Full Show Podcast: 04 March 2025

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Digging through the spin spence to find the real story story.
It's Ryan Bridge on Heather duperic Ellen Drive with one
New Zealand let's get connected and news talks.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
That'd be good.

Speaker 3 (00:14):
Afternoon seven after four Trumps social media post that's got
our agricultural exporters quite worried. This afternoon, the US has
canceled military aid to Ukraine. Will speak to a soldier
who's actually fought on the front line there. Traffic costing
Auckland is two billion dollars a year. And David Seymour
on his missed meeting with Erica Stanford all ahead, Bryan Bridge.

(00:34):
It's become clear anyone watching with even casual interest the
coverage of the free school lunch program over the past
few months that it's time to defund it. As we
have pointed out on this program many times this year,
there are some legitimate issues with delivery times and in
some cases meals not turning up at all. And those issues,

(00:55):
including ones I saw just in the last couple of
hours about plastic being melted onto food, those issues, we're
told are being dealt with, and so they should. But
the biggest debarkle over the last few months is the
quality of the food. We've had complaints about butter chicken
being served multiple days in a row, pitipit being served
multiple days in a row, some parents sounding off on

(01:17):
social media about the taste not being to Little Johnny's liking.
All of this proves one thing. These kids clearly aren't
really starving. This program was set up under the previous
government on the basis that some kids were so starving,
so hungry, that they couldn't learn. The argument was their

(01:38):
academic success hinged on a full belly, so let's feed them.
Jasinda A Dune's press release from twenty nineteen announcing the
trial said quote, you simply can't learn on an empty stomach.
Now does a childhood turns their nose up at butter
checken or pitipits sound really hungry to you? If you hungry,

(02:00):
don't you eat free food. The reason adults is especially
those of an older generation who grew up on meat
and three vegs with no source, get so riled up
about this is the waste. Back in the day, you
didn't throw food away, waste, not want not. So if
the food is being wasted and not eaten, the answer

(02:20):
must be to simply stop providing it universally to all students.
There must, of course be an option for kids who
need to be fed to get a free lunch. I
think we can all agree on that no one wants
to see a kid go hungry, but universally funding all
students within targeted schools is clearly not working. Remember this

(02:42):
money originally came half a billion dollars from the COVID
Relief Fund. The government still has this program on time
limited funding, and Nikola Willis told me on the show
last night that a decision will be made at the
end of this funding about its future. That future should
include cutting the program back to basics, so only kids

(03:06):
who actually need a free lunch are given one bread
Rich time is ten up to four nine two is
the number to text. Three hundred million dollars. That's how
much the government's set aside for the cook straight fairy
break fee. Yonda will get the money if we exit
the contract. They will get the money, regardless of weather

(03:27):
they win the bid to build the new ships. Carl
Finlay is the Maritime Union National secretary. He's with me. Now, Hi, Carl,
there youre doing SEEZ that's a lot of money.

Speaker 4 (03:37):
That's a lot of money, mate, and it's terrible.

Speaker 3 (03:40):
What if they can do it? I mean, Winston's been
over there in Korea, hope hopefully doing us some sort
of good deal. But what if they can get that down,
What if we can get the overall cost much lower
than the projected four billion?

Speaker 4 (03:54):
Well, I'd say they're definitely be the goal and have
these world class bulders, not the original plan or similar
to the original panel, or be ideal.

Speaker 3 (04:04):
Do you think that if we because the ideally we
would use the two slots we had available for these
ships that were being built, we would use those two
slots to have you know, new ships built a little
bit smaller, a little bit cheaper. Would that work? Do
you think?

Speaker 5 (04:21):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (04:21):
They definitely have to be rather noble and that would work.
I'm not sure those slots are still open. I guess
Winston's going to hopefully leave some magic that it is terrible.
I mean, the Union has been saying for a while
that that this cost is going to blow right out
and it's coming to fruition, isn't it.

Speaker 3 (04:42):
What are some of the costs that we're not hearing about.
You know, we're hearing about the three hundred million dollar
break feed. But some of the costs that we're not
hearing about from actually canceling that deal.

Speaker 4 (04:52):
Well we have heard about them. I mean it was
a reporter a while ago, and we've been saying for
a while as Christopher billion dollars that has been soaked
up on this miss that Nichola Willison's mate. I mean
that that would have, you know, obviously paid for a
lot of the need hospital and a lot of inter
treatments if she hadn't made that silly Paul. But it's
all it's all there in black and white made. It's

(05:13):
it's very clear, it's been well documented to documented.

Speaker 3 (05:16):
Sorry, Yeah, how are you feeling? I mean, are you
are you a little bit optimistic knowing that Winston's in charge,
He's gotten till March. Are you are you hopeful that
we can at least get something on the go and
have a ferry operating by twenty twenty seven?

Speaker 4 (05:31):
Absolutely made, There's there's has to be done. It's got
a you know, the country needs it. I think he's
the guy he gets he seems to get things done.
So I'm very I'm very pleased that he's actually in
there and will account. It sounds look good. He's going
to get us, get us the best deal that he
can he can.

Speaker 3 (05:53):
Cal thank you for that. Cal fin Lace, the Maritime
Union National Secretary. On the three hundred million dollars, I
should say, that's not what we are paying or what
we have paid. That's what has been set aside. This
has come from Treasury documents. So we don't actually know
at this point what the cost, what the break fee
might be, and indeed that may be up for negotiation,
and we don't have confirmation of that either, because you know,

(06:14):
Winston's on the job. Isn't thirteen minutes after four this
business worth? The United States canceling military aid to Ukraine.
The question then becomes, or how reliant is Ukraine actually
on America's military aid and what happens if it stops,
which it's going to. We'll tell you what that is next.
Plus Darcy's here with sport.

Speaker 1 (06:33):
It's the Heather Dubissil and Drive Full Show podcast on
iHeartRadio powered by News Talk ZB.

Speaker 3 (06:41):
Full sixteen News Talk ZB. So Donald Trump has canceled
all military aid going to Ukraine. Just to give you
an idea that represents about more than two hundred billion
dollars and to put that in context, Germany's the next
biggest contributor. That's twenty billion from them, and then it
goes to the UK around more than sixteen billion from them,

(07:01):
So it's massive. What and how much the US contributes?
What does that actually mean for troops on the ground
who are fighting right now in Ukraine. Well, Malcolm Nance
has done just that. He is a former US Navy
senior chief. He's fought alongside some Kiwis in Ukraine. He's
on the show after five right now, it's sixteen after four, Ryan,
USA watergrows here. Hey Darcy, Hi Ryan, good to see you. Now,

(07:24):
what's going on with Blues Hoskins two two? He's copped?
Is it a two or three week band or we're
not sure?

Speaker 6 (07:29):
Well, it starts off at six and then they just
go backwards until they're happy. And so normally what they
do is that chop it in half and go mitigating circumstances.
And in this case it's true because a bitter like
I, I kind of adjusted where it was running, so he
kind of ran straight.

Speaker 7 (07:42):
To his head.

Speaker 5 (07:43):
Get that.

Speaker 6 (07:43):
That's cool. He's got a really good discipline record. So
they're not going to if it was a recidibus. They
probably lay into a more and then they come down
to the well, were we going to have it three weeks?
And then they go, you know what if you go
to tackle school, which is this ridiculous concept thrown up
by World Rugby, you know, teach how to tackle properly
like professional legs don't know what they're doing. Right, Well,
hang on, you take another week off, We'll take another

(08:04):
week off.

Speaker 3 (08:04):
Who runs tackling school?

Speaker 6 (08:06):
I don't know. Someone on a mortar board, one of
those flat hats and a big cape. It sounds insane
to me. The athletes know, we don't want to know.
When you transgress, they take you to one side. You'd
be to go to tackle school.

Speaker 3 (08:19):
Don't talas pass rate for tackle school one hundred percent
from what I believe, everyone graduates.

Speaker 6 (08:24):
Just another reasons like don't you should do it? He learn,
but don't make it as part of what you do
when you take away that week. The thing is, what
it means is that the Big Filer is back for
the Crusaders match in three weeks time, which is always
a massive match. Blues the Crusaders, so the Crusaders fans damn.
But there you go.

Speaker 3 (08:45):
There you go, hey, what's happening with this Indian politician
in setting himself into sport herself herself.

Speaker 6 (08:52):
Yeah, right, charma, Indian cricket captain, this politician from the
Congress Party, which is the opposition over in India. I
believe sham and Mohammad tweeted needs need to lose weight.
And of course the most unimpressive captain India has ever had.
So that got deleted pretty fast when the party found

(09:13):
out of us. You kind of can't say that, you know,
not a lot of subtlety in that cheese come out
and said, like I felt he was overweight. So I
tweeted being attacked for no reason. Well no, you kind
of ah, maybe.

Speaker 3 (09:25):
It's different than India.

Speaker 6 (09:26):
Maybe I know that people out there would say, who
if if that was well, it doesn't matter. Does it
actually matter? If someone's carrying extra bound can they hit runs?
Can they take catches when they traverse the terror firmation?

Speaker 3 (09:40):
Does he was captain?

Speaker 5 (09:42):
He bats?

Speaker 3 (09:42):
He bats?

Speaker 6 (09:43):
I can stand there and just smash it to the boundary.

Speaker 3 (09:45):
And there is a lot of standing because if you're
if you're you know, catching the ball, if you're fielding,
then you need to run. You know weight would be
an issue.

Speaker 6 (09:52):
Yeah, but if you can do it and you've got
a great record, who cares? And I think you'd find
that in cricket it's littered with guys that are probably
caring a it much. It's famous for its true, you know.
But a politician coming out and climbing into the Indian
captain because they've had a pie. I just find it
bizarre and it's a biggest story and I hope to

(10:13):
talk about that up after seven o'clock around the I
suppose the ancient figures you look at BMI and if
you do that, you look at say Tom Walsh our
shot put it, you'd say he's obese. You know that's wrong.
It doesn't actually matter in so many levels. So is
it still a thing?

Speaker 3 (10:30):
Looking at yours.

Speaker 6 (10:31):
Able to tell you on it? To talk about that
he knows a wee bit about that, the health behind
losing so much weight? Why are we so fixated on it?
You notice a lot of women's sport, women's cricket, women's rugby,
they don't put weight now in their vital statistics. They
put their height, but not their weight. And now it's
starting to happen a lot of men's sport too.

Speaker 3 (10:49):
But that's quite that's a relevant and significant statistic if
you're particularly talking about a scrum. I would have thought
that the way maybe in that the.

Speaker 6 (10:57):
Case in cricket, is it relevant?

Speaker 8 (10:58):
Now?

Speaker 6 (10:59):
I suppose you've got to look at what sports becomes relevant.

Speaker 3 (11:01):
They don't put the weight up for cricket players, do
they on wee?

Speaker 8 (11:04):
No?

Speaker 6 (11:05):
Though not on the screen they don't. But again it
comes down to you. Are we caught in this archaic
concept of how tall you are and how much you
carrying doesn't.

Speaker 3 (11:13):
Matter potentially, But I think on our bios rugous relevant.

Speaker 6 (11:17):
Well no, Darcy water Grave one hundred and seventy six
centimeters seventy five kg, ringing wet.

Speaker 3 (11:22):
The only metric, only metric they worry about with us
as words per minute? Oh really, how quickly can you talk?

Speaker 4 (11:29):
Yeah?

Speaker 9 (11:29):
No?

Speaker 3 (11:29):
Interesting? Interesting? So what's you know? What's happened? Is he
said aney thing? Or is she no?

Speaker 6 (11:33):
The BCCI I've come out and say, come on, really,
we're on the verge of a semi final. You're doing this?
Be quite politicians?

Speaker 3 (11:40):
Eh, Darky shooting over the mouth of see tonight, Darky
water grows. Sports talk host Time is twenty one minutes
after four News talksb.

Speaker 10 (11:49):
Checking the point of the story.

Speaker 1 (11:51):
It's Ryan Bridge on either duplic Ellen Drive with one
New Zealand let's get connected and new Talks.

