Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Full Show Podcast: 17 February 2026

Transcript

Full Show Podcast: 17 February 2026 · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

0:01
Speaker 1: The issues, the interviews and the insight. Ryan Bridge on
0:05
Speaker 1: earlier this show with one roof Love where You Live,
0:09
Speaker 1: News Talk Sibbi.
0:10
Speaker 2: Good morning at six after five. Great to have your
0:13
Speaker 2: company coming up on the show. Andrew Little on this
0:15
Speaker 2: town meeting in Wellington last night. Things got a bit
0:17
Speaker 2: Argie Barji there Donald demo in Australia for us the
0:20
Speaker 2: one billion dollar industry that might surprise you, and we'll
0:25
Speaker 2: talk about Contact Energy and that capital raise they announced
0:27
Speaker 2: yesterday the agenda Tuesday of seventeenth of February. Great to
0:32
Speaker 2: have your company this morning. Star has had to do
0:34
Speaker 2: a bit of a U turn on canceling those council
0:37
Speaker 2: elections and that has been forced by some legal advice.
0:41
Speaker 3: The government in this has been bounced into this position
0:44
Speaker 3: by Nigel Farage and Reform. It is astonishing. It is
0:49
Speaker 3: the fifteenth U turn we have had and the government
0:52
Speaker 3: has lost a huge amount of political capital defending the
0:56
Speaker 3: postponement of these council elections for months and months and months.
1:02
Speaker 2: Staying in Europe, but of an update from Rubio on
1:04
Speaker 2: the Ukraine talks tomorrow.
1:05
Speaker 4: The only nation on Earth that apparently can get both
1:07
Speaker 4: sides to the table to talk. I'm not here to
1:09
Speaker 4: insult anybody, but the United Nations hasn't been able to
1:12
Speaker 4: do it, and there's no other country in Europe that's
1:15
Speaker 4: been able to do it. The United States has been
1:17
Speaker 4: successful at being able to get both sides to talk.
1:20
Speaker 4: I mean, for the first time, you know, in a
1:22
Speaker 4: number of years, you have truly haen a technical level
1:25
Speaker 4: of military officials from both sides sat down last week
1:29
Speaker 4: in the Middle East.
1:30
Speaker 2: Meanwhile, in the Ue, Savannah Guthrie's trying to get a
1:33
Speaker 2: mum back again.
1:34
Speaker 5: To whoever has her or knows where she is.
1:38
Speaker 6: It's never too late, and you're not lost or alone.
1:44
Speaker 2: That glove By is saying that they've found the investigators.
1:47
Speaker 2: They're testing it the DNA as we speak, five after seven.
1:51
Speaker 1: Views and views you trust to start your day. It's
1:54
Speaker 1: early edition with Ryan Bridge and one roof love where
1:58
Speaker 1: you live used to a.
2:00
Speaker 2: Little more like seven after five, but great to have
2:02
Speaker 2: you here either way. Nine two nine two is the
2:04
Speaker 2: number to text. You're gonna hear a lot today. Later
2:06
Speaker 2: on this afternoon, you're gonna hear a lot about the
2:08
Speaker 2: cost of fixing roads and pipes and all the really
2:11
Speaker 2: basic stuff that we all use and that we all
2:13
Speaker 2: pay for through rates and taxes. Chris Bishop's going to
2:16
Speaker 2: give a speech apparently releasing his strategy. And you don't
2:20
Speaker 2: need to look far to know why we need to
2:22
Speaker 2: keep on top of these things. Look at Bromley, look
2:24
Speaker 2: at more Point, Pick a North Island town on the map,
2:28
Speaker 2: dot a pin. If we don't want the rain to
2:30
Speaker 2: wash away that bridge or that railway line, then we're
2:33
Speaker 2: going to need to invest in it, aren't we. And
2:34
Speaker 2: you don't just spray and walk away with infrastructure, do
2:38
Speaker 2: you. You don't just build it and then leave it. You
2:41
Speaker 2: actually need to maintain it, and that costs a lot
2:44
Speaker 2: of money to do. This is not rocket science this stuff.
2:47
Speaker 2: It's fixing, boring, basic stuff. Now, who does that sound
2:51
Speaker 2: like Luxon? And you know, despite what some people say
2:55
Speaker 2: about his likability and all that blah blah blah, he
2:58
Speaker 2: trumps his opponent in the field. He has from day
3:02
Speaker 2: one pretty much focused on the boring stuff. Bishop reckons
3:05
Speaker 2: the cost to repair, wait for this, and modernize the
3:08
Speaker 2: infrastructure as anywhere between one hundred and two hundred billion dollars.
3:13
Speaker 2: I mean, how much money even is that? I was
3:16
Speaker 2: reading at the weekend about in Huanganui. They need a
3:19
Speaker 2: new bridge there. That's about seventy odd million dollars and
3:22
Speaker 2: that's just for one bridge in one city. So the
3:25
Speaker 2: question is, once we all find out this afternoon just
3:28
Speaker 2: how bad the situation is, do we actually do something
3:31
Speaker 2: about it or do we carry on expecting handouts for
3:34
Speaker 2: Africa money for non essential items? Do we even know
3:38
Speaker 2: the meaning of essential anymore? Bryan Bread nine two ninety
3:42
Speaker 2: two is the number. So I look forward to sharing
3:45
Speaker 2: that number with you tomorrow morning, or if you don't
3:46
Speaker 2: catch it this afternoon. Next we're going to talk about
3:49
Speaker 2: contact and the capital rays that they're looking at and
3:52
Speaker 2: what exactly that money will be spent. On ten after five.
3:56
Speaker 1: The News you Need this morning and the in depth
3:59
Speaker 1: analysis edition with Ryan French and one Roote Love where
4:03
Speaker 1: you Live News talks'd.
4:05
Speaker 2: Be twelve after five. It's not just Trump calling out
4:07
Speaker 2: Europe on military spending, it's Europe calling out Europe on
4:10
Speaker 2: military spending as well. Germany is pointing the finger at
4:14
Speaker 2: France and saying you're not actually going to meet the targets.
