Speaker 1: You're listening to the Weekend Collective podcast from News Talk ZEDB.
Speaker 2: And time to introduce my fabulous panel, my first my
Speaker 2: first panelist. She's no stranger than news Talk ZIBB audiences.
Speaker 2: And she's she's won the Old Award. You know, she's
Speaker 2: won the Old Award for news reading. She's and she's
Speaker 2: quite a good company. And it turns out, you know,
Speaker 2: she's not a bad sort and it's neither ready Marney, Hi, Neva.
Speaker 3: Good afternoon.
Speaker 2: I didn't want to sort of bang on about how many.
Speaker 3: Thirty I don't don't don't award because you know, I'd
Speaker 3: just like to fly under the radars counting there's only
Speaker 3: thirteen or fourteen, but that's okay.
Speaker 2: Actually, have you literally lost count? Have you literally lost count?
Speaker 3: Yeh? I mean, you know we're all stars here at
Speaker 3: ZIBB to them even you, oh.
Speaker 2: You scrape around the bottom of the barrel there love anyway,
Speaker 2: and joining me is he's coming through to us from
Speaker 2: the Wellington Studio. I don't know if he's won any awards,
Speaker 2: but he would probably win an award for just being
Speaker 2: so insufferrable, young and successful. And it's brad OL's economist
Speaker 2: Brown Owl's and hi, Brad, how are you.
Speaker 4: Going good afternoon? I'm well, thank you, and I'm enjoying
Speaker 4: the fabulous day that we seem to be having in Wellington,
Speaker 4: which sometimes is a bit few and far between.
Speaker 2: That was that too much saying you're insufferably young and successful.
Speaker 4: I was just trying to glance right over there really quickly.
Speaker 2: In fact, ah, you know, of course, I always I
Speaker 2: always mean it with love. But you of course see
Speaker 2: e Oven from Metrics house things going then for Metrics saying.
Speaker 4: Oh, look, there's always a lot happening in the economy,
Speaker 4: so our team is always pretty busy looking around at things.
Speaker 4: You know, interest rates are still the big one at
Speaker 4: the moment. Everyone wants to know what's going to happen next,
Speaker 4: and so we're still we're still tracking on and looking
Speaker 4: at things.
Speaker 2: Hey, by the way, actually, Neva, did you want to
Speaker 2: chip in there? I did.
Speaker 3: I want to just wanted to chip in there and
Speaker 3: say something to do you, Brad because we have never
Speaker 3: met face to face, but you know, I know you
Speaker 3: because every time I've been reading the news, you know,
Speaker 3: your name always pops up and we're always got new
Speaker 3: stories about you. But you know, when I knew you
Speaker 3: were coming on the panel today. My first thought was
Speaker 3: not a you as an economics expert, but you as
Speaker 3: a dancing expert, because.
Speaker 2: I am going to shake that I know well.
Speaker 3: And I thought that was the only Radio Awards event
Speaker 3: that I didn't go to, and I wish I was
Speaker 3: there because I love dancing and I'm sure I would
Speaker 3: have been dancing with Bread that day.
Speaker 2: That legend has just grown. I don't know whether you
Speaker 2: didn't need dancing at all based on what you've told me,
Speaker 2: but the impression is growing, and the legend is growing
Speaker 2: that you get Brad Olsen on the dance floor and
Speaker 2: stand back, baby. Look.
Speaker 4: All I can say is that Mike Costing owes me
Speaker 4: a lot for the muck that he's raked me through.
Speaker 4: And amongst ZB officers, I think, look to be honest.
Speaker 4: I haven't got the call up yet for whatever next
Speaker 4: edition of Dancing on Star Dancing with the Stars has been,
Speaker 4: so I feel like it kind of mean that good.
Speaker 4: Yet I think look to be clear and to confirm
Speaker 4: and deny all the rumors. All at once, there was dancing,
Speaker 4: but thankfully there's never a record of it anywhere.
Speaker 3: What read next time you come up to the Auckland office.
Speaker 3: Here at News Talk ZB, we are always dancing, especially
Speaker 3: the breakfast crew because we're here from four am, so
Speaker 3: you know, if you need to come in early, and
Speaker 3: when you're here in Auckland, it just comes through to
Speaker 3: ZB because we've always got the music blaring eighties though,
Speaker 3: eighties and nineties.
Speaker 2: But you know, I can see a show dancing with
Speaker 2: the economists. Oh I can we get brad Olsen. There,
Speaker 2: we get Tony Alexander, I've run out anyone else.
Speaker 4: That'll be a quick show. I mean, look, it's one
Speaker 4: of those things where I don't know if I do
Speaker 4: all that well with the eighties and nineties music, given
Speaker 4: that I was born in the late nineties and so
Speaker 4: therefore I'm not going to recognize all that many of them. Sorry,
Speaker 4: if we can do twenty tens pop on all the fort.
Speaker 2: Did you enjoy the little bit of Queen there though?
Speaker 4: I did, and I knew that song, which is important.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I mean, I mean, also, it's funny, isn't
Speaker 2: it that that there are bands of a generation that,
Speaker 2: even if you weren't alive, like probably be pretty familiar
Speaker 2: with a lot of ABBA's repertoire. I'm a huge Abba fan.
Speaker 2: I'm still going through my Abba sort of obsession at
Speaker 2: the moment. I don't know why. It's because YouTube keeps
Speaker 2: throwing me the clips and I had a crush on Agneta. Anyway,
Speaker 2: there we go. That's another thing. I'll probably talk about
Speaker 2: that with the counselor sometime. Anyway, Hey, by the way, Brad,
Speaker 2: you are I want to know about this. But I
Speaker 2: gather last time you were you were up in Auckland actually,
Speaker 2: of course, and you were gonna go to the test match.
Speaker 2: You had tickets and you said to me, I don't know,
Speaker 2: the weather's not looking too good, so even though I've
Speaker 2: got tickets, I might not go to an all Blacks Test.
Speaker 2: And now, of course you're in Wellington and you've got
Speaker 2: your all black shirt on. I want to know what
Speaker 2: happened and what's gonna happen.
