Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

Beef + Lamb New Zealand is welcoming Labour's plan to review the Emissions Trading Scheme.

Labour says ETS prices are too low to meaningfully cut emissions, and make planting exotic forests more attractive than growing food.

It wants farmers to adopt new technology to reduce emissions and isn't campaigning on making them pay directly for agricultural emissions.

Beef + Lamb Chair Kate Acland told Andrew Dickens Labour is starting to recognise how important farming is to the economy.

She says Kiwis are among the most emissions efficient farmers in the world - and stopping farming isn't the way to cut agricultural emissions. 

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Well, the jungle drums are starting to thrum for the fast-track regime.  

Word on the street is that legal action is coming for a number of the proposals currently before the committee. 

Meanwhile, there was a fiery Auckland Council meeting yesterday full of anger at residential fast-track developers. 

Mayor Wayne Brown has vowed to be a thorn in the side of subdivisions looking to circumvent the council, considering telling fast-track developers —and future residents— it won’t provide or fund basic services to them. 

The problem is the developers are using the new system to gazump planning rules.  

Fast-track was designed to speed up the process of getting consents, but not to supplant the regulations currently in place.  

There's been a stampede by housing developers who want quick consents, but they also want more latitude for their plans.  

A prime example is the re-development of the Devonport township.  

The developers there have proposed a series of eight storey buildings, but the Unitary Plan currently only allows four.  

That's got locals concerned that the picturesque main road will be overwhelmed, but they'll have no say. 

The fast-track is there to make the gaining of consents faster, but not to fundamentally change the plan that's currently in place.  

The great success so far is the Port of Tauranga, whose plan was stuck in bureaucratic limbo for seven years. Now in a matter of months the plan has been approved, but it is still a plan that adheres to planning regulations in place.  

So expect some expensive legal action as locals and councils put the spanner in the works of the developers trying to push the boundaries for a quick buck. 

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Germany's far-right AfD is piling pressure on parties to work with them after a state election win. 

Preliminary results show the party is three seats short of an outright majority in Saxony-Anhalt. 

However most German political parties refuse to work with the AfD. 

If it finds support, it would be the first far-right party to govern a German state since World War II. 

Sky News European Correspondent Alastair Bunkall told Ryan Bridge there's a chance they could try and govern as a minority, but even then they'd probably still need an agreement to make sure anything they wanted to pass got across the line. 

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The oil and gas industry is welcoming the first loans from the Government’s $200 million Gas Security Fund.

It's investing $23.5 million into two projects, including drilling a new well and accessing deeper gas at existing fields. 

Both with be run by Todd Energy, while there are 17 other proposals sitting on the Government's desk. 

Energy Resources Aotearoa CEO John Carnegie told Ryan Bridge the loans are being used for existing field and infrastructure, so they offer one of the quickest opportunities to get more domestic gas into the market sooner.  

He says if they're successful, both projects expect to have gas flowing by the end of 2027. 

Carnegie says this is a public-private partnership at its best. 

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On the Early Edition with Ryan Bridge Full Show Podcast 2026, Todd Energy getting up to $23.5 million in government loans for gas security projects, Energy Resources Aotearoa CEO John Carnegie shares his thoughts. 

The Government’s splashing another $5 million on regional tourism, Rotorua Mayor Tania Tapsell tells Ryan what the money will go to in Rotorua.

Europe is shaking in it's boots after the far right party AFD's win in Saxony-Anhalt, Sky News Europe Correspondent Alastair Bunkall has the latest out of Germany.

Plus, Australia Correspondent Donna Demaio has the latest on a leaked text shows huge amount tipped for Solomon Islands from the Australian Government and American football fans descend on Melbourne for an historic NRL match at the MCG.

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Overseas visitors are being encouraged to get out of the main centres so our tourist hotspots stay fully booked all year round.  

The Government's putting $5 million into six initiatives designed to entice travellers to visit the regions, ahead of the peak season.  

Rotorua NZ will lead a $995 thousand food campaign focused on Chinese visitors, as well as co-leading another aimed at Australian and US tourists. 

