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July 13, 2026 101 mins

On the Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive Full Show Podcast with Andrew Dickens for Monday, 13 July, 2026, beloved New Zealand actor Sam Neill has died at the age of 78. Film Commission chief executive Annie Murray says he was one of the genuinely good guys.

On The Huddle with Trish Sherson, Josie Pagani pays tribute to Neill, who was a family friend.

Automobile Association fuel spokesman Terry Collins says fill up your car now.

And a bumper long weekend on our big skifields has NZSki chief executive Paul Anderson buzzing.

Get the Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive Full Show Podcast every weekday evening on iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Pressing the newsmakers to get the real story. It's Andrew
Diggins on Hither duplessy allan drive with one New Zealand
and the power of satellite mobile news talk said, be.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Good afternoon to here, Welcome to the program. You'll be
pleased to know that Mount Heath hasn't left any musely
bar crumbs in the studio today. We are clean and
ready to go, and we're going to talk about diesel prices.
Are they about to head up again? Bump a day
at Mount Hutt? But why are New Zealand ski fields
investing so heavily a new terrain? If climate change is
taking all their snow? Why do MPs get such a

(00:34):
good deal on their Kiwi saver. We'll have Oli Peterson
out of Australia and correspondence from all around New Zealand
and news as its breaks, and you can have your
say by sending me a tech small charge applies. Ninety
two ninety two. It's eight after.

Speaker 3 (00:47):
Four, Andrew dickens oil prices.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
Oil prices are back baby. At the moment, West Texas
crew is sitting near seventy four dollars brent around seventy nine.
It's a bit up, a bit of a rebound because
things keep on happening between the States in Iran. Now,
on the oil trading trend charts, West Texas oil has
now sunk to almost its lowest point for a while.
But if you look at the futures charts, that sees

(01:12):
the price going up, and some are saying that could
very well happen tomorrow when the US markets open. So
it's Monday their time, but Tuesday our time. So where
are we with the oil prices? But geopolitically, the ceasefire
signed on the seventeenth of June that's effectively collapsed. The
United States has hit over one hundred and seventy Iranian

(01:33):
military targets across Tehran and key southern points. Iran has
retaliated with missile and drone strikes on US bases in
Bahrain and Kuwait and Kuta, causing casualties across multiple provinces.
Donald Trump has worn that one thousand missiles are lockdown loaded,
and US intelligence, backed by Israel, says Iran has devised

(01:53):
fresh plots to assassinate Donald Trump on US soil. Trump
says or moves is open, says it isn't. Does it
sound like peace to you, and a second front is emerging.
Cuba has acquired about three hundred attack drones from Russia
and Iran, and US intelligence has confirming discussions have been

(02:13):
had between the Russians and the Cubans ab out striking
Guantanamo Bay, US naval vessels and even Key West. Does
this sound like peace to you? But despite all of this,
the oil price remains suppressed compared to what it was
when it was high earlier in the year, down from
the ninety five dollars rent peak that was early June,
because markets are still pricing in a diplomatic resolution. But

(02:37):
does it sound like peace to you if this thread
of hormus, which carries twenty percent of the global oil,
is disrupted again. Major banks see Brent oil at one
hundred to one hundred and twenty bucks currently seventy nine.
Deutsche Bank is modeling two hundred dollars a barrel under
a full blockade. But the media has covered barely any

(02:58):
of this, leaving a real major gap in real time reporting.
But here's the thing. This is what I'm saying. If
you look at oil traders and you look at the
screens they're watching, they are saying the technicals and the
geopolitics align for a major move upwards. We have to
wait for confirmation. It may happen tomorrow. So let's not
front run the open. But you have been warned. There

(03:22):
are many signs that the globe's fuel crisis is still
in play.

Speaker 4 (03:26):
Dickens.

Speaker 2 (03:31):
Meanwhile, there's another card and play. The Automobile Association says
fuel prices may be about as low as they're ever
going to be, diesel at a risk of rising. Why oh,
Russian export ban add that to your piece. And also
their refineries are being hit by Ukrainian drones limiting supplies.
So we're going to talk to the AA round about
ten plus five to day. So it's been in the news.
Abount Hut had a bumper day, a bumper weekend, some

(03:55):
of the best conditions they've ever had. Ten thousand people
hit the slopes during the three day Matterleaki weekend. So
I'm joined now by m zen Ski Chief executive Paul Anderson. Paul, gooday,
good day, How I am good. You must be buzzing
about it, and not only that, your knees must be aching.

Speaker 5 (04:13):
Yeah, we're thrilled. We've had a fantastic week here not
just to Mount Hut but also at current et peaking.
The remarkables, we've had a you know, it was a
slower start to the ski season. So we had some
great snow last week and that sport all the locals
out to join the Aussies that we already had skiing
with us.

Speaker 2 (04:30):
One thing we have noticed, of course, is that recently
you've invested more and more and more on every field
and snow making machines. Are they making the difference? So
all you need is one dump to get your fields open.

Speaker 5 (04:42):
Yeah, look, definitely snowmakings here and it's here to stay.
What it does is it allows us to get open
as early as we possibly can, cover the cover the slopes,
and then the natural snow can come along and supplement
that good base that we can build with the snowmakers.

Speaker 2 (04:57):
Is the natural snow coming, yeah, sure is.

Speaker 5 (05:01):
You know, we're in this al Nino period now and
in theory that should give us southwesters, which is fantastic
for particularly the south of the South Island. Having said
that Mountain Herts had the mother load. You know, they've
just had a ninety seven centimeter storm comes through there
and their skiing in every single pocket of that mountain
At the moment.

Speaker 2 (05:21):
Caldron has been investing in the Soho basin and I
skied it last year and it's wonderful and it's huge,
and it made them a very big resort. And now
we hear that the Remarkables want to open up a
new basin up the back as well, and that is
huge and the skiing there will be remarkable. But many
people have been warning that New Zealand ski fields face
a very limited future because of the old climate change thing.

(05:42):
So why are these ski fields so keen to put
hundreds of millions of dollars into new terrain if the
snow is dodgy.

Speaker 5 (05:50):
We have looked at the climate models and we're as
part of our planning that's obviously what we need to do.
The the slopes we're looking at expanding to it. The
Remarkables are actually southeast facing and they're higher than where
we currently operate, so from a climate change perspective, it

(06:12):
is actually part of our adaptation strategy. Coronet Peak, which
is a relatively low resort. Again, it is southeast facing slopes,
so while it will get great morning sun, it doesn't
get that warmer evening sun, so it retains its snow also,
So it's about aspect, but it's about also understanding what
the climate is going to bring us and designing to that.

Speaker 4 (06:36):
Well.

Speaker 2 (06:36):
And look, let's be honest, Coronet Peak is just a
fun park, but your real alpine resorts, Cardrona and the
Remarkables are Mount Hat in particular. They've got it on
future you reckon, Well.

Speaker 5 (06:47):
Yeah, I wouldn't say that about Coronet Peak. If you're
a local and Queens Sound, that is the place they
go to ski because they know you get the most
vertical meters and it's the most reliable snow because it's
got the biggest snowmaking installation of the Southern Hemisphere. But
in terms of scale and scope, you're right in saying
Remarkables is going to be a big part of our

(07:10):
future here in Queenstown, not just for the Australians coming
over to ski, but we've got a growing local population
and they all love to ski down that southern part
of Queenstown where there's a lot of housing projects going
on at the moment. We've got to make sure we
can cater for our local population as well as the tourists.

Speaker 2 (07:28):
The other thing we found out from Mount Hut of course,
is that people don't listen to warnings. There was a
few people went up went up the road and they
didn't take the chains, and bam they got hit with
an eight hundred dollars fine and some of them stood
off the road. And I don't ever want to slip
off the Mount Hut road. I mean it's it's a nightmare.
So that's a warning if they say chains, take chains.

Speaker 5 (07:47):
Yeah, absolutely, I mean i'd just say to people, be
considerative of other people because if you're going to get
stuck on the road going to you're going to delay
a lot of people who are investing their time and
money to be up there. So yeah, we want, we
want to be feared to everyone. So we're encouraging people
just to heat the chain calls, spend ten or fifteen

(08:09):
minutes putting their chains on, and then everyone's says.

Speaker 2 (08:11):
Good or just take the shuttle. But there we go. Hey,
I carry on, have a great season. I'm down in
September cup wait and I love it. And that is
Paul Anderson from m Z and SKI and this is
News Talks b at six fifteen. Hey, the all backs
over the weekend. That was a good game against Italy.
But now we've got Lee Roy out, we got fair
Hee out, so we've got a shortage of wiggers. Guess

(08:32):
who's that back in? Tell you more about that with
Jason Pines in a few moments time.

Speaker 1 (08:37):
It's the Heather Too Busy All and Drive Full Show
podcast on iHeartRadio powered by News Talk ZB.

Speaker 2 (08:44):
Yeah, Ben says about current pick I called it a
fun park, he says, I call it concrete Peak. Yeah,
it's a it's a fun park, Let's be honest. Dunny
says it's not just There's way more ski is, way
more other resorts other than just hut Man.

Speaker 6 (09:00):
Oh.

Speaker 2 (09:00):
I know, I saw some pictures from Labry and that
was looking great as well. This snow finally arrived, but
boy it was late. It is eighteen after four sport.

Speaker 1 (09:07):
With Generate for all board winning performances Generate kiwisavor dot co,
dot zeid.

Speaker 2 (09:13):
Jason Plaine joins us, Hello, Jason, Hello, Andrew All backs
two from two under Dave Rennie. Were they convincing for you?

Speaker 7 (09:20):
They were the second half? First half they were given
a real tickle up by the Italians. Weren't they who
I thought were terrific in the first half, but whatever
was said at halftime seemed to work, and out they
came in the second half, four unanswered tries and all
of a sudden they won the game.

Speaker 2 (09:33):
Who you're talking before the.

Speaker 7 (09:34):
Break about the reintroduction of Rico Youani into the side,
which is interesting. Leroy Carter out with that injury, of course,
and a couple of others also not available for Heffenny
young and awful among them. I don't think Rico's going
to play. Will Jordan will clearly be on one wing,
and we've got Caleb Clark and Josh Moreby also available

(09:56):
for those wing spots. But yeah, interesting that Ricco is
still there or there about our mind is Davernie.

Speaker 2 (10:01):
There's the thing. One moment he's out and then he's in,
and then he's out and then he's in and I
thought he was out this time, but now he's back
in again because you can't keep good quality down that
Italian second five. I don't know his name. I just
call him lemon Cello. He with the big shoulders was
quite something.

Speaker 7 (10:17):
Yeah, I thought they were all really quite big men.
I was down sideline, lucky enough to be part of
the radio commentary, and you look across at these guys
during the anthem and they're all big guys, including your
man menon Cello. I know you're the one you're talking about,
but others as well who really impressed me. I mean Italy. Yes,
they still consistently aren't able to beat the top sides,

(10:40):
but they've beaten all of them apart from us, on occasion,
so I guess that goes to show that on the
night they are good enough to match it with the best,
and we needed to be at our best after halftime
in particular to beat them.

Speaker 2 (10:52):
Well, mister football, the World Cup semis a locked in.
We got France versus Spain, we got England versus Argentina.
I heard some bloke on the radio of the weekend.
Let's be honest, England is the fourth best team out
of those four. Oh that was you, It was me
and I and I stand by it. But that doesn't
mean they won't make the final, and it doesn't mean
it's not coming home, as they keep on chanting in

(11:13):
the pubs of London and Birmingham and Sheffield else in
the UK, well not the UK.

Speaker 4 (11:17):
But England.

Speaker 7 (11:18):
I mean, what do you think you watch a lot
of football have you got in the final?

Speaker 2 (11:22):
I got I've got Franz versus Argentina and it will
be an amazing game, and I think France is going
to take it. I think France is just absolutely on fire.
And Buppy is incredible. He strikes like a strikes like
a snake, just like that, the same way that Harlan
would strike like a shark. And Buppy is incredible. So
that's what I reckon. I think England has blagged it
so far. They've been a little lucky, all right, So
you did agree with me, then it's good, I know

(11:44):
it's I knew. I knew that there would be people
throwing their cans of going to stout at the radio
when they heard you say that, So I thought i'd
just reiterate the point you made over the weekends, and
there were Yeah.

