Full Transcript for Full Show Podcast: 09 November 2026

00:05:28 Speaker 5: I think a lot of things in education go full circle. Certainly when I was at teacher training college many years ago now, but it was all about the tripod grip. I think over the last, I'd say maybe 10 years, things have become a lot more fluid and now we seem to have gone full circle. But again, the study out today really didn't say that the tripod grip was necessarily the best. It's about finding the most appropriate grip for the child. that leads to fluency. 00:05:57 Speaker 8: Yeah. 00:05:58 Speaker 9: Yeah. 00:05:58 Speaker 1: Fair enough. 00:05:58 Speaker 3: Hey, thank you very much. I really appreciate your time, Lucy. That's Lucy Naylor, Auckland Primary Principals Association president. Heather, I cannot wait to hear your political commentator eating her hat now that opportunity is elected. There are quite a few people eating their hats about this, but yes, let me, let me, let me, I'm just, I was writing it down. Let me just have a look at this bit of paper. Oh, that's right. Barry Soper owes me a bottle of whiskey. Because we took a bet, didn't we? And I said opportunity was in, and he said opportunity was out. I said to him this morning, I said, what made you think that they were not in? Because, I mean, they were coming in at 6% on the last week. 00:06:34 Speaker 8: Like, what? 00:06:34 Speaker 3: And he, oh, no, no, no. Said, no, no, no. Wasn't sure it was there or thereabouts. There or thereabouts. Whatever. It was obvious the whole way through. Who said that opportunity? 00:06:42 Speaker 10: Oh, Trish. 00:06:43 Speaker 3: Yeah, Trish. Trish Hurston. So Trish Hurston doesn't owe me anything because we didn't put a wager on that one. Just her own pride in herself for calling that one wrong. To be fair. I mean, to be fair, that could have gone either way. And it is such a high bar to clear the 5%. So it was always a bit of a stretch for them to be able to do it. So you got to forgive people if they thought it wasn't going to happen. Listen, David Jones, just an update on that. So David Jones, as you well know, went into receivership last week. Well, cue the record foot traffic at the weekend. Cue the record sales. Shoppers obviously all headed into the stores thinking it would be the last time that they would be able to buy anything out of David Jones. So they just went completely nutso. Obviously not understanding the situation with receivership, which is they were in voluntary receivership. They can continue trading, and they are continuing trading. So they are thanking the good Lord for their good fortune, I would imagine, at David Jones. They've got some cash in the door. And as a result, they are now restocking their shelves because what's happening in, what, about two and a half weeks? What's happening? What's happening? That's right, Black Friday. So don't go and buy those sneakers that you were almost going to go buy this morning, like myself. Hold off for two and a half weeks, and you might get them 50% off.

00:07:50 Speaker 8: Yay! 00:07:50 Speaker 3: Quarter past. Some of those people are the same people, isn't it? He's a political hack with no instincts. Actually, do you know, should we address that? Because that's quite harsh, isn't it? I mean, some of it's true, but I mean, most of it's true. But let's address that shortly. 18 past four. 00:08:26 Speaker 2: Jason Pine, Sports Talk host. 00:08:33 Speaker 3: Hello, mate. 00:08:34 Speaker 10: Hello, mate. 00:08:35 Speaker 3: OK, how did you like the look of the All Blacks then? 00:08:39 Speaker 4: I thought at the end of a very challenging week, they did a pretty good job, didn't they? You know, afterwards, there was clearly some emotion that had been pent up and used as fuel, but also had affected their build up. I mean, it can't have been easy with one of their team members passing away at the start of the week, then trying to balance grieving with then preparing for a test match. I think they did a pretty good job. When you consider that the last four games before yesterday against Scotland had been won by single-figure margins, and they won by 22 yesterday. You know, you have to say it's a box ticked. You know, they weren't perfect, but sometimes things are a little bit bigger than rugby. They'll be happy with the result, obviously. They'll move on. I think there'll be a lot of changes for the game against Wales this coming weekend, and then they'll get ready for England in about a fortnight to see where they are. 00:09:23 Speaker 3: I felt a little bit overlooked because honestly, did it even feature, like, how many people actually watched that game in amongst all of the business with the election? 00:09:32 Speaker 4: Yeah, such a good point because there was so much other sport on as well. You know, on Saturday, we had a one-day Cricket International, the A-League Derby and two Rugby League World Cup semifinals. You know, a lot of people in the election, as you say, a lot of people, once Christopher Luxon got up just after midnight, I don't think people could stomach staying up for another couple of hours after that to watch the rugby. Look, yeah, it wasn't front and centre and time zones are part of that. But yeah, look, a lot of people, I think, probably recorded it, got up and watched it and would have been on the whole. from a rugby sense anyway, pretty happy with what they saw. 00:10:02 Speaker 3: Now, what is going on with Liam Lawson? Is this silly buggers being played? Is he actually going to be re-signed or not? 00:10:08 Speaker 4: I cannot work this out. I cannot for the life of me work out how you can treat somebody this way. It seems so bizarre, right? Because what else could Liam Lawson have done? He is on the brink of becoming the most successful by the metric of points racing balls driver ever. Nobody else has got as many points as him. He's joint level at the moment. with the highest previous points haul in a season by a racing bulls driver. So no doubt with the three remaining races, he'll go past that. What more can he have done? He's not trying to earn promotion, Heather. He's just trying to keep his place in that team. 00:10:43 Speaker 3: I 100% agree with you on this. But then a point was made to me by somebody in the sports team this afternoon, which is very valuable and salient, right? Which is remember what the Racing Bulls team are. They're not there actually to try to win the thing. They're a development team. Has he, I mean, is he ever going to be developed now? 00:11:00 Speaker 2: You know, that's it. 00:11:01 Speaker 4: He's fully developed, right? He's fully developed. 00:11:03 Speaker 3: And this is the best that he is. 00:11:05 Speaker 4: Well, yeah, but so then you think, OK, well, what is his path then? There are only 20 seats on the Formula One grid. So if it's not going to be at racing balls, then where will it be? I've heard that argument as well about the development team, but there are a couple of drivers who have driven for racing balls for six, seven years. So if it truly is a development team, then that flies in the face of that. Also, there's the Manufacturers' Championship and all of that sort of thing. I just think, I'll take it back to what I said, it's a terrible way to treat somebody. Just keeping him hanging on like this, he genuinely doesn't know and he doesn't have a plan B. 00:11:40 Speaker 3: Yep, okay. Well, I thought that they might be playing the games that they like to play, stringing us along for a bit more attention, but maybe that's not what's happening. Piney, as always, it is lovely to chat to you. Enjoy your show this evening. Jason Pine, sports talk host. He'll be back at seven. Let's deal with that text next, 421. 00:11:56 Speaker 2: Fearless. 00:11:57 Speaker 11: Focused. 00:11:57 Speaker 2: Informed. It's the Mike Hosking Breakfast. Is it yours to lose? 00:12:03 Speaker 12: It is right now, but. 00:12:04 Speaker 13: You've got to respect every single vote and we won't really know the answer until every vote's been counted. 00:12:10 Speaker 8: How much talk is going on behind the scenes or is there no talk until the votes are in? 00:12:14 Speaker 13: Look, we've been talking amongst our own caucus, just working out what our position is and how we negotiate. I'm sure over the coming week there'll be more discussion between parties. 00:12:22 Speaker 8: OK, so do you have a plan re-talking to people or are you waiting for someone to come to you? 00:12:27 Speaker 13: We'll approach people over the week. I see others are out there saying that they're going to wait until all the votes are counted. 00:12:33 Speaker 10: Back tomorrow at 6am, the Mike Hosking breakfast with Aveda. 00:12:37 Speaker 11: Newstalk ZB. 00:12:38 Speaker 1: The name you trust to get the answers you need. It's Heather Duplessy-Allen Drive with One New Zealand. Phone dollars are for phones, obviously. Newstalk ZB. 00:12:49 Speaker 3: Alright, you want to

get a load of what's just going on at RNZ. So RNZ called, this is Radio New Zealand. the state broadcaster called its staff into a meeting at half past three, sat down for 15 minutes so it was going to be quick and dirty, just a dump of bad information and then out they go and we've got the bad information now and it's 10 out of 10 bad. Somebody said to me beforehand, it's 10 out of 10 bad and it actually is. So they were preparing to have a loss. of $ 470, 000. It has blown out to $ 11. 8 million. The reason that this is happening is because there was wrong internal reporting, which means they didn't realise what was going on. And when the revenue started dropping, they should have started cutting staff and cutting costs and stuff, and they didn't. As a result of that, they are going to lose nearly 60 full-time jobs by March next year, which is one in six. That's massive for that organization. They broke the law as well. They set up a $ 5 million overdraft without seeking approval. Here's a quote. RNZ relied on internal financial reporting that gave the wrong picture. meaning RNZ failed to cut spending enough after a 7% drop in regular funding. I'm interested in the timing as well. The Monday after the election probably suggests they knew this last week but just held on to it, you know, so as not to kind of blow information before the election. Anyway, we're going to have a chat to the board chair, Brent Impey. Ho's a good guy. He's going to be with us after 5 o'clock. Now to your text. Heather, I agree with that text wholly except for the bit about you being an idiot. Thank you, Dave. Heather, 19 times, 19 times Luxon said he would not negotiate with opportunity and now he's going to need her. Lying piece of excrement, says Lindy, which was pretty full on. That's a full on feeling. I don't know why you're surprised by that. Like nobody should be surprised that he was always going to have to. What did you think he was going to have to do? He was just making himself look silly. knew he was going to have to deal with opportunity. Anyway, this is why I think Luxon's not going to get rolled, right? And like, I agree. He looks ridiculous. He's lost his authority. He's kind of, he's a bit of a laughingstock now. So I think they should be getting rid of him, but should be undoing, and I've always thought that, we should be undoing two different things. They're probably not going to get rid of him because probably, probably by a bit, one of the best contenders was Chris Bishop. He's now not in parliament. A whole bunch of people who would have been the troublemakers have lost. They are not there anymore. Also, you need... And so then the ones who replace them, the new MPs, kind of default to loyalty because he got them in. So they're probably not going to try and roll him. Also, you need an event, right? You need something to precipitate wanting to roll him. Like, I don't know, he can't form a coalition. If he can't form a coalition, they might roll him. But I suspect he will do it to keep the job. I don't see an event that causes that. 00:15:30 Speaker 7: Anyway. 00:15:31 Speaker 3: We will discuss Oliver Peterson is with us shortly out of Australia. Newstalk ZB. 00:15:37 Speaker 1: On your smart speaker, on the iHeart app and in your car on your drive home. It's Heather Duplessy-Allen Drive and One New Zealand. Phone dollars are for phones, obviously. Newstalk ZB. 00:15:54 Speaker 3: Oh, you want some more detail on what's been going on at RNZ? And we all care, obviously, because it's our money, by the way, that runs that show. So according to the annual report, which is the reason it came out today, RNZ wrongly counted $ 2 million from land sales as income in its budget. Staff costs came in $ 3. 2 million over budget, and that included $ 1. 4 million in redundancy payments. 00:16:17 Speaker 7: Ouch. 00:16:17 Speaker 3: Now, do you know what? You wouldn't have to make that many redundancy payments if you didn't appoint crap people to jobs in the first place or people who were ill-suited to jobs. If you can put somebody into a position and then go, oh, the audience doesn't really like that person, now we have to pay them out, that's on you. Other running costs went $ 6. 4 million over budget. A lot of that was tied to moving the Auckland office. The Auckland office was just a bit down the road from us and then it moved also down the road from us into the TVNZ offices, but moving cost money, getting properties ready to sell cost money and so on. Anyway, as I say, board chairs with us after five. It's 24 away from five. NVIDIA's board is investigating the CEO, Jensen Huang, for possibly having an affair with a Chinese spy. Now, Jensen was courted by a Singaporean tech executive named Alice Huang. No relation, thank the Lord, otherwise that'd be illegal. And US intelligence officials believe she was passing information to Beijing. Luckily for him, he still has at least one friend in his corner. 00:17:15 Speaker 2: You know, I think he's an honourable guy. I think he probably has an excuse for it. You have to hear it. No, you can't do that with people. 00:17:25 Speaker 12: He's done an amazing job for our country. 00:17:27 Speaker 3: Just so that you're clear on what he was saying, he's an honourable guy despite cheating on his wife and probably has an excuse for cheating on his wife. In Australia, the ruling Labor Party is polling badly in Victoria ahead of the state election. Labor has fallen behind both the Coalition and One Nation in a Herald Sun Lighthouse poll. Premier Ben Carroll is undeterred. 00:17:48 Speaker 14: What I'm focused on every day is fighting for working people and making sure that every Victorian that goes into the ballot on November 28 knows that under my government, you'll have a government on your side. 00:18:04 Speaker 3: And finally, 250 people have tried and failed to move a notorious artwork in Chicago. The artwork is Anish Kapoor's Cloud Gate. It's 20 metres long

