we need strong businesses in our region
• 25:57
  Speaker 4: to for our our region to succeed. And I just
• 26:01
  Speaker 4: I often feel that a lot of people underestimate that.
• 26:04
  Speaker 4: But but it's so vital to the prosperity of our
• 26:07
  Speaker 4: region that we have those businesses like pools being successful,
• 26:11
  Speaker 4: being and you know, employing people, creating those high play jobs.
• 26:14
  Speaker 3: And how does it amalgamation help that or hinder that?
• 26:16
  Speaker 3: What do you I mean going back to your idea
• 26:19
  Speaker 3: is that you would still have your your wards. You know,
• 26:22
  Speaker 3: you have three wards in lower heart and three wards
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: and upper hearts. So you've still got your people on
• 26:26
  Speaker 3: the council, on the on the super City Council that
• 26:29
  Speaker 3: are concentrating on those areas. So there's nothing they're not
• 26:32
  Speaker 3: getting cut out. But how does that not work to make.
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: The borying power? Yeah, sure, it's the same with us.
• 26:39
  Speaker 5: So you know, if we had four factories and we
• 26:42
  Speaker 5: had each person buying for each factory, where's the game.
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: There no game.
• 26:46
  Speaker 5: We use the buying power of our four companies that
• 26:51
  Speaker 5: we that we run. There's there's the buying power. That's
• 26:54
  Speaker 5: the saving massive contractors. So you know, being able to
• 26:59
  Speaker 5: and I think this is a big thing is tenders.
• 27:04
  Speaker 5: Oh my gosh, they need to simplify tenders. The amount
• 27:08
  Speaker 5: of people that's keeping companies that it's been that are
• 27:12
  Speaker 5: being kept out of the loop because it's so complicated.
• 27:16
  Speaker 5: You're one of twos. They can't get near it. It's
• 27:19
  Speaker 5: a it's a nightmare, the cost, the complexity. With AI,
• 27:24
  Speaker 5: it's a lot easier, but it's still you know, it's
• 27:26
  Speaker 5: a big document and you can spend two hundred hours
• 27:30
  Speaker 5: and never hear back from.
• 27:31
  Speaker 3: Them trying to get a trying to get a deal done, to.
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: Try and get and get a tender. So it's not.
• 27:38
  Speaker 4: Set up for small businesses to be able to participate
• 27:41
  Speaker 4: in those big pieces of work. And that's you know,
• 27:44
  Speaker 4: therefore those businesses are not they're missing out and they're
• 27:48
  Speaker 4: not being able to grow over time to be able
• 27:51
  Speaker 4: to participate in the in the future. So look, it's
• 27:54
  Speaker 4: it's hard work for those small businesses.
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: What it is, and it's.
• 28:00
  Speaker 5: You know, that's the biggest saving that the council is
• 28:02
  Speaker 5: going to make as they spend on infrastructure maintenance. But
• 28:09
  Speaker 5: who's looking after that faulton home? Yeah, downs down us,
• 28:16
  Speaker 5: big bag boys? Where does that money go?
• 28:20
  Speaker 4: When when Campbell raised the issue of amalgamation a couple
• 28:22
  Speaker 4: of weeks ago or maybe a month ago now, we
• 28:24
  Speaker 4: put a story out on our weekly columns and the
• 28:28
  Speaker 4: stuff that we got back was what about kind of
• 28:31
  Speaker 4: the huts identity because we are very different to suity
• 28:35
  Speaker 4: and we don't want to you know, we're we're we're
• 28:38
  Speaker 4: mostly businesses and you know, big businesses, small businesses, and
• 28:43
  Speaker 4: that's what keeps our community going. And we're manufacturing the
• 28:46
  Speaker 4: hands on with science, with research and all of those things.
• 28:49
  Speaker 4: And there was a worry about how that identity might
• 28:52
  Speaker 4: get lost in a in a big in a bigger entity.
• 28:55
  Speaker 3: You know, I've never heard that before, and that's a
• 28:57
  Speaker 3: very good point. It's an extremely cool point. But surely
• 29:01
  Speaker 3: you still could be caught, you know, I mean, why
• 29:04
  Speaker 3: knew he is part of Lower Hut. But it's still.
• 29:08
  Speaker 4: Isn't it for sure?
• 29:10
  Speaker 3: So you know, so you could still keep your identity, Yeah.
• 29:13
  Speaker 4: For sure, But I think it's you know, that's what
• 29:15
  Speaker 4: people were worried about. And they were also worried about
• 29:18
  Speaker 4: who was going to be running the council. That was
• 29:19
  Speaker 4: the other thing that I think.
• 29:21
  Speaker 3: We're all worried about that. I think that's a problem
• 29:23
  Speaker 3: that the hole in New Zealer there right, oh right, oh,
• 29:26
  Speaker 3: my favorite part of the business panel. So this is
• 29:30
  Speaker 3: the scenario, Paul and Patrick. You have got a friend
• 29:34
  Speaker 3: of family member, maybe someone that you haven't seen but
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: it's really dear to you, really important to you. You
• 29:39
  Speaker 3: haven't seen them for at least ten years. That have
• 29:41
  Speaker 3: to prerequisite, So you haven't seen them for a while.
