Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

I went out for lunch to a café the other day and our table was served by a couple of waiters who all seemed to have a similar vibe about them. They just. Did. Not. Seem. To. Care. No smiling. No banter. No small talk or polite conversation. Just this blank look on their faces. You sit there and think “did they hear me”? You ever so politely repeat yourself in case they didn’t.  But they did. They got it. There’s just no engagement. Face colder than a witch's tit. No refills of your water. No "would you like another coffee?" Like, hello!? Is anybody in there? Is anyone home? Why are you all moving so slowly? Shouldn’t you be rushing the joint taking orders and filling coffees?  When I was young it was drilled into us: when you’re waiting tables and taking orders. You work your way up from "dish pig" to front of house. You basically run round busy as a bee, trying to impress your boss, trying to win your guests over. Taking wagers of who might get a tip.  "Can I help you, sir? What more can I get you?" You’d help the elderly into their seats. You’d bend over backwards to make everyone happy.  And these guys are on at least $23 an hour.  And I know what you’re thinking, maybe I’m the a-hole. Maybe I’ve forgotten mum’s many sermons on good manners and etiquette. So I asked the people who I was out to lunch with - they all thought the same thing. I asked friends who are teachers, I asked parents with kids around that age. Guess what? They’ve all noticed the same thing happening. Hell, there’s even a TikTok trend called ‘the Gen Z stare', which describes what I saw at the café - the vacant look a Gen Zer gives in response to a question or statement. If it’s in TikTok then it must be a thing, right? So the question is why? Was it Covid? Was it everyone wearing masks? So much of how we communicate is through facial expressions, maybe they’ve missed out on years of social queues and norms? Is the smartphones? Is it both? Or, maybe, just maybe, they just don’t give a shit? Maybe we have on our hands a generation of young people who don’t really think they NEED to be bothering with mundane things like work.  Disclaimer: this is is obviously not an entire generation of young people. And some people are just shy. I get that. We've all had excellent experiences. But, y'know. Is this a thing you too have noticed? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Teachers say they're struggling to deal with increasing violent incidents due to a lack of learning support.  New data shows 12,300 students have been disciplined for physical assault on teachers and students this year – a 49% jump from 2019.  PPTA President Chris Abercrombie told Francesca Rudkin teachers have been given increasingly more restraint training to deal with these incidents, but the main problem is with students' unmet needs.  He says our children are coming to school with complex needs, a lot involving mental health issues.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The UK is looking to tackle radicalisation and extreme misogyny early.   Millions of pounds will be invested into schools to train teachers to spot signs of misogyny among boys and course correct.   Funding will also go towards courses for radicalised young men.   It's to counter concerns about pornography and online misogynistic influencers.   UK correspondent Vincent McAviney told Francesca Rudkin it's a key part of the government's legislative agenda.   He says two women die a week from domestic violence.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's thought the closure of Gloriavale school is more complicated than just finding a new school.    The Secretary for Education has cancelled the Christian sect school’s licence, forcing it closed from January.   It's been on notice for several weeks after failing another audit and being ruled physically and mentally unsafe for students.   Education researcher Liz Gordon told Francesca Rudkin says it's not as straightforward as moving the students elsewhere.   She wants the ministry to take a group of professional teachers into the community, to allow the kids to be taught there.   LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the Early Edition with Francesca Rudkin Full Show Podcast Friday the 19th of December 2025, The economy’s rebounded into 1.1% growth in the September quarter, ahead of forecasts Independent Economist Cameron Bagrie shares his thoughts. Schools are dealing with more fights and assaults than ever before, PPTA President Chris Abercrombie tells Francesca why the problem has got worse.  Gloriavale's school will shut down from January next year, educational researcher and community activist Liz Gordon tells Francesca what will happen from here. Plus, UK/Europe Correspondent Vincent McAviney has the latest on Zelensky urging European Union leaders to loan billions of euros in frozen Russian money to fund Ukraine and Teachers in England will be given training to spot and tackle misogyny in the classroom. Get the Early Edition Full Show Podcast every weekday on iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts.           LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

