Full Show Podcast: 25 June 2025

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Not questions, answers, facts, analysis, The Drive show you trust
for the full picture. Heather Dupercy Ellen, Drive with one
New Zealand let's get connected news dogs.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
That'd be afternoon, Welcome to the show. Coming up today,
We've got our first draft report from the Infrastructure Commission
and it's not telling me anything you don't already know.
We do not get banged for buck for our dollars
that we spend on building. And speak to the Commission
after five Israel's ambassador on why they're annoying Trump so much?
And yep, the retirement age again. Should over sixty five
year olds on more than two hundred thousand dollars be

(00:37):
allowed to get the pension?

Speaker 1 (00:38):
Heather duper Cy Allen.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
Look, I know it's very hard for some of us
to admit that Donald Trump may actually be right some
of the time. But if things at NATO go the
way that they're predicted to go, we're about to see
that Donald Trump may actually be right some of the
time and that actually, maybe his unorthodox style may get
results some of the time. So what's happening is NATO
leaders are gathering in Brussels right now. They're expected in

(01:00):
the next few hours to agree that they will all
lift their spending on defense to five percent of GDP.
Now that is huge given that right now some of
those countries, for example, Spain, are spending as little as
one point three percent of GDP on defense. And the
more important thing here is that they've completely ignored an
agreement that they will made back in twenty fourteen to

(01:20):
spend two percent on GDP. They now agreeing to more
than double that. Now, some of that to be fair
and to be realistic about the situation. Some of that,
quite a lot of that will be because Russia is
freaking them out right. Since twenty fourteen, Russia started doing
some pretty crazy things and they realized that they need
to up their own defenses to protect themselves. But some

(01:42):
of it is also because they can't rely on Trump anymore,
because he said they can't rely on him anymore, and
he told them to buck up their ideas and if
they didn't lift their spending, the US would be out
of NATO. Just cast your mind back for a second
to how the world reacted when he said that countries
were alarmed. Analysts warned it up the alliance. People thought
he was a complete lunatic, actually, when we look at

(02:04):
it now, he's been effective. Spending has been lifted. Now
I realize it's a strange time for him to be
proved right on one front when we are smack bang
in the middle of another Trump drama on another front
where he is using again very unconventional methods to try
to get a result. Now, who knows what's going to
happen there? Who knows that his unorthodox behavior is actually
going to work with Israel? Israel or Iran, we don't know,

(02:26):
but it certainly has with NATO because look at the
results today. He was right and their spending is now
up together due for nine two is the text number?
Standard text fees apply. Now Auckland, what about this? The
government has announced it's going to force Auckland Council to
allow new developments of at least fifteen stories high close

(02:48):
to key Key train stations.

Speaker 3 (02:49):
Now.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
The new rules will apply to developments within walking distance
of Munga, fo Kingsland and Morning Side stations, while a
ten story limit will apply around Mount Albert and Bald stations.
Richard Hills is an Auckland City councilor and with us.

Speaker 4 (03:02):
Now, hey, Richard, sure, how's it going, oh.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
Good, I think there are going to be some people
very upset about this. What do you think?

Speaker 5 (03:10):
Yeah, so this is in line kind of with what
we've been asking for on things like the MDRS. I
think we've talked about that before that enabled three dwellings
three stories on every single property across the city, with
us to remove that. We've also asked if we can
down zone or restrict some areas and flooding and hazard
zones for the last two years. This change will legally

(03:31):
allow us to do that, but on the proviso that
we increase capacity elsewhere, which we were going to do
around transport corridor stations anyway, but then today's has also
sort of been more specific around the fact that the
Minister would like us to be doing fifteen and ten
stories around those stations that are closer to the city
and of course close to the five point five billion

(03:52):
elizaorth of investment in the city railing.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
What is walking distance?

Speaker 5 (03:56):
Walking distance is whatever a council chooses it is. So
it's about ten minutes so at the two about one
one so walking distance so it's about eight hundred meters
from those stations or twelve hundred meters from the city center.

Speaker 2 (04:15):
Okay, so is this going to hit some areas with
villas in Mount Eden, for example.

Speaker 5 (04:22):
It is likely to under the the.

Speaker 2 (04:25):
The way the government I hear the way you answer
that question, Richard, you know that this is going to
affect some villas and people are going to be pissy,
aren't they.

Speaker 5 (04:34):
Yes, so there was already requirements.

Speaker 2 (04:36):
No, don't don't explain, just answer. Don't you think people
are going to get really irritated by this?

Speaker 5 (04:42):
The council needs to vote on it first and then
go out for consultation at the end of the year.

Speaker 2 (04:47):
Through I thought the government you do you get the
final set.

Speaker 5 (04:51):
They know they will force us to do put notify
this in the plan change. So the requirements will mean
that we have to mirror what the requirements are. So yeah,
I think if we kept all the special character around
those stations and it was like well nothing as fifteen
meters in, the minister would be scratching his head, going,
you haven't done your job here. So there will be
a conversation to have with those communities that yes, you

(05:13):
are living right next to a station. It's important that
more people have access to it. But there will be
some you know, heritage homes and different things protected.

Speaker 2 (05:23):
Now do we have how many? I mean we must
have some buildings in Mount Eden that a fifteen story
is high or no.

Speaker 5 (05:30):
No, no, no, I don't believe.

Speaker 2 (05:31):
It's not because if you've seen how high a fifteen
story building is.

Speaker 5 (05:34):
Richer, Yeah, it's about fifteen meters.

Speaker 2 (05:37):
Mate, that's going to dwarf everything. Will it be even
as high? Is it as high as Mount Eden?

Speaker 5 (05:43):
Oh? I don't actually know. The directives us.

Speaker 2 (05:48):
To another problem because I thought everybody's supposed to have
an eyeline to Mount Eden. So are we going to
block people's view of Mount Eden?

Speaker 5 (05:54):
So there'll be some areas that are not in the
view shafts. There are another issues around the view shop
that may not be in this plan change. We will
look to it, but the timing, you know, the minister's
requirements to have this done by election day October tenth
is will make it difficult to do that. But they
have discussed with the next iteration of the RMA changes

(06:16):
in two years time that we will have to relook
at all the view shafts to see if they are
you know, holding back housing and economic growth, and if
they are still relevant, if there's things blocking them, so
that all needs to be considered. But we do as
much as we can around those view shafts anyway to
comply with the requirements of the government.

Speaker 2 (06:35):
All right, now tell me your personal view. Do you
love this or hate this?

Speaker 5 (06:40):
I love the fact that a lot of people say
to me, why the heck are we building out? And
god knows where and why are we building on this
back of this property significant amounts of density where there's
no infrastructure, So it makes sense, like any of the city,
major city in the world, to build around. You know,
people talk about Melbourne and Sydney and all these sorts
of things, but it does need to be some balance

(07:02):
around when we've got really expensive infrastructure we're all investing
in our taxes and rates too, that may not have
good ridership or get access to because no one can
build around it. So it makes sense to have some
areas that are really good heritage, special character, et cetera,
et cetera, but also some areas that need to have
the focus around housing and jobs and walkable access to

(07:24):
those stations. Otherwise it makes it difficult to know why
we invested in it in the first place.

Speaker 2 (07:29):
Richard thank you appreciate your time as always look after yourself.
That's Richard Hill's Auckland counselor. Actually, speaking of heritage, I
had a guy around to look at the windows today,
and I had another guy around to look at the
windows yesterday. We're going to have to discuss this, I'll
get because heritage. We'll get to that just quickly. On
on the bombs that were dropped. You remember I said
this to you on Monday when we first got the

(07:49):
first look at what had happened. It didn't look like
the bombs had done that much damage. And as suspected,
that is pretty much what's happened. There's an intelligent support.
You will have seen that it's been leaked by now. You
will have seen its been leaked few hours go, so
you'll have seen it by now. The nuclear program was
only set back a few months, probably not. The stuff
was not fully and completely obliterated, like Trump had said,
did do significant damage, but didn't wipe it out all together,

(08:11):
and as we thought, some of some of the iranium
was actually moved from multiple sites before the bombing happened.
White House is not happy about the fact that this
has come out. The pre Secretary Caroline Leavitt has gone
out and said this is flat out wrong and that
whoever eleaked it as a low level loser quarter past.

Speaker 1 (08:29):
It's the Heather tops Alan Drive Full Show podcast on
iHeartRadio powered by News Talks.

Speaker 2 (08:35):
Be Darcy Watergrave, sports talk hosters of Me. Hello Darce,
Greetings Heather. Now here. We were a week ago being
mean to Auckland the football club, and it turns out, actually.

Speaker 6 (08:46):
What do you mean we were being mean? Who was
being mean? You were being mean?

Speaker 1 (08:50):
I was?

Speaker 6 (08:53):
I was like, it's fair enough their amateurs. Yes, and
they've gone over there to play the best football teams
on the planner.

Speaker 2 (09:03):
Now look at what they've done.

Speaker 6 (09:04):
Well, it's an interesting book end, isn't it. First get
hammered by the Germans ten zip and then they end
by drawing with boccer juniors.

Speaker 7 (09:14):
I don't know if you've read much of the press
around the Argenti press are freaking out an embarrassment.

Speaker 6 (09:21):
I know, well, you just beaten in a game of football.
They would have rolled in and gone. They've already let
by sixteen goals in two games, so the Gems were
going ads fine. The first score was an oron goal.
I will be fine, and then a tree goal a
trainee teacher, No, no, this is the yeah, And so

(09:46):
that means they were one now up Boccer juniors.

Speaker 2 (09:48):
So are you telling me that in a one to
one game Auckland scored both the goals, didn't score any embarrassing.

Speaker 6 (09:56):
Boker Juniors were eliminated from the FIFA Club World Championship.
And I quote and the worst possible way and historic
embarrassment are they've been beaten by a team made up
of amateurs.

Speaker 2 (10:12):
Winston, who runs the sports department at the Herald, said
to me that this is the equivalent of the All
Whites and twenty ten.

Speaker 6 (10:20):
Yeah, but the All Whites and twenty ten were playing
in a World Cup, so slightly, you know, a big
boys World Cup. This is like a club World Cup,
not a big boys.

Speaker 2 (10:29):
But it's still huge, huge for their level, it's still huge.

Speaker 6 (10:32):
And this teacher just walking around going what on earth happened?
It's great, it's such a good result. I'm really pleased
for the crew there in Auckland City.

Speaker 2 (10:42):
Did you see the name of the trainee teacher, Christian Gray?
You know what? That is a you know what?

Speaker 1 (10:50):
You know what?

Speaker 2 (10:51):
That's a reference to I mean, that's obviously his name,
but you know who the other Christian Gray is a
No fifty shades a Gray friend. Oh really, all right,
that's right.

Speaker 6 (11:02):
You never read it, never read it?

Speaker 2 (11:03):
Okay?

Speaker 6 (11:04):
Is there a movie?

Speaker 2 (11:05):
Don't read? Yes, don't read it. It's not it's not
great writing. It's okay. So the Black Caps, Yeah, are
we going to have an absolute stellar summer.

Speaker 6 (11:13):
We're going to have an amazing spring of cricket kind
of stops in summer. Well, it starts off on October
with T twenty series against the Australians. It's going to
be really early in the piece, which is a little scary,
but that's okay. This is October, this is down at
the Bay. So that's good. Good to be playing the

(11:35):
Astralians because the World Cup and India T twenty World
Cup in February March, so we've got many many T
twenty games jammed in there. And then the Test series
against the West Indies starts in December. Yes, so that's good.
But then come January February March, we don't have anything cricket.

Speaker 2 (11:54):
That's a bummer. Nothing ever, White Tongue Weekend or anything.

Speaker 6 (11:56):
Well, they've what they've got. We've got Engler known for
a while as well late October. So what I'm interested
is what Spring's going to do. And you're what Spring
generally does in New Zealand. It rains, it gets wet,
it rains on. So look, they're doing the best they
possibly can. Ground and White fans have got a big
program too. What interests me around this is that the

(12:17):
South Africans are coming in March after the T twenty
World Cup and playing a lot of T twenties. I
don't know what okay.

Speaker 7 (12:27):
But we've got a three test series against which is fantastic.

Speaker 6 (12:32):
And Kyle Jamison joined us tonight to talk about that
good stuff.

