September 1, 2025 • 11 mins
Tonight on The Huddle, Trish Sherson from Sherson Willis PR and Child Fund CEO Josie Pagani joined in on a discussion about the following issues of the day - and more!
There's growing calls among educators to make learning a second language compulsory for schoolkids - do we agree with this?
Foreign buyers can now buy homes in New Zealand - if they have invested over $5 million, they can buy a home worth $5 million or more. Has the Government stuck the right balance here?
Cornwall Park in Auckland was shut yesterday afternoon because of the storm. Is this proof we've gone too far with our safety concerns?
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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 Shirson
of Sheerson, Willis pr and Joseph Gowney, the CEO of
Child Fund. Hi ladies, Hello, hello triush. If we make
a language compulsory, which language do you choose?
Speaker 2 (00:10):
I do today El Mahrty for a start. That is
an official language of New Zealand. It is a treasure
of New Zealand. I completely support this. When I was
about probably nineteen, I went to Europe for the very
first time and I was sitting in a little backpackers
at breakfast and a whole lot of people came downstairs
(00:31):
for their breakfast and they were talking three four five
different languages and interchanging and I felt stupid, stupid, yes,
And I thought, you know, when I heard this this morning,
I thought, actually, language for New Zealander is a skill
for the world, and it's really important. I think that
our kids have it as compulsory at school. And once
(00:52):
you learn one language, it's far easier to learn another. Also,
learning a language teaches you a huge amount about English
and the real crunchy basics of English that we're probably
not being taught. I absolutely love it.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Hear me too, What do you think, Josey, which.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
I totally agree. I mean, I don't think it matters
what language it is.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
No, it does matter. It does matter because either what
you're doing, you're either deciding that a whole bunch of
kids are going to speak French, whole bunch of kids
are going to speak Spanish, Manda and blah blah, or
everybody speaks the same language and can talk to each other,
so you have to pick one.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
But the point you're right, Well, what I mean is,
I don't think it matters which one you pick, because
whatever the language is, when a kid is speaking two languages,
their mind opens to the idea that that object over
their table can have several names and it's still a table.
So it makes it easier to learn a second language
and even a third language. And so yeah, you're absolutely right, Heavy.
(01:45):
I think you've got to have a structure around this,
and like you, guys, I would go learn to Terriomari
and then you get to pick one other one, whether
it's a French or German or Spanish, or whether it's
Chinese or Japanese, depending on where you think you want
to go in your career. Right as a kid. But
my point is. I saw it with my own kids
who went to France speaking English and came back fluent
(02:05):
in French, and they had this whole sense of objects
in the world having multiple names that it didn't frighten
them when they heard other languages and other people speaking languages,
and they picked up to Rio maari really well.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Yeah, well, because as trisches, once you can do one,
you can do heap, or two you can do heaps. Now, Trish,
do you like the foreign investors buying the houses?
Speaker 2 (02:26):
I love the foreign investors buying the houses, and I
just feel absolutely over the political horse trading on this one.
It is absolutely common sense And let me just start
by a brick bat for labor on this. Their comments
on this today show why they are absolutely not fit
(02:47):
to govern at the next election, that they haven't done
any deep thinking or moved on from where they were.
So their kick back to this was this is going
to push up house prices. So two points to make.
Number one, the New Zealand housing market is in one
of the deepest and longest depressions that it has ever
been in. And number two, for goodness sake, these are
(03:09):
people buying five million dollar houses. The number of New
Zealanders who can afford that is absolutely tiny. So they
just really haven't got their finger on the pulse here.
And I am absolutely with you. The reason we want
people to buy here and live here and invest here
is because we need more money in the system and
more jobs.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Yes, absolutely, Josie.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Look, I'm in favor of it, but I just don't
think it's a big enough idea. And I think this
is one of the problems with the government's approach to
sort of fixing the economy, cost of living, growing the economy,
and so on, is that these people look at these
ideas and they go, Okay, that's fine. It's one percent
of housing stock. You're right, Trish, that are worth five
million dollars, so that's not much. It's probably going to
(03:54):
be about one hundred or so people who are of
the level to come in on this investment plan, and
you kind of go, that's fine, great, they'll spend some
money here. But the begger question is what are they
going to invest in? Because we're fast de industrializing New
Zealand in terms of our businesses. You know, do are
there enough funds? Are there enough businesses? Are there enough
(04:15):
things to invest in? So everything seems to be on
its way out. Methadex, Rio Tinto Steel, Timber, Fonterra is
selling off its brands and so on. So I think
one of the reasons that the polls are going down
for the government is that people look at these ideas.
