Larry Williams Drive

High interest rates are smashing New Zealand house prices.House prices have continued to fall through May and are now off around 6 percent since their peak in November last year according to REINZ figures.Annual house price growth has since slowed to just below 4 percent.NZ Herald Wellington Business Editor Jenee Tibshraeny joined Heather du Plessis-Allan.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If you cast your mind back a few months you might remember the case of the Murupara doctor who was suspended after asking public questions about the Pfizer jab.It’s been revealed Bernard Conlon has now been given permission to go back to his practice.And it made me really reflect on whether it was the right decision to suspend him in the first place.It turns out that during the six months he was suspended, the community at one stage had no doctors – only a couple of nurses.These are some very isolated and poor communities: Murupara, Minginui and Ruatahuna.It turns out that while he might have some controversial views on the Covid jab, he is considered a good doctor.The local school principal Pem Bird reckons the doctor visits people at their homes after work in his own time and he’s devoted to the community having worked there for 30 years.So was it the right decision?I don’t think it was.I think we overreacted a lot during the pandemic when we booted midwives out of their jobs because they wouldn’t get the j

Gloriavale has sought an interim injunction to force Westland Dairy to continue collecting its milk.Westland suspended collection after Gloriavale was found to have been in breach of labour laws, including child labour.The injunction would force Westland to keep up collection until a trial.Copeland Ashcroft managing partner Janet Copeland joined Heather du Plessis-Allan.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A Murupara doctor suspended for his anti-vax views has been allowed to return to work.In the six months he was suspended, the community had no doctor, which leads to questions of a possible overreaction in the Covid-19 response.It comes as New Zealand prepares to remove pre-departure testing for arrivals.The decision could be moved up earlier as New Zealand becomes one of the last remaining countries to drop the process.Paddy Gower's documentary on alcoholism aired last night.The documentary has been criticised for not going too deep into issues like domestic violence and liver problems.Gower has suggested an approach similar to Iceland to combat New Zealand's drinking problem.Jack Tame and Tim Wilson joined Heather du Plessis-Allan on The HuddleSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Outrage at moves to get rid of the Children’s Commissioner.There’s a bill in front of Parliament that would dismantle the role and replace it with a board of between three and six people.The bill would also see the Commissioner stripped off their power to investigate, no longer handling complaints from children and families.Victoria University emeritus professor of public policy Jonathan Boston joined Heather du Plessis-Allan.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Absolute heartbreak for the All Whites this morning.They lost their World Cup Intercontinental Qualifying playoff against Costa Rica 1-0 and won’t qualify for the 2022 World Cup later this year.Coach Danny Hay criticised the refereeing in a press conference and said the team was robbed.Former All White Fred de Jong joined Heather du Plessis-Allan.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Paddy Gower says he’s an alcoholic.His documentary on booze forced him to confront his own addiction to alcohol.He reckons we might like to try the same approach as Iceland – lifting the drinking age to 20, only allowing supermarkets to stock low alcoholic beer and introducing a curfew for teenagers.Otago University Emeritus Professor Jennie Connor joined Heather du Plessis-Allan.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A critical GIB shortage may force developers to change build designs.Government officials held emergency talks with building industry leaders yesterday in a bid to hammer out solutions to the product shortfall.Winston Wallboards' product supply problem is so bad when one developer inquired on GIB in January, they were told to ask again in June.Now, Simplicity Living will have to wait until Christmas.MBIE general manager of building system performance John Sneyd told Heather du Plessis-Allan we need to design for products we do have.“With our consenting bodies that sit within councils, we’ve given them some guidance on how they have a really effective and efficient process for allowing one plasterboard to be substituted for another.”LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jacinda Ardern has once again been forced to change where she does media engagements.This time, Ardern was visiting Te Aratai College in Christchurch when the Freedom and Rights Coalition arrived at the school to protest vaccine mandates.Chris Hipkins is settling into his new role as Police Minister.Hipkins met with Andrew Coster this morning to discuss how to tackle gangs as National has announced their plan to tackle gangs.NZ Herald Senior Political Reporter Thomas Coughlan joined Heather du Plessis-Allan.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol has postponed its hearing scheduled for Wednesday.The next hearing is scheduled for Thursday afternoon at 1 p.m. ET. The committee also announced Tuesday, that it would have two hearings next week -- one on June 21 and another on June 23 -- both starting at 1 p.m. ET.Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California, a member of the committee, told reporters that the reason for the rescheduling was due to "technical issues" and "not a big deal.""It's just technical issues," she said. "You know the staff, putting together all the videos. You know doing, one, two, three, it was overwhelming. So we're trying to give them a little room."Lofgren said Wednesday's hearing topic, which was focused on the Department of Justice, will get moved to another day, and Thursday will still focus on then-President Donald Trump's efforts to pressure then-Vice President Mike Pence to refuse to certify the election results.Democratic Rep. Pete Aguilar of

