Kerre Woodham Mornings Podcast

Nicola Willis is defending her economic track record in the face of a lobby-group's satirical campaign.  The Taxpayers' Union has sent MPs Nicola Willis-branded fudge, claiming she favours treats today and taxes tomorrow.  It suggests Willis should cut spending more.  Willis says the Government has reduced taxes and delivered significant cost savings while keeping frontline services...

Do you see any advantage or benefit to the country in having a former Finance Minister and the current one debating fiscal policy?  The current Finance Minister, Nicola Willis, has challenged the former Finance Minister, Ruth Richardson, to a debate. Now, that is misguided in my view, but to be fair, she was grievously provoked. Ruth Richardson is the chair of the Taxpayers' Union. The Taxpay...

Whenever I hear or read news headlines these days, I know that the headlines will be just that for so many people. Headlines. People won't hear or they won't read beyond the headline, and then they'll form their own opinions based on nothing more than 20 words or fewer. I've got numerous examples of that. Even people that I would have thought would understand the media, like journalists, they'll l...

Efforts to stamp out yellow-legged hornets in New Zealand are widening.  Biodiversity New Zealand is expanding the 5-kilometre surveillance zone in Glenfield and Birkdale on Auckland's North Shore further out to 11-kilometres, to ensure only one population is at large.  Victoria University Ecology and Entomology Professor Phil Lester told Kerre Woodham hornets target worker bees one by o...

The Street Smart programme is a hands-on, one-day driver training course for young drivers, teaching crucial real-world skills beyond basic testing, helping reduce road deaths across New Zealand.  The course focuses on decision-making, hazard perception (like "rabbits" on the road), distraction management, peer pressure, and emergency manoeuvres in a controlled environment with professional c...

An urban planner says the Government’s RMA reforms are well overdue.   It's unveiled plans to replace current Resource Management Act laws with two new pieces of legislation, one for the environment and one for planning.   It sets clear limits on council regulations and is expected to save $13 billion in consenting costs.  Mt Hobson Group Director Hamish Firth told Kerre Woodham we’...

Two parents who care for their severely disabled adult children have been recognised as homeworkers and are now entitled to receive the minimum wage, along with other associated employment conditions, after a landmark ruling yesterday from the country's highest court. They're now deemed to be employees of disability support services. And the families who battled to be recognised for the work that...

2024 was an epic annus horribilis for the Greens - you remember Golriz Ghahraman, Darleen Tana, Julie Anne Genter, et al. It went on and on. It was arguably the worst year on record for any political party in this country ever. But wait, hold my beer – we have a new champion.  2025 is shaping up to be an even more horribilis of an annus for Te Pāti Māori, who may well factionalise themselves...

Whether-or-not you saw former police commissioner Andrew Coster’s TV interview yesterday, you’ll know about the allegations he’s making. He thinks people are running for the hills after the Jevon McSkimming scandal and aren’t telling the whole story in terms of what they knew and when they knew it. Especially current police minister Mark Mitchell and former police minister Chris Hipkins. Isn’t it...

This morning, I'm going to pretty much let Toss Grumley do the opener for me.   Who's Toss Grumley? Well, Toss is a New Zealand business advisor and investor. The Post has run an editorial he wrote, bemoaning the Christmas shutdown. In it he said New Zealand's Christmas break has started to become way too extreme, and it's impacting our productivity on an individual business level and at the...

Now, surely, it should be a straightforward exercise. You're about to embark on a relationship with someone, and you want to do a police check. Does this person have previous convictions for violence? Seems charming, seems a lovely, but you hear horror stories. So, why wouldn't you want to check on somebody before you invite them into your life? Why can't you know? Surely, once you have a convicti...

It's been 12 months since Richard Chambers became New Zealand's Police Commissioner. And by crikey, he's had a busy old time of it, a little bit of a poisoned chalice. There's been the clean out of the police hierarchy following the McSkimming scandal – or really, scandals. And two months after his appointment, police officer Lynn Fleming was killed in the line of duty in Nelson on New Year's Day....

