Tonight on Close Up ` the four-star general and the mistress. What's really behind the demise of the CIA chief? The village people ` retirement homes for the gay community. We're a family and we'll look after each other. And with unemployment on the rise, why can't this man hire any staff? Due to the live nature of Close Up, captions for some items may be incomplete. ONE News captions by Richard Edmunds and Finn Scott-Kelly. Close Up captions by Angela Alice and Jessica Boell. The dole queue is now officially the longest it's been since last century ` well, since 1999 ` so the competition for jobs must be intense. Which comes as a bit of a surprise to Roy Herbert. Roy runs a pretty big fencing business and can't understand why he can't fill the vacancies he advertises. In fact, he got so frustrated, he took to the airwaves. Michael Holland picks up the story. It is a gritty business,... doing its best to get by in gritty times. We're a fencing business in Auckland. We are just out there trying to make it work. The last couple of, shall we say, character-building years showing that nothing comes easy. We could have closed our doors a year ago, because things were pretty tough. Including good staff. We want good, solid people who want to work hard and people who are looking for a future. Bottom line, you are not asking the impossible? Not at all. Why then, this? Newstalk ZB. It's 12 to 9. Roy, good morning. Gidday, how are you, Leighton? I'm all right. I struggle with the unemployment rate. In our industry, we've been advertising for probably three to four weeks now, and we regularly advertise and really struggle to even get applicants. To ring up a talkback host, frustrated or desperate? Probably a bit of both, actually. Frustrated to the point that I keep hearing there's high unemployment in NZ, and it's higher than it has been for quite a while. We've got plenty of work coming up. If someone wants to work hard and learn a new trade and get stuck in, we will employ them and give them a go. And Leighton said, 'Would you like to leave your number on air?' And I thought, 'Well, if I am going to put my mouth where my mouth is and I'm gonna ring, 'I may as well leave my number on air and see what comes of it.' And just give them a try. Like, quite often if you give someone a try, they will actually exceed your expectations. Case in point, one-time stay-at-home dad Terry Wildin. He took a pretty big punt, you know. I had to promise. Now a team leader two years after joining Roy Herbert's operation. I said, 'You won't be wasting your time if you give me the opportunity to show you what I can do,' and ever since then, we have been great; we've been good. Very solid member of our team. And he can talk to our customers, understand what they want. For us, that's the total package. You've repaid his faith?> I think I have, yeah. There's any number of diamonds in the rough out there? There is a lot of diamonds in the rough. A lot of diamonds in the rough. And if you end up polishing one of those diamonds, the satisfaction's all yours? Well, the satisfaction's the company's. It shows people if you want to apply yourself, get stuck in and work, you don't have to have the qualifications. You just have to have the ability to put your mind to it and do the job. It's up to you whether you want to take your opportunities or not. Which brings us back to the opportunities... Earn a good wage, they can call Roy on 027... ...offered up on the radio. We got about 16 or 17 responses in total. Out of those, we have made six appointments to go and meet people. And as a baseline barometer of who's out there for a job where brawn and attitude's more important than experience, the responses are revealing. We've got a guy at the top here. He's done a bit of real estate and a bit of building. He's 52 and getting a bit older. But age doesn't scare me. We had one call from a mother who was looking for a job for her son. He's 17�. She believes he's a good, solid, practical hard worker. That's a good mum showing he's from a good background that they want him to get into the workforce. I had a pretty interesting phone call from a lady. She had three people in her family looking for a job. Let's get this right. One woman ringing on behalf of three men in her family? Yeah. What does that say to you? Does it say they are a family that wants to sit at home and doesn't work, and she's trying to get the guys off their butt to get out and get a job? Or is it a family had has just hit hard times? But the most considered reply from a young man who texted his interest ` normally a cardinal sin for Roy. Don't text. Pick the phone up and ring, or go and see the person. But the content told a story, painted a picture. READS: 'Hi there, Roy. My name is ... 