Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Full Show Podcast: 31 August 2026

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Full Show Podcast: 31 August 2026 · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

0:00
Speaker 1: The issues, the interviews and the insight. Ryan Bridge on
0:05
Speaker 1: Early Edition with Spark for Business. Technology that keeps business moving.
0:09
Speaker 2: Newstalk ZB. A very good morning to you. Six after five.
0:12
Speaker 2: Welcome to Monday. Sean Fitzpatrick joins us this morning on
0:16
Speaker 2: the scrap over the scrum. Why the Nats student loan
0:19
Speaker 2: plan probably makes sense. More problems for Andy Burnham trying
0:22
Speaker 2: to release prisoners. Gavin's in the UK for us and
0:24
Speaker 2: Vicky Price does the business. The Agenda. It is Monday
0:28
Speaker 2: the 31st of August, Cyprus. A ferry has capsized. Seven
0:31
Speaker 2: people are dead. Question now is why when the weather
0:34
Speaker 2: seemed to be fine.
0:35
Speaker 3: The idea of it being a weather-induced problem seems to
0:39
Speaker 3: not be the case. The Turkish Cypriot leader, Tugan Evduman,
0:43
Speaker 3: said about half an hour ago now that the weather
0:46
Speaker 3: seemed to be quite nice out at sea, and I
0:48
Speaker 3: think that seems to be him going as far away
0:50
Speaker 3: as he can go within the bounds of not willing
0:52
Speaker 3: to speculate too much to say that likely this was
0:55
Speaker 3: a problem caused by the condition.
0:56
Speaker 4: Of the boat itself.
0:58
Speaker 2: Right turn to pull to bit. This is the landslide. Devastating.
1:01
Speaker 2: And they've had to pause the rescue.
1:03
Speaker 5: The rescue operations that were ongoing until yesterday evening have
1:07
Speaker 5: stopped because water levels have increased. Between 5.30 and 6 a.m.,
1:13
Speaker 5: water levels rose significantly.
1:16
Speaker 2: Death toll, 794, missing, 2,500. Let's go to Iceland. They've
1:21
Speaker 2: said no thanks to joining the EU. They had a referendum.
1:24
Speaker 2: She was tight, 52% no, 47% yes.
1:27
Speaker 6: Well, the yes side ran an overly technical campaign never
1:33
Speaker 6: really explaining properly the purpose or the passion in why
1:39
Speaker 6: Iceland should join the EU, rather emphasising that this was
1:43
Speaker 6: a pre-election solely to sort of explore opportunities, and that
1:49
Speaker 6: didn't kind of bring out the same passion around that.
1:53
Speaker 2: I'll tell you what they were passionate about, and it
1:54
Speaker 2: wasn't immigration, weirdly for the EU. We'll do that shortly.
1:58
Speaker 2: Finally this morning... Five, four, three.
2:11
Speaker 2: NASA's new space telescope is blasted off from Florida. It's
2:14
Speaker 2: called Nancy Grace Roman. It can see 100 times more
2:18
Speaker 2: sky than Hubble, searching for dark energy, black holes, and
2:21
Speaker 2: distant planets. Basically, it's a planet hunter. It'll reach its destination,
2:26
Speaker 2: 1.6 million kilometers from Earth, and it'll do that in
2:28
Speaker 2: 100 days.
2:30
Speaker 1: Before the news breaks, hear it first. Ryan Bridge on
2:34
Speaker 1: early edition with Spark for Business, technology that keeps business moving.
2:38
Speaker 2: Newstalk ZB. 9292 is the number to text. Always love
2:42
Speaker 2: to hear from you. Hope you had a great weekend.
2:44
Speaker 2: The All Blacks didn't. We'll talk about that in a second. Now,
2:48
Speaker 2: Gen Z, everyone knows they're all useless. So a couple
2:51
Speaker 2: of things are happening. Well, one, under urgency on Friday,
2:55
Speaker 2: the government passed benefit changes, which will affect 18 to 19-year-olds.
3:00
Speaker 2: So if you've got a kid at home who's 18
3:01
Speaker 2: or 19, who has not got a job, is not
3:04
Speaker 2: in education, is not in training, and is instead on
3:06
Speaker 2: the couch eating potato chips, doing nothing, well, if you
3:10
Speaker 2: earn more than $ 67, 000 a year, you will have to
3:15
Speaker 2: start funding your child's potato chip habit. So that's going
3:19
Speaker 2: to happen from November. So from November, if you've got
3:21
Speaker 2: a lazy kid at home, doesn't have a job, on
3:24
Speaker 2: a benefit, benefit's going to get cut. And government says
3:28
Speaker 2: young people who are not in education, employment, training should
3:32
Speaker 2: be financially supported by their parents, not the taxpayers through
3:34
Speaker 2: the welfare system. It's hard to argue with that, isn't it?
3:38
Speaker 2: Parents are responsible for making sure that their kids get
3:41
Speaker 2: out there and do something with their lives. And if
3:44
Speaker 2: the kids aren't, then it's their job to pay for them.
3:48
Speaker 2: The only thing is, 18 and 19 year olds, are
3:50
Speaker 2: they still kids? Or are they adults? Second thing, Gen
3:58
Speaker 2: Z workers, this was a great little survey, and I'm
4:01
Speaker 2: not picking on you Gen Z, you do it to yourselves.
4:04
Speaker 2: Gen Z workers, they did a survey over in the UK,
4:08
Speaker 2: online survey, so take it with a grain of salt,
4:10
Speaker 2: but It sort of rings true, doesn't it? 2,000 people,
4:13
Speaker 2: Merlin Strategy for Britain's Centre for Social Justice, which is
4:16
Speaker 2: the think tank, they did it. Gen Z workers almost
4:19
Speaker 2: twice as likely to take a sickie as colleagues aged
4:23
Speaker 2: 55 or older. Gen Z strikes again. Four in five
4:29
Speaker 2: workers under the age of 25, so 80% of those
4:32
Speaker 2: under 25 had taken a sickie in the past year.
