Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive

An Australian restaurant is fighting the nation's worker shortage with grey power. Three-Sixty Q Restaurant in Queenscliff, Victoria put the call out to hire seniors - and now has 12 working on the roster. Owner Barry Iddles says there's no backpackers or international students to fill the gap. He says they're fantastic and customers love it - with every table that came in today saying they read i...

Ongoing road works in Tauranga and the resulting speed limits are being described as bedlam. Frustration among residents is reportedly so bad, security staff could soon be deployed to stop workers from being abused. The owner of Academy Motor Inn on Cameron Road, Simon Dreissens says it's worse than traffic in central London. He says looking out from his conference balcony now, all he can see is o...

Businesses in Auckland's Remuera are taking matters into their own hands to fight crime. The local business association has spent 180-thousand dollars installing a security system that can track the movement of vehicles and people. Remuera Business Association's Natalie Wright says it's all about safety. She says these youths are running around town, smashing and grabbing, and it's making tenants...

National is receiving minimal support for their youth crime policy, the proposal of boot camps and ankle monitors being called a ‘cliché’ and ‘a joke.’ Former Chief Science Officer Sir Peter Gluckman told Heather du Plessis-Allan that taking young offenders out of environments from which they can return to is unlikely to work, as it hasn’t in the past. He says any proposed solution needs to be ind...

The mother of a 29-year-old Kiwi killed in the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, says today's verdict does "nothing" to bring justice or closure. 29 year old Wellingtonian Robert Ayley was on board when the plane was shot down in eastern Ukraine in July 2014. A Dutch court has now convicted two Russians and a pro-Moscow Ukrainian separatist of the murders of the 298 passengers who died. We...

A shifting of the guard in the Democratic Party. US House of Representatives speaker, Nancy Pelosi, has announced she'll be stepping down from party leadership but will remain in Congress. US correspondent Dan Mitchinson told Heather du Plessis-Allan like her or not, she's been able to unite the party over the last two decades. He says she is a heck of a fundraiser, and the Democrats are going to...

I don’t blame you if your first reaction to National’s boot camp idea was to roll your eyes because, well, this is hardly a new idea from National is it?  They ran it out at the 2008 election, then closed the camps. They tried it at the 2017 election, but never got a chance to do it because Winston chose Jacinda. And frankly, it is a pretty old fashioned idea that gets trotted out by conservative...

Over in the UK, the annual Budget Day lead-up is promising a 'stormy' future for the public. All eyes are on Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, who has to fix the financial issues inflicted by the previous Liz Truss government. UK correspondent explained that this paired with Covid-19 doesn't paint a positive picture for the future.  Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has promised to lower the threshold from which peopl...

Today on The Huddle: David Farrar from Kiwiblog and Cuira pollster and Ali Jones from Red PR joined in on a discussion about the following topics- and more! National has recently suggested military bootcamps to cut down on our youth crime problem- is this more trouble than it's worth?  Phil Twyford's hired a mediator to sort out Christchurch council not passing the housing intensification regulati...

Over the last week, the cryptocurrency exchange FTX imploded after marketing itself as the safest and easiest way to get into crypto-based investing. The second biggest crypto exchange sought bankruptcy last week, and then company CEO Sam Bankman-Fried  resigned. Turns out, FTX had just $900 million dollars in liquid assets against  $9 billion in liabilities. Sam Dickie, Fisher Funds Senior Portfo...

Tomorrow marks the final day farmers can submit feedback on He Waka Eke Noa, the agricultural emissions tax plan. Ever since this bill was first brought forward on October 10th,  it has inspired widespread outrage and protests from various sectors from the farming community. The Country's Jamie Mackay has noted that it doesn't seem likely that the Government will make any drastic changes, as all t...

The Reserve Bank is set to meet next week, and speculation suggests rates may be hiked again. Liam Dann, NZ Herald business editor at large is among the many who assumes a 75 basis points hike is looking likely. Liam Dann notes that this basis points hike is high, and that it could put the OCR at a level we haven't seen since the global financial crisis. Even the less likely 50 percent basis point...

