Full Show Podcast: 24 February 2025

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Digging through the spin spence to find the real story.
Or it's Ryan Bridge on Heather du for Ce Ellen
Drive with one New Zealand.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Let's get connected and news talks.

Speaker 3 (00:13):
They'd be good afternoon at is seven after four Coming
up on the program, Andrew Little on defense spending. What
exactly do we need to buy with the extra billions
we're expecting? Andrew Bailey, what is an animated discussion the
Bonker's story out of Wellington? Today? This is Victoria University.
It involves alcohol, it involves students, and it involves a
massive wowser. Also today, Tritius and Josepe Bagaraney on the

(00:36):
panel and Nikola Willis after six, Bryan Bridge, get ready
in New Zealand. A massive defense budget is going to
drop in about three months time. Judith Collins told me
on this program on Friday. The government wants to get
to two percent of GDP. We're currently at one point
one percent of GDP with our spending. We spend almost

(00:58):
five billion dollars a year on defense, so we're talking
about doubling that almost ten billion dollars now. Nikola Willis
has set her spending allowance for new money at two
point four billion dollars for the next three budgets excluding savings.
So at that rate, it would take you more than

(01:19):
nine years and all the extra money available to all
of government to get to two percent. That would also
mean nothing extra for health, nothing extra for education, so
that is quite unlikely. Here's what they could do. Come
out and say we're going to get to two percent
of GDP within fifteen years. They're announcing a fifteen year

(01:40):
defense plan, so it had signal plenty of time to
scale things up. Then there's the why and on what
the why is easy. America is in retreat mode. China
is waiting in the wings. We are in the middle, though,
down the bottom of this battle. China now has the

(02:01):
world's largest navy, two hundred and thirty four warships. The
US has two hundred and nineteen. Trump more importantly, the
American people who voted for him don't want to play
globocop anymore. Trump will only help Ukraine if he gets
a mineral deal out of it. He's doing economic deals
for security, so we are quite vulnerable. As they say,

(02:24):
the US spends three to four percent of GDP on defense.
Australia spends two percent already. Remember we're at one point one,
and there'll be plenty of people, the Greens, the academics,
the experts, who'll say that we should spend ten billion
on defense. If we spend ten billion on defense, we
should spend far more on school lunches and pay the

(02:44):
teachers more, etc. But what's good as a school lunch
if you've got no country to go back to? Security
surely is more important. However, you then have the challenge
for the government making sure they spend that extra can
on the right stuff, not just spending the money for
the sake of hitting an arbitrary target. We should spend

(03:06):
wisely so that we're actually useful enough to a more
powerful player in the region. That should be the goal.
And if the government is serious about this, which they
certainly sound to be, then perhaps it's time they also
let nuclear powered warships into our waters. If we're worried

(03:27):
enough to drop ten billion dollars on defense, then surely
letting an ally dock here wouldn't be such a bad
idea Ryan Bridge nine two. We'd love your feedback, Andrew
Little after five ten after four Now more calls today
for Regional New Zealand to ditch the traditional nine to
five retail model. This story originally came you remember, from

(03:48):
the Napier business leader who says the CBD there becomes
a ghost town as soon as the shops shut up
at five o'clock. Now more towns are having this debate.
So are our smallest center stuck in the past? Retailians
and CEO Carolyn Young is with me, Hi, Carolyn kidder N,
how are you really good? Thank you would the basic

(04:09):
question would businesses not open if there were customers to serve?

Speaker 4 (04:15):
Absolutely? Look, I think most businesses are in the process
of evaluating their data on an ongoing basis. They're working
out the foot traffic that's coming past, and they get
data fed into them from that they can see where,
when and where their sales are taking place through their
point of sales system, so they'll be able to tell
whether or not they've got people coming in first thing

(04:37):
in the morning or last thing at night, and you know,
adjusting their time frames according the in terms of when
they're open and closed. Consumer demand is what should drive
your opening hours, obviously, alongside any other restrictions they might
be depending on the sort of business that you own.
But you know, consumers are going to want to come

(04:57):
in at a time when it's convenient to them, and
being open when they're available is important.

Speaker 3 (05:03):
Yeah, because I guess the thing is for tourism especially,
you've got people coming here who might be used to
shops being opened a little bit later. Is there any
truth to this idea that if you have multiple shops
open then it creates a bit of a vibe. People
know it's happening and they will actually, you know, build
it and they'll come open and they'll come. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (05:23):
Absolutely. If you, for example, if you work in a mall,
all of the stores in the mall are open till
the same time. So everyone knows that the new Market,
Westfield Mall and Auckland is open till seven o'clock at night,
so everyone knows they can go there for a couple
of hours after work. Now, in a high street environment,

(05:44):
the stores aren't regulated like that, you know, so some
stores might close at five, so might be at the five,
someone might be at six or later. And if you've
got a number of stores around you that are open later,
people will come because they know that they can call
into that store at a time that's them after work.
But if there's only one store. You know that store
is probably pretty quiet, so, you know, if you've got

(06:07):
neighboring businesses, it's about getting alongside your neighboring business and saying, hey,
you know, do you want to try opening a little
bit later, seeing if we can create a bit of
energy and enthusiasms for people to be coming in the
stores afterwards, or alternatively, you know, what are you doing
in the weekends, or you know, what time are you
opening in the morning. If you've got a few more

(06:27):
stores doing the same thing, it just you know, does
as you say, create a bit of a buzz and
a bit.

Speaker 5 (06:31):
Of a vibe.

Speaker 3 (06:32):
Carolyn, thank you for that, Carolyn Young Retailings and CEO
time has just gone thirteen after four. We love to
know what you think about that one. I just think
if a business, who better to know whether there would
be customers visiting a store than the business itself, And
if the businesses itself knew that there were customers going
to visit, they would simply open. I don't know. I
think the whole thing's a bit weird. Ganged are so

(06:55):
patched gang members so they've only the police only managed
to seize seventy six patches over the last three months.
Are you surprised by that number? I was son four
hundred gang members on the gang list three months of
the new law coming into force, only seventy six patches.
So one of two things is happening. One, the cops

(07:15):
are not seizing every gang patch that they see, because
they would see loads of them every day. They have
interactions with GAG members every day. Either the cops aren't
taking the patches off them or the gangs are actually
not wearing them anymore. Which are those? Is it? Nine
nine two? Mark Mitchell on here after five point thirty
this evening, fourteen after four.

Speaker 2 (07:36):
It's the Heather Dubissie Alan Drive Full Show.

Speaker 1 (07:39):
Podcast on Iheard Radio powered by News Talk ZB.

Speaker 3 (07:43):
Four seventeen on News Talk zib Luise's text and I
haven't seen one gang patch, Ryan since the new law
came in. I live in Auckland, Louis. Thank you for that.
This is the government announcing today that they have seized
The police have seized seventy six patches, sixty seven firearms
and laid three hundred and thirty seven charges for insignia breaches.
Just asking you the question is that because the gang

(08:05):
members are no longer wearing their patches, or is it
because the police aren't taking every patch that they see.
Nineteen ninety two, seventeen after four. Now we're going to
Sport and Jason Pine is with us. Hey, Jason, hey, right,
good to have you on. So surprised, surprise it was
the Elk and the FC that won over the Phoenix
at the weekend.

Speaker 6 (08:21):
Yeah, I look, I think when we spoke on Friday,
I said, look, this will be a cag affair, Ryan,
this will be a game decided on a moment of
brilliance or a mistake by somebody six ' one wouldn't
suggest that I had it right. I'll hold my hand
up and say I absolutely didn't have it right. Auckland
FC just a juggernaut rolling over the top of Wellington Phoenix,

(08:41):
going eight points clear at the top. They could well
win the whole thing. Now, Ryan, there are two parts
to this. It's a bit like the NRL. There's the
regular season winn of the minor premiers, if you like,
they look odds on for that.

Speaker 7 (08:52):
Now.

Speaker 6 (08:52):
Then they go into the final series, which is knockout stuff.
They could win that as well. In their first season.
It would be quite the story.

Speaker 3 (08:59):
Did you see the video of the fans surrounding the bus.
Did you like it? I mean, I don't think anyone
was in serious danger or hurt. I thought, great, it's
good for the sport.

Speaker 6 (09:11):
Well, I was lucky enough to be in Peru actually
when the All Whites played over there, and the Peruvian
fans did exactly the same thing. When the All Whites
bus arrived at the stadium, they completely surrounded them and
stopped them getting in.

Speaker 3 (09:22):
Look, I don't mind it. It's great bend to know.

Speaker 6 (09:24):
He's just say no one was going to get hurt
and look good on the AUK and FC fans and
so many of them as well. This fan base has
just grown by the day, So you know, I loved it.

Speaker 3 (09:34):
Could Joseph Parker get another title shot? Do you think?
Or is that out of the picture now that he's
had this fight?

Speaker 6 (09:39):
Well, I think boxing politics might be the only thing
that gets in the way. He wants to fight Dubois, who,
of course he was supposed to fight until he pulled
out ill and in king Martin Bacoli who was out
of shape, and Joseph Parker beat him yesterday. So Parker
wants to fight Dubois, which was the scheduled fight, but
Dubois now saying I'm going to fight Alexander Usik to
unify the belts that we both have. So Joseph Parker

(10:02):
is nearing the front of the queue again, but it
might just be politics that gets in the way.

Speaker 3 (10:07):
All he can do I guess is wait. He did
the job over the.

Speaker 6 (10:09):
Weekend, and I love the fact that Joseph Parker has
bounced back from a couple of defeats and are still
in there and doing it pretty well at the moment.

Speaker 3 (10:17):
Yeah. Absolutely, Thanks so much for that, Jason. Great to
have you as always, Jason Pine sports stalk host Cash
Them Tonight News Talks a B seven o'clock. It is
nineteen after four now. Lots of people texting in about
what they have noticed change with the gang patches. Ryan,
I'm a sales rep who works in and around Auckland area,
and since the ban on the gang insigney was introduced,

(10:38):
I've only ever seen gang members wearing them the insignia
on the streets or riding in their bikes. Another here says,
I gotta be honest, Ryan, I'm around Auckland all the
time and I can't remember the last time I saw
a gang patch in recent months, so I suspect the
messages heading home. To be honest, you don't really see
gang patches in Auckland, do or unless you're in particular

(10:59):
parts of Auckland. Mate, perhaps, But you know when you
go to a potokey, which I have done many times,
you go wow, you know there's a few gang members
around here. You go to Pottydoor parts of Pottydor near Wellington,
you think, wow, there's a few gang members around here.
It's just gone twenty after four. You're on News Talk SADB.

Speaker 2 (11:20):
Checking the point of the story.

Speaker 1 (11:22):
It's Ryan Bridge on either duplic Allen Drive with one
New Zealand Let's get connected and News Talk sa'd.

Speaker 3 (11:29):
B four twenty three. So the government is going to
do a big budget for defense this year. You can
bet your bottom dollar on that. Judith Collins was on
this program on Friday and said as March she's asking
for a top dollar from Nichola Willis. Now Nicola's on
the show after six tonight we'll talk to her about that.
We've also got the former Defense Minister Andrew Long after five,
want to pick his brain. What exactly do we need

(11:50):
to buy? You know, are we ever going to be
good with air cover? Are we ever going to be
good with ground troops? Or are we better to invest
in our av in intelligence, in perhaps drones, you know,
this kind of stuff in technology, is that we were
better off putting our money. It'll be interesting to hear
what Andrew Little has to say, because he started writing

(12:12):
that defense plan that the government still hasn't released. So
what was he working on? What are we working on?
We'll try and find some answers for you after five tonight.
This is interesting from Grant says, if the ten billion
dollars for defense is all about stopping China, then we're dreaming.
It would be like buying a five year old a
new pair of boxing gloves and telling him to go
punch Joseph Parker. It's just nuts, Grant, You're right. I mean,

(12:35):
we're never going to stop China, are we. Australia is
never going to stop China. Hell, at this point, is
America or even going to stop China. The point is
you try and make yourself as useful as possible to
another player in the region who might help us. I
think that's pretty much the best thing, your best bet. Anyway,

(12:55):
we'll ask both of those leaders about it later in
the show twenty four After four, Ryan Bridge now to
Andrew Bailey and this business.

