Full Show Podcast: 31 January 2025

Listen to the Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive Full Show Podcast for Friday 31 January.
Get the Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive Full Show Podcast every weekday evening on iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Digging through the spin spins to find the real story.
Or it's Ryan Bridge on Heather Duper se Ellen Drive
with One New Zealand Let's get connected and news talks
that'd be.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Good afternoon at a seven after four Big Friday on
Drive Today after five, Simon Brown on Deneeden Hospital Oceania
Gold on Shane Jones and his big speech, the company
behind the free school lunches and the truly shocking revelation
about Albinezi and the Sydney terror plot.

Speaker 3 (00:31):
Ryan Bridge talk about.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Looking at gift horse in the mouth, the response from
the kids to the new school lunches. I can understand
kids are fussy and they just say what they think.
But I have been taken aback today by the response
from some parents to the free school lunches that their
kids are bringing home or getting delivered to school. One
said it was soggy and disgusting, unidentifiable pasta and lentils,

(00:57):
said another. Another, it's too bland her kids. She'd like
some cheese sauce with the mac and cheese. Please. Is
this real? Yes, this is real. This is the feedback.
Another grateful parent took time out of their busy day
to post on Facebook about their David Seymour lunch. Not
one child could stomach the food, and so after offers

(01:19):
to give the food away to the local community were declined,
all several hundred of these went into the rubbish. I'm sorry,
but if you throw food away, you're not hungry, and
if you're not hungry, you don't need food. It is
quite simple, really, there are plenty of genuinely starving kids

(01:40):
around the world who'd be more than grateful and delighted
to get the meals they're handing out in New Zealand.
Where's the thanks and appreciation? Who's thinking the cooks and
the cleaners for preparing these meals. When this whole scheme
was rolled out, we were told that there were tamodyki starving,
so hungry they couldn't learn in schools and we felt terrible.

(02:00):
This bs was that pulling at the heartstrings for votes?
What was that? Budget twenty twenty four allocated four hundred
and seventy eight million dollars to keep this program going
for two years. That is half a billion dollars. Today
we're talking about mining and the mining industry in New Zealand.
That generates one point two billion dollars a year, so

(02:24):
the free lunch program is equivalent to a quarter of
the cash generated from all mining activities across the country.
This is a big expense. Now, I'm sure there are
plenty of kids who genuinely need these lunches, and I
would hate for them to miss out, I really would.
But all these parents are doing is proving why many
of the kids getting the lunches clearly don't need them

(02:46):
in the first place. Brian Bread nine after four nine
two nine two is the number to text, and we
are going to talk to the company behind these lunches
because some of them were late today. That's coming after five, right,
let's turn out a teen to Wellington. Almost half of
our public servants work one day a week from home,

(03:06):
and a quarter on a Friday. The Public Service Commission
has released data. It says some departments, like the IRD
and the Ministry for Ethnic Communities have more than eighty
percent of their staff working from home at least once
a week. The pairs say says this is sort of
a win for them because the numbers aren't that bad.
The acting National Secretaries furf at Simon's Good Afternoon, flur

(03:28):
Good Afternoon, isn't this quite bad half of them having
one day at home a week.

Speaker 4 (03:36):
No, Actually, we want a system where by public servants
are able to work from home, where it offers a
win win for them and for the employer. And that's
what the research shows it does. And it's not just
a policy that operates in the public service. There are
people all over New Zealand who are working from home
and for home it's good for them and their employers
are supportive and encouraging. We know that it improves concentration,

(04:00):
it allows people to get more work done, and people
also say that they are able to stay more motivated
when they're working from home. So we welcome this and
we want an environment where all workers are encouraged and
enabled to work from home where this is possible.

Speaker 2 (04:13):
Yeah, but I would say that too. If I was
asked if I liked working from home, and I was asked,
are you more productive at home? I would say yes,
even if I wasn't. So can we really rely on
those surveys?

Speaker 4 (04:24):
Well, it's not just that there's actually international research which
shows people are more productive, but also it benefits the workers.
So people who have caring responsibilities, women, people with chronic illnesses, disability.
It enables them to participate in the workforce in different
ways and that's good for everybody. And look, you can
see many companies are offering this as a competitive term

(04:46):
to make sure that they can attract the best people too.

Speaker 2 (04:49):
And what is with the Friday? Why are a court
at choosing Friday in particular? Do you think is that
a particularly productive day to work from home?

Speaker 4 (04:57):
I think it sort of just makes sense. It's near
the end of the way, it's near the weekend.

Speaker 2 (05:03):
That shouldn't matter. Should because it's about productivity, right, So
it shouldn't matter what day of the week it's taken.

Speaker 4 (05:09):
Well, that's just as what people have worked out. And
actually that's probably easier for employers if it's all generally
the same day that they can predict it.

Speaker 5 (05:16):
And some organizations, why don't we encourage them? Don't we
home on a Friday?

Speaker 2 (05:21):
Why don't we predict Tuesday and make that the day
because it's.

Speaker 5 (05:25):
Just before the weekend. So it does work well for people.

Speaker 2 (05:27):
But you know what I'm saying, don't you flare? I mean,
you know everybody at listening to this in their cars
right now, who's driving probably driving home from work, I
might add, they'll be thinking the same thing. It's convenient
that it's Friday.

Speaker 5 (05:41):
Well, you can't choose to take a cynical approach.

Speaker 4 (05:43):
But actually what we know is that if you work
from home, it does reduce the commute, it does mean
that you can have a better life. And we say
that public servants, like other workers, should be able to
have a workplace in an approach to work that enables
them to have a good life, and we want that
for all workers.

Speaker 2 (06:00):
All Right, flur, thank you very much for coming on
the show. I always appreciate it. Furfit. Sigmon's with US
Acting National Secretary for the Public Service Association in Wellington
twelve minutes after four still to come Sport Next with
Darcy Also, I'm going to tell you what's going on
with the Dunedin Hospital because Simeon Brown's made the announcement today,
so we actually have some numbers about beds, which is

(06:22):
the important thing. I'll fill you on on that too.

Speaker 1 (06:25):
Who will take the White House results and analysis of
the US election? On Heather Duplessy Alan Drive with One
New Zealand Let's get connected, News Talk.

Speaker 3 (06:34):
Said be.

Speaker 2 (06:36):
Quarter past four. News Talk said lots of texts coming
and I'm working from home Ryan, my daughter. This is interesting.
My daughter works for a business that allows working from home,
but not on Mondays or Fridays or days next to
a long weekend. Guess why, asks Malcolm.

Speaker 3 (06:51):
Ryan.

Speaker 2 (06:51):
I am much more productive when I work from the
garden bar at the Viaduct, particularly on the Friday. Thank
you for that one, Dan. Jason plans here with Sport
weekend Sport hosts mid dad or three tomorrow and Sunday
and news talks'd be Hey Jason, Hey Ryan, So the
Super Rugby you wouldn't work well, we can't work from home,
can we?

Speaker 6 (07:08):
So we're not well, I mean unless they said something
I like this up at our house. I mean the
state of the art studio we find ourselves in. Look,
I don't you know what even if we could, I wouldn't.

Speaker 2 (07:18):
Wouldn't you?

Speaker 7 (07:19):
Nah?

Speaker 2 (07:19):
I just like the people, do you?

Speaker 7 (07:20):
Yeah?

Speaker 6 (07:21):
I'm not sure they like me that much, but I
like being here where the people are.

Speaker 2 (07:24):
You like the opposite of make hosking In more ways
than what hey, Super Rugby the pre season got a
couple of matches this weekend. We have here all.

Speaker 6 (07:35):
Six New Zealand bas sides are actually playing playing currently
or will play across the weekend.

Speaker 2 (07:39):
It's funny, isn't it.

Speaker 6 (07:40):
What are we It's not even February yet, but the
Super Rugby season is two weeks away.

Speaker 8 (07:45):
Two weeks from now.

Speaker 6 (07:46):
You and I are be chatting about the first Super
Rugby game on Valentine's Day night, So that's how close
it's getting. So yeah, preseason head outs, I'm not sure
you can read much into these. The Hurricanes play the
play the Chiefs tomorrow. Do you know how many players
they're taking the game? Forty seven?

Speaker 9 (08:02):
Forty seven and there meant to be fifteen fifteen on
the field.

Speaker 8 (08:06):
You can have twenty.

Speaker 9 (08:06):
Three expert But no, that seems a lot, honey. I'm
not sure they'll be on the team the field at
the same time. Rhyme, But forty seven So what I mean,
how do you get them all on? How do you
find combinations? What do you learn when you're basically bringing
your whole extended, extended playing squad. And I think they're
just trying to get minutes into everybody's legs and create

(08:27):
a bit of team culture. But yeah, I'm not sure
you can read much into the results. The Highlanders for
what it's worth, have beaten more Ona PACIFICA this afternoon.

Speaker 8 (08:35):
I don't think that means anything.

Speaker 2 (08:36):
Okay, what about orkn FC.

Speaker 6 (08:38):
A win means everything to them, and they're doing pretty well,
aren't they, you know, halfway point of the season, top
of the league. I'm not sure anybody expected this. The
big part of this is the late goals they've scored.
They've scored five goals after the ninety minute BRK. Once
you get to ninety minutes, they add on injury time.
Auckland have scored five goals in injury time and those
goals have been worth eight points to them in terms

(08:59):
of winning games, drawing games. Take away those eight points, Ryan,
They're not even in the top four. Those late goals
have been a huge part of their success. They play
MacArthur tomorrow, go Media Stadium in Auckland, another huge crowd
in coming. They've really engaged with the Auckland football fan base.
And look, you don't leave if it's ninety minutes and
you want to, Oh, I might get away and beat
the traffic. Not when you're watching Auckland FC, because they're

(09:20):
likely to stort.

Speaker 2 (09:21):
All the action happens late in the piece so can
you just tell me it is? How big of a
deal is it that they're leaving the table at the moment?
I mean, is this a big league? Is this an
important league? Because football is I must say not my fortee.

Speaker 10 (09:32):
But no not.

Speaker 2 (09:33):
Should we be really excited by this?

Speaker 6 (09:36):
We should for a couple of reasons. One is there
a brand new team. So a brand new team coming
into any competition and making the impact that they have
is impressive. Normally it takes teams a little while to
get used to it. You know, they weren't even a
thing a year ago. Now they're in the league and
winning it midway part of the season. Should we be excited? Look,
they're still thirteen games to go, They've played fourteen thirteen

(09:57):
to go. But look they've every post winner so far.
Momentum is a powerful thing.

Speaker 2 (10:02):
I think.

Speaker 6 (10:03):
Look, I think we should be excited about them. I
know the fans are. They're getting good numbers. So look,
you can't You certainly can't win the league in late January,
but you can go a long way towards creating the
momentum that might win it for you in May.

Speaker 2 (10:16):
Nice Piney, thanks so much for see you in the weekend.
Good see you, Jason Pine News Talks. He'd be nineteen
after four. Plenty more to come, including lots of your texts,
and I'll fill you in on what's happening over in
Sydney with this tear plot too.

Speaker 1 (10:29):
Getting the facts discarding the fluff. It's Ryan Bridge on
hither duplicy Ellen drive with one new zealist.

Speaker 3 (10:36):
Let's get connected News talks.

Speaker 2 (10:38):
They'd be welcome back twenty two after four. After four thirty,
We've going to Logan Church, who's our US correspondent about
this plane versus helicopter crash in Washington, DC. Sixty seven
people have lost their lives and this is what Trump
was saying. Now, I just want to make clear about
this story. People have been saying all day. Oh Trump
is blaming DEI, he says quite clearly in the press.

