Early Edition with Kate Hawkesby

Cricket legend Chris Cairns says he is ready to tackle the greatest challenge he has ever faced as he begins rehabilitation following a serious health scare.The former Black Cap, 51, collapsed in Canberra last month after suffering a massive heart attack, resulting in an aortic dissection, or a tear in the inner layer of the body's main artery.During life-saving emergency heart surgery in Sydney, Cairns then suffered a stroke in his spine, resulting in paralysis in his legs.Cairns' family said last month that he would be undertaking a significant rehabilitation process at a specialist spinal hospital, and tonight the former all-rounder posted a video on social media to update fans on his condition."Just over six weeks ago I suffered a type A aortic dissection, which essentially means there's a tear in one of the major arteries of the heart," Cairns said. "I had several surgeries and grafts and, very thankfully, the specialists were able to save the heart itself."One of the complications that arose was a spina

A new managed isolation system hopes to beat some of the bots.At 8am a virtual lobby will open, placing people in a queue for 3000 managed isolation vouchers released at 9am.Alexandra Birt of Grounded Kiwis told Kate Hawkesby there are some positives to the new system.“It definitely will affect the bots in the sense that, the ones that would notify you the times that the release would occur obviously won’t need those anymore, because we know that the release will occur at 9am New Zealand time, so from that perspective, there's definitely greater transparency.”LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

These days there seems to be a reality tv show about anything, but this really takes the cake. CBS have made "The Activist" which involves so-called activists competing against each other to go to the G20. They compete in challenges where they're judged back on how much online engagement they get. Judges include activist icons like Usher and Priyanka Chopra- Jonas. With us now is Forbes senior contributor and diversity and inclusion consultant, Dr Janice Gassama Asare. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Day 31 in Level 4 for Aucklanders, and boy, are we over it. There’s actually a word for how we’re all feeling and it’s been called the dominant emotion of 2021. It’s called languishing. Psychologist Dougal Sutherland, who we had on the show recently, says "the psychological toll of Delta may start to show, even for those out of lockdown now." He said recently that apparently even people with no existing or underlying mental health concerns can feel this languishing. Languishing is basically just feeling like life is dull and meaningless, you can feel stagnant and empty. Everything seems foggy, Groundhog Day. I mean hello? Does that not sum up everyone in Auckland right now or what? This lockdown has felt harder, it's certainly been longer. But from the get go, we've been less enthusiastic about baking banana bread and doing home workouts, and we just seem more.. blah. Like we're over it. Sutherland says that "in the UK, increased levels of languishing were reported as lockdowns continued", and he says that Au

A foreign policy expert says New Zealand being left out in the cold in a new security pact could be a benefit.  The three-way deal between the UK, the US and Australia aims to limit China's might in the Asia Pacific by sharing military technology.  Democracy Project International Analyst Geoffrey Miller says New Zealand is highly dependent on China for exports and should keep up current relations.  He told Kate Hawkesby the pact is already provoking anger from the Chinese government.  "In the Global Times, which is Chinese state media, and uses more colourful language... they said Australia could be a potential target for a nuclear strike." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

National is calling on the Government to explain why there aren't more Auckland GPs administering the Covid vaccine.  Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's indicated that about 113 GP practices are administering the vaccine across the region. Health spokesperson Shane Reti told Kate Hawkesby it isn't good enough, considering there around 400 practices in the city overall. "Why are we making it so hard, these are the people we trust who do 100 percent of vaccines in New Zealand anyway." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

New Zealand schools are missing their international students, and not just because of the money they bring in. Primary, intermediate and secondary schools lost 40 million dollars in revenue between 2019 and last year, because of foreign students returning home Figures will be worse this year, with enrolments tipped to be lowest next year. Secondary Principals' Association president, Vaughan Couillault told Kate Hawkesby there's a cultural aspect to the students' stay as well. "We get to experience and be part of the learning from different cultures. At my school, the Vietnamese community really adds value to our school culture." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bit of a worry that in these already stressful times for young people, they have an additional worry gnawing away at them; the destruction of the planet and their fear of humanity being doomed. Eco-anxiety is huge. The BBC recently reported a “new global survey which illustrates the depth of anxiety many young people feel about climate change. Nearly 60 percent of young people felt very worried or extremely worried. More than 45 percent said feelings about the climate affected their daily lives, three quarters said they thought the future was frightening. Over half, 56 percent, thought humanity was doomed.” That’s disturbing, isn’t it? Imagine growing in a world where you think humanity is doomed? Having said that, we grew up with a fear of nuclear war wiping us all out, and we were told robots would take over the world, so I guess there’s always been a niggling fear that humanity is doomed. The climate change worry is serious because it’s having a knock-on effect on young people’s plans for the future. Apart

