/on-air/heather-du-plessis-allan-drive/opinion/rss 九一星空无限 Fri, 31 Jan 2025 02:27:22 Z en /on-air/heather-du-plessis-allan-drive/opinion/best-of-2024-heather-du-plessis-allan-lets-put-donald-trumps-win-into-perspective/ /on-air/heather-du-plessis-allan-drive/opinion/best-of-2024-heather-du-plessis-allan-lets-put-donald-trumps-win-into-perspective/ Let me tell you, it was absolutely no surprise to me to see my Facebook friends going crazy over Trump winning the election last night - and there's been plenty of hysterical predictions now that he's won. My absolute favourite one was from my husband, who said that Trump would take us to the brink of war. Hello - the world is already at war, we don't need to be taken to the brink, we're already there.  We've got two significant wars under way in two of the most worrying parts of the world - Europe and the Middle East - and neither of them are because of Trump, they started under Biden. It's got me thinking - we need a bit of perspective here. People are really losing their minds over this. We cannot predict what is going to happen in the future, but we have the past to guide us. So why don't we compare the last time Trump was President with the most recent period under Biden and see who wins at being the real crazy one here. Because as far as I can see, Biden is the one who's been far worse for New Zealand. Sure, Trump introduced the steel tariffs on us and started a trade war with China - but last time I checked, Biden hasn't removed those tariffs and he hasn't ended the trade war with China.  So as far as I can see, they're basically the same as each other on that. Under Biden, two new wars have started, both of which have put prices that we pay in New Zealand up. Under Trump, no new wars were started. My husband was quick to point out North Korea and 'Rocket Man' and how they came close to staring a war - but they didn't. It might have nearly, but it didn't. Nothing happened, despite all the warnings. Trump is too much of a crazy-maker - and other world leaders don't know how far they can push it with him and they suspect they can't, so they don't try at all. That is why Putin invaded Georgia under Bush, Crimea over Obama and Ukraine under Biden - but there were no invasions under Trump. Under Biden - never mind the threat of North Korea maybe doing something, two wars actually did happen. And they are worse than anything North Korea might have done. Under Trump, the withdrawal from Afghanistan was orderly, and under Biden, it was an unmitigated disaster - which he was at the centre of - and it completely undermined America's credibility. So before we get too hysterical about all the bad things Trump could do, how about we remind ourselves about all the bad things Biden did do? Get a bit of a grip, and ask ourselves - what would Trump actually have to do in the next four years to be worse than Biden? Why weren't we as hysterical about Biden? Or is the hysteria just something we reserve for Donald Trump? LISTEN ABOVE Fri, 03 Jan 2025 02:47:21 Z /on-air/heather-du-plessis-allan-drive/opinion/best-of-2024-jack-tame-wholesome-tui-billboard-yeah-right/ /on-air/heather-du-plessis-allan-drive/opinion/best-of-2024-jack-tame-wholesome-tui-billboard-yeah-right/ 九一星空无限flash: Tui 'Yeah Right' billboard accused of being bad taste.  Whoa, for a moment there I thought I'd been transported back to 2006. Is it in good taste? No. Of Course not. It's a billboard for a beer company, for goodness' sake. Of course it's in bad taste. I don't think anyone has ever accused Tui of good taste. Given the extent to which the sensational details in the Polkinghorne case have scandalised the nation, it's hardly a surprise to see the billboards pop up. I'll be honest with you: It doesn't upset me. But if I were Pauline Hanna's family I might, quite reasonably, feel a bit miffed at a company trying to cash in on something related to my death.  And here's the thing: Even if it did upset me, sometimes the most effective strategy to oppose something is to contain your outrage.  I actually feel the same way about aspects of the Treaty Principles Bill. I wonder if the most extreme opposition to ACT's proposal might not ultimately help ACT's cause. And perhaps a more considered opposition might be calmer, quieter, and ultimately starve the issue from the attention upon which it'll thrive.  Tui is banking on controversy. It has literally set up a feedback line so people can voice their outrage. But if you really have a problem with their billboards... Don't give them the attention. And don't buy Tui.  Sat, 28 Dec 2024 20:02:49 Z /on-air/heather-du-plessis-allan-drive/opinion/ryan-bridge-dos-and-donts-for-the-beach-this-summer/ /on-air/heather-du-plessis-allan-drive/opinion/ryan-bridge-dos-and-donts-for-the-beach-this-summer/ It's my last day at work for the year... and I'm off to the beach... Every year... because I'messentially an angry and quite grumpy person.... I go to the beach and I get mad. Angry at people doing dumb stuff... The problem with the beach is it's public. I can't yet afford my own private one. Until then... here's my top five 5 things NOT to do at the beach this summer: Rubbish Bins. They get full quickly. So everybody just piles their shit sky-high a biohazard version of jenga. Don't do that... it's unsightly. If the bins are full please dispose of your rubbish in the ocean... It's far less visible to your fellow beachgoers.. Seriously... Though... Just put it in the boot and take it home. Or. Save it up all summer and do a mass dumping at the council chambers in January. Music. Just Don't. You may like Coldplay or Cardi B, others prefer the soothing sound of the actual ocean. It's quite hard to hear with Chris Martin whaling out of your stupid UE boom. The beach (and the bush, for that matter) are not just visual spectacles, but also an aural experience. Try closing one's eyes to the sun... and listening to the sound of the waves. The birds. The magic. But not your music. Togs. There's always some wozer in the Herald over summer whinging about a woman's bikini being too revealing... too much skin for my liking. It's just not right! Honestly, just look away. People can wear whatever they like. Just ensure your nips and bits are covered... other than that... dental floss bikinis are A-OK. And if you're one of those people who complain... are you incensed at the woman's body, or the fact your husband drooling behind his dirty dog sunnies? Swimming in jeans and t-shirts. Do you have a death wish? 86% of drownings happen during summer and you're a lot heavier in denim. That is a fact. You see this out at Piha... people being rescued wearing trackpants. Honestly.  