March 14, 2026 • 11 mins
This week on The Sunday Panel, Newstalk ZB host Roman Travers and editor and journalist, Jo McCarroll, joined in on a discussion about the following issues of the week - and more!
The Middle East crisis is getting worse and there's concerns about what it will do to the global fuel supply chain. Do we think the Government is taking this seriously enough? Are we taking any steps to reduce our consumption?
It's nearly Easter, and the hot cross bun debate continues. What makes a good hot cross bun?
LISTEN ABOVE
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Listen
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News Talks dB.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
It is time for the panel and I'm joined by
Roman trav this News Talks he'd be host.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Good morning, I'm morning to you.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
I've turned your microphone on.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Sorry, I know you're a bit too loud.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
I know you're a professional, but yeah. Some also editor
and journalist Jo McCall, Good morning.
Speaker 4 (00:26):
Joe, Good morning, Fanciska and Ramon Hello.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Good to have you both here. Roman, is the government
taking fuel supply chain issues seriously enough?
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Do you think, oh, that's that's like Monty Python. Did
you get that from a comedy? That's just terrible this government. Honestly,
it's like we must be the only first world ish
country in the first world to be dragging ourselves back
to the nineteen eighties. We have this. We've got Shane Jones,
who's like a dinosaur from the eighteen hundreds, going back
to nineteen eighty saying droll baby, droll, dig baby dig
(00:57):
like some Trump more on and you know, we just
we're not future proofing. We don't have a focus on
the future. Do we a weird?
Speaker 4 (01:04):
What do you think, Joe well, I have to say,
you know, Shane Jones saying no need to panic, is
there a phrase more weighted to induce panic.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
No one hears that, not, not, not in the week
that we released the COVID report, and we all can
remember we all panicked about toilet paper, So how of
course we're going to panic about fuel.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
You know, Well, I mean, I think COVID is a
relevant thing to mention because it's de ja vous all
over again with you know, the fragility and complexity of
these global supply chains, which are normally invisible and not
thought of, are suddenly very visible, and you you just
begin to realize that, you know, we've prioritized expediency and
(01:44):
efficiency and in the name of like cheap of fuel,
cheap of fuel, cheap of fuel, and there's not a
lot of resilience in the system.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
I'm aasually not panicking, Joe, Like, I'm not panicking. I
don't think that I'm not stockpiling that I'm really hoping
that the hind closed doors, there is some very very
very key, full consideration going on to not the short term,
not next week or the week after, but probably the
medium to long term. I think that's when it's going
(02:14):
to hit and probably not be. But more than businesses
who rely on fuel.
Speaker 4 (02:21):
I'm not bolt buying, and because I think that's you know,
morally questionable behavior, but also because I'm not really keen
on the edge of a lot of containers of very
flammable liquids being stored in the garden shed, you know,
five minutes from my house. But you know there have
to be you know, as you say, for just long
term solutions. You know, I've been thinking about getting the
(02:41):
bike out, you know, bought optimistically post one of the
Auckland lockdowns, and really use since it might brush the
cob webs off, and look at using that for short trips.
You know, we have to see modal shifts bikes and
scooters and public transport.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
We do, but it's difficult. I mean, I have certainly
hand on hard. I'm not stockpiling toilet paper because of
the fuel crisis either, but I do. I love the
idea of biking. I love the idea catching a bus,
but it doesn't work for me. I don't want to
be you know, taken advantage of and stripped naked on
Hobson Street in the middle of the night. As I'm
coming to or from work. I can't come here soggy
(03:17):
after a bike cried. You know, you've got to look
relatively professional when you're an award winning overnight talk host.
So there is a you know, there is the ability
to make some changes, but effectively. What you know, what
really gets up both of my noses, both of my
noses all the time is the way that our politicians
are not advocates for us. We're a very compliant bunch
(03:38):
of people in New Zealanders. Well bitch and moan, well
bitch and moan on the old talk back, but we
won't actually do anything about it because we want the
politicians to make significant change. And you have our dinosaurs
with the biggest voices dragging us back to nineteen eighty,
not future proofing for the next Trumpism to affect the world?
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Are you book buying?
