Kerre Woodham Mornings Podcast

The largest agricultural expo in the Southern Hemisphere, one of the largest business expos in the Southern Hemisphere, has opened its gates this morning, and exhibitors are ready to do business.   That hasn't always been the case in Fieldays’ 57 year history – the rural economy has had its ebbs and flows over the years, and Fieldays in Hamilton has felt them. Confidence has waxed and waned,...

As more people take the leap to owning their own businesses, many seem to be buying into already established brands.  Data suggests the business of franchising and owning established brands is booming, with around 30,000 franchise unites currently existing nationwide.  Association CEO Katrina King told Kerre Woodham they see franchising as being in business for yourself, but not by yours...

There’s been plenty of buzz around AI in the last few years.  The most recent headlines have been highlighting its evils, such as the creation and lack of regulation around deepfake technology and fake pornography.  However, there are many positive applications for AI technology, particularly in business.  Justin Flitter, founder of NewZealand. AI, joined Kerre Woodham to discuss th...

If you turned up to work yesterday, first day of a new week, with a bad case of Mondayitis, feeling like you're getting nowhere working for the man, thinking now is the time in your life when you should be the master of your own destiny, making your own decisions, getting the true reward for your labours, well join the queue.   Buyer demand for New Zealand businesses is on the up with large b...

ASB is offering loans to help farmers balance their energy costs.  They’re offering five-year, interest-free loans of up to $150,000 for the installation of solar and battery systems on their properties.  The bank said farm electricity costs are rising, with the average 2025/26 season power bill expected to be around $28,000 for owner-operated dairy farms.  Research found most farms...

When I was doing the rounds of the open homes, travelling all over the Auckland isthmus a couple of years ago, I was looking for something quite specific. A house where I could have my own space and where the kids could live separately as a family, because we were buying together. And there were quite a few just like that. One house I visited was owned by two doctors, they had two children, and th...

Kerre Woodham talks to NZ Blood Service CEO Sam Cliffe at the start of National Blood Donor week.  NZ Blood is asking Kiwi's to find their superpower and start saving lives by becoming a blood or plasma donor.  COVID's impact on the methods of recruiting young blood donors has led to a decrease in the number of young people donating blood. Since 2020, there has been a 25% decrease in the...

Clearer boundaries around Kāinga Ora tenant behaviour could explain a 600% surge in formal warnings.   In the past 10 months, 63 tenancies were terminated because of abusive, threatening, or persistently disruptive behaviour.  Nearly 1,500 warnings have been issued in the financial year to date.   Chief executive Matt Crockett told Kerre Woodham behaviour isn't worse, rather the pre...

It's not really a huge shock, is it? The news that homeowners will have to pay even more for home insurance to help the Natural Hazards Commission (formerly known as the EQC), is to be expected. Insurers have been warning for years that premiums will rise and will continue to rise, that they may have to put some of the cost of risky properties back onto homeowners and in some cases, they'll be dec...

Honestly, I don't know why we report on polls. Seriously, I don't know why I'm even talking about them myself, but it's really ripped my nightie overnight. They're so frustrating, and because media companies commission them, it makes the media look like master manipulators.  This is from 1News last night (I didn't watch 1News, obvs) but this is from their website – both National and Labour ha...

Kiwi business leaders fear the impact of Donald Trump's tariffs will be more severe than the impact of the Global Financial Crisis and the Covid pandemic.  ASB and Talbot Mills have been surveying more than 300 business leaders, including CEOs and founders.  Two-thirds of businesses are concerned about the impacts, including almost 80% of exporters.  Meat, dairy and wine are expecte...

How is it that two recent polls had such starkly different outcomes?  The latest RNZ Reid Research poll —out this morning— has the right bloc on 46.4, behind the left bloc on 50.3.  But the latest 1 News Verian poll —released last night— has the right bloc on 50-percent, well ahead of the left bloc on 45.  Curia Market Research Owner David Farrar told Kerre Woodham that when you pol...