Take a leaf out of the dental floos book. Finally... I love a good sunshade tent... the pop-up ones... some people have a full almost-camping set up. I'm all for it. But you cannot.... and I've seen this... set it up and leave it for days on end at a busy beach... overnight. You cannot bags bits of the beach. It belongs to nobody and everybody and that is entitled and shameful behaviour. Wishing you all a warm, quiet, easy breezy beach experience this summer. Fri, 20 Dec 2024 06:19:02 Z /on-air/heather-du-plessis-allan-drive/opinion/perspective-with-ryan-bridge-unpacking-labour-and-the-greens-track-record-with-the-vulnerable/ /on-air/heather-du-plessis-allan-drive/opinion/perspective-with-ryan-bridge-unpacking-labour-and-the-greens-track-record-with-the-vulnerable/ What's worse than somebody who doesn't give a s*** about poor people and victims of domestic violence?  Somebody who says they care about them, spends billions of dollars in vain trying to fix it and actually makes the problem worse. At the weekend, Minister Karen Chhour launched the family violence action plan, which is basically a re-do of a 25-year plan that her predecessor, Marama Davidson, launched during her three years in office. And we all know the prevailing narrative - nobody cares about the poor and the downtrodden quite like the Greens. So, they had these two very important portfolios in the last Government - homelessness and family violence. People are already trolling poor Karen over her plan, but let's take a look back at the Greens' results, shall we? And remember - in the three years prior to the Greens, it was Labour in charge. So, fellow travellers, homelessness in the Census from 2023 - which is when Labour was booted out of office - those people living in severely deprived housing was up 2.1 percent, an extra 13,000 Kiwis. So that's a big fat F for fail. Family violence - in June 2023, the numbers tell us 177,000 family harm investigations were recorded by the New Zealand police. That's a 49 percent increase on 2017. So that's a big fat Fail with a capital F. So the minister who supposedly cared more about these issues than any other, from a party who cares more deeply than any other, took our most vulnerable backwards. All that, despite being part of the highest-spending Government in this country's history, who doubled our national debt to GDP ratio and pumped hundreds of millions extra in dollars into wellbeing initiatives - and wrote a 25-year plan. What is that, anyway? What major company do you know writes a 25-year plan? It's nonsense. 10 at most, yes, but 25? Here's a prediction - by the time this plan turns 25, nobody in Parliament will remember it. The dust collected on it so thick, you could probably house the homeless underneath it. The point here is, just because somebody tells you they care more about something, it doesn't mean it's true. And most importantly - it doesn't mean they can turn care and compassion into action. LISTEN ABOVE Mon, 16 Dec 2024 04:22:11 Z /on-air/heather-du-plessis-allan-drive/opinion/ryan-bridge-on-the-introduction-of-three-new-toll-roads/ /on-air/heather-du-plessis-allan-drive/opinion/ryan-bridge-on-the-introduction-of-three-new-toll-roads/ It should come as no surprise to anyone, driving on our roads is about to get more expensive. Simeon Brown's come out this afternoon and whacked tolls on 3 new highways or expressways. Otaki to north of Levin -  $2.70 for a car. $5.40 for a truck. Takitimu North Link - that's the Tauranga to Te Puna. 4 lanes. $2.10 off peak. $3.10 peak. Double that for trucks. Penlink in Auckland - $2 off peak. $3 peak. Again.... trucks double. These prices will increase with inflation. This does not bother me at all, in fact, I welcome it. If we keep relying on governments to fund infrastructure off their balance sheet with borrowing, we'll keep getting the same woeful results we have thus far. Roads that are shoddy and unsafe. Roads that aren't big enough or wide enough. And not enough roads being built to drive regional economic growth. The last government cancelled a bunch of RONS and put some of that money into public transport instead. Hopefully if a road has a toll attached to it it'll be harder to justify them doing that when they get it next time. What we don't yet know is whether existing roads will be tolled, which I don't think is a fair thing to do. The government has changed the rules to allow tolling of existing roads if a new corridor or extension is being added. But it hasn't yet been specific - does that mean the whole road or just the new bit. They need to clarify that cause it's hardly fair if you've bought a house and commute you ran your sums on the basis it wasn't tolled... if they turn round and whack you with a charge then that's not on. On the whole I say build the roads. We'll pay for them. Just get it done. Fri, 13 Dec 2024 06:35:53 Z /on-air/heather-du-plessis-allan-drive/opinion/heather-du-plessis-allan-on-the-supreme-courts-decision-on-the-marine-and-coastal-area-act/ /on-air/heather-du-plessis-allan-drive/opinion/heather-du-plessis-allan-on-the-supreme-courts-decision-on-the-marine-and-coastal-area-act/ The judiciary think that they are the ones writing laws, and they can just ignore what parliament wants, and they can call all the shots, and they act like parliament is full of a bunch of idiots and we need to be saved from them. The court of appeal decision was only one of the examples of this.   