Full Show Podcast: 20 March 2025

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Digging through the Spence Spence to find the real story.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Gooring.

Speaker 1 (00:07):
It's Heather Dupasy on Drive with One New Zealand let's
get connected.

Speaker 3 (00:12):
News talks at me. Yes, a very good afternoon too.
I'm Tim Beverig. Welcome to Drive this Thursday, the twentieth
of March. I'm in for Ryan who was in for Heather.
Of course it's past the parcel coming up on today's show.
We've had some surprisingly good news on GDP, which is

(00:33):
a much needed relief, especially for Nichola Willis will be
looking for something to celebrate. She's with us shortly after five.
And also, as you will have seen over the past
a few days, former Prime Minister of Australia, Malcolm Turnbull
has been giving the current Australian government a few headaches
because softly softly certainly not how you might describe his
approach on Trump. Malcolm Turnbull will also be joining us.

(00:53):
And also why is the Defense Force cutting almost four
hundred rolls in the middle of all this talk around
us boosting our defense resources. So yes, all this on
Driving and texture feedback on nine two nine two and email.
If you're not in a hurry, email Tim b at newstalk,
SAIDB dot co dot Nz. It is coming up to
eight past four news Talk, ZEDB. Well, yes, it was

(01:16):
nice to have a bit of good news to start
the day, wasn't it that we perhaps we hadn't been expecting.
You remember that just yesterday we were hearing about those
results of the consumer confidence survey which recorded a drop.
Broadly speaking, of course, it's just a reflection of how
you and I and most people aren't quite feeling optimistic
about how things are going just yet, so it was
probably for most of us, for many of us, something

(01:38):
of a surprise to hear that enz GDP has exceeded expectations,
rising by zero point seven percent in the December twenty
twenty four quarter. It's also good to see that part
of that growth is attributed to spending by international visitors,
with tourism activities picking up, and of course Daarien meat
exports are strong, and it's obviously good news that'll be

(01:58):
welcomed with open arms by the Finance Minister, Nichola Willis,
who will be speaking with after five, especially given that
the government has been to be fair struggling to gain traction.
If the recent polls are anything to go by in
the way we're feeling, and of course, you know, we
all hope this is a sign of things to come.
As Willis described it, it's a welcome confirmation that the
economy has turned a corner. And look, I guess time

(02:20):
will tell there's more canstious language of people from like
Kiwi Banks chief economist Jared curR, who described New Zealand
as crawling out of recession. I think you put it
that way, and maybe soon we'll have some more good
news to celebrate, especially with some bullish talk coming out
of India about that possible trade deal. But of course,
the specter that hangs over it all is just uncertainty

(02:42):
about the global situation, especially when it comes to tariffs
in the trade war that Trump seems willing to engage in,
often at a whim with countries that will consider themselves
allies of the United States. We are in a time
of uncertainty when it comes to you and me. Maybe
it's just going to take a bit longer for those
GDP figures to filter down to consumer level where we

(03:04):
all start feeling a bit better about the direction the
country is heading it. So for now, look, I'd say,
for me, you look, uncertainty still rules the day. And
I don't want to be dramatic by saying it's just
a moment of happiness before more misery with those tariffs,
because who knows. But for now, yes, it's great news.
Perhaps we should just take the win for the time
being and see this as a much needed step in
the right direction, because when it comes to convincing us,

(03:26):
it's going to take a lot more than just one
set of numbers to have us reaching for the champagne.
By the way, that champagne another bit of good news,
that champagne might be quite cheap. If Trump follows through
the those two hundred percent tariffs on European wines and things,
maybe we'll be in for a boon and they'll be
trying to offload some cheap shampas for us. So fingers

(03:46):
crossed on that one now. As mentioned in the intro,
the Defense Force is reportedly planning to cut three hundred
and seventy four civilian roles. The Public Service Association says
its members have been told about the cuts, but the
Defense Force is yet to confirm them. One hundred and
forty five civil civilian defense workers took redundancy last year,

(04:07):
and uniform staff had to work over Christmas to fill
in for striking civilian staff. Hayden Ricketts, he's a retired
lieutenant colonel from Mission Home Front, and he joins me, Now,
good afternoon.

Speaker 4 (04:19):
That's thing, Tim, thanks for having us on.

Speaker 3 (04:20):
Yeah, thank you. If all these jobs are cut, how
will that affect uniformed staff.

Speaker 4 (04:27):
Well, I think the media commentary so far has been
that there will be an increase in workload on the
uniform staff, and I think that's dead right. The Defense
Force staff at the moment are well and truly overworked, understaffed,
and quite poorly paid, and this is just going to
add more pressure to their workload as the Defense Force

(04:49):
is going to be asked to do likely to be
asked to do more tasks around the world. Now we're
seeing if you look around the world, we've got the
US drawing down from security provisions in Europe, in a NATO,
we've got the Prime Minister and Ministry Defense talking about
deploying additional people to peacekeeping force potentially in the Ukraine.
Combats just ran started again in Ghazan, and we've had

(05:13):
Chinese warships close to the home in the Tasman sea.
All of those indicators point to the fact that we're
likely to need our defense force more and more often,
and this would seem a strange time to be doing
personnel cuts.

Speaker 3 (05:25):
Do we have any idea how many? Because they're cutting
the rolls, they're often roles that aren't filled. Do we
have any idea how many actual people are going to
disappear as a result of this, rather than just the
number of roles.

Speaker 4 (05:36):
So I've got no detail on exactly how many actual
people are being cut. But this decision was announced in
September last year, and my understanding is that this is
the tail end of the consultation processes, and now they're
deciding which role is exactly going to be cut. But
the situation in September last year, as you recall, was
vastly different to the one now, And this looks like

(05:57):
last year's solution for tomorrow's problems.

Speaker 3 (06:00):
Is it just that announcements like this just undermine morale
or is it because we think a bit further and think, well,
this is just going to mean more work for me,
or is it just the announcement. Look, there's more roles
being cut and it sucks.

Speaker 4 (06:13):
So if you cast your mind back to twenty eleven,
when the military is asked to provide a whole bunch
of savings around the military workforce. It was identified that
military people are quite expensive in comparison to their civilian counterparts,
and that's true, so they reduce the numbers of uniform
personnel and increase the numbers of civilians. And now in
the stage we are in order to afford more cuts

(06:35):
into the realms of cutting the defensive velings that they defining,
the plan is now too expensive to enact. What it
boils down to is the fact that the defense force
is not resourced to do all of the things the
government wants.

Speaker 2 (06:47):
It to do.

Speaker 3 (06:49):
What are you looking for yourself in terms of the
announcements that would start to boost your confidence.

Speaker 4 (06:54):
I would like the Defense Capital plan that's been announced
very shortly to be a balance of investment into more
military capability to replace the aging gear that our soldiers,
sailors and air me and a woman have, investment in
the infrastructure, which a lot of it was built in
World War Two, and a significant investment into our people's

(07:17):
pay because without the people to crue those systems, the
defense force is not going to be there when the
government asks it to go and undertake these tasks.

Speaker 3 (07:25):
Well the fingers crossed, I guess, and at least there's
been some signs that we're talking about up hanging our
defense spending. So I really appreciate your time this afternoon.
That's Hayden Rickett's retired lieutenant colonel. We'll be back in
just a moment with the Darcy Waldgrove talking Sport. It
is fourteen and a half past four.

Speaker 1 (07:42):
It's the Heather du Bissy Allan Drive Full Show podcast
on iHeartRadio powered by News Talk ZB.

Speaker 3 (07:49):
Welcome back to Drive, Tim beveriging and for Ryan it
is seventeen past four and Darcy water Graves with me
get a Darcy.

Speaker 5 (07:56):
Hang Average is in for Ryan bred who is in
for headed a policy.

Speaker 3 (08:00):
Yes, it sounds like a Gilbert and Sullivan song, doesn't it.
You would bring it back to amusement. You can't help yourself.

Speaker 6 (08:06):
Well, you know old habits die hard agent.

Speaker 3 (08:09):
Oh its indeed. Now, look the all whites path to
the World Cup qualification. Look, do we care that it's
going to be that? It might be argued it's too
easy because it has been in the past.

Speaker 5 (08:20):
But what we're going to talk about tonight on the program.
Thank you for setting this up. Recky Herbert's going to
join us on the show. We're going to talk about
the ease of qualifying and does that diminish the import
of what's going on? Will it take away the emphasis
or not? And there are theories around this Worthrecki Herbert.

(08:40):
I've got a few theories around it myself. What I
basically think it does is it steps it up. So yeah,
the qualification for all intents and purposes is simple enough,
and if they stumble on Friday or Monday, they'll be
hell to pay. And that's probably the big story. It
won't happen. What happens now is once you qualify through
to the World Cup. Because they're about forty eight teams qualifying, that's.

Speaker 3 (09:01):
Quite as opposed to from thirty two.

Speaker 5 (09:04):
And then in the celebration of one hundred years of
feef for World Cup, they're going up to sixty four.
I think that's just a one off party quite frankly.
What it means is the first round of the World
Cup per se becomes like qualifying if you will, you're
going to have some sterner tests and some sterner games.
So if you can get through to the round of
thirty two. Suddenly that becomes a success. Just get into

(09:27):
the World Cup up against the various countries in Oceania.
I don't think represents success what happens at the next level,
But I'll put that out to the football fans out there.
Is this relevant to get through to You said, you go,
whoa through to the World Cup? I go, yeah, OK, fine,
I could have got through with no respect whatsoever to Oceania.

(09:48):
We're basically what I'm saying, and everyone else will say
my respect, which basically means no respect at all, doesn't it.

Speaker 3 (09:53):
So what do we have to do. What's the hurdle,
even though it's a bit low that we have to
do well?

Speaker 5 (09:57):
We win IFC because there's one qualifying point now coming
out of Asia. They didn't used to be used to
go through and find the one of the seeds in
CONKERCAF South America and beat them and then you went through,
which we didn't do last time around when it went
to cutter. So because Oceany has got a direct qualifying route,
we just have to win Oceania. So we've got a

(10:18):
semi final coming up tomorrow and then a final on Monday.
Against whom we don't know, but it should be reasonably
easy beans with what we've seen so far through qualification.
So then it goes on. It's changed a lot. Back
in twenty twenty two there were thirteen European teams, thirteen
European spots to go through. Now it's gone to sixteen

(10:40):
and so on and so forth, so it all lifts.
So the grand scale of things, there are sixteen more
teams that are going to be involved in.

Speaker 7 (10:50):
The World Cup.

Speaker 5 (10:51):
Maybe the quality will diminished somewhat, drop somewhat, but.

Speaker 3 (10:55):
I don't care how we get there. By the way,
Ricky Herbert, what was his era? Was he in the
team that went to the World couple of these years ago?

Speaker 8 (11:01):
No?

Speaker 3 (11:01):
No, he wasn't. He's a bit old that.

Speaker 9 (11:02):
No.

Speaker 5 (11:03):
He was the guy that coached them back when they
were unbeaten back in South Africa when they qualified and
went through there. And he's also a post played for
the national side as well. It's Phoenix coach. The list
goes on. He knows football slightly.

Speaker 3 (11:14):
More than I do. Fun fact, I've got a strip
from the World Cup for eighty two. My brother's mate
was on the team. Glenn Dodds there you going. Had
to drop that on that just quickly. We've got about
a minute. Ian Foster is going to be part of
the coaching setup of the Combined Australia New Zealand fifteen
that will play the Lions.

