Former National Party staffer Ben Thomas and Ali Jones of Red PR join Tim Beveridge for The Huddle.
Admins of the popular Facebook group ‘Auckland Flatmates Wanted’ want to start charging for posts. Could this be the future of successful social media groups?
New Zealand is officially out of a recession - can we now feel instantly better about the future?
The Huddle also discuss whether world leaders should keep their opinions on Donald Trump quiet, and if it’s counterintuitive to cut almost 400 defence roles.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Huddle with New Zealand Southeby's International Realty Find You're one.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Of a kind, Yes, and joining us for the huddle.
Ben Thomas, former National Party staffer, and Ali Jones red
PR Hello, Hi TM, Hi Ben gooda. Are you a
member of any Ali? Are you a member of any
Facebook groups or an admin? Perhaps even?
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (00:20):
Hundreds? No, seriously, because I forget that I joined them,
and then when I go back through and see what
I've joined, I'm appalled actually at how it's got out
of control. So I have a round about four pages
that I manage myself and a number that I am
a member of. It's a really great way to stay
in touch with local issues as far as local government
goes and things like that. So yes, I am.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Do you have a problem with worrying about scams or
are your pages closely sort of monitored and sort of
by admission only?
Speaker 4 (00:48):
Yeah, pretty much, and I do. I mean I can
tell a fake profile and Ben will know all about
this too. In politics, there are fake profiles, there are scams.
The one at the moment is if you're running advertised
through meta, then you get a message saying we're about
to remove your page. Because you've reached conditions right and
you just you just block that and delete it. But
(01:08):
it does take time. I heard your man talk about
it takes a lot of time.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
What would you do if you were Ben? Would you
would you just pull pull up sticks and just say, oh,
stuff this?
Speaker 5 (01:19):
Well, this is.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
The thing about online communities, isn't it. I mean everything
used to be free and you went sort of bombarded
by ads everywhere. But but you know, this is the
thing about online services, whether it's a Facebook group or
the platform, you know, eventually people want to monetize it.
And if you're an admin in a group, you know,
(01:41):
it's that old sort of thing. You're you're not the
consumer or the product. And you know, I think Facebook
actually you know, doesn't let you charge No.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
I think the thing is that sucks you into It's like,
once you're an admin umber group, you just get sucked
into that world. And probably the smartest thing they should
do is just just pull the pin and leave it alone.
Is that what you guys have do?
Speaker 5 (02:03):
Ben? I'd think ten years was long enough.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
I might offer to hand over the keys to someone
else and right into the sunset.
Speaker 4 (02:14):
Yeah, I think there's a there are a couple of
options here. I think what they're doing is great. And
I think the fact that it came from someone who
is homeless and that they're keeping that link to that
and keeping that real, I think that's awesome talk about authenticity.
But I think there's an opportunity here potentially for someone
to monetize it and set up some sort of website.
It's not expensive to set up a website. Potentially, what
(02:35):
you do then as you run the risk of making
that affordable for people who can afford it, or accessible
for people who can afford it, and exclude those who can't.
So but you know, there's certainly a business opportunity here.
But yeah, I think they should keep it going, get
some more admins. You know three is not many.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Well yeah, yeah, and I think maybe you're right. Just
close it down, leave a notice saying, look, if you
want to, if you want to check it out, this
is our your website, and we look forward to welcome. Anyway, Look,
let's move on. We'll move on in just a moment. Actually,
we'll take a break. It's sixteen minutes to five. This
is the huddle, Ben Thomas and Ali Jones. The GDP
is out. We'll be having a chat about that and
(03:11):
where the how good news that is for us?
Speaker 1 (03:13):
All the huddle with New Zealand Southeby's international realty, the
ones with local and global reach.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Heys Welcome back to the huddle, Ben Thomas and Ali
Jones with me, Tim Beverage and for Ryan Now, Ben,
GDP is out. We're officially out of recession. Are you
feeling sort of its party time or what do you reckon?
