Larry Williams Drive

An open letter has been written to the Prime Minister urging Luxon to ease the ban on foreign house buyers. This letter comes after multiple NBR Rich Listers told NBR that making it easier for foreign investors to buy homes here would make New Zealand a better place to do business. Luxury property real estate agent Anthony Morsinkhof provided the open letter - and he says he has clients looking to invest in New Zealand. "I've got clients there that want to invest into big land developments for residential houses, I've got a biotech company that wants to come to New Zealand  - I've got a lot of different sorts of people who want to invest here in New Zealand and they want to buy properties."  LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

An Israeli diplomat is criticising New Zealand's sanctioning two of his country's ministers.  Our Foreign Minister's barred the two high-ranking politicians from travelling here, following the lead of Australia, the UK, Canada, and Norway.   Winston Peters says they are extremists who've advocated for violating international law.  Ambassador to New Zealand, Alon Roth-Snir, says he wishes international allies would instead help work on a ceasefire.  "We are for talks, we are for dialogues, we are not for putting blame or putting whatever was done yesterday to our ministers." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Biotechnology company 23andMe is being taken to court by over 27 US states over plans to auction off customers' personal genetic information without their consent. The company has collected biological samples and genetic information from over 15 million customers - including many here in New Zealand. Privacy lawyer Rick Shera says 23andMe's built a tempting service - but you never know where this stuff will end up. "We don't know what they're going to do with it, and that's the problem. Terms of service and privacy policies can be changed almost willy-nilly these days." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

New research paints a stark picture of the consequences of Oranga Tamariki's system not helping young Māori enough. An Independent Children's Monitor report shows tamariki and rangatahi Māori are over-represented - and being let down. They make up two-thirds of those in care and more than three-quarters in youth justice custody. Monitor Chief Executive Arran Jones says young Māori adults involved in the system as children are nine times more likely to have lived in emergency housing. "This report makes the case for that investment approach - putting the right people in place at the earliest time." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A former Reserve Bank economist is calling out his former employers' lack of transparency. The bank today revealed Adrian Orr quit as Governor in March, when the five-year funding for the RBNZ was much less than anticipated.  Michael Reddell says the bank waited far too long to say why Orr left so abruptly.   "It's just extraordinary - maybe they couldn't tell us the full story on the day, but the new Reserve Bank funding agreement was published on the 16th of April. There's absolutely no excuse at this point for lack of clarity."  LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Revelation of long-awaited details of Reserve Bank Governor Adrian Orr's March resignation. In February, Orr emailed his board - saying there were significant differences in the funding needed and how much the Government would provide. The bank confirmed its board agreed to a lesser amount of funding and that caused Orr's resignation. NZ Herald political editor Thomas Coughlan says it's unclear why the central bank was so secretive about this matter. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Protesters are being arrested one-by-one in downtown LA's mile-square curfew zone. Mayor Karen Bass called the curfew after looting and violence at the protests over the President's migrant deportations. Californian leaders are slamming Donald Trump for sending in Marines and troops to California, and demonstrations have broken out in other US cities. US correspondent Dan Mitchinson says many believe the US president has over-stepped his authority. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Golfer Ryan Fox is refusing to buy too much into his victories at Myrtle Beach and Toronto as an indicator for potential US Open success. Four of the last five PGA Tour tournaments have been won by Fox or three-time major winner Scottie Scheffler. Sportstalk host D'Arcy Waldegrave explains further. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Groundswell is using Fieldays' first day to call for New Zealand to pull out of the Paris Climate Agreement.  The grassroots advocacy group seeks to halt or rewrite what regulations impacting farmers it calls 'unworkable'.  Co-founder Bryce McKenzie says the agreement's costing New Zealand money and farming land.  He says the wind's changed on this issue.  "And I think Winston is certainly going to look at it and it's going to be more of an election issue, I think, than anything else. We all know Winston's pretty astute at picking where the people are going." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Millions more pensioners will receive the winter fuel payment as the UK Government makes changes to eligibility. The payment was paid only to those on pension credit last year. UK correspondent Enda Brady explains further - and unpacks the reactions. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Acting Reserve Bank Governor Christian Hawkesby left experts speculating about the future of interest rates following the recent OCR cut. More banks have slashed their rates after the recent announcement, but questions have been raised over future cuts. HSBC chief economist Paul Bloxham speculates further. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Country's Jamie Mackay is off to Fieldays - and he's feeling hopeful ahead of this year's event. Farmers are in a better state of mind this time round, and it's expected this community-wide enthusiasm will shine through at the event. Jamie Mackay explained further. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

