Early Edition with Kate Hawkesby

Doctors are calling for better regulation of health supplements, as demand surges during the Covid pandemic. Sales in New Zealand supermarkets reached 130-million dollars this year by September. However, some say they're expensive, we don't need them, and they can be dangerous. Medical Association chairman, Dr Alistair Humphrey, told Kate Hawkesby people are wasting their money taking supplements. “They haven’t been tested and so we have no idea whether they work or not, potentially they can be harmful. Their claims are quite extreme.” LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Police are undergoing a research project investigating whether they have unconscious bias towards Māori. It will be examining whether bias exists within Police, and how to eradicate it. Over in the US, Philadelphia has become the first big city to ban minor traffic stops. Police can't pull people over for broken tail lights or expired inspection stickers. Could something similar be done here? Criminal justice advocate Sir Kim Workman joined Kate Hawkesby. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hopes for a silver lining in Northland's third lockdown in as many months. The top of the Far North has moved to Alert Level Three at least until Monday after two Covid cases were found in Taipa in Doubtless Bay, with no known link to the wider Delta outbreak. The boundary slices through the Hokianga Harbour across to the Mangamuka Junction, to Kaeo and out to East Bay, east of Whangaroa Harbour. Far North mayor John Carter told Kate Hawkesby community, iwi and business leaders are using the developments to get as many people vaccinated as possible. “We’re all now working together united and the levels of vaccination and testing has gone up, and I think we’ll find we’ll end up with a good rate out of it.” LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As Auckland enters week 12 of lockdown, there must be a small sigh of relief for businesses. I mean another whole week, but at least a date is set to open. Which is just as well, because had they not given businesses a green light to open, I would’ve suggested they just stop waiting for permission and get on with it anyway. Leo Molloy it. Ian Tayor it. Set a date, make some rules, band together in a cohesive body and just make it happen. I think some business associations were already looking at that. But a reprieve of sorts yesterday – an ‘in principle’ decision for next Wednesday morning for retailers to throw open the doors. Lucky Aucklanders, Christmas shopping can be done in person, the couriers can get some respite, the online bingeing can be replaced by the bricks and mortar experience. Waikato of course gets better news, doors can open as of tomorrow morning, thrilling for them. So why not now for Auckland? Well according to the PM she wants to allow an extra week to let the school changes ‘bed in’, w

Irish-trained and Australian-owned nine-year-old Twilight Payment will attempt to become the first horse to successfully defend a Melbourne Cup since Makybe Diva won her third in a row in 2005 in Tuesday's race at Flemington. The stayer will go into the 3,200-meter race having finished runner-up in the 2,800-meter Irish St. Leger, a placing that was one better than his final lead-in run in the same race last year. Part-owner Nick Williams says the St. Leger finish will be an advantage for Twilight Payment and British stayer Spanish Mission in their bid to beat Caulfield Cup winner and favorite Incentivise. "Our horse and Spanish Mission are proven over the distance at the absolute top level in the world," Williams said. "We'll see on Tuesday whether Incentivise is up to that level at that trip." Twilight Payment is the Melbourne Cup top weight with 58.5 kilograms (129 pounds) after being asked to carry 3 kg (6.6 pounds) more than 2020 as he tries to become the oldest winner of the race. Jye McNeil will ride T

