Kerre Woodham Mornings Podcast

Let's talk about something that is very crucial to our economy and that's the India Free Trade Deal. We are an exporter. We live because of what we export from the farms and in particular free trade deals help. So New Zealand's major exporters turned up the pressure on Parliament yesterday, urging all political parties to support the country's proposed free trade agreement with India. 28 exporters...

Midday today, our time, is the deadline set by President Trump for the reopening of the Straits of Hormuz. Failure to do so will apparently be punished by a widespread bombing campaign on civilian targets in Iran.   Of course, for all of us, this is a bit worrying and a little bit horrifying. I had been saying around the office today, welcome to the end of civilization. I said that to Murray...

A major new Australian study tracking more than 270,000 children has found that long hours in childcare — especially more than 40 hours a week — are linked with a higher risk of children struggling with social competence and emotional maturity by the time they reach school.   And that makes total sense, doesn’t it? That’s because they basically go into a school system – they're being educated...

New technology promises to speed up the process in checking for skin cancer, and it's set to take the pressure off the health system. Skinscape 360's new full-body scanner is one of just 115 of its type in the world and uses 92 cameras to take an instant 3D snapshot of a patient in order to quickly flag anything of concern. Dermoscopist Clare Gunn says this technology isn't covered by insurance ye...

I want to start with the story of Jacquie Kidd. Jacquie's a former nurse who's spent more than 20 years researching Māori health inequities. She is the AUT professor of Māori health and she is now facing her own terminal cancer diagnosis. She's got a touch of the bowel cancer, which has now spread to her lungs. She is 62 years of age.  Since she's found out about this cancer, she's penned a m...

An ACT MP is questioning the spending of taxpayer money on a football match.    The Government's supporting a clash between English Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur and Auckland FC at Eden Park as part of its $70 million Major Events package.  ACT MP Todd Stephenson is asking why the match is being subsidised by taxpayers, when neither club is a charity and both are backed by b...

Here we are in the middle of autumn, or is it the start of another winter of discontent? Because April the 1st is the time of scheduled price increases. All sorts of things are going up. The minimum wage goes up today, putting more pressure on small businesses. Thank you very much, at a time of pressure anyway, you're going to have to spend more on your wage bill. Meanwhile, the ACC earners' levy...

"It's the economy, stupid," is a catchphrase that means the primary concern of American voters is the state of the American economy and how that economy affects their personal finances. It was a phrase coined by a strategist in Bill Clinton's successful presidential campaign, and it's pretty much what Christopher Luxon campaigned on in 2023.   The Labour Government were, and I paraphrase, inc...

New Zealand First is ramping up its campaigning with an election fast approaching. They announced that if they have any say in the matter, if they form any part of a government, half of all mining royalties will go to the region from whence it came rather than head straight into the treasury coffers in Wellington. New Zealand First says it will build up wealth and infrastructure in the regions all...

The former Prime Minister, the former Health Minister, the leader of the Labour Party has to go. His position is simply untenable. Chris Hipkins has consistently maintained he never received advice telling him there was a risk involved in requiring 12 to 17-year-olds to have a second Covid vaccination. As the Herald headline says this morning, a Cabinet paper shows otherwise.   Derek Cheng's...

I doubt there'll be many people out on the water —certainly not in the upper North Island on the East Coast— but the next time you go out, let me know what the catch is like. The Government's done a U-turn on minimum size limits for commercial fishers, but that's not enough for fishing advocacy groups. They want the Government to kill the Fisheries Amendment Bill entirely. They say it's not doing...

A commercial fisherman is aiming to clear up some misconceptions around the industry in the wake of the Government’s controversial Fisheries Amendment policy.  The Government yesterday U-turned on one clause, which would’ve eased the minimum fish size limits for commercial companies.   Doug Saunders-Loder, the President of the NZ Federation of Commercial Fishermen, told Kerre Woodham the...