Speaker 3 (03:36):
Yeah, we've been sort of dipping in, dipping out, sort
of narrowly avoiding technical recessions for a lot of the
last two two and a bit years. I mean, look this,
even with the economic growth in the last quarter of
twenty twenty four, you know, that gets us back to
the early part of twenty twenty three of the actual GDP,
(04:03):
you know, and per capita GDP really encouraging, you know,
up point four percent in the last quarter.
Speaker 5 (04:10):
I think that's the first time since.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
June twenty three that we had a gain rather than
a drop in per capita GDP. So look, you know,
if you think, if you think you're doing it tough,
you're not imagining it this. You know, we're we're really
at the bottom cloring our way back up now, and look,
there's a lot of challenges ahead. Unfortunately, you know, we
we we saw, we saw a lot of pressure with
(04:37):
the energy situation last year. Looks like we might be
headed for a repeat of that. That makes things tougher
both in terms of costs, jobs. You know, Look, it's
a white knuckle ride. I think the government's doing everything
they can to kind of promote growth, investment, get things moving.
But look, you know we're really hostages to fortune. And
by fortune I mean the international situation, which is, you know,
(04:59):
do it's best to push back on the improvements that
we're making.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Yeah, a bit of uncertainty globally, of course, which might
see a reversal unfortunes. But Alie, at least we've stopped digging,
haven't we.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
No. Look, and I Ben knows a hell of a
lot more about this than I do. But actually my
eyes glaze over when someone says GDP or in the
last quarter of personality. All I care about is what
are my chops going to cost? What's the cost of butter?
And why the hell can't I buy a decent piece
of fish in this country that is an island? So
(05:31):
I say that off handedly, But actually I think that's
the key here, because you know, if meat and dairy
are based on global prices, how the hell does the
GDP rate help this. Now, I'm sure there's an economical
or rather a question that could be answered by by
an economist on that, but I'm not convinced by this.
We might be promoting growth and investment, but like I said,
(05:52):
that doesn't mean anything to the family of three that's
trying to buy butter and bread at the corner shop. So,
and I don't think the government's doing everything they should.
What's the grocery commissioner doing? Where's the electricity regulations in
place here? So it's all very well trumpeting this, you know,
starting to move out of recession. Let's actually start to
see something that helps people every day, people be able
to feed their care I guess that is the unquantifiable thing,
(06:14):
isn't it.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
You see numbers that come out and you hear a
zero point seven percent and for most people, I don't
know when it actually percolates through to people actually feeling better. Bend,
But what do you think it will take for people
to start actually feeling it? Because we saw that consumer
confidence was down, What do you reckon.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Yeah, that's the real key, isn't it. To a large extent,
you know, the sort of thing can be a bit psychological.
People think that things aren't going to get better, so
they think I need to save my money not spend it,
and you know that hurts businesses, that hurts retail, and
we get into this sort of you know, death cycle
that we've been in just for years now. So look
(06:53):
what we need is sort of confidence that the economy
is picking up. Then people will start recruiting businesses, statics,
you know, hopefully expanding. They might take on a bit
more debt to start providing more services, and that's the
only way out. Yeah, will land.
Speaker 4 (07:09):
Shops be cheaper than what will lamb chops be costing?
And mince, I'm not paying twenty three bucks a kilo
for mins.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Well, I tell you what, Alie, you have given us
a gift because I think I'm going to judge my
next time I write something about the economy, and I'll
be with the heading what are my chops going to cost?
I mean, normally it's eggs, milk and stuff. But I'm
glad you're into the lamb chops.
Speaker 4 (07:30):
I love a good lamb chop. I do like a
good lamb shop.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Anyway, Look, let's let's move along to Australian form. Australian
PM Malcolm Turnbull is not making it easy on the
diplomacy front. I don't know if you heard my chat
that I had with him after five o'clock, but you
know he's talking about he's got the right to free speech.