4:17
Speaker 2: Remember they said pledged, they promised to hit five percent
4:20
Speaker 2: of GDP by twenty thirty five. For NATO, well it's
4:23
Speaker 2: not going well. So I can give you some numbers
4:25
Speaker 2: this morning, NATO. And this is the target that the
4:29
Speaker 2: UK wants to get to by twenty thirty. Roughly they
4:33
Speaker 2: will only hit two and a half percent by the
4:36
Speaker 2: US while they're coming down obviously or stabilizing, that's the
4:39
Speaker 2: whole point of it. France two point three percent, that's
4:43
Speaker 2: the where they're on track to be by about twenty
4:46
Speaker 2: twenty eight. Two point three percent not good enough from
4:50
Speaker 2: New France, Poland four point eight percent. Obviously that you
4:53
Speaker 2: know on Russia's doorstep. They've got a self interest in
4:56
Speaker 2: spending more. Germany three and a half percent. Good on,
4:58
Speaker 2: you're getting up there. And for Italy two percent. No
5:01
Speaker 2: surprise is there. So France on two point three percent.
5:04
Speaker 2: Germany has said basically, you need to up your game
5:07
Speaker 2: because Germany has spent more on defense and is investing
5:11
Speaker 2: more on defense and exempted defense spending from its debt break,
5:16
Speaker 2: which is like a constitutional thing they have to do
5:18
Speaker 2: over there. France, on the other hand, well we all
5:21
Speaker 2: know France's problems with spending and with debt, currently third
5:25
Speaker 2: in the EU in terms of debt burden as a
5:27
Speaker 2: portion of GDP after wait for it, Greece and Italy
5:32
Speaker 2: Prayan Bridge. It is thirteen minutes half to five now,
5:35
Speaker 2: so reporting season underway. Contact Energy posting a half yar
5:38
Speaker 2: net profit increase of forty four percent to about two
5:41
Speaker 2: hundred million bucks yesterday. At the same time they're announcing
5:43
Speaker 2: a surprise capital raise half a billion dollars they want
5:47
Speaker 2: renewable energy investment. Oliver Amanda is shareholders Association's CEO with
5:52
Speaker 2: me now, Oliver, good morning, Good to have you on
5:56
Speaker 2: the program. Was this a surprise for you.
5:59
Speaker 7: All honesty, it probably probably wasn't. A yes, I'm out
6:02
Speaker 7: in a bit of a limb around that. But the
6:04
Speaker 7: sector has well signaled a large amount of capital required
6:09
Speaker 7: for new generation as it's in New Zealand, and that's
6:11
Speaker 7: also driven by Contact owned strategy as to invest more
6:14
Speaker 7: renewable energy projects and also of course that that wider
6:17
Speaker 7: concepts of dead decarbonization. So look, in all honesty, no,
6:23
Speaker 7: I think where and I don't think Contact will be
6:25
Speaker 7: the last. We'll probably probably see other capital raises coming
6:28
Speaker 7: up later in the year. We're also really interesting to
6:30
Speaker 7: note for us last eight last year the government actually
6:33
Speaker 7: signaling that they would be willing to support further capital
6:36
Speaker 7: equity injection into three mixed ownership companies, so it's genesis
6:41
Speaker 7: Aready and merch Area as well. So no, for me,
6:44
Speaker 7: not a surprise, probably a surprise for many analysts, given
6:49
Speaker 7: that Contact had previously signaled that it could meet those
6:52
Speaker 7: investments out of its own cash flow. But obviously the
6:55
Speaker 7: advanced to some projects means that they have a need
6:57
Speaker 7: to look to raise capital.
6:59
Speaker 2: And the if you're an existing shareholder, what do you
7:02
Speaker 2: do with this information because it kind of dilutes your equity,
7:04
Speaker 2: doesn't it?
7:06
Speaker 7: It does look I think the important thing is that
7:08
Speaker 7: you make an active decision. It is a share purchase plan,
7:11
Speaker 7: so there's no value to be gain as a shareholder.
7:14
Speaker 7: But by simply doing nothing, you actually have to look
7:16
Speaker 7: at your own situation say is this to me? Is
7:18
Speaker 7: this something that I want to invest further in the
7:21
Speaker 7: nature of the raise means that the and there is
7:25
Speaker 7: some dilution attach that You're quite right. I think it's
7:27
Speaker 7: somewhere but about six percent overall, depending on what the
7:31
Speaker 7: actual final placement price will be. But there's an offset
7:39
Speaker 7: for a shareholder by saying do I put money up
7:41
Speaker 7: now and then receive the value for that back in
7:44
Speaker 7: future dividends, or do I actually say, okay, now I'm
7:48
Speaker 7: going to not put money out now and obviously reduce
7:51
Speaker 7: a slightly reduced dividendslow in the future. Actual value the
7:55
Speaker 7: share is really interesting because this is a raise focused
7:57
Speaker 7: on gross and that's not something at the scale New
8:01
Speaker 7: Zealand market has seen for quite some time. All those
8:03
Speaker 7: recent capital raises have really been around with storing companies
8:07
Speaker 7: balance sheet, so this is the first one for a while.
8:08
Speaker 7: It's if you're focused on value recreasive or gross investment,
8:12
Speaker 7: which is quite a slightly different equation for shareholder.
8:15
Speaker 2: Which is kind of nice too, Oliver. It means they've
8:17
Speaker 2: got their eyes up looking at the horizon. At least,
8:19
Speaker 2: I appreciate your time this morning, Oliver Amanda from the
8:21
Speaker 2: Shareholders Association. It's five sixteen and bread half of that money.
8:25
Speaker 2: By the way, two hundred and thirty five million dollars
8:27
Speaker 2: of the funds is going to go towards a giant
8:30
Speaker 2: Tesler battery bank near Glenbrook. You know the steel mill
8:34
Speaker 2: in glen Brook and Auckland. A giant Tesler battery bank.
8:37
Speaker 2: They're going to dump it next to it and that'll
8:39
Speaker 2: smooth out the peaks and troughs and elec patricity supply
8:42
Speaker 2: that they experience in Auckland. So there you go. That's
8:45
Speaker 2: that's two hundred and thirty five million of your five
8:48
Speaker 2: hundred and twenty five million dollar capital raised. Event seventeen
8:52
Speaker 2: after five News Talks they'd be next, we'll speak to
8:55
Speaker 2: Business New Zealand. You know when people go they say
8:58
Speaker 2: all who we know doing well? Actually it should be
9:02
Speaker 2: all who we know Dewey, because Business New Zealand's come
9:07
Speaker 2: out with some numbers about conferences and you think they
9:09
Speaker 2: just talk fest. Actually they are a bit of a
9:11
Speaker 2: money spinner. I'll tell you how much.
9:13
Speaker 1: Next, the first word on the News of the Day
9:17
Speaker 1: Early edition with Ryan Bridge and one Root Love where
9:21
Speaker 1: you Live News Talk said B.
9:23
Speaker 2: Five nineteen on news Talk said B. We had the
9:25
Speaker 2: pside the performance of services in dicks out yesterday. Remember
9:28
Speaker 2: this accounts for three quarters of our economy, the services sector,
9:32
Speaker 2: and it was it was down point eight points, but
9:36
Speaker 2: it was still above fifty and fifty is in expansion mode.
9:40
Speaker 2: And we were in the doldrums for so long that
9:42
Speaker 2: I think you just take the good and forget about
9:45
Speaker 2: the bad, don't you with the number like that? So
9:46
Speaker 2: fifty point nine was your number for January. The long
9:49
Speaker 2: term average is fifty two point eight, so we're below
9:51
Speaker 2: the long term average, but we are an expansion negative
9:55
Speaker 2: comments over up fifty eight point seven percent firms reporting
9:59
Speaker 2: low co confidence, holiday shutdowns, and high operating costs, which
10:03
Speaker 2: are the middle of those three. I find most interesting
10:06
Speaker 2: because perhaps there was a point to this argument that
10:09
Speaker 2: we take too long a summer break. In New Zealand
10:11
Speaker 2: twenty after Ryan Bridge, you report out this morning Show's
10:15
Speaker 2: business conference has contributed nearly a billion bucks to the
10:17
Speaker 2: Kebe economy last year. That's about one and a half
10:20
Speaker 2: million visitor nights with an average daily spend of six
10:22
Speaker 2: hundred and forty five dollars. Katherine bed Is, Business Ends
10:25
Speaker 2: Advocacy Director, joining us this morning. Catherine, good morning, Good morning.
10:29
Speaker 2: So this is from the ICs, the International Conventions end
10:32
Speaker 2: of the newly opened and conjunction with business events industry
10:37
Speaker 2: out here at OH So is this all just hype
10:39
Speaker 2: or is this real and tangible and a growing industry?
10:44
Speaker 8: Oh? Look, I think it's absolutely real and tangible. And
10:48
Speaker 8: Auckland's been waiting a long time for the convention Center,
10:52
Speaker 8: but it's predicted to add another three thirty three thousand
10:57
Speaker 8: visitors this year. So I think if you want to
11:00
Speaker 8: attract events, you've got to have good venues, and you've
11:03
Speaker 8: got to have them big enough to take actually quite
11:06
Speaker 8: big conferences. So it's a little bit like stadium shows
11:12
Speaker 8: for big music acts. If you don't have the events
11:15
Speaker 8: and you can't draw the crowds, then you're going to
11:17
Speaker 8: miss out. So yeah, so it's a good thing. And
11:20
Speaker 8: of course all of that spending flows through to your hotels,
11:24
Speaker 8: your restaurants, your retail and your general tourism. So yeah,
11:29
Speaker 8: really positive. And I think New Zealand's also a bit
11:32
Speaker 8: of a bucket list destination for a lot of people.
11:36
Speaker 8: So if you're traveling around the world and you say
11:38
Speaker 8: where you're from, a lot of people go, look, I'm
11:41
Speaker 8: going to come there one day. So sometimes they just
11:43
Speaker 8: need a good old conference to get them here.
11:46
Speaker 2: Nothing like whacking it on the company credit card. What's
11:49
Speaker 2: better for a city having tourists who are here for
11:53
Speaker 2: a concerts, say for a weekend, or having a conference.
11:56
Speaker 2: Do people spend more via a conference than they would
11:59
Speaker 2: for a social activity.
12:02
Speaker 8: Yeah, Look, this curve indicates conference attendees spend considerably more,
12:08
Speaker 8: just about double in some cases. So I think what
12:12
Speaker 8: you're seeing with a conference attend is, you know conferences
12:15
Speaker 8: can span a few days and also you know you've
12:20
Speaker 8: got to stay somewhere, right, so you need a hotel,
12:23
Speaker 8: you need to be eating out. I think if you
12:26
Speaker 8: maybe come here on a tourist boat for example, you've
12:29
Speaker 8: got your accommodation in your food. So they, yeah, they
12:32
Speaker 8: do spend very well. Conference attends brilliant.
12:34
Speaker 2: Well, let's look forward to more of that, especially in Auckland.
12:37
Speaker 2: Catherine Catherine Bead, director of Advocacy at Business New Zealand.
12:40
Speaker 2: It's twenty two minutes after five, Bryan Bridge. So let's
12:44
Speaker 2: go to Wellington for just a second, because the government's
12:46
Speaker 2: announced kind of what the review will look like into
12:49
Speaker 2: the Pooh in the water situation, the sewage in the water,
12:52
Speaker 2: and it's a Crown review team which the Minister is
12:56
Speaker 2: going to appoint so to be made up of your
13:00
Speaker 2: legal experts. So you've got a couple of lawyers on there,
13:03
Speaker 2: you've got a couple of engineers on there, you've got
13:05
Speaker 2: a couple of governance so basically bored people on there.
