Early Edition with Kate Hawkesby

High hopes new immigration settings will have much-needed talent flocking to our shores. The Government's reopened sections for skilled migrant and parent visas, key residence categories effectively shut off during the pandemic. Malcolm Pacific Immigration Chief Executive, David Cooper told Kate Hawkesby the Government has approved close to 60,000 job checks so far. He says eventually, around 50-60,000 people will get visas, with a good percentage going on to apply for residency. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I’m pleased to see the 21 year old woman in Wellington who got shafted by Uber is finally calling the ride share out for the crap service it is.  We’ve told our kids to cancel their Uber accounts. It’s just not tenable or safe anymore to catch them, because they never turn up.  The most common thing they do is cancel on you. This woman in Wellington was trying to get home after a night out and was left in the dark on the side of the road because three Ubers in a row cancelled on her.  She’s not alone in having that experience and I can’t work out why they’re doing it.  They make no money from cancelled rides, they only upset the riders and it makes people lose faith in the service and in our case, winds up with people cancelling the app. The last time I asked my daughter to Uber home after a school event, she had Uber after Uber just cancel on her. Over and over again. No explanation. She’d waited half an hour – longer than the trip home was – and still no Uber turned up. Just a string of cancelled rides.  In

Questions have been asked as to whether the Government has read the room wrong on the He Waka Eke Noa emissions plan. The Government proposes requiring farmers to pay levies on emissions from 2025, Cabinet will make the decisions on those prices and also how sequestration will be recognised, with farmers having only a small amount of input. And that's before the large expected loss in production for sheep and dairy farms. He Waka Eke Noa programme director is Kelly Forster who joined Kate Hawkesby. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Calls to be careful about increases in gas and electricity bills, before jumping to conclusions. Genesis and Contact Energy customers will see their gas bills rise by an average of 11 percent, while Contact's electricity bills will go up by around 8 percent. The move comes as Genesis reports an increase in annual profit of 600 percent, the bills will still go up regardless. Major Electricity Users' Group Chair John Harbord told Kate Hawkesby it's worth unpicking why the increase is happening in the first place. He says the wholesale electricity price doubled overnight four years ago, and some of those increases are starting to trickle into the domestic market. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Recruitment company Beyond Recruitment has found the tight labour market means businesses are focusing more on the welfare of their employees. Figures show two thirds of organisations are offering hybrid working arrangements, and the same number are offering flexible work hours. Beyond Recruitment Chief Executive Liza Viz told Kate Hawkesby the job market is a workers' market. She says worker shortages are at an all time high and staff availability is at an all time low.  LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

My daughter’s in Queenstown with a friend and her family at the moment, and she's been snapchatting me pictures of all the shop and cafe windows, with all the 'STAFF WANTED' signs everywhere.  I haven't forgotten about the plight of Queenstown, because we still hear regularly from many business owners down there, still exasperated.  And many of the visitors who return from there have tales to tell. All the same tale sadly.  That it’s a gut-wrenching time of heartbroken owner operators struggling to get by with no staff.  For many who are repeat visitors or bach owners there, it’s sadness at what’s become of the place. A once bustling vibrant city with an international feel.  Now it’s the same old story all the time - late check ins because rooms aren’t ready, the lack of housekeeping services in general, the lack of staff, the inexperience of the staff they do have, the shut shops and the closed cafes.  None of this is new, but the fact it’s still going on is heart breaking. It just hasn’t been fixed yet. The

The latest rising truancy numbers have principals worried. More than 16,700 new cases were investigated in the first half of the year. Meanwhile, the number of non-enrolled kids nearly matched the total of non-enrolled cases for last year. President of the New Zealand Principals' Federation Cherie Taylor-Patel joined Kate Hawkesby. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

National is ruling out a referendum on co-governance, for now. Act is making the referendum a bottom-line in any coalition negotiations after next year's election. National leader Christopher Luxon told Kate Hawkesby it's not something the party is considering right now. He says it's not the party's policy and he doesn't see the need. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says it's up to National to make its position clear. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A farming expert has her fingers crossed that the latest agriculture sector proposals will be given the green light. Newstalk ZB understands the Government will announce today its response to the He Waka Eke Noa report - which proposes an industry-wide emissions pricing scheme. It's likely to accept key recommendations - which would include farmers calculating and paying for their own emissions from 2025. Lincoln University's Jacqueline Rowarth told Kate Hawkesby it's unknown whether farmers will receive recognition for planting efforts. She says it's important to note tree planting off-sets emissions, rather than reducing them, and recent reports highlight it isn't the main solution. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Newstalk ZB Sport's Andrew Alderson joined Kate Hawkesby to discuss Bathurst, Formula 1 racing and the Black Ferns so-called 'sell-out'.  LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

