1 Excuse me, how would you feel if I said, "Can I search your bag?" (WOMAN LAUGHS) You do not want to look in my handbag at all. I beg your pardon. Is this an invasion of privacy? MAN: Thank you very much. More and more shops are introducing random bag searches. I felt really offended that they wanted to look in my handbag. But is it legal? Is it OK? What do you think they're essentially saying when they say, "Can we have a look in there?" We don't trust our customers. They think I'm a thief. And ` Traffic is absolutely horrendous. The motorways are jammed, and there's chaos at the Park and Ride. Literally, it's like this every morning. A Park and Ride without parks ` brilliant (!) Who planned this? Plus ` They'd like us to reduce it, basically, to a mutilated stump. What is to become of the tree that blotted the landscape? (CHAINSAW REVS) WOMAN: I know I've got a good case, and that's why it's going to court. We've never believed that they had any right to demand that we trim or chop the tree. Will it live or die? Things have totally changed, haven't they? Welcome to the show, and we start tonight with shoplifting. Yes, it is a huge problem that retailers say is costing almost ` get this ` $2 million every day. Every day. In the fight back, more and more shops are introducing random bag searches. But is it OK? And what are your rights? Here's Garth. (JASON DERULO'S 'SWALLA') GARTH BRAY: We Kiwis are easy-going people. Happy shoppers, but we have our limits. Excuse me, how would you feel if I said, "Can I search your bag?" (WOMAN LAUGHS) You do not wanna look in my handbag, at all. Beg your pardon? (BOTH LAUGH) Could I have a look in your handbag? (BOTH LAUGH) I'm taking that as a no. Not today. (ALL LAUGH) What about if you're shopping? Um... If somebody asks, I think, you know, they have the right. We're testing people's boundaries. Nah. No, no, no, sorry. Not mine. And we're not the only ones. So, I kinda, just, sorta, open it, and I said, "Are` Are you for real?" Tracy had her handbag searched at Bunnings, and Tracy is not happy about it. It didn't feel reasonable to me at the time, because I am a good customer. I've spent a lot of money in their shop, and I felt really offended that they wanted to look in my handbag. What you'd mostly find in that bag are receipts from Bunnings. I've been, um, renovating the inside of my house and, um, building a cabin. And I got these awesome Waitaha flagstones there for my, um` for my pathway. Tracy is a keen gardener too. Spends plenty with her local store in Whakatane. Yeah, I would estimate possibly four` between $4000 and $5000 in the last 12 months. So you're a pretty big Bunnings customer, then? Yup, regular customer. She speaks highly of them too. I love the staff out there. They're always helpful. They're friendly. They've got` They've really researched on their products, so I can kinda trust what they're saying when I` when I purchase something. Yup. But being a good Bunnings customer seemed to count for little when she got to the till. I had an incident where I went out to Bunnings, uh, to purchase some weedmat pegs. And I did what I usually do ` went to the counter. I paid for it, and the counter lady asked me if she could check my handbag. And I was kinda taken back, cos I thought, oh, gee, even the police kinda need a reason to search your personal property. Tracy felt for the staff who told her it was a new policy. Just to be asked by the` the poor checkout lady, you know. I could see she was uncomfortable, which made me uncomfortable, and, yeah. It was a horrible situation. One that lingers now, even back at home in the garden. What do you think they're essentially saying when they say, "Can we have a look in there?" We don't trust our customers. That they think I'm a thief. So, what are the rules, and how does Bunnings apply them? The boss of the local arm of this Australian company gave us a statement ` But do they search everyone? Or do they pick and choose? And how? And what if you're not keen? And isn't this all a bit much anyway? And is it working for Bunnings? We'd love to tell you, but Bunnings decided it didn't want to discuss this with us any further or appear on camera. Now, Bunnings is a member of Retail New Zealand, so we told Greg, there, about Tracy's experience. But he is speaking to us on behalf of the whole industry. In the case where, um, a store has signposted its premises with a condition of entry that the` that bags may be searched on the way out, um, it's` it's clearly marked. Customers are entering the premises on the understanding of that condition, um, and` and it's quite` quite a reasonable proposition. But is it fair to treat