13:08
Speaker 2: Who'll be looking into this, the problem with it, and
13:12
Speaker 2: a little update for you on the weather in Wellington
13:14
Speaker 2: and what that's done to the sewage. By the way,
13:16
Speaker 2: So because you know they've got the long pipe and
13:18
Speaker 2: the short pipe for what comes out, well, they've had
13:21
Speaker 2: to use the short pipe again because it's been raining.
13:24
Speaker 2: So Wellington Water says two point three million liters of
13:28
Speaker 2: you know what was dumped in the short pipe between
13:32
Speaker 2: ten thirty pm on Monday one thirty am Tuesday. Sorry,
13:36
Speaker 2: so that was Sunday night, and then the short pipe
13:39
Speaker 2: was again used from about ten am yesterday morning, so
13:42
Speaker 2: Sunday night big dump literally and then Monday from ten
13:46
Speaker 2: am another big dump from Wellington Waters. So thank you, cheers, fantastic.
13:50
Speaker 2: They had a big pap public meeting about of this
13:52
Speaker 2: last night. We got the mayor on just before six
13:56
Speaker 2: and Chris says, Ryan, please ask Andrew Little with the review.
14:01
Speaker 2: If it's confirmed that this overseas company, the French, failed
14:05
Speaker 2: on the maintenance, can we find them. If not, why
14:08
Speaker 2: the bloody hell not? John fair question, We'll ask him.
14:11
Speaker 2: Five twenty four The Early.
14:12
Speaker 1: Edition Full Show podcast on iHeartRadio powered by News Talks AV.
14:19
Speaker 2: Five twenty six on newstalks. Beware the insatiable beast that
14:23
Speaker 2: is the state. The government is like a hungry child
14:26
Speaker 2: screaming for more food, even though you've just fed them
14:28
Speaker 2: dinner in putting. Let's go across the Tasman where the
14:31
Speaker 2: Treasurer Charmers Jim Charmers, facing high debt and deficit, they've
14:35
Speaker 2: managed to achieve the highest level of spending to GDP
14:39
Speaker 2: of any government in forty years outside of the pandemic. There,
14:43
Speaker 2: does that sound familiar to you? To deal with this?
14:45
Speaker 2: The IMF has just come out and told them they
14:47
Speaker 2: should cut their cloth. They should cut spending. They've also suggested,
14:51
Speaker 2: and this gets interesting, that the federal government may need
14:54
Speaker 2: to bail out some states who are also weighed down
14:57
Speaker 2: by your double d's of post COVID governance, debt and deficit.
15:03
Speaker 2: Let's not forget this is the lucky country, the one
15:06
Speaker 2: that's been firing on all the cylinders that we apparently
15:08
Speaker 2: don't have. The flying Aussie ruse. It turns out haven't
15:12
Speaker 2: quite been putting away for a rainy day, despite making
15:14
Speaker 2: hay while the sun shines. So what do they do? Well,
15:18
Speaker 2: there's a report out from the Australian this morning that
15:21
Speaker 2: they are considering taxing more. Remember, they already have a
15:24
Speaker 2: capital gains tax, the thing that we don't have, but
15:27
Speaker 2: Labour's promising to introduce here. But they have a discount
15:31
Speaker 2: on it for assets that are held for at least
15:33
Speaker 2: a year. So hold it for more than a year,
15:35
Speaker 2: you get a discount. Once you flick it off, you
15:37
Speaker 2: get half off your tax. Now, the Treasurer apparently has
15:41
Speaker 2: been keen on getting rid of this discount and is
15:44
Speaker 2: not ruling out doing so again. That would bring the
15:47
Speaker 2: Crown an extra ten billion dollars in revenue a year.
15:50
Speaker 2: You can see why that might be useful to them.
15:53
Speaker 2: So when parties here say they'll solve our problems with
15:55
Speaker 2: new taxes, is that the end of the story, or
15:59
Speaker 2: does the satiable beast come back for more. This is
16:03
Speaker 2: the problem that is unique to government. In private business,
16:06
Speaker 2: as you well know, you only put prices up so
16:09
Speaker 2: high in order to cover your costs. People have choice
16:13
Speaker 2: about what they buy and they might put you out
16:15
Speaker 2: of business if you don't adapt. So you cut your costs,
16:19
Speaker 2: you innovate, you change to remain competitive. Governments don't have
16:23
Speaker 2: to be competitive. They can raise taxes pretty much indefinitely,
16:27
Speaker 2: and the problem with some of them is that given
16:29
Speaker 2: the chance, they bloody well would wouldn't they. Twenty eight
16:33
Speaker 2: minutes after five nine ninety two is the number to
16:35
Speaker 2: text Hamish Kerr. Yes he's a legend, and yes he
16:39
Speaker 2: has finally been recognized for that. He's won Sportsman of
16:42
Speaker 2: the Year at the whole Burg Awards last night.
16:45
Speaker 9: And the winner of the ISPs Honda Sportsman of the
16:48
Speaker 9: Year is Hamus Kerr.
16:52
Speaker 10: I was I was going to run up there as
16:54
Speaker 10: I did, you know, six months ago, but I'm still
16:56
Speaker 10: exhausted from that run. So I'll be just walking tonight
16:59
Speaker 10: to Jimmy. You know, you were my best mate and
17:01
Speaker 10: now you're my coach and that's something that's really special
17:04
Speaker 10: and I don't think that you know, we've quite fully
17:07
Speaker 10: unlocked what there looks like and I can't wait for
17:09
Speaker 10: the next few years.
17:10
Speaker 2: Very nice speech from him, and he's a lovely guy. Jimmy,
17:13
Speaker 2: by the way, is James Sandalin's Who's one Coach of
17:15
Speaker 2: the Year his coach and Tom Walsh was the last
17:19
Speaker 2: male to win the top award. That was back in
17:23
Speaker 2: twenty eighteen, so it's been a while but Hamish Kurra
17:26
Speaker 2: is on top. He's the champion last night at the
17:29
Speaker 2: Halbergs and its coach too, king of the high jump
17:32
Speaker 2: in Paris. He we've not only got the indoor gold,
17:37
Speaker 2: but he also got the Olympic gold. So congratulations to
17:40
Speaker 2: Hamish this morning. Coming up next, we're head to our
17:43
Speaker 2: reporters and we're in Australia with Donnad Demayo.