(11:00):
Comperency says it could have been the diversity, equity and
inclusion rules that the FAA the CIA is implementing over
the have lissen.

Speaker 11 (11:10):
I do want to point out that various articles that
appeared prior to my entering office, and here's one. The
FAA's diversity push includes focus on hiring people with severe
intellectual and psychiatric disabilities. That is amazing, and there says

(11:32):
FAA says people with severe disabilities the most underrepresented segment
of the workforce, and they want the men and they
want them they can be air traffic controllers.

Speaker 12 (11:43):
I don't think so.

Speaker 2 (11:45):
I mean, it's insane because people have just lost their
lives and he's talking about DEI the the FAA, but
he doesn't say that's what caused the accident. But I mean,
even raising it, I suppose you can see why people
have drawn that conclusion. Anyway, the real investigation, they're going
to have a preliminary result they reckon within thirty days
and try and get something out there twenty three minutes

(12:07):
after four Also, we've got some data on our population growth,
and you know, we heard probably a couple of months ago,
we started talking about net zero migration, that's as many
people coming to New Zealand as leaving, and that this
year we might hit net zero migration. Now we're talking
about basically that we will be a next net exporter

(12:29):
of migrants. So in the next few months this could
very well happen. The state of our economy is so
bad that even the you know, even the migrants have
come here in our fleeing right. So in November there
was a net gain of two thousand, so there were
two thousand more people arrived here than left, so it's
still positive. But you compare that to November twenty twenty three,

(12:51):
we had a net gain of seven thousand, one hundred.
Now the past six months have averaged about two thousand.
That is, it's less than twenty twenty three, but it's
also less than pre COVID, much less than pre COVID,
and unemployment hasn't even peaked yet. So you start to
add these things up and you go, well, if the
unemployment rate goes up, then we'll have more people potentially

(13:13):
leaving the country, We'll have fewer people wanting to come here,
and then you have net export migration, and that makes
it hard for the government because the government is all
about growth, growth, growth, and funnily enough, migrants when they
come here and they spend money that actually helps the
growth forecast, right, so that's not good for them. Twenty

(13:33):
five after four our Tit of the Day to day,
I thought I would just introduce you to our Tit
of the day for a Friday. Jan Toinetti. Now she's
a former education minister. You'll know her. She was going
on TikTok or Instagram or whatever, one of those things
and criticizing David Semour's lunches. And she's got a photo
of different examples of the lunches, and she's got her

(13:56):
face and doing a video in front of them, sort
of judging them on social media. Have a listen, and I.

Speaker 7 (14:03):
Think that this is a hamburger.

Speaker 13 (14:06):
I'm not certain, but I'm thinking that's what it is.

Speaker 14 (14:10):
This is absolutely disgraceful.

Speaker 7 (14:13):
Children deserved better.

Speaker 15 (14:14):
They were getting better under our government. We were providing
a truly healthy and free lunch program that was locally run.

Speaker 5 (14:23):
We need to bring that back.

Speaker 2 (14:25):
The problem for jan Toinetti, the hamburger she's talking about
was her hamburger and when she when Labor was in government,
the photo, she got it wrong. She was judging her
own hamburger. From twenty twenty two, she had to take
the video down. She hasn't apologized, but she's taken the
video down since. And luckily the act Party took a

(14:49):
copy of it and they've put it up on their
social media, so you can probably go and see it
there or on the Herald website. Test of the day
jan Toinetti twenty six after four news to seventy.

Speaker 7 (15:02):
Oh you.

Speaker 16 (15:05):
You yelly called iced team when.

Speaker 3 (15:22):
F solos, you yell all the time putting the challenging

(15:44):
questions to the people.

Speaker 1 (15:46):
At the heart of the story, it's Ryan Bridge on
hither duplessy Alan drive with one New Zealand let's get
connected news talks.

Speaker 12 (15:54):
It'd be.

Speaker 2 (16:05):
Twenty five away from five Newstalok said be Simey and
Brown after five. So he's announced details of the new
hospital in Dunedin that they are planning to build. And
I say planning because they are still negotiating to actually
get the thing done. But here are some quick numbers
for you. Three hundred and sixty seven. That's how many
beds they've got in Dunedin right now, three hundred and

(16:27):
sixty seven. And they reckon they're overrun. Things are really
tough at best. Using the most generous number for the government,
they will get three hundred and seventy one, So an
extra four beds. Now, this thing's not going to be
completed until twenty thirty one, so you're going to get
an extra four beds. And you know six years time

(16:51):
the population is going to be what and it's already struggling.
I just can't see this working out anyway, Simmy and
Brown answers questions about that. After five it's.

Speaker 3 (16:59):
The world wires on news dogs. They'd be drive.

Speaker 2 (17:03):
They've got the black boxes from the plane and chopper
that went down in DC sixty seven dead. The National
Transportation Safety Board not speculating on a cause all.

Speaker 1 (17:11):
Also life and an aviation accident is very unusual in
the United States, and our heartfeld sorrow goes out to
everyone that's affected.

Speaker 3 (17:18):
It affects us, affects.

Speaker 7 (17:20):
Everyone around us.

Speaker 5 (17:21):
There are a lot of people hurting today.

Speaker 10 (17:24):
We will help find out what happened. We will do
it factually, and we will do it accurately.

Speaker 2 (17:28):
In Australia, New South Wales police well quite secret squirrel
regarding the caravan full of bombs that they didn't tell
the Prime minister about for ten days. Police didn't brief
Alban Easy about the foiled terror plot until the story
hit the media earlier this week. Peter Dutton's having a
field day.

Speaker 17 (17:47):
I'm just I'm not aware of a precedent where the
Prime Minister has not been advised of a nationally significant
issue like this that either they're worried about it being leaked,
or can't imagine what other concern they would have.

Speaker 2 (18:03):
Finally, on your Friday, a metal sculpture of a dragon
and a city in Poland that actually breathes fire once
every three minutes is going to be switched off for
a month. The local council says the dragon has been
using too much gas lately. The energy bills are getting
out of hands. The authorities are going to switch the

(18:23):
fire off until March. Try to work out how they
can stop the dragon guzzling so much gas.

Speaker 1 (18:29):
International correspondence with Ends and Eye Insurance Peace of mind
for New Zealand business.

Speaker 2 (18:35):
Sounds like they need to talk to Shane Jones. Twenty
three to five. Now, more than forty bodies have been
pulled from the wreckage after last night's plane crash in Washington, DC.
One news correspondent Logan Church is with us for a
more high Logan good evening. Any more clues, I mean
there's talk about how many people were on on roster
at the time in the air traffic control. Any more

(18:58):
news on what might have gone wrong here?

Speaker 18 (19:00):
Well that's the big question, isn't it. What exactly led
to this disaster which resulted in sixty seven people at
this stage effectively losing their lives, officials saying they don't
expect for anyone to be pulled alive. From the records,
we know that sixty four people were on that American
Airlines flights which crashed into the river, and three people

(19:22):
were on the black Hawk helicopter which crashed into that
aircraft while it was on descent to Reagan National Airport.
And at this stage ride more questions than answers we do.
We do know at this stage that the search and
rescue teams that have been scouring the river the Potomac

(19:43):
over the last twenty four hours, so many of them
have been withdrawn. The dive squads are no longer in
the river past of that is because there's now effectively
no hope that anyone who might have survived the initial
impact into the river could have survived. I mean, I
was in Washington a short time ago and the part
of that river was frozen over with ice, and it's

(20:05):
only a little bit more warmer now, So you know,
at this stage there's almost no hope for survivors. But
there's really that big question now as to what exactly
when Tom. There had been reports here in America as
to what the staffing levels and air traffic control might
have been that nights. There have been reports here that
one controller was perhaps doing a two person job, and

(20:27):
also questions over the helicopter itself, whether they were flying
higher than what they should have, whether they saw the
right plane. We do know through recordings that were released
from air traffic control that there was communication between the
tower at Reagae National Airports and the helicompter and they
were warned a bounce the aircraft. Maybe it was a

(20:49):
case of misidentification, but at this stage it certainly looks
like a tragic case of human era, and that will
be the focus of investigators over the next week's, months
and years. As you mentioned, the flight recorders in that
plane had been recovered this evening and that could likely
contain vice or clues as to what might have gone

(21:10):
wrong in those final seconds before this devastating accident.

Speaker 2 (21:13):
Do you know what did something happen the day before
in this to do with the same area.

Speaker 18 (21:19):
Well, this is a very busy part of the country,
so Reagan National Airport is a very busy airport, right,
So it's an obviously the nation's capital, very close to
the White House, near the Capitol Building, and the Pentagon
as well. There's a lot of air traffic and are
now not just domestic aircraft, but also military aircraft as well.

(21:39):
As I said, the Pentagon's nearby. And what's interesting here
is the flights routes that the helicopter was taking down
the Potomac River. That was a normal flight route, a
flight route for military aircraft and helicopters flying up and down.
So there was a really big question there over what
exactly happens. The self shuts immediately after the accident. That

(22:03):
has reopened this evening. Of course, many passengers they're feeling
very nervous after what happens happens yesterday. But as I said,
certainly a lot more questions and answers at this stage
as to what exactly went wrong here and what's been
the worst aviation disaster in at least the last few
years here in America.

Speaker 2 (22:23):
All right, Logan, thank you for that. Logan Church One
News US correspondent with US nineteen minutes away from five
year on news talks. HEB. Judy raises a good point.
This is about the Danneedan Hospital via text nine two
ninety two. Surely it's not all about hospital beds, isn't
it also about the imagery test and the operating theaters
which will keep the bed turnover rate better. It's as
much about efficiency, isn't it, Judy. That is a good point.

(22:46):
Now they have increased the you know, some radiography stuff,
they've done some imaging stuff, and they have increased operating theaters,
which is important. But if you were going into an
operating thing there, generally you will need a bed to
recover and afterwards. Right, So the fact that they're only
increasing the number of beds by four and we're going
to wait six years to get this thing built, it's

(23:10):
all good stuff. Good questions for Simeon Brown.

Speaker 1 (23:13):
After five politics with centric credit, check your customers and
get payment certainty.

Speaker 2 (23:18):
It is quarter to five news Talks. Hebe Jason Walls,
News Talk zb's political editors with us. Hey Jason, Happy Friday, Ryan,
Happy Friday to you too. So we were talking about
this earlier, the Jan Tinetti thing, bit of an embarrassment
over school lunches for them.

Speaker 19 (23:33):
Embarrassment, I think is a bit of an understatement to
be honest. You would have seen the stories about some
of the school free lunches coming in yesterday and today,
and you know it's fair to say there's mixed reviews.
When I tested some when they came down to Parliament,
I actually thought that there were great. I had the
butter chicken and the ressols. I had two of them
because they're quite small, and I've forgot my lunch that day,
so it worked out quite well. But of course you're

(23:54):
going to get the group of people that will turn
their nose up at them and say and then go
find a reporter that they can complain to, and it's
sure as night follows day that is what happened. I
will say, there is a photo of a particularly bad
looking lunch with some lentils and a ball of pasta
that looks particularly woeful, but you know it's day four.

Speaker 2 (24:11):
Okay.

Speaker 19 (24:11):
There will be some teething issues, and if we were
having these problems in say six months time, we would
have more of an issue then. But someone who was
quick to hop on the hate train, as you said,
was Labour's education spokesperson jan Toinetti. Have a listened to
what she said on social media and I.

Speaker 13 (24:27):
Think that this is a Hamburger I'm not certain, but I'm.

Speaker 20 (24:32):
Thinking that's what it is. This is absolutely disgraceful.