Fri, 06 Dec 2024 07:31:48 Z /on-air/heather-du-plessis-allan-drive/opinion/heather-du-plessis-allan-what-were-you-expecting-of-the-bootcamps/ /on-air/heather-du-plessis-allan-drive/opinion/heather-du-plessis-allan-what-were-you-expecting-of-the-bootcamps/ If you're looking at the headlines about the boot camp trial today - these kids running away and one of them dying in a car crash, and your immediate reaction to this is to think that this is a complete shambles, then I reckon you are looking at this the wrong way. Fri, 06 Dec 2024 07:16:25 Z /on-air/heather-du-plessis-allan-drive/opinion/perspective-with-jack-tame-lots-of-surprises-in-mayor-wayne-browns-career/ /on-air/heather-du-plessis-allan-drive/opinion/perspective-with-jack-tame-lots-of-surprises-in-mayor-wayne-browns-career/ A huge political victory for Auckland mayor Wayne Brown. Having campaigned on taking greater control over Auckland’s CCO’s (Council Controlled Organisations), the mayor is set to get his wish when it comes to Auckland Transport. Transport Minister Simeon Brown has confirmed that Auckland's transport policy and planning will shift from AT back over to Auckland Council. Remember, under the current model - Auckland Council has had two elected councillors on the board of AT. But Wayne Brown argued this assigned too much of the major decision making to unelected officials. He was always lamenting that people came up to him in the street and moaned to him about problems that were AT's responsibility, not realising that actually the council had limited control. Like all power, of course, you have to be careful what you wish for. If Auckland Council and the local boards are to have more authority over transport planning in our biggest city, they'll also have the blame if residents don't feel they're making the right calls. Under the changes, Auckland Council will retain a transport CCO. But - his opponents have to accept that Wayne Brown has surprised a lot of people as mayor. He has built relationships on both sides of the political spectrum and advocated effectively for Auckland's ratepayers. He promised to get greater control over the Council Controlled Organisations - and Auckland Transport was top of the list. And whether you like the council's subsequent transport policies or not - on that promise, he has delivered. LISTEN ABOVE Tue, 03 Dec 2024 03:52:15 Z /on-air/heather-du-plessis-allan-drive/opinion/perspective-with-heather-du-plessis-allan-its-time-to-scrap-ncea-for-good/ /on-air/heather-du-plessis-allan-drive/opinion/perspective-with-heather-du-plessis-allan-its-time-to-scrap-ncea-for-good/ I wouldn't be surprised if Education Minister Erica Stanford actually ends up scrapping NCEA level one. Because she's already concerned enough to order a review - and the review has come back slamming it, so she's got all the ammo she needs to pull the trigger if she wants to. And I hope she does, because it has become apparent, especially in the last three years, that NCEA is a massively flawed system. And I don't think this is just a level one problem, I think there's problems across all three levels. What's going on is that schools have had a gutsful and they're dropping it - fast. This year, only 87 percent of schools offered NCEA level one, next year only 75 percent will offer it.  You can see this massive drop- and the problem is that the ones predominantly dropping it are the ones in the highest socio-economic areas. That is a problem, because if it carries on like this, what we’re gonna end up with is rich kids and kids living in nice suburbs and going to to high decile schools coming out with decent qualifications like IB and Cambridge and everyone else coming out with junk NCEA. And all that’s gonna do is create an education gap where only wealthier kids get the premium education qualification, and we don’t want that. That's not what this country is about, it's always been about everyone having the same opportunities. If you’re a parent of an NCEA pupil, you don't need me to tell you this. The problem is that there’s no consistency. Your child can hand in an internal assessment to one teacher and give it an awesome grade - and another teacher can look at the same assessment, think it's mediocre and give it a mediocre grade. It says a lot that employers don’t rate NCEA level one, increasing numbers of schools don't rate NCEA level one, the Education Review Office doesn't rate NCEA level one - and judging by the noises coming from the Education Minister, she doesn't rate NCEA level one. I think it's time to scrap it - scrap the whole lot. From where I'm sitting, it looks like a failed experiment. LISTEN ABOVE  Tue, 26 Nov 2024 05:07:53 Z /on-air/heather-du-plessis-allan-drive/opinion/perspective-with-heather-du-plessis-allan-tj-perenaras-left-problems-behind-for-the-all-blacks/ /on-air/heather-du-plessis-allan-drive/opinion/perspective-with-heather-du-plessis-allan-tj-perenaras-left-problems-behind-for-the-all-blacks/ So, it looks like the rugby bosses may have already realised how big a mistake they made with that haka, because we've now learned they've cut TJ Perenara's political bit in the version they've uploaded to their social media accounts. And if they've done this because they realise they’ve made a mistake, they’re right. Big mistake from the All Blacks, big mistake from Scott Robertson to say yes to TJ when he said he was going to do this. Let's just clears something up first - TJ is entitled, like we all are, to have a political opinion. No one will be surprised that he supported the hīkoi, because we know where he stands on things. He's already supported the Ihumātao and supported the Wellington women's team when they did their anti-Government haka. This is not a TJ problem, this is an All Blacks problem. Because the All Blacks are not in position where they can afford to lose fans and viewers, especially when so many of us are already talking about how much more we prefer watching the Warriors. The problem the All Blacks have got is that their most rusted-on viewers would be heartland New Zealand. Farmers, people from rural communities, old blokes who feel loyal to the game. And I reckon quite a few them would disagree with TJ on whether to support the hīkoi or not. And given how intense this Treaty Principles Bill and hīkoi debate is, I reckon a few of them will feel quite annoyed at TJ presuming that he represents the views of the whole country with that haka, because he doesn't.  