/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 Tue, 16 Dec 2025 12:52:08 Z en /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-how-do-we-heal-our-countrys-divisions/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-how-do-we-heal-our-countrys-divisions/ I remember back when I first started talkback, a million years ago at nighttime, it must have been the semicentennial of the waterfront workers strike of '51, or the lockout, depending on which side you're on. It was the biggest industrial confrontation in New Zealand's history for those who don't know of it. It was 151 days from February to July, and at its peak, 22,000 waterside workers, or wharfies, and associated unions were off the job, out of a population of just under 2 million.  It took place at a time of Cold War tensions, so name calling was rife. The opposing sides denounced each other as Nazis or commies, traitors and terrorists. Not all unions were on board with the Waterside Workers Union. Some of them thought they were way too militant, way too stroppy, so the unions weren't completely aligned. There was even the difference between the strike, which is what the employers and government called it. For the unionists, it was a lockout.  Things got so bad that a railway bridge near Huntly was dynamited at the time of the tensions. An act of terrorism, basically – that's certainly what the Prime Minister at the time Sid Holland called it. No one was hurt, but coal supplies were severely disrupted. So, we've got bridges being blown up, we've got people on strike, we've got families who would have starved were it not for supporters feeding them. But if you were found out that you were supporting a wharfie's family, you could be ostracised, even if you were a working-class family, it hit you. Your union had to be aligned with the waterfront workers. So it was incredibly divisive.  On the 1st of June, police dispersed up to 1,000 marchers in Queen Street, using truncheons and heavy-handed, fairly heavy-handed tactics. There was a lot of argy-bargy. There were fractured skulls and lacerations and concussions. The Government broke the strike really by bringing in new unions, and new unions of workers. They were denounced by the unionists as scabs, and the wharfies' position was becoming increasingly hopeless. Eventually, after five months, they conceded defeat on the 15th of July. So after 151 days.  But the ugliness and the bitterness remained, because we were talking about the strike, and a man rang me from Huntly, and he said there was a scab living in his town, and he wouldn't be in the same shop, he wouldn't be in the same pub, and he would cross the street. 50 years later, that bitterness and that anger remained.  Then we had in '81, probably the only comparable thing in recent times, was the Springbok tour, and the protests over that. That was the largest civil disturbance seen since '51. More than 150,000 people took part in more than 200 demonstrations. 1,500 were charged with offences that resulted from the protests. It was a clash between baby boomers and war veterans, between city and country, between young versus old. It's the Britain of the South versus an independent Pacific nation. There were real tensions and families were divided within themselves.  And then along came Covid, more recently.  I guess what I'm wondering about is how do we heal ourselves? Because we're at a time in history and at a time globally where tensions are running really, really high. Can we learn any lessons from our past? Our own past. We can't look at the world and try and fix that, but we can certainly try and heal ourselves here. We can look at the civil, not civil wars here, but civil division, civil fractures.  I mean, if you look back and you and your family were divided over the Springbok tour, not expecting anyone still to be around from 1951, but if you look at the division you might have had with your parents during the Springbok tour, you can't cut ties forever with your parents, can you? You can't cut off your kids because they went on a protest march. So surely on a micro level, if you can heal your differences and still come together at Christmas and birthdays and things... Tue, 16 Dec 2025 00:47:28 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/sam-cliffe-nz-blood-service-ceo-on-the-need-for-blood-and-plasma-donations-over-the-holiday-period/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/sam-cliffe-nz-blood-service-ceo-on-the-need-for-blood-and-plasma-donations-over-the-holiday-period/ The NZ Blood Service is encouraging people to donate, saying the demand doesn’t stop.  Although the amount of hospital activity and the number of surgeries slow down over the holiday period, CEO Sam Cliffe says things like accidents, births, and long-term conditions are still prevalent.   He told Kerre Woodham that they try to over-collect in the two weeks up to Christmas and for a little bit after, as their stocks tend to get a little bit spikey in January.  Additional mobile donation stations have been set up across the country, so even if you’re not at home, there are options available.  LISTEN ABOVE   Tue, 16 Dec 2025 00:31:11 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/simeon-brown-health-minister-reflects-on-2025-and-explains-focus-for-2026/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/simeon-brown-health-minister-reflects-on-2025-and-explains-focus-for-2026/ A year into the job Health Minister Simeon Brown is celebrating early signs of success on reducing wait times.  He took over the heath portfolio in January of this year, succeeding Dr Shane Reti.  Brown told Kerre Woodham he attributes reinstated health targets as one aspect that's made a difference.  He says the number one focus remains improved access to health care.  LISTEN ABOVE   Mon, 15 Dec 2025 23:49:51 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/john-battersby-senior-fellow-at-massey-university-centre-for-defence-and-security-studies-discusses-mass-shooting-at-bondi/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/john-battersby-senior-fellow-at-massey-university-centre-for-defence-and-security-studies-discusses-mass-shooting-at-bondi/ At least 16 people are dead and 38 others injured in a terrorist attack at Bondi Beach in Sydney. Hundreds of people had gathered at Bondi for an event to celebrate the first day of Hanukkah, when gunmen opened fire. Massey University Centre for Defence and Security Studies Senior Fellow John Battersby told Kerre Woodham that police responded as quick as they could, but it can be difficult to predict these attacks.  "Law enforcement agencies and intelligence agencies are pretty good at what they do, but they do not have a crystal ball." LISTEN ABOVE Sun, 14 Dec 2025 23:23:13 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/dave-cade-on-the-draining-of-lake-rotomanu-in-the-fight-against-the-invasive-gold-clams/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/dave-cade-on-the-draining-of-lake-rotomanu-in-the-fight-against-the-invasive-gold-clams/ A New Plymouth lake is being drained in an effort to stop invasive clams.  Lake Rotomanu's been closed to motorised watercraft since the gold clams were found there last month, marking the first discovery of the species outside of the Waikato River.  The lake's outlet was opened yesterday, and it will take about four days to drain completely.  Dave Cade told Kerre Woodham it’s the worst biosecurity threat to New Zealand’s freshwater that the country’s ever faced.  He says the clams reproduce asexually, and they’ll smother the bottom of lakes, smothering native organisms and clogging hydro stations.   LISTEN ABOVE   Thu, 11 Dec 2025 23:36:30 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/david-farrar-kiwiblog-author-and-co-founder-of-the-taxpayers-union-on-the-debate-between-nicola-willis-and-ruth-richardson/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/david-farrar-kiwiblog-author-and-co-founder-of-the-taxpayers-union-on-the-debate-between-nicola-willis-and-ruth-richardson/ Nicola Willis is defending her economic track record in the face of a lobby-group's satirical campaign.  The Taxpayers' Union has sent MPs Nicola Willis-branded fudge, claiming she favours treats today and taxes tomorrow.  It suggests Willis should cut spending more.  Willis says the Government has reduced taxes and delivered significant cost savings while keeping frontline services.  Kiwiblog author and co-founder of the Taxpayers' Union, David Farrar told Kerre Woodham that putting aside personalities, it’s not a bad thing for people to realise we still have a real fiscal challenge in New Zealand.   He says that while the Government has cut spending in a number of areas, we’re still spending more than we’re bringing in in taxes.   LISTEN ABOVE   Thu, 11 Dec 2025 23:27:23 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-willis-and-richardson-debating-would-be-a-pointless-waste-of-time/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-willis-and-richardson-debating-would-be-a-pointless-waste-of-time/ Do you see any advantage or benefit to the country in having a former Finance Minister and the current one debating fiscal policy?  The current Finance Minister, Nicola Willis, has challenged the former Finance Minister, Ruth Richardson, to a debate. Now, that is misguided in my view, but to be fair, she was grievously provoked. Ruth Richardson is the chair of the Taxpayers' Union. The Taxpayers' Union is a pressure group, a ginger group, founded in 2013 to scrutinise government spending, publicise government waste, and promote an efficient tax system.  Its basis is its membership is mainly conservative, centre-right, right-wing figures, and it's regarded as a right-wing pressure group. Normally you would think they'd be scrutinising Labour and Labour's spending. Last week, the Taxpayers' Union sent out a provocative pamphlet and an accompanying box of fudge, accusing Nicola Willis of not delivering on her election promises to rein in reckless spending, unsustainable borrowing, and the hiring of endless bureaucrats. The Union accused Willis of failing to deliver the goods and fudging it, hence the fudge that arrived with the press release.  Provoked and incensed beyond reason, Nicola Willis swiped back. She said, "My message for Ruth Richardson is a very clear one: come and debate me face-to-face, come out of the shadows. I will argue toe-to-toe on the prescription that our government is following. I reject your approach, and instead of lurking in the shadows with secretly funded ads in the paper, come and debate me right here in Parliament. 'm ready anytime, anywhere, I will debate her." So you can see she was a little bit brassed off.  Willis said she stood by her decisions in government and wanted Richardson to defend her legacy, having introduced the infamous Mother of All Budgets in 1991, when her government under Bolger came in and were left with, I would argue, an even worse fiscal mess than this government inherited.   It's all got very personal. I don't think there's anything wrong in critiquing decisions made by government ministers, looking at how they're going, giving updates, having a reckon, especially when the ministers came in on a campaign of fixing the economy and reining in irresponsible spending, it's fair enough to say, "Okay, have you?" The Coalition Government possibly hasn't done enough, been innovative enough to suit the Taxpayers' Union agenda. They wanted more. They wanted cuts in spending, they wanted slashing of and wholesale firing of bureaucrats. That's what they wanted, but the Government's in the tricky position of having to be responsible stewards of the public purse and get re-elected.  And that's a tricky one. The Taxpayers' Union doesn't have to worry about getting elected. It's a stand-alone lobby group. The Taxpayers' Union has criticised Nicola Willis for a measly 1% reduction in public servants, but as David Farrar from Kiwiblog points out, this may well be the first government in history to actually reduce the number of public servants. They're the first ones to have done it.  It was never going to be easy inheriting the situation left by the previous government, and it never is. The Labour governments spend, that's what they do. But there's also nothing wrong with critiquing the performance of the government. The Taxpayers' Union shouldn't have made it so personal. Nicola Willis should have showed superhuman restraint and not lashed back.  The debate is a pointless waste of time in my view. I know that we're all political tragics here and we take far more interest than the average person does and if I thought there was any merit whatsoever, and if lessons could be learned or if as a country we would benefit from having these two Finance Ministers thrashing out points of economic order, fine. I just don't see it. I think it's egos have been wounded and it is the equivalent of challenging somebody to 50 press-ups – a pointless exercise. Ju... Thu, 11 Dec 2025 22:21:24 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-beyond-the-headlines-of-the-cancer-report/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-beyond-the-headlines-of-the-cancer-report/ Whenever I hear or read news headlines these days, I know that the headlines will be just that for so many people. Headlines. People won't hear or they won't read beyond the headline, and then they'll form their own opinions based on nothing more than 20 words or fewer. I've got numerous examples of that. Even people that I would have thought would understand the media, like journalists, they'll look at a headline and think, "Oh, you know, subscriber only, I'm not going to pay. I'm just going to draw my own conclusions from the headline," which they know is flawed and ridiculous.  You have to read the body of the story. If you just go on the headline, then you are going to be misinformed. It's a bit like the cancer diagnosis headline that's in the news today. "Cancer diagnosis numbers set to skyrocket by 50% over the next two decades". As soon as I read that, I could write the text to this show myself.  Example: Yeah, have a look at how many of them were vaxed. Join the dots, and variations on that theme. Or I could imagine people thinking, "Oh my god, cancer diagnoses are up. I'm going to die." Or putting my young activist cap on, Māori are around 1.6 times more likely to die from cancer than Pākehā or other ethnicities. So the young activists are like, "Yeah, that's right, man, institutional racism inherent in the system. Yeah. It's colonialism. That's what's causing that."  In fact, when you look beyond the headlines, when you read beyond the headlines, there's actually a lot of good news in the story, if you are willing to take the time to read it or listen to the interviews. Since the first state of cancer report five years ago, there has been encouraging progress in key areas of prevention, early detection, and treatment. Cancer diagnoses might be skyrocketing, but that's because they've got better diagnostic tools. We can find it before it does the damage. The chance of surviving cancer has improved over the last 20 years. The five-year net survival for all cancers has improved by 15% in the last 20 years, probably due to the screening and the advances in treatment.  And even better is the news that many, many of the cancers that afflict us can be prevented by us. We have the power to reduce our risk of some cancers, as Dr. Chris Jackson, Professor of Oncology at University of Otago and practising medical oncologist, explained to Heather du Plessis-Allan this morning.  CJ: 20% of all cancers are related to smoking, 20%. So if you get rid of smoking, you would cut the number of cancers by 20%. So that is undisputed.  HDPA: Even though the numbers are so small nowadays?  CJ: Yeah, well, it's probably going to, certainly it is going down, but those people who've been smoking are still going to be going through the system for that amount of time. The number the number two cause is obesity. So New Zealand's what, the third most obese country in the world now, I think? And we're seeing a rise in some obesity-related cancers now also, and I think if we could fix that, that would be the other big thing in terms of prevention. The other key thing, which is a very New Zealand thing, is our love affair with the sun. And as we come into summer months, I think we have to reflect on the old slip, slop, slap thing. Australia has done the sun prevention thing better than we have, and our skin cancer rates are now higher than theirs.  