Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Full Show Podcast: 11 August 2026

Transcript

Full Show Podcast: 11 August 2026 · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

0:00
Speaker 1: The issues, the interviews and the insight. Bryan Bridge on
0:05
Speaker 1: an early edition with Spark for business Technology that keeps
0:08
Speaker 1: business moving news talks.
0:10
Speaker 2: They'd be very good morning to you. Welcome to Tuesday
0:12
Speaker 2: six after five. We'll look at council amalgamations this morning,
0:15
Speaker 2: Donners and Australia for us. The housing numbers that smash
0:18
Speaker 2: a whole in Labour's capital gains. Text the story on
0:20
Speaker 2: Luckson's leadership, nurl's South Island team, Will it happen and
0:24
Speaker 2: contact Interguce Profits. The agenda Tuesday, the eleventh of August.
0:30
Speaker 2: Scary big earthquake. You should see the footage frightening earthquake.
0:33
Speaker 2: Actually in Colombia seven point four magnitude. Seventy seven people
0:37
Speaker 2: have died. It has happened early in the morning as well,
0:39
Speaker 2: about seven thirty local time, people waking up, going to work,
0:43
Speaker 2: getting ready for the day. But the sense currently is.
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Speaker 3: That it has had a huge impact and not just
0:49
Speaker 3: felt across Colombia and neighboring Venezuela, but tremors from this
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Speaker 3: seven point four manitude quak felt as far as Panelt.
0:57
Speaker 2: To the UK. We told you the other day about
0:59
Speaker 2: the Mega Dinghies if you've seen the footage of the
1:01
Speaker 2: megadinghy's coming into the UK, this is across the channel
1:05
Speaker 2: from France. Well, the largest megadinghy holding the biggest number
1:10
Speaker 2: of people of migrants has entered. They reckon now, taking
1:13
Speaker 2: the year total to more than fifteen thousand. Nigel Parass,
1:17
Speaker 2: it's a national security emergency.
1:19
Speaker 4: So whether we have fewer bad people thus far this
1:22
Speaker 4: year than last year, the situation is desperate. It should
1:25
Speaker 4: be declared a national security emergency. And yes we have
1:29
Speaker 4: managed to stop some of the dingers, but it doesn't
1:31
Speaker 4: stop the problem. It doesn't go away.
1:33
Speaker 2: There was two hundred and thirty people on that one boat. Now, finally,
1:36
Speaker 2: remember this little whoop see from the UK broadcaster Radio Carolina.
1:40
Speaker 5: This is Radio Caroline. His majesty King Charles the third
1:43
Speaker 5: has passed away. As a mark of respect, we will
1:47
Speaker 5: now be playing suitable continuous music until further notice.
1:52
Speaker 2: Oh so, a very grim sort of bulletin, but the
2:01
Speaker 2: story behind it's quite funny. So station's been found in
2:03
Speaker 2: breach of broadcasting rules for mistakenly announcing Charles's death. Media
2:08
Speaker 2: watchdog Offcom says a staff member played a pre recorded
2:12
Speaker 2: obituary out of curiosity cutting off the presenter's stream, then
2:16
Speaker 2: panicked and left it. Called it a very significant inaccuracy
2:21
Speaker 2: on a matter of very high public interest.
2:25
Speaker 1: Ryan Bridge on early edition with Spark for business technology
2:29
Speaker 1: that keeps business moving news talks.
2:32
Speaker 2: Be this spray and walk away eight minutes after five
2:34
Speaker 2: nine ninety two is a number to text now. The
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Speaker 2: Contact net profit up twenty eight percent to four hundred
2:40
Speaker 2: and twenty three million dollars in the year of June.
2:42
Speaker 2: This is for a couple of reasons. The first of
2:44
Speaker 2: which you will think is they're charging like a wounded bull. Well, actually,
2:49
Speaker 2: if you look at their retail arm, the retail arms
2:51
Speaker 2: not making money. So they will argue that they have
2:55
Speaker 2: not given themselves the little sweetheart deals that all the
2:57
Speaker 2: other power companies gent tailors are giving them, where the
3:00
Speaker 2: gen part of the tailor, the gen part gives a
3:03
Speaker 2: sweetheart deal to the tailor and we pay higher prices.
3:08
Speaker 2: They say, we're not doing that. Therefore, our retail business
3:11
Speaker 2: is not making money. And if you look at the
3:15
Speaker 2: earnings overall since twenty twenty two, earnings have doubled for
3:19
Speaker 2: Contact member. Contact is fully publicly listed. It's not owned
3:22
Speaker 2: by well, not partly owned by the government. Like the others,
3:26
Speaker 2: earnings have doubled since twenty twenty two. An underlying profit
3:29
Speaker 2: is up one hundred and thirty percent. They are investing
3:31
Speaker 2: in renewables. They have acquired mono or energy, remember that,
3:35
Speaker 2: and that has lifted their bottom line. But they say
3:39
Speaker 2: we have stayed true. The transfer price between what the
3:44
Speaker 2: gen taylors are are charging the gen part is charging
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Speaker 2: the tailor is actually not a sweetheart deal. It reflects
3:53
Speaker 2: the very independent way of assessing the retail arm business
3:57
Speaker 2: that we have been doing for some time. It is
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Speaker 2: a loss in it is a true loss. But I
4:02
Speaker 2: mean once top people asking the question today, why are
4:04
Speaker 2: you making all this money when our prices are going up?
