/on-air/early-edition-with-ryan-bridge/opinion/rss 九一星空无限 Fri, 31 Jan 2025 04:48:33 Z en /on-air/early-edition-with-ryan-bridge/opinion/andrew-dickens-the-cautious-political-answer-christopher-luxon-gave-on-privatisation/ /on-air/early-edition-with-ryan-bridge/opinion/andrew-dickens-the-cautious-political-answer-christopher-luxon-gave-on-privatisation/ So the word of the week was privatisation. It became a debate because David Seymour said we should do it now in his state of the nation speech on Monday. So obviously the media asked the Prime Minister want  he thinks of the junior coalition partner’s thoughts. And Christopher Luxon vacillated, he gave the cautious political answer trying not to upset anyone. It's something we might look at, but not without a mandate, so we might campaign on it in 2 years time. So it won’t happen for two years, or maybe more,  so don’t worry about. We’re cool. It was an answer so convoluted that obviously the media asked more questions. And then of course the people said bloody media, trying to stir up trouble with their leftist bias.  But it was the Prime Minister's fault for faffing about trying not to upset anyone or more specifically the centre left and nationalists who hate it. Well that didn't work. Why couldn’t he just say good idea, we agree, next time.  Because we all know he agrees with the idea, and we all know his supporters agree.  But he didn’t, because he’s like every other politician who’s values blow in whichever wind they think the electorate is blowing. Politicians who don't just say yes but nor do they say no. They say maybe which is even worse. They all do it, ask Chris Hipkins about capital gains tax.  Thu, 30 Jan 2025 16:55:28 Z /on-air/early-edition-with-ryan-bridge/opinion/andrew-dickens-why-the-plan-for-a-new-waikato-medical-school-might-not-work/ /on-air/early-edition-with-ryan-bridge/opinion/andrew-dickens-why-the-plan-for-a-new-waikato-medical-school-might-not-work/ It's beggars belief these days when we report that it's hard to make money in a GP practice and that we don't have enough doctors. Primary medical care is the most important care, forget your fancy specialists and rock star surgeons. If your GP can spot and fix a problem as it begins then you can save your life and save the nation a ton on costs down the line so the health of our primary health sector should be of primary importance. But it hasn't been. We've added a million people through immigration over the past 10 years and we've also been creating new New Zealanders ourselves while our numbers of doctors per head of population has plummeted. There's two ways to get new doctors. One way to find them is to import them but that's necessarily difficult because not every Tom Dick and Harry who say they're doctors are in fact doctors. The other way is to train them ourselves and in that area we've been woefully short on numbers. I don't know why, you'd think our doctor training would increase in line with population but it hasn't. And what about the University of Waikato’s new medical school? This was an election policy. It was pushed by the university and supported by the government. Well we’re a year into a new administration and where is it?  The medical unions are saying this is taking too long. The Prime Minister says work is continuing on the business case and it will go to cabinet in the future. But unofficially it is understood that the project has been dogged with problems and is increasingly seen as an unnecessary, costly, and bad idea.  I’m sorry, a bad idea? From well paid consultants? From Steven Joyce? Steven Joyce has many good ideas but this is proof that like everyone not all of them are gold.  Wed, 29 Jan 2025 16:50:25 Z /on-air/early-edition-with-ryan-bridge/opinion/andrew-dickens-why-new-zealanders-love-and-loathe-donald-trump/ /on-air/early-edition-with-ryan-bridge/opinion/andrew-dickens-why-new-zealanders-love-and-loathe-donald-trump/ I’ve been watching a lot of the late night shows this week from America on YouTube.  Fallon, Kimmel and Colbert, all of them have used the same joke - “oh my god... it’s only been a week”  And then the audience cheers or laughs or boos or cries, or more likely all of that, all at once because what a week it's been. The second golden era of Trump kicked off and he started doing things, brilliant things. Colombia won’t take deportees, so hit them with killer tariffs and economic sanctions that take hold in a week.  Within 12 hours Colombia folded. Crisis over, back to work, business as usual. That was just one day. A short crisis is so much better than a long festering one where nothing happens. Or take the ceasefire in Gaza. Trump said call a ceasefire, rebuild Gaza.    Well you know that’s what everyone wants. Jewish, Arab and American construction tycoons - because there’s peace and money there.  Gaza may be rebuilt as Israeli condos or Palestinian homes with or without Arab money. But who cares, there’s a ceasefire. Now this may have long term consequences, but again who cares! There’s a ceasefire. Thank God something finally happened. It’s been a week of rapid and effective decisions and that’s what you can do with executive power and every level of government behind you. I talked earlier about how MMP causes indecisive leadership in New Zealand.  Well, Donald Trump is the antithesis of MMP, and that’s probably why so many Kiwis loathe him while so many New Zealanders love him. Tue, 28 Jan 2025 16:54:38 Z /on-air/early-edition-with-ryan-bridge/opinion/roman-travers-schmoosing-the-hollywood-executives-should-be-a-higher-priority-than-fiddling-with-our-immigration-policies/ /on-air/early-edition-with-ryan-bridge/opinion/roman-travers-schmoosing-the-hollywood-executives-should-be-a-higher-priority-than-fiddling-with-our-immigration-policies/ It’s great to see the coalition government looking at every way possible in order to maximize the New Zealand economy.    Yesterday, a bunch of important government ministers stood near the arrival gates of Wellington Airport, to reinforce the news regarding the loosening of visa requirements for overseas visitors, who want to tour New Zealand while working remotely for their employer at home.   This is a copy and paste of what other countries have successfully implemented. Essentially, what are known as ’digital nomads’, will include visitors like IT specialists, as long as they are not receiving any income from New Zealand sources.   It would also extend to social media influencers — provided they were being paid by overseas companies.   These changes will apply to all visitor visas, including tourists and people visiting family.   Visitor visas can be extended for up to nine months, although the ministers warned that working in New Zealand for more than 90 days could require them to declare themselves as a New Zealand tax resident.   This may well indeed help in a range of ways to ensure that more and more overseas residents spend more time and money here – or indeed – eventually decide to make New Zealand home.   However; the ongoing influence of massive companies like Netflix may prove to be more of a success story for New Zealand than any policy invoked by any government.   Over the past weekend, parts of Dunedin were turned into an 1800s-style Californian town, with Hollywood heavyweights filming a new Netflix drama.   Academy Award nominee Florence Pugh is one of the actresses starring in a new adaptation of the 1952 novel, ‘East of Eden’, being filmed around New Zealand.   Auckland actress Jess Hong is just one of many New Zealand stars hitting the big time with Netflix, in a range of movies and Netflix series watched by millions globally.   Then there’s Luciane Buchanan in the current super smash series on Netflix, ‘The Night Agent’.   This is currently the number one show around the world for Netflix, with the ongoing potential to not only print money for Netflix and those that invest in the company – but also for New Zealand.   There’s a very long list of actors, doing amazing things on the big and small screens of the world, and this list is only fortified and embellished by the even longer list of producers, directors and other behind the scenes talent, who enhance the image, perception and geographical recognition of New Zealand, each and every time they land a gig.   You’ve seen what the Lord of the Rings movies and subsequent TV series has done for New Zealand. But we’ve changed how we want to be entertained since Sir Peter Jackson got stuck into the ring thing.   Government policy like we saw being announced yesterday is gold for the country, but ensuring we do everything possible to keep New Zealand high on the locations list for the abundance of movies and TV series yet to be made is crucial.    For the desperately needed growth of the economy, and the ongoing careers of all those who continue to tread the boards and feel the pull of the limelight.    