Rice Speir Radio

Kia ora everyone and welcome to episode 16 of Rice Speir Radio, coming to you live from day 1 of Level 3 here in Tamaki Makaurau. For anyone new to the show, we are a Podcast that focuses on all things local government. I’m your host, Nathan Speir, and I am Managing Partner of Rice Speir, a dedicated local government law firm helping councils make enduring decisions all over Aotearoa.  In this episode we decided to do something a little different and introduce you to some of our people. We are going to make this a bit of a series in which our incredibly talented Fiona Bird sits down with a member of the team to talk through how they got into local government law and what they’re into outside of work. It is an opportunity for you to peek behind the curtain and find out a little more about the lawyer you’re working with on a day to day basis.  Don’t forget to like and subscribe to the podcast, it really does help us get the word out. And a final big thank you to our sponsor Maynard Marks. You can find out more at www.maynardmarks.co.nz  We hope you enjoy. 

Kia ora everyone and welcome to episode 15 of Rice Speir Radio. For anyone new to the show, we are a Podcast that focuses on all things local government. I’m your host, Nathan Speir, and I am Managing Partner of Rice Speir, a dedicated local government law firm helping councils make enduring decisions all over New Zealand. In this episode we finish Helen Rice’s interview with Head of Building Consenting and other specialties at Christchurch City Council, Robert Wright. If you haven’t listened to part 1 of the interview, go back and find last month’s episode. It will make a lot more sense!Don’t forget to like and subscribe to the podcast, it really does help us get the word out. And a final big thank you to our sponsor Maynard Marks. You can find out more at www.maynardmarks.co.nz Without further ado, here’s part 2 of Helen and Buster’s conversation, direct from Christchurch.

Kia ora everyone and welcome to episode 14 of Rice Speir Radio. For anyone new to the show, we are a Podcast that focuses on all things local government. I’m your host, Nathan Speir, and I am Managing Partner of Rice Speir, a dedicated local government law firm helping councils make enduring decisions all over New Zealand. Apologies for missing last month’s episode, we had our hands full at Rice Speir, moving into our new premises at Level 14, 23 Customs Street in Tamaki Makaurau’s CBD. It has been 6 years since we moved but Fiona Bird and her team did an incredible job and we thoroughly enjoyed a quiet beer last Friday overlooking Auckland Harbour. If we let you down last month, we are certainly making up for it here. The pride of Hokitika, Robert Wright (or Buster as we all know him) is quick witted and as funny as ever during his wide ranging interview with our very own Helen Rice. From tales of driving tractors on the beach using mum’s nylons to the Hokitika frying pan tennis open, there are so many stories here that we’ve had to split the interview into two parts. Don’t forget to like and subscribe to the podcast, it really does help us get the word out. And a final big thank you to our sponsor Maynard Marks. You can find out more at www.maynardmarks.co.nz Without further ado, here’s part 1 of Helen and Buster’s conversation, direct from Christchurch and don’t forget to tune in on the 20th of next month to hear Buster bring it home. 

Kia ora everyone and welcome to episode 13 of Rice Speir Radio. For anyone new to the show, we are a Podcast that focuses on all things local government. I’m your host, Nathan Speir, and I am Managing Partner of Rice Speir, a dedicated local government law firm helping councils solve problems all over New Zealand. Insurance in the local government world is something we get plenty of questions about. Who is our insurer? What are we covered for? What can we say and what can’t we? It can sometimes be a bit of a mysterious topic but really doesn’t have to be. So, in this episode we decided to try and lift a bit of the mystery around insurance and Helen Rice sat down with Paul Carpenter, who has been an insurance broker for the last 25 years, originally with JLT and after the huge merger in 2019 (a $5.6b acquisition), now with Marsh. In Paul’s career he has seen 13,000 claims notified by local government clients! Of those 70% come from councils carrying out their Building Control Function. Don’t forget to like and subscribe to the podcast, it really does help us get the word out. And a final big thank you to our sponsor Maynard Marks. Without further ado, here’s Helen and Paul direct from Wellington.  

