Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Full Show Podcast: 27 August 2026

Transcript

Full Show Podcast: 27 August 2026 · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: The issues, the interviews, and the insight. Ryan Bridge on
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Early Edition with Spark for Business, technology that keeps business moving. Newstalks.b.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: Good morning, great to have your company. This Thursday just
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: gone six after five.
• 0:14
  Speaker 3: Coming up this morning, Meta, they're going to put time
• 0:16
  Speaker 3: limits for teenagers over in the US because of this case.
• 0:19
  Speaker 3: We'll look and talk to Mitch McCann, our US correspondent
• 0:22
  Speaker 3: about that one. Economy, we are shaking it off in
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: New Zealand, according to Westpac. We'll talk about that just
• 0:27
  Speaker 3: before six this morning. The Climate Change Commission, $ 100 million
• 0:30
  Speaker 3: a year. Are we getting value for money out of it,
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: do you reckon?
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: Or should we ditch it? Seven after five. The agenda.
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: Thursday the 27th of August, massive mudslide and flash flood
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: on the border between Nepal and Tibet overnight.
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: Really, the images are quite shocking.
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: Really fast, muddy water basically collecting entire apartment buildings, knocking
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: them down like twigs.
• 0:54
  Speaker 4: Basically what we're seeing is people running for their lives.
• 0:58
  Speaker 4: And then this massive mudslide then just wipes out everything
• 1:02
  Speaker 4: and then everyone on the screen.
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: 100 people have been confirmed dead at least and hundreds
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: more are missing.
• 1:10
  Speaker 5: Pictures of homes being swept away. A number of villages
• 1:14
  Speaker 5: have been affected. So far, the military has said they've
• 1:16
  Speaker 5: rescued close to 100 people. They've been taken to various hospitals.
• 1:21
  Speaker 5: Fifteen military choppers have been put into use.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: There's also, they've.
• 1:25
  Speaker 5: Called for also private helicopters because those are the main
• 1:29
  Speaker 5: means of transport and rescue operations to come and help.
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: Right, let's go to the US. You know, we've been
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: following this Meta case.
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: This is about the platforms harming children, harming teenagers, harming
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: young people.
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: Well, they have settled.
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: 30 billion New Zealand dollars is how much they've agreed
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: to pay. And they'll put daily limits, two hours, I
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: think it was, and nighttime blocks for teenagers across the US.
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: Here's reaction from Kelly.
• 1:54
  Speaker 6: Our children and teens will be safer on Instagram and
• 1:57
  Speaker 6: on Facebook. As big as Meta is, it doesn't stand alone.
• 2:02
  Speaker 6: We're continuing our fight across social media, including our litigation
• 2:07
  Speaker 6: against TikTok.
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: Landmarks across the US, from Nashville to New York, have
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: been glowing pink in honour of Dolly Parton, who died yesterday,
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: and there have been also tributes at Buckingham Palace.
• 2:18
  Speaker 7: MUSIC PLAYS.
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: Finally this morning some more sad news from hollywood british
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: actor tim curry has died he was also 80 you
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: will know him as frankenfurter in the rocky horror picture
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: show why.
• 2:44
  Speaker 8: Don't you stay for the night or maybe a bite
• 2:49
  Speaker 8: i could show you my favorite obsession.
• 2:53
  Speaker 9: And how are we this morning fine is my transportation
• 2:57
  Speaker 9: here out in front sir a limousine and a pizza
• 3:01
  Speaker 9: Compliments of the Plaza Hotel.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: I do hope your father understands that last night I
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: was simply checking the room to make sure everything was
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: in order.
• 3:11
  Speaker 9: He said he didn't come all the way to New
• 3:12
  Speaker 9: York to get his naked rear end spied on.
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: You might remember those lines. That's from Home Alone 2.
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: He played the butler alongside Macaulay Culkin.
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: Get ahead of the headlines on Early Edition with Ryan
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: Bridge and Spark for Business, technology that keeps business moving.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: News Talk ZB.
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: Ten after five.
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: Also this morning, we're going to look at where the
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: house prices have gone low, as low as they should go.
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: That's coming up in about 20 minutes' time.
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: First, public service, Brian Roach has come out. You probably
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: know about this story. This is the MB immigration IT project,
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: big waste of money, $ 40 million down the drain. Like,
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: what were we thinking? Well, turns out ministers didn't know
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: what was going on. And the reason they didn't know
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: what was going on and the reason the politicians in
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: Wellington didn't know what was going on is because they
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: were deliberately misled. Now, I don't know what else you
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: call that but lying. They went into a select committee
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: and they lied. They tried to hide their little mistakes.
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: And so the guy that's in charge of MB, the
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: MB boss, Nick Blakely's his name, he offered to resign.
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: And Brian Roach says, no, no, don't resign. You don't
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: have to. Apparently, he's offered to resign twice. Now, what
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: do you mean.
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: Offer to resign? Just resign.
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: If you really meant it and you really wanted to,
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: then you'd just resign, wouldn't you?
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: I would have thought.
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: Anyway, offered to resign, not happening. They say he was
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: only in the job for six weeks, so he'll get better.
• 4:43
  Speaker 10: I mean, really?
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: And they pay, by the way, more than $ 600, 000.
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: So again, like the guy, Tauranga City Council, who did the,
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: there's reports on the landslide, but let's not, you know,
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: I don't know about them. This guy, even worse probably,
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: because it's deliberately misled people, The politicians, which is deliberately
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: misleading us. The other guy was on 600 plus K.
