/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/rss 九一星空无限 KERRE WOODHAM MORNINGS Audio Opinion This is the show that delivers a little bit of everything. 九一星空无限, opinion, analysis, lifestyle and e Sat, 12 Jul 2025 05:26:55 Z en /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-you-cant-just-put-up-a-story-without-any-proof/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-you-cant-just-put-up-a-story-without-any-proof/ Ray Chung has surely scuppered his chances of becoming Wellington's next mayor, hasn't he?   Although, given the way voters in Wellington tend to cast their ballots given their previous form, perhaps not. Chung has sent an email to three of his fellow councillors with the heading ‘A sordid night on the town”, in which he proceeded to pass on a story he heard from a neighbour while out dog walking, trash talking Mayor Tory Whanau. It accused her of participating in an orgy with a couple of young men and taking drugs, and talked about the form of the woman involved, being Tory Whanau, having soft, pendulous breasts.   Whanau released the email to the New Zealand Herald as an example of the dehumanising personal attacks she's experienced during her term as Wellington mayor and part of the reason she's not running for the mayoralty again. She said this sort of behaviour (the sending of gossip to fellow councillors), is unbecoming for a public official, it's creepy, it's gross. If he's going to stay in the mayoral race, he needs to commit to a clean campaign. Whanau, who wants to be elected as a councillor but not mayor this election, provided the email to the Herald saying she wanted voters to see evidence of the abuse she and other female politicians endured.   This is the thing that stuns me: when questioned about the email, Chung said he had no idea if the contents were true. Absolutely none. He did no fact checking, he just found it interesting, thought his fellow councillors would agree. When pressed maybe three times, he thought perhaps he'd say sorry if it wasn't true, but didn't really see anything wrong with what he'd done. He said I passed on exactly what I was told, I'd call it gossip. And I suppose using the internet is just the modern form of whispering in someone's ear at the village fair.   Now the best form of gossip and lying is to feed a story with a grain of truth. Whanau has form in drunken carrying on, it's not a huge leap the way it would be with a teetotalley, happily married young female mayor. Whanau says she can prove she wasn't at this supposed orgy which Chung says took place on New Year's Eve. She was at a function for ambassadors in the city and then went on to a rainbow community party on New Year's Eve. She says she can show that the story is malicious gossip.   The scary thing about this is that people think they can say anything about anybody these days and get away with it. For all the faults of the mainstream media, we are accountable for the things we say and write. So if we get it wrong, we are censored. The records corrected and you know about it. We can certainly have opinions you disagree with, that's different, but if we had come out with a story like that, we could be sued for defamation. And in the past this radio station has been Most radio stations have been, because people take it one step too far, repeat something they've heard because they think it might be interesting. Wrong. It's false. It can be proved to be false, and they're censored, and they have to pay a fine, and they have to apologise and correct the record. I'd love to see how much faith people put in alternative media stories and sources, if they were held to the same level of accountability that we are. The internet is amazing, but it has always been an absolute cesspit of misinformation and lies as well.   You know for a fact that the story about Clarke Gayford and the nanny, Clarke Gayford and the Whangarei court appearance, Peter Davis, John Key, Tory Whanau, all of these public figures, you know, for a fact that it's true because your neighbour's niece went to school with the nanny, or your wife's brother's best friend was in the police force in Kerikeri, used to be and he knows for a fact that the court registrar... It's utter bullshit. Complete and utter BS, but you want to believe it. It feeds into how you perceive these people and what you want to believe about these people,... Fri, 11 Jul 2025 00:35:19 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-as-shane-jones-says-do-we-want-lizards-or-jobs/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-as-shane-jones-says-do-we-want-lizards-or-jobs/ Lizards living near the Macraes gold mine in Central Otago run the very real risk of becoming lizard skin boots on the feet of Resources Minister Shane Jones. The self-described Matua is on the warpath because hundreds of workers are at risk of being laid off after a decision by the Department of Conservation to reject an application by the country's largest gold mine owner. Macraes Goldman in the Central Otago region, which is owned by the Canadian company OceanaGold, recently applied for a permit under the Wildlife Act to clear grass and vegetation on its current site in order to expand its operation. Last month, the Department of Conservation declined it, citing insufficient information about how the company would manage the relocation of lizards. Shane Jones is beside himself and while talking with Heather du Plessis Allan this morning on the Mike Hosking Breakfast, he labelled the decision makers in DOC a bunch of quislings.   “These lizards are as common as acne on a teenager. That's the first thing. Secondly, they are scattered throughout the entirety of Otago. Every time a farmer does something on his or her land, they don't need a special wildlife permit. This piece of legislation is actually older than my good self, but the most important thing is, does the public want jobs in Otago? Does the public want $700 million worth of export revenue? I do. And I'm of the view that the decision makers in this case have just taken the public for a ride.”  Well, he's promised he's going to do something about it and he's taking it to cabinet, and he'll override the DOC decision. Quisling, by the way, as a colloquial term for traito Vidkun Quisling was the Norwegian Minister of Defence who collaborated with the Nazis in the Second World War.   This is not the first time man has collided with environment. Remember the powelliphanta augusta snail in Westport? Solid Energy wanted to mine the snail's habitat, and there was a real hue and cry over that. Aren't we lucky that we are a country where people will take to the streets for the protection of snails? The snails were moved to different areas. Some were taken under the protective wing of DOC, and if you were a powelliphanta augustus snail you really did have a better chance in the wild because an oopsie at DOC saw the snails frozen one fateful Labour weekend. They were being stored in a refrigerator to be put into a habitat that suited them. After a few ups and downs, it appears the snails have survived the disruption. Twenty years after they were moved, the population has grown to 1884 with an additional 2195 unhatched eggs, and the species had been observed on camera laying eggs for the first time. It was tough but they adapted and good for them.    The Northern Expressway. Along with building the highway, NX2 —the coalition of companies that was charged with building the expressway— were also charged with building fishways. So inanga, or native white bait, could swim around the culverts and weirs that were required with the expressway. We've heard from your everyday builders and developers who have to count skinks and lizards before they can move earth on a project. In some cases they have to relocate the skinks and lizards. Sometimes they count the skinks and lizards, and the friendly neighbourhood cat reduces their number overnight by one or two. Then there's the taniwha, who've popped up during the construction of the Waikato Expressway and the Light Rail project.    Shane Jones asked the question: do you want lizards or jobs? Do you want a company that's going to get some export earnings in to help us get back on track, or do you not? We're not talking about taking a thundering great excavator and churning up the ground and leaving it a sad and sorry toxic mess. Modern day mining is vastly different to what it used to be. It's not even as if Mcraes said buggar the lizards – they said we will lovingly pick them up and transport them... Thu, 10 Jul 2025 01:22:04 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/noelle-mccarthy-writer-and-broadcaster-on-the-bombing-of-the-rainbow-warrior-new-podcast/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/noelle-mccarthy-writer-and-broadcaster-on-the-bombing-of-the-rainbow-warrior-new-podcast/ The fatal bombing of the Rainbow Warrior is being remembered, four decades on.  It's 40 years to the day since photographer Fernando Pereira was killed when the Greenpeace ship was bombed by French spies.  The anniversary's been marked with a dawn service, hosted by Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, at Auckland's Viaduct.  A new six-part podcast, written and presented by John Daniell and Noelle McCarthy, reexamines the events leading up to the terror attack, and the subsequent fallout on both sides of the world.  McCarthy joined Kerre Woodham to delve into the history and circumstances surrounding the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior.  LISTEN ABOVE  Thu, 10 Jul 2025 01:09:16 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-what-is-the-ministry-of-health-spending-its-problem-gambling-fund-on/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-what-is-the-ministry-of-health-spending-its-problem-gambling-fund-on/ 27-year-old Auckland engineer Shyamal Shah has been sentenced to two years, two months imprisonment for what is believed to be one of the largest public sector thefts on record – a 17-month scheme in which he managed to swindle roughly $1 million from his employer, Watercare.   The court was told yesterday that the theft and deception came about through Shah’s gambling addiction that started at Sky City Casino, then escalated after three men approached him and invited him to a residence where private games were being held. It was a racket where addicts were targeted and given a significant line of credit before payment is demanded, often through coercion. I mean, if we've ever seen any Good Fellas type movies, you've seen it before.   In Shah’s case, the court was told the defendant was shown photos of another man who had been violently assaulted after they didn't pay. So he was hooked, he was reeled in, and he turned a promising career in a promising life into a complete and utter train wreck. He will go to jail, his parents, who had taken a gamble and backed that their son was going to be an exemplary citizen, are financially ruining themselves to try and pay back as much of the money as they possibly can.   This is what a gambling addict looks like, and it comes at the same time as the nation's independent gambling regulator, the Gambling Commission, has issued a damning report into the Ministry of Health's problem gambling section, saying it is impossible to judge whether the services actually reduce gambling harm. The report recommended Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey and Internal Affairs Minister Brook van Velden reject the Ministry of Health request to increase a levy from $76 million to $92 million over the next three years. The levy comes from the gambling industry, which makes sense. A lot of people can gamble and just have, you know, $5 on the nose of a horse, a pretty chestnut at Race 9 at Te Rapa, but others can't, so the industry helps fund problem gamblers, helps fund assistance and help for problem gamblers.   But the Commission’s expert reviewer Doctor David Rees said when it came to the money that has been given to the Ministry of Health to help problem gamblers, we don't know if it's enough. We don't know if it's too much. And that's a point made by a number of people. There's a lack of data, a lack of understanding, we don't know what's working, and we don't know what's not working. Sounds like my hero, the Auditor General John Ryan. He said, I don't know this money's been well spent, there's no track of it, no record of.   So same again, the Ministry of Health gets millions of dollars from the gambling industry to help problem gamblers, does it work? Dunno! Ddn't really know. Matt Doocey said it's not good enough, symptomatic of what happened under the last Government. Doocey said in mental health and addiction services, increased funding had led to no material difference. And it's true, that's exactly what happened under the last Government. We're seeing lots of ads for the TAB right now: “You know the odds, now beat them”. In the pregame build up before the All Blacks there's always a punters report: what the totes paying for which player to score the first try. You can bet on anything and it's being very, very normalised.   As with every addict across every addiction, you start off thinking it's a bit of harmless fun, think you can handle it until you can't, until you've found yourself like Shyamal Shah, in the dock with your promising life and career absolutely ruined. All addicts need help to get the monkeys off their back, but just throwing money to the Ministry of Health and thinking there we go job done, is not good enough. They have to show that the millions of dollars they have been granted have done some good.   And this hasn't come out of the blue. In 2019, they were asked to account for the money. They didn't. In 2022, they were told to carry out a... Wed, 09 Jul 2025 00:48:01 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-is-it-any-wonder-the-govts-interfering-with-the-judiciary/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-is-it-any-wonder-the-govts-interfering-with-the-judiciary/ I've steered clear of much of the sentencing changes proposed by the Government because it's a topic that we do canvas often. The Government campaigned on toughening up on crime and on criminals, and so far they seem to be delivering, so you know, leave them to it. But Paul Goldsmith's proposal that the government could introduce more minimum or mandatory sentences for crimes, meaning less power for the judges and more for the government, couldn't come at a better time as far as I'm concerned.   Currently, when penalties are established for different offences, lawmakers normally set out a “maximum” sentence. For example, the Government's newly announced coward punch offence has maximum sentences of either 8 or 15 years imprisonment, depending on the situation. Judges then have discretion to take into account aggravating or mitigating circumstances. So that's the maximum that can be set. A judge can't go right, that was just outrageous, that's 20 years for you - not allowed to do that, there's a mandatory term.   Late last month the government changes came into effect, capping sentence discounts that judges can apply. So in most cases now the most they can apply is 40%. If a judge thinks that would be massively unjust, they can exceed this discount cap but that will be the exception, not the rule. Now the Government's looking to introduce more minimum sentences so the judges can't start at a laughably low detention rate or give a remarkably soft sentence. There will be a minimum to which that can apply.   So for those who think that's an attack on the judiciary, Labour, or for those like Tamatha Paul, who think this is an attack on the poor, how do you defend these sentences? The 17-year-old knife wielding rapist who had robbed two men at knife point before raping a young woman at Albert Park in Auckland who was coming home after celebrating her 21st birthday. He raped her, threatened to kill her boyfriend. Her life has never been the same since.   