A new poll has revealed New Zealander's thoughts on selling the Interislander, and a Wellington school is facing further allegations of bullying.
To talk through the stories, NZ Herald's Wellington issues reporter Georgina Campbell joined Nick Mills for her regular Capital Letter slot.
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Wellington Mornings podcast with Nick Mills
from News Talks ATB taking the pulse of the city.
The Capital Letter on News Talks at B.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Joining us for her regular Capital Letter slot is New
Zealand Heralds Wellington's Issues reporter Georgina Campbell. Good morning, George,
Good morning. There's a poll out on the fairies. What
does that actually tell us?
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Yeah, a taxpayers Union Career poll suggests that kiwis are
divided over whether the government should sell the inter island
a cook straight faery service to a private operator. There's
a lot of chat about this at the moment, isn't there? Yes, obviously,
because we're in a bit of trouble with our fairy fleet,
and I think kiwi's are rightfully asking themselves, well, should
(00:52):
Kimi Raw you know, continue to have this fleet and
responsibility for it. So of the respondents, forty three percent
supported a sale, thirty eight percent were opposed, and nineteen
percent were unsure. I was a little bit surprised by
the fact that they were divided. I thought maybe more
people would have been keen to see the Interlander taken
(01:14):
off k just given everything that's happened.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
I think it's the importance of it being state Highway
one between the North and South Island. I think us
and I'm talking about an older generation kiwis it's something
that we just need to have.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
Do you think kimi row should absolutely.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Yeah, they should be running. It should be a government,
you know run thing, because it's so important. You know,
private equity companies or those companies they can come and
go whenever they please. They can charge what they want
when they want. But anyway, it's about you, not me
this segment.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
The interesting thing is that one of the things that
the government is looking at is, you know, do they
create like a news Day owned enterprise to transfer the
introlander into that. So therefore, you know, it's still.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Let's just shifting. It's just shifting the chairs deck chairs
on the Titanic, really, isn't It's the same deal, same government,
same owner.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Well, same shareholder, but the people operating it would be changed.
And I think that's you know, I think that's a
valid thing to be considering because ki rail has so
much on its plate at the moment. It's not like
it's train kind of surface and tracks are going smoothly
with the disruptions that we've had to commuter rail in
(02:24):
Auckland and Wellington, so it'll be interesting to see what
happens there. But yeah, here's a divided Okay.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
There's still a lot of questions for KII Rail to
answer about the autopilot bungle. What's your latest thoughts? What
are you thinking on this one, George?
Speaker 3 (02:38):
I kind of believe this when there was this leaked
safety bullet in last week, just to recap, the Arditary
ferry was on autopilot when this execute button was accidentally pressed,
causing the ship to veer off course before running aground
in Pittin, and I just sort of thought, gosh, Keevy
Rail's been blasted for poor maintenance of its Intralinda fairies.
(03:00):
It's finally up to its gain and in this instance
put in a new steering system and now faces questions
about where the staff actually knew how to use this
recently upgraded system. So so like even when Kraal does
the maintenance still well, it appears.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
The other question that I wanted to know why it's
auto pilot. It can't be a very good auto pilot.
If it drives it straight into the road, it's not
very good auto pilot is.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
It well, So it appears that they sort of accidentally
press something too soon, which started the ship turning, and
then they didn't know how to override that decision. This
is according to the safety bulletin, and I think it's
also worth pointing out because there's been a bit of
confusion about this. The problem was not that the autopilot
(03:49):
was on so actually, and this surprised me, but autopilot
is used at the shipmaster's direction. It's used in that
part of the water all the time.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
That was allowed.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
The problem was that this button was accidentally pushed and
the crew could not regain control.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
No, they had to hold a button for five seconds.
I thought they told you when they tell you how
to play ads, they say, don't hold it down, just
go bang, so you know what to do. And there's
been an update on your story you wrote a few
weeks ago about bullying at a Warnington school. Can you
update us on that one?
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Yeah, So since I published that story, three more families
have come forward. They've contacted me directly, you know, and
one mother says she's finally starting to see her daughter's
light shines through. But the damage caused by bullying at
Saint Benedict's School in Wellington will be there forever. So yeah,
(04:40):
it's some difficult allegations to hear actually from these parents,
and this is after we revealed that other parents had
taken their concerns to the Education Minister's office. These parents,
their motivation for coming forward is that they're concerned that,
you know, little has changed since they all of them
decided to remove their children from the school in recent years.
(05:04):
For some of them, the persistent bullying emharrassment, as they alleged,
led to some of their children becoming so anxious that
they required counseling. Now just to get the school board's
response in there, you know, they say that these incidents
were not ignored at the time, investigations were undertaken, and
you have assured that there were consequences were appropriate, and
(05:25):
the school board presiding member has said that, you know,
they're all committed to continual improvement in this space.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Yeah, surprising, because you know, I've got history with that school.
I've got lots of friends kids that went there and
had very good time, had really good success at that school.
So it really is surprising. Thanks for updating us on
all that, George, and thanks for doing the investigative journalism
work so everybody can actually find out what's going on.
