The Huddle: How will a documentary about Jacinda Ardern be received?

Tonight on The Huddle, Trish Sherson from Sherson-Willis PR and Child Fund chief executive Josie Pagani joined in on a discussion about the following issues of the day - and more!

It's been revealed that last week's power outage in Northland was caused by too many nuts being removed from the legs of a pylon. What do we think of this? Is this a sign something bigger is going on?

How much trouble is the Government in after the ferry drama over the weekend, given that Nicola Willis herself made it clear she wants the two ferries we had on order cancelled?

It's being reported that a documentary about Dame Jacinda Ardern is in the works in Hollywood. Ae we looking forward to this? How will it be received in New Zealand - and overseas?

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The huddled with New Zealand Southerby's International Realty exceptional marketing
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Speaker 2 (00:07):
Oh, the huddle of us. It is even We've got
Tri Shurson, Shirson Willis pr and Joe Spagani Child Funds
Chief Executive. Hell are you too? Hello Josie? What about
the power pylon? I mean, how good is that?

Speaker 3 (00:17):
Oh? Unbelievable. So, I mean, things like this don't just happens.
There's usually when something stupid, remarkably stupid like this happens,
then there's something wrong in the health and safety of
that organization and the safe practices of that organization. Anyone
who's run a business at all knows that if something

(00:38):
like this happens, there's never one cockroach right, there's something
wrong at the heart of transpower when it comes to safety.
So I know that the Minister Simeon Brown's called for
I think the Electricity Authority to review it and do
an investigation. Absolutely right thing to do. But this is
totally bizarre. I mean, to remove all the bolts from

(01:00):
You know, even I, as a non engineer, can work
out if you do that, the thing's going to fall over.
So I mean, yes, it might be in competence. It
might even be sabotage. Who knows. We don't know no
alleged wrongdoing yet at all, But we don't know what
it is, and the investigation will tell you. But it
does tell you that even if it is all of
those things, there's something wrong an organization that deals with

(01:22):
such serious stuff like energy electricity. Same with any big
infrastructure organization. Every single incident matters. If your chair collapse
is in an office, you report it, you know, because
one thing that goes wrong usually means there are other
things going on too.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
What do you reckon? Trisha has gone on here with
the comms because on Friday they were saying no, no, no, no,
we're going to focus on getting the power restored and
then we'll do the investigation. Well they've only got the
power restored yesterday, and that's a very fast investigation. So
they've obviously changed their minds about needing to front up,
haven't they.

Speaker 4 (01:51):
Well, I mean, overall, it does feel a little bit
like New Zealand has a screw loose at the moment.
Doesn't actually things are, but things are falling apart all
over the place. I wonder whether what they needed to
do was buy some time early on, because actually it
was so serious the loss of power to Northland that

(02:15):
they probably needed to buy time and get the power
back on. And then what they've probably realized over the weekend,
and Mayor Brown and Auckland probably assisted them along, is
to realize that most people could see when you look
at what happened, and when you see the pictures of
the plate that you know, it looked like screws had

(02:37):
been taken out, nothing had been forced or wrenched. So
I think they were probably forced into a position today
where they had to come out and try and get
ahead of it.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
Yeah, so speak you might be right speaking of things
falling apart, Josie. How much trouble is the government on
the fairy drama?

Speaker 3 (02:52):
Oh well, you'd have to say that they were right
to go in and cancel what was an absolutely ridiculous contract.
You know, let's just look at the numbers of it.
I mean, you've got a ferry that brings a faery business.
Our Inter Island ferry brings in about one hundred and
thirty million revenue not profit revenue a year, and they

(03:12):
were going to spend over three billion dollars replacing the
old fairies. So I mean, at some point that's too
much money, right, it just doesn't make any sense. So
I get why they canceled it, and it was the
right thing to do. I think the problem they've got now,
as Trisha said, it feels like the bolts noting out of.

Speaker 2 (03:29):
New Look Josie. Their problem was they canceled fairies we
needed Regardle. I mean that I agree it was the
right court, but they didn't give us an alternative. They
didn't go canceling these ridiculous ones. We're going to get
these ones instead because we still need them.

