March 31, 2025 • 9 mins
Tonight on The Huddle, Thomas Scrimgeour from the Maxim Institute and Josie Pagani from Child Fund joined in on a discussion about the following issues of the day - and more!
Winston Peters says the Government has signed off on the option of two new Interislander ferries that can carry cars, passengers and rail. It will all be much cheaper of course than the iRex project, but no actual contract has been signed yet. What do we think of this?
There was a big fuss over the Greens' Benjamin Doyle and some posts he made on a private social media account. The posts included images of their child with bylines that appear to be sexualised references. Winston Peters is calling for an investigation - what do we make of this?
President Donald Trump has indicated he's willing to run for a third term - should we take this seriously?
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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 Souderby's international realty, the ones
with worldwide connections that perform, not a promise.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Joining me tonight. Maximums to Thomas Scriminger, Hi, Thomasday, good
to have you on the show. Welcome. And Josie Pegani
from Child Funders with us tonight as she always is
on a Monday. Josie, good evening, good day. Hey, we'll
come back to this whole bru hahar over Benjamin Doyle.
But kick off with the fairies, because this is this
is a well, I mean, what did we learn today?
(00:29):
We learned we're getting two hundred meter long fairies. They'll
be twenty eight meters wind, fifteen hundred passengers per piece,
and crucially they'll have rail on board. Winston's quite happy
with this. Cabinet has agreed, Josie, is this a win?
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Well, look, it's cheaper than the original cost. So let's
remember where we were under the last government, where it
was meant to be a seven hundred and fifty million
dollar project. It ballooned out to three billion dollars and
that was because and don't forget Ryan, this is a business,
the ferry business that earns a revenue of one hundred
(01:06):
and fifty million a year, so I'm not sure the
cost benefit of this really stacked up when it was
three billion dollars. So now we've got something that's cheaper.
But the thing that worries me, and thank god we've
got something and a decision, because these things are going
to crap out in twenty twenty nine, the ones we've got,
so we need something. What worries me though, is that
(01:27):
I'm not entirely convinced that they have fully costed this,
because the reason it ballooned from seven hundred and fifty
million to three billion was the cost of the port infrastructure.
So the Minister Wison Peters he's been assured by the
experts that there will not be a cost blowout with
the infrastructure, and that these fairies are apparently shorter but
(01:49):
wider something like that, so they don't need as long
as a port as much port infrastructure. I'm just not
convinced that bigger fairies, okay, wider longer, I'm not going
to need some kind of infrastructure. I reckon this will
bloom out a bit more.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Yeah, I mean once bitten twice Shy Josie and We've
been bitten quite hard on the last one, haven't we,
So I can forgive you for being a bit skeptical
about estimates from Wellington. Thomas. What's your take, Yeah, well, I.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
Think Josie's right. It's good that we've got a decision,
but we don't yet have a contract and that's kind
of really the first hurdle. Winston has announced today the
kinds of boats he's looking to purchase, has not actually
purchased any, so that'll be the first hurdle. And then
delivery is always the hardest thing to achieve. By canceling
(02:39):
the expensive old planned ferries, we are getting delayed until
we get new ones. You were just chatting to Damien McKenzie.
He signed a long term contract till twenty twenty nine.
He might still be overseas before we get any new fairies.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Yeah, just one thing on that we do need to stop.
The government does need to stop announcing announcements of upcoming announcements.
And if you look at the recent Edleman Trust Barometer,
I mean in New Zealand, trusting government has fallen to
forty five percent, which is one of the lowest in
the OECD. So we really are over all governments of
(03:14):
all shades at the moment. And part of that, big,
big part of that is delivery. So you know, announce
the delivery, the contract, the fairies, the final cost and
let's just get on with it.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Yeah, I would appreciate a bit of that too, Thomas
and Josie. We'll be back in just a moment. We've
got well, lots to discuss Donald Trump. We've got Benjamin
Doyle and the issue with GPS. If you're troubling, If
you're having trouble, I should say getting an appointment.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
The huddle with New Zealand Southeby's International Realty achieve extraordinary
results with unparallel reach.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
News talks there b We're on the huddle with Thomas
Scrimer from the Maction Maxim Institute and Josie Bacgaranney from
Child Fund. Just had a quick email from Courtney and Brisbane.
She says, love listening into the show on LB coming
to New Zealand. It won't happen. They haven't made it
to Tasmania yet. Not going to happen for you guys. Sorry.
Nichola willis with us after six talk more about that.
