Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive

The amount of nicotine that young vapers are consuming is being compared to a pack-a-day cigarette habit. A survey of Year 10 students shows vaping rates have dramatically increased from 12 percent in 2019 to 20 percent last year. The Life Education Trust says schools are now battling to deal with kids who have dependency issues. Life Education Trust CEO John O’Connell joined Heather du Plessis-Al...

The Super Rugby Final has been confirmed. The Blues will have the home advantage over the Crusaders on Saturday, with the Blues scraping through to the final after beating the Brumbies by 1 point and the Crusaders' strong defensive showing against the Chiefs. The All Blacks have been named for the upcoming series against Ireland. Foster has named six debutants, including Blues duo Stephen Perofeta...

“Minor” changes have been made in the Cabinet reshuffle. Kris Faafoi and Trevor Mallard will leave their roles in Parliament, with Mallard among the outgoing MPs heading for overseas diplomat roles. Poto Williams has also been stripped of her role as Police Minister amid growing criticism from a rise in gang violence and ram raids. NZME Business Commentator Fran O’Sullivan joined Heather du Plessi...

If you've been following the GIB shortage story, you'll recall Simplicity Living recently announced it was sick of waiting on Fletcher Building for their GIB orders. Simplicity Living cancelled their orders and are now importing it themselves from Thailand at a lower price. Fletcher Building says it supports any intiative to supply plasterboard to the industry. Fletcher Building CEO Ross Taylor jo...

The Queen met with her grandson Prince Harry and his wife Meghan for just a quarter of an hour during their visit to the UK for her Platinum Jubilee. According to The Sun, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's time spent with the Queen was kept "very formal". Harry and Meghan, along with their son Archie, 3, and their 1-year-old daughter Lilibet, saw the Queen at Windsor on Thursday, June 2 as Jubilee...

The Deputy Prime Minister is downplaying the controversies surrounding Speaker Trevor Mallard as he gets set to leave Parliament. Mallard will call time on a 35 year career in August to take up a diplomatic posting in Europe. Most recently, he sparked controversy by turning the sprinklers on the protesters outside Parliament and trespassing Former Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters. Grant Robert...

Well, well, well. Trevor gets rewarded for being a bad boy. The PM's confirmed he’s resigning from the Speaker’s job later this year and will get a diplomatic posting in Europe. Everyone knows he wants the Dublin posting so maybe he'll get the very thing he's so badly wanted for so many years. Should he though? Sure, it’s a relief for us to have him out of the Speaker’s role because it’s amazing t...

Are we a step closer to robots taking over? A Google employee has claimed a computer chatbot he was working on has become sentient. Blake Lemoine published his conversations with the chatbot online and likened it to having the thoughts and feelings of a human child. Google's squashed his claims and put him on paid leave, but could it be possible?  Tech commentator Bill Bennett joined Heather du Pl...

The Sydney Morning Herald has come under fire for forcing Rebel Wilson to come out as gay. The paper gave Wilson a two-day deadline to comment on her new partner and then complained after she announced it on Instagram first. Another pre-departure test horror story as calls to scrap them get louder. A Kiwi who visited Sydney for work had his pre-departure PCR test denied because it was recorded one...

The Sydney Morning Herald is under fire for forcing actress Rebel Wilson to out herself as gay. The paper gave Wilson two days to comment on her new partner, then complained she had "gazumped" their story when she announced it on Instagram herself. The paper has since said they would have asked the same questions if Wilson's new partner was a man. Media researcher and former NZ Herald editor-in-ch...

Calls to scrap pre-departure tests are getting louder as the latest horror story emerges. A Kiwi visiting Sydney for work had his pre-departure PCR test to get back into NZ denied because it was recorded one minute earlier than the 48 hour threshold.   He got customs to review the decision, but customs rejected it. Traveller in question Paul Beswick joined Heather du Plessis-Allan. LISTEN ABOVE Se...

Speaker of the House Trevor Mallard is leaving Parliament after 35 years. The Prime Minister's Cabinet reshuffle today will see Mallard step down in August for a diplomatic post in Europe. Former Labour Party president Mike Williams told Heather du Plessis-Allan Mallard is ready for a new role. “He looked weary to me. I saw him in Parliament a couple of months ago, he really looked like he wasn’t...

