Kerre Woodham Mornings Podcast

There's praise all around for New Zealand rea$ching a free trade deal with the United Kingdom.  Trade Minister Damien O'Connor says our free trade deal with the UK is a gold standard agreement.  The UK has agreed to eliminate tariffs on our exports, with duties removed on 99.5 percent of current trade into the UK.  Kiwi exporters are expected to save about 37 million a year on tariff elimination a...

We've been discussing the Russian invasion of Ukraine overnight.  Ukrainian forces are battling Russian invaders on three sides after Moscow mounted an assault by land, sea and air.  Thousands of Ukrainians are fleeing to neighbouring countries, including Poland, Hungary and Romania.  New Zealand has joined other Western leaders in condemning the invasion and imposing sanctions against Russia.  Fo...

It was interesting reading the New Zealand Herald headline "Ready, set, go! Employers brace for the Kiwi worker exodus as borders reopen."  Over the past couple of months, I've received numerous texts and the old email from people saying, right that's it, I'm off to Australia. Mostly they’re people who identify themselves as young professionals, which is concerning. I haven't heard this much chat...

Urgent changes to government policy are needed to control the conversion of sheep and beef farms to pine trees for carbon farming, according to a discussion paper funded by councils and farmers.  The paper, by former Hastings Mayor and National Party MP Lawrence Yule, argues that short-term land-use decisions are being made to the detriment of long-term land-use flexibility, rural communities and...

As we move into phase three of the Government’s Covid plan and learn to live with Covid in the community, I would have to wonder whether this government can continue to justify locking thousands of New Zealanders out of their own country.   Yesterday we had 6137 community cases recorded of Omicron in the country. There would be many, many more than that. There were 338 cases detected at the border...

I don't know about you, but just about everyone who can work from home is working from home right now at this company, NZME.  It's been pretty much that way since the first lockdown two years ago.   Apart from brief sort of bursts of normality and then it's back to being like the parrot on the Marie Celeste, wondering where everybody is gone.  For some people who joined the company over the past 2...

Sport NZ has today launched #itsmymove - a campaign to help young women get and stay active their way.  It has been developed to address declining physical activity levels in teenage girls.  Research undertaken by Sport NZ shows young women increasingly opt out of formal sporting environments as they grow older. By age 17, the top three activities young women undertake are running, workouts and wa...

Principals are unhappy with a plan to restrict young foreign students from enrolling at schools. The Ministry of Education is asking primary and intermediate principals for their views on hosting international fee-paying students.  It's proposing to restrict or stop some international students under Year Nine from coming here to learn.  The Ministry's consultation document says it's unfair on scho...

Everyone agrees it's not a matter of if, but of by how much, the Reserve Bank raises its official cash rate today.  Commentators are picking a rise of 25 basis points, which means rising a quarter of a percentage point to 1%. However, others wouldn't be surprised to see a rise of 50 basis points, I think, bookies are putting it around 30%.  The reason is that we have inflation galloping away on us...

The Government has today launched the Road to Zero public awareness campaign, which sets a target of zero road deaths and serious injuries by 2050, and a 40 per cent reduction by 2030.  Across the Road to Zero programme there is significant work planned for 2022 to improve road safety, including the finalisation of drug-driving legislation; improved vehicle safety standards and a review of fines a...

Last Thursday we spent most of the morning talking to small and medium business owners who were really doing it tough. It was really hard hearing their stories.  Their stories of uncertainty, financial insecurity and fear of the future. They couldn't keep going, but they simply had to. They had employees whose livelihoods depended on them. They were in too deep. No one would buy their businesses a...

The Prime Minister has reiterated that the protesters have had their say and it's time to go home and again stressed she would not be meeting them because she says the pandemic is still top of mind.  The Council of Medical Colleges Chair John Bonning is calling for the isolation period to be reduced from the current 10 days for household contacts to just three days.  He says combined with high vac...

