Full Show Podcast: 11 September 2026

0:00The Issues, the interviews and the insight, Ryan French on an early edition with Spark for Business, Technology that keeps business moving, News Talks, that bitch. Good morning, welcome to Friday, 6 after 5. We've got Leon Penetter on the show this morning, Obama's Secretary of Defense, former CIA Director, How Long Will This Walk, Carry On, Kevin Putt on the A-B's, Urgency at Parliament, too much, to will get more MSD stuff-ups and vincents in the UK. The agenda. Friday 11th of September, just when you thought Trump's plate every card in the playbook to win over voters now is bribing them, literally, I'll give you 5K if you vote for us. It's $5,000 to every adult, the only caveat I have is that the dividend that we're making must be spent in the United States of America. We don't want you. We don't want you going to Canada to spend the money.

1:01So is this plausible? We're taking in an extraordinary round of revenue because the President of the United States is actually standing up to both foreign companies, but also foreign countries who've been taking advantage of America's workers for pretty much my entire life. Yeah, that's Daddy Varn. We're taking in an extraordinary round of revenue because the President- He's basically saying, yeah, we got the cash, we can do it because we're slapping the tariffs on. Let's go to the UK. Regional mirrors will soon have the power to slap their own tourists tax on. This is for domestic or foreign. When you're supposed to have travelled, if you go to France, you often pay a tax and you stay in a local area. So this is something that mayors can do if they want to. It's not compulsory. They can choose if this will fit with what their plans off their local area. Which is basically what Labour has said they will do here. Over in the UK, there'll be no caps on how much they can charge. We're not even getting the number of tourists that we used to get. They're going to so many other places. We need to create jobs and grow our economy. Business does that.

2:01Taxing does not create jobs. It reduces them. Finally this morning, you know Ryan here, the airline we're everyone claps on their land because they made it. This is a budget airline. Europe's version of Jetstar basically. It's boss Michael O'Leary is in hot water this morning for calling airlines rapists. You might find some people would choose not to fly with Ryan here, but they'll be overrun with it. The people abandoning their lingers, because of TANSA, BA and others. The desperate to get to Ryanair's low fares because they can't afford to fly with the high fare rapists around Europe. This is right with TANSA, BA and slight fare. High fare rapists. That's appropriate, right? Absolutely. You don't think that's offensive, do you? I'm happy to offend Lufthansa, BA. BA, Lufthansa, and every TANSA, I'd happily offend them on a regular basis. This isn't his first controversy. He's previously fired the idea of standing six, which aren't seats and a fat tax for overweight passengers. News and views you trust to start your day.

3:01It's early edition with Ryan Bridge and Spark for Business. Technology that keeps business moving. News talks there've been... Nine after five minutes to impede his New Zealand first, they've come out with a new immigration policy, and it is multi-pronged. There's about 14 bullet points to get through. And so, resident visa. There'll be basically a whole bunch of changes. The most important, though, for the government and for the post-election negotiations is that Winston is essentially demanding the immigration portfolio. He wants the reins. Also, they're going to be trying to put a referendum to cap resident visas to 20,000. They will deport criminal non-citizens. Now, that'll get your headline, but I don't think that that's actually going to be massively controversial, because what they're talking about is automatic deportation, meaning you cannot appeal for any reason if you are a non-citizen and you are found guilty of a violent, offensive sexual crime, guilty of fraud,

4:05organized crime, money laundering, aiding and abetting, those sorts of things. Migrant exploitation is anyone going to complain if you automatically deport someone who's not a citizen of New Zealand who's found guilty of those types of crimes. I highly doubt it. 10 after 5. Ryan and Brett. Leon Pineda, former CIA director, Obama's defense secretary joins us live next on the war and how long this thing might drag out. The Early Edition full show podcast on I-Hart Radio, powered by News Talks Epi. The first word on the news of the day. Early edition with Ryan Brett and Spark for Business, technology that keeps business moving. News Talks Epi. 13 minutes after 5 on News Talks Epi, we get to Kevin Putt on the A-Bs. It's actually happening in America on the A-Bs and the spring box in a second. But first, Trump says, along with offering $5,000 to anyone who votes for him, Trump said at this rally that the US-around war will end