17:50
Speaker 1: Get ahead of the headlines on an early edition with
17:53
Speaker 1: Ryan Branch and one roof Love.
17:56
Speaker 2: Where you live news talks.
17:57
Speaker 1: I'd been no, it's.
17:59
Speaker 5: Been keep thinking they're some article. Take you look around.
18:05
Speaker 5: It's a me if we meet here and we made were.
18:09
Speaker 2: Away from six news talks they've been coming up. It's
18:11
Speaker 2: all kicked off in Wellington last night. This public meeting
18:14
Speaker 2: on sewage. We'll speak to Andrew a little of the
18:16
Speaker 2: mayor before six o'clock this morning. Donald to mos out
18:18
Speaker 2: of Australia for US that alleged terrorists for the Bondai
18:21
Speaker 2: massacre in court. I'll find out what happened there. Now,
18:24
Speaker 2: this is a slightly odd story, but I thought it
18:26
Speaker 2: was worth mentioning to you because apparently what makes you
18:31
Speaker 2: human is your consciousness and your level of consciousness, and
18:33
Speaker 2: when you die, obviously that disappears, right you die and
18:36
Speaker 2: you move to the other side, and you're no longer
18:39
Speaker 2: your brain doesn't work, or does it. There's this research
18:42
Speaker 2: that's come out, and look, it's only by a one
18:44
Speaker 2: researcher at Arizona State University, but they've been speaking to
18:48
Speaker 2: the American Association for the Advancement of Science and Phoenix,
18:52
Speaker 2: and what they have said is that the brain they
18:54
Speaker 2: reckon can retain some degree of consciousness for minutes or
18:58
Speaker 2: even hours after or a patient has been declared dead
19:01
Speaker 2: by a doctor. And they have backed this up by
19:04
Speaker 2: saying that there is if you scan the brain after
19:07
Speaker 2: you've been declared dead, that the little cylinders are still
19:11
Speaker 2: firing in there. So they've said, actually, we should be
19:15
Speaker 2: trying to resuscitate people more and for longer, even though
19:19
Speaker 2: we think they've been dead for a while. There was
19:21
Speaker 2: a study in twenty nineteen, not to freak you out
19:24
Speaker 2: on a Tuesday morning, but it kind of freaked me out,
19:26
Speaker 2: so I'm just sharing it to, you know, make me
19:28
Speaker 2: feel better. Twenty nineteen study finds the brain is able
19:31
Speaker 2: to fire electrical signals many minutes after death or even
19:35
Speaker 2: hours if preserved. And the last thing that you hear,
19:40
Speaker 2: this is one doctor reckons, the last thing that you
19:42
Speaker 2: hear before you pass over, before you finally that go
19:46
Speaker 2: is the doctor saying the time of death. Isn't that creepy?
19:50
Speaker 8: Brian Bridge twenty tore.
19:52
Speaker 2: Away from Sex on that cherry note. Let's go to
19:54
Speaker 2: our reporters around the country, Color and Proctor and Dunedan Calum,
19:57
Speaker 2: good morning. All right, Milford sound a bit of a
20:00
Speaker 2: tourism a late summer surge for tourism for Milford. Sound, Yeah,
20:05
Speaker 2: that's right.
20:06
Speaker 11: Great South is noticing this. Great South Southland's regional tourism organization.
20:11
Speaker 11: They're reporting that the Chinese market is back. It was
20:15
Speaker 11: slow to rebound after COVID, but not now and this
20:18
Speaker 11: is driven they say by the longer nine day Chinese
20:20
Speaker 11: New Year holiday this year. Great South says the extended
20:25
Speaker 11: break has lifted their visitor numbers, also helped by increase
20:28
Speaker 11: the air capacity into Auckland and christ Church. They're also
20:31
Speaker 11: noticing growth in independent traveler numbers, driving higher demand for
20:36
Speaker 11: rental cars and self drive tips in the South. The
20:39
Speaker 11: Chinese New Year celebrations end on.
20:41
Speaker 2: March the third fantastic news. How's your weather.
20:45
Speaker 11: It's time for us to get the rain. That heavy
20:47
Speaker 11: rain watch here in place until nine o'clock tonight. Heavy
20:51
Speaker 11: rain easing this evening fourteen Dineden's high.
20:53
Speaker 2: All right, cheers, Callum and Clears and christ Church Morning, Claire,
20:57
Speaker 2: good morning. So you've got finally got to the source
20:59
Speaker 2: of that contaminated water.
21:01
Speaker 12: Finally, look. The boil water notice has lifted for thousands
21:05
Speaker 12: of people across New Brighton, Burwood, wine On, Atunui and
21:08
Speaker 12: South Shore, although twenty properties still remain affected. They managed
21:12
Speaker 12: to confirm that there were three consecutive days of clear
21:15
Speaker 12: test results. Christiach City Council says they found dirt in
21:18
Speaker 12: a sub main which supplied the affected homes, and they
21:22
Speaker 12: are clarifying that it was not e Coli May Film
21:25
Speaker 12: Ajor says the exact cause still remains unclear, but he
21:29
Speaker 12: believes it's likely linked to something quite minor, like a
21:32
Speaker 12: water meter box being replaced. He says the testing equipment
21:35
Speaker 12: can identify dirt the size of a thimble, so it
21:38
Speaker 12: didn't need to be a very large amount. He refused
21:41
Speaker 12: to comment, though, on what suburb the problem is in
21:44
Speaker 12: and says it's twenty meters away from one of the
21:47
Speaker 12: testing points, which is why it was picked up so quickly.
21:49
Speaker 2: Right, and everyone's saying you're going to get whacked by
21:51
Speaker 2: the weather today.
21:52
Speaker 12: How bad it'll be pouring down this morning, already flooding
21:55
Speaker 12: on the roads as I drove in, and that will
21:57
Speaker 12: continue right through until later today. Strong south westerly is
22:01
Speaker 12: easing as well, and a high of sixteen.