Speaker 8 (13:03):
Now.

Speaker 3 (13:04):
I've had a weird interaction with Andrew body myself. I
went out in Wellington hosted these Wellington Business Awards and
he came over and he said, ah, wow, look at you,
like he's a bit of a weird man. He said, well,
look at you. Look at your handsome man. Oh look
at your suit. Now. I thought this was funny. I
thought this a strange little man. It's Andrew Bailey, so

(13:26):
I thought it was sort of almost endaring. But I
can understand why this guy has got himself in trouble.
I don't think he has a malicious intent. I don't
think he's a nasty person. I think he's just a
little odd and obviously in this day and age, it
rubbed some people the wrong way. Anyway. He has said
he is deeply sorry. Last week I had an animated

(13:49):
discussion with a staff member about work. I took the
discussion too far. I placed a hand on the upper arm,
which was inappropriate. The Prime Minister has responded this afternoon
and have listen.

Speaker 9 (13:58):
I have nothing more to add to that, because I
think he's articulated as appropriate as he can. But more importantly,
I think you've sensed that in his own statement earlier today.
You know that he has taken us as his own
personal decision, and.

Speaker 2 (14:12):
I respect that.

Speaker 3 (14:14):
So it's all a bit weird. I've apologize to the
staff member. I regret placing them in an uncomfortable position.
One is anyone surprised, No, because he kind of had
form with the loser thing at the vineyard and blend him.
Two is it going to make Is it going to
make a massive difference to the government? Also No, because
I mean, you know, Sandra Bailey, what was he doing?

Speaker 4 (14:36):
Then?

Speaker 3 (14:36):
Can anyone tell me? Nine two nine two? Someone says,
get amandain lesson that's the best thing you can do
to try and get China off your back, And there
is some truth in that, and there's a lot of
people who are saying, actually, we have a really close
trading relationship with China. They're our biggest trading market, So
what we should be doing is trying to leverage that

(14:56):
rather than you know, cozy up to the Americans or
double our defense budget. I mean, who really knows what
we have to do. But one thing's for sure. Those
boats off the coast of Sydney act going anywhere and
how ay are they? Twenty seven after port News Talk said.

Speaker 10 (15:12):
Be.

Speaker 8 (15:21):
John Paty on me, you're breaking Harvey Doles.

Speaker 1 (15:36):
After making the news, the newsmakers talk to Ryan First,
it's Ryan Bridge on Hither Dupers and drive with one
New Zealand let's get connected. News Talk said, be in
a pectle mark.

Speaker 3 (15:56):
For your beast, but thirty five minutes away from five
year on news Talk to be so Oh Week. You
know university Oh Week. If you've experienced one, you'll know
it's just alcohol and going at it like bunnies. Really
a whole week of it. Can you imagine all across
the cary. And it doesn't matter which university in the country,

(16:16):
Otago does it best. Wellington apparently quite good. What happened
at this Wellington one is just fascinating and it's so Wellington,
it's so Victoria University of Wellington, So you would you
would think if the students are there and they're having
a good time, they would want to have even more
of a good time and people would be okay with that.
Not in Wellington. What happened was there was a bar

(16:39):
full of students who were on campus and these promo
girls or promo people come up to the bar with
little flyers and they put them in their hands and
they offer discounts for bars in the city for oh week. Well,
that's a fantastic if you're a student, this is fantastic news.
What's more, apparently they had a party bus parked up
outside which would very the students so you didn't have

(17:01):
to walk up and down the hill and to Calbourn.
I mean, great idea, great concept. And Geese who complain
not the university but the University Students Association, the group
representing the students. It's just Wellington on a plate. We're

(17:21):
going to speak to the bar owner at called a
past five on newstalk SEB.

Speaker 1 (17:25):
It's the world wires on news dogs to Germany.

Speaker 3 (17:29):
We go the center right. This is the CDU, that's
angler Merkel's old party at soundtrack to take back power
from OLAF and the lefties. The CDU leader Friedrich Meers
was declared the victor.

Speaker 11 (17:40):
The world up there is not waiting for us. It
is not waiting for lengthy coalition talks and negotiations. We
need to be able to act quickly again so that
we can do the right thing at home, so that
we are present in Europe again, and so the world
realizes that Germany is once again reliably governed.

Speaker 3 (17:57):
It wasn't so much declared the victor as the victory
for his party. They got the most votes, but the
second most votes went to the AfD. That's the anti
immigration party. Best result by far right party in Germany
since the nineteen thirties. Health is shaping up as a
major election issue in Australia. Both Elbow and Dutton have
made big health announcements today. Albert says the coalition is

(18:20):
a terrible track record.

Speaker 12 (18:22):
Perty Darton was front and center and was the Health
Minister and was so bad that doctors voted him the
worst health minister and in the Tony Abbott sacked him.

Speaker 3 (18:36):
We'll have more on this in a second with Oli Peterson. Finally,
I'm a Dogy one students at the University of Exeter
are going to study the portrayal of donkeys in films.
The university has partnered with the local Donkey sanctuary and
the students will be meeting real donkeys as part of
the course, donkeys had prominent roles in movies such as

(18:56):
The Banshees of Initiur. I never know how to say that,
the Irish one, the black and white Irish one that
took too long. Also, they were in Shrek and they
were played by Shrek and Jesus of Nazareth.

Speaker 1 (19:10):
Apparently International correspondence with Ends and Eye Insurance Peace of
Mind for New Zealand business.

Speaker 3 (19:18):
Tent two minutes away from five Oli Pedterson's with US
six PR Perth Life presenter hey Ollie get a Ryan
So tell us the Treasurer Jim Chalmers heading to the
US to fight tariffs.

Speaker 7 (19:29):
He is he's looking to try and catch up with
his counterpart there in the United States. So he's tried
to plead to the US government to Scott bessont do
not put these tariffs on Australian steel, help us to
become exempts. Now we've sort of had a bit of
a little bit of positive news that way, I suppose

(19:50):
from what Donald Trump had to say last week after
he had that phone call without the alb and easy.
But nothing's confirmed. What is being speculated here, though, Ryan,
is that the UN government, the Trump administration is going
to turn around and say, but why do you want
to charge all of our social media companies now a
fee to operate in Australia. So look, this will be
a very interesting conversation between the Treasurer and Donald Trump's

(20:13):
treasury representatives. I would love to be a fly on
the wall in this conversation. It might be that we
are still in that trade surplus for everything else that
we do with the United States, so it might sort
of even itself out. But I think that Donald Trump,
when he likes to do something, he likes to follow
through with that. So I don't know that Australia will
be exempt from absolutely everything on this one.

Speaker 3 (20:32):
No, but at least you've had some warm murmurings from him.
You know, very few others have had something like that
the federal So this is Dutton and Elbow going at
each other again, but this is over healthcare and the
bidding war that's emerging now.

Speaker 7 (20:46):
Yeah, so both of them have promised yesterday it was
obviously going to be. It's felt like we were already
in a federal election campaign. We just don't have a
date yet. But Anthony ALBINESI standing there in Tasmania on
the weekend promising to drastically increase funding to Mediicare by
eight point five billion dollars, and then he hopes by
twenty thirty that nine in ten visits to your.

Speaker 3 (21:06):
GP can just be both billed.

Speaker 7 (21:08):
So I think that is a great policy in theory
that all of a sudden you don't have to go
and clog up emergency departments which are inundated with patients
at the moment for scratches or for common colds because
they say they can't afford to go and see their GP.
So it's great having universal access to medical care and
it should be your GP. But then a couple of

(21:28):
minutes later, Peter Dunn's out there saying you can do
eight point five We're going to do nine billion dollars.
And in the clip you played in the World Wise
it is a thorn in the side of the Liberal Party.

Speaker 3 (21:37):
They've always been.

Speaker 7 (21:37):
Seen to be Week on Health or a medi scare
style campaign. The multi billion dollar question here, though, Ryan,
is how do we pay for it? You say it's free,
it's not really free. Taxpayers have to fund this, but
how do you pay for it? And neither the government
or the opposition are providing any further detail on how
they're going to inject a further eight and a half

(21:57):
or nine billion dollars into the health care system. We
just well, we can put it on the Medicare card.
Are we just going to put it on the credit
card to pay for it?

Speaker 3 (22:04):
That's what we want to know. Yeah. Interesting, we have
a lot of same problems you have with our GPS
here and I'm just thinking of them listening to that
now thinking maybe there'll be more money in Australia. Just
stay here, stay here GPS. Finally, today, McDonald's is going
to start offering at staff university degrees sort of, yes,
sort of, so.

Speaker 7 (22:25):
You can get a burger friars and a university degree
when you go to mac is.

Speaker 11 (22:28):
Now.

Speaker 7 (22:29):
I think this is quite clever because the opportunities through
the McDonald's training program, it's now about fifty thousand different
people have been through that where they've got food safety
leadership management through their own training organization. So they're going
to trial what's called the Archways of Opportunity program. Don't
you love that term, Ryan. It says it's going to
shave about three and a half grand off a university

(22:49):
degree for every micro credential Earn and I think it's
funny you say a shift away in education in Australia
at the moment we always talk about your high school
certificate and getting that ATR result when you finished twelve. Well,
now less than fifty percent of Australian students actually ever
getting ATAR and you know the emphasis again any to
go to school to then perhaps going to university to

(23:09):
go and get a job. I think we're really breaking
down the stigma associated with the one size fits all
approach with education. So I actually really like this approach
from makers and I think it's quite innovative. I think
it could work and hopefully it opens up a few
more doors and opportunities for more Australians.

Speaker 3 (23:27):
All Right, nice, OLLI thank you for that. Olli Peterson
six p Perth Live presenter our Australia correspondent. Time is
eighteen minutes away from five, Barry soaper next. Lots to
talk about, including Andrew Bailey. What does he reckon.

Speaker 2 (23:37):
Politics with centric credit? Check your customers and get payments?

Speaker 3 (23:41):
Certainty great to have you on news talks. They'd be
just gone quarter to five. Barry Sabers, the Senior political correspondent. Hey,
Barry good afternoon. Run Now, Andrew Bailey like interesting character,
sort of odd character.

Speaker 13 (23:52):
Well, you know, personally I like Herey Bailey. I've always
found them. He's slightly gregarious, slightly awkward. You know, he's
accident prone. Clearly he shot his brother once on the
leg when they were lads climbing over a fence, so
he had a loaded gun. But look, he's he does

(24:13):
get into all sorts of trouble, doesn't he. And he
did recently add a winery, said he didn't have anything
to drink, and now he got into an argument and
animated discussion with one of his staff member said that
he touched the shoulder. I'm not sure what it was
male or female, but the shoulder.

Speaker 3 (24:31):
But if they say there and them, you must assume
it's a female because otherwise I'd say.

