Midday Edition: 20 May 2026

The Midday Edition of News Fix for 20 May 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. Un this is your midday
news fix four Wednesday, the twentieth of May. A roadmap's
been made public for a final fix at Wellington's Mower Point.
Millions of liters of wastewater flowed out of the treatment
plant on Wellington's south coast when it failed during heavy
rain in February. The published timeline promises major recovery works

(00:23):
will be done by November and full restoration completed by
next February. Emily Ansel reports.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Wellington Water Chief Operating Officer Charles Barker says they'll report
against the milestones, enabling people to track progress and hold
them to account. Mayor Andrew Little says this will give
the community greater confidence on the progress.

Speaker 1 (00:43):
The Prime Minister is celebrating a fresh pathway for South
Island exports. From October, Air New Zealand will fly directly
between christ Church and Singapore, Tokyo and Perth. The airline
and christ Church Airport have signed a memorandum of understanding
to develop a long term partnership. T Chris Luxon says
connecting the South to key international hubs will benefit tourism

(01:04):
and exports very excited about the proposal that we can
actually get Freighton Cargo moving out across the network great
Kiwi products and services from the South Island to the world.
Doing the business for New Zealand is fantastic. HR workers
could be in the firing line as the government downsizes
the public sector, with a target of cutting eighty seven
hundred staff by mid twenty twenty nine. It's also taking

(01:27):
the scalpel to ministries which it's instructing to adopt new technologies,
including AI. Finance Minister Nikola Willis says the thirty nine
public service departments all have their own human resources set
up well.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
As much as possible, I'd like one centralized system are
that everyone's working from the world.

Speaker 1 (01:45):
Health organizations deeply concerned about the scale of the Ebola
outbreak and the Democratic Republic of Congo. More than one
hundred and thirty people have died from the highly infectious disease,
with hundreds more cases suspected. No vax treatment exists for
the strain. WHO Director General ted ross adnam Gebrasius says

(02:06):
the Emergency Committee will today discuss measures for dealing with
the outbreaking. These numbers will change as field operations are
scaling up, including strengthening surveillance, contact tracing and laboratory testing.
Consumer in Z has revealed not a single bank has
qualified for its People's Choice Award this year. The advocacy
group says it's due to widespread dissatisfaction with banking, value,

(02:30):
pricing and trust. It's the first time in a decade
that no bank has reached the customer satisfaction threshold for
the award. Recent Consumer in Z polling found forty three
percent of respondents think current bank profits are unacceptable, with
lower income people the most critical. Yet only four percent
have switched banks in the past year. The IA says

(02:53):
time of use charging needs to be planned smartly. A
survey of members has found more than eighty percent think
it will make travel unaffordable for some. To sport, Arsenal
have won Football's Premier League with a match to spare
A courtesy of an unassailable five point buffer. The title
is their first and twenty two years after Bournemouth held

(03:14):
Manchester City to a one all draw. Southampton have been
expelled from Sunday's Championship playoff decider after being found guilty
of spying on the training sessions of three teams including
semi final opponents Middlesbrough and eighty two year old tennis
pioneer Billy Jenking has served up a college degree sixty

(03:35):
five years in the making. I'm Malcolm Jordan. That's your
latest news fix. We'll be back with the next update
at five pm from the newstalk zb newsroom.