Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive

I'm not sure the Health Minister's office has its priorities right. Last night we learned that a healthy 50 year old woman died in Middlemore hospital on Wednesday, reportedly because the emergency department is so stretched they couldn’t attend to her quickly enough. She came in with a severe headache at 1am on Wednesday, they told her the wait to be seen was 8 hours.  Because Middlemore is being...

Backlash to proposals to allow local councils to fast-track cycleway road work with less consultation. Transport Minister Michael Wood is under fire from Wellington businesses with the High Court recently granting an interim injunction over the Newtown cycleway construction. The proposal would put an end to local businesses being able to use the court system to stop work being done. Local business...

The Christchurch Santa Parade won’t be returning to the city this year as we know it. Instead of taking to the streets, it’ll take place inside the Christchurch Arena in a hybrid parade show. And instead of being free, it’ll cost up to $15. Christchurch Santa Parade director Jason Reekers joined Heather du Plessis-Allan. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Association of Salaried Medical Specialists' says many of our emergency departments are smashed. A woman has died with a brain bleed after allegedly being told by staff at Middlemore Hospital it would be eight hours before she was examined. An unnamed doctor from the Auckland hospital says the 50-year-old - who presented early Wednesday morning with a severe headache - left. Executive Director...

The Tauranga by-election wraps up on Saturday. National’s Sam Uffindell is tipped to win what is a safe seat for them. The latest poll has Uffindell at 45 percent to Labour’s Jan Tinetti at 35 percent. It has been revealed that more than two thirds have been spent on consultants. Where Transport Minister Michael Wood has defended the spending, National’s Simeon Brown has said the project was going...

Donald Trump's extraordinary effort to overturn his 2020 election defeat came into ever-clearer focus Thursday, with testimony describing his pressuring Vice President Mike Pence in vulgar private taunts and public entreaties to stop the certification of Joe Biden's victory in the run-up to the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection. Trump's closest advisers viewed his last-ditch efforts to halt congressiona...

The Blues are back to the big dance. They host the Crusaders for tomorrow's Super Rugby Final. It's the first time the Blues are in the final since 2003, when they last beat the Crusaders on Eden Park. Damien McKenzie may not be eligible for the Rugby Championship. He'll have to play a full season of NPC rugby for Waikato, which rules him out for Ireland, as well as the Rugby Championship. Weekend...

Canterbury University civil engineering students are angry about a test 80 percent of the class failed. The third year students wrote a letter to Stuff, complaining that it's the tutors - rather than the students - fault. UC's acting executive dean of engineering says he's sympathetic, and it may have come as a shock. But Conan Fee told Heather du Plessis-Allan people don't necessarily understand...

Kids in New South Wales and Victoria are soon going to get an extra year of school. Every four-year-old will be offered five days of pre-kindergarten a week within the next eight years. Early Childhood Australia CEO Samantha Page joined Heather du Plessis-Allan. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Are you a Covid cavalier type of person or are you Covid cautious? New research from AUT has found that about half of Kiwi workers are anxious to return to the office because of the risk of catching Covid - making them Covid cautious. This could cause tension with the other half - Covid cavalier - who are a little bit more gung-ho. AUT Business School Professor Jarrod Haar joined Heather du Plessi...

501 deportee discussions are being brought closer to home, as a Samoan-born Upper Hutt man waits to find out his fate. Mose Vaipapa hasn't lived in Samoa since he was four but is now facing deportation back there. He served 15 years in jail as a teenager, and says he'd rather go back to prison than Samoa. One of the Poririua Kapiti community law centre lawyers working to keep him here, Mike Sceats...

Tension and frustration are boiling over for some New Zealand agribusiness sector leaders but the focus must be on what is controllable to catch many opportunities in the current crises, finds a report from KPMG. The Country host Jamie Mackay joined Heather du Plessis-Allan to discuss. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Financial Markets Authority say one in ten Kiwis hold some form of cryptocurrency and those who invest in shares have overtaken term deposit investors. Hatch co-founded Natalie Ferguson joined Heather du Plessis-Allan. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With today's GDP figures this is more topical than ever. How close are we to a recession and what does that mean for investors? Sam Dickie from Fisher Funds joined Heather du Plessis-Allan to talk investing in a tough economic climate. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

New entertainment options could be the driving force behind the plummet of traditional TV. Television audience numbers peaked around 2010, according to data leaked by a client of ratings agency Nielsen to The Spinoff. Back then 150,000 peopled aged 18 to 34 were watching throughout the day, now it's only 46-thousand. Victoria University media expert Peter Thompson told Heather du Plessis-Allan the...

Our economy has shrunk 0.2 percent in the first quarter. No expert predictions were correct; Kiwibank was actually predicting a rise of 0.8 percent. Liam Dann, NZ Herald Business Editor at Large joined Heather du Plessis-Allan. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Journalist Clare de Lore and Public Relations specialist Hayden Munro joined Heather du Plessis-Allan on The Huddle. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The reserve bank predicted our GDP figures would show a 0.7 percent growth today. The numbers released in fact showed our economy has contracted by 0.2 percent. Omicron and the lack of international tourists clearly had more impact than the experts were anticipating. Sharon Zollner, ANZ's Chief Economist joined Heather du Plessis-Allan. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy informat...

Australia's new foreign minister has told her New Zealand counterpart the country has a "unique and powerful voice" in the Pacific sphere. Penny Wong and Nanaia Mahuta met at Parliament for the first time in their respective roles. Wong's visit comes amid a whirlwind start to the job, having now visited five countries across the Pacific in just over three weeks. She will travel to the Solomon Isla...

Adrian Orr’s been at it again on behalf of the Reserve Bank comparing themselves to flora and fauna. Remember how back in September last year the Assistant Governor Christian Hawkesby said the Bank’s approach to Covid was inspired by a bird, specifically, the white heron? Well this time, they're a tree. Act’s drawn media attention to a speech Adrian Orr has compared the reserve bank to Tāne Mahuta...

Adrian Orr’s been at it again on behalf of the Reserve Bank comparing themselves to flora and fauna. Remember how back in September last year the Assistant Governor Christian Hawkesby said the Bank’s approach to Covid was inspired by a bird, specifically, the white heron? Well this time, they're a tree. Act’s drawn media attention to a speech Adrian Orr has compared the reserve bank to Tāne Mahuta...

The GDP figures for the March quarter are out tomorrow. Westpac, ANZ, BNZ all think it will be very very low, if not no growth. The March quarter has been dominated by Omicron, especially on the back of the previous quarter dominated by Delta. Infometrics principal economist Brad Olsen joined Heather du Plessis-Allan. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Britain canceled a flight that was scheduled to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda late Tuesday after the European Court of Human Rights intervened, saying the plan carried “a real risk of irreversible harm." The decision to scrap the flight capped three days of frantic court challenges from immigrant rights lawyers who launched a flurry of case-by-case appeals seeking to block the deportation of eve...

It's been a turbulent week for financial markets. The NZX has lost 5 percent this week, while KiwiSaver funds are heading south. As a result of this, the calls that we are in a bear market have started. It comes as the US Federal Reserve is set to announce its latest policy decisions. Milford Asset Management portfolio manager Sam Trethewey joined Heather du Plessis-Allan. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystu...

High interest rates are smashing New Zealand house prices. House prices have continued to fall through May and are now off around 6 percent since their peak in November last year according to REINZ figures. Annual house price growth has since slowed to just below 4 percent. NZ Herald Wellington Business Editor Jenee Tibshraeny joined Heather du Plessis-Allan. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listen...