Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Full Show Podcast: 23 September 2026
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: The issues, the interviews and the insight. Ryan Fridge on
- 0:05Speaker 1: Early Edition with Spark for Business. Technology that keeps business moving.
- 0:09Speaker 1: Newstalk ZB.
- 0:11Speaker 2: Good morning. Welcome to Wednesday, six after five. We'll look
- 0:13Speaker 2: at the COVID Reserve Bank blunder. This report out yesterday,
- 0:17Speaker 2: Nick Mowbray, along with 49 other business leaders, got a
- 0:20Speaker 2: warning about the election for you this morning. What are
- 0:23Speaker 2: your chances of getting hurt at work? We'll look at
- 0:25Speaker 2: a new report and some good news on the East-West pipeline,
- 0:28Speaker 2: the Saudis operate and the price of oil all ahead.
- 0:33Speaker 2: It is Wednesday, the 23rd of September. Trump's come in
- 0:36Speaker 2: pretty hot at the United Nations General Assembly in New York,
- 0:39Speaker 2: making more threats.
- 0:41Speaker 3: Will a deal be made with Iran that lets them
- 0:45Speaker 3: rebuild and create a far greater country than it ever
- 0:49Speaker 3: was before? maybe one of the greatest in the Middle
- 0:53Speaker 3: East or even the world? Or do I annihilate the
- 0:57Speaker 3: Islamic Republic and do it quickly, never giving them a
- 1:00Speaker 3: chance to kill and destroy people and countries again?
- 1:05Speaker 2: Now, probably his best work was rebranding AI. A much more.
- 1:09Speaker 3: Accurate term, super, as opposed to artificial. So it's superintelligence.
- 1:17Speaker 3: In other words, welcome to the new world of superintelligence-SI.
- 1:24Speaker 2: Anyway, he's meeting with Andy Burnham right now. We'll keep
- 1:26Speaker 2: you across the latest there. Meanwhile, the US has signed
- 1:28Speaker 2: this Denmark-Greenland deal. What exactly is different about it? Well,
- 1:33Speaker 2: there'll be a few more American troops there, a few
- 1:36Speaker 2: more US allies present in the Arctic.
- 1:38Speaker 4: We are truly pleased with the result that strengthened our
- 1:41Speaker 4: shared security and strengthened our bond as close allies. This
- 1:45Speaker 4: agreement is historical. It is about taking shared responsibility for
- 1:49Speaker 4: a secure America, a secure Greenland, with mutual respect and
- 1:54Speaker 4: a peaceful Arctic. This is a win-win-win agreement.
- 1:58Speaker 3: Okay.
- 1:59Speaker 2: Another twist in the old Spencer Diana memoir, now Piers
- 2:02Speaker 2: Morgan's threatening legal action. Spencer's had to apologize, say sorry
- 2:06Speaker 2: for an error in the book. that claimed Morgan was
- 2:09Speaker 2: behind hidden camera photos of Diana, who was wearing a
- 2:12Speaker 2: leotard working out at a gym, turns out not true.
- 2:15Speaker 5: Piers Morgan has since come out and said, well, hang on,
- 2:18Speaker 5: I didn't join the Mirror until 1995. I was at
- 2:22Speaker 5: a rival newspaper, the News of the World, in 1993.
- 2:26Speaker 5: There is no way you can put my name against
- 2:28Speaker 5: anything to do with that allegation.
- 2:33Speaker 1: The first word on the news of the day. Early
- 2:36Speaker 1: Edition with Ryan Bridge and Spark for Business. Technology that
- 2:40Speaker 1: keeps business moving.
- 2:42Speaker 2: News Talk ZB. Nine after five, Brooke Van Velden signed
- 2:44Speaker 2: off from the job, signed off from Parliament. She had
- 2:47Speaker 2: a valedictory in the House last night. I'm going to
- 2:49Speaker 2: play you a bit of audio from what she had
- 2:51Speaker 2: to say. She's basically saying it's a dark bureaucracy that's
- 2:55Speaker 2: running Wellington and she can't wait to just hightail it
- 2:59Speaker 2: out of there, get the hell out of Dodge. Here's
- 3:01Speaker 2: a bit of what she had to say about the
- 3:03Speaker 2: Public Service Commission. This is the one run by Sir
- 3:06Speaker 2: Brian Roche.
- 3:07Speaker 6: The Public Service Commission should be abolished. It does not
- 3:11Speaker 6: work for the public and it does not work for
- 3:14Speaker 6: elected governments. It works for the public service to preserve
- 3:18Speaker 6: the status quo, enable public servants to shuffle between agencies
- 3:22Speaker 6: while leaving the failures of their roles behind with no
- 3:26Speaker 6: accountability or meaningful consequences.
- 3:30Speaker 4: Ministers.
- 3:31Speaker 6: should hire chief executives directly and be responsible for their agency.
- 3:37Speaker 2: Now, case in point, exhibit A of what Brooke is
- 3:40Speaker 2: talking about in her valedictory speech is the case of
- 3:43Speaker 2: Kerry Gregory. This is the boss of Fens that she
- 3:46Speaker 2: has said over a week ago, well, earlier this week,
- 3:51Speaker 2: that she thinks he's lost confidence in him. She has
- 3:55Speaker 2: lost confidence in him. He's made a big boo-boo. and
- 3:59Speaker 2: has been sitting on information for a year. That means
- 4:02Speaker 2: she thinks basically he shouldn't be in the job. Now
- 4:06Speaker 2: I spoke to her yesterday about this and he is
- 4:09Speaker 2: currently overseas. I mentioned this at the time. So he's
- 4:12Speaker 2: overseas visiting a conference and then on a month's leave
- 4:17Speaker 2: while she has lost confidence in him. Have a listen.
- 4:20Speaker 7: The last I.
- 4:21Speaker 6: Spoke to him, he was over in London attending the
- 4:23Speaker 6: fire conference and was taking a month of planned leave. Um,
- 4:27Speaker 6: I would expect potentially he might want to come home.
- 4:32Speaker 2: You would think so, wouldn't you? So what's he done?
- 4:34Speaker 6: He was aware that fire and emergency had breached their
- 4:37Speaker 6: own law over a year ago and decided not to
- 4:40Speaker 6: disclose it to me at that time.
