Kerre Woodham Mornings Podcast

Our economy was well on the way to recovery, driven by a resurgence in manufacturing, before the fuel crisis hit.  Stats NZ data out today shows GDP rose 0.8% in both the quarter and year to March.  Equipment manufacturing, food production, accounting and businesses services, wholesale trade, and agriculture were all doing well.  But mining had a big drop, as well as residential and...

I'm going to start with good news today. Now, I know we don't normally, but it is such good news I have to comment, and it's also a topic dear to all our respective talkback hearts. And that is that almost all of Parliament is backing the 30 year infrastructure plan. You'll have heard it in our news, the Coalition Government comprising National, ACT, and New Zealand First, as well as Labour and th...

The Opportunity Party says a property tax shake-up's front of mind.  The Party needs 5% to break into the Beehive, and has been scoring between 3% and 6% in polls.  The centrist party's proposing a blanket Land Value Tax, claiming it'll bring house prices down by up to 15%.  Leader Qiulae Wong told Kerre Woodham they want land banking to become less attractive.  She says it's a...

More than a million households could be overpaying for power this winter, as more Kiwis struggle to pay the bill at all. Around half of Kiwi households haven’t switched providers in five or more years, which is potentially costing them hundreds of extra dollars a year.  Consumer NZ says that sticking with the same provider can result in a “loyalty tax”, as better deals are often only offered...

The way the Government acquires land under the Public Works Act is being labelled unfair.   Grey Lynn locals are the latest to deal with their land potentially being bought for a major Auckland busway.   The Transport Agency plans to build the 18 kilometre Northwest Busway, to link the CBD with the city's western suburbs.   It will soon be acquiring half of the homes on Ivanhoe Road...

Life isn't fair. It's one of the first lessons you learn. And it's not fair when you find yourself, or more accurately your home, right smack in the middle of a vital piece of infrastructure. There's been so many cases around the country over a long period of time, but more recently you had the buyout of houses after the Canterbury quakes. Technically the buyouts of more than 8,000 properties were...

Now we were saying this last week and it hasn't gone away and it's not going to go away as the different parties announce their policies in the lead up to the election. How do we know what's true and what's not when it comes to costings? When it comes to millions and billions of dollars, how do we keep tabs on it? We can't. Nicola Willis says there's an $18.2 billion gaping hole between Labour's p...

Men’s Health Week is underway, with a warning one in four Kiwi men won’t live long enough to get the pension. The campaign says raising the retirement age ignores big health gaps—especially for Māori and Pasifika men—and is urging guys to start making small changes to improve their health. Men's Health Week Director Mark Sainsbury joins Kerre Woodham to discuss the campaign.  LISTEN ABOVE See...

The United States and Iran have reached a deal to end their war and will hold an official signing ceremony on Friday in Switzerland. Sky News Washington Correspondent Jonathan Kearsley joins Kerre Woodham to discuss the details of the deal, and what the conditions for each side are.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Our meth use continues to break records. According to the latest wastewater drug test, methamphetamine use is up 15% since the last quarter. And wastewater testing is pretty accurate. Consumption of methamphetamine and MDMA both increased. MDMA use does have a seasonal component though, they said, with increases during the summer music festival period from January to March. People pop a pill while...

Connectivity is top of mind for many South Island voters.   South Island businesses are banding together to push their priorities onto the election agenda, using a major new conference to pressure political leaders on growth, infrastructure and workforce issues.  And for the average person, mobile coverage and connectivity is a big issue – with dropouts and lacking 4G/5G coverage causing...

They say hope is the last thing to die. And thus it was yesterday when I heard Labour's first policy announcement in months. Give me a reason to vote for Labour – and they didn't. Chris Hipkins and Tangi Utikere announced a cap of some public transport fares —mostly for the cities, mostly for Auckland, where there's already a cap— that cuts off at a lower spending base. Not really the sort of bold...

