December 3, 2025 • 9 mins
Tonight on The Huddle Auckland councillor Maurice Williamson and Ali Jones from Red PR joined in on a discussion about the following issues of the day - and more!
Andrew Coster has quit his role as CEO of the Social Investment Agency. He'll get paid three months notice, like a few other high profile servants who have recently "resigned". Are you uncomfortable that we're paying people out to quit rather than just sacking them?
The school lunch drama between principal Peggy Burrows and Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour continues. Who do you think is telling the truth here? Do you care at all?
Half of us apparently drive around with lapsed car registrations and WOFs. Is your registration and WOF up to date? Is it too much admin?
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Morris Williamson and Allie Jones on the huddle with me. Morris,
first of all, I mean, do you have facial hair?
Speaker 2 (00:09):
No? But I did for many years.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Okay, I mean should I ask the same question of you? Alie?
Speaker 3 (00:14):
I knew you were going to do that.
Speaker 4 (00:15):
I knew that and booked them for a.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Week only because no, Allie, honestly, only.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Because I have done that dead.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
The lights at the gym are really bright, and the
other day I was standing there and I thought, oh, lord, girl,
you're going to turn into one of those women with
the beard.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
And about me, I know.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Well I need to go when I hear my husband
starting to go mad, which the noise for a ghost.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
So it's not a silly question.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
But no, I don't have face.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
I'm so pleased to hear it.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Okay, now, so uncomfortable with this, I'm frightened.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Oh we haven't even got started, Morris. And we're still
we're still dealing with the face. There's a lot we
can go far further south. Now, Andrew Costa quitting? Is
this the right outcome? Morris?
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Well, I think it's correct that he quit, or as
I think Sir Brian Wright said, they were to find.
And what I don't get is if you resign from anything,
you've taken the ownership on that and decided to do it,
which is fine. I think you should just get any
leave that's owing to you and paid up until the
following Friday or whatever. But to actually choose to resign,
(01:24):
as many of these people have in the health system
and right across the government sector, they resign from the
job therein which means they are choosing to go, and
then we give them a big payout. I just don't
get it.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
I don't quite understand it either, Alie, other than the
only possible explanation is that they have an extraordinary notice
period that they have to work out and then they
get paid for actually not even turning up at the office.
Speaker 4 (01:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Look, I think Morris is being a little bit disingenuous
because he knows from his work life too that people's
contracts in a arrangements vary. It is not one size
fits all, and if you resign, you can't say that
everyone who resigns, you know it, gives a couple of
weeks notice and then they're gone on Friday.
Speaker 4 (02:09):
When you negotiate your.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Contract, you obviously negotiate it according to who you are,
what you've done, are you know your experience and what
hole you're going to leave when you go and I
think you see that reflected in these high profiles. Let
me ask you this sentiment.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Let me ask you this, allie. If you if you're
Andrew Costa and you resign today, which he's done, and
then you have a three month notice period, should we
be paying you out for your three month notice period
if you're not turning up at the office for the
next three months that.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
If that's what the contract says, I mean that you
cannot This all comes down. I'm not an employment lawyer.
I've got no idea what's in cost of contract or
even what's an employment law. But you can't just go well,
I don't think that we should be paying out three months.
These people have got contracts, they negotiate their contracts.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
They all vary. It is what it is.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
I think it's a show that this money is spent
at a time when we could use it at the
cold face. But unfortunately that is the contract they have negotiated,
and unfortunately.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
I got accused of being disingenuous. I've seen a number
of employment contracts in the private sect they're in in
the public. I don't know any that says we'll give
you a big payout if you choose to quit. I
know that if we're going to make you redund if
we're going to make you redundant, we should pay you
a redundancy. If you're going to be even if it's
going to be a constructive dismissal, you'll have a right
(03:30):
to take a claim about it. But if you just choose,
you can't just go in one day and say you
know what, I don't want to keep doing this job
and then say now pay me out.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
But hold on, t we don't know that that's what happened.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
You know, that's not what's happening. So what's happening, No,
it appears is two different things. So Morris, in many
cases like Andrew Costa, he's resigning right clearly a forced resignation,
so he's resigning under durest and then he's got three
months to serve, so they pay him for that three
months and they say don't come into the office. That's legally,
I mean, that's fair.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Yeah, well, I guess we need to see the exact
wording of the contract. But there's been so many others
when I've seen the keep Executive that Health New Zealand
and so on, that they decide this is no longer
the job I want to do, so I'm resigning, and
then they get a very large payout, and I just
don't agree with that at Allecially.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
What's going on here. I'm on your side on this, Morris,
because what's going on here is they are being forced
out and then getting this lovely little notice period without
having to come in. And then the other nice little
thing that we apparently do now is we create a
restraint of trade claws for somebody like what's his name,
Adrian or when there is no competition. So it's all
I mean, it's just designed to find ways to pay
(04:40):
them to go away, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
You're saying you can't go to another Reserve Bank of
New Zealand.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
No, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
If there is a mutual it'll be Hey, it's a
mutual agreement though, right this is the thing. I don't
think anyone rocks up and goes I'm going to resign today.