Speaker 3 (11:58):
Twenty three minutes after four Reign of kids parents can't
afford to feed their kids. Perhaps a means test should
be done so that the kids who really do need
the lunches are ensured to get one, says Andy. Andy
goodpoint nine nine two the number to text Alfred. Everyone's
watching Alfred. This is the tropical cyclone off the Coral
Sea heading towards Queensland. Nobody likes him, nobody wants him.

(12:19):
Predicted to be flash flooding, high winds, abnormal tides. They
say it's life threatening over there, so it's quite serious.
And here's the weird thing about it. It's way off
normal track for a tropical cyclone, the track that a
tropical cyclone would typically take. It's way off that, and
it's now making quite an erratic sharp turn back towards

(12:41):
southeast Queensland, which is of course a big problem because
that's a highly populated area four million people. We're talking Brisbane,
the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, bar and Bay. They are
all in the wat zone, but very unusual to have
a tropical cyclone hitting the coast hundreds of kilometers south
of the trop The last time that happened was Tropical

(13:04):
Cyclone Wander back in the seventy four, which was the
cause of some quite serious flooding in Brisbane. Anyway, Murray
Olds is all across this. He's with us after the
News at four thirty Bryan Bridge. So, Donald Trump has
come out today with a tweet, well a truth social post,
whatever you want to call it. And he's come out
and he said I will put tariffs on all agricultural

(13:26):
imports coming into the United States. Now you can imagine
why this is alarming to us. We have a huge
interest in sending our agricultural products to the United States.
They became our second largest market for export goods last year,
and a lot of that is our dairy, it is
our red meat. In fact, Daii's worth more than a billion.

(13:47):
Red meat was up sixty four percent from January. Those
were stats from January. So we've got a lot on
the line here. So we're trying to figure out and
decipher exactly what Trump is going to do. All he
said at this point is that agricultural tariffs are coming
on April second. Nathan Guys with the Meat Industry Association,

(14:09):
he's the chairman. He'll be with us after five to discuss.
Have listen that Trump talking earlier today about Russia taking
land under all of the different US administrations except for his.

Speaker 11 (14:21):
Under President Bush, they got Georgia, right, Prussia go Georgia.
Under President Obama, they got a nice big submarine base,
a nice big chunk of land where they have their submarines.

Speaker 5 (14:37):
You know that, right crimea.

Speaker 11 (14:40):
Under President Trump they got nothing, And under President Obaden they.

Speaker 5 (14:45):
Tried to get the whole thing.

Speaker 11 (14:46):
They tried to get the whole big, big Ukraine.

Speaker 3 (14:53):
I mean, you shouldn't laugh because the world is so serious,
but at the same time you find yourself laughing. Just
gone twenty six minutes after four, you're on news talks
the be Murray olds out of Australia on cyclone Alfred next.

Speaker 12 (15:07):
Then jeez, stay, I aren't you I need you Olga,

(15:28):
uh need these beautiful things that.

Speaker 1 (15:33):
Are After making the news, the news makers talk to
Ryan Furst. It's Ryan Bridge on hither Duplicy Alan Drive
with one New Zealand let's get connected news talks.

Speaker 3 (15:46):
It'd be no.

Speaker 12 (15:49):
It ain't let that can make this kunam that's onn
by myself, don't bag let you ain't help me.

Speaker 9 (15:54):
Put a bottle myself.

Speaker 12 (15:56):
Pity be every week and if you can't stays.

Speaker 3 (16:03):
On Good afternoon. It is twenty five minutes away from five.
You're on Newstalks. B Winston Peters, who's the Foreign Minister,
will be on the program after six this evening. A
lot to talk to him about, including this three hundred
million dollar potential three hundred million dollar break feed for
the fairies with Yondai and South Korea he has just
been visiting. Also the situation with Ukraine and Donald Trump.
And one more to add to the list. They speaker

(16:25):
ruling today that al Tidora is fine to use in
the house. He's not happy about that. Twenty four minutes
now two five.

Speaker 1 (16:32):
It's the world wires on news Talks' drive.

Speaker 3 (16:36):
So Trump has hit pause on all weapons assistance to Ukraine.
The White House has told media that the aid will
be resumed when Zelensky shows more of a commitment to
peace his words. A former US ambassador to Europe says
this is an astonishing decision by President Trump.

Speaker 9 (16:53):
What sort of a deal is he looking for. I mean,
if you're putting the pressure on Ukraine and not on Russia,
then putting hu cred in the weakest possible position for
a future negotiation, and surely that would lead to a
sellout of the values that the United States has always
stood for, things like sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Speaker 3 (17:12):
Cycling Alfred is expected to turn west today and start
heading for the east coast of Australia. According to the forecast,
the storm will make landfill near Brisbane later this week.
The Opposition leader Peter Dutton has been briefed on the
storm by the Queensland Premier today.

Speaker 13 (17:25):
Now is the time to listen to the authorities, to
listen to the updates from the Premier and from the
Police Commissioner and others about actions that you need to take.

Speaker 3 (17:35):
And finally, well, it's the horrible noises and it turns
out mice no CPR. Some researchers at the University of
Southern California did an experiment where they drugged Honestly, what
is wrong with these people? Drugged mice into an unconscious
stupor and then put them near some healthy mice, the

(17:56):
healthy why is the question? The healthy mice rushed over
to the drugs, mice cleared their airways and then attempted
mouth to mouth or mouth to mouth resuscitation.

Speaker 1 (18:09):
Ten International correspondence with ends in Eye Insurance, Peace of
Mind for New Zealand Business.

Speaker 3 (18:16):
Murray Olds is our Australia correspondent, Murray. Cyclone Alfred heading
towards Australia. Are people taking this seriously?

Speaker 4 (18:22):
Sure?

Speaker 14 (18:23):
Ryan?

Speaker 2 (18:23):
Yeah, good afternoon. Is the first tropical cyclone to hit
southeast Queensland in a generation since nineteen ninety prior of
that nineteen seventy four, and some very wild weathers on
the way one hundred and twenty one hundred and thirty
k and our winds up to half a meter of
rain in some plarts, waves up to nine to ten
meters high belting into the coast. Well, that's going to
cause a lot of flash flooding erosion as well from

(18:45):
the mid North coast way out past the Sunshine Coast
in Queensland, the mid North coast of New South Wales.
Now that's it's well over one thousand kilometers, so it's
a very very big storm. Locals have been belted. As
you know, in recent years have very very serious string
of bad weather events. Shops are busy, some shelves are empty.
People being urged to buy just what you need for

(19:07):
say seventy two hours. You've got State Emergency Service volunteers.
They're on standby up and down the coast. You've got
special flood rescue teams in place, and locals are being
urged to download the latest apps. That's the emerge now
is the most effective way to stay in touch with
all the warnings that are going to be flooding out

(19:27):
as soon as this big bad boy hits.

Speaker 3 (19:30):
Meanwhile, you've got your Defense minister giving an update on
when the shipment of tanks is going to be sent
to Ukraine. Sounds like they could use them now.

Speaker 2 (19:37):
No kidding, And it's right with Trump slamming the brakes
on any more military supplies from the United States. But
I'm not sure that Ukraine's really going to I'm not
sure what they're going to say about forty nine Abrams
tanks near the end of their operational lives. Ukraine wants them,
of course, and before the northern summer they can get
them up to speed and the people trained up to

(19:58):
run them and get them on the front line bid
year now Miles Richard Marles, the Defense Minister, did not
give a timeline. He just said, oh, look, you know
it's going to be soon. Well that's not good enough
for Kiev. Visit an alban easy. The Prime Minister again
has restated and support for Keeves suggest that he's open
to sending peace kipers. This is interesting if requested by Britain.

(20:22):
Australia's provided to this point one and a half billion
dollars in aid to Ukraine and these these Abram tanks,
forty nine of them, well they could be on their
way pretty soon. That's what Ukraine is hoping for.

Speaker 3 (20:35):
These tariffs that Trump's announced today had a bit of
a hit on your stock market.

Speaker 4 (20:40):
No kidding. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (20:41):
The Australian market followed Wall Street down, the ASX down.
That one percent is out of the opening last four
point two percent in February and that's the worst month
we fall in more than two years, the biggest falls
and miners over here worried that China won't need as
much high in all of American tariffs start belting Beijing,
Iro and all down two two point two percent out
of night, also down energy tech stocks, the big banks

(21:04):
as well. Invest is also over here, Ryan waiting for
the minutes of the Reserve Banks board meeting last week.
They decided that that board meeting the cut official interest
rates by a quarter of one percent. And what these boffins,
these pointy heads far above my play, grave mate, They
are looking for clues in the notes about another rate
cut and also waiting as well on some pretty important

(21:26):
data out later this week, the latest current account and
retail sales figures.

Speaker 3 (21:31):
Nice on, Murray, thank you for that. We'll look forward
to getting those updates. That's Murray Old's our Australia correspondent
with US. Time has just gone nineteen minutes away from
five here on news Talk, seb as I said, we're
going to talk more about not the Trump tariffs on
Mexico and on China and Canada, but the potential tariffs

(21:51):
that could really hurt us because they're not on a
particular country. Up until now, Donald Trump is said I'm
going to put tariffs on you specific country, you specific
country now, and obviously he's done steal an aluminium, but
he has now said today in a post on a
social media site True Social that he will do agriculture tariffs.

(22:11):
That's not good for us because we're an agricultural trading country,
aren't we. So we're going to talk about that with
the Meat Industry Association after five o'clock. Get their gauge.
They are worried, to put it lightly, they are worried.
Ten percentdn't potentially wouldn't be that big of a deal.
Twenty five percent would be a major major issue for
New Zealand. Eighteen minutes away from five.

Speaker 1 (22:33):
Politics with centrics credit check your customers and get payments certainty.

Speaker 3 (22:37):
Just gone sixteen away from five News talks'b. So there
is some sort of issue between David Seyma and Erica.
Stand for David seymoa on the program to start for
the five point thirty news tonight right now Jason Will's
News Talk CB political editor Jason Good afternoon, Oh, good afternoon, Rain.
So what is going on here between these two?

Speaker 15 (22:52):
Well, listen, there was spouse to be a meeting and
we got this out of ericas Stamford this morning.

Speaker 8 (22:58):
I've asked David Semol for a meeting this morning to
go through some of the issues on the school lunch
program to make sure that they are being cleared up.

Speaker 15 (23:04):
So which issue, take your pick. There's quite a few.
So obviously the prime ministers are already talked to David
Seymour about this. Now she is the Education Minister, he's
the Associate Education Minister, so essentially he has the front
up to her. So it's pretty cut and dry. So
where was Seymour? He did not show. Here's what she

(23:25):
had Erica had to say about that.

Speaker 8 (23:27):
I was, I was in my office just after a
living very for the meeting.

Speaker 15 (23:30):
You were there and he didn't show us.

Speaker 8 (23:32):
Well, as I say, minister's diaries change all of the time,
meetings shift. But we're rescheduled for tomorrow.

Speaker 15 (23:38):
So she's very much playing it down, saying that they're
going to meet tomorrow. So what does David Seymour have
to say.

Speaker 16 (23:43):
Well, the meetings was organized on the basis that we
both had to go to caucus. Caucus, you can't really
control the timing. If it goes over, we couldn't meet, sir,
and that's what happened, you.

Speaker 15 (23:52):
Know, which could be fair enough. But it was Erica
Stamford that was the one this morning actually told us
that this was happening and if these meetings happen all
the time. They don't technically tell us. They'll give a
blow by blow of every meeting that happens around this place.
So she was clearly trying to make a point. And
I know you can't really hear it from that clip,
but she will be quite frustrated. I think a lot
of Nats are quite frustrated at the fact that this

(24:13):
is reflecting quite bad on the government. Now there's one
interesting element to this, and that's the Prime Minister. Well,
there's many interesting elements, but the Prime Minister, and I'll
tell you what. His tone on this issue has shifted
quite a lot since he got back from Vietnam last week.
Last week. Listen to him on Hosking this morning.

