Kerre Woodham Mornings Podcast

A police officer's reflecting on his 30 years of policing after seeing a young boy hospitalised with some of the worst injuries he's ever seen. The four-year-old was injured in Flaxmere's Ramsey Court, near Hastings, on January 29, and remains in Starship Hospital in a serious condition. Detective Inspector Mike Foster is thankful he doesn't often see children so severely injured and child abuse i...

Freshwater campaigners have congregated outside parliament with large banners reminding the Prime Minister of her party’s 2017 pre-election promises to clean up the country’s rivers. Choose Clean Water is calling on the Prime Minister to make good on her party’s promises of ‘swimmable, healthy rivers in a generation’ and ‘measurable improvements within five years’. Choose Clean Water spokesperson...

Back in 2017 when Jacinda Ardern was campaigning as leader of the Labour party, she was a passionate outspoken advocate for cleaner waterways.  Nick Smith was in charge of our streams and rivers in the previous government and he, and the National government were widely and roundly criticised when they announced their Clean Water Package.  The goal was laudable - a goal of making 90 per cent of riv...

New Zealand has put its funding for the Commonwealth Secretariat on hold. This follows concerns about the Secretariat's procurement procedures. Taxpayers contribute almost $4.5 million a year to the UK-based secretariat, led by Baroness Scotland. Former Secretary-General of the Commonwealth Sir Don McKinnon joins Kerre McIvor to discuss the purpose and relevance of the Secretariat to the Commonwea...

The Government has announced hundreds of thousands of young people who are not fully protected against measles will be offered vaccinations against the deadly disease for free. Schools and marae will help deliver the vaccines, with an emphasis on those aged 15-29. Associate Health Minister Julie Anne Genter made the announcement today in Auckland in a bid to close the "overdue" immunisation gap to...

Newsroom's Bernard Hickey has been pondering what another 1989-style rewrite would look like for New Zealand? In 1989, a generation of baby-boomer leaders revolted at Robert Muldoon's conservatism and rewrote the nation's software. It meant that after years of toeing the lines, restaurants were suddenly opened later, homosexuality was discussed openly, and Māori were given new opportunities. So wh...

An NZME radio host is among dozens of stranded trampers rescued in Fiordland. Evacuations in Fiordland are well underway with several tramping groups safely on the ground in Te Anau at a Civil Defence centre. But hundreds more people remain trapped in Milford Sound after extreme weather hit Fiordland yesterday. A state of emergency was declared in the area as heavy rain and slips trapped tourists...

A youth programme in Huntly is achieving impressive results, and as a consequence, the teen crime rate is plummeting. Oranga Rangatahi is a programme run by Oranga Tamariki in collaboration with other agencies, and is aimed at at-risk youth. Running since 2016, Oranga Rangatahi has also contributed to a 68 per cent drop in offending rates for the children involved in the programme. Leon Wharekura,...

New Zealand author Nicky Pellegrino discusses controversial new novel American Dirt with Kerre McIvor above. CNN's Catherine E. Shoichet explores the debate below. Oprah Winfrey's new message is clear: You won't be able to put this book down. "From the first page, the first sentence, I was in, I was open, I was shook up," she says in a video announcing the novel "American Dirt" as her next book cl...

NBA players, coaches, entertainers and politicians took to social media and other outlets Sunday to express their shock and sadness over the helicopter crash that took the life of former basketball great Kobe Bryant, an 18-time All-Star and five-time NBA champion. Pau Gasol, a former teammate of Bryant's with the Lakers, tweeted, "Beyond devastated... my big brother... I can't, I just can't believ...

An interesting call from Tony on how and why he got into gang life and why he got out.  Listen to the audio above as Kerre McIvor talks to caller Tony about gang life. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Auckland has been reduced to a maze of orange traffic cones and one-lane roads as 33 city centre streets are disrupted by road works. Traffic in some areas of the CBD in recent days - including part of Victoria St - has been clogged by gridlock Listen to the audio above as Kerre McIvor talks about Auckland's never ending roadworks, which are crippling parts of the city. See omnystudio.com/listener...

