Kerre Woodham Mornings Podcast

Labour leader Chris Hipkins admits his party’s Auckland light rail and KiwiBuild policies were “undeliverable” when proposed ahead of the 2017 election. Hipkins, speaking to Newstalk ZB this morning, made the concession amid his reflections on the 2023 election campaign in which he believed Labour struggled to resonate with voters who had “decided it was time for a change”. The Remutaka MP joined...

The Commerce Commission says the banking sector lacks competition.   Its study has found a two-tier system with the four major banks having an apparent focus on maintaining profits, resulting in stable market shares, high profits, and an underinvestment in their platforms.    Herald Wellington Business Editor Jenee Tibshraeny told Kerre Woodham that the Commission says if we give a smaller bank, K...

We knew it was bad.   You knew it. I knew it. Anyone with half a brain knew it was bad, but now we have the data to back up the calls, the stories, the headlines from last year. Police stats supplied to the Dairy and Business owners group show that in 2023, 148,599 crimes were reported at retail locations. Lot of figures in here, I'm sorry, 148,599 crimes.   So, if you break that down, that is 12,...

One of the keystone policies of the last government was its Sustaining Tenancies Framework. It was the best and the worst in a way of Labour, because in theory and on paper it makes a certain kind of sense.   You give one of the most dispossessed and tragic of humans a home. They don't have one. They never had a show from the time they were born. If you look at some of the children taken in by Ora...

I wanted to get into this on Friday when the IRD released it’s figures about the online gambling tax, and we were overrun by events. So, let's have a look at this today for the first hour at least because the Government books are open, the numbers have been crunched, and reality is starting to bite.   The size of Grant Robertson's hole has been revealed, and the optimistic numbers National was thr...

Green Party MP Darleen Tana has been suspended amid allegations she is linked to migrant exploitation at her husband’s company. A statement from the Greens’ co-leaders said Tana was suspended on Thursday afternoon because it was a conflict of interest with her small business portfolio.   The claims first came to light on February 1 when Tana informed the party a complaint had been made to the Empl...

Every government minister will be going for the takeaways and cracking open a bottle of something tonight, won’t they?   They might even put a movie on as well, but they’ll probably nod-off after a few minutes.   Because that 100-day plan the boss dreamed-up, done and dusted. Delivered. KPIs met. It went to the wire with Shane leaving his big health announcement to the last minute. But we got ther...

The pilot for military-style academies that are designed to turn around persistent young offenders will get underway by the middle of the year. Ten young people initially, and they'll spend up to four months —that is all the legislation allows— within their Academy.   And therein lies the problem, because according to all the best experts and best practice, it takes at least 12 months to break old...

Well, whoofty! Where do we start with transport after the huge policy drop yesterday? Fifteen roads of national significance have been given the go ahead, no ifs, no buts. Despite the eye-watering expense, the Prime Minister says they are essential to building a productive economy. How are we going to pay for it? Good question. Because basically it's just picking a number and multiplying it by the...

Infrastructure NZ's welcoming the renewal of National's Roads of National Significance programme.   The Government's draft transport plan features a half-a-billion dollar pothole prevention fund and 15 new major roads.   It'll be funded in part by a $25 dollar increase to vehicle registration fees in each of the next two years.   CEO Nick Leggett told Kerre Woodham that the previous Government ini...

Associate Education Minister David Seymour says free school lunches can’t continue at such a cost – arguing there’s no evidence it works.   The previous Government committed more than $300 million to fund the school lunch programme to the end of this year. The programme will be reviewed by Seymour, looking for ways to make it more efficient.   Charity KidsCan supports schools and early childhood c...

We thought we'd start this morning with the review into the efficacy, or lack thereof, of school lunches. Associate Education Minister David Seymour says free school lunches, as they stand, are a prime example of wasteful public spending. They'd like to do away with them altogether, but he told Mike Hosking this morning that his party is just one within the coalition government. Tthere are other p...