and it weighs 100 tonnes. It's widely known as The Bean because it looks like a bean. A mysterious flyer was posted around Chicago inviting people to gather at The Bean at a specific time and push it seven inches to the left. A crowd did show up. They gave it their best shot. 00:18:27 Speaker 2: One, two, three, four, five. 00:18:33 Speaker 3: One man reckons that being moved by at least an inch has not been independently verified. 00:18:38 Speaker 1: International Correspondence with NZI Insurance. 00:18:42 Speaker 2: Peace of mind for New Zealand business. 00:18:44 Speaker 3: Oliver Peterson, ABC Perth Radio Drive presenter is with us. 00:18:48 Speaker 10: Hello, Ollie. 00:18:49 Speaker 11: G'day there, Heather. 00:18:50 Speaker 3: All right. So why do you think Labour's doing so poorly? 00:18:54 Speaker 9: Oh, just listen to Ben Carroll there in The World Wise. He's just run out of puff. He's run out of ideas. A government on our side. Mate, you've been in power for so long, but he's One Nation. The big question here, though, is One Nation becoming a major force in Australian politics? Because while we've got this headline poll out of Victoria today where Labor's primary votes now drop to just 18% and One Nation has a greater primary vote than Labor, the government there in Victoria, at 21%, You've still got the coalition doing all right there on 33%. They should win the election with One Nation's support. Labor's been in power, obviously, for such a long period of time. 00:19:30 Speaker 11: You think of those. 00:19:31 Speaker 9: COVID years in Victoria. You think of the lockdowns that they had to endure there in Victoria more than anywhere else in Australia. And they've basically just run out of puff. Ben Carroll is struggling personally. He's got a 47% negative rating. The Liberal leader, Jess Wilson, has a 48 to 30 lead over Carroll as preferred premier. Labor is about to be wiped out in Victoria. I don't know how many rabbits he can pull out of a hat in the next two weeks, but they are going off a cliff very quickly. 00:19:59 Speaker 3: Yeah, interesting. It'll be interesting to see how that plays out. Now, what's going on with your dollar that it's dropped off so badly? 00:20:05 Speaker 11: Well, we're going backwards, isn't it? 00:20:06 Speaker 9: Because our Dollars fall to its weakest level now since March. It's 2.3% over the past week. We're now at 68.66 US cents. 00:20:15 Speaker 11: Have all the Kiwis booked holidays here to Australia? Is that what's happening? 00:20:18 Speaker 3: Are you and Ants and Kev coming to Perth? Mate, do you realise how low our dollar is? Like, this is not even getting close to saving the situation for us. We come to your part of the world. We're basically on food parcels. 00:20:29 Speaker 9: Yeah, but look, the surprising part is, though, here, that we are now the weakest performing currency amongst the G10 group of major developed economies over the last. 00:20:38 Speaker 11: Week, right? You wouldn't be in the G10, though, would you? You'd be in about the G150, wouldn't you? 00:20:43 Speaker 3: You're such a dick. Probably. Well, I don't even think we're a G, we're an H. 00:20:51 Speaker 9: Look, it's just saying here at the moment, you know, obviously, look, it's everything we know, right? I mean, we've got the highest interest rates as well out of anybody because it was revealed last week by Michelle Bullitt, the Reserve Bank Governor, that even though we've had to go up five times this year, we started before the rest of the world with our own internal issues and we hadn't addressed that. 00:21:11 Speaker 8: So, look. 00:21:12 Speaker 11: It's all complicated out here at the moment. 00:21:14 Speaker 9: You know, David Jones collapsing in voluntary administration. You know, Usman Khawaja opening up the sandpaper wounds over the weekend. 00:21:22 Speaker 3: Do you know what? That is the only thing that interrupted my election night was reading the Sydney Morning Herald. Good on him for doing this. Good on him for being the one to have the courage to tell the truth. 00:21:32 Speaker 9: Yeah, but why didn't he do it seven years ago? If he had the courage of his convictions, do it seven years ago. I'm not disputing what he's saying. 00:21:38 Speaker 3: But, you know. Yeah, but think about it. Okay, so think about it from his perspective, right? So he is agitating within the team that they need to save their three mates. But you sort of have to defer to your boss. Like, that ultimately is how the workplace works. And so he had to shut his trap then. 00:21:53 Speaker 9: And I think pretty much everybody in Australia has been wondering for seven years, how in the world did the bowlers not know about this? Because they're the ones who are the beneficiary of this. They know if the ball's getting scuffed. They decide which side of the ball's going to get scuffed too. So, look, it's just– At the moment, look at where Australian cricket is. We just lost that series to South Africa, ironically, playing them again, right? We've got you over here soon. Then we've got India in India, England with the Ashes over there. Australian cricket is currently in the decline anyway because we don't have anyone who can bat. And now you open up these wounds with the same players. You know, that bowling attack is still the same bowling attack. I just worry, Heather, for Australian cricket because I'm a nuffie when it comes to cricket. You know that. 00:22:33 Speaker 11: I absolutely love it. 00:22:35 Speaker 9: And, yeah, I don't disagree that good on Usman for speaking up, but I kind of wish he'd done it a little while ago. 00:22:39 Speaker 3: Yeah, maybe so. Maybe he had proper courage, I suppose. Halfway there is okay, though. Hey, Ollie, how good rugby league is us, me and you? 00:22:47 Speaker 11: This is going to be so good, absolutely. 00:22:49 Speaker 2: And you know what? 00:22:50 Speaker 11: I'm going for the Kiwis. 00:22:51 Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm with you.

00:22:52 Speaker 11: I'm on your team. Yeah, absolutely. 00:22:53 Speaker 7: Kiwis. 00:22:54 Speaker 2: Kiwis. 00:22:57 Speaker 3: It's a massive defection. I mean, if we were in the war, we'd be putting you on an island and keeping you going. 00:23:02 Speaker 2: You know what? 00:23:03 Speaker 9: Like, I like your cricket team. I like your rugby league team. I just don't like your rugby union team. I don't like the ABs. I can never get on board with the All Blacks. Like, you win too much of that. 00:23:12 Speaker 11: Yeah, that's all right. 00:23:13 Speaker 3: I get that. 00:23:13 Speaker 2: Now I'm with you. All right, cool. 00:23:14 Speaker 11: Yeah, let's throw the kiss of death. 00:23:15 Speaker 3: Yeah, you chuck on yourself a black jersey. Good on you, Ollie. We'll talk to you soon. Oliver Peterson, ABC Perth Radio Drive presenter. Heather, I told my friends that opportunity wouldn't get in because Barry said so. I never believed you, but there you are. Thank you, Rob. But then again, I'm a woman. This morning I was busy cooking dinners, like what I'm supposed to do. I was cooking dinner and tidying a house, putting washing on, and so I'm actually qualified for the job that I'm in. God only knows why they let me have a crack at this. And sometimes I get things right. 00:23:46 Speaker 8: It's a shock. 00:23:47 Speaker 3: Anyway, on that subject, Luxon hasn't called Q yet. I said to the guys, I said, can you give Luxon's people a call? Because Luxon's not taking my calls now. He's frigid to me. He's ghosting me like all the time. That's fine. I can live life. I can do this. 00:24:04 Speaker 2: I can do this. 00:24:04 Speaker 3: We can do this. I can do this with you, Chris. 00:24:07 Speaker 2: Anyway. 00:24:07 Speaker 3: So he's ghosting me. So I said to Samuel, the producer, I was like, can you call Luxon's man Finn and find out what's going on if Luxon's called Q yet? No, Luxon hasn't called Q yet. Luxon is not going to call Q today. Luxon is going to call Q in the next few days, which is to me a surprising strategy because what's the game here? What's the game here? Why are we making the bird sweat? Like, you know you're going to have to call her. Just call her. Get it over and done with. Like, surely this is getting a bit rude. Chloe's called her. Chippy's called her. What's going on? Is this how we act when we're the president of the United States of New Zealand, eh? Barry Soper's next 16 away from five. 00:24:45 Speaker 2: Politics with Centrix. Credit check your customers and get payment certainty. 00:24:48 Speaker 3: Now, Barbara Edmonds, the finance spokesperson for Labour, insists that there is still a path to victory for Labour, that they can still win this. We're going to have a chat to– the Labour guys are still basically, though, on the silence. They're not talking. So we're going to have a chat to Marama Davidson of the Greens. They will obviously be in coalition together if that happens. She's with us after five. Right now, 13 away from five, and Barry Soap is with us. Hi, Barry. 00:25:11 Speaker 10: Good afternoon, Heather. I suppose you'll want me to eat some humble pie. 00:25:14 Speaker 3: Only if you want to. 00:25:16 Speaker 10: No, what I meant was, when I said that the Opportunity Party wouldn't make it, what I meant was that it wouldn't make it that it would be the kingmaker. I didn't say they wouldn't make it into Parliament. It's the fact that they wouldn't be the kingmaker. 00:25:30 Speaker 3: You're trying to save yourself. 00:25:31 Speaker 10: That is a lie. 00:25:32 Speaker 3: Now, I have it written down here that you owe me a bottle of whiskey. 00:25:35 Speaker 15: Yes. 00:25:36 Speaker 3: Are you going to buy me a bottle of whiskey? 00:25:37 Speaker 2: Of course. 00:25:38 Speaker 3: OK, because the other day I saw a really nice Glenlivet 18 on the shelf. 00:25:43 Speaker 10: Right, moving right along. 00:25:44 Speaker 3: OK, so do you think that Chippy is going to be rolled and how quickly? 00:25:49 Speaker 10: Well, it's interesting, isn't it? Under the Labour rules, a leader has to face a confidence vote from his caucus colleagues within three months of an election. Now, caucuses meeting tomorrow, so they're hardly likely to do it then. But it is a topic that made Chris Hipkins blanch today. It's obviously very much on his mind, though, but he's not willing to go anywhere near it at the moment. 00:26:13 Speaker 16: The election's not over yet. We could be forming a government before Christmas. So that is something that I will think about after. So there's one seat in it at the moment. There is still a real chance that we'll win the Whitehead upper seat, where Kieran McAnulty is hanging there by the door. there's a knife-edge result there, so we're waiting for that. Hamilton East too, it's a bigger hurdle to get over in Hamilton East, but it's still a possible scenario for us. And the left block of parties has typically picked up seats following the special vote count. So when there's only one seat in it, there are still a number of different things that could happen. 00:26:52 Speaker 10: See, the thing that annoys me, he keeps talking about one seat. Well, that's presuming the Opportunity Party goes with him. So that's where the one seat comes into it. But If you look at Nationals' Mike Butterick in the Wairarapa electorate, the difference there is close. It's 139. He's got 139 over Kieran McAnulty. So that could well change with the special votes. But in Hamilton East, the man who was born to the seat, of course, Ryan Hamilton from the National Party, he holds it with a majority vote. of 456 votes. Now, to overturn that, I think, is going to be a big ask. So I think that'll stay. You never know in the wire wrapper. But even if they do change, it's not going to put Chris Hipkins in any better real position. And I think certainly he will face a leadership challenge. But then when you look back at Labour's history, I mean, Bill Rowling, he ran in an

