Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive

Last week's GDP data prompted disappointment from many - but how did the markets react? GDP figures show a worse dip in the economy than economists and the Reserve Bank expected, with a fall of 0.9 percent in the June quarter. Harbour Asset Management's Shane Solly explained further. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Genesis Energy has struck a two-year deal with New Zealand mining company BT Mining to supply 240,000 tonnes of coal to its Huntly Power Station. The deal equates to BT Mining providing 10,000 tonnes of coal a month to Huntly, which supports the hydro-dominated electricity system. BT Mining chief executive Richard Tacon explained how this deal will boost the local economy. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tonight on The Huddle, Trish Sherson from Sherson Willis PR and Child Fund CEO Josie Pagani joined in on a discussion about the following issues of the day - and more! The Government's under pressure over the economy and has today announced almost half a billion dollars of school infrastructure spending. Will this move the dial?  The UK, Canada and Australia have all recognised Palestine overnight. When do we think New Zealand will move forward on this? How many speed bumps is too many? LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive Full Show Podcast for Monday, 22 September 2025, Australia, the UK and Canada have officially recognised the state of Palestine... but New Zealand is holding out. What are we waiting for? Finance Minister Nicola Willis defends the Government's spend on infrastructure projects and the state of the economy - after more than $400 million of school infrastructure spend is being fast-tracked. Another bloody strike! 13,000 hospital appointments have been cancelled because senior doctors are off work for the next two days. The staggering amount overseas gamblers are betting on our local football league - and why that's making players vulnerable to match fixing offers. Plus, the Huddle debates the Government's desperate fight to win the narrative on the economy back. Get the Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive Full Show Podcast every weekday evening on iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

So fast track has a problem - it's not fast enough. Eight months in, only two projects have been approved. The mining in Taranaki is still undergoing consultation. AKA: delayed. The word is that every man and his dog is lining up to have their say, including Mount Taranaki - literally. How you ask a mountain its thoughts and feelings is beyond me, but are we even surprised anymore? Shane Jones is miffed because the EPA, which is looking into all this, has apparently hired a former Forest and Bird lawyer - and all this while we've got $850m in minerals just sitting there. Now, all of this could have been avoided if the Government didn’t cave to the media and the legal scholars and the green mafia, and just give politicians all the power to override whatever they want. So the delays and the consultation are by design. And in Auckland, you’ve got Eden Park. Eden Park, they tell us, is choking under regulation. So why not use your new RMA superpowers to unshackle it? You can’t. You have to consult first. Why? Because, again, the Government specifically designed the law changes this way. The windmills they want to put in Taranaki - one local hapū is taking their opposition to the UN. You can see the problem here, can’t you? This country is its own worst enemy. We bitch and moan about the GDP number. We freak out about the manufacturing jobs disappearing. Rightly so - but as soon as it’s time to do something about it, to create something new like an industry or a mine, we oppose it. We slow it down. We delay. Either we accept that you can’t have everything for nothing, and that creating new jobs and growth will cost us something but it’s worth it. Or we accept that, actually, we're to be poor and happy to stay that way. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nicola Willis says there's been a clear message to all ministers - we don't want the billions recently allocated for infrastructure sitting in Government bank accounts. A small scale hospital project announcement yesterday and a school property maintenance announcement today have both talked up the boost they'll give the construction sector in the coming 12 months. The Finance Minister says they want signed contracts, spades in the ground, and jobs. "The instruction to all Government ministers has been - make sure you know where your maintenance contracts are at, where those construction projects are at, to get them out the door." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

New Zealand's national football league has attracted the attention of offshore gamblers, raising alarm among sport integrity experts. New data shows  $212 million was wagered on the New Zealand men's domestic football league in 2024 through overseas sports betting platforms, many of which were based in Asia. Andrew Scott-Howman, general counsel for the New Zealand Professional Footballers Association, says our timezone allows us to be a monopoly provider of live product to these markets. "But also, the amateur nature of our competition - our players and our match officials, our referees don't get paid for playing. Therefore, they can be much easier to bribe or convince to do the wrong thing. That's also a problem." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The senior doctor's union is criticising Health New Zealand's decision to call in the Employment Relations Authority to sort out pay talks. Around 6000 doctors and dentists are walking off the job nationwide tomorrow and Wednesday. The ERA's been requested to fix the terms and conditions of a collective agreement - in a move unprecedented for the public sector. Association of Salaried Medical Specialists Executive Director Sarah Dalton says they've done some work with the ERA in the past. "We were not happy with the way the ERA authority members applied themselves to the task, and we didn't find them to take an independent view." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There's more funding for schools to do jobs like painting and fixing gutters as part of a $413-million-dollar package in accelerated Government investment. Education Minister Erica Stanford says the funding will enable more maintenance to be done these summer holidays. She says $58 million of new money will be available to schools as of now. "Every single school up and down the country is going to be getting a 50 percent top up on their school property maintenance grant."  LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

One expert has offered clarification around what recognising Palestine as a state means, ahead of New Zealand's decision.  Canada, the UK, and Australia have now formally recognised an independent Palestinian state. Winston Peters is in New York for the UN General Assembly and will reveal New Zealand's position later this week. Australia National University lecturer, Dr Anas Iqtait, says this means recognising a hypothetical Palestinian state - which would occupy the West Bank, Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.  "This symbolic nature is really related to this reality, rather than the other point - which is, there isn't currently sovereignty on the ground, it's a hypothetical state." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.