UK and Europe Correspondent Kay Oliver joined Kate Hawkesby this morning to share news of the tragic bomb explosion at a petrol station in a small Irish town. She said that in the small village of 400 people, everyone has been affected.  Pope Francis has sent his condolences.  Oliver has also said that King Charles has axed a lot of the pageantry ahead of his coronation next year.  The ceremony which usually takes about four hours will be cut down to just over one hour.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hopes changes to chef recruitment rules will help alleviate a 30,000 hospitality worker shortage. Following industry concerns, the Government's removing the qualification requirement for chefs being hired through the Accredited Employer Work Visa. The tourism and hospitality median wage exception has also been extended for another year. Hospitality New Zealand Chief Executive, Julie White told Kate Hawkesby she's optimistic the changes will be felt in time for this summer. She said they really need Immigration to double down and process the visas of incoming chefs quickly.  "We are in desperate need. We have a critical staff shortage."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I’m pleased that the woeful turnout for the local body elections still at least saw change. There is a mood for change – a strong one it would seem, and the results should be a wake-up call to anyone left in the Beehive still not believing that people are sick to the back teeth of the establishment. We are sick of the status quo, we are sick of where we’re at. It was, as one political commentator pointed out, “a bloodbath” for the left. It’s an early shot across the bow for what we might see come election year next year. The country basically threw out incumbents, the whole country pretty much, bar Wellington, swung to the right. Auckland for the first time in a decade voted in a right-wing Mayor. What I like about that is he pulls no punches. When the head of Auckland Transport immediately resigned on the back of his win, Wayne Brown's response was "the whole board should follow suit." This is refreshing. There'll be few Aucklanders who disagree with the chaotic shambles that is Auckland Transport, so he’s o

A host of new mayors and councillors now make up the new local body politics scene - not that the majority of you might have known that. Or care. All the main cities, bar Hamilton, have a new mayor - Wayne Brown in Auckland, Tory Whanau in Wellington, Phil Mauger in Christchurch and Jules Radich in Dunedin. But despite more than a 40% mayoral turnover rate we didn't get out there and vote - the final turnout is expected to be 38-39%. We've got to do something - Local Government NZ President Stuart Crosby joined Kate Hawkesby to talk about the turnout and the disconnect. He said they need an independent review.  "The system is broken and we need to do something about it."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tomorrow is your absolute last chance to have your say in who will represent you in your town or city for the next three years. I’m not surprised that the vast majority of us have still yet to vote. Perhaps it’s more a case that the vast majority of us have decided not to bother voting as is the New Zealand tradition.  There’s a great deal to be concerned about and invested in when it comes to what happens with your local council. So why not have your say? Sometimes the quantity of key issues can be completely overwhelming, so perhaps the easiest thing to do is to simply focus on the one or two issues that really grind your gears and go from there. Whether it’s cycle paths or the Three Waters proposal or the issue of co-governance that heightens your enthusiasm, there’s no point in having a strong opinion or feeling about something if you’re not prepared to put that into action with your vote. Have a quick look through the booklet that came with your voting form and perhaps initially focus on those standing f

Mycoplasma bovis testing will be ramped up after a new strain has been detected in Mid Canterbury. The property is one of four that is currently infected with the cattle disease across the region Federated Farmers Mid-Canterbury President David Acland told Roman Travers the next step is work out the transmission line to determine how the disease entered the country. He says MPI has genome tested the property multiple times and the disease has been contained. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today at the Seaweed Summit 2022 the seaweed sector framework is being launched. It's all about encouraging a sector that could help us out both economically and environmentally while you can also use seaweed for seemingly anything - food, fertiliser, sunscreen and nutraceuticals. Today's event is jointly organised with a couple of groups, one of those being the Sustainable Seas Challenge Project - Rob Major leads that project and he joined Roman Travers. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

National is warning people are in for a pummelling as the Reserve Bank continues to hike the Official Cash Rate. Five 50 basis point rises in a row has the OCR at 3.5 percent. National Finance spokesperson Nicola Willis says every signal is interest rates will need to go higher to get inflation under control. She told Roman Travers government spending is having an influence. Willis says the more spending that goes on, the more fuel goes on the inflation fire. She says the cost of living crisis is raging on, so the Reserve Bank is having to pull ever-harder on the interest rate handbrake. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Wasn’t it sad yesterday to hear the news about Sir Dave Dobbyn and his recent diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease? I admire his honesty and the way he let people know through a Facebook post, saying he’d been feeling shaky for a while, and was diagnosed with the disease back in July. He now has a tremor in his right hand, and it’s giving his guitar playing "a new kind of twang". Sir Dave also says that the diagnosis has given him a wider appreciation of life, and he will still be performing. Generally speaking, we are all living longer with conditions that once upon a time ended lives. Now with modern medical intervention, we’re able to keep living well and truly beyond the expectations of years ago. It would almost be without exception that everybody seems to know somebody afflicted by a life changing diagnosis: Parkinson’s, dementia or some other form of neurological disease. Although we seem to have made such advances in many other disease states, the demise in the neurological aspects of life largely remain

The tide is high for the aquaculture industry as it gets a $210,000 government boost. The funding will be used for a strategy to boost the sector's workforce which is currently struggling, like every industry, to fill vacancies. Sanford CEO Peter Reidie joined Roman Travers. LISTEN ABOVE  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.