September 28, 2024 • 10 mins
In this week's edition of the Sunday Panel, 818 director Chris Henry and Capital director Ben Thomas joined in on a discussion about the following issues of the week - and more!
Daylight saving has officially kicked in - how do we feel? Are we excited for the warmer weather?
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has unveiled some new changes to speed limits, with all blanket reductions on local streets, arterial roads, and state highways set to be reversed by July next year. Do we agree with these changes?
Over 35,000 people took to the streets in Dunedin to protest the Government pushing pause on the city's new hospital project. What do we make of this?
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News Talks EDB all the highs and lows, talking
the big issues of the week. The panel on the
Sunday Session.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
In this morning, I'm joined by Chris Henry, director at
eight one eight. Good morning, Chris, Good morning, and also
director at Capital and political commentator Ben Thomas.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Good morning, Benner.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Are you both coping with daynight, saman Yeah, I'm feeling
really good about it, looking forward to perhaps the first
barbecue of the season tonight. I feel like that's always
something that's good to do on dwnight, Saban.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
You're a brave man, Chris, you been?
Speaker 4 (00:45):
That explains why I'm a little tired.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Trying.
Speaker 4 (00:50):
I totally forgot about it, but now confusing Sunday Morning
is starting to make sense.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
But actually been, that is the way you just ignore it.
Just ignore it. The time is the time, don't think
about it, otherwise it becomes a problem. Now, guys, this
morning we say it off by talking about the government
signing off on its new speed limit rules, and I
got an awful lot of tech through and not one
person is unhappy about this. They're all keen to go.
What about you, Ben?
Speaker 4 (01:19):
Yeah, look, I in Central Auckland, you know where I
was living. It was crazy, you know. We'd had speed reductions,
you know, for some time, and I think Simon Street
was one of the first areas where it became sort
of thirty kilometers and then, you know, a post grade
student did some research and found that there was about
(01:41):
five percent compliance. I don't think I was ever a
part of that five percent. You just it doesn't occur
to you that you're meant to be sort of almost
not moving when you're driving in the city, unless you're
at the lakes, you know. I think that one of
the most frustrating moments as a driver, I think, and
there's for our police force, when you accidentally come upon
(02:03):
a cop car, you know, on one of those streets,
and then both of you sort of almost lock eyes
for a second, knowing that you're going to have to
slow down to thirty days and they're going to have
to slow down behind you, and you're kind of just
stuck in this interminable kind of dance as you both
(02:24):
crawl towards the end of the street and look for
a turn off so you can get away from each
other and then go in normal speed.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
I think you describe that beautifully, Ben, I think we've
all been in that situation in urban areas. Cresslog I
argue what been saying. I don't see anybody adhering to
the lower speed limits in central Auckland. I don't have
a problem with lowering a speed limit around the school though.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
Yeah, absolutely, I feel this one quite firmly. My partner
is a primary school teacher and one of his key
responsibilities is to demand the crossing at the end of
the day. And even at that thirty case, children are
just so unpredictable and the people that are driving around
those areas just can't see when things are happening, and
the horror stories of near misses that I hear on
(03:11):
an almost weekly basis makes me really nervous that there
would even be any changes around that. I'm really glad
to see that they are keeping that thirty k speed
limit around those pick up and drop off times, but
I do wish that it would exist for the whole day,
you know, a good nine to five or six or six,
because kids are coming and going from those schools all
the time, and yeah, it just feels like a bit
(03:32):
of a excellent wanting to happen.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
And look, I think it's going to get really confusing
for people to know when they're supposed to slide down
or not. I think we all use our common sense
on this. We all go, oh, look at schools, there's
lots of kids around, I'll slow down. So it's pretty simple.
But it's actually gonna about two hundred meters. So I
was kind of like just making the speed limit and
people can use some common sense around it. Would that
be fair?
Speaker 3 (03:52):
Ben?