Speaker 3 (03:59):
No? No. In fact, before I went to Melvin, I
filled up the old Defender. I filled it up with
diesel because that's what it runs on. And it was
a dollar fifty eliter and now it's up round two
twenty two thirty. I'm just going, well, what am I
supposed to do? I need my vehicle or pay whatever
it says at the pump. But I don't feel like
we have people that really care about us in leadership,
(04:20):
do you.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
I think we are constantly reminded about how little control
we have over so much here in New Zealand, and
we're just at the very end of a long list
of you know, a long supply chain. And I think
that it's so unfortunate that just as it felt like
the economy was about to kind of blossom a little
(04:45):
bit and we were turning a corner and people who
have suffered so much over the last five years, we're
going to be able to get decent night sleep. And
I just feel like this is just a cruel punch,
you know that actually we it's happening. There will be consequences.
It's coming our way. We've actually got to step up
and deal with that. I think, Yeah, I'm not getting
(05:07):
too waked up about it. I can probably make some changes.
But the people I'm concerned about are those businesses which
have been hanging on for so long over the last
few years. Joe and are finally turning a corner and
are going to get hit potentially.
Speaker 4 (05:20):
With the conquer with you more and that thing where
we are a cork in the sea of international affairs.
But again I agree with you too, Raman. I'd like
to see solutions that do help vulnerable people. I mean,
I don't see how something like public transport being free
if you had a student ID or a community services
card it already is for older adults with a Gold card.
(05:40):
Those solutions could help New Zealanders who are vulnerable more
vulnerable to the consequences of a reduced fuel supply at
high prices.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
We having just been in Melbourne and seen just how
effective all the public transport there is and people use it,
and we've got this mentality here of wanting to park
outside the shop door and I'm not using public transport.
It's never reliable. That kind of ethos ongoing commentary is
not going to help people to want to make the change.
But to your point, if it's too expensive, people will
(06:12):
still keep running their car. And to that point about
stockpiling toilet paper and the ongoing cost of everything being delivered,
that will filter down. If you thought butter was expensive before,
or toilet paper, watch the space.
Speaker 4 (06:24):
Well.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
The problem with the reliance on the public service, the
public transporters, of course, is that they're not fully electric services.
I don't think AT is going to be a fully
emissioned free fleet until twenty thirity five. So this has
all just happened a little bit too early. We were
almost organized, we almost organized and ready to manage it.
Speaker 4 (06:43):
Yeah, it's not a complete solution, but nothing is, you know,
And we just need to look at a lot of
small changes because we are so dependent on fuel in
this country. We are a long, skinny country with a
lot of driving, and to get things from one end
to the other, it takes fuel. And we're not we
have absolutely no capacity to refine on shore. We are
(07:05):
where we have to import, and those those choices have
already been made and we're now dealing with the consequences
of them.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Do you know what I might not be able to
cope with. I might find a little bit triggering, and
that is if they give us another alert level system.
Can we just come up with a new like for
this national feel pain? Could we just have a let's
just not call it.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
Get your steps and Wednesdays, catch your train Thursdays, like
you know, change the brand, eg. I just let your
alert system. It's too soon.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
I'm not sure. I gope.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
I think that would probably push me to be a
little bit rebellious. I do try hard to sort of,
you know, can.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
You can you imagine this is the time I wish
I was selling those hideously ugly electric cars. You'd be
standing in your sales or you need to do is
show when people say, oh, what have you got? You
just show them the gas by app and then say
which color do you want? Because they're all ugly, but
you can have one because you're in the Tesla.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
You're feeling good about yourself. Well yeah, but you about
yourself that We've got another very serious topic to talk about,
which generally pops up around this time of the year
every year. And of course Easter is closing in and
the hot cross bunds are flooding the market. Would you
pay forty two dollars for a six pack?
Speaker 4 (08:25):
Joe? Look, never say never, Francisca. I do have quite
a weakness for hot cross buns, and you know, and
I want to hold the line and be like, you know,
morally above having the new ones with all the flavors
and things. But you know, I just there's one of
an Awkland restaurant that I love is serving hot cross
(08:47):
buns with a bourbon glaze filled with bacon bacon bunnies,
and I'm like, take my money.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
You know, my producer's got a real issue with that.
She'd say to you, it's not a hot cross bum.