Speaker 2 (12:35):
Darcy, thank you for that, Darcy water Grave, sports talk host.
He'll be back at seven this evening. It's full twenty.

Speaker 1 (12:39):
Two getting the facts, discarding the fluff. It's Heather Duplicy
Ellen Drive with one New Zealand. Let's get connected news talks.

Speaker 2 (12:49):
That'd be twenty five past four. Do you want to
hear something special? This is what Donald Trump has put
on his social media. That's right, Barbara Ann And why
would you not if you have the opportunity just make

(13:14):
a song about bombing another country. Honestly, the man, like,
what world are we living in right now? This is crazy.
The guy is the leader of the US, the leader
of the FREEWO is just he's just put out a

(13:37):
song about bombing Iran.

Speaker 4 (13:39):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (13:40):
Anyway, Heather, did I hear you say a few minutes
ago that Trump may have been right? Don't be so rash? Oh?
Come on, Murray, Hey, did you already misunderstand what I said.
I wasn't saying that he's right. I said, we will
find out if he is right with the bombing of Iran.
He is one hundred percent being proven right with requiring
NATO to lift their defense spend. We don't have to.

(14:00):
There's nothing rash about that. The case has been proven.
They're about to agree to five percent. So there you go, Heather,
do for see, Allen, I've got to talk about what
happened with Auckland City, Okay, because Darcy was just talking
about the fact that they managed to hold Bocker Juniors
to a draw. Now, if you listen to the show,
you know I've winged about this before. I'm going to
winge about it again because stuff was not listening and

(14:20):
stuff have done it again. Stuff have put out a
headline this Christian Gray goal earns Auckland City famous draw
against Boker Juniors. Oh Dear God, give us strength. It's
not famous. It just happened today. Famous things only become famous,
you know, over time. It takes time for things to
become famous because you need people to talk about it

(14:43):
and then you know, get to know about and that.
Like Brad Pitt made a movie the first movie he made,
he wasn't famous was he was famous over time. The
goal is not famous. The goal is for young mate
who wrote I can't remember. It's probably a good thing
because I don't need to be saying the young chap's
name who wrote the article. The word you're looking for
stuff historic actually, so if you just switch out famous

(15:03):
in the future for historic, you'll save me a lot
of I'm not going to get as old as quickly
as I am right now reading your newspaper. Lord, it's frustrating. Anyway.
Do you think they ask journo's Do they think they
do a test on grip of English before before they
start writing articles? Anyway? Infrastructure New Zealand has put out
its first or Infrastructure Commission rather has put out its

(15:24):
first report about what's going wrong with infrastructions country a
running through the details?

Speaker 8 (15:29):
Shortly news Country be.

Speaker 1 (15:37):
Putting the challenging questions to the people. At the heart
of the story, it's hither duplicy ellen drive with one
New Zealand let's get connected news dogs that'd be is
this whirl a month.

Speaker 9 (15:50):
Ramen or seven day?

Speaker 1 (15:54):
As I take you Jesus and if.

Speaker 2 (15:57):
There's ry, apologize to the stuff journo was apparently not
the stuff Journo's fault. I've been told by by people
on both Facebook, Messenger and on text that in fact
it's the subeditor who does it. So it's obviously the
same sub editor I'm coming across all the time who
sub edits all of the sports stories. Thank you for
the correction. Can you please stop using the word famous

(16:19):
and correctly wind me up?

Speaker 10 (16:21):
Now?

Speaker 2 (16:22):
New Zealand apparently is not getting banged for buck when
we spend on infrastructure. This is according to the Infrastructure
Commission's first draft and National Infrastruture Plan, which they've just released.
They reckon that the amount of money that we're spending
is like in the top ten percent of all developed countries,
but what we're getting for our money is in the
bottom ten percent of all developed countries. We're going to

(16:42):
have a chat to them. There is a lot actually
in this to unpack. They've made seventeen recommendations for various
projects that we should be going for, including rolling out
broadband and blah blah blahs. A lot to talk about here.
We're gonna have chat to them about it alfter five.
Right now, it's twenty four away from five.

Speaker 1 (16:55):
It's the world wires on newstogs'd.

Speaker 2 (16:58):
Be drive by between Iran and Israel appears to be holding.
It was off to a shaky start this morning. Both
sides were accusing each other of violating the truce. As
we heard before, Donald Trump got a little bit frustrated
with both countries. Here's a bit of his rent.

Speaker 10 (17:12):
You know, when I say, okay, now you have twelve hours,
you don't go out in the first hour. It just
drop everything you have on. So I'm not happy with them.
I'm not happy with the run either, But I'm really
unhappy if Israel's going out this morning because the one
rocket that didn't land, that were shut perhaps by mistake,
that didn't land.

Speaker 2 (17:30):
We're going to speak to Israel's ambassad after five, as well,
and more bad news for Trump. According to a report
from Al Jazeera, the strike on Iran's nuclear facilities wasn't
a complete success.

Speaker 11 (17:39):
There are clearly figures in Washington and very keen to
leak a very preliminary Defense Intelligence Agency bombing assessment which
says that the strikes on four Downer towns on Isfahan
failed to destroy the core components of the nuclear program,
set it back by only a few months.

Speaker 2 (17:56):
The White House obviously says the report is inaccurate. And finally,
a professional diver has managed to retrieve a woman's wedding
ring after she dropped it in a Texas lake. The
woman was visiting the lake with a baseball team and
they all did their best to try to find the
ring after she dropped it, and she eventually had to
pull in a pro and it paid off because despite
high winds and rough borders, the diver was able to

(18:19):
retrieve the ring and return it.

Speaker 1 (18:21):
International correspondence with ends and eye insurance. Peace of mind
for New Zealand business.

Speaker 2 (18:26):
I mean, let's be honest, that was a blingy ass
for ring, right, most of us are not going to
spring for a diver to get it out. Dan Mitchison's
with us right now out of the US.

Speaker 12 (18:33):
Hey, Dan, Hey, Heather.

Speaker 2 (18:35):
Look, I know the White House is trying to play
this report down, but it does look very much like
the bombs didn't do that much damage, or certainly not enough.

Speaker 3 (18:43):
No, I mean, well, we're starting to hear and some
of the images were seen. I mean, you know, three
strikes on three of these nuclear facilities, and President Trump
said everything when boom. But we're learning that this may
have set the program back by a few months, maybe
a little bit longer. And this was, you know, the
informations being leaked supposedly by the Defense Intelligence Agency and

(19:03):
the White House, like you just mentioned, is no, no, no, no,
You've got this wrong. This was classified info, was top secret,
but it was lated to CNN by an anonymous low
level quote loser in the intelligence community. And the fact
that even their spokespeople are speaking like Trump now using
words like loser when they're talking to media, it kind
of is funny in itself. But that's that's, you know,
another story for another time.

Speaker 2 (19:22):
How's it gone down with you guys? Him dropping the
IF bomb on the lawn?

Speaker 3 (19:26):
I was surprised by that. That is just something that
you don't expect from any world leader. I mean, we've
heard I don't know if you want to say, worse
from him when he was out of office, but that
was that was kind of a shocker. I think, yeah,
I think that's the I think that's kind of where
I can begin and end with that.

Speaker 2 (19:47):
Do you guys, I mean, you know you My experience
of Americans is that you guys don't really like swearing
that match out, So that must have really jarred.

Speaker 3 (19:56):
Well, it is, and it's it's funny because you'll go
and you'll you'll listen to newscasts or you'll watch news
in other parts of the world, and you'll hear language
like that, and you'll see in nudity that's you know,
that's that's natural for the context of the story. But
over here everything is blurred or bleeped. Occasionally you'll get
something on the cable a channel that might let that slip,

(20:18):
but no, that's you know, words like that, like George
Carlin would say, there are seven words that are still
very hard to get by on air over here in
the US.

Speaker 2 (20:26):
Yeah, all right, now, what's happened to this Norwegian tourist
that that particular mean that he had of JD. Van's
seems pretty innocuous.

Speaker 3 (20:36):
Well it was. And this is a guy that's in
his early twenties and he was flying into New Jersey's
Newark Airport, which by the way, is one of the
worst airports in the US you can fly into, and
he was going on holiday. He was pulled aside by
customs or border and I guess he said it was
an abuse of power that you know, he was. He
was threatened he had a five thousand dollars fine or
five years in prison if he refused to give a

(20:57):
password to his mobile phone. So I guess he did.
And they found a meme on the role showing JD.
Vans with his bald and I don't know, it's a giant,
sort of egg shaped head. And he says he was okay.
The image was at musing. I mean, anytime you get
memes like this, it doesn't matter who it is. I
don't care what political party you're with. It's it's just funny.

(21:18):
But he says, you know, he was sent on his
way home to Norway the same.

Speaker 2 (21:22):
Bad It is just a picture of jas with no head.

Speaker 3 (21:26):
Yeah, it's it's it's like these these oh I don't
know what they do. Some of the newspapers over here,
we'll say, guess who the celebrity is, and they kind
of tweak the image a little bit, sure of know
who it is, but you don't. And that's kind of
what it was.

Speaker 2 (21:37):
I mean, there's olvious this is obviously being lift to
the discretion of the border officials, right, And some of
them are always just very touchy, an't I Oh.

Speaker 3 (21:45):
I think so, you know. I think some of them
are are concerned about their jobs. I think some are
getting orders from the top down to say, okay, you know,
this is what we're going to do right now, just
to you know, please the boss.

Speaker 2 (21:56):
But some of them pitch, you know.

Speaker 3 (22:01):
Yeah, yeah. I think that's a good way to put
And I think that's why we're seeing, you know, the
numbers drop on tourism over here, because so many people
that I've talked to from Canada and over in the
UK say they're just so concerned about coming over here
and getting through security, more so than you know, traveling
around the US. It's just what they have to put
up with getting into the country.

Speaker 2 (22:19):
Can I explain to me how a woman married a
guy and he didn't know that she'd done it.

Speaker 3 (22:24):
This usually would be a story that we would say
is coming out of Florida, but it's not. This is
a Texas And he found out that he was married.
He had not attended the wedding. He went home and
he found this gift bag and it contained a copy
of a marriage license that had been filed with the
county clerk's office and a picture from his ex holding

(22:44):
a marriage certificate, and there was a tag that said congrats.
Maybe call your wife. So he contacted the police department,
and they had been in a relationship and they had
actually obtained a marriage license earlier this month, but they
broke up before the wedding, so police got a warrant
and they arrested her for I think it was felony
stocking and and took her into custody. How strange is

(23:04):
that people are?

Speaker 12 (23:05):
Way, how strangers they are.

Speaker 2 (23:07):
I've got a text from Rob saying, can you please
tell us what the seven words are?

Speaker 12 (23:12):
No?

Speaker 2 (23:12):
I can't, Well can you go? I mean obviously see
bomb I F bomb s word Yeah.

Speaker 3 (23:17):
Yeah, those those those are the those are those those.

Speaker 2 (23:20):
Are the top three?

Speaker 13 (23:21):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (23:22):
Yeah? In where you don't want to yeah, and the
m and the F word, and you know those are
those you know't google them.

Speaker 2 (23:31):
You don't know what they are, do you? You don't
even know where they are.

Speaker 3 (23:35):
I know what, four or five of them. Mar it's
the other couple that I'm not because you know.

Speaker 2 (23:39):
He's going to be a couple of low level ones
there that aren't that bad. Hey, thank you, Dan, I
appreciate it. Dan Mitchinson, US correspondent here that you are
such a hypocrite you support nude beaches but have a
problem with a legend dropping the F bomb. You will
suffer from Trump derangement syndrome. Sattle down. I didn't say
I had a problem with it. This is how listen.

(23:59):
I get this nonsense at home all the time. I
do not need it at work. At home, I cannot
even talk about Donald Trump without without me having to
leave the room because, oh, mate, is he has got TDS.
He's got Trump Arrangement syndrome so badly you cannot say
anything nice about do You can't even say, well, Donald
Trump's got bronzed his hair nicely today, yet that particular

(24:20):
shade of spray is looking good on him. The guy,
he's just rah. And so if I say anything. So
apparently I've said something as slightly sounds like I don't
like I'm not loving Donald Trump today, and you've gone
meant to let me settle down about Donald Trump. Please.

