Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Maurice Williamson: Auckland Councillor on the stadium debate

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Maurice Williamson: Auckland Councillor on the stadium debate · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: All right. The organ stadium debate, Wayne Brown said, let's
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: just put this to bed was heating up. Thursday. They're
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: going to have a council vote on this and the
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: officials have received a report on the two options, and
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: that report warns that both Eden Park and Key Parks
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: proposals aren't feasible without public funding. Eden Park two point zero,
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: for instance, will require at least one hundred and ten
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: million dollars alone from Central Government for its initial stage
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: one plan and that's just the North stand. So Marris
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Williamson is an organd councilor who will be sitting around
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: the table on Thursday and trying to make a decision
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: about all of this and joins us out. Good moody
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: to you, Morris.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: Good funding.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Of course, they're not feasible without public investment. Wasn't that
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: a given right from the start?
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah? I would have thought so. They are huge projects
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: with huge sums of money, and I would have thought, well,
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: I've still got a lot of questions. So as you
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: can understand, we haven't had our meeting yet, and one
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: of my questions is why are we involved in this
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: if these people are going to do it themselves and
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: they can fund it and so on. Well, then we
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: don't need to be involved. And if we are being
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: involved and we're saying, well, we're not going to fund anything,
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: it's almost sort of a double entendre here, I.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: Think absolutely, and yet Wayne Brown said let's put this
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: to bed, let's do this's come up with a decision.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: And yet at the same time it appears if you
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: don't want to be part of the public funding of
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: it all, it's never going anywhere. This has been a
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: waste of time.
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: Well, my question, I think I want to answer it
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: on Thursday is why are we being brought into this now?
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: We can obviously provide some assistance by way of consenting
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: and helping along the way that might assist the speed
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: of it, But there are huge chunks of money. If
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: you look at Eden Park two point one, they're talking
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: about five hundred million minimum to do this stage one,
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: two and then the retractable roof stage three. So again,
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: I mean it's pretty clear. I think that the mayor
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: has made it clear in his statements that there will
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: be no funding from the council, So I guess the
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: proposal still got the ability to go to central government.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: But I wouldn't like the chances there either.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: But here's the thing. Eden Park rebranded itself as New
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: Zealand's national stadium, which every other stadium went what. But
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: that's okay, it's a branding thing. We need a national stadium,
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: we need a focus for a country. We're what five
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: and a half million, it's like being a city. We're
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: competing against Australia. Shouldn't the government actually be stepping in
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: and saying, right, this is the main stadium for the country.
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: Well, much as I would love to speak on behalf
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: of the government and make big decisions, I really don't
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: think I should. It'll be up to them to decide. Now.
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: There are enormous economic benefits that can happen from these,
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: because huge events can bring in massive tourism and spending
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: and hotel bed nights and so on. And you can
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: actually sometimes put a spreadsheet together which shows an investment
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: of a few hundred million can get you back multiple
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: numbers of that. But that would be for central government
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: to make a decision. I think a council while we're
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: sitting on a close to fifteen billion of debt, while
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: we're struggling to how to pay bills, and while we're
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: trying not to make the ratepayers pay rates and increases
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: that make your eyes water, we really haven't got an
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: ability to start playing in this game as well.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: And what are your constituents saying to you? What's the
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: public saying to you when you're out?
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: And about everybody I talked to is keen on Eden Park.
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: There's a sort of a love affair with Eden Park
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: based on its history, where it's been my concern about
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: anything that was to be built down on the waterfront,
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: and it's a pretty sensible concern, I think, is that
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: if you build on the waterfront, you want something that's
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: looking out, you know, the harbor view. So you build
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: apartments and restaurants and hotels and they all got their
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: glass windows looking at the beautiful view. That's its value.
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: But if you build a stadium, it's looking in. You
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: go and sit down in your seat and you're looking
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: at the grass inside. So I would have thought the
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: last thing you would do is build a big stadium
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: down on the waterfront, which is main feature is it's
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: phenomenal view of the most iconic harbor going. So I'm
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: a big fan of the old history of Eden Park.
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: But you know we've got to have an open mind
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: when we're brief, but my very first question is, if
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: we're not funding this, why are we considering this at all?
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: Good question, Marris Williamson, have a good meeting on Thursday.
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live
• 4:29
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• 4:32
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