The defence wanted home detention for a vicious rape at knife point. The judge said oh no, but am going to give you a 77% discount, for his youth, his guilty plea, no priors, and his attempt at rehabilitation. In the sentencing notes, the judge also seemed to take into account that he was criminally stupid. He was an idiot. Like, as in the old-fashioned version of idiot, barely able to string three words together in any language. So she gave him a 77% discount from her starting point. He ended up with two years, two months, and a week for a knife attack and rape and threatening to kill. And oh, sorry, forgot about robbing at knife point the two men earlier. On appeal, Peter Kosetatino's sentence was three years and 11 months. Again, no, no, no, a rape at knife point for a young woman whose life will never be the same? No.  Drunk driver Jake Hamlin who killed an innocent young woman? 12 months home detention. He's halfway through home and laughing. Quite literally.   The couple who murdered 4-year-old Ashton Cresswell – they were jointly charged with manslaughter. There were only the two of them there, the mother and her partner. Both of them stayed schtum. That's all you have to do when you're a baby murderer, you just shut up. That feral tart protected her partner at the expense of her little boy. The police’s hands are tied. They were jointly charged with manslaughter because nobody else could have done it. It was one of them. Police couldn't prove either one of them because both of them were protecting each other, so they pled guilty to reduce charges of neglect. And so for murdering that little boy and then staying schtum, his mother, in name only, got three years. And the partner got four years for basically torturing a child. So many children are being tortured right now, tortured and killed, and for that you get 3 years and four years.   Is it any wonder why the Government is interfering with the judiciary? Those are three good exampl... Tue, 08 Jul 2025 00:51:35 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/chris-hipkins-labour-leader-on-the-covid-19-inquiry-emergency-housing-crime/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/chris-hipkins-labour-leader-on-the-covid-19-inquiry-emergency-housing-crime/ Labour leader Chris Hipkins says speeding up the justice system is a priority.  Recent announcements by the Justice Minister include bigger fines for trespassing and harsher penalties for coward punches and assaulting first responders.  Hipkins told Kerre Woodham unlike National, he wouldn't spend the first 18 months in power overturning the last Government's legislation.  He says there’s been too much flip-flopping around.  One of the things Hipkins wants to prioritise is the courts – saying that they have to deal with the inefficiencies in the system, and that justice delayed is justice denied.  Chris Hipkins says Jacinda Ardern will be weighing up safety before deciding whether to return to New Zealand for our Covid inquiry.  Ardern could be among key decision-makers expected to be asked to speak later this month.  Hipkins told Kerre Woodham there are risks to her security in New Zealand.  He says they aren't idle threats, and it's legitimate for her to consider the danger to herself and her family.  LISTEN ABOVE  Mon, 07 Jul 2025 21:40:16 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-are-the-banks-paying-their-fair-share-of-tax/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-are-the-banks-paying-their-fair-share-of-tax/ To start the morning, I wondered about looking at the fairness  - or otherwise - of the corporate tax rate. The Finance Minister, according to a New Zealand Herald story, has quietly asked Inland Revenue to look at the appropriateness of the tax settings being applied to banks. Nicola Willis confirmed to the Herald a wide range of options is being considered to ensure the major banks are paying their fair share of tax. She wants advice back ahead of next year's Budget, which is expected to be delivered just months before the 2026 general election. She said, “our work to enhance banking competition is wide-ranging and as part of this of sought advice on whether the major banks are paying their fair share of tax,”. I've been interested, she went on, in how New Zealand's bank tax regime compares with Australia and elsewhere, particularly in light of the significant profits Australian banks make from Kiwi customers. No decisions have been made, recommendations have not yet been taken to Cabinet, so she's not going to comment on specific proposals at this stage. I would have thought if the company tax rate was a set amount and the banks are paying that, then they're paying their fair share of tax. I was listening to Heather talking to Claire Matthews, the banking expert from Massey, this morning. Claire Matthews said the way she thought it might work would be the corporate tax rate would be lowered for all corporates except the major trading banks. Everybody else will be lowered, but banks, so they wouldn't in effect be punished, they just wouldn't benefit from any changes to this tax regime. But as Claire Matthews pointed out, banks already contribute a significant amount to the New Zealand economy.  They pay a very large portion, something like 20% of total tax, total corporate tax in New Zealand. So they're paying a huge amount of tax, so if you drop the corporate tax rate but keep the bank’s tax at a higher level, you, the Government could manage to avoid the actual impact on their tax take.  I think there's a real danger here. Are they going to suddenly make supermarkets pay more because they, too are Government’s favourite whipping boys and girls? Why are they being singled out? Sure, I would love it if I didn't have to pay the house price twice over, but I understand that when you're lending money to individuals and to businesses, there is risk involved with that so you have to pay for that risk.  I don't imagine the banks would just close their doors, decamp and head back over the Tasman, there's still money to be made. But I just don't understand why banks would be asked to pay more while the rest of corporate New Zealand pays less. I don't want a bank to fail. It's not in the country's best interest for a financial institution to go under. We've seen the damage done when the BNZ had to be bailed out, and then the different finance companies were bailed out, why on Earth would we want to see banks fail if they're paying their fair share of tax?  I have no skin in the game other than a hefty mortgage, which I would love to see reduced, but I don't necessarily see it's the bank's fault that they are the ones who profit from lending money.   LISTEN ABOVE Mon, 07 Jul 2025 03:24:01 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-schools-need-to-be-teaching-civics/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-schools-need-to-be-teaching-civics/ There are a lot of things parents can teach children without schools needing to get involved. Basic hygiene, reading, physical education, even driving – parents should and could teach their children these skills. And I know schools already have a lot to be dealing with as regards to the needs of our children in their classroom, they've got a lot of changes to the curriculum happening. But one area where I would totally jump on my soapbox and say the schools need to be teaching is civics education.    It's come to the forefront because while the NSW Government understands the importance of young people having a working knowledge of democracy and the legal system, it announced last year that studying civics would be compulsory in primary schools from 2027. Critics are saying that the subject is too important to be included within a wider syllabus. At the moment, what the NSW Government is doing is putting civics in with human society and its wider environments syllabus, along with other things. Critics argue that civics is so important it should have its own standalone status, with its own standalone support material, and specialist teachers, and the like.   I couldn't really agree more, because when you look at everything we talk about on this show, when you look at the subject matters that are dear to our hearts, the genesis of all of the issues that come up comes down to decisions made by people voted by us or people choosing not to vote. So a small number of people get to choose individuals who will make decisions that impact us all, be it local bodies or government.   Or we're talking about issues because decisions are made by people who don't understand the social contract and what it means to be a citizen, and that's what civics is all about: understanding that when you are a citizen within a civilized society you have rights certainly, but you have duties and obligations. So if there was a greater understanding of civics, a greater understanding and appreciation of what it means to be involved in a democracy, a greater understanding of the way our governments work, both central and local government, the way our laws work, we would have a more civilised society.     Fri, 04 Jul 2025 00:09:18 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/moana-theodore-dunedin-study-director-on-the-new-tool-that-can-estimate-how-fast-someones-aging/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/moana-theodore-dunedin-study-director-on-the-new-tool-that-can-estimate-how-fast-someones-aging/ A new tool can now estimate how fast a person is aging.  University of Otago scientists have found a way to use an MRI scan of the brain to quantify the rate of biological aging of middle-aged people to forecast risks of dementia, chronic disease, and death in older adulthood.  The technology was developed using data from the Dunedin Study, a decades long health project tracking more than 1,000 people born in the early 70’s.  Dunedin Study director Professor Moana Theodore joined Kerre Woodham to break down the findings of the study and how the tool works.  LISTEN ABOVE  Thu, 03 Jul 2025 01:43:40 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-lets-put-an-end-to-the-fun-and-start-verifying-political-promises/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-lets-put-an-end-to-the-fun-and-start-verifying-political-promises/ I don't know about you, but I want to know how big our Finance Ministers' holes are.   I think it's really important to know what political parties’ promises are going to cost us. A nine-year battle to get a publicly funded body to cost political parties election promises, starting with the 2026 election, ended at cabinet on Monday after ACT and NZ First put the kibosh on the plan.   Way back when —2016— the proposal came from the Greens, but over time it's been modified, and Nicola Willis’ plan would have amended the Public Service Act to allow the political parties access to public service resources up to 10 months before an election, so they had the information they needed to cost their policy promises. A unit in the Public Service Commission would have been created to coordinate those requests, funded with $1.2 million. Which is chicken feed in the scheme of things. But with ACT and NZ First nixing it, we remain with the status quo, which as Stephen Joyce explained this morning, means an awful lot of time wasting and running around for the opposition parties.  “You have to go chasing around OIA’s and parliamentary questions to try and get enough information to build a policy which stands scrutiny when it gets out to the public, and it's a lot of fun for the government of the day to try and withhold all that information and then go, “ah, it’s ridiculously costed policy.””  That really ground my gears this morning when I heard that. Oh, it's all a great lark, it's all such fun having opposition parties running around desperately trying to get the information they needed.   And the clue comes from the Public Services Resources. They're ours! Taxpayer money funds those services, it funds those resources. We have a right to know how much is being spent on what programmes, what funding is available, and we have a right to allow that information to be disseminated to opposition political parties so that they can craft their own policies with that knowledge, with that baseline knowledge that they need. Otherwise, they are going to be promising pie in the sky. This should be public information. It's taxpayer money funding services for taxpayers. It should be easy to access, easy to find, and then the opposition parties will be able to craft their policies accordingly. No more silly buggars. It's in the public interest not to have this time wasted.   How many staffers are employed by opposition parties chasing after OIAs and chasing after this information, when that work could be better put to spending time with programmes and organisations and departments, and coming to terms with what they need to do the best possible job to deliver for the taxpayer? There is nothing fun about this. There's nothing clever about this. It is expensive time wasting.   As for ACT’s no because “we already provide a fully costed budget before each election”, stop being so smarmy and teachers’ pets, you can't mark your own homework. Each party should have to pay out of their own party funds —not out of taxpayers dollars— for an economist, not to run the ruler over their own budgets because we've all seen that, they should each pay for an economist and the economist names should go in a ballot. Each party draws out a name, and that economist runs an eye over that party's budget. So ACT pays for an economist. The ACT economist goes into the hat, the Māori Party draw him out, that's who runs an eye over their budget.   I want to know without having to do the sums myself if what a party is promising is viable, and I don't want them to do their own costings, thanks very much. I do want an independent body to look at it. That information should be freely accessible to all opposition parties. Let's put an end to the fun and the silly buggars, and each party's promises before an election should be independently verified, so we can all cast our vote with the best possible knowledge available.  Thu, 03 Jul 2025 01:20:20 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/caryn-zinn-dietician-and-co-author-of-what-the-fat-on-losing-weight-weight-loss-drugs/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/caryn-zinn-dietician-and-co-author-of-what-the-fat-on-losing-weight-weight-loss-drugs/ Weight loss drugs are becoming increasingly sought after, with Wegovy hitting New Zealand pharmacies this month.  It’s currently not funded, and people will need a prescription to get it.  However, people are warning that weight loss drugs aren’t a silver bullet, and lifestyle changes are needed for long term success.   ‘What The Fat?’, co-authored by Caryn Zinn, Craig Rodger, and Grant Schofield, highlights a low-carb, healthy-fat diet, and is held up as an effective weight loss tool.   Dr Zinn joined Kerre Woodham for a chat about her work as a dietician, What The Fat?, and healthy ways to lose weight.  LISTEN ABOVE  Wed, 02 Jul 2025 01:52:33 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-have-we-not-learned-from-slash-damage-and-flooding/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-have-we-not-learned-from-slash-damage-and-flooding/ In the wake of the Motueka valley flooding with warnings that Australia's bomb cyclone is set to bring severe weather conditions to New Zealand, we're on weather watch. Not just the media, although looking at the television screens in my studio —one on BBC talking about the heat waves in Europe and another on Sky 九一星空无限 from Australia talking about severe wind, rain and surf in eastern New South Wales— globally we appear to be on weather alert.   There will be people living in flood prone areas, people living near streams and rivers, people living in coastal areas, they’ll be understandably wary as the heavy rains come down. What used to be a part or seemed to be a natural part of the weather cycle —summer brings sun, winter brings rain— now seems much more ominous than that. The gentle patter of rain on the roof is replaced by a kind of unease in certain areas. Deluges can be devastating, especially when you combine swollen streams with slash, the debris left over after forestry plantations have been felled.   