Larry Williams Drive

Liz Truss is holding her first cabinet meeting as Prime Minister today, and she's planning on purging a few names to make her mark going forward. UK correspondent Gavin Grey has more. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Global dairy prices are up after 5 negative auctions a row. The average fortnightly sale rose 4.9 per cent, after falling 2.9 in the last auction. Gareth Kiernan, the Chief Forecaster at Infometrics, is here to explain what that means for the market going forward. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Big developments on the energy front around the G7, Opec and the gas pipelines Nord Stream lately. Deborah Lambie from Milford Asset Management is here to talk us through it. LISTEN ABOVE  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How much merit did Revenue Minister David Parker's now dead tax bill actually have? Yep - the proposal to increase GST on some investment fund fees. NZ Herald Buisness editor Jenee Tibshraeny explains and addresses these merits here today. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The seeds have been sown for a housing market recovery. Tony Alexander, independent economist, says there has been a noticeable uptick in first home buyers. "A net 5 percent of the agents say they're seeing more first home buyers."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There are some worryingly low pass results in a NCEA literacy and numeracy trial. Year 10 students have trialled the test, which will be made compulsory for year 11 students in 2024. Michael Johnston, a senior Fellow at The NZ Initiative, states that the tests were designed to reflect real world usage of reading, writing, and numeracy, and the reason why the students are under performing is attributed to teaching methods. “For decades, we’ve been pursuing methods of teaching reading and writing and numeracy, that are not as effective as they could be.” LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What went on with the Mount Victoria bus tunnel closure overnight? At first there were reports some of the tunnel roof came down on a bus. But it was more likely to be falling branches. But the plot thickens. It's not obvious those branches are from pre-existing trees. Richard MacLean, the spokesperson for the Wellington City Council, shares his thoughts on the matter. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There are reports of cost cutting in the plans for Dunedin’s new hospital. Proposals apparently include reducing the number of beds and operating theatres, and dropping entire wards. Health Minister Andrew Little reckons he’s had no advice about any proposed changes to the scale of the projects. Aaron Hawkins, Mayor of Dunedin is similarly unaware of the truth to this.   “It certainly hasn’t been a conversation they’ve had with us, and the city has been reasonably well connected to the new Dunedin hospital project. So it’s very concerning to see these sorts of proposals being floated in the public domain.” LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

No apology from the Government over the Northland lockdown that didn't need to happen. Turns out the Ministry of Social Development issued the documents to the Northland pair when they shouldn't have, realised the mistake three days before the lockdown, but the Government went ahead with the lockdown anyway. Tim Robinson, Northland Chamber of Commerce president is left baffled. ”We’re in business, we make mistakes, we assume an error happens. But the thing is, when an error happens, you’ve got to own up to it, own it, apologise, and we can move on.”See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The taxpayer legal bill wracked up by Trevor Mallard continues. Political commentator Barry Soper says the only surprise here is the length of time Trevor Mallard took to come through with the apology, as it was two months overdue. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Experts are questioning a judge’s Intervention in a Trump Inquiry, what's going on?  US correspondent Dan Mitchenson explains it further, as there are plenty of documents to process and examine. “There are thousands and thousands that have been recovered from the Florida residence. And they’ll determine which of those documents should be off limits to federal investigators and which aren’t, based on the former President’s right to attorney-client privilege.” LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Where does Rotorua's tourism sector sit in the midst of the city's emergency housing crisis? This story isn't going away - we've got calls for investigations, and the Human Rights Commission is now saying it will make inquiries. Co-founder of the Redwoods Tree Walk, Bruce Thomasen, summarises it all here. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Prime Minister and Chris Hipkins should just apologise to the people of Northland. Of course they owe them an apology. They let three women cross the border from Auckland to Northland.  They gave them permission. And those women took Covid with them and Covid - back then - equalled a government lockdown. Yes, it wasn’t Jacinda and it wasn’t Chris who signed off on the permission for those women to go over the border. It was some faceless bureaucrat in MSD. But it was the system that Jacinda and Chris designed and they are more than happy to take the credit for all the times they think their system worked, but they are not happy to take the blame when their system didn’t work. That region went into an 11 day lockdown. And that was on top of being cut off from the rest of the country by Auckland’s border for months.  Chris and Jacinda’s refusal to apologise to Northlanders for what they had to go through says to me these two have no idea what Auckland and Northland and parts of Wakiato went through.  They s

In light of Bee Awareness month, The Country's Jamie Mackay talks about the importance of bees and how to help them pollinate.  LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Johnson gone, Truss in! Liz Truss is the UK's new PM, and already has a nickname- The Iron Weathercock. UK correspondent Enda Brady explains today's results. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Aussies have been hit with another rates rise of 50 basis points today. It brings their cash rate to 2.35 per cent. Paul Bloxham, HSBC chief economist out of Sydney says inflation and growth have gained more momentum. “The consumer seems to be continuing to plough through and spend more, even though the housing market’s already falling and interest rates have risen quite rapidly.” LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Pharmac says it will strengthen its focus on equity for Maori and other population groups, as a result of the government's independent review. That review, released back in June, found Pharmac had issues on accountability, decision-making, and responsibilities. It also said the benefits the model brings needs to be shared more equitably across Maori and Pacifika. Sarah Fitt, Pharmac’s Chief Executive, says “Part of the recommendations from the Pharmac review is that we need to focus more on achieving health equity. I think that goes right across the health sector.” LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Labour and Green city councillors are being used in NZTA advertisements, ahead of the local body election. The ads have run as recently as September 2nd and were branded with both NZTA and council logos. Pattrick Smellie from BusinessDesk agrees this is “dodgy”. “The number of candidates who are standing for local body election who are involved in this- there’s only three of them.” LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Wallabies great David Campese says the current state of international rugby is a joke. He says the referees think they're the most important people on the field. And that's slowing everything down far too much. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Te Pati Maori and the National Party are demanding an immediate independent inquiry into Rotorua's emergency housing. National says Rotorua is now full of appalling scenes of intimidation, violence, misery and crime as a result. Chris Bishop, National's spokesperson for housing says “We had a situation where a woman went into labour and had to spend the night in her car because they wouldn’t let her back into her motel room. The scenes of squalor, crime, deprivation… frankly, it’s incredibly depressing. We need to know exactly what monitoring is going on.”  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.