Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive

Tonight on The Huddle, Jack Tame from ZB's Saturday Mornings and Q&A and Jordan Williams from the Taxpayers' Union joined in on a discussion about the following issues of the day - and more!  Groundswell is calling on the Government to pull New Zealand out of the Paris Agreement. Do we see ourselves leaving - or will the agreement fall apart on its own? Biotechnology company 23andMe is be...

Education Minister Erica Stanford has called in some help from international experts in a bid to get the nation's education stats on the up. Former UK Minister of Schools, Sir Nick Gibb, led similar charges a decade ago - and the UK went from the bottom of OECD ranking to 4th in the world for reading and 11th for maths. He's consulting with Erica Stanford - and he's revealed what New Zealand can l...

I think in the end, Groundswell is gonna be proven right - but I don't think they're gonna get what they want right now and I don't think they should get what they want right now. Because what they want is for New Zealand to pull out of the Paris Agreement. Now, we cannot pull out of the Paris Agreement. At least, we can't pull out right now, right? We cannot be one of the first to pull out, becau...

On the Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive Full Show Podcast for Wednesday, 11 June 2025, the real story of why Adrian Orr quit his Reserve Bank Governor job is out... so what was all the secrecy about? The Israeli ambassador speaks to Heather after the NZ Government imposed a travel ban on two Israeli Ministers. A luxury real estate agent reckons we could attract hundreds of millions of dollars in inv...

An open letter has been written to the Prime Minister urging Luxon to ease the ban on foreign house buyers. This letter comes after multiple NBR Rich Listers told NBR that making it easier for foreign investors to buy homes here would make New Zealand a better place to do business. Luxury property real estate agent Anthony Morsinkhof provided the open letter - and he says he has clients looking to...

An Israeli diplomat is criticising New Zealand's sanctioning two of his country's ministers.  Our Foreign Minister's barred the two high-ranking politicians from travelling here, following the lead of Australia, the UK, Canada, and Norway.   Winston Peters says they are extremists who've advocated for violating international law.  Ambassador to New Zealand, Alon Roth-Snir, says he w...

Biotechnology company 23andMe is being taken to court by over 27 US states over plans to auction off customers' personal genetic information without their consent. The company has collected biological samples and genetic information from over 15 million customers - including many here in New Zealand. Privacy lawyer Rick Shera says 23andMe's built a tempting service - but you never know where this...

New research paints a stark picture of the consequences of Oranga Tamariki's system not helping young Māori enough. An Independent Children's Monitor report shows tamariki and rangatahi Māori are over-represented - and being let down. They make up two-thirds of those in care and more than three-quarters in youth justice custody. Monitor Chief Executive Arran Jones says young Māori adults involved...

A former Reserve Bank economist is calling out his former employers' lack of transparency. The bank today revealed Adrian Orr quit as Governor in March, when the five-year funding for the RBNZ was much less than anticipated.  Michael Reddell says the bank waited far too long to say why Orr left so abruptly.   "It's just extraordinary - maybe they couldn't tell us the full story on the da...

Revelation of long-awaited details of Reserve Bank Governor Adrian Orr's March resignation. In February, Orr emailed his board - saying there were significant differences in the funding needed and how much the Government would provide. The bank confirmed its board agreed to a lesser amount of funding and that caused Orr's resignation. NZ Herald political editor Thomas Coughlan says it's unclear wh...

Protesters are being arrested one-by-one in downtown LA's mile-square curfew zone. Mayor Karen Bass called the curfew after looting and violence at the protests over the President's migrant deportations. Californian leaders are slamming Donald Trump for sending in Marines and troops to California, and demonstrations have broken out in other US cities. US correspondent Dan Mitchinson says many beli...

