Andrew Dickens Afternoons

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 afford
So what does it look like when a senior opposition politician loses a portfolio in a caucus reshuffle?  Without prior knowledge because apparently her leader and the politician in question were playing telephone tag because she’s in court in Nelson sorting out a property stoush from years ago. 
Simon was walking parliament yesterday with a smile like a Cheshire cat, one observer suggesting he was pinging. He was certainly happy about something. Well, Simon Bridges and Judith Collins say it means nothing, that it’s not a demotion and she’s still number four on the list.
Nice try, guys. It looks like a smack on the risk for Crusher for daring to poll higher than Simon. Bad girl.
So what does it look like when an opposition MP threatens a bill in select committee with over 100 amendments?  She thinks it looks like a caring person making an incredibly flawed bill better. 
Nice try, Maggie. It looks to me like you’re trying to stall the bill.  It looks to me that you don’t understand democracy and you can’t just unilaterally use any tactic to get your own way.
Finally, what does it look like when a cricket side chooses a whole lot of sloggers and quicks, forgetting that English summers are muggy and wet and pitches get gluggy?  England says their aggressive style will work and they ain’t changing it.
Nice try guys.  It looks to me like you’re about to be humiliatingly dumped from your own tournament.

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A new documentary series has shone a light on the plight of mental health amongst Kiwi men.
In My Mind centres around prominent Kiwis, Paul Whatuira, Willy de Wit and David Downs as they examine their mental health issues and their own difficulties. 
The two-part documentary aired on TVNZ this month and is still available for streaming, and is split into two parts: Breaking Point and Mid-Life Crisis.
Comedians Willy de Wit and David Downs have suffered their own medical issues - de Wit suffered from a stroke in 2016, and Downs was diagnosed with cancer in late 2017, which was meant to be terminal. The two joined Andrew Dickens to discuss their involvement in Mid-Life Crisis and how they have fought back against their demons. 

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Those of you with long memories will know that I have often advocated for a commission of inquiry into the banking sector in New Zealand.
I was particularly vocal about it in the immediate aftermath of the release of the Australian Royal Commission. That unearthed a raft of practices in the Australian banking and insurance community that did not protect the financial interests of Australians but instead was of benefit to the banks bottom line.
So with the common ownership of banks on this side of the Tasman by the Australian interests then why shouldn’t there be the same practices here? And I had heard plenty of tales of upselling and financial pressure on bank’s customers to suggest that a good look here would be warranted. 
And why not?  After all nothing to hide, nothing to fear. I thought perhaps the banks might jump at it because a banks greatest enemy is a loss of confidence, trust and reputation.
But the commission was not forthcoming.  Instead the Reserve Bank and the Financial Markets Authority threw a cursory look at the sector and its culture and pronounced that mostly everything was tickety boo, though a few of the upselling processes were not optimal.  Banks heard that and the bonuses for getting customers to buy financial instruments they don’t need got pruned.
But the calls for a closer look at New Zealand banks have resumed after the headlines created by the ANZ Bank.  First the bank got stung by the revelation that they had been failing to meet capital adequacy requirements for four years and then the Hisco revelations of gold plated employment deals and the sale of an undervalued house by the bank to his wife.  Bernard Hickey at interest.co.nz says these headlines are proof that a more rigorous look at banks is necessary.  Winston Peters has said that ANZ chairman Sir John Key should resign because the buck stops at the top.
Now we have a whole swag of investigations and policies launched by the Government, Reserve Bank and the FMA to make sure the banks are robust and not greedy.  So, again, isn’t that more proof that a good hard look is needed.  Well actually I think that’s proof of the opposite.
I’m no longer so sure that a Royal Commission is necessary.  I think the pressures brought to bear by our local regulators and government are making the banks more self-regulatory.  There is an argument that Sir John Key is frontfooting the claims and rumours and doubts which is why David Hisco is out of here on his horse. He knows Australian style misbehaving is not acceptable here.  Other Chairmans and CEOs will be watching and taking note.
A Royal Commission is two years and millions of dollars thrown away.  To me, the combination of the Haynes Commission in Australia and the events here have sent a message to banks to play fair and not fast and loose.  And it seems to me that they are listening.