- 4:42Speaker 2: So that's pretty serious. Now, the problem is Brooke can't
- 4:45Speaker 2: fire him. Brooke is the minister. He is the chief executive.
- 4:49Speaker 2: She can't fire him. All she can do, the most
- 4:53Speaker 2: she can do, is express no confidence in him, which
- 4:56Speaker 2: she has done. And then she has phoned him and
- 4:59Speaker 2: he is not, normally they roll over and resign. This
- 5:01Speaker 2: guy's not doing that. He's in London or whatever. He's
- 5:04Speaker 2: on holiday in Europe. I don't know. She doesn't know either.
- 5:07Speaker 2: The point is he's not here resigning, which is what
- 5:10Speaker 2: would normally happen. So to Brooke's point in her valedictory,
- 5:15Speaker 2: where's the public service commission? What are they doing? Are
- 5:18Speaker 2: they tits on a bull? Because the guy, if what
- 5:21Speaker 2: she's saying is true, then the guy should surely be gone. No,
- 5:23Speaker 2: 11 after five. So the Business Leaders Health and Safety Forum,
- 5:29Speaker 2: this was a group set up by John Key, and
- 5:32Speaker 2: they've come out with a new report about injury claims
- 5:34Speaker 2: over the past 10 years. So if you go to
- 5:36Speaker 2: work every day, in which industry are you more likely
- 5:39Speaker 2: to be injured? In which industry are you more likely
- 5:42Speaker 2: to be harmed? And how do we compare with the
- 5:43Speaker 2: rest of the world? That's next, Newstalk ZB.
- 5:53Speaker 1: News and views you trust to start your day. It's
- 5:56Speaker 1: early edition with Ryan Bridge and Spark for Business. Technology
- 6:01Speaker 1: that keeps business moving.
- 6:02Speaker 2: Newstalk ZB. 5.14 Newstalk ZB. The Saudis have announced they
- 6:06Speaker 2: will reopen the SOS pipeline by the end of the week.
- 6:09Speaker 2: So the patch-up job, the fix-up job, was much quicker
- 6:12Speaker 2: than what they had expected it might be. It shuts
- 6:15Speaker 2: on September the 11th, which is when the drone attacks
- 6:18Speaker 2: came from the Houthis. This is the one that pumps
- 6:21Speaker 2: the crude across from the Saudi Peninsula to Yanbu. That's
- 6:25Speaker 2: the Red Sea. So it gets you from Asia through
- 6:27Speaker 2: to Europe and bypasses the Strait of Hormuz. Crucially, oil
- 6:32Speaker 2: down 2% on the news overnight. Workplace harm going down.
- 6:37Speaker 2: The annual state of the thriving nation report says workplace
- 6:40Speaker 2: harm cost $ 5. 5 billion last year. Injury work claims down 28%
- 6:44Speaker 2: over the past decade. You are still 1.4 times more
- 6:48Speaker 2: likely to die at work than you are in Australia,
- 6:50Speaker 2: 3.4 times more likely than in Great Britain. Francois Barton,
- 6:54Speaker 2: the Business Leaders Health and Safety Forum Chief Executive with
- 6:56Speaker 2: me this morning. Francois, good morning.
- 6:58Speaker 8: Good morning, Ryan.
- 6:59Speaker 2: With the death thing, is that because of forestry and
- 7:02Speaker 2: our roads? What's the difference there?
- 7:05Speaker 8: In terms of with UK and Australia?
- 7:07Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 7:08Speaker 9: Yeah, look, I mean, I think.
- 7:10Speaker 8: In short, it's more expensive in those countries when we
- 7:14Speaker 8: get safety wrong in Great Britain and Australia. There are
- 7:18Speaker 8: much clearer signals, I think, to businesses and workers alike
- 7:22Speaker 8: from the regulatory system. The insurance system is obviously different.
- 7:26Speaker 8: It's sort of industrial makeup over there. So it can
- 7:29Speaker 8: sound a little brutal, but in essence, it's cheaper to
- 7:32Speaker 8: injure and hurt people in New Zealand than some of
- 7:34Speaker 8: these other countries. But more importantly, there's also more work
- 7:38Speaker 8: being done in a lot of these places, I think,
- 7:39Speaker 8: on how do we get it right. So skills, investment
- 7:43Speaker 8: in technology, sort of more aligned signals both across the
- 7:46Speaker 8: regulatory system, but also with productivity drivers.
- 7:49Speaker 2: The deaths we do have, what industries are they in generally?
- 7:53Speaker 8: Well, probably not surprising for a lot of people in
- 7:56Speaker 8: terms of where our acute fatality sits. Obviously, construction, farming, manufacturing,
- 8:03Speaker 8: the primary industries are the areas in transport and logistics
- 8:06Speaker 8: as well. But I mean, I think forestry is a
- 8:08Speaker 8: really good example of why I still have optimism for
- 8:12Speaker 8: how New Zealand can actually look to sort of bring
- 8:14Speaker 8: that really significant drag on our economy, five and a
- 8:17Speaker 8: half billion dollars. It was 5.4 10 years ago in
- 8:21Speaker 8: today's dollars, and we could take a billion off that
- 8:23Speaker 8: if we could catch up with Australia. I mean, where
- 8:25Speaker 8: forestry was 10 years ago, for those that remember 2013,
- 8:29Speaker 8: 10 fatalities, they didn't get safer simply by wearing safer
- 8:33Speaker 8: helmets and learning how to cut trees down with a
- 8:35Speaker 8: chainsaw better. They have transformed how trees get felled and
- 8:39Speaker 8: harvested in that sector over the last decade. So machinery, mechanisation,
- 8:44Speaker 8: longer contract arrangements to foster better investment. So that's not safer.
- 8:49Speaker 8: That's safer and more productive. And I think that's the
- 8:52Speaker 8: blueprint we need to encourage more of.
- 8:54Speaker 2: Are we doing more? Do we have riskier industries which
- 8:57Speaker 2: would therefore push our rate up? Or are we doing
- 8:59Speaker 2: the same things but doing them worse?