Golfer Ryan Fox is refusing to buy too much into his victories at Myrtle Beach and Toronto as an indicator for potential US Open success. Four of the last five PGA Tour tournaments have been won by Fox or three-time major winner Scottie Scheffler. Sportstalk host D'Arcy Waldegrave explains further. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Groundswell is using Fieldays' first day to call for New Zealand to pull out of the Paris Climate Agreement.  The grassroots advocacy group seeks to halt or rewrite what regulations impacting farmers it calls 'unworkable'.  Co-founder Bryce McKenzie says the agreement's costing New Zealand money and farming land.  He says the wind's changed on this issue.  "And I think Winston...

Millions more pensioners will receive the winter fuel payment as the UK Government makes changes to eligibility. The payment was paid only to those on pension credit last year. UK correspondent Enda Brady explains further - and unpacks the reactions. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Acting Reserve Bank Governor Christian Hawkesby left experts speculating about the future of interest rates following the recent OCR cut. More banks have slashed their rates after the recent announcement, but questions have been raised over future cuts. HSBC chief economist Paul Bloxham speculates further. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Country's Jamie Mackay is off to Fieldays - and he's feeling hopeful ahead of this year's event. Farmers are in a better state of mind this time round, and it's expected this community-wide enthusiasm will shine through at the event. Jamie Mackay explained further. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

New census data shows more Kiwis are moving house than ever and it's raised questions among experts. 45 percent of New Zealanders have moved address over the last five years - a noticeable increase on previous data. Infometrics principal economist Brad Olsen explains why this could be the case. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tonight on The Huddle, Ben Thomas and Craig Renney joined in on a discussion about the following issues of the day - and more!  Should kids who are homeschooled be excluded from sports competitions? Does this seem unfair? The Auckland property valuations are out - and many aren't happy with their property values taking a dive. What do we make of all this? New research shows more Kiwis feel re...

On the Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive Full Show Podcast for Tuesday, 10 June 2025, Police Minister Mark Mitchell responds to a new report warning corrupt police, customs and immigration officers are on the increase. Bloodbath! Auckland home owners are coming to grips with their very disappointing property valuations - and real estate agent Rawdon Christie says it's already having an impact on the...

It is as expected - if our office is anything to go by, Auckland is a miserable town today because the house valuations are out, and they're bad. Just about everyone has jumped on the computer to have a look by now, I'd say, and just about everyone's house has gone backwards. So my house - it's gone down in value by 8 percent. One of the bosses, not too bad, only gone back by 4 percent. I don...

A group of lawyers are suing the Climate Minister - suggesting the Government's emissions reduction plan doesn't go far enough. They want a judicial review over the coalition's cancelling of policies from the plan set in place by the previous Government.  Climate consultant Dr Christina Hood says if the group is successful, the court can order the Government to rethink the current scheme. "Th...

A 13-year old mountain biker is asking for Government intervention over being denied a medal because she was home-schooled. Amelia Twiss came third at the North Island school champs, but was bumped to fourth because of a rule requiring contestants to attend a school. She is now cycling more than 500km to the Beehive - from Cambridge's NZ cycling HQ - to present her petition. She says the exclusion...

New figures from NZ Post’s latest eCommerce Market Sentiments Report show more Kiwis get last-minute jitters before they check out. The data shows 68 percent of shoppers would abandon their cart if the cost of delivery was too high and 57 percent would hit the exit button if free returns weren't available. Murray Crane from Crane Brothers says it's likely people are treating the cart like a 'Pinte...

Buyers could hold all the cards, based on a plunge in Auckland Council home valuations. Numbers have been released today for 630,000 properties across the region, and will affect how the spread of rates from next month. On average, residential homes dropped nine percent from 2021 CVs. Real estate agent, Rawdon Christie, says buyers could use it to help beat down prices. He explained they're making...

The Police Minister says we must always keep an eye on corruption. An independent advisory panel has urged the Government to act against organised crime networks targeting Pacific borders. The report highlights the risk people working in customs and immigration will be targeted by bribery and corruption, to let groups smuggle in goods. Mark Mitchell says New Zealand's not immune to bad behaviour....