4:36
Speaker 2: For your older folk, it was 43%. And it gets worse.
4:41
Speaker 2: So they looked at how many sickies are you taking? 40%
4:46
Speaker 2: of these young people reported calling in sick on at
4:50
Speaker 2: least five days in the past year when they could
4:53
Speaker 2: have worked. Five sickies a year. And for your older folk,
4:58
Speaker 2: it was 10% of them had taken five sickies a year.
5:03
Speaker 2: That is outrageous. And it sort of reminded me this morning,
5:07
Speaker 2: a mate of mine, when I was at school, a
5:09
Speaker 2: mate of mine worked at Briscoe's and just loved folding
5:12
Speaker 2: towels on a Saturday morning at Briscoe's Paraparamu. And he
5:17
Speaker 2: one time wanted to pull a sickie but didn't want
5:19
Speaker 2: to do it before work because that might have been
5:21
Speaker 2: a bit obvious. Maybe there was a bit of Gen Z,
5:25
Speaker 2: his brush had been tarred. But so took in a
5:29
Speaker 2: can of soup to work. went into the staff room toilet,
5:33
Speaker 2: pretended to throw up, and then poured the soup into
5:36
Speaker 2: the toilet bowl as sort of proof or evidence that
5:40
Speaker 2: they were really sick and then went home sick. Terrible,
5:43
Speaker 2: I know. Not advisable, I know. But it happens. But
5:47
Speaker 2: five sicky days a year, that is outrageous. 12 minutes
5:51
Speaker 2: after five. Speaking of outrageous, that's what Razzie reckons about
5:55
Speaker 2: Rennie's take on the scrums. Here is Rennie.
5:58
Speaker 8: We'll give a bit of feedback around that. It's still
6:00
Speaker 8: a bit of an issue for us because... that they're
6:02
Speaker 8: able to walk around and go straight through our tight heads.
6:05
Speaker 8: So a couple of little technical things that we'll share again.
6:10
Speaker 8: But look, I thought in the end, the scrums, both
6:15
Speaker 8: teams are able to play off them. And so I
6:18
Speaker 8: think Angus did a reasonable job there.
6:19
Speaker 2: Sounds pretty reasonable. A couple of little technical things. Well,
6:22
Speaker 2: not according to Razzy.
6:23
Speaker 9: We're not going to stay quiet and just say, oh,
6:26
Speaker 9: you're right, we're walking around. We're not f * * *
6:27
Speaker 9: ing walking around. We're scrumming through, so... You know, we've never, ever,
6:32
Speaker 9: ever been accused of walking around.
6:36
Speaker 2: Sean Fitzpatrick, his take, live next, Newstalk ZB. Hear it?
6:47
Speaker 1: First, Ryan Bridge on early edition with Spark for Business,
6:51
Speaker 1: technology that keeps business moving.
6:53
Speaker 2: Newstalk ZB. 5.15, Newstalk ZB. So there are two cop killers,
6:57
Speaker 2: it was manslaughter, but cop killers who are in prison
6:59
Speaker 2: in the UK right now and as part of a
7:01
Speaker 2: prisoner release scheme. Remember when Labour here wanted to release,
7:04
Speaker 2: cut the prison muster down by 25 or 30%. What
7:08
Speaker 2: you have to do in order to achieve that is
7:10
Speaker 2: release prisoners. And some of them have been there for
7:13
Speaker 2: a long time. In the UK, there's a couple of
7:15
Speaker 2: guys who manslaughter a police officer. And as part of
7:21
Speaker 2: the Andy Burnham's prisoner release program, they were going to
7:24
Speaker 2: be released into the public. Now, he's only been in
7:26
Speaker 2: the job a short time, and that's not a great
7:28
Speaker 2: way to start. So he has continued with the prisoner
7:32
Speaker 2: release program, but he has now said these two cop
7:36
Speaker 2: killers will stay behind bars. Gavin Gray with us on
7:39
Speaker 2: that in 20 minutes. Right, we lost the rugby at
7:42
Speaker 2: the weekend. Newsflash, in case you haven't been paying attention,
7:45
Speaker 2: Rennie's first test loss.
7:47
Speaker 8: We did a lot of good things tonight, but when
7:49
Speaker 8: you play the world champions... You've just got to be
7:52
Speaker 8: clinical more often.
7:53
Speaker 9: His experience, he would have kept the team calm, and
7:55
Speaker 9: he'll do it now with his first loss. They'll be
7:57
Speaker 9: a little bit under pressure. He's an experienced coach, and
8:00
Speaker 9: he'll feel what we felt last week.
8:02
Speaker 2: Now the biff is about the scrum. Razzy's swearing at
8:05
Speaker 2: press conferences, says when he is moaning to the media.
8:08
Speaker 2: Sean Fitzpatrick, former All Black captain in South Africa for
8:10
Speaker 2: us this morning. Sean, good morning. Good morning, Ron. Good
8:14
Speaker 2: to have you on the show as always. Hey, what
8:16
Speaker 2: did you make of Saturday?
8:19
Speaker 10: I thought it was very courageous by the All Blacks.
8:25
Speaker 10: The South African team was a different team than it
8:27
Speaker 10: was seven days ago when we won at Alice Park.
8:31
Speaker 10: And that's something we totally expected. They were more physical, accurate.
8:36
Speaker 10: They were desperate. They took their points. And, you know,
8:39
Speaker 10: they played very well in that first half. And, you know,
8:42
Speaker 10: I think from there we were sort of chasing the game. But,
8:45
Speaker 10: you know, I took my hat off to the All Blacks.
8:47
Speaker 10: You know, we were a young team. A lot of
8:49
Speaker 10: these guys, as I said last week, they haven't played
8:51
Speaker 10: in this environment before. It was just a step up
8:54
Speaker 10: from what, you know, the intensity we saw last week
8:57
Speaker 10: at Alice Park. But, you know, score four tries to three,
9:01
Speaker 10: create a huge amount of opportunities. I thought our line-up
9:04
Speaker 10: just lacked that height we did in terms of options.