There seems to be bit of a grey area when it comes to whether we should make young children wear masks. While parents and officials want to protect kids against Covid, they also don't want to get in the way of a child's development. Each country is doing it differently, countries like France and Italy are masking kids six and over, but in the US, they want kids as young as two masked up. Developmental psychologist at University of Toronto Dr Kang Lee joined Kate Hawkesby from Beijing. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Well the climate change summit we all know the name of now COP26 is underway in Glasgow. Apart from a stoush between France and Australia, the main takeaway has been world leaders giving pretty grim outlooks on the future. The UN Secretary General says "we're digging our own grave" "either we stop it, or it stops us" and the UK Prmie Minister Boris Johnson says the world is at "one minute to midnight".  But what is New Zealand's attendance going to achieve, and what does the farming community want to see? CEO of Dairy NZ Dr Tim Mackle joined Kate Hawkesby.LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the corporate world, they call it avoiding death by a thousand cuts. It’s a smart marketing strategy and one I think the Government's currently employing. Get all your bad news out at once - more crudely referred to in some sectors as “flushing all the turds in one go”. When Steven Joyce wrote at the weekend about the wheels coming off this Government, he wasn’t wrong. Ramming through Three Waters, announcing a fanciful $15 billion light rail project, keeping Auckland locked down, butchering the MIQ messaging and changes. The wheels are well and truly off. And you’ll note, fronting all that bad news was Chris or Grant - anyone but Jacinda. That’s the other strategy of course - keep your most popular player away from bad news.  Save her for the good stuff. And here’s where the play is smart. The good stuff is coming. Matthew Hooton was the latest of many cynics to forecast a loosening of restrictions and an opening up - albeit an abandonment of the ambitious vaccine target - by November 29.  He said we coul

A crucial U.N. climate summit opened Sunday amid papal appeals for prayers and activists' demands for action, kicking off two weeks of intense diplomatic negotiations by almost 200 countries aimed at slowing intensifying global warming and adapting to the climate damage already underway. As U.N. officials gaveled the climate summit to its formal opening in Glasgow, the heads of the world's leading economies at the close of their own separate talks in Italy made pledges including stopping international financing of dirty-burning coal-fired power plants by next year. But much of the agreement was vague and not the major push some had been hoping for to give momentum to the climate summit.  Government leaders face two choices in Glasgow, Patricia Espinosa, head of the U.N. climate office, declared at the summit's opening: They can sharply cut greenhouse gas emissions and help communities and countries survive what is becoming a hotter, harsher world, Espinosa said. "Or we accept that humanity faces a bleak futur

The message to young kiwis who don't want to head overseas on their OE, is go to rural New Zealand instead. Think Rural, launched today, is a local government campaign, aiming to attract young people to rural areas for work. Otorohanga Mayor Max Baxter says told Kate Hawkesby we should treat an OE in New Zealand, like an OE overseas. “Certainly while we’ve been in Level 3, I mean the opportunity for freedom, a bit of space. The jobs are still out there in the rural community.” LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

So it seems the vocal minority of anti-vaxers and anti-lockdown protesters, otherwise known as 'freedom fighters' has got louder over the weekend. At least 5000 people gathered in Auckland domain on Saturday for the third major protest in six weeks. Protesters also targeted Dominion road yesterday grinding it a halt, and vandalised a vaccination centre in Panmure. So how do we deal with these people? How do we get through to these people? Professor Stephan Lewandowsky is a world-renowned cognitive scientist currently based in Bristol and he joined Kate Hawkesby. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hawkes Bay's water park Splash Planet is closing over summer for the first time since opening in 1998. Although Hawkes Bay isn’t reporting any Covid cases, there are concerns around low vaccination rates and how they would manage social distancing. Nigel Bickle, Hastings’ District Council CEO - who are in charge of Splash Planet – told Kate Hawkesby it’s become too complicated to open the park. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

UK and Europe Correspondent Vincent McAviney was aboard Sir David Attenborough's research vessel today to hear Sir David talk about the upcoming Climate Change Summit. He joined Kate Hawkesby to discuss this and how France has detained a U.K. fishing boat as the battle for fishing in the channel heats up. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I feel for the South Island, with their gradual waking up to the fact that Delta is real. A couple of weeks ago I said to my sister, who lives in Christchurch, when she called me en-route from her pilates class to her café lunch, before probably going on to the hairdresser, that she was living in a parallel universe. I told her I figured the South Island was where the whole of NZ was 11 weeks ago, when we thought Delta was just a “somewhere else” problem. We smugly watched from the comfort of our crowded cafes as chaos unfolded across the Tasman and we thought – oh lucky us, it’s not real for us here. And then boom, there it was. And how our lives have changed. I told her it would show up on her doorstep, it was a matter of when not if. She was confident it wouldn’t and that they’d all be so well vaccinated by the time it did, that it’d be no worries. And then wham. Yesterday’s news of two positive cases in the city. I called her and suggested she go get her hair done and have her last café coffee. But she wa

