Early Edition with Kate Hawkesby

The travel bubble between the Cook Islands and New Zealand will remain open despite our Omicron outbreak.The Cook Islands held an emergency cabinet meeting last night.There is a new restriction though - no unvaccinated people will be allowed entry from Thursday.Robert Skews, the managing director of the Turama Pacific Travel Group told Roman Travers the news is a huge relief.“70 percent of our revenue here in the Cooks is derived from tourism and so after two years we’re a little bit desperate.”LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We're being urged to think of others - as we prepare our pantries and medicine cabinets for the months ahead.Supermarkets report pressure on products like toilet paper, following the confirmation the Omicron outbreak on Sunday.Food, groceries and medicines could also become harder to come by, as case numbers rise.Auckland City Missioner Helen Robinson told Roman Travers while consumers are stocking up, they should remember others who can't.“I do understand families needing to go out and protect themselves from what might just happen. Many, many thousands of New Zealanders just don’t have that luxury.”LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

And so here we are; waking up in the glow of red lights across the whole country.What does this mean for most of us? Well affectively nothing really has changed apart from the inability to gather in mobs of more than 100 which will serve good purpose in trying to prevent the stupidity of the Brian Tamaki followers across the country’s main centres and their messianistic treatment of a nobody and his attempt to be somebody.Other than that the only thing that I’ve seen change in the last day is again the ridiculous propensity for people to go apoplectic in the supermarket even though we are told we don’t need to.The real concern I have is that we may well see the current Government moving further away from the recommendations of the science community as demonstrated in the comments by certain epidemiologists who say that the red light system is not enough to reduce the spread of the Omicron strain.The only great saviour for us all is the vaccination and the third shot, which at best is 75 per cent affective in

Australian Open quarter-finalist Denis Shapovalov is embracing being part of Canada’s tennis uprising as his strong – but complicated – start to the year continues.Shapovalov scored one of the best wins of his career on Sunday, ousting third-seeded German Alex Zverev in straight sets in a result with major Australian Open title ramifications.The 2021 Wimbledon semi-finalist’s 6-3 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 defeat of Zverev, in their first grand slam clash, was his third win in their past four meetings.Shapovalov, 22, helped Canada win the ATP Cup in the first week of the year, alongside Felix Auger-Aliassime, who will try to emulate his countryman’s last-eight effort against Marin Cilic on Monday.That followed Shapovalov recovering from his Covid-19 diagnosis on arrival in Australia, and he has survived a number of tense matches to make it this far.Only Milos Raonic and Michael Belkin had ever reached the quarter-finals in Melbourne among Canadian men in the Open Era, before 14th-seeded Shapovalov matched them on Sunday.“

It could be a crucial week for Boris Johnson in his battle to stay in power.The British Prime Minister has been under pressure for weeks over alleged summer garden parties and Christmas gatherings held in Downing Street when the rest of the country was under strict Covid-19 lockdowns. A report into the allegations, set to be released this week, could be the final straw for Johnson's increasingly mutinous party.Johnson's approval ratings are plunging and there appears to be a growing sense among some parts of his ruling Conservative Party that he is becoming a liability. Two polls in the last week suggested that as many as two-thirds of voters want him to resign.The parliamentary rebellion is growing. One Conservative MP defected to the opposition Labour Party last week and newspapers have reported rumors of more lawmakers demanding Johnson's exit.The Prime Minister has given unconvincing answers when asked about the numerous parties. First he said there were none. Once undeniable evidence emerged, he denied k

Chris Luxon says greater access to quicker Covid-19 tests and medicines that can treat the virus will be key to keeping goods flowing around the country.Supply chain issues are thought to be inevitable because around 350,000 workers may be isolating at one time.But the National Party leader says the Government needs to bring in more drugs that are effective against Covid-19.He told Roman Travers officials need to chase down more rapid antigen and saliva tests.“If I had a Rolls-Royce engine crisis at Air New Zealand or when the fuel pipeline got dug up and we’re trying to run the airline with 30 per cent of the fuel, you are on these issues like literally every six hours.”LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The move to Red has sparked a string of event cancellations.Both the New Zealand Masters Games in Dunedin and New Zealand Fashion Week in Auckland have been cancelled.Auckland's Splore Festival, Christchurch's Great Kiwi Beer Festival and Sculpture on the Peninsula, Dunedin's Craft Beer and Food Festival, and parts of Wellington's Lunar New Year Festival have also been called off.Viv Beck, chief executive of Auckland's Heart of the City business association told Roman Travers it's not the news anyone wanted to hear.“Events have been really a saviour last year, so it’s pretty devastating to see that all come apart now.”LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Had a nice chat with three of the police manning the roadblock at Uretiti this morning. One was up from Nelson, another from Wellington and one was from Whangarei. Standing in the rain in the middle of the night, but still cheery and positive, even though it's a job no-one really wanted. It was nice to meet you guys, as I said to them, they're keeping the peace and that's part of the job. If police hadn't gone along with this, we'd have had chaos and confrontation and no one needs that. Coincidentally, it's the one-year anniversary of that shonky Ihumātao deal and you might see a connection between the two. Ihumātao was a piece of privately-owned land, bought by Fletchers for a housing development. Tangata whenua objected, occupied, and eventually got their way, forcing the Government to buy it. Taxpayers shelled out $30 million, with the promise there'd be some housing there, but of course a year on, what's happened? Not a thing. The Housing Minister says there was never any promise it would be a fast proces

A new lick of paint is needed for town centres around the country. Dunedin architect Ian Butcher has criticised its city centre as tiresome, dull and uninteresting. Dulux colour specialist Davina Harper told Tim Dower most towns want to play it safe when they choose their colours. “Colour can be a little bit polarising, but I think they’re missing a real opportunity to add some personality and interest.” LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

