Andrew Dickens Afternoons

So Sir Stephen Tindall is stepping away from the company he created, the Warehouse.
From a company he created in a garage, the big Red Store has become part of the New Zealand landscape.  Its shops have sprouted in towns across New Zealand, providing Kiwis with affordable goods and towns with valuable jobs.
With $200 million his pockets he’s decided to dedicate the rest of his life to inspire his fellow countrymen to better themselves.
It’s something he’s already well versed in.  His Tindall Foundation has looked at social issues and invested $160 million worth of Warehouse dividends into New Zealand communities.
The foundation is mostly concerned with education and housing.  On education, he says we appear to have skipped a generation of parents in terms of needs and that we need to teach parents different ways to bring up their kids.
On housing, he talks about an Auckland Primary School where 40 per cent of the students were transient. He knows that all our problems are interlinked.  So the Tindall foundation is starting to look at social housing.  He’s looking at the way to reduce the cost of building. As he is pointing out the housing crisis is an education crisis too. 
He’s also investing in new ideas with his K1W1 investment firm.  It came out of Labour’s hyped knowledge wave which many say failed.  He disagrees saying it’s slow to start but gaining pace.  He has now invested $100 million in 200 tech companies, including superstars like Rocket Lab and Lanz Tech.
But as he finds himself with more time on his hands, he’s also talking the big stuff of an economy.  He wants more green energy, more and cheaper homes, more smart tech. 
We talk about when we have hit peak cow.  Well if it isn’t now it soon will be and it’s time to start turning the ship.  Any country like any supertanker takes time to change course.
Like the knowledge wave that was talked about in the 90s and is starting to take shape now.
I’m heartened that we have people like Stephen Tindall around.  People not shackled by the ideas of the past.  People not constrained by the need for immediate power and influence like politicians.  People with long term vision who realise that most of our true goals are beyond tribal politics and petty divisions. People with their eye on the ball.

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So I see the average police salary is a tick over $67,000.
Is that enough money to convince you to work all night, in the crap and the vomit and the violence and the anger and the pure emotion, to deal with the least likable sector of our society, some of whom are barely above feral animals?
To risk your physical well-being and to risk condemnation from social justice warriors observing from the comfy armchairs if, in a split second, you make an error of procedure? To know that unless you’re one of the few who get to the top then this will never be a career that can take you to retirement because of the toll it takes on your body.
Is $67,000 enough to make you take all that on?
No, I didn’t think so.
And if you were a youngster looking at the starting constables salary of $56,000, would you be thinking I’ll have some of that? When you realise that most of your squadmates are only earning 10 grand more than that after their years of stress and abuse? Or would you be looking at what the nurses have just been offered and thinking ‘that looks a doddle compared to what I’m facing’?
Police are joining the nurses and teachers in pushing for a pay rise. That’s probably why you heard yesterday that 500 officers leave the police every year. They’re leaving because it’s not worth the argy-bargy.
But the police face another hurdle compared to nurses and teachers. Legally they can’t strike. So if they don’t get what they want then we run the risk of even more cops flagging it away.
The police issue is a crisis in waiting. It’s already started. It’s a slow-motion landslide.
So here’s the thing. I think we can all agree that nurses, teachers and police are paid too little. We all want to pay them more. Because we all know in our heart of hearts that we’ve underpaid them for decades.
Labour governments, National governments, all governments scrimp on public service wages to free up money to spend on whatever idealogical crusade they believe in, whether its tax cuts or more benefits or whatever.
So, we the people, have to decide what we want to do to make sure our governments have enough money to keep and attract police, nurses and teachers to the job.
We either pay more tax, or we reassign our spending.
Now if there’s one thing I know it’s that few people actively vote to pay more taxes. Because, at the end of the day while we want police, nurses and teachers to have more money, we don’t want them to have our money.
So all you can do is look at spending.
I said so to National as they ran the public service threadbare to afford taxcuts and now I’ll say the same to the new government.
The first thing they did last December was to give a $5 billion boost to Working For Families and benefits. Despite knowing that the public service has been making pay sacrifices since the year dot and especially since the Global Financial Crisis 10 years ago.
A realist who understands how important the police, nurses and teachers are to a country might have thought to have mitigated that pay rise to the poor by putting a couple of billion aside for the public service.

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So if you were offered a four day working week, would you take it?
Actually, to save time, let me rephrase that and let me be careful so I don’t make a Trumpian mistake: if you were offered a four day working week, who wouldn’t take it.
Most of us would jump at it not because it’s a four day working week but because it means it’s a three day weekend. But to afford the three day weekend, we’ve got to work for four days, and in that work we have to make enough money that we can afford the luxury of the perpetual long weekend.
So the Perpetual Guardian trial of the four day working week has finished and its boss Andrew Barnes told Mike Hosking this morning it’s been a huge success; in fact, he rated it 9.5 out of 10. The fear was that to get all the work done, work life would be more stressful, but staff surveys say the stress level actually reduced.
The research shows the thing everyone loved was the substantial improvement in work-life balance. Andrew Barnes saw a massive increase in engagement. In other words, when people were at work, they worked. The staff were more satisfied and they intended to stay with the company longer.
The important thing here is productivity, and the company reports it’s as good as it’s always been.
Andrew Barnes believes it’s time to talk about our workforce and why we lag behind other countries in terms of productivity, and I don’t think anyone would disagree with him.
But productivity is one of those jargon buzz words that remains an abstract concept for many people. As Andrew Barnes says, we’re paying for productivity, not for hours worked. It’s a simple point that too few don’t get.
To show you how entrenched old ways of working are, just look at our employment legislation and specifically the Holidays Act, where you don’t earn your holidays for what you created and achieved but for how many hours and days you attended work.
Because of that framework, you can be penalised. If you complete your assigned task quickly you can end out with fewer holidays. It’s the same if you work above and beyond expectations.
Last year, I was a prime example. My work obligation was to provide a programme five day a week. No overtime. Sometimes the show took 20 hours to put together, some times it took six.
But because of the payroll system being based on hours, we had to put nominal hours in there. It all came unstuck when I took holidays and we had many complex calculations of hours to see if that was possible.
It all had nothing to do with productivity and was in no way efficient.
We see it in collective pay negotiations. We see it in arcane and archaic arguments about meeting times, smoko breaks and toilet time.
Grant Robertson has banged on for a long time about productivity. Perpetual Guardian is looking at the real issues. I hope the Finance Minister is watching closely so we stop talking about it and start lifting it.

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School holiday programmes are being labelled as too expensive by organisers.
Mangere East Family Services used to run holiday programmes, but CEO Peter Sykes says the high costs forced them to stop.
"The costs and risks of keeping a group of children together and getting the right staff and staff ratios just makes it not worthwhile."
Sykes says safety is another concern.
He says holiday programmes which receive Government funding have to have staff which meet the same quality of care as those at schools.
"So even your so-called 'volunteers', your core structure has to meet the safety needs [...] volunteers don't need to be vetted but the overall programme does."
He says they are expensive for parents too with the average price per kid ranging from $15 -$100 a day.
LISTEN ABOVE AS PETER SYKES SPEAKS WITH ANDREW DICKENS

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Yesterday during this programme we heard of a drowning tragedy at Muriwai Beach
A pair of New Zealanders, refugees from Myanmar who had been in the country for 20 years were fishing on the Muriwai Rocks. They went fairly often and they loved it.
The husband and wife have nine children, the youngest just seven years old, and one grandchild.
Some of the children were present when their father first slipped off the rocks while trying to haul in a fish. His wife held out a rod for him to grab, but she too fell into the surging water. Both were battered against the rocks. Despite the efforts of rescue crews the pair died at the scene.
It was monumentally sad.
So the deaths were quickly labelled an all-too-common tragedy by Rodney local board deputy chair Phelan Pirrie, as people constantly underestimate the dangers of the West Coast. He says the council has put up signs, and they get bigger after each tragedy.
But a sign is just a sign.
As I heard the story unfold, two words just kept popping into my mind. Two words that could have prevented the nine children being without parents. Two words that meant the pair could have fished another day and enjoyed many more summers together.
The two words were life jacket. The couple were not wearing life jackets. They were wearing heavy winter clothes. Clothes that when they hit the water dragged them down faster.
Making a call that rock fishers wear life jackets is not new. The water safety group Drowning Protection has run a campaign for 12 years trying to stop people from rock-fishing without lifejackets.
Today, they still call that campaign a success despite yesterday’s tragedy. The say the number of rock fishing drownings has dropped from nine in 2005 to none last year. But they are still concerned that too many people step on to known dangerous rocks without them and when pushed they say it’s about cost.
I understand that but I can’t accept that. A life jacket costs $100. It’s a bargain. How much was your rod? How much did it cost you to drive there? How much did your winter jacket cost? How much were the sneakers on your feet? How much will two funerals cost?
On the Muriwai Rocks, a lifejacket is just as essential as a pair of shoes, a jacket or a rod. Just do it.

