Full Show Podcast: 27 November 2024

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Pressing the newspakers to get the real story. It's Heather
Duplessy allan drive with one New Zealand. Let's get connected
news dolf zd B.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Hey, good afternoon, coming up today. Brad Olson on the
OCR with us after five o'clock, the Union on the
fifteen hundred jobs being cut from Health New Zealand, and
our very own Ryan Bridge on his gigantic winge about
paying forty cents for a paper bag at the supermarket.

Speaker 3 (00:30):
Heather Duplessy, Allen, Okay, I've got good.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
News for anyone with a mortgage. You'll have seen it
by now, and frankly, anyone are wanting to see the
economy pack up again. The Reserve Bank has dropped the
official cash rate again by fifty basis points, which is
pretty much what we were expecting, and there is a
promise of more to come now once again. The most
obvious takeaway from a double cut like this one, off
the back of all of the fast cutting that's already
taken place in the last few weeks, is that our

(00:54):
economy is kind of stuffed right. That's the reason why
we've dropped nearly a quarter off the total OCR and
just a matter of weeks. And that is why, as
I say, we've been promised more. We've been promised another
cut in February, and we're going to get to a
lower point faster than that original originally thought. This is
if the Reserve Bank's projections are right, and if they
are right, then we're in line for another three cuts

(01:14):
next year. So it'll be twenty five, twenty five and
twenty five probably. But I tell you what, once again,
there are questions about whether the Reserve Bank is making
a mistake by holding it as high as it is
not cutting more. They themselves have admitted today that where
the official cash rate sits right now, which is four
point twenty five percent, that is restrictive, as in that
is still strangling the economy to some extent. Now, keyw

(01:38):
we Bank reckons you got to drop it by another
seventy five basis points right what we had today, and
then another twenty five. You've got to drop it by
that much just to get it to neutral. Now, why
are we still strangling the economy? Why is that happening?

Speaker 4 (01:50):
Is it not weird for.

Speaker 2 (01:51):
Us to be sent off to summer with three months
before they meet again to have another look at the
ocr knowing that they've still got their foot on the
economy's throat. When you're the state of the thing. We're
in recession. We know this now, right per capita GDP,
which means your personal GDP that has gone back backwards.
That's the wrong direction. It's gone backwards four point six

(02:12):
percent in the last two years or so. That is
worse than what we went through in the global financial crisis.
Why are we still in restrictive mode? As Kiwibank points out,
hardship withdrawals from Kiwi Saver have spiked from ten million
dollars in January last year to thirty eight million dollars
in October this year. Now, those withdrawals are not easy
to make. You don't just rock up to your kiw

(02:34):
Saver provider and go you have some cash. Thanks. You've
got to be in big financial stock and you've got
to be able to prove it and only then do
they give you the money. Now Treasury has warned, I
think it was last week that the economy is that
much more stuff than they even thought, that they're now
going to downgrade their forecasts in the next few weeks.
And it looks like surplus in twenty seven is not
going to happen. So as always, very very grateful, very

(02:56):
happy to see the ocr come down, happy for the
just wondering though if yet again the Reserve Bank is
making a mistake and keeping this economy under the crusher
when they actually don't have to.

Speaker 3 (03:07):
Heather duplus l gif.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
Brad Olson's take on that after five and you can
let me know what you think. Nine two nine two
is the text number and standard text fees apply now
onto basically the same subject, how much things are costing
you public transport. It looks like bus and train fares
are gonna have to go up quite a lot around
the country and in particular Wellington. Wellington appears to be
the only place that's done the numbers.

Speaker 5 (03:30):
Now.

Speaker 2 (03:30):
What's caused this to happen is that the NZTA, the
Transport Agency, has written a letter to all of the
public transport authorities around the country setting new targets for
how much of the cost of public transport they will
have to stump up for as opposed to the government
spending now. Thomas Nash is the chair of the Greater
Wellington Regional Council Transport Committee's with us now Hey Thomas Hey, Heather, Okay,

(03:52):
so have they written to you and said you guys
have to fund a greater proportion or users have to
fund a greater proportion.

Speaker 6 (04:00):
They've said they want the private share to be greater.
So that's the amount of money that pays for public
transport that isn't council rates or MZTA contributions. So that
is mostly fares, but it could also include advertising, which
we get some money for, and you know, any other
commercial deals you can do as a public transport authority

(04:20):
if you're renting out your premises.

Speaker 2 (04:22):
Fantastic, So you guys could actually make rather than making
putting this on the user of the bus or the train,
it actually can come from some other private sources. You
just need to figure out out.

Speaker 7 (04:33):
Yeah you can.

Speaker 6 (04:34):
And I mean, if there's a magic way of doing
that that we're not already doing, we're very keen to
hear about it. We have wrapped entire train and delivery
easy for Gailia recently.

Speaker 7 (04:42):
We have doubled the amount.

Speaker 6 (04:44):
Of money that we've got from advertising the last couple
of years, but it's still only about two percent of
the overall revenue we get from fears. So this is
not going to be a real solution. The implication of
the government's plan will absolutely be hitting people in the
back pocket, and during a cost of living crisis, I
think you would agree that's the last thing we.

Speaker 2 (05:04):
Need starting win.

Speaker 6 (05:06):
Well, they've said that from next financial year, so that'd
be from the first of July next year. They want
our private share this new concept to increase in a
way that would equate to a seventy one percent increase
in fears.

Speaker 7 (05:20):
Now we're not going to do that.

Speaker 6 (05:22):
We're going to push back and we're going to say
this doesn't make sense because what you'll do if you
if you did that, you would end up just pushing
people back into cars, more people be on the road
and it would be more congested, which I think is
the opposite of what they.

Speaker 2 (05:34):
Cost somebody in Wellington at the moment to catch let's
say a bus.

Speaker 6 (05:39):
Let's say yeah, yeah, So like if you it might
cost you ten dollars a day with a return trip
if you were going few zones, so the average trip,
so that'd go to seventeen dollars a day.

Speaker 7 (05:49):
If we were going to meet this target through.

Speaker 2 (05:51):
Fear ten dollars a day, return, ten.

Speaker 6 (05:54):
Dollars a day return would go seventeen dollars a day
return if we were going to meet their new target
just through fear and criticals, which.

Speaker 7 (06:01):
We won't do.

Speaker 2 (06:03):
Like I know, cost of living and I know I
know that you know, ten dollars a day is a
lot of money when it all adds up. But that's
actually not that bad. I mean, what's seventeen dollars times
five that's eighty five bucks, is that right? Eighty five
bucks a week for transport. You're never going to be
able to get in and out of the city with
a car, considering car parking and stuff like that, for
eighty five bucks a week, are you?

Speaker 7 (06:23):
So what are we saying? We want? We want to
encourage more people to drive and.

Speaker 2 (06:26):
Few No, you know what I'm saying to you is
that's a false argument, because you because even if you
even if you paid seventeen dollars a day, it's still
cheaper than taking your car, and it.

Speaker 7 (06:36):
Should be because we have about three point.

Speaker 2 (06:38):
Five you know, totally. But so you're not going to
get in your car, So why amount that argument?

Speaker 6 (06:43):
Well, no, but we are because we've seen it before.
As you as you increase fares, you reduce the number
of people on your network.

Speaker 7 (06:49):
That's just a it's just a kind of rule of thumb.

Speaker 6 (06:52):
And if you get to a point where you go
beyond what people are going to be affording, what people
can afford visa v A car, then they're going to
jump in their car.

Speaker 2 (07:01):
Do you think at some point it's still slightly more
expensive to take your car, but the convenience is worth it,
and so you pay the extra bit.

Speaker 7 (07:07):
Well, yeah, and this is.

Speaker 6 (07:08):
Why we have three point five million trips every month
on the public transport network. Now, think about for a
second if those people, even if half of those people
decided to drive instead of get the train or the
bus because of this proposal from the government to increase feares,
then your roads at peak time would be impossible to navigate,
and then people will be complaining. So you have to

(07:29):
think about the value, not just the cost, but the
value of public transport. And this is what the government's
getting wrong with this paper. They're not recognizing the value
of public transport to the economy, to the safe and
easy passage of.

Speaker 7 (07:45):
Goods through the city.

Speaker 6 (07:46):
I mean that stuff is going to suffer if you
push up fears so much that people get to.

Speaker 2 (07:52):
What proportion if people are paying ten bucks at the moment,
what proportion of the total fear is that, like how
much is it being subsidized?

Speaker 6 (07:58):
So that is we have what we call faarbox recovery
of around thirty percent.

Speaker 7 (08:03):
So the amount of and that is very good internationally.

Speaker 2 (08:08):
It's maybe like a thirty five dollar trip in they're
paying ten bucks.

Speaker 6 (08:11):
Yeah, so that's what we and you should do that
calculation for roads, especially local roads, and you will find
that the amount that actual drivers are paying, especially on
a local road, is way below what that costs.

Speaker 2 (08:25):
Yeah, all right, Hey, Thomas, thanks for talking us. So
I appreciate it's Thomas Nash, heir of the Greater Wellington
Regional Council's Transport Committee, getting text on that already, so
I'll come back to it. Listen. LinkedIn a LinkedIn has
got a novel argument for why it shouldn't be included
in the Australian social media ban on kids. You will
be aware of this is whether these guys in Australia
and are crackdown on social media and they're going to
say nobody under sixteen is allowed to be using it.

(08:47):
And LinkedIn has made its submission and reckons it doesn't
apply to LinkedIn because LinkedIn's too boring for kids. LinkedIn
reckons that kids don't want to use it because they
don't find it interesting or appealing, and so they shouldn't
be included in the ban. And that is fair enough, actually,
because LinkedIn is boring. I mean, I'm in my forties
and I find it boring, So I can't imagine how
dull it is for a sixteen year old. In which case, though,

(09:08):
doesn't it bring you around to this, what's the problem
with being included in the band? Then if the kids
don't use it or want to use it, if nobody
under sixteen is even attracted to it, then it's okay
if we ban them from it. Right, sixteen past four,
Who will take the.

Speaker 1 (09:21):
White House results and analysis of the US election on?
Heather Dupless Alan Drive with one New Zealand, Let's get connected,
News Talk sad best Board with the new tab app
downloaded today, Ri eighteen bed responsibly.

Speaker 2 (09:38):
Darcy water Grave SportsTalk coasters are that's hello, Darcy, Greetings Heather. Okay,
so we are going to be playing against France and
the USA. It's our home test.

Speaker 8 (09:50):
It is said News talks'b understand.

Speaker 2 (09:54):
And when I say we are, do mean the All Blacks? Yeah,
we'll talk about rugby.

Speaker 8 (09:57):
Yes, yes, the All Blacks has been said. That's come
next year when the French B team, it'll come back
and bite me when they beat It's the French B
team are going to have one of their games away
in the States against New Zealand, England, USA and a
double header. Yeah, that's what's believed to happen. So I

(10:18):
think it's the thin end of the wedge, isn't it really?

Speaker 9 (10:20):
So?

Speaker 2 (10:20):
Is this because the All Blacks would make more money
off taking it to the States and playing it at
Eden part, I'd.

Speaker 8 (10:26):
Say to be double headed, because plainly I'm not a No,
I don't know, but I'd say yes, there'll be money
in it, plainly, and too the Ragby World cuts being
played over in the States, so they want to promote
the game and promote the brand as much as they
can to get the Americans on board. What better way
to promote it than having the All Blacks play in
the States, even though they do play all the time.
The question is when they start taking home games away

(10:50):
from New Zealand and playing around the world now said
thin end of the wedge, and you wonder how long
before it's like, well, I've been doing a few years now,
so we're actually taking two.

Speaker 7 (11:00):
Wait this time around.

Speaker 8 (11:01):
Look, the All Blacks is the brand that ends in
our trade off. They make all their money out that
is it. That's the top of the tree. So why
wouldn't they use that to expand the brand through to
the America and try and make more money. It makes
perfect sense.

Speaker 2 (11:15):
From a business decision. That's okay. The problem, of course,
is what's the trade off?

Speaker 7 (11:18):
Right?

Speaker 2 (11:19):
The trade off is that you annoy the fans in
New Zealand who are already annoyed because of all the
stuff that's been going on with the team, be it
Fozzy be at tj'shucker whatever, and now you've annoyed them
more and you maybe lost them.

Speaker 8 (11:30):
Well, you're going to have some big games. Eden Park
will remain to Kaha Study when it gets built will remain.
I expect the stadium in Wellington. They'll still have test matches,
but not don't give them two because they didn't behavior
well last time around. Maybe down South and Dunedin we're
not going to see the All Blacks. I'm sure there's
a lot of people will say, well, Hamilton missed out
last time. Does this mean that Hamilton starts missing out?

(11:52):
Are we ever going to see the all Blacks play?
In slightly smaller sentence, the answer is no. And this
is a of slowly massaging us sense of this concept
that we'll be lucky to see the all Blacks at
home and it will happen, but maybe not as much,
and the seats will be at a premium. But I
wonder how many people actually go to all black test

(12:14):
matches anyway?

Speaker 2 (12:15):
But who's going to go to an all blacks test
match against the French B team?