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: This guy's on 600 plus K. They're both in more
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: than the prime minister. 11 after five. And imagine if
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: he lied to us, what everybody would be calling for
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: his head, wouldn't they? So there you go. 9292 is
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: the number to text. By the way, you know the
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: fuel excise decision? The government's been talking about this for
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: a while now, and at one point they seemed like
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: they were going to delay the fuel increase, the excise
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: increase next year. Well, they're making a call about that
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: on Monday, 12 after 5, during X.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: Ryan Bridge on Early Edition with Spark for Business. Technology
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: that keeps business moving. Newstalk ZB.
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: Quarter past five, so Westpac has their report out this morning.
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: This is their monthly look ahead and we'll look backwards
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: and look ahead and they are saying basically we're shaking
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: off the war. We're shaking off like we did with
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: the tariffs last year and things are going to return
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: to normal. They're picking now growth, doubling their growth forecast
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: actually for Q3 to 0.8% and saying that we will
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: hit 3% next year. There are risks, of course, one
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: of them being the election. We'll talk about that in
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: about half an hour's time. Another new report shows dairy
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: still very much key to our economy. Dairy exports reached
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: $ 28 billion in the year to December. That's our biggest
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: export earner by far. 51,000 jobs across the country, thanks
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: to our farmers. And on the West Coast, 12% of
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: the entire GDP is milk. Kimberly Cruther is Dairy Companies
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: Association of New Zealand Executive Director with.
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: Us this morning. Kimberly, good morning.
• 6:45
  Speaker 11: Good morning.
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: So, what stood out to you about these updated numbers?
• 6:51
  Speaker 11: I think the overall message of the report is that
• 6:55
  Speaker 11: in the last five years, farmers have produced more milk
• 6:58
  Speaker 11: solids from fewer cows. Processes have added more value to
• 7:03
  Speaker 11: those milk solids. We've grown exports, export value, by $ 8 billion,
• 7:10
  Speaker 11: and that's translated through to to supporting economic activity across
• 7:15
  Speaker 11: the country. So it's an all-round positive story for us.
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: What will help with... Because a lot of people have.
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: Well, some people have issues with dairy, right, and environmental issues.
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: What can government do to make... Because what you're saying
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: is that you're doing more with less. So how do
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: we make sure that farmers are able to keep doing that?
• 7:39
  Speaker 12: Well.
• 7:40
  Speaker 11: Certainly that additional amount that we are earning. supports farmers
• 7:47
  Speaker 11: to be able to continue investing in those sustainability journeys
• 7:51
  Speaker 11: on their farm and it helps processors to continue investing
• 7:55
  Speaker 11: in that for our sites. The things that really support
• 7:59
  Speaker 11: export growth for us as a sector, we need reliable
• 8:04
  Speaker 11: infrastructure domestically, we need affordable, abundant and affordable energy to
• 8:10
  Speaker 11: be able to continue adding value to those milk solids,
• 8:14
  Speaker 11: and we grow value where we can bring down trade barriers.
• 8:18
  Speaker 11: So three areas that the government can support us in,
• 8:23
  Speaker 11: whilst also providing a policy environment that supports innovation, including
• 8:31
  Speaker 11: the innovation for environmental improvement.
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: Kimberly, there's been a massive mood shift in New Zealand.
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: Compared to, say, three or four years ago, to do
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: with farming, to do with dairy in particular, I think.
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: We all know where our bread's butted now.
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: Don't we?
• 8:48
  Speaker 11: I think that, and in the surveys that the industry's done,
• 8:52
  Speaker 11: there has always been a strong foundational understanding of the
• 8:58
  Speaker 11: benefits of dairy. That can shift on the margins over time,
• 9:03
  Speaker 11: but I think fundamentally it's remained there in people's understandings.
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: Good to have you on the show, Kimberley. Thanks for
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: your time.
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: Kimberley Cruth, the Dairy Companies Association of New Zealand and
• 9:14
  Speaker 3: Executive Director. Time is 17 minutes after five on Newstalk ZB.
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: There was also a couple of other numbers I'll give
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: you on, this is from the Westpac report, monthly report,
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: and it's about debt and it's about what could happen
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: if there is a change of government.
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: 17 after five.
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: The early edition full show podcast on iHeartRadio, powered by
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: Newstalk ZB. The news you need this morning and the
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: in-depth analysis. Early edition with Ryan Bridge and Spark for Business.
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: Technology that keeps business moving.
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: Newstalk ZB.
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: This Meta deal is the one that's just been settled
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: over in the US about young people and social media
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: and how bad it is for them.
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: It's a little disingenuous because.
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: it says we will do a time limit of two
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: hours for young people. You won't be able to scroll
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: for more than two hours if you're a teenager, but
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: we will only implement that if our competitors like TikTok
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: do a one-hour scrolling limit. Does that mean you really
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: care about what you're talking about?
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: No, it doesn't.
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: It just means that you're playing games and trying to
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: make money, which is what they should be doing, I suppose.
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: They've got shareholders, 20 after 5. Right, we're going to.
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: Talk climate change now. Bear with me.
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: ACT has brought back its old policy. It wants to
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: get rid of the Climate Change Commission, that old thing.
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: Paul Henry says their commission's recommendations are loony and unhelpful.
• 10:39
  Speaker 13: It continues to cost $ 14 to $ 15 million a year
• 10:43
  Speaker 13: to run.
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: To do what?