Speaker 7 (11:53):
Well, I mean, look, I think we're in for two
cracking semis. I mean France Spaine will be a beauty Wednesday,
Argentina England could be an absolute tenderble on Thursday. So yeah,
must watch football, I think on both of those mornings,
and then hopefully we'll get a final to match as well.

Speaker 2 (12:06):
Have you heard about the FIFA balls with the chips
in them.

Speaker 7 (12:09):
Is that what you're saying.

Speaker 2 (12:10):
Absolutely, they're the Triander ball and they've got a chip
in them and it tracks movement and provides real time
data and so they're all looking at it. So it's
a valuable piece of kit, which is why if you
kick the ball into the stand they demand that you
throw it back.

Speaker 1 (12:24):
I didn't know that.

Speaker 7 (12:25):
I thought you were going to talk about when the
Swiss goalkeeper, No, no, it wasn't the Swiss goalkeeper, the
Norwegian goalkeeper kicked it into the.

Speaker 2 (12:32):
Spider cam and they carried on. They carried on and
they said, nothing to see here, the chip hasn't gone off.
Well there you go. But also also they've said that
about the indoors Stadium and christ Church as well. And
the thing is if you kick a ball so well
that it actually hits the roof, well that's just part
of the environment. I'm sorry. It's like if you kick
a ball and it hits the seagull. So of course

(12:53):
they carry on.

Speaker 7 (12:54):
Yeah, well, I think it's super round. One of the
in one of the games, the ball did hit the
cables on this cam and the ruling is that you
have a scrum reset in a rugby match anyway, a
scrum where the ball sort of below where the ball
hit the spider cam and it's I think the feed
goes to the team who were in possession at the time.
And football, I don't know, a drop ball, not sure?

Speaker 2 (13:15):
All right, fascinating stuff and I thank you Jason Pye,
the voice of sport on tonight. It is now twenty
three minutes after four news talksb.

Speaker 1 (13:23):
He here what matters the fact over the noise it's
Andrew Dickens on hither Dupless Allen Drive with one New
Zealand and the power of satellite mobile.

Speaker 3 (13:33):
News Talk ZB.

Speaker 2 (13:34):
It takes to Rico's they're purely due to Graham Henry's
influence and that it's a bad decision. So that's an
interesting theory. Will continue to look at that skiing. I
thought it was an elite thing. I didn't think many
people will want to talk too much about it, but
they do. Mary says. When we came to New Zealand
in two thousand and three, the skifields near Nelson Lakes
were having a rethink on their use because they didn't

(13:55):
have enough snow over the previous seven seasons. I think
This is the thing about the New Zealand ski was
Some are too low, some are too high, some are
too warm. Don't know about Fluckapapa and Turo. I don't
know how long they're going to survive. But the car
Drona is Remarkables mount huts of these world. They're up
high and they are true alpine resorts and they're still
getting investment. However, other people are talking about the car parking.

(14:16):
Someone says, if you get offloaded at the Rakaia saddle
or car park number four at the Remarks, it's a nightmare.
Taking a shuttle with kids is problematic, to say the least.
And I've I've been wondering when current at peak might
put a gondola at the bottom of the mountain that
goes up to the field, whether the Remarkables could put
a gondola that goes up there and have more car
parking space, because car parking is a nightmare, and then

(14:37):
it gets icy and you slide off. My opening comments
about the oil prices, somebody says, oh, Andrew, stop with
your positivity. It's overwhelming. Please more negativity. I'm sorry, I
was sorry I was warning about the oil price, but
I think we've become complacent and think the whole thing
is a little bit over But the oil traders' screens
are suggesting otherwise. And I thought you ought to be prepared.

(14:58):
And we will talk more about this at ten past
five with the AA. And did you know that if
you're a parliamentarian and you've got a Kiwi saver, for
every dollar you put in, the taxpayer puts in two
dollars fifty? And have you ever thought to yourself, why
the hell do these guys get such a gold plated deal?
And isn't that a waste of taxpayers money? We'll talk
more about this right after News and Sport, which is.

Speaker 1 (15:18):
Next the day's newsmakers talk to Andrew first Andrew Dickens

(15:47):
on Hither duper Cy Ellen Drive with One New Zealand
and the power of satellite mobile news talks.

Speaker 8 (15:52):
It'd be.

Speaker 1 (16:01):
No mafternoons.

Speaker 2 (16:02):
You wasn't to the program. Takee you for choosing us
on a Monday afternoon. A couple of texts day, where's Heaven? Well,
Heather's taking a long Mato riki weekend and she is
back with you tomorrow. Think about it from here this
point of view, I mean she works until seven pm
on a Friday. Very hard to get out of town
when you've got a couple of young kids, you know,
under five. So when you have the opportunity of getting
three days ahead of you and you could take one more,

(16:23):
she's taken one more. That means we don't have Barry.
We've got Tom Coglin a little bit later on, and
we don't have Heather. But Heather and Barry will be
back tomorrow. Now Here is the story of Stacy Lee
Waddell of Nelson, who split up with his girlfriend, but
she still let him come round to her house to
wash his clothes. And so Stacy Lee Widdell would wash

(16:46):
his clothes at his ex girlfriend's place. And he came
up with a plan, and he decided to buy some veat,
the hair removal stuff from the pharmacy, and then he
added it to her shampoo. She used the shampoo, not once,
not twice, more than three times. She noticed it smelt
and looked funny, and she also noticed that a scalp
got tenderer and tenderer and tenderer. Then she found a

(17:09):
receipt from the pharmacy for the veat left lying by
the rubbishpin. She put that all together and realized that
someone's been putting hair removal in my shampoo. And who
would that be. That'd be the ex boyfriend who comes
to wash his clothes at my house. So she challenged him,
she busted him, and he went it it's me. The
police came and now he's been ordered to pay her

(17:30):
one thousand dollars in emotional harm reparation after his appearance
at the Nelson District Court this week and pleaded guilty
on the spot to a charge of poisoning with intent
to inconvenience. And it's another one of those stories that
you know at first it kind of amuses you, but
then you start to think, what a cruel and callous,
an underhand, a bitter and twisted and despicable thing to

(17:53):
do to someone who apparently you used to love. I
mean people, people honestly hard to unders stand.

Speaker 1 (18:00):
It's the world wires on youth talks, it'd be drive
all right.

Speaker 2 (18:06):
At least twenty seven people have died in a fire
at a pub and Bangkok. The authorities say they're investigating
how the fire started. Here is the tire Prime minister
that was the.

Speaker 9 (18:15):
Fire had to out and switch and after that things
happened very quickly, and there was blasting, and everybody tried
to flee themselves from the small celling, and that's that's
where we foul most of the bodies.

Speaker 10 (18:34):
Right now, we have been able to bring the deceased
bodies out. Now there were that already twenty seven bodies arrest.

Speaker 2 (18:54):
Yeah, well that was the tai Prime Minister to America.
We go where US Senator Lindsey Graham has died at
the age of seventy one. Officers he died of a
brief and sudden illness. Present Trump spoke to Lindsay on
the phone just shortly before his death. He was doing
stuff in the house a couple of days ago, he says.
Lindsay did not say anything about being sick. Oh, come on, Donald,

(19:14):
speak to me. Donald doesn't want to speak to me.
What I came. I say is that there have been
reports since that Lindsey Graham actually had a ruptured a altar,
which is just one of those things, and he would
have died quickly and relatively painlessly. And finally, a museum
in Rotterdam has smeared more than three hundred and fifty

(19:38):
kilograms of peanut butter on the floor and you're thinking
to yourself, I hope that's an industrial accident and not
a piece of art. It's a piece of art. There's
a tribute to an artist who recently died, who was
known for spreading odd substances on floors as artworks. So
they chose the peanut butter, which took several days to apply.
It spread across twenty five square meters, has apparently already

(20:01):
spread through the ticket counter three flours below the artwork
itself and the cruel are on. This piece of art
is stopping people going to see art completely.

Speaker 1 (20:09):
Twenty one to five International Correspondence with Ends and Eye Insurance,
Peace of Mind for New Zealand business.

Speaker 2 (20:16):
Ali Benison out a perth day. How are you, Alie?

Speaker 11 (20:19):
I'm good, Andrew, how are you very good?

Speaker 2 (20:21):
So Albinizi has been talking about AI says that Australia
has got to lead rather than just reacting to the thing.

Speaker 12 (20:29):
So yeah, he'll do a major speech on Wednesday, prempted
by the opposition today calling on a bit of leadership
for the Prime minister.

Speaker 4 (20:35):
So that's coming.

Speaker 11 (20:36):
So they just want to try and get their two
cents in there, but.

Speaker 12 (20:38):
Effectively the governments take quite a hands off approach to
artificial intelligence, but now it's decided that it is time
to try and put in some sort of barriers and rules,
if that's even possible, and just how that's going to
affect not just artificial intelligence, but obviously the employment market
here at Australia. So we don't know exactly what the
PM is going to say on Wednesday, but he is

(20:58):
going to obviously make this our priority of his government.
Of course, we do know that the social media ban
was something leading here out of Australia at the moment
for younger Australians. So where that this will go into
the regulatory territory that is going to start to make
it a little more difficult to use.

Speaker 11 (21:15):
AI, we'll have to wait and hear what the PM
has to say.

Speaker 2 (21:18):
Yeah, but it's just conforming with international trends. Donald Trump
wants to their government to spend an awful lot of
money on AI, because if you don't actually get involved
at a state level, then the businesses take over and
before you know it, your hostage.

Speaker 12 (21:29):
Pretty true, and I mean you just look at how
it's evolving all of our workplaces as it is at
the moment, it's a day by day proposition, Andrew, and
I don't even know if he can rain these sorts
of things in all.

Speaker 2 (21:39):
Right, now you're already the lucky country, but you're about
to get even luckier. Apparently the biggest iron ore striking
decades is within your fingertips.

Speaker 5 (21:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 12 (21:49):
Look, this will be Thursday. Hear in Western Australia where
I am. So workers from BHP in the Pilbro Up
Nearport Headland.

Speaker 11 (21:55):
Are going to walk off the job for eight hours.

Speaker 12 (21:57):
The claim is this is going to cost about one
hundred and two twenty million dollars in iron ore shipments
out of Australia. And of course our biggest customer is China,
and not just this state, but the entire country is
basically powered on the fact that our iron ore is
the best in the world and our major customer is China.
So you can understand that there are a few nervous
people regarding this. It's so rare to have a strike

(22:17):
in the Pilbar I think it's been thirty years. Andrews
into strike effectively to other paying conditions. Of course, the
big miners are making lots and lots of money and
the workers want more and there's some who are saying
that they're not all paid the same. They wanted about
two hundred thousand Australian dollars a year. And if you
think that sounds like a low money, which yeah it is,
don't get me wrong. But obviously try and work fi
FO in fifty degree heat in summer, it's pretty tough.

Speaker 11 (22:39):
So we'll see what happens with that. But they're trying to.

Speaker 12 (22:42):
Get the Industrial Umpire involved tomorrow to stop these strikes
going ahead. Industry claiming that if it does go ahead,
then China might look elsewhere and the nation's completely doomed.

Speaker 2 (22:53):
Yeah, okay, meanwhile, and have made the news here now
you've got digital passenger cards at the airport.

Speaker 4 (23:00):
Yeah, just how to quick look at the date.

Speaker 12 (23:01):
It is twenty twenty six, which is good to see
that we have finally caught up basically with the rest
of the world that we're going to get rid of
those paper cards. Honestly, the questions you have to ask
on those cards to come in and out of Australia
is kind of ridiculous these days.

Speaker 11 (23:12):
So this is going to roll out.

Speaker 12 (23:13):
Within the country everywhere within the next eighteen to twenty
four months cost of about fifty million dollars. There's already
been trials between particularly out two countries recently Andrews. So
I'm sure lots of Keyways who've been coming over to
Australia and vice aversa have noticed just how easy it
has become, particularly into places like Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne,
to get in and out just a little faster. So
it just seems as though finally Australia's catching up with

(23:34):
the rest of the world. Although what happens if we
go to New Zealand.