Speaker 5 (11:29):
What the hell, Well, there's a team where they're going
to drag out of and you'd expect this is halfway
through the lines too. They'll take some of the off
cuts from Australia. And because Foster's coaching over in Japan,
he'll probably bring some New Zealand players over, maybe Aaron Smith,
maybe you Kerry Youani, maybe Sam Cain, Richie Muwanga. All
of these players might be involved. But that comes up.

Speaker 3 (11:51):
It is.

Speaker 5 (11:54):
Just before the first test.

Speaker 3 (11:57):
For first, Hey, thanks Darcy, good to talk to you.
Is twenty one past four News Talks d.

Speaker 1 (12:01):
B moving the big stories of the day forward alwhen
it's Heather Duplicy Drive with one New Zealand. Let's get
connected News Talks at B.

Speaker 3 (12:12):
So welcome back to Drive, Tim Beverig and for Ryan,
it's twenty four past four that we've received a statement
from the New Zealand Defense Force and it basically just
to summarize a little bit it says they began a
consultation process with staff and unions on proposals for change
across its civilian workforce, and so they say it's due
to its the Defense Force having to continue to prioritize

(12:34):
its outputs and find savings required to stay within its
budget appropriation while maintaining combat readiness and delivering on core
military activities. So they're proposing to disestablish six one hundred
and sixty seven roles. Two hundred and eighty seven of
those positions are currently vacant, and three hundred and eighty

(12:55):
of these positions are currently filled, So they're also proposing
to create two hundred and ninety three roles. You've got
to get a cackullaar at for this stuff. The overall
effect is there's going to be a net reduction of
three hundred and seventy four positions, So they're going to
have consultation should the proposals proceed. Following consultation, the assessment

(13:15):
as of twenty March is that by the end of
this process there will be a reduction in the overall
civilian staff headcount of around eighty employees. So that's the
guts of that. They say they're consulted with the unions
and they've thought carefully about ensuring their opportunities for people
through reconfirmation, reassignment, et cetera. And they also are emphasizing

(13:36):
it's a consultation process with staff and unions and no
final decisions have been made, so there we go. It
looks like the basic reduction in the end will be
about eighty employees, so that's up from the New Zealand
Defense Force. By the way, just on the sport thing,
we didn't touch on this with Darcy, but I just
wanted to say the whole Sam Ruth thing with the

(14:00):
you know, basically, this young guy becoming the youngest ever
to break the four minute mile, apart from being a
fantastic story about a young Kiwi who's got a huge
future ahead of him, I watched the event last night,
which was streamed i think by Athletics New Zealand, and
there was something fantastically Kiwi about it. Not only that

(14:22):
I don't think we really can get our heads around
about what a phenomenal achievement it is that he has
broken the sub four minute mile at the age of fifteen,
But just watching the event last night, I thought there
would be quite a crowd there, but it looked like
it had been a bit wet. It looked like a
smattering of people, looked like it was a club meet,
and a lot of enthusiasm and energy around it. But

(14:43):
it just looks so quintessentially Kiwi. Didn't it that there
was a handful of people turned up. They had all
the equipment there to measure the race and give it
an official time. But isn't it absolutely phenomenal? What was it?
Three point fifty eight point three to five? I think
so watch the space. He's going to be a phenomenal talent.
But the Kiwi nature of it. If this was a

(15:03):
college meet in the States, probably would have been a
full stadium somewhere in some college around the United States.
But it was just in good old New Zealand. Anyway.
Murray holds his next This is news Talks. He'd be
twenty seven past four, finger a blade.

Speaker 10 (15:19):
Itself to myself, do my pon my hell.

Speaker 1 (15:30):
Moley liberal, recapping the day's big news and making tomorrow's headlines.
It's hither duplicy Ellen drive with one New Zealand let's
get connected news Talks.

Speaker 3 (15:46):
It'd be ye a fully.

Speaker 11 (15:54):
For the first time.

Speaker 1 (15:57):
Made it.

Speaker 3 (16:03):
And welcome back to Drive. I'm Tim Bevergen for Ryan
and don't forget. After five we're having a chat with
Malcolm Turnbull. He's been making the headlines a little bit
recently because I guess the question that I want to
put tone this is about balancing his role as he's
not just you know, the guy who owns the local pub.
He's a former Australian Prime minister. And while diplomats around

(16:23):
the world and world leaders are struggling to work out
how they navigate their relationship with Trump and the White House,
we've got well turnbulls not pulling as punches as he say.
He's making things a little bit diffic difficult for Anthony Albneasy.
So we're going to have a chat with Malcolm Turnbull
after five o'clock. So we look forward to that one.

(16:44):
And right now it is twenty four to five.

Speaker 1 (16:48):
It's the World wires on Youth Talks.

Speaker 3 (16:50):
They'd be Drive.

Speaker 10 (16:52):
Yes.

Speaker 3 (16:52):
Speaking of Donald Trump, he's been on the phone again.
He's described an hour long core with Ukrainian President Volodimia
Zelensky as very good and says they're on track for
a ceasefire ideal it's a big changed since the last
time the two spoke to each other. When Zelenski stormed
out of the White House. What was thrown? I guess
matter of perspective, isn't it. White House spokes woman Carolyn
Levitt says, it's all thanks to Trump.

Speaker 12 (17:14):
Never been this close to peace, and it's only because
of President Trump that we are here. I think a
couple of years ago, as you are reported on the war,
it was incomprehensible to have a partial ceasefire in this conflict,
and today that is true because of the leadership of
this president.

Speaker 3 (17:30):
And two UN workers have been killed in Gaza. The
Hamask controlled Health Ministry said there was an Israeli strike
on a UN facility. The Israel Defense forces have denied this.
A UN official says the facility was clearly hit on purpose.

Speaker 13 (17:44):
In my opinion, this was not an accident. It cannot
be categorized as an accident. It is at least an incident.
I'm shocked, I am shocked and devastated by this tragic news.

Speaker 14 (18:00):
And finally, a girl from India has become the world's
youngest taekwondo instructor.

Speaker 3 (18:16):
She's late for it, seven years old. She's come from
a rich taekwondo lineage. Her mum can perform two hundred
and eleven elbow strikes in one minute, and her dad
can break seven marble slabs with one cap.

Speaker 1 (18:32):
International correspondence with ends and eye insurance, peace of mind
for New Zealand business.

Speaker 3 (18:39):
Yeah, that's one family not to mess with anyway. Murray
Old's good afternoon.

Speaker 2 (18:43):
Imagine being the young flok come around to check her out. Hey, hello,
mum and dad.

Speaker 3 (18:47):
Well she she have a second look after herself once
she's of course, um blimey. Federal government they're promising to
cut the cost of pharmaceuticals.

Speaker 2 (18:58):
Now, well that's right, and indeed the position has jumped
straight in and backed this promise as well. It's in
the context of this phony election campaign, which is focus
of course on cost of living. Labour committed to driving
down the price of health and cheaper medicines with capped
prices on prescriptions is the way that Labour wants to go.
It's already got We've already got over here something called

(19:20):
the Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme and what that means is nine
hundred and thirty very commonly prescribed medications, everything from cancer
to antibiotics and pain relief. These things are all offered
to Australians at subsidized prices. Indigenous people, those on pensions
and the like pay no more than seven dollars seventy
every time they get a script filled. Right now, most

(19:41):
people pay just over thirty one dollars. Labour's promising to
cut that to twenty five dollars. As I say, the
Opposition's jumped in and said, yeah, we love this, We're
going to do it too. The only fly in the
ointment pardon the pun, could be Donald Trump and the
whiners and wines in the American pharmacy radicals industry. The
government over here on both sides enthusiastic backers of the

(20:05):
pharmacytical benefit scheme. The Australian government buys these medications direct
from the manufacturers and then sells them to us at
subsidized prices. Well, the Yanks are going, you know, feral,
and they're threatening all sorts of tariffs and the whining
about you know, anyway, both sides of politicus here is
going yang yang and basically bugger off. We will do

(20:27):
what we want to do in Australia and you can
take your whining elsewhere. So it just remains to be seen.
I mean, Trump has not ruled out further tariffs, unspecified
tariffs against as yet unknown Australian exports. You just have
to wait and see which way, which way this goes.

Speaker 3 (20:47):
And this is a complicated issue, wasn't it. Dutton says
he's going to cut unraw funding if he wins the election.

Speaker 2 (20:56):
That's right, there will be no funding for the United
Nations agency currently looking after refugees in Gaza. He says, no, no,
it's a dreadful organization, unraped. We're not going to fund that.
By the way, I'm going to go straight on the
phone to Benjamin Netanya, who was well, if I'm the
prime minister after the upcoming election, to reaffirm Australian support

(21:19):
for Israel, and he'll also be on the first plane
if Donald Trump says yes, you can come on over
and have your head padded. He will be on the
first plane available to Washington to meet President Trump if
he's sworn in as Australia's next prime minister.

Speaker 3 (21:34):
How does that play out with voters? Do you reckon?
Because of course there was the question about where the
hostages were held in Unreal premises and it was pretty blurry,
wasn't it?

Speaker 15 (21:43):
Well?

Speaker 2 (21:43):
Look much sent sure? Actually how this would play out?
I mean, I think the battle lines are pretty well
drawn over here, certainly the opposition liberals and Nationals liberals
and that funny sense of the word, they are conservatives.
The conservatives over here, they're very much in the Netanyahu
Trump camp, except when it's inconvenient to be in that

(22:05):
particular camp, and they'll be jumping all over Labour's policies
in that regard. Certainly, I think people know where Dutton
stands and this type of thing. No big surprise that
he says he'll cut funding to Andra and he'll go
and kiss Trump's ring.

Speaker 3 (22:21):
Why is a forensic psychiatrist seeing an accused killer cop?
What's that all about?

Speaker 2 (22:26):
Well, because this is now being interpreted as a as
a potential into where the accused police or ex police officer,
it's a bit of an insight into which way he
may be pleading. February last year, this former policeman used
his service Revolver is the allegation to murder his former

(22:47):
gay lover and that man's new partner. The allegations bo
Lamar Condon went to his ex lover's house in Sydney
and shot dead both men. Now, the case was briefly
mentioned this morning here in the Sydney Court and Lamar
Condon was not present, but his lawyer told the court

(23:09):
that a report by a forensic psychiatrist into his client's
mental state would be available in early April. Now, as
I say, this happened in February last year. The case
is progressing as slowly as these things do. But it's
being interpreted now by people in the know in Sydney,
in the legal circles in Sydney. This may be the

(23:30):
way Lamar Condon's going to go. He's going to plead
insanity and see how that goes. So were just not
one hundred percent sure right now. It's back in court
in April.

Speaker 3 (23:38):
Gosh we ever all we have a morbid fascination with
these tales, don't we eat?

Speaker 11 (23:41):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (23:42):
Good stuff, thanks Murray, great to chat that, of course,
Murray olds it is well, Barry Soapers. Next, that's seventeen
to five.

Speaker 1 (23:49):
Politics with centric credit check your customers and get payment certainty.

Speaker 3 (23:53):
Yes, welcome back Tom Beverton for right, Well, the word
come masters in the news were going to talk about
it that in the moment, but our own come right
away here. He's senior political cross bond. It's very so,
very sur I should have visited that with you. Can
I call you a com.

Speaker 7 (24:05):
Well, it's a revered person. I guess I don't know
whether the one we're going to talk about should exactly.

Speaker 3 (24:12):
Well, let's talk about GDP as shall we get excited
about this as the start of better things to come?