For years, rural communities especially have warned of the extreme danger that slash can cause, and in the wake of Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023, the government revised the standard slash management rules. But interestingly, the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council found that the piles of woody debris that dammed bridges, blocked riverways and littered beaches in the wake of Gabrielle contained only a small portion of forestry slash. The Council report found the make-up of the debris deposited at more than a dozen sites consisted of a mixture of pine, willow, poplar, and other native timber and debris could not be identified. In all but one of the surveyed sites, there was little evidence of slash, indicating that the majority of pine came from erosion of hillsides and stream banks. It was a different story in Tairāwhiti next door, in Gisborne, where forestry slash was widely blamed for much of the damage caused by the cyclone. The government of the time ordered a ministerial inquiry into forestry practise and slash.   So slash can sometimes be blamed for everything, it's the culprit. But as other people have pointed out, it's the fact that it's damn near impossible to dredge rivers to get the silt and the natural debris out of rivers, that also caused problems. It's the fact that we're building near flood prone areas, that are known to be flood prone areas, time and time and time again. But why are we continuing to allow forestry plantations on erosion prone land? I understand why we thought it was a good idea after Cyclone Bola - forestry plantations went into the hills there because that provided employment to locals, and the trees were supposed to hold the hills together.   But now we know the dangers of slash and of erosion, where the pine trees aren't doing the job of holding the hills together, where you need different kinds of scrub and bush and grasses and trees to be able to do that. Why are we still allowing them? A) to be grown there and B) to be harvested? When we know that every winter, every time it rains, every time there's the heavy deluge, the local community is at major risk of flooding, again, and again, and again. How have we not learnt from the so many instances of slash and erosion bringing down the trees, smashing the fences, damaging the bridges, causing the incredible flooding events that we see just about every winter? We can't keep doing the same thing time and time again, can we? The farming community around areas that are so badly affected by the erosion, by the slash must get so frustrated knowing that they're having to go out and rebuild fences that will just come down again, if not next one to the winter after. So what do we do? We can't, surely keep doing the same thing again and again, because that in anybody's language is sheer stupidity.    Wed, 02 Jul 2025 01:25:29 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/mark-bloomberg-university-of-canterbury-school-of-forestry-adjunct-senior-fellow-on-slash/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/mark-bloomberg-university-of-canterbury-school-of-forestry-adjunct-senior-fellow-on-slash/ Forestry is a major industry in New Zealand, but the practices involved contribute to the damage left in the wake of cyclones and major weather events.  After 2023’s Cyclone Gabrielle, the Government revised slash management rules, ruling that forestry owners will have to remove slash if it’s over a certain size.  They’re now consulting on a proposal to further amend the standards due to cost, uncertainty, and compliance issues.  Mark Bloomberg and Steve Urlich authored a piece for the Conversation titled “We are one bad rainstorm away from disaster – why proposed changes to forestry rules won’t solve the ‘slash’ problem”, and in it they say the proposed changes fail to adress the core reasons for slash and sediment discharges.  Dr Mark Bloomberg, an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the University of Canterbury’s School of Forestry, joined Kerre Woodham to break down their thoughts.  LISTEN ABOVE  Wed, 02 Jul 2025 00:33:35 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-why-do-we-struggle-to-run-the-cook-strait-ferry-crossing/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-why-do-we-struggle-to-run-the-cook-strait-ferry-crossing/ I don't know who these people or these organisations would be and what on Earth their motivation might be, but it would appear that Treasury has identified several private operators who have expressed an interest in establishing a commercial competitor to Bluebridge with government help. Which basically means the opportunity to privatise the KiwiRail Cook Strait ferries.   I don't know why you would do that, where in the world does any kind of public transport make money? I guess where there are profits to be made, Bluebridge has found them. But in a country this small, could two people, two organisations, two interested groups, make money out of the Cook Strait ferry crossing?   Earlier this year, Winston Peters took a paper to cabinet, along with Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Transport Minister Chris Bishop, which confirmed a direction to Ferry Holdings —that's the publicly owned companies set up to procure two new Inter Island ferries— to consider options for ferry ownership and operation that will improve efficiency and recycle government capital. What does this mean? Translated into real world speak, that means the Government’s looking at letting private operators into owning and running the ferries that the government currently owns and runs, in the hope that efficiency will be improved, and recycling government capital means using private investors money, not taxpayers' money.   All very well and good to open it up for expressions of interest, but what I found really staggering is that there are people who are interested in doing just that. As you may have heard on the Mike Hosking Breakfast, Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour is all for allowing private operators into running the ferries.   “I have long had the philosophical view that government is not a good operator of commercial enterprises, and there's no shortage of evidence for that. But the reality will be much more persuasive to whoever's in government, you’ve got to balance the books, and at the moment we own too many underperforming assets. We are really struggling. As a result, the New Zealand people who fund the government as taxpayers are struggling, and there's going to have to be a reckoning. The alternative is people young and talented, keep looking further afield for opportunity and I don't want that.”  No, none of us do. But is KiwiRail going to private operators going to be the Great Saviour? I wouldn't have thought so. It's been sold off before and it didn't work then. So he’s all for private operators coming in and running state owned assets more efficiently. Equally unsurprising is Winston Peters being against any form of privatisation. He makes the point that NZ First has consistently held the view that taxpayer funded assets should be owned by the taxpayer.   As somebody who uses the ferries once in a blue moon, I wouldn’t have thought it difficult to have ships that are seaworthy, take people, and cars, and freight over the Cook Strait, and bring them back again. And you need people who can steer the ship, and you need people who can maintain the ships so that they don't break down in the middle of Cook Strait, because that's very bad. If there isn't enough money to be made commercially from doing this as an exercise, as taxpayers we have to fund it because it is State Highway 1. We need to keep it going.   So why is it so hard to do that? Why is it so hard to have ships that are seaworthy, captains who can steer them, people who can maintain them? And either we know every year how much it's going to cost us to keep State Highway 1 open, which we have to do, or we allow private operators to run it and make small profit from it. Looking from the outside, I wouldn't have thought it was possible. Bluebridge has been able to do so, but is there room for another private operator? Clearly people think so, but why has it been so troubled? It's a bit like the lovely CEO from Kainga Ora who said really, i... Tue, 01 Jul 2025 00:33:00 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-tougher-sentences-are-the-way-to-go/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-tougher-sentences-are-the-way-to-go/ The Government's harshest sentencing rules begin today. Rules like capping the maximum discount that a judge can apply at 40 percent, with some exceptions. There will be no repeat discounts for youth offenders, those aged 18 to 25. No discounts for remorse, if you're sorry again and again and again, you only get to be sorry once, because Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith said repeat discounts had allowed for lenient sentences. A new aggravating factor has been introduced for offences against sole charge workers and those whose homes and businesses are interconnected. So basically your corner dairy and that's part of the National-ACT coalition agreement. A sliding scale for early guilty pleas has been implemented. There's a maximum discount of 25 percent, reduced to a maximum of 5 percent if the guilty plea is entered once the trial has started. I think there should be a discount for early guilty pleas saving us all the cost of a trial, all for that - but once the trial started and you're playing silly buggars and then decide yeah, I did do it, minimal discount. The use of cumulative sentencing for offences committed while on bail and custody or on parole will be encouraged to denounce behaviour that indicates a disregard for the criminal justice system, and this was part of the National- NZ First Coalition agreement. Why have these tougher changes been made? Because that's what New Zealanders in the main wanted. We were fed up with seeing instances like this - a teen mongrel mob member who broke into the home of a pregnant woman, didn't know her, tried to friend her on Facebook, she wasn't having a bar of it - so he broke into her house and indecently assaulted her in the bed she was sharing with her child. This teen (was actually 19), but teen offender was sentenced to 12 months home detention for breaking into her house and for indecently assaulting her in her bed.  Judge Gordon Matena said he had to hold Stevie Taunoa accountable but also had to take into account his youth at the time of the offending. He noted that Taunoa had spent seven months in custody, had been on electronic monitoring bail since the charges were laid. He acknowledged that Taunoa had used drugs from a young age and that his offending had been motivated by drug addiction. He also noted his lack of cultural identity and his membership in the Mongrel Mob before sentencing him to 12 months of home detention.  Taunoa said “thank you, judge. I appreciate that”, then laughed like a drain as he entered the police cells and yelled out to all and sundry “cracked it”. All that remorse, eh? In the meantime, the poor woman said she didn't want to live on her own anymore. She was terrified of the dark, she was terrified to sleep and because of his youth, because he was a druggie, because he lacked cultural identity, because he was a member of the Mongrel Mob, all of that meant that he got his sentence discounted. I was fed up with seeing things stories like this.  This is only one example. There are hundreds and hundreds. And how can you be sorry 3, 4, 5 times? I'm really sorry. I violently assaulted this person. I'm really sorry I sexually offended. Not once, not twice, not three, four times I'm really sorry. No, no, no, enough. Again, if the Justice Department could show me that all of these discounts applied to violent offenders to sexual offenders to young offenders, if these discounts meant that they realised they'd had a lucky escape from prison, that this was an opportunity to look at another direction in their lives and take it, if you could show me that it worked I'd be interested in talking. Doubt that you can. The Government's also looking at longer prison sentences for people who assault prison officers or on duty first responders such as paramedics and firefighters. This is so overdue. The proposals will create a new, specific offence for assaults on first responders. For those who have family who work on the front line, I know a nu... Mon, 30 Jun 2025 03:06:26 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/greg-murphy-kiwi-motorsport-legend-on-the-govts-proposal-to-axe-practical-tests-for-full-drivers-licenses/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/greg-murphy-kiwi-motorsport-legend-on-the-govts-proposal-to-axe-practical-tests-for-full-drivers-licenses/ A Hawke’s Bay-based motorsport legend says a plan by the Ministry of Transport to remove the full-licence practical test is nothing short of “ludicrous”.  In April, Minister for Transport Chris Bishop announced a range of suggested changes to the licensing system, including removing the full-licence practical test and introducing safety mitigations for people on their learner or restricted licence.  The Government is proposing the changes to make the process “more accessible, efficient and affordable”.  Greg Murphy, V8 Supercar icon and Bathurst-winning driver, told Kerre Woodham that nearly 10 thousand people have died on the road in the last 25 years, 2500 of them between the ages of 15-24.   He says this discussion with the govrnment has provided an opportunity to reassess and reevaluate the licensing system, and we can’t afford to stuff it up.   LISTEN ABOVE  Fri, 27 Jun 2025 00:56:56 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-driving-is-the-most-dangerous-thing-we-do-everyday/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-driving-is-the-most-dangerous-thing-we-do-everyday/ Two stories today, one from Hawke’s Bay, one from Nelson, and they have a horrible, horrible intersection.   Motorsport legend Greg Murphy has slammed plans by the Ministry of Transport to remove the full license practical test. Back in April, the Minister for Transport Chris Bishop announced a range of suggested changes to the licencing system, including removing the full licenced practical tests. There are loads of people driving around on their restricted and he wants them to get their full licence.   A group of Hawke’s Bay teens spoke out, saying they thought removing the full licenced practical test was a really good idea because it would remove stress and anxiety. They argue that the restricted license practical test is already so difficult, so complex, that it leaves the full test unnecessary. One of the young women spoken to, said “I was so worried about having to do separate things right that I wasn't able to do it because I was forgetting other things, it just wasn't natural”. This is the young woman that had to sit her restricted four times before she passed.   And she's not alone, there are plenty of young people who've had to do it time and time again because they don't get it right the first time. It is complex, it is difficult. After Greg Murphy read those comments in the local paper, he said driving is possibly the most dangerous thing that people do every single day. He said if you think the test is too hard, you're in la-la-land. The tests are basic and simple – if you do the right amount of preparation, just like you do in a school exam or any kind of test in your apprenticeship or at university, you will be absolutely fine.   Greg Murphy, who's a V8 Supercar icon and Bathurst winning driver, says New Zealand has so many drivers who aren't prepared for the roads and who don't have understanding or awareness of their driving environment or the distractions that afflict them. He said we've got this culture and this belief that an accident won't happen to me. I won't be the one who's dead. I'm not going to be the one that's seriously injured. I'm not going to be the one where my life is turned upside down at the age of 18.   And in a cruel, cruel piece of synchronicity, there's a terrible story that absolutely underscores his argument. This time last week, a Nelson family was dealing with the news that one of their sons was in hospital fighting for his life, paralysed from the waist down; his good mate and brother-in-law, who was in the car with him as badly injured with a fractured neck, broken ribs, two broken shoulders, facing a long recovery and a baby due in a matter of weeks. Another man, the man that the car smashed into, the sole driver of the other car was left seriously injured. And the 18-year-old driver is at home having to live with the fact that he was driving the vehicle that crossed the centre line that caused so much damage to so many people. As his mum put it, Izayah’s got a lifetime of knowing he was driving in an accident that crippled his brother.   