I think it's quite clear with the people that have
resigned recently that it has been a mutual agreement and
part of that mutual agreement in their contract will be
that workout.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
You know.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
The problem is it's tricky, tricky stuff that's going on,
and it's our money.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
Yeah, well I don't disagree with you, but it is
what it is. Your contract. Well, it says what it says.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
They want to go, they want you to go. It's
a mutual agreement. Off you go, and it's three months
work you pet work here time.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Okay, we'll take a break, come back to you go
shortly right, you're back with the huddle. Allie Jones and
Morris Williamson. Allie, where do you fall on the school
lunch drama? Who do you believe here?
Speaker 4 (05:29):
Oh god, it's so hard, isn't. I've heard your interview before.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
Let's draw a veil very discreetly.
Speaker 4 (05:35):
Over there to move on.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
I know Peggy really well Peggy Burroughs. I've known her
for a number of years. She is a straight shooter,
she doesn't take any bs, and she knows her stuff.
I think she's stayed really calm in the light of
what's been going on. Politicians do not like people like that,
and male politicians especially don't like that. Sorry Morris, but
(05:57):
what annoys me about this is that Seymour is in
a position of power, he is basically bullying her. And
I would like to say I'm amazed, or I wish
i could say I'm amazed at him making this personal,
but I'm not. And I've seen it before with politicians
who use their power to bully and make things personal.
(06:17):
I'm really pleased that Peggy's put up the evidence that
she has. It's clear that Seymour can't, and I'm waiting
to see that.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
Maurris.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Yeah, look, I agree. I think it's based on evidence,
and I would hope that the food safety people who
make the claim that it's stuff that's been there for
a long time can actually verify it. I mean you
can Otherwise, anyone can say anything they like at any time,
and then that becomes the narrative. I mean, there is
an evidence tree here that they could follow do a
little bit of forensic sort of when meals were delivered
(06:48):
and how many and how many were left and so on.
I don't know where the truth lies, and so I
can't take a position on it, but I do believe
if you want to go into a debate on these things,
you better come armed with some fats yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
I'd say so too. Okay, now do you know, Morris,
if your car's regio and warrant is completely up to date?
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Right? I do. In fact, I've got this natty little
app from New Zealand Transport Agency on my cell phone
and if I click it, it opens up and shows
me all the vehicles we've got here. And we've got
a whole lot because the kids have got cars and
Rayven's got a car, and I've got a diesel that's
got to Avro and it tells me the status of
them all. I noticed that I'm due for a warrant
in three weeks on one of mine and I've still
(07:31):
got about five thousand kilometers of ruck left the guard.
It's all just sitting on my screen, so.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
I never alert you, like does it say hey, your
warrants up in three weeks or whatever?
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Yes it does. It's a free app out of New
Zealand Transport Agency. You can register all your vehicles on it,
put them all onto the system and then I don't
know whether you had to use real me. I had
to use real Me to log in, but maybe other ways.
It's fantastic because.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
I've died a little bit inside did you die a
little bit?
Speaker 3 (08:04):
It's amazing. I mean, waters smarty pants, you are for
an old man. I mean that's just I'm.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Elli.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Ologies do we need on this show today?
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (08:18):
Look, I don't know. Do we get a free tick
after the night's one or something? I don't know.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
No, I think that's really good and I think I'm
going to do that too. So it's it's an mz
TA one.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Yeh, it's just mz TA app. I think if you
go into the app store you'll see it sitting there
and you then load your vehicles by a registration plate
and it tells you when the warrants jew when the
registration's due, and if you've got a diesel vehicle, when
your ruck is due.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
How good is that?
Speaker 4 (08:42):
Brilliant?