Kia ora everyone and welcome to episode 12 of Rice Speir Radio. For anyone new to the show, we are a Podcast that focuses on all things local government. I’m your host, Nathan Speir, and I am Managing Partner of Rice Speir, a dedicated local government law firm helping councils solve problems all over New Zealand. It's been a big month at Rice Speir, I am very excited to announce that from May Rice Speir will have a physical presence in Hawke’s Bay – an area that we love and do a lot of our work in. We have signed on to a shared space called the Hive and our plan is to have a Rice Speir lawyer in Hawke’s Bay every Wednesday, making us even more accessible to Central Hawke’s Bay, Hastings District, and Napier City Councils. This is the start of something special for Rice Speir in that beautiful part of New Zealand. We have also decided to move on from the offices that we’ve held in Auckland for the past 6 years and have signed on for a new adventure at the Citibank Building in Customs Street from 1 July. On top of all that exciting news, we held an incredible training workshop for the Mainland Cluster of Councils in April – covering a range of hot topics in the building space, from Tiny Homes and Natural Hazards, to notices to fix, swimming pool barriers and preparing a prosecution file. It was all topped off with a hilarious mock trial, where Robert Wright (or should I say Justice Buster) delivered an Oscar-winning performance as Judge of the proceeding. A huge thanks goes out to all those who attended the workshop, we had more than 60 attend from all over the South Island and Selwyn District Council in particular did a stellar job hosting. Thanks also to our team – Fiona, Simon, Laura and Amy for pulling the workshop together. So, in this episode, Helen Rice sits down with Geoff Sharp, a mediator that will be familiar to many of our listeners for a fascinating discussion about mediating in a covid world and plenty off the ball stuff too. Don’t forget to like and subscribe to the podcast, it really does help us get the word out. And a final big thank you to our sponsor Maynard Marks. Without further ado, here’s Helen and Geoff! 

Kia ora and welcome to episode 11 of Rice Speir Radio, proudly brought to you by Maynard Marks Property & Building Consultants. You can learn more at maynardmarks.co.nz. In this episode Helen speaks with Karen Thomas, Chief Executive of Taituarā (formerly SOLGM). Taituarā is the national membership organisation of local government professionals. Its purpose is to promote and support professional management in local government. Its focus is on providing leadership, promoting innovation and excellence in management practice and developing local government capability to enhance service delivery to local communities throughout New Zealand. I particularly enjoyed to conversation about being a leader with scars. Don’t forget to subscribe and share. We are committed to a regular monthly release from this point forward on the 20th of each month. Until then, have a wonderful Easter. 

Kia ora and welcome to episode 10 of Staying Local, proudly brought to you by Maynard Marks Property & Building Consultants. You can learn more at maynardmarks.co.nz. In this episode brought to you from level 3 lockdown in Auckland, Helen speaks with a Nick Hill, Chief Executive of Building Officials Institute of New Zealand. BOINZ is an organisation that Rice Speir has been associated with for many years. Helen and Nick’s conversation is wide ranging, they discuss what keeps Nick awake at night right through to diversification and the future of BOINZ His music picks are certainly worth a listen too!Don’t forget to subscribe and share. We are committed to a regular monthly release from this point forward on the 20th of each month.Until then, stay safe and local. 

Kia ora and welcome to episode 10 of Staying Local, proudly brought to you by Maynard Marks Property & Building Consultants. You can learn more at maynardmarks.co.nz. In this episode Helen speaks with a truly inspiring woman, Monique Davidson of Central Hawke’s Bay about balancing her leadership role as Chief Executive, with motherhood, learning te reo maori as well as sign language and so much more. This is an episode not to be missed! Don’t forget to subscribe and share. We are committed to a regular monthly release from this point forward on the 20th of each month.Until then, stay local and enjoy this beautiful weather. 

Welcome to episode 8 of Staying Local, proudly brought to you by Maynard Marks Property & Building Consultants. You can learn more at maynardmarks.co.nz. In this episode Helen spoke with Privacy Commissioner, John Edwards, about his role and some of the amazing work he and his team are doing in the area of privacy in this country. Don’t forget to subscribe and share. We are committed to a regular monthly release from this point forward on the 20th of each month.Until then, stay local and have an amazing summer break!