5:06immediately after the midterms. They can't hold out any longer. They're desperate to try and affect the election so that we can get a nice week group of people in there and leave them alone and let them have their nuclear weapons. Now, his top advisor, according to the Wall Street Journal this morning, privately warning it could drag on for the rest of his term at least. Remember at the start of the week, I told you about Leon Pineda, the former US Defense Secretary, former CIA director. He warned this could become another forever war in the Middle East for America. Well, we've managed to track him down. He currently serves as the chairman for the Pineda Institute for Public Policy. Secretary Pineda is with me live this morning. Welcome to the program. Good to be with you, Ryan. Amirical, if this thing ends after the immediately after the midterms. I don't think that's likely to happen. Generally, the president has lost a lot of credibility because he's been talking about a new deal

6:08and something happening with the war every few days and it doesn't happen. And I think this is another example of him saying that ultimately everything will be fine after the midterms, but I think the reality is the war will go on. Secretary, we've also had overnight another development. This is the who-thes-taking, the strategic Red Sea Port City of Mocha. And we've got the Strait of Hormuz choked up. If we have the Red Sea choked up, we've got problems, haven't we? Well, we're not only in a terrible stalemate with both sides kind of running on of options, but it's also increasingly dangerous. The Strait of Hormuz are pretty much closed. And even though there are a few ships that try to pass through, largely there's very little going through and gas prices and inflation are going up here in this country. In addition to that, there's no seas fire,

7:09so both sides are trading attacks without any clear objective. I assume expecting that one side may either be willing to negotiate or surrender, and that's not going to happen. And then lastly, on the very issue that the President said this war was all about, which is the nuclear issue, there is absolutely no negotiation and no kind of discussion with regards to the nuclear issue. And so Iran continues to maintain control of enriched fuel. There aren't any inspections. And there's frankly no end in sight. The enriched uranium, you were a CIA director. Does the CIA know? I mean, yeah, there's no inspections, but will they know exactly where it is? Well, they'll probably have intelligence on kind of the general location of where it's at. A lot of it is buried, I'm sure,

8:10as a result of the attacks that were made during the war. But the bottom line is we really don't know whether or not Iran had other facilities available to enrich fuel, and whether they have other sources for enriched fuel. So we really, without any kind of inspection, without any kind of negotiation on the issue, we really don't know where they're at when it comes to the nuclear issue. Secretary, how do you think this plays out then? Do you think that there is, I mean, that when Trump leaves office, whoever takes over is going to have to negotiate their way out of this? Well, I don't think there's any question that ultimately what is needed here are negotiators who are experienced, who know what Iran is all about, who know that they've got to deal

9:11with a very tough regime in Iran. Even with the experienced negotiators, President Obama, it took almost two years to come to some kind of agreement. So right now we don't have negotiators who are experienced on Iran. We're operating through intermediaries at best other countries like Pakistan or Egypt, and very frankly, they don't have our interests at heart. And so ultimately what's needed here is a new president who will have new negotiators, who hopefully will be more experienced at the ability to try to work out some kind of agreement with Iran. What's your assessment with the Republicans will hold on to the House and the Senate in the midterms? Well, right now because of what's happening with the price of gas, which is now at very high levels

10:13here in the United States, the price of fuel, the price of diesel, the price of the cost of food, inflation is going up increasingly. We're in a trade war with Canada as well as the rest of the world, but in particular, a trade war with Canada. I think it was all street journal said it's the dumbest trade war we've ever gotten into, but that's going to result in additional inflation for people in this country. And we have this endless war on our hands as well. And when you put all of that together, there is an American public that really is very concerned about where the country is going. I think it's almost 70%. Now are very concerned about the future of the country. And that tells me that I think if people vote their feelings that there's a good chance that the Democrats will take control of the House, I think the Senate will be tighter,

