October 13, 2025 • 11 mins
Tonight on The Huddle, Auckland councillor Richard Hills and Trish Sherson from Sherson Willis PR joined in on a discussion about the following issues of the day!
The local body elections wrapped up over the weekend and turnout has been labelled 'abysmal'. Does the system need to be changed to encourage more people to vote?
The latest numbers show structured literacy seems to be making a huge difference to our youngest readers. Are we pleased with Erica Stanford's solution?
New mums are set to get a three-day stay in hospital after having a baby. Is this a good move?
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
With us on the huddle. We have Tris sheherson of
Sherson Willis pr and Richard Hill's Auckland councilor.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Hello you guys.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Hello Richard. Did you win your seat again?
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Yes? I did.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Go on do your skyte.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
I got the top because Disley didn't stand because she
was elected unopposed. I got the highest vote, Telly in Auckland,
and it went up. I knew you'd love that.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
But yeah, twenty one thousand as of today, I don't understand.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
You'll know, you'll know, you know immediately if that is
a significant Is that a big is that a big margin?
Big number?
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Well, it is more than last time and we had
a sadly very low turnout. So yeah, I'm pretty happy.
It's exhausted, but back in the office today, so.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Yeah, good stuff.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
And have you got anybody new around the council table
who's freaking you out already?
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Oh no, there's Notine, not the mayor.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Five newbies. The Mayor's fine. No, we yeah, we've got
five new councilors and we're just gonna work together and
make the city better.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Of course.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
And who did you vote for, Richard?
Speaker 2 (00:56):
I vote with you mean for mayor just for anybody,
for anyone. Well, I've voted for well.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
I've already been honest about it. I voted for Mark
Kreisel because I know him.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Who is that?
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Okay on never mind say a lot. Did you did
do your vote? Didn't you?
Speaker 4 (01:11):
I certainly did. I voted for Mark Kreisel as well,
and actually he was the highest polling independent for the
Whiteer Matter Local Board. Again because I know Mark, and
actually I really thought we need people stepping up to
go for this. So congrats Richard, and you know, anyone
who sits on council, well done to you. I think
(01:37):
because it's important. But I think on the flip side,
this election signals there is a real problem with local government.
I think there's a couple of things. One is, you know,
when fewer than half bothered to vote, you haven't got
a democracy. You've essentially got a raffle. It's just it's
just not it's not good enough, considering the amount that
(02:01):
local government rates are now increasingly taking out of rate
payers pockets, and considering the contribution of rate increases overall
to our inflation worries in New Zealand. And I agree
with your point. Heither about a structural fix here. If
you think about New Zealand, we're a population of five million,
(02:22):
We're about the size of a big city in a
lot of countries who would have one municipal authority. Now
I'm not saying go that far, but I just don't
think anymore we can afford the drag on productivity and
on rate payers pockets of having so many layers of
local council.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
What do you think, Richard, what's the actual problem and
how would you fix it?
Speaker 3 (02:43):
It's a conversation that's going to be longer than the huddle.
But I think there's a few things that one I
know in Auckland, not having a strong meural contest put
a lot of people off thisid are who cares? You
could see in other areas where there was strong meural
contests they had far higher turnout. Another thing is the postal.
We lost the vote ten to eleven, sadly to make
it booth voting as well. We thought that might help
(03:04):
a little bit because so many people say to me, oh,
where do we go? I'm happy to do it, but
we're kind of I'm handing out flyers and people's leaderboxes
and there's chunks of envelopes sitting in the rain on
the ground. You know, I think the poster was antiquated.
Most people don't even know what post is, so I
think that would have helped a little bit if we'd
had booth voting. But I think also it's the candidates
and people knowing them. So yeah, I'll meet a lot
(03:26):
of people on the street campaign, you know, anywhere I can,
and people go, oh, of cause I've met you, I'll
vote for you, which is a bit of a warrior
in itself, but most people go it looks like a
school test, you know, those tests used to do at
primary school.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Don't you think if you have in Auckland one hundred
and seventy local body politicians, which is more than we
have in Parliament, we've got too many. Right, there's just Auckland.