Mayor Tania Tapsell told Ryan Bridge the overseas focus is important, so businesses thrive in the quieter months when there's less domestic travel. 

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We've got another report from another ratings agency, Moody's.  

They've taken a look at our credit, they've taken a look at our economy, much the same as the S&P one we spoke about last week. 

But here's a few things this country cannot afford to forget.  

We are a trading nation; we have a small population. Unless we sell stuff to the rest of the world, which the world then pays us for, we are a backwater. 

We are a money-go-round; we are a low-income poor cousin at the bottom of the Pacific. 

Dairy, meat, kiwifruit, honey, you name it. If we don't have strong export industries, we're basically buggered. We need more of them, of course.  

We have tourism, let's not whinge too much about the campervans. 

The world's cooked at times, and there'll be another Hormuz before long. 

Hell, the current Hormuz isn't over yet and that means we need storage for diesel, which we're doing, but we need more of, for gas, which Genesis is looking at, and Todd and Uncle Shane are trying to find, and data centres.  

I know they're controversial, I know people hate them, but they shouldn't be.  

If done well, and by well, I mean they wash their own faces, then tick tick.  

The other thing we desperately need are roads that don't wash out when it rains. Petrol taxes pay for that, so let's maybe not cut our nose off to spite our face in that regard. 

It's pretty simple really, we need to keep doing what we're doing, we need roads to get our stuff to port, we need oil to keep the country moving, we need ships coming and going and we need something new on the horizon always. 

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On the Early Edition with Ryan Bridge Full Show Podcast Monday 7th of September 2026, National’s promising to make it easier to get into your first home if re-elected, Cotality NZ Chief Property Economist Kelvin Davidson tells Ryan what difference it would make to the property market. 

Former Senior Royal Protection Officer Scott Hamer shares his views on Prince Harry and Meghan's security since moving back to the UK. 

Business Correspondent Vicky Pryce shares 

Plus UK/Europe Correspondent Gavin Grey has the latest on Police in Southeast England accused of being slow to react after major disruption at the Port of Dover in Kent due to a large group of masked men holding a demonstration about illegal migration and Nigel Farage says he "frankly wasn't listening" during a conversation with his former chief of staff and an undercover reporter discussing what appears to have been a scheme to funnel foreign money to Reform UK.

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National's plan to expand the First Home Loan scheme could help more people buy their first home - but isn't expected to transform the housing market.

The party wants to widen access to five percent deposits.

If elected, National would increase the income threshold so anyone earning less than 300-thousand dollars combined could access the scheme - up from the current 95-thousand dollars for single buyers or 150-thousand for more than one.

Cotality Chief Property Economist Kelvin Davidson told Ryan Bridge the change will have a limited impact - and shouldn't push house prices higher.

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Told you when this whole thing kicked off that it wouldn't end tomorrow, and it hasn't.

This is the war between the US and Iran. It is still going on.

The biggest problem was always going to be the Strait of Hormuz, and the Strait of Hormuz is not open.

In fact, there were tankers going through the other day in a shoulder that the US should be said should be safe, and guess what, they weren't. 

Now, over the weekend we've had Leon Panetta, this is the US former US Defence Secretary.

He was also CIA Director under Obama.

He's said, yeah, look, it's one of those things. It's at risk now becoming another forever war in the Middle East, which is exactly what everybody doesn't want.

We've had these before, we've had many before, Iraq, Afghanistan, you name it.

He says the likelihood is this war is going to continue for another six months without being resolved. 

And at the same time, you've got chaos at the Pentagon.

You've got Hegseth going after and firing people left, right, and centre, or senior military commanders leaving their posts.

And just imagine if you were one of the frontline soldiers here, if you were on some Navy frigate in the middle of the Gulf, although they're having a wee holiday in Thailand at the moment, of course, but if you were on a Navy frigate in the middle of the Gulf and you were reading updates on your phone or you're reading updates from command going, oh, he's gone now.

Oh, who's in charge here? And what exactly are we doing? Quite disconcerting.

And I think Leon Panetta makes that point very well.

This war is not going to end in a hurry, certainly not in the next six months. 

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