They're trying to They're trying to, you know, benefit on
something that it's not. You know, they're.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
I mean, I think that's a position if the symbolism
around around Easter has meant you, and for many people
it does, I think that is a position to hold.
But I am not a personal with religious faith, and
so it does to me.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
Man, what about you?
Speaker 2 (09:21):
A lemon callow hot cross bun.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
Look, I was in a rush. I misread the notes,
so I thought that was a new dating site, hot
cross buns, I was in. Sorry, no, but no, No
one makes hot cross buns like my mother, and my
mother should open a bakery because like all the fancy
pants stuff, people are too scared of cinnamon. Oh don't
put that downe whom someone won't like it. They're supposed
to be spicy and fruity. Put the fruit in and
(09:43):
the spice and the cross. Remember Jesus God bless some
baby cheeses. All that stuff. But you know, leave them
for Easter for a start.
Speaker 4 (09:51):
Yeah, well I see, and Fruity would be a great
name for a daddy happut on to.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Yes, I'm not a huge fan of a hot Cross bun,
so I'm not.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
Really fuss what you do with your pray for you
as well.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
And I sort of think that you probably get to
a point in your life you've had quite a lot
of hot Cross buns, so putting a bit of lemon
chill we're putting your bourbon or caramel on the top
of it doesn't sound so bad.
Speaker 4 (10:11):
So there, it might be the cheaper option. If you've
seen the price of those gold rabbits that have a
red ribbon on at my supermarket, the two hundred grand months,
which I mean, I must say could be considered a
single serve by some naming no names. I genuinely researched this.
They are three times more expensive by weight than actual
rabbit meat.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
There is an issue with chocolate as well as they're
forty two dollars hot Cross funtons, and yes, I think
they're over twenty bucks. Someone's text to say that they've
seen them full. I think they're the London twenty one.
Speaker 4 (10:44):
Yeah, solars around the corner from me twenty yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
Twenty four you I'd rather spend that on a dating
site myself. All that you wetter be a toss up.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Yeah, fill the petrol, fill the car, or buy my bunny.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Excuse times that sounds weird funny.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Thank you both very much. Joe and Roman appreciate it.
Enjoy the rest of your Sunday.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
For more from the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to News Talks at B from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News Talks dB.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
It is time for the panel and I'm joined by
Roman trav this News Talks he'd be host.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Good morning, I'm morning to you.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
I've turned your microphone on.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Sorry, I know you're a bit too loud.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
I know you're a professional, but yeah. Some also editor
and journalist Jo McCall, Good morning.
Speaker 4 (00:26):
Joe, Good morning, Fanciska and Ramon Hello.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Good to have you both here. Roman, is the government
taking fuel supply chain issues seriously enough?
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Do you think, oh, that's that's like Monty Python. Did
you get that from a comedy? That's just terrible this government. Honestly,
it's like we must be the only first world ish
country in the first world to be dragging ourselves back
to the nineteen eighties. We have this. We've got Shane Jones,
who's like a dinosaur from the eighteen hundreds, going back
to nineteen eighty saying droll baby, droll, dig baby dig
(00:57):
like some Trump more on and you know, we just
we're not future proofing. We don't have a focus on
the future. Do we a weird?
Speaker 4 (01:04):
What do you think, Joe well, I have to say,
you know, Shane Jones saying no need to panic, is
there a phrase more weighted to induce panic.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
No one hears that, not, not, not in the week
that we released the COVID report, and we all can
remember we all panicked about toilet paper, So how of
course we're going to panic about fuel.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
You know, Well, I mean, I think COVID is a
relevant thing to mention because it's de ja vous all
over again with you know, the fragility and complexity of
these global supply chains, which are normally invisible and not
thought of, are suddenly very visible, and you you just
begin to realize that, you know, we've prioritized expediency and
(01:44):
efficiency and in the name of like cheap of fuel,
cheap of fuel, cheap of fuel, and there's not a
lot of resilience in the system.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
I'm aasually not panicking, Joe, Like, I'm not panicking. I
don't think that I'm not stockpiling that I'm really hoping
that the hind closed doors, there is some very very
very key, full consideration going on to not the short term,
not next week or the week after, but probably the
medium to long term. I think that's when it's going
(02:14):
to hit and probably not be. But more than businesses
who rely on fuel.
