Morning Edition: 21 August 2025

The Morning Edition of News Fix for 21 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 morning. I'm Nevaretti Manu and this is your morning
news fix for Thursday, twenty first of August. In this update,
the Reserve Bank says further interest rate cuts may not
be enough to kickstart the stagnant economy. It's cut the
ocr again and is signaling more cuts on the way,
But Chief economist Paul Conway says house prices and population

(00:26):
growth have been the key drivers of New Zealand's economic
growth for decades. He says, at the moment we're seeing
the effects of low house prices and low net migration.
In the long run, it's about improving productivity, and monetary
policy is not the instrument for that. We're about controlling
demand to keep inflation low and stable. There's only so
much we can do. New Zealand's facing one of the

(00:46):
most challenging national security environments in recent times. The Security
Intelligence Service has kept our terrorism threat unchanged at low
in its annual assessment, indicating an attack is a realistic possible.
The SIYES says global instability, conflict and competition between world
powers of polarizing people, especially in online spaces. It suggests

(01:10):
any plausible attack is likely to come from a randicalized
loan actor acting violently without any intelligence forewarning. It says
people are more aware of threats but tend to underestimate
their impact. A prisoner advocate is pushing for a transformation
of the Romand system. A just published Chief Inspectorate report
reveals several issues with mount eat in prison. It says

(01:33):
ninety five percent of inmates are on romand, yet many
can't get educational resources until they're sentenced. Howard Leads. Canterbury
President Cosmo Jeffrey says there's an effective solution used in
other countries is his remand prisons could be replaced with
residential politics to teach and train people on Romand. The
head of the Armies is the actions of a soldier

(01:53):
who attempt at espionage struck to the very core of
their values. The soldier who has named suppression lead sensitive
military information to someone he thought was a foreign agent
but was actually an undercover officer. A court martial yesterday
sentenced him to two years in military detention and dismissed
him from service. A plan's been laid out for potential

(02:13):
dental reforms to address New Zealander's poor oral health. New
Zealand Dental Association data shows one in three kiwis have
untreated tooth decay. Its policy roadmap for the next five
years includes expanding community water floridation, introducing a sugary drink levy,
and including oral care into our universal health coverage. Dental

(02:35):
Policy Director Robin Wyman says addressing the dental workforce shortage
is key to making this possible. The number of training
positions has stayed at sixty in New Zealand since the
nineteen eighties and we really think it's time for an
increase in those numbers given the increase in the population.
It will be back to the bargaining table next week
for the country. Secondary teachers Nearly twenty thousand went on

(02:57):
strike yesterday, suggesting a one percent pay ride doesn't keep
pace with inflation. In sport, Brazilian goalkeeper Fabio has broken
the world record for the most competitive football matches following
his one thousand, three hundred and ninety first appearance, surpassing
the mark set by England's Peter Shelton. New Auckland FC
signing Sam Cosgrove intends to imprint his physicality on the

(03:20):
A League. The one point nine to three meter English
striker has joined the Black Knights as a replacement for
the departing Max Martyr. Tennis player Lulu Sun has been
ousted from the first round of the Monterey Open in Mexico.
I'm never attimanu. That your latest news fix. We'll be
back with the next update at midday from the newstalk
Zebe news room.