Kerre Woodham Mornings Podcast

When I was hunting around trying to find a new home a couple of years ago, looking at everything, among the everything I looked at was a number of apartments in the city. City life appealed. I could walk to work, walk to the theatres, walk to the Comedy Club, the library, the art gallery, cool cafes and shopping precincts just a couple of blocks away, all a single woman of a certain age could poss...

Six thousand years ago these words were inscribed on an Egyptian tomb: “Young people no longer respect their parents. They're rude and impatient. They frequently inhabit taverns and have no self-control.” And then along came Plato in the 4th century BC, and this is probably the one you're more familiar with if you've heard the quote, “What has happened to our young people, they disrespect their el...

David Seymour says they had no choice over leaving 13 new cancer drugs out of the Budget, breaking a National campaign promise.   The ACT leader told Kerre Woodham that the Government inherited a financially struggling Pharmac, and made some tough choices.   He says a Coalition Government can't keep all promises.   LISTEN ABOVE   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A deal's been made with New Zealand’s Aluminium Smelter to keep the smelter at Tiwai operating for the next 20 years.   The agreement includes a significant demand response deal to make more electricity available for the country when it may be required during times of high demand.   It also has commitments for the environmental remediation of the smelter site.   Invercargill Mayor Nobby Clark told...

Donald Trump has become the first former US president to be convicted of a crime.   The former US president's charges are in connection to a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels in the final weeks of the 2016 election.   He was found guilty of 34 felony charges but will appeal the outcome.   US Correspondent Katherine Firkin told Kerre Woodham that now that the verdict has been reached,...

We need information. To create a functioning society, there's certain information that we need to know. How many of us there are in the country for starters. How old we all are, so we know where we need to build schools and what sort of aged care we might need in the future. Roads, public transport, all that sort of stuff depends on knowing where we all are, who we all are, where we work. So many...

The result is in for New Zealand Rugby’s long-awaited governance vote.   Proposal Two, the structure put forth by the country’s provincial unions has won with 69 votes.   The proposal includes a stipulation that at least three of NZR’s nine board directors must have experience serving on a provincial board, in contrast with proposal one —backed by NZR and the players— which wanted all nine directo...

Prolific author and former investigative journalist Jake Adelstein has quite an extensive knowledge of the Yakuza.   He was a reporter for the Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan’s largest newspaper, between 1993 and 2005, and from 2006 to 2007 he was the chief investigator for a US State Department-sponsored investigation into human trafficking in Japan.   He’s written for outfits such as the Independent and...

Fundamentally, I would have thought that limiting debt-to-income is a good idea.   The debt-to-income ratio is the ratio of your total debt —mortgage credit cards, child support payments, hire, purchase, and the like— relative to your total pre-tax income. So, for example, if you have a total debt of $500,000 and your total gross income is $80,000, your debt-to-income ratio is 6.25. It means your...

A petition has been set up asking for students on placement to receive a stipend from the Government, because as part of their qualifications many students, like those in healthcare, social work, and education, are required to complete unpaid placements to practically apply what they've learnt. And it's a really, really good idea because quite often, the theory bears no real relation to reality. Y...

One of the best teachers at my daughter’s intermediate school, Ponsonby Intermediate, was a former chippy-turned-teacher. He was a great example of somebody who'd trained in one career then decided to move into another — teaching. And there's a whole bunch of kids who are very, very glad he made that choice. It was a great pre-Budget announcement from Erica Stanford, who said yesterday $53 million...

Firearm-owners say they aren't reaching out when struggling, for fear their firearms could be taken away by police. With an estimated one in five people struggling with mental illness each year, that means up to 50,000 licence holders refusing to seek the help they might need. General Practice NZ Chair and Porirua GP Dr Bryan Betty joined Kerre Woodham. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for...

Resource Minister Shane Jones is all for opening up our extraction industries.   He says New Zealand has an opportunity to double the value of its mineral exports and mine for elements that are heavily sought after for electric technologies. He released a minerals strategy document with the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) yesterday and has been consistent with making a stron...