Speaker 3 (24:28):
But look, here's the deal.

Speaker 17 (24:29):
I mean, if you don't like the lunches, actually just
go make a mum might sandwich and put an apple
on the bag.

Speaker 15 (24:34):
Now, here's what he said to reporters going into the
caucus meeting this morning.

Speaker 17 (24:37):
A loaf of bread, ajar and marmie an apple asn't
rocket science. Actually, parents should take responsibility for providing your
lunches in the first.

Speaker 3 (24:45):
In six decades.

Speaker 15 (24:45):
And here's what he told the House.

Speaker 17 (24:47):
I do agree with the minister that there is actually
some some parental responsibility, some parental responsibility.

Speaker 15 (24:54):
So you can hear now that he's really moving into
it's the parents' responsibility to bring their if they no. Essentially,
if the kids don't like the lunches, it's the parent's
responsibility to front up with the lunches for the kids
at school. So I would expect to hear more of
that as these issues continue to be quite prevalent.

Speaker 3 (25:11):
Yeah, they obviously have workshopped this, because Nikola Willis was
on the show last night saying she didn't say marmche,
she said vegimite. The parents should be getting vegimied out
into the kid's lunches and make them yourselves. So it's
obviously something they've workshopped, a line that they're using, and
perhaps they've had polling on it, which might I.

Speaker 15 (25:29):
Would be surprised if there were. I mean, this is
really really hurting them.

Speaker 3 (25:33):
Do you think it's hurting them? Do you think it's
really hurting them or do you think most people are going?
For God's sakes, this is a storm and a tea cup.

Speaker 15 (25:39):
You know, well, I think there could be most, But
what it is is it's a distraction. It means that
the government isn't able to get the message that they
want about other things out there because this continues to
plague them. There's only so much space in people's minds
for political stories. And when you have a news story
like this that involves food, involves the politicians that you
know about, it involves somewhat are they I'm not to

(26:00):
say scandal, but it involves somewhat of a shortcoming that's
tends to be what people can remember. So it does
distract from the government's narrative that they want to put
out about other things.

Speaker 3 (26:09):
Now, the Treasuries come out and said today that they've
set aside three hundred million dollars for a potential break
fee for the Fairy Deal cancellation. But that doesn't mean
that's what we will pay, right, let's just set aside
at the stage.

Speaker 15 (26:20):
Indeed, So it's basically it's a contingent. And what we
learned this morning is that, you know, it's been hard
to get information out of this. So we had this
document dump about all this information about the ferries, including
the fact that they'd set asut three hundred million. So
just as a bye the bye that includes extra infrastructure contracts,
completing some near finished items like mechanical depots and picked

(26:40):
in and the yet to be finished contract with Hyundai.
So it's not just the ships, it's everything that goes
around it as well. So the ships are just one
part of that component. But what we did learn today
is Winston or we did not last week. Winston was
meeting with the South Koreans in Hyundai last week, so
he was asked about that in the house today. Winston
Peter by tonguy utther Keddy. Have a listen to what

(27:02):
he said.

Speaker 18 (27:02):
How confident is he that he and I will put
in another contract bid for the new cook straight theories
when they are currently negotiating out of an existing contract
with his government.

Speaker 19 (27:13):
I've got some good news for the member. The head
see y Park was delighted to meet us with his team.
We had a very very amiable and profitable discussion, and
we were delighted to learn of their renewed interest in
this tendering process.

Speaker 15 (27:31):
So renewed interest, profitable discussion. It really sounds like yondaya
back at the table, which is interesting because it raises questions,
you know, do we still have to pay the brake
fee if we go back to the company that we
were negotiating with in the first place.

Speaker 3 (27:46):
Yeah, that would be the idea, wouldn't it that we
would Winston would be Wiley, Winston would do some kind
of deal in which we reduce the brake fee, we
get too smaller theories, we use the two spots they
were originally going to have for the old theories, so
we don't waste any time. And everyone's but that's a
lot of things to a lot of ducks to get
in a row, isn't it. Jason, Thank you for that.
Jason Walls, who's News Talks thereb's political editor ten to

(28:08):
five here on a News Talks the B. When we
come back, a really interesting report out of Australia comparing
the Reserve Bank of Australia's approach to dealing with inflation
versus ours. I'll tell you about that coming up on
the program. We're also going to talk the I REX
fee with Winston Peters after five point thirty, and this
new report that looks at obesity around the world, not

(28:31):
just here in New Zealand, but how fat we're getting
and just how fat will be by twenty fifty.

Speaker 1 (28:36):
Putting the time questions to the newspeakers, the mic asking breakfast.

Speaker 20 (28:40):
Bronis is back in the country and as with us,
you make a very good point. You've put seventeen billion
billion into this, two thousand extra nurses and per heab.

Speaker 17 (28:47):
You're going backwards. What's the problem. It's an insanely complex organization.
There's this narrative out there that we're cutting healthcare service.

Speaker 20 (28:54):
It's absolute total rubbish. At the end of the day,
we all want good health. But there's got to be
a limit. I think you're right, thirty billion dollars in total.
I mean, how much is it can't be a bottomless.

Speaker 3 (29:03):
Pit, no.

Speaker 17 (29:04):
But what I'm trying to say with those things was
to get people to understand there is enough money. There
is actually progress on the workforce firm that's pretty impressive,
and actually the issue is a system that's actually grossly
bureaucratic and highly inefficient.

Speaker 20 (29:17):
Back tomorrow at six am, the Mike Hosking Breakfast with
the Rain drove the laugh News Talk ZB.

Speaker 3 (29:22):
Just gone seven to five here on News Talk ZB.
This is a text from Bill which I wanted to
read to you. It's about school lunches and I just
said earlier in the program that I think if you
are complaining about having but a check in multiple days
in a row, you're probably not starving. And I just
make the point the program when it was started was

(29:43):
for children. They were so starving they couldn't learn. Children
were so hungry they couldn't learn in school, And we
all went, that's terrible, let's do something about it. So
what have we done. We have spent hundreds of millions
of dollars. In one case there was an advance from
the COVID Fund to the chin of half a billion dollars.
Imagine what they to do in healthcare to universally fund

(30:06):
targeted schools so low deciles schools, every student in that
school will get it, and not every student will need
that meal. And in high decile schools there'll be poor
kids who don't get it either. So is this the
best way of going about it? Or should you target
the funding so that only those kids who really need

(30:28):
it get it? Bill says Ryan, the parents and the
kids that are moaning about the food, along with yourself
are obviously the ones who don't need it. The poor
kids and the parents who do need it appreciate it,
but are not as literate or as vocal, says Bill
as you lot, and they are shy, and they are embarrassed.
You just said you think we should defund this food

(30:50):
in Schools program. You should be ashamed because you're encouraging
starvation of kids. Bill. I don't want hungry kids to
go hungry. No one does. But the fact is there
are kids who aren't hungry getting free meals. It's fair

(31:12):
to ask whether that is a good use of taxpayer money,
money that we could definitely be spending. And a whole
bunch of other places. Five to five newstalks have been
Ryan Bridge. Meanwhile, we're all getting hugely obese. This is
the irony of the whole thing. This is a report
out today. In the lance set, half of adults and
a third of children and young people worldwide will be

(31:35):
overweight or obese by twenty fifty. Half one and two adults.
So you think about you're married, you know your husband
and wife, one of them will be massive basically by
twenty fifty. That's what this report is saying. It's forecasts
in the lance set. Now here's the interesting thing. In
nineteen ninety we had about seven hundred million the adults
seven hundred million obese fat or obese adults. Now we

(31:59):
have more than two billion. By twenty fifty, we will
have three point eight billion, and it's not changing. So
what is the problem here? I mean, think of the
healthcare costs, Think of the early deaths from obesity that
will come from three point eight billion fat or obese

(32:21):
people in the world become twenty fifty. It just doesn't
be thinking about, does it. We could probably all go
without lunch, I think for the next few years. Now,
coming up after five o'clock, we are going to talk
about those tariffs Trump has tweeted today or truth social
that there will be a tariff on agricultural products that

(32:42):
could have a big impact on us. We'll talk about
that after this, plus the cancelation of the military aid
to Ukraine. All ahead here on Newstrek.

Speaker 1 (32:49):
Secutive benext to, questions, answers, facts, analysis, The Drive show

(33:22):
you trust for the full picture. Brian Bridge on hither
do for c Allen Drive with one New Zealand let's
get connected news talks.

Speaker 3 (33:30):
That'd be good evening. It is seven after five. Trump's
hit pause on military aid to Ukraine. The White House
says the pause could be lifted as Zelensky demonstrates quote
a new commitment to negotiations to end the war in Ukraine.
Malcolm Nance's intelligence and foreign policy analyst. He's a former
US Navy Senior Petty Office. He's also fought on the

(33:50):
front lines in Ukraine. And he's with me now, Malcolm.

Speaker 14 (33:52):
Hello, Oh goodness, good to be here.

Speaker 3 (33:56):
So this is quite a big deal.

Speaker 14 (34:01):
Yeah, it's a very big deal. What's happening in the
United States is nothing short of international chaos. And you know,
I'm speaking to you as an American citizen, former US military,
but I'm also a former Ukrainian Army legionnaire. You know,
I served with people from New Zealand, including one who
was killed in twenty twenty three in combat. And so

(34:24):
to see the United States withdraw support so Donald Trump
could live out some fantasy to get the Nobel Prize
is an absolute disgrace.

Speaker 3 (34:34):
What will the Ukrainians do without that support.

Speaker 14 (34:39):
I just want to put something into perspective for you.
Ukraine has been fighting since twenty fourteen without the full
support of the United States, and right now US support
is twenty percent of the hard weapons that they're getting
from that support their combat mission against Russia. The weapons

(35:00):
and equipment they were getting from the United States can
be backfilled by Europe. We've already seen the European Alliance
come together to give them the hard artillery shells that
they need. Germany's Rhine Mattal has just finished a factory
in Ukraine that can produce a million shells a year.

(35:20):
Ukraine has radically changed warfare with their own indigenous homemade
drones that are flown by fiber optics so they can't
be jammed. Where they will lack initially will be some
of the more advanced technologies, some of the missiles that
are used in the Hemar multiple rocket system, replacing damaged

(35:44):
Bradley infantry fighting vehicles and their supplies. But Europe can
backfill all of that too. Ukraine can will not lose
this war because they are losing America's support. America is
losing because of the Trump regime walking away from freedom, liberty,
and democracy for a country that is on the front

(36:06):
line against the solitarianism.

Speaker 3 (36:08):
All right, Malcolm, thank you for that perspective. Malcolm Nancys
and Intelligence foreign policy policy analyst, former US Navy senior
pity officer, obviously fought in Ukraine alongside a New Zealand soldier.
He mentions in the interview just gone ten after five.
So if you are a Russian soldier right now you
are probably celebrating. You'll be seeing the headlines, probably celebrating

(36:29):
the fact that the US is pausing its military aid.
Here's what Howard Lutnik had to say, now he's the
US Secretary of Commerce. He says, this is what Celenski
should have said to Donald Trump to avoid this.

Speaker 21 (36:41):
You got to say, we love America, we appreciate America.
You know, we want you by our side, and if
you think we should have peace, we should have peace.
Right But instead he said, I want three hundred billion
in reparations from Russia.

Speaker 4 (36:53):
I want them off my land.

Speaker 1 (36:55):
I want all the land, really, all the land.

Speaker 21 (36:58):
And reparations and security guarantees.

Speaker 4 (37:01):
The answer was, it's just.

Speaker 21 (37:03):
Way too far. That's not a peacemaker, that's a trouble maker.
And that's what the president saw. And he took it
for forty minutes before and forty five minutes in front
of the camera, and then it was just enough, already enough.

