Andrew Dickens Afternoons

Another day and another debate on crime and what to do with it. There is no doubt the craze for ram raiding amongst the young has contributed to the perception that crime is out of control. Add to that the growing number of gun crimes particularly amongst the gangs.  It has led to a feeling that our streets are more unsafe than they've ever been before. It has led to the debate on crime to be all about punishment and all about crimes of violence and trespass. But the iceberg of crime is far bigger than we mostly hear and like an iceberg the biggest crimes are unreported. Jarrod Gilbert writes today about the incredible level of white collar crime we have in New Zealand and our laissez faire attitude towards it. He cites a couple of cases recently. The bloke charged with stealing $ 600,000 by defrauding the Covid wage subsidy.  Another case saw an allegation of an employer pocketing his staff's PAYE payments to the tune of $300,000. The size of the problem is even more evident when you look at the assets of cr

So last week, my opening comments centred on how opposition MPs and anti-government commentators have been fear mongering about the state of the economy. When it was published online it became one of our most commented on pieces of the day with over 500 people expressing what they thought. Many called me a Labour party apologist. A lot asked why I was praising Labour's management of the economy. Problem is; I wasn't.  Nowhere did I say Labour was doing a good job. In fact I'm on record as saying the Government and the Reserve Bank have not handled the reality of the economic situation appropriately. But, I'm also pointing out how many are exaggerating the possibility of economic gloom and doom for political effect. And the more it's said the more chances it has of becoming real. Last week a number of economists from home and abroad came out and said they don't believe New Zealand will fall into recession. But on Friday, retail figures came out with a 2.6 percent fall. The headline was "Fears of a recession as

I only work at Newstalk ZB one day a week so I've been spared having to talk about the Guarav Sharma drama. Or as we now know the Sharma Drama. But my god it's still going.   Over the weekend he revealed that Kieran McAnulty called him a terrible MP and that was bullying. Knowing how fruity Kieran's language can be, I think Gourav got off lightly. There's a reason Kieran's a whip. He's good with the old don't argue. I've realised that the MP for Hamilton West really doesn't like being yelled at. Sharma's maiden speech in February 2021 alleges a paediatric surgeon bullied him while he was at university. It also contained many claims of bullying and racism while he was on the campaign trail. Sharma appears to feel he's been bullied his entire life. It was the Prime Minister's turn this morning and she once again ruled out an investigation saying that there needs to be a threshold to instigate these things. Otherwise any time anyone called anyone a bully or a racist we'd have investigation after investigation. W

So let's be honest with each other Did you, in your darkest heart, secretly hope the All Blacks would lose to prove that Ian Foster was always the wrong man. To get Scott Robertson into the driving seat? C'mon. Many did. Some even admitted it on social media. Now if you did, it's quite a dark place really. Actively rooting against your own team, even if you think it would be best for the team eventually.   Diehard fans would be disgusted. They'd call you a fairweather fan. Not there for the team, only to share in their glory. If you're important enough or your voice is loud enough the players may hear of it and it may crush their spirit which no-one wants. It's OK to think that others could do a better job but there is no benefit in wishing for failure. I say this because for some time I've been appalled by the number of people who appear to want New Zealand to fail because they don't like the current Government. It's almost like they're hoping for a recession just to prove to everybody, or maybe just to them

So the National Party conference was held over the past weekend in Christchurch. Things went well until late on Sunday night when planes started being cancelled and MPs and party members went mumbling off into the wet cold winters’ night in search of a bed. The conference was organised and dull which is just what a party wants. An action filled conference is not the sign of a settled party. But they seem settled on Luxon and Willis and so the game continues with a policy thrown out to keep the party in public discussion. Maybe I've just been in the game too long, but I could have guessed it would be some sort of benefit policy that says something along the line of kids don't want to work, benefits are a lifestyle and the Ministry of Social Development are useless. Which is exactly what they said. I've heard these plans so many times in so many guises. I wonder where this army of competent community advisors are going to come from in a time of skilled staff shortages, and I wonder about the cost of bureaucracy

Just at the moment when New Zealand should be getting back to business, the wheels keep falling off for this Government. On Sunday, we finally opened up completely to the rest of the world.  After two and a half years the so-called hermit kingdom was over. There's even a cruise ship scheduled to arrive in a few weeks We should be emerging triumphant, but we're not. Today we're bickering over a government handout that's supposed to help with the cost of living crisis but is proving to be a thorn in the side of the Labour Government. And it is probably just going to make inflation worse. Nicola Willis and the National Party are claiming that overseas residents are going to be getting the three instalments of $116.67, even though they don't live here. Ms Willis claims a man living in Dubai who has not been a NZ resident for 22 years is going to be getting the payments and he's feeling embarrassed. This is an outrage, if it's true. But you should never totally believe a politician. So 2.1 million people are in th

