Kerre Woodham Mornings Podcast

Upon the release of the GDP figures confirming New Zealand has entered two quarters of contraction and so is in a recession, Grant Robertson issued a press statement headed "Economy takes knock from Auckland floods and Cyclone". Robert MacCulloch, who writes the blog Down to Earth Kiwi and is the Matthew S. Able Professor of Macroeconomics at the University of Auckland begs to differ.  He joined K...

The economy in the first quarter entered a recession, falling 0.1 per cent, in line with market expectations. Data from Stats NZ this morning showed how the economy performed in the first three months of 2023. And revised data showed GDP contracted by 0.7 per cent in the final quarter of 2022, worse than the 0.6 per cent recorded earlier. In the minutes following the release, the New Zealand dolla...

More than 100,000 people are due through the gates at Hamilton's Mystery Creek Fieldays for the biggest event on New Zealand's agricultural calendar. 25,000 went through yesterday, including the Prime Minister Chris Hipkins and Leader of the Opposition, Christopher Luxon. To gauge the mood of the rural community, The Country's Jamie MacKay joined Kerre Woodham. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/list...

If you are wondering where the $2 billion for mental health is going, you may be kept wondering. Wait times for children seeking mental health treatment have increased nationwide. In Wellington they have more than doubled to 68.7 days - while in Rotorua they have rocketed from 42 days to 76 days. The National Party say mental health should be dealt with separately to the Ministry of Health - and i...

Now, if you've listened to the show for any amount of time, you will know that I have always banged on about education being a lifeline, especially to kids who come from disadvantaged backgrounds. If you come from a family where there are few choices, a good education, good qualifications, give you an opportunity to aspire to and attain more. This is no longer true. Where previous generations had...

With miles and miles of open sea, 160 kilometres of coastline, 13 clean, fast flowing rivers and 11,200 hectares of native bush, the Ōpōtiki District is the perfect home for a community that appreciates and enjoys outdoor activities and the natural environment. It would also appear to be an ideal habitat for gangs and gang members right now. Ōpōtiki, population 9300, is in effect, closed for busin...

New Zealand's state housing agency maintains it has a number of tools for dealing with unruly tenants. Newstalk ZB has revealed only three Kāinga Ora tenants have been evicted for bad behaviour since a crackdown announced February last year. There were 10 ,000 complaints over the same period. New measures included a termination option if three serious incidents were recorded within a 90-day period...

The New Zealand Blood Service is looking for 40,000 new donors to meet the current demand for blood products. They currently have 117,000 donors who help save the lives of 30,000 people every year, but with a growing and ageing population, we need more blood and plasma for patients . If they don't find new donors, they'll be forced to compete on the global blood market for the first time. New Zeal...

The National Party is vowing to end New Zealand's ban on gene editing and genetic modification, if elected into Government. It's new Harnessing Biotech Policy would also streamline approvals for trials and use of non-gene editing biotech, in line with other OECD countries. A regulator to ensure safe and ethical use of the technology would be created, while human embryonic modification wouldn't be...

Paddy Gower's piece on his show Paddy Gower Has Issues last night highlighted the violent bullying that is happening in our schools, focussing on a young Napier girl who was bullied so badly she had to leave school. The 11-year-old was beaten up at her intermediate school in March while a group of students watched, filming the incident rather than stopping the vicious attack. Auckland University s...

I'm disappointed with Health Minister Ayesha Verrall. The Government announced they would take action to reduce the number of young people taking up and becoming addicted to vaping. It was an opportunity to put much-needed regulation in place around vaping, to catch up with more proactive countries such as Australia. While the initiatives announced yesterday will go some way to making it more diff...

A year ago the Life Education Trust was saying young vapers were consuming as much nicotine as someone smoking a pack-and-a-half of cigarettes a day, and that schools were crying out for help because they are dealing with young people with full-on dependency issues - it had become an epidemic. Fast forward to today, and the Government has done something.   They've announced new rules that include...

There has been much discussion this week about the Government's decarbonisation deal with Bluescope Steel. The Government is contributing $140 million so the Glenbrook Steel Mill can swap half of the coal it currently uses with electricity. Questions have been asked as to whether if we become a nation of electric car drivers, how are we going to generate the energy we need and do we have enough re...

Most of us are doing it at the moment, aren't we? Crunching the numbers of the household budget, seeing where we can make economies? Whether there's any way we can earn a little bit extra. Sorting out what the necessities might be, what the nice to haves are. The Mayor of Auckland is no different. He released his final budget proposal about half an hour ago, a day later than planned, and one of hi...

NZ Herald Super City reporter Bernard Orsman joined Kerre Woodham mornings to break down what has been described as a chaotic press conference for Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown's budget reveal. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I've been trying to get my head around just how big a deal the issue is with Jan Tinetti, Minister of Education, who has now been referred to Parliament's powerful Privileges Committee. This is following her failure to correct and inaccurate statements she made in Parliament back on, I think it was February 22nd. So what happened? Jan Tinetti was asked a question, I think by Erica Stanford, in the...

There's a big story, a big call, that's been made by the Metropolitan Police in the UK. It’s pretty dramatic on the face of it. The police chief there has announced that the Metropolitan Police in the UK will no longer attend emergency calls related to mental health incidents.  It's not just an advisory; it's an order by the chief to their officers not to attend the thousands of calls that police...

It's expected today that Police Commissioner Andrew Coster is going to announce a revision of the police pursuit policy and that a “fleeing driver framework would be introduced. The New Zealand Herald is reporting that this framework is going to give the police, finally, the discretion that everyone's been calling out for. So they're going to give them the discretion whether or not to chase, based...

First up, the polls. Remember yesterday when I asked what Christopher Luxon had been smoking with his backtrack on the housing accord? Well, clearly, whatever Christopher Luxon has been smoking, the people want a bit of.   The latest 1News Kantar Public poll has seen National and ACT able to form a government, if the survey reflected election results.  That would be National on 47, ACT 15, making...

National has done a U-turn on increasing density in main centres. The Party helped form the Medium Density Residential Standards alongside the Government, allowing three-storey housing in all residential areas, but has now reversed its position. Leader Christopher Luxon has said he intends to change the rules on housing density if he forms the next government. Greenfields development, which means...

On occasion, I do wonder why people listen to talkback. How is it that format can attract so many listeners? But I think, after myself listening to a lot of politicians in the past few weeks, it's because when we are talking, you and me, we're actually talking. We're trying to communicate. We're trying to get a point across. We're trying to make a statement. We're trying to get people to understan...

Economists predict the Official Cash Rate will rise today, but opinions differ on whether it'll be a 25 basis point increase, or 50. Mortgage advisory firm Squirrel Chief Executive, David Cunningham, has penned an open letter to the Reserve Bank Governor saying they shouldn't lift the OCR. He says the effects of measures already taken are still unrolling. He told Kerre Woodham his letter is born o...

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins spent an hour on Kerre Woodham Mornings talking the topics that concern Kiwis the most. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The other big announcement is that one of the country's biggest greenhouse gas emitter is moving away from a coal-fired furnace to an electric arc furnace, which is kind of back to the future because numerous former workers at the Glenbrook steel mill have said we used to have one of those back in the 60s. And they did away with it - there was no guaranteed supply of scrap metal to fuel the furnac...

The Prime Minister called it the 'Bread and Butter Budget'. Pundits have called it bland, basic brand, bare bones, bread crumbs and the baked beans budget. Most have agreed it was a glamour less affair and restrained. Highlights include the removal of the $5 prescription fee, expanding free early childhood education, and free public transport for children. Dentons Kensington Swan Partner and tax e...