Calls to expand the Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment Court across the country. AODTC was launched in New Zealand in 2012 as a pilot to steer high-risk, high-need offenders away from prison. Offenders must plead guilty and face a likely prison term of up to three years for drug offences, committing to a tough 12- to 18-month program including regular drug testing, AA or NA meetings, and counselling...

Auckland households face a 7.9% rate rise next year, primarily to fund the operating costs for the $5.5 billion City Rail Link, which is nearly finished. It's a reality, it's going to open for passengers next year – woo! The increase will cover the $235 million annual cost of operating the new underground rail service. It's the largest rates rise since Auckland Council as a super city was formed i...

Hundreds of the Labour Party faithful gathered over the weekend in Auckland to begin the march back to Parliament's government benches. Council of Trade Unions head Sandra Gray was preaching to the converted when she told the crowd that New Zealand's Pavlova paradise has been eaten up by the rich. She said Labour needed to give workers a reason to vote for them and to deliver fundamental and syste...

Auckland oyster farmers are facing another blow just weeks after a major wastewater spill into the Mahurangi River. Watercare says heavy rain on 19 November caused 86 cubic metres of wastewater and stormwater to overflow into the river from a Warkworth pipeline. The Ministry for Primary Industries has suspended harvesting while tests are carried out, but growers say the spill has already wrecked t...

The Government's move to shift e-scooter users from the sidewalk to bike lanes is being hailed as a win for common sense. Shame it's not coming in before the Christmas party season. ACC stats for e-scooter injuries this year are close to surpassing $14 million.  Now, I don't believe that's because e-scooters are inherently dangerous. They're very easy to ride, very stable. I am willing to bet...

The Pohutukawa are out and flowering and abundant. The days are longer, the sun is shining, the Reserve Bank has cut the OCR, Christmas is coming, summer holidays are on the horizon, Chris Hipkins was talking tough around any kind of coalition with the Greens. We're in charge, we're not going to have this rabidly socialist nonsense, was the clear implication.  Commentators are saying that thi...

Regional councils are being abolished – or are they?  Thomas Coughan writing in the Herald makes a very good point, it's not the councils that are being abolished, it's the council laws.  Under the Government's proposal, which was announced yesterday, regional councils would have their governance replaced by Combined Territories Boards, a group made up of a region's mayors, which would g...

Cats and dogs who are part of our families are much loved and live the life of Riley. There must be some days when your cat or dog is lying curled up in the sun with a full tummy, waiting for 3 o'clock when the kids come home and surround it with love, or waiting for you to take it for a walk, or waiting for you to sit down so it can curl up in your lap and they must think to themselves, by crikey...

Chris Hipkins says coalitions require a balance of compromise and standing by values.   The Labour leader says New Zealanders understand the nuances of MMP and the reality that parties can't get everything they want.   He says that means parties often can't accomplish as much as they hoped.  But Hipkins told Kerre Woodham some things will be bottom lines.   Hipkins says an exam...

Christopher Luxon has made his party's first election promise at a Christmas gathering for the party faithful of the Lower North Island. He said that they would lift the default KiwiSaver contribution rate, and eventually the changes would mean employees would see 12% of their earnings going into KiwiSaver, 6% from them, 6% from employers - a level that would match Australia's superannuation contr...

It’s hard enough to chase a scientific breakthrough.  But as New Zealand company Ārepa found out it's even harder and more expenisve to defend your breakthroughs time and time again. Ārepa was founded in 2017 and the so called “brain drink” company was growing at a rapid pace when at the end of 2023, they hit a massive speed bump. That's when the Ministry for Primary Industries and an Aucklan...

Violence against women remains one of the world’s most persistent and under-addressed human rights crises.  A report from the World Health Organisation says that 1 in 3 women, an estimated 840 million globally, have experienced partner or sexual violence during their lifetime, a figure that has barely changed since 2000.  In Australia and New Zealand, 24.5 percent of women have been sexu...

A new report from the World Health Organization has found (old news really), a quarter of women have been physically or sexually abused by a partner. It's 24.5% for Australia and New Zealand, so about the same. And there are calls for a public awareness and education campaign in this country about domestic violence. Really? Who needs to be taught that assaulting someone, hurting someone is wrong?...