Kerre Woodham Mornings Podcast

Questions have been asked as to whether New Zealand super will be enough if you have to rent in retirement. When New Zealand Super was introduced, it was with the underlying assumption that those accessing it would be mortgage-free homeowners. That is not looking to be the case 30 years from now.  However, much has been written about The Great Wealth Transfer. The Silent Generation, the Baby Boome...

The Government is preparing to respond to a Productivity Commission inquiry encouraging more rapid but more carefully planned immigration. The Reserve Bank reveals there are now two job vacancies for every unemployed person. Immigration would help address both unemployment and inflation. New Reserve Bank chief economist Paul Conway also says it's more a social question than an economic one, and as...

On the face of it, you'd have to say, it makes sense. Looking at it on paper; amalgamation, joining forces, strength in numbers. It gives you more oomph, more heft, more bargaining power, the ability to deliver bigger and better We've seen the failings of many of our DHBs, surely on the face of it; a centralised health system makes sense. Can a country of 5 million people sustain 16 polytechs and...

Newstalk ZB Political Editor Barry Soper joined Kerre Woodham following Dr. Gaurav Sharma's expulsion from the Labour Party. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There are renewed calls for a new super city, combining Wellington, Porirua and Lower Hutt. A new Wellington Chamber of Commerce pre-election report suggests business leaders would like the cities to merge. Chamber Chief Executive Simon Arcus says a Wellington super city would be able to deal with issues more efficiently and effectively than the current councils. He says a combined council would b...

Today, Jan Tinetti, the Associate Education Minister, is launching a nationwide school attendance campaign.  It's called Every School Day Is A Big Day. School attendance has been a long-term challenge, declining across the board since 2015, and that trend was of course further accelerated by Covid-19. Only two in five kids attend regularly. 40 percent. Even more of a concern is that only 5 percent...

The Government's hoping to balance out Covid messaging that has played a part in low school attendance. A campaign's launching today highlighting the importance of school attendance. Associate Education Minister, Jan Tinetti, says attendance has been declining since 2015, but Covid messaging has exacerbated the problem. She told Kerre Woodham asking students to stay at home when they're sick, has...

Extraordinary this morning really, wasn't it? Did you hear the interview ? I hope you did. Former Labour MP Louisa Wall gave us a hint that all was not necessarily light and love among the Labour Party faithful in her valedictory speech earlier this year. Remember when she said she was forced out of her Manurewa electorate before the last election by quote, the unconstitutional actions of the Part...

Kerre Woodham was moderating a panel yesterday about environmental issues. The panel was at The Packaging forum which is all of the people involved in packaging; the consumers, the marketers, the creators, the recyclers. It's a forum designed to reduce the amount of waste we have and be turned it into something good. Woodham says she was very impressed by Jerome Wenzlick and his company Future Pos...

New Zealand Rugby has unanimously voted to keep Ian Foster in the head coaching role through until the world cup next year, despite winning just two of five tests this year. Former All Black captain Wayne ‘Buck’ Shelford said this morning that Foster may have the backing of the board and the executive, but the pressure remains on him. To discuss this, Former All Blacks Coach John Hart coach joined...

Some coastal communities are now facing the very real prospect of having to desert their homes due to climate change. There has been a rise in extreme weather events, especially flooding of cities and towns near rivers or streams. So what do you do? Rebuild and hope that it is indeed a once in a one hundred year event? If you want to move, what do you do with your property? Insurance Council Chief...

I've been watching with fascination as Dr Gaurav Sharma blows up his political career. I think it's fair to say that Sharma’s career is pretty much over. He feels betrayed, disillusioned, and let down and it's probably fair to say his Labour caucus colleagues feel much the same. They see a politician gone rogue, airing dirty laundry in public, telling all the secrets. He sees a broken system that...

