Early Edition with Kate Hawkesby

I come to the programme this morning with a feeling of hope after seeing something yesterday that I haven't seen in well over a year. Backpackers. A group of four of them, in their 20s, walking the Te Araroa trail together. All three thousand kilometres of it. Te Araroa should be on every young New Zealander's bucket list, it stretches all the way from Cape Reinga to Bluff. And bit by bit, as we recognise the value of it, old tracks are being improved, new ones built and little gaps are being closed with new connections. I crossed paths with the group as they were about 400ks into the journey, a beautiful day and they'd parked their stuff on the beach for a swim. Before COVID, I'd run into people from all over the world walking Te Araroa, collecting great stories of New Zealand and New Zealanders they'd take home and share. Word of mouth is your best form of advertising. I always make a point of saying hello, partly because I'm nosy and I like to know where people are from, but also because I want to be welco

Today's GDP figures are likely to be better than expected. They're due out mid-morning. ANZ economist Finn Robinson told Tim Dower the ANZ bank thinks the economy has contracted by four and half percent. He says that's considerably better than the seven percent the bank had initially pencilled in. “What we have with that is the preliminary data that is released about how construction and retail trade over the course of the year and it looks like they held up a bit better than expected.” LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Farmers are evenly split on their expectations for the coming year. Dairy is the most optimistic sector, while dry stock farmers and horticulturalists are more pessimistic.  Rabobank NZ's CEO Todd Charteris joined Tim Dower. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A health expert says rural hospitals have been left off Andrew Little's Christmas list.  The Government is giving hospitals more than half a billion dollars for upgrades and to help them support more Covid-19 and non-Covid-19 patients.  The Rural GP Network says the provinces have been left out, with some rural hospitals not getting any funding at all.  Rural Health Clinical Director Dr Jeremy Webber told Tim Dower they're calling out for more resources. “Staffing is huge issue in the rural across the board, so we’ve got a huge reliance on locals so it’s a real strain for our department and this is reflected across the country.”  LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's GDP figures are likely to be better than expected. They're due out mid-morning. ANZ economist Finn Robinson told Tim Dower the ANZ bank thinks the economy has contracted by four and half percent. He says that's considerably better than the seven percent the bank had initially pencilled in. “What we have with that is the preliminary data that is released about how construction and retail trade over the course of the year and it looks like they held up a bit better than expected.” LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Three Waters is back on the agenda today. 23 local councils are going to Parliament to make their opposition clear. That's around a third of the local bodies affected by Three Waters, but it doesn't mean the other 44 are all on board. And they're right to be suspicious of it. Three Waters will take away all those council-owned drinking water systems and the storm water and the wastewater...and hand it over to four unelected regional bodies. Now, when the Minister is asked to explain why we need to do this at all, she points to the Havelock North incident five years back. And fair enough, that was terrible. Drinking water contaminated with sheep faeces, thousands of people made sick and at least four dead as a result. Not good enough. We also have major problems in some of our bigger centres with broken down old systems that leak sewage when it rains. Not good enough. Then you've got the Auckland issue; a massive failure to build and upgrade, despite milking huge fees from developers to connect new builds to t

Auckland Airport has gone from zero to hero. It's expecting to see a 4000 percent increase in domestic travellers today. Operations general manager Anna Cassels-Brown told Tim Dower 600 people departed yesterday but there are 10-thousand leaving today. “But also, it may surprise you that we have not much shy of 10,000 people arriving into the domestic terminal as well, so it goes both ways.”  LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Travellers are being advised to b  patient if they want to leave Auckland. The border is down, with people needing a vaccine pass or a recent negative Covid-19 test to leave the city.  The AA is asking people to slow down and take snacks and drink for the trip.  Safety spokesperson Dylan Thomsen told Tim Dower motorists should expect delays. “Think that it’s going to take longer than it normally does, don’t set time deadlines and put that pressure on yourself.” LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There's a concerning drop off in the number of students taking algebra at high school. Victoria University of Wellington research shows the number of Year 11 students enrolled in level 1 algebra, dropped from 64 percent in 2013 to 45 percent in 2019. Nanogirl Dr. Michelle Dickinson told Tim Dower some students don't understand how important these subjects are to their future careers. “Universities will require decent levels of mathematics to study lots of programmes, and when you’re doing entry-level mathematics, you’re probably not even thinking about what course I'm going to do at university.” There's also a thought that an overly difficult Level 1 Algebra exam in 2016, may have put students off. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dear Auckland, I just wanted to say how glad I am that you're being allowed out again from tonight. I've kept in contact as best I can with people close to me down there, but sometimes you haven't wanted to talk and I completely understand it. Who wants to do Facetime of WhatsApp from their couch day after day...especially with someone in another part of the country where life's a lot more like normal. What you've endured in the region I know has been mentally exhausting and absolutely frustrating. I want to talk a little this morning about one personal friend who hasn't made it through the Auckland lockdown. I knew he was struggling and he'd talked about it a bit, but he tried to be stoic, and at the end he kept just how bad it was all to himself. When I first heard, part of me wanted to be cross with him about it. Then came the self-recrimination, what if I'd phoned when I was telling myself we hadn't spoken in a week. Sometimes we need to walk a mile in another person's shoes to really get it. There but fo