On average, there are 73 work-related deaths in New Zealand every single year. Relative to the number of people in employment, the New Zealand workplace fatality rate is double that of Australia, and it hasn't shifted in many, many years. More road cones have not made a difference. The New Zealand rate is similar to the rate the UK experienced back in the 1980s. The gap between New Zealand and Aus...

The rise of generative AI could be putting children at risk.  Gloria Masters, founder of ' Handing The Shame Back' , believes the current digital environment has enabled “much more sexualised content” of children to be available to predators.  AI tools allow people to remove clothing from people in photos, such as children, creating fake nude images they can then trade.  She told Ke...

You might have heard ACT leader David Seymour on the Breakfast show this morning. He says there will almost certainly be prosecutions against parents of absent students this year as the Government intensifies its crackdown on school truancy. And it's not even truancy, in my mind truancy are kids doing a bunk, wagging, taking a day off. What this is, is parental neglect. Parents who are failing to...

Construction of New Zealand's first large scale grid battery storage system has finished in Ruakākā, just south of Whangārei.   The Meridian Energy project has storage capacity of 200 megawatt-hours, which is enough to power 60 thousand homes for two hours.   It will provide greater resilience and reduce strain to the Northland power and reduce strain on the wider power supply.   Gu...

What on Earth do we do with young people who were born in New Zealand, who have lived in New Zealand all of their lives, but who aren't New Zealanders? They've never known any other home, but they can't get healthcare, they can't get a driver's licence, they can't get a job, they can't pay taxes.   In 2006, a law change under the Helen Clark Government removed the right to citizenship by birt...

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. You cannot go into an election promising to get tough on crime, win the election and vow to draw a line in the sand, declare war on the crims, and then issue a directive that police won't turn up to minor crime. To paraphrase supermodel Linda Evangelista, who famously said she wouldn't get out of bed for less than $10,000, it appears our coppers won't get out of their Sk...

The Police Minister is reassuring retailers officers will still turn up to reports of shoplifting.  RNZ reports staff have been directed to not investigate retail crime below $500 and online fraud below $1000.   Police may not take further action if the reports don't have enough evidence, such as CCTV.  However, Mark Mitchell told Kerre Woodham every crime deserves a response. ...

Two new ‘non-financial’ sanctions have come into force today for beneficiaries, who, in the words of the MSD, do not meet their obligations or, as other people might put it, who do not get off their arses and go and look for a job. Some people may have half their weekly benefits put onto a payment card for four weeks, that can only be spent on essential items at approved shops. Others may als...

It's been revealed how outdoor education can help build teenagers up.  The Boyle River Outdoor Education Centre is 20 minutes east of the Lewis Pass.  They're a not-for-profit organisation offering outdoor education programmes to secondary school groups and are in the business of fostering leadership, growth and confidence in young people.  Boyle River Outdoor Education Centre Manag...

The Prime Minister's keen to raise the retirement age -- but it's not possible in coalition with New Zealand First. The Government is halving its KiwiSaver contribution rate -- and canning if people earning more than 180-thousand dollars. The default rate of worker and business contributions to KiwiSaver will rise over time. Chris Luxon told Kerre Woodham pushing out the retirement age to 67 makes...

Isn't it cruelly, cruelly ironic that yesterday we were talking about just how tough it is in retail, and we have the news that after 145 years, Smith and Caughey's, the last of the great, grand department stores, famous for the high-end goods, the beautiful Christmas window displays, will close its doors for the final time by July 31st. Ninety-eight jobs will be lost, but it's more losing a basti...

I don't know where the Head of Research at JLL, the commercial property company, I does his shopping, but it cannot be anywhere that I go. If you've ever wondered what the definition of gaslighting is, you may well have heard it this morning. Chris Dibble —the Head of Research at JLL— was on the wireless claiming that we have a critical under-supply of retail space in this country, and that to kee...

Public transport is brilliant when it works. You cannot beat it for convenience, for timeliness, for moving large numbers of people expeditiously and in an environmentally friendly-ish kind of a way, when it works. When it doesn't, it's a pain. Look at the poor Auckland rail commuters this morning – due to an infrastructure issue at Penrose, there were delays and cancellations. No services running...