Now you think about the rest of the country. I
reckon what we should do, Richard, which is an idea
I'm going to I started pitching earlier. I reckon we
cut the territorial authorities from sixty seven down to thirteen
somewhere between thirteen and twenty.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
I think you do need you do need the representation,
but it clearly is not working. It's dire, Like it
does feel pretty depressing seeing those numbers. You can campaign
as hard as you want and then the turnout at solo,
but something structural has to change. Future for local government
study a couple of years ago said a lot of
things that could happen, but I think that people don't understand.
(04:17):
The media don't cover local government like they used to
do in the local papers.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Yeah, it's just too much aim and there's not enough
money in media.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Absolutely now trash. What do you think about that? Structured
literacy A massive fans.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
You know, there's nothing like doing something that actually works
to get results. And you know, when I came through school,
obviously it was very old school structured literacy. It works.
My kids weren't and it was you know, when I
got them home and was trying to help them with
their reading that was really challenging because I thought, well, actually,
(04:54):
how are you going to memorize all the words in
the English language to try and try and learn. I'll
tell you what I really liked out of today's press
conference where Erica Stanford was with the PM, and I
think this is a mark of Stanford as a minister
and probably what's missing in the government overall. She has
real clarity about what her purpose is and she said, look,
(05:18):
my north star is achievement and reducing inequality, and I
measure every decision I makes a minister. I think you
would struggle to find any other minister who could that.
What Maybe Chris Bishop, he's pretty clear. But I think
that's why Stanford is getting results. And the other line
(05:39):
she used, which I thought was fantastic, she said, neither
I nor the Prime Minister have taught one child to read.
That's all down to the teachers and their hard work.
And I thought that is also a mark of her.
So yeah, I think these results are fantastic. And you know,
you can't begin to understand how challenging it is for
(06:03):
a kid to come through school and not be able
to read. It just has such a massive impact on
their life, self esteem and what happens after they leave.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
School just hobbles them at the start. All right, I
want your take on it, Richie will get it after
the break it right, you're back with the huddle, Richard
Hill's and Trishus and Richard, what do you think I mean?
I looked at this, this structured literacy thing gave me hope.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
What looks that the figures are tracking.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Well, it's hard probably to actually show the difference between
year or year or other factors, but I think clearly
that it if it's working, it's important that kids are
getting the better education and learning how to read them write.
But what I do worry about is just making sure
that the curriculum or the structure is flexible enough for
those kids who don't or can't learn that way. So yeah,
(06:50):
kids with dyslexic who a dyslexico, that's a fair point.
So you've just got to make sure that you don't
just put a blanket.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
You go and this is your kind of starting point,
and then anybody who needs a little bit of something
difference kind of you know, you take them off. But
I think we had it the wrong way around before him.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
But it sounds good.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Well, Trash, I said earlier on the show, you love
the new Mum's and Maternity Stay as much as I do.
You even text me over the weekend about it.
Speaker 4 (07:15):
I did, and I'll tell you why. Because when I
had my daughter, she was my second baby, we went
to Auckland Hospital. I may not maybe I didn't listen
during the whole lead up to it. But an hour
after I had her, the midwife said, what do you
want to do now? And I thought, what do you mean,
what we're going to have as a choice between having
(07:35):
some breakfast and having a sleep. And she said, no,
you have either got to go to birthcare in the
next hour or you have to go home. Anyway. My
husband and I am dinard and I said, oh, look,
I'll just go home. He said, I've got some I've
got some work to do, so maybe you should go
to birth care just for the night with a baby.
So that's fine. So you have to get the baby
in the pod, drive across to birthcare. We're getting in
(07:57):
the room there. I was just nodding off to sleep.
I looked at the baby and I said, that baby
is turning blue. Suddenly the baby was whipped out. Everybody
was running and had I gone home with her, I
would have been there on my own and she probably
would have would have died. So I think she had
(08:17):
a little bit of stuff that wasn't suck suctioned out
and she was choking. Yeah, So so for me, I
just think, you know, that is a really frightening it's
a frightening experience and I think having had two kids
like it is a big deal for a woman. It's
(08:38):
big physically you've got to have time with your new
baby just to get a handle on things. And ticking
woman out straight away I think is a It's unsafe,
and I think it's unfair on them.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
Yeah, I agree with you. Where do you stand on
this as a dad, Richard?