An immunologist is calling on the Government to bring forward the Covid booster shot timeframe.  Ministers are set to meet today to discuss this exact issue, as New Zealand records its first case of the Omicron variant in MIQ in Christchurch. A third shot is currently only available to those who last had their second shot, at least six months ago.  Malaghan Institute Director Dr Graham Le Gros, told Tim Dower with the new threat of Omicron, we should move the eligibility to five months. “It won’t be quite as good as the six month period, but at least it will stop the infection that this Omicron actually hospitalising people or making people sick.” LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I come to the programme this morning with a feeling of hope after seeing something yesterday that I haven't seen in well over a year. Backpackers. A group of four of them, in their 20s, walking the Te Araroa trail together. All three thousand kilometres of it. Te Araroa should be on every young New Zealander's bucket list, it stretches all the way from Cape Reinga to Bluff. And bit by bit, as we recognise the value of it, old tracks are being improved, new ones built and little gaps are being closed with new connections. I crossed paths with the group as they were about 400ks into the journey, a beautiful day and they'd parked their stuff on the beach for a swim. Before COVID, I'd run into people from all over the world walking Te Araroa, collecting great stories of New Zealand and New Zealanders they'd take home and share. Word of mouth is your best form of advertising. I always make a point of saying hello, partly because I'm nosy and I like to know where people are from, but also because I want to be welco

Today's GDP figures are likely to be better than expected. They're due out mid-morning. ANZ economist Finn Robinson told Tim Dower the ANZ bank thinks the economy has contracted by four and half percent. He says that's considerably better than the seven percent the bank had initially pencilled in. “What we have with that is the preliminary data that is released about how construction and retail trade over the course of the year and it looks like they held up a bit better than expected.” LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Farmers are evenly split on their expectations for the coming year. Dairy is the most optimistic sector, while dry stock farmers and horticulturalists are more pessimistic.  Rabobank NZ's CEO Todd Charteris joined Tim Dower. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A health expert says rural hospitals have been left off Andrew Little's Christmas list.  The Government is giving hospitals more than half a billion dollars for upgrades and to help them support more Covid-19 and non-Covid-19 patients.  The Rural GP Network says the provinces have been left out, with some rural hospitals not getting any funding at all.  Rural Health Clinical Director Dr Jeremy Webber told Tim Dower they're calling out for more resources. “Staffing is huge issue in the rural across the board, so we’ve got a huge reliance on locals so it’s a real strain for our department and this is reflected across the country.”  LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's GDP figures are likely to be better than expected. They're due out mid-morning. ANZ economist Finn Robinson told Tim Dower the ANZ bank thinks the economy has contracted by four and half percent. He says that's considerably better than the seven percent the bank had initially pencilled in. “What we have with that is the preliminary data that is released about how construction and retail trade over the course of the year and it looks like they held up a bit better than expected.” LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Three Waters is back on the agenda today. 23 local councils are going to Parliament to make their opposition clear. That's around a third of the local bodies affected by Three Waters, but it doesn't mean the other 44 are all on board. And they're right to be suspicious of it. Three Waters will take away all those council-owned drinking water systems and the storm water and the wastewater...and hand it over to four unelected regional bodies. Now, when the Minister is asked to explain why we need to do this at all, she points to the Havelock North incident five years back. And fair enough, that was terrible. Drinking water contaminated with sheep faeces, thousands of people made sick and at least four dead as a result. Not good enough. We also have major problems in some of our bigger centres with broken down old systems that leak sewage when it rains. Not good enough. Then you've got the Auckland issue; a massive failure to build and upgrade, despite milking huge fees from developers to connect new builds to t

Auckland Airport has gone from zero to hero. It's expecting to see a 4000 percent increase in domestic travellers today. Operations general manager Anna Cassels-Brown told Tim Dower 600 people departed yesterday but there are 10-thousand leaving today. “But also, it may surprise you that we have not much shy of 10,000 people arriving into the domestic terminal as well, so it goes both ways.”  LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Travellers are being advised to b  patient if they want to leave Auckland. The border is down, with people needing a vaccine pass or a recent negative Covid-19 test to leave the city.  The AA is asking people to slow down and take snacks and drink for the trip.  Safety spokesperson Dylan Thomsen told Tim Dower motorists should expect delays. “Think that it’s going to take longer than it normally does, don’t set time deadlines and put that pressure on yourself.” LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There's a concerning drop off in the number of students taking algebra at high school. Victoria University of Wellington research shows the number of Year 11 students enrolled in level 1 algebra, dropped from 64 percent in 2013 to 45 percent in 2019. Nanogirl Dr. Michelle Dickinson told Tim Dower some students don't understand how important these subjects are to their future careers. “Universities will require decent levels of mathematics to study lots of programmes, and when you’re doing entry-level mathematics, you’re probably not even thinking about what course I'm going to do at university.” There's also a thought that an overly difficult Level 1 Algebra exam in 2016, may have put students off. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dear Auckland, I just wanted to say how glad I am that you're being allowed out again from tonight. I've kept in contact as best I can with people close to me down there, but sometimes you haven't wanted to talk and I completely understand it. Who wants to do Facetime of WhatsApp from their couch day after day...especially with someone in another part of the country where life's a lot more like normal. What you've endured in the region I know has been mentally exhausting and absolutely frustrating. I want to talk a little this morning about one personal friend who hasn't made it through the Auckland lockdown. I knew he was struggling and he'd talked about it a bit, but he tried to be stoic, and at the end he kept just how bad it was all to himself. When I first heard, part of me wanted to be cross with him about it. Then came the self-recrimination, what if I'd phoned when I was telling myself we hadn't spoken in a week. Sometimes we need to walk a mile in another person's shoes to really get it. There but fo