Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive

Ahead of the next GDT auction, there's concerns about what the ongoing Middle East conflict could do for prices. The conflict has seen oil prices spike, and experts have warned this will likely impact other key sectors of the economy. The Country's Jamie Mackay speculated further. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Black Caps have been put into bat by South Africa in the second of their five T20 matches in Hamilton tonight. A strong start by the Kiwi openers Tom Latham and Devin Conway has them at 36 without loss after five overs a short time ago. Sportstalk host D'Arcy Waldegrave explained further. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tonight on The Huddle, Jordan Williams from the Taxpayers' Union and former Green MP Gareth Hughes joined in on a discussion about the following issues of the day - and more!  Chris Hipkins' ex-wife posted a series of allegations about the former Prime Minister on Facebook, and Hipkins denied the allegations in a media conference earlier today. Is this even our business?  New Stats NZ figures show food prices rose 4.5 percent, with steak, mince and chocolate shooting up over 20 percent. How will this impact the Government ahead of the election? And what does this mean for inflation? Do we need to start working from home before the fuel reserves run low?  LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We need to talk about inflation, because inflation is making me pretty sure now that the National Party needs to rethink its plan for this election. We’ve just had the food inflation data out today. No surprise - food has gone up in price again in the year to February, up 4.5 percent. The biggest increase in a single item was mince. It went up 23.2 percent. That is the highest recorded jump in mince in two decades. Mince is a reasonably big deal in this data, I reckon, because mince - and sausages, obviously - is one of those bits of meat we go to when we’re feeling the pinch, right? If you can’t afford the sirloin steak, you go for the mince instead. So if the so-called cheaper option is becoming that much more expensive, well, that tells you how hard it’s going to be for families to make ends meet. And it’s, of course, not just the mince. Everything - everything - has gone up in price. There are a few items that have come back down but for the most part, the things you really need - not the snacks, the essentials - have gone up. And this is going to get worse. What’s been happening in and around the country for the past 17 days will, without a shadow of a doubt, push food prices up even further. It’ll start with vegetables because they were already in the ground. Then it’ll move on to things that take longer to produce - wheat-based products, things like bread that take time to grow. Meat will go up. Everything will go up. Because of the lack of access to urea, fertiliser prices are rising, so on-farm costs go up. Then there’s the fuel cost of getting produce from the farm to - I don’t know - let’s say the bakery, and from the bakery to the supermarket. And that increased cost is going to land on us. There’s a lag effect here. What’s going on now will hit us every single month for months to come. They’re talking about six months - but if they’re saying six months, you can assume it’ll be longer than that. Now, the Nats’ whole strategy for this election was that they’d be fine because the economy would improve, we’d all feel richer, we’d thank them for making the cost-of-living issue go away, their polling would go up and they’d come through at the election on November 7. That is not going to happen. The cost-of-living crisis will not be over in November. It will keep hitting us through the things we can’t avoid - petrol for many, but food for everyone. So the Nats need a new plan - one that requires them to actually do something, rather than just waiting for voters to feel richer. Because we’re not going to. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive Full Show Podcast for Tuesday, 17 March, 2026, food prices are up - and a Kiwi staple, mince, is leading the way. We ask Infometrics chief executive Brad Olsen if it's going to get worse. We'll tell you about a new ratings system for schools. An economist on why more of us should be working from home right now. And on The Huddle, we ask Jordan Williams and Gareth Hughes if the private lives of politicians like Chris Hipkins should be aired in public. 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.

The Resources Minister is insistent Crown funds should help heat the geothermal sector. A Government strategy has been released on its plan to double the use of geothermal energy by 2040. It's also ring fenced $50 million from the Regional Infrastructure Fund for the development of geothermal energy projects.  Resources Minister Shane Jones says it's a worthy investment. "The Crown stepped up to the plate in the 1950s, did an enormous amount of drilling - not always successful, but a number of those drill holes have turned into major electricity suppliers."  LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

New reports indicate young people aren't going to op-shops as often, and experts have raised questions as to why this is. Despite the ongoing cost of living, it seems like younger people wanting discount fashion prefer other options - with less barriers. Otago University professor Lisa McNeil says the extra effort to look for quality pieces is perceived as a lot of extra labour, and young people are put off. "It's hard for them, it's expensive when they compare it to some of the cheap new options that are available in the market." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A top economist advises thinking about working from home to save fuel. Iran's maintaining its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz - retaliating to the continued bombing assault by the US and Israel. It's led Sri Lanka to move to a four-day working week from tomorrow.  Westpac economist Kelly Eckhold says unless things change quickly, something will have to be done within the next three weeks.  "Through the Covid period, we were able to save quite a lot of fuel with the hard lockdowns. We're not going to save anywhere near that amount, but it'll certainly help provide more fuel for the higher-priority users of it."  LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There's fears there'll be no slowdown any time soon to the rapid rise in food prices. Stats NZ figures show they rose 4.5 percent in the year to February. Steak, mince and chocolate all shot up more than 20 percent. Infometrics head, Brad Olsen, says the spike in oil prices because of the war in Iran will do nothing to help.  "We know that not only oil prices are key to transport costs, but also just the production. Now if you're a farmer, you've got to use diesel to move stuff around to run the tractor and everything else. So this is going to hit." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A return towards decentralisation is being painted as Health New Zealand's next chapter. The Government's reverting to giving hospitals more control - letting them decide staffing, budgets, and service delivery from July. It's adamant it's not a return to District Health Boards, with planning still done nationally. Acting chief executive Andrew Brant says Health NZ's finances are looking good and it's delivering more, but this ensures improvement continues. He explained the key change is bringing the operating model much more into the frontline - and communities into decisions. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.