Speaker 14 (24:37):
I don't know if I've ever liked the way that
Donald Trump's pade his hair though to be here.

Speaker 2 (24:40):
The other day it was looking okay. I mean, normally
he goes for quite like a hay Hue, but this
this day it was a little bit more nutty. It
was a bit more brown. Do you know what I mean?
Did you didn't? You didn't notice that?

Speaker 14 (24:50):
It's never really cut through with me?

Speaker 2 (24:51):
No, you didn't look that closely. Okay, thank you for
dealing with that conversation with me rationally. And it's rather
than losing your mind over it. By the way, if
you haven't court Donald Trump's f bomb yet, here it is.

Speaker 10 (25:02):
We basically have two countries that have been fighting so
long and so hard that they don't know what they're doing.
You understand that.

Speaker 2 (25:11):
I mean, Hey's angry. Hey needs his HRT patch, do
you know what I mean? He's had it up to
here with Israel anyway. Israel's ambassador is going to be
with us after five so We'll ask what did they
do to make him so?

Speaker 1 (25:22):
Cross quarter two politics with centrics credit, check your customers
and get payment certainty.

Speaker 2 (25:29):
Thomas Coglan, the Herald's political editors with us Hey Thomas Heather. Okay, Thomas,
let's talk about Faro Order. So Final Order has done
an ad and what is this ad for?

Speaker 15 (25:38):
The add is to encourage young Mary or anyone who's
Marty to join the Maori electoral role. Obviously, it's it's
controversial because governments in the past have obviously try to
encourage people to sign up to join the electoral role
so that they can vote. That's non controversial. Every election
the Orange Chap comes around and does it. What is

(26:00):
controversial is that this ad features tama at uh runs
a list of names of people who have recently signed
up on the Maori electoral role. What the government hasn't
really done in the past has been to tell people, well,
you should you should join the Maori role, not the
not the general role, which is sort of what this
this ad does. It doesn't really say don't join the
general role. It just says basically, joined the Maori role.

(26:22):
Why that is controversial and why Shane Jones is singling
it out is is that it is a wee bit political.
I guess it is obviously funnel Worra, the funal Wora
Commissioning Agency is publicly funded and and the Maori seats
at the moment are really dragged races between Labor and
Party Malori. They don't really feature feature the other parties

(26:43):
too much. And obviously if Party Malori does well in
those seats then they might generate an overhang which gives
the left parties a bit of an advantage. So it
is on the face of it, it looks pretty inappropriate.
David Seymour, the acting Prime Minister, said, Tama Potak is
looking into it today, so it would be very interesting
to hear what he has to say.

Speaker 2 (27:01):
What power does he have if he doesn't like it.

Speaker 15 (27:04):
It's not the funnel or of money comes from the government,
but it is uh and and and and that is
exactly what David Seymour has said. The question is whether
this spending was within the was within the boundaries set
by the contract that was inked. So obviously if that
if the spending occurred in a way that was inconsistent

(27:24):
with the with the contract that that the government gave
then then there would be an issue, so they might
have power to actually sort of say, well, look, you know,
not a good this, this is an appropriate spending. I
don't think they can cancel the ad, but but honestly,
I'm not sure what they what power they have to do.

Speaker 2 (27:41):
I mean, it seems to me that finner order is
is this is this is not a great thing for
it to be like it is. It is getting itself
into unnecessary trouble here and making itself unnecessarily political, isn't it?

Speaker 15 (27:51):
Yes, precisely? And and and look, I mean like the
the the Maori electoral role is obviously a self selecting role.
That's what this is all about. And interfew and suggesting
like you should you should do this role and not
another role as a as a very political act and
particularly given fan or as close relationships with the Marori party.

Speaker 2 (28:12):
Who but this, Thomas was the very next thing I
was going to ask you, is it appropriate? I mean
I don't want to pick on metapeck at oka wa
take because I like her, but it is is it
appropriate for her to be in this position with final order,
defending decisions like this that are political whilst standing as
a candidate for the Marori Party.

Speaker 15 (28:30):
On the face of it that that does look inappropriate.
I mean that you like I probably would reserve judgment
until we see what time of POTACA comes up with.
But but certainly like everything and and this is why
the government is in such an upbroad to day. Everything
you've seen so far suggests or you know it doesn't
look doesn't look great on the face of it.

Speaker 2 (28:48):
Now, have you had a read of this new report
from the Infrastructure Commission and what part of it do
you think is just the best.

Speaker 15 (28:54):
Part, well of the whole. I'm going to be very
honest with you hither and say I have not read
all of it. There was a bit today I'd like
to read you a section, page one hundred and nine
is your copy on you of the twenty twenty two
New Zealand Infrastructure Strategy. Now that one said that of

(29:16):
all of the capital projects put up for the twenty
twenty one budget, only half had completed business cases. And
if you don't do a business case, chances are your
project is a bit of a turkey and it might
go over budget because you haven't done your planning properly
at the beginning. So they got a big telling off
in twenty twenty two, only half of those projects had
completed business cases that meant they were likely to go
over budget. The Infrastructure Commission said, more business cases, get

(29:38):
your costings right, do it before you start. So come
to twenty twenty five and this new document, a another hundred
page document, page nine. You don't have to read as far.
What does it say? Half of all projects for investment
in both twenty twenty three and twenty twenty four budgets
did not have a business case. It's the same thing.
They were told two years ago to do these business
cases to get their costings right. And here, oh we

(30:00):
are three years later with another one hundred page report
that's exactly the same thing.

Speaker 2 (30:05):
What a surprise because nobody reads the whole report, including
you and I. Thomas, thank you very much, appreciate it.
Thomas Coglin, the Herald's political editor, eight away from five.

Speaker 1 (30:15):
Putting the tough questions to the newsmakers the mic Hosking Breakfast.

Speaker 13 (30:19):
It is the Middle East, after all, the maybe trumpeters
voluminous claims about peace and c SPIS was always a
little bit optimistic. Doctor Max Schmith is the Associate Professor
of National Security at the University of New Haven.

Speaker 16 (30:28):
Israel's strike on that radar system is sort of a oh,
we forgot this one.

Speaker 17 (30:32):
They're spinning up.

Speaker 16 (30:33):
The radar and we can see it now.

Speaker 18 (30:35):
It's important for us tactically to take it out.

Speaker 13 (30:37):
Is this a cease fire or is this We're out
of m O for now. We need to do something,
so give us a couple of days.

Speaker 16 (30:43):
It's unclear exactly how many ballistic missiles remain in their inventory,
probably very few. They can't fire everything because then they
have no deterrence, so it's in their incentive to keep
everybody guessing.

Speaker 13 (30:53):
Back tomorrow at six am the Mic Hosking Breakfast with
Maybe's Real Estate News Talk ZIBB.

Speaker 2 (30:59):
It is four away from five. Hey, get a load
of this that I think this is? Is this this
freaks me out. There's a school that was evacuated today
in New South Wales. It was a bomb threat. Apparently
that have been called in. Everything is fine, they've sort
of the whole thing out and I don't think there
was anything in the end. But while they had the
school in lockdown and it sounds like it might have
been for about an hour and a half, parents of
the school kids were told not to contact their kids.

(31:23):
Now there is very good reason why they're told not
to contact their kids when something like that is going on.
For example, if there is I don't know, something happening
in the school, you don't want to be ringing the
kids and then the phones are going off, and then
people know if there's somebody who's at large, you know,
knowing where the kids like as I can hear the phone.
But also the kids need to be following the instructions
that only need to be distracted by Mummy on the

(31:43):
phone checking that they're okay. But and that's all, that's
all fine, But put yourself on the plank to the
parents for one second. How scary that must have been
to be sitting there going something is going on at
my kids' school and I don't know if they are okay.
That would be terrifying. Yeah, may as well, Okay listen,
So no, we'll talk about it later on. No, it's
just gonna get me two worked up. This is Mount Eden,

(32:04):
Mount Eden Viewshaft. I'll deal with it later on in
the program. This is apropos, the very start of the
program with these new rules for Auckland. Will deal with
it later just got to tell you really quickly. Right,
So this retirement business that the pension has kicked off
again because it turns out that there are nine thousand
people in this country, greedy buggers, nine thousand people in
this country who are over sixty five and they're still

(32:25):
earning good coin. They are on two hundred thousand dollars
each unpresumably drawing a pension. Oh oh, set all the
young people in our newsroom today. Oh, cut them off,
Cut them off now. Obviously I don't have a problem
with it. Howard are you if they're still earning that
kind of coin at that age. But it has begged
the question should the pension be means tested? The Retirement Commissioner,

(32:45):
who doesn't hate the idea, is going to be with
us after half past five. Next up, though, let's talk
to the Infrastructure Commission and then the Israeli Ambassador News Tools.

Speaker 18 (32:52):
He'd be.

Speaker 1 (33:04):
Digging through the spin spins to find the real story storing.
It's Heather dupcon drive with one New Zealand. Let's get
connected News Talks V.

Speaker 2 (33:16):
Afternoon. Welcome to the show. New Zealand is not getting
banged for it's buck when we spend on infrastructure. This
is according to the Infrastructure Commission's first draft National Infrastructure Plan,
which reckons that our spending puts US in the top
ten percent of developed countries, but what we're getting for
that puts US in the bottom ten percent.

Speaker 12 (33:31):
Now.

Speaker 2 (33:31):
Jeff Cooper is the chief executive of the Commission.

Speaker 18 (33:34):
High Jeff, Hi, Heather, how are you doing good?

Speaker 2 (33:36):
Thank you very much? Why we're not getting banged for buck?

Speaker 18 (33:39):
Look, I think this is a number. There's a number
of things behind this, but ultimately it's that we're probably
we're not optimizing what we've got. We're trying to spend
out of our way out of some big problems, and
we can do better, particularly when it comes to thinking
about how we optimize the maintenance and asset management of
the services around us, and what.

Speaker 2 (33:57):
Are we not doing right with our project planning?

Speaker 18 (34:00):
I think with project planning, like I think sometimes it's
that where we're probably going faster than we need to. Oftentimes,
I think we need to get consensus on exactly what
the problem is before we jump to what exactly the
solutions are. You know, the solution that the example I've
been using on this is that you know, folks in Awkland,
for instance, are spending you know, five days every year

(34:23):
sitting in traffic. But we know we can't build our
way out of these problems. It's too expensive and it
takes too long, and so thinking about how we can
make better use of the existing network, put people in
places where they don't need to drive, or in fact,
thinking about time of use charging that shifts that that peak.

Speaker 2 (34:41):
Right, The good news is that we are spending enough
every year, aren't we to try to catch up here?

Speaker 18 (34:48):
That's a really important part in this plan. I think,
you know, for a long time we've been told that
we can't fund our way out of this, but we
spend a lot on infrastructure and actually it does. That's
right at the top of the league tables in the OECD.
This is a question about how to get better bank
to buck.

Speaker 2 (35:06):
Look is there are we are we getting ripped off
by construction companies? Is that part of it?

Speaker 11 (35:12):
Don't?

Speaker 1 (35:13):
I don't know.

Speaker 18 (35:14):
I would go back to asking the question about value
for money and the projects that we're that we're thinking
about and the problems that we're trying to try to solve, right,
I mean, one of the big plays or big points
that we're making in the plan is that New Zealand's
demographics are changing tremendously. We have an aging population, and
yet our spend on hospitals has been dead flat for

(35:36):
the last fifteen years. So it's about the problems we're
trying to solve.

Speaker 2 (35:40):
Okay, So why is it that it costs so much
in this country to build a road, build a hospital,
build anything.

Speaker 18 (35:47):
I think there are some things that are out of
our control.

Speaker 3 (35:49):
Right.

Speaker 18 (35:50):
We are the same size as great as Sydney, but
we're spread over a land mass which is twenty one
times larger. So many of the many of these things.
We are on a difficult piece of geography at the
bottom of the South Pacific with actually a very small population, right,
and that that obviously creates funding challenges. But other times
the problems are ones that we create for ourselves. We

(36:12):
have enormous complexity, for instance, in something like our zoning
ordinances where we have, you know, oney one hundred of
them across the country and you know Japan has thirteen.
So we can we should be thinking about ways to
streamline this so that we can deliver more effectively for
everyday New Zealand.

