First Up Podcast

On today's First Up pod - incoming Prime Minister Chris Hipkins says he'll be reigning in non-essential government programmes. So what's Chippy gonna chop? We'll have analysis from former Labour chief whip Sue Moroney; Te Pati Maori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer discusses what his leadership means for Maori and we'll take a look at Carmel Sepuloni, the first person of Pasifika heritage to become...

On our final First Up pod for 2022 with Anna Thomas - we touch down in the USA with Bevan Hurley and Nabil Ahmed in Africa; and it's fruit of the year time with our Minister of Fruit and Veggies; former soldier Tenby Powell discusses his efforts to galvanise support for Ukraine; we bring you a guide to what's happening in Christchurch this summer and we have a poem from New Zealand's poet laureate...

On today's First Up pod with Anna Thomas - our reporters hit the streets of Auckland for tips on how to get rid of visitors who outstay their Christmas welcome; will ditching the fuel tax raise inflation - we ask Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson and the head of a major trucking association explains why our hauliers aren't happy about it; plus, we take the road less travelled to the self-decla...

On today's First Up pod with Anna Thomas - TradeMe's featured property this week is perched high above Russell and is best seen by helicopter; we take a look at fun things to do on a budget in both Auckland and Dunedin; we talk to a man who dug a 125 metre trench in an Ohope hill to create an epic waterslide and we hear from the mayor of the Australian region where two police officers and an innoc...

On today's First Up pod with Anna Thomas - We ask National's deputy leader Nicola Willis if she reckons the TVNZ-RNZ merger is a lame duck; oh no - it's 9pm on Christmas Eve and you forgot to buy last minute present for Uncle Bert - what do you do? The Black Ferns are on a tour of Aotearoa, we talk to Alana Bremner about the post World Cup celebrations and what is it really like selling your house...

On today's First Up pod with Anna Thomas - an immunologist says a lack of reliable data means we could be heading into the Christmas period with far more Covid infections than we're aware of; we ask the son of a dairy owner killed in 2014 what he thinks of the government's new initiative to tackle youth crime; and we hear from a woman who knows the ghost, said to haunt the St Bathans Vulcan Hotel....

On today's First Up pod - Harry and Meghan drop a barrage of Royal bombshells in their just-released Netflix documentary; Christmas in the Park returns for the first time in two years ... let's hope rain doesn't make it three from three and Christmas just wouldn't be Christmas without that most famous of all the festive traditions: the Veneration of the Yuletide Frog - well, that's not quite true,...

On today's First Up pod: summer travel plans hit turbulence due to a bad batch of aviation fuel - we'll see how it might affect one of our smaller carriers, Air Chathams and we ask the Deputy PM Grant Robertson whether keeping Marsden Point could have helped; kiwi are back in Whakatane and we took a trip to find out why a proposed crossing between the two Coromandal towns is such a big deal. First...

On today's First Up pod - we find out what happens if the court is granted guardianship of a baby whose parents won't let him be vaccinated with blood from anyone who's had the Covid vaccine and if you find yourself famished after a big night out, don't turn on the stove, especially if you've had a few. We talk to a chef who's come up with recipes that don't require cooking. First Up - Voice of th...

On today's First Up pod - we find out why businsses are going through an "inventory crisis" and making significantly less money as a result; we ask National's deputy leader Nicola Willis if her party would reintroduce the fuel tax in January and we speak to marathon man, ultra runner Daniel Jones winner of the Christchurch, Queenstown and Auckland marathons. First Up - Voice of the Nathan!

On today's First Up pod - the MP for Te Atatu, Phil Twyford, who represented the electorate when dairy owner Arun Kumar was killed in 2014 met his son on Sunday and is with us; Kaipara's mayor defends his decision to ban Karakia from council meetings; and as people are asked to reign in their spending to bring down inflation, we speak to a woman who doesn't need the Reserve Bank to tell her to hav...

On today's First Up pod - China's former leader Jiang Zemin has died at the age of 96; we talk with our correspondents in the UK and Sweden; Labour's Grant Robertson on raising the age of superannuation to 67 and the legal wrangle over a sick baby whose parents want him treated with unvaccinated blood - we hear from a medical ethicist and more than 33,000 Sydneysiders get their Covid infringement...