Absolutely. There are still many, many mysteries around cancers.  There are cancer clusters within families, there are rising rates of healthy young people being diagnosed with bowel cancer. There is much work for cancer researchers to do. But they've also done a lot of work in the field of many cancers and have found the cause and effect. Smoking increases your risk of cancer, obesity increases your risk of cancer, ignoring sun warnings increases your risk of cancer.  So we need to pay heed, if we want to. Make the changes you need to your lifestyl... Thu, 11 Dec 2025 00:12:19 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/phil-lester-victoria-university-ecology-and-entomology-professor-on-the-efforts-to-stamp-out-yellow-legged-hornets/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/phil-lester-victoria-university-ecology-and-entomology-professor-on-the-efforts-to-stamp-out-yellow-legged-hornets/ Efforts to stamp out yellow-legged hornets in New Zealand are widening.  Biodiversity New Zealand is expanding the 5-kilometre surveillance zone in Glenfield and Birkdale on Auckland's North Shore further out to 11-kilometres, to ensure only one population is at large.  Victoria University Ecology and Entomology Professor Phil Lester told Kerre Woodham hornets target worker bees one by one and will hurt more than our honey sector.   He says bees support our dairy, kiwifruit, and avocado industries, and if they get established it will be a real problem.  LISTEN ABOVE   Wed, 10 Dec 2025 23:35:27 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/josie-spillane-highlands-motorsport-ceo-on-the-street-smart-driving-programme-lottery/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/josie-spillane-highlands-motorsport-ceo-on-the-street-smart-driving-programme-lottery/ The Street Smart programme is a hands-on, one-day driver training course for young drivers, teaching crucial real-world skills beyond basic testing, helping reduce road deaths across New Zealand.  The course focuses on decision-making, hazard perception (like "rabbits" on the road), distraction management, peer pressure, and emergency manoeuvres in a controlled environment with professional coaches.  Highlands Motorsport CEO Josie Spillane told Kerre Woodham they’re deeply committed to making generational and legislational change around driver training in New Zealand, but until they get to that point, they’re doing what they can to ensure young drivers have the tools to make key split-second decisions.   The Trust has launched their first lottery to fund the programme, giving Kiwis the chance to win one of three 2025 Subaru WRXs, and go into the draw for three once-in-a-lifetime motorsport experiences.  With only 10,000 tickets at $100 each, Spillane says the odds are better than Lotto, and help make a life-saving difference for youth on the roads.   LISTEN ABOVE   Wed, 10 Dec 2025 00:17:39 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/hamish-firth-mt-hobson-group-director-on-the-governments-rma-reforms/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/hamish-firth-mt-hobson-group-director-on-the-governments-rma-reforms/ An urban planner says the Government’s RMA reforms are well overdue.   It's unveiled plans to replace current Resource Management Act laws with two new pieces of legislation, one for the environment and one for planning.   It sets clear limits on council regulations and is expected to save $13 billion in consenting costs.  Mt Hobson Group Director Hamish Firth told Kerre Woodham we’ve been bungling along with a system that results in us all having horror stories.   He says there’s continuous subjectivity in the Resource Management Act, and the Government’s doing the right thing in replacing it.  LISTEN ABOVE   Tue, 09 Dec 2025 23:44:11 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-the-supreme-court-ruling-on-disabled-carers-makes-sense/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-the-supreme-court-ruling-on-disabled-carers-makes-sense/ Two parents who care for their severely disabled adult children have been recognised as homeworkers and are now entitled to receive the minimum wage, along with other associated employment conditions, after a landmark ruling yesterday from the country's highest court. They're now deemed to be employees of disability support services. And the families who battled to be recognised for the work that they do are hopeful the Supreme Court decision paves the way for other carers who are in a similar situation.  The case was brought by two parents, Christine Fleming and Peter Humphreys, who each care for their severely disabled adult children. Their physical and intellectual disabilities require constant supervision and around the clock care. Were it not for the care provided by their families, the two adult children would be needing 24/7 care somewhere, and some substandard accommodation, and that would be funded by the taxpayer.  The decision to deem the parents to be employees was unanimously reached by the five judges of the Supreme Court, and it comes seven years and seven months after the case was first filed in the Employment Court, and more than two decades after family carers first went to court, complaining they had the right to be paid for the care they provided that the taxpayer would otherwise have to provide.  From what I recall of the story over those two decades, it's complicated because there are some family members who believe it is their sacred duty to care for their children, and that by becoming employees it diminishes that bond. So not everybody thinks the same way. You know, you might share similar circumstances, but you look at it in different ways.  But it just makes sense, doesn't it? That if you have a child, be they seven months, seven years, 17, 27, however old they are, and it has been deemed that they need 24/7 care, and you are providing that care, you should be reimbursed for it, whether you've got a sacred bond between parent and child or not. Otherwise, we, the taxpayer, would have to fund it some other way.  It's similar to a story I covered on Fair Go a trillion years ago. A young man had been left tetraplegic in a car accident. He was legally entitled to 24/7 care, but he only received limited funding to cover that care. So unless his caregivers gave their time voluntarily, and many chose not to, and fear it, they weren't being paid, but he would be left alone and abandoned. He nearly died a couple of times because there was nobody there, despite the fact he was entitled to it, but the money didn't cover 24/7 care.  It seems that some government departments rely on the bonds between parents and their children and the kindness of strangers to provide the care that legally, by right, should be afforded our most severely disabled New Zealanders.  I can't imagine what it would be like as a parent of a disabled child, knowing that time is ticking by. You try to set your children up so that they will be looked after when you're gone. But it would be terrifying having to try and care for the child in the here and now, while making provision for them in the future. Quite often it falls to other siblings to provide that care.  There's a need to try and work to afford the sort of care that the adult child is going to need now and in the future. Like the love you would get from knowing your child, fabulous. But there's also the basic needs you have to provide for. You know, you get a lot out of being with your child, no matter what age. You know, it's a relationship that you have. It is one that is special, unique, but it's also a job, and if you weren't doing it, somebody would have to.  So I would love to hear from those families who are in that situation and what that means for you from here on in. Not all family members will want to be workers of disability support services, and I get that, but at least the pay it paves the way for there to be the opt... Tue, 09 Dec 2025 22:35:25 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-is-there-still-a-place-for-te-p%C4%81ti-m%C4%81ori-in-parliament/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-is-there-still-a-place-for-te-p%C4%81ti-m%C4%81ori-in-parliament/ 2024 was an epic annus horribilis for the Greens - you remember Golriz Ghahraman, Darleen Tana, Julie Anne Genter, et al. It went on and on. It was arguably the worst year on record for any political party in this country ever. But wait, hold my beer – we have a new champion.  2025 is shaping up to be an even more horribilis of an annus for Te Pāti Māori, who may well factionalise themselves into extinction. It all started so well. And by started, I'm going back to 2004 when Labour MP Tariana Turia's protest against her own government's Foreshore and Seabed Bill led to her establishing Te Pāti Māori. Despite it being pretty much a single issue party at genesis, it lasted the distance thanks to the political pragmatism and mana of Dame Tariana and Sir Pita Sharples, the other co-leader.  They were able to walk in both the Pākehā world and Te Ao Māori, and they kept the party together. Te Pāti Māori winning six out of the seven electorate seats in the 2023 election was a triumph. As was its opposition to the coalition government's Treaty Principles Bill and galvanising everybody together. But since then, Te Pāti Māori has turned upon itself and the ugly mudslinging being played out in the public arena has seen support for the party plummet.  This time last year, Te Pāti Māori got 7% in the 1九一星空无限 Verian poll. Last night in that same poll, they recorded just 1%. Bang, crash, pow, brace for impact, as Maiki Sherman might have said, but didn't, when reporting the results last night.  Te Pāti Māori threw out two of its MPs amid accusations of a dictatorial style by its leadership. The dispute took a new twist in court last week though, when a judge ruled MP Mariameno Kapa-Kingi should be reinstated as a party member. John Tamihere emerged from the party's AGM in Rotorua over the weekend absolutely triumphant and grinning like a Cheshire cat, the cat that's got the cream. Those opposed to his presidency simply didn't have the numbers to get rid of him.  According to the party's constitution, it appears the only way Tamihere can be removed from the role of president is if there is consensus among the electorate council representatives. So he has a stranglehold on Tāmaki Makaurau, Waiariki, and Te Tai Hauāuru – Waikato seems to be neutral. Ikaroa-Rāwhiti said they weren't happy about the expulsion of Whaitiri and another MP, Ferris. Te Tai Tokerau, Te Tai Tonga, they want John Tamihere gone.  But it looks like he'll be clinging on. May well be a Pyrrhic victory. If Te Pāti Māori can't find a way to work through their differences, and I don't see how they possibly can. Tamihere will be the head of a political party that isn't in Parliament, that is completely and utterly irrelevant. He'll have his toys, but no one to play with.  While all of this infighting is occurring, as Christopher Luxon said, not one single piece of legislation has been crafted by Te Pāti Māori MPs to further the betterment of their constituency, of their people. As he said, not one of them has turned up with ideas, with a plan, with a way to make the world a better place for the people who voted them in, to use the machinery of Parliament to advance the cause of their people. They are simply not doing their job while they're involved in this sort of infighting.   I would very much like to hear from those who have supported Te Pāti Māori in the past, who as recently as 2023 might have installed a Te Pāti Māori MP in Parliament by voting in the electorate – where to now? Is there still a place for Te Pāti Māori in Parliament? They look like they're doing their level best to disembowel themselves and eat their own entrails in front of us all.  It's unedifying, but worse than that, it is letting down the very people who voted them into Parliament.  Mon, 08 Dec 2025 23:36:52 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/john-macdonald-coster-has-no-evidence-to-back-up-his-claims/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/john-macdonald-coster-has-no-evidence-to-back-up-his-claims/ Whether-or-not you saw former police commissioner Andrew Coster’s TV interview yesterday, you’ll know about the allegations he’s making. He thinks people are running for the hills after the Jevon McSkimming scandal and aren’t telling the whole story in terms of what they knew and when they knew it. Especially current police minister Mark Mitchell and former police minister Chris Hipkins. Isn’t it weird that someone who served in the police for more than 25 years - who, I imagine, determined at some points during that time that there wasn’t enough evidence to prosecute - thinks he can make all sorts of accusations without one shred of evidence to prove it? That’s what I took away from yesterday’s interview. Can you imagine the police charging anyone with an offence with zero proof or zero evidence? Yet that is exactly what Andrew Coster did yesterday. He made these allegations that Chris Hipkins and Mark Mitchell aren’t being upfront. Then, in the next breath, admitted that he had no record or evidence to prove it. That would be “case closed” if it was a police investigation. And, because he can’t prove it, I can’t believe him. This is someone who spent 28 years looking for evidence of guilt. He’s got no evidence to back-up what he’s saying - so I’m not buying it. Chris Hipkins and Mark Mitchell are both denying Coster’s claims. Chris Hipkins says he “was never briefed on Jevon McSkimming's relationship with Ms Z during his time as minister of police or prime minister. Andrew Coster claims he told Hipkins in 2022 in the back of a car while they were on an official trip in the South Island, when Hipkins was police minister in the Labour government. And, Mark Mitchell is pushing back big time on Coster’s claim that he knew earlier than 6 November last year. On 九一星空无限talk ZB this morning, he said Coster’s claims were “absolute nonsense”. He said this morning - as he has since the Independent Police Conduct Authority report came out last month - that he first became aware on 6 November 2024, when Andrew Coster was told by the Public Service Commission to brief him on the situation. Mitchell says he didn’t buy Coster’s narrative that McSkimming was the victim. He says he’s a father and that he pushed as much as he could as a minister to make sure the woman at the centre of all this was looked after. So it’s “he says-he says”. But Andrew Coster has no evidence to prove his allegations so I can’t believe him. Mon, 08 Dec 2025 00:17:18 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-productivity-and-the-great-christmas-shutdown/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-productivity-and-the-great-christmas-shutdown/ This morning, I'm going to pretty much let Toss Grumley do the opener for me.   Who's Toss Grumley? Well, Toss is a New Zealand business advisor and investor. The Post has run an editorial he wrote, bemoaning the Christmas shutdown. In it he said New Zealand's Christmas break has started to become way too extreme, and it's impacting our productivity on an individual business level and at the level of the economy.  The summer break, he says, seems to be extending, leaving less room for leave later in the year. But the most concerning part is the circle back mid-February mentality, which means that while many are at work, they aren't doing much productive work. And the mentality of circle back Feb seems to start late November or early December.  He says having 10 weeks of no productive conversation simply isn't good for business. He points out our productivity has grown at around 1.2% per year since 1996, while Australia's has grown at around 1.8%, and we're getting left behind. We need to work longer as we're producing less. We are 30 to 40% below top performers like the US, Norway, and Ireland. He also points out that March and April are the peak months for business arrears. This, he says, is not by chance, it's driven by business habits over December and January. Additionally, our GDP quarterly volatility is in the top third of the OECD.  