4:07
Speaker 2: And every April you get a letter from your power company,
4:09
Speaker 2: don't you saying your prices are going up for one
4:11
Speaker 2: reason or another. They all point to the transmission costs,
4:15
Speaker 2: They all point to the line's costs. That's what's driving it,
4:20
Speaker 2: but most people probably don't believe it anyway. The other
4:24
Speaker 2: thing they're doing is data center. So here we go again,
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Speaker 2: data center. In the news. They have announced plans. They're
4:31
Speaker 2: sort of quite fresh. They haven't got too far down
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Speaker 2: the track yet, but they have announced plans for a
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Speaker 2: data center in Stratford and Tartanaki along with CDC backed
4:42
Speaker 2: by Infantil. And what happens with the power, what happens
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Speaker 2: with the water, and also we're not yet clear, remember
4:49
Speaker 2: because the government hasn't got rules yet. They've just sort
4:52
Speaker 2: of hinted that there might be rules about where the
4:54
Speaker 2: power has to come from, where the water has to
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Speaker 2: come from, who's responsible for it. So at this stage,
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Speaker 2: lot of un answered questions on that one. Eleven minutes
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Speaker 2: after five Bryan Bridge, You're on News Talks. There'd be
5:04
Speaker 2: great to have your company coming up next. We will
5:06
Speaker 2: look at contact and we will look if you're a
5:09
Speaker 2: shareholder in Contact, at what you're getting out of this.
5:12
Speaker 1: The Early Edition Full show podcast on iHeartRadio powered by
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Speaker 1: News Talks AB. Get ahead of the headlines on Early
5:22
Speaker 1: Edition with Ryan Bridge and Spark for Business Technology that
5:26
Speaker 1: keeps business Moving News Talks AB.
5:28
Speaker 2: Five point thirteen. You're on News Talks. Areb The average
5:31
Speaker 2: New Zealand property residential property value down one and a
5:34
Speaker 2: half percent in the three months to the end of July.
5:37
Speaker 2: This is the report out yesterday from qv SO down
5:40
Speaker 2: one and a half percent in three months. Now. Remember
5:44
Speaker 2: Labor needs three percent growth in housing prices per year
5:49
Speaker 2: to fund the doctor's visits that they have promised on
5:52
Speaker 2: the campaign. So and it will be interesting to see
5:57
Speaker 2: depending on where you live in New Zealand. If you're
6:00
Speaker 2: house prices are going up and then you need to
6:01
Speaker 2: sell your house and it's a second house, then you
6:05
Speaker 2: will be paying the capital gains tax which will be
6:07
Speaker 2: funding the doctor's visits. For I don't know. Some rich
6:10
Speaker 2: list are living in Herne Bay. Three of them per
6:13
Speaker 2: year is what they are entitled to under Labour's policy.
6:16
Speaker 2: So they have some questions to answer about that because
6:19
Speaker 2: if you're dropping one and a half percent in three months,
6:23
Speaker 2: we will wait to see what the annual average is.
6:25
Speaker 2: But remember they need three percent. That is what their
6:28
Speaker 2: calculations are based on three percent increase per year. Bread rich,
6:32
Speaker 2: there's fourteen after five, right, let's go to contacts. They've
6:35
Speaker 2: reported a record net profit four hund and twenty three million,
6:39
Speaker 2: up nearly twenty eight percent, operating earnings topping a billion.
6:43
Speaker 2: This is thanks to in part the one energy takeover
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Speaker 2: and stronger renewable generation.
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Speaker 6: They are a solid return on some very prudent investments,
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Speaker 6: and our shareholders should be happy with that, but they
6:54
Speaker 6: are also made Remember that also came with an increase
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Speaker 6: of our renewable generation to ninety eight percent.
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Speaker 2: Olive Amanda Is Shareholders Association. See you over me this morning, Oliver.
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Speaker 2: Good morning water, Brian. So are you happy with that
7:08
Speaker 2: their full year dividend up three percent forty cents a share.
7:12
Speaker 7: Look, it is a pretty good result. The dividend has
7:15
Speaker 7: increased to forty cents. It's interesting that they're still holding
7:18
Speaker 7: something in reserve for their dividend. They're only paying it
7:20
Speaker 7: out at sixty five percent of their operating free cashloads.
7:24
Speaker 7: If policy gives them leads to pay out quite a
7:26
Speaker 7: lot more than that. That probably reflects the fact they're
7:29
Speaker 7: trying to create that funding optionality for those projects that
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Speaker 7: they have going forward.
7:33
Speaker 2: It's interesting listening to what that's saying in regards to demand,
7:37
Speaker 2: Like they you know, obviously you need prices to be
7:39
Speaker 2: you need some demand, don't you. And when you have
7:42
Speaker 2: a whole bunch of businesses going offline who are demanding,
7:47
Speaker 2: you need something to replace it with and they're looking
7:49
Speaker 2: to data centers amongst other things.
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Speaker 7: Look, I mean that's that's really interesting how I made
7:54
Speaker 7: yesterday in terms of the potential option they're looking at
7:57
Speaker 7: with CDC in Stratford and yeah, look New Zealand and
8:02
Speaker 7: we've seen that in Southland as well. At the moment
8:04
Speaker 7: we see investment in data center in data centers in
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Speaker 7: Southland and the jet generation that goes along with that.
8:11
Speaker 7: So you know that that is another lever for New
8:13
Speaker 7: Zealand and to consider in terms of its future electricity
8:16
Speaker 7: demand as well. And it's the way, and I think
8:18
Speaker 7: we've said this before iron these these companies are currently grows.
8:22
Speaker 7: Companies are investing heavily in gross contact is no exceptions.
8:26
Speaker 7: Gross campex this year was three hundred and seventy five million,
8:29
Speaker 7: and they're talking about increasing that next year to somewhere
8:33
Speaker 7: around that four sixty four to seventeen million mark.
8:35
Speaker 2: How investors reviewing seeing the result, But I.