random customers like criminals to stop the thieves? Because surely you don't ask to search someone's property unless they think you've stolen something, and, yeah, I hadn't stolen anything. (RELAXED ROCK MUSIC PLAYS) With Bunnings saying 'no, thanks' to us, we went shopping for a retailer that's very happy to show us how they do it and why. Real Groovy has plenty of customers walking in the door ready to spend. With that comes some risk ` the stock may walk out with a shoplifter. Getting the balance right is crucial. What's the secret to a good bag search, you reckon? I think how you approach it. You have to give out a good energy. And make sure they're happy with the search, and you don't make them too uncomfortable. How do you do that? Well, you approach them nicely and formally, and if they feel a bit uncomfortable, just explain the process and why we're doing it. Hi, guys. We just have a quick bag inspection, guys. Thank you very much. You have a nice day. The store also runs a bag drop, so customers can avoid the whole problem. Plenty use it. And if there's any refusal... So, if it's a random bag inspection and someone says no, that's fine. But if it's not a random bag inspection, and I see they have stolen something, I will call the police, and I will follow the shoplifter to where they are going. Sounds fair enough. So, what do the customers make of it? Um, I guess it depends how they present themselves while doing it, sorta thing. Yeah, no problem. I have nothing to hide. I dunno, I feel like that's an invasion of privacy. If I` I think it's illegal too. Surely not, but what is the law? Well, a shop is a private place. The owner can make rules and put up signs reserving the right to ask to search you. Police say ` But the Community Law Manual is pretty blunt. Bottom line ` you can always say 'no, thanks' if someone wants to search your bag in a shop. There's a real balance, clearly, for the retailer to strike here. Um, most customers are not criminals. I think it's really important to say that. Um, but there's` there's a significant, um, value of goods that is stolen each year, and retailers, um, do what they can to, um` to make sure that they can prevent that wherever possible. But it can seem unreasonable, like it did to Tracy that day in Bunnings. Kinda, like, put on the spot too. And then, I would imagine, most people will open their bag because they wanna` don't want to be looked at as thieves, yeah. Which is not a nice way to feel at all, even if, reluctantly, you're helping them to fight crime at what was your favourite store. It was a point not lost on Bunnings' boss. Bunnings won't say if they're catching more criminals with the policy, but it may be costing the chain some business. I feel really uncomfortable. For one thing, I like to shop with my handbag, cos it's got my phone and things in it. So if` Yeah. I might have to start looking at Mitre 10. Ooh, see, it's a risky choice if you're losing customers, isn't it? It's a tricky situation for the retailer and the consumer. Now, the only power for retailers to detain a suspected thief is if they believe they've stolen $1000 worth of stock, or if the offence is committed between the hours of 9pm and 6am. Your old standard cat burglar. Which seems slightly random, doesn't it? Just to be clear, of course, we don't condone shoplifting, but subjecting loyal customers to random bag searches? It just seems more than a little extreme. Now, coming up after the break ` motoring mayhem and chaos on the kerbside. It's just another day in Auckland traffic. (CAR HORNS BEEP) The commuter fight-back has begun. Traffic is absolutely horrendous. But it's not the traffic, rather the Park and Ride bus service that's got these commuters fired up. Literally, there is nowhere to park. Give us some car parks, please. (LAUGHS) Who planned this? And ` They'd like us to reduce it, basically, to a mutilated stump. Is there any hope of keeping this tree alive? Oh, things have totally changed, haven't they? GIRL: One day, my mum went looking for something. She didn't have a map or anything. She said she was following her heart. It led her to strange lands. It took her up mountains and down into dark caves. She even looked for it in her sleep. She went further and further. Then one day, my mum, she found it. If she can find it, so can you. Welcome back. New Zealanders are a generous bunch. We love to give to charity, and international reports have rated us as the second-most generous country in the world ` right behind America. Yay, us. But does our generosity extend to tipping? (SIX60's 'ONLY TO BE') We're at the Avondale markets, and the Creepometer's back. There's no