But on this Green's MP Benjamin Doyle and the whole
(04:10):
what's going on, Thomas? What is your take here? Do
you think because just the fact that he is the
spokesperson for early childhood education for the Greens have anything
to do with this, do they need to be careful here?
Speaker 4 (04:25):
I wouldn't hone in on the fact that he's spokesperson
for early childhood education. I think that's to take the
story in a specific direction. It doesn't need to go
in first and foremost. I think this is a story
about a public figure, a member of Parliament, who has
some relatively explicit language posted on his profiles, and he
was left unprepared from his party. The Green seemed incredibly
(04:48):
unprepared to handle this story, even though he'd been in
Parliament for some time.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Yeah, and it's not like they haven't had many of
them to deal with lately, you know, you think they'd
be quite good bye now, Jose it's one.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
It's one a week, isn't it, Ryan? And it does
make me think that the Greens, you know, I think
New Zealand is about five years behind the rest of
the world. And you've got Tamitha Paul talking about defund
the police. I mean this was going on in America
in twenty sixteen and lost them elections. So I sort
of feel like, you know, we need to kind of
catch up with the fact that this stuff is just
(05:20):
not popular.
Speaker 4 (05:21):
Guys.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
You know, you need to focus on the stuff that
people want you to focus on as a Green Party.
But on this particular issue, I don't think the problem
is the language around the Rainbow community Bible belt bussy.
You know, thanks for the explanation. I didn't know what
it was either, so thank you for that, Ryan. But
I don't think it's that that. The issue isn't that
(05:43):
it's not some conservative father of two sitting there going
I don't like all this drag queen stuff. The problem
is the sexualized content, i e. The words bible belt
bussy and a picture of a child sitting on his knee,
and that's the issue that people are going. I'm just
a bit uncomfortable about that. And I heard the explanation
(06:04):
that Ben from the Pride you know community gave you
and Auckland Pride, and I thought that was really good.
But what would be what would be better is if
this MP had stood up and said, you know, look,
this was a series of photos it's unfortunate that that
phrase bible belt bussy, which is sexualized, ended up on
(06:25):
the picture of a child sitting on my knee. But
here's what it was all about, the fact that he
if that was me and there was a photo out
there with something sexy in the title, I would have
come out immediately to set the record straight and clarify
that this was not something that you need to feel
uncomfortable about. I think it's the problem that the explanation
(06:47):
hasn't really been there, and it is just simply the
sexualized wording with the picture of a child. It isn't
an anti rainbow thing. It isn't an anti you know,
the fun of Auckland Pride and the fun of and
the provocativeness of the gay community. That's all great. Everyone
loves that. It's the sexualized content with the picture of
(07:08):
a kid.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Yeah, all right, Donald Trump, do you believe him when
he says Thomas that he'll be going for a third term?
Speaker 4 (07:16):
Well, I think the phrase that people use around Trump
is to take him seriously, but don't take him literally. Now,
quite possibly he's soft launching his plan to become the
next president. But there's plenty of things he's doing in
the immediate president that can be worrying without us spending
too much time stressing about whether he's going for a
(07:37):
third term. I guess the reason to give us hope
is that his vice president is significantly younger and probably
quite ambitious. So if you're worried about American president, perhaps
he's the one we should be stressing about.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Yeah, that's always the rumor, isn't it that that he's
lined him up to be the replacement Josie.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
Yeah, like Putin did with med for death. If you
remember that, he stood down because he could like constitutionally
stand again and God has you know, two ic to
stand and then poot the steps up again. So, yeah,
I am worried about this. And there's a great phrase
out there. I don't know whether you've heard it rhyme,
but you know, shock as leopard eats face said person
who voted for the leopards eating people's faces party. I
(08:19):
think we should take Trump literally. This is what he
said he would do. He said, you know, I'm going
to invade Greenland. I'm going to make Canada the fifty
first state. I'm going to take that Panama Kmal. I'm
going to do tariffs. I'm going to get rid of
these government departments and so on. In fact, he's done
more than he said he would do. So you know,
if you vote for the leopards eating people's faces party,
(08:40):
don't be surprised when the leopard eats your face.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
Very strained analogy, But I get what you're saying. The
thing is, it's too It's almost too much to take though, Josie,
because we've got China, we've got Russia throwing bombs into Europe,
We've got a Ran in the Middle East. I can't
handle another one of these.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
You know, I know, It's just everything, isn't it. I mean,
it's letting people out of jail, it's ignoring judges orders,
it's invading Greenland. I'm very pleased to announce that my
kids have renamed our family chat group the Pegani Family
Top Secret War Plans Chat Group. Right, very good, laugh,
(09:17):
very good.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
All right, Thank you guys for coming on. Appreciate your
time and your thoughts. Thomas Scrimer from the Maximum Institution,
Josie Pagani from Child Fund.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
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 Souderby's international realty, the ones
with worldwide connections that perform, not a promise.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Joining me tonight. Maximums to Thomas Scriminger, Hi, Thomasday, good
to have you on the show. Welcome. And Josie Pegani
from Child Funders with us tonight as she always is
on a Monday. Josie, good evening, good day. Hey, we'll
come back to this whole bru hahar over Benjamin Doyle.
