Full Show Podcast: 03 September 2026

On the Matt Heath and Tyler Adams Afternoons Full Show Podcast for September 3, 2026 - New Zealand now has a Minister responsible for battling organised crime and Matt and Tyler talk to Casey Costello.

Then, politeness and the double wave on the road. 

And finally - whitebait rules - Labour wants a review. 

Get the Matt Heath and Tyler Adams Afternoons Podcast every weekday afternoon on iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
You're listening to a podcast from Newstalk ZB. Follow this
and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio. The
big stories, the big issues, the big trends, and everything
in between.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Matt Heath and Tyler Adams Afternoons. Newstalk ZB.

Speaker 3 (00:28):
G'day to you.

Speaker 4 (00:29):
Welcome into Thursday's show. Thank you very much for giving
us a listen. I hope you're having a fantastic day
so far. G'day, Matt Heath.

Speaker 5 (00:36):
G'day, Tyler Adams. G'day, everyone. 0800 80 1080. Give us
a ring. We're here for the next three hours. 9292
is the text number. Now, listen to this. Listen to this.
A bunch of people will be so happy. This thing
that brought a whole lot of joy... This flyover that

(01:00):
would have made the final of this amazing greatest rivalry
tour even more exciting and raised the sense of occasion
has been cancelled. Because if something looks awesome, there are
always people who scream, not safe, and flood social media
to get it shut down. Every armchair aviation expert shared

(01:23):
their terrified little opinions, mainly out of the United States
of America and New Zealand. And the US really laid
into it, those social media warriors. And now it's gone.
So all those terrified people will be happy. There will
be no flyover.

Speaker 4 (01:40):
So well done. Well done. You've cancelled something cool. She's
all over.

Speaker 5 (01:45):
So congrats. You can be happy. These people can be
happy until the next thing pops up. It's head up
for them to whinge about and shut down.

Speaker 6 (01:52):
Yep.

Speaker 7 (01:52):
Yep.

Speaker 5 (01:54):
So they'll be happy very briefly.

Speaker 8 (01:56):
Yes.

Speaker 5 (01:56):
But right now, they can celebrate that they got something
shut down. Yeah, well done to the Wowsers. No flyover.

Speaker 4 (02:02):
No flyover, no fun.

Speaker 5 (02:04):
It's all over.

Speaker 4 (02:05):
Yeah, well done to those people. Right, let's get into
this particular... Oh, good news.

Speaker 5 (02:11):
Lionel Richie has been discharged from hospital, recovering at home now.
You beauty. Thank you.

Speaker 4 (02:15):
So, cancelled flyover, but Lionel Richie has been discharged and
he might be all right. You've got to take the
good news in this world when it happens, Wowsers.

Speaker 5 (02:23):
Three times a lady. That is beautiful. It's about his mum,
you know.

Speaker 8 (02:27):
Is it? Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
Yep.

Speaker 6 (02:28):
All right.

Speaker 9 (02:29):
All right.

Speaker 5 (02:29):
I want the show.

Speaker 4 (02:30):
Let's get into this conversation.

Speaker 5 (02:32):
This is going to be very interesting.

Speaker 4 (02:33):
So Casey Costello, she has been appointed New Zealand's first
minister solely responsible for tackling organised crime after an expert
advisory group said it was the country's number one national
security threat. So the move comes as we see record
drug seizures, high levels of methamphetamine use, growing concerns about
international crime syndicates and corruption.

Speaker 5 (02:55):
At the border.

Speaker 4 (02:56):
So when it comes to organised crime in New Zealand,
you've got the groups like the mongrel mob and Black Power,
of course. Then there's the international motorcycle gangs, such as
the Comancheros and the Mongols. And now, well, actually not now,
we've seen it for some time, but international syndicates, including
Mexican and Alaskan American cartels, importing methamphetamine into the country,
while Vietnamese and other Asian crime groups have been linked

(03:18):
to large-scale drug operations and slavery.

Speaker 5 (03:22):
As well.

Speaker 4 (03:22):
So Costello's job will include pushing through stalled laws, targeting
money laundering and company ownership, improving information sharing between agencies
and creating a central data system that could use AI
to identify organised crime and its trends.

Speaker 5 (03:38):
Yeah, so there's organised crime, you know, obviously there's always
been organised crime in New Zealand, you mentioned the gangs,
but it just seems to be more globally organised now,
doesn't it? And a lot of reasons for this, you
can reach out over Over social media, over the internet,
and make offers for people to be a link in

(03:58):
the chain for what you're up to. So it kind
of makes sense. The communication is so much easier now.
Dark web and such.

Speaker 8 (04:05):
Yes.

Speaker 5 (04:06):
But it's pretty grim, isn't it? It's absolutely pretty grim,
especially with evil stuff like human trafficking occurring as well.
So obviously we don't want it here. Do you think
this is going to help? Do you think having, um,
being appointed, uh, Casey Casella being appointed minister responsible for
leading New Zealand's response to organised crime, you think that's
going to help?

Speaker 4 (04:26):
It's pretty concerning when they call it the number, the
country's number one national security threat. And you can see
why when we hear about all these, uh, drugs being
stopped at the border and that's only a small percentage.
So tell us what you think. Oh, 180, 1080 is
the number to call.

Speaker 5 (04:39):
One of the reasons why we get targeted is because
we'll pay a lot. We'll pay a lot for these drugs,
New Zealanders. Um, The government's previous organised crime response was
spread across 13 ministries, creating problems with consistency and accountability, apparently. So,
you know, what do we know about this? Have you
experienced organised crime? Is that something that people experience day

(05:00):
to day? And what can you do if you come
across organised crime? You know, do you call the police
when you come across a bit of organised crime? Are
you too scared? Has someone reached out to you online
to be involved as a link in the chain? Let's
talk about organised crime.

Speaker 10 (05:14):
Yep.

Speaker 4 (05:14):
Give us a call, 0800 80 1080. Have you been
affected by organised crime, whether it's the local gangs or
maybe the international syndicates that are coming to New Zealand now?
9292 is the text number as well. And after 1.30,
we will be speaking to the new organised crime minister,
Casey Costello. But taking your calls, 0800 80 1080. It
is 11 past one.

Speaker 1 (05:35):
The big stories, the big issues, the big trends and
everything in between. Matt Heath and Tyler Adams Afternoons.

Speaker 2 (05:42):
Newstalk ZB.

Speaker 4 (05:44):
Fourteen past one, we now have a minister dedicated to
organised crime in Casey Costello. So have you been affected
by organised crime in New Zealand, whether it's the mongrel mob,
the local gangs, or even the international syndicates, 0800 80 1080?
And do you think having a dedicated minister for organised
crime is going to make a difference? 9292 is the
text number.

Speaker 5 (06:04):
Yeah, what is the exact definition of organised crime as
opposed to disorganised crime? It's when it's planned and systematic
criminal activity carried out by a group of three or
more people to gain profit, power, or influence.

Speaker 2 (06:18):
All right.

Speaker 4 (06:18):
I didn't realise they put a number on it.

Speaker 5 (06:20):
Planned, systematic, or ongoing, conducted by three or more people
aimed at gaining profit, power, or influence.

Speaker 11 (06:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (06:26):
Interesting. Three or more. All right. You don't need too
much for an organised criminal syndicate then, do you?

Speaker 8 (06:32):
No.

Speaker 4 (06:33):
You get three people.

Speaker 5 (06:34):
I mean, there's definitely levels of complexity. Just three people organising,
I don't know, to steal a... One kg of tasty
cheese from a supermarket is probably at the lower end
of organised crime.

Speaker 4 (06:44):
0800 80 1080 is the number to call. G'day, Bob.

Speaker 7 (06:48):
G'day, guys.

Speaker 12 (06:49):
How's it going?

Speaker 10 (06:49):
Yeah, good.

Speaker 4 (06:50):
So you see organised crime almost daily, do you?

Speaker 11 (06:54):
Yeah, I'm in the sort of industry.

Speaker 13 (06:58):
I applaud the government for having a dedicated minister to
try to fight organised crime, but I don't think Kiwis
really sort of realise the impact that it has and
how big it is. I know you've touched on illicit
tobacco sales, but as today, I believe it's one in three.
I think it's higher than that. Any sort of tobacco
that's sold is illicit.

Speaker 11 (07:18):
Now, think about it.

Speaker 13 (07:19):
People think, oh, I don't care. I don't smoke. Nothing
to do with me. Good on you if you can
get a pack of ciggies for $ 20 or $ 15. But
think about it. 10 years down the track, when all
these people are smoking and they show up at the
hospital and there's no excise tax paying that health system
and you're waiting there, mate, it's a lot.

Speaker 11 (07:41):
It's a lot.

Speaker 13 (07:41):
I deal with all these different sort of businesses that
as part of what they sell, legal market of sort
of tobacco products, and you're talking about some stores that were, say, 15,
20 grand a week legitimately buying cigarettes The government gets
their tax cut. Now they're $ 1, 000 to $ 2, 000 ordering every

(08:03):
two to three weeks. And when I see these guys,
they say, oh, sales are down. So it's not just
affecting those ones. And it's a legal product if it's
purchased correctly. But what I'm sort of saying here is
that now it's so prolific, the amount of illicit tobacco
out there and the industry that's pumping in behind it,

(08:23):
it's unbelievable. You know, the whole country will suffer.

Speaker 14 (08:27):
Mm-hmm.

Speaker 5 (08:28):
There's quite a lot of coordination in getting, you know,
that many cigarettes into the country because they're not tiny
little things like, you know, one kg of drugs. I mean,
those are huge shipments. That's cartons and cartons that are
coming into the country, getting through our ports and airports
and then being distributed to the places that sell them.

(08:48):
I mean, that's a lot of organisation in that.

Speaker 15 (08:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 13 (08:52):
You just hit the nail on the head. We're a
tiny little island, what, five million plus? And we're here
and our borders are, you know, with these kinds of
facts and stats that have come through, it's just open slather.
How is that organisation happening? How is it all getting through?
And why is it so easy? You know, if that

(09:14):
can get through, obviously, you know, drugs and other illegal
things are getting through, and it does. You only have
to look over what's happened over in Australia. They have
daily killings.

Speaker 11 (09:23):
They have firebombings.

Speaker 13 (09:24):
All because, not drugs, it's mainly tobacco places and turf
walls over, you're selling my product, not that. How's that
stuff getting through here? And that's happening here in New Zealand.
Not to the extent of what's, you know, the firebombings
and all that, but who knows, it's going to be
around the corner, but You know, friends of mine that smoke,
they can, they're in groups, and they can just text,

(09:47):
and someone will come and deliver them a carton of
cigarettes for $ 150, you know? Where a normal retailer, you're
looking at between $ 300 or $ 400, no one's buying it
because your average packet's between $ 36 plus for the cheapest
pack of 20s legitimately, when you can go to places.
Is that blatant now that there's suburbs, there's shops there,

(10:08):
they're all over the place and they openly sell illicit tobacco.
The cops go in there, they might bust them, they
pay a fine and they open the next day and
they're selling cigarettes for $ 15, $ 20 a packet. All the
stores around there, they complain, nothing sort of happens. So
hopefully with the minister being involved and they're going to
do something about it, You know, I mean, there's a lot.

(10:30):
I know, yeah, I see it on the daily. I
see it's a lot of money. It's a lot of money.
And where's that going? You know, we, excuse me, I've had,
you know, you talk about, oh, everyone's down with the
flu and the hospital's overloaded because it's the wintertime bugs.
Imagine when people show up and they've got more serious
health issues and they want to see someone that, They've

(10:52):
got smoking-related issues. They're actually not breathing. They get a cold,
but they've been smoking the whole lot, and they've been
smoking illicit tobacco, but they haven't paid. Use a pace thing.
You know what I mean? I mean, I don't care
if people think it doesn't affect me.

Speaker 16 (11:07):
It does.

Speaker 5 (11:08):
Thank you for your call, Bob. Yeah, I mean, when
we've talked about, you know, black market cigarettes... everyone that's
called through that, that, that smokes them just is so
easy to get hold of.

Speaker 6 (11:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (11:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (11:20):
So easy to get hold of back market cigarettes.

Speaker 4 (11:22):
You walk into most dairies and if you've got the
password and the password wasn't that hard, it was just
the brand name of the cigarettes and say, can I
have some of those? And they're like, yep, absolutely. You
just wait here, give me the money and I'll see
you outside.

Speaker 5 (11:33):
I mean, that is insane that we increased the cost
of cigarettes to the point where they became, I mean,
talking about Australia, for example, they end up being, you know,
fire bombings, uh, around black market cigarettes, but the price
has gone so high. Something as lame as cigarettes can
now be just a source of mass revenue for organised crime.

(11:55):
It's insanity, isn't it?

Speaker 4 (11:56):
Thank you very much for your call, Bob. 0800 80 1080.
So how have you been affected by organised crime? Do
you think having a dedicated minister will go some way
to dealing with that? And when it comes to the
likes of cigarettes and other drugs, I mean, is that
where the big problem lies? Is that porous border and
increasing corruption. If you've been involved in the border operations,

(12:17):
really keen to hear from you. 9292 is the text.
It is 21 past one.

Speaker 2 (12:22):
Fearless. Focused. Informed. It's the Mike Hosking Breakfast.

Speaker 17 (12:26):
Finance Minister Nicola Willis back with us. I'm looking at, oh,
Chris Watts' name out of America said the 17 million
barrels came out of the humus on Monday. Pre-war it
was 20, so 17 v 20, it's not bad, and
yet oil this morning's 94.95.

Speaker 5 (12:37):
Everyone's looking at the.

Speaker 18 (12:39):
American midterms to some extent because if something significant.

Speaker 15 (12:43):
Happened in the States where.

Speaker 14 (12:45):
they in any way.

Speaker 18 (12:46):
Restricted their exports of oil, that would be problematic. The
data we're looking at continues to tell us we've got
good supply into New Zealand. We have seen some stabilisation
in the oil price, but I've learned with the Middle East,
anything can happen and it probably will.

Speaker 17 (12:59):
Back tomorrow at 6am, the Mike Hosking Breakfast with Defender Trophy.

Speaker 5 (13:03):
Newstalk ZB.

Speaker 4 (13:06):
Afternoon to you. It's 23 past one. So we're talking
about organised crime in New Zealand. Our first minister responsible
for organised crime has been appointed. That is Casey Costolo.
But how has it affected your life? 0880 1080.

Speaker 5 (13:18):
This Texas says more wastage of money from the Coalition
of Chaos, another ACT MP with no experience in the
issues trying to get votes by pretending to be hard
on crime just before an election. Do you really think
this middle aged woman can fight organised crime? How stupid
do you think?

Speaker 11 (13:31):
We are.

Speaker 5 (13:32):
Well, for a start, she's not from the ACT Party.

Speaker 7 (13:35):
No.

Speaker 5 (13:35):
She's New Zealand First. And also no experience. She was
a former detective sergeant and was the vice president of
the Police Association at one point.

Speaker 4 (13:44):
Well, that's some very good experience when dealing with crime,
you've got to say.

Speaker 5 (13:47):
So do you really think this middle-aged woman can fight
organised crime? Well, I don't think she's just going to
go out and fight it like Batman fights organised crime.
The idea is that the government's previous organised crime response
was spread across 13 ministers, creating problems, right?

Speaker 1 (14:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (14:07):
So the idea is that you have an appointed minister
responsible for leading New Zealand's response to organised crime. That's right.

Speaker 8 (14:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (14:16):
So to get all that information in one place and
work very closely with the police commissioner as well.

Speaker 14 (14:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (14:21):
So there's a few problems with your text there. Yeah.
Thank you for that. 9292. G'day, Mark.

Speaker 7 (14:28):
Afternoon, gents.

Speaker 16 (14:30):
The mind boggles. These prats that stop the flyovers, what
a lot of tossers they are. I'm going to have
to drink tin beers instead of eight now. Now, I've
got a new name for you guys. I'm going to
call you guys the Beagle Boys because you'll be crack burgers. Now,
let's get back to the serious note. This lady that

(14:50):
are coming in to sort out the drugs and all
that come in the country, our first and foremost priority
is to find out how they're getting into the country
for starters, right?

