October 10, 2024 • 11 mins
Tonight on the Huddle, former Labour Chief of Staff Mike Munro and KiwiBlog & Curia Pollster David Farrar joined in on a discussion about the following issues of the day - and more!
The Mysterious Death of Pauline Hanna is a TV drama announced by South Pacific Pictures, centred around the Polkinghorne trial.
The Government deficit widens by more than expected, mostly due to Health NZ and higher costs relating to ACC claims.
Community advocate Dave Letele is being forced to shut down his South Auckland foodbank due to lack of funding.
Hurricane Milton makes landfall in Florida, devastating the state in the early stages.
Wellington City Council is set to vote on what it will do with it's share in Wellington Airport.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Huddle with New Zealand Souththerby's international realty, local and
global exposure like no other.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Okay, joining me on the huddle tonight we have Mike Monroe,
former Labor Party chief of staff.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
Good evening, great, how are you good?
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Thank you? And David Farak can we blog Anchory Upholster? Hi, David. Hey, Look,
I just want to throw this out to the two
of you. I've made it really clear. I don't need
to see anything more about the Pokinghorn trial for a while.
I think that Pauline Hannah should just be allowed to
rest in peace for a little while, as should her
family and friends. I don't need to see a documentary
in a hurry, and I don't need to see a dramatization.
(00:33):
You might feel very differently. You might be right up
for it, Mike.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
No, Look, I tend to agree. It just sort of
feels it feels too soon.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Look.
Speaker 4 (00:46):
I know it's been a highly interesting case and a
lot of people followed it very closely, and it's been
a very salacious case as well, I guess in many ways.
But look, I think these sorts of issues are normally
revisited a bit further down the track. I think people
who make films and documentaries on such cases tend to
(01:09):
provide a bit of space for everyone to sort of
absorb what's happened.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Yeah, it just feels unseemly.
Speaker 4 (01:16):
Rapid to be talking about a program at this early stage.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Would you watch one? Would you watch the dramatization or
the doc o?
Speaker 5 (01:24):
David?
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Yeah, lock I will. It is a bit too early.
Speaker 5 (01:28):
It's inevitable they were going to do one because it
has probably the two elements that appeal genuine debate in
the community about who did it, But like the David
Bain case, Peter Ellis, etc. And of course, as Mike said,
very salacious, etcetera.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
So it was inevitable.
Speaker 5 (01:45):
But it is a bit bad taste to like, you
have already started effectively before the trial's over.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
What does in dress me? Though?
Speaker 5 (01:53):
I have to say, is going to be the casting
who will play medicine?
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Ah?
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Yes, yeah, you're sucked in, aren't you?
Speaker 3 (02:01):
You can't wait fair enough?
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Gentlemen, I'd like to talk to you about Wellington City
Councilors this afternoon. They're voted against selling the airport shares.
This is going to have quite an impact on their
long term plan. How tricky. Is this going to make
things Mike.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Uh, yeah, it is going to be tricky.
Speaker 4 (02:19):
And and and I felt the sort of case that
was made for you for selling the shares and setting
sorry selling the shareholding and setting up the investment fund,
the perpetual fund, it sort of made sense. I mean,
Wellington faced enormous risks in this regard, and I think
(02:42):
the case was made previously that that that selling the
shareholding was going to help fund that idea.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
I think in the ends of politics took over.
Speaker 4 (02:53):
The Labor and Green Party machines have got pretty active
on this and and I think that the you know,
they've whipped in to line their councilors. So I think, yeah,
it's unfortunate because there was a good economic case in
terms of well E's in the future for going aheadless
the sale.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Yeah, the vote was narrow nine to seven against the sale.
Where do you think this leaves the council.
Speaker 5 (03:16):
David probably facing either rates going up or having to
cut spending elsewhere.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
But the big worry is the resilience.
