Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive

New Zealand Rugby will open applications for a rescoped high performance director role, to replace Chris Lendrum who is leaving after 20 years. Lendrum, who is NZR's general manager of professional and performance, will leave at the end of May. Sportstalk host D'Arcy Waldegrave speculated further. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There's concerns among experts following the latest medical platform hack that's left an impact on Kiwis. MediMap is widely used across New Zealand, particularly in aged care, disability, hospice, and community health. Some users' information had been changed, including altering ages, changing patient's names to Charlie Kirk - and claiming living users were deceased. CISO Lens Country Manager Nadia Yousef says it's unclear why this happened, and there's nothing hinting towards extortion or blackmail just yet. "It's not clear who did it, it's very unclear why - there's, I think, a lot more to follow over the next few days." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

US President Donald Trump recently took to Truth Social to offer to send a hospital boat over to Greenland - an offer Greenland's  prime minister has criticised. Trump claimed in the post that 'many people' on the island are sick and 'not being taken care of'. UK correspondent Gavin Grey says Trump has long coveted Greenland, and it's unusual that Trump would want to send extra medical help to a country with free healthcare. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Donald Trump remains steadfast in his pursuit of sweeping global tariffs - slamming a US Supreme Court decision outlawing them as anti-American.  The President's now taking advantage of a never-used trade law to enact 15 percent temporary levies, under the guise of a balance of payments deficit. Harbour Asset Management's Shane Solly unpacked the market reactions. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Comvita’s half-year result shows the company is seeing a noticeable financial turnaround. Its result for the six months ended December 31 had revenue up 18.3 percent to $118 million, EBIT up 10.7m to $10m, and debt reduced by $32.9m to $48.7m. Comvita CEO Karl Gradon says he's proud to see the company return to profitability and he's confident the company's been through the worst of it. 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 Remuneration Authority says more responsibility attracts more pay, as more local councillors see bigger pay rises. What do we make of this?  The Government has proposed giving police more powers to move rough sleepers along. This has generated some backlash, but do we think this change is needed to improve New Zealand's city centres?  Labour's Chris Hipkins has delivered his State of the Nation address in Auckland at a Business Chamber event. Did this make you feel more or less confident in Labour?  LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive Full Show Podcast for Monday, 23 February, 2026, the Genesis chief executive tells us why the energy company needs nearly $200 million from the Government. A Wellington councillor on whether the Government's "move-on" orders for homeless people will work. Chris Greenacre becomes interim coach of the Wellington Phoenix for a fourth time - should he just get the job? And on the Huddle, Trish Sherson and Josie Pagani give us their assessment of Chris Hipkins' State of the Nation speech. 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.

Listening to Chris Hipkins' State of the Nation speech today, I found it really hard to take him seriously. The speech was mostly just a list of things wrong with the country right now, most of which anyone who can remember back five, six, seven years, knows were caused by him, Grant, Jacinda and Adrian Orr. Take this line, for example: “I see young New Zealanders - smart, hardworking, full of potential - making calculations that no young person should have to. Do I stay in the country I love, or do I leave to build the life I've worked for? It breaks my heart.” Well, it shouldn’t break his heart - because he was warned about this. When he, Jacinda and Grant were contemplating those long Auckland lockdowns at the tail end of the pandemic, Treasury explicitly warned that young people would suffer the most. I quote: “The negative consequences are that low employment and income rates are shown to persist for young people well after recessions have waned.” - Treasury advice, 13 May, 2021. Now, we’ve already spent more than enough time debating whether the lockdowns should have happened - we don’t need to do that again. But the consequences of those lockdowns are there in black and white. Young people would bear the brunt. So he can hardly complain now that young people are leaving the country. It was predicted. He complains about affordability. Well, it was during his Government that inflation spiked to 7.3 percent. Yes, some of it was global. But a lot of it was Grant Robertson allowing Adrian Orr to print billions of dollars. Again - right or wrong - we can debate that. But it was the actions of his Government that created the affordability crisis he now laments. He complains about unemployment. Unemployment is up because of the recession Adrian Orr engineered to bring down the inflation that, as I’ve just said, was created by him and Grant. Now, I’m not defending the National-led Government - that’s not my job. Frankly, I think they could have done a lot more to tidy up the Government’s books, that part has been woeful. But they did not create the mess that Chippy is complaining about. And it is beyond ironic to have him standing there saying, “Oh, look what a mess this is,” and proposing to be the man to fix it - when he was part of the team, in fact right up there in the top three of the team, that created the mess in the first place. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Still no clarity about whether Wellington's second Mt Victoria Tunnel will begin construction this year.  National promised to begin work on the tunnel this term, but Transport Minister Chris Bishop last week suggested that wasn't firm.  Finance Minister Nicola Willis says geotechnical work is underway - but Cabinet hasn't decided when construction will start.  "We're looking at all the Roads of National Significance to determine what order do we sequence these in, and how do we make sure that we fund them in the most appropriate way - and how does that sit alongside our really important obligation to be maintaining the roads?" LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Remuneration Authority says more responsibility attracts more pay.  The Taxpayers' Union says Western Bay of Plenty District councillors are getting an average 57 percent pay increase. Authority Chair Geoff Summers says the pool of funding for council has been decided - but not individual raises.  He says the council will operate with two fewer councillors this term.  "And most people would say - if I'm going to be doing more work than what some other people used to do, I want more money for it." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.