Speaker 2 (23:39):
No, we wait to see what you guys do, and
then we decide to do it later and then we
vote against us. So we Hey, just want I got
you here. I just want to like to thank the
Wallabies for making the All Blacks look good by getting
done by France, a team that we actually beat. So yeah,
thank you so much.

Speaker 4 (23:59):
Yeah. Thanks.

Speaker 12 (24:00):
Sleeper came on and tried to sort of like it
looked like he was playing outside center.

Speaker 11 (24:03):
He's just done, he's got it.

Speaker 10 (24:05):
Hire.

Speaker 11 (24:05):
That was really frustrating, right because I go back a
week ago the Irish game. We were good and we
all should have won that.

Speaker 12 (24:10):
France last weekend bad Italy's here in Perth this weekend.

Speaker 4 (24:14):
I was gonna go. I'm not gonna go anymore.

Speaker 11 (24:15):
I'm gonna get smashed. I'm off the Wallabies.

Speaker 4 (24:17):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (24:18):
And you heard it first from Oli Peterson from six
pr and Perth. Great great patriots and not not a
fair weather friend at all. It is sixteen to five.
It's News Talks, by the way, on Stacey Woodell from
Nelson rod rickins that toe Rag got off with a
wet bus ticket slap one thousand dollars reparation when the

(24:38):
sentence maximum is three years jail. Sort of at least
got eighteen months as a use of soft judge. I
hope she appeals it. Stay see Leeward, what were you doing?
It is sixteen to five Tom Coughlin on politics in
a few moments time, and we have a trade delegation
off to India and it includes a New Zealand first

(24:58):
MP obviously because he's an Associate Minister of Trade. So
that's the job. But anyway, we'll talk about the irony
of that with Tom Coglan right after the break. It
is sixteen to.

Speaker 1 (25:09):
Five Politics with centrics credit check your customers and get
payments certainty.

Speaker 2 (25:14):
All right to talk about politics today because Barry's on
holiday with Heather. We've got Thomas Cogland New Zealand Herold's
political editsor Thomas Hello, good afternoon. So we're off to
India to promote trade and there's a New Zealand First
Minister and Associate Minister part of that, and an act
MP is poking fun at him.

Speaker 13 (25:31):
Yes, yes, this is Mark Patterson. Mark Patterson's been a
big advocate for Wall in the current Parliament. He was
one of the driving forces, you might remember a couple
of years ago behind getting the kying our houses using
woolen carpets rather than synthetic carpets. He's a big he's
a big believer in Wall, as Mark Patterson. But obviously

(25:52):
going off to India to champion WOLL has an interesting
ring to it when you're in New Zealand First MP
as well, because obviously New Zealand First is a varia
against the India New Zealand Free Trade Agreement. You won't
find reference to the agreement and the press release that
Mark Patterson has put out describing his trip and the
X Party, which is obviously very supportive or mostly supportive

(26:12):
of the India FTA leapt on this today and Acting
Prime Minister David Seymour, with his act party head on,
made some remarks about that in his post cabinet press
conference a little while ago.

Speaker 2 (26:24):
Yeah. In principle though, New Zealand first is for the
ft A. It's just that they don't like the immigration
aspects to it and they don't like the possible voluntary
commitment of New Zealand investment.

Speaker 13 (26:37):
Would know that they are they are against the ft
A first.

Speaker 2 (26:41):
Yeah, yeah, okay, So thun and Games, speaking of which,
Narendra Modi g actually came to News the right Honorable
Prime Minister of the India and that was quite a show,
wasn't it. Including a show at Sparkling.

Speaker 13 (26:56):
Incredible, incredible thing over the weekend, incredible scene. Narendrumodi does
this when he travels. He's a big, a big believer
in kind of activating the Indian diaspora when he travels.
You've seen similar scenes in Australia. He had a mess
really their last last year and even bigger than the
one in Auckland. Probably a big one for the government.

(27:16):
I'd say obviously that when you compare the India Free
Trade agreement to our other trade agreements. It's definitely not
as good a trade agreement as any of the other ones,
are the access as much poorer. But a lot of
the Adikids are saying, well, look, you know, India hasn't
really given good access to anyone. They don't give good
access to anyone. They don't really like free trade to
any deal is better than no deal. And I suppose

(27:38):
you saw a bit of that over the weekend. You
just saw the sort of strength and might of India
as an emerging power. And the government is very very
clear that it wants to get a slice of that
trade pie.

Speaker 2 (27:52):
But there's a few people on the right, and I
know Peter Williams wrote about this in Substack as well,
who suggested that we bent over backwards. I mean, like
some met Madi at the airport, which is actually making
a bit of a protocol. At the spark Arena thing,
Madi and Christopher Laxa were holding hands. And of course
do we ever let the British Prime Minister have a
rally at home, because the point there is we want

(28:14):
immigrants to come here and adopt New Zealanders their home.
And yet the whole message at that spark Arena thing
was you're still Indians, you can come back.

Speaker 14 (28:22):
Yeah, there is.

Speaker 13 (28:23):
I mean we don't. We don't really get many large
foreign visits to New Zealand anyway, because obviously we're rather
small country. Sujan Pin came more than a decade ago.
That was the last really big one. You do get
some Pacific Island leaders, but yes, you don't. You don't

(28:44):
always get big meetings with the diaspora. It's certainly not rallies.
Some Pacific Island leaders meet with members of the diaspora.
But but yes you don't. You don't get anything like that.
That is quite unusual. Anthony Albansi went to one of
these rallies and they were held in Australia, and it
was controversial over there because of obviously Nearendromodes sort of politics.

(29:07):
It's quite a muscular interpretation of his flavor of politics.
Hindu nationalism is a big thing. It has been criticized
for crowding out some of the minority religions, the minority
ethnicities that there are in India, and so Christopher Luxon
tying himself to that and being comfortable with that kind

(29:28):
of politics. It's controversial with people who are from India
who are not adherence to the Hindu faith or who
are not members of that majority ethnic majority. So yes,
there is there is a controversy there with with Christoph
Luxon appearing alongside him.

Speaker 2 (29:43):
Anyway, Okay, so currently Christopher leux is now on winter
holiday and we've got David Seymour as our deputy prime
minister being the prime ministers. So that's why it did
the media. Today he's done a post cab at three
thirty and he's talked about stuff and he's announced a
plan to attract international supermarket investors.

Speaker 13 (30:00):
Yeah, yes, so he is. He is trying to streamline
investment approve foreign investment approvals. It's part of it's the
it's part of the government's you know, they've been trying
to attract supermarkets since I took office, actually since the
last government left office. The last government was trying to

(30:21):
do it too, So it's it's the latest latest steps
and that very good.

Speaker 2 (30:26):
Thomas Cogan, I thank you so much, Thomas Cogan, New
Zealand herold's political editor. And it's coming up seven minutes
to five and this is News Talks B.

Speaker 1 (30:35):
It's the Heather Duplessy Allen Drive Full Show podcast on
my Heart Radio, powered by News Talks, b Feelers, Focused Informed.
It's The Mic Hosking Breakfast.

Speaker 2 (30:49):
A Minister, Acting Foreign Minister Tom McClay withers. Is there
a magnetism about him?

Speaker 15 (30:53):
Mody, Yes, there certainly seems to be. I mean, you
can see it on TV, but I've had a couple.

Speaker 5 (30:58):
Of chances of meeting him.

Speaker 1 (30:59):
I talk to him now.

Speaker 15 (31:00):
He is very, very calm and very thoughtful, and I
can see why he's the longest serving prime minister India's had.
It was a very positive visits news Ella the free
trade agreement. It's come quite quickly with India, and it
was only three years ago we said we would make
their relationship within their strategic priority. So across the board,
this just shows that there's now more than trade back.

Speaker 1 (31:22):
Tomorrow at six am, The Mike Hosking Breakfast with Bailey's
Real Estate News Talk ZB.

Speaker 2 (31:29):
Hey, we had an old fashioned strike today and we
had a live cross in the middle of the Boys show.
To our reporter who was covering it, this is the
Department of Internal Affairs, and there was all sorts of noise.
There was an awful lot of yelling, happening at that thing,
So it was thirteen hundred Department of Internal Affairs workers
took the strike action today over a paid dispirit. It

(31:49):
ran from eleven into one, so it's over lunchtime. So
they had a two hour lunch. That's quite nice. And
by the way, who are the Department of Internal Affairs.
Other guys do the passport worts and the bursts, and
the desks, and the marriages and the citizenships. They also
do the libraries and the gambling and anti money laundering
regulation and digital safety and community services and anyway, the
big thing about this is that they never go on strike.
This is a very rare occasion from the Department of

(32:11):
Internal Affairs. We're normally relatively happy. But they're obviously not
happy with their current pay deal. So that's why they
went on this two hour strike. So we're going to
talk to the PSA to find out why on they
are striking, what they have been offered for, whether a
lunchtime strike actually did any good. And I also talk
about their one off payment ump some payment at fifteen

(32:32):
hundred dollars, so what's wrong with that? They don't like it?
What was wrong with that? So that's all to come
right after News and Sport, plus Terry Collins from the
AA who's warning that diesel prices are at risk of
rising because of a Russian export van I think all
prices are at risk of rising due to all sorts
of geopolitical stuff that's all over the place. And at

(32:53):
five point fifteen today we're talking about an alleyway in
christ Church that has new lights to keep people safe.
But people are not happy about it, but counselors voted
for it. So the full story of the lights of
christ Church. Around about five fifteen today, I'm.

Speaker 16 (33:08):
Falling Apollo in fun Can.

Speaker 4 (33:21):
You Fire Breaking?

Speaker 12 (33:27):
Harvey dosson.

Speaker 1 (33:36):
The Only drive show you can try to ask the questions,
get the answers, find the facts and give the analysis.
Andrew Dickens on Hither Duplicy Allen Drive with one New
Zealand and the power of Satellite Mobile New Stalks.

Speaker 2 (33:50):
It be after they welcome to the programs here and
after five more than thirteen hundred workers from the Departments
of Internal Affairs have gone on strike. They went on
strike at lunchtime today for a couple of hours. It's
gonna make clctic. Mix of employees are people who process
passports and birth certificates of National Library workers and gambling
regulators just to name with you. So the play negotiations
with the Department of Internal Affairs have been going on

(34:10):
for four months now. All the workers are all members
of the Public Service Association. So Dwane Leo as the
PSA National Secretary and joins me. Now Dwane, Hello, Hello Andrew.
Why are they speaking to you? Why are they striking?

Speaker 14 (34:25):
Armani teeth and here is that workers are on strike
because they need a fair payoffer that keeps pace with
the cost of living. I mean, this government does not
understand that members will not accept an offer that takes
them in the services they deliver backwards.

Speaker 2 (34:37):
What do you say, what do you think their offer
is well.

Speaker 14 (34:41):
In terms of what they've offered basically. So I'll give
you an example. We have a large group of our membership,
our Identity Service officers, and at the moment they earn
around sixty five thousand dollars annually. That's not a lot,
and they've been offered basically point eight so less than
one percent in terms of an increase, and that compares
to cost of living at the moment, that is it

(35:02):
running at three point one percent, So they're being asked
to take a pay cut to do their job.

Speaker 2 (35:07):
But the DEA says that you are actually ignoring the
system of lump sum payments. You know that very game
cost but average round about fifteen hundred dollars. And the
reason you don't like that is because it doesn't increase
workers on going base salaries. So you're turning your back
on money that is being offered and not counting it.

Speaker 14 (35:24):
Well, I think here, Andrew, let's be clear, the cost
of living crisis is not a lump sum. It doesn't
happen for a month and then go away. So what
a lump sum will do is for a month, a
month and a half, two months, depending on how much
is offered, it'll give people a slight bump and then
it's gone, and then their faced with the reality of
having to continue to pay and work in an environment
where the cost of living is running well ahead of

(35:46):
any income that they receive.

Speaker 2 (35:48):
But the money is the money, and you analyze it
over a year and if they get the same money
or they'll just have to budget.

Speaker 14 (35:53):
It well budget. I mean, Andrew, that the situation is
at the moment, we know that our members are struggling.
I mean, we talk to our mem is annually and
seven out of ten of them are finding harder just
to afford the necessities. At the moment, almost three and
ten are having to seek additional income. But the key
thing here is these are public service workers. This is

(36:13):
the government's workforce, and these employees, through ongoing cuts and funding,
are basically facing a situation now where they're becoming the
working poor.