Speaker 2 (36:27):
Okay, So what are the seventeen project recommend Rather, let
me ask it like this, of your seventeen recommended projects,
what three do you think are the most important.

Speaker 17 (36:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 18 (36:37):
Look, the first one is setting out a path of
funding for infrastructure that we can fund. We've spent a
lot of time talking about what it's hard to do
and what can't be done with small populations. What we're
setting out in the Draft Infrastructure Plan is what we
think can be achieved. So that's point that's point one.
The second is a set of recommendations about making it

(36:57):
easier and more cost effective to build. We think we
need to clear the way for infrastructure to improve social
and environmental outcomes and of course improve productivity. And the
third one is thinking a lot more deeply about how
we are going about maintaining our existing asset base. What
we're finding is our assets are in bad shape, and
what we're doing is we're running them down to the

(37:18):
point that these assets end up with massive cathex programs
at the end of it, and that means we don't
have much money for everything else. So the plan is
really trying to show how we can lift our performance
and go back to actually in the nineteen nineties when
you Zealaan was regarded as a center of excellence for
looking after the assets.

Speaker 5 (37:36):
It has great stuff.

Speaker 2 (37:37):
Jeff, thanks so much appreciated. Jeff Cooper, Chief Executive Infrastructure Commission.
Now one of the projects, one of the seventeen projects
is a recommendation that we roll broadband out to ninety
five percent of the country. Chorus will be doing that
though with us after sex.

Speaker 1 (37:48):
It's five twelve, Heather do for clans.

Speaker 2 (37:51):
Seas Fi ideal between Israel and Iran seems to be
holding for now. It's clear both sides are frustrating Donald Trump.

Speaker 10 (37:57):
Though I'm not happy with Israel. Know when I say, okay,
now you have twelve hours, you don't go out in
the first hour, just drop everything you have on. So
I'm not happy with them.

Speaker 4 (38:08):
I'm not happy with the Run either alone.

Speaker 2 (38:10):
Roth is the Israeli ambassador back with us alone. Thanks
for your time.

Speaker 12 (38:15):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (38:16):
Can you understand why Donald Trump so frustrated with Israel?

Speaker 9 (38:20):
I know that after we were in full coordination and
decided on seasfire, unfortunately I Run continued to shoot misselves
on our cities. We had, you know, from north to
the south, we had the false citizens in the south
of Israel, whole family that died out of these missiles.

(38:43):
And this was hours after the seas fire entered into force,
so there were problematics at that time.

Speaker 12 (38:52):
But still we are very very.

Speaker 9 (38:54):
Thankful for what President Trump and the United States Army
have done during these twelve days of operation in Iran.

Speaker 2 (39:07):
The suggestion is that the bombing that happened in Iran
has only set back the nuke program by maybe a
few months. What's your intelligence, Well, it's too early to assess.

Speaker 9 (39:17):
You know, every such operation that is so complex, and
that's going after so many parts of these vicious nuclear
program NICLP plan and surface to surface missiles plants everywhere
in Iran is take time. We know, we know for
sure that we were able to push back the program,

(39:40):
both programs, and we think that we removed at least
the immense threat that we had on our heads. And
I think it's very important to go back to two facts.
I mean, those were the two projects that weren't meant
to you to be used as tools in the annihilation
plan against Israel. So we think that what we need

(40:03):
really stopped it, stop the lease. The immency often be
served throughout on our hats all.

Speaker 2 (40:10):
Right, Elon, thank you so much, appreciate your time as
per Alon Roth, Israeli ambassador.

Speaker 1 (40:14):
Together due for c Allen.

Speaker 2 (40:16):
No means testing of the soupers got us worked out
a hey, Heather, people working past the sixty five yes
and earning two hundred thousand dollars pay nearly sixty thousand
dollars worth of tax, and then after the payment of
the super to them gives the tax department still an
extra thirty thousand dollars they would not get if they
stopped working at sixty five. Good good work from you
on the maths, Kevin. Hither the problem with the means
testing is that over time this will creep the bar

(40:38):
set would continuously decrease overtime, bang On, Steve Heather Winston
is one of those earning more than two hundred thousand dollars.
Good luck trying to make a change while Peters is
in Parliament actually speaking of and that's a good point,
but speaking of, he's had a hot mic. We'll deal
with that in a minute. Quarter past. Hey, With the
colder months ahead, you're going to want to make sure
you've got your winter red wine supply salted. And if
you love central Otago Pino. Well, boy, oh boy, is

(40:59):
there deal up for grabs right now. It's available online
with the guys at the Good Wine Co. You can
check them out at the Goodwine dot Co dot in z.
The wine is called Bendigo Hills Organic Central Otago Pino No.
Twenty twenty one. Now this is five star ninety four
out of one hundred rated certified organic central Pino made
by a winery recently listed in the Top Wineries of

(41:21):
New Zealand twenty twenty five lists. Now, sorry, as part
of the deal, we've got to keep the producer's name
a secret. The winery has decided to discontinue this label,
and then the final stocks are being cleared at an
insanely good nineteen ninety nine per bottle. That's the bit
you need to know. Nineteen ninety nine per bottle. Let's
just say that for twenty bucks you're getting one hell
of a central pino and then some five star rated
certified organic Central Otago Peno from the Bendigo Hills Class

(41:45):
Act for a pino up for grabs at just nineteen
ninety nine per bottle. Now, you're gonna have to act
quickly before it's gone so jump online to the Goodwine
dot co dot in z, or you can give them
the call right now. Oh eight hundred double six to two,
double six to two?

Speaker 4 (41:58):
Ever do for c Ellen.

Speaker 2 (42:00):
Eighteen past five now Auckland City FC have managed something historic.
They've knocked one of Argentina's best football teams out of
the FIFA Club World Cup, having drawn one one with
Bocker Juniors, which is quite a turnaround because they got
thumped ten ten zip the other day. Wellington businessman Leon
Grice helps Auckland City FC fundraising is with us now haleon.

Speaker 4 (42:21):
Hey Heather, Well, I think I have a red wine
to celebrate.

Speaker 2 (42:25):
I think you might need to. Is that all You're
going to have? Just one little red wine?

Speaker 5 (42:29):
Well?

Speaker 4 (42:29):
I think I might have a few more of it.
It was just it feels like a victory.

Speaker 2 (42:32):
I have to say, yeah, now did you see this coming?
It's like, in any of your possibilities did this feature
as one of them?

Speaker 4 (42:40):
Well, I traveled with the team for the second of
June until the buy in game and had to come
home and kicking myself that I had to but but you.

Speaker 8 (42:47):
Know, this is a team, you know, and Paul Poser,
he's the coach, the team manager, and he once said
when we came third in a smaller club World Cup
edition that just because you're amateurs doesn't mean you can't
play like professionals. And the biggest challenge for these for
this team, these boys is as amateurs, they needed to

(43:09):
adjust to the pace and the physicality of the game.
And yeah, we got absolutely you know, smashed by buying
Munich and we're actually did okay against ben Fika fifty
minutes nil all, and then you know, then there was
a two hour break and our boys came back with
you know, sore legs. You know, they stiffened up and
they looked like that and we lost six nil.

Speaker 4 (43:29):
To ben Fica.

Speaker 8 (43:30):
But against Boca Junior's, you know, it doesn't surprise me.
I've seen them do this against top teams. They are
a team that plays forty eight games. They play all
over the world. They are the most traveled New Zealand
football team. You know, if you know Morocco, the fiend
to these SA, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Solomon Island, Tahiti they played.
You know, they play all over the world, so they

(43:51):
have the ability to rise and play.

Speaker 4 (43:53):
They're not nearly as good man for man. But as
a team they can rise and they can compete.

Speaker 2 (43:57):
And is it true that they get paid one hundred
and fifty dollars a week?

Speaker 4 (44:01):
That's all they're allowed to be paid as amateurs, one
hundred and fifty dollars a week. And you know against Bayern,
Munich went up a team worth two billion.

Speaker 6 (44:08):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (44:09):
Yeah, it's pretty remarkable. A It just goes to show
what could be, what could happen if we sunk some
serious coin into it. Leon, thank you, appreciate it, enjoy
your celebration in your red wine. Leon Grice, Wellington, businessman
volunteer at Auckland City. FC Winston. Yeah, so Winston was
caught in Parliament in a hot mic moment. You want
to hear it again. You're gonna want to hear it,

(44:30):
especially when I tell you who was talking to was
old Takootera Ferris, who's definitely irritating. He's of the Marty Party,
by the way. He says, not like you, dickhead. Well
Takoota is not happy about that.

Speaker 19 (44:41):
So mister Peters wants to call me a dickhead across
the alleyway here. I think that we should consider something
for him.

Speaker 2 (44:52):
What the consideration of the something was. Maybe an apology.
Here's Winston's apology.

Speaker 20 (44:56):
But I was trying to get my thoughts together on
the altitude, so manim a Davis's questions.

Speaker 4 (45:01):
He was interrupting me.

Speaker 6 (45:02):
I apologize for calling him what he I said he was.

Speaker 2 (45:06):
So that's that kind of an apology. Five twenty two.

Speaker 1 (45:10):
Checking the point of the story, it's Heather duplicy Ellen
drive with one New Zealand, let's get connected and youth talks.

Speaker 2 (45:17):
That'd be Heather. It's called an isle, not an alleyway.
I know, I know. Look, we're dealing with a lot
of bad English today, aren't we. We've already dealt with
the famous thing before. Five twenty four. Now have you
caught up on the drama between the academics and David Seymour?

Speaker 1 (45:34):
Can I?

Speaker 2 (45:34):
Can I just just respectfully suggest that the academics need
to harden up. They are upset because David Seymour has
published a victim of the day on social media and
it seems to be doing it, you know, reasonably regularly,
and it's featuring academics, and it's featuring academics who are
upset about the regulatory standards bill, and then it's mocking
them for that. Now they're not happy. They're accusing him

(45:56):
of breaching the Cabinet manual. They say that his posts
are unethical, unprofessional, potentially dangerous to those who are targeted,
and that he's trying to silence them thereby proving his
point that they really are victims, aren't they. Now I'm
surprised at how thin skinned these academics are, Like, let's
be honest about it. None of us like to be skewered.

(46:19):
It can sting, but it kind of comes with the territory,
doesn't it. If you are in public, and especially if
you choose to put yourself in public, which these academics
are doing by choosing to, for example, pen opinion pieces
criticizing the bill, then they are inviting a response, and
they cannot dictate what that response is. And actually I
could be wrong, but what I've seen doesn't seem that harsh.

(46:39):
It just seems like a right of reply. But tongue
in cheek context is important here as well, because this
David versus academics spat has actually been going on a
fair bit. David Seymour, in my personal opinion, has been
given a bit of a rough time by some academics.
One in particular, who I think is the worst offender,
has in the past said that she hopes he doesn't
have kids, and then called his government a fascist, white

(47:03):
supremacist government, which certainly makes his response look adult. Now,
if academics are and I'm not saying it's the same
academics here by any stretch, but collectively, if they want
to hand it out, they have to also be prepared
to suck it up.

Speaker 1 (47:16):
Heather Dupers the Allen, I have a.

Speaker 2 (47:19):
Confession to make. I am enjoying just Cinda's book, so
I can't tell you how far through I am. I
haven't countered pages. I don't want to count the pages
because I'm enjoying it. I can't tell you how far
through I am. I'm just up to the bit now
where she has she's just worked in the nineteen ninety
nine I think it might get a bit boring now
because we've done the childhood, we're just getting We've got

(47:40):
to the nineteen ninety nine election campaign and she's electioneering
for Harry Diinhoven, so it's all going to get a
bit triggering for me after this. But the bit about
her growing up in Murdapada and growing up in Morerinsville
has been, without a lie, really really interesting and really
well written. Jacinda's a good writer. Crap prime minister, excellent writer.

(48:03):
I feel like she missed her calling, you know what
I mean, like and what a pity for the rest
of us that she did. But anyway, such as life,
so a couple of fascinating First of all, mum's out
there who've at times found that sometime, you know, it
can be a bit tough, will completely We'll probably find
the story about her mum's breakdown really interesting to read about.