Speaker 7 (24:17):
Well, you know, one positive GDP does not an economy make,
and I think Nikola Willis is quite aware of that.
But the fact that it grew in the December quarter
by zero point seven percent is certainly better than the
negative results that we saw in the previous two quarters
in June and September. So we're out of the recession

(24:39):
officially there, statistically at least. But it's getting the mood
of the public, isn't it on board? And that's the
biggest problem. Interestingly, Nikola Willis says she'll be making some
big announcements shortly. Well, she's got the budget in May,
and my belief is that this budget's going to be

(24:59):
tough to There was a lot of criticism at the
last budget that it wasn't tough enough, they had to
do more, and I think you will find in the
May budget they'll be tough and they'll be hoping that
they can do something that will turn the economy on
a better basis than what it has been since they talk.

Speaker 3 (25:17):
About because it's hard to quantify when the numbers actually
eke through to us feeling good. It's one thing to
hear numbers and go what does it mean exactly? So
long game on that one. Hey, Jenny Anderson's foot is
back in her mouth. Talk about feeling good.

Speaker 7 (25:32):
She shouldn't be feeling too good today because because i'd
know whether you heard her on with Mark Mitchell prol
Mark was in India. Ginny Anderson was on with Hosking
yesterday and you will remember that Chris Hopkins when he
was Education Minister, he scrapped charter schools reintegrated them into
the public system. And Ginny Anderson was on and she

(25:56):
was talking about the Investment Summit and not going back
on everything that has agreed to by this coalition government.
And that's all very well, but she was asked specifically
about charter schools and she said, look, if it's a
big project that's in play and it's working okay, and

(26:18):
there are some good things there. We're not going to
undo it for the sake of saying that we know better.
That's to quote her in a statement though she issued
later in the day because she was asked about charter schools.
She confirmed that Labour's position remained the same on charter schools.
They'll be scrapping them. So the Acting Prime min is

(26:39):
to David Seymour, which is what he is at the moment.
He's the champion of charter schools. Of course, he says.
That says a lot about Labor.

Speaker 9 (26:47):
What it shows is that the Labor Party is still
driven more by the union reps, not the teachers, but
the union reps collecting fees off the teachers, and they're
reckons than the experience of New Zealand students. When you
have seventy eight people apply to operate charter schools, when
you've got people literally moving city so their child can
go to a charter school, that's something the Labour Party

(27:10):
should listen to before snapping to a knee jerk reaction.

Speaker 7 (27:13):
You got to remember that they had seventy eight applications
for the charter schools and they called for them and
they had they were over subscribed. So you know, there
is a there's a feeling out there that these schools
do work. I'm not sure they do because I don't
really quite understand them as much as I perhaps should do.

Speaker 3 (27:29):
Yeah, I mean it's hardly the biggest hill for labor
to die on either, But I just think the message
of uncertainty is not helpful.

Speaker 7 (27:36):
No, it's not it most certainty isn't.

Speaker 3 (27:39):
And all here he is the starving comar to a
Dean Wickliffe. He gets another green MP visiting him in prison.

Speaker 7 (27:45):
Steve Abel went in to see him. I think it
was last night. And that follows Timotha Paul's little visit
to him as well, and then saying she called him
the comar to it, which I found absolutely surprising. Tell
that to the Jewelers only was shot with his pistol
in Wellington in nineteen seventy two. I think they would
beg to differ on that one. But like I said

(28:07):
yesterday to Ryan, then he's got one thing that is
that he's famous for, and that's escaping from Perima Remo's
maximum security prison twice, the only prisoner ever to have
done it. Now I remember the nineteen ninety one escape
very well, because I got on the phone to the
then police minister and everybody will know who it was
John Banks and said to Banksy, Dean Wickcliff's escape. Banks

(28:32):
He said to me, Soaps, I'm looking out the window
of the plane and the down below the Manoba Tu
was looking beautiful. And I said to him, what are
you doing talking on the phone, Banksy, You're not meant
to be on the phone. It was an inn, said
fly commercial flight and the pullbacker somebody reported him, and

(28:53):
the pallbacker was fine seven hundred and fifty dollars subsequent
in the court. So he remembers of escape more so
than most.

Speaker 3 (29:01):
Did he escape using any clever means? Was it sort
of sure shape redemption stuff where he just fight out
the back of the laundry.

Speaker 7 (29:07):
Laundry it was, I did look at it. Yes, it
was waiting until the dead of night, and he was
it was subterfuge.

Speaker 3 (29:15):
He got out.

Speaker 7 (29:16):
So that's his claim to fame. But look, you know,
nobody wants anybody to die through starving themselves to know
he's going in to see him, I think today and
to try he said, he's a relative, he's going to
try and try and talk him into eating again.

Speaker 3 (29:31):
But watch this one. Hey, thanks very great to talk
it is. We're back in just a moment. It's eight
minutes to five.

Speaker 1 (29:37):
News Talks hed b putting the tough questions to the
news speakers, the mic asking breakfast national.

Speaker 3 (29:44):
Public Health servances. They're being accused of overreach and trying
to suppress the expertise of officials. The Health Minister, Simeon
Brown is with me now.

Speaker 16 (29:52):
I'd love them to start focusing on our immunization targets
which are wofully behind, and stop trying to be the
health police telling stallholders and Elson they've got to put
up stone saying bring your own cup or stop it.
Trying to campaign against McDonald's stores in one oco, that's
not what the National Public Health Service should be focused on.
Another thing, I read it from a submission they made
to Nolton City Council was Nelton and City Council should

(30:13):
fan community groups from selling rattle tickets because they might
encourage gambling. I mean, this is just absolutely ridiculous.

Speaker 1 (30:19):
There back tomorrow at six am, the mic hosking breakfast
with Veda Retirement Communities on news Togs Dead b.

Speaker 3 (30:27):
Yes, welcome back to Drive, Tim Beverage, and for Ryan
at five to five, we've got Nicola Willis will be
joining us after fartherd Block on the back of the
positive news around GDP. This is an interesting question asn't
as to how long you know, the numbers actually resonate
with people, so we actually start to feel more optimistic
about things because, as I mentioned in my opening, these
numbers come on the back of the fact that consumer

(30:49):
confidence is not too flash. So anyway we're going to
be digging into the GDP figures and just how bullish
Nicola Willis feels around those results. And I'm sure, look,
any good news is good news and we want to
celebrate it. So yeah, not to stick around for that.
And Malcolm Turnbull also after five on the economic side
of things. Interesting to see old Elon Musk his Twitter.

(31:13):
Maybe he paid a huge amount for Twitter and then
converted it to X and I guess a lot of
us thought, gosh, how can you pay so much money
for it? But the good news for Elon Musk is
that his social media platform X its value has finally returned,
but has reportedly swored back to the forty four billion
dollars that he paid for it. So it's that's quite

(31:34):
a reversal of fortunes since he became an ally of
Donald Trump, of course, and I'm not sure if it
will make up for the losses that he has suffered
as a result of Tesla, because a lot of people
who are boycotting Tesla around the world, and there's been
some spectacular share price drops. Haven't got the figures in
front of me, but especially in Europe, I'm not sure
Elon's particularly popular. Look, we don't have to worry about

(31:55):
how he's going to fund his retirement. He's an incredibly
wealth wealthy man. But interesting to see that that rebound
to his forty four billion dollar purchase price has actually
taken place. And just on a bit of another bit
of good news customs officials, this is a surprising amount here.
The Customs have arrested three airport workers for smuggling fifty

(32:17):
eight kilograms of methamphetamine boxes containing basically off an international flight.
They were working with industry partners. They identified a bit
of suspicious activity within the airport precincts and yeah, fifty
eight kilos. I'm not sure how that fits in the
scheme of things. But there's there's some wins to celebrate.
We could even celebrate. I wonder how many of us
have got shares and X not me do I wish

(32:41):
I had no, not me nor Tesler. But good on Eline.
He's recovered as forty four billion dollar purchase price. We'll
be back shortly with Nicola Willis next, and of course
Malcolm Turnbull. This is Newspork's at be Drive. We needed.

Speaker 17 (33:08):
Two step with a woman I love.

Speaker 8 (33:13):
We needed a st go on.

Speaker 1 (33:18):
Questions, answers, facts, analysis, the drive show you trust for
the full picture. Heather Duples on Drive with one New
Zealand Let's get connected News.

Speaker 2 (33:31):
Talks at be.

Speaker 3 (33:35):
Guest, welcome to Drive. Seven seven past five. The New
Zealand economy has officially turned a corner. GDP rose zero
point seven percent in the December quarter, finally putting an
end to the recession. The rebound was stronger than an
economists had predicted, driven by tourism and primary industries. Construction
well that took a bit of a hit was down

(33:55):
more than three percent, and Nikola Willis is the Finance Minister.
Good afternoon, good afternoon. You'll be loving this news, won't you.

Speaker 18 (34:04):
I am It tells us that we are turning the corner,
which is what New Zealand doeres need after a very
tough time with high inflation, high interest rates and growth
bouncing along the bottom. The numbers today are better than
was forecast and tell us that recovery is underway. We
need that to be sustained because the New Zealanders will
start feeling it in their household budgets and in their communities.

Speaker 8 (34:26):
But this tells us we're on our way.

Speaker 3 (34:28):
So compared to December twenty twenty three, the economy is
still one point one percent smaller. We've still got a
long journey ahead of us, don't we.

Speaker 8 (34:35):
We do.

Speaker 18 (34:36):
There's no getting away from the fact that New Zealand
was hammered following COVID. The huge amount of spending that
was done during that time resulted in a very high
inflation spike, rapidly rising interest rates, and that put a
real clamp on our economy and it's taking time to
dig ourselves out of it. But we are on our
way now and the government's focus is how we accelerate

(34:59):
that growth. We know that when we do, that will
lead to higher incomes that will lead to a more
affordable cost of living for New Zealanders, and that's our focus.

Speaker 8 (35:07):
We're going for growth.

Speaker 3 (35:08):
So because we saw the dip and consumer confidence in
the latest survey yesterday, how long does it take for
these figures to actually turn into us feeling good about
where we're going.

Speaker 18 (35:18):
We do need to see a sustained period of growth
because unfortunately, the last thing to recover is always employment,
and so fore casters are expecting that unemployment will continue
to rise over the next few months, and of course
that has a real impact on people's confidence. What we
do know is that unemployment is set to stay below

(35:39):
where it's been historically, below the historic average, so it's
not going to be as bad as it has been
during previous downturns. But look, my enthusiasm is to see
us get through this as quickly as possible. What we
are seeing is that many businesses are more confident about
the future now. They're seeing those high dairy prices, those
more tourism numbers flowing through into money being bent in

(36:00):
their communities. They're seeing that people who are refixing on
lower mortgages more able to spend at their local shops,
and so that recovery is underway. And New Zealanders will
start feeling it as businesses are better able to pay
higher wages when they're selling more when they're more profitable.

Speaker 3 (36:16):
Of course, these numbers are also better than the Reserve
Bank had anticipated. Do you think that might mean that
we can be optimistic about further drops and interest rates?

Speaker 18 (36:25):
Well, this is obviously a better result than the Reserve
Bank was expecting. But they'll be weighing up a number
of factors. They'll be looking at the international context, they'll
be looking at a lot of different data as they
make their official cash rate decisions. We know that they've
been forecasting additional interest rate drops.

Speaker 8 (36:43):
This year, and I know many kiwis will welcome that.

Speaker 3 (36:47):
When we look at the whole global outlook, there is
a fair bit of uncertainty about that. How realistic do
we need to be about optimism?

Speaker 18 (36:57):
Yeah, look, there is uncertainty about that and that impacts
New Zealand in a couple of ways. It means that
the costs of paying the interest bill on our debt
are going to be high.

Speaker 8 (37:06):
Which affects our books.