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Speaker 7: Think investorship should probably fairly positively as a results. There's
8:43
Speaker 7: noise in there because you've start digesting here the mane
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Speaker 7: Or acquisition, and that's if you stripped that out, you've
8:49
Speaker 7: got to sort of got that seventeen that Ebbitt's figure
8:53
Speaker 7: and Winterston tax figure. It's not quite as spectaculous, but
8:55
Speaker 7: it's still around seventeen percent. And similarly for the profit,
9:00
Speaker 7: there's noise in that in terms of increase in profit,
9:03
Speaker 7: both for some underlying issues and from money or itself.
9:07
Speaker 7: Be still talking about an underlying increase of somewhere to
9:10
Speaker 7: somewhere in the thirty percent mark, which is really pretty
9:14
Speaker 7: good for consumers. It's interesting because there's a signal that
9:18
Speaker 7: in the forward market that suggests that the wholesale prices
9:23
Speaker 7: are reducing. They won't always flow through directly to consumer
9:26
Speaker 7: bills because there's other factors in there like transmission and
9:30
Speaker 7: distribution cost, but it could be that's pointing to some
9:33
Speaker 7: relief and residential power price increases into the next year
9:38
Speaker 7: as well, which is interesting.
9:39
Speaker 2: Oliver Good to be on the show is always Oliver,
9:41
Speaker 2: Amanda Shareholders Associations CEO. Time is eighteen after five. What's
9:45
Speaker 2: Razor got to do with NRL got to do with
9:48
Speaker 2: the South Island Turny?
9:49
Speaker 8: Next?
9:49
Speaker 1: News Talk SEB the Early edition Full the Show podcast
9:53
Speaker 1: on iHeartRadio powered by News talksb on your Radio and
9:59
Speaker 1: online on iHeartRadio. Belly Edition with Ryan Bridge and Spunk
10:04
Speaker 1: for Business Technology that keeps Business Moving.
10:07
Speaker 2: News Talk B News talks ITB it is twenty half
10:10
Speaker 2: to five. Speaking of data centers, Zackerberg, the Meta boss.
10:14
Speaker 2: He is throwing cash at anyone who will take a
10:17
Speaker 2: data center, and he's announced new cash overnight.
10:21
Speaker 9: Another part of building a positive future for everyone is
10:24
Speaker 9: making sure that everywhere we build infrastructure, local communities benefit.
10:28
Speaker 9: We've already seen this with the teachers in Richland Parish
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Speaker 9: who got fifty thousand dollars bonuses because the extra tax
10:34
Speaker 9: revenue from our investments, and we launched America's Workforce Academy
10:38
Speaker 9: to provide free training and guarantee jobs at our infrastructure sites.
10:42
Speaker 9: Today we're starting a new future is for Everyone fund
10:46
Speaker 9: to invest in the community's teachers, first responders, energy and
10:49
Speaker 9: water infrastructure in more ways to support those communities directly.
10:53
Speaker 2: Basically, anyone who's anyone gets cash. By the way, that
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Speaker 2: fifty thousand dollars that they gave tea teachers came from
11:01
Speaker 2: a forty two million dollars in sales and use tax
11:04
Speaker 2: for that particular state authority, and that was in the
11:09
Speaker 2: first nine months of the current fiscal year. That was
11:11
Speaker 2: double the previous year. Fifty k was more than some
11:16
Speaker 2: teachers salaries for the year twenty one after five Ryan
11:19
Speaker 2: Bred the prospective of South Island NRAL team looking better
11:22
Speaker 2: than ever. Apparently the christ Church Council is backing Sir
11:24
Speaker 2: Graham Low's Southern Orcers bid. Council has met with the
11:28
Speaker 2: NRAL and outlined a commercial plan and there's a razor twist.
11:31
Speaker 2: Nick Buley News Talks heb Canterbury sports commentator with us
11:34
Speaker 2: this morning. Neck, good morning, good morning, right, so starting
11:37
Speaker 2: to look promising, is it?
11:39
Speaker 10: Certainly the wheels in motion. Look the council were doing
11:44
Speaker 10: its due diligence and new documentation that has been reported
11:48
Speaker 10: this morning from Newstalks c B show. You know, conversation
11:50
Speaker 10: started a couple of years ago. They're starting to ramp
11:53
Speaker 10: up and the warriors were in town in christ Church
11:55
Speaker 10: in June and NRL officials we hear council officials who
11:58
Speaker 10: hear there's no exact request for proposal around a twentieth
12:02
Speaker 10: license to enter the NRL just yet, but they're getting
12:05
Speaker 10: all their ducks in our ow and they really need to.
12:08
Speaker 10: You know that the NRL timeline and an ideal world
12:11
Speaker 10: is that a club would be stood up, the Southern
12:14
Speaker 10: Orcas or whoever it's going to be here in christ
12:16
Speaker 10: which would be stood.
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Speaker 1: Up by twenty twenty nine.
12:18
Speaker 11: You know, we're talking two.
12:19
Speaker 10: And a half years away. And there's a lot to do,
12:22
Speaker 10: including obviously the report yesterday and m's hiring a coach
12:25
Speaker 10: and finding players and sponsors and getting members and you know,
12:29
Speaker 10: hiring all sorts of stuff. So look, it's encouraging signs
12:33
Speaker 10: for people down here in the South who you know,
12:36
Speaker 10: want to have an NRL team here, But there's certainly
12:40
Speaker 10: a lot to do.
12:41
Speaker 2: The razor thing, is that a headline grabber or is
12:43
Speaker 2: that a serious pitch for me?