Schmoosing the pay to view and movie company executives is of greater importance than the fiddling about of immigration policies. Mon, 27 Jan 2025 16:53:42 Z /on-air/early-edition-with-ryan-bridge/opinion/roman-travers-hungry-kids-falling-behind-at-school-maybe-we-need-to-stop-blaming-our-curriculum/ /on-air/early-edition-with-ryan-bridge/opinion/roman-travers-hungry-kids-falling-behind-at-school-maybe-we-need-to-stop-blaming-our-curriculum/ Although the school holidays are still in full swing, that doesn’t mean that the country’s children are getting the food they need at home. New Zealand children are still going hungry at school and that means that they’re ending up years behind other children in key subjects. The data that shows this ongoing issue for us all and also ranks New Zealand poorly for food poverty. The health researchers behind the just-published analysis argue the government needs to double the number of children served by its newly revamped lunches in schools scheme. It’s no surprise that hungry students struggle to learn: food poverty has been cited as a big barrier in New Zealand’s scoring under the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment. A comparison between that and two other global datasets has allowed a team of researchers to look at the link in greater depth. After analysing food insecurity levels with subject-specific scores, the team revealed a stark trend. Any degree of food insecurity was associated with much lower academic performance - a pattern that held across all subjects, age groups, and surveys. Professor Boyd Swinburn from Auckland University is a co-author of the study I’m referring to, and he says he didn’t expect the effect size to be so large. In all, it equated to a learning gap equivalent to hungry students trailing two to four years behind in subjects like maths and reading by age 15 – even after adjusting for socio-economic indicators. Something else born from this study is that there’s also a gradient effect. The more severe the food insecurity, the greater the gap in scores compared to kids with no food insecurity. The problem doesn’t just reflect hungry children finding it harder to concentrate in class, but other factors including parents keeping their kids home rather than face stigma at school. It’s all very well blaming the state of the New Zealand curriculum, or the size of the classrooms confronting our teachers, but when you may well address some of the demonstrably poor outcomes shown in this study – by simply ensuring that our children are well fed and literally well catered for at school, what on earth are we waiting for? Sun, 26 Jan 2025 16:55:06 Z /on-air/early-edition-with-ryan-bridge/opinion/francesca-rudkin-luxons-state-of-the-nation-speech-sounded-like-he-s-found-his-groove/ /on-air/early-edition-with-ryan-bridge/opinion/francesca-rudkin-luxons-state-of-the-nation-speech-sounded-like-he-s-found-his-groove/ If you didn’t pick up on Christopher Luxon’s State of the Nations speech yesterday, the Prime Minister is looking to grow the economy, because the country desperately needs economic growth.  I am being a little facetious. Actually, I thought the Prime Ministers' performance yesterday was good – both the speech and afterwards during the press conference.   Sure, he still stuck to his message like a self-help guru trying to manifest an outcome. But after taking a while to look comfortable or natural as a politician, yesterday he sounded more authentic, like he’s found his groove.  He’s confident in the direction he’s taking the country, and he’s not trying to appeal to everyone.   For a speech designed to set the tone for the year – he did a good job.  Last year we saw the coalition government repeal and reform everything from education to water, and health to grey hound racing. While there is still a way to go with some of these, this year the Prime Minister has made it clear it’s about dialing up the volume on creating competition, allowing more foreign investment, and pushing for government organisations to be more future focused.   The Prime Minister also suggested we need to grow up and shake off our culture of saying ‘no’ and start saying ‘yes’ – to things like expanding the Port of Tauranga and more concerts at Eden Park.   Luxon also used the speech to make some announcements - the creation of Invest NZ – an agency to attract foreign investment, major reforms to Crown Research Institutes, and the disestablishment of the Callaghan Innovation, which Judith Collins bluntly said at the post speech press conference “had had it’s day”   The new announcements are needed. National Party MPs have been sounding very well media trained recently - sticking to their messaging, avoiding answering questions with detail, you know the drill - and as a result they’ve been sounding a bit empty.   When there is a lot of talking but nothing is really been said it’s easy to lose interest. But what struck me yesterday was how well the Prime Minster was across questions thrown at him. Instead of reverting back to the big picture bland key messages he can often fall back on, he threw out details and examples.   There will be push-back to some of his ideas, such as mining and gene technology. Making money is one thing, but many New Zealanders will still want the government to balance their pragmatic approach with consideration and respect for affected communities, the environment, and the Treaty.   There is also a perhaps wishful sense from the Prime Minister that tax cuts, lower inflation and a falling OCR mean New Zealanders can move on from focusing on the cost of living. I doubt he’ll be let off the hook that easily, rises in rent, rates, insurances, and other costs are still impacting household budgets.   Making New Zealand a great place to live in years to come is important – love me some vision - but that doesn’t mean we should lose sight of today.   But hey, if the state of the nation speech is about getting out the message it’s all about economic growth so we can all have better lives – then got it, loud and clear. Job done.     Thu, 23 Jan 2025 16:58:00 Z /on-air/early-edition-with-ryan-bridge/opinion/francesca-rudkin-the-ruapehu-district-needs-the-chateau-to-be-saved/ /on-air/early-edition-with-ryan-bridge/opinion/francesca-rudkin-the-ruapehu-district-needs-the-chateau-to-be-saved/ I am so pleased to see NZ Herald Business Journalist Kate McNamara continue to write about the woes in the Ruapehu District.   Why? Because the Ruapehu region has been hit hard with indecision around the two ski fields, the sudden closure of the Chateau two years ago; followed by the loss of over 200 jobs when Winstone’s pulp and timber mills shut down late last year.  This region has taken a beating through no fault of their own!   Yesterday McNamara focused on the issues surrounding the majestic Chateau Tongariro Hotel, which has been sitting in a derelict state for two years. It's a sad sight at the base of Ruapehu. A desolate Chateau, the golf course overgrown, and empty buildings surrounding it. The area feels quietly paused in time, with no sense of if and when it may spring back to life.  Whakapapa Holdings Ltd, the company in the process of buying the Whakapapa Ski Field, is keen to discuss the future of the Chateau with government officials. They are interested in taking on the historic chateau, reviving it, providing employment, an increase in tourism, and offering some economic stability for the region.   The problem is – no one is really interested in talking to them.  As we learnt with the ski fields, this is a complicated region that requires sensitive conversations between government, the Department of Conservation, iwi and other stakeholders. It was a struggle to find a consensus over the ski fields – with some preferring the continuation of a not-for-profit organisation such as previous operators RAL, others’ preferring to hand things over to private operators.   Along the way, a lot of government money was put into keeping the ski fields afloat, until it got to the point where the fields were too expensive to fail, as was the prospect of closing them down, removing all structures from the mountain and returning it to its natural state.    Getting the Chateau up and running again will cost many millions of dollars – but on the right terms, such as a 30 year lease and a peppercorn rent, WHL would be willing to make the investment. They have also done research into the earthquake strengthening which needs to be done and believe it’s not as extensive as previously suggested.   Look, this might not be the deal which makes everyone happy, but frankly I don’t see anyone else queuing up to give it a go. Leaving the chateau empty and decaying for years, possibly decades - at the cost of around $150 - $200,000 a month for maintenance – when a possible solution sits on the table is simply depressing.   