Speaker 19 (24:37):
Now, the problem with that is the hamburgeruse she's talking about,
and the hamburger that she's pointing to in this video
is from the school lunches when Labor were in government,
when she was the Associate Education Minister. This was one
of the hamburgers that they were giving to kids. So
it's a massive, massive own goal here.

Speaker 12 (24:54):
All they had to do was repost the picture that
already looked pretty grim and they would have done the
work for them, but they had to screw it up
by making this colossal error and really just undermining their
own credibility on this one.

Speaker 2 (25:06):
Yeah. They just can't do anything right, can they? That lot.
They're just a bit of a mess. It's do you
find jan Denisi's Kiwi accent hilarious, Jason or is it
just me?

Speaker 19 (25:16):
Oh listen mate, I cannot be the one commenting on
accents here for obvious reasons.

Speaker 2 (25:22):
It's dis graceful anyway. Dunedin and they're getting the new hospital,
so Simeon Brown has been I guess he's been crafty
in a way because he's doing the same floor area.
But he's he's managed to reduce the number of beds
that from what Labor was proposing, so we'll end up
with basically empty floors that can be filled in later.

Speaker 19 (25:42):
Yeah. Well, I mean, if you look the way that
they're doing with the beds, they said that there is
going to be closer to one hundred or four hundred
and four or thereabouts when they can finally get a
capacity at three hundred and fifty one on opening. And
so the current hospital capacity is about three hundred and
ninety six beds, and Labor they were planning to get
it closer to four hundred and tans. Look, there are

(26:04):
a few extra beds here. When you when you do
the calculations, you take this through to the entirety. But
the point that Simeon Brown was making today, and you
have to give a bit of credit to Shane Vatti
here because he would have done most of this, and
this is just Simeon Brown sort of putting the cherry
on top on the end, is the fact that they've
got the costs down. It was Chris Bishop who came
out and said, essentially the fact that this project has

(26:26):
blown out to three billion dollars making it the most expensive,
well one of the most expensive hospitals ever built in
the Southern Hemisphere just simply was not acceptable. So they've,
according to Simi, and got that down to about one
point eight eight billion dollars. And he was quite confident
about this budget as well. Talking today.

Speaker 14 (26:43):
Last year the government invested an extra two hundred and
ninety million dollars towards the new Denedan Hospital project, bringing
the total funding for the project to one point eight
eight billion dollars.

Speaker 19 (26:55):
Now, he says that this is going to get underway
in terms of the boots and the odds, shovels in
the ground and contr rduction on the new site which
is on the where the former Cadbury Chocolate factory was
in Dunedin. Fun little fact there within the next six months.
So we'll keep an eye on that one. But they're
going to be scrutinized the entire way here because you know,
the people of Dunedin were greatly quite upset that the
project was canned, but I think the government was probably

(27:17):
right to look at it and see this is blown
out astronomically and we need to bring the costs back down.

Speaker 2 (27:23):
All right. Jason Nice one Jason Wall's News Talks and
again for the people of Dunedin, there is some certainty
today that it's something at least is going to be built.
Jason Wall's News Talks.

Speaker 3 (27:32):
Here be political editor cry and Bridge.

Speaker 2 (27:35):
Eleven to five. We'll have Simon Brown on after five.
Just want to keep you up to speed with this
terror Sydney terra plot case because it's fascinating. First of all,
how on earth could just imagine this was a New
Zealand for a second and the police uncover a terror plot.
They've got legitimate explosives that in the same place that

(27:56):
they have synagogues with addresses Jewish targets in New South Wales.
They find all this together, they start an investigation, they
don't yet know who they're looking for, and they don't
tell the Prime Minister about a live terror threat with
the person whoever might be responsible for putting the explosives

(28:19):
there at large. I'm sorry, I assumed that that would
be something you would tell your Prime minister about in Australia.
In New South Wales, the local authorities didn't, His people didn't,
the terror you know unit within police didn't. But also

(28:40):
what's interesting out of this story is what's come out
from the ABC today. So there's a couple that own
the caravan, right. Their names are Tammy Farugia and Scott Marshall.
They own the caravan and they are currently incarcerated. So
these two, what ABC's gone and done is to look

(29:03):
back at their social media posts from the last three
while and it's fascinating reading. On December sixth, Miss Ferrugia
posted on TikTok that she was looking for a caravan
to purchase. In capitals, she's written, anyone got a caravan
for sale? Need one asap? I've got dollars with six
dollar signs. On January twentieth, she was arrested over a

(29:23):
separate incident. She was accused of taking part in a
criminal group that sprayed some antisemitic graffiti on homes and
torched a car in Sydney's East and prior to that attack,
she posts on her social media page, anyone got any
plastic Jerry cans please let me know. I mean, honestly,

(29:44):
it doesn't sound like a very sophisticated operation. They anyway,
were arrested over that separate incident. Their house was raided.
What was inside knuckle dusters, A Taser, six cloned number plates,
the keys to a stolen car and drugs and elbow
knew none of it nine to five.

Speaker 1 (30:07):
Putting the tough questions to the newspeakers, the mic Asking.

Speaker 21 (30:10):
Breakfast turns out the United States now our second biggest
export market.

Speaker 2 (30:13):
Were once Australia was everything.

Speaker 21 (30:14):
Now it's third, so China the US now Australia trade
mins to Tom mclays, well, there's look, I.

Speaker 22 (30:18):
Think there's softness in the Australian market, so that helped
us through to sort of our trade. But it's still
very very important to us. But what's happened in America
is they are consuming more and as their economy is
growing quickly, they're looking towards many countries of the world
and New Zealand incidentally, although this isn't to do with
President Trump. When he became president last time, our trade
with the US grew very very quickly, and although there's

(30:39):
a bit of uncertainty about what he might or might
not do around tariffs, my prediction is New Zealand exporders
will do very very well in the US market.

Speaker 21 (30:46):
Back Monday, from six am, the mic Husking Breakfast with
the Rain drove of the last news.

Speaker 2 (30:50):
Talk ZB just gone five to five, Ryan, Deneden Hospital
is not just there to serve the people of Dunedin City.
It serves the entire last South island from the south
of the White Tucky River south of the White Tucky River.
This huge geographical area and population, along with projected population
and tourism growth, must be taken into account. That's exactly

(31:12):
the point I was making earlier. How can you say
that an extra four beds that won't be open for
another six years is going to satisfy the needs of
all of those people in those areas and a growing
area too. We'll talk to me round about that after five.
Also lots of texts on the school lunches, which is
great to see. This one says Ryan. I work in
a school that receives free lunches and has been for

(31:34):
the past few years. The community is very grateful for it.
Please don't turn this around and make it seem like
they are ungrateful. Far from it. This is because I
was having a wind jeeler about the parents who were
complaining about the food. This person says, this is the
same texture. The system has now been centralized. It's not

(31:55):
that the kids are ungrateful, but just that the food
is not enjoyable. Again, if you're hungry, if you're starving,
if you are hungry, then surely you would eat what's
in front of you. I don't know, maybe that's just
an old school way of thinking. I'm not even that old.
I just feel like it's a reasonable it's a reasonable

(32:15):
thing to expect. However, the problem with food being delivered late,
that is a real issue. And we're going to talk
to the guys behind the compass of the company behind
the free school lunch program after five as well. Hey,
we could all be in a trade wary by Monday.
The deadline's coming for Trump, Mexico and for Canada. I'll

(32:40):
tell you about that after five two News Talk to be.

Speaker 7 (32:43):
My losing allday. Oh aren't you I need you? Olga h.

Speaker 21 (33:18):
Need It's beautiful, says it Oh.

Speaker 1 (33:25):
Questions, answers, facts, analysis, the drive show you trust for
the full picture. Brian Bridge on hither Duplessy Allen Drive
with one New Zealand let's get connected news talks.

Speaker 2 (33:38):
He'd be good evening. It is six half to five
on news talks. There'd be and some good news for
your Friday night to Ndan is getting a new hospital
after all. To quickly catch you up on this whole saga,
the last government promised to build a new hospital on
the side of the old Cabre factory. The new government
put those plans on hold last September because of fairs.
The budget could blow out to three billion dollars. But

(34:00):
after looking into two alternative options, the Health Minister has
today come out and announced the government will build a
new hospital on the Cabre site, but the budget won't
blow out. Simeon Brown is the Health Minister. High minister,
good day, how are you good? Thank you? How's Donedan
going to cope with fewer beds?

Speaker 14 (34:19):
Well, ultimately, this is more beds and what they're currently got,
it's more operating theaters, it's more emergency department spaces, more
medical imaging machines. This has increased capacity with the ability
to grow into the future as demand increases.

Speaker 2 (34:34):
So this is a.

Speaker 14 (34:35):
Great and a great announcement for the need in Southland
and Otago and now it's about cracking on and getting
it delivered.

Speaker 2 (34:41):
So at the moment they've got three hundred and sixty
seven inpatient beds and they were going to have four
hundred and ten and you're giving them three hundred and
fifty one.

Speaker 14 (34:50):
Well, plus an addition of twenty short stay surgical beds,
so it will be three hundred and seventy one beds
with the ability to grow to four hundred four in
four over time.

Speaker 2 (35:00):
Right, so four extra than they have now in two
years time. I mean, if they're struggling and there's people
in the hallways at the moment, how are they going
to cope in two years time? And this thing's hopefully
done well.

Speaker 14 (35:11):
Ultimately, it's not just about their base. It's about making
sure you've a modern, fit for purpose facility which helps
ensure patient flow, the ability to make decisions faster, get
a patience, the care they need quicker, and that's what
this modern facility is about delivering our missions. Have been
part of this design work that's been underway, and what

(35:31):
they told me when I met with them this morning
is that this is the right facility or opening with
the future and future proof for that growth and that
demand that's needed. So they've worked alongside Health New Zealand
have been designing this. They've been part of those decisions
and they were there as part of the briefing this morning,
which is.

Speaker 10 (35:50):
Really really good.

Speaker 2 (35:51):
When will it open?

Speaker 14 (35:53):
Well, the construction ultimately where we're now in negotiation around
with the constructors. We want to get that completed as
quickly as possible. Advice will have action back on the
site by the middle of this year, with opening around
by twenty thirty one. So we're focused now about getting
this to construction and getting it.

Speaker 2 (36:10):
Done because this is the thing right, So it's we're
in twenty twenty five, you're talking twenty thirty one. They
are rammed at the moment with three hundred and sixty
seven beds. You're going to open with just four more beds.
What's the population going to increase by between now and then?
It doesn't sound like it's going to open and be
able to meet demand well.

Speaker 14 (36:30):
As the clinicians told me today, this is and as
they have been part of the process, this is the
right facility needed on opening with the future proof capacity
for that growth. So be part of those decisions as
we've been going through this scope change and the deliberate,
deliberate soon ensure that we get the right design, the
right facility.

Speaker 2 (36:51):
Have you got the same amount of space, just fewer beds?
So in other words, will there be floors that are
sitting empty waiting to have beds added, Well, there will.

Speaker 14 (37:00):
Be additional floor space built which will allow for that
capacity growth and also for other services which may be
required depending on what that demand is into the future.
So that's what we've done with making sure we're future
proofing the capacity for that growth into the future.

Speaker 2 (37:16):
But so if you've got flaws that will be sitting
empty waiting for beds, surely, I mean, okay, have you
done the costings. How much does it cost to put
a bed into that space now versus what it might
cost in six years.

Speaker 14 (37:28):
Yes, And ultimately, what we're doing here is we're keeping
this within budget whilst future proofing for that future growth
that's needed and that's required. And as I said, clinicians
have been part of this work. And you know, one
of the key things that are incredibly pleas about. I've
just been through the eds within this morning. One of
the key things they are really compleasee about is the

(37:48):
significant growth in the emergency department from forty two to
fifty eight spaces. That is a significant growth growth in
the emergency department and that's going to make a huge
difference to help get patients sitting quicker and get that
timely and quality care that they need and that they deserve.