11:15but I think the Senate is in play as well. Secretary, what about warfare, the future of warfare generally? We've seen massive changes on the battlefield out of Ukraine. We've got drones, we've got speedboats. It doesn't take much for a couple of terrorists to get their hands on these things and their cheap as chips. So what do you do about that? Well, that's the nature of warfare in the 21st century. We're finding out. I think generally everybody kind of assumed that Russia, the United States, major military powers that would always prevail. And obviously Russia with the invasion of Ukraine, everybody thought it would be over in a few days, did not happen. Russia was stopped and now is in the midst of a continuing war using drones in their own homeland,

12:15being attacked by Ukraine. And the same thing is true in Iran. We're seeing the increased use of drones, the increased use of new technologies. I think warfare is changing a great deal. And very frankly, I think countries like the United States and others are going to have to seriously think about how they're going to provide security in a century where very frankly, weapons are very usable, cheap weapons are being used to essentially change the tone of the battle. Leon Pineda, it's been a pleasure speaking with you. Thank you very much for your time. Good to talk to you, right? Leon Pineda, former U.S. Secretary of Defense, former director of the CIA, you're on News Talks at B. The early edition full show podcast on I Have Radio, powered by News Talks at B. Get ahead of the headlines on early edition with Ryan Bridge

13:19and Spark for Business, technology that keeps business moving, News Talks at B. 523, so the A, B is the spring box and Baltimore, much friendlier time for us Sunday 9am, Kevin, platformer, spring box with us this morning, Kevin, good morning. Good morning, Ryan. You thought were your predictions for this weekend? Oh, with the, with the injuries we've got the questions about our New Zealand Depth, I think South Africa, even though not great travelers, I think they'll get it done. Was funny listening to Mike Koskin show yesterday and we had Jordy Barrett talking about the fact that when they finished that second test, they all jumped on a charter flight together, four hours after it's sitting across from one another with the box straight to Baltimore. Well, that's the modern game isn't it now that you can actually, you know, have a little bit of socialization with the opposition and then go out and potentially try and kill them in about seven days time. How do you think Dave Rene is going to react? I mean, so two losses back to back. What do you think the message would have been?

14:20Look, I've got to be honest. I think Dave Rene is already, you know, got the tech, he's gone toe to toe with the box, two, one, down, be it. I think people can see he's doing his job okay. I think this is more of a test of New Zealand rugby and the depth chart. What has happened over the last sort of four years with their development of young players? And let's have a look at it. And I think they may be found wanting. How much do you think Arty Savia has the sort of his leadership? How much have you been effected do you think that has on the side in the psyche? Massive right, I really do. He's a talisman and that's a, you know, a physical talisman as well. He leads them right from the front. We even nearly saw a drop off in the last test match when he actually left the field. But when you combine that now with Tupaya in the centre, which had been before the competition even started, a position that had been so concerned about, that you combine a lack of positional now, and then you're capped in as well.

15:22It's got to be a bit of a concern. Obviously they will not talk about it. Jury Barrett, I'm sure, will step up to the plate, but yeah, it's got to be a concern. Kevin Parkformer, Springgok, always good to chat. 25 after 5 news talks, their B-10 naming by the way is 8 o'clock this morning. Use talks, their B-27 minutes after 5. So you know the Prime Minister hates a bloated bureaucracy. We know that National doesn't like it, and they've told us this many, many times. Look, as long as we're around the country, one of the things that people tell me a lot is that actually we've got way too much bureaucracy. And actually it starts here in Wellington. Certainly does. So is this all talk, is this all hot air? Do the facts match the rhetoric? In May's budget, Kate McNamara has done a great piece, or it often does a great piece, in the herald. May budget initiatives are expected to add a net average increase of 1,300 public service jobs a year, and you go hang on a minute. Net increase, 1,300 a year, what's up with that? Doesn't sound like we are shrinking the bureaucracy, doesn't it?