• 10:44
  Speaker 13: To produce reports that shouldn't be written or read. Reports
• 10:49
  Speaker 13: that are counterproductive to New Zealand's future, to our economy,
• 10:53
  Speaker 13: and ironically, many of them counterproductive to the environment.
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: Adrian Macy, Adjunct Professor at the New Zealand Climate Change
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: Research Institute, joins us. So it's $ 100 million over seven years.
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: Good morning, Adrian.
• 11:05
  Speaker 14: Good morning, Ryan.
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: Now, they kind of make a good point, don't they?
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: The Commission has come up with recommendations that both Labour
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: and National have ignored or rejected outright.
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: So what's the bloody point in $ 100 million?
• 11:20
  Speaker 14: Well, the Commission has actually got a fairly fundamental role,
• 11:22
  Speaker 14: which is not only recommending targets, which is what the
• 11:27
  Speaker 14: complaint has been about. If you look at the other
• 11:29
  Speaker 14: half of their work, which I would argue is even
• 11:31
  Speaker 14: more important, it's how we prepare ourselves for the impacts
• 11:35
  Speaker 14: of climate change. They're doing a lot of research on that,
• 11:38
  Speaker 14: and look at all the damage that's occurred in the
• 11:40
  Speaker 14: North Island especially. So how New Zealand adapts to climate change,
• 11:44
  Speaker 14: and that's absolutely fundamental.
• 11:45
  Speaker 10: So having.
• 11:46
  Speaker 14: Having an independent voice on that, I think, is important,
• 11:49
  Speaker 14: especially if we want to get back to any bipartisanship
• 11:52
  Speaker 14: on climate change. That remains important. That being said... There
• 11:58
  Speaker 14: have been some issues, I think, with the Commission's recommendations
• 12:01
  Speaker 14: on targets, but they can be fixed. The government doesn't
• 12:06
  Speaker 14: have to agree with them. They can change the parameters
• 12:10
  Speaker 14: of the Commission, and they have done that on one
• 12:13
  Speaker 14: issue which is pretty fundamental to New Zealand, which is methane.
• 12:17
  Speaker 14: There have been some adjustments made to the Zero Carbon Act,
• 12:21
  Speaker 14: and they look to me, you know, they're reasonably sensible.
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, I think it's... Adrian, you talk about adaptation.
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: I think it's a fair point. We all know we
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: need to do more of it, right? But you're from
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: the New Zealand Climate Change Research Institute. We've got umpteen
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: different climate change researchers at universities in New Zealand.
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: Why do we need another research group?
• 12:46
  Speaker 14: Well, the The point of having a parliament, just like
• 12:49
  Speaker 14: the Parliamentary Commission for the Environment, the point of having
• 12:52
  Speaker 14: the parliamentary body is its independence and its status. I
• 12:57
  Speaker 14: think there have been some issues with it.
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: But you're independent, aren't you?
• 13:04
  Speaker 14: Well, I don't have the authority of parliament behind me.
• 13:07
  Speaker 14: You're looking at trying to get bipartisanship.
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: What about the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment?
• 13:14
  Speaker 14: Yes, well, his role is not specific to climate change,
• 13:17
  Speaker 14: but that has been a very effective body. It's much bigger,
• 13:21
  Speaker 14: I think, than it does deserve its own body. That's
• 13:26
  Speaker 14: not to say that it's necessarily working as well as
• 13:30
  Speaker 14: it should. And I think there has been a bit
• 13:32
  Speaker 14: of a problem within the commission of a degree of
• 13:35
  Speaker 14: groupthink around the targets, and they haven't done a good
• 13:38
  Speaker 14: job on that. They've taken a very entrenched position on methane.
• 13:43
  Speaker 14: I think that's with more diversity in the commissions, thinking
• 13:47
  Speaker 14: would be helpful. But that's all fixed. And I think
• 13:50
  Speaker 14: also another aspect of it. So the signal that will give,
• 13:54
  Speaker 14: if you abandon your one big independent body, it's not
• 13:58
  Speaker 14: a very good signal to the rest of the world.
• 14:00
  Speaker 14: So my view would be it's an important role. Where
• 14:04
  Speaker 14: there are shortcomings, it can be fixed.
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: Fix it, don't break it. Dr.
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: Adrian Macy, good to have you on the program this morning.
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: As always, adjunct professor at the New Zealand Climate Change
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: Research Institute. Time is 24 minutes after five. By the way,
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: I mentioned the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, that's Simon Upton,
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: and he put out a thing yesterday about the ETS.
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: They're basically saying the ETS is a bit cooked, which
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: everyone's known for a while if you look at the
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: price of what's been happening with the auctions. But anyway,
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: he says, uh-oh, we have massively incentivised the planting of
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: forests to offset carbon over the years at the expense
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: of real reductions in emissions. I mean, anyone with a
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: farm right now is going, yeah, like we've been telling you,
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: The former architects of the scheme, including himself, quote, didn't
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: think hard enough about the long-term dangers of encouraging new
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: plantations of highly flammable, storm-prone pine.
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: 25 after 5, Newstalk ZB. Newstalk ZB, 27 minutes after 5.
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: How much do you really want the value of your
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: property to fall? And I mean really, because plenty of
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: us say, yeah, we want cheaper house prices, but do
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: we really mean it? Once you own a house, you
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: usually have a mortgage on it, The less your house
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: is worth, the less equity you have.
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: Your net worth goes backwards.
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: In New Zealand, half of the average household's wealth is
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: land and property. So half of what we're worth is
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: our land and our property. That is now 1.9% less
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: today than it was a year ago.
