October 23, 2025 • 10 mins
Tonight on The Huddle, lawyer and political commentator Liam Hehir and Ali Jones from Red PR joined in on a discussion about the following issues of the day - and more!
The big mega-strike took place today - what have we seen? How do we think they went? Given protesters weren't able to march on Parliament, is the political sting missing?
Marama Davidson's Right to Repair Bill was scrapped last night, because Davidson herself was late to the House. How bad does this look?
Do we need to teach home economics at school? Shouldn't that be the parents' job?
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
On the Huddle of Us this evening, we have Ali Jones,
red pr and Liam Here, lawyer and political commentator. How
are you two, Ali? How's the weather with you?
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Yeah? It's are you going to sing? That's the song,
isn't it? It is pretty windy, but it's northwestern. I'm
just telling Betty that it's dusty.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
I'm grumpy.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
I've got a headache. There's dust everywhere. I can't take
the dog out because they will blow away just over it. Really,
it is karma. It is karma. The City Council's just
said that the worst is behind us, and what they're
doing is warning people if you're going to be playing
sports and parks at the weekend to just be careful
because there may be I shouldn't laugh, there may be
(00:39):
loose branches.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Although there may be. I mean one fell on the
GP's head in Wellington.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Oh that was awful, awful. And look we've had incidents
here in christ Church in Hagley Park with branches in
a chap in Arborostyde a couple of years ago. So look,
it is a serious thing. But look the winds at
east but it's still pretty revolting.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Yeah, And how's it with you. Liam. I heard it's
just started bucketing down in the last couple of hours
or so.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Yeah, it's here in the middle too. It's very, very
windy and ready. But you know it's also October and
the minute or two, so you know we're a little
bit more used to it. I guess at the time
of year, it's just the normal way of things. But
it's pretty minerable.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Do you say, Manna were two so you don't have
to say Parmiston.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
North, Well, I I Palmers North is the big smoke.
I live out in the country, a little village called
wrong a year, so well I work in the city.
I will say I have no I have no shame
in saying Parments North at all. If I lived in
Parms North, I'm just try be accurate.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Oh, gout to stand not fair enough. I actually thought
so my bad. I thought you were trying to avoid it. Now, Allie,
the strikes I feel like they were a phys So
what do you think.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Well, either it depends who you ask. I think if
you are a parent who had to sort out childcare,
or you know you had kids that weren't at school,
or you were someone who's been expecting an operation for
some time and it was canceled. You'd be pretty angry
about that, and they may feel differently to me. I
haven't really felt any you know, it hasn't affected me
at all. But look, Heather, something that's really annoyed me
(02:09):
about this is that I want to know where the
robust and decent reporting on this is. I do hear
it on your show, and I'm not just blowing smoke.
I do hear good interviews and robust, you know, reporting
on your show. But we heard Brian Roche say that
it takes two parties to negotiate and he can't get
the two parties together. Then you had the unions and
(02:32):
others say well we can't get Health New Zealand and
others back to the table. I don't know who's telling
Porky's here, and I would really like to have some
I mean, we don't have any TV kurvers at seven
at the moment. I want these two parties in a
studio being interviewed so I can understand what the hell's
going on.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
That's your a fair point to me, What do you reckon?
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Then? Well, I think you know the question was we're there?
So that did they fail? To generate anger for the
pub like, well, I think that they didctionary anger, but
it was self afflicted, right, it was the anger of
people who were affected. And I you know people that
I was affected. I'm a parent of four some other
of four, my sixdary her her mum had a specialist
(03:13):
appointment canceled. And you know that it's a bit of
a turning point, a little bit is that people will
have sympathy for these professions and for caring professions, but
the fastest way to lose that sympathy is to turn
the public into pawns and then in their battle against
the government.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
Tell me how many of your kids were home today?
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Well? Three, three school kids, one's one's one's only three
and all three were at home.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
So and so why didn't you just take a take
take a long weekend and turn it into like a
mega label weekend.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
Because I'm not a teacher, she owned a business.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
You've still got to work.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Well, I do note that there's actually a teacher only
dated that tomorrow, and so, you know, very very convenient.