(48:24):
Mum has a terrible breakdown in mutapatter just and it
goes on for a very very long time, and it
must have been very difficult for the family. The other
thing that's absolutely fascinating is that she and her sister
find out, just you know, in their high school years
that their dad is not the son of his father.
Did I overcomplicate that, as in their dad their grandfather
is not their grandfather. The grandmum had some with Jim

(48:48):
the farm hand, and Jim's Jim's their granddad. I mean
imagine discovering that. Anyway, I'm not telling you to spend
sixty dollars on the book. I'm just saying, if you
happen to get one, it's not that bad. It all
used to accept the mazie.

Speaker 1 (49:03):
After making the news, the newsmakers talk to Heather first.
It's Heather Duplicy Ellen drive with one New Zealer. Let's
get connected news talk, sa'd be will Alec. I can't
remember everything we said.

Speaker 2 (49:20):
We said it it's to me, that's right.

Speaker 4 (49:23):
We a reminder.

Speaker 2 (49:24):
We're going to have a chat to Chorus after six
o'clock about what it's going to take to roll out
of bull band. I think we're currently sitting at eighty
seven percent across the country. What would it take to
get to ninety five percent as recommended by the Infrastructure Commission?
That's after sex right now. The huddler is standing by
and it's twenty four away from six now. The answer
to the cost of pension problem that we've got in
the country may well be means testing super It turns

(49:46):
out that nine thousand people aged sixty five plus are
earning more than two hundred thousand dollars a year and
presumably still taking the pension.

Speaker 10 (49:53):
Now.

Speaker 2 (49:53):
The Retirement Commissioner Jane writs and doesn't hate the idea.
Hi Jane, Hi Hever, At what point would you means test?

Speaker 21 (50:01):
I would not means test straight away. My point is
that we need to look at this as a systemic,
wide issue, right I'm one record is saying that we
should keep the retirement a pension eight at sixty five
if there is a really strong economic argument that we
can't afford it, and I think it's a highly debatable one,

(50:22):
but let's say for a moment there is. Then we
need to look at a basket of options to make
it the fairest possible solution. So if we put it
up to sixty seven, the next question is who does
it hurt? If it hurts women absolutely because of our
patchier retirement savings and a time out of the workforce,
it hurts women Marti Pacifica and people who work manually

(50:46):
of course, whose bodies were out of it earlier. So
I'd want to see an actual addressing of those issues
at the same time. And if you're going to do that,
then one of the other policy options is of course,
means testing.

Speaker 19 (50:59):
So if you're in a quite a lot.

Speaker 21 (51:01):
Of money, then it's a fair question to go, should
you be able to claim the super as well. And
generally speaking, there are two answers to that. One is
I worked all my life and therefore just you'll ave
it of own, thank you very much, And that's that's
an argument. And the other one is going, if you're
any more than say, one hundred and eighty thousand dollars
a year, and you're claiming the super, then the cost

(51:22):
of the taxpayer might be questioned.

Speaker 2 (51:24):
Yeah, okay, now, Jane, I think I don't think that
we should touch the pension and it should stay exactly
where it is. So I want I'm just telling you
this so that you can furiously agree with me if
you want to. I'm not going to fight with you.
If I agree with you, Yeah, talk to me about
why you think it's possibly affordable, because I do too.

Speaker 17 (51:43):
Well.

Speaker 21 (51:44):
The forecasts are all black hats and doom glooms, right,
So all the Treasury forecasts and all the economists look
at it from a thirty forty to fifty year cycle
and go, we can't aford it on the current trajectory.

Speaker 12 (51:56):
And I go, maybe.

Speaker 21 (51:59):
There's two things to think about here. Firstly, this is
about government choices, so we would have to actively choose
not to support older people in their in their in
their senior years.

Speaker 12 (52:11):
Okay, you could make that choice.

Speaker 21 (52:14):
And secondly, the assumptions around this are all so long
term that I go, I don't know any piece of
a long term thinking. Actually, mostly in my life that's
been right. They're just very good educated guesses. So that
means I don't think that there is a crisis brewing.

(52:34):
If there is, if we fall into a five year recession,
then we start to go, yes, now maybe there's an issue,
but right now I think we go ups and downs
all the rest of it, and we need to keep
thinking about what the core question is, which is how
do we want to treat older people in New Zerand.

Speaker 2 (52:52):
To write Jane Preach, Thank you, Jane Writes and Retirement
Commissioner twenty one away from Sex.

Speaker 1 (52:58):
The Huddle with New Zealandsby's International Realty Find You're one
of a kind.

Speaker 2 (53:03):
And on the Huddle of me this evening we have
David Farreh of KIWI Blog and Nick Legative Infrastructure, New Zealand. David,
you're there, Oh, hold on the Okay, yeah, hi David,
I forgot to pick up the phone. But look, I
mean it's been a long time since we've had landlines.
So you know. Now the trouble we've got, David is

(53:24):
do you know where Nick is?

Speaker 12 (53:26):
I don't know when. Nick is usually in Wellington, So Nick,
because you're not on the joint WhatsApp, I don't see.

Speaker 2 (53:34):
Yeah, well nobody knows where nickers. Nick is not answering
his phone. So Nick, if you're listening to the radio,
you need to answer your phone for this to work.
And also, if your Nick's wife, can you please give
the phone to him. And if you're anybody around Nick,
can you tell Nick that he had an appointment, because
this is what we all need to just collectively work
together to help the man. Obviously, on this occasion.

Speaker 12 (53:54):
I'll sell phone and hey, guess.

Speaker 2 (53:57):
What, David, it worked. Hello Nick, welcome.

Speaker 17 (54:00):
Hello.

Speaker 19 (54:00):
I'm so sorry about that.

Speaker 2 (54:02):
What were you doing?

Speaker 22 (54:03):
Oh?

Speaker 19 (54:04):
You know after the infrastructure conference. It's good to talk
to people about what's going on and how we build better.

Speaker 2 (54:11):
Did you drink some booze?

Speaker 19 (54:13):
No, just a water?

Speaker 2 (54:14):
Okay, that's all right. Then I love that you allowed
us to just get into your personal diary there, David. Okay,
now you heard that conversation with Jane Writes and about
super What do you think can we can we continue
to afford it? Do you agree with us?

Speaker 20 (54:29):
No?

Speaker 12 (54:30):
I don't think we can. I think we should be
lot point of principle, all welfare should be means tested.
We don't have unlimited money and so welfish should go
towards those should need it. Now, the only conter to
that is if the cost of administry and a means
test will be almost the same as what you say
from means testing men, you might say, look, it's just

(54:52):
not worth the hassle. But as we saw in that dark,
there's not lots of people on two hundred thousand dollars
a year, and you know, I don't think they need
a ten thousand dollars more from the tech power.

Speaker 2 (55:04):
Okay, Jane writes and said Nick that it's choices, right,
you can choose to afford it, you just cut somewhere else.

Speaker 19 (55:09):
What do you think, Well, of course it's about choices.
But I'm with David. I mean we shouldn't be dolling
out superannuation to people who don't need it, and I
think that's one point, so I think it we should
means test it. There is an argument that the universality
is the best way to administer, the most sufficient way
to administer, and therefore we actually reduce deprivation among old people.

(55:34):
And that's the best policy prescription for that. But we've
also got to project forward twenty to twenty five years.
Here the people in you're and my generation, the government
or a government should be having a conversation with us
and saying, look, you're not going to get super at
sixty five. We've got to increase it for people who
are currently forty or forty five to sixty seven or

(55:55):
sixty eight, and so there's no surprises. You know, we
actually have to prepare for the waves of older people
that are coming, and we should mean test in the
meantime are those who have got enough money.

Speaker 2 (56:07):
Do you know what I love the most about this conversation, David,
is that you guys will never that this is not
going to happen. And you guys are you are in
the minority.

Speaker 12 (56:15):
I have been advocating that I shouldn't get super aged
sixty five since I was in my twenties or two.

Speaker 2 (56:22):
And look and now you're in your in your seventies
and nothing's changed.

Speaker 12 (56:28):
Seven years to go, and ye, sadly I get to
get her even though I please pers and such.

Speaker 2 (56:34):
It was this is the way it will stay.

Speaker 12 (56:36):
Thanks, of course, not the government offering me twelve thousand
dollars to do nothing. I mean, yeah, I take it.

Speaker 2 (56:44):
The bar crossing.

Speaker 3 (56:45):
Nick.

Speaker 2 (56:45):
Now, what do you make of Donald Trump? Don't from
what we know, this is the first time a sitting
president has dropped the F bomb at the press Corps
on the south lawn of the White House. What do
you make of it?

Speaker 19 (56:56):
Well, I mean, not too much to be I mean,
we know that all presidents would talk like this in private.
You know, he's somebody who's under immense pressure at the moment,
and I think that's popped out. I mean, I guess
it's shocking for a lot of Americans. But he's you know,
he's he's in amongster and sometimes this is what happened.

(57:18):
So yeah, yeah, but I'm sorry, I can't be shocked
or or surprised.

Speaker 2 (57:24):
No, not, because the thing about it is, David, it's
not befitted. It's not that it's not language befitting the office,
but frankly, it's coming out of the mouth of a
man who's not befitting the befitting the office. Isn't it.

Speaker 12 (57:33):
I think what really shows is how badly he wants
that noble peace drive and he's just pulled it off.
He bombed, I run, they fired around ten blank missiles
and then there's a peace treaty or a cease fire,
and then he saw, ah, the efforts are going to
ruin my peace prize for me. So I think it

(57:53):
was just the frustration that came out there. He might
not give his noble peace I don't think he'll probably
get anyway. But once you've been president, what do you
have left? You want your noble peace drive? You's been
going on about how we should have once for twelve years.

Speaker 2 (58:07):
Yeah, would you give it to him? Based on if
this ceasefire holds? Nick, would you give it to him?

Speaker 19 (58:13):
Well, it's got a sick I mean, and not just
for a month or six months. Look, we know that
he's after constant adulation, and part of me just says,
we don't want to feed that. But like, if he
actually gets something over the line, he should be recognized
like everybody else.

Speaker 2 (58:33):
Yep, all right, take a break, come back, maybe even
come back to a bit more. Donald Trump Quarter two.

Speaker 1 (58:38):
The Huddle with New Zealand Southeby's international realty achieve extraordinary
results with unparallel reach.

Speaker 2 (58:44):
Right your back of the huddle, Nick Leggand and David Farrett. Nick,
do you think that we can now say that Donald
Trump was right to start hassling the NATO countries to
lift their spending on defense.

Speaker 19 (58:55):
I think Donald Trump is the weather. But the climate
has been moving in this direction for a while, has it.

Speaker 12 (59:01):
Not.

Speaker 19 (59:03):
Unquestionably he's had an influence. You can feel that, you know,
every nation in the world that's thinking and has the
economic means is now doing this. And I think he
has been an influence in this area. And frankly, I'm
not uncomfortable with it because I think that this is
what responsible NATO countries need to do given the circumstances

(59:26):
of the world's done.

Speaker 12 (59:27):
Yep, David, he's been an influence, both good and bad. Yes,
he's advocated for it to increase, and this is definitely
needed because of what's happened Russia, especially that's the climate.
But also his behavior has made it clear you cannot
rely on the US to come to your aid anymore,

(59:50):
even if you're a native country. It will depend on
what he had for breakfast. That morning. So Europe, the
rest of nature is realizing we can't rely on the
US is a security guarantee. So that's a big reason why,
because Trump can't actually be relied to come to your

(01:00:10):
way up.

Speaker 2 (01:00:11):
Your Yeah, not a bad thing though, right, because they've
got to be grown up. David.

Speaker 12 (01:00:17):
Well yet, Block, Well, you do want a security partner
in the US. I don't think that's good. Certainly, you're
being more self sufficient is definitely a good thing.

Speaker 2 (01:00:28):
Now, Nick, Okay, did you read all one hundred and
sixty four pages of the report before you started drinking
a glass of water with your friends?

Speaker 12 (01:00:37):
No, of course not.

Speaker 19 (01:00:37):
But I've had verbal briefings on it all day.

Speaker 2 (01:00:40):
And what's the most exciting bit.

Speaker 19 (01:00:43):
Well, I think that it says we've got to look
after what we've already built better. So if you think about, oh.