I’ve spent the weekend trying to figure out if the New Zealand Prime Minister has done a good job for the country in her overseas trip or not.Firstly, the new extended OE deal which sees working holiday visas extended by a year both in the UK and for UK citizens coming here. And allows it for up to 35 year oldsIt’s not surprising that the UK was prepared to give a little on this. Their labour shortage is even more acute than ours. Not only have they suffered Covid lockdowns and all the other pandemic related economic pressure, but it all came on top of Brexit.Brexit saw a lot of cheap European labour excluded from the UK and according to the Office for National Statistics, there were 1.3 million positions waiting to be filled in the first quarter of 2022, nearly 500,000 more than before the pandemic struck.  Of course they want more New Zealanders.UK citizens have reciprocal rights but will that influx match the outflow of Kiwis.I doubt if it will.  Firstly, there are too many people telling our young folk th

You’ll be pleased to know you’re not about to hear another white middle-aged man pontificate about abortion.  But I will talk about the effect of the ruling. That Christopher Luxon felt compelled to make a public statement on the future of this country’s laws based on a decision in another sovereignty with a completely different system shows the emotion and polarity behind the issue. Now, the decision is not a surprise.  Republicans have been working towards this outcome for years and when it comes to Supreme Court judges, we’re talking very long games. The Democrats also play the game which is why there was so much pressure on Ruth Bader Ginsburg to resign during Obama’s tenure.  She didn’t, but then died under Trump meaning he had the card to play in the game of “stack the Supreme Court”. As an outsider I am always amazed at the political influence in choosing the Supreme Court in the United States.  It flies in the face of the traditional pillars of democracy and society. The four pillars are the judiciary

We live in a world beset by problems right now.Having spent 2 years being ravaged by a pandemic we have entered an age of inflation and economic uncertainty.The world is full of bear markets crashing around us with the exception of crude oil prices that are up 6 per cent in the past month fuelling on more inflation. It’s a vicious cycle.And one of the most immediate crises is in the health sector.Tomorrow is the Winter solstice and the official start of deepest winter.For a long time now this has meant a crunch time for our health system. Respiratory illnesses like flu and RSV overwhelm our hospitals. But now we have the victims of Covid added into the mix.For weeks now we’ve had health workers saying it’s an emergency, that we’re at breaking point. We’re understaffed, under resourced, underfunded and that people will die because of it.The Health Minister maintains his line to maintain public confidence that we are coping. But the stories of brain bleed victims uncared for 8 hours who then die puts lie to tha

Has everyone else been as blown away as I have about the vigour and speed with which China has decided to woo our Pacific neighbours? And is everyone else as worried as I am about our preparations for a new geo politics in our backyard? The Chinese Foreign Minister is in the middle of a whistle-stop tour of 8 Pacific nations. He carries with him millions and millions of dollars in aid and development funds and in return, all he wants is Chinese access and influence. Over the weekend he was in Samoa. They signed up immediately. They spoke about climate change, the pandemic and peace and security. Things that Australia, New Zealand and the United States have consistently failed to do. The things the Pacific are really worried about. We have taken the Pacific for granted and paid them lip service and now we have competition for our influence. This is prompting a wave of concern about what we can do. Which is all a little too little and too late Yesterday on Q&A, one expert said it's time to invest more in de

Welcome to budget week and welcome to the immediate aftermath of the Covid pandemic. Is the pandemic over? No, far from it. Temporary labour shortages as the virus works its way through the population means everything will be difficult for some time yet. Nearly half our music station staff were off last week after one company super spreader event. Productivity was knocked for 6. Who needs the Government to lock us down when we do it to ourselves. Meanwhile, the post-pandemic hangover affects the whole world and it's having a political fall-out. In Australia, Scott Morrison looks in doubt as Labour blames him for a cost-of-living crisis. In America, Biden is losing ground because he's blamed for a cost-of-living crisis. Boris Johnson will be lucky to survive as Labour hammers him for a cost-of-living crisis. All the Governments that have steered the world through Covid are now being made to pay for it. They're being blamed for the profligate spending that kept businesses afloat. But at the time they were blame

Newstalk ZB Chief Political Reporter Jason Walls joined the show to unpack the Emissions Reduction Plan and explain how it all works and what it will cover.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After taking over the world tiny brick by tiny brick, the global phenomenon LEGO® Masters NZ is coming to TVNZ 2.Hosted by Dai Henwood, LEGO Masters will test the imaginations and the building skills of six teams in our first national brick-off.Dai’s sidekick, Brickmaster Robin Sather will set a colourful mix of new and classic LEGO building challenges, which will be judged on aesthetics, technical and storytelling ability. All in the hopes to find the first team in Aotearoa judged worthy to hold aloft the coveted LEGO Masters trophy.Brickmaster Robin Sather joined Andrew Dickens to chat about the show.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Well, here it comes. A budget and an election. The season of politicians treating us like idiots and believing they can bribe us into their camp. Labour has released details of police and crime funding that will be announced formally in the budget on May 19. It's a 562-million-dollar package which always sounds impressive. But as always, it's spread over 4 years. In fact, when you look at the numbers and think of the current rate of inflation and cost escalation the whole thing is barely treading water. The headlines are about helping businesses through this ram raid epidemic. Unfortunately, there is absolutely no detail of this help because it doesn't exist yet. How stupid do they think we are. It's an example of a political party trying to shoehorn its existing policy into the news cycle of the day. It's just the same as National swearing black and blue that its intentions to cut tax are to help people through an increase in cost of living while knowing full well that a tax cut is even more inflationary tha

