Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive

The Government's financial books have sunk further into debt in the year to June, with Treasury revealing the deficit on the Crown books deepened by $3.4 billion. It was also $1.8 billion worse than Treasury forecast in the May budget.  Minister of Finance Nicola Willis joins Francesca Rudkin to explain why.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hurricane Milton has made landfall in Florida, with over 5.5 million residents told to evacuate and officials calling the conditions 'unsurvivable'. Alison Piotrowski is Channel Nine's U.S. correspondent and she joins Francesca Rudkin live from Florida.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Community advocate David Letele has announced he will be shutting down his South Auckland foodbank which was supplying up to 1000 families a week.  The operation received $87,000 worth of Government support but was distributing more than $500,000 worth of food.  David Letele says he can no longer sustain the costs of running the foodbank as Government funding is no longer enough.  L...

Just how much Polkinghorne is enough Polkinghorne? Today it was announced that South Pacific Pictures, together with UK based production companies, are developing an original limited drama series "The Mysterious Death of Pauline Hanna". I wonder what Pauline would say if she could see the outcome of her death.  Firstly, her life was laid bare, her personal life forensically picked apart, disc...

Listen to the Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive Full Show Podcast for Wednesday 9 October. Get the Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive Full Show Podcast every weekday evening on iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's OCR announcement has got everyone thinking about what impact it will have on the housing market.  The Reserve Bank cut for a second time from 5.25% to 4.75%. CoreLogic's Chief Property Economist Kelvin Davidson joins Jack Tame to discuss when it will flow on to home loans.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Official Cash Rate is on its way down.  The Reserve Bank has cut the OCR by 50-basis points, from 5.25 to 4.75%.  It says inflation is within its 1-3% target range and this cut will help maintain that while avoiding unnecessary instability in parts of the economy.  Katlyn Parker of Milford Asset Management joined Jack Tame to unpack the cut and the impact it will have on the mar...

Tonight on the Huddle, Jordan Williams from the Taxpayers Union and NZ Herald Senior Writer Simon Wilson joined in on a discussion about the following issues of the day - and more! The Reserve Bank cut the OCR by 50 basis points this afternoon.  The Government has called for Sport NZ to update transgender inclusive community sport guidelines.  University of Auckland and Otago University...

The Government have today asked Sport New Zealand to review and update their principles for the inclusion of transgender people in community sport.  It outlined that the current guidelines do not reflect expectations that sport be about fairness and safety as wekk as diversity, inclusion, and equity.  Chris Bishop is the minister of sport and recreation and he joins Jack Tame to discuss...

Pop quiz! What of these causes the highest number of premature New Zealand deaths?  Bowel cancer? Diabetes? Road crashes? Melanoma? Air pollution? This will seem unbelievable to many Kiwis, but according to the Ministry of the Environment and Statistics New Zealand, here in good old clean-and-green New Zealand, air pollution kills more people than all of those other causes, combined.  Th...

Cinnabon is coming to New Zealand! The popular American bakery will open it's first store in Westfield New Market next month.  It will start off selling many of it's classic cinnamon scrolls and blended frozen drinks, which come in flavours like mango, strawberry, and cookies and cream.  Kathan Parikh is the director of Cinnabon New Zealand who acquired the franchise rights, he joins Jac...

Florida is bracing for 'the storm of the century' with Hurricane Milton now upgraded to a category five, with wind speeds of 270km/h.  Residents are evacuating by the millions, with officials saying it's a 'matter of life and death'.  Alison Piotrowski is Channel Nine's U.S. correspondent on the ground in Florida.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A bold move from the Reserve Bank as it has decided to cut the Official Cash Rate (OCR) by 50-basis points, from 5.25% to 4.75%. It's the second cut in a row, after the OCR was lowered in August - which was the first drop since May 2023.  All of the larger banks predicted the rise, but a 25-point drop was thought to be just as likely.  Co-operative Bank Chief Executive Mark Wilshire join...