Again, he says, this is the Christmas season. For retail, we have a huge October to December quarter, then everyone stops spending all of January, creating cash flow problems for our businesses. He says while we all need to recuperate at times, in a country where our recovery is so fragile, we need to work hard up to the break, take some well-deserved time off, then get back into it and get our lives and businesses moving again swiftly.  Thank you very much Toss and The Post for doing the heavy lifting on the editorial for me this morning.  He does have a point though, doesn't he? Because we have our very own Mike Hosking who's, even as I speak, roaring down the motorway in his fine European vehicle, heading off on his hols before December's been here for a week. The Chrissy decks have barely been put up around the office, and he's gone. And it's unsettling for people when the routine is disrupted.  I myself will be heading off – I don't go until the 19th, but I won't be back for a while. Most of January I'll be gone. It's a long time. They're the sort of holidays I could only dream of when I was a junior woodchuck reporter. Penny and Robert, our favourite coffee shop downstairs, they're paying rent on their space. They don't stop paying rent over Christmas and New Year, so they'll be back. Heaven knows who'll be around to buy the coffees and the excellent muffins that Helen barely ever touches because our people are clearing off apart from a skeleton staff. The council offices over the road will be deserted too, I imagine, apart from the skeleton staff.  I'd be really interested to hear from you as to what you want. If you are one of the many, many small business owners, small to medium business owners, do you work like a navy right up until Christmas Eve, and then think, thank heavens, put the closed sign up on the shop and head off for three weeks, four weeks, and think, no, I'm not doing anything over January. I'm done. Do you wish that you could take two weeks off, recover, and then come back and everybody else came back too and business as usual, like Toss is saying.  He got a fair bit of flak for this when he posted this initially on LinkedIn. People were really grumpy, saying he begrudged people holidays. And he doesn't. He says he just wishes they were spaced out throughout the year, rather than having the great Christmas shutdown.  Do people order their bathroom or kitchen renos in December and January, or do you wait until February? Is it a case of, oh well, might as well take the time off because my supplier's taken the ti... Thu, 04 Dec 2025 23:28:24 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-should-convictions-for-violence-be-public-record/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-should-convictions-for-violence-be-public-record/ Now, surely, it should be a straightforward exercise. You're about to embark on a relationship with someone, and you want to do a police check. Does this person have previous convictions for violence? Seems charming, seems a lovely, but you hear horror stories. So, why wouldn't you want to check on somebody before you invite them into your life? Why can't you know? Surely, once you have a conviction for an offence, it becomes a matter of public record.  And there might be people who say, "Well, what about the privacy? What about the privacy concerns of offenders who have done their time?" I think we need to stop being concerned about the privacy of offenders and start being concerned about the safety of individuals, especially women and children who are generally the ones who end up most damaged.  A man who harassed and stalked a woman, hid behind a tree waiting for her to get home with her children before fatally stabbing her 55 times.  In 2012, Nathan Bolter was jailed for eight years and six months for kidnapping and assaulting his ex-girlfriend over a 38-hour ordeal on Great Barrier Island. In November of this month, he pleaded guilty in the High Court at Christchurch to murdering another woman. Had she known about his previous convictions, you'd have to wonder about whether she would have entered into a relationship. He was recalled to prison. Presumably that's when she found out about it because she terminated the relationship and that's when he went ballistic.  I have another one for you. Colombian national, Juliana Bonilla-Herrera, was attacked and stabbed to death in her Addington flat by Joseph James Brider in January 22, after he was paroled to the flat next door. She knew nothing of his criminal history of sexual violence. She wasn't warned.  I have another one. I could go on and on. This is particularly vile. An Australian deportee who murdered two women in Oz in the 80s was jailed a few years ago for 16 years for sexual assault. Johnny Harding received the prison term for 19 charges including sexual violation and assault. The offences were mostly against two young sisters. He had entered a relationship with the children's mother, then offended against the children. To ensure the children didn't tell, he used violence and threatened to harm their mother if she knew. I could go on and on, but I won't. You get the picture. There are so many examples.  Google can only tell you so much about a person. If you're an employer, you can do a police check, and that's relatively simple. You get the signed consent of the employee; you then fill out a form online. You have to be registered as an agency authorised to request police vetting. You submit the request online, you get the results back - clean as a whistle, absolutely nothing wrong with this person, go for it.  If you want to check the background of someone you're bringing into your life, your home, your children's home, and your bed, it's a lot more difficult.  The then-National Government put a scheme in place in 2015, the FVIDS, and that was designed to allow people concerned for their own or their family's safety to be made aware of a person's history of family violence. Police officers could also instigate disclosure to a person of concern using the scheme. So say if they had concerns about Juliana in Christchurch, the fact that she had a dangerous sexual offender moving in next door, might have been nice to tell her.  The scheme, the FVIDS, followed similar initiatives overseas. However, in this country, when victims and family violence support workers attempt to apply for the information, they're being turned away by police who don't seem to know that the scheme exists. They don't know that it's there. And even when they do know, there's no online portal to help people to apply for the scheme. It can take up to three visits in person to a police station.  How much do you need to know and how much do you... Wed, 03 Dec 2025 22:38:52 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-what-would-it-take-to-get-police-trust-to-80/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-what-would-it-take-to-get-police-trust-to-80/ It's been 12 months since Richard Chambers became New Zealand's Police Commissioner. And by crikey, he's had a busy old time of it, a little bit of a poisoned chalice. There's been the clean out of the police hierarchy following the McSkimming scandal – or really, scandals. And two months after his appointment, police officer Lynn Fleming was killed in the line of duty in Nelson on New Year's Day.  Back in March of this year, the latest Ministry of Justice Crime and Victim Survey found 69% of people had trust and confidence in police, up slightly on the year before. That was 67% probably after the Coster years, and then the police involved in the occupation of Parliament, and there was a little bit of argy-bargy going on between some members of the public and police. And then people felt that violent crime was getting out of control and the police weren't doing anything and providing escorts for gangs rather than arresting them. So, I can understand how trust might have slipped a little.  He said the measure had slipped to its lowest ever in recent years, and although trust in police had improved slightly in the past 12 months, he conceded it could take a hit after the McSkimming scandal and other controversies. I'd say almost certainly. But the Commissioner has set some targets, and as he told Mike Hosking this morning, he's certain the police will achieve them.  RC: We've been at 80% before, some years ago, but sitting at the moment around about 70%. So, we have seen a slight increase over the last 12 months, which is great. I know that we can do it. Trust and confidence matter and 80% is aspirational, but I'm determined to get there.  MH: As regards confidence post this whole shambles of McSkimming and Co., if I suggested to you that most New Zealanders think no differently of the police because of this specific set of circumstances, would you agree broadly or not?  RC: Absolutely agree with you, Mike. That's the feedback that I'm getting from across communities in New Zealand, that they appreciate this comes down to a group of former leaders of New Zealand Police, not the 15,000 outstanding men and women who do a great job day and night, they understand that.  Yeah, and I think we do, don't we? We're still going to call the police when we've got somebody coming in the window, when a member of the family goes missing, in any of the myriad everyday tragedies that take place on a daily basis. The police are the first port of call, even if you are somebody like Tamatha Paul who doesn't instinctively and intuitively trust the police. They're who you go to when you're in trouble. They're the ones you ask to put their lives on the line to save yours or members of your family.  I can appreciate that victims of sexual crime might think twice before going through a gruelling investigation in light of, you know, the police hierarchy seeming to believe their colleague over a woman complainant. But they shouldn't, because remember it was a police officer, a rank-and-file working police officer, I mean high ranking, but nonetheless she was on the front line, who highlighted the appalling treatment of the woman at the centre of the McSkimming cover up. Detective Inspector Nicola Reeves was the one who stood up to her bosses and told the IPCA.  In her words, "I personally think it should be very simple in every police officer's world. It doesn't matter who the hell you are. We speak to the person, we take a complaint, and we investigate it. It's all very simple."  Yeah. I mean, she got the brief. She understands her job. And as far as I'm concerned, I absolutely trust the police. I trust them to do their job well and professionally. And the cover up at Police HQ, I don't think has anything to do with the police who are going to work every single day, working for us.  Richard Chambers has set four new targets. They'll be introduced early next year, and that is that 80% of New Zealan... Tue, 02 Dec 2025 23:51:18 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/doug-marlowe-global-expert-on-drug-court-policy-on-the-effectiveness-of-the-alcohol-and-other-drug-treatment-court/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/doug-marlowe-global-expert-on-drug-court-policy-on-the-effectiveness-of-the-alcohol-and-other-drug-treatment-court/ Calls to expand the Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment Court across the country. AODTC was launched in New Zealand in 2012 as a pilot to steer high-risk, high-need offenders away from prison. Offenders must plead guilty and face a likely prison term of up to three years for drug offences, committing to a tough 12- to 18-month program including regular drug testing, AA or NA meetings, and counselling. The courts are incredibly successful in the United States, resulting in some prisons in Texas closing due to lack of need. Dr Doug Marlowe, a global expert on drug-court policy, told Kerre Woodham early studies of the system showed low rates of people committing new crimes and high rates of people completing treatment, avoiding jail sentences, and avoiding probation revocations. He says that when Judges take a personal interest in the treatment the participants are receiving, their influence and authority in the community helped to bring more resources to bear for their clients. Marlowe told Woodham that treatment courts raised all ships – raising the quality of treatment, the quality of defence council representation, and the quality of probation supervision. “Treatment is the core of the model, and if you don’t have good treatment, you know, your outcomes are severely limited.”   LISTEN ABOVE  Tue, 02 Dec 2025 23:14:34 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-a-rates-cap-or-an-erosion-of-services-and-facilities/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-a-rates-cap-or-an-erosion-of-services-and-facilities/ Auckland households face a 7.9% rate rise next year, primarily to fund the operating costs for the $5.5 billion City Rail Link, which is nearly finished. It's a reality, it's going to open for passengers next year – woo! The increase will cover the $235 million annual cost of operating the new underground rail service. It's the largest rates rise since Auckland Council as a super city was formed in 2010. For the average household wondering what on earth to do with all the extra money that comes into their bank accounts, annual rates will climb from $4,023 to $4,341. Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown's rates announcement came shortly after Christopher Luxon announced at his post-cabinet press conference yesterday afternoon that the Government's going to introduce a rates cap of 2 %to 4% from January 27. The cap will exclude water charges and non-rate revenue such as fees and license fees and things like that. Very good politically. Who doesn't want somebody to say, "Hey, you greedy grasping councils, stop taking our money and delivering nothing in return." But as Wayne Brown pointed out, how would Auckland be able to pay for its city link if it didn't have the facility to raise rates? Wayne Brown told the Herald, putting a cap on rates isn't going to solve anything, it'll just defer it for a couple of years, then ratepayers will be paying even more. He said councils are faced with making decisions that involve significant investment and should not be restricted by governments telling us what we can and cannot do. All very valid, provided of course that councils are sensible husbands of their ratepayers' money. We can all think of absolutely barking mad vanity schemes that have been undertaken with ratepayers’ money that incense us and infuriate us. And there's very little we can do. You could always try voting, those 70% of you that don't, but you won't be listening to this radio show probably. And if you've got a council that doesn't really know what it's doing and doesn't know how to keep control of the different departments and can't really manage long-term investment infrastructure and a long-term rates plan, suddenly turning off the money tap is not going to turn them into brilliant budgeters. They're not going to suddenly gain the skills overnight because there's less money to pay with, play with. If you're making dumb decisions now, you're still going to be making them in 2027. Rate capping or rate pegging has been in force in New South Wales and Victoria for several years and is loosely based on the rate of inflation or the consumer price index, which is what we've done. We've looked at Australia and thought we can do this here. In New South Wales and Victoria, the councils can apply for higher caps, but the process is complicated and deeply controversial with their rate payers, not surprisingly. Ratepayers like not having to pay significant rate increases, but the sorts of things they want to see, swimming pools, sports facilities, libraries, lifestyle infrastructure, are getting further and further away from local councils to deliver because they're under the pump financially. They just haven't got the money to do it. If you reduce your rate collection, you won't have as much money to maintain services or implement them. So what do you want as a ratepayer? We were talking about this earlier and, you know, one of our young producers doesn't use his local swimming pool. He said, "Can I opt out of funding that?" And I'm like, "Well, I'm all in. Our family uses the local swimming pool, uses the local library, loves it."  