9:07
Speaker 2: And Ed, Sir Beth had a bit of a field
9:09
Speaker 2: day there.
9:10
Speaker 10: We just didn't have enough options in terms of our
9:13
Speaker 10: our choices, and they kicked their goals, which they didn't
9:17
Speaker 10: last week. So, you know, it's all set up really
9:19
Speaker 10: well for, you know, for FNB Stadium this week in Joburg.
9:23
Speaker 2: Yeah, because it's now one-all. Like, it's not the end
9:25
Speaker 2: of the world, is it, at this point? No. What
9:28
Speaker 2: about the scrums? Are they walking?
9:32
Speaker 10: I don't know. To be honest with you, Ryan, I
9:35
Speaker 10: don't look a bit that closely these days, but, you know, Malcolm, Mark, Sanosh, Ox,
9:39
Speaker 10: Nisha are world-class. And you just, when they came on,
9:42
Speaker 10: the pressure... that they can put in, not only at
9:45
Speaker 10: scrum time, but especially Malcolm Marks around the track. He
9:48
Speaker 10: just wreaked havoc. So I thought our scrum was better. But,
9:55
Speaker 10: you know, I wouldn't be talking too much about that.
9:59
Speaker 10: uh just get on with it and um and we've
10:02
Speaker 10: got to realize that they uh they are powerful and
10:05
Speaker 10: uh we competed well at scrum time but unfortunately as
10:08
Speaker 10: i said our lineup just struggled.
10:09
Speaker 2: A bit so ab's just just keep your head down
10:12
Speaker 2: don't talk about it too much and play the game.
10:16
Speaker 10: No, I thought the scrum went really well. You know,
10:17
Speaker 10: last week we had six scrum penalties. I'm not too
10:20
Speaker 10: sure of the number this week.
10:23
Speaker 2: But, yeah, we're improving.
10:25
Speaker 10: This is a really intense environment here. We're playing against
10:29
Speaker 10: the double world champions. So, you know, if you look at,
10:31
Speaker 10: you know, it's one all going to the third test.
10:35
Speaker 2: We're in a good position.
10:37
Speaker 10: I said, as I said, we created a huge amount
10:40
Speaker 10: of opportunities. So, you know, these guys should be really
10:44
Speaker 10: proud of themselves and, yeah, Look forward to Jayberg on Saturday.
10:48
Speaker 2: I have to say, it's probably the most exciting time
10:51
Speaker 2: in recent memory for the All Blacks, isn't it? I
10:54
Speaker 2: was up glued to a live blog on Sunday morning.
10:59
Speaker 10: Yeah, well, you look what happened, you know, like 30
11:02
Speaker 10: years ago. It was pretty exciting then. But, you know, honestly,
11:05
Speaker 10: Ryan being here, we said last week at Alice Park
11:09
Speaker 10: was just off the charts. In Cape Town, you got
11:12
Speaker 10: more of a feel of the atmosphere because you can
11:16
Speaker 10: walk around the viaduct and the waterfront area there before
11:20
Speaker 10: the game and the stadium was 10 minutes from the
11:23
Speaker 10: city centre. So, yeah, they're loving it. We're loving it.
11:29
Speaker 10: And the All Blacks are embracing it. Just sitting amongst
11:32
Speaker 10: the non-playing team last night, they are just having the
11:36
Speaker 10: time of their lives.
11:37
Speaker 3: Yeah.
11:38
Speaker 10: Long may that continue and well done as I said
11:40
Speaker 10: last week well done to New Zealand and South Africa
11:42
Speaker 10: rugby unionists for creating this.
11:45
Speaker 2: Sean Fitzpatrick always good to have you on the show
11:47
Speaker 2: we'll probably talk to you in a week or so
11:49
Speaker 2: it is 20 after 5 News Talk ZB Vicky Price
11:51
Speaker 2: does business next.
12:01
Speaker 1: The first word on the news of the day. Early
12:03
Speaker 1: edition with Ryan Bridge and Spark for Business. Technology that
12:08
Speaker 1: keeps business moving.
12:09
Speaker 2: Newstalk ZB. Right time is 22 minutes after five on
12:12
Speaker 2: Newstalk ZB. We had the big meeting at Jackson Hole.
12:15
Speaker 2: This is like a field day for central bankers. It's
12:17
Speaker 2: like Davos for central bankers. It's like the Super Bowl
12:20
Speaker 2: for central bankers. Anyway, we heard from Walsh there. We
12:23
Speaker 2: now have Vicky Price, our business correspondent. Vicky, good morning.
12:27
Speaker 4: Good morning.
12:28
Speaker 2: So we're expecting or sort of slight uptick in expectations
12:33
Speaker 2: of rates rises after that meeting.
12:36
Speaker 11: Absolutely. What we heard from the Fed, there were more
12:39
Speaker 11: hawkish sort of tones in discussions. in what the new
12:43
Speaker 11: Fed had to say, which is interesting, because, of course,
12:46
Speaker 11: the markets had gotten rather worried that perhaps inflation wasn't
12:49
Speaker 11: taken very seriously. And now they've calmed down a little bit,
12:53
Speaker 11: assuming that, yes, there will be some moves maybe in
12:56
Speaker 11: interest rates in the U.S. in the next few months.
12:59
Speaker 11: We're looking at September. The question is, will there be
13:01
Speaker 11: any then? But other central banks, of course, and that's
13:03
Speaker 11: the interesting thing, have varied in their approach. What we
13:07
Speaker 11: got is, of course, the European Central Bank, which had
13:09
Speaker 11: already indicated they may well be raising rates because of
13:12
Speaker 11: inflation pressures in September. The Bank of England seems to
13:15
Speaker 11: be a little bit less willing to do so. They
13:18
Speaker 11: seem to think that The secondary impacts of the inflation
13:23
Speaker 11: that we've seen so far, in other words, the way
13:25
Speaker 11: they get translated into higher wages and so on, have
13:28
Speaker 11: not been anything like as strong as they anticipated. So
13:32
Speaker 11: maybe they're going to wait a little bit more and
13:34
Speaker 11: see what happens.
