Ryan Bridge: How much are political parties willing to borrow after a disaster?

Early Edition with Ryan Bridge · Jul 16, 2026 · 2m · transcript

Welcome to New Zealand... land of earthquakes, stormy weather, and absolute natural beauty.

Another reminder overnight of how shaky these isles can be.

Hope everyone's alright this morning. It's always a bit hard to get back to sleep after a decent jolt and it sounds like you had one.

We've always had storms, and damage from storms, in this country.

But of late we've had more, more often, doing more damage, according to the insurance companies.

We've got a bird with the flu in Petone, though it's not yet clear how that situation will play out poultry-wise.

But it's, again, another reminder of…