Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Full Show Podcast: 30 October 2026

Transcript

Full Show Podcast: 30 October 2026 · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

0:00
Speaker 1: The issues, the interviews and the insight. Ryan Bridge on
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Speaker 1: Early Edition with Spark for Business. Technology that keeps business moving.
0:09
Speaker 1: Newstalk ZB.
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Speaker 2: Good morning. Six after five on your Friday. We'll wrap
0:13
Speaker 2: up the week in campaign and one week to go.
0:16
Speaker 2: That's coming before six o'clock this morning. That train crash
0:19
Speaker 2: in Spain. We've got leaked audio and Gavin Gray's in
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Speaker 2: the UK. NPC, Super Rugby, both safe. So where is
0:25
Speaker 2: NZR going to find the cash savings? And first homebuyer,
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Speaker 2: the boon continues. Numbers on that this morning too.
0:33
Speaker 1: The agenda.
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Speaker 2: Friday the 30th of October, families of victims still waiting
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Speaker 2: for answers after this awful crash in Spain.
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Speaker 3: I'm hopeful, hopeful of seeing my brother and giving him
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Speaker 3: a hug.
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Speaker 2: That's my hope, that he'll call me and tell me
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Speaker 2: where he is. Now, this leaked audio appears to show
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Speaker 2: that human error was to blame, with one train cleared
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Speaker 2: to move despite the other having stalled ahead of it.
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Speaker 4: The entire state, all the institutions that make up the state,
1:00
Speaker 4: from the smallest local council to the national government, are
1:04
Speaker 4: working day and night not only to provide support to
1:07
Speaker 4: the victims' families... but also, of course, to get to
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Speaker 4: the bottom of every last detail of this tragedy.
1:14
Speaker 2: Right, let's go to the UK. Andy Berman says he's
1:16
Speaker 2: working flat out, hardcore, to reduce welfare spending.
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Speaker 5: But we're doing it in a way that supports people
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Speaker 5: into work. If we just went and made crude cuts,
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Speaker 5: in the end, that leaves people in crisis and you
1:27
Speaker 5: spend more public money somewhere else. So it's about getting
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Speaker 5: people into sustainable employment.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, they are spending more money, more debt, taking on
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Speaker 2: more debt than what they thought they would be as
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Speaker 2: a result of that budget too. Finally, Obama has doubled
1:40
Speaker 2: down on his Cheesecake Factory comments about Trump.
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Speaker 6: I heard the president was not happy when I joked
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Speaker 6: over the weekend that he's got the White House looking
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Speaker 6: like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory. They did not
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Speaker 6: dispute what I said about them being directly responsible for
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Speaker 6: rising prices. They did not argue with that. The president
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Speaker 6: wasn't even mad about the Saddam Hussein comparison, but he
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Speaker 6: was very upset.
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Speaker 1: About the Cheesecake Factory.
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Speaker 2: Here's what Trump had to say.
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Speaker 7: He said, this isn't a Cheesecake Factory. Can you believe it?
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Speaker 7: Which is a very successful company. He doesn't like successful companies. But,
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Speaker 7: you know, he was very critical about me because I
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Speaker 7: spend time. And if you would have seen the White House,
2:27
Speaker 7: I took over the White House and it was in
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Speaker 7: horrible condition. I don't want to use a terrible word.
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Speaker 7: It was in horrible condition.
2:35
Speaker 2: Okay.
2:37
Speaker 1: The news you need this morning and the in-depth analysis.
2:41
Speaker 1: Early edition with Ryan Bridge and Spark for Business. Technology
2:45
Speaker 1: that keeps business moving. Newstalk ZB.
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Speaker 2: 9292 is the number to text. Always love to hear
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Speaker 2: from you. They're at that point of their campaign, probably
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Speaker 2: about the same point we're at with our campaign, which
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Speaker 2: is just things are getting a bit silly. You know,
2:59
Speaker 2: things start to come off. The cheese falls off the cracker,
3:02
Speaker 2: starts to slide off the cracker at this time of
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Speaker 2: the campaign. So that's what's happening over there and that's
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Speaker 2: what's happening over here too. There's just silly things happening. Plus,
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Speaker 2: have you made up your mind already?
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Speaker 8: 9292.
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Speaker 2: I've pretty much made up my mind about who I
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Speaker 2: think I'm going to vote for. Speaking to a woman
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Speaker 2: yesterday who said, because when people are doing, there was
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Speaker 2: a debate last night, I think, which apparently was a
3:24
Speaker 2: great one. But at this time, I think people have
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Speaker 2: mostly made up their minds. I was speaking to a
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Speaker 2: woman yesterday who said she's pretty sure she knows, you know,
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Speaker 2: she's within cooey of making a decision, and she pretty
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Speaker 2: much knows of the two parties who are quite similar,
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Speaker 2: which one they'll vote for, whether it was this particular case,
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Speaker 2: it was national or act. Do I give my party
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Speaker 2: vote to national or act? And pretty much this woman
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Speaker 2: has decided who, but Sort of wavering a little bit.
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Speaker 2: I mean, unless somebody really cocks it up in the
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Speaker 2: 11th hour, somebody has a real big boo-boo, then I
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Speaker 2: think most people are pretty certain which way they're.
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Speaker 8: Going to go.
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Speaker 2: Is that fair? Anyway. Hey, we spoke yesterday about Alaska.
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Speaker 2: And the last time Alaska was interesting was, let's face it,
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Speaker 2: Sarah Palin. Actually, I fished out this for you, this
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Speaker 2: little gem from Sarah Palin. You might remember her talking
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Speaker 2: about Russia when she was running. Have a listen.
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Speaker 3: There are next-door neighbors, and you can actually see Russia
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Speaker 3: from land here in Alaska.
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Speaker 2: The reason Alaska is interesting is because it's one of
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Speaker 2: the swing states. This is for the Senate race. So
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Speaker 2: they must get, this is the Democrats, a net gain
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Speaker 2: of four seats in the midterms in order to gain
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Speaker 2: control of the Senate. They've got a better chance of
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Speaker 2: doing the House, but the Senate up for grabs too.