12:46
Speaker 10: Anyway, Ryan, it's the headline grabber. But look, I've observed
12:51
Speaker 10: Scott Robertson and the Crusaders environments. He is more these days,
12:54
Speaker 10: or certainly at that point in time, what you'd call
12:57
Speaker 10: a culture coach. He's not necessarily the one and the
13:00
Speaker 10: hard graft On field. That's what he gets some experienced
13:03
Speaker 10: assistant coaches in and around to do. And I suppose
13:07
Speaker 10: that's the pitch from Sir Graham Low and Andrew Chalmers
13:10
Speaker 10: of the Southern Orcas, you know, come in and be
13:12
Speaker 10: that guy that can provide a winning culture. He certainly
13:15
Speaker 10: did that at the Crusaders and then we'll wrap around
13:18
Speaker 10: experience in and around him. I personally think it's a
13:21
Speaker 10: little bit bold for someone with zero rugby league experience,
13:24
Speaker 10: given the cut and thrust of NRL, one of the toughest,
13:29
Speaker 10: you know, domestic competitions in Australasian sport. But it certainly
13:34
Speaker 10: would grab attention as it did yesterday. And the fact
13:36
Speaker 10: we are talking about it right now.
13:38
Speaker 2: Hey very quickly. Is the council looking at putting rate
13:40
Speaker 2: payer money into this or we don't know yet.
13:43
Speaker 10: We don't know yet, and that's the fascinating thing for me.
13:45
Speaker 1: Ryan.
13:45
Speaker 10: There'll be I mean, I'm a rugby league not through
13:48
Speaker 10: and through, but there'll be certain people out there that
13:50
Speaker 10: are going to tell the council to stick to what
13:51
Speaker 10: they know in terms of the water and rubbish and
13:54
Speaker 10: all that sort of stuff is getting into bed with
13:57
Speaker 10: rugby league really considered a top price already when we're
14:00
Speaker 10: supposed to be curbing rate rises. So that'll be one
14:03
Speaker 10: to watch.
14:03
Speaker 2: Yeah. Indeed, Nick Berley News Talks zb Canniby Sports commentated
14:06
Speaker 2: with us twenty four minutes half to five, and we've
14:09
Speaker 2: spoken a lot on this program about charmers and elbows budget,
14:12
Speaker 2: there was the negative gearing, there was the capital gains
14:14
Speaker 2: tax changes or the latest to take a hit from this,
14:16
Speaker 2: not just the housing market, but now the banks. Bank
14:19
Speaker 2: shares tanking yesterday west Pack down four point seven percent,
14:23
Speaker 2: CBA down four point four, A, n Z two point seven,
14:26
Speaker 2: NAB two point six. This is after west Pac released
14:30
Speaker 2: its quarter three market update mortgage applications down eleven percent,
14:35
Speaker 2: and they are expecting those applications to be down twenty
14:38
Speaker 2: percent for quarter four. And if the market real estate
14:41
Speaker 2: markets not making money, the banks aren't making money, so
14:44
Speaker 2: the share price is reflected. Twenty four after five News
14:47
Speaker 2: Talks ZB. We'll look at that story about the PM's
14:50
Speaker 2: leadership next News TALKSB twenty seven after five, Here we
14:53
Speaker 2: go again, for at least the second time this year,
14:56
Speaker 2: there's a story in the media about National MP's doing
14:59
Speaker 2: the numbers online uckson. Thomas Coglan at The Herald has
15:02
Speaker 2: said that phones are ringing. At least one MP has spoken.
15:05
Speaker 2: One MP does not a story make. But the political
15:09
Speaker 2: calculation here is that Luxon is a drag on the
15:11
Speaker 2: party's polling. Changing horses midstream would not hurt their chances
15:15
Speaker 2: of forming a government, but might provide momentum and a
15:19
Speaker 2: boost to their share of the right voting block and
15:22
Speaker 2: perhaps even some soft center. They'll be tempted by the
15:25
Speaker 2: Descender transition which saw a poll bump a circuit breaker.
15:29
Speaker 2: They'll be wary of the Judith transition and the many
15:32
Speaker 2: Labour ones before that which proved fatal. But this is
15:35
Speaker 2: completely unique this situation, as this is a party in government.
15:39
Speaker 2: Whoever leads it leads New Zealand. Luxon's plea for more
15:43
Speaker 2: party votes is falling on deaf fares, and despite expensive
15:46
Speaker 2: advertising campaigns and glossy videos of the PM explaining their
15:50
Speaker 2: fiscal strategy, his comments on the campaign, which is underway
15:53
Speaker 2: in Earnest, are drowning out the pre recorded material. The
15:57
Speaker 2: last week they've been in cleanup mode. They can't afford
16:00
Speaker 2: to spend another three months trapesing around the country with
16:03
Speaker 2: a dust pan and broom. That would require either better
16:07
Speaker 2: discipline from the current leader or a change to a
16:10
Speaker 2: new one, which has always been the fly in the
16:12
Speaker 2: ointment for national There is no just cinder in waiting
16:15
Speaker 2: in the wings. Bishop and Willis are well versed debaters
16:18
Speaker 2: who perform well on the campaign. However, Keiwis like reluctant heroes,
16:23
Speaker 2: and Bishop looks rightly or wrongly anything but Willis's near
16:27
Speaker 2: perfect performance handling the initial fuel shot proves her worth,
16:30
Speaker 2: but she may be too tied to the cost of
16:32
Speaker 2: living woes that have hurt Laxen. Erica Stanford is the
16:36
Speaker 2: candidate you'd pick if you really wanted to play ball.
16:39
Speaker 2: She's denied wanting it enough, which is key, and is
16:42
Speaker 2: a star performer, able to connect with people in a
16:45
Speaker 2: way others have proven incapable. At this point, this is
16:48
Speaker 2: all just talk, but timing is everything in politics, and
16:51
Speaker 2: the fact MPs are briefing journalists twelve weeks out from
16:55
Speaker 2: early voting is destabilizing in itself. Are you better to
16:59
Speaker 2: nip it in the bard? We'll hope for brighter days.
