Today marks the beginning of road side drug testing - starting exclusively in the Wellington District.

The scheme's pilot will see police conducting random roadside saliva tests - screening for cannabis, methamphetamine, MDMA, and cocaine.

The initiative begins in the capital before scaling up from April until coverage is nationwide by mid next-year.

Any drivers whose tests come back positive, will need to do a lab test which also checks for 25 other substances.

Positive tests can result in 12 hour disqualifications from driving and possible infringement notices.

Police Association President Steve Watt shares his thoughts.

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After Bondi It now seems obvious that antisemitism is out the gate. Particularly in Australia with a large population who hail from the middle east, but increasingly so in this country and around the world.

and I don't think the genie is going to be put back in the bottle any time soon.

The conflict in Gaza starting with the Hamas attack on the music festival in October 2023 has only intensified the conflict between faiths.

and you don't want to victim blame but Israel's reaction to the original attack has not calmed the situation but further radicalised Moslems.

Presenting talkback on the Gaza situation over the past 2 years I have been at pains to separate the Israel State from the Jewish faith but that has been impossible for both sides.

Not helped by Netanyahu who goes out of his way to make sure you know the faith is the state and vice versa.

Any talk of Gazan bloodshed by Israel is always pulled back to October the 7th 2023.

And any talk about the Hamas atrocity is always linked back to the Israeli counter moves.

Any criticism of Israel's actions is always branded antisemitism by supporters of Israel.

Both sides now locked in a deadly dance with no middle ground of peace. A dance that has been there since 1948 but today is more furious than ever.

Blessed are the peacemakers they say but where are they.

One reported blessing is that the Australian hero who disarmed a Bondi attacker was himself an Arab.

A local fruit shop owner. Showing that the killers are not indicative of all Moslems.

Hopefully that might ease the wave of Islamophobia that is almost inevitable.

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On the Early Edition with Andrew Dickens Full Show Podcast Monday the 15th of December 2025, Police begin roadside drug testing from today, Police Association President, Steve Watt tells Andrew what officers are preparing for.

UK police tighten security around synagogues celebrating Hanukkah following the Bondi Beach shooting in Australia, UK/Europe Correspondent Gavin Grey has the latest.

Elliott Smith has the latest on the weekend's sport.

Plus, James Cameron's warned about the future of our film industry, Chair of Screen Music and Sound Guild, John McKay shares his thoughts.

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Primary school principals are doubling down on their call for a better pay offer.

Principals belonging to the NZEI union have rejected the Government's latest collective agreement offer, including a 4.6% pay rise.

They say it's substantially inferior to the deal accepted by secondary school principals.

Principal Karl Vasau, the principal for Rowandale Primary School, told Andrew Dickens they're working hard to get huge changes implemented quickly, and they want acknowledgement.

He says they're drawing a line in the sand.

The Public Service Commissioner says he's disappointed the offer hasn't been accepted.

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Swings and roundabouts for the dairy sector, with prices set to weaken.

Research by Rabobank suggests overall global production peaked last quarter, and this quarter won't be far behind.

EU and UK are seeing their strongest growth since 2017 and US milk output has increased for five consecutive months.

Lincoln University Adjunct Professor Jacqueline Rowarth told Andrew Dickens dairy farmers aren't feeling too glum, coming off good margins.

She says they feel good when people want their product, and that joy's clearly spreading to other countries.

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Costs to fix our water infrastructure are increasing, as we got a better picture of its current state.

Every council has now submitted their plan under the Government's Local Water Done Well programme.

As Newstalk ZB first revealed last week, the final bill is expected to be almost 48 billion dollars - about nine billion more than first thought.

Water New Zealand Chief Executive Gillian Blythe told Andrew Dickens with all the plans submitted, we've now got a better picture of water infrastructure than we ever have before.

She says it's like when you look at your own house and realise you've got to spend some money fixing a roof or painting a window.

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On the Early Edition with Ryan Bridge Full Show Podcast Friday 12th of December 2025, primary school principals have rejected the government's latest pay offer, Rowandale Primary School Principal Karl Vasau tells Andrew why.

A new report from Rabobank says there's "too much milk for the market", Director at DairyNZ Dr Jacqueline Rowarth shares her thoughts.

Local Water Done Well is going to cost $9 billion dollars more than previously estimated, Water New Zealand Chair Gillian Blythe tells Andrew why water is so expensive.

Plus UK/Europe Correspondent Vincent McAviney has the latest on more than 600 artefacts of significant cultural value stolen from Bristol Museum's archive and Iceland will boycott the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest.

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I don’t want to ask what America is thinking, but what are they thinking?

As more details of their social media information requests to enter the States came to light yesterday the less, I wanted to go there.

To get in I need to supply a wealth of personal information including DNA and all my social media links. Now I love America and its people but if I have to jump through all those hoops my first reaction is forget it.

The land of the free is no longer the land of the free speech. Say the wrong thing on social media and they may cancel you. This is worse than anything under Biden or Obama. It’s cancel culture writ large.

And the irony is that it’s so dumb. If you’re really an enemy of the States, you’ve already cancelled all your social media. This will cancel the tourists not the terrorists

Righto Here’s the most bonkers thing I heard yesterday out of Trump’s America

Secretary of State Marco Rubio halted the State Department’s official use of the typeface Calibri, calling the Biden-era move “wasteful,” and ordered the return of Times New Roman.

He called it a part of a push to stamp out diversity. Now how does that work?

Well In 2023, Secretary of State Antony Blinken ordered the typeface change to Calibri to improve accessibility for readers with disabilities, such as low vision and dyslexia, and people who use assistive technologies, such as screen readers.

Now that was true it was invented for people with low vision and by the way it’s Microsoft Office’s default font and apparently it works

But apparently that’s woke

So back to Times New Roman we go, and the left are saying it tallies with MAGA’s obsession with all things Roman

And it would all be just a funny margin in history if it wasn’t so expensive and therefore wasteful

You’d think that you’d just ask everyone to change their default and off we go. But no. Teams are going to have to check every little unit. Apparently, that’s 145 thousand dollars an agency and there’s a lot of agencies in American bureaucracy

And here’s the real rub. Times New Roman takes more ink. And then when you calculate the sheer volume of wordage coming out of the American state the cost actually mounts into the many millions.

The right often complains about the cost of crazy left-wing ideology seemingly blissfully unaware that they’re just as ideologically crazy.

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