Speaker 8 (12:20):
Most fans probably would like to see us tramp over
the French. Wait, look, we'll find out. I think they
play it even part when I that sell out because
it's got a high concentration of all black fans. It's
a big population. Most people watch it on TV, don't
they really? And so will they miss out? When you
talk about having the all Blacks at home and the
all Blacks being on too, and the all Blacks exposing

(12:41):
to the wider population, do we really have that much
access to the all blacks anyway? They're so highly managed
and highly protected they're actually very difficult to get closer.

Speaker 2 (12:53):
I know more about their politics than their personalities, So
do tell you that. Okay, well just one of them anyway,
but he's gone, hey, I appreciate it. Okay, Darcy's going
to be back for sports talk at seven o'clock.

Speaker 8 (13:03):
Indeed, well we'll take calls on man, how happy people
will be. It's inevitable, but we don't have to like it, right.

Speaker 2 (13:09):
That's right? Four twenty three good.

Speaker 3 (13:12):
The name you trust to get the answers you need.

Speaker 1 (13:14):
Head a duplicy allan drive with one New Zealand let's
get connected and news talk as they'd be.

Speaker 2 (13:21):
Hey, on that cease fire deal between Hboela and Israel
that's been holding now for an hour and twenty five minutes. Now,
if that actually does hold for obviously longer than that,
but if it holds properly, then that is the end
of more than a year of fighting between the two
of them. This does not apply to Gaza. And the
problem here for the people of Gaza is that they're

(13:41):
now worried that now the Israelis are not fighting on
the northern border, they'll start intensifying their focus again on Gaza.
But we'll talk to Dan Mitchinson about it when he's
with us shortly.

Speaker 3 (13:49):
Here.

Speaker 2 (13:49):
The why can't the government tell the Reserve Bank that
are three month holidays and unacceptable in a recession which
actually feels like a depression, Well, because I think that
this is entirely up to the Reserve Bank. By the way,
it's full twenty five, entirely up to the Reserve Bank
what they do look like you. I also think a
three month break over summer is probably a little wild
given what we're going through. But Adrian always asked about

(14:10):
that today and he defended it pretty strongly. It's not
a summer break.

Speaker 10 (14:15):
I also want just to reassure people and just coming
through the questions. This bank does not close over summer.
This bank in fact has some of its busiest periods
from here on through. We deliver the money in cash,
We keep the financial system efficient and stable, and we
operate the payment and settlement systems, and we also continue

(14:36):
to monitor economic activity, so that is happening in real time.
We do not close the door and go away and
come back February nineteen and go wow, I didn't expect
that to be here. You know, we will be looking
at it all so just so that you understand that.

Speaker 2 (14:51):
Yeah, but just so also you understand it will take
a lot for them to actually change the ocr in
that time anyway, But he's not a hard hearted man.
He's got a parting summer message for you.

Speaker 10 (15:00):
I really do hope people get some summer respite from
this challenge, and you know, in the best interests over
the next couple of months, warm your cockles and please
invest in places that raise the productive capacity of this
beautiful country.

Speaker 2 (15:18):
What do you what do you reckon? Warm your cockles?
Is economically? What would I have to do with my
money to warm my cockles? Do you think? And also
what am I investing in? I'm not investing in anything.
What are you talking about? I'm not investing in anything
over summer, I'm investing in food. Is that productive? It's
productive for me? Anyway, we'll go with that here. The
public transport is great if you have all datys it,

(15:41):
which is a fair point. I mean, I think Thomas
has got a fair point.

Speaker 11 (15:44):
Right.

Speaker 2 (15:44):
You put the price of public transport up, people are
going to go. I can't be faft anyone just gonna
jump in the car. So there's a thing there anyway,
on warming your cockles. We'll talk to Brad Olson about that.
After five.

Speaker 1 (15:54):
He stood, Zippy, find your Slart speaker on the aheat
in your car on your drive home. Here the duple
c Allen drive with one New Zealand, let's get connected
and news talk as they'd be.

Speaker 7 (16:18):
What.

Speaker 2 (16:19):
I am surprised at how angry people are. I was
surprised at how angry the husband was about TJ's hucker,
because I was like, Oh, TJ, how annoying. Why'd you
go and do that? That's unnecessary. Look, you're going to
make people angry. That's how I was. The husband was
right raging. Anyway, He's not alone because I'm still getting

(16:40):
angry texts about it. So yeah, I think the All
Blex have got a problem here. Hey, hey German, I
think that we should probably should find a different way
to address the producer. Hey Laura, the producer, I reckon,
we should put in another call with the rugby union.
What do you think and just see if they've maybe
changed their minds now that they've been slammed on social
media about that aker. Well, we'll just have little hoon.

(17:00):
We'll give them a call. We'll see what they've got
to say hither, I'm sorry Adrian or has lost the plot.
We're struggling as a country financially. How do you go
out and warm your cockles when all your money is
working to keep the business in the household going, Simon,
I don't know. I don't know because I thought maybe
warming your cockles would be to go and get completely
and utterly drunk so you can't remember how bad things are.

(17:20):
But then I was like, oh, no, you can't do
that because that actually costs your money, which you don't
have anymore because Adrian took it off you. So I
don't know how you warm your cockles. You're gonna have
to find some activity that's completely and utterly free. Maybe
just sit in the sun.

Speaker 12 (17:33):
New Zealander, Sure boy, you are well, it's Laura's jewn.

Speaker 2 (17:38):
Oh and what am I gonna call you now?

Speaker 12 (17:40):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (17:41):
I don't really know. I'm gonna have to think about
what can I say that's borderline offensive but not so
offensive that again, offensive enough to make the pr lady
stress out every time I do it, which is what
happens in this newsroom, but not offensive enough to actually
get the BSA in touch with me. I'll think about it,
and so I'll come back to your crowdsource. What shall
I call it? Hart wait nine two nine cockles, I'll

(18:04):
call them that. Hey, I got a Black Friday warning
for You're gonna want to hear this one because it's
actually We've got some data which is important to stand by,
and I'll give it to your twenty two away from five.

Speaker 3 (18:13):
It's the world wires on news dogs. He'd be drive.

Speaker 2 (18:17):
Joe Biden says he expects the ceasefire between Israel and
Hezbola to end the wall permanently.

Speaker 7 (18:22):
Now.

Speaker 2 (18:22):
The two sides have agreed to a sixty day cessation
of hostilities, and here's Biden fday across.

Speaker 13 (18:27):
The Lebanese Israeli border will end, will end. This is
designed to be a permanent cescession of hostilities has block
terrace infrastructure and so the Lebanon will not be allowed
to be rebuilt.

Speaker 14 (18:40):
Now.

Speaker 2 (18:40):
The ceasefire came into effect three o'clock our time. Fighting
continued right up until the last minute. Rockets were fired
into Israel Lebanon earlier in the day, and Israel conducted
air strikes on by Route thirty minutes before the ceasefire
kicked in. Al Jazeera reporter Ali Hashem is in the
city of Tire in Lebanon.

Speaker 15 (18:56):
The last strike was a couple of hours ago. Oh,
we've been hearing all the night massive air strikes everywhere.
The walls were shaking around us. It was a tense night.

Speaker 2 (19:08):
And finally, Pizza Hut and China has released a frog pizza.
They're calling it the Goblin Pizza and it's topped with
coriander red sauce, a crumbed and deep fried frog, and
a hard boiled egg with olive slices, which a style
to look like googly eyes. Because the frog wasn't enough,
so they wanted another thing that looked like a frog.
It's only available for a limited time as part of

(19:29):
a promotion for a mobile phone game.

Speaker 1 (19:32):
International correspondence with Ends and Eye Insurance Peace of Mind
for New Zealand business.

Speaker 2 (19:37):
Dan litchardson US corresponds with us.

Speaker 16 (19:39):
Now, hello Dan, or you can just call me the
yank whatever you want, right, why not?

Speaker 2 (19:45):
But it's not even the it's not even the it's
just like yank like just to really really be as
offensive as possible. Hey, Dan, So do we actually think
that the ceasefire deal is going to last. I mean,
to get to them to this point, right, and this
has been going on ages to get them to this point,
suggests it.

Speaker 3 (20:01):
Might do well.

Speaker 16 (20:03):
It might, but you know, there was a reporter who
I was reading one of the blogs earlier today and
I jotted this down because I think it sums up
things to a tea. It said, tactical battlefield success in
absence of political or diplomatic arrangements cannot bring lasting security.
And you're, well, hold it, what does that mean? I
think we're going to have to wait and see. I mean,
is this going to bring Trump the showman who comes

(20:24):
in and takes over from Joe Biden in six seven
weeks and tries to extend this agreement, or is it
going to be Trump the diplomat who brings in people
with more experience to try and negotiate something that will last,
because honestly, I mean, there's still so much bad blood
between these two. I mean, it's hard to imagine this
thing lasting for any length of time.

Speaker 2 (20:41):
It feels very much like Biden has got a spine
only because Trump is coming in. Does it not feel
like that to you?

Speaker 13 (20:49):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (20:49):
Yeah, I think so.

Speaker 16 (20:50):
I mean, I think this is you know, as he said,
he wants to renew is push to try and secure
a ceasefire in a hostage deal there, and I think
this he'd like this to be part of his legacy.
But as we and you just heard of the World
wires right there, the caveats from what I understand, I mean,
Israel forces won't pull out immediately, They've got some two
months or something like that. And second, we don't know
how Israel's going to respond if there's violations to this.

(21:11):
I mean, both Israel and Lebanon, can you know, have
they retain the right of self defense under international law?

Speaker 2 (21:17):
Yeah? But on the Biden thing, I mean, I'm fascinated
by this because the minute that Trump wins, all of
a sudden, it's okay for Ukraine to start firing American
made missiles into Russia, when that was not okay this
whole time, last eighteen months, and now all of a
sudden he's managed to get a ceasefire. Where was the
urgency beforehand?

Speaker 3 (21:34):
I don't know.

Speaker 16 (21:34):
I think I think Biden's been trying for some time,
but I think he had to step up his game,
especially with net Yahoo and Trump having this relationship that
they've had on and off recently. And you know, Trump
has said that he was going to come in and
he was going to solve the Mid East crisis day
one of his administration. But of course he said that
about a number of things. It's going to be a busy,
busy day one for him when he when he gets

(21:55):
in office in January.

Speaker 2 (21:56):
Now, speaking of Trump, what's Mexico I had to say
about the threat of the tariff ceas today?

Speaker 16 (22:00):
Oh boy, they're not happy with this. I mean, Mexico
isn't happy, China's not happy, Canada is not happy. I mean,
if you look at California where I'm based right now,
we've got the fifth biggest economy in the world, and
you've got Mexico and China and Canada ranking as the
state's top three export markets, not to mention importing. So
if this continues and you hike up the prices by
twenty five percent or more, I mean, are people going

(22:23):
to stop buying? Our country is going to stop sending
things our way? Are we going to have to go
and find somebody else to trade with right now, especially
with Mexico, and you're dealing not with just clothes and
food that's coming across the border, but electronics and cars too.

Speaker 2 (22:36):
Yeah. Hey, how bad is it for Rudy? What's up?

Speaker 3 (22:39):
Oh boy? Speaking of money?

Speaker 17 (22:41):
Uh?

Speaker 3 (22:41):
Not good.

Speaker 16 (22:42):
I mean he was in court again today and part
of this case is collecting. I mean, this goes back
to the Georgia election workers that he defamed when he
was challenging the election results a few years back. He
owes one hundred and forty six million dollars in this
judgment case, and he said, I'm broke.

Speaker 3 (22:57):
I can't pay my bills.

Speaker 16 (22:58):
I don't have the cash credit cards. I mean, first
of all, how are you going to pay one hundred
and forty six million dollars back ever, let alone when
you're you know, eighty something, and everything's been tied up
by the courts. And the judge says, I'm not having this.
He says, you can change attorneys, you can try stalin
about this, but he says you've had time. He says,
you haven't brought papers in for your car or your
five million dollar home right now. And you know, I mean,

(23:20):
in the meantime, the man who he backed, Donald Trump,
has been awfully quiet. Well, this has been going on,
and he's been keeping his distance.

Speaker 2 (23:26):
Yeah, Dan, we'll talk to you again in a couple
of days. A Dan Mitchinson, our US correspondens. Here's an
example of a Texa's just coming right now. Hither I
own and operate a sports shop. Believe me, people are
ready to burn there all blacks jerseys. It wasn't so
much the hucker. It was more than getting photographs of
the teneta tongue of flag because they represent New Zealand. Chris,
thank you for that. Hither you warm your cockles over
the forty gallon drum burning on the pavement with your

(23:48):
fingerless gloves and your worn coat. Chris, thank you. We'll
make it when you do that, take a photograph on
the cell phone you don't own anymore because you've lost
that money, and then send it through to the reserve bank.
They won't receive it while they're on this month holiday.
They'll get it on February the nineteenth. Here's the Black
Friday warning that I've got for UK. So that price
me is an outfit who had a look back at
what happened last year. They looked at the one hundred

(24:10):
most popular products that were for sale in the Black
Friday sales found seventy six of them, seventy six percent
of them. Well, that is seventy six of them, isn't it,
Because it's of one hundred, So seventy six of one
hundred were actually cheaper on other days in the year
than they were on Black Fridays. So we're gonna have
a chat to the CEO of Price. Me will be
with us. Quarter past five, barrisopas.

