Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive

An education training provider is offering school principals a taxpayer-funded course in Fiji.

The course is among the latest to hit the market since principals were offered a $6000 salary boost to pay for professional development.

Education training company Growth Culture is offering the Fiji conference, for $5700.

Secondary Principals' Association President Vaughan Couillault says there's been a noticeable increase in courses and programmes costing under $6000 since this pay bump.

"There certainly has been a bit of the private sector looking at ways to generate themselves some income."

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New Zealand, Australia and New Zealand have released a joint statement urging Israel not to continue its assault there.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is adamant he will launch the attack.

Winston Peters told Heather du Plessis-Allan that people in Rafah are already vulnerable.

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Eden Park's chief executive is pinning Taylor Swift's New Zealand snub on the consent process to hold concerts at the stadium.

The Australian leg of the world-renowned pop singer's Eras Tour is kicking off, with many New Zealanders heading across the ditch for the shows.

Swiftie fans raised questioned about why the star wasn't performing in Auckland and the CEO of the city's biggest venue is now weighing in.

Nick Sautner told Heather du Plessis-Allan they're limited on how many shows they can hold in any 12-month period.

He says we've missed out on concert content, because the stadium was unable to provide multiple dates for shows - which needs to change.

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The Reserve Bank is expected to keep holding New Zealand's lofty interest rates on high.

Governor Adrian Orr has warned against expectations, inflation might drop below three percent anytime soon, during a speech at Waikato University.

The central bank's been keeping the Official Cash Rate - a factor which determines interest rates, at 5.5 percent, as it fights inflation - at 4.7 percent.

Independent economist Cameron Bagrie told Heather du Plessis-Allan that it seems OCR rates aren't going to come down in the near future.

He says the Reserve Bank's patience appears to be wearing thin, as inflation is coming down, but it's taking an awful long time.

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A new report from the Child Action Poverty Group says 15,000 teenagers are working to put food on the table and attending school at the same time.

The report suggests that minimum wage should  be raised to $26 an hour to equal the living wage in order to stop this from happening.

Alan Johnson from the child action poverty group told Heather Du Plessis-Allan that the work comes "potentially at the expense of what they could achieve at school."

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Woolworths has apologised for the pest problems revealed at some of its supermarkets.

Four Woolworths supermarkets have been in the news for rodent and bird problems.

Woolworth's commercial director of fresh and own brand Peter De Wit told Heather Du Plessis-Allan that "it's not a standard that we want to have in our stores."

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The UK is experiencing an uptick in antisemitic abuse following the October 7 attacks.

According to new data released by the Community Security Trust, 2023 has been the worst year for antisemitic abuse in over 40 years.

UK correspondent Enda Brady says 4,103 incidents have been reported, and a majority of the abuse occurred in London.

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Tonight on The Huddle, Neale Jones from Capital and David Farrar from Kiwiblog and Curia joined in on a discussion about the following issues of the day- and more!

Wellington Council is working on developing their draft budget. A congestion charge and new rates for accommodation providers are on the cards and libraries and public pools have been spared. Do they have their priorities in order?

David Seymour has unveiled a new strategy to reduce truancy figures and boost school attendance. Will extra fines be enough to keep kids in school?

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The key interest rate market in the US is pricing several rates cuts later this year.

Meanwhile, economic growth is getting stronger and equity markets are at an all-time high.

Can these concepts co-exist? Sam Dickie from Fisher Funds explains further.

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One business expert says a change in leadership isn't enough to save Fletcher Building.

Yesterday, Chief Executive Ross Taylor and Chair Bruce Hassall both announced their resignation following some lower-than-anticipated half-year results.

Auckland University economics professor Robert MacCulloch says the entire company should be broken up altogether.

"The company should be nationalised, the Government should buy the company and break it up into little bits and sell those bits beck to private operators."

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