13:35
Speaker 2: Vicky, we have a lot of farmers in New Zealand
13:38
Speaker 2: who are watching the cost of fertilizer very closely, and
13:41
Speaker 2: it has been going up. And in Europe, you have
13:44
Speaker 2: a similar problem. In fact, they're talking about potential shortages
13:47
Speaker 2: and maybe an effect on food supply.
13:51
Speaker 11: Absolutely. I think the farmers here in the UK have
13:54
Speaker 11: put a paper together. So the industry got together and
13:57
Speaker 11: is warning the government that this is a big issue.
14:01
Speaker 11: What we've got is the new prime minister has already
14:05
Speaker 11: pledged about 65 million of extra help to the farming community.
14:09
Speaker 11: Of course, we had the wildfires and drought and everything else.
14:12
Speaker 11: But they're all saying we need a lot more because
14:15
Speaker 11: we got the shortages. It's very difficult for some of
14:18
Speaker 11: the stuff that is needed to come out, not just
14:20
Speaker 11: from the Gulf, but also, of course, we have the
14:24
Speaker 11: ongoing problems with Russia and Ukraine. So the worry is
14:29
Speaker 11: that they're not going to have enough fertilizers for the
14:31
Speaker 11: next planting that is needed. It's not going to come
14:34
Speaker 11: in on time. So that would mean less time. Outputs and,
14:38
Speaker 11: of course, higher prices. And that so far, of course,
14:42
Speaker 11: we've been shielded. Food prices haven't increased anything like as
14:47
Speaker 11: fast as people had been anticipating. But what the farmers
14:50
Speaker 11: are telling us is that it's going to happen and
14:51
Speaker 11: they want extra help. Please, if they can get it,
14:54
Speaker 11: is basically what the industry paper is saying.
14:56
Speaker 2: Vicky Price, our business correspondent. Always good to have you
14:58
Speaker 2: on a Monday morning, 25 minutes after five. Staying in
15:02
Speaker 2: the EU. Well, not staying in the EU, as it were.
15:05
Speaker 2: This is Iceland voting. They had a referendum. Do you
15:08
Speaker 2: want to restart talks to join the EU? They have
15:11
Speaker 2: said no. 53% said no. 225,000 people voted. That is
15:18
Speaker 2: a big number. The eligible voters is 270,000. So biggest
15:22
Speaker 2: result they've had in a long time in terms of
15:24
Speaker 2: people actually turning out. 47% said yep. So there was
15:29
Speaker 2: only 12,000 votes in it, which is tight. Now, this
15:33
Speaker 2: is basically your sovereignty, isn't it, that they're talking about?
15:35
Speaker 2: And the big issue here was not what you might think, immigration,
15:38
Speaker 2: not debt bailouts. It was phishing. 40% of their exports
15:42
Speaker 2: are fish exports or seafood exports, and they have protected
15:47
Speaker 2: and successfully fought the right Iceland has to basically fish
15:51
Speaker 2: their own fish. They worry joining the EU would stop that.
15:56
Speaker 2: 26 after 5, ZB. Newstalk ZB, 28 minutes after five.
16:01
Speaker 2: Two questions for you this morning if you're buying or
16:03
Speaker 2: if you have recently bought a property. One, did you
16:07
Speaker 2: get a pre-purchase inspection done? And two, did that person
16:10
Speaker 2: have a qualification? Remember leaky buildings? How could you forget?
16:13
Speaker 2: There are builders and surveyors out there who reckon we
16:15
Speaker 2: are sitting on another leaky building saga right now. Good
16:19
Speaker 2: piece about this in the Herald at the weekend. New builds.
16:21
Speaker 2: Builds less than 10 years old. Failing. Looks spick and
16:25
Speaker 2: span on the inside. Looks nice. There's a nice kitchen.
16:28
Speaker 2: There's oak flooring underneath. Timber's damp. There's mould. Water getting
16:32
Speaker 2: inside the walls of houses that are pretty new. Now,
16:34
Speaker 2: I don't know about you, but when somebody builds a
16:37
Speaker 2: house or an apartment, it should keep water out. You know?
16:41
Speaker 2: It's pretty basic. I've spoken to some builders and some
16:44
Speaker 2: tradies about this, and they are worried too. The bad news...
16:48
Speaker 2: for anyone who may have got a building inspection, is
16:51
Speaker 2: that you don't actually need a qualification. You do not
16:55
Speaker 2: even need insurance. You do not need a license. And
16:59
Speaker 2: the thing about these types of stories is that it's
17:01
Speaker 2: mostly anecdotal. You know, how widespread is this problem? Is
17:06
Speaker 2: it 1% of new builds? Is it 20% of new builds?
17:08
Speaker 2: You don't know what you don't know. And by the
17:11
Speaker 2: time you find out, your walls are wet and they're
17:14
Speaker 2: filled with mold. I think there's going to be TBC
17:22
Speaker 2: on that story. More to come. Ryan, listening to you
17:25
Speaker 2: in bed this morning, the soup story made me burst
17:28
Speaker 2: out with laughter. Rosie, I'm pleased to hear that. Actually,
17:31
Speaker 2: I've counted up how many Gen Zers there are in
17:34
Speaker 2: the ABs team. I'll tell you next.
17:46
Speaker 1: Get ahead of the headlines on Early Edition with Ryan
17:50
Speaker 1: Bridge and Spark for Business, technology that keeps business moving.
17:54
Speaker 2: News Talk ZB.
17:55
Speaker 10: I'm at a party smoking in a car with you.
18:01
Speaker 2: Seven-inch and I'm fighting at the bar. 24 away from six.
18:05
Speaker 2: Welcome to Newstalk ZB. Great to have your company on
18:07
Speaker 2: a Monday morning. 9292 is the number to text. Gavin
18:10
Speaker 2: Gray's in the UK for us shortly. He's got a
18:12
Speaker 2: couple of yarns. One is a good one about Burnham
18:14
Speaker 2: and his prisoner release scheme that's not going to plan.