Speaker 4 (02:21):
I'm not bolt buying, and because I think that's you know,
morally questionable behavior, but also because I'm not really keen
on the edge of a lot of containers of very
flammable liquids being stored in the garden shed, you know,
five minutes from my house. But you know there have
to be you know, as you say, for just long
term solutions. You know, I've been thinking about getting the
(02:41):
bike out, you know, bought optimistically post one of the
Auckland lockdowns, and really use since it might brush the
cob webs off, and look at using that for short trips.
You know, we have to see modal shifts bikes and
scooters and public transport.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
We do, but it's difficult. I mean, I have certainly
hand on hard. I'm not stockpiling toilet paper because of
the fuel crisis either, but I do. I love the
idea of biking. I love the idea catching a bus,
but it doesn't work for me. I don't want to
be you know, taken advantage of and stripped naked on
Hobson Street in the middle of the night. As I'm
coming to or from work. I can't come here soggy
(03:17):
after a bike cried. You know, you've got to look
relatively professional when you're an award winning overnight talk host.
So there is a you know, there is the ability
to make some changes, but effectively. What you know, what
really gets up both of my noses, both of my
noses all the time is the way that our politicians
are not advocates for us. We're a very compliant bunch
(03:38):
of people in New Zealanders. Well bitch and moan, well
bitch and moan on the old talk back, but we
won't actually do anything about it because we want the
politicians to make significant change. And you have our dinosaurs
with the biggest voices dragging us back to nineteen eighty,
not future proofing for the next Trumpism to affect the world?
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Are you book buying?
Speaker 3 (03:59):
No? No. In fact, before I went to Melvin, I
filled up the old Defender. I filled it up with
diesel because that's what it runs on. And it was
a dollar fifty eliter and now it's up round two
twenty two thirty. I'm just going, well, what am I
supposed to do? I need my vehicle or pay whatever
it says at the pump. But I don't feel like
we have people that really care about us in leadership,
(04:20):
do you.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
I think we are constantly reminded about how little control
we have over so much here in New Zealand, and
we're just at the very end of a long list
of you know, a long supply chain. And I think
that it's so unfortunate that just as it felt like
the economy was about to kind of blossom a little
(04:45):
bit and we were turning a corner and people who
have suffered so much over the last five years, we're
going to be able to get decent night sleep. And
I just feel like this is just a cruel punch,
you know that actually we it's happening. There will be consequences.
It's coming our way. We've actually got to step up
and deal with that. I think, Yeah, I'm not getting
(05:07):
too waked up about it. I can probably make some changes.
But the people I'm concerned about are those businesses which
have been hanging on for so long over the last
few years. Joe and are finally turning a corner and
are going to get hit potentially.
Speaker 4 (05:20):
With the conquer with you more and that thing where
we are a cork in the sea of international affairs.
But again I agree with you too, Raman. I'd like
to see solutions that do help vulnerable people. I mean,
I don't see how something like public transport being free
if you had a student ID or a community services
card it already is for older adults with a Gold card.
(05:40):
Those solutions could help New Zealanders who are vulnerable more
vulnerable to the consequences of a reduced fuel supply at
high prices.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
We having just been in Melbourne and seen just how
effective all the public transport there is and people use it,
and we've got this mentality here of wanting to park
outside the shop door and I'm not using public transport.
It's never reliable. That kind of ethos ongoing commentary is
not going to help people to want to make the change.
But to your point, if it's too expensive, people will
(06:12):
still keep running their car. And to that point about
stockpiling toilet paper and the ongoing cost of everything being delivered,
that will filter down. If you thought butter was expensive before,
or toilet paper, watch the space.
Speaker 4 (06:24):
Well.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
The problem with the reliance on the public service, the
public transporters, of course, is that they're not fully electric services.
I don't think AT is going to be a fully
emissioned free fleet until twenty thirity five. So this has
all just happened a little bit too early. We were
almost organized, we almost organized and ready to manage it.
