00:00:00
Speaker 1: Look, this has become so complicated, this story. I don't even know who's on whose side and who's pro-what, who's anti-what. But Ed Sheeran, the guy who should be singing, was instead talking at his concert.
00:00:12
Speaker 2: This is a humanitarian issue and I cannot hide how I feel about it anymore. What happened in Israel and at the Nova Music Festival on October 7th was horrific and compounded centuries of Jewish pain. What is happening in Gaza is a catastrophic, and unjustifiable and disproportionate. My heart has been broken by the scale of devastation and loss of civilians' lives.
00:00:39
Speaker 1: Now, if you watch his eyes, the poor guy is reading a statement like some kind of hostage to a public or PR crisis. Let's go to our panel, Rawdon Christie, communications and property expert, Maria Slade, business desk reporter.
00:00:51
Speaker 3: Good morning to you both. Look, very content.
00:00:53
Speaker 1: I mean, you're sort of damned if you're in the public eye, you're damned if you do, damned if you don't.
00:00:58
Speaker 3: You know, I mean, does the guy support genocide? Of course he doesn't, you know.
00:01:02
Speaker 1: But here we are and he should be singing, he's doing his speech. Maria?
00:01:05
Speaker 4: I mean, Ed Sheeran, the most inoffensive pop star you could possibly find. So it's really intriguing that he's caught in this position. It is a question of free speech, though, and I think it was wrong, in my view, of the large stadium owners to ban Macklemore.
00:01:24
Speaker 5: And I completely understand the Irish artist's stand.
00:01:27
Speaker 1: I mean.
00:01:28
Speaker 4: The Irish understand a struggle, for goodness sakes. So it is an issue of free speech, and perhaps Ed Sheeran should have just pulled out altogether, but then I guess it's not just about him. It's about all the people who are employed, all the ticket sales that would have been lost and so forth. So it's a real rock and a hard place.
00:01:46
Speaker 6: Yeah, rock and a hard place. Look, you said no one knows which side anyone's on. I'm firmly on Ed Sheeran's side here. He has been completely thrown under the bus in this. All he wants to do is go out. He's always tried to be apolitical.
00:01:57
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:01:58
Speaker 6: He makes a point of it. What's interesting, what you said, Maria, and his hand's been forced here. He hasn't made the decision. Others are saying, well, surely you're the most important guy. Surely you're the one who was behind the Macklemore ban. He's not behind it.
00:02:09
Speaker 5: I mean, who cares?
00:02:10
Speaker 1: I mean, the whole thing is ridiculous. Just let the guy sing. If people want to sing with him, they'll sing with him.
00:02:16
Speaker 3: If they don't, they won't.
00:02:17
Speaker 6: But, Maria, what you said about this becoming a free speech issue, that's significant. And that's where I think Ed Sheeran does have a viewpoint which he's willing to share and saying... why are you trying to stop this? I think he has your attitude, right? We're just here to see.
00:02:32
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:02:33
Speaker 5: Well, no one's going to die wondering about what Macklemore's views are.
00:02:36
Speaker 3: No.
00:02:36
Speaker 5: If it was really a problem, they shouldn't have had him on the bill.
00:02:38
Speaker 3: Well, that's probably true. Yeah, I mean, he said it beforehand.
00:02:41
Speaker 1: I think he said beforehand, the one reason I'm doing this is because I want to say.
00:02:45
Speaker 3: Anyway. Early childhood screen time ban. Well, Rodan, I'll start with you. Unbelievable.
00:02:53
Speaker 6: The comment in my house was, What, they have screens?
00:02:57
Speaker 3: Apparently not many. Okay. Not many.
00:03:00
Speaker 6: Well, if there are some, ban them. You know, early childhood for my kids was about creativity and relationships.
00:03:07
Speaker 3: That was it.
00:03:08
Speaker 6: I mean, I guess there was education of sorts and there were books and there were, you know, but it was.
00:03:13
Speaker 3: About my son will hate me.
00:03:15
Speaker 6: Putting on a dress and going and playing in the sand pit.
00:03:18
Speaker 5: He's really going to hate you.
00:03:21
Speaker 6: He doesn't wear dresses, let me point that out.
00:03:24
Speaker 3: He's now a lawyer. This is you we're talking about, right? It was me. And a friend of mine. As a toddler. Not last week.
00:03:34
Speaker 6: Just create as many toys and creative corners as you can and just go for it, kids.
