Andrew Dickens Afternoons

A basketball hoop that raised the ire of a neighbour in Napier is being moved a few metres to meet council rules, but it's not enough for the neighbour who wants it gone completely.The trouble began when the Suzie Hiha, a basketball coach, installed a basketball hoop for their boys in the Te Awa subdivision.Within a few weeks the Hihas were visited by Napier City Council staff who had fielded a complaint by a neighbour and on inspection deemed the hoop to be a structure, meaning it had to be more than 3 metres from the road boundary fence.Despite feeling the council's request was unreasonable, the family agreed to move it.Suzie Hiha told Andrew Dickens they’re getting on with their lives, and have extended an olive branch by inviting said neighbour over for a community BBQ.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Can you hear it. The chatter of real estate.It’s been a bit quiet all winter, the Auckland market dropped 2.4 per cent,  but now it’s starting to buzz just a bit. There are reports of busy open homes and houses going above CV.  Better weather, low interest rates and a pent up pressure will do that.New figures for the year to last month show the biggest house price rises were in Central Hawkes bay, up 16.7 per cent and Manawatu/Whanganui up 16.3 per cent. Nationally prices are up 2.72 per centThe biggest market is in the 750,00 to 1 million dollar band which makes up 44.5 per cent of the national market.Isn’t interesting that people are coming back to the market just as the worst business confidence figures are out.  But that just shows you the vagaries in emotion.But what really struck my eye was that Dunedin is the biggest mover in house prices amongst all our cities, up over 12 per cent in the year.Having just spent 9 days in Central Otago, reading the ODT I can tell you there’s a buzz about the whole regio

Whether it's mince and cheese, smoked fish, butter chicken - Maketu Pies is an iconic brand many Kiwis have grown to know and love.Nestled in a small town on the Bay of Plenty coast is where the pies are made. Almost everyone who lives there has worked there, or still does.Now, the Maketu community has been devastated by the news the company has gone into receivership. Reporter Zoe Hunter talks to residents and the receivers.Bay of Plenty Times reporter Zoe Hunter told Andrew Dickens it's rocked the tight-knit community to its core. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Well the Prime Minister is back and all the glamour of her week abroad has quickly evaporated.Let me just say for the record that she did very well in Japan and New York. She avoided the gnarly politics surrounding Donald Trump and Boris Johnson.  Both men were very welcoming to our country and our future trade and this bodes well.She was charming in chat shows and a good ambassador for New Zealand and it seems we’re a well liked country at the moment.But back home this morning she was asked by all and sundry about the poor business confidence figures.  Based on the mood of the boardroom you’d think we were back in the bad black days of the GFC where the fear of not just recession but depression stalked the hallways of parliaments and businesses.But we’re not.We’ve slowed. But we’re ticking on. And most of our fundamentals are rock solid yet we do have a government that has put a stop to some plans and is taking an age to institute new ones.  This has been perceived as indecision and indecision breeds insecur

What a rare and exciting event it was this morning to hear Phil Twyford on the Newstalk ZB breakfast show.  It’d been so long I’d almost forgotten his voice.So when I walked into work I asked the breakfast producer how long it had been since Phil was on his programme.  He looked back on his records and by his reckoning Phil was last on the programme in February on the Kiwibuild reset. 7 months ago.This despite repeated invitations from the breakfast show.  Most recently to answer question about the support the government can give to the retailers affected by the rail infrastructure development.But he never comes on.  Until the day when Mike Hosking is away and Mike Yardley is hosting.Now we don’t know whether that was purposeful.  Whether when we asked him to talk to us his press secretary asked who with and as soon as it was revealed that it was Yardley not Hosking he agreed, having not agreed for 7 months.Whatever the truth it’s just a bad look and politics is all about looks.  The most open, honest and tra

When it comes to roads, this Government is confused.National went into the last election with plans for ten big roads. Some were pie in the sky election promises which is not often mentioned but the majority were solid infrastructure for the long term. Roads were their major infrastructural push. But they didn’t form the government. The Government we got had different priorities. They wanted to resurrect rail which had seen decades of neglect, which was a false economy. Why build something and then break it. I don’t mind rail investment as trains powered by alternate energy sources will be traversing this country long after he diesel truck becomes extinct. So a billion odd went Kiwirail’s way.They also decided to spend $1.4 billion making some of the roads we’ve already made safer.  I don’t mind that either because we did a shoddy job in too many places.  Drive a tourist down State Highway 1, 2 and 3 or 5 into Rotorua or 6 into Nelson and watch the whites of their eyes get larger.But big roads can’t be put on

Conversations about money can be difficult. We don’t like talking about it.According to research from Sorted, over half of us would rather talk about sex, drugs or politics than the dreaded M word.As we kick into Money Week, Sorted Editor Tom Hartmann joined Andrew Dickens to discuss how not talking about money can be a source of stress, anxiety and unnecessary problems for many families. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With all the talkback about the year fees free this morning the underlying issue was spending.  More specifically, wasteful spending.The first part of the Government billion dollar free tertiary fee programme was $340 million dollars on the Year One 2018 students.  Over the weekend we discovered that a third of the students in that cohort quit, which raised heckles.But the fact remains that a third of first years always quit or fail or suffer circumstances that mean they leave study.  In fact less people left tertiary education last year that in 2017 before the policy came in.The $340 million spent didn’t create more students.  Nor did it make the ones who did take up the offer stay.  So the real shame is that we spent $340 million dollars on nothing.  Though all the kids of 2018 who get their education for a third less are very thankful.  My son who started in uni in 2017 is not best pleased.Spending also made the news with the allocation of $6 million to extend mental health services at 20 clinics around th

A view that prisoners should be encouraged to be an active part of society, rather than shut out.A Waitangi Tribunal report says the 2010 law change which bans prisoners from voting, goes against the Crown's treaty obligations. It says it leads to a significant prejudice against Maori.Newstalkzb's political editor Barry Soper told Andrew Dickens while many rights are denied to prisoners, the right to vote shouldn't be one of them.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s not often when you’re watching television when you see a news item and you cheer and think 'well that’s about time', but it happened last night.I was watching TVNZ's Sunday programme and Jehan Casinader was presenting a piece on Oranga Tamariki.  But it wasn’t like the media we’ve been seeing on the child agency lately.  It was covering the thorny issue of child uplifts but this time from the point of view of social workers.This is something that has been sorely missing ever since Melanie Reid's 40 minute video of an attempted uplift in Hawkes Bay in June. That video shocked many and provoked a series of protests around the country.At these protests social workers have been labelled as baby snatchers and kidnappers and accused of creating a new “stolen generation”.  It’s become a nationwide movement calling for the state to stop stealing Maori children and the protests are being led by Maori including elders such as Tariana Turia.We now have 4, count them 4, reviews of Oranga Tamariki and most are centri

The Greens conference was over the weekend and it highlighted a party for whom confusion is always their middle name.The Greens: two leaders, two strands.  A party is split between the social justice side of things and the environmental side of things, with the two leaders standing for the different halves of the party.So moderate James Shaw used his Saturday address to get stuck into Simon Bridges and National. He called Mr Bridges a climate change denier.  He said calling climate change an emergency or a crisis is not an exaggeration but an accurate description about the situation. And then he announced the climate change policy for the Government which is to adopt 43 of the Productivity Commission’s recommendations which include reforming the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme rather than replace it with a carbon tax.So far, so green.Then Social Justice Warrior Marama Davidson spoke on Sunday and announced a proposal for a state run rent to own scheme.  Which is a lovely idea if the state owned enough ho

There is no doubt that Simon Bridges had a good weekend at the National Party Conference.Saturday was a bit wobbly as he announced the new slogan 'Our bottom line is you'. I understand what they’re trying to say but it’s just a bit obtuse and awkward and includes the word bottom which some cringe worthy people find titillating. And I see that people are already drawing cartoons and making jokes along the lines that Mr Bridges knows all about the bottom line because that’s where his personal polling is at.But Sunday he came out charging with some strong TV interviews and a keynote address where he announced a policy that gave $200 million to the fight against cancer.  The money is there to fund drugs and to form an agency to co-ordinate cancer treatment around the nation. No one is against fighting cancer.  In fact the whole idea of an agency is something that Labour campaigned on in 2017.  So in essence, National was taking Labour’s policy and pointing out how tardy and slow they are in delivering change.But

A reminder to the Black Caps and their fans that a game is just a game.The Black Caps have lost to England in the Cricket World Cup final on a technicality, after pulling off the first tie in World Cup history.A number of people around the Newstalk ZB newsroom are still coming to terms with what transpired. Psychotherapist Kyle MacDonald says it will take a while for the team to come to terms with the loss.But he says both players, and fans, need to keep the game in perspective."It's incredibly meaningful for anyone who follows it, but ultimately it's completely meaningless. It's a great time to be philosophical!" For a different perspective, NZ Herald Business Editor Liam Dann told Andrew Dickens that a new report from the Harvard Business Review can put the loss into perspective. "It's often not possible to write a failure, correct a failure, especially not when you are a spectator in a sporting game, but it is always possible to make things worse by overreacting."Try telling that to all those still fuming

Auckland Mayor Phil Goff proposes cheaper fares for families, children on Auckland's public transport.Meanwhile Hamilton mayor Andrew King wants free public transport for all city residentsJessica called Andrew Dickens to talk about the rising cost of paying for her children's transport.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