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Speaker 2: So Texas, Maine, Michigan, Ohio, and Alaska are your potentials.
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Speaker 2: And Alaska, the race is very close. And I told
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Speaker 2: you yesterday about the Republican candidate. His name is Senator
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Speaker 2: Dan S. Sullivan. And so there is another Dan Sullivan
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Speaker 2: on the ballot. And he's been there for a while.
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Speaker 2: And the courts have said, that's OK. It's a little confusing,
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Speaker 2: but it's OK. Now, what's happened overnight is that the
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Speaker 2: New York Times has reported that the Democratic candidate, so
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Speaker 2: this guy's opponent, some of her staff, Apparently we're involved
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Speaker 2: in putting this guy on the ballot. There's a bit
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Speaker 2: of a conspiracy. So now there's an investigation being ordered
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Speaker 2: into how many names you can have the same name
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Speaker 2: on the same ballot. So we'll see where that gets to.
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Speaker 2: Very interesting stuff. 11 minutes after five. Next up, first
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Speaker 2: home buyers. The property market. It is good news. Newstalk ZB.
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Speaker 1: Ryan, this person says.
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Speaker 2: I'm voting for ACT. Every rural person that I know
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Speaker 2: of is voting the same, and then they will do
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Speaker 2: their electorate vote for National, which National won't like, but
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Speaker 2: ACT certainly will. 14 minutes after 5, Google... So the
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Speaker 2: parent company of Google is Alphabet. They've just had their
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Speaker 2: worst day ever on the stock market. Shares down 12%.
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Speaker 2: That's half a trillion dollars. I'm ordering stuff of market
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Speaker 2: value wiped off.
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Speaker 8: Why?
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Speaker 2: Their revenue's down. They've done a report, one of their
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Speaker 2: earnings reports, and it wasn't good news. And what's interesting
6:37
Speaker 2: here is which parts of their business are suffering. So
6:40
Speaker 2: because of the popularity of AI, and when people do
6:44
Speaker 2: an AI mode search, that is worth less revenue than
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Speaker 2: to Google than a traditional Google search, that means that
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Speaker 2: it's hitting their bottom line, hitting their profitability. So that
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Speaker 2: is the second biggest fall dollar-wise on the stock market
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Speaker 2: in the stock market's history, Wall Street history. Nvidia was
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Speaker 2: the biggest fall, but I mean, these are big boys.
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Speaker 2: The bigger they are, the harder they fall. Right, let's
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Speaker 2: go to New Zealand property. According to data out this
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Speaker 2: morning from Cotality and Westpac, first home buyers had a
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Speaker 2: record 29.5% share of property purchases. This is for Q3
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Speaker 2: this year. 76% of them, the vast majority, are buying
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Speaker 2: standalone houses. Kelvin Davidson, Cotelity New Zealand Chief Economist with
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Speaker 2: us this morning. Kelvin, good morning.
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Speaker 6: Good morning.
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Speaker 2: Now it's time to buy. This is a continuation of
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Speaker 2: a trend now, isn't it?
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Speaker 9: Oh, absolutely, yeah. We've seen this trend in place, if
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Speaker 9: you want to look really long-term, for about 10 years.
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Speaker 9: But the big step up has come in perhaps the
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Speaker 9: last two to three years. Obviously, with house prices lower,
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Speaker 9: that's really helped. Mortgage rates have snuck up a little
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Speaker 9: bit lately, but of course they're lower than they were
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Speaker 9: two or three years ago, as well as access to
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Speaker 9: KiwiSaver and also plenty of low deposit money available at
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Speaker 9: the bank. So it's clearly a good time to be
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Speaker 9: a first home buyer.
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Speaker 2: How much less am I paying if I'm a first
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Speaker 2: home buyer in terms of mortgage than during the peak?
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Speaker 9: Well, I mean, obviously it depends where you are in
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Speaker 9: the country and all sorts of different things, but you're
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Speaker 9: looking at hundreds of dollars. I mean, on average, it
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Speaker 9: could be sort of $ 400 or $ 500 a month less
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Speaker 9: than what people were paying back to us two or
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Speaker 9: three years ago. So huge savings, and that reflects, I mean,
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Speaker 9: obviously mortgage rates are down a bit, but the big
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Speaker 9: thing is really lower house prices. Our index is still
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Speaker 9: down 18% from the peak, so that's a big plus
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Speaker 9: for first-time buyers, of course.
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Speaker 2: What about the median price, $ 715, 000? That is actually up
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Speaker 2: on last year, isn't it?
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Speaker 9: Yeah, it is. Well, last year, first-time buyers paid a
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Speaker 9: median of about $ 700, 000. So far this year, they've paid $ 715, 000.
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Speaker 9: So not a huge increase, but it's significant for those people.
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Speaker 9: But I think the really big thing is that they're
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Speaker 9: getting a lot more house for their money, as you referenced.
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Speaker 9: Standalone homes are a big proportion of what first-time buyers
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Speaker 9: are getting. So I'd still call it bank of art,
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Speaker 9: deli for money, whatever sort of thing. A bit more money,
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Speaker 9: but a lot more house.
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Speaker 2: Does your location depend on whether you're buying standalone or
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Speaker 2: buying apartment?
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Speaker 6: Yeah, it does.
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Speaker 9: I mean, obviously the makeup of the housing stock will
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Speaker 9: determine that. If you see markets, like if you're buying
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Speaker 9: in central Auckland, well, hard to get a house because
9:19
Speaker 9: there's a lot of apartments. So, you know, it does
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Speaker 9: depend on the market you're in, but generally there's enough
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Speaker 9: houses going around for people, a lot of listings at
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Speaker 9: the moment, so... Whether you're keen to buy a townhouse,
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Speaker 9: whether you're keen to buy a house, there's plenty of
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Speaker 9: stock out there. So buying, I'm not saying buying is easy,
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Speaker 9: of course, it never is, but it's a lot easier
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Speaker 9: than it used to be. And we're seeing the figures
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Speaker 9: that people are being successful and it just reflects plenty
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Speaker 9: of choice.