• 29:44
  Speaker 3: They're flying into Wellington Airport and you've got to take
• 29:46
  Speaker 3: them and do something with them that you know you wanted.
• 29:49
  Speaker 3: Before you take them to stay at your house, you
• 29:51
  Speaker 3: want to take them out and impress them. Come on, Patrick,
• 29:54
  Speaker 3: tell me where you're taking.
• 29:54
  Speaker 4: Oh look what you're doing. This is going to be
• 29:56
  Speaker 4: no surprise to people that are listening, that know me.
• 30:00
  Speaker 4: I'm actually going to take them to a whole range
• 30:02
  Speaker 4: of businesses in the Hut Valley, like Paul's, like Arrow
• 30:05
  Speaker 4: Tech Diagnostics, like Pharaoh's, like real do you know we
• 30:10
  Speaker 4: I get so much joy out of going to visit
• 30:13
  Speaker 4: these businesses and seeing what they're doing, seeing how well
• 30:16
  Speaker 4: they're treating their staff, seeing how well they're doing in
• 30:20
  Speaker 4: this current environment, and see how they're using technology and
• 30:24
  Speaker 4: AI and it's you know, I'm very passionate about that,
• 30:28
  Speaker 4: and I want to show people what an amazing business
• 30:31
  Speaker 4: community we do have in the Hut Valley because it's
• 30:33
  Speaker 4: very unseen and it's very unknown, but it's there and
• 30:37
  Speaker 4: it's just the most amazing thing.
• 30:38
  Speaker 3: So that's what I.
• 30:40
  Speaker 4: Went there last week and they were just the most
• 30:44
  Speaker 4: beautiful people.
• 30:45
  Speaker 3: Great. I loved it.
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: Product.
• 30:46
  Speaker 3: I love going into the super maka poor. Come on,
• 30:49
  Speaker 3: you got someone you're picking up in your flesh car
• 30:51
  Speaker 3: and you're going to take them do something? What are
• 30:52
  Speaker 3: you going to do with them?
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: Pick them up?
• 30:54
  Speaker 5: Got two bikes on the back, pick them up from
• 30:57
  Speaker 5: the airport. Off we go to mecra go look at
• 31:01
  Speaker 5: that stunning view right at the top.
• 31:04
  Speaker 3: Why there's so many businessmen of your ink? Your ink
• 31:08
  Speaker 3: like mountain biking. So often on this show we have
• 31:11
  Speaker 3: these people. All they talk about is mountain bike because.
• 31:15
  Speaker 4: Your business and that's why I do so. I find it.
• 31:19
  Speaker 5: You know, it's it's amazing, I said, adrenaline rush. It's
• 31:24
  Speaker 5: it's that focus. It's that clarity. You're in the bush,
• 31:28
  Speaker 5: You're in nature. You can't That's living, isn't it.
• 31:32
  Speaker 3: That's well, that's great. That's why living for me is
• 31:35
  Speaker 3: a really packed bar. Drinking a little bit. I don't
• 31:37
  Speaker 3: drink alcohol, but having people fun, laughing. That's fun. Not
• 31:44
  Speaker 3: being out the bush with the possums running in front
• 31:46
  Speaker 3: of you or something and you get tripped up with
• 31:48
  Speaker 3: you You should try it. Gosh, thank you both so
• 31:51
  Speaker 3: much for coming in. It's great to catch up with you.
• 31:54
  Speaker 3: Poul Jessup, good luck with Mick mitco engineering. I'm going
• 32:01
  Speaker 3: to follow you and study you because I think it's
• 32:04
  Speaker 3: you're a great guy and it's great to.
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: See the walk around.
• 32:07
  Speaker 3: I would love to I love watching looking at other
• 32:09
  Speaker 3: people's businesses and see how they do it. And your
• 32:11
  Speaker 3: passion is fantastic, hope, really lucky to have them.
• 32:15
  Speaker 4: And I'll come and pick you up at the airport
• 32:16
  Speaker 4: and I'll take you.
• 32:17
  Speaker 3: There because oh my gosh, I've got bo I could,
• 32:20
  Speaker 3: I could, I could probably hire a bike and ride out.
• 32:23
  Speaker 3: Now we're talking even more impressed.
• 32:25
  Speaker 4: Be careful on stay.
• 32:27
  Speaker 3: Great to see you both. Great to see that Hunt
• 32:29
  Speaker 3: Valley has got so many passionate good people the Wellington region.
• 32:33
  Speaker 3: I love Wellington region. I'm not I don't want to
• 32:36
  Speaker 3: put things into one label.
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: For more from News Talks B listen live on air
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: or online, and keep our shows with you wherever you
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: go with our podcasts on iHeartRadio