There's nothing to disagree with here, really, and you look
at it and go, fine, But is that a big
enough solution to these looming problems we've got of a
(04:37):
country grinding to a halt.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Yeah, I think that's a fair point you make, like,
we're going to take this one right, this is good,
but we need better than this next time. Totally all right,
let's take a break with you too, come back shortly right,
you're back with the huddle Truscherson and Joseph Agani. Josie
Barry Sober says that he feels sorry for Neil Quigley
having to quit, do.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
You honestly the story has more character development than most
Netflix series. Moment, it's tough on him. It is tough
on Neil quickly. I do have some sympathy for him.
He's performed well in the job, and you know, he
hasn't done such a bad job. It's just that lack
of frankness and the feeling that it's seeped out in
this really unseemly way, that we got all the facts
(05:17):
about about All's resignation, and I just think people, in
the end, if you don't trust the Reserve Bank and
the Chair of the Reserve Bank, you've got big, big problems.
I do think the guy who's stepping up into his position,
Roger Finley, who's actually if anyone's going to renew trust,
it'll be him. I mean, he's got a huge back
(05:38):
in governance and sorting out dysfunctional organizations. I think it
did banking in London in the past. So I hope
they just stopped there for a while. Just settle down,
roll your sleeves up, do the work, and stop changing
and having these drama Netflix dramas, and let's just get
on with it because they've got to recruit someone.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
I have lived my adult life with the Reserve Bank's
reputation being unimpeachable, just like the exterior of that building
in Wellington, so solid, and also through my lifetime until
we got to Adrian Orr, we had what you want,
which is an old school Reserve Bank governors. They are
like the Mount Rushmore they just wheeled out, there's no emotion.
(06:18):
They give the facts and then they wheel them back in.
I cannot believe that the reputation of the Reserve Bank
has sunk to this level. And I think the energy
that the Reserve Bank put into trying to cover up
Adrian Or's resignation and what really happened is a serious issue.
The idea that New Zealanders weren't allowed to know what
(06:42):
had happened is ridiculous and in the event, we should
have known immediately. And the other point about it is
that the government has heaped on the reputational damage. So
last Monday with the Prime Minister coming on Mike Hoskins
Show and saying he has some reckons with the Reserve Bank,
the acting Governor, Christian Hawksby, I think the Nicola Willis
(07:06):
handling of this it has just heaped on their reputational
damage of the Reserve Bank and that is very very serious,
especially at the time wherein now.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Yeah, I totally agree. I think Josie that there are
real questions around whether Nicola Willis can actually walk away
from this completely unscathed and escape criticism because she knew
for six months, she knew that the story that they
were telling us was a bunch of porky's and she
just kept on, she kept on covering for them. That's unexcepted.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
But the first mistake, the first mistake, though, is to
think that you could do a deal with Adrian or
to say this letter will be screwed up and put
on the bin and it will never come out when
you're right, trius. Something is where trust is the absolute
currency in the Reserve Bank when it comes to its role,
and if you lose that trust, you then have to
(07:54):
go right. We've got to name the problem, tell people
what it was. There was a breakdown in the relationship
breakdown and behavior breakdown with Adrian and Nicola Willis and
so on. Be straight up with people because we know
you're all human, but we don't trust you now that
you're going to tell us when things go wrong again.
And so whoever is coming in, whoever comes in as
the next governor, you know, Roger Finley stays as the chair.