17:02
Speaker 2: Ryan Bridge talks twenty nine after five is the number
17:06
Speaker 2: to text Donna's in Australia for US next elbows upset
17:11
Speaker 2: the Japanese. I'll tell you why. Plus we'll look at
17:14
Speaker 2: the council amalgamations, who's in and who's out. You're on
17:18
Speaker 2: News Talk Seed B for your Tuesday morning Yea All
17:24
Speaker 2: the Time.
17:38
Speaker 1: The early edition Full The Show podcast on iHeartRadio powered
17:43
Speaker 1: by News Talks at B before the news breaks. Here
17:47
Speaker 1: it first Ryan Bridge on early edition with Spark for
17:51
Speaker 1: business technology that keeps business moving.
17:53
Speaker 2: News Talks at B. She's get a moment you were
18:00
Speaker 2: away from six News Talks, he'd be morning Ryan Razor
18:03
Speaker 2: must be a publicity stunt. This is from Anthony. It's
18:05
Speaker 2: a bit easier this, Anthony. You sound like a true
18:08
Speaker 2: blue rugby union fan. It's a bit easier to coach
18:11
Speaker 2: league with no real scrums, no real rucks or real
18:14
Speaker 2: competition for the ball. Anthony, thanks for your message. Loads
18:17
Speaker 2: text coming in from Owa Kearney as well. We'll get
18:19
Speaker 2: to those in a second. And also before six we
18:22
Speaker 2: will talk about counsel amalgamations. We'll get to Donna in
18:24
Speaker 2: Australia very quickly though. If you've been following Australia's Sunrise
18:29
Speaker 2: Energy Metals, hopefully you had shares last week. So they
18:32
Speaker 2: are going after now US listing. And the reason is
18:36
Speaker 2: because they are buoyed by a Pentagon investment, a four
18:39
Speaker 2: hundred million dollar loan. They are getting the company stocks
18:43
Speaker 2: up sixteen percent yesterday and trumpingounced last week this loan.
18:48
Speaker 2: It was at I had a round table with a
18:49
Speaker 2: bunch of mining bosses. There they are throwing money at
18:53
Speaker 2: companies that produce batteries and critical minerals. In particular, Sunrise
18:57
Speaker 2: owns a scandium project in Australia that they say could
19:01
Speaker 2: serve as a major source of the element outside of China,
19:04
Speaker 2: which is where most of it comes from. Now. Scandium
19:07
Speaker 2: is used to strengthen aluminium in sectors including and here's
19:11
Speaker 2: the clincher aerospace, which is of course something that Trump
19:14
Speaker 2: and the Pentagon are very interested in. It is twenty
19:17
Speaker 2: three away from six Brian, Let's go to our reporters
19:20
Speaker 2: Cullum and Dunedin Morning Callum, Morning Ryan. What's the coroner
19:23
Speaker 2: said about this prisoner who died in Invercargol well.
19:27
Speaker 12: A coroner's recommended that corrections coordinate better with health staff
19:32
Speaker 12: after this death that occurred four years ago. Thirty year
19:35
Speaker 12: old Remand prisoner Nicoros Strange was found dead in his
19:38
Speaker 12: cell and in the Cargol Men's prison back in August
19:41
Speaker 12: of twenty twenty two. The coroner, Amelia Steele, says staff
19:45
Speaker 12: should consult better with health workers and more recognitions needed
19:48
Speaker 12: of how transitioning in and out of the Intervention and
19:51
Speaker 12: Support unit affects prisoners that units used to safely observe
19:55
Speaker 12: and treat vulnerable inmates. Corrections acknowledges the recommendations and says
19:59
Speaker 12: it's taking to improve its policy and practice.
20:02
Speaker 2: All right, how's your weather?
20:05
Speaker 12: Mostly cloudy afternoon, fine breaks nor easterlies and the high
20:08
Speaker 12: eleven today.
20:09
Speaker 2: Nice one, Thanks Callum Clears and christ It this morning. Claire,
20:11
Speaker 2: good morning. You're going to get a motor home for
20:13
Speaker 2: your New Brighton Red Zone land?
20:16
Speaker 13: Well potentially. This new report before counselors today is recommending
20:19
Speaker 13: doing exactly that, leasing some of the Red Zone land
20:22
Speaker 13: to the New Zealand Motor Caravan Association for a period
20:25
Speaker 13: of ten years. This proposal would allow up to one
20:28
Speaker 13: hundred motor homes to stay for up to ten days
20:31
Speaker 13: within any thirty day period. They did public consultation on this.
20:35
Speaker 13: There was three hundred and sixty fourth submissions. Only five
20:38
Speaker 13: of them were against to the idea. Those who support
20:41
Speaker 13: it say it will bring some economic benefits to New
20:43
Speaker 13: Brighton and activate what's currently vacant land. This comes as
20:47
Speaker 13: a group of homeless people who have set up a
20:50
Speaker 13: makeshift camp on Red Zone land at nearby Bexley have
20:53
Speaker 13: been told they need to move on by the end
20:55
Speaker 13: of February in order to make way for some wetland.
20:57
Speaker 13: Of course, the question now is where they might go
21:00
Speaker 13: and whether they remain homeless or get moved into permanent accommodation.
21:03
Speaker 2: Right, how's you were them?
21:05
Speaker 14: Cloudy?
21:05
Speaker 13: We do hear the old shower this morning about Bank's peninsula,
21:08
Speaker 13: then clearing to find a bit later northeasterlies and the
21:10
Speaker 13: high will be twelve nice one.
21:11
Speaker 2: Thank you. Mix is with us on Wellington Morning. Mechs,
21:14
Speaker 2: good morning. I know you love a comm's funding story.
21:18
Speaker 2: This is consultants you're looking at today.