The latest MIQ change is more about reconnecting families, rather than tourism. From the 14th of November, MIQ stays will be halved to seven days.  People must then self-isolate at home for about three days until their day nine test comes back.  Rosann Connolly George from Vincent George Travel told Kate Hawkesby the focus will be on the repatriation of Kiwis and the education sector before we can think about tourism. “I honestly don’t see a tourism border opening up anytime soon.” LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The United States has issued its first passport with an “X” gender designation, marking a milestone in the recognition of the rights of people who do not identify as male or female, and expects to be able to offer the option more broadly next year, the State Department said Wednesday. The department did not identify the passport recipient, but Dana Zzyym of Fort Collins, Colorado, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview it was their passport. Zzyym, who prefers a gender-neutral pronoun, has been in a legal battle with the government since 2015 over a passport. Zzyym (pronounced Zimm) said the fight for the passport with an accurate gender designation was a way to help the next generation of intersex people win recognition as full citizens with rights. “I’m not a problem. I’m a human being. That’s the point,” Zzyym said. The U.S. special diplomatic envoy for LGBTQ rights, Jessica Stern, said the decision brings the government documents in line with the “lived reality” that there is a wider spectrum

I joked this time yesterday that I hoped the big day of announcements we were awaiting wouldn’t just be announcements of announcements. I mean I thought we were past that. Hence, I joked about it.  Sadly, clearly, we’re not past it.  This Government is still taking the piss at 1 o’clock. How much leeway do they actually want? How much rope? Are they joking? Yesterday’s press conference was one of the greater damp squibs of all time. They literally could not announce anything.  We were expecting MIQ changes, an update on school for Years 0-10, and the Waikato level change. What did we get? A delay on the MIQ announcement – they’re not ready, don’t know, haven’t got it together, they’re still ‘having conversations’.  Why? What about? They’ve had weeks and weeks to do this, is it that there’s disagreement? Is it that they literally can’t make a decision? Is it that they just don’t know? What is it? Likewise with schools. Weeks to prepare for this – still no clue. Primary students might be back by November 15th,

ACC is being told it needs to urgently change how it operates. It's been sent an open letter from the Green party and 27 other organisations. It comes after it was revealed more than a dozen employees were sharing and mocking people's injury details on a Snapchat group.  It also outlines huge work backlog issues and client battles. It cites major privacy breaches, massive workloads and long-standing client battles.  Victims' advocate Ruth Money told Kate Hawkesby until now concerns have fallen on deaf ears. She says the media has been trying to shine a light on it for years. “Finally, we’re getting a bit of traction but, it’s too little too late. Hopefully it’s the pressure that makes the diamond.”  LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A group representing working parents want more assurances their children will be safe at school. Primary and intermediate schools in level three areas are being told to prepare to re-open on November 15, but that date's not set in stone. Children would attend on different days and there would be outdoor classes. Working parent advocate Emma McLean told Kate Hawkesby parents are already trying to juggle work and home-schooling and the decision just creates more uncertainty. “We want to be able to trust the decisions that our schools and Government are making and if we can, that’s really going to make our load lighter.”  LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Widespread reaction to the Government's decision to go ahead with its controversial three water reforms. Water New Zealand says there are big challenges facing the sector, and these reforms address that.  Chief Executive Gillian Blythe told Kate Hawkesby about 30 options were considered. “This one is going to enable the unlocking of barriers that have contributed to this infrastructure deficit.” LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.