Speaker 18 (37:08):
It means that some businesses might look out the global
context and not feel as confident about investing for the future.
But I just remind everyone that I go and meet,
Actually New Zealand is very well positioned in an unstable world. Actually,
we're selling products that people want. We have lots of
strong trading relationships, and we've got one of the highest

(37:29):
dairy prices we've ever had two years in a row.
And there are good things happening here. And I tell you,
the international investors who we were meeting with last week said, look,
New Zealand, it's a safe haven. It's a stable place.
You guys have got great prospects ahead of you, and
I think we need to stay fixed on that and
not get too trapped in the deming gloom of what
some other countries are experiencing around the world.

Speaker 3 (37:51):
Nicholas Wells, thank you, Finance Minister. We'll be back in
just a moment. Malcolm Turnbull is with us as eleven
past five. We all enjoy a bit of time off work,
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Offer ends twenty six of May this year. Teesuencies apply
new card members only. Jim Beverage Yes, Winston p has

(39:00):
concluded his visit to the United States without a splash
is exactly how our government prefers it. Peters has been
very diplomatic about his meeting with US Secretary of State
Marco Rubio. He said it was a successful meeting, but
wouldn't go into many details about what the US wants
from New Zealand. Malcolm Turnbull is Australia's former Prime Minister

(39:20):
he's been outspoken about standing up to the US administration.
He joins me, now, mister Turnbull, good.

Speaker 19 (39:25):
Afternoon, good afternoon, great to be with you.

Speaker 3 (39:28):
Thank you. Winston Peters has been has concluded as some
of his meetings in the US, he's been taking a
sort of head down, headlow, polite, don't say anything to
frighten the horses. Do you agree with that approach?

Speaker 19 (39:42):
Well, look, it's probably it's fair enough. I mean, in
a sense, it doesn't really really what really matters is
what he says. What you say privately, you know, in
the direct discussions, that's that's the important thing. As long
as you're standing up for your country. In the private discussions,
you can be as you know.

Speaker 3 (40:02):
As discreet and.

Speaker 19 (40:06):
Polite, I suppose flattering in the in the pressure releases.
You know, the real question is what's happening inside the room.

Speaker 3 (40:14):
I gather you don't feel quite as constrained these days.

Speaker 19 (40:18):
Well no, look, I no, of course not. I'm not
not you know, I'm a former prime minister, so but
the no, I'm free to speak my own mind, just
as you are.

Speaker 3 (40:29):
Do you think that given your position as a former
prime ministrocracy, you have standing and your words are going
to be obviously reported and get some attention. How do
you sort of navigate you saying what you really want
to say versus how is this going to help Australia.

Speaker 19 (40:46):
Well, I think you know we were astray. All of
us have an interest in free speech. I mean, what
can you just give me an example. I'm struggling to
understand the point you're trying to make.

Speaker 3 (40:57):
And I think if you criticize Donald Trump, and we
all have our feelings about Donald Trump, but if you
say something that doesn't quite fit in with the Australian
government wants to take a more softly softly approach, and
you sort of put your head above the parapet and
attract his attention in a way that they might not
be happy with. Is I'm not meaning this as a
really hard question or something, but how do you navigate

(41:18):
what the Australian government wants versus malcol time?

Speaker 19 (41:21):
I mean, the Australian Government's got to manage its own affairs.
I mean, I'm a you know, I speak my own
mind and I'm not going to censor myself to avoid
the wrath of Donald Trump. And I don't think anyone should.
I mean he he is a bully and he seeks
to well, I mean, look at the ways try and
look at the extraordinary bullying of that federal court judge.

Speaker 3 (41:43):
That's going on at the moment.

Speaker 19 (41:44):
You know, he's calling for the guy to be impeached
and called him a radical left wing lunatic. And he
was actually appointed by George W.

Speaker 3 (41:51):
Bush.

Speaker 19 (41:51):
So it doesn't look to me to be either radical,
lunatic or left But you know, like it's it's perfectly obvious.
I mean, if a court, I mean, what Trump is
doing is attacking the judiciary in an attempt to intimidate it,
so that you know, if you're you know, perhaps you
should suggest to Americans that they should censor themselves and

(42:14):
not speak up for fear of being criticized by the president.
I mean, really, I just look, I'm sorry, I'm an
old fashioned free speech person, and I believe that you
should people should stand up and state their views. Obviously,
if you're in government, you you know, you could got

(42:34):
to be more perhaps discreete or tactical than others. But
but really, you know, you can't let the bullies win,
and you can't let them go unchecked full stop.

Speaker 3 (42:44):
How would you be managing the relationship. If you were
Prime minister of which country mine or yours? Well, let's
well you can you can offer your thoughts on either.
Let's start with Australia and then you can well.

Speaker 19 (42:57):
Well, look, I've yeah, starting with Australia that it's the
one I understand the best. Look, you've just got to
be true to yourself. You've got to stand up for
your own country. You have to recognize that, particularly with Trump,
you're dealing with a guy who believes might is right,
who is a bully, I mean, makes no bones about that,

(43:18):
and he's highly transactional. So you've got to set aside
all sorts of sentiment and naive views that you know,
Washington has altruistic views, you know, affection for us. I mean,
we kid ourselves in this part of the world that
you know, we've got a you know, a big big
brother over there in Washington who's always got our best

(43:41):
interests at heart. Now, look, I hope they do, and
I hope they do most of the time, but you
can't assume that. So we have to stand our ground
and be as hard headed and objective about our position
as they are about theirs. That's it. It's so in
other words, nothing personal, it's business.

Speaker 3 (44:00):
What's your take on the negotiations that we've seen sort
of unfolding with the Ukraine and the USA and Russia
obviously with Putin and Trump.

Speaker 19 (44:11):
Well, look, I hope a peace can be achieved, but
you know, so far, Donald Trump has used his muscle
to force Zelenski to agree to you know, to agree
to cease fire. You know, it would have been a
lot better if he'd used his muscle to pressure Putin,

(44:34):
but so far he's used all the muscle and power
to essentially kneecap Zelenski with drew military assistance, with drew
intelligence sharing. Now that's been restored, so that's good. But
now he's got to deal with Putin, and so far
he hasn't really got anything out of him.

Speaker 15 (44:52):
I mean, they've.

Speaker 19 (44:54):
They're a long way from getting to a peace deal.
I'm afraid that they've agreed to a parent thirty days,
you know, a cessation of attacks on each other's energy infrastructure.
But then no soon had press that press release gone out,
than the Russians attacked the Ukrainian energy infrastructure. So I

(45:17):
don't know, I mean, I have to say, you know,
you would have hoped that the Trump would have said
to Putin, if you don't, you know, come to a
realistic deal on the that that ensures Ukraine continues as
a sovereign, independent state, then we will give them, you know,

(45:40):
every bit of military assistance they need and more. But instead,
what he's done is effectively sided with the weaker, the invaded,
the wronged party. And that's not very edifying, is it?

Speaker 3 (45:52):
Just this might be a slight trivial question to ask,
But Trump likes people who if you're a friend to Trump,
he's a friend to you. He myers Putin, it seems.
And I was just curious that Putin kept him waiting
for a couple of hours, and I was wondering, is
there a point where Trump might decide, actually, maybe Putin's
not my friend.

Speaker 19 (46:11):
Well, I don't know. I mean, he is fascinated by Putin.
I've seen that firsthand. But he's but he's you know,
he's fascinated by Putin. He likes strong men, you know,
he likes Berduwan in Turkey, or Ban in Hungary, sidgein Ping.
You know, that's I guess that's that's what he'd like
to be, you know, a kind of a strong man,

(46:32):
a dictator that that can't be checked. Didn't he say
he was going to be dictator on day one? I
think in the campaign? So you know, Trump does say
the quiet bits out loud. But you know, as far
as friendship concerned, Trump's fallen out with a lot of people.
So I wouldn't you know that you suggested that if
Trump is your friend, he's you know, his friend for life.

(46:55):
I mean, that's that is not There are countless people,
libraries of books written by people who's fallen out with.

Speaker 3 (47:03):
Yeah, Malcolm Turnble, thanks for your time. Really appreciated this
form of primer Australian p and Malcolm Turnbull, it says interesting,
I never had quite worked out my thoughts on his
approach to diplomacy. Givenis no longer in the gig, but anyway,
you can text your feedback on nine two nine two.
This is News Talks. He'd be Drive. It's twenty three past.

Speaker 1 (47:19):
Five, Informed inside into today's issues. It's hither duplicy Ellen
Drive with one New Zealand, Let's get connected.

Speaker 3 (47:29):
News talksa'd be Yes with Tim Beverage twenty six past five. Well,
it's fair to say that the interview with Malcolm Turnbull
there has triggered a few of you. Look, it's an
interesting one, isn't it. The whole issue about whether a
former prime minister should keep quiet because what he sees
might get in the way of the agenda, in the
way that the Australian government wants to manage their relationship

(47:52):
with with the White House. Should I say the word
the Trump administration? But I sort of think sort to think, well,
he talks about free speech, and I wonder if that
when it comes to people who are not in positions
of power, like like Malcolm Timberley's free to speaker's mind.
I sort of err on that side, regardless of what
whether you agree with him or not. A lot of
people bang on about Trump derangement syndrome, and I'll just

(48:15):
stick it out there that the only people with Trump
dearrangement syndrome are the people who keep on mentioning Trump
derangement syndrome because they just refuse to put him under
any microscope because he's their messiah. And so yeah, I
just think it's the most pathetic accusation you can make.
You need to probably address the substance of what someone's
making from a point of view of a little bit
of common sense. So I just sort of put that

(48:36):
down there because it's the predictable thing. I thought, I'm
going to get lots of lots of text with the
initials TDS, and it's like, oh, shake it off, look
in the mirror anyway. We'll be back shortly. Are this
is news Talk zeb Drive. There's an interesting thing about
the flan flatmates wanted admin controversy on Facebook. Will fill
you in a bit more on those details. Shortly. It

(48:57):
is approaching half past news.

Speaker 1 (49:00):
Twenty on the iHeart app and in your car on
your drive home, it's hither Duplicy Ellen drive with one
New Zealand let's get connected.

Speaker 3 (49:18):
News talks they'd be.

Speaker 10 (49:20):
Marty Pony Drack, somebody bummy smok. I'm about to get
off busboy gears rock. Yeah, I've been breaking my back
just keeping with the Joneses, y'all know, I mean, and
y'all know holy gold when it's so far.

Speaker 3 (49:37):
Five, Hey nive here Simon or my Yes. News talks
they'd be this is Drives and Beveridge and for Ryan Bridge.
Have you ever wondered about who the people are that
run all those Facebook groups that you're part of Auckland
Flatmates and flats wanted as a booming Facebook page with
over two hundred thousand members, but all the work of

(49:58):
blocking out scams approving posts got too much for one
ad They got too much for one admin who proposed
a fee for posting on the group. After a widespread
black backlash which followed, the admin has paused the page
and that has left flat Hunter's panic and with us
with us now is one of the other admins from
the Facebook page, and he has agreed to speak with

(50:20):
us anonymously. And good afternoon, Good afternoon, So how much
did you want to charge for a post on the page?
And what was going to happen with the money?

Speaker 20 (50:32):
We are for a three dollar fee, whereby we stated
one dollar will go into charity for a Gland Starship
hospital and the rest of the money to help I
mean to put him more time to manage and maintain
the group, as well as be able to pay intnet

(50:55):
bills though we used to keep the group that we
have been actively running it for the last ten years plus.

Speaker 3 (51:04):
Okay, so how many how many of edmonds are there?
And how much time do you spend on its?

Speaker 20 (51:10):
Three is three so basically we all have jobs, so
we on line here and there at work at home,
so wherever we are, even if we are not we
are not at home, we have to use our personal
internet while we're out there and about to go on

(51:31):
the group to screen messages, accept and all of that.
So it's not like we have a specific time to
go on there when we at home, were on there
where we are work, when we had a chance, we
go on there when we're out with family. We still
accept the group.