Speaker 4: Well, yes, and and I think I told you that
Speaker 4: in confidence when I came into the studio last time
Speaker 4: and we got it through the airway. Well no, when
Speaker 4: I say in not really, I told it in jest
Speaker 4: and it became a larger part of the interview than
Speaker 4: I thought. But no, you're right, and look, I got
Speaker 4: a lot of feedback from people who said that I
Speaker 4: must go, that you know it's an all Blacks game
Speaker 4: and to just sort of toughen up, which, to be fair,
Speaker 4: was probably the message I needed to hear because in
Speaker 4: the end, my friends and I we did go. Yeah,
Speaker 4: we got pretty wet, but it was a good occasion.
Speaker 4: We won that game we played. Actually the boys played
Speaker 4: really well that game, which was fantastic. Today, hoping that
Speaker 4: we can also get things across the line, just hoping
Speaker 4: we can score in the last twenty minutes would be
Speaker 4: a good, good thing for the All Blacks. So yeah, no,
Speaker 4: looking forward to it, wearing my proud All Black shirt.
Speaker 4: Looking forward to going to the game later tonight.
Speaker 2: By the way, you did say lovely data is it
Speaker 2: lovely day?
Speaker 4: It is a lovely day. I will not get rained
Speaker 4: out today.
Speaker 3: It should be. I think it'll be a sell out
Speaker 3: there tonight, my brothers. I've got a lot of family
Speaker 3: members there in Wellington going to the game. I think
Speaker 3: there's about ten of them, so I've got a bit
Speaker 3: of fomo there. I think it'll be great.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I actually I love the I love the Wellington
Speaker 2: Stadium for a test match.
Speaker 3: There was the I think that, well, it's the curse
Speaker 3: of the Capital though, isn't it.
Speaker 2: Last time I was there. Actually I was singing the
Speaker 2: anthem for the All Blacks and this is how long
Speaker 2: ago it was. Guys. Scott Robertson was playing and scored
Speaker 2: the first try and I think it was against the
Speaker 2: spring Box and it was back in the time. I'd
Speaker 2: probably reheatd myself. But my girlfriend, my girlfriend at the time,
Speaker 2: No no, no, I'm warmed up, but my now wife,
Speaker 2: but girlfriend at the time. They give you tickets to
Speaker 2: the game, but she got also a ground pass so
Speaker 2: she could be right down on the sideline when I
Speaker 2: went to do the anthem. And afterwards there's no one
Speaker 2: to tell you to go and take a seat. So
Speaker 2: we watched the first five or ten minutes of the
Speaker 2: game like you would watch a club match, down on
Speaker 2: the sideline, and we were only a few meters back
Speaker 2: from it. Someone said you should probably go and take
Speaker 2: your seats. But I saw Scott Robertson, I think, and
Speaker 2: scored the first or second try, and he did it
Speaker 2: with a bit of a flourish. It was a dive
Speaker 2: over the line and he sort of arched his back
Speaker 2: and stead of kicked his legs and a start and
Speaker 2: I thought, oh, there's a shape, bony, there's a chap
Speaker 2: and of course we see him breakdancing. So there you go.
Speaker 2: Fun story. Yeah, maybe not that much fun.
Speaker 3: Oh no, I no, that is a fun story to
Speaker 3: tell us you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's quite It's probably one of the more intense
Speaker 2: things you can do to sing an anthem for a
Speaker 2: Test match. Anyway. The other thing in Wellington, guys, nieves,
Speaker 2: have you ever been to the World of Wearable.
Speaker 3: Ast I no, the World of Wearable Arts. Look, this
Speaker 3: is it's been going for thirty five years. It's on
Speaker 3: at the moment. They're expecting about thirty thousand people to
Speaker 3: attend up and down the country. I mean, it's not
Speaker 3: just national, it's global. And I am going to make
Speaker 3: an effort to go next year. Because there was a
Speaker 3: group of us here in the newsroom talking about it,
Speaker 3: and there were like half a dozen of us. I've
Speaker 3: never been. I did try to get tickets and it
Speaker 3: was sold out. But I'm really really impressed with it.
Speaker 3: I mean every time I see it on TV and
Speaker 3: it just looks amazing. I mean, Brad, you've probably been there,
Speaker 3: fifty thousand times.
Speaker 2: None. I bet I've never been.
Speaker 4: I've never been. I'm so sorry, but that is only
Speaker 4: because I don't have any real appreciation for arts, and
Speaker 4: I just I wouldn't know good art of it hit
Speaker 4: me in the face. But what is quite impressive is
Speaker 4: walking along today all of the businesses that have really
Speaker 4: got in behind it. A lot of signs up saying look,
Speaker 4: if you show your well To Wearable Arts ticket, you
Speaker 4: know you get a discount or you might get some
Speaker 4: something you know, a good option in there, which I
Speaker 4: think is good because look, people are struggling, but this
Speaker 4: weekend should be a big one for Wellington, a lot
Speaker 4: of people around and it goes for a while. I mean,
Speaker 4: I've got family that are coming down from Funky Day
Speaker 4: in two weeks time to be part of it. So again,
Speaker 4: you know, it is, like you say, a much bigger thing.
Speaker 4: I think it's been running what like thirty five plus years,
Speaker 4: so it's a big institutional piece and it is quite exciting. Personally,
Speaker 4: I feel like I'd be wasting a ticket, so I'm
Speaker 4: excited that it's sold out and that other people seem
Speaker 4: to be doing much better than I am. On the
Speaker 4: cultural front.
Speaker 2: It's not quite my bag. But actually this has meant
Speaker 2: I can imagine Neva you. I can actually imagine you
Speaker 2: in some amazing as an in some amazing outfit in
Speaker 2: that show for some reason, because you've got a certain
Speaker 2: style to you, and I can just imagine you rocking
Speaker 2: some sort of look.
Speaker 3: Well, is it because I like to wear costumes, but
Speaker 3: that's eaten vegetable costumes that are we're here in the newsroom,
Speaker 3: or animal costumes.
