Larry Williams Drive

Just 13 businesses have been kitted out with anti-ram-raid equipment by the Government. The figure comes from a written Parliamentary question to the National Party, which shows just 5 new installations in shops in the past 6 weeks. The Government's Retail Crime Prevention programme offers vulnerable businesses help, including fog cannons and bollards. National's police spokesperson, Mark Mitchell, says it's a failed policy to the tune of $6 million dollars. "There's more shopkeepers and shops out there that I've visited in the last 3 weeks that have gone ahead and put their own bollards up or their own security measures and their own cages. And fundamentally, the reason for it is that this Government keeps making announcements they think sound good, but there's no possible way of delivering on it." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier has been investigating hundreds of complaints made about the Government's approach to MIQ during the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic.  The Chief Ombudsman found the creation of a "lottery" system failed to emphasise individual circumstances, limiting fundamental human rights. Peter Boshier says there was no evidence of evolving policy advice from MBIE to the Government, as the pandemic continued.  "Not everyone was in the same situation, we never are in life. And the best and most principled decisions and actions are taken in regard to people's circumstances. Here, it was effectively a lottery. You are either in or out depending on chance, not depending on merit." LISTEN ABOVE  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the last post-Cabinet briefing of 2022, the Government announced some new changes to immigration settings. Specialist doctors, nurses, and midwives will now be granted immediate residency, and these medical professions will be added to the Green List immigration category. This comes after months of people criticising the Green List for leaving nurses off the pathway to immediate residency in New Zealand.  Political editor Barry Soper says that Jacinda Ardern has yet to offer a proper statement on why it has taken the Government this long to get nurses on the Green List during the current staff shortage. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Australian Government has recently announced they will be putting New Zealand Visa applications on hold for the next six months. The Government has said this will be better for New Zealanders, as it will allow them to process the current set of Skilled Independent visas from the New Zealand stream quicker. Futher changes to Australia's current immigration system are expected to be announced on ANZAC Day 2023. Australian correspondent Oliver Peterson doesn't think this makes any sense, as this announcement was made at the same time Australia is reporting significant labour shortages during the Christmas period. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

NZ Rugby has declined Beauden Barrett's request to play overseas but still take part in All Blacks test matches. According to Weekend Sport's Jason Pine, NZ Rugby would have set a dangerous precedent by letting Barrett get away with this request. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Police say they're not publishing the new speed camera threshold, which they had updated last week without making a public announcement. It's resulted in tens of thousands more speeding tickets for drivers breaking the limit by one to eleven kilometres. Inspector Pete McKennie says drivers used the ten kilometre threshold as their speed limit and that NZ Police wanted to reduce those figures, as lower speed limits bring down road accidents. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I managed to watch one and a half episodes of Harry and Meghan’s whingefest and do you know what?  I feel sorry for them  It hasn’t changed my mind about them. I still think she’s conniving. I still think he’s completely out of touch with what real world problems are. I still think the pair of them are hypocrites and dishonest for denying they leaked friendly media then got busted doing that. And I still think they shouldn’t’ air the family’s dirty laundry.  But I also feel sorry for them… mostly for Harry.  You get a real insight into how hard it must be for him to live with paparazzi constantly tailing him. There’s this scene where he’s probably about 11 years old, on a ski trip with William and his cousins Eugenie and Beatrice. And they’re told, I think by palace officials, to go pose for the media so the paps can take photos and ask them how the holiday is going, and you can just see on his little face how much he hates it  None of us like having our holidays interrupted by work and we’re grownups, imagin

Transmission Gully resurfacing is causing disruption for businesses, in the lead-up to Christmas. After just eight months of being open, parts of the major highway are being resurfaced to prevent future damage, reducing stretches of the road to one lane. Kapiti Coast Chamber of Commerce co-chair Heather Hutchings told Heather du-Plessis Allan that businesses are going through enough stress at this time of year — and this just adds to it.  She says businesses are gearing up for a break after a long few years, but product still needs to be delivered between Wellington and Kapiti. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Drivers need to stop thinking they have a 10-kilometre buffer, when it comes to speeding. Police told RNZ thresholds on speed cameras have been set in closer proximity to limits. It's apparently resulted in tens of thousands of more fines being issued. AA's road safety spokesperson, Dylan Thomsen says he believes people should know what the tolerance is. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's been heavily built-up, hugely anticipated — but critics are divided over whether Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's new series is good television. The first three episodes of the royal couple's Netflix series dropped last night, promoted as an unprecedented and in-depth documentary series on the couples lives. LA Entertainment Reporter, Sean Mandell says the focus on their love story will appeal to those already fans. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Global stock markets have bounced upwards by almost 20 percent in the last six weeks. This has been influenced by global hopes that central banks are slowing down rate hikes and that inflation has peaked and on a decline.  Sam Dickie from Fisher Funds says that this is a sign that the economy is recovering and working through the worst of inflation, but we're not out of the woods yet. Sam Dickie also observed that another key factor in the markets recovering involves China's gradual easing of Covid-19 restrictions, which is inspiring hope in investors. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Big Feed is a rural telethon designed to help hungry Kiwi families this Christmas season, and it's airing on December 15th.  The Big Feed will be hosted by Meat The Need co-founder and vice president of Federated Farmers Wayne Langford. Wayne Langford is also known as “YOLO Farmer” through his mental health support work. Wayne Langford joined up with Siobhan O’Malley to set up the charity Meat The Need in order to help farmers donate food and livestock to Kiwi families in need. The charity has already raised over 1 million mince meals since 2020 along with more than 290,000 servings of milk. The Country's Jamie Mackay says next Thursday's Big Feed event will run for 12 hours as a live event on social media, and feature farmers from all across the country. LISTEN ABOVE  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Oh, I love the cheek of the Public Servants union. Mainly because it gives me a chance to have a crack at public servants. So, the PSA is upset at National. Because National, and Act really, has promised to slash the number of back office bureaucrats if they win the next election. And obviously the PSA has got worried about it. Because based on a couple of polls this week and the self-inflected shambles the Government’s been this week, it looks increasingly likely that National and Act will be in power and will be cutting public servants.   So the PSA is trying to presumably drum up anger at this, and are trying to justify public servant roles by warning that removing back office roles will impact the front line. “Backroom workers are critical to an efficient public service.” Not at the quantity they are currently. There are 2550 schools in New Zealand. There are 3900 full-time staffers at the Ministry of Education. That means there are 1.5 support people for every school in the country. Come on, no school ne

