Early Edition with Kate Hawkesby

The 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games are about to get underway. The opening ceremony began at 7am New Zealand time. Newstalk ZB sports reporter Kate Wells is in Birmingham and joined Kate Hawkesby. LISTEN ABOVE  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A regional visitor levy is back on the cards to cover the costs of tourism on small communities as borders fully re-open on Sunday. The proposal was a common theme in new destination management plans written by regional tourism organisations following the Covid-19 lockdowns. Many say they need more financial support to manage the effects of tourism. Regional Tourism New Zealand chair David Perks joined Kate Hawkesby. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This year is on track to be one of our deadliest on record. Latest figures show 320 people died on our roads last year, down more than 11 percent on the road toll in 2018. But the AA says this year's road toll is on track to reach 350 to 360. Road Safety Spokesperson Dylan Thomsen told Kate Hawkesby usually when fuel prices jump, road deaths decrease due to less people driving, but that isn't happening. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Te Papa is collecting relics of our very recent past. The national museum has been adding momentoes from the Covid-19 pandemic to its long-term collection. Among them are concrete barriers, tennis balls thrown at journalists during the anti-mandate outside Parliament, face masks, and PPE. Te Papa spokesperson Kate Camp told Kate Hawkesby she finds the posters from the early days of lockdown particularly interesting. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Vehicle importers are shining a light on apparent faults within the the Government's Clean Car rebate scheme. The Imported Motor Vehicle Industry Association is pulling its support on the programme. It claims the programme isn't appropriate for its supply dynamic, and the Government won't work together on a suitable scheme. Chief Executive David Vinsen told Kate Hawkesby there's an unnecessary level of complexity and confusion. He says customers are incised into a yard with the expectation they'll get a rebate, only to find out they might have to pay a fee. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I note the average time to wait to get in to see your GP is three weeks. That’s the average. For many it’s longer than that. And for some rural areas in this country, you’d be hard pressed to see a GP at all, far less one close to you. You may have to drive for miles to get to even get to one. So we know it’s a problem, but how to fix it? President of the Royal NZ College of GP’s, Samantha Murton, wrote a piece for the Herald yesterday saying how it’s not an easy fix. “We can’t magic away the chronic GP shortage”, she said. She puts it down to the low number of trained GP’s. She says that “our Med student numbers are lower than in many other first-world countries”, and that “they have little opportunity to train outside of hospitals, and early career doctors are not encouraged to work in general practice.” And I know that to be true, we have a daughter at Med school currently and she would concur that not a lot of her peers are there to wind up in a GP’s office. Advocates for the work of GP’s will tell you it

An employment law expert says the Kamahl Santamaria saga should send a clear warning about the dangers of hiring friends. TVNZ Head of News Paul Yurisich has resigned, after a review found he did no reference checks before hiring the former Breakfast presenter. The pair had previously worked together at Al Jazeera. Employment law expert Max Whitehead told Kate Hawkesby TVNZ has suffered huge reputation damage. He says this is one of the most foolish things he's seen someone do. Phil O'Sullivan will remain TVNZ's Acting Head of News and Current Affairs until a permanent replacement is chosen for the role. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Reserve Bank is being urged to show more urgency in its efforts to curb inflation. Governor Adrian Orr has acknowledged interest rate decisions he has made during the Covid pandemic, have contributed to inflation reaching the level it has. National is now calling for an independent review of the central bank's monetary policy response. Infometrics Principal Economist Brad Olsen told Kate Hawkesby central banks, both here and overseas, should have acted sooner once they knew the impact the pandemic was going to have. “When the facts change, when the economy started to shift, when we saw inflation starting to come forward, we had to react. In fact, we took far too long to move from one foot to the other.” LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The heat is steadily seeping out of the country's property market.A new quarterly overview from Core Logic shows the slowdown of sales activity at the start of the year has flowed through to a decline in property values. Property values have tumbled for three months in a row to an average of just over $1 million, down 2.3 percent from the peak. But Core Logic chief property economist Kelvin Davidson says it's important homeowners wanting to sell up don't lose perspective. He says moving house in a slowdown can sometimes pay off - because the next property may have lost more value, providing an opportunity. LISTEN ABOVE  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I’m just wondering how many of you who’ve been overseas these past couple of weeks, maybe for school holidays or just a winter escape, whether you’ve come back refreshed and feeling better. Was it the elixir you needed? Did it revitalize your soul? Has it washed away the pall of gloom over most of us at the moment? I ask because I’ve heard mixed reports. Some say it was everything they needed and just the serotonin boost they’d been missing. Others say it was almost too much, because coming back to cold and wintry old NZ has been a bit of a down buzz and anticlimactic. Others say it’s still a bit of a cluster travelling internationally at the moment, because although they’re not doing masks and they’re over the Covid obsession, there’s still a lack of resources, staff, the airports are chaotic, it’s a gamble whether or not your bags turn up and there are too many queues. The experience is not quite back to its heyday. So as someone who’s yet to leave the border, I’m curious. Because I feel like what we all ne