Less than two weeks after Hurricane Helene hit the east coast of the United States, Floridians are gearing up for a new storm.  Hurricane Milton is currently a Category 5 storm, and locals are expecting it to be much more catastrophic than Helene.  Katherine Firkin is a U.S correspondent and joins Jack Tame with the latest.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy infor...

Two former members of a committee tasked with checking over assisted deaths to ensure the law worked as it should say the system is so broken they wouldn't have known if someone had wrongly died.  Doctors Jane Greville and Dana Wensley repeatedly raised concerns about incomplete information about a patient's health and the risk of coercion.  In one case, a patient with suspected dementia...

I fix my entire mortgage in three weeks' time, and find myself with the curious kind of conundrum that most of us with bog-standard family home mortgages couldn't have imagined at any point the last few years.  I waited for the email to land from the Monetary Policy Committee... Speed-read the Reserve Bank's statement and found myself with a simple question: Instead of fixing my mortgage at t...

Listen to the Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive Full Show Podcast for Tuesday 8 October. Get the Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive Full Show Podcast every weekday evening on iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tonight on the Huddle, CEO of the Maxim Institute Tim Wilson and Ali Jones from Red PR joined in on a discussion about the following issues of the day - and more! A sea turtle was filmed struggling in an oil spill near the HMNZS Manawanui wreck site. How much money should we be putting into fixing this disaster? Auckland dog shelters are forced to euthanise more dogs than at any point in the past...

The Retirement Commissioner is calling for action on the size of houses being built, with downsizing issues causing a headache for retirees and older people.  Two-bedrooms are fewer than 20% of the new stock and one-bedroom homes are less than 10%, with new terraced housing being unsuitable.  Jane Wrightson is the Retirement Commissioner and joins Jack Tame to discuss the urgent need for...

I went for a walk along K Road the other night and saw something I hadn't seen in the longest time: A new restaurant.  I didn't even step inside but it felt like a drink of cold water for a parched man in the desert. When was the last time I saw one of those?  It is, of course, a rarity. And hardly a sign that the entire economy is ready to take off. The number of new restaurants in that...

Tui Beer are under fire after referencing Philip Polkinghorne in their latest 'Yeah right' campaign. The new billboard reads: "Back to being a respectable meth smoking, sex worker loving doctor then. Yeah right." Polkinghorne was acquitted last month of murdering his wife, Pauline Hanna, after an eight week long trial in the High Court at Auckland.  Marketing expert Mike Hutcheson joins Jack...

A Coroner says the death of 19 year old Otago University student Sophia Crestani was a preventable tragedy. She died at an overcrowded flat party on Dundas Street five years ago.  Coroner Heather Mackenzie is recommending students take better safety measures at large parties.  Otago University Students' Association president, Keegan Wells, joins Jack Tame with more.  LISTEN ABOVE Se...

Fears continue to grow surrounding the impact the Manawanui Defence Force ship sinking will have on Samoan sea life.  The Navy says the ship - which sunk after hitting a reef on Saturday - had 950 tonnes of diesel fuel onboard.  Samoan locals say turtles have perished and oil can be smelt on Samoan beaches, while officials are scrambling to assess the damage.  Waikato University mar...

New South Wales government clashes with pro-Palestine group over the future of demonstrations in Sydney, the former leader of the Opposition in South Australia leaves Parliament amid a drug scandal, and Australians are being flown home on emergency flights from Lebanon.  Murray Olds is an Australian correspondent and he joins Jack Tame with all the latest.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.co...

Less than half of all dogs impounded in Auckland last year made it out alive, with an average of 11 euthanised each day.  Auckland Council euthanised just over 4000 dogs in the last financial year, up 50% from the year prior.  It marks the first time in a decade that more dogs were euthanised than rehomed and returned to their owners, and the council is pleading to potential owners to pr...