Speaker 1 (24:31):
Next politics was centric credit, check your customers and get payments.

Speaker 2 (24:35):
Certainty, very so, per senior political correspondence with US. Now
Hi Barry, good afternoon. As the government claiming credit for
the inflation coming down sufficiently to have an ACR cut again.

Speaker 17 (24:43):
Well your cockles will be warmed, no doubt hither and
it seems that we all should be feeling much warmer
as a result of this fifty point drop. Nikola Willis
cheerfully gave us one example. A family with a five
hundred dollars five hundred thousand dollars mortgage on a twenty
five year term would expect to be better off by

(25:04):
about one hundred and eighty bucks a week, she says.
But that's providing the bank drops the rate from seven
to five point seven five percent. I don't see bank
dropping rates that much. I haven't seen them come down
that much. The average mortgage interestraight in New Zealand is
just under eight percent, seven point ninety.

Speaker 2 (25:22):
Four percent floating.

Speaker 17 (25:24):
No, that's that's the average floating. Sorry, and the fixed
rate is five point nine percent. But if you listen
to Adrian or, it's both good and uncertain news, with
all saying there's likely to be another fifty basis point
cut in the OCR early next year, but warns of
a slow recovery.

Speaker 10 (25:45):
Economic growth is expected to recover during twenty twenty five
as lower interest rates encourage investment and other spending employment growth. However,
it is expected to remain weak until at least twenty
twenty five, and for some financial stress will take time
to ease. The Monastry Policy Committee agreed that having consumer

(26:07):
price inflation close to the midpoint of its target ban
puts US in the best position to respond to any
shocks to inflation looking forward.

Speaker 17 (26:16):
So that's good and sort of good news. I suppose,
of course, the government like you indicated earlier as putting
a very glossy picture or painting a glossy picture on
the latest fall. It's a year since they were sworn
in today. All they're beginning their first day today. Finance
Minister Nichol Willa says they've delivered what they said they would.

Speaker 18 (26:38):
We promised that with careful fiscal management, we'd get inflation
back under control.

Speaker 4 (26:43):
We have.

Speaker 18 (26:43):
We promised that when inflation was back under control, interest.

Speaker 19 (26:46):
Rates would drop.

Speaker 2 (26:47):
They are.

Speaker 18 (26:48):
We promised we would deliver fiscally neutral tax relief to
three point five million New Zealanders.

Speaker 4 (26:53):
We have.

Speaker 18 (26:54):
And for those who say, oh, well it's just inevitable
that inflation and interest rates come down, just look over
the ditch.

Speaker 17 (27:00):
Yeah, well, the Ossie rate is about the same as
ours two point eight percent, and mortgage rates She's right,
the mortgage rates are still pretty high in Australia, about
seven point or seven and a half percent. So you know,
New Zealand's doing slightly better than Australia, but not significantly.

Speaker 2 (27:20):
Well what on the are you measuring it on the OCR.

Speaker 8 (27:23):
On the mortgage rates?

Speaker 17 (27:24):
Well, the OCR there, I'm not quite sure what.

Speaker 2 (27:26):
Jesus take us a while to do slightly better than
they've been doing better than us the whole other time.
That's right, Hey, So tomorrow is it tomorrow? Or was
it today that it was the first day in office.

Speaker 17 (27:35):
So beginning their first day. Yeah today was a year ago.

Speaker 2 (27:38):
Yeah see.

Speaker 17 (27:39):
And I know whether you saw the Winston Peters interview
in the Herald today, it reminded me of just what
the situation was like and the lead up to the
last election when you came to particularly David Seymour and
Winston Peters. Seymour had described Winston Peters as a crook
and the least trustworthy people person in New Zealand politics,

(28:04):
and Peters responded and kind of calling Seymour a political
cuckold from EPSOM and comparing him to chihuahua barking at
the front gate. And I am now sitting around the
cabinet table in coalition. But it was interesting also I
thought that you'll remember the prime or not the Prime minister.

(28:25):
Then the leader of the opposition, Chris Luxon, was constantly
being asked whether he would sit down with Winston Peters
after the election. He equivocated all the way through and
then finally he said that yes he would pick up
the phone to Winston Peters if necessary. And it's interesting

(28:46):
to me to see these three personalities and who is
actually getting on better at the moment, and I suggest
that Winston Peters is getting on much better with Chris Luxeon,
maybe because he's overseas or he's been overseas for much
of the part To you what David Seymour now, I
reckon because he's.

Speaker 2 (29:02):
Just he's just more flexible on his principles.

Speaker 17 (29:06):
Well, you know he has been round of politics and
a long more team.

Speaker 2 (29:11):
He's much more pragmatic, isn't he?

Speaker 17 (29:12):
He is more pragmatic and David Seymour he knows what
he wants and he sets out to get it. But
sometimes he obviously gets under what not Sometimes quite a
lot gets under Chris Luckson's skin.

Speaker 2 (29:25):
Tell you what, Let's have a look at the next
election though, See which of these two parties goes up
or retains as much of their their vote Show yes,
and we'll know which is the right approach to take. Hey,
so when is this David Seymour Willy Jackson debate going
to happen?

Speaker 17 (29:37):
It's not going to happen. Well, what David Seymour has said,
and I've had messages to him, to Dan, he's responded
that he's not going to debate Willie Jackson unless Willy
Jackson apologize, apologizes for calling him a liar. Well, Jackson
refused to do that in the house, and remember he
has kicked out by Jerry Brownlee and Seymour argue that

(30:01):
you've got to have better parliamentary standards and the factors here,
it's quite easy for Woody Jackson to get a debate
with David Seymour simply by asking a.

Speaker 2 (30:12):
Question in the house.

Speaker 17 (30:13):
In the house, and he's able to do that. Do
you know he's only done at once in the past year. Well,
I suggest to Willie he gets a thinking cap on,
sits down and comes up with a good question and
they can have a debate to and fro in the house.

Speaker 2 (30:26):
Great advice, actually, Barry, thank you very much. Bariso for
senior political correspondent seven away from five, putting.

Speaker 1 (30:31):
The tough questions to the newspeakers the mic asking breakfast.

Speaker 20 (30:35):
We've got an additional fifty senior doctors and seventy five nurses.
Association of Salary Medical Specialists Loss Sarah Dalton is with us.
I know what you will say, but it's better than nothing,
isn't it.

Speaker 19 (30:44):
Well, it depends effectively what the minister has announced as
fifty extra vacancies on an already very long vacancy lived.

Speaker 3 (30:51):
Where are they getting them from?

Speaker 20 (30:52):
By the way, there're a covet of scen doctors about
the place.

Speaker 19 (30:54):
Wouldn't that be nice?

Speaker 7 (30:55):
Christ?

Speaker 20 (30:58):
What does this actually achieve on the parade?

Speaker 19 (31:00):
But I really don't think it achieves anything. I think
it's really disappointing given that last year workforce plan. See,
this is how many we think we need and nothing
that has happened.

Speaker 21 (31:09):
So he is comfort to addressing.

Speaker 20 (31:11):
Back tomorrow at six am the Mike Hosking Breakfast with
the Rain Driver of the Lawn News Talk z B four.

Speaker 2 (31:16):
Away from five. We have to talk about Mike Kane.
I'll try to get across it in the next twenty
minutes or so. Health New Zealand is proposing to do
a bunch of cuts, by the way, some more job
cuts that it looks like a total of fifteen hundred.
This is according to the Union. From the National Public
Health Service, there will be three hundred and sixty jobs
that will go, and from the Data and Digital Group

(31:37):
there will be eleven hundred and twenty jobs, So one
hundred and twenty jobs will go. That's a that's thirty
forty percent of the workforce. Are you surprised, like I am,
at how many people are working in the nerd department
at Health New Zealand. I mean that that suggests that
there's about twenty three hundred of them just doing digital work.
There's a lot, isn't how many digital people have we
got like three six someone else? I mean we're smaller

(31:57):
to be fair, but that seems like a lot. Anyway,
talk to the union about it shortly and Brad Olson's
with us straight after the news. Now Ryan Bridge are
very own. Ryan Bridge is going to be on the
Show's very upset about paper bags at the supermarket. He's
written a column for The Herald and hard to know
exactly what he's upset about because he's upset about a
lot in this column, so it's just everything. It's that
the bag is a bit rubbish for holding the slippery

(32:21):
wet milk bottles. He's upset that he's told it's reusable,
but it's actually not reusable at all, as we all know.
He's upset that he has to buy the bag in
the first place, that's not provided free. Then he's upset
at the cost, which is forty cents, and he suspects.
I think quite rightly that there is quite a margin
being made here. He's upset that now because it's Christmas,
they've got trees printed all over them, and he's mainly

(32:43):
also quite upset that it's not a plastic bag. I
think primarily what he's upset about here is the margins
that are being charged. So we called Woolworths did and
it was Woolworth's. We called Woolworsts and we said, oh,
what is the margin? And they were like, well, it's
not just us charging forty it's actually thirty nine cents,
and it's not just us charging that much New World,
which is like when your child knat's on their sibling.
We're like, no, look, got to buy that. Anyway, they

(33:04):
won't tell us the margin, which is suspicious. So Ryan
will be at us after five point thirty.

Speaker 1 (33:09):
Insteedb the only drive show you can trust to ask
the questions, get the answers by their backs, and give
the analysis Heather due to the Eland Drive with One
New Zealand let's get connected and youth talk as they'd.

Speaker 2 (33:26):
Be good afternoon. Banks have immediately started cutting their mortgage
rates after the Reserve Bank today cut the official cash
rate by fifty basis points, so the OCR is now
sitting at four point two five percent. The Reserve Bank
Governor Adrian Or acknowledged it's been a tough time for
New Zealand ter.

Speaker 10 (33:42):
R has you know, we've been doing it tough over
the last couple of years. We've been part responsible for that.
But the higher interest rate, you know, inflation is evil.
We have been making sure we can squeeze it out
of the economy. I know it's been challenging for many
many people and will continue to be so overcoming months.

Speaker 2 (34:04):
Informatrix principal economist Brad Olson's with me. Now, hey, Brad,
good evening. Are you surprised they didn't think about seventy
five bases point cut at all.

Speaker 22 (34:12):
I'm a little bit surprised they didn't really consider anything
apart from fifty. You know, the Governor highlighted in his
press conference that they sort of thought fifty was the
right place, and so they didn't really toss up doing
anything different. You know, they didn't toss up going smaller
at twenty five, they didn't toss up going larger at
seventy five. So fairly confident view from the Reserve Bank
that fifty was the right move, and look, I don't

(34:33):
think anyone will disagree that it's, you know, a healthy
decline that's coming through. The question I think for now
is we're to next and how quickly? There's now a
three month break before the Reserve Bank meets again. The
governors sort of seemed to imply or certainly didn't shoot
down the view that fifty basis points in February almost
seems to be the baseline case or the live option.

(34:54):
But a lot of economic forecast is wondering when do
we get back to those sort of more normal considered steps,
given the economy is already starting to show some early
signs of turning around. So right move today, very sensible
sort of pick and sort of but looking into the
future a bit more uncertain.

Speaker 2 (35:09):
Yeah, what makes you think that he's considering a fifty
because it sounded like a twenty five to me in February.

Speaker 22 (35:15):
Well, he sort of highlighted that actually, you know, when
he looked through the numbers, you know, he sort of
said fifty who felt right, and particularly considering the forward
track that leaves the door open for another fifty point cut.
I mean that that was his own words, so I
think he sort of opened They've got options, and that
is important because for such a long time it sort
of felt like we were always sort of on the

(35:35):
back foot. I think the Reserve Banks sort of wrestled
back a bit more control here, which is important. Inflation
now well under control, the unemployment rate increasing but not
quite as steeply as might have been fared again, interest
rates coming down, some early signs that spending is turning around,
so all of that will be encouraging for the bank.
But also you know, they've cut just how much potential

(35:57):
they think is out there in the economy in the future.

Speaker 3 (35:59):
So still pretty difficult.

Speaker 22 (36:00):
Times and people won't immediately refix onto those lower mortgage rates.
But again looking up over time.

Speaker 2 (36:06):
Brad kee we Bank's argument is that at four point
twenty five, it's still restrictive, and even the Reserve Banks
governor said that himself today it's still a restrictive level.
He's still strangling the economy to an extent. Kee we
Bank reckons you have to get to about three point
five before it's neutral. What's the argument for keeping us
in a restrictive setting when we are so stuffed at
the moment you.

Speaker 22 (36:25):
Know, I think the Reserve Bank is sort of also
pretty cautious, and they did outline in their statement today
as well they're sort of worry about some of those
inflationary pressures that could persist, could spike back up, but
more importantly some of that sort of more medium term
stuff where you don't sort of want to be sort
of going through. And we have seen this from the
Reserve Bank and you know, years gone past, where they
sort of either cut too much, raised too much and

(36:47):
then have to reverse out. But I think that the
big question, right is that if they go by fifty
again in February, that only leaves them maybe at one
more twenty five basis point cut. And I get the
the thing for that we're looking at at the moment
as economists is that fifty is still like a bigger move.
And so to go from sort of you know, fifty
then to twenty five then to just nothing would be

(37:10):
quite an abrupt maybe ento it. So again that sort
of question is does the rezume bent care if there's
an abrupt end or do they say, actually, look, we've
got interest rates back to where we want them to be.
And so if it's a fifty and then done.