An economist says the economy has some forward motion.  Stats NZ data shows a 1.1% GDP increase in the September quarter.  Independent Economist Cameron Bagrie says he expects to see 2 to 3 percent growth over the next 12 months is likely.  He told Francesca Rudkin there are other statistics trending in a positive direction.  Bagrie says that includes more hours worked and greater bank lending into the business sector.  LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“Confirmation that the economy grew strongly in the third quarter of the year is welcome news before Christmas”, Finance Minister Nicola Willis stated in the first line of her press release yesterday.   ‘Welcome news’ may be a bit of an understatement, given the context of recent attempts to undermine Nicola Willis and the Government’s approach to righting the economy.  Willis also needed the good GDP news after a disappointing Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update on Tuesday, in which almost every economic and fiscal indicator moved ever so slightly in the wrong direction.   The GDP results showed the economy did better than expected in the September quarter, growing 1.1%. GDP per capita rose 0.9% for the quarter, if that's how you prefer to measure it. The increase in economic activity was broad based, with increases in 14 of the 16 industries that Stats NZ looks at. This is good news.   But the problem with GDP figures is they’re provisional and often revised. That’s what has happened with the previous June quarter – which did worse than previously thought, falling one percent. If you look at it from an annual point of view, from September to September, the economy contracted 0.5%.   These numbers provide an overview of what’s going on. They are a sign of a gentle uptick rather than a booming recovery. But they don’t give politicians a true sense of what is going on in New Zealanders day to day lives. As Liam Dann wrote recently, GDP doesn’t capture wealth distribution, it doesn’t tell us about the health of our nation, or the overall happiness of its people.   As the end of the year approaches, Luxon and Willis survive ‘25 to enjoy a summer BBQ and a bevy or two and get to return to their leadership roles in 2026. But hopefully they and their politician colleagues will spend some time over the summer listening to ordinary Kiwis to get a sense of how New Zealanders are feeling about the cost of living, job security, and the challenges facing those running a business.   Yesterday’s GDP figures give Willis breathing room. But the pressure is on next year. Willis is excellent at sticking to her core messaging of fiscal discipline without causing misery to voters. It’s a plan that holds some risk – there’s little room to deal with the consequences of potential natural disasters or global financial crisis in the near future.   The ‘steady as you go’ message will remain next year, and yet there’s a sense the hard yards haven’t started yet. If we’re going to meet the 2029 – 2030 surplus target, the ruler is likely going to have to come out again. Social services and public servants will most likely be the targets.  In the meantime, we can head into the New Year with some cautious optimism that the economy may have peaked a look around the corner. I like the expression one of my listeners suggested to me on Sunday – ‘brick by brick in 26’.   Maybe then we might have built something a more stable by 2027. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's thought there are few silver linings to come from the Government's road cone hotline.  The pilot, which encouraged the public to report excessive cone use, ends tomorrow, six months ahead of schedule.  Site visits found 86% of worksites were already compliant, and Workplace Relations Minister Brooke van Velden says the trial has done what it needed to do.  CEO of traffic management company Parallaxx Dave Tilton told Andrew Dickens some of the data collection may be useful.  He says it brought the road control authorities including NZTA, WorkSafe, and councils together well.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

One of the major banks is predicting some of the best quarterly GDP figures in years.  Stats NZ is releasing the economic figures for the three months ending September this morning, with the Reserve Bank's forecasting growth of 0.4%.  Westpac predicts a 0.9% gain, putting that down to a jump in activity across the board.  Chief Economist Kelly Eckhold told Andrew Dickens it would fill in a hole from the previous quarter.  But he says there needs to be two or three quarters of growth before people can be confident the country is on an upward trend.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The self-inflicted deaths of six Northland young people reveals dangerous flaws in our suicide prevention system. An inquiry by Northland Coroner Tania Tetitaha into the deaths calls for a single, coordinated system.  The youths had worked with up to 17 agencies - that hadn't seemed to identify or follow up on their need for support.  