16:22That doesn't. This is Treasury documents that we released yesterday. Read the budget. So if you take the May budget, and the promise to cut nearly 9,000 roles in the public service by 2029 together, there's something doesn't add up, doesn't it? So we know that Labor increased them 33%. That's fine. We all understand that. But what, you know, is national actually serious about reigning in the public service or not? Paul Goldsmith and Nicola Willis said they will get it down. Total employees back to 55,000 by mid-2029. It's saved $2.4 billion. Where's the evidence it's going to happen? Where's the plan that it's going to happen? A lot of people are asking that question this morning, 29 after 5. Ryan Bridge. One news talks head B. We'll go to Vincent in the UK after news at 5.30. He's our UK Europe correspondent. And we'll talk about the use of... It's talked to Graham Edgler about urgency in the house. Why do they use it? Do they use it too much?

17:23Is that why we're getting mistakes? All ahead on your Friday mornings, ZB. The Early Edition full show podcast on I-Hard Radio, powered by News Talks at B. On your radio and online on I-Hard Radio, Early Edition with Ryan Bridge and Spark for Business, technology that keeps business moving, News Talks at B. 24 away from 6. Here on News Talks at B. For your Friday morning, we're here to Vincent McEvany, a UK Europe correspondent. We'll talk about the tourist tax. They're going to basically give councils there. The lever that Labor here wants to give councils, which is you can slap a tax on. There's no cap on it over there. And you can charge there both foreign and domestic tourists. So Vincent will have the details. We'll also talk about urgency in the house. They don't look like they're moving with urgency.

18:24Whenever you turn on Parliament TV, which sadly I do quite often, quite regularly, no one's in a hurry. Are they? And whenever they have to work late, they start cocking things up. And they start saying things they shouldn't say. And they get a bit tired. You know, when they actually have to work, like the rest of us, things go awry. 23 to 6. Lockman Renny, Daneden, Lockman, good morning. Good morning. So we've got an Arborist competition in Daneden. Yes, a morning 30 Arborists from around the South Island will scale trees up to 20 meters high as they compete in the regional Arbor Huskivana tree climbing champs that Daneden Botanic Gardens this weekend. The top five will qualify for the national finals in Rotorua in October. It's the first time in 32 years Daneden has hosted the event. Otago Polytechnic Arbor Culture Senior Lecturer Ben Fetteman. Says it's a challenge for students to test their skills against some of the country's top Arborists and make connections with potential employers. How are you at climbing trees, Lockman? Not the best, maybe a couple of bruises from my past attempts.

19:28How's the weather? It's fine currently, but showers are developing in the afternoon. There's also some westerlies strong at times from late morning. It's currently 10 degrees with the highest 16 today. All right, thank you very much, mate. Clear's in Christchurch, morning clear. Good morning. People are usually climbing trees trying to get away from you. Oh, they've got nothing on me. Hey, tell us about the in Banks Peninsula. There's a bit of a lifeline for the dolphins. Yeah, the Hector's dolphins, the Department of Conservation's reducing the number of tourism trips allowed, allowed rather in the Banks Peninsula harbors. And they've also imposed a 10 year moratorium on any new marine mammal permits around the area. It is a very stronghold area for the threatened Hector's dolphins. These changes won't affect any existing permits that are in place for six operators that are out in the Akaroa and Little San Harbour. But Docs Mahanoi Operations Manager Andy Thompson says the Hector's dolphins are being pushed out of Akaroa Harbour. And that's putting both them, of course, but also the local businesses at risk. He says Doc has a great relationship with the operators