Speaker 3 (51:49):
You never escape it, right? How many posts are we
talking per day that you'd have to moderate?

Speaker 20 (51:55):
Usually some Sometimes we can get like thirity or forty
a d but out of all the thirty forty you
will likely approve maybe ten fifteen because most of it
are scam scam ads or scam posts that they try
to get in. So we have to read through every

(52:18):
person who have put in a request to post before
we approved, and.

Speaker 3 (52:23):
As that including you having to moderate the comments as well. Yes, correct, Okay,
so you pull some.

Speaker 20 (52:29):
Of the coms, yes, right, because we have decided to
actually shut it down because when we ask for a
fee to give us the ability to put in more
term because this group have been very helpful and very
high command with people trying to find a rent and
all of that. So we have put in a whole

(52:50):
lot of time, but people don't see all of that.

Speaker 3 (52:52):
What actually, why did you keep going with it when
it got so big? I mean, because it just sounds
like it's a John Hessel?

Speaker 20 (52:59):
Why don't you Because the person who created their group
was once a homeless in any situation why where he
was homeless, that's when he created their group in order
not to see anyone else fall in the situation where
they have nowhere to sleep.

Speaker 3 (53:16):
Any chance you're going to get, any chance you're going
to get the page back up and running, because it
sounds like a lot of people rely on it.

Speaker 20 (53:21):
Have you got those There is a lot and even
though it's possible, we still receive privacy messages from people
who come through our personal Facebook that are asking us
to allow them to advertise or to run even we
had a few people that offered if we will see
all the page, but we don't think it's something that

(53:44):
we should sell it. We simply ask for a fee
to give us also the time to put him more
time to screen all and try to do whatever we
can get this cam out of it. That's the whole point.
But people just really don't see the airport we put in.
The SOD decided to just shut it out.

Speaker 3 (54:05):
Yeah, well, I I can understand that. You've got to
be a thank you. I really appreciate your time. You've
got to be a luton for punishment on that one. Anyway.
That was one of the admins on the Facebook page
who agreed to speak to us anonymously, which is why
I haven't given you his name obviously. Anyway, right now
it is nineteen minutes to six the.

Speaker 1 (54:23):
Huddle with New Zealand Southeby's International Realty Find your one
of a kind.

Speaker 3 (54:28):
Yes and joining us for the huddle. Ben Thomas, former
National Party staffer and Ali Jones Red pr Hello, Hi
em hi Ben Gooda. Are you a member of any Ali?
Are you a member of any Facebook groups or an admin? Perhaps?
Even yeah?

Speaker 7 (54:43):
Hundreds?

Speaker 21 (54:44):
No, seriously, because I forget that I joined them, and
then when I go back through and see what I've joined,
I'm appalled actually at how it's got out of control.
So I have a round about four pages that I
manage myself and a number that I am a member of.
It's a really great way to stay in touch with
local issues as far as local government goes and things
like that.

Speaker 8 (55:02):
So yes, I am.

Speaker 3 (55:04):
Do you have a problem with worrying about scams or
are your pages closely sort of monitored and sort of
by admission only?

Speaker 21 (55:10):
Yeah, pretty much, and I do. I mean I can
tell a fake profile. Ben will know all about this too.
In politics, there are fake profiles, there are scams. The
one at the moment is if you're running advertising through meta,
then you get a message saying we're about to remove
your page because you've breached conditions, right, and you just
you just blocked that and delete it. But it does

(55:31):
take time. I heard your man talk about it takes
a lot of time.

Speaker 3 (55:33):
What would you do if you were Ben? Would you?
Would you just pull pull up sticks and just say, oh,
stuff this.

Speaker 11 (55:42):
Well, this is the thing about online communities, isn't it.
I Mean, everything used to be free and you went
sort of bombarded by ads everywhere. But but you know,
this is the thing about online services, whether it's a
Facebook group or the platform, you know, eventually people want
to monetize it. And if you're an admin in a group,

(56:03):
you know it's that old sort of thing. You're You're
not the consumer or the product. And you know, I
think Facebook actually doesn't let you charge No.

Speaker 3 (56:15):
I think the thing is that sucks you into It's
like once you're an admin of a group, you just
get sucked into that world. And probably the smartest thing
they should do is just just pull the pin and
leave it alone. Is that what you guys are do?

Speaker 11 (56:26):
Ben, I'd think ten years was long enough. I might
offer to hand over the keys to someone else and
right into the sunset.

Speaker 21 (56:36):
Yeah, I think there's a there's an There are a
couple of options here. I think what they're doing is great.
And I think the fact that it came from someone
who is homeless and that they're keeping that link to
that and keeping that real, I think that's awesome talk
about authenticity. But I think there's an opportunity here potentially
for someone to monetize it and set up some sort
of website. It's not expensive to set up a website. Potentially,

(56:57):
what you do then as you run the risk of
making that affordable for people who can afford it, or
accessible for people who can afford it, and exclude those
who can't. So, but you know, there's certainly a business
opportunity here. But yeah, I think they should keep it going.
Get some more edmonds. You know three is not many.

Speaker 3 (57:13):
Well yeah, yeah, and I think maybe you're right. Just
close it down and leave a notice saying, look, if
you want to, if you want to check it out,
this is our new website and we'll look forward to
welcome you. Anyway. Look, let's move on. We'll move on
in just a moment. Actually, we'll take a break. It's
sixteen minutes to five. This is the Huddle, Ben Thomas
and Allie Jones. The GDP is out. We'll be having
a chat about that and where the how good news

(57:35):
that is for us all back in the moth the Huddle.

Speaker 1 (57:39):
With New Zealand Southeby's International Realty, the ones with local
and global reach.

Speaker 3 (57:45):
It's welcome back to the huddle, Ben Thomas and Alie
Jones with me, Tim Beverage and for Ryan. Now Ben
GDP is out. We're officially out of recession. Are you
feeling sort of its party time or what do you reckon?

Speaker 11 (57:59):
Yeah, we've been sort of dipping in, dipping out, sort
of narrowly avoiding technical recessions for a lot of the
last two turn a bit years. I mean, look this,
even with the economic growth in the last.

Speaker 15 (58:13):
Quarter of.

Speaker 11 (58:15):
Twenty twenty four, you know, that gets us back to
the early part of twenty twenty three in terms of
the actual GDP, you know, and per capita GDP really encouraging,
you know, up point four percent in the last quarter.
I think that's the first time since June twenty three

(58:37):
that we had a gain rather than a drop in
per capita GDP. So look, you know, if you think
if you think you're doing it tough, you're not imagining
it this. You know, we're we're really at the bottom
floring our way back up now. And look, there's a
lot of challenges ahead. Unfortunately, you know, we saw we
saw a lot of pressure with the situation last year.

(59:01):
Looks like we might be headed for a repeat of that.
That makes things tougher both in terms of costs, jobs,
you know, Look, it's a white knuckle rad I think
the government's doing everything they can to kind of promote growth, investment,
get things moving. But look, you know we're really hostages
to fortune, and by fortune, I mean the international situation,

(59:21):
which is you know, doing its best to push back
on the on the on the improvements that we're making.

Speaker 3 (59:27):
Yeah, a bit of uncertainty globally, of course, which might
see a reversal unfortunes. But Alie, at least we've stopped digging,
haven't we.

Speaker 21 (59:34):
No Look, and I Ben knows a hell of a
lot more about this than I do, But actually my
eyes glaze over when someone says GDP or in the
last quarter of personality. All I care about is what
are my chops going to cost?

Speaker 17 (59:47):
What are the cost of mutter?

Speaker 21 (59:49):
And why the hell can't I buy a decent piece
of fish in this country that is an island. So
I say that off handedly, but actually I think that's
the key here, because you know, meat and dairy are
based on global prices. How the hell does the GDP
rate help this? Now, I'm sure there's an economical or
rather a question that could be answered by by an
economist on that, but I'm not convinced by this. We

(01:00:11):
might be promoting growth and investment, but like I said,
that doesn't mean anything to the family of three that's
trying to buy butter and bread at the corner shop.
So and I don't think the government's doing everything they should.
What's the grocery commissioner doing, where's the electricity regulations in
place here? So it's all very well trumpeting this, you know,
starting to move out of recession. Let's actually start to
see something that helps people every day, people be able.

Speaker 3 (01:00:34):
To feed their care I guess that is the unquantifiable thing,
isn't it. You see numbers that come out and you
hear zero point seven percent, and for most people, I
don't know when it actually percolates through to people actually
feeling better. Ben, But what do you think it will
take for people to start actually feeling it? Because we
saw that consumer confidence was down? What do you reckon? E?

Speaker 7 (01:00:52):
Oh?

Speaker 11 (01:00:52):
That's the real key, isn't it? To a large extent?
You know, this sort of thing can be a bit psychological.
People think that things aren't going to get better, so
they think I need to save my money not spend it,
and you know that hurts businesses, that hurts retail, and
we get into this sort of you know, death cycle
that we've been in just for years now. So look,

(01:01:16):
what we need is sort of confidence that the economy
is picking up. Then people will start recruiting, businesses will
start you know, hopefully expanding. They might take on a
bit more debt to start providing more services, and that's
the only way out.

Speaker 21 (01:01:31):
Yeah, will land shops be cheaper than what will land
shops be costing?

Speaker 8 (01:01:36):
And mins?

Speaker 21 (01:01:36):
I'm not paying twenty three bucks a kilo for mins.

Speaker 3 (01:01:39):
Well, I tell you what, Alie, you have given us
a gift because I think I'm going to judge my
next time I write something about the economy, and I'll
be with the heading what are the what are my
chops gonna cost? I mean, normally it's eggs, milk and stuff.
But I'm glad you're into the lamb chops.

Speaker 21 (01:01:53):
I love a good lamb shop.

Speaker 3 (01:01:54):
I do.

Speaker 21 (01:01:55):
I do like a good land shop.

Speaker 3 (01:01:56):
Anyway, Look, let's let's move along to Australian. Australian PM
Malcolm Turnbull is not making it easy on the diplomacy front.
I don't know if you heard my chat that I
had with him after five o'clock, but you know he's
talking about he's got the right to free speech, he's
not the government, and he thinks that people should actually
stand up to Trump, who's a bully. How much do
you alid how much do you think that this makes

(01:02:18):
makes it hard for governments to do business with the
White House.

Speaker 21 (01:02:21):
Oh well, I loved hearing Malcolm Turnbull speak. Yay for
the days that you know, politicians actually said what they
meant and meant what they say. Of course, he's in
a different situation now, not being the Prime Minister, and
that does put a you know, give him a different
position to be in to speak. But you know, I
don't know what the saying is, and I should, but
you've got to speak up for people because if you

(01:02:42):
don't or speak against people, before you know it, you're
the only one left and no one's there to speak
for you. Whatever that's saying is, you know, And how
did Hitler take a hold of Europe? I applaud anyone
that stands up to this orange buffoon to be frank,
and I think that I applaud Malcolm Turnbull. I don't
think it makes it easy for the Australian government, but hell,
politics isn't easy.

Speaker 3 (01:03:02):
Yeah, what do you reckon, Ben? Do you think he
should call us jets a bit because he might be different,
if he might be communicating differently if he was actually
in power, wouldn't he.

Speaker 11 (01:03:12):
Yeah, Look, we see this quite a lot, I think
in New Zealand as well. Often politicians will sort of say,
you know, what their successes should be doing that you know,
they might have done if they had gotten around to it,
although they were a bit quiet at the time. And
you know, I don't think there's any sort of particular
bravery in speaking out, you know, once you're no longer

(01:03:35):
in power. I mean that that said. You know, look,
I agree with Ellie.

