Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has just wrapped up meetings at the East Asia Summit. The East Asia Summit consisted of 10 South East Asian countries which form the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, as well as others with interests in the region, including New Zealand. Jacinda Ardern has stated that New Zealand's purpose in attending was to diversify New Zealand's trade footprint. This has bee...

Today on The Huddle: Simon Wilson, New Zealand Herald senior writer and Clare de Lore, independent journalist, talked about the following topics- and more!  Do you believe this data that EV sales will overtake petrol and diesel by mid next year? It's official, Waka Kotahi is proposing to drop the speed limits on state highways as part of road to zero. Is this the way to go about road safety or a q...

The Black Ferns have just finished dominating at the Rugby World Cup after winning Saturday's final, and discussions about how to compensate them are on the table.  The All Blacks have always been given a bonus of at least $150,000 every time they've won a World Cup, but this standard isn't set in place for the Black Ferns. NZ Rugby has stated that they aim to fix this. Deputy Prime Minister and S...

The days of new petrol cars could be numbered. Dot Loves Data analysis shows numbers of registered electric cars have soared from just over 4 thousand in 2018 to more than 13 thousand by September this year. Hybrid and electric sales could overtake petrol and diesel as early as mid-next year. Government director Justin Lester says conversely, sales of new petrol cars have been dropping. He says th...

Mount Messenger bypass project protesters say they've bought a section of state highway they were previously trespassed from. They claim they paid land information $400 dollars for the land, and therefore can't be trespassed from it. But land information says it's not for sale, and never was. Marie Gibbs, a protester from the Poutama Charitable Trust says that since the land didn't have an officia...

With the Black Ferns' recent Rugby World Cup win on everybody's minds, discussions are being raised as to what this means for women's rugby as a whole. Dr Farah Palmer, former Black Ferns captain and current NZ Rugby board member says that this win opens the doors for the Black Ferns, and that keeping them in the spotlight is definitely top of mind for the future. Until then, scheduling more match...

The Black Ferns have won the Rugby World Cup at last Saturday's final match, and the best way to celebrate the team is up for discussion. Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson recently stated at an earlier post-cabinet press conference that a celebration will happen to honour the Black Fern's victory, but no further confirmation was given. Grant Robertson says that the Black Ferns deserved a celeb...

National's transport spokesman says New Zealanders are crying out for better road maintenance. The Party opposes Waka Kotahi's proposal to reduce speed limits on state highways across the country, to bolster road safety and save lives. Simeon Brown says it's a short-sighted solution that doesn't address the potholes peppering the highways. He says they aren't seeing the investment in the roads peo...

Australia and China may be looking at diplomatic collaboration, as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Chinese premier Li Keqiang had a discussion at a dinner in  Cambodia. Anthony Albanese has confirmed that he was prepared to meet with the Chinese premier in their first interaction in over three years. This brief interaction is also sets up the potential for Anthony Albanese to meet with Chinese...

Last weekend, the Black Ferns won the Rugby World Cup against England, with a final score of 34-31. This event was a big deal, with Spark Sport bringing in all the drones and high quality camera needed for a game this publicised.  However, Weekend Sport's Jason Pine has observed that the Black Ferns don't have any more games lined up after the World Cup, which is unusual. After a season this publi...

Developers are getting sick of the cost of traffic management. Some report paying 100 dollars an hour for road cones to block off parts of a cul-de-sac. Subdivide Simplified Managing Director, Troy Patchett, says many must also pay for a person to sit and watch the site. He says it feels like price gouging. Patchett says people are also billed for the hours the cone supervisor spends getting there...

The control of the US Congress still hangs in the balance, three days after polls closed. All eyes are on undecided Arizona and Nevada Senate races, as Georgia's contest heads to a December 6 runoff election. Republicans are still on track to win the House, however President Biden has noted the "giant red wave" didn't happen, and Democrats still have a chance there. International Corespondent Kath...