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Speaker 2: Kelvin Davidson, Cotality New Zealand Chief Property Economist. Good to
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Speaker 2: have you on the show as always. 17 minutes after five.
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Speaker 1: Ryan Bridge.
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Speaker 2: Someone says, Mike says, Ryan, how many barrels are coming
9:54
Speaker 2: out of the straight today, mate? Straight of Hormuz, I'm
9:57
Speaker 2: assuming you're talking about. I can check for you. I
10:00
Speaker 2: didn't look this morning. But I can tell you that
10:03
Speaker 2: Brent Crude is down. It's well below or just below,
10:06
Speaker 2: I should say, $ 110 a barrel. And the reason for
10:10
Speaker 2: that is because J.D. Vance has written a wee letter
10:13
Speaker 2: to a hardliner in Iran saying, hey, can we restart
10:17
Speaker 2: the peace talks, please? So on the one hand, you've
10:19
Speaker 2: got Trump saying as soon as these midterms are over,
10:22
Speaker 2: which is next week, I think Kenzie and I were
10:24
Speaker 2: talking about this yesterday, we'll get the election is Wednesday,
10:28
Speaker 2: our time, and then we will have results Thursday morning,
10:31
Speaker 2: our time. So we'll be covering that here on the
10:34
Speaker 2: show next week. But after that, Trump says, we're going
10:37
Speaker 2: to restart the war with Iran. So what are they
10:40
Speaker 2: going to do?
10:41
Speaker 8: J.D.
10:42
Speaker 2: Talking with, you know, at one side of the mouth
10:45
Speaker 2: and Trump out the other, as is probably the M.O.
10:49
Speaker 2: for the White House. 18 after 5, Newstalk ZB. Next,
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Speaker 2: New Zealand Rugby Players Association. What do they make of
10:56
Speaker 2: NZR's call to keep both the NPC and Super Rugby,
11:00
Speaker 2: and where are they going to get the cash savings from?
11:03
Speaker 2: That's next, Newstalk ZB.
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Speaker 1: The early edition full show podcast on iHeartRadio, powered by
11:09
Speaker 1: Newstalk ZB. Before the news breaks, hear it first. Ryan
11:15
Speaker 1: Bridge on early edition with Spark for Business, technology that
11:18
Speaker 1: keeps business moving.
11:20
Speaker 2: Newstalk ZB. It is 21 after five, so NZR's made
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Speaker 2: the call on the future of the domestic competition. NPC
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Speaker 2: and Super Rugby Pacific are staying. Work underway behind the
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Speaker 2: scenes now to consolidate and keep a single vision for
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Speaker 2: the game. Rob Nicol, New Zealand Rugby Players Association CEO
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Speaker 2: with me this morning. Rob, good morning. Good morning, Ryan.
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Speaker 2: I know you're pleased with this, but what is that
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Speaker 2: behind-the-scenes consolidation that needs to happen? What exactly is going
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Speaker 2: to happen, do you reckon?
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Speaker 8: Yeah, look, we're sort of making progress. We did a
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Speaker 8: governance review a few years ago, and a new board
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Speaker 8: came in. The whole game united around one strategy, and
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Speaker 8: now we're getting to the pointy end of how we
12:01
Speaker 8: deliver on that strategy, and that's about community participation, that's
12:04
Speaker 8: about competitions and teams in black and being a successful business,
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Speaker 8: and To your question, New Zealand Rugby looked at this
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Speaker 8: and they're leading this process and they say, well, in
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Speaker 8: order to move forward and nail all three of those areas,
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Speaker 8: we need to lock and load what our men's, in
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Speaker 8: particular at this stage, domestic competitions look like because they're
12:24
Speaker 8: kind of at the heart of, I suppose, the commercial business,
12:28
Speaker 8: but also create the pathways from community through. And they've
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Speaker 8: locked and loaded Super Rugby and MPC, which is great.
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Speaker 8: I think everyone can see, you know, MPC's the jewel
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Speaker 8: in the crowd. It's the NBA of the world, really,
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Speaker 8: and it's stood us in great stead. Super rugby, exciting,
12:43
Speaker 8: cross the border, brings Australia the market in. But the
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Speaker 8: real art, now that we've locked and loaded those competitions,
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Speaker 8: and I'm sure the female game will follow pretty soon
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Speaker 8: as well, is how we now structure ourselves to be
12:57
Speaker 8: more efficient and effective in delivering those competitions and delivering
13:01
Speaker 8: the pathways that lead to them. How we get our
13:04
Speaker 8: Super Rugby clubs, the players, particularly the provincial unions within
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Speaker 8: the region, within the Super Club region, and New Zealand Rugby,
13:12
Speaker 8: high performance and commercial teams, all working together in a
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Speaker 8: more efficient and effective way. And that's the... that's really
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Speaker 8: the rubber hitting the road, mate. That's where it gets
13:21
Speaker 8: pretty scary.
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Speaker 2: Where is the duplication? Where is the money saving going
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Speaker 2: to come from?
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Speaker 8: Yeah, look, I think the first and foremost is about alignment,
13:30
Speaker 8: like right in the centre of the strategy when you've got,
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Speaker 8: it's getting everyone on the same page. And I was
13:36
Speaker 8: picking on this from a player's perspective at the moment.
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Speaker 8: If you're a player at school and you really have
13:41
Speaker 8: a passion to pursue the either as a male or
13:45
Speaker 8: a female, pursue rugby as a career, it's quite confusing
13:49
Speaker 8: when you step out of school into the pathway to
13:52
Speaker 8: the men's space in particular. You can kind of find
13:55
Speaker 8: yourself talking to Auckland, but not sure whether you're talking
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Speaker 8: to the Blues. You could talk to North Harbour and
14:01
Speaker 8: the Blues together, or you could talk to Hawke's Bay,
14:04
Speaker 8: but you're not sure whether you're on the Hurricanes path.
