Andrew Dickens Afternoons

New Zealanders have always been good at looking after the little guy.
We’ve prided ourselves on our charity. Remember Telethons? We’ve reached out to the dispossessed.
Remember it was John Key who first offered to take Manus Island refugees off Australia’s hands, and now we have a refugee from the Papua New Guinea island here.  Berhouz Boochani is revelling in his first week of freedom in six years.
At the UN we’ve stood up to the superpowers on the Security Council who use their veto powers to keep smaller nations in misery.
Around the world our Prime Minister and our country are lauded for the way we reacted to a terrible atrocity against a minority.  And our Government has been studied by other countries as we introduce wellbeing into our budgetary system.
We give goodwill goodwill to the downtrodden and dispossessed and the suffering. Yet we have limited compassion for our own disabled people.
A new report on funding for disability support shows we give limited and rationed help to 60,000 families. It also finds that 15,000 more families need funding and help and yet receive nothing.
The people who receive nothing are predominantly poor or rural, or Maori and Pasifika. The system focuses on rationing demand rather than reaching out to help. The report calculated that the funding shortfall is over half a billion dollars.
The Government’s mantra when it comes to disability is “Enabling Good Lives” yet the report shows when a disabled person’s need rises the funding stays the same and when it stays the same the funding decreases.
Wellbeing, this Government crows. Well, how about the disabled people’s wellbeing. 
Just as the previous government’s funding priorities were benchmarked by the money they blew on the flag debate, this government’s benchmark is their first year free tertiary.
Over 600 million has spent so fat to help 47,000 students.  Over the first year of the scheme, just more than 47,000 students and trainees received free tertiary education.
Among those were 74 students who had their Scuba training funded at a cost of $909,041. all up, 52 students who received their Certificate in DJ and Electronic Music Production, and five students who completed a Diploma of Yoga for $30,000.
The same money would help 75,000 families struggling with disabilities. I know where I’d rather have money go.
It’s an outrage really. The Wellbeing Government needs to match action with their words.

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We seem to have got into a bit of a muddle over guns and it seems to be getting worse.
After the March terror attacks using the infamous AR 15, a semi-automatic military style weapon, the nation has reacted in all sorts of ways and I’m not sure any of them really work.
Last week we entered the final days of the government’s buyback scheme. With six weeks left we have so far collected 32,000 guns from 19,000 people which has cost us $62 million.
If people don’t hand in the other prohibited firearms and parts by 20 December they will get no money and will face up to five years in prison and the loss of their firearms licence.
Now 32,000 guns off the street is better than nothing but let’s compare that with Australia’s buyback programme in 1996 where over  660,000 firearms were retrieved from gun owners with a cost estimated at half a billion dollars. 
Australia has five times the population so taking that into account New Zealand will be lucky to end out with a third of the guns.
Why is anybody’s guess. Perhaps the government didn’t structure it well enough because they were in a hurry. There’s also considerable pushback from the law abiding gun owning community who don’t like that their preference for guns will automatically criminalise them after December 20.
Whatever. For all those who don’t like guns, which is the majority, the result has to be seen as less than impressive.
Then we have the ridiculous situation surrounding the antique gun fanciers of Taranaki who have been told that they can’t advertise their upcoming exhibition show in their local paper because there’s a ban on all advertising surrounding guns.  Stuff put the nationwide ban on all mastheads back in March.
Now this is even though every gun in the forthcoming gun show is legal. Imagine if Stuff decided to have a nationwide blanket ban on other legal activities. Such as banning any advertising from someone like say, Destiny Church.  Wouldn’t there be an enormous freedom of speech fracas around that?  It makes the Lauren Southern dust-up on free speech look like chicken feed.
And while all this anti-gun stuff is flying around we have police starting to call for the permanent arming of police officers after figures that said 179 officers have had guns aimed at them in the past 6 months.
So where are we New Zealand?  Anti gun or pro gun? If you own them you know what side you’re on.  If you don’t you seem torn.

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Ousted Justin Lester has officially called for a mayoral vote recount in Wellington.
It comes after results put Mayor Andy Foster just 62 votes ahead of Lester to claim the city's top job.
Lester was at the Wellington District Court this afternoon to lodge a request with a judge to recount the mayoral votes.
Outside of court, he said he believed there was a "strong likelihood" there should be a manual recount.



It would now be up to a judge to decide but there had been no indication of a timeframe, Lester said.


Justin Lester and Graeme Edgeler outside Wellington District Court. Photo / Emme McKay
Wellington City Council uses the STV voting system, which sees voters rank their mayoral preferences.
There were at least 302 partially informal votes which were excluded because voters filled the form out incorrectly.
In Lester's formal application, it said 193 of the partially informal votes were in Lester's favour and 109 in Foster's.
"The 84-vote difference here would be enough to change the result, if on a close inspection of the votes they were held to express a valid preference between Mr Foster and Mr Lester," it reads.
In response to people telling Lester to move on, he said they needed to make sure "they got it right."
"This is a sliding doors moment for the city, there's a potential to end up with a New Zealand First mayor with Andy Foster verses a Labour mayor with very different values.
"I owe it to the 27,000 people who have voted for me, who have come out in large numbers and supported me and said we want you to do this recount and we want to make sure that democracy works and the election is transparent."
Lester's legal counsel Graeme Edgeler said they had asked for a manual recount of the votes.
"How do you know that the computers got it right? The one way you do is someone has to look to check the computers were right."
There had been instances in the United States with computer counts were they had done recounts and several hundred votes had changed, he said.
There was also Winston Peters' recount from the 1978 general election.
Edgeler said they would try and tell the judge it was the voter's "intent" that mattered and showing what the voters intended to do, particularly with the 302 partially informal votes.

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So I suppose I should start the show talking about the game.
How incredible is it that all I have to say is the game and we know what I’m going to talk about, even though there are other games on this weekend.
For goodness sake the Kiwis play Australia in League tonight in Woolongong. Not that you’d know from the coverage. But I’m picking a great match and a Kiwi surprise.
Back to rugby, there are other games except for THE game.  Tomorrow Tasman play Wellington in Nelson for the Mitre 10 Premiership, while tonight Bay of Plenty play Hawkes Bay in Rotorua for the Championship title. In the Meads Cup in Oamaru tomorrow it’s North Otago versus Wanganui. Meanwhile in Greymouth on Sunday West Coast play South Canterbury for the Lochore Cup.
I’d love to be at any of those games. For the players it’s their World Cup. I like the teams. Most of them are the biggest thing in their town. I like the venues. I’m sure I’d like the crowds who will be happy in a long weekend watching games with stuff up for stakes.
This is bedrock stuff for New Zealanders. Not all of them of course. But I’m sure most of us at some stage or another have put on the scarf and greatcoat and sensible shoes and pottered off to watch 80 minutes of footy.
So to the game.
It will be the best game in a long while. I believe it could be the best game in the World Cup ever. It will be close. It features two happy, relaxed and supremely skilled sides. Who are coached by two smart, funny human beings.
Neither side seems to have nerves, just joy at the prospect of trying their best. It will be a game of millimetres and split seconds.
And it will be watched by an enormous audience. Because it’s live. At 9pm. And free to air on TVNZ.
I am predicting a massive audience for the state broadcaster and this is a huge fillip for free to air TV. As Mediaworks struggles and TVNZ faces a 17 million dollar loss we’ve heard that the days of free to air are over.  That no longer do we hunger for that feeling of communal participation. All of us seeing the same thing at the same time and reacting together.
Tomorrow might be the last hurrah of a nation glued to TV1 but if it is what a way to go out. And here’s a question. Who’ll bother to go on the new fangled streaming newcomer when it’s there in all it’s hi def quality on humble old UHF and VHF.

