Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive

Nick Hill is the principal of Christchurch Boys’ High School, and I have no doubt he is a very good headmaster with the best of intentions. But I am not exaggerating when I say I am shocked by the argument he seems so keen to advance.
Last month, he wrote an article for the Herald, and this month he has doubled down on those views in a letter to principals. In that letter, he urges schools to stop recruiting rugby players, arguing there is a link between the recruitment of talented schoolboy rugby players and sexual offending.
He says his thinking has been influenced by Chanel Contos, an Australian advocate who has written about allegations of sexual offending by students at an elite Sydney school. Her argument is that this behaviour stems from a broader cultural problem in some schools, where boys are taught to feel entitled.
Nick Hill argues that rugby recruitment can reinforce that sense of entitlement. He says when schools recruit a 14-year-old because of his rugby ability, offer him a scholarship and treat him differently because of his sporting talent, what is he learning? He learns that talent brings special treatment.
I can't claim to know any schoolboys talented enough to have been recruited for rugby scholarships but I doubt they are all, or even many of them, sexual offenders or sexually entitled. On the contrary, I think school rugby recruitment is often a very positive thing. In many cases, it gives young men from disadvantaged backgrounds the opportunity to attend schools and access opportunities they otherwise would never have had because their parents could not afford the fees.
I suspect many people will read both the article and the letter and be offended by the link that has been drawn here. As I said, I think Nick Hill means well but the connection he has made stretches credibility and is, frankly, unfair on young men.
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For the first time, the odds driving past an NZ-built motorhome are higher than ever.
After a boom-bust cycle during COVID, New Zealand's motorhome market is starting to stabilise, and it's no longer a boomer-dominated market.
Kiwi motorhome company TrailLite's joint Managing Director Shaun Newman says, "for a lot of people, a holiday house isn't a viable option for them anymore."
He says motorhomes and caravans offer a cheaper and more versatile holiday for families.
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On the Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive Full Show Podcast for Friday, 23 October, 2026, is the election over for Chippie after the gang fiasco? We question the Labour leader.
An expert's warning to check your connections after a cyber security flaw takes down websites around the world.
Business is booming for motorhomes - and it's not just Boomers buying them.
And one of our Sports Huddlers, Nathan Limm and Lavina Good, makes a big call on our highest-performing team of the year.
Get the Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive Full Show Podcast every weekday evening on iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Oh, I tell you what, I cannot see Chris Hipkins winning the election now.
I mean, if you thought that Mongrel Mob fiasco was bad before, it's got so much worse for Labour. Their candidate has quit and Chris Hipkins himself now looks like he's been fibbing to the public.
It turns out, now that we've seen the video of Kerrin Leoni at the Mongrel Mob event, that it wasn't at all the family gathering Labour told us it was. She was there in her red Labour jacket with a placard featuring a picture of herself and Chippy, telling gang members to enrol and change the government.
That doesn't look like a family barbecue, does it? I don't know how many family barbecues you turn up to wearing your work jacket.
I also don't know how many voters are going to believe Hipkins when he says he didn't know about it and that Leoni misled him. Anyone paying attention would have seen Labour doing a fair bit of misleading themselves.
When Leoni was first accused of meeting the Mongrel Mob the week before the Green and Māori parties had, Labour said it wasn't true. They said she hadn't met the gang the week before. But she had. It was nine days before, not seven, and that looks very much like Labour playing silly buggers with the timeline so we'd never know the event had happened.
If they were prepared to mislead us on that, do you really believe they didn't try to mislead us when they said, "Hey, it's just a family event," when it was actually a political event?
This is devastating for Labour because it's no longer just about whether you share Labour's values or what you think about criminals and gang members. It's now also about the integrity of the party leader and whether he and the party tried to hide this from voters.
My suspicion is that, yes, they very much did.
And that, with only two weeks until election day, is, in my view, unsurvivable for Labour short of a miracle.
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Senior Political Correspondent Barry Soper sits down with Heather du Plessis-Allan to review the week in politics.
Labour candidate Kerrin Leoni has cut ties with the party after a video circulated of her campaigning with the Mongrel Mob.
The debates are wrapped up, Barry picks his winners...and losers.
And the founder of the Opportunity Party says the party is leaning too far to the left!
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