It's depressing the amount of crime we’re seeing these days isn't it? Racist attacks, brazen ram raids, people getting shot or stabbed or beaten up, it’s actually disgusting and not representative of who we are, collectively, as New Zealanders. And there's still a lack of action on this low-rent crowd of trouble makers. I see retailers are now so stressed about lack of action on burglaries and repeat raids that they’re suffering ‘very high levels of anxiety’, according to one Business Association. And I think it’s a twofold problem. On the one hand, raids and burglaries are still occurring all too often, but also, it’s more and more becoming the victims’ problem. The targets of these raids and burglaries are the ones suffering. They’re the ones having to bolster security, spend excess amounts of money, retrain or counsel staff, and spend sleepless nights worrying about security. How is that fair? How is it possible that hard working, decent retailers are left anxious, out of pocket and scared, while thieves b

Less than half of students are regularly attending school. The latest truancy data shows regular attendance in term one dropped to just 46 percent. It's down on 72.8 percent in 2019 - pre Covid - and 50.5 percent in 2020. Post Primary Teachers' Association President Melanie Webber told Kate Hawkesby the numbers don't surprise her. She says irregular attendance is having more than two days off school a month. Webber says while that adds up and isn't ideal, there is huge variation in the data. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Fears for the impact foot and mouth disease could have on the economy, should it reach New Zealand. Biosecurity has been keeping an eye on Indonesia's outbreak for several weeks. And in the past week, non-infectious traces of the disease have been found on meat imported to Australia. Federated Farmers National President Andrew Hoggard told Kate Hawkesby the disease would be catastrophic for this country. He says if it emerges here, meat exports would be stopped immediately until we got on top of it. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Generation Z has a new obsession. Subtitles have become popular thanks to TV shows like Stranger Things. Screenshots of the show's creative captions have been flying around the internet, with things like "squelching wetly" both delighting and horrifying viewers. Tom Augustine is a film and TV writer and joined Kate Hawkesby to discuss this latest trend. LISTEN ABOVE  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Greens trying to roll James Shaw is about the most active thing I can think of that the Greens have done during this whole electoral cycle. As a party you don't hear much about them doing anything, in part I guess because they're so wrapped up with the Labour party now that there's less theatrics and vocal opposition to things. So it’s good to see them exercised about something - although a party in disunity is never a great sign. I’m wondering if part of James Shaw’s problem is actually the aforementioned - the Greens have become too cosy with Labour for many hardcore Greens liking. And on top of that, James Shaw is actually very likeable. He seems about the most reasonable and rational of all of them, which is possibly why a portion of the party’s trying to roll him. They seem to prefer radicals and activists. People more on the fringe - people who are more vocal and edgy - like Chlöe Swarbrick. I think if Chlöe throws her hat in the ring it will be game over for Shaw. But she’d have to be keen to make

A former Green MP is pulling no punches with her opinion of James Shaw's leadership. The Party was thrown into disarray on Saturday when the co-leader was not re-elected at its AGM. Any potential contenders now have a week to confirm a challenge against Shaw, who's indicated he is likely to run again. Former Green MP Catherine Delahunty told Kate Hawkesby he's not what the Greens are about. She says the party needs someone in Parliament who's willing to stand up on vital issues, and not just be a lap dog to Labour. LISTEN ABOVE    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

All Blacks head coach Ian Foster has confirmed he has the support of the dressing room after asking senior players to assess the current situation the team find themselves in and how to turn it around. After dropping a series at home for the first time in almost three decades with their loss to Ireland earlier this month, the team announced they have parted ways with forwards coach John Plumtree and backs coach Brad Mooar on Sunday – a move Foster said "we all feel we need for this team". Speaking on Sky Sport's The Breakdown, Foster revealed the message he gave to his players after the series against Ireland, and what that led to. "That's one of the questions that I got them to talk about," Foster said when asked if he was confident he still had the support of the dressing room. "I'm not in the room; it was just them and with all the noise around – there's been a lot of people putting me under pressure for a long, long time so in many ways this is not new to the group. But part of my job is to go back and ge

Water Safety New Zealand says it would be wrong to blame lifeguards and coastguard staff for the uptick in drownings. It's released its updated final report into drownings last year, with 90 people dying in the water. It's the worst year since 2011, when 91 people died. Water Safety New Zealand chief Daniel Gerrard told Kate Hawkesby there are real challenges, but front line services aren't the problem. He says we need more investment in prevention, to move people away from the edge of the cliff, rather than relying on them being rescued. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Big things are happening in the small west coast town of Reefton. An economic boom has increased demand for housing, but zero rentals are available and few houses are for sale. Buller District mayor Jamie Cleine joined Roman Travers. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kmart is shifting south. The retail giant is moving its distribution centre from Auckland to the Ruakura Superhub in Hamilton. It will be a bigger and better facility that spans four rugby fields and is set to open late next year. Chris Wilkinson, Managing Director of consultancy company First Retail Group joined Roman Travers. LISTEN ABOVE  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.