Speaker 2 (38:05):
Do you think this will put it into all the protests.

Speaker 14 (38:08):
Well, look, ultimately it's about giving certainty and it's about
making sure made decision. I was really pleased to see
the mayor come out and welcome this announcement. He was
there with me when I was making it, which was good.
And ultimately getting on and getting it done and delivering
for the feat of Dunedin, Southland and Otagos. That's going
to be my focus as Minister of Health.

Speaker 2 (38:26):
All right, minister, thank you very much for your time.
That's Simon Brown, who's the newly minted health minister. I
mean you have to say probably on balance for the
need and they will be happy with this. You've got
your hospital, it's the same floor space and you can
ramp up the beds at a later date should you
need to. Twelve after five Ryan Bridge, coal and gold
have been added to the critical minerals list in this

(38:47):
country and the hopes we can double our mineral exports
in a decade. The Energy Resources Mister Shane Jones once
again came at the bank says he announced this today.
Who are debanking fossil fuel companies?

Speaker 6 (38:58):
Now, I'm not going to stand for one more minute
of that won't riddled intimidation.

Speaker 2 (39:05):
Allison Paul is the senior vice president at mining company
Oceania Gold and she's with me this evening. Hi Allison, Hi, Ryan.
Does this speech change anything for you?

Speaker 20 (39:17):
It was good to hear gold included in the critical
minerals list. It makes a lot of sense. It actually
doesn't change what we do day to day. We've been
mining here for thirty four years and we think we
already deliver what this strategy is looking to do, which
is billions of exports, lots of jobs, and a lot

(39:40):
of expenditure into our region. So we think we can
deliver that, and it's talking about doing that responsibly and sustainably,
and that is part of who we are. That doesn't
change at all.

Speaker 2 (39:51):
What's stopping you from going faster.

Speaker 20 (39:57):
Mining is a business that involves a lot of preparation.
You have to explore for the gold in our case
and firm up your case for mining it, and you
have to get the permits and approvals to do that.
So certainly the government's Fast Track Approvals Act is going
to be for us potentially a game changer in the

(40:19):
as much as anything. The one stop shop approach, so
the fact that you can bring your case before a
single approvals process, that is going to be hopefully something
that speeds up what we're able to do and sees
us getting started on some of these projects imminently, and.

Speaker 2 (40:37):
That's our aim, and that will mean hundreds of extra jobs.
Right are they full time jobs and how long will
the jobs last?

Speaker 20 (40:45):
So at the moment, if we look at why He
North projects, at why He where this strategy was launched today,
we employ over three hundred people already and that's mostly
direct employees and some contractors. So the addition of the
why Hee North project, which we're looking to put through
fast track later this year, is going to bring hundreds

(41:07):
of new development jobs. Ultimately those will turn into more
mining jobs, and that's in the order of another three
hundred or so mining jobs. So it does bring extra
employment as well as strengthening the existing operation by hand.

Speaker 2 (41:23):
Right, So three hundred mining jobs plus with a couple
of hundred development jobs, and we're talking about I mean,
this is real cash for why He Isn't it real
cash for the region and real cash for the country.

Speaker 20 (41:33):
Absolutely. Yeah, it's going to be over three billion dollars
worth of expenditure over the course of the minement we're
planning and on half a billion in just the capital
that we're going to invest in the first years.

Speaker 2 (41:46):
Have you guys had any problems with your banks? Allison, No,
we haven't. That's that's the bigger will thank you. Nice
to talk. That's Allison Paul, Senior vice president Legal and
Public Affairs from Shianna Gold. It has just gone quarter
past five on news Talks. It'd be still to come. Well,
there's plenty more actually, including our interview with Compass now

(42:09):
Compasses the company that runs the free school in free
food in Schools program that's next five to eighteen. So
there's a lot of mobile companies out there claiming to
be the best, But what does the best actually mean?
For one end, zed it means being exhaustively tested by
independent benchmarking organization UMLAT part of Accentia, who do this

(42:31):
across more than one hundred and twenty companies 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 same action like
downloading a movie or uploading a photo on a phone.
They also supplement their scoring with crowdsource data, which covers

(42:51):
ninety eight percent of our population area. And guest who
came out on top In twenty twenty four out of
our three big talcos, one en Z's mobile network performed
the best, winning for both voice and data. And that's
the third year in a row that one in z
has taken out this award. That is impressive. So if
you're with one end z, it's good to know you're

(43:13):
already on New Zealand's best mobile network. And if you're not,
check out one dot enz and join the winners. Ryan Bridge,
you're on news Talk zeb nineteen minutes after five o'clock.
So much feedback coming in on school lunches, so much,
in fact, that we thought it might be a good
idea to actually talk some more about them, not about

(43:34):
what's in them, but actually about what the delays that
we've had, the delays that we have had in getting
the lunches to the students. So we're going to do
that right now. They've had some issues today in Auckland
in particular. Now Paul Harvey is with Compass. That's the

(43:55):
company that runs and operates and delivers the food programs
with me. Now, Hi got Ryan, how are you good?
Thank you? So did everyone get their lunch on time today?

Speaker 18 (44:07):
No?

Speaker 10 (44:07):
They didn't, Ryan. We we've had a toughtau at the
office and you know, we had some unplanned, unfo seen
issues with ovens this morning, which certainly didn't set us
up on the right start. So it's been a tough
week and ready to key messages. We're continuing to put
an additional contingency upon a contingency to ensure that the

(44:28):
kids get what they deserve, which is meals on time.

Speaker 2 (44:30):
What happened to the oven?

Speaker 10 (44:32):
There's a gas challenge that we had, these things happen
and big manufacturing facilities, and of all weeks, that decided
to happen this morning, particularly after some of the things
that we were starting to see improved from yesterday and
some of the things that we've done. So I can't
control those things, but we have to have continue sort
of work on contingencies upon contingencies and that's what we're

(44:54):
going to do over the weekend.

Speaker 2 (44:55):
Run how many what are you going to do?

Speaker 10 (44:58):
So we've got some addition all expertise on site now
for the guests in the ovens. We're also bringing in
additional resource. We're bringing an additional facilities to help us
ensure that we're not putting too much pressure on the plant, etc.
And that's what we'll be mobilizing today. I think the

(45:20):
other thing that we're going to do is just be
really transparent and open with the schools, and I've sort
of started that process myself with the principles in the
last few days.

Speaker 2 (45:32):
I gues people to be wondering, why was this not
ironed out before you started, because you did have dry runs.

Speaker 10 (45:38):
We had dry runs. But when you start to scale
up and you're into one hundred and twenty seven thousand meals,
you know, you start to see some of the things
that you plan and predict are going to happen. But
you really start to see, in this instance, when you're
working as a collective with multiple people in the system,
minutes matter, and when you're out by a few minutes

(46:00):
like happened this morning, and schools are choosing rightly so
to have lunch at sort of ten ten thirty in
some cases, you alreally put some pressure on that. So
we've got to get that right, and it's an our
wassue of one Ryan.

Speaker 2 (46:12):
And will it get worse next week because you got
more schools coming on board?

Speaker 10 (46:16):
No again, hope, hope, hope.

Speaker 2 (46:20):
How many how many you said you got one hundred
and twenty seven thousand meals? How many kids went without
completely today? Do you know?

Speaker 10 (46:27):
I don't know the exact numbers, But what we did
with the ministry this morning, who have been phenomenal as
we communicated very early to all principles in schools in
the Open region that we would have challenges. So we've
got to get yet.

Speaker 2 (46:38):
No, I get that, But how do you know how
many schools you didn't deliver to it all today?

Speaker 10 (46:45):
I don't know the exact numbers because some schools use
Oh I think we would have got to seventy We
would have attempted to get the seventy ol percent of
schools today and the other thirty odd descent would have
chosen to feed the kids themselves. Because the delay is
that didn't want to compromise.

Speaker 2 (47:02):
So you get fined for that.

Speaker 10 (47:04):
We are performance managed by the government and like with
any of our contracts, right so we penalty will be
accountable to that Ryn.

Speaker 2 (47:12):
So what does that mean.

Speaker 10 (47:14):
It means that we've got performance metrics. We've got but.

Speaker 2 (47:18):
If you don't meet the performance metrics, what's the punishment.

Speaker 10 (47:22):
The punishment will be, you know, ultimately at the end
of the day, it will be the contract.

Speaker 2 (47:27):
But you know, so you'd lose the contract. It's not
it's not a penalty.

Speaker 10 (47:31):
As you go, you're always on edge and you're always
accountable every day to deliver against the contract. Right, So
each contract is different. I won't go into the details
of this, but we are well aware of not you know,
the commercial sort of responsibilities we have, but candidly the responsibilitificates.

Speaker 2 (47:50):
All right, Paul, fair enough, thank you very much for
your time. Really appreciate it. Paul Harvey Compass managing direct
to this on the school lunches twenty three after five
news talks, you'd be.

Speaker 3 (47:59):
Checking them.

Speaker 1 (48:00):
Point of the story, it's Ryan Bridge on either duplicy
Ellen Drive with one New Zealand let's get connected and newstalks.

Speaker 2 (48:07):
That'd be five twenty six. If Shane Jones is looking
for somebody to blame for the big banks, wokeism or
the state of the mining sector, he need look no
further than the mirror. A big part of the problem
facing this country is capital investors. These are your big
overseas outfits with the deep pockets to mine the ground.
They see us as a risky investment. Why because we

(48:29):
don't know whether we're Arthur or Martha. On mining. Labour
comes in bands at overnight, National comes in, reverses the band.
Labour now promising to reverse the reverse on the ban,
and we all know that in probability in twenty twenty
nine or the election after that, the other lot will
get back in and the no sign comes out. Who
would want to invest in a regulatory environment as uncertain

(48:52):
as that. The irony of all of this is Jones himself,
now the loudest paratus pro mining politician this country has
ever said. And it's great to see him in full
flight today. But this is the guy that came from
the party that put labor and power in the first
place and supported their ban on future oil and gas exploration,
the very thing he now rails against. I found a

(49:15):
press release today from twenty eighteen, issued by none other
than Jasinda Ardun and it reads, I'm grateful for the
support of New Zealand first in ensuring the transition away
from fossil fuels. Also, we're all in agreeance as in
Labor New Zealand First and the Greens at Reeds, we're
all in agreeance that we must take this step as
part of our package of measures to tackle climate change.

(49:39):
Ah and now Marta Shane is trying desperately to untackle
climate change, which it turns out is a very difficult
thing to do. As they say, a son, as we're
talking about gas. You can't unfart, can you? The good
martyr runs head first into the same problem with his
crusade against the banks. He was there at the table
when the Zero Carbon Act was handed round a cabinet table,

(50:01):
and he voted for that too. This is the reason
the banks are giving for icing lending to the oil
industry and even some petrol stations. The finger he pointeth
so angrily at others, may be better served pointing right
back at himself.

Speaker 3 (50:16):
Ryan Bridge twenty.

Speaker 2 (50:18):
Eight half to five News Talks. They'd be nine nine
two is the number to text. Would love to hear
from you. Lots to come, lots more to come on
the show, and I will get to your text on
the school lunches too.

Speaker 3 (50:31):
After making the news. The newsmakers.

Speaker 1 (50:34):
Talk to Ryan first, it's Ryan Bridge on Hither duplessy
Ellen Drive with one New Zealand let's get connected news talks.