Georgina Campbell is Wellington's issues reporter for the New Zealand.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Here for more from Wellington Mornings with Nick Mills, listen
live to news talks they'd be Wellington from nine am weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the Wellington Mornings podcast with Nick Mills
from News Talks ATB taking the pulse of the city.
The Capital Letter on News Talks at B.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Joining us for her regular Capital Letter slot is New
Zealand Heralds Wellington's Issues reporter Georgina Campbell. Good morning, George,
Good morning. There's a poll out on the fairies. What
does that actually tell us?
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Yeah, a taxpayers Union Career poll suggests that kiwis are
divided over whether the government should sell the inter island
a cook straight faery service to a private operator. There's
a lot of chat about this at the moment, isn't there? Yes, obviously,
because we're in a bit of trouble with our fairy fleet,
and I think kiwi's are rightfully asking themselves, well, should
(00:52):
Kimi Raw you know, continue to have this fleet and
responsibility for it. So of the respondents, forty three percent
supported a sale, thirty eight percent were opposed, and nineteen
percent were unsure. I was a little bit surprised by
the fact that they were divided. I thought maybe more
people would have been keen to see the Interlander taken
(01:14):
off k just given everything that's happened.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
I think it's the importance of it being state Highway
one between the North and South Island. I think us
and I'm talking about an older generation kiwis it's something
that we just need to have.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
Do you think kimi row should absolutely.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Yeah, they should be running. It should be a government,
you know run thing, because it's so important. You know,
private equity companies or those companies they can come and
go whenever they please. They can charge what they want
when they want. But anyway, it's about you, not me
this segment.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
The interesting thing is that one of the things that
the government is looking at is, you know, do they
create like a news Day owned enterprise to transfer the
introlander into that. So therefore, you know, it's still.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Let's just shifting. It's just shifting the chairs deck chairs
on the Titanic, really, isn't It's the same deal, same government,
same owner.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Well, same shareholder, but the people operating it would be changed.
And I think that's you know, I think that's a
valid thing to be considering because ki rail has so
much on its plate at the moment. It's not like
it's train kind of surface and tracks are going smoothly
with the disruptions that we've had to commuter rail in
(02:24):
Auckland and Wellington, so it'll be interesting to see what
happens there. But yeah, here's a divided Okay.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
There's still a lot of questions for KII Rail to
answer about the autopilot bungle. What's your latest thoughts? What
are you thinking on this one, George?
Speaker 3 (02:38):
I kind of believe this when there was this leaked
safety bullet in last week, just to recap, the Arditary
ferry was on autopilot when this execute button was accidentally pressed,
causing the ship to veer off course before running aground
in Pittin, and I just sort of thought, gosh, Keevy
Rail's been blasted for poor maintenance of its Intralinda fairies.
(03:00):
It's finally up to its gain and in this instance
put in a new steering system and now faces questions
about where the staff actually knew how to use this
recently upgraded system. So so like even when Kraal does
the maintenance still well, it appears.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
The other question that I wanted to know why it's
auto pilot. It can't be a very good auto pilot.
If it drives it straight into the road, it's not
very good auto pilot is.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
It well, So it appears that they sort of accidentally
press something too soon, which started the ship turning, and
then they didn't know how to override that decision. This
is according to the safety bulletin, and I think it's
also worth pointing out because there's been a bit of
confusion about this. The problem was not that the autopilot
(03:49):
was on so actually, and this surprised me, but autopilot
is used at the shipmaster's direction. It's used in that
part of the water all the time.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
That was allowed.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
The problem was that this button was accidentally pushed and
the crew could not regain control.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
No, they had to hold a button for five seconds.
I thought they told you when they tell you how
to play ads, they say, don't hold it down, just
go bang, so you know what to do. And there's
been an update on your story you wrote a few
weeks ago about bullying at a Warnington school. Can you
update us on that one?
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Yeah, So since I published that story, three more families
have come forward. They've contacted me directly, you know, and
one mother says she's finally starting to see her daughter's
light shines through. But the damage caused by bullying at
Saint Benedict's School in Wellington will be there forever. So yeah,
(04:40):
it's some difficult allegations to hear actually from these parents,
and this is after we revealed that other parents had
taken their concerns to the Education Minister's office. These parents,
their motivation for coming forward is that they're concerned that,
you know, little has changed since they all of them
decided to remove their children from the school in recent years.
(05:04):
For some of them, the persistent bullying emharrassment, as they alleged,
led to some of their children becoming so anxious that
they required counseling. Now just to get the school board's
response in there, you know, they say that these incidents
were not ignored at the time, investigations were undertaken, and
you have assured that there were consequences were appropriate, and
(05:25):
the school board presiding member has said that, you know,
they're all committed to continual improvement in this space.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Yeah, surprising, because you know, I've got history with that school.
I've got lots of friends kids that went there and
had very good time, had really good success at that school.
So it really is surprising. Thanks for updating us on
all that, George, and thanks for doing the investigative journalism
work so everybody can actually find out what's going on.
Georgina Campbell is Wellington's issues reporter for the New Zealand.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Here for more from Wellington Mornings with Nick Mills, listen
live to news talks they'd be Wellington from nine am weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
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