The 18-year-old was the sober driver, picking up his brother and brother-in-law in the work ute, taking them into town to get KFC. He hadn't been drinking, he was he was doing the right thing, picking up his brother and brother-in-law who’d had a few drinks. So the 18-year-old gets into his work ute, picks up his brother and his brother-in-law, they're driving into town, and then all of a sudden a moments inattention or inexperience, and he's ploughed into another car, seriously injuring that driver, his brothers paralysed and his brother-in-law has got a broken neck, broken shoulders, and won't be able to pick up his baby when it's born in a matter of weeks.   I agree with Greg Murphy. For most of us who aren't involved in forestry or farming or a dangerous industry, driving is the single most dangerous thing we'll do every single day. If those kids think that sitting a test is stressful, you try livin... Fri, 27 Jun 2025 00:10:43 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/hamish-firth-mt-hobson-group-director-on-the-housing-intensification-around-city-rail-link-stations/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/hamish-firth-mt-hobson-group-director-on-the-housing-intensification-around-city-rail-link-stations/ The Government's instructed Auckland Council to allow apartments at least 15 storeys high near key City Rail Link train stations.   Density requirements around the Mt Albert and Baldwin Ave stations require at least 10-storey apartments, while buildings around the Maungawhau, Kingsland, and Morningside rail terminals will be allowed to reach at least 15 storeys.  Hamish Firth, Director of Mt Hobson Group, told Kerre Woodham these sites won’t be filled up within a week or two – it might take 15, 20, even thirty years.  He says it’s the sort of planning we need around those areas to ensure the areas and communities are vibrant and happening.   LISTEN ABOVE  Thu, 26 Jun 2025 01:29:59 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-im-a-fan-of-building-around-the-train-stations-with-caveats/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-im-a-fan-of-building-around-the-train-stations-with-caveats/ The Government has instructed Auckland Council to allow apartment buildings of at least 15 storeys near key train stations as the City Rail Link nears completion. Housing Minister Chris Bishop and Auckland Minister Simeon Brown said the Government would require Auckland to allow even greater housing and development around the CRL stations than had been planned, to ensure that Auckland takes economic advantage of this transformational investment in the city.   So at the moment it requires Auckland to allow for greater density around the key stations of Maungawhau (Mount Eden), Kingsland, and Morningside. The bill currently provides that Auckland Council must enable, within a walkable distance, from these station heights and densities, reflective of the higher demand for housing and business in these areas, and at a minimum, no less than six storeys.   So it makes sense, you build communities and hubs around the train stations. However, the Government decided these requirements don't go far enough, and therefore they want to see an extension of the requirement to enable heights and densities to two additional stations, Mount Albert and Baldwin Ave, require upzoning, allowing buildings of at least 15 storeys high around Mount Eden, Kingsland, and Morningside, and 10 storeys high around Mount Albert and Baldwin Ave stations. Simeon Brown says Mount Albert and Baldwin stations are ripe for development sitting close to Unitex's campus and Mount Albert’s shops and cafes.   Bernard Osman has read has written a very good piece in the New Zealand Herald - I was quite surprised to find that Auckland has few apartment buildings of 15 storeys or more. You imagine it's full of skyscrapers, it’s not at all. The Metropolis has 40 storeys – I suppose that was the oldest, highest building. Pacifica has 57 floors. The Seascape Tower was going to be 56, they've stopped construction on that. There's a 15 storey apartment building out in West Auckland in Henderson, which looks absolutely lovely. And to me, it makes common sense – you have to build up, you can't keep going out.   And building around the train stations makes perfect sense, with a few caveats. I want to know what measures are in place, what safeguards there are in place around design and construction to ensure we do not see a repeat of the absolute monstrosities that were spewed up in the Auckland Central City over the past two decades. They are absolutely hideous – how anyone can live in them is beyond me. They serve absolutely no purpose. They're rotting, they're continually under construction and remediation, they've caused nothing but problems for anyone who's had the misfortune to own them, they are ugly and are blight on the landscape. Just looking at them makes me dispirited, far less living in them. Pigsties have more visual appeal and space, and are better constructed. Apartment buildings can be beautiful and functional – there are plenty of examples of those that are.   And there have to be safeguards in place to ensure that that's what people will be getting in their communities, in their neighbourhoods, in their areas. There's got to be green spaces, there has to be parking. Not everybody's going to be on a bicycle, you know, there are older people who love living in the city. They love the vibrancy, they love living within communities, they love living in suburbs. Perhaps they've had the big house in the suburb, they don't want to leave the suburb, they want something smaller but having the train to be able to get in and around and about it makes perfect sense. You've got to have the communities who are going to live in these apartments at the forefront when it comes to design, and close behind, their neighbours.   So what are the safeguards? And I want to see those safeguards in place before I'm grabbing my pom poms and my cheerleader skirt and leaping up and down about it. At the moment, I'm taking the cheerleader costume out of sto... Thu, 26 Jun 2025 01:00:17 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-is-there-a-way-we-can-regulate-weapons-in-schools/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-is-there-a-way-we-can-regulate-weapons-in-schools/ This morning we thought we'd start with the fact that more and more kids, it seems, are bringing weapons to school, And we're not talking about the States, we're talking about New Zealand. Figures released under the Official Information Act show that 526 students were stood down, suspended or excluded for using or having a weapon at school last year. That's 80 percent more than in 2018, when there were around 300 students disciplined. Schools differ from what they define as a weapon. There's no one category for what a weapon might be, or how a weapon is being used, it differs school by school, but nonetheless, things that can be perceived as weapons are being brought to school by our schoolchildren. And we're talking primary aged children as well as intermediate and secondary and there are 80 percent more objects that could be used as weapons being carried into school. Mike, this morning when he was discussing this story, he said - surely this is nothing new. He took a knife to school when he was a boy, ostensibly to peel an apple but it was also to show it off. He didn't mean any harm by bringing it to school. Louise Anaru, with whom he was having the conversation, the principal of Kaitaia College and the President of the Secondary Principals Association agreed with Mike that that may well be the case today and that may well be the reason why a number of these kids are bringing weapons to school, but young people need to be aware of unintended consequences. "In my experience, in the situations I've come across, there hasn't been intent  - but I've still taken it really seriously in those contexts because it's important to get the message out that that can cause harm and to take a real strong stance on it, just because of the risk involved. There isn’t intent, but in the worst case scenario it can cause serious harm to our young people." That was Louise Anaru talking to Mike Hosking on the Mike Hosking Breakfast this morning. I would love to think that it is a case of show and tell. Of ‘oh my God, look what my uncle brought me back from Switzerland - a  Swiss army knife’. But looking through the 九一星空无限wires, I wonder. Here's a sample from last year, just when you Google. A teenage boy suffered a serious injury to his face during an alleged assault at his East Auckland School. The attack left him with severe facial injuries that required immediate surgery. Police are seeking a person of interest after a schoolboy was left with serious facial injuries and an assault on a bus in Auckland's Pakuranga. The boy had three teeth knocked out in the assault, while three others were damaged.  Here’s a third - an Ashburton family whose son is still recovering after being attacked at school, and say they're also dealing with having been exploited as migrants to New Zealand. The Year 9 Ashburton College student was left with a fractured eye socket and neck injury and concussion after being allegedly assaulted in class by another student. These are serious attacks. If these were adults who were perpetrating the acts and the attacks they’d be looking, certainly at a conviction. In the olden days, it would have been a short stint in gaol, but here it would probably be home detention for that kind of assault, an unprovoked assault on an unarmed person. You know you are talking a serious crime. And that's only three of them - there are many, many more I could give you from last year, and there are some this year, way more than I ever imagined, and way more serious than I ever imagined. Maybe kids are bringing weapons to school because they're in fear of their blooming lives. Both on the way to school and while in the playground. If they are being tormented, maybe they feel a show of strength will make the other kids back off. I would love to know more about the circumstances of it, given that there are different interpretations of what a weapon might be school by school. Given that there are different punishments as a r... Wed, 25 Jun 2025 05:40:44 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-us-strikes-on-iran-where-do-we-go-from-here/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-us-strikes-on-iran-where-do-we-go-from-here/ The world is on fire, World War III imminent, what can New Zealand do? Well, very little. Those were the headlines over the weekend. After telling the world he'd decide within two weeks whether or not to unleash the power of the United States on Iran in support of Israel, Donald Trump and his administration sent B2 stealth bombers into Iran on Friday to penetrate the underground nuclear facilities deep in the mountains of Iran. Israel, of course, has been attacking Iran's nuclear and military structures with very targeted attacks for the past 10 days or so, deploying warplanes and drones that apparently were previously smuggled into the country to attack key facilities and target top generals and scientists involved in the nuclear programme. Israel claimed its attacks were necessary before Iran got any closer to building an atomic weapon. No weapons there at the moment, but apparently the stockpiles of enriched uranium are at a high and unprecedented for a state or a country without nuclear weapons. So there are no bombs as you and I might imagine them, but there is enriched uranium at levels hitherto unseen in a country without nuclear weapons. Initially, the US had a hands-off approach to Israel's attacks - nothing to do with us, nothing to see here. But all that changed when the B2 bombers went in. It was quite the operation as operations go, with the decoy planes being sent to Guam - and they were able to get in to Iran without a shot being fired against them. And you'd hope that one wouldn't be brought down at $2 billion a pop, it's expensive military hardware. The US said it was a pre-emptive strike they were seeking to terminate a threat, that being atomic weapons, not the Iranian regime. After Israel's retaliation for the festival attacks that killed more than 1000 Israeli civilians, Iran's kind of Nigel-no-mates in the middle of the Middle East. Hamas and Hezbollah have been, in effect, nullified. Syria's Bashar al-Assad has had to flee Syria. Russia signed a treaty with Iran but so far it seems to have been very one sided with Iran building kamikaze drones for Russia and working with Russia to build military hardware. And all of a sudden they're in trouble and Russia - goes well this is dreadful, and that's pretty much it. All they've come up with are words and they are busy in Ukraine. There would be very little they could do militarily without weakening their stand in Ukraine, so Russia has its hands tied.  So where to from here? The Iranians will close the Straits of Hormuz, which will affect supplies of gas and oil getting to the West, along with other supplies. And there are concerns that you'll see again the kind of terrorist attacks and suicide bombings and hostage taking that we saw some years back. But the Ayatollahs won't be able to rely on an army of dissatisfied young people. They have no particular love for it and a number of them have told journalists that when the Ayatollahs are asking for unity and taking a stand against the aggressors: you have got to be kidding, the aggressor is you. Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, told the Iranian people in a video message that, along with Israel thwarting Iran's nuclear programme, we are clearing the path for you to achieve your freedom and some Iranians have gathered behind that call. Others are like, yeah we don't like our leaders, but it's Israel and America. We would love to see a new style of governance within our own country, but it's as well in America who are who are affecting that change. So it's all terribly up in the air. To be honest though, when I saw the headlines saying: ‘the world's on fire, have we reached World War III’,  I felt more existential dread over the 9/11 attacks. That particular morning, when I woke up to the news that the planes had flown and to the Twin Towers, I really did feel like World War III was on the horizon. That was an attack on civilians, within the US, a strike on home soil. In this parti... Mon, 23 Jun 2025 03:00:50 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/sonia-gray-broadcaster-on-being-in-psychedelic-drug-trials-to-treat-anxiety/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/sonia-gray-broadcaster-on-being-in-psychedelic-drug-trials-to-treat-anxiety/ Changes to allow over the counter sales of Melatonin in New Zealand alongside relaxing rules on magic mushrooms as medicine.  MedSafe's approved Melatonin for sale to adults without a prescription.  Psilocybin remains unapproved, but one specifically qualified psychiatrist is now permitted to prescribe it for treatment-resistant depression.  Broadcaster Sonia Gray has been trialling psychedelic drugs as an anxiety treatment, and joined Kerre Woodham to speak about her experience.  “Nothing is a silver bullet, and nothing is going to work for everybody all the time, but we need more tools.”  LISTEN ABOVE  Thu, 19 Jun 2025 00:41:04 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/liam-dann-nz-herald-business-editor-on-the-gdp-rising-by-08/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/liam-dann-nz-herald-business-editor-on-the-gdp-rising-by-08/ GDP figures just out are stronger than economists had forecast.  Stats NZ says New Zealand's gross domestic product grew 0.8% in the March quarter – overtaking predictions of 0.7%.  It follows a 0.5% increase the quarter before.  Herald Business Editor-at-Large Liam Dann told Kerre Woodham it could mean the OCR won't get another cut next month.  He says it raises the odds the Reserve Bank will keep things on hold.  