A transport voice says there's some sense to the Government's new mega-Ministry idea.

It wants to abolish the environment, housing and urban development, and transport ministries and introduce a new Ministry of Cities, Environment, Regions and Transport – M CERT.

It argues these areas are undergoing reforms and right now the system's too fragmented.

Transporting NZ's Dom Kalasih told Andrew Dickens navigating across multiple agencies can carry challenges, and sometimes "less is more".

He says transport's one part of a larger eco-system so taking a more unified connected approach makes some sense.

However, there’s a worry that projects that are already on the go, such as road user and congestion charges, may not be achieved as efficiently.

Kalasih says the sector’s just started to gain momentum in these areas.

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Labour believes it's more financially responsible than the current Government following the release of Treasury's Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update.

It's predicting economic growth of just 1.7% in 2026, well down on the May Budget's 2.9% forecast.

Labour's Finance and Economy spokesperson Barbara Edmonds was asked by Andrew Dickens whether her party would have increased taxes to get back in black faster.

She says they would have followed the same plan they had in 2023, before the election, but ultimately it comes down to choices.

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Belief whistleblowers are vital to exposing voting failures, after a South Auckland local body election was overturned.

Judge Richard McIlraith ruled irregularities altered the outcome of the Papatoetoe vote for the Otara-Papatoetoe Local Board.

The case involved stolen voting papers and fraudulent use.

A new election must be held by April 9.

Transparency International NZ CEO Julie Haggie told Andrew Dickens there’s no sign of wider system problems nationally.

She says it does seem to be picking up them, as someone made a case for a district court inquiry and got a result.

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On the Early Edition with Andrew Dickens Full Show Podcast Wednesday the 17th of December 2025, The Government's books are worse than expected, with the surplus timeline pushed back to 2029/30, Labour Economic Spokesperson Barbara Edmonds shares her thoughts.

Transport, environment and housing are being merged in to one ministry, Transporting NZ Chief Executive Officer Dom Kalasih tells Andrew what he thinks of the idea.

There are concerns about the integrity of our elections after a South Auckland local body result was thrown out over claims of voter fraud, Transparency International NZ CEO Julie Hague shares her thoughts.

Plus, UK/ Europe Correspondent Gavin Grey has the latest on the jail sentencing for man who used his car to plough into more than 130 people at Liverpool Football Club and Donald Trump suing the BBC for defamation.

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

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Well Ladies and Gentlemen. We’re broke.

The Half Yearly Government Fiscal update shows we’re still in debt and the debt is getting bigger

So, we’re broke. Not enough money, everything's more expensive so it’s off to the money lender before the bailiffs come in and sell everything. Sounds like a lot of households around me.

Ideally, we’d be in a surplus. That’s when we have more money than costs, but we aren’t and the possibility of that happening has got further away.

Make no mistake. Deficit is bad. But surplus is only OK. That’s how bad we are. And we’re getting more and more in debt

The Government has a debt to GDP ratio of 41.8 per cent and it’s forecast to rise to over 46 per cent before it starts going down.

But lets’ put another lens on this.

The New Zealand Government has posted a surplus 17 times since 1980. That's 17 times in 45 years. so the government has been broke 62 per cent of the time since then

Being broke is our normal

And if applied the surplus/deficit/debt ratio to my own finances then I’ve been broke most of my adult life. I mean, who hasn’t had a debt-to-equity ratio of 95 per cent in their lives

So if you look at it that way it’s not so bad. And we’re still in the right half of the indebted nations list. Everyone’s broke.

We’re a bit naive when we demand surpluses about just how hard it is to do.

Listen to Stephen Joyce on Heather’s show yesterday. Government books are hard to turn like a super tanker. As he said yesterday it can take a decade.

But some of us think a few public service cuts and cuts to benefits and we’d be tickety boo.

But our fiscal crisis is far more fundamental than that.

What we really need to do is make more money in the world, so we have more tax revenue, so we have more good stuff and less debt.

So, what are you standing there listening to this for. Get to work.

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Lawyers say they can't pinpoint the reason there's been an increase in complaints.

The Law Society's annual report reveals more clients are raising their concerns, particularly around incompetence.

New Zealand Law Association Vice President Julie-Anne Kincade told Andrew Dickens with more people using AI to research their legal issues, they're needing to manage expectations.

She welcomes clients doing their own research but it's important people remember lawyers are the experts.

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We’ll get a clearer picture of the Government’s spending plans heading into an election year this afternoon.

Treasury’s releasing the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update at 1pm, alongside the Budget Policy Statement, setting out the economic outlook and spending priorities.

Infometrics Principal Economist Brad Olsen Andrew Dickens governments are often expected to loosen the purse strings in an election year.

He says the Government might spend less than they hoped if the books aren't looking too flash.

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A deadly terror attack at Sydney's Bondi Beach is feeding speculation of potential intelligence errors.

Two gunmen opened fire at a Hanukkah celebration on Sunday evening, killing 15 people and wounding dozens more.

A 24-year-old suspect remains in hospital under police guard - while his 50-year-old father, the other alleged offender, was shot dead.

The younger man, who's suspected of orchestrating the attack, had previously been investigated by the country's security agency - and hadn't been csydnonsidered a threat.

But Massey University Defence Studies Professor John Battersby says we shouldn't jump to conclusions - until more details emerge.

He told Andrew Dickens intelligence capabilities are always limited by the resources put into them.

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