Larry Williams Drive

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.

The Greens want an immediate rent freeze and rent controls for the future.Co-leaders James Shaw and Marama Davidson wrote an open letter to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, but Ardern said the plan wouldn’t work.Davidson said that she would still push for the plan to become law.Meanwhile, the Dairy and Business Owners Group have called the resignations of Police Minister Poto Williams and Justice Minister Kris Faafoi.It comes after it was revealed that the response time for police has increased.Auckland in particular has seen response times go from around half an hour to up to two hours.Listen above as Nick Leggett and Simon Wilson discuss this and the rest of the day's news with Heather du Plessis-Allan aboveSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A woman in Whakatane has been going around town with a tattoo on her ankle of Tammy Wells aka the Briscoes Lady.With the portrait of Wells is a picture of a toaster saying 40 percent of and a quote underneath saying “You’ll Never Buy Better”.The woman who has the tattoo is Radio 1XX breakfast host LJ Dobbins.LJ Dobbins joined Andrew Dickens.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Marama Davidson hasn't been deterred by the Prime Minister shooting down her rent control policy.The Greens co-leader wrote an open letter to Jacinda Ardern calling for the policy to be adopted.Ardern poured cold water on the plan saying it wouldn't work.But Davidson told Andrew Dickens she'll still push for the plan to become law.“Obviously we don’t have the full housing and economic leaders as ministers, so it’s also our job to say how else we would go further for those areas that are outside our cooperation agreement.”LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Greens have sent an open letter to the Prime Minister calling for rent freezes.Co-leaders James Shaw and Marama Davidson based this on a November 2021 report by the Ministry of Social Development which found that more than 60 percent of low-income renters were spending more than 40 percent of income on rent in 2018.Meanwhile, it’s been revealed that the police are taking too long in responding to crimes.Figures released to National under the Official Information Act show Aucklanders face an average wait time of up to 2 hours, up from 26 minutes in 2017.Louisa Wall has been named the new Pacific Gender Equality Ambassador.Her role will establish new partnerships and programmes that support the full in effect participation by women and LGBTQI+ and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels and decision-making in political, economic and public life in the Pacific.Newstalk ZB Political Editor Barry Soper joined Andrew Dickens.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta will take part in a virtual NATO meeting overnight to discuss the response to Russia's invasion into Ukraine.Former Prime Minister Helen Clark says it's not the first time we've been asked to take part in a NATO meeting.She told Andre Dickens she attended a meeting in 2007 when we were involved in the international mission in Afghanistan.Clark suspects we'll largely be in listening mode.“Nanaia Mahuta will also say that the Government has made a range of decisions with respect to Russia on sanctions and there was also the announcement about sending intelligence analysts.”LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Dairy and Business Owners Group are calling for resignations from the Ministers of Police and Justice Ministers.Police call-out response times have more than tripled in some regions over the past five years.In Auckland, the average wait time has ballooned from less than half an hour to almost two hours.Chair Sunny Kaushal told Andrew Dickens both ministers have failed miserably and aren't taking accountability.“We would like to be safe, we would like to feel safer. The dairy owners and business owners – they should not be living in such a fear every day.”LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If you thought yesterday's rainfall in Sydney was heavy, welcome to Thursday.By 9am, the city had reached its average total of rainfall for an entire year - a whole nine months ahead of schedule.More than 1214mm of rain has already fallen on the city, with even more set to come. Major Flood warnings Nepean and Georges rivers. Torrential rain and flash flooding today ##Sydney and #Illawarra. Sydney has now passed it's annual average rain with >1214mm. LIVE coverage all day on Sky News Weather. #SydneyStorm #NSWFloods @SkyNewsAust @SkyWeatherAUS pic.twitter.com/G3S6brqeuK— Thomas Saunders (@TomSaundersSNW) April 6, 2022 The inclement weather has led to warnings that major suburbs in the city's west, including Liverpool, could flood later in the day as swollen rivers burst their banks. Already, train services have been disrupted near Sydney.And it's not just Sydney – a vast swath of New South Wales is seeing large falls as far inland as Dubbo and Orange, as well as along much of the coast."The rain event

Another step towards healthier school lunches.The Government is seeking feedback on a plan to get unhealthy drinks out of primary and intermediate schools.If implemented, schools and Kura will only be required to only supply healthy drinks to years one to eight students the likes of water and milk.CEO of Libelle Group Johannes Tietze told Andrew Dickens good inroads have been already been made since the healthy school lunches programme was introduced two years ago.“Part of that agreement was to not include drinks in that because the understanding was that there’s existing programmes and quite a strong movement by schools across the country to go water only.”LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

So let's talk about the warIs it Ukraine versus Russia?Yes. On one level.But Russia's beef is with NATO's influence in Ukraine. So it's really a proxy war of Russia versus NATO. And the big cheese in NATO is America.Sure France and Germany and Spain have big concerns because the fight is on their continent.But in terms of global geopolitics, this is the States' circus.So will it escalate to a full World War?Well NATO seems to want to inflict an unconditional defeat on Russia. One where Putin goes, that's regime change.  That's a biggie. That's messing with another country's sovereignty.You've got to leave the loser with dignity.  We achieved regime change in 1918 and we ended out back in an even bigger war 21 years later.So it will continue and maybe escalate until Putin finds a way to either win, or lose and save face.Now Putin will not be saving face if people like UK's Prime Minister Boris Johnson keeps saying things like sanctions against Russia will continue, no matter what Russia’s position is or Biden

The US Federal Reserve has started to raise its rates to combat inflation, which will have an effect on bonds.In New Zealand, the bond index has already fallen 5 percent year to date and 13 percent since it peaked in 2020.This will have implications on funds but is also expected to have huge implications on households with the cost of borrowing going up.The Reserve Bank of NZ is expecting rates to reach over 3 percent by the end of the year.The effects of higher rates are already coming through here on mortgages, and over 50 percent of fixed mortgages are going to be refinanced.Milford Asset Management’s Katlyn Parker joined Andrew Dickens.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Commodity prices are on the up.The ANZ World Commodity Price Index hit a new record in March with a lift of 3.9 percent.Meanwhile, global shipping is being driven up due to the continuing lockdowns in China.Infometrics Principal Economist Brad Olsen joined Andrew Dickens.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A suggestion to lower the retirement age for Maori.Maori Party co-leader Rawiri Waititi has suggested lowering it eight years to 57 given Maori die younger than Pakeha on average.Dr Ashley Bloomfield has announced his resignation as Director-General of the Ministry of Health.Bloomfield will step down in at the end of July after a four-year tenure dominated by Covid-19.Listen above as Jack Tame and Ben Thomas discuss the day's news with Andrew Dickens aboveSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The European Union’s executive branch proposed Tuesday a ban on coal imports from Russia in what would be the first EU sanctions targeting the country's lucrative energy industry over its war in Ukraine.European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU needed to increase the pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin after what she described as “heinous crimes” carried out around Kyiv, with evidence that Russian troops may have deliberately killed Ukrainian civilians.Von der Leyen said the ban on coal imports is worth 4 billion euros ($4.4 billion) per year and that the EU has already started working on additional sanctions, including on oil imports.She didn't mention natural gas, with consensus among the 27 EU countries on targeting the fuel used to generate electricity and heat homes difficult to secure amid opposition from gas-dependent members like Germany, the bloc’s largest economy.Until now, Europe had not been willing to target Russian energy over fears that it would plunge the European