Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Full Show Podcast: 08 September 2026

Transcript

Full Show Podcast: 08 September 2026 · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

0:00
Speaker 1: The issues, the interviews, and the insight. Ryan Fridge on
0:05
Speaker 1: Early Edition with Spark for Business.
0:07
Speaker 2: Technology that keeps business moving.
0:09
Speaker 1: Newstalk ZB.
0:11
Speaker 3: Good morning, welcome to Tuesday, six after five. Is Chippy
0:13
Speaker 3: off the old block? We'll go to John Carnegie on
0:16
Speaker 3: the government giving money to the gas industry. Also, we'll
0:20
Speaker 3: check in with Donna in Australia. We'll go to Germany.
0:23
Speaker 3: And Tanya Tapsell, Rotorua Mayor, gets a million bucks to
0:26
Speaker 3: sell her city.
0:28
Speaker 4: The Agenda.
0:29
Speaker 3: Great to have you company this morning. It is Tuesday
0:31
Speaker 3: the 8th of September, so the far right's taking over
0:33
Speaker 3: Germany state by state. Friedrich Merz is quite alarmed by this.
0:37
Speaker 4: We didn't expect it like this and in this way.
0:41
Speaker 4: Obviously we need to accept it. These are the rules
0:45
Speaker 4: of our democracy. And yet, yesterday signalled a change not
0:50
Speaker 4: just in Saxony and out, but in the whole of Germany.
0:53
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's the one state. More to come. There's two
0:56
Speaker 3: more elections, two more states to come this month. I'll
0:58
Speaker 3: explain that in a second. But AFD's lead candidate says
1:01
Speaker 3: the party's very close to taking power.
1:03
Speaker 5: We've now reached the point where some of our political
1:05
Speaker 5: opponents are demanding a ban on the strongest force in
1:07
Speaker 5: question in this country. That's exclusionary. That is also what
1:11
Speaker 5: drives people to us, that they see how they want
1:14
Speaker 5: to divide us apart here.
1:15
Speaker 3: And I don't want that.
1:17
Speaker 5: Of course, there are people who have different positions politically,
1:19
Speaker 5: and I like to listen to them too. And I
1:21
Speaker 5: would also like to represent them later. I want to
1:24
Speaker 5: be a prime minister for all righteous people in Saxony.
1:27
Speaker 3: Now, the EU has announced a 200 million euro fund.
1:30
Speaker 3: This is a boost for investment in Greenland.
1:33
Speaker 4: Why?
1:34
Speaker 3: Well, Trump.
1:35
Speaker 6: This partnership package focuses mainly on three domains. Or strategic priorities,
1:40
Speaker 6: we call them the big C's. Connectivity, clean energy, critical
1:48
Speaker 6: raw materials.
1:49
Speaker 3: Ah, those C's. Trump's actually the best thing to happen
1:51
Speaker 3: to a lot of places. I mean, he goes in,
1:53
Speaker 3: he makes threats, and everyone throws money at him that
1:56
Speaker 3: they never knew they were going to get. In fact,
1:57
Speaker 3: they wouldn't have got if he hadn't have acted. Finally
2:00
Speaker 3: this morning, actually, before we get to Ari and Megan,
2:03
Speaker 3: John Healy, this is the new Chancellor in the UK,
2:06
Speaker 3: talking about the UK economy. First speech he's done as Chancellor.
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Speaker 7: I dedicate myself to this mission as Chancellor, to make
2:14
Speaker 7: Great Britain growth Britain again, with more investment, more innovation
2:20
Speaker 7: and more jobs. And let me be clear, I recognise
2:23
Speaker 7: that the cost of business, that's energy bills, regulation burdens,
2:27
Speaker 7: planning constraints, Labour costs have grown since COVID and I
2:32
Speaker 7: want to draw the line.
2:33
Speaker 3: There you go, he's a Labourite. Sounds like quite a
2:35
Speaker 3: reasonable guy. He was the one that was defence and
2:37
Speaker 3: then quit on principle because he couldn't get enough money
2:39
Speaker 3: to stave off Putin. Finally, Harry and Meghan not getting
2:43
Speaker 3: their royal jobs back. Thank you very much. The King
2:45
Speaker 3: has made that clear in a letter to the palace.
2:48
Speaker 8: The letter's been sent to government, to military, to Lord
2:51
Speaker 8: Lieutenants who represent the King in the UK saying Harry
2:54
Speaker 8: and Meghan are back but they remain private citizens. You
2:57
Speaker 8: don't have to engage them in doing any kind of
3:00
Speaker 8: official duties.
3:01
Speaker 4: They will do their own thing.
3:02
Speaker 8: They are private citizens with private commercial and charitable interests,
3:06
Speaker 8: and that is their focus.
3:10
Speaker 1: On your radio and online on iHeartRadio. Early edition with
3:14
Speaker 1: Ryan Bridge and Spark for Business. Technology that keeps business moving.
3:19
Speaker 1: Newstalk ZB.
3:20
Speaker 3: 9292, the number to text. Always love to hear from you.
3:23
Speaker 3: In 10 minutes, we're going to go to Germany. Saxony-Anhalt
3:26
Speaker 3: is the name of the place. Biggest far-right win in
3:28
Speaker 3: a state election since Nazi days, essentially. Former Communist East MP.
3:35
Speaker 3: AFD is the party. They are anti-illegal immigration. They are
3:39
Speaker 3: friendlier to Putin than their rivals. And 44%. So first
3:45
Speaker 3: place in this state election. There are 16 states in Germany.
3:48
Speaker 3: First place in the state election, but only got 44%.
3:51
Speaker 3: So they need friends to govern. Not enough for a majority.
3:54
Speaker 3: That's what they're going to do over the coming weeks. Now,
3:57
Speaker 3: there's been what they call a firewall. So all the
3:59
Speaker 3: other parties go, oh, we're not working with them because
4:01
Speaker 3: they're just so horrible. Well, that didn't work. because all
4:05
Speaker 3: it did was drive more voters towards them in the
4:08
Speaker 3: hope that they might actually get a majority and not
4:10
Speaker 3: need the firewall parties in the first place. Anyway, they do.
