Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive

I'm astonished, can I say, that Marty Grenfell, the boss of Tauranga City Council, thinks no one has to quit over the landslide and the damning report. And frankly, that there are not outright calls for him to quit from the mayor and the local MP.
That report, I don't know if it could have been more damning, because it told us Tauranga City Council was warned multiple times that a landslide might happen in exactly the spot where a landslide happened, as early as 1999 and as most recently as only six or seven months before the landslide.
The most recent warning said that because this might happen, the council should put in place a warning system where if somebody saw something untoward, they could then call in and a series of things would kick into motion that would lead to the evacuation of people to save their lives.
On the day of the landslide, someone saw something untoward and they called it in and nothing happened because there was no system. There was no clear direction on who to call and what to do and whether to evacuate people.
Now, Marty Grenfell's strategy is to blame the person who received the report and the manager who saw it for not passing it on to someone who could then create that system, that warning system. And look, that's fair. We've all worked in organisations where that kind of thing happens, right?
But we also know those organisations only exist like that because the boss thinks it's okay that the organisation is a shambles like that. Because the boss thinks it's okay to spend money on consultants to prepare reports that then just get filed away and not acted on.
Marty Grenfell has been the boss of that organisation in that state of shambles for about eight years. That is more than enough time to tidy it up and he hasn't. So it is ultimately his fault as the boss that the system was that untidy and that people died because of a system failure.
Now, he needs to quit. Either he needs to say that the person who got the report and didn't pass it on needs to quit because they didn't know who to pass it on to, or he needs to quit because he oversaw a system where they didn't know who to pass it on to.
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Listen to the Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive Full Show Podcast for Friday 21 August.
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Rugby's Greatest Rivalry is counting down to the real action kicking off on Sunday morning, with the Springboks and All Blacks coaches engaging in some pre-match mental games.
South African coach Rassie Erasmus says he can't say who'll win, but it's a four-match series so game three will be the most important.
New Zealand Herald's Rugby Analyst Gregor Paul joins Heather du Plessis-Allan from South Africa, and tells her why he thinks Dave Rennie will be heading into this match with confidence.
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We need to talk about Harry and Meghan again because now that they're moving back to the UK, it has completely, unsurprisingly, reignited the debate over there over whether the UK taxpayer will or should fund the security for Harry and his family.
Now, the Daily Mail is already warning today that it will cost the taxpayer over there about £5 million a year, which is a fair chunk of change, right?
You know I have little to no regard for these two. Frankly, I think they are some of the most brazen grifters of my generation. But there is no question in my mind that they should be given full protection in the UK.
Not because they're entitled to it as working royals, but because Harry is entitled to it as the son of the King. He did not choose to become a royal, he just is. And with that comes interest and threats that he has not invited.
Obviously, some of it he has, but some of it simply comes with being the son of the King.
And so he and his family should, by dint of his birth, have that protection. But especially because of how people regard him now, two-thirds of that country do not like Harry.
When his grandmother was alive and just before he stepped back from royal duties, he and Queen Elizabeth were the only two royal family members who were put in the most high-risk category for security.
That will not have changed for him. In fact, it's probably got worse.
And by the way, it is not unusual for people in the public eye in the UK to have security. Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown has security.
How can Gordon Brown, who's no longer a Prime Minister, have security, but the son of the King cannot?
Harry should, because he and his family will be harassed. That is not...
It's not a maybe, it is a given.
And again, his kids, like him, have not chosen to be born into this. They do not deserve to be hurt by this.
My suspicion actually is that this has already been sorted behind the scenes because Harry had previously been adamant that he could not live in the UK without security being provided by the state.
So it's hard to imagine that he's made this call, completely changed his mind and put his kids in harm's way without some kind of an assurance.
If he has, then fair enough.
The royal family owes him nothing. The taxpayer owes him nothing but just one thing, which is that he and his family remain safe.




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A new 5% 'tourist tax' implemented by the Fijian government has potential to add cost to your next Island holiday.
Travel Agents Association of New Zealand CEO Julie White tells Heather du Plessis-Allan the industry was blindsided by the news and is still unsure how the tax will be collected.
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