Speaker 3 (08:54):
Yeah, I mean it sounds perfect. It sounds absolutely good
if a woman pearents went to have that time. I mean,
obviously personal choice, if you want to leave straight away
all after one night, sure, but I think to have
that access to professionals when you're extremely tired, you are
potentially a new parent and don't know what the heck
you're doing, I think it's really important. But I think
(09:15):
the whole thing relies on the resources. So I've got
family who are midwives and they don't have the beds.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
Go on, tell the story right now, Richard, tell the
story right now.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
That's not appropriate for me to know.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
You tell it. I'm giving you permission.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
Well, my mother in law was a midwife for I
had the duple c ellis right.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
So here I am trush. Imagine this. I go in
and I'm lying leagues, Akimbo, you know, getting ready to
have a baby. She goes, oh you might know Richard.
I was like, oh lord, I was like, what goes
on to a stay was?
Speaker 4 (09:50):
New Zealand is a very very small place.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
This is how I get elected. I think, sorry, I.
Speaker 4 (09:57):
Think it's a bit it's a bit of an that
we've let the service get to this point where we
don't have the resource to look after women properly.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Yeah, totally. Hey her name is Julie. Yes, now Julie.
I have to say it was so discreet, which I
think as midwives amazing. She was so discreet that I
knew and she knew, but you didn't know until I
told you shouldn't get you on the phone and go.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
She didn't tell me.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
She wasn't like I just did.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
But yeah, the.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
Midwife's did an amazing, amazing job. But they are understaffed
and there is not a lot of resources. So this
will only work if the hospitals and the house system
holds up.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
Well yeah, I mean if you've got Wellington Hospital wanting
to take toast off mums.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
You know.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
Okay, guys, listen, thank you so much. Are you going
to go away and celebrate, Richard, you gonna have a beer.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
What do you mean today?
Speaker 4 (10:44):
Well?
Speaker 1 (10:44):
No, oh no, you celebrated with Wayne yesterday.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Yeah, we've we've got work to do.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Now, now you do the mahi. Okay, guys, thanks very much.
Enjoy your week.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
What am I saying?
Speaker 1 (10:53):
A weekend?
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Lord?
Speaker 1 (10:54):
What is going on?
Speaker 4 (10:55):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (10:56):
I'll tell you why. I've got to explain this is
I forgot to tell you this, young hang It'll explain
everything in a minute.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
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
With us on the huddle. We have Tris sheherson of
Sherson Willis pr and Richard Hill's Auckland councilor.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Hello you guys.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Hello Richard. Did you win your seat again?
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Yes? I did.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Go on do your skyte.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
I got the top because Disley didn't stand because she
was elected unopposed. I got the highest vote, Telly in Auckland,
and it went up. I knew you'd love that.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
But yeah, twenty one thousand as of today, I don't understand.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
You'll know, you'll know, you know immediately if that is
a significant Is that a big is that a big margin?
Big number?
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Well, it is more than last time and we had
a sadly very low turnout. So yeah, I'm pretty happy.
It's exhausted, but back in the office today, so.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Yeah, good stuff.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
And have you got anybody new around the council table
who's freaking you out already?
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Oh no, there's Notine, not the mayor.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Five newbies. The Mayor's fine. No, we yeah, we've got
five new councilors and we're just gonna work together and
make the city better.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Of course.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
And who did you vote for, Richard?
Speaker 2 (00:56):
I vote with you mean for mayor just for anybody,
for anyone. Well, I've voted for well.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
I've already been honest about it. I voted for Mark
Kreisel because I know him.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Who is that?
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Okay on never mind say a lot. Did you did
do your vote? Didn't you?
Speaker 4 (01:11):
I certainly did. I voted for Mark Kreisel as well,
and actually he was the highest polling independent for the
Whiteer Matter Local Board. Again because I know Mark, and
actually I really thought we need people stepping up to
go for this. So congrats Richard, and you know, anyone
who sits on council, well done to you. I think
(01:37):
because it's important. But I think on the flip side,
this election signals there is a real problem with local government.