LISTEN ABOVE  Thu, 19 Jun 2025 00:10:04 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/jonny-bannister-coastguard-regional-manager-on-the-deaths-of-gemma-and-ryder-ferregel-and-the-need-for-compulsory-lifejackets/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/jonny-bannister-coastguard-regional-manager-on-the-deaths-of-gemma-and-ryder-ferregel-and-the-need-for-compulsory-lifejackets/ There's a call for compulsory nationwide lifejacket use following the death of a 10-year-old boy in the Manukau Harbour.  Ryder Ferregel and his mother, Gemma, died in November 2022 after a boat carrying five people capsized near Clarks Beach.   They both drowned after hours of clinging to the overturned hull and even after reaching the relative safety of a sandbar.  In Coroner Erin Woolley's findings, she says had the pair been wearing lifejackets, their chances of surviving would have significantly increased.    Coastguard Regional Manager Jonny Bannister told Kerre Woodham it should absolutely be legislated for on a national level.  He says that there’s about eight different variations around the country as to what is required, but Coastguard New Zealand is actively campaigning to make it compulsory across the country.   LISTEN ABOVE  Wed, 18 Jun 2025 00:41:33 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/sean-broughton-stats-nz-population-and-housing-spokesperson-on-the-changes-to-the-census/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/sean-broughton-stats-nz-population-and-housing-spokesperson-on-the-changes-to-the-census/ It's goodbye to the five-yearly Census from 2030, and hello to a smaller annual survey.  They're changing things up, instead assessing a smaller chunk of the population yearly.  Information people have already provided to Government departments will be used to inform the data, and Stats NZ says the changes will help provide more accurate and timely information.   Population and Housing Statistics spokesperson Sean Broughton told Kerre Woodham the traditional approach to the Census is no longer sustainable.   LISTEN ABOVE  Wed, 18 Jun 2025 00:32:00 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-outsourcing-surgeries-has-to-be-a-win-for-patients/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-outsourcing-surgeries-has-to-be-a-win-for-patients/ Simeon Brown took the words right out of my mouth. I was just saying this very morning, that people living with bone-on-bone pain don't really care where their hip replacement is done or whether their knee is replaced in a private hospital or a public one. And there in the statement released from the Health Minister's Office is Simeon saying patients don't care who's delivering their surgery – they care about getting their hip, knee and cataract operations done. I think it's a common sentiment. I think most of us would feel this way.   九一星空无限 this morning that Health New Zealand has been directed to give private hospitals 10-year outsourcing contracts to perform elective surgeries should come as good news for those on the waiting list. As Simeon Brown was talking to Francesca Rudkin about the 10,000 elective surgeries that had been performed, mostly in private hospitals, he gave a hint that the arrangement with private hospitals was likely to be formalised.  “This is something that needs to continue to happen so that we can continue to reduce the number of people waiting for those surgeries. The waitlist ballooned over the last six years, that's unacceptable for patients. I'm committed to continuing to use both the public and private system to make sure we reduce that waitlist and ensure patients get seen in a timely manner.”  And now it has. Private hospital contracts have in the past tended to be rather short term, ad hoc arrangements designed to take the spill over from the public waiting list. But Health New Zealand has been negotiating 3-year agreements with private hospitals. And that will guarantee high volumes of low complexity patients. They don't want your tricky ones, they don't want your obese smokers, they just want the people who'll be able to come in, have a routine operation, and have the aftercare needed to provide good outcomes.   Brown has now directed Health New Zealand to seek even longer-term arrangements, which he says will improve the cost effectiveness of delivery and provide clear investment signals to the private sector. So if the private sector is thinking, do we put up a private clinic in Tauranga that can do routine operations, do you know what? Damn it, we will, if there's a 10-year pipeline of work. Do we invest in the super duper state-of-the-art high tech medical equipment that would take the operating theatre to the next level? Damn it, we will, because we have that pipeline of work.   That has to be good news for patients. The number of people waiting more than four months for elective surgery has grown from 1000 in 2017 to more than 28,000 and 2023. Now, I totally accept that waiting lists can be manipulated. You know, over the years, over the many, many years I've been doing a talkback, we've seen successive governments manipulate the waiting list. It looks a hell of a lot better when you just take people off it – you have to be referred by your GP and start the process all over again. That's one old trick. But we also take into account that Covid meant that a lot of elective surgeries couldn't be performed and that happened the Western world over. The Covid pandemic meant that elective surgeries were a luxury, and of course, it ballooned out.   So this has to be good news. The fact that the private hospitals will now have a contract where they will be able to deliver these operations for less than they have been charging. The New Zealand Private Surgical Hospitals Association Representative hadn't heard about the 10 years, but said obviously with that certainty that length of agreement it was not unreasonable to expect such deals would provide certainty on costs, which is doctor speak for we'll sharpen our pencil and give you a good deal.   However, there are concerns from the medical profession, the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons says they were sold outsourcing as a short-term solution. But outsourcing is not a solution to an inadequately... Tue, 17 Jun 2025 00:56:39 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-prisons-are-evidence-of-failure-but-whats-the-alternative/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-prisons-are-evidence-of-failure-but-whats-the-alternative/ Prisons to me are tangible evidence of failure. Failure of a person to do the right thing, failure of family, of community, of society. Before they've even been used, they smell like failure. I’ve emceed a fundraiser for the Shine domestic violence prevention charity at Mount Eden's remand prison before the first prisoner had stepped foot inside it. And even though it was brand-spanking new and done to the very best of the budget and to the specs, you just felt like failure the moment you walked in there.   It would be so much better to spend the 150K per year that we spend on average on each prisoner, on at-risk kids to prevent them becoming just another statistic, perpetuating the cycle. But prisons are a necessary evil because some people do evil things. And because if people aren't seen to be punished for doing evil things, society's fragile contract breaks down.   Remember the case of the 26 year old drunk who had been reported for dangerous driving? As he went from point A to point B, from his work drinks to a mate's house to drink more while throwing back premixed drinks in his car, he slammed into the vehicle of an innocent young woman, killing her. Jake Hamlin got 12 months home detention, 200 hours community work, disqualified from driving for a year, and ordered to pay $8k in reparation. And that just doesn't seem enough. But because you and I want to see a life mean something, we want to see that when you recklessly take the life of another person, you have to pay for that. And you have to be seen to pay for that. And the payment has to be significant. You've taken another person's life. A person with hope and dreams and potential and family who loved her. And what? You sit at home for 12 months? So because I want to see him punished, we need more prisons.   Our prison population looks set to increase by more than 30% in the next decade. I think we'll be lucky if we can keep it at 30%. Given the social issues over the past five years, it will be bloody lucky if we can keep it at 30%. And because we can't build prisons fast enough, that may well lead to double bunking, which will lead to more issues, and so on and so forth. The previous National government had planned to build more prisons, but Labour put the kibosh on that. They decided they would depopulate prisons. A policy that didn't work so well, as Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell told Ryan Bridge this morning:  “I think that we've been really clear that we are focused on public safety, and under the previous government, the only target they had around public safety was reducing the prison population by 30%, and we saw a massive increase in violent crime. So there are some people that don't want to stick to the rules that think they're above the, above the law, that are often recidivist violent offenders, and the safest place to put them is into a correction system or facility where then we can start to work on rehabilitation and hope that they rejoin society and make good decisions in their lives. There's a huge human cost and economic cost to having these people in the community and we've been very clear as a government that we're not going to tolerate that.”  Yeah, I like his optimistic approach that there can be rehabilitation, and people can re-enter society when for a very long time, these people have been on the outer of society. They don't want to join society because that means they'd have to get a job, and turn up on time, and not sell drugs. Mark Mitchell said after year-on-year increases in violent crime since 2018, it was encouraging to see a reversal of that, with a 2% drop in numbers for 2024. He said violent crime increased by 51% between 2018 and 2023.   So in October of last year, the prison population broke the 10,000 mark for the first time, and inmate numbers are expected to reach nearly 14,000 in the next decade. And that means we need more prisons. But even as Waikeria and Christchurch have begun... Thu, 12 Jun 2025 23:43:24 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-the-wool-directive-has-to-be-a-win-for-everyone/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-the-wool-directive-has-to-be-a-win-for-everyone/ Good news for the wool industry. Wasn't such good news in December of last year when Kainga Ora, the country's largest landlord, put out tenders for new carpet and underlay, and specifically said wool suppliers need not apply.   So that was in December of 2024 then in January 2025, the agency opened its tender process to wool carpet suppliers, allowing a direct price and offering comparison. Remember when the representative for the wool industry said that wool suppliers, wool carpet suppliers, hadn't even been able to tender? For more than a decade, Kainga Ora had been using nylon and that was that. You weren't even allowed to say, look, actually, we can give you a really good price. It was just thanks, but no thanks.   And that was still the policy back in December of last year. in January, Kainga Ora opened itself up to what the wool industry could offer. At the time, chief executive Matt Crockett  said Kainga Ora had traditionally used solution-dyed nylon carpet due to the durability and price. But yesterday came the announcement that Kainga Ora will use wool carpet in new state homes as of July.   The Government has played a huge part in this decision. Back in December of last year, as I say, Kainga Ora said no. Wool providers were specifically excluded in the call for tenders. That was because it was believed that wool was an extra $2-400 more per home than nylon. But after a directive to about 130 agencies in April that government buildings and government suppliers would use wool where possible, Kainga Ora changed its mind. Said, feel free to make a submission. Feel free to give us a price. And now New Zealand sheep farmers will be providing the carpet for Kainga Ora homes as of July. About 4500 new state houses will be affected, will be expected to be fitted out in the next three years.  Now I'm a huge fan of wool. I've been harping on about it for nearly a year now after having wool carpet put into my place. And surely its benefits outweigh the fact that it's slightly more expensive than the nylon – or rather it was. You know the $2-400 was before the wool carpet providers were able to actually come up with a price for Kainga Ora. They may well have sharpened their pencils. We won't know because the total value of the contract is commercially sensitive and can't be disclosed, according to Kainga Ora. So we don't know but you'd imagine that it's at least competitive with the nylon. And when you look at the whole of life of the carpet, you may well see that it's cheaper in the long run, better value in the long run than the nylon. The natural qualities allow wool to dampen sound, absorb pollutants. They contribute to healthier indoor environments by regulating humidity and improving air quality. So in terms of whole of life costs, sustainability, and health benefits, it ticks all the boxes.   So yay for the government directive. Yay for New Zealand's sheep farmers. Yay for the durability and environmentally superior qualities of all carpet. It's got to be a win for everyone, doesn't it?  Thu, 12 Jun 2025 00:33:26 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-are-farmers-in-the-position-to-invest-in-new-technology/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-are-farmers-in-the-position-to-invest-in-new-technology/ The largest agricultural expo in the Southern Hemisphere, one of the largest business expos in the Southern Hemisphere, has opened its gates this morning, and exhibitors are ready to do business.   That hasn't always been the case in Fieldays’ 57 year history – the rural economy has had its ebbs and flows over the years, and Fieldays in Hamilton has felt them. Confidence has waxed and waned, but not this year. This year, you've got the Massey Ferg’s descending on the Tron in their droves. This year the feeling is bullish, according to Richard Lindroos, the CEO of the National Fieldays.   “They say down here it's a bit of a positive vibe going on. Everything's going the right direction. We have certainty now in terms of where the prices are and the forecasts are pretty good, so we expect the rural community to open up the wallets at Fieldays. I think you're going to see those large capital expenditure, and the more certainty you have from the farming community, the better it will be. So our exhibitors down here, and we have over 1200, are looking forward to gates opening at 8am today. We go right through to Saturday. Saturday is Super Saturday, so I'm looking forward to even the townies coming down.”  Absolutely. It's an amazing event. I've had the privilege of going a couple of times —working and as a spectator— and it’s enormous amounts of fun, and enormous amounts of business is done in the good years. And as Richard referred to when he was talking to Mike Hosking this morning, he's expecting the wallets to be open, because there have been good prices in the agricultural sector for the farmers, and also one of the big ticket items in the Government's 2025 Budget was ‘Investment boost’. The facility that allows businesses to deduct 20% of a new assets value from that year's taxable income on top of normal depreciation.   There was a good example in the Herald: let's say a company invests in a machine worth $100,000, or a farmer if you will, that depreciates over 10 years, assuming a 10% straight line depreciation rate. Previously the company would have been able to deduct $10,000 worth of depreciation each year from its taxable income. Under investment boost, it could make a $20,000 upfront deduction, followed by $8,000 in depreciation deductions each year, including in year one. So you can see that that would have an impact. The Government hopes the change will significantly increase productivity by encouraging businesses to invest in new assets now, rather than waiting for the economy to improve.   