21:20
Speaker 15: Yeah. I will actually get to the Comm's part of
21:23
Speaker 15: it eventually. But a story by Andrea Vance in the
21:26
Speaker 15: Post this morning. Ferry Holdings Limited, the state owned company
21:29
Speaker 15: of course and delivering our next set of ferries, has
21:33
Speaker 15: been committing almost fifteen million bucks to external consultants and contractors.
21:37
Speaker 15: We know how Wellington loves those, including three and a
21:39
Speaker 15: half a million to Affirm whose strategic advisor is one
21:43
Speaker 15: of the directors of Ferry Holdings Limited, which is not
21:46
Speaker 15: a good look. Apparently these numbers are only public after
21:49
Speaker 15: a complaint by the labor party to the ombudsman that
21:52
Speaker 15: the individual contracts were not being public. Ferry Holding says
21:55
Speaker 15: this director has already disclosed this conflict of interest and
21:59
Speaker 15: steps efectively steps out of the room when discussions regarding
22:03
Speaker 15: this company take place. Generally, the costs do indeed show
22:07
Speaker 15: a rather heavy reliance on consultant spend, something we've been
22:11
Speaker 15: trying to wind back, not ramp up couple of melon
22:13
Speaker 15: recruitment as well, because of course seek no longer cuts
22:16
Speaker 15: mustard when you're trying to fill a few communications roles
22:19
Speaker 15: for instance as well.
22:21
Speaker 2: How's your weather cloudy?
22:22
Speaker 15: Claring to find this afternoon southerleast twelve.
22:25
Speaker 2: Nice one, Thank you and Neva's an Auckland morning neighbor,
22:27
Speaker 2: good morning. Feeling the fast track process is having negative
22:30
Speaker 2: effects on rural Auckland well look.
22:33
Speaker 14: An Auckland councilor said, totally totally inappropriate. These are his
22:37
Speaker 14: words for the government to fast track housing developments outside
22:40
Speaker 14: the city's urban boundary, so the fast Trek panel it's
22:44
Speaker 14: approved a controversial This is the twelve hundred home Dellmoor development,
22:48
Speaker 14: which is near audio Work water Care can't connect to
22:51
Speaker 14: the site to the city's water infrastructure for several years,
22:54
Speaker 14: potentially not until at least twenty fifty. Rodney Water councilor
22:58
Speaker 14: Greg Sayers has come out out. He says this project
23:01
Speaker 14: has been fast trick without it being shovel ready. He
23:04
Speaker 14: says the development is still, you know, quite a few
23:06
Speaker 14: years away. Might as well go through the council consent process.
23:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what Wayne Brown was saying last week. What
23:12
Speaker 2: is the point in fast track for a slow project?
23:14
Speaker 4: Yeah?
23:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, so interesting. How's our weather?
23:18
Speaker 14: Cloudy areas of morning folk again today? Sixteen is a
23:21
Speaker 14: high here in Auckland.
23:22
Speaker 2: I said, Jesus. It was warm yesterday, wasn't it? What
23:24
Speaker 2: had the doors opened? Yes, exactly, front and back? Hold
23:30
Speaker 2: the far Wow, it is eighteen away from six News talks.
23:34
Speaker 2: It'd be. We're in Australia with Donnaix.
23:36
Speaker 1: International Correspondence with ends and eye insurance peace of mind
23:40
Speaker 1: for New Zealand Business.
23:42
Speaker 2: News talks did be? It is sixteen minutes away from six.
23:45
Speaker 2: Donna de Mayor's Australia correspondent, Donna good morning, Good morning here.
23:48
Speaker 2: Now why has Albanezi been asked to apologize to the Japanese?
23:53
Speaker 3: Oh goodness mate, Now we all know that comedy is
23:55
Speaker 3: quite subjective, so the PM is being asked to apologize
23:59
Speaker 3: over a common he made on this podcast called the
24:02
Speaker 3: Bush Deep Podcast. Now allegedly it's comedy based, but it's
24:06
Speaker 3: been claimed that the PM was perceived to be referring
24:09
Speaker 3: to Japan's Prime Minister's Senate Takashi's anatomy when he was
24:14
Speaker 3: asked about two melons that he was gifted by his
24:18
Speaker 3: Japanese counterpart. Now he was asked about the melons and
24:21
Speaker 3: at the time he gestured to his chest when he
24:24
Speaker 3: was asked how they may have been smuggled in. Now
24:27
Speaker 3: we've heard from the former Australian ambassador Shingo Yamagami, who
24:31
Speaker 3: says this exchange is insulting, it's ignorant and the betrayal
24:35
Speaker 3: of the close relationship between Australia and Japan. Now, a
24:38
Speaker 3: spokesperson for Albanizi says any assertion that he was making
24:42
Speaker 3: a quip about the PM's body is wrong. But Angus Taylor,
24:47
Speaker 3: opposition leader, he says, no, we need an apology. This
24:51
Speaker 3: comment or this gesture is beneath the office of the PM,
24:56
Speaker 3: and he thinks that an apology will be appropriate. Now Interestingly,
25:01
Speaker 3: this is the same podcast where the PM said William
25:05
Speaker 3: Hill was asked a question and he said he'd shagged
25:06
Speaker 3: maryon dates at Carlie Minogue. So he did apologize after
25:10
Speaker 3: that gaff. So now we wait and see whether this
25:13
Speaker 3: dies down or whether he is forced to say sorry.
25:17
Speaker 2: So was it the same podcast? Was it the same podcast?
25:21
Speaker 2: This podcasts twice shy Hey, South Australia is doing a
25:27
Speaker 2: Royal commission to artificial intelligence? What's that going to tell us?
25:29
Speaker 2: Do you reckon?
