Larry Williams Drive

Former Labour MP Stuart Nash has suggested the party needs to have some conversations about its future. NZ First leader Winston Peters has ruled out working with Labour after the 2026 election if Chris Hipkins is still in charge. Nash says this doesn't necessarily mean Peters has ruled out working with Labour - and the party will need to make some big decisions. "You go into politics to be in Government - so it is a really interesting dilemma. Now it may be that the situation doesn't arise, but I can see a situation where the Labour caucus has to make a very important decision."  LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Air New Zealand is bringing domestic jets back to Hamilton, for the first time in 25 years. Airbus A320 Jets will fly the airline's Hamilton-Christchurch route from September. It'll add about 25,000 seats a year between the cities. The airline's general domestic manager, Kate O'Brien, says it's one of their fastest growing regional routes. "We've had a number of our aircraft out - we're starting to see some of those aircraft come back into the fleet, which means that we can look to grow some of our domestic routes." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Police Minister is attempting to clarify the meaning of a memo to staff on lower-value retail crime cases. The nation-wide directive told staff not to investigate shoplifting worth less than $500 dollars - and less significant petrol, online and retail theft.  Mark Mitchell says that's not explicitly what the memo intended. He's promised police will respond to crime, and says the directive should have been worded better.  "And it could have been much clearer in the way it was written - it did create some confusion, I totally understand and get that." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Police have revealed more about the death of a teenager, after a combative run it straight-style game with friends on Sunday.  It involves people running fill tilt into each other, with no protective gear. The 19-year-old died in hospital yesterday, and our newsroom's been told he's Ryan Satterthwaite. Manawatu Area Commander Inspector, Ross Grantham, has outlined more details. "I understand he hasn't banged his head into anything...it's the action of his head that has caused the injury." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Police Minister expects the Commissioner to continue to tackle retail crime.  Police staff have been directed to not further investigate theft below $200, petrol drive-offs below $150, shoplifting under $500, and online fraud below $1000 dollars.  But Mark Mitchell is promising retailers officers will always turn up when they have the resources. Newstalk ZB political editor Jason Walls explains why Mark Mitchell needed to clear this up. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A new police task force has been established to address an increase in gang violence in Sydney after two were shot dead in broad daylight in the city's west. Taskforce Falcon will be led by the State Crime Command and will investigate shootings, arson attacks and kidnappings as far back as late 2024. Australian correspondent Murray Olds says there's been a notable increase in violence in Sydney over the last few months - and something need to be done. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A 19-year-old has died after suffering a head injury during a tackle game - known as run it straight - with friends on Sunday.  Police say the impromptu event was based on a social media-driven competition, where people run into each other for full-contact collisions without protective gear. Sportstalk host D'Arcy Waldegrave explains further. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Labour's leader thinks talk of potential coalitions is premature. New Zealand First leader and veteran politician Winston Peters has ruled out working with Labour post next election if Chris Hipkins is still in charge. Peters has described a potential trio of Labour, the Greens, and Te Pati Māori as a 'woke circus'. Chris Hipkins says Labour will set out bottom lines before the election. He's taken the chance to take a swipe at the Coalition. "We're not just going to allow the smaller parties to call all the shots in the way that Christopher Luxon and the National Party currently are doing." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