- 9:03Speaker 8: I think obviously the nature of New Zealand's primary industry
- 9:06Speaker 8: and the makeup has an impact on that comparison. But,
- 9:10Speaker 8: you know, the UK, they build big things there. They
- 9:13Speaker 8: have farming and forestry. Australia is certainly not a country
- 9:16Speaker 8: of office workers alone. So I think it's important we
- 9:20Speaker 8: look at, yeah, look, industry makeup matters. But really across
- 9:23Speaker 8: the board internationally, look, of the 25 OECD countries that
- 9:26Speaker 8: are richer than us, 20 of those 25 are, kill
- 9:30Speaker 8: fewer people than we do. So I think the blueprint
- 9:33Speaker 8: for safety isn't more helmets, high-vis and checklists. It's how
- 9:38Speaker 8: do we change the work? And, you know, what makes
- 9:40Speaker 8: me optimistic is, you know, across the business leaders, health
- 9:43Speaker 8: and safety forums, 450-odd chief executive members, we've got world-class
- 9:47Speaker 8: organisations in New Zealand doing some of that work. The
- 9:50Speaker 8: challenge is how do we scale them? How do we
- 9:52Speaker 8: get more New Zealand businesses doing, you know, looking at
- 9:54Speaker 8: changing the work, not just trying to change the worker?
- 9:57Speaker 8: All right.
- 9:58Speaker 2: Francois Barton, business leaders, health and safety, Forum, Chief Executive.
- 10:01Speaker 2: Good to have you on the show this morning, 18
- 10:02Speaker 2: after five.
- 10:03Speaker 1: So we had.
- 10:04Speaker 2: The Westpac McDermott Miller Employment Confidence Index. This is how well,
- 10:08Speaker 2: how good do you feel about the economy if you're
- 10:10Speaker 2: going out there and spending money or not spending money,
- 10:12Speaker 2: which has sadly been the point of late. It was
- 10:15Speaker 2: up 3.2 points to 86.3. This is for September. Now, remember,
- 10:19Speaker 2: we took a big dive. We were down 12 plus
- 10:22Speaker 2: points in the Q2 result. So we have peered back
- 10:26Speaker 2: some of that loss, which is good news. But it'll
- 10:30Speaker 2: take a little time to recover. In the meantime, we
- 10:32Speaker 2: are relying on trade. We're relying on our exports. We're
- 10:36Speaker 2: relying on a bit of government spending. We're relying on
- 10:39Speaker 2: other things to get us through. 19 after 5, Newstalk ZB.
- 10:43Speaker 2: We'll look at this letter that's been signed by a
- 10:45Speaker 2: bunch of business leaders with a warning about the election
- 10:49Speaker 2: and the policies, especially the supermarkets. That's next, Newstalk ZB.
- 11:01Speaker 1: Ryan Bridge on Early Edition with Spark for Business. Technology
- 11:06Speaker 1: that keeps business moving.
- 11:08Speaker 2: Newstalk ZB. 21 after five. Ryan, listening to you from France.
- 11:12Speaker 2: Good morning, Geoff. Following the news, excellent assessment of the
- 11:15Speaker 2: Roche v Public Service. Sack the lot, it's a rort,
- 11:19Speaker 2: says Geoff. Ryan, Minister Van Velden is right on this one,
- 11:22Speaker 2: but how about some accountability for ministers, says another. Yeah, well,
- 11:26Speaker 2: ministers are accountable because we, the public, elect the government, which,
- 11:31Speaker 2: and the Prime Minister then appoints the ministers, and we
- 11:34Speaker 2: can get rid of them every three years, or we
- 11:36Speaker 2: can force them to stand aside and resign if they
- 11:40Speaker 2: do something dumb. So there is an accountability mechanism there.
- 11:44Speaker 2: The question is whether the Public Service Commission has enough
- 11:47Speaker 2: power to, you know, pull the lever and do the
- 11:51Speaker 2: red seat on the CEOs of the departments.
- 11:54Speaker 7: Ryan Bridge.
- 11:55Speaker 2: 22 after 5. So you've got about 50 business leaders
- 11:58Speaker 2: all signing an open letter with the same sentiment, governments
- 12:01Speaker 2: stay out of business. Nick Mowbray, Antonio Watson, Chris Quinn,
- 12:05Speaker 2: you name it, they're all on there. Things are basic,
- 12:08Speaker 2: you would have thought. Protect private property rights, freedom of contract,
- 12:13Speaker 2: lawful agreements shouldn't be rewritten to suit election promises. Dr
- 12:17Speaker 2: Oliver Hartwich, New Zealand Initiative Executive Director with us this morning. Oliver,
- 12:20Speaker 2: good morning.
- 12:22Speaker 9: Good morning, Ryan.
- 12:22Speaker 10: How are you?
- 12:23Speaker 2: Very well, thank you. So what is the most concerning of,
- 12:25Speaker 2: you know, I've been through the list, you guys, of,
- 12:27Speaker 2: you know, rewriting the retirement village contracts that have already
- 12:30Speaker 2: been signed, cancelled mining approvals that have been granted lawfully.
- 12:34Speaker 2: Of the policies so far announced, which to you is
- 12:37Speaker 2: the most egregious or concerning?
- 12:40Speaker 9: I think they all form a pattern. It seems to
- 12:43Speaker 9: be that we have arrived in a period of post-rational
- 12:46Speaker 9: politics where anything goes, as long as it holds well
- 12:49Speaker 9: with a focus group. There were previously things that you
- 12:52Speaker 9: think you couldn't touch. You couldn't just threaten the company
- 12:55Speaker 9: with nationalization, for example. You couldn't retrospectively alter business contracts.
- 13:01Speaker 9: But everything goes nowadays if you think you can win
- 13:04Speaker 9: an election advantage by promising voters what they want to hear,
- 13:08Speaker 9: whether that's right or not. And that is the pattern
- 13:10Speaker 9: that we have detected through all parties, really. And that's
- 13:13Speaker 9: why we've written this letter, which is not directed at
- 13:16Speaker 9: any particular party, not at any particular party. promise that
- 13:19Speaker 9: these parties have made, but really at the petal that
- 13:21Speaker 9: has emerged.
- 13:23Speaker 2: Is your message to the parties or is it really
- 13:26Speaker 2: to us, the voters?
- 13:29Speaker 9: Well, the letter is actually addressed to the parties because
- 13:31Speaker 9: we think the parties have a responsibility to behave responsibly.