Speaker 2 (37:22):
Maybe that's it. Okay, well, Brad, thanks very much appreciated,
Brad Awlson informetrics principle economist.

Speaker 3 (37:26):
Together do for Celen.

Speaker 2 (37:28):
So, how New Zealand is cutting jobs and it's predicted
that the number will set it around fifteen hundred. Now
it itself hasn't confirmed the number, but the PSA, which
is the union, reckons that's about right. And as shock
and Shanka from the union is with us now a shock.

Speaker 3 (37:41):
Hello, Hi, how are you?

Speaker 2 (37:43):
I'm very well, thank you? So if I'm right, we
already have seven hundred vacancy. So we're really talking about
cuts of about eight hundred jobs.

Speaker 3 (37:49):
Is that right?

Speaker 11 (37:50):
Absolutely?

Speaker 9 (37:51):
Yes, that's about right yet.

Speaker 2 (37:52):
Okay, And the digital team, this seems like half the
digital team is being cut. And what's that that's like
eleven hundred people or something. Are you surprised how big that? Gamers?

Speaker 11 (38:03):
The size of the team is two thousand, four hundred
and five. That's the exact number, Is that not quite
one thousand? Absolutely, one thousand, one hundred and twenty other
rolls are gone, yeah, obviously off that one thousand, one
hundred and twenty four hundred and sixty four were vacant roles,

(38:27):
but there were nonetheless roles that they were had chosen
not to fill.

Speaker 2 (38:31):
I'm raising this with you because I want you to
convince me that you need two thousand and four hundred
digital guys in house New Zealand.

Speaker 11 (38:40):
And we do at the moment with the type of
IT system we've got. As you know, we have inherit
inherited a IT system from twenty districts and when New
Zealand Health was formed, another seven agencies joined it to

(39:00):
and so you have twenty seven different IT systems. These
systems are not national systems. They don't talk to each other,
they do their own things. They have to be maintained.
There are legacy systems. They have not been updated for
a number of years and it doesn't seem like that
they will be updated in any anytime soon. So just

(39:22):
to maintain them and to make them do what they
need to do, you need these people to actually support it.
And we are really really worried about what this cuts
is going to do.

Speaker 2 (39:38):
If these people are cut and we hire doctors and
nurses instead, would you complain about that or would you
be okay with the doctors?

Speaker 10 (39:45):
No?

Speaker 11 (39:46):
I mean if absolutely we would always welcome more. However,
for nurses and doctors to do their work, they need
to have people who can support them, who can provide
the data, the information, the eighty systems. If doctors and
nurses can work without that, it'd be great, wouldn't that.
But in the modern healthcare doesn't work like that.

Speaker 2 (40:07):
Yeah, well, hey, thanks Ashock, I really appreciated Ashok Shanka,
who is from the Public Service Association.

Speaker 3 (40:12):
Ever dup C L.

Speaker 2 (40:13):
Colin reckons paper bags are twelve cents. Colin, where are
you getting paper bags for twelve cents from? You'll have
to tell me. Hit me with the text police now,
Mike King. Okay, you will have heard by now that
Mike King, there's an Official Information Act request that's revealed
that Mike King sent a very very very very very
long text to Matt Doocey, the Mental Health Minister. Was
five hundred words long, which is a very very long text,

(40:35):
and in it he explained to Matt Doocey why he
had said on this show, what he'd said, and what
he'd said, if you don't remember, is last month. Alcohol
is not a problem for people with mental health issues.
It's actually the solution to our problem. Until you come
up with a better solution. Now, the immediate reaction to
Mike King was to dump on him for saying that
and criticize him saying, you know there's no evidence. Well,

(40:57):
his text to Matt Doocey is actually jam packed with
ever apparently, so he basically he has a line that's
his evidence. And then he says to explain the self
medication hypothesis developed by doctor Edward Cancion, who proposed that
individuals often turn to drugs and alcohol to manage specific
psychological or emotional distress, particularly when other support or treatments

(41:18):
are unavailable, And then he includes numerous references to alcohol
and mental health studies, including research by g Allen, Marlott, Turner, Cooper,
and Saunder's study on anxiety and depression, Baker, Piper, McCarthy, Majeski,
and Fiory's review on negative reinforcement, and then concludes by
saying these studies remain credible and influential, continuing to shape
addiction addiction treatment approaches today. Now why I'm bringing this

(41:41):
to your attention is because I mean, you'd have to
actually go and read these studies to understand fully what
they say. But on the face of it, it doesn't
seem like Mike King went as went off quite as
half cocked as everybody was led to believe. And maybe
what he said was not only grounded, Maybe what he
said was not only grounded in his own personal experience,
but actually according to his text, some research, and maybe

(42:05):
if he is totally right, he deserves an apology for
how everybody dumped on him after that sixteen past five. Hey,
choice is good. Ah, well, at least that's what we've
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Speaker 3 (43:04):
Ever do forel coming up.

Speaker 2 (43:06):
Twenty past five. Now, surprise, surprise, the Black Friday deals
aren't what you expected. We've got some data for you.
Price me has found that of the one hundred most
popular products in the Black Friday sales last year, seventy
six percent of them were cheaper on other days of
the year rather than Black Friday. Price me CEO's Gavin Mail, Hey.

Speaker 9 (43:24):
Gavin, Hello.

Speaker 2 (43:25):
Seven seventy six percent is a lot. Did that surprise you?

Speaker 9 (43:30):
Yeah it did, But basically it just goes to show
there's always a sale on out there.

Speaker 2 (43:34):
Yeah, now what days? What are the days that they
were actually cheaper on than Black Friday?

Speaker 9 (43:39):
Ah, so various times for various different products. So we
covered a whole range of different products in those one
hundred So Boxing day is still is still Sorry, the
key we go to for shopping. That was still a
slightly more popular day than Black Friday on our site
last year.

Speaker 2 (43:58):
Is it necessarily cheaper than blackri.

Speaker 9 (44:02):
It's basically I suppose. The point is that deals are
always available, so it pays to sort of compare and
to check those prices of everything throughout the year, because
there could always be one shop online that's got just
I don't know, they're having an anniversary birthday sale for
their own for their own brand. So there's always different
deals out there at different times.

Speaker 2 (44:23):
Hey, so what kind of price are we talking about here?
Is there anything in particular that we should be quite
worried about.

Speaker 9 (44:29):
Yeah, so there's two sort of methods of pricing. I
suppose that retailers used it's yo yo pricing, where literally
it goes top to bottom like a yo yo, so
they go up and down throughout the year. And then
sort of a more I suppose darker sort of method
would be something like roller coaster pricing, where basically the
prices are slowly increased up until a major discount time

(44:52):
where they're then dropped suddenly like that first first bit
on a roller coaster.

Speaker 2 (44:56):
Yeah, Gavin, listen, thanks very much, for running us sort
Gavin Mail, CEO of Price, Heather Remarke king, isn't it
interesting that someone with real world experience and at the
frontline might actually know more than the so called experts.
Quite okay, listen, gonna talk about Wellington City Council after
what happened yesterday, stand by five twenty two.

Speaker 1 (45:13):
Heather Duplicy Allen cutting through the noise to get the facts.
It's Heather Duplicy Allen drive with one New Zealand let's
get connected and news talk as there'd.

Speaker 2 (45:23):
Be five four. Okay, do me a favor and cast
your mind back to when sime and Brown ordered that
observer to go into Wellington City Council. Do you remember
how at the time, so he ordered them in and
then all of a sudden everybody's like, oooh, we're not
actually sure Simeon if you've got if you've got grounds too,
this feels like a really weak case. Remember that. Well,
take a look at what happened at Wellington City Council's

(45:44):
meeting yesterday and then tell me that you still think
he hasn't got a case to have sent an observer
in because that council cannot tell us today how much
money they actually saved yesterday in a meeting that was
called specifically for the purpose of saving money. How crazy
is that? So that they sat down they were supposed
to cut enough projects to save five hundred million dollars,

(46:05):
and today when we're asking them, okay, how much did
you save, they're all giving us different stories. The council
tells us they may have maybe saved four hundred million dollars.
The mayor tells us they saved two hundred and eighty
million dollars. And Councilor Tony Randall, who was on the
show last night, says, to be honest, he's actually not
sure and he's a numbers guy, but he thinks that

(46:26):
some of the projects actually went up in price yesterday.
Now that's crazy. How do you all around one council
table sit down to do one job, which is to
cut five hundred million dollars and you're not sure at
the end of it when you manage to get there
or not. How crazy is that? And what's more, Tory
Farno today is now saying, oh, it doesn't matter that
we didn't get to five hundred million dollars. Actually two

(46:47):
hundred and eighty million dollars was enough? What that's just
like it's like a tiny tiny bit above halfway. That's
not nearly enough. Since when is it urgent to cut
that much money? But when you get just a little
bit more than a halfway, you gus probably enough actually.
And also, just while we're at the numbers, how is
it that the amount that they've had to save it
has just changed constantly? I think this is really dodgy.

(47:09):
As I said to you yesterday, back in October, we
were told they needed to urgently save six hundred million dollars.
Yesterday that figure had dropped to five hundred million dollars.
And then today, apparently according to the mayor, the figures
now dropped two hundred and eighty million dollars. What the
hell is going on here?

Speaker 14 (47:22):
Now?

Speaker 2 (47:22):
This to me is alarming because it never mind the squabbles,
never mind the ideology and the mayor's obsession with spending
a huge amount of money getting cars out of the
Golden Mile. We can debate all of that stuff, but
put all of that stuff aside. Put all of that
stuff aside, and then tell me, do you have confidence
in a council that sits down to cut projects to
save money and then it doesn't know at the end
of the meeting whether it's actually saved enough money. No,

(47:44):
me neither. I do not have confidence in this process.
I don't want to just blame the councils. I feel
like there's a lot of stuff going on with the
council officials as well, and some dodgy stuff going on there.
But right now that observer looks like a placeholder. And
as someone said to me yesterday, Santa is bringing Wellington
City councilor mission.

Speaker 3 (48:01):
For Heather duplicy Allen, here's.

Speaker 2 (48:03):
The craziest idea that I've heard all day. There's a
plan to move Westport.

Speaker 3 (48:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (48:08):
The entire town problem is, of course, the Buller River floods, right,
and it's flooded in twenty one, flooded in twenty two,
and it is going to flood again. They're building a
wall between Buller River and Westport. But now they're thinking
about just like completely shifting the whole place. And there's
they'd have to give this the town some land and stuff.
So I'll run you through the details and I'm going
to talk to the mayor about that after six pretty
crazy Headline's.

Speaker 1 (48:28):
Next hard questions strong opinion.

Speaker 3 (48:33):
Heather Dupleice Ellen.

Speaker 1 (48:35):
Drive with one New Zealand let's get connected and used
talk as that'd be.

Speaker 3 (48:42):
The coward.

Speaker 2 (48:52):
I've got to hit you across what the Labor Party
is just doing. It's actually it's actually quite interesting. And
the huddle standing by. We have got Jack Tame and
Mills with us this evening right now. It's coming up
twenty four away from six now. Listen, paper bags at
the supermarke. Okay, here on our staff at newstalg ZB,
we've got someone who's very upset about the exorbitant cost
of paper bags at the supermarket, so much so that

(49:12):
it has caused all kinds of commentary all day and
a column in the Herald and everything. Now, what's going
on is Woolworths is charging you thirty nine cents a
pop for your paper bags at the moment. They won't
tell us how much of that is a profit that
they're making. The person who is upset is of course
newstalg ZB Early Edition host Ryan Bridge. Hello, Ryan, Hey, Heather?

Speaker 4 (49:30):
Hell are you yeah?

Speaker 3 (49:30):
Good?

Speaker 2 (49:31):
Thank you know? What's your problem here? Because you've got
a lot of problems, but is your primary problem that
you think they're making money on these bags off us.

Speaker 23 (49:38):
No, just that they're annoying. They're annoying. They don't carry
what you need. Have you ever tried putting, like to
get anything else? For get eggs, forget anything. Just milk,
Just put a two letter bottle of slippery, wet milk
into this thing.

Speaker 3 (49:51):
And then it really I can't handle it.

Speaker 23 (49:53):
By the day, by the time you get to your car,
it's all over the floor and you've actually got to
carry it like a baby.

Speaker 14 (49:58):
The number of times I've will out like it almost.

Speaker 16 (50:00):
Like I've got triplets.

Speaker 23 (50:02):
If you've got three bags, you know you're carrying it,
You're waddling through the car park. It's like it's just
mission impossible. And I know people will say, bring your
own bags, but I don't care.

Speaker 2 (50:12):
Hang on, hang on, can't you buy those? You can
get the flash ones at the counter as well, you
know the ones that are like if you're at all
worth the green ones, they cost you maybe like a
dollar or so, I don't.

Speaker 23 (50:19):
Know, Yeah, but then that's a dollar. Then that's three
dollars for three bags. And then I'll and then I'll
forget and I'll be back again.

Speaker 4 (50:26):
That's three bucks every time I go.

Speaker 2 (50:29):
I suspect that your primary problem, because, like I said,
there's a lot here. Your primary problem is you actually
want the plastic bags bag. Well, just sort of just
say it, right, I sort of do.