Speaker 4 (06:43):
Yeah, it's not a complete solution, but nothing is, you know,
And we just need to look at a lot of
small changes because we are so dependent on fuel in
this country. We are a long, skinny country with a
lot of driving, and to get things from one end
to the other, it takes fuel. And we're not we
have absolutely no capacity to refine on shore. We are
(07:05):
where we have to import, and those those choices have
already been made and we're now dealing with the consequences
of them.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Do you know what I might not be able to
cope with. I might find a little bit triggering, and
that is if they give us another alert level system.
Can we just come up with a new like for
this national feel pain? Could we just have a let's
just not call it.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
Get your steps and Wednesdays, catch your train Thursdays, like
you know, change the brand, eg. I just let your
alert system. It's too soon.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
I'm not sure. I gope.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
I think that would probably push me to be a
little bit rebellious. I do try hard to sort of,
you know, can.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
You can you imagine this is the time I wish
I was selling those hideously ugly electric cars. You'd be
standing in your sales or you need to do is
show when people say, oh, what have you got? You
just show them the gas by app and then say
which color do you want? Because they're all ugly, but
you can have one because you're in the Tesla.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
You're feeling good about yourself. Well yeah, but you about
yourself that We've got another very serious topic to talk about,
which generally pops up around this time of the year
every year. And of course Easter is closing in and
the hot cross bunds are flooding the market. Would you
pay forty two dollars for a six pack?
Speaker 4 (08:25):
Joe? Look, never say never, Francisca. I do have quite
a weakness for hot cross buns, and you know, and
I want to hold the line and be like, you know,
morally above having the new ones with all the flavors
and things. But you know, I just there's one of
an Awkland restaurant that I love is serving hot cross
(08:47):
buns with a bourbon glaze filled with bacon bacon bunnies,
and I'm like, take my money.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
You know, my producer's got a real issue with that.
She'd say to you, it's not a hot cross bum.
They're trying to They're trying to, you know, benefit on
something that it's not. You know, they're.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
I mean, I think that's a position if the symbolism
around around Easter has meant you, and for many people
it does, I think that is a position to hold.
But I am not a personal with religious faith, and
so it does to me.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
Man, what about you?
Speaker 2 (09:21):
A lemon callow hot cross bun.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
Look, I was in a rush. I misread the notes,
so I thought that was a new dating site, hot
cross buns, I was in. Sorry, no, but no, No
one makes hot cross buns like my mother, and my
mother should open a bakery because like all the fancy
pants stuff, people are too scared of cinnamon. Oh don't
put that downe whom someone won't like it. They're supposed
to be spicy and fruity. Put the fruit in and
(09:43):
the spice and the cross. Remember Jesus God bless some
baby cheeses. All that stuff. But you know, leave them
for Easter for a start.
Speaker 4 (09:51):
Yeah, well I see, and Fruity would be a great
name for a daddy happut on to.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Yes, I'm not a huge fan of a hot Cross bun,
so I'm not.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
Really fuss what you do with your pray for you
as well.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
And I sort of think that you probably get to
a point in your life you've had quite a lot
of hot Cross buns, so putting a bit of lemon
chill we're putting your bourbon or caramel on the top
of it doesn't sound so bad.
Speaker 4 (10:11):
So there, it might be the cheaper option. If you've
seen the price of those gold rabbits that have a
red ribbon on at my supermarket, the two hundred grand months,
which I mean, I must say could be considered a
single serve by some naming no names. I genuinely researched this.
They are three times more expensive by weight than actual
rabbit meat.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
There is an issue with chocolate as well as they're
forty two dollars hot Cross funtons, and yes, I think
they're over twenty bucks. Someone's text to say that they've
seen them full. I think they're the London twenty one.
Speaker 4 (10:44):
Yeah, solars around the corner from me twenty yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
Twenty four you I'd rather spend that on a dating
site myself. All that you wetter be a toss up.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Yeah, fill the petrol, fill the car, or buy my bunny.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Excuse times that sounds weird funny.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Thank you both very much. Joe and Roman appreciate it.
Enjoy the rest of your Sunday.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
For more from the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to News Talks at B from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Clifford Show
The Clifford Show with Clifford Taylor IV blends humor, culture, and behind-the-scenes sports talk with real conversations featuring athletes, creators, and personalities—spotlighting the grind, the growth, and the opportunities shaping the next generation of sports and culture.