Speaker 2 (50:42):
He'd be good evening twenty four minutes away from six.
Great to be with you on this Friday evening after six.
We're going to talk about the We're gonna talk to
garage project co owner. Actually about the government wanting growth. Well,
they've got growth of plenty in the bear and beverage industry,

(51:04):
but they're being held back by excise duties. That's a
story for after six. Right now. SkyTV has stepped up
its game and apologizing to customers. This over the failing
satellite connections. So you would have seen this if you've
got Sky. Many of you have been complaining and texting
us to say, actually it's glitching out. There's a glitch
in the matrix. CEO Sophie Maloney's posted a video on

(51:27):
social media this afternoon.

Speaker 15 (51:28):
Recently some of you haven't had the Sky experience you deserve.

Speaker 2 (51:33):
I'm very sorry for this, and yes she knows it's
all very frustrating for you, and I.

Speaker 15 (51:38):
Understand how frustrating this is for those who are affected
and I apologize for.

Speaker 2 (51:43):
This and another apology.

Speaker 15 (51:45):
We've been doing a lot more tech callouts than usual
due to these signal issues, and while our techs have
been working as hard as they can to meet your needs,
we've let you down at times.

Speaker 2 (51:56):
And finally, a bit about the money.

Speaker 15 (51:58):
However, if this issue persists for you, please get in
touch with the Sky's care team so you can work
out how best to support you, including making a credit
to your account. If you're experiencing ongoing interruptions to your viewing,
well that.

Speaker 2 (52:12):
Will be music to the years of those people who
were you know, because it's for some people, especially if
you're on an island like Great Barrier, where you've got
Sky and you rely on that and you need it,
the credit will be welcome news. We call that a
hostage video where somebody steers down the barrel of their
social media and has to do some kind of mere culpa.
So there you go. Sky has officially done a hostage

(52:34):
video at twenty two to six.

Speaker 1 (52:36):
The Friday Sports Huddle with New Zealand Southeby's International Realty,
local and global exposure like no others.

Speaker 9 (52:51):
With thirty seconds to go, the super Sovice done it again.

Speaker 7 (52:56):
And all points are.

Speaker 2 (52:58):
Going to go home with the three points.

Speaker 10 (53:00):
Probably stand out would be probably James. You know, obviously
the club has brought him for everything that he brings.

Speaker 23 (53:07):
You know, my father was the other day of the accident,
and you know there was an image that was created
in instilled in his head of a young disabled girl
and in that moment when national anthem was playing, I
got to change that into.

Speaker 2 (53:21):
A world champion and the voice of Dames Sophie Pasco
and we'll get to here in a second, Nicki Styrs
sports journalists here for the sports huddle tonight.

Speaker 7 (53:29):
Hey Nicki, hello guys.

Speaker 2 (53:32):
Great to have you won with Andrew Gordy's sports commentator.
Good evening, Gordy, mate, how are you very well? It's
great to have you both on the show. Let's start
with the Warriors captain. Who's it going to be? Do
you think? NICKI will start with you? Is James Fisher.
Harris's name has been thrown about there. I know you're
a huge Warriors fan, so what's your.

Speaker 24 (53:51):
Yeah, I am, although actually I'm going to put my
vote in f Mitch Barnett. I think that he's proven
that he can do the job. He did it late
last year was Tory Harris injured. He's a man that
leads by his actions. He's proven that not only for
the Warriors, but for the Blues, the Kangaroos, and I
think he's got the respect of the playing group at

(54:14):
the moment, and I think that's actually really vital going
in to a new season. Don't get me wrong, James Fisher.
Harris is also a very good candidate, however, I think,
and even he has openly said he probably needs to
earn that position first, and he's new to the club,
so he needs to come and show what he can
do lead by his actions, and he has signed on
for a bit latest or a bit longer to end

(54:36):
of twenty twenty eight, I believe, so I think there's
time for him. So that's kind of where I'm putting
my vote.

Speaker 2 (54:42):
All right, what about you, Gordy.

Speaker 25 (54:44):
I don't disagree with any of that actually, and I think, sorry, mate, sorry,
I can make something up for you if you like.
Look Mitch Barney, he's got real Kevin Campion vibes about him,
and he was the player of the Year last year.
He absolutely command's respect within that dressing room. So right now,
I think he probably is the top candidate, but James

(55:07):
Fisher Harris. From everything I've heard about this man, it
doesn't matter what dressing room.

Speaker 2 (55:11):
He walks into.

Speaker 25 (55:12):
He absolutely leads by example in everything that he does.
But the challenge for him is walking straight in and
commanding that straight away, so there might be a challenge there.
And then you've got Roger toy varsashk as well. Well,
he's the only person in that dressing room that's won
a Delian medal. He's done it all for this club
on the field. I think probably the question mark for
him is that his form last season probably doesn't necessarily

(55:36):
demand captaincy and leadership just yet. I think they'll go
with Mitch Barnett and he'll have two excellent deputy deputies,
and James Fisher Harris and Roger touyvarsashek.

Speaker 2 (55:46):
All right, well, that sounds good. They're in good hands
either way, and then they've got three solid options, which
is great. Let's talk tennis. Having that end that was
earlier this week, but the Australian Open, NICKI I had
a problem with that.

Speaker 23 (56:01):
Well.

Speaker 2 (56:01):
I don't like it when people protest at sporting events
generally anyway, because it's it's annoying. I mean, people pay
a lot of money to go and see these things
and if they're constantly being interrupted by fairy dust from
some climate protester, I just.

Speaker 26 (56:14):
You know.

Speaker 2 (56:15):
But anyway, this was quite a separate situation that so
this is sphere and was being heckled before an interview,
and it was it was about some domestic violence allegations
that he had faced. But we've also had this anti
royal chanting. This is at the Champions League game against
aston Villa that Prince William attended, where they said Lizzie's

(56:38):
in a box, which is I mean, it's terrible, it's terrible, nicky.
What do we do about this or is it just
part of the part of sport.

Speaker 24 (56:46):
Look, I think there's a little bit of a difference
between some you know, like an individual sport like tennis,
like golf, because it becomes very personal when someone's here
called you know, it's not like a team event where
you can throw out general heckling and everybody affected by that.
I just think I agree with you where it's actually
not the correct platform for that type of heckling. And

(57:07):
I think that type of comment at all, I think
it ruins the experience for everybody else who've paid a
lot of money to go and watch. You know, professional
people do a professional job. And also you know, it's
it becomes almost like a kangaroo court, and I think,
you know that's not fair. You can't you can't put
somebody on the spot for something that's a very very
serious allegation, which I might add has not been proven.

(57:31):
And you know, there was two out of court settlements.
The ATP launched an investigation into one of them. No
discipline react was taken. None of that comes into account.
He's just basically standing there and she's having a good
right old crack. No, I don't agree with it. It's
no place for it.

Speaker 25 (57:45):
Well, she certainly picked her moment, didn't she, when the
entire crowd was silent waiting for his words. I'm yeah,
I'm not just quite sure how I feel about this,
because what she actually said wasn't actually that bad. You know,
she didn't make could direct threat to him, didn't make
didn't make use derogatory language or anything like that. She

(58:05):
purely made a statement that Australia believes these two women. Now,
she doesn't have the right I don't think to speak
on behalf of everyone. But if she had said I believe,
I don't know what's.

Speaker 19 (58:15):
Wrong with that.

Speaker 18 (58:17):
Well, I don't think it's the right platform.

Speaker 2 (58:19):
Perhaps not, but she certainly may got her point across.
And to be fair to her, she she also didn't
interrupt a game. She just interrupted a broadcast, really didn't she?
That's great?

Speaker 24 (58:28):
But what do you do if you're you're zere? You know,
what do you do in that situation? You're damned if
you do, and you're damned if you don't. If you
speak up against.

Speaker 19 (58:36):
Her, you look like an asshole.

Speaker 24 (58:38):
Excuse me, I'd about.

Speaker 3 (58:39):
To say that, forgot said it.

Speaker 2 (58:42):
Now one.

Speaker 19 (58:49):
Is sorry, you know? So what does he do?

Speaker 24 (58:52):
And if he sits in silence, then she gets her
platform and he gets to say nothing in his own defense.

Speaker 18 (58:57):
I think it's Yeah, I don't like it.

Speaker 2 (59:00):
That's interesting because, like golf, not great for shouting out,
Tennis not great for shouting out because they're quite intimate
sort of arenas.

Speaker 25 (59:08):
That's right, But for golf, I mean that the etiquette
is clear. Right, you do not make a sound while
the player is in their backswing, for example. But as
you quite rightly pointed out, this was not during the game.
It was after the game, it was all over. She
picked a moment to get a point across. And does
he have the right like you say, guilty, you know,
innocent until proven guilty, et cetera, et cetera. But does
he absolutely have the right to walk around and play

(59:31):
tennis and receive nothing?

Speaker 2 (59:34):
Well, clearly not. She's proven not and one to Pacific
level chat that and also Auckland FC. Nicki starrs Andrew
Gordy on the Sports Huddle, returning.

Speaker 1 (59:43):
Next the Friday Sports Huddle with New Zealand Southeby's International
Realty Elevate the Marketing of your Home.

Speaker 2 (59:51):
Twelve to six news Talk, said be Nicki starras sports
journalist and Andrew Gordy's sports commentator on the Sports Huddle
this evening. Let's talk onea PACIFICA. So they want to
make the Super Rugby Final this season and they want
to get a title within five years. This is the
plan they do, of course have Artie Savier. Is it,
Gordy a realistic goal or I mean, what good to

(01:00:13):
dream big?

Speaker 25 (01:00:14):
I suppose it is good to dream big. That's essentially
my point. I think there Do I believe that they'll
achieve their goal. I certainly hope that they do. And
Ardie Savia is certainly the player I think you would want.
If you could choose any player right now to build
a team around, it would be Ardie Savia. So they've
chosen the right guy in that regard. But one person

(01:00:35):
does not make a team, so they're going to need
to build around him, and five years isn't necessarily impossible
to do. But they've got a long way to climb
from where they are. But I love the goal and
I love what certainly getting Ardie Savia, what that does
for the Muana Pacifica fan base and the PACIFICA community

(01:00:57):
to get behind this team because Llan Rugby and Super
Rugby needs this team to fly.

Speaker 2 (01:01:04):
Do you agree with that sentiment, Nicky?

Speaker 27 (01:01:06):
What he says?

Speaker 24 (01:01:12):
Do you know it was another one of those situations where.

Speaker 20 (01:01:14):
Okay stole my Sunday.

Speaker 24 (01:01:16):
Yeah, it's pretty hard to disagree with all of that.
You have to dream big and New Zealand Rugby definitely
needs them to fly. But I'm kind of an agreeance
that you know, they've only been around what's their third
season or whatever, and being based in New Zealand, I'm
not sure. It always works for you in the sense of,
you know, keeping that momentum going with your fan base
and so you know, Ardie Savia of course is going

(01:01:38):
to bring wonderful things to the leadership, you know, just expectation, professionalism,
all of those things. But as Goodie says, you can't
build an entire campaign around one player. You're going to
have to get more buy in and time we'll see
that develop.

Speaker 2 (01:01:53):
I think do you know who they could take some
inspiration from as Auckland FC, because look at them. You know,
this is their first this is their first foray in
right and they're top of the leader table, you know,
halfway through the season right now. Are you confident, Gordy
the Beers football's your thing?

Speaker 7 (01:02:09):
Right?

Speaker 2 (01:02:10):
Are you confident they're going to stay there?

Speaker 19 (01:02:11):
Am I confident they're going to stay there?

Speaker 25 (01:02:13):
I think if they have a fully fit squad, they
are very competitive and a red hot chance to win
this title, absolutely, because they've got the fan base behind them.
But they need fit players and I think the injury
to Dan Hall has certainly affected Auckland f C's form.
But if they can get him back and keep the
rest of the squad fit, they're a red hot chants.