Speaker 5 (03:26):
A former airport director, Paul Redleasemuth made really good case,
which is lot the council needs some capital for when
there's something like a big earthquake, of its commercial investments
is tied up in this minority state in the airport,
and what asset is probably going to plummet in venue
after an earthquake the airport because no one's going to
(03:47):
be flying in or out for months, and the airport
itself could well be damaged. So if the whole purpose
is resilience, then it's a very bad investment to have. So, yeah,
it is a pity it didn't happen, and I think
the council has a real problem where to go now.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Yeah, it's gonna be well. Look, I mean Wellington certainly
provides us with The Wellington City Council definitely provides us
with an awful lot of entertainment.
Speaker 5 (04:14):
Mike.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
We just never quite know how it's all going to unfold,
do we.
Speaker 5 (04:18):
Community Brown It makes him look so good. Wayne looks
like right to Wellington every week because by comparison, Yeah,
do you know.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
What I had. I can't remember what we were talking
about the other day, but someone did text me and
just say could you just send Wayne down? And I
was like, yep, okay, I get it, but you might
I don't know whether you'll be happy about that when
you arrive wait and see. Let's talk about community advocate
Dave Lettellly who's had to shut down his South Auckland
(04:52):
food bank. He just cannot sustain it. You know, he's
feeling pretty down about having to let these families down.
But I mean, it's also sort of says a lot
about where we're at for a lot of charities and things,
doesn't it David. It's it's just tough, yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
And great on them.
Speaker 5 (05:11):
What he has done has been amazing, and it is
really sad that the support from corporate is something there
like it used to if you look for silver lining.
He did say a number of families accessing the services
dropped on a thousand to a couple of hundreds. But
let's not be naive. There's always going to be people
who need food banks, et cetera. So it's just a
(05:34):
matter of hoping that the other providers out there, like
the missions, et cetera, can step up.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Is this what is this a job for community advocates
like Dave Mike?
Speaker 3 (05:48):
Well, look, the.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
Good thing about well, I shouldn't say a good thing.
What I would point out is that in South Auckland
there are a lot of food banks. I actually got
online the south to Intituck ditribution in South Auckland and
there's about ten or a dozen food banks scattered through
that region, which just tells you something about the sort
of number of people in that area of requiring help,
and it just underlines the inequality in our society is
(06:14):
really impacting on an area like South Auckland. I think
the service Littally was providing was you know, it was
a tremendous one, but as David pointed out, demand for
his particular service has fallen off in recent times. I
think Littley has always been a sort of a larger
than life figure because he's sporting background, his dad's sort
of Mungo mob connections, et cetera. So there's always going
(06:36):
to be a lot more focus I guess on David
Telly's service in South Aakland, but that I would.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
A lot of charity doing it tough.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
Well they are, yeah, I mean that they are doing
it tough, and I guess it just as I say,
underlines the real inequality issues that we still haven't addressed
properly in this country. We shouldn't have to, We shouldn't
have to rely shouldn't have to rely on so many
food banks picking up the slack like that.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
But it's just affective life and we've got.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
To find a better way of making sure that they
can provide their service, you know, efficiently and comprehensively.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
You're with the Huddle. We're going to take a quick break.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
It is fourteen to six the Huddle with New Zealand
Southeby's International Realty elevate the marketing of your home.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Yes, you're with the Huddle, And I guess and Mike
Munro and David Farrer, David. I just spoke to the
Minister of Finance, Nichola Willis, and I asked her if
if you take a look at the government's financial books,
which have sunk further into debt, whether she was still
whether she regretted the text cuts and she said.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
No, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 5 (07:41):
Do you think she might be I don't think so. No,
not her old lock twelve years of stealth tax increases
that they had to be offering people something and you
kind of disagree over that numbers. But they did make
some cuts elsewhere. But what when now here is I've
(08:01):
just been looking at the numbers. We're paying ten billion
dollars a year in interest on the debt that's built
up over the last twenty years or so. And think
of what you could do with that ten billion dollars
if you weren't seeing it to banks and overseas lenders.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
Et cetera.
Speaker 5 (08:20):
So, yeah, you can get into a virtuous circle. If
they get back into surplus and they start paying the
debt down, then the interest payments start dropping. You have
more money for health education. So there's a switching point
where you go from really tough to actually things become
easier from a fiscal point.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Were you surprised by those numbers, Mike, I mean we've
been we've been hearing about what's happening to health New Zealand.