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Speaker 8: Whereas if kids are coming out of school, they really
14:09
Speaker 8: want to know, what am I committing to? And it's
14:13
Speaker 8: a competitive world out there in the sporting landscape, and
14:15
Speaker 8: they've got options nowadays. It's not like 15, 20 years
14:17
Speaker 8: ago where rugby was for us to default. So you've
14:20
Speaker 8: got to be able to have a really strong proposition
14:22
Speaker 8: for them. And our proposition is, listen, when you come
14:24
Speaker 8: out of school, you'll go into an absolute world-class rugby
14:27
Speaker 8: high-performance academy. And we need alignment between, for example, the
14:32
Speaker 8: Blues and their three provincial unions, particularly North Harbour, Northland
14:35
Speaker 8: and Auckland, to say they're united, they're together, they're putting
14:38
Speaker 8: that proposition to you. And crucially, Ryan, the pathway takes
14:42
Speaker 8: you to where the players want to go, which is...
14:45
Speaker 8: is super ugly to put themselves in potential for national commitment.
14:49
Speaker 8: But a core progression along that line is obviously the
14:51
Speaker 8: role MPC and the Provincial Union High Performance Academy plays.
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Speaker 8: So utopia from a player's perspective is that the Blues
14:59
Speaker 8: and North Harbour are sitting down with a player and
15:00
Speaker 8: their parent at the same time. They're saying, this is
15:04
Speaker 8: what it looks like for you. And then in addition
15:06
Speaker 8: to that, from a rugby perspective, we've had this, you know,
15:09
Speaker 8: the last 20 or 25 years of Of building, I
15:12
Speaker 8: suppose you could say, performance skills and practices, the habits
15:16
Speaker 8: and behaviours that lead to good performance, leadership, you know,
15:20
Speaker 8: the All Black era, the Gilbert Anota, all that sort
15:23
Speaker 8: of stuff. That's something that's there in great need for life.
15:25
Speaker 8: So if our programmes can offer that, in addition to
15:28
Speaker 8: the rugby, you're like... You go in there for two
15:31
Speaker 8: or three years, but it doesn't work out. You're going
15:33
Speaker 8: to come out with something incredibly valuable anyway. And on
15:35
Speaker 8: top of that, we do the personal development around career
15:37
Speaker 8: and education. So that's our pitch.
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Speaker 1: All right.
15:40
Speaker 2: Your pitch is interesting, Rob. I appreciate you being on
15:43
Speaker 2: the program this morning. New Zealand Rugby Players Association CEO
15:46
Speaker 2: Rob Nicol. 25 minutes after five. I do wonder where
15:50
Speaker 2: the savings will come from, though. You know, if you're
15:53
Speaker 2: looking at axing one competition or axing the other competition,
15:56
Speaker 2: you've got millions of dollars a year that you need
15:58
Speaker 2: to save and you're not axing either. Are they going
16:01
Speaker 2: to make the savings they need to save to actually
16:03
Speaker 2: keep the thing afloat? 9292, the number to text. We
16:06
Speaker 2: are back right after this. We've got GDP numbers out
16:09
Speaker 2: of the US, which, I mean, it's just a beast,
16:11
Speaker 2: that economy, and there's no slowing it down. Newstalk ZB.
16:14
Speaker 2: 528 Newstalk ZB. Halloween is the new fireworks for kids
16:19
Speaker 2: in New Zealand, and it's a hell of a lot
16:21
Speaker 2: less controversial, let's be honest. New Zealand First wants, of course,
16:24
Speaker 2: this election a ban on backyard fireworks. Winston loves his horses,
16:28
Speaker 2: and they get a bit spooked. The Greens want a
16:30
Speaker 2: ban as well. They love adopted greyhounds and cats. When
16:34
Speaker 2: I was young, this time of year was all about
16:36
Speaker 2: shooting each other with the Godzillas and trying to injure
16:39
Speaker 2: one another. It was the game we played. It was
16:42
Speaker 2: the fun. Smoke bombs. You put smoke bombs in the
16:45
Speaker 2: toilet or you put smoke bombs in your neighbour's letterbox.
16:48
Speaker 2: We used to scrape all the powder off 50 sparklers
16:51
Speaker 2: and make a sparkler bomb. That was the worst fun.
16:53
Speaker 2: These days, Halloween. That's where it is at. The old
16:58
Speaker 2: English tradition has been overtaken by its American competitor. Although
17:01
Speaker 2: it's not really American, but the Americans have certainly made
17:04
Speaker 2: it quite popular, haven't they? That means it is a
17:06
Speaker 2: growth industry. If you're going to get the Dracula teeth,
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Speaker 2: you might as well get the Dracula blood. If you're
17:12
Speaker 2: going to get the blood, why not get the whole costume? Australians,
17:16
Speaker 2: I read this stat yesterday, expected to spend half a
17:19
Speaker 2: billion dollars on Halloween this year. And that is up
17:22
Speaker 2: on last year. Everyone talks about the cost of living.
17:26
Speaker 2: But you can do this on the cheap. We used
17:27
Speaker 2: to cut holes in a white sheet and call it
17:29
Speaker 2: a day. If this trend continues, there'll probably be no
17:33
Speaker 2: point in banning fireworks. They'll just fizzle out on their own.
17:37
Speaker 2: And on the whole, that's probably not a bad thing.
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Speaker 8: Is it?
17:39
Speaker 2: Better for the kids to be scared witless than the
17:42
Speaker 2: horses and the dogs. Ryan Bridge, Newstalk ZB. Interesting text
17:47
Speaker 2: here on who this person is going to be voting for.
17:49
Speaker 2: I'll share it with you when we come back from news. Plus,
17:52
Speaker 2: we are live to the UK. Newstalk ZB.
17:57
Speaker 1: The Early Edition Pulled Show Podcast on iHeartRadio. Powered by
18:01
Speaker 1: Newstalk ZB. News and views you trust to start your day.
18:07
Speaker 1: It's Early Edition with Ryan Bridge and Spark for Business.
18:11
Speaker 1: Technology that keeps business moving.
18:14
Speaker 10: Newstalk ZB.