But yeah, like the rest of us in the real world,
like you know, off, its not going to work means
you don't make money for your family and so you know,
we don't have that luxury. We're not paid by the government.
They actually have to be productive.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Are you cross on a scale of one to ten?
How cross are you eight?
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Probably I'm pretty annoyed. Yeah, I am. You know, I
actually think that when you're professional, you know, like you
have a calling which is higher than you know, your
negotiations with your employer. And two, especially in terms of
the effect you have on members of the public who
are relying on you to turn up. And that's why
professionals probably traditionally didn't strike because actually the unions might
(04:34):
say that they're holding out for a future that's going
to be better for everyone. That's hypothetical. What's not hypothetical
as everyone who was injured today.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
But what are they supposed to do, Leam, what are
they supposed to do? I mean, I actually think that
that's a bit rich saying that you know, they should
turn up, that we expect them to do this. If
we actually understood what was going on, there might be
a bit more sympathy for it. But if striking is
the only way that they can get across what the
issue are, maybe they used to turn up and not
(05:02):
strike because they were actually paid properly and had decent
terms and conditions.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
Well, strike, the striking is only one option of many. Right,
there are other things you can do. You can work
to rule, like what well you can work. You can
work to rule for one thing, right, there are there
you can and ultimately, of course, you know, the thing
that drives pay is demand for the profession right and
(05:26):
for people to be in the profession. You know only what,
Only nine percent of the private sector workforces u unonized.
So most people actually do manage to negotiate their way around,
you know, workplace negotiations and pay without the resorting to
a strike. Strikes aren't that common in this country. Look,
(05:47):
I understand it's a right, but look, the people who
were hurt by the strike weren't the employers. It wasn't
the government, it was the public, it.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Was Liam it was people like you. All right, we'll
take a break, come back to you shortly. You're back
of the huddle. Limb here and Ali Jones, Ali, how
embarrassing was that for Madam Davidson not turning up and
losing her bill?
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Totally, I mean how unprofessional? Is it?
Speaker 3 (06:07):
Very bad?
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Totally unprofessional? I'm actually completely and utterly over the Greens,
which worries me because I have supported them in the past,
not in recent years because I think they've turned into
a bunch of activists. But you know, at a time
when environmental issues and climate change and innovation that is
out there to help that, the Greens are just showing
that they're not not up.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
To the job.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
We had a guy who was elected to a local
community board in the local body elections who was also
the New List Green MP after Benjamin Doyle left, so
he's now got two jobs. He's in Wellington and here
the Greens have totally lost the plot. They're looking disheveled,
they look disorganized, and I think they're disconnected from New Zealanders.
It's very very bad, Heather, very bad. Liam.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
I mean, it is embarrassing if you cannot actually manage
your day to get there for the very thing that
you are basically living for at the moment, which is
the spell.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Yeah, it's not the first time that it's happened in
New Zealand. I remember when Gordon Copeland failed to turn
up to vote against the smacking den, you know, and
that was the very thing that caused him aside his
own body. It is, but like it is embarrassing, and
what's annoying about it.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Really as high as this right. So Gordon turns up
and doesn't vote for the thing. David Siema has done
the same thing, but because she didn't turn up, the
bill is gone.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Yeah, And what's really annoying about it is that, like
it's probably the one Green Party bill that I'm somewhat
interested in in terms of being a right to repair bill,
you know, because that is actually talk about the Greens
being all flash and no substance or actually, you know,
this is actually something they had a lot of people
of a lot of interest in. It's an important consumer thing.
It's not just Flash's show. And so it's annoying to
(07:42):
have lost the opportunity to test that.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Liam.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Home economics yes or no.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
Yes, it's an I think it's a necessity. I don't
like calling it home economics, which is a very American term,
but cooking or whatever. Yes, the fact of the matter.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Wait are you telling me you don't want to call
it home economics but you want to call it cooking?
Speaker 3 (08:01):
What? No manual whatever, you call it, whatever it's called.
