Larry Williams Drive

In June last year, the NZ Herald reported that Australian sperm donor Adam Hooper, who had more than 20 children, was planning to travel to New Zealand to donate.His trip was delayed when the borders closed due to Covid but he is expecting to be here in time to attend the first Bledisloe Cup game at Eden Park. Hooper says he will becoming to New Zealand to spread the word about sperm donation and hopes to inspire Kiwi men to get on board and help would-be parents realise their dreams."If I can spread the word to inspire other men in New Zealand to get out there and help other people, it's a good thing." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A claim the Government is insincere in its approach to reining in gangs.Jacinda Ardern says she wants to introduce new laws to target them, that are more than token moves. She also says she wants to hit gang members' assets.Act Party Justice spokesperson Nicole McKee told Heather du Plessis-Allan the Government is playing politics."Three weeks ago Labour voted down my Bill which would have allowed Police that new threshold to freeze and seize assets upon finding an illegally held firearm in possession of a gang member."LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

501 deportations will be on the Prime Minister's agenda when she heads across the ditch later this week.She'll travel to Sydney to meet new Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, with an informal dinner on Thursday, then a formal bilateral meeting on Friday.Jacinda Ardern says it's an opportunity for discussions aspects of bilateral relations that have been difficult for a number of years.She says that includes elements of the country's deportation policy, and the rights of Kiwis in Australia.Newstalk ZB's chief political reporter Jason Walls joined Heather du Plessis-Allan to discuss.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The misfiring Warriors have suffered a significant blow with coach Nathan Brown quitting the club with 18 months left on his contract.The club confirmed his departure this morning leaving club great and current assistant coach Stacey Jones in charge. Jones becomes the fourth coach in the last three years.Brown lives in Australia, where the Warriors have been based for the past two seasons due to earlier Covid-enforced travel restrictions between the two countries.The Warriors are expected to return to New Zealand in two weeks for their first home game since August 2019. Brown's current deal expires at the end of 2023.Newstalk ZB's Sportstalk host D'Arcy Waldegrave joined Heather du Plessis-Allan to discuss the departure and what comes next for the Warriors.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Reserve Bank of Australia has surprised the market by lifting its official cash rate - by 50 basis points from 0.35 per cent to 0.85 per cent.Economists had been evenly split on expectations the cash rate would be lifted either by 25 basis points to 0.6 per cent, or 40 basis to 0.75 per cent.The RBA's more aggressive stance saw the Aussie dollar rally by almost half a cent against the kiwi dollar.The kiwi is now worth A89.7c.Inflation has been lower across the Tasman and that's meant the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has been much slower to start lifting interest rates.Annual Consumer Price Index inflation currently sits at 5.1 per cent - compared to 6.9 per cent in New Zealand.Last month the RBA increased interest rates for the first time in more than 11 years, with a 25-basis-point hike taking the cash rate target to 0.35 per cent.In contrast the RBNZ started lifting rates last October and has already hiked the OCR from its record low of 0.25 per cent to 2 per cent."While inflation is lower than in mo

The law to ban supermarket covenants is going through Parliament at the moments.Over the course of the week, we learned some interesting things about the inner workings of supermarket leases from the Food and Grocery Council.One of these aspects is their ability to block other businesses going into malls if they’re in them.Business commentator Rod Oram joined Heather du Plessis-Allan.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Australia and China continued their tit-for-tat diplomatic rivalry in the Pacific on Thursday as the foreign ministers from each country paid separate visits to island nations.In Samoa, Australia's Foreign Minister Penny Wong announced that her country would donate a patrol boat to replace a similar one that was wrecked after it ran aground last year.Meanwhile, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited Papua New Guinea to meet with leaders there on the penultimate stop of an eight-nation regional tour.Wang had hoped to ink an ambitious multilateral deal with 10 South Pacific nations this week covering everything from security to fisheries. He couldn't find consensus on that deal but has been notching up smaller wins by signing bilateral agreements with many of the countries he’s been visiting.The diplomatic push by China, especially around Pacific security, has caused deep concern among some of the island nations as well as farther afield in Canberra and Washington. Since news of the proposed deal emerged, Won