(08:17):
The thing they've got to focus on more than anything
now is steady as she goes trust, transparency, tell us
everything that you know, talk us through what you're debating
in your in meetings about what you're going to do,
give us reassure us that we will know if things
are going badly wrong again.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Yep, stop telling Porky's Okay, Trish, was it windy enough
in Auckland yesterday to shut Cornwall Park? In case you
got hat by a bit of flying wood.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
I am completely exercised about the fact that just general
winter weather these days means that harbor bridges are closed,
parks are closed. There is literally a mass panic. And
you know, I have to say when I read a
headline that says an atmospheric river which just means rain,
(09:05):
actually that's all. That is all totally hyping it up.
It's ridiculous.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
What the hell is wrong with us, trash, what is
wrong with it? It's just a windy day, like a
welling today, it's.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
A windy day. But what has happened to us is that,
in fairness to the managers of Cornwall Park, if you
are you know, if you're coming under the Health and
Safety Act and you and you're deemed to be one
of the safety people, you are so risk averse these
days that you do that, that you take the easy
option and you shop things like this down. That that
(09:37):
is why because the fear of risk and liability is
so big, but it's an absolute nonsense. And I also
would just put out a challenge to people that you know,
just look outside, assess the weather yourself, make a call
on it. It's really not that difficult. Do I need
a brolly yes or no?
Speaker 3 (09:58):
Sorry, Joseph, have you've got a brain? Yeah. But one
of the consequences of this is that because we're kind
of getting the risk matrix back to front now, because
we're so terrified of making a mistake. Like you know,
we did a report to our board the other day
where we said, oh, we put a mat by the
left because when it rains people slip a little bit.
So we've put a mat down, and we've laid a
cable down and we've put taped it down so no
(10:20):
on trips over it. And realized at the end of
the meeting we've forgotten to say that, Oh and by
the way, Josie was in a tsunami in the Solomon
Islands last week. So your whole, your whole kind of
risk sense of what's really a risk starts to get
completely skewed, and you forget the things that are actually
a real risk, like tsunami.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
Jeez, I think we might need to shut all of
Wellington down because it's quite windy.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Well, that would have to be permanent, wouldn't it If.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
We've already done that, Heather, I've already done it.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
There's Augusta when in a drop of rain, Wellington's gone
down there.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
Yeah, and I was defintely closed.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Lockdown, lockdown for any wind guys. Thank you very much appreciated.
Trishus and Joseph Aganey are herdle this evening.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to
news Talks at B from four p m.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
Weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
On the huddle of us this evening, we have Shirson
of Sheerson, Willis pr and Joseph Gowney, the CEO of
Child Fund. Hi ladies, Hello, hello triush. If we make
a language compulsory, which language do you choose?
Speaker 2 (00:10):
I do today El Mahrty for a start. That is
an official language of New Zealand. It is a treasure
of New Zealand. I completely support this. When I was
about probably nineteen, I went to Europe for the very
first time and I was sitting in a little backpackers
at breakfast and a whole lot of people came downstairs
(00:31):
for their breakfast and they were talking three four five
different languages and interchanging and I felt stupid, stupid, yes,
And I thought, you know, when I heard this this morning,
I thought, actually, language for New Zealander is a skill
for the world, and it's really important. I think that
our kids have it as compulsory at school. And once
(00:52):
you learn one language, it's far easier to learn another. Also,
learning a language teaches you a huge amount about English
and the real crunchy basics of English that we're probably
not being taught. I absolutely love it.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Hear me too, What do you think, Josey, which.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
I totally agree. I mean, I don't think it matters
what language it is.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
No, it does matter. It does matter because either what
you're doing, you're either deciding that a whole bunch of
kids are going to speak French, whole bunch of kids
are going to speak Spanish, Manda and blah blah, or
everybody speaks the same language and can talk to each other,
so you have to pick one.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
But the point you're right, Well, what I mean is,
I don't think it matters which one you pick, because
whatever the language is, when a kid is speaking two languages,
their mind opens to the idea that that object over
their table can have several names and it's still a table.
So it makes it easier to learn a second language
and even a third language. And so yeah, you're absolutely right, Heavy.