He might find, based on the most recent polling, that almost twice as many Kiwis like Seymour's Treaty Principles Bill and therefore not the hīkoi. So for TJ, well-known anti-meat, anti-Government chap - there's no problem at all as he heads off on a new career. But for NZ Rugby fighting to retain its audience and Scott Robertson fighting to prove himself as the team's new coach - big mistake. LISTEN ABOVE Mon, 25 Nov 2024 03:56:54 Z /on-air/heather-du-plessis-allan-drive/opinion/perspective-with-heather-du-plessis-allan-its-a-really-tough-time-to-be-the-un/ /on-air/heather-du-plessis-allan-drive/opinion/perspective-with-heather-du-plessis-allan-its-a-really-tough-time-to-be-the-un/ Tell you what, it’s a tough time to be the UN. I can’t help but feel that the UN’s credibility is increasingly on the line at the moment with how often it’s being ignored. Take for example what’s just happened overnight: the International Criminal Court – which was set up through the UN and endorsed by the UN's General Assembly – has issued an arrest warrant for the Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu. That's ballsy. That's the first time they’ve gone after a world leader who is democratically elected. Trouble is, it doesn’t sound like at least three significant international powers are necessarily going to respect this. The US: they won’t arrest Netanyahu, they’re not a member of the ICC. The UK: they won’t commit publicly to arresting him. And nor will France. They say it’s legally complex. That's awkward, isn’t it? If three permanent security members won’t say they'll arrest him, doesn't that undermine the ICC and its parent the UN? Then what about the other big UN event at the moment: COP29? That is a bigger joke than COP28 last year which was already a joke. The big names haven’t turned up: Xi Jinping, Joe Biden, Narendra Modi. For the second year in a row, the host nation has been busted using the climate conference to strike secret fossil fuel deals on the side. And it looks like they’re going to have to extend the conference by maybe a day to try to stitch together a final deal and stop this becoming a complete flop. And that’s without even mentioning the fact that the incoming leader of the free world is preparing to pull out of the UN’s Paris Agreement. So, tough time to be the UN because we are increasingly, by the looks of things, starting to tire of its overreach and ridiculous targets. LISTEN ABOVE Fri, 22 Nov 2024 03:20:30 Z /on-air/heather-du-plessis-allan-drive/opinion/perspective-with-heather-du-plessis-allan-razors-proven-himself-on-this-northern-tour/ /on-air/heather-du-plessis-allan-drive/opinion/perspective-with-heather-du-plessis-allan-razors-proven-himself-on-this-northern-tour/ Are you convinced by Razor yet?  Cause I feel you should be, because what Razor has managed to do on this northern tour has been pretty impressive. If the All Blacks beat Italy this weekend - which apparently they will because it’s supposed to be a foregone conclusion - then we can say the All Blacks have come within one point of a clean sweep of the northern tour. Which is remarkable, because we haven't done a clean sweep of the northern tour since 2017. Now obviously, we haven’t done it this time either. But we’ve come within one point, which is impressive because this is Razor’s first year. He's taken over a team that, frankly, sucked a lot of the time. I mean, don't forget why we wanted to get rid of Fozzie. The All Blacks were all over the show - they lost a series at home to the Irish, they got smashed 26-10 by the Springboks, and then there was the Twickenham disaster where the 'Boks smacked us 35-7. So it's actually not bad to turn those performances into a very-nearly clean sweep of the northern tour in just one year. Now look, let’s not pretend it’s perfect out there, because it isn't. The discipline's a major problem, there was that weird call to try for two penalties in the last six minutes of a game - where they obviously should have gone for a try, that was the wrong call. And we're talking about wins, but they're not exactly massive margins. But let's be fair - think of any other discipline out there. Think of a business where a CEO takes over, you don't expect perfection in the first year, you just expect improvement. And I think we've got it. I think we can say that short of something horrible happening this weekend, Razor's proved himself. LISTEN ABOVE Mon, 18 Nov 2024 04:09:17 Z /on-air/heather-du-plessis-allan-drive/opinion/heather-du-plessis-allan-good-luck-convincing-us-of-impartiality/ /on-air/heather-du-plessis-allan-drive/opinion/heather-du-plessis-allan-good-luck-convincing-us-of-impartiality/ Good luck to TVNZ.   Good luck to TVNZ trying to convince anyone that they are unbiased, given what's just happened with them in the last week.   I just played you the clip of the Breakfast reporter singing with the organiser of the Hikoi - which I think any right-minded person would interpret as an endorsement of the Hikoi.   I think this should earn her some serious trouble if TVNZ takes perceptions of bias seriously.   