Speaker 2 (01:03:39):
I don't.

Speaker 15 (01:03:40):
I don't.

Speaker 11 (01:03:40):
I don't think. I don't think that we suffer from
having people pointing out what's happening in the States, which
actually is starting to be you know, to go beyond
just you know, you're far beyond just sort of buffoonery
and the sort of o fishness of the first term
of the Trump administration into something that's really pretty unsettling,

(01:04:02):
you know, really authoritarian things happening there in terms of
people being detained without trial.

Speaker 3 (01:04:09):
Well, criticory of judges, calling for impeachment of judges who
decide against him. It's yeah, I think we have to
lean in that direction of probably out Mark and might
be right on that one. Hey, Ali and Ben, thanks
so much. That's been Thomas, former National Party staffer, and
Alie Jones from red PR. That is the huddle we'll
be back in just a moment. It's six and a
half to six.

Speaker 1 (01:04:27):
It's the Heather Duplessy Allen Drive Full Show podcast on
iHeartRadio powered by Newstalk ZB.

Speaker 3 (01:04:35):
Yes and welcome back to Welcome back to Drive onton beverage.
Just in case you have just joined us. By the way,
if we need a far extinguisher for the text machine
for people who maybe you've been a little bit activated
by some of the comments from my huddlists there on
the whole Trump thing and Malcolm Turnbull. Incidentally, if you're
interested in is it on this topic, there's an interesting

(01:04:57):
bit of a revelations come out of Science Alert, you
know how, the idea about when you're feeling a bit
angry about something, you're supposed to vent it. Well, apparently
the scientific sort of findings are in there's been a
higher State university has analyze one hundred and fifty four
studies on anger and has actually found little evidence that
venting helps and in fact, in some case it could

(01:05:18):
increase anger. So just a note to self on that stuff.
When you're getting bit frustrated, you think you're venting on something,
maybe maybe that's not quite working for you. Should just
focus on calming down a little bit. I don't know
why to mention that about anger, but it just seemed
to pop into my mind and I saw that saw
that piece anyway, Well, now I.

Speaker 6 (01:05:34):
Was starting to worry. Tom. We're doing okay? Is your
producers today?

Speaker 17 (01:05:37):
Are we?

Speaker 6 (01:05:37):
You're not venting about us?

Speaker 8 (01:05:39):
Ay you?

Speaker 2 (01:05:39):
No? No?

Speaker 3 (01:05:40):
I actually no, But I'm trying to find the space from.

Speaker 6 (01:05:43):
The sounds of it's not going to do you any
good to vent about it.

Speaker 3 (01:05:45):
To stop it now, it wouldn't. Well, I'm more nervous
about what's coming to me from the production booth, just
in case I get on the wrong signe of Ants millicites.
But you know, because he doesn't, you don't die wondering
what Ants is thinking. But that's a positive Ants. That's
a bit of praise for you. Anyway, Before I dig
myself and do any more holes, we'll be back with
Fonterra's chief executive, Miles Hurrels with us and his reflections
and comments and predictions for what that result means, that

(01:06:08):
cracker result for Fonterra. This is new Stalks Heat b Drive.
It's a two and a half to.

Speaker 1 (01:06:12):
Six where business meets insight, It's the business hour with
MAS Insurance and investments, Grow your wealth, protect your future.

Speaker 3 (01:06:31):
Newstalk s dB Yes, welcome back to drive at seven
past six. I'm Tim Beverige. By the way, if you
want to text your feedback nine two nine two, and
you can email me if you're not in a hurry,
timb at newstalk, saidb dot co dot NZ. Dairy giant
Fonterra has delivered a cracker result. Net profit was up
eight percent in its first half result to seven hundred

(01:06:51):
and twenty nine million dollars, a dividend of twenty two
cents a shell be paid, and the forecast farmgate milk
price is sitting at a mid point of ten dollars
per kilo. Myles Harrel is fon Terra's chief executive. Good afternoon,
Good afternoon, Tim, Nice to celebrate some good news.

Speaker 22 (01:07:10):
Yeah, look, we're really pleased. She put out this half
year result up on the pre YEA and across all
our three sort of key channels performing pretty well. So no,
we are we are please to put out this result
given things sort of bubbling along a little bit in
New Zealand context.

Speaker 3 (01:07:25):
What's driving that strong performance?

Speaker 22 (01:07:28):
Well, I think it's sort of a macro level, you know,
a good, strong demand for good, healthy product made here
in New Zealand, I think is probably the way I
describe it at a high level. But you know, boots
on the ground and some of our key markets, you know,
pushing the great news story of how we farm here
in New Zealand, that the benefits of theiry, the benefits
of protein. You know, it's all all wrapped up in

(01:07:51):
that same sort of story around what we do here
in New Zealand.

Speaker 3 (01:07:55):
So the forecast at a record high. What's your message
to farmers on what to do with such good news
and the money that's going to flow in.

Speaker 22 (01:08:03):
Well, clearly farmers will make their own calls. But we
have come off the back, if we remember off a
couple of sort of tough years where you know, costs
on farm of a sort of skyrocket. Go back to
eighty months or so, that inflatory pressure that we saw
in New Zealand was exacerbated in rural and rural and
the landscape. So you know, they're going to need some
decent payers to sort of catch up a little bit

(01:08:24):
from where they've come from. So they'll see it as
a positive, but at the same time that these are
you know, it's a long term game that they'll be
looking through the sort of the short term thinking, you know,
to the cyclical business, so we need to watch it
into the long term. There's some political clouds on the
horizon that may come out away or may not. So
you know that they're they're smart business people on their

(01:08:44):
own right, and so they'll they'll they'll take this with
open arms and be thankful, I'm sure, but at the
same time they'll be looking forward to the next few years.
But beyond here now always.

Speaker 3 (01:08:53):
Feel as a risky game doing the predictions, doesn't it.
Dare in New Zealand's reported this week they reckon next
you will be another record season. Are you as optimistic
well of our city today?

Speaker 22 (01:09:04):
You know, thing the supply demand position that we see
internationally does look in a pretty good position. We've seen
the rearmusements of China after again a flowish start last year,
so all of those things sort of point in the
right direction. But as I refer you know, some of
those clouds on the horizon from a geopolitics perspective, you know,
the macrec and I'm positioned then they're not that bright
and so I have one or two or three of

(01:09:25):
those that have come to the into play. You know,
could push things back a little bit. But as a
city today, you know, think things are healthy. And I
saw that number from darien Zed and Farmer should be
see some confidence in that. But where we will be
another couple of months away. I guess before we put
out our own forecast for next year, which lot can
happen in a couple of months.

Speaker 3 (01:09:42):
Yeah, of course, Trump and tariffs. Do you sort of
try and model predictions on what could happen and how
much it might impact your business?

Speaker 22 (01:09:51):
Yeah, we do. We sort of run a few scenarios.
In all scenarios. You know, when you put sort of
tariffs on on business around the world at it's not
a great outcome at the highest level, you know. That said,
we've pride ourselves as an organization for the last one
hundred and fifty years on sort of navigating tricky parts
of business, and so you know, we'd like to see

(01:10:11):
that we can see our way through that. We've done
it for the last six or twelve months when things
haven't been so easy, So you know, I like them
we can see our way through that because.

Speaker 3 (01:10:19):
You'll be watching developments in India closely. Dairy and India
seem to be the two words that don't go together
too well. Are you optimistic about the noises you're hearing
about a trade deal?

Speaker 22 (01:10:32):
Well, well, very pleasing to see that that therey is
included in the negotiations because I guess that was the
first hurdle to overcome, and so so please to see
Prime Minister and this team have done that. We recognize
that it's going to be a tough conversation that needs
to be had, but you know, they've got a growing
middle class. They're going to need more fat, more protein
into their diets over time. I don't think that the
Indian dairy industry can keep up with that, and so

(01:10:55):
you know, we're not We're not looking to be in
there as a wholesale player. We're looking in to support
them in their own industry goals. So you know, I'd
like to think that those conversations are rational at the
right time. But we're here confident at this point.

Speaker 3 (01:11:08):
Great and just quickly, where are things at with the
sale of your consumer brands?

Speaker 22 (01:11:13):
Yeah, so we're going hard on the dual track, and
by that we mean looking at it at a trade
sale and so we're in discussions now with some interst
Advice that are starting to put their bids forward and
at the same time running the IPO process. So the
road shows are underway and I think the team are
in Australia this week in an Asia next talking to
the market and so we should have some clarity within

(01:11:35):
a couple of months or to which way we go.
But well advanced and results that we've put out today
go a long way to sort of supporting and cementing
that it's a great business that we have there.

Speaker 3 (01:11:46):
Hey, Miles, thanks so much for your time. That is
Miles HRRLD, Chief executive of fon Terror Up. Next, Liam
Dan has been looking into how economists have been responding
to some of the positive news, which might argue with
somewhat surprising as well on our positive GDP figures Lim
dwan As. Next, this Newstalks b Drive. It's coming up
to thirteen past six.

Speaker 1 (01:12:07):
It's the Heather Dupless Alan Drive Full show podcast on
my Heart Radio powered by Newstalk ZEBBI.

Speaker 3 (01:12:15):
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(01:13:00):
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Auckland really is so impressive, So treat yourself, enjoy a
breakaway from the every day a't so Auckland.

Speaker 1 (01:13:17):
Sometime soon croaching the numbers and getting the results, It's
the business hour with maths, insurance and investments. Grow your
wealth to protect your future. The news dogs enbs.

Speaker 3 (01:13:29):
Some time to say good afternoon or is it good
evening now? To Liam Dan New Zealand Herald Business Editor
at large, Liam Highday, tim so well, New Zealand's climbed
out of recession. Woohoo.

Speaker 23 (01:13:40):
Yeah, it's really hard to know. Look that it was
a better than expected result. It's definitely a good thing.
Let's say we're who before we get into the final
details of going through the economist reports that they're very
quick to move into cautious mode and start telling us,
you know why, we can't be celebrating yet. But look,

(01:14:02):
it's better than the alternative, which was that it came
in worse than expected. I think people were probably feeling
a bit more gloomy, certainly in the cities.

Speaker 15 (01:14:10):
I think.

Speaker 3 (01:14:12):
So the economy grew zero point seven in the December quarter,
better than the economists had predicted. Nikola Willis was upbeat
on the show an hour ago, tells.

Speaker 18 (01:14:21):
Us that we're turning the corner, which is what New
Zealanders need after a very tough time with high inflation,
high interest rates and.

Speaker 8 (01:14:28):
Growth bouncing along the bottom.

Speaker 18 (01:14:29):
The numbers today are better than was forecast and tell
us that recovery is underway.

Speaker 3 (01:14:36):
So actually she didn't sound as upbeat as I thought
she would be. Maybe because we're still digging ourselves out.

Speaker 23 (01:14:41):
She knows, she's got to be a bit cautious. Right, Yeah, Look, look,
this quarter we're currently in has felt like it hasn't
been a boomer. We've seen some fairly grim consumer confidence
numbers in the last week or so, and there's just
a feeling that maybe you know, the uncertainty around well,

(01:15:02):
the global economy, but also things like you know, New
Zealand's housing market just hasn't surged back quite as quickly
as people might have hoped from the lower interest rates.
And you know, the things that underpinned this GDP result
were stronger tourism, which which sort of lifted retail spending
and spending by tourists lifted some of the categories. And

(01:15:23):
of course the really good you know, dairy and meat
export conditions we've had and prices we've had has lifted
the primary sector. But then you know, in the cities,
which is where I'm doing most of my living, you know,
people are still struggling, you know, with the cost of
living and with sort of insecurity about jobs and rising

(01:15:44):
unemployment and those sort of things. So I think, you know,
it's not necessarily a straight line recovery, and we have
to be prepared for, you know, maybe to stare a
little bit. I'd like to think we don't go back,
you know, we will keep growing.