4:14
Speaker 3: There's one teeny tiny little one that just got over
4:17
Speaker 3: the 5% threshold. Remember, they run a similar system to us.
4:20
Speaker 3: A wee teeny tiny party that has just been formed,
4:25
Speaker 3: BSW it's called, a small left conservative populist party.
4:31
Speaker 9: I mean.
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Speaker 3: Clear the 5% hurdle to represent hinting at tacit cooperation.
4:37
Speaker 3: So there might be some deal done there. But what
4:39
Speaker 3: you have now are two more state elections this month. Remember,
4:43
Speaker 3: there are 16 states in total. But what does this
4:47
Speaker 3: say about Merz? Unpopular. This is the chancellor in Germany.
4:52
Speaker 3: What does it say about him? Well, a lot of people,
4:55
Speaker 3: a lot of pundits over there saying this is basically
4:57
Speaker 3: a very clear rejection of his policies, of his leadership,
5:00
Speaker 3: just 16 months into power. They are targeting 40% at
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Speaker 3: the next general election, which is not to be held
5:09
Speaker 3: until 2029. Anyway, we'll head to Germany for the latest.
5:12
Speaker 3: It's 11 after five. And it's great to have your company.
5:15
Speaker 3: Tanya Tapsell, one of the greatest mayors in the country,
5:18
Speaker 3: is getting $ 900, 000 to sell her city to the world.
5:22
Speaker 3: What are they going to talk about? That's next, Newstalk ZB.
5:24
Speaker 1: 5.13, a little warning from Goldman Sachs this morning. They
5:34
Speaker 1: reckon that crude could go up over $ 120 a barrel
5:37
Speaker 1: again if the fighting doesn't stop in the strait. Now,
5:39
Speaker 1: the news on the strait is that Iran and Oman
5:41
Speaker 1: are likely this week to sign some kind of a deal.
5:43
Speaker 3: This is to get ships through the strait safely, but
6:02
Speaker 3: at a cost there'll be some sort of tax, whether
6:04
Speaker 3: it's voluntary or not, TBC. However, there would at least
6:09
Speaker 3: be a safe route. Now, America doesn't like this because
6:11
Speaker 3: America wants use of the Strait to remain free, and
6:14
Speaker 3: that's why they are basically going at each other and
6:17
Speaker 3: firing on each other's tankers over the last 24 hours,
6:20
Speaker 3: 14 after 5. Americans, Chinese, Aussie tourists about to see
6:24
Speaker 3: a bunch more ads for Rotorua. Government giving it a
6:28
Speaker 3: million bucks in tourism funding boost, part of a $ 5
6:31
Speaker 3: million funding increase for the regions. Tanya Tapsell, Rotorua Mayor
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Speaker 3: with us this morning. Tanya, good morning.
6:37
Speaker 10: Good morning. A very exciting announcement.
6:40
Speaker 3: Certainly is. $ 994, 000 to attract more Chinese visitors through the
6:43
Speaker 3: Kiwi North food and hospitality campaign. What's that?
6:48
Speaker 10: So this is actually acknowledging that a big part of
6:51
Speaker 10: tourism is also hospitality. So you need to remember that
6:54
Speaker 10: at this time, our restaurants, our cafes have been doing
6:57
Speaker 10: it really tough. So this has been a welcome announcement
7:00
Speaker 10: to those who want to see, especially not just international visitors,
7:04
Speaker 10: but during the quiet seasons when our domestic us may
7:08
Speaker 10: not choose to travel as much.
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Speaker 4: Right.
7:10
Speaker 3: So is this specifically advertising Rotorua's hospitality establishments?
7:17
Speaker 10: Yes, and if you think about it, we've got some
7:20
Speaker 10: incredible establishments as well that are very well known. We
7:24
Speaker 10: now have Michelin stars in New Zealand. We hope to
7:27
Speaker 10: get those in Rotorua soon. But it's a full package, right?
7:31
Speaker 10: So as an example, I love to travel for food
7:33
Speaker 10: and actually a bit of drink sometimes too. But when
7:36
Speaker 10: they come, they want to enjoy the culture, the environment,
7:39
Speaker 10: relax in our sabahs. But food is a very big
7:42
Speaker 10: part of that. And we've kind of been sleeping on
7:44
Speaker 10: that opportunity when you consider how other countries are market
7:47
Speaker 10: themselves to the world.
7:48
Speaker 3: What about your mountain biking? I've got friends who are
7:50
Speaker 3: into mountain biking. They say that you have world class
7:53
Speaker 3: mountain biking. Is that more domestic or international? Do you
7:56
Speaker 3: have Aussies coming? Do you market that?
7:59
Speaker 10: Yes, we do. And we also host international competitions as well,
8:03
Speaker 10: which is a big part of it. So events actually
8:05
Speaker 10: draw our international visitors. But definitely our Aucklanders do love
8:09
Speaker 10: to come. And we know that for sure. They're actually
8:12
Speaker 10: our biggest market. So locals, I can guarantee, are out
8:16
Speaker 10: there every single day. But the big part about this announcement,
8:19
Speaker 10: the regional tourism booster, is making sure that in those
8:22
Speaker 10: quieter winter seasons, our businesses, our workers, aren't doing it
8:26
Speaker 10: tough because we don't have enough domestic travel. So that's
8:29
Speaker 10: why focusing on international visitors is still important.
8:32
Speaker 3: What about the rough sleeping and the begging problem? Are
8:34
Speaker 3: people still dropping their decks on Main Street, and are
8:38
Speaker 3: you waiting for the move-on orders, or what?
8:41
Speaker 10: Don't worry about that. We've fixed that already.
8:43
Speaker 3: Oh, have you? Okay, you're all good. Where are they?
8:45
Speaker 3: Where have they gone?
