Kerre Woodham Mornings Podcast

Today's rise in unemployment isn't unexpected.  Latest Stats NZ data shows the unemployment rate has reached an almost nine-year high of 5.3% in the September quarter.  160 thousand people have been looking for a job, while another 138 thousand have been wanting more work.  The Herald's Liam Dann told Kerre Woodham today's figures are exactly as forecast by economists.  He says...

Can you believe the bean counters at ACC are taking the knife to its funding for Water Safety NZ?   Their reasoning is that they’ve poured all this money into Water Safety NZ but they’re not seeing a return on that investment. Which would be a reduction in drowning-related claims.   But I’m with Water Safety NZ, which is saying today that good progress has been made, and this funding cut...

Buckingham Palace has announced that King Charles will remove all of his brother, Prince Andrew's, titles. The statement from Buckingham Palace related the announcement to the allegations of sexual abuse by the late Virginia Giuffre. Andrew Mountbatten Windsor's title will not be immediately stripped as UK Correspondent Gavin Grey said the process of removing his titles "will take some time".&nbsp...

Five years ago, Port of Auckland was struggling with a shocking health and safety record. Three people had died and many more had been injured at work. Financially, the company was dealing with a costly but flawed automation project, and COVID added plenty of headaches for the global shipping industry too. The company needed a complete turnaround, and Roger Gray was picked as the new chief executi...

New Zealand's drug laws are in the spotlight again and with good reason. Despite record police busts, we're still seeing record methamphetamine use, we're seeing increasingly dangerous street drugs, and rising overdose deaths, three a week from drug overdoses. There have been calls to overhaul the 50-year-old Misuse of Drugs Act and the call comes from a number of different organisations. The Drug...

Power is still out to many rural South Island properties. Just under six thousand are still cut off in Clutha and Southland, where States of Emergency continue. More than three-thousand weather-related insurance claims have been lodged so far. Federated Farmers Southland President Jason Herrick told Kerre Woodham that, 'people were helping one another and I'll tell you what, I'm hearing some stori...

I thought I'd start with the idea, the initiative, if you will, coming out of the think tank, the New Zealand Initiative. I love generally the work that they produce because even though you might not agree with the ideas that they put forward, there's generally a good discussion to be had. You hear the pros, you hear the cons, you think, mmm, okay. This one though, I'm not so sure. More MPs. Incre...

When the Government unveiled it's maths action plan in August last year, we spoke to Distinguished Maths Professor Gaven Martin. Widely regarded as New Zealand's leading mathematician, Gaven gave the new plan better odds of working than curriculum under the previous Government.   Now, more than 40 maths educators and researchers have written an open letter calling on the Ministry of Education...

Early this morning, the Labour Party made a surprise Capital Gains Tax announcement. The targeted tax would raise funds for the health system, including three free doctors' visits per year. The tax wouldn't apply to the family home, farms, KiwiSaver, shares, business assets, inheritances, and personal items. Dentons Tax Partner Bruce Bernacchi told Kerre Woodham that, "people will call it a capita...

I was looking last night at things we could talk about, and there was plenty to talk about, all of which got superseded by Labour, Labour, Labour - having to release their capital gains tax, which is targeted to three free doctors' visits. Labour's been playing peekaboo with a capital gains tax for some time now. Oh, will we, won't we? Oh, what's it going to look like? Can't tell you. And now they...

They say when one door closes, another one opens.   That’s certainly been the case for Lisa King. In the same breath she closed her first business Eat My Lunch and started a drinks brand AF Drinks. AF stands for alcohol free - and it's a range of booze free cocktails. The brand has picked up on a huge rise in people who want to drink less or not at all.   It’s a change not just seen in N...

Extreme winds are battering Wellington, Wairapa and the South Island.  Winds of up to 150km/h are expected today as red strong wind warnings are in place for much of the South Island's eastern regions and southern parts of the North Island.  More than 100 flights have been cancelled, along with some of the planned strikes in tehe affected areas.   Transpower Executive General Manage...