Speaker 7 (14:59):
And then the second.

Speaker 16 (15:00):
Thing is that obviously our board security are corrupt, some
corrupt people there because... These people that work for the
security forces and our border security, they must have family
that are related to these gangs. So that's probably some
of it, how it's getting into the country. Because we
have border security, we have sniffer dogs, and yet all

(15:22):
these drugs and that are coming into the country. So
I think that's the first and foremost thing we need
to do.

Speaker 5 (15:27):
You're so right. We've got the situation, Mark, where we
keep having these record busts We're busting people at customs,
but then the wastewater testing is showing that there's more
illegal drug consumption than ever before. So we're busting a
lot of people, but even so much more is getting through.

Speaker 16 (15:46):
But it's not just that, too. It's like they're talking
about human trafficking. How the hell is that happening? The
mind boggles me. I'm going to have to drink more beers.
I'm going to have to kill the problem.

Speaker 5 (15:57):
Yeah, well, that'll sort it out, Mark.

Speaker 4 (15:59):
Yeah, good luck, mate. That's the solution to a lot
of problems for some people.

Speaker 5 (16:02):
What did Homer Simpson say? The cause of and solution
to all life's problems.

Speaker 4 (16:06):
What a great line that is. But yeah, he's not wrong,
is he, when it comes to the poorest borders. I mean,
that corruption is starting to increase. And whether it's coercion
or whether it's being you know, promised a very lucrative payday.
I think all of the above applies. I mean, when
it came to, you know, there was that Vietnamese bust
and they were growing a whole bunch of cannabis and
using some businesses as fronts. But then there was a

(16:28):
bit of a slavery ring going around as well, human trafficking.
But that's a difficult one, right? Because human trafficking, in
that scenario, it wasn't like they put them in a
shipping container and sent them to New Zealand. They coerced them.

Speaker 5 (16:39):
They bring them here with promises, then often sometimes take
their passports off them. And then you have to work here.
to get your passport back or whatever the situation is.

Speaker 11 (16:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 8 (16:50):
Right?

Speaker 5 (16:50):
So, yeah, it's not like they're bringing them in in containers.

Speaker 12 (16:53):
No.

Speaker 5 (16:54):
These people are flying in of their own volition, often
under false pretenses.

Speaker 19 (17:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (17:00):
So it starts off legitimate. And I think the other
thing is that, you know, in 2026, they had custom
said there was a syndicate that recruited New Zealanders young
as 19 through social media to act as drug couriers, right?

Speaker 11 (17:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (17:16):
So that's part of it, and 16 people were arrested,
and the investigation found 252 grams of methamphetamine in this
organisation that had come through Auckland Airport, and that's people
being approached on social media. So, you know, that's pretty
hard to, you know, it's not someone coming up and
tapping you on the shoulder and going, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey,

(17:37):
could you, you know, could you take this through customs?
Could you put this in your passport? your baggage, that
they're approaching people from anywhere in the world. They can
just approach someone and go, here's an offer. Or you
do it.

Speaker 4 (17:48):
And how do you combat that? If you've been approached online.

Speaker 5 (17:51):
Or blackmail.

Speaker 12 (17:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (17:52):
If you've been approached, 0800 8010 80 or 9292. And
on the flip side, because I know there'll be people
listening that have become mules or been busted for taking
drugs across the border. If that's you and you did
prison time and you came out the other side, really
keen to hear your story and how you see the
situation now when it comes to organised crime in New Zealand.
0800 80 1080 is that number to call. And plenty

(18:13):
of texts coming through on 9292.

Speaker 5 (18:16):
Those middle-class folks snorting cocaine in bathrooms at parties are
supporting organised crime. Erstwhile good citizens dropping their kids off
at school in their fancy SUVs and criminals supporting crime.

Speaker 4 (18:29):
Yeah, I mean, there's... So some truth to that?

Speaker 2 (18:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (18:34):
Well, you know... Virtue signalling up a storm on their
social media, you know, and living a healthy diet, you know.
Going hard on the weekend. Then you're going hard on
the weekend and not thinking how that stuff got here. Yeah,
there's a bit of that.

Speaker 4 (18:54):
That's right. It is 29 past 1. Headlines coming up.
But we're taking more of your calls on 0800 80 1080.

Speaker 2 (19:02):
Newstalk ZB headlines.

Speaker 20 (19:04):
With Your Ride, New Zealand's number one taxi app, download
Your Ride today. Chris Luxon says tensions are being managed
in Palau as countries gather for the Pacific Islands Forum.
It's against a backdrop of concern over China criticising Taiwan
attending and dismay over its Pacific missile test in July.

(19:26):
Labour leader Chris Hipkin says he won't be tearing up
infrastructure projects already begun if Labour forms the next government.
Ngahapu o Te Iwi o Whanganui claims settlement bill has
passed its final reading, resolving historical treaty claims. Advocacy group
Free Fares NZ is outlining the social good from making

(19:47):
public transport free for students under 25s, community service card
holders and total mobility card holders. Wairarapa farmers are being
urged to stay alert with the discovery of the toxic
Madagascar ragwort weed which threatens cattle and horses. Environment Southland
is using emergency powers to open Waituna Lagoon near Invercargill

(20:10):
to the sea as its high level threatens flooding nearby areas.
Cartier opens First New Zealand Boutique in Auckland. You can
find out more at nzherald.co.nz. Back to Matt Heath and
Tyler Adams.

Speaker 4 (20:24):
Thank you very much, Raylene. So as we've been discussing,
New Zealand's First Minister, solely responsible for tackling organised crime,
has been appointed after an expert advisory group identified it
as our country's number one national security threat. That minister
is Casey Costello, and she joins us on the line
right now.

Speaker 5 (20:40):
Minister, afternoon.

Speaker 6 (20:42):
Good afternoon.

Speaker 5 (20:43):
What are the main areas of organised crime we need
to worry about in New Zealand, and why is it
getting worse?

Speaker 15 (20:51):
I think the main area that we have to acknowledge that.

Speaker 18 (20:55):
I.

Speaker 8 (20:57):
Know.

Speaker 5 (20:59):
The Minister's been taken down by organised crime. We've lost you.
You've cut out. Are you there? Can you hear me now?
We can hear you now. You're back. You were jammed
briefly by organised crime, but you're back.

Speaker 8 (21:10):
Yeah, I'm back.

Speaker 15 (21:13):
The thing that we have to talk about here is
that we have to think of organised crime as the
mechanism to make money and be a little bit commodity
agnostic as to what they're doing to make money. And
our approach has always been on.

Speaker 7 (21:29):
A specific timeline.

Speaker 15 (21:30):
So whether it's drugs or whether it's tobacco or whether
it's money laundering, we have to be better connected and
joined up to target this in a holistic way.

Speaker 5 (21:40):
So what can you do now that you couldn't do
before with this new position?

Speaker 15 (21:45):
The challenge is that each of these agencies, which are
doing amazing work, whether it's immigration, IRD, police, customs, they
are doing amazing work, but they're doing it in a
siloed approach. And so what we're trying to do is
ensure that all of these agencies can cooperate better, share
information better, and that we drive legislation that's needed. With
competing priorities, each of the individual agencies can influence everything

(22:09):
that needs to be done. So this is about driving
accountability and having a single point from a ministerial level
to drive that accountability.

Speaker 5 (22:19):
Is this being organised primarily from overseas or internally?

Speaker 15 (22:25):
That is the key point here. We're talking about overseas
international cartels that are driving us. We've always sort of
thought about our own criminal activity within New Zealand and
But the reality is it's shifted now to be driven
from international cartels that will target the weakest part of
any country. And that's why our international relationships become critically important,

(22:50):
but also strengthening our borders. And New Zealand, by its
geographic location, our single border, our single justice system, we
should be the very best in the world at it
because we're much joined up and we have that protection
of the distance. So We're never going to get rid
of it, but we want to make sure New Zealand
is the hardest place for it to take hold.

Speaker 4 (23:11):
Is there one specific group, Minister, that scares you the most,
or are we at the stage now where these international
huge players are working together?

Speaker 15 (23:20):
That's the problem with it. It's like the fingers in
the dike. We block one and something else will come through.
We saw in the first few weeks of this year
14 tonnes of cocaine was intercepted in the Pacific. that
was heading to Australia and New Zealand. You know, that's unprecedented,

(23:40):
unheard of levels of drug activity. So when we, you know,
everywhere that you have a legitimate trade link, you will
end up with an illicit market coming in behind it.
So this is about ensuring that we are as connected
up as we can. The MAG report talked about the
fact that they move at the speed of money and
we move at the speed of law. We just have

(24:01):
to be more nimble, more responsive and more proactive.

Speaker 5 (24:06):
What is the biggest weakness in our system right now?
Is it the border? Is it corrupt insiders? Is it
the policing? I don't know, is it the government agencies?

Speaker 8 (24:18):
Ironically, it's our.

Speaker 15 (24:19):
Ability to share information amongst ourselves. You know, the Ministerial
Advisory Group was really specific about our private legislation was
more about trying to system under which we could share
information that ended the system, that stopped us sharing information.

Speaker 9 (24:37):
Hello.

Speaker 21 (24:38):
To share information.

Speaker 4 (24:41):
Whoa, we're having some terrible problems with that phone line.
I think they're really trying to jam things up, Minister.
We might be going through the Vic Tunnel as well.

Speaker 5 (24:49):
The common shero just went past with some kind of
jamming device. So we'll try and we'll keep going, see
how we go. A couple of definitions, please, if you
can hear us. What is a central data lake? And secondly,
what is a Phoenix company?

Speaker 15 (25:09):
Central Data Lake is just a terminology. Sorry, can you
hear me now?

Speaker 5 (25:13):
Yeah, gotcha. Nice and clear now.

Speaker 7 (25:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 15 (25:15):
Central Data Lake is effectively a way of pooling information
so that each agency can access their part that they're
authorized and legally able to access. So we're not duplicating.
That is, you know, in a simple term, that's what
we're talking about is a way of pooling information. And
it is achievable. A Phoenix company is one of the

(25:37):
biggest threats we have in terms of exploited labour. A
company ceases to trade, doesn't pay its taxes, doesn't pay
its employees, and then quickly turns into a new company
relatively quickly. New Zealand is kind of renowned for the
fact that it's pretty easy to set up a business
in New Zealand, which means criminals can then turn a

(25:59):
new company, and that's costing our economy millions and millions
of dollars.

Speaker 5 (26:04):
So what does success look like for you? What is
the most important thing? Is it fewer drugs consumed by Kiwis,
you know, fewer gangs, fewer international syndicates operating? What are
the ideal outcomes?

Speaker 15 (26:20):
Ideal outcomes is that we have the ability to connect
and respond faster and quicker. So, you know, every time
you plug a hole, there will be another penetration, you know,
If we are really effective at stopping drugs at the airport,
it'll come through containers. If we're really effective there, it'll
come through shipping lines. We need to be able to

(26:42):
be as nimble and responsive and ensure that our agencies
have the very best legislation. When we have really good
legislation and the agencies doing this work are going, yeah,
we've got the tools we need, then I can say
we've got success.

Speaker 4 (26:56):
Minister, thank you very much for your time and really
happy that phone line held out in the end, but
really appreciate you coming on.

Speaker 15 (27:04):
Thanks very much.

Speaker 4 (27:05):
That is Minister Casey Costello, who is now the Minister
solely in charge of dealing with organised crime in New Zealand.
So you've heard what she had to say. So we
want to hear from you. Have you been affected by
organised crime? Do you think this is going to be
enough to try and take down some of these syndicates?
And have you ever been a drug mule?

Speaker 5 (27:23):
Don doesn't think it'll help. Border security in this country
is so under-resourced, there's no hope of policing our coastline
as well as legal border entry points, according to Don.

Speaker 4 (27:33):
Do you agree with that?

Speaker 5 (27:34):
Too many holes in the dike.

Speaker 4 (27:35):
9292 is the text number. It is 20 to 2.
17 to 2, so there's a new minister responsible for
organised crime in New Zealand. The aim is to bring
it all together under one umbrella to tackle what is

(27:58):
called the biggest security threat in New Zealand. But have
you ever been affected by organised crime yourself, whether it's
the domestic gangs, the mongrel mob, the black power, or
maybe one of the international syndicates, 0800 80 1080s, that
number to call.

Speaker 5 (28:10):
G'day, James.

Speaker 22 (28:11):
G'day, mate. Yeah, Casey's a good bugger. I worked under
her for a short time and But her hands will
be tied. I don't know if there'll be anything come
out of it. Just one point referring to your chat
that spoke about cigarettes earlier. Just a clarification on cigarettes.
The nicotine is actually a good product in cigarettes. It's
the poisons that they put in the cigarettes that make

(28:34):
them a bad product. So people need to do their
homework on nicotine. As an ex-cop, all they're going to
do is target the wrong tier of criminal activity. and
your mongrel mob and black power, that sort of thing,
that's the wrong tier. You've got to go up a
few levels. And I'll just give you an example. Would

(28:55):
you consider, say, an infrastructure project that's being charged out
at $ 20 million that actually costs the taxpayer $ 2 million,
would you consider that organised money laundering crime?

Speaker 5 (29:08):
Yeah. Well, I'd definitely consider it a massive problem and
that people should face consequences for it.

Speaker 22 (29:15):
Yep, and I'd say to you that's happening all the
time in New Zealand and we've got elites that are
in control of things like infrastructure and all the time
there's projects that are being overly, overly costed and the
money's going to these overseas elites. It's the biggest crime
in New Zealand. We're not paying too much tax. We're

(29:37):
paying far too much tax and yet they continue to
ask us for more tax. What I'm saying to you
is our money's been laundered already and we need to
be targeting these elites who are in control of positions
rather than your easy targets, which is what I used
to target when I was a copper. They're not the
cause of the crime, they're for the elite.

Speaker 5 (29:57):
Yeah, but that seems like a slightly different thing than
trying to... you know, shut down overseas cartels that pump,
you know, drugs into our communities and, you know, we
end up with a whole lot of people in terrible
positions in their lives, right? So two things can be true,
can't they? That, you know, what you're saying is a crime,

(30:20):
but also what Casey Costello's facing is also a crime.
So shouldn't we be trying to shut down all of it?

Speaker 7 (30:30):
Oh, for sure.

Speaker 22 (30:32):
The bigger one is the one that's really causing the
poverty in New Zealand. And this poverty is what turns
those guys into, say, the mongrel mob, et cetera. So,
you know, it's just an easy target. And there's a
bigger picture here.

Speaker 5 (30:46):
It doesn't seem like that easy a target because they've
been shutting down a whole lot of methamphetamine and yet
they've got these huge busts. But then wastewater says that
more and more is coming into the country.

Speaker 11 (31:01):
Actually, I used to laugh.

Speaker 22 (31:02):
They'd say in country areas, they'd say the wastewater, but hey,
we've got our own septics in the country, so they
wouldn't be checking the wastewater in the country, which is
something the media was reporting on.

Speaker 5 (31:15):
How would you go after being someone that's been a
police officer and been involved in trying to stop crime?
How would you go after these bigger fish that you're
talking about?

Speaker 22 (31:29):
Well, look at the influence of BlackRock in New Zealand.
Do your homework on BlackRock. They are ripping New Zealand off, left,
right and centre. The investment they've got on our infrastructure
and company, it's being controlled. And that means they're controlling
a lot of contracts. And that means that taxpayers are
paying far too much for stuff.

Speaker 13 (31:51):
All right?

Speaker 22 (31:51):
So, you know, someone needs to target that. I'm sure
Casey knows about it.

Speaker 11 (31:56):
She's a good lady.

Speaker 22 (31:57):
But as I say, I think her hands will be
tied But.

Speaker 4 (31:59):
You're not saying, James, that these international guys, the Mexican
cartels and others, the Asian syndicates who are pumping drugs
into this country and others, but this country we're talking about,
as well as, you know, setting up front shops, they're
running fraud operations, they're bringing in people who effectively then
become human slaves to their operations. That's a massive issue

(32:20):
that needs to be dealt with.

