Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

Critics are questioning Andy Burnham's first major pledge as UK Prime Minister.
Burnham has become Britain's seventh Prime Minister in a decade.
His first announcement was committing an extra £340 million over three years to tackle homelessness.
Financial Times Whitehall Editor Lucy Fisher told Ryan Bridge questions are already being raised over how he'll fund his wider agenda as he hints at possible tax changes.
She says critics are asking if he couldn't solve homelessness as Manchester Mayor, how he'll tackle it across the entire UK.
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The Government says some council-iwi agreements have gone beyond the initial intention of the law allowing them.
Existing iwi partnerships will be tossed out with new planning laws, despite the Government initially planning to allow councils to keep existing agreements.
RMA Reform Parliamentary Under-Secretary Simon Court says the agreements were initially supposed to be about planning matters.
He told Ryan Bridge in some cases it instead shifted to co-governance models.
Court says there were expanded roles and appointments at the ratepayers' expense.
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An economist says digging into today's inflation figures will reveal the real picture.
Stats NZ is releasing Consumers Price Index figures later this morning, comparing prices between April and June against the same period last year.
Economists expect it surge to somewhere around 4%.
Independent Economist Cameron Bagrie told Ryan Bridge he's more interested in core inflation, which strips out food and energy.
He says it's been stubbornly stuck on 2.5% and the Reserve Bank will want that lower.
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A $60 million corporate welfare cheque for Golden Bay Cement is fixing a symptom but not the disease.
It's taxpayer money. It's not a loan – it's free money. Owner Fletcher Building has agreed, in return, to keep the thing open till 2040 and invest $150 million, phased over time.
No doubt cement is important for building the country, but so was refined oil. We offshored that. So is milled timber, which we let go. So is food production, which we're letting fall over too.
This is the problem with welfare: once you start handing it out, everyone wants a piece of the pie.
Fletcher Building is a conglomerate, listed both here and on the ASX.
Their results are due out next month, which will now be watched very closely.
Last week, the company increased its earnings guidance and turned a $45 million profit in the half year to December.
Sure, it's not been without its problems, and we've kept you updated on their restructures and legacy problems and the general state of construction.
The only reason the Government is doing this, in my view, is because unlike the other examples of paper mills and Wattie's, this one's caused not just by the price of labour and energy going north.
It's the ETS.
Fletchers buys credits to emit carbon while making its cement. This cost made the Northland plant unviable. A dead man walking.
You can import cheap cement from offshore where they don't pay for emissions.
Which makes them a cheaper option, and we get undercut.
The Government reckons they went with a bailout rather than changing the ETS rules because they didn't want companies lining up for handouts.
But that's exactly what will happen anyway. Any plant at risk of closure paying for emissions is now fair game.
This might look like a single smallish payment to a single business, but it's actually a blank cheque they've signed, and with the election round the corner, the sky's the limit.
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On the Early Edition with Ryan Bridge Full Show Podcast Tuesday 21st of July 2026, Inflation figures are out today, Independent Economist and Founder of Bagrie Economics, Cameron Bagrie tells Ryan what we can expect.
Andy Burnham's been sworn in as the 7th UK Prime Minister in a decade, Financial Times Whitehall Editor, Lucy Fisher has the latest on who will be in his cabinet.
The way Iwi talk to councils about their Treaty rights is changing under new RMA law changes, Parliamentary Under-Secretary to the Minister for RMA reform, Simon Court shares his thoughts.
Plus, Australia Correspondent Donna Demaio has the latest on a former defence force soldier pleading guilty to trafficking cocaine and avoids jail and a one in 15 million pregnancy sees identical quadruplets born in Queensland.
Get the Early Edition Full Show Podcast every weekday on iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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