A lifetime gang member has concerns, about Covid-19 spreading within gang communities. Some members of an Auckland Mongrel Mob chapter are isolating, after a woman visited the Mongrel Mob Pasifika pad in Takanini while positive with the virus. Ashley Bloomfield says he's not concerned about the situation. But lifetime Black Power member Denis O'Reilly told Kate Hawkesby he should be. "We are many in number, highly mobile and disobedient. Just like certain Aucklanders going to Wānaka." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Auckland's Level Four lockdown could be making the grass even greener on the other side.  Real estate agents in regions such as Tauranga are reporting record levels of interest from Auckland home buyers. Some are even making lockdown sales where the buyers haven't been able to see the property.  Valocity valuation director James Wilson told Kate Hawkesby it was already happening pre-lockdown, but now it's coming to a head. "We've now seeing and hearing those stories around interest levels spiking, you look at agencies reporting massive interest for listings that do come up." LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As tough as this lockdown is for many people, it’s really tough for the kids having to do school work from home, and for their parents who may be trying to juggle work, while also keeping their kids focused on learning.  It’s a juggling act we’ve been keeping up for 4 weeks now, and as Aucklanders enter a fifth week of it, it’s understandable the wheels are starting to fall off a bit. Reality is biting, this is a really long time to have kids away from class. There’s something irreplaceable about that level of engagement from a teacher face to face, as opposed to online lessons or worksheet instructions. There is huge pressure on students to stay motivated for their at home learning, yet they’re being deprived of their usual tools in a classroom environment, their mates, their sense of purpose, their teacher front and centre. The younger they are, the tougher it is for them to grasp and stay with this. And tough for working parents too. The juggle adds enormous amounts of pressure to households. In fact, it’s

A suggestion changes being agreed to by one of our major supermarket chains don't go far enough.  It comes after a report by the Commerce Commission found competition was lacking in the grocery sector. Foodstuffs North Island, which owns New World, Four Square and Pak'nSave, says it's now willing to support a consumer-focused code of conduct that aims to treat suppliers better. It adds it'll look at simplifying promotions and loyalty schemes. Consumer NZ Chief Executive Jon Duffy says told Kate Hawkesby the company is doing the bare minimum. "This was inevitable, that the code of conduct for suppliers is very much the low-hanging fruit in the analysis that's being done, it was going to happen." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The idea of a student loan-type scheme is expected to be a win-win for businesses and the Government. Treasury's being asked to introduce it to help companies get through the economic impact of Covid-19. The idea's come from Cognitus Economic Insight principal economist, Richard Meade. He told Kate Hawkesby the Government would have about 14 percent less debt, if the scheme was put in place. "But the level of support offered is about two and a half times higher than wage subsidies, because you're ensuring businesses revenue lines, not just one of the cost lines."LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Wellington Chamber of Commerce says New Zealand is too reliant on Auckland. The capital has been in Alert Level Two for a week now...but with Auckland still in Alert Level Four...paused supply chains are leaving businesses vulnerable.  Chamber CEO Simon Arcus told Kate Hawkesby the reliance needs to end.  "We need to think differently about the way we're building New Zealand cities. Things like warehousing, logistics, modern e-commerce should be driving our thinking when we're planning our cities." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

So, although we were delivered the worst kept secret that Auckland’s staying in Level 4 another week, I'm not convinced that'll be it. The PM said cabinet had made an ‘in principle’ decision that Auckland would move to Level 3 next Tuesday midnight, but an in-principle decision is not a final decision.  As always, they’ll make the actual decision based on the latest available data, and who knows what this week brings, and what that data might be. We are of course in a bit of a game here of PR spin: 'pretend and extend' is their current mantra. Pretend lockdown's working, and extend it. The idea being, that way you'll get more buy in. How much are we buying in though? If it was working, we wouldn't still be getting cases and we'd be out of this by now. As of last weekend, there'd already been more than 7 thousand lockdown breaches reported: 141 people formally warned, 71 people charged with a total of 75 offences. We've also had the MIQ escapee, the drunk driver turning up at the border trying to get through,

Another week of level 4 for Auckland and level 2 for the rest of the country. The longer this goes on; the more questions are being raised about at what point elimination strategy becomes socially and economically unviable.  Professor Robert MacCulloch, from Auckland University's faculty of Business and Economics discussed with Kate Hawkesby. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A drive to get more disabled people vaccinated.  The Taikura Trust is launching Tiaki, a Covid-19 campaign aiming to break down barriers to access for Auckland's disabled community.  Barriers include transportation to vaccine centres and communication not being catered to them.  Minister for Disability issues Carmel Sepuloni told Kate Hawkesby there is vaccine hesitancy too.  "People may have had negative experiences with the health system with previous situations, so that may extend to vaccinations. We need to do whatever we can to promote vaccination amongst disabled people." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As you'll be aware we're in Te Wiki o te reo Māori at the moment - Māori Language Week.  And today is the day the Māori Language Commission want us to get together at midday today and set a record.  They're calling it the Māori Language Moment, and are hoping to set the world record for most people speaking an endangered, indigenous language at the same time.  Māori Language Commissioner, Rawinia Higgins, joined Kate Hawkesby. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“We need to stay the course. We don’t want to yo yo in and out of lockdowns. We don’t want to waste our hard fought gains thus far. We have to stay vigilant. We don’t want to be Australia. We need to stay focused on the end goal here. Auckland is doing the heavy lifting but we know Aucklanders can do a little bit more.”That’s just some of the rhetoric well get dished out today.  Expect any or all of these things to be rolled out.My guess - and I’m no expert or epidemiologist - I’m just another Aucklander staring at the 4 walls of my house sick and tired of cooking all day - but my guess from here is we are not coming out of level 4 this week.And that’s not so much to do with case numbers or testing numbers - as we’ve been led to believe. It’s about the mystery cases. Something the government purposely didn’t talk about early on but you’ll notice is now talking about. Because they have to.Because they’re the crux of this thing. It’s not the numbers of infected people inside bubbles and families - it’s the myst

Some good news over the weekend with Denmark sending half a million Pfizer vaccines to New Zealand.But this comes as Denmark is completely getting rid of its own Covid restrictions.What makes their situation interesting is how they have a similar population to us.So what have they done right and could we learn a thing or two from Denmark?Professor of Viral Diseases at Copenhagen University Hospital Jens Lundgren joined Kate Hawkesby.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.