We know that there have been higher acc claims, gost
all sorts of things. I wasn't hugely surprised, were.
Speaker 4 (08:50):
You, No, I wasn't, And I think I think Nicola
Willis is now discovering the sort of grim realities of
her job. You know, there's enormous cost pressures the economy,
and I've been there for a long time. Robinson was
struggling to deal with them in the latter days the
labor government and now Nicola Willison's sort of inherited them.
You know, the government expenses have gone up by I
(09:12):
think it was eleven percent over the last year, and
revenue has only gone up by nine percent, and therein
lies the problem. These enormous pressures are just making it very,
very hard to get on top of the deficit. And
I disagree with David around the tax cuts. I do
think they were a good idea at this stage. I mean,
the government has to commit fourteen billion dollars for those
(09:32):
tax cuts over the next four years, and that money
would have gone a long way to easing their problems
elsewhere in the economy. I know that national government has
always dangled the sort of the tax cuts policy in
front of voters come election time, but I just think
they didn't really take account of the enormous pressures and
the problems that they were facing when they came into
(09:54):
government ten twelve months ago. So I think that I've
now been demonstrated to have been a very rash move.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
David, how does this impact the deadline for returning to
the government books returning the government books to surplus in
twenty twenty seven that was sort of a was announced,
but now it feels a bit more like a casual chat.
Speaker 5 (10:16):
Yeah, well, it technically doesn't impact it because it's about
the year. That's just me As Mike says, you've got
these massive cost pressures there. The best way is actually
economic growth. If you've got the economy grown at three
percent non recession or one percent, text revenue grows, it
grows fast in the expenses, that's how you get back
(10:39):
into it. So what there actually does announced this week,
which is the fast track projects. If they actually pass
that bill and they get fifty one hundred projects and
centered and construction starting on them, there is the stuff
that is actually gained to help them get there. But
if you don't have the economic growth, it becomes really hard.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Absolutely, Thank you both very much, Mike Munroe and David Farrer.
And next hour we will have been McNulty with us
Wellington City councilor to talk about that vote today that
took place. The councilors voted against selling the airport shares.
So he will be with us just after six. It
is seventy six.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
For more from hither Duplassy Allen Drive listen live to
news talks. It'd be from four pm weekdays or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio,
The Huddle with New Zealand Souththerby's international realty, local and
global exposure like no other.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Okay, joining me on the huddle tonight we have Mike Monroe,
former Labor Party chief of staff.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
Good evening, great, how are you good?
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Thank you? And David Farak can we blog Anchory Upholster? Hi, David. Hey, Look,
I just want to throw this out to the two
of you. I've made it really clear. I don't need
to see anything more about the Pokinghorn trial for a while.
I think that Pauline Hannah should just be allowed to
rest in peace for a little while, as should her
family and friends. I don't need to see a documentary
in a hurry, and I don't need to see a dramatization.
(00:33):
You might feel very differently. You might be right up
for it, Mike.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
No, Look, I tend to agree. It just sort of
feels it feels too soon.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Look.
Speaker 4 (00:46):
I know it's been a highly interesting case and a
lot of people followed it very closely, and it's been
a very salacious case as well, I guess in many ways.
But look, I think these sorts of issues are normally
revisited a bit further down the track. I think people
who make films and documentaries on such cases tend to
(01:09):
provide a bit of space for everyone to sort of
absorb what's happened.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Yeah, it just feels unseemly.
Speaker 4 (01:16):
Rapid to be talking about a program at this early stage.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Would you watch one? Would you watch the dramatization or
the doc o?
Speaker 5 (01:24):
David?
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Yeah, lock I will. It is a bit too early.
Speaker 5 (01:28):
It's inevitable they were going to do one because it
has probably the two elements that appeal genuine debate in
the community about who did it, But like the David
Bain case, Peter Ellis, etc. And of course, as Mike said,
very salacious, etcetera.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
So it was inevitable.