The government needs to deal with the lease termination agreement and payment to the previous operators, reopen expressions of interest, and have some conversations. Talking is almost always a good place to start, so please take the call.   Ruapehu is an incredible part of our country, and one that deserves to be thriving.  Wed, 22 Jan 2025 16:57:43 Z /on-air/early-edition-with-ryan-bridge/opinion/francesca-rudkin-love-it-or-hate-it-ai-is-going-to-be-part-of-our-lives/ /on-air/early-edition-with-ryan-bridge/opinion/francesca-rudkin-love-it-or-hate-it-ai-is-going-to-be-part-of-our-lives/ There is a lot going on in the world this week.   This Friday The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences provides some lighthearted relief from the world's challenges by announcing the Oscar nominees for the 2025 Academy Awards.   The nominees were due to be announced on January 18th, then January 20th, before being delayed again, giving those impacted by the fires still raging in Southern California more time to vote.   But as filmmakers, actors and the masterful craftspeople responsible for making some of the best films of the year wait patiently to see whether they get the nomination nod from their peers, a prickly conversation is brewing about AI.   The latest controversy in film is around the use of AI in two potential nominees, The Brutalist and Emila Perez, which both won at the Golden Globes. These two Oscar front runners are dealing with a backlash after it was revealed they used voice-cloning to enhance actors’ performances.  In The Brutalist, Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones play Jewish Hungarians who survive the Nazi camps and escape to the US. The actors spent 2 months working with a dialect coach to perfect their accents, but the filmmakers wanted their Hungarian to sound perfect so added individual sounds and letters to both Brody and Jones’s Hungarian-language dialogue to perfect it.   This has caused quite an uproar and The Brutalist director Brady Corbet was forced to issue a statement to Hollywood trade publications saying “Adrien and Felicity’s performances are completely their own.” He went on to say, “The aim was to preserve the authenticity of Adrien and Felicity’s performances in another language, not to replace or alter them and done with the utmost respect for the craft.”  Their performances are extraordinary, the film stunning, ambitious and audacious – and if a tool was used to tweak their Hungarian along the way, well, Hungarians are probably grateful.   With Emila Perez, it has emerged AI cloning was used to enhance the singing voice of Emilia Pérez’s Karla Sofía Gascón, to increase the range of Gascón’s vocal register. Their singing was then blended with that of Camille, the French pop star who co-wrote the film’s score.  People are upset. Really? In the film Elvis, Austin Butler’s voice is mixed with Elvis’s. Marilyn Monroe didn’t hit her own high notes. Zac Efron had a ghost singer in High School Musical. Films have been tricking us for years. But suddenly, because it’s AI, everyone is up in arms about it.   And it’s not just correcting accents and singing voices where AI is used. Its already embedded in everything from production to writing to visual effects – just don’t expect anyone to shout it from the rooftops.   Some say it’s more of a PR problem than a tech problem, and that it’s just another tool like CGI to be used to make a better film.   Obviously, there are concerns about the prolific use of AI – no one wants to see whole sectors of the industry replaced, such as writers, graphic artists or background actors. It's often the lowest paid on the call sheet who suffer. So, it’s up to the industry to draw the line and work towards safeguards and regulation so the industry can find a way to use AI for good.   And love it or hate it, AI is going to be part of our lives - in ways we can already see and ways we can’t imagine. Just don’t let the controversy ruin a good film for you.   Tue, 21 Jan 2025 16:58:20 Z /on-air/early-edition-with-ryan-bridge/opinion/francesca-rudkin-washington-dc-has-always-been-about-power-but-now-it-s-just-as-much-about-money/ /on-air/early-edition-with-ryan-bridge/opinion/francesca-rudkin-washington-dc-has-always-been-about-power-but-now-it-s-just-as-much-about-money/ Well, it’s a big day in the United States today - and in Panama, Greenland, Canada, Mexico, and the many countries who are going to feel the weight of President Trump’s return.   Today is a day of ceremony, tradition and balls; but most importantly a day of action as Trump begins to fire off the first of the many executive orders promised on the campaign trail.   What I find most interesting about this Presidential transition is how transactional it has been. The New York Times reports there are at least a dozen billionaires among Trump’s cabinet picks or in line for senior roles in his administration. Another publication worked out that the combined net worth of the wealthiest members of his administration could surpass $460 billion.   Many are his richest donors, such as Elon Musk, who we all know spent a large sum getting Trump elected. Some of the roles these billionaires are taking on will see them become responsible for sectors they’ve been involved with.   Off the back of this, President Biden warned in his farewell address of an oligarchy taking shape in American. With the top 1% of Americans owning around 35% of the wealth and capital in the country and the bottom 50% owning about 1.5%, you could say conditions are certainly ripe.  What’s notable is the unabashed transparency about it all.   Washington D.C. has always been about power, but now it’s just as much about money. If you have enough of it you can get a seat at the table.   Sure, large donors have always expected a quiet word, a game of golf, a visit to Mar-a-Lago. And Washington DC is filled with corporate lobbyists who petition the government and the public to sway them on certain issues. But in the past they’ve always preferred to do so with some discretion. Not now.  The other thing that’s so startling is that President Trump campaigned on doing what’s right for working class America – just one of many demographics Democrats have lost touch with. In exchange for their vote they now have some of the richest men influencing this presidency and protecting their self-interest.  I hate to say it - as some of the consequences of this presidency, such as tariffs and geo-political decisions, may impact New Zealand - but it is going to be fascinating to stand back and watch how this plays out.   Who will remain in President Trumps good graces? Who will see out the term? Who, like so many of the big tech executives, will curry favour, doing whatever it takes to keep their businesses alive and kicking.   It’s going to be a very interesting four years. And yeah, that’s probably an understatement.  Mon, 20 Jan 2025 16:57:35 Z /on-air/early-edition-with-ryan-bridge/opinion/francesca-rudkin-health-is-a-priority-in-nationals-ministerial-reshuffle/ /on-air/early-edition-with-ryan-bridge/opinion/francesca-rudkin-health-is-a-priority-in-nationals-ministerial-reshuffle/ Like many of us over the summer, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon used his downtime to reflect on the year that had been, and like many of us put together his in and out list for 2025. This is the way young people do New Year’s Resolutions these days. But what’s in and out took on a new rather crude spin yesterday afternoon when he announced a reshuffle of Ministerial roles for National MPs.  Melissa Lee lost all her portfolios. Matt Doocey is handing over ACC, Tourism and Hospitality, and Youth to various other MP’s to focus on his Mental Health and Associate Health roles. And Dr Shane Reti passes on the Health portfolio to Simeon Brown, instead picking up a new Universities roles, plus Science, Innovation and Technology.   The emphasis on health and economic growth is not a surprise, and while the Prime Minister continues to express confidence in Reti, and spoke of his achievements last year, it’s clear he’s decided his Minister’s skills are better used elsewhere.   However, the health goals remain. What the government wants to see is faster cancer treatment, shorter stays in ED’s, shorter wait times to see a GP, get a specialist appointment or get an elective treatment.   But Health is a beast of a portfolio, and obviously it become clear to the Prime Minister that the New Zealand public is not impressed with the speed of progress towards these targets. I appreciate Luxon’s loyalty – others questioned Reti’s performance last year - but loyalty doesn’t get the job done, and Luxon needs a political operator who can, in his words, deliver and execute.   Step on up the Delivery Man, Simeon Brown.   