Midday Edition: 24 September 2025

The Midday Edition of News Fix for 24 September 2025, 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 (00:04):
Good afternoon. I'm Welcolm Jordan and this is your midday
news fix for Wednesday, the twenty fourth of September. Nikola
Willis is standing behind the Prime Minister despite his ranking
slipping in The Herald's latest Mood of the Boardroom survey.
Chris Luson was ranked fifteenth place on a list of
ministers inside and outside Cabinet, a sharp drop from sixth

(00:24):
place last year. Nikola Willis and Erica Stanford are ruling
out any leadership ambitions, with Willis revealing she never wants
to be Prime minister. She says Chris Luxon is safe
in the top job.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
The thing that really struck me when I read the
report was how invisible it is to many the coalition
management that he definitely does behind the scenes to create
stability out of three quite different parties.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
Meanwhile, Willis concedes the government's hopes for economic growth are
yet to eventuate. The Mood of the Boardroom survey shows
only about a third of business leaders back the government's
current growth agenda. The Finance Minister told Mike Costking the
recovery isn't happening as fast as people would.

Speaker 3 (01:04):
Like accept People haven't seen all of that yet and
they want to see it. They're impatient, they're frustrated. In
some cases, I share their impatience. I share their desire
to get this economy going.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
Early childhood education teachers say repeated please for change are
being ignored, leaving many ready to quit. Zdi's latest workforce
report has found a third of teachers have frequently considered
leaving the sector in the past six months. Respondents site burnout,
the direction the sector is going in and high workloads
is the top reasons. N ZDI convenor Sally Griffin says

(01:37):
the future is looking bleak and this survey reflects that
there is hope.

Speaker 3 (01:41):
If the government wants to come to the party, come
and sit around the table with the experts in the
field that know what is needed.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
A Cabinet minister isn't revealing if the government has formed
a position on recognizing a Palestinian state. Foreign Affairs Minister
Winston Peters is in New York for the UN General Assembly,
where he'll announce if New Zealand will join the likes
of Australia, France and the UK. Donald Trump has lashed
out in a speech to the UN today, saying these
countries are rewarding himas for atrocities they've committed. Minister Mark

(02:13):
Mitchell told Mike Costing Peter's is right to take a
careful approach.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
You're never going to get lasting peace in the Middle
East until you get a two state solution.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
To do that, you need governments on both sides that
are willing to get around the table in are highly
motivated to make compromises and actually achieve it. Frustration from
kiwigps over Donald Trump's unfounded claims about paracetamol, vaccines and autism.
The US President linked the medicine to autism. However, Medsafe
says there is no evidence of this general practice. New

(02:41):
Zealand chair Brian Betty says they are dangerous comments and
verging on outrageous. Does thinke me angry, and it makes
a lot of my colleagues angry that we've got back
into the space of denying the science, of saying that
science doesn't have a role to play. To sport, the
launch of the world's first to portable brain U scanner
is set to revolutionize concussion diagnoses for rugby players. The

(03:05):
device can detect such head injuries in two minutes. A
change in interim captain for the Silver Ferns second Netball
Test against South Africa tonight in Napier. Kelly Jackson will
take charge after Karen Berger had the honor in the
opening win at Auckland. And Liverpool have continued their perfect
record so far this football season with a two to

(03:25):
one victory over Southampton in the third round of the
League Cup. 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.