Speaker 13 (24:37):
He or the or they or whatever. I mean, who
knows in this binary world, run you know. But look
it was a contrite Andrew Bully, I must say, who
talked to the media to day and was up front
about what happened in his office last Tuesday.

Speaker 14 (24:52):
We had an animated discussion, and the point is that
at one point I put my hand on their upper
arm and I've reflected on.

Speaker 3 (25:00):
It and I've made a decision.

Speaker 14 (25:02):
I've held myself to account, a personal account. This is
my decision. I think that it's important sometimes you reflect
about your own activities, and that's why I've made the
personal decision. To be honest, I would have had difficulty
doing this interview over the last couple of days. I've
had to talk my family and that's why I've made
the decision, and that's why we're announcing it today.

Speaker 13 (25:23):
See. So he was obviously very upset about what had
happened and what had transpart pared and it's probably maybe
is more upset about the Prime Minister's reaction and accepting
his resignation straight away.

Speaker 3 (25:37):
Wow, that's right, Yeah, yeah, a bit odd bit over
sideshow over. I suppose the slow boat from China off
the coast of Tasmania now buried, Well it.

Speaker 13 (25:47):
Is, it's between now Tasmania and New Zealand. These warships are,
and of course we now know on Friday's airlines had
to divert flights because they were firing guns from the boats.
And you know the fact is that you would think
that the Chinese would have the common decency to let

(26:09):
New Zealand know if flights are going to be disrupted
by their boats in the Tasman Sea, then you know,
you would think it would be incumbent on them to
just give a bit of a heads up. Apparently they
gave a few hours notice, but that's not enough, no,
when you've got aviation in that part of the world.
The former airline boss of course, Chris Luson, he says

(26:32):
it would have been nice to have had some advanced notice,
certainly for the year travel which has now been redirected
because of the Chinese exercises.

Speaker 9 (26:41):
There's nothing illegal here in terms of they are compliant
with international law. It's the same law that we rely
upon as we move around the world. But the issue
for us is we just think, you know, we'd appreciate
a little bit more advanced notice, particularly on what is
a busy air route, one of the busiest in the world,
that we've actually got a bit more time to respond
to that. Having said that, our civil aviation authorities are

(27:02):
well used to this. They are in a normal practice
in the aviation of maritime world. They have been coordinating
well across the Tasman and importantly, at no point HAVEVYW
Zealand Australian asset's been in any danger.

Speaker 3 (27:13):
Yeah, so there you go. Well, I wonder whether the
Chinese actually thought that no one was looking when they find,
you know, because it's.

Speaker 13 (27:21):
In one of their biggest warshits.

Speaker 3 (27:23):
But I mean it's entirely possible they thought, well, you
know New Zealand's navies at the bottom of the ocean. Yeah,
they're not going to know what's going on, and the
Australians probably aren't looking, so let's just have a little
fun with them, you know, with the guns and see
what happens, and before they know it's it's diplomatic incident.

Speaker 13 (27:39):
It's quite extraordinary, really, isn't it.

Speaker 3 (27:42):
Now the gang crackdown Barry, the government's quite happy with
how it's going.

Speaker 13 (27:45):
Yeah, well have these seventy six patches. I heard you
talking earlier Ryan that in fact people aren't seeing patches
around the place. And I've got to say I've looked out,
have looked out deliberately when you see people who are
obviously gang members riding their monkey bar bikes and you know,
I haven't seen any patches. So certainly it's having some

(28:09):
sort of impact. The political heavyweights, the Prime Minister, the
Minister of Police, the Minister of Justice. They've been meeting
today with the Gang Disruption Unit, which is quite a
pointed unit. The point that Luxon made was that Tony
has done in the past. There are nine eight hundred

(28:29):
gang members in New Zealand. Now they make up one
quarter of one percent of the population, but commit a
fifth of the serious crimes and murders and a quarter
of the firearms offenses. So our relatively new Police Commissioner
Richard Chambers, he was there today saying his troops are
coping well with the new laws cracking down on gangs.

Speaker 15 (28:49):
The feedback from my staff in relation to this new
legislation is that they are empowered and please to be
able to address criminal offending in front of them that
relate to the wearing of gang insignia. And perhaps the
most satisfying reflection is that feedback we are getting from
the public who are telling us that they feel a

(29:10):
lot safer, They feel a lot freer from the intimidation
that has been experienced in the past when it comes
to gangs.

Speaker 13 (29:17):
And you have to say, you know it's good. It
certainly is. Gang numbers, I mean they have grown. There
was a point that was made to the police commissioner.
They've grown over the past here, but then they've identified
new gangs, so it gives the number maybe a false impression.

Speaker 3 (29:36):
There's always been problems with that list to haven't.

Speaker 13 (29:38):
They Yes, exactly.

Speaker 3 (29:39):
Yeah, it's interesting a lot of our listeners that they've
been testing in to say, I've definitely noticed there are
a fewer gang members out there, less insignia and stuff.
But we've noticed this is somebody in particularly in Napier
and another in all Tata that they're wearing white t
shirts and have got the tattoos out, so they're are
But which is something, isn't it? I mean that's progress. Yeah,

(30:00):
well most is because it's changing a behavior.

Speaker 13 (30:03):
And they're sitting up and taking some notice at least.

Speaker 3 (30:06):
Barry Sopers, senior political correspondent. You're on news Talks there
B Richard Chambers, who is the police boss, is with
us after five thirty year on news talk st B putting.

Speaker 1 (30:16):
The time questions to the newspeakers the mic asking breakfast.

Speaker 16 (30:19):
What a wake up call in the Tasmana the Chinese
arrivee start firing and tell no One. Defense Minister Judith
Collins is with us Are the Americans going to do
anything about this?

Speaker 3 (30:27):
Do you think?

Speaker 16 (30:27):
I mean, they must be looking at this with some
level of concern, mustn't they.

Speaker 17 (30:30):
I think they and other countries of the world are
looking at this and saying this is a new development,
and nobody wants to overreact. Nobody wants to get too excitable.
They want wants to be very calm and to understand
that while China is completely compliant with the viewing coneach
the law to see, it is always quite good to
give people notice, particularly when the civil aviation changes and
flights heavy to be did users.

Speaker 16 (30:52):
Back tomorrow At six am, the mic asking Breakfast with
Baby's real Estate.

Speaker 3 (30:56):
News Talk z B five away from five News Talks said,
be great to have your company this evening now, Andrew Bailey,
Apparently Chris Hopkins from Labor has been weighing in over
this saga.

Speaker 18 (31:08):
We've now got ministers sacking themselves when the Prime minister
should have showed some leadership and done that months ago.

Speaker 3 (31:15):
I don't know about that. Really, Can we hear that
one more time, just the just the hypocrisy? Can we
just hear that.

Speaker 18 (31:22):
We've now got ministers sacking themselves when the Prime minister
should have showed some leadership and done that months ago.

Speaker 3 (31:28):
So what he did an l sign a few months
ago and then today he's touched someone's shoulder?

Speaker 7 (31:35):
Is this?

Speaker 3 (31:35):
What are we serious? Is this what when we've come
to I think it is to be fair, we don't
know what happened with this staffer. Clearly the staffer was
upset and he's I suppose he's got record enough to
warrant him taking himself away off to the naughty corner.
And he's no longer a minister. Four minutes away from
five year on news Talk said Bee coming up after
five we are speaking to Andrew Little What is on

(31:58):
his wish list for defense? There is no doubt I
think this government is going to try and get us
to two percent of GDP for defense spending. So what
exactly did we spend that on? He shot his brother?
By the way, did people remember that Andrew Bailey shot
his brother in the leg by mistake? I should say

(32:18):
by mistake when he was growing up and brother was
quite hurt, but it was all right. His finances twin
brother a bit of an odd ball Andrew Bailey anyway,
he's no longer going to be in Cabinet. Andrew Little
is next nowhere we're going.

Speaker 19 (32:34):
We ain't going over, but only that to Sevuity and Runny,
just you and me and a shout bad while like
a CALIFORNI can we could break it in if you
know what I mean.

Speaker 8 (32:51):
Put some on back, Chevuity and run just sue me
and a shrug, good cat of fine game were good
break in, you know, put them on.

Speaker 2 (33:10):
We do puts.

Speaker 19 (33:13):
Some were to break in.

Speaker 3 (33:18):
Ev put some Mason.

Speaker 1 (33:25):
Questions, answers, facts, analysis, The drive show you trust for
the full picture. Brian Bridge on Hither dup c Allen
Drive with one New Zealand let's get connected news talks.

Speaker 5 (33:38):
That'd be good evening.

Speaker 3 (33:39):
It is seven after five. Great to have your company
prepare for a defense heavy budget come made. The government
is openly saying we need a massive boost to the
military's funding. Currently we're at one point one percent of GDP.
That's five billion dollars a year. We could get as
high as two. It comes as these three Chinese Navy
ships conducted live firing exercises and the Tasman and Little

(34:00):
see former Defense Minister Andrew Good to have you on
the show. Glare right now you're a really good thing now,
Judith Collins and the government, they have to be careful
how they frame their response, but you don't anymore. How serious,
how significant is what they're doing in the Tasman Yeah,
it is.

Speaker 20 (34:19):
And this has been happening for a long time China.
As it's become economically more wealthy, it's become more powerful,
it's engaged in the world, but it's been building its
military at the same time as well as well. It
now has one of the largest navies in the world
and it's well equipped. And they do that to project
themselves and their power around the world, and they're doing

(34:41):
that in the Pacific at the moment. They do that
because they want to send the message to everybody that
they are here, that they're powerful, and they want to
use their influence.

Speaker 21 (34:49):
We have to.

Speaker 20 (34:52):
If we're not such a match for that, we can't
be We're not the size of China. We have to
be able to equip ourselves to work with others so
that we are a match for it. And we need
to make sure that our equipment is modern, up to
spec and works with our defense partners, whether it's the Australia,
the UK, the US or whoever.

Speaker 3 (35:12):
You were working on this plan that we still haven't
actually got our hands on from this government, the fifteen
year Defense Plan. What are we actually if we're going
to spend billions more, which sounds it sounds like this
government is buttering us up for what do we actually
need to buy?

Speaker 2 (35:27):
Yes, I think.

Speaker 20 (35:27):
I mean our maritime capability is obviously central where you
know we're in the south South Pacific. We've got to
be able to get around. We have a number of
ships at the moment that we can't creue properly. We
have to think about what we want. That probably means
new and different ships. The other thing is remote technology,
so being able to fly craft that are pilot listen,

(35:49):
what have you to get around our region to do
the surveillance sort of the sort of stuff that our
poseidon pates are doing, but at a simpler level and
in a that is more disposable because you know, there's
not carrying any people on it. I think a lot
of that remote technology is kind of where the future
as other defense forces around the world are equipping themselves

(36:12):
with that sort of stuff. So it's going to be
the new generation technology stuff that we need to be looking.

Speaker 3 (36:16):
At realistically, is anyone going to invade New Zealand. I mean,
we would be helping others to fight at sea, really,
wouldn't we That would be our purpose.

Speaker 20 (36:26):
Yeah, I think. I mean two things. What, we've never
been able to defend ourselves on our own, We've never
been in that position. We work with others to do that.
But there is an expectation that you know, we are
doing something, in fact, doing enough to provide some level
of defense. And then the other thing is that we
work with others to defend them and other parts of
the world. You know, we've supported Ukraine with training their troops.

(36:52):
We've been stationed in the Middle East for donkeys years
as a peacekeeping force. We do all those sorts of things.
So there's an expectation that we make a contribution around
the world to uphold the liberal, social democratic sort of
values that we've got.