He's not in the government and he thinks that people
should actually stand up to Trump, who's a bully. How
much do you ali do how much do you think
that this makes makes it hard for governments to do
(07:56):
business with the White House?
Speaker 4 (07:58):
Oh well, I loved hearing Malcolm Turnbull speak. Yay for
the days that you know politicians actually said what they
meant and meant what they say. Of course, he's in
a different situation now, not being the Prime Minister, and
that does put a you know, give him a different
position to be in to speak. But you know, I
don't know what the saying is, and I should, but
you've got to speak up for people because if you
(08:19):
don't or speak against people before, you know, you're the
only one left and no one's there to speak for you.
Whatever that's saying is you know, and how did Hitler
take a hold of Europe. I applaud anyone that stands
up to this orange buffoon to be frank and I
think that I applaud Malcolm Turnbull. I don't think it
makes it easy for the Australian government, but hell, politics
isn't easy.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Yeah, what do you reckon, Ben? Do you think he
should call us jets a bit because he might be different,
if he might be communicating differently if he was actually
in power, wouldn't he.
Speaker 5 (08:49):
Yeah, look, we see this quite a lot. I think
in New Zealand as well. Often politicians will sort of say,
you know, what their successes should be doing that you
know they might have done if they had gotten around
to it, although they were a bit quiet at the time.
And you know, I don't think there's any sort of
particular bravery in speaking up, you know, once you're no
(09:12):
longer in power. I mean that that said, you know, look,
I agree with Ellie. I don't. I don't. I don't think.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
I don't think that we suffer from having people pointing
out what's happening in the States, which actually is starting
to be you know, to go beyond just you know,
you're far beyond just sort of buffoonery and the sort
of o fishness of the first term of the Trump
administration into something that's really pretty unsettling, you know, really
(09:40):
authoritarian things happening there in terms of people being detained
without trial.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Well, criticory of judges, calling for impeachment of judges who
decide against him. It's yeah, I think we have to
lean in that direction of probably out mark and might
be right on that one. Hey, Ali and Ben, thanks
so much. That's been Thomas, former National Party staffer, and
Ali Jones from red PR that the Huddle will be
back in just a moment. It's six and a half
to six.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
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.
The Huddle with New Zealand Southeby's International Realty Find You're one.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Of a kind, Yes, and joining us for the huddle.
Ben Thomas, former National Party staffer, and Ali Jones red
PR Hello, Hi TM, Hi Ben gooda. Are you a
member of any Ali? Are you a member of any
Facebook groups or an admin? Perhaps even?
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (00:20):
Hundreds? No, seriously, because I forget that I joined them,
and then when I go back through and see what
I've joined, I'm appalled actually at how it's got out
of control. So I have a round about four pages
that I manage myself and a number that I am
a member of. It's a really great way to stay
in touch with local issues as far as local government
goes and things like that. So yes, I am.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Do you have a problem with worrying about scams or
are your pages closely sort of monitored and sort of
by admission only?
Speaker 4 (00:48):
Yeah, pretty much, and I do. I mean I can
tell a fake profile and Ben will know all about
this too. In politics, there are fake profiles, there are scams.
The one at the moment is if you're running advertised
through meta, then you get a message saying we're about
to remove your page. Because you've reached conditions right and
you just you just block that and delete it. But
(01:08):
it does take time. I heard your man talk about
it takes a lot of time.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
What would you do if you were Ben? Would you
would you just pull pull up sticks and just say, oh,
stuff this?
Speaker 5 (01:19):
Well, this is.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
The thing about online communities, isn't it. I mean everything
used to be free and you went sort of bombarded
by ads everywhere. But but you know, this is the
thing about online services, whether it's a Facebook group or
the platform, you know, eventually people want to monetize it.
And if you're an admin in a group, you know,
(01:41):
it's that old sort of thing. You're you're not the
consumer or the product. And you know, I think Facebook
actually you know, doesn't let you charge No.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
I think the thing is that sucks you into It's like,
once you're an admin umber group, you just get sucked
into that world. And probably the smartest thing they should
do is just just pull the pin and leave it alone.