Speaker 4: I can just see you've got a certain style.
Speaker 3: I'd like to do that, But I just don't know
Speaker 3: about the catwalk though. It's it's you know, how I
Speaker 3: shimy down the catwalk. I don't think I could do
Speaker 3: that in a serious mode or wearing big high heels
Speaker 3: to lettos.
Speaker 4: I mean, John Key did it back in the day
Speaker 4: and seemed to sort of not stuff it up too
Speaker 4: much on the runway. Surely if he can do it all,
Speaker 4: the rest of us can give it a credit.
Speaker 3: Well, that's true, Brad. I like that idea, yep. Absolutely.
Speaker 2: Now just on the actually, we normally we start with politics,
Speaker 2: but of course I thought we'd you know, I thought
Speaker 2: we'd start with partly the reason I meant wanted to
Speaker 2: kick off of the World a Wearable Arts and also
Speaker 2: the test matches that you know what, Wellington's had a
Speaker 2: tough time and it's just nice to see the Wellington's
Speaker 2: going to be absolutely heaving. And I just want to
Speaker 2: know from you, Brad, who are you're on the spot?
Speaker 2: Is there a vibe in town at the moment with
Speaker 2: the AB's test and with the wow on.
Speaker 4: Oh absolutely yeah. I mean look walking around even yesterday afternoon,
Speaker 4: obviously people would come into the city before things kicked
Speaker 4: off this weekend, it was pretty busy. It was pretty
Speaker 4: hard to move on Lampton Key yesterday afternoon. And like
Speaker 4: I say, I've been out this morning, out and about,
Speaker 4: and yet it's sort of been heaving. And I think
Speaker 4: the exciting thing is there's sort of all different parts.
Speaker 4: You know, You've got the World Wearable Arts, which will
Speaker 4: attract a certain type of people. You've got the All
Speaker 4: Blacks Test, who will attract sometimes the same but also
Speaker 4: sometimes different groups. A lot of other people though obviously
Speaker 4: wanting to go and have some good food and drink
Speaker 4: around town. So I think that, plus you know, the
Speaker 4: weather is better at the moment, all of that is
Speaker 4: just a little bit more encouraging for what has been
Speaker 4: a tougher time. So again green as shoots starting to
Speaker 4: pop through. This is a good weekend for Wellington.
Speaker 2: Excellent stuff. And now on the entertainment news, I actually
Speaker 2: just caught up with us not long before we came
Speaker 2: on here. But there are some actors you know you're
Speaker 2: here when they've gone. Sometimes you think, oh, that's a
Speaker 2: bit sad. I mean, but she said an amazing life.
Speaker 2: But Dame Maggie Smith has died to many people. Professor McGonagall,
Speaker 2: known for the Harry Potter film. I still remember that
Speaker 2: line she says, I've always wanted to do that spell
Speaker 2: when she does some awesome spell. But anyway, any you're
Speaker 2: a fan of Dame Maggie's work there, Brad.
Speaker 4: Oh absolutely, I mean, like you say, especially Harry Potter
Speaker 4: was the big one for me. But I mean she's
Speaker 4: just she's done so many incredible you know, TV and
Speaker 4: film contributions. So I feel like the interesting thing is now,
Speaker 4: you know, when people are coming out with their tribute
Speaker 4: it's been quite nice to see that variety. You know,
Speaker 4: everyone remembers her for something different. So yeah, an impressive
Speaker 4: legacy she leaves behind. And I think the great thing
Speaker 4: there is that she's got, you know, so many different
Speaker 4: things that we can go back and watch and remember,
Speaker 4: and she was great in all of them.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I agree, definitely, Dave Meggie Smith one of my
Speaker 3: favorites at the age of eighty nine. Wow, what a
Speaker 3: life that you know, she certainly has lived life. She's
Speaker 3: been on has Brad said, you know a lot of
Speaker 3: movies and acting roles and plays and things. I loved
Speaker 3: her And Downtown air b that was you know.
Speaker 2: Varlet, Countess of Anthem.
Speaker 3: I watched it because of her. But she was just
Speaker 3: you know, just her, you know, just the way that
Speaker 3: she was in her acting ability and in her lines,
Speaker 3: the way she delivered her lines and you know those
Speaker 3: clipped tones and her humor. But yes, I mean that
Speaker 3: was probably one of the first stories I woke up
Speaker 3: to this morning at five am when I woke up
Speaker 3: and I went, oh, that's a nice reflection, you know,
Speaker 3: for her life. I mean, you know, she's had a
Speaker 3: great life living to eighty nine. People were saying, oh,
Speaker 3: that's that's said that she's dead, and I thought, well, no,
Speaker 3: not really. I mean, you know, she's had a good
Speaker 3: she's had a good life. And we've got great memories,
Speaker 3: and you know, globally everyone has you know, just been
Speaker 3: singing her praises from the King to.
Speaker 2: You know a lot of as well.
Speaker 3: The Prime Minister Sausages.
Speaker 2: Sorry, we've got to divert to that one.
Speaker 3: Did you get the name right?
Speaker 2: I still think that that's one of the best little
Speaker 2: misspeaks I've ever heard, when he's talking about the drama
Speaker 2: in Palestine and the Hamas, and then he says, we
Speaker 2: need the return of the sausages. Actually, I've got the hostages.
Speaker 2: For those of you who haven't heard it, here it
Speaker 2: is here call again.
Speaker 3: From immediate cessfire and Gaza, the return of the sausages,
Speaker 3: the hostages.
Speaker 2: That's fantastic anyway.
Speaker 4: It's one of those things though, right like I know
Speaker 4: that everyone flubs their lines every now and then, Jeez,
Speaker 4: I've done it. I'm sure that all of us have.
Speaker 4: But on something that important, on something that critical that
Speaker 4: I mean just really you know, foot in the mouth
Speaker 4: sort of syndrome there.
