Afternoon Edition: 05 August 2025

The Afternoon Edition of News Fix for 05 August 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 Scarlet Swatanovich and this is your afternoon
newsfax for Tuesday, the fifth of August. Chris Luxtan's backing
the treaty negotiations. Minister pushing ahead on foreshore and seabed legislation.
The government plans to pass its marine and coastal area
changes by October. That's despite the Supreme Court ruling. The
Court of Appeal aired in a decision that could have

(00:25):
lowered the threshold for EWE to have rights over coastlines.
Last year. The Waithani Tribunal recommended pausing this change, but
the Prime Minister says he's comfortable with Paul Goldsmith continuing.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
We obviously have looked at the Supreme Court decision pretty closely.
We think it's quite broad and able to be interpretated
in quite a broad way, and we think the best
way to do is to get back legislation to puts
it back to its original and ten, which struck the
right balance confirmation.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
The government wants AI to be used more in marking
school assessments as it plans to dump NCEEA. The government's
proposing to ditch Level one and replace levels two and
three with internationally comparable certificates. Education Minister Ericas Stanford's told
ENZQA she wants artificial intelligence to grade most assignments where possible.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
You think about the technological advance as we've had just
in the last couple of years, we've got a long
runway and NZQA are right now gearing up for that.

Speaker 1 (01:19):
New Zealand's biggest power companies want to import thousands of
tons of Indonesian coal more suitable than our own. Genesis, Mercury,
Meridian and Contact want a joint stockpile to ensure power supply.
Pending Commerce Commission approval, it would add six hundred thousand
more tons of coal to current stocks. Minerals West Coast
Trust manager Patrick Phelps says our producers have far less

(01:42):
of the low quality coal suitable for electricity generation than Indonesia.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
For the cost that.

Speaker 3 (01:47):
They're willing to pay in the price that produces out
of Indonesia can supply it, it's clearly just quite competitive
for them to get it offshore.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
Australia is buying eleven Japanese warships for about a billion
New Zealand dollars apiece. Our neighbour is undergoing a major
military restructure, turning towards long range strike capabilities to better
respond to China's naval might. It plans to expand its
major warship fleet from eleven to twenty six over the
next decade. Co Cooda's MP has taken concerns about downsizing

(02:18):
rural police stations to the Police Minister. Consultations underway on
a proposal that could close some rural Canterbury sites and
cut staff and others that be replaced by twenty four
our hubs in Rolston and Rungi Aura Stuart Smith says
he's given Mark Mitchell feedback several times.

Speaker 3 (02:35):
He said very firmly and clearly that no final decision
has been made and that it's an operational matter, but
we have made a strong commitment to having policing in
our communities.

Speaker 1 (02:47):
Rules restricting how close small backyard sheds and sleep arts
can be built to a boundary will be dumped by
year's end, letting homeowners put them where they want to.
Sport and frustration from Warrior's coach and Drew Webster over
the NRL band handed to Dolphin's prompt Forlis Kafusi for
his dangerous tackle on Jacob Laban. Laban will be sidelined

(03:08):
for up to six weeks with a broken leg, but
the Red Cliff front rowers only copped a two game suspension.
Former All Blacks and Crusagers winger George Bridge has penned
a two year deal with Super Rugby team the Western Force.
England coach Brendan McCullum believes their drawn series with India
proves that Test cricket is the ultimate form of the sport.

(03:29):
I'm Scarlet Swortanovich. That's your latest news fix. We'll be
back with the next update tomorrow morning from the newstalk
set B newsroom