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: Backwards.
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: Overall, household wealth in this country has basically been flat
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: for four years. That means we're not getting richer and
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: we're not feeling richer. And it's because house prices have
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: been soft. Is that what you want more of? This election,
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: there are parties planning to tax those assets from capital
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: gains to land taxes. That is likely to mean even
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: lower prices. When this happens, we all get a bit
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: worried about our situation in life. We get a bit
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: gun-shy with the debit card. We stop buying stuff. We're
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: less confident. The economy slows down as a result. Again,
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: is this what we really want? Now, I know what
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: you're thinking. That's all fine, unless you're trying to buy
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: a house.
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: Don't be rude.
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: Which is fair, except that house prices are now the
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: cheapest they have been in a decade. Cotality says the
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: national house value has dropped to 6.7 times income. In 2021,
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: it was nearly 10 times your income. In Auckland, you
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: basically can't sell an apartment or a townhouse for love
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: nor money, and the question now is how low is
• 16:34
  Speaker 3: too low for you? 28 minutes after five. We will
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: talk to Mitch McCann out of the US on Meta
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: and Meta and their TikTok clause and the settlement that
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: they've done with the states over there. But very quickly,
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: Trump is pausing processing of immigration visas. So anyone who
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: is applying to be an immigrant of the United States,
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: permanent immigrant to the United States, your application is now
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: on hold. And interviews that you might have had to
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: go to an embassy or go to a consulate and
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: sort out your stuff, Apparently, you're getting emails today to
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: say it's been postponed. Don't bother coming in. We'll let
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: you know when it works out. He says that he
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: wants to make sure that people aren't coming with no
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: money and then ripping off the taxpayer and the social
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: security system.
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: So there you go.
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: Newstalk ZB, 29 minutes after five. Mitch McCann in the
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: US next.
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: Hear it first. Ryan Bridge on early edition with Spark
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: for Business, technology that keeps business moving.
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: News Talk ZB.
• 17:48
  Speaker 9: I loved you, came.
• 17:49
  Speaker 15: Back when it mattered, I saw you.
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: 24 away from 6, this is Newstalk ZB. New Zealand
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: is shaking off the war. We are shaking it off
• 17:57
  Speaker 3: with our economic recovery. That's according to Westpac's latest report.
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: We'll talk about that in about 15 minutes' time. We'll
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: also head to the US. Mitch McCann's live with us.
• 18:05
  Speaker 3: Meta has settled that federal case that they've been battling.
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: They've settled $ 30 billion New Zealand dollars, plus they'll put
• 18:11
  Speaker 3: a limit on scrolling for kids.
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: We'll give you the details in a second.
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: Also today happening is the result for NVIDIA, world's largest
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: company by market cap.
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: Five trillion bucks is what it's worth. And it'll be interesting.
• 18:25
  Speaker 3: This is their quarter two results. How much are they selling?
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: What is the outlook? And also the deals that they've
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: been doing. So that 500, I think it was $ 500 billion.
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: I mean, how much money is that really? I have
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: no idea. But it's a lot of money. Sounds like
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: a lot of money. They did this deal to basically...
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: build and develop AI centers, data centers, infrastructure using their chips,
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: of course. They also did a massive deal to backstop
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: funding for a Ohio data center, which is apparently like
• 18:55
  Speaker 3: the size of a, basically is Ohio. So people will
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: be wondering, investors are a bit worried about that.
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: Are you overstretching yourself?
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: We will get answers to that question later this morning
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: to our time.
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: It's 23 to six. Our reporters, Hannah Fecht, Dunedin. Good morning, Hannah.
• 19:13
  Speaker 9: Good morning.
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: That fire in Wanaka over the weekend they reckon might
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: be suspicious.
• 19:17
  Speaker 16: Yeah, that huge blaze that forced 22 homes to evacuate
• 19:20
  Speaker 16: in Albert Town just outside Wanaka is being treated as suspicious.
• 19:24
  Speaker 16: The fire broke out in a reserve at about 7.30pm
• 19:27
  Speaker 16: on Saturday night before quickly spreading through that belt of trees.
• 19:31
  Speaker 16: Foreign Emergency's Otago Community Risk Manager James Knapp says investigators
• 19:35
  Speaker 16: want to hear from anyone who was in the area
• 19:37
  Speaker 16: before the fire, particularly with photos and videos south from
• 19:40
  Speaker 16: Lagoon Avenue.
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: How's your weather?
• 19:43
  Speaker 16: Mostly cloudy. A few spots of rain this morning. High
• 19:46
  Speaker 16: of 11.
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: Nice one, Hannah. Thank you very much. Claire's in Christchurch. Morning, Claire.
• 19:49
  Speaker 8: Good morning.
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: Had a bit of a blitz on alcohol retailers in Christchurch.
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: What have they found? Everyone playing by the rules?
• 19:56
  Speaker 13: Well, no, it seems not.
• 19:57
  Speaker 7: We had police and council officers visiting 15 licensed premises
• 20:01
  Speaker 7: on Saturday with some teenagers along with them. This included
• 20:05
  Speaker 7: a few bars, restaurants and also bottle stores checking for compliance.
• 20:09
  Speaker 7: A third of the 15 were caught out serving alcohol
• 20:12
  Speaker 7: to these teenagers. Council's chief licensing operator, Gary Hayes, says
• 20:17
  Speaker 7: the 16 and 17-year-old went undercover with their normal IDs,
• 20:21
  Speaker 7: dressed as usual like teenagers and simply asked to buy
• 20:24
  Speaker 7: a drink. He says these failings are a reminder for
• 20:27
  Speaker 7: businesses to properly train staff because the penalties can really hurt.
• 20:31
  Speaker 7: In a usual operation, they might see one or two failures,
• 20:33
  Speaker 7: so to see five was very unexpectedly high and came
• 20:37
  Speaker 7: as a surprise to both council and police.
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: How's your weather?
• 20:40
  Speaker 7: We've got rain here, snow above 600 metres, should clear
• 20:43
  Speaker 7: this afternoon but remain cloudy. North Easterly's very strong, the
• 20:46
  Speaker 7: high only 12.
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: All right, Max in Wellington. Hey, Max. Good morning.
• 20:51
  Speaker 3: Chimps do fight one another, but there's been quite a
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: sad outcome at the zoo.
• 20:55
  Speaker 8: Yeah, Wellington Zoo is not the biggest zoo in the world,
• 20:58
  Speaker 8: but it is quite popular and has some rather beloved
• 21:01
  Speaker 8: creatures in its habitats. I've been there a couple of times.
• 21:03
  Speaker 8: The chimpanzees are definitely some of them. But you're right,
• 21:07
  Speaker 8: one of their number has had to be put down
• 21:09
  Speaker 8: after a vicious fight in the enclosure with other chimps.
• 21:13
  Speaker 8: This is 11-year-old Kitwe, who was in fact named by
• 21:16
  Speaker 8: the late conservationist and chimp expert Dr. Jane Goodall. Fights,
• 21:21
  Speaker 8: displays of aggression are common behaviors in chimpanzee troops. Chimps
• 21:26
  Speaker 8: usually live to about 35, 40, by the way. And
• 21:29
  Speaker 8: so the rest of the chimps remaining will have to
• 21:31
  Speaker 8: have a closer eye kept on them by staff for
• 21:34
  Speaker 8: a while to hope that there are no more fights.
• 21:38
  Speaker 8: In 2019, the zoo had to put down its entire
• 21:40
  Speaker 8: troop of baboons after a breakdown in their social structure
• 21:44
  Speaker 8: and also because they can't be rehomed at a certain point.
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: Gosh, this is particularly sad because it sounds like he
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: was a good-natured wee chap, quite sweet and played with
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: the younger chimp in the troop.
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: Exactly, that's right.
• 21:58
  Speaker 8: But survival of the fittest, unfortunately.
• 22:00
  Speaker 3: That's right. It's a brutal world out there. Hey, how's
• 22:02
  Speaker 3: your weather?
• 22:04
  Speaker 8: Mostly cloudy, occasional rain, southerlies this morning, 14.
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: Nice one. Thanks, Max. Neva, good morning to you.
• 22:09
  Speaker 8: Good morning.
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: So emergency service is going to do a bit of
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: a drill today at the CRL.
• 22:13
  Speaker 15: That's right.
• 22:13
  Speaker 7: We're nearly there, nearly there.
• 22:15
  Speaker 15: So the emergency services, their last exercise today before the
• 22:20
  Speaker 15: big opening next month, we've got fire and emergency, police,
• 22:23
  Speaker 15: St John. Now, they are going to work alongside train
• 22:27
  Speaker 15: and station staff to simulate a fire on a train. Now,
• 22:30
  Speaker 15: this is near the Te Waihorotio station, the one by
• 22:34
  Speaker 15: Victoria and Wellesley streets. So, you know, if you hear
• 22:38
  Speaker 15: and see things, don't worry, Aucklanders. Don't panic about that.
• 22:41
  Speaker 15: It's just the exercise, the final one. You know, this
• 22:44
  Speaker 15: follows all the other exercises on the network. It's involved
• 22:47
  Speaker 15: more than 1,400 volunteer passengers. So, yeah, pretty good. Get
• 22:51
  Speaker 15: all the final checks and balances in.
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: I wonder where they got 1,400 volunteer passengers from. I
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: don't know. They'll probably ring their mates and.
• 22:58
  Speaker 15: Their family members in the emergency.
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: And everyone's got time off on Thursday morning.
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: Anyway, good luck to them because if there's a fire
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: on a train, you'll be hoping they did practice. How's
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: our weather?
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: Good.
• 23:09
  Speaker 15: Cloudy, chance of a shower, another warm day for us.
• 23:12
  Speaker 15: 18 is the high.
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: Fantastic, Neba.
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: Thank you very much. Time is 19 away from 6.
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: Newstalk ZB, we're in the States next. Look at that
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: meta case. Very quickly, KiwiSaver, if you're looking at your balance,
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: I mean, don't look at your balance too often.
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: They always say that, don't they?
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: But the total value of collectively, this is what we're
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: all saving in our KiwiSaver, across all plans, we're now
• 23:33
  Speaker 3: pushed up over $ 150 billion in June for the first
• 23:36
  Speaker 3: time ever. up 18% on June a year ago. And
• 23:42
  Speaker 3: where are we investing? Well, less than 40% are in
• 23:46
  Speaker 3: New Zealand. Offshore allocation is now 96.1 billion. That's up 20%
• 23:50
  Speaker 3: from a year ago too.
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: It is 18 to 6. Newstalk ZB.
• 23:56
  Speaker 3: Sixteen away from six, Newstalk ZB. We'll get to Mitch
• 23:59
  Speaker 3: McCann in the US in just a few seconds.
