Kerre Woodham Mornings Podcast

It's all about the money, honey. And we would be fools to think otherwise.  INEOS Team UK's budget for the last American Cup challenge was $210 million and the cost of mounting an America's Cup campaign gets higher and higher with every passing year.  If you've got chump change, if you've got mates looking for coins down the back of the couch, sure you can mount a challenge. You are extremely unli...

The Government has taken another step towards fulfilling its pre-election promise to lift incomes and improve working conditions of everyday Kiwis.  The Fair Pay Agreements Bill was introduced to Parliament yesterday and is expected to pass into law later this year.  Under the bill, employees will be able to force their employers to negotiate working conditions and pay if at least 10% of their wor...

I imagine it's come as a wee bit of a surprise to some people that all of a sudden, economists and commentators are warning that New Zealand is facing a brain drain. For a while, all we heard were about the hordes of New Zealanders wanting to come back to New Zealand. Will be overwhelmed, some said. Where are they going to live? What are we going to do?   Now we've got Brad Olsen from Informetrics...

Last Thursday we had a one-topic show on literacy, after a new report from Education Hub raised concerns about our "deeply worrying" decline in literacy levels. Their report found less than 65 per cent of 15-year-olds have basic proficiency in reading and maths. On Friday, the Government announced a plan to improve our literacy and math rates, including more support for teachers and development of...

A new report out is highlighting something I think most of us know already; that we are failing our children when it comes to reading and writing. Researchers from The Education Hub have combined international research with local studies and have found that yes indeed, we're failing and there are multiple contributing factors.   The first one - children have to be in school to be schooled. If you'...

A new report from the non-profit Education Hub organisation has raised concerns about what it calls a "deeply worrying" decline in literacy levels.  Less than 65 percent of 15-year-olds have basic proficiency in reading and maths.  Education Minister Chris Hipkins says the Government is working hard to turn around the trend, but it takes time.  Dr Christine Braid, from the Massey University Instit...

Madeleine Albright, the first female Secretary of State in the United States has died at 84.  Former deputy Prime Minister, Foreign Affairs Minister, Secretary-General of the Commonwealth and a lifelong friend of Madeleine Albright, Sir Don McKinnon joined Kerre McIvor.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Treasury is warning the country's current infrastructure gap is set to widen if nothing changes.  It's also stating the Government frequently doesn't get value for money with investments and has one of the worst records at delivering infrastructure.  Infrastructure Commission Chief Executive Ross Copland says New Zealand has underinvested compared to its OECD peers and too often when investments a...

What on Earth are we waiting for? Cabinet is to decide today on the future of the country. Covid-19 protection measures, the mandates, the vaccine passes and the like.  They've already had the concession of allowing unvaccinated New Zealanders back into the country that was done very quietly. And although we don't know what they have decided — we won't know that until Wednesday (why I don't know)...

Watch live as National leader Chris Luxon joins Kerre McIvor live in studio on Kerre McIvor Mornings See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

History for me is very much a living thing, and knowing where we've come from and how we got here is vital to understanding, I think, who we are.   But then I'm biased. I chose to study New Zealand history. I found it fascinating and I think it's an incredibly worthwhile subject.   And it's constantly being evaluated as historian and Massey University professor Michael Belgrave said on the Mike Ho...

GDP rose by three percent in the last three months of last year, a lower figure than most economists had forecast but ahead of Reserve Bank expectations.  It follows a 3.6 percent fall in the previous three months.  The rise has come as Covid-19 restrictions loosened.  To discuss, Kerre McIvor was joined by NZ Herald Business Editor at Large, Liam Dann.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener fo...

Fully-vaccinated tourists will be allowed into the country sooner than expected.  Our newsroom understands travellers from Australia could be set to arrive - without the need for managed isolation - as early as next month.  Visitors from other countries which New Zealand has visa waver arrangements with, like the United Kingdom, will be able to come in the weeks after that, followed by all other c...

On Thursday and Friday, there was not a cost of living crisis in New Zealand.   Yesterday, however, the Prime Minister announced that we have a global energy crisis, after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Well aware that she was looking out of touch and obdurate, the Prime Minister decided over the weekend she had to respond to calls to help New Zealanders who are struggling to pay the rent, fill the...

The Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has this morning finally acknowledged that there is a cost of living crisis, and she's indicated the Government will announce some kind of relief, presumably at the petrol pump. She was able to choke out the C-word today - crisis; despite refusing to concede there was one just a few days ago. And this was probably so as not to be seen as buying into National's nar...

A concession from Jacinda Ardern that many New Zealanders are facing a cost of living crisis. The Prime Minister now admits there is a problem — whether it be called a crisis, emergency or shock — and something needs to be done about it. She says Cabinet will be discussing ways to address pressure on households today, and isn't ruling out changes to fuel taxes. In today's New Zealand Herald, the C...

Political commentator Matthew Hooton has written a piece in the NZ Herald saying, "Grant Robertson's $60 billion spend-up and Adrian Orr's money printing have made New Zealand asset holders nearly $1 trillion better off, while the poor have fallen further into debt."  "Twenty-something Kiwis considering returning home report London property prices are below Auckland's, while salaries are three tim...

Well, the polls have been giving signs that a National Party revival was underway, and last night's One News Kantar poll confirmed that National has bounded ahead seven points to 39% to take the lead in the latest poll, the first since January. Labour’s dropped three points to 37%.   It's the first time National has been ahead of Labour since February 2020, which of course was a month before Covid...

The Commerce Commission has concluded competition is "not working well" in the supermarket sector, recommending a mandatory code of conduct for suppliers.  However, the competition watchdog has stopped short of requiring major structural change in the $22 billion sector.  Newstalk ZB Chief Political Reporter Jason Walls was at the briefing and he joined Tim Beveridge. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.c...

The Newsroom headline 'Luxon Spies an Opportunity' kind of sums it up really. National's leader delivered his State of the Nation speech over the weekend, and basically went back to the future with a promise to reverse Labour's tax grab should National be voted in 2023. Labour spends your money. National gives you your money back. It's the traditional trope.  Christopher Luxon was right not to dwe...

As Omicron bites and more people are being forced to isolate for extended periods of time, the staff shortages in this country across just about every sector have become critical.  The aged care sector is an example - a broad coalition of residents, workers and facility operators has written to the Health Minister warning him that staffing shortages in the sector could become catastrophic if more...

A firm that tracks cryptocurrency transactions says US$33.8 million of the digital currency has been donated to Ukraine’s government and non-governmental organisations since the start of Russia’s invasion, nearly a third of it on Wednesday.  And with some of the world's biggest cryptocurrency exchanges staying put in Russia, the European Union and United States said they would include crypto curre...

It was pretty ugly yesterday afternoon, wasn't it? What began with creches and concerts and herb gardens and Kumbaya ended in violence and arson.  The Wellington protesters believed they had right on their side. They believed they had all of New Zealand behind them. But ultimately, they believe that their rights superseded the rights of other New Zealanders to go about their business, to go to sch...

Well, yesterday we got an apology from the Director-General of Health, Dr Ashley Bloomfield, over delays in people receiving their Covid test results last week.   He said, as if it was some sort of revelation, that higher test positivity rates meant pooling or batch testing became unfeasible and thus processing tests took longer. There were also problems because they had vacancies in the labs that...

Welcome to Tuesday the 1st of March and what a red letter day! Today is a day of joy and unabashed delight.   Looking overseas, we have almost universal pressure from the world on Russia to end its occupation of Ukraine, it's I think the first time I have seen in my lifetime the world coming together and saying no, this is unacceptable and they're prepared to put money where their mouths are in te...