Speaker 2 (36:22):
The department also says you haven't included step progression, and
step progression is a core component of the salary increase.
Are they right well?

Speaker 14 (36:31):
Step progression reflects the increased experience and time that these
workers have done in their career. So they work and
they get increases based on their tenure and based on
their service and the work that they provide. So there,
but that's got nothing to do with cost of living.
Cost of living changes on an annual basis, and the
problem we've got now is the cost of living has
been so high and in terms of DIA as an example,

(36:53):
has fallen so far behind that their rates are just
not survivable. I mean, you just need to look today
in turn of the ALLECD report that ranks New Zealand
at the bottom of thirty seven developed countries. Since the
mid twenties twenty twenties, our real wages have plummeted by
over six percent.

Speaker 2 (37:11):
Now you use the example of the Life and Identity
services officers. You told me that they get about sixty
five thousand dollars a year. We've gone to the department
and they say, the offer for someone on sixty five
thousand dollars was an increase in salary of six point
four percent over two years, plus a lump sum payment
of twenty one hundred. So they say, what are you

(37:32):
talking about.

Speaker 14 (37:33):
Yeah, well, I'll tell you what we're talking about, Andrew.
That's them again relying on the step progression increases. So again,
these are step progression around the work that these workers
are doing, acknowledging their experience, the development, and how they've
gained in those roles. That's got nothing to do with
the cost of living increase. And if we go back
to that, the core around that was zero point eight percent,

(37:53):
less than one percent. And what's extremely frustrating is we
know for a fact that with other agencies they're giving
them double that in terms of increases, and that's still
not And I want to make a point to here
that is still not the same as the cost of living.

Speaker 17 (38:07):
So still when we.

Speaker 14 (38:08):
Talk about what's been bargained for, they're still not going
to get and keep up with cost of living increases
that they're facing at the moment.

Speaker 2 (38:14):
Duane, I think a for your time today from the PSA,
that is Duane Leo. It is now twelve minutes after
find Andrew Dickins. So there's been a warning that fuel
prices have probably gone as low as they're going to
go for a while. And this warning this time comes
from the Automobile Association, and so we're joined by their
fuel spokesperson Terry Collins.

Speaker 4 (38:31):
Helit Terry, Yeah, good afternoon, Andrew.

Speaker 2 (38:34):
Why do you think diesel's on the rise?

Speaker 18 (38:36):
Look, it's the effectiveness of the Ukrainian attacks on oil
refineries in Russia. What it's done is credit rationing so
severeal in Russia that have banned the export of diesel
fuel diesel. Sorry, Russia is the second largest exporter of
diesel fuel, and so automatically last week we saw the
price of refined product of diesel double in the price

(38:59):
of oil for the same amount. So generally you don't
have refining costs that high, but it seemed a signal
to the market that it could be short supply for
a while. And immediately those cracking spreads, as are known as,
increased to one hundred percent of the price of oil.
So that's a clear indication that we've got some bit
of pain to come.

Speaker 2 (39:16):
So we should then budget for that as well. I
opened the program by talking about the screens that the
oil traders are watching, and they're looking at these screens
and they're looking at the price, and it's saying to
them that there's likely when you look at the futures
compared to the way the prices come down while there's
been the so called peace, they're saying there everything's aligning
for a major move upwards. Do you agree.

Speaker 18 (39:39):
I'm not sure about a major move. The thing about
the strait of the moves and the conflict that's reignited
there is today. I looked at the vehicle, I sorry,
vessel Trekking then as much as I could because someone
in a dark because sixty one tank is still on
the Gulf. It's two percent of the fleet. So it's
never been an oil production problem. It's been an oil production, sorry,
transportation problem. So we've got no in the height of

(40:00):
the percent of the fleet outside the golf. There may
you move oil, it's not going to have the same
impact head previously when it caught a larger over five
hundred vessels inside the golf. So that's a bit of
plus and monases. I saw a little bit of about it.
We've got reduced in the trees around is a bit
of pressure with exprushing diesel coming off the market. We

(40:20):
will see price increases, but nothing in the manner of
what we saw at the beginning of the golf.

Speaker 2 (40:25):
Well, that's some good news and we'll cling on to that,
and I think you for your time today Terry. Terry
Collins is the AA fuel spokesman and this is a
news talk ZNB. So we've got a bit of a
argie barge, bit of afuffle happening at the council about
a dark and dangerous place that they put some lights
in and some people say that was a nice to
have and others say it's the needs to have well
fully with the details next. Yeah, it's fourteen after five.

(40:46):
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(41:10):
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is the ecosystem because they can connect developers and investors
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And that connection across the whole property market means Squirrel
can back good people on good projects and give quality

(41:33):
developments the best chance of getting off the ground. For
developers looking to work with people who genuinely understand the market,
search out the name Squirrel. Squirrel lending. Lending is always
subject of course, to credit criteria and approval and term
supplying ticulous. So the BIFOD that's happening in christ which
Crasher's City Council has spent two hundred thousand dollars on

(41:55):
lights and a mural for an inner city park and alley,
and that's divided some opinion. The council says as part
of Press Lane, named after the paper back in the
old days, was uninviting after dark and needed lighting up.
The Taxpayers Union knows said, you just spent two hundred
thousand dollars on these lights. That's successive and proof that
a rates cap is needed. So Nathaniel hits judying as

(42:17):
a crash City councilor and he joins you, now, hello, Nathaniel,
very good.

Speaker 3 (42:21):
How you doing.

Speaker 2 (42:21):
I'm good? Make Why do they have to put lights
in there?

Speaker 19 (42:25):
Well's the thing you talk to anyone who's come to
visit christ Church. Took it from author to wone and
what attracts people.

Speaker 3 (42:30):
To christ Church.

Speaker 19 (42:30):
What everyone says is it's beautiful, it's clean, it's a
nice city.

Speaker 3 (42:34):
And that actually costs money.

Speaker 19 (42:36):
Right, there's actually lots and lots of little decisions that
we make every day to make the city look nice.
And the big problem with you know, with Courtney Place,
with Queen Street, partly obviously it's the pipes that are leaking,
but it's also there's no sense of fun, there's no
sense of beauty and excitement in those cities and that's
something that in Christ's big part of our strategy as

(42:57):
the city is to do that.

Speaker 2 (43:00):
So I was under the understanding the press lane needed
the lighting because of a filthy hellhole full of bad types.
But you're saying it's for fun. Therefore, how do you get.

Speaker 3 (43:10):
That's the challenge. That's the challenge.

Speaker 19 (43:12):
How do you get from how do you get from absolutely,
you know, a filthy hell hole, a little lane that's dark,
that's dingy, that people don't want to use. How do
you get from there to a lane that actually is inviting,
that brings people from all government building on one side
over to Isaac Federoru on the other side.

Speaker 3 (43:28):
So you know, you put a bit.

Speaker 19 (43:29):
Of money into it, you make it look nice. You
voted for this, Yeah, I actually I think I'm not
wanting something it was.

Speaker 4 (43:35):
It was.

Speaker 3 (43:35):
I think it might have been unanimous or close to unanimous.

Speaker 2 (43:37):
A counsel now one one one descent, mate, there's just
one one councilor.

Speaker 3 (43:41):
But yeah, there you go.

Speaker 2 (43:42):
But the Taxpayers Union would be listening to you right
now saying we need to make the place fun and saying, well,
they just spend two hundred thousand dollars of hard to
earn rate payers money on it, And I have to ask,
was two hundred thousand dollars too much to make the
place fun?

Speaker 3 (43:56):
Was it too much for to pay for those lights? Yeah? Yeah,
I mean this is the thing.

Speaker 19 (44:01):
I mean, I'm not a lighting engineer, but like that's
the cost that was quoted to us. There are lots
of things that often cost a weirdly large amount of money.
I mean, everyone notices when they don't. We're around the house.

Speaker 2 (44:13):
David Seymour actually was talking to Mike Costing this morning
and talking about this, and he says, you know, a
counselor might go, hey, we need to light up press Lane,
and he puts it over to the bureaucrat, and the
bureaucrat then says, I'm going to light up Press Lane
and I'm going to give it a mural, and the
lights are going to be awesome and they're going to
be very pretty. And suddenly you guys end out with
a very expensive lighting system and we have to pay
for it. And of course you're looking at a rates

(44:34):
increase of seven point four percent, and you might be
spending a hell of a lot more than you need
to lighting up a dingy little alleyway.

Speaker 19 (44:43):
Well, we're actually getting ourselves down to the full cent
raycap within within three years of the outcoming long to
him plan. So we are planning to get within their
government post ratecap.

Speaker 3 (44:55):
We are.

Speaker 19 (44:56):
We're doing all val into planning to get ourselves to
that point. But at the same time, it is really
important that we make the city look nice and to
do that, you actually do need the nicer hat. It's
part of our strategy. I know what trategy is a
city is to bring in tourists. And people don't come
to a city because it has famously cheap lighting and
dingy alleyways. They come there because it's a place they

(45:17):
want to be.

Speaker 2 (45:18):
All right, Nathaniel, I thank you for the time today.
Nathaniel hurts Jardine as a Christchurch City councilor voted for
the lights and they are fun. And it is five
twenty two.

Speaker 1 (45:29):
It's the Heather Duplicy Allen Drive Full Show podcast on
iHeartRadio powered by News Talks EBB. The name you trust
to get the answers you need, It's Andrew Dickens on
Heather Duplicy Allen Drive with One New Zealand and the
power of Satellite Mobile News Talks edb.

Speaker 2 (45:48):
I just want to congratulate Matt Nippet, the journalist who
works with the Herald. He's done more great work. I mean,
the man keeps on doing great work all over the place.
I wish you could just get a haircut. Matt Nippett
is great now. He's been looking into fuckatorhair Muscles, which
is in a portocky. They farm from muscles. This company's
not doing well at the moment. Last month, the company
was fined one hundred and thirty five thousand dollars by

(46:09):
the Bay of Plenty Regional Council. This was after wastewater
treatment failures that ended out shrouding all of a Portucky
with foul odors of rotting muscles. Delayful and Matt says
in his article, this bad smell is also tainting the
company's books. In the nine years since its founding, the
company has raised sixty nine million dollars in capital, largely

(46:32):
sourced from government, and sold just fifty four million dollars
worth of muscles. They haven't even found enough muscles then
the money that they've been given. Hey, this was a
poster child for the Provincial Growth Fund and as it
scaled up its business and ambitions. Its consistent losses widened

(46:53):
to reach seventeen million annually by last report and now
forty seven million across it's near decade of existence. Yet
Shane Jones, the Prince of the Provinces, was prepared to
fund this dog while taking credit as the Prince of
the Provinces, saying jobs were being saved and we were
making opportunities, know you weren't. We put sixty nine million

(47:13):
into a company that only found fifty four million dollars
worth of sale shellfish. That support from the Provincial Growth
Fund and the regional fund that replaced it is what
gets my goat. Under their coalition agreements with Labor, New
Zealand First got three billion to splash around without much oversight,
attracting criticism from the Audit Office. Under the current government,
they also have a fund with a billion in it

(47:35):
to spend. But under the coattails of this national leg government,
Shane Jones and New Zealand First regularly chied us about
doing the hard yards and saying that against wasteful government
spending well marked toward Jones, if you want to see
some waste, then why didn't you take a look at
your own office. Why didn't you have a look at
Fuckataha muscles and a Potocky that you funded, and why

(47:58):
didn't you take a look at the way you splash
around your slush fund Andrew Dickens, So the PSA. You
didn't like the PSA, and in fact many people were
saying they were effectively a mouthpiece for the Labor Party.
And I've got one Texter who says, if you look
on their website, you'll see that it says it says
it's time to change the government. So I looked at

(48:18):
their website. On their website, there is get benefits with
PSA plus for a better working life. Joined the PSA,
and today's budget is a black budget and it is
a heavy price that public servants will pay. Well that
it's true. None of it says change the governments. So
there we go. Then we get to Nathaniel, who I

(48:40):
think got us all go. And when he said, well,
that's just that's just what things cost. When we talked
about the two hundred thousand dollars lights and the mural,
that's just what things cost. And that, as I said
in the interview, harks right back to what David Seymour
said this morning in his interview with Mike Hosking, he said,
the problem is we say, go and put some lights
in that alleyway, and the bureaucrats go off and they
put that and they go for really really big things.

