Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

A reminder of the importance of judge's discretion as the National Party pitches a crime crackdown. It's called for a limit on the sentence reductions judges are allowed to grant, limiting it to 40%. National would also reinstate three strikes and remove taxpayer funding for cultural reports, instead diverting funds into victim support. Criminal Lawyer Steve Cullen told Kate Hawkesby that the law often deals with people who have had horrific childhoods. He says that's when it's important for judges to have discretion to put them on the right path again. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A survivor of child sex trafficking for 16 years is pushing for more to be done over New Zealand's alarmingly high rate of sexual abuse. The Handing the Shame Back campaign aims to give children who have suffered abuse a way to communicate - including using an open palm signal. Our country has a high rate of sexual abuse with one in three girls sexually abused by the age of 16. Author, survivor, and advocate Gloria Masters told Kate Hawkesby that they've spoken to police but there's still work to be done. She can't sit back and watch these rates, and is wondering where the outcry from the public is. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I’ve decided we need to build more roads. I don’t know why we don’t just build roads everywhere all the time. The most transformational thing this government –who said they’d be transformational– could have done was build more roads. I don’t know why they hate them so much and cancelled so many of them. The irony of this government having to officially open the Puhoi road the other day, that they originally opposed, was not lost on anyone. It’s a fabulous piece of road, makes the journey smoother, faster, more scenic, it’s actually such a thrill, we were so excited to finally get to drive it now that it’s finally open. But it really is transformational. Trucks were flowing without clogging up a small winding one lane hilly road, cars weren’t held up by them with dangerous bends and passing lanes. Traffic was flowing, and markedly reduced. It was genuinely an amazing experience. I know I sound super excited about just a bit of tarseal, but honestly, roads are fantastic. They get us from A to B safely. They get goods and services to people, they provide access to and from communities and cities. They reduce traffic and wait times. They make our lives easier. Why have we demonized roads so much? It felt so much safer being on that highway, it made the whole experience so much more enjoyable. I know there was similar excitement for those on Transmission Gully and the Waikato expressway. Locals in both those areas still rave about the difference those roads make to their lives. There’s genuine excitement around infrastructure that improves our quality of life, saves us time, makes commuting easier. It’s delusional to think we just don’t build any more new roads. How can we not? Why would we think just adding bus and cycle lanes is it? Surely that can’t just be the be all and end all. We are not hopping out of our cars anytime soon, despite all the carrots and incentives and free public transport enticing us to do so – we still love our cars. We need our cars, there are a million reasons many of us can’t or won’t take public transport, and so we need the roads. Not helping the cause of buses at the moment is a video floating round the internet of an Auckland bus driver getting severely verbally abused and sworn at by someone threatening the driver for several minutes until the bus is stopped. Even then the abuser doesn't hop off before yelling more obscenities. It’s uncomfortable viewing and makes you think twice as to how safe you’d really feel on a bus with an experience like that. Who wants their kids on a bus like that? We do of course want safer roads once we have kids of driving age. Smooth roads with no pot holes, wide roads with plenty of space. Why do we put up with such substandard infrastructure in this country, and such crappy roads? I’d almost forgotten what it was like to drive on a big wide clean straight road. Yes they cost a lot of money, but so does lost productivity due to gridlock, and accidents due to poor road conditions. I think we don’t realise how bad our roads are until we drive on a new one and see how slick they can be. We put up with long winding clogged single lane traffic because we forget how it once was. Roads don’t have to be a thing of the past, they don’t have to be the big evil they’ve been made out to be. Drive a nice new stretch of highway sometime soon like we did at the weekend, and come back to me on how good that feels.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hard to believe it's taken so long to get this new firearms register up and running. Then again - it's a government IT project and we all know there's a well-established track record of these things going way past deadline and of course way over budget. On top of that, it's likely to be clunky, overly complicated and not very well thought out so don't be at all surprised if it needs a multi-million dollar overhaul within the first couple of years. And don't be surprised either if it has no impact on the rampant crime wave we're enduring. Police themselves say there's been a marked increase of guns being used for criminal activity. That's in spite of the fortune we spent on gun buybacks, after the Christchurch mosque attacks. And they say a lot of the weapons they're seizing these days are being traced back to legal buyers. Some get stolen in burglaries, but some have also been on-sold to people who simply shouldn't have them. So, the logic for collecting all this information on legally licensed gun owners and the weapons they're holding is that some of these weapons end up in the wrong hands. The Council of Licensed Firearm Owners doesn't like it; they say legitimate owners are being singled out for police failures. I see their point, but maybe because licensed owners are mostly legitimate owners with legitimate intent - maybe they've lost sight of the potential carnage a gun can be used to inflict. So, while those owners say they're being scapegoated, do they not have a major part to play in making sure these weapons don't get into the wrong hands? Is owning a gun a right or a privilege? Like driving, I'd say it's a privilege. A privilege some people shouldn't have. So, on the face of it, keeping good records of what weapons we have, who has them, and where they are, has to make sense. All we can hope is that the people who've built it haven't ballsed it up and that police use the information they get from it to come down hard on people who shouldn't have guns.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Super Rugby final is tomorrow night - with tickets now sold out. It's Chiefs versus Crusaders - and Scott Robertson's last match in charge of the Crusaders. Crusaders CEO Colin Mansbridge joined Tim Dower. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Auckland has scraped into the Top 10 in a new ranking of the world's most liveable cities. It comes in at 10 - tied with Osaka, in Japan. 173 cities were compared by the economist intelligence unit on factors like stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education and infrastructure. Viv Beck is the CEO of Heart of the City and joined Tim Dower. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There is optimism the country's first digital gun registry will put criminals under the pump. The online registry goes live tomorrow, aiming to track nearly 240,000 licensed gun owners. It relies upon people registering within five years. Police Association president Chris Cahill told Tim Dower it'll be a key tool to reducing crime, as it would track those selling guns to criminals. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry at this point for the Labour Party and Chris Hipkins. I mean the state of it. It really is from the sublime to the ridiculous. Who's left? Who around that Cabinet table is capable enough to seriously manage all the portfolios of the other ministers who are dropping like flies? It’s a shambles. But is it all a shambles of their own making? Have they played a bit fast and loose with the rules, been a bit slow to react, a bit slow to follow up on anything, a bit cavalier about the importance of being beyond reproach? Is it arrogance? Is it incompetence? The PM sounded absolutely fed up with Michael Wood yesterday and I’m not surprised. Wood hung him out to dry. How you can claim to be so busy and so important that you don’t run a ruler over your potential personal conflicts of interest is beyond me. Especially when you’ve already been in the gun for conflict of interest - how do you take that long to clarify any other conflicts of interest? I initially defended Wood as being probably just a decent guy who’d stuffed up. But now I’m not so sure. Is he decent? Or reckless? Or arrogant? Or both? But imagine being Chippy right now. Week after week after week, distractions and implosions in your own party, in your own cabinet, that keep undermining what your government is trying to do. I mean don’t get me wrong, what this government is trying to do is nothing short of disastrous at the moment anyway, but this is a major distraction Hipkins doesn’t need. He sounded angry and over it. He threw his former Transport Minister right under his much loved bus in saying he was disappointed and it was ‘deeply frustrating’. And we are frustrated as voters too. Frustrated this keeps happening, frustrated that this clown show is still bumbling along unable to follow its own rules, unable to discern what’s appropriate or not appropriate. It’s laughable, but as I said before, do we laugh or do we cry? They’re a joke, but the tragedy is many New Zealanders still take them seriously. But how can voters trust that this Government’s abiding all the rules? How much confidence do you have in their transparency? Honesty? Openness? Are we still falling for that? Speaking of transparency, Nicola Willis alleged yesterday in Parliament that Grant Robertson’s been looking at some further tweaks to tax and has been seeking advice on possible options for increasing or decreasing income tax. Grant Robertson wouldn’t answer about it, she asked if he could rule out tax changes rejected by Cabinet re-emerging as part of the Labour party manifesto. Robertson would only say the manifesto’s not finished yet. Nicola Willis took the public interest route – that we deserve to know what the Government’s planning re tax. Robertson wouldn’t budge. So what do we deduce from that? That tax changes are coming as part of the Labour election campaign, you can almost bank on that. But we don’t know exactly what because Grant wouldn’t answer. What we should be working out by now as voters, is how much we trust this Government, how much we trust what they do with our hard earned money, and whether they can get their act together in a cohesive way between now and October.