The Government has confirmed new regulations for the manufacturing and distribution of medicinal cannabis products. CEO of NUBU Pharmaceuticals Mark Dye joins Kerre McIvor to talk about the changes. LISTEN TO THE AUDIO ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week is the Centre for Brain Research celebrates its 10th anniversary. Ten years of world-class research conducted right here in Aotearoa, New Zealand at the University of Auckland. The Centre for Brain Research was officially established by Distinguished Professor Sir Richard Faull, who had a dream of providing a world-class research centre, looking at neurological disorders such as stroke,...

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern joined Kerre McIvor live in studio this morning to wrap up the year and answer questions from Newstalk ZB listeners. Topics discussed include the latest on the White Island recovery mission, what is happening with the sexual assault allegations against a Labour Party staffer, and the government's performance over the year. LISTEN TO THE FULL INTERVIEW ABOVE, OR WATCH...

We continue our series celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the Brain Research Centre at Auckland University. Professor Anne Young is an American physician and neuroscientist who works on neurodegenerative diseases, with a focus on movement disorders like Huntington's disease and Parkinson's disease. Professor Anne Young collaborates with our most distinguished neuroscientist, Sir Richard Faull, on...

The man behind a scheme to reconnect Kiwi's with the land and where their food comes from says too many people have lost touch with the land.   The Open Farms initiative, launched earlier this week, aims to reconnect rural and urban Kiwis through a nationwide farm open day on March 1. Founder Daniel Eb told Kerre McIvor 60 per cent of urban Kiwis didn't visit rural New Zealand. "That's a huge prop...

We continue our series of interviews celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the Brain Research Centre. Dr Brigid Ryan is a neuroscientist working at the Centre for Brain Research at the University of Auckland. Her research is focussed on younger onset dementia, and frontotemporal dementia in particular. Dr Ryan is currently leading a multi-disciplinary longitudinal study of the earliest changes that...

The Centre for Brain Research celebrates 10 years of research this week. The team are committed to researching and understanding all aspects of brain disease and doing their part to help those who are affected by it here in New Zealand. One of those is Dr Jessie Jacobsen who has established a genetic research programme for autism spectrum disorder in New Zealand. Dr Jessie Jacobsen joined Kerre Mc...

There's disagreement within the National Party over Auckland's port. Sir John Key has joined forces with fellow former Prime Minister Helen Clark in supporting relocating the port from prime waterfront land. But his former senior minister, Steve Joyce, believes the port should stay. Joyce told Kerre McIvor moving operations to Whangarei or Tauranga would require a huge infrastructure upgrade. "The...

Young entrepreneurs who have been helped through courses facilitated by the Princes Trust, yesterday met with their patron, Prince Charles. Launched in October last year, the Prince's Trust New Zealand was established to support young New Zealanders on their journey to adulthood. His Royal Highness established the charity in the UK in 1973, which has since worked with over 970,000 young people ena...

Lanaco CEO Nick Davenport joins Kerre McIvor to discuss his company's scientific programme on what wool can do. Lanaco been researching the uses of wool for nearly a decade, and have invested into a scientific program that helped reveal that wool can make the world's best respiratory air filters. Davenport says it's taken them as long ass they can afford to move. "it's been a very expensive exerci...

National Finance Spokesperson Paul Goldsmith joins Kerre McIvor to talk about the Government's consideration of buying back the land at Ihumātao from Fletchers. National believe a $40 million payment from the Crown to purchase Ihumātao will open up full and final treaty settlements with the relitigating of previous claims. Construction of nearly five-hundred houses has been halted by protesters oc...

A third of people are failing their restricted driving tests because of obvious mistakes. VTNZ has listed the five main reasons why people fail. Forgetting to give way topped the list, accounting for 24 percent of fails. Driving 10 kilometres over the speed limit and not stopping at stop signs were other common breaches. Driver Testing Manager James Law says new drivers should pay attention to why...

Hong Kong anti-government protesters paralysed parts of the Asian financial hub for a fourth day, with some transport links, schools and many businesses closing, as police warned of a rise in violence to a deadly level. Protesters have torched vehicles and buildings, hurled petrol bombs at police stations and trains, dropped debris from bridges on to traffic below, and vandalised shopping malls an...