(49:03):
But then they present it back to their leaders and
they go, Okay, that's what it costs. They never challenge it,
and they never forensically look at it, and they never
saved the money. If you want to see a story
about this, look at the Waterview tunnel and what Steve
and Joyce did to sharpen the pencil there. And that's
what we want from our leaders.

Speaker 1 (49:20):
Accountability analysis answers here, what matters. It's Andrew Dickens on
Hither Duper s Allen Drive with One New Zealand and
the Power of Satellite Mobile used talk Zippy.

Speaker 2 (49:34):
Came back Quinnon that at I saw you standing there
in the light of the window.

Speaker 1 (49:39):
We're in that scene.

Speaker 2 (49:40):
Smile.

Speaker 10 (49:41):
Then it's been a while.

Speaker 2 (49:44):
I hope she's happy. I'm sure she is. Anyway, Welcome
into the program. I'm Andrew Dickinson for Heather. Heather's taking
a long munch of leaky weekend. So she because it's
hard through it to get away on a weekend when
she finishes at seven pm on a Friday. So she said, hey,
I can go Saturday morning, come back on Monday night,
so enjoy your weekend. So Heather and Barry will be
back with us from tomorrow. Awful lot of you texting

(50:06):
after the interview with Dwayne Leo from the PSA about
the Department of Internal Affairs, and an awful lot of
you are saying I pointed out quite reasonably that really
it's about a six percent pay increase, he's not including
the step progressions, but he kept on going on about
costs of living, and an awful lot of you have
then jumped to the conclusion you put the two and
two together, and you've correctly come up before that it

(50:27):
does happen to be an election year and that maybe
mister Dwayne Leo was doing a bit of spoiling to
try and change the government, that it was politically motivated
rather than economically motivated for his members. But that would
be up to you to make your mind up on
that decision. It is twenty three to six.

Speaker 3 (50:45):
Andrew Dickens so.

Speaker 2 (50:48):
Talking about getting into the trough MPs very nearly but
did not get their lavish taxpayer key, we save a
contributions taken away. Now for every dollar I don't know
if you know this, For every dollar parliamentarian adds to
their kiwisaver, the taxpayer puts in two dollars. Fifty hands up?
Heard like that deal? In twenty twenty, the Remuneration Authority

(51:09):
wanted to have a look at this, but unfortunately, of
course that thing called COVID happened. Now if the Remuneration
Authority had got rid of that, if their plan had
been implemented, taxpayers would have saved around eight million dollars.
So to discuss this, I have a constitutional law expert
online Graham Edge like, good afternoon to your Graham, Good afternoon.
Why are MP's kiwisaver schemes so different from our own?

Speaker 20 (51:35):
Well, I think the important thing when you're looking at
MP salaries is the overall amount of money they get.
So when the Remunerational Authority is setting their salaries, it's like, okay,
how much you're going to earn as an MP. One
of the things they take into account is some of
the perks, and another thing that they take into account.

Speaker 4 (51:51):
Is the super skip.

Speaker 20 (51:53):
And so we'll work out what the fair amount of
MPs should be paid, and then if we decide actually
some of that go to super different question. And so
I think it is reasonable to encourage strongly MPs to
put a fair amount of their money that they're going
to earn into a super scheme essentially as an anti
corruption measure. It's that you are going to be looked after. Yes,

(52:16):
it's generous, but it's money that would come out of
your salary that probably if we didn't have the super scheme,
your salaries would be a bit higher. And so I
think having it looking at it is that way. Come
up with the fair amount for MPs to be paid,
and then say, but there's some benefit in making sure
you know that you're going to be looked after it
so that you don't have to be on the take
while you're an MP. We have similar rules for judges

(52:37):
and things like that. It's generous so that we can
avoid sort of risks of corruption.

Speaker 2 (52:42):
Do you think that's a sensible thing to do, because
the rest of us look at it and go, well, hello,
come on, this is waste of taxpayers money which we're
currently I don't know if you've noticed in a nation
mine that war against I.

Speaker 20 (52:55):
Agree, and I think wasting taxpayers money is something we
should not do.

Speaker 4 (53:00):
Absolutely.

Speaker 20 (53:00):
But again, it's like, if we're going to be paying
MPs a certain amount of money, you know, imagine if
their salaries were twenty percent higher, and that was just
the sole difference. Was we got rid of this, but
we made their salaries fifteen percent higher. Yep, we wouldn't
be saving any money. But then MPs would yea, oh,
I can make a bit more money. And so one
of the reasons for us sort of they've gotten rid

(53:22):
of a lot of the old perks, the very cheap
flights the MPs who retired used to get. None of
the current MPs ever going to qualify for that. But
one of the nice things that that system had. You know,
when Title Philip Field, for example, got convicted of misusing
his officers in MP, he lost that and so wouldn't
it be good, you know, one of the ways you

(53:42):
could make this a stronger anti corruption mischa would be Okay,
if you're an MP, if you choose to put some
of your money into that super scheme, well you get convicted.

Speaker 18 (53:53):
You know.

Speaker 20 (53:53):
The way we took Title Philip's Field's flights, a weear
from them. We're going to take that large lot of
money that we put into your key we saver away
from you and so the costs won't go up because
the overall salary is what it is. And then we've
got here's another incentive not to be on it for
the take.

Speaker 2 (54:12):
Well, I like the cut of your GiB and if
you were running things, things would be tough. And I
thank you so much for your time. Grammeduler love the.

Speaker 1 (54:19):
Huddle with New Zealand Souderby's International Realty a name you
can trust locally and globally.

Speaker 2 (54:25):
So on the huddle today we have trust Sheshon from
Shesson with us at PR and Jose Peggarty, the Child
Fun Chief Executive. Hello, Hello, Hello Hellollo Andrew, Yes, Josie's
in the studio. Trish couldn't be bothered.

Speaker 21 (54:37):
No, well what what what conclusion can we draw from that?
Andrew who I listened to?

Speaker 22 (54:44):
I think I think that is a gross mischaracterization, Andrew.
And you know I normally love to run up the
drive into the studio.

Speaker 2 (54:54):
Yes, yeah, because you only work right next door, so there,
but never mind, we might be together. Looks gross, gross
over exaggerations. That's what I do for a living. And okay,
you just heard Graham aginally talking about the MP's goldplated
Can we save a deal where they get two dollars
fifty from the taxpayer for every dollar that they put
into the scheme? And Graham came up with his reasons

(55:15):
why this happens because most of us go, we want that.
Why why are the parliamentarians getting this sort of thing?
Did you heard Graham, Josie, did you think you make
a good point about the fact that this is just
as you say, don't do corruption, don't worry, you'll be
dealt with later.

Speaker 15 (55:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 21 (55:30):
The point he makes is a fair one. There's a
great quote which I can't remember who said it, but
it says the poor and the middle class pay tax,
the rich pay accountants, the wealthing pay politicians.

Speaker 2 (55:42):
Trust really reckon, I mean, it does sound unfair to
the rest of us.

Speaker 22 (55:47):
Well, it does, I don't know. I thought there was
a very interesting reasoning from Graham, and one which I
hadn't heard before. I do feel that if you want
competent people to be members of Parlham, and we absolutely
have to have competent people, you know, the pay has
to be commens through it with that, I do think

(56:09):
though when ordinary kiwis look at this, that scheme does
seem it doesn't have the relativity. I think were the
words from the from the on Boardsman's office that you
would expect, I e. It's not similar to what ordinary
kiwis get in their in their contribution rates. And I

(56:31):
do think that it's you know, there is a lot
of this with with regulators and watchdogs where they will
go through go through things that are happening, they will
make recommendations, and then it's several years later things still
haven't changed. So I do think if I were a
politician now, I would be coming back and having a

(56:52):
look at this and thinking it is an issue of venice. Yes,
salaries have to it's cominent people.

Speaker 2 (56:58):
It's also the side of the times have to say Josie,
because we're all being told to do it tough by
politicians and we have done for many years. And then
we get stories about batches, and we get stories about
remuneration and people actually not taking a pay cuts, and
you also end with these stories of goldplayed to queby savers.
If they're asking us to do hard times, they need
to be shown that they're doing hard Times too.

Speaker 21 (57:20):
Yes, sorry I did this random quote and didn't finish.
So what I meant to say about that there's a
perception there that that politicians could be open to corruption, right,
and that's actually a very real issue. We've seen it.
I mean even in our own country we had what
was his name? Title change. So the thing that Graham,
the point that Graham's making is that you've got to

(57:40):
avoid even the perception.

Speaker 23 (57:42):
Right.

Speaker 21 (57:43):
The problem with this is that the so what the
politicians says, they set up the remuneration authority to decide
salaries and perks and these and super and when the
remuneration authority says we think your salaries should go up,
we have to accept that because they're independent. But if
they then say, oh, we think your super scheme, which
was actually designed before Key we savor. Now we've got Key,

(58:05):
we say, well, we think you should actually change it,
and then they ignore it post COVID, then you've got
a problem. So you can't just take the advice when
it says I think your salary.

Speaker 2 (58:14):
Should go up. Very good stuff, and I thank you
the time right now sixteen minutes to six.

Speaker 4 (58:21):
This is news talk said be breaking news.

Speaker 2 (58:25):
So in breaking news, the family of actor Sam Neil
has confirmed he's died in hospital. In a statement, they
say he died in Sydney, he was surrounded by family
and he died with the dignity that has characterized his
whole life. So reaffirming that the family of actor Sam
Neil has confirmed he's died in hospital. And of course,

(58:47):
if you know the story of Sam Neil, he had
he had a very big battle against cancer and he
came through and then attacked life again with great gusto.
But now of course it has come back and he
has died. And frankly, it took my breath away, and frankly,
Jose had took your breath away too.

Speaker 21 (59:04):
I'm quite shocked because his family friend and I knew
that this was imminent, and it was just family knowledge
at that time, and I thought that he had had
a better few days. And so yeah, I'm I'm really shocked.
He's a He's a key we icon, isn't he. And

(59:25):
the Neil family there, they're a wonderful family. His niece
has been my best friends, which was a baby. His brother,
Michael Neil, my heart goes out to him because they're
very close and so they I mean, yeah, I've lived
with them, I've been around them all my life and
I'm heartbroken to see Sam go who. Yeah, I mean

(59:47):
he will be remembered across the world.

Speaker 2 (59:49):
Actually, I knew Anna, who was Michael's daughter, and I've
seen Mike. I see Michael right now. Is she so
give given my love and Helen's love as well. And
I saw my doing the tempests. But that it's about
Sam right now. Is such a gentleman, so good at
what he did, also such a great vintner.

Speaker 21 (01:00:08):
Oholved in so many causes, I mean some that I
would argue with him about till I was read in
the face because you know, he was very passionate about
not building certain building projects down in the South Island.
But you know he believed him in what he did.
He stood out and even if I disagreed with him,
I respected the fact that he took a position. He

(01:00:29):
was a great actor, I really think. I mean, he
did everything from Jurassic part to Shakespeare, you know, and
that's why he's got a global reputation. And it's it's
a loss.

Speaker 20 (01:00:39):
For New Zealand.

Speaker 2 (01:00:40):
It really is true. Sorry, it's a bit fresh. Do
you want to say something or should we take a break.

Speaker 17 (01:00:46):
I think we should take a break.

Speaker 2 (01:00:48):
Yeah, so do I. In breaking news, actor Sam Neil
is dead and he died in Sydney, surrounded by family,
and he died apparently with the dignity that has characterized
his whole life.

Speaker 1 (01:01:02):
The Huddle with New Zealand Southeby's International Realty the only
truly global brand.

Speaker 2 (01:01:08):
Thank you for all the great texts you're doing about
Sam Neil. More on that a little bit later on
on the Huddle. Today we have Trishesson and we also
have Josey PEGANI and let's talk about this in Internal
Affairs Department strike which happened today for two hours from
eleven until one. The department actually says we're offering you
six percent because they've got step progressions in there, and

(01:01:29):
let's say, for some payments. The PSA is saying, I'm sorry,
this doesn't take into account cost of living. I'm giving
the feeling a little bit Josie that I'm not sure
whether this is a dispute actually about the wages, but
a bit of electioneering because we're so close to an election.