Speaker 2 (01:00:50):
We've got to maintain our infrastructure, right, No, that's not
that sucks. I'm going to because I'm going to tell
you something next. So I've been thinking about disorder. I
was niggled by this. I thought, why am I niggled
by this? And then I was like, I'm niggled because
they've put out a draft report today it's not even
the final report, it's the draft report. We're paying thirteen
million dollars for this quango that we've set up. They

(01:01:11):
put out a draft report. They have told us absolutely nothing.
We didn't already know. What's the point.

Speaker 19 (01:01:17):
That's true, Well, that's true. But what we have to
do is have both major political parties, in fact, all
major all parties come to the party and agree that
on the system that delivers infrastructure. And so you talk about,
you know, looking after what we've got better, we have
to do that. You know that five out of eight
major government agencies that own assets have no asset register

(01:01:40):
and don't have a plan for the assets they own.

Speaker 12 (01:01:42):
That is appalling.

Speaker 19 (01:01:44):
So, you know, there are very basic things in this
nation that if we want to continue to grow and
do you have healthy people and communities and kids learning
in decent schools, we've actually got to understand what we
already own and we've got to invest in renewing and
maintaining it. Heither that hasn't been happening. That's a poort.
So but we've now got to have the public pressure

(01:02:06):
and in the political follow through whoever whichever party.

Speaker 12 (01:02:09):
Is in power.

Speaker 19 (01:02:10):
Yeah, to change your behavior and put money aside and
make sure that money is invested in our existence base.
And then we've got to do building of the new
stuff better. And that's another but very related to story.

Speaker 2 (01:02:24):
David, tell me if I'm wrong here, but if what
we need is public pressure, you know what's not going
to create public pressure is one hundred and sixty four
page report.

Speaker 1 (01:02:32):
No.

Speaker 12 (01:02:33):
And also you have to be slightly cynical of five
year plans, let alone do here year plans. I think
back in two thousand would be interesting to look up
that there was a FUS year infrastructure plan in two thousand,
as there was, it probably talked about how we need
to lay copper everywhere, and of course eight years later

(01:02:53):
fives and new technology. So you have to be Look,
you do want a plan, you do want want parties
to agree as much as possible on the non controversial stuff,
but you also have to recognize parties stand for election
on the basis of different priority national like roads, labor,

(01:03:13):
like bridges. To know, we cycle lanes at ZECA. So
don't think you're going to get agreement or two year plan,
but let's focus on where you can get.

Speaker 2 (01:03:24):
Agreement, like hospitals. Yeah, fairpoint. All right, thank you guys, appreciated.
David Farrea mcgleiggett listen, I am am becoming slightly what
I want to say, obsessed, but I'm a bit fascinated
by Noel Edmonds and I've got a bit more on it.
If you caught us talking about mister Happy last night,
got bit more on him for you. Stand by it
siven away from six.

Speaker 1 (01:03:46):
It's the Heather Dupless Allen Drive Full Show podcast on
my hard Radio powered by News Talk ZB.

Speaker 2 (01:03:54):
Heather, the sixty five pluses that make one hundred and
eighty thousand dollars plus pay about sixty thousand dollars in
tax a year. Let them keep that small pension payment, please,
They are funding another three pensions by remaining in the workforce.

Speaker 4 (01:04:06):
Wreck.

Speaker 2 (01:04:07):
You make a very fair point. Just remember when you
take something away, there will be a consequence and they
may go off. Well, if you're going to take work,
I'll just retire and have a good life and then
we don't have that income tax to spend on things
like I don't know, I don't know whatever the government
wants to spend it on now, Noel Edmonds, okay, so
he nol Leedmands. Yesterday, I was telling you about this
TV show that he's doing right, and apparently it's a

(01:04:28):
must see. Now the Telegraph has pointed out they've compiled
the six things he does for fitness, because they've pointed
out the man's got a banging body for seventy six
So what does he do for fitness? The things that
he does er, I'm gonna run you through the sex
number one, structured water, number two, pulsed electromagnetism field therapy, three,

(01:04:49):
tranquil power, four vibe, five meditation, six nutritions. So going
through it's structured water. That's basically just when you magnetize
your water. You can get one of these machines if
you want to drink magnetized water. It'll cost you about
six hundred dollars. The science on that is not great.
I don't know that I'll put my money into it.
He also does pulsed electromagnetism field therapy, where he attaches

(01:05:10):
himself to something that sort of pulses him with electromagnetism.
He reckons it helps the cells. There is some science here.
He does tranquil power. All this is is slowly doing
the weights right so you know, when you keep your
muscle under tension, you do that. At least Mall's sister,
don't worry about it. He's doing it too. Vibe is
basically visualization. All the kids are into that. He's doing that.

(01:05:30):
He does meditation, nothing surprising about that. And then he
also does nutrition. He's one of those fasts and he
doesn't like acidic foods, and he likes lots of nuts
and fruits and stuff like that. So there you go.
If you want to look like Nol, and frankly, who
wouldn't want to look like Nol, you just got to
do those six things and get yourself one of those
magnety things for the water. Talk to chorus next about

(01:05:51):
rolling out the broad band to ninety five percent of
US News talks.

Speaker 1 (01:05:53):
Their beak, quis Bodd's down one with a major cause?
And how will it affect the economy? The big business
questions on the Business Hour with Heather Duplicylan and Maas
insurance and investments, Grow your wealth, Protect your future. News

(01:06:15):
talks at VELP.

Speaker 2 (01:06:18):
ED been coming up in the next hour. Do you
remember us telling you yesterday that your native training had
done some digging on that law change the government is
making to help the Ossie Banks. Well, she's with us
after six thirty to explain Milford asset management on the
housing market in Australia, how it compares to ours. And
Gavin Gray is with us out of the UK. It's
coming up eight past six now. We had the BEG
Infrastructure Commission report Land today. It announced seventeen projects that

(01:06:40):
at once treated as national priorities. The bulk of those
projects are being run by the public sector, but one
private company has managed to get on the list. Two
in that company is Coorus mark Owa is the CEO hey.

Speaker 17 (01:06:50):
Mark Carder Heater.

Speaker 2 (01:06:52):
Now, the recommendation here is that you should be able
to expand the fiber broadband from eighty seven percent coverage
of the country to ninety five percent. That eight percent
difference where is that in the country.

Speaker 17 (01:07:03):
It's all over the country either from the top of
the north to the bottom of the south. So it'll
pick up another four hundred thousand New Zealand businesses and
homes and probably across a thousand communities.

Speaker 2 (01:07:14):
So why haven't they got it already?

Speaker 17 (01:07:17):
Well, we've done the original UFB deployment, that is you
know what has kicked off over the last decade or so,
and that's now expanded fiber access across eighty seven percent
of the population of where we all live, work and play.
But this is now a time to develop a rural
connectivity strategy.

Speaker 2 (01:07:35):
Okay, Now is it like anything else? The start of
it is the cheapest bit, and the further along you go,
the more expensive it gets.

Speaker 17 (01:07:41):
Pretty much so the further you go out from urban,
the more to the costs grow exponentially.

Speaker 2 (01:07:47):
Do you think we need to get to one hundred percent?
And can we even?

Speaker 17 (01:07:51):
I think ninety five percent, based on the assessments we've done,
is a pretty good use case and we can see
material economic and productivity benefit to comeback that roughly in
order of seventeen billion dollars over the next ten years.
I think the reality beyond ninety five percent, the economics
are hard to stack up, just because of New Zealand
land mass and where we all live on a distributed basis.

Speaker 2 (01:08:13):
So if the government backed it today, how long would
it take you to get to ninety five.

Speaker 17 (01:08:19):
Look, realistically, it's probably over five to ten years as
a program, But I think the benefit is we could
be up and running shove already in the next few months.
And you know we're not testing theory here that we've
done this before very successfully, and I think that's part
of the endorsement. We of course has got a good
track record of doing this.

Speaker 2 (01:08:38):
I love that. I love that you sounded apologetic for
five to ten years. I mean, you realize five to
ten years is the blink of an eye when it
comes to infrastructure projects in this country, given how long
we wait for anything to be built, right, it's pretty quick,
Well it is.

Speaker 17 (01:08:50):
But I think we believe in fiber as a gold standard,
and actually we want to play a role in bridging
that digital divide. And you're actually seeing more and more
core infrastructure come out of the region and rural communities,
and putting digital infrastructure like fiber in is a way
to actually enable those other sectors.

Speaker 2 (01:09:07):
Look, this seems to me a no brainer, right that
in twenty twenty five, in a digital world, given how
much connectivity there is, how much businesses now rely on this,
it seems a complete no brainer that we have to
get it to at least this level. Do we actually
need a report to tell us us?

Speaker 17 (01:09:22):
Oh, look, it's a great question. I think what we
take out of the endorsement out of the Infrastructure Commission
today is that there's a recognition that rural connectivity is
a priority problem. But at the same time, there's an
opportunity and we've got solutions here that we can move through.
And again, as I say, we're not testing theory. We've
actually seen the benefits and the ability that's fiber brain.

Speaker 2 (01:09:42):
But Mark, this is a no brainer. You know what,
I know what anybody listening to this right now knows it.
So do you think without a report like this a
government would drag its heels.

Speaker 17 (01:09:52):
Look, I'm hoping not. And of course we'll say it's
a no brainer, but there's a lot of people out
there probably take a cynical view that. Of course, for
it is going to say that fiber is great. But
I think by any standard, in any report, including our
own Commerce Commission, would recognize that the gold standard and
broadband technology as fiber.

Speaker 2 (01:10:10):
Listen, Mark, I really appreciate your time. Thank you for
talking to us. As Mark oware whose chorus is chief
executive Heather Duplessy Ellen. New Zealand has pulled out of
the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance. This happened on Saturday.
Apparently it's been confirmed today that we've notified the Beyond
Oil and Gas Alliance otherwise known as BOGA on Saturday
that we're pulling out of our membership. Our membership's only

(01:10:31):
an associate membership. BOGA also this. I mean, obviously the Greens
are very upset about this, as you would expect, but
BOGER does seem to be something of a non event.
It was formed at a UN Climate summit in twenty
twenty one. It's a grouping of countries and other stakeholders.
I mean, listen to this for something that is just homorphous.
A grouping of countries and other stakeholders intended to elevate

(01:10:54):
the issue of oil and gas production phase out in
international dialogues while driving action on a just transition away
from fossil fields. I don't think that anybody's going to
miss that, do you think?

Speaker 12 (01:11:04):
So?

Speaker 2 (01:11:04):
I've got some good news for you. Dominic Stevens, who
is Treasury's Chief Economic Forecaster, has given a speech to
the Auckland Business Chamber in which he says that he
believes that the economy is turning a corner. He says
it's the last part of recessions that often feel the hardest.
So that's the bit we're in right now and feeling
the pain of it. The recovery is very uneven, he's

(01:11:25):
pointed out, which I think we can all see. Turnaround
is being led by the regions. Still very slow in
Auckland and Wellington. Business investment still hasn't quite turned, but
he's feeling pretty upbeat about it. Thirteen past six.

Speaker 1 (01:11:36):
It's the Heather Duper c Allen Drive Full Show podcast
on my Heart Radio and powered by news dog Zebbi.

Speaker 2 (01:11:43):
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Speaker 1 (01:12:33):
Nz everything from SMEs to the big corporates, The Business
Hour with Heather Duplicllen and MAS Insurance and investments, Grow
your wealth, protect your future.

Speaker 12 (01:12:45):
These talks v here the.

Speaker 2 (01:12:47):
What a waste of wireless can do it for far less?
Corus shares the real winner here. Thanks Matt. At sixteen
past six, Now let's have a look at the international
housing markets. Brendan Larsen from Milford Asset Management is with me. Hey, Brendan, evening.
So we've had a bit of data, new data on
the US housing market out today. How are things looking
to you?

Speaker 23 (01:13:06):
Yeah, so sort of a bit of a continuation of
some softer data we've seen. So housing market data this
morning shown unexpected decline in prices, so that sort of
added to a recent space of sort of weaker data
we've seen housing starts. For example, the down about seventeen percent.
Already this year we've seen a surge and sort of
the number of sellers versus by it. So this differential

(01:13:28):
is now the widest since twenty thirteen. So looking at
sort of existing home sales as well, that continues to
fluctuate sort of around recessionary levels. So a number of
data points all sort of pointing in the wrong direction
at the moment.

