Early Edition with Kate Hawkesby

Men are bigger Christmas spenders than women. New data by Banked shows people will spend an average $623 on gifts this year, with two thirds happy to fork out for a more sustainable gift if they have the option. Head of Publishing, Kevin McHugh, says when it comes to the gender differences, women tend to be a bit more sensible and conservative with their money. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I think one of the great travesties of this Government, when we eventually look back on their long line of failures, will be what happened to mental health. Don’t get me wrong, no government from what I can see, has ever got mental health right, it’s forever been a sector in dire straits, under resourced and woefully misunderstood. But mental health itself has only become bigger and worse as the years has gone by, and arguably peaking as a real crisis now, post the pandemic. And yet, the Government that promised to fix it – has not. Not even close. So much for the Wellbeing Budget. It’s not like they haven’t thrown money at it – it's just no one seems to know where that money’s gone. And then we learn yesterday that, “a half-billion-dollar programme to deliver better community and primary mental health care is still failing to reach tens of thousands of people,” according to reports. So $600 million was doled out to the Access and Choice mental health programme, yet lack of staff has meant they just haven’t b

Restaurant workers are ready to lodge a claim for better wages. The Fair Pay Agreement bill comes into effect today, and unions are saying they already have enough signatures to demand an FPA for hospo workers. It means any negotiated pay and working conditions will apply to all employers in the industry. Restuarant Association President Mike Egan told Kate Hawkesby it's been a long time coming. He says members have been working hard to offer greater pay and more incentives for people to come and work as there's still a worker shortage everywhere. LISTEN ABOVE  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Fonterra and Swiss food giant Nestle have formed a partnership to develop New Zealand’s first zero carbon emissions dairy farm. In what the parties said was a New Zealand first, the project, to be run with co-partner Dairy Trust Taranaki, will examine all aspects of farm operations to reduce carbon with the aim of cutting emissions by 30 per cent by mid-2027, with a 10-year ambition of reaching net zero carbon emissions. The demonstration farm at the centre of the project is a 290-hectare property surrounding Fonterra’s Whareroa site. Dairy Trust Taranaki will work with Fonterra and industry partners to reduce total emissions on the farm, including methane. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hats off to all the kids who’ve sat NCEA the past few weeks, that’s wrapping up this week, Friday’s the last day for exams. Hats off also to all the parents who’ve managed all that stress at home, juggling kids study schedules while also running them round to rowing before the crack of dawn or all the other sports they’re doing, as well as calming nerves, washing sports gear, trying to make nourishing meals.. look it’s a process. And no matter how many times you go through it, we’re onto our fifth time, it’s always good when it finishes and all that pressure comes off. It’s also good to remember all the hard-working students who actually are bothering to attend school, who do study, and do take education seriously. We talk a lot about all the ones who aren’t or don’t, all the truancy, all the drop outs, all the youth flicking the bird at education. But in that taking up all our focus, we forget all the kids who are getting up each day, getting out of bed, putting on uniforms, lugging heavy books, bags and lap

