Kerre Woodham Mornings Podcast

I can't help but enjoy the rich irony.   NIWA, the Crown owned weather research institute, has had a big spend up on its vehicle fleet. Four big, grunty Chevy Silverados to be exact - 2024 models, apparently judging by the regos, retailing to you and to me for around $ 172K.   Although I have no doubt that NIWA managed to squeeze that down a bit —I hope they did, I hope they negotiated— the utes w...

The Government is promising to tackle construction costs.   Stats NZ data shows the cost of building a house has increased by 41% since 2019, making housing even more unaffordable for Kiwi families.   Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk wants costs to go down.   He's vowing to streamline the consenting process, saying the little guys have been shut out because of red tape.   AUT'S Profes...

I did laugh when I saw the Retirement Commissioner’s report out yesterday, because I thought here we go again, round it comes the first of the twice-yearly discussions on whether we should lift the age of eligibility for the New Zealand Super- which we have been discussing for as long as I have been a journalist, I think, and that is a very, very long time. You do get occasionally a political part...

Today is Valentines Day, but not everyone is coupled up.   Over 40’s are calling time on dating apps, finding it harder and harder to find a partner.   They’re fatigued by the endless swiping, cautious of scams and catfish, and looking for a safer and more bespoke way of finding love.   Theresa Gattung, former Telecom CEO and co-founder of My Food Bag, is the founder of Compatico, a premium matchm...

Further to the story yesterday regarding the police’s planned withdrawal from social services call outs, there's been a damning indictment of our 111 system.   According to papers released after an OIA put in by RNZ, the government was warned a year ago that the 111-emergency call system is so old, so slow, and so fragmented, that it is causing deaths and injuries.   So, the emergency services put...

Funny old thing, last Thursday, Matt rang in - a serving police officer. He was calling in response to comments that the police simply don't have the time to turn up to burglaries and assaults at supermarkets. We were talking about Foodstuffs looking at introducing facial recognition cameras and other forms of security, because the thefts and the assaults on staff have got completely out of hand....

Police are looking to re-focus on what it calls core business, by pulling back from family harm and mental health call-outs. A briefing to new Police Minister Mark Mitchell, the organisation says it's planning a "managed withdrawal" from certain Policing operations whilst also calling mental health a crisis. Police said it had been forced to step in when it came to family harm, mental health, and...

Now, last year, National promised that, should it become the government, it would among other things scrap the Auckland Regional Fuel Tax, and yesterday they did just that.     Since the 1st of July 2018, Aucklanders have paid an additional 11.5 cents per litre tax on fuel, over and above what the rest of the country pays. Of course, the rest of the country may well feel the effects of that when i...

As promised, the coalition government has followed through on its promise to scrap Labour's target of reducing the prison population by 30%, although it looks like Chris Hipkins got in before the government could in the lead up to last year's election.   Then Prime Minister Chris Hipkins, in a desperate scramble for votes, said the prison population reduction target is already gone. Gone. It was p...

Foodstuff's introduction of facial recognition technology —with the hope of reducing repeat criminal offenders— has the Privacy Commissioner concerned.   The grocery chain is trialling facial scanning in its North Island stores across the next six months.   Commissioner Michael Webster told Kerre Woodham that facial recognition isn't a proven tool to reduce harmful behaviour in supermarkets.   He...

Have there ever been school holidays that have gone on quite so long?   I mean, I know that when I was a school kid back in the antediluvian times, school holidays did seem to go on forever and ever and ever. Did they ever go on this long? I hope that you had a fabulous time with your family and that you're looking forward to them being settled into some sort of routine.   How glorious was Waitang...

Stats NZ figures out today show unemployment has crept to its highest level since June 2021.   The unemployment rate in the three months to December was 4%.   Herald Business Editor at Large, Liam Dann, says it's still lower than many economists were picking.   He says there will be winners and losers out of this.   Dann says people hoping for an OCR cut may have to wait longer, but more people wi...

Showing up. Turning up when you're supposed to. That leads me neatly to the Prime Minister's comments yesterday when he visited Browns Bay School.  He said parents need to wake up and be a part of solving the problem of low school attendance. He said wake up, talk to your kids and get them to school. And I'm not going to argue that parents need to take a whole lot more responsibility when it comes...