Speaker 2 (01:13:40):
What's been driving the shift? Because I thought the US
housing market have been pretty resilient.

Speaker 23 (01:13:45):
Yeah, it had been resilient, and it's probably a good
point to touch on. I guess US households typically borrow
our thirty year mortgages, so once they've locked in their
mortgage rate, they're typically less sensitive to movements and short
term rates. So when the FED began hiking, it meant
those that already locked in long term mortgages didn't feel
the pressure as much as as others. Perhaps consumers have

(01:14:07):
also done quite well in the US with sort of
wealth gains and income gains, and so that's been supportive.
But more recently the sort of slowdown we've seen in
housing data has really come from a slowdown in economic
growth and a decline and consumer confidence really owing to
fiscal policy in the US, and so that's really what's changed.

Speaker 2 (01:14:25):
Okay, So how does the performance of the US housing
market compares to our own one?

Speaker 23 (01:14:30):
So US house prices are up about sixty five percent
since twenty nineteen, having fallen less in recent years, but
showing signs of softening. As we just sort of touched on.
New Zealand property prices are up about thirty percent since
twenty nineteen and remain substantially off their peak, and despite
a significant amount of interest rate cuts, are really struggling
to gain momentum. Australian property prices, by contrast, they are

(01:14:54):
effectively still at all time highs, up about fifty percent
since twenty nineteen, and actually that average distort some biggest
state moves, so Sydney and Perth prices are actually up
fifty percent and seventy five percent respectively. Auckland prices are
up just twenty percent over that same time period. So
you can see Australian housing has really outperformed New Zealand.

(01:15:14):
I guess looking at some of those sort of reasons why,
perhaps it's really to do with demographics and the sort
of supply demand between sort of those regions. So Australia
had enormous population growth really by immigration as a result
of a strong jobs market, and that influx of people
demanding housing when supply was really low really supported the

(01:15:35):
housing market. New Zealand is quite a contrast. So despite
immigration that was actually really strong after COVID, those immigrants
were generally lower skilled and lower income, and so we
actually lost a lot of higher income workers to Australia.
So having that sort of reduced demand at a time
when supply was increasing and regulation was making property investment

(01:15:56):
a bit less attractive. All of that sort of weight
on prices.

Speaker 2 (01:16:00):
New Zealand okay, and so what do you expect is
going to happen from here?

Speaker 23 (01:16:04):
Yeah, it's hard to tell. There's likely to be differences
across regions still. We think in the US, for example,
it's a little bit less clear. I guess on one hand,
consumer confidence probably does rebound a little bit given sort
of tariff risks have subsided. But on the other hand,
long term rates are still quite high, so affordability does
remain an issue. Australian housing is probably a bit more upbeat.

(01:16:25):
So they've got rate cuts coming through now, they've still
got population growth and so that is really positive for
house prices in New Zealand. Anecdotally, I guess we're hearing
a lot of supplies coming to the market and so
that does pose a bit of a headwind to prices.
On a positive note, perhaps changes to foreign buyer rules
that are being speculated, you know, could be a positive.

(01:16:46):
But for the time being, it does feel like we're
going to continue to sort of muddle along.

Speaker 2 (01:16:50):
Brendan. It's good to talk to you, mate. Thank you
for that, even if it's not altogether good news. Brendan Larson,
Milford Asset Management. I can't believe I'm telling you this.
Do you realize that the judge in the mushroom Chef
trial is still summing up? How long has this judge
been something? Because what's today? It's Wednesday, isn't it? It

(01:17:12):
is Wednesday? Yes, so yesterday Tuesday, Mars was on the
show being murray Old, and we chatted to Mars about it,
and we commented on the fact that the judge was
still summing up. And am I wrong, Laura, because you've
been following this like like like a woman addicted to it,
like it's some sort of crack cocaine for you. How
long has this judge been summing up?

Speaker 18 (01:17:32):
Now?

Speaker 2 (01:17:35):
No, like days is not an answer. I know it's
been like days. It's like it feels like years. It
feels like years. It does, doesn't it. This judge has
got a lot to say. It's been going on since
at least last week, isn't it, Because I mean, like
the lawyers took an extraordinary amount of time to sum up.
I mean, just to give you some context here, I
feel like it is. I feel like I'm not exaggerating this.

(01:17:57):
It was two weeks ago tomorrow that muzz was on
the show and we said, oh, no, I'll be wrapped
up by the end of this week. No, I'll be
wrapped up. Two weeks ago they were already summing up.
The lawyers were like, now, it's wrapped up by the
end of this week. Two weeks on, the jury still
hasn't gone out. The judge is still summing up. Yesterday
were like, na, it's going to wrap up today. Today
it's still not wrapped up. The Judge's going to carry
on to tomorrow, and they think that they're going to

(01:18:18):
send the jury out tomorrow morning. But god only knows.
The judge might have some have some addendums that they
had to have at night. I just decide, Oh, don't
feel like I've written I don't feel like I've covered
everything off. Let me cover some more off. Lord God,
I mean, I'll tell you what if you were one
of those you know how sometimes you've got the older
people and you know, people who don't have enough to

(01:18:41):
do with their time. And no disrespect to older people,
but you know, when you're a pensioner, you have got
a lot more time, and you just go to the
court cases just because you know, just said they get
a bit of drama for free without having to pay
for a streaming content. This is like, this is definitely delivering,
isn't it. Bang fall back six twenty three.

Speaker 1 (01:18:58):
If it's to do with money, is to you the
business hour where the head duper Cllen and theirs insurance
and investments, grow your wealth, protect your future. News talks
env Heather.

Speaker 2 (01:19:10):
I'm an electrician. I can tell you with absolute authority
that Chorus the most inefficient, slow, useless company to deal with,
and they have no idea of how to get a decent,
reliable job done done. Thank you, Bevan six being reported
by the way that the because we've all been a
little bit interested in who's going to take over from
Greek FOURU And we have a fascination, don't we with
who runs an airline in this country? And apparently the

(01:19:32):
next likely CEO of Air New Zealand is an insider,
the chief Digital Officer, Nicol Ravishanka. This is according to
The Australian. Nichol was formerly Victor's Chief Digital Officer, longtime
member of AUT's auteur influenced Next Influencer network, and was
recently in the news for having a New Zealand having
ink that deal with Starlink for better in flight Wi Fi.

(01:19:54):
So there you go. Now here's your daily dose of
show bus news for you. Tickets for acdc's Australia tour
going to go on sale tomorrow. Before you whip out
your credit card, you need to hear this. The band
has already sold one point seven million tickets in one
day for the opening European League of the tour, which
is underway at the moment. But the reviews have just

(01:20:16):
frankly not been great because it sounds like this that's
from a video that's gone viral in TikTok Angus. Young
oy Oi has been yelling into the microphone while dressed
in an unbuttoned white shirt and some blue velvet shorts.
And I'm not even gonna describe the rat's nest that

(01:20:39):
is the hair. Singer Brian Johnson then begins to sing,
but it seems like the crowd is even louder than
he is.

Speaker 10 (01:20:52):
Now.

Speaker 2 (01:20:52):
It's hard to know how much of the quality of
this is the poor quality of the video or just
the poor quality of the band, but I'm guessing it's
the poor quality of the band. People online have been
urging them to just you know, retire, take the pension,
save their legacy, but they've got another twenty shows to
go this year and the tickets are starting at about
two hundred dollars a pop. So I don't think they

(01:21:13):
are going to give up now, even though they probably should. Yeah,
So anyway, go watch it. If you're like, no, you're
being unfair to them. And you know, I'm in the media,
so chances are high, about seventy to eighty percent that
I am being unfair to them, because that's what we
do every day. But if you don't believe me, go

(01:21:36):
and have a look at that video and you decide
for yourself. Genative train is with us next news till sirv.

Speaker 1 (01:21:53):
Crunching the numbers and getting the results. It's hither to
for the Ellen with the Business Hour and as insurance
and investments, throw your wealth, protect your future. These talks
that'd be.

Speaker 2 (01:22:07):
Taking the now all of the developments in this situation
in the Middle East, and you're the arming up in
Europe and so on. The thing that has alarmed me
the most was the news that came through this morning
our time via the telegraph, which is that it was
via the telegraph on my phone. I got the alert
from them that the government, the UK government is going

(01:22:29):
to purchase twelve new fighter jets and they're going to
be equipped with nuclear warheads for the first time since
the Cold War. I consider that to be reasonably freaky,
and we're going to talk to Gavin Gray about it
when he's with us in ten minutes time. It's twenty
four away from seven. Now. It turns out that the
government did get lobbied by the Banking Association to make
a law change to prevent potentially costly law action class
action lawsuits. You know, we've been talking about this government's

(01:22:50):
going to change things retrospectively so a couple of Australian
banks don't have to potentially pay out fines to Kiwi
customers in this class action. Last month, the Minister now responds,
Will Scotsson told us the banks hadn't called for this.

Speaker 13 (01:23:03):
I've met with the Bankers Association and they aren't calling
for it.

Speaker 2 (01:23:06):
I mean, come of that. Why would you people be
making this change if it wasn't for the fact that
the banks wanted it.

Speaker 23 (01:23:11):
Well, that's well, you might think that.

Speaker 2 (01:23:14):
Heather genetib Traney is The Herald's Wellington business editor who's
been looking into this and with us. Now hey, you know,
hey Heather, now what's going on here? Is he just
not across the detail?

Speaker 22 (01:23:24):
Well, you know, that would be the generous view of this.
The government most definitely was lobbied by the banks. The
banks have for years wanted the government to change the
way the law is applied to a period between twenty
fifteen and twenty nineteen so that if the banks are

(01:23:46):
taken to court for failing to disclose the right information
about loans to their customers, so that the penalty that
the banks face isn't too high. As it stands, banks
have to reimburse customers all their interest, costs and fees
for the period of the breach, regardless of how serious

(01:24:08):
that breach is. The banks don't like that because of
course that exposes them to you know, like potentially hundreds
of millions of dollars in costs. So they've been calling
for this change now. Actually, interestingly, yesterday we got a
bunch of documents from the government. We can see that
about a year ago the bank's association wrote to the
minister specifically to say can you please make this change,

(01:24:32):
and then later throughout the year. Last year the Ministry
MB officials met with ASB and A and Z, the
two banks that have been taken to court to get
their two cents on this issue. So when Scott Simptom
says they weren't lobbied, they most definitely were.

Speaker 2 (01:24:50):
Well, of course they were. I mean in anybody with
any insight, like anybody who understands how these things work,
which is pretty much everybody, would understand that that auspot.
But I mean, am I there is the outside possibility
that it was Andrew Bailey, who was the previous minister,
who was lobbied, And there is an outside possibility that's
somewhere along the line in the handover from Andrew to Scott.

(01:25:12):
Scott just didn't realize the banks that asked for it.
Am I being too generous?

Speaker 22 (01:25:16):
I mean, that is quite possibly what happened. But you know,
it is worrying because you know, that would suggest that
he's making this law change which has quite severe consequences,
like the penalties that the two banks face could be
in the hundreds of millions of dollars. It's a lot
of money. Yes, to think that he's making a change
like that without sort of understanding the broader context or

(01:25:39):
the different players involved is concerning.

Speaker 2 (01:25:43):
It is concerning, and I'm starting to see a little
bit of a pattern of this emerging with Scott Simpson. Now,
I can't imagine that the lawyer who is representing the
Kiwi clients and the class action is stoked about this revelation.

Speaker 22 (01:25:54):
Yeah, exactly. I actually just talked to him, Scott Russell.
He is sort of disgusted by this situation because you know,
it's it's fine if officials talk to banks, that's all good,
but you'd think that they'd talk to the other side
as well. You'd think that they'd talk to him, and
they didn't do that. Now you might just think, well
they didn't think to call him up, why should they?

(01:26:16):
But he specifically emailed MB a few days before the
Banker's Association emailed Andrew Bailey saying that he was interested
in this issue. Scott Russell, you know, specifically asked them,
are you considering making this law change retrospective because of
course that would affect the court case that he's involved with.

(01:26:37):
An MB official said no. So in June last year
they said no. You know a few days later the
bankers email and say can you look into this thing?
They end up looking into it, They end up making
the change, and the first the public knows of this
is when the government introduces the bill to Parliament in
March this year. So all this stuff was happening behind

(01:26:59):
closed door. We didn't know about it until it happened.