We can opt in. Can it be like a car wash, where you get your basic car wash and then you can do the add-ons? Do you want the wax? Sure. Tick. Could they have a bare bones rate structure, or would it be simply too difficult to implement? At least in Auckland you can see what you're paying for, and I assume it's the same if you're in Hamilton or Timaru or New Plymouth. You can actually see the project... Mon, 01 Dec 2025 23:46:16 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-labour-makes-big-promises-but-can-they-deliver/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-labour-makes-big-promises-but-can-they-deliver/ Hundreds of the Labour Party faithful gathered over the weekend in Auckland to begin the march back to Parliament's government benches. Council of Trade Unions head Sandra Gray was preaching to the converted when she told the crowd that New Zealand's Pavlova paradise has been eaten up by the rich. She said Labour needed to give workers a reason to vote for them and to deliver fundamental and systemic change. Yay! Cue loud rapturous applause. Barbara Edmonds, Labour's Finance Minister in waiting, stressed to the crowd, and the way the attendant media, that she would be a firm, fit and frugal Finance Minister. She and her husband have raised eight children. They have lived on one income. As a tax lawyer for small businesses, she knows, she said, how to manage money responsibly and make every dollar count. She repeated that ad nauseam throughout the day. Gone are the days of profligate spending. No, no, no. Not with Barbara at the helm. Not with Barbara in charge of the bank accounts. She knew how to be frugal. She knew the value of a dollar. She would make sure that money was spent wisely, judiciously, and not everybody who came knocking at the door with policies would get the money they wanted. And yesterday, Labour Party leader Chris Hipkins announced a future Labour government would offer doctors and nurse practitioners low interest loans to set up new practices or buy into existing ones. New Zealand, and this will come as no news to you, New Zealand currently has a GP shortage, which is expected to worsen. We have an aging GP workforce. GPs are looking to retire and they can't find anybody to take their place. A recent survey found two thirds of GPs are expected to retire in the next decade. Many in the sector have also warned of a an emerging duopoly, large primary healthcare providers buying up practices from the small family-owned GP practices. So Labour has announced that initially it will offer up to 50 loans per year, prioritizing areas that have no GPs or practices with closed or partially closed books. They will only be available for owner and or community operated general practices. The loan will have to be repaid over 10 years. They will be interest-free for the first two years. Novel. It aligns with Labour's messaging of health, jobs, homes, as it goes into next year's election.  But just as the three free GP visits per year, is a gift that a lot of people don't need or want, is this what GPs and practice nurses want? Do you actually want to own your own practice? I'm sure there are some that do. But just because you're a brilliant GP, does that make you a brilliant manager? Running a business, a successful business, requires a very specific skill set. Times are tough for small businesses. And the problem for GPs practices doesn't appear to be having access to loans to buy into a business. It's that the business model doesn't seem to be working. You've got the very low cost access practices serving high needs populations. They face financial challenges, especially the community trust owned clinics that have been operating at a deficit. Increase costs for GPs, inabilities to raise fees, growing patient debt due to the cost of living. Those are the problems for GP practices, not necessarily the fact they haven't got the money to buy it. They've also got the problem of trying to recruit and retain healthcare professionals. There's a shortage of locums and a high level of burnout because there aren't enough people to replace them. They're working longer than they wanted to. They've got more difficult healthcare problems presenting because people put off going to the doctor because they can't afford it. Pay parity concerns are particularly severe for the very low cost access GP practices. They can't afford to pay the going rates in the employment market as they don't have the ability to increase fees. So is the ability to buy into a practice what's holding GPs back? I wouldn't have thought so. That poor li... Sun, 30 Nov 2025 23:40:26 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/tom-walters-matakana-oysters-owner-says-industry-is-struggling-after-heavy-rain-and-wastewater-spill/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/tom-walters-matakana-oysters-owner-says-industry-is-struggling-after-heavy-rain-and-wastewater-spill/ Auckland oyster farmers are facing another blow just weeks after a major wastewater spill into the Mahurangi River. Watercare says heavy rain on 19 November caused 86 cubic metres of wastewater and stormwater to overflow into the river from a Warkworth pipeline. The Ministry for Primary Industries has suspended harvesting while tests are carried out, but growers say the spill has already wrecked their busiest season. Matakana Oysters owner Tom Walters told Kerre Woodham that, 'it's been a gutting year, and it seems to be the gutting cherry on top of it at the moment.' LISTEN ABOVE Sun, 30 Nov 2025 23:27:07 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-e-scooters-cycle-lanes-and-public-demand/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-e-scooters-cycle-lanes-and-public-demand/ The Government's move to shift e-scooter users from the sidewalk to bike lanes is being hailed as a win for common sense. Shame it's not coming in before the Christmas party season. ACC stats for e-scooter injuries this year are close to surpassing $14 million.  Now, I don't believe that's because e-scooters are inherently dangerous. They're very easy to ride, very stable. I am willing to bet a significant proportion of those injuries happened after 10:00 at night on a Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, or Saturday, when the rider was pissed as a parrot and there were three to a scooter, tooting their hooter.  Putting e-scooter riders into cycle lanes isn't going to stop them falling off their perches, but it might protect innocent passers-by and pedestrians. National MP for Tukituki, Catherine Wedd, says the rules around where people were allowed to ride e-scooters were outdated and dangerous, and the government had work underway to change it.   Flamingo Scooters co-creator Jackson Love told Mike Hosking that it clears up confusion. He says bike lanes are clearly lot safer than the road, and it also helps keep footpaths clear for pedestrians. And the cycling action spokesperson Patrick Morgan agreed, as he told Ryan Bridge on Early Edition this morning.  PM: This is long overdue. It makes sense for this to happen. Pedestrians really don't want e-scooters on the footpath, and often our streets can be quite hostile for people. So, it makes sense to put e-scooters on bike lanes. But we're going to need a lot more bike lanes, aren't we?  RB: How many more bike lanes do you reckon we need?  PM: We don't need a bike lane on every street. No one's asking for that. What we need is bike lanes on busy streets where people want to go, so to get people to our schools, workplaces, shops. There's a there's a trend in modern cities for people to get around by bike, e-bike, and scooter. So, I think councils and the government need to restart building bike lanes to meet public demand.  It would be interesting to know what that public demand is, given that cycle lanes are not swollen and congested. You do not see long, lengthy queues on cycle lanes. There are some that are better patronised than others. But there is clearly a heck of a lot more room for people on scooters, for people on bikes, for people on skateboards, for people on bloody horses to use the cycle lanes because they are not at capacity now.  I love a cycle lane. I love cycling. But it's some cyclists I'm less keen on. They want cycle lanes and they want them in most places, and I would love a cycle lane from my home to work. So I could get to and from work over the bridge on a fine day. I want to be able to use my car if it's raining or the bus. But I'd love to be able to cycle safely without aggressive nasty drivers taking aim at me.  But cyclists want cycle lanes and more of them, but they also want to be able to use the road when it suits them too. The man mules say they want to, they're way too fast to go into cycle lanes, mate. You should see the clicks I can get up to on my bike. They don't go into the cycle lanes because they're too fast and they say it's dangerous. So they need to be on the road and everybody needs to look out for them.  And despite the fact that there's a beautiful cycle lane that's been built on Meola Road in Auckland, and you could probably substitute Meola Road for just about any road in any city around New Zealand. There's a beautiful cycle lane there, wide, safe, glorious. But my lovely producer Helen came to work quite discombobulated because she'd had to slow down to go behind a lady commuter on her electric bike who was adjacent to the cycle lane, in the middle of the road, pootling along, not quite at the same speed as the traffic, but and there was a yawning, vast, empty cycle lane right next to where the lady cyclist was.  There are special bike lights to let cyclists know where it's... Thu, 27 Nov 2025 22:00:47 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-are-you-feeling-optimistic/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-are-you-feeling-optimistic/ The Pohutukawa are out and flowering and abundant. The days are longer, the sun is shining, the Reserve Bank has cut the OCR, Christmas is coming, summer holidays are on the horizon, Chris Hipkins was talking tough around any kind of coalition with the Greens. We're in charge, we're not going to have this rabidly socialist nonsense, was the clear implication.  Commentators are saying that this point now, here, is rock bottom. I know we've been told things are nearing the bottom, nearing the nadir, but this is it. And now things are on the up.  So how confident are you feeling? I know when we've talked about this in the past, you've been bruised by past events, and that's informed the way you're thinking and who could blame you. The world has been a very uncertain place over the past five years, and nobody could blame you for hunkering down and keeping your nuts hoarded away. Nobody. Some of you have said, those of you that have got the readies to invest, you've said, "I'm not willing to. I'm just not willing to. I'm not willing to grow my business. I'm not willing to take risk in case Labour gets back in."  Well, where are you at right now? The Reserve Bank lowered the OCR to 2.25%, the ninth reduction since August 2024. The bank said economic activity is picking up, inflation is forecast to fall to 2% by mid 2026, and that will help households.  And listen to Roger Gray from the Ports of Auckland, who was on with Heather Du Plessis-Allan last night.  “Nine months ago, I was in Miami talking to the cruise lines to try and understand why they were dropping off their bookings and the feedback across the whole lot of the four cruise lines I went to was they felt that New Zealand was just simply too hard to deal with because people were so negative about things. What I think is interesting is that's where we were and that was their perception, but the cool thing is now, I think there's a real change going on amongst people. There's a real starting to be a positivity amongst a lot of people and you know, I think the Bledisloe Wharf is a great example. If you can just get on and do stuff, we've created 250 new jobs for Aucklanders and that wharf will be finished by the end of next year.”  He was saying, "Yeah, we used to be known as “No Zealand” and it was all like, 'Oh no, no. No, don't bother investing here. It's all too hard. No, you'll lose your money.'" He says it's quite different now. Quite different. He's picking up the positivity, he's seeing more of it. Where are you at right now?  You know, as we go into Christmas, there's a month of business for many companies and many businesses and many workers. It's a busy time of year up until a couple of weeks before Christmas, then as we go into Christmas and the Christmas holidays, how are you feeling about going into 2026? Are you feeling optimistic? Can you feel the tide is turning?  Wed, 26 Nov 2025 23:21:26 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-regional-councils-need-to-be-streamlined/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-regional-councils-need-to-be-streamlined/ Regional councils are being abolished – or are they?  Thomas Coughan writing in the Herald makes a very good point, it's not the councils that are being abolished, it's the council laws.  Under the Government's proposal, which was announced yesterday, regional councils would have their governance replaced by Combined Territories Boards, a group made up of a region's mayors, which would govern regional councils instead. The Government wants these new CTBs to decide the future of local government in their regions over a period of two years. They'll look at whether to share services across councils, form shared council-owned companies, whether there's a case to amalgamate into larger unitary authorities, as Auckland has. The government will have the final say after that two years. If they don't like what the mayors come up with, the Local Government Minister will provide a top-down blueprint for how the board will look and what its purview will be.  Right now, there are 11 regional councils in this country, alongside 12 city councils, 54 district councils, and six unitary authorities. The unitary authorities act like a local council and regional council combined. If you have a regional council in your area, it's responsible for the land, water, and air resources, flood control, environmental monitoring, and public transport, things like that. And councillors are voted in by you and me to make decisions on behalf of ratepayers. Not that we care. Nobody seems to care particularly if you look at the voter turnout as Minister for RMA Reform Chris Bishop told Mike Hosking this morning.  “Well, I think no one cares partly because they can't understand it, right? So you vote for your regional councillor, then they elect a chair. I mean, how many people out there listening could actually name the regional council chairs who don't live in Auckland? I don't think anyone, not that many people be able to name a regional councillor. And then of course you've got all the confusion, right?   “So in Wellington where I'm from, for example, the regional council runs the buses, but the Wellington City Council basically works out where you can actually put a bus stop, for example, and they do all the road closures and things like that. So there's enormous levels of complexity and complication that people just don't understand. And people say, well, hang on a minute, why am I voting for all these people? I don't understand who most of them are. I don't know who they are. And so there's enormous duplication in the system. So I think that partly explains why voter turnout rates are so low.”  He makes a good point. Chris Bishop argues that the changes will reduce the cost of doing business and lower the amount we pay in rates, or at least keep a downward pressure on rates, by removing layers of duplication and bureaucracy. And you would have to say, surely, rates would come down if you're not paying the salaries of hundreds of people per region, their vehicles, the fuel required to power the vehicles, the office space they rent. There's 300-odd in Otago, more than 500 full-time staff in the Bay of Plenty, in the regional council alone. What do these people actually do? And I'd really love to know, how is it that you make life better for the people in your region?  As Otago Regional Council chair Hilary Calvert told Ryan Bridge this morning, staff at the Otago Regional Council have doubled in six years. Has life improved for Otago residents by 100% in the last six years? I would very, very much doubt it.  You could look at regional councils as like a modern version of the Ministry of Works - a make-work scheme for people in regions. Is that a good enough reason to keep them? Obviously, you're going to have people retained by the Combined Territories Boards. You're not going to see the wholesale sacking of hundreds of people across the region, but it will be streamlined. I mean, it has to be. You cannot tell... Tue, 25 Nov 2025 23:09:43 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-we-need-to-be-able-to-treat-feral-animals-as-pests/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-we-need-to-be-able-to-treat-feral-animals-as-pests/ Cats and dogs who are part of our families are much loved and live the life of Riley. There must be some days when your cat or dog is lying curled up in the sun with a full tummy, waiting for 3 o'clock when the kids come home and surround it with love, or waiting for you to take it for a walk, or waiting for you to sit down so it can curl up in your lap and they must think to themselves, by crikey, I struck the jackpot. I am one lucky little fur baby.  But cats and dogs that have been abandoned and live miserable lives eking out an existence in the bush and on the edges of the city are dangerous pests and they're in the sights of DOC. The New Zealand Veterinary Association and its Companion Animal Veterinarian Branch are the latest organisations to come out in support of feral cats' inclusion in the Predator Free 2050 Strategy. And there have been calls for wild dogs to be officially labelled pests too, so there can be more freedom to eradicate them. With the dogs, it comes after so many attacks in the Far North, the latest, an international ultra runner and his support crew were attacked by dogs on the Te Araroa Trail in January of this year and I believe there's still a wild dog warning along the Te Paki Coastal Track near Cape Reinga.  There are limited options to tackle an animal problem if it is not labelled a pest. The dogs, for instance, you can only do what DOC is doing, and that's the authorised hunts but farmers are allowed to kill dogs on their own property if they're threatening them or their animals. And there have been numerous instances of herds and flocks being savaged by these feral dogs who are starving and desperate and also don't mind a little light sport of murdering and ravaging. So farmers are able to attack those dogs. You can also humanely trap them legally.  But once you put an animal into the Predator Free 2050 charter, it will align national efforts, improve clarity, and support reasonable feral animal management practices, such as desexing, microchipping and containment. The vets say feral cats, while sentient, pose a serious threat to native wildlife and are implicated in the spread of diseases such as toxoplasmosis. So cats are in, but at this stage, dogs are still out. The vets say it's critical that humane destruction methods are employed for all pests included in the strategy, and I'd support that. You don't want any animal to suffer needlessly, but a country that prides itself on its native flora and fauna, sells itself to visitors on its flora and fauna, needs to be able to control the pests that threaten that.  It's the human pests who neglect their pets, who dump unwanted litters of kittens and pups who are at fault here. A Far North dog advocate says as the economy worsens and people get poorer, the situation is getting worse because people don't have the money to fence their properties, they don't have the money to feed their dogs properly, they're exhausted, so they don't walk the dogs wander.  The current laws, advocates for change say, do not serve communities well and lead to inconsistencies in the way councils around the country approach the roaming dog problem. The advocate says mandatory desexing, except for dogs belonging to registered breeders, would help but the absolute key to changing behaviour is community education about how to care for dogs and be safe around them.  The Far North Mayor Moko Tepania supports a push by Auckland Council for greater powers to be able to desex roaming dogs when they're picked up. So your dog might have been a fully kitted out male when you let it go wandering off your property, but it'll come back to you neutered. Same with the females. And I don't have a problem with that either.  Trapping, desexing and freeing feral cats was the strategy of choice of the wealthy cat ladies who were my neighbours when I was living next to a big park in Freeman's Bay in Auckland. These beautifully dressed women would t... Mon, 24 Nov 2025 23:44:09 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/chris-hipkins-labour-leader-talks-capital-gains-taxes-coalitions-cross-party-commitments/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/chris-hipkins-labour-leader-talks-capital-gains-taxes-coalitions-cross-party-commitments/ Chris Hipkins says coalitions require a balance of compromise and standing by values.   The Labour leader says New Zealanders understand the nuances of MMP and the reality that parties can't get everything they want.   He says that means parties often can't accomplish as much as they hoped.  But Hipkins told Kerre Woodham some things will be bottom lines.   Hipkins says an example of that is his commitment not to have a wealth tax, which he intends to hold to.   Hipkins isn't laying out his plan for interest deductibility but says he hears landlords' argument for it.  National brought back the scheme after Labour removed it in 2021, but its fate is still unclear if Labour makes a comeback in 2026.   Hipkins told Woodham the decision will come out next year in Labour's alternative budget.   He says he's heard from landlords who couldn't continue renting out properties after Labour's change in 2021.  WATCH ABOVE Mon, 24 Nov 2025 20:41:11 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-do-the-kiwisaver-tweaks-go-far-enough/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-do-the-kiwisaver-tweaks-go-far-enough/ Christopher Luxon has made his party's first election promise at a Christmas gathering for the party faithful of the Lower North Island. He said that they would lift the default KiwiSaver contribution rate, and eventually the changes would mean employees would see 12% of their earnings going into KiwiSaver, 6% from them, 6% from employers - a level that would match Australia's superannuation contribution rate, although of course in Australia, the whole contribution comes from the employer because they can afford it. The figure would come from hiking the default contribution rate from 3%, where it is today, to four, then 6% by 2032. The employer contribution would also rise to 6%, achieving that combined rate of 12% by 2032. Christopher Luxon said under the changes, a 21-year-old who's earning $65,000 a year today would retire with a KiwiSaver balance of about 1.4 million, bare minimum. No one, it appears, thinks that this is a bad idea. The only concern is that the tinkering with KiwiSaver doesn't go far enough. Commentators say KiwiSaver needs to be compulsory, otherwise people would just opt out, thinking they can't afford the contributions. They do not realise when they're 21 that they can't afford not to contribute to KiwiSaver, because 65 comes far faster than you can ever possibly imagine. Others, like Milford Asset Management Kiwi Saver head Murray Harris, says National needs to look at improving other moving parts. Fundamentally, this is a good announcement, but there's a lot of moving parts with KiwiSaver. And I think what we need to see is what's the long-term strategic plan for KiwiSaver and what are the settings that are going to be set for the long-term future? Because at the moment you do have the so-called total compensation where your employer can pay you out of your pay, the employer contribution. Now that should be scrapped. That's another one of the settings that National haven't announced or included in this announcement. And there's there are others as well that we need New Zealanders to be really confident that KiwiSaver is going to be set for the future, there isn't going to be tinkering with it every time we get a change in political party, and that they can be confident that their long-term savings and retirement savings for the future are going to be as they expect. Yes. Chris Hipkins says it's a good thing to increase retirement savings. The transition is the key. The policy may encourage employers to Uberise their workforces by turning erstwhile employees into contractors. I would love to hear from those of you who have just started in the workforce perhaps, who have been in the workforce for about two or three years. Where does your pay packet go? In terms of what you're paying back. You might have a student loan. When it comes to KiwiSaver, how much can you afford to put in? Do you accept, as somebody who has just entered the workforce, that you're going to need to save for your retirement? I I'm pretty sure that message has got through to the next generation that there's going to be a real necessity for feathering your own nest. You might think when you first start off with your paying back of your student loan and the like, saving for a house, that KiwiSaver's just there to get that deposit on a home. Or you might want a couple of years of lavish spending because you've been living as a student, living on the low-cost pittas from the takeaway shop and the two-minute noodles. You want to know what it feels like to have money to splash around so you'll pay back your student loan and then you'll think about KiwiSaver. How many of you are squirrelling away your nuts, so to speak, because you understand that the sooner you start saving with compound interest, the better off you're going to be. When it comes to those who have recently retired, I'd really like to hear from you too. So you might have stopped work a couple of years ago. Do you have enough invested and saved to get by? Did it come... Sun, 23 Nov 2025 23:16:08 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/matt-brown-she-is-not-your-rehab-co-founder-on-violence-against-women-continuing-to-be-so-prevalent/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/matt-brown-she-is-not-your-rehab-co-founder-on-violence-against-women-continuing-to-be-so-prevalent/ Violence against women remains one of the world’s most persistent and under-addressed human rights crises.  A report from the World Health Organisation says that 1 in 3 women, an estimated 840 million globally, have experienced partner or sexual violence during their lifetime, a figure that has barely changed since 2000.  In Australia and New Zealand, 24.5 percent of women have been sexually or physically abused by a partner.  She Is Not Your Rehab co-founder Matt Brown told Kerre Woodham that society has done a great job in normalising anger as the best outlet for men, which looks like rage and violence towards the people they say they love the most.  He says there need to be more systems in place to educate men in emotional regulation, making things like grief or sadness a normal part of conversation.  LISTEN ABOVE  Thu, 20 Nov 2025 23:42:59 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-who-genuinely-thinks-they-have-the-right-to-mete-out-violence/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-who-genuinely-thinks-they-have-the-right-to-mete-out-violence/ A new report from the World Health Organization has found (old news really), a quarter of women have been physically or sexually abused by a partner. It's 24.5% for Australia and New Zealand, so about the same. And there are calls for a public awareness and education campaign in this country about domestic violence. Really? Who needs to be taught that assaulting someone, hurting someone is wrong? You know it's wrong. Children know it's wrong.  There have been public campaigns for as long as I can remember, warning people that domestic violence lasts, endures, infects through generations. That if a child is raised in a violent family, then chances are that's what they see as normal, a way of responding to stress. There have been education campaigns warning you need to walk away when you feel your temper rising, that you need to walk away when you feel threatened. But apparently, according to the experts, this sort of education campaign is precisely what we do need. In the mid 2000s, and you might remember it, the It's Not Okay campaign was on our televisions. Importantly, it was backed up with 150 community-based prevention projects, and that what was made the impact, and then it was dropped and the experts say this is what we need to bring back. Our stats are dreadful. I mean, you can scoff at the World Health Organization and you can say, "Oh, well, we measure crime differently," but I don't think you can argue that our stats are absolutely appalling. And I say this against the backdrop of the deaths of those three beautiful children in Sanson, which has to be one of the more heartbreaking stories we've ever reported in this country.  We have the highest rate of family violence in the OECD. They're across all socio-economic groups. Each year New Zealand police conducts more than 100,000 investigations related to family violence. Nearly half of all homicides and reported violent crimes are family violence related. One in four females, one in eight males, experience sexual violence or abuse in their lifetimes, and many of them before the age of 16.  The head of Women's Refuge, Ang Jury, says until such time as men realise they don't own their women, nothing is going to change, but who would put up their hand and say that's genuinely what they think? That they have a woman, they love her, they have children together, and if she argues or if she wants to do something that you don't want to do, or if she wants to leave you, that you then have the right to meet out violence upon her, to prevent her from going, or to take her life so nobody else can have her. Nobody would put up their hand and say, "This is what I genuinely think." Surely to goodness. So what happens?  I received a text a couple of weeks ago when we were talking about the impact of drugs on mental health. And this text said that relationship breakups had more of a detrimental impact on his mental health, and that of his mates, than any drug he'd consumed. That the relationship breakup stuffed with his head far more than the drugs. So do you not know you have a problem until you have it? You might think that you've got a really well-ordered life, that you've got yourself together, that you're a perfectly, perfectly normal human being. You can cope with life's slings and arrows, and then your partner leaves you, and what? You are catapulted to a place and into a being that you simply do not recognize? That you lose all reason?   Helen and I were talking about this before we came on air. We just do not know men who react with violence. Not our friends, not our family members, not our work colleagues. Well, you know, the ones we're close to, our friends. I find it utterly inconceivable that in this day and age you can think that if a woman, or a man, decides to leave the relationship that you can therefore mete out violence - that it's justified. And I would guarantee nobody listening would think that was a legitimate and reasonable cour... Thu, 20 Nov 2025 23:27:53 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/chris-mackenzie-ferry-holdings-ltd-chair-on-the-new-cook-strait-ferry-deal/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/chris-mackenzie-ferry-holdings-ltd-chair-on-the-new-cook-strait-ferry-deal/ Rail Minister Winston Peters yesterday confirmed we are to get two new rail-enabled Cook Strait ferries.  The Government's signed a fixed-price contract with a Chinese shipbuilder and is securing teams to build port infrastructure in Picton and Wellington.  Rail Minister Winston Peters claims the total cost will come in under $2 billion and delivered on time in 2029.  Ferry Holdings' Chris McKenzie told Kerre Woodham that while it’s not the Sydney Opera House and the Taj Mahal, the port infrastructure they’re creating is more than fit for purpose.   LISTEN ABOVE  Wed, 19 Nov 2025 23:47:59 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-incredible-concerts-and-positive-news/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-incredible-concerts-and-positive-news/ A little bit husky, a little bit hoarse, not as bad as Heather, but a little bit husky from belting out the classics at Eden Park last night with Metallica. Oh my god. Oh my god. What a show. What an event for the city. If you were there, you know, and you'll still be buzzing, and you will still think that is one of the best concerts you've ever been to.  