Midday Edition: 17 March 2025

The Midday Edition of News Fix for 17 March 2025, straight from the Newstalk ZB newsroom - bringing you everything you need to know in news, politics, business, entertainment and sport.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Good afternoon. I'm Malcolm Jordan and this is your midday
news fix for Monday, the seventeenth of March. A manslaughter
conviction for a fourteen year old Dunedentine who fatally stabbed
another boy at the city's bus hub. Sixteen year old
airy Tana McLaren died last May. Black Benny reports.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
The jury entered its third day of deliberations today deciding
whether it's convict the boy of murder or manslaughter. The
crown had argued the accused deliberately attacked the victim with
a knife, but the defense pleaded self defense and pushed
the jury to consider the boy's trauma and attempts to
protect himself.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
The dairy sector says it shouldn't be excluded from a
trade deal with India. New Zealand and India have formally
launched negotiations on a comprehensive free trade agreement with Chris
Lux and holding talks with officials and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Dairy Company's Association executive director Kimberly Kruger says dairy is
a major compiled oponent in our goods exports. She says

(01:02):
we could complement India's existing production.

Speaker 3 (01:05):
We produce size of sixteen hundred different dairy products and
product specification some that they don't produce.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
And Christopher Luxen has also been taking part in a
virtual meeting of the Coalition of the Willing led by
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Correspondent Gavin Gray says talks
are moving to the operational aspects of supporting Ukraine if
there's a ceasefire. Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Winston Peters is in
the US and we'll meet high ranking diplomats for talks

(01:34):
on global trade and security. They include Secretary of State
Marco Rubio. Peters says he's already had phone calls with
Rubio about New Zealand's importance to the US in the Pacific.
He believes recent Chinese military activity here is on the
US radar and I believe if it's not in a
major way, then it needs to be.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
That'll be part of the discussion.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
We have. House prices remain well below what they were
a few years ago, particularly in Auckland and Wellington. The
Real Estate Institute's house price index has now fallen fourteen
point five percent since record highs in twenty twenty one
with more Business reporter Michael Segle.

Speaker 3 (02:12):
Prices in Wellington are down twenty three percent from their peak.
Prices in Auckland are down twenty point five percent, with
agents the year hoping for a steady improvement in sales
and prices as interest rates continue to fall. Prices in
Canterbury are down three percent.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
The national median house price is now seven hundred and
seventy two thousand. That's down two point four percent on
this time last year. Small businesses seem to be bearing
the brand of the increase in job seeker beneficiaries. New
MSD figures show nearly twenty two thousand more people are
receiving the benefit in the year to February. Employment relations

(02:49):
expert Max Whitehead says smaller businesses can't afford big technology
and that's affecting our productivity.

Speaker 2 (02:56):
Now.

Speaker 3 (02:56):
Companies are inefficient, infective and we're still Our is just
leaving in droves and the brain brain as they call
it certinly, is affecting small business.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
To sport, the Black Foils have finished second at the
latest sale GP Regatta off the Los Angeles Coast, Canada.
One seventeen year old mirror Andreva has become the youngest
winner at the Indian Wells Tennis tournament since Serena Williams
nineteen ninety nine triumph. Newcastle have ended their seventy year

(03:27):
wait for an English domestic football trophy. They've beaten Liverpool
two to one in the League Cup final at Wembley
and cyclist Ali Wallaston has won the Omnium at the
latest Nations Cup event in Turkey. I'm Malcolm Jordan. That's
your latest news fix. We'll be back with the next
update at five pm from the newstalk ZB newsroom.