25:31
Speaker 3: Fascinating? The state government saying that you know, the technology
25:34
Speaker 3: is potentially destructive, so they need to look into the
25:39
Speaker 3: upsides and what is going to have, you know, what
25:42
Speaker 3: impact is going to have in the future. The Premier
25:44
Speaker 3: Peter Malaskus, when he announced that there's going to be
25:46
Speaker 3: a Royal commission into AI, he says, if unchecked, it
25:50
Speaker 3: could present a material risk to the way society operates.
25:55
Speaker 3: So they want to look at the benefits, they want
25:57
Speaker 3: to look at minimizing unwanted impact. Now it's going to
26:01
Speaker 3: start October first, and we're not going to get a
26:03
Speaker 3: report until at least July next year. But I thought
26:08
Speaker 3: this was a fascinating quote from the premier the use
26:10
Speaker 3: of artificial intelligence is an exciting opportunity to advance the
26:13
Speaker 3: cause of humanity, but it is also true, according to him,
26:17
Speaker 3: that unchecked artificial intelligence does represent a material risk to
26:22
Speaker 3: the way our society operates and a risk to the
26:25
Speaker 3: future of work if not thought through carefully. Fascinating, I thought.
26:29
Speaker 3: He says, we're at a really important fork in the road.
26:32
Speaker 3: Mind you, he just got back from a trip where
26:34
Speaker 3: he actually spoke to representatives from Open Ai, Anthropic and Apple.
26:38
Speaker 3: So maybe he saw some things that we need to
26:40
Speaker 3: know about.
26:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, maybe you didn't like Donna. Good to have you
26:43
Speaker 2: on the show. Dona Demeayo, who is our Australia correspondent. Time,
26:46
Speaker 2: it's thirteen minutes away from Sex. The typhoon moving in
26:50
Speaker 2: by the way to China. They've had to evacuate a
26:52
Speaker 2: million people. With a station in central Shanghai recorded three
26:55
Speaker 2: hundred millimeters of reign in twenty four hours three hundred
26:58
Speaker 2: millimeters of rain for context, so that was their highest
27:00
Speaker 2: reading in one hundred and fifty years. There were five
27:03
Speaker 2: hundred millimeters and twenty four hours in Esk Valley during Gabrielle.
27:06
Speaker 2: Our flights have been affected and thirteen hundred flights have
27:09
Speaker 2: been canceled. Whole bunch of people have had to move
27:11
Speaker 2: into safer areas. Let's go to twelve minutes away from six.
27:15
Speaker 2: Let's go to local amalgamation news. Not every council is
27:19
Speaker 2: happy about this attempted forster amalgamation by central government. By
27:23
Speaker 2: current count forty eight councils have submitted proposals, seventeen have abstained.
27:28
Speaker 2: Michael Ford is the one or two mere joins me
27:30
Speaker 2: this morning. Michael, good morning, Oh, good morning Ryan, now
27:34
Speaker 2: on here, good to have you now. On Friday, five councils,
27:36
Speaker 2: including yours, committed to move forward together on a locally
27:40
Speaker 2: led regional work program. What on earth does that mean? Michael?
27:45
Speaker 11: Right, So we're not ready for head Start. We never
27:47
Speaker 11: were when we were never interested in the head Start program.
27:51
Speaker 11: With five councils, So that's Honga Nui Rupe, who rang
27:55
Speaker 11: A Ticke Taraua and ourselves making up about a fifth
27:58
Speaker 11: of the size of the North Island. We've signed an
28:00
Speaker 11: MoU where we'll work together on alternative models. So we
28:05
Speaker 11: have been working on a number of models, one of
28:06
Speaker 11: them being the Federation model, and we're going to work
28:10
Speaker 11: together and come up with a solution that addresses the
28:15
Speaker 11: government's concerns, takes on the regional functions, but hopefully retains
28:19
Speaker 11: as much local representation, local decision making and local accountability
28:24
Speaker 11: as we can.
28:26
Speaker 8: What's the time frame here, Well, we're.
28:30
Speaker 11: Working through till probably early next year, so six to
28:34
Speaker 11: nine month timeframe.
28:35
Speaker 2: And what exactly when you talk about the models, the
28:38
Speaker 2: federation model for your average punter, what does that actually
28:41
Speaker 2: look like?
28:43
Speaker 11: Sure? So, federation model, sometimes called the Manchester model, is
28:47
Speaker 11: where you retain your individual councils with mayors, but you
28:50
Speaker 11: have another level of governance above which takes on which
28:55
Speaker 11: governs the regional functions. And over time, we have a
28:59
Speaker 11: in the or Too long Anui region, we have what
29:02
Speaker 11: we call man Or Too Anui local authority shared services organizations.
29:07
Speaker 11: So we're actually work together a lot as as anyway
29:10
Speaker 11: that could possibly slot in and govern some of the
29:15
Speaker 11: regional functions.
29:17
Speaker 2: And over time, how many layers of council would we
29:20
Speaker 2: go from and how many would we end up with.
29:24
Speaker 11: Well, it would be effectively the mayors would sit on
29:28
Speaker 11: the on the on the higher level board, so it
29:33
Speaker 11: would be removed the government's removing the regional Council. So
29:37
Speaker 11: the regional functions would be governed by a committee of
29:44
Speaker 11: which would probably include the mayors, so it would be
29:47
Speaker 11: less than we've got at the moment. So we have
29:49
Speaker 11: the local district council, City council representation and then those
29:57
Speaker 11: the leaders of those govern the regional function.
30:00
Speaker 2: Michael Ford one or two mayor. There is much Nine
30:03
Speaker 2: minutes away from six y're on newstalk SAB.
30:07
Speaker 1: News and Views you Trust to start your day. It's
30:10
Speaker 1: early edition with Ryan Bridge and Spark for Business Technology
30:15
Speaker 1: that keeps Business Moving Hues talks'b.