8:47
Speaker 10: Yes, so we, as you know, unfortunately, had 56 motels
8:51
Speaker 10: at its worst of emergency housing. We actually put in
8:54
Speaker 10: the solution of building affordable homes. A large portion have
9:00
Speaker 10: gone back to where they wanted to live. But also,
9:03
Speaker 10: I've got to say, we've... recently released a mayor's task
9:07
Speaker 10: force preventing homelessness so we actually identified where the gaps
9:11
Speaker 10: are you know um how do people become homeless in
9:14
Speaker 10: the first place and so it's about not only those
9:16
Speaker 10: short-term solutions such as this awesome funding boost but also
9:20
Speaker 10: preventing those problems in the future so it also is
9:23
Speaker 10: a great place to visit and we can't wait to
9:24
Speaker 10: welcome more visitors.
9:25
Speaker 3: So if I come I haven't been in a couple
9:27
Speaker 3: of years but if I come to Rotorua I'm not
9:28
Speaker 3: going to see homeless people sleeping on the street No.
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Speaker 10: You're not going to see those bloody trolleys everywhere either.
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Speaker 10: We've cleaned the place up. Come and enjoy it.
9:36
Speaker 3: Tanya Tapps, Rotorua Mayor. Good to have you on the
9:38
Speaker 3: program this morning. It's 17 minutes after five, Newstalk ZB.
9:42
Speaker 3: We will go to Germany for the latest on the
9:44
Speaker 3: far right next.
9:45
Speaker 1: The early edition full show podcast on iHeart Radio, powered
9:49
Speaker 1: by Newstalk ZB.
9:52
Speaker 2: Hear it first.
9:53
Speaker 1: Ryan Bridge on early edition with Spark for Business, technology
9:57
Speaker 1: that keeps business moving.
9:59
Speaker 3: Newstalk ZB.
9:59
Speaker 1: 520 Newstalk ZB, Shane and his gas loans.
9:52
Speaker 2: Well, the first two have been announced.
9:54
Speaker 9: $ 23.
9:54
Speaker 1: 5 million in loans for two Taranaki projects. This is
9:56
Speaker 1: for Todd Energy, so it's a Kiwi company. And $ 10
9:58
Speaker 1: million is how much Todd is putting up.
10:00
Speaker 3: So we're putting up double that. And the project's expected
10:18
Speaker 3: to produce four petajoules of gas a year at peak.
10:20
Speaker 3: That's 6% of our current gas production. Both projects, they reckon,
10:25
Speaker 3: will have gas flowing by the end of 2027. We'll
10:28
Speaker 3: look at this in 25 minutes' time. Right, let's go
10:33
Speaker 3: to Germany. Victory for Germany's far right. This is just
10:37
Speaker 3: one state. This is just an election. But it's quite
10:40
Speaker 3: significant for a number of reasons, and I'm about to
10:42
Speaker 3: tell you why. First of all, let's go there.
10:46
Speaker 11: We have achieved exactly what we wanted. We have written history.
10:50
Speaker 11: People gave a clear political signal in this state. We
10:53
Speaker 11: need a fundamentally different political approach, putting our own interests,
10:58
Speaker 11: our own country first.
11:00
Speaker 3: So the far-right AFD has won 44% of the vote
11:04
Speaker 3: in this area. Alistair Bunkle, Sky News Europe correspondent. Alistair,
11:07
Speaker 3: good morning.
11:09
Speaker 2: Good morning, Ryan.
11:10
Speaker 3: So they still need friends, don't they, to actually have
11:12
Speaker 3: a majority vote?
11:14
Speaker 2: Probably.
11:15
Speaker 9: I think there is the chance they could try and
11:18
Speaker 9: govern as a minority, but even then they would probably
11:21
Speaker 9: need an agreement with a party to make sure that
11:25
Speaker 9: anything they wanted to pass through the state parliament got
11:27
Speaker 9: them over the line.
11:28
Speaker 2: So yeah, you're right.
11:29
Speaker 9: I think they probably do need to hook up with somebody.
11:32
Speaker 9: There is a favourite candidate in that respect, and it's
11:35
Speaker 9: a party called BSV, and they are far left-wing. which
11:40
Speaker 9: sounds probably like a total contradiction, the far right teaming
11:45
Speaker 9: up with the far left. But actually, it's that kind
11:49
Speaker 9: of anomaly of politics. The further right you go and
11:52
Speaker 9: the further left you go, you actually start to join
11:54
Speaker 9: up in the middle at some point, and they share
11:55
Speaker 9: quite a lot of the same ideals and beliefs.
11:59
Speaker 2: So it's possibly that could be the scenario.
12:02
Speaker 3: This is quite, probably more than they were hoping they
12:05
Speaker 3: would get. This is the AFD. Is this a shot
12:07
Speaker 3: across the bell to Mertz?
12:11
Speaker 9: I'm sure they were hoping they would get a total majority,
12:13
Speaker 9: but they were polling at around 42%. They ended up
12:16
Speaker 9: getting 44%. Yeah, look, I mean, this is a very
12:19
Speaker 9: good night for the AFD. And if you're an AFD supporter,
12:23
Speaker 9: and clearly in this particular state where I'm now in Berlin,
12:26
Speaker 9: but I was there over the last couple of days,
12:28
Speaker 9: and I spent time over the last few weeks, clearly
12:31
Speaker 9: they've got a lot of support there.
12:32
Speaker 2: You know, as a state in East Germany.
12:36
Speaker 9: I mean, if you're going to pick one state that
12:38
Speaker 9: might vote right-wing and the AFD, then it probably would
12:41
Speaker 9: be this one state. But if you look at the
12:44
Speaker 9: national picture, they're not doing too badly either on the
12:47
Speaker 9: national picture. So yeah, it's a wake-up for the Chancellor
12:53
Speaker 9: Friedrich Merz. And he said today in a press conference
12:55
Speaker 9: that he was shocked by the result. I think a
12:58
Speaker 9: lot of Germans would say that really he should have
13:00
Speaker 9: woken up to it years ago, And he shouldn't be
13:04
Speaker 9: so shocked by it. I mean, the polls have been
13:06
Speaker 9: showing for a long time that the AFD were going
13:07
Speaker 9: to do well. And you just test the mood on
13:10
Speaker 9: the streets. And it was pretty clear that people are
13:12
Speaker 9: fed up with mainstream politics.