Speaker 2 (01:02:31):
There's an interesting piece in the Herald this week, Nikki
that talks about the sort of overlap in Auckland, in
particular for the fan base between the Warriors, the Blues
and Auckland FC, and just how these two franchises are
potentially going to really hurt the Blues.

Speaker 24 (01:02:48):
I actually think it could have the opposite effect. I
think it's really mobilizing Auckland is to get him behind sport,
the sport in their city. You know, it's a good
situation to have the Warriors going flying that. You know,
the Blues proved last year that they have got what
it takes to win a Super Rugby title. The Auckland,
you know, a football club are doing a fantastic job
and you know, looking like a maiden title. So I

(01:03:10):
sort of see it the other way. I think I
think rugby needs They have had some challenges, let's let's
face it, as a product, and they are going to
need the Auckland crowd to get behind them for this
season to make sure that they do do the Auckland
the rugby product. Well, I mean, look the using on
rugby board last season was in disarray. These questions around

(01:03:34):
Eden Park. Is it the right stadium for Auckland Blues.
But I actually think the success of the Warriors, the
fans behind the Warriors and Auckland's FC will will move
and permeate into the Aukland Blues.

Speaker 19 (01:03:46):
This is a huge perception issue, isn't it.

Speaker 25 (01:03:48):
We're talking about a team and whether they are now
third in the pecking order. They won their competition last
year and we're all on board the hype train. Of
course that exists around the Warriors and Auckland f C,
who at the moment haven't won anything. So where is
that perception built from? It's what you see on TV
because the Warriors and Auckland f C are playing at

(01:04:08):
a purpose fit you know, purpose Belt stadium White so
purpose Belt, but it's perfect for them, Whereas the Blues
play in a massive stadium that they cannot have a
hope of filling.

Speaker 19 (01:04:19):
So what are they going to do?

Speaker 25 (01:04:21):
They either move or find a way to I suppose
pack up on the sentiment that Nick's talking about. Auckland
sports fans are mobilized at the moment, so the Blues
have to get on board that and make sure that
they get as many fans into that stadium as possible,
make the tickets dirt cheap, just get people there, because
that builds the perception.

Speaker 2 (01:04:40):
Around the they're going. Sometimes, when you watch them at
the rate they're going, you could play at a high
school and you feel like they wouldn't fill it out, you.

Speaker 19 (01:04:47):
Know what I mean.

Speaker 25 (01:04:49):
If you actually go, it's an enjoyable experience. But the
trouble is it's such a big stadium they haven't got
a chance.

Speaker 2 (01:04:55):
Yeah. Interesting point, really interesting point. Guys.

Speaker 26 (01:04:58):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:04:58):
Great to see you both. Well, I haven't seen you, Nikki,
but I don't need to do that.

Speaker 3 (01:05:03):
I'd great to see you too, obviously.

Speaker 19 (01:05:05):
Andrews, you know, he went into the studio, got the
jump on me just around there about.

Speaker 2 (01:05:09):
I thought i'd pop in and see bridging.

Speaker 19 (01:05:11):
What a trade did you?

Speaker 2 (01:05:13):
Okay, all right, You're coming next time, Nicki Nicki staris
sports journalist Andrew Gordy, sports commentator on the Sports Huddle
for your Friday night Thanks guys. It is seven to
six news talks inb.

Speaker 3 (01:05:25):
Red or Blue, Trump or Harris? Who will win the
battleground states.

Speaker 1 (01:05:29):
The latest on the US election is Heather Duplicy Allan
Drive with one new Zealand.

Speaker 3 (01:05:34):
Let's get connected us talk SIB.

Speaker 2 (01:05:38):
You would have heard in the news about the former
ACT Party president Tim Jaego. We've got a statement from
the ACT Party. I'll read you that after six o'clock. Also,
after six we're going to talk about beer and the
fact that there is so much excise duty. Apparently half
of if you get a twelve box of twelve beer,
six of them are tax whether that's excise duty or

(01:05:58):
tax or GST or whatever. Anyway, and talk about all
of that good stuff after six. Right now, though very
quickly for you, just some information, you know, Deep Seek.
Apparently in Australia they're saying don't download it because there
is absolutely no guarantee, in fact, quite the opposite, that
your information will end up with the Chinese government. Two reasons. One,

(01:06:21):
it's in the Chinese law that any app made there
that the government reserves the right to have access to
information on it. And what's more, it says it in
deep Sex terms and conditions that they can hand your
information over to the Chinese government. So I mean, at
least they've been upfront about it. But of my advice,
we don't download the app. Three to six News Talks BE.

Speaker 1 (01:06:59):
We're Business meets Insight the Business Hour with Ryan Bridge
on News Talks MB.

Speaker 2 (01:07:07):
Good evening, it is six after six. Great to have
your company tonight. Jason Walls raps the political week for us. Shortly.
We're in Hong Kong with the Asia Business Report, and
our UK correspondent Gail Downey joins us before top of
the hour. Right now if you might be sitting down
actually to enjoy a cold brew yourself, So this is
great timing. A new report has found that beer makes

(01:07:27):
up almost one percent of our country's GDP. Brewing accounted
for three point six billion dollars of our GDP last year.
One point three percent of the national workforce is employed
in the brewing industry, but alcohol excise duties often outpace inflation,
and this is having an effect on the industry. Josh

(01:07:48):
Ruffle is the co owner of award winning Brewery Garage Project,
and he's with me now, Joss. Good evening, Good evening.
First of all, congratulations you're holding up one percent into
the economy.

Speaker 27 (01:08:02):
Thanks. I don't know if we can take full responsibilities
before that, but it is great to see you know
that brewing is making such a positive impact across New
Zealand and throughout the economy.

Speaker 2 (01:08:13):
Is it quite labor intensive?

Speaker 27 (01:08:17):
You know, with the smaller independent breweries, they are very
very labor intensive, so you typically see high levels of
employment in those breweries. And then as the breweries get larger,
it becomes more automated and you start to see fewer
employees per per sort of hector letter per liter produced.
But you know, there are very large brewing companies in

(01:08:39):
the country and they do employ significant amount of people
as well.

Speaker 2 (01:08:43):
Where do you set garage project in terms of small big.

Speaker 27 (01:08:48):
We're one of the larger independent breweries in the country,
so you know, we're now starting to go a little
toe to toe with the bigger brewer, especially in certain
areas like non alcoholic beers. Our tiny non elk beer
is the number three non elk beer in the country,
behind Heineken and Perni, which is really exciting, really pleasing

(01:09:11):
to see. But in the scheme of things, we are tiny.
You know, we are really small compared to sort of
the multinational breweries still and that goes for craft generally
across the board.

Speaker 2 (01:09:21):
How do they feel about you taking them on?

Speaker 27 (01:09:25):
I'm sure that I'm sure that we weren't there, But
you know, I think you know, it's when you start
to get into into that share of market, we start
to become meaningful that they're probably definitely sitting up and
paying notice. And that's what you're seeing with the consolidation
over the last several years of smaller breweries getting purchased

(01:09:46):
by the larger breweries.

Speaker 2 (01:09:48):
Are you understanding of the alcohol excise text increases that
we've been seeing, I mean, they how much? How much
of what we consume. You know, if we get a
dozen beer or whatever is X is tax.

Speaker 27 (01:10:02):
It's a huge portion. So our single largest ingredient cost
each month is excise tax to the government. It's tax
on a per later basis. So you know, a three
percent beer versus a six percent beer is double the tax.
And when you start to look at say a five
percent beer in the keg, you're almost getting to half

(01:10:25):
the cost of that keg comprising of excise alcohol tax
and GST by the time it hits the publican or
the hospitality.

Speaker 2 (01:10:33):
Venue, which is very very significant. How does that compare
to overseas?

Speaker 27 (01:10:40):
I think the biggest difference we see overseas. I mean, firstly,
other countries do tax alcohol in different ways. In America,
it's taxed on the package, so a keg of beer
has a flat tax irrespective of the alcohol content. In
the UK we see the tax scaling depends on the
size of the brewery, so the government here recognizes that

(01:11:04):
smaller breweries should be taxed at lower levels than the large, multinational,
multi billion dollar breweries. In New Zealand we have a
flat per leader of alcohol tax irrespective of the size
of your brewery.

Speaker 2 (01:11:19):
I mean, obviously this is a cost that you would
want to do without. But alcohol does come with social harm.
We all know this because we've seen it happen on
Courtney Place or wherever. What are you Is this something
you want changed or are you just saying, look, this
is a reality of doing business in New Zealand.

Speaker 27 (01:11:37):
Now we're perfectly happy with having alcohol tax. We think
that's appropriate. I think what hasn't been supportive of the
industry in the last few years across both governments is
we've had excise or excites has been pegs to CPI,
Inflation has gone through the roof, and we're one of

(01:11:57):
the few countries in the world that carried on tax,
increasing the excise tax peace to that inflation. So you know,
we've had almost twenty percent excise increase in the last
three years, so excise is now significantly out of step
of what it would be if we looked at sort
of a one and a half percent average increase, which
we had from about twenty sixteen to twenty twenty one.

(01:12:19):
You know, we're probably paying twenty thirty levels of tax
as a country, as a drinker, as a producer, and
I think the industry is probably just asking government to
hate rein it back to what it should be twenty
twenty five. It's taxed at twenty twenty five levels.

Speaker 2 (01:12:36):
Yeah. Interesting, Why do you guys always run out of
your low card beers? This this a personal question.

Speaker 27 (01:12:42):
I think it's you know, they're doing a big shift
in the last few years and nine out beers and
low car beers, and you know that's I guess part
of a wider traine of everyone. We're a bit more
to think things that are a little bit more health
conscious and better for you.

Speaker 2 (01:12:57):
Are you scaling up? Is it quite hard to do
the low carb option? And are you trying a companies
like you're trying to scale up so that you can
do more?

Speaker 27 (01:13:07):
You know, I think it's it's easy to put out
a low car beer, it's exceptionally challenging to make one
that tastes delicious, you know, to have a beer that
you know, our good shout is ninety nine point nine
percent car free, and then to actually have some flavor
and taste in aroma that took a long time to
get right.

Speaker 2 (01:13:28):
Well, you've certainly got it right. I just need more
of it. Thank you. Josh. Great to have you on
the show. Just ruffle with us. He's the co owner
of Garage Project, talking about some of the challenges for
them in New Zealand, but also I guess huge opportunity,
particularly you've got people like me consuming so much of it.
Thirteen after six News Talks here, Big Jason Walls wraps

(01:13:50):
the political week.

Speaker 3 (01:13:51):
Next, crunching the numbers and getting the results.

Speaker 1 (01:13:54):
It's hither duplicy Ellen with the Business Hour and mas
insurance and investments, cru your wealth, protect your.

Speaker 3 (01:14:01):
Future, these dogs.

Speaker 7 (01:14:02):
That'd be.

Speaker 2 (01:14:06):
Six sixteen, so you would have seen. Shane Jones did
a big speech today, big hu haha about in why
he about our mining sector and he's wanting to boost exports.
He wants to hit three billion dollars by twenty thirty five.
We currently said at about one point two one point
three billion dollars. That's the value of our minerals industry
in New Zealand. So he's announced the critical Minerals List.