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: Ryan, fire drill. This is from Mike. Fire drill today
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: on the CRL. Don't make me laugh.
• 24:05
  Speaker 3: Yesterday afternoon, international arrivals. I'm assuming Auckland Airport. 3pm, fire
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: alarm goes for 15 minutes. Totally ignored by everyone there.
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: Even the customs man I spoke to laughed about it.
• 24:18
  Speaker 3: That's not inspiring, is it?
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: Quarter to two.
• 24:21
  Speaker 9: Right, that big case, Meta, teenage users, harm being done
• 24:32
  Speaker 9: in the US.
• 24:33
  Speaker 3: There has been a settlement. Mitch McCann is our US correspondent.
• 24:36
  Speaker 3: Hey Mitch, what have they settled?
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, good morning, Ryan.
• 24:40
  Speaker 12: Look, this is rather extraordinary because this trial was already
• 24:43
  Speaker 12: underway in Oakland, California. It involved Meta, of course, which
• 24:46
  Speaker 12: is the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, and attorneys
• 24:49
  Speaker 12: general from about 29 states across the U.S.
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: That had sued Meta.
• 24:53
  Speaker 12: They claimed the business model was to hook users, keep
• 24:57
  Speaker 12: them engaged as long as possible, harvest their data, and
• 25:00
  Speaker 12: then hide the truth from the public when making public statements.
• 25:03
  Speaker 12: This was the most high-profile social media addiction trial targeting Meta.
• 25:09
  Speaker 12: And partway through this trial, they've decided to come to
• 25:11
  Speaker 12: a settlement. So Meta has agreed to pay up to
• 25:14
  Speaker 12: $ 16. 68 billion, and it will also make significant changes to
• 25:19
  Speaker 12: its apps. Now, it's going to strengthen age assurance systems.
• 25:22
  Speaker 12: It's going to make it harder for children to access
• 25:24
  Speaker 12: inappropriate content. And it's introducing daily usage limits and nighttime
• 25:28
  Speaker 12: blocks for teenagers. It's unclear if this is going to
• 25:32
  Speaker 12: be rolled out internationally and whether or not it would
• 25:34
  Speaker 12: affect New Zealand teenagers, for example. But interestingly, as part
• 25:38
  Speaker 12: of the settlement, Ryan, there is no admission of any
• 25:40
  Speaker 12: wrongdoing by Meta, but it is going to cost them
• 25:43
  Speaker 12: a whole lot of money.
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 25:44
  Speaker 3: The other thing I noticed here, Mitch, is that they
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: will only pay 70% of that settlement unless their competitors, i.e.
• 25:52
  Speaker 3: TikTok and YouTube, also agree to set daily limits for kids.
• 25:57
  Speaker 12: Yeah, this is quite incredible. I'm just looking at that now.
• 25:59
  Speaker 12: So that 30% that they would still have to pay
• 26:02
  Speaker 12: is $ 5. 3 billion. They say they're only going to do
• 26:05
  Speaker 12: it if YouTube and TikTok implement a one-hour daily limit,
• 26:08
  Speaker 12: night mode, and age assurance measures. It's unclear if YouTube
• 26:12
  Speaker 12: and TikTok knew about this before this was decided, but
• 26:15
  Speaker 12: they're wanting an industry-wide adoption, they're calling it.
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: Basically hustling.
• 26:19
  Speaker 3: Also, their limit is two hours, and they want TikToks
• 26:22
  Speaker 3: and YouTubes to be one hour.
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: I mean, they're almost muscling in.
• 26:26
  Speaker 3: Hey, some pretty impressive tributes, as you would imagine, for
• 26:31
  Speaker 3: Dolly Parton over in the US.
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, of course.
• 26:34
  Speaker 12: I mean, overnight, the Empire State Building here in New
• 26:36
  Speaker 12: York was lit up pink in tribute of Dolly Parton.
• 26:38
  Speaker 12: But we've also seen a number of people from all
• 26:41
  Speaker 12: corners of American life pay tribute. Donald Trump has had
• 26:44
  Speaker 12: a lot to say, actually, about Dolly Parton. He's ordered
• 26:46
  Speaker 12: American flags be lowered. And he said in an interview
• 26:49
  Speaker 12: this morning that And to lose her, it's like you
• 26:52
  Speaker 12: lose a member of the family. Taylor Swift, who some
• 26:55
  Speaker 12: would say that her path to success was paved in
• 26:58
  Speaker 12: some way by Dolly Parton being a country music star.
• 27:01
  Speaker 12: She said, our world without Dolly doesn't feel possible, real
• 27:04
  Speaker 12: or right. And we have more details this morning, Ryan,
• 27:07
  Speaker 12: on Dolly Parton's funeral plans. It's reported there's going to
• 27:10
  Speaker 12: be a small private service for immediate family in Nashville
• 27:13
  Speaker 12: in the coming days. And she would like an old
• 27:15
  Speaker 12: country gospel song sung at the funeral. It's called If
• 27:18
  Speaker 12: We Never Meet Again. So some details coming out about
• 27:21
  Speaker 12: the funeral arrangements.
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: Mitch McCann, good to see you. Good to hear you.
• 27:25
  Speaker 3: It is coming up to 12 minutes away from six.
• 27:27
  Speaker 3: This text just says, Ron, I actually think it shouldn't
• 27:29
  Speaker 3: just be for the teenagers. It should be for everyone.
