Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive

Parents, friends and partners of Taylor Swift fans will have the opportunity to take a college class on the pop star. Glasgow Clyde College aims to educate students on Swift's songs, 'evolving wardrobe and hairstyles' and crowd chants ahead of her tour's stop in Edinburgh. UK correspondent Gavin Grey says the course has been designed to get casual listeners up to speed on all things Taylor. LISTEN...

Restaurant Brands New Zealand is enjoying a strong first quarter for the 2024 financial year. The restaurant operator reported $302.6 million in sales, a 7.9 percent increase from the same period last year. Milford Asset Management's Jeremy Hutton explains Restaurant Brands' financial recovery. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Government plans to tax commercial property owners an extra $575 million a year in order to fund residential property and income tax cuts.  Finance Minister Nicola Willis is standing by her decision to remove ability for commercial and industrial owners to deduct depreciation as an expense going forward. NZ Herald Wellington business editor Jenee Tibshraeny explains the impact of these changes...

Question marks over the Christchurch Call, as Budget Day approaches. Newstalk ZB's revealed the organisation led by Dame Jacinda Ardern has been accused of pressuring its advisory network to not publicise critical reports. Prime Minister Chris Luxon says it's done good things - but now there's a conversation to be had, on how the organisation evolves now, five years on. ZB senior political corresp...

The Insurance Council is backing calls for Kiwis to lift their understanding of the risks of natural hazards. The Reserve Bank has released an excerpt on insurance in its upcoming Financial Stability Report. It says insurers, Government, home buyers and lenders all need to up their knowledge, so that future insurance affordability challenges, can be better managed. Insurance Council chief executiv...

Foreign Minister Winston Peters has delivered a speech to the Institute of International Affairs at Parliament. Peters laid out the the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand's foreign policy - touching on the war in both Ukraine and Gaza. He outlined our position in AUKUS, saying we must first be invited to join in the first place. ZB political reporter Sophie Trigger says Peters says th...

On the Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive Full Show Podcast for Wednesday, 1 May 2024, the unemployment rate has risen to 4.3% - the highest it's been in three years. BNZ's Stephen Toplis tells Heather whether this means we'll see interest rates drop soon. The Real Estate Institute is disappointed the Government doesn't want to regulate property managers anymore. Former National MP Simon O'Connor reve...

Tonight on The Huddle, Matt Heath from Radio Hauraki and Jack Tame From ZB's Saturday Mornings and Q&A joined in on a discussion about the following issues of the day - and more! New reports show the Hamilton-Auckland Te Huia train service is meeting all its targets. Does this mean the Government should keep funding it? How long can the service last? The Government has scrapped a Bill designed...

There's hope that the Te Huia train service from Hamilton to Auckland is on track for more funding after July. An interim performance assessment of the past two years shows increased demand with targets for 250 passengers a day on weekdays and 100 on the weekend being achieved. It's also meeting its net emissions goal 80 percent of the time. Waikato regional councillor Angela Strange says the serv...

Grey Power is calling for a change in elderly driver assessments, claiming the current process penalises licence holders in most need. The SIMARD-MD and Mini-ACE are cognitive tests designed to identify drivers at risk, but these tests have faced criticism for not accounting for driving ability.  Grey Power vice president David Marshall says people have labelled these tests 'demeaning'. "A vast ma...

A former National MP has revealed details of being targeted by Chinese state-sponsored hackers in 2021. Simon O'Connor and former Labour MP Louisa Wall claim they were specifically hit in the cyber-attack, revealed last month. Both say they weren't informed by the current or previous Government - and want an investigation. Both represented New Zealand on the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China....

Economists forecast unemployment will climb higher. New data shows it reached 4.3 percent in March, up from 4 percent in the December quarter. This comes at a time where higher interest rates are biting, as the Reserve Bank tries to rein in inflation. BNZ Head of Research Stephen Toplis says it could go as high as 5.5 percent. "We're really sort of experiencing, I think, the worst of things at the...