Dramatic changes for the Labour Party. “Minor” changes in a Cabinet reshuffle have seen Kris Faafoi and Trevor Mallard leave Parliament, with Faafoi choosing to leave to be with his family, while Mallard will take up a diplomatic role in Europe. Mallard’s replacement as Speaker is Adrian Rurawhe, while Faafoi’s portfolios will be replaced by Kiri Allan in Justice, Michael Wood in Immigration and W...

On the back of historic discussions with China, Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles will travel to Japan this week with a sharp focus on security in the region. Mr Marles will make his first visit to north Asia on Monday, travelling straight from Singapore, where he attended the Shangri-La Dialogue. While there, he held Australia’s first ministerial discussion with China in more than two years, d...

The Christchurch public has eagerly seized its chance to have a say on the stadium question. Public consultation on whether to spend an additional $150 million on a new stadium has only just opened but the Christchurch City Council has received more than 3000 submissions. One group that's been understandably vocal on the subject is the Crusaders, with forwards coach Jason Ryan calling the process...

Shanghai will carry out Covid-19 testing on more than half of its 25 million residents this weekend, fueling fears of a return to more stringent restrictions just days after the financial hub emerged from two months of painful lockdown. The mass testing announcements sparked fears of a return to stringent, prolonged lockdown among Shanghai residents, many of whom had been confined to their homes f...

The Government is now looking at farmers’ recommendations on how to price farming emissions. This week’s He Waka Eke Noa report has suggested individual farmers would be responsible for calculating their own emissions and paying a levy on those emissions. The levy would then increase progressively over the years but can be reduced through doing things like planting native trees. Business commentat...

Queen Elizabeth II has reportedly pulled out of attending the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham next month. Foreign secretary Liz Truss is meeting with her Ukrainian counterpart over the death sentences of two Britons and a Moroccan sentenced to death in the pro-Russian Donetsk People’s Republic. UK correspondent Gavin Grey joined Heather du Plessis-Allan. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener f...

It looks like our fractious relationship with Australia for the last few years might be about to get a lot better after the change in government over there. Jacinda Ardern met with new PM Anthony Albanese for the first time today and the signs are really encouraging. A couple of things have caused real stresses in our relationship with Australia in the past few years: the 501 deportees and the pro...

The fallout from the GIB shortage continues. Simplicity Living has cancelled all orders for New Zealand-made GIB boards in favour of imported plasterboard from Thailand. They reckon our building code is unnecessarily restrictive when it comes to plasterboard because of Fletcher’s successful lobbying. Building Industry Federation chief executive Julien Leys joined Heather du Plessis-Allan. LISTEN A...

All Black and Blues captain Dalton Papalii has avoided a speeding charge. Police were intending to charge him with travelling more than 50km/h over the 100km/h speed limit on Auckland’s Southern Motorway last week, but the charges have been dropped due to a technical issue with the speed detection equipment. Kane Williamson is out of the second test with England. The Black Caps captain will miss t...

All Black and Blues captain Dalton Papalii has narrowly avoided a serious speeding charge. Police were intending to charge him with travelling more than 50km/h over the 100km/h speed limit on Auckland’s Southern Motorway early on Wednesday morning last week. But that can’t proceed with the charge due to a technicality believed to be a problem with the speed detection equipment. Former All Black St...

Fresh snowfall in the south is music to the ears of ski fields preparing for returning international skiers. 27 centimetres of snow have already on the Remarkables this morning alone, with more to come over the weekend. Those in Queenstown are saying there is finally a light at the end of the tunnel for the tourist hotspot as the world reopens. Ski NZ CEO Paul Anderson joined Heather du Plessis-Al...

Medical experts say patients are unable to get the care they need because of overcrowded hospital departments. Leaked emails show Middlemore's emergency department in South Auckland saw more than 120 patients above usual two nights in a row this week. Australasian College for Emergency Medicine's Kate Allan told Heather du Plessis-Allan says unprecedented volumes of patients are being seen nationw...

Disappointment with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's concession on 501s. He's says he may consider the amount of time someone has lived in Australia in the decision to deport people at a meeting with our Prime Minister in Sydney. 501 advocate Filipa Payne says he could be acting right now to make the policy less harmful to potential. She told Heather du Plessis-Allan says Albanese's wo...