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What a strange and surreal and wonderful weekend that I had full of magic moments and ironies.
Not least of which was the fact that I buried my mother on Saturday. A year after her death.
She’s been sitting around all that time probably tutting as her family took their time to lay her to rest. But what with her estate, the incredibly stuffed flat that took months to clear, the engraving on headstone and the 300 bucks it cost to get the Waikato District Council to dig a little hole in the ground our family already owned, meant that time ticked by.
And so on Saturday, my brother and my families gathered in Tuakau. Said some words. Had some silence as rain skudded by and the wind whipped through the manuka, and then we laid Mum to rest. It was moody, sad, funny and touching.
Sunday was spent listening to the rain which came and came and came. With perfect timing. Why does it pour whenever there is a king tide? It’s like Mother Nature wants to flood us away.
In a rare break in the weather we walked the dog down at the local park. A park that had only just been tidied up after the last big storm. How heart breaking for the working crews to see three big trees down. Two big macrocarpas snapped in two.
Coincidentally, or possibly ironically, the storm coincided with a new study on Kiwis attitudes to climate change, undertaken by the insurer IAG. Of the 1000 New Zealanders polled, 88 per cent think we will see more severe floods, storms and inundation as a result of climate change. 84 per cent agree humanity is able to reduce climate change, but just 10 per cent think we will take appropriate action.
But the best thing about the rain was the ability to watch the sport and what sport it was
Over two days I saw some of the best tennis I’ve ever seen from two of the best players ever; Djokovic and Nadal. The match took over five hours. Thank heavens that it was broken into two episodes by Wimbledon’s scheduling rules.
The fact that the best tennis and one of the longest matches was being played by two of the oldest players was a delicious irony. The fact that both semi-finals went to final set advantage rather than tie breaks is a big debating point. My feeling is that the tie breaks should kick in from 12 all in the fifth.
And then the final of the Football Wold Cup, which saw the best team win the tournament but in a frenetic match. Having lived in France, I understood the delicious irony in this match. France is a funny old nation. Both extremely liberal but also conservative. A country full of immigrants who are hated. The Arabs and the blacks are confined to the banlieue, the outer suburbs, and many packed into high rise ghettoes.
But for generations now their football team has had a certain make up. In this world cup 80 per cent of the team were immigrants mostly from Africa. 80 per cent of the team is not born in France. And one third of them were Muslims.
And the same could be said about the Belgium team as well. Immigration maybe the scourge of Europe but they turn a blind eye to it if it means you win a World Cup.

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A photo of some Chinese BBQ chicken has caused confusion for some Australian customers.
A Reddit user posted a photo to the social media site showing several boxes of the Woolworths-brand chicken.
From the angle that the user took the photo, it looks as though the word 'Shit' has been scrawled over the box. 
Have no fair - the supermarket chain is not selling shitty chicken. 
It's simply the time that they were cooked - 7:45
"It took me a minute to realise why someone would be writing “Shit” all over the Woolworths chicken", the user wrote. 
LISTEN TO ANDREW DICKENS DECIPHER THIS CASE ABOVE

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We’ve been saying it a while but we live in interesting times.
And much of that interest has been sparked by the current President of the United States who has taken an aggressive stance to long-standing problems.
He is taking aim at many of the organisations that have been part of the world’s normal for many decades now. First, it was the Paris Climate Accord and the TPP trade agreement but then he’s gone on to attack some longer-standing frameworks.
Donald Trump has threated to dismantle the World Trade Organisation and more recently NATO has been in his fire. Both organisations were born out of war and conflict.
The World trade Organisation started out as GATT, the General Agreement on Tariff and Trade back in 1948. It was after World war 2 and it was created along with the IMF and the World Bank to reduce economic difficulties arising that so often escalated into military actions. In 1994 it was refashioned and renamed the World Trade Organisation.
It is fair to say that at it’s most basic level the WTO has worked, as we have not had a worldwide conflict for 70 years. But it is also fair to say that globalisation and the differing relativities between emerging and mature markets means that the organisation is creaking at the seams.
Meanwhile, NATO is also receiving not so friendly fire from the President. It’s a collective defence alliance between 29 countries that started in 1949. Again after the last pan European war. It gained more prominence during the Cold War between Western Europe and the States and Russia. Again you have to say it has worked with no major conflict, with the exception of the Bosnian conflict, for the past 70 years.
But again it’s starting to creak as America complains it pays more than it’s fair share, which is true and has been mentioned by a number of administrations. But if there is one thing Donald Trump hates more than Hilary Clinton it’s an unfair deal and so he’s going at it hard.
Now 16 former Foreign Ministers, including our own Don MacKinnon, who is also a former Commonwealth Secretary-General, have written him a letter urging Trump shows some support for NATO before next week's Nato summit in Brussels and Trump’s meeting with Putin. These are not snowflakes or idiots and between them, they have centuries of experience. They know that Russia is dangerous. After all name any other nation who recently annexed and subsumed neighbouring nations.
I understand Trump’s concerns, they are America’s concerns and they’re not new. America allowed itself to over contribute which also gave them more influence. I think I understand Trump’s tactics which is to blow everything up and start again. But as Britain is finding with Brexit fixing everything up after blowing them up takes time and while you’re rebuilding you’re weak. If NATO is blown up I’d love to see Putin’s grinning face afterwards.
There is something to be said for the iron hand in a velvet glove and I think the world would feel more secure if Donald Trump learned the technique