But the expected matters in an ideal world, these skills
will be transmitted from you know, parents to children. But
that hasn't happened. All right, those skills have been lost.
They have to be recited somehow. And I'm a big believer,
and not just chucking stuff onto schools. Schools are really
(08:22):
there for the things that parents aren't, I shouldn't do.
But this is one we're actually here. I'm going to
make an exception for it. I'm a favor of it.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Oh, Liam and Alie, don't be making encouraging noises. I
can hear that.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Yeah, what I am. And look, I'm going to add
to that. I think we should bring back sewing. We
should also have basic car maintenance, financial management, and civics.
I think that should be put in there, and that
the curriculum and the teachers in the schools should be
resourced so that they can teach it.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
At least. She learned four languages at schools because she
wasn't well.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Not everyone can learn stuff, not every lot, because.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
We're teaching you. She said, it's compulsory because I don't
do things like sewing and how to wash yourself at school.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Yeah, but you can't eat German and Italian?
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Right, but you know what you become. You become really
rich if you can speak all those languages, so you
don't need to you're cloud land.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
We suffer as a society. We actually really suffer from
the loss of those skills. It's for whatever reason that
we've lost them. We lost the ability that actually make
food from scratch, and that's that float that flows into
bed nutrition in the homes where people are low incomes
don't have the ability to actually cook nutritious meals. You know,
they have to buy stuff that's really.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Agreed to listen to yourself. We still teach home economics
at the moment, We've been teaching it for one hundred
and fourteen years, and the country is as fat as.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
A poor example. No, no, no, look, I'm going to
post you a soaldo. Will that get through the post?
Speaker 1 (09:56):
All right? I don't know because I don't need because
I'm trying to be skinny.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
No, We'll get on those get on those wood goovy
things and then I'll post it.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Do you think I should? I was thinking about it, Ali.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
I think you should. I think you should?
Speaker 3 (10:09):
Absolutely?
Speaker 1 (10:10):
What do you reckon? Liam? I need to Lim, I
had a baby, had refrain.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
I'm not there. I'm not there, idiotic. I'm not going
to comment on a woman's exercise regim or diet.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Good from you. You've lued well, guys, I appreciate it.
Liam here, Alie Jones Huddle this evening for more from
Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to news talks it'd
be from four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast on
iHeartRadio
On the Huddle of Us this evening, we have Ali Jones,
red pr and Liam Here, lawyer and political commentator. How
are you two, Ali? How's the weather with you?
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Yeah? It's are you going to sing? That's the song,
isn't it? It is pretty windy, but it's northwestern. I'm
just telling Betty that it's dusty.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
I'm grumpy.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
I've got a headache. There's dust everywhere. I can't take
the dog out because they will blow away just over it. Really,
it is karma. It is karma. The City Council's just
said that the worst is behind us, and what they're
doing is warning people if you're going to be playing
sports and parks at the weekend to just be careful
because there may be I shouldn't laugh, there may be
(00:39):
loose branches.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Although there may be. I mean one fell on the
GP's head in Wellington.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Oh that was awful, awful. And look we've had incidents
here in christ Church in Hagley Park with branches in
a chap in Arborostyde a couple of years ago. So look,
it is a serious thing. But look the winds at
east but it's still pretty revolting.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Yeah, And how's it with you. Liam. I heard it's
just started bucketing down in the last couple of hours
or so.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Yeah, it's here in the middle too. It's very, very
windy and ready. But you know it's also October and
the minute or two, so you know we're a little
bit more used to it. I guess at the time
of year, it's just the normal way of things. But
it's pretty minerable.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Do you say, Manna were two so you don't have
to say Parmiston.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
North, Well, I I Palmers North is the big smoke.
I live out in the country, a little village called
wrong a year, so well I work in the city.