Those of you with long memories will know that I have often advocated for a commission of inquiry into the banking sector in New Zealand.
I was particularly vocal about it in the immediate aftermath of the release of the Australian Royal Commission. That unearthed a raft of practices in the Australian banking and insurance community that did not protect the financial interests of Australians but instead was of benefit to the banks bottom line.
So with the common ownership of banks on this side of the Tasman by the Australian interests then why shouldn’t there be the same practices here? And I had heard plenty of tales of upselling and financial pressure on bank’s customers to suggest that a good look here would be warranted. 
And why not?  After all nothing to hide, nothing to fear. I thought perhaps the banks might jump at it because a banks greatest enemy is a loss of confidence, trust and reputation.
But the commission was not forthcoming.  Instead the Reserve Bank and the Financial Markets Authority threw a cursory look at the sector and its culture and pronounced that mostly everything was tickety boo, though a few of the upselling processes were not optimal.  Banks heard that and the bonuses for getting customers to buy financial instruments they don’t need got pruned.
But the calls for a closer look at New Zealand banks have resumed after the headlines created by the ANZ Bank.  First the bank got stung by the revelation that they had been failing to meet capital adequacy requirements for four years and then the Hisco revelations of gold plated employment deals and the sale of an undervalued house by the bank to his wife.  Bernard Hickey at interest.co.nz says these headlines are proof that a more rigorous look at banks is necessary.  Winston Peters has said that ANZ chairman Sir John Key should resign because the buck stops at the top.
Now we have a whole swag of investigations and policies launched by the Government, Reserve Bank and the FMA to make sure the banks are robust and not greedy.  So, again, isn’t that more proof that a good hard look is needed.  Well actually I think that’s proof of the opposite.
I’m no longer so sure that a Royal Commission is necessary.  I think the pressures brought to bear by our local regulators and government are making the banks more self-regulatory.  There is an argument that Sir John Key is frontfooting the claims and rumours and doubts which is why David Hisco is out of here on his horse. He knows Australian style misbehaving is not acceptable here.  Other Chairmans and CEOs will be watching and taking note.
A Royal Commission is two years and millions of dollars thrown away.  To me, the combination of the Haynes Commission in Australia and the events here have sent a message to banks to play fair and not fast and loose.  And it seems to me that they are listening.

Israel Folau has once again faced setbacks in his battle against Rugby Australia - but will this latest move hurt or help his cause? 
GoFundMe has removed Folau's fundraising page from its website and is issuing refunds to all his donors, saying the campaign breached its terms of service.
"Today we will be closing Israel Folau's campaign and issuing full refunds to all donors. After a routine period of evaluation, we have concluded that this campaign violates our terms of service," said Nicola Britton, GoFundMe's Australia Regional Manager.
"As a company, we are absolutely committed to the fight for equality for LGBTIQ people and fostering an environment of inclusivity. While we welcome GoFundMe's engaging in diverse civil debate, we do not tolerate the promotion of discrimination or exclusion.
"In the days since Mr Folau's campaign launched, more than one million dollars have been donated to hundreds of other campaigns, large and small, across Australia. Those acts of kindness are the heart of GoFundMe.
Folau launched the campaign on Friday. He asked for support to fund his legal battle against Rugby Australia, which terminated his $4 million contract in May after a post he made on social media was deemed homophobic. It followed a similar incident last year.
His April post on Instagram said: "WARNING Drunks, Homosexuals, Adulterers, Liars, Fornicators, Thieves, Atheists, Idolaters HELL AWAITS YOU Repent! Only Jesus Saves".
Folau has launched legal proceedings with the Fair Work Commission against Rugby Australia and is seeking up to $10 million in damages.
The former Wallaby and committed Christian thanked donors over the weekend, and said he was "unsurprised" by criticism from RA and others over his decision to set up the page.
"The money that is donated will be used to fund my legal battle, which could take years. While the attacks against me have shown I have a big fight on my hands, I will stand strong," Folau wrote on social media. "Your support and my faith in Jesus Christ will give me strength."
While many relished in the result, others feared the heavy-handed response could work in Folau's favour.
Others encouraged Folau to continue to fight. "GoFundMe bends a knee to the LBG mob and joins the pack attack on Folau," columnist Lawrence Money tweeted. "He should set up his own fund. He'd collect even more after this."
Daily Telegraph columnist Miranda Devine added: "The haters and Christophobes have forced Israel Folau's church into hiding and GoFundMe appears to have closed his account, in the usual illiberal way of woke corporates. Did you know GoFundMe takes 5 per cent of donations? So it's reaped $40,000 from Folau."
Talkback callers to Andrew Dickens were mixed in their support, with some questioning whether this will add credence to Folau's claims around free speech and prejudice, while others asked argued that he is simply facing the consequences for his actions.