(01:45):
I think you've got to have a structure around this,
and like you, guys, I would go learn to Terriomari
and then you get to pick one other one, whether
it's a French or German or Spanish, or whether it's
Chinese or Japanese, depending on where you think you want
to go in your career. Right as a kid. But
my point is. I saw it with my own kids
who went to France speaking English and came back fluent
(02:05):
in French, and they had this whole sense of objects
in the world having multiple names that it didn't frighten
them when they heard other languages and other people speaking languages,
and they picked up to Rio maari really well.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Yeah, well, because as trisches, once you can do one,
you can do heap, or two you can do heaps. Now, Trish,
do you like the foreign investors buying the houses?
Speaker 2 (02:26):
I love the foreign investors buying the houses, and I
just feel absolutely over the political horse trading on this one.
It is absolutely common sense And let me just start
by a brick bat for labor on this. Their comments
on this today show why they are absolutely not fit
(02:47):
to govern at the next election, that they haven't done
any deep thinking or moved on from where they were.
So their kick back to this was this is going
to push up house prices. So two points to make.
Number one, the New Zealand housing market is in one
of the deepest and longest depressions that it has ever
been in. And number two, for goodness sake, these are
(03:09):
people buying five million dollar houses. The number of New
Zealanders who can afford that is absolutely tiny. So they
just really haven't got their finger on the pulse here.
And I am absolutely with you. The reason we want
people to buy here and live here and invest here
is because we need more money in the system and
more jobs.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Yes, absolutely, Josie.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Look, I'm in favor of it, but I just don't
think it's a big enough idea. And I think this
is one of the problems with the government's approach to
sort of fixing the economy, cost of living, growing the economy,
and so on, is that these people look at these
ideas and they go, Okay, that's fine. It's one percent
of housing stock. You're right, Trish, that are worth five
million dollars, so that's not much. It's probably going to
(03:54):
be about one hundred or so people who are of
the level to come in on this investment plan, and
you kind of go, that's fine, great, they'll spend some
money here. But the begger question is what are they
going to invest in? Because we're fast de industrializing New
Zealand in terms of our businesses. You know, do are
there enough funds? Are there enough businesses? Are there enough
(04:15):
things to invest in? So everything seems to be on
its way out. Methadex, Rio Tinto Steel, Timber, Fonterra is
selling off its brands and so on. So I think
one of the reasons that the polls are going down
for the government is that people look at these ideas.
There's nothing to disagree with here, really, and you look
at it and go, fine, But is that a big
enough solution to these looming problems we've got of a
(04:37):
country grinding to a halt.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Yeah, I think that's a fair point you make, like,
we're going to take this one right, this is good,
but we need better than this next time. Totally all right,
let's take a break with you too, come back shortly right,
you're back with the huddle Truscherson and Joseph Agani. Josie
Barry Sober says that he feels sorry for Neil Quigley
having to quit, do.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
You honestly the story has more character development than most
Netflix series. Moment, it's tough on him. It is tough
on Neil quickly. I do have some sympathy for him.
He's performed well in the job, and you know, he
hasn't done such a bad job. It's just that lack
of frankness and the feeling that it's seeped out in
this really unseemly way, that we got all the facts
(05:17):
about about All's resignation, and I just think people, in
the end, if you don't trust the Reserve Bank and
the Chair of the Reserve Bank, you've got big, big problems.
I do think the guy who's stepping up into his position,
Roger Finley, who's actually if anyone's going to renew trust,
it'll be him. I mean, he's got a huge back
(05:38):
in governance and sorting out dysfunctional organizations. I think it
did banking in London in the past. So I hope
they just stopped there for a while. Just settle down,
roll your sleeves up, do the work, and stop changing
and having these drama Netflix dramas, and let's just get
on with it because they've got to recruit someone.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
I have lived my adult life with the Reserve Bank's
reputation being unimpeachable, just like the exterior of that building
in Wellington, so solid, and also through my lifetime until
we got to Adrian Orr, we had what you want,
which is an old school Reserve Bank governors. They are
like the Mount Rushmore they just wheeled out, there's no emotion.
(06:18):
They give the facts and then they wheel them back in.