Prime Minister Luxon described Dr Reti as a top-quality human being and a team player when asked how he took the news. I couldn’t agree more. He’s a good guy – I've always found him to be thoughtful, dignified, his intentions genuine, and knowledgeable on the health system. But he wasn’t quite so good at communicating how things were moving forward – in simple, decisive, reassuring soundbites.   Yes, there were wins – such as the announcement of cancer drugs, another 17 billion being thrown at health over 3 years, and a suggestion of change in culture at Health NZ. But these can’t compete with headline grabbing issues the system is facing. Things like staff shortages, governance issues, funding deficits, and the proposal to scale back Dunedin Hospital's rebuild.   On top of that, too many front line and senior clinicians said Dr Reti was out of his depth.   I wonder if Dr Reti is quietly sighing with relief at being moved on from a portfolio often seen as a poisonous chalice. He might not have had the mongrel to get Health under control quickly enough for the National leader, but that’s not to say he won’t be effective in his new roles.   While the Prime Minister has previously said he sees no need for a reshuffle, this is a positive start to 2025 for Luxon.  Sure, if it aint broke don’t fix it, but if you think you can do better – then hell yeah, let’s go.   Hopefully we get a more efficient health system out of it.   Sun, 19 Jan 2025 16:58:42 Z /on-air/early-edition-with-ryan-bridge/opinion/best-of-2024-ryan-bridge-why-are-we-paying-80-a-year-for-a-bin-no-one-uses/ /on-air/early-edition-with-ryan-bridge/opinion/best-of-2024-ryan-bridge-why-are-we-paying-80-a-year-for-a-bin-no-one-uses/ According to the group who are upset about the monopoly-duopoly that's happening in our grocery sector, you could save, at most per person, about $74 per year. That's if they were to have perfect competition in the sector, which obviously would be very hard to achieve.    Do you know what else costs you $80 a year?  A friend and I were chatting at the gym the other day and he showed me his rates bill, which he had kindly brought to the gym to encourage him to run faster.  There's an $80 targeted rate for the food compost bin. He said, what's that for? And I was like, it's the green bin that's on the street that no one uses. Then he was running faster than I've ever seen him run on the treadmill.  So apparently 60 to 65% of us don't use them. I know they have them in other parts of the country, in Auckland we've only got them just recently, so we're all getting a bit used to them. But $80 a year is what you have to pay.  And I got quite angry because if you're on a fixed income, $80 a year is a lot of money. If you're a pensioner and you cannot opt out of this service.   Who else can charge you for a service that you don't want or need?   What about a pensioner who does their own composting in the backyard? They can't opt out of it. They have to have this bin, and they have to pay $80 per year for the privilege.  It's like a barber giving a lady a beard trimmer and saying here, I'm going to charge you for that. I don't need it. Oh, well, you have to have it. Why? Just cause.  And you know what? They're all made of plastic, these bins, so how's that for the environment?  Sat, 04 Jan 2025 02:31:34 Z /on-air/early-edition-with-ryan-bridge/opinion/best-of-2024-ryan-bridge-thank-you-to-david-seymour-and-big-pharma/ /on-air/early-edition-with-ryan-bridge/opinion/best-of-2024-ryan-bridge-thank-you-to-david-seymour-and-big-pharma/ I've got an amazing wonder drug to tell you about New Zealand, and it saved me in the last couple of weeks.  People are talking about it from top of the country to the bottom and it's not Ozempic.  No, I'm not taking Ozempic, though, I wouldn't mind trying it. I think a lot of people are curious.  David Seymour made this drug a priority. Yes, I'm talking about pseudoephedrine.  I felt sick, I took it, the symptoms disappeared.  I had a wedding recently and people said they wouldn't have come without it.  What must it be doing for our productivity as well?  Fewer sick days.  I spoke to a friend of mine who's a mum, she's got young kids, and you send your kid to daycare, they get all the bugs under the sun, they bring the germs home. The kids are gross and they pass it on to mum and dad.  Mum and dad go down like flies, they take time off work, et cetera, et cetera. And then bam, pop the miracle drug. Pseudo mums and pseudo dads.  So they are absolutely over the moon about this. It's the drug we forgot we needed, isn't it?  I said to my friend, what about the meth addicts? Because that's the argument, you know, the meth addicts will get it and then they'll cook it up and it could be stolen.  It's the precursor to p and she said, I don't care, they'll find it anyway. And I just need to get through my work week and get the kids to school.  So thank you David Seymour for Pseudoephedrine. And thank you to Big Pharma. It's really underrated Big Pharma, a lot of people give it a hard time.  It's like big oil, you know, just sometimes they do good things.  So cheers to whoever it is that makes it.  This opinion piece was originally published August 30, 2024. Sun, 22 Dec 2024 20:32:33 Z /on-air/early-edition-with-ryan-bridge/opinion/andrew-dickens-we-ll-never-forget-you-2024-but-frankly-we-re-sick-of-the-sight-of-you/ /on-air/early-edition-with-ryan-bridge/opinion/andrew-dickens-we-ll-never-forget-you-2024-but-frankly-we-re-sick-of-the-sight-of-you/ This is my last editorial for the year.  What a year it’s been, we started in January with Golriz shoplifting, we watched 10,000 jobs go from the public sector and the private sector follow suit as cash stopped bouncing around the economy. National blamed Labour for everything and Labour blamed National. We watched Scott Robertson fail to be the second coming but when the All Blacks were good they were very good. The Treaty Principles Bill debate came, saw and divided. The hikoi invaded parliament, but didn’t set up camp. The entire 九一星空无限hub newsroom disappeared and others seem vulnerable so that’s less eyes on the game.   Construction crashed, power surged in price, mills closed and towns pondered what their citizens will do next. The snow fell late, a football team landed on the ground running, we found out state care was not caring. A war in Ukraine rolled on, a war in Gaza started, a country finally expelled it’s dictator, Iran bombed Israel and Israel bombed Iran and world war 3 seemed closer than ever. China eyed Taiwan, China eyed the pacific, the States eyed China and we were asked to choose sides more and more.  Then Donald Trump won America by saying we’ll keep it simple and keep America first, and tariffs are back.  We’ll never forget you 2024, but frankly we’re sick of the sight of you.  It’s time to go to your family, go to your favourite place, watch another sunrise, rest and recuperate because in 2025 we’ve got a big job fixing all this shit up. Thu, 19 Dec 2024 16:58:01 Z /on-air/early-edition-with-ryan-bridge/opinion/andrew-dickens-why-we-need-the-fast-track-bill-to-get-stuff-done/ /on-air/early-edition-with-ryan-bridge/opinion/andrew-dickens-why-we-need-the-fast-track-bill-to-get-stuff-done/ Welcome to the fast track world, where parliamentarians have been given the right to approve projects they reckon are good for the country.  Last night Chris Bishop even referred to himself, Simeon Brown and Shane Jones as the troika - a Russian word referring to 3 parties being a ruling body, so even he knew the remarkable power he was giving himself.  That power has been watered down but the underlying concern remains.  We all know projects that have been disasters, or contained unintended consequences, or that favoured investors and not the community.  We’re also aware of so many projects run by cowboys that we have regretted. Suburbs built in flood zones, dams built in unstable land, and various in fill nightmares and runoffs from industry that have poisoned waterways and caused environmental disaster. And all of that was while more regulation was in place.  A senior city planner in Auckland is on record as saying there’s a handful of developers who get their consents in a month because their application is word perfect and compliant from the get go, most others go back and forth as they try to circumvent the rules. These days construction costs are worse than legal costs, so any corners they can cut they will.  I totally get that we need to progress and get stuff done and so I support the new act.  But I’d warn the politicians pushing it that bad decisions will affect your legacy and I also warn that politicians and public servants are not geniuses at picking the right horses, and that should be obvious a week after the solar zero debacle. Wed, 18 Dec 2024 16:57:52 Z /on-air/early-edition-with-ryan-bridge/opinion/andrew-dickens-whos-paying-74-a-day-to-park-in-the-city/ /on-air/early-edition-with-ryan-bridge/opinion/andrew-dickens-whos-paying-74-a-day-to-park-in-the-city/ 九一星空无限 that Wilson Parking in Fort Street, Auckland, is the most expensive parking in New Zealand says a lot more than just a company creaming it.  