Speaker 3 (08:43):
Well, yeah, mine's coming up. I know my readg is
coming up. But that's just because I checked the stick
of this morning. I'll have to be a bit more
sophisticated next time.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Good on you guys. I mean nothing, honestly, once it's digital,
you've got it sort of. Other than that, it's it's
a problem. Thank you so much, both of you. Morris
Williams and Auckland councilor and Alie Jones red PR.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to
News Talk SETB from four pm weekdays, or follow the
podcast on iHeartRadio
Morris Williamson and Allie Jones on the huddle with me. Morris,
first of all, I mean, do you have facial hair?
Speaker 2 (00:09):
No? But I did for many years.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Okay, I mean should I ask the same question of you? Alie?
Speaker 3 (00:14):
I knew you were going to do that.
Speaker 4 (00:15):
I knew that and booked them for a.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Week only because no, Allie, honestly, only.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Because I have done that dead.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
The lights at the gym are really bright, and the
other day I was standing there and I thought, oh, lord, girl,
you're going to turn into one of those women with
the beard.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
And about me, I know.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Well I need to go when I hear my husband
starting to go mad, which the noise for a ghost.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
So it's not a silly question.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
But no, I don't have face.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
I'm so pleased to hear it.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Okay, now, so uncomfortable with this, I'm frightened.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Oh we haven't even got started, Morris. And we're still
we're still dealing with the face. There's a lot we
can go far further south. Now, Andrew Costa quitting? Is
this the right outcome? Morris?
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Well, I think it's correct that he quit, or as
I think Sir Brian Wright said, they were to find.
And what I don't get is if you resign from anything,
you've taken the ownership on that and decided to do it,
which is fine. I think you should just get any
leave that's owing to you and paid up until the
following Friday or whatever. But to actually choose to resign,
(01:24):
as many of these people have in the health system
and right across the government sector, they resign from the
job therein which means they are choosing to go, and
then we give them a big payout. I just don't
get it.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
I don't quite understand it either, Alie, other than the
only possible explanation is that they have an extraordinary notice
period that they have to work out and then they
get paid for actually not even turning up at the office.
Speaker 4 (01:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Look, I think Morris is being a little bit disingenuous
because he knows from his work life too that people's
contracts in a arrangements vary. It is not one size
fits all, and if you resign, you can't say that
everyone who resigns, you know it, gives a couple of
weeks notice and then they're gone on Friday.
Speaker 4 (02:09):
When you negotiate your.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Contract, you obviously negotiate it according to who you are,
what you've done, are you know your experience and what
hole you're going to leave when you go and I
think you see that reflected in these high profiles. Let
me ask you this sentiment.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Let me ask you this, allie. If you if you're
Andrew Costa and you resign today, which he's done, and
then you have a three month notice period, should we
be paying you out for your three month notice period
if you're not turning up at the office for the
next three months that.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
If that's what the contract says, I mean that you
cannot This all comes down. I'm not an employment lawyer.
I've got no idea what's in cost of contract or
even what's an employment law. But you can't just go well,
I don't think that we should be paying out three months.
These people have got contracts, they negotiate their contracts.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
They all vary. It is what it is.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
I think it's a show that this money is spent
at a time when we could use it at the
cold face. But unfortunately that is the contract they have negotiated,
and unfortunately.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
I got accused of being disingenuous. I've seen a number
of employment contracts in the private sect they're in in
the public. I don't know any that says we'll give
you a big payout if you choose to quit. I
know that if we're going to make you redund if
we're going to make you redundant, we should pay you
a redundancy. If you're going to be even if it's
going to be a constructive dismissal, you'll have a right
(03:30):
to take a claim about it. But if you just choose,
you can't just go in one day and say you
know what, I don't want to keep doing this job
and then say now pay me out.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
But hold on, t we don't know that that's what happened.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
You know, that's not what's happening. So what's happening, No,
it appears is two different things. So Morris, in many
cases like Andrew Costa, he's resigning right clearly a forced resignation,
so he's resigning under durest and then he's got three
months to serve, so they pay him for that three
months and they say don't come into the office. That's legally,
I mean, that's fair.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Yeah, well, I guess we need to see the exact
wording of the contract. But there's been so many others
when I've seen the keep Executive that Health New Zealand
and so on, that they decide this is no longer
the job I want to do, so I'm resigning, and
then they get a very large payout, and I just
don't agree with that at Allecially.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
What's going on here. I'm on your side on this, Morris,
because what's going on here is they are being forced
out and then getting this lovely little notice period without
having to come in. And then the other nice little
thing that we apparently do now is we create a
restraint of trade claws for somebody like what's his name,
Adrian or when there is no competition. So it's all
I mean, it's just designed to find ways to pay
(04:40):
them to go away, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
You're saying you can't go to another Reserve Bank of
New Zealand.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
No, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
If there is a mutual it'll be Hey, it's a
mutual agreement though, right this is the thing. I don't
think anyone rocks up and goes I'm going to resign today.