People in the wine industry now have a chance to learn some tricks of the trade. New Zealand Winegrowers has launched its 2021 mentoring programme to help members increase their confidence, focus on their self-development and reach their goals.   The organisation's leadership and communities manager Nicky Grandorge told Tim Dower the wine industry in this country is an extremely collaborative one. She says people signing up for the programme are winemakers, viticulturists and sales and marketing people. “There are some people that are fairly new to the industry, looking to take the next step. And then there are people midway through their career, at a bit of a crossroads.” LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There's concern Auckland has to wait longer at the red light. Tamaki Makaurau will move to orange under the Covid-19 Protection Framework at midnight on December 30.  So will every other region in red, except Northland.  Heart of the City CEO, Viv Beck, told Tim Dower going into orange at New Year's Eve will make a difference. “It certainly will give more confidence to visitors, so that’s a positive thing. But I’m still really concerned about another two and a half weeks at red and the impact of that.” LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Sunday that Britain faces a “tidal wave” of infections from the omicron coronavirus variant, and he has announced a huge increase in booster vaccinations to strengthen defenses against it.Johnson said in a televised statement that everyone age 18 and older will be offered a third shot of vaccine by the end of this month. The previous target was the end of January.He said cases of the highly transmissible variant are doubling every two to three days and “there is a tidal wave of omicron coming.”To combat it, he announced a “national mission” to deliver booster vaccines at with pop-up vaccination centers and 7-day-a-week clinics.U.K. scientists believe existing vaccines appear less effective in preventing symptomatic infections in people exposed to omicron, though preliminary data show that effectiveness appears to rise to between 70% and 75% after a third vaccine dose.The British government raised the country’s official coronavirus threat level on Sunday, warning the rapid spr

Less than two weeks to Christmas and the summer holidays can't come soon enough.New Zealand is tired, exhausted even, of Covid and frustrated at the huge ongoing sacrifices.We are sick of doom, gloom and fear, so much so John Campbell fronted a show about this last night.I only saw the beginning because it was past bedtime, but it featured front line workers talking about some of the things they've had to put up with.The ambulance officer bitten and spat at, nurses copping abuse in emergency rooms, police attacked on the job, supermarket staff enduring racial slurs.Now that show coincides with a new piece of research today, which comes out of an Auckland University offshoot called the Centre for Informed Futures.Just for background, that's headed up by Sir Peter Gluckman, one of our most distinguished scientists and formerly chief science advisor to the Prime Minister.Cutting to the chase, this report looks at relationships in the community, and trust in the State.Sir Peter says we're starting to see exhausti

Cabinet is meeting today to review Aotearoa's traffic light settings.Auckland, Northland and lower vaccinated areas in the central and east coast of the North Island are at the red level.The rest of the North Island and South Island is at Orange.Otago University's Lesley Gray told Tim Dower while Auckland has a high vaccination rate, there's already change coming with the region's borders opening on Wednesday.“Whether the Government feel that they want to bring Auckland to Orange as well as the boundary change, that might be a step too far given the numbers that we’re still seeing.”LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Red Bull's Max Verstappen has won the F1 world championship in the most insane circumstances, being handed a miracle finish to claim his maiden title.But Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes has lodged a protest after the final-lap drama in which Verstappen overtook Hamilton following a controversial safety car ruling.Verstappen was on pole but beaten off the start by championship rival Lewis Hamilton as the Mercedes driver dominated the race. That extraordinary final lap of the 2021 title race in full

Over 100 people are feared dead after a series of tornadoes ripped through several states in the Midwest and South and violently transformed homes and businesses into piles of rubble late Friday into Saturday.In Kentucky alone, the death toll is at least 80 people and is going to exceed 100, Gov. Andy Beshear told CNN on Sunday morning -- making it the deadliest tornado event in the state's history."I know people can see the visuals, but that goes on for 12 blocks or more in some of these places. And it's going to take us time," he said. "You think you would go door-to-door to check on people and see if they're OK. There are no doors."The question is, is somebody in the rubble of thousands upon thousands of structures? I mean, it is devastating," he added.Speaking on CBS' "Face the Nation," Beshear confirmed a 3-year-old in Graves County and a 5-year-old in Muhlenberg County were among the dead.Arkansas officials have reported two weather-related deaths; Tennessee has confirmed four; Illinois has reported six

Smoking. I'd have been about 14 or 15 when I first started smoking, even back then we knew it wasn't good for us and maybe that's part of why we did it. It was about breaking the rules, being a bit of a rebel. In hindsight, it was the dumbest thing I ever did. It's become an extremely expensive bad habit too and the year on year increases in excise duty have obviously helped more of us become ex-smokers. It is incredibly hard to stop, you get an almost instant chemical addiction and then very quickly an addiction to rituals and habits. So it stands to reason that the fewer of us who take it up to begin with, the better off we all are as a society. When I first heard it,  I was a bit stunned at the brutally drastic steps the Government's taking. Anyone born after 2009 will be banned from buying tobacco products for life. Prohibited. And for those already hooked, a drastic reduction in the number of outlets and the types of products they can get. On the one hand, phasing out tobacco completely, making it an ill

The National Party's on the fence about the Beijing Winter Olympics, because it isn't privy to the same information as the Government. Canada has joined the United States and Australia in imposing a diplomatic boycott of the event, citing China’s human rights record. In this country, Sports Minister Grant Robertson says we're not sending ministers or diplomats because of Covid-19 but Trade Minister Damien O'Connor says it's a boycott. National's trade and export growth spokesperson, Todd McClay, told Tim Dower the party doesn't get the same advice as the Government. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kiwi film lovers and fans of Middle-Earth will know today is an important anniversary. It's been 20 years since the first Lord of the Rings movie premiered. The Fellowship of the Ring started a global film franchise, but helped put New Zealand on the map in the film industry. As well as this, Hobbiton has become an international tourist attraction. Hobbiton movie set deputy CEO Shayne Forrest joined Tim Dower. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.