13:14
Speaker 3: What exactly are they fed up with? Excuse me. You know,
13:18
Speaker 3: people have been saying this is the furthest right we've
13:21
Speaker 3: been since the Nazis, but it's not the Nazi party, right?
13:24
Speaker 3: What exactly do they want?
13:28
Speaker 9: Well, I mean, different people have different grievances, and a
13:30
Speaker 9: lot of the grievances they have are similar to what
13:33
Speaker 9: you hear around other parts of the world. It's the
13:35
Speaker 9: state of the economy, it's the state of the unemployment figures,
13:39
Speaker 9: it is cost of living, for example. A lot of
13:42
Speaker 9: these factors are driven by external events, like tariffs levied
13:47
Speaker 9: by Donald Trump, like the war in Iran at the moment,
13:51
Speaker 9: and the war in Ukraine, which has helped drive up
13:53
Speaker 9: energy prices. So You know, you could argue some of
13:56
Speaker 9: these are slightly beyond the control of any one government. But,
14:00
Speaker 9: you know, there is a problem with migration in Germany,
14:02
Speaker 9: at least as perceived by Germans. I suppose the main
14:06
Speaker 9: figure that they would point you at is when Angela Merkel,
14:09
Speaker 9: the previous chancellor, allowed about a million Syrians during the
14:14
Speaker 9: crisis there to come into Germany. And a lot of people,
14:18
Speaker 9: rightly or wrongly, feel that if life is not that
14:22
Speaker 9: good in Germany for native Germans, then why should money
14:26
Speaker 9: be spent on outsiders, on foreigners coming in? Like it
14:31
Speaker 9: or not, that is a pretty strongly held feeling here.
14:35
Speaker 9: And the fact is that the traditional parties have failed
14:39
Speaker 9: to grasp it and deal with it. And so a
14:42
Speaker 9: lot of people are turning to AFD because like a
14:44
Speaker 9: lot of fringe parties and right-wing parties, they promise a lot.
14:49
Speaker 2: It's another question as to whether or not they can deliver.
14:51
Speaker 3: Alistair, great analysis. Thank you very much for being with us.
14:54
Speaker 3: Alistair Bunkle, a Sky News Europe correspondent in Germany, 25
14:57
Speaker 3: minutes after five. Ryan, what does far right actually mean anymore?
15:02
Speaker 3: Good morning, Ryan. Is the AFD really far right or
15:05
Speaker 3: has the goalposts changed with a woke left media agenda,
15:08
Speaker 3: says Hamish. These are all good questions. I'll give you
15:10
Speaker 3: a couple of examples of what they plan to do.
15:13
Speaker 3: And you can tell me whether you think it's far
15:15
Speaker 3: right or what far right even means anymore. Start remigration
15:19
Speaker 3: and deportation of illegal migrants. Well, I mean, we would
15:22
Speaker 3: do that here and not consider it far right. Ban
15:25
Speaker 3: rainbow flags in schools. Halt the building of new wind farms.
15:29
Speaker 3: You tell me. 929225 after five. Newstalk ZB. Newstalk ZB,
15:34
Speaker 3: 27 minutes after five. Somebody says the leader of AFD
15:37
Speaker 3: is a lesbian with an immigrant Sri Lankan partner. It
15:40
Speaker 3: doesn't sound very far right to me. There you go. Now,
15:43
Speaker 3: we have got another little update. This is from a
15:46
Speaker 3: ratings agency. This is Moody's. They've taken a look at
15:48
Speaker 3: our credit. They've taken a look at our economy, much
15:50
Speaker 3: the same as the S & P one we spoke
15:52
Speaker 3: about last week. But here's a few things this country
15:55
Speaker 3: cannot afford to forget. We are a trading nation. We
15:59
Speaker 3: have a small population. Unless we sell stuff to the
16:02
Speaker 3: rest of the world, which the world then pays us for,
16:05
Speaker 3: we are a backwater. We are a money-go-round. We are
16:08
Speaker 3: a low-income poor cousin at the bottom of the Pacific. Dairy, meat, kiwifruit, honey,
16:14
Speaker 3: you name it. If we don't have strong export industries,
16:17
Speaker 3: we're basically buggered. We need more of them, of course.
16:20
Speaker 3: We have tourism. Let's not whinge too much about the
16:23
Speaker 3: camper vans. The world's cooked at times, and there'll be
16:26
Speaker 3: another Hormuz before long. Hell, the current Hormuz isn't over yet,
16:30
Speaker 3: and that means we need storage for diesel, which we're doing,
16:33
Speaker 3: but we need more of, for gas, which Genesis is
16:36
Speaker 3: looking at, And Todd and Uncle Shane are trying to find.
16:40
Speaker 3: And data centres. I know they're controversial. I know people
16:43
Speaker 3: hate them. But they shouldn't be. If done well, and
16:47
Speaker 3: by well I mean they wash their own faces, then
16:49
Speaker 3: tick tick. The other thing we desperately need are roads
16:53
Speaker 3: that don't wash out when it rains. Petrol taxes pay
16:56
Speaker 3: for that. So let's maybe not cut our nose off
16:58
Speaker 3: to spite our face in that regard. It's pretty simple really.
17:01
Speaker 3: We need to keep doing what we're doing. We need
17:04
Speaker 3: roads to get our stuff to port. We need oil
17:08
Speaker 3: to keep the country moving. We need ships coming and going.
17:12
Speaker 3: And we need something new on the horizon always. We're
17:20
Speaker 3: going to get to Donna DeMaio out of Australia. She's
17:25
Speaker 3: got a cracker for us. Also, we'll talk to John
17:27
Speaker 3: Carnegie about, this is from Energy Resources Aotearoa, about Shane
17:32
Speaker 3: and the loans. And why Todd, if it's so commercially viable,
17:36
Speaker 3: wouldn't have got the money from the banks on their own?
17:38
Speaker 9: ZB.
17:47
Speaker 1: The first word on the news of the day. Early
17:50
Speaker 1: edition with Ryan Bridge and Spark for Business. Technology that
17:55
Speaker 1: keeps business moving.