Speaker 22 (32:22):
Yeah, what I'm saying is there's a bigger tear up there.
And if you look at Vietnam, you know, there was
evidence that the CIA were you know, drug running from
Vietnam back to the US. You know, there's bigger things
out there.

Speaker 5 (32:35):
Thanks for your call, James. Well, I mean, that was
interesting when you talk about BlackRock. You remember the Labour
government partnered with BlackRock to launch that $ 2 billion climate fund?

Speaker 13 (32:44):
Yes.

Speaker 5 (32:45):
So that was all wind and solar and such and
hydrogen projects. And then that was dropped, wasn't it? So
it started in 2023 and then completely dropped in 2026. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (32:57):
And that wasn't a good look.

Speaker 5 (32:58):
No, certainly not.

Speaker 2 (32:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (33:00):
James, interesting thought. I mean, do you agree with James? Oh, 880, 1080.
But when it comes to these international syndicates and corruption
at the border, do you think it can be stopped?
And have you ever been affected by it?

Speaker 5 (33:11):
Tell us.

Speaker 16 (33:11):
Oh, 880, 1080.

Speaker 7 (33:11):
Is that number?

Speaker 4 (33:12):
It is 11 to 2.

Speaker 1 (33:15):
Matt Heath, Tyler Adams, taking your calls on 0800 80 1080.
It's Matt Heath and Tyler Adams Afternoons.

Speaker 2 (33:22):
Newstalk ZB.

Speaker 4 (33:25):
Newstalk ZB, it is 9 to 2. So have you
been affected by organised crime in New Zealand? The government
has changed up the fight by appointing Casey Costello as
the minister in charge, sole minister in charge of fighting
organised crime. 0800 80 1080 is that number to call
and 9292 is the text.

Speaker 5 (33:41):
I noticed you cut off the guy talking about BlackRock,
says this texter. In the pocket much? You were told
to hang up. BlackRock represents a concentration of private financial
power that sits uncomfortably close to governmental power in this country.
They manage trillions of dollars, voting shares across much of
corporate America, supplying personnel to governments, advising public institutions, and

(34:02):
at times being hired by central banks to manage emergency
programs affecting markets in which its own clients invest.

Speaker 4 (34:09):
Well, good on you for reading that out because if
they told us to shut up, they wouldn't have liked
you reading that out. But I don't know about you, mate.
I haven't seen any of this BlackRock money. Where's my
BlackRock money? Are you in the pocket of BlackRock? I
haven't seen any of this money. Where is this BlackRock money?

Speaker 5 (34:21):
It must be up the chain.

Speaker 4 (34:22):
It must be up the chain. We've got to go
up the chain and find it. No one's flashed any
cash in my face saying, hey, this is from BlackRock.
You do as we say.

Speaker 5 (34:29):
We are not high enough on the chain to be
stood over by BlackRock. Great text.

Speaker 4 (34:36):
Andrew, your thoughts on this?

Speaker 7 (34:38):
G'day.

Speaker 11 (34:38):
Not a bad pocket to be in, fellas.

Speaker 19 (34:42):
I think whilst it's got great ideals, they're still looking
at it all from the wrong angle. The market created
the organised crime. The organised crime didn't create the market.
So as long as we as the general public and
funders buy stolen, cheap, illicit, whatever sort of thing off

(35:03):
organised crime, they will continue to exist. And by making
things really expensive through excise tax or illegal like cocaine
and cannabis and all of them are, we've effectively made
organised crime the gatekeepers for gateway drugs.

Speaker 11 (35:21):
So as long as that's the case.

Speaker 5 (35:24):
Well, yeah, I mean, one of the reasons, Andrew, why
organised crime, especially in terms of A-class drugs, why they
focus on New Zealand so much and Australia is because
we're willing to pay more for these drugs. than basically
any other country in the world.

Speaker 13 (35:39):
They've managed to convince us that, like most products, it
costs more to get it here, and that, like, we're
just dumb.

Speaker 19 (35:46):
I'm sorry.

Speaker 5 (35:47):
But some people are dumb, and some people have become
addicts and have been targeted, and vulnerable people have been
targeted and become addicts, and so down the chain from
organised crime.

Speaker 19 (36:01):
And I get that they're actually quite good at luring
people into their web, But until we face the facts
that a large portion of the population is looking to
escape reality, they're always going to exist. And that problem's

(36:22):
getting worse as the world seems to get harder and
more feral and more angry and social media upsets people
and all of these things, they're going to.

Speaker 11 (36:32):
Look for an escape and... Your average.

Speaker 19 (36:35):
Gang member or organised crime member doesn't have a flying
rat of the consequence of leading you down that path.

Speaker 4 (36:45):
But you can't give up, though, can you, Andrew? Look,
I agree with you, they're winning, and I don't think
there's ever really a realistic scenario where you stop all
the drugs coming into the country.

Speaker 19 (36:54):
We have to stop treating it like a fight against
organised crime. It's a fight against our own desires. That's
the fight.

Speaker 11 (37:02):
We have to win.

Speaker 4 (37:04):
It's a pretty hard one to win, Andrew.

Speaker 19 (37:06):
It is, but unless we start it with one step,
we ain't ever getting there.

Speaker 4 (37:11):
Yeah, interesting take, and thank you very much for that, Andrew.
Really appreciate it. Always good to chat with you.

Speaker 5 (37:16):
I agree with this call. If people are using these
drugs to self-medicate, let's address the mental health needs and
trauma that exists in the country to address the core
issues here.

Speaker 4 (37:25):
I think there is a lot to that, but again,
you know, is that just fantasy land to say that
you're going to get to a place where everyone does
the right thing and nobody takes any drugs and people
stay in reality because it's bad for the country and
it gives organised crime more cash?

Speaker 8 (37:39):
I don't know.

Speaker 5 (37:40):
Well, we'll see if this new position that Casey Costello
has now been appointed Minister Responsible for leading New Zealand's
response to organised crime. Let's see how much success she has.

Speaker 7 (37:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (37:51):
Great discussion. Thank you to everyone who gave us a
call and text through on that one. Really enjoyed it.
Coming up after 2 o'clock, though, have we reached peak influencer?
It's all going down at the US Open.

Speaker 2 (38:05):
Influencers.

Speaker 4 (38:06):
There's big talk about banning them completely from the tournament,
so we'll tell you more about that next. But keen
to hear your thoughts right now. 9292 is that text.
And 0800 80 1080 is the number to call. You're
listening to Matt and Tyler. Hope you're having a great
Thursday afternoon. New sport and weather is fast approaching. Stay
right here. We'll be back in a few minutes.

Speaker 5 (38:26):
All the ones that got me here are gathered here tonight.
It's a class of always living life like we.

Speaker 2 (38:33):
Ain't born to.

Speaker 12 (38:35):
I'm here for him. I'm here for the fight.

Speaker 2 (38:37):
I stand still. The sun is red and.

Speaker 12 (38:40):
Every bed will dry.

Speaker 9 (38:41):
All the ones that.

Speaker 5 (38:42):
Got me here are gathered here tonight.

Speaker 1 (39:06):
The big stories, the big issues, the big trends and
everything in between.

Speaker 2 (39:11):
Matt Heath and Tyler Adams Afternoons. Newstalk ZV.

Speaker 4 (39:16):
Very good afternoon to you. Welcome back into the show.
It is seven past two and great to have your
company on this Thursday afternoon.

Speaker 5 (39:24):
It's Matt Heath and Tyler Adams Afternoons brought to you
by Blackrock. No, no, no, no. Sorry, did I say
that out loud?

Speaker 4 (39:29):
You said that out loud, mate.

Speaker 8 (39:30):
Did I?

Speaker 4 (39:31):
You said that, yeah.

Speaker 5 (39:32):
Covertly brought to you by BlackRock behind the scenes.

Speaker 4 (39:36):
You're going to lose all that BlackRock money now.

Speaker 5 (39:37):
That was the deal. The true conspiracy of that last
hour was when our caller was talking about BlackRock, we
just had to go to the ads.

Speaker 6 (39:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (39:45):
So that's the conspiracy that this broadcast is paid for
by advertising companies.

Speaker 4 (39:51):
Yeah, we're pretty clear on that. I think everybody knows
that it's not BlackRock, it's the lovely advertisers.

Speaker 5 (39:56):
Right, let's get into this conversation.

Speaker 4 (39:58):
So we want to change things up for the next
hour or so and talk about good behaviour or good
etiquette when you are on the road. It's read its
head after a video that's gone viral online from a
man who calls himself Fairway Puppy. Have a listen.

Speaker 23 (40:13):
I like a second wave when I'm in traffic. You
know when somebody lets you in front of them in traffic?
You got to wave, obviously. If you're somebody who doesn't
wave when someone lets you in front of them in traffic,
you're the worst person in the world. So obviously, there's
one wave when it comes to a traffic let-in situation.
But I like to throw a second wave in there.

(40:34):
If I let you in front of me in traffic
and you wave at me, I'm throwing a second wave.

Speaker 5 (40:38):
I'm throwing a wave back at you.

Speaker 2 (40:40):
I like to acknowledge your wave.

Speaker 23 (40:41):
I like to say, sort of say, hey, look, I
see your wave and I appreciate the effort you've gone
to to wave at me letting you in. Here's a
little wave back. Take this back. Just as a token
of my appreciation, just to let them know that I
see them. Because when I'm them and I wave and
that person doesn't wave back at me, then I'm kind

(41:02):
of stressed out. I'm like, do they see me wave?
Do they know that I wave? Because the last thing
I want is people thinking that I didn't wave and
they think that I'm some type of non-waving scumbag. I
like to throw a wave back there, just so everyone
knows we're on the same page.

Speaker 5 (41:17):
Honestly, when this happens, I feel like I've made a friend.

Speaker 23 (41:20):
I feel like me and this person have made a
little quick bond, a little quick friendship, and now we're
sort of besties.

Speaker 5 (41:27):
Yeah, I think this is an important issue that he
raises here because there is a certain amount of people. Look,
we're living in a time where people seem to be
getting more and more angry.

Speaker 8 (41:37):
Yes.

Speaker 5 (41:38):
Just tensions are raising. quite a bit, I reckon. It's
coming up to an election, but also with the social
media algorithm, everyone's being pushed in different directions and they're
getting angry. You feel the tension, yeah. And those kind
of tensions can explode on the roads. So I think
we all need to be more friendly on the roads,

(42:00):
drive the friendly way even harder than we used to.
And so I think we all agree. Actually, I don't
know if we all agree on this because I see
it not happening all the time. If someone lets you in,
say you're going down a road and someone lets you in,
does something nice for you, stops what they're doing for
you on the roads, you wave.

Speaker 2 (42:21):
Definitely.

Speaker 5 (42:22):
And there are people that don't know that. There are
people out there on the roads listening right now, driving around,
they'll be the first time that they've ever heard that
you wave a thank you to someone who who stops
for you or inconvenience himself for you, lets you through,
whatever it is. There's quite a few people that don't
know that, which is shocking. If you don't know that
you wave. But another level of making things friendly is

(42:46):
to acknowledge that wave. So you let someone in, they wave,
thank you. Then you wave thank you back to them.

Speaker 2 (42:55):
The double wave.

Speaker 5 (42:55):
That makes the world just a little bit of a
better place. The double wave... makes people just a little,
go on about their day just feeling like the world
is just a little bit of a better place. So
you might not acknowledge the thank you wave. That person
doesn't necessarily know that you saw it, so they're feeling
a bit bad, and there's an awkwardity of it because

(43:20):
you don't know if that person that is not acknowledging
your wave is angry at you or didn't want to
let you in. There's a lot of confusion in that area, right?

Speaker 4 (43:29):
Yeah, because it's a little boost both ways. That if
you give the wave, that's a nice boost for them.
Then you get the wave in return. That's the double boost.
Everybody leaves that interaction a little bit happier. But you're right.
I mean, this happened the other night where somebody let
me through on a very narrow street. I gave him
a wave and he didn't give me the wave back.
So instantly I felt a little bit guilty, like I've

(43:49):
done him a disservice, but he was doing a nice gesture.
So I rewarded that nice gesture with a nice wave.
So thank you very much, mate. Really appreciate that. What
I wanted in return, as you say, was just the, hey,
no props.

Speaker 5 (44:02):
So there's a lot of talk these days about not
being a dickhead on the roads. But what other ways
that we can make everyone feel better on the roads?
So when you're driving around, The things like this, like
the double wave, that just raise the overall happiness and
friendliness of our society. What are those absolutely essential pieces

(44:24):
of etiquette on the road, but also the above and
beyond pieces of etiquette on the road? Because if we
talk about this, it'll get out there and it might
dissipate through the driving community and make the world a
better place. That's my hope. That's my hope and dream
for this next hour of Talkback Radio. That is beautiful, mate.
on Newstalk ZB.

Speaker 4 (44:43):
That is a beautiful PSA. 0800 80 1080. Tell us
your thoughts.

Speaker 5 (44:46):
What do you think?

Speaker 4 (44:47):
What can make the world a better place when we
are on the roads? 9292 is the text number as well.
It is 12 past two.

Speaker 1 (44:55):
Your home of afternoon talk.

Speaker 2 (44:57):
Matt Heath and Tyler Adams Afternoons. Call 0800 80 1080
Newstalk ZB.

Speaker 4 (45:05):
It is a quarter past two. So what is the
good behaviour? We should see more when we are on
the roads, whether it's the double wave, when someone does
something nice for you. 0800 80 1080 is that number
to call. And 9292 is the text number.

Speaker 5 (45:20):
This text says kill Donald Trump. I'm not sure if that's... Okay.
Is that related to... I think it's related to the
double wave.

Speaker 4 (45:27):
That won't help the boost of the nation.

Speaker 5 (45:29):
G'day, Dion.

Speaker 11 (45:30):
G'day, guys.

Speaker 13 (45:33):
You couldn't have picked a better subject.

Speaker 24 (45:34):
Literally five minutes ago, I was at an electronics store
on the corner of Khyber Pass Road and Boston Roads
in Auckland, just underneath the motorway.

Speaker 13 (45:42):
That's the one.

Speaker 2 (45:43):
Wasn't going to say it in case.

Speaker 7 (45:44):
You didn't want to advertise.

Speaker 5 (45:44):
No, I love Jaycar. I'm a big fan of that spot.
I park under that bridge a lot, Dion.

Speaker 24 (45:49):
Well, I was parked under that bridge, and I had to,
as you know, reverse out on the footpath kind of thing.
The traffic's next to me, and the lights are red.
I just looked over at this lady who was in
an SUV, I just looked at her, and she looked
over at me, and she smiled, and I gave her the,
can I go in front of you? She said yes,
so I went in front of her when the lights changed.
I gave her a wave, and she waved back. I

(46:10):
gave her a thumbs up, and she gave the thumbs
up back, but then when we got around the corner,
I had to stop at the lights going up Khyber
Pass Road.

Speaker 13 (46:17):
She went onto the southern motorway.

Speaker 24 (46:18):
We both gave each other a thumbs up then as well.

Speaker 8 (46:21):
So there you go.

Speaker 13 (46:21):
That's a true story.

Speaker 5 (46:23):
Wow, that is, that's six. It was a human moment.

Speaker 8 (46:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (46:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 25 (46:29):
It was good.

Speaker 24 (46:30):
And I thought to myself, I wonder if she's actually
going to ever talk to anyone about this ever. And
now I'm talking to the nation about it.

Speaker 7 (46:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (46:35):
That's pretty cool. So you acknowledged her. She acknowledged you.
You acknowledged her. She acknowledged you. And then you were friends.
So when you interacted again, about 50 meters up the road,
getting onto the motorway, you had to acknowledge it. You've
had so much interaction that you have to acknowledge them again.

(46:56):
You're like friends. This is beautiful.

Speaker 25 (46:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 8 (46:58):
Wonderful story.

Speaker 2 (46:59):
Had to leave it with you guys.

Speaker 4 (47:00):
Well, hopefully we can find her, Dion. You know, so
just give us the time and place again.

Speaker 24 (47:04):
So it was going, she'd be heading onto the Southern
Motorway about seven minutes ago from Khyber Pass Road after
Boston Road.

Speaker 5 (47:13):
And she's let Dion in out of JCAR, which is
on Boston Road. You know, the famous road from Mount
Eden Prison. And look, I've been in the exact same situation, Dion.
It's quite a lot to reverse out of that car park.
Because everyone's lined up for the lights there. So you
are reliant on the kindness of strangers. And you got that.

(47:33):
And you acknowledged it. And that's a beautiful story. And
I just hope, hope against hope, she's listening.

Speaker 8 (47:39):
That'd be nice. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (47:40):
Thank you for your call, Dion.

Speaker 19 (47:41):
All right.

Speaker 4 (47:41):
We'll try and track her down. 0800 80 1080. Dear driver,
if you're listening, please give us a call or text through.

Speaker 5 (47:47):
Plenty of texts coming through. As a courier driver, it's
sort of a habit to do the second wave.

Speaker 10 (47:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (47:52):
I think courier drivers are pretty friendly. Do courier drivers
drive the friendly way?

Speaker 4 (47:56):
If you are a courier driver, how many waves do
you give?

Speaker 5 (47:59):
0800 80 1080. Tell us.

Speaker 4 (48:00):
9292 if you want to send a text as well.
Plenty coming through.

Speaker 5 (48:04):
Oh, my God, guys, you are preaching to the choir.
The thank you wave or thumbs up is standard in
our house. Those that acknowledge can on occasion receive a
one-finger salute. Oh, those that don't acknowledge.

Speaker 9 (48:17):
Right, yes.

Speaker 5 (48:18):
Okay, good. The people that acknowledge got the finger, got
the bird. That is, yeah, escalating. You let someone through.
They wave and you give them the bird. That's the
opposite of making the world a better place. I thank
you is such a simple thing that can make someone's

(48:38):
day a little bit better. Boom. There it is.

Speaker 8 (48:40):
Boom.

Speaker 4 (48:41):
Keep that sort of stuff coming through. It is 18
past 2. 0800 80 1080 is the number to call.
It is 19 past 2.

Speaker 2 (48:48):
The big stories. The big issues.

Speaker 1 (48:51):
The big trends. And everything in between. Matt Heath and
Tyler Adams Afternoons.

Speaker 2 (48:56):
Newstalk ZB. Matt Heath and Tyler Adams Afternoons.

Speaker 1 (49:03):
Call 0800 80 1080 on Newstalk ZB.

Speaker 4 (49:07):
21 past two, so we're talking about good behaviour while
on the roads. The double wave, are you someone that
gives the double wave? If someone does something nice for you,
they give you the wave and you give them the
wave back. And what do you do when you don't
get that return wave, 0800 80 1080?

Speaker 5 (49:20):
Brian says, I think someone who dips their lights at
night and doesn't burn my retina with the 47 spotlights
hanging off their Ford Ranger. is such a nice act
of kindness.

Speaker 4 (49:30):
That is a lovely act of kindness Brian thank you
G'day Tony.

Speaker 10 (49:34):
G'day mine's nowhere near as complicated as Dion's situation but
I'm a cyclist and one day I was sitting in
a car and I was with a friend and he
hates cyclists and he He thinks that they're taking up
space they shouldn't be, and he's very impatient at intersections.
So what I do now, if I'm on my bike,

(49:55):
I'm coming up to an intersection. Is the car going
to stop? Is the car not going to stop? Am
I going to live for the rest of the day?
I give them a wave when they stop for me,
and I'm always going too fast to notice whether they
acknowledge back. But, yeah, that's just what I do, and
I'm hopefully changing a few attitudes around for some of
the car drivers.

Speaker 5 (50:15):
Drive the friendly way.

Speaker 10 (50:17):
Yeah, just a friendly wave, just an acknowledgement.

Speaker 6 (50:19):
Thanks.

Speaker 13 (50:20):
I appreciate you not running me over.

Speaker 5 (50:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 10 (50:22):
And, yeah, carry on.

Speaker 9 (50:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (50:24):
I've seen that a bit, actually, Tony, is that when
I'm sort of in the middle of the road and
due to turn in and I see a cyclist up
the road and wait for them to go past, get
the little wave, and that's a really nice thing. Well,
thank you, dear cyclist, because they acknowledge that I saw them.
They acknowledge that it was a nice thing to do
instead of trying to cut me off.

Speaker 5 (50:42):
What about.

Speaker 10 (50:43):
So obviously the trend that I'm setting is taking on.

Speaker 5 (50:47):
Yeah, because there is that idea of the angry cyclist.
I think it's because of the large amount of cortisol
of being out there and out on a bike. But
what about this one, Tony? And it's kind of similar.
If you're crossing on a pedestrian crossing and someone stops
for you, as a pedestrian, I always give a wave

(51:09):
of thank you to the driver.

Speaker 7 (51:11):
Yep, 100%.

Speaker 5 (51:12):
Because even though they have to stop for you, you're
still acknowledging that they did stop for you.

Speaker 13 (51:17):
Yes.

Speaker 10 (51:19):
Yeah, and if they're a little bit annoyed about stopping
and they get away, that just takes the heat out
of it.

Speaker 5 (51:25):
And then what you've got to do, you don't actually run,
but you start moving your hands like you are running,
like moving your arms back and forth while you still
go at the same speed just to show I'm getting
out of your way as quickly as I can. A
polite acknowledgement that I'm hurrying here.

Speaker 4 (51:38):
Tony, thank you very much. 0800 80 1080 if you're
a cyclist. Are you with Tony?

Speaker 5 (51:43):
Grant says, as an ex-cop, we all know our traffic
and driving laws are pathetically weak compared to other civilised countries.
We need to have our police numbers increased and we
need the penalties for careless and dangerous driving doubled. Deaths
per 100 on our roads in this country are appalling.
They have to get tougher penalties instead of the pathetic
fines we see dished out in New Zealand. We need
at least another 100 police officers, of which half would

(52:05):
be traffic enforcement officers. As a country, we need to
grow up on our roads, highways, and motorways. It ain't
no picnic ground of idiot fools who end up injuring
and killing people.

Speaker 13 (52:16):
Grant.

Speaker 2 (52:16):
All right.

Speaker 4 (52:17):
With Grant on that, that's pretty full on.

Speaker 8 (52:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (52:20):
Is he right?

Speaker 5 (52:21):
So do we need to legislate for the double wave?

Speaker 4 (52:24):
I'm down for that. Yeah, what are you saying? 9292
is the text number, and 0800 80 1080 is that
number to call. Malcolm, what's your thoughts on this?

Speaker 26 (52:34):
G'day, how's it going?

Speaker 5 (52:35):
Very good.

Speaker 13 (52:36):
Good afternoon.

Speaker 26 (52:37):
Hey, yeah, definitely a waiver at the pedestrian crossings. It's
a polite thing to do. But yeah, the one I've got,
and it happened to me twice yesterday, once in Petone
and I think once in Wellington City, is... Tony Forshaw,
I don't know if you know that, there's a lot
of side streets coming onto there.

Speaker 8 (52:53):
Yep.

Speaker 26 (52:54):
And I always, and it's not hard to do this, hey,
just hang back and let the people out of the
side streets because the traffic's just, you know, full flow
along there.

Speaker 11 (53:01):
Yes.

Speaker 26 (53:02):
But what happens so many times, I hang back, and
it's not hard to do that, like I said, but
the guy pulls up to the side street and he's
looking down at his cell phone.

Speaker 5 (53:13):
Oh, that's annoying.

Speaker 26 (53:14):
And then they look up at you with their mouth
half hanging open.

Speaker 2 (53:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 11 (53:18):
You know, you're driving.

Speaker 8 (53:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 26 (53:20):
That just happened again in Wellington down Guzney Street, I think.

Speaker 5 (53:25):
Yeah, that's annoying. And that's the other one that you're
talking about, because I had this on Dominion Road the
other day where I was driving along, and I stopped
to let someone through, and then I checked. I checked
that there was no bus coming through up the bus lane,
and I signalled them through and said, you're good to go,
you're good to go that side. Guy drives out, no
acknowledgement at all.

Speaker 8 (53:43):
Dirty.

Speaker 5 (53:44):
So I've done everything for him. I've checked. I've checked
there's no one coming that way. I've checked there's no
one coming through this way. and I've made a gap
for him, and that isn't good enough for this guy
to give me the wave. So at that point, I'm
tempted to undo all the nice stuff I've done and
give him the bird at that point. You'd be within
your rights to do.

Speaker 4 (54:04):
That, yeah.

Speaker 26 (54:06):
Yeah, and later on in the evening, I was coming
back to Long Baton, you know, I'm trying to get
out of a side street, and no one was looking
at letting me out, eh, buddy Dag? And another politeness
thing too, and this happened on the weekend we were
driving from here, Palmerston up to Taupo and bumped into
these guys at the gas station at Sampson, I think.
They were in a truck and we were in our

(54:27):
camper van. And I got these guys to take a
photo of me and my son by our camper van
and And that was good. But they left before us.
But we've become driving companions.

Speaker 8 (54:37):
I don't know if.

Speaker 2 (54:37):
You've ever had that.

Speaker 8 (54:39):
Oh, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 26 (54:40):
You have a driving buddy on the road at the
same speed. And they pulled off in Waiouru, I think.
And you just give them a toot, you know, in
a wave. Because you were there.

Speaker 5 (54:50):
We spent some time together. Our lives crossed over briefly.
And so see you and safe travels. Yeah.

Speaker 22 (54:58):
Thanks, man.

Speaker 5 (54:59):
Good on you, Malcolm.

Speaker 4 (54:59):
Thank you very much.

Speaker 5 (55:00):
This is another question for you as well around this politeness.
So this morning when I was driving to work, I
was behind a car that didn't pull out immediately because
they missed the light. And because I'm kind of looking
at the back of that car, I didn't pull out.
But then a car about five back gets really loudly
on their horn to hurry up the person in the front.

Speaker 11 (55:21):
Right, yes.

Speaker 5 (55:22):
And I think that's my job. If anyone's going to
hurry up, it's just one car back with a little
friendly two, right? Because if someone's five cars back honking,
you think there's an emergency. You think something terrible's happened
back there because it's too far from the action.

Speaker 4 (55:34):
I've got some strong thoughts on that. I'll share those soon.
But what do you reckon on that one? 0800 80
1080 and 9292 is the text number. But what is
some of the good behaviour on our roads, whether it's
a friendly wave, the hazard lights that we need to
promote more of?

Speaker 5 (55:46):
I'm a driving instructor, says this texter. Whenever another motorist
gives my student a bit of time or space... I
open my window, and I give them the thank you wave.
So that's even opening your window.

Speaker 4 (55:58):
The passenger wave.

Speaker 5 (55:59):
Yeah. Oh, the passenger wave. That's another issue, the passenger wave.
My oldest son, he's a very good driver, but whenever
we're driving together, if I'm driving, he's giving all kinds
of passenger waves. He's handing out friendly waves all over
the shop.

Speaker 2 (56:14):
He loves it.

Speaker 9 (56:14):
He loves it, yeah.

Speaker 4 (56:15):
He's wave heavy. I'll tell you who's really good at
the wave, just before we get to the headlines, bus drivers.

Speaker 5 (56:19):
Bus drivers.

Speaker 4 (56:21):
Every time that I've let a bus driver in because
you see them indicating they're at the bus stop they're
indicating they want to get back on the road and
every time I can stop I'll stop and 100% success
rate on the wave.

Speaker 5 (56:32):
I've never seen them do the wave but they do
the emergency lights.

Speaker 4 (56:36):
The hazards but quite often they'll just stick their hand
out the window give the wee wave can't see the
face but I like that.

Speaker 5 (56:40):
Yeah actually I start to get a bit annoyed at
bus drivers now because you know how it says let
the bus go first yes and that's just a suggestion
right but I always do.

Speaker 4 (56:50):
Yeah uh And now I've come.

Speaker 5 (56:53):
To expect the hazard lights to go on. And when
they don't, I go, dirty bus driver. Dirty bus driver.
Who employed you, mate?

Speaker 14 (57:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (57:00):
Right, keep those calls coming through 0800 80 1080. What
sort of good behaviour on our road should be promoted more?

Speaker 2 (57:05):
What do you do?

Speaker 4 (57:06):
What do you love to see? Tell us about it.

Speaker 5 (57:08):
It is 29 past two.

Speaker 2 (57:10):
Newstalk ZB Headlines.

Speaker 20 (57:12):
With Your Ride, New Zealand's number one taxi app. Download
Your Ride today. Prime Minister Chris Luxon isn't expressing opinions
on Taiwan's hopes of attending next year's Pacific Islands Forum
in New Zealand. China regards Taiwan as part of its
territory and has threatened consequences for its foreign minister, Lin Xiaolong,

(57:33):
attending this week's forum in Palau. Customs says it's intercepted
two different smuggling cases of travellers from Malaysia transporting clothes
soaked in methamphetamine. Cervical cancer screening rates for Wahine Māori
and Pacific women are growing strongly three years after self-testing

(57:53):
was introduced. Māori coverage has jumped more than 13 percentage points.
Pacific are nearly 23. The government's stepping up its fight
against organised crime, appointing Casey Costello Organised Crime Minister with
a plan focusing on preventing people trafficking. Environment Southland's digging
a trench to open Waituna Lagoon to the sea southeast

(58:17):
of Invercargill as it threatens flooding nearby areas. Savers keep
waiting as the official cash rate hike unlikely to push
fixed interest rates much higher. You can see more at nzherald.co.nz.
Now back to Matt Heath and Tyler Adams.

Speaker 4 (58:32):
Thank you very much, Raylene. It is 27 to 3,
and we're talking about good behaviour on the road that
should be promoted more, whether that is the hand wave,
the hazard lights. And just before we go to the text,
so you mentioned before the scenario you were in, Matt.
So you're at an intersection. There was someone in front
of you. That's the first person in the queue. You're
number two. Then you've got number three, four, five, six
down the track.

Speaker 2 (58:53):
Yep.

Speaker 4 (58:53):
The first person wasn't responding to the green light.

Speaker 2 (58:57):
Yep.

Speaker 4 (58:57):
So things were starting to get a little bit tense.
But then... The horn tooter ended up being number five.

Speaker 5 (59:04):
Number five. Yeah, see, that's... I'm roughly judging about five.

Speaker 2 (59:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (59:09):
And I just don't think it's their responsibility at five back. No,
I agree. It's too confusing. I think tooting at the
lights to make the person in front go is a...
first or second runner up job.

Speaker 4 (59:21):
I'd put third in there, a loose third, that if
you didn't do your job then the third comes in.

Speaker 8 (59:26):
I don't know.

Speaker 5 (59:26):
I just think if you're hammering the horn five cars back,
you're Create all kinds of confusion. No one knows what
you're honking about.

Speaker 4 (59:34):
Yeah, five down. You've got no right to use your horn.

Speaker 5 (59:36):
Yeah, you're too far from the situation. This sexy says,
piss off. Oh, are you a freaking baby? Didn't say freaking.
I censored that for you, listeners.

Speaker 8 (59:44):
Good work.

Speaker 5 (59:45):
You need to play wave postman to feel good about yourself.
Harden up. Just drive to the rules. It doesn't say
wave in the road code, so there's no obligation. I
don't wave. I do give the finger, but I don't wave,
and I couldn't give less of a crap if someone
waves at me because I am not a snowflake baby
like you pussies.

Speaker 1 (01:00:07):
Wow.

Speaker 4 (01:00:08):
See, some people just want to see the world burn,
don't they?

Speaker 5 (01:00:10):
So, yeah, is that the joker? So you don't need
to play wave postman. So postman is that game that
kids play where they keep popping up when you're on
a plane, don't they? And they hand you something and
then you hand it back. That's right, yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:00:22):
Great game for kids.

Speaker 5 (01:00:23):
So is it babyish to wave thank you? I think
that's a, isn't, appreciating that someone has done something nice
for you, a pretty grown-up thing to do. Don't we reach,
as we grow up, we become more appreciative and polite?
Isn't that? Is it babyish, to be polite?

