Midday Report Essentials for Tuesday 18 March 2025

In today's episode, the ACT Party wants to clear out local councils and replace them with their own candidates in the elections later this year, A notorious criminal, Dean Wickliffe is on a hunger strike at an Auckland prison after claims he was beaten by multiple prison guards, the Prime Minister is about to wake up to another day of engagements in India in the pursuit of a Free Trade Agreement with the nation. But it's not without potential sticking points, and Hutton's shearwater birds/titi fledglings often crash land around Kaikoura after they leave the nest and head towards the sea in mid-March.