I used to quite like Metallica. I mean, you can't grow up in the 80s and not know who they are and not appreciate them as a consummate as consummate performance, but I wasn't a die-hard fan. I went down after work yesterday to get some merch because I was taking my eight-year-old grandson to the show last night because he loves them. I thought I like them, I'll go, I'll get him a T-shirt. A three-hour queue to get the merch!  And the town was heaving with people in Metallica T-shirts, and I thought, wow who on earth would queue for three hours? Who would travel from the far ends of the country and from across the Tasman to go to Metallica? After that show last night, I'll tell you who will be queuing for three hours, me, I will be.  I've gone from they're good to oh my god. And I've got all of these years of music to catch up on. How fabulous. And just for the vibrancy it brought to the city. And I have to say Eden Park, and a number of us at ZB were invited along by Eden Park, so bear that in mind when I say what I say, but Eden Park is a fantastic venue. Everybody it seemed had great seats. The show itself, the stage was amazing. There were no problems for us getting out. We walked for 15 minutes, got picked up by his dad and out we went. The crowd was lovely. Honestly, I could rave all morning, but I'm not going to. I shan't. It was amazing and perhaps we can compare notes a little later.  We do have news to talk about. And finally, finally, finally after years of wrangling, and after years of cost blowouts, and after years of political infighting, ladies and gentlemen, we have two new ferries. Well, not exactly – we have a contract for two new ferries.  And yes, wait, yes, we did have a contract for two new ferries with the South Korean shipyard. That contract got torn up. Now we have a new contract for two new ferries with a Chinese shipbuilder. Port infrastructure will have to be rebuilt to accommodate the larger ferries while much of the Wellington side infrastructure can be rebuilt and upgraded. Picton they'll need new stuff, Wellington they can make do.  And that's where the real savings are to be had for the taxpayer. The new ferries will be hybrids, able to switch between using diesel and electric power, and will have more capacity for trucks and rail wagons that exist at present. Winston Peters, who's been all over this from day one, said the new no-nonsense infrastructure programme was helping save the taxpayer money when the two ships enter service in 2029.  The iRex project, that was the one ditched by the Coalition Government when it came to office, which included substantial costs for landside infrastructure, had ballooned to approximately $3 billion at the time of its cancellation. In 2023, Treasury officials said, yes, we know it looks like $3 billion, we think it could be more like $4 billion when we look at the cost overruns, when we benchmark it against average cost overruns and other similar projects. When even Grant Robertson, the former Finance Minister, says, oh no, we're spending way too much money, this is very concerning. When he says that, you know that it's getting out of control.  There was no guarantee it was going to be around $4 billion. And the problem seems to have been, rather than delivering the much oft-quoted phrase of Nicola Willis', a Toyota Corolla, under the spell of the former government, there were consultants and officials going, oh my god, we can build a state-of-the-art shipping infrastructure within New Zealand, and it's going to have all the bells and whistles and the very late... Wed, 19 Nov 2025 22:53:11 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/bosses-unfiltered/episode-7-angus-brown/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/bosses-unfiltered/episode-7-angus-brown/ It’s hard enough to chase a scientific breakthrough.  But as New Zealand company Ārepa found out it's even harder and more expenisve to defend your breakthroughs time and time again. Ārepa was founded in 2017 and the so called “brain drink” company was growing at a rapid pace when at the end of 2023, they hit a massive speed bump. That's when the Ministry for Primary Industries and an Auckland University scientist came out and said the company hadn’tactually proven better brain function at all. Ārepa found itself in the headlines, but for all the wrong reasons. The company's co-founder and co-chief executive Angus Brown told their story with Kerre Woodham on the latest episode of Bosses Unfiltered. LISTEN ABOVE NOTE: This interview was recorded on June 4th 2025. Wed, 19 Nov 2025 22:45:11 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-what-makes-nz-workplaces-so-dangerous/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-what-makes-nz-workplaces-so-dangerous/ It's the 15th anniversary today of the Pike River mine disaster, and on this anniversary, unions are calling for a corporate manslaughter law to be enshrined in legislation, as it is in other countries like the UK, Australia, Canada.  29 men were killed when an explosion ripped through the Pike River mine on the West Coast of the South Island. And despite reforms following Pike River, including the creation of WorkSafe in 2013 and the Health and Safety at Work Act in 2015, New Zealand continues to record twice as many workplace deaths as Australia, four times as many as the UK per capita. Workplace injuries and illnesses cost the country an estimated $5 billion each year.  A new Public Health Communication Centre briefing by leading health and safety experts finds that weak enforcement, inadequate fines, and a poor understanding of legal duties by employers and political leaders are key reasons for the lack of progress.  And it warns that proposed changes to shift the regulator's focus from enforcement to advice, alongside ACC's move to deprioritise injury prevention, risks further undermining worker protection.  And yet, when you look at the health and safety legislation and the red tape and the orange road cones, not a single road cone seems to have helped in preventing workers' lives being lost. We're 25th in the OECD. Australia is a dangerous place to work. And yet somehow, we manage to record twice as many workplace deaths as they do. What is it? Are workers in high-risk jobs depending on the rules to keep themselves safe? To keep their mates safe? Rather than using their own nous and judgement they think, well, the rules are there, I don't have to think about it. I don't have to think about what I'm doing.  Are too many workers turning up impaired by alcohol or drugs, and that impairs their judgement? They don't see things, or they cut corners, or they're tired, fatigued. Are bosses cutting corners and risking people's lives? Or are the bosses putting in health and safety protocols that workers are simply ignoring?  What is it about this country that means we are so bad at either looking after ourselves and our mates, or finding ways to protect our workers?  Tue, 18 Nov 2025 23:14:11 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/chris-peace-victoria-university-workplace-health-and-safety-lecturer-on-the-pike-river-mine-tragedy-and-health-and-safety-injuries/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/chris-peace-victoria-university-workplace-health-and-safety-lecturer-on-the-pike-river-mine-tragedy-and-health-and-safety-injuries/ Today marks the 15th anniversary of the Pike River mine disaster that killed 29 men.  Despite reforms following the incident, New Zealand's workplace health and safety record remains poor, with fatality and injury rates among the highest in the developed world.  Workplace injuries and illnesses cost the country an estimated $5 billion each year.  Victoria University workplace health and safety lecturer Dr Chris Peace told Kerre Woodham that putting ACC in place has taken away a lot of stress and angst, but a strong regulatory system needed to be put in place and wasn’t.   He says that the legislation imposes a duty of care on businesses, but the problem is that most people don’t understand what that amounts to.   LISTEN ABOVE  Tue, 18 Nov 2025 23:09:10 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-contractors-employees-and-the-gig-economy/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-contractors-employees-and-the-gig-economy/ Business NZ Chief Executive Katherine Rich says the Supreme Court's ruling that Uber drivers are in fact employees of Uber, not contractors, could have far-reaching implications for businesses that hired contractors, and she says it could collapse the gig economy. What's the gig economy? Well, when we're talking about the gig economy, we mean people who work on single projects or tasks, gigs, on demand. They're often hired through a digital marketplace, think Uber, Airbnb, and gig workers can be anyone from part-timers looking to make extra dosh from a second job that they can work around their own hours, to full-time freelancers. They can also be from a range of backgrounds across a range of industries.   On the plus side, if you're a gig worker, there's more flexibility for hours and remote work, high earning potential —the keyword there is potential—, the option to work for various companies, you're not tied to one, and the ability to become your own boss.  On the downside, there is the potential to make very little. The gig economy is unsteady, and for many it's an unsatisfactory alternative to a secure and stable full-time job with all the associated benefits, sick pay, annual leave, and the like. Now, a lot of young ones say they want the flexibility that comes with having a gig and a side hustle and doing a bit there. The idea of turning up and working 9am to 5pm is absolute anathema to them, until they get sick or until they realise that they need to set aside money for holidays or until say they want parental leave. And then all of a sudden, a secure job doesn't look so bad after all.   Now, with the Supreme Court ruling, in effect, contractors can have their cake and eat it too if it flows on to other industries. The drivers who brought the case against Uber said they were seeking fundamental human rights in relation to the work they did for the company.  Uber says, "Oh, come on, you knew what you were getting into when you signed the contract. Drivers are in control of business decisions in a manner not typical of an employee situation. They can decide whether, when, where, and for how long to drive, or whether they want to do other work instead." They also had the ability to and did make decisions around assets, business costs, and organize their own tax affairs.  Uber accepted in court that drivers didn't have input into the structure. For example, when Uber decided to slash the fares in Auckland and Wellington, it was a bit of a promotion, drivers had no say over that. But they say the drivers know what the platform looks like, they accepted and they use it. They enter into a service agreement, and they act accordingly.  Workplace Minister Brooke van Velden told Mike Hosking this morning that the Government's looking to make changes to define exactly what it means to be a contractor. She outlined it very, very clearly, and we will get that to you. Basically, she says that the law hasn't really kept up with the new economy. The workplace law hasn't kept up with the new economy. That, you know, the way Uber wasn't around 10 years ago. Airbnb wasn't around 10 years ago, and workplace law hasn't kept up with it. But can you really have your cake and eat it too? If you don't like turning up to the same employer 9am to 5pm, you know what your job is, you know what your hours are, the very regularity of it that makes a job like that so attractive to some people, Makes it a turn off to others. They don't want that regularity in their lives. They want to be free to work when they want to.  It doesn't seem right that you have your cake and eat it too, does it? Brooke van Velden says she'll make changes. The Supreme Court says Uber has to treat its drivers like employees. Would love to hear from you on this one, especially if you've worked for Uber. I know a number of people have. I ran into an old film director of mine from Television New Zealand days who was driving an Uber. Real... Mon, 17 Nov 2025 23:22:16 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/peter-huskinson-bowel-cancer-nz-ceo-on-the-never-too-young-report-call-to-lower-the-bowel-cancer-screening-age/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/peter-huskinson-bowel-cancer-nz-ceo-on-the-never-too-young-report-call-to-lower-the-bowel-cancer-screening-age/ Bowel Cancer NZ's new report lays bare the realities of 350 people under 50 living with the disease.   It’s the second deadliest cancer in New Zealand, and the leading cause of cancer death among people under the age of 50.  Every year around 3,300 New Zealanders are diagnosed and 1,200 die from the disease, despite it having a cure rate of over 90% when caught early.   The Never Too Young report found more than half of those surveyed didn't know the symptoms prior to diagnosis, and many faced delays in diagnosis.  Bowel Cancer NZ Chief Executive Peter Huskinson told Kerre Woodham if the screening age was lowered to 45, it would go a long way to catch the majority of people with early onset bowel cancer.  He says that way they’d be caught by the screening, rather than waiting for symptoms to develop.  LISTEN ABOVE  Mon, 17 Nov 2025 23:14:50 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/andrew-dickens-if-we-dont-want-congestion-charges-give-us-alternatives/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/andrew-dickens-if-we-dont-want-congestion-charges-give-us-alternatives/ On the front page of the New Zealand Herald today there was a poll, and it shows that we're split as a nation on the issue of capital gains tax. So, the question for us here in this room and you in your room and all of us together is, should we have another discussion on the CGT? And my answer to that is, of course not. And why? We have no real idea of what it looks like, so we don't know what we're talking about. People who have assets that are accruing capital do not want it because they've never had to pay tax on it before, and no one likes paying more tax. People who do want a capital gains tax might want it if it means there's more money for health and education or benefits, but then if they start getting assets, will they be happy paying more tax? All the policies we've had so far on capital gains tax are so wishy-washy and indeterminate, we have no idea what it means. When will the valuations be calculated? Will we pay tax on mythical unrealized gains? How much money will it really raise? Have we had any answers to any of those questions? No, we have not. Could we have answers to those questions? Maybe. David Parker, before the last election, apparently came up with a comprehensive capital gains tax plan, but we never saw it. So how can we debate it? Labour's policy is such a once over lightly, we can't answer any of this. We are split on the general concept of capital gains tax and always have been, so why discuss it? It is a ridiculous Russian doll situation, and we go round and round, and we've decided let's not talk about that today. But we can talk about real taxes. And real taxes are increasing. And if you don't believe me, take a look at your rates bill, because rates are a tax. There are all sorts of different taxes in this world. And it's the sneaky ones that don't call themselves taxes that are the really sneaky ones. We had a real tax come at us, a couple of them actually, over the weekend. On Saturday, the front page was all about the legislation that's been introduced, meaning that councils can charge congestion taxes in the future. Awesome. So we'll be paying taxes on roads we already paid taxes to build. And if not taxes, then rates, because the council builds a lot of our roads. And of course, as I've said already, rates are also taxes. Talk about double jeopardy. We're paying taxes on taxes. It's two bites of the pie. And then you have to wonder why the National-led coalition wants to increase our taxes when their mission has always been to reduce them. They hate taxes, they say. Some of them say we're overtaxed. They want them gone.So the motivation for taxes has many faces. They're used to punish the rich because of the politics of envy, I get that. They're used to redistribute wealth because some people are poor and some people are not. And of course, they're all used to fund health and education systems. And we also use taxes to punish or to change behaviour. So I guess if we're talking about congestion taxes in this instance, we're talking about changing our behaviour. Is that enough reason for National to want to do this? The behaviour they're trying to change is to make more of us drive off-peak and less of us on-peak, making the roads flow better. I say good luck with that. Good luck with your tax, because in this age of cost of living increases and rate rises and water costs, I believe that no one at this moment wants to pay more tax. And no wonder Wayne Brown in the paper on Saturday said the council is not going to use this new power anytime soon, because he knows a vote killer when he sees one. I mean, who's going to vote for that? Turkeys do not vote for Christmas. And you have to ask, would it actually work? It might make mums on the school run think twice about using a motorway at peak hour. But, you know, tradies and the people who carry all our goods and the transporters, they won't have the option. They'll have to pay, and that is a further cost on their bottom line. And whenev... Sun, 16 Nov 2025 23:16:52 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-the-problem-with-our-retirement-system/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-the-problem-with-our-retirement-system/ As you'll have heard in the news this morning, the Retirement Commissioner has called for a 10-year roadmap and cross-party agreement, following the release of its review of New Zealand's retirement system.  