18:14
Speaker 2: 24 away from 6 here on Newstalk ZB. Coming up
18:21
Speaker 2: on your Friday before 6 this morning, we will look
18:23
Speaker 2: at the campaign, the week that has been and the
18:25
Speaker 2: one that is ahead. We will also hear that leaked audio.
18:29
Speaker 2: This is Gavin Gray, our UK Europe correspondent. Leaked audio
18:32
Speaker 2: of the train comms before the big crash in Spain. Ryan,
18:37
Speaker 2: this texter says, I'm pretty sure I know now who
18:40
Speaker 2: I will vote for. However, some politician could say something
18:45
Speaker 2: stupid in the next week, which could make me rethink
18:47
Speaker 2: what I am doing. Maybe politicians should be told to
18:50
Speaker 2: shut up in the week leading up to voting. That
18:53
Speaker 2: would be bliss. It's an interesting point because half now,
18:56
Speaker 2: I think the numbers to Wednesday with 300,000 people have
18:59
Speaker 2: already voted. I think most people by now have made
19:03
Speaker 2: up their minds. And half the population, this is on
19:06
Speaker 2: recent elections, half the population tends to vote early. And
19:10
Speaker 2: on election day, we have a blackout where a campaigner
19:15
Speaker 2: can't so much as put a sign up. They have
19:17
Speaker 2: to take all of their hoardings down, all the billboards down,
19:20
Speaker 2: and turn their social medias basically to silent before midnight
19:24
Speaker 2: the day before. So why is it if it's good
19:29
Speaker 2: enough for election day to have a blackout, why not
19:31
Speaker 2: every election day, which is pretty much two-week period now,
19:35
Speaker 2: isn't it? Either The rule on election day is outdated,
19:40
Speaker 2: and they should be able to campaign on election day
19:43
Speaker 2: or change the rules so that they can shut them
19:48
Speaker 2: up for two weeks prior to election day. 6. Let's
19:52
Speaker 2: go to Dunedin. Lachlan Rennie has the details. Lachlan, good morning.
19:56
Speaker 11: Good morning.
19:57
Speaker 2: So tell us about this crazy councillor strikes again.
20:00
Speaker 12: Yuckish.
20:01
Speaker 11: More and more drama from Benedict Ong, the Dunedin councillor.
20:04
Speaker 11: He's been suspended from all council committees for nine months.
20:08
Speaker 11: found guilty of a third breach of the council code
20:11
Speaker 11: of conduct this year. The council has accepted an independent
20:14
Speaker 11: finding the controversial councillor deliberately and materially breached the code
20:19
Speaker 11: in a public manner. The ODT reports the latest complaint
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Speaker 11: relates to a May Facebook post in which Ong allegedly
20:26
Speaker 11: disclosed confidential discussions and criticised then-Chief Executive Sandy Graham. Two
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Speaker 11: other complaints against Ong were also upheld this year. Councillor
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Speaker 11: Andrew Simms says ong can still attend at the full
20:38
Speaker 11: council meetings.
20:39
Speaker 2: Goodness me. How's the Dunedin weather?
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Speaker 11: Yeah, it's a cold one today with showers, possibly heavy
20:44
Speaker 11: this morning and afternoon. South-west cities gale in exposed places
20:48
Speaker 11: from late morning. It's currently 8 degrees with a high
20:51
Speaker 11: of 10 today.
20:51
Speaker 2: Good stuff, Lachlan. Thank you very much. Let's go to
20:53
Speaker 2: Claire in Christchurch. Good morning, Claire.
20:55
Speaker 13: Good morning.
20:56
Speaker 2: They've got a rooftop garden coming.
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Speaker 13: Yeah, this is to help struggling youth in Christchurch. It's
21:01
Speaker 13: the brainchild of the Youth Hub. They're developing this rooftop
21:05
Speaker 13: urban farm in order to help young people who may
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Speaker 13: have experienced trauma to heal and reconnect with their community.
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Speaker 13: The Hub is New Zealand's first ever purpose-built facility. It
21:15
Speaker 13: combines transitional housing with some support services for people aged
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Speaker 13: 10 to 25. Cultivate Christchurch, which use hands-on horticultural programs
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Speaker 13: to support youth who are not already engaged in education
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Speaker 13: or have a job, is who's been chosen to manage
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Speaker 13: this rooftop farm. Youth Hub Chair Dame Sue Magshores says
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Speaker 13: not only can gardening be very healing, but of course
21:36
Speaker 13: eating vegetables is very good for.
21:38
Speaker 2: You as well.
21:38
Speaker 13: She says she hopes this farm will help support young
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Speaker 13: people's mental and physical well-being while giving them a chance
21:44
Speaker 13: to feel like they're contributing to the community.
21:46
Speaker 2: Very good. How's your weather?
21:48
Speaker 13: They're coming cloudy this morning. There is a chance of showers.
21:51
Speaker 13: Could be a storm later as well, a high of 17.
21:53
Speaker 2: Oh, look out. Big tornado yesterday. Did you see that, Claire?
21:57
Speaker 13: Yeah, a bit exciting, wasn't it?
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Speaker 2: Very exciting. Hopefully everyone was all right. No sheds blown over.
22:02
Speaker 2: Thank you for that, Claire. And Max is in Wellington.
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Speaker 2: Good morning, Max.
22:05
Speaker 8: Good morning.
22:06
Speaker 2: Wellington's not an exciting place to be because your population's
22:08
Speaker 2: actually falling. People are leaving. Clearly, yeah.
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Speaker 14: The capital's population has decreased more than any other region
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Speaker 14: in the country by 0.6% annually. Stats NZ data shows
22:19
Speaker 14: 1,300 people also left the capital to head overseas in
22:22
Speaker 14: the year to June. We're one of only four cities
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Speaker 14: in the country to see a net migration loss. More
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Speaker 14: people are moving outside of the CBD to the likes
22:30
Speaker 14: of Lower Hutt, Wairarapa. Just for context, Auckland is the
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Speaker 14: fastest-growing city, up 1.2%, followed by Christchurch and Hamilton. Some
22:39
Speaker 14: other interesting stats, if you fancy, about Wellington. 66% New
22:41
Speaker 14: Zealand European, 95% speak English, 8% LGBT +. Just some
22:48
Speaker 14: interesting stats. Do with that what you will.