Speaker 3 (37:16):
It's interesting also to note that this comes after the
pause on the military comes after Zelenski said that peace
is quote very very very far away, and Trump was
very frustrated by that. Couple of hours later, you've got
him pulling funding, pulling aid. Some are calling it coercive diplomacy.
Winston Peters on this after five point thirty times eleven
after five Now, Bryan Bridge, in the past few hours,

(37:37):
staying with Trump for just a second, He's fired off
a post on true Social saying agricultural import terrorists will
take effect from April to second in the United States.
This could be a big problem for US. He had
done under The US is our second largest export market
for goods, worth nine billion bucks a year. Red meat
exports jumped sixty four percent in January, derry alone worth

(37:57):
more than a billion bucks. Nathan goy As, the chairman
of the Meat Industry Association, former minister. Hello, good day, Ryan,
How are you good? Thank you? These tariffs? How worried
are you what he's talking about?

Speaker 22 (38:10):
Oh, we're worried, but we just don't know at the moment,
and it's a little bit hard, you know, speculation. Who
might they affect, when might they come in? How much
might they be? I see today he's marching on with China,
Mexico and Canada, and then today's tweet, and I see

(38:30):
that quite a few people have responded in a negative
way to the tweet in the US.

Speaker 4 (38:34):
So we'll just wait and see.

Speaker 3 (38:37):
What percentage would be bad or catastrophic. I mean, ten percent,
I imagine we could probably deal with. But if he
goes with twenty five, that's major, isn't it.

Speaker 22 (38:48):
Ah, that's a big number. Yeah, that would be a
big concern. But I was just thinking about it and
reflecting before we came on here.

Speaker 14 (38:57):
Ryan.

Speaker 22 (38:58):
I like in the world, meat markets to a bit
like a giant waterbed. You know, there's ripples and waves.
There's a push there, there's a wave over there, and
New Zealand there's a fantastic history of writing waves, whether
they're geopolitical, trade barriers, whatever they might be. We export
to about one hundred and twenty countries around the world,

(39:19):
and we're very agile and nimble, and I guess i'd
like to think that our relationship is very strong with
the US, and we've you know, all of those relationships
are going to be really important in the next week while.

Speaker 3 (39:34):
And I know, I mean, the problem is there's a
lot of countries who thought they had close relationships with
the US and in the last couple of weeks those
have been turned on their head.

Speaker 4 (39:44):
Yes, yes, have you had.

Speaker 3 (39:47):
Have you had any wood from or any contact from
the New Zealand government about this so far? I mean,
they're obviously going to be contacting their people in Washington
trying to figure out what the hell's going on. But
have you heard anything?

Speaker 22 (39:59):
No, I haven't. The Prime Minister and senior ministers were
at our National Lamb Day on the lawn at Parliament
a couple of weeks ago. That was a topic of conversation.
They're certainly working their connections pretty hard. So we're hardened
to hear that our meat companies have got customers in market.
They're working their connections hard. So everyone's talking and I

(40:19):
guess we're just bracing and waiting and hoping it's not
a big impact.

Speaker 3 (40:23):
Fingers across for you. Nathan Guy, a chairman of the
Meat Industry Association. Times fourteen minutes after five, you're on
news talk setb Auckland is get to spend about twenty
nine million hours a year stuck in traffic. Now that
number sort of means nothing because we're all individual people,
and it's such a big number. How would you ever
get your head around it? Well, it's two point six
billion dollars a year. It's costing the city. This is congestion,

(40:47):
and the Mayor of Auckland and his infinite wisdom, Wayne Brown,
ordered to report onto this that reports out that's the number.
So they're buttering us up I reckon for the congestion charging,
which surely must be on its way shortly. We look
at this next. So there's a lot of mobile companies
out there claiming to be the best, but what does
the best actually mean? For one in z it means

(41:09):
being exhaustively tested by independent benchmarking organization UMLAUT, part of
the Accenture, who do this across more than one hundred
and twenty countries globally, and boy is this testing thorough.
It's like for like comparisons with the same devices on
the same mobile package, at the same location and performing
the exact same action like downloading a movie or uploading
a photo on a phone. They also supplement their scoring

(41:31):
with crowdsource data, which covers ninety eight percent of New
Zealand's population area. And guess who came out on top.
In twenty twenty four, out of our three big tailcos,
One in Z's mobile network performed the best, winning for
both voice and for data. And that's the third year
in a row row that one in Z have taken
out this award. That is impressive. So if you're with
one in Z, it's good to know you're already on

(41:53):
New Zealand's best mobile network. And if you're not, check
out one dot NZ and join the winners's brayon Bridge
eighteen after five News Talk ZB. If you're listening to
this and you're in Auckland, you're probably stuck in traffic.
I'm sorry about that, but I've got a couple of
things to update you on. One is a report that's
come out, Wayne Brown's congestion Report. I'll have the numbers

(42:14):
in a second, but Parliament has this afternoon just passed
the first reading of the Congestion Charging Bill. This is
the bill that would give the councils the power to
charge us for going through central cities at peak times. Now, interestingly,
all the parties voted in favor of this, barring to
Party Maori for some reason, they voted against it anyway,
Wayne Brown's report back to that. So he's come out

(42:36):
today and he said it's costing Auckland two point six
billion dollars a year by twenty twenty six. This is congestion.
Michelle McCormick is the Infrastructure in Z policy direct issues
with me this evening high Michelle hi Ron, So how
long are we do we know how long we're each
spending on average in traffic?

Speaker 23 (42:55):
Well, I know that there's twenty nine million hours per
year being lost in Auckland aligned which is a lot
amongst the population. So I know everyone can relate to
sitting in traffic and being hugely frustrated and going nowhere.

Speaker 3 (43:09):
How do we compare to other countries? Are the cities
even around the region?

Speaker 23 (43:13):
Well, interestingly, the report has actually shown we're even worse
than Sydney and Melbourne, which is really concerning. Previously, you know,
we have sort of on par but we have actually
got worse as imputed other toll roads and improve their
public transport, we're still legging behind.

Speaker 3 (43:31):
Okay, So one of the solutions that they talk about
is congestion charging. Do you support it?

Speaker 4 (43:37):
Yes, we do, yep.

Speaker 23 (43:38):
We've advocated for this for a long time. We think
it's really needed in New Zealand. It's vital that this
legislation is passed. It's great to see that there's cross
party support through the first reading and we're looking forward
to the select committee process. It's really important that you
know there is control over to the local cities themselves

(43:58):
to help design the scheme that's right for years circumstances,
but this will be a game changer, just will really
make a difference in people's lives.

Speaker 3 (44:07):
So basically, what because what it congestion charging is actually
saying is that's saying there's a whole bunch of people
who are going through the city or on our motorway
is a peak time who don't need to be, isn't it?
That's basically what it's says.

Speaker 23 (44:19):
Yep, absolutely, and we know that even in these school
holidays it's quite a difference in traffic levels that we're
dealing with.

Speaker 3 (44:26):
Who are these people? Do we know? Are they are
they parents? Are they parents who are picking up kids
from school who don't need to be? What is it?

Speaker 5 (44:33):
Yeah?

Speaker 23 (44:33):
I think we're quite often leaving, we just jumping the
car without a thought about what alternatives. But if you
know there's a charge to it, that we're coming directly.
It might make us stop and think, you know, could
we travel at a slightly different times, could be carful
with others? Is you know, can we use public transports
or turnative for that particular trip. I think we'll actually
make us stop and think about our transport journeys.

Speaker 3 (44:55):
All right, Michelle, thanks for coming on the show. Michelle McCormack,
the policy director at Infrastructure and Zed Times twenty one
minutes after five News Talks at b I just run
out of time, I think, but I want to run
you through this report from hsb C. You know Paul Bloxon,
the HSBC economist. He's based in Sydney. We have him
on the show after six on What's Today Tuesday. He's
done a really interesting comparison because we keep asking him

(45:17):
who did better the Reserve Bank of Australia or the
RBNZ when it comes to slaying the beast that is inflation.
He's done a report on it and the interesting results
from that. He's on the show after six thirty, but
I might give you some of the details after five
thirty when we've got Winston on twenty two.

Speaker 1 (45:35):
After five, moving the big stories of the day forward
aw it's Ryan Bridge on heather duper c Allen Drive
with one New Zealand let's get connected news talks atb It.

Speaker 3 (45:47):
Is five twenty four three hundred million bucks. Sounds like
a lot of money to throw down the toilet, but
it's not even close to the four billion dollars the
government reckons are the so called Ferrari version of the
cook straight their would have cost if we had stuck
with the previous government's deal. Today we found out that
Treasury has set aside three hundred million to cover a

(46:07):
break fee for Nikola Willis's text to the Koreans canceling
the big ships. So long as she and all Winston
and remember he has until the end of March, can
conjure up a deal worth in total less than four
billion dollars, then they should be okay. They will be
forgiven by the public their three hundred million dollar wastage.

(46:28):
Why because they saved US four billion, right, But the
total cost that they saved better be significantly less than
four billion dollars. Why because the stopping in the starting
has also created delays and that also costs money. Of course,
it was the land side infrastructure that was the real
financial booby trap in irex It kept blowing out and

(46:49):
blowing out and blowing out, until eventually the government blew
the whole thing up, Which is why Winston Peters found
himself this week sitting around a conference table in Seoul
with Yondai executives trying to hammer out deal. Winston is
our last best hope here, the best case scenario being
that we keep the two shipbuilding slots. This is what
the Treasury report says. Try and keep those two shipbuilding

(47:13):
slots for the ones that we canceled, negotiate down the
brake fee, and get two roll on roll off ferries
about two hundred meters in length. So long as Winston
can achieve all that coming in well under budget, the
cancelation fee will soon be a drop in the ocean bridge.

(47:34):
Twenty six after five News talk to here'd be some
really interesting audio apparently coming out of Canada, because obviously
Trump is heading Canada, Trump is heading China, He is
heading just anyone who's in firing distance, basically with tariffs
and the mayor, sorry, the premiere of Ontario in Canada,
his name is Doug Ford. He's just come out and

(47:54):
said in response to this he's threatening to cut US
electricity to several American states if the tariff's go into effect.
Heavy Listen.

Speaker 24 (48:03):
If they want to try to annihilate Ontario, I will
do everything, including cut off their energy with a smile
on my face. So and I'm encouraging every other province
to do the same. Keep back Manitoba BC. We all
have to act in unison out East. They rely on
our energy. They need to feel the pain. They want

(48:24):
to come out as hard. We're going to come back places.

Speaker 12 (48:27):
Hope.

Speaker 5 (48:27):
I will do it.

Speaker 3 (48:28):
There you go, not happy. Twenty seven minutes after five
News Talks BB, Winston Peters is with us live after
the news. Lots of people texting in about the congestion charging.
This one is just an example from Jason Ryan. They
hate these councilor debts. Have no idea. If I was
to take the bus to work, it would be three

(48:49):
buses and take me an hour forty five. I can
drive in forty five minutes. There you go, Winston. Next
News Talks BB.

Speaker 1 (49:04):
The leading take on the big stories.

Speaker 16 (49:06):
Where do we even again?

Speaker 8 (49:08):
So much of it comes back to responsibility for your
own health.

Speaker 25 (49:11):
You can't spend a lifetime abusing your body and then
going to a doctor or a health system in saying
fix meth.

Speaker 26 (49:16):
Are you running a large family because this seems a
lot harder to do it now than it was when
I was a kid.

Speaker 27 (49:21):
In nineteen sixty the average Kiwi woman had four children.

Speaker 28 (49:24):
Now their birth rate is down to one point five.

Speaker 27 (49:26):
It is a massive drop and it is concerning for
New Zealand, isn't it?

Speaker 1 (49:30):
Every view from every angle News Talk, said b recapping
the day's big news and making tomorrow's headlines. It's Ryan
Bridge on Heather Dupericy Ellen Drive with one New Zealand.
Let's get connected news talks at Bess.

Speaker 4 (49:53):
You've told me.