Speaker 3 (37:06):
Just finally, I think it's a little odd that we
have a problem in New Zealand with letting our allies,
as in the United States, come here with their warships
that are nuclear powered. Is that something you think we
need to look at. I mean, if we're going to
double our defense budget, surely looking at that would be
on the table.

Speaker 20 (37:24):
Yeah, I don't think well, I don't think there's any
appetite in New Zealand for any kind of nuclear capability.
It's not something we've been part of. And the realities,
although there is nuclear deterrence around, we haven't been part
of it. We've argued strongly about the morality of that.
We are very good at supporting others and engaging ourselves
in conventional warfare called conventional combat. I think that's where

(37:48):
our priority needs to be and we don't lose anything
by maintaining our nuclear free stance. We work closely with
the US and others and even nuclear submarines. Then you
know we'll continue to work closely with Australia.

Speaker 3 (38:00):
All right, Andrew, thank you very much for your time.
Great to have you on the show. Andrew Littleby, former
Defense Minutes. The time is eleven after five. All of
it weird with Andrew Bailey today. As you have probably heard,
he has resigned as a minister. He showed inappropriate behavior
towards a staff member. Those are his words. Details scarce
what we know during what he called quote an animated discussion,

(38:24):
so not an argument, but an animated discussion. He placed
his hand on a staffer's upper arm, and we don't
know the sex of the staff are either, because they're
using the words there and them, which is also unusual.
He says. He apologized he regrets putting them in a
quote uncomfortable position. He refused to be interviewed today, but
he did front for a four minute press conference and

(38:44):
began with a prepared statement.

Speaker 14 (38:46):
I am incredibly proud of the work we have achieved
together and I looked forward to continuing to serve the
people of Port wait Kado as their MP and been
involved in the work.

Speaker 3 (38:57):
Of pun Someone asked him exactly what happened in wasn't
going there?

Speaker 14 (39:01):
I touched their upper arm, and it's obviously a matter
that it's inappropriate, and that's why I've made the personal
decision to step down a as a minister.

Speaker 3 (39:10):
He was asked again, it is.

Speaker 5 (39:13):
It is what it is.

Speaker 14 (39:14):
It is the fact that we had an animated discussion,
and the point is that at one point I put
my hand on their upper arm, and I've reflected on
it and I've made a decision.

Speaker 3 (39:26):
Of course, this is the second incident in a few months.
There were the complaints over his behavior during the Winery visit,
remember that at the end of last year. But he
says that this particular situation is at first.

Speaker 14 (39:36):
I've never I've never had anything like this happened before.

Speaker 3 (39:41):
At the end of all of this, he was quite emotional.

Speaker 14 (39:44):
To be honest, I would have had difficulty of doing
this interview over the last couple of days.

Speaker 21 (39:48):
I've had to.

Speaker 14 (39:49):
Talk my family and that's why I've made the decision,
and that's why we're announcing it today.

Speaker 3 (39:54):
So there you go. He's gone, Andrew Bailey is gone,
and probably the Prime Minister will be happy about that,
because if you've got people running around, you know, doing
L shapes on their foreheads and touching their staff, it's
not a great looks At thirteen minutes after five on
news talks, he'd be by the way. Luxon is off.
It's a big week for trips, political trips. Luxeon is
off the to Arson in Vietnam. Winston is going to

(40:15):
South Korea. Rumors he's going to meet with the shipbuilders
and potentially try and get us a couple of knock
a few million off the break fee that we need
for the fairies and Starmer. Don't forget Starma from the
uk is off to Washington to try and be the
go between that he thinks he'll be between the United
States and Europe. Fourteen after five women come back. This

(40:36):
incredibly bizarre story out of Victoria University in Wellington. For
over seventy years, kwei's have trusted Nissan to get them
where they need to go, whether it's tackling the work side,
escaping for a weekend adventure, or just making memories on
the open road. Right now, you can save up to
eleven thousand dollars on a brand new Nissan X Trail,
the perfect family suv. Or you can get up to

(40:58):
eleven six hundred dollars off the lead injury Nissan Nvara,
built tough for KBI conditions. If you're looking for something
a little bit different, experience Nissan ePower, an electrified drive
without the need to plug in, more power, more efficiency,
and a drive like nothing else. With over thirty Nisan
dealers across the country, there's a friendlyness and crew nere
you're ready to help. Visit Nissan dot co, dot and

(41:18):
Z to find jewels. That's Nissan dot Co dot NZ.

Speaker 2 (41:21):
Ryan Bridge should.

Speaker 3 (41:22):
Have a start in the Capitol over whether Booze should
be advertised to university students. I know, I thought they
were like peas in a pod. Bar owner Greg Wilson
has been handing out flyers to students with O Week
specials on them. But the Victoria University Students Association, yes,
the group that represents the students, didn't like it. Complained
to the council, who told Wilson that he can't target

(41:44):
students anymore. Greg Wilson is with me, Hi Greg today,
Ryan explain this madness to me.

Speaker 13 (41:50):
Oh, look, so.

Speaker 22 (41:51):
Every year we hand out fliers to the university students
that descend upon the city. Of course, Wellington being a
student city, think it's only right that we let them
know what's going on at the bars for OH Week.
We have musical bingo nights and trivia nights and so
themed parties of course during the Old Week. And so

(42:13):
we handed out the flies at university and they're not
too happy about it, coping up and down about it.

Speaker 3 (42:18):
So you went on onto the campus. You went onto
the campus with some flyers. There was a disc what
was a discount, Yeah.

Speaker 22 (42:26):
That was twenty five twenty four point nine percent discount.
That's the maximum we can advertise. So we had a discount,
and attached to that Ryan was that they had to
turn up before midnight. So the idea is to drive
the students into the bars before twelve o'clock where we
can better manage intoxication control in a in a controlled
environment and monetory they're drinking. Rather than being in a

(42:48):
flat and mount cock with a bottle of vodka, we
think it's better to have them in the earlier the
premises in the earlier evening.

Speaker 3 (42:53):
Fair enough, you had a party bus ready to go,
all right, so you're handed out and us on there
you get the complaint? Were you surprised to hear it
was actually from the student's association?

Speaker 5 (43:05):
Yeah, as far as be wildered, to be honest, bewildered.

Speaker 3 (43:09):
What was the reasoning?

Speaker 22 (43:10):
Well, they're saying they think it's a legal that would
too for us to be advertising to minors because some
of the students are under eighteen. Well a word say that. Oh,
the vast majority are at least eighteen. And in fact,
if you ask any parents in New Zelands where they'd
rather their eighteen year old daughter be drinking at a
flat and mount back or a mount cop or drinking
a licensed premise. Now I know what the answer is.

Speaker 3 (43:31):
So the is it the council? So that the Students
Association goes to the Union, the UNI goes to the Council,
the council comes to you. So what exactly is the
council saying you can't do?

Speaker 22 (43:39):
So the council have told us that we need to
stop handing up this fly as they're telling us it's
illegal for us to be promoting alcohol to these.

Speaker 3 (43:47):
Students, okay, is that their job? Is that their job?

Speaker 21 (43:52):
Well, that's the thing.

Speaker 22 (43:53):
You've got so much bureaucracy, Ryan. Here in Wellington, it's
the home of bureaucracy. And one thing for sure, we're
not going to let bureaucrats run our businesses. And so
we'll take some legal advice on it because we want
to buy by the law and we always do on
our businesses. We run excellent hospitality outlets here in Wellington.
So we'll take some advice. See where it ends up.

Speaker 3 (44:13):
Good luck, Greg, Greg Wilson, Wellington bar owner, just gone
twenty after five year on news talks bit. I'll tell
you what. There would be no counselor no maya that
could come between me and we go out to the
vodka when I was at the university, especially with twenty
five percent off. What a bargain News talks.

Speaker 2 (44:30):
Hebe moving the big stories of the day.

Speaker 1 (44:33):
For it's Ryan Bridge on hither do for see Ellen
drive with one New Zealand Let's get connected.

Speaker 3 (44:41):
News talks 'b five twenty three. Good evening. When it
comes to foreign investment, beggars can't be choosers. We've been
far too choosy on foreign investment. No to this, no
to that environment, this rima that you know the story.
We've won the prestigious award of the most restrictive country
in the OECD for foreign direct investment. We rank thirty

(45:03):
eighth out of thirty eight, which is kind of odd
if you think about it. Normally countries are stingy. They
don't want to give away any money. Right here, we're
the opposite. We're the first to tithe in the church
basket when some country wants aid or there's a climate
change fund to contribute to. Oh yes, yes please and

(45:23):
think you old definitely puts the money in for that
solar panel in the Pacific. We love it. But then
when people try to give us money, we say no.
We turn up our noses We're quite pious, quite virtuous,
and say no to things, which is odd. No to
that money. It's dirty. It's from a businessman. It's quite

(45:45):
an unusual thing. So quick to giveth but not to receiveth,
which is why today I just couldn't with Barbara Edmonds
from Labor opposing Seymour's changes to our laws that were
announced yesterday. She came out and said water assets would
be sold. And that's bad, she says, because they're strategically
important to the country. And if you read the cabinet paper,

(46:07):
which I did today, you will find that certain strategically
important businesses must undergo a national interest assessment before anything
goes further. So you look up in the legislation what
is a strategically important business and guess what you find.

(46:28):
The list includes ports, airports, electricity, telecom and wait for it,
water assets. So there are some restrictions Barbara Edmonds will find,
hopefully loose enough to move us from last place on
that friendly for investment list. Bryan Bridge twenty five minutes

(46:49):
after five, You're a newsbook, said B nine nine two
is the number to text. Would love to hear from you.
By the way, the government has put out a press
release this afternoon, just while we've been on air. They
are asking for computation on the tax charity setting. So
Destiny Church, your sanitariums, they have a tax exemption and
the government is asking for feedback on exactly this. They've

(47:11):
put the policy out there and they want you to respond.
We'll tell you what's in it a little later on
in the program. Also the Pope. So the Pope had
part of his lung taken out when he was much younger,
when he was I think twenty one years old. He's
still in a critical condition. He's still getting high flow oxygen.
He now has a new kidney problem, he's getting blood transfusions,

(47:33):
and the word on the street is that things aren't
looking very good. He's eighty eight years old, so he is,
you know, he's an old man. Quite controversial too, and
this will be interesting because they if sadly he does,
you know, leave this world, then they will have to
pick a new pope and do they go with someone conservative,
do they go with someone liberal. He was quite controversial.

(47:54):
He was a little liberal on things like abortion, somewhat
liberal on homosexuality, talked of potentially blessing what he called
irregular marriages, which is, you know, people remarrying or people
in the same sex relationship, which was very controversial as
you can imagine with the more conservative corners of the
Catholic Church. So we'll waiting to see what happens with that.

(48:16):
But yeah, at the moment, not looking too good for
the old Pope. Twenty seven after five, we'll talk to
police after news on the gang.

Speaker 1 (48:23):
Crackdown, recapping the day's big news and making tomorrow's headlines.

(48:51):
It's Ryan Bridge on Heather du for se Ellen Drive
with One New Zealand. Let's get connected news talks.