Speaker 2: I Actually I think the mistake he made was that
Speaker 2: he just paused and calmly corrected himself. But the pause
Speaker 2: made it look like he didn't realize and so anyway,
Speaker 2: there's all these wonderful sausage means. But we shouldn't have
Speaker 2: used that to step away from Dame Maggie Smith. But anyway, yes,
Speaker 2: I think a great contribution to the world of theater
Speaker 2: and cinema as well. Tell you what, we'll take a
Speaker 2: moment to just a week group. See there are go.
Speaker 3: Miss way up to week.
Speaker 2: Group where the program's being presented by Elma fud. Where's
Speaker 2: that wabbit. We'll be back in a moment. This is
Speaker 2: the Weekend Collective News talk said, it's twenty three minutes
Speaker 2: past three.
Speaker 1: I'm to sexty boon my shirt to sexty bomb my
Speaker 1: shirt so sexy it hurts, and I am too sexty
Speaker 1: formula lean to sexy bomb Lan yorkanjer Copan.
Speaker 2: And welcome back to the Weekend Collective of Actually sort
Speaker 2: of request of the sign. I couldn't remember what it was,
Speaker 2: but my producer Tyre was like, oh, yes, it's my favorite.
Speaker 2: But it was because it has the lyrics on the catwalk.
Speaker 2: On the catwalk and I was thinking of the world
Speaker 2: of wearable arts. I thought, let's but we didn't get
Speaker 2: that lyric. And I'm Tim Beverdges the Weekend Collective and
Speaker 2: of co of course, we also have the wonderful Brad Olsen,
Speaker 2: who I think this would be on your playlist, wouldn't it, Brad?
Speaker 4: But I maybe I should add it on. Maybe I should.
Speaker 4: It's not at the moment, but I could add it
Speaker 4: on alongside all the sort of other top forty pop
Speaker 4: pits that I've got at the moment, and you need.
Speaker 2: To add oh yeah by yeller of course, Becuse I
Speaker 2: can see that working for you too, Brad. Okay, just
Speaker 2: who needs who needs Spotify?
Speaker 4: And Shazam when you've got Tim Beverage, I mean, honestly.
Speaker 2: Shazam, right, neither? Look politics, okay, kids, we're going to
Speaker 2: do some politics. Maths funding, more maths funding, but they're
Speaker 2: taken away the Toreo funding. And basically it turns out
Speaker 2: that the Terreo, the Marii Language Initiative for teachers, was
Speaker 2: more than double the cost of similar courses, wasn't accredited
Speaker 2: as well, with a price tag of a million one
Speaker 2: hundred million. And anyway, they've they've they've canceled that.
Speaker 3: What's your reaction to you that, yeah, we'll look prioritizing,
Speaker 3: you know, the support for just just did lift the
Speaker 3: maths achievement in the classrooms. I mean, I can see why.
Speaker 3: I can understand. Look, maths is tough, and I think
Speaker 3: they said that that a lot of kids you know,
Speaker 3: falling behind failing. Funds need to be poured into that area,
Speaker 3: you know, just for the basics of the workbooks and
Speaker 3: things like that, where you know, it just wasn't happening,
Speaker 3: you know, in the same breast, you know, like I
Speaker 3: know that this program wasn't accredited the program, however, it
Speaker 3: was successful in some schools. You know, there's been a
Speaker 3: lot of mixed reaction, a lot of people, you know,
Speaker 3: from the education sector that are very unhappy about this.
Speaker 3: You know one school that where it was working and
Speaker 3: they could see that the teachers with today or you
Speaker 3: know Flatbush Primary School in South Auckland. You know, is
Speaker 3: it a case of robbing you know, Peter to pay Paul?
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, yeah, it's interesting.
Speaker 2: I think it gives the headline that any political side wants,
Speaker 2: doesn't it. So the you know what I mean, it's
Speaker 2: it's a story that everyone loves because they can they
Speaker 2: can tune it into their favorite gripe, don't you think, Brad, Yeah.
Speaker 4: I think everyone can take what they want from the headline.
Speaker 4: I think instructive for me was looking through a bit
Speaker 4: more of this, the fact that you know, an evaluation
Speaker 4: of the Today program has been done. It didn't find
Speaker 4: any evidence that directly impacted progress or achievement for students,
Speaker 4: and it couldn't quantify the impact on how much TODAY
Speaker 4: was used in the classroom. So I can understand that
Speaker 4: when there are limited funds, and certainly in education, there's
Speaker 4: obviously a huge amount of work to do that you've
Speaker 4: got to put money into places where you do think
Speaker 4: you can get some of those stronger results. And here
Speaker 4: it's not like it was taking from a program that
Speaker 4: was actually definitively making big progress. It wasn't able to
Speaker 4: be quantified, and so I think on that basis, I
Speaker 4: can understand why you'd make that decision to switch the
Speaker 4: funding around.
Speaker 2: Yeah, However, the bigger the bigger education announcement were a
Speaker 2: couple of things on the tightening of the truancy regulations.
Speaker 2: I editorialized a little bit about this during the course
Speaker 2: of the week. I don't know, I don't think it's
Speaker 2: I don't think the rules are really going to be
Speaker 2: that enforceable because the people whose kids aren't attending, and
Speaker 2: even Seamire acknowledge that we'll be finding where it can
Speaker 2: make a difference, but not where it heaps misery upon misery.
Speaker 2: To me, I think the legislation is just about sending
Speaker 2: a signal, which may in itself make a difference, don't
Speaker 2: you think, Brad.
Speaker 4: Oh, definitely. And I do worry sometimes when we get
Speaker 4: into these conversations, right when people sort of say, oh, well,
Speaker 4: we're going to do something and it's not going to
Speaker 4: do anything, and I go, well, I don't know. If
Speaker 4: this is going to do nothing, it might well be
Speaker 4: that the effect is fairly limited. I understand that, but
Speaker 4: you're right in terms of the signaling device and just
Speaker 4: putting again that focus back on a topic that has
Speaker 4: quite clearly deteriorated over the last couple of years. Attendance
Speaker 4: has gone down. Part of that, sure is because of
Speaker 4: the likes of the pandemic and similar But I don't
Speaker 4: think we should just sit back and go, oh, well,
Speaker 4: we can't do anything about it, therefore we won't try anything.