Speaker 5 (01:45):
But it is a bit bad taste to like, you
have already started effectively before the trial's over.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
What does in dress me? Though?
Speaker 5 (01:53):
I have to say, is going to be the casting
who will play medicine?
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Ah?
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Yes, yeah, you're sucked in, aren't you?
Speaker 3 (02:01):
You can't wait fair enough?
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Gentlemen, I'd like to talk to you about Wellington City
Councilors this afternoon. They're voted against selling the airport shares.
This is going to have quite an impact on their
long term plan. How tricky. Is this going to make
things Mike.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Uh, yeah, it is going to be tricky.
Speaker 4 (02:19):
And and and I felt the sort of case that
was made for you for selling the shares and setting
sorry selling the shareholding and setting up the investment fund,
the perpetual fund, it sort of made sense. I mean,
Wellington faced enormous risks in this regard, and I think
(02:42):
the case was made previously that that that selling the
shareholding was going to help fund that idea.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
I think in the ends of politics took over.
Speaker 4 (02:53):
The Labor and Green Party machines have got pretty active
on this and and I think that the you know,
they've whipped in to line their councilors. So I think, yeah,
it's unfortunate because there was a good economic case in
terms of well E's in the future for going aheadless
the sale.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Yeah, the vote was narrow nine to seven against the sale.
Where do you think this leaves the council.
Speaker 5 (03:16):
David probably facing either rates going up or having to
cut spending elsewhere.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
But the big worry is the resilience.
Speaker 5 (03:26):
A former airport director, Paul Redleasemuth made really good case,
which is lot the council needs some capital for when
there's something like a big earthquake, of its commercial investments
is tied up in this minority state in the airport,
and what asset is probably going to plummet in venue
after an earthquake the airport because no one's going to
(03:47):
be flying in or out for months, and the airport
itself could well be damaged. So if the whole purpose
is resilience, then it's a very bad investment to have. So, yeah,
it is a pity it didn't happen, and I think
the council has a real problem where to go now.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Yeah, it's gonna be well. Look, I mean Wellington certainly
provides us with The Wellington City Council definitely provides us
with an awful lot of entertainment.
Speaker 5 (04:14):
Mike.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
We just never quite know how it's all going to unfold,
do we.
Speaker 5 (04:18):
Community Brown It makes him look so good. Wayne looks
like right to Wellington every week because by comparison, Yeah,
do you know.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
What I had. I can't remember what we were talking
about the other day, but someone did text me and
just say could you just send Wayne down? And I
was like, yep, okay, I get it, but you might
I don't know whether you'll be happy about that when
you arrive wait and see. Let's talk about community advocate
Dave Lettellly who's had to shut down his South Auckland
(04:52):
food bank. He just cannot sustain it. You know, he's
feeling pretty down about having to let these families down.
But I mean, it's also sort of says a lot
about where we're at for a lot of charities and things,
doesn't it David. It's it's just tough, yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
And great on them.
Speaker 5 (05:11):
What he has done has been amazing, and it is
really sad that the support from corporate is something there
like it used to if you look for silver lining.
He did say a number of families accessing the services
dropped on a thousand to a couple of hundreds. But
let's not be naive. There's always going to be people
who need food banks, et cetera. So it's just a
(05:34):
matter of hoping that the other providers out there, like
the missions, et cetera, can step up.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Is this what is this a job for community advocates
like Dave Mike?
Speaker 3 (05:48):
Well, look, the.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
Good thing about well, I shouldn't say a good thing.