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There's a call for New Zealand to introduce a disabled "companion card" scheme similar to those run overseas.
In Australia, such a programme gives discounted and free tickets to the companion escorting a registered disabled person to an event.
There's a similar scheme in Great Britain.
Caller Melanie, who cares for her disabled son in Sydney, told Andrew Dickens that she was shocked to learn that no such scheme exists in New Zealand. She had been intending on taking her son to see Cher at Spark Arena. 
She said both LiveNation Australia and Spark Arena were unable to help her. 
Richard Benge, Executive Director of Arts Access Aotearoa, told Andrew Dickens that hindering the ability of disabled people to bring a companion is denying them their human rights.
He says New Zealanders have every right to be very disappointed by this, given how successfully it has been run in Australia.
A spokesperson from the Ministry of Culture and Heritage says they are currently leading research work on companion ticketing in New Zealand to get a clearer idea of the situation here.
"One of the Government’s key priorities for the Arts, Culture and Heritage portfolio is ensuring access and participation to cultural experiences for all New Zealanders. The Ministry for Culture and Heritage is currently leading research work on companion ticketing in New Zealand to get a clearer idea of the situation here. The Ministry’s research will guide officials’ advice to Ministers on the best way to approach this issue in the New Zealand context." 
LISTEN TO MELANIE AND RICHARD BENGE TALK WITH ANDREW DICKENS ABOVE

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So the nurses have voted to strike.
To recap the deal was doubled in May and was worth more than half a billion dollars.
It included a three per cent pay increases in June, August and September 2019, as well as a $2000 lump sum payment and an increase to on-call rates. It created two new pay steps at the top end. From December, $72,944 would be the highest base salary, followed by $77,386 from December next year.
And it would have had a widespread effect because 15,000 of the 20,030 registered midwives and nurses employed at DHBs were included in the top category. So most nurses were about to break the 70 grand barrier and get close to 80 grand
Not only that, at the last moment the DHBs and government added a sweetener of $48m of Ministry of Health funding - $38m to employ between 500 and 600 extra nurses and $10m for new safe staffing measures.
The nurses union recommended that the nurses take the deal but they voted against it. They’re going to strike. They want more.
But the nation is wondering if there is more to give. The acting Prime Minister Winston Peters has been repeating the same line that he used on the PSA yesterday on the nurses and indirectly the teachers today.
This morning he said that maybe the nurses should have been striking 9 or 7 or 5 or 3 years ago. And he’s probably right. The nurses appeared to have been intimidated by the previous regime. Now they believe they’ve got a sympathetic ear in the government they’re growing for broke.
But again as Winston Peters said this morning, the new regime has only had one budget and you can’t fix 10 years worth of stagnation in one fell swoop. He also pointed out all the other pressures on the government’s purse like the kiwifruit infection compensation and the battle against Mycoplasma Bovis.
I have sympathy for the nurses but I also have sympathy for the government, who have doubled the offer and in my opinion, have done everything they possibly could for the nurses at this time.
After an undeniably generous increase in pay, the decision to strike because the offer is not enough runs the risk of losing the public sympathy.
There are other ways to skin the cat. If I were the nurses unhappy with the deal, perhaps they could take the first half and agree to talk again in 2020 when the government may be better placed to help and more inclined to help as it was an election year. But as it stands the nurses seem to be trying to bully the government the same way the previous government bullied them for a decade.

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