The Education Minister’s pressing ahead with a major overhaul of NCEA, scrapping the current system and replacing it entirely.  Cabinet’s signed off on a move to subject-based assessments in Years 12 and 13.  The first changes will roll out from 2028, when NCEA Level One will be axed altogether.  Erica Stanford says English and Maths will be compulsory for all Year 11 students under...

So help is on the way from the Government, as expected. The announcement came around 12:30pm yesterday. Thought it might be too late, because according to Donald Trump, “me and the Ayatollah are going to be controlling the Straits of Hormuz”. Be open very soon, he says. Well, that's good, isn't it? But in the meantime, while we wait for that to eventuate, Donald Trump and the Ayatollah cutting the...

If Trump's envoys weren't talking to Iranian officials, who the hell were they talking to? When you get older, you expect that you can make more sense of the world, but I've got to be honest here, I am struggling to make sense of anything. I was reading the headlines at about 5 this morning. Trump talking about the good and productive talks having been conducted by special envoy Steve Witkoff, his...

In today's edition of Fuel Watch, the Green Party is offering its votes to the National Party to get on with passing what the Greens call a sensible and urgent fossil fuel crisis relief package. And you know what, it is quite sensible. They're not suggesting a horse and cart for every home - that's sensible. With the Greens and National's combined 63 votes, the Greens say you don't need any other...

The Green Party is offering its support to National to fast-track a fossil fuel relief package, bypasssing other parties with their combined 63 votes. The proposal includes three months of free public transport, a windfall tax on fuel companies, and targeted payments for rural and low-income earners. The Green Party co-leader Chloe Swarbrick told Kerre Woodham, "we have put a sensible and urgent f...

To me, what is news is the fact that there are so many people who are working vital jobs, who are doing incredibly important work like our home support workers, and they are really struggling because of the petrol prices. That to me is news, and that to me is something we can do something about. That is going to impact us all as petrol prices surge past three bucks a litre. Sky appears to be the l...

Political appointments are being scrutinised after the resignation of KiwiRail director Scott O’Donnell due to conflicts of interest.  Political analyst Bryce Edwards described the appointment as a “farce”, and the result of a broken system and “rotten governance.”  O’Donnell is a major player in the trucking and transport sector, and some of the ten companies he’s involved in supply ser...

What I found more outrageous on the internet yesterday was yet another example of this country's propensity for doling out jobs for the boys and indeed the girls. Every political party does it, every government does it, rewards the party faithful and their generous donors and backers with cushy sinecures. Grafter-in-chief would have to be Trevor Mallard's posting to Dublin – although would it? Bec...

Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage is removing the Ngā Tapuwae Heritage Trails website for Gallipoli and the Western Front in what Historian Chris Pugsley believes is a cost cutting measure and a result of firing historians.  Pugsley spoke to Kerre Woodham, slamming the move.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How about that petrol, eh? I filled up on Thursday, as usual, that's my usual day. Just the car, no jerry cans, no oil drums, thanks very much, and I thought to myself, $2.95 - she's getting up there. Bargain now, looking at the pumps. Our colleague Kylie, who has to travel north most weekends, reckons she paid an extra $80 above what she would normally pay for her weekend tikitouring. The boss an...

Women are still underrepresented in the trades.  Despite employing more than 300,000 people, women only make up around 16% of those working in the construction sector.   Chair of construction firm Naylor Love, Jackie Lloyd is interested in seeing more women enter the industry and play a role in leading it as well.   Auckland Plumbers Group’s Hera Eruera is one of only fifteen certif...

Today we thought it would be Fuel Friday because we haven't really touched on the oil crisis so far, have we? I filled up at my local on the way to work and it was certainly more expensive than it was last week, but nowhere near the heights we've reached previously. Back in the day I had to give up driving the Club Sport, which was a beast of a car —loved that car— when fuel topped $3 a litre. I l...

For nine months now, the Public Service Commission has been negotiating with the primary school teachers union over pay and conditions. Every other union in the education sector has settled, but not the NZEI Te Riu Roa. There have been strikes, there have been rejected pay offers, in some cases offers haven't even been presented to union members to vote on, and there have been accusations of bad f...