Welcome to episode 7 of Staying Local, proudly brought to you by Maynard Marks Property & Building Consultants. You can learn more at maynardmarks.co.nz. In this episode Helen spoke with Leonie Rae, who wears many hats at Christchurch City Council. The conversation was wide-ranging from leadership to who you would invite to dinner. This is a good one and we hope you enjoy.  Don’t forget to subscribe and share. We are committed to a regular monthly release from this point forward on the 20th of each month.Until then, stay local.  

Welcome to episode 6 of Staying Local. This week on the show Nathan spoke with Barbara Mead, inhouse lawyer at Marlborough District Council about the RMA, modular building and a lot about viticulture. Barbara has a fascinating story and one of the most varied careers in local government. We hope you enjoy.Don’t forget to subscribe and we are trying something new this week. If anyone has a burning legal question that you want one of our team to answer, record it into the voice memo app on your phone and email it through to nathan@ricespeir.co.nz. We will try and get those questions answered and share it with the audience on the next episode.Until then, enjoy level 1 freedom! 

It is amazing to think that we’re already up to episode 5, make sure to subscribe and go back to listen to the previous interviews with some amazing council people.Hopefully you are all enjoying a bit of a return to reality now that we are out of lockdown. I for one thoroughly enjoyed grabbing a sitdown coffee with the family over the weekend. The Rice Speir team is back in the office on Monday 18 May so those of you in Auckland, we are looking forward to seeing you around the traps. For those further afield, we have already got some travel plans in the diary as Courts start to wind up again. Our council clients have been inundated with work since we moved to level 2 so it’s great to see everyone busy, just make sure you continue to look after each other out there.This week on the show Helen Rice had the pleasure of speaking with Dani Gardiner, the departing general counsel at Auckland Council. Dani is about to become a Judge of the High Court and all of us at Rice Speir wish her the best in this exciting new career chapter. Remember, if you want to be added to our newsletter list send us an email – nathan@ricespeir.co.nz. Otherwise, sit back and enjoy the show.  

Welcome to episode 4 of Staying Local. This week on the show Nathan had the pleasure of interviewing Jeff Fahrensohn, the Manager of Inspections at Auckland Council, about all things relating to modular buildings. Many of you will know Jeff already, he and his team carried out a staggering 185,000 building inspections last year, on top of 16,000 CCCs, 17,000 BWoFs and 16,000 pool fence inspections.Jeff played a pivotal role in creating Auckland Council’s guidance document on Modern Methods of Construction. It was great to get to know Jeff a little better outside of work too, did you know that he played professional rugby for Germany prior to the 2003 World Cup?We hope you enjoy the episode and be sure to subscribe and like to hear more. Remember, if you want to be added to Rice Speir’s newsletter list, all you have to do is send an email to nathan@ricespeir.co.nz.

Hello everyone and welcome to episode 3 of Rice Speir’s Podcast, Staying Local. This week on the show we have something a little different for you. Instead of an interview with an interesting council person, we have an audio recording of a webinar I hosted on Thursday 16 April 2020 on the ‘hot topic’ of Modular Buildings and Modern Methods of Construction. I know this is an area that many of you are interested in because I get calls and emails about it all the time. Towards the end of the webinar some of the attendees shared their own perspectives and I think you will take a lot from it. There is a Powerpoint presentation that formed part of the webinar and if anyone wants a copy of that, please send me an email: nathan@ricespeir.co.nz In the meantime, grab a cup of coffee and I hope you enjoy.

In episode 2 of Staying Local Nathan Speir had the pleasure of speaking with the former building manager at Tauranga City Council, Shay Harrop. Last year Shay picked up his family and moved to South Korea for a change of scene. On top of a lot of travel and juggling home responsibilities, Shay is also running a business that offers a service to New Zealand BCAs. Nathan had a lot of fun chatting with Shay about the building industry and its challenges, his hands on experience with Modern Methods of Construction and a little bit of mountain bike chat thrown in for good measure. We hope you enjoy.

In this first episode of Staying Local Nathan Speir speaks to Tasman District Council’s Building Assurance Manager, Ian McCauley. Ian’s an all-round good guy with strong opinions on a number of subjects from natural hazards to CCC timeframes. On top of all that, he wants to buy a Triumph motorcycle and ride across Australia – there’s only one problem, he hasn’t told his wife yet. We hope you enjoy and don’t forget to like and share.