20:31who provide equality, public education. So this is about protecting that and consolidating both the industry and the dolphins. All right, did you see that story yesterday, clear, that they found a dolphin with its head chopped off? Is it a brutal one? No, no, no. But also, I didn't bother clicking on it. All I did was read the headline. But I thought, how do you know it wasn't a shark? You know what I mean? How do you know it anyway? I know. I always find that weird. All there was one recently down here where that everyone was saying it was a seal and it turned out it wasn't. It was something else. I never, they all look the same to me. How's your weather? Frosty to start. It's minus two at the moment. We will get some showers and westerlies from this afternoon before a southerly change. The high, though, 17. Is it a seal? Is it a whale? Clear doesn't know. Good morning, Max. Concerning, cantellative. Good morning. Hey, excellent news for hospitality. Yeah, it's been more than seven years since the Reading Cinema Complex on Courtney Place had to close quake stuff. It was never the flashiest part of town.

21:31There was an effort to spruce it up just before 2019. But it is difficult, I think, with street side malls to keep them feeling light and welcoming. And especially in an area that since its closure has been increasingly affected by rough sleepers, mental illness, drugs, etc. But it is a massive significant patch of land in what should be a primo area. And yesterday it was announced we are getting a ground floor city fitness. Shops, hospitality venues. This is what we've been waiting for. The City Council granting resource consent approval for prime property group to develop what it's calling the court. A positive reaction as well. You build something nice. The area feels nicer. The tracks nicer people. It may sound a little pat, but that's a, you know, the effort is to get more lunch trade, dining trade, late nights back to the entertainment district because right now it's probably anything but. Nice buildings, nice people. So there's no cinema going in there. So do you have to go there? There is. There is a rejuvenated redding cinema as well. And it is still redding, yeah.

22:33Right. Okay, has your weather? A cool start, but fine weather today. Good, high of 14. Nice and joy. Thanks Max. Neither good morning. Good morning. Finally, we've got the ribbon cutting for the CRL. It's here. It's here. Correct. The ribbon cutting ceremony. Apparently that's happening at nine o'clock this morning. Businesses near the new city rail link stations. They're just buzzing. Buzzing with this rail connections opening this weekend. So that's happening on Sunday, not to be confused with the ribbon cutting today at 9 a.m. So the $5.5 billion project. We'll see the first train roll onto this new connection on Sunday morning. Real Groovy Records manager and co-owner. That's Sarah Williamson. And she's just excited that her store is very close to the Tehway Hotel Teor station. She says the fort traffic is very, very important to the business. And she says it will be really good, especially for who business. Because people will be able to carry the heavy items to trade in. You know, when they're carrying all their vinyl, their big, big records and things like that, it's going to be a lot easier. Taking them on the train.

23:33Fantastic. That's always a helpful thing, isn't it? How's our weather? Casual rain, caring to finally afternoon. Yay, 15th high here in Auckland. Brilliant, neither. It is 18 minutes away from six. Oh, and says, Ryan, my last tree climbing effort involved. Oh, and 65, by the way. Oh, and you shouldn't be climbing trees to 65. Is it kind of a perjudic how a tree to show the kids that I still had it and had a scan-guided steroid injection afterwards? Yeah, I mean, the arborists to be fair, they're not just climbing, willing, nilly, and they're not strapped in. They've got ropes to plenty. So if something does go wrong, then there'll be a backup, wouldn't they? 18 away from six news talks, their B will head to Vincent in the UK next on Bed Taxes. International correspondence with NZI insurance. Peace of mind for New Zealand business. According to six news talks, their B will talk about the USD thing and just second first, Vincent McEvinier, UK Europe correspondent, Vincent, good to have you here. Good morning. So tell us about the tourist tax.