Speaker 3 (48:58):
That'd be twenty five minutes away from six year on
news talks, there'll be Nicola Willis as the Finance Minister.
She's with us after six. Much to discuss, including the fairies.
Apparently Winston's over in South Korea meeting with Fiondai, who

(49:22):
were going to make the fairies for us, and then
we canceled the contract. We did an inios on them.
We canceled a contract that we'd signed up to and
it could cost us hundreds of millions of dollars. So
the question is is Winston going over there to negotiate
an exit to the current deal that we've pulled out of.
Or is he going over there to negotiate a new
deal with the same ship maker for a different set

(49:45):
of boats. Anyway, we'll ask Nichola Willis she's with us
after six this evening now, lots of people texting in
about Andrew Bailey. Ryan, what a woke country. The MP
didn't abuse whomever. He just touched a shoulder for goodness sakes,
Get real, we have more import issues. The media should
be focusing its attention on twenty four minutes away from
six Bridge. We'll do that right now. The government is

(50:07):
crying about how well the gang patch ban is going.
Three months in three hundred and thirty seven charges for
breaching the Act. So far, sixty seven firearms have been seized.
Weirdly enough, they've only seized seventy six patches. Richard Chambers
is the Commissioner of Polices with me. Good evening, Hello, Ryan,
it's seventy six Now We've got about ten thousand gang

(50:29):
members on the register. That doesn't seem like a huge
number of patches to be seized.

Speaker 2 (50:33):
To me, is it?

Speaker 21 (50:35):
Well? I think there's a couple of reasons for that, Ryan.
First of all before the legislation began, we were very
very clear about what the rules were going to be
after the twenty first November. Our job is to enforce
the law, and my staff across the country had done
marvelous job, so gang members could have. Certainly, we're very
clear about our expectations of them, and so not only

(50:59):
am my staff very hard, but of course I think
when it comes to compliance with the law, this does
reflect some good decision making by game members by not
wearing their patches, So.

Speaker 3 (51:09):
You reckon the reason you've only taken seventy six off
the streets is because they're actually wearing them less.

Speaker 21 (51:15):
Absolutely, it's the feedback that I get from my front
line start afft's the feedback that I get from the public.
Of course, we've charged or prosecuted for over three hundred
breaches of this particular law of the Gang insignia, but
that includes seventy six patches. So there are other things
like T shirts and caps and other bits and pieces.

(51:36):
But yes, I believe that this comes down to the
hard work is myself across the country, and it's certainly
been noticed.

Speaker 3 (51:43):
Okay, interesting, sixty seven firearms you say that have been
seized in the last three months.

Speaker 13 (51:48):
Is that?

Speaker 3 (51:48):
I mean, those have been seized regardless of the gang
patch thing, the insignia.

Speaker 21 (51:52):
I think, well, you know, I mean, of course, in
law enforcement we do a whole lot of different things,
and you know, we're doing search wants for other crimes,
so we come across firearms just through our normal work.
But in this particular legislation if we are unable to

(52:12):
deal with gang and syne at time or allows us
to follow up with search points of premises, and as
a consequence of that, yes, we are finding the firearms.

Speaker 3 (52:23):
And other things.

Speaker 21 (52:24):
That's why three thousand charges other charges for violence, drugs,
and firearms.

Speaker 3 (52:30):
So, I mean, obviously these figures are about seizures and
about things being taken from gang members. Is it actually
having an effect? Are the streets safer because of this
piece of law? Can you say that yet?

Speaker 21 (52:44):
Absolutely?

Speaker 5 (52:45):
It is the case.

Speaker 21 (52:46):
Ryan, not only my front line staff saying that they
see an absolute absence of gang insignia, but more importantly,
the public is saying that they are actually feeling safer,
They are experiencing the same intimidation that they have in
the past. So I think this has been a good

(53:07):
piece of legislation which my staff has embraced and the
benefits of those things in public in the community across
the country.

Speaker 3 (53:16):
You know, it's fascinating to hear you say that, because
it wasn't that long ago that people were saying this
bill was the end of the world.

Speaker 21 (53:22):
You know, Correctret, I think there are a lot of
people out there who thought the police can't do this,
this won't be achieved. Well, I think we've proven those
out there that thought that very wrong.

Speaker 3 (53:32):
Richard Chambers, Police Commissioner, Thanks so much of your time.
Twenty one to six The Huddle with New Zealand Southeast
International Realty, local and global exposure like no other. Tricius
and Shus and Willis pr is with us tonight. Hi Trish,
Hello and Jose Pegani's CEO of Child Fund here too.
Hi Jose, good to have you both on. Interesting, trist
to hear the commissioner they talk about the fact that

(53:55):
how all this thing's.

Speaker 23 (53:56):
Working sounds like it doesn't it, So it's interesting.

Speaker 24 (54:01):
It's one of those things. I was listening to it
on the way to work this morning and thinking, you know,
it's a bit like in New York where they did
the broken windows focus. Remember when New York needed to
clean up and they really focused on the small stuff.
And I think that's probably the strategy that the police
are trying to employ here, to really let the gangs

(54:23):
know that they are watching them all the time. They
won't be able to even put a toe over the line,
and they've gone after what is pretty symbolic and important
to the gangs, which is their patches. You know, there
were a lot of naysayers around this when you know
when the policy was announced, but it feels like it's
got momentum and momentum in the right direction.

Speaker 3 (54:46):
Josie, let's talk defense, because I will come to Andrew
Bailey after the break, because I think Andrew Bailey is
less important. But defense, defense, not about defense. Defense is
quite yeah, in defense, defense is quite important. Trying to
get to two percent of GDP, it's a hell of
a lot of money that we're going to have to
put in. I'm sure many, many, many budgets.

Speaker 23 (55:06):
It's about ten billion in total, right and you think
that's a lot of hospitals, a lot of schools, a
lot of roads, a lot of cycle ways, whatever you
want to spend that money on. There is a trade off.
But the truth is, when I look at it, Ryan,
the only frigate that we've sunk in the last fifty
years our own. So you know, we're not really in
a very good position to defend ourselves. And we have to,

(55:28):
I think, face the fact that there is a new
era beginning. We're in totally new territory here. We cannot
rely on our old alliance, our old Second World War
alliance of the US. It's you know, back to Miter's right.
The big country's carving up the little countries between them.
So we do have to think strategically. And I know
that a lot of our defense force in it, and

(55:51):
you know, a lot of debate has gone on for
a long time, right, not just this government, but before
I think the approach has to be a little bit
like our approach to trade in the sense that we
need multiple different alliances. Right, we have to be really
careful I think of not suddenly shackling ourselves to a
very volatile US administration at the moment. Whatever your politics,
it's certainly volatile. Right, So August two, I don't think still,

(56:15):
I don't think is a good idea for us. They
are our natural allies, you know, the US, the UK,
Europe obviously, but there are other you know, we're a
good partner to NATO. NATO is one of the most
successful minutus out there.

Speaker 3 (56:30):
I mean, it's interesting because I think if you go
back to Anas that we got the boot from because
we wouldn't let the nuclear powered warships come into our harbors.
If we're talking about doubling defense spending trish to ten
billion dollars, surely we would look at that as a
way to curry favor with the US.

Speaker 24 (56:50):
Well, there have to be some trade offs.

Speaker 2 (56:52):
I think.

Speaker 24 (56:53):
The interesting thing. The interesting question for New Zealand though,
is did we misread this twenty five years ago? Because
I went back today and had a look at the
time when we were debating whether or not we should
have a jet fighter force for our air force, remember
that when we got rid of the Skyhawks. And then

(57:13):
there was a statement there from Phil Goff from the
Labor Party at the time, and he said, you know,
what we are focused on primarily is that it is
a priority for New Zealand to have peacekeeping as the
focus of deployment of our armed forces. And you think

(57:33):
about how we've shaped our defense forces over that last
twenty five years, it has been all about a peacekeeping role.
And to Josie's point, you know, no one could have
looked in the crystal ball and seen Trump coming. But
we can no longer count on the United States, and
in fact, we are going to have to try and

(57:55):
chart a very interesting defense policy with out the United
United States as a sort of a core pillar that
we can count on.

Speaker 23 (58:05):
And oh, yes, sorry, carry on, I know, I was
just going to I was just going to say that.

Speaker 24 (58:10):
You know, in my view, it is no accident that
the Chinese are now flexing there this image of their
muscle faces that they would never have done before. Totally
get that. It's it's you know, they apparently not doing
anything outside the law, but the timing of that is interesting.

Speaker 23 (58:29):
Yeah, quick comments on that. You're right that we need
to do multiple things. Right, It's not just increase our
defense spending. If you look at the Cook Islands and
their new relationship with China, which is worried that Jesus
out of our government and everybody else, the response to
that is never going to be more defense spending. It's
going to be, well, why don't we spend the money
on helping the Cook Islands build a deep sea port

(58:50):
and looking at their mineral extraction or whatever. So there
has to be an increase in support for the Pacific.
That might be an increase in a budget.

Speaker 20 (58:58):
I don't know.

Speaker 23 (58:59):
I mean a saying that as an aid agency, but
you have to.

Speaker 3 (59:02):
Look at more than just you can't just look at
defensive and I think I think everybody would acknowledge that point.
You would the news talk said be Trisha Shuson and
Josie Bugani on the Huddle tonight. We'll be back in
just a second to talk about Andrew Bailey.

Speaker 1 (59:19):
To the Huddle with New Zealand Southeby's International Realty Elevate
the marketing of your Home.

Speaker 3 (59:24):
Tris Shuson Huson Willis PR Josie Bigani's CEO of Child
Fun on the Huddle tonight, welcome back. So when is
a is an argument actually just an animated discussion? And
when you touch somebody on the shoulder are you shoving them?
I mean, these are the questions we're asking, but we
have no answers on the Andrew Bailey saga. Trish, what
is your reading of this? Just briefly? Do you is
this like he had one booboo. Second boo boo means

(59:48):
go time or do you think this is like a
serious thing.

Speaker 23 (59:50):
Booboo sounds even more weirder.

Speaker 3 (59:52):
Sorry, that was me.

Speaker 23 (59:54):
Okay, if we did a booboo, he's definitely out.

Speaker 3 (59:56):
I'm sure.

Speaker 24 (59:57):
Yeah, Well, a booboo or a gaff, I think, And
I mean, and that's the one thing about Bailey.

Speaker 25 (01:00:02):
I think this is.

Speaker 24 (01:00:03):
Probably why he resigned before he was pushed. I think
after the Marlborough wine issue last year, he probably didn't
have the support of the Prime Minister to back him
a second time. And I read a great comment actually

(01:00:25):
from Patrick Smelly this afternoon which I thought summed up
Andrew Bailey, you know, one of those guys successful in
business but not a very good professional politician. You know,
has struggled to communicate, clearly, has been a bit gaff prone,
has sort of had a way about him that, you
know at events that can kind of you know, make

(01:00:46):
people feel that you know, he's trying to be a
bit of a David Brent. So I think that's you know,
he probably just didn't have the backing of the Prime minister.
You know, Luxeon probably didn't want to burn political capital
a second time round to rescue him.

Speaker 3 (01:01:00):
What would you bother?

Speaker 23 (01:01:00):
Yeah, I mean Patrick Smellie's piece was really good actually
because he pointed out he's done some good stuff Andrew Bailey.
He's helped to open the door to more New Zealand
investment in Keywi savor, he's tried to kind of go
for the growth growth growth mantra by removing regulations and
so on. So he's probably been quite useful for Luxon.
But yeah, I think you're right. This is just you know,

(01:01:23):
two strikes and you're out that. The weird thing is
that when they would do better to tell us what
actually happened, because I don't quite believe animated discussion. I mean,
you know that's a good night out, isn't it that
that's what we're having now on the huddle And I'm
not asking you to resign.

Speaker 3 (01:01:37):
Now, so we is Is this one of those things though,
where that you know there'll be people and our animated
discussion Josie.