Speaker 21 (01:01:45):
I think it is about the wages. Andrew, I know
what you're saying about you know, PSA have been labor
friendly union. Putting that aside, you've still got a whole
bunch of staff in that organizer, in that department DIA
de Partner of Internal Affairs, some of whom are paid
sixty five thousand dollars a year, and you know that's
bugger all, and when you've got a cost of living crisis.
So there is a real issue there, right, despite all

(01:02:07):
our politicking around whose side of the union's on or whatever.
And I think it's a fair fight, right. The other
issue I've got, though, is that this thing about step
change is Dwayne is absolutely right that that's a contractual obligation.
You work for a certain other years, your salary goes up.
If we didn't have that, you'd be on the same
salary you were on in nineteen ninety, right, So he's

(01:02:29):
right about that. But I know as an employer too,
it's really hard at the moment. And if you've got
a CPI increase, So if you're trying to increase salaries
to deal with the cost of living crisis and you've
got someone who's due a step change, you've got to
come to some kind of arrangement temporarily at least while
we're in the cost of living crisis that we're in.
But bottom line, you cannot live on sixty five K

(01:02:51):
a year. You've got to do something. So I think
it's complicated, but I don't think we should get distracted
by thinking that it's politicking. There is a real issue here.

Speaker 2 (01:03:00):
Okay, well what do you think, Trisha? And can I
just say about step progression and all that. I used
to get step progression when I was a radio presenter
for the Broadcasting Corporation of New Zealand and we were
public servants and we have pay grades old, yes I am.
I mean we have pay grades and all that. Can
I just tell you now that I'm a contractor like
every other presenter. We don't automatically get paigue increases just
because they've got a bit older.

Speaker 21 (01:03:21):
I've never had a step increase.

Speaker 22 (01:03:23):
Well goes, Well, I think that. I think that comes
to a really great point. I mean, number one, I
think you always have to very carefully unpick the union's
press releases around any pay dispute because ultimately, sitting underneath
that is a whole lot of nuance and they're great
at getting a headline that probably doesn't often reflect the

(01:03:43):
true situation. Number two, I think you know, my question
is what is the cost of living? Those words, what
is that being used as a proxy for in this conversation,
Because if this is about, you know, a wage increase
to keep up with CPI inflation, that that is something different.
You can't quantify the cost of living increase. So I

(01:04:06):
think that's a bit of a red hearing. I agree
with Josie that you know, sixty five k in New
Zealand is not a high salary, but equally at the moment,
everybody is cutting their cloth to suit in these times,
and I think where these workers are probably being caught
in is overall a very tough economy. You know, a

(01:04:30):
government that doesn't have money to splash around on big
wage increases. And as we know in the public sector,
what what the Public Service Commission is is weary of
is if you give one sector an award, others are
going to want the same or equal, so they are
wary of a domino effect and probably of adding to inflation.

(01:04:53):
So it's a tough situation for those workers. But I
think there is not one evil of probably a worker
in New Zealand who isn't in a tough situation at
the moment. And that's just where it Where is.

Speaker 2 (01:05:07):
That really iterator? And Duane did that when he was
in this interview just cost of living, cost of living,
cost of living in a whole and of people said,
for christ sake, we've all got a cost of living
problem out right.

Speaker 22 (01:05:15):
Actually, but again that those are now pejorative words, and
what does that actually mean? How do you that sort
of that's my point? How do you quantify that in
a pay claim? You know, most most pay claims if
you're talking about is it is it matching CPI or
the you know, the rate of the rate of inflation?

(01:05:36):
And so I think those words need to be really
unpacked in this context.

Speaker 21 (01:05:40):
Yeah, but I do think it's real AUGHTRITI, isn't it.
I mean we all know people and ourselves included, we're
on decent incomes, but you still feel like you're still struggling, right,
And so you think why, you know, I've got family
members and friends who are on lower incomes, and you think, man,
that's hard. So a one percent right, and you've got
three point one percent in.

Speaker 2 (01:06:00):
But there's so many people being paid at that level
in this country and because the text machine is going
off with everybody saying, Wow, sixty five, that's luxury. I'm
paid sixty Treshasson and jose Piganni, thank you so much
for your time here on the Huddle. It is coming
up five minutes to six.

Speaker 3 (01:06:17):
It's the Heather too.

Speaker 1 (01:06:18):
Per Ce Allen Drive Full Show podcast on iHeartRadio powered
by News Talk Zebby.

Speaker 2 (01:06:24):
Sam Nil's Dead. Samnil has passed away. Born the fourteenth
of September nineteen forty seven, Doctor Alan Grant in the
Jurassic Park film series. What About the Piano? He was
in that too, directed by Jane Campion. What about The
Hunt for Red October? What a great movie that is?
Riley Asa Spies the Tudors. He was in Peaky Blindings
The Blinders. He owns two paddocks, the Winery and Central

(01:06:45):
Oad Target Beautiful Beautiful Winery. Speaks publicly about about many issues,
spoke publicly about living with a form of blood cancer,
and it appears that that blood cancer has taken him today.
By the way, his name is Nigel and Josie is
a family friend would call him Nigel, but we all
know miss sam Neil, the great man has gone.

Speaker 1 (01:07:06):
News is next, We're Business who meets Inside the Business
Hour with Andrew Dickens and Ma's Insurance and Investments. Your
futures in good hands, News Talks the.

Speaker 2 (01:07:25):
Bees Welcome to the program, and we're still reeling a
little bit of the news as Sam Neil has passed
away today in Sydney. Son, You're right so sad to
hear the passing of Sam. He was my favorite New
Zealand actor. He was so talented and stuck by what
he felt passionate about. Sam will be greatly miss Western
p Sam. You will always be remembered for your outstanding talent.

(01:07:50):
Larry and family write terrible news about Sam. The country
is much poorer with his sudden passing. Condolences to his family.
Another person says a New Zealand icon, a gentleman, a
man taken too soon now he was what's seventy eight?
I mentioned some of the films he's been in. Simon
points out that I forgot Hunt for the Wilder People,
which is one of New Zealand's favorite films, and speaking

(01:08:12):
about New Zealand films, Wayne points out Sleeping Dogs, which
was the feature film in the seventies that starred Sam
and it was one of the first real sort of
attempts at a big international scale blockbuster done from New Zealand,
featuring terrorists hiding out in Corimandel and a young Sam

(01:08:34):
who was just magnificent in it. And then when you
start thinking about Sam, you start thinking about just how
many roles he's been and how many times he's been
brilliant in the omen films as well. He had an
incredible career, but always came home to his beloved Central Otago.
We'll have more as time goes by, and Marcus Slas
will be doing talk back tonight and I bet we

(01:08:55):
know what we'll be talking about tonight. Eh.

Speaker 3 (01:08:58):
Right.

Speaker 2 (01:08:59):
So it's nine minutes after and it is July and
is holiday period and a lot of people are on holiday,
and normally at this time we talked to Nicola Willis,
but Nikola Willis is on holiday with her family, and
so instead we're joined by the Defense Minister, Chris Pink.

Speaker 4 (01:09:11):
Hello, Chris good evening, Andrew, how are you very good?

Speaker 2 (01:09:14):
And since you are the Defense Minister. This past week
we saw New Zealand pledging to join the Ocean of
Peace alliance between Australia and Fiji, and then we wondered
about what that might mean in terms of our relationship
with China. So what can you tell us about this
Ocean of Peace alliance and what it wants to do

(01:09:35):
and what it's actually saying to China.

Speaker 23 (01:09:38):
Yeah, we've said that, we'll Sidney consider it and we'll
consider carefully the obligations under that. At the moment, of course,
it's just between Australia and Fiji, and we congratulate them
for working together on matters of regional security, and I
would emphasize it's about working together for that Ocean of
Peace concept. Of course, the Pacific is literally the Ocean

(01:10:00):
of peace and that's the ideal that all the Pacific
nations want to live towards and to be part of.
So there's a role for New Zealand potentially in joining that.
And in the meantime, it's about that which it's for,
which is promoting peace in all its ways, according to
maritime security, which is in relation to transnational crime for

(01:10:20):
series protection as well as the more military aspects.

Speaker 4 (01:10:22):
So that's what we're interested in considering.

Speaker 2 (01:10:24):
And is this the environment we're in? Is this the
climate we're in with the breakdown of the international rules
of law with big players are stomping their feet with
more and more alliances happening, Can we can we look
to more sort of a recreation of some of these
alliances that we used to have in the old days.

Speaker 23 (01:10:42):
Well, I think it's worth noting, of course, we do
already have an alliance with Australia, and we've cooperated with
Fiji on security matters and get with a pretty broad
concept of that that term for a number of years now.
So it really might be more about formalizing that and
said only if you think about the increasing competition and
the contest in various regions, Yes.

Speaker 4 (01:11:04):
Including the No Pacific.

Speaker 23 (01:11:06):
It's about banding together like minded nations to promote and
protect the ideals and interests that we hold there.

Speaker 2 (01:11:12):
And you just returned from that NATO conference. You are
representative there. And of course it has been reported that
many of the nations congratulated you on the twelve million
dollar push into defense spending that New Zealand has had
and our desire to get to two percent of GDP
on defense spending. Were they also talking about the New
World environment?

Speaker 4 (01:11:33):
Yeah, they were very much so.

Speaker 23 (01:11:34):
Of course, NATO by definition is a different part of
the world from where New Zealand is physically located, but
obviously across the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and including into Europe.
A lot of the similar themes are matters of concern.
You know, there isn't an environment of increased defense spending
because we all see that we're living in a very

(01:11:55):
contested world. And of course there's also a direct impact
on New Zealand when issues such as conflict in the
Middle East flow through to us through those high energy
prices and the supply of goods more generally.

Speaker 2 (01:12:08):
Okay, of course we're all cockahoop about the visitor of
the Prime Minister of India. Modi actually came to visit
us for the first time an Indian prime minister for
forty years. There are some saying that perhaps we bent
over a little bit too backwards to him, and that
Chris Lucks And went and met him at the airport,
which doesn't now normally happen. They went to this rally
in spark Arena in Auckland, which doesn't normally happen when

(01:12:30):
leaders come, they don't have a rally, and then Chris
held his hand and they were holding hands as well.
Are we bending over backwards for India.

Speaker 23 (01:12:40):
Well, I think it's good when world leaders have strong
personal relationships that benefit their respective nations. Certainly for New
Zealand to have Christopher Luxen flying the flag for us
strongly in terms of what's important to New Zealand, that's
a good thing.

Speaker 4 (01:12:53):
And so I think the historic.

Speaker 23 (01:12:55):
Visits which has described as such, after forty years without
an Indian Prime minister having come all the way down
to this part of the world, and certainly with them
having an increasing population and increasing middle class, great opportunities
for our businesses to export, to find a billion new customers.

Speaker 4 (01:13:13):
So I think there's a lot that's in it for
our nation.

Speaker 2 (01:13:15):
All right. The Internal Affairs Department strike today where the
PSA claims that are offered one percent, the department comes
back and says with step progression and bulk funding bulk
payments is more like six percent. Is this a real
strike or do you think it's electioneering by the PSA
in an election year.

Speaker 23 (01:13:34):
I certainly wouldn't want to speak to their motivations. I
would just, you know, respectfully encourage everyone involved to speak
clearly in terms of the facts of the matter. You've
highlighted what I understand is a bit of a discrepancy
in terms of how the offer has been characterized. But
at the same time, no one's going to thank me
for wading into the negotiations by being too specific about

(01:13:55):
either motivations or what's on the table.

Speaker 2 (01:13:57):
Do you think the office fair?

Speaker 23 (01:14:00):
I understand it's a competitive offer, but you know, I
don't want to express a you that might limit the
position of either side going forward, because it's important that
these are conducted in good faith.

Speaker 2 (01:14:10):
Now, we found out today that if you, as an
MP put in a dollar into the Keiwi Saver, the
taxpayer will give you another two dollars fifty as well,
And some people say this isn't fair. The Remuneration Authority
thought about getting rid of it, but COVID got in
the way. Now it's cropped up again. Had they got
rid of it back then, we would have saved ourselves
eight million dollars. So is it fair that MPs get

(01:14:31):
a better key we saved deal than all the rest
of us.

Speaker 23 (01:14:35):
Well, these are the questions that the Remuneration Authority is
supposed to consider. It seems unexpected to me that they
wouldn't have considered it a few years ago. I know
that COVID was taking place, but they've obviously chosen not
to meet by zoom or whatever other means was available.
But I do understand that they'll consider it again soon,
and I hope that they'll come up with something that
everyone will regard as fair and reasonable.

Speaker 4 (01:14:57):
Taxpayers and members of Parliament alike.

Speaker 2 (01:15:00):
Do you think it's fair of us to expect MPs
to be a little bit more moderate when it comes
to their remuneration and their allowances because it's causing bad
press all over the place and it causes a yellow
eyed fever.

Speaker 4 (01:15:17):
I think moderation is always important.

Speaker 2 (01:15:19):
So if I could offer you no pay increase and
a reduction of your QUI saba, you'd say yes.

Speaker 4 (01:15:27):
Well, it depends if that's moderate or not.

Speaker 23 (01:15:29):
But if you are the remuneration authority in this instance,
then you'd have the right to set the pay rates
and it wouldn't be for us to cheer or complain regardless.
That's the point about having an independent authority, so that
MP's aren't setting their own pay or for that matter,
conditions that go along.

Speaker 2 (01:15:45):
But you could actually turn it down if you wanted to.
You have the ability to do that. You don't have
to take it.

Speaker 4 (01:15:50):
Well. I thought you interview with mister Graham Migler was
really interesting.

Speaker 23 (01:15:53):
Actually, he did make the point around a package that
takes into account different factors, and it could be argued,
of course that if there were less of a key
we save a contribution, it would be more salary or
vice versa. And of course the point around corruption is
well made, but again I don't really want to get
into that detail. I don't think it's appropriate for me
to comment on it. And if the remuneration authority were

(01:16:13):
to lower it or to make it a zero increase,
be it the pay or the other conditions, then MPs
naturally would have to abide by that.

Speaker 4 (01:16:20):
So I think it's about the right way to view it.

Speaker 2 (01:16:22):
Well, Chris, thank you for your time today. That is
Chris Penk who is the Defense Minister. And it is
now sixteen minutes after six and this is New Stalks
here be the business hour. So what you've probably noticed
is that when the property market slows, people start looking
at what they can do to improve the home they've
already got. And one of the biggest transformations you can
make is obviously the kitchen, which is why you do it.

(01:16:46):
Kitchens are quite clever. They've been doing kitchens for fifty
years and they've worked out how to give people a
custom make kitchen, but they do it without the eye
watering price tag. And what to like about it is
that you're not stuck with staff sizes. Their U sizet
system lets you customize cabinets to suit your space. And
you've got a huge range of colors and finishes and

(01:17:08):
upgrade options to choose from. And the whole thing is
manufactured right here in New Zealand. And once your design
is finalized, it's dispatched in just seven days. Plus if
DIY isn't exactly your thing, they've got local experts. Just
an email the way to answer all your questions. So
search you do it, and that it's spelt udui, you

(01:17:28):
do it, and then see why their customers proudly say I.

Speaker 3 (01:17:33):
Did it.

Speaker 4 (01:17:35):
All Right.

Speaker 2 (01:17:36):
To the numbers we go. The nz X fifty today
is down point five percent, the AX fifty is up
point zero seven percent so far today they're still open.
A barrel of Brent Crewed is up four point four
to five percent today, and one New Zealand dollar is
worth fifty eight US cents eighty three Australian cents, fifty erroo,

(01:17:58):
forty three uk P and ninety three yen. And let's
talk about business, and let's talk about investment markets. I'm
joined by Shane Solely from harbor As It Manage vent
Hellas Shane, Yeah, Hey, how are you going? So she's
all on Iran and the United States, she's all wrong
with drones being sent to Cuba by Russia. She's all

(01:18:20):
on everywhere. So what does all this all on mean
for investment markets?

Speaker 8 (01:18:24):
Yeah? Look, I think we've seen a bit of a
risk off across markets today. Certainly that climb and energy
prices you talked about earlier, that increases the odds of
a central bank bank rate increase. What we saw on Friday,
and this was the market in the US, We're starting
to get a win of something going on. The US
tenure government bond you that ended at four point five

(01:18:45):
six percent, that's well above where it was in the
Gyne that was at four point four. Investors have started
to price in a bit more sticky underlying INFLACI risk,
but the risker as they go up tonight here in
Ze tenure buyers are up zero point two percent to
four point sixty two percent, again up on their June
lows of four point three six. We've seen Asia Pacific
markets roll off, the red hot Korean tech market down

(01:19:09):
eight point eight percent today, that high flying Skhnix down
forteen percent, gave back all of Friday's games. Is it
into the US? As you touched on New zeal market
that week, are led by some of our large caps
Fish and Bikeway to Auckland, Newport Futures Andrew are suggesting
that we're going to see the US shear market down,
the U S and P down half percent, p NAERSDAK,

(01:19:30):
which is takeing you down one point two. Look, this
whole increased geopolitical risk increase increases uncertainty. And while we've
got a bunch of company reporting coming up the US
that should be okay, this is going to take some
of the risk out.

Speaker 2 (01:19:44):
Yeah, Well it's because it keeps on rolling on and
just when we think we're out, we're not out, and
that creates even more uncertainty. Now we had to begin
z New Zealand performance of Service index for June out today.
First of all, what on earth is a performance of
service index? And how was there any good news in it.

Speaker 8 (01:20:02):
Yeah, there was a little bit array of sunshine. This
really measures how the broad service economy goes, how the
confidence levels are, and we saw a recovery up two
point six percent to fifty point six for above fifty
means people are feeling a bit more optimistic, they're looking
to expand they might look to hire again. Last week

(01:20:22):
we had the manufacturing performance of manufacturing and the x
net jumped to fifty nine points of them, so quite
a lot more. But still this today is it's good.
It's above fifty, one of the strongest we've had in
the last three years. All you know, we've got a
little way to go. New Orders was probably the biggest
strongest sub index andrew up to fifty three, so people

(01:20:43):
are back putting a mature in the system. It's a
big part of the economy that covers a lot of
a lot of manufacture services business non manufacturing services, so
it's important.

Speaker 2 (01:20:53):
Good Stefan, I thank you so much for your time today.
Shane Slightly from Harvard Asset Management and this is News
Talks thereb and it's six twenty three.

Speaker 1 (01:21:01):
It's the Heather Duper see Alan Drive Full Show podcast
on iHeartRadio powered my news talks Edbproaching the numbers and
getting the results. It's Andrew Dickens on the Business Hour
with mass insurance and investments. Your futures in good hands
used talks EDB. There's no business like show business.

Speaker 2 (01:21:24):
I got an alert. I got an alert from major
newspapers around the world on my phone. Over the last
half hour, the whole world is reporting that Sam Neil
has passed a waves. It's a big story, big story.
More than that's still to come. Meanwhile, listen to this voice.
It is d voice of day youth. And that voice
of the youth is Alig remember him, the character created

(01:21:47):
by Borat's Sacha Baron Cohen. Well, he's been spotted out
and about that. He was in full Ali g gear
at Wimbledon this year, so he's wondering round. We're in
the tracksuit, and on the track suit is a logo,
and the logo says Wimbledon's official Gunja dealer.

Speaker 1 (01:22:06):
It's like the World Cup, something called tennis, which is
like a corrupt version of King Kong.

Speaker 3 (01:22:13):
Them said that tennis is.

Speaker 2 (01:22:15):
Better played on grass, which is why I intend to
sell with much of it.

Speaker 4 (01:22:21):
While I was here.

Speaker 2 (01:22:23):
Oh yeah, there we go. It's all in a build
up to something quite special. Reports have been swilling around
the Baron Cohen has wrapped filming on a new Ali
g movie Man. He was spotted in twenty twenty five
filming stuff around the England and the States because he
brought allergy back for the first time in eight years
on the Jimmy Fallon Show back in twenty twenty four.
This is the first public outing for Da vois Off
Day Youth. It's going to be a big person visiting

(01:22:45):
campaign that should make you laugh and it's turning heads.
Here to say any more texts about Sam Neil. My
favorite Sam Neil film, says Brett is the Dish Good film.
Also Death and Brunswick Good. Here's the thing about Sam's's bread.
He always play in small budget films and he was
a great, great story teller. Another person's is very sad news. Indeed,

(01:23:06):
what an amazing actor, so many different characters. Don't forget
event Horizon, mister Sam Neil. Hey, we're talking to Annie
Murray from the New Zealand Film Commission about him, and
that is next here on News Talks. Heb yeah all.

Speaker 1 (01:23:18):
The time, whether it's Macro micro or just plain economics.
It's all on The Business Hour with Andrew Dickens and
Mas Insurance and Investments, Your Futures in good Hands, Used
Talks V.

Speaker 2 (01:23:40):
Good Evening. Welcome to the program. I'm Andrew Dickinson for Heather,
who will be back with you tomorrow. As we revealed
about an hour ago on the show, beloved New Zealand
actor Sam Neil has died. He was seventy eight years old. Now.
His family confirmed the death in Sydney and they said
it was sudden and unexpected, but they also said it

(01:24:02):
was blessed by the fact that Sam remained cancer free
because he's had a highly publicized five year battle against
blood cancer. So it wasn't the cancer coming back and
got him. But still he's gone. So to talk about Sam,
I've got Film Commission Chief Executive Annie Murray with me
right now. Any good evening to you, Hi, Andrew. So

(01:24:24):
this is a big shock. He went through the riggers
of the blood cancer and he got through using the
cut tea therapy and we thought we might get some
more years with the man.

Speaker 17 (01:24:36):
Yes, that's right. It's incredibly sad news, a huge loss
to New Zealand enter the world. In fact, you know,
he had carved out an international career while he remained
very soonly anchored here as a Zealander. So we'll be
feeling his loss locally but also internationally. Very sad day.

Speaker 2 (01:24:56):
I think about him in many different ways, of course,
the Bop Bus the actor, the Peaky Blinders actor, the
Jurassic Park actor, etc. Evental Horizon Hunt from Red October,
all those films. But I always remember the fact that
he started off with the New Zealand film unit, and
in fact he was always right from the beginning. Before
he became an actor with Sleeping Dogs, he was already
documenting New Zealand's story.

Speaker 17 (01:25:17):
Yes, that's right, and he continued to do that throughout
his career. You know, he was known for his versatility.
He was the Hollywood blockbuster guy, as you've already pointed out,
but also you know, small independent films he would support
and star and he also hosted as well as produced
documentaries for film and for television. So very rustile and

(01:25:42):
highly experienced actor and producer. So he will be really
sorely missed.

Speaker 2 (01:25:47):
Yes, and for such a famous man, he is making
news headlines right across the world right now. I met
him a couple of times. And what is absolutely stunning
when you talk to Sam Neil was just how humble
he was, his humidity and the lack of grandstanding, and
the gentle way he would talk to you, and he
had talked to you as a real person from his heart.

Speaker 17 (01:26:08):
Yes, that's right, one of the genuine good guys.

Speaker 23 (01:26:12):
You know.

Speaker 17 (01:26:13):
He was very kind, He was generous, had a really
keen intelligence and was always up for a laugh. A
very gentle soul who was just really lovely. You know.
I think there's something to be said for people who
were really kind with children and with animals, and that
was Sam. You know, I just had to look back

(01:26:35):
at some of his social media to see, you know,
just how fond he was of his pets. He would
talk to birds, he was you know, he was a
good guy on his farm down south.

Speaker 2 (01:26:48):
I saw a social media post of him last week
and he was in Sydney and he was talking to
a pigeon.

Speaker 17 (01:26:55):
There you go.

Speaker 2 (01:26:56):
But I also I also love the fact that he
all his farm animals he gave them names of famous
actors that he knew, like Meryl Streep and Samuel L. Jackson. Right,
And you went out with it with a pig that
has the name of a glamorous film actor, which showed
his right his humor there as well. Very beautiful pigs too,

(01:27:17):
magnificent pigs, couny conies, et cetera. Now as a fair
to say he has been New Zealand's most successful and
greatest ever actor.

