Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Andrew Little: Wellington Mayor on the inquiry into Moa Point Treatment Plant

Transcript

Andrew Little: Wellington Mayor on the inquiry into Moa Point Treatment Plant · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So we had that big meeting in Wellington last night,
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: the town meeting over the sewage and the water business
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: got quite heated at times. People willing to do you
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: not want to hear about it, and we don't want
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: to do We want the true We have an independent
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: review coming apparently, does that give you confidence? Find out
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: what went wrong, spell out exactly what happens next. Andrew
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Little is willing to meet with us live Andrew, Good morning,
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Good morning. Right, So last night's meeting, fearso people were
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: pretty brassed off.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but I think that's pretty obvious, and I've been
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: picking that up as I've been out and about in
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: the South Coast areas in the last week or so.
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: People justifiably angry. This is not something that would happen.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: It's affecting businesses, households are suffering the odors that goes
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: with trying to get the plants sorted out, more sorts
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: of things. So, yeah, I think people are genuinely concerned
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: and wanted to hear some explanations, and.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: In terms of the actual sewage, because we know when
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: it rains it's coming out, how long before people can
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: go back to swimming in that area?
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think this is the question. So we've had
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: ever since the plant failed, all the seas around all
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: the bays have been monitored just to see what's happening
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: with the contamination. Has shown pretty stable that the low,
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: very low levels of contamination if been at all. Then
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: we had the storm coming through and that's changed it
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: all up a bit. So we'll see what the monitoring
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: shows of the next the ter thary days, and the
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: idea is the east we get to a point where
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: we can say, actually, you know what the risk is
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: X amount. It's actually pretty low and it could be
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: sad to go back to the beach and possibly into
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: the sea in certain places, but we want we just
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: want to get a good profile, get good data to
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: build up their picture, and then on a day to
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: day basis, give people advice on what the risk factors
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: might be, what might be a good day to go
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: to the beach, what might not be. But we're a
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: few days away from that yet.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: Okay, so we got you could be back swimming in
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: Weggs potentially.
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, if the if the monitoring shows they actually the
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: contamination of various beaches and the risk factors are simply
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: you're not going to add to it. Then it may
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: well be okay to.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: Do that, all right, What about people actually not believing
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: what the Wellington Water is telling them and also the
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: testing that's been done. I've heard from people who live
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: there who say, actually, we don't trust we don't actually
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: believe them anymore. Is that a problem?
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, obviously there's a problem with people that don't
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: trust it, don't have any credibility. I mean, that's the
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: reason why I wanted an independent review of everything that's happened.
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: Is executly that you can't have whether it's willing to
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: city Council or well Into Water or the older or
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: anybody else involved in the whole thing marking their own homework.
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: You've got to have somebody completely independent. So that's now
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: in the hands of the Minister that that will be
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: a review and it's up to the Minister to our
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: points and qualified expert independent people to tell A tell
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: us what went wrong, and then b tell us what
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: needs to happen to prevent this happening again.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: But sorry, Andrew, not minister that, Mister Mayor. We've had
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: loads of people texting in this morning. Can we find
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: the hell out of this French company for operating it.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: If it's found that they didn't keep up with the
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: maintenance and all the stuff that they should have been doing,
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: what do you do with them?
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think I think that's part of what the
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: river is to tell us about the causes. Because of
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: the causes and we know there'll be a mechanical something
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: that didn't work in the whole thing. Further than clepst
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: the systems cleft, the other thing is what was the
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: oversight and governance, Like did people get information, did people
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: know that there were problems and did they fail to
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: act on them? And that could be the oliot that
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: could be willing to water, It could be well into
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: city council. So they're all in the frame until we
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: kind of know what exactly has gone on.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: All right, And as for the pet projects and that
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: you know your Wellington miles, your Golden miles and all
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: that stuff is your message to Wellington. All of that
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: stuff is on hold until we get our basics literally
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: what we do in the morning, first thing when we
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: wake up sorted out.
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah. In fact, I've been saying that even before this
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: event happens, just because a bunch of other challenges refaced
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: with anywhere, But that's just adds to it. The priority
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: has got to be a functioning surge treatment plant, and frankly,
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: nothing else meant it until we got to sort it out.
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: And so we've got to get our priorities right. For
• 4:13
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• 4:19
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