Speaker 4: This is at least a bit of a shift coming through,
Speaker 4: and I guess it's that focus again on a little
Speaker 4: bit more personal responsibility, including from family, to say, look, actually,
Speaker 4: you do have an obligation to send your kids to school,
Speaker 4: and if you're not, then there's got to be some
Speaker 4: something that comes through on that, not to put people
Speaker 4: into a more desperate position, but to at least enforce
Speaker 4: upon people that there is a reason to do something
Speaker 4: rather than just sit back, sit on your hands and
Speaker 4: go at someone else's problem.
Speaker 2: Name what is it.
Speaker 3: It's fifteen days, isn't it. If they don't turn up.
Speaker 3: If kids don't turn up in fifteen days, basually there
Speaker 3: is just.
Speaker 2: Fifteen days cumulatively or is it all one shot.
Speaker 3: I think that's cumulative as well, So.
Speaker 2: I mean during the course of a year, that'd be
Speaker 2: easy to rack up.
Speaker 3: But you know, I mean this is the other thing
Speaker 3: that everyone was talking about in different groups, about the
Speaker 3: holidays and taking your kids out, you know, outside of
Speaker 3: the normal school holidays and taking them overseas because it's cheaper,
Speaker 3: or those who have to take family members, you know,
Speaker 3: or wanting to go and see family members who are
Speaker 3: overseas and they haven't seen family for you know, several
Speaker 3: years and want to actually have a family holiday and
Speaker 3: take their young children with them and you know, I mean,
Speaker 3: this is an issue that has been happening for a
Speaker 3: while and you know, parents thinking well, yeah, maybe we
Speaker 3: can we can do this, and is it a case
Speaker 3: too This is the other question of you know, if
Speaker 3: your children are doing okay and the parents you know,
Speaker 3: because as you say, and what Brad's saying, parents have
Speaker 3: got to have that responsibility. And if your children aren't
Speaker 3: doing well or I'm probably thinking more like primary school,
Speaker 3: well then you know, stay there. You know, something's got
Speaker 3: to be done. Take responsibility. But then a few other
Speaker 3: people my friends have saying, well, you know, our children,
Speaker 3: we make sure they do their homework and they're actually
Speaker 3: quite smart, and you know, I'm we're quite happy with them.
Speaker 3: So you know, we will take them out for seven
Speaker 3: days or something like that, you know, for a holidays.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't have the problem. I mean, it's a
Speaker 2: bit of very middle class, sort of upper middle class problem,
Speaker 2: isn't it. If you think you're going to get in
Speaker 2: trouble with you deciding and take the family of Europe,
Speaker 2: it's probably not really what the focus of the whole
Speaker 2: thing is. Yeah, no, but it might not be.
Speaker 4: But I do think that it's one of those things
Speaker 4: I worry and wonder if part of this is you know,
Speaker 4: a classic example of that whole slippery slope argument where
Speaker 4: people sort of go, well, you know, I can do
Speaker 4: this because everything's fine, and then everyone does it, and
Speaker 4: then all of a sudden it's actually not so fine.
Speaker 4: So I do think that this is maybe that point
Speaker 4: where over the you know, a period of time, probably
Speaker 4: a decade or so, sending us kids to school and
Speaker 4: not taking them out, at various points, people have sort
Speaker 4: of shifted away from that. They've sort of just gone
Speaker 4: around the edges a bit more, a bit more, and
Speaker 4: it's all now eroded away to a point where you
Speaker 4: don't have people going nearly as consistently that has been
Speaker 4: shown to have, you know, detrimental effects on people's learning.
Speaker 4: And so now I think it's just sort of tightening
Speaker 4: that leish on people again and saying, actually, look, you know,
Speaker 4: everyone's taken this for a bit too much of a
Speaker 4: joy ride. Now it's actually having real impacts. So we've
Speaker 4: got a whole things back in.
Speaker 2: Yeah, what about the teacher days, the teacher only days?
Speaker 5: Now?
Speaker 2: This is actually I think that I'm I like David Seymour,
Speaker 2: and I agree with him you know, a fairly chunk
Speaker 2: of the time. But I thought that this was an
Speaker 2: absolute bs cheap shot when he said that schools will
Speaker 2: have to play their part in setting a good example
Speaker 2: as well. This means not teaching taking teacher only days
Speaker 2: during term time, which has got nothing to do with
Speaker 2: truancy because actually, teacher any days. The teachers are actually
Speaker 2: in school at work doing curriculum work.
Speaker 3: Are they Yes, they are, that's what That's all, good,
Speaker 3: Ord David seymore good. Yes, Why does he have to
Speaker 3: be a Friday? Why can't you have a teacher day
Speaker 3: on a Wednesday? Why is it?
Speaker 2: You know, I can change your mind on this because actually,
Speaker 2: as a parent, right and if I would rather if
Speaker 2: there was a teacher only day it was just before
Speaker 2: a weekend or something rather than not because it means well,
Speaker 2: I think it makes it. But the thing is people
Speaker 2: think the teacher any days, so they can work from home,
Speaker 2: a teacher any days. Actually, when they are all at
Speaker 2: school working on the curriculum.
Speaker 3: What are they doing working on the curriculum?
Speaker 2: Well, often, and here's the other newsflash, is that often.
Speaker 3: When you're a teacher.
Speaker 2: Yet no, no, my wife is all right, yeah, but
Speaker 2: she doesn't know. No, I don't. I don't pass on
Speaker 2: her opinion because she doesn't like to participate in talk
Speaker 2: back anything to do with it. But often the ministry
Speaker 2: will give curriculum updates and they will say you must
Speaker 2: do this in the next couple of weeks. So it's
Speaker 2: something that the ministry have also been driving as well.
Speaker 2: I find teacher only days sometimes frustrating, but I also
Speaker 2: see the other side of it because I think that
Speaker 2: here's my last word on it. I think it's way
Speaker 2: too cheap a shot to always have a crack at
Speaker 2: teachers as if they are slacking off. I think the
Speaker 2: union doesn't do them any favors because the way they
Speaker 2: present themselves. But you find anyone who has a teacher
Speaker 2: in the family and tell me how they look at
Speaker 2: the end of the year, and they are bug it.