Speaker 4 (01:00:42):
Well, so they're pretty quick on the middle finger. So
zero waves, but they're okay with flashing the old middle
finger whenever they feel like it.

Speaker 5 (01:00:49):
What do you reckon? Hi, boys. I'm a motorcycle rider,
not just a weekend warrior, but ride the majority of time.
If someone gives way to me, even if they are
meant to, I'll show my appreciation by giving them a
nod or a quick wave. I think it just might
save my life one day. Love the show. Cheers, Tim. Yeah,
good on you, Tim.

Speaker 4 (01:01:08):
Lee, what do you reckon?

Speaker 20 (01:01:09):
Thanks.

Speaker 12 (01:01:11):
Right.

Speaker 27 (01:01:12):
I had in mind the alternative to the wave, which
I noticed truck drivers use and which I use in
my ute, and that is a short burst on your
emergency line.

Speaker 2 (01:01:27):
Oh, yes, yes.

Speaker 27 (01:01:29):
In particular, if a truck driver is sitting up high
in his cab and you're down in your cab, he
may not be able to see you physically.

Speaker 12 (01:01:39):
So.

Speaker 27 (01:01:40):
You are unable to wave to him. But just a
couple of flashes on your emergency lights does the job nicely.
The other thing, bus drivers, one thing that I think
we should copy the Germans in doing is making buses

(01:02:02):
head right of way when they pull out from a
bus stop. There, if you see a bus at a
bus stop and he indicates left that he's going to
pull out, the law in Germany says you must give way,
like it or not.

Speaker 5 (01:02:19):
Yeah, because it's an unwritten... It's not a law here,
but it's sort of an unwritten rule, isn't it, that
you always let the bus go first?

Speaker 11 (01:02:26):
Yeah, I always do so.

Speaker 27 (01:02:28):
I always try to be manly and, of course... I
don't know who that character was that texted in about
never waving and only giving the finger on that. That's
not the sort of manners my mother taught me and
the Navy taught me after they took over my life.

Speaker 5 (01:02:51):
Yeah, so you're not a snowflake for waving, Lee.

Speaker 11 (01:02:58):
No, I have seen acted service.

Speaker 2 (01:03:01):
Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 5 (01:03:02):
Manly man. Hey, back to the emergency. It sounds like
you're driving right now, Lee. So maybe there's going to
be an opportunity for a live wave at some point.
But with the emergency lights, if you're just on a
motorway and someone lets you in, is that worthy of
the emergency lights? Thank you. So, you know, a lane change.

Speaker 22 (01:03:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 27 (01:03:23):
And then push it again, give them two blinks.

Speaker 5 (01:03:26):
Yeah, two blinks.

Speaker 11 (01:03:26):
Because truckies do it all the time.

Speaker 5 (01:03:29):
And that makes people more likely to let other people in.
It makes the whole system work if everyone appreciates it,
each other. So I think there's probably people out there
that don't know that, that don't. Know the expectations. I
certainly see them.

Speaker 7 (01:03:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:03:44):
I'd say it's about 50% I see.

Speaker 5 (01:03:46):
Do you do it?

Speaker 4 (01:03:46):
Do you do the old hazard when it's a lane change?

Speaker 7 (01:03:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 11 (01:03:49):
Always?

Speaker 4 (01:03:49):
And then maybe a wave out the window if you
so choose? Just the hazard's enough.

Speaker 5 (01:03:54):
I think the hazards are enough.

Speaker 13 (01:03:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:03:56):
I don't need to roll down the window and wave.
I think that's confusing for people if you stick your
hand out the window. It might be indicating that you're
turning or something. No, I just think just a little hazard.
Just for something as simple as merging like a zip.
It's just like, oh, thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:04:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:04:09):
Just an acknowledgement.

Speaker 4 (01:04:10):
What do you say, though? Do you do it? Oh,
880-1080 is the number to call.

Speaker 5 (01:04:14):
Brian, your thoughts.

Speaker 12 (01:04:16):
Yeah, morning.

Speaker 7 (01:04:17):
Oh, afternoon, Matt. Sorry, mate.

Speaker 14 (01:04:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 12 (01:04:21):
A couple of things. I was just chuckling to myself.
I was just listening away while I was waiting on line,
and I was driving through Christchurch Central, and you know
how someone indicates to pull out of a park, a
parallel park, and, you know, they're sort of half in,
half out, and they want him to get out of
the lane. I was listening to the show, and so
I stopped at the light traffic and looked at my headlights.

(01:04:44):
I was like, yeah, hey, come on then. Oh, yeah,
you're half in, half out. You know, I ain't got
much other options. And they literally sat there until I
was like, oh, jeez. And I was like, oh, you
bloody moron, hurry up.

Speaker 5 (01:04:57):
They've got performance anxiety.

Speaker 12 (01:04:59):
I'm not good at eating out.

Speaker 2 (01:05:02):
Here.

Speaker 5 (01:05:02):
Some people get parallel pikes paralysis, don't they? They're blocking
the road and then they see everyone's watching them and
then they get terrified and they just sit there and they...
start indicating you to come round, and you're like, well,
if you just parallel park, like you should be able
to do, then I can drive straight through and I
don't have to be on the other side of the road.

Speaker 4 (01:05:19):
Just get the job done.

Speaker 12 (01:05:21):
Well, I was just wanting to come back out into
the flat traffic. Oh, right, OK. So they finally worked
it out, and I headed off, and they didn't wage,
they didn't hazard like me, they didn't.

Speaker 8 (01:05:33):
Do anything for you.

Speaker 5 (01:05:35):
And that's the last time you do that for that day, though,
isn't it, Brian?

Speaker 22 (01:05:38):
You get that sort of blowback.

Speaker 12 (01:05:41):
Yeah, yeah. When I was ringing about that, I commute
every day down through Templeton. And it's a funny thing.
I chuckle at it all the time. It's State Highway
1 through Templeton. There's multiple side streets or roads coming out,
you know, trucks everywhere and things like that. Non-stop traffic queues.
And the lights go green and everyone takes off and

(01:06:03):
they're all bumper to bumper. And they've all got to
be in line at 70km through there. And all I
do is I just take off a bit slower and
leave a gap of, you know, sort of 60, 70
metres before the next, you know, the next car. And
all the way through Templeton, you just go through and
you just see no other traffic coming out of the
way and just flick the headlights. and multiple cars and

(01:06:24):
trucks come out and can finally get across. Because it's
a nightmare trying to get across, you know, the State
Highway 1.

Speaker 11 (01:06:30):
Right.

Speaker 12 (01:06:30):
And everyone is just wrapped. They're all just waving.

Speaker 5 (01:06:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 12 (01:06:35):
You know, trucks are honking and that, and it's like,
it didn't, and by the end of the 70k zone,
when it turns to 100, you know, I can easily
catch back up to the fly of traffic and everyone's
happy and moved on. And it's not a hard thing,
and I struggle to understand why people have to be
I want to be right in the bumper in front
of me rather than just leaving a little gap and,

(01:06:58):
you know, some other traffic to use it to sort
of move along and get out of the way.

Speaker 5 (01:07:03):
Good on you, Brian.

Speaker 4 (01:07:04):
Spot on.

Speaker 5 (01:07:05):
So that's thinking ahead about how you can make other
people's lives better and easier.

Speaker 8 (01:07:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:07:11):
Can I just say, when it comes to that parallel
parking that he was talking about, I just don't do that.
If I'm going down a street and there's people behind
me and I can see a wee park, I'm not
going to go for it.

Speaker 5 (01:07:21):
I'm just going to keep going.

Speaker 4 (01:07:22):
Because I just don't want that stress and that undue
nature of holding everybody up. And maybe, you know, because
I'm going to cock it up a couple of times
before I get into that car park, I just know
that's going to start to wind people up. So I
just keep driving. I'll find another car park a K
away if it has to be.

Speaker 5 (01:07:37):
Cowardly, maybe. What about applying pressure? So there's this other thing.
Say someone's turning right onto a busy road. So you're
turning right and it's complicated because you've got to have
the cars going on the left. You've got cars coming
on the left on the other side of the road.

Speaker 8 (01:07:52):
Yes.

Speaker 5 (01:07:52):
You might have someone that's turning right in and so
it's really hard to get out, right?

Speaker 2 (01:07:57):
Yep.

Speaker 5 (01:07:57):
The pressure that comes on you as that front person,
it just builds and builds and builds.

Speaker 2 (01:08:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:08:03):
And, you know, suddenly you've got three or four people
behind you.

Speaker 11 (01:08:06):
Yes.

Speaker 5 (01:08:07):
And they probably understand that you're trying your best to
find the gap.

Speaker 8 (01:08:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:08:12):
But that pressure is intense.

Speaker 1 (01:08:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:08:14):
And so I don't know how people behind can indicate that, look,
I understand you're doing your best to kind of get
across this intersection, and the fact that I'm behind you
is not applying pressure.

Speaker 2 (01:08:23):
Yeah. You know.

Speaker 4 (01:08:24):
So true. Because then you get in your head and
you're like, oh, man, these people behind me are so
angry with me. You know, I can't find a safe gap.

Speaker 5 (01:08:30):
And then you abandon ship and then you turn left.

Speaker 20 (01:08:32):
Yes.

Speaker 5 (01:08:33):
So true.

Speaker 4 (01:08:34):
Oh, 180, 1080 is the number to call. So what
are the good behaviours that need to be promoted more
on our roads?

Speaker 5 (01:08:40):
It is 17 to 3.

Speaker 2 (01:08:42):
The big stories. The big issues.

Speaker 1 (01:08:44):
The big trends. And everything in between. Matt Heath and
Tyler Adams Afternoons.

Speaker 2 (01:08:49):
News Talk ZB.

Speaker 5 (01:08:50):
Quarter to three.

Speaker 4 (01:08:51):
What is the good driving etiquette that needs to be
promoted on our roads?

Speaker 5 (01:08:54):
This is a good point from this text. It's just
as annoying as lack of acknowledgement as the person that
dawdles at snail's pace across the pedestrian crossing. Oh, God.
The dawdlers are basically giving you the fingers. I know
they have the right to cross, but they could pick
up the pace to be polite. Some people have... That
is 100% true. The cars have stopped for you, and
you've got this pedestrian crossing, and look, fine. Pedestrian crossing.

(01:09:18):
You've got the right of way to cross. But get
over there as expediently as you can.

Speaker 15 (01:09:22):
Yep.

Speaker 4 (01:09:22):
They're pretty much spitting in your face when.

Speaker 7 (01:09:24):
They do that.

Speaker 5 (01:09:25):
Just walking and talking and I don't know if this
is a word. Is lollygagging a word? It is a word.
What does it mean? I don't know. I'm afraid to admit.
I'm going to say it and then I'm going to
look it up. Lollygagging in the middle of the- Dirty lollygaggers.
Lollygagging on the zebra crossing is, hopefully it's not an
offensive term. I'll look into that. Speaking offensive, this person

(01:09:49):
says that they don't acknowledge with their fingers, with their finger.
Where is this texture? It's complicated what they're trying to
say here. But the upshot is they don't acknowledge with
their finger because you're supposed to keep two hands on
the wheel. So they'll bear their buttocks out the window
at anyone that crosses them on the road.

Speaker 8 (01:10:10):
All right.

Speaker 5 (01:10:11):
Bit of cheek. Here we go. It's better to bear
your buttocks than pull the fingers because you should always
keep two hands on the wheel. Is that true?

Speaker 4 (01:10:18):
Well, it's a safety conscious person.

Speaker 5 (01:10:20):
Well, I mean, that would suggest that you're driving around
with your pants off. It's a hell of a, you've
got to be pretty flexible to do that.

Speaker 4 (01:10:25):
0800 8010 80C, number to call and 9292 if you
want to text through.

Speaker 5 (01:10:29):
Okay, lollygagging means wasting time by moving slowly or falling around.

Speaker 2 (01:10:34):
Nailed it.

Speaker 4 (01:10:34):
You rolled the dice and it came up as six.

Speaker 5 (01:10:36):
Well done, mate. Thank goodness. Philip, you're a bus driver.

Speaker 8 (01:10:43):
Yeah, I'm a bus driver. How's it going?

Speaker 4 (01:10:45):
Good, mate. So your thoughts?

Speaker 8 (01:10:47):
Yeah, during the day, if someone lets me out from
a bus stop, I'll give them a good wave, and
then I'll be doing night shift tonight, and they won't
see my hand, so I'll just give them the hazard
lights and say thank you. But there are some arrogant
drivers out there that just don't want to let you out.

Speaker 5 (01:11:09):
Now, is it true, Philip, that the law has been
changed recently? The law has changed this year, and it's
now a legal requirement to let buses in.

Speaker 8 (01:11:20):
A lot of people don't care about that.

Speaker 11 (01:11:22):
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 8 (01:11:23):
A lot of people hate buses, they do. Right. Yeah,
they just think they're just one big, huge obstacle they're
going to wait for. Right.

Speaker 2 (01:11:32):
You know?

Speaker 8 (01:11:33):
Yeah. And I just find that if they're a little
bit more patient, you know, just give me a chance
to get out, because we... We're on some busy roads
at times.

Speaker 1 (01:11:43):
Yep.

Speaker 8 (01:11:43):
And very difficult to get out.

Speaker 2 (01:11:45):
Yes.

Speaker 5 (01:11:47):
What are the most difficult parts of driving a bus
around town in a busy, you know, in rush hour?
What are the most difficult things that you face?

Speaker 8 (01:11:57):
I don't know. Not necessarily in town. It's more when
you get out of town.

Speaker 2 (01:12:05):
Right.

Speaker 8 (01:12:05):
Where the traffic builds up.

Speaker 12 (01:12:07):
Yep.

Speaker 8 (01:12:07):
And you've just got to be patient and just do
what you can.

Speaker 1 (01:12:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 8 (01:12:12):
And, you know, if someone lets me out, I think
they're good. But some people, you've actually got to think
for them because you think they're going to let you in,
they slow down, and all of a sudden they go
right past the bus as you're trying to get out.

Speaker 5 (01:12:27):
Oh, right, yeah. I see what you're saying. So they're
sort of in two minds. They're in two minds.

Speaker 2 (01:12:34):
Yeah, I've got one. Right.

Speaker 4 (01:12:36):
To be fair though, Philip, sometimes, and I've been in
the situation where the bus driver's indicating that they want
to move out, and so I'll stop, and then they
sit there. So my assumption is they'll put on the
indicator a little bit too early, and they're still dealing
with passengers. So then I start to move because I think, okay,
they're not ready to move, and then they start coming
out at the same time.

Speaker 5 (01:12:54):
Do you know what I'm saying?

Speaker 8 (01:12:56):
Yeah, what happens there is sometimes we have to wait
until the passengers sit down in the seat, and then
we indicate out. But then all of a sudden, you're
just about to indicate out and some passenger wants to
get on the bus. And then you've got to switch
the indicator back off again. Ah, okay.

Speaker 2 (01:13:12):
All right.

Speaker 5 (01:13:13):
That explains it.

Speaker 4 (01:13:14):
So that is my fault.

Speaker 8 (01:13:15):
One of the joys of being a bus driver.

Speaker 5 (01:13:18):
I mean, the thing about it being like, you know,
you let a bus out, you're going to get that
position back. It's kind of like the F1 if you've,
you know, when you have to give the position back.
Because the bus will pull in again. Yeah, they'll jump
on the bus lane. Yeah, they're not going to go
too far until they have to pull in again and
let people off or let people on. Yeah, it's a
very good point. And you scoot right past them. So
you get the place back.

Speaker 4 (01:13:38):
Yeah. 9292, if you want to send a text. There's
been plenty coming through, but let's have a chat to Chris.
Politeness on the roads, Chris.

Speaker 5 (01:13:46):
What do you think?

Speaker 11 (01:13:47):
G'day, g'day.

Speaker 18 (01:13:48):
Hey, mate.

Speaker 28 (01:13:49):
I'm a big fan of waving people through. I think
any small act of kindness, can cheer up someone's day
even in the slightest.

