Larry Williams Drive

The Tauranga by-election wraps up on Saturday.National’s Sam Uffindell is tipped to win what is a safe seat for them.The latest poll has Uffindell at 45 percent to Labour’s Jan Tinetti at 35 percent.It has been revealed that more than two thirds have been spent on consultants.Where Transport Minister Michael Wood has defended the spending, National’s Simeon Brown has said the project was going nowhere.The Auckland mayoral race is heating up.A new poll shows all five candidates are polling close, while Leo Molloy has claimed he’s got National’s endorsement.NZ Herald Political Editor Claire Trevett joined Heather du Plessis-Allan.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Donald Trump's extraordinary effort to overturn his 2020 election defeat came into ever-clearer focus Thursday, with testimony describing his pressuring Vice President Mike Pence in vulgar private taunts and public entreaties to stop the certification of Joe Biden's victory in the run-up to the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection.Trump's closest advisers viewed his last-ditch efforts to halt congressional certification of his loss as “nuts,” “crazy” and even likely to incite riots if Pence followed through, witnesses revealed in stark testimony Thursday.The panel revealed how Trump put his vice president in danger as Pence was presiding over a joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021, when the defeated president sent his supporters to the Capitol to “fight like hell” over his false claims of a fraudulent election.Rioters came within 40 feet of the place at the Capitol where Pence and others had been evacuated. Never-before-shown photos showed Pence and his team sheltering.“He deserves to be burned with the rest of t

The Blues are back to the big dance.They host the Crusaders for tomorrow's Super Rugby Final.It's the first time the Blues are in the final since 2003, when they last beat the Crusaders on Eden Park.Damien McKenzie may not be eligible for the Rugby Championship.He'll have to play a full season of NPC rugby for Waikato, which rules him out for Ireland, as well as the Rugby Championship.Weekend Sport host Jason Pine joined Heather du Plessis-Allan.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Canterbury University civil engineering students are angry about a test 80 percent of the class failed.The third year students wrote a letter to Stuff, complaining that it's the tutors - rather than the students - fault.UC's acting executive dean of engineering says he's sympathetic, and it may have come as a shock.But Conan Fee told Heather du Plessis-Allan people don't necessarily understand the point of the exam.“To test that the students independently are competent in that area, and that’s important and we need to make sure that we don’t lower our standards.”LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kids in New South Wales and Victoria are soon going to get an extra year of school.Every four-year-old will be offered five days of pre-kindergarten a week within the next eight years.Early Childhood Australia CEO Samantha Page joined Heather du Plessis-Allan.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Are you a Covid cavalier type of person or are you Covid cautious?New research from AUT has found that about half of Kiwi workers are anxious to return to the office because of the risk of catching Covid - making them Covid cautious.This could cause tension with the other half - Covid cavalier - who are a little bit more gung-ho.AUT Business School Professor Jarrod Haar joined Heather du Plessis-Allan.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

501 deportee discussions are being brought closer to home, as a Samoan-born Upper Hutt man waits to find out his fate.Mose Vaipapa hasn't lived in Samoa since he was four but is now facing deportation back there.He served 15 years in jail as a teenager, and says he'd rather go back to prison than Samoa.One of the Poririua Kapiti community law centre lawyers working to keep him here, Mike Sceats, joined Heather du Plessis-Allan.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tension and frustration are boiling over for some New Zealand agribusiness sector leaders but the focus must be on what is controllable to catch many opportunities in the current crises, finds a report from KPMG.The Country host Jamie Mackay joined Heather du Plessis-Allan to discuss.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Financial Markets Authority say one in ten Kiwis hold some form of cryptocurrency and those who invest in shares have overtaken term deposit investors.Hatch co-founded Natalie Ferguson joined Heather du Plessis-Allan.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With today's GDP figures this is more topical than ever.How close are we to a recession and what does that mean for investors?Sam Dickie from Fisher Funds joined Heather du Plessis-Allan to talk investing in a tough economic climate.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

