Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Let's not get weird about helicopters and rich-listers

This debate about Anna Mowbray and Ali Williams' helicopter has just got really, really silly in the last day.

There is now a push for Auckland Council to ban private choppers in residential areas altogether when they next review the unitary plan for Auckland city, and at least 2 councillors now back that. And one of the councillors backing it is the councillor whose ward covers the Mowbray property.

Now I'm sorry, but helicopters are a legitimate form of travel for people who can afford them. They are fast, they avoid traffic jams, and if that is what the Mowbray-Williams family want to use to make their lives easier so they can get from A to B as quickly as possible, all power to them. They can afford it.

I feel sorry for the neighbours, I do. I have empathy. I wouldn't want to live next to a property with a chopper that was landing consistently, but nor would I want to live next to a property where the neighbour has a noisy motorbike.

And yet - we're not banning noisy motorbikes, are we? 

Some noisy motorbikes, by the way, are as noisy as choppers. They can hit 116 decibels, which is pretty much exactly the same as the 118 decibels that you can get if you're standing right next to a chopper landing.

And there is no ban on those noisy motorbikes, is there? There's no council limit on how many times your neighbour can use one of them, there's no council saying: "Oh, you can use it 10 times a month, but that's it, no more." So why are we doing the same with the chopper?

I can't help but feel that some of this anti-chopper sentiment is coming from an anti-rich person place, and we need to get over that. 

Cause we are lucky, actually, that the Mowbrays have chosen to live in New Zealand. These people are gangster rich, they can live anywhere in the world, and yet they're living here in New Zealand.

They're living in Auckland, they're providing work for the people who work in their household, they are paying their mega-dollar taxes into our country, they are pumping money into this economy.

Let's not make it harder for people like that. Let's not make it easier for people like that to leave this country by getting weird about helicopters.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Right, This debate about Animobra and Ali Williams's helicopter has
just got really, really silly. In the last day. There
is now a push for Auckland Council to ban private
choppers in residential areas altogether when they next review the
unitary plan for Auckland City, and at least two councilors
now back that, and one of the councilors backing it
is the councilor whose ward covers the Mobra property. Now,
I'm sorry, but helicopters are a legitimate form of travel

(00:25):
for people who can afford them. They are fast, they
avoid traffic jams, and if that is what the Mobra
Williams family want to make it want to use to
make their lives easier so they can get from A
to B as quickly as possible, all power to them
they can afford it. I feel sorry for the neighbors.
I do. I have empathy. I wouldn't want to live
next to a property with a chopper that was landing consistently,

(00:45):
but nor would I want to live next to a
property where the neighbor has a noisy motorbike. And yet
we're not banning noisy motorbikes. Are we Some noisy motorbikes,
by the way, are as noisy as choppers. They can
hit one hundred and sixteen decibels, which is pretty much
exactly the same as the one hundred and eighteen decibels
that you can get if you're standing right next to
a chopper landing. And there is no ban on those
noisy motorbikes as there there's no council limit on how

(01:08):
many times your neighbour can use one of them. There's
no council saying, oh, you could use it ten times
a month, but that's it no more So, why are
we doing the same with a chopper. I can't help
but feel that some of this anti chopper sentiment is
coming from an anti rich person place, and we need
to get over that because we are lucky actually that
the mobrays have chosen to live in New Zealand. These
people are gangster rich, right, they can live anywhere in

(01:30):
the world, and yet they're living here in New Zealand.
They're living in Auckland. They're providing work for the people
who work in their household. They are paying their mega
dollar taxes into our country. They are pumping money into
this economy. Let's not make it harder for people like that.
Let's not make it easier for people like that to
leave this country by getting weird about helicopters. For more

(01:50):
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