22:03
Speaker 2: Thank you clear mex and Wellington mechs you weren't lying yesterday.
22:06
Speaker 2: How's the clean up? And people still got without power
22:09
Speaker 2: all that stuff.
22:10
Speaker 13: Yeah, the longer you live in Wellington, the more the
22:12
Speaker 13: more you can tell when the wind is really really bad.
22:15
Speaker 13: It has now eased off, thankfully the rain's gone, but
22:18
Speaker 13: hundreds and hundreds of homes and businesses are still without power.
22:21
Speaker 13: It was six thousand as of yesterday, but it does
22:23
Speaker 13: look like that number has come down significantly. It was
22:26
Speaker 13: about twenty five thousand without power yesterday morning in the
22:30
Speaker 13: Wellington region. Winds of up to one thirty around the city,
22:33
Speaker 13: two hundred at Mount Coco, gusts of two forty killing
22:37
Speaker 13: meters per hour at the Cape. Strongest southerly is in
22:39
Speaker 13: well Over, a decade. Apparently a lot of property damage
22:43
Speaker 13: as well that we're probably still counting the toll on roofs, fences, trees,
22:48
Speaker 13: debris flooding as well. In Lower Hut around the way
22:51
Speaker 13: Fettou Stream some properties flooded there. Pretty much every school
22:54
Speaker 13: was closed yesterday, and of course, as you mentioned earlier,
22:57
Speaker 13: raw sewage once again flowing in the waters. That's going
23:01
Speaker 13: to happen every time there's some rain. Apparently, the good
23:03
Speaker 13: news is most forms of public transport resumed today. The
23:07
Speaker 13: weather as well should be a great improvement through the
23:09
Speaker 13: rest of the week.
23:10
Speaker 2: Sounds like it's much needed. Max, that's good news. And
23:13
Speaker 2: today with no woman.
23:15
Speaker 13: Partly cloudy with the odds shower northerly is certainly a
23:19
Speaker 13: more still twenty the high Nice one.
23:21
Speaker 2: Cheers, Max, morning, good morning. We've got a facelift coming
23:25
Speaker 2: for some shopping site.
23:26
Speaker 14: Jo.
23:26
Speaker 15: Now, this is exciting because five million dollars is going
23:30
Speaker 15: to be injected. This is to revitalize one of Auckland's
23:33
Speaker 15: longest standing shopping locations. Now, this private capital is going
23:37
Speaker 15: to be used to overhaul this is the historic Queen's
23:41
Speaker 15: Arcade and it's going to be tuned into a boutique
23:43
Speaker 15: luxury retail precinct. So lots of construction's going to happen.
23:47
Speaker 15: This is at the lower Queen Street site. It's going
23:50
Speaker 15: to start in April and due for completion by November.
23:53
Speaker 15: Apparently the Queen's Arcade property manager. That's in right, He says. Look,
23:58
Speaker 15: it's going to retain that heritage element because that building
24:02
Speaker 15: is you know, quite old, like century old building. So
24:05
Speaker 15: they're going to replace the floor, they're going to get
24:08
Speaker 15: rid of the escalators, and they're got to replace it
24:10
Speaker 15: with an elevator.
24:11
Speaker 2: Oh big an age. Okay, Hey, it's all happening in Auckland.
24:16
Speaker 2: It's all starting to happen. How's that weather, Neva.
24:19
Speaker 15: Partly cloudy or chow mainly from the afternoon light wins today.
24:22
Speaker 15: Thank goodness, Hi have twenty four brilliant.
24:24
Speaker 2: You have a fantastic bit morning, Neva, and I will
24:27
Speaker 2: see you back here very shortly. It's seventeen minutes away
24:29
Speaker 2: from six. We'll head to donn a demo in Australia.
24:31
Speaker 1: Next international correspondence with ends an eye insurance peace of
24:36
Speaker 1: mind for New Zealand business.
24:38
Speaker 2: God to the six. We'll get to Andrew Lilan wellingon
24:40
Speaker 2: shortly first, the alleged bond Iterra gunman has had his
24:43
Speaker 2: first court appearance done in Demo's our Australia correspondent on
24:46
Speaker 2: a good morning.
24:47
Speaker 16: Good morning to you.
24:48
Speaker 2: So what happened?
24:50
Speaker 6: Well, twenty four year old Navid Akram has appeared in
24:54
Speaker 6: court for the first time. He's charged with fifty nine offenses,
24:57
Speaker 6: including fifteen counts of murder and on of committing a
25:01
Speaker 6: terrorist attack.
25:02
Speaker 16: Mister Akram's lawyer says it's too early to say how
25:05
Speaker 16: his client will plead. He appeared via a video.
25:08
Speaker 9: Link in a Sydney court and a senior magistrate was
25:12
Speaker 9: well has extended existing suppression orders in the case.
25:15
Speaker 16: Let me explain.
25:16
Speaker 9: So Akram spoke only when Deputy Chief Magistrates Sharon Freud
25:21
Speaker 9: asked if he had heard the discussion about an extension
25:25
Speaker 9: of these suppression orders and he said yeah. The court
25:28
Speaker 9: orders were made just before Christmas and it means that
25:31
Speaker 9: it covers the identities of dozens of the survivors of
25:35
Speaker 9: the shooting and the orders do allow survivors to self
25:39
Speaker 9: identify if they do wish to tell their story publicly.
25:43
Speaker 9: So Akram obviously remains in custody in goldn Supermac's prison and.
25:49
Speaker 16: The case is set to return to court in April.
25:52
Speaker 2: All right, and moving to the supermarket chain. That's getting
25:55
Speaker 2: a bit of slap on the rest, but it could
25:56
Speaker 2: actually be worse than that.