Speaker 23 (01:01:44):
Yeah, you're reaching out to me is if you're going
to touch.

Speaker 3 (01:01:46):
Me on the upper arm to just watch it right
and see you trembling, But that an animated discussion to
us might be to one of the producers out here,
the little woke trembling ones. Yeah, it might be something
quite different, do you know what I mean? So is
that one of these cases.

Speaker 23 (01:02:02):
One man's one man's woke trembling is another man's animated
discussion at the point.

Speaker 3 (01:02:07):
One man is touching the upper arm is another man's shovel.

Speaker 23 (01:02:10):
If I could tell you how many people I've hugged
today at work, I would be arrested. Personal grievance, well
or the other thing it may be.

Speaker 24 (01:02:18):
And this could be a positive thing that the bar
may have started to squeak up in terms of actually
what is acceptable in terms of parliamentary behavior. I mean,
Jose and I both worked in parliament as as young woman,
and you know sometimes you would leave offices not only
you know, having been sort of verbally shredded limb from limb,

(01:02:41):
but you know there might have been a touch or
two on the upper arm on the well through. But
I think I think the I think the bar is
now much higher and people are much more sensitive to it.

Speaker 17 (01:02:55):
This is true.

Speaker 3 (01:02:56):
Right, Let's move on to viewser This is the Victoria
University Students Association. Why do you think own a bar
on the campus? So the hypocrisy knows no bounds. But anyway,
they complained because a bar from outside campus came in
handed out flyers offering a discount for alcohol students on
O Week and apparently the Students Association has got a

(01:03:16):
problem with this. Is this just sound a bit mad
to you, Joseph.

Speaker 23 (01:03:19):
I'm just looking forward to the government breaking up the
monopoly of the student union bar.

Speaker 21 (01:03:24):
You know this.

Speaker 2 (01:03:24):
I mean, clearly this.

Speaker 23 (01:03:25):
Is just a competition thing. Obviously you're going to be
promoting fun nights out in OH week to students.

Speaker 3 (01:03:33):
This is this is weird and to think, Trish that
the council is now involved.

Speaker 24 (01:03:38):
Oh well, this just confirms Wellington's reputation is a city
of damp, woolen disappointment. I mean, it's a kind of
helicopter parenting that's slowly shutting Wellington down. And Victoria, let's remember,
is really struggling to attract students. I just thought the
comment from the student union leader in his complaint that

(01:03:58):
students will vulnerable to targeting by bars and at risk
of alcohol related harm by being in premises quote with
minimal pastoral and safety services. I had never been to
a bar in my life and ordered some pastoral services.
If I wanted that, I would whip down to the
local Methodist church.

Speaker 3 (01:04:20):
Very good, well said, thanks guys, Joseph Beganni Trish Jesson
on the huddle. You're on Newstalk SIDB.

Speaker 1 (01:04:27):
It's the Heather Duplessy allan Drive full show podcast on
my Heart Radio powered by.

Speaker 3 (01:04:32):
News Talk ZBB NEWSTALKSB just gone five away from six.
We've got retail sales out today for the quarter December quarter.
It was up. It's good and it's not great, but
it's good. Zero point nine percent. This is on the
September quarter to twenty five billion dollars modest number. Accommodation
was a big driver of this, up seven point six percent.

(01:04:54):
Electrical and electrical and electronic goods a five point one percent.
Otago on West Coast had the big jump in sales
for the December quarter, which is good for them. What
does this will mean for everybody, Well, we're a bit
more confident, we're swiping our credit card, just a little
bit more buying stuff, which is heading in the right direction.
It's just gone four to six now. So biggest apparently

(01:05:16):
biggest theft ever from a crypto exchange has happened. This
is on by bit and I've got their brightest minds
trying to solve the cyber crime. So somehow this is
the thieves managed to nick off with three billion New
Zealand dollars roughly worth of crypto coin. This is Dubai Base,
which is no surprise because there's a lot of shady

(01:05:38):
stuff that goes on and do buy. How my question
is if crypto currencies and bitcoin and all that kind
of stuff is so safe and anonymized, I don't understand
how you would actually steal it. How do you steal
bitcoin or a cryptocurrency? And is if you can steal it,

(01:05:59):
then surely can't be as safe as they play with us.
That would be my only thought. Three minutes away from six,
Nicola Willis is here after the News.

Speaker 2 (01:06:30):
Today. Oh aren't you I need you Olga, uh.

Speaker 6 (01:06:37):
Need these beautiful things that are.

Speaker 1 (01:06:42):
We're Business Meets Insight the Business Hours with Ryan Bridge
and Mass Insurance and Investments, Grow.

Speaker 2 (01:06:51):
Your Wealth, Protect your future.

Speaker 3 (01:06:53):
News Talk Shi be good evening at a seven halfter
six year on news Talk said be coming up Shane
Solely on the retail sales Starter so Ryman's billion dollar
capital raised the German economy on the ropes. Manufacturing powerhouse
needs a reboot post election. We'll discuss that and Gavin
Gray's in the UK for us right now. Nicola willis
the Finance Minister. Good evening, Good evening, Ryn. Great to

(01:07:13):
have you on the show as always. Firstly, the defense
spending stuff. Obviously, the judicons was on the show Friday
said yeah, we want we basically want to get to
two percent. I mean that's going to take a few budgets,
isn't it.

Speaker 25 (01:07:27):
Yes, it will take a few budgets. What we're working
on is a defense capability plan that sets out what
are the big bits of kit, the big investments we
need to make to get our defense force ready, and
that will take us out to twenty forty. So it's
about what order you do things in, and it's about
increasing spending in every budget between now and then.

Speaker 3 (01:07:48):
Right, So basically you'd try hit two percent by twenty
forty would be the goal.

Speaker 25 (01:07:53):
Well, the exact date at which we hit two percent
is a decision for cabinets, so I won't get ahead of.

Speaker 3 (01:07:57):
That fair enough. Does this all alter your new spending allowance?

Speaker 25 (01:08:03):
Look, this is always something that I've been factoring in
as I've been thinking about how we put the budget together,
and I'm confident that we will be able to build
our defense capability while sticking to the fiscal commitments we've.

Speaker 3 (01:08:15):
Made, which has remind two point three to two point four.

Speaker 25 (01:08:18):
Billion, wasn't it two point two point four billion dollar
operating allowance?

Speaker 3 (01:08:21):
So that will stay and will include a commitment to
defense and increased commitment to defense. That's right, Ryan, Okay,
and then every year thereafter I suppose the thing is,
do you know what you want to spend it on you?
Or are we arbitrarily increasing the number for the sake
of it?

Speaker 25 (01:08:39):
Well, that's the great question, because that's exactly what we
didn't want to do, just commit to spending on whatever whenever.
So that's the detailed work that's been happening in the
background with the New Zealand Defense Force to be really
clear about what are the particular bits of kits that
will make us most useful to our ally Australia, that
will most be able to deliver the functions we want
in our part of the world. What do we need

(01:09:01):
for our workforce, what do we need for our infrastructure,
and what order should we do all of those things
in so that we do the most important priorities first
and roll that out in a way that's deliverable. Because
even if we had a magic money tree emerged tomorrow,
the Defense Force wouldn't be able to just suddenly purchase
a whole bunch of kit So we need to do

(01:09:21):
this in a way that's logical, reasonable and gets good value.

Speaker 3 (01:09:24):
The Overseas Investment Act stuff. Barbara Edmans came out this
morning and said, well, she used the word fire sale
of our assets, and she also suggested that there'd be
problems with selling our water assets. Is that I've had
a read of the cabinet paper. It's very clear that
significant or strategically important businesses light Water would go through
a national interest test. So is this scare mungering or

(01:09:45):
what is this?

Speaker 24 (01:09:47):
Yeah, that's right.

Speaker 25 (01:09:47):
Look, I was really shocked by the alarmist tone of
her press release and it actually made me think that
there's either ignorance at play or she's genuinely trying to
scare in New z Islander. Is because Barbara should know
that New Zealand has one of the most restrictive overseas
investment regimes in the world, and it's actually choking cash

(01:10:09):
out of our economy. It's making it harder for renewable
energy to be built, it's making it harder for new
factories to be built, it's making it harder for businesses
to access funding. And we're simply talking about streamlining the process,
making it fast, a less complex, making this a more
attractive people place for people to invest, while also very
much keeping in place protections around keyes yet's and very

(01:10:32):
much keeping in place the screening process to protect our
national security. So you know, when Chicken Little cries that
the sky is going to fall, it makes it harder
next time to take them seriously. And I think that's
the territory that Barbara's got itself into.

Speaker 3 (01:10:46):
Will you ever tick do not return dividend on one
of these gen tailors. I spoke to Genesis on Friday.
They said, well you need to do is click do
not return dividend, reinvest it into new generation, and we'll
do just that.

Speaker 25 (01:11:00):
I focus is what do I do to get cheaper
prices for New Zealand electricity users? And what do I
do about we've got secure electricity generation?

Speaker 3 (01:11:08):
Would help right?

Speaker 25 (01:11:09):
Well, that would raise a number of other questions about
how you would then make sure that that return dividend
actually ended up in your bank account and the bank
account of other New Zealanders with cheaper bills. And so
there'd be quite a few steps to go through to
make sure that we were confident that that money that
we were giving back to the gent tailor was actually
going to end up in cheaper electricity prices. So I'd

(01:11:30):
want to step through.

Speaker 11 (01:11:31):
All of that first.

Speaker 25 (01:11:32):
There is no question for me we need to do
more in this area to make sure that people are
getting a better deal out of our electricity system. And
we will have more to say about it actually in
the coming.

Speaker 3 (01:11:43):
Days about are the electricity sector announcements you'll the sort
of raiser gang or the committee that's been looking at
that not raise a gang, forgive me. That's coming out
in the next couple of days.

Speaker 4 (01:11:55):
That's right.

Speaker 25 (01:11:55):
The Competition Task Force will have more to say.

Speaker 3 (01:11:58):
Okay, good to know now, Andrew Bailey is can you
help explain this to us because it seems odd like
he's a minister. One minute, he literally just touches the arm.
There's nothing aggressive going on, he says, what's going on there?

Speaker 17 (01:12:15):
Well?

Speaker 25 (01:12:16):
As he said today, concerns were raised with him about
an incident in which his behavior towards the staff member
was overbearing. He had those concerns animated as concerns communicated
to him. His reflection on that was that he had
taken the discussion too far, that he was wrong to
have placed his hand on their upper arm, that it

(01:12:36):
was inappropriate, and he made the decision that he hadn't
met the standards of behavior that he thinks should be
expected of a minister, offered his resignation and that has
been accepted.

Speaker 3 (01:12:47):
Okay, the disaster insurance levy tell us we're not going
to be on the hook for another five or even
one thousand dollars a year.

Speaker 25 (01:12:54):
Well, this is yet to be decided. We're consulting on it.
The basic issue is, right now, we don't have enough
money in the kitty. If there was a major natural
has it a major earthquake? So this is the old
EQC and as it is, it only has five hundred
and fifty million in its kitty. And if there was

(01:13:15):
a big earthquake tomorrow, it would need two point one
billion to cover those initial costs before it could then
go out for reinsurance. So what has been consulted on
by David Seymour is how could we build that up
over time? Obviously we won't be able to do it overnight,
so that we actually can give New Zealand as confidence
that the government will have the money it needs when
the next big one strikes.

Speaker 3 (01:13:35):
You're consulting on tax changes tax exemptions. I should say,
for the charities including the Lights of Destiny Church, you're
saying you would stop their exemption and we are asking
for us to see what we think about that is
that the gist of it.