'I heard you on Newstalk ZB this morning looking for workers at your company. 'I'm extremely keen on taking up the opportunity if I meet your requirements. 'I apologise for not ringing. I'm currently working elsewhere and cannot ring at the moment. 'I don't have previous fencing experience, 'but I am extremely hardworking and really keen to learn. I have a CV and references available.' That says to me this guy's really looking for a job. A follow-up email also hit the mark. READS: 'But what I lack for in experience, 'I can definitely make up for in effort, commitment, enthusiasm 'and willingness to do whatever it takes to learn as quickly as possible.' That's impressive? That's very impressive. Very impressive. And that's very unusual. Here's to hoping. Roll on ` what? Friday? Roll on Friday at 8 o'clock. Interview time. Absolutely, and I will keep you informed. He might be the man you are looking for? With any luck, with any luck. Come out here and enjoy the sunshine. Good bunch of guys too. < It's not always sunny, Terry. I know that, but you can't have it all good. (LAUGHS) Gotta take the good with the bad. You've all seen the ads ` retirement villages and residential care facilities where you can make the most of the golden years with like-minded people. And the pressure is going to come on. The over-80s is the fastest-growing age group and will top half a million in less than 40 years. So where do you go if you feel what's on offer isn't you? That's what many in the gay community are wrestling with right now. Mark Crysell with the potential village people. PLAYS JAUNTY PIANO MUSIC Gay, straight, eventually it comes to us all. You think about well, how life will be, like, 10, 20 years from now, and so it's not such a pretty picture. You think about well, how life will be, like, 10, 20 years from now, and so it's not such a pretty picture. More than half a million NZers are over 65, and they're living longer. Many end up in retirement communities and rest homes, but what if you're gay? A lot of the assumptions if people think of gay and lesbian people is about youth ` young people having parties and being out on the street. They never think about us becoming older. Homosexual people want to be looked after by other homosexual people, Homosexual people want to be looked after by other homosexual people, and they want to looked after by their partners and loved ones. < ARCHIVE: Most people would think of you as perverts. Are you not ashamed of what you are? ALL: No, we're proud. Think about it this way: many of the gay people reaching retirement age came of age when it was illegal to be themselves. Back into the sewers! Back into the sewers where you come from! A lot of men did end up getting married due to society pressure and family pressure and all those sorts of things. People could be fired just because they were gay. Locked up, subject to blackmail. Going into a retirement community, many gays say, is like coming out all over again. They don't really feel they have a lot in common with heterosexuals. I think just as much as it would be for a straight person to be in a gay retirement environment having to listen to Pet Shop Boys and ... (LAUGHS) having posters on the wall of drag queens and rainbow flags. Part of it is also people make the assumption that everybody they meet are heterosexual, and they'll be asking questions like 'Where are your grandchildren? Where's your wife?' And we just don't want to have to go through all of that again. So two plans are now afoot to build their own retirement communities ` one for the boys... In a big building there's more variety and more opportunity. ...and one for the girls. You start out in one of the terraces... The ladies were first and are better organised. They've been working on a concept of a lesbian elders village for the past five years. The Topp Twins are their patrons. The village will be an island ` a lavender island somewhere. It would be a like a housing co-op, and this is a rough outline of what they'd like it to look like. They've even knocked up a version out of Lego and made a jigsaw. Not a pool but a pond ` a sauna, a more reflective zone, a communal zone where we have barbecues. We want to have orchards and gardens. The blokes have a different idea, and about 30 gay men had their first meeting about a retirement community this week. Great location, availability, big price range. Their plan is to build a community in one of central Auckland's many apartment complexes. There are some individuals who could buy a million-dollar apartment; there are some individuals that could buy a studio apartment for 200,000 or 300,000, or there are some people who have the option to rent. They want to be close to bars, restaurants, art galleries and health care. You can be social or not. You can have your privacy, but it's great to