Speaker 3 (01:15:56):
I think, well, you know, it's hard for the average
sort of person to work out what their reactions should be.
So what's the reaction of the country's economists.

Speaker 23 (01:16:04):
Well, yes, definitely cautious. You know, there's saying I think
they're agreeing that is, you know, it is a corner
turned or the first step on a road to recovery.
I think that the Kiwibank guys said, and even Stephen
Topless at Benz, who's pretty pretty cautious, he was saying
it's the start of recovery. But you know, he points

(01:16:25):
out that on the current numbers, you know, on the
GDP per capita, you've got to get to twenty twenty
eight before we're back to the to the kind of
peaks we had before the downturn started. So that's a
long slow recovery on a per capita basis, which it
was nice to see per capita GDP turn, but that's
partly a fact a function of few you know, slow

(01:16:49):
population growth, so that sort of sorts itself.

Speaker 3 (01:16:51):
Yeah, I think I enjoyed the I think it was
Qbank's economists he said, we're crawling out of recession, which
was sort of we're putting it. What are the chances
of the number being vised down later on, because you
know we've seen it happen before him.

Speaker 23 (01:17:03):
We yeah, look, it's entirely possible. I mean could could
be revised up to I mean that the difficulty is,
it seems to be that capturing everything that moves in
the economy is a very difficult task and you've got
to get it for the record, absolutely right. So if
it's if it turns out that they've they need longer
and you know, it becomes fair that it could could

(01:17:24):
be revised. But I wouldn't panic about that. It's it's
it's it's like we had some bad revisions that that
you know, that that really slammed home the pain of
the recession in the middle of last year. But the
latest numbers there wasn't too much revision there to the
to the earlier numbers. I think I think, you know,
we are seeing you know, new Zealand does tend to

(01:17:45):
hum when the dairy industry hums, and that's obviously good
tourism coming back to sort of pre COVID levels at
least you can say this is the basics of the
economy coming right. So if the if these things continue
to stay buoyant and the interest rates continue to fall,
then you start to get the frothier stuff, the consumer
spending and things, you know, central city workers and things

(01:18:10):
starting to feel more confident, and hopefully that follows and
this might be the kind of psychological boost that helps us.

Speaker 15 (01:18:16):
On our way.

Speaker 3 (01:18:17):
Excellent. Hey, thanks so much, Liam. That's Liam down New
Zealand hera Business editor at large. Next Jamie mckaiy from
the Country dot co dot en z. It's twenty one
and a half past six.

Speaker 1 (01:18:27):
The Rural Report with MSD Animal Health, home of the
new All Flags rapid evotags.

Speaker 3 (01:18:33):
Yes, welcome back, Tim Beverage and for Ryan Bridge now
the host of the Country. Jamie McKay good evening, good eten,
nice to chat. Yeah you too. Hey, what's your take
on the Fonterra result?

Speaker 15 (01:18:43):
Well, I heard you talking to Miles.

Speaker 24 (01:18:46):
I had him on my show today. Look, I think
the one thing that it's worth emphasizing, and that is,
you know, not the milk price. It's pretty much locked
and loaded at ten dollars. They've narrowed the band down there,
but the dividend. So last week Fonterra came out and
said it's shifting its earning guidance per share to fifty
five to seventy five cents per share. From that, their

(01:19:09):
dividend policy is to pay sixty to eighty percent of.

Speaker 17 (01:19:12):
That as a dividend.

Speaker 24 (01:19:14):
Now, I did the mats on this one off on
the back of the envelope, sort of mats, but I
think I'm not a mile away. This is a possible
range term of thirty three to sixty cents per share
as a dividend. But the big difference is, as opposed
to other years, this is fully imputed, so the tax
is paid on it. This is a tax paid payment.

Speaker 15 (01:19:37):
To the farmers.

Speaker 24 (01:19:38):
Now, if we were right at the top of that
band and Fonterra is performing pretty well, it's sixty cents.
They're shares were trading at about five bucks when I
looked the mid afternoon, haven't looked since, but sixty cents
tax paid on a five dollars share is like a
twelve percent tax paid yield or dividend, So that's a
very good return on top of your milk price for

(01:20:01):
the Fonterra farmers. The other interesting one that he didn't
mention for your listeners was the forecast milk collections one
point five one zero million kilograms of milk solids. That's
up two point seven percent across the board in New
Zealand despite the North Island drought. And all it means,
tim is that the farmers are doing the maths on

(01:20:23):
this one. They're running out of grass. It's getting very dry,
and like Sawaikato, Taranaki, those sort of areas, they're pumping
it in the front end of the cow and out
the other end comes some poop and some milk in
between times. And that is just a mathematical equation.

Speaker 15 (01:20:37):
It's working.

Speaker 24 (01:20:37):
So the farmers are feeding supplements to milk their cows
at ten bucks.

Speaker 3 (01:20:42):
Hey, just quickly on the India possibility of a trade deal.
The government is sounded quite bullish about that, and of
course the dairies. The big question are you quietly sort
of optimistic about this?

Speaker 24 (01:20:55):
Well, I mean, India is the biggest milk producer in
the world. It produces, off the top of my head,
twenty four percent of the world's milk production. They're aiming
to get that up to thirty percent by twenty thirty.
I can't see them wanting to do a free trade
This is just me being slightly pessimistic a free trade
agreement on milk. But I think the real advantage for
US would be to get likes of a free trade

(01:21:18):
agreement on lamb. The Aussies have got one at the moment.
That would be great for us. Beefs are a bit
awkward with the sacred cow sort of thing happening in India.
And the other one is horticultures. Espree have just come
out with their new season forecasts. They've got a record crop,
really good payout. If we could get a kiwi fruit
and our apples into India Tara free one point four

(01:21:39):
billion miles to chill on them, we would be cooking
with gas.

Speaker 3 (01:21:43):
Gosh, that would be exciting, wouldn't it. Anyway, Jamie, thanks
so much for your time. That's Jamie. He needs no introduction.
It's probably Mees you needs to introduce myself. He's the
host of the country. I'm Tim Beverage. And in case
you're reckon listening to that voicecond that doesn't sound like Ryan,
who's in for Heather, Well, it's Tim and for Ryan
and for Heather. Anyway, there's a long, way winded way
about describing that. We're going to be back to talking

(01:22:03):
about the possibility of India New Zealand direct flights. It
seems India and New Zealand. Boy, they're really making the
headlines at the moment and now we're talking travel. That'll
be next. The India Business Council chair joins us. This
is News Talks ed B. It's a twenty eight past
six morning player in my life.

Speaker 1 (01:22:29):
Whether it's macro micro or just plain economics, it's all
on the business hours with mass insurance and vespers. Grow
your wealth, protect your future.

Speaker 15 (01:22:39):
News Talks B.

Speaker 3 (01:22:59):
Let's welcome back to drive on Tim Beveragin for a Ryan.
It's twenty four to seven. Don't forget En de Brady
from the UK, joins us before we wrap up the show.
He'll be with us about quarter two, quarter to seven.
Just on the business side of things. There's frustrating news.
These stories can't of irritate me all the time. But
it's been a rejection of a consent for a southern
wind farm, which well, the contact boss he's not happy

(01:23:22):
about it at all and he reckons that it sends
the messages that New Zealand is not open for business
because of the law and the way it's being interpreted.
So just to let you know the background of this.
On Tuesday, there was a fast Track Consenting Panel convened
under the now replaced covid Era law which rejected contacts
application to build a one billion dollar wind farm, which

(01:23:43):
is capable of generating three hundred megawatts across the proposed
fifty five turbines. Local councils and EWE had approved the project,
but the expert panel said part of the farm would
have interfered with here we go and outstanding natural feature
candidate area on the jed pronounce the plateau jed Berg

(01:24:05):
Jedburgh Jedburgh Plateau and also this impact of significant indigenous
vegetation and fauna could not be offset or compensated for.
It just feels like the stuff's a no win, isn't it.
I still remember going back there was a wind farm planned. Yes,
is going back years for the tiree plane and Anton Oliver.

(01:24:25):
The forhen were all black. Hesage was part of the
group that successfully objected to it because it would spoil
the view, would change that iconic view. I guess, Look,
this is the balance we're always trying to strike, isn't
it is trying to find that way how we can
use our resources. But you know, using resources doesn't it
does entail change in places, doesn't it. Anyway, they're not
going to give up on it. The company is going

(01:24:46):
to seek a consent under the new fast track consent
process and the as the as they say, look, we'll
go through the process will take a year, two years,
we'll spend another ten million dollars on lawyers fees, consultants fees,
and there'll be another dozen late model oudiys and BMW's
going down and Remua Road and the terrace when we've

(01:25:07):
finished this. So I don't think the boss of Contact,
I don't think he's taking the new as well as
he But hopefully we'll get it to go ahead because
it's green energy. God, we've got to get invested in it,
don't we. Anyway, it is twenty two minutes to seven
Beverage and we're one step closer to direct flights between
New Zealand and India. Air New Zealand and Air India

(01:25:27):
working together to get flights off the ground in twenty
twenty eight. Yes, yeah, it's still three years away, but
Air New Zealand hasn't got any planes to make it
happen sooner. India New Zealand Business Council chair Baratchaila is
with us. Good evening.

Speaker 17 (01:25:40):
Hey get you good, good mining from India to the woman.

Speaker 3 (01:25:45):
All right, okay, well good morning to you. How popular
to expect this flight, this route to be.

Speaker 17 (01:25:50):
I think we been hodging for vulging or roading kids
from from long time. It'll be a lot.

Speaker 25 (01:25:55):
See if you see the Indian dies for which is
around three hundred thousand fair and take people there around
six persons of the population even we take one way
or to return right, there will be a lot of movement.
And with the amount of tourism promotion have been going on,
we expect this number will be bigger and stronger.

Speaker 3 (01:26:15):
I mean how much of this is mating a demand
and how much is going to actually create huge demand.

Speaker 25 (01:26:21):
See, there are multiple layers here, depend upon how we
open tourism, how the visa process works in.

Speaker 17 (01:26:30):
India.

Speaker 25 (01:26:30):
I give an example compared to Vietnam. Vietnam open a
direct flight the business or unfolded multi five weeks to
ten x.

Speaker 17 (01:26:38):
If you see that within six months to one year.

Speaker 25 (01:26:41):
Wow, So the multiplication can be done faster because Indian
community or Indians in India will be one of the
largest traveling population in coming years.

Speaker 3 (01:26:52):
How currently, how long does it take to get from
between MW Zealand and India.

Speaker 25 (01:26:56):
Apparently I believe if I say the minimum time is
it hoursts the maximum can be roughly twenty four to
thirty two hours.

Speaker 3 (01:27:04):
What will that reduce to? Sorry, friendshrapting, It.

Speaker 17 (01:27:08):
Can go up to twelve to fourteen hours or sixteen
hours max. Depend upon you. Again, this is a flight,
and then what kind of aircraft is used on?

Speaker 3 (01:27:16):
Who's the target group for these flights?

Speaker 1 (01:27:18):
Is it?

Speaker 3 (01:27:18):
Can you define it? Or is it broad based?

Speaker 25 (01:27:22):
It will be broad based because what we're seeing is
that the business which is seeing the bit of challenges
of having multiple layovers and going on that is not
also taking place because of the the flight connectivity. At
the same time, again, the target group is still the
community and the diaspora, but education, immigration and like tourism

(01:27:47):
will get a lot more boost if things go right.