Immigration experts are concerned a change to work rights for migrants' partners could put people off coming here. Until now, a partner could get an open work visa. But a change going ahead next month will only allow partners of green list workers to do that. Couples will instead have to find accredited employers to sponsor applications for each of them, or have a partner who can visit but not work. Sociology professor Paul Spoonley told Kate Hawkesby most migrants come with partners or families. He's puzzled as to why the barrier is there and believes it'll be a disincentive. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The southern hemisphere's largest agricultural event will be a little warmer this year. Thousands are expected to flock to Fieldays at Mystery Creek in the Waikato this morning, with more than 1,000 exhibitors ready to show off their products and services. The opening will end a 17-month hiatus after the June event was postponed this year, due to uncertainties around Covid restrictions.. National Field Days Society CEO Peter Nation told Kate Hawkesby the sun is starting to come up, which is pretty unusual for Fieldays, given it's usually mid-winter. He says they have 21 degree weather for the next four days, with a little bit of rain today which is expected to clear and everyone is excited. LISTEN ABOVE  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A major New Zealand bank is the first to move on the back of last week's historic OCR rise. ANZ has lifted its floating and flexible mortgage rates by 65 basis points - all fixed term rates are now over 7 per cent for those who don't have a 20 per cent deposit or equity. All eyes are now on how other big banks will react. Infometrics Chief Forecaster Gareth Kiernan told Kate Hawkesby he is expecting other banks will do the same. He says it's a massive squeeze on people. Kiernan says Reserve Bank modelling suggested 46 percent of borrowers who took on a loan last year, would be paying more than half their after-tax income servicing a mortgage, once mortgage rates hit seven percent. LISTEN ABOVE  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The PM’s post-cabinet chat yesterday was stomach churning in so many ways. The lies, the disingenuousness of it all, the theatrics and the pretence that they’ve actually been active as a government on crime. Embarrassing. No one’s buying it. This new fog canon measure is too late – they know it, we know it. Worse yet, the PM tried to deflect all blame from her Government by saying that there’d be a delay on said fog cannons – due to a global shortage. This turns out to be an outright lie. Newstalk ZB Drive host Heather du Plessis Allan smelt a rat straight away and last night called a fog cannon supplier to fact check the PM on this one. No surprises in his response.. he said to her, ‘I see the Queen of Spin is at it again..’ He said the facts are, there is no global shortage of fog cannons, the supply issue is due to the Government not placing any orders for them. They’ve dropped the ball, again. He said they’ve been waiting months for the government to place fog canon orders and they’ve just been sitting on

Concerns the Government hasn't addressed the real issue around ram raids. It's announced a $4 million fund to support local councils in Auckland, Hamilton and Bay of Plenty and a $4,000 fog cannon subsidy scheme. Waikato retailer Ash Parmar told Kate Hawkesby there have been 66 prosecutions and 10 youth referrals, but some 200 young people have been arrested. He says that means there are 129 kids who aren't going to adult court or youth court and it proves young kids are being used to do these types of attacks. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Opposites have attracted in an unexpected collaboration of lipstick and New Zealand strong wool. In what is thought to be a world-first, Wool Source and lipstick brand Karen Murrell have joined forces to create a lipstick coloured with a wool keratin-based pigment. The new lipstick “Kera Kisses” uses wool from Ashburton's Westmere Farm. Karen Murrell says Lincoln Agritech's wool industry research team has developed a wool fibre that could be turned into protein. She told Kate Hawkesby she was asked during lockdown if she wanted to collaborate. Murrell says a year later they have a beautiful product, and describes it as a love story. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

So today Cabinet meets looking to “discuss what more can be done to combat crime,” according to the Prime Minister. Sadly she’s a bit late with that statement. The irony being that her government has been inundated with people asking them to toughen up on crime for ages... they did nothing. Poto Williams, in her capacity as Police Minster dropped the ball so badly she was moved on and replaced with Chris Hipkins. There were hopes he would toughen up on crime, but sadly under his watch it’s only gotten worse. The governments’ cheerleaders asking for this tragic death not to be politicised are missing the point. It was already politicised. The government had already dropped the ball, they’d already ignored all the pleas for help, they’d already been too slow to roll out support for business owners, they already had communities living in fear of this very thing. And then once it happened, what did the PM do? She went to the Chatham Islands. She didn’t even go back to her own electorate, her own neighbourhood, he

Some of the country's top constitutional experts are raising red flags about the Government's attempt to entrench part of its Three Waters reforms. Under a change proposed by the Greens, and supported by Labour, 60-percent of MPs would need to agree to overturn part of the bill protecting water assets from private ownership. Eight public law academics have written to the Government, saying such use of entrenchment sets a dangerous precedent. Until now, entrenchment has only been used for electoral laws that specify how electorates are drawn up, the method of voting, the voting age, and the length of the Parliamentary term. Timaru Mayor Nigel Bowen —an opponent of the Three Waters reforms— told Kate Hawkesby that it's a worrying development. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

