Larry Williams Drive

By RNZThe number of leaders attending the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) summit has dropped further, with both the President of the Marshall Islands and the Cook Islands prime minister pulling out.It was revealed at the weekend that the Kiribati president Taneti Maamau was not attending the gathering, and his nation had formally withdrawn from the Forum.Nauru's Lionel Aingimea was also understood to not be attending, ostensibly because of the soaring levels of Covid-19 in his country.Now, Cook Islands prime minister Mark Brown has also pulled out, and said he wants to focus on the election, which is to be held in three weeks.And Marshall Islands president David Kabua has said he would have attended the summit, but was not able to because of a legislatively-binding action to terminate the country's membership in the forum.That legislation had resulted from the five Micronesian leaders threatening to pull out 18 months ago over the failure of their nominee to be given the secretary generalship.A forum committee an

Police Minister Chris Hipkins said the Government wants to hit gangs "where it hurts:by taking their guns, cars and motorbikes and making it harder to launder money – while also responding to increasing incidents of intimidation and violence on our roads and streets and in our homes".Chris Hipkins joined Andrew Dickens.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A damning report has come out this week, revealing what can only be described as financial meltdown at the new polytech mega-merger.Pattrick Smellie from Business Desk who has been looking into this joined Andrew Dickens.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A movement to lower the voting age has its day Supreme Court.Make It 16 claims preventing 16 and 17-year-olds from voting is age discrimination and a breach of human rights.The group's efforts previously failed in the High Court in 2020 and Court of Appeal last year.Co-director Cate Tipler says they hope the Supreme Court will issue a formal declaration of inconsistency - something the Court of Appeal wouldn't do last year.They say the Crown's arguing it's a political issue for Parliament - but they're at the Supreme Court because it's a human rights issue, and the court ruling in their favour would show that.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Newstalk ZB's Chief Political Reporter is travelling with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to the Pacific Islands Forum in Suva and he joined Andrew Dickens to debrief the day.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Māori All Blacks will be hoping to repeat their heroics of the first instalment as they face the Irish for a second time in Wellington tonight. Sportstalk host D'Arcy Waldegrave joined Andrew Dickens for a preview of the match, and to look ahead to the series decider between the All Blacks and Ireland on Saturday.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Leaked documents show Kainga Ora is facing 60 years of unmanageable debt.For that reason, the documents also show Housing Minister Megan Woods has been urged to reject new funding requests from Kainga Ora.Megan Woods was unavailable to speak, but says no decisions have been made on the recommendations.Lawyer Adina Thorn, who has been taking on Kainga Ora and how they operate for a while now joined Andrew Dickens.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It was a sobering listen this morning hearing Kerre Woodham's callers list crisis after crisis after crisis in the Health and Education sectorsIt was nothing we didn't already know, we've been talking about this for decades.A lack of funding for training, l lack of funding for pay, iniquitous pay relativity which sees junior engineers receiving more money than a junior doctor for far less responsibility and hours. We set ourselves up for failure. And we've been doing it for years.It comes on the same day the New Zealand Women in Medicine survey of 900 clinicians is released.93.5 per cent saying we are in crisis with our healthcare workforce and with a conclusion that “we are at risk of a catastrophic collapse of the healthcare workforce".These are big structural problems that will be fixed over a time scale of decades, not years and the Government is putting aside billions for the process.But in between the big bad news you hear little stories of stupidity that could be fixed quickly and relatively cheaply.Th

Detailed reports on the future of Christchurch's stalled stadium have been made public -including the successful negotiation of fixed-price contract for its construction.And it has emerged that if the project is stopped, $40 million in "sunk costs" will be lost entirely and the budget will rise further if there is any pause on the build.The Christchurch City Council today confirmed the total budget for the project will sit at $683 million.Rates in the city will need to increase by 1.24 per cent to cover the cost of what the CCC will need to borrow to fund the project.In 2010 and 2011 the Christchurch quakes irreparably damaged AMI Stadium - formerly Lancaster Park.The plan to create a covered multi-use arena was put forward by a Government panel in 2012.That plan detailed how both local and central government would foot the bill.The projected cost was $470 million.But that rose to $533m, and in recent months the Christchurch City Council revealed the proposed design for the stadium, Te Kaha, had blown its bud

Sky Stadium may be running short of up to 200 staff during its biggest event in years this weekend.The All Blacks vs Ireland match on Saturday has sold out the stadium, which hasn't happened in three years, chief executive Shane Harmon said.But Harmon asked fans to be patient and kind with staff, who were likely to be operating under capacity this weekend."The stadium has had the same issues that the rest of the hospitality industry has had, particularly with illness," he said."Traditionally we would have a large number of international students and backpackers on our books, which isn't there at the moment."He was putting the word out asking for workers for the weekend.For a day like Saturday they would normally have about 1000 people working in some capacity in the stadium, but he believed they would be down 10 or 20 per cent. Hello Wellington. Huge weekend at @skystadium this weekend with the most anticipated match in years between the All Blacks & Ireland. We’re still seeking bartenders and

