Early Edition with Kate Hawkesby

New Zealand parents are becoming more relaxed about device use and safety.   A survey by NIB has found device use and screentime is still a concern for 73% of surveyed parents, but only 46% are limiting screentime.   That's down from 51% in 2021.  Parenting expert Anna Martin told Kate Hawkesby that the pandemic has had an impact.   She says research suggests that parents relaxed their attitude to online use during Covid, as it was helpful in allowing them to have some personal time.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The NZ Kiwis won the Pacific Nations Cup on Saturday with an emphatic victory over Australia in Hamilton. While India continue to cement themselves as favourite for the Cricket World Cup. And the build up for the 2023 Melbourne Cup continues. ZB Sport's Andrew Alderson wrapped up the weekend's sports with Kate Hawkesby on Early Edition. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

No guarantees from National on when it will have a government in place.  New Zealand First leader Winston Peters isn't answering questions about negotiations and he and Act's David Seymour aren't talking.  National doesn't know whether deals will be done in time for incoming Prime Minister Chris Luxon to attend the Apec Leaders' Summit in San Francisco on Sunday.  Deputy Leader Nicola Willis told Kate Hawkesby the coalition negotiations are a complex process.    LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Political pundits wouldn't be surprised if coalition talks go on for some time yet.  New Zealand First leader Winston Peters isn't answering questions about negotiations and he and Act's David Seymour aren't talking.  National doesn't know whether deals will be done in time for incoming Prime Minister Chris Luxon to attend the Apec Leaders' Summit in San Francisco on Sunday.  Newstalk ZB Political Editor Jason Walls told Kate Hawkesby Luxon has said, if need be, he will can that trip.  He says it could drag out for a while or be done quickly, but Luxon has been doing some work in the lead up to the specials.    LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Questions raised after an 18-hour long hostage situation at Germany's Hamburg Airport.   A 35-year-old man, with his four-year-old daughter, drove through airport security and onto the tarmac - before parking his car underneath an aeroplane.  The chaos, that suspended almost 290 flights involving more than 34-thousand passengers, was revealed to be over custody arrangements.   Europe Correspondent Gavin Grey told Kate Hawkesby the man eventually gave himself up, with the girl unharmed.   He says questions are being asked around how it was so easy for the man to drive through airport security.    LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

So, we now know Winston’s in the mix in a real and tangible way. He’s needed.   We can thank special votes for that.   So, I’m trying to look for positives, and trust me, it’s not easy - but I found one.   He at least has institutional knowledge of how parliament works, what being a politician means, and how the place functions.   That’s a benefit to Luxon because that’s more than he’s got.   Being a newbie, it’s all new to Luxon.   So, you add one old dog and one newbie - and maybe there in the middle lies some kind of middle ground where they can connect.   What wisdom about how the place works can Winston pass on to Luxon? How can Luxon learn from Winston’s years and years in this environment?   No Winston’s not a shining light or a good example of a model politician by any stretch, but he’s at least got runs on the board.   He knows the place. He knows the rules. He’s seen it all before.   He knows the inner workings of government’s better than Luxon would. So that’s the potential plus.   The other positi

New research finds 46% of kiwi jobseekers still experience barriers when finding work.  The 2023 Randstad Employer Brand Research Survey found factors such as sexual orientation, disability, language, gender identity, and ethnicity to be a barrier when applying for and securing a job.  It found that 28% of male candidates believed these factors resulted in them missing out on the role, and 22% of women refused to work for a company whose values don’t align with their own.  Employment Relations Expert, Max Whitehead, told Tim Dower that he’s a bit suspicious of these results.  He said that employers are absolutely desperate for workers, and if someone doesn’t fit the mould but has the skills necessary, they would bend over backwards to hire them.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Special votes, as I'm sure you know, are usually good for the left and National has said it expects to lose one or two seats from the election night count.  If it was two, and even if the overhang goes, the maths is undeniable. It's a 120 seat Parliament, but that one-seat majority for the Nats and ACT is gone.  And we all know what that means.  I think Winston's petulant display in Wellington right after the election told us a lot about the way the new coalition is being drawn together.  My read of it, is that Mr Peters had been well and truly put in his place over the weekend.  I suspect the rules of engagement were spelled out very clearly, and he knows he's not going to be wearing the pants in any future relationship.  Not to start with, anyway.  The other thing to bear in mind, and unless you're actually doing the counting there's no way of telling, is whether the specials will favour the left as much as some people think.  There's a school of thought that says people outside the country, and in particul

The Australian woman who cooked and served a lunch that killed three will appear in court today.  Erin Patterson faces three murder charges and five attempted murder charges.   Her former in-laws Gail and Don Patterson as well as Gail's sister Heather all died from suspected toxic mushroom poisoning in July, and Gail's husband Ian was hospitalised.   Three other charges relate to incidents in 2021 and 2022, as police allege a 48-year-old man became ill after meals.   Australian correspondent Lesley Yeomans told Tim Dower that Police spent yesterday searching her home.   She says they also sent in technology detector dogs, trained to hunt down things like SIM cards, phones, and USB sticks.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The future shape of our next government all comes out today.   While the preliminary votes for the election were all counted up, the results of the around 570 thousand left over special votes will be released at two this afternoon.   It will likely decide whether National and ACT will need New Zealand First to get into power.   Political Editor Jason Walls told Tim Dower that the majority of special votes do tend to favour the left.  He says people like John Key and Chris Bishop both expect to see National lose at least one seat today.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A nutritionist would love to see confectionary moved away from the checkouts.  Countdown's aiming to make healthier choices easier for customers, and combat checkout 'pester power'.  The supermarket chain —soon to be Woolworths— has committed to 80% of foods at checkouts carrying a Health Star Rating of 3.5 or more.  It's also moving "kids confectionary" elsewhere.  Nutritionist Nikki Hart told Kate Hawkesby that it’s got to be better than the current trend.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Rafah crossing from Gaza to Egypt has opened for the first time since Israel's siege began more than three weeks ago.  Palestinian officials say 335 foreign passport holders and 76 injured Gazans have been able to leave so far.  It's thought 88 injured Palestinians and around 500 foreign nationals will be allowed out in the first phase.  US Correspondent, Mitch McCann, told Kate Hawkesby that the exits are due to a deal brokered by Qatar between Israel, Hamas, and Egypt, coordinating with the US.  He said that US passport holders are not expected to be among the first nationals to be released.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