ACT believes its truancy plan will help what it’s calling a crisis... despite some criticism. The party wants to make it mandatory for schools to report attendance daily, or risk losing funding. It would also enable parents to be fined and divert Government truancy funding directly to schools to hire truancy officers. ACT education spokesperson Chris Baillie says there'd be a process in place before a fine- with a traffic light system relating to attendance. He says more than 30 percent non-attendance at the end of the term would mean they're referred to the ministry to assess what's happening in the household. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We all heard the warnings; someone's going to get killed if we don't crack down on the ram raiders and brazen dairy hold-ups. And this week it happened. Eight in the evening at the end of another long day at the superette providing a convenience service in Sandringham. One of the locals who spoke to the Herald at a gathering of 200 or so said this ‘the whole dynamic of Auckland is changing now’. Say that again. Spin the numbers whatever way you like, but what's obvious to anyone is there's a significant wave of this time of crime right now. Just before five this morning I heard a businessman talking with Roman about how his operation and those of his friend have been hammered. Some places have been hit over and over. Dairies, bottle shops, gas stations and jewellery stores. They're seen as easy targets and that I guess is why police were given that $6 million fund to help install fog cannons and bollards and the like. But to me, that's ambulance of the bottom of the cliff stuff, isn't it? Isn't it basically a

Top athletes are launching an employment case against High Performance Sport NZ. Mahe Drysdale and Kirstie Klingenberg are fronting an 'athletes' cooperative'. They're asking to be recognised as employees of High Performance Sport, not contractors. Clinical psychologist Dr Dougal Sutherland joined Tim Dower to discuss. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The fatal Sandringham dairy stabbing is causing many dairy owners to consider their own security. Auckland Police are still hunting the offender, who they say stole cash from the Rose Cottage Superette's register before stabbing the worker after he was confronted. There are reports some dairy owners in Christchurch are considering closing their businesses. Sandringham Business Association Chair Jithin Chittibomma told Tim Dower something like this was bound to happen. He says crime in the area has been on the rise for the past few months. LISTEN ABOVE  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Calls for a shake up to immigration. Act has unveiled a new immigration policy that scraps temporary visas, charges based on demand, and allows more migrants to bring their parents. Business NZ Advocacy Director, Catherine Beard, says in a global contest for talent, other countries have made it easier for immigrants. She told Tim Dower new ideas are needed to fulfil New Zealand's future workforce. Beard says with an aging population and declining birth rate, there's no way we can fulfil the need for workers domestically. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Road to Zero looks to be the highway to nowhere we all thought it would be. Another measure the Government has not delivered on, another piece of ideology that’s proven completely unworkable in the real world. We learn now, that three years into the Road to Zero campaign, we have exactly the same number of road deaths as when we started – in fact we are heading backwards in terms of how bad the road toll is. So what has it achieved? Nothing. It’s mental health beds and child poverty and housing and healthcare all over again. A lot of talk, not a lot of action. It’s sadly what we have come to expect as the norm from this Government. Road to Zero included increasing breath testing to prevent alcohol related road deaths. Have they achieved this so far? Nope. They “fell short of the target by almost half, with 1.6 million tests against a target of three million,” it’s been reported in Waka Kotahi’s annual report. Waka Kotahi said this was "well below desired levels," no kidding. What a surprise. So let’s look at

A call for employers to take more precautionary action, as supermarket crime soars. Since 2020, Foodstuffs says there's been a 246 percent rise in serious crime. The company has confirmed 29 of its supermarkets in the North Island are using facial recognition technology, prompting concern Foodstuffs is collecting sensitive information about shoppers without their knowledge. First Union General Secretary Dennis Maga told Kate Hawkesby facial recognition may help, but won't be enough to deter offenders. He says they'd like employers to hire loss prevention officers, train staff how to de-escalate a situation - and make sure there is enough staffing in the workplace.  LISTEN ABOVE  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.