New entertainment options could be the driving force behind the plummet of traditional TV.Television audience numbers peaked around 2010, according to data leaked by a client of ratings agency Nielsen to The Spinoff.Back then 150,000 peopled aged 18 to 34 were watching throughout the day, now it's only 46-thousand.Victoria University media expert Peter Thompson told Heather du Plessis-Allan there's now such a wide variety of material.He says we've seen an enormous rise of online video consumption, which now exceeds television.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Our economy has shrunk 0.2 percent in the first quarter.No expert predictions were correct; Kiwibank was actually predicting a rise of 0.8 percent.Liam Dann, NZ Herald Business Editor at Large joined Heather du Plessis-Allan.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Journalist Clare de Lore and Public Relations specialist Hayden Munro joined Heather du Plessis-Allan on The Huddle.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The reserve bank predicted our GDP figures would show a 0.7 percent growth today.The numbers released in fact showed our economy has contracted by 0.2 percent.Omicron and the lack of international tourists clearly had more impact than the experts were anticipating.Sharon Zollner, ANZ's Chief Economist joined Heather du Plessis-Allan.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Australia's new foreign minister has told her New Zealand counterpart the country has a "unique and powerful voice" in the Pacific sphere.Penny Wong and Nanaia Mahuta met at Parliament for the first time in their respective roles.Wong's visit comes amid a whirlwind start to the job, having now visited five countries across the Pacific in just over three weeks. She will travel to the Solomon Islands tomorrow.It comes amid rising tensions in the Pacific that stem back to March when the Solomon Islands signed a security pact with China, sparking concerns it could lead to a military base in the Pacific.Then China sought a wide-reaching agreement with 10 nations and its foreign minister Wang Yi embarked on a regional tour.Thomas Coughlan: NZ Herald Senior Political Reporter joined Heather du Plessis-Allan.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Adrian Orr’s been at it again on behalf of the Reserve Bank comparing themselves to flora and fauna.Remember how back in September last year the Assistant Governor Christian Hawkesby said the Bank’s approach to Covid was inspired by a bird, specifically, the white heron?Well this time, they're a tree.Act’s drawn media attention to a speech Adrian Orr has compared the reserve bank to Tāne Mahuta, the tree.He says the Reserve Bank “is akin to the being Tāne Mahuta of New Zealand’s financial landscape.”“Our roots are our legislation…giving us strength and well-being”“The money we print and circulate for New Zealand is the sap that flows through [the Reserve Bank]”And “Our complex payment and settlement system is our trunk. This system allows the money to flow to the branches of the reserve bank”.What makes it even more embarrassing is that Adrian Orr said that in a speech to an international conference in Brussels in front of other central bankers from around the world.Not only is this turning the bank into a la

Adrian Orr’s been at it again on behalf of the Reserve Bank comparing themselves to flora and fauna.Remember how back in September last year the Assistant Governor Christian Hawkesby said the Bank’s approach to Covid was inspired by a bird, specifically, the white heron?Well this time, they're a tree.Act’s drawn media attention to a speech Adrian Orr has compared the reserve bank to Tāne Mahuta, the tree.He says the Reserve Bank “is akin to the being Tāne Mahuta of New Zealand’s financial landscape.”“Our roots are our legislation…giving us strength and well-being”“The money we print and circulate for New Zealand is the sap that flows through [the Reserve Bank]”And “Our complex payment and settlement system is our trunk. This system allows the money to flow to the branches of the reserve bank”.What makes it even more embarrassing is that Adrian Orr said that in a speech to an international conference in Brussels in front of other central bankers from around the world.Not only is this turning the bank into a la

The GDP figures for the March quarter are out tomorrow.Westpac, ANZ, BNZ all think it will be very very low, if not no growth.The March quarter has been dominated by Omicron, especially on the back of the previous quarter dominated by Delta.Infometrics principal economist Brad Olsen joined Heather du Plessis-Allan.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Britain canceled a flight that was scheduled to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda late Tuesday after the European Court of Human Rights intervened, saying the plan carried “a real risk of irreversible harm."The decision to scrap the flight capped three days of frantic court challenges from immigrant rights lawyers who launched a flurry of case-by-case appeals seeking to block the deportation of everyone on the government’s list.British government officials had said earlier in the day that the plane would take off no matter how many people were on board. But after the appeals, no one remained. British media reported that the number of potential deportees had been more than 30 on Friday.After the flight was canceled, Home Secretary Priti Patel said she was disappointed but would not be “deterred from doing the right thing.” She added: “Our legal team are reviewing every decision made on this flight and preparation for the next flight begins now.”Prime Minister Boris Johnson had emphatically defended Britain’s pla

It's been a turbulent week for financial markets.The NZX has lost 5 percent this week, while KiwiSaver funds are heading south.As a result of this, the calls that we are in a bear market have started.It comes as the US Federal Reserve is set to announce its latest policy decisions.Milford Asset Management portfolio manager Sam Trethewey joined Heather du Plessis-Allan.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.