Andrew Dickens Afternoons

Why is it that when it comes to our so-called housing crisis, no politicians seem to get it?It’s not hard to grasp.  For half a century we have consistently failed to build enough houses for our growing population and so the basic rule of supply and demand comes in.  Desperate purchasers fight amongst themselves for too few houses and then pay above the odds or give up and sulk.It’s like two hermit crabs fighting to the death for one shell.Meanwhile, people with a bit of spare cash stick it into investment housing instead of a bank or equity in a business. And because interest rates have been so low for so long it’s a money tree of capital growth.The factors are simple to see.  Natural population growth.  High immigration.  Low levels of construction.  Poor forward planning.At the heart of it all is one simple fact.  This country doesn’t have enough houses.You know this. I know this. So why don’t they know it.I say this because the latest grand idea to get first home buyers into an affordable house ignores th

One caller who rang Andrew Dickens afternoon today, says dealing with his mother's dementia has split the family because those who live in Auckland wanted to put her into a home, while the family members who lived with her in Christchurch said no to that. He says his mother really loves conversation and talking to people, and he fears if she is in a care facility then she will be forgotten about and she will deteriorate quickly. LISTEN ABOVE AS CALLER JOHN SPEAKS WITH ANDREW DICKENSSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

So I was listening to Mike Hosking this morning, thinking to myself how nice it would be to be in London on a sunny spring day. And then he said something that set me thinkingHe was talking about the budget and what not to expect in terms of radical change.  He then warned that the coalition’s caution may continue at the next budget because it’s only a year away from the election.I thought to myself, hold on, this mob is only half a year into their term and we’re already talking about an election.It brought back into relief the length of the parliamentary term in New Zealand.At just three years it’s one of the shortest in the world shared with El Salvador, Jordan and Australia’s house of representatives. But in Australia, the Senate's term is six years.  In Brazil, their upper house has an eight-year term.Most countries go for five years. A handful go for four years and a few go for a mind-blowing six years.I’ve long had concerns about New Zealand’s short term.  While of course opponents of any given governme

Caller Brian talks about his concerns surrounding facial recognition and the data gathering of peoples private information.LISTEN TO THE FULL CALL WITH ANDREW DICKENS ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Pre-competition favourite Netta Barzilai won the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest for Israel on Saturday with her song Toy.Barzilai beat out competition from 42 other countries' performers to claim the music extravaganza's annual crown at the Grand Final in Lisbon, Portugal.There was a strong field of contestants at this year's event, and the Israeli entry topped close competition from Cyprus, Austria, Sweden and Germany.Barzilai racked up 529 points, compared with 436 for runner-up Cyprus and 342 for third-place Austria.The contest largely shed its traditional hallmarks of glitz and glitter in favour of a more restrained and tasteful tone in Lisbon, which was hosting the event because it won last year with Salvador Sobral's sober and subdued ballad Amar pelos Dois.Sobral last week criticized Toy as "horrible music." But Barzilai was unrepentant with her popular techno dance beat about women's empowerment.Her win — Israel's fourth and first since 1998 — means her country hosts next year's Eurovision Song Contest,

I think it’s a good time to talk about business confidence as we approach the budget this Thursday. Because everyone is talking about it.The government is trying to convince everyone that they’re prudent guardians of the public purse, while the opposition is desperately trying to convince us that we’re going to hell in a handcart.This is a difficult line for Simon Bridges to pursue.  On one hand he’s trying to tell the country that Labour has loads of cash because of his party’s fiscal management.  That the rock star economy is still singing a sweet tune. Yet on the  other hand he’s saying we’re on the verge of an apocalypse.Meanwhile Grant Robertson, the invisible man of politics who seems to have been beavering away on his first budget, is telling everyone to brace themselves to be disappointed.  That there won’t be a budget blowout and that he’s going to be as miserly with the purse strings as Bill English.  That said, he’ll be putting some band aids over areas of the economy that National neglected.Who’s

On Tuesday I wrote an editorial about the housing crisis and this government’s approach to it through Kiwi Build. In it I essentially advised the government to get out of the building business and get stuck into all the things that stop builders building and developers developing. It might be worth me repeating my conclusions. I said that if they go into the building business they’re going to hit all the same problems private developers have had for generations.If they want to speed up supply they should be spending time and money on the impediments. Rather than building houses they should be laying water and power onto greenfield sites and improving the infrastructure for intensification projects. They should be streamlining consent processes and helping councils gear up to cope with more work. They should be strengthening credit lines to the developers who know what they’re doingThey should be building transport and roading to these new developments rather than leaving new home owners stuck in traffic jams