17:56
Speaker 3: Newstalk ZB.
17:57
Speaker 7: 24 away from six.
18:01
Speaker 3: Here on Newstalk ZB. Great to have your company. We're
18:03
Speaker 3: going to get to Australia in about 10 minutes' time.
18:06
Speaker 3: Donna's got a great yarn for us on leaked text messages.
18:09
Speaker 3: How much is the Australian government giving to the Solomons? Also,
18:12
Speaker 3: in about 15, we'll get to Carnegie. This is on
18:16
Speaker 3: the Todd Energy co-investment with the New Zealand taxpayers. Well,
18:21
Speaker 3: it's actually a loan on our part. We'll talk to
18:25
Speaker 3: John Carnegie about that in a second. Good morning, Brian.
18:28
Speaker 3: I think the Todd Energy discussion is one of the
18:30
Speaker 3: issues why, you know, we'll talk about today, why would
18:33
Speaker 3: they invest into something if the government didn't have any
18:35
Speaker 3: skin in the game? The government having skin in the
18:37
Speaker 3: game gives them some sort of surety that may transition
18:40
Speaker 3: from one election cycle to the next, says Ian. Ian,
18:43
Speaker 3: if there's gas in the ground And this is a
18:46
Speaker 3: commercial enterprise, and there's commercial reasons for doing it. Why
18:51
Speaker 3: is the taxpayer giving any money in the form of
18:54
Speaker 3: a loan anyway? That's my question. I'm not saying it shouldn't.
18:57
Speaker 3: Just prove it. Tell me why. Also, we will get
19:01
Speaker 3: to Australia very quickly, very quickly for you. Today, apparently
19:06
Speaker 3: at midday, the Nats are going to announce something about the,
19:08
Speaker 3: you know, they don't like the bed tax, okay? It's
19:10
Speaker 3: a tax. Well, they don't like the tax part of
19:12
Speaker 3: the bed tax, but they will do something with the
19:14
Speaker 3: visitor levy. which we get around $ 200 million a year
19:18
Speaker 3: from the foreign tourists coming into New Zealand from, and
19:20
Speaker 3: then we give about half of that to, so far
19:23
Speaker 3: we've given about half of it to fixing up some
19:26
Speaker 3: tracks and building toilets in the South Island area, And
19:29
Speaker 3: so the rest, presumably, they'll just blank check it to
19:33
Speaker 3: the councils. We'll find out around midday, apparently 23 away
19:36
Speaker 3: from six. Let's go to our reporters. Reporters, Rosie Leishman,
19:40
Speaker 3: good morning.
19:41
Speaker 12: Good morning.
19:42
Speaker 3: Why is Otago University looking for a new marine research vessel?
19:47
Speaker 12: So it's seeking tenders for a boat to replace the Pacific. II,
19:51
Speaker 12: which has been in service for about 20 years. The
19:54
Speaker 12: vessel spent its first four years as a commercial tuna longliner.
19:58
Speaker 12: The university says a new boat is needed to give
20:00
Speaker 12: students and researchers access to the ocean for scientific sampling,
20:05
Speaker 12: monitoring and field research. It says that work supports a
20:08
Speaker 12: growing marine science sector and New Zealand's economy. The university
20:13
Speaker 12: is considering several funding options, including philanthropic donations, but won't
20:19
Speaker 12: say how much it's willing to spend just yet.
20:22
Speaker 3: How's your weather?
20:24
Speaker 12: Fine to start with areas of morning frost before cloud
20:27
Speaker 12: and south westerlies developing in the afternoon.
20:30
Speaker 3: Nice one, thank you. Claire's in Christchurch. Morning, Claire.
20:32
Speaker 13: Good morning.
20:33
Speaker 3: Tell me about the two Christchurch parents. and what they're
20:36
Speaker 3: doing with mental health.
20:38
Speaker 14: Yeah, this is interesting. The Lighthouse Trust is launching the
20:41
Speaker 14: first Te Whare Rama pod at St Thomas of Canterbury
20:45
Speaker 14: College here in Christchurch. This is a nature-inspired space where
20:48
Speaker 14: students can pause, reset and regulate their emotions while they're
20:51
Speaker 14: at school. The Trust co-founder, Anna Gibbons, and her husband
20:55
Speaker 14: created this concept, sadly, after their son, Luca, died following
20:59
Speaker 14: his own mental health struggles. She says this pod offers
21:02
Speaker 14: a range of modalities to help students from red light
21:05
Speaker 14: headsets to some guided meditation tracks and also weighted blankets.
21:10
Speaker 14: Gibbons says the intention is to roll these pods out
21:12
Speaker 14: to more schools across the country after the pilot at
21:15
Speaker 14: St Thomas.
21:15
Speaker 3: All right. How's your weather, Claire?
21:17
Speaker 4: Fine.
21:17
Speaker 14: Some morning frost in sheltered places and some evening cloud expected.
21:21
Speaker 14: North Easterlies dying out.
21:22
Speaker 2: The high will be 12.
21:23
Speaker 3: Nice one. Thank you very much. Max in Wellington. Good morning, Max.
21:26
Speaker 3: Good morning. Everyone's getting fired. Well, a dozen actually from
21:29
Speaker 3: the council.
21:30
Speaker 2: Yes.
21:31
Speaker 15: A little hyperbole there. Yeah, 47 jobs in total going
21:35
Speaker 15: at the Wellington City Council aimed at saving over $ 4 million.
21:39
Speaker 15: Quick math, that's an average salary, about $ 85, 000. It is
21:41
Speaker 15: another restructure, effectively. 141 roles in total disestablished, 94 created.
21:48
Speaker 15: We hear this all the time. The council, for context,
21:51
Speaker 15: right now has about 1,600 employees. So 47 going might
21:55
Speaker 15: just seem like a drop in the bucket. Acting Chief
21:58
Speaker 15: Executive Anna Calver making the announcement yesterday. Interestingly, a lot
22:02
Speaker 15: of the roles going are from the Creative Capital Economic
22:05
Speaker 15: and Engagement team, which is, for one thing, a lot
22:09
Speaker 15: of buzzwords, but it's actually her team when she's not
22:12
Speaker 15: acting chief executive.