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Dear me.
This Year of Delivery is just getting worse.  Here we are 10 months down and nothing is coming through the letter box
Today the Government dumped plans to bring farming into the Emissions Trading Scheme.  Reminding you that agriculture has been exempt since the scheme started in 2008. Now the government has opted for a sector-led plan to address agricultural emissions. This is what farmers had been asking for all along.
I think this is sensible because a penalty scheme does nothing to encourage buy in and long term reductions.  The ETS has always been an artificial scheme to me that does nothing except irritate and squash the economy.
This is all round awkward because the Government has always said climate change is our nuclear free moment and because the Emission Trading Scheme has always been part of it’s arsenal.
As late as July they were trumpeting a break through in calculating emissions at a farm level and they were proposing a 5 per cent tax on emissions.
But today all that is gone and the government will instead work with the farmers on reducing the emissions instead of penalising them. Which is what the farmers were saying all along
So we’re right back where we started after an awful lot of argy bargy and concern and insecurity that was damaging. Farmers have decided the government was against them.  Dairy farm sales have tanked.  All for no reason
And this happens all the time.
It’s like the Capital Gains Tax furore. The proposed tax scared investors.  People sold rental properties.  Housing stock decreased as the fear spread and people tried to realise a gain before they got taxed and then at the end of it all nothing happened.
We have a government with a load of principles who when push comes to shove doesn’t have the gumption to go through with them. Leaving many people saying thank heavens and then asking what was that all about?
Talk is cheap and this government has talked very cheaply.  We’ll build 100,000 houses.  We’ll build light rail by 2021.
But governments should not be spouting cheap talk.  You’re not in opposition now.  If you say you favour a 5 per cent tax on emissions then we believe you’re going to do it. If you say you favour labour law reform then we think you’re going to do it.  If you say you want to lower immigration then we think you will.  The we start making plans to cope.
But these things have not happened.  We’ve worried unnecessarily and we’ve talked our prospects down. But worse for the government is that no-one believes you anymore.
The Year of Delivery has failed and I don’t think anybody minds.

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It was a very strange commute to work today.
Coming in from the west on my motorcycle I stopped across the valley from the burning Sky City Convention Centre. It was a scene from an apocalypse. Four jets of water from snorkels from four corners of the building. Orange Flames to the south and the city shrouded in smoke
So I stopped and took a photo that I’ve now posted on my Facebook page and then I marvelled at the fact that I was driving voluntarily towards that.
Because our studios are about 150 metres from this fire. But because of the vicious sou’wester the city is being battered with we are clear of smoke and danger.
It’s bizarre because this morning a lawyer friend messaged me. Even though his office is half a kilometre away to the East. Far away really but  the strong wind has blown smoke right at his building which has been closed as a health hazard.
When I arrived at work I went to the corner and looked up Nelson Street.  There I was at nearly the base of the fire fighting efforts. I took a video which I’ve also posted on Facebook.  And due to the wind I was soaked by water from the snorkel blown back to the North.
A few moments ago when I took a last look I saw water jets being aimed away from the building but such was the wind the water was being blown back on the roof fire.
It is extreme conditions for firefighting. Storms and rain and gales and hail and high temperatures and difficult access and it’s been going on for 24 hours now.
And it’s impact will be felt for years. Such a disaster. It’s no Notre Dame. But don’t underestimate it. Just the cost of rehousing all the Sky City Hotel guests will be massive. It’s a piece of infrastructure Auckland has waited for forever and now it’s delayed again.
Today we have the next stage of Act Leader David Seymour's End of Life Choice Bill. Politicians will have to decide whether the final decision should be put to the public in a referendum if it passes a third reading. This is a New Zealand First clause.  If a referendum is not granted then the bill itself may wither on the vine as NZ First does not support the decision being in the hand of politicians alone.
But this morning an interesting point was made. These sorts of votes are conscience votes.  This morning we heard that politicians like Stuart Nash and Mark Mitchell have canvassed or polled their electorate to find out how their people feel.
But half our politicians are list MPs. Voted in by party committees. Who do they consult? Whose conscience do they represent other than their own.  They can’t vote on party lines because that’s the entire point of a conscience vote.
It raises a question as to whether list MPs have a right to a conscience vote or whether conscience votes are unworkable in a MMP environment.

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Herald property editor Anne Gibson says the Sky City Convention Centre project's been marred with controversy from day one.
She says it begins with the original deal to build the centre back in 2013.
Since then there have been disputes involving SkyCity gaming machines, Fletchers Construction being fined 40-million-dollars for project delays - and now today's fire.
Anne Gibson told Andrew Dickens just last week, SkyCity chief executive Graeme Stephens said it will open in October 2020.
LISTEN ABOVE