Speaker 4 (03:53):
Yeah, Look, I think it's important to you know, those
variable signs so that people don't have to do the
mental arithmetic. You know, you see them, and I think
ponsandi and you know where they're electronic signs and in
the speed all changes during the day, because I think otherwise,
you know, people do lose track of time. You know,
three pms is barely you know, you know, still midway
(04:15):
through the day for a lot of working people, and
they don't necessarily connect it if they you know, if
they're not picking up kids to a school run. So
you know, I think I think it's important to sort
of flag it to people. I mean the other thing is,
of course, you know you've got this country schools where
you know, there's a lower speed a little bit of
about seventy k's for that two hundred meters, and I
(04:37):
sometimes I sort of only pick up a little late
that I'm you know, I'm going zooming past the school
in the middle of sort of nowhere. And I really
do think a bit more signage and a bit more
warning would really help there, you know, just to avoid
something unfortunate.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
If we build better roads, and we've got these roads
of national significance and there we put, we throw everything
at them to make them really safe and get one
hundred and twenty kilometers per hour increase. The one thing
I would say, though, is, and this isn't just for
my family's benefit, but also for every other driver out there,
is you know, I have a young driver in our house,
(05:15):
and we're trying to make sure that they're getting has
got to really as experienced as possible in different in
different ways. So you're driving on the open road, driving
at night, driving in bad weather, all those kind of things.
We're trying to build up that experience. But not everybody
has the same experiences as you're Oh, is such a
good driver as you're right, And so I wonder about
(05:37):
putting it up to one hundred and twenty.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Christ Yeah, I mean I personally the idea, especially in
those big roads of National cit against, you know, the
ones up to walk with and that sort of stuff,
it seems ridiculous to be doing one hundred when you
could definitely be doing one hundred and twenty. First of all,
all credit to you for making sure that those experiences
happen in all those different scenarios. I think that is
so key. Yeah, personally, don't have an issue with the
(06:02):
with the big roads National cit against, but I suppose
in some of those smaller roads maybe it's worth making
a common sense approach, though, as we say, common sense
not necessarily that common.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
How do you feel about the speed limits on the
open road, ben.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
Well? I tend to think that you know, you have
a sort of plus and minus kind of ten percent
leeway allowed, you know, because you know that if you're
on the expressway, you know there's not going to be
you know, you're not going to be sort of flagged
down or anything. I think everybody kind of takes one
tend to me one twitty anyway. So yeah, look, I
(06:40):
think in a formal sense you could probably do it
without much worry. But yeah, look, I think you're right,
not not everyone's got the same waystle experience. So it's
not something I would be sort of super pushing for
because I think you've already you've already got quite a
little attitude on those roads, yes.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
And we're trying to just sort of you know, you've
got a teenage boy who tells you they're a good driver,
and you don't know no, no, I am, no, No,
trust me, you know I am.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
I remember being a brilliant driver.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Gris, you nailed it, and I'm sure you were. Hey, guys,
I can completely understand why the people at Donned and
surrounding areas hit the streets yesterday and complete and out
of frustration with this hospital debacle which has been going
on for a very long time. Do we need to
accept that infrastructure that we need is going to cost
a lot more and get on with it, or do
(07:34):
we accept that we're just not going to be able
to have what we want?
Speaker 4 (07:39):
Ben, I mean, hopefully there is a third way that
we get a little better at delivering pro chets on
time and on budget. It's not impossible. I was I
did communications and media for Wayne Brown and his mayoral
campaign and twenty twenty two in Auckland. So I know
(08:00):
better than anyone that he delivered Auckland Hospital on time
and under budget. And you know, these things are not impossible.
But in New Zealand, you know, I think the Infrastructure
Commission has looked at this. You know, there's just terrible,
terrible management of our projects. There's no real discipline, you know,
(08:23):
throughout the lifetime of a project in terms of you know,
from desire, procure design to procurement to build. And yeah, look,
this is a problem across the world, but it's become
particularly sort of agregious, I guess in New Zealand over
the last sort of a couple of decades. You know,
(08:44):
what's the solution? You know? Do you buy one basically
off the shelf from China and get it built here?
Do you get you know, investigate PPPs you know, but
but there or do you just get you know, do
you ask Wayne to take some time out of the
mayoral things, go down to Dunedin for a bit, you know,
(09:04):
you know, but we do need to sou right, we
need hospitals. This is as you saw from the protests
us today. This is going to be an issue. I
think that the devil's this current government, you know, not
through any fault, and I think they created the problem.
