Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive

Disgraced comedian Russell Brand has been sentenced to over a decade in prison.

He was convicted for raping a woman and sexually assaulting three others more than 17 years ago. 

UK correspondent Enda Brady says Brand's reputation is 'in the gutter' and he's likely to have a difficult time in prison. 

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Wayne McNee has confirmed he'll step down from the role of AgriZeroNZ chief executive, and will be departing in January.

He's claimed he'll begin working as a self-employed consultant going forward.

The Country's Jamie Mackay explained further.

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Ronaldo Mulitalo returns to the wing for the Kiwis in an otherwise unchanged side for the Rugby League World Cup final against the Kangaroos in Brisbane on Sunday night.

Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad makes way after filling in during Mulitalo's one-match ban for a shoulder charge.

Kiwis halfback Jahrome Hughes says the team's been training hard, and they know how they want this upcoming clash to go. 

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On the Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive Full Show Podcast for Tuesday, 10 November, 2026, Vanessa Weenink's scathing assessment of her own party after the Nat lost her Banks Peninsula seat.

Media insider Shayne Currie on the meltdown at Radio New Zealand.

Dai Henwood's friend and manager pays tribute to the comedian, who's died aged 48.

And on The Huddle, Mark Sainsbury and Matt Ball talk moustaches.

Get the Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive Full Show Podcast every weekday evening on iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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Tonight on The Huddle, former broadcaster Mark Sainsbury and Property Investors Federation Advocacy Manager Matt Ball joined in on a discussion about the following issues of the day - and more! 

One outgoing National MP, Vanessa Weenink, has expressed concerns about the party's direction - and claimed the party is moving too far to the right. Do we think this is fair, or do we disagree?

Chris Luxon finally met with Opportunity's Qiulae Wong - after facing plenty of questions about why this didn't happen sooner. Do we think this was the right move? 

The RNZ financial blowout has sparked concerns, and the broadcaster's outgoing boss is being urged to step down even sooner. What do we make of all this? 

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Yeah, well what about those truth torpedoes that Vanessa Weenink has been firing, eh?

The outgoing National MP lost her Banks Peninsula seat in this election. She says people in her electorate told her they hated, that's her word, hated National in the lead-up to the election.

She's told reporters those people complained that National was listening too much to its coalition partners. She says her party has been dragged too far to the right and that part of her is relieved not to be in that coalition anymore.

Now, you could be forgiven for being somewhat shocked that a National MP would be so scathing of her own party but there's a little bit of context I think you need.

Vanessa readily admits she is a centrist. She was previously a member of the Labour Party and her electorate is fairly left-leaning. I mean, other than the past three years that Vanessa held the seat, Banks Peninsula had been Labour, Labour, Labour, Labour, Labour since 1999. And at this election, it's gone back to Labour.

Now, because of that, I think Vanessa Weenink has misdiagnosed National's problem.

National's problem, I don't think, is that it's gone too far to the right. I think it's that it hasn't gone far enough to the right. It's tried to resist that.

Have a look at what happened to National's vote. Between 2023 and 2026, National lost 8.85 percentage points. Maybe only 2.5 points of that went to Labour because that's roughly how much Labour went up. Most of the rest of it, around six points, went to ACT and New Zealand First, which together gained about six points.

You could argue that both of those parties, on different issues, sit further to the right than National.

Now, I personally think that tells you voters are looking to the right and they're not finding it in National.

I also think the days of straddling the centre ground are over, at least for now. Maybe not forever but for now. Things in this country are too broken for a political party to effectively do nothing about them, which is what the centre often becomes. It is the do-nothing space.

There will be recriminations and there will be examinations of what went wrong for National, causing it to slump from the high 30s to 29 percent. In the weeks and months to come, they'll dissect it and try to figure it out.

But I do not think National's problem is that it went too far to the right. At least not from the perspective of its own voters, who left it to go further right.

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A train derailment is threatening to knock the West Coast's tourism industry off-track.

The TranzAlpine route between Christchurch and Greymouth is facing three weeks of disruption after a KiwiRail coal train derailed near Otira last week.

Damage to rail sleepers and a nearby bridge means passengers have to take buses between Arthur's Pass and Greymouth while repairs are carried out.

Development West Coast chief executive Heath Milne says the timing is tough.

"That's regularly rated as one of the top 10 train journeys in the world, and it does draw a lot of people - not just to the West Coast, but also to Christchurch to get on that train as well." 

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A decision to downsize Auckland's household bins has been met with pushback.

Councillors have voted to change the default kerbside bin from 120 litres to 80 over time as part of an ongoing war on waste.  

Lower fees are proposed for households opting for smaller bins, but it could leap up for those with a 240 litre bin. 

Manurewa-Papakura Ward councillor Daniel Newman says the giant bins could cost about $490.

"It's gonna mean that some of the poorest families who need the bigger bin are going to pay an absolute premium for it in order to subsidise the smaller households." 

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There's reflections on Dai Henwood's positive impact on improving awareness of bowel cancer. 

The 48-year-old comedian died today, six years after developing the disease.

He kept performing comedy throughout his treatment, and produced a book and documentary series on his cancer journey.

Friend and manager Richard Carrington says he's had rafts of emails describing how Henwood's story helped them.

"I've had a number of people say they went and got colon testing and they found something. So I can say that he actually saved lives."

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There's criticism aimed at RNZ's outgoing boss over the public broadcaster's financial blowout.

Its been revealed an anticipated $470,000 deficit, has reached almost $12 million. 

RNZ's blaming a mix of one-off costs and overspending, and is expected to cut 58 jobs.

Herald editor-at-large Shayne Currie says it's unfathomable Paul Thompson didn't have a firm grip on the finances.

"Paul is a very renowned operator, he's been chief executive for 13 years, he knows full well how that organisation runs."

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