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The political headaches continue to pile up for Labour, four months out from the election. Chris Hipkins is expressing his disappointment in Michael Wood - who's resigning as a minister after more revelations about his failure to declare shareholdings. The Prime Minister is also promising to take another look at the rules around ministers' investments. Victoria University political analyst Bryce Edwards told Kate Hawkesby while many voters won't care about the specifics, the sheer number of scandals will be hurting Labour's credibility. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A victim advocate believes there will be more disclosures during a review of Oranga Tamariki. The department has revealed two staff members have been stood down as they're investigated for alleged sexual misconduct with young people in the past year. Former Police Commissioner Mike Bush will conduct a review. Victims' advocate Ruth Money told Kate Hawkesby there could've been a vetting issue. She says if people haven't been convicted or had a notation on their file before, they'd look clean - which is a huge issue with the vetting process around the country. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Only about half of kiwifruit growers expect to break even this year, amid a particularly bad harvest. Production this year is down about 35 million trays on 2022, mostly due to storms. Kiwifruit Growers CEO Colin Bond told Kate Hawkesby there are ways to mitigate the risk like frost protection and artificial shelters. He says the quality of this year's harvest is higher than last year. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I was at my physio yesterday, she’s South African. She moved here to an allegedly ‘safe’ country with her children, they live on Auckland’s North Shore, they’ve eaten at the Albany restaurants where the axe attack took place. She said it could have been them, her, or her children. She asked me what’s happened to this country and why it’s so violent now. It’s hard to answer that question without feeing embarrassed as a New Zealander that our little slice of paradise has come to this. “It’s complex”, I told her, sounding like a Labour politician trying to explain away our many and varied issues. From being soft on crime and reducing the prison muster and leaving too much crime out on the streets, to an increase in gang memberships and gang notoriety thanks to an apologist media and government who seem enamoured with them instead of appalled by them. Then to a mental health system in crisis, to the prevalence of drugs in our society, to a broken and divided country which got locked down for three years and has never really come right since then. I don’t know what the circumstances are around the axe attack, but I’m assuming it will be a combination of one or more of those factors. None of that excuses the act. Just like none of the apologists standing up for gang culture, excuses the way they intimidate and offend. The other day in Auckland’s swanky shopping precinct Newmarket, outside the new Westfield mall, a group of girls picked on an innocent victim, another young girl, and beat her up. In broad daylight, four in the afternoon on a busy Saturday full of shoppers walking by.. none of whom stopped to do anything about it – she got slapped, punched kicked, fell to the ground then got kicked in the head some more. She was 12 years old, did not know the offender apparently, who grabbed her by the hair and just randomly started beating her up. That’s someone’s daughter, age 12, middle of the day in a busy shopping area, just randomly being savagely attacked. Imagine what that does to that girl once her injuries and bruises heal, what has that done to her mentally? Who are these children attacking other children and why are they so vicious and so unfiltered as to think this is in any way acceptable behaviour? And where are the offenders now? Will it just be another case of tag and release? If they even get caught? I was talking to a bunch of high school kids the other day, they’re in their final couple of years at school, I was asking them what they’re doing when they leave, where they’re going for uni. “ABNZ”, they all replied. Anywhere But New Zealand. They don’t want to stay here, they’re all seeking uni applications offshore. When I asked them why, they looked at me like I was insane. “Why would we stay here?” they replied. That’s heart-breaking. ‘Where is safe these days for our teenage kids to go?’ my physio asked me. Where can they go that you don’t worry about them ending up a victim of crime? It’s horrible to even have to ask that question in New Zealand now, it’s even worse that I can’t answer it.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Rescuers in a remote area of the Atlantic Ocean are racing against time to find a missing submersible before the oxygen supply runs out for five people who were on a mission to document the wreckage of the Titanic. Despite an international rescue effort, US Coast Guard officials said the search covering 26,000 square kilometres had turned up no signs of the lost sub known as the Titan, but they planned to continue looking. Authorities reported the carbon-fibre vessel overdue Sunday night, setting off the search in waters about 700km south of St John’s, Newfoundland. Aboard were a pilot, renowned British adventurer Hamish Harding, two members of a Pakistani business family, and a Titanic expert. The submersible had a 96-hour oxygen supply when it was put to sea at roughly 6am Sunday, according to David Concannon, an adviser to OceanGate Expeditions, which oversaw the mission. That means the oxygen supply could run out tomorrow night (NZ time). Titanic tourist submersible missing graphic CBS News journalist David Pogue, who travelled to the Titanic aboard the Titan last year, said the vehicle communicates by text messages that go back and forth to a surface ship and safety pings that are emitted every 15 minutes to indicate that the sub is still working. Both systems stopped about an hour and 45 minutes after the Titan submerged. “Either they lost all power or the ship developed a hull breach and it imploded instantly. Both of those are devastatingly hopeless,” Pogue told CBC yesterday. The submersible had seven backup systems to return to the surface, including sandbags and lead pipes that drop off and an inflatable balloon. One system is designed to work even if everyone aboard is unconscious, Pogue said. The Titan is prepared for a dive into a remote area of the Atlantic Ocean on an expedition to the Titanic on Sunday, June 18, 2023. Photo / AP Experts said the rescuers face steep challenges. Alistair Greig, a professor of marine engineering at University College London, said submersibles typically have a drop weight, which is “a mass they can release in the case of an emergency to bring them up to the surface using buoyancy”. “If there was a power failure and/or communication failure, this might have happened, and the submersible would then be bobbing about on the surface waiting to be found,” Greig said. Another scenario is a leak in the pressure hull, in which case the prognosis is not good, he said. “If it has gone down to the seabed and can’t get back up under its own power, options are very limited,” Greig said. “While the submersible might still be intact, if it is beyond the continental shelf, there are very few vessels that can get that deep, and certainly not divers.” Even if they could go that deep, he doubts rescuers could attach to the submersible. By Tuesday morning, 26,000sq km had been searched, the US Coast Guard tweeted. The Canadian research icebreaker Polar Prince, which was supporting the Titan, was to continue conducting surface searches with help from a Canadian Boeing P-8 Poseidon reconnaissance aircraft, the Coast Guard said on Twitter. Two US Lockheed C-130 Hercules aircraft also conducted overflights. The Canadian military dropped sonar buoys to listen for any possible sounds from the Titan. Concannon, who said he was supposed to be on the dive but could not go, said officials were also working to get a remotely operated vehicle that can dive to a depth of 6km to the site as soon as possible. OceanGate’s expeditions to the Titanic wreck site include archaeologists and marine biologists. The company also brings people who pay to come along, known as “mission specialists”. They take turns operating sonar equipment and performing other tasks in the submersible. The Coast Guard said Monday that the Titan carried a pilot and four “mission specialists”. However, OceanGate’s website suggests that the fifth person may be a so-called “content expert” who guides the paying customers. Authorities have yet to formally identify those on board, though some names have been confirmed, including OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, who, according to the company, was a member of the crew. Billionaire adventurer Hamish Harding looks out to sea before boarding the submersible Titan for a dive into the Atlantic Ocean on an expedition to the Titanic. Photo / AP Rush told the Associated Press in June 2021 that the Titan’s technology was “very cutting edge” and was developed with the help of Nasa and aerospace manufacturers. “This is the only submersible – crewed submersible – that’s made of carbon fibre and titanium,” Rush said, calling it the “largest carbon fibre structure that we know of,” with 12cm-thick carbon fibre and 8cm-thick titanium. Harding, who lives in Dubai, was one of the mission specialists, according to Action Aviation, a company where Harding is chairman. Harding is a billionaire adventurer who holds three Guinness world records, including the longest duration at full ocean depth by a crewed

