Midday Edition: 12 January 2026

The Midday Edition of News Fix for 12 January 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 missish Or Midday Newsfix
for Monday, the twelfth of January. Two people have been
charged with murder after a man was fatally shot in
South Auckland on Friday night. A forty one year old
man and a twenty seven year old woman have been
jointly charged after a man was found dead at a
Balfa Road address in Monaewa around eleven ten pm. Detective

(00:25):
Inspector Karen Bright says police have been working hard to
piece together the events leading up to the incident to
identify and locate those involved. She says the investigation remains ongoing.
The pair will appear in the Monaco District Court today.
Ground crews are working to fully stamp out a large
vegetation fire burningham Hawkes Bay. There's forty five personnel on

(00:47):
the ground, made up of fire and emergency and forestry workers.
The blaze broke out before six yesterday evening on Waiara
Road in Tehroto and is currently twenty two hectares in size,
including hectares of doc native bush. Earlier, Fire and Emergency
contained a forest fire burning and rural whited upper which

(01:07):
caused a number of houses to be evacuated overnight. The
evacuees are gradually being allowed to return. An international relations
expert says anti government demonstrations in Iran involve various grievances
from protesters. More than five hundred people have been killed
since the protests began almost two weeks ago. Auckland University

(01:28):
international relations expert Maria Armudian says they started because of
the state of the economy and have now morphed into
defiance against the current regime.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
Dan the Trigger was a piece of legislation that was
viewed as very corrupt. It was going to benefit the
regime but harm merchants in the Bazaar, Tehran's Grand Bazarrol.

Speaker 1 (01:50):
The Deputy Prime Minister, says it's hard to argue with
the numbers when it comes to the coalition's success. The
National Act and New Zealand First government is entering the
third and final year of its three year term. Polling
shows it's in a close race with the Left Block
ahead of this year's election. Deputy PM and ACT leader
David Seymour told Andrew Dickens he understands the coalition has

(02:12):
passed more legislation in the first to two years than
any other government has done in three.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
If we have been fighting like kats in the SEC,
it hasn't stopped us being very productive in terms of
preparing laws and getting them through Parliament.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
An industry professional wants to see more honest conversations regarding
the options for drilling for natural gas. Expressions of interest
to help increase the availability of natural gas, aided by
the two hundred million dollar Gas Security Fund, opens today.
The government says it's looking for proposals that accelerate the
volume of gas to market as quickly as possible, including

(02:47):
drilling off the coast of Tartanaki. Energy Resources Chief executive
John Carnegie says it will help New Zealand prosper in
the future. Burning imported coal to keep the lights on
in businesses closing seems like a far worst scenario than
using the resources under our feet to sport interiom. Manchester
United football manager Darren Fletcher has implored his players to

(03:10):
harden up after Brighton knock them out of the FA
Cup two one. The Buffalo Bills have beaten the Jacksonville
Jaguars twenty seven twenty four in NFL Wildcard action, and
Highland is halfback Dylan Pledger has sustained an ACL knee
rupture at training and will be out of rugby for
in estimated twelve months. I'm Malcolm Jordan. That's your latest

(03:34):
news fix. We'll be back with the next update at
five pm from the Newstalk ZB newsroom.