John Hart: Former All Blacks coach and Blues Board Member ahead of the Super Rugby final between the Blues and the Chiefs

The Blues and Chiefs will be facing off before a packed-out Eden Park for the Super Rugby Finals. The game kicks off at 7:05pm this Saturday, tickets for the match selling out within a couple of hours. Former All Blacks coach and Blues Board Member John Hart told Kerre Woodham that to have a full…

Kerre Woodham: Could SailGP have worked in Christchurch?

Environmental awareness and the risk of dolphin bothering seems to have been behind SailGP’s decision to withdraw its racing from Lyttelton next year and move the whole kit and caboodle to Auckland. You may remember they looked at Auckland but there was inability to provide the kind of spectator …

Liam Dann: NZ Herald Business Editor on the 0.2% rise in the GDP

The news New Zealand is out of a technical recession isn't necessarily cause for celebration. Stats NZ figures show GDP rose 0.2% in the three months to March and 0.2% in the year to March. But Herald Business Editor Liam Dann told Kerre Woodham that we could still see a series of further per ca…

Mike Cosman: New Zealand Institute of Safety Management Chair on the shortfalls of the health and safety system

New Zealand’s health and safety performance seems to be dire still. In 2013, an independent taskforce identified three key failures in the country’s health and safety system in the wake of the Pike River tragedy. Eleven years later, Newsroom reveals that despite knowing these faults, not much has…

Kerre Woodham: Do politicians need more protection than anyone else?

Gerry Brownlee, the Speaker, wants to boost security for politicians while they're out and about in the community before something goes very wrong. Something has gone pretty wrong in that Green MP James Shaw was assaulted in the street as he walked to work. You'd have to say that was a pretty nasty…

Gary Morrison: Security Association CEO on the need to boost parliamentary security

Boosting Parliament security is a work in progress. MPs have shared experiences of threats and intimidation, and some say the Parliament protests were a catalyst for greater concerns. The Speaker's looking into the possibility of giving Parliament security guards arrest powers. Security Associ…

Kerre Woodham: How necessary are resource consents?

Let's start with the announcement yesterday from Chris Bishop allowing people to build small granny flats without requiring consent. It's followed through, the coalition government, on its promise to cut red tape around the resource consent process. The announcement was made yesterday, and they sai…

Chris Hipkins: Labour Leader takes talkback, discusses tax cuts, crime, Government spending

Labour's leader continues to call the Government tax cuts poorly timed. The Government's pouring $14.7 billion into it and giving landlords a $3 billion boost. The tax changes kick in late July against advice from officials who recommend waiting until October. Chris Hipkins says 12 billion doll…

Kerre Woodham: We're going to have to bite the bullet and get the 757's replaced

You do not have to go back very far to find a news story about a New Zealand Prime Minister having his or her trip disrupted by a shonky 757. The Prime Minister's trip to Japan, with an accompanying trade delegation, was disrupted over the weekend after the Air Force 757 broke down, again. And it …

Belinda Blick-Duggan: The Write Lesson managing director on the new educational report calling for 'checkpoint tests' in English and maths

A report by the Ministerial Advisory Group reviewing English and maths learning, has recommended annual checkpoint tests for students. It recommends children in Years 4-6 learn handwriting, including cursive handwriting, and study the "conventions of text structure and style". Children would also…