I think it's quite clear with the people that have
resigned recently that it has been a mutual agreement and
part of that mutual agreement in their contract will be
that workout.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
You know.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
The problem is it's tricky, tricky stuff that's going on,
and it's our money.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
Yeah, well I don't disagree with you, but it is
what it is. Your contract. Well, it says what it says.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
They want to go, they want you to go. It's
a mutual agreement. Off you go, and it's three months
work you pet work here time.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Okay, we'll take a break, come back to you go
shortly right, you're back with the huddle. Allie Jones and
Morris Williamson. Allie, where do you fall on the school
lunch drama? Who do you believe here?
Speaker 4 (05:29):
Oh god, it's so hard, isn't. I've heard your interview before.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
Let's draw a veil very discreetly.
Speaker 4 (05:35):
Over there to move on.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
I know Peggy really well Peggy Burroughs. I've known her
for a number of years. She is a straight shooter,
she doesn't take any bs, and she knows her stuff.
I think she's stayed really calm in the light of
what's been going on. Politicians do not like people like that,
and male politicians especially don't like that. Sorry Morris, but
(05:57):
what annoys me about this is that Seymour is in
a position of power, he is basically bullying her. And
I would like to say I'm amazed, or I wish
i could say I'm amazed at him making this personal,
but I'm not. And I've seen it before with politicians
who use their power to bully and make things personal.
(06:17):
I'm really pleased that Peggy's put up the evidence that
she has. It's clear that Seymour can't, and I'm waiting
to see that.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
Maurris.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Yeah, look, I agree. I think it's based on evidence,
and I would hope that the food safety people who
make the claim that it's stuff that's been there for
a long time can actually verify it. I mean you
can Otherwise, anyone can say anything they like at any time,
and then that becomes the narrative. I mean, there is
an evidence tree here that they could follow do a
little bit of forensic sort of when meals were delivered
(06:48):
and how many and how many were left and so on.
I don't know where the truth lies, and so I
can't take a position on it, but I do believe
if you want to go into a debate on these things,
you better come armed with some fats yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
I'd say so too. Okay, now do you know, Morris,
if your car's regio and warrant is completely up to date?
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Right? I do. In fact, I've got this natty little
app from New Zealand Transport Agency on my cell phone
and if I click it, it opens up and shows
me all the vehicles we've got here. And we've got
a whole lot because the kids have got cars and
Rayven's got a car, and I've got a diesel that's
got to Avro and it tells me the status of
them all. I noticed that I'm due for a warrant
in three weeks on one of mine and I've still
(07:31):
got about five thousand kilometers of ruck left the guard.
It's all just sitting on my screen, so.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
I never alert you, like does it say hey, your
warrants up in three weeks or whatever?
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Yes it does. It's a free app out of New
Zealand Transport Agency. You can register all your vehicles on it,
put them all onto the system and then I don't
know whether you had to use real me. I had
to use real Me to log in, but maybe other ways.
It's fantastic because.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
I've died a little bit inside did you die a
little bit?
Speaker 3 (08:04):
It's amazing. I mean, waters smarty pants, you are for
an old man. I mean that's just I'm.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Elli.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Ologies do we need on this show today?
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (08:18):
Look, I don't know. Do we get a free tick
after the night's one or something? I don't know.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
No, I think that's really good and I think I'm
going to do that too. So it's it's an mz
TA one.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Yeh, it's just mz TA app. I think if you
go into the app store you'll see it sitting there
and you then load your vehicles by a registration plate
and it tells you when the warrants jew when the
registration's due, and if you've got a diesel vehicle, when
your ruck is due.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
How good is that?
Speaker 4 (08:42):
Brilliant?
Speaker 3 (08:43):
Well, yeah, mine's coming up. I know my readg is
coming up. But that's just because I checked the stick
of this morning. I'll have to be a bit more
sophisticated next time.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Good on you guys. I mean nothing, honestly, once it's digital,
you've got it sort of. Other than that, it's it's
a problem. Thank you so much, both of you. Morris
Williams and Auckland councilor and Alie Jones red PR.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to
News Talk SETB from four pm weekdays, or follow the
podcast on iHeartRadio
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