Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

After a decisive victory over the Wallabies last week, it's time for round two. 

The All Blacks secured the Bledisloe Cup, but pride is still on the line as the two teams clash at Sydney's Accord Stadium. 

Newstalk ZB's Elliott Smith told Andrew Dickens the Kiwi side will be wanting to go our and deliver a similar performance to what we saw at Eden Park, given they got back on track after three losses in South Africa. 

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A solar advocate agrees National's six-month timeframe to get plug-in solar in shops is doable.  

New Zealand doesn't yet have regulations to permit the trade of plug-in systems.  

National's pledging to prioritise finishing work already under way in getting them into shops if re-elected. 

Rewiring Aotearoa CEO Mike Casey told Andrew Dickens it's a simple process, which many countries including the US, UK, and places across Europe have made the most of. 

Labour's policy is similar but says changes to enable plug-in solar would be within 12 months of a government it leads taking office. 

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A patients advocate says the news of Starship treatment delays isn't about making anyone look bad, but keeping families informed.

The Auckland children's hospital's confirmed about 20 chemotherapy cycles have been delayed by a few days due to staffing shortages. 

Health NZ says it had to make adjustments amid high demand and high staff sickness.

Patient Voice Aotearoa Chair Malcolm Mulholland told Andrew Dickens he's thankful for the whistleblower who revealed this, because no one knew.

He says the way it's been handled and the messaging from Health NZ leaders has been deplorable.

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On the Early Edition with Andrew Dickens Full Show Podcast Friday the 18th of October 2026, Cancer treatments for children at Starship hospital have been delayed, Patient Voice Aotearoa Chair Malcolm Mulholland shares his thoughts. 

After a whopping at Eden Park last week, the Wallabies are getting ready to stare down the All Blacks again, Elliott Smith joins Andrew from Sydney. 

National's promising to get plug-in solar panels on shelves within six months if re-elected, Rewiring Aotearoa CEO Mike Casey tells Andrew how big of a difference this will make. 

Plus, UK/Europe Correspondent Peter Anderson has the latest on an inquest’s which has heard the family of 24-year-old William Chapman, who died after entering a tiger enclosure, had concerns about his mental health care and the British government is threatening to ban all Eritreans from entering the UK if the east African country doesn’t accept more returns of small boat migrants and foreign national offenders.

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Yesterday's talkback outrage was all about the MPs and the gangs.  

A meeting that was condemned by both the Chrises in the Leaders debate.  

But despite this weight of opinion, Marama Davidson doubled down on the visit – and then she promised more funding for gang run social programmes. 

Well, I don't think Marama quite understands the issue. 

I actually don't mind MPs talking with criminals to better understand where they're at, and I don't mind them talking with gangs.   

There are 11,000 gang members now, with tens of thousands of related whanau, many of whom need intervention by the State.   

Whether it's support for single mothers, or rescuing of children from abusive homes, or housing. It's good to see these issues first hand with your own eyes.  

However, the real problem was the social media posting of the photos.  

They legitimised the gangs and even celebrated their existence to the wider public.  

To not see that was silly and naive of Marama, particularly in a week where the Greens are polling better than ever.  

The fact that it was done so close to the election means it's been weaponised and once again, it casts doubts around the Greens being equipped to have their hand on the tiller of this country.  

And it's interesting that Chlöe Swarbrick has been silent.   

When asked if the event was acceptable, Ms Swarbrick did not give a definitive yes or no. Instead, she stated that she needed to “understand more of the context as to what has played out here". 

She's learnt a lot over the years and knows better.   

Unlike Marama Davidson. The reason the right attack Ms Swarbrick and not Marama is that they know one is a threat and the other is an irrelevancy.   

You get the feeling that the co-leadership thing is a thing of the past. 

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Is there a clear winner in the wake of the second major leaders debate? 

Christopher Luxon and Chris Hipkins went head-to-head in the NZ Herald's Leaders Debate last night, clashing on education, geopolitics, and wages, amid other things.  

Political Commentator Brigitte Morten told Ryan Bridge the real competition wasn't just between the two leaders, but rather whether or not they could sell to the people watching why they should vote for them. 

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This year is set to be one of the highest graduating years in the history of the New Zealand Police, despite wings often not being at capacity. 

Around 730 recruits are expected to graduate from police college in 2026, almost 50% more than the average over the past two decades. 

Police say the incoming pipeline remains healthy with more than a thousand people in different stages of the application process. 

Associate Police Minister Casey Costello told Ryan Bridge it hasn't come at the cost of standards, which have actually been lifted. 

She says a change in the way they promoted the career has led to more people applying. 

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New Zealand's looking to attract more tourists from Europe and the US to reduce our reliance on Australians.

Stats NZ data shows almost 249 thousand overseas tourists arrived in August - 99% of 2019 levels.

The figure includes more Australians than in any August on record.

But Tourism Holdings Chief Executive Grant Webster told Ryan Bridge Chinese visitors have overtaken Australians as Queenstown's biggest tourism market - a significant shift.

He says that diversification is a good thing as we're heavily reliant on Australia, with them making up around half of all arrivals.

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Story of the week this week goes to a Herald piece about Ngaire Ashmore, the principal of Auckland Girls' Grammar.  

Ten years ago, she took over and turned the place upside down.  

Where there was failure, there's now a 92% university entrance mark for Year 13s. It was less than 50% when she started.  

The article gives the impression of a driven, serious, and quite determined leader, there for the right reasons.  

We need more of them.  

Interestingly, one of the things she found most difficult was not the kids, but the teachers.  

Getting them to believe the kids could actually do better and be better. Be more successful. That was the challenge.  

Thank goodness she's succeeded.  

We often, rightly, put focus on the curriculum and the style of teaching and the assessments, but at the end of the day, leadership, vision, goals, and guts are what drive organisations to improve. 

It's as true in business as it is in schools. 

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On the Early Edition with Ryan Bridge Full Show Podcast Thursday 15th of October 2026, political commentator Brigitte Morten shares her thoughts on the New Zealand Herald Leaders debate.

New Zealand is a whisker away from pre-covid tourism levels, Grant Webster Tourism Holdings Limited Chief Executive tells Ryan how the industry has bounced back. 

Record numbers of new cops are about to hit the street; Associate Minister of Police Casey Costello tells Ryan how close we are the Government's Police target.

Plus, US Correspondent Katie Fisher shares the latest on US inflation rising to 3.7% year-on-year in September, driven by higher energy prices and Ukraine’s military has suddenly had its access to Starlink satellite internet terminals restricted as the Trump administration increases pressure on Ukraine to halt long-range strikes on Russia’s oil industry immediately.

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