Speaker 3 (49:58):
Twenty four minutes away from sixty year on news Talk.
So it'd be Winston Peages by the ways on the
program after six this evening, So in about half an
hour's time we're going to talk to him about what's
happened out at the White House today with Ukraine, but
also about the IRAX break fees for the fairies. Now,
the Commerce Commission has filed charges today against two Pack
and Save supermarkets. This is over alleged breaches to the

(50:20):
fair Trading Act. You've seen them do this a couple
of times now over the last wee while. So apparently
the charges have been laid against in the Orkan district
called against Pack and Save Silverdale and Auckland and Pack
and Save Mill Street in Hamilton. The general manager of Competition,
Vanessa Horne, says the charges alleged and accurate pricing and
misleading specials that may have breached the Fair Trading Act

(50:41):
food Stuffs apparently as being approached for comment just gone
twenty three minutes away from six Ryan Bridge Associate Education
Minister David Seymour. He didn't show up. He was no
show for a meeting with Ericka Stanford, the Education Minister
today about the school lunch program. Now apparently this was
just because they were at caucus and caucus runs over,
so there's no big deal. But what is a big deal, apparently,

(51:02):
is the school lunch program itself in the eyes of some.
David Seymour was the Associate Education Ministries with me Hi
David get Ryan. So what is the storm and a
tea cup about the meeting or did you show up
not show up on purpose?

Speaker 16 (51:17):
No, Well, basically we had an agreement. Tuesday Morning's a
difficult time because you have caucus, and one thing about
being a member of Parliament is caucus or sacrisanc. So
it goes on for as long as it needs to
for everyone to hear their views and discuss the business.
And I value it, especially because I had six years
where I was the only act MP and I just

(51:38):
wondered what it would be like to have a caucus.
So now I do we take it very seriously as
far as as far as the substantive issue. Happy to
talk about the lunch as though.

Speaker 3 (51:47):
Okay, so there was no intention to skip the meeting.
It was just it was just caucus running over. Now.

Speaker 16 (51:53):
I think people will be surprised how often plans change.
It's it's a wild world here.

Speaker 3 (51:58):
Yeah, yeah, no, fair enough, all right, okay, let's get
to the lunches. So the plastic and the cellophane in
the food, you know, the ones being late, those sort
of issues. Not the quality issues, not the kids saying,
oh you know, I don't actually like butter chicken or whatever,
but those other issues, the contractual issues. Have you given
them a rack up?

Speaker 16 (52:18):
Yeah? I have spoken to the school lunch collective about
that and they've reported back to me what it is
that's happened. Specifically, we've had somebody at one of the
regional kitchens received the frozen meals as is the plan,
they put it in the oven. They put too long
at the wrong temperature and that was the first mistake.

(52:40):
The second mistake is after they'd burnt them, they did
not to the correct quality control and they still sent
them out. So that is being dealt with. And one
offctive management.

Speaker 3 (52:52):
That's the one off. Yeah, and one off.

Speaker 16 (52:55):
One hundred and thirty seven thousand hot meals a day,
you know, a couple million over the last month.

Speaker 3 (53:02):
So we've put these things happening totally. Okay, all right,
can I just get some numbers off you? So in
terms of the delays, have we ironed that out?

Speaker 5 (53:08):
Now?

Speaker 3 (53:08):
Like what are we what's our percentage on time delivery? Now?

Speaker 16 (53:12):
Well, yesterday Monday, the third of March, ninety nine percent
on time delivery. The worst we had a month ago
in one city it was eleven percent. Now we're getting
some days, we're getting one hundred, some days we're getting
ninety nine or ninety eight, so basically always on time.

Speaker 3 (53:27):
So timing issues sorted. I mean, we will obviously have
these plastics in the thing that occasionally you will have
accidents happening. I'm sure that happened with the old lunch
system as well.

Speaker 16 (53:38):
Look under the old lunch system, if I recall correctly,
there were seven different investigations by food Safety in New Zealand.
I mean, these things happen, all right, So what is left?

Speaker 3 (53:48):
That's that issue? It's the quality of the meals and
the wastage that's going on. Do you have the stats
yet on wastage and how it compares to the old system.

Speaker 16 (53:58):
No, we don't have wasted statistics. I've asked to have
those and they say that they can be available by
the end of this week. Just bear in mind, I'm
more worried about them getting the system running than collecting statistics.
But I expect that we'll get those very soon. In
terms of you know, what is this statistics going to
say to us? I think that there will be some

(54:19):
issues with waste, there are some issues around quality, But
I say to people, look, you know, just stirs. We
solve the problem with on time delivery, we will also
solve sorry, the issues around quality. And we're learning, for example,
which meals are more popular and which ones are less popular.
So that's all helpful.

Speaker 3 (54:38):
What does the wasted tell you though? Does the wastes
tell you that you need to make the meals nicer
and more palatable, or does it tell you that the
kids aren't starving and don't need them and you should
reevaluate your program?

Speaker 16 (54:51):
Well, you know, I mean, look, I campaign heavily against
this program. However I'm part of a government where we
are all admitted to continuing it. And one of life's
great ironies, I'm the guy responsible. My job is now
to make it the most efficient use of government money
possible and absolutely hell bent on run that we're solving problems,

(55:13):
were overcoming them, and I think we will be delivering
something that everyone's going to be very pleased with as
we iron out problem after problem. That's all you can.

Speaker 3 (55:21):
Do, all right. David Seymour, the poster child for free
school lunches. Ironically, as he said, it's nineteen away from Sex.

Speaker 1 (55:28):
The Huddle with New Zealand Southeby's International Realty Find you
are one of the kind.

Speaker 3 (55:33):
Ellie Jones read pr with us this evening. Hi Ellie,
get a, Ryan and Nick Mills news talks. They'd be
Wellington Mornings. Nick Good Evening to you hi, right, let's
start with the lunches. Nick. We've heard from David Seymour
ninety nine percent on time. You know, there's obviously going
to be some teething problems, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
But what do you make of this?

Speaker 13 (55:54):
I thought there was a lot of bs from Minister
Seamore as. I mean, we've just had a big article
on the local paper here about Marna College, one of
the colleges that get this delivery, and they showed the
food that they got twelve months ago against the food
they're getting now.

Speaker 5 (56:07):
The food is crap. It's coming cold, it's coming burnt.

Speaker 13 (56:10):
It's not turning up on time for him to turn
around and try and make out that everything's all right now.
You know, I understand eating problems, but he's done it
on the cheap with a big company that don't give
a damn and the results are there.

Speaker 5 (56:24):
You can see it.

Speaker 13 (56:24):
You don't have to be a rocket scientist, you don't
have to be a prime minister that you can see
that is a problem because it's been done too damn cheap.

Speaker 3 (56:32):
Ellie. Two thirds of schools have not complained and the
third of schools that have complained, I've either asked questions
or complained, so we don't actually know yet. But it's
a minority who have complained about this. Does that not
indicate that for most it's actually working?

Speaker 7 (56:47):
Yeah?

Speaker 25 (56:47):
But that doesn't make it right. And I never thought
i'd say this, but I agree with every single word
that Nick just said. What I think is the issue
here is exactly what Nick said, that it's the big picture.
Listening to David Seymour who said it exhausted actually, and
so he should be, is that this is not just
about stuff being delivered on time, as Nick said, It's

(57:08):
about the quality of the food. It's about the food
being cold, it's about the food being burnt, it's about
it not being halal food, it's about it not being vegetarian.
So for him to focus on ninety nine percent of
it's on time as just rubbish. And also, how the
hell is it going to take another eight weeks to
flip that ninety nine percent to one hundred percent? What's
going on that needs to take eight weeks to get right?

(57:30):
And again Nick just made that point.

Speaker 3 (57:32):
About hang on, how are we expecting so much perfection
from this from this new system when we had so
many problems with the previous we did.

Speaker 25 (57:43):
We didn't, he said we had seven, Well, we certainly didn't.
Down here, I've been speaking to a group of women
this week that used to do it well, not women,
there were guys in there as well. They used to
provide food to the local schools. They served six schools.
The kids loved it. It was on time, it provided jobs.
It was a circular economy. And now they're asking can
we have the old provider back?

Speaker 3 (58:03):
People go on about the jobs. It was a thousand
jobs that was created. The system was costing US half
a billion dollars. That's not good value for money.

Speaker 5 (58:10):
Next surely yeah, but I mean that surely that we
can do it. That beats both.

Speaker 13 (58:14):
So so do you really want to be feeding our
kids this crap? Do you really want the money to
go offshore? When why wouldn't you just do it? So
localized businesses and organizing. This government says they're all about
small business, but they don't give a rats about small business.

Speaker 5 (58:30):
They give a rats about big business. That's where our
issue is.

Speaker 3 (58:33):
All right, Nick Mills and Allie Jones, I'm not budging
them this evening. It's called to Sexier on Newstalks. There'd
be the Huddle returns in just a second, the Huddle.

Speaker 1 (58:42):
With New Zealand Southeby's International Realty, the ones with local
and global.

Speaker 3 (58:47):
Reach, Allie Jones read pr and Nick Mills news talks.
They'd be Wellington Mornings with me on the Huddle tonight
quarter Just sorry, thirteen minutes away from six o'clock. Now,
congestion charging. This is either good news or bad news.
If you're stuck in traffic listening to us right now.
Congestion charging is probably going to be on the way
because the first reading of the bill that will enable
counsels to do it is just passed in the House,

(59:08):
everyone voting in favor apart from the Party Mali that
we're not quite sure at this point. Why Ellie do
you think because you're in christ Church, aren't you so?
Is this something that christ is going to do that
you would support them doing.

Speaker 25 (59:20):
It's been looked at before, it was raised in the
last Annual Plan in the last term of Council and
there wasn't the mechanism there as you know we're seeing
now because it's going through government for the legislation. But
there wasn't the mechanism there for the council to do
it. It's certainly something that people have been talking about. I
think it needs to be considered. But I think the
point that me Brown makes that a stronger public transport

(59:42):
and roading system is also needed for us down here.
That is absolutely key. I mean we basically don't really
have a public transport system other than buses, so you know,
it's a little different in Auckland perhaps, but man, our
streets are really congested down here. We do have to
do something, and I think this will be talked about,
you know, far more in the coming years.

Speaker 3 (01:00:02):
Yeah, the public transport point is a good one, Nick,
because if you were and we've had so many people
text in here to say, I would love, you know,
I'd love to catch the public transport and not pay
a congestion charge. But that would mean three buses and
three hours you know to get to work.

Speaker 13 (01:00:18):
Yeah, I mean, I'm down for it. I'm absolutely down
for it. I mean, you guys have got to pay
the price for living in Auckland. You're you know, you're
the hearts and soul of the country. You know, one
point two million people. You know, it takes a little
bit of time to you to get for me to
be well, that's something you've got to put up with,
because why you're you're a big city, you're playing in
the big league. Take a bit of time, relax. But
public transport, if you are going to actually look at

(01:00:39):
public transfer.

Speaker 4 (01:00:40):
Go to Melbourne.

Speaker 5 (01:00:41):
Go to Melbourne.

Speaker 13 (01:00:42):
I mean Melbourne has a population of New Zealand and
complain about anything towards their roading.

Speaker 3 (01:00:47):
I mean it's.

Speaker 13 (01:00:47):
Expensive to park in town, very expensive to park in town.
One hundred dollars a day to park in town in
some places. But the public transport's fantastic, the freeways fantastic.
Auckland's just got to move with the times. You know what,
You know that you're lucky. You're so lucky. You've got
people going out, you got people in traffic jams, you
got people, people create people and fun and money.

Speaker 5 (01:01:10):
So it's a good thing.

Speaker 3 (01:01:11):
Yeah, I suppose that's coming from someone who's living in
Wellington as well.

Speaker 25 (01:01:17):
Look, you just have to look at London. I mean,
you look at London. I know that's not alike for like,
and I'm very wary of comparing cities, but you know,
I'd hate to be stuck in traffic. I've been using
an e bike more because I can, because of time
and things. But you know, in London there is a
fantastic public transport system and I've got friends that are
living very close to the center of town and they

(01:01:38):
rarely use a vehicle. They'll either use a bike or
they'll use the buses or the underground, and their congestion
charging is well in place and has been for a while.