Speaker 5 (01:27:03):
Now.

Speaker 22 (01:27:03):
Scott Russell was obviously not happy about that.

Speaker 2 (01:27:04):
Yeah, I can imagine, Jenay, thank you so much, really
appreciate your insight. Jenetab Traney, the Herald's Wellington Business editor,
Together do for c Allen the water if anera Carpitty
Rugby Football Union has just pulled through on their threat,
has just has just done what they said they were
going to do. They've canceled all rugby across the union
for the Saturday. Now you remember that they'd warned they
were going to do this right because of the issue

(01:27:25):
of referee abuse. They put out a statement saying last Saturday,
a referee was officiating a college rugby match and was
subjected to serious verbal abuse and physical intimidation. It went
on throughout the match. Multiple visiting individuals were responsible for this.
It got to the point where people were so concerned
about it that members of the public felt compelled to

(01:27:45):
escort the referee to his vehicle following the game for
his safety. The union did warn. They did warn that
any more instances of serious referee abuse would trigger immediate
and decisive action, and they have absolutely followed through on it.
So can't say you weren't warned. Now we've got to
talk about this mount Eden business, because I promised that
I wanted to. I wanted to just get into this

(01:28:06):
with yet that okay, So I don't mind. I'm just
gonna be honest that these changes that Auckland Council's you know,
presumably going to make where they can build fifteen story
high buildings, you know, within the catchment of these new
little train stations and stuff. I don't I don't actually
mind that. I do feel that we need to kind
of get with it and get a bit more modern
and start building. It's in the how that that, you know,

(01:28:28):
The problem is, the devil is always in the detail,
isn't it. I've lived in a fifteen story apartment building.
It was seemed like a good idea. Well it wasn't
a good idea. It all depends, I mean some of them,
some of them if they're done in a classy way, right,
if it's done, Because there are some like the Metropolis
or whatever that thing is called. Back in that I

(01:28:50):
don't know what it's like now. But back in the day,
that was pretty choice, you know, and that was that
was high end, so that that was pretty good. The
apartment block that I ended up in was not high end,
and so it attracted all kinds of undesirables and a
lot of it was not homeowners and blah blah blah,
you know, as in there were tenants. And if you've
got like three hundred different apartments and that's full of tenants,
people who don't actually can you just end up with

(01:29:11):
a really bad situation. So all I'm saying is it
all depends on the quality of this thing that goes up, right,
So that's the first thing to be aware of. However,
I know a lot of people are going to get
really weirdly because it's Auckland, and they're gonna get weirdly
hung up about the fact that they're gonna lose their
view shaft to Mount Eden. And I could not give

(01:29:32):
a toss I have got. I've got a view of
Mount Eden. I often look at it and think why
am I looking at Mount Eden because it's just like
it's so bizarre, all the buildings blah blah blah, and
then there's a Mount Eden popping up. Now I know
Mount Eden is special yet yay Mount Eden. But it's
not as if, let's be brutal about it. It's not
like it's a beautiful view. It's just like a lump,
isn't it. It's not like that, and what it's a lump?

(01:29:56):
I don't I think that the buildings in front of
it are more beautiful because at least they light up
at night and do some fancy things sometimes with their LUs.
Well they don't do that. Well, that's just you know,
taut fits the light path. You know, the cycle way.
I mean, I know I'm raving about a cycle way
right now, what's happened to the world. But the cycle
way actually does do a beautiful little dancy thing with
its lights and stuff like that, and the buildings look nice.

(01:30:16):
Mount Eden is not worth looking at. That rule needs
to change. It's ridiculous that we have that rule. And
I don't mind if the buildings block it out. However,
let's be sensible about what we build here, because I
don't think we need to have sort of like gigantic
slums in the air, which is basically what I lived
in sixteen away from seven.

Speaker 1 (01:30:32):
Whether it's macro microbe or just plain economics. It's all
on the Business Hour with Heather Duplicy, Hellen and Mares.
Insurance and investments, Grow your wealth, protect your future.

Speaker 20 (01:30:44):
These talks at me.

Speaker 2 (01:30:47):
Gavin Gray, UK correspondence with me now Hello Gavin.

Speaker 20 (01:30:51):
Hi, hell Gavin.

Speaker 2 (01:30:52):
I find the fact that you guys are buying these
fighter jets with the nuclear bombs on them quite alarming.
How do you feel, well?

Speaker 20 (01:31:01):
It's something the Prime Minister I think now feels is
pretty essential. And of course with so much war and
fighting going on around the world. I guess this is
particularly apt, but the UK has to purchased twelve new
fighter jets that can be equipped with nuclear bombs. They
will then join NATO's airborne nuclear mission. Now already there
are other countries that already are part of this seven

(01:31:23):
other countries the US, Germany and Italy among them, and
it's known as duel capability jets, so they can drop
nuclear but they can also drop more traditional bombs as
it were, and Downing Street saying this move is the
biggest strengthen in the UK's nuclear posture in a generation.
The jets will be based at Arif Mahram, which is
in Norfolk in the east of England, and the Prime

(01:31:44):
Minister heralding it'll be twenty thousand jobs across the country,
but there will be those who aren't satisfied at all.
And at the moment the UK only has one delivery
system for larger strategic nuclear weapons and that can be
launched from vanguard classes via tribent ballistic missiles.

Speaker 2 (01:32:03):
Now, this chap who did the mock wedding with the
nine year old in Disneyland actually turns out to be
something of a creek doesn't.

Speaker 20 (01:32:09):
He yes, he does. And there's a great deal of
uncertainty about what all this was about, but it's A
British man has been charged in connection with a mock
wedding of a nine year old Ukrainian girl in Disneyland, Paris.
Now French prosecutors are in charge here. His name's not
been made public officially, but he's said to be a

(01:32:31):
thirty nine year old and was a convicted sexual offender
wanted in the UK.

Speaker 16 (01:32:36):
Now.

Speaker 20 (01:32:36):
The whole tip off started when a so called guest
who'd been hired by the man to play the father
of the bride, turned up to Disneyland, Paris and saw
that the bride was this little girl, a nine year old,
and that's when he tipped off the authorities. He says
he'd been paid roughly twenty four thousand New Zealand dollars

(01:32:56):
to play the role and only realized at the last minute. Indeed,
up to one hundred French extras, you know, to play
the to play the congregation and to play the witnesses
had been recruited to take part, which was filmed in
a private capacity. The British man is said to have
hired Disneyland Paris for several hours for the stunt in

(01:33:17):
which he was to play the role of the groom.
It is utterly bizarre. Three other people, including a forty
one year old mother of the girl, a twenty four
year old Latvian woman who was used to play the
bride's sister, and a fifty five year old Latvian man,
have also been arrested.

Speaker 2 (01:33:30):
Now bizarre. Now where has Jeff moved as party to.

Speaker 20 (01:33:35):
Ah? Very good question, So Jeff Bzols. Of course, one
of the world's richest people, the US tech billionaire, is
getting married and he has chosen to marry the TV
presenter Lauren Sanchez in Venice. But the problem is locals
are angry. They're first of all a bit fed up
with mats tourism, but the idea that virtually the whole
of the city is to be shut down for this wedding,

(01:33:56):
as some describe it, has annoyed many. Now, the count
and many business people in Venice are furious at this
backlash of protest. But they have put up posters around
the town saying that you can't buy Venice and no
space for bezos posters. They even unfiled the banner saying
he wasn't welcome. They are saying they're going to do

(01:34:18):
things during the three day of lavish ceremonies and various parties,
and so it looks like that we guests including Kim
Kardashi and Mick Jagger, Leonardo DiCaprio, several of the Trump
several politicians as well. It looks like they are having
to change the venues away from the very city center. Anyway.
I don't know about it if you've got your invite yet, Heather,

(01:34:39):
but apparently the guests start to arrive within the next
twenty four to thirty six.

Speaker 2 (01:34:43):
Yeah, I'll see you there, Gavin. I'm really looking forward
to catching up with you with a glass of eparoles sprits.
Gavin Gray, UK correspondent, And Ah, have you seen Marcus's
text to Donald Trump? It's been I'm aware that it's
been around for most of the day, so you may

(01:35:04):
have seen it, but I feel like it is just
such an epic level of cringe that I'm going to
read it to you anyway. Next, So stand by nine
away from seven.

Speaker 1 (01:35:12):
It's the Heather Tipsy Allen Drive Full Show podcast on
iHeartRadio powered by Newstalk ZBB.

Speaker 2 (01:35:19):
By the way the cricket thing apparently is not going
down well at all. I've been getting a lot of
texts throughout the show. For example, this is from Simon Heather.
The New Zealand men's cricket fixtures out today. Test versus
it's a test versus the West Indies starts eighteen December
and then there's nothing until a twenty twenty versus South
Africa on March fifteen. There's three months waiting, which actually
is a fair point. And the German was it will

(01:35:41):
be a surprise to you to know that the German
likes watching cricket. And she brought a lot of energy
to that debate today, very upset that there's no cricket
in January. I was a little too tired to really
engage in that one, but I did listen to I
sat there quietly listening to her rave about it. But
there were a lot of people raving about it, and
I imagine that Darcy is going to be raving about
it shortly. Okay, so Donald Trump, this guy Mark Rutter,

(01:36:05):
who is the NATO Secretary General General, sends Donald Trump
a text before or a WhatsApp or a TikTok or
whatever way. They comms with each other before Don jumps
on the plane and heads over to NATO and he says,
mister President, dear Donald, congratulations and thank you for your
decisive action in Iran that was truly extraordinary and something
no one else dared to do. It makes us all safer.

(01:36:27):
You are flying into another big success in the Hague
this evening. It was not easy, but we've got them
all signed onto five percent. Donald, you have driven us
to a really really important moment for America and Europe
and the world. You will achieve something no in caps
American president in decades could get done. Europe is going
to pay in a caps big way, as they should,

(01:36:51):
and it will be your win. Save travels and see
you at His Majesty's dinner. And then what do Donald do?
He screen grabbed did and he put it on social media.
How embarrassing is that? I mean, because what Mark has
done is he's just sucked up really badly, isn't it.
Nobody likes seeing a suck up. Sucking up as something
everybody's got to suck up to somebody at some stage.
You got it, but you want that to be private.

(01:37:13):
You don't want it to be screen grabbed. So the
lesson in that is, don't send Donald anything on his
phone unless you wanted screen grabbed.

Speaker 14 (01:37:20):
Okay, Else, I'm glad that he's at least polite, though
very hospitable. I'd be pretty happy to show up to
a conference if someone was that nice to me.

Speaker 2 (01:37:26):
Okay, I'll just remember that.

Speaker 6 (01:37:27):
Now.

Speaker 14 (01:37:28):
You've done a great job today here though, I mean,
you're a broadcaster like no other ants.

Speaker 2 (01:37:32):
You are succeeding in a big way.

Speaker 14 (01:37:34):
Excellent step on by Happy Mondays to play us out tonight.
Happy Mondays were a bigger band in Manchester on the
Manchester scene back in the nineties and they were. One
of the things they're famous for is Bez. So Bez
was technically a member of the band, but his job
was to dance around on stage and play the miracas,
which I'm sure made the live shows heaps of fun.
But in terms of contributing to the actual so no, yeah,
probably you could probably have gotten rid of him and

(01:37:56):
you wouldn't have any idea. But anyway, he's he's a
dj now and he has now that he has landed
a pretty good gig, he's going to be djaying the
after parties for the Manchester shows that Oasis is doing,
and he's he's let them know that he's available to
DJ the after parties at all their other shows as well.
So there you go. If you want to see Bears DJ,
that's that's going to be a thing.

Speaker 2 (01:38:15):
That was a lot. I'll tell you what. That was
a lot of musical info that we all just downloaded
in the space of like thirty slock.

Speaker 14 (01:38:21):
I'll tell you there's a very good movie called twenty
four Hour Party People about this whole thing that was factionalized.
Steve Coogan's in it.

Speaker 2 (01:38:27):
Go watch it again more information. ANTS is succeeding in
a big way. Thank you ANTS. See Tomorrow News still zby.

Speaker 1 (01:38:55):
For more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive. Listen live to
News Talks it'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.

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