Uncertainty is plaguing Ruapehu. A bid to liquidate Ruapehu Alpine Lifts is being heard in the High Court in Auckland this morning, dubbed a 'worst case scenario' by some. The Government and local council's preferred option, to allow two companies to take over skifield ownership, did not make it over the line in meetings yesterday. Ruapehu Mayor Weston Kirton told Kate Hawkesby everyone is waiting with bated breath to see if companies step in and make a purchase. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A strong message has come that New Zealand's cash-strapped councils cannot make money out of thin air. The Future for Local Government Review has made more than a dozen suggestions. They include lowering the council voting age to 16, introducing transferable votes, and an annual transfer of around a billion dollars a year from central to local government. Local Government New Zealand agrees with ten of the proposals. President Stuart Crosby told Kate Hawkesby increasing funding has been a priority. He says it's been a cry for a long time with them being asked to do more and more with the same funding tools. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Is it just me, or is this Government going out of its way to lose the upcoming election? I mean, I’ve had the vibe for a while they’ve given up. Chris Hipkins sounds more and more over it and uninterested in what’s going on in the country he’s supposed to be running. Grant Robertson has sounded despondent for a while – I’m sure he quietly quit months ago, many of the Ministers behave in a way that would suggest they too have given up, but this latest revelation from the Health Ministry.. come on. Race-based healthcare is of itself not new in this country, we kind of knew how it worked, and then Covid came along and the focus again was Māori and Pacifica, but this latest revelation on the surgeries. That just takes the cake. As one texter to me yesterday pointed out, this is not just a jab in the arm vaccination we’re talking about here, it’s major surgery. It can be life or death. No one’s suggesting health outcomes for Māori and Pasifika aren’t worse; there just must be another way. The problem with this Equity Adjustor Score as it’s called, is, as Dr Shane Reti pointed out yesterday, the metrics are not clear. No wonder surgeons are pushing back on it. The Health Minister Ayesha Verrall, when asked about this scheme by Reti, confirmed to him that the measuring process was ‘dynamic’.. in other words, there’s no set method to how patients get scored or prioritized, it’s just ‘dynamic’. Meaning, it can change and flex anytime. So if you’re in the health system, and you’re on a waiting list, you potentially will never know exactly where you are on that list because it could shift anytime based on any given surgeon’s ‘dynamic’ scoring. There is a real problem here to be addressed in terms of inequitable access to healthcare but this solution just doesn’t feel right. A chunk of the texts I got yesterday were from people who were either Māori or Pacifica themselves, saying they were embarrassed by this, felt demeaned by it, or were just sick of the government using race as political leverage. One woman said it was absolutely racist in her view, she was Māori , she’d never used that as a lever in the hospital system before, but now that she was awaiting surgery and heard of this measure, she said she’s going to use it. She acknowledged it’s not fair, and said in her view it was racist. But if it gets her surgery quicker, then she’ll take it. And you can’t blame her. Blame the system. Some surgeons have said it’s medically indefensible and they’re disgusted by it. David Seymour said it’s completely wrong and promotes racial discrimination. Dr Shane Reti said the Nat's would repeal it. However the government defends it, and again I think that shows us just how out of touch they really are, how far they’ve pushed us without even realizing it, and how this election is just getting further and further away now from their grip.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A change to the Government's flagship budget policy on childcare is raising more questions than answers for the sector. It's backtracking on conditions involving the 20 hours free Early Childhood Education, after providers complained about the pay-by-the hour system. Montessori Aotearoa Chief Executive Cathy Wilson says the sector is pleased they're having their concerns responded to. But she told Kate Hawkesby communication is an issue and they've only met with the associate minister, not Education Minister Jan Tinetti. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The forestry industry is sick of being made into the villain on reducing emissions. The Government is proposing to amend the Emissions Trading Scheme and incentivise innovation over offsetting through planting. One option is taking forestry out of the scheme altogether and creating two separate markets. Forest Owners' Association president Grant Dodson says it's a bad idea and he joined Kate Hawkesby. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Chris Hipkins is set to discuss some of the world's most contentious topics with one of the world's most powerful men. The Prime Minister has secured a meeting with President Xi Jinping during his week-long trade visit to the country next week. It comes as the US and China restarted high-levels talks overnight with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chinese President Xi Jinping pledging to stabilise their tense relationship during a meeting in Beijing. Otago University international relations expert Robert Patman says Hipkins and Xi are likely to discuss a range of issues, including China's position on Russia and Ukraine. He says China knows New Zealand wants Russia to return to its borders, but may want to hear from Hipkins first hand. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

UK police are looking at fresh video of a rule-breaking event during lockdown at Tory Party headquarters. Footage shows Conservative staffers drinking and dancing in December 2020 during lockdown. Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson quit Parliament altogether last week. UK correspondent Gavin Grey told Kate Hawkesby that Johnson's still causing current PM Rishi Sunak headaches. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A leading doctor says inequities in the health system need to be addressed. Ethnicity is now a factor in a new medical wait list Te Whatu Ora has rolled out in Auckland, alongside clinical priority, time already waiting, location, and deprivation level. General Practice New Zealand Chair Dr Bryan Betty told Kate Hawkesby that there are dreadful health outcomes for Māori and Pasifika. He says it's an attempt to try to even up the playing field, and something has to be done. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

New research is highlighting the resilience of New Zealand's housing market. OneRoof and its data partner Valocity analysed residential home sales between 2018 and the start of this year. They've found sellers in 48 suburbs around the country have never made a loss in the last five years. OneRoof Editor Owen Vaughan says despite a recent slowdown in the market, sellers have been doing well overall. He says retail profits have declined since the market downturn, but the majority of sellers are still making a profit. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

