Podcasts about kerre woodham

The Prime Minister's keen to raise the retirement age -- but it's not possible in coalition with New Zealand First. The Government is halving its KiwiSaver contribution rate -- and canning if people earning more than 180-thousand dollars. The default rate of worker and business contributions to KiwiSaver will rise over time. Chris Luxon told Kerre Woodham pushing out the retirement age to 67 makes sense. He says Labour doesn't think it's a good idea, and New Zealand First does not want to move that forward. Luxon also spoke about the cuts the government made to make funding available elsewhere. Budget 2025 includes 21 billion dollars of cost-savings - 13 billion of that from the controversial change to pay equity law - raising claim thresholds. Prime Minister Chris Luxon told Kerre Woodham these are difficult choices, but there's no way they could afford that. LISTEN ABOVE OR WATCH HERE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

New Zealand Inc. is in trouble and it's on us —you and me— to fix it. Not politicians, not economists, not even our blessed farmers who've got us out of trouble time and time again – it is on us, New Zealand voters. It doesn't matter whether we vote left or right, red, blue, green, yellow, or black. We all have to give our political parties the cojones they need to enact the policies that will save this country. Treasury's been warning us for years now, decades. Current government policies —whichever government has been in— are not sustainable. Treasury's 2025 long-term fiscal statement says population ageing is going to put unbearable pressure on New Zealand's long-term fiscal position. You know this. If you know anything about news, if you know anything about New Zealand politics, if you know anything about New Zealand society, you know this to be true. ANZ senior economist Miles Workman says Treasury's report should be on the reading list of every New Zealander. Because, he says, I don't think politicians are going to be able to make the changes that are needed here until the voting public is behind those changes. And he's right. In short, fiscal pressures will accelerate in coming decades with costs of superannuation and healthcare expected to rise significantly as the population ages. There is no one solution. In 1965, there were seven working-age New Zealanders for every person over 65. So that was seven working New Zealanders paying taxes for every person over 65, and for the most part, in 1965, those people on the Super weren't working. Today, we have four working-age New Zealanders to one person over 65. In 40 years, which is not a very long time, it'll be just two working New Zealanders to every person over 65. Successive governments have known this. Voters have known this. But political parties need the support of voters to make the changes that are needed, as Infometrics principal economist Brad Olsen told Ryan Bridge last night. “The worry a little bit is that we've had these warnings before. We had something very similar from the Treasury four years ago in 2021. And realistically, I think what the Treasury is continuing to highlight is that there's, there's a lot of big challenges in front of us. We don't have to solve them all tomorrow, but we really do have to start sometime soon to get us out of what looks like a very unsustainable pathway going forward. But, and here's the biggest kicker for me, you can't do any one thing and it will magically solve our sort of fiscal challenges. There's a lot that's going to have to happen that will be unpalatable to politicians across the political spectrum, but by goodness, we've got to start soon.” It's only going to be “unpalatable” if political parties expect voters to act out of self-interest. And that's what I mean, it's on us to affect the changes. I was talking earlier this week about the need for political parties to have a bipartisan approach to important issues like infrastructure and health and education curriculum. It's absolutely imperative. They can tinker around the edges, but it is incumbent upon them to have an infrastructure plan to stop the waste of money. And it's incumbent upon us to take a grown-up approach and look at the good of the country as a whole, not our immediate needs. If you've got your Super, calm the farm – your gin money's quite safe. Nobody's taking it off you now. But those of us in the 45 to 60-year age group need to realise that we're the ones that need to affect the changes needed to keep the country alive by allowing politicians to introduce policies that if they tried to introduce them previously would have sent them to political oblivion. There are options: raising the age of Super eligibility, broadening the tax base, (euphemism for fiscal drag and wealth taxes), index linking super payments to inflation rather than wages, means testing – these are all options. And another option is that New Zealand grows its wealth, that we become wealthier so we can afford it all. That's not looking likely. Treasury notes in the report that recent productivity trends have diverged from past projections, which means productivity growth over the past two decades has been weaker than predicted, averaging just 0.7% per year, and they expect that to last. So, ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country. I would like to think if we make the changes necessary, the Super will be there for those who need it. I would like to think that if we make the changes necessary, young people starting off in life, starting off with their families, will not be crippled by the burden of looking after people who were too lazy and self-interested to vote for the changes needed to spread the burden. It's on us. We can't just look to the politicians – what are they going to do? They are only going to come out with policies that they think will appeal to us. Are we that childlike that we just want the sweets before we'll vote a political party in? We have to be grown-ups. We have to grasp the nettle and say this is tough and this is going to be ugly, but we're going to do our bit to ensure that New Zealand is a better society for future generations. That's the way it used to be, and we've dropped the ball. You know, we can moan and grizzle all we like about the waste of money and the lack of purpose and the dithering around and the incompetence, but ultimately, if we want to affect change, it's on every voter in this country to do so. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For the final time this year, Heather du Plessis-Allan was joined by Kerre Woodham and Tim Wilson to Wrap the Week that Was. They discussed the Vanity Fair photoshoot of the Trump Administration, festive clothing, and their plans for the Christmas holidays. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the Mike Hosking Breakfast with Heather du Plessis-Allan Full Show Podcast for Friday 19th of December, we cover off the better-than-expected Q3 GDP number, which is signalling some hope for next year. Jennie Wyllie has resigned as the CEO of Netball NZ, but does it need to go further than that? And for the final time for the year Kerre Woodham and Tim Wilson joined Heather to Wrap the Week and discuss their Christmas plans. Get the Mike Hosking Breakfast Full Show Podcast every weekday morning on iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With all the hats he wears, Chