Afternoon Edition: 18 September 2025

The Afternoon Edition of News Fix for 18 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 afternoon. I'm Scarlet Swatanovich and this is your afternoon
newsfex for Thursday, the eighteenth of September. The government's putting
a sharp drop in GDP down to global uncertainty. GDP's
fallen zero point nine percent in the June quarter, far
worse in the Reserve Bank and most economists were expecting.
Finance Minister Nikola Willis says international turmoil and uncertainty about

(00:26):
tariffs have clearly impacted firms and household's decisions. She says
Donald Trump's tariffs have also directly affected exports to the US.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
There seemed to be a surge ahead of the tariffs
coming on, then are slump when they came on, and
now there's some evidence of a bounce back.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
Former Finance Minister ron To Douglas and economist Robert McCulloch
have called on Nikola Willis to resign. They say Willis
is sending New Zealand bankrupt by failing to get to
grips with ballooning fiscal deficits and public debt, and she's
not up to the job. A forensic psychiatrist who assessed
Harkong Lee says unconventional family relationships dependency traits and loved

(01:07):
one's deaths contributed to her taking her children's lives. Lee's
on trial at the High Court in Auckland, accused of
the twenty eighteen murders leaving their bodies in suitcases. She's
raised an insanity defense. Defense witness doctor AVEC Kelley says
Lee's family weren't close and Lee didn't believe she could
function after her husband's death.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
His illness and death would have been compounded by cultural
beliefs of bringing bad luck upon her spouse's family. The
death of her husband was likely a re experience of
the grief of losing her father.

Speaker 1 (01:39):
The Act leaders repeating his concerns around recognizing a Palestinian
state after Winston Peters spoke against his comments. Peters says
David Seymour broken agreement where the three coalition parties had
come to a preliminary agreement on the matter. Seymour says
he does not feel called out or told off, and
repeated the idea we should not recognize a country holding hostages.

Speaker 3 (02:00):
And I don't think anyone disagrees with that, so again,
you know, I think the real question is why are
people trying to make them mount in other of this
particular moment.

Speaker 1 (02:07):
The administrators of Kitchen Things says there's no viable way
to rescue the business. The retail chain was placed into
voluntary administration a month ago. An administrator's report released a
business desk shows the company has almost four hundred creditors
owed more than sixteen point six million dollars. The Conservation
Minister believes Marwi's dolphins are real after the Fisheries Minister

(02:29):
claimed again they do not exist. Shane Jones claimed there's
no such thing as Marwi's Dolphins this afternoon, suggesting they're
just rebranded Hector's dolphins. Minister of Conservation Tamapotucker is weighing
in on Jones's remarks.

Speaker 3 (02:44):
He's been known to make those comments on a variety
of occasions. But as I've seen before, said before, I
cannot get into the heads or tongues of other ministers.
I believe they exist, but I am only the Minister
of Conservation.

Speaker 1 (02:57):
To Sport and Kiwi's League, represented a Brandon Smith, Earth
is expected to fight allegations of supplying illegal drugs and
disclosing inside information for gambling. After appearing in court on
the Gold Coast Black Ferns flanker Georgia Miller's absence from
their lineup for the World Cup semi final against Canada
appears to be due to a hamstring injury. After team

(03:18):
officials were koy on the details of the injury, Protea's
assistant coach is Annelie Danana revealed her shock at the
standing down of Silver Ferns coach Dame Noline Toda ahead
of the Tiny Jamison series starting Sunday. I'm Scarlet Sutanovich.
That's your latest news fix. We'll be back with the
next update tomorrow morning from the News Talk set B Newsroom.