You might have heard that yesterday when we were talking the solar power interest-free loan from ASB for farmers to invest in solar power technology. We had a farmer who rang in, he had actually got his loan through ANZ, but he said he'd been looking at solar power for a while and he just wasn't in a position to make that kind of upfront investment. This year he can and has.   So there's more money going on farm and into farmer's pockets. The investment boost, it is hoped, will see farmers and other businesses investing in new technology to allow for increased productivity. Is that what's going to happen? If you're heading to Fieldays, are you going there with the express aim to invest in new technology, technology you might have had your eye on for a while but you haven't been in a position to do anything about it until prices improved, and until you gets a commitment from the government like investment boost. Does investment boost, now you've had time to let it settle, mean that you are going to be investing in the kind of technology that's going to boost your productivity?  Wed, 11 Jun 2025 01:24:55 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/katrina-king-franchise-association-ceo-on-franchising-in-new-zealand/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/katrina-king-franchise-association-ceo-on-franchising-in-new-zealand/ As more people take the leap to owning their own businesses, many seem to be buying into already established brands.  Data suggests the business of franchising and owning established brands is booming, with around 30,000 franchise unites currently existing nationwide.  Association CEO Katrina King told Kerre Woodham they see franchising as being in business for yourself, but not by yourself.  She says as a franchisee you’re part of a system, but you’re very much still a small business in your local community. LISTEN ABOVE  Wed, 11 Jun 2025 01:09:02 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/justin-flitter-newzealandai-founder-on-the-applications-and-benefits-of-ai-in-business/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/justin-flitter-newzealandai-founder-on-the-applications-and-benefits-of-ai-in-business/ There’s been plenty of buzz around AI in the last few years.  The most recent headlines have been highlighting its evils, such as the creation and lack of regulation around deepfake technology and fake pornography.  However, there are many positive applications for AI technology, particularly in business.  Justin Flitter, founder of NewZealand.AI, joined Kerre Woodham to discuss the potential it holds to transform a workplace, as well as taking listener questions as to how it all works.  LISTEN ABOVE  Wed, 11 Jun 2025 00:28:41 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-is-it-feasible-to-leave-your-job-and-buy-a-business/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-is-it-feasible-to-leave-your-job-and-buy-a-business/ If you turned up to work yesterday, first day of a new week, with a bad case of Mondayitis, feeling like you're getting nowhere working for the man, thinking now is the time in your life when you should be the master of your own destiny, making your own decisions, getting the true reward for your labours, well join the queue.   Buyer demand for New Zealand businesses is on the up with large business brokerage firm LINK reporting a record 19% year-on-year increase in would-be buyers signing confidentiality agreements, even though times are tough. You would think in a relatively depressed economy that people would stay put, that going out on your own would be the last thing you'd want to do, but no.   It's not just LINK, ABC Business Sales CEO Chris Small also reported a record number of sales. He said business sales were countercyclical to unemployment, with people looking to buy themselves into a job when employment opportunities dry up or they're made redundant. He says right now there's a lack of stock, listings were down 10%, while the number of buyers looking to buy a business was up 30%. You can put that down to immigration, a significant number of would-be buyers are immigrants, but Small says a growing number of those who are just sick of working for other people.   “It's becoming a real thing that people are coming to us and going, you know what I'm sick of, I'm sick of working for a big corporate. It's too woke or it's too annoying. I don't like my boss, and I want that financial freedom where actually, if they work really hard, you get rewarded. If you don't work hard, you're obviously going to be in a bit of trouble versus in corporate New Zealand - you can probably work pretty hard and not necessarily get rewarded for the hours you put in.”  Now, when I've talked to people who own their own businesses, who are one of the myriad small to medium businesses that are the backbone of the business economy, a lot of them grew up with parents who had their own business. That's the way they saw the world. That you had your own business, that you worked as a team, husband and wife within the business, the kids quite often helped out, and so it was the culture of your family, was to own your own business.    In our family, it was a bit different. My dad was adamant that my brother and I should get good jobs. When I signed up to the Broadcasting Corporation of New Zealand and my brother was an officer in the New Zealand Army, that was it for him. It was job done. We both had good, safe, secure jobs. Wonder how we'd look at the media landscape right now, but for him, it was getting a good, secure job. That was the dream.   And I'm really interested in those people who are leaving paid employment. Leaving a corporate or middle management role and deciding to go out and buy a business. Can you actually make a go of it if it's not in your bones? If it's not in your in your blood? Because running your own business is hard work and I wonder if people underestimate that when they think no, I'm going to buy myself a little business and everything will be tickety-boo. I won't have to answer to anybody if I work hard, I'll get the return on it, it won't be going to anybody else. If I want to take Saturday off then I can.   Well, can you? I mean, most of the business owners I know, especially in the early days of the business, were working seven days a week. Can you actually become a business owner later in life, without any kind of experience? Running your own business – it's not for the faint hearted. I totally understand that for people who don't enjoy their jobs, turning up, sitting down at the hot desk and finding filth is the first thing you do to start your day, having some overpaid tit telling you what to do and when to do it would be really grinding. You know, endless, pointless meetings would sap your soul. And I totally understand the desire to pick up your jacket, walk out, and... Tue, 10 Jun 2025 01:10:46 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/aidan-gent-asb-general-manager-for-rural-on-the-loans-for-farmers-to-install-solar-and-battery-systems-on-their-properties/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/aidan-gent-asb-general-manager-for-rural-on-the-loans-for-farmers-to-install-solar-and-battery-systems-on-their-properties/ ASB is offering loans to help farmers balance their energy costs.  They’re offering five-year, interest-free loans of up to $150,000 for the installation of solar and battery systems on their properties.  The bank said farm electricity costs are rising, with the average 2025/26 season power bill expected to be around $28,000 for owner-operated dairy farms.  Research found most farms have rooftop space available for solar, and 60% of farmers say they have land that could be used for solar without reducing production.  Rural General Manager Aidan Gent told Kerre Woodham the main barrier to electrification in rural areas was a lack of understanding as to what it would mean for them to electrify their farms, as well as what the cost and payback would look like.  He says the bank is trying to ease access to capital, but also provide tools that help bring it to life.  Electrifying rural areas would also be a major boost to resilience, Gent says, as in the event of a major weather event like Cyclone Gabrielle, it’s much easier to distribute power from farmers’ set ups rather than waiting on the main lines to be repaired.  LISTEN ABOVE  Tue, 10 Jun 2025 00:45:08 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/national-blood-donor-week-nz-blood-service-ceo-sam-cliffe-calls-for-more-donations/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/national-blood-donor-week-nz-blood-service-ceo-sam-cliffe-calls-for-more-donations/ Kerre Woodham talks to NZ Blood Service CEO Sam Cliffe at the start of National Blood Donor week.  NZ Blood is asking Kiwi's to find their superpower and start saving lives by becoming a blood or plasma donor.  COVID's impact on the methods of recruiting young blood donors has led to a decrease in the number of young people donating blood. Since 2020, there has been a 25% decrease in the numbers of 16-25 year olds and the current average age of donors is 43, with 18% over 60.  Mon, 09 Jun 2025 00:48:44 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-the-new-parent-boost-visa-makes-perfect-sense/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-the-new-parent-boost-visa-makes-perfect-sense/ When I was doing the rounds of the open homes, travelling all over the Auckland isthmus a couple of years ago, I was looking for something quite specific. A house where I could have my own space and where the kids could live separately as a family, because we were buying together. And there were quite a few just like that. One house I visited was owned by two doctors, they had two children, and they had brought her mother over from India – she was living downstairs and provided childcare and general household assistance. Another house was owned by a Chinese family. I don't know what they did, but the living arrangements were pretty much the same. A separate space pointed out to me by the real estate agent for the mother, so she could help out in the home. Not every family who makes a new home in New Zealand needs live-in help. But families who migrate here would probably love to be able to have their parents, their grandparents, come and visit for extended periods and it's going to be easier for them to do so.   Now the government is introducing a new visa to allow the parents of New Zealand citizens and residents multi-entry access for up to five years with the opportunity to renew that once again. There’s criteria to fulfil before the visas will be granted – it's not open slather. The parents sponsor, presumably their adult children, who are the New Zealand residents, have to earn the median wage for one parent, one and half times the median wage if they want to bring in two parents. The parents themselves have to have an income equivalent to the Super and importantly, they must meet an acceptable standard of health and have health insurance. As Katie Armstrong, owner of Into NZ Immigration, told Mike Hosking this morning:  “Obviously the concern when you're making this kind of visa is how to protect the system, how to help people reunite, but also how to protect the system. We've got a stretched health system, so trying to get that balance right is difficult, but I think it's, you know, with the insurance that's going to take the edge off a whole lot of this, it's going to be the first, well no, sorry the second Visa that we have that requires insurance.”  So the insurance means that they have to have at least one year of health insurance coverage, which provides for emergency medical cover up to at least a quarter of a million dollars, repatriation return of remains, and cancer treatment of at least $100,000. They must maintain this insurance for the entire duration they’re in New Zealand. While offshore during the third year of the multiple entry visitor visa, they will have to complete a new medical assessment and demonstrate that they have maintained their insurance.  ACT’s Immigration Spokesperson Dr Parmjeet Parmar says the new visa means that skilled migrants can come to New Zealand with confidence they can have their parents around when they welcome a new child or when they need support, during any challenges that life throws or to help out with the childcare. Ultimately, she said, this visa makes New Zealand a more attractive destination for the talent we need to drive economic growth.   So does that make sense? If parents of migrants can come here at no cost to taxpayers, is there an issue? Is there a problem? If parents are going to be able to pay for their healthcare, if they have an income, if the sponsors (their children) are going to be looking after them. They're going to be contributing in terms of helping out with the childcare, helping out with support, it's going to make it a lot more attractive than new migrants coming here bringing their skills and not knowing if they're ever going to be able to get their parents over here. It's so much better than a lottery system.   I think it makes perfect sense. I would be really wary if there were any cracks or gaps they could fall through, that would mean expensive healthcare was going to be provided by the New Zealand taxpay... Sun, 08 Jun 2025 23:24:00 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/matt-crockett-k%C4%81inga-ora-ceo-on-increased-warnings-and-evictions-vacant-properties/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/matt-crockett-k%C4%81inga-ora-ceo-on-increased-warnings-and-evictions-vacant-properties/ Clearer boundaries around Kāinga Ora tenant behaviour could explain a 600% surge in formal warnings.   In the past 10 months, 63 tenancies were terminated because of abusive, threatening, or persistently disruptive behaviour.  Nearly 1,500 warnings have been issued in the financial year to date.   Chief executive Matt Crockett told Kerre Woodham behaviour isn't worse, rather the previous framework wasn't as sharp.   He says clearer boundaries and more follow through now have more people's behaviour changing for the better.  The fate of multiple vacant Kāinga Ora sections sitting empty will be confirmed in the next month.   Multiple projects are on pause as the state housing agency re-focuses on the Government turnaround plan.   This includes selling 900 older homes a year and a new build programme.   Crockett told Woodham Kāinga Ora's been reviewing which areas are cost effective and serve populations.  He says about 20% of its current land holdings will be sold back to the market.  LISTEN ABOVE  Thu, 05 Jun 2025 21:34:59 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-who-should-be-paying-more-for-home-insurance/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-who-should-be-paying-more-for-home-insurance/ It's not really a huge shock, is it? The news that homeowners will have to pay even more for home insurance to help the Natural Hazards Commission (formerly known as the EQC), is to be expected. Insurers have been warning for years that premiums will rise and will continue to rise, that they may have to put some of the cost of risky properties back onto homeowners and in some cases, they'll be declining to insure homes altogether. And we've already started to see that.   In 2017, a then-record $242 million in weather-related claims was paid out. Just six years later, climate related claims were more than $3.5 billion due to the Auckland anniversary floods and Cyclone Gabrielle. It's incredible when you see the insurers' charts, 20 odd years ago they'd say this is a record year or this is a once in 100 year, then the next year, or three years later it would treble in terms of the cost of the claims that had to be paid out.  So there's a pattern, you'd be a fool to ignore it, and the government is not doing so. Nor is the insurance industry. The Natural Hazards Commission provides cover for capped portions of residential buildings and land damaged by earthquakes, landslides, volcanoes, hydrothermal activities, tsunamis, storms, and floods (land cover only). Leaving private insurers to cover the rest.   