If you turn up first thing at the park and you use the on site machine then a days parking will cost you $74. Now who pays $74 for a days park? If you park casually then it will cost you $22 an hour - more than the minimum wage.  I’m picking that if you park in this park then you’re not working in hospo, you’re earning enough to blow money like this, you don’t feel you have an alternative and you love your car and want to park near work.  So let’s break that down. The average wage in Auckland is $72,000 a year, after tax that’s $900 bucks a week in the hand. The median rent is $700 dollars, you need $100 a week for power, phone internet and gas, you need to eat. So where’s the money for that park? The only people paying that earn way more than $72 grand. On the alternative, most don’t have a car park. 50 per cent of workers in Auckland’s CBD take public transport into work. That’s because they don’t get a park from their employer and they don’t earn enough to face the parking charges. That’s not their choice, it’s an economic necessity, that’s why public transport is critical to our productivity. Remember that the next time you complain about a bus lane. And finally a love of the car distorts the debate, because there are plenty of parks that don’t cost that much. Like the city owned downtown car park, a car park which is half empty most days, which is why the council has sold the car park to developers to become a skyscraper and much more expensive parking. But park there and you may have to walk, so many don’t and pay a fortune on wasted productivity. There comes a time in every city where the ease and convenience of driving to town becomes only available to the better off and that kills a CBD, a CBD that has already been gutted by suburban malls and cinemas.  The fact that so many Aucklanders are prepared to pay so much to park a car in the CBD it makes me believe that the idea of congestion charges in an attempt to reduce traffic will fail, we’re just going to pay to stay stuck in the same traffic queues.  Tue, 17 Dec 2024 16:31:55 Z /on-air/early-edition-with-ryan-bridge/opinion/andrew-dickens-the-government-has-given-the-councils-a-telling-off-for-christmas/ /on-air/early-edition-with-ryan-bridge/opinion/andrew-dickens-the-government-has-given-the-councils-a-telling-off-for-christmas/ The government is going to hold councils accountable for the basics like pipes and rubbish, but screw any mention of well being.  I don’t know about you, but the care of maintenance of pipes and sewage and trash is fundamental to my well being.  Minister Simeon Brown wants a report issued each year on the financial health of each council, their spending and their results. They also want to look at the changes in rates for each dwelling.  In other words they’re going to read the publicly listed council reports and produce their own because apparently many ratepayers don’t or can't be bothered. That's also the job the media used to do until they got so skint they don't have the staff to do it. I couldn’t help thinking the whole thing was a dramatic production and part of a culture war to paint local bodies as a villain for committing exactly the same crimes central government are guilty of. There’s criticism of council red tape in building consents and yet the irony is that it’s central government who writes the rules that the councils are enforcing.  There’s criticism of a lack of long term plans when central government tends to change it’s plans every 3 years in line with elections. Central government has palmed off some of the biggest and hardest part of civil maintenance to the councils. The water, the poo, the rubbish and then crippled councils by allowing them to only make revenue through property taxes and then when things go wrong treat local government like a whipping boy. The point of the government’s attack on councils is to make them more accountable to ratepayers, but possibly to distract voters from looking at them. Well thanks for that. Councils are accountable to ratepayers, it’s called the vote and ratepayers are notorious for not bothering to use it.  Anyway, bring it on, councils should not be afraid of being held to account because they must believe they’re making their towns better and also on the whole they’re doing a pretty good job on the smell of an oily rag. Mon, 16 Dec 2024 16:57:54 Z /on-air/early-edition-with-ryan-bridge/opinion/andrew-dickens-the-political-games-hiding-the-real-issues-behind-the-interislander/ /on-air/early-edition-with-ryan-bridge/opinion/andrew-dickens-the-political-games-hiding-the-real-issues-behind-the-interislander/ Anyone who thought the ferry debate was over for summer was very wrong.  The weekend papers were full of reckons and I reckon it’s because it’s a bigger piece of infrastructure than many realise. Sure a lot of tourists and locals travel on it, heading on adventures or heading home, but $30 billion dollars worth of freight between the North and South Island depends on it too. So the reckons were about who screwed it up more. Nicola Willis, Grant Robertson or KiwiRail itself.  Then there was debate over Winston’s hijacking of the job and whether this will play out well or badly for him.  The conversation about rail enabled or rail capable rumbled on and whether just letting Bluebridge have the whole job was a good idea, since their boats don't seem to break down or run aground. Steven Joyce commented on the nostalgic choice of Kaiwharawhara for the ferry port, a very earthquake prone reclamation. But if not there then where Steven? Relocating the port to a seismically more stable location could be even more expensive.  It was all politically tinged, and that to me is the big problem.  The best thing I saw was a comment by the political commentator Liam Hehir, who noted that when Grant Robertson first saw the plans KiwiRail had he told them to go back and try again.  Then he failed to put the expenditure into the pre election financial update. That means one of two things.  They were going to hide it, but $3 to $4 billion is really too big to hide.  Or, more likely, they hated the idea too.  In other words no one a year ago knew what to do and no one liked the idea on the table.  How refreshing might it have been if that was said openly a year ago.  Then we could have had a properly informed debate and made a grown up decision, instead we’ve had posturing and virtue signalling about who’s right or wrong, left or right, while a $$30 billion dollar trade route slowly falls apart. This whole thing is another example of how the best infrastructure decisions are made without politicians. Because they play games that mask the real issues. Sun, 15 Dec 2024 16:32:48 Z /on-air/early-edition-with-ryan-bridge/opinion/andrew-dickens-the-quiet-war-between-david-seymour-and-winston-peters/ /on-air/early-edition-with-ryan-bridge/opinion/andrew-dickens-the-quiet-war-between-david-seymour-and-winston-peters/ Don’t you hate it when the kids fight.  The quiet war between David Seymour and Winston Peters has kicked up a little lately with both the boys playing games in court to win the hearts of the public.  That's the problem when you’re a minor party, you need to make noise to be noticed.  The big noise for a while has been David Seymour who has taken conversations by the throat with his Treaty Principles Act. Love it or hate it, you're all talking about it which is all a politician wants.  Last week I warned that Winston has been a good boy while he’s held the Deputy Prime Minister job but that’s coming to an end in a few months and he does a swapsie with David Seymour. That will free his hand and you’ll hear much more from him.  That's started, which explains why he’s taken over the railways. He wants to be seen as a saviour and solver.  Seymour and Peters have very differing views of the railways - Winston blames past privatisation's. David wants to privatise 49 per cent of it.  Winston also has a treaty principles strategy. He’s looking to cancel the legislation that already exists that proscribes how the treaty inveigles it’s way into legislation, it’s got a much better chance of success than Seymour's act and referendum but has flown under the radar since the election. That hacks him off.  You’ve got to remember that Winston is an old school conservative and closer to the old socialists that cared about the working class. David Seymour is part of a new conservatism that believes in capitalism, markets and winner takes all.  