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So I have an announcement to make.
I have prostate cancer. I will be having a radical prostatectomy to remove my prostate on November 20.
I’m not telling you this to gain your sympathy or angle for gifts and free stuff and hugs and kisses.
I’m telling you this because I think hearing about my journey might be useful for you or a loved one you know. In my business I ask you to share your stories and the quid pro quo of that is that I need to share back. But I also know the difference between the personal and the private.
Some people find the tale of their illnesses and diseases and medical battles to be something that should be kept private.
I’ve decided that my little thing is something that’s very widespread and yet the processes are rarely discussed in public.
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men. 3100 registrations every year. 1 in 8 kiwi blokes. 650 men die from it a year. We need to talk about it.
So here’s my story.
I’ve been in the media all my life and there’s some trite lines we dole out. One of them has been, “Men. Man up and check yourself out and go to the doctor if anything is wrong”
So when I turned 40 I decided to have a yearly Warrant of Fitness on my body. That included all sorts of things including of course a digital rectal examination and a suite of blood tests.
16 years ago I had a debate with my doctor about whether a PSA test should be included. A PSA test gives you a sign that a cancer might be developing in the prostate. She was against it because it was inaccurate and you could get false positives.  
My attitude was that I’d rather have a false positive that I could then rule out than having no test or indication or clue at all.
So when I went off for my first blood test I secretly ticked the PSA box. And once you start monitoring that there’s no point in stopping.
In July I had my blood test. My doctor called and asked me to come in. That’s a horrible call because you know something’s wrong but you don’t know until you see the doc. My PSA came back at 4.8. It shouldn’t be above 4. Some men record PSAs in their hundreds.
My doctor had a feel of my prostate. It felt fine apparently. I had absolutely no symptoms at all other than a blood test. 
So it was off to a specialist. I have a urologist now. He had a feel and an ultrasound and found nothing.
So it was off to have an MRI. The MRI guy found a very small shadow at the bottom of the gland. He thought we should check it out.
So it was off to have  biopsy where my urologist stuck 30 needles through my perineum to see if he could find some cancer.
He did. He found a small group of cells in one of those needles. I have cancer. Found very early. Still very small. But not benign. If left alone it’d get me in 10 years.  Maybe 15.   
So it came down to what do with it. Zap with radiotherapy. Or take it out.
I decided to take it out with keyhole surgery. I don’t need it anymore. And my urologist also pointed out that the rest of my bloods and health is excellent and there’s no reason why I couldn’t live another 30 or even 40 years. I’m 56 by the way.
There are risks, principally incontinence or impotence. Risks I’m prepared to take.
So there’s a lot more to unpack about all this, such as how happy am I to have health insurance. How even though I’m in a rush this whole process has already taken 4 months.
But here’s the thing. I have been shocked at the reaction of many of my peers. Men in their 50s who have never had a digital examination let alone a blood test.
There’s another group of men who have diligently had a finger up their bum but no blood test who think they’ve been good boys. They’ve been genuinely shocked to find I have cancer and the digital exam has never found a thing.
Other men have been chagrined and finally got some bloods done. They haven’t got prostate cancer but one guy found diabetes and another...

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In a landmark judgment released by the Court of Appeal, meth dealers who can prove their addiction caused their offending could have their sentences cut.
An offender's role in a drug network will also have a greater bearing on the length of a prison sentence, or if they're jailed at all.
What's more, a drug dealer's poverty and deprivation will be considered as potential mitigating factors.
CEO of The Drug Detection Agency Kirk Harding, who informs workplace drug policy and testing, told Andrew Dickens with so many factors it will end up coming down to the judge’s discretion.
LISTEN ABOVE

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This weekend saw the New Zealand First conference, which was surprisingly entertaining. I’ve always quite like New Zealand First as a true centrist party. Slightly conservative, slightly socialist, not liberal but still with a heart towards the less well off - particularly if they’re elderly or come from Northland.
Winston is the great campaigner and he has started his election campaign one year out on the second anniversary of the coalition he helped form. 
His role as king maker has always rubbed people up the wrong way. They don’t like the tail wagging the dog event though every coalition has a dog wagging tail. For the National Party, that was the Maori Party who made the Nats do all sorts of things in social spending and introduce Whanu Ora. Tail wagging dog is the price of MMP and always has been.
And New Zealand First has mitigated many of Labour’s policies as Winston pointed out.  As they would have if they went into coalition with National. And I don’t think National would have avoided having to agree to the Provincial Growth Fund either
But the criticism that has always followed New Zealand First is that it is a one man band and when Winston goes the party will fold. But Shane Jones seems there for the long haul. Ron Mark is still rattling in his cage. Tracey Martin is a determined woman. And Jenny Marcroft is slowly mitigating the baby boomer conservatism and bringing the party into the present.
We saw that when the New Zealand First Youth wing managed to influence the leaders on festival drug testing.
The question has always been is New Zealand First a sideshow or the real deal. Well, they’re much more than a sideshow as they’ve proved time and time again and probably will into the future.

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