As the Government dropped the latest iteration of its Three Waters water reform on Friday, I was left with the question: “what on earth do you want to achieve with all this?”  For more than 2 years, local and central Governments have been struggling with the issue of water reform.Reform is necessary as too many New Zealand households have substandard water and wastewater services. Meanwhile, antiquated pipes are losing 20% of the water we’ve gathered.  Meanwhile, most of our cities and towns have done a good job in collecting and distributing the water we’ve collected and disposed of the waste we’ve produced.  But the other half has not done a good job and it’s inherently due to underinvestment.  They have underinvested because either their rating base is too small or their electorate cannot see the benefit in higher rates or water charges to fix pipes they can’t see. So, we need to fix them. Why the Government has made it such a minefield is anyone’s guess. The government’s answer is to gather up all the ass

If you're in Christchurch, you'll now need a resource consent to rent out accommodation through Airbnb or any other online booking platforms.The consent won't expire once you've got it, but to get it will cost at least $1000.Airbnb don't like it and are calling the move the most restrictive and outdated home sharing laws in Australasia.Christchurch City Councillor Mike Davidson joined Andrew Dickens.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In just her second Olympics Zoi Sadowski-Synnott has completed her collection of medals, but a historic second gold will have to wait. The snowboarding sensation has been forced to settle for silver in today's big air final in Beijing, upstaged by defending champion Anna Gasser. The Austrian seized gold in a breathtaking climax, becoming the first woman to land a 1260 in Olympic competition with the penultimate jump in the final. That left top qualifier Sadowski-Synnott with one last shot to retake the lead but, unlike in her slopestyle victory nine days ago, she was unable to respond and couldn't quite land a 1260 of her own. The silver medal will still sit triumphantly alongside her slopestyle gold and the bronze she claimed in big air four years ago, when Gasser first took top spot on the podium. Sadowski-Synnott has now claimed the majority share of all the medals New Zealand have won at the Winter Olympics, and nothing about her performance in Beijing suggested she would be stopping at three. The 20-year

It's been a fortnight since I was on ZB and I have watched on in wonder as the world has slowly gone potty. Maybe it’s Covid fatigue, but everyone seems to have lost their minds. Let’s work backwards.   Is everybody else as embarrassed and amazed at the behaviour of our Speaker over the weekend as I am? Trevor Mallard’s actions over this past weekend have frankly been childish. He took a ticklish situation and made it worse. Sprinklers and Barry Manilow are water off a duck’s back to these people and he just gave them a motivator to stay even longer. Mallard’s texts took his immaturity to the world. They’re laughing at you, Trevor. Not with you. That’s not all. Mallard’s call to keep press on the parliamentary balcony and not talking to the protestors was another clanger. Politicians don’t tell the press whom to talk to, Trevor. Who do you think you are? Well done to Barry Soper for getting down and dirty. The rush to evict the protestors from parliament’s grounds is bad call. If they are taxpayers, it’s thei

In this crazy topsy turvy world that is the Covid pandemic it is possible to feel enormous sympathy with Charlotte Bellis, but also little sympathy at all.  So, what the hell happened?Charlotte needs to find a new place to live and have her baby because the place she chose to live in, Qatar, makes it illegal to be unwed and pregnant.  So, she escaped to the father's homeland of Belgium but under EU rules she could only stay there for 3 months. With nowhere else to go, the couple return to Kabul where the regime can spot a PR gift when they see one.  All the while she’s trying to win a place in the New Zealand MIQ lottery and failing. Even though people are going for overseas holidays and returning, others like Charlotte appear to be not so lucky. Pointing out the lack of rationality in a lottery-based system. Then New Zealand closes its borders to its citizens because MIQ is full of Omicron infected Kiwis, but there is no Omicron in the country. The action buys time to make sure more New Zealanders are vaccin

Well let’s start with the good news.  For all the griping about MIQ, I think we owe the system a debt of gratitude.  Without it there would have been no summer. Without it we would have rolled straight from a Delta surge into an Omicron tsunami.  MIQ bought us time. Which is what it's always designed to do. It was never created to keep Covid out forever because that really would be a hermit kingdom. In my eyes it’s all been about suppressing and mitigating the outbreaks so they fit within our meagre capacities. And that happened. While the community went down to just a dozen cases in the community a day, in MIQ Omicron surged to over 500 cases. But the border held firm until now and that's a good thing So, I’m glad that the people who were obsessed with opening up the border at the end of last year were not listened to.  So, let’s also hand it to summer. The good weather and the virtual absence of Covid meant money in the bank for struggling businesses.  The Mercury Bay Informer, published out of Whitianga, r