25:58
Speaker 16: M This is interesting. The Federal court has just begun
26:02
Speaker 16: the A Triple C has accused supermarket giant Coals the
26:06
Speaker 16: planned campaign to mislead customers. So the A Trible C
26:10
Speaker 16: is actually suing the supermarket. And we've heard from a
26:12
Speaker 16: former A Triple C boss who's called it the case
26:15
Speaker 16: of the century. So lawyers say, well, lawyer's representing the
26:19
Speaker 16: consumer watchdog, I should say, claim that Cole's price discounts
26:22
Speaker 16: are utterly misleading. And a legal counsel for the A
26:27
Speaker 16: Triable C has told the court that Coles what they
26:29
Speaker 16: did was they jacked up prices of hundreds of household
26:32
Speaker 16: products for a short period, and then they discounted them
26:36
Speaker 16: to a price that was actually more than or the
26:39
Speaker 16: same as the regular price. So Coal's customers, according to
26:42
Speaker 16: legal counsel, had repeatedly well, Coal's customers had been deceived
26:47
Speaker 16: basically by Coals and the pricing was just not fair. Dicome,
26:52
Speaker 16: as he put it, to the court. Of course, Colser
26:55
Speaker 16: has rejected these allegations and will continue its opening remarks today.
27:00
Speaker 2: All right, don appreciate that update, Thank you, Donald, our
27:02
Speaker 2: Australia correspondent. Time is twelve away from.
27:04
Speaker 1: Six Bryan Bridge.
27:06
Speaker 2: So we had that big meeting in Wellington last night,
27:08
Speaker 2: the town meeting over the sewage and the water business
27:11
Speaker 2: got quite heated at times. People will you not want
27:14
Speaker 2: to hear about and we don't.
27:16
Speaker 10: Want to hear things.
27:17
Speaker 2: We want the true We have an independent review coming apparently,
27:21
Speaker 2: does that give you confidence find out what went wrong,
27:24
Speaker 2: spell out exactly what happens next. Andrew Little is willing
27:27
Speaker 2: to meet with us live Andrew, Good morning, Good morning. Right,
27:31
Speaker 2: So last night's meeting, Fearsoe people were pretty brassed off.
27:36
Speaker 17: Yeah, but I think that's pretty obvious, and I've been
27:38
Speaker 17: picking that up as I've been out and about in
27:40
Speaker 17: the South Coast areas in the last week or so.
27:44
Speaker 17: People justifiably angry. This is not something that would happen.
27:47
Speaker 17: It's affecting businesses, households are suffering the odors that goes
27:51
Speaker 17: with trying to get the plants sorted out and all
27:53
Speaker 17: those sorts of things. So, yeah, I think people are
27:55
Speaker 17: genuinely concerned and wanted to hear some explanations and.
28:00
Speaker 2: In terms of the actual sewage, because we know when
28:03
Speaker 2: it rains is coming out, how long before people can
28:05
Speaker 2: go back to swimming in that area.
28:08
Speaker 17: Yeah, I think that's the big question. So we've had
28:11
Speaker 17: ever since the plant failed, all the seas around all
28:15
Speaker 17: the bays have been monitored just to see what's happening
28:17
Speaker 17: with the contamination. It's shown pretty stable that the low,
28:21
Speaker 17: very low levels of contamination ifen at all. Then we
28:24
Speaker 17: had the storm coming through and that's change it all
28:26
Speaker 17: up a bit. So we'll see what the monitoring shows
28:28
Speaker 17: of the next two or three days. And the idea
28:31
Speaker 17: is of vision we get to a point where we
28:32
Speaker 17: can say, actually, you know what the risk is X amount.
28:35
Speaker 17: It's actually pretty low and it could be sad to
28:38
Speaker 17: go back to the beach and possibly into the sea
28:40
Speaker 17: in certain places, But we want we just want to
28:42
Speaker 17: get a good profile, get good data to build up
28:45
Speaker 17: that picture, and then on a day to day basis,
28:48
Speaker 17: give people advice on you know, what the risk factors
28:50
Speaker 17: might be, what might be a good day to go
28:52
Speaker 17: to the best of what might not be. But we're
28:54
Speaker 17: a few days away from that yet.
28:55
Speaker 2: Okay, so we got you could be back swimming in
28:57
Speaker 2: wigs potentially.
29:00
Speaker 7: Yeah.
29:00
Speaker 17: If the if the monitoring shows but actually the contamination
29:04
Speaker 17: of various beaches as low and the risk factors are
29:08
Speaker 17: simply you're not going to add to it, then it
29:10
Speaker 17: may well be okay to do that.
29:12
Speaker 2: All right. What about people actually not believing what the
29:16
Speaker 2: Wellington Water is telling them and also the testing that's
29:19
Speaker 2: been done. I've heard from people who live there who say, actually,
29:21
Speaker 2: we don't trust we don't actually believe them anymore. Is
29:24
Speaker 2: that a problem?
29:26
Speaker 17: Yeah, well, obviously there's a problem with people that don't
29:29
Speaker 17: trust it, don't have any credibility. I mean, that's the
29:31
Speaker 17: reason the reason why I wanted an independent review of
29:36
Speaker 17: everything that's happened is executive that you can't have whether
29:39
Speaker 17: it's willing to city Council or well Into Water or
29:42
Speaker 17: if the older or anybody else involved in the whole
29:44
Speaker 17: thing marking their own homework. You've got to have somebody
29:47
Speaker 17: completely independent. So that's now in the hands of the
29:49
Speaker 17: minister that there will be a review and it's up
29:52
Speaker 17: to the ministers to our points and qualified expert independent
29:57
Speaker 17: people to tell ay tell us what went wrong and
30:00
Speaker 17: then b tell us what needs to happen to prevent
30:02
Speaker 17: this happening again.
30:03
Speaker 2: But sorry Andrew, not minister, mister Mayor. We've had loads
30:08
Speaker 2: of people texting in this morning. Can we find the
30:10
Speaker 2: hell out of this French company for operating it? If
30:13
Speaker 2: it's found that they didn't keep up with the maintenance
30:15
Speaker 2: and all the stuff that they should have been doing,
30:17
Speaker 2: what do you do with them?