(01:14:28):
He's added coking coal, which is mainly used for steel
and gold to the list. Now, the reason he has
done this, and you might think that's strange that they
weren't on there to begin with, but the reason he's
done this is because eighty percent of our mineral exports
are this particular type of coal and gold. They are
also obviously some of the most controversial, but it's the

(01:14:50):
quickest way to boost your economic growth. That in iron
sand's from the ocean, which is also quite controversial. But
these are your hits that you want if you want
to meet the target of three bill by twenty thirty five.
Seventeen after six, right and Bridge Rich to wrap the
political week that was, we're joined again by Jason Walls,
our political editor. Hey, Jason, Oh, good evening. Right, It's

(01:15:11):
been a week dominated by silly, snyde and downright offensive
comments by politicians. What do you think the public thinks
about all of that?

Speaker 19 (01:15:20):
You can't really be a voter and look at what
happened this week and thinking you're getting your bang for
your buck with the politicians down here. It all started
with this from Shane Jones earlier in the week of
human life decreases. Hard to hear, but he's yelling send
the Mexicans home in the background, and an apparent dig
at Mexican born MP from the Greens Ricardo Menandez March.

(01:15:42):
Then later there was this from Winston.

Speaker 7 (01:15:43):
I know they're laughing.

Speaker 28 (01:15:44):
The Greens are laughing at that because they find that comical.

Speaker 5 (01:15:47):
They find that comical.

Speaker 28 (01:15:49):
The very people who are here on the very refuge
that wigi to them, have come here with your ideas
foreign to our country, native to theirs, and they wish
to impose them one out Parliament.

Speaker 19 (01:15:59):
So that was aimed at Green Party members of Asian descent,
So you can see why there was quite a lot
of frustration with Winston and Shane Jones over that one.
Then we heard this from TI Party Marty later in
the week during a Select committee. So how in your institutionalized,
individualized using your words process.

Speaker 18 (01:16:17):
Does your system, an institutional system, understand that and respond
to it in an enduring way?

Speaker 7 (01:16:24):
Because it doesn't sound like, Look, I.

Speaker 15 (01:16:26):
Have to disagree with most of what you've said, and
you're entitled to say it, but I actually disagree with
most of what You've.

Speaker 19 (01:16:33):
Got a gap of knowledgements.

Speaker 7 (01:16:34):
You don't understand.

Speaker 19 (01:16:38):
That's her saying. That is many many a metal kapakini
who's a tiparty Mary MP telling it made Mary act
MP Karen Shaw that she doesn't understand the essence of
being Mary. So none of it good and it prompted
the Prime Minister to say this, there's.

Speaker 17 (01:16:54):
A moment between stimulus and response, just calling everybody as
a as a leader to say, hey, listen, take that moment,
think about what you're going to say before you put
your mouth into gear.

Speaker 19 (01:17:03):
So nobody's coming out of this looking particularly good. But
as the Prime Minister says, and I'm just saying to everybody,
what's your language, I'm not the language police.

Speaker 5 (01:17:11):
I need to make sure that actually we are delivering
for the New Zealand people. That's what we're focused on.

Speaker 2 (01:17:15):
There you go, goodness may right. The government's had a
few policy wins this week outside of all of that
talk walked me through those.

Speaker 19 (01:17:23):
Yeah, well, believe it or not, the government has actually
been doing some governing this week digital nomads. They made
an announcement about that to start the week, which was
essentially the news the government would be making it easier
for people who wanted to work remotely from New Zealand
to come to New Zealand to do exactly that, and
that's the government's bid to attract more high value tourists.
Then they had their speed limit announcement. Thirty eight sections

(01:17:46):
of road will have their speed limits reversed to the
speed that they once were before the last government brought
them down, and there are another forty nine sections of
road being consulted on.

Speaker 3 (01:17:55):
Now.

Speaker 19 (01:17:56):
It's been slammed by some, but then logistic and say, hey,
it's great, it's going to save us a ton of money.
So ultimately, I actually do think this one probably does
play well with the general public who probably were a
bit frustrated at having to arbitrarily slow down at some places.
And then today we had the Dunedin Hospital. The last
government let the expected cost blow out to almost three

(01:18:17):
billion dollars in Simeon Brown this morning announced that would
go on the cost one point eight eight billion dollars.
So there are a few shortfalls in the announcement in
terms of it's got a few fewer beds than what
had been previously had been previously promised, but it doesn't
meet you know, I don't think it's an insurmountable loss,
given the fact that there's almost a billion dollars that

(01:18:37):
they've been able to save for this one. So yes,
a lot of distractions this week for the government, but
in the end they did actually achieve quite a few
policy wins.

Speaker 2 (01:18:45):
Yeah, which is great for them, whether they've been noticed
or not. As another thing, I suppose one thing that
certainly couldn't go without noticing this week was the asset
sales debate and long may that debate continue, because it's
an important one for us to us to have with
half a trillion dollars worth of asset, it's in the
public purse.

Speaker 19 (01:19:01):
Yeah, exactly. I mean, speaking of distraction, that was David
Seymour that thrust this one into the limelight last Friday
and it has been dominating the political rhetoric this week,
or at least definitely the first half of this week.
The Prime Minister was forced to say listen, there's no
asset sales during this term of government. However, he said
that if they were taking it to the next election,
it would be an election topic, an election policy from

(01:19:25):
the National government. The Labor Party wanted nothing to do
with it at all and said we're against asset sales
in all their forms. But you're right, Ryan, it has
sparked us really good conversation. I mean, we had John
keyon with hosting earlier in the week that said, you know,
so we shouldn't have a knee jerk reaction to say
no because the government owns something that the private sector
couldn't do it better, that's a backwards way of thinking.

(01:19:47):
But he also made the point that there's not a
hell of a lot left that's worth selling, was what
sir John Key said. So a lot of perspectives on
that one, and were still a ways away from the election,
but you can guarantee that this topic has gon to
keep boiling away, especially given Nikola Willis has got this
list of assets somewhere where the Treasury is looking over
to assess its viability.

Speaker 2 (01:20:08):
All right, Jason, thank you for that. Jason Wall, News
Talks MB's political editor, twenty two minutes after six and
you're on news Talks B this evening. The former Act
Party president. This is slightly related because it's political. The
former ACT Party president Tim Jago has now been named
as the former political figure who was abused teenage boys

(01:20:32):
in the nineteen nineties. Now the ACT Party has released
a statement on this, and I'll give you the details
of that next.

Speaker 1 (01:20:38):
Whether it's Macro, micro Boygeous playing economics, it's all on
the Business Hour with Ryan Bridge on newstalksb.

Speaker 2 (01:20:47):
Six twenty five. So the former ACT Party president Tim Jago,
he was jails a week while ago now on historical
sexual abuse charges. He had name suppression which has lapse,
which is why his name is being allowed on the
news this afternoon, this evening. Now the ACT Party has
released a statement about this. They say the events occurred

(01:21:09):
twenty years before his involvement with the ACT Party, and
they say there was no way of them knowing about
his offending at the time. And they say today is
not about politics, it's about justice for the survivors. They
are quick to point out that the party took the
original allegation extremely seriously when first made and they were
made aware of it on a social media post. Apparently
back in November twenty twenty two. They sought advice from

(01:21:33):
Paul Wick's KC as to the appropriate steps that they
should take in that situation. They followed that advice. They say,
we respect the outcome of the court process and commend
the courage of those who came forward. We hope this
verdict brings them some closure. So there you go, And
that's a statement from the act party on that. They'll
be hoping that it's, you know, sort of something that's

(01:21:54):
seen as in the past. I suppose twenty six minutes
after six were going to Hong Kong after the news
at six thirty to check in with our Asia Business correspondent.
The B and zed this story about the coal mind
that apparently was told its bank accounts would be shut
down by B and Z and there's this call to

(01:22:15):
regulate the banks come out and say, you know, you
have to provide lending to these guys. I just don't
know about that is more regulation? What banks need?

Speaker 22 (01:22:26):
You know?

Speaker 2 (01:22:29):
I think that there should be a market solution. You
would hope there's a market solution where another bank would
step in an opera and offer lending and security to
any of these outfits. And it's not just you know,
big oil, it's petrol stations, We spoke to one last
year here on drive there just before Christmas who was
having all of their accounts basically shut down, all of

(01:22:51):
their cars going to be canceled because they were in
a rural petrol station. I mean, come on, they were
worried about supposedly worried about the rise of evs. Last
place you need to worry about the rise of EVS
is in rural New Zealand. I would have thought anyway.
I'm just not convinced that going and whacking them with
more regulations is going to solve the problem. Twenty seven

(01:23:12):
after six News Talks.

Speaker 1 (01:23:13):
MB everything from SMEs to the big corporates of the
Business Hour with Ryan Bridge on News Talks EDB.

Speaker 2 (01:23:33):
Good evening, twenty five away from seven. You're on News
Talks MB. Great to have your company this Friday evening
Gale Downey's Live Out of the UK before seven o'clock. Interestingly,
looking there at a new criminal offense that they hope
will stop people crossing the ocean and these boats that
often end up drowning or killing themselves in the process.

(01:23:54):
So they are hoping to try and knit that in
the bud with a change and their laws there we'll
get to that shortly. Right now, though, let's go to Asia.
Peter Lewis is our correspondent in Hong Kong heavy Chinese
New Year.

Speaker 29 (01:24:06):
Peter, thank you very much and happy you have to
sneak to you.

Speaker 10 (01:24:09):
Ryan.

Speaker 2 (01:24:10):
So the big story, and we've been following it closely
over here, but I'm dying to know. This is Deep Seek,
the ai company. I'm dying to know how it's all
been received in China and well in Asia more generally,
but specifically in China well.

Speaker 29 (01:24:25):
With with great interest, partly because this company has really
come out of nowhere. Most people have never heard of
it until this week. It's based in Tuangzhou, which is
on the eastern coast of China, and it's that's the
city that's hosts the headquarters of Ali Baba. So Guangzhou
is known as being a sort of a center of entrepreneurship.

(01:24:48):
But this really did take people by surprise. But what
it has prompted is in a rush just before Chinese
New Year, other companies to also get out similar models,
which they say they have also been done very very cheaply.
Deep six said it's model cost just five five and
a half million dollars. Well, when you look at open Ai,

(01:25:10):
it's worth about three hundred and fifty billion. It's sort
of really the minnows sort of fighting back. But what
it sort of shows that's interesting here is that in
some ways, all these restrictions that have been put by
the US on tech companies to try and stemmy their
growth haven't really worked, and they've sort of had unintended consequences,

(01:25:32):
one of which is this in that companies find new
ways to become innovative, to get around them, to carry
on developing their products. And Chinese people in general are
very innovative when the government doesn't interfere. I mean, look
at companies like Ali, Barbara and ten cents. They grew
into global giants before the government trampled on them. China

(01:25:55):
has a very good and university system, lots of good engineers, mathematicians, scientists.
It really is a highly educated country, lots of entrepreneurs.
It's a big, big country, so lots of people who
really can sort of get involved in things like this.
And it reminds me a little bit of Japan in
the nineteen eighties, when America had the same problem with

(01:26:18):
Japan that it has now In that Japanese companies were
becoming bigger and overtaking American companies. They put all sorts
of restrictions on them selling their products, but it didn't
stop them. Firms like Toyota still became the largest man
motor manufacturer in the world. Where we think the same
thing happen here. Chinese companies are learning how to get

(01:26:39):
around these restrictions. They're making their own development innovatively and
you know, and building up their companies. Now, of course
there are issues about sort of intellectual property theft and
the likes, but nevertheless, some of this has been done
off their own back and off their own initiatives.

Speaker 2 (01:27:00):
What about the Chinese National Intelligence law that apparently requires
any organization like deep seap for example, they have to
support and cooperate with the government should the government request it.
I mean, this is one of the things that is
in Australia, for example, they're saying the cybersecurity experits, they're saying,
don't download deep seak because there is this law. There

(01:27:23):
is this control is there, and do they use it?