• 27:31
  Speaker 3: Social media is terrible for, as terrible for adults as
• 27:35
  Speaker 3: it is for kids. Yeah, but we should be able
• 27:37
  Speaker 3: to stop ourselves in theory, shouldn't we?
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: 12 to 6.
• 27:40
  Speaker 3: Some more good economic news for you. Not that we're
• 27:44
  Speaker 3: feeling it yet, but don't worry, it's coming. Westpac have
• 27:46
  Speaker 3: upgraded their GDP forecast. In fact, they've doubled it for Q3, 2.8%.
• 27:50
  Speaker 3: They're picking 3% growth for 2027. Cameron Bagri, independent economist
• 27:55
  Speaker 3: with us this morning.
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: Cameron, good morning.
• 27:57
  Speaker 10: Good morning.
• 27:58
  Speaker 3: So just, we didn't, it's not as bad as we
• 28:01
  Speaker 3: thought it might have been because in the last forecast
• 28:04
  Speaker 3: because of the war?
• 28:04
  Speaker 10: Oh, I think it's That's a big chunk of it,
• 28:08
  Speaker 10: but also think, if you strip things back, that the
• 28:11
  Speaker 10: underlying economy has been holding together an awful lot better.
• 28:14
  Speaker 10: You have a look at the export and the import numbers.
• 28:16
  Speaker 10: The stuff that's been coming in and out of the
• 28:18
  Speaker 10: ports over the month of June and July have been
• 28:21
  Speaker 10: pretty phenomenal, and obviously most of that is coming from
• 28:24
  Speaker 10: regional growth. We're not seeing it yet in Auckland and Wellington,
• 28:28
  Speaker 10: but we are getting slowly back on track.
• 28:30
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we used to talk about rural versus urban, but
• 28:33
  Speaker 3: now it's basically everywhere but Wellington and Auckland.
• 28:38
  Speaker 10: Yeah, pretty well. You get a completely different vibe if
• 28:41
  Speaker 10: you're down in Otago, Southland, Canterbury, because this is an
• 28:45
  Speaker 10: export-led recovery. Obviously, down south, you've got tourism on top,
• 28:49
  Speaker 10: but Christchurch's economic model has been moving places. You have
• 28:53
  Speaker 10: a look at the growth in the student numbers coming
• 28:55
  Speaker 10: through the University of Canterbury. Conversely, if you look at
• 29:00
  Speaker 10: the property market, the property market traditionally being a pretty
• 29:02
  Speaker 10: big driver of growth, particularly in the upper north, Auckland.
• 29:06
  Speaker 10: and the property market will expand in a best.
• 29:09
  Speaker 3: What does that mean for us going forward? If we're
• 29:11
  Speaker 3: able to have a recovery that is not based on
• 29:14
  Speaker 3: house prices going north or going through the roof, does
• 29:18
  Speaker 3: that mean that we are on a more sustainable growth
• 29:20
  Speaker 3: path or a better growth path?
• 29:23
  Speaker 10: Well, what we're going through at the moment is that
• 29:25
  Speaker 10: the economy is literally being rewired, re-plumbed, re-electrified. We have
• 29:31
  Speaker 10: this old model of selling more expensive houses to each other,
• 29:34
  Speaker 10: relying on migration. et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. That
• 29:38
  Speaker 10: model was never politically or economically sustainable because you take
• 29:42
  Speaker 10: house prices up at 6% and income growth is going
• 29:45
  Speaker 10: at 4%, well, you're going to have an affordability problem,
• 29:48
  Speaker 10: which we had an affordability problem. Of course, you get
• 29:50
  Speaker 10: blowback towards migration as well. We're getting back to a
• 29:53
  Speaker 10: little bit of what's common sense, the basics, productivity growth,
• 29:56
  Speaker 10: business investment, using natural resources, resources. And what we also
• 30:00
  Speaker 10: need on top is better economic policy.
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: Great, great, great.
• 30:04
  Speaker 3: Cameron Bagri, independent economist. Good to have you on the
• 30:06
  Speaker 3: show as always, Cameron. It is nine minutes away from six.
• 30:09
  Speaker 3: Does this sound like sensible economic policy to you? A
• 30:11
  Speaker 3: top tax rate of 48%. Did you see that yesterday
• 30:15
  Speaker 3: from the Maori Party? I mean, I was actually at
• 30:17
  Speaker 3: the dairy yesterday talking to a guy and he said,
• 30:20
  Speaker 3: who do you think is going to win the election?
• 30:22
  Speaker 3: You know, people always ask. And I said, who do
• 30:24
  Speaker 3: you think is going to win the election? And he goes, oh,
• 30:26
  Speaker 3: he said, I think probably, Luxon's not that popular, but
• 30:30
  Speaker 3: he said if you look at the left, you've got
• 30:33
  Speaker 3: to get four parties, and then you look at the right,
• 30:35
  Speaker 3: that's three parties, so which one of those is more stable?
• 30:39
  Speaker 3: And if there's a recovery underway, which most people probably
• 30:42
  Speaker 3: think there is, then do you want to throw a
• 30:45
  Speaker 3: four-party left-wing government at the problem? 8 to 6, Newstalk ZB.
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: The first word on the news of the day. Early
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: Edition with Ryan Bridge and Spark for Business. Technology that
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: keeps business moving. News Talk ZB.
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: Six to six.