- 13:35Speaker 9: They shouldn't actually entertain policies that completely go against the
- 13:40Speaker 9: economic constitution of this country. And therefore, that was our
- 13:43Speaker 9: primary addressee, the parties. But of course, voters have a
- 13:46Speaker 9: responsibility too. They shouldn't reward this kind of behavior.
- 13:49Speaker 2: Oliver, the National Party and their supermarket plan. I mean,
- 13:53Speaker 2: I've spoken to business leaders who don't want to speak publicly,
- 13:56Speaker 2: but I think this is absolute madness from that party
- 13:58Speaker 2: in particular. What are you hearing?
- 14:01Speaker 9: I hear exactly the same. And it's interesting that you
- 14:03Speaker 9: say that business leaders wouldn't say that publicly because that's
- 14:06Speaker 9: exactly the behavior I encountered, too. We put this open
- 14:10Speaker 9: letter out to a large group of business people, and
- 14:12Speaker 9: you wouldn't believe how many business leaders told me I
- 14:15Speaker 9: could not possibly agree with this in public, even though
- 14:17Speaker 9: I completely privately agree with it, because I fear for
- 14:20Speaker 9: the repercussions. There is a culture of fear among New
- 14:23Speaker 9: Zealand business leaders where they think if they speak out
- 14:26Speaker 9: against policies that are absolutely nonsensical, they would be targeted,
- 14:29Speaker 9: they would be punished by our politicians. And I think
- 14:33Speaker 9: that culture of fear is something that concerns me even
- 14:35Speaker 9: more than the policies they proposed.
- 14:37Speaker 2: Which is a race to the bottom, because how do
- 14:39Speaker 2: you have a debate about something if no one's giving
- 14:41Speaker 2: the counter-argument?
- 14:43Speaker 9: That's exactly right. I heard from one business leader, they
- 14:46Speaker 9: got just invited to participate in the mood of the
- 14:49Speaker 9: boardroom survey. This is the one place where they can
- 14:51Speaker 9: actually say anonymously what they really think. And that business
- 14:54Speaker 9: leader said to me, this was his one chance in
- 14:56Speaker 9: a year to really say what he thinks, because otherwise
- 14:59Speaker 9: he would not get away with it.
- 15:01Speaker 2: Oliver Hartwich, New Zealand Initiative Executive Director. Time is 25
- 15:04Speaker 2: minutes after five. Jeez, talk about a power imbalance, eh?
- 15:09Speaker 2: Newstalk ZB. Newstalk ZB, 27 minutes after five. The problem
- 15:12Speaker 2: with writing books and not fact-checking them properly is that
- 15:15Speaker 2: you get yourself tangled in knots. At best, forced to apologise.
- 15:19Speaker 2: At worst, sued. I haven't read the one launched in
- 15:21Speaker 2: Wellington yesterday because I haven't got a copy of it.
- 15:24Speaker 2: I watched the press conference. I watched the stand-up afterwards.
- 15:27Speaker 2: There was one allegation made of note. that has been
- 15:30Speaker 2: denied by the current and past board chairs of the taxpayers' union.
- 15:35Speaker 2: But writing a book based on interviews with people without
- 15:37Speaker 2: proper fact-checking or documentation is fraught business. Due diligence goes
- 15:42Speaker 2: a long way. Look no further than Earl Spencer, Princess
- 15:46Speaker 2: Diana's brother, who wrote a book writing off Charles as
- 15:48Speaker 2: some sort of giddy widow. Well, also in his book,
- 15:51Speaker 2: he claimed Piers Morgan was in part behind the taking
- 15:55Speaker 2: of photos of Diana attending gym class in a leotard
- 15:58Speaker 2: with a secret camera. The problem for Spencer, had he
- 16:02Speaker 2: bothered to check, was that Pearce was not in fact
- 16:05Speaker 2: the editor of the Mirror newspaper the book assumed him
- 16:08Speaker 2: to be until two years after the photos were taken.
- 16:11Speaker 2: Pearce was ropeable. Spencer forced to apologise. It should serve
- 16:16Speaker 2: as fair warning that whether it's penned in London or Wellington,
- 16:20Speaker 2: you can't believe everything that is written down.
- 16:22Speaker 1: Ryan Bridge.
- 16:23Speaker 2: Time is 28 minutes after five. Now, Winston Peters... plagiarism
- 16:29Speaker 2: is another issue, isn't it? Now, Winston has denied this.
- 16:33Speaker 2: He said, we didn't copy paste our health policy. I
- 16:36Speaker 2: actually thought it was quite a good health policy because
- 16:37Speaker 2: how often do you hear people talking about the food triangle,
- 16:41Speaker 2: the food pyramid anymore?
- 16:43Speaker 9: Never.
- 16:44Speaker 2: If you want to be healthy, it's what you put in,
- 16:46Speaker 2: it's what you get out. Anyway, they are being accused
- 16:50Speaker 2: of copy pasting their 15 point health plan. Here's Winston
- 16:52Speaker 2: responding to that.
- 16:54Speaker 11: You even copied and pasted over a typo from their website.
- 16:57Speaker 12: Yeah, just to make sure that you were paying attention.
- 16:59Speaker 12: Did you copy and paste it?
- 17:01Speaker 4: Well, we worked with them.
- 17:03Speaker 7: We agreed substantially on a lot of their policies, but
- 17:05Speaker 7: we spent a lot of time studying other countries as well,
- 17:08Speaker 7: and it's in our foundation principles 33 years ago.
- 17:11Speaker 2: There you go. You are what you eat. I mean,
- 17:15Speaker 2: you could say, do you need 15 points to make
- 17:17Speaker 2: that point? That would be my advice. Any political party
- 17:22Speaker 2: listening to this this morning... And I know you do.
- 17:26Speaker 2: Just every policy, one page. In fact, you could get
- 17:28Speaker 2: it down to a sentence. Newstalk ZB, we're live to
- 17:32Speaker 2: the UK. Burnham has met Trump at the UN.
- 17:44Speaker 1: The news you need this morning and the in-depth analysis.
- 17:47Speaker 1: Early edition with Ryan Bridge and Spark for Business. Technology
- 17:52Speaker 1: that keeps business moving.
- 17:53Speaker 2: Newstalk ZB. 24 away from six. Good morning. Welcome to
- 18:02Speaker 2: your Wednesday. Trump and Burnham have had a little sit down,
- 18:04Speaker 2: a little chin wag at the UN in New York.