18:18
Speaker 2: The other one we're doing in the next 20 minutes
18:20
Speaker 2: is national student loan policy, which sounds pretty reasonable, I think,
18:24
Speaker 2: to me. In fact, even the students are struggling to
18:26
Speaker 2: find something to complain about, and that probably means, on balance,
18:29
Speaker 2: it's a good thing. We'll get to our reporters in
18:32
Speaker 2: just a second. One about the weather in the South Island.
18:36
Speaker 2: But I just wanted to quickly mention that Reuben Love
18:39
Speaker 2: is a Gen Z-er, or a Gen Z-er. Bob is
18:42
Speaker 2: upset with the way I'm saying it. Gen Z-er, Reuben Love.
18:46
Speaker 2: And a whole bunch of the All Blacks, of course,
18:48
Speaker 2: will be Gen Z-ers. Anyone born between 1997 and 2012,
18:51
Speaker 2: I think it is, Reuben Love was born in 2001.
18:58
Speaker 2: So there are a lot of Gen Zers out there
19:00
Speaker 2: who are working and not throwing sickies and who are
19:03
Speaker 2: actually good for what they say they'll do. Despite the
19:07
Speaker 2: fact we've had this survey out this morning, this is
19:09
Speaker 2: out of the UK, says that 40% of Gen Zers
19:13
Speaker 2: threw a sickie in the last year. I know, horrific.
19:16
Speaker 2: Owen says Ryan Erasmus is, Razzy Erasmus, good coach, but
19:20
Speaker 2: mouthy and hypocritical. Ryan, this is on the fuel subsidy
19:23
Speaker 2: because Cabinet's going to make a call today on the
19:25
Speaker 2: fuel subsidy. Do they raise? Do they hold? They've basically
19:29
Speaker 2: said they will hold. It's up to ACT and New
19:31
Speaker 2: Zealand First to agree with National on that. Ryan, I'll
19:34
Speaker 2: bet the fuel subsidy gets continued until next year. Nicola
19:37
Speaker 2: Willis won't want to increase her chances of herself becoming
19:40
Speaker 2: a job seeker after the election, which is always the
19:43
Speaker 2: problem with governments, isn't it? They say they'll give you
19:46
Speaker 2: a fuel tax subsidy here. We'll give you an extra
19:50
Speaker 2: boost here. And then you're pretty much locked in because
19:54
Speaker 2: you want to get re-elected. A few months out from
19:56
Speaker 2: an election, you're not going to cut something like that.
19:58
Speaker 2: You're not going to start raising fuel taxes, are you?
20:00
Speaker 2: 22 away from six. Jamie Cunningham in Dunedin. Jamie, good morning.
20:06
Speaker 12: Good morning, Ryan.
20:07
Speaker 2: Winter weather. And you've got lots of it. Is that
20:10
Speaker 2: State Highway 6 still partly closed? Has been since Friday, right?
20:14
Speaker 10: Yeah, yeah.
20:14
Speaker 12: So this is between Makarora and Lake Hawia. It's been
20:18
Speaker 12: closed since Friday after heavy rain caused debris to come
20:21
Speaker 12: down on the road. The Transport Agency says crews cleared
20:25
Speaker 12: debris from 10 of the 30 slip sites yesterday, but
20:28
Speaker 12: are proceeding cautiously as material continues to fall down in parts.
20:33
Speaker 12: And up to 8 centimetres of snow is forecast nearby
20:36
Speaker 12: the road. Strong winds are expected across the lower South
20:40
Speaker 12: Island this morning, with snow lowering to near sea level
20:43
Speaker 12: in many town centres as well tonight.
20:47
Speaker 2: What is the weather forecast going forward, Jamie?
20:50
Speaker 12: Well, in Dunedin, it's not looking like a great day today.
20:53
Speaker 12: Heavy showers with possible thunderstorms and hail. Snow down to
20:58
Speaker 12: sea level, like I said. Strong southwesterlies gusting 100km an
21:02
Speaker 12: hour until midday as well.
21:04
Speaker 2: Thanks, Jamie. Clare's in Christchurch. Morning, Clare.
21:06
Speaker 4: Good morning.
21:07
Speaker 2: Has Rolleston been shaped by chance more than planning?
21:10
Speaker 13: Yeah, this is not a good story for Selwyn, Ryan.
21:13
Speaker 13: We've got New Zealand's fastest growing district expanding by more
21:15
Speaker 13: than 1200% between the year 2000 and last year. They've
21:17
Speaker 13: got more than 34,000 residents out that way now. Canterbury
21:23
Speaker 13: University professor Katie Pickles, though, says the original blueprint from
21:27
Speaker 13: back in the 70s focused on the township of Rolleston
21:30
Speaker 13: being self-sufficient, having lots of green spaces and less reliance
21:34
Speaker 13: on cars. Those plans, though, were scrapped by the Muldoon
21:37
Speaker 13: government in 1975. Pickles says Rolleston has since developed haphazardly
21:43
Speaker 13: and would have been more progressive if the original plans.
21:45
Speaker 11: Had gone ahead.
21:46
Speaker 13: Of course, it's something that Selma Mayor Lydia Glidden denies.
21:49
Speaker 13: She doesn't accept that it's been a planning failure. But
21:52
Speaker 13: she does acknowledge there are things to learn from it
21:55
Speaker 13: when planning the next stages of the district's growth.
21:58
Speaker 2: How's your weather?
22:00
Speaker 13: Mainly fine. There is a chance of a shower and
22:01
Speaker 13: some hail about Banks Peninsula. Westerly strong for a time,
22:05
Speaker 13: a high of 15.
22:05
Speaker 2: Nice one. Max is in Wellington. Good morning, Max.
22:08
Speaker 4: Morning.
22:09
Speaker 2: High performance measures set for Te Akiwai. This is the
22:12
Speaker 2: water outfit. Yeah, exactly.