Speaker 13 (01:01:52):
Ryan, it took me fifteen minutes to drive from the
middle of Courtney Place to the airport tonight at five o'clock. Right,
I mean, I don't want to be coming straight out
of down I want to be traffic. I want to
be part of people. I want to see people back
in the city. I mean congestion is just part of it.

Speaker 25 (01:02:08):
Yeah, you can have people. You don't need congestion.

Speaker 3 (01:02:10):
I don't, although actually we won't go too far into Wellington,
but all those cycle ways around the bay is making
life very difficult, very difficult. Hey, just before we go,
Adrian Brody at the Oscars last night. He's been well,
I don't I've criticized. He's been certainly got some attention
online because just before he went up to accept his
award for Best Actor. He took chewing gum out of

(01:02:33):
his mouth, which had obviously been chewing on during the ceremony,
and threw it to his wife, who caught it and
like she was, I don't know what she was going
to do with it, hold on to it for later.
We were talking about this in the office today, Ellie.
Chewing gum is not I didn't think was still a
thing other than in America obviously people chewing chewing gum.

Speaker 25 (01:02:51):
No, well, maybe he's trying to stop smoking.

Speaker 2 (01:02:53):
Man.

Speaker 25 (01:02:54):
Maybe it was like, you know, you have a troll
or some sort of nicotine journal. But look, if I'm
chewing gum and I have done it before, really, But
if I chew gum and I'm going somewhere, meant to
be talking, or I'll just take it out and hold
it in my hand. So I don't understand why he
didn't do that moment.

Speaker 5 (01:03:12):
Listen to me at chewing gum.

Speaker 13 (01:03:14):
I chew gum all the time, you know, because I
want to kiss people if I meet them and see them,
I want to have fresh breath when I kiss them,
So I chew gum all the time.

Speaker 5 (01:03:21):
I think chewing gum is cool, really cool.

Speaker 3 (01:03:24):
Where do you put it once you finished with it?

Speaker 4 (01:03:25):
Though?

Speaker 3 (01:03:26):
That's the question.

Speaker 13 (01:03:26):
I keep chewing it all day. I keep chewing it
all day. I do a three hour show with a
piece of gum in my mouth.

Speaker 3 (01:03:31):
Oh reminder to never use the MIC's in Wellington. Thank
you Nick, if.

Speaker 5 (01:03:36):
I had to use it after you a couple of weeks.

Speaker 3 (01:03:38):
Ago, Nick Mills these talks the would be Wellington Mornings
and Allie Jones read pr on the huddle tonight. Time
is eight minutes away from six. There was a guy
who used to work and sit next to at a
work desk and who had a pump bottle and he
would chew his chewing gum and then he would put
the chewing gum on the top of the pump bottle
lid and just leave it there. I had to get

(01:03:59):
a new job. Seven to six.

Speaker 1 (01:04:02):
It's the Heather Duplessy Allen Drive Full Show podcast on
my Heart Radio powered by NEWSTALKSB.

Speaker 3 (01:04:09):
News Talks VB. It is five away from six. Now
the really interesting report from the rock star economist Paul
Bloxam from HSBC over in Sydney. He's on the show
after six thirty tonight, so he has looked at and
is down under digest. He has looked at the response
that the Reserve Bank of Australia took to inflation compared
to the RBNZ, So who did better? Who won the

(01:04:32):
You know, when you're trying to tame the beast that
is inflation, then who wins? So obviously the RBNZ went
hard and early, like Justinda's COVID response, hard and early.
We hiked the rates like we were climbing everest. Just
straight up. This caused a recession. It was very deep.
It was the worse than thirty years. The RBA went
a lot lighter and went later. So who won? And

(01:04:55):
how do you pick a winner in a situation like
that when you're not really comparing Like flag, what he
did is look at the misery index. So this looks
at inflation and unemployment, and on that basis, Paul Bloxham says,
the Aussies beat us. However, there's a caveat so long
as inflation doesn't return, doesn't rear its head again, because

(01:05:17):
they are sailing a lot closer to the wind than
we are when it comes to inflation right now. But
I mean, at least they're sailing you know, our boats
sank pretty much, didn't it. So anyway, we'll ask Paul
about that. He's on the show after six point thirty tonight,
the Rockstar economist Paul Bloxham, and he has a you know,
there's a whole bunch of different metrics you can use,
but we'll ask him which one is the best one
and who really won the race. That's what we care

(01:05:39):
about because you want to know for the next time
we have to beat inflation, which hopefully won't be in
my lifetime. Winston Peter's next.

Speaker 26 (01:05:48):
We'll never up. The finger of blame has turned to
party itself more than when to myself, my prison, my health,

(01:06:14):
Molly Liberal.

Speaker 1 (01:06:19):
Where Business meets Insight the Business Hour, It's with Ryan
Bridge and Mayor's Insurance and Investments, Grow your Wealth, Protect
Your Future.

Speaker 3 (01:06:30):
News TALKSB seven after six News Talk SAIB Coming up
this the rock Star economist Paul Bloxam from HSBC out
of Sydney is with us. We're all going to also
going to talk to the Inflementricus economist Brad Olsen about well,
it's been a big day for the markets both here
in New Zealand over in Australia, and also in the

(01:06:51):
United States. So all that to come right now, though,
are a few things to run past. Winston pieces with
multiple hats on. New documents out today revealing the Coal
has set aside reportedly sat side three hundred million dollars
to cover the broken infrastructure contract with Yondai for the fairies.
Plus add to that, the US has halted military aid
to Ukraine. This is because Trump is trying to put

(01:07:12):
the squeeze on Zelenski. Winston Peters is the Minister of Rail,
also Foreign Affairs minister. Good evening, Good evening, Great to
have you on the program. Now, the three hundred million
dollar so called break fee that has been spoken about
today is a lot of money. Will we have to
spend three hundred million dollars to break the old contract?

Speaker 29 (01:07:34):
We've already spent about forty six million dollars in that context.
But let me say to you that we began in
May of twenty twenty one hours the Minister of the
Rail seeking for four hundred point one million two fairies,
and there was going to be some infrastructure costs, but
it would look like way less than one billion. He
came back in twenty twenty three out of the previous

(01:07:55):
labor government's calculations and their vehils to face over four
billion dollars. That's the reality here, and so when we
talk about this roundom minium, it is not for the
i REX itself. It is including the i REX also
infrastructure which has to be adheaded to.

Speaker 3 (01:08:16):
So shond I won't get three hundred million dollars and
a cancelation fee for the old fiorries. That's that's false.

Speaker 29 (01:08:25):
Now there's a cancelation the equation. But having talked to then,
we know that these two things are totally serpace. The
past decision to stop what was a two very option
where of every dollar you spend on the theory, you're
spending three dollars somewhere else. It was a massive blowout.

Speaker 3 (01:08:45):
No, I get that, and that's.

Speaker 29 (01:08:46):
The real point here. The opposition don't seem to get it,
and you get it, but a lot of media doesn't
get it. I'm just trying to emphasize it one more time.

Speaker 3 (01:08:55):
Understand that, But how much does it cost? How much
could it cost to can Soul for the cancelation fee
because we have not honored our end of the bargain
with the old contract, right, So what is the potential
cost of that.

Speaker 29 (01:09:10):
Well, the potential cost of saying we cannot afford this
blowout in costs for both the fury and the attend
infrastructure that went with the ferries that they ordered. That
cost is way less than three hundred million.

Speaker 3 (01:09:25):
Ah okay, is that did you say forty six million
dollars earlier? Is that more like it?

Speaker 14 (01:09:30):
No?

Speaker 29 (01:09:30):
No, the forty six million we've already spread on other
matters associated with that three hundred million cost of decision
we said we saw to avoid going to a contract
picked up from the layer of the government, not what
they were structured to do at the beginning, but where
they went from four hundred point one million theories to

(01:09:51):
what in the end was two theories and the total
cost all up was a four billion plus according to Treasury.

Speaker 3 (01:09:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 29 (01:10:00):
And every dollar you're spending on new prairies, you have
three dollars somewhere else. So you go from way less
than one billion two four billions. That's the economics this
country when when hear it from the Labor government in
portfolio after portfolio, and that's what the needs the taxpayers
because it's their money, need to know.

Speaker 3 (01:10:17):
Minister, what do you make of Trump pulling the military
funding for Ukraine. Jesus playing hardball, isn't he?

Speaker 29 (01:10:25):
Look it's truly to say. And I'm not making any
comments because I go to see the dust settle and
see what it all means.

Speaker 3 (01:10:34):
Do you think we're closer to a peace deal since
Trump's come in or further away?

Speaker 29 (01:10:41):
Well, my answer to that is we are close to
a peace deal. The question is what will be shaken form?

Speaker 3 (01:10:50):
Do you think we can get a lasting one?

Speaker 29 (01:10:54):
Well, you know, we live in a very difficult world,
probably the most difficult anybody, nor most people, not anybody,
but anybody that was born after the Sigmawar has never
seen a time quite like this one.

Speaker 3 (01:11:08):
Have you spoken to your Ukrainian counterpart?

Speaker 29 (01:11:12):
Yes, I spoken to the Ukrainian counterpart. I've spoken to
my counterpart in Poland and surrounding countries Germany, France and
the UK. Have been speaking to the USA counterpart very shortly.
I've spoken to my counterpart in China getting the national
fingerful things, and of course I spoken to my counterpart

(01:11:36):
and then Ambasta also in Finland.

Speaker 3 (01:11:39):
What are you going to say to Marca Rubio?

Speaker 29 (01:11:45):
Now, You're far too smart, mister Beach for me to
you're asking me to before I even talk to this
very important person. I tell your listeners now, the don't
understand that that's all lack of diplomacy. It's impolite and
it's root in the extreme, and we do not want
to be acting like that.

Speaker 3 (01:12:03):
Fair enough, I had to ask. I thought you might
be you.

Speaker 29 (01:12:06):
Know what, you know what the secret of diplomacy is,
don't you?

Speaker 3 (01:12:11):
Well, certainly not what Trump's doing in the White House
right now. I wouldn't have.

Speaker 29 (01:12:14):
Thought I'm going to share some of you. The secret
of diplomacy is telling someone to go to hellp in
such a way that the House for Directions.

Speaker 3 (01:12:26):
Fine, the Foreign Minister, Winston Peters, thank you very much
for your time. Appreciated this evening. Thirteen minutes after six
Brad Olson next gradual turnaround expected for the building sector.
But we've got some new numbers out today on consents.

Speaker 1 (01:12:40):
It's the Heather dupas Alan Drive Full Show podcast on
my Heart Radio powered by News Talk zibby.

Speaker 3 (01:12:48):
Six sixteen News Talk ZB. We just had Winston Peters
on and he gave us at the end a little
quote about the secret of diplomacy. I like this text
from Ian and Auckland, Hi, Ryan, the real secret of
diplomacy is letting other people have your way. That's good
signs of a gradual turnaround in the building sector. New
stats and Z figures out today. They show new home

(01:13:09):
building consents down seven point two percent annually to January,
but eleven percent more homes were concented that month compared
to the year before. Brad Nelson's the infometric CEO. He's
with us Hi Brad, Good evening. So what are we
making of this?

Speaker 27 (01:13:24):
Well, look, I think the fact that you're seeing on
a sort of looking at the January month compared to
where it was a year ago, you've seen a bit
of a tick up. There's definitely a bit of a
shift coming through, and it reinforces our view looking through
in these figures that actually there's effectively a bit of
a stabilization starting to come through. Yes, overall over the
last twelve months, the number of consents are lower than

(01:13:47):
the twelve months before that, but that's because we had
seen sort of such a big pullback, but realistically down
seven point two on the annual basis over the last
twelve months. At one point it was down something like
twenty five percent starting to see that shift gradually emerging.
What I think was interesting when we dug through into
the numbers was the fact that you've got quite a

(01:14:07):
strong drive in recent times coming through from Canterbury and Otago,
some of the biggest contributions from those areas, and also
a bit of a notch upwards in townhouse consent. So again, look,
the numbers are still in a more challenging spot, but
after the construction's gone from what fifty one thousand consents
going back a couple of years now, we're thinking things

(01:14:28):
stabilize more around the thirty three to thirty five thousand marks,
so down but also not.