- 18:06Speaker 2: We'll look at that in 10 minutes. In 15, we'll
- 18:08Speaker 2: do the RBNZ COVID report, the dual mandate questions that
- 18:11Speaker 2: pop up out of that. Loads of text coming in. Ryan,
- 18:14Speaker 2: given that the book, the last one, was filled with errors,
- 18:18Speaker 2: who's holding Mr. Hager accountable for his work of fiction? Ryan,
- 18:21Speaker 2: Nicky Hager's latest work is from the same old playbook,
- 18:24Speaker 2: Pick a Target, Find the Narrative, Call it Journalism. And
- 18:28Speaker 2: this one's on public sector bosses. This is for Fens,
- 18:31Speaker 2: and we had Brook Van Velden's valedictory last night at Parliament. Ryan,
- 18:34Speaker 2: agree there are some whose performance is woeful. This is
- 18:38Speaker 2: the CEOs, and they should go. However, for many of them,
- 18:41Speaker 2: imagine how hard it is to constantly shift direction every
- 18:45Speaker 2: time the government changes, which happens every, well, could happen
- 18:48Speaker 2: every three years.
- 18:49Speaker 8: Yeah, I don't know.
- 18:50Speaker 2: That's kind of your job, isn't it? You should still
- 18:52Speaker 2: be competent and not lie in the meantime. You know,
- 18:55Speaker 2: pretty simple rules, really. Pretty easy to follow, I would
- 18:58Speaker 2: have thought. Yeah, what's hard about that? We're going to
- 19:03Speaker 2: get to our reporters. There was something else I wanted
- 19:06Speaker 2: to mention to you as well. Oh, that's right. Watching
- 19:08Speaker 2: the news last night, and you know the story about
- 19:10Speaker 2: the National Party. And there's a bigger issue going on here.
- 19:13Speaker 2: The attack ads from National, we're going to see more
- 19:15Speaker 2: of them. Labour's ads start Sunday, by the way, because
- 19:18Speaker 2: they haven't got as much money, so they're saving it up.
- 19:20Speaker 2: They're going to do a five-week blitz starting Sunday. But
- 19:23Speaker 2: what you're seeing is a whole bunch of nine new
- 19:25Speaker 2: taxes from Labour and their mates. And Labour says, oh,
- 19:28Speaker 2: this is lies. And National goes, oh, no, it's not, whatever. Actually,
- 19:32Speaker 2: no one cares anymore, do they? And people go, oh, yeah,
- 19:35Speaker 2: sounds like that might happen. Same thing with the ad,
- 19:38Speaker 2: the attack ad on crime. They've released this ad and
- 19:42Speaker 2: some of the footage that they've used is actually from
- 19:44Speaker 2: National's term in office. And National basically goes, oh yeah,
- 19:48Speaker 2: kind of true, but who cares? Points the same. Actually,
- 19:51Speaker 2: I don't think people do care. I think people just go, oh, yeah, Labour, taxes, crime.
- 19:56Speaker 2: Point made. And the more time that Labour spends talking
- 19:59Speaker 2: about the ads, the more attention that gets drawn to them.
- 20:01Speaker 2: The worse the problem gets. 22 away from six. Right,
- 20:06Speaker 2: let's go to our reporters now. Cullum and Deneen.
- 20:08Speaker 8: Morning, Cullum.
- 20:09Speaker 13: Morning, Ryan.
- 20:10Speaker 2: You've got Otago Uni researchers helping with the threat from
- 20:13Speaker 2: antibiotic resistance.
- 20:16Speaker 14: Yeah, researchers here at our university are joining an $ 87
- 20:19Speaker 14: million international programme which is aimed at addressing that growing threat.
- 20:24Speaker 14: The team's one of 16 selected worldwide, the only one
- 20:26Speaker 14: from New Zealand, and they'll be working on antibiotics that
- 20:30Speaker 14: target infections without damaging the good bacteria in the gut.
- 20:34Speaker 14: Associate Professor Alan Gamble's involved. He's told us this is
- 20:37Speaker 14: a career-defining moment to work on solving what is one
- 20:41Speaker 14: of the greatest health crises facing humanity. This program aims
- 20:45Speaker 14: to deliver major breakthroughs in antibiotic treatment within the next
- 20:48Speaker 14: five to six years.
- 20:49Speaker 2: How's your weather?
- 20:50Speaker 14: Five to ten years, correction.
- 20:52Speaker 2: Oh, there we go. How's your weather? Here we go.
- 20:54Speaker 14: Showers morning and afternoon, partly cloudy, some frost about this
- 20:57Speaker 14: morning as well.
- 20:58Speaker 2: Southwest is the high 11. All right, thank you, Clare's
- 21:00Speaker 2: in Christchurch.
- 21:01Speaker 9: Morning, Clare.
- 21:02Speaker 2: Good morning. What are these new numbers from Christchurch Hospital
- 21:04Speaker 2: all about?
- 21:05Speaker 15: Yeah, HealthNZ figures released to Newstalk ZB show the ED
- 21:09Speaker 15: at our hospital is now treating more than three times
- 21:11Speaker 15: as many patients in corridors as it was three years ago.
- 21:15Speaker 15: There were almost 14,500 patients recorded in corridors last financial year.
- 21:20Speaker 15: That's up from less than 4,000 three years ago. The
- 21:23Speaker 15: time patients spent there has also quintupled to be over
- 21:27Speaker 15: 29,000 hours in total. Self-discharges have also doubled to 5,000.
- 21:33Speaker 15: HealthNZ says providing treatment in corridors is not the experience
- 21:37Speaker 15: it wants for patients and staff work hard to ensure patients'
- 21:40Speaker 15: privacy and dignity are maintained. This is all not a
- 21:43Speaker 15: surprise to people like Senior ED Dr Dominic Fleischer, who
- 21:46Speaker 15: says it's actually now unusual to not have patients in
- 21:49Speaker 15: the corridors. Meanwhile, the nurses' organisation delegate Al Deachen says
- 21:53Speaker 15: other areas of the hospital are also struggling. Self-discharges are
- 21:57Speaker 15: increasing due to people being bumped off surgery waitlists, for example.