So as we look down the barrel of another week of potential strikes, I am heartened by the students calling for it to end, and the prospect that it just might with some independent arbitration. Not before time. As frustrated as we are with the striking teachers, I don’t blame them, it’s the government who’s dragged the chain here in not resolving it and allowing kids to be pawns in all this. So far teachers have rejected the latest pay offer, lump sum, and three payrises, as suggested by the Ministry. Teachers say it’s not good enough. They have more strikes planned right up until the end of term. But over the weekend the PPTA said they’d now look at an Employment Relations Authority proposal that they suspend strike action and start independent arbitration. I can only hope they make a decision on this quickly and that it’s the right decision – to suspend the industrial action. Obviously the Ministry of Education wants it stopped, and parents and many students want it stopped, but it may mean the Ministry has to step up a little bit more to make it happen. Students don’t deserve all this interrupted learning. And they’re saying so. I was encouraged by the group of Waikato students who wrote an open letter to Minister Jan Tinetti saying enough is enough. They said “the greatest detriment to our future as New Zealand students is education disruption. While you battle over pay and conditions, students across the country are being sent home. Yet again our learning - despite all the rhetoric to the opposite - is happily being used as a pawn for political and union conflict”, they wrote. Good on them. Dozens of student leaders from Waikato schools signed it. They also pointed out that ‘as strike action continues, the Education Minister and her staff are contradicting the entire purpose of their jobs - to ensure the education of the country’s children and young people.’ They said, “We, as a student body, are in our fourth year of disruptions. We have not had it easy. However, we have compromised and done our very best, as we knew that the past three years were out of anyone’s control. This time, we do have control. You have control and right now this is a change we can make. Why are you putting us, the students, in the middle of a discussion where we are your focus..” They went on to say that as strike action goes on, ‘the Education Minister and her staff are contradicting the entire purpose of their jobs - to ensure the education of the country’s children and young people.’ So I take my hat off to them for telling it like it is. They have a right to be angry and they have a right to voice it. I only hope the Minister was listening. Because they’re right. They are contradicting the whole purpose of their jobs. The kids are over it. They’re knee deep in internals, they’re stressed, they’re fed up, they want it over. If the government can’t see the damage this is doing, then they’ve got their head in the sand. Let’s hope independent arbitration is agreed on and can work towards a good outcome here, that doesn’t involve more time off school for hard working students who are just trying to get their NCEA credits, and get a bit of learning in.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

So as we end the week three things have stood out to me as a bit of a let-down this week. One; the gangs and their cosy relationship with Police. Two; the media. Three; the teachers. I'll start with the Mob and the coppers. 'Working together collaboratively' as one of the Police put it, is not something that endears us to the force. This is not a collab, it's law enforcement and thugs. They're supposed to work at opposing ends - not together. Yes the motivation was clear - keep communities safe - but the execution involved inconveniencing and penalising those communities by allowing the gangs to run riot. And then telling us they did a good job because no one got hurt, and it was 'under control'. A gang intimidating a whole town and closing it down is not under control. It's being under the thumb of the gang. It's sending a message that gangs can close state highways and railroad through towns as they please, and the cops will stand by and wave them through. The odd vehicle will be searched but on the whole, we can do better. We should demand better. Two; the media. In a week where the aforementioned Mongrel Mob shut a town down and the country was plunged into a recession, and teachers stayed on strike and our kids spent two days rostered at home with no learning, some in the media chose to focus on what Luxon said that was stupid this week. Apparently a throwaway line about us having more babies, him calling the country inward looking and negative, and him cancelling a Tesla work car order last year, were the key messages of the week politically. So Luxon's likely to lose the election, according to some media, because he says dumb stuff. That was how we were dished up political news this week. In a week where as I said, teachers continued to strike, we went into recession, and we had gangs close down a whole town. Is it just me or is there not some politics in there that could have been covered? With a rather large spotlight on the government and what it's doing, versus what the leader of the opposition was saying. And that's before we get to the appalling way TV news media covered the gang funeral like they were eulogising some kind of lovely local man, instead of a gang boss. Again, we can do better. And then we get to the teachers. Twice my daughter was home this week, as they continued their strike. She'll be off for some days next week and the week after if they don't call the strikes off or accept a deal. It's a massive inconvenience and backwards step for our kids’ learning and education, at a time when NCEA internals are due, and work is being missed because of reduced classroom time. The non-Unionised teachers themselves are stressed at the backlog of work needing to be cleared here, they're worried about reputational damage what this is doing in terms of losing community support, and they too worry about the impact on these students. It’s not fair on the kids and they're the victims in all this. Their private school contemporaries are all in class getting ahead with the work because they don't have striking teachers. These public school kids will be measured up against them - it's not a level playing field where they're all competing for the same marks, yet some have all their days in school as per, with all their teachers, others don't. It's not fair on them. Again, we can do better here too. Let's hope next week looks a bit better than this one.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Is South Africa going to react to no change confirmed to the Rugby Championship Schedule? Sanzaar had to awkwardly clear up claims from its Rugby Australia chair Hamish McLennan on a potential change. Moving the schedule would give South African players a break from a gruelling calendar year. The chair's comments were made on Newstalk ZB's Rugby Direct podcast, hosted by ZB rugby commentator Elliott Smith. Elliott joined Kate Hawkesby. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It looks like Boris Johnson's political career may finally be over. A new privileges committee report has found the former Prime Minister misled parliament when questioned about Downing Street lockdown parties. It found he sewed distrust in parliament and undermined democracy - some of the highest offences for an elected politician. UK correspondent Vincent McAviney told Kate Hawkesby Johnson could have faced a 90 day suspension if he hadn't stood down. He says Johnson has gone from being the PM to an ex-MP in less than a year. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Organised crime groups keep finding ways to smuggle meth into the country. Police and customs officials intercepted a shipment of maple syrup from Canada at the New Zealand border in January. It was concealing 713 kilograms of methamphetamine, with an estimated street value of $250 million dollars. Drug Detection Agency Chief Executive Glenn Dobson told Kate Hawkesby hiding meth in liquids is nothing new. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I'm not sure when the 6pm news decided to be a promo channel for gangs, or why they wanted to spend so much time eulogising a gang leader, but I thought the way that Mongrel Mob tangi was covered last night was disgraceful. We've lost the plot in this country - and we wonder why we have gang problems. The coverage looked like a recruitment drive or a PR video for the gangs. We got so ill served as viewers, the real news was not what a great man other gang members or whānau thought he was, it was not to display endlessly all their patches and motorbikes and burnouts like they're some kind of heroes, it was not to run glowing commentary on how they saw off their leader. The news angle was that a town got shut down yesterday, and a main road closed for two hours - by gang members who decided to block it - while Police do nothing. They allegedly said they'd try to clear it but the queue of traffic that couldn't get down the road in Ōhope for two hours may feel they didn't quite work hard enough on that. Gang members were sitting on roofs of houses yelling out, sitting on top of cars, hanging out windows, doing donuts, some locals said the state of lawlessness was unbelievable. There were shots fired at a vehicle near the convoy, no one injured thank god, but clearly weapons were present in cars. Why wasn't every car stopped and searched? Why were they allowed to block roads and close a main road? Why were they allowed to sit on top of their cars while travelling down the road? Can you imagine any of us doing that and not being immediately stopped? Why were they allowed to drive recklessly with no consequences? The Prime Minister when asked about all this, said, "gangs suck." No kidding. But we need a bit more than stating the obvious from our PM. His words have to match some actions. They suck… but we won't do anything about them, is what it looks like. He said it was up to Police, and that it wasn't appropriate for him to comment. Well sorry but this country's going to hell in a handcart on the crime and gang front, and actually as the leader of it, it is not only appropriate for you to comment, but crucial that you do. People are being intimidated and inconvenienced and shut out of their own abilities to use their own roads, parks, schools, and businesses, because of a gang tangi. Because no one says no to the gangs. Not only that, news crews turn up to pop a microphone under their chins to hear about what a great guy the slain gang leader was. They allowed precious minutes of primetime news to eulogise a Mob president. I mean, how did we get here? How did we get the bar so low, that that now masquerades as news? Did the news forget that these guys thrive on notoriety, that all that footage and all those kind words about their leader, is just fuelling exactly what the gangs want. I mean they just played right into their hands. There should've been no footage of gang patches and motorbikes burning rubber, no interviews on how much their leader will be missed and how they replace him, no acknowledgement of the gang other than it being a nuisance to society, behaving illegally, stopping hard working taxpayers from getting about their own business. The story was the state of this country and how we've fallen victim to gangs ruling the roost. That was the story. Not a promo video for the actual gang.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

