Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive

On the Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive Full Show Podcast for Thursday, 5 February, 2026, our political reporter at Waitangi tells us the prime minister got a harder time this year than ACT leader David Seymour.
We ask why the wastewater plant pumping poo into Wellington's water wasn't fixed earlier.
Is Invercargill not up with the times? The council's plan to spend $2 million on a clock tower.
And on The Huddle, Maurice Williamson and Mark Sainsbury discuss how councils need to lift their game.
Get the Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive Full Show Podcast every weekday evening on iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts.
LISTEN ABOVE
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Here’s a question for you: Was your first reaction to the news of sewage pumping into Wellington’s water something along the lines of, “Oh well, these things happen”?
I ask because I’ve spent the past 24 hours fighting the urge to wave this away as one of those unfortunate, unforeseen things that just happen from time to time. You know — mistakes happen.
I’m glad I resisted that urge, because the latest information actually makes the situation far more concerning.
The Moa Point facility is run by a private contractor, Veolia, and there have been years of warnings that it was non-compliant. Since January 2024 — two years ago — it has failed to meet compliance every single month except for two. That’s a pretty poor record. The issues have included inappropriate discharges, odour problems, and repeated problems involving faecal bacteria.
A review three years ago looked across all four water‑treatment plants Veolia runs in the Wellington region and found understaffing, inexperienced operators, and frontline teams being left to handle complex problems without executive support.
Now, we don’t yet know exactly what went wrong with the pipe yesterday. We don’t know whether the long-running warnings had anything to do with the incident — whether, had the warnings been acted on, this might not have happened. We simply don’t know.
But what we do know is that what was happening at that facility wasn’t good enough.
And that brings me to our default reaction — mine, yours, everyone’s — which seems to be giving councils a free pass. I don’t know why we do that. Maybe it’s because we’re fair-minded people and try to be accommodating of others’ mistakes. Maybe it’s because councils are monopolies; if we don’t like what they do, we have nowhere else to turn, so what’s the point getting upset?
So we end up lowering our standards to match the councils’ low standards.
But we shouldn’t.
Wellingtonians should be angry about this — just as Christchurch residents should be angry about the Bromley stench that has dragged on for years.
Voting for “more competent” people probably won’t fix it. It never does. What Wellingtonians, and everyone else, can do — and what the media can do — is get angry, get vocal, and shame the councils and their contractors into doing better.
LISTEN ABOVE
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Last year, food giant Watties had to cut contracts with 20 peach growers, citing market dumping and Cyclone Gabrielle as the key factors for the decision.
An investigation by the government found that Chinese fruit company J&G International Co. Ltd. was indeed dumping peaches in to the market, causing 'material damage' to the industry.
Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs Scott Simpson told Heather du Plessis-Allan that this situation unfortunately isn't rare.
"It's not completely uncommon. We get probably 1 or 2 a year cases of dumping of product, not just peaches, a whole range of stuff."
LISTEN ABOVE
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Growing calls for an overhaul our 30-year-old dog control laws.
The Listener reports between 2020 and 2024, the cost of ACC claims for dog bites rose from just over 10 and a half million to just over 15 and a half million - with most occurring in private homes.
Ministry of Hound owner and dog trainer Diana Haggitt says she's in support of making changes.
She told Heather du Plessis-Allan that many of the problems stem from a lack of education for dog owners.
Haggitt says that includes breed specific requirements, what's involved in training a dog and what the legal obligations are.
LISTEN ABOVE
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Belief from an Invercargill City Councillor the city doesn't need to rebuild its clock tower.
The council plans to spend two million dollars on the renovation work in Wachner Place.
Councillor Ian Pottinger says he believes the money could be spent on other things.
He told Heather du Plessis-Allan that the money could go to a local high school which wants improved road safety.
Pottinger says councillors were told they don't have money in the bank for that work, and would need to go and find funding.
LISTEN ABOVE
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.