New census data shows more Kiwis are moving house than ever and it's raised questions among experts. 45 percent of New Zealanders have moved address over the last five years - a noticeable increase on previous data. Infometrics principal economist Brad Olsen explains why this could be the case. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tonight on The Huddle, Ben Thomas and Craig Renney joined in on a discussion about the following issues of the day - and more!  Should kids who are homeschooled be excluded from sports competitions? Does this seem unfair? The Auckland property valuations are out - and many aren't happy with their property values taking a dive. What do we make of all this? New research shows more Kiwis feel reluctant about making online purchases, with many quitting before they check out their digital trollies. Why do we think this is? There's growing corruption in police, customs, immigration - can we do something about this? LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive Full Show Podcast for Tuesday, 10 June 2025, Police Minister Mark Mitchell responds to a new report warning corrupt police, customs and immigration officers are on the increase. Bloodbath! Auckland home owners are coming to grips with their very disappointing property valuations - and real estate agent Rawdon Christie says it's already having an impact on the housing market. Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith explains his big change to the Government's anti-stalking law. Plus, the Huddle debates why we online shop but then abandon the trolley. 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.

It is as expected - if our office is anything to go by, Auckland is a miserable town today because the house valuations are out, and they're bad. Just about everyone has jumped on the computer to have a look by now, I'd say, and just about everyone's house has gone backwards. So my house - it's gone down in value by 8 percent. One of the bosses, not too bad, only gone back by 4 percent. I don't think anyone's house has gone up in the office. Someone's house has dropped by $250,000. One colleague, and this colleague is suffering more than anybody else - her house has gone down by 21 percent. That's $1.15 million down to $900,000. That's another $250,000 shaved right off right there. Someone's feeling agitated. I called a real estate agent today to see if it's wider than just our office. They told me, yep - and people are not happy. Another real estate agent reckons he's already fielding calls from buyers who are mid-negotiation, who are now saying they're not gonna lift their offer any

A group of lawyers are suing the Climate Minister - suggesting the Government's emissions reduction plan doesn't go far enough. They want a judicial review over the coalition's cancelling of policies from the plan set in place by the previous Government.  Climate consultant Dr Christina Hood says if the group is successful, the court can order the Government to rethink the current scheme. "There was a judicial review about the emissions trading scheme a couple of years ago - the High Court, in that case told the Government to go back and have another think and the Government did that." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A 13-year old mountain biker is asking for Government intervention over being denied a medal because she was home-schooled. Amelia Twiss came third at the North Island school champs, but was bumped to fourth because of a rule requiring contestants to attend a school. She is now cycling more than 500km to the Beehive - from Cambridge's NZ cycling HQ - to present her petition. She says the exclusion seems based on the idea being home-schooled gives more time for training. She agrees it doesn't seem fair. "I don't train, I just ride my bike." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

New figures from NZ Post’s latest eCommerce Market Sentiments Report show more Kiwis get last-minute jitters before they check out. The data shows 68 percent of shoppers would abandon their cart if the cost of delivery was too high and 57 percent would hit the exit button if free returns weren't available. Murray Crane from Crane Brothers says it's likely people are treating the cart like a 'Pinterest board' and saving things they like before they move to make a purchase. "And then they kind of do a review and realise they don't like it. There's a whole lot of factors contributing to them not going through with that last part of the transaction." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Buyers could hold all the cards, based on a plunge in Auckland Council home valuations. Numbers have been released today for 630,000 properties across the region, and will affect how the spread of rates from next month. On average, residential homes dropped nine percent from 2021 CVs. Real estate agent, Rawdon Christie, says buyers could use it to help beat down prices. He explained they're making it clear they think they're making a good offer - given values have dropped. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.