Queen Elizabeth II stepped gingerly onto the Buckingham Palace balcony Thursday, drawing wild cheers from the tens of thousands who came to join her at the start of four days of celebrations of her 70 years on the throne.Her fans sported Union Jack flags, party hats or plastic tiaras. Some had camped overnight in hopes of glimpsing the 96-year-old queen, whose appearances are becoming rare, and a chance to watch the Trooping the Color — a military parade that has marked each sovereign’s official birthday since 1760.It was an explosion of joy in the massive crowd, one of the first big gatherings in the U.K. since the COVID-19 pandemic began.“Everybody has got the same mission,” said Hillary Mathews, 70, who had come from Hertfordshire, outside London. “All the horrors that’s been going on in the world and in England at the moment are put behind us for a day, and we can just enjoy really celebrating the queen.”Elizabeth, who became queen at 25, is Britain’s longest-reigning monarch and the first to reach the mi

The Silver Lake deal has finally been signed.Only one of NZR’s provincial unions was opposed to the $200 million deal with the US private equity firm.The deal will see $37m distributed immediately with the 14 NPC teams receiving $1m each, 12 heartland unions $500k each ($6m total), Māori rugby $2m, community clubs $7.5m, Players' Association $5m.The Black Caps and England are having a torrid time batting in the first day at Lord’s.At the end of Day 1, the Black Caps were bowled out for 132, but England, who trail by 16 runs, have lost 7 wickets.The Christchurch stadium has suffered yet another setback.The cost of building will reportedly increase by up to $150 million, with the opening date delayed again to April 2026.Phil Gifford and Elliott Smith joined Heather du Plessis-Allan to discuss the week's sports newsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Climate activist group Tyre Extinguishers are well and truly making their mark in Wellington.What they do is go around deflating tyres and leaving a note saying they did that because their SUV is killing the planet, etc.A guy in Wellington found a note on his car, but didn’t see any damage on the vehicle, drove to his home up Transmission Gully, got to around the Porirua offramp, and almost had a crash because at that point his tyre did start deflating.Police reckon something was stuck inside the tyre in order to stop it deflating fast, but rather do it slowly.Lawyer Steve Cullen joined Heather du Plessis-Allan.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Question: when Andrew Coster blamed cops for killing fleeing drivers, was it a slip of the tongue or an insight into his thinking?On TV earlier this week, he said that in the last ten years when police were chasing cars “we killed 60 people through police pursuits”.Sounds a lot like Coster was blaming cops there and no surprise it apparently upset some frontline police officers.As a result, Coster has apologised.He sent out an email to staff in which he says he’s sorry, he’s “very proud” of the work officers do and "I am very clear that responsibility for harm caused must ultimately fall at the feet of the fleeing driver”.Slip of the tongue or insight into his thinking?The trouble for Coster is his track record in the job will probably cause many of us and possibly many of his officers to assume he does actually believe what he said.I feel like he’s appeared too eager to allow blame to be shifted onto his officers and away from criminals.Even yesterday, he was on this show talking about investigating his own