- 22:01Speaker 2: Ah, so the self-discharge, are they saying that people are
- 22:03Speaker 2: not liking waiting or hanging around in the corridors, so
- 22:06Speaker 2: they self-discharge?
- 22:07Speaker 15: Giving up, exactly, after so many hours, particularly in the corridors, yeah.
- 22:11Speaker 6: OK.
- 22:11Speaker 2: How's your weather?
- 22:13Speaker 15: A bit of rain about this morning, but then should
- 22:14Speaker 15: clear to mainly fine. Southwesterlies and a high of 11.
- 22:17Speaker 2: All right, so once you've self-discharged, you go out to
- 22:19Speaker 2: some sunny weather. Thank you, Claire. Max in Wellington.
- 22:22Speaker 9: Morning, Max.
- 22:22Speaker 2: Good morning. Now, we've got the mayor wanting to move
- 22:25Speaker 2: away from big corporates. What does that mean?
- 22:27Speaker 16: Yeah, quick background. We paid Deloitte well over 400 grand
- 22:31Speaker 16: for a report on the council that ended up using
- 22:33Speaker 16: out-of-date numbers, big chunks of crappy AI. We paid 600k
- 22:37Speaker 16: for a website about Central Library that didn't even give
- 22:40Speaker 16: you the function to look up books. A report found
- 22:42Speaker 16: that could have cost 100k. We even had a senior
- 22:45Speaker 16: council official in the studio with Nick Mills last week
- 22:48Speaker 16: telling us they have up to 90 people in their
- 22:50Speaker 16: IT team and the website could have very easily been
- 22:53Speaker 16: done in-house. We've had no fewer than three reports about
- 22:56Speaker 16: more point somewhat surprisingly, we had the CEO in last
- 23:00Speaker 16: week about this use of big corporates, specifically the Deloitte report.
- 23:05Speaker 16: He was perfectly happy with it. The mayor wasn't. So
- 23:08Speaker 16: Andrew Little has now told The Post the council is
- 23:10Speaker 16: reviewing its procurement policy. He says, we've got extraordinary talent
- 23:14Speaker 16: within the city. My hope and expectation is that when
- 23:17Speaker 16: we're commissioning work, we look around and see who can
- 23:20Speaker 16: offer services and support in terms of best value for money. Obviously,
- 23:24Speaker 16: that also might mean you use your own staff better
- 23:26Speaker 16: as well. In other words, it's been one thing after
- 23:28Speaker 16: another for the City Council. It's time to spend our
- 23:31Speaker 16: money a little more wisely.
- 23:32Speaker 7: All right.
- 23:32Speaker 2: How's your weather?
- 23:33Speaker 16: A little cloud with stronger southerlies, 10.
- 23:35Speaker 2: Nice one. Thank you. Neva's in Auckland.
- 23:37Speaker 10: Morning, Neva.
- 23:38Speaker 12: Good morning.
- 23:39Speaker 2: So we won't see the yellow-legged hornet re-emerge in Auckland.
- 23:42Speaker 12: Let's hope.
- 23:43Speaker 11: Let's hope. Well, yes, you're quite right. Look, the government poured,
- 23:46Speaker 11: as we know, $ 12 million into eradicating this invasive species
- 23:50Speaker 11: from the North Shore. Now, none have been spotted since April, so...
- 23:55Speaker 11: Victoria University biology professor Phil Lester says that if any
- 23:59Speaker 11: survive the winter undetected, they're going to begin, you know,
- 24:02Speaker 11: like waking up now from hibernation. So he says that
- 24:05Speaker 11: while the risks are minimal, a single survivor, a single
- 24:08Speaker 11: survivor could undo everything. So Phil Lester, he's about 95%
- 24:14Speaker 11: confident they're gone, but you never know. He's probably jinxed
- 24:16Speaker 11: it now. So Aucklanders have been told, you know, keep
- 24:18Speaker 11: your eyes peeled this spring.
- 24:20Speaker 2: Horrible little things. How's our weather? Cloudy.
- 24:22Speaker 11: Few morning and afternoon showers. 16 to high here in Auckland.
- 24:25Speaker 2: Brilliant, Neva. Thank you very much. 17 away from 6.
- 24:27Speaker 2: We're in the UK next. Burnham has met with Trump
- 24:30Speaker 2: at the UN. We'll have reaction. When people choose a
- 24:33Speaker 2: KiwiSaver provider, they often focus on a single thing, on
- 24:36Speaker 2: one thing. Maybe it's the returns. Maybe it's the fees.
- 24:39Speaker 2: Maybe it's just where they have their bank account. but
- 24:42Speaker 2: it actually makes sense to look at the whole picture.
- 24:45Speaker 2: Over the past 10 years, Milford has more number one
- 24:49Speaker 2: ranked funds than any other provider in the country. Milford
- 24:52Speaker 2: consistently wins awards for its service. It's a majority New
- 24:56Speaker 2: Zealand-owned company, and Milford's team invest in the same Milford
- 24:59Speaker 2: funds as their clients do. It's called skin in the game.
- 25:02Speaker 2: No single reason tells the whole story, but together they
- 25:05Speaker 2: paint a compelling picture, and that's another reason to choose Milford.
- 25:08Speaker 2: Find out more at milfordasset.com. Past performance is not a
- 25:12Speaker 2: reliable indicator of future performance. Investment involves risk and returns
- 25:15Speaker 2: can be negative as well as positive. Milford Funds Limited
- 25:18Speaker 2: is the issuer of the Milford KiwiSaver plan. Go to
- 25:21Speaker 2: milfordasset.com to read the Milford KiwiSaver plan product disclosure statement.
- 25:25Speaker 1: International correspondence with NZI Insurance. Peace of mind for New
- 25:30Speaker 1: Zealand business.
- 25:31Speaker 2: Right, we've had a meeting on the sidelines of the
- 25:33Speaker 2: UN between Burnham and Trump. All smiles.
- 25:36Speaker 13: And it's time to turn the story about Britain to
- 25:39Speaker 13: a positive story. Get some hopefulness going around the country.
- 25:44Speaker 13: And I think you were saying today that very much
- 25:47Speaker 13: is how you see it. And there's a great opportunity
- 25:51Speaker 13: for us.
- 25:52Speaker 3: This is a country with great patriots. They love the country.
- 25:55Speaker 3: The people love the country as much as any other
- 25:57Speaker 3: country I can think of. And I think it's just
- 25:59Speaker 3: waiting for success, waiting for good leadership, waiting for success.
- 26:03Speaker 2: So joining us, Gavin Gray, our UK Europe correspondent. Gavin,
- 26:06Speaker 2: all went off without a hitch.
- 26:08Speaker 10: Yes, I think there were no ambushes, which is something
- 26:11Speaker 10: that the back bench team will be very pleased about.
- 26:16Speaker 10: Andy Burnham kind of held his own. They said afterwards,
- 26:19Speaker 10: each other, they felt there were people that they could
- 26:21Speaker 10: do business with, which I think is pretty crucial.
- 26:24Speaker 9: It was full of.
- 26:26Speaker 10: really bear pits traps for Andy Burnham. He once said
- 26:29Speaker 10: in 2021, any UK politician who gave Trump the time
- 26:33Speaker 10: of day should be ashamed right now. That was after
- 26:35Speaker 10: the violence at the US Capitol back in 2021 and
- 26:39Speaker 10: previously branded the US president's brand of politics as poisonous. Thankfully,
- 26:43Speaker 10: Nobody asked about those things. And they went on and
- 26:46Speaker 10: seemed to get on pretty well. But although, you know,
- 26:50Speaker 10: they're saying it's as strong as it's ever been, there's
- 26:52Speaker 10: no doubt that the lack of participation, as Donald Trump
- 26:55Speaker 10: saw it in the UK's response to asking for help
- 26:59Speaker 10: in Iran and the war against Iran and not being
- 27:02Speaker 10: forthcoming from the UK, that didn't go down very well.
- 27:05Speaker 10: So there were plenty of things that could have gone wrong.
- 27:08Speaker 10: And so far, sort of steady in the ship. I
- 27:09Speaker 10: think it's a sort of wake and wait-and-see thing really, Ryan.
- 27:13Speaker 10: It's the first time, incidentally, now that we've heard news
- 27:17Speaker 10: as well that the UK and US have, for the
- 27:19Speaker 10: first time, fired an American torpedo from a British undersea
- 27:23Speaker 10: drone in a military exercise. Clay, people are pointing to
- 27:26Speaker 10: this and saying maybe that's a change of heart. Maybe
- 27:29Speaker 10: things are warmer between Donald Trump and our new Prime Minister,
- 27:33Speaker 10: Andy Burnham, than they were with the previous Prime Minister.
- 27:36Speaker 10: But Donald Trump's still very heavily critical of the Chagos
- 27:39Speaker 10: Islands deal. that the UK has set up with Mauritius
- 27:42Speaker 10: and that he says he does not support.
- 27:45Speaker 2: Hey, very quickly, with this RAF plane that's helping the
- 27:47Speaker 2: Saudis with the Houthis, what's it doing?
- 27:50Speaker 10: Yeah, so it's basically helping Saudi Arabian jets fill up
- 27:54Speaker 10: with fuel. So the UK is to deploy a military
- 27:57Speaker 10: aircraft for air-to-air refueling. The operation should start in the
- 28:02Speaker 10: coming days. It's a request from Saudi Arabia, and they're
- 28:06Speaker 10: saying it'll be, you know, something, it's a defensive, purely
- 28:09Speaker 10: defensive mission in a matter starting in days, but taking
- 28:13Speaker 10: a matter of weeks to rather than days in duration.
- 28:16Speaker 10: But plenty of people here worried about mission creep or
- 28:19Speaker 10: mission bleed, where you start off with one aim, and
- 28:22Speaker 10: of course, you're asked to do others. But either way,
- 28:24Speaker 10: the UK stressing this is defensive, it is not attacking,
- 28:27Speaker 10: and they're determined to try to keep Saudi Arabia safe.
- 28:30Speaker 2: Gavin Gray, our UK Europe correspondent, time is 11 away
- 28:32Speaker 2: from six.
- 28:33Speaker 1: Ryan Bridge.
- 28:34Speaker 2: We've had the independent review now into the Reserve Bank
- 28:37Speaker 2: under Adrian Orr. How did it do with COVID? How
- 28:39Speaker 2: would it deal with the post-COVID era? No one's surprised.
- 28:42Speaker 2: It says the bank was too slow to withdraw the
- 28:45Speaker 2: monetary stimulus as the economy recovered. In other words....
- 28:49Speaker 10: They over-egged the omelette.
- 28:50Speaker 13: They left interest rates too low for too long.
- 28:52Speaker 6: The economy overheated to an historically extreme degree.
- 28:56Speaker 2: Mark Smith, ASB senior economist with us this morning. Mark,
- 28:59Speaker 2: good morning.
- 29:00Speaker 7: Good morning, Ryan.
- 29:01Speaker 2: I mean, is this 2020 hindsight all very well to
- 29:04Speaker 2: look back now, but at the time it was hard
- 29:06Speaker 2: to see, or should they have seen it?
- 29:09Speaker 7: A bit of both, really. Hindsight is always a great thing.
- 29:12Speaker 7: I suppose for them, it was really the least regret.
- 29:16Speaker 7: What did we want to avoid? And it was a
- 29:19Speaker 7: pronounced period of deflation, so they went the other way. Unfortunately,
- 29:24Speaker 7: the global economy and the New Zealand economy as well
- 29:27Speaker 7: proved to be more resilient and adaptable than initially thought.
- 29:31Speaker 7: The amount of stimulus that was put in place, not
- 29:34Speaker 7: only by the Reserve Bank, but also the Treasury as.
- 29:36Speaker 10: Well, was.
- 29:39Speaker 7: Absolutely. massive. And also the supply side of the economy
- 29:44Speaker 7: was also going the wrong way. So the labour market,
- 29:47Speaker 7: for example, was the tightest in the generation. So they
- 29:50Speaker 7: came out with an economy that was actually more resilient.
- 29:54Speaker 7: And also, there was not as much spare capacity as
- 29:56Speaker 7: earlier thought. And as a result, inflation picked up and
- 30:00Speaker 7: stayed higher for longer.
- 30:01Speaker 2: Mark, what about the dual mandate? What is your takeaway
- 30:04Speaker 2: from this report?
- 30:06Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean, that's all very well. Dual mandates are great.
