Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive

The owner of a vape store left atleast $150,000 out-of-pocket after a five-car ram-raid is calling on tougher consequences for offenders.

Vape Vice Co in Thames's Goldfields Shopping Centre was targeted early yesterday morning.

Owner, Kevin Carroll, says, it's the fourth time in four months one of his stores has been hit.

He told Heather du Plessis-Allan that if he was in Government, he'd declare a State of Emergency.

Carroll says it's getting worse and worse — with offenders wielding axes, hammers, and other weapons destroying their businesses.

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There has been so much money wasted by the Government in the last six years that it really takes something quite profligate to warrant a mention nowadays.

And man alive does the money wasted on those expiring Covid RAT kits warrant a mention. That wastage is out the gate and completely unnecessary.

Last week we thought it was just $160m worth of kits due to expire without being used, today we find out it’s actually $530m worth.

$530m is almost enough Government money to set up two Medical schools at Waikato University. It's half of Pharmac’s annual budget... that’s six months of life saving drugs. 

It would pay for all the beds, operating theatres, and imaging services being cut from Dunedin’s new hospital to save money… six times over.

And it didn’t need to be spent.

That is the frustrating thing. Private businesses were prepared to spend this money instead the Government spending it.

Remember that? 

Remember in January last year when private businesses were ordering RAT kits for their staff at the height of the Covid outbreak, and then in swooped Ashley Bloomfield and Jacinda Ardern and basically confiscated those RAT kits that were on order by telling the suppliers to give the RATs to the Government and not to private businesses.  

And for what? 

For them now to sit in storage and go to waste.

There is no way that we are going to use those 40 million remaining RAT kits by April; there are only 5 million of us. Each of us would have to use 8 boxes of RATs each... and remember there were three to five tests in each of those boxes.  

So we have to use 8 boxes each by April next year, and I haven’t even used one box this year.

It's not going to happen. 

That is money wasted.

I can’t understand why the Government did it, why they swooped and bought all the RATs —way more than we needed— when other people were prepared to spend their money instead.

The only explanation you can come to is mad control freakery from Jacinda and Ashley.

Just look around you. Look at all the things your town or region needs right now, because the Government can’t afford it. And to think it can’t afford it because half a billion dollars is sitting in warehouses going off.  

Of all the wasted money in the last six years this has got to be the worst. 

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National's asking questions about another Cabinet Minister's conflict of interest just two weeks after Michael Wood resigned from Cabinet over un-declared shares.

Simeon Brown claims that it involves Associate Health Minister Peeni Henare and his partner Skye Kimura, the CEO of ad agency Tatou.

He claimed to Heather du Plessis-Allan there have been several contracts between the Ministry of Health and Tatou, but the pair's relationship doesn't seem to have been raised.

He says the Cabinet manual is clear about declaring and managing conflicts of interest.

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The Bank of England may have to keep interest rates at 7 percent to counter inflation, economists warn.

US-based investment bank JP Morgan says there's a risk that persistent inflationary pressures could force the central bank to raise interest rates.

UK correspondent Enda Brady says the region experienced years of people buying huge houses and spending while credit was cheap- and the chickens are coming home to roost.

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Tonight on The Huddle, Ali Jones from Red PR and Projects Director at Still Sam Johnson joined in on a discussion about the following issues of the day- and more!

Scam victims have been coming to the media to expose how easy it is to fall victim to fake text scams claiming to be from banks. Should banks pay back money if you've fallen victim to a scam?

Is crime out of control is this country? Five vehicles ram-raided a Thames shopping centre overnight causing significant damage to Goldfields Shopping Centre and an Auckland dairy owner's wife and a customer were injured by robbers with hammers in Mount Roskill. Wat action can be taken to stop this?

The RLPA have implemented an NRL player media boycott to protest the lack of action on a new collective bargaining agreement. Is this the right way to draw people to your cause?

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A man has opened up about losing thousands in a text message scam.

Aucklander Peter Willyams was in Australia when he clicked on a link in a text pretending to be from his bank.

He filled out details on the convincing website, and within minutes more than $35,000 disappeared from his account.

Willyams says given he was overseas, it seemed plausible his account had been frozen.

"And that's why I just had my guard down and the consequences were quite dramatic and very, very quick."

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A Fisher Funds expert says the mid-year state of the global financial markets has taken a different turn than predicted.

Senior portfolio manager Sam Dickie says tech shares have risen, with Nvidia and Meta shares doubling in 2023 and the crypto industry recovering.

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Farmers and activists have accused the Ministry of Education of hypocrisy over their decision to install synthetic carpets in rural schools.

Campaign for Wool Advocacy Manager Tom Sullivan thinks installing nylon-based carpets goes against the Government's environmental agenda

Tom Sullivan also labelled it a 'missed opportunity' to support the rural community, which has been burdened with regulations to prevent climate change.

The Country's Jamie Mackay agrees this decision is hypocritical.

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New Zealanders are getting less wealthy and saving less money, according to new Stats NZ data.

The region's collective household net worth dropped $42.7 billion or 1.9 per cent, in the March 2023 quarter.

The data shows the value of financial assets also fell, by $8.3 billion.

NZ Herald business editor at large Liam Dann says falling house prices and reversing pandemic stimulus are the key factors.

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The Minister for Indigenous Australians has voiced concerns about the tactics utilised by opponents to the Indigenous voice.

Minister Linda Burney has urged the public to carefully consider their ballot and accused Opposition leader Peter Dutton of 'bullyboy tactics' to mislead voters.

Burney also stressed the importance of not letting the main no campaign get away with 'Trump-style politics' and dividing Australians.

Australian correspondent Murray Olds says the debate over the voice is set to get worse before Australians head to the polls.

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