Help deal with that. Yeah, the health system is a
mess right now and it's not going to be cleaned
up anytime soon. And new hospital builds are part of that,
(09:27):
and there are essential part of the functioning economy and
functioning society. So we need a solution.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Well, you've come up with some suggestions there, Chris, A
quick word on that.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
Yeah, I mean, I think Ben wouldn't know far more
in this area than I do, and I think that
their third option sounds like a brilliant one. The only
thing I know about building is that it never costs
more money. Well, it'll cost more money tomorrow than it
will today. So definitely getting started on these things. But
I'm sure there's many areas to streamline to make sure
that these happened, I suppose. My other thing is just
(09:59):
I were hearing the reports that there was thirty five
thousand people protesting. That is incredible for a city of
that size. So I know how much the people have
to need must be feeling about this and how important
it is to them.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Ben Thomas and Chris Henry, thank you so much for
your time this morning. Jason Pine's up next.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
For more from the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin. Listen
live to News Talks it Be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News Talks EDB all the highs and lows, talking
the big issues of the week. The panel on the
Sunday Session.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
In this morning, I'm joined by Chris Henry, director at
eight one eight. Good morning, Chris, Good morning, and also
director at Capital and political commentator Ben Thomas.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Good morning, Benner.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Are you both coping with daynight, saman Yeah, I'm feeling
really good about it, looking forward to perhaps the first
barbecue of the season tonight. I feel like that's always
something that's good to do on dwnight, Saban.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
You're a brave man, Chris, you been?
Speaker 4 (00:45):
That explains why I'm a little tired.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Trying.
Speaker 4 (00:50):
I totally forgot about it, but now confusing Sunday Morning
is starting to make sense.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
But actually been, that is the way you just ignore it.
Just ignore it. The time is the time, don't think
about it, otherwise it becomes a problem. Now, guys, this
morning we say it off by talking about the government
signing off on its new speed limit rules, and I
got an awful lot of tech through and not one
person is unhappy about this. They're all keen to go.
What about you, Ben?
Speaker 4 (01:19):
Yeah, look, I in Central Auckland, you know where I
was living. It was crazy, you know. We'd had speed reductions,
you know, for some time, and I think Simon Street
was one of the first areas where it became sort
of thirty kilometers and then, you know, a post grade
student did some research and found that there was about
(01:41):
five percent compliance. I don't think I was ever a
part of that five percent. You just it doesn't occur
to you that you're meant to be sort of almost
not moving when you're driving in the city, unless you're
at the lakes, you know. I think that one of
the most frustrating moments as a driver, I think, and
there's for our police force, when you accidentally come upon
(02:03):
a cop car, you know, on one of those streets,
and then both of you sort of almost lock eyes
for a second, knowing that you're going to have to
slow down to thirty days and they're going to have
to slow down behind you, and you're kind of just
stuck in this interminable kind of dance as you both
(02:24):
crawl towards the end of the street and look for
a turn off so you can get away from each
other and then go in normal speed.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
I think you describe that beautifully, Ben, I think we've
all been in that situation in urban areas. Cresslog I
argue what been saying. I don't see anybody adhering to
the lower speed limits in central Auckland. I don't have
a problem with lowering a speed limit around the school though.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
Yeah, absolutely, I feel this one quite firmly. My partner
is a primary school teacher and one of his key
responsibilities is to demand the crossing at the end of
the day. And even at that thirty case, children are
just so unpredictable and the people that are driving around
those areas just can't see when things are happening, and
the horror stories of near misses that I hear on
(03:11):
an almost weekly basis makes me really nervous that there
would even be any changes around that. I'm really glad
to see that they are keeping that thirty k speed
limit around those pick up and drop off times, but
I do wish that it would exist for the whole day,
you know, a good nine to five or six or six,
because kids are coming and going from those schools all
the time, and yeah, it just feels like a bit
(03:32):
of a excellent wanting to happen.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
And look, I think it's going to get really confusing
for people to know when they're supposed to slide down
or not. I think we all use our common sense
on this. We all go, oh, look at schools, there's
lots of kids around, I'll slow down. So it's pretty simple.
But it's actually gonna about two hundred meters. So I
was kind of like just making the speed limit and
people can use some common sense around it. Would that
be fair?
Speaker 3 (03:52):
Ben?
Speaker 4 (03:53):
Yeah, Look, I think it's important to you know, those
variable signs so that people don't have to do the
mental arithmetic. You know, you see them, and I think
ponsandi and you know where they're electronic signs and in
the speed all changes during the day, because I think otherwise,
you know, people do lose track of time. You know,
three pms is barely you know, you know, still midway
(04:15):
through the day for a lot of working people, and
they don't necessarily connect it if they you know, if
they're not picking up kids to a school run. So
you know, I think I think it's important to sort
of flag it to people. I mean the other thing is,
of course, you know you've got this country schools where
you know, there's a lower speed a little bit of
about seventy k's for that two hundred meters, and I
(04:37):
sometimes I sort of only pick up a little late
that I'm you know, I'm going zooming past the school
in the middle of sort of nowhere. And I really
do think a bit more signage and a bit more
warning would really help there, you know, just to avoid
something unfortunate.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
If we build better roads, and we've got these roads
of national significance and there we put, we throw everything
at them to make them really safe and get one
hundred and twenty kilometers per hour increase. The one thing
I would say, though, is, and this isn't just for
my family's benefit, but also for every other driver out there,
is you know, I have a young driver in our house,
(05:15):
and we're trying to make sure that they're getting has
got to really as experienced as possible in different in
different ways. So you're driving on the open road, driving
at night, driving in bad weather, all those kind of things.