The race for UK Prime Minister is heating up, with 11 candidates in the running.New files have been revealed about Uber courting top politicians, including French President Emmanuel Macron.And the UK is expected to experience its hottest day of the year.UK correspondent Gavin Grey joined Andrew Dickens.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Conservation groups have concerns a new fisheries bill will rule out public consultation when it comes to decisions made about fishing by MPI.The new reforms would mean that MPI can make decisions about any fishing rule without input from the public.MPI will only have to give an update to the public without including them in discussion.Deep Sea Conservation Coalition spokesperson Karli Thomas joined Andrew Dickens.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The dust has settled on Jacinda Ardern's trip to Australia.The initial signs are that the trip went well for both sides due to the commonality between both governments.Australia has also pledged an easier path to citizenship for Kiwis by Anzac Day next year.Both leaders now head to the Pacific Islands Forum this week.The forum is not off to the best of starts with Kiribati already pulling out.NZME Business Commentator Fran O'Sullivan joined Andrew Dickens.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The cost of fuel is hitting the trucking industry.The industry body for trucking says the rise in cost of fuel has put a number of businesses on the verge of collapse.Transporting NZ surveyed 400 transport companies and found that a fifth of them are unable to pass any more of their fuel costs onto customers. Transporting NZ CEO Nick Leggett joined Andrew Dickens.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Consultation has opened on Wellington's Golden Mile.It goes all the way down from Lambton Quay from Parliament, up Willis Street heading south, over into Manners Street and then into Courtenay Place, where they’re talking about only allowing pedestrians and buses to use it.This year's Pacific Island Forum is already in disarray.Kiribati has left the forum over a leadership dispute with forum Secretary General Henry Puna, whose appointment was seen as a snub over their own candidate.The College of Nurses wants to campaign for doubling the number of practitioning nurses.The Ministry of Health turned down their proposed model, but eventually, Health NZ agreed to meet.Simon Wilson and Phil O'Reilly joined Andrew Dickens on The HuddleSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Wellington’s Golden Mile is one step closer.It goes all the way down from Lambton Quay from Parliament, up Willis Street heading south, over into Manners Street and then into Courtenay Place, where they’re talking about only allowing pedestrians and buses to use it.The fourth round of consultation of Let’s Get Wellington Moving has opened today and feedback is wanted on the stretch.Wellington Mayor Andy Foster joined Andrew Dickens.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A Christchurch Lego Master is making a scale model of Christchurch pub Dux De Lux.The premier city venue has been closed since the 2011 earthquake. Centuri Chan has so far spent about 150 hours creating the model, which will be part of this weekend's Christchurch Brick Show.He told Andrew Dickens it's about a metre by metre - and he's working to include architectural details to make it as close to the original as possible.Chan says it's an icon of Christchurch and he's passionate about the city and architecture.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After being told funding wouldn't be increased, Health NZ has agreed to meet with nursing schools whose proposal for more funding would see gaps in the workforce filled.Nine nursing schools joined forces in May and came up with a programme to create practitioning nurses.They needed a bit more funding and reckoned if they got that, they could train up twice as many nurse practitioners from next year.Nurse practitioners can do the same work as a GP, but are quicker and cheaper to train.College of Nurses executive director Jenny Carryer joined Andrew Dickens.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Great potential to reduce competition across the sector.Newstalk ZB has obtained memos between Tertiary Education Commission deputy chief executive Gillian Dudgeon and Education Minister Chris Hipkins.They reveal concerns about the financial position of the new national polytech body, formed by merging our 16 institutes.Tertiary Education Union president Tina Smith told Andrew Dickens something needed to change.“We had 16 competing polytechnics who were all competing for the same students, wasting millions of dollars on marketing budgets, just to get the same students. It was just ridiculous.”LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says his country "doesn't respond to demands" after China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi issued a four-point list of actions to repair relations between the two countries.Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong met with Yi on the sidelines of the G20 meeting in Bali last week, where she said they had a "full and frank" discussion after a more than two-year-long diplomatic freeze.Yi blamed the former Scott Morrison government for the soured relations and pointed at a "series of irresponsible words and deeds" on Canberra's behalf. Wong said the meeting had been an "important first step" to "stabilise" the relationship.In a readout from the meeting, Yi listed four demands of Australia, including "regarding China as a partner rather than a rival", "seeking common ground while reserving differences", "not targeting any third party or being controlled by any third party", and "building positive and pragmatic social foundations".Australian foreign minister Penny Wong met last we