22:13
Speaker 7: A bit of an unwanted first for the region's newish
22:17
Speaker 7: water entity, the Commerce Commission. is going to be able
22:19
Speaker 7: to specify what it must deliver and by when, performance
22:23
Speaker 7: requirements to be in place for the next 10 years.
22:27
Speaker 7: We didn't get good bang for our buck under Wellington
22:29
Speaker 7: water for many years. Tiakiwai is also off to a
22:31
Speaker 7: bit of an inauspicious start. The bills already seem high,
22:35
Speaker 7: forecasts to get much higher. So it's going to get
22:37
Speaker 7: the government hovering over its shoulder for at least a decade.
22:40
Speaker 7: Consumer Affairs Minister Cameron Brewer says transparency on its own
22:44
Speaker 7: is not enough. So the government's giving the commission unprecedented
22:49
Speaker 7: real teeth to deal with Te Akiwai.
22:51
Speaker 2: I was talking to my parents at the weekend because
22:53
Speaker 2: they're in Wellington and they said they've got their bill
22:56
Speaker 2: and it's based on your house value rather than how
22:58
Speaker 2: much water you... Because in Auckland we've got metres, of course.
23:01
Speaker 2: So if you're a family of 10... And compared to
23:05
Speaker 2: a family of two, you're going to be using different
23:07
Speaker 2: amounts of water, but you can't really account for that,
23:09
Speaker 2: can you?
23:09
Speaker 6: Exactly.
23:10
Speaker 7: There's been a lot of debate about the actual metric
23:13
Speaker 7: behind the bill, what it represents and how it's calculated.
23:16
Speaker 7: And I can tell you, not many people are happy,
23:18
Speaker 7: generally speaking.
23:19
Speaker 2: No, unless you've got 12 kids. Hey, how's your weather?
23:24
Speaker 7: Then you're still probably complaining. Mainly fine with stronger northerlies,
23:27
Speaker 7: 15 the high.
23:27
Speaker 2: Thank you, Max. Good morning, Neva.
23:30
Speaker 7: Good morning.
23:31
Speaker 2: Now, there is talk about a school soft drink ban.
23:34
Speaker 12: Yes.
23:35
Speaker 14: Now, there's a symposium in Auckland today, and that's the discussion.
23:39
Speaker 14: So it's organised by advocacy group Fighting Sugar and Soft Drinks,
23:43
Speaker 14: also known as FIS. Now, this event will feature a
23:46
Speaker 14: political panel alongside speeches from experts. Now, recent research found
23:50
Speaker 14: about 10,000 children and young adults are hospitalised by dental
23:55
Speaker 14: issues each year. 75% are avoidable. So marketing, the Massey
24:00
Speaker 14: University marketing expert, that's Bodo Lang, saying this issue is
24:04
Speaker 14: just too important to become a political football. And he
24:07
Speaker 14: says the solution or part of the solution is very easy.
24:10
Speaker 14: He's saying ban those drinks from schools.
24:12
Speaker 2: How many drinks, how many cokes do they sell in
24:15
Speaker 2: a school? You know, I don't reckon that any schools
24:19
Speaker 2: are doing that anymore. Well, no. Besides, you see them
24:21
Speaker 2: going the dairy on the way to school.
24:23
Speaker 9: Well, exactly.
24:23
Speaker 14: And they're getting their pies and their drinks.
24:25
Speaker 15: Yeah, exactly.
24:26
Speaker 2: The 1.5 litre. Yeah, exactly. The big ones. The big suckers.
24:29
Speaker 15: The big suckers.
24:30
Speaker 2: The mothers, the energy drinks and stuff like that.
24:31
Speaker 14: Hey, I've just got to say, I saw your video
24:34
Speaker 14: because Friday you did great work. You were part of the,
24:38
Speaker 14: you did the Sky.
24:39
Speaker 2: ANZ Donation Station for Cancer Society. You jumped off the
24:43
Speaker 2: Sky Tower.
24:43
Speaker 15: With Chloe Swarbrick.
24:44
Speaker 2: With Chloe Swarbrick, yeah. I think she wanted to push
24:47
Speaker 2: me off.
24:48
Speaker 14: That video is gold.
24:50
Speaker 2: I tell you, it was frightening.
24:52
Speaker 14: You did so well. I would have been crying. But
24:55
Speaker 14: seeing your facials and your eyes when you got to
24:58
Speaker 14: the top. Look, when I'm feeling down and out, I
25:01
Speaker 14: just press play on your video. We've got to put
25:04
Speaker 14: that video up somewhere.
25:05
Speaker 2: It was nasty. It was great. Because you don't know.
25:07
Speaker 2: You're not facing the Sky Tower. So you're just being
25:10
Speaker 2: lifted up, hoisted up. And you don't know how high
25:14
Speaker 2: you are in relation to the tower. So it feels
25:16
Speaker 2: like it goes on and on.
25:17
Speaker 14: And then it just goes boom. You're just like, you see,
25:19
Speaker 14: I bet you didn't have anything to eat all day
25:21
Speaker 14: before you did that. Because I don't think I would
25:23
Speaker 14: in case I vomited.
25:24
Speaker 2: No, I had my usual oats at 6 a.m. Okay.
25:27
Speaker 14: What time was the jump then?
25:28
Speaker 2: 9.30. Oh, wow.
25:30
Speaker 6: You did well.
25:31
Speaker 2: Fresh as a daisy. How's our weather?
25:33
Speaker 8: Cloudy.
25:33
Speaker 14: A few showers.
25:34
Speaker 6: 17 is a high.
25:35
Speaker 14: A good day for the sky jump.
25:36
Speaker 2: Brilliant. Neva, you enjoy. Nice to have you here as always.
25:40
Speaker 2: 16 minutes away from 6 here on Newstalk ZB. We'll
25:42
Speaker 2: get to Gavin Gray next in the UK on Burnham
25:44
Speaker 2: and his prisoners. time is 14 minutes away from six.
25:53
Speaker 2: We'll look at the student loan policy from National in
25:55
Speaker 2: just a second. First, Gavin Gray is our UK Europe correspondent. Gavin,
25:58
Speaker 2: always good to have you on the programme. Tell me
26:00
Speaker 2: about this vessel that's capsized near Cyprus.