All eyes are on the latest GDP number expected this morning. Economists are split on whether it will be another quarter of negative growth- after Q1 slipped back 0.6 percent. Another negative would technically put New Zealand into a recession. ASB Chief Economist Nick Tuffley joined Early Edition. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Government is increasing med school intakes by 50 students next year the first increase in almost a decade. It'll be split across Auckland and Otago universities, with the total first year intake increasing to 589 places. But Resident Doctors' Association National Secretary, Deborah Powell told Kate Hawkesby it's not enough. She says there's need for at least another 200, but another 50 is better than nothing. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The seafood sector has net some gains. The value of Primary Sector exports have hit a record high, now worth 14 percent of New Zealand's total GDP. Seafood is forecast to grow by eight percent to $2.1 billion Seafood New Zealand Chief Executive Jeremy Helson told Kate Hawkesby it's being driven by good price increases in a few key stocks. He says rock lobsters, hoki and mussels are all doing well which is encouraging and foreign exchange is also helping. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Well we learned yesterday that state housing tenants call the shots at Kāinga Ora, in that they know they won’t be evicted so they do whatever they want. Figures showed despite 10,000 complaints, only three had been evicted in 18 months. So, bad behaviour rules the roost there. Then we learn also this week that gangs clearly run Ōpōtiki. Again, they know they can do whatever they want, and an entire community will just shut down around them. The fact this is happening in our country, in 2023, beggars belief. And yet still the PM tells us NZ is safe. Tell that to the Filipino family with the 12-year-old daughter who got viciously beaten outside an Auckland North Shore McDonalds at 1.30pm on a Saturday afternoon. She’s been left traumatized, can’t go outside, doesn’t want to return to school, required hospital treatment and is suffering distress form the impact of her assault. The family ‘moved to New Zealand in August last year, and had “never” experienced incidents like this in the Philippines,’ they said. Try telling them New Zealand is a safe country. And for all those families told to keep their kids at home from school for a whole week this week because of gang tensions in Ōpōtiki, are you telling me that feels safe? This comes after an increase of gang members in the town following the death of a Mongrel Mob president and two suspicious house fires. Police said they’d be maintaining an increased presence in the area. So if you’re wondering where the Police are and why they’re not at other crimes, they’re busy babysitting gang members all over Ōpōtiki. An entire week that town is shutting down for. Let that sink in. A gang can close a town up in this country, for a whole week, just by being intimidating. Schools shut, parks shut, businesses shut because working parents have to stay home to look after their – most likely scared - kids, how’s that a country you want to live in? This is not the NZ we know and love. It’s the same problem we talked about yesterday with Kāinga Ora housing. The way unruly Kāinga Ora tenants can dominate a whole neighbourhood and traumatise their neighbours, without eviction. The balance here has tipped so far to the lowest common denominator now, that we have lost all rational ability or foresight to run our society properly. How do we get that back? When Luxon told farmers the other day that this country’s lost its mojo, he’s not wrong. We’ve lost our way, and I don’t know what’s wrong with admitting that. As individuals we can lose our mojo and lose our way at times, admitting it helps us get back on track to fixing it. So why the government refuses to accept it's true is beyond me. You can’t bluff your way out of this and keep telling us we feel safe. We don’t. Systemic gang crime and activity is a major problem in many regions in this country. It’s unsettling and it doesn’t make us feel safe. Children getting viciously attacked while eating McDonalds doesn’t make us feel safe. Tenants who disrupt other people’s lives don’t make us feel safe. We need to restore some law and order to our communities, and stop just pretending that everything’s fine.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A law change will make it harder for overseas buyers to plant pine on good farm land. The Government is giving local councils the authority to determine where, and how much, carbon forestry can occur. The move limits trees used for carbon farming being planted on productive land, shifting the incentives to make planting on hillsides more attractive. Federated Farmers Meat and Wool Industry Chair Toby Williams told Kate Hawkesby this rights some of the wrongs from the past. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Concern the public has been led up the garden path over a long-held promise to boost the country's police force. New police data shows of the Government's 1,800 new police officers, 270 are "authorised officers" and don't have arrest powers. Act Party Leader David Seymour told Kate Hawkesby if 1,800 police are promised, people expect to see officers who can assist and arrest if there's a crime. He says it doesn't mean they're not useful but they're not quite what the average person would think is a police officer. Police Minister Ginny Andersen has told our newsroom Government’s commitment has always included these authorised officers. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Former US President Donald Trump has pleaded not guilty to illegally hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. “We most certainly enter a plea of not guilty,” Todd Blanche, Trump’s lawyer, told US Magistrate Judge Jonathan Goodman. CNN reported Trump had his arms folded and periodically spoke to Blanche while in the courtroom Trump’s motorcade arrived on Tuesday afternoon (EDT) at the federal courthouse shortly before he was scheduled to appear before a magistrate judge, a stunning moment in American history days after he became the first former president charged with federal crimes. Members of law enforcement stand guard as supporters of former President Donald Trump rally outside the Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. U.S. Courthouse in Miami. Photo / Alex Brandon, AP Trump, as well as an aide charged as a co-conspirator, have been booked in the Miami federal court. The pair were digitally fingerprinted and had their birthdates and Social Security numbers taken as part of the booking process at the federal courthouse in Miami. The US Marshals Service said Trump and Walt Nauta were booked shortly after they arrived Tuesday afternoon. It’s the second criminal case Trump is facing as he seeks to reclaim the White House next year. He’s also accused in New York state court of falsifying business records related to hush-money payments made during the 2016 campaign. Trump has denied any wrongdoing, saying he’s being unfairly targeted by political opponents who want to hurt his campaign. After his court appearance. Trump will return to New Jersey, where he’s expected to hold a press event to publicly respond to the charges. The motorcade carrying former US President Donald Trump arrives near the courthouse in Miami. Photo / AP Nauta, a Navy veteran who fetched Trump’s Diet Cokes as his valet at the White House before joining him as a personal aide at Mar-a-Lago, is accused of moving boxes from the White House at Trump’s direction and then lying about it to investigators. Trump rode to court with his son Eric, who accompanied the motorcade from the former president’s Doral resort to the federal courthouse in Miami. CNN aired footage of Trump walking to a line of SUVs with his son by his side while someone yelled, “Let’s go Trump!” The former president stopped and waved at supporters, as well as chatted with staff members. Eric Trump appeared to clap his father on the back just before he climbed in a vehicle. As he rode to court, Trump posted on his social media site that the case against him was a “witch hunt”. Via his Truth Social network, he posted: “ON MY WAY TO COURTHOUSE. WITCH HUNT!!! MAGA.” Later, outside the courthouse, Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba said, “Today is not about President Donald J. Trump, who is defiant. “It is not about the Republican Party, it is not about the 2024 election,” Habba added. “It is about the destruction of longstanding principles that have set this country apart.” Alina Habba, lawyer for former President Donald Trump, gives a thumbs up to supporters