Is that what you guys have do?
Speaker 5 (02:03):
Ben? I'd think ten years was long enough.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
I might offer to hand over the keys to someone
else and right into the sunset.
Speaker 4 (02:14):
Yeah, I think there's a there are a couple of
options here. I think what they're doing is great. And
I think the fact that it came from someone who
is homeless and that they're keeping that link to that
and keeping that real, I think that's awesome talk about authenticity.
But I think there's an opportunity here potentially for someone
to monetize it and set up some sort of website.
It's not expensive to set up a website. Potentially, what
(02:35):
you do then as you run the risk of making
that affordable for people who can afford it, or accessible
for people who can afford it, and exclude those who can't.
So but you know, there's certainly a business opportunity here.
But yeah, I think they should keep it going, get
some more admins. You know three is not many.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Well yeah, yeah, and I think maybe you're right. Just
close it down, leave a notice saying, look, if you
want to, if you want to check it out, this
is our your website, and we look forward to welcome. Anyway, Look,
let's move on. We'll move on in just a moment. Actually,
we'll take a break. It's sixteen minutes to five. This
is the huddle, Ben Thomas and Ali Jones. The GDP
is out. We'll be having a chat about that and
(03:11):
where the how good news that is for us?
Speaker 1 (03:13):
All the huddle with New Zealand Southeby's international realty, the
ones with local and global reach.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Heys Welcome back to the huddle, Ben Thomas and Ali
Jones with me, Tim Beverage and for Ryan Now, Ben,
GDP is out. We're officially out of recession. Are you
feeling sort of its party time or what do you reckon?
Speaker 3 (03:36):
Yeah, we've been sort of dipping in, dipping out, sort
of narrowly avoiding technical recessions for a lot of the
last two two and a bit years. I mean, look this,
even with the economic growth in the last quarter of
twenty twenty four, you know, that gets us back to
the early part of twenty twenty three of the actual GDP,
(04:03):
you know, and per capita GDP really encouraging, you know,
up point four percent in the last quarter.
Speaker 5 (04:10):
I think that's the first time since.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
June twenty three that we had a gain rather than
a drop in per capita GDP. So look, you know,
if you think, if you think you're doing it tough,
you're not imagining it this. You know, we're we're really
at the bottom cloring our way back up now, and look,
there's a lot of challenges ahead. Unfortunately, you know, we
we we saw, we saw a lot of pressure with
(04:37):
the energy situation last year. Looks like we might be
headed for a repeat of that. That makes things tougher
both in terms of costs, jobs. You know, Look, it's
a white knuckle ride. I think the government's doing everything
they can to kind of promote growth, investment, get things moving.
But look, you know we're really hostages to fortune. And
by fortune I mean the international situation, which is, you know,
(04:59):
do it's best to push back on the improvements that
we're making.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Yeah, a bit of uncertainty globally, of course, which might
see a reversal unfortunes. But Alie, at least we've stopped digging,
haven't we.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
No. Look, and I Ben knows a hell of a
lot more about this than I do. But actually my
eyes glaze over when someone says GDP or in the
last quarter of personality. All I care about is what
are my chops going to cost? What's the cost of butter?
And why the hell can't I buy a decent piece
of fish in this country that is an island? So
(05:31):
I say that off handedly, But actually I think that's
the key here, because you know, if meat and dairy
are based on global prices, how the hell does the
GDP rate help this. Now, I'm sure there's an economical
or rather a question that could be answered by by
an economist on that, but I'm not convinced by this.
We might be promoting growth and investment, but like I said,
(05:52):
that doesn't mean anything to the family of three that's
trying to buy butter and bread at the corner shop. So,
and I don't think the government's doing everything they should.