So tomorrow we finally —after such a ridiculously long wait— get the final vote count. Specials will be done, duplicates checked, ballots finalized, we will know where we’re at, and more importantly, what form the new government might take. The fact we’ve had three weeks in limbo is completely ludicrous and at least the incoming PM has acknowledged that and claims he’ll do something about changing it. Which as far as I understand involves changing the law and the way the electoral commission operates, and I hope they do that. The electoral commission did not cover itself in glory: botching some people’s booth experiences by not having enough forms, closing early or opening late, not getting easy vote packs out in good enough time for early voting, and generally operating like it’s 1953. Even Luxon said that three weeks is too long, that they should be working 24/7 to count votes. He also reckons they should do a daily release of votes counted and take over local government elections so they’re up to speed a y

It’s being predicted that the household budgets for mortgage holders will be squeezed further in 2024.  Those on extremely low interest rates in 2019 are turning over to new rates now.  A Reserve Bank report says the average household will spend about 18% of their income on interest payments alone by mid-next year.  ANZ economist, Henry Russell, told Kate Hawkesby that it's not unexpected, and the Reserve Bank needs to see demand in the economy slow to get on top of inflation.  He says there's still many households with 2% or 3% interest rates who'll face a tough adjustment when they rollover to six or seven percent.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

More calls for Oranga Tamariki to be shaken up following new details about a toddler that was killed in Lower Hutt.   A homicide investigation has been launched into the death of almost two-year-old Ruthless-Empire Wall. Newstalk ZB understands his uncle contacted Oranga Tamariki wanting the child to be uplifted. It comes after it was recently revealed 57 children have died since the agency was established.  Child Matters Chief Executive Jane Searle told Kate Hawkesby that it reflects the need for change.  She says they've known for a long time Oranga Tamariki's not fit for purpose, with this being just another example.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A health commentator has given his thoughts on how the next Government should tackle problems in our hospitals.  Te Whatu Ora metrics show the national rate of preventable hospital admissions for 0–4-year-olds has increased by 35% in the last year.  It also shows the number of patients waiting more than four months to see a specialist has increased by 46% over the same period.   Ian Powell told Kate Hawkesby that there's one change the new Government shouldn't make, and that's restructure the whole system again.  He says it sounds as though the new government is not going to do that, which is a plus.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Well, three days on from our loss at the Rugby World Cup and we’re still not over it... clearly.  It’s still front-page news, the dissertations and opinions continue, disputes over how it was reffed, anger over the TMO and officiating of the game continue. But let’s face the hard facts: the best team won on the day.   Painful as it is, relitigating red cards versus yellow ones as we might, hating the TMO as we all do... it doesn’t change the facts. The best team won on the day.  We couldn’t get our act together in a sloppy first half, we couldn’t pull it off in the second, we didn’t win.   Sad but true.   Death threats to Wayne Barnes and all the other nonsense which has come out of the loss is futile and detracts from the reality. Which is that beyond the nitpicking over all the minutiae of that one game, a broader conversation needs to be had around what’s happening to rugby.   The Herald’s Luke Kirkness said, “Rugby union is facing a looming crisis. The game is losing its appeal with many turning to altern

Changes have already been made to adventure tourism safety as the Whakaari White Island trial ends. The island's owner, Whakaari Management Limited, has been found guilty on one health and safety charge brought by WorkSafe.   It failed to ensure adequate risk assessments ahead of the 2019 tragedy that killed 22 people. Former Tourism Industry Aotearoa CEO Chris Roberts told Kate Hawkesby that there was concern that WorkSafe was the prosecutor.  He says it was clear there were failings in WorkSafe's oversight, but they weren't prosecuted, they were the prosecutor.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's widely anticipated that New Zealand's unemployment figures will rise today.  Stats NZ numbers for the three months to September will be released later this morning.  Infometrics Principal Economist, Brad Olsen, told Kate Hawkesby that he predicts it will lift from 3.6 to 3.9%.  He says realistically, the market is still tight, with anything below 4% unusual for New Zealand.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Airbnb could be damaging the value of some neighbourhood homes.  Researchers using Auckland census data have identified links between more Airbnbs in communities and higher crime-rates.  It highlights how Airbnb's replace long-term owner occupiers with short term occupants, which can erode the anti-crime capability of the community.  That leads to lower house prices.  Auckland University Associate Property Professor, Edward Yiu, told Kate Hawkesby that this is especially apparent with apartment-type housing.  He said in the past a gate with a code could be installed, but because strangers can enter for their Airbnb, it’s raised security concerns.   LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.