The NHC has struggled to recover following the Canterbury earthquakes and faces huge future claims costs. The new modelling lifts the likelihood of a big earthquake, with construction costs soaring post-pandemic and the reinsurance market hardening. The NHC is so underfunded that there's only a 37% chance the levy income will meet the costs over the next five years, according to the Treasury. And the NHC must cover the first $2.1 billion of claims related to a natural disaster before it can tap into its reinsurance cover. So just like any insurance claim, you must pay your excess, and then it will chip in. It's just in this case, $2.1 billion is your excess.   Given there's only $500 million in the kitty, if there was a big disaster today or tomorrow, the government would have to find more than $1.6 billion to cover the claim costs before reinsurance cover could kick in. Associate Finance Minister David Seymour says levies will almost certainly need to rise, Cabinet’s set to decide on the changes in the coming months. An insurance consultant told Ryan Bridge this morning it'll probably cost homeowners an extra $200 to $300 more a year. And if that sounds like a lot, well count yourself lucky, because there are some people who simply won't be able to get insurance for their homes.   And it's not just people in the obvious places on cliffs or banks next to rivers who will be paying. Everyone is at risk. And those living up the top, who’s homes are built on traditional drainage areas or water soak areas are part of the problem. We're all in this together. So, what are your options? If you have a mortgage you have to be insured, but it might mean that people take the bare minimum because that's all they can afford, meaning they are left underinsured and depending on the kindness of strangers to recover after disaster strikes. Will Give A Little be the insurer of choice for people who can't afford to cover themselves?   I assumed Hamilton might be the safest place to live, and I was right. Volcanologists say Hamilton is probably the safest place to live. It’s away from the coast which cancels out tsunamis. It’s a safe distance from known fault lines, although there is the caveat that one could be lurking. It's far enough away from Auckland's volcanic field to be considered safe, and even if the Waikato River flooded its much lower than the houses around it. In the North Island, there's no real escape so should the north be paying more? Do we start pointing the finger at other areas? Can the people of the Waikato say “Hey, not us. We are living in a really safe area. If you choose to live anywhere o... Thu, 05 Jun 2025 00:16:24 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-how-can-we-take-polls-seriously/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-how-can-we-take-polls-seriously/ Honestly, I don't know why we report on polls. Seriously, I don't know why I'm even talking about them myself, but it's really ripped my nightie overnight. They're so frustrating, and because media companies commission them, it makes the media look like master manipulators.  This is from 1九一星空无限 last night (I didn't watch 1九一星空无限, obvs) but this is from their website – both National and Labour have slid in the latest 1九一星空无限-Verian poll, while New Zealand First have moved to their strongest position in eight years. If an election were to be held today, the right bloc of National, ACT, and New Zealand First would have 63 seats —enough to form a coalition— while the left bloc of Labour, the Greens, and Te Pati Māori would have 58 seats. So that's from 1九一星空无限 and their Verian poll.    This is from Radio New Zealand – after the budget and pay equity changes, the left bloc would have the support to turf the coalition out of power, the latest RNZ-Reid Research poll shows. The preferred Prime Minister and leadership ratings are also bad news for the government, with the exception of Winston Peters, who's seen his highest results since 2017. The ratings of the government's general performance have also continued to slide, with Labour, the Greens and Te Pati Māori all gaining compared to the previous poll, they would have a majority with 63 seats between them, compared to the coalitions 57. A direct opposite of what 1九一星空无限-Verian said.   How can this be? And it's always headline news. You've got 1九一星空无限 talking about the right bloc being able to hold on to power, but only just, and look out. You've got RNZ crowing about the fact that the coalition government would be turfed out of power with the left gaining hold. And both lead with it, and it leaves me scratching my head and doubting both of them.    How do you imagine the pollsters collect their data? Random phone calls of 1000 people? No, no, no. It's far more tricky than that, and they put it in every story. It must be an obligation on the part of the media company to say how the data was collected. From TVNZ: Between May 24 and May 28, 1002 eligible voters were polled by mobile phone (500) and online, using online panels (502). What are online panels? Are they things you sign up to yourself? Who knows? The maximum sampling area is approximately plus 3.1%. Party support percentages have been rounded up or down to whole numbers. The data has been weighted to align with Stats NZ population counts for age, gender, region, ethnic identification and education level.   So what does that mean? If I'm a numpty, am I worth 2 points as opposed to somebody who leaves school worth NCEA and that's worth one? What does that mean? If I'm 18 and I respond, does that mean because there are fewer 18 year olds who respond, does it mean that my reckon is worth double that of somebody who's 50+. How can you weight the information? And not all 18 year olds think the same way. If you're looking at ethnic identification, not all Māori, not all Pakeha, not all Pasifika, not all Chinese people, think the same way. The sample for mobile phones is selected by random dialling using probability sampling. Online sample is collected using an online panel. So that's from 1九一星空无限.    This is from RNZ: This poll of 1008 people was conducted by Reid Research using quota sampling and weighting to ensure representative cross section by age, gender and geography. The poll was conducted through online interviews between the 23rd and 30th of May 2025, has a maximum margin of error of +/- 3.1%.    I'm of a mind to never discuss the polls again. The statisticians and the research pollsters and the companies all say, oh, no, no, no, it's terribly scientific. Is it really? When you've got two polls conducted over the same time, presumably using the same scientific methods, coming up with two completely different results. If the polls were scientific, surely you'd see a consen... Wed, 04 Jun 2025 01:09:33 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/ben-speedy-asbs-general-manager-of-commercial-banking-on-businesses-uncertainty-regarding-the-impact-of-trumps-tariffs/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/ben-speedy-asbs-general-manager-of-commercial-banking-on-businesses-uncertainty-regarding-the-impact-of-trumps-tariffs/ Kiwi business leaders fear the impact of Donald Trump's tariffs will be more severe than the impact of the Global Financial Crisis and the Covid pandemic.  ASB and Talbot Mills have been surveying more than 300 business leaders, including CEOs and founders.  Two-thirds of businesses are concerned about the impacts, including almost 80% of exporters.  Meat, dairy and wine are expected to be hit harder, while the wool and seafood sectors are expected to fare better.  ASB's General Manager of Commercial Banking, Ben Speedy, told Kerre Woodham that the results highlight that businesses are really struggling with the uncertainty that’s playing out in the environment at the moment.  He says businesses not only need to navigate tariffs, but also the difficult business and economic environment in New Zealand.  LISTEN ABOVE  Wed, 04 Jun 2025 00:45:37 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/david-farrar-curia-market-research-owner-on-how-political-polls-work/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/david-farrar-curia-market-research-owner-on-how-political-polls-work/ How is it that two recent polls had such starkly different outcomes?  The latest RNZ Reid Research poll —out this morning— has the right bloc on 46.4, behind the left bloc on 50.3.  But the latest 1 九一星空无限 Verian poll —released last night— has the right bloc on 50-percent, well ahead of the left bloc on 45.  Curia Market Research Owner David Farrar told Kerre Woodham that when you poll 1000 people, they say there’s a 3% margin of error – so if a party is sitting at 50%, in reality they’re somewhere between 47% and 53%.  His advice for conflicting polls is to average them out, as that will generally give you a pretty good idea.  LISTEN ABOVE  Wed, 04 Jun 2025 00:29:16 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-our-workplace-fatality-rate-is-appalling/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-our-workplace-fatality-rate-is-appalling/ On average, there are 73 work-related deaths in New Zealand every single year. Relative to the number of people in employment, the New Zealand workplace fatality rate is double that of Australia, and it hasn't shifted in many, many years. More road cones have not made a difference. The New Zealand rate is similar to the rate the UK experienced back in the 1980s. The gap between New Zealand and Australia is consistent across most industries and occupations. It's not like we've got one that is more dangerous than any other, which is why it's throwing these figures out. It's consistent across industries and occupations.   Looking at the construction industry, the New Zealand fatality rate is 4.41 workers every 100,000 compared to 2.93 workers in every 100,000. The workplace injury rates tell a similar story. New Zealand injury rates, as reported by ACC have improved over time, however the Australian rate is 25% lower, the UK 45% lower. Why? Why are we so much worse than other countries we should be able to compare ourselves with? Brooke van Velden, the Minister for Workplace Safety, says we're overregulated. That there are too many rules and the fear of prosecution is making workplaces less safe.   “We're changing the focus of worker health and safety to focusing on the critical risks, those things that can cause deaths and serious injury, and at the same time, I'm changing the focus of WorkSafe to care about deaths and serious injury as well and not sweating the small stuff because we've had a culture of too much over compliance, ticking all the boxes, trying to get all of the paperwork done, rather than focusing on, do I actually do anything in my workplace that could cause death or serious injury? And are we doing that correctly?   “So I'm saying to everybody out there, let's not sweat the small stuff. Let's focus on those deaths and serious injury activities and let's have WorkSafe going on site providing more upfront guidance so that they're here to help rather than having too much of the stick.”  Who was it that said there are no more chilling words than “hi, we're from the government. We're here to help”? It was an American, I'm sure. Is there going to be able to be a change of emphasis? If all of a sudden, Workplace Safety says, ‘hey, we're here to help. We're here to help you, as the employer, make the workplace safer’. Are we able to pivot away from thinking ‘if Health and Safety come in here, they're going to find all sorts of nitpicky things and make my life misery’, to ‘might ring Workplace Health and Safety and see how they can help me’. It's going to take a big mind shift.   Mike said this morning he thought there were too many rules and there probably are for people who are educated, who have choices about what they do, who have choices about where they work. For people who don't have the luxury of telling a boss to stick it if they're asked to do something they think is really dangerous, or to do something with equipment they think is dangerous, rules are required. But they need to be clear, they need to be effective and if they're not working, do away with them. And I think most importantly, employees need to be on board with them. The number of times I've had employers ring in and tell me that as required by law, they bring in the safety gear, they instruct the workers to wear it, they do spot cheques to ensure the workers are wearing it, and the workers are not wearing it. They say that the goggles mist up. That the harnesses mean that they can't rely on their own wits to go about the building, and they'd rather risk death than rely on their own sense of balance. The employees don't seem to value their lives in some cases. You've got to get employees on board as well.   There has to be a culture of safety, that workers have to value themselves and employers have to value their workers. And you can't regulate for that. You can't red cone that. I tend to agree that too many... Tue, 03 Jun 2025 00:54:47 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/gloria-masters-handing-the-shame-back-founder-on-ai-contributing-to-child-exploitation-and-abuse/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/gloria-masters-handing-the-shame-back-founder-on-ai-contributing-to-child-exploitation-and-abuse/ The rise of generative AI could be putting children at risk.  Gloria Masters, founder of 'Handing The Shame Back', believes the current digital environment has enabled “much more sexualised content” of children to be available to predators.  AI tools allow people to remove clothing from people in photos, such as children, creating fake nude images they can then trade.  She told Kerre Woodham that share your photos with trusted friends and family members by all means, but the days of posting them on Facebook, Instagram, and other such platforms are gone.  According to Masters, research shows that 85% of online offenders become contact offenders, going on to abuse real children.  She says it’s important to stop giving predators a free pass and remove content so they can’t access it.   LISTEN ABOVE  Tue, 03 Jun 2025 00:40:48 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-will-fining-parents-of-absent-kids-help/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-will-fining-parents-of-absent-kids-help/ You might have heard ACT leader David Seymour on the Breakfast show this morning. He says there will almost certainly be prosecutions against parents of absent students this year as the Government intensifies its crackdown on school truancy. And it's not even truancy, in my mind truancy are kids doing a bunk, wagging, taking a day off. What this is, is parental neglect. Parents who are failing to ensure that their kids get to school and get to school on time. According to Ministry of Education figures, around 11.3% of students were chronically absent from school and term 4 last year, equating to around 93,000 young people. Chronically absent means a student attends 70% of school or less. The Associate Minister for Education spelled out what's going to happen next to parents who will not send their kids to school.   “Basically, a school will go to the Ministry of Education, say look, we've got someone who they're not a can’t, they’re a won't. We've tried. We've gone out. We've engaged with them. They're basically giving us the middle finger and saying education is not important and you've got no right to demand that my kid enrols and attends a school. And in that case I've been told by the youth aid, police, by the attendance officers, by the deputy principal, we need another sanction, another step we can take. At that point they will go to the Ministry of Education and say, look, this is a potential prosecution case. Ministry of Education will weigh it up and if it stacks up, they'll take the prosecution, ultimately go before the courts. Now you can be fined $30 bucks a day up to $300 initially. For repeat offending the fine on parents can be $3000.”  Which of course many parents won't be able to pay in that category. They're not going to be able to pay it, but the message is clear from the Government. They are quite happy to be the bad guy in getting your kids to school. And principals have said they've already noticed a difference. The expectation is that young people will attend school. Schools have to deliver statistics on the numbers of children who are turning up and they have to deliver those to the Ministry of Education – if their figures are slipping, or if there's no improvement, then action is taken by branches and agencies of the ministry to encourage children to attend school.   