Speaker 23 (50:42):
I mean, I understand. Look, apparently there's one hundred and
fifty million plastic bags not in the ocean because we're
doing this, et cetera. But if you look at it globally,
are we are we ridding the oceans of plastic?

Speaker 7 (50:53):
No?

Speaker 23 (50:54):
Is New Zealand doing It's a little tiny bit, yes,
a slither of a slither? Is that making? And an
osor of difference?

Speaker 7 (51:01):
No?

Speaker 23 (51:02):
So can I have three plastic bags when I go
shopping next place?

Speaker 2 (51:08):
I'm kind of with you, I've gotta be honest, I'm
kind of with you because at least the plastic bags
you could get, like did you ever buy those like
long sock things and you can like ram them in, right,
and so you ended up with a gigantic stuffed kind
of yeah, And it was much more efficient to store
your plastic bags in that long sock than it is
to try and keep all of these awful brown paper bags.
I've got a stack of them.

Speaker 14 (51:29):
Well, that's the thing.

Speaker 23 (51:30):
And also do you actually reuse the because I definitely
used to reuse the plastic ones. Yeah, but you use
them and use them all sorts of things. But I
do not. I don't think I've ever reused a paper
no no in my life and then torn to shreds.

Speaker 2 (51:46):
And then what I do is sort of every few months,
I take out like a whole bunch of them and
chuck them in the bin. And it is a lot, Ryan,
there's a lot of paper.

Speaker 24 (51:54):
Yeah, I know.

Speaker 23 (51:55):
And I mean and the worst part, Heather, actually, yeah,
mentioned my biggest problem.

Speaker 2 (52:01):
You've got a big problem here.

Speaker 23 (52:02):
I could go, they're printing little Christmas trees on these
paper bags now for Christmas, so you'll to save the planet.
We're chopping down trees to make bags and then printing
little trees on top of them.

Speaker 7 (52:18):
I mean, it just makes no sense.

Speaker 2 (52:20):
I did that. I couldn't understand why that was upsetting
for you other than maybe you just like ragroot.

Speaker 14 (52:26):
Well.

Speaker 23 (52:26):
The cost, I mean that is because that's the cheapest
bag that you can buy as far as I'm aware.
The chi which just.

Speaker 2 (52:33):
Goes to show Ryan how much they're ripping you off,
but with a margin that they're putting on it right
if they can afford to them print it. They're not
doing it that cheap?

Speaker 23 (52:40):
Are they give me plastic?

Speaker 21 (52:42):
Give me plastic?

Speaker 23 (52:43):
I'm sick of it?

Speaker 2 (52:46):
Thank you, Ryan, appreciate it. I knew it was about
the plastic. In the end, Ryan Bridge News dogs'd be
early edition host. Let me run you we're going to
go to the huddle before we do. Let me run
you really quickly through what the Labour Party is doing.
So do you remember back in twenty twenty three, just
before the election, they were talking about the possibility of
having a wealth tax and then Chippy did a captain's

(53:06):
call and he's like, nah, no wealth tax and that
made David Parker very upset. Grant Robertson very upsets. David
was so upset he resigned the Revenue portfolio if you
remember correctly. Anyway, the Labor Party is itself so upset
about it, it now wants to stop the leader from
being able to do things like that make captain's calls,
because they're going to have their meeting this weekend and
one of the things that there is up for a
bit of a debate is whether they banned the leader

(53:29):
from being able to do that and instead, in order
to change anything that's already in the manifesto, the leader
would have to consult with not only the caucus that's
everybody in Parliament, all the Labor Party MP's in Parliament,
but also with the Policy Council and what luminaries do
we have on the Policy Council. Georgie Dansey, Remember Georgie Dansey,
the one who was in Hamilton West who turned up

(53:51):
at the protest protesting I think was was she protesting
her own minister or something like that? Anyway, famous for
that Michael would the worst rantsport minister in the history
of the country. And also Craig Reennie, the CTU Chief
economist who pretends to be neutral but isn't. So they
would then be able to decide what would happen or not.
It seems it's only coming from one region, which is

(54:12):
Region one Northland to Aucklands are probably going to be
voted down, but interesting they want to stop their leaders
from basically being able to do that. Nineteen away from.

Speaker 1 (54:19):
Six the Huddle with New Zealand Tutherby's International Realty, Local
and Global Exposure like.

Speaker 2 (54:25):
Noah Hey, Jack Tame, host of Q and A Saturday
mornings here on newstalk ZBI and Nick Mills, Wellington Morning's host,
both of you.

Speaker 4 (54:31):
Welcome, killed good morning, All right, good evening. Sorry I'm
still thinking I'm doing my show.

Speaker 2 (54:37):
Well I still reckon I go with afternoon at the stage.

Speaker 4 (54:39):
Nick, No, it's evening.

Speaker 2 (54:42):
Okay, I didn't know that was the rule, but it's
good to know. What do you think about the paper bags?

Speaker 4 (54:48):
Well, you see, I've got a great system.

Speaker 25 (54:49):
My office manager, she loves her local hospice shop and
they're always after paper bags. So we have a little
thing in our office where we all bring our used
bags and she folds them up and take them to the.

Speaker 4 (55:01):
Local hospice shop.

Speaker 25 (55:02):
So I'm a little bit on a different side of
the fence to Ryan on that one, but I understand totally.
You know what happened to me a couple of weeks ago,
someone from our family ordered a great, big dinner at
at a very upmarket Chinese restaurant. I paid for it
and everything. I went to pick it up and I
saw I'm not going to be able to carry this,
and the lady said, would you like a plastic paper bag?

Speaker 7 (55:20):
And I said yes, please.

Speaker 4 (55:22):
She said thirty cents after.

Speaker 25 (55:23):
Spending one hundred and forty dollars on meals they wanted
to charge and I didn't have any casual change on
me so I had to f bos thirty cents.

Speaker 4 (55:30):
Now is that pathetic?

Speaker 2 (55:32):
That is pathetic? But I okay, that is pathetic, and
that is a fair point. But that is basically jack,
what supermarkets are doing. Because you got forty cents for
a paper bag is too much. They are making a
massive profit on that.

Speaker 26 (55:42):
Yeah, I mean you have to myself, what is the
purpose of charging us that much? Is it so they
can turn a profit or is it so that they
can try and encourage us to be less wasteful in
our consumption? Because I would argue that actually that second
point isn't the responsibility of the supermakets. Like we've got
the policy with ban plastic bags of policy which I
tend to disagree with Ryan on. I actually think even

(56:05):
though New Zealand's contribution to the ocean's pollution probably hasn't
made a massive dent in in terms of the global
plastic pollution, I just think it's so much nicer not
having plastic bags blowing around in the street and the
rivers and all that kind of stuff. That being said,
you know, this is not the responsibility of the supermarkets.

(56:26):
That was the decision whereby we decided we were doing
the right thing for the environment. Surely the supermarket's responsibilities
actually to make things as convenient as possible for us,
whilst doing it in a relatively ecologically sensible way. And
I agree at the moment they're charging too much.

Speaker 2 (56:39):
Yeah, it's annoying. Hey, what do you think about the
ocon that coming down? Are you breathing a bit of
a sigh of relief.

Speaker 4 (56:45):
I'm a little bit disappointed now.

Speaker 25 (56:47):
I know that I've been called a grumpy bugger all
week on my show this week, but I kind of
I was hoping for a Christmas present. I listened to
Mike Show this morning driving to work, and I was
thinking to myself, as a resident economist, said go harder, bigger,
seventy five points and it's you know, four months until
we get the next one. This was a great opportunity
for Adrian Or to show he had some wasn't it.

Speaker 4 (57:10):
It was a great opportunity.

Speaker 25 (57:11):
What you know, you know the thing that meant between leagues.

Speaker 7 (57:16):
I don't want to.

Speaker 25 (57:17):
Be rude, but you know what I mean, and I
saw I was a little bit disappointed.

Speaker 4 (57:20):
Am I pleased that it's moved, Of course I am,
But I thought I thought this was a.

Speaker 25 (57:24):
Great opportunity to go hard and really we're still doing
it tough.

Speaker 4 (57:29):
Yeah, yeah, I couldn't have gone a bit harder.

Speaker 2 (57:30):
Yeah, I Jack. I can't help but feel it's a
bit of a capitulation by the Reserve Bank, and they're
just letting the market basically decide for They're letting the
market do all the thinking market prices and fifty bp okay, fine,
we'll go with it.

Speaker 11 (57:41):
Yeah.

Speaker 26 (57:41):
Yeah, it's interesting how much that seems to influence the
Monastery Policy Committee. A.

Speaker 14 (57:45):
I mean, a couple of points I would raise.

Speaker 26 (57:47):
First of all, obviously I was hoping for a seventy
five basis point right cut. In fact, my mortgage came
up at the end of October and I decided to
float until today so that I could wait and see
what Harbianz decided.

Speaker 2 (57:58):
Was that a good call?

Speaker 4 (57:59):
Yeah?

Speaker 7 (58:00):
I think it will be.

Speaker 26 (58:00):
I think I did the maths, I did the back
of the envelope sums, and I think it ultimately will be,
although not nearly as profitable or not nearly as good
for me as it might have been if I got
seventy five. I think there's a good argument that they
should be moving faster, especially given the cpis at two
point two percent. I mean, it's very very close to
that target.

Speaker 9 (58:18):
Point.

Speaker 26 (58:18):
That being said, I do think the Trump factor complicates
things a little bit, Like when you look at some
of the international pressures, we can't mean he's just announced
overnight that he's definitely going to be bringing in those
tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China, and so given he's
going to be inaugurated between now and the next decision
for the Reserve Bank, I can understand why they are

(58:41):
at least a little bit cautious and not wanting to
go too quickly. But one other number stuck out to
me that I think we should all be celebrating. And obviously,
forecasts is just forecast at the stage, but I went
back and looked at the NPS from August. Back then,
the Reserve Bank was expecting unemployment to hit five point
four percent next year. To pull that back five point
two percent now, so I mean, this isn't a soft

(59:03):
landing as such, but clearly, if we could keep unemployment
at about five point two percent or lower while bringing
down the ocr over the next felve months.

Speaker 14 (59:12):
I think that would be pretty success.

Speaker 2 (59:13):
Thank you Australia for taking all of our exports. Well, okay, listen,
I want to talk about I want to talk about works. Yep,
that's right, that's what I mean. Nick, I want to
talk about you make Tory. So hang on a tick.
We're going to do that. Fourteen away from six.

Speaker 1 (59:25):
The Huddle with New Zealand Southeby's International Realty Elevate the
marketing of your home right.

Speaker 2 (59:30):
Back with Nick Mills and Jack tam Nick, so what
do you make of your council sitting down deciding they
need to save five hundred million bucks and then not
knowing how much they saved.

Speaker 25 (59:38):
They didn't have a clue how much they needed to
save at the start. It's changed every second, Monek. The
numbers have changed from two hundred and fifty million to
five hundred million. I mean, what sort of company organization
can have that sort of insecurity in front of them.

Speaker 4 (59:52):
It's just absolutely nuts.

Speaker 25 (59:54):
And you know, Lindsey McKenzie wouldn't do an interview, He
wouldn't talk to anybody, sat there like with a straight face,
according to Georgina Campbell, who was there for the seven hours,
he just didn't wasn't, you know, wasn't having any involvement whatsoever.
Just sitting there watching the whole thing is terrifying. I mean,
if you're a welling Tonian and your rates, I mean,
our rates are nuts in the city. Commercial rates are

(01:00:16):
crazy in the city, almost double what they are in
Auckland for value to ratio for property.

Speaker 4 (01:00:22):
It's just absolutely nuts and no one, no one knows
what's happening.

Speaker 2 (01:00:26):
Yeah, it totally vindicates, I think jack the decision by
Simon Brown to call in the observer.

Speaker 26 (01:00:31):
Yes, well, it doesn't necessarily sound like the observers had
a huge influence on the meeting.

Speaker 2 (01:00:37):
You guys, he's an observer.

Speaker 26 (01:00:39):
Yeah, well that's the thing that But I mean, are
we any clearer as a result is he's like.

Speaker 2 (01:00:45):
He may be clear, Like his point, the point of
his job is literally to sit there until someone asks
for his help and then to go to Simon and
be like, oh mate, it's a total shake.

Speaker 3 (01:00:54):
Yeah.

Speaker 26 (01:00:55):
Yeah, I think I think a thing would be to
say that the proof of the pudding is in the
eating in that one, but lutely I think having you know,
there's a good argument to be made they're having eyes
in that meeting is probably been vindication of a certain degree,
but it is woeful. The fact that no one can
give us any clarity on this is absolutely wonful for
an organization of their size, and just yeah, you know,
it just there's such a there's such a trust gap,

(01:01:18):
and you know, when it comes to Wellington's residence in
the Council and every day that this continues, every time
we have more confusion and you know, disagreement and people
saying one thing and other people contradicting them.

Speaker 14 (01:01:33):
It just it just really undermines whatever trust remains.

Speaker 2 (01:01:36):
Yeah, totally. Hey, Nick, you bought anything in the Black
Friday sales?

Speaker 4 (01:01:40):
No, don't be stupid. I'm over twenty.