We're talking a whole lot of rubbish this morning. I know some people who are passionate recyclers. They know their shinizzle. If Mastermind was still being broadcast, recycling - the what's the how's and the where’s - would be their specialty subject. There are others who simply don't care. Can't be bothered. Load of nonsense. It's not going to save the planet anyway. it's too hard, a load of bol...

Recycling will become more efficient across the country, as new rules come into place today. Standardised recycling requires almost everyone to place paper, glass and plastic types 1, 2 and 5 in their bins. Lids and aerosol cans are no longer accepted, while items like empty pizza boxes are. Packaging Forum CEO Rob Langford says these changes have been in development for over a year now. LISTEN AB...

I was reading Robert Mcculloch's most excellent “Down to Earth Kiwi” blog.   His latest piece is an article on mass immigration and making the premise that high net immigration will ultimately dilute the influence of indigenous people on the future of a country. That the more people we have coming in with different cultures, different priorities, the less importance the views of indigenous people...

New Zealand’s infrastructure is unable to keep up with our increasing population.   Net migration figures are sitting at approximately 2-3% of the population per annum, a total of 120 thousand people entering the country every year.   However, the spending allocated to improving housing supply, infrastructure, health, and education has not kept pace with the increasing number of migrants.   Michel...

Wherever you were on holiday —if you were lucky enough to get away— did you see the ‘Staff Wanted’ signs in the windows of just about every business, North and South Islands?   A number of business owners I spoke to were having to reduce the days they were open because they simply couldn't provide the service they wanted, because they didn't have the staff.   Yes, they could stay open and run arou...

James Shaw will stick around to back a last piece of legislation before quitting politics.   The Greens Co-leader's announced he will stand down in March but remain an MP to back his Sustainable Environment Bill's first reading.   Political Editor Jason Walls said that as far as resignations go, this was pretty lukewarm.   He said that Shaw made it known after the election that he was going to be...

Former Social Development and Employment Minister, Paula Bennett, has made a case for bringing back sanctions for those on the Jobseeker benefit.   There are 34,000 under-25-year-olds on the Jobseeker benefit.   Bennett is calling out the acceptance of this statistic, and questioning how we can rationalise the fact that more than 500 of them have been on welfare for longer than five years.   She t...

Did you see those clowns driving on Muriwai Beach on the TV news last night, just hours after a teenager was tragically killed there yesterday afternoon?   It was like rush hour and, I’m sure, they were probably hamming it up for the cameras.     One muppet even hooned past the reporter who was doing the live report - in what looked like some sort of people mover - and then, within a few seconds,...

Parliament's repealed the Clean Car Discount —dubbed a 'ute tax' by its opponents— under urgency, following a third reading.   The policy subsidised the purchases of electric vehicles by charging a tax on purchases of polluting vehicles.   It led to a massive uptake of EVs.   However, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says the policy was fiscally irresponsible.   He says it was taking money from peo...

So, the clean car discount, aka the Ute Tax, has been repealed as Parliament continues to sit in urgency in the lead-up to the Christmas break. Some of those politicians won't know what's hit them, working past the 15th of December!    The clean car discount you'll remember was a Labour initiative, originally introduced in July 2021. Initially, it provided rebates for consumers that purchased elec...

KiwiRail says the Government needs to better consider the future after pouring cold water on Cook Strait ferry upgrades.   Contracts were already underway for new ferries and port infrastructure, but Finance Minister Nicola Willis says it's now too expensive, after blowing out to over $3 billion.   Chief Executive, Peter Reidy, told Mike Hosking that the upgrades would've benefited the economy in...

Surprise at today's negative GDP figure. It fell 0.3% in the three months to September, a switch from a revised 0.5% increase for the three months to June. Stats NZ originally reported that quarter as a 0.9% growth. Herald Business Editor at Large Liam Dann told Kerre Woodham that it's much gloomier than most expected. He says most economists were predicting at least some growth. LISTEN ABOVE See...