As we approach the budget I think it’s fair to ask the government, “How’s that housing crisis going?”It’s been the issue of the age, which has seen property owners grow richer and new home buyers grow desperate or even give up and it’s been the issue that many attacked the previous government on and the issue Labour promised to fix.So where are we at. First, we had the LVRs which had a short-term effect on slowing the price boom but now we hear that rent prices are getting so high because of supply problems that buyers are re-entering the market. And to be frank, the biggest effect was on first home buyers which was the problem we were trying to fix.Meanwhile, the Housing Minister hasn’t been sitting on his laurels. He’s announced a major development in Auckland's Mt Albert with 3000 to 4000 homes,18 of those homes on defence force land in Papakura. But to be fair, the Mt Albert development has been an idea sitting around for a while and would have happened without the government stepping in and the Papakura

A 4-year-old girl who had all of her rotting baby teeth removed is one tens of thousands of Kiwi kids with poor dental health, a new report has found.Dental caries, or tooth decay, was found to be most common chronic disease in children, and one of the leading causes of hospital admissions.In the 2015/2016 year, 29,000 children under the age of 12 had to have one or more teeth removed as a result of severe cavities and infection, and 6600 of those ended up in hospital. Each operation to remove teeth cost about $4000."The cost of this in public healthcare and to taxpayers is huge," oral health researcher and co-author Prathibha Sural said.The report, Too soon for the tooth fairy: the implications of child poverty for oral health, summarises knowledge about the prevalence of poor oral health among children in New Zealand.Most of the cases were argued to be preventable and strongly associated with poverty.Co-author and public health specialist Dr Rob Beaglehole said tooth decay was a "disease of poverty"."Poorer

If you're a man there have been two series of remarkable writing over the past year that I recommend you read.One is Peter Wells' series called Hello Darkness on the website The Spinoff. The acclaimed New Zealand author Peter Wells kept a diary talking about what he saw, was going through, and thought since his prostate cancer diagnosis. A cancer which has spread and metastasised.It's an emotional read. Because of his skill with words and his ability to write about emotion and feeling. It has a dark beauty. It's easily understandable. His ability to write about the tug at the heart and gut of battling the beast is very affecting.The other is Simon Wilson's series in the Herald. It's a prostate cancer diary as well but it's more pragmatic and practical. A less lyrical take on the science and more on the grunt of the battle to control a beast that wants to take your life.This past weekend Simon looked at the screening for the third biggest killer of men and in that he wrote some astounding things.There are 4 wa

It’s very hard not to sympathise with midwives and their current quest for better pay and conditions.In fact, I’d say it was impossible.After they’re the selfless heroes who bring life into the world at all times of the day and night. They provide help, advice, support and expertise to mother and child. Their job deals with the core emotions and physical processes that create families and hence society.So when they rally for better pay and conditions the feelings are palpable and the response is easy. They deserve more.At yesterday’s rally's we were told that midwives were paid between 7.23 and 12 an hour which shocked many. After all isn’t that illegal. It’s below the minimum pay.But it’s because their pay model is at odds with an hourly rate. To talk about hourly rates is to compare apples to oranges. So the real conversation should be about the model itselfMidwives get 2300 per client. That doesn’t vary despite differing complexities or even the midwives experience. It means most midwives are getting betwe

Caller to the show Simon talks about how the intimidation of 'youth' has taken over the Countdown in Papakura This comes on the back of a 17 year old male being charged with manslaughter after allegedly punching a security guard in the face.The security guard later died as a result of his injuries.LISTEN TO THE FULL CALL WITH ANDREW DICKENS ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

So congratulations New Zealand. Our jobless rate is at a 10 year low.The Household Labour Force survey is out and our unemployment rate for the last 3 months is at 4.4%.  It’s now fallen for the fifth quarter in a row.Our economy continues to add 1000 jobs a week. That means there were 15,000 people newly employed in the first three months of this year.  Now 2.6 million of us have jobs.This is all great news. 4.4 per cent is something to be proud of. I certainly remember much higher figures.It's also coming at a time when business confidence was falling during the first six months of the new government.But with every silver lining there has to be a cloud and then there are a couple in the figures.The rise in employment means that if you’re an employer looking for a new worker the job is getting harder and harder as the available pool gets smaller and smaller.  Officially the labour market is described as tight. You’ll know that if you’re trying to find a tradie to fix the deck.If businesses are already compla