I will say I have no I have no shame
in saying Parments North at all. If I lived in
Parms North, I'm just try be accurate.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Oh, gout to stand not fair enough. I actually thought
so my bad. I thought you were trying to avoid it. Now, Allie,
the strikes I feel like they were a phys So
what do you think.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Well, either it depends who you ask. I think if
you are a parent who had to sort out childcare,
or you know you had kids that weren't at school,
or you were someone who's been expecting an operation for
some time and it was canceled. You'd be pretty angry
about that, and they may feel differently to me. I
haven't really felt any you know, it hasn't affected me
at all. But look, Heather, something that's really annoyed me
(02:09):
about this is that I want to know where the
robust and decent reporting on this is. I do hear
it on your show, and I'm not just blowing smoke.
I do hear good interviews and robust, you know, reporting
on your show. But we heard Brian Roche say that
it takes two parties to negotiate and he can't get
the two parties together. Then you had the unions and
(02:32):
others say well we can't get Health New Zealand and
others back to the table. I don't know who's telling
Porky's here, and I would really like to have some
I mean, we don't have any TV kurvers at seven
at the moment. I want these two parties in a
studio being interviewed so I can understand what the hell's
going on.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
That's your a fair point to me, What do you reckon?
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Then? Well, I think you know the question was we're there?
So that did they fail? To generate anger for the
pub like, well, I think that they didctionary anger, but
it was self afflicted, right, it was the anger of
people who were affected. And I you know people that
I was affected. I'm a parent of four some other
of four, my sixdary her her mum had a specialist
(03:13):
appointment canceled. And you know that it's a bit of
a turning point, a little bit is that people will
have sympathy for these professions and for caring professions, but
the fastest way to lose that sympathy is to turn
the public into pawns and then in their battle against
the government.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
Tell me how many of your kids were home today?
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Well? Three, three school kids, one's one's one's only three
and all three were at home.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
So and so why didn't you just take a take
take a long weekend and turn it into like a
mega label weekend.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
Because I'm not a teacher, she owned a business.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
You've still got to work.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Well, I do note that there's actually a teacher only
dated that tomorrow, and so, you know, very very convenient.
But yeah, like the rest of us in the real world,
like you know, off, its not going to work means
you don't make money for your family and so you know,
we don't have that luxury. We're not paid by the government.
They actually have to be productive.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Are you cross on a scale of one to ten?
How cross are you eight?
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Probably I'm pretty annoyed. Yeah, I am. You know, I
actually think that when you're professional, you know, like you
have a calling which is higher than you know, your
negotiations with your employer. And two, especially in terms of
the effect you have on members of the public who
are relying on you to turn up. And that's why
professionals probably traditionally didn't strike because actually the unions might
(04:34):
say that they're holding out for a future that's going
to be better for everyone. That's hypothetical. What's not hypothetical
as everyone who was injured today.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
But what are they supposed to do, Leam, what are
they supposed to do? I mean, I actually think that
that's a bit rich saying that you know, they should
turn up, that we expect them to do this. If
we actually understood what was going on, there might be
a bit more sympathy for it. But if striking is
the only way that they can get across what the
issue are, maybe they used to turn up and not
(05:02):
strike because they were actually paid properly and had decent
terms and conditions.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
Well, strike, the striking is only one option of many. Right,
there are other things you can do. You can work
to rule, like what well you can work. You can
work to rule for one thing, right, there are there
you can and ultimately, of course, you know, the thing
that drives pay is demand for the profession right and
(05:26):
for people to be in the profession. You know only what,
Only nine percent of the private sector workforces u unonized.
So most people actually do manage to negotiate their way around,
you know, workplace negotiations and pay without the resorting to
a strike. Strikes aren't that common in this country. Look,
(05:47):
I understand it's a right, but look, the people who
were hurt by the strike weren't the employers. It wasn't
the government, it was the public, it.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Was Liam it was people like you. All right, we'll
take a break, come back to you shortly. You're back
of the huddle. Limb here and Ali Jones, Ali, how
embarrassing was that for Madam Davidson not turning up and
losing her bill?
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Totally, I mean how unprofessional? Is it?
Speaker 3 (06:07):
Very bad?
