Andrew Dickens Afternoons

LISTEN ABOVE AS NZ HERALD ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER SIENA YATES SPEAKS TO ANDREW DICKENS ON PINK'S VISIT TO NEW ZEALAND 
Pink has realised the dream of Whangārei artist Jessie Rose by signing an artwork created to raise money for a children's charity.
Rose created the massive glittering painting and placed it on Trade Me, with a call for Pink to sign it while on her New Zealand tour.


Artist Jessie Rose had her artwork signed by Pink and the proceeds of the auction will go to KidsCanNZ. Photo/ John Stone


















When the artwork is sold, the money raised will go to KidsCanNz, a charity that works with underprivileged children.
Rose videoed the creative process which took place near the Te Matau a Pohe bridge in Whangārei in near darkness. The painting took 20 minutes to complete, with a clear glue being strategically painted on to a black board.
The painting comes to life when glitter is thrown at the board, the silver glitter appears and Pink's outline magically appears.
"It is no secret that Pink loves children and supports similar charities and it is my dream to have her sign it," Rose said.
The video was viewed 66,000 times and shared more than 1000 times with an appeal for Pink to autograph the painting.
Just 24 hours before her Auckland opening performance on Saturday, Rose was notified Pink would sign the 2.4m high x 1.2 metre wide painting.
"All Saturday, we were trying to get it sorted and get it to Auckland. We weren't prepared."
Eventually, her contacts at Morris and Morris Funeral home offered the use of a ute. With some careful wrapping and a tarpaulin the painting plus a second one were carefully taken to Auckland.
After negotiating the security checks, Rose delivered the painting backstage at Spark Arena.
While Rose didn't get to meet Pink, the paintings were both signed when they were collected after the show. The rock star had signed "Pink xoxo".
Rose got to enjoy the show in the VIP seating near the stage and only four seats away from Pink's father.
The painting is safely back in Whangārei and even before it was officially announced the work had been signed, the top bid was $1600. The auction is scheduled to finish later this week.
It's not the first time Rose has painted a famous singer - in 2016 a painting she did of Adele fetched almost $1000 for KidsCan.
Meanwhile, another Northland connection to the concert was the surprise birthday cake presented to Pink during the concert.
Ruakākā's Rhys Owen and his 13-year-old son Connor along with Auckland friend Ami Holifield created the cake with ingredients including polystyrene, bamboo skewers, plywood, expanding foam, glitter and confetti.


Ami Holifield, left, Connor Owen and Rhys Owen built a prop surprise birthday cake for Pink presented to her on stage durig her opening New Zealand show in Auckland. Photo/ Supplied












Owen got the nod from a friend late on Wednesday and by 1pm on Saturday he had the metre-high cake delivered. The creation took place in a Papakura shed after a rough sketch was done on a napkin. Owen is experienced at making props for major film companies and was involved in the Hobbit.
The $1800 cake was wheeled out on stage much to Pink's surprise during the show. The crowd had already sung her happy birthday so a guitarist played the song for her.
Owen and his son were issued with worker's passes allowing them to wander around the venue including going backstage.
"It was like a massive circus, theatre and concert in one. It was definitely a high level performance," he said.

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Labour MP Greg O'Connor has apologised and said he got it wrong after he publicly criticised the handling of Clare Curran's resignation.
O'Connor told Newstalk ZB's Heather Du Plessis-Allan yesterday, he felt things could have been done better.
Now, he says it's pretty important to get it right - and he got it wrong - saying he's apologised and he's got the message.
O'Connor repeatedly admonished himself when speaking to media today - saying eight times in just 90 seconds that he got it wrong.
The Ohariu MP says his understanding of the events was wrong, the Prime Minister has spoken with him, he's apologised, and he now knows what was right.
Newstalk ZB political editor Barry Soper has doubts though.
"Well in my book she [Jacinda Ardern] actually got it wrong and O'Connor got it right."
"She deserved to be criticised for her handling of the Curran debacle, particularly when she declared on Newstalk ZB on Friday morning that Curran had paid her price and wasn't going to be cut loose, knowing full well that she had resigned as the minister the night before."
Soper says O'Connor was simply saying things could have been handled better.
LISTEN ABOVE AS BARRY SOPER SPEAKS WITH ANDREW DICKENS

