Politics Central

Epidemiologist Michael Baker joined The Weekend Collective to talk about whether we should follow parts of Australia and reduce booster shot eligibility from four to three months. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

National Party Leader Christopher Luxon joined The Weekend Collective to talk about New Zealand's country-wide move to red, and whether National stands by their 2021 proposal to scrap MIQ by Christmas. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

University of Otago Epidemiologist Professor Michael Baker joins us on Politics Central He says keeping the Omicron variant out of New Zealand will be important while so much is unknown and looking overseas to see the effect it's had on different countries won't tell us the full story. He also discusses our border opening policy and thinks that we may need to rethink plans. LISTEN ABOVE See omnyst...

ACT Party leader David Seymour joins us on Politics Central.. We discuss the successes of ACT and how far their MPs have come over the year Also what their strategy is going forward, and how important it is for both ACT and National to keep polling high LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

National's Police spokesperson thinks the Government have got the Northland checkpoints completely wrong. About 300 officers will be stationed on the Northland border with Auckland. This will include recruits who haven’t finished with training with no powers and iwi with limited training experience. Mark Mitchell told The Weekend Collective there will be massive gridlock regardless even if you sto...

A top health expert doesn't think any region can change colours in the Traffic Light System yet. There were 103 community cases across the country today, up from 63 yesterday. It comes ahead of the Government meeting to review New Zealand's traffic light settings tomorrow. The decision will be based on factors including vaccination rates and case numbers. Professor of Epidemiology at Auckland Univ...

The dust has settled from the leadership change in the National Party and Deputy Leader Nicola Willis chats to The Collective. Nicola shares her thoughts on how National are going to win the next election and where she thinks the voters will come from LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Big promises are easy to make, but delivery is entirely different. That's the response from National Party leader Judith Collins to the Government's pledge to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent by 2030. It's come on the eve of the climate change conference in Glasgow. Ms Collins told The Weekend Collective that emissions have gone up, rather than down under this Government. LISTEN A...

A prediction the status quo is likely to remain when it comes to Covid-19 alert levels in various parts of the country. Cabinet will review the settings in Auckland and Waikato tomorrow. New Zealand recorded 143 new community cases today - 135 in Auckland, 6 in Waikato and 2 in Northland. Epidemiologist Professor Michael Baker says he doesn't think a move could be justified in Auckland because the...

The Government's announced New Zealand will reduce net greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent by 2030. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Climate Change Minister James Shaw made the announcement today ahead of the United Nations climate change conference. It's the Government's new Nationally Determined Contribution figure to meet the Paris Agreement. The change comes after the Climate Change Commis...

Victorian Premier Dan Andrews has revealed just what freedoms the state can expect once it hits a major milestone. Case numbers in Victoria have experienced a drop as fully vaccinated residents enter their first weekend of freedom. The state reported 1935 new infections – a slight increase from Saturday's 1750 cases – and 11 deaths. Meanwhile, NSW has recorded 296 new cases and four deaths, with c...

Calls for Northland to move to Level 3. This is despite Northland having one new case today, after four yesterday. Chamber of Commerce CEO Steve Smith told the Weekend Collective there are some sense in moving to Level 3. "There is some sense perhaps in just making sure we can broaden testing, things of that sort, and just see just if there has been any spread. There may be, there may not have bee...

Opposition leader Judith Collins joins us to talk the Government's Covid Framework and whether Northland needs to move into level 3. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Vaccinations for Maori made great progress on Super Saturday. A record 21,000 vaccines were administered to Maori yesterday. Associate Minister for Health Peeni Henare told the Weekend Collective the total number is a good thing, but those that came forward for their first dose is just as important. "Over half of those numbers were first-time vaccinators, so that's absolutely fantastic, but we sti...

A suggestion more work needs to be done following the Super Saturday vaccination drive. Just over 130,000 doses were administered nationwide. It means at least 85 per cent of the eligible population has had their first dose. But Auckland University epidemiologist Professor Rod Jackson told the Weekend Collective the vaccine push is far from over. “500,000 eligible Kiwis who are not vaccinated, and...

National's health spokesperson is hailing Super Saturday as a "wonderful" day and a real success. A record-breaking 130,002 people got a Covid-19 jab across the country yesterday. Deputy Leader Shane Reti spent the day vaccinating in a coastal community in Northland. He told The Weekend Collective he's happy with the day's numbers. “I thought if we got anything over 100,000, so the target’s been a...

A political commentator says this is one of the worst weeks for the Government when it came to messaging. After a muddled roadmap for Auckland at the start, it all ended with 60 cases across Auckland, Northland, Waikato and Bay of Plenty. Former politician turned commentator Peter Dunne told The Weekend Collective it could be the week the extended honeymoon the public's had with the Government has...

Concerns from an epidemiologist following the confirmation of 60 new community cases of Covid-19 today. There are 56 new cases in Auckland, including 17 that are yet to be linked to existing cases. There are another three cases in Waikato linked to the initial Hamilton East case and a case in Katikati in Bay of Plenty that was already announced last night. Auckland University epidemiologist Rod Ja...

Auckland's Mayor says police were put in a tough position yesterday with a Destiny Church organised anti-lockdown protest. Around 2000 protesters gathered for a rally outside Auckland's War Memorial Museum yesterday. No arrests have been made so far and police had a scant presence there. Phil Goff told the Weekend Collective police could have inflamed tensions if they had been harder. "Their prefe...

A Covid-19 expert says Waikato's latest outbreak may not be as bad as Auckland's. Parts of the Waikato region will move to Alert Level 3 at 11:59 tonight. Auckland went to Alert Level Four with one case.  Auckland University Covid-19 modeller Shaun Hendy says the government might have suspicions the two cases are linked to the Auckland outbreak. He told the Weekend Collective there may be another...

Efforts to boost ICU capacity are struggling because internationally sought-after nurses can't get into the country, even after accepting job offers and despite the threat to New Zealand from Covid-19. Some critical care nurses who are already in New Zealand on visas are leaving for much higher paid jobs in Australia and elsewhere, after immigration delays meant they couldn't plan ahead. Concerned...

The Delta outbreak could go either way. New Zealand has 18 new Covid-19 cases today - two are unlinked. Canterbury University's Michael Plank says cases could increase in level 3 - but could also be controlled with strict bubbles and contact tracing. He says we aren't seeing the effect of level 3 yet - but towards the end of this week we'll have a better idea of whether numbers will creep up. LIST...

A Covid-19 modeller says it's concerning we are still seeing transmission between households. Auckland recorded 24 new community cases of Covid-19 today, and three have yet to linked to the outbreak. Officials say more cases are expected in the coming days, with some new cases in large households. It comes as Cabinet ministers are set to decide tomorrow whether Auckland can move out of Alert Level...

The Black Caps have arrived safely in Dubai following the cancellation of their cricket tour in Pakistan because of security threats. New Zealand Cricket have confirmed the group of 34 players along with support staff arrived in the United Arab Emirates on a charter flight. They are now in self isolation at their hotel for the next 24 hours. Dr John Battersby from the centre of Defence and Securit...

20 more Covid-19 cases in the community today and experts saying Auckland won't be leaving level 4 anytime soon. But Michael Baker is slightly more optimistic, saying the cases sounded worse initially than they actually are. He says most surprising cases after interviewing and genomic sequencing generally link back to the cluster - making them not so surprising after all. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystud...