#BHN Big Hairy News

Health NZ wants to cut four chief medical officer roles. Health New Zealand (HNZ) wants to reduce the number of chief medical officers, from 18 to 14 nationwide, while also promising not to cut front-line medical roles. Joining us tonight LIVE is Dr. Gary Payinda, an emergency department doctor who explains "the CMO is the doctor (usually highly respected) that helps handle patient complaints, staff crises/discipline, investigates errors, leads doctor education and competency, and provides doctor input and medical leadership for the hospital."

We're reviewing the debate of Iwi verses Peewee where Ngāti Toa Leader Helmut Modlik debates David Seymour on the treaty and Seymour's treaty principles bill.

Bomber joins us tonight to preview the big debate on The Working Group tomorrow night

Nicola Willis and Barb Edmonds had discussions around superannuation today where it appeared for a moment they were in agreement...until they weren't. Willis wants the age to increase whereas Edmonds wants it to stay where it is...and both CAN be correct. We'll explain tonight.

Cessation expert from the University College of London Dr Leon Shihab joined Breakfast this morning to talk about the research behind smoking cessation and where heated tobacco products sit's as an option.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon was on Breakfast this morning talk, among other things, about the apparent conflict of interest of Casey Costello and big tobacco and about the funding being cut for te reo education for teachers.

Rachel Brooking is the Labour MP for Dunedin and she joins us LIVE tonight to talk over the protest in the weekend that saw 35,000 people, out of a population of around 130,000, to turn up to the Octagon to let this NActNZ government know the feeling in the community about their decision to cut the hospital funding significantly

Associate Education Minister David Seymour says there will be no more teacher-only days during term time and schools will need to implement a truancy plan to tackle what the Act leader calls the country’s “truancy crisis”.

John Oliver chose to talk about the Trump/Harris debate in his latest episode as he was off last week winning and Emmy. In particular he chose to focus on the "eating the cats" and "eating the dogs" comments from Trump and contrary to the claim "we're just hearing from constituents" he showed how JD Vance himself might be the origins of the false claim.

On our 500th show we thought we'd share that a few weeks ago we received our first lawyers' letter, not a direct threat of legal action, but a interestingly worded email that suggested we should seek legal advice based on an item we showed as a part of a nightly show. We'll go though what happened, who it was, where it is right now and anything else that may be pertinent