Larry Williams Drive

Leaft Foods has attracted some big global backers this week.They’ve raised money from investors including a Silicon Valley venture.Leaft Foods grow leafy green crops in Canterbury and then extract the protein from them to be used to make other foods.Business commentator Rod Oram joined Andrew Dickens.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Warriors CEO Cameron George is not happy about a fixture clash at Mt Smart.NZRL has announced a test match at Mt Smart between the Kiwis and Tonga one week before the Warriors’ own Mt Smart homecoming.Tiger Woods has made his return to the Masters this week after his car accident.After the first day, Woods currently sits in joint 10th and 1 under par.Meanwhile, All Blacks Damian McKenzie, Anton Lienert-Brown and Stephen Donald have come under fire for their latest business venture.The three are co-founders of Grins, a new RTD brand, and have come under controversy for being involved in an alcohol business as athletes. Phil Gifford and Lavina Good joined Andrew Dickens to discuss the week's sports newsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Government is pumping $13 million into growing the local organic medicinal cannabis industry.The Beehive reckons cannabis could become the new wine when it comes to exports.The money is going to Marlborough-based organic cannabis growing company Puro.Puro managing director Tim Aldridge joined Andrew Dickens.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Medical and teaching staff have lost a High Court case against the Government over vaccine mandates.The review was brought to the court by New Zealand Teachers Speaking Out with Science and New Zealand Doctors Speaking Out with Science.But in a reserved decision released on Friday, Justice Cooke determined that the mandates were lawful - deemed a demonstrably justified limit on the right to refuse a medical treatment when they were imposed.Meanwhile, Nanaia Mahuta took part in a virtual meeting overnight in NATO.In response, the Russian government has blacklisted 130 officials, including Jacinda Ardern and every single MP among other high-ranking New Zealanders.And Barry Soper explains what the next moves are for himself and wife Heather du Plessis-Allan over the next year.Newstalk ZB Political Editor Barry Soper joined Andrew Dickens.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

President Emmanuel Macron is the clear favorite in France's presidential race, yet a big unknown factor may prove decisive: an unprecedented proportion of people say they are unsure who to vote for or don’t intend to vote at all, bringing a large dose of uncertainty to the election.The pro-European centrist is still comfortably leading 11 other candidates in the polls ahead of Sunday's first-round vote. His main challenger, far-right leader Marine Le Pen, appears on the rise in recent days. Both are in good position to reach the runoff on April 24, which would make them replay the 2017 election that Macron won handily.There’s “no certainty,” Macron warned during his first big rally on Saturday near Paris.“Don’t believe in polls or commentators who would sound definitive and tell you that ... the election is already done, that everything is going to be all right,” he told his supporters. “From Brexit to so many elections, what seems unlikely can happen!”Scenarios for the this year's second-round vote show that

Residents of Shanghai are struggling to get meat, rice and other food supplies under anti-coronavirus controls that confine most of its 25 million people in their homes, fueling frustration as the government tries to contain a spreading outbreak.People in China's business capital complain online grocers often are sold out. Some received government food packages of meat and vegetables for a few days. But with no word on when they will be allowed out, anxiety is rising.Zhang Yu, 33, said her household of eight eats three meals a day but has cut back to noodles for lunch. They received no government supplies.“It’s not easy to keep this up,” said Zhang, who starts shopping online at 7 a.m.“We read on the news there is (food), but we just can’t buy it,” she said. “As soon as you go to the grocery shopping app, it says today’s orders are filled.”The complaints are an embarrassment for the ruling Communist Party during a politically sensitive year when President Xi Jinping is expected to try to break with tradition

Dan Carter is inching ever closer to that 1598th kick after nearly 24 hours.The All Blacks legend is on track to hit that target, averaging 66 kicks an hour. Dan Carter joined Andrew Dickens to provide an update on his progress almost 24 hours after he started yesterday.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Warriors are coming home.They’ve been looking forward to coming home for a while and will have an emotional homecoming at Mt Smart Stadium.But this week, NZRL announced a test against Tonga at Mt Smart for July 3, one week before the Warriors’ first home game in two years.Warriors CEO Cameron George joined Andrew Dickens.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Arts Minister says the extended events support scheme will provide the sector with certainty.The Government will underwrite established events up until January 2023 in a bid make sure more events go ahead.Minister Carmel Sepuloni says this is an important step to help keep the arts sector trucking along.“We recognise that there’s some uncertainties for the sector. We want to encourage event organisers to continue with their plans. We recognise the importance of arts and culture events”LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A word of caution for EV drivers going through Transmission Gully.There are no charging stations or service stations along the 27 kilometre route.AA Motoring Affairs General Manager Simon Douglas told Andrew Dickens because the route is also steep, EV motorists need to be careful when using the new motorway.“Be prepared. I think EV owners will notice that it takes a bit of extra charge to get over, but from what I have seen, most EV owners are pretty well aware of range and it’s just a matter of making sure you’re topped up.”LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