Speaker 3 (01:14:33):
Out interesting that the average floor area for a standalone
house was one hundred and seventy six square meters. That's
down from one hundred and eighty three the year before,
and the lowest for any year into January since nineteen
ninety four. Is that part of the townhouse thing.

Speaker 27 (01:14:50):
No, I mean those were the standalone figures themselves, So
you know that's a detached dwelling, right if you will,
But you're right, I mean, look at it. It's notable
that those that effectively your house area is becoming smaller.
Maybe we've all got into the Marie condo and now
we can sort of exist with a small amount of
space realistically. Of course, it's actually because people have been

(01:15:10):
paying so much for houses that we are looking for
those sort of smaller options. And I think it's also
interesting like building consents and the size of the floor
area often dictates or is dictated by what people are
looking to buy.

Speaker 22 (01:15:24):
Now.

Speaker 27 (01:15:24):
Yes, people might be feeling forced to buy smaller and
build smaller because of the financial restraints, but it also
suggests that, you know, because we have gotten more used
to some of the denser dwelling in townhouses and apartments,
obviously there's a bit of a shift where kiwis are
able to make that work a bit better and be
a bit more affordable than before. So definitely a bit
of a shift coming through there. In terms of the

(01:15:46):
land size. People are going to have to get pretty
good at where they store stuff.

Speaker 3 (01:15:51):
Yeah, that's one of the troubles that I have at
my place because our place is tiny. But the thing
is you do get used to it. And also not
having a big backyard. What he wants a big backyard,
but then once you live without one, you've kind of
realize you can do without it, well.

Speaker 27 (01:16:05):
Until you've got a lawn and trees that have got
to be looked after a ride. You know, it's great
in summer and then it sort of becomes a bit
unkempt and hard to look after. I think as well,
when it comes to space, the more space you have,
the more space you can fill up. Like I feel
like your collection of clutter can sometimes grow to fill
whatever you've got. Now, Like I say, I do think
that actually the driving force behind this is more around

(01:16:27):
affordability and what kiwis are able to pay when it
comes to housing, and so that's obviously a challenge. But
I do think as well it reflects the fact that
over time we have seen a real shift in how
Kiwis are living. I mean the fact that you know,
people are buying in different groups. It's not just sort
of a couple anymore. You know that there's different sort
of formations of who's buying a house, what people need

(01:16:49):
in them. The fact that you sort of you don't
necessarily need a spare bedroom anymore, you need an office
space that maybe has a pull out couch for when
mates come over. Like the entire way that New Zealander
is a living as shit and I think that's what
these numbers are reflecting as well.

Speaker 3 (01:17:02):
Interesting stuff, Brad, Thank you for that. Brad Oustin, who's
the Informetric CEO. Just gone twenty after six here on
news Talk, said be Jamie McKay next.

Speaker 1 (01:17:09):
Whether it's macro, microbe or just playing economics, it's all
on the business hours with Ryan Bridge and theirs. Insurance
and investments. Grow your wealth, protect your future.

Speaker 3 (01:17:21):
These dogs six twenty three, this is one to watch.
The President of the United States, Donald Trump, today took
to his social media platform Truth Social and said that
he would introduce an agricultural tariff on all agricultural imports
coming into the United States from April to second. This
is obviously alarmed quite a few people around the world,

(01:17:44):
no less than here in New Zealand. We spoke to
Nathan Guy from the Meat Industry Association earlier in the program.
He said he's worried. The rate at which the tariff
might be introduced is obviously the key factor that everyone
wants to know. We export more a billion dollars worth
of dairy to the US. It's our second largest largest
market for export goods, and that the red meat sector

(01:18:07):
was up something like sixty percent from January numbers. Jamie
McKay is the host of the Country. He's with us
to wrap the rural news for today.

Speaker 7 (01:18:15):
Hi, Jamie, I was equally shocked, Ryan, And just remember
the US might be our second biggest trading partner now
having overtaken Australia, but it's the biggest market for our
red meat, especially our beef, although they're buying a lot
of high end lamb at the moment. You know, our
lamb wrecks and all that as well. But beef exports

(01:18:36):
to the US rows twenty four percent in volume a
year on year from January a year ago, surged seventy
three percent in value. The whole thing's worth well, the
whole red meat export market's worth an excess of ten
billion dollars to US now. So if he slaps a
Trump a Trump, let you try if he slaps a

(01:18:58):
terrify on, who knows what it'll be. China's at ten percent,
Canada and Mexico are at twenty five. You'd have to
think it would sit somewhere round about there. Our only
saving grace, Ryan is Trump loves hamburgers, and we need
our lean beef to mix with that US domestic grain
fed beef to produce burger patties. That might be our

(01:19:20):
saving grace.

Speaker 3 (01:19:21):
I genuinely hope that something like that. You know that
there is some serious diplomacy going on behind the scenes
right now, because that has the potential to be quite
devastating to US.

Speaker 4 (01:19:32):
Oh.

Speaker 7 (01:19:33):
Absolutely, And whichever way you slice these Trump tariffs up,
it's bad news for US. We're an exporting nation that
depends on free trade, that has benefited from free trade,
if that's not an oxymoron around the world. And you
know he's putting the squeeze on China. China is our
biggest export market. Are they're going to have less money

(01:19:53):
to buy stuff from US? And I think the other
story is and someone like Brad Olsen, who you've just
had on, would be much better qualified to talk about
this than me. But all these tariffs are going to
add to inflationary pressures in the US. US inflation stays high,
our infrast rates are probably going to stay that higher
or not drop as much as they could. So look,

(01:20:14):
he's playing the whole world at the moment, not only
when it comes to war games, but also when it
comes to trade. As someone said, we're in a fully
fledged world trade war at the moment, or on the
brink of one.

Speaker 3 (01:20:25):
Certainly. Now we've got another global dairy trade option tonight.
What are you expecting. They've been pretty good lately.

Speaker 7 (01:20:31):
Yeah, they've been pretty good. The last one called its
jets or that all the banks are sitting and Fonterra
are sitting around ten bucks splimming good money. Let's make
no bones about that one. Look the guy. I go
to Mike McIntyre chart and he's pretty accurate. He's predicting
down three percent and all this uncertainty you would imagine

(01:20:53):
around the world. The world markets have had a bit
of a tumble to day off what Trump's doing with
Ukraine and all that sort of stuff. I would expect
not maybe not a somber result. He's picking down three percent.
Maybe that wouldn't be a bad result. The main thing
is we're getting well through the season. The volumes are
starting to slow down or weave it off the back

(01:21:13):
of dry especially in the North Island. So if we
can lock and load ten bucks, dairy farmers would take it.

Speaker 3 (01:21:19):
Brilliant, Jamie, thank you for that. Jamie McKay hosted The
Country right here on news talks, there'd be twenty seven
after six coming up after the news. It is Paul
blox and the rockstar economy economist rather who won the
Battle of the reserve banks.

Speaker 1 (01:21:41):
Everything from SMEs to the big corporates. The Business Hour
with Ryan Bridge and Player's Insurance and Investments, Grew your wealth,
Protect your future news talks.

Speaker 4 (01:21:52):
That'd be.

Speaker 10 (01:21:57):
How much.

Speaker 5 (01:22:03):
Good evening?

Speaker 3 (01:22:03):
Twenty five minutes away from seven news talks. There'd be
lots of texts coming in on congestion charging. Actually we'll
come back to some of those in a second, but
just on the terroriffs we've been discussing. Obviously, Trump's slapping
terrorists left, right and center. He's done Canada, he's done, China,
has done Mexico, and could you do us in the
form of a agricultural tariff that he has tweeted about
today or social media posted about today. It's interesting because

(01:22:28):
we heard from Jamie McKay earlier. Look, a lot of
what we are sending in terms of red meat, and
we're sending a lot of red meat up to the US.
A lot of what we're sending is high end, high
value stuff. And I was reading a piece today in
the Wall Street Journal I was talking about Italian wine
and if they were to whack the EU with some
massive terrorists, you know what would happen to your Italian wine?

(01:22:50):
And I would like to think, I would like to
imagine that we're in the same league as Italian wine
when it comes to our meat. And if you were
to slap say a ten to fifteen percent tarif on
a bottle of twenty one dollar a bottle of Italian Red,
the American consumer would still buy that bottle of wine
because they love it, and because they have a bit
more money than your average It's not like you're going

(01:23:12):
to switch a really nice bottle of Italian Red for
something else, for something from you know, California, for example.
So I would like to think that we're in that
in that sort of upper echelon when it comes to
our beef exports and our lamb exports, that we would
potentially get off lightly even if there was a tariff introduced.

(01:23:35):
But really, I mean, I feel like I'm clutching at
stores at this point, twenty four minutes away from seven
Bryan Bridge. Now, big debate. Obviously it's been happening here.
We've been doing it on air it's about which reserve bank,
New Zealand or Australia fared better and trying to tackle inflation.
Paul Bloxam, the HSBC economists, the rock Star economist, has

(01:23:58):
been looking at this and he's done a paper on
it which I've been perusing this afternoon. Paul, Good, evening. Good,
A Hey, great to have you on the show. Tell
me about the report that you guys have done from HSBC.
Who did better? Who feared better?

Speaker 4 (01:24:14):
Ah?

Speaker 30 (01:24:14):
Yeah, So we've been comparing the Australian and the New
Zealand experience post pandemic. So as we know, both countries
had this surge in inflation, and inflation picked up a
lot in twenty twenty two. It's got to somewhere between
seven and eight percent, depending on which economy you're talking about,
And of course both central banks took slightly different approaches
in terms of managing it. The RBA lifted rates by

(01:24:36):
four hundred and twenty five basis points and really intentionally
try to not slow the economy as much, take longer
about getting inflation down, but stay close to full employment
and they seem to have delivered that. And the RBNZ
took the approach of needing to get inflation down fast,
so they lifted interest rates by more and in the
end pushed the economy into a bigger downturn to get
to get inflation down. And so they're both different choices

(01:25:00):
and they both have had different outcomes. You know, in
New Zealand's case, inflation has come down faster and it's
back where the RBNS needs it to be. And after
those rate rises, well, of course you've had one hundred
and seventy five bass points of rate cuts so far.
In Australia's case, having not lifted rates as much, the
economy is still pretty full, close to full employment, and

(01:25:20):
the RBA of course has only been able to cut
interest rates twenty five bass points. So it really depends
on what weight you put on the importance of getting
inflation down fast, how important you think it is for
the unemployment rate to stay low which and what weight
you put on that, and how much weight you put
on the sort of the idea that interest rates come
down as well. You know, the two are very very close.

(01:25:41):
We found in the studies that depends on which weight
you put on those things. But on the margin, I
think if you're prioritizing stabilizing your economy as well and
minimizing the volatility, then Australia probably bears a little bit better.

Speaker 3 (01:25:55):
The answer surely is in the number of economic refugees
that fled this country to head to to the other one.

Speaker 30 (01:26:02):
You know, well, it's part of the adjustment mechanism. Certainly
that the labor market's been stronger in Australia and it's
been weaker in New Zealand, and it's meant that people
have moved from New Zealand to Australia to get jobs.
And so if you're measuring it purely on the labor
market performance, you would definitely say Australia has been in
better shape. We've had an unemployment rate that's gone up
by only point six percentage points. It's picked up from

(01:26:25):
three and a half percent to four point one over
the last two and a half years. And in New
Zealand the unemployment rates picked up by almost two percentage points.
It's gone up from three point two to five point one.
So you know, if it's just on the labor market, yes,
Australia is in better shape. If it's on the inflation performance, well,
New Zealand's got its inflation down faster than Australia has.

Speaker 3 (01:26:42):
And you guys are still starting a bit closer to
the wind I suppose, and with Trump's terrorists et CenTra,
things could get a bit herey, So we'll have to
wait and see how that plays out. GDP figures, you
got the figures out tomorrow. What are you expecting.