A controversial end to the All Whites’ World Cup qualifying campaign.The All Whites saw a Chris Wood equaliser ruled out by the VAR towards the end of the first half and Kosta Barbarouses was sent off in the second half for a foul that was upgraded from a yellow to a red.Costa Rica had scored in the third minute through Joel Campbell.Meanwhile, Gary Lawson won’t be going to the Birmingham.The boules player has been suspended for 16 weeks for a homophobic slur.Sportstalk host D’Arcy Waldegrave joined Heather du Plessis-Allan.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Salvation Army's calling for major changes to car insurance products it says exploit vulnerable Kiwis.It's released a paper detailing the massive mark-ups dealers add to wholesale prices and the pressure on car of second-hand cars.It says add-on insurance products are often low value-for-money options for many New Zealanders, especially for poorer communities.Principal Policy Analyst Ronji Tanielu told Heather du Plessis-Allan while useful, better add-ons are needed for the market that give value.“At the meantime, some of these add-on insurance products are unfair and poor value for lower income New Zealanders. That’s what we want to look at.”LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Yesterday we talked to a Kiwi traveller who had his pre-departure test denied as it was taken a minute just before the 48 hour cutoff.Since then, the Opposition has released a statement saying it’s time to drop the testing now instead of waiting until July 31.The call is buoyed by the US dropping pre-departure tests altogether.BusinessDesk managing editor Pattrick Smellie joined Heather du Plessis-Allan.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The price in food is rising.Annual food price inflation is currently sitting at 6.8 percent higher in May 2022 compared to May 2021.But it’s also getting more expensive to produce and grow food as the on farm inflation skyrockets to 10.2 percent.The Country host Jamie Mackay joined Heather du Plessis-Allan.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There is a rise in the student entrepreneur.Side-hustles are growing among young people looking for more money amidst rising living costs.Dunedin student startup Palmer began selling its clothing made from recycled materials in 2017.Co-founder Joe Palmer says he’s seen a massive increase in students with a side-gig.Joe Palmer joined Heather du Plessis-Allan.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A British government’s plan to deport asylum-seekers of various nationalities to Rwanda is set to go ahead after an appeals court on Monday refused to block the policy that the U.N.’s top refugee official said sets a dangerous precedent for migrants fleeing war and oppression.Immediately after the decision by a three-justice panel of the Court of Appeal in London, Prime Minister Boris Johnson's office said the first deportation flight would go ahead as scheduled on Tuesday.Migrant advocacy groups have attacked the policy as inhumane and illegal ever since April, when Johnson announced the plan as way to deter people from risking their lives by paying smugglers to take them to Britain in leaky inflatable boats.Filippo Grandi, the U.N. high commissioner for refugees, lashed out against the policy, describing it as “all wrong.”If the British government is truly interested in protecting lives, it should work with other countries to target the people smugglers and provide safe routes for asylum seekers, not simply

If you hate cycleways, you’re probably going to hate them a whole lot more when I finish telling you about the latest instalment in this.Turns out cycleways are getting really expensive. The country’s cycleway building programme is blowing out big time.Waka Kotahi has set aside $618 million to spend on cycleways over the next three years, but the budget has blown out already to $670 million, which is an overspend of 10 percent.Why? In some cases, because of dumb mistakes.The Petone cycleway seems to be a case of dumb and dumber where mistakes like an administration error of $1 million and forgetting to talk to KiwiRail to plan the route has made it quadruple in price. It should’ve cost $17 million, now it’s $65 million.That works out at $21.7 million per km. That is miles too expensive.That is not the first time this has happened, but all of these cycleways are too expensive per kilometre.The cycleway in Grey Lynn cost $10 million and barely anyone uses it.Auckland Transport is going to spend $144 million on

A review has found that the Ministry of Health failed to accurately estimate our lab capacity.At the start of the year, Associate Health Minister Ayesha Verrall claimed that we had the ability to surge to 70,000 PCR tests per day.The claim turned out to be wildly inaccuarate.New Zealand Institute of Medical Laboratory Science president Terry Taylor joined Heather du Plessis-Allan.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kiri Allan has hit out at the Department of Conservation’s “tokenistic” use of Te Reo Māori.It comes after a screenshot of an internal email was shared on social media from a DoC manager who said they were passing on "feedback this week from the minister's office about inclusion of te reo Māori in the material that we send over", which Allan called an "incorrect articulation".Boys are falling behind in school-leaving and university entrance exams.A report in the Sydney Morning Herald has revealed a gender gap in exam pass rates, with boys slipping behind girls.The Wiggles are coming back to New Zealand.The original lineup is hosting two shows for those over 15 in Auckland and Christchurch.Ali Jones and Nick Mills joined Heather du Plessis-Allan on The HuddleSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Samoan Prime Minister has confirmed Samoa and China do not have any plans for military ties.Fiame Naomi Mata’afa has been meeting with her counterpart Jacinda Ardern today.She’s also met with Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta and Climate Change Minister James Shaw.Otago University international relations Professor Robert Patman joined Heather du Plessis-Allan.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.