Over in the US, police are still out in full force at New York's Columbia University. Hundreds of officers have cleared a campus building occupied by students holding a pro-Palestinian protest. US correspondent, Dan Mitchinson, says police have been asked to stay through the middle of the month. He says it's sparked activism on dozens of campuses. "I don't think we've had demonstrations like these...

Kirk Penney has become just the second New Zealander to earn selection in international basketball's Hall of Fame. The Tall Blacks icon will join Pero Cameron - selected in 2017 - as a FIBA Hall of Famer. Sportstalk host D'Arcy Waldegrave explains further. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There's disappointment a Bill that would have regulated property managers more has been withdrawn. Housing Minister Chris Bishop has scrapped the Property Managers bill, saying the cost-benefit was marginal at best. He says it would have cost tenants and landlords. Real Estate Institute CEO Jen Baird says the figures involved were small. "Some of the numbers that I've seen have been 43 cents per p...

Prince Harry is set to visit the UK for the Invictus Games's 10-year anniversary - but he won't be meeting with his father. Reports suggest King Charles' diary is full and the monarch will be 'too busy' to see Prince Harry this time. UK correspondent Enda Brady says this shows tensions are still high between the rest of the royals and Harry. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy inf...

The latest ANZ Business Outlook survey shows confidence is declining. Business confidence dropped 8 points to +15 in April, expected own activity fell 9 points to +14, and past own activity dropped 13 points to -20. Infometrics principal economist Brad Olsen explains what this means for the state of the economy.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Australian financial markets appear to be bracing themselves for bad news. They've made a sudden shift from pricing in rate cuts to pricing in potential rate hikes, and economists fear increases to the OCR are coming. HSBC chief economist Paul Bloxham says interest rates aren't likely to be dropping any time this year. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Australia's farmers have been struggling under ongoing droughts and low rainfall. The unfavourable weather conditions have led to farmers de-stocking or selling their stock at a significant loss. The Country's Rowena Duncum warns it'll take more than one rainstorm to address this. LISTEN ABOVE   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A newly-released report from the entity tasked with setting MPs' pay has recommended multiple pay rises over the coming three years. The Remuneration Authority's recommendation would see the Prime Minister's salary incrementally go from $471,000 a year now, to $520,000 a year in July 2026. ZB political correspondent Barry Soper says the perception is this is concerning, in light of recent cuts to...

A 17-year-old girl has shocked NSW authorities by stabbing her younger sister to death. Emergency services were called to a Boolaroo address to address a stabbing that occurred at 3:45pm on Monday. Australian correspondent Murray Olds says police were mystified by this case - and haven't uncovered a motive. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive Full Show Podcast for Tuesday, 30 April 2024, the Prime Minister and all MPs are in for a significant pay rise. Remuneration Authority Chair Geoff Summers tells Heather how he determined how much more they should be paid. Exclusive revelations about the Christchurch Call. Whistleblower Milton Mueller from the Georgia Institute of Technology reveals how the Chr...

New anti-scam measures are on the way for online banking. The New Zealand Banking Association has today announced our banks will roll out a 'confirmation of payee' service by the end of the year. It will make direct cash transfers more secure, by cross checking names registered to accounts when transfers are made. Chief executive Roger Beaumont says this project has been in the works since Septemb...

Tonight on The Huddle, Kaine Thompson and Jordan Williams from the Taxpayers' Union joined in on a discussion about the following issues of the day - and more! Do we really need to keep funding the Christchurch Call? It's been revealed the Christchurch Call Secretariat pressured an independent advisory network not to publish critical reports into members of the Call. Should we scrap it? Despite th...

Newstalk ZB can reveal allegations the Christchurch Call has silenced members of its Advisory Network - and pressured them to not release critical reports of member countries. Because of that, a group called the Internet Governance Project, has quit. Project founder and Network reviewer, Milton Mueller says India wasn't honouring its commitments. "They really didn't seem to have much of an officia...