Mindworks psychologist Sara Chatwin told Andrew Dickens we don't need more thinking groups and documentation, but rather people who have the skills and willingness to deal with these issues.  She says in New Zealand, we clearly have a huge problem that other countries are very aware of.  LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I’m still in slack mouthed shock at Barbara Edmonds' performance on this programme yesterday. After the release of the Government’s books showing we’re still in deficit and will be in deficit longer and with every day that passes our debt grows, Labour was quick to say National has screwed things up and we should have voted Labour onto the Treasury benches. I would have thought that would mean they knew how to do things better. Therefore, they could perhaps tell you and I what should have been done.  So, we gave them the opportunity to share their superior knowledge, particularly with you the voter, yesterday morning And what did we get? Nothing other than slogans and a general tone of "just trust us things could have been better and we’ll tell you why next year".  Now to be fair, she did criticise National's tax cuts. That was the moving of the thresholds and reinstating the rebates for landlords.  That had the effect of reducing government revenue by $14 billion dollars. $14 billion that could have been used to repay the debt or build infrastructure.  Now the thresholds were morally wrong, and I agree with resetting them. They were giving the government an automatic tax rise due to wage inflation.   But changing them in a time of economic downturn when your revenue was reducing anyway was a self-inflicted wound on the books. But they had promised them in the election, calling them a tool against the rise in the cost of living. But that was no better than Barbara Edmonds yesterday, it was a slogan to get votes.   I don’t know if National knew that purposely reducing their revenue was unsustainable. Slashing their own revenue undid all the work they did cutting spending. If they did know that was possible then that’s a piece of economic foolishness. And this is what worries me the most about this country and all its politicians.  They’ll say anything to get votes. They care more about keeping their jobs rather than making the country better. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the Early Edition with Andrew Dickens Full Show Podcast Thursday the 18th of December 2025, it's the final GDP for the year, Westpac Chief Economist Kelly Eckhold tells Andrew what he's expecting.  The Government's announced the road cone hotline will close as it hits it's objectives, Dave Tilton, Chair of the Temporary Traffic Management Industry Steering Group shares his thoughts.  Coroner Tania Tetihaha says the system is broken after probing the suicides of six young people, Psychologist at Mindworks Sara Chatwin shares her thoughts.  Plus, US Correspondent Jagruti Dave has the latest on Trump announcing a "blockade" of sanctioned oil tankers in and out of Venezuela and the White House reaction to Trump's chief of Staff Susie Wiles's Vanity Fair interviews.  Get the Early Edition Full Show Podcast every weekday on iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts.           LISTEN ABOVE  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A transport voice says there's some sense to the Government's new mega-Ministry idea.  It wants to abolish the environment, housing and urban development, and transport ministries and introduce a new Ministry of Cities, Environment, Regions and Transport – M CERT.  It argues these areas are undergoing reforms and right now the system's too fragmented.   Transporting NZ's Dom Kalasih told Andrew Dickens navigating across multiple agencies can carry challenges, and sometimes "less is more".   He says transport's one part of a larger eco-system so taking a more unified connected approach makes some sense.  However, there’s a worry that projects that are already on the go, such as road user and congestion charges, may not be achieved as efficiently.  Kalasih says the sector’s just started to gain momentum in these areas.   LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Labour believes it's more financially responsible than the current Government following the release of Treasury's Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update.  It's predicting economic growth of just 1.7% in 2026, well down on the May Budget's 2.9% forecast.  Labour's Finance and Economy spokesperson Barbara Edmonds was asked by Andrew Dickens whether her party would have increased taxes to get back in black faster.  She says they would have followed the same plan they had in 2023, before the election, but ultimately it comes down to choices.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A belief whistleblowers are vital to exposing voting failures after a South Auckland local body election was overturned. Judge Richard McIlraith ruled irregularities altered the outcome of the Papatoetoe vote for the Otara-Papatoetoe Local Board. The case involved stolen voting papers and fraudulent use. A new election must be held by April 9. Transparency International NZ CEO Julie Haggie told Andrew Dickens there’s no sign of wider system problems nationally. She says it does seem to be picking up them, as someone made a case for a district court inquiry and got a result. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the Early Edition with Andrew Dickens Full Show Podcast  Wednesday the 17th of December 2025, The Government's books are worse than expected, with the surplus timeline pushed back to 2029/30, Labour Economic Spokesperson Barbara Edmonds shares her thoughts. Transport, environment and housing are being merged in to one ministry, Transporting NZ Chief Executive Officer Dom Kalasih tells Andrew what he thinks of the idea.  There are concerns about the integrity of our elections after a South Auckland local body result was thrown out over claims of voter fraud, Transparency International NZ CEO Julie Hague shares her thoughts.  Plus, UK/ Europe Correspondent Gavin Grey has the latest on the jail sentencing for man who used his car to plough into more than 130 people at Liverpool Football Club and Donald Trump suing the BBC for defamation.  Get the Early Edition Full Show Podcast every weekday on iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts.           LISTEN ABOVE  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, we’re broke.  The Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update shows we’re still in debt and the debt is getting bigger. So, we’re broke. Not enough money, everything's more expensive so it’s off to the money lender before the bailiffs come in and sell everything. Sounds like a lot of households around me.  Ideally, we’d be in a surplus - that’s when we have more money than costs. But we aren’t and the possibility of that happening has got further away.  Make no mistake, deficit is bad, but surplus is only okay. That’s how bad we are. And we’re getting more and more in debt. The Government has a debt to GDP ratio of 41.8% and it’s forecast to rise to over 46% before it starts going down.  But lets put another lens on this: the New Zealand Government has posted a surplus 17 times since 1980. That's 17 times in 45 years. So the government has been broke 62% of the time since then. Being broke is our normal. And if I applied the surplus/deficit/debt ratio to my own finances then I’ve been broke most of my adult life. I mean, who hasn’t had a debt-to-equity ratio of 95% in their lives? So if you look at it that way it’s not so bad. And we’re still in the right half of the indebted nations list. Everyone’s broke. We’re a bit naïve when we demand surpluses about just how hard it is to do.   Listen to Steven Joyce on Heather’s show yesterday: government books are hard to turn like a super tanker. As he said yesterday, it can take a decade.  But some of us think a few public service cuts and cuts to benefits and we’d be tickety boo.   But our fiscal crisis is far more fundamental than that. What we really need to do is make more money in the world, so we have more tax revenue, so we have more good stuff and less debt.  So, what are you standing there listening to this for? Get to work.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lawyers say they can't pinpoint the reason there's been an increase in complaints.  The Law Society's annual report reveals more clients are raising their concerns, particularly around incompetence.   New Zealand Law Association Vice President Julie-Anne Kincade told Andrew Dickens with more people using AI to research their legal issues, they're needing to manage expectations.  She welcomes clients doing their own research but it's important people remember lawyers are the experts.  LISTEN ABOVE  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We’ll get a clearer picture of the Government’s spending plans heading into an election year this afternoon.  Treasury’s releasing the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update at 1pm, alongside the Budget Policy Statement, setting out the economic outlook and spending priorities.  Infometrics Principal Economist Brad Olsen Andrew Dickens governments are often expected to loosen the purse strings in an election year.  He says the Government might spend less than they hoped if the books aren't looking too flash.  LISTEN ABOVE  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A deadly terror attack at Sydney's Bondi Beach is feeding speculation of potential intelligence errors.  Two gunmen opened fire at a Hanukkah celebration on Sunday evening, killing 15 people and wounding dozens more.  A 24-year-old suspect remains in hospital under police guard, while his 50-year-old father, the other alleged offender, was shot dead.  The younger man, who's suspected of orchestrating the attack, had previously been investigated by the country's security agency and hadn't been considered a threat.  But Massey University Defence Studies Professor John Battersby says we shouldn't jump to conclusions until more details emerge.  He told Andrew Dickens intelligence capabilities are always limited by the resources put into them.  LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.