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A school fundraiser faces a battle with bureaucracy to continue to sell alcohol after a medical officer objected to the event which has been running for 10 years.
The Napier District Licensing Committee will tomorrow hear an objection to plans to sell liquor at a suburban Hawke's Bay school fundraising event.
The objection has been lodged by the Hawke's Bay District Health Board against an application by Port Ahuriri School to sell liquor over the three-and-a-half hours of its Food and Music Festival in the school grounds on the evening of Friday, November 9.
It will be the fourth year in a row the selling of liquor at the event has been opposed by the board through Medical Officer of Health Dr Rachel Eyre, who argued the consumption of alcohol on school grounds in the presence of children was inappropriate.
The application was not opposed by the police and no concerns have been raised by Napier City Council licensing inspector Darryn Waugh.
Eyre said her view held it was inappropriate to have liquor on school grounds consumed in the presence of minors and this view was shared by Medical Officers of Health throughout the country.
However, many talkback callers on Andrew Dickens Afternoons were critical of the move.
Most callers agreed that New Zealand has a negative attitude to alcohol, and that the one way to our binge drinking culture is to remove the stigma from drinking it. 
Callers said that they had a bad relationship with alcohol due to it being treated as a taboo subject growing up, while one pointed out that in European countries they don't drink or smoke excessively as they grow up with a more relaxed attitude to alcohol.
- with content from Hawkes Bay Today
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Clare Curran has resigned as Minister - but is it too little, too late?
That's the view of some callers to Andrew Dickens today, who were overwhelmingly critical of how the situation has been handled.
The main criticism was levelled at Curran for using a Gmail account to conduct ministerial business.
Callers Jeff was critical, with Jeff saying that using a private email address was 'obviously wrong' and 'stupid'.
Another caller says Curran has shown poor judgement. 
Some callers were divided on whether or not Ardern should have been more upfront about Curran's resignation.
The Prime Minister spoke to Chris Lynch hours before Curran resigned and gave no hint that the Minister would be resigning. 
Callers were split on how Ardern handled it, with some happy that she gave Curran space while others think she should have been more upfront. 
One caller says the damage will be 'far more wide reaching'. 
Graham says that Ardern needs to show more ruthless leadership. 
Though one caller was a little more realistic, saying that none of this will have any impact on him and his weekend. 
LISTEN TO THE TALKBACK FEEDBACK ABOVE
 

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A proposed parking bylaw in Hahei could see visitors fork out $10 to visit the beach.
The Thames-Coromandel District Council wants to ban people from parking on the streets between October and April each year.
Visitors would have no choice but to use paid car parks, when visiting attractions such as Cathedral Cove and Hot Water Beach.
Hahei Holiday Resort manager Grant Kilby told Andrew Dickens there's huge pressure on local infrastructure, and he welcomes the idea.
"The benefit of that is that all the revenues to gain from that will go back into the infrastructure to enhance the tourism attraction that Hahei is."
Other callers from locals and bach owners were mixed, with some strongly opposed while others were not as bothered.
Gloria, who lives near Hahei, says she doesn't mind the cars being there, and says that people need to accept that there will be cars.
"When you've got some sort of attraction, people are going to want to come and see it, and you have to handle it the best you can." 
She pointed out there is already a shuttle service taking people to the start of the walk down to the beach. 
Graham, who owns a bach in Hahei, says he attended a public meeting about the changes, and there was a "100 per cent" vote against changing the parking. 
He says that 90 per cent of the people going there are with children. 
The public have until Monday to have their say on the bylaw.
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Merriam-Webster has added more than 840 words to its dictionary. 

The list is heavy on food-related words like 'hangry', which Merriam-Webster defines as 'irritable or angry because of hunger'.

If you prefer a liquid lunch, you might enjoy new entries such as 'hophead' ("a beer enthusiast")

Word nerds who can't stand it when nouns get turned into verbs are unlikely to be pleased with 'Instagramming', defined as 'post[ing] (a picture) to the Instagram photo-sharing service'.

Other social media words include 'retweet', when a post on Twitter is shared by other users, and 'bingeable', referring to multiple episodes of a TV show that can be watched in rapid succession. 

Many of the new words are popular with young people, including 'time suck' ('an activity to which one devotes a lot of time that might be better or more productively spent doing other things'), and 'rando', a shortened version of random. 