More Kiwis are living longer, working differently, and facing pressures around housing and care. We're facing a huge rise in the number of older people. At the same time, we're facing fewer working Kiwis who can pay for the associated costs of aged care. Current data shows that right now, for every 100 people of working age, we have 28 retirees. Those numbers are changing quickly. By 2050, just 25 years away, we're looking at 38 retirees per 100 workers. By 2060, we'll have twice as many retirees compared to workers.  In 2019, those older than 65 received $13 billion more in government services, mainly super and healthcare, than they contributed in taxes. I mean, that's just the way it is. You end up using the health system more when you're young, very, very young, like under five, but mainly when you're very, very old. And in the middle, you shouldn't really be accessing it at all. Of course, we're seeing those numbers going up as well, but that's just the way it is. It's the Western world over. It's just life.  Treasury has been screaming for more than a decade now that we simply don't have enough money coming in to keep the lights on. Last week it gave another warning. Debt is not only being used for capital expenditure, but to cover operating costs. So it's like using your credit card to pay the necessary bills. It's unsustainable.  And this is occurring as the books haven't yet recovered from Covid and Cyclone Gabrielle, and as the costs associated with an aging population are set to soar. As I said, we're not alone in this. The Western world over is struggling with this. Japan's been staring down the barrel of a shrinking workforce and a rising number of oldies for years now. The Prime Minister Fumio Kishida made an interesting point in January 2023 that Japan is standing on the verge of whether they can continue to function as a society, facing as it does the twin threats of falling birth rates and an ever-increasing elderly population. And when I say elderly, they live a really long time – they've got really healthy oldies who are regularly hitting 100. In 2022, almost half of Japanese firms relied on workers over the age of 70. So they're trying to encourage older people to still participate, to continue if they're up to it, if they can.  So we could work longer. We could make use of the technology and the digitisation and the AI if you want to continue working. We could shift health to be rather than end-of-life care, try and put an emphasis on preventing people getting health issues and try and keep people out of hospital with preventable illnesses. We could prioritise health and well-being to ensure we stay healthy for longer.  When it comes to providing a broader tax base, we'll be competing with every other Western country to import workers, because I think it's pointless telling young people, and certainly other countries have found this, to have more babies. There's financial incentives for young couples to have more babies, but a couple of 100 bucks here and there is not going to make people have children.   What makes young families want to have children is a belief in the future, a belief in the society in which they live, a belief that they can support the children and give them what they need in terms of and it's not just financial things, it's time. If you're working seven days a week to provide for your family, you're going to limit the number of children you're going to have.  Thu, 13 Nov 2025 23:17:20 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/patrick-nolan-retirement-commission-policy-and-research-director-on-the-call-for-changes-to-the-retirement-income-system/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/patrick-nolan-retirement-commission-policy-and-research-director-on-the-call-for-changes-to-the-retirement-income-system/ A warning New Zealand needs to act quickly on strengthening our retirement income system.  The Retirement Commission's income policy review has found a longer-term political focus is needed to ensure future generations' certainty.   It makes 12 recommendations, including moving more quickly to implement KiwiSaver reforms, and harder strategies such as a new cross-party accord.   Policy and Research Director Patrick Nolan told Kerre Woodham we now have people over 65 than we have under 15, so we need to act now.  He says New Zealand is going to look very different into the future, so these conversations need to be had.  LISTEN ABOVE  Thu, 13 Nov 2025 22:59:23 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/julia-hartley-moore-jhm-private-investigator-services-owner-on-the-number-of-people-living-double-lives/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/julia-hartley-moore-jhm-private-investigator-services-owner-on-the-number-of-people-living-double-lives/ How common is it for people to be living double lives?  Former Deputy Police Commissioner Jevon McSkimming is awaiting sentence after pleading guilty to having child sexual exploitation and bestiality material on his work devices.  An IPCA report also found complaints of McSkimming being a sexual predator were ignored, the emails the woman sent instead being used to prosecute her for harassment.   Private Investigator Julia Hartley Moore told Kerre Woodham that the number of people living double and secret lives is an epidemic.   "I think they just do it because they can,” she said.  “People have an endless capacity to deceive each other – I think that certain people will never and there’s certain people that will, and there’s a hell of a lot that do.”  LISTEN ABOVE  Thu, 13 Nov 2025 00:04:48 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-charging-ms-z-would-be-a-gross-miscarriage-of-justice/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-charging-ms-z-would-be-a-gross-miscarriage-of-justice/ How is it that the woman, who's at the centre of a cover-up by top brass within the Police, still has to go to court to defend two charges of causing harm by posting a digital communication? She's charged with harassing a police officer who was apparently investigating her accusations against that pervert McSkimming and with harassing the investigating police officer's wife.   She was charged in May of last year with causing harm by posting digital communication in relation to over 300 emails she sent to McSkimming's work email address between December 23 and April 24. That charge against the woman was withdrawn in the Wellington District Court in September because McSkimming did not wish to give evidence. You bet your bippy he didn't. It would have been all shades of Oscar Wilde, bringing a court case against someone and having it spectacularly backfire, and then you are the one who ends up in strife.   When Richard Chambers spoke to Mike Hosking yesterday, he said the charges against the young woman had been withdrawn.   RC: The matters that resulted in her being charged in the middle of last year, no, that is now, that is no longer in the court.   MH: So that has been taken out of the court and resolved in some way, shape or form. Is there a cheque being written? How does that being, or how is that being handled?   RC: I reached out to her legal representative late yesterday to express an apology on behalf of New Zealand Police for what had occurred, and I did say to him that I had no doubt there would be further conversations at an appropriate time in the future.   So no mention of further charges and that they were still before the court. If you were listening to that as I was, you would be left with the clear impression that any charges against the young woman had been wiped, that the Police were very sorry, and that they would be compensating her for what she'd been through. No mention of the further charges. We approached the Police Commissioner, and this is the written statement from the office:    "The matter is before the court. Police has instructed a senior criminal barrister in this proceeding. It would be inappropriate for me to comment about the merits, including public interest of any case that is before the court. However, what I have done and what I can say is that I have assured myself that proper process has been followed in bringing this case."   Reading between the lines, if he interfered now that it's before the court and asked for it to go away, it would be shades of a cover-up. Because it's underway, because the presumably policeman and his wife have not dropped the charges, it must go before the court and due process must be followed.   This statement's attributable to Assistant Commissioner Mike Johnson: "Ms Z is the defendant in a prosecution in the District Court. In these circumstances, it's not appropriate to comment publicly on the merits of the prosecution, including the public interest."   So I kind of vaguely, if I'm being generous, and I'm not particularly feeling all that generous, but as a as an intellectual exercise, I'll try and be generous, I can see that to interfere with a matter that's before the court, making something disappear and go away, is shades of exactly why the top brass have been cleared out.   But come on. I'm sure it was very distressing for the police officer and his wife to be inundated with emails, and goodness knows what was said in it. They were, what was that lovely word that Jared Savage used about the emails that he received? Incoherent. So there was a lot of high drama and emotive language used in the emails. God only knows what was said but she'd been driven unhinged by what had happened to her in terms of not being spoken to, not being listened to, not being regarded.   Surely there has to be an element of mercy in this. I mean, even if she has to go through the whole process of appearin... Wed, 12 Nov 2025 23:32:10 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/bosses-unfiltered/episode-6-angus-simms/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/bosses-unfiltered/episode-6-angus-simms/ New Zealand produces enough food to feed 40 million people. Some of it we consume and some some we export.  But a staggering 30% of the food we make or grow goes to waste.  Fruit and vegetables need to look a certain way to make it onto supermarket shelves – or they get tossed.   Angus Simms and his partner Katie Jackson wanted to tackle that problem - so they started Wonky Box three years ago.  This is the subscription food box full of wonky fruit and veg that’s delivered to your door.  Their business has grown way bigger and faster than they ever thought, but it hasn’t been smooth sailing along the way.   Angus joined Kerre Woodham in the latest episode of Bosses Unfiltered to share his story.  LISTEN ABOVE Wed, 12 Nov 2025 22:45:03 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-the-mcskimming-cover-up-is-appalling/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-the-mcskimming-cover-up-is-appalling/ The revelation that the Deputy Commissioner of Police Jevon McSkimming was a predatory pervert was one thing. To find out that our most senior police officers were complicit in not only covering up his inappropriate behaviour, but then prosecuting, persecuting his victim is quite frankly horrifying.   I knew, many of you knew, Andrew Coster was an ineffectual toadying eunuch. Does anyone remember his one and only hour in the studio when he spoke in slogans and was completely incomprehensible? I couldn't have been more delighted when Police Minister Mark Mitchell moved him on and replaced him with a proper cop, Richard Chambers.   The fact that Jevon McSkimming came so close to the top job defies belief, given the accusations swirling around him. And he only came so close to the top job because Coster, Kura, de Wattignar, and Basham needed him to be in the top job to hide their moral and professional failures.   This is absolutely appalling. McSkimming is a sick pervert. He needs help, professional help. The rest of them were just motivated by saving their sorry skins and were willing to throw a vulnerable young woman to the wolves to allow her to be prosecuted to save themselves. The young woman in question sent multiple emails to ministers, MPs, the media, she wrote on LinkedIn, she phoned the police complaints line. She might have appeared to be obsessive, but nothing makes a woman more unhinged than being gaslit, than being ganged up on, than being not believed.   You can imagine McSkimming – ‘mate, she's a bunny boiler. Yeah, crazy’. If they were any sort of cops, any sort of people, they would know that is manipulation 101. Dismiss her as a lunatic. You know, confess, yes, what was I thinking? I was 40, she was 21. I shouldn't have had the affair, but, you know, I ended it and saw the error of my ways. And now she's trying to ruin my career. You've got to save me. You've got to help me. And they did.  Not one of those former top cops, the very top cops in the country, ever thought to have a chat to her, or to get one of their staff to have a chat to her, to hear her side of the story. Did they not find it odd that McSkimming didn't say, look, talk to her, you'll see for yourself? No. Not only did they not do anything, they prosecuted her. They put her through hell.   It's appalling, it's horrifying, it adds grist to Tamatha Paul’s anti-police mill. Richard Chambers has a hell of a job ahead of him in rebuilding faith in the Police, and he knows that.   “My job right now is to ensure that I take on board all the recommendations and work swiftly to put everything in place to ensure that this never happens again.   “And, you know, in terms of other stuff out there, well, I only know what I know. I'm not aware of anything else, and God, I hope that's not the case because, you know, the people of New Zealand, when they reach out to New Zealand Police, deserve the best possible service they can get, and they need to be taken seriously.   “And I've been very clear about that since I took over as the Commissioner. Our priority is supporting the frontline staff of my organisation who do this work day and night. And, and I'm really proud of that. And, you know, my focus now will be putting a new leadership team in place, and they will be working with me to help steer New Zealand Police, in the right direction and ensure that these appalling situations never happen again.”  Oh, hello 2007. Police Commissioner Howard Broad, after the Royal Commission of Inquiry, after the ghastly Scholllum Shipton cover-up there.   “I will now ask all serving members to join with me to make the changes necessary to prevent this sort of behaviour ever happening again. The work's already started. We're moving quickly on this. A draft code's been fully consulted. There'll be a reform of the 1958 Police Act”.  