22:13
Speaker 3: She heads that team.
22:14
Speaker 15: Also, interestingly, it's not immediately clear whether this Deloitte report,
22:17
Speaker 15: which used bad data and big faulty chunks of AI,
22:21
Speaker 15: was a factor as well in these job cuts. That's
22:23
Speaker 15: not clear. The mayor's been critical of that report. The union,
22:26
Speaker 15: in announcing these cuts, taking another shot at the report,
22:30
Speaker 15: The council in the hot seat right now with Tiaki
22:32
Speaker 15: Wai as well. And the chief executive is still on holiday.
22:36
Speaker 3: How long has it been now? I don't know exactly.
22:39
Speaker 3: He's from England.
22:40
Speaker 15: I mean, I wouldn't like to speculate, but I will.
22:43
Speaker 15: I mean, I imagine he's gone back to Europe because
22:45
Speaker 15: it's definitely been.
22:46
Speaker 3: A few weeks. That's unforgivable, you know, because it's not
22:49
Speaker 3: like they didn't know the report was coming out, right?
22:52
Speaker 15: The Deloitte report, now some job cuts announced, having to
22:55
Speaker 15: be announced by a chief executive who probably had no
22:58
Speaker 15: input in it whatsoever as acting chief executive. Apparently the
23:02
Speaker 15: council's defended that holiday as long-planned, effectively unavoidable, but, I mean,
23:08
Speaker 15: that's why he earns the big bucks, right?
23:10
Speaker 3: I would make that 47 job cuts and I would
23:12
Speaker 3: make that 48. How's your weather?
23:15
Speaker 15: Mainly fine with lighter, cooler winds, 13. That's fine, thank you.
23:18
Speaker 15: Never good morning.
23:19
Speaker 13: Good morning.
23:20
Speaker 3: Now, the Monday day local board election, things get really
23:24
Speaker 3: spicy here.
23:24
Speaker 7: Yes.
23:25
Speaker 16: Now, look, what's happened, this latest development? At least a
23:29
Speaker 16: dozen votes from one South Auckland street appear to have
23:31
Speaker 16: been fraudulently cast. in last year's local elections, and this
23:36
Speaker 16: includes one in the name of a woman who died
23:38
Speaker 16: in 2022. So the whole legitimacy of October's Manurewa Local
23:43
Speaker 16: Board election has been questioned. You know, this is after
23:46
Speaker 16: anomalies and unusual voter turnout patterns were observed. Now, we
23:49
Speaker 16: know that the Herald's spoken to residents. This is of
23:51
Speaker 16: a Kainga Ora complex. Now, votes had been recorded despite
23:56
Speaker 16: none of them recalling receiving ballot papers or even voting. So,
24:00
Speaker 16: you know, the findings just add more weight to recent
24:03
Speaker 16: whistleblower allegations of vote rigging and ballot theft.
24:06
Speaker 13: And of course, this is under investigation by police.
24:08
Speaker 16: So watch this space.
24:09
Speaker 3: How's our weather?
24:10
Speaker 16: Cloudy, isolated showers early morning, but it's going to be
24:12
Speaker 16: fine later on this afternoon. 15, the high here in Auckland.
24:15
Speaker 3: Good stuff, Niamh. Enjoy your morning. 18 minutes away from
24:17
Speaker 3: six here on Newstalk ZB. Ryan, I'm about to start
24:20
Speaker 3: building a self-contained unit as an Airbnb. And I don't
24:24
Speaker 3: want to be paying no bed tax, says John. I
24:27
Speaker 3: suppose you would, definitely if you've got a hotel or whatever.
24:31
Speaker 3: But I suppose an Airbnb, I'm just trying to think,
24:33
Speaker 3: to when I've hired Airbnbs overseas, am I paying a
24:37
Speaker 3: bed tax? Yes, I think I am. So yes, I
24:40
Speaker 3: think a bed tax would be included in an Airbnb.
24:43
Speaker 3: But I mean, I don't think it's going to affect,
24:46
Speaker 3: because it's the level playing field, isn't it? So everybody's
24:51
Speaker 3: got to pay it. All of your competitors will have
24:53
Speaker 3: to up theirs too. Anyway, it's not happening. 9292. 17
24:58
Speaker 3: to 6, Newstalk ZB.
25:00
Speaker 1: International Correspondence with NZI Insurance. Peace of mind for New
25:05
Speaker 1: Zealand business.
25:06
Speaker 3: Quarter to six, Newstalk ZB. We'll talk about the gas
25:09
Speaker 3: loans in a second. First, let's go to Donna Jumeirah,
25:11
Speaker 3: our Australia correspondent. Donna, good morning.
25:13
Speaker 17: Good morning to you.
25:14
Speaker 3: Now, you've got a leaked text, Donna, and you know
25:18
Speaker 3: now how much the Aussies are giving the Solomons. What's
25:21
Speaker 3: going on?
25:22
Speaker 18: Well, we know that, well, the ABC is reporting that
25:25
Speaker 18: negotiations are nearing an end to reach a new treaty
25:30
Speaker 18: with the Solomon Islands. And a leaked message from the
25:34
Speaker 18: Australian High Commissioner to the Solomon Islands, Geoffrey Roach, to
25:38
Speaker 18: the Deputy PM, Francis Chardet, last week, now has revealed
25:43
Speaker 18: that we're going to give around $ 980 million to the
25:46
Speaker 18: Solomon Islands. And we know that these two countries, Australia
25:54
Speaker 18: and the Solomon Islands, have been negotiating a new deal
25:55
Speaker 18: for quite some time. So it looks like it's nearing
25:58
Speaker 18: the end and an in-principle deal has been reached. We
26:02
Speaker 18: know that the Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands yesterday
26:05
Speaker 18: successfully warded off a leadership challenge and now he's adjourned Parliament.