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Speaker 12: Very good.
22:52
Speaker 2: Had to beef up the script somehow. On the plus side,
22:56
Speaker 2: you know how you could have beefed it up with
22:58
Speaker 2: more relevant and new information?
22:59
Speaker 6: Go ahead.
23:00
Speaker 2: It's that Cotality Property Report out this morning. So, you know,
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Speaker 2: people are leaving, but your first home buyer rate is 38%
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Speaker 2: compared to the national average, which is 29%. So, you know,
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Speaker 2: there are benefits to having fewer people going after the homes,
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Speaker 2: I suppose. That's right. Very good. How's your weather? Not
23:18
Speaker 2: too good. Periods of rain and clouds, 17. Nice one.
23:21
Speaker 12: Thanks, Max.
23:22
Speaker 2: Neva, good morning.
23:23
Speaker 8: Good morning.
23:23
Speaker 2: This entire board of an Auckland primary school just ups
23:27
Speaker 2: and quits.
23:27
Speaker 1: Yes, that's right.
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Speaker 15: McLean's Primary School. This is in Bucklands Beach. Now, they've
23:33
Speaker 15: been working with the Ministry of Education since May. Now,
23:36
Speaker 15: Commissioner Bruce Aydin. He was appointed as the school's limited
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Speaker 15: statutory manager just last month, but now he's taken over
23:43
Speaker 15: the board's full powers and responsibilities. Now, the board did
23:46
Speaker 15: not give a reason for its departure, but says, look,
23:49
Speaker 15: its decision followed careful consideration. So Aidan will remain in charge.
23:55
Speaker 15: This will be until the new board obviously is appointed
23:57
Speaker 15: or elected. But he's also assuring that it won't directly
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Speaker 15: affect students or their education.
24:02
Speaker 9: All right.
24:03
Speaker 2: How's our weather?
24:04
Speaker 15: Partly cloudy. We've got isolated showers this morning, again this evening.
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Speaker 15: 19 the high here in Auckland.
24:09
Speaker 2: Have a lovely day, Neva. It is 18 minutes away
24:12
Speaker 2: from six. I told you about the beast that keeps
24:16
Speaker 2: on beasting. That's the American economy. Consumer spending held up.
24:19
Speaker 2: This is their data for Q3, the annual rate. So
24:22
Speaker 2: their GDP is 3.4% for the year. to the third quarter.
24:29
Speaker 2: Consumer spending held up. Investment from AI build out. That's
24:33
Speaker 2: helping them. This is the fastest pace they have grown
24:36
Speaker 2: in a year. And it's all basically good news. Don't
24:39
Speaker 2: worry about the tariffs. Don't worry about the immigration crackdown.
24:42
Speaker 2: Don't worry about the high energy prices. The US economy
24:45
Speaker 2: is doing very well. Thank you very much. And of course, yesterday,
24:49
Speaker 2: the Fed held rates the growth is strong, the inflation
24:53
Speaker 2: is out of band, so it doesn't mean that they're
24:54
Speaker 2: going to increase rates at the next meeting. Well, Walsh,
24:57
Speaker 2: if you listen to what he said yesterday, he's basically saying, well,
24:59
Speaker 2: we can, yes, the economy is running hot and inflation
25:04
Speaker 2: is running hot, but because productivity is increasing in the
25:08
Speaker 2: American economy, something that hasn't happened here in a very
25:10
Speaker 2: long time, you can basically grow faster without causing runaway
25:15
Speaker 2: price growth. So they're not even hawkish when it comes
25:18
Speaker 2: to interest rates. 17% away from 6%, We're in the
25:21
Speaker 2: UK next.
25:23
Speaker 1: International Correspondence with NZI Insurance. Peace of mind for New
25:27
Speaker 1: Zealand business.
25:28
Speaker 2: 14 minutes away from six, this terrible train crash over
25:31
Speaker 2: in Spain. There have been recordings now released, the recordings
25:34
Speaker 2: between the conversation between the train drivers and the railway
25:38
Speaker 2: control centre. Gavin Gray, our UK Europe correspondent. Gavin, good morning.
25:42
Speaker 2: What do we know about this?
25:44
Speaker 10: Hi there, Ryan. Yes, the first of three days of
25:46
Speaker 10: national mourning in Spain, at least 69 dead. And the
25:50
Speaker 10: reason that it's being a bit vague is quite simply
25:53
Speaker 10: they haven't been able to cut into some of the
25:55
Speaker 10: smashed up carriages yet to be able to identify everyone.
25:59
Speaker 10: And the Spanish media really showing some of the recordings that.
26:04
Speaker 10: took part of conversations between the control center in Madrid
26:08
Speaker 10: and the two train drivers. One of the trains was stationary.
26:11
Speaker 10: The other was a high-speed train that appears to have
26:13
Speaker 10: been given clearance to move, even though the trains ahead
26:17
Speaker 10: of it had stalled and were stopped. So that's the
26:20
Speaker 10: big question. Why was that allowed? And the conversation on
26:23
Speaker 10: one of these things that's being reported is, that they
26:26
Speaker 10: were told that they could be given a go at
26:28
Speaker 10: normal speed in operations and that the driver replies, what,
26:33
Speaker 10: I can go ahead at normal speed? And he said, yes,
26:36
Speaker 10: the controller says you can. And a short time later,
26:38
Speaker 10: he hits the back of a stationary car.
26:41
Speaker 2: Goodness me. Now, within 24 hours of this budget that
26:44
Speaker 2: Healy announced yesterday in the UK, you've got think tanks
26:47
Speaker 2: coming out saying this is going to be our worst
26:49
Speaker 2: decade for the British economy in terms of household income
26:53
Speaker 2: and growth in a very long time.
26:56
Speaker 5: Indeed.