election against Rob Muldoon three times. in 78 and 81. 00:27:53 Speaker 3: But he didn't have Michael Wood coming at him, did he? 00:27:55 Speaker 15: No, no, no. 00:27:56 Speaker 10: He actually got more votes, more of the popular vote than what National did, but couldn't win the electorate seat. And the big downfall for this particular party, the National Party, at the moment is it's too good in winning electorate seats. And when you look at the power here... And they've got 42 seats compared with the Labour Party. Even with the list seats that they've got, they're still well behind, seven seats behind. 00:28:24 Speaker 11: Yeah, too right. 00:28:25 Speaker 3: Now, when is Luxembourg going to call Q? 00:28:28 Speaker 10: Well, look, I have a very good authority that the National Party has, in fact, contacted Kui Lei Wong. 00:28:34 Speaker 2: Who? 00:28:37 Speaker 10: Well, the National Party has contacted her. 00:28:39 Speaker 3: Yeah, but the National Party's got lots of people in it. 00:28:41 Speaker 10: And the form is that the National Party will make the approach. They'll arrange a telephone call time with her and with the party, and Chris Luxton will call her. 00:28:51 Speaker 3: Lord, that is overcomplicating it, isn't it? I mean, honestly. Why is he insisting on behaving like he's a president? 00:29:00 Speaker 10: Well, he is the Prime Minister. 00:29:01 Speaker 3: Mate, you called him before and he called you. And you went into a room and had a phone call with him. Like, it's not that hard to dial Q's number in and not be a dick about it. 00:29:11 Speaker 10: Well, yeah, but, you know, a certain power goes with the office, I think, Heather, and it's got to be respected. But interestingly, look, the bottom lines, when they come down to talking to each other, the bottom lines, I think, will all be acceptable. To the National Party. I mean, giving the Commerce Commission more teeth and greater independence when it comes to things like supermarkets. I think the National Party will wear that regulating lobbying and capital of political donations. May not wear that because they're set pretty low, but there's still transparency in that system now anyway. 00:29:45 Speaker 3: It's the bottom trawling that's the problem. 00:29:47 Speaker 10: Well, that could be a problem with New Zealand first. 00:29:50 Speaker 3: It's a problem with Labour. It's just a problem with normal people. 00:29:53 Speaker 2: Yes. 00:29:53 Speaker 10: Well, that'll be one. But the Paris Accord, of course, Chris Luxon's on board with that. So What I'm saying is the bottom lines from what I've described as the powderpuff party are so vanilla that they probably will be accepted. 00:30:08 Speaker 17: Brilliant. 00:30:09 Speaker 3: Hey, thank you very much, Barry. I appreciate it. This is Barry Soper, senior political correspondent, eight away from five. A significant-ish development in the investigation into the death of Baby Roo. Somebody has been arrested in relation to this investigation. They haven't been charged yet with murder or manslaughter, or in fact may never be charged with murder and manslaughter. It's unrelated to that. And it's three years, basically. What is it, like three years and two weeks? 00:30:42 Speaker 15: Yes. 00:30:43 Speaker 3: Since Baby Aru was murdered. So we'll stand by. They're appearing in court tomorrow, and we'll get as much information from that as we possibly can then. Five away from five. Now, congratulations to TVNZ, because I said this yesterday, they had outstanding, like in terms of televisual coverage of the election, their coverage was brilliant. And it turns out people really engaged. So just TVNZ, that's not counting TV3, ZB's audience, RNZ's audience, like everybody else's audience as well, and the Heralds, obviously, who did a good job too. More than 2.5 million people tuned in just to TVNZ, 1.5 million just to the traditional broadcast on the old linear television screen, and then on the digital streaming on the app, 442,000 people. So it's pretty good engagement from people. But it has kicked off a bit of a drama, which I don't really understand. So the drama is about Paul Henry being on the TVNZ election panel. And I started getting texts about this on election night from people who were saying, how is this OK for him to be doing it? Because he's an ACT Party candidate and this is about the election. He's dismissed, this is Paul, he's dismissed the criticism as completely illogical. And TVNZ have dismissed it as well and said, look, they had a balanced panel because they had Andrew Little there from Labour. He is a Labour Party member and campaigned for the Wellington mayoralty under the Labour banner. And so he kind of balanced out Paul anyway. I thought about this, and I've thought about this for two days, and I still don't think this is a thing, because Paul being on the panel wasn't influencing anybody's vote at all. Voting had closed. He wasn't really able to influence any kind of important way your perception of what was happening in the election, because it was being done. The thing was going to play out regardless of what you thought or otherwise. The worst outcome here is that TVNZ is accused of bias to the right. And nobody's going to accuse TVNZ of bias to the right, are they? So don't see it as a problem. Anyway, I've got heaps and heaps to update you on, including why Nicola's not on the show after six o'clock. So stand by. But next up, we'll have a chat to Marama Davidson and just get to see what they realistically think their chances are of being able to form government over the next three weeks. News Talk ZB. 00:33:09 Speaker 1: The only drive show you can trust to ask the questions, get the answers, find the facts, and give the analysis. Heather Duplessy Allen Drive. 00:33:20 Speaker 2: With One New Zealand. Phone dollars are for phones, obviously. Newstalk ZB. 00:33:26 Speaker 3: Afternoon, it is seven past five. Now, the left is insisting that

it can still win this election. Currently, the right block have the advantage with 67 seats. They need 66 in a parliament of 131. The left have 57 and they still fall short with opportunity. But the specials, of course, are yet to come in and the recounts yet to happen. Marama Davidson is the co-leader of the Greens. 00:33:46 Speaker 1: Hey, Marama. 00:33:48 Speaker 15: Kia ora, Heather. 00:33:48 Speaker 3: Now, that was Labour I was quoting as saying that you still have a chance. Do you still think you have a chance? 00:33:54 Speaker 15: Of course, there's a pathway to power for a government that will serve the interests of the regular people and not just the super rich. 00:34:02 Speaker 6: Yes. 00:34:03 Speaker 7: How? 00:34:05 Speaker 15: Well, that's about the specials bringing us an extra MP, depending on where the electorate votes lie for some of these votes that may end up held on the left or held on the right. 00:34:20 Speaker 3: OK, so if you get another, so you guys plus Opportunity are still only at 64, which doesn't beat the government, the previous government on 67. So even if you get another seat, even if you get another two seats, you still fall short. 00:34:35 Speaker 15: Yeah, and I guess, yeah, I'm definitely not the nerd doing all the numbers around this. But I guess what we're hearing is it does also depend on the electorate results being flipped for some of the seats that are out there. And, you know, that means that it could even end up being a one seat left or left government majority. But there is clearly still a possibility for a pathway to the power for the left. 00:35:01 Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I think I worked it out like they would need to lose a couple of those electorates potentially. You would need to potentially win a couple of seats over. Like quite a few things would have to go right for you in order for you to get there, right? So you're definitely like you are the longer shot, aren't you? 00:35:18 Speaker 15: Oh, sure. And, you know, like the rest of the country, we are all having to wait and see what the special votes deliver. There's no more campaigning to be done. I'm proud the Green Party returned our best result ever. But certainly we're all waiting to see what the special votes deliver. 00:35:34 Speaker 3: And then you still have to rely on opportunity choosing you, which is not a given. How do you rate that chance? 00:35:41 Speaker 15: Ah, well, we'd like them to choose. You know, who are they going to who are they going to work with? If you have a look at their policies, there's a lot of alignment with ours, for example, on environment, on tax, on conservation and climate change. But yeah, that's really a question for them. 00:36:00 Speaker 3: Yeah. Do you think it's okay for them to have a couple of active public servants in their negotiating team? 00:36:08 Speaker 15: You know what, Heather, I'll tell you the absolute truth. I've really been focused on my campaign, what our negotiating team is going

