Begins at 12:32
Mike:
No. Can we have a crack at CRL one more time? Can you tell me who these companies are that are being negotiated with?
Jacinda:
Yeah… well… um… I went over the cases again last night. So, there’s… I’ve seen a bit of detail on about three different businesses…
Mike:
Okay, so let me just pause you there.
Jacinda:
I’m just a bit cautious about…
Mike:
Just for the record, let me pause you there. You don’t have to name them, but you can provide me with information about three different businesses in the CRL [City Rail Link] area that are being negotiated with at the moment by CRL?
Jacinda:
I’ve had information on three examples. So that might be…
Mike:
Who told you?
Jacinda:
Ah… that would have come through from Zero (?) Limited – those on the ground.
Mike:
Why can’t we find a single business?
Jacinda:
I’ve… Mike, I can’t tell you who you’ve been talking to…
Mike:
We are talking to them all. Every one of them, Heart of the City, CRL – every one of them. We cannot find a single business who is being negotiated with.
Jacinda:
Sorry – you’ve spoken with every business on Albert Street whose been affected by the city rail link?
Mike:
So far, yes.
Jacinda:
Well, I’ve been… I cannot square that because I have specific names and examples and I don’t want to expose them…
Mike:
No that’s fine. Can you provide those to us?
Jacinda:
…because it relates to their leases and…
Mike:
No, that’s fine. Can you provide those to us because what we got out of you last week was you told what you told us now – which is fine – ah… then everyone went to ground and we couldn’t find a single business, people were ringing us saying “who are they? We don’t know who they are. It’s not us.” There’s no business in the area. Heart of the City say there’s no business in the area. CRL won’t talk, Twyford’s still running for the hills.
Jacinda:
If you can… Well if you can assure me that you’ll retain their privacy…
Mike:
Of course, I will, of course I will.
Jacinda:
Then Mike, you and I.
Mike:
Okay, so you can provide that. So, you stand here this morning saying there are businesses being negotiated with, and there are plans in place and deals will be struck?
Jacinda:
Well, that is my understanding, some of them related to people’s leases though. Some of them relate to whether or not people have alternate business sites provided through Council and there’s not one size fits all, there’s different options…
Mike:
Yeah, I understand that. That… that’s good, well if you can provide that to us, that would be most helpful.
Now, forestry last week also, ah… you said there weren’t too many forests in the country, Shane Jones appears to disagree with you and he’s looking to curtail forestry?
Jacinda:
Are you giving a fulsome quote from Shane Jones right now? Because of course…
Mike:
Well, he’s considering reining in conversions of farmlands to forestry after a rural backlash.
Jacinda:
No, that… that information is a bit more fulsome. Like, that’s not saying weren’t not planting enough trees. We have a policy, right place right tree. We don’t want to see productive land that doesn’t… ah… isn’t necessarily fit for purpose being converted. Ah… and we are keeping an eye on whether or not we’ve got ah… got all the policy setting right. You’d expect anyone would want to keep an eye on that. And so, we are… we are looking at that, but at the same time there’s plenty of unproductive land, land that’s been eroded, that is fit for purpose, ah… for forestry, and so it’s just making sure that we get all the levers in the right place.
Mike:
It’s a month since the sex assault allegations and the QC’s work – when’s her report due?
Jacinda:
(Sucks in breath) She’s advised that um… her expectation it would be late November.
Mike:
So, it’s two months now?
Jacinda:
(Sucks in breath) I’m… I’m not the one setting the time lines, I want to give her the time to do the job properly…
Mike:
Well you told us a month.
Jacinda:
And that… I put caveats around that because I’m not going to force someone to produce a report that’s not complete…
Mike:
So, it’ll now be two months, you think?
Jacinda:
(Sucks in breath) Ah… roughly, yeah that’s what I’ve been told.
Mike:
The KiwiBuild reset charts that Meghan Woods promised us – when do they go up?
Jacinda:
(Sucks in breath) Ah… I think draft, so that’ll be with the minister, and once they’re complete she’ll be… she’ll be making them publicly available.
Mike:
No timeline?
Jacinda:
Ah, not that I can provide. You can ask the minister, Mike, I know that’s in train.
Mike:
Did… did Justin Lester get thrown under the bus by you yesterday in you claiming he was an Independent when he wasn’t?
Jacinda:
No, no. I don’t… no, not at all. Um… that was just me referencing, you know, some of the um… public paraphernalia I’ve seen around the campaign. Ah… ah…
Mike:
Was part of that Grant Robertson campaigning for him? Was he part of the public paraphernalia?
Jacinda:
Oh, though… letters getting sent out by local MPs around local candidates is not unusual. (Speaking quickly) Mike I’ve got to ask for my view of what is happening in Wellington and it’s a bit too early to say and as someone who is not a… a full time resident there you’d be better asking some of the local leaders, but I heard a bit of… you know a bit of chat about whether or not actually regional council decisions that had nothing to do with Justin Lester might have played into it. That’s all.
Mike:
Right.
Jacinda:
You know, it’s all speculation.
Mike:
But he went through… he went through the process to become the party’s official candidate – so he was a Labour Party candidate, wasn’t he?
Jacinda:
Oh, well… so just… without wanting to bore your listeners, Mike, so Phil Goff was also in an endorsed candidate by the Labour Party and went through a process, but he maintained his status as being independent so, um… there’s… there can still be an endorsed candidate by Labour and still run as an independent or you can run on a Labour ticket.
Mike:
Which Justin did?
Jacinda:
There’s not too much difference. Which is what… which is what Justin did.
Mike:
Which doesn’t make him an independent.
Jacinda:
No, that’s absolutely fair. I was reflecting the fact that in any of the signage I’d seen locally he didn’t have any Labour brand on it, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t on a Labour ticket.
Mike:
Appreciate your time and look forward to that information on CRL. Jacinda Ardern in for another week.