shortage of good service here, but should we be expected to pay for it? And is it good manners to ask? That's what we want to know today. You get an automatic request for a tip when you're paying a bill on an EFTPOS machine. Is that cool or creepy? It's creepy. A little bit creepy. A little. Not in our nature. It's not` not what we do here. It's cool. That's cool, yeah. Uh,... we don't have a culture of that in New Zealand. I don't mind giving a tip every now and then, but I don't want it forced on me. It's OK to come up, I would say. It's standard in America. The fact that we don't do it here is an issue. Well, that's a bit creepy, I think. (CHUCKLES) Well, I've bought an expensive meal, haven't I? So why would I wanna`? Yeah. It's not kinda how` Take` Take it out of my, um, bill. I don't know if I necessarily like being asked for it, but I am happy to tip for good service. So I'm gonna say 'OK' for this one. Hospitality New Zealand says ` Can I just say on behalf of the nation ` no, no, no, no, no tipping. What are you talking about? Oh, I` I've been in trouble for my stance on tipping on this programme before, but I` I think it's OK to tip for good service. I think it's a good thing to tip for good service. Oh, the EFTPOS, I can't stand that. No, no, no. (LAUGHS) I'm ringing talkback, right now. OK, we're moving on. The English language can be very confusing. Oh yes. For instance, 'fat chance' and 'slim chance' ` well, they're the same thing. There's no apple, nor pine, in pineapple; no ham in hamburger and no egg in eggplant. Need I go on? No, well, like I said, the English language is confusing ` something Auckland Transport seems to have embraced. Yes, our bureaucratic geniuses have excelled by taking the 'park' out of Park and Ride. Here's Hannah. (BRUNO MARS' '24K MAGIC') Now, you seem like a person who really knows where they're going, Tahlia. Yeah, I guess you could say that. I was at uni for six months, and then I decided to go to full-time employment, and I just absolutely love my job. And you love your car? It's my baby. (CHUCKLES) My first car I purchased. Love living in Auckland, do you? There's always so many things to do. There's gotta be some drawbacks, though. I would say the traffic is absolutely horrendous. Auckland's traffic ` yeah, we know you're sick of hearing about it. Try living with it. Like, I don't know how people drive every day into the city. Catching the bus is, like, 10 to 15 minutes; um, where I know a lot of people that drive to work, and they've told me it's an hour to two hours on the Shore. Tahlia doesn't actually drive to work. She drives a short distance to a bus terminal where the sign says 'Park and Ride', but the parking is diabolical. So, it's like this every morning? Yeah, it literally is like this every morning. Before even 8 o'clock in the morning, it's like this. And what you've got here is people parking illegally. Yeah. Dotted yellow line on both sides. Yeah, basically. Every single day. It's kerbside chaos. The parking's hopeless. So, you park on the verge all the time? Yeah, on the grass on this side, or along there as well. I know it's not legal, but there's not much we can do about it at the moment. Uh, it's` It's obviously a problem, because there's so many people that catch the bus here. I would love to meet the person that, you know, created this Park and Ride without any parks. (CHUCKLES) You'd love` The planner. Yeah, the planner. Who planned this? I would suggest that there is a lot of planning going on around public transport and transport in Auckland. Of course he would say that. Mark heads the team that designs the Northern bus network. The planning was there; otherwise, the busway and the stations wouldn't have been built. That planning includes the Akoranga bus station on Auckland's North Shore which busses commuters into the city, leaving their cars behind. It's not working for people like Tahlia. The only parks that are legal here are these ones ` which are all short-term, right? Yeah, they are. They're only four-hour parks. So you've got 240 minutes, and you've got parking for 15,... Yeah. ...and then the disabled parks. Yeah, and that's all that there is here at the Park and Ride. And there's only about 18 of these short-term parks. The actual commuters, like Tahlia, are parking on either side of the access road and on the median strip ` illegally. You know, we're all trying. Do our bit by catching public transport, but there's no` literally, there's nowhere to park. Why take the bus instead of driving the car to work? Everyone knows that, you know, driving into work and stuff every day isn't good for the environment. And then there's ` The