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Hands down the greatest moment of the weekend came during the Tonga league test.
The crowd once again was electric, the Sipi Tau and the Haka magnificent and the league was great, particularly young Brandon Smith who scurried and scampered and electrified the backs.  Someone described him as a ball in a pinball machine who knows only one way, forward. Yes all these things were good but for me the pinnacle was Benji Marshall’s tears during the anthem.
Seven long years after donning the black jersey, Benji was back and you saw what it meant to him. You saw his pride in representing his country. I shared in that and I realised that I hadn’t felt a good bit of pride in the country for a while. 
That’s the problem with being a talkback host.  You often explore the bits of the country that you’re not proud of.  The situations and the people who have gone wrong. So it was refreshing to see pride in New Zealand and it’s fair to say my eyes went a little sweaty watching Benji.  And then he came out and played brilliantly.
But I felt pride at the Tongan supporters as well who obviously love their home country immensely, yet when their adopted country started rolling over their team they kept their espirit de corps, their positivity.  You could tell that the Tongan supporters loved both the countries playing.  Really they couldn’t lose.  Which, funny enough, is the way I felt when Tonga rolled us in Hamilton.
The second greatest moment was when the Blackcaps pipped the Windies at the post at the Cricket World Cup.  Such an exciting morning.  And what would we be without our captain who has now won us 2 games in a row.  Kane Williamson’s 148 was imperious.  King Kane indeed.  Steady the Ship. 
But what was great was the way he was so quickly on the pitch to console Brathwaite, the West Indian batsman who nearly did the impossible. The New Zealand team is impressing everyone with their no nonsense team play and generous spirit and sportsmanship. 
We have much to be proud of.
Yet compare the behaviour of our elite players with the boorish behaviour that made the front page of the Sunday paper. Refs threatened by players. One forced to hide in changing rooms fearing for his safety. Refs threatened by spectators and told they were cheats.
It’s a story that raises its head every year, particularly in winter and particularly in football, rugby and league.  Weekend Warriors and their mates who lose all perspective on local sporting fields.
And as a former football ref myself who’s had his fair share of abuse, I have to say rein it back.  Most refs are volunteers. They’re not paid for this sort of rubbish.  They’re not paid at all.  Always remember without them you don’t have your fun on a Saturday. 
So grow up and play fair.

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Work's begun to control the rat and wild chicken population in West Auckland.
Locals have recently raised concerns about an infestation of huge rats scurrying about in the Titirangi village centre.
Many believe the problem is  overfeeding of the village chickens which is giving the rats plenty to feast on.
Auckland Council says it's increasing its rodent control activity in local parks and facilities.
It's also commissioned a report on chicken control options and is warning residents not to feed the birds.
Rats are also on the run in leafy east Auckland, with hundreds of households tooled up and hunting the furry vermin.
Today, Kit Parkinson, chairman of the Ōrākei Local Board, which helps fund rat-trapping, told of large numbers of rats plaguing the city's eastern waterfront.
"We've had a huge inundation of rats in Selwyn Reserve at Mission Bay. It's been reported by dozens of constituents plus businesspeople down there. Our contractors are reporting it as well."
Contractors were using bait and traps to control the vermin.
Parkinson has a trap in the backyard of his home, near Kohimarama's Mary Atkin Reserve, which had caught a number of rats, but not as many as the cat.
The aim of the Eastern Bays Songbird Project, funded mainly by Parkinson's board, Auckland Council, Kiwibank, Predator Free NZ Trust and the Department of Conservation, is to have traps in a quarter of east Auckland's 30,000 backyards.
Since it began in late 2017 it had lent out 1083 rat traps and 189 possum traps, said project manager Kerry Lukies.
Most of the rat traps were at people's homes, but there were also many on Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei land.
The predator control group asked trap users to report catches and the tally to date was 687 rats and 267 possums.

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Three of Newstalk ZB's newly crowned radio award winners have reacted to their wins. 
Political Editor Barry Soper claimed Best News or Sports Journalist for his work over the last year. Sportstalk host D'Arcy Waldgrave picked up Best Sportsreader, Presenter or Commentator for his eponymous show on Radio Sport, alongside Goran Paladin. And Raylene Ramsay won Best Newsreader on her third nomination for the prize.
All three joined Andrew Dickens for their regular slots on The Hour, and were pressed for their reactions to their wins.
Soper says that his contact book is the secret to his success. 
"It's about working your contacts, and hopefully keeping the public well informed." 
LISTEN ABOVE