Speaker 26 (01:27:27):
Oh?

Speaker 29 (01:27:27):
Yeah, absolutely. I mean this is one of the reasons
why TikTok's claim that it would never hand over data
to the Chinese government really doesn't hold much water because
if the Chinese government, they say that they would refuse
to do so. Well, if the Chinese government ordered TikTok
or deep seak or any other company to handover data

(01:27:49):
on its users, they would have to do so. And
they ask many people who have seen the consequences of
firms that don't oblige by these don't accept these data
security law and don't follow them, the consequences are pretty dire.
People go to jail, the companies can get broken up.
And even the biggest, biggest companies like Ali Baba, like

(01:28:10):
ten Cents, they have suffered from this as well. So no,
that law is very much inforced, that it is enforced
on a daily basis. And it's simply a beggars belief
that a company could say we somehow wouldn't follow the
instructions of the Chinese government. The Chinese Communist Party as
it is at the moment, intrudes in every single area

(01:28:32):
of business.

Speaker 10 (01:28:33):
And of life.

Speaker 2 (01:28:34):
Yeah. Absolutely, and to be fear to deep stick, they
do put it in their t's and c's. So I
guess you can't say you didn't know you've got some
data for well, you've got the more broadly some economic
data for US out of China this week, Yes.

Speaker 29 (01:28:48):
We had some pmis coming out. Once again, the economic
data in general is not really matching up the growth target.
The GDP data last year is GDP grew five percent.
That met Beijing's growth target. A lot of people are
very skeptical about that because the anecdotal evidence on the

(01:29:10):
ground doesn't suggest at all that China is really meeting that.
Businesses are struggling, they're having to lay off people, there's
been a big slump in consumption. Retail sales are not
really growing, and we saw that in the PMI data
that came out earlier in the week where the manufacturing
PMI showed its first contraction since September. Well, that's not

(01:29:33):
in support of an economy that's growing at five percent. So,
you know, the anecdotal evidence shows that China really has
some problems, and in particular, it's got to get people
out spending. And one of the reasons why they don't
go out and spend is because the lack of a
social security net in China. If you lose your job,
there's no support. You may find that even if you

(01:29:56):
have health insurance as people did during COVID. It doesn't
cover you. So people are now saving more for the future,
saving for their healthcare, saving for their kids' education because
the state isn't providing anywhere near enough support, and that
of course affects consumption.

Speaker 2 (01:30:15):
Fascinating stuff. I can remember. I used to live in Beijing, Peter,
and there were these economic investigators. I'd never heard of
them before, but they were. They're like private investigators that
would go around because the obviously the party would say
this is the growth rate, and you would have big
multinational corporations who go, well, do we believe this? And
they would go around and they'd look at, you know,

(01:30:35):
steel plants, they look at factories, they'd look at how
much activity was going on, how many trucks are coming in,
how many trucks are going how many cranes are in
the sky, how much building activity is going on, and
try and come up with a with an estimate for growth.
So I'm fascinating the country, isn't it.

Speaker 26 (01:30:52):
Yeah?

Speaker 29 (01:30:52):
And I mean you know that's that's how a command
economy works. And the difference between a command's economy like
China and the economy like Australia or the US. A
growth GDP is an output you put in all the
parameters and outcomes the GDP In China, it's an input.
They say we want GDP of five percent. How are

(01:31:13):
we going to go and get it? And it's down
to the local governments to make sure they achieve it.
And that's where these inspectors come in to make sure
they are achieving it.

Speaker 2 (01:31:20):
Yeah, fascinating. Hey, thanks so much, Peter. Great to have
you on People Earth's Asia Business Correspondent. It has just
gone seventeen minutes away from seven here on News Talks,
there'd b. Gail Down is our UK correspondences with US next,
talking about that bid by the government there to try
and tackle the people smuggling issue but also retailers. So

(01:31:41):
shoplifting in Britain is completely out of control. I mean
it's bad here, apparently it's awful over there.

Speaker 1 (01:31:48):
If it's to do with money, it matters to you
The Business Hour with Ryan Bridge on News Talks it
B reporting.

Speaker 2 (01:31:56):
To seven on your Friday evening. Gail Down is our
UK correspondent, Gail good evening to you. Hello there, Rian,
You've got a new criminal offense coming in. This is
to try in top a stop rather people smuggling across
the English Channel. What's going What's tell us about it?

Speaker 13 (01:32:13):
Well, it is, as you say, it's part of a
crackdown on people smugglers. Around thirty seven thousand people cross
the channel in small boats last year. That's an increase
of twenty five percent on the previous year. And of
course the English Channel is a major, major shipping lane,
so the people who are doing this are actually putting
themselves in danger and investigators described the whole journey as

(01:32:37):
terrifying and dangerous, and so they often found themselves dealing
with traumatized victims in a floating crime scene. And of
course it's the people smugglers that this government has vowed
to actually deal with, not the people who are the
people who get on the boats. And part of the
crackdown also involves anyone intimidating other passengers to take part

(01:33:00):
in the journey, all being involved in the preparation of
smuggling that could mean buying boat parts. They're going to
face long sentences too.

Speaker 2 (01:33:11):
It's something that's not an issue that's going to go
away quickly, so hopefully that can go some way to
at least reducing the problem. Speaking of problems, retailers say
shoplifting in Britain is completely out of control. You've got violence,
you've got abuse against shop workers on the rise. I mean,
we have similar issues going on here, but I don't
think at the same level you've got going on there.

Speaker 13 (01:33:32):
No, the British Retail Consortium, which represents more than two
hundred major retailers, say that thieves have become so bold
they even clear whole shells in full view of customers
and staff. And you might see some of these videos
on social media of people doing that, but of course
staff are told not to get involved in it, and

(01:33:53):
that includes security guards as well, because they're at risk
of being hurt. So the published figures by British Retail
Consortium shows a rise in thefts, with more than twenty
million incidents in twelve months to September last year, which
is four million up on the previous year. Not only that,
but there's been a fifty percent rise in violence and

(01:34:15):
abuse against shop workers, with more than two thousand such
incidents recorded on average per day, and some shop workers
say they're frightened to.

Speaker 2 (01:34:25):
Go to work and that's not a very good situation
to be in at all. The sixties icon Marry and
Faithful has died at the age of seventy eight.

Speaker 14 (01:34:34):
Gale Yes.

Speaker 13 (01:34:36):
At one time she was probably best known for being
the girlfriend of the Rolling Stones lead singer Mick Jagger.
She was said to be the inspiration behind their hits
Let's Spend the Night Together, Wild Horses and you Can't Always.

Speaker 19 (01:34:48):
Get What You Want.

Speaker 13 (01:34:50):
When the band wrote as Tears Go By, they gave
her the song saying, oh, it's just a piece of tripe,
but she turned into a hit which they later recorded themselves.
You know, life in the sixties was rock and roll
and drugs, and despite her talent as a singer, she
did face personal struggles and at one time she lived

(01:35:10):
on the streets and became a heroin addict. But she
made a comeback, made twenty one albums, was a guest
on stage at Glastonbury. Her final performance was in Paris
in twenty sixteen, proving she was much more than a
rock star's girlfriend but an artist in her own right.

Speaker 2 (01:35:28):
Incredible life, incredible story. Has passed away at the age
of seventy eight. Gale thank you very much, lovely to
have you on the show.

Speaker 1 (01:35:35):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:35:35):
Ran Jail Downey are UK correspondent with us. It's just
gone ten to seven here on News Talks, you'd be
I was going to tell you about the story yesterday,
but I didn't want to scare you, because not that
you're scaredy cats or anything. But we did talk about
the doomsday clock on Wednesday, and I thought if I
followed up with this one on Thursday, it might all
be a little bit much. I'll tell you about it next.

Speaker 3 (01:35:58):
Whether it's micro or just playing economics.

Speaker 1 (01:36:02):
It's all on the Business Hours with Heather Duplicy, Ellen
and Mas Insurance and investments, Grow your wealth to protect
your future News TALKSB.

Speaker 2 (01:36:13):
Seven away from seven on News TALKSB so as I
said on Wednesday, we have the news about the doomsday clock,
and there's a story about an asteroid and it really
it came out, if I'm being completely honest with you,
it actually came out on Thursday morning, and I was
going to do it for you on Thursday, but I thought,
you know what, I'm just going to spare them the
worry and the stress about that because we've already done

(01:36:34):
the doomsday clock and you are it's too much. It's
too much.

Speaker 8 (01:36:37):
So now ahead of the weekend. We're just going to
drop the stress right on you.

Speaker 2 (01:36:40):
I thought, while you've got some time to think, you
can think about this. The asteroid is coming people, and
it's one hundred meters wide. This is a big boy,
and it's the good news is we're not going to
be killed until twenty thirty two, so we've got time.
You've got seven good years. Go and enjoy yourself. Start
this week. Asteroid twenty twenty four. Why R four is

(01:37:03):
its name? This is the you know, the bullet with
our name on it, basically spotted by an automated telescope
in Chile on the twenty seventh of December. See why
are we only finding out about this now? I hate
to be conspiratorial, but I do wonder if we're being
honest about things. The dinosaurs, right, the dinosaurs were hit
by an asteroid. How have we not had another big

(01:37:24):
one since then? Tell me, I know space is a
big place, and he'll come in here soon and he'll
tell us that spaces is a big place.

Speaker 8 (01:37:32):
There's lots of places for the asteroid to go. That's
an Earth Ryan.

Speaker 2 (01:37:35):
Yeah, I think it's conspiracy.

Speaker 8 (01:37:36):
So awful traffic here. I don't know why you'd come here.

Speaker 2 (01:37:39):
True, but conspiracy I think anyway, one point three percent
chance of smashing into Earth on the twenty second of
December of twenty thirty two, so we won't quite get
to Christmas. Will you bother buying Christmas presents that year?
That's the questions the question. Basically, there's a ninety nine
percent probability of a barreling past us without incident. They

(01:37:59):
are apparently going to look at some sort of defense
procedures to make sure that it doesn't hit us, whatever
that means.

Speaker 30 (01:38:07):
I think NASA have tested this ryan and the asteroid
of this size. They've worked out if they throw a
spacecraft at it and just smack it into the rock,
then the rock can, like they can shift its direction.
So they'll just get Bruce Willis and get him to
like send you know, a spacecraft at it, and we'll
be sweet.

Speaker 2 (01:38:22):
Do you know who they'll actually use instead of Bruce Willis? Elon.
He's going to save the planet, isn't he. That's why
Trump's got him there, because of asteroid two to tueszero
two four.

Speaker 3 (01:38:34):
Y r four.

Speaker 8 (01:38:35):
It's going to save Christmas twenty thirty two makes sense.

Speaker 30 (01:38:39):
Gail was speaking before Ryan about the song by the
Well that the Rolling Stones wrote, but they gave to
Marianne Faithful because the thought it wouldn't go anywhere, and
then it became a hit and they covered it.

Speaker 8 (01:38:49):
Well. This this is her version of it, as tears
go by, brilliant.

Speaker 2 (01:38:54):
We'll go out to Marianne Faithful tonight, who's died at
the age of seventy eight. Thank you so much for
a fantastic week Oh your feedback, all your emails. Enjoy
your weekend and your next seven years. Honest, I want
joy that you.

Speaker 7 (01:39:18):
As the sun.

Speaker 26 (01:39:22):
All right, I said John, Stay STI Jessy, I said John,

(01:40:12):
Watch the stupid, I said Johns.

Speaker 1 (01:40:53):
For more from Hither Dupless, see Alan Drive. Listen live
to News Talks it'd be from four pm weekdays, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.