to look like. And every party is different. The Greens are a grassroots-led party. It's actually our grassroots members who end up deciding whether we accept an agreement or not, for example. So yeah, that's totally a question for opportunity. 00:36:31 Speaker 3: Do you know what? I was surprised that the gang stuff didn't hurt you guys at all, were you? 00:36:37 Speaker 15: Well, all we could do, Heather, was when on the doors and on the phones, people just kept saying they wanted to see solutions for the cost of living. And we just kept bringing people's attention back to the solutions that we were putting out there. That's all we could really do. 00:36:53 Speaker 3: Yeah, fair enough. Marama, thank you very much. And congratulations on the best result you guys have ever had. 00:36:57 Speaker 11: Well done. 00:36:57 Speaker 15: Appreciate that, Heather. Thank you for your time. 00:37:00 Speaker 3: Thanks, mate. Marama Davidson, Green Party co-leader 5.11. Right, just in the last 90 minutes, Radio New Zealand has revealed a major budget error. Its loss for the year was expected to be $ 470, 000. It has now blown out to almost $ 12 million. As a result, nearly 60 full-time jobs will go by March. With me right now is the board chairperson, Brent Impey. Hello, Brent. 00:37:23 Speaker 11: Hiya, Heather. 00:37:23 Speaker 3: Thank you for coming in. How did this happen? 00:37:26 Speaker 18: It's very difficult to explain how it happened. The board and the senior management believed that the deficit was going to be around the $ 400, 000 up until mid-October. we then needed to engage a new interim CFO. And within a few days, a whole bunch of things came out. One-off costs that were incorrectly reported as revenue. Land sales, for example, put in as revenue when they shouldn't have been. Personnel costs were out. Auckland relocation costs were out. Fixing up Titahi Bay, wrong, and on. 00:37:59 Speaker 12: And on it went. 00:38:00 Speaker 18: And so within a couple of weeks, we find ourselves in a situation where the mistakes are such that we've ended up with an $ 11. 8 million deficit. 00:38:09 Speaker 3: Is this why your CFO resigned? 00:38:11 Speaker 18: I'm not really able to get into the individual situation because we've got non-disclosure agreements clearly with individuals. I am able to say that the full responsibility sits with RNZ. It doesn't sit with ministers. It doesn't sit with Treasury. It doesn't sit with the Audit Office. It sits with an RNZ. 00:38:28 Speaker 3: Brent, this is pretty basic stuff. How did this happen? 00:38:31 Speaker 18: It is very basic stuff. I mean, when you look at RNZ, It's really got one source of revenue, namely the Crown, unlike what you've got here at NZME with the rigours of advertising and the uncertainty of advertising. And essentially, it's an account payable business. So it is very difficult to explain. As a result of that, one of the very first things that we decided to do when talking to Treasury was to say, we need to review this. We've got to find out how did this possibly happen? 00:38:57 Speaker 12: What's gone wrong? 00:38:58 Speaker 10: Is it systematic? 00:39:00 Speaker 18: How are we going to fix it? And so we're going to lead an independent review, get in the right advisors, if you like, and that's got to be completed by the beginning of next year. 00:39:09 Speaker 3: You must have sought some kind of explanation from the CFO before they departed. Did you get one? Was there distraction? Was there somebody stressed out? Was there somebody not up to the job? I mean, because this stuff is stuff that you learn if you do business studies in secondary school. 00:39:26 Speaker 12: I do agree. 00:39:27 Speaker 18: The situation with the CFO is that the CFO resigned on the Friday night. I didn't know about her resignation until after it happened. In other words, within an hour or two. My reaction was to appoint an interim CFO. 00:39:42 Speaker 11: The next day. 00:39:43 Speaker 18: The previous CFO has had no role in getting from the point of departure until today. 00:39:49 Speaker 3: OK, there's no dodgy stuff going on here, is there? 00:39:52 Speaker 18: That will come out in the independent review. So far, there is no evidence of what you're really asking, which is criminality or fraud. 00:39:59 Speaker 3: OK, how have the staff taken it? Because, I mean, 60 jobs gone, almost as massive. 00:40:03 Speaker 11: That's right. 00:40:04 Speaker 18: That's the greatest empathy because it's not the staff's fault. But when you step back and look at the financial situations, other than the personnel costs, all of the rest are one-offs. We've got to be able to operate RNZ within... the resources that are available. You've got to right-size it. And within the funding, we've got to make sure that we can operate, and that's what we're going to do. 00:40:28 Speaker 3: Is getting rid of the staff going to fix the problem, or are you going to need a cash injection from the government? 00:40:32 Speaker 18: We don't need a cash injection. Out of the sale of where the AM sites are in Lincoln Road, RNZ's about to receive $ 51 million. And But there's a couple of things we're getting. Some of that money is for AM sustainability. A lot of that's linked to civil defence. Sorry to be boring. And some of it is repayment of costs. There is money other than that, which we intend to require for some modernising of the business, capital, et cetera, but then pay a substantial dividend back to the Crown. Because the issue here is, is these are one-off accounting issues. They are not sustainable, long-term repeating issues, so we can fix it. 00:41:16 Speaker 3: All right, Brent, thank you for coming in. I really appreciate your time. It's very good of you. That's Brent Impey. Chair of Radio New Zealand, it's quarter past five. Fresh results are out for Squirrels Monthly Income Fund. Get a load of this. For the five years to 31 October 2026, it returned 6.59% a year

annualised after fees. The three-year figure to that same date was 6.69% a year, also after fees. And according to InvestNow, it is a category leader in New Zealand fixed income and credit for one and three-year returns. The fund pays monthly distributions, which you can take as income or reinvest. Squirrel is best known as a mortgage broker, arranging around $ 4 billion in home loans a year, but the savings and the investing side is obviously also worth knowing about. Consider the risks, fees and recommended timeframe before deciding if a fund suits you. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future returns. FundRock New Zealand Limited is the manager and the issuer of the Squirrel monthly income fund. Read the product disclosure statement at squirrel.co.nz before deciding to invest. 00:42:16 Speaker 2: Heather Duplessy-Allen. 00:42:17 Speaker 3: Should the chair of the board also resign? He wasn't the chair at the time that this was happening, so probably not. Nineteen past five. Let's get to the spy story. 00:42:25 Speaker 7: U.S. 00:42:25 Speaker 3: Intelligence services think that Jensen Huan, who's the boss of the tech giant NVIDIA, may have had an affair with a woman passing information to the Chinese government. The NVIDIA board is investigating. Paul Spain is Gorilla Technology CEO and with us. Hello, Paul. 00:42:39 Speaker 1: Hello, Heather. 00:42:40 Speaker 3: So it's a classic honeypot, eh? 00:42:42 Speaker 11: Oh, it's a fascinating situation. There's, I guess, yeah, lots of unknown at this point, however. 00:42:50 Speaker 3: Okay, so what is it most likely that she was after if she is a spy? 00:42:55 Speaker 11: Well, I think there's a whole range of things. You know, getting access to the chief executive and founder of the, you know, the world's largest, you know, company, that's, you know, access potentially to information, certainly likely access to influence. You know, of course, he's got the ear of, you know, top politicians, particularly, you know, in the US up to, you know, presidential level. And, of course, sort of roadmaps and plans for Nvidia. So there's just sort of, you know, so many possibilities there. 00:43:37 Speaker 3: If NVIDIA had been targeted like this, and you assume it's a target, I mean, we don't know, but if they had been targeted like this, should the other AI companies also be looking through all of their contacts? 00:43:48 Speaker 11: Look, I think this is a reminder probably for any organisation that has important intellectual property that's very valuable to be thinking around, well, how do they protect that and And, yeah, how does that tie in with relationships? And so, you know, that could be New Zealand, you know, companies as well who have developed, you know, very valuable intellectual property. You know, it has to be thought about, you know, very carefully of how do you control that. 00:44:23 Speaker 3: Now, do you think he's going to lose his job over this? 00:44:27 Speaker 11: Oh, I mean, this is one of the, I guess, one of the complications. And, yeah. You know, when you've got a leader who's the founder and the business is, you know, very much centred around them, I mean, it's a little bit like, you know, Elon Musk and, you know, his businesses. A lot of the success, you know, of this type of firm ties back to the chief executive and the founder. So, you know, I think they'd be very, very cautious about making that sort of move because it would impact the fortunes of the business. And of course, you know, really most AI that's done today, you know, ties back and uses NVIDIA technology. So, you know, this is a really key thing for the US, for US versus China and for, you know, probably a high percentage of people that have investments today, be it KiwiSaver or, you know, direct investments. 00:45:23 Speaker 3: Yeah, fair point. Hey, Paul, thanks very much. As always, Paul Spain. Guerrilla Technology CEO, right, I have to get you across this business with opportunity and the negotiating team. We'll get there shortly. 00:45:31 Speaker 2: 5.22. 00:45:31 Speaker 1: It's the Heather Duplessy-Allen Drive full show podcast on iHeartRadio, powered by Newstalk ZB. Cutting through the noise to get the facts, it's Heather Duplessy-Allen Drive with One New Zealand. 00:45:47 Speaker 2: Phone dollars are for phones, obviously. Newstalk ZB. 00:45:51 Speaker 3: Perhaps they need to move RNZ to a subscription model, make them earn their keep like everyone else. I mean, if that isn't right there, some sort of an indication of how you value money when you actually have to earn that money rather than just get given the money. I don't know what that is. 525. Now, a question for you. Are you stressed out by the National Party overhang? I'm asking you this because I'm not stressed out by it. Heaps of people seem to be very, very stressed out by it. I'm not stressed out by it at all because this was predicted. It is possible. also within the rules. It's no different in my mind to all the other weird things that are possible within the MMP rules, like Epsom dranging Act into Parliament when they polled less than 1%, or Winston Peters choosing the smaller of the two big parties in 2017 and us getting stuck with Jacinda for six years as a result. I mean, this is just MMP levelling up again, isn't it? Everyone who's warning that it might provoke a reaction from the other side needs to remember this is the reaction to the other side. The other side started doing it first. It was the Maori Party who did it first. If the billionaires hadn't encouraged this overhang in national, Labour might have won because of the Maori Party generating a massive overhang on the left-hand side. So to the question of whether the billionaires, though, actually did create the overhang or whether it was organic, like Simeon Brown suggested yesterday... I think really we don't know at this stage. The truth is going to come out in the more detailed data that we will get on

later on. But my gut says the billionaires probably did play a role. It was going to happen anyway, definitely, because the national vote is so low. But it wasn't necessarily going to be as big as it ended up. Might have been four or five seats. But then the billionaires supersized it and now we're up to seven seats. Now, I am basing this, I will admit, on anecdata. I had quite a few people tell me they decided on the day that they were going to split vote for the first time ever. split away from National Vote for Act, for example, because those two polls in the last week and a bit that had National really, really low, it freaked people out. And this is funny though, isn't it? Because it is funny that National ended up being saved by the people they were smack talking and the campaign they tried everything to stop. In the end, answer me this, who knew better, the National Party or a couple of nerds running a mathematics campaign? 00:47:53 Speaker 2: Heather Duplicy-Allen. 00:47:55 Speaker 3: This is what has happened with the Opportunity Party. So the Opportunity Party... has been asked who its negotiating team will be. And they have named most people, but they're not going to name a couple of the people. And the reason they're not going to name a couple of people, Kewle Wong says, is because they are public servants and need to remain anonymous. And by the way, these public servants have also been working on the policy for the Opportunity Party. So like superheroes during the day, nothing but a public servant. But then at night, an Opportunity Policy Adviser Now, technically, I've had a look. Technically, it is allowed. If you're a public servant, you can do whatever you like in your spare time with your public affiliations and whatnot. The problem, though, is for the Opportunity Party here, that these are the guys who've come in with the big talk of cleaning up politics. Oh, they want to set up a lobbying register. Oh, they want to make politics all transparent. Oh, they want to clean this whole thing up. And then they are the ones who have a couple of public servants working there. And the public servant thing is way too political for them to pretend they didn't know that this was going to get them in trouble. Like, no one trusts public servants anymore. Do you know what I mean? So here they come in with a couple of public servants and the party who talked about transparency says, oh, we can't tell you who they are because we've got to keep them secret. That actually looks quite grubby, which is a bit hypocritical, isn't it? Newstalk ZB. 00:49:17 Speaker 2: Hard questions. Strong opinion. Heather Dupont. 00:49:33 Speaker 3: Heather, if anyone's unhappy about the overhang, they have been asleep for the past three years. 00:49:37 Speaker 2: Peter, preach. 00:49:38 Speaker 3: Now, Nicola Willis would normally be with us on a Monday. In her capacity as the Finance Minister, she is still the Caretaker Finance Minister. So we were expecting her. She's decided she will not do it this evening. And I think fair enough, because I think the events of the weekend have been incredibly bruising. In fact, I'm not sure that anyone's even been able to reach Chris Bishop on his phone. It seems to still be off. So that, you know, it's a lot to take. So fair enough. So anyway, we were going to go to Chris Bishop, but his phone's off because he's the associate finance. So as a result, next up is David Seymour, associate finance, who would quite like the job full time. without the associate bit in front. So he's going to be with us. He was like, yep, I'll do it. No surprise. He's with us after six o'clock on finance and everything finance related. Huddle's standing by. They'll be with us shortly. It's 23 away from six. Now to Wellington. Courtney Place businesses are complaining about proposed council changes. They say they may have to cough up an extra $ 800, 000 a year in rates. This is because the council's considering a move from capital value rating to rating based on land value. Jeremy Smith is the director of the Arborist, which is a bar, and Trinity Hotel in Wellington, and also a spokesperson for this group, Voice for Wellington. Hello, Jeremy. 00:50:51 Speaker 2: Hello, Heather. 00:50:51 Speaker 3: And what's it going to do to your rates, Bill? 00:50:55 Speaker 7: Well, my Courtney Place premise, it's 150% increase in rates, so $ 102, 000 increase on the one property, and we're probably not the worst hit. The new Reading development, which couldn't go up many floors, is about a $ 400, 000 increase on their rate. So it sounds like every good deed is to be punished. 00:51:20 Speaker 3: Have you done any comparisons with what it's like, what similar businesses would be paying on similar streets in different cities? 00:51:27 Speaker 7: Oh, yeah, absolutely. If I had my properties in Auckland, I'd be paying– 50% less on my rates, and Christchurch's would be slightly better, so slightly above 50%. So, yeah, so Wellington is an incredibly expensive place to do business. The rate differential between residential and commercial is huge, and costs just keep on going up. And what we're talking about is just the Wellington City Council rates, not the greater Wellington Regional Council rates or the downtown levy or the water levies and all the other bits on top of that. That's another $ 40, 000 or $ 50, 000. Is there a better way to do it? I think let's revamp what we're doing and let's not change. They're changing because they … think suddenly by saying they want high-rise buildings, changing the rates, people are suddenly going to rush out and build six-story buildings in a city with declining population. It's wishful thinking. And if they want to deal with land banking, then let's deal with land banking. Suddenly a car yard or a service station or a supermarket isn't suddenly a land banker just because they don't have six stories above the ground they're on. 00:52:42 Speaker 3: Yeah, fair enough. The