30:17
Speaker 2: Seven to six. Remember years ago in New Zealand there
30:20
Speaker 2: was a story about a project that couldn't get off
30:22
Speaker 2: the ground. I think it was a roating project for
30:24
Speaker 2: memory because of a tunny far that was under the
30:26
Speaker 2: water and some people thought that was completely outrageous. Wait
30:29
Speaker 2: do you hear this one? This is Harry Potter fans
30:32
Speaker 2: have succeeded in getting a new one billion dollar power
30:35
Speaker 2: line re routed because it ran over the grave of
30:39
Speaker 2: someone called Dobby, who's a character in a Harry Potter film.
30:44
Speaker 2: And they had a little shrine literally a couple of
30:47
Speaker 2: pebbles to Dobby and on that basis, they wrote to
30:51
Speaker 2: the power company, the energy company that was doing the project,
30:54
Speaker 2: and said can you please reroute it? And the energy
30:56
Speaker 2: company has said yes. Six to six. Ryan Bridge this morning, Mike.
31:01
Speaker 2: Great to see you, Ryan, lovely to see you too. Hey,
31:03
Speaker 2: the data centers. Have you seen how much money in
31:06
Speaker 2: America they are throwing, like Meta and all those throwing
31:09
Speaker 2: at any local council or borough that will take them.
31:13
Speaker 2: They were giving a fifty thousand dollars bonus to teachers
31:17
Speaker 2: in one place.
31:19
Speaker 16: It's one of the most interesting stories of recent times
31:22
Speaker 16: because if you remember, I don't think it was much
31:24
Speaker 16: more than a year ago data centers were seen. It
31:28
Speaker 16: was like we couldn't wait till a data center arrived
31:30
Speaker 16: and they were going to be the greatest thing in
31:32
Speaker 16: the world. And within twelve much I can't stand it.
31:35
Speaker 16: They do depend I got a very good letter from
31:36
Speaker 16: a bloke who runs a data center the other day
31:39
Speaker 16: and he said, there are data centers and data centers,
31:41
Speaker 16: so the stuff that you're talking about in places like
31:43
Speaker 16: Tennessee with Elon Musk and how they run and what
31:45
Speaker 16: water they use and the power they use and how
31:47
Speaker 16: they affect the community don't have to be the problem.
31:50
Speaker 2: But the hums the big thing.
31:51
Speaker 16: See in Australia at the moment they've got a big
31:53
Speaker 16: debate because a lot of them have gone smaller ones
31:55
Speaker 16: have gone into Sububia. And so yeah, yes, the water
31:58
Speaker 16: and yes the power and all that sort of stuff.
32:00
Speaker 2: It's the hum yeah, yeah, but the water and some
32:04
Speaker 2: of them wash their own face though water wise some.
32:07
Speaker 16: Of them don't use much water at all, and they
32:08
Speaker 16: just go run around speaking of water. This thing you mention,
32:10
Speaker 16: this Delmore thing right, so north of Auckland. So it's
32:14
Speaker 16: not just Delmore, it's Pegasus and christ Us. There's a
32:16
Speaker 16: big one in arrow Town. They all seem to be
32:17
Speaker 16: the same living twelve hundred houses. Ye would you buy
32:20
Speaker 16: a house forget the developer and forget the green light
32:23
Speaker 16: from fast track? Would you buy a house in a
32:25
Speaker 16: suburb or a development where your wastewater's been tracked down?
32:29
Speaker 8: Poop?
32:30
Speaker 2: I mean, I mean, who's doing that well? Or don't
32:33
Speaker 2: you keep up well? I don't think people will care
32:35
Speaker 2: to be honest as long as it's are.
32:37
Speaker 16: You so short of houses in this country? I mean,
32:40
Speaker 16: if you went to buy a house today, right, you've
32:42
Speaker 16: got a choice of hundreds literally hundreds sort of house
32:45
Speaker 16: that's in Delmore. They're all over the place and they go, well,
32:47
Speaker 16: yeah know that, what are those trucks are? Well, those
32:49
Speaker 16: are the trucks taking your wastewater to funk rate.
32:52
Speaker 2: Do you think it's odd that they need to fast
32:54
Speaker 2: track a slow project. It's not like the parts of
32:56
Speaker 2: Auckland where this thing is going to start tomorrow, So
32:59
Speaker 2: why do they need to run?
33:00
Speaker 16: Fascinating thing to me because what is fast track about?
33:03
Speaker 16: Is it about you know, getting tower on a port
33:05
Speaker 16: up and running and out of the courts or is
33:07
Speaker 16: it about just a bunch of guys who want to
33:09
Speaker 16: build one thousand houses on a paddock somewhere and they
33:12
Speaker 16: can't quite connect to the local infrastructure. It's a fascinating thing. Hey,
33:16
Speaker 16: what do you got on today where we're going to
33:18
Speaker 16: do a little bit about the rugby leagues of Graham Lowe.
33:21
Speaker 16: I don't know how he's offering Razor a job.
33:24
Speaker 2: It's a headline grab er.
33:25
Speaker 16: Well it could be a headline grabber, but I mean,
33:27
Speaker 16: you know, when do you start when you don't have
33:29
Speaker 16: a license and the council involved in stuff like that.
33:32
Speaker 16: It's a four year contract as well as a four
33:34
Speaker 16: year contract, and I'm thinking to myself, that's a good contract,
33:36
Speaker 16: isn't it for something that doesn't exist so far Anyway.
33:38
Speaker 16: Graham Low's with us on that, So how's that brilliant stuff?
33:41
Speaker 2: Mica As would be next. You're on News Talk ZB.
33:45
Speaker 8: Enjoy your day, see tomorrow.
34:12
Speaker 1: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen live
34:15
Speaker 1: to News Talks it'd be from five am weekdays, or
34:18
Speaker 1: follow the podcast on iHeartRadio h