Speaker 30 (01:26:55):
Well, we think GDP growth will have picked up pace.
This is the fourth quarter print for last year and
we think that it'll run at half a percent in
the quarter, and that'll be up from running at point
twos and point threes over the previous quarter. So we're
in a modest consumer upswing. We've already seen it in
better retail numbers. We've seen it in improving consumer confidence
and that's because well, inflation is coming down, so cost

(01:27:17):
of living is improving a bit, and we've seen tax
cups in Australia in the second half of last year
cost of living measures as well. And we've got very
strong employment. You know, we're fully employed. The employment to
population ratio is at its highest level on record at
the moment, so people are spending a bit more because
they're quite confident. They're becoming more confident and that we
think is what's going to lift growth and show up

(01:27:39):
into morrow's print.

Speaker 3 (01:27:41):
How are just outside of the headline figures that we're expecting.
How are Australian's feeling about the economy, the state of
how things are well?

Speaker 30 (01:27:50):
The consumer sentiment numbers have improved, so the pickup. The
low point was September last year, and then in October
and November they jumped quite a lot and then they
sort of held on to that level and they've approved
a little bit since the RBA delivered its first rate
cut as well. So I would say they're a lot
better than they were, but we're still not above average,

(01:28:10):
you know. The consumers are still pretty cautious, but certainly
better than it was late last year.

Speaker 3 (01:28:18):
Paul, thank you very much for that. Great to have
you on as always, Paul Blocks on the HSBC Chief Economists.
Time is nineteen minutes away from seven. Interesting just on
the issue coming out of the White House today, the pause,
the so called paws on military aid for Ukraine from
Trump's White House. Just a comment that's come out from
one of the officials in his administration saying this is

(01:28:39):
not a permanent termination of aid, it is a pause
now Bloomberg is reporting just in the last week while
that all US military equipment currently not in Ukraine would
be held back. This includes weapons that are currently in
transit on aircraft and in ships or waiting in transit
areas in Poland. So if you've got any military equipment

(01:29:01):
that the US has sent and promised and it has
been delivered to Europe but hasn't quite made its way
into Ukraine's borders that has been held back, that is
a pretty intense move because the Ukraine military obviously will
be relying on that and expecting it to arrive any day.
It won't eighteen to seven.

Speaker 1 (01:29:24):
If it's to do with money, it matters to you
the Business hour with Ryan Bridge and Lairs, insurance and investments.
Grow your wealth to protect your future Newstalks edb.

Speaker 3 (01:29:35):
Accorded to seven on News TALKSB. I've heard of AI
generated stories being published in the news media outlets, but
I have not heard of this before today. The La
Times announced that, and the Allay Times is one of
those newspapers. Much like Bezos with Washington Post. I mean
you could just insert billionaire owner here and then insert
workers slash unions here. This happens to be not the

(01:29:59):
Washington Jeff Bezos, but the La Times and it's billionaire
medical founder owner and the staff and the unions having
a bit of a row about the La Times displaying
AI generated political ratings on opinion pieces. So if you
write an opinion piece and let's say you might be

(01:30:21):
I don't know, liberal and lefty, then this AI generated
sort of almost like we were talking with the Health
Star ratings yesterday, like a political rating will pop up
on your story, so people know, look out there's a lefty.
I'm assuming that's what it is that they're doing. Anyway,
there's some brew haha in La about that at the

(01:30:42):
moment at the La Times just gone fourteen away from
seven and the Brady's a UK europe correspondent, Good evening.

Speaker 10 (01:30:49):
Hey, Brian, loved to speak to you again and to you.

Speaker 3 (01:30:51):
So we've had a big day of announcements from Donald Trump,
the terriffs, et cetera. But the big one Ukraine and
the pausing of military aid to you cranes military into
its frontline forces, sending shotwives all around the world, as
you can imagine. But how are they responding in Europe?
What's the reaction there?

Speaker 10 (01:31:10):
Well, shock, which I'm surprised by because we knew this
was coming. I mean, he was saying this on the
campaign trail. You could see what was happening on Friday night,
the ambush in the White House. So he's just following
through on everything.

Speaker 5 (01:31:21):
He has said. So now we know.

Speaker 10 (01:31:24):
Now we know that Trump does not want to help
Ukraine in any way, and effectively, what they're doing is
trying to bully Zelenski into accepting Russia's peace deal. And
Russia's peace deal involves and I know this because I've
spent many hours with the Russian ambassador interviewing him in London,
and he has a list of and it's obviously a

(01:31:45):
Kremlin dictated list of what they will do for peace.
So Russia effectively wants to keep all of the land
it has invaded and stolen in the last three years,
in addition to Crimeia Crimea, which had stolen twenty fourteen
now on membership for Ukraine, no European Union membership, and
Zelenski must go. So that's just the beginning of the

(01:32:06):
Russian hit list. Trump seems to think that this is
all fine. So what we're seeing now is France and
the UK step up and I think there will be
an alternative peace proposal put forward. They're working closely with Zelenski.
I think we'll see Italian peacekeepers, French, British, perhaps Norwegian
and Swedish. I was in Ireland for the weekend. Maybe
even an Irish contingent as well with peacekeepers in Lebanon.

(01:32:29):
So Europe, if Trump has done one thing, he has
made Europe more united.

Speaker 3 (01:32:34):
Absolutely, But that's what they've been wanting for a very
long time, the Americans, right, They've wanted Europe to step
up and to play its part, and he's now forcing
their hand. Does what happens to Ukraine in the meantime
if this military aide stops. Does Europe have the resources
in the waywidal to get the military aid that's needed
to Ukraine to keep the fighting going.

Speaker 10 (01:32:56):
Well, that is the question. I mean, the UK military
is on its knees after fourteen successive years of underfunding
under the Conservatives. So the military here, they would really
be scrabbling around to even get a peacekeeping force together.
And I've spoken to senior leaders on my TV show
roundtable in the last six months and they all say
the same thing. UK military leaders from here are saying

(01:33:19):
that you know, if you're looking at a peacekeeping force
of thirty thousand men, they can't stay there indefinitely. You
need another thirty thousand training to go in and another
thirty thousand recovering from coming out. So they're doing the numbers.
Europe is trying to pull its resources and it needs stating.
The number one country in Europe for support of Ukraine

(01:33:40):
is actually Germany. They've given the most in terms of
money and military So I guess if anything, from Friday
night they have sharpened the focus of Europe to come together.
But how much is left in the European pot. Ultimately
we're all going to be chipping in.

Speaker 3 (01:33:55):
More and into the being tributes to the Scottish painter
Jack Vitriana.

Speaker 10 (01:34:01):
Yes, he's passed away at the age of seventy three
at a house in France, and he was an extraordinary man.
If the name doesn't ring any bells, check out his
art work. The art establishment here hated Jack Vettriano. They
didn't like the fact that he was a working class guy.
He used to be a mining engineer at the age
of sixteen and he taught himself how to paint. His

(01:34:23):
first girlfriend said to him one day and it was
a comment that stayed with him his entire life. He's
from a small town Fife in Scotland, and the girlfriend
apparently said to him, if you don't do something with
your life, you're going to be stuck here forever and
you'll do nothing. So he signed up for an art
class at the local school, taught himself how to paint,
and he started copying the masters, and then he decided

(01:34:45):
on his own style and the art establishment they never
showed his portraits in the National Gallery in London, in
the Gallery in Edinburgh, but he had the last laughters.
One painting in particular he's famous for call the Singing Butler.
I absolutely love it sold about twenty years ago when
it last him up for auction for about one point
four million end z. And would you believe if Jack

(01:35:06):
Vettriano had the last laugh, because that one painting alone
was bringing him in in royalties every year in terms
of prints and pictures and postcards people who copied of it.
One million end z every year of his life off
the back of a painting he made thirty three years ago.

Speaker 3 (01:35:24):
Now, Manchester United fans we talk a lot about Menchester
United and said Jim Redcliffe. He's in the firing line again,
this time not from the establishment but from the fans.
I have a ticket prices.

Speaker 2 (01:35:37):
Yes.

Speaker 10 (01:35:37):
So they got dumped out of the FA Cup the
other night, unceremoniously by Fulham, a home match which they
on paper years ago man United with have rolled over Fulham.
Fulham came one on penalties. United were the cup holders.
They are out and the chant went around the ground.
I won't use the language that was used, but Ratcliffe

(01:35:57):
obviously this gets back to him. So the ticket pricing
he has set for every home game, respective, irrespective of
who you are, whether you're attension or whatever. It equates
to one hundred and thirty two end Z dollars per
ticket per match. And you know they're used to watching
big flare players winning trophies. It's not happening anymore. They're

(01:36:21):
not one hundred and thirty two dollars a ticket prospect
Manchester United. They're going backwards. I think they're fifteenth in
the Premier League now, which will be their most catastrophic
finish ever. And all the while Ratcliffe has acted hundreds
of staff. The free lunches for the staff have gone.
It just goes from bad to worse. But the fans,
I think he's he's on the brink of a mutiny

(01:36:42):
now with the fans. And this is this is a
guy who's from the local area and considers himself a
Manchester United fan.

Speaker 3 (01:36:50):
Here we in to thank you for that. What would
you normally pay for a ticket?

Speaker 10 (01:36:55):
You couldn't pay you. Look, you couldn't pay me to
watch Manchester United as a Liverpool fan. I'd got watched
them once a season. Well, look, I hope I hope
they enjoy your swating everything this year. That's all I would.

Speaker 3 (01:37:06):
Say, and the thank you. End of Bradio. U can
europe Correspondent time is eight minutes away from seven News
Talks MB. A lot of people saying they're loving what
Trump is doing with Ukraine. I don't know how you
could love what he's doing with Ukraine. I can understand
why it's happening. You know, he's saying it's great that
he's bringing all these people to their knees. I don't

(01:37:27):
think it's great. I think, you know, Putin's an ahole,
and obviously everybody thinks that. But I can understand why
Trump is doing what he's doing. He's he's managing to
actually get the result that America's wanted for a very
long time, which is Europe to step up take responsibility
for its own backyard so that America doesn't become the

(01:37:50):
backstop and the credit card for proxy wars like the
one that's going on. But that doesn't mean that you
revel in it all that you think it's great that
people have been brought to their knees. Seven to seven, it's.

Speaker 1 (01:38:03):
The heather too for see Allen Drive Full Show podcast
on iHeartRadio powered by Newstalk ZBB.

Speaker 3 (01:38:10):
News Talk ZBB. It is four minutes away from seven,
which means it's time to say thank you very much
everybody for listening today, for all of your feedback, your emails,
your text very much. Enjoyed your company today. And so
what are we going out to tonight?

Speaker 28 (01:38:23):
Another sad one? Unfortunately tonight Ryan Joline by Dolly Parton
to play us at night. Don't worry she Dolly Partners
is about and well, yeah, unfortunately it's her husband, Carl
Jen Carl Deen has died at the age of eighty two.
They were married for sixty years. Carl first met her
when she was He met her outside the Wishy washy

(01:38:43):
laundromat the day she moved to Nashville when she was eighteen,
and they stayed together for sixty years.

Speaker 3 (01:38:48):
He's older than her, isn't he.

Speaker 28 (01:38:50):
I'm pretty sure. I'm sure Dolly Partner is not eighty
two years old. And this song Joline actually was written
as kind of a joke about a bank teller who
seemed to flirt with him every single time we went
to the bank.

Speaker 3 (01:39:00):
So there you go, brilliant, nice one. Nance. All right,
we'll see them. Everybody. Enjoy your evening. I'm begging of you.
Please jump.

Speaker 23 (01:39:13):
Julie, Julie, Jolie, Joey, please don't take you even.

Speaker 29 (01:39:21):
Though you care.

Speaker 20 (01:39:26):
Julie.

Speaker 1 (01:39:35):
For more from Hither dupless Ee Allen Drive. Listen live
to news talks it'd be from four pm weekdays, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.

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