problem is it's just expensive for everybody in Wellington, isn't it, Jeremy? There's no way around it, really. Even residential properties pay huge amounts compared to other cities. 00:52:53 Speaker 7: They do. And, I mean, we've been saying to Wellington City Council for some time, you know, we've got to look at our costs. If he were a business, he would have gone bankrupt a while ago. So let's reassess and let's also reassess our revenue streams. Well, government is no longer the big revenue generator. We had people working from home, meaning there's less business travel. So we need to reinvent ourselves. And we're saying, let's look at tourism, government investing in tourism. Let's go from being a tourist gateway to a tourist destination. Let's invest money there to try and grow revenue and not be in this position that we're just trying to tax people more or charge people more until it reaches the point where I'm going to go out of business. Because $ 100, 000 on top of my current break-even scenario, I've run out of options. I'm creative, I'm good, but I don't know where to find another $ 100, 000 in cost to try and manage. 00:53:49 Speaker 3: Yeah, it almost makes you regret setting up business in Wellington, I'd imagine. Jeremy, thanks very much, man. Look after yourself and best of luck with this. Jeremy Smith. Director of the Arborist and Trinity Hotel and spokesperson for Voice of Wellington, or rather Voice for Wellington, 20 away from six. 00:54:04 Speaker 1: The Huddle with New Zealand Sotheby's International Realty, a name you can trust locally and globally. 00:54:09 Speaker 3: The Huddle with us this evening, we have Trish Sherson, Sherson, Willis PR and Joseph Ogani, Child Fund Chief Executive. Hello, you two. 00:54:15 Speaker 8: Hello. 00:54:15 Speaker 17: Hello. 00:54:16 Speaker 3: Trish, RNZ, that's shocking, isn't it? 00:54:19 Speaker 19: It is shocking. I was thinking, listening to Brent Impey's interview that They often say in business that you have a chair and a chief executive for the season. I think it's a good thing that Radio New Zealand have someone commercial like Brent Impey right now and obviously new chief executive coming in. I also think in a year where we've had a number of public servants front when there have been diabolical scandals and mismanagement, it is very refreshing to hear someone like Brent how upfront he was. and how he immediately went to the accountability sits with Radio New Zealand. But, you know, I think it's the right thing for them to do to have an investigation to look at this properly because, you know, this is a delta of a loss of $ 400, 000 through to over $ 11 million, which is absolutely huge. 00:55:13 Speaker 3: It's massive. And, Josie, it sounds like so much of it is just people putting the wrong figure in the wrong column, which is just like, what are you? 00:55:21 Speaker 8: Yeah. 00:55:23 Speaker 3: Even a 15-year-old knows where to put it. 00:55:25 Speaker 17: Yeah, I mean, it's

an internal reporting cluster, isn't it? So they have not managed to have a system where they're actually looking at their assumptions around their budget and their spend and going, shit, we're in a problem here. We've got to make some cuts. So they had a 7% cut in funding, what, last year, I think, under the last government policy. And they obviously haven't made the cuts that they needed to make to match that cut in revenue. So, yeah, it is an internal problem because I was thinking at first, oh, is this a problem with their redundancies and getting the wrong people in the wrong shows and they're not growing the audience? But that's a little bit of the problem. But the main problem here has been absolutely internal systems where the absolute basics, I mean, gosh, I'm a CEO and it terrifies me if I get my assumptions about where my revenue is coming from and what my costs are. If I don't get that right, I'm in big trouble. 00:56:21 Speaker 19: Sometimes out of crisis comes opportunity. And I think when you've got this change at governance, change at management level, this could be a real opportunity for Radio New Zealand. And we've seen it coming for a long time. There has had to be real change. And I think the other thing I know about Brent Impey, he is also a great champion for talent. And ultimately that talent is what really keeps Radio New Zealand going. So I think that will be a good thing also. 00:56:51 Speaker 3: Okay, let's take a break and then we'll get stuck into the election stuff because there's plenty to talk about. 17 away from five. Or six. 00:56:58 Speaker 1: The Huddle, with New Zealand Sotheby's International Realty, the only truly global brand. 00:57:04 Speaker 3: It's 14 away from 6. Josie Pagani and Trish Scherzinger with us on The Huddle. Now, Josie, questions already today about the Chris's and who keeps their job for how long. So give me your thoughts. 00:57:14 Speaker 17: I don't think either of them ultimately keeps their job. So I think you're right, Heather, that it'll be Chris Hipkins who goes first. I mean, it's a very, very narrow path to government for Labour. And, you know, Chippy's been there two elections now, second election, hasn't delivered an election result. He'll have to go. He's obviously not prepared to face that decision now. And I don't think they will tomorrow in caucus. But, you know, he hasn't delivered. And I think they need to do a big rethink. One of the interesting stats I've seen today is that they've done really well. Labour have done well in what I would call working class electorates, so South Auckland, Kenny Peru, electorates like that. but they're not talking like a party that's representing those communities. So I think they've got to do a whole lot of thinking about how they build out from where they're succeeding, which is in those working class seats, rather than talking to people who want cycleways and public transport. 00:58:13 Speaker 3: Okay, so Chippy goes quickly. What do you

think, Trish, happens to Chris Luxon? I reckon he's safe for a couple of years to bow out by himself, but he can't be there in 29. 00:58:21 Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely. 00:58:24 Speaker 19: I think it's going to be sooner than that. I think it will definitely be new year, new you for the Labour Party. And listening to Barry, that was interesting to say Labour has to have a confidence vote in caucus within three months of an election result. So I would say that would be early next year. And given the reset that Labour has to have, the sooner the better, I would say for them. In terms of Chris Lux and the result on Saturday, it may temporarily strengthen his hand as the leader, but it weakens him as a prime minister. And again, I would say the timeline for National would be you would get through the coalition negotiations. You would have some settling in period next year. And then, you know, again, the new leader of National, there will be a huge job to do. And I think you would want to get a new team in place as soon. 00:59:16 Speaker 17: As you could. 00:59:17 Speaker 7: Yeah. 00:59:18 Speaker 17: I think Christopher Luxon is on borrowed time. I mean, I think you're right that it might not be before Christmas. But when you say you need an event before you roll a leader– You're right, Heather, but the first event is going to be how hard it's going to be for him to phone Keeley Wong and Opportunity because having ruled them out, you could argue that everybody or a lot of people who voted for Opportunity voted for a change of government. So it's not just that he loses credibility that he's going back on his very black and white pledge not to deal with Opportunity and not to go into government with them. it's that even the people who voted for opportunity after he said that could make a very valid case that they voted for opportunity not to go into government with nationals. So I just think the fragility that you're going to see with a very weak national party and stronger small parties The fragility in that coalition is going to be extreme. You add that to the sort of lack of credibility if he reaches out to opportunity. I mean, what's going to change? He's had two lifelines with Cruz. 01:00:23 Speaker 19: Yeah, I thought Andrea Vance actually summed things up really well yesterday. It was a pretty strident column yesterday. And the outtake was this is a Pyrrhic victory for National. I'm not sure that the leadership or campaign management of National have yet understood really how weakened they are. And also whether they've started to turn their minds to those important questions like the make-up of Cabinet. So in the last Parliament, you had 20 seats around that Cabinet table, as Chris Luxon kept reminding us. And of those, you had 16 from national, you had two from ACT and two from New Zealand First. I would estimate that this time around, given the result from ACT and New Zealand First, you're probably going to get 10 to 12 from national. And then ACT and New Zealand First, I would say, would be arguing for about four each. So that's going to be a big change in. 01:01:24 Speaker 3: The dynamic, massively. 01:01:25 Speaker 17: And finance. You know, David Seymour was very keen on finance. So it's going to be pretty hard to say no when you've increased your numbers and national have decreased theirs. 01:01:36 Speaker 3: It's hard to say no, and yet it's so bloody hard to say yes to that as well. 01:01:39 Speaker 19: Well, but two good points I thought on that today. The point from David Seymour that actually– Both he and Shane Jones are associate finance, so they know the job. And normally when you would have, you know, a leader step down the two, whoever's, you know, been the two I see, they would step in because they know what's going on. But the other point, and I just love this quote, this is classic Shane Jones. He said, nothing's going to happen really until the final result and National will have to wait for the teardrops to dry. 01:02:12 Speaker 3: Hey, listen, I want to get something from you really quickly, both of you. Trish, what do you make of the Prime Minister saying he's not calling Q Le Wong, he's getting his people and the National Party to set up a timing guru number? 01:02:28 Speaker 19: I have a view in life that good manners trump everything. It doesn't matter what's going on. There are just some things which are good manners, you know, and just my view. But I would have just picked up the phone at the very least. All of those other leaders, you would pick up the phone to Kewle Wong and say, congratulations, mate, well done, big effort. You know, we'll probably be talking in the future. You're the Prime Minister of a little island in the South Pacific. You're not giving anything away. You're not giving anything away by that. And also you put an end to the questions. 01:03:01 Speaker 3: Have you talked to Karen? 01:03:02 Speaker 19: Yeah, we've had a chat. I congratulated her and, you know, that's it at this point. 01:03:07 Speaker 17: But this is the problem with Christopher Luxon, isn't it, is that he's tone deaf with this stuff. So even on election night, the sort of big victory walk with the back slapping and, And the diamond necklaces on show and so on. It just, and then giving kind of a victory speech, but not really. And then, of course, you know, now saying, well, I'm not phoning Keeley Wong. I can stick to my word, you know, black letter law. I didn't phone her. I didn't reach out. Somebody else in the party did. And again, I just think that shows the lack of connection that he makes, that he is capable of making. with a sort of empathetic human response to something. 01:03:44 Speaker 3: Yeah, totally. Listen, we've just had a concession from Chris Bishop on his Facebook page, so I'm just going to have to take a break and get to that. Ladies, thank you. Joseph O'Garnie, Trish Sherson, seven away from six. I completely forgot to remind Trish that she said