They’re not naturally compatible. So the next 18 months looks to be increasingly entertaining and that’s a good thing because a contest of ideas is a good thing. Thu, 12 Dec 2024 16:55:39 Z /on-air/early-edition-with-ryan-bridge/opinion/andrew-dickens-the-new-ferries-we-know-nothing-about-but-will-be-paying-for/ /on-air/early-edition-with-ryan-bridge/opinion/andrew-dickens-the-new-ferries-we-know-nothing-about-but-will-be-paying-for/ Well that was confusing. When Nicola Willis blew up Kiwirail’s plan for new ferries she promised a better plan, and yesterday we got that plan.  They're going to form a new company to buy some ferries. No news about which ferries and what format they’re in.  Nothing about what’s happening portside. There was also an invitation to private industry to come up with a better solution.  So no new ferries, no new ports, no ships ordered, and no idea that private industry already provides a service, that is Bluebridge.  It was an announcement of an announcement, which we already lampooned the last government with.  It was ideological. It was government spending and this government doesn’t like that so they cancelled it without thinking about the long term consequences.  It was not based on business practice, or financial logic.  It was not on brand and it’s harming reputationally.  Put this in business terms, they broke a contract for ships that was a good deal. Okay, maybe you thought they were too big, but it was a bloody good price for what they were - $550 million. But breaking the contract puts a flag above our head, not to mention the break fee. Now we have a company desperately in the market and the providers of new boats or second hand realise our weakened position. The government just needs a boat to save their face, and sellers will no longer sharpen their pencils. Meanwhile portside costs continue to escalate.  In a government that prides itself in business acumen and ability in mergers and acquisitions they have given themselves a weak hand going forward. I’ve already said this government knows the price of everything and the value of nothing, but now they’re crippled by analytical paralysis.  In other words, they don’t know what to do and so they do nothing. And when they do finally do something they’ll find they don’t have a strong position. Meanwhile the bills build up and you and I will have to pay for it with our taxes. Wed, 11 Dec 2024 16:54:30 Z /on-air/early-edition-with-ryan-bridge/opinion/andrew-dickens-its-time-to-do-something-about-south-aucklands-dirt-bikes/ /on-air/early-edition-with-ryan-bridge/opinion/andrew-dickens-its-time-to-do-something-about-south-aucklands-dirt-bikes/ The job of being a politician is always harder than you expect. We learned today that Mark Mitchell will not be introducing legislation against boy racers this year even though he has said he would. In June when it as all going off in Levin he was promising laws to enable the cops to seize vehicles and keep them. A return to the good old days of Crusher Collins But it's never happened because it is quote "complex". If he's got some time on his hand could I suggest he look at hitting the problem of South Auckland's dirt bike hooligans. South Auckland’s dirt bike rabble is classic gang technique and needs to be stopped. The gangs have been giving out dirt bikes to the kids for quite some time now. Cheap, mobile and nippy they’re very handy for hit and run crime. They get young prospects into the bike culture which then carries on into the the adult gangs with their Harleys and Indians.  They distract the police while the more hardened gang criminals carry on with their business.  But these kid gangs are in a way even more intimidatory and dangerous than the gang proper.    As they swarm around South Auckland streets en masse. As they ride en masse up the motorway the wrong way and as they indulge in street crime rather then drugs they are more visible to the people on the street.  It’s time for a good crackdown and a good dose of crushing of these bikes and it’s time for a politician to start talking about the growing threat and doing something about it.    Tue, 10 Dec 2024 16:53:44 Z /on-air/early-edition-with-ryan-bridge/opinion/andrew-dickens-the-times-when-the-media-and-academia-are-their-own-worst-enemy/ /on-air/early-edition-with-ryan-bridge/opinion/andrew-dickens-the-times-when-the-media-and-academia-are-their-own-worst-enemy/ This weekend Sunday Star-Times published a think piece on why Christopher Luxon is not popular.  And he’s not. Monday's polls showed that Christopher Luxon and his National Party is not as popular as maybe they should be.  Interviewing university professors and their typewriters, the article came up with answers like no-one likes anyone who demands to be called Christopher and one professor even speculated on New Zealand’s attitude toward baldness. Apparently we don’t like them, which will be news to Monty Betham.  It came in response to the latest poll which showed Chris Hipkins and Labour keeping up with Christopher Luxon and National, despite Labour changing nothing. While the Sunday Star-Times plucked at straws, I’d like to say it’s the economy, stupid.  These are tough times and we always blame the sitting Government, no matter what they inherited. But I would like to say that Mr Luxon has not made it easy for himself. When he inherited our damaged economy the Reserve Bank was already acting on inflation through interest rate hikes.  The National led coalition then kept on with their cost of living crisis solution which was tax cuts and government spending crackdowns and lay offs. So the country had a two pronged attack with none of the solutions making life better in the short term.  In fact it’s made everything worse.  So all the people who are collateral damage believe the government are monsters.    All the people not affected who can see how the austerity overkill will be good for the economy and the country in the medium and long term, will be thinking Mr Luxon and his team are heroes.  The Government will be hoping that by the time the only poll that count comes around in 2026, more voters will view them as heroes and not monsters.  The last time we tried that was in the 90s as Don Brash raised interest rates at the Reserve Bank while Ruth Richardson gave us the Mother of all Budgets. She lasted less than 3 years after that and is not remembered fondly despite the good the austerity did.  Mon, 09 Dec 2024 16:33:35 Z /on-air/early-edition-with-ryan-bridge/opinion/andrew-dickens-why-the-problem-with-the-interislander-isnt-the-boats/ /on-air/early-edition-with-ryan-bridge/opinion/andrew-dickens-why-the-problem-with-the-interislander-isnt-the-boats/ Cabinet today, and the promise this week is that we're going to get a ferry plan.  Apparently there might be an announcement on Wednesday.  It's been a year since Nicola Willis pulled the plug on the Kiwirail's ferry plan and it wasn't because the ferries were so expensive, in fact, these ferries were a really good deal. It was because of the cost of the port side developments.  And I think this is something that gets lost in the whole debate when we talk about it.  The ships weren't the problem. The misconception is that the cost was blowing out because the ferries were bigger than our previous fleet.  So the biggest factor in the cost blowout was the relocation and the rebuilding of both the Kiwirail and Bluebridge ferries to get them out of an earthquake zone.  There was also the need for the new port to have considerable earthquake strengthening.  Look where the Wellington port is and how far away it is from the main fault line. You need to earthquake strengthen this. Our ports at the moment fall down, and they did last what time during Kaikoura.  So there's a need for a considerable earthquake strengthening. Kiwirail also wanted a gold plated ferry terminal which would last long term so that you walk into it and it's like, wow, this is amazing.  And then finally on top of that, the ports needed to be a bit longer.  So, from what I've heard so far, it seems as though the government will pick up some second-hand boats which actually have more life after them than before them, but that's what happens when you pick up a second-hand boat.  But that's not really an issue unless of course, unless they start falling apart as soon as we get them.  So when we look at this plan that comes out this week, we need to be looking at the port rather than the boats.  Will it be relocated? Will it be strong enough to bear up to the inevitable earthquake? Will the terminal be comfy or will the terminal be a chilly shed? And how much do you want to spend on this? Kiwirail was arrogant thinking that the government would provide them with their billions on their say so a blank check. The government wasn't wrong to say tally ho. But the government now has to prove that their plan is not just a second hand option that will continue to provide headaches in the years to come, because the indisputable fact is we are a country that's mostly spread over two islands with 26 miles of very treacherous water between them.  