This morning there was the, some might say disturbing, or at the very least, unsurprising revelation that the Ministry of Transport Waka Kotahi has concluded a six-month safety trial.  They've been using hidden cameras at three secret spots around Auckland and it's caught around 1000 drivers a day illegally using their cell phones while driving.  1000 people a day illegally using their phones.   I...

If we thought the issue of bullying was going to die down with an investigation being launched into the behaviour of Tauranga MP Sam Uffindell and everybody being told to cool jets and wait for the report. Well, along comes an obscure Labour backbencher with an unsolicited op-ed in the New Zealand Herald that fired an absolute broadside at the Government parliamentary services and just about every...

Leo Molloy has quit the race to become Auckland's next mayor. The Herald can reveal he is expected to announce his withdrawal today - on the same day a new poll had him dropping to third. Nominations for the election close at midday today. Leo Molloy joined Kerre Woodham. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Watercare's $1.2 billion Central Interceptor project is now more than 2Km underground and heading towards the Manukau Harbour. The 14.7 kilometre Central Interceptor wastewater tunnel — the longest, biggest and most expensive pipeline in the country — is creeping its way underground, to create a wastewater tunnel that will run between Western Springs and the Māngere Wastewater Treatment Plant.   S...

Yesterday, Associate Education Minister Jan Tinetti announced changes to NCEA and university entrance (UE) for 2022, saying the Government recognises the disruptions COVID-19 has caused high school students. The big issue, according to principals from across the country who contacted the Government asking for assistance, is the significant absences of students and teachers, as a result of COVID-19...

What a bloody mess. Hopefully, with Peter Goodfellow gone, National can get their house in order once and for all. This ridiculous hoo-ha over a new electorate MP should never have come to pass and would never have come to pass if National’s systems and processes were better when it comes to selection. Party leader Christopher Luxon sounded as exasperated as he probably gets when he was talking to...

On a day when National should be soaring, and scoring all sorts of points with the latest political poll giving National and ACT enough votes to form a Government and Labour at its lowest since 2017. When Andrew Little has had to concede that just nine nurses have applied to come to New Zealand when he said look, there's thousands. We don't need to change anything around immediate residency becaus...

There was, I thought, some positivity coming out of the National Party conference, especially in terms of their policy around youth unemployment. But of course, the usual voices and the usual critics have come out against it - beating up on vulnerable young people, beneficiary bashing, all the usual shrieks from people who see young, unemployed beneficiaries as victims. But how can you not care th...

National has unveiled a new youth unemployment plan that would see under-25s given financial incentives for finding jobs and staying employed, and handed penalties if they don't take part. In 2009, the Government announced spending of $152 million to create work, education and training opportunities for unemployed youth. There were extra training places in the defence forces, money for more studen...

The thing about this job is that often at the end of the day, well a very truncated working day to be fair, at midday I can walk out of the studio and feel like I've achieved nothing.  It's not like I've painted a wall, or I've collected rubbish and what were full bins are now empty or cleaned the house, what was dirty and disorganized is now pristine and gorgeous, there is actually nothing tangib...

Emergency housing motels in Rotorua are applying for resource consent to continue as emergency housing providers. Currently, motels operating under Ministry contracts are unlawful as the district plan only consents them to having short term visitors. If all 12 motels in Rotorua get consent granted, they would be approved to have 1008 occupants in 301 units.   Lobby group Restore Rotorua chairman T...

I do not remember the weather making so much news when I was growing up. Of course, back then we didn't have a voracious 24-hour news cycle. The media wasn't a beast that needed fodder thrown down its gaping maw every minute on the minute, every hour of the day.  But extremes in weather are nothing new. They've been reported by communities as far back as soon as people could put quill to parchment...

It's fortuitous, isn't it, that you can find an expert to justify any position or stance you might want to take, no matter what it is. Anybody who was pro-something can generally find a study, a survey, or an expert to back up their argument, anyone who's against can find the same. Whatever that position might be, there's a survey or an expert ready to back you up; lies, damn lies and statistics....