Speaker 25 (01:13:51):
Always have shed previously. My focus is, yes, you want good,
strong charities that are doing public good to be exempt
from taxation. That's a positive thing. But I'm concerned about
the fairness and integrity of that regime and I want
to avoid people avoiding tax.

Speaker 21 (01:14:06):
That they should pay.

Speaker 25 (01:14:07):
So we have canvassed a number of issues, the idea
of put out a discussion document to get feedback on.
One of them is this issue where charity businesses are
currently exempt from income tax and we're asking the question, well,
actually should they, in fact, if they're running a commercial
business be subject to income taxes. We're also looking at

(01:14:28):
this issue of donor controlled charities where a family potentially
have a foundation that they control and may not actually
be directly contributing to a charitable purpose. So there's a
number of detailed issues we want to get people's feedback
on should we fix these things? And as I say,
my focus is, it's got to be fair. It's got
to have integrity, because otherwise people doubt whether or not

(01:14:50):
those exemptions for charities should even be there in the
first place. And I think in most cases they should be.
But where there's bad behavior, we've got to give the
ID the tools it needs to.

Speaker 5 (01:15:00):
Down on it.

Speaker 3 (01:15:01):
All Right, Hey, just had a thought, lucks your bosses
off to Vietnam or he's potentially on a plane already.
And Winston Peters is overseas. Who's in charge of the moment.

Speaker 25 (01:15:12):
David Seymour will be in charge of the acting Prime Minister.

Speaker 3 (01:15:15):
Thanks for your time, Minister, Nichola Willis's the Finance Minister
with us. Just gone quarter past six on Newstalk ZB
Shane selling. Next, we'll have a market wrap, plus what's
going on with Ryman and this billion dollar capital rais.

Speaker 1 (01:15:28):
It's the Heather dupas Allen Drive Full Show podcast on
my Heart Radio powered by Newstalk Zebbie, it's.

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(01:16:19):
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Speaker 2 (01:16:30):
Brian Bridge twenty.

Speaker 3 (01:16:31):
Minutes up six Shane Solies here Harbor Asset Management, Shane.

Speaker 26 (01:16:35):
Good evening, Oh good, hey Brian, how you are?

Speaker 3 (01:16:38):
Yeah, very good? Thank you? Does these stronger data we
got out today? This is the retail sales data up
point nine percent for the December quarter. Is that a
good Obviously it's a good sign. But is it good enough?

Speaker 21 (01:16:48):
Yeah?

Speaker 26 (01:16:49):
Look at phase for you actually, sugge. You said a
little bit of upside for the New Zion economy. Retail
sales quite sensitive to interest rates, so a bit of
a lead for the economy. But we're going to be
careful when we break it down. Some of this might
be about retailers actually doing a bit of discount and
cunning some prices to get stock out. And certainly it's
all with some of the more sensitive pieces the recreational goods, electronics,

(01:17:10):
department stores. These are real sensitive to confidence and pricing
bearer up and accommodation of food and beverages up. Maybe
that's about tourism, so a little bit early, but you
certainly it's helpful.

Speaker 20 (01:17:21):
It'suggest it certainly bounce along the bottom.

Speaker 3 (01:17:25):
How bad is the spark situation?

Speaker 2 (01:17:28):
Yeah, Look, we have.

Speaker 26 (01:17:29):
Yet to see the company come out with a strategy
that really is convincing investors that they are found the bottom,
that they're turning around. A little bit cyclical. It is
about the economy. They are sensitive to you and I
and our decisions to spend and what's happening with some
of the government changes.

Speaker 21 (01:17:45):
But a little bit.

Speaker 26 (01:17:46):
It's about what the company is doing. So we are
looking forward to seeing a better strategy coming from the
management team. There's an opportunity with data centers, but yeah,
it's really about the company turning things around.

Speaker 3 (01:17:58):
The retirement village operated the this is rhyme and healthcare.
So they've announced this billion dollar capital right trying to
get rid of some debt.

Speaker 26 (01:18:05):
Yeah, they're raising a billion dollars. Very much about getting
debt levels point where they can deal with a slower
period of sales. It's harder for them to sell their
retirement units. In the board, management said, look, we need
to take the balance sheet risk away, reset the business transformer.
I think you really importantly, it's a big goalp for
investors to digest. It has knocked the market around today.

(01:18:28):
We're seeing the New zeal market down one point on
the back of this announcement. And a couple of soft
results from Chorus the cable communications provider and see on tube.
But really for residents of Ryman, this should be seen
as being a positive that does allow Ryman to complete
some of the developments that curn't round away and continue
to provide the service levels that residents expect. But yeah,

(01:18:51):
a big hit on.

Speaker 20 (01:18:51):
The day for the market.

Speaker 3 (01:18:53):
Yeah, absolutely sounds like it's Shane, Thanks so much for that,
Shane Sally Harbor Asset Management with us on News Talk
to B twenty one minutes after six. Lots more to come,
including I'll tell you more about this fee that we
are potentially going to have to pay. This is the
insurance levy that for natural disasters and things. It's some
really interesting information on it, and basically it comes down
to either we pay now or the government through our taxes,

(01:19:16):
will pay in a lump sum when the next disaster
strikes are running through that next.

Speaker 2 (01:19:22):
If it's to do with money, it matters to you.

Speaker 1 (01:19:25):
The Business Hour with Ryan Bridge and there's insurance and investments,
grow your wealth, protect your future newstalks V.

Speaker 3 (01:19:33):
Six twenty six. Hope you're having a good Monday afternoon.
So three proposals have been presented for the Western Springs Speedway.
For those who don't know it, it's in gray LINN.
It's sort of an outlier in that area because there's
a lot of fancy and sort of weird people in Grayland,
aren't there the Republic, the Great Republic of gray Lin
And then you've got this speedway where you know, some quiet,

(01:19:57):
hectic racing takes place. Anyway, that will be no more
and so what will replace it is the question. And
the council's looking at this and stuff's got a story
out saying on Wednesday the Council is going to be
presented with some options, three different options. But it's interesting
in here they talk about Auckland's stadia generally and the
state of them and what we actually need. Auckland needs

(01:20:19):
three stadiums. A main stadium capacity thirty thousand to sixty thousand.
They say this could either be Eden Park or it
could be the one downtown on the waterfront that everyone
wants to build. Then they need a medium sized stadium,
which would be Mount Smart that's tenenty to twenty five thousand,
and then thus is suggesting this boutique stadium with a

(01:20:41):
capacity of eight to ten thousand, and that one would
potentially go to Western Springs, so you'd have three stadiums
of varying sizes, and they envisage that you would see
in the big one the All Blacks tests, the Super
Rugby and the Warriors playoff games only. And then in

(01:21:01):
the medium stadium he said, this is out at Mount
Smart you would get your regular Blues and your regular
Warriors games, also some high profile Auckland FC games, and
at this boutique thing you would get the A League matches,
the regular ones, the Black Ferns test, the NPC games
and the Super Rugby O Picky and the NRLW games,
black Caps test domestic cricket. So it's kind of an

(01:21:23):
interesting thing to think about what exactly happens with all
of that. I guess is you know, well, we'll find
out after Wednesday, presumably News Talk ZB. It is twenty
seven minutes after six coming up after the news, where
well plenty on we're going to talk about the German economy,
just how bug it is it and what are they
need to do to pull it out of you know,

(01:21:43):
pull their socks up over in Germany. Oliver Hartwitch next.

Speaker 2 (01:22:02):
Croaching the numbers and getting the results.

Speaker 1 (01:22:05):
It's Ryan Bridge with the business hour and mas insurance
and investments, grew your wealth, protect your future.

Speaker 2 (01:22:12):
News talks B.

Speaker 3 (01:22:17):
Because I'm filling with free You told me twenty five away,
Brohm seven, you're o news talks at B. So quickly
running through what's happening with the insurance situation, we could
be facing bills of anywhere between an extra one hundred
dollars to maybe even one thousand dollars a year, depending
on what happens with this. It used to be that

(01:22:39):
known as the EQUC levy. It's now the Natural Hazards
Insurance levy. Anyway, it's tacked onto your insurance premiums for
your house, and the government's consulting on changes to it.
The problem is, so it's up that plus the other
fee that they charge potentially up to an extra one
thousand dollars a year onto your budget. The problem here
is that the fund is running basically dry. There is

(01:23:02):
a thirty seven percent chance of it meeting its costs
in the future, which is not a great number. It
so the fund covers a capped portion of buildings and
land that have been damaged by earthquakes, landslides, volcanoes, tsunamis, storms,
that kind of thing. So either we pay more as
we go or the government is going to have to

(01:23:24):
front up next time there is a big storm, next
time there is a big tsunami or an earthquake. And
you know that day will come twenty four away from
seven Ryan Bridge. So Germany is on the road to change.
The Christian Democrats got the highest share of the vote,
with a tech over twenty eight percent. The far right
the AfD, got their best of a result with a
twenty percent share, but they won't enter government, as they

(01:23:45):
say to you. Who's ruled them out as a coalition partner.
The New Zealand executive director, sorry, New Zealand Initiative executive
director is Oliver Hart. Which he's with me. He's an
expert on European and Gyman politics. Good evening, Oliver, good evening,
thanks for being with me. I want to talk about
the German economy, massive manufacturing powerhouse, third largest economy in

(01:24:06):
the world, but is facing some real headwinds and selling
it basically its cars to the rest of the world.

Speaker 5 (01:24:15):
Yes, and that's not the only problem the German economy faces.
It's also an economy facing massive bureaucracy costs and of
course massive energy costs because it was an economic model
that was based on cheap energy, cheap energy imports from Russia.
And of course with the Ukraine War that ended, and
then of course the Chinese took over the large part

(01:24:36):
of the German car manufacturer's market and that was it.
And so Germany has been struggling ever since. And that
was one of the reasons why the outgoing government was
so unpopular in the end.

Speaker 3 (01:24:47):
And Germans, Germany is not used to struggling in recent years,
is it.

Speaker 5 (01:24:53):
Well, the last time Germany struggled was about twenty years ago,
when unemployment reached five million people in two thousand and three,
two thousand. Then they had some economic performance in the
labor market and the next twenty years basically went thinningly.
More recently, of course, from all the other geopolitical factors
are starting to buy it for the Germans. And as

(01:25:13):
I said, this is one of the explanations for the
rights of the AfD.

Speaker 3 (01:25:17):
So what do they do about it, because you've got,
as you said, the energy situation. Well, hopefully we'll have
a resolution to the war in Ukraine, which will help
you alleviate some of that, but the bureaucracy, obviously you
can cut some of that. What do they have to
do and can they do it? Was whoever they might
manage to form a government with.

Speaker 5 (01:25:36):
Well, they obviously have to work on deregulation and getting
rid of the bureaucracy, which is a massive problem for Germany.
They have to do something about the energy market because
the cheap Russian guests will not come back. Even at
the end of the Ukraine War, and keep in mind
that they also faced out nuclear power right in the
middle of the wars. Well, that was probably not the

(01:25:57):
wisest decision to take. So they have to work a
lot on the economic front. But they also have to
do on top of that, is they have to re
arm because the German armed forces are in a sorry
state and with the current uncertain geopolitical landscape, Germany has
to invest a lot more in its defense. So there
are many many challengers waiting for the next and most
likely new Chancellor British mats And he has never had

(01:26:20):
an executive role in his whole career. At sixty nine,
He's been an MP for a long time. He's an
experienced lawyer, but this is the first time that he
actually takes an executive job in government, and so that
would be interesting to see how he adjusted that.