opportunity weren't going to be in and that she owes us. What do you say about that, Trish? You're eating your hat. Good from you. Yeah, she's still standing out there just like doing a miming thing through the window. But she is eating her hat. Now, Chris Bishop has put up a Facebook post just in the last 15 minutes. He says Saturday night was soul destroying. Although there are still some special votes to come in, it's extremely unlikely they will reverse the result in Hutt South. I've rung Ginny Anderson to concede the election and congratulated her on winning. It feels surreal, but that's democracy and the voters are never wrong. In a line that I take to be something of a telling off for Simeon Brown, he says, I try to run a positive and upbeat campaign. There is too much negativity out there, too much polarisation, and there are too many great things happening in the hut. He said, I've had very many nice messages from across the political spectrum since Saturday night. Thank you to everyone who has rung, texted, called or emailed. It means a lot. I won't pretend politics is easy. It isn't. So it's nice to hear that people appreciate your efforts. As to what's next for me, who knows? We have a mortgage like most people and bills to pay, so I'll be looking for jobs. I still think I've got something to offer in terms of public life. Right now, my focus is on spending time with Jenna and our beautiful children. They've sacrificed the most, particularly in the last three years, and they deserve a better husband and dad. And I'm looking forward to a summer with them without a massive bag of paperwork sitting in the corner of the lounge, which is nice. I mean, isn't that real, Lake? You just know that that's what it's like. It's brutal. It's brutal. And what I would say for any of these people who've lost their jobs, it will feel right now like the end of the world. But life is better outside of politics. Everybody who leaves is happy to see the back of that paperwork. and the back of all the demands, and to get their weekends back and spend time with their children. There is a silver lining, even if you can't see it. Anyway, David Seymour, the man who is in the hot seat to take the finance minister's job, even if Chris Luxen really doesn't want to give it to him, is with us next. Newstalk ZB. 01:06:09 Speaker 7: Evening. 01:06:09 Speaker 1: Coming up in the next hour, we'll get you across some more of the market reaction to the NVIDIA business with Sam Dickey. 01:06:14 Speaker 2: We'll get you also ANZ's boss on that fall in profit. And then Gavin Gray is with us out of the UK. 01:06:32 Speaker 3: It's seven past six and with us right now we have David Seymour, Caretaker, Associate Finance Minister and of course ACT Party Leader. Hey David. 01:06:39 Speaker 12: Hey Heather. 01:06:40 Speaker 3: Listen, you got across this RNZ business? 01:06:44 Speaker 13: Only to the extent that it's been publicly reported. Obviously it's a surprise to everybody.

Pretty astonishing at a time when every media business and many businesses over the last few years have had to deal with the reality of downsizing and cuts because they've faced a tough time. These guys appear to have carried on without doing proper accounting. I have long voiced my, I guess, questions about the chair, Jim Madders, and the chief executive, Paul Thompson, and eventually one was moved on and the other's about to go. which I guess is the answer to this problem is already in place, but gee, I didn't think they could be this bad. 01:07:30 Speaker 3: Does it sound to you like there is some kind of covering of the tracks going on with that $ 5 million overdraft that was basically engaged without any ministerial permission? 01:07:40 Speaker 13: Yeah, I mean, obviously that's the key term here is that we as ministers, Paul Goldsmith and I were the shareholding ministers, we didn't know about this. because the chief executive and chair up to a point had been kept in the dark by the financial officer. Meanwhile, it appears that at some point someone had realised they'd made a mistake, unclear how far up the chain they were. And then they thought, well, you know, maybe we can cover that. 01:08:11 Speaker 12: Well, it's all come out on the wash. 01:08:13 Speaker 13: And it's sad because while I've been critical of aspects of Radio New Zealand over the years, There are actually a lot of very good people who work there reporting the news and providing support to those who report the news and broadcast. And they've all been let down by this too. 01:08:30 Speaker 3: On the finance minister position, the prime minister says this is a non-negotiable, to which you say what? 01:08:36 Speaker 13: Well, we're about to go into a negotiation, so everything is negotiable. And I think having barely survived as a government, we should be asking the questions. What is the best set of policies and ministerial configurations to ensure that we don't barely survive in 2029 and have a fighting chance of a third term? Now, I'm not particularly wedded to myself being in any particular position, but what I do take exception to is this tone that only national ministers can do things competently. If anything, the last three years has shown that people from ACT and, dare I say it, New Zealand First, are also capable of delivering very competently. And where there's been one or two fall over, that actually has been a little bit closer to home than perhaps Chris would like. So, you know, I think we all need to look at this as we're a government, we're a coalition. This is not a national government with a couple of inconvenient bolt-ons. 01:09:40 Speaker 12: It's a team. 01:09:41 Speaker 13: And we need to be asking ourselves, what do we need to do so in 2029 to it is clear that the government has performed and addressed the challenges that it needs to address. One of the areas where we've come up most short, frankly, is the area of getting costs under control. At the moment, people have been, well, as Reagan once said, getting all the government they pay for, and that's a little bit too much. 01:10:08 Speaker 3: Listen, just quickly, do you think that supermarkets policy is going to be ditched by the Nats now that Nicola's out? 01:10:15 Speaker 13: Well, it's got to be. Frankly, it's not a policy that will work. Duplicating supply chains is just as likely to increase the cost of groceries as increasing competition will bring the prices down. But even if it was an effective policy, which it probably won't be, the signal that has been sent not only to the grocery industry, and not only to investors inside New Zealand, but to everybody who's interested in investing in anything from Cape Reinga to the Bluff, is don't do it here, because not only will you face commercial risk and competition, which all businesses should, you may also face an activist government that will arbitrarily undermine your investment. That is death to a country like New Zealand, and that's why that policy cannot stand, and that's why the ACT Party regardless of the political expediency of it, has said that from go to woe and will continue to oppose it. 01:11:11 Speaker 11: All right, mate. 01:11:11 Speaker 3: Listen, thanks very much and good luck negotiating to get that job. That is David Seymour, the Caretaker Associate Finance Minister 612. 01:11:17 Speaker 2: Heather Dupacy-Allen. 01:11:20 Speaker 3: OK, well, as you know, Chris Bishop has in the last half hour or so put up a Facebook message and conceded to Ginny Anderson and he is with us now. Hi, Bish. 01:11:29 Speaker 2: Good afternoon. 01:11:29 Speaker 3: Mate, how are you? Have you processed this yet? 01:11:33 Speaker 8: Oh, well, I'd be lying if I said I processed it. I think it's a continual process, right? You just, you know, Saturday night was pretty rough, obviously. And, you know, I spent most of yesterday just kind of... Not doing a lot, frankly. Pretty hungover, to be honest, on Sunday morning. 01:11:50 Speaker 2: Slept in a bit. 01:11:51 Speaker 8: Wasn't exactly wild to have a journalist on my door at 10 o'clock in the morning. That was pretty unpleasant. But, you know, fortunately not from Newstalk ZB. So that's good. 01:12:02 Speaker 3: I think there are some manners, as Trish Hurston said earlier, which are important. What do you think happened in the end to the National Party? 01:12:12 Speaker 8: Well, I mean, there'll be no doubt a post-mortem over the next few weeks as we all wait for the specials to come in and people have got columns to write. Sort of for others to sort of say, I guess, as of basically Saturday night, I'm no longer a sort of active participant. I think. 01:12:33 Speaker 11: The government. 01:12:34 Speaker 2: We did a lot. 01:12:35 Speaker 8: In three years, and we are doing a lot, and I think National will be returned. It'll be a different shape of government, obviously. I've just heard David talking about some of that stuff with you now. It'll

be a different government, but I'm pretty confident National will be returned. And it's a government that's tackling tough issues, right, from housing, planning, infrastructure, education. Eric is doing stealing work. It's a government that is really, for the first time in a long time, grappling with some of the systemic issues that have bedevilled the New Zealand economy and society for a long time. And that sort of change that we're doing, once in a generation reforms across multiple different policy areas, that is difficult. And it's particularly difficult at a time when... Frankly, the country's gone through a pretty tough period economically, right? And I don't just mean the last three years. I actually mean all the way back through COVID. You know, we had COVID. We had high spending. We had debt-fuelled inflation. We had a cost-of-living crisis. And then, of course, we've had the tariffs and the oil shocks driven by the. 01:13:33 Speaker 2: War in Iran. 01:13:33 Speaker 8: So it's a very difficult time to do sustained long-term reform, which is what the government was doing. 01:13:41 Speaker 3: Do you think you've got politics out of your system or would you be up for coming back? Because you're young, you're what, 42? 01:13:45 Speaker 15: 43, 43. 01:13:45 Speaker 11: But you look so young for your age. 01:13:51 Speaker 2: Oh, I don't know about that. 01:13:52 Speaker 8: A lot of people seem to be on the campaign. I look a lot older than 43. It's probably true. It's been a tough three years, particularly weight-wise. Oh, look, let's wait and see. You know, three years is a long way away. I think I said in my Facebook post that I think I've still got something further to give in terms of public life. But what that looks like, I don't know. So I'm not ruling it out. But, you know, it's like it's two days after the election. It's a pretty bruising loss. So let's just wait and see. 01:14:20 Speaker 3: Yeah, fair enough. What about your RMA reforms? I mean, because I know that this stuff isn't just stuff that you went through, right? You really believe in the reforms and the stuff that you were doing. Are you worried about the implementation now? 01:14:32 Speaker 20: I am. 01:14:33 Speaker 8: I mean, we've passed the legislation, but there's a whole lot of implementation over the next three to five years to go through. Same in transport, by the way, where we've got big challenges. We've got the move to get rid of petrol tax and move to road user charges. We've got land transport pricing reform to do. We've got that infrastructure plan to implement. I mean, we've landed a plan that basically everybody agrees on, but there's a lot of implementation as part of that plan. 01:14:55 Speaker 11: So there's a lot to do. 01:14:58 Speaker 8: But there's a number of good people in the Parliament across the three parties of government. Obviously, I've worked closely with Simon Court on infrastructure and housing and RMA reform. So there's a number of really