after speaking outside the Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. U.S. Courthous in Miami. Photo / Alex Brandon, AP Trump is the first former president to face a judge on federal charges as the city of Miami prepared for possible protests by crowds that officials said could number in the thousands. Security was tight outside the federal courthouse ahead of Trump’s history-making court appearance but there were no major disruptions as the morning unfolded. Trump approached his arraignment with characteristic bravado, insisting as he has through years of legal woes that he has done nothing wrong and was being persecuted for political purposes. But the gravity of the moment was unmistakable as he answers to 37 felony counts that accuse him of willfully retaining classified records that prosecutors say could have jeopardised national security if exposed, then trying to hide them from investigators who demanded them back. The case is laden with political implications for Trump, who holds the dominant spot in the early days of the 2024 Republican presidential primary. But it also poses profound legal consequences given the prospect of a years-long prison sentence. Even for a defendant whose post-presidential life has been dominated by investigations, the documents probe has stood out for the apparent volume of evidence amassed by prosecutors and the severity of the allegations. It’s also a watershed moment for a Justice Department that until last week had never before brought charges against a former president. Attorney General Merrick Garland, an appointee of President Joe Biden, sought to insulate the department from political attacks by handing ownership of the case last year to a special counsel, Jack Smith, who on Friday declared, “We have one set of laws in this country, and they apply to everyone”. The arraignment, though largely procedural in nature, is the latest in an unprecedented public reckoning this year for Trump, who faces charg

A knife-wielding assailant stabbed two university students to death in the streets of the English city of Nottingham and then fatally stabbed a middle-aged man, stole his van and ran down three pedestrians in a shocking rampage early on Tuesday morning (GMT), police said. Police arrested a 31-year-old man on suspicion of murder. The Nottinghamshire Police force said investigators believe the perpetrator acted alone and detectives were working with counter-terrorism officers to try to establish a motive. “This is a horrific and tragic incident which has claimed the lives of three people,” Chief Constable Kate Meynell said. A man who was among the people struck in the hit-and-run was hospitalised in critical condition. The dead included two 19-year-old students from the University of Nottingham. “We are shocked and devastated by the news,” the school said in an announcement. A graduation ball scheduled for Tuesday evening was cancelled. One of the victims has been identified as Barnaby Webber, 19, with his grandparents saying that his parents ‘are in bits’ about the news. Phil and Jenny Robson, the victim’s grandparents, said: “We are still unsure what has gone on at the moment. “Barnaby’s parents are in bits as you can imagine, but they are with officers from Nottinghamshire Police as we speak. The knife attack on the students occurred around dawn in an area near student housing a short walk from the university’s Jubilee Campus. A caller reported that two stabbing victims were lying in the street. Police think the attacker then killed a man in his 50s and took his van, Meynell said. His body was found on a different street more than a kilometre from the first crime scene. About 90 minutes after the initial attack, witnesses were horrified as they watched the van plough into pedestrians and flee. Police officers block a road in Nottingham where police say three people have been found dead, and three others were hit by a van in linked incidents. Photo / AP Lynn Haggitt was on her way to work when a white van pulled up beside her at 5.30am. She saw the driver look in his mirror and spot a police car approaching slowly from behind without its emergency lights on. The driver then accelerated and struck a man and woman at a street corner, she said. “He went straight into them. He didn’t even bother to turn,” Haggitt told reporters. “The woman went on the curb, the man went up in the air, there was such a bang, I wish I never saw it. It’s really shaken me up.” The driver then sped through the city center with police on his tail, she added. Haggitt said the wounded man appeared to have a head injury but was helped to his feet. The woman was sitting on the curb and appeared to be OK. A third pedestrian was struck on the same street, police said. Two of the hit-and-run victims had minor injuries, Meynell said. Police officers block off a road in Nottingham where three people have died in a van attack in the city centre. Photo / AP “We believe these three incidents are all linked, and we have a man in custody,” the police chief said. “We are keeping an open mind as we investigate the circumstances surrounding these incidents and are working alongside Counter Terrorism Policing to establish the facts, as we would normally do in these types of circumstances.” After stopping the van, officers subdued the suspect with a Taser before detaining him. University of Nottingham student Kane Brady said he awoke to loud shouts of “armed police” and heard what sounded like a gunshot outside. He said he saw officers holding stun guns and a man being dragged out of the van and pinned on the ground. “I saw him getting arrested, him trying to resist,” Brady told British broadcaster GB News. “When they opened the van, I saw a large knife being pulled out and then straight away, that’s when police closed off both roads.” Photos showed the hood of the van dented and cracks in the windshield. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called it a shocking incident and asked that police be given time to investigate the crime. “My thoughts are with those injured, and the family and loved ones of those who have lost their lives,” Sunak said. Nottingham is a city of about 350,000 people some 175 kilometres north of London. Images on social media showed police, some with rifles, standing near cordons at several locations in the city centre. The city’s tram network said it suspended all services. - Jill Lawless, Brian Melley, AP with Telegraph UKSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I was inundated with feedback yesterday from both parents and teachers regarding the teachers’ strikes this term. So many teachers got in touch. They're embarrassed, many of them, and annoyed, that the strikes are going on so long. There are on average five days that high schoolers will be told to stay home while teachers strike for the remainder of this term. So of the three weeks left of school, many students will only do two weeks, one will be swallowed up with strike days. As I said yesterday, this is super stressful for them, because there are all-important internals on and huge chunks of work is getting missed by not being in the classroom. It’s not like lockdowns where they could do online learning either, there is no teaching at all, which has now gotten to the point of ridiculous and even the teachers are fed up. One wrote to me saying she’s so sick of the Union and the zealots who are dragging this out. Another said she’s embarrassed at the reputation this is giving teachers. Another said it’s eroding goodwill with students and parents, and she worries they'll struggle to get that back. One said she can’t believe they still haven’t accepted any offers; they wanted it to be over by now. Another said it is the children who’re suffering – which was my concern too – that it’s the students missing out on critical learning who are the real victims here. It’s a weird thing isn’t it that in this day and age of anxious children and woeful mental health stats, that diehard Unionised teachers are happy to keep stoking that fire with their actions. They’re making these kids stressed and anxious and worried. They’re also setting a really bad example around the importance of education and attendance, which is as we know a huge problem right now in this country. In fact, some schools have opted to have children come into school even if they're not being taught, just to study at school and be there, to maintain the importance of the routine of coming to school each day. Many parents are angry that teachers are playing with their kids futures here, and it’s a legitimate concern. The teachers who’re aware of the support they’re losing from parents and students say they too would like it be over now. But this is the problem with ardent Unionists; they’re zealots for principle, irrespective of the collateral damage. These kids are collateral damage. The Unionised teachers who’re digging in have maybe lost sight of what’s happening here. They’re making a rod for their own backs with the amount of time and teaching they’re going to have to make up for, for these kids who have NCEA grades and internals due. The curriculum keeps going; it doesn’t just stop because teachers walk out. So these kids are in catch up mode and it’s these teachers who have to get these kids through, and get them achieving their credits. How will they feel when they finish all their strike action and return to a classroom where their students are all stressed and falling behind? I’m at a loss to understand how this has gone on this long, at this level of our children’s education. How is it we are at a point where they’re sacrificing our children and their learning, just to make a point?