Meat and dairy alternatives Beyond Meat and Oatly were once hyped additions to global sharemarkets.But they’ve shared more than half their value this year alone.It begs the question whether the whole thing was completely overhyped and we all just like our steaks dairy a lot more.Future of Food strategist Dr Rosie Bosworth joined Heather du Plessis-Allan.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A new prediction on where house prices could end up.Jarden is forecasting prices will fall by 18 percent by the end of next year from a national average of $905,000 to $740,000.Research analyst Grant Swanepoel told Heather du Plessis-Allan if people are going to freak out about this, they should have freaked out when prices shot up.“House prices back in November 2019, so a few months before the Covid impact, went up 50 percent from then to November last year.”LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A broken truce has led to the latest spate of gang violence across Auckland.More than two dozen charges have been laid and 19 people have been arrested thus far as investigations continue into a series of firearms incidents and suspicious fires last month.Those arrested are affiliated to the Killer Beez and Tribesmen gangs.South Auckland councillor Alf Filipaina told Heather du Plessis-Allan he still holds out hope the rival gangs will call another ceasefire.“Nobody ever thought that was going to happen two years ago, and it did. I went to a school this afternoon, spoke to the teachers and the principal there, it’s a school in South Auckland, he said: ‘there has to be hope’.”Meanwhile, Police don't know whether today's firearms incident in Auckland's Papakura was gang-related.One person's in Middlemore Hospital in a critical condition after the shooting on Great South Road.It was reported to Police just before 1pm.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta and the Chinese ambassador have offered differing accounts of a meeting and discussion of a Joint Statement with the United States that drew the wrath of Beijing.Mahuta and Chinese Ambassador Wang Xiaolong met on Thursday. It was the first meeting for the pair since Xiaolong started the role in December.The meeting came amid a week of heightened geopolitical tension, with China Foreign Minister Wang Yi continuing an eight-stop tour of the Pacific originally intended to drum up support for a wide-ranging regional agreement.It also included Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's White House visit, after which she and US President Joe Biden issued a Joint Statement that noted New Zealand and the United States' close ties on matters of security and singled out China's recent inroads in the Pacific as concerning."We note with concern the security agreement between the People's Republic of China and the Solomon Islands," the declaration read."In particular, the United States and New Zealand

Wellington Council is looking at lowering the speed limit for 80 percent of the cities roads to 30 kilometres an hour.Councillors will meet to discuss a speed management plan next week.Council environment and planning committee chair Iona Pannett told Heather du Plessis-Allan it doesn't include the small rural network or roads owned by the transport authority.She says it's most of the city including suburbs like Karori, Kilbirnie, Johnsonville and Tawa.“So many good reasons to save lives, to stop serious injuries, to stop climate change and noise and air pollution.”LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

US President Joe Biden delivered an impassioned plea to Congress to take action against gun violence in an address to the nation Thursday (Friday NZT), calling on lawmakers to restore a ban on the sale of assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines after a string of mass shootings. If legislators fail to act, he warned, voters should use their "outrage" to turn gun violence into a central issue in November's midterm elections.Speaking at the White House, Biden acknowledged the stiff political headwinds as he sought to drive up pressure on Congress to pass stricter gun limits after such efforts failed following past attacks. He said if Congress won't embrace all of his proposals, they must at least find compromise on other measures, like limiting access to firearms to those with mental health issues or raising the age to buy assault-style weapons from 18 to 21."How much more carnage are we willing to accept," Biden said after last week's shootings by an 18-year-old gunman, who killed 19 students and two

Christchurch Council needs to bite the bullet and sign off on that stadium. There is little point in going out for public consultation on it. A budget blow-out of $150m is pretty extreme but the stadium is hardly going to get much cheaper. That stadium will only get more expensive to build. If the public or the council says no, they'll only have to come back to this very decision in another ten or 11 years because Christchurch needs a stadium, as any city does. That’s proud rugby country there. How on earth could we leave the mighty Crusaders without a decent home stadium? It’s fair enough to say that it’s tough economic times and the Council needs to tighten its belt like everyone else but if things are going to be cut out of the budget it should be nice to haves not need to haves. And I would argue a stadium is a need to have for the income it will generate for Christchurch in events for years and years to come. You don’t have a stadium; you’re not going to get as many fans turning out at games and you’re n

What’s planned for the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations? Ukraine are one match away from the World Cup qualification after beating Scotland. UK correspondent Enda Brady joined Heather du plessis-Allan. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A2 milk's currently trying to join the race to patch up the infant formula shortage in the US. This comes after some challenging conditions in its main market of China for A2 of late with birth rates dropping and strict pandemic restrictions.  So, what does all this mean for investors? Sam Dickie from Fisher Funds joined Heather du Plessis-Allan. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.