Speaker 2 (01:01:43):
Okay, okay, So what you don't buy anything? Is that
why you're student from nineteen ninety five?

Speaker 25 (01:01:49):
No, I haven't. I haven't bought anything, and I'm things
are quite tight Heather right now.

Speaker 4 (01:01:55):
So I'm not in the spending mood.

Speaker 7 (01:01:56):
You know, I'm not in the spending mood.

Speaker 4 (01:01:58):
But closer to Christmas, I'll do my spending.

Speaker 14 (01:02:00):
I did, Heather, Yeah, what did you want to be
very excited about this. I bought a new drum roll
please bike helmet.

Speaker 2 (01:02:08):
Is it a cool one?

Speaker 7 (01:02:09):
Or is it?

Speaker 14 (01:02:09):
Like?

Speaker 7 (01:02:09):
No, no, no, it's.

Speaker 14 (01:02:11):
Really uncol Super uncle, Yeah, super uncle.

Speaker 26 (01:02:14):
And not only that, I went to the chemist Warehouse
because they've got a big.

Speaker 14 (01:02:17):
Sale and I got like bulk.

Speaker 26 (01:02:22):
Like I have a very like specific tase when it
comes to dental hygiene, and I got bulk dental floss.

Speaker 14 (01:02:28):
Becausednal foss can be surprisingly expensive.

Speaker 2 (01:02:30):
What about your wife because she's nesting now, because she's
so pregnant.

Speaker 26 (01:02:33):
Yeah, well she you know, I'm sure she'll be delighted
when she receives my Christmas gift of bulk dental floss.

Speaker 4 (01:02:41):
Can I tell you?

Speaker 25 (01:02:41):
Can I give you both a bit of advice? D
Jack Listen listen to Nick on this one. Listen to
big brother Nick on this one. A water blaster.

Speaker 7 (01:02:48):
Right, my Hi Genis told.

Speaker 4 (01:02:50):
Me to get a water blaster, which costs me quite
a bit of money at the time. I am so
in love with my water blaster.

Speaker 14 (01:02:56):
If you mean a dental water blaster, don't you know
what I mean? Like the ones outside?

Speaker 2 (01:03:03):
Yeah, just floss.

Speaker 4 (01:03:07):
It's so incredible.

Speaker 2 (01:03:08):
If you've got one, no, I don't. And can I
tell you ask your wife if she loves it, because
my husband's got one and I do not love finding
all the little bits of food all over the sink.
It sucks.

Speaker 4 (01:03:17):
I clean it out after when I do it?

Speaker 2 (01:03:20):
Do you do a boy clean though? Or a girl clean?

Speaker 25 (01:03:23):
You know the answer to that here, boy, you know
the answer that you know me well enough to know
that when I clean, I clean.

Speaker 2 (01:03:28):
Oh, okay, I'm gonna I'm going to trust you on that, guys,
Thank you very much. And Jack, congratulations on the pregnancy.
So cool, Jack Tame and Nick Mills huddle this evening
seven away from six.

Speaker 3 (01:03:38):
Red or blue?

Speaker 1 (01:03:39):
Trump or Harris? Who will win the battleground states? The
latest on the US election. It's Heather duplicy Alan drive
with one New Zealand let's get connected.

Speaker 2 (01:03:52):
Hither. I had a water flosser and by the way,
it's called a water peck, Thank you very much. I
had a water flosser and it's exactly the same, spread
all over my face and mirror bits everywhere. Is that
groc fare that's so gross for me? Is that gross fair?
That's disgusting? Anyway, I donated it to the hedgehog rescue
ladies so she could clean out the wounds on the hedgehogs.

(01:04:14):
I really hope that they ran some salt solution through
that first to get rid of your disgusting gum food.

Speaker 21 (01:04:21):
You yuck.

Speaker 2 (01:04:23):
Never mind moving on, hey, so on, moving Westport? Okay,
this is the plan. Okay, the government's funded these guys,
and it's like it's an architecture landscape urban design company
called ISTHMUS and told them, can you come up with
a way for us to save Westport when we're constantly
getting flooded by the Buller River. And so what they
said is move Westport. Now, what that's going to require
is some government seed funding, and then government would have

(01:04:45):
to give them a whole bunch of land currently owned
by Land Corp. Nearby, and then they would have to
have developers build them a new town and and then
well what do you do? Do you sell? How do
you afford the new house? All of these are questions
for Jamie Klein, who is the mayor, who will be
with us very shortly. Got to run you through this thing.
You just have to six o'clock. By the way, I
got to run you through this thing that's going on

(01:05:07):
at the moment. There's this interesting test online akay as
to whether you can tell the difference between an AI
voice and a real human voice. And they've got AI
and a real human reading a piece from Alice in Wonderland.
I'm going to play you two clips and let you
think about it, and you tell me which one you
think is the AI and which one's the real voice.
So here's clip number one.

Speaker 5 (01:05:27):
Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by
her sister on the bank and of having nothing to do.
Once or twice she had peeped into the book her
sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations
in it. And what is the use of a book,
thought Alice Winner without pictures or conversations.

Speaker 2 (01:05:45):
And here's clip number two.

Speaker 5 (01:05:47):
her sister on the bank and having nothing to do.
in it. And what is the use of a book,
thought Alice without pictures or conversations.

Speaker 2 (01:06:01):
Okay, it's tricky, it's tricky. I picked the wrong one first.
Then I read the article about what you should look
for to be able to tell the difference between AI
and and human voice, and I heard it in that
and I reckon, I would still pick it wrong. So
I'm gonna I'm gonna you tell me what you think.
I'll tell you what the truth is, and I'll tell
you how to pick the difference. News Dogs, they'd be.

Speaker 1 (01:06:31):
We're Business and Insight the Business Hour.

Speaker 3 (01:06:35):
We'd hand a duplessy Ellen and my hr on news
Dogs b.

Speaker 2 (01:06:41):
Evening coming up in the next hour, we're going to
talk about the official cash rate. We'll have Jenative Strainey's
take on it, and then we'll get the market reaction
with Milford Asset Management shortly. Also, Jamie Klein, the bullamare
on moving Westport. He's actually with us. After half past
seven half fuss, I put you wrong on that, And
we're going to deal with the AI and just attack
right now seven past six, and let's deal with this
first Oka. Most retailers are struggling, but Kmart is certainly not.

(01:07:05):
Kmart's revenue New Zealand grew to almost one billion dollars
for the financial Yeah, actually that's the region's revenue. The
company made more than one hundred million dollars in profit
here in New Zealand. That's up fifty two percent year
on year. Auckland University marketing professor Mike Lee is with
been our.

Speaker 24 (01:07:20):
Hey, Mike, Hey, thanks for having me, Mike.

Speaker 2 (01:07:23):
For them to go up fifty two percent year on
year is remarkable given how hard the warehouse is doing it,
isn't it.

Speaker 26 (01:07:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 24 (01:07:31):
I mean, if you look at some of the graphs
they're available at, the warehouse is plateaued for a while now,
and the cckmart kind of encroaching on their market share.
Ere on here, just climbing that steep upwards sort of trajectory.

Speaker 2 (01:07:44):
What are they doing right, do you reckon? I mean,
obviously they've got a range of stuff that's cool, and
they've also got at really good prices. But is there
something else going on here?

Speaker 4 (01:07:53):
Yeah?

Speaker 24 (01:07:54):
I think they've made a strategic decision a Picaud or
Soga to really instead of trying to be everything to everyone,
as to be just a few things, a few really
good things to a few people. And that's just been
a model. That's really what they've been leveraging. They reduce
the amount of stuff that they had and only focused
on really good quality products at that affordable price. And

(01:08:15):
so through doing that and sort of getting their fashion
and style up a bit, they've managed to sort of
avoid the stigma that most big box retail bargain retailers have.
And so now you've got a generation of people that
are seeing things on TikTok and trends and other things
that are able to go to km out not feel
embarrassed by it. There's not that stigma, and I think
that's where a lot of the growth is coming from

(01:08:37):
as well.

Speaker 2 (01:08:38):
So who is it that they're actually targeting. Is it
young mums?

Speaker 24 (01:08:42):
I think it's definitely a younger profile, maybe slightly trendier,
fashionable people, but also a lot of you know gen
Z's and people that are following influencers, you know, seeing
people sort of lifestyle hacks to get a certain look
for a certain price. But then also we'll get products
that aren't maybe perceived as as tinney as some of

(01:09:04):
the other products you might get at the cheaper places.

Speaker 2 (01:09:07):
Do you buy anything from Kman I have in the past.

Speaker 24 (01:09:11):
Yeah, for sure, and it's it's been pretty good. And
obviously the store environment when you go in is a
little bit more.

Speaker 3 (01:09:19):
I guess it.

Speaker 24 (01:09:19):
Feels a bit more upmarket, not quite the sort of
same bargain sort of bin.

Speaker 9 (01:09:23):
Feel that you get.

Speaker 24 (01:09:24):
Yeah, and the real test will be, you know, when
they open that megastore opposite Costcos and Worth Pokland, how
that fares?

Speaker 7 (01:09:31):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:09:32):
Interesting? Hey, Mike, thanks very much. I really appreciate you
runningus through your thoughts.

Speaker 16 (01:09:35):
There.

Speaker 2 (01:09:35):
That's Mike Lee Auckland University marketing professor. I'm loving came
out at the moment because I was talking to Jack
just before about his wife nesting. Boy am I nesting? Like,
do not send me a sale link because I will
buy whatever it is. I'm not always sure that I
need it. Sometimes things are turning up at the house
and I'm like, why did I buy that?

Speaker 25 (01:09:54):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (01:09:55):
Yep, that, oh yep, yep, that was what Yep, That's
what I was thinking. So anyway, hitting the kmart hard,
haven't I?

Speaker 1 (01:10:01):
So?

Speaker 2 (01:10:02):
I bought maternity bras from there because you don't. You
don't want to spend a lot of money on a
maternity brain. I'm gonna need it for a long time.

Speaker 3 (01:10:07):
Are you so?

Speaker 2 (01:10:08):
Got that for cheap? Got some socks for the boy,
because I don't know where all his socks are going.
KNDy obviously got some knickers for the husband. Tried to
buy one of those giant bows you know you can
get for your door. You can get like a giant bow.
It makes it look like a present. Try to get
those completely sold out, so I didn't get those. What
else did we? Oh, got ballbles for the Christmas tree,
got a skirt for the Christmas tree that felt like
a necessary item that was only six dollars, So it's

(01:10:30):
actually a bargain. Boy, Honestly, the list of stuff that
I've bought from kmart, I am just a pig in
the proverbial, so happy, happy with myself came out has
Really it's just oh presence for the boy for his birthday.
He's going to his first birthday party, so I've got
some duplo for her. He's been invited to his first
friend's birthday, part of which is a big deal. So
she's getting duplo, just stuff like that. It's awesome and

(01:10:52):
the duplo's cheap. You can get it at came out
cheaper than the warehouse. There's a problem anyway, Okay, so
here we go. Most people some people picked them AI
Voice right. Most people pick the AI voice wrong. AI
is voice two because Voice one had an intake of breath.
So what this person is saying is the intake of
breath is an indication that actually was a real human.

(01:11:13):
Second was AI because it only took one breath. That's
from Noel Heather. The first one is human because of
the breathing. The second one is AI, Heather. This one
is right. First one is AI intake of breath. Now
you're all actually hitting on exactly the thing that you
need to listen for. If you want to tell the
difference between what is AI and what is real, it's
the intake of breath. That's usually a clue to you.

(01:11:35):
So a normal person like me when talking breathes in right,
and an AI doesn't have that intake of breath. But
here's the problem. AI is now so sophisticated that it
mimics the intake of breath. So this is the AI version.

Speaker 5 (01:11:49):
her sister on the bank and of having nothing to do.
in it, And what is the use of a book,
thought Alice, whenner without pictures or conversations?

Speaker 2 (01:12:07):
How interesting is that?

Speaker 16 (01:12:08):
Right?

Speaker 2 (01:12:08):
Sounded like a human because the antec of breath, and
in fact the human doesn't breathe as much.

Speaker 5 (01:12:13):
her sister on the bank and having nothing to do.
sister was reading, but had no pictures or conversations in it.
And what is the use of a book, thought Alice
without pictures or conversations?

Speaker 2 (01:12:28):
The creepy thing. Okay, So why you need to know
this is because AI is getting better and better and
better at mimicking us. And there will be a stage
where you will hear somebody's voice and it will not
be the person that you think it is. It will
be AI mimicking them. That is definitely going to happen
to us in our lives at some point. Now at
the moment, what's freaky about it is that AI is

(01:12:48):
This is the worst AI is going to be. It's
only going to get better around, better and better at
replicating us, putting little stumbles in to make it sound human,
doing all this kind of stuff. Anyway, there is a
way to find out if you're worried about it for
whatever reason, I don't know. There's a phone call and
you're not sure if it's AI or a human. There
is a way to figure out whether it is AI.
I'm so aware of my breathing now, whether it's an

(01:13:10):
AI or human. Ask the AI to scream, because apparently
at this stage AI can only speak. Most AI voices
can only speak within the normal vocal range unless they've
been specifically trained to do more. So, somebody asks chat
GPT to shout, and Chat GPT seidback. I can't shout,

(01:13:32):
so at the moment, AI cannot scream or shout for
the most part. So if you're not sure, ask them
to do that. A human can, AI can't. How interesting
is that fourteen.