26:04
Speaker 15: Yeah, I think the news is going to get worse
26:07
Speaker 15: and worse here. We have had it confirmed just in
26:09
Speaker 15: the last half hour, eight people have died, but there
26:12
Speaker 15: are 23 missing and 237 passengers and crew have been rescued.
26:15
Speaker 2: So this.
26:18
Speaker 15: Happened as the ship was only a couple of miles
26:21
Speaker 15: having left Cyprus, northern Cyprus, which is recognized by Turkey.
26:27
Speaker 15: It's being said that the boat was hit by two waves.
26:31
Speaker 15: The first one, the captain was dealing with how the
26:34
Speaker 15: ship was reacting to the first wave, but then it
26:37
Speaker 15: was hit by a second wave and was taking on water.
26:40
Speaker 15: It was then capsized. The captain and seven crew members
26:44
Speaker 15: have now been taken into custody. The prime minister of
26:47
Speaker 15: the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus says no stern
26:52
Speaker 15: will be left unturned in order.
26:54
Speaker 2: To find out what happened here.
26:57
Speaker 15: The ferries, which this is thought to be part of,
27:00
Speaker 15: really are a very part of daily sort of commuting
27:03
Speaker 15: and connection between Turkey and Northern Cyprus. And so the
27:09
Speaker 15: shock that, you know, business, yes, but residents and tourists,
27:13
Speaker 15: of course, use this service regularly. And the idea that
27:16
Speaker 15: we've had this tragedy here is quite extraordinary and plenty
27:19
Speaker 15: of people in shock. But as I said, investigations on
27:21
Speaker 15: the way.
27:22
Speaker 2: Gavin, we've spoken about this before. This is Burnham and
27:25
Speaker 2: the Labour plan to give prisoners early release. And those
27:29
Speaker 2: two prisoners who were convicted of killing police officer, this
27:34
Speaker 2: is manslaughter, they will be excluded. So they will stay
27:38
Speaker 2: behind bars. He's making changes.
27:41
Speaker 15: Yes, this has been Andy Burnham's first real test, I
27:44
Speaker 15: would suggest, in power. it was agreed under Sakhir Starmer
27:47
Speaker 15: that as prisons were up in the high 90% fall,
27:52
Speaker 15: in other words, they were almost at capacity, and it
27:55
Speaker 15: was feared there'd be a complete meltdown in arresting people
27:58
Speaker 15: and putting them in custody, that it was decided there
28:02
Speaker 15: would be this early release. However, what it did mean
28:05
Speaker 15: is that two young men who had killed a police
28:10
Speaker 15: officer when they went to try to steal a quad
28:13
Speaker 15: bike on a farm, It's thought the 28 year old
28:17
Speaker 15: officer who was only recently married and was responding to
28:20
Speaker 15: a burglary west of London was dragged along the road
28:23
Speaker 15: by the vehicle that three teenagers fled in and it
28:27
Speaker 15: got caught in a tow rope and he was dragged
28:30
Speaker 15: along the road. And the court case heard gruesome evidence
28:32
Speaker 15: about the fact that the teenagers, the youngsters would have
28:35
Speaker 15: heard his cries for help, but must have ignored them
28:38
Speaker 15: as they dragged him to his death. But it looks
28:41
Speaker 15: like Andy Burnham has come up with new criteria for
28:44
Speaker 15: who's going to be released early. And anyone convicted of
28:47
Speaker 15: unlawful killing, including all forms of manslaughter, will be excluded
28:51
Speaker 15: from the scheme. And that means that the two of
28:54
Speaker 15: the three who were in the car at the time
28:56
Speaker 15: will not now receive early release. The third is the driver.
29:00
Speaker 15: He's been in prison for longer. So it's going to
29:02
Speaker 15: buy him some popularity. But immediately we're hearing now from
29:04
Speaker 15: those in the prison service saying, we're going to reach capacity.
29:08
Speaker 15: We are in for a problem here. So the shifting
29:12
Speaker 15: this criteria may produce problems in other areas for our
29:15
Speaker 15: new prime minister.
29:16
Speaker 2: Gavin Gray, our UK Europe correspondent time is 10 minutes
29:19
Speaker 2: away from six. Nationals promising to cut student loan repayments
29:23
Speaker 2: if it's re-elected. Compulsory repayment rate goes from 12% to 10%
29:26
Speaker 2: from April 27th.
29:29
Speaker 4: If you borrow and bugger off overseas....
29:39
Speaker 2: You'll pay a bit more. Aidan Donoghue is with us
29:42
Speaker 2: this morning. That's the Vic Uni Students Association. Aidan, good morning.
29:46
Speaker 2: Good morning. Look, much in here. I mean, if you
29:50
Speaker 2: are borrowing and staying in New Zealand, this is a
29:53
Speaker 2: good story because, yes, it will take you longer to
29:55
Speaker 2: pay off, but it means your upfront costs aren't as high, right?
29:58
Speaker 16: Yeah, I mean, if you earn about $ 75, 000, as they said,
30:01
Speaker 16: you're going to save about $ 20 a week. You know,
30:04
Speaker 16: nothing to complain too much about.
30:06
Speaker 2: So do you have any problems with this policy?
30:10
Speaker 16: No problems per se. It's a bit of a meh
30:12
Speaker 16: from us all around. As you said, you pay it
30:15
Speaker 16: back longer, so the savings are not really a thing,
30:18
Speaker 16: but to have more money at the end of the
30:19
Speaker 16: day is better. But for us, there's a whole other
30:23
Speaker 16: range of factors that we'd like to see changed around debt.
30:27
Speaker 2: What do you want changed?
30:29
Speaker 16: Well, I think it's the model.
30:31
Speaker 2: I mean, it's already interest-free. How much more do you want?
30:34
Speaker 16: Well, the model's not very sustainable. We've seen 18% increases
30:39
Speaker 16: in the last three years. The universities are having to
30:43
Speaker 16: get more and more international students to cover the fee.