US President Donald Trump has agreed to extend a deadline to negotiate tariffs with the EU until July. Last week, Trump expressed frustration with the pace of talks and threatened to raise the tariff rate to as high as 50 percent as soon as June 1. UK correspondent Gavin Grey says this will be a significant relief to parts of Europe. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Reserve Bank is set to make another Monetary Policy Statement on Wednesday, and experts have predicted another 25-basis-point cut. The cut, priced in by financial markets and widely expected by economists, would take the OCR to 3.25 percent. Despite this, Kiwibank chief economist Jarrod Kerr believes the Reserve Bank should cut the cash rate down to 3 percent - saying the economy needs stimulus. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On Friday, US President Donald Trump threatened to impose 50 percent tariffs on the EU from June 1 due to slow progress on discussion. He also threatened to put a 25 percent tariff on Apple (-3%) and other device makers if they don’t start moving production to the US. Harbour Asset Management spokesperson Shane Solly revealed how the markets responded. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tonight on The Huddle, Trish Sherson from Sherson Willis PR and Child Fund CEO Josie Pagani joined in on a discussion about the following issues of the day - and more!  RNZ reports police staff have been directed to not investigate shoplifting below $500 and online fraud below $1000. There's also a new 'value threshold' to determine which retail crimes will be investigated - what kind of message does this send? Nicola Willis raised some eyebrows over her choice of outfit on Budget Day - does this really matter?  LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive Full Show Podcast for Monday, 26 May 2025, Superintendent Blair MacDonald explains why police are no longer going to attend shoplifting crimes where less than $500 was stolen unless there's good reason to. Health Minister Simeon Brown says prefab hospital buildings are the way to go to build a cheaper (and faster) hospital in Nelson. Finance Minister Nicola Willis reveals what's not written in her diary for Saturday - the day David Seymour takes over as Deputy Prime Minister. The Huddle debates why we're so obsessed with Nicola Willis' Budget outfit and whether it's appropriate we even talk about it. Plus, what happened when Heather asked ChatGPT if she looks hot? Get the Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive Full Show Podcast every weekday evening on iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nicola Willis says National still hasn't decided on its superannuation policy ahead of next year's election. The Finance Minister says keeping eligibility at 65 is increasingly expensive - and Prime Minister Luxon has expressed interest in making changes. Willis says discussions will need to take place about the matter as a caucus. "What that will look like will be different from the last election - because, obviously, 3 years have gone past since then. New Zealand, as we have pointed out in the past, is quite an outlier." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dame Marilyn Waring says a high-powered committee of 10 former MPs has the know-how to lead debate on the Government's revamped pay equity system.  Waring's established the 'people's select committee' to do the job she says Parliament failed to carry out by passing impactful pay equity law changes under urgency.  That includes receiving submissions, and interviewing oral presenters. She says it'll be in the interests of both the Government and the opposition to have the proper evidence going forward.  LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Health Minister's not buying Opposition's criticism of Nelson Hospital's brought-forward upgrade. A temporary site will be in place in about a year, and a 128-bed inpatient building will be delivered by 2029. Meanwhile, Labour is calling the move a downgrade - as while they were in Government, they announced an upgrade with more beds than under the coalition's announcement. Simeon Brown says this will substantially increase beds in a cost-effective way. "If we continued with Labour's approach which they wanted to do, it was going to cost up to $1.8 billion dollars." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Police say they can't get to all retail crime - after revelations revealed they won't investigate some lower-level crimes.  RNZ reports staff have been directed to not investigate shoplifting below $500 dollars and online fraud below $1000 dollars.  Police say they may not take a further look into crime below the threshold - and lacking evidence.  Superintendent Blair Macdonald says his team get 90,000 reports every month - and explained they try to judge where officers can prevent the most amount of harm to the public.      LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I totally understand that retailers want an urgent meeting with the Police Minister. This is over the revelation that police aren't bothering to investigate shoplifting below $500 bucks anymore. They're clearly worried, because what's happened is there's been a revelation from a memo that was sent to police staff a couple of months ago, saying that from now on, across all districts, cops will no longer investigate theft and fraud below a certain value. General theft - anything below $200, not investigating. Petrol drive-offs - anything below $150, not investigating. Shoplifting - anything below $500, not investigating.  Fraud - as in paywave fraud, online fraud, scams, anything below $1000 and then all other fraud - anything below $500, cops aren't turning up. And that is, by the way, regardless of whether you have lines of inquiry. So even if you know who nicked the stuff, even if you can tell them where the stuff is, they're not going to investigate. Now, it's totally understandable for retailers to wa

Infometrics' Principal Economist says the Government's not entirely ignoring the lack of budget funding allocated for lifting KiwiSaver employer contributions.  The Greens say the Government hasn't accounted for the cost to public services, which could cost more than $700 hundred million.  Finance Minister Nicola Willis says that's being worked on - and will be in next year's Budget.  Brad Olsen says the hole wasn't costed, but hasn't been forgotten.  "There is a cost - it will have to be met, but it's not being directly disclosed in the Budget figures." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Green Party has accused the Government of having a three-quarter-billion dollar hole in the Budget. As part of the 2025 Budget, released last week, the Government announced that the default KiwiSaver contribution for employees and employers would lift to 4 percent. But the Greens say the Government had not accounted for that increase for its own employees in its books, and over the Budget forecast period it could add up to $714 million in costs. Newstalk ZB political editor Jason Walls says Nicola Willis has since shrugged off the accusations. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.