Speaker 1 (01:13:40):
Past six analysis from the experts bringing you everything you
need to know on the US election. It's the Business
Hour with Heather Duplic Allen and MYHR solution for busy
SMEs used talk sa'd be.

Speaker 2 (01:13:55):
Seventeen past six. Jena Tibshrani, the Herald's Wellington Business editor,
is with us. Now, how do you know, hey, Heather, okay,
so how many banks have dropped the mortgage rates by
half a percentage point?

Speaker 27 (01:14:04):
Then, well, the banks came out straight straight away, straight
after the Reserve Bank announced the cuts. In fact, one
bank I got an email from them before I got
a message from the Reserve Bank saying that it was
cutting the OCR by fifty basis points. So they've all moved,
They've all moved quickly.

Speaker 2 (01:14:21):
That's good. Okay, what are we expecting from how the
US election is going to affect what happens from here
on in, because it sounds like the Reserve Bank's a
little worried about it.

Speaker 27 (01:14:29):
Yeah, yeah, Look, I think the Reserve Bank today just
adrianal tempered people's expectations a little bit, and in fact
he said the thrill might not be as big as
what it looks like. Those were Adrinal's words today. Now,
the reason for this is that the OCR isn't the
only thing that influences the mortgage rates that you and

(01:14:50):
I pay. Banks also get funding from offshore markets. They
borrow money from overseas, and the issue here is that
the interest rates that are being charged for these money
markets around the world are elevated at the moment, and
that is because of the outcome of the U s election.
So because Donald Trump is promising tax cuts in the US,

(01:15:13):
people think that the deficit in the US will be deeper.
You know that the US will continue being in a
lot of debt. And also Donald Trump the tariffs and
things that he's proposing, they could be inflationary. All of
this creates more uncertainty and more risk, and investors price
that risk into assets. And if there's more risks, you

(01:15:34):
know that there's a risk premium priced in that elevates
interest rates. So if those interest rates in global money
markets are higher, then that influences banks funding costs, and
that influences the interest rates that we pay. So you
know that it's still a positive story. Mortgage rates are
still coming down. We should just be a little bit

(01:15:55):
cautious about the extent to which they will fall.

Speaker 2 (01:15:58):
Yeah, that's a very good point, Okay, sir, to appreciate it,
you know, tib Trany the Herald's Wellington business tit speaking
of banks. The Duval story has just got involved with
a bunch of banks, and it's quite it's getting more
and more interested. I think the more that we learn
about what's going on with Deval the more interesting it is.
So it now emerges, and this is a story that's
been running a business desks today. It's now emerged that

(01:16:19):
back in December last year, Duval was circulating an information
memorandum trying to get the investors you may recall this,
but they were trying to get investors who had an
interest in the mortgage fund and Opportunities Fund to switch
that interest for shares instead in the Duval Property Group,
which they've basically just created, and they were talking about
possibly listing it and stuff. And in order to try

(01:16:39):
and convince the investors to do this, they circulated this
information memorandum. Now, page six of that document had a
corporate directory of all these businesses that were involved. It
had twelve banks, Westpac ASB, It had a real estate
company CBRE. It had accountants, valuers, law firms, Quantity Survey
as an investment advisor, and so on. Right, and obviously
it had all of these businesses listed because it was

(01:17:00):
given credibility to what Duval was trying to sell to
these people as an idea. Except it now turns out
today that a whole bunch of these businesses didn't actually
know that. They say they didn't know that they were
part of this corporate directory on page six of the
IM We're back in ASB and also, by the way,
the real estate company say they didn't realize until Business

(01:17:22):
Desk got in touch with them just in the last
few days, and then they all asked Business Desk to
provide them with a copy of the document so they
could see what it was all about.

Speaker 1 (01:17:31):
Six twenty everything from SMEs to the big corporates. The
Business Hour with Heather Duper cls and my HR the
HR solution for busy Smemes on News Talk ZB.

Speaker 2 (01:17:43):
By the way, on the paper bags, Gary's pointed out
the printed paper bags at the supermarket with the little
trees on it have been printed so that you can
use the paper bag for wrapping presents, and they've got
a dashed line around the bottom with scissors on it. Now,
oh look, I just want to caution you there's an
element of that being quite shit. You go and wrap

(01:18:04):
somebody's present with a paper bag that you got from
Countdown or Woolworth or whatever it is. I don't know
how that's going to go down. Try it out, let
me know how it goes. We'll talk in the new year.
Six twenty four, Caitlin Parker Milford aset management with me.

Speaker 3 (01:18:14):
Now, hey, Caitlin, hey, here are you?

Speaker 2 (01:18:16):
I'm very well, thank you. Now, there was a little
bit of flirtation from the market, wasn't there as to
the possibility of a seventy five basis point cut? So
when we got the fifty were they disappointed today?

Speaker 28 (01:18:26):
Yeah, Look, it was very much consensus that we have
half percent, but there were toying with the idea that
we might get a bit a chunkier point seven five
percent cut away before Christmas. But look, there wasn't really
much disappointment. I suppose what we did see was a
bit of volatility versus drastic and to day changes. And
there's a bit of time between when the Reserve Bank
released their statement to their forecast before we have the PRESO,

(01:18:50):
so the communication was a bit mixed initially. And initially
we actually saw a currency rally in the view that
the official cast rate wasn't going to be moving as
low as initially hot looking at the forecast. But then
on the press conference with Governor Or he gave very
clear guidance that another half a percent cut is very
much their base case for February, so we saw a
lot of this unwind as well. And then in terms

(01:19:12):
of interest rates, there was no massive move in terms
of the official cash right track, they still see the
low at about three percent, but they did note that
there is a higher risk of inflation volatility towards the
end of next year. So we saw interest rates move up.
You know, the two year was up aboutero point one
percent at the end of the day, but nothing drastic
to call out, and nothing major to call out either.

Speaker 2 (01:19:34):
On the equity side.

Speaker 28 (01:19:35):
After today, it was very much as expected.

Speaker 2 (01:19:37):
And let's seventy five basis point that that idea that
was basically there because the reserve banks having this mess
of three month break right.

Speaker 28 (01:19:43):
Yeah, look, they're definitely they're heading on their three month
hiatus as they do every year. So some of the
thinking behind it was, you know, why not get ahead
of it. A lot can happen in three months, and
we are seeing a bit of green shoots in the
data out there, but it's still very very soggy, and
a lot can happen in three months. Also, off sure,
we have an inauguration in the US, but you know,
regardless if they did the point seventy five today instead

(01:20:06):
of the half a percent. We still have an official
cash right that starts with the four, so that's still
considered to be very restrictive. And the Reserve Bank they're
not expecting to get back to their the bounds of
what they consider neutral, so not you know, stimulating growth,
but not neither restricting growth. They're causing inflation until the
end of twenty twenty five.

Speaker 2 (01:20:25):
And okay, so we've gone from five and a half
to four point twenty five. The average mortgage rate that
kiwis are paying is still close to six and a
half why yeah, so that.

Speaker 28 (01:20:34):
Was highlighted today by Governor Or. So the effective interest
rate that's six and a half percent that kiwis are
paying right now, that's expected to drop to about five
point eight percent by their calculations over the next year,
which is still pretty high. And you know why is this?
It really comes down to the margin pressures that banks
are having on their funding costs. So they were benefiting
from that lower funding from the Funding for Lending program,

(01:20:57):
you know, cheap funding that the worbien zut able to provide.
Let's now off the table. So the banks are having
to pay up for more expensive deposits, so they're not
rushing to cut their margins. And Governor Or he did
notice that he does expect on the flip side that
as we see some activity in the housing market pick up,
we short start to see some competitive pressures come through.
Because today there hasn't been much going on in terms

(01:21:20):
of lending for the housing, so there hasn't been anything
to be too competitive about. So he is hopeful, I
suppose an optimistic that those margins will start to come
down a bit and relief will be felt for mortgage owners.

Speaker 2 (01:21:30):
Kaitlyn, thanks for running us through that. I appreciate. It's
Kaitlyn Pack and milfed Esset Management. I'm gonna tell Willie
Jackson he's been heading the socials again. I'll tell you
about that in a minute. And rock star Rod Stewart
is going to play at Glassonbury next year. How good?
How old is he? Like seventy nine or something like that.
It is still looking good old Rod. Anyway, it's been
twenty three years since he lasted. At last time he

(01:21:51):
headlined was with Coldplay in two thousand and two. He's
got the Legion slot on Sunday Afternoon. How good? Good
on Rod Headline's next.

Speaker 3 (01:22:00):
But if it's to do with money, it matters to you.

Speaker 1 (01:22:06):
The Business Hour with Heather Duplic and my HR the
HR solution for busy smys on News Talks.

Speaker 2 (01:22:19):
Right, we're off to the UK and ten minutes time. So, oh,
this just came through. There was an auction today. I'm
not going to name any names, so I don't want
to cast dispersions on any businesses or anything at the moment,
but there was an auction today by one prominent real
estate company in Auckland. Twenty two passed in five sold.
That's a terrible eighteen and a half percent sal rate.

(01:22:41):
I think we need much more than a half a
percentage point ocr cut to get things moving again. I
think you might be about right there. Well, it takes
a while for people to feel the pain coming off them, right.
So Willie Jackson, Willie Jackson's hit the old social media
again and this is about him wanting to have this
debate with David Seymourn. Now I am not but I
am not making this up. But remember when Willie Jackson

(01:23:03):
was doing his like thing where he went on the
Working Group podcast and just had a rave about me.
What was that last week, wasn't it? It was last week,
I think Anyway, he was on the Working Group podcast,
and honestly, what he kept on saying to I don't
know who it was he was talking to, but he
was like, don't debate David Seymour. All David Seymour ever
does is not answer your question to start asking you questions.

(01:23:24):
Don't debate David Seymore, don't debate David Seymore. Don't debate
Davids And then all of a sudden, Willie Jackson's now like,
I'm going to debate David Seymour. I mean, the guy's
head is a mess, isn't it. So now David Seamoll
was like, well, I'm not going to debate you until
you apologize for calling me a liar, which is fair
enough because a liar is one of the most effamatory
things you could say legally in this country. So now
now Willy's had the socials. David's response to my debate

(01:23:47):
has been extraordinary feeble when my challenge exclamation mark full
stop both of them. When my challenge was put to David,
he said I had to apologize first for calling him
a liar. What weak sources that David, When did the
great Freese Beach champion suddenly gets so easily triggered? Refusing
to debate me because I have to apologize first. Sounds
like you are scared, David. If you need an apology,

(01:24:07):
here's one. I'm sorry you are dragging the nation through
this pointless and devisive nonsense. Now man up and debate me.
It's time to debate, David, your flawed bell. How about
seven pm on Whiteitangy at white Tangy. Stop playing games
in front? Do you know what that screams to me?
That screams old mate feels like he's not actually front
and center in this debate. He feels like the Mahi
party is doing a better job of fronting this than him,

(01:24:28):
and he's trying desperately, desperately to become relevant again in
this debate twenty three away from seven.

Speaker 3 (01:24:34):
Ever due for see Allen.

Speaker 2 (01:24:36):
Now, this next story may sound at first like I'm
making it up, but I promise you I'm not. An
urban design company has come up with a plan to
protect Westport from flooding by actually moving the whole town
up a hill. The idea is to get some land
corp land on some high ground off the government then
build a new Westport there and gradually move everyone in
the old Westport to the new location. The plan was
presented to the Bulla District Council yesterday. Jamie Klein is

(01:24:57):
the mayor of Buller and is with us now.

Speaker 21 (01:24:58):
Hey Jamie, goody, good evening, Heather.

Speaker 9 (01:25:01):
How are you well?

Speaker 2 (01:25:02):
Thank you to quote Queen Jamie. Is this real life
or is this just fantasy?

Speaker 4 (01:25:07):
Look?

Speaker 3 (01:25:07):
It is real life.

Speaker 21 (01:25:09):
But I think the keyword there is gradually. So so
initially this is about a option and a plan for
growth for Westport, but off the back of growth and
having a plan, and having a master plan in particular
creates effectively an insurance policy for Westport for the twenty
fifty one hundred years in the future.

Speaker 2 (01:25:28):
So you could basically continue to run the town where
it is and build the wall that you are to
protect it from the Buller River. But as you develop,
this is the only land that you now develop, its
land that's on higher ground. Would that be fair?

Speaker 21 (01:25:40):
Look, not the only land we developed. I mean there's
mitigations and things that can be done in a hazard
zone as well, but certainly obviously long term there's a
hazard stack that exists over Westport. Building some flood protection
is a key element of that to buy some time
and protect what's here now. But part of a key
part of master planning is not only where future Westport goes,
but also how you manage and ensure that what we've

(01:26:02):
got here now is able to prosper and do well
as well. So it's important that we consider both sides
of the river.

Speaker 2 (01:26:08):
If you like Jamie, how is how do you avoid though,
people staying in the old Westport Because presumably what you
want to do is you want to, you know, through
attrition basically get people to buy all in the new
development as they set like. So for example, let's say
you're living in the old Westport, you sell your house
when you move, you'd like them to move up the
hill into the new Westport. How do you prevent them
from not just buying another house in the old Westport

(01:26:30):
and staying put.

