Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

Employers are being warned cocaine use is surging in workplace drug testing.
Drug Detection Agency data shows the drug made up 3.2% of positive tests in three months to October, up 118% year on year.
Amphetamine-type substances, including meth, accounted for 25.4%, up 9.4% over the past year.
Chief Executive Glenn Dobson says there are similar trends in the US and Australia.
He told Andrew Dickens that most workplaces have a drug and alcohol policy that guides employers on how to deal with drug use.
Generally, Dobson says, rehabilitation is offered, as they’re looking for the employee to stop taking the drug and make the workplace a safer place.
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School leaders want more information from Labour on its plan to scrap a mandated hour of reading, writing, and maths in schools, while achievement results are improving.
Leader Chris Hipkins announced last week teachers would be given more choice over how they spend their time.
But a Curia Market Research poll shows 74% of Kiwis support the mandated hour policy.
Secondary Principals' Council chair Steve McCracken told Andrew Dickens it ensures the subjects are taught regularly and consistently across the country.
He says his school is seeing an increase in literacy and numeracy results already, and hearing the same from other schools.
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There are concerns a flood of cheaper aluminium imports from China could lead to local manufacturers shutting their doors.
Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Cameron Brewer has declined a request for safeguard measures to protect them.
MBIE noted the domestic industry is struggling, with the increase in imports just one reason among many, including increasing costs.
E tu National Secretary Rachel Mackintosh told Andrew Dickens these plants are the lifeblood of regional communities.
She says when we lose industry in this country it doesn't come back, and its effects flow more widely than just job losses.
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On the Early Edition with Andrew Dickens Full Show Podcast Wednesday the 14th of October 2026, a new poll shows just how popular the hour of reading, writing and maths has become, Secondary Principals Association Chair Steve McCracken tells Andrew if teachers are on board with it too.
There's concern for New Zealand's aluminium industry after the Government rejected protection against cheap imports, ETU National Secretary Rachel Mackintosh shares her thoughts.
Our increasing love of Cocaine is bleeding through into the workplace, the Drug Detection Agency CEO Glenn Dobson shares his thoughts.
Plus, UK Correspondent Gavin Grey has the latest on hundreds of French supermarkets have been hit by a cyber attack that caused their fridges and freezers to heat up, spoiling fresh and frozen food estimated to be worth millions of euros and UK PM Andy Burnham under growing pressure after he claimed Russia did interfere with the Brexit referendum.
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So, if Qiulae Wong is generally considered to be the best thing in last night's debate, how did she do it and how is her fringe party keeping popular enough to perhaps enter Parliament?
Her greatest strength last night was acting like a normal person.
It struck me that she was the only person on our screen that was not a career politician.
That includes the panel who were full of broadcasters who make their living talking about politics all the time.
Q is 38. She's had career background in sustainable business. She's been successful enough to buy a house. She's got kids. She is comfortable speaking her mind. She's authentic.
Beside her were two politicians who have only really been politicians and an old warhorse who seems to have been there since the Treaty was signed.
So, she appears like a normal person and that is attractive to 8% of the population at the moment, which gives her party the trump hand.
But make no mistake, Opportunity's policies are the most radical in play right now.
The Citizens Income, or UBI, or Basic Income Guarantee, or whatever you want to call it, combined with a Land Tax, are a pretty out there platform.
They are far more radical than anything the Greens have come up with. It makes a Capital Gains Tax seem moderate.
If Opportunity ever got their way New Zealand would go through a painful transformation.
But her trick has been that she appears to be prepared to compromise, with seemingly everything, unlike the radical Greens. And she reacts with a common sense that is absent in her policies.
It's the Peter Dunne effect coming back. So, is the Opportunity Party the United Future of today? Destined to hold the balance of power and then fade away?
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