00:03:41
Speaker 5: It does appear to be banning something that isn't happening.
00:03:44
Speaker 4: But then again, these messages, it's important to send them that screen time is bad for children.
00:03:50
Speaker 5: And I think we're beginning to understand that more and more.
00:03:52
Speaker 4: You probably saw the story a couple of days ago about the PISA results and how bad children are doing around the world from screen use, from social media, from all the COVID period as well, obviously. But those children are struggling at the moment in the educational sphere, and I do think that it's a good idea that kids aren't on screens. But, yeah, it does feel like, right, let's just ban something.
00:04:15
Speaker 6: Maybe an easy pre-election hit.
00:04:17
Speaker 3: Yeah, probably a bit of that too.
00:04:19
Speaker 1: But it is very much a put the phones and put the screens into the vape category, into the fizzy drinks category.
00:04:27
Speaker 3: You know. I mean, well, almost. You use them good. They do do something good. No, you've really opened it up. I know. They do do something good. Vapes, not so much. Finally this morning, why don't we finish on the Warriors.
00:04:39
Speaker 1: Are you commiserating this morning or are you just observing the commiserations?
00:04:43
Speaker 4: I'm observing the commiseration. I do think the bottle throwing was poor, very poor form. There's no excuse for that kind of behaviour ever. And we get it mildly in New Zealand, but, you know, you would know Rawdon from England, how they have.
00:04:57
Speaker 5: To separate the fans.
00:04:58
Speaker 4: We were over there last year and my husband went to a game and he showed me the pictures of the home team were all here and then the visiting team were here, completely cordoned off on two sides by security people and they're ushered in and out separate entrances because of all the football violence there is over there. So, you know, we don't have that. But let's not start going down that track either.
00:05:20
Speaker 6: What we do have, and you get it in every crowd of 48,000, you do have a bunch of dickheads. And the reality is don't turn yourselves from the greatest fans this country has into ones where that's what we remember. You know, I mean, it's been, oh, sure, we're going to be debating the decisions while it's already happening in the lift on my way up here, passionately, probably for the next sort of, Eight months.
00:05:42
Speaker 3: Till next season. Yeah, till next season.
00:05:44
Speaker 6: But the reality is don't just remain who you are, which is the greatest fans we've got.
Speaker 1: Look, this has become so complicated, this story. I don't even know who's on whose side and who's pro-what, who's anti-what. But Ed Sheeran, the guy who should be singing, was instead talking at his concert.
00:00:12
Speaker 2: This is a humanitarian issue and I cannot hide how I feel about it anymore. What happened in Israel and at the Nova Music Festival on October 7th was horrific and compounded centuries of Jewish pain. What is happening in Gaza is a catastrophic, and unjustifiable and disproportionate. My heart has been broken by the scale of devastation and loss of civilians' lives.
00:00:39
Speaker 1: Now, if you watch his eyes, the poor guy is reading a statement like some kind of hostage to a public or PR crisis. Let's go to our panel, Rawdon Christie, communications and property expert, Maria Slade, business desk reporter.
00:00:51
Speaker 3: Good morning to you both. Look, very content.
00:00:53
Speaker 1: I mean, you're sort of damned if you're in the public eye, you're damned if you do, damned if you don't.
00:00:58
Speaker 3: You know, I mean, does the guy support genocide? Of course he doesn't, you know.
00:01:02
Speaker 1: But here we are and he should be singing, he's doing his speech. Maria?
00:01:05
Speaker 4: I mean, Ed Sheeran, the most inoffensive pop star you could possibly find. So it's really intriguing that he's caught in this position. It is a question of free speech, though, and I think it was wrong, in my view, of the large stadium owners to ban Macklemore.
00:01:24
Speaker 5: And I completely understand the Irish artist's stand.
00:01:27
Speaker 1: I mean.
00:01:28
Speaker 4: The Irish understand a struggle, for goodness sakes. So it is an issue of free speech, and perhaps Ed Sheeran should have just pulled out altogether, but then I guess it's not just about him. It's about all the people who are employed, all the ticket sales that would have been lost and so forth. So it's a real rock and a hard place.
00:01:46
Speaker 6: Yeah, rock and a hard place. Look, you said no one knows which side anyone's on. I'm firmly on Ed Sheeran's side here. He has been completely thrown under the bus in this. All he wants to do is go out. He's always tried to be apolitical.