good people, including still in the National Party. So I'm confident they'll be able to carry it through. And if there's a role I can play in helping with that, then I'm up for that because I do want to see those reforms be implemented properly. 01:15:23 Speaker 15: Right. 01:15:23 Speaker 3: So what's the plan? Are you just going to detox over summer, just let it go? Have a good summer? 01:15:29 Speaker 10: Yeah. 01:15:30 Speaker 8: I mean, my family hasn't really seen me for three years, frankly. I've been a pretty crappy husband and a pretty crappy father. And that's the job of public life. So yeah. But that's just the reality, and I want to be a better dad and a better husband and see more of my kids. It's early November, so I'm still in this weird situation where I'm still a minister through to probably early December. Caretaker role, obviously, no substantive decisions, but still stuff to do, paperwork to process. So once all that's over and done with, yeah, got the summer and I'm looking for work. So like everybody else, I've got a mortgage to pay and, you know, kids to feed. 01:16:12 Speaker 3: Well, listen, best of luck with it, Bish. And thank you for talking to us. I realise how bruising this whole thing is. Chris Bishop, outgoing MP for Hutt South. Right, I'll get you across the numbers really quickly. NZX 50 down 0.18% today. ASX 50 up 0.24% so far today. Barrel of Brent Crude is costing you 98 US dollars. One New Zealand dollar is worth 56 US cents today. 81 Aussie cents, 50 Euro cents, 42 UK pence, and 89 yen, and it's 17 past six. Cash, it's always fighting for somewhere else to go, isn't it? Stock, wages, fuel, tools, rent, marketing, the list goes on, never ends. And somewhere in there, you have to upgrade your phone. Does that sound familiar to you? Well, here's the thing. That new phone that you've been wanting might actually be closer than you think. One New Zealand phone dollars can make it easier and quicker to get you a new phone. And the more mobile connections that you have, the more phone dollars you're going to be earning. towards your next interest-free upgrade. We're talking thousands of phone dollars waiting to be earned. Because a phone isn't just a phone when you're running a business. It's your email and your camera and your diary, your maps, payments, team calls, customer calls. Half the time, it's actually your whole office, isn't it? There'll always be costs that you didn't see coming, but a phone upgrade does not need to be one of them. Check your phone dollar balance at whatsinmywallet.one.nz. 01:17:28 Speaker 2: Everything from SMEs to the big corporates. 01:17:31 Speaker 1: The Business Hour with Heather Dupercy-Allen and MAS Insurance and Investments. 01:17:36 Speaker 2: Your futures in good hands. Newstalk ZB. 01:17:39 Speaker 3: Heather, my heart goes out to Chris Bishop and the other hard-working, outgoing national MPs. They didn't deserve this. It feels like opportunities land tax. I suppose like a tax on the MPs. I don't really get it. A tax on the MPs. Look, I think everybody does feel sorry for Bish. We all know, right, this is just the business of being in the business. It's politics. You get voted in, you get voted out again. But a lot of texts are saying, like Josh, Bish would have to be the biggest loss from the election, sadly. And I think that most of us can agree that that is the case. He is by far and away the biggest loss just for the hard work that he has done and the future that the promise he had ahead of him. Heather, in that brief interview with David Seymour, he displayed exactly why he should be finance minister. Cheers, Richard. Heather Seymour would be a great finance minister. Heather, do you think Seymour is overplaying his hand? How many electorate seats did Act win? It's not really a fair question, but it's not about that. And no, I don't think he's overplaying his hand. I think situation is there were three associate finance ministers, Chris Bishop, David Seymour and Shane Jones. Of them, who's left standing? Shane Jones and David Seymour. And of them, who do you want to have as your finance minister? Now, just quickly, because this is a significant thing, the ANC over in South Africa has just had its worst ever. results in the local elections for their municipalities. They're still the biggest party, but get a load of this. They've come in with 30. of the overall vote. Compare that to five years ago when the elections happened last, 46%. So from 46% down to 31%. And remember 20 years ago, 65%. That's a massive drop for the ANC. Of the nine provinces, they won a majority in six of them, Five years ago, this time, only one, Limpopo. The DA is still running Cape Town with a majority. Voter turnout, if you're feeling bad about our voter turnout, ain't got nothing on what's going on in South Africa, voter turnout was 52%, which actually was good for them, because last time it was only 46%. Bearing in mind, though, those are the local body elections, 6-23. It's the. 01:19:36 Speaker 1: Heather Duplessy-Allen Drive full show podcast on iHeartRadio, powered by Newstalk ZB. If it's to do with money, it matters to you. The Business Hour with Heather Dupercy-Allen and MAS Insurance and Investments. Your futures in good hands. Newstalk ZB. 01:19:55 Speaker 3: Now, for some weird reason, I've got quite a fascination with the illegal tobacco trade. And I think it's because it's clear to me that we are creating a problem. And so I'm just fascinated by watching us create a problem. So there have been, and I'll explain that to you in a minute. There have been developments in the illegal tobacco trade after that big raid in June. Do you remember that? We talked about it on the show. The coppers and customs and stuff went in and seized about 1.3 million ciggies. Since then, a bunch of stores have apparently closed because they haven't got the ciggies anymore. But now the sellers are adapting. This is according to the Sunday Star

Times have done a big thing on it. Anyway, so retailers are now becoming more careful who they sell to in case the person's an undercover cop or something like that. They're not sourcing just from China anymore. So it's not just the double happy ciggies that are coming in. Now there are some Korean language ciggies in there as well. The price has gone up from $ 15 to $ 25 a pack because you've got to be a bit more careful. So you're selling a bit less. And the kids are selling. So now they're getting this. The Sunday Star Times got its hands on some CCTV footage that shows a kid on a bicycle selling the ciggies from a bum bag. And the guy who bought it off the kid reckons the kid was just nine or 10 years old. Now, why I'm fascinated by this is because you cannot police your way out of this, right? You're going to shut it down over here and it's going to pop up over here and shut it down over there and it's going to pop up over there. You just can't. The only way that you can stop this from happening is is to make the legal ciggies cheaper. Because they're 50 bucks a packet, so you've got to drop them down to 25 and you put the black market guys out of business, basically. But obviously we're not going to do that because that would be killing people, wouldn't it? 01:21:29 Speaker 2: 6.27. 01:21:30 Speaker 1: There's no business like show business. 01:21:34 Speaker 2: Turn down for what? 01:21:37 Speaker 3: Apparently the movies are getting too loud. The new Godzilla movie is really bad. Now, if a movie or a sound is too loud, you know your smartwatch sets off like it on your wrist and goes too loud or it screams out an alarm too loud. And that's what's been going on in the cinema with the Godzilla minus zero movie. This was in an Australian IMAX cinema. The movie came in at 90 decibels. That's about the same volume as a nightclub or a motorcycle revving. For context, the average sound of a movie should be about 70 decibels, which is the volume of the vacuum, which is really loud enough. But before you panic about your ears, the experts say a little bit of loud sound, not as bad for you as long exposure to loud sound. A single explosion in the movie is not going to make you go deaf. But Godzilla is stomping around for three hours, maybe so. Anyway, if you are worried about your hearing, skip the Godzilla movie. Just listen to News Talk CP instead. It is almost as fun for three hours. I reckon it's as fun for three hours. You never know what's going to happen. There are twists. Lots of jeopardy. We're going to speak to ANZ. ANZ's got the new boss, Ben. He's in, Ben Callagher, so he's going to chat to us next about their profits slipping ever so slightly. News Talk ZB. 01:22:49 Speaker 1: Crunching the numbers and getting the results. It's Heather Duplessy-Allen on the Business Hour. With MAS Insurance and Investments, your futures in good hands. 01:22:58 Speaker 2: News Talk ZB. 01:23:03 Speaker 3: Well, it's the big day for Russell Brand tonight.

Our overnight hour time, of course, Monday in the UK is going to be sentenced. We're going to have a chat to Gavin Gray, who'll be with us shortly. Also, we'll get you the market's reaction to NVIDIA with Sam Dickey. Right now, it's 23 away from seven. Now, ANZ's profit has come back a smidge in 2026. The bank has posted a $ 2. 4 billion statutory net profit after tax for the year to September 20th. which is down from $ 2. 5 billion the year before. Ben Callagher is New Zealand's CEO of ANZ and he's with us. Hi, Ben. 01:23:34 Speaker 6: Hi, Heather. How are you? 01:23:35 Speaker 9: Very well, thanks. 01:23:36 Speaker 3: What do you put the slight drop in the profit down to? 01:23:38 Speaker 6: Well, the headline profit has dipped, reflecting increased costs and increased competition, frankly. But it's a steady result given a tricky economic environment. 01:23:49 Speaker 3: So the increased competition is also the reason for the drop in the net interest margin. 01:23:53 Speaker 7: Isn't it? 01:23:54 Speaker 6: That's right. Net interest margin has dropped back. And it's interesting, you can see that in the similar results of the BNZ and the Westpac results that have come out in the last few days as well. But we've definitely seen across the economy a very competitive banking market, but also a very uneven recovery. So you've got parts of the economy that are actually faring pretty well. So export-facing parts in particular are doing well. So, you know, your agri... customers of commodity prices, Fonterra capital payout, exchange rates, doing really pretty good and also seeing the tourism sector come back, which is great to see, and that's obviously helped by the New Zealand dollar as well. But then you've also got some households and businesses continuing to do it really tough in areas as well. So it's a really two-speed economy at the moment. 01:24:40 Speaker 3: Are you surprised at how well people and households seem to be weathering what they're going through? 01:24:46 Speaker 6: Yes, we've been really encouraged by that, both households and businesses. If I start with households, what's been interesting to see has been in the home loan market, we've seen customers actually reduce. So where customers have 90 days past due, which is what we call a sort of a key delinquency rate, where customers haven't paid their home loans for over 90 days, so missed payments, we've actually seen that number reduce over the year And we've seen customers with really good savings habits. So another example is almost 50% of our customers have over 5,000, home loan customers have over 5,000 in savings and have paid another 50% of the pay in six months in advance. So you're seeing both households and businesses really weathering the storm well and showing good levels of resilience, which is great to see. 01:25:41 Speaker 3: Yeah, good stuff. Your small business lending is up about 9%. What's that down to? 01:25:46 Speaker 6: Well, it's just, it's been a really strong focus for us. We're trying to really ensure that, you know, it's a massive part of the economy and we want to be really a strong part of that. So we've had a big focus on it and it's paying off. 01:25:59 Speaker 3: Yeah, good stuff. And I was talking to Catherine McGrath of Westpac, I think it was last week. Gosh, I've lost track of time. But she was saying to me this time, really, really, like everybody's sick of green shoots, but this time she really thinks this is the turning in the economy. What do you think? 01:26:14 Speaker 6: Yeah, look, I think this year it's felt like the economy has bunny-hopped through the year, frankly. And I'm optimistic, and you've got to be optimistic. I think it's really important as business leaders to be optimistic. So, you know, the economic teams, certainly the ANZ economic team is peaking for a stronger year next year and a stronger year the year after that as well. So, 27 and 28 compared to this year. You know, I'm optimistic that we're heading into a brighter patch. And wouldn't that be great for New Zealand? 01:26:43 Speaker 8: Oh, Jesus. 01:26:44 Speaker 3: It's about time. We've been told. It's been foretold so many times. You enjoying the job, Ben? 01:26:49 Speaker 12: Loving it. 01:26:50 Speaker 6: Loving it. 01:26:50 Speaker 11: Lots to do. 01:26:51 Speaker 6: I pick up from a great leader, Antonia Watson, who's just recently left. She was a fantastic leader and has left me with a great bank and just really focused on taking it to its new level. 01:27:02 Speaker 3: Oh, good job. Well, enjoy it. And of course, I mean, you couldn't say no, could you? Ben, thank you very much. Ben Callaghan, ANZNZ, as in ANZ's New Zealand CEO. There's a lot of NZs to get through in that particular title, isn't there? 19 away from 7. 01:27:14 Speaker 2: Now, the US. 01:27:18 Speaker 3: Stock market heavyweight NVIDIA is in the headlines, as you know, for all of the wrong reasons, because the chief executive, Jensen Huang, has admitted that he's had an affair with a person who we think is a Chinese spy. Sam Dickey is from Fisher Funds. 01:27:28 Speaker 11: Hi, Sam. Good evening, Heather. 01:27:31 Speaker 3: What do we actually know? 01:27:34 Speaker 20: We know two things for sure. So NVIDIA's board has opened an independent investigation run by independent directors with outside lawyers. We also know CEO Jensen Huang has written to staff taking responsibility and apologizing. He stays CEO and the board says it has confidence in him. The board also says It has no reason to believe national security or company secrets were compromised. Much of the rest is anonymous source reporting and nothing is proven. 01:28:06 Speaker 3: Is the market worried about this? 01:28:08 Speaker 2: Absolutely, they are. 01:28:09 Speaker 20: So they're worried about a few things. The first one is, at the very least, it is a distraction of critical management time. So a $ 4. 5 trillion company with a board probe, outside lawyers... and