Parts of our economy are continuing to provide inflation pressures for the Reserve Bank.   It's decided to keep the OCR at 5.5% and has signalled a rate cut no sooner than the second quarter of next year.   The move to keep the OCR the same was anticipated, but many were hoping for rate cuts to come earlier.   Corelogic’s Chief Property Economist Kelvin Davidson told Kerre Woodham that this is the...

I first heard the catchphrase Survive to 25 when I was talking to be at large, Liam Dann.  It appears to have come out of the US and implies that if mortgagees and small businesses can just hang on till next year things will start to come right. Because let's face it, we're not going to see interest rates drop any time soon. Despite some of the banks predicting that there would be a drop in mortga...

I know we have no money.  I know the government is in dire straits and making really tough decisions when it comes to spending and where that spending is targeted, but I will be so sad if First Home Grants is one of the schemes that gets cut in the review of housing projects that is under way. The review is necessary because the previous government and its agents mismanaged Kainga Ora to the exten...

The scathing review into the government's public housing landlord Kainga Ora, which was led by former Prime Minister Sir Bill English, was released yesterday and it was every bit as bad as those with half a brain had expected.   It found the social housing system is not socially or financially sustainable. As a result, the board has, in effect, been sacked and a new chairman has been appointed.  ...

The report out that workplace bullying is costing the country in terms of productivity and lost earnings is nothing new.  Bullying and harassment are conservatively estimated to cost employers $1.5 billion a year, according to a new study by KPMG, published for Friday's Pink Shirt Day.      Years ago, there was a story on workplace bullying that surfaced in the news and the Department of Labour ha...

Finances are tough for many Kiwis at the moment, with costs skyrocketing across the board.   Mortgages are going up, as is inflation, food costs, gas, and electricity. Banks are expecting the value of “bad mortgage debt” to increase by 40% by the end of 2024, and around 90% of the country’s fixed mortgage debt has an interest rate about 4%.   An estimated 40,000 people had their power cut in 2023...

If you woke up this morning and you turned on the heater because it was a bit chilly, not as chilly as it has been, but a bit chilly, good for you. Did you think about the cost? If you didn’t, lucky you. An estimated 40,000 New Zealand households had their power cut due to unpaid bills in 2023, which is a phenomenal number of households. One in five had trouble paying their monthly power bill and...

Late in the show yesterday, Police Commissioner Andrew Coster along with Police Minister Mark Mitchell announced they would be introducing a National Gang Unit to crack down on gang crime and gangs’ anti-social behaviour.    Coster said police know gang members commit a large amount of the crime in New Zealand. I don’t think it’s a state secret. I think most of us are well aware that the gangs are...

David Seymour says the Government is diversifying education by bringing back charter schools.   More than $150 million from the Budget will go towards setting up 15 new charter schools and converting 35 state schools.   Charter schools get government funding but operate independently.   They were abolished by the Labour-led coalition in 2018.   The Associate Education Minister told Kerre Woodham t...

Charter schools are making a comeback.    So, what happened last time?    When ACT was in confidence and supply with the John Key government, they were able to establish charter schools and they managed to establish 11 of them.   Charter schools were designed to be a place for children who didn't fit into mainstream education. They had different structures, a different layout, and a different form...

How on earth can the IRD allow child support arrears to get to more than $1 billion?    I could understand it if chasing up payments involved men and women using telephones and ledger books, sharpening their pencils to make fresh calculations - but in this age of technology and electronic payments and with IRD having the power to rifle through bank accounts, it seems inconceivable that it could be...

Consumers will be feeling unsettled as the reliability of electricity supply is tested.   A cold snap and low wind generation meant the country faced a potential supply shortfall, and Transpower asked people to reduce electricity use between 7 and 9am.   Consumer Advocacy Council chair Deborah Hart says this kind of situation is not new, but the market model is obviously not working.   She said th...