pop next door or go down a floor or two and catch up with friends or arrange to meet downstairs and go out. It'd be their own space, but they'd still be living amongst the rest of the community. We'd rent an apartment within the same building, put in a caregiver. So you guys don't mind having the girls around, do you? Absolutely not. The women want more room and solitude. They've already looked at some rural properties. We don't just want to be looked after appropriately. We want to live in a very healthy and good lifestyle. You wouldn't want any gay men in here, then? No. They can come and visit us for a barbecue, but, no, they shouldn't be living there. No agreements have been signed and money has yet to be raised, but have no doubt the gay retirement village people are confident their time has come. We're a family, if you like, and we'll look after each other. < Will you get there? Sure. (CHUCKLES) We'd like to hear your views. Go to our website or email us... And we're on Facebook too. Coming up ` four stars, two generals, one mistress ` a former spy tells us what doesn't add up about the Petraeus affair. As we say in New York City, it's all a crock. And you read 50 Shades of Grey. What's steaming up the bookshelves now? It's been a while since a political sex scandal in the US, but this one is a doozy. Anonymous emails sent to a beautiful Tampa socialite turn out to be from a woman having an affair with the country's top spy ` the CIA director and four-star general David Petraeus. And it's taken just days for him to fall and the net to widen to include another of the army's top brass. He cheated on his wife of 38 years with Paula Broadwell, former military intelligence officer. The FBI uncovered... Many of them salacious. Why General Petraeus was granting Paula Broadwell the kind of access he granted her. Dave is very very sad for what he did. FBI agents searched Paula Broadwell's home. I have no evidence that classified information was disclosed that had a negative impact on our security. First General Petraeus and now General John Allen being investigated for sending potentially inappropriate messages. Once such a public hero now forced into the shadows. Earlier today I spoke with Ray McGovern. For 27 years he was a top agent with the CIA; served under seven presidents, even used to prepare their daily intelligence briefings. So what's his take? Is it, as the media describe, the fall of a great American hero?. Well, that's what we're all being told. And that is because the media has made him into an American hero. It's a very very interesting phenomenon. The American military enjoy more respect than any other institution in our country. And when they wage a war, especially the kinds of wars that we've been involved in, then you need to have a handsome face with medals and ribbons on him to give you some sort of identification with our winning the war. The tragedy is that it's all as we say in New York City ` it's all a crock. There's no winning the war in Afghanistan, and worse still, Patraeus and also General Allen know that full well. What we've trouble understanding here is that he's ostensibly been brought down by having an affair. And this is the person who's running the world's biggest intelligence apparatus. It doesn't seem to make any sense. Well, Patraeus was more than simply the head of the CIA. He had his own power base. He was causing all kinds of problems for the more sensible people within the Obama administration who wanted to reach out and do a deal with Iran and wanted to cut back on Afghanistan in a more reasonable way. Patraeus was against all this. He was one of the neo-Conservative folks. He was plumbing for war with Iran. And, of course, he had a big position to defend on Afghanistan. And so what we have here is a situation where Patraeus ` if he's being removed, it's not because of an adulterous affair. They want him out of there. So why did Obama appoint him to that job in the first place? Well, he thought he could get him out of the way for the 2012 election. I was surprised that Patraeus took the job. I think it's very clear he has presidential ` or perhaps, past tense ` he had presidential aspirations. And if he was offered this rather prestigious position as head of the CIA, he'd take it for a couple of years and then maybe become President of Princeton for a year or two. And then come back in 2016 with a big bid to be President. And he had lots of support for that. And this derails that. This derails that definitively. On the one hand you can say, well, what fools we mortals be, and there's no fool like an old fool. But on the other hand, it's a very serendipitous` it's a very welcome opportunity for Obama to be rid of this arch neo-Conservative, so that he can plan an approach to Palestine, approach to