Larry Williams Drive

Police are patrolling a Hibiscus Coast high school three times a day in response to antisocial student behaviour. Whangaparāoa College Principal Steve McCracken says they put their hands up when the police offered. It was because of things like fights between students at school and bus stops. McCracken told Heather du Plessis-Allan that he's noticed a difference since the police came in. He says while he has no data on it, the school feels much more settled. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The long-standing tradition of popping over to an Irish pub for an authentic pint of Guinness may be coming to an end.  New data shows 108 pubs closed in 2022, with an average of 152 pubs closing annually since 2019. UK correspondent Enda Brady says the combination of Covid-19 and the ongoing cost of living crisis has encouraged many Irish locals to drink at home instead. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tonight on The Huddle, Infrastructure NZ CEO Nick Leggett and former Labour Chief of Staff Mike Munro joined in on a discussion about the following issues of the day- and more! Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was one of ten people killed in a plane crash north of Moscow, on a private plane enroute to Saint Petersburg. Was this news expected? Is this good news for Putin?  National MP National MP Tim van de Molen has been stripped of his portfolios and has had to apologise for threatening a Labour MP. Can National bounce back from this ahead of the election?  National has opted to keep Labour's fees-free policy for tertiary education- despite the policy copping backlash. Is this just a last bid for votes? Air New Zealand's annual after-tax profit of $412 million is being called 'a spectacular turnaround'. Is this good news? LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The food and fibre sector export revenue has reached new heights and earned $57.4 billion in the year to June 30. This has brought an extra $1.2 billion into the economy, surpassing Agriculture Minister Damien O'Connor's expectations. The Country's Jamie Mackay says this news comes with a caveat, as the dairy and sheep sectors are likely to take a hit. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How much financial pain is too much to inflict on young families struggling to pay off their first homes? History indicates it's a rite of passage- baby boomers endured mortgage rate spikes of 20 percent and Generation X suffered under rates that soared above 10 percent. NZ Herald business editor at large Liam Dann agrees it's a generational rite of passage, but the weight of the burden has grown for young people. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Qantas has posted an underlying profit of nearly $2.5 billion- their first since Covid-19. The flying kangaroo has bounced back from a $1.9 billion loss last financial year, driven by a 132 percent increase in passengers. Australian correspondent Oliver Peterson says Qantas has been trying to distract their customer base with sales and extra points ahead of potential outrage.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Auckland International Airport has managed to bounce back following the return of international travel. A sharp increase in both domestic and international passengers enabled the company to report their first profit since the pandemic. CEO Carrie Hurihanganui says the airport still requires upgrades, and they're confident the forecast growth will support these developments.  "After 10 years of consultation, and 21 concept designs benchmarking worldwide, we are confident in regards to the forecast growth- which airlines had an input into." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sky TV has reported results in line with expectations and seeks to double their dividend payout to 30 cents in the next three years.  Full-year profit fell 18 per cent to $51 million - but when adjusted for one-offs including restructuring costs, rose 15 per cent to $56.7m. However, the company is struggling to get consumers to switch to their new Sky Box, as only 7 percent of users have traded in their decoders so far. Sky TV CEO Sophie Moloney says a new update to be released next week will fix remaining issues with closed captions and improve navigation. "I'm excited that we've got to that point. I'm sorry, as I said, to those customers who experienced some issues- and I'm excited about looking forward." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

An uncertain future looms for the Wagner Group after the leader Yevgeny Prigozhin's death. The 62-year-old was one of ten people killed in a plane crash north of Moscow, on a private plane en route to Saint Petersburg. Russian authorities say its commander and co-founder Dmitry Utkin was also among the casualties. Australian National University defence expert Matthew Sussex it leaves a big void for Russia to fill in its African allies. "Russia's gone on a kind of spree of constructing new private military companies, and it may well be that one of the existing ones will now step into the breach that Wagner's left." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

See what National’s doing with the fees-free policy? This is exactly what I was warning you about a couple of days ago. National chickened out and it has now decided it’s going to keep Labour’s expensive policy of paying for university for students who were probably going to go anyway.  This is a massive about-face from National, because they’ve spent six years bashing it and promising to cut it. For good reason-  it’s an enormous and unnecessary waste of money when we are about to borrow tens more billions of dollars and can’t afford to waste money. It’s hard to find an exact price, but this could be costing us somewhere around $320 million a year to pay for the university study of kids who were probably going to go anyway. It doesn’t even do what it was supposed to do, which is lift the number of poor kids going to uni. Since it was introduced, fewer poor kids are going and more rich kids are going. And the only thing that’s gone up is the dropout rate, which is now the highest it’s been since 2014.  This i