The fact that life is a bit of a grind for many people, and has been for some time, means we start to question the natural order of things. When you can pay your bills, have time to spend doing what you enjoy with the people you love, when there aren't glaring inequities, when the failure of the present system and the people who run it aren't up in your face, when you don't see homeless people and...

Public outcry over the entitlements used by Members of Parliament is the only thing that will get them changed, a political analyst says.  Labour Leader Chris Hipkins has come under fire for using a generous publicly funded private superannuation scheme to pay off the mortgage of his family holiday home, saying that ultimately, it’s his money.   Other MPs have also been criticised for cl...

The Police Commissioner says he should have known months ago that senior officer Rakesh Naidoo had decided to run for Labour, to protect Police impartially.  Police Minister Mark Mitchell says Naidoo has been privy to private information.  Commissioner Richard Chambers says he only found out on Sunday, while Labour says Naidoo told a supervisor his intentions last Thursday.  Chamber...

Quite frankly, it's all getting a bit much. We're all tightening our belts, we're making decisions about where we're spending our money, what we're spending it on. The rates keep rising, insurance levies keep going up, the cost of everything is through the roof. And for many, many people, there's not a lot of disposable left at the end of the day. Even people who are earning pretty good salaries a...

Bayleys CEO Mark Macky joined Kerre Woodham to discuss everything to do with the current housing market including prices, predictions, where the demand is, and advice for first home buyers.  Macky said that despite the recent changes in the market, for those buying and selling there shouldn't be an issue, "the good news for them though, is that, if you're buying and selling in the same market...

Labour's accusing the government of secretly spending $1 billion from next year's budget. The Taxpayers' Union has chimed in too, accusing the government of political skulduggery over the billion dollars in undisclosed future spending. It amounts to $22 million in '27, '28 before ramping up over a four year period. Heather du Plessis Allan asked the Prime Minister about it this morning and he said...

It's just so infuriating when you see criminals who are given sentences that in no way reflect the heinous nature of their crime. It would be lovely, well not lovely, but it would be admirable to have faith in a justice system, not simply have to endure a legal system.  The Aussies know how to do it. There was a particularly ghastly pack rape of a young woman who had the misfortune to be walk...

I wanted to start today with a landmark study from Monash University. It's found that a routine arming of police officers does not lead to a spike in trigger happy coppers. In fact, after Aussie coppers were armed in the early 1990s, there was a downward trend in shooting rates. The research, which investigated 50 years of officer-involved shootings in Australia between 1970 and 2020, challenges t...

The speed of the changes to council voting rights is sparking some concern.   The Government is amending the Local Government Act, which would strip non-elected representatives of voting rights on council committees.  Changes would impact iwi and youth representatives, although Treaty-based committees are exempt.  Local Government NZ Board Member and Rotorua Mayor Tania Tapsell told...

The Government will stop unelected individuals from voting on council committees, a move an Act MP has described as closing an anti-democratic loophole. It seems like a no brainer. Why should unelected individuals have the right to vote on council committees? Of course people who have never been elected to a council or a government shouldn't be given voting rights. You can certainly ask people for...

Defence Minister Chris Penk opened the door, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon slammed it shut. Chris Penk was at the Shangri La Dialogue, an annual security forum held in Singapore where defence ministers and military chiefs from across the Asia Pacific gather every year.  Asked whether New Zealand might ease its rules to allow nuclear powered submarines into its waters, given that Australia'...

As far as Budgets in economically precarious times go, I thought it was a pretty good one.  And save yourself the 20 cents, anonymous texter. I can see you typing from here. "Well, you would say that, Tokyo Rose, wouldn't you?"  Well yes, come on, be fair though – what on Earth were they supposed to do? We were warned that there would be very little money to spend. The Government resiste...

So what would you rather? A little bit of pain now or a whole lot more later? The Reserve Bank yesterday opted to keep the official cash rate at 2.25%, but the decision to hold was a close-run thing. And we know that now because of the transparency around the decisions being made and a jolly good thing it is too. Governor Dr. Anna Breman had to use her casting vote. The Monetary Policy Committee w...