We're trying to build up that experience. But not everybody
has the same experiences as you're Oh, is such a
good driver as you're right, And so I wonder about
(05:37):
putting it up to one hundred and twenty.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Christ Yeah, I mean I personally the idea, especially in
those big roads of National cit against, you know, the
ones up to walk with and that sort of stuff,
it seems ridiculous to be doing one hundred when you
could definitely be doing one hundred and twenty. First of all,
all credit to you for making sure that those experiences
happen in all those different scenarios. I think that is
so key. Yeah, personally, don't have an issue with the
(06:02):
with the big roads National cit against, but I suppose
in some of those smaller roads maybe it's worth making
a common sense approach, though, as we say, common sense
not necessarily that common.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
How do you feel about the speed limits on the
open road, ben.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
Well? I tend to think that you know, you have
a sort of plus and minus kind of ten percent
leeway allowed, you know, because you know that if you're
on the expressway, you know there's not going to be
you know, you're not going to be sort of flagged
down or anything. I think everybody kind of takes one
tend to me one twitty anyway. So yeah, look, I
(06:40):
think in a formal sense you could probably do it
without much worry. But yeah, look, I think you're right,
not not everyone's got the same waystle experience. So it's
not something I would be sort of super pushing for
because I think you've already you've already got quite a
little attitude on those roads, yes.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
And we're trying to just sort of you know, you've
got a teenage boy who tells you they're a good driver,
and you don't know no, no, I am, no, No,
trust me, you know I am.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
I remember being a brilliant driver.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Gris, you nailed it, and I'm sure you were. Hey, guys,
I can completely understand why the people at Donned and
surrounding areas hit the streets yesterday and complete and out
of frustration with this hospital debacle which has been going
on for a very long time. Do we need to
accept that infrastructure that we need is going to cost
a lot more and get on with it, or do
(07:34):
we accept that we're just not going to be able
to have what we want?
Speaker 4 (07:39):
Ben, I mean, hopefully there is a third way that
we get a little better at delivering pro chets on
time and on budget. It's not impossible. I was I
did communications and media for Wayne Brown and his mayoral
campaign and twenty twenty two in Auckland. So I know
(08:00):
better than anyone that he delivered Auckland Hospital on time
and under budget. And you know, these things are not impossible.
But in New Zealand, you know, I think the Infrastructure
Commission has looked at this. You know, there's just terrible,
terrible management of our projects. There's no real discipline, you know,
(08:23):
throughout the lifetime of a project in terms of you know,
from desire, procure design to procurement to build. And yeah, look,
this is a problem across the world, but it's become
particularly sort of agregious, I guess in New Zealand over
the last sort of a couple of decades. You know,
(08:44):
what's the solution? You know? Do you buy one basically
off the shelf from China and get it built here?
Do you get you know, investigate PPPs you know, but
but there or do you just get you know, do
you ask Wayne to take some time out of the
mayoral things, go down to Dunedin for a bit, you know,
(09:04):
you know, but we do need to sou right, we
need hospitals. This is as you saw from the protests
us today. This is going to be an issue. I
think that the devil's this current government, you know, not
through any fault, and I think they created the problem.
Help deal with that. Yeah, the health system is a
mess right now and it's not going to be cleaned
up anytime soon. And new hospital builds are part of that,
(09:27):
and there are essential part of the functioning economy and
functioning society. So we need a solution.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Well, you've come up with some suggestions there, Chris, A
quick word on that.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
Yeah, I mean, I think Ben wouldn't know far more
in this area than I do, and I think that
their third option sounds like a brilliant one. The only
thing I know about building is that it never costs
more money. Well, it'll cost more money tomorrow than it
will today. So definitely getting started on these things. But
I'm sure there's many areas to streamline to make sure
that these happened, I suppose. My other thing is just
(09:59):
I were hearing the reports that there was thirty five
thousand people protesting. That is incredible for a city of
that size. So I know how much the people have
to need must be feeling about this and how important
it is to them.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Ben Thomas and Chris Henry, thank you so much for
your time this morning. Jason Pine's up next.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
For more from the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin. Listen
live to News Talks it Be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
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