A cycleway located in Wellington's Oriental Bay is being ripped apart for repairs after just four years. Water had been pooling on to sections of the cycleway after rainstorms, which was putting less experienced users off the track.  Wellington City Council spokesperson Richard MacLean confirmed that these repairs were needed to improve drainage and stop the track from flooding. Richard MacLean kn...

A major drop in national smoking rates means Smoke-Free 2025 is looking much more attainable. The annual New Zealand Health Survey shows about one in eight adults smoke cigarettes daily,making it one of the lowest in the world. There has also been a drop in smoking rates for Maori, with women now less likely to smoke daily than men. ASH Director Ben Youdan says the big drop is very, very encouragi...

A group of 28 are set to play a game of football that will last until Sunday to raise money for Gumboot Friday. This match starts tomorrow, and is designed to break a world record for 'longest game of football played'. One of these 28 players, Phil Chapman, says that this match is expected to last 45 hours, and that they have to break that to reach the world record. They've raised $42,000 in donat...

They're going to have to work with us, because this won't go away. This from Christchurch City Councillor Sam MacDonald after the Government appointed a mediator to work with the council on its housing intensification plan. It comes after the council defied the Government's requirements to put in place new density rules. MacDonald says they've got several issues with the proposal. He explained the...

Chris Luxon's defending a Party policy announced today, to send repeat youth offenders to boot camp - and monitor kids with ankle bracelets. National met anger from across the House today - for plans to put 15-to-17-year old serious offenders in military academies, for disciplining and rehabilitation. They'd subject children as young as 10 to electronic monitoring or intensive supervision. Luxon s...

National Party leader Chris Luxon made an announcement saying that the party plans to introduce military academies aimed at young offenders. Chris Luxon observed that Labour's "soft on crime" approach was failing, and that these stricter measures would stop young criminals from doing further damage. This plan has been viewed as controversial, and political editor Barry Soper says that people are s...

Over in Australia , a law preventing the reuse of evidence in sexual assault cases is set to be changed by the ACT Government. The new law change is said to be inspired by the ongoing Brittany Higgins trial, and it means that Brittany Higgins or anyone in a similar situation will be able to submit recorded testimonies for their retrials. Australian correspondent Murray Olds explains what this new...

In ASB Classic news, Emma Raducanu is the latest big name confirmed to appear at this event in 2023. Emma Raducanu has already made a great name for herself, having beaten 19-year-old Leylah Fernandez to win the singles final at the 2021 US Open.  Tennis fans will have a lot to look forward to, as Sportstalk host D'Arcy Waldegrave said here today. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for priva...

The Government has fast-tracked the development of 700 homes in the Napier region, which has elicited confusion. This Napier region is set on a flood plain, and has been fast-tracked by the Government because of the hundreds of jobs it could bring to the area. Despite this, Hawke's Bay regional councillor Neil Kirton is scratching his head over this choice Neil Kirton explained that floods are a c...

A Russian-made missile was accidentally fired into Polish territory and killed two people. Since Poland is a member of NATO, their leaders met to try and identify where the missile came from. It landed in Poland around the same time Russia launched a wave of missiles into Ukranian cities, but Russia and the Ukraine are denying claim to the missile. UK correspondent Kay Oliver explained after the f...

Aussies travelling to Queenstown are keeping our tourism recovery alive. Our numbers aren't at pre-pandemic levels, but we've had 151,300 arrivals in September, up from 129,800 in August 2022.  Kiwi departures are still outnumbering tourist arrivals, but the gap is getting smaller. And Australians are the ones bridging the gap, with their numbers being at 79 percent of what they were before Covid....

Hong Kong stocks have jumped more than 7 percent as China announced an ease in Covid restrictions. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index is reporting the best month in over a decade, and this is linked to China cutting back on quarantine measures for citizens and inbound travellers.  Deborah Lambie from Milford Asset Management explained how China's easing of restrictions is affecting the economy, and what...

Today on the Huddle, we were joined by Ben Thomas from Capital PR and Jack Tame, host of Q&A and ZB's Saturday Mornings to talk about the following topics- and more! Chris Luxon's comments about school leaders affecting poor attendance numbers were fairly controversial- was the backlash justified? Chris Luxon also u-turned on a clean car discount, which he then u-turned, and then announced ano...