The first international tourists in two years have touched down in Sydney to be greeted by jubilant well-wishers waving Tim-Tams, jars of Vegemite and stuffed koalas. Qantas is bringing in people from eight overseas destinations including Vancouver, Singapore, London, and Delhi. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Monday was an important day that all Australians had looked forward to. It's a bitter...

Now I know that there are a lot of people who think that this Government has done and is doing a good job - look at the polls. I would ask them to explain this to me then, how is it that this Government can say that teachers are not critical workers?  Principals are astonished and furious that schools won't have access to rapid antigen tests to help protect their staff and keep classrooms open dur...

Queenstown is the epicenter of Omicron in the South Island, with dozens of businesses and hospo venues having to shut their doors because of self-isolation and close contact rules.    Queenstown is a prime example of just how tough the tourism and hospitality sectors are doing, all businesses are doing it tough.   Frequently, the family home is holding up the family business, so any failure of a b...

The protest at Parliament faces a challenge today as fed-up locals, university students, retailers and parliamentary staff have demanded that their right to freedom of movement, their right to attend lectures and their right to trade.  These rights actually trump that of a group of people with various grievances who've been camped outside parliament for the last week. Yes, they have a right to pro...

The Salvation Army has released its annual State of the Nation report.  This year’s report highlights the continued impact of Covid-19 on the most vulnerable people across Aotearoa New Zealand, with incidences of family violence, housing struggles and inequalities for Māori wellbeing on the rise.  When it comes to housing, they say it is more than a housing crisis, it's a catastrophe as house pric...

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced yesterday the country would be moving to Phase 2 of the Omicron plan. Phase 2 reduces isolation periods for contacts from 10 days to 7 and means the focus of contact tracing will shift to high-risk exposure events and, effectively, everyone must do their own contact tracing.  Phase 2 also places a greater reliance on rapid antigen tests (RATS) to reduce the...

The protest in front of Parliament continues today despite the storm, despite the sprinklers being turned on, despite music from the most hated list being blasted at the men, women and children who have gathered together over the past few days to protest all sorts of things. There was some interesting reading in the media over the weekend, journos went down and spoke to the people who make up the...

Nick Maling, Kāinga Ora General Manager of Services, told me yesterday that making people and whānau homeless creates a revolving door for housing which only sees the problems compound and perpetuate.  Look, I get that they're trying to repair the damage caused by generations of issues, alcohol and drug abuse, welfare dependency, physical and mental health conditions within families. I know that i...

The Government is stepping up work to address long-standing problems in conservation law while laying the foundations for future reform.  It is a complex web of 24 Acts, developed largely on an ad-hoc basis over a span of nearly 70 years.  Concerns have been raised that there are too many outdated, confusing and inconsistent rules and that the system that was created is out of step with current va...

The Government has announced it will lift the minimum wage to $21.20 from April 1st.  Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety Michael Wood says amounts to an extra $48 a week for someone working 40-hour weeks.  Business New Zealand Chief Executive Kirk Hope says it's a big increase at such short notice and a slap in the face for struggling businesses.  Kirk Hope joined Kerre McIvor.  LISTEN AB...

According to the One Choice Kiwi Education Repor, 3 in 10 Kiwi parents are very strongly concerned that their children have fallen behind at school due to COVID-19; 1 in 3 felt that COVID-19 lockdowns had a solely negative impact on their kids' education. To be frank, I would have thought the numbers would be higher than that.  I would have thought easily 5 in 10 Kiwi parents would feel that their...

Critical business workers will no longer have to isolate if they are identified as a close contact.  That's if they return daily negative rapid antigen tests.  It's part of a new exemption scheme that aims to keep critical supply chains running through the Omicron outbreak.  Our Chief Political Reporter Jason Walls has been at the Critical workforce announcement with Ministers Chris Hipkins and Dr...

There's frustration from the events industry, and from the public wanting to have some fun, at the number of festivals and events that are being cancelled.  From the Wanaka A&P show to New Plymouth's Womad Festival to the Auckland Arts Festival cancelling all 51 of their live events.  There’s also fear our biggest and brightest music stars, frustrated by a lack of events at home, will venture over...