On today's First Up pod - Protests continue over covid restrictions in China - we cross to Hong Kong; we're in Doha for the latest as the soccer/football world cup continues and 21 security cameras, a fog cannon, a lattice wire, two cages and metre-high bollards outside.. we go INSIDE what could be New Zealand's most secure dairy. First Up - Voice of the Nathan!

On today's First Up pod - National accuses the government of being soft on crime but we remind Nicola Willis they were accused of the same thing following the 2014 stabbing death of another Auckland dairy worker; dairy owners fear they will have to take matters into their own hands despite the Government's announcement of a fog cannon subsidy scheme and fog cannons, how do they work and how much d...

On today's First Up pod - We touch down in the US and Europe; First Up was at yesterday's funeral of slain dairy worker Janak Patel and the chair of the Sandringham Business Association is with us and, as the campaign to save Auckland's historic St James Theatre ramps up, we got a rare chance to take a look inside. First Up - Voice of the Nathan!

On today's First Up pod - Black Friday is upon us, we find out if the cost of living crunch may keep people away from the shops; Retail New Zealand boss Greg Harford joins us to talk to us about Paywave fees and if we really need to pay it and Sandringham residents demand answers after a dairy worker was stabbed and killed on the job amid revelations its owners had asked twice for a fog cannon. Fi...

On today's First Up pod - the latest from Indonesia, where the scale of a 5.6 earthquake is beginning to unfold; what does it take to be a world speed golf champ - a New Zealander - we speak to Jamie Reid; gale squalls and thunderstorms, gnarly weather sweeps most of the country and 11-year-old leukaemia survivor Lucia Hurst who was gifted Ruby Tui's World Cup winners medal says she's been sleepin...

On today's First Up pod - why is Mangawhai in Northland is the new hot spot and the strain on infrastructure; we ask National's deputy leader Nicola Willis why her party's so opposed to 16 year olds having the vote, after the Supreme Court ruled that excluding them amounts to unjustified discrimination and we speak with one of the unsung heroes of the country's Covid response - the wastewater test...

On today's First Up pod - We cross to the United States where a special counsel has been appointed to determine whether Donald Trump should face criminal charges; back home public transport operators are in desperate need of more drivers - we talk to an Auckland Transport official about how the weekend's job fair went and we hit the road with the "Michael Shumacher" of bus drivers to find out what...

On today's First Up pod - we head to the United States where a growing lineup of his former allies are turning their backs on Donald Trump; we catch up with the head of the 48 hour film festival ahead of tonight's final; the president of Rugby League Samoa on his team's shot at becoming world champions this weekend and an Australian hospitality boss has found a way around the counrtry's worker sho...

On today's First Up pod - we're in Poland where tensions are high after a missile killed two people near the border with Ukraine and Henry Riley has the UK's reaction; a new documentary explores when the word "homosexual" appears in the Bible and we ask acting prime minister Grant Robertson if we're in for another Covid summer as new modelling suggests we could hit 11-thousand cases a day. First U...

On today's First Up pod - a helter-skelter action packed programme for our Prime Minister as she heads to APEC in Thailand; the countdown is on.. NASA's Artemis rocket is set to blast into space for the first time; daily covid numbers creep above 4000 for the first time in three months and New South Wales battles the largest flood disaster in it's history - New Zealand sends in fire and emergency...

On today's First Up pod - US Republicans ponder their future; we ask National's deputy leader Nicola Willis why they're pledging to repeal the offshore oil and gas exploration ban, just as world leaders at Cop 27 warn fossil fuels are setting us on a highway to hell; we hear the reason as to why a Japanese town is livestreaming leaders faces during meetings and the Repair Cafes giving a second lif...

On today's First Up pod - we're in the US as final votes from the mid-terms trickle in and control of the Senate is decided; burnt-out and at the end of their tether, we hear from AUT nursing students who say they've been mistreated, overworked and exploited and we recap the magnificent Black Ferns World Cup final win with former Black Fern Farah Palmer First Up - Voice of the Nathan!

On today's First Up pod - we cross to the US where the "red wave" predicted by pollsters failed to occur in the mid-term elections; hospitality businesses tell us the post-lockdown boom they'd hoped for is yet to arrive and rugby great Kawhena Woodman reflects on how attitudes to the women's game have changed as his daughter Portia prepares to play in a World Cup final at a sold out Eden Park. Go...