26:57
Speaker 10: So at that time, the budget that came out, there
27:01
Speaker 10: was a drip, drip, drip, small bits of information here,
27:03
Speaker 10: all to try and help the cost of living crisis. Now,
27:06
Speaker 10: a big think tank, well-respected here, the Institute for Fiscal Studies, says, actually,
27:10
Speaker 10: this is going to be the worst ever decade for
27:12
Speaker 10: household income growth. And that is partly because of the
27:15
Speaker 10: tax take, but it's also because of the amount of
27:18
Speaker 10: money that this government is simply going to have to spend.
27:21
Speaker 10: The think tank, the IFS, says that there's going to
27:24
Speaker 10: be rising inflation, The government has inherited plans to slow
27:28
Speaker 10: spending growth, and that means there will be a substantial
27:31
Speaker 10: gap to fill within the next four to five years.
27:34
Speaker 10: And that, of course, means they're going to have to
27:36
Speaker 10: get the money coming in, going up, and reducing the
27:40
Speaker 10: amount of spending. That tax take is going to be very,
27:43
Speaker 10: very difficult for any of these governments to sort out. Indeed,
27:47
Speaker 10: the IFS described the situation for household income as depressing.
27:52
Speaker 10: saying this decade looks set to be the worst decade
27:54
Speaker 10: for growth in household incomes on record. That means although
27:58
Speaker 10: households might get more money in and might be able
28:01
Speaker 10: to keep more of their money in some instances because
28:04
Speaker 10: of inflation, it's going to mean they feel a lot
28:06
Speaker 10: worse off. So some pretty poor reading for the government
28:09
Speaker 10: as they sit back and take stock of how that budget,
28:11
Speaker 10: the first for our new prime minister, Andy Burnham, how
28:14
Speaker 10: that first budget went down.
28:16
Speaker 2: Gavin Gray, our UK-Europe correspondent in London this morning, 11
28:19
Speaker 2: minutes away from six.
28:20
Speaker 1: Don't worry, only a.
28:22
Speaker 2: Week of campaigning to go.
28:24
Speaker 11: No new taxes.
28:26
Speaker 2: Better starts now. Polls are all over the place. Phil Goff,
28:29
Speaker 2: former Labour leader with us this morning to wrap the week. Phil,
28:32
Speaker 2: good morning.
28:33
Speaker 12: Yeah, good morning, Ryan.
28:34
Speaker 2: Do you have a final prediction? Are you game enough
28:38
Speaker 2: to make one at this point?
28:41
Speaker 12: My prediction is it's too close to call, and my
28:43
Speaker 12: prediction is that... Come election night, by midnight, we may
28:48
Speaker 12: well not know who is going to govern New Zealand.
28:51
Speaker 12: And that may take a couple of weeks after that,
28:54
Speaker 12: probably up to the edge of Christmas. But look, you know,
28:57
Speaker 12: there are elections that you and I can both remember, 2023, 2020,
29:00
Speaker 12: the last two elections, where you could say with absolute
29:04
Speaker 12: confidence before the election, this is going to be the
29:08
Speaker 12: result and this is going to be the government result.
29:10
Speaker 12: You can't do that on this occasion. And there's, I think,
29:15
Speaker 12: four reasons for that. One is the question of overhang.
29:17
Speaker 12: And I see in the Herald poll of polls saying
29:21
Speaker 12: that National may well get seven seats because they're winning
29:24
Speaker 12: electorate seats beyond their proportion of the vote. So a
29:28
Speaker 12: huge overhang that would obviously give some advantage to the
29:31
Speaker 12: coalition if that were to happen. But we don't know
29:34
Speaker 12: whether that's going to happen, whether the campaign to you know,
29:37
Speaker 12: cast your candidate vote for national and your party vote
29:40
Speaker 12: for somebody else is actually working, or whether it may
29:44
Speaker 12: happen even without an orchestrated effort. The second thing is turnout.
29:49
Speaker 12: I think we're going to get a better turnout this time.
29:51
Speaker 12: The early voting certainly shows that. And there are a
29:54
Speaker 12: lot of people, last time, when Labour loses, it loses
29:57
Speaker 12: because people, you know, generally change their votes, but they
30:00
Speaker 12: just don't bother turning out to vote. I think the
30:02
Speaker 12: turnout will be up this time, but of course the
30:05
Speaker 12: enrolment is down, and there may be 100,000 people that
30:08
Speaker 12: have been disenfranchised by the Government's Act to stop enrolment
30:12
Speaker 12: up to Election Day.
30:13
Speaker 2: You sound like Trump.
30:15
Speaker 12: Yeah, third thing is, it's a very Trumpist move, unfortunately.
30:19
Speaker 12: The third thing is what Opportunity Party does.
30:22
Speaker 2: Pre-empting a loss by complaining about electoral fraud is very Trumpian,
30:26
Speaker 2: isn't it?
30:27
Speaker 8: No, no, no.
30:27
Speaker 12: The Trumpian thing is what Trump does, which is to
30:30
Speaker 12: try to do everything he can to put obstacles in
30:33
Speaker 12: the way of people voting that won't vote for him.
30:35
Speaker 12: You know, in a democracy, regardless of how people vote,
30:38
Speaker 12: that's up to them.
30:39
Speaker 2: I agree with you.
30:40
Speaker 12: But we should be encouraging them, not discouraging them.
30:42
Speaker 2: I agree with you on that point. Hey, so I
30:45
Speaker 2: think you're right. It's very too close to call. But
30:48
Speaker 2: what are your political– what are your waters telling you?
30:51
Speaker 2: What does your gut tell you?
30:52
Speaker 13: Yeah.
30:54
Speaker 12: If the Opportunity Party, on average, will get in, on
30:59
Speaker 12: the average of the polls, and Kuele Wong has started
31:04
Speaker 12: to say in recent days that she'd find it very
31:06
Speaker 12: difficult to work with New Zealand First. They are polar opposites.