So is it going to help the parents who've rung in and told me they cannot get their children to school? These are the older students who cannot and will not get out of bed. That makes it a bit tricky. We have had, on the face of it, perfectly “normal parents”  who are trying to do the right thing by their children and by the community who want their kids to get ahead in life, who want their kids to go to school, tell us that they cannot get their teenagers out of bed and into the classroom.   If you can say, well, if I have to pay that fine, then that's going to come out of the money for your wardrobe or the money for your school trip, or the money for your phone plan, will that help? I mean, 11% of kids who are chronically absent, that's quite a lot of children, 93,000 young people, as a lot of young Kiwis who are missing out. And they're not just missing out on learning they're missing out on the structure and the discipline of getting up and going to work.    And what if the parents and grandparents like me, who take the kids out of school for a jolly? I guess there are exceptions to every rule, but should we be fined as well? If you're willingly, wilfully disobeying the edict from the government to get your kids to school should parents and grandparents like me be fined for basically sticking the middle finger, as David Seymour said, to the attendance expectations?  Fri, 30 May 2025 01:30:05 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-what-do-we-do-with-children-of-overstayers/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-what-do-we-do-with-children-of-overstayers/ What on Earth do we do with young people who were born in New Zealand, who have lived in New Zealand all of their lives, but who aren't New Zealanders? They've never known any other home, but they can't get healthcare, they can't get a driver's licence, they can't get a job, they can't pay taxes.   In 2006, a law change under the Helen Clark Government removed the right to citizenship by birth for children born in New Zealand. The justification was that it stopped people from country shopping by going from country to country, having a baby in the one they liked and therefore being granted citizenship through their child. That's a fight Donald Trump's having right now with the US Supreme Court, the US being one of 33 countries that grants jus soli – the right of the soil, or the right of citizenship to anyone born within a territory.   We did away with jus soli in 2006, and now young people, it's not known how many, because of course they live in the shadows, are leaving the education system and are locked in limbo. The education system will educate anyone here, even if they're here unlawfully, until the age of 18. After that, all services of the state are denied to them, and they are on their own. Stuff has an excellent story highlighting the plight of New Zealand born overstayers this morning. At the moment, it appears there is no pathway for children born to overstayers after 2006. It's even more cruel to think that siblings born to those same overstaying parents before 2006 have New Zealand citizenship but their brothers and sisters born after don't.   At the moment the only option is to go to the Minister of Immigration and plead individual cases, which is time consuming, lengthy, costly, and takes up a lot of bureaucrats' time.   So what do we do with these 18 and 19 year olds? An immigration lawyer quoted in the Stuff story wants a repeal of the 2006 law change, which removed the right the birthright citizenship. Or, he suggests, we do what the Aussies and the Brits do and that is grant citizenship if you're born here and have lived here for 10 years or more. Surely that seems the most humane way of dealing with these young adults. They're here, they've been here all their lives, they likely have siblings who have New Zealand citizenship – those siblings are working or at university. Should the same rights be granted to those kids who, through no fault of their own were born in this country and now find themselves in effect stateless, without a country, without a place to call home, despite the fact that New Zealand is the only home they've known?   I would do what the Aussies and the Brits do. If you have been born here, if you have lived here for 10 years or more, you're a Kiwi.    Thu, 29 May 2025 00:06:50 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/guy-waipara-meridian-energy-general-manager-development-on-the-grid-battery-storage-system-in-ruak%C4%81k%C4%81/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/guy-waipara-meridian-energy-general-manager-development-on-the-grid-battery-storage-system-in-ruak%C4%81k%C4%81/ Construction of New Zealand's first large scale grid battery storage system has finished in Ruakākā, just south of Whangārei.   The Meridian Energy project has storage capacity of 200 megawatt-hours, which is enough to power 60 thousand homes for two hours.   It will provide greater resilience and reduce strain to the Northland power and reduce strain on the wider power supply.   Guy Waipara, Meridian Energy General Manager Development, told Kerre Woodham the batteries are designed to be available at peak periods for the network.  He says it’s only part of the system, but it will play a really important part at the times where energy security is challenged.  LISTEN ABOVE  Tue, 27 May 2025 01:14:00 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-the-shoplifting-directive-is-not-a-good-look/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-the-shoplifting-directive-is-not-a-good-look/ Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. You cannot go into an election promising to get tough on crime, win the election and vow to draw a line in the sand, declare war on the crims, and then issue a directive that police won't turn up to minor crime. To paraphrase supermodel Linda Evangelista, who famously said she wouldn't get out of bed for less than $10,000, it appears our coppers won't get out of their Skodas for less than $500.   A memo has surfaced directing police staff not to investigate crimes under a certain value, such as shoplifting goods under $500. As you can imagine, there have been howls of outrage from retailers and dairy owners, and police are now scrambling to explain themselves. Ann-Marie Johnson, Retail NZ manager, was on Early Edition this morning. She says that retailers do have a realistic expectation of police.   “Retailers know that police aren't going to show up to every small, very minor case of shoplifting, but we certainly want to know that they're taking these crimes seriously and that where they can, they will be following up and arresting. Often they're repeat offenders, so we know who they are, and police know who they are, so we want to particularly focus on those people.”  Well, exactly. I remember ages ago I left my window open. I used to live in a villa that was on the street, and I left the window open in summer and some opportunistic heffer managed to heave herself through the window and scoop up what she could see in my bedroom and disappear. And I rang the police, not because I expected them to turn up, but because I needed the case number for my insurance claim, but somebody turned up about 3 or 4 days later and dusted for fingerprints on the windowsill. And because of that, they were able to match it to a nest of Vipers in West Auckland, a group of women who had committed all sorts of petty thefts and burglaries and crimes, and so it was worth holding off on the house cleaning and not doing the window sill so the police could dust for fingerprints.  Of course they can't turn up to every crime. I know that, but it's not a good look. Police Minister Mark Mitchell says he is happy to talk, but he doesn't want to get ahead “of the police executive who are going to clarify their position”. I can only imagine the “please explain” face on the Minister when he made a call to the newish-Commissioner.   It's one thing for us all to know that if our wallet is nicked because we stupidly left it on a bus stop seat, we know the police aren't going to converge on the scene of the crime, all blues and two in their numbers. It is quite another thing to know that a directive has been sent applying nationally standardised threshold values when assessing theft and fraud. Losing $500 worth of groceries and goods can have a huge impact on a small business' weekly turnover, and I sure as hell do not want to see losers walking out of supermarkets with $500 worth of groceries, getting a free pass.   You don't elect a centre right government for that sort of carry on. That was the very thing that galvanised a significant number of voters to vote centre right. You may not be able to get to every petty thief in the country, you know that. I know that the retailers know that, and the crims sure as hell know that, but the messaging from police has to be that they're going to jolly well try.  Tue, 27 May 2025 00:10:44 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/mark-mitchell-police-minister-on-the-new-shoplifting-directives/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/mark-mitchell-police-minister-on-the-new-shoplifting-directives/ The Police Minister is reassuring retailers officers will still turn up to reports of shoplifting.  RNZ reports staff have been directed to not investigate retail crime below $500 and online fraud below $1000.   Police may not take further action if the reports don't have enough evidence, such as CCTV.  However, Mark Mitchell told Kerre Woodham every crime deserves a response.  He says he wants to be clear that people can’t go out and shoplift anything under the value of $500 – there will be a police response, especially if the offender is able to be identified.  LISTEN ABOVE Mon, 26 May 2025 21:55:40 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-charities-dont-need-non-complying-beneficiaries/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-charities-dont-need-non-complying-beneficiaries/ Two new ‘non-financial’ sanctions have come into force today for beneficiaries, who, in the words of the MSD, do not meet their obligations or, as other people might put it, who do not get off their arses and go and look for a job. Some people may have half their weekly benefits put onto a payment card for four weeks, that can only be spent on essential items at approved shops. Others may also have to find volunteer work for at least five hours each week, again for four weeks. Remember though, as the Minister for Social Development confirmed, it's only a tiny proportion of job seekers who are having a laugh – 98% are complying with their obligations and are doing what they can to get off the benefit, so it's only really going to apply to 2% of those on the benefit. But as former Welfare Expert Advisory Group member Phil O'Reilly told Ryan Bridge on Early Edition this morning, sanctions can and do work.  Sanctions do work. Exactly how well they work is always open to debate. They work for two reasons. One is they encourage people to get off the benefit. But secondly, very importantly for people like you and me who are paying tax in order to give persons a benefit, they keep our faith in the system too. That if you're not going to play by the rules, there's going to be a bit of a sanction on you, so they do actually work in those two contexts. And I think that's important to remember too, it's not just about those who are on the benefit, it's about those people who are paying, in effect, the benefit. There has to be faith in the system to keep the system going. People won't suffer a financial loss per say, and since they'll be restricted as to what they can spend their benefit on if they are failing to meet their obligations. I'm less enthusiastic about the volunteering requirements. The poor old charity sector is doing it tough enough as it is without some hapless souls turning up reluctantly, looking for things to do because they have to. I don't see why voluntary organisations should be charged with the task of straightening out recalcitrant beneficiaries on top of everything else they do. Compulsory training courses or upskilling by MSD should be the way to go as far as I'm concerned. If there are people who want to volunteer, who have something to offer, fine -  fill your boots. But I imagine they'd be doing that already if they felt they had something to offer. What on Earth are you going to do with a couple of individuals who don't want to go and get a job? We're talking the tiny proportion of beneficiaries there who don't want to go and get a job, who don't know how to go and get a job, who don't believe they have anything to offer anyone - they'll have had the stuffing knocked out of them after being on a benefit for years - turning up at your local Hospice shop or your SPCA or whatever, what on Earth are you supposed to do with them? David Seymour, whose party campaigned on the policies, said sanctions should go further. He said no country can succeed with one in six working age people on a benefit and ACT wants to see money in kind given as a benefit instead of cash. If you want the freedom, he says, to spend cash as your own, then earn it yourself. Which is all very well and good when the jobs are there but it's widely acknowledged that we're seeing unemployment rise. Hopefully it will peak very shortly, but we are at a time of high unemployment relative to the circumstances of this country.  I'm all for getting the sanctions out for the 2% putting restrictions on what they can spend the money on so that taxpayers will have faith in the system, but the volunteering, no.   Also, some of you may have a different view now about being on a benefit. Prior to the Covid years, many people had never experienced the shock of losing a job. During the Covid years, people lost work almost overnight. And they were extraordinary times trying to find something to do in a in an in... Mon, 26 May 2025 00:45:07 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/sharon-nicholas-boyle-river-outdoor-education-centre-manager-on-the-importance-of-outdoor-education-for-young-people/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/sharon-nicholas-boyle-river-outdoor-education-centre-manager-on-the-importance-of-outdoor-education-for-young-people/ It's been revealed how outdoor education can help build teenagers up.  The Boyle River Outdoor Education Centre is 20 minutes east of the Lewis Pass.  They're a not-for-profit organisation offering outdoor education programmes to secondary school groups and are in the business of fostering leadership, growth and confidence in young people.  Boyle River Outdoor Education Centre Manager Sharon Nicholas talks to Kerre Woodham about the importance of outdoor education for young people.  LISTEN ABOVE.  Sun, 25 May 2025 23:33:51 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/christopher-luxon-the-prime-minister-talks-budget-2025-with-kerre-woodham-and-newstalk-zb-listeners/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/christopher-luxon-the-prime-minister-talks-budget-2025-with-kerre-woodham-and-newstalk-zb-listeners/ The Prime Minister's keen to raise the retirement age -- but it's not possible in coalition with New Zealand First. The Government is halving its KiwiSaver contribution rate -- and canning if people earning more than 180-thousand dollars. The default rate of worker and business contributions to KiwiSaver will rise over time. Chris Luxon told Kerre Woodham pushing out the retirement age to 67 makes sense. He says Labour doesn't think it’s a good idea, and New Zealand First does not want to move that forward. Luxon also spoke about the cuts the government made to make funding available elsewhere.  Budget 2025 includes 21 billion dollars of cost-savings - 13 billion of that from the controversial change to pay equity law - raising claim thresholds. Prime Minister Chris Luxon told Kerre Woodham these are difficult choices, but there's no way they could afford that. LISTEN ABOVE OR WATCH HERE Thu, 22 May 2025 21:35:56 Z