Speaker 2: And it's not because they're all slackers.
Speaker 3: We're all tired.
Speaker 4: However, I think I think the big thing here, right
Speaker 4: is that you know, we're talking about truancy and taking five, ten,
Speaker 4: fifteen days at a year. There's not fifteen teacher only days.
Speaker 4: I've never seen that before in my life, you know.
Speaker 4: I remember when I was at school, you had a
Speaker 4: teacher only day every now and then, and like you
Speaker 4: say to them, it was actually it was normally for
Speaker 4: either curriculum updates. Sometimes it was for you know, go
Speaker 4: through the marking because there's been a whole lot of
Speaker 4: assessments all, you know, at a certain period of time,
Speaker 4: and they needed to get through that because otherwise it's
Speaker 4: very hard to then go, oh, well someone needs a
Speaker 4: bit more help in this area. But if you've gone
Speaker 4: too far through the year, you don't know that, so
Speaker 4: you've got to take that time. And again it's one
Speaker 4: of those things where they can start to pull resources
Speaker 4: so that they're not having to be sort of as
Speaker 4: frantic during the week. I mean, I think my big
Speaker 4: thing was I went out of all of the things
Speaker 4: that I think will make a difference in terms of
Speaker 4: truancy and at people getting to school, that didn't seem
Speaker 4: to be one of the big issues. I mean, realistically,
Speaker 4: there are much bigger fish to fry, and I thought
Speaker 4: that was just a red hearing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, well we've had our say on that one.
Speaker 2: I've had a winge as well. It's always good to
Speaker 2: have a winge, though, wasn't it. Sometimes I think that's
Speaker 2: what talkbacks for yep, good winge exactly, but.
Speaker 4: For the host or for the collback, the talkback corners,
Speaker 4: just for.
Speaker 3: Him Bread, you know what he's like.
Speaker 2: God, you're lucky.
Speaker 3: You're not in the studio here today. You're in Wellington, right?
Speaker 4: So are we going to get booted off soon?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 4: Not at all.
Speaker 2: I love you all, but no hug for you after
Speaker 2: the show.
Speaker 4: Never.
Speaker 2: We'll be back in just a moment. It's twenty two
Speaker 2: minutes to four.
Speaker 5: W Oh gosh, I love a little bit of Whitney.
Speaker 2: Whitney Houston, Oh, Whitney.
Speaker 3: He won't know Whitney because this was the eighties.
Speaker 2: Brad, He's not a goldfish. She does. He is probably
Speaker 2: a little bit about the world pre his existence. O, Brad,
Speaker 2: you love a bit of Whitney.
Speaker 4: I do, I do. I'm not a gold I'm glad
Speaker 4: we're clarified. I'm not a goldfish. Yeah. I was worried
Speaker 4: a bit of an identity crisis there for a moment.
Speaker 2: No, I mean, you know, gold for showy swimming around like,
Speaker 2: what's this all? That's the same thing, you know, limited memory?
Speaker 4: Whatever I do, I do thrash my music where I
Speaker 4: listen to one song again and again and again and
Speaker 4: again until I get sick of it. So at the moment,
Speaker 4: I'm listening to Kessy Henderson's new song Lemonades. That's just
Speaker 4: going on and on and on.
Speaker 2: I'm a thrasher as well.
Speaker 3: I throw songs to Yeah it's great.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, pummel that song. Actually. Also, by the way,
Speaker 2: just on you know, I'm talking about anthems ages ago.
Speaker 2: If anyone hasn't seen on YouTube Whitney Houston star Spangled
Speaker 2: Banner the most an unbelievable vocal performance, the best anthem
Speaker 2: performance you will ever hear. Have you seen that one? Bread?
Speaker 4: I haven't. Is it better than you when you did
Speaker 4: the national Oh wow, No, no.
Speaker 3: Seriously, tea times bitter Bread.
Speaker 2: It is so good. It's like she's got a bit
Speaker 2: and you go, oh my goodness, how's she going to
Speaker 2: hit these next notes? And then she just nails it
Speaker 2: and there's a simple the orchestra and these jets fly overhead.
Speaker 2: Whitney's anthem can't beat it?
Speaker 4: Have you seen it?
Speaker 3: Her version is the best, And I have seen that.
Speaker 3: Just talking about threshing music, I've seen that. No, lie,
Speaker 3: at least I've listened to it and seen the video
Speaker 3: at least fifty times. Wow, ye, I'm not lying, that's
Speaker 3: how good it is. Bread.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's good. There you go after the show, Brad,
Speaker 2: you just google Whitney Star Spangled Banner. It's even on Spotify.
Speaker 2: But you've got to see it and just, oh my goodness,
Speaker 2: you'll cry.
Speaker 3: I was emotional.
Speaker 2: Yeah, actually yeah, almost just on the same par as
Speaker 2: old what's her name? I've forgotten. I'll talk about it
Speaker 2: later on. I remember exactly what I'm talking about, but
Speaker 2: the opening of the Paris Olympics, and it's completely for
Speaker 2: Celine Dion's him ilin War, which was amazing too. Hey, anyway,
Speaker 2: let's move on to talk about a couple of other
Speaker 2: things now on the politics front. I loved the fact, Brad,
Speaker 2: that Winston gave the United Nations a telling off basically
Speaker 2: when when someone's speaking, you'll be quiet and listen, because
Speaker 2: they were talking and he was looking around. He Actually,
Speaker 2: I'm loving Winston as foreign minister.
Speaker 4: What do you think I think Winston Peter's does a good,
Speaker 4: no better than that, a great job as foreign minister.
Speaker 4: He really does. I mean to shush. The United Nations
Speaker 4: Security Council is quite quite a feat but also I
Speaker 4: think it actually played into what he was saying in
Speaker 4: his speech. You know, he was talking about the veto
Speaker 4: power and how you know, basically yesterday's great powers still
Speaker 4: have huge veto power on how this big global institution happens,
Speaker 4: and they weren't even doing him the service of listening
Speaker 4: to what. You know, New Zealand we're a smaller country.
