Tonight on the Huddle, NewstalkZB's own D'arcy Waldegrave and Andrew Gordy join Heather duPlessis-Allan to discuss the latest sports news. 

What will north shore golfers do without Takapuna Golf Club? And what should we make of our top netball players running overseas?

LISTEN ABOVE 

Tonight on the Huddle, NewstalkZB's own D'arcy Waldegrave and Andrew Gordy join Heather duPlessis-Allan to discuss the latest sports news.&nbsp;
What will north shore golfers do without Takapuna Golf Club? And what should we make of our top netball players running overseas?
LISTEN ABOVE&nbsp;

With a straight down the middle approach, Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive on Newstalk ZB delivers the very latest news and views to New Zealanders as they wrap up their day.

Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive

The Huddle: Why are Netballers running from New Zealand?

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/7784f840-c291-422a-924b-ad9000bbad71/clips/85ef156c-eaba-4492-952f-b33a00738088/transcript

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! 

The Remuneration Authority says more responsibility attracts more pay, as more local councillors see bigger pay rises. What do we make of this? 

The Government has proposed giving police more powers to move rough sleepers along. This has generated some backlash, but do we think this change is needed to improve New Zealand's city centres? 

Labour's Chris Hipkins has delivered his State of the Nation address in Auckland at a Business Chamber event. Did this make you feel more or less confident in Labour? 

LISTEN ABOVE

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!&nbsp;
The Remuneration Authority says more responsibility attracts more pay, as more local councillors see bigger pay rises. What do we make of this?&nbsp;
The Government has proposed giving police more powers to move rough sleepers along. This has generated some backlash, but do we think this change is needed to improve New Zealand's city centres?&nbsp;
Labour's Chris Hipkins has delivered his State of the Nation address in Auckland at a Business Chamber event. Did this make you feel more or less confident in Labour?&nbsp;
LISTEN ABOVE

The Huddle: Did Chippy's address give us more or less faith in Labour?

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/7784f840-c291-422a-924b-ad9000bbad71/clips/c8eaee89-8cf6-4585-ac65-b3fa006f990d/transcript

Listen to the Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive Full Show Podcast for Monday 23 February.

Get the Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive Full Show Podcast every weekday evening on iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Listen to the Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive Full Show Podcast for Monday 23 February. 
Get the Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive Full Show Podcast every weekday evening on iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Full Show Podcast: 23 February 2026 

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/7784f840-c291-422a-924b-ad9000bbad71/clips/8f250a22-172d-4883-9254-b3fa006634f6/transcript

Listening to Chris Hipkins' State of the Nation speech today, I found it really hard to take him seriously.

The speech was mostly just a list of things wrong with the country right now, most of which anyone who can remember back five, six, seven years, knows were caused by him, Grant, Jacinda and Adrian Orr.

Take this line, for example:

“I see young New Zealanders - smart, hardworking, full of potential - making calculations that no young person should have to. Do I stay in the country I love, or do I leave to build the life I've worked for? It breaks my heart.”

Well, it shouldn’t break his heart - because he was warned about this. When he, Jacinda and Grant were contemplating those long Auckland lockdowns at the tail end of the pandemic, Treasury explicitly warned that young people would suffer the most. I quote:

“The negative consequences are that low employment and income rates are shown to persist for young people well after recessions have waned.” - Treasury advice, 13 May, 2021.

Now, we’ve already spent more than enough time debating whether the lockdowns should have happened - we don’t need to do that again. But the consequences of those lockdowns are there in black and white. Young people would bear the brunt. So he can hardly complain now that young people are leaving the country. It was predicted.

He complains about affordability. Well, it was during his Government that inflation spiked to 7.3 percent. Yes, some of it was global. But a lot of it was Grant Robertson allowing Adrian Orr to print billions of dollars.

Again - right or wrong - we can debate that. But it was the actions of his Government that created the affordability crisis he now laments.

He complains about unemployment. Unemployment is up because of the recession Adrian Orr engineered to bring down the inflation that, as I’ve just said, was created by him and Grant.

Now, I’m not defending the National-led Government - that’s not my job. Frankly, I think they could have done a lot more to tidy up the Government’s books, that part has been woeful. But they did not create the mess that Chippy is complaining about.

And it is beyond ironic to have him standing there saying, “Oh, look what a mess this is,” and proposing to be the man to fix it - when he was part of the team, in fact right up there in the top three of the team, that created the mess in the first place.

LISTEN ABOVE

Listening to Chris Hipkins' State of the Nation speech today, I found it really hard to take him seriously.
The speech was mostly just a list of things wrong with the country right now, most of which anyone who can remember back five, six, seven years, knows were caused by him, Grant, Jacinda and Adrian Orr.
Take this line, for example:
“I see young New Zealanders - smart, hardworking, full of potential - making calculations that no young person should have to. Do I stay in the country I love, or do I leave to build the life I've worked for? It breaks my heart.”
Well, it shouldn’t break his heart - because he was warned about this. When he, Jacinda and Grant were contemplating those long Auckland lockdowns at the tail end of the pandemic, Treasury explicitly warned that young people would suffer the most. I quote:
“The negative consequences are that low employment and income rates are shown to persist for young people well after recessions have waned.”&nbsp;- Treasury advice, 13 May, 2021.
Now, we’ve already spent more than enough time debating whether the lockdowns should have happened - we don’t need to do that again. But the consequences of those lockdowns are there in black and white. Young people would bear the brunt. So he can hardly complain now that young people are leaving the country. It was predicted.
He complains about affordability. Well, it was during his Government that inflation spiked to 7.3 percent. Yes, some of it was global. But a lot of it was Grant Robertson allowing Adrian Orr to print billions of dollars.
Again - right or wrong - we can debate that. But it was the actions of his Government that created the affordability crisis he now laments.
He complains about unemployment. Unemployment is up because of the recession Adrian Orr engineered to bring down the inflation that, as I’ve just said, was created by him and Grant.
Now, I’m not defending the National-led Government - that’s not my job. Frankly, I think they could have done a lot more to tidy up the Government’s books, that part has been woeful. But they did not create the mess that Chippy is complaining about.
And it is beyond ironic to have him standing there saying, “Oh, look what a mess this is,” and proposing to be the man to fix it - when he was part of the team, in fact right up there in the top three of the team, that created the mess in the first place.
LISTEN ABOVE

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: You know what's ironic about Hipkins' State of the Nation speech?

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/7784f840-c291-422a-924b-ad9000bbad71/clips/eb32ed35-0ec7-41f2-9309-b3fa00682181/transcript

The Huddle: Why are Netballers running from New Zealand?

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