At the heart of the issues looked at by the Commission of Inquiry has been abu... Tue, 11 Nov 2025 23:53:43 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-at-what-point-do-business-owners-call-it-quits/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-at-what-point-do-business-owners-call-it-quits/ At what point, when you're a business owner, do you decide that you've had enough? There was Covid, then there were the boom times, then there was the recession that seems to have gone on and on, there's a crisis in consumer confidence, there's global uncertainty that too has gone on and on. There are problems finding staff, there are problems keeping staff, there are problems finding work, problems with cash flow. At what point, which 3 in the morning wake up do you think, "I can't do this anymore?" Do you look at your life and realise that for the past five years you haven't had a life, and you call it quits or do you look at your books, and find yourself hoping for a good summer, then realise that hope is not a strategy, and decide to pull the pin?   Business liquidations hit a 10-year high last year, with 2,500 companies folding, and that's the highest annual figure since 2014. Retail and construction suffered the most. But this year it's even worse. The number of companies put into liquidation so far in 2025 has surpassed last year's total for the same period, as economic pressures and low consumer confidence impact business viability.    Dry words to describe heart palpitations, terror, dry mouth, sleeplessness, fractiousness. Very dry words to describe a terrible time in your life. Analysts say the recent rise in liquidations can be attributed to an increased focus on enforcement by Inland Revenue, as well as a lag of companies that were in distress during Covid but were propped up with government money, so it gave them a false second life.   There's a long-held belief that recessions and shocks like Covid clear the dead wood, that there are many companies that shouldn't be in business, that fall by the wayside. But behind that, every business that closes its doors are people who put their hopes and their dreams and their labour and their hard work and their life savings into it.    But does deciding to call it quits bring its own freedom? If you have been in a lather, desperately hoping that you're going to turn the corner for years now, not months, but for years, can deciding to call it quits be liberating? If you've had to make the tough decision to call it, it's done, can it be a relief?   There are many people who, you know, through the GFC, it was similar. There were businesses that went by the wayside as people suddenly found they had no spare cash in their pockets. The stock market crash in New Zealand. Now that saw people with astronomically high interest rates, mortgage interest and business interest rates.   Again, people with no disposable, lack of consumer confidence, a time of austerity. There were plenty of businesses that went under in the 80s as well. '87 was the stock market crash, and then from, I think it was really about 1990 that I remember that it was just a very, very grim, grim, austere, brutal time.   So people have been through it before, and if you have, is there life after insolvency, after a liquidation, after closing your doors and saying, "I cannot do this anymore. I just can't?” There are more important things. My health is more important, my family is more important.   Is there, and this is where I'm going to need you to tell me because I've never owned my own business, but I've certainly heard from a number of you over the years who love being your own boss. You can't imagine working for anybody else, but by God, that comes at a price, especially in times like these. So, if you've made the decision to call it, does insolvency mean the end and a new beginning?  Tue, 11 Nov 2025 00:16:05 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/shayne-currie-nzme-editor-at-large-on-trust-in-media-bbc-faces-allegations-of-bias/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/shayne-currie-nzme-editor-at-large-on-trust-in-media-bbc-faces-allegations-of-bias/ The BBC is facing accusations of bias, as well as a lawsuit, after a leaked memo suggests the Panorama programme edited one of Donald Trump’s speeches to imply he encouraged the Capitol Hill riots of January 2021.  The US President is demanding a full retraction and is threatening to sue for nearly 1.8 billion New Zealand dollars in damages.  The incident is doing nothing to raise trust in the media, or dispel concerns of media bias.  九一星空无限 Editor-at-Large Shayne Currie told Kerre Woodham that a reporter’s job when covering the news is to report the facts accurately, fairly, and in a balanced view, and some of the criticism that’s been directed towards the media is that a lot of reporters have been allowed to inject their own opinion or analysis into those news reports.   “I think we’re getting to a point now where you’ll see much more clearly differentiated, this is news, this is opinion, this is analysis.”  LISTEN ABOVE  Tue, 11 Nov 2025 00:07:56 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/damien-grant-waterstone-insolvency-principal-on-the-sharp-rise-in-the-number-of-insolvency/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/damien-grant-waterstone-insolvency-principal-on-the-sharp-rise-in-the-number-of-insolvency/ Many businesses that limped through the pandemic are now going under.  Insolvency practitioners have been reporting a sharp rise in the number of insolvencies since mid-2022.  Smaller retail, hospitality, construction, transport and manufacturing operators are failing far more now than they were before the pandemic.  Waterstone Insolvency Principal Damien Grant told Kerre Woodham a lot of businesses are subject to economic winds, which are outside of their control.   He says we as a country are getting poorer, which means disposable income and things like hospitality are dropping, which is why you see a lot of pain in the hospitality sector in particular.   LISTEN ABOVE  Mon, 10 Nov 2025 23:15:59 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-why-put-money-back-in-the-pockets-of-users/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-why-put-money-back-in-the-pockets-of-users/ So the government's Sunday sessions this year have involved announcements of all sorts of policies, ranging from ho-hum to meaningful.The announcement yesterday of the action plan against organised crime comes under the meaningful. Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith released what he called a bold and comprehensive action plan that aimed to disrupt supply, go after those who profit from the drug trade and rebuild communities afflicted by meth, as he outlined to Mike Hosking on the Mike Hosking Breakfast this morning. This is a scourge on society that we need to keep on battling against every day, finding new ways to combat the organised criminals who are doing this, but also dealing with the you know, better rehabilitation and actually for the first time sending a clear message through a hard-hitting media campaign, this is not a good idea to get involved with in any way, shape or form. Paul, in all honesty, is a hard-hitting media campaign to your average, you know, dare I suggest unemployed, go nowhere meth addict. Is that going to make one jot of difference? No, but it may stop some people taking the risk. And no single thing on its own is going to solve the problem. Of course, a campaign's not going to deal with a hardened sort of meth addict, but there may be a young person who's thinking about it, who if they get a clear message, this is not something you could use moderately, it's not something just to have a bit of a dabble with, it's something to avoid at all costs because some people, just one shot's enough to lead to a decade-long spiral of chaos and destruction, and that's what we want to send a clear message about. I don't know how you can not know that there's a very high chance that dabbling in meth can bring about ruin. Of course, not everybody who tries meth will see their life fall apart, but the odds are not great. Any drug, any misuse of a drug can bring about ruin. But meth seems to be particularly high in terms of getting its claws into people and consuming them, taking them over completely. You're not consuming the drug, it's consuming you. And it's not, your no-hopers that Mike Hosking referred to that end up destroyed by meth. It's all strata of society. You might end up a no-hoper, but you started off with jobs and businesses and companies and families and friends and a great lifestyle, gone. How can you not know that? I mean, in the early, early, early days, maybe what, 20 odd years ago, you might have thought, oh, okay, it's a new drug, I'll give it a try. I've tried other drugs and I'm on top of that and, you know, all the go-ask-gala scare campaigns that people try to use - I'm sophisticated, I know what I'm doing, you know, and then people come a cropper because they didn't know what they were dealing with. Now you do. You know exactly what harm it can cause and you're still going to give it a try? Really? The media campaign, while it will probably bolster our coffers, seems a waste of time.   The rest of it, well, it makes sense. Policing, border security and addiction services will join forces to combat importation, distribution and demand. Customs, Defence and the GCSB will run a series of maritime operations across the Pacific, partnering to collect intelligence and identify drug smugglers on the water.They'll try to find, deter and disrupt shipments before they reach New Zealand. Well, good luck with that, because the drugs come in from Central and South America in a corridor down through the South Pacific where traffickers will use tiny atolls and islands that are part of the Cooks or Tonga or Samoa as refuelling and staging points. Back in 2019, I talked about this with Jose Suza Santos and he talked about the corridor that was well established in 2019 and about the damage being done to Pacific nations with this drugs corridor because of course they'll try it too. They will take the drugs, they'll take their cut, everybody takes a cut along the way, and drugs are apparently a h... Sun, 09 Nov 2025 23:47:48 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/corrie-parnell-nz-police-acting-assistant-commissioner-investigations-serious-and-organised-crime-discusses-fight-against-on-meth/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/corrie-parnell-nz-police-acting-assistant-commissioner-investigations-serious-and-organised-crime-discusses-fight-against-on-meth/ The Government's announced its methamphetamine action plan, calling the drug a 'scourge on our society'. Methamphetamine consumption doubled from 732kg in 2023 to almost 1,500 kilos in 2024, according to police wastewater testing. Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith says the prevention campaign will address importation, distribution and most importantly demand. NZ Police Acting Assistant Commissioner: Investigations, Serious and Organised Crime, Corrie Parnell told Kerre Woodham that 'we've got to tackle it and tackle it hard and front on.' LISTEN ABOVE Sun, 09 Nov 2025 23:28:27 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-spend-a-dollar-to-save-five-why-wouldnt-we-fund-weightloss-drugs/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-spend-a-dollar-to-save-five-why-wouldnt-we-fund-weightloss-drugs/ New Zealand has the third highest adult obesity rate in the OECD, and the rates are going up. One in three adult New Zealanders is classified as obese, and one in 10 children. Even if you take into account, yes, yes, yes, a lot of the All Blacks front row are considered obese if you use the BMI. And yes, you might have a slow metabolism or it's your hormones and there's nothing you can do about it, that's still a lot of fat people and a lot of associated health issues.  The cost of obesity in this country is estimated as being between four and nine billion dollars per year. It's a huge range, four to nine billion, but it's where you classify the different illnesses, and it depends on which survey you look at. Even if you go at the lower limit, $4 billion is a hell of a lot of money to spend on something that doesn't need to happen. Cardiovascular disease alone costs more than three billion. The human misery too that comes with being obese for many kids and adults is another intangible cost.   But now we have a drug for that. GLP-1 is the magic ingredient. It regulates blood sugar levels and slows down the rate at which food leaves the stomach, thus making people fuller for longer. And apparently, according to those who've used it, it turns off the chatter in your head, the constant thinking about food. Well, if I have this and then I walk for an hour and then I'll be able to have something else. Ooh. Ooh, I'm not hungry now, but ooh, imagine what I could have for dinner. Planning the next meal before you've actually finished the one in front of you. It's that constant food chatter. I think Oprah was the first one to talk about it, how she never realised until she took the magic drug, that you didn't have to listen to that noise in your head, that other people didn't have it.  So the GLP-1-mimicking drugs seem to be a powerful tool. They're actually effective.  And after decades of research and money being poured into weight loss drugs, this one seems to work. More importantly, this one doesn't have the side effects of the speed drugs that were given out in the 70s as diet pills. It was basically methamphetamine. Some people are losing around 15% of their body weight or more after just over a year on the semaglutide.  Wegovy became available to New Zealanders in July. It's not publicly funded. It's a weekly drug and comes at an ongoing cost of about $500 a month. Should it be funded?  David Seymour, the Associate Minister for Health, seems to think so. In the past he said, well, if you spend a buck to save five, why wouldn't you?  Although as he points out, Pharmac's decisions are independent of any ministers. The NHS in Britain has done the sums. If the weight loss drugs were prescribed to everyone who needed them according to the stringent criteria, the prohibitively expensive cost would bankrupt the NHS even after taking into account the cost of the health problems that they would inevitably solve. So you would have to do the sums for this country to work out whether it would pay off in the long run. If that's what it does, if, you know, one buck is going to save us five long term. If a huge cohort, in every sense of the word, of New Zealanders is going to live a better life, a healthier life as a result of the investment, surely it's worth it?  But to get buy-in, you would have to get the support of the majority of New Zealanders. One in three adult New Zealanders is classified as obese, two in three aren't. And they might say, well, I'm doing everything right for my body. I'm doing the exercise and I'm not greedy. Some might well see obesity as a moral failing. Throughout history, it's been seen as a moral failing.  One of the seven deadly sins is gluttony. In Dante's Inferno, the gluttons are consigned to the third circle of hell. Gluttons are people with uncontrolled appetites who worship food as a kind of God, according to Dante. Therefore, the gluttons' punishment in... Fri, 07 Nov 2025 00:23:47 Z /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/dave-letele-butterbean-motivation-founder-on-whether-weightloss-drugs-should-be-publicly-funded/ /on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/dave-letele-butterbean-motivation-founder-on-whether-weightloss-drugs-should-be-publicly-funded/ Publicly funding weightloss drugs may not be the answer to the country’s obesity problem.   New Zealand has the third highest adult obesity rate in the OECD, with one in three adults classified as obese, and one in ten children.   Associate Minister of Health David Seymour believes publicly funding things like Wegovy would help save money in the long run.  But community leader and Founder of Butterbean Motivation, Dave Letele told Kerre Woodham that we can’t prescribe our way out of this issue.  While he's not against weightloss drugs, he says they don’t change habits, mindsets, and they don’t break cycles for children.   LISTEN ABOVE  Thu, 06 Nov 2025 22:28:35 Z