Speaker 3 (01:26:33):
Did Angelo Miraicle make some pretty big fatal errors in
relying on that guess from Russia and also on migration.

Speaker 5 (01:26:42):
Yes, she made some massive errors on guests. She also
made some massive errors when comest migration, opening the boarders
to a massive wave of refugees in twenty fifteen. And
again this is another explanation for the vice of THEFD,
because the AfD was the party that made it its
main topic really over the last ten years, to fight
against this rise of asilent seekers and refugees, to the

(01:27:04):
point actually where sixty eight percent of Germans and recent
polls said that they thought the level was where divine
should be reduced. And so all of this and the
unwillingness of the existing parties to tackle any of these
issues explains why the AfD became such a strong party
in yesterday's election.

Speaker 3 (01:27:20):
Do you believe me as when he says he won't
touch the AfD, do you think he would break that blockade?

Speaker 5 (01:27:27):
I totally believe him on that because he has actually
positioned himself very clearly on that what he was trying
to do, especially over the past few weeks, was to
rob the AfD of its lifeblood by basically tackling the
problems that many other German politicians on the center right
had so far refused to even talk about. He tried
to actually rob the AfD some of the percentage points.

(01:27:49):
That may not have worked in the short run, as
he could see in the election result yesterday, but I
think in the long run this is probably the only
chance that his party has to actually regain some of
the territory that over the past ten years lost.

Speaker 3 (01:28:02):
Can you explain how his party is going to work
basically basically going to have to work with al of
Schultz's party that they you know, more left wing party
that's in government and coalition at the moment. How does
that work?

Speaker 5 (01:28:15):
Not very interesting to see, But then again Germans are
used to having relatively unusual coalitions. In mind by New
Zealand's then that's what we're talking about, is a coalition
of National and Labor, except National would have twenty eight
percent in Labor sixteen. So this is roughly just to
put it in context into context, this is what the
Germans have to deal with. But then again, they've had

(01:28:37):
very unusual constellations in government before. I mean, think of
the outgoing government was a coalition of the Social Democrats,
the Greens and the FTPS about New Zealand standards that
have been Labor Act and the Greens together. I mean,
it was one of the reasons why it probably didn't
work any end because it was such an unusual coalition.
But there is a tradition of having unusual coalitions. And

(01:28:58):
it's not the first time, of course that we get
this so called grand coalition. I mean, it's happened in
the nineteen sixties before, it happened for most of the
time that Angela Marck was Chancellor. Saw this is just
another kind of grand coalition and they have been there before.

Speaker 3 (01:29:14):
Oliver, thank you very much for that. Oliver Hartwitch, who's
the New Zealand Initiative executive Director. Interesting, that, isn't it?
And I don't know. Maybe one day our MMP system
will mature in such a way that that will be
entirely possible too, because if you think about Labor and National,
if you think about all the parties in Parliament, the
two that are probably the most closely aligned would be

(01:29:36):
Labor and national, wouldn't it. I mean, look at their budgets.
The budgets are almost identical. They're borrowing. Nicola Willis is borrowing,
you know, more than Grant Robertson did. Yeah, I mean,
obviously they're going to rain it in an over a
longer period of time. Blah blah blah. But it probably
happened one day eighteen away from seven. We're in London,

(01:29:58):
next micro.

Speaker 2 (01:30:00):
Microbe or just plain economics.

Speaker 1 (01:30:03):
It's all on the Business Hour with Ryan Bridge, Layer's
Insurance and Investments, Grow your wealth, protect your future.

Speaker 3 (01:30:11):
These talk said, it's called the seven time to go
to Devin Gray. You can europe correspondent givin good evening
to you Ei. They right, Hey, let's talk about what's
happening in Spain right now. Police have arrested forty eight
people listening connection with a suspected human trafficking ring.

Speaker 27 (01:30:28):
Yeah, and a massive one at that. The allegations are
that they have lured more than a thousand women to
the country for sex work. The Polincia Nacional the Armed
Officers Section, carried out raids across Alacanti and Murcia, that's
the southeast of the country. It's said that they found
evidence that the women, who were mostly from Venezuela and Colombia,

(01:30:52):
were basically told they would be given jobs in beauty
salons or cleaning jobs. However, once they got to Spain,
they were then forced into the sex trade and only
allowed out for a couple of hours a day and
kept under constant video surveillance. Two Colombian women and a
Spaniard have are among the dozens that have been detained,

(01:31:15):
and then three strip clubs have also been shut down.
Officers have seized about two million New Zealand dollars from
bank accounts and also in cash and now the suspects
have been remanded in custody and will appear in court shortly.

Speaker 3 (01:31:32):
All right, this British couple in their seventies so arrested
by the Teleiban in Afghanistan. What were they doing?

Speaker 27 (01:31:40):
Yeah, it's very very unusual. So the couple met at
the University of Bath in the UK. However they got
married in Afghanistan and they run projects, including some for
training mothers and children. So they run educational projects.

Speaker 3 (01:31:56):
And particularly for girls older and well.

Speaker 27 (01:32:02):
Sorry, the Taliban to be clear, RN have banned women
working and they've also banned an education on girls older
than the age of twelve. So this pair really setting
up education for young mothers is treading a very fine line,
and they kept adapting the courses. The courses that they

(01:32:22):
were running were accepted by the local branch of the Taliban. However,
as they were going home, they were detained. The man
is seventy nine years old, the woman is seventy five
years old, and they were returning to their home in
Bamiyam when they were detained. For the first couple of
days of their detention, they were still in touch with

(01:32:44):
their daughter via phone, but then all of a sudden
that communication has stopped, and that stopped off fortnight ago,
and the daughter's very concerned, particularly as their father needs
some drugs for his poorly heart. So they're very very
concern about this. The foreign officers it's a whare to
have been detained, but say that assistance is limited because

(01:33:06):
the UK does not recognize the Taliban, has no embassy
in car Bull and this couple, who everyone says are
a lovely couple trying to do good in Afghanistan for
a country that they loved, and how to being detained
by the Taliban.

Speaker 3 (01:33:19):
It's a sad case. But also at the same time
they would have not knowne and understood exactly the risk
that they were taking. Surely, you know, you would have thought, yeah, hey,
what is up with these QR codes in Munich and Germany.

Speaker 27 (01:33:33):
Nobody knows. So one thousand stickers have been placed on
different graves, one per grave at three cemeteries in Munich,
that's the south of Germany. The stickers have got QR codes,
and they've been put on both old and recent graves,
scattered around, not in particular blocks, and they've got a

(01:33:56):
QR code that when you'll read it and when you
scan it is the name of the person buried and
the location of their grave in the cemetery.

Speaker 3 (01:34:04):
Reading.

Speaker 27 (01:34:04):
Of course, the words on a gravestone can be tricky
because of the moss and algae that builds up on
these things. But these small stickers three and a half
centimeters by five surfaced in recent days at these three cemeteries,
and nobody claims to have put them there, and nobody
knows what they're for. Police are investigating the incident. There

(01:34:25):
is a course of fear, particularly in Germany, that there
might be targeting of the Jewish graves or graves from
particular eras. But yeah, nobody knows what these QR codes
and yet they look very formal, very sort of officially
printed and actually do link to some solid information, but
obviously loved ones haven't given their permissions for them, so they're.

Speaker 2 (01:34:44):
All a bit at a loss.

Speaker 3 (01:34:46):
Very weird indeed, Deevin, thank you very much for that.
Devin Gray are UK and Europe Correspondent's gone tin away
from seven on news Talks.

Speaker 2 (01:34:53):
He'd big it's the hitherto per see allan Drive full
show podcast on iHeartRadio powered by new TALKSB.

Speaker 3 (01:35:01):
News TALKSB eight minutes away from seven. I was reading
an article in the Guardian, I think it was The
Guardian the other day, and I don't mind admitting to
you that I was jealous, jealous and and economic. It
was economic jealousy of Denmark. And there was a really
interesting article that talked about Nova. Noticed this is the
company that makes the skinny drugs like your Way Go

(01:35:25):
Vis and what's the other one called the main one
that all of the young celebrities are on, all of
the Real Housewives and everything. They're all on ozenpic. So
this is the company behind that and it's based in Denmark.
It's a pharmaceutical company. Anyway, Their pre tax profit was
thirty billion dollars, up twenty two percent. Their patients get
skinny and their profits get fat, like morbidly obese fat.

(01:35:48):
That's how big their profits are. So they're creating an
absolute boon for the Danes and it's a great story
for them. Really. It is so with the town where
it's produced. This is a great article. Just list some
of the flow on effects there. For the smally town
in Denmark, the petrol station, they roased thirty kilograms of
pork to make sandwiches every morning. Now all these craftsmen

(01:36:08):
that come in like the pork sandwiches, they say. The
local supermarket has seen sales increase fivefold. The fast foods
store sold seventeen thousand hot dogs and a month to
hungry construction workers because they're building more factories. Denmark's GDP
is one of the fastest growing in Europe. Half of
that half of their GDP is from pharmaceutical companies. Two

(01:36:31):
thirds of Mark's. Denmark's GDP growth came from just four areas.
For burrows all share one thing in common, where Nova
nor Disk premises are located. That's the fat drug, skinny drug.
I was telling you about this earlier. You know all
of the flow on effects from this, the taxes, and
it's interesting when you come down. I'm no communist, but

(01:36:53):
you come down and you read what is going on
in Denmark. They've got MRSK, they've got the big brewer,
they've got Lego, the toy maker, and they've got Novo Nordisk.
They are all owned partly owned by charitable foundations. They
have this model over there that they think keeps the

(01:37:14):
businesses local, stops them from being sold off early on.
What's more, they now have the largest philanthropic foundation in
the world. And guess what they're putting their money into. Yes,
you guessed that. Educational campuses have sprung up. They've got
a science and innovation hub, they're training students and they're

(01:37:34):
coming up with new pharmaceutical drugs. So it's a self
fulfilling prophecy. Anyway, I'm jealous of them. What are we doing?
Answers out was wow.

Speaker 28 (01:37:43):
I was going to say, so, like half their economy
is dependent on these weight loss drugs. They're stuffed. If
we all just learn how to diet and exercise aren't they,
which means they're fine.

Speaker 3 (01:37:53):
Fine, we're a hard dog to train her.

Speaker 28 (01:37:56):
License to print money.

Speaker 4 (01:37:57):
That one.

Speaker 28 (01:37:58):
Rihanna snm to play us out tonight. She has shut
down some speculation. It's since it's been so long waiting
for this album, the theories are just getting wilder and wilder. Basically,
but the next album. Some people were talking about she
was going to make a reggae album for the next album,
but she has outright said no, that is absolutely way off.
There is no genre for the album right at the moment,
which says to me that there probably isn't an album
just getting She still has a bit more to work on,

(01:38:19):
but that's okay. We can wait. In the meantime, it's
a m by Rihanna to play us out.

Speaker 3 (01:38:23):
Thanks for listening everyone, Thanks for all your emails and
your feedback. Appreciate it.

Speaker 29 (01:38:27):
Tom, I love the fee crison me me is exactly.

Speaker 10 (01:38:43):
Boggain mixed me a buon money name the well nest

(01:39:12):
see last name.

Speaker 29 (01:39:20):
Let's stramm.

Speaker 1 (01:39:35):
Come for more from hither Duplessy Allen Drive listen live

(01:39:57):
to news talks. It'd be from four pm weekdays. Follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.

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