But kick off with the fairies, because this is this
is a well, I mean, what did we learn today?
(00:29):
We learned we're getting two hundred meter long fairies. They'll
be twenty eight meters wind, fifteen hundred passengers per piece,
and crucially they'll have rail on board. Winston's quite happy
with this. Cabinet has agreed, Josie, is this a win?
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Well, look, it's cheaper than the original cost. So let's
remember where we were under the last government, where it
was meant to be a seven hundred and fifty million
dollar project. It ballooned out to three billion dollars and
that was because and don't forget Ryan, this is a business,
the ferry business that earns a revenue of one hundred
(01:06):
and fifty million a year, so I'm not sure the
cost benefit of this really stacked up when it was
three billion dollars. So now we've got something that's cheaper.
But the thing that worries me, and thank god we've
got something and a decision, because these things are going
to crap out in twenty twenty nine, the ones we've got,
so we need something. What worries me though, is that
(01:27):
I'm not entirely convinced that they have fully costed this,
because the reason it ballooned from seven hundred and fifty
million to three billion was the cost of the port infrastructure.
So the Minister Wison Peters he's been assured by the
experts that there will not be a cost blowout with
the infrastructure, and that these fairies are apparently shorter but
(01:49):
wider something like that, so they don't need as long
as a port as much port infrastructure. I'm just not
convinced that bigger fairies, okay, wider longer, I'm not going
to need some kind of infrastructure. I reckon this will
bloom out a bit more.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Yeah, I mean once bitten twice Shy Josie and We've
been bitten quite hard on the last one, haven't we,
So I can forgive you for being a bit skeptical
about estimates from Wellington. Thomas. What's your take, Yeah, well, I.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
Think Josie's right. It's good that we've got a decision,
but we don't yet have a contract and that's kind
of really the first hurdle. Winston has announced today the
kinds of boats he's looking to purchase, has not actually
purchased any, so that'll be the first hurdle. And then
delivery is always the hardest thing to achieve. By canceling
(02:39):
the expensive old planned ferries, we are getting delayed until
we get new ones. You were just chatting to Damien McKenzie.
He signed a long term contract till twenty twenty nine.
He might still be overseas before we get any new fairies.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Yeah, just one thing on that we do need to stop.
The government does need to stop announcing announcements of upcoming announcements.
And if you look at the recent Edleman Trust Barometer,
I mean in New Zealand, trusting government has fallen to
forty five percent, which is one of the lowest in
the OECD. So we really are over all governments of
(03:14):
all shades at the moment. And part of that, big,
big part of that is delivery. So you know, announce
the delivery, the contract, the fairies, the final cost and
let's just get on with it.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Yeah, I would appreciate a bit of that too, Thomas
and Josie. We'll be back in just a moment. We've
got well, lots to discuss Donald Trump. We've got Benjamin
Doyle and the issue with GPS. If you're troubling, If
you're having trouble, I should say getting an appointment.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
The huddle with New Zealand Southeby's International Realty achieve extraordinary
results with unparallel reach.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
News talks there b We're on the huddle with Thomas
Scrimer from the Maction Maxim Institute and Josie Bacgaranney from
Child Fund. Just had a quick email from Courtney and Brisbane.
She says, love listening into the show on LB coming
to New Zealand. It won't happen. They haven't made it
to Tasmania yet. Not going to happen for you guys. Sorry.
Nichola willis with us after six talk more about that.
But on this Green's MP Benjamin Doyle and the whole
(04:10):
what's going on, Thomas? What is your take here? Do
you think because just the fact that he is the
spokesperson for early childhood education for the Greens have anything
to do with this, do they need to be careful here?