Auckland's mayor says some flooded homeowners buyback could be less than they expect. An Auckland flood recovery package worth more than $2 billion dollars has been agreed to in principle by Council and the Crown. It includes $774 million for buying out homes where there's risk to life and no possible mitigation. Wayne Brown says with different houses, there's bound to be variety in payouts. "Some people who have chosen to be in places which are quite dangerous themselves were already taking some risks- some people weren't." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Air New Zealand's chief executive warns that their fares are unlikely to go back to pre-pandemic levels. The company today reported a full-year underlying profit of $585 million on operating revenue of $6.3 billion, up 9 per cent on pre-Covid levels. This result is a turnaround on pre-tax losses of $725m last year.  CEO Greg Foran says customers should expect prices to come down as they add more seats, but they'll never match 2019's offerings. "There are so many dynamics at play, but if I look ahead and say- what's going to happen to, say, North America over Christmas? We've got about 40 percent more capacity in there, we're back flying to what we were- I think we'll see prices ease." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Christchurch rapists Roberto and Danny Jaz have been sentenced to lengthy jail terms. Danny has 16 and a half years, and Roberto, 17 years- the pair must serve at least half before parole is possible. Roberto Jaz told a a pre-sentence report writer he did nothing wrong. Herald reporter Anna Leask says  he claims the abuse was consensual- and he doesn't accept the Judge's verdict. "Which is unfathomable, when you look at the evidence and the outcome. Danny Jaz has refused to engage. It's his right, but he's refused to engage with report writers, so we don't actually know what he's thinking." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

National MP Tim Van der Molen has been censured following allegations of violence. The Privileges Committee has found he engaged in threatening and physically intimidating behaviour against Labour MP Shanan Halbert in a stand-off at the Transport Select Committee. National leader Chris Luxon has stripped him of his portfolios. ZB senior political correspondent Barry Soper says he's seen worse behaviour from MPs over the years, which shows standards have changed. LISTEN ABOVE  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The All Blacks are fielding as close to a full strength side as possible for Saturday morning's last pre-World Cup test against South Africa in London. Outside of starting hooker Dane Coles and Luke Jacobson featuring at blindside for the injured Shannon Frizell, the rest of the run-on side is close to what might meet France in the opening match of the tournament. Sportstalk host D'Arcy Waldegrave weighs in on what we can expect from this match. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A man's running for Parliament as an independent - who last year was found not guilty by reason of self defence, after instructing his son to cut a finger off a teen home invader. Farmer William Bruce Burr appeared in a Hamilton High court trial last year. He's standing in the Taranaki-King Country electorate. He says he expects to win votes on a platform of fixing law and order. "There's just got to be a change, because I've got grandkids- our community, our country is just unbelievable." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A 40-year old woman in the UK has undergone the region's first successful womb transplant. The woman donated her uterus to her younger sister, who plans to undergo IVF later this year. UK correspondent Gavin Grey says the procedure comes with several risks, but hundreds of women have contacted Oxford Transplant Centre about receiving similar procedures.  LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tonight on The Huddle, Jack Tame from ZB's Saturday Mornings and Q&A and Business Mentors NZ CEO Sarah Trotman joined in on a discussion about the following issues of the day- and more! There's growing calls for David Seymour to apologise following his controversial comments about sending Guy Fawkes into the Ministry of Pacific Peoples after he seemingly doubled down. Should he apologise, or does ACT have bigger issues to worry about? National MP Michael Woodhouse says he lost out on a good list placing due to diversity. Was National right to prioritise an equal spread of men and women? How important is diversity for political parties?  The Taxpayers Union has called for an immediate end to parties for bureaucrats after the Department for Internal Affairs spent $16,000 on a welcome party- does this need to be reigned in?  The Australian Government is considering banning bosses from contacting their employees outside of working hours- unless they’re getting paid for it. Could this work? LISTEN ABOVESee omn

Retail spending is continuing to decline as people opt to spend less money, according to new Stats NZ data. The total volume of retail sales fell 1 percent in the June quarter compared to the March quarter in the third consecutive quarterly decline, following on from March and December. Infometrics principal economist Brad Olsen says inflation and interest rates are finally hitting consumers, forcing households to tighten their belts as more people join the economy. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

ANZ has followed in ASB's footsteps in lifting mortgage and term deposit rates. Most of the increases target mortgages with two or more years, raising most of those rates by 20 basis points. NZ Herald Wellington business editor Jenee Tibshraeny says ANZ is blaming rising wholesale interest rates and inflation for these hikes- but it's tough to say if this is a justification.  LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.