24:34So the councils will get the lever to pull. The government's going to give them the lever. Yeah, this is part of Andy Burnham's program of sort of giving out powers to local regions. And this is pretty common anywhere you go in Europe these days. If you're saying in a major city, when you check out, you have to pay a local tourist tax. Sometimes it's sort of a flat amount. You have to pay in cash or otherwise, it is a sort of percentage of what your accommodation, be it Airbnb or hotel cost. And the UK has been a bit of a lagger on this. But now it's been piloted for the first time this year in Edinburgh. It's been deemed a success. And so if you come to England next time, cities will have their own percentage that they will apply on your accommodation that you will have to pay. So they're going to have the power in each city to decide how much they're going to charge for your stay. And that money is intended to go into the local community to fund the services and transport that you might be using. The principal princes of Wales have made a surprise visit to a stadium and Liverpool. What's it about?

25:35Yeah, that's right. They've gone to Everton's new stadium. We knew that Prince William was going, but we didn't know that the princess was also going to attend. And this was a big launch with sports stars. The likes of Harry Kane, the England captain and other former Olympians. All about a new initiative to get people talking about suicide in the context of sports. Suicide International Prevention Day is today. It is something that Prince William was talking about from the heart, saying often that it's not discussed and that doing so amongst teammates, amongst colleagues is really important. And he had the backing of many sports stars that were there with him. You know the bid tax, the tourist tax. Did some cities already have it? Right, doesn't Manchester have one already? Yeah, there have been some pilots, but this has basically been sort of been run sort of short term. But this is now the sort of full approval from government to run it out permanently. Gotcha. Vincent McEvany, our UK Europe correspondent,

26:37by the way, the European Central Bank. As expected, we mentioned this the other day, has raised interest rates quarter of a percentage point. They're now at two and a half. Second time they've done it this year. Borrowing costs now highest level since April of 2025. Bit of inflation, it's energy related. And widely expected markets barely budged on the back of it. Twelve away from six. Ryan Brexit. We now know why 16,000 pensioners, veterans and beneficiaries must out on their winter energy payment, urgently passing a benefit law, accidentally forcing them to reapply without telling them this was all came out in the wash yesterday. MSD is used to doing an implementing policies in a range of ways, including at pace. That is not an excuse we got this wrong. Two and a half million not paid now, been paid grey amidst the constitutional law, expert with me this morning, Graham, good morning. Good morning, Ron. Should this issue, who do you blame here? The government for passing a law under urgency or the public service for not picking this stuff up?

27:40Oh, quite clearly. And so would one have happened without the other? I suppose not. Like, probably not. Like, there were occasional things like that. But this is one of those things. If this had been a few months of slick, committee, that gives a chance for people outside me or someone else, you know, sort of beneficiary advocates to point out this mistake. But it also gives a chance for the people in the department to notice this. Going through a slick, muddy process, I'll make a submission occasionally and find something. But quite often, just that process of just even having a slick, some of the changes are made because the officials are still looking at it. And they notice things in the slick, muddy report comes out and the officials are thought again or notice something and we should fix that. And not having a slick, muddy process and then doing the thing over two days, you know, this is always the risk. And you know, when the government decides to do it that way, the government should like take the responsibility. If like that is very much something that can

28:41and will happen before it will happen again every time you do that, you are running that risk. Are you surprised that she took this long for something to crop? I mean, I've done a hell of a lot of urgency. In some ways, does this prove that the opposite actually is true that you can move fast without breaking too many things? Like, you can get lucky, but you can only get lucky for so long. And you know, this is the biggest thing that's happened. But you know, they've had to fix, you know, things that have noticed without, you know, without the effect on individuals, might be effect on government departments realizing, oh, we have to do something or here's some problem we've got, which hasn't had as much of an effect on members of the public, but it's absolutely had an effect on how governments operate. And then, you know, they fix it up again. That, you know, it happens more often, you think, this is just one of the big ones, which affected a lot more people as individuals. Have we had other examples? You know, like, is there previous governments of views, do you see all my stay as much as this one?