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Totally unprofessional? I'm actually completely and utterly over the Greens,
which worries me because I have supported them in the past,
not in recent years because I think they've turned into
a bunch of activists. But you know, at a time
when environmental issues and climate change and innovation that is
out there to help that, the Greens are just showing
that they're not not up.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
To the job.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
We had a guy who was elected to a local
community board in the local body elections who was also
the New List Green MP after Benjamin Doyle left, so
he's now got two jobs. He's in Wellington and here
the Greens have totally lost the plot. They're looking disheveled,
they look disorganized, and I think they're disconnected from New Zealanders.
It's very very bad, Heather, very bad. Liam.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
I mean, it is embarrassing if you cannot actually manage
your day to get there for the very thing that
you are basically living for at the moment, which is
the spell.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Yeah, it's not the first time that it's happened in
New Zealand. I remember when Gordon Copeland failed to turn
up to vote against the smacking den, you know, and
that was the very thing that caused him aside his
own body. It is, but like it is embarrassing, and
what's annoying about it.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Really as high as this right. So Gordon turns up
and doesn't vote for the thing. David Siema has done
the same thing, but because she didn't turn up, the
bill is gone.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Yeah, And what's really annoying about it is that, like
it's probably the one Green Party bill that I'm somewhat
interested in in terms of being a right to repair bill,
you know, because that is actually talk about the Greens
being all flash and no substance or actually, you know,
this is actually something they had a lot of people
of a lot of interest in. It's an important consumer thing.
It's not just Flash's show. And so it's annoying to
(07:42):
have lost the opportunity to test that.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Liam.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Home economics yes or no.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
Yes, it's an I think it's a necessity. I don't
like calling it home economics, which is a very American term,
but cooking or whatever. Yes, the fact of the matter.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Wait are you telling me you don't want to call
it home economics but you want to call it cooking?
Speaker 3 (08:01):
What? No manual whatever, you call it, whatever it's called.
But the expected matters in an ideal world, these skills
will be transmitted from you know, parents to children. But
that hasn't happened. All right, those skills have been lost.
They have to be recited somehow. And I'm a big believer,
and not just chucking stuff onto schools. Schools are really
(08:22):
there for the things that parents aren't, I shouldn't do.
But this is one we're actually here. I'm going to
make an exception for it. I'm a favor of it.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Oh, Liam and Alie, don't be making encouraging noises. I
can hear that.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Yeah, what I am. And look, I'm going to add
to that. I think we should bring back sewing. We
should also have basic car maintenance, financial management, and civics.
I think that should be put in there, and that
the curriculum and the teachers in the schools should be
resourced so that they can teach it.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
At least. She learned four languages at schools because she
wasn't well.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Not everyone can learn stuff, not every lot, because.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
We're teaching you. She said, it's compulsory because I don't
do things like sewing and how to wash yourself at school.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Yeah, but you can't eat German and Italian?
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Right, but you know what you become. You become really
rich if you can speak all those languages, so you
don't need to you're cloud land.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
We suffer as a society. We actually really suffer from
the loss of those skills. It's for whatever reason that
we've lost them. We lost the ability that actually make
food from scratch, and that's that float that flows into
bed nutrition in the homes where people are low incomes
don't have the ability to actually cook nutritious meals. You know,
they have to buy stuff that's really.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Agreed to listen to yourself. We still teach home economics
at the moment, We've been teaching it for one hundred
and fourteen years, and the country is as fat as.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
A poor example. No, no, no, look, I'm going to
post you a soaldo. Will that get through the post?
Speaker 1 (09:56):
All right? I don't know because I don't need because
I'm trying to be skinny.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
No, We'll get on those get on those wood goovy
things and then I'll post it.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Do you think I should? I was thinking about it, Ali.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
I think you should. I think you should?
Speaker 3 (10:09):
Absolutely?
Speaker 1 (10:10):
What do you reckon? Liam? I need to Lim, I
had a baby, had refrain.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
I'm not there. I'm not there, idiotic. I'm not going
to comment on a woman's exercise regim or diet.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Good from you. You've lued well, guys, I appreciate it.
Liam here, Alie Jones Huddle this evening for more from
Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to news talks it'd
be from four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast on
iHeartRadio
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