Higher debt servicing means Kiwis are looking at an extra $80 being added to household budget costs by 2023, ASB economists predict. That could go up further to $100 by 2024, according to speculation. On top of that, people will need an extra $70 per week to fund outgoing costs unless they adjust their spending patterns. This is due to rising interest rates making the cost of living go up further.  ASB senior economist Mark Smith says that these impacts will affect people differently, with highly indebted households and recent home-buyers more likely to be hit harder by these costs. Mark Smith also notes that incomes have been keeping steady pace with living costs and households will have to readjust their spending habits to avoid being hit too hard. LISTEN ABOVE  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today on The Huddle, journalist Clare de Lore and Ben Thomas from Capital PR joined in on a discussion about the following issues of the day:  Three Waters has passed its third and final reading and made it into Parliament. Labour was the only party behind the bill, with the Greens withdrawing their support earlier in the reading. What do we think of how this has all gone down? Russian tennis star Anna Blinkova has been confirmed to play in the upcoming ASB Classic tournament. Will ASB pull their support, given the political climate? Dame Patsy Reddy has become the first female chair of NZ Rugby. Will it be good for them to have a head who admits to not knowing much about the sport? LISTEN ABOVE      See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The nation's largest street festival is returning to Wellington after a two year Covid-19 hiatus. CubaDupa is back on March 25th and 26th, with dance and music ensembles, interactive installations, and cultural experiences. The festival's last outing attracted more than 150,000 people, and next year's run promises to be even bigger.  Director Drew James says 28 stages and creative zones will be set up around Cuba Street. "It's going to be fantastic, we had a couple of years of cancellations in 2020 and 2021 was absolutely  huge, we had great audiences and it was really well-received by people coming out of that Covid situation." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

An app is aiming to get shoppers to work together to help each other get a better deal on their groceries. Sumfood has launched FoodSpies, which will compare prices between supermarkets on different food items using crowd sourced information. Founder Helen Darling says it will be easy for users to participate, because they'll calculate prices based on simple data. "What we do is, we actually take the aggregate number. All we want to know is the total price you spent, how many day you're shopping for and for how many people. And from that you can calculate an average per person, per price for different supermarkets." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Canterbury expresses disappointment as the South Island misses out again on funding to fight youth crime. The Government has launched a $2 million dollar youth crime package in Auckland, Waikato, Northland and Bay of Plenty. It will ensure a support plan is quickly put in place for child offenders, within 24 to 48 hours. Canterbury Employers Chamber of Commerce chief executive Leeann Watson says it's frustrating that Canterbury is left out of this package distribution. "While we appreciate there are other part of the country where the reported crimes are higher and therefore are given the attention, we still want to see further action down here in Christchurch and Canterbury." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The National party have come out against Three Waters legislation and have promised to repeal the bill if they hold power after 2023. Labour, with its majority, passed the Water Services Entities Bill through its final reading today, creating four publicly owned water entities in charge of storm, waste and fresh water. It's the first step in the much debated Three Waters reforms. National Local Government spokesperson Simon Watts says the reform process has been a shambles from day one, and today's results are no different. LISTEN ABOVE  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The end of the year gives Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern the chance to do a series of interviews with prominent New Zealand media outlets. One of these media figures was ZB's own Barry Soper, who sat down with the Prime Minister in Wellington's Parliament House to reflect on the last political year. Barry Soper says the interview covered Maori co-governance and the Three Waters developments, as well as the TVNZ-RNZ merger. Jacinda Ardern also told Barry Soper it was unlikely that she'd interview on ZB over RNZ, despite the former station pulling higher ratings. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.