What is much more serious for them is that the woman who was tipped to become the top news boss has just been outed today for taking personal leave to go on the Hikoi.   The reason we know this is because she loves a social media post, and she's put it up on her Instagram. So just flaunted it for everyone to see.   If you are a news boss, or about to become the news boss, you should be smart enough to keep that private emphasis on private - especially if your organisation is trying to pretend that it's unbiased, which is what TVNZ is trying to do.   Very hard at the moment in the face of falling public trust in media.   Just a few weeks ago, TVNZ self-published its editorial guidelines for journalists.   The point of that was to tell us that they take impartiality seriously and that they are impartial.   Well, that's just been massively undone by finding out that the woman who will be in charge of all of the journalists actually doesn't really like the current government at all.   So, good luck.   You can corral those journalists into a neutral space, all you like.   But if the lady who is their boss has views so strong about the current government that she wants to go on a protest against them, I think you've got a problem with perception of bias.   Now, the important thing here about TVNZ to understand is that it pretends it's impartial, right?   It is not, that is the important thing here.  Nobody would mind if the editor of The Spinoff turned up at the Hikoi because The Spinoff wears its colours on its sleeve.   We know what they're about and that they own it. They’re just are completely honest about it.   TVNZ though was trying to convince us that they are neutral.   The other important thing here is that TVNZ is the publicly owned broadcaster on television, right?   So that also means there are standards that we expect from them that are different to what everybody else is subjected to.   Now, TVNZ in order to convince us that they are impartial and that they demand impartiality from the people who work within the newsroom and in the editorial team, they would have to a not give that woman the news job and I doubt that's going to happen.   They would have to discipline that woman and discipline the reporter for what happened on television and then make that public.   Do you think that's going to happen?   No, me neither.   So good luck to TVNZ trying to convince us from here on that they're impartial.  LISTEN ABOVE Fri, 15 Nov 2024 06:23:13 Z /on-air/heather-du-plessis-allan-drive/opinion/perspective-with-heather-du-plessis-allan-i-support-the-irds-crackdown-on-student-debt/ /on-air/heather-du-plessis-allan-drive/opinion/perspective-with-heather-du-plessis-allan-i-support-the-irds-crackdown-on-student-debt/ Well, here’s some good news if you don't like the idea of people freeloading on other taxpayers - the IRD has finally started properly cracking down on people who don't want to pay back their student loans. They have doubled the size of the team that chases Kiwis living overseas to pay the money back, they've got the debt collectors in Australia involved and when any of these people with debt over $1000 comes in, 100 percent of them can expect to hear from the IRD. And - this is something I particularly like - if the debt is big enough and these people have shown they really don't want to pay their money back, then they don't get to leave the country again. So if they come in for a holiday or to visit family- nope, they're stuck here because they owe us some money. And it looks like this crackdown is starting to work, because 7000 names have been given to the debt collectors in Australia - and about 1000 of them are now paying back their debt. I don’t have any sympathy for these people and the crack down that’s coming at them. Because we are talking about a lot of money  - about $2.2 billion. And as we know, this country's broke. And these are not kids we’re talking about, these aren’t predominately 21-year-old graduates off an OE just forgetting to pay back their loans. Most of the debt is owed by people in their 40s and 50s. Come on, you haven't paid your debt back in 40 years? By then - it's deliberate, isn't it? These guys are the ultimate free-loaders. They get a nice education for free and then while the rest of us paid our money back and stayed to contribute to the country and pay taxes, they've taken that free education and skipped the joint and went and lived somewhere else and didn't pay that money back. 70 percent of them aren't paying anything at all. If anybody should be paying up, it's these guys. And I'm very pleased to see the IRD is finally getting our money back so we can use it to build this place back up again. LISTEN ABOVE Thu, 14 Nov 2024 04:18:09 Z /on-air/heather-du-plessis-allan-drive/opinion/perspective-with-heather-du-plessis-allan-disrupting-people-wont-make-us-sympathetic-to-your-cause/ /on-air/heather-du-plessis-allan-drive/opinion/perspective-with-heather-du-plessis-allan-disrupting-people-wont-make-us-sympathetic-to-your-cause/ I've actually been surprised at the level of anger I've heard expressed today at that Treaty Principles Bill hīkoi crossing over the Harbour Bridge - and I don't think it's a good thing for this particular cause. Yesterday, completely out of the blue, I got an email from a mum I know complaining about the impact it will l have on kids trying to get to their NCEA exams on time. Today, I bumped into someone this morning furious about the timing because it was rush hour. And someone in my family is raging about it as well. To be fair to these people, it's understandable anger and I can see why they're so cross. Basically, it's because this protest feels like it was designed to create disruption. Either that or the organisers didn't think it through - which I doubt very much because they have proven to be quite deliberate in a bunch of the things they do. What happened to facilitate the hīkoi