Speaker 4: We still were a big part of setting the UN up,
Speaker 4: but we weren't you know, a major power, and everyone
Speaker 4: was just ignoring him and sort of sniggering and talking
Speaker 4: in the background. So I actually I give him a
Speaker 4: huge kudos, not only for sort of saying the quite
Speaker 4: a bit out loud, but actually for proving his point
Speaker 4: a bit more that they don't really care and they're
Speaker 4: not really listening.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I totally agree. I mean when I saw that
Speaker 3: this is Winston Peter's at his best oversea, I mean,
Speaker 3: you know how everyone and probably here in New Zealand
Speaker 3: a lot of us can either you know, he's polarizing,
Speaker 3: we take him or leave him, and some of the
Speaker 3: things he says, you know people, ah, but when he's
Speaker 3: on that global stage, he's flipping amazing, and as a
Speaker 3: foreign minister. I think he's great. How old is he's
Speaker 3: in his mid seventies. Actually he's seventy nice mid seventies.
Speaker 2: It's Google, Google, do you know his age?
Speaker 4: Like he is. He spoke to me a moment.
Speaker 3: He's here, there, everywhere. He's spent so much time overseas
Speaker 3: and he hasn't lost the plot and he's flipping brilliant
Speaker 3: over there. And when he was speaking there and he
Speaker 3: told everyone to shush. You look at his face, and
Speaker 3: he had that stern look that New Zealand has known.
Speaker 3: He thought right, you know, and I thought good on
Speaker 3: him too, because this was a serious subject. You know,
Speaker 3: I don't like it when people are murmuring and talking
Speaker 3: when I'm speaking, and you know, and when he just
Speaker 3: been in and even though mine's not as mine's not
Speaker 3: as important as what he's saying. But I thought, good
Speaker 3: on you. And you know, he's making traction. You'll we're
Speaker 3: a small country, but we want to be heard and
Speaker 3: he's doing the business.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Seventy nine. By the way, he's seventy nine, says
Speaker 2: eleventh of April nine and forty five is born. Is
Speaker 2: that what you've got there, Brad?
Speaker 4: That is exactly what my googling told me as well.
Speaker 4: But I think that that point's important though, that like,
Speaker 4: actually we're doing pretty well on the foreign affairs front
Speaker 4: at the moment, and I think I mean, look, Winston
Speaker 4: Peter's obviously as Foreign Affairs Minister is a big part
Speaker 4: of that, but actually looking through what our diplomats doing
Speaker 4: across the world, that's a big part. This week we
Speaker 4: signed off a trade deal with the United Arab Emirates
Speaker 4: four months Like normally those things take four years, if
Speaker 4: not sometimes four decades. So to sort of smash that
Speaker 4: one out in four months is sort of testament to
Speaker 4: a huge amount of work that the Foreign Ministry and
Speaker 4: all of the government counterparts been doing. That sort of
Speaker 4: stuff is how New Zealand, small little trading nation at
Speaker 4: the bottom of the South Pacific, that's our lifeblood making
Speaker 4: sure we've got those sort of connections overseas. So it's
Speaker 4: actually I've been really impressed.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Actually I thought also it almost distracts from the
Speaker 2: speech that he gave when he I loved the fact
Speaker 2: that he called Russia out for using its veto and
Speaker 2: talked about Russia's delinquency and the as it's whether it's
Speaker 2: right of Veto on the Security Council, but also just
Speaker 2: how he stood up for smaller nations and said, it's
Speaker 2: not about our size, it's about I'm paraphrasing from my memory,
Speaker 2: but he basically said, it's about the values and the
Speaker 2: quality of of of what we bring to it, you know,
Speaker 2: our values and the and the ethics or whatever. But
Speaker 2: I just sort of thought he made a very good point.
Speaker 2: So so good on your Winny. I reckon now just
Speaker 2: before we go to the break, I do love this one.
Speaker 2: In fact, tell you what, maybe we'll save it because
Speaker 2: we're gonna have a chat about chat about the bridget
Speaker 2: and ball flop that Bridgeton fans have been left fuming
Speaker 2: after this unofficial ball and I'll give you the facts afterwards,
Speaker 2: actually because it's quite fun. Nevehs loves this one. But
Speaker 2: we'll be back in just a moment. It's twelve and
Speaker 2: a half two four News Talk said, be.
Speaker 4: Well, help.
Speaker 2: You say gone, Fay say, I say so. I used
Speaker 2: to tuck in soon. Welcome back to the Weekend Collective.
Speaker 2: This is the song that Brad has been flogging, isn't it? Brad?
Speaker 4: It's a great one, isn't it?
Speaker 2: By Cassie Henderson is that it's the one it came
Speaker 2: out on Friday. Even though I can see you down
Speaker 2: the zoom and you're just grooving in the studio, just singing.
Speaker 2: I can tell there's a mover there. I tell you what,
Speaker 2: there is a mover.
Speaker 4: There is a reason I kept my mic, you know,
Speaker 4: muted for a period. But you know that she's a professional.
Speaker 4: I'm definitely not. But on the dancing front, you gonta
Speaker 4: have a groove for something like that.
Speaker 3: Oh, you'll be grooving to this all the way to
Speaker 3: the game tonight.
Speaker 2: Hey, just quickly, We're just touch on another little bit
Speaker 2: more on the politics front before we get to bridge it.
Speaker 2: In Dunedin Hospital, there's big protests the downgrading of the hospital.
Speaker 2: It seems that they didn't budget enough. It blew out
Speaker 2: from ten thousand square meter at a thirty thousand a
Speaker 2: square meter. I can't even get my head around this, Brad,
Speaker 2: But I'm manhanded over to the economist. Has there been
Speaker 2: some balls ups along the way in terms of what
Speaker 2: we think it's going to cost versus we need to
Speaker 2: include X, Y and z the contingency.