price of petrol. And, also, there's ` The price of parking is, like, $24 for the day. Um, where I can't afford $24 every day. She also couldn't afford what she found on her windscreen about a month ago ` a $40 ticket because she was 'parked on a flush median or traffic island'. I was like, this is ridiculous. People should not be getting fined for trying to catch public transport. This isn't fair. Auckland Transport says the ticket shouldn't have been issued. That was a mistake. That was an honest mistake by our parking team. And that's council land, the median strip. So if you do park there, you cannot be ticketed. But at the end of the day, what we'd really enforce is that we can't have everybody parking wherever they like. And while Tahlia's parking ticket has been withdrawn, it's not just her being ticketed. I have seen people being ticketed. I think every day, "Am I gonna have a ticket today?" They need to come up with somewhere else for us to park if they're gonna ticket us. If they are clear of the road, and not with wheels over the yellow lines or on the road, will they be safe from being ticketed? They will, but if that continues, we will have to do something around that in terms of enforcement. If it becomes a problem, and it becomes a potential safety problem or a` a broader nuisance, we may have to look at that. That's tough, because commuters don't have much choice. At the next closest bus station, Smales Farm, there's no commuter parking. In fact, of the six stops on Auckland Transport's Northern bus route, only three are proper Park and Ride stops. The closest Park and Ride to Tahlia is Constellation, but she'd be traveling in the wrong direction. That's going north, so that's going, like, further away from where I'm trying to head to. And it's packed by like 6, 6.30 in the morning. 7 o'clock in the morning, it's packed. The problem with Tahlia's Akoranga Station is that ` despite this sign ` it wasn't designed as a Park and Ride. Auckland Transport says that being so close to Auckland City land was simply too expensive to build a big car park here, and it doesn't want lots of extra cars driving here. When you get nearer to the city centre, you don't want people, hundreds of people, driving to the local Park and Ride. You actually want to get them onto bus services as well. Otherwise, those local roads will be congestion. Instead of taking her car, Auckland Transport suggests Tahlia should take a local bus to the bus station. She, like so many people, doesn't want to catch a bus to catch a bus. It's not convenient. So what we're asking is, why aren't you making it more convenient for people to use public transport? The answer is not to provide a private parking space for everybody who wants to go and park at the nearest bus stop or the nearest busway station. No city in the world does that. They also suggest she try this Wilson car park. It's just a dollar a day, but it's quite a bit further, in rush hour. And ` We went there a couple of days ago. Eight cars parked there. Yeah, so there's space. 9.30 in the morning. Yeah. Well, that's one way of looking at it. I'm saying, nobody's parking there. Nobody's using it,... So, we will` We will` ...which would suggest to me that it's not working for them. At end of the day, we cannot provide a Park and Ride for everybody at every single, um, station, or busway station or train station, across the region. Not what commuters like Tahlia want to hear. I'd say get onto it, and build a car park for us. The area where the commuters are currently parking borders on Barry's Point Reserve. It's council land. Why not create a narrow strip of angled parking ` something like this ` along the access road? It's so simple. Put some gravel down, and there's, you know` People can park there. Problem solved. Yeah. We're not, Mark, talking about a huge area. We're talking about a strip of land,... Sure. ...say, for some parallel parking for 50, 100 cars. It just seems doable. We are trying to get as many people as possible onto public transport, make it as convenient as possible, but there has to be a trade-off. Maybe there's something we should be looking at. Well we think ` for what it's worth ` Tahlia's idea for a modest little car park will get more people on public transport. Do you mind if I take a moment to offer a non-Aucklander's perspective on this story? Yes, please. Please do. Hilarious. Oh. (CHUCKLES) What are you guys doing? It's a Park and Ride, but you can only park there for four hours. Frustrating. That is an Aucklander's response. Frustrating. Auckland Transport told us that a car park would cost $10,000-plus, and that is per car park! Yowza. It seemed