Speaker 21 (01:13:59):
And with any luck, they pay it forward, right?

Speaker 11 (01:14:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 28 (01:14:04):
I don't know why, but I've got this habit at
the same time of waving someone through, I also say,
thank you, even though they can't hear me. But then
I also worry that it might have a negative effect
and they could possibly think I'm saying something else to them.

Speaker 6 (01:14:18):
Oh, right.

Speaker 5 (01:14:18):
Yeah, if they're not a great lip reader.

Speaker 28 (01:14:24):
But whatever happened to the two flashes of the lights
when you're on those long road trips, you know, warning
people of maybe an accident or a speed camera or
those sorts of things. I feel like it would always happen.
Everybody used to do it, but no one seems to
do it anymore.

Speaker 5 (01:14:43):
Is it illegal to do, you know, obviously it's not
illegal to flash your lights around an accident or something,
but is there a law against flashing to say that
there's a there's a traffic cop around the corner or
a speed camera?

Speaker 7 (01:14:58):
I don't believe so.

Speaker 28 (01:15:01):
I did actually ask my eldest daughter not that long
ago when she went for a licence and read the
road code and all that sort of stuff, asked her
if there was anything in there about that, and there wasn't.

Speaker 11 (01:15:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:15:12):
I'm just looking it up, and you're quite right. So
this was an article from 2024 where they asked the police,
is it illegal to flash your lights to warn people
of police or cameras? And they said, no, it is
not illegal, but it is discouraged. So there you go.

Speaker 5 (01:15:27):
And how do you discourage it?

Speaker 4 (01:15:28):
Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 5 (01:15:29):
There's no fine that's going to be handed out. Just
to walk around discouraging it. Hey, guys, great conversation today.
What drives me crazy is on a quiet day with
no traffic, someone will push the pedestrian button light to
stop traffic to cross the road when they could easily jaywalk.
I will also acknowledge a good deed of giving way
or letting me in. It's just appreciated. I mean, I
feel terrible if I'm in a situation where I've pressed,

(01:15:50):
you know, because there's so many... crossings with lights now
yeah and you press it you haven't really been thinking
you get up and then there's like 20 cars stopping
just for you to cross you know this is a
lot of inconvenience just to get me across the road
just a little on me yeah and i've got so
many cars and then it takes so long you're gone
you're down the road and it's still it's still getting

(01:16:11):
through it's still waiting you have to walk past them
in shame yeah sorry.

Speaker 4 (01:16:16):
If you ever pressed it and then decided you don't
need to cross the road anymore and then you've got to.

Speaker 2 (01:16:19):
Walk away in shame.

Speaker 7 (01:16:20):
You do.

Speaker 8 (01:16:21):
You're in.

Speaker 5 (01:16:22):
If you press it, you've got to cross that road.
You can't change your mind at that point when a
bunch of people have had to stop for you. Yeah,
good on you.

Speaker 4 (01:16:29):
All right, back very shortly. It is seven minutes to three.
9292 is the text.

Speaker 2 (01:16:34):
The issues that affect you and a bit of fun
along the way.

Speaker 1 (01:16:38):
Matt Heath and Tyler Adams Afternoons.

Speaker 2 (01:16:40):
Newstalk ZB.

Speaker 4 (01:16:42):
New Storg ZB it is. 4, 2, 3, quick text here.
G'day Matt and Tyler. I've abandoned ship and gone left
off and I can't stand the pressure of the cars
behind me.

Speaker 5 (01:16:50):
I'm with that person. You just give up on the
right turn and take the left one. So, apart from
a few people who think it's weak and one who
prefers to bear their buttocks out the window, I think
most people agree on the double wave. I think that's
what we get from this hour of chat. Someone lets
you in, you wave. If someone waves thank you, you
wave back and the world becomes... A perfect place. Almost immediately.

(01:17:17):
Pretty close too, yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:17:18):
What a beautiful message and what a great discussion. Thank
you to everyone who takes through and gave us a
buzz on that. Coming up after three o'clock, whitebait season
has just started and Labour is calling for a review
on limits on whitebait. So I want to chat to
you if you're a whitebaiter.

Speaker 5 (01:17:32):
And is whitebait patty even that good? Controversial, mate.

Speaker 4 (01:17:36):
0880 1080 is the number to call. News is next.

Speaker 5 (01:17:40):
You can count on me cause I can count on you.

Speaker 2 (01:17:48):
The big stories. The big issues. The big trends. And
everything in between. Matt Heath and Tyler Adams Afternoons. Newstalk ZB.

Speaker 8 (01:17:59):
G'day to you.

Speaker 29 (01:17:59):
Welcome back into the show. It is six past three.
So as whitebaiters cast their nets on rivers around the
country for the start of the season, kicked off on
the 1st of September, some are questioning whether the rules
governing these species are fit for purpose. So Labour is
calling for a review of the fishery, whitebaiting, asking whether
limits are needed, unlike most high-value seafood. Whitebaiters don't need

(01:18:23):
a commercial fishing licence. There's no quota system, meaning recreational
fishers can keep and sell as much as they catch,
and its popularity has created tension on the rivers, as
it can prove financially lucrative, selling for $ 80- plus a kilo.

Speaker 12 (01:18:39):
Wow.

Speaker 5 (01:18:40):
That's big money.

Speaker 4 (01:18:41):
But Labour's Oceans and Fisheries spokesperson, Rachel Boyack, wants an
urgent review, arguing the current rules may not protect the
species long-term. Conservation Minister Tama Potaka, meanwhile... says he wasn't
aware of any concerns he said I haven't received any
advice on that it's not a priority for me What
is a priority is no more taxes.

Speaker 20 (01:19:00):
Right.

Speaker 5 (01:19:01):
Well, a couple of taxes on this already. White baiting
is evil. Labour is right to ban it. Another reason
to vote for them. So much death on a single patty.

Speaker 22 (01:19:09):
Sick.

Speaker 5 (01:19:10):
Ban it and charge people.

Speaker 7 (01:19:12):
Wow.

Speaker 4 (01:19:12):
So much death on a single patty.

Speaker 5 (01:19:14):
I don't think even Labour's asking for it to be
completely banned.

Speaker 14 (01:19:17):
No.

Speaker 5 (01:19:18):
That's text is going one step further whereas this text
says stay away from my white bait you bastards that
would be the last straw.

Speaker 4 (01:19:27):
It does become like the wild west on some of
those rivers though I mean if you get your little
plot and I don't know how you determine whether a
plot is yours and if someone tries to swoop in
and get amongst your plot I mean there's been fisticuffs.

Speaker 5 (01:19:39):
Happen yeah right so it runs from you know 1st
of September to the 30th of October so this is
right in the middle of it So, you know, what
do you think about this? I mean, people say that,
you know, every one of those little white baits, the
little worms with eyes, they could have grown into a fish. Yeah,

(01:20:02):
they are little baby fish.

Speaker 8 (01:20:03):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:20:04):
But are they the species that you'd pick up in
adult form and have a wee bite of?

Speaker 5 (01:20:08):
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (01:20:09):
So the species include, and I haven't heard of some
of these, the inanga, the banded kokopu, the kuaro, the
giant kokopu, short-jaw kokopu, and the common smelt. So they
are ones facing a range of other threats.

Speaker 5 (01:20:26):
The common smelt.

Speaker 8 (01:20:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:20:27):
I've never gone to a fish and chip shop and said,
can I please have a bit of common smelt? But maybe.

Speaker 5 (01:20:33):
Maybe they're good eating when they're in adult form. Speaking
of good eating, I've got a controversial take. On whitebait. Okay,
here we go. Is it that great? How dare you?
Is it that great? $ 80 a kilogram. Is it that great?
I mean, you've got a whitebait patty. You fry it up.

(01:20:55):
You've got egg in there. Yeah, plenty of butter. Plenty
of butter. A little squeeze of lemon. And then what's
the whitebait doing in there? Just a little bit fishy
and a bit crunchy, right? With some eyes.

Speaker 16 (01:21:04):
Yes.

Speaker 4 (01:21:05):
To me, it adds a bit of sweetness, just a
little bit of fishy sweetness just to elevate it.

Speaker 20 (01:21:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:21:11):
I mean, I'll never turn away a whitebait fritter.

Speaker 14 (01:21:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:21:16):
But would I spend $ 80 a kilo on those little
worms with eyes? Probably not.

Speaker 5 (01:21:21):
So why do people call them a patty and some
people call them a fritter?

Speaker 4 (01:21:24):
It's a great question.

Speaker 5 (01:21:25):
9292.

Speaker 4 (01:21:26):
We're going to need some help when we're talking about
whitebait here.

Speaker 7 (01:21:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:21:29):
So isn't it just the egg? And the salt and
pepper and the herbs that you're tasting.

Speaker 4 (01:21:37):
It was when my dad made it. I mean, he
was really stingy on the whitebait. I swear, I'm not
even being hyperbolic here. Some of the fritters he was
making had four whitebait in it. I was like, Dad,
what's the even point? We'll just have an egg fritter.
Just get rid of the whitebait. You've spent 80 bucks
on it. You've given us four tiny little baby fish.
0800 8010 80 is the number to call. If you
are into your whitebaiting, how do you feel about labour

(01:21:58):
wanting to have limits?

Speaker 5 (01:22:00):
The common smelt tastes like a cucumber. Most white baiters
will throw it back.

Speaker 7 (01:22:04):
It's disgusting.

Speaker 4 (01:22:05):
Right, okay, good to know. Cucumber fish. There's plenty of
text coming through on white baiting. So if you are
someone that does regular white baiting, what is it actually
like out there on the river? Is it getting pretty
territorial for you?

Speaker 5 (01:22:18):
And is it true what this text says? Chris Hipkins
thinks you use a rod to catch white bait.

Speaker 4 (01:22:23):
If we can find some audio of that.

Speaker 5 (01:22:24):
Stay out of it. That would be amazing.

Speaker 12 (01:22:26):
Right.

Speaker 4 (01:22:27):
Oh, 800, 80, 10, 80. And what do you think
about Matt Heath's controversial statement? Is it any that good?

Speaker 5 (01:22:32):
I'm not saying, I think it's tasty. Like I like
a whitebait fritter. Yum. But is it the greatest thing
in the world? Like is it, you know, I don't
want to restrict people getting whitebait. Go for your life.
Cook up whatever fritters you want. But is it, Is

(01:22:54):
it that great? I mean, it's not crayfish. Shot's fired, mate.
Shot's fired.

Speaker 4 (01:23:02):
What do you say to that? Oh, 880, 1080.

Speaker 5 (01:23:03):
It is 11 past three. It's just butter, flour and egg.
Keep digging.

Speaker 2 (01:23:08):
News Talk ZB.

Speaker 4 (01:23:09):
14 past three. Whitebait season's underway and Labour is calling
for a review on whether there should be limits.

Speaker 5 (01:23:16):
A patty is shaped. That's its defining feature. So it's
shaped before you cook it. Whereas a fritter... It's just
all huffed and cooked. So frying a mixture. So you
make the mixture and you put it down. A patty
is shaped.

Speaker 7 (01:23:30):
Right.

Speaker 5 (01:23:31):
And a mixture is just put onto the grill.

Speaker 4 (01:23:33):
So with the whitebait, it would be a fritter. Just
chuck it all in there.

Speaker 2 (01:23:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:23:37):
It's not really shaped. So the whitebait is suspended in
egg batter mixture and fried. If you compressed it into
a disc and fried it. That would be a patty. Okay,
this is good stuff.

Speaker 4 (01:23:49):
And just quickly on the common schmelt, I've done a
bit of research. It is actually called the cucumber fish
because it tastes like cucumber, as that texter said. And
it's got a distinctive cucumber smell about it as well.

Speaker 5 (01:24:00):
This texter says mock whitebait fritter is grated onion and cheese.
It's just as good.

Speaker 4 (01:24:06):
Okay, well on that, what do you say to Matt
Heath's controversial opinion? Is it really that good, whitebait, when
you're paying $ 80 a kilo for it? Oh, $ 180, $ 1080
is the number to call.

Speaker 8 (01:24:15):
G'day, Lisa.

Speaker 6 (01:24:17):
How are you doing, guys?

Speaker 5 (01:24:18):
Very well.

Speaker 3 (01:24:20):
I am a true blue South Island West Coaster where
whitebait all originated. I grew up on this. We always
knew them as patties, not fritters. We've never called them fritters.

Speaker 2 (01:24:31):
In our lives.

Speaker 5 (01:24:31):
See, that's probably why I call them patties because I'm
from the South Island as well, Lisa.

Speaker 3 (01:24:35):
Yeah, but I grew up on the stuff. I've fished
on our river every year growing up. I hate it.
I wouldn't eat it if you paid me.

Speaker 15 (01:24:47):
It's tasteless.

Speaker 3 (01:24:48):
It's way overrated, but I'll catch it every bloody year
if somebody wants to pay.

Speaker 22 (01:24:52):
Me for it.

Speaker 5 (01:24:54):
Do you like the eyes? Do you worry about the eyes, Lisa?

Speaker 3 (01:24:57):
No, I couldn't catch it. That's probably the best part
of them. It's a little bit of crunch.

Speaker 4 (01:25:01):
LAUGHTER Should I get a little bit of sweet tang
from it, Lisa?

Speaker 5 (01:25:05):
You know, you get a little squeeze of lemon on it.

Speaker 7 (01:25:07):
Beautiful.

Speaker 5 (01:25:08):
White bread.

Speaker 11 (01:25:08):
Yeah, you do. Yep.

Speaker 12 (01:25:10):
A bit of lemon.

Speaker 3 (01:25:12):
My grandfather used to use mint sauce on them.

Speaker 5 (01:25:16):
Oh, mint sauce. Okay.

Speaker 2 (01:25:17):
Mint sauce, yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:25:19):
Good old-fashioned mint sauce.

Speaker 5 (01:25:21):
So by the time you've got the amount of butter
and egg in there and then you put mint sauce
on there, are you tasting any white bait at all
in your patty?

Speaker 14 (01:25:31):
Well, you don't put.

Speaker 3 (01:25:32):
The mint sauce on until after.

Speaker 14 (01:25:35):
You've cooked it.

Speaker 3 (01:25:37):
Well, I guess that's the only thing that gives it
any bloody taste.

Speaker 5 (01:25:42):
So what do you think people like your grandfather and
everyone are so obsessed with them?

Speaker 3 (01:25:47):
It's a tradition. It's been a way of life. So
I'm still obsessed by them. I still go white baiting
for at least one week every year. It's more of
a traditional thing for a lot of people, but then
you've got all the commercial idiots that are up and
down the major rivers on the east coast of the south.
Unlike the Wymac, there's fisticuffs and punch-ups every year.

Speaker 5 (01:26:08):
Right.

Speaker 3 (01:26:08):
So we just choose not to even go down that river.
We stick to our home ground.

Speaker 4 (01:26:14):
How do you stake a claim, Lisa? I mean, I
just don't understand. You can't just rock up to a
river and say, this is my patch, can you?

Speaker 3 (01:26:21):
No, legally you can't. You must have a registered trench.
And some rivers only have a certain amount of registered
trenches every year. If you don't re-register your trench, you
cannot stake that claim as being my spot. Otherwise, what
we grew up calling, you're a pot netter.

Speaker 5 (01:26:40):
A pot netter?

Speaker 3 (01:26:41):
So just drop your net in wherever you can. So
as long as you're not within a certain distance of
a registered trench, you're fine.

Speaker 5 (01:26:51):
So what is Labour talking about here? Because there seems
to be quite a lot of restrictions there. So if
you've got a register, I mean, it's already constrained to
a very short two-month season, and there's gear restrictions and
closed areas and stuff. It's already pretty enforced, isn't it?

Speaker 3 (01:27:10):
Yes, it is. But if you take away, for a
lot of people, it's the only, a lot of retired people,
that's their main income outside of the, that they can
make during the year. That's the only thing that they
can do, where they can freely go down, hang out
with their mates and sit on a riverbed and pass
the days nicely there.

Speaker 8 (01:27:26):
Nice.

Speaker 5 (01:27:27):
I love that.