What I would point out is that in South Auckland
there are a lot of food banks. I actually got
online the south to Intituck ditribution in South Auckland and
there's about ten or a dozen food banks scattered through
that region, which just tells you something about the sort
of number of people in that area of requiring help,
and it just underlines the inequality in our society is
(06:14):
really impacting on an area like South Auckland. I think
the service Littally was providing was you know, it was
a tremendous one, but as David pointed out, demand for
his particular service has fallen off in recent times. I
think Littley has always been a sort of a larger
than life figure because he's sporting background, his dad's sort
of Mungo mob connections, et cetera. So there's always going
(06:36):
to be a lot more focus I guess on David
Telly's service in South Aakland, but that I would.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
A lot of charity doing it tough.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
Well they are, yeah, I mean that they are doing
it tough, and I guess it just as I say,
underlines the real inequality issues that we still haven't addressed
properly in this country. We shouldn't have to, We shouldn't
have to rely shouldn't have to rely on so many
food banks picking up the slack like that.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
But it's just affective life and we've got.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
To find a better way of making sure that they
can provide their service, you know, efficiently and comprehensively.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
You're with the Huddle. We're going to take a quick break.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
It is fourteen to six the Huddle with New Zealand
Southeby's International Realty elevate the marketing of your home.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Yes, you're with the Huddle, And I guess and Mike
Munro and David Farrer, David. I just spoke to the
Minister of Finance, Nichola Willis, and I asked her if
if you take a look at the government's financial books,
which have sunk further into debt, whether she was still
whether she regretted the text cuts and she said.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
No, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 5 (07:41):
Do you think she might be I don't think so. No,
not her old lock twelve years of stealth tax increases
that they had to be offering people something and you
kind of disagree over that numbers. But they did make
some cuts elsewhere. But what when now here is I've
(08:01):
just been looking at the numbers. We're paying ten billion
dollars a year in interest on the debt that's built
up over the last twenty years or so. And think
of what you could do with that ten billion dollars
if you weren't seeing it to banks and overseas lenders.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
Et cetera.
Speaker 5 (08:20):
So, yeah, you can get into a virtuous circle. If
they get back into surplus and they start paying the
debt down, then the interest payments start dropping. You have
more money for health education. So there's a switching point
where you go from really tough to actually things become
easier from a fiscal point.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Were you surprised by those numbers, Mike, I mean we've
been we've been hearing about what's happening to health New Zealand.
We know that there have been higher acc claims, gost
all sorts of things. I wasn't hugely surprised, were.
Speaker 4 (08:50):
You, No, I wasn't, And I think I think Nicola
Willis is now discovering the sort of grim realities of
her job. You know, there's enormous cost pressures the economy,
and I've been there for a long time. Robinson was
struggling to deal with them in the latter days the
labor government and now Nicola Willison's sort of inherited them.
You know, the government expenses have gone up by I
(09:12):
think it was eleven percent over the last year, and
revenue has only gone up by nine percent, and therein
lies the problem. These enormous pressures are just making it very,
very hard to get on top of the deficit. And
I disagree with David around the tax cuts. I do
think they were a good idea at this stage. I mean,
the government has to commit fourteen billion dollars for those
(09:32):
tax cuts over the next four years, and that money
would have gone a long way to easing their problems
elsewhere in the economy. I know that national government has
always dangled the sort of the tax cuts policy in
front of voters come election time, but I just think
they didn't really take account of the enormous pressures and
the problems that they were facing when they came into
(09:54):
government ten twelve months ago. So I think that I've
now been demonstrated to have been a very rash move.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
David, how does this impact the deadline for returning to
the government books returning the government books to surplus in
twenty twenty seven that was sort of a was announced,
but now it feels a bit more like a casual chat.
Speaker 5 (10:16):
Yeah, well, it technically doesn't impact it because it's about
the year. That's just me As Mike says, you've got
these massive cost pressures there. The best way is actually
economic growth. If you've got the economy grown at three
percent non recession or one percent, text revenue grows, it
grows fast in the expenses, that's how you get back
(10:39):
into it. So what there actually does announced this week,
which is the fast track projects. If they actually pass
that bill and they get fifty one hundred projects and
centered and construction starting on them, there is the stuff
that is actually gained to help them get there. But
if you don't have the economic growth, it becomes really hard.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Absolutely, Thank you both very much, Mike Munroe and David Farrer.
And next hour we will have been McNulty with us
Wellington City councilor to talk about that vote today that
took place. The councilors voted against selling the airport shares.
So he will be with us just after six. It
is seventy six.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
For more from hither Duplassy Allen Drive listen live to
news talks. It'd be from four pm weekdays or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio,
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