Morning Edition: 17 September 2025

The Morning Edition of News Fix for 17 September 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 Wendy Pentree and this is your morning
NEWSFACS for Wednesday, the seventeenth of September and this update.
Kiwis are more likely to be sent to jail following
a conviction more than ever before. Ministry of Justice data
shows more than seven thousand people were sent to prison
following convictions in the year to June, up fourteen percent
rise on the previous year. The proportion of people who

(00:27):
received prison sentences is the highest on record at fifteen percent.
Twenty seven percent of convicted charges led to prison sentences,
which is also an all time high. The report shows
part of the increase is due to a spike in
charges and sentences for drug related offenses. Most primary school teachers, principals,

(00:48):
and school support staff will strike it together next month,
seeking a pay rise that matches inflation. NZI members will
strike on October twenty three. The union says the offer
ignores the need for more support in the classroom for
both educators and children. However, the Primary Principal's Bargaining Collective Union,
which is separate to NZDI, says it hasn't called for

(01:11):
members to strike. It says it's currently engaged in good
faith for bargaining with the Ministry of Education. Secondary teachers
are also continuing strike action, with year tens affected. Today.
Nurses are pushing back at Health New Zealand's claim that
hospitals aren't short staffed, and in the Metrics report reveals
hospitals were short about five hundred and eighty seven nurses

(01:34):
every shift last year and six hundred and eighty four
nurses in twenty twenty three. Cardiovascular warns were hit the
hardest as forty nine percent of all shifts didn't meet
safe staffing requirements. The nurses organization Kirie Nuku says his
data clearly shows major understaffing, which Health New Zealand has

(01:54):
previously denied. The hiring of three thousand to fatuorder nurses,
which is what the government said last year, clearly isn't
meeting the needs. The Defense Force is replacing the barracks
at Papakuda Military Base due to mold and asbestos. It's
tearing down five old buildings and building a new block.

(02:14):
News Talk said b is confirmed the barracks were vacated
in May after mold was discovered last year. The Defense
Force is seeking a contractor to demolish the buildings. It's
seeking another contract that it built a twenty million dollar
two story, twenty four room block with upgraded infrastructure. Hollywood
actor Robert Redford has died at the age of eighty nine.

(02:38):
Redford died earlier today at Sundance in the mountains of Utah,
the place he loved, surrounded by those he loved. One
of the Lions has passed, writes Meryl Streep in a tribute,
as Jane Fonder says, the death of a frequent co
star has hit me heart. In Utah, the home of Redford,
Sundance Film Festival fans say he'll be remembered as a

(02:59):
classic at of old Hollywood. The retired actor turned director
start in movies like Butch Cassidy and The Sun, Dance
Kid and All the President's Men. To sport and high
jumper Hamish Kuras equalled his personal best leap of two
point three six meters to earn a gold medal at
the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, New Zealand. Captain Mitchell

(03:22):
Sadness recovering from a hernia, meaning he will miss next
month's three match T twenty home cricket series against Australia.
Michael Bracewell will skipper the side in his place and
Roger two of US A Check and a pahe Nichols
have won the respective men's and women's Player of the
Year gongs at the Warriors season ending due I'm Wendy Ptree.

(03:43):
That's your latest news fix. We'll be back with the
next update at midday from the news Talk z B newsroom.