What's the grocery commissioner doing? Where's the electricity regulations in
place here? So it's all very well trumpeting this, you know,
starting to move out of recession. Let's actually start to
see something that helps people every day, people be able
to feed their care I guess that is the unquantifiable thing,
(06:14):
isn't it.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
You see numbers that come out and you hear a
zero point seven percent and for most people, I don't
know when it actually percolates through to people actually feeling better. Bend,
But what do you think it will take for people
to start actually feeling it? Because we saw that consumer
confidence was down, What do you reckon.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Yeah, that's the real key, isn't it. To a large extent,
you know, the sort of thing can be a bit psychological.
People think that things aren't going to get better, so
they think I need to save my money not spend it,
and you know that hurts businesses, that hurts retail, and
we get into this sort of you know, death cycle
that we've been in just for years now. So look
(06:53):
what we need is sort of confidence that the economy
is picking up. Then people will start recruiting businesses, statics,
you know, hopefully expanding. They might take on a bit
more debt to start providing more services, and that's the
only way out. Yeah, will land.
Speaker 4 (07:09):
Shops be cheaper than what will lamb chops be costing?
And mince, I'm not paying twenty three bucks a kilo
for mins.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Well, I tell you what, Alie, you have given us
a gift because I think I'm going to judge my
next time I write something about the economy, and I'll
be with the heading what are my chops going to cost?
I mean, normally it's eggs, milk and stuff. But I'm
glad you're into the lamb chops.
Speaker 4 (07:30):
I love a good lamb chop. I do like a
good lamb shop.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Anyway, Look, let's let's move along to Australian form. Australian
PM Malcolm Turnbull is not making it easy on the
diplomacy front. I don't know if you heard my chat
that I had with him after five o'clock, but you
know he's talking about he's got the right to free speech.
He's not in the government and he thinks that people
should actually stand up to Trump, who's a bully. How
much do you ali do how much do you think
that this makes makes it hard for governments to do
(07:56):
business with the White House?
Speaker 4 (07:58):
Oh well, I loved hearing Malcolm Turnbull speak. Yay for
the days that you know politicians actually said what they
meant and meant what they say. Of course, he's in
a different situation now, not being the Prime Minister, and
that does put a you know, give him a different
position to be in to speak. But you know, I
don't know what the saying is, and I should, but
you've got to speak up for people because if you
(08:19):
don't or speak against people before, you know, you're the
only one left and no one's there to speak for you.
Whatever that's saying is you know, and how did Hitler
take a hold of Europe. I applaud anyone that stands
up to this orange buffoon to be frank and I
think that I applaud Malcolm Turnbull. I don't think it
makes it easy for the Australian government, but hell, politics
isn't easy.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Yeah, what do you reckon, Ben? Do you think he
should call us jets a bit because he might be different,
if he might be communicating differently if he was actually
in power, wouldn't he.
Speaker 5 (08:49):
Yeah, look, we see this quite a lot. I think
in New Zealand as well. Often politicians will sort of say,
you know, what their successes should be doing that you
know they might have done if they had gotten around
to it, although they were a bit quiet at the time.
And you know, I don't think there's any sort of
particular bravery in speaking up, you know, once you're no
(09:12):
longer in power. I mean that that said, you know, look,
I agree with Ellie. I don't. I don't. I don't think.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
I don't think that we suffer from having people pointing
out what's happening in the States, which actually is starting
to be you know, to go beyond just you know,
you're far beyond just sort of buffoonery and the sort
of o fishness of the first term of the Trump
administration into something that's really pretty unsettling, you know, really
(09:40):
authoritarian things happening there in terms of people being detained
without trial.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Well, criticory of judges, calling for impeachment of judges who
decide against him. It's yeah, I think we have to
lean in that direction of probably out mark and might
be right on that one. Hey, Ali and Ben, thanks
so much. That's been Thomas, former National Party staffer, and
Ali Jones from red PR that the Huddle will be
back in just a moment. It's six and a half
to six.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
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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