So would you fight a chimp if

you were an MMA fighter? Well, here's the problem.

we have to figure out a way to get the chimpanzee to fight because the chimpanzee might be one of those like hangs around the circus.

Like, Hey, how you doing? Next thing you know, the guy's got him.

I think he'd still bust him up.

We'd whisper to the chimpanzee or he

would give the MMA guy a chance to run up, put him in some sort of sleeper hold, and knock him out.

That was my process when I said about the baby thing.

Why jiu-jitsu?

Why jiu-jitsu? That's a great question.

I was hoping you might ask it.

I've trained a lot of different martial arts over the years.

I first got involved in boxing, then MMA, and then I made a crossover to actually not a non-martial art, but bodybuilding.

I've also explored ultra running, hiking, as we've already spoken about.

And jiu-jitsu has been the main thing that I've put all of my focus into over the past four and a half years.

And talk us through the mentorship side of the project.

Was that part of the brew, so to speak, of what went into making this decision, putting on the ballot?

Yeah, I think this initiative has the potential to check a lot of boxes.

The major maintenance topic has been something that's been discussed and we've been working on for any number of years.

To have that long-term funding source for that I think is absolutely huge.

The capital projects that Dr. Murray talked about, those have all been identified through various capital projects.

planning processes or prior referendums so that we didn't have to go and sort of invent that other previous efforts have identified what all those are.

So we're just able to move all those up and provide a more certain timeline for schools that all have a very distinct purpose.

drop the $70 million for the county.

Mm.

And that, and that's great.

That's very New Zealand.

Look how friendly we are with each other.

But there's a problem, there's an in- an, uh, an ideological intrinsic problem in that, in that, like, our leaders have to be held up here for us to truly respect them, and they can't be that attainable.

Otherwise, um- That we have this internal thing where we're like, "They're just like us." And of course they're just like us, but they are required to make decisions that affect the whole country.

They're required to go out in the world and hold their own with other world leaders.

Mm.

So there's

this huge arbitrage.

It's a great business model.

And then you've got late payment penalties which are worse.

So you get like a 1% late payment penalty immediately and then after 7 days, you get like another 4% and then you get 1% incremental or something like that.

So it's a lot.

If I was going to make a change to benefit businesses, I would reduce both rates and also allow wider provisions for the write-off of those penalties if lump sum settlement payments were made.

Yeah.

What was the headline on this was, right, the change of venue issue?

Yes.

What she ruled was, yes, change of venue, but she didn't say... where it would be.

The defense, Dick Carpullo and the gang, really were pushing for Charleston.

It was one ridiculous moment.

He brings up one of the co-counsel, Phil Barber, and has them sworn, and he sits there and he talks about, how expensive is Charleston? Is parking expensive? And it went on forever.

We know what Charleston is, people.

And the defense is arguing that it only showed the DNA was from an unknown male, and so they say new testing could be more conclusive.

[laughs]

Yeah, I, I think there's some, there's some practical things, right? So, um, and, and I, I don't think it's just a challenge when working with a creative team.

I think it's anyone that, that, that touches the, the campaign.

It's ...

Uh, the, the whole team are putting a lot of time, lot of, lot of effort, and a lot of love into, in- into this idea, right? So it's, it's entirely natural to, um, uh, to sometimes, um, find yourself in different conversations if, you know, the consumer testing comes back and it's, and, and it's quite a negative result.

I, I th- I think kinda practical things that I've tried to do is, I mean, first of all, just bring the consumer voice into those conversations.

I, I think it's ...

What do the best partnerships look like between AI, insight, and creative, uh, and what do organizations still need to get right to make that work?

One of those might be the tax.

Yeah, correct.

And so owning properties in your personal name, we have really, really moved away from that in the last sort of five or more years.

Pretty simple, really.

An individual is unlimitedly liable for anything that happens at that property.

And we've had a huge amount of tenancy law changes.

We've had healthy homes.

Yeah, I definitely remember.

Well, that's one of the many things

that they were doing in this status conference was a change of venue.