Massey High School's board chairman, John Garelja, says the school is in no way condoning the use of drugs."Massey High School has a strict anti-drug policy. These two pages out of the program have been taken out of context, if you look at all the brochures it's actually about not using P."Garelja says P is not a problem at the school - but this is something the kids happen to be studying.LISTEN TO THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH ANDREW DICKENS ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What an extraordinary and disappointing day.Today the Police Commissioner Mike Bush took the unprecedented step of squashing a rumour that's been going round for 7 months now. I'm sure you've heard it unless you've been under a rock.The rumour concerned the Prime Minister's partner Clarke Gayford and insinuates the police has something on him.So the Commissioner said Gayford is not, and has not been, the subject of any police inquiry, nor has he been charged in relation to any matter. And the reason he took this remarkable step is because of the sheer size and scale of the claims and their despicable nature.I'm so glad this has happened. For months now I have been inundated with friends and acquaintances asking me if the "rumours" are true. Many listeners have texted the "rumour" to me while on air under the guise of anonymity. Many accompanied by detailed scenarios.The scale of the spread of the "story" astounded me. And the morality of those who created the "rumour" in the first place. I had no truck with i

I first came across the concept of No Meat May (NMM) in a NewstalkZB interview with Andrew Dickens. Naturally, I rolled my eyes and dismissed the concept as 'ridiculous.' From memory, my exact phrase was: "If people want to try it, good luck to them. But I find the concept ridiculous."So why am I now one day in to NMM? I fail Junk Free June on day one consistently. I've never attempted Dry July, because it falls during footy season. And calving. To date, I've never made it through a calving without my old mate Gin and I don't intend to start now.'Think of the content opportunities,' I pitched to my boss. 'It's a social experiment,' I told my co-workers. 'My chance to walk in someone else's shoes and attempt to understand their ideals and values,' I explained to our urban listening audience. 'Don't worry – I'll fail,' I reassured farmers.That third reason's probably closest to the truth. A great portion of New Zealand's economy hinges upon meat consumption. So, for me it came down to an inability to fathom why

Wellington has voted to allow pets on public transport and Auckland looks as if it may as well.Tony called Andrew Dickens to say he regularly took his pets on the bus with him.LISTEN ABOVE AS TONY SPEAKS WITH ANDREW DICKENSSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Am I the  only one who hasn’t swallowed the kool aid on Korea?The world was agog on Friday when the leaders of North and South Korea met on the 38th parallel and went for a walk.  No-one would deny the images and the symbolism was powerful but was it really the dawning of a new age?After all the leaders of the 2 Koreas have met twice before, in Pyongyang, in 2000 and 2007, and the meetings then were heaped with the same hopeful praise and rhetoric and yet nothing happened.  Perhaps in our dumbed down age we’ve developed long-term memory loss.My question to you is what on earth has the last 70 years of the Korean War been about.  A war that saw 1.2 million people die including 33 New Zealanders. To my eyes, the West waged war to stop the spread of communism from the North driven by Russia with the tacit support of China.  It was a war that sought to reunite the 2 Koreas under a prosperous democracy. It was a war that was necessary to maintain the West’s influence in Asia.So the weekend’s developments is a sign

How do you get around the issue of school holidays?Most people get only eight weeks of annual leave a year, but school children get 12 weeks a year minimum, some even longer, creating a holidaying shortfall when it comes to parents looking after their kids.Andrew Dickens wants to find a solution, and caller Colin had his own ideas for how businesses could get around this. LISTEN TO ANDREW DICKENS TALK ABOUT THIS ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The forthcoming budget is looming as the most defining day in New Zealand’s politics in a very long time.On May 17 the government will present a plan to deal with a labyrinth of problems that can no longer be ignored. Their response will be revealing as will be the response of their rivals.The present government campaigned on a platform that was big on feeling.  At its most basic level, its theme was purely that we can do better.It’s a platform that has raised the hopes of many who have done it tough for the past decade due to a remarkable confluence of problems.  From global financial crises, earthquakes, natural disasters and much delayed infrastructural investment.So now the proverbial is about to hit the fan. Public service employees are restless.  Nurses and teachers feel left behind.  Meanwhile, infrastructure is creaking, from storm water systems to hospital buildings to public transport.This weekend another thorn was revealed in rosy New Zealand.Dr Megan Woods is the minister in charge of the Earthqua