31:11
Speaker 12: If Opportunity Party gets in, then there is, I think,
31:17
Speaker 12: a chance that there'll be a change of government. If
31:19
Speaker 12: they don't get in, that makes it much harder for
31:22
Speaker 12: the left of centre coalition.
31:23
Speaker 2: I completely agree with you. Phil Goff, former Labour leader
31:26
Speaker 2: with us live this morning. It is eight minutes away
31:28
Speaker 2: from six. I still don't think, and again, as I
31:31
Speaker 2: said to you last week, I don't think opportunity is
31:34
Speaker 2: going to get past 5%, but that is nothing more
31:36
Speaker 2: than a feeling. Newstalk ZB.
31:40
Speaker 1: Ryan Bridge on Early Edition with Spark for Business. Technology
31:44
Speaker 1: that keeps business moving. Newstalk ZB.
31:47
Speaker 2: Six away from six, Newstalk ZB. Good morning, Mike. Joy
31:50
Speaker 2: to see you, Ryan. Did you see Mahesh, you know,
31:52
Speaker 2: the national candidate who keeps saying weird stuff? He's like
31:56
Speaker 2: the Willie Jackson of national.
31:57
Speaker 3: He's an interesting guy. Seymour, who was on the program yesterday,
32:01
Speaker 3: sort of laid into him in a major way because
32:04
Speaker 3: he's odd. And if you remember the guy, Simon O'Connor,
32:08
Speaker 3: who was the candidate.
32:09
Speaker 2: He was even odder. He was odd.
32:10
Speaker 3: Well, Seymour was making the case yesterday that this guy
32:13
Speaker 3: might be as odd. And the National might have selected
32:16
Speaker 3: a couple of odd balls for Tamaki.
32:18
Speaker 2: The bar is quite high.
32:19
Speaker 3: It seems so. So he was backing his mate for
32:22
Speaker 3: Christmas for Tamaki.
32:23
Speaker 2: I think he'll come through.
32:24
Speaker 3: Which will be an interesting race. I mean, that's a
32:26
Speaker 3: race to watch in Epsom. Oh, not Epsom. Hutt South
32:29
Speaker 3: and the Roskill thing.
32:31
Speaker 2: Yeah.
32:31
Speaker 3: As far as those sort of things.
32:32
Speaker 2: White it up is interesting, too, because I think Kieran
32:35
Speaker 2: McAnulty will come through the middle.
32:37
Speaker 3: Yeah, it could be. I mean, but it doesn't make
32:39
Speaker 3: any difference at the end of the day, does it?
32:40
Speaker 3: I mean, I wish it did.
32:42
Speaker 2: Well, unless you're talking about the overhang situation, which I
32:44
Speaker 2: know you love talking about.
32:45
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, the overhang's real. I refuse to believe
32:48
Speaker 3: that the Maori Party aren't going to have it. The
32:50
Speaker 3: Maori Party, I mean, are good for at least two,
32:52
Speaker 3: if not three or four, right?
32:53
Speaker 6: Absolutely.
32:54
Speaker 3: So that's an overhang, because their party vote's going.
32:55
Speaker 2: To be next to nothing. But what about on the right?
32:58
Speaker 3: Yeah, but it's predicated on the idea that National are
33:02
Speaker 3: on 28, which may or may not be true. If
33:04
Speaker 3: they're not, the whole thing changes, and dramatically. So if
33:07
Speaker 3: they get a low number, so yeah, they could do
33:10
Speaker 3: really sort of oddly well, electorally speaking. And I was
33:14
Speaker 3: looking at some numbers the other day. They could have
33:15
Speaker 3: an overhang of like 8, 9, 10 seats. I mean,
33:18
Speaker 3: that's absurd.
33:20
Speaker 2: It is absurd.
33:20
Speaker 3: Apart from anything else.
33:21
Speaker 2: Do you think Opportunity's going to get over that?
33:23
Speaker 3: No, I've said that all along. I've been consistent on that.
33:26
Speaker 2: Could be wrong.
33:27
Speaker 3: But I've been consistent.
33:28
Speaker 2: Based on what? Because I've said that, but based purely
33:31
Speaker 2: on my waters.
33:33
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, based on the idea that they, to put
33:36
Speaker 3: it bluntly, shot their load early. And once they came
33:39
Speaker 3: out with that weird stuff, that got them the attention.
33:42
Speaker 3: Probably a smart play.
33:43
Speaker 8: Yeah.
33:44
Speaker 3: But then when they did the bottom lines and it
33:46
Speaker 3: came to nothing. You go, well, what's this about?
33:49
Speaker 2: And then also their whole mantra through the campaign was,
33:52
Speaker 2: we will work with anyone. And then at the last minute,
33:54
Speaker 2: they say, maybe not New Zealand First.
33:56
Speaker 3: Audrey Young, I thought, put it very well. That's their
33:58
Speaker 3: entire message when they said that.
34:00
Speaker 2: Very weird.
34:00
Speaker 8: Blew up.
34:01
Speaker 3: It's like they don't know what they're about. And so
34:04
Speaker 3: you will... As a potential voter, you go, will I,
34:06
Speaker 3: won't I, will I, won't I? Then you look at
34:07
Speaker 3: a poll at five, there'll be a couple of polls
34:09
Speaker 3: next week at five, and you go, I don't.
34:11
Speaker 2: Want to waste it. And also, you get in there,
34:13
Speaker 2: once you're in that booth, and it's you and the
34:15
Speaker 2: pen and the paper. It's the real deal.
34:17
Speaker 3: People, it's like you and I talking bollocks, you know?
34:21
Speaker 3: When it comes down to it and it counts, it's
34:23
Speaker 3: not always the same thing, isn't it?
34:25
Speaker 2: Anyway, the rugby.
34:25
Speaker 3: We're going to talk about this morning, big decisions from
34:28
Speaker 3: the rugby team.
34:29
Speaker 8: Mike, next.
34:29
Speaker 2: Newstalk ZB.
34:33
Speaker 1: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live
34:36
Speaker 1: to News Talk ZB from 5 a.m. weekdays or follow
34:39
Speaker 1: the podcast on iHeartRadio.