I cannot believe that the reputation of the Reserve Bank
has sunk to this level. And I think the energy
that the Reserve Bank put into trying to cover up
Adrian Or's resignation and what really happened is a serious issue.
The idea that New Zealanders weren't allowed to know what
(06:42):
had happened is ridiculous and in the event, we should
have known immediately. And the other point about it is
that the government has heaped on the reputational damage. So
last Monday with the Prime Minister coming on Mike Hoskins
Show and saying he has some reckons with the Reserve Bank,
the acting Governor, Christian Hawksby, I think the Nicola Willis
(07:06):
handling of this it has just heaped on their reputational
damage of the Reserve Bank and that is very very serious,
especially at the time wherein now.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Yeah, I totally agree. I think Josie that there are
real questions around whether Nicola Willis can actually walk away
from this completely unscathed and escape criticism because she knew
for six months, she knew that the story that they
were telling us was a bunch of porky's and she
just kept on, she kept on covering for them. That's unexcepted.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
But the first mistake, the first mistake, though, is to
think that you could do a deal with Adrian or
to say this letter will be screwed up and put
on the bin and it will never come out when
you're right, trius. Something is where trust is the absolute
currency in the Reserve Bank when it comes to its role,
and if you lose that trust, you then have to
(07:54):
go right. We've got to name the problem, tell people
what it was. There was a breakdown in the relationship
breakdown and behavior breakdown with Adrian and Nicola Willis and
so on. Be straight up with people because we know
you're all human, but we don't trust you now that
you're going to tell us when things go wrong again.
And so whoever is coming in, whoever comes in as
the next governor, you know, Roger Finley stays as the chair.
(08:17):
The thing they've got to focus on more than anything
now is steady as she goes trust, transparency, tell us
everything that you know, talk us through what you're debating
in your in meetings about what you're going to do,
give us reassure us that we will know if things
are going badly wrong again.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Yep, stop telling Porky's Okay, Trish, was it windy enough
in Auckland yesterday to shut Cornwall Park? In case you
got hat by a bit of flying wood.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
I am completely exercised about the fact that just general
winter weather these days means that harbor bridges are closed,
parks are closed. There is literally a mass panic. And
you know, I have to say when I read a
headline that says an atmospheric river which just means rain,
(09:05):
actually that's all. That is all totally hyping it up.
It's ridiculous.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
What the hell is wrong with us, trash, what is
wrong with it? It's just a windy day, like a
welling today, it's.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
A windy day. But what has happened to us is that,
in fairness to the managers of Cornwall Park, if you
are you know, if you're coming under the Health and
Safety Act and you and you're deemed to be one
of the safety people, you are so risk averse these
days that you do that, that you take the easy
option and you shop things like this down. That that
(09:37):
is why because the fear of risk and liability is
so big, but it's an absolute nonsense. And I also
would just put out a challenge to people that you know,
just look outside, assess the weather yourself, make a call
on it. It's really not that difficult. Do I need
a brolly yes or no?
Speaker 3 (09:58):
Sorry, Joseph, have you've got a brain? Yeah. But one
of the consequences of this is that because we're kind
of getting the risk matrix back to front now, because
we're so terrified of making a mistake. Like you know,
we did a report to our board the other day
where we said, oh, we put a mat by the
left because when it rains people slip a little bit.
So we've put a mat down, and we've laid a
cable down and we've put taped it down so no
(10:20):
on trips over it. And realized at the end of
the meeting we've forgotten to say that, Oh and by
the way, Josie was in a tsunami in the Solomon
Islands last week. So your whole, your whole kind of
risk sense of what's really a risk starts to get
completely skewed, and you forget the things that are actually
a real risk, like tsunami.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
Jeez, I think we might need to shut all of
Wellington down because it's quite windy.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Well, that would have to be permanent, wouldn't it If.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
We've already done that, Heather, I've already done it.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
There's Augusta when in a drop of rain, Wellington's gone
down there.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
Yeah, and I was defintely closed.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Lockdown, lockdown for any wind guys. Thank you very much appreciated.
Trishus and Joseph Aganey are herdle this evening.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to
news Talks at B from four p m.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
Weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
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