This annoys me because I shouldn't have to be talking about it, and because in the scheme of things, given what the country is facing, there are far, far bigger fish to fry.   However, it speaks to an attitude, and it speaks to leading by example, and it speaks to having an understanding of what people, ordinary people, people who might be losing their jobs, people who might be losing their homes,...

Now, what on Earth is going on within immigration New Zealand? Ever since the days of the late, unlamented Iain Lees-Galloway, the department has been struggling. A pause was placed on the processing of grandparents' visas, that was before Covid. Migrant workers are still being exploited by unscrupulous employers, despite a number of reviews under former Immigration Ministers. Last year it was rev...

Where to start from this morning's program?!   The Mike Hosking Breakfast was the gift that kept on giving, what with Stuart Nash effectively cutting any ties that remained with an existing Labour Party you would have to say, to say ‘I was all for getting tough on the gangs, but nobody would support me.’   And then we had Jan Tinetti responding to National’s press conference yesterday saying so ma...

As promised, the coalition government has announced legislation designed to make life just a little bit tougher for gangs. They are not the first government to try and control the range and the breadth and the strength of the various gangs in this country, they are unlikely to be the last. As far back as 1972, Labour leader Norm Kirk promised in the run up to the election that he would take the bi...

If the aim of the former Labour government was to get more students from lower income families into tertiary training, it doesn't work.   There is, according to the Tertiary Education Commission who reported to Parliament this week, no discernible evidence that the fees-free —the first-year fees free scheme introduced by Labour— has improved participation from low socioeconomic groups at all. Nada...

The application of the last Government's fees free policy may not have done enough to target the people it was aimed at.   The Tertiary Education Commission has told a select committee there's no discernible evidence that the first-year free policy helped more low decile school students into university.   First Foundation CEO Kirk Sargent told Kerre Woodham that while removing financial barriers t...

Benefits are on blast at the moment, but one professor thinks a universal basic income may be cheaper.   Data from the Ministry of Social Development shows that 109,000 kiwis on the Jobseeker benefit have received it for at least a year.   Tim Hazledine, Emeritus Professor of Economics at the University of Auckland, suggests we scrap the welfare system altogether, replacing it with a universal bas...

We have in the news yet another report into Oranga Tamariki. Yet another damning indictment into an organisation that should never exist. The Chief Ombudsman has called for changes “on a scale rarely required” at Oranga Tamariki. He reviewed about 2000 complaints over four years for his report children in care, complaints to the Ombudsman, 2019 to 2023. He said he could not yet provide reassurance...

Hands up all those who felt personally attacked this morning when you heard the stories about New Zealanders and obesity? Not you? Just me then?!    All morning we've been hearing stats like these: one in three New Zealand adults is carrying enough excess body weight to affect their health. That would be people with a BMI of 30 or above. There's an increase in obesity, with that, an increase in pr...

The criticisms have come thick and fast in the wake of the coalition government's announcement that there would be sanctions applied to job seekers who choose not to actively look for work, despite help and support that is supposed to be coming from MSD officials. If after all that help and support you, choose not to take a job, then sanctions will apply.   I'm starting to know what you mean when...

Criticism of the Government’s welfare reforms have been coming in thick and fast.   Figures from Stats NZ have revealed that 40,000 people under the age of 25 are currently on the Jobseeker benefit, an increase of 66% compared to six years ago.   The Government plans to increase the number of check ins for those on the benefit and reintroduce sanctions for those who don’t meet their obligations.  ...

The Prime Minister, Christopher Luxon, in his State of the Nation speech over the weekend, spelled it out loud and clear for those who haven't yet got the message.  New Zealand is in for a world of pain over the next couple of years. He slammed the dumb and stupid policies of the previous government, and said while he believed New Zealand was the world's best country, and had the world's best peop...

Watercare Auckland is aiming to reduce wet-weather overflows into streams and beaches.   The massive Central Interceptor tunnel will store, as well as transport stormwater and wastewater, taking it to the Māngere Wastewater Treatment Plant for processing.   Due for completion in 2026, the project is 16.2 kilometres long and the largest wastewater infrastructure project in New Zealand history.   Wa...