Speaker 17 (01:27:27):
Oh gosh, look, I think you probably could say that
about Sam. You know, his career started, as he said
in the film Unit before that foo starring role in
Sleeping Dogs and nineteen seventy seven. I mean you know,
he went on to make films in Australia and then
the world Jurassic Park, I think nineteen ninety three, three

(01:27:50):
Jurassic Park films. He even did a voice on The Simpsons.
But you know Riley A, sub Spies, Peaky Blinders, all
of that stuff. Incredible career, very broad, very deep, and
incredibly versatile.

Speaker 2 (01:28:05):
So there's a number of Texters who have been saying,
ever since the News Broken hour ago, don't forget that
Sam Neil is the only New Zealander who was ever
considered to be James Bond because he was that cool.

Speaker 17 (01:28:18):
Yes, that's right, he did come very close. I have
a conversation with him about that once. That's what a
wonderful James Bond he would have been.

Speaker 2 (01:28:28):
He would have been wonderful, But I understand he would
have hated he said, I would have hated it, you know,
because that wasn't quite his thing. Because his thing was
not just It wasn't the big films Jurassic Park and
Hunt for Recked October and all those others. They're actually
an outlier. His real skill was finding the small film
that had the character, and often in austron Asians. So

(01:28:48):
we're talking about things like The Dish, where he's magnificent
in the Dish. We're talking about Hunt for the Wilder People,
where again he was magnificent in New Zealand story. But
it was this smaller film which had character that he
loved the most.

Speaker 17 (01:29:02):
That's right. He was an incredible supporter of those smaller
independent films, and you're quite right, there are many, many
of them that he acted in in his time, and
you know he The last time I saw Sam was
at the relaunch of Hunt for the Wilder People earlier
this year where the film was remastered and re released
and he came to the cast and crue s Greening

(01:29:25):
in Auckland and he got quite emotional actually talking about
the film and about what it meant to him. It
was a really beautiful moment and I think for everyone
who was there that night, a lovely way to remember Sam.

Speaker 2 (01:29:39):
Well, heck was all of our favorite uncle and of
course in that film, you know, he mentored Julian Dennison
and in that film he solidified his friendship. Would take
away T T and those three in particularly had taken
our acting to the world. And it is a very
sad day. Any thank you take for taking time out

(01:30:00):
of your evening to talk to us and remember Sam
Neil today.

Speaker 17 (01:30:04):
Very welcome, said to.

Speaker 2 (01:30:06):
Annie Murray, who is from the New Zealand Film Commission.
Rob was to remind us that Sam was born in Ireland.
Yes he was. He was born in northern Ireland. His
real name is Nigel. His family called him Nigel. Sam
was his show name. So Nigel Neil was born in
Ireland and he came out out to New Zealand and
they grew up in Otago and he loved central Otago.
But then he came to Auckland and he hung out

(01:30:27):
with all the English department types and then he did
the film unit films and then he blundered into acting
in a way when Sleeping Dogs came and it was
the chance to do a full film, and he is
quite stunning. I don't know if you've when was the
last time he saw Sleeping Dogs. I remember seeing it
ten fifteen years ago, going yeah, it's a bit basic,

(01:30:48):
bit early, and then I saw it about three or
four years ago and actually this film is a lot
better than I thought, and its tales of a dystopian
and authoritarian New Zealand, with Sam being the hairy hippie
who is running from it is really quite remarkable. Other
people are saying about the piano. He was in the
piano Sonya love Sam and Dead Calm, And in Dear Calm,

(01:31:13):
it's basically just Sam. This is where he's on a
boat and then his partner doesn't she fall anyway, It's
dead Calm. It's just two people on a boat and
do that for ninety minutes and make it stick.

Speaker 5 (01:31:25):
Well.

Speaker 2 (01:31:25):
Sam Neil had the ability to do that. Look like
a wax on forever and ever in a day about
mister Neil. He has passed away today at the age
of seventy eight, sudden and unexpected in Sydney, and it's
sixteen to seven.

Speaker 1 (01:31:40):
It's the Heather Duplas Allen Drive Full Show podcast on
my Art Radio, powered by news talks edby everything from
SMEs to the big corporates, The Business Hour with Andrew
Dickens and as Insurance and Investments, Your Futures in Good
Hands News talks.

Speaker 2 (01:31:59):
Edby SO Texts through andrews am Neil had a very
special connection with christ Church as well. Of course I'd
told you of his early life in Otago, also an Auckham,
but christ Church The Texas says he attended keshaby A
Primary at Membury and later was a border at Christ's College.
Debbs says she loved the film Rams. It was really
funny and that was his little films that used to

(01:32:20):
specialize in that featured you know, Huckery, old Australasian characters.
Bruce from Amarusis, Yes Did Come was a brilliant film.
He was fantastic. I still have nightmares from that film
where he's stuck alone on a boat and he's a
bad guy, and he played a very good bad guy.
Now I'm joining now by Gavin Gray out of the UK.

Speaker 6 (01:32:40):
Kevin Hello either Andrew, Yeah, very sad news, isn't it
about Sam Neill's death, And indeed was best known for his,
of course leading role in the various franchises about the
dinosaurs as we know, but he was also born in
Omar in Northern Ireland in the nineteen forties seven, and

(01:33:01):
that may give a good reason as to why his
Irish accent on Peaky Blind As the first series was
so fantastic. He was the son of an English mother
and a New Zealand father and at the age of seven,
after his father had spent time serving as an officer
in Northern Ireland with the Royal Irish fusal Is, they
then did emigrate and as one of our listeners there said,

(01:33:22):
settled in Cashmere suburb christ Church.

Speaker 2 (01:33:24):
So what I find amazing about it is because we
announced the news about an arrant ten minutes ago in
all of New Zealand, you know, sort of the ear
came out of us like a balloon, and they did it,
and then my phone started binging all over the place
from papers in America and in the UK as well,
and the breaking news Sam Neill as did so he

(01:33:45):
he's very close to us, but he's actually very close
to the whole world.

Speaker 6 (01:33:48):
This is a big story, Yes it is, and he
was a wonderful actor and the obviously very sad that
he had only recently declared that he was cancer free,
having suffered from a rare form of cancer and being
treated for that. But yeahs big loss of the industry,
big loss of the wil Well.

Speaker 2 (01:34:05):
His family says that it was sudden and unexpected and
he was blissed by the fact that he remained cancer
free to the inn. So something else got and we'll
find out more about that as time goes by. Now,
what is the story behind a Zimbabwean who's appearing in
court in South Africa?

Speaker 6 (01:34:22):
Well, there is a a bit caught hearing shortly in
Johannesburg because the man that is being sought is in
Zimbabwe in national on Dadna Schuma. And he left Heathrow
Airport as seen on CCTV on a British passport a
couple of days before. People noticed that they hadn't seen

(01:34:45):
his family, he or his family around and when police checked,
I'm afraid his wife and two children, Shoe children of
age fifteen and five, were found dead at the family
home in a village in Bedfordshire, which is to the
north of London and the the forty five year old,
the father and the husband, as it were forty five
year old arrested in Kensington, Johannesburg. The Crown Prosecution Service

(01:35:08):
looking to bring him back to the UK and extradite
him on three murder charges.

Speaker 3 (01:35:16):
He was said to be a pretty.

Speaker 6 (01:35:18):
Wealthy, well to do individual in the world of tech
and lived in a really lovely house. Neighbours said they
were a gorgeous family. Just can't believe all this has
happened to them.

Speaker 2 (01:35:30):
Now, when you're traveling and you get into a bit
of a strife, you actually go to your local embassy
from your nation to actually ask for advice. And a
story is out in the UK about the bizarre sort
of inquiries that people make two UK embassies.

Speaker 3 (01:35:43):
Yes, here are a few.

Speaker 6 (01:35:45):
I mean these inquiries are bizarre, but even more bizarre
that you think you could go to the embassy to
ask them. So a British holiday maker on holiday in
Jordan asked where she could get blonde highlights. Another one
went to the embassy in Paris and said, I part
my kind neer the Eiffel Tower and now I can't
find it. A tourist in Egypt asked the embassy staff

(01:36:07):
to do something about the shower temperature at the hotel.
A caller asked the Embassy in Paris how much duck
paate they could bring back to the UK. A brit
in Georgia called the Foreign Office to ask if their
two pets could be granted British citizenship to guarantee diplomatic protection.
A holiday in Nigeria asked the embassy for help seeking

(01:36:29):
a refund for an unsatisfactory meal two more quick ones.
An individual planning to visit the UK asked their local
embassy for assistance in trying to book tickets for the
Royal Asket horse racing, and a britt asking the Foreign
Office consult service how to get in touch with their
postman while they were away. The hard and serious messages

(01:36:50):
Foreign Office staff saying it's some holidays use us for
what we're meant to be used for lost passports, medical emergencies,
that sort.

Speaker 2 (01:36:57):
Of thing, that sort of thing. Hey, Gavin Gray, I
thank you so much. That's Gavin Gray out of the UK.
This is News Talk z B. We're coming up eight
minutes to seven News Talks. He B. Here's my Sam
Neil story. My partner Helen. Her brother Max is an architect.
We're at a restaurant in Auckland with Helen and her
mum and we see Sam Neil, and me being me,

(01:37:18):
I'm arrogant enough to go straight up to him and say, Sam,
Andrew and I need to introduce you to Helen's mum
and Helen. They are Max's mom and sister. And then
Sam Neil just went, oh, so pleased to meet you.
Your son Max is an genius architect. And what followed
was a conversation that was gentle, kind, generous, giving, praiseworthy, erudite, smart, funny,

(01:37:46):
hilarious And this just may pat Helen's mom's day. Hearing
about her son Max and Sam made my day and
I realized Sam Neil was just a lovely, lovely bloke.
God rest his soul.

Speaker 24 (01:38:01):
My favorite thing Sam Neil was in Andrew. It's a
bit of a weird one, but the nineteen ninety eight
NBC mini series Merlin, which I think it's the same
kind of thing as in Jurassic Park, something which could
be and is very very silly, but Sam Neil playing
the wizard Merlin is just able to bring gravitas yes
to this and the same thing he did with Doctor
Ellen Grant and Dressyback bring gravitask to this incredibly silly,

(01:38:23):
high fantasy story which affects budget. But yeah, and you
just could not imagine. He had to play Merlin, he
had to play the Wise.

Speaker 2 (01:38:30):
He was the perfect straight man to be honest with
you with a wink and a smile. Now you've got
some music for.

Speaker 24 (01:38:34):
Me, yeap, happier news. The Exponents have been announced as
are they're going to be playing in christ Church over
the new Year. The Rolling Meadows Festival lineup is out
and the Exponents is on There, probably is the legacy
Kiwi Music Act. They'll be playing there alongside a decent
international electronic line up. Allis in Wonderland, Andy c the
likes of Clean Bandit as well and Culture Shop. But yeah,

(01:38:57):
I can guarantee you that even if it is a
young crowd who go to All Meadows over the New Year,
they know their history, they know their roots, and they'll
be happy to pack out the Exponent stage. Four songs
like Victoria.

Speaker 2 (01:39:07):
Yeah, fantastic and this was their first big hit and
I still think it's their best song. My Name's Andre
dickens Head us back tomorrow. Thank you for your time today.
She's mad, but she's not slave?

Speaker 1 (01:39:24):
Is here?

Speaker 6 (01:39:29):
What Ezra?

Speaker 16 (01:40:00):
A man's bloom Sundays up washing and doing the over
talking to her.

Speaker 3 (01:40:06):
Friend's Mamma Teller.

Speaker 2 (01:40:09):
Another show brings.

Speaker 16 (01:40:10):
Up to what I from him? What from what do
you see him?

Speaker 22 (01:40:25):
See?

Speaker 4 (01:40:30):
What?

Speaker 16 (01:40:31):
From what? From what? Did you see him? See?

Speaker 4 (01:40:45):
What?

Speaker 16 (01:40:46):
From him?

Speaker 1 (01:40:48):
What?

Speaker 16 (01:40:49):
From what do you see.

Speaker 2 (01:40:55):
See what?

Speaker 1 (01:41:02):
For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive. Listen live to
News Talks at B from four pm weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio
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