Speaker 22 (01:27:28):
So, yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:27:29):
That's good. Whether they taste of anything or not, I mean,
that's good. Guys, whitebait is tasteless. A friend gave me
some and I didn't want to offend by turning it down.
Tell you what, the cats wouldn't even eat it. Oh,
come on. That's from Trish. Come on. This is outrageous.
The fritters are nice. I just cannot taste the whitebait.
If it was tasty, you wouldn't need all the seasoning egg,

(01:27:51):
et cetera, to get some taste.

Speaker 4 (01:27:53):
I'm never going to accept it. There's a sweetness about it,
I tell you.

Speaker 5 (01:27:55):
There's a mild sweetness about it. Tadpole fritters are better.

Speaker 4 (01:28:00):
Tadpole fritters.

Speaker 5 (01:28:01):
Is anyone doing a tadpole fritter?

Speaker 4 (01:28:02):
Is there a bit more crunch to that?

Speaker 2 (01:28:05):
Gee, a bit slimy.

Speaker 4 (01:28:06):
Right, it's 19 past three. Keep those texts coming through.

Speaker 5 (01:28:09):
Back in a mo.

Speaker 2 (01:28:14):
Matt Heath and Tyler Adams Afternoons.

Speaker 1 (01:28:16):
Call 0800 80 1080 on Newstalk ZB.

Speaker 4 (01:28:20):
21 past 3, so we're talking about whitebait. The season
is just underway. Started on the 1st of September. And
we're getting a lot of texts coming through, is whitebait overrated,
as Matt Heath said. And I am shocked, shocked at
the amount of people saying that. It tastes like nothing.

Speaker 5 (01:28:37):
Whitebait, egg, nothing else. On butter, white bread with a
squeeze of lemon cheese. The white death. Bread is important
to the whitebait fritter, right?

Speaker 2 (01:28:47):
100%.

Speaker 5 (01:28:47):
You can't have it.

Speaker 4 (01:28:48):
Wholemeal or any of that sort of sourdough.

Speaker 5 (01:28:50):
There's already a lot of butter in the fritter with
the egg, and then you need the white bread with
a lot of butter on that as well.

Speaker 4 (01:28:56):
A good layer of butter, at least half a centimetre
of butter on.

Speaker 2 (01:28:58):
The white death.

Speaker 5 (01:28:59):
What's the whitebait bringing? It's bringing the eyeballs and the crunch. Yeah,
and a little bit of mould sweetness. Here we go,
says this text, the Labour Party sitting, dining... Alfresco on
the streets of Ponsonby drinking $ 100 bottles of Chardonnay, eating truffles,
telling us how to live down here in the South.

Speaker 4 (01:29:15):
Very nicely written. That is very, that's quite the image there.

Speaker 5 (01:29:20):
Your coasters. Speaking of coasters, g'day, Joel.

Speaker 12 (01:29:25):
How's it going, lads?

Speaker 9 (01:29:26):
How are you?

Speaker 5 (01:29:27):
Very good, thanks. Thanks for calling on this Thursday afternoon. Joel,
your thoughts on whitebait?

Speaker 9 (01:29:33):
Mate, it's the best thing ever. Yeah, it can be
a bit bland, but you definitely agree with other people.
Definitely white death, heap of butter, salt and pepper, lemon juice. Beautiful,
bloody beautiful.

Speaker 5 (01:29:46):
Good on you, Joel.

Speaker 9 (01:29:48):
I love white baiting so much. I just wish I
had more bloody time working a full-time job. Honestly, if
I can find any bit of time in my day,
in the weekends, down in the river, the mighty grey
and grey mouse, it's just, honestly... four to six hours
on the river, beautiful sunny day, get the net in there.
It's just heaven, absolute heaven.

Speaker 5 (01:30:11):
And so what do you think about Labour's suggestions around
regulating the industry more?

Speaker 9 (01:30:18):
Yeah, I think that's pretty lame because they've recently, I'm
not sure which government.

Speaker 5 (01:30:23):
So take away industry, just regulating it, not the industry,
just regulating white baiting, you know, the stuff you're talking.

Speaker 11 (01:30:29):
About, Joel.

Speaker 9 (01:30:30):
Yeah, so they previously actually reduced the season on the
coast by two weeks. So they've already regulated it. And yeah,
I do understand that there is some research out there
on some of the species being endangered. But my take
is that the Inanga is still in a healthy population
and far out. If you hear about some of the

(01:30:51):
catches down south and around the place, there's plenty going
around every year.

Speaker 4 (01:30:58):
Have you got a claim?

Speaker 9 (01:31:00):
Nah, mate, it's just, I don't know what that lady
was talking about. What did she say? A potter's trench.
I've never heard of that term before.

Speaker 4 (01:31:07):
Yeah, so you dig a trench and then you register
it with who?

Speaker 5 (01:31:10):
The whitebait police?

Speaker 12 (01:31:11):
Yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 8 (01:31:12):
That's new to me.

Speaker 9 (01:31:12):
But just rock up and, you know, first in, first serve. Although,
on the grey, there is a pretty hotly contested spot
called the Big Rock.

Speaker 5 (01:31:23):
Right.

Speaker 9 (01:31:24):
And, yeah, if you try and muscle your way in there, Yeah,
good luck. Good luck on that one.

Speaker 5 (01:31:30):
Because there's talk of scraps on the East Coast. Is
there any scraps on the West?

Speaker 9 (01:31:38):
Yeah, no, there has been the old fisticuffs, definitely. But
the worst thing is when you're on the river, right,
and then you've got a sweet spot, and then some
joker just comes up, like, right in front of you, and.

Speaker 25 (01:31:49):
You're like, mate.

Speaker 9 (01:31:52):
If you just please move up another three metres, that's ridiculous.

Speaker 5 (01:31:57):
So for you, Joel, is it the act of whitebaiting
or the actual whitebait that is the best pass? It
sounds like you like the whitebaiting more than the whitebait.

Speaker 9 (01:32:09):
Both, actually, yeah. What that lady was saying before, it
is the tradition. I was brought up on it, you know.
You get around the family. If Grandad's caught a feed,
you're all so excited and you just sort of get
absorbed into that tradition. I've been brainwashed too. I absolutely
love this stuff. And, yeah, if I can just go
on the river, catch a feed, go home, cook it

(01:32:30):
for the whanau, it's.

Speaker 12 (01:32:31):
Just the best.

Speaker 5 (01:32:32):
You're painting a very pretty picture.

Speaker 4 (01:32:33):
Yeah, sounds lovely.

Speaker 5 (01:32:35):
Yeah, I mean, and then it's just sort of the pity.
The other way is it's a bunch of sort of
fish spawn and some eggs shoved in it, some white bread.

Speaker 9 (01:32:44):
It's a baby, sweet baby.

Speaker 5 (01:32:47):
Wee babies. Wee babies, yeah.

Speaker 13 (01:32:48):
All right.

Speaker 5 (01:32:49):
Hey, thank you, Joel, and you get out there.

Speaker 4 (01:32:51):
What a good man. What a good coaster. I mean,
it does sound like whitebait, similar to recreational fishers. It's
the old seagulling that, you know, if you're out there
on your boat and you don't really know what you're
doing or where the fish is going to be, you
just go where other fishermen are, whether or not they
actually know what they're doing either. So nobody's catching any fish.
You see someone, they must be catching something. So everybody
just converges.

Speaker 5 (01:33:11):
You trail the charter. That's what you do. If you
see a charter, you follow the charter. My husband knows
multiple locals here in the Waikato whose entire annual income
is made over whitebait season. All sold in cash and undeclared.
It is sickening how much is pillaged and shocking. There
are no limits. They are native New Zealand fish and
many species threatened. Keep it, but impose limits, says this texter.

Speaker 4 (01:33:34):
Okay, do you agree with that, texter? 0800 80 1080
is the number to call or 9292 is the text number.
We'll take a few more calls very shortly.

Speaker 5 (01:33:43):
It has to be white pepper. So it has to
be white bread and white pepper, a lot of butter.
Lemon is a crucial thing as well.

Speaker 4 (01:33:53):
What is the perfect whitebait patty slash fritter?

Speaker 5 (01:33:56):
Bob asks, I wonder how many whitebait in a kg?
If you know that, you can work out how much each. Yeah,
I mean, how many?

Speaker 4 (01:34:03):
Sound them out individually?

Speaker 13 (01:34:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:34:06):
How many whitebait would be in one kg that's worth
about $ 80?

Speaker 4 (01:34:09):
Someone out there must know. Coasters, text on through or
give us a call.

Speaker 5 (01:34:12):
If you've got a KG, if you could just lay
it out on the kitchen bench and count them, please.
That's all we ask.

Speaker 4 (01:34:17):
Right, headlines with Raylene coming up. It is 27 past three.

Speaker 2 (01:34:22):
Newstalk ZB headlines.

Speaker 20 (01:34:24):
With your ride, New Zealand's number one taxi app. Download
your ride today. The Prime Minister is defending taking a
backup Defence Force plane to the 55th Pacific Islands Forum.
Luxon says they've taken 14 delegations from other islands to Palau.
The Waitangi Tribunal's laid bare shortcomings in addressing stark inequities

(01:34:45):
for Māori in disability systems, finding numerous treaty breaches. The
Tribunal is accusing the Crown of failing to partner with
Māori when setting up services and designing policy and action plans.
Cervical cancer screening rates for Wahine Māori and Pasifika are
growing strongly three years after self-testing was introduced. Parliament's unanimously

(01:35:10):
passed a bill requiring everyone on small boats to wear
a life jacket. The government's promising to develop an action
plan as Hospitality New Zealand lays out tourism recommendations, including
industry-specific immigration officers to speed visas and creating high school
and university pathways into employment. Cow salad bars. How a

(01:35:33):
farm experiment is giving herds a buffet choice of feed.
Read more at nzherald.co.nz. Back to Matt Heath and Tyler Adams.

Speaker 4 (01:35:41):
Thank you very much, Raylene. It is 29 to 4,
and we're talking about whitebait. The season is among us,
but it's led to Labour calling for an urgent review
into whether whitebait should be regulated. As in imposing catch limits.
And a follow-up or secondary question, is whitebait overrated.

Speaker 5 (01:35:59):
As Matt Heath says?

Speaker 4 (01:36:00):
So, 880, 1080 is the number to call, and 9292
is the text number.

Speaker 5 (01:36:06):
This text says, a few years ago when I was
doing some renovations at the Tau Tau Hotel outside the hotel,
I saw a 20-litre bucket of whitebait. Sold it to
a restaurant owner from the city for 10k.

Speaker 2 (01:36:19):
10,000 pounds.

Speaker 5 (01:36:21):
Well, you nicked it and sold it for $ 10, 000.

Speaker 12 (01:36:22):
Dirty!

Speaker 4 (01:36:24):
That was someone's whitebait.

Speaker 5 (01:36:25):
20 litres of it. Good work though, Dave. Hey lads,
hilarious chat. Poor man's whitebait. Great. Grate some potato, chuck
an egg, put in some black pepper because then it
looks like eyeballs. Then fry it up and put on
tomato sauce, just as good as whitebait. Good afternoon. Thanks
for that.

Speaker 8 (01:36:43):
All right.

Speaker 2 (01:36:44):
Very good.

Speaker 4 (01:36:45):
Keep those sticks coming through.

Speaker 5 (01:36:46):
Crikey, you Muppets. It's freaking delicious. Ditch the yolk and
just whip the white till frothy, then fold in one
pound of whitebait per egg white. One pound. Fry fritters
in butter, no bread, and because the yolk is not there,
you don't get the egg flavor. You just taste the whitebait,
the taste of freshness.

Speaker 4 (01:37:05):
That's an expensive fritter, one pound. Maverick, you got some
this morning.

Speaker 21 (01:37:12):
No, a mate of mine did. I was parked at
the wharf on the Waikato River just contemplating life as
you do and he rocks up and he'd given me
fish before but I didn't bother him and the next
thing you know he beckons me over.

Speaker 7 (01:37:30):
I said, oh, how did you go?

Speaker 21 (01:37:32):
He said, do you want some whitebait? I said, oh mate,
I'd love some whitebait. He gave me a zip bag
with about.

Speaker 7 (01:37:39):
300 grams of.

Speaker 21 (01:37:41):
Fresh white bait he'd just picked up from his set net.
I think he's commercial, but I don't know. Didn't ask. Anyway,
I got the chattel into a tour cow, and I
had no money. He'd been a pensioner the second week
of the cycle. You know what it's like. You run
out of money real quick with a pension only. So

(01:38:06):
I went to the local butcher and said, look, I've
got this bag of white baits. I need a pack
of cigarettes. And he said, how much for cigarettes? I said, oh,
I'd get them for $ 25. Illegally, but what the hell.
He said, okay, here's $ 25 and I'll offer you two bits.

Speaker 5 (01:38:28):
This is the organised crime that Casey Costello is trying
to shut down. You've got white bait. It's been handed
through the window. It's been taken to a butcher. It's
been turned into blackmail. cigarettes. This is a system. That's
a headline. White bait to black market cigarettes. The system works.

Speaker 6 (01:38:46):
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:38:47):
There's some insider knowledge right there. Knock on the car door.
Here's some white bait. Take it to the butcher. Get
some black market cigarettes. Victimless crime.

Speaker 4 (01:38:55):
John, how are you?

Speaker 7 (01:38:57):
Yeah, I'm good, thank you very much.

Speaker 4 (01:38:59):
So you're a long-standing whitebaiter?

Speaker 7 (01:39:01):
Yeah, I've been doing it for about 45, probably 50 years.

Speaker 5 (01:39:05):
That is long-standing, yep.

Speaker 4 (01:39:07):
And whereabouts?

Speaker 7 (01:39:08):
Purely as a recreational whitebaiter.

Speaker 2 (01:39:10):
Perfect.

Speaker 4 (01:39:11):
And what part of the country?

Speaker 7 (01:39:13):
Sorry?

Speaker 4 (01:39:13):
What part of the country?

Speaker 7 (01:39:15):
I'm in Marlborough.

Speaker 8 (01:39:16):
Oh, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:39:18):
So I'll ask Rachel Boyack, what proven evidence does she
have of declining populations of whitebaits? The season was cut
back by six weeks about three years ago. So there's
a huge amount of whitebait which is going up the

(01:39:38):
rivers these days which didn't used to get the chance.
So that's been a massive conservation measure which most whitebaiters
seem to be happy with. So I think Rachel Boyd
is just coming on to people who have recreational activities
in mind. There's already rules around white baiting. The hours

(01:40:03):
of day you can white bait are fixed. The size
of your net is fixed. You can't extend beyond three
metres into the river. So those things have all been
there for years and they all conserve the fishery. Now,
the only thing I would go along with is that

(01:40:26):
those who are selling it for business reasons Why can't
they be registered sellers like any other business rather than
scooping up hundreds of kilos on the river and selling it? Now,
for every seller of whitebait, there's a buyer. And I

(01:40:46):
saw a shop in town today selling whitebait, fresh local whitebait.
They're buying it from local guys off the river here.
So why wouldn't that buyer be in the gun? rather
than trying to shoot down the sellers, all you've got
to do is deal with the buyers.

Speaker 4 (01:41:05):
So are you talking about some sort of registry? Every
time you sell it, you've got to get a license
to sell it, and then they'll be able to keep
track of how much has been sold?

Speaker 7 (01:41:14):
Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 4 (01:41:15):
Right.

Speaker 7 (01:41:15):
So the fishing is left to recreational white basers. Put
a limit on it, if you like, such as, say,
10 kg per... per catching session or something of that sort.
If those people are picking up whitebait, they're there all
day getting hundreds of kilos, that's a hell of a

(01:41:40):
lot of money if you go to sell it, which
most of it does get sold. So control the actual
selling of it by making sure that buyers, fish shops
or whoever sells it, they have to account for the
purchases of whitebait.

Speaker 8 (01:41:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:41:57):
Not a bad idea, John.

Speaker 25 (01:41:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:41:59):
I mean, we've got Maverick going down there and selling
some whitebait that someone's handed them for a pack of six.