- 30:10Speaker 7: The reality is you really only have one instrument, that's
- 30:13Speaker 7: the OCR. And if you have two targets, that can
- 30:16Speaker 7: be fine if they're both going the same way. What
- 30:18Speaker 7: we're seeing now, though, is the global economy is a
- 30:21Speaker 7: lot more different. There are a lot more cost shocks.
- 30:23Speaker 7: When a cost shock hits an economy, what happens is
- 30:26Speaker 7: the unemployment rate goes up and so does the inflation rate.
- 30:30Speaker 7: So really the dilemma is which one do you tackle first? Now,
- 30:33Speaker 7: the argument here is really the inflation targets to really
- 30:37Speaker 7: take precedence. And you really want to also look at
- 30:40Speaker 7: real interest rates as well. So as a result, during COVID,
- 30:44Speaker 7: real interest rates were very, very, very low. At the moment,
- 30:47Speaker 7: real interest rates in New Zealand are negative.
- 30:51Speaker 2: Mark Smith. Good to have you on the show as always.
- 30:53Speaker 2: ASB Senior Economist. Time is eight minutes away from six.
- 30:56Speaker 2: I noticed that Piers Morgan saying he's still going to
- 30:59Speaker 2: sue Earl Spencer, even though Earl Spencer has apologized for
- 31:03Speaker 2: the quote lie that he told in his book. Newstalk ZB.
- 31:07Speaker 1: Hear it first. Ryan Bridge on early edition with Spark
- 31:11Speaker 1: for Business. Technology that keeps business moving.
- 31:14Speaker 2: Newstalk ZB. Six to six, Ryan. I can think of
- 31:17Speaker 2: one reason Kerry Gregory doesn't want to resign as the
- 31:19Speaker 2: CEO of Fensley. Salaries $ 520, 000 a year. Very quickly, six-year-old
- 31:25Speaker 2: girl at a women's world record event. This is the
- 31:28Speaker 2: Rubik's Cube. Solving the Rubik's Cube. Just set the world record.
- 31:31Speaker 2: She's six years old. So fastest female in the world,
- 31:36Speaker 2: Lian Yanzi is her name. She's from China. She did
- 31:40Speaker 2: it in 4.52 seconds. And in a second attempt, 4.27 seconds.
- 31:45Speaker 2: This is competitions in Wuhan and Guangzhou. And now the
- 31:49Speaker 2: first female Cuber to achieve an average time of under
- 31:51Speaker 2: four and a half seconds. The fastest time in the
- 31:54Speaker 2: world by anyone of any sex was 2.76. Morning, Mike. Morning.
- 32:00Speaker 12: I saw the video of her. I thought they said
- 32:02Speaker 12: she was four. It doesn't matter, but the point is
- 32:05Speaker 12: she looked excited in doing it.
- 32:07Speaker 2: How cool.
- 32:08Speaker 12: And, well, it was rote. You can tell it's rote.
- 32:10Speaker 9: Yeah.
- 32:10Speaker 12: There's something about whatever they do.
- 32:13Speaker 2: It's a rote movement.
- 32:14Speaker 12: Have you ever done it?
- 32:15Speaker 7: Rubik's Cube?
- 32:15Speaker 12: I got it down to 18 seconds.
- 32:17Speaker 2: Did you really?
- 32:17Speaker 6: No.
- 32:20Speaker 2: You lie so convincingly.
- 32:21Speaker 12: A hundred percent.
- 32:23Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 32:23Speaker 2: Are the Warriors going to win? Of course they are.
- 32:25Speaker 12: Of course they are.
- 32:26Speaker 2: Can you do a Rubik's Cube? Of course I can.
- 32:28Speaker 12: You've got to believe. You've got to believe. Believe or lie.
- 32:31Speaker 12: You say it often enough, it becomes true. That's how
- 32:34Speaker 12: it works. That's how it works. The Reserve Bank review.
- 32:38Speaker 12: The funny thing about the review, and having read it yesterday,
- 32:41Speaker 12: they've got a guy from MIT along with an ex-Reserve Banker.
- 32:44Speaker 2: Very impressive.
- 32:45Speaker 12: The point being, they say things like they need to
- 32:48Speaker 12: be more robust. Now, what does that mean?
- 32:51Speaker 7: Nothing.
- 32:51Speaker 12: I mean, it means literally nothing, doesn't it?
- 32:53Speaker 2: Because we were just talking about this off air. It's
- 32:55Speaker 2: the same story we're being told just repeatedly now.
- 32:58Speaker 12: I suppose it's official. It's in the record, I guess.
- 33:01Speaker 2: Independent of the Reserve Bank.
- 33:02Speaker 12: So you can go back and say, well, these people
- 33:04Speaker 12: looked at it and then it wasn't. I noted Hipkins
- 33:08Speaker 12: was trying to run his line yesterday. We've all moved on.
- 33:10Speaker 12: I don't think that's true. I don't think it's remotely true.
- 33:13Speaker 12: and that there's an indisputable truth, we're still living through it.
- 33:16Speaker 2: Yes, although I think he's right in the sense that
- 33:19Speaker 2: no one's still talking about the COVID lockdowns. The psyche's
- 33:23Speaker 2: moved on a bit, but I don't think the blame
- 33:26Speaker 2: has shifted yet.
- 33:26Speaker 12: Blame has not shifted, and that's why they'll lose the election,
- 33:29Speaker 12: because people, when push comes to shove on the day, the.
- 33:32Speaker 2: Same people are doing the same thing.
- 33:34Speaker 12: Anyway, I've got some good health news this morning, and actually,
- 33:37Speaker 12: you'll be interested in this. Some very good wine news.
- 33:40Speaker 8: Oh, good.
- 33:41Speaker 2: Oh, exactly. Does that mean I get more?
- 33:43Speaker 12: Well, you may well end up with more wine. More
- 33:46Speaker 12: wine as a result of it.
- 33:47Speaker 10: Anyway.
- 33:48Speaker 2: Fabulous. Mike is with you next. Newstalk ZB. Enjoy your
- 33:51Speaker 2: Wednesday morning.
- 34:00Speaker 13: Oh, help.
- 34:08Speaker 1: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live
- 34:11Speaker 1: to News Talk ZB from 5 a.m. weekdays or follow
- 34:14Speaker 1: the podcast on iHeartRadio.