I think there's a couple of things. One is, you know,
when fewer than half bothered to vote, you haven't got
a democracy. You've essentially got a raffle. It's just it's
just not it's not good enough, considering the amount that
(02:01):
local government rates are now increasingly taking out of rate
payers pockets, and considering the contribution of rate increases overall
to our inflation worries in New Zealand. And I agree
with your point. Heither about a structural fix here. If
you think about New Zealand, we're a population of five million,
(02:22):
We're about the size of a big city in a
lot of countries who would have one municipal authority. Now
I'm not saying go that far, but I just don't
think anymore we can afford the drag on productivity and
on rate payers pockets of having so many layers of
local council.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
What do you think, Richard, what's the actual problem and
how would you fix it?
Speaker 3 (02:43):
It's a conversation that's going to be longer than the huddle.
But I think there's a few things that one I
know in Auckland, not having a strong meural contest put
a lot of people off thisid are who cares? You
could see in other areas where there was strong meural
contests they had far higher turnout. Another thing is the postal.
We lost the vote ten to eleven, sadly to make
it booth voting as well. We thought that might help
(03:04):
a little bit because so many people say to me, oh,
where do we go? I'm happy to do it, but
we're kind of I'm handing out flyers and people's leaderboxes
and there's chunks of envelopes sitting in the rain on
the ground. You know, I think the poster was antiquated.
Most people don't even know what post is, so I
think that would have helped a little bit if we'd
had booth voting. But I think also it's the candidates
and people knowing them. So yeah, I'll meet a lot
(03:26):
of people on the street campaign, you know, anywhere I can,
and people go, oh, of cause I've met you, I'll
vote for you, which is a bit of a warrior
in itself, but most people go it looks like a
school test, you know, those tests used to do at
primary school.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Don't you think if you have in Auckland one hundred
and seventy local body politicians, which is more than we
have in Parliament, we've got too many. Right, there's just Auckland.
Now you think about the rest of the country. I
reckon what we should do, Richard, which is an idea
I'm going to I started pitching earlier. I reckon we
cut the territorial authorities from sixty seven down to thirteen
somewhere between thirteen and twenty.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
I think you do need you do need the representation,
but it clearly is not working. It's dire, Like it
does feel pretty depressing seeing those numbers. You can campaign
as hard as you want and then the turnout at solo,
but something structural has to change. Future for local government
study a couple of years ago said a lot of
things that could happen, but I think that people don't understand.
(04:17):
The media don't cover local government like they used to
do in the local papers.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Yeah, it's just too much aim and there's not enough
money in media.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Absolutely now trash. What do you think about that? Structured
literacy A massive fans.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
You know, there's nothing like doing something that actually works
to get results. And you know, when I came through school,
obviously it was very old school structured literacy. It works.
My kids weren't and it was you know, when I
got them home and was trying to help them with
their reading that was really challenging because I thought, well, actually,
(04:54):
how are you going to memorize all the words in
the English language to try and try and learn. I'll
tell you what I really liked out of today's press
conference where Erica Stanford was with the PM, and I
think this is a mark of Stanford as a minister
and probably what's missing in the government overall. She has
real clarity about what her purpose is and she said, look,
(05:18):
my north star is achievement and reducing inequality, and I
measure every decision I makes a minister. I think you
would struggle to find any other minister who could that.
What Maybe Chris Bishop, he's pretty clear. But I think
that's why Stanford is getting results. And the other line
(05:39):
she used, which I thought was fantastic, she said, neither
I nor the Prime Minister have taught one child to read.
That's all down to the teachers and their hard work.
And I thought that is also a mark of her.
So yeah, I think these results are fantastic. And you know,
you can't begin to understand how challenging it is for
(06:03):
a kid to come through school and not be able
to read. It just has such a massive impact on
their life, self esteem and what happens after they leave.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
School just hobbles them at the start. All right, I
want your take on it, Richie will get it after
the break it right, you're back with the huddle, Richard
Hill's and Trishus and Richard, what do you think I mean?
I looked at this, this structured literacy thing gave me hope.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
What looks that the figures are tracking.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Well, it's hard probably to actually show the difference between
year or year or other factors, but I think clearly
that it if it's working, it's important that kids are
getting the better education and learning how to read them write.
But what I do worry about is just making sure
that the curriculum or the structure is flexible enough for
those kids who don't or can't learn that way. So yeah,
(06:50):
kids with dyslexic who a dyslexico, that's a fair point.