Speaker 21 (01:26:31):
So you're not going to prevent anyone, there's nothing, there's
nothing compulsory about any of this. This is about a
long term vision around where people have options to build
a less hazard prone land in the future. So that
you know, the trick and the key is to is
to manage the hazards that exists for old town if
you like, but you know, but also planning for what's

(01:26:53):
the potential for a long term future.

Speaker 2 (01:26:55):
But most likely outcome Jamie, that you're just going to
end up with a big Westport where people are still
living the dodgy pat and some people are still living
in the good part.

Speaker 21 (01:27:03):
But pretty nice to be able to give people some
options and hope and choice. So I guess if if
you know there's another significant event, you know, of course
we're not just talking flooding here. We're talking about, you know,
multiple hazards. There's obviously a fate and other risks that
are on the on the plane here a fate earthquake
Alpine four eight earthquake, which is obviously concerning large parts
of the South Island as well. So there's you know,

(01:27:25):
there's the point is that it's not just flooding we're
worried about it. It's other things and long term there's
some great land. We're very fortunate to have proximity to decent,
less hazard prone land that we can explore over the
coming generations.

Speaker 2 (01:27:39):
But does this mean that we've just paid a bunch
of people five hundred thousand to tell us that the
next part of town that we developed should be Upperhill,
which is just obvious.

Speaker 21 (01:27:47):
No, So I mean there's a lot more than that. So,
I mean there's one element, clearly elevation is helpful, but no,
this is this is about being a community driven plan.
So certainly, very clever people from ISTHMUS have got the
plan to where it is.

Speaker 4 (01:28:02):
Now.

Speaker 21 (01:28:02):
The next phase is that community engagement and understand whether
or not you know that we've got that right if
you like, test that with the community and ultimately land
a final plan that then we champion. Is then how
do we gradually make that possible over the coming decades.

Speaker 2 (01:28:19):
Jamie, thanks for talking us through it to appreciate it.
That's Jammie Kline the Buller Mare. Now. Earlier this week
it's not another subject. We spoke about that Farmac decision
to change which hormone replacement therapy patches at funds. You
might remember this. It's not going down. I thought this
was good news. I thought a few we're going to
get rid of the shortage. No, not going down well
at all. The problem is that the one that Farmac

(01:28:39):
was funding was apparently the best one, and now it
has this global shortage, right, so they switched suppliers basic
to basically to one that's inferior for a lot of women.
But we can get more of it. Kate Roger. Now
you remember Kate Roger as in like Kate Roger who
used to do the movie reviews and all that kind
of entertainment stuff on TV three. Kate Roger is a

(01:28:59):
massive camp for understanding menopause and stuff like that. She's
gone online, she says, far Mac only funding the shiite patch,
which falls off and or itches like a mofo question mark.
Estra dot is by far and away the most popular
estrogen patch with the least number of side effects. But
if New Zealand women want Estra dot, we will soon
have to pay for it. This is such a backward
step and such bs. They are so upset about this.

(01:29:20):
I'm just gonna put this in context, like, it's not
the most expensive though. It's about forty bucks a month
if I remember correctly, So I think that's what's that
ten bucks a week? I mean, you'd rather not be
spending the money, obviously, rather be spending it on something else,
ice creams, whatever, but bus fares because that's going up.
But it's been funded. Now it's not and so people
are upset. So now there is a petition and now

(01:29:41):
David Semore, the Minister of farmak is actually going to
speak to FARMAC about it. And when David Seymour gets
involved in things, you generally expect things to change. To
keep an eye on that. Seventeen away from seven.

Speaker 1 (01:29:50):
Croaching the numbers and getting the results. It's headed duplic
Ellen with the Business Hour thanks to my HR the
HR solution for busy sm on news talks hereby here.

Speaker 2 (01:30:02):
That my wife is crazy angry with me this month
as the hormone replacement for angry wives or pay teen
thousand dollars a month mas to be fair. If she's
angry with you, it's probably your fault. Fourteen away from
Stephen k Oliver, UK correspondent with US. Now, Hey ky,
hello to Heather. So we've got a bunch of former
prime ministers who've come out in opposition right to the
assisted dying legislation.

Speaker 29 (01:30:24):
Absolutely as we move much closer to this vote, which
is in two days time, the three former Conservative MPs
Boris Johnson, Liz Trauss and Baroness May have now added
their voices to all those people who are coming out
against this. The Labor MP Kim Ledbetter has proposed this bill,
the Terminally Ill Adults end of Life Bill, and that's

(01:30:47):
going to be heard an open vote in the Commons
on Friday. But it does seem that there are several
voices now along with the Health Secretary who has said
he will vote against it, and the Justice Secretary has
also said vote against it. There's a lot of debate
going on here because people are saying it gives people
who've got six months or less to live the chance

(01:31:08):
to get permission to take their own lives from these
two doctors at a High Court judge. But there's a
perhaps a chance for a misinterpretation, and also people it's
very difficult. A doctor has said, it's very difficult to
say how long somebody actually has to live, particularly in
cases like cancer, where we've heard stories of people who've
defied the odds by up to ten twenty years sometimes.

(01:31:32):
So there is this ongoing debate, and I think Friday
is really going to be one of the most interesting
sessions in the House of Commons for many a year.

Speaker 2 (01:31:40):
Is there any indication as to whether this is going
to pass or not?

Speaker 29 (01:31:44):
Well, a lot of people are holding the cards close
to their chest, Heather, we still don't really know how
Keir Starmer is going to vote. I think at one
point it looked like a lot of people, particularly the
English public, two thirds are in favor, but it does
that now there are some doubting voices coming through. So
I still think this is a fifty to fifty decision

(01:32:06):
and that a lot of people, as I say, haven't
actually said how they're going to vote.

Speaker 2 (01:32:11):
Now, what do you know about these drinks that are
linked to Colin McGregor. What's going on here?

Speaker 29 (01:32:17):
Well, Colin McGregor the Mixed Martial arts store. There was
a civil case in Dublin which had a result last
week where that a lady, Nakita Hand, had accused him
of rape and her accusation was upheld by a civil
jury and he's had to give her a quarter of
a million euros. And it now seems that retailers like

(01:32:38):
Tesco here one of the giants, is pulling an alcohol
brand called I think it's Number twelve Irish whiskey from
sale in their stores and online because McGregor, who sold
his company for a room at one hundred and three
million pounds three years ago. His image is still very
much linked to this product, and it's seeing as something

(01:33:02):
that they want to they want to pull, want to
get rid of it. And I thought also understand there's
a Stout brand that he's linked to that's also going
off the shelves.

Speaker 2 (01:33:11):
I can kind of understand that now, this Chip who's
just died, who was the world's oldest guy, what advice
has he given us for? How did he give us
any advice for how we can also live to the
ripe old age of what one want to?

Speaker 14 (01:33:22):
Well?

Speaker 29 (01:33:22):
Do you know I look for that ripe old advice
because when I was out on my gent little local newspapers,
we always asked that and he didn't. But all I
know is that he was put into the Guinness Book
of Records as the world's oldest man in April twenty
twenty four. I think he lived a fairly calm, quiet life, Heather.
He was in a care home in Southport and apparently

(01:33:46):
he died surrounded by his loved ones and lots of music.
So maybe music was the key for him. Certainly played
a big part when he was passing away.

Speaker 2 (01:33:56):
Okay, thanks very much, I really appreciate it. I also
look for that advice. Okay, Oliver UK corresponding eleven away from.

Speaker 3 (01:34:01):
Seven getting ready for a new administration in the US.
What will be the impact?

Speaker 1 (01:34:07):
It's the Business Hour with Heather Duplessy Allen and my
HR the HR solution for busy SMS news talks.

Speaker 3 (01:34:14):
That'd be.

Speaker 2 (01:34:16):
As away from seven. Listen. We've been getting texts this
afternoon suggesting that there's a problem with the water in
Auckland re arsenic levels. Right now we have Steve Taylor,
head of operations at Water Services Authority toe Mata away
with US Steve hellowning what's the situation?

Speaker 30 (01:34:33):
So we nnified earlier that they have done some increase
levels of USNAK. So you're probably the way the river
source water for a number of don't you want to
supplies and including parts Auckland oil port plant and also Hamilton.

Speaker 2 (01:34:51):
Okay, Steve, before you carry on, your phone line is
so dodgy it's almost impossible to hear you right now.
Is there Is it possible that you can maybe move
into a better reception area, will take a phone or
speakerphone or whatever it is that's causing the problem.

Speaker 24 (01:35:02):
Yeah, sure, Is that any better.

Speaker 2 (01:35:05):
Marginally carry on. Okay, So what I've got from struggling
to hear that is that there is elevated levels of
arsenic in the White Cuttle River, which is the feeder
for Auckland and the White Cuttle's water.

Speaker 30 (01:35:14):
Right, that's great, Yes, So there are naturally elevated levels,
or there is naturally a level of enam like at
a river. What we've been notified of is that those
levels have increased recently. I'm not sure what the reason
for that increases, and that is accepting water supplies in

(01:35:36):
Auckland and Hamilton. However, the level of arthenak is it's
above what we've described as a maximum acceptable value, but
it's not at a level that we would suggest as
a significant health effect.

Speaker 3 (01:35:54):
So the should.

Speaker 2 (01:35:56):
People continue to drink the water if they are in
Hamilton or Auckland shoul They drink the water coming out
of their taps.

Speaker 30 (01:36:02):
So there's no health risk in drinking that water. What
we would expect is that both levels of arsenic would
reduce over time. So the makesimum acceptable value for arsenic
is zero point zero one ns a leader, which is

(01:36:22):
an incredibly low amount. We've single levels at about zero
point zero one three, which is largely above big acceptable
value for drinking water. So we're encouraging water Care and
Hamilton City Council to communicate creatively with these people in

(01:36:43):
those hereas just ensure that people are aware that there
are elevated levels of arsenic in the drinking water, but
to be quite clear that this is not a significant
public health risk.

Speaker 2 (01:36:53):
Okay, yes or no? People keep drinking out of their taps,
absolutely fine, Yes, what about if they are in vulnerable
groups like maybe immunocompromise, pregnant little babies on bottles, older people, Yes.

Speaker 30 (01:37:06):
So's keep thinking about the maximum acceptable value for arsenic
as it's designed for long term exposure, so it's not
on acute level unlike some other levels. You know, if
you see that level that has an immediate healthphy, that's
not the case with these levels.

Speaker 2 (01:37:22):
Okay, And how long has it been like the Steve.

Speaker 30 (01:37:25):
So we're not afraid of elevated levels today. So it's
been a very short term situation where we've contacted the
regional council to try and understand what is the reason
for this change in source water is to say temporary
event as it's something a broader concern around the river itself,

(01:37:49):
and we'll be getting updates from the Regional Council on
that as they find out more.

Speaker 2 (01:37:53):
And are you expecting because we've been trying to get
a hold of water Care for well over an hour
and now heard nothing. You expect them to actually pipe
up and say something.

Speaker 30 (01:38:00):
Well, certainly expect them to communic proactively sort quant that
people to understand what's in the water enough to work
and all, and that's not communicated.

Speaker 2 (01:38:10):
Brilliant stuff, Steve listen, thanks for your time, mate, appreciate that.
Steve Taylor, head of Operations at Water Services Authority to
about the otherwise. So just quick recap for you so
you can drink the water that's coming out of your
taps if you're in Hamilton and Auckland, those are the
affected areas slightly slightly elevated levels of arsenic but as
he was saying, they normally would like it to be
zero point zero one milligrams perlitter at zero point zero
one three, So it is okay and water Care needs

(01:38:33):
to say something and what have you got.

Speaker 12 (01:38:35):
We're going to go with flex by blind Spot to
play us out tonight. They have been announced for the
Paradise City Rock Festival in Auckland early next year. We
already knew that alien Ant Farm were going to play
at this one. We were going to get some some
Osi and Aussie band over as well. They've pulled out,
but blind Spot are the replacement also pulled down. The
sign out of Wanganui and written by Wolves out of
Auckland will be at that one. That one will be

(01:38:57):
in Auckland at the Trust Arena.

Speaker 2 (01:39:01):
Where are these guys from? They're not Kiwi, say they
are blind Spot our Kiwi.

Speaker 7 (01:39:05):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (01:39:05):
Because did they have the sixy drummer who was going
out with Sally rich Shelter?

Speaker 12 (01:39:08):
All right, that's the one, yep, Sally Ridge. Was he
going out with Sally Rode?

Speaker 2 (01:39:12):
You of the I can't remember. He was going out
with somebody.

Speaker 12 (01:39:15):
Kind of hot. He's been in a bunch of other
bands as well. He's been an I AM Giant and
he performs by himself as did be and he was
a judge on the ex Factor.

Speaker 30 (01:39:22):
At one point.

Speaker 2 (01:39:24):
There you go, okay, thank you for that and it's okay, listen,
enjoy your evening, see tomorrow news talks. He'd been.

Speaker 31 (01:39:48):
Not one day that you are here has been promised
to do. You'll make the most of every day. It
was your last and every breath has different.

Speaker 3 (01:40:04):
It was seen for more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive.

Speaker 1 (01:40:08):
Listen live to news talks it'd be from four pm weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.

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