00:01:57
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:01:58
Speaker 6: He makes a point of it. What's interesting, what you said, Maria, and his hand's been forced here. He hasn't made the decision. Others are saying, well, surely you're the most important guy. Surely you're the one who was behind the Macklemore ban. He's not behind it.
00:02:09
Speaker 5: I mean, who cares?
00:02:10
Speaker 1: I mean, the whole thing is ridiculous. Just let the guy sing. If people want to sing with him, they'll sing with him.
00:02:16
Speaker 3: If they don't, they won't.
00:02:17
Speaker 6: But, Maria, what you said about this becoming a free speech issue, that's significant. And that's where I think Ed Sheeran does have a viewpoint which he's willing to share and saying... why are you trying to stop this? I think he has your attitude, right? We're just here to see.
00:02:32
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:02:33
Speaker 5: Well, no one's going to die wondering about what Macklemore's views are.
00:02:36
Speaker 3: No.
00:02:36
Speaker 5: If it was really a problem, they shouldn't have had him on the bill.
00:02:38
Speaker 3: Well, that's probably true. Yeah, I mean, he said it beforehand.
00:02:41
Speaker 1: I think he said beforehand, the one reason I'm doing this is because I want to say.
00:02:45
Speaker 3: Anyway. Early childhood screen time ban. Well, Rodan, I'll start with you. Unbelievable.
00:02:53
Speaker 6: The comment in my house was, What, they have screens?
00:02:57
Speaker 3: Apparently not many. Okay. Not many.
00:03:00
Speaker 6: Well, if there are some, ban them. You know, early childhood for my kids was about creativity and relationships.
00:03:07
Speaker 3: That was it.
00:03:08
Speaker 6: I mean, I guess there was education of sorts and there were books and there were, you know, but it was.
00:03:13
Speaker 3: About my son will hate me.
00:03:15
Speaker 6: Putting on a dress and going and playing in the sand pit.
00:03:18
Speaker 5: He's really going to hate you.
00:03:21
Speaker 6: He doesn't wear dresses, let me point that out.
00:03:24
Speaker 3: He's now a lawyer. This is you we're talking about, right? It was me. And a friend of mine. As a toddler. Not last week.
00:03:34
Speaker 6: Just create as many toys and creative corners as you can and just go for it, kids.
00:03:41
Speaker 5: It does appear to be banning something that isn't happening.
00:03:44
Speaker 4: But then again, these messages, it's important to send them that screen time is bad for children.
00:03:50
Speaker 5: And I think we're beginning to understand that more and more.
00:03:52
Speaker 4: You probably saw the story a couple of days ago about the PISA results and how bad children are doing around the world from screen use, from social media, from all the COVID period as well, obviously. But those children are struggling at the moment in the educational sphere, and I do think that it's a good idea that kids aren't on screens. But, yeah, it does feel like, right, let's just ban something.
00:04:15
Speaker 6: Maybe an easy pre-election hit.
00:04:17
Speaker 3: Yeah, probably a bit of that too.
00:04:19
Speaker 1: But it is very much a put the phones and put the screens into the vape category, into the fizzy drinks category.
00:04:27
Speaker 3: You know. I mean, well, almost. You use them good. They do do something good. No, you've really opened it up. I know. They do do something good. Vapes, not so much. Finally this morning, why don't we finish on the Warriors.
00:04:39
Speaker 1: Are you commiserating this morning or are you just observing the commiserations?
00:04:43
Speaker 4: I'm observing the commiseration. I do think the bottle throwing was poor, very poor form. There's no excuse for that kind of behaviour ever. And we get it mildly in New Zealand, but, you know, you would know Rawdon from England, how they have.
00:04:57
Speaker 5: To separate the fans.
00:04:58
Speaker 4: We were over there last year and my husband went to a game and he showed me the pictures of the home team were all here and then the visiting team were here, completely cordoned off on two sides by security people and they're ushered in and out separate entrances because of all the football violence there is over there. So, you know, we don't have that. But let's not start going down that track either.
00:05:20
Speaker 6: What we do have, and you get it in every crowd of 48,000, you do have a bunch of dickheads. And the reality is don't turn yourselves from the greatest fans this country has into ones where that's what we remember. You know, I mean, it's been, oh, sure, we're going to be debating the decisions while it's already happening in the lift on my way up here, passionately, probably for the next sort of, Eight months.
00:05:42
Speaker 3: Till next season. Yeah, till next season.
00:05:44
Speaker 6: But the reality is don't just remain who you are, which is the greatest fans we've got.
