Early Edition with Kate Hawkesby

The All Blacks play their first test in South Africa since 2018 this weekend. It means a wake up time of 3am Sunday morning, you could just roll over in bed and flick the radio on, there will be live commentary on ZB. The stakes are very high; Ian Foster is facing big pressure to make up for the series loss against Ireland. South Africa sports correspondent Sias du Plessis joined Tim Dower. LISTEN ABOVE    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Another wave of supply chain disruptions is predicted this coming summer, just as exports are due to peak. Massey University’s mid-year risk outlook highlights a bunch of factors converging. Ant Boyles chairs the New Zealand Council of Cargo Owners and joined Kate Hawkesby. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Regulatory changes may be needed to bring more competition to the building supplies sector. A Commerce Commission draft report into the building product sector has found competition in the market isn't working as well as it should be. The watchdog has found it's too difficult to get innovative products to market, and established players are blocking land use by their competitors. Building Industry Federation Chief Executive Julian Leys told Tim Dower a national products register with information about each product could be one piece of the puzzle. He says access to information improves decision making, will make it easier for new products to enter the market, and will increase competition. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sighs of relief in some quarters after the Commerce Commission report on building supplies came out. ComCom says competition isn't working as well as it could in the sector and a lot of people in the industry said…er...tell us something we didn't know. ComCom also raised the issue of rebates; big volume buyers get a better discount, but is there anything too surprising about that? If you were a big buyer, you'd expect a better price too wouldn't you? There are some comments about restrictive land covenants and exclusive leases, these sound a lot like what we heard in the supermarket report. But overall, the message from this lengthy probe seems to be, you know what, there's nothing much to see here. So has the ComCom missed the glaringly obvious, or are there reasons we pay so much more for building stuff than the Aussies do? People often take pot shots at the bigger companies, with the supermarkets it seems justified as some of their conduct has been appalling. But is it the same in construction? If so, this

With the price of food the way it is, lest we forget we are in a ‘cost of living crisis’, I have become hyper-alert at the supermarket these days in terms of what I’m paying. And it seems I’m not the only one. Headlines these days say shoppers are fed up and looking to go elsewhere than a supermarket. It used to be, back in the good old days, that the supermarket was the best deal for food. You’d be mad to buy cereal or butter at the local dairy because it was smaller scale so sold at a premium, you could guarantee back then it would always be the more expensive option.  You’d also be less likely to get the freshest products in terms of use by dates. But these days I think that may have changed. Not on everything, but on some things. When a block of butter the other day turned out to be four dollars cheaper at The Warehouse than it was at Countdown, it was apparent the gap’s now enormous. But here’s the thing, who has got time to drive round all these places comparing prices? For all the people who say it’s u

Some coastal communities are now facing the very real prospect of having to desert their homes due to climate change. The Government has released its first national strategy for adaptation. It includes plans for the likely retreat of entire communities or towns affected by sea level rise. GNS Science Environment and Climate Research Lead Richard Levy told Kate Hawkesby some people will simply have to pack up and move on. He says insurance companies are going to have to do what's called "insurance retreat", where some places may become uninsurable, forcing people to leave. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Council of Trade Unions says more needs to be done to protect low income workers. The latest wage figures show inflation has increased, but the union says pay isn't being matched. Meanwhile, despite forecasts, unemployment has slightly risen. Union economist Craig Renney joined Kate Hawkesby. LISTEN ABOVE  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nancy Pelosi's controversial trip to Taiwan could have ramifications for the whole world, for a long time to come. The US House Speaker has wrapped up her visit to Taipei, where she expressed solidarity with the Taiwanese government. China has condemned the trip, calling it a violation of China's sovereignty under the guise of democracy. SAIS China Global Research Centre director Andrew Mertha told Kate Hawkesby it could have flow-on effects for international relations around the world. He says the US and China are the only two world powers that can come together to solve certain bilateral and multilateral international issues. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Families who were split up by the borders being closed, may now be inflating a surge visa numbers. Immigration stats show a 73 percent increase in visitors on pre-Covid figures. Most are either students or tourists. But, Into NZ Immigration Advisor Katy Armstrong told Kate Hawkesby many will be family members who've recently been able to apply to come into the country. She says they had to wait till July 31, to apply for their spouses to come via the visitor visa category. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I’m pleased midwives are asking for justification of the ongoing Covid vaccine mandate, surely we need to let it go by now. Surely it’s not even relevant anymore, in a world where we are learning to live with Covid, where we are gaining herd immunity anyway, and where the evolution of the virus is such that keeping up with never ending variants and relevant vaccines is going to become impossible to patrol. Let’s be honest, how many of us are going to keep up with all the new vaccines that may be available over time against all the new evolving variants? How many of us are boosted and going to get re boosted and re boosted and how do you keep tabs on that and enforce that without becoming an all-controlling, micro managing, nanny state? Surely we are at a point now with such desperation in our health workforce that we have to be more realistic? And when it comes down to it, would you rather have babies delivered safely and new mothers cared for? Or, stressed and alone because there just isn’t a midwife availab

There has been overseas news with the US killing the leader of al Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri. It comes ten years following the killing of the group's founder Osama bin Laden. Zawahiri helped coordinate the 9/11 attacks and was known as bin Laden’s right hand man. But now questions are being raised about whether the Taliban gave sanctuary to the al Qaeda leader. Jason Campbell is the former country director for Afghanistan in the office of Secretary of Defence for Policy and he joined Kate Hawkesby. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I mentioned yesterday, with the return of cruise ships to our now fully open border, who’d be game enough to get on a cruise? The horror of those ships stuck like floating prisons when in the early days of Covid people got stuck on them unable to move. I thought that might put people off for life.  But, apparently not. I was inundated with messages from people already back out cruising, not only that, they’re loving it. And so far so good, touch wood. It’s been drama free. I mean there was that cruise ship Coral Princess, last month in Brisbane, which got hit with a Covid outbreak. They had to offer up refunds to passengers after the ship was held in Sydney while the two thousand odd passengers had to choose whether to disembark, while positive cases had to isolate on board. Cruise aborted. And surely after two years of a pandemic and no cruising, that’s just the worst luck ever. I’m not sure any of those passengers would be back. But the people that are into it, love it, they’re devout about it. I thought it

A nursing union says it would have liked to have been consulted in new Government efforts to plug gaps in the health system. The raft of efforts includes payments to entice former nurses back to work, and doubling the number of nurse practitioners being trained. Registration fees for incoming foreign nurses will also be covered, along with the induction period for overseas doctors. Nurses' Organisation President Anne Daniels told Kate Hawkesby they weren't party to the package. She says there's a few other things they would have liked to have added, but they can't do that unless they actually talk to the Minister. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EV owners in Wellington are getting frustrated. Despite a big push for us to ditch our petrol guzzlers for the electric life, we don't have enough chargers in the city. This is leading to some businesses hogging the chargers, with residents complaining of fleet vehicles parking at the chargers for hours at a time. Liz Yeaman is managing director of Retyna, a consultancy focusing on EVs joined Kate Hawkesby. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Taxpayers' Union is crying foul on Kainga Ora's plans to hire more staff. A leaked briefing obtained by Newstalk ZB reveals the housing agency wants to take on nearly 500 more full-time staff, in the coming year. It's now gone back on that figure, saying the number will be 465, and that almost half are needed to fill existing vacancies. Taxpayers Union Executive Director Jordan Williams told Kate Hawkesby the payroll has been growing fast. He says it only had 1200 staff in 2017, but that jumped to 2200 last year, and it is now on track to reach 3000 by next year. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A Kiwi HR company says wellbeing sessions at work or 4-day weeks are never going to be the work/life fix employees are currently demanding. Greaterthan has worked with Callaghan Innovation, Edmund Hillary Fellowship, AJ Hackett International, and other New Zealand organisations to address the changing attitudes of workers since the pandemic. Partner Lucia Die Gil says it’s the dog-eat-dog nature of getting ahead in the work place which is leading to high staff turn-over, burnout and poor productivity. Lucia Die Gil joined Kate Hawkesby. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Newstalk ZB sports reader Andrew Alderson joined Kate Hawkesby for a wrap of Team NZ's Day 3 at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We seem to have a culture of excuses thriving in this country at the moment that is top down. When apologists are at the helm it’s I guess where we end up. I noticed over the weekend it’s now crept into our policing.  We're now making excuses for repeat raiders of retail stores, the same way we made excuses for ram raiders. (Who, to refresh your memory, apparently only needed a bit of a talking to by their parents.) But reports of retail crime have nearly doubled in five years under Labour. That includes shoplifting, vandalism, ram raids, the whole gamut. Police and the retail sector confirm it’s ‘a violent trend.’  So why then are we making excuses for it?  How does that go anywhere towards fixing it? National says this spike in violent retail crime is evidence of a government soft on crime. Hard to argue with? Well not if you’re the Labour party, or it seems even the Police. Police national retail investigation manager was reported saying, "[The increase] is not actually a bad thing.” The increase is not ac

Overseas-based Kiwis are "confused" and "embarrassed" at being told they would receive the Government's cost-of-living payment tomorrow and critics say including those living out of New Zealand in the scheme is "disrespectful" to hard-working taxpayers. Kiwis as far afield as the Netherlands, Sydney, London and Dubai have expressed their concern to National's Nicola Willis, who said many of them felt guilty and that they did not deserve the money. One man working in Dubai had not been a New Zealand resident for nearly 22 years, yet received the same email as more than 2.1 million Kiwis: that his first payment would be in his account within the next two days. His mother contacted the Herald irate at what she said was "incredible wastage of our taxpayers' money". Numerous members of a Facebook group for French travellers in New Zealand also received the payment email despite no longer being in the country. One person had been away for 13 months while others' visas had been cancelled so they couldn't see how the

Prince Charles has landed himself in hot water over a series of dodgy financial dealings. The Sunday Times reports he's accepted nearly $2.5 million from the family of Osama bin Laden. The Prince of Wales's Charitable Fund took the cash from two of Osama Bin Laden's half-brothers in 2013 - two years after the al-Qaeda leader was killed. UK correspondent Gavin Grey told Kate Hawkesby it comes on the back of lots of accusations of bad judgement, and is not a good look for the heir to the throne. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.