Speaker 3 (01:27:51):
Fantastic. Look, you've been in India with the Prime Minister
for the last few days. The impression we get back
here is that things are pretty bullish, that there's a
really good feel about it. How's the trip been from
your perspective?

Speaker 25 (01:28:01):
Uh, it is bullish. It is a positive going on.
I will say that both the governments are actually enough
phase and favor to work at a speed. I believe
you might have heard the speech of mister Goel, who's
a trade and counterpart for to Minister Tomicla. Uh, they
wanted to be done faster. But again what we are

(01:28:22):
seeing is that it should not be done in a
two rush.

Speaker 17 (01:28:26):
It should be well thought deal.

Speaker 3 (01:28:28):
Whatever happens, do you have your own guess on how
long it's going to take to put a deal together?

Speaker 25 (01:28:33):
I think because then there are examples from twenty sixteen
and there's a recent example for Australia something a circle
of twelve months.

Speaker 3 (01:28:44):
Uh.

Speaker 25 (01:28:44):
Time should be a good time for this. Yeah, all
the things should happen, which is which is a good
enough time for things? Because we have a lot of
now in Indias and multiple FTAs, so it's it's a
good they have some what do you called pre drafted things,
are there or not much to be done from.

Speaker 3 (01:29:01):
Zeil okay, yeah, because they're starting with some other some
stuff already sort of mapped out, I guess, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 17 (01:29:06):
I believe them.

Speaker 25 (01:29:07):
Sometimes the Australia has also been already done, so we
know what they've got and what we can get a
manufite out of it.

Speaker 3 (01:29:13):
Excellent. Well, that sounds very positive. I really appreciate your time.
Thanks Barratt. That is baruch Or. He's an Indian New
Zealand Business Council chair and he's currently in India with
our delegation in clearing Christopher Luxen. So yeah, you know,
the only thing I would say when I watched some
of the footage was when I was watching this is
completely it's related, but watching Luxen, who apparently is not
bad at the old street cricket, but I was a

(01:29:35):
bit nervous. He was taking some pretty big swings and
I thought the whole trip could have gone very badly
if he had hit some kid in their head with
a cricket ball, because he was going to hit that
thing out of the park, even though they were just
on the street. But there we go. You wonder about
how these things can general.

Speaker 6 (01:29:51):
Do you think that the Indian street cricket has the
same rules as Kiwi backyard cricket where if he'd hit
the ball and it had broken a car window or
a building when you get six runs, but then you
go out like yeah, six and out for over the
fence or into a window. Possibly, yeah, I think you're out.

Speaker 3 (01:30:05):
And probably if you take out take the head off
someone who's an important part of the other delegation he's
playing with you, that's probably a negative as well. That's
an instant dismissal, probably for us all.

Speaker 6 (01:30:14):
Not great prospects for the free trade deal either if
that happens.

Speaker 3 (01:30:17):
No exactly, that was sort of where I was leaning. Anyway, Look,
we'll be back in just to tick. Ander Brady is
joining us from the UK at sixteen and a half
minutes to seven.

Speaker 1 (01:30:25):
Everything from SMEs to the big corporates, the Business Hour
with MAS and insurance and investments, grew your wealth, Protect
your future Newstalksby's.

Speaker 3 (01:30:37):
Welcome back at fourteen minutes to seven. Thanks for the
person who reminded me it was Boris Johnson who bowled
over a kid on some strip when he was playing sport.
He was a bit of a liability to himself, wasn't
he Anyway? Time to go to the UK with Ender
Brady Goody.

Speaker 15 (01:30:50):
Hey Tim, great to speak to you again.

Speaker 3 (01:30:51):
You too now. The teenager who murdered his family and
planned a school shooting has been jailed for forty nine years.

Speaker 15 (01:31:00):
The detail of this and the planning that Nicholas Prosper
had put into what he was wanting to do is
utterly shocking. It's chilling. This court case he will serve
a minimum of forty nine years before even being eligible
for a parole. Goes back to September of last year,
town called Luton, just north of London, and Nicholas Prosper

(01:31:21):
had managed to fake a firearm certificates and he had
managed to dupe a seller into selling him a shotgun
and about one hundred cartridges. So that was the first
offense he started planning, and the intention was to basically
wipe out his family and then go back to his
primary school. So this is a nineteen year old and

(01:31:42):
he wants to go back to his primary school and
murder four and five year olds. And the ambition was
that he wanted to become the most notorious school shooter
ever anywhere. So he shot at his mother, he shot
at his sister and brother, and the noise that all
of that created in the apartment block they were living in.

(01:32:04):
The police ended up being called by neighbors and it
was only then after he was arrested that police found
all the evidence of the planning he was putting into
going back to the primary school and basically wiping out
toddlers and their teachers. Absolutely horrific. The judge said, he
showed no remorse whatsoever. Forty nine years he will serve minimum,

(01:32:25):
so he will be sixty eight before he's even eligible
to think about parole.

Speaker 3 (01:32:30):
Gosh, it sounds like such a trivial point, but you
wonder how they get to forty nine without rounding it
up to fifty. But hopefully he won't see the lot
of day again. The Tour de France is that still
a Tour of France when it goes to the UK.

Speaker 15 (01:32:43):
Well, they have this tradition now where the opening stages
are played out in a different country outside of France,
and it's because it's been to Denmark, it was in Florence,
in Italy. It's kind of become the tradition in a way.
And we learned today that in twenty twenty seven the
Tour de France, the Grand des Pars as they call it,

(01:33:05):
the opening stage will be in Edinburgh in Scotland. Stage
two will be in England and then they will DeCamp
to Wales for stage three. So, in addition to the
three stages of the men's race starting in the UK,
the Tour de France Femme, which is the women's version,
that too will start in the UK and organizers are

(01:33:26):
saying that this will be the greatest, biggest free sporting
event the UK has ever witnessed, So for citing fans
everywhere something to look forward to. Get it in the diary.
The UK will be hosting the opening stages of the
men's and women's Tour de France in twenty twenty seven.

Speaker 3 (01:33:42):
It does sound magnificent. Will you be on the sideline
banging your bongo, a, your tambourine or something like that
that they often do.

Speaker 17 (01:33:48):
Do you know what?

Speaker 15 (01:33:49):
I've so much admiration for cyclists. I spent two decades
of my life at Sky and for ten years we
had Team Sky and you see the levels of training.
Ryal marra tim these there are levels of fitness that
cyclists have blows my mind. And the dedication and what
you and I would consider, you know, a little snack.

(01:34:09):
They're analyzing the calories. It's a Christmas Day treat, you know.
Amazing men and women.

Speaker 3 (01:34:15):
Yeah, well what's your time for the marathon?

Speaker 15 (01:34:18):
Three hours twenty two forty three seconds.

Speaker 3 (01:34:20):
That is that's not just an easy job. Good on you. Hey,
what's the story about? Do we need a role model
to keep our children away from toxic masculinity influences?

Speaker 15 (01:34:31):
So a huge talking point this week sparked by a
guy called Gareth Southgate who is a very admirable man.
He ran the England men's soccer team here for seven years.
He got them to a World Cup semi final in
twenty eighteen, two European Championships finals which they lost. He
did great work and he was asked this week to
give something called the Dimblebee lecture. So they pick a

(01:34:52):
high profile person and they're told to just talk about
something that's concerning you, and he pointed out he just
thinks that our youth, teenage boys and I guess the
morning's newspapers here given what we've just been talking about.
He has a point. He absolutely has a point. So
Southgate fields that teenage boys have no role models anymore

(01:35:12):
in their communities and they end up going online. And
he said they're spending time on there. He said, they're gaming,
they're looking at pornography, and then they find these toxic
masculinity influencers, the lights of this Andrew Tape person. And
he said the end result is we're ending up with
very damaged young men with a warped view of life

(01:35:33):
and women in particular. And Southgate He's got everyone talking.
I mean all the newspaper columnists have picked up on
what he said in this lecture, and I think he's
absolutely right. And my wife pointed out to me our
little village here in the middle of nowhere. You know,
if you look at the local soccer club, for example,
most of the coaching is done by women. I just

(01:35:54):
don't see any dads around. It is. It's fast, fascinating.

Speaker 3 (01:35:58):
Everyone talking to why wouldn't they be head's there?

Speaker 15 (01:36:02):
Well, I just think it's traditionally, you know, if you
look at how sport has been coached over the years
in communities, certainly when I was a kid growing up
in Ireland. I didn't have any female coaches. It was
all male role models in the community. And I saw
our game of Gaelic football and our game hurling with
the sticks.

Speaker 17 (01:36:20):
You know.

Speaker 15 (01:36:21):
I was around male coaches from the age of about
six and seven, and you saw how hard people trained,
how respected these fellows were in the community, and the
respect they had was because oh he coaches the football team,
or oh he plays for Wexford or kill Kenny or Galway. Yeah,
you know, and I think that's lacking now in modern Britain.

(01:36:41):
It really is, and South Kate has really hit that point.

Speaker 3 (01:36:45):
Yeah, potentially tragic consequences. Hy great to talk to Inda
that is in the Brady a UK correspondent, will be
back in just to tick. It's eight to seven.

Speaker 1 (01:36:53):
It's the Hither Duples Allen Drive Full Show podcast on
iHeart Radio powered by news dog Zibby.

Speaker 3 (01:37:00):
Hey, thanks for all your feedback. Welcome back to Drive
on tim Beveris that pretty much wraps up the show.
I'm pretty sure Ryan will be back tomorrow. Just start
reflecting on that conversation.

Speaker 15 (01:37:09):
Now.

Speaker 3 (01:37:09):
With the end of Brady, there the tour de France
visiting Scotland, England and Wales. I think that will be
absolutely epic because of just the beautiful country villages are
right around the UK, and yeah, I think it'll if
you're into the cycling. I mentioned there be a few
people making their trips over there. So yeah, anyway, thank
you for your company and all for all of your feedback.
I really appreciate it. And thanks to my producers Laura

(01:37:31):
and Ants and Ants. Speaking of which, what are we going.

Speaker 6 (01:37:34):
Out with Elastic Heart by Sea Diplow on the weekend
to play us out tonight. So unfortunately it's sad news.
Sea the Australian singer has filed for divorce. She's been
married to her husband Dan Bernard for two years but
now she's saying that they're ver irreconcilable differences and yeah,
so she's officially filing for divorce. And only because of
her doing that, we've actually learned that they have a

(01:37:55):
one year old son. Really his name is some assault
assault wonder Bernard, which I think is not really sitting
up for a great future. But yeah, well apparently had
him a year ago and just never told anybody, which
is fair enough. She's always been quite a private person,
probably isn't stoked that I'm talking about this right now.

Speaker 3 (01:38:11):
To be honest, well, I mean you didn't find it
out by stalking it, did? You must be out there
well exactly.

Speaker 6 (01:38:16):
People Magazine got ahold of it first. Anyway, there's a
nice excuse to play this song though. She is a
very very talented singer.

Speaker 3 (01:38:23):
Yes, and of course there's nothing like a bit of
heartbreak to add to her, you know, the inspiration for
her next song or album, so says he'd rather cynically.
But anyway, hey, thanks very much, look forward to your
company for me. It'll be on the Weekend Collector from
three o'clock. I'll leave you with the music because it's
a nice way to head out, and thanks again to
Laura Announced. We'll catch you again soon.

Speaker 11 (01:39:47):
I coast.

Speaker 1 (01:39:54):
For more from Hither Dupe Less see Alan Drive Listen
live to news talks. It'd be from four pm weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.

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