Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive

• Full Show Podcast: 12 December 2025

  Listen to the Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive Full Show Podcast for Friday 12 December. Get the Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive Full Show Podcast every weekday evening on iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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• Perspective with Ryan Bridge: Win for truckies, loss for coastal shipping

  On the face of it, this coastal shipping decision from James Meager seems like an odd one. It's a win for truckies, like it or not, we're about to get 500 extra trucks filled with 15,000 tonnes of bulk cement on the road each month. But it's bad for coastal shipping, even though the Minister says it's actually good for coastal shipping. Let me explain. There's a cement company that wants to ship its product round the country, but its current ship is old and buggered. So a new one is coming to the rescue, but in the meantime, they've sorted a temporary ship for three years to fill the gap. Well, they did. Until the Minister, James Meager (Assoc. Transport) stepped in and said Nah. You can't operate that vessel here because its foreign-flagged ship. Meager says he's simply following the law. The vast majority of goods being moved around the country from local ports are on kiwi boats with kiwi crew, making sure we have kiwi jobs etc. All very well and good. Except there's apparently no alterative for the cement guys, Holcim, so they're forced to send everything by road for three years. And here's the bit that's worrying (aside form the fact we're loading the roads up with more heavy trucks that in many places they clearly can't handle). Holcim reckons this decision will cost it of millions of dollars. And once you sink that investment into freight by road, there will come a time when returning to shipping becomes unviable. So the cement stays on the road. So in this case, three years with kiwi workers missing out may turn into forever. And that doesn't seem like a very smart decision, especially at a time when we're trying to boost coastal shipping (newsflash: we're long islands surrounded by water) and when we're limping across the cook straight from the next three years without proper ferries. I would have thought this makes the whole system a bit weak and vulnerable. Would an extra ship at a time like this not be a good idea, no matter where it's come from and who's manning the deck? LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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• James Meager: Associate Minister of Transport blocks cement supplier's coastal shipping

  The country's largest cement supplier says we'll soon have over 500 more trucks on the road every month to move cement across the country. They recently requested to use a foreign-flagged vessel with foreign crew to operate for three years while a new vessel was built to replace their outdated M-V Buffalo. But this request was declined by the Associate Transport Minister, James Meager. He told Ryan Bridge that, "you tend to only give authorizations to carry things for a very short or temporary period, to make up a bit of a gap. And in this instance, it just didn't meet that criteria." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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• Nick Tuffley: ASB Chief Economist says GDP has had a strong rebound in the second half of the year

  There are signs that green shoots are starting to flourish economically. The latest card spending data from Stats NZ shows retail spending was up 1.6-percent last month, compared to November last year. Spending was up across the board - on the likes of groceries, household items and clothes. ASB Chief Economist Nick Tuffley told Ryan Bridge that the GDP for the second half of the year has had a strong rebound. He says they're expecting 0.8 percent for the upcoming quarter. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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• Mikki Williden: Nutritionist encourages smaller portions at restaurants

  Could different portion sizes for each sex reduce obesity? According to one UK-based expert, it could. Professor Naveed Sattar says portion sizes at restaurants are often calibrated towards an adult male - and could be too much for women, children and shorter people. Nutritionist Mikki Williden told Ryan Bridge that there's lots of variables. She says the focus shouldn't be on the difference between the sexes - but smaller portion sizes generally isn't a bad option. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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