29:42Other cock ups? Yes, yeah, no, there have been a few. I'm trying to think if there's been one as big as this for a while there. You know, we had to do it twice. We, or the government, passed something under urgency to fix. There was swearing in, not with the MP, they were swearing in police officers wrong. They passed the law under urgency to say, no, no, all those people who weren't properly sworn in. You know, let's do that properly this time. And they count as being sworn in. And then a few years later, they had to do it again, because, you know, when they'd passed that under urgency, none of the changes internally, they had to be made, had to be made as well. And they just, you know, they had to do the same thing again. These things do happen. There was a time when, for a while, when we brought a new liquor licensing laws, it was illegal to have beer in your car boot after having picked it up at a supermarket. And I just don't think they prosecuted anyone,

30:44because someone noticed, but they had to fix that up. So you will have these mistakes happen. Graham, good to have you on as always. Graham is like constitutional law expert. It's eight to six news talks. He'd been before the news breaks here at first. Ryan Bridge on early edition with Spark for Business, technology that keeps business moving. News talks at V. Six and more from those treasury, the treasury document dump that we got yesterday, VZV the budget. So treasury raised concerns about spending on prisons, because we're spending too much on prisons, and there's too many prisoners. So what did they suggest decreasing the number of prisoners? They just said, just if you're a low level offender, then you don't have to go. And let's change the high security prisoner classification, which sounds like a bit of a dodgy thing to do. Anyways, suffice to say the government said, nay. Good morning, Mike. Isn't that the stupidity of advice? Yes, I mean, nothing they say is outside of the realms of your ability

31:47to think of other options. Should you choose to go down that track? Completely agree with it. I was having this discussion the other day with my mom. I said, well, if you elect a politician, you sort of elect them to think. And can you not just, like, why do you need a deloitte report for Wellington City Council? Can't you walk around with something like out of left field? Like, I never thought of that in a million years, then fair enough. But they don't, they don't. You can have more prisoners, less prisoners, more expenditure, less expenditure. It could be blue or black. It's like, what is it? But if you're running Wellington City Council, can you not walk around and see who's lazy and doesn't need to be there? 100% it's the weirdest thing. This Louise Upsen speaks this family, by the way. Yeah, what do you... Well, I'm working, I'm trying to work up a head of steam here, but it's like, honestly. So my understanding of what happened, so you can blame several people. You can blame the government for rushing the law. The Labour Party line is, could have gone select committee, could have picked it up, yes. Part of it is the department who do this regular ongoing, are you still where are you, who are you? I'm bored.

32:47Yeah, I couldn't agree more. And here's the thing, so this seems to me to be a bit of a beltway story. More of a beltway story, more of an exercise job from the media who hate the government. Agreed. Because it's everyone's been paid back already. Yes. So they said sorry, they've got their money back, and this number, this $3,000 they were throwing around, that's an extreme. The average was 300. 300. Which is not good, it's not good enough. No, it's not acceptable. But it's a mistake, and it's not the end of the world. And this is everything that's wrong with the media and their obsession with the government and trying to bring them there. I was talking to Gory Mejza just a few seconds ago. He said, you know, about urgency, are they doing too much urgency? Well, you could argue that this is the first major thing that's done a lot of urgency, and this is the first major clock-up. This is a clock-up. But it's like, honest, we got bigger fish to fry. Yeah. And the main upstate appeared to be as I was watching last night is that Louise Upton wouldn't talk to them. Yes. But she will talk to me. So anyway, she's with us along with Andrew.

33:48More importantly, Andrew Websters on the program. So we'll look forward to it. Are you more excited about the warriors? Good question. Or the CRL. It's close. But funnily enough, we've got the heat of the train track on as well. Oh, Christ. So we're covering all the bases. Fantastic. Mike is with you next. News talks here, B. And the sleep. For more familiar edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live to News Talks here, B, from 5am weekdays. Or follow the podcast on I Heart Radio.