And so the infrastructure that connects the two of us together is absolutely 100% critical.  So let's see what this plan is coming out on Wednesday, we hope.  Sun, 08 Dec 2024 17:04:07 Z /on-air/early-edition-with-ryan-bridge/opinion/ryan-bridge-we-need-500-excellent-cops-not-average-ones/ /on-air/early-edition-with-ryan-bridge/opinion/ryan-bridge-we-need-500-excellent-cops-not-average-ones/ So it looks like looks like police will miss the deadline of adding 500 extra sworn officers by 2026. What we were promised should take two years. Now the new Police Commissioner, when fronting scrutiny week in parliament, he said it will take 2.5 years.  So an extra six months - will anyone really care? Probably not. Should we care?  When there are more bad guys out there doing bad things, we should always care about how many good guys and girls we have out there countering that.  But on this particular point of missing a target by 180 odd days, not really. Why? One - the target was always described as highly ambitious and that should be a clue from a politician.  Two - they may still make the deadline. That has not been discounted at this point and they are working hard to do that.  Three - it was only a target because it was included in the coalition agreement with New Zealand First.  And clearly, if you follow the public comments of Mark Mitchell through the past year, even National has been sceptical about the timing of it.  Most importantly, not hitting 500 by November next year doesn't mean that we'll have zero extra cops on the beat by that date. It means we'll probably have a few hundred extra with more coming in mid 2026.  The most reassuring thing about this whole debacle were the words from the new Commissioner Richard Chambers who said we are not going to compromise.  So if it takes us a little bit of time to produce the best quality offices, then we'll take that.  And he's right, because we need 500 good cops. 500 great cops. 500 excellent cops, well trained and well resourced.  Not 500 average cops.  Thu, 05 Dec 2024 16:56:06 Z /on-air/early-edition-with-ryan-bridge/opinion/ryan-bridge-should-the-government-buy-nz-made-even-if-it-costs-us-more/ /on-air/early-edition-with-ryan-bridge/opinion/ryan-bridge-should-the-government-buy-nz-made-even-if-it-costs-us-more/ That's basically the question you've got to ask yourself after the latest wool snub. This time it was Kāinga Ora saying no to Kiwi made woollen carpet for state houses, and yes to synthetic imported stuff.  Why? It's cheaper. We've been here before, you'll remember the school classrooms - same story. It's happened again despite the coalition agreement deal with New Zealand First ensuring wool carped is used where practical - and that might be the caveat that Kāinga Ora is using here to get out of wool, the deal says that the local product has to be used in government procurement and in government buildings.  But Kāinga Ora, like a good kid in class, has been listening to the government's main lecture which is cut costs.  Wool is 30% more expensive on average than the nylon equivalent.  But the industry says a deal with Kāinga Ora could revitalise a flailing product and its fortune.  So we have a clash of competing priorities, cost versus localism.  The answer to the question posed at the start of this is another question - what is the net benefit to New Zealand's economy as a whole of government buying wool carpet when you include the jobs that you would create, including the spending that you would encourage and the increased cost of wool on the taxpayer? That surely is how you find the number that you would base a decision on whether to use a New Zealand made product over a synthetic imported equivalent.  Wed, 04 Dec 2024 17:13:43 Z /on-air/early-edition-with-ryan-bridge/opinion/ryan-bridge-will-we-ever-have-enough-money-to-spend-on-health/ /on-air/early-edition-with-ryan-bridge/opinion/ryan-bridge-will-we-ever-have-enough-money-to-spend-on-health/ Here's a question for you this morning - How much will ever be enough to spend on health?  The answer is there will never be enough, so you got to make do with what you got.  At least that is what Health New Zealand is trying to do.  At the moment, we spend $30 billion bucks a year, that's just taxpayer money on health. It is middle of the road for the OECD in terms of percentage of GDP comparisons.  According to Health New Zealand we're ahead of the likes of the UK, Canada and Sweden, but we're behind France, Switzerland and Germany.  I mean, really, what does all this mean?  Whether that spending is any good or not is another matter. Ask a hundred people about their experience in the health system and you'll get 100 different answers.  One answer though, that we should be getting a bit more right, is exactly how much we're spending or planning to spend on health because how can you know what you're doing unless you know what you're spending and on what? Health New Zealand revised down its deficit for 24/25 from $1.7 billion to $1.1.  What does that mean? It means as recently as October, they told us they'd need $500 million more dollars to run the health system than they did yesterday.  That's half a billion bucks difference in less than two months.  Why? They thought they'd have to pay more for redundancy payments and making up for holiday pay.  It seems extraordinary, doesn't it, that you could have such a vast difference in such a short space of time?  How does this keep happening?  It comes after the target surplus for this year, $54 million, somehow morphed into a deficit of $700 million. Shane Reti and Ayesha Verrall are predictably fighting over whose fault this is, as you would expect from politicians.  But if we could be a little clearer on the diagnosis, the dollars and the cents being spent, we'd at least be clearer on exactly what it is we're fighting about.  Tue, 03 Dec 2024 16:51:05 Z /on-air/early-edition-with-ryan-bridge/opinion/ryan-bridge-nobody-is-above-the-law-until-they-are/ /on-air/early-edition-with-ryan-bridge/opinion/ryan-bridge-nobody-is-above-the-law-until-they-are/ Why do Americans keep saying nobody is above the law and then repeatedly showing us some blatantly are.  Biden tweeted during the campaign "nobody is above the law". He said it many times, but he was talking about charges against Trump, of course.  But, on principle, he said the same applies to him and his family - Including his son Hunter.  That brings us back here - He's lost the election and quicker than you can say 'get out of jail free', he's flip-flopped and the convictions are wiped clean.  Now Hunter won't face any jail time or have a criminal record for two separate court cases, some of them involving gun charges. Their constitution allows Presidents to pardon pretty much anyone for federal crimes, except themselves for impeachment.  Trump did it on the way out too.  Obama, both Bushes and FDR hit the record with more than 2000 pardons.  At the same time Biden proves his son is in fact above the law you've got the Department of Justice dropping cases against Trump left, right and centre. Why?  Well, they have a policy of not going after sitting Presidents.  So we have DOJ policy and that pesky written constitution to blame and that's fine, it's their country, not mine.  But aren't you glad we don't mix politics with justice here like they do in the States? When we say nobody's above the law we pretty much mean it. I know some will argue we apply the law unevenly and there are cases to be made, but on political grounds?  This department going after person A because their Labour or Act or whatever - It just doesn't work that like here. The Americans do many things well but the separation of powers doesn't appear to be one of them.  Mon, 02 Dec 2024 16:32:21 Z /on-air/early-edition-with-ryan-bridge/opinion/ryan-bridge-labour-lost-the-countrys-trust-can-they-get-it-back/ /on-air/early-edition-with-ryan-bridge/opinion/ryan-bridge-labour-lost-the-countrys-trust-can-they-get-it-back/ Politics is largely about trust.  When you break it down to its most simple terms, it's about trust.  If you see a bloke or a woman on the telly trying to get your vote, you try and work out what sort of person they are? Do they think like me? Are they smart? Are they thick? Can I trust that they'll make a good decision at an important time? It's a magic thing that takes a lifetime to earn in a second to plunder.  And so as the Labour Party faithful filed in for their annual conference gearing up for another year and then probably another term in opposition, voters won't be thinking about anything to do with politics right now because we're mid cycle.  It's way too early. It's like fretting over a birth before you're even pregnant.  But when they do, they will ask whether they can trust Chippy. Like a sugar daddy Santa he was doling out the cash quicker than you could rake it in at the weekend.  