30:45
Speaker 16: We've got to hit a wall at some point if
30:47
Speaker 16: the whole model isn't looked at.
30:50
Speaker 2: But what's wrong with the model? Because state pays about, what,
30:54
Speaker 2: two-thirds of the university fees and the students pay the rest.
30:58
Speaker 2: And the internationals top it up.
31:01
Speaker 16: Well, the issue there is that costs rise. And so
31:06
Speaker 16: we're going to see more and more of those fees
31:07
Speaker 16: that students pay, as you say, is a fraction of it.
31:10
Speaker 16: But that's life-changing amounts of debt. They're looking down the
31:13
Speaker 16: barrel of decades worth of repayments. And so universities are
31:17
Speaker 16: having to get to a point where they can't even
31:19
Speaker 16: forecast growth. They're going to have to pick a number
31:21
Speaker 16: of students and stick with it. And as we say,
31:24
Speaker 16: as salaries go up or cost to teach goes up,
31:28
Speaker 16: students are going to have to pay more. We're going
31:30
Speaker 16: to reach a point where there's just going to be
31:31
Speaker 16: not a sustainable model.
31:32
Speaker 2: What about a lecturer wage freeze?
31:36
Speaker 16: I mean– That would certainly put a cap on certainly
31:41
Speaker 16: one cost. But, you know, then you're going to be
31:42
Speaker 16: looking at competing with universities overseas as our lecturers.
31:45
Speaker 2: Want to go over. Aidan Doherty, good to have you
31:47
Speaker 2: on the show this morning, as it always is, from
31:49
Speaker 2: Victoria University Students Association, 8 to 6, Newstalk ZB.
31:54
Speaker 1: On your radio and online on iHeartRadio. Early edition with
31:58
Speaker 1: Ryan Bridge and Spark for Business. Technology that keeps business moving.
32:03
Speaker 1: News Talk ZB.
32:04
Speaker 2: Six to six, News Talk ZB. There was a glacier collapse.
32:07
Speaker 2: You will know about this in Nepal, an inland tsunami.
32:09
Speaker 2: And in that area, there's a whole bunch of hydropower
32:12
Speaker 2: projects that are going on right now. And there are
32:15
Speaker 2: workers in the tunnels that are associated with the hydropower projects.
32:20
Speaker 2: They reckon right now there's 100 workers who could still
32:23
Speaker 2: be alive, so they've put big pipes in. They're pumping
32:25
Speaker 2: air in there to try and keep them breathing. They've
32:27
Speaker 2: got cameras going in, and they are hoping, weather permitting,
32:30
Speaker 2: to launch a rescue for these 100 workers.
32:33
Speaker 8: 5-2.
32:33
Speaker 2: Ryan Bridge. Good morning, Mike. Good to see you, ma'am. Hey,
32:37
Speaker 2: did you see that survey? It was a little obscure,
32:39
Speaker 2: but out of the UK, that said that Gen Z
32:41
Speaker 2: workers took 40% of them took five sick days in
32:46
Speaker 2: a year. Sickies. Like, not legitimate ones.
32:49
Speaker 8: No.
32:50
Speaker 4: Doesn't surprise me remotely.
32:51
Speaker 2: But five.
32:52
Speaker 4: Doesn't surprise me. No one wants to work anymore. No
32:55
Speaker 4: one wants to try hard anymore. Hey, did you see
32:56
Speaker 4: the Warriors, Ryan?
32:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, I did. Well, I spoke to you about it
32:59
Speaker 2: this morning. Where are the Warriors? Top of the table.
33:01
Speaker 4: Top of the table.
33:02
Speaker 2: And they were only not there by technicality, really.
33:04
Speaker 4: It was a technicality.
33:05
Speaker 17: Well, no, it was, yeah, they needed to win and
33:07
Speaker 17: we won. So we're top of the table. We're locked
33:10
Speaker 17: in for the finals. So no matter what happens this
33:13
Speaker 17: coming week, we play Manly this week.
33:15
Speaker 4: We'll beat Manly.
33:16
Speaker 17: But no matter what happens this week, we're still top two.
33:18
Speaker 17: Top two means we play at home. And we also
33:20
Speaker 17: have a life in the playoffs. That's confirmed.
33:23
Speaker 4: We need to do nothing else.
33:24
Speaker 2: And we'll wrap all this up within a month.
33:27
Speaker 15: Roughly.
33:27
Speaker 11: Yeah.
33:27
Speaker 2: I mean, the whole title. And then we will know
33:29
Speaker 2: that we are the victorious.
33:31
Speaker 4: Minor premiership plus the grand final.
33:33
Speaker 11: Yeah.
33:34
Speaker 4: And Webster will be probably the Dell EM coach of
33:36
Speaker 4: the year.
33:36
Speaker 2: Minor premiership means nothing, though, does it? Aaron talks about
33:40
Speaker 2: this in my head.
33:41
Speaker 17: It's a concession if you don't go on to win
33:44
Speaker 17: the title. then you were minor premiers. But yes, you're right.
33:48
Speaker 17: It's a silvery-bronzy thing until you win the gold, is
33:51
Speaker 17: what it boils down to.
33:52
Speaker 2: And we are going to win the gold.
33:53
Speaker 4: I can't see any reason why not.
33:55
Speaker 2: Everyone says this is our year, but in terms of
33:57
Speaker 2: percentage chances, this would be the highest percentage chance we've
34:01
Speaker 2: had in ever.
34:01
Speaker 4: We won the minor premiership a couple of times.
34:03
Speaker 17: We've gone to the final once, and we looked like
34:05
Speaker 17: rubbish when we did in 2002.
34:08
Speaker 4: We are the real deal, Ryan. Enjoy the ride. Anyway,
34:12
Speaker 4: a bit more on that this morning.
34:13
Speaker 2: Mike is with you next.
34:22
Speaker 1: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live
34:25
Speaker 1: to News Talk ZB from 5 a.m. weekdays or follow
34:29
Speaker 1: the podcast on iHeartRadio.