NATO has agreed to step up efforts to help Australia and New Zealand combat China's growing influence.It came after Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta attended a virtual NATO meeting last night to discuss Russia's invasion into Ukraine.Tensions are rising in the Pacific after the Solomon Islands negotiated a security deal with China.Former ambassador to the United States Tim Groser told Andrew Dickens the events of the past few weeks have transformed the entire global security situation.“Security is going to the top of the political agenda. New thinking will be required, including in New Zealand, so we should keep an open mind.”LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

America is sending thousands of more weapons to Ukraine.It includes roughly another $100 million worth of weapons, 12,000 anti-armour systems and hundreds of 'suicide drones'.US Correspondent Dan Mitchinson told Andrew Dickens nearly $2 billion worth of assistance has been offered so far.“They gonna continue to back this dark horse here and showing Russia that although Ukraine’s army is smaller, it will continue holding off the Russian troops as we’ve seen so far with the last almost two months now.”Meanwhile, the UK's Prime Minister is set to meet with the German Chancellor to discuss how to wean European countries off Russian gas.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Researchers in the Dunedin Study say we need to take into account the childhoods of those opposed to the vaccine.This world-famous study found that 13 per cent of their group were resistant to the Covid vaccination.When they dug down deeper, the researchers found that many became distrustful of adults at a very early age and now believe that authority is only there to take advantage of them and therefore, they’re resistant of the Covid vaccine.Dunedin Study director Richie Poulton joined Andrew Dickens.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

And so we come to the end of a week where I have barely mentioned Covid.A week where the Director-General of Health has resigned. And he told us he wanted to finish the job, Dr Bloomfield leaves his position in July.With that departure date, you can get no better indication that this phase of the pandemic is coming to an end.Which is not to say some new twist might yet emerge. But let's not go there until we have to.And as the virus falls off our front pages we're beginning to see stories that were hidden by the fog of war Covid provided. A fog that protected senior ministers from scrutiny.None more so than Police Minister Poto Williams. She's had a week from hell.Firstly she prevents the new opposition spokesperson on Police matters having a sit down with the Commissioner. Why? Who knows.Then she rejects the premise that gang activity has increased despite all the statistics and evidence at hand.Finally, she abdicates her responsibility on police response times by firstly claiming she did not have the figure

It’s no secret that stock markets have been very volatile this year and investors have had a tough time.And now investors in bonds, which are always considered to be safe and conservative, are all over the shop as well.This year, the return from investing in a global government bond is down more than 8 percent on average so far and the return from investing in a global corporate bond is down more than 9 percent on average so far.In some cases, it’s down more than equity investments.It’s the worst quarterly return on record for bonds.Fisher Funds Senior Portfolio Manager Sam Dickie joined Andrew Dickens.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Local businesses are being impacted by a proposed new cycleway in Wellington which goes through Newtown up to the Basin Reserve.They say they’ve had virtually no consultation and they aren’t happy about the cycleway as it’ll take away carparks.The businesses in the area have launched their own petition to take to Wellington Council.Four Seasons Florist owner Laura Newcombe joined Andrew Dickens.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Grammy Award-winning songwriter Ed Sheeran won a U.K. copyright battle over his 2017 hit “Shape of You" on Wednesday, then slammed what he described as a “culture" of baseless lawsuits intended to squeeze money out of artists eager to avoid the expense of a trial.The British pop star and his co-writers, Snow Patrol’s John McDaid and producer Steven McCutcheon, had denied allegations that the song copied part of 2015's “Oh Why” by Sami Chokri, who performs under the name Sami Switch.“Whilst we're obviously happy with the result, I feel like claims like this are way too common now and have become a culture where a claim is made with the idea that a settlement will be cheaper than taking it to court, even if there is no basis for the claim," Sheerhan said in a video posted on Twitter. “It's really damaging to the songwriting industry."Andrew Sutcliffe, the lawyer for the co-writers of “Oh Why,'' argued that there was an “indisputable similarity between the works.” He claimed that Sheeran had “Oh Why” in his head

It’s looking at costing up to $1 million to repair the Parliament lawn after the protests.And it’s not just repairing the lawn as well, as the mess from Parliament has to be tidied up.The lawn has been completely ruined due to being infested with rats and human defecation.The Country host Jamie Mackay joined Andrew Dickens.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nicola Willis and Grant Robertson have been interviewed for the NZ Herald.Inflation was the big issue that was brought up in the interviews.With tackling inflation, their approaches aren’t actually that much different but are dressed differently.NZ Herald Business Editor at Large Liam Dann joined Andrew Dickens.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If you’re in KiwiSaver, chances are part of the appeal of signing up is that you get a regular financial contribution to your retirement from your employer.So it’s come as a bit of a shock that depending on your contract, that employer contribution may be coming out of your pay packet.Current law allows this under a total remuneration clause in employment contracts, and Consumer NZ says this is a loophole and the Government should close this.Financial author Martin Hawes joined Andrew Dickens.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.