The Minister-in-charge of Three waters says we've lost sight of its real aims. A new report's outlined proposed changes based on cross-party select committee recommendations. These include an annual shareholders meeting and a mix of rural, provincial and metropolitan councils present on regional groups. Nanaia Mahuta says that debate around co-governance has been a distraction - and we've lost foc...

A new Auckland Council committee will look at all options to fill a $270 million hole in the budget. The Expenditure Control and Procurement Committee has been given until the end of March to identify savings to include in the next budget. Mayor Wayne Brown says he's picked members carefully to ensure it will also protect essential services. Councillor Maurice Williamson will lead it and told Andr...

Police worked for 12 months to stop a major theft ring. Operation Trump Card seized more than three thousand stolen items from homes and 15 commercial storage units, including 950 power tools, 46 heat pumps, 39 computers, and two baths. Wellington District Detective Inspector John van den Heuvel told Andrew Dickens that it's a good example of ground up Policing. He says their investigation started...

Food prices have risen to a fourteen year high, fruit and vegetables are soaring up 17% since this time last year. In contrast, restaurant prices have only gone up by 7.5%, the lowest number out of all three. National President of the Restaurant Association Mike Egan told Andrew Dickens that it can be ascribed to restaurants efficiency in providing food and using ingredients. LISTEN ABOVE See omny...

Eden Park has sold out for this weekend’s game, as the Black Ferns take on England in the Women’s Rugby World Cup. Former Black Ferns Captain Les Elder describes the teams playing style as “organized chaos,” and encourages them to stick to their style regardless of what the weather holds. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Over in the UK, a 23 year old man was arrested for throwing eggs at King Charles III and Camilla as they entered York. Charles and Camilla were walking through Micklegate Bar, a gateway where monarchs have been traditionally welcomed through for centuries, when the 23 year old man threw the eggs. Enda Brady explained that the man later got arrested on suspicion of a public order offence. None of t...

New data from the Education Review Office shows that only three out of five school aged kids regularly go in for lessons. EMA Head of Strategy Advocacy Alan McDonald explained that the declining attendance rates are worsening our worker shortage, as kids who miss out on school are less likely to develop the skills they need for workplace environments. Alan McDonald observes that the absentee rates...

Fonterra has issued a warning to farmers that they may have to meet sustainability expectations unless they want to face trade barriers and potentially lose customers. Fonterra Chair Peter McBride and chief executive Miles Hurrell announced at the annual meeting in Rotorua that they would need to set (and stay within) targets for Scope 3 carbon emissions. The Country's Jamie Mackay explained that...

This week has been a big one for banking news, between Adrian Orr getting another 5 years in his current role as Reserve Bank Governor and following that up with a divisive internal review. However, NZ Herald business editor at large Liam Dann feels concerned about how politicised this series of events has become. Liam Dann expands that it's not very encouraging for the current opposition party to...

Today on The Huddle: Cas Carter from Cas Carter Communications and Phil O'Reilly, former CEO of Business NZ and current Managing Director at Iron Duke Partners joined in on a discussion about the following topics- and more! The New Zealand Aged Care Association has launched some billboards today to raise awareness of the crisis facing the aged care sector. What do we think of these? And why doesn'...

One of New Zealand’s busiest townhouse developers says some of their staff have nothing to do. Williams Corporation is offering redundancy for up to 30 percent of staff, between here and in Australia and Asia. It says sales are down and it need to cut numbers. Staff who take the offer will get two months' pay. Co-founder Matthew Horncastle says the business remains profitable, but there's simply n...

A campaign pushing for funding for aged care has rapidly aged the Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and and Deputy Grant Robertson. The digitally aged images rendering the pair as 80-year-olds are featuring on large billboards around Wellington. Advocacy group Aged care Matters is looking for money for elderly care beds and for the Government to fix nursing shortages. Home of Compassion Director, Chri...

Tech company Meta has recently announced that they will be laying off at least 11,000 employees and extend a hiring freeze. Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg has stated that the company had been hiring "too aggressively" during the Covid-19 pandemic, and needed to counteract this through mass layoffs. Between Meta and the mass job cuts at Twitter, it's not an easy time for the tech industry workers out...