People caring for disabled family no longer have to be employed by the person they care for.It's part of changes to Funded Family Care policy, which will allow partners to be paid to look after their disabled or ill loved ones.The policy had required the person with high needs to employ their carer.Newstalkzb's political editor Barry Soper told Andrew Dickens it's a more realistic way to cover a very difficult time.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It was with some expectation that the family and I sat down in front of the television last night to watch the first part of a two-part documentary series called “That’s a Bit Racist”.It takes a lot to get people to turn on the free to air TV these days.  It needs to be appointment viewing. It needs to be something where you feel you want to be part of a community viewing and experiencing something simultaneously. That’s why the TV that we still watch in any numbers anymore is something like the news, which constantly pulls half a million of us.  Or sports finals.  Or The Chase, just because Bradley and the Chasers are just so good – and we’re waiting for the news.So we were keen to see this programme.  The timing was right.  The Mosque shooting, even though by an Australian, was racism writ large and it followed Taika Waititi’s blunt assessment of us in front to the world’s media last year as a nation that is “racist as f…!”.  It was time for a reappraisal of race relations in New Zealand.I was keen to see a

OPINIONSo what dispiriting news.Turns out the emissions of households in New Zealand have risen by 20% in a decade.We’re using more cars.  Our households consume and dispose more stuff.  We fly everywhere more often because it’s never been cheaper.  Meanwhile down on the farms emission from sheep, beef, deer and poultry are down very slightly on 10 years ago.  Well done lads. But dear old dairy is up contributing more emissions than the manufacturing and electricity and gas supply industries combined, rising 27 per cent over a decade.This is the reality.  Despite all the awareness and all the well meaning changes we’ve had a crack at we’re worse than ever. That includes all the greenies who hector us.  That includes all the striking school children who say nobody’s listening or acting and then pop off with Mum and Dad in the July school holidays for a carbon belching  road trip or Pacific Island holiday. Talk is cheap and walking the walk is hard.  That said, we would have been even dirtier if we hadn’t made

If I have one fault it’s that I’m too nice. That and my obvious lack of humility.My mum always used to say 'you’re so even, Andrew'. That was because I never really get angry and I don’t want to cause unnecessary bother for anyone.But Dad used to say that was a weakness. 'The squeaky wheel gets the oil, Andrew'. But I just can’t do that. I’m not good at stamping my feet or saying no.But I’m learning that the squeaky wheels do get attention.  And that most people are like me. Good people who don’t want to cause a fuss or be a burden.And it’s led me to wonder whether everything is what it seems.  I was thinking that yesterday when we saw a Wellness survey which showed only 1.1 per cent of New Zealanders identified themselves as gay or lesbian and 2 per cent as bisexual.  Presumable people who identify as other colours of the rainbow are even fewer. I was genuinely surprised by that finding.But considering how much of the national conversation centres around  LGBTIQ issues, despite the low numbers, you have to s

People who identify as bisexual are more likely to have worse mental wellbeing than heterosexual Kiwis, according to new data.For the first time, Statistics New Zealand's General Social Survey (GSS) included information about people's sexual identity.The figures show that 1.9 per cent of Kiwis identify as bisexual and 1.1 per cent said they were gay or lesbian.Almost seven in 10 of those who identified as bisexual were female, while six in 10 people who identified as gay/lesbian were male.Some 96.5 per cent of New Zealanders identified as being heterosexual.The remaining 0.5 per cent of people identified as other identities, including either takatāpui, asexual and pansexual.LISTEN ABOVE AS ANDREW DICKENS TALKS TO CALLER MICHAEL Stats NZ's general manager Jason Attewell said the new data highlights wellbeing disparities and will help the Government to better address some of the concerns.When it comes to measuring overall life satisfaction, people who identified as bisexual were the least satisfied with life.St

What does it look like when ACC gives the gun buy back $40 million dollars?On the ACC website it says they estimate that removing these prohibited firearms will reduce potential claims for firearm injuries.They reckon they’re going to save $70.5 million over the next 20 years. After the Australian buy-back homicide rates fell by 42 per cent and suicide rates fell by 57 per cent in the seven years after the scheme was introduced.But I think you’ll find that most homicides and suicides by firearms in this country are with guns that will remain legal and in wide circulation.But do you see their logic?  Maybe. But was there any real need for the ACC to step in to fund these savings if the government was already committed to doing it in their policy. ACC thinks it looks good. Nice try, guys. I think it looks like the government using the ACC to as a piggy bank to fund policies they know they can’t affordSo what does it look like when a senior opposition politician loses a portfolio in a caucus reshuffle?  Without