lawmakers asking its CEO for a briefing, it's hard to see how that doesn't pull focus away from the day job. The second thing is possibly increased regulatory scrutiny. So the US already limits which chips can go to China, and the US authorities have been looking at a Singapore customer of NVIDIA since since 2024 over suspicions it passed those chips on to China. Now, NVIDIA has maintained its dealings with the customer were routine business, but with the CEO and the spotlight regulators might take a harder look. 01:28:53 Speaker 2: And of course, the politics are shifting. 01:28:55 Speaker 20: So a democratically Congress arrives in January, they're already expected to push for tighter export controls of NVIDIA chips at the same time as the CEO close to the Republican president is under the microscope. 01:29:08 Speaker 3: What does it mean for investors? 01:29:10 Speaker 2: Well, it starts with key person risk. 01:29:12 Speaker 20: So it is a founder-led company for 30-plus years with no obvious successor. And those three concerns we just talked about will not go away, plus the market may call into question Jensen's judgment. For investors, especially passive investors, and you and I have talked about this many times, it's about concentration risk. So NVIDIA is roughly 7% to 8% of the S & P 500. 01:29:36 Speaker 2: So $ 100. 01:29:37 Speaker 20: Invested in a passive fund is about $ 8 into this one company. And the stock is trading pre-market down about 4% on a day when AI stocks in Asia are up. So it's definitely one to keep an. 01:29:48 Speaker 2: Eye on, Heather. 01:29:49 Speaker 3: Okay, good to know. Thank you very much, Sam. Sam Dickey of Fisher Funds. By the way. 01:29:54 Speaker 3: I don't know if Rawiri Waititi is being serious or not, but he says if the left can form... No, he can't be serious. He says if the left can form government as part of the coalition negotiations, he would like to share the prime minister's job. Obviously, Chippy has been like, no, that's not going to happen, mate, whatever. But Rawiri... I mean, the problem with I don't know why... I don't know if he's being serious or not is because, of course, he's not going to get a go at it. But then again... He is a big proponent of the old co-governance. So maybe this is, I mean, it could just be co-governance in action and he could really believe that he should have a crack at the prime minister. He called it co-prime minister. So there's the clue. 16 away from seven. 01:30:46 Speaker 1: Whether it's macro, micro, or just plain economics, it's all on The Business Hour with Heather Dupussy-Allen and MAS Insurance and Investments. 01:30:55 Speaker 2: Your futures in good hands. Newstalk ZB. 01:30:58 Speaker 3: I'll tell you what, I've had a lot of texts saying this. Chris Bishop could join New Zealand First. Winston has a lot of time for him. And one of the theories goes even further on the text, which is they kick out Michael Laws. And that creates a list space, and they've popped Chris Bishop in. Not dumb. Not dumb. Helen Clark would want an inquiry on that, by the way, because, you know, that is another bastardisation of the MMP system. But not dumb. But I think Chris Bishop is a national man, and I think that he might have– I just got the feeling he might be coming back. So just stay tuned for 29 on that. 13 away from 7. Gavin Gray, our UK correspondent, is with us. Hello, Gavin. 01:31:33 Speaker 2: Hi there, Helen. 01:31:34 Speaker 3: All right, Russell Brand conviction. Wow. Still got a lot of traction, hasn't it? 01:31:40 Speaker 21: Yes, it has indeed. So probably going to appear in court in just about five hours' time for that sentencing now. And the culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, the Minister for Culture here in the UK, saying that, you know, in the industry overall, time is up, she says. It really is time for the media industry to take this seriously. She is, of course, talking about protecting women who work in television or are connected to programmes that go out on television and, of course, are contestants in television programmes. So Brand convicted last week of one count of rape, three counts of sexual assault, following allegations from multiple women between 1999 and 2009. The head of the most senior police officers said he suspected they were going to hear from more women. He's encouraging more women to come forward. Indeed, Brand has already been interviewed about two other allegations not connected to the court case. So it seems likely there will be more on that as well. But Lisa Nandy said, look, she says since she's become a minister, she has been approached by several people, many people, she said, from within the industry, alleging that things to have happened to them. And she said, look, this just isn't good enough. And in the past, the stars, et cetera, may have been allowed to get with it. get away with it, but not anymore. The question is, of course, it's so difficult in these environments to call it out still for fear of favor, but that's what she says has to be done now. And yeah, we'll await to hear from the judge today, though he has warned that Russell Brown faces a lengthy, substantial jail term. 01:33:14 Speaker 3: I see, by the way, that your government wants to do some sort of expansion to the under-16 social media ban. What are they actually thinking? 01:33:22 Speaker 21: Well, yeah, the UK social media ban for under-16s comes into force in March next year. Children will be barred from accessing platforms such as Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat. But the government's also been looking at other sites which have effectively, these platforms have within them messaging apps or functions. And that, they're saying, might allow strangers to groom children. 01:33:48 Speaker 11: Now, who might these be? 01:33:50 Speaker 21: Well, the giant eBay, another one that the clothes that the vintage clothes place invented might be another one. And they're saying, well, you know that they

have messaging apps. And even though their intent is the buying and selling of things, these apps, these facilities might allow people to be groomed. These are hugely popular sites here in the UK. For its part, eBay said it was looking forward to, quote, understanding more and continuing to work constructively with the government. Vinted says it welcomes an open dialogue and says it's this messaging. The direct messaging is part of how the platform works, but it has a zero tolerance for harmful or explicit content. Of course, we look to Australia, which has already introduced this. And many of my journalistic colleagues over there just saying it is not working. Children are finding a different way of getting around it. But this government says this is going to be tougher and we think we've worked out ways to stop it. 01:34:44 Speaker 3: Interesting. Gavin, thank you very much. As always, Gavin Gray, UK correspondent. I don't know if you've been keeping a track on this. This is the BYD thing with the JLR stuff in the UK. So JLR, as in the people who are Jaguar Land Rover, claim that BYD has a car that is a copycat of the Defender. It's called the TI7. Yeah, TI7 SUV, just off the top of my head. I did get that right. Go and have a look at it. It's a beautiful car. The BYD car is a good looking car. It does look very much like a Defender actually. And so the JLR guys reckon that it is a straight copy. They have got bailiffs who have raided the Dutch offices of BYD to try and get some documents and they've received some digital records because they're going to court over this thing. Now, this is either going to go one of two ways for JLR, which is they're either going to win it and then God only knows what they're going to do to BYD to basically enforce the ruling. Or they've just drawn attention to the fact that BYD's got a really good looking car that you can get for less than a Defender. So it's either going to go really well or really badly. Eight away from seven. Heather, are you planning on covering that opportunity has two public servants in the policy? Yes, already done. Already done. You've got to tune in early. You've got to listen to the whole show. If you want to see, no point tuning in at what's that 11 minutes away from seven and are you planning to cover? What do you think you're doing? Anyway, listen, YouTube, I didn't realize this because I don't watch a lot of Tally, right? Because I just, and if you've been there, you know what I'm talking about. You've got kids under the age of five, you just don't have a lot of time. So this is just, you're in the trenches for a little bit and all the fun things like watching just smut on Tally and just nonsense for hours, that just, it's gone. So anyway, I don't watch a lot of Tally, which means I have completely missed the fact that YouTube is apparently seriously a threat to Hollywood. They've apparently got this comedy channel, like several comedy channels. It's called Smosh or something like that. It's got its own studios. YouTube Sensation, by the way, has more than 45 million followers across the channels. And they've released their finances for the first time. And they are making $ 60 billion a year in revenue from ads and subscriptions. That was in 2005. which is, compare it to Netflix, $ 45 billion. These guys are kicking Netflix's butt. And their content is cheap to make. It looks cheap, but people don't apparently care. They even use the AI tools to do all the editing and stuff like that. And the studios are rubbish. People have gone to look at the studios like, this is not glitzy at all, but there you go. You can do things on the cheap and people still like it. So the YouTube, Hollywood is worried. The YouTube is coming for it. 01:37:14 Speaker 7: Ants. 01:37:15 Speaker 12: Skin of My Teeth by Megadeth to play us out tonight. 01:37:18 Speaker 3: Megadeth, yeah. That's good. 01:37:20 Speaker 12: Yeah, well, it. 01:37:21 Speaker 22: Wasn't my idea, actually. Mitch Hageman has made that joke already in his article on it in The Herald. But, yeah, basically, Dave Mustaine from Megadeth was a man about town over the weekend. He went to go to the dentist while he was in Auckland to play the show. So, yeah, apparently the dentist had got a call, said, hey, I've just had some work done in my teeth. I just want to make sure it's all going well. He's been battling throat cancer all day from this day. 01:37:42 Speaker 12: But yeah, yeah. 01:37:43 Speaker 22: And good news, he was able to go in, waited in line, filled the form out, had a look at the teeth, and the teeth are just fine. The other two members of Megadeth, they went to Auckland Zoo, had a look at some barn owls. So yeah, I know I and Maiden were in town as well, but it seems like Megadeth are the ones that have been having all the fun. 01:37:58 Speaker 4: There you go. 01:37:59 Speaker 20: What? 01:38:00 Speaker 13: What? 01:38:01 Speaker 3: Would you go to Auckland Zoo and look at barn animals? 01:38:05 Speaker 12: Barn owls. Barn owls, yeah. 01:38:07 Speaker 3: Barn owls. 01:38:09 Speaker 12: And they hand-fed the giraffes as well. 01:38:11 Speaker 2: What? 01:38:13 Speaker 15: It's always surprising. 01:38:14 Speaker 3: It's like finding out Ozzy Osbourne without the make-up is just a regular grandad. 01:38:17 Speaker 22: I think Megadeth did an album in 1992 that was all into conservation and stuff, so. 01:38:22 Speaker 12: It's kind of part of their brand to go do animal conservation stuff. 01:38:25 Speaker 3: Thank you, Ants. Just blew my mind ever so slightly. It's a very small mine, so only a little explosion. Nothing like what's in that movie before. Anyway, see you tomorrow. Keep well. Here's to ZB. 01:38:37 Speaker 4: Bye. 01:38:37 Speaker 8: Bye. 01:39:10 Speaker 1: For more from Heather Duplessy-Allen Drive, listen live to News Talk ZB from 4 p.m. weekdays or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.