On the Early Edition with Ryan Bridge Full Show Podcast Friday 28th of November 2025, Judith Collins has ordered a public inquiry into the Tom Phillips case, Child Matters CEO Jane Searle tells Ryan what she hopes to see from it.

Jennifer Andrews from Oyster Property Group which manages Dress Mart shares what retailers are hoping for this Black Friday.

The Government's considering moving escooters into cycle lanes as injury costs soar, Cycling Action Spokesperson Patrick Morgan shares his thoughts.

Plus, UK Correspondent Vincent McAviney has the latest on Labour's budget and a limited form of military service being re-introduced in France.

Get the Early Edition Full Show Podcast every weekday on iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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A push to get more bike lanes, as the Government eyes up moving e-scooters onto them, from pathways.

ACC statistics show there were more than two thousand 100 claims for e-scooter related injuries in the first half of this year.

Payouts for e-scooter injuries this year are close to surpassing 14-million.

Cycling Action Spokesperson Patrick Morgan told Ryan Bridge e-scooters are here to stay, so councils need to build more bike lanes to meet demand.

He says we don't need a bike lane on every street, just on main thoroughfares where people want to go.

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The RBNZ update this week again made the point that yes, the economy's in bounce back mode.

We'll grow 2.5% next year, they reckon.

But this country needs more than it. It deserves more than that.

The problem for us is, and has been for about the past 30 years, productivity.

How much we get out for what we put in.

We went sideways and it's now falling.

As you know, this is a bad thing. It's taking us more people and resources to make less stuff.

It puts a ceiling on success. It's a wealth killer. Some reckon it's the canary in the coalmine - the thing we should care about most because we're basically sleepwalking into third world status.

Like falling asleep on a plane and waking up in a different country. We'll one day wake up outside the OECD.

The solution, in part, is AI.

The World Economic Forum had some numbers showing it can boost labour productivity in developed countries by up to 40% over the next 15 years.

The richer your country, the more you gain.... which stands to reason because higher the labour costs incentivise switching to AI to save on wage bills.

The economic upswing we're seeing right now is a business cycle uplift; they go up and down.

But if you're talking about making this country a serious economic contender on the world stage, as we once were, you need a plan. You need a strategy. You need electricity. You need to get rid of a bunch of regulations.

Do we have those things? No.

But we need to. I'm hoping next year at the election, more than a tax cut here or a medi-card there, somebody, from some party, I don't care which, paints us a credible path towards prosperity and wealth again. Lord knows we need it.

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The Finance Minister believes the country is in a position to grow.

The Reserve Bank believes the economy has now turned a corner after last month's 50-basis-point cut to the OCR.

It's cut the cash rate a further 25-basis-points to 2.25%, but is signalling further cuts are unlikely.

Nicola Willis told Ryan Bridge that while the data lags make things difficult, there is enough other information to give them a sense of where the economy is at.

She says it’s allowed the Reserve Bank to be confident in their forecast that the economy is growing and that growth will strengthen next year, and inflation will come down.

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Encouragement for any Northlander who feels hard done by from the region-wide power outages last year to explore legal avenues.

Local businesses are taking class action against Transpower and its lines maintenance contractor over the outages caused from a pylon collapsing in Glorit, north of Helensville.

An investigation found a relatively inexperienced and inadequately supervised Omexom worker removed nuts from three of the pylon's four legs.

Northland MP Grant McCallum told Ryan Bridge he's backing the local businesses seeking legal action.

He says we all know what happened which still beggars belief, but we will have to wait for the legal process to be completed.

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A joint call from business leaders for the Government to reconsider the looming merchant surcharge ban.

In July, the Government announced its plans to ban payment surcharges on shoppers by May - forcing merchants to front the cost instead.

Retail NZ, the Auckland Business Chamber and other Chambers of Commerce say it would hit small and medium businesses particularly hard.

Auckland Business Chamber CEO Simon Bridges shares his thoughts with Ryan.

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On the Early Edition with Ryan Bridge Full Show Podcast Thursday the 27th of October 2025, Finance Minister Nicola Willis joins Ryan to talk on the final OCR cut of the year.

The Northland pylon fiasco is heading to court, Northland MP Grant McCallum shares his thoughts.

Business groups have come up with an alternative plan for the surcharge ban, Auckland Business Chamber CEO Simon Bridges tells Ryan what they're asking of the Government.

Plus US Correspondent Mitch McCann has the latest on Steve Witkoff appearing to coach a Russian official on how to win Trump over and Black Friday sales for the American economy.

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So what do we know today that we didn't know yesterday after the big show form the Reserve Bank?

Well not much, really.

The cut was expected. It was already priced in. Their a bit more rosie on growth. It looks like the end of the cycle for cuts.

But beyond that, it really is guesswork.

The central outlook was 'balanced'. Meaning closed wallets could could hurt the outlook, higher housing prices and export prices could help it.

We put a lot of faith in the OCR to get us out of the rut.

Even though it hasn't really worked thus far - even after six rounds of slashing.

At one point in the presser the, the chief economist was almost repeating this like a mantra. As it by saying it over and over again, he'd will it to happen.

There are two problems here.

First, we've heard it all before and not seen the results.

2. By their own admission, the GDP numbers we've been relying on aren't reliable.

There's a bunch of seasonality in the numbers - especially for that shocker in June where where we apparently went backwards almost 1%.

We didn't. The computer's a bit bust after COVID and hasn't caught up, basically.

The good news? It probably wasn't as bad as they said it was. The bad news? Growth the following quarters [probably wasn't as good as forecast either.

Give with one hand and take with another.

So we have a system we've hoping like hell still work in this new post Covid/Tariff environment with sticky inflation and pretty lam-o growth.

And numbers we can't really rely on, which if you cast your mind back to quarter two, get blown up by us in the media, scaring people into closing their wallets again, and perpetuating the cycle.

To be be fair, there's always been a lag wit the OCR working it's magic.

And at some point, surely, we'll hit the G-spot again, for growth. If for no other reason that what goes down must at some point bounce back up.

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