Speaker 3 (03:41):
Yeah, but to be fair, buying a new fairy isn't
like going to the car yard and going I'll have
that old Toyota Corolla, thanks very much. I mean to
me that the blame here shoots back to the border
Kiwi Rail, and you know, I don't think it's any accident.
They say it's nothing to do with it, but that
Dave mcclaim, the board chairperson, resigned this weekend or you know, recently,

(04:02):
And I do think it's it's it is Kiwi Rail
that has not They've fallen in love with this sort
of unicorns and fairies at the bottom of the garden
idea of having a three billion dollar you know, ferry
with trains going on and whatnot, and they failed to
actually see actually the situation was far more urgent and
they needed something much more quickly, and they needed something

(04:23):
that was going to be actually user friendly. So I
don't know that you can. But what I was going
to say is, I think the problem for the government
is it just plays into even though they're not to blame,
it plays into this narrative that the bolts have come
out in New Zealand. It's falling apart at the scenes.
What the hell are they doing? You know, So even
though we're not blaming them, we want them to solve it.

Speaker 2 (04:40):
Okay, listen, we're just going to stop there.

Speaker 1 (04:42):
Atre.

Speaker 2 (04:42):
I'm going to get your take on it when we
come back from the break the Huddle.

Speaker 1 (04:46):
With New Zealand Southeby's international realty, unparalleled.

Speaker 2 (04:49):
Reach and results back with the Huddle, Josephganny and Treshurson
Sherson Treasure Rather, what do you think of how much
trouble the government is on the fairy drama.

Speaker 4 (04:58):
I think the Faery Drama is a big problem for
the government in the future if they don't get a
solve quickly for it now. But what we saw over
the weekend is to Josie's point around the management of
these fairies, you know, the problem has been under investment
in maintenance over many years. And the other thing that

(05:21):
it's highlighted to us is, you know, number one, cooks
the Cook Strait is part of State Highway one in
New Zealand. It is an absolutely critical link for for
freight and for the New Zealand supply chain, so we
need to have reliability, you know, reliable fairies to get
goods and people across there. But number two, what the

(05:42):
weekend also highlighted is that key we rail and the
previous the previous government, we're far too late in ordering
the new fairies because what we're seeing with the existing
fleet is they just you know, we're having to band
aid them together to even keep them on the water.
And the other point someone raised with me over the weekend,

(06:03):
which is a good one, is to remember that New
Zealand's Cook Straight is known in maritime circles as one
of the more challenging and dangerous stretches of water. So
you know that heightens the risk if you've got you know,
ships like this, particularly in the dead of winter going
across deep cold waters. If we haven't had another disaster

(06:24):
like this on another night when the weather was rough,
you know, it doesn't even be thinking about.

Speaker 2 (06:29):
Yeah, I think that's a fair point. Okay, are you
Trish into the Descinder doco?

Speaker 4 (06:36):
Well? I love the story because these kind of Hollywood
docos are really in at the moment. If you think
of the big blockbusters in the last few years, you know,
we've had the Beckhams, we have had Robbie Williams telling
his life story and his undies sitting on his bed
and this.

Speaker 3 (06:56):
To me, will will do that Trish?

Speaker 4 (06:59):
That would be I don't think. I don't think jessin
there will be in arounding on the bed, but it'll
be in this kind of a style. And often these
documentaries are almost a story of a you know, a
redemption story on the part of the main protagonist. So
I think it will be very interesting a to see

(07:21):
how the portrayal goes, but be what the outtake is,
because I would imagine between New Zealand and international audiences,
as we know with the perception of Dame Jcinder overall,
there is you know, night and day between what the
global audience thinks and what New Zealander's experience was of

(07:42):
that time.

Speaker 2 (07:42):
Yeah, what do you reckon? Are you into it? Josie?

Speaker 3 (07:46):
Look, I think the problem with this and people are
entitled to make these documentaries and I think it will
be interesting. Trisha, I think you're right because often these
documentaries reveal things it don't necessarily intend to reveal. And
I think that was the case probably with the Robbie
Williams one as well, that the story you think you're
telling isn't necessarily the one that people are hearing. But
I think the main problem for me about this is

(08:08):
that it's made by someone who's clearly a fangirl, right, So,
I mean I think the quotes today were things like
this is she continues, Dame Juster Sinda continues to be
an inspiration to everyone, including me. It's an empowering, moving,
boundary pushing story. Now that that's okay. People are entitled
to be fans and to make documentaries about people they

(08:28):
really admire. But what would be so much more interesting
if they were examining why it is that in New
Zealand we fell in love with Jacinda. Seventy percent of us.
You know, she embodied our values and we backed her
and it dropped from seventy percent to twenty percent. Now,
the story to me in a documentary is how did
that happen? And why did that happen? And it's a

(08:49):
shame they can't tell that story.

Speaker 2 (08:51):
That is actually quite an interesting young in and of itself. Guys,
I really appreciate it. Thank you so much for Shirs
and Joseph PEGANI Hosking is going to be in a day.
It's a doco, so they'll have bits of him, won't they.

Speaker 1 (09:03):
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