today was that authorities had to close two lanes on the Harbour Bridge in our biggest city from 8 in the morning - at peak morning traffic time. That will have messed up the day for thousands of people coming in from the North Shore. If these guys were decent to the people of Auckland just trying to do their jobs and get their kids to school, they would've shifted their walk time back by a couple of hours, when most people are in the office and won't be messed around. It's not as if the hīkoi would lose attention because it caused less disruption. They are all over the online news feeds, they’re being covered by radio shows like ours, they'll be all over the TV news later because the protest is big. And it's about a very contentious issue, that being the Treaty Principles Bill. These guys did not have to muck Aucklanders around to get the coverage they wanted. Ultimately, I don't think it's a smart move from them. Just like I don't think it's too smart to have gang members join the hīkoi with their patches on display. All it’s going to do is frustrate middle New Zealand and make middle New Zealand more sympathetic to the other side, because that’s how politics works nowadays - we pick sides. We don't like that side, we go to the other, that's how this works. And that’s ultimately an own goal, because the only hope David Seymour has for this bill is that it becomes very popular and that it gets rescued because enough people want it. And this hīkoi, I reckon, won’t have hurt his chances at all. A lesson to people planning future protests - try not cause disruption on purpose, because that way we’re more likely to be sympathetic to your cause, not less. LISTEN ABOVE Wed, 13 Nov 2024 04:15:18 Z /on-air/heather-du-plessis-allan-drive/opinion/heather-du-plessis-allan-all-schools-in-this-country-should-have-lower-speed-limits/ /on-air/heather-du-plessis-allan-drive/opinion/heather-du-plessis-allan-all-schools-in-this-country-should-have-lower-speed-limits/ I think the hardest news story to read today is of the kindergarten teacher in Victoria who died yesterday afternoon saving children from a truck that smashed into the kindy.   The truck driver lost control, the truck ploughed into the kindy, the teacher pushed the kids out of the way, but died herself.  The speed limit outside that kindergarten was supposed to be dropped from 50 to 40 kph – but hadn’t been.   A similar thing happened a few weeks ago in Melbourne.   An SUV crashed into a primary school, killing an 11-year-old boy and hurting 4 other children.   I don't love speed reductions.   All too often they’re done in stupid places like open roads. But when it comes to places where kids are, I've completely 180’d on this.   I read the book ‘The Anxious Generation’ a few weeks ago. The book tracks why kids are having mental crises en masse lately.   One of the reasons, particularly for boys, is that since the 1970s parents have increasingly stopped their kids from just playing around the neighbourhood on their bikes, or running around with other kids - because parents are scared of fast traffic.   And with good reason... cars go fast in our suburbs.   I live on a road that’s 30kph. No one does 30kph – I don't do 30kph.   The good news is that because of recent rule changes here, Auckland schools should have lower speed limits during school hours by the end of 2027. But, I wouldn’t mind if that was pretty much everywhere where kids are.   I get that would drive people bonkers, having to slow down all the time around houses and parks and schools...   It would require us sacrificing our time.   But, for the benefit of going as fast as we do around kids... we are sacrificing quite a lot.   Their best childhoods.  LISTEN ABOVE  Tue, 12 Nov 2024 07:05:14 Z /on-air/heather-du-plessis-allan-drive/opinion/heather-du-plessis-allan-the-most-important-thing-is-that-things-are-actually-fixed/ /on-air/heather-du-plessis-allan-drive/opinion/heather-du-plessis-allan-the-most-important-thing-is-that-things-are-actually-fixed/ Big old day for the survivors of abuse in state care today because the government through the Prime Minister finally apologised for this. That is important. I know you know what they want is redress as well, a whole bunch of them, and fair enough... that will come. But, an apology also is very important. Especially when you consider how long it has officially not been a big deal that kids went through what they did while they were in the state of care - for it to now be acknowledged as, “yep, absolutely, actually a big deal” and for the state to admit it did wrong. I think that's really important Slightly unfortunately, the day has been overshadowed by anger directed at the Solicitor General. I think this is going to be the thing that everybody remembers about today. Una Jagose tried to apologise herself today as the solicitor general, she was booed by survivors. She was heckled by survivors. One woman walked out another, turned her back to the Solicitor General while she was talking in a move of protest. The reason they're so angry is because they want to strip her from her job. They accuse her of covering up what really happened to them. Now, I'm not going to tell these people that they're not entitled to feel angry because of course they are. But, what we have to remember when we're discussing the Solicitor General's role in this and even in a lower role previously as a Crown lawyer before she became the Solicitor General, is that Crown lawyers, Crown law, the Solicitor General, they are the Government's lawyers, right? They act in the best interests of the Crown. And it's pretty much the same as David Bain's lawyer or even Brenton Tarrant's lawyer or should you or I be accused of something significant, our lawyers - that our lawyers are not there to look after everybody else. They are there to look after us. They're working in the best interests of their clients. And the same is true of