They talked about some DNA evidence and some other protective orders that were out.

But what it came down to, the important part was, because usually these things are just scheduling and that sort of thing.

So they did.

August 14th, the next pretrial.

And then April 5th, 2027.

What is the DNA that they were debating? Okay, this DNA situation was there was DNA under

And now all manufacturers are having to give financing to dealers to keep their plants busy.

Yeah.

And that has been, I think, relatively common practice.

I think Caterpillar in particular, and this was in their latest quarterly results, they had a good quarter in construction equipment sales because they've given incentive to dealers to load in equipment for what I assume to be their rental fleets as they try to grow rental.

And there are other OEMs who are making similar moves.

We've heard rumors of Kubota, for example, offering financing incentives to their dealers who are willing to buy equipment to load in a rental fleet.

And so those are important steps being taken.

Exactly.

the first red flag.

Yeah, isn't it? So anyway, so in short, New Zealand foreign trusts have been around since the 80s, characterized by a non-resident settler but a New Zealand-based trustee.

The idea is that New Zealand firms could set these up, act as the professional trustee and derive fees and it could be like a good little industry for New Zealand.

And they weren't wrong.

There were a lot of these things.

What happened after the Panama Papers is that there was a guy, John Sherwin, who was a big tax guy in New Zealand.

I think he was a partner in maybe Chapman Trip or one of the big law firms.

When does somebody, like, not need a trust? Because I know there was a period where trusts were very fashionable.

You know, how many of your clients are asking about SpaceX? What do you think of the situation?

Yeah, we've had quite a few clients ask us about our opinion of SpaceX.

And so as fiduciaries, we really can't get into the IPO space with our fiduciary clients, but we can help them.

We cannot tell them to buy it, but we can certainly guide them.

This is a historic IPO, one that certainly a lot of investors want to be a part of.

And so our guidance to our clients is if you want to buy it, Be educated on it.

Learn about all the verticals of SpaceX.

you

Yeah.

But it's actually not like that.

Um, but I do think if you're a property investor, and, and I think at the moment, we've, we've had this c- sea change where we used to be predominantly dealing with capital growth investors who would just buy knowing more or less that it was gonna go up over time, and I mean, that's still true, right? If property doesn't go up by inflation at a minimum, then the system's not working as it's meant to.

Uh, but you can't rely on that, that, any longer just to be the return.

So we've had this like move, big, and this is where commercial's getting a lot more popular.

And, um, so yeah, thank you for flying across the ditch to, uh, catch up with us.

Little plug for Lighthouse.

So we exist to secure Kiwi's financial future, um, but also now Australians it seems.

Yeah, it's

a lot of investors actually don't have a real grasp on what the actual figures are.

You know, your net return is the cash flow, less costs, plus or minus inflation.

plus or minus capital value or growth.

And it's really easy to look at property and go, okay, it's gone up $1 million, I've made $1 million, but it's actually not like that.

But I do think if you're a property investor, and I think at the moment we've had this sea change where we used to be predominantly dealing with capital growth investors who would just buy knowing more or less that it was going to go up over time and I mean that's still true right, if property doesn't go up by inflation at a minimum then the system's not working as it's meant to but you can't rely on that any longer just to be the return so we've had this move, this is where commercial is getting a lot more popular and thanks probably to you moving into the market and making it a little more visible but in general you get a higher rate of cash flow out of commercial than you would out of a resi for example and now you when you get an investment that has capital growth and cash flow you're going to be in a far better position yeah

yeah so what caused that and what can australians learn from it

Yeah, I think you've kind of been through it maybe with the resi.

But when you actually look at the detail, you're like, oh, they're not really going after them that hard, is the new banking levy, I think they're calling it, which is

essentially tax.

See, controversial opinion.

I don't love this.

I get the concept and banks, I think I've said before actually somewhere along the line there's got to be a review on the profit of banks because banks should make super profits when we have a super economy but it should be the other way around when we don't.

It doesn't seem to be that way.

So who's paying and it's the New Zealanders.

What is it like for you when you're out talking to