• 31:02
  Speaker 3: Shane Reti, Dr Shane as Judith Collins used to call him,
• 31:06
  Speaker 3: he had his valedictory in Parliament last night and I
• 31:08
  Speaker 3: had a listen into it and he talked about fizzy
• 31:11
  Speaker 3: drinks and the fizzy drink industry. He said, you know,
• 31:13
  Speaker 3: I was coming for you. So it sounds like he
• 31:15
  Speaker 3: was planning some sort of cap on the amount of
• 31:17
  Speaker 3: sugar that you can put in a fizzy drink. But
• 31:19
  Speaker 3: here's the interesting thing, which I didn't realize. He said
• 31:22
  Speaker 3: that in New Zealand, they add more sugar to their
• 31:27
  Speaker 3: fizzy drinks than they do in Australia. So he reckons
• 31:31
  Speaker 3: about 40 to 50% less sugar in a can of
• 31:34
  Speaker 3: Coke in Australia than there is.
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: In New Zealand.
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: Ryan Bridge.
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: Morning, Mike.
• 31:41
  Speaker 3: I've tried fizzy drinks on both sides of the Tasman,
• 31:44
  Speaker 3: and I couldn't tell you whether one was sweeter than
• 31:46
  Speaker 3: the other.
• 31:46
  Speaker 17: Came out of Britain, who threatened a tax, sugar tax,
• 31:51
  Speaker 17: and as a result of that, they cut a deal
• 31:53
  Speaker 17: whereby they changed the recipe. So that's how that works.
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: In Australia? No, in Britain. Originally, Britain was.
• 31:59
  Speaker 3: And then Australia might have followed suit. But, you know,
• 32:02
  Speaker 3: it's interesting, because you think, oh, well, people should be
• 32:05
  Speaker 3: able to do whatever they want on their drinks, and
• 32:06
  Speaker 3: you can decide.
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: But I just... I've had a fizzy drink on both
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: sides of the Tasman, and I couldn't tell you that
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: there was any difference in taste. That's what makes you
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: so interesting.
• 32:14
  Speaker 17: I've had a fizzy drink on both sides of the Tasman.
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: What did you buy at the dairy? Why don't you
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: tell us about how much wine you're expending on? What
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: did you have at the dairy? What did you get
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: at the dairy? I get a fizzy water, actually. You
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: get a fizzy water at the dairy? Yeah, an almighty.
• 32:28
  Speaker 13: An almighty.
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, do you not know about almighty? I know the
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: name I had.
• 32:31
  Speaker 17: They do the little lemon drinks, the little lemon fizzy drinks.
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: There's lemon, there's orange, blood orange. So what are you
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: paying for that, the blood orange? A couple of bucks.
• 32:39
  Speaker 17: It's not a couple of bucks, right?
• 32:41
  Speaker 3: It's a couple of bucks.
• 32:41
  Speaker 17: It is not a couple of bucks. Firstly, you're at
• 32:44
  Speaker 17: the dairy. So there's no cost of living in your place.
• 32:46
  Speaker 17: Do you know what I'm doing?
• 32:47
  Speaker 12: No.
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: Do you know what I'm doing? I'm swiping and not
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: looking at the number. You tap and going. Tap and go.
• 32:50
  Speaker 3: Is that what you're going to do?
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
• 32:52
  Speaker 17: My wife forbade me, not yesterday, the day before, forbade
• 32:57
  Speaker 17: me Because, of course, I don't go out.
• 33:00
  Speaker 14: No, no.
• 33:00
  Speaker 17: So I was going out two days ago, and I
• 33:02
  Speaker 17: was going out to pick up our daughter's mini, which
• 33:05
  Speaker 17: was being serviced.
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: Tap and go. Don't look at the price.
• 33:08
  Speaker 17: I tap and go on everything. Of course you do.
• 33:11
  Speaker 17: So she goes, and you will not tap and go.
• 33:13
  Speaker 17: And so I said, well, what am I going to do?
• 33:15
  Speaker 9: Why not?
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: Because of the fees.
• 33:17
  Speaker 15: Oh.
• 33:18
  Speaker 12: No.
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: You say that. I scoff at the fees.
• 33:21
  Speaker 17: I scoff at the fees, but you're not married to
• 33:23
  Speaker 17: my wife. So anyway, she said, because this is a
• 33:26
  Speaker 17: $ 5, 000 bill to service the mini, right? Oh, right.
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: Okay, well, then you have fees. So you work out 2%
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: of $ 5, 000. Yeah, no, that's fair enough.
• 33:32
  Speaker 17: So suddenly I thought, how do I do this?
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: Well, how do you do it? You see, you don't
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: know either. No, you put the pin. I went to
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: the dentist on Wednesday. You put the pin in.
• 33:42
  Speaker 17: You've got to put your thing in or swipe. So
• 33:45
  Speaker 17: I had to get my EFTPOS card out. And do
• 33:46
  Speaker 17: you know how many times I've used my EFTPOS card?
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: Never.
• 33:49
  Speaker 3: Never.
• 33:49
  Speaker 13: Literally never.
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: Did you know the number, the PIN number?
• 33:51
  Speaker 17: Well, I assumed it was the same as the tap
• 33:54
  Speaker 17: and go number. I, at the dentist the other day,
• 33:56
  Speaker 17: had to call the husband to figure out the number.
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: It was quite embarrassing.
• 33:59
  Speaker 13: How useless are we?
• 34:01
  Speaker 17: How out of touch are we?
• 34:02
  Speaker 2: Luddites. How embarrassing. Anyway, we'll talk about the economy shortly.
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: Newstalk ZB, Mike Next.
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: to News Talk ZB from 5 a.m. weekdays or follow
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: the podcast on iHeartRadio.