Talkback isn't really the place for good news. Generally, it's a forum where we can vent our respective spleens, express our frustrations, have a good old moan, and yes, we do share stories and we exchange information, but mainly it's to bristle about things that we feel aren't going right and could be better. Good news, we tend to think that, oh, good, yes, things are back on track. They've liste...

Labour released some policies yesterday. Very late in the piece, and you can kind of see why. Just like that, we're back to 2017 with a cut and paste of lofty rhetoric, promises to spend lots of money, and little to no detail. It's a dud, I think it's fair to say. And it's not just me saying that. Oh, we'd expect you to say that, you hate Labour. No, I don't hate Labour. I just hate really, really...

Annual inflation has risen to a 15-month high of 3%.  Economists had been expecting inflation to reach or surpass the 3% upper limit of the Reserve Bank's target band.  The central bank's expected to look past this current spike when it reviews the OCR next month.  New Zealand Herald Business Editor-at-large Liam Dann told Kerre Woodham that, “this this drip feeding of the rate cuts...

Beneficiaries who break the Government's job hunt rules face more intensive sanctions to prove they are hunting for employment.  From today, they will be required to report on at least three job search activities a week and participate in four weeks of training courses.  Minister for social development and employment Louise Upston told Kerre Woodham that the rules are for people, “who ar...

New Zealand's first sports school will open next year, in a partnership with Wellington Phoenix.  The New Zealand Performance Academy in Upper Hutt will operate as a charter school for serious aspiring sportspeople.  The academy will initially offer elite football training alongside the Wellington Phoenix Academy, as well as rugby training.  New Zealand Performance Academy Aotearoa...

New rules come into force for job seekers today, as the government continues efforts to get more young people off a benefit and into work. It's a very worthwhile enterprise. Do not let young people drift onto a benefit because there they will stay for around about 18 years, which is a hell of a life to condemn any young person to. Hang on a minute though, weren't there sanctions announced in May?...

Rod Duke has been selling things since he was 16. First shoes, then appliances, and eventually homewares and sportswear.   Born in Adelaide, Duke came to New Zealand in 1988 to spruce up a flailing Briscoes for sale. Two years later he scored the best Briscoes deal ever, he bought the whole company himself for $2.   He ended up with 12 shabby stores, where dusty wine glasses were sitting...

I can't think of much worse than being labelled a child abuser, a child pornographer. It's such an abhorrent, vile, aberrant perversion of a crime. All crime is evil. But when it involves children, there's something particularly sickening about it.  Those who collect images of babies and children being sexually abused, in my opinion, are as culpable for the torture of these children as the me...

A businessman from a prominent family, Wayne Wright Jr was falsely identified on social media of being a name suppressed individual from a wealthy family who was charged and sentenced for knowingly possessing thousands of objectionable material files and knowingly importing the content. Mat Mowbray was also incorrectly as the person, but the Herald and a document from the Ministry of Justice...

Fewer state houses, more private rentals. The New Zealand Initiative believes that giving tenants vouchers to spend on rent could help more vulnerable people and save taxpayers money. And Sir Bill English agrees. In a rare interview on the Mike Hosking Breakfast this morning, the former Prime Minister says providing state housing is not just about putting a roof over the head of a vulnerable famil...

A report by The New Zealand Initiative finds the Government's ownership of 77,000 state houses has maintenance costs nearly twice that of a private landlord. It finds it also doesn't respond quickly enough to issues like rent arrears, and troublesome tenants. CEO of community housing Paul Gilberd told Kerre Woodham that the top priority for government housing is to support society's most vulnerabl...

Former New Zealand Prime Minister Jim Bolger has died at the age of 90. He was New Zealand's 35th prime minister, in power from 1990 to 1997. After leaving Parliament in 1998, Bolger became New Zealand's ambassador to the United States and later Chancellor of the University of Waikato. Clare de Lore is a journalist who was Chair of the Press Gallery at the time Jim Bolger was Prime Minister,...

Do you want another example of Labour's ideology over pragmatism? I really, really hope that the previous Labour ministers have learned from their previous terms in government that thought bubbles and bright ideas do not sound policy make.   Remember Fees Free? The policy was introduced in 2018 and was a key part of Labour's election campaign. The first year of tertiary study would be free fo...