If you reached the end of this article, then you wouldn't need to worry about 'TL;DR', an abbreviation of 'Too Long, Didn't Read'. 

LISTEN TO RAYLENE AND ANDREW DISCUSS THE NEW WORDS ABOVE

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No matter what the Government does, they can't change terrible tenants.
That's the overwhelming message talkback callers had for Andrew Dickens this afternoon. 
The Government has released a discussion document on the Healthy Homes Bill, that looks to improve the quality of homes across the country.
However, most landlords have rejected the proposal, saying that there will always be bad tenants who will reverse all that hard work.
One landlord, Jeff, told Andrew how he had tenants steal heaters from his home and put him off ever renting out again.
LISTEN TO CALLER JEFF ABOVE

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New Zealand needs to quickly stop burning fossil fuels, plant vast amounts of forest - and switch to electric vehicles and greener agriculture, a major report has found.
The Productivity Commission's final report on how the country can shift to a low-emissions economy also called for emissions standards for newly registered vehicles, a "feebate" scheme to boost the uptake of EVs, and putting a price on gases from farms.
Chairman Murray Sherwin said the period between now and 2050 - the target the Government has set for its bold Zero Carbon Bill - would pass quickly, and delaying action now would make the shift harder and costlier in the long run.
The commission recommended a move away from using fossil fuels for providing process heat for industry, and a "rapid and comprehensive" switch from petrol cars to EVs, of which fewer than 10,000 are on our roads today.
The suggestion has been met with mixed reaction from talkback listeners, particularly around the switch to electric vehicles.
Some callers were positive about the move to electric bikes – though one caller, Allan, who owns an electric bike store, revealed that you can be fined for riding an electric bike too fast.  
Feedback was more mixed about what to do about electric vehicles. Caller Louie said that there’s little point in making a big move to electric vehicles, as you never know what the next big change will be.
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Lifeline’s funding has been stretched to the limit – as one talkback caller knows all too well.
The helpline lost its contract for Government funding last year and has been struggling ever since, with calls being missed.
Andrew Dickens asked for his listeners take on the issue, and one caller shared his story.
Dave says that Lifeline helped him out as recently as last week, with the helpline talking him out of a dark place.
However, it came after he tried Crisisline first, and was told that a conflict of interest meant they could not talk to him.
Where to get help:
If you are worried about your or someone else's mental health, the best place to get help is your GP or local mental health provider. However, if you or someone else is in danger or endangering others, call police immediately on 111.
Or if you need to talk to someone else:

Lifeline: 0800 543 354 (available 24/7) • Suicide Crisis Helpline: 0508 828 865 (0508 TAUTOKO) (available 24/7) • Youthline:0800 376 633 • Need to talk? Free call or text 1737 (available 24/7)  • Kidsline: 0800 543 754 (available 24/7) • Whatsup: 0800 942 8787 (1pm to 11pm) • Depression helpline: 0800 111 757 (available 24/7) • Rainbow Youth: (09) 376 4155 • Samaritans 0800 726 666 • Rural Support Trust: 0800 787 254. • For others, visit: https://www.mentalhealth.org.nz/get-help/in-crisis/helplines/

LISTEN TO DAVE TALK WITH ANDREW DICKENS ABOVE

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The cost of having a baby when you are the Prime Minister will weigh heavily on the taxpayer this week - around about $100,000. 
Newstalk ZB Political editor Barry Soper told Andrew Dickens the RNZAF VIP jet will fly back from Nauru to pick up Jacinda Ardern on Wednesday to take her to the Pacific Islands Forum.
Ardern's cut short her time at the forum because to take her baby would have required giving her a number of vaccinations.
The media contingent left the country this morning with Foreign Minister Winston Peters on the same jet, and it will return and collect Ardern on a separate trip. 
 
Based on fuel prices from two years ago - the cost to fly the jet to and from Nauru would be just over a hundred thousand dollars, but in the past year fuel's risen by 20 percent.
 
Ardern will miss tonight's opening ceremony and tomorrow's formal dialogue - but will get to the leaders' retreat on Wednesday and attend a banquet before flying out at close to midnight.
The Forum's opening ceremony is tonight, but Ardern will only attend the leaders' meeting in what will be a brief trip for her, meaning she will only be away from baby Neve for about 36 hours.
 
LISTEN ABOVE AS BARRY SOPER SPEAKS TO ANDREW DICKENS

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