26:09
Speaker 18: So there's quite a lot going on there. But we
26:11
Speaker 18: know that the money is looking like it's going towards
26:15
Speaker 18: a range of areas, a apparently a so-called free education
26:19
Speaker 18: policy for the islands, something to do with visa improvements,
26:23
Speaker 18: and also they're going to be funneling some of this
26:26
Speaker 18: money into upgraded security measures for that country as well.
26:32
Speaker 18: So I thought I'd give you that update. I thought
26:34
Speaker 18: it was fascinating to know.
26:35
Speaker 3: The amount of money. Billion dollars to keep Beijing off
26:38
Speaker 3: your back, eh? Hey, what about this American football? Fans
26:42
Speaker 3: are going nuts over this in Melbourne at the MCG.
26:46
Speaker 18: I know nothing about NFL and a lot of Melbournians
26:48
Speaker 18: and Australians don't, but we are pretty pumped about the
26:51
Speaker 18: fact that the NFL's first regular season game in Australia
26:55
Speaker 18: is going to be played this Friday. The Los Angeles
26:58
Speaker 18: Rams are facing the San Francisco 49ers. Does that mean
27:01
Speaker 18: anything to you at all?
27:02
Speaker 3: Not really, Donna. I'm as bad as you.
27:04
Speaker 17: Not really. But the MCG, which does fit 100,000 people,
27:10
Speaker 17: sold out pretty quickly, apparently. There's Thousands and thousands of
27:14
Speaker 17: Americans pouring into Melbourne for the match. The 49ers came
27:21
Speaker 17: in a few days early because they want to make
27:23
Speaker 17: sure that they, you know, get over their jet lag
27:25
Speaker 17: and acclimatise. The Rams are planning what they call a
27:28
Speaker 17: hit and run mission, means that they won't arrive until
27:31
Speaker 17: about 24 hours before Friday's 10.30 local time kickoff. But apparently,
27:37
Speaker 17: you know, there's lots and lots of people Hotel bookings,
27:41
Speaker 17: there's lots of interest from the US. Apparently US flight
27:44
Speaker 17: searches for Melbourne spiked about 150% last week and it's
27:49
Speaker 17: going to be really, really good for small businesses.
27:51
Speaker 18: And apparently fans are expected to consume over 120 tonnes
27:56
Speaker 18: of chicken wings over the next week.
27:59
Speaker 3: Sounds fun. Donna, thank you very much. Donna DeMayo, our
28:03
Speaker 3: Australia correspondent. It is 12 minutes away from six. This
28:07
Speaker 3: is funny from Craig. Good morning, Ryan. Nice interview with
28:09
Speaker 3: Chloe on the telly yesterday. Interesting thing is when the
28:12
Speaker 3: Greens announced KiwiMart, they hadn't even secured the domain name.
28:16
Speaker 3: This is what Craig says. KiwiMart purchased by a mate
28:19
Speaker 3: of mine who has other company ending in mart reflects
28:22
Speaker 3: how smart they aren't. 11 to 6. Right, let's talk gas,
28:29
Speaker 3: shall we? First announcement from the government's gas security fund.
28:32
Speaker 3: Todd Energy getting $ 23. 5 million in government loans, another $ 16
28:37
Speaker 3: million loan for the McKee gas cap. 17 proposals still
28:41
Speaker 3: in the pipeline. John Carnegie, Energy Resources, Aotearoa CEO with
28:45
Speaker 3: us this morning. John, good morning.
28:46
Speaker 19: Yeah, good morning, Ryan.
28:47
Speaker 3: Hey, why does Todd need government loans? What's wrong with banks?
28:53
Speaker 19: Well, Ryan, we've talked about this a number of times
28:55
Speaker 19: now over the past couple of years. Look, ordinarily, we wouldn't.
29:00
Speaker 19: But what happened to the petroleum sector during the previous
29:03
Speaker 19: government was anything but ordinary. So this lending facility isn't
29:09
Speaker 19: to help with everyday business risk. The sector can handle
29:13
Speaker 19: that itself. It's more fundamental than that. The sector's investment
29:17
Speaker 19: confidence was absolutely shattered yesterday. And they now effectively need
29:22
Speaker 19: the government to walk a mile in their shoes to
29:25
Speaker 19: mitigate the risk of the rules changing again and stranding
29:27
Speaker 19: their investments. And, of course, that's a very real threat,
29:31
Speaker 19: as we've heard time and again from the Labour Party
29:33
Speaker 19: during this very election campaign.
29:36
Speaker 3: So without it, John, without the government, you know, holding
29:41
Speaker 3: their hand, this would either be too expensive from a
29:46
Speaker 3: commercial banking financing point of view or a non-starter.
29:51
Speaker 19: Well, I think the very purpose of this scheme is
29:55
Speaker 19: to bring forward gas production targets that would otherwise happen later.
30:01
Speaker 19: So this is exactly what this lending facility will do.
30:06
Speaker 3: I was interested to see how quickly actually some of
30:09
Speaker 3: it could come on board because they're not new gas fields.
30:13
Speaker 3: It's accessing stuff that's already there that we know about.
30:16
Speaker 3: Is that right? That's why we can get it on
30:17
Speaker 3: stream potentially by 2027. Yeah, look, that's right.
30:22
Speaker 19: These loans they're using for the use of existing fields
30:27
Speaker 19: and infrastructure. So they offer one of the quickest opportunities
30:30
Speaker 19: we have to get more domestic gas into the market sooner.
30:34
Speaker 19: And look, if they're successful, which of course isn't guaranteed
30:39
Speaker 19: given the risky nature of petroleum investments, both projects do
30:43
Speaker 19: expect to have gas flowing by the end of 2027.
30:46
Speaker 19: And in our view, this is a public-private partnership at
30:49
Speaker 19: its best.
30:51
Speaker 3: John Carnegie, Energy Resources Aotearoa. Good to have you on
30:54
Speaker 3: the show this morning as always. Time is nine minutes
30:56
Speaker 3: away from six. Very quickly, you know there's been a
31:00
Speaker 3: few jitters in the stock markets of late. We've been
31:03
Speaker 3: talking about them. You've got a bit of inflation. You've
31:05
Speaker 3: got oil prices going up. You've got shares in Nvidia
31:11
Speaker 3: going up, but maybe not as much as they thought
31:13
Speaker 3: they would. Well, if you look overall at US stock
31:17
Speaker 3: mutual funds over the year, so even for August, after
31:20
Speaker 3: all of that, they were up 2.4%, and you look
31:22
Speaker 3: over the year, up 12.6%. For the first time, international
31:28
Speaker 3: stocks were just touching shy for August of U.S. stocks 2.1%
31:32
Speaker 3: versus 2.4%. And for the year, a healthy non-U.S. stocks 13.4%.
31:33
Speaker 3: 8 to 6.
31:41
Speaker 1: Get ahead of the headlines on Early Edition with Ryan
31:45
Speaker 1: Bridge and Spark for Business. Technology that keeps business moving.
31:49
Speaker 3: Newstalk ZB. Newstalk ZB. It is six minutes away from six.
31:53
Speaker 3: Good morning, Mike.
31:54
Speaker 13: Great to see you, Ryan.
31:55
Speaker 3: I've just fixed the printer for you. Yeah, no, I saw.
31:57
Speaker 13: Not only are you saying that, but I saw you
31:59
Speaker 13: do it. And it's so impressive.
32:02
Speaker 3: It's very impressive.
32:03
Speaker 13: It's fantastic.
32:04
Speaker 3: How do you see Americans without college degrees having one
32:06
Speaker 3: of the best job markets in years? In fact, if
32:08
Speaker 3: you don't have a college degree, you've got a better
32:10
Speaker 3: chance of getting a job than.
32:12
Speaker 13: If you've got a college degree. I think in many
32:14
Speaker 13: respects that's the future because if you look at the
32:17
Speaker 13: number of jobs that you come out that a machine's
32:20
Speaker 13: going to replace you on, lawyering is a very good example.
32:24
Speaker 13: I would have thought if you're into conveyancing, then why
32:27
Speaker 13: would you get a person at X number of dollars
32:29
Speaker 13: an hour Yeah. Win a computer and just turn that
32:32
Speaker 13: stuff over for you.
32:33
Speaker 3: The question then, though, is when– because once you do
32:35
Speaker 3: all the grunt work and all the menial jobs at
32:38
Speaker 3: the start of your career, you then go on to
32:41
Speaker 3: have all this knowledge and become smart. That's the great debate.
32:43
Speaker 3: You know what I mean? That's the great debate. So
32:44
Speaker 3: who's going to do those?
32:45
Speaker 13: And so if you don't get them in at the start,
32:46
Speaker 13: they're never going to come out at the top.
32:48
Speaker 2: Yeah.
32:48
Speaker 4: Yeah.
32:49
Speaker 13: So that's the great– Having said that, I did see
32:52
Speaker 13: yesterday or the day before in America they produced the
32:54
Speaker 13: top 10 jobs that were AI-proof. And the problem with
32:58
Speaker 13: them are none of them– I mean, it may be me,
33:00
Speaker 13: but none of them really appealed to me. They were
33:02
Speaker 13: eclectic-type jobs. Well, there was some psychiatry and psychology in
33:06
Speaker 13: there and some arborist tree pruning.
33:10
Speaker 10: Oh, yeah.
33:11
Speaker 13: You know what I mean?
33:13
Speaker 3: Have you ever seen arborists pull a tree down?
33:15
Speaker 13: It's fantastic.
33:16
Speaker 3: It's the most entertaining thing you can watch.
33:18
Speaker 13: But not to make a living.
33:20
Speaker 3: No, you don't want to do it. You'll lose an arm. Exactly.
33:22
Speaker 13: So it's very limited in what the future is. I
33:25
Speaker 13: think we're lucky. I don't think we're going to be.
33:27
Speaker 13: Boss threatens me all the time.
33:28
Speaker 19: Does he?
33:28
Speaker 13: He goes, yeah, he says it won't be long before
33:31
Speaker 13: AI replaces you.
33:32
Speaker 3: You'll be retiring before an hour gets you.
33:35
Speaker 13: I'm grateful.
33:35
Speaker 3: You're at the right end of this.
33:37
Speaker 13: I think I've been born at the right time.
33:39
Speaker 3: You've timed your run very well.
33:41
Speaker 13: I think I'm born at the right time, to paraphrase
33:44
Speaker 13: Paul Simon. You know the Grand Tour hosts?
33:47
Speaker 3: Oh, no.
33:48
Speaker 13: Okay. So the Grand Tour was hosted by Jeremy Clarkson,
33:52
Speaker 13: Hammond and May, right?
33:53
Speaker 4: Yeah.
33:54
Speaker 13: Now, they retired a couple of years ago.
33:56
Speaker 3: Hang on, you mean the car show? Correct. Did they
33:59
Speaker 3: have a spin-off?
34:01
Speaker 13: The Grand Tour came out of Top Gear.
34:03
Speaker 6: Ah, OK.
34:04
Speaker 3: So, a spin-off.
34:05
Speaker 13: Sorry, I didn't realise I had to start at the
34:06
Speaker 13: very beginning of this.
34:07
Speaker 3: It's cars. Assume you do.
34:09
Speaker 13: It's cars. So, the BBC rebooted Top Gear the other day.
34:12
Speaker 13: We don't know who the hosts are. The Grand Tour,
34:15
Speaker 13: these guys retired. You thought it was the end of it. Anyway,
34:17
Speaker 13: it's not. They've found three new people to tape. Fill
34:20
Speaker 13: the boots of the big boys. Those three are going
34:23
Speaker 13: to be with us after 8 o'clock this morning.
34:25
Speaker 3: Oh, that's exciting.
34:26
Speaker 13: Well, I'm glad you're thrilled. You buried your lead there.
34:28
Speaker 3: Jesus Christ.
34:34
Speaker 1: For more from early edition with ryan bridge listen live
34:37
Speaker 1: to news talk zb from 5 a.m weekdays or follow
34:40
Speaker 1: the podcast on iheart radio