A full price new hospital in Dunedin. How much exactly will it cost? Well, we don't know, but we don't care, they're getting it. Same goes with the rail enabled ferries. Hipkins says he'll make it happen. How are you going to pay for all of that is the question when, as we learned last week, our growth outlooks have been downgraded.  Nicola Willis has hinted that we'll probably be looking at, at pushing the surplus even further out into the future, which makes you wonder whether it's ever even going to happen, no matter who's in government, it's that bad.  So how do you spend all that money, commit to spending all that money, commit to reversing all the cuts that National has made as well and then still balance the books.  It's like wizardry and that's where trust comes into it.  After six years, Labour lost the country's trust on many issues because as many people have said they couldn't deliver a pizza or run a bath. They've been quiet on tax for now, but the remit did pass at the election.  So the question is whether Labour should at this point be promising much in the way of anything to anyone when they've lost so much capital on delivery. Sun, 01 Dec 2024 16:52:47 Z /on-air/early-edition-with-ryan-bridge/opinion/ryan-bridge-the-covid-19-inquiry-the-verdict-is-in/ /on-air/early-edition-with-ryan-bridge/opinion/ryan-bridge-the-covid-19-inquiry-the-verdict-is-in/ This Covid phase one report – the verdict is in, and it's pretty much ‘guilty your honour’.   Fine to begin with, and then they as the single podium of truth basically went too far, for too long. Tell us something we don't know.   Trust in our institutions as shot, media took a hammering —and rightly so in some cases— Labour supporters and hysterical scientists and other groups went full militant.   I never spoke about the messages I got from some of them during my interviews, challenging old Jacinda Ardern during that period, especially those outside of Auckland during the lockdown to end all lockdowns. They were threats of beatings on my social media, loads of homophobia, I was killing people with my questions, there was hate, there was vitriol.   Now I'm not complaining about this, this is part of my job. But it just shows how wacko everyone got. Which is not to say the anti-mandate lot were angels either, but what we, the public were fed was a meal from only one of the two menus.   Then there was the MIQ cruelty – you will never get another opportunity to kiss a loved one goodbye. Never. I watched Hipkins in his media stand up yesterday with the usual half mere culpa lines. We can learn lessons from this in the future and the benefit of hindsight is a great thing.   What's the problem with that? Well, there were plenty of people with plenty of advice at the time. He could have listened to but chose not to. Instead, they labelled the protest as a river of filth, we wrote off entire sectors of scientific community in the name of social cohesion. Like a pack of rabid dogs attacking a limp lamb – that's what we were, we turned into that.   Had they listened to Auckland, to the Plan Bers, some economists and experts and other fields, to Lady Deborah Chambers who bravely put her head above the parapet on behalf of the legal fraternity, Simon Bridges basically lost his job over a Facebook post, pointing out many of the problems that turned out to be quite accurate. But now it was all Siouxsie Wiles and Co. crying because we didn't go further and go harder.   And where are we now? Kids not going to school, productivity jabbed in the face, crime out of control. Mental health and anxiety, particularly for kids, also taking a hit to the face. The wait list for critical medical treatments delayed, construction stopped, projects delayed despite the Aussies being faster and looser on both counts. It was the biggest overreach of power, both in real terms and in some cases, legally, this country has potentially ever seen. And only now do they say we might reconsider forcing a barista to get a jab that they don't want.   Don't get me wrong, I got the jab twice, but that was my choice to a large extent. And is this all Labour's fault? No. The bigger culprits, in my mind: media hype, social media pylons, and unwavering support for the party pushing that lockdown agenda. The problem was tunnel vision. It was arrogance, ignorance or both, and now we're all paying a very hefty price tag for it.   There was just one thing missing from yesterday. Any response from the four horsemen of the Apocalypse: Grant Robertson, Jacinda Ardern, Ashley Bloomfield, and Adrian Orr. Where were they? Grant’s on $800,000 at Otago University, Orr's doing victory laps for cutting rates he hiked too high and then flooding the country with cash. And Adern, remember, she said her single biggest driver in politics was to fix child poverty, now living in New York while the cost of living crisis she helped engineer, then deny was existing, hammers some of our poorest, and to use a word they made famous during the Covid catastrophe, our most vulnerable.  Thu, 28 Nov 2024 19:14:41 Z /on-air/early-edition-with-ryan-bridge/opinion/ryan-bridge-when-will-our-economy-come-out-of-its-hangover/ /on-air/early-edition-with-ryan-bridge/opinion/ryan-bridge-when-will-our-economy-come-out-of-its-hangover/ The US economy is just humming along at the moment, isn't it? 2.8% is their lucky number this morning. 2.8% annualised GDP for the September quarter. Better than the Eurozone, better than the UK, and much better than New Zealand.  We're still going backwards. We went balls to the wall with interest rate hikes post Covid and we were the first to do it. Adrian Orr and the Reserve Bank held higher for longer and the hangover is hitting like a 40 ounce of Smirnoff in the morning. It's not pretty, is it? Sure, the rates are coming down and we saw more of that yesterday, but boy, the mess that wrecking ball has left behind. What's interesting about the Americans, even though their consumer confidence is low, as ours is well, they are still going out and using the credit card to buy stuff. In other words, the sentiment there isn't matching the reality, which is what we're seeing in the GDP number they announced this morning, which we should envy. Of course, they're a country that's run on domestic consumption. We run on trade and we haven't been helped by the likes of China and Europe. They're the markets that we must sell to, to make a buck. But there is a question here for Nicola Willis, now that inflation is beat, how much further will you go with the belt tightening? Is a return to surplus at all costs, at any costs worth it? She's repeatedly said not. How much does she mean that? I guess we'll find out when we get the numbers for December on the 17th. Wed, 27 Nov 2024 17:23:39 Z /on-air/early-edition-with-ryan-bridge/opinion/ryan-bridge-the-issue-with-paper-bags/ /on-air/early-edition-with-ryan-bridge/opinion/ryan-bridge-the-issue-with-paper-bags/ I paid 40 cents for a paper bag while shopping at my local supermarket the other week.  40 cents.  Remember when they used to cost 10 cents? Back in the day when they swapped them out for plastic bags when they banned those – which used to be free.  40 cents.  And guess what they had printed on the side of this paper bag that you buy to put your groceries in.   They had printed little Christmas trees for goodness sake.  So you chop down trees, you make paper bags and then you print more trees on them – we're supposed to be saving the planet.  This is stupid, it's dumb and it's 40 cents.  It's a lot of money.  It's a lot more than free, which is what we used to get the plastic bags for.  And they're not reusable. You put a 2-litre milk in there, it's wet, it's soggy and it just falls straight through.  It's not a reusable thing.  People are probably over the paper bag thing and used to it by now. Take your own bags is the other thing, but I forgot, so what are you going to do?  But here's the thing with costly environmental policies.   This is stuff like your emissions trading scheme charged on the petrol that you put in your tank, or on farmers, or the ute tax, or the cycleway bills that we are paying for.   The issue with all of this is getting us on board with paying to fix the planet when we're such a small part of it.  Are we really saving all the dolphins, and whales, and turtles in the ocean by paying 40 cents for a paper bag at Countdown?  No, because the oceans still filled with plastic. So what's the point?   Is Xi Jinping still opening coal fired power plants? Yes.  Is Donald Trump about to start drilling hell for leather, for more oil? Yes.  So what are we doing? What difference are we making?  Why should we bother?  They just had the climate change conference in Azerbaijan, the Petro State for goodness sakes, and everyone flew there on an airplane, and I'm paying 40 cents for a paper bag.  Tue, 26 Nov 2024 19:36:17 Z