Speaker 4 (04:25):
I wouldn't hone in on the fact that he's spokesperson
for early childhood education. I think that's to take the
story in a specific direction. It doesn't need to go
in first and foremost. I think this is a story
about a public figure, a member of Parliament, who has
some relatively explicit language posted on his profiles, and he
was left unprepared from his party. The Green seemed incredibly
(04:48):
unprepared to handle this story, even though he'd been in
Parliament for some time.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Yeah, and it's not like they haven't had many of
them to deal with lately, you know, you think they'd
be quite good bye now, Jose it's one.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
It's one a week, isn't it, Ryan? And it does
make me think that the Greens, you know, I think
New Zealand is about five years behind the rest of
the world. And you've got Tamitha Paul talking about defund
the police. I mean this was going on in America
in twenty sixteen and lost them elections. So I sort
of feel like, you know, we need to kind of
catch up with the fact that this stuff is just
(05:20):
not popular.
Speaker 4 (05:21):
Guys.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
You know, you need to focus on the stuff that
people want you to focus on as a Green Party.
But on this particular issue, I don't think the problem
is the language around the Rainbow community Bible belt bussy.
You know, thanks for the explanation. I didn't know what
it was either, so thank you for that, Ryan. But
I don't think it's that that. The issue isn't that
(05:43):
it's not some conservative father of two sitting there going
I don't like all this drag queen stuff. The problem
is the sexualized content, i e. The words bible belt
bussy and a picture of a child sitting on his knee,
and that's the issue that people are going. I'm just
a bit uncomfortable about that. And I heard the explanation
(06:04):
that Ben from the Pride you know community gave you
and Auckland Pride, and I thought that was really good.
But what would be what would be better is if
this MP had stood up and said, you know, look,
this was a series of photos it's unfortunate that that
phrase bible belt bussy, which is sexualized, ended up on
(06:25):
the picture of a child sitting on my knee. But
here's what it was all about, the fact that he
if that was me and there was a photo out
there with something sexy in the title, I would have
come out immediately to set the record straight and clarify
that this was not something that you need to feel
uncomfortable about. I think it's the problem that the explanation
(06:47):
hasn't really been there, and it is just simply the
sexualized wording with the picture of a child. It isn't
an anti rainbow thing. It isn't an anti you know,
the fun of Auckland Pride and the fun of and
the provocativeness of the gay community. That's all great. Everyone
loves that. It's the sexualized content with the picture of
(07:08):
a kid.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Yeah, all right, Donald Trump, do you believe him when
he says Thomas that he'll be going for a third term?
Speaker 4 (07:16):
Well, I think the phrase that people use around Trump
is to take him seriously, but don't take him literally. Now,
quite possibly he's soft launching his plan to become the
next president. But there's plenty of things he's doing in
the immediate president that can be worrying without us spending
too much time stressing about whether he's going for a
(07:37):
third term. I guess the reason to give us hope
is that his vice president is significantly younger and probably
quite ambitious. So if you're worried about American president, perhaps
he's the one we should be stressing about.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Yeah, that's always the rumor, isn't it that that he's
lined him up to be the replacement Josie.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
Yeah, like Putin did with med for death. If you
remember that, he stood down because he could like constitutionally
stand again and God has you know, two ic to
stand and then poot the steps up again. So, yeah,
I am worried about this. And there's a great phrase
out there. I don't know whether you've heard it rhyme,
but you know, shock as leopard eats face said person
who voted for the leopards eating people's faces party. I
(08:19):
think we should take Trump literally. This is what he
said he would do. He said, you know, I'm going
to invade Greenland. I'm going to make Canada the fifty
first state. I'm going to take that Panama Kmal. I'm
going to do tariffs. I'm going to get rid of
these government departments and so on. In fact, he's done
more than he said he would do. So you know,
if you vote for the leopards eating people's faces party,
(08:40):
don't be surprised when the leopard eats your face.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
Very strained analogy, But I get what you're saying. The
thing is, it's too It's almost too much to take though, Josie,
because we've got China, we've got Russia throwing bombs into Europe,
We've got a Ran in the Middle East. I can't
handle another one of these.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
You know, I know, It's just everything, isn't it. I mean,
it's letting people out of jail, it's ignoring judges orders,
it's invading Greenland. I'm very pleased to announce that my
kids have renamed our family chat group the Pegani Family
Top Secret War Plans Chat Group. Right, very good, laugh,
(09:17):
very good.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
All right, Thank you guys for coming on. Appreciate your
time and your thoughts. Thomas Scrimer from the Maximum Institution,
Josie Pagani from Child Fund.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
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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