Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive

Trade Me data shows the average salary for jobs listed has reached $70,000, a 6 percent increase on last year.

Job listing have also declined significantly in the second quarter- they're down 15 percent from the first.

Trade Me Jobs sales director Matt Tolich says this is down to an 'uncertain' economic environment.

"We are in a recession, we've got an election coming up. With that causes some uncertainty. Salaries are up as well, so employers are having to pay more. I think we're in a bit of a holding pattern."

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KiwiRail's CEO says they've taken all the necessary steps to prevent future safety issues.

Waikato regional councillor Angela Strange hasn't ruled out seeking financial compensation following KiwiRail prohibiting Te Huia from operating in Auckland.

CEO Peter Reidy says the train's failure to obey red signals on two occasions is a safety issue that needs correcting.

"Because rails are connected to a system, if a train goes through a red signal, the whole system shuts down. So all train movements that could result in a train stop- there was no risk to passengers. However, it's a serious incident." 

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Yesterday, as Matt Heath was leaving this studio after The Huddle, I asked him if he was going to any FIFA Women’s World Cup games.

He turned around and laughed and made an observation along the lines of- you can force people to do a lot of diversity stuff, but you can’t force them to buy tickets to entertainment.

Isn’t that exactly right.

The Government can force their agencies to fill half their boards with women, the Labour Party can try to force itself to get to 50 percent women MPs, and public broadcasters can force their hosts to mihi in te reo.

But no one can force you to buy tickets to a women’s game of football if you don’t want to go.

Matt's words came back to me this morning as I listened to Grant Robertson and a media outlet basically trying to shame us into buying tickets.

Grant Robertson said New Zealanders need to "pick up their game" around ticket sales. The media outlet paraphrased him by saying New Zealanders needed to do better. 

The tone there is that we are obligated to do something that we are refusing to do. But that’s not how sport works.

We are not obligated to buy the tickets. It's entertainment. And if we don’t want to watch women’s football, we don’t need to.

The origin of this frustration seems to be that the tickets are selling much faster in Australia than they're selling over here. We've bought less than half of the 900,000 available tickets to matches in New Zealand.

There's probably simple explanation for that- our women’s football team is ranked 22nd in the world, the Australians are 12th. We care a lot less because we know our team hasn’t even got a shot at the finals.

Now we might just be leaving it to the last minute. And once the hype is in full swing, we might yet buy all the tickets available. We'll have to wait to see.

But know this- if Kiwis do buy those tickets it’s because they want to go. Not because they’re being diversity-shamed into going.  

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US President Joe Biden raised some eyebrows by skipping dinner with the NATO leaders and returning to his hotel early.

The White House later issued a statement saying the President was instead preparing for his upcoming speech to NATO.

US correspondent Dan Mitchinson says Biden's had a mixed experience at the summit so far.

"I think his reputation was bolstered a little by expanding the NATO block on this trip. Or he's going to be remembered for making the decision to send Ukraine these cluster munitions, which are banned by a lot of NATO nations."

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Hopes the Official Cash Rate has peaked for good.

The Reserve Bank has today chosen to keep the OCR at 5.5 percent, the first time it hasn't risen since 2021.

But the Monetary Policy Committee agrees it needs to remain restrictive to ensure inflation is driven down.

Kiwibank chief economist Jarrod Kerr says they expect the OCR to remain at 5.5 percent into next year.

"We're hopeful that inflation will play out in a way that means they can start lowering the cash rate from about February. It won't be rapid, but it will be a quick descent."

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Survivors of the fatal Whakaari White Island eruption in 2019 have given evidence in court today.

22 people died and 25 were injured.

WorkSafe has accused six parties of health and safety failures before the disaster.

ZB justice reporter Chelsea Daniels is covering the trial.

She says US honeymooners Matthew and Lauren Urey told their story today.

"Lauren remembers hiding behind a rock where she knows others were too, because she could hear their screams. She was concerned about holding her hard hat in place because of the debris hurtling towards them."

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A former Greens senior staffer says the party should look to mop up votes from the the left-of centre who are disenfranchised by Labour's tax policy.

The Greens unveiled a plan to tax assets last month but the Prime Minister today ruled out introducing a wealth tax while in office.

David Cormack says Labour appears to want power for power's sake.

He reckons this move could get them closer.

"There probably is a few soft-centrist voters who would have been nervous about a wealth tax, which now they don't have to worry about at all, because Chris Hipkins has ruled it out."

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The Springboks have made 10 changes for Saturday's test against the All Blacks at Auckland's Mt Smart stadium.

Fit-again lock Eben Etzebeth is captain as the Springboks tap into the resources of the advance party sent over.

Fullback Willie le Roux, centre Lukhanyo Am, props Steven Kitshoff and Frans Malherbe and hooker Bongi Mbonambi retain their places.

ZB sport news director Clay Wilson explains further.

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The head of the Principals Association's backing the Ministry of Education's million dollar campaign that aimed to get kids back to school.

Last August, Education Minister Jan Tinetti launched the million-dollar Every School Day Is a Big Day campaign.

But documents released under the official information act show it wasn't "expected to have a direct, quantifiable impact on attendance rates in itself.”

But Pat Newman says it's not all about statistics.

He says instinct and knowledge should be relied upon too.

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The lawyer for a young person at the centre of claims a BBC presenter paid them for sexual pictures is rubbishing the allegations.

The Sun reported claims made by the person's mother that an un-named presenter paid the person over three years from when they were 17 - for sexual pictures.

The lawyer says nothing inappropriate happened and the allegations in the Sun are rubbish.

UK correspondent Enda Brady explains this latest development.

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