So you've just got to make sure that you don't
just put a blanket.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
You go and this is your kind of starting point,
and then anybody who needs a little bit of something
difference kind of you know, you take them off. But
I think we had it the wrong way around before him.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
But it sounds good.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Well, Trash, I said earlier on the show, you love
the new Mum's and Maternity Stay as much as I do.
You even text me over the weekend about it.
Speaker 4 (07:15):
I did, and I'll tell you why. Because when I
had my daughter, she was my second baby, we went
to Auckland Hospital. I may not maybe I didn't listen
during the whole lead up to it. But an hour
after I had her, the midwife said, what do you
want to do now? And I thought, what do you mean,
what we're going to have as a choice between having
(07:35):
some breakfast and having a sleep. And she said, no,
you have either got to go to birthcare in the
next hour or you have to go home. Anyway. My
husband and I am dinard and I said, oh, look,
I'll just go home. He said, I've got some I've
got some work to do, so maybe you should go
to birth care just for the night with a baby.
So that's fine. So you have to get the baby
in the pod, drive across to birthcare. We're getting in
(07:57):
the room there. I was just nodding off to sleep.
I looked at the baby and I said, that baby
is turning blue. Suddenly the baby was whipped out. Everybody
was running and had I gone home with her, I
would have been there on my own and she probably
would have would have died. So I think she had
(08:17):
a little bit of stuff that wasn't suck suctioned out
and she was choking. Yeah, So so for me, I
just think, you know, that is a really frightening it's
a frightening experience and I think having had two kids
like it is a big deal for a woman. It's
(08:38):
big physically you've got to have time with your new
baby just to get a handle on things. And ticking
woman out straight away I think is a It's unsafe,
and I think it's unfair on them.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
Yeah, I agree with you. Where do you stand on
this as a dad, Richard?
Speaker 3 (08:54):
Yeah, I mean it sounds perfect. It sounds absolutely good
if a woman pearents went to have that time. I mean,
obviously personal choice, if you want to leave straight away
all after one night, sure, but I think to have
that access to professionals when you're extremely tired, you are
potentially a new parent and don't know what the heck
you're doing, I think it's really important. But I think
(09:15):
the whole thing relies on the resources. So I've got
family who are midwives and they don't have the beds.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
Go on, tell the story right now, Richard, tell the
story right now.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
That's not appropriate for me to know.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
You tell it. I'm giving you permission.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
Well, my mother in law was a midwife for I
had the duple c ellis right.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
So here I am trush. Imagine this. I go in
and I'm lying leagues, Akimbo, you know, getting ready to
have a baby. She goes, oh you might know Richard.
I was like, oh lord, I was like, what goes
on to a stay was?
Speaker 4 (09:50):
New Zealand is a very very small place.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
This is how I get elected. I think, sorry, I.
Speaker 4 (09:57):
Think it's a bit it's a bit of an that
we've let the service get to this point where we
don't have the resource to look after women properly.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Yeah, totally. Hey her name is Julie. Yes, now Julie.
I have to say it was so discreet, which I
think as midwives amazing. She was so discreet that I
knew and she knew, but you didn't know until I
told you shouldn't get you on the phone and go.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
She didn't tell me.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
She wasn't like I just did.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
But yeah, the.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
Midwife's did an amazing, amazing job. But they are understaffed
and there is not a lot of resources. So this
will only work if the hospitals and the house system
holds up.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
Well yeah, I mean if you've got Wellington Hospital wanting
to take toast off mums.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
You know.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
Okay, guys, listen, thank you so much. Are you going
to go away and celebrate, Richard, you gonna have a beer.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
What do you mean today?
Speaker 4 (10:44):
Well?
Speaker 1 (10:44):
No, oh no, you celebrated with Wayne yesterday.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Yeah, we've we've got work to do.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Now, now you do the mahi. Okay, guys, thanks very much.
Enjoy your week.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
What am I saying?
Speaker 1 (10:53):
A weekend?
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Lord?
Speaker 1 (10:54):
What is going on?
Speaker 4 (10:55):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (10:56):
I'll tell you why. I've got to explain this is
I forgot to tell you this, young hang It'll explain
everything in a minute.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
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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If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!