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My Dad died 24 years ago this month and my Mum died two years ago in July.  Winter has not been kind to my family.
24 years ago my Dad’s death was quite hard to take.  I was young, he was young.  Only two years older than I am now.  With hindsight I know that Dad missed so much by leaving so early.  All his family’s adult acheivements.  The birth of four grand children.
My Dad’s death was one of the first amongst my mates so they all turned up and Dad’s wake turned epic.  But my friend’s Dad had died even younger and so my mate gave me a word of advice that I have passed on to everyone because it was bang on.
He said call me in a six weeks and I’ll come and help.
The point of that was that at the time of a death, the adrenaline kicks in.  There’s a funeral to organise. Photos to be found, coffins bought, making an order of service.  The phone is ringing off the hook with well wishers.  People popping round with frozen meals.  She’s all go.
Then there’s the funeral.  Then there’s the slow return to normal habits and patterns.  And then the growing realisation that a certain someone is not there anymore and will never be there and there’s nothing you can do about it.
My mate reckons that around 6 to 8 weeks after a death or a traumatic event the victims and survivors are at their lowest but the supporters have moved on. Which is why he makes sure that he reaches out to those grieving a couple of months later.
It’s been three months and one week since the Christchurch Mosque Massacre and today the Herald has a New York Times  article where survivors are talking of their growing frustration and anger with the government as they feel ignored and forgotten
The survivors believe that officials simply do not understand the magnitude of the challenges they face: the trauma, the injuries, the inability to financially support themselves. Immigration is acting slowly as injured people try to get family in the country to care for them.
Then there’s the continuing slow drip feed of public donations to survivors, partly caused by the fact that many have no comprehension of the sheer number of people affected by the events of March 15. It’s not just the 51 shot dead and the hundred injured, but also their wider families, their financial responsibilities. The number seems to be overwhelming Victim Support
At the time of massacre New Zealand moved quickly.  Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said "We feel a huge duty of care to them. We have so much we feel the need to say and to do."
Three days later, she announced a ban on military style weapons. This week the government announced $208 million to buy back the guns.
The world praised our quick and compassionate reaction but now they’re reading that the victims are being left alone, injured, unemployed and depressed and poor.
Kate Gilmore, the United Nations deputy high commissioner for human rights, who visited Christchurch in April, has questioned the government's decision to prioritise gun reform and an inquiry into possible intelligence failures before making it clear to the families how they would be cared for.
She’s right on the money. 
For myself, I would rather the $150 million the government found in the Budget to buy firearms off law abiding owners would have been far better spent looking after the victims.

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We have a government in power right now who right from the get go have been proud to call themselves transformative.
The impression they are trying to give is that they are willing to deliberately change things to make things better; to transform the way we do things for the good.
But of course that’s not the way things work.  Any act of transformation will have some aspect of it that will come at a price and some things will take a turn for the worse.  The trick is to balance things and so more is improved by the transformation than is damaged. Transformation runs into the law of unintended consequences and the second law that everything is connected.
One of the things this government is most proud of transforming is the oil and gas exploration business in New Zealand.  But the fact is they don’t want to transform it.  They just want to eliminate it which is a different thing.
So yesterday I got an email from Greenpeace telling me about something that had not been widely reported.
Oil majors Chevron and Equinor have abandoned their oil and gas exploration permits off the east coast of the North Island, leaving just Austrian oil company OMV as the last remaining oil giant in New Zealand.
Greenpeace senior campaigner, Steve Abel, was super chuffed saying  “we’ve seen the rats fleeing New Zealand’s sinking oil industry for years, but we’re really down to the dregs now with these two majors quitting New Zealand, leaving OMV isolated.”
"Unrelenting peaceful protest, civil disobedience, and iwi opposition up and down the country has already forced the withdrawal of Anadarko, Petrobras, and Shell, and saw Equinor give up their Northland permits.", he boasted.
But maybe he should just hold his horses.  Firstly the Northland exploration area and permits have always been considered to be marginal.  In fact the only commercial hydro-carbon area in New Zealand remains Taranaki unless we get lucky. So it's no big thing
But the second thing he should tai hoa on is the departure of Equinor.  As Pattrick Smellie points out this morning in the Herald, this Norwegian gas explorer is a world leader in transitioning towards decarbonisation.  They realise you don’t just stop mining hydrocarbons, you use the proceeds to fund a transition to a new world.  We could learn much from them but they’re now gone.
The other thing about chasing the explorers out is our dwindling supply of natural gas.  Gas fires our industry.  Fonterra and milk production is heavily dependent on natural gas but so are heaps of other industries. If we don’t find new gas we’ll have to fire up the industries with a different fuel.  At the moment the only option is to import coal. Or stop making milk with the obvious impact on our economy
Did you hear that Greenpeace and the government? Your decision to stop oil and gas will bring back coal.  A far dirtier thing. Is that the unintended consequence? Or are you also wanting to end dairy as so many accuse you of which would be political and economic suicide.
Transformation needs a start but it also needs an end.  Stopping oil and gas is a start.  But where do we end out? There is no solution in hand so we don’t know where we’re heading. Transformation can’t be abrupt.  It’s about evolution not revolution. This government seems determined to break stuff without knowing how to make stuff in return.

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