Midday Edition: 26 March 2025

The Midday Edition of News Fix for 26 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 Wednesday, the twenty sixth of March. Green
MP Tamitha Paul is standing by controversial comments on police
made at an event. She said beat patrols make many
people feel less safe and it's possible to set up
institutions to carry out many police functions. The Police Minister

(00:25):
has called it nonsense, but Paul is the Wellington Central
MP and says she's reflecting what her constituents tell her.
Police have far more important business to be doing than
to be oppressing a group of people who are already marginalized. Meanwhile,
Labour's admitted the gang patch ban hasn't turned out as
badly as they feared. The Deputy Police Commissioner has confirmed

(00:46):
staff are pleasantly surprised at the band's effectiveness, saying it's
brought more control to the situation. It comes as Gisbone
police are given more powers to deal with gangs. Labour
Police spokesperson Ginny Anderson Todd Mike Hosking the fact it's
gone well is a good thing. There was a fear
that frontline officers would be hurt and we haven't seen that,
so I'll recognize that it has gone a lot better

(01:08):
than what everybody thought it would do. A trend of
increasing housing affordability could be set to continue. A massive
university report suggests to overall affordability increased nine point five
percent in the October to December quarter. It shows on
an annual basis it's improved by nineteen percent despite median

(01:29):
house prices slightly increasing. Business School senior lecturer Arshadad Javid
says a drop in the ocr has been a big
reason for the change, which impact in the VERA. At
the national level, affordability was impoved frustration over Health New
Zealand's slow response to a startling failure where an eleven

(01:50):
year old girl was wrongly taken to a mental health
center and to medicate it. She had been misidentified as
a missing patient in her twenties, reportedly climbing Hamilton's Fairfield Bridge.
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey told RNZ his office wasn't
told for two weeks. It's actually quite concerning that until
my office was informed, it looks like the instant review

(02:13):
hadn't begun almost two weeks after the event. Salvers combing
through the wreck of the HMNZ s Monowanui off Samoa's
coast continued to recover weapons, ammunition, equipment and debris. Teams
removed more than three hundred and twenty thousand liters of
diesel this month and forty five thousand liters of other

(02:33):
waste oils. Commodore Andrew Brown says ammunition damaged by seawater
is being disposed of and the remaining equipment has been
returned to New Zealand. An independent panel will also advise
the Sarmoan and New Zealand governments of its assessment for
next steps. The journalist added to a group chat on
US attacks on Yemen has hit back at the Defense Secretary.

(02:56):
Atlantic Editor in chief of Jeffrey Goldberg says he would
added to the chat on encrypted app signal where Pete
Heigseth texted war plans two hours ahead. Hegg Seth has
disputed that, but Goldberg says told CNN it did happen
when targets were going to be targeted, how they were
going to be targeted, who was at the targets when

(03:17):
the next sequence of attacks were happening to sport, Liam
Lawson has reportedly been dropped by the Red Ball Formula
One team and unprecedented two races into the season. Dylan
Walker has been released from the remainder of his Warriors
contract despite being named in the team for Sunday's match
against the Tigers, and will return to Sydney on compassionate grounds.

(03:38):
He signed with Paramatta. I'm Malcolm Jordan. That's your latest
news fix. We'll be back with the next update at
five pm from the news Talk zb newsroom.