Midday Edition: 10 August 2026

The Midday Edition of News Fix for 10 August 2026, straight from the Newstalk ZB newsroom - bringing you everything you need to know in news, politics, business, entertainment and sport.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Good afternoon. I'm Malcolm Jordan and this is your midday
news fix for Monday, the tenth of August. The government
says it's getting solar panels into as many schools as possible.
Five hundred schools will benefit from a new thirty million
dollar program announced in this year's budget. It's expected to
save each eight thousand dollars a year on power. Education

(00:23):
Minister Erica Stanford says they're prioritizing smaller schools with energy
and reliability issues regions.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
When you look at the last who have the bulk
of these numbers are our Northland schools, East Coast of
North Island, West Coast, the South Island and predominantly those
through all isolated schools.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
An associate health minister agrees Saint John's response to historically
high one one one calls is fair. The ambulance Service
has declared a set of different protocols after a major
surgeon calls in the past Fortnight labeled a major incident response.
It had its three busiest days on record last week,
with phone calls every twenty seconds at peak. Casey Costello

(01:03):
says this isn't Saint John's staff pushing for more pay
or funding.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
They've recognized the additional thirty five million that this government
gave in this budget, which is that additional infrastructure, technology
resourcing investment.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
The ball is now in cabinets hands. On local government reform,
the government gave city and district councils until yesterday to
pitch plans for merging into larger unitary councils. Councils without
plans will have one imposed under a so called backstop process.
Local Government New Zealand President or Rehead Stotz says the

(01:35):
organization wants to know more about next steps, especially the backstop.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
We are asking the government to give us that clarity
so that those councils can also communicate that with the communities.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
A former finance minister's in agreement with National's election bid,
as it reminds kiwis that debts more than doubled in
seven years. Nationals outlined new fiscal responsibility rules and is
promising a bliss by twenty twenty eight twenty nine. It's
ruling out new taxes on workers and small businesses. Stephen
Joyce says any party heading into the election promising to

(02:09):
spend should be held to account because as a country
We're not in drastic debt, but if something happened, as
unfortunately seems to happen periodically, like earthquakes and things, we'll
be in trouble. An EWE leader is welcoming a proposal
to support Maria under increasing financial pressure. The Greens want
to establish a trust to fund im mediate and long

(02:31):
term investments with two point four billion dollars of government funding.
CO leader Chloe Swarbrick says Marie are essential and need
dedicated resourcing beyond election cycles. Nati Kahu and UNU chair
Baden Barber says insurance premiums have risen significantly after severe weather.

Speaker 2 (02:50):
You're getting upwards sixty to seventy thousand dollars a year,
even higher depending on your Marii and Muray struggled to
find the money for that, so this policy from the
Greens is a huge sooth to sport.

Speaker 1 (03:01):
Yarnick Sinner has pulled out of the Cincinnati Tennis Open
with a right knee injury, disrupting his preparations for the
US Open. Scott McLaughlin has finished the best of the
New Zealanders in seventh at the latest IndyCar Race in Oregon.
Championship leader Alex Palowe won, cyclist Neve Fisher. Black has
finished tenth overall on the Tour de France. Fame and

(03:25):
the spring Box are considering calling in thirty nine year
old open side flanker Dion Feree for the series against
the All Blacks. I'm Malcolm Jordan. That's your latest news fix.
We'll be back with the next update at five pm
from the news Talk zb newsroom.