Speaker 4: Well, this is the challenge, right, So I've had a
Speaker 4: bit of a look at the numbers. In anticipation of
Speaker 4: this question, stats in Z says that hospital builds are
Speaker 4: now compared to when the project was sort of first
Speaker 4: put together in twenty seventeen, hospital build costs of increased
Speaker 4: by about forty nine percent, one of the largest increases
Speaker 4: of any building type in the country. So I understand
Speaker 4: the increase to a degree. But the struggle I have
Speaker 4: is that not only the fact that the number's gone up,
Speaker 4: but actually there's still not a finalized cost. There is
Speaker 4: still not a finalized plan, and we don't know exactly
Speaker 4: where it's going. Like, how have we let ourselves get
Speaker 4: to such a big, big project again and again and again.
Speaker 4: This is not the only time, right tim, that we've
Speaker 4: talked about something like a big cost blowout, This one
Speaker 4: seems to have come up. There's still no real light
Speaker 4: at the end of the tunnel on this, and I
Speaker 4: totally feel for the local community who are going you know, everyone,
Speaker 4: every politician of every stripe has promised us the world
Speaker 4: and been unable to deliver. But I also understand why
Speaker 4: the government has said, look, we can't just keep throwing
Speaker 4: more and more money to get the most expensive hospital
Speaker 4: in the sort of you know, southern hemisphere, so that
Speaker 4: there's a difficult compromise here, but there's no good options
Speaker 4: and someone really should be how accountable? Why haven't we
Speaker 4: done the sums on this properly? Why haven't we planned
Speaker 4: it out? And probably why importantly did we go out
Speaker 4: in twenty seventeen and put a stake in the ground
Speaker 4: and say, look, we've done no real planning but it's
Speaker 4: probably going to cost about this, and you just everyone
Speaker 4: hopes that it's going to cost it. Hope is not
Speaker 4: a good plan.
Speaker 2: No knaves because yeah, I believe they'd hadn't even budgeted
Speaker 2: for pathology and things like that, and a whole well,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 3: He should roll someone, you know, I mean, it's still
Speaker 3: a good.
Speaker 2: Role of the previous government's gone.
Speaker 3: But look this is where the community and today on
Speaker 3: the streets of Dunedin there's that massive protest. The story
Speaker 3: is there and the Herald have seen the photos as well,
Speaker 3: and this is where the regions and they're in Dunedin,
Speaker 3: the whole of Otago have come out. You can see
Speaker 3: their fury, their disappointment, their anger. They're led by the
Speaker 3: Mayor Jules Raddock and they're all holding all these different signs.
Speaker 3: They've got good weather down there in Dunedin at the moment,
Speaker 3: so it's really good that it's not raining because the
Speaker 3: doctors and nurses, they've got all the you know, the paraphernalia,
Speaker 3: the hospital beds are out there and they're all out.
Speaker 3: It's probably you know, if you see this protest and
Speaker 3: see the photos and the videos, you can really sense
Speaker 3: their anger and where they're at with it.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 4: My big worry looking at this right is that how
Speaker 4: many times are we going to go through this again?
Speaker 4: Nelson's needing a new hospital, Fungiday needs one as well
Speaker 4: with as Hawk's Bay, Parmi. There's a whole bunch of
Speaker 4: regional hospitals that are going to need to go through this.
Speaker 4: How have we not yet got like a base New
Speaker 4: Zealand hospital build plan that sits in you know, the
Speaker 4: top draw at the Ministry of Health that every time
Speaker 4: we do a hospital they bring it down and said
Speaker 4: I want one of those. Actually order five of them
Speaker 4: and go and construct them, you know, or make sure
Speaker 4: they're all pre fabricat and then we'll go and whack
Speaker 4: it up. Because, like I say, my worry is not
Speaker 4: so much this. This is obviously a critical issue. But
Speaker 4: if this has happened once, how many more times are
Speaker 4: we going to go through the exact same bit of standardization?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Good on you just correctly now. Of course I
Speaker 2: did promise this one, but Neeves the Bridgeton ball, there
Speaker 2: was an unofficial ball in Detroit based on the next
Speaker 2: Netflix show. My suspicion is it's in Detroit. Anyway, it
Speaker 2: turned out to be. I am a huge cheap decor
Speaker 2: and just a stripper for entertainment.
Speaker 3: It's terrible. I mean, look at the bridget I'm a
Speaker 3: huge Bridgeton fan, and this has got nothing. This this
Speaker 3: was this is a scam basically, so it hasn't been
Speaker 3: organized at all by Netflix or you know, the production company.
Speaker 3: But you had all these people paying from you know,
Speaker 3: like five hundred dollars, three hundred dollars going to this
Speaker 3: ball and undercooked food. I had to laugh out loud
Speaker 3: when I saw the stripper in the middle of it,
Speaker 3: you know, with the pole dancer, and I thought, that
Speaker 3: is not Bridgeton. It was never Bridgeton in the series.
Speaker 4: You know, like what, I'm glad you've clarified this because
Speaker 4: I've never watched Bridgeton. I don't know what I was
Speaker 4: supposed to find there, so I'm glad that it was.
Speaker 4: I mean, honestly, what an absolute markup. All I can
Speaker 4: say is that, as someone who's never watched the show,
Speaker 4: I'm glad that you know, apparently there are better things
Speaker 4: than the strippers and the pole dancers.
Speaker 2: Well, I'll tell you what, All those disappointed people in
Speaker 2: Detroit just get on a plane and go to Wellington
Speaker 2: for the World of whereable Art's there. You go, Hey, Brad,
Speaker 2: great to see you mate, Thank you so much for
Speaker 2: coming on the panel. Always good fun and neither ready mano.
Speaker 2: I'll see you against you You'll see again, Love you Brad.
Speaker 3: We're going to have a boogie. We'll have a boogie
Speaker 3: next month.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and we'll be back with the Wonder Afraid of
Speaker 2: Your show as next. This is News Talk z B.
Speaker 1: For more from the weekend collective, listen live to News
Speaker 1: Talk ZEDB weekends from three pm, or follow the podcast
Speaker 1: on iHeartRadio.