Iran, an approach to Afghanistan that makes more sense. Do you put any store on this being a, kind of, inter-agency rivalry? The FBI have managed to bring down the boss of the CIA. I do. I think the FBI is grinning from ear to ear. But interestingly enough, if you're looking at the fruits of this very very intrusive and ` most people would agree ` illegal monitoring of our conversations on telephone, email and so forth, it turns out that what's good for the goose is good for the gander. OK? And that the first really big fish ` or now we have two fish ` caught up in this web happen to be the head of the CIA and the head of NATO forces in Afghanistan. If it weren't so sad, it'd be really really funny. What about the future of the Generals ` both Petraeus and John Allen? Do they have a future? Oh, sure. They will find cushy spots on the boards of directors of many top corporations whose interests they have intentionally or unintentionally been serving. I would think that Petraeus will raise his head at some point within the next few years, after a decent interval. We've not seen the last of him. But I think as a threat, as a presidential candidate, I think he's blown that. And why is sex such a deal-breaker in US politics? It always seems to be sex that catches them out. Well, there is this very Puritan idea here, but I'll say just one more time ` this is not about sex. Sex is the pretext. They want to get rid of him, and they, you know` they seized on this indiscretion to do that. It's not the normal, sort of, American obsession with extra-marital affairs. This is a real policy move on the part of the Obama administration. They will be free now ` or at least they'll have more leeway ` to do some sensible things without worrying about a Petraeus running the CIA, sabotaging some outreach to Iran ` as he has ` and then running for President in 2016. So it's a big deal. Just ahead ` meet the Aussie girl bowling us over, and mummy porn gets a roasting. Time for this week's Five Things You Need to Know, and it's a bit of a mixed bag. First up, another take on the Patraeus scandal. General John Allen apparently sent 20,000 potentially inappropriate emails to a Tampa socialite. Now, I'm not sure what potentially inappropriate means, but have a look at how 20,000 emails ` if they're on paper ` would stack up. More than two metres high ` hard to miss. An Aussie bowler does it to us again. Schoolgirl Jemma Barsby is slaughtering her K opposition with her ability to switch arms. She learnt the trick playing backyard cricket with her brother. The sexiest man alive in 2012 is Channing Tatum, according to People magazine. Yes, I missed out again. Well, he did play a stripper in a movie this year. At 63, Richard Gere is the oldest to make the top 10. Number four is the Oxford English Dictionary's top term of the year, and it's 'omnishambles'. Definition? A monumental cock-up. First used by a foul-mouthed spin doctor on the BBC political comedy 'The Thick Of It'. ...bent husband and a <BLEEP>ing daughter that gets taken to school in a <BLEEP>ing sedan chair. You're all so <BLEEP>ing mental. Jesus Christ, see you? You are a <BLEEP>ing omnishambles, that's what you are. You're like that coffee machine. You know, from bean to cup, you <BLEEP> up. Omnishambles beat out 'mummy porn' for top term, but don't worry ` '50 Shades Of Grey' lives on, and it's now spawned a spin-off cook book '50 Shades of Chicken'. DEEP`VOICED MAN: I want you to clasp the back of your head. Oh, well, the back of your neck will do. 30 inches should be enough twine to bind you up. Earlier this week we introduced you to Ian Stevenson, the sheep breeder with enough ribbons to cover a woolshed. He was off to the 150th running of the Canterbury A & P Show. Well, Ian has done it again. The very ram that he was primping and preening in front of our cameras took out three awards including, Reserve Grand Champion Merino Ram. Tomorrow's a public holiday in Christchurch and the royals are in town, so it's sure to be a big day at the show. Feedback now. And firstly on the job front, Bas says... Stephanie writes... On the rest homes for the gay and lesbian community, we've had a few emails, but Jim's sums up a lot of feeling. He writes... And Anthony writes... Before we go, I've had a lot of messages and mail from you saying how sorry you are to see Close Up come to an end. And it's lovely to hear from you. But this one arrived today. I hope it sets a trend. Along with a lovely note, a nice, crisp $100 bill, and no name or return address simply 'farm wife'. A lovely gesture, but I can't accept it. Can I? No, I can't, so the Salvation Army Christmas Appeal will be 100 bucks better off. I'll see you tomorrow. That's NZ Close Up. Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright TVNZ Access Services 2012