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Government is being accused of slacking off with disruptive Kāinga Ora tenants. Newstalk ZB can reveal three people have been evicted for bad behaviour in the past 18 months - another 200 have been relocated. This is despite 10,000 complaints since the housing agency rolled out tougher termination measures. Solomon Group Housing manager Bernie Smith told Kate Hawkesby it's totally unacceptable. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Beef and Lamb is pleased with National's election emissions policy. National would start measuring farm emissions by 2025, and make farmers pay for them by 2030, five years later than the current plan to have them paying by 2025. National hasn't revealed how it will decide pricing, but says it will decide in the first year if elected. Beef and Lamb Chair Kate Acland says the delay is positive because time is needed to make the pricing fair. She says it can't be rushed into. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kiwi chef Josh Emett is cooking up a storm for none other than goop - Gwyneth Paltrow's powerhouse brand. The goop team reached out after Paltrow reposted Josh's hasselback potatoes on social media in March. He's now whipped up three recipes for their massive online audience. Josh Emmet joined Kate Hawkesby. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Questions are being raised over whether the Green Party's proposed tax overhaul is needed. It's pledging to lift the top tax rate to 45%, corporate taxes to 33%, and slash taxes for earners below $120,000. Assets worth two-million-dollars will be hit with a 2.5% wealth tax — or four-million-dollars for couples. Trusts will also be taxed at 1.5%. But, New Zealand Initiative Chief Economist, Eric Crampton says that a new tax system isn't the way unless you want the Government to raise substantially more money. He says if you want something like an Income Guarantee programme, far more tax will need to be raised. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

So today my daughter is off school again with another teachers strike. One of two this week alone, she will also be off Thursday. She is Year 12 doing internals and headed towards important exams, and it is stressful for her and her friends to again be told to stay home. Many of her teachers are over it too, they’re aware students are falling behind or having to rejig too much work and scheduling, many of them are getting as stressed as the students are. Some have expressed disappointment that the Unionised teachers are still rejecting the offers made. They want it settled, the school wants it settled, the students want it settled. It also comes at a time when we have record absenteeism and we are begging kids to attend school. We’re trying to reiterate the importance of school and a good education, and there is messaging coming from all quarters on how to keep kids in school and focused on achievement. So the timing could not be worse to have teachers stopping work endlessly; and I say endlessly because it sure feels like it. And that’s before we get to all the days off currently by kids and teachers coming down with winter bugs. There’s a lot of sickness around in Term 2, always, but particularly this winter off the back of lockdowns and Covid. And given we are in June, we are running out of days left before school holidays start in just 3 weeks. It’s been a very disruptive term already. For parents this is a quandary. On the one hand, we want our kids in school, we want them learning, we want them going where we’ve paid for them to be and actually getting to know some stuff, and working towards grades that will impact their futures. We also want routine for our families, structure, consistency and kids not thinking that only going to school for 3 days a week is normal or acceptable. But we support teachers; who doesn’t? Anyone whose put their kids through school knows how hard many of them (not all) work, and how much of an impact they can have on your child’s life. It's a critical role and I feel badly for how much extra teachers have to take on these days in the form of bureaucracy and admin and social work, and dealing with a whole bunch of stuff they shouldn’t have to deal with. It sucks. But it’s also part of what you must know you’re signing up for. We’ve got a young doctor in training in our family, and we’ve talked to her endlessly about the 80-90 hour weeks and the burnout and the stress and all the headaches that being a young doctor in this country entails, and she says she knows all that going in. Do the striking teachers go into teaching expecting it will be something different to what it is? That’s not to say they shouldn’t advocate for change and look to evolve it, god only knows the whole school system needs evolving and upgrading, but at what point do you exhaust community support and erode the respect of your students by just permanently striking? The Primary teachers just accepted their fourth offer from the Ministry of Education after “a long negotiation campaign which included the largest education strike in this country's history”, it was reported. The teachers in that dispute pointed out how much work demands have skyrocketed for them, and I don’t doubt it. But the line that they’re striking ‘for the children’ is starting to wear a bit thin when it’s the children who are suffering now with so many days off.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A scientist is pleased to see the issue of genetic editing taken up ahead of the election. National's promising to end the effective ban on editing and modification if elected for the benefit of climate change, agriculture, and health science. Genomics Aotearoa Director Peter Dearden told Kate Hawkesby that there isn't currently a ban, but regulations are too restrictive and out of date. He says it's hopeful to see a political party see the opportunities and decide it's something worth addressing. Dearden says genetic modification isn't the problem, it's what it aims to achieve that needs to be regulated. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I was reading about ‘sharenting’ the other day and how in France it’s now a crime. The Government there have introduced laws that ban parents from over sharing their children online. The idea is to protect children and their image and their rights to their own images, which in principal is not a bad idea, especially when you consider stats that show there are “on average 1300 photos of a child online before the age of 13.” Alarmingly, sharing your images of your kids can be a risk to their security. It’s been reported that, “Half of the pictures shared by child sexual abusers were initially posted by parents on social media, according to reports by the US National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children.” Sobering stuff. It got me thinking about how much we share here – or over share – of our kids, and how much thought we actually give it. Because when they’re all cute, fluffy little babies and then cute and crazy toddlers doing hilarious things, it’s amusing to post that stuff. It’s part of what you’re doing if you’re a young Mum or a fulltime parent, or really anyone who just revels in their kids. And there’s been commentary around the fact that this becomes in many cases an extension of the parent’s identity online – they are a Mum – therefore they want to share that aspect of their life online too. Some even monetise it as we know. As they get older though, children often become uncomfortable with how much exposure they’re getting online via their parents. They may get embarrassed, or teased about it, they may as they get older want to curate their online life via their own page without Mum or Dad’s input on what they think is cute. I did a parenting column in a women’s magazine for many years, and when the kids were little it was easy to tell stories about them or talk about things that happened to us, but as they got older, not so much. So increasingly, I tried to write generically about kids and not specifically about my own. But eventually it all became too hard. Because they have lives of their own, and they don’t need Mum’s hot take on it published for all to see thanks very much. I follow lots of Mums online, some who never post their kids, some who post them all the time, some who post them anonymously with their faces blocked out or their identity obscured. It’s up to the individual of course – but I often look at heavily exposed kids on social media and wonder how long the parents will get away with it for. Because as the child gets older, they usually want less and less of themselves exposed online via Mum or Dad. And they let you know, either by refusing photos to be taken at all, or making you take them down, or the demands kick in – like ‘you’re not allowed to post anything of me without my permission first’. So it's good to take stock of just how much we’re sharing of our children, whether they’re comfortable with it, or whether they would be as they get older. And with the advancement of AI, we need to remember that privacy risks may only increase with the more we put out there. Which is all food for thought next time we think about posting our kids doing something random which we think is hilarious, but in a few years’ time, they may not.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Changes are on the cards for some breast cancer patients. Pharmac is consulting on a drug switch proposal to replace the current expired one. Herzuma is said to be more safe and cost effective, but at what there are concerns about whether all patients will be suited to it. Breast Cancer Foundation's Research and Strategics Manager, Adele Gautier, joined Kate Hawkesby. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As bystanders screamed for help, a man with a knife stabbed four young children at a lakeside park in the French Alps on Thursday, assaulting at least one in a stroller repeatedly. The children between 22 months and 3 years old suffered life-threatening injuries, and two adults also were wounded, authorities said. The helplessness of the young victims and the savagery of the attack sickened France. A suspect, identified by police as a 31-year-old Syrian, was detained in connection with the morning attack in the Alpine and lakeside town of Annecy. French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said he had refugee status in Sweden. Witnesses reported scenes of terror as the man roamed the park, ambushing victims with his blade. “I said to the police, ‘Shoot him, kill him! He’s stabbing everyone,’” Anthony Le Tallec, a former professional soccer player who was jogging when he came across the attacker, said. Lead prosecutor Line Bonnet-Mathis said the man’s motives were unknown but did not appear to be terrorism-related. He was armed with a folding knife, she said. The 31yo man who is alleged to have stabbed four children during a knife attack at a children's playground in Annecy, France. Photo / Twitter She said all four children suffered life-threatening knife wounds. The youngest is 22 months old, two are age 2 and the oldest is 3, she said. Two of them are French, the other two were tourists — one British, the other Dutch, she said. Two adults also suffered knife wounds — life-threatening for one them, the prosecutor said. One of the adults was hurt both with the attacker’s knife and later by a shot fired by police as they were making the arrest, Bonnet-Mathis said. Video appearing to show the attack in and around a children’s play park was posted on social media. The footage showed a man in dark glasses and with a blue scarf covering his head brandishing a knife, as people screamed for help. Police in a playground at the scene of knife attack in Annecy, where four young children were left with life-threatening injuries. Photo / AP The man appeared to shout “on name of Jesus Christ” as he waved his knife in the air, while people nearby could be heard screaming: “Police! Police!” He slashed at a man carrying rucksacks who tried to approach him. Inside the enclosed play park, a panicked woman frantically pushed a stroller as the attacker approached, yelling “Help! Help!” and ramming the stroller into the barriers around the site in her terror. She tried to fend off the attacker but couldn’t keep him from leaning over the stroller and stabbing downward repeatedly. Afterwards, the man strolled almost casually out of the park, letting himself out through a gate, with the man carrying two rucksacks still chasing after him. French President Emmanuel Macron described the assault as an “attack of absolute cowardice”. Of the victims, he said “children and an adult are between life and death.” “The nation is in shock,” Macron tweeted. French PM Elisabeth Borne (second left), addresses the media in Annecy following a knife attack which has left four children severely injured. Photo / AP Le Tallec, the ex-soccer player who witnessed the attack while on a lakeside jog, said in an Instagram video that he first came across “a mother who said to me, ‘Run! Run! There’s someone stabbing everyone.” “I saw him sprinting straight for some grandpas and grandmas. And there, he attacked, he attacked the grandpa, he stabbed him once. The police behind couldn’t catch him.” The police then opened fire and the attacker fell to the ground, having stabbed the older man a second time, Le Tallec said. The prosecutor said the suspect had been living in the Annecy area since last fall and had no fixed address. An ice cream seller who works in the waterside park said he’d seen the attacker there several days earlier, looking out at the lake ringed by mountains. Police officers stand on a bridge near the scene after a knife attack in Annecy. Photo / AP The suspect was a political refugee in Sweden, the prosecutor said. The Swedish Migration Agency said he was granted permanent residency in 2013. The agency did not identify the suspect but said he subsequently sought Swedish citizenship in 2017 and 2018, both denied, and applied again in August 2022. Eleanor Vincent, an American author vacationing in Annecy, told the Associated Press of her shock at seeing an emergency helicopter descending to the picturesque park. “As soon as I heard the sirens and saw police running, I knew something horrible was happening. I am in shock. It’s a park where they take children out to walk,” Vincent said. Crowds stood in “absolute silence,” dumbfounded as the tragedy unfolded, she said. “As a parent who has lost a child, I know what these parents are experiencing. It’s a horror beyond belief,” Vincent added. In Paris, politicians interrupted a debate to hold a moment of silence for the victims. The assembly president, Yaël Braun-Pivet, said: “There are some very young ch

Auckland councillors will be back around the table at 10am this morning after being unable to agree on the council's budget. Mayor Wayne Brown proposed a compromise mid-way through yesterday's meeting, suggesting selling about half the council's holding in Auckland Airport, higher rates rises and more cuts to Council Controlled Organisations and local boards. Heart of the City chief executive Viv Beck told Kate Hawkesby businesses want a cost-effective, efficient council that's easier to work with, has less red tape and gives better value for money. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

So the final march for the man known around Parliament as the Little General, Michael Wood, surely he’s gone by lunchtime. I mean being told to do something six times was already a lot, but to then find out it was in fact 12 times; come on. As the Nat’s Nicola Willis said yesterday, she sometimes has to ask her 13 year old son to do things 5 or 6 times; but 12 times? That’s next level. This is a cluster that Chris Hipkins can no longer ignore. Shifting $13,000 worth of shares is not that hard, let’s be honest. And you can’t argue you forgot when you got reminded about it 12 times. The PM must be so fed up with this Cabinet. I mean the state of it. Michael Wood, Stuart Nash, Meka Whaitiri, the Jan Tinetti saga, the Kiri Allan saga. Too many sagas, too many shambles and all too close to the election. Luxon said the wheels are coming off this Government, I’d argue they’re already off. It’s a clown car with wheels rolling around in all directions and the wheels are just hitting them all in the face now. Hipkins needs to salvage this somehow, he needs to look strong and decisive and managerial, he already let this whole thing loll around far too long - all weekend not dealing with it, he was too slow to even ask questions. And by the time he started asking questions, more was coming out and it was getting worse and worse, the hole was getting bigger and bigger. Here's the thing. We deserve better. Voters gave these guys the biggest majority ever to run this country, and look what they’ve done with that. Run it into the ground. Made a mockery of their time in office, bumbled, fumbled, lied, obfuscated, and in Michael Wood’s case, arrogantly assumed they’d get away with it all. The ultimate notice will be served to this government on October 14th, but in the interim, they just have to do better, they just have to stop this shambolic rule breaking misleading circus act they’re currently putting on. It’s funny isn’t it how people and polls and pundits are so focused on the Chris v Chris show. You know, Chippy from the Hutt with the sausage rolls versus flat old Luxon who looks a bit corporate and a bit boring. Well, the reality is, look at their teams. Look at who’s around them, look at what sort of government you’re having run the place. Look at whose handling the baubles of office, holding the purse strings and managing the country efficiently and honestly. Are you telling me it’s these guys? It’s Michael Wood and it’s Willie Jackson and it’s Jan Tinetti and it’s Ginny - ‘what Police operation?’ - Andersen? I mean come on. We deserve better. I don’t care how many sausage rolls Chris Hipkins eats, that’s not how we should be voting. Act’s David Seymour says in the interests of fairness and trust in public officials, it’s untenable Wood can stay on. Concealing a public interest, as Seymour pointed out, is banana republic behaviour and something we can’t accept. I mean I know the bar’s already too low in this country with this Government, but we can’t possibly lower it even further. The only honourable and appropriate thing to happen now, is for Michael to be sent into the Woods.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

An animal welfare group wants more done to stop animals being used for science in New Zealand. The Ministry for Primary Industries' most recent report shows more than 308,000 animals were used for testing, teaching and research in 2021. Nearly half were then killed. Tara Jackson is the Executive Director of the NZ Anti-Vivisection Society and she joined Kate Hawkesby. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For the first time in 25 years, Arnott's will again manufacture products in New Zealand. The company is opening its new facility in Avondale, West Auckland today. It comes after it acquired the 180 Degrees cracker brand two years ago. Arnott's New Zealand Country Director Mike Cullerne told Kate Hawkesby it'll allow them to make more locally made products. He says they've partnered with Barkers of Geraldine to make a new shortbread range coming next month. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.