a little massive, because we're talking about a strip of angle parking on land that already belongs to Auckland Council ` which Auckland Transport is a part of. It's all the same family. (CHUCKLES) Not hilarious; frustrating. It's still hilarious. After the break ` neighbours at war. What is to become of New Zealand's most controversial cedar? (BIRDSONG) To its owners, it was a thing of beauty. We've never believed that they had any right to demand that we trim or chop the tree. But to a neighbour, it was an ugly eyesore that wiped hundreds of thousands off the value of their home. They'd like us to reduce it, basically, to a mutilated stump. So, will the cedar live or die? Welcome back. Trees give us oxygen, shelter and, sometimes, good cause to hate our neighbours. Yes. In the leafy suburb of Auckland's Kohimarama stands a cedar that has caused quite a stir. It's divided neighbours and united tree lovers around New Zealand. Here's Matt with an update and unexpected twist to last week's tree story. (RELAXED MUSIC) MATT CHISHOLM: To Fraser and Emily Elder, this was a beautiful tree that offered privacy and an abundance of birdlife. (TENSE MUSIC) (CHAINSAW REVS) But the majestic cedar was facing certain death. The story outraged viewers; and, thanks to your feedback, the tree's been given a little more time. So, how did we get here? One of the Elders' neighbours, who lives two houses away, wanted the tree gone. Are you happy to` to do a face-to-face interview with us on camera? WOMAN: No, definitely not. The neighbours claimed it ruined their uninterrupted sea views and potentially wiped hundreds of thousands of dollars off their property. I know I've got a good case, and that's why it's` it's going to court. They'd like us to reduce it, basically, to a mutilated stump or remove it completely. We've never believed that they had any right to demand that we trim or chop the tree. At loggerheads, the complaining neighbours ` a former legal executive and lawyer ` were taking the Elders to court. The cost to defend the tree ` $10,000 to $15,000. I think it's little more than schoolyard bullying. (CHAINSAW REVS) Backed into a corner, the Elders booked the arborist. (CHAINSAW BUZZES) The tree's imminent fatality firing many of you up. When I started looking at those Facebook messages, just absolute awesome. Um, just, uh, an outpouring of support. Incredible. What did those words mean to you? Well, they changed our mind. Um, we` we realised that, actually, there was a lot of support out there for this. I have cancelled the felling of the tree, and we are` we are planning to go to court. So, the cedar isn't coming down without a fight. Off the back of our story, two Givealittle pages were created to financially assist the Elders. But, more importantly, I reckon, is the support of this woman. I'd like to introduce you to barrister Sheila McCabe, who's keen to take your case on, free of charge. Sheila, it's amazing to meet you. Hello, Fraser. Pleased to meet you. I cannot believe this. This is absolutely fantastic. My pleasure. (SIGHS) I'm` I'm stumped. (CHUCKLES) I'm stumped for words. Well, as far as I'm concerned, it just seemed all wrong. The lawyer keen to put it right and give the Elders, and their tree, their day in court. Oh, things have totally changed, haven't they? Everything's just tossed up in the air and been reversed, hasn't it? Are you guys gonna win this court case? Bring it on. (LAUGHS) Definitely. (LAUGHS) The courts will ultimately decide if it'll be a happy ending for this tree, but, right now, the possibility has the Elders smiling again. It certainly looked as though, to me, you were a bit teary there? Um, a little bit, maybe. (LAUGHS) You don't have to use that bit, but it wouldn't hurt. (BOTH CHUCKLE) Trust me, I'm a journalist. (LAUGHS) Now, you run the Fair Go Facebook page after the show, and your fingers were tired last week. Oh, massive response to the tree. As Matt said, it will, of course, be up to the courts now to decide the tree's fate. But I think a lot of people will be really pleased that it gets to go through that process. Yes, and that process often doesn't move too quick, but we will update you when the battle has been won or lost. Yes. So, that's the show tonight, but we will be on Facebook for the next half hour to answer your questions. Our programme is all about your problems, your thoughts, your concerns; please do contact us. Mm-hm. No problem is too small, we always say. We do love to hear from you. You can join us on Facebook. Email us ` Write to us ` That's our show. Until next week... Goodnight. (SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY) Copyright Able 2017