Speaker 4 (01:42:04):
Yeah, getting close to organised crime at that point.

Speaker 5 (01:42:06):
But there is a good point there, is that Labour
haven't proved that recreational harvests is the problem.

Speaker 12 (01:42:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:42:14):
You know, so you're looking at restricting it further without
providing any effort that it's actually the recreational whitebait that
are causing the problems, right?

Speaker 2 (01:42:21):
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:42:21):
Good point, John. Thank you very much for your call. Geoff,
what's your thoughts?

Speaker 13 (01:42:26):
Oh, buddy, mate, all these.

Speaker 30 (01:42:27):
Guys that are goofing off saying it doesn't have any taste, mate,
that'll be like Captain Carrot says.

Speaker 21 (01:42:31):
It'll be that China whitebait they're having, eh?

Speaker 15 (01:42:35):
Right.

Speaker 4 (01:42:35):
Is there a difference? Well, clearly there's a difference on
where you get it from. I mean, that was a
stupid question, but in terms of taste.

Speaker 11 (01:42:43):
Different eyes in the fish, mate.

Speaker 30 (01:42:44):
But, hey, I'll give you the best, best whitebait fritter recipe, eh?

Speaker 19 (01:42:48):
Three eggs, mate.

Speaker 3 (01:42:49):
Spin them up, mate.

Speaker 30 (01:42:51):
Then you put 100 grams of whitebait in a saucer
and you put 100 grams of smoked chicken in the eggs.

Speaker 7 (01:42:57):
You put it in your pan.

Speaker 21 (01:42:59):
Put three slices of brie over that.

Speaker 13 (01:43:01):
Fold it in half, man. Flip it.

Speaker 30 (01:43:03):
Put the saucer of whitebait on the floor for the
cat and enjoy a beautiful omelette.

Speaker 5 (01:43:10):
Every time, Geoff.

Speaker 4 (01:43:11):
Every time.

Speaker 5 (01:43:12):
So someone's texted in and said there's roughly 2,000 whitebait
in a kilogram. Does that sound right?

Speaker 4 (01:43:19):
Jeez, I don't even have any frame of reference for
thinking 2,000 whitebait in a kilo. How big are they?

Speaker 5 (01:43:25):
In a kilo is 80, selling for 80 bucks. Does
that sound right?

Speaker 4 (01:43:31):
2,000. What's that per whitebait? I mean, that seems a
little shy. Surely you'd squeeze more than 2,000 in a kilo.

Speaker 5 (01:43:38):
Oh, I thought 2,000 was a lot. I thought 2,000
would be a lot.

Speaker 4 (01:43:42):
I'm going to do some calculation on what that is
per whitebait. 9292 is the text. If you know, if
you've counted how much is in a kilo, we really
want to know.

Speaker 5 (01:43:52):
The conservation minister saying he knows of no trouble is crap.
Issues with white baiters and white baiters has been going
on for years. It should be illegal to sell unless
you have a quota, just like all fish species. This
one says, G'day, guys.

Speaker 4 (01:44:05):
If we have a limit on crayfish, then yes, white
baiters should have limits as well.

Speaker 5 (01:44:10):
And yes.

Speaker 4 (01:44:12):
It is black pepper, white pepper, no thank you, says
the texter.

Speaker 5 (01:44:15):
If Labour get in, they'll make all the white bait
wear masks. Oh, right. Good on you. Should have spun
two things together there.

Speaker 4 (01:44:27):
Keep those things coming through on 9292. And if you're
a white bait, I want to hear from you.

Speaker 5 (01:44:30):
0800 80 1080.

Speaker 4 (01:44:31):
How do you feel about Labour potentially wanting limits on
how much white bait you can have if you've ever
gotten into fisticuffs? How did that eventuate, and how is
the whitebait season going so far?

Speaker 5 (01:44:42):
Tell us.

Speaker 4 (01:44:43):
It is 20 to 4, back very shortly.

Speaker 1 (01:44:46):
Matt Heath, Tyler Adams, taking your calls on 0800 80 1080.
It's Matt Heath and Tyler Adams Afternoons, Newstalk ZB.

Speaker 5 (01:44:55):
Okay, the controversy about how many whitebait per kg continues.

Speaker 16 (01:44:58):
It does.

Speaker 5 (01:44:58):
Because I said, the person that texted in 2000, I
thought that was way too many. This person says, on average,
330 whitebait per kg. So that's... So someone's texting in
2000 and someone's texting in one-sixth of that amount.

Speaker 4 (01:45:13):
Yeah, there's a big difference there.

Speaker 7 (01:45:14):
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (01:45:15):
We need to do some more research on that. Keep
those texts coming through on 9292.

Speaker 5 (01:45:20):
Hi, guys. Whitebait should be like trout, which cannot be
sold commercially, says Jill. This text says the Labour Party
hate common people and they hate rural people. Recreational whitebaiters
are both. So no wonder they want to shut us down. Mm-hmm.

Speaker 4 (01:45:36):
This one says, G'day, guys. Why is Labour even talking
about this? This is a no-win situation for them. Just
leave the white baiters alone. Who would support this rubbish?
Focus on something that actually matters.

Speaker 8 (01:45:50):
Stephen.

Speaker 7 (01:45:52):
Hi.

Speaker 6 (01:45:54):
In 1960, at the Cascade, we used to put white
bait in the old pint bottles, the glass bottles.

Speaker 8 (01:46:02):
Oh, yes. Yes.

Speaker 6 (01:46:03):
And there was 5,300 to a pint bottle.

Speaker 15 (01:46:08):
5,300?

Speaker 2 (01:46:08):
Yep. Wow.

Speaker 4 (01:46:10):
So did you do that individually, Stephen?

Speaker 6 (01:46:13):
Well, what it was, we had a helicopter that used
to fly it out to Christchurch, and this was before refrigeration,
because if you take white bait over a certain altitude,
it'll go black.

Speaker 26 (01:46:28):
Wow.

Speaker 6 (01:46:28):
Unless it chilled.

Speaker 11 (01:46:29):
Right, right.

Speaker 6 (01:46:31):
So what we used to do is put it in...
pint bottles, and then put that into a polystyrene with
cold water.

Speaker 5 (01:46:39):
And at one point you counted 5,300? Yes. And how
much would that have weighed?

Speaker 6 (01:46:46):
I'm not too sure. It would have been near enough
to two, about two and a half pounds.

Speaker 4 (01:46:53):
Two and a half pounds. So what's that in kilos?

Speaker 2 (01:46:56):
Half a kilo, is it?

Speaker 5 (01:46:58):
Yeah, one and a bit kilo, maybe?

Speaker 7 (01:47:00):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:47:02):
Well, this hasn't helped us, I don't think, Stephen.

Speaker 4 (01:47:04):
This has just confused the issue more, I think.

Speaker 5 (01:47:06):
We've got another number.

Speaker 4 (01:47:08):
So we've gone 330, someone said 2,000, and Stephen's sort
of nearing 5,000 whitebait per kilo.

Speaker 5 (01:47:17):
Yeah, because per pint. Yeah, which is 2.2 pounds. Yeah,
so did he say 2.2 pounds? That's what he calculated, yeah. Right,
so that's just over 1 kg.

Speaker 8 (01:47:28):
Mm-hmm.

Speaker 5 (01:47:31):
And he's saying 5,000. We've got to take the bottle
out of that. No. We're no closer to the truth.

Speaker 4 (01:47:38):
Someone's weighed a whitebait.

Speaker 5 (01:47:40):
G'day, guys.

Speaker 4 (01:47:41):
I've just weighed a whitebait. It's about three grams. So
calculate it from there.

Speaker 5 (01:47:45):
I will do.

Speaker 4 (01:47:45):
Thank you very much.

Speaker 8 (01:47:48):
Google.

Speaker 22 (01:47:49):
Okay.

Speaker 5 (01:47:49):
This person says Google says 2,200 per kg. Can you
trust Google? Not anymore, no. You never see Google out
by the rivers, do you?

Speaker 7 (01:47:58):
Exactly.

Speaker 4 (01:47:59):
It's that dirty AI at the top of Google. No,
you cannot trust that.

Speaker 5 (01:48:02):
Oh, that dirty, lying AI.

Speaker 11 (01:48:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:48:05):
Meta AI, is it? No, what the hell is it?
The Google AI. Yeah, Gemini or whatever. Gemini, yeah. But
now you search something up and a whole lot of
absolute bollocks gets piled out.

Speaker 2 (01:48:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:48:15):
And then you sort of scroll past that and then
go back to the old Google. Yeah. And maybe you
can find some truth.

Speaker 4 (01:48:20):
Yeah, very good. Kushla, we've got about a minute. What
do you think?

Speaker 14 (01:48:25):
Okay, well, I tell you what you can do with it.
You can make like a patty is something different from
a fritter. A fritter, you would add baking powder to
it and put a bit more fat or oil in
the pan. But whereas a patty, you don't have to
add baking powder or use self-radiant flour. What you do

(01:48:46):
is a couple of eggs and you put the whitebait
in there. You can add a tablespoon of flour or
whatever and blend it in. Then you put it in
a sort of a medium heat on the pan and
not much butter or say, for instance, you just put
it in for a few minutes with a reasonable sized

(01:49:08):
spoon and then you flip it over after three minutes
and you can have it that way. But then you
can make an omelette as well, like you see an
omelette out of whitebait and you can also have a quiche.
But with the fritters, you'd have to add more oil
or fat to make it sort of better or crunchy

(01:49:29):
on the outside, you know, and that helps it to
sort of, that's what you have, that's the fritter. But
when it comes to whitebait, you can add mint sauce
or you can have tartar sauce and some lemon juice.
And also if you have a little romaine meal, you
can have mashed potatoes, or chips and perhaps a side

(01:49:49):
salad or something like that, you know, and have that
for a main meal. But if not, it is nice
just to have it in between bread, you know. But
I do not like that, but I did have a
bad experience one time. I bought some from a supplier,
and there was some stones in it when I went
to eat it.

Speaker 7 (01:50:08):
Oh, what a sort of.

Speaker 5 (01:50:09):
There's stones in it?

Speaker 7 (01:50:11):
Yeah, there was.

Speaker 26 (01:50:11):
Stones in it.

Speaker 5 (01:50:12):
Oh, that's not good. You don't want gritty whitebait.

Speaker 12 (01:50:14):
No.

Speaker 8 (01:50:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:50:15):
But Kushler, it sounds like you know your whitebait, so
thank you very much. And thank you very much to
everyone who takes through.

Speaker 5 (01:50:20):
Just a couple more. It depends on how big the
whitebait is, how old it is, you Muppet. That's a
good point.

Speaker 11 (01:50:27):
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:50:28):
The average of three grams, as someone said through, that
was just one whitebait.

Speaker 5 (01:50:31):
And more importantly, what is the terminal velocity of a
fully laden whitebait?

Speaker 4 (01:50:35):
Now you're asking the right questions. Yeah, very good. Hey,
thank you to everyone who gave us a buzz and
text through on that. Really enjoyed that. And the whitebait
season's underway, so we'll see if Labour gets their way
about catch limits. But just as a little bit of
a tonic on a Thursday afternoon, now we mentioned a
little bit earlier, there does feel to be a bit
of an angry undercurrent out there at the moment.

Speaker 5 (01:50:55):
Shut up. For some people. No, I'm just making a joke.
Calm down, mate.

Speaker 4 (01:51:00):
So a lot of whinging, I think, as we know,
of what is going wrong in New Zealand. Things are
too expensive. Jobs are hard to find. Housing is out
of reach. But this guy is getting a lot of
traction online at the moment. He goes by Dominic P.

Speaker 13 (01:51:12):
Boyd.

Speaker 4 (01:51:13):
He's from the UK. He recently moved here. And he's
got a message for all of us Kiwis who think
we've got it tough.

Speaker 25 (01:51:20):
The biggest surprise to me since sharing our move to
New Zealand is how many people are telling me not
to do it for many many reasons no jobs unemployment
rates everything is expensive there's a housing crisis New Zealand
is isolated from the rest of the world and it
really got me thinking it really got me researching actually

(01:51:43):
and after looking into it what I found wasn't what
I expected the unemployment rates across Belgium the UK and
New Zealand are surprisingly similar New Zealand and the UK
are around five percent Belgium around six percent many people
telling me the cost of living is crazy and and
I believe New Zealand would be very expensive as well

(01:52:05):
I remember it being or feeling expensive when I lived
there previously but compared to the UK Housing costs are
significantly lower.

Speaker 2 (01:52:14):
Childcare costs are significantly lower.

Speaker 5 (01:52:17):
Transport costs are lower.

Speaker 2 (01:52:19):
Eating out is generally cheaper.

Speaker 25 (01:52:21):
Yes, groceries are more expensive and wages are generally lower too.
So many people telling me to go to Australia for wages.
Wages are lower, but so are taxes. New Zealand absolutely
has housing.

Speaker 5 (01:52:37):
Affordability issues, but so does the UK.

Speaker 25 (01:52:40):
New Zealand being so far away, being isolated from everywhere else.
And yes, that's true as well. Let's not forget though.
It's so close to beaches, mountains, lakes, outdoor living. The
Pacific Islands. The thing that surprised me most. New Zealand
isn't as expensive as I remembered. Nor as far from

(01:53:01):
places that people are telling me. Maybe that's the lesson.
Sometimes we hold on to stories long after. the facts
have changed or maybe we remember the challenges and forget
the benefits either way thank you to everybody telling me
not to come because it's generated this little research project
but it's reminded me that most decisions aren't about finding

(01:53:24):
the perfect solution they're about finding the solution that aligns
most with what matters to you in the now and
when I look at it through that lens I New
Zealand feels like the right fit for us for now,
for the now.

Speaker 4 (01:53:44):
So there you go. Bit of perspective, Kiwis, that you
think you've got it tough here. There's a lot of
things happening pretty bad in other parts of the country.
Nice to hear from someone from the UK who says
we are pretty all right. It is eight minutes to four.

Speaker 1 (01:53:56):
The big stories, the big issues, the big trends, and
everything in between.

Speaker 2 (01:54:01):
Matt Heath and Tyler Adams Afternoons. Newstalk ZB.

Speaker 4 (01:54:05):
News Talk ZB, it is five minutes to four.

Speaker 5 (01:54:09):
Okay, that brings us to the end of the show.
Thank you so much for listening, everyone. Thank you for
all your calls and texts. And look, Heather Tupisi-Allen is
up next. And after 4 p.m., she's joined by the
Etu Union Director on Labour's call for all Crown employees
to be paid a living wage. But right now, Tyler,

(01:54:32):
my good buddy... Why am I playing this 1997 song
by British band Alabama 3?

Speaker 4 (01:54:41):
So this was the intro music for The Sopranos. Organised crime, Sopranos.
Have I got one?

Speaker 5 (01:54:50):
You got one. Oh, you beauty. Because it's best known
as the theme song for the organised crime-based TV show
The Sopranos. And today we learnt that New Zealand first
MP Casey Costello is now the Minister of Organised Crime,
tackling New Zealand's top security threat.

Speaker 9 (01:55:06):
All right.

Speaker 4 (01:55:07):
What a show.

Speaker 5 (01:55:08):
Great show. Always worth a re-watch right through.

Speaker 8 (01:55:12):
Yes.

Speaker 5 (01:55:13):
All right, you seem busy, so we'll let you go.
I'm Matt Heath, that's Tyler Adams, and we'll be back
live on your radio from tomorrow, Arvo. Until then, give
a toast to Kiwi.

Speaker 20 (01:55:25):
Woke up in the morning.

Speaker 2 (01:55:50):
Woke up this morning.

Speaker 11 (01:55:51):
Woke up this morning.

Speaker 5 (01:55:55):
You want to be, you want to be the chosen one. Yeah,
you know it.

Speaker 2 (01:56:04):
Just can't help yourself.

Speaker 5 (01:56:06):
Woke up this morning. Woke up this morning.

Speaker 2 (01:56:15):
For more from Newstalk ZB, listen live, on air, or online.

Speaker 1 (01:56:19):
And keep our shows with you wherever you go with
our podcasts on iHeart Radio.