Crown law. It's really important context when we feel angry at somebody like the Solicitor General or Crown law for what they did. I understand why Una Jagose is copping it the worst today. It’s much easier to pin the blame on one person, isn't it? Than to pin the blame on a giant system like Government. And especially when you consider that governments change every few years - one person is much easier to hold accountable than potentially thousands of people for little bits that they did over decades. Maybe it will make a lot of people feel a lot better if she loses her job. But remember this, it's not actually going to fix anything. Not in the past. And not for kids who are in state care in the future. Beware the quick solution, because the quick solution may create a false sense that things have been fixed when they really haven't. The most important thing is that things are actually fixed. Isn't it more important than anything she actually fronted up today? And so did the Prime Minister and I say that's got to be a good start. LISTEN ABOVE Tue, 12 Nov 2024 04:05:31 Z /on-air/heather-du-plessis-allan-drive/opinion/perspective-with-heather-du-plessis-allan-we-should-consider-following-australia-in-a-social-media-ban/ /on-air/heather-du-plessis-allan-drive/opinion/perspective-with-heather-du-plessis-allan-we-should-consider-following-australia-in-a-social-media-ban/ I reckon we might want to consider doing what Australia's planning to do and banning the kids from using social media until they’re 16. Now at the moment, we don’t have a huge amount of detail on what's being proposed, but we do know that the Australians are planning to put in the highest age limit in the world. And then put the onus on social media companies to make this work, not parents or kids, or even the Government. So there will be an age verification tool, either biometrics or government ID, and the social media companies have to use it. They have to keep the kids off. And if they don’t, they get penalised. And this is exactly how it should work. Because if they aren’t forced to take responsibility, they won’t take responsibility. They will simply blame someone else and so oh it's the parents, it's the Government, they're not doing enough, and if there's one thing we can say with certainty, it's that the social media companies are not taking responsibility now. They know their product is bad for kids, they say they don’t let kids under 13 on, and yet – there are kids under 13 with accounts. I have absolutely zero tolerance for any argument from these companies that they can’t do this. Yes, they can. They are extremely wealthy, they can pay the fines, they are – the founders and employers some of them, parents as well. They should care what is happening to kids. And they can threaten to leave if they don't like the rules, which is what they do. I’d say be my guest. If FaceBook or Instagram or TikTok pulled out of Australia or, should we do the same, New Zealand tomorrow, we’d be fine. Sure, businesses using social media would be impacted. But we would simply go back to finding other ways to advertise online and make a buck like through Google. So, the more I see what Australia is doing, the more I want us to do it too and I hope we do. LISTEN ABOVE Fri, 08 Nov 2024 03:29:32 Z /on-air/heather-du-plessis-allan-drive/opinion/perspective-with-heather-du-plessis-allan-lets-put-donald-trumps-win-into-perspective/ /on-air/heather-du-plessis-allan-drive/opinion/perspective-with-heather-du-plessis-allan-lets-put-donald-trumps-win-into-perspective/ Let me tell you, it was absolutely no surprise to me to see my Facebook friends going crazy over Trump winning the election last night - and there's been plenty of hysterical predictions now that he's won. My absolute favourite one was from my husband, who said that Trump would take us to the brink of war. Hello - the world is already at war, we don't need to be taken to the brink, we're already there.  We've got two significant wars under way in two of the most worrying parts of the world - Europe and the Middle East - and neither of them are because of Trump, they started under Biden. It's got me thinking - we need a bit of perspective here. People are really losing their minds over this. We cannot predict what is going to happen in the future, but we have the past to guide us. So why don't we compare the last time Trump was President with the most recent period under Biden and see who wins at being the real crazy one here. Because as far as I can see, Biden is the one who's been far worse for New Zealand. Sure, Trump introduced the steel tariffs on us and started a trade war with China - but last time I checked, Biden hasn't removed those tariffs and he hasn't ended the trade war with China.  So as far as I can see, they're basically the same as each other on that. Under Biden, two new wars have started, both of which have put prices that we pay in New Zealand up. Under Trump, no new wars were started. My husband was quick to point out North Korea and 'Rocket Man' and how they came close to staring a war - but they didn't. It might have nearly, but it didn't. Nothing happened, despite all the warnings. Trump is too much of a crazy-maker - and other world leaders don't know how far they can push it with him and they suspect they can't, so they don't try at all. That is why Putin invaded Georgia under Bush, Crimea over Obama and Ukraine under Biden - but there were no invasions under Trump. Under Biden - never mind the threat of North Korea maybe doing something, two wars actually did happen. And they are worse than anything North Korea might have done. Under Trump, the withdrawal from Afghanistan was orderly, and under Biden, it was an unmitigated disaster - which he was at the centre of - and it completely undermined America's credibility. So before we get too hysterical about all the bad things Trump could do, how about we remind ourselves about all the bad things Biden did do? Get a bit of a grip, and ask ourselves - what would Trump actually have to do in the next four years to be worse than Biden? Why weren't we as hysterical about Biden? Or is the hysteria just something we reserve for Donald Trump? LISTEN ABOVE Thu, 07 Nov 2024 04:16:53 Z /on-air/heather-du-plessis-allan-drive/opinion/perspective-with-heather-du-plessis-allan-there-are-few-things-more-political-than-a-political-leak/ /on-air/heather-du-plessis-allan-drive/opinion/perspective-with-heather-du-plessis-allan-there-are-few-things-more-political-than-a-political-leak/ To the Treaty Principles Bill. Despite David Seymour's best efforts to pretend that there's absolutely nothing to see here, there is no doubt in my mind that the government is planning to introduce the Treaty Principles Bill tomorrow to try to hide it - because they know full well, we're all going to be completely obsessed and distracted by the US election. They know that if they get it out on Thursday, tomorrow, it's before the planned Hikoi even sets off on Monday. I think that indicates that they're trying to bury the thing and get ahead of everything and it shows how much they hating the heat that they're getting for this. Look, it's politics. I mean, it feels slightly underhand, it feels a little bit cowardly but it's politics. It's an option available to them and you can't really begrudge them for doing it. But I don't even think that's the most interesting thing that's going on here. I think the most interesting thing is that the Waitangi tribunal leaked the fact that the Government was going to do this -apparently within an hour of getting a heads up. How naïve can you possibly be? They are pretty much, at the Waitangi Tribunal, all by themselves making a case for why they should be reformed like New Zealand First wants to do. What they've done here is they have demonstrated just how unbelievably political they now are. They are not a neutral body, right? They're not just a neutral body sitting there doing their job making decisions. They are actively taking on the government of the day because they do not like the government of the day. Now, that is weird to me, especially when it comes to the Treaty Principles Bill because this is a Bill that's going nowhere. The Prime Minister's already said the thing is going to die. He's going to kill it. So why is the Waitangi Tribunal even wasting what credibility they have trying to kill a Bill that's already going to die? It feels like a really weird hill to die on. And if they carry on like this, they are going to die on a hill because they will get reformed by New Zealand First. There will be a point which we're all completely convinced that they're too political like ‘Yeah, it's about time they've already shown their political hand by doing weird things like taking cases to adjudicate on government policy, which is kind of outside their remit and that they're having a crack at the government over this bill before even seeing the bill.’ But I think that this particular leak takes the cake because there are few things more political than a political leak. And by doing this, they have convinced me that they actually do need to be reformed to put them back in their lane. LISTEN ABOVE Wed, 06 Nov 2024 07:07:32 Z /on-air/heather-du-plessis-allan-drive/opinion/perspective-with-heather-du-plessis-allan-luxons-corporate-speak-is-not-a-big-deal/ /on-air/heather-du-plessis-allan-drive/opinion/perspective-with-heather-du-plessis-allan-luxons-corporate-speak-is-not-a-big-deal/ The latest thing that isn't a big deal but will have a big deal made of it - because it's the Prime Minister - is that Chris Luxon has called us voters 'customers'. He did it in a sit down interview where he was asked about being seen as out of touch, and he was saying he was because he talks to people all the time. He said -“It’s been a belief system of mine, talk to the customer, to the public, to the people and the voters." At which point the interviewer basically told him to ditch the corporate speak. I don’t have a problem with this, do you? This is not a big deal. When I was at university studying postgrad politics, we often referred to voters as stakeholders. As in stakeholders in the Government of the day. That's a corporate term, that's not unusual. It's also not unusual to see voters in a transactional relationship with a political party. If anything, it's actually not a bad thing for politicians to see us as customers - customers who will only come back for more from a political party if we get what we want. Policies that we like, promises that are delivered and not broken, and so on. What's the problem for a voter in that? You vote for a party, you get what you want. That is arguably the opposite of what the last Labour Government was doing pretty much the entire time on, for example, crime. We kept saying, as customers - we don’t like what we’re getting, can you go harder on the gangs? And they kept responding with - you’re imagining it, you're wrong, we're going hard on the gangs. They might have had a better showing at the last election if they remembered the mantra- the customer’s always right. And many ‘customers’ didn’t come back for more. Also, Luxon needs to stop apologising for the corporate speak. Bringing a corporate approach is part of some of the best stuff that he’s done - and doing. His quarterly targets for the Government, managing the various parts of the coalition, trying to get efficiencies out of the public service...he's a manager, he just needs to lean into it. Yes, sometimes you want less transaction and more principle in politics, but ultimately - Luxon's onto something. He's a guy selling us a product and his product is the National Party. We are the customers and we want what we want out of the National Party. Being seen as customers is not a bad thing. LISTEN ABOVE Mon, 04 Nov 2024 04:29:48 Z