30:19
Speaker 17: Yeah? I think I think that's part of what the
30:21
Speaker 17: river is to tell us about the causes. Because of
30:23
Speaker 17: the causes and we know there'll be a mechanical something
30:26
Speaker 17: didn't work in the whole thing. Further than cleft the
30:29
Speaker 17: systems CPS, the other thing is what was the oversight
30:32
Speaker 17: and governance, Like did people get information, did people know
30:35
Speaker 17: that there were problems and did they fail to act
30:37
Speaker 17: on them? And that could be the oliot that could
30:40
Speaker 17: be willing to water, it could be well into city council.
30:42
Speaker 17: So they're all in the frame until we kind of
30:44
Speaker 17: know what exactly has gone on.
30:46
Speaker 2: All right, And as for the pet projects and that
30:48
Speaker 2: you know your Wellington miles, your Golden miles and all that
30:51
Speaker 2: stuff is your message to Wellington. All of that stuff
30:54
Speaker 2: is on hold until we get our basics, literally what
30:58
Speaker 2: we do in the morning, first thing when we wake up.
30:59
Speaker 2: So the doubt.
31:01
Speaker 17: Yeah. In fact, I've been saying that even before this happened,
31:04
Speaker 17: just because a bunch of other challenges we faced anywhere
31:08
Speaker 17: that that just adds to it. The priority has got
31:10
Speaker 17: to be a functioning searge treatment plant, and frankly, nothing
31:14
Speaker 17: else meant it until we sort out and so we've
31:17
Speaker 17: got to get our priorities right.
31:18
Speaker 2: Appreciate your time this morning. Andrew little Wellington Mere eight
31:20
Speaker 2: to six News Talk sad B.
31:23
Speaker 1: On your radio and online on iHeartRadio Early edition with
31:27
Speaker 1: Ryan Bridge and one roof Love where You Live News Talks.
31:31
Speaker 2: Hed B six away from Sex News Talks said b
31:34
Speaker 2: Barack Obama's done a podcast interview and he was asked
31:37
Speaker 2: where he's declared really that aliens are real?
31:40
Speaker 14: Are aliens real?
31:42
Speaker 17: They're real, but I haven't seen them and they're not
31:45
Speaker 17: being kept in uh.
31:48
Speaker 9: Fifty one.
31:49
Speaker 8: There's no underground facility unless there's this enormous conspiracy and
31:56
Speaker 8: they head it from the President of the United States.
31:59
Speaker 2: Right, it's all real, but he just can't prove it.
32:02
Speaker 2: Five away from six, Mike's in the studio. Good morning, Mike.
32:05
Speaker 14: Do you take that seriously realized it's a joke.
32:08
Speaker 2: No, he's been serious. He thinks they're real. He just
32:11
Speaker 2: can't he's not been shown any evidence of you listen
32:14
Speaker 2: to the whole thing.
32:15
Speaker 14: Yes, They goes on to about area fifty one. Yeah,
32:19
Speaker 14: and then they said to him, what's the first thing
32:21
Speaker 14: you want to know when your president? He goes where
32:23
Speaker 14: the aliens are?
32:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it was it was a joke. Yeah, but
32:26
Speaker 2: he but that's this is separate. This is him saying
32:28
Speaker 2: he believes that they're real. You reckon? Yeah, Okay, I
32:32
Speaker 2: mean I sort of think you'd be stupid not to
32:33
Speaker 2: think there's something out there.
32:35
Speaker 14: I've always been opened the idea if like one landed
32:37
Speaker 14: out there.
32:38
Speaker 2: Now, would you be surprised?
32:40
Speaker 14: No, well, I'd be surprised, obviously, but because parking's a
32:44
Speaker 14: nightmare down the street. But but I'd go, yeah, yeah,
32:47
Speaker 14: there's aliens. But if no one believed me, I'd go
32:50
Speaker 14: that's fine.
32:50
Speaker 2: No, Yeah, you wouldn't need to be a conspiracy banging
32:54
Speaker 2: on the radio. Precisely, Mike, And is aliens again?
32:57
Speaker 14: Have you ever been to a public meeting, by the way, Yeah,
33:00
Speaker 14: what'd you go?
33:01
Speaker 1: Well?
33:01
Speaker 2: When I was a teenager, I was part of the
33:04
Speaker 2: youth group you see here, I was on the youth council.
33:08
Speaker 2: In fact, were so I actually in carpety?
33:11
Speaker 14: Okay, so the Capital Youth Council.
33:16
Speaker 2: Tell us?
33:17
Speaker 1: More right?
33:18
Speaker 2: What have I done?
33:20
Speaker 10: So?
33:20
Speaker 2: I was on the I may have shared the odd meeting?
33:24
Speaker 14: You shared a public meeting?
33:26
Speaker 2: How excited? I'm about twelve people when you were thirteen?
33:29
Speaker 14: Were you given a gaffl for you present?
33:32
Speaker 2: When I was thirteen, I was a bit of a loser.
33:33
Speaker 2: It's fantastic.
33:35
Speaker 14: So okay, outside of you being a youth counselor have
33:39
Speaker 14: you have you ever been to a public meeting?
33:41
Speaker 17: No?
33:42
Speaker 2: Not as an adult?
33:42
Speaker 14: Does anything ever get done?
33:45
Speaker 2: I think I think boils get lanced?
33:48
Speaker 14: Do they? So a bit of frustration? Yeah, I see
33:51
Speaker 14: you and I don't like you, and you need to
33:53
Speaker 14: do better and stuff like that. Do people see you
33:55
Speaker 14: like that?
33:55
Speaker 2: And I hope not? We weren't doing anything significant or meaningful.
34:00
Speaker 14: Well, put an address up later for old photos of
34:02
Speaker 14: you on the council from years ago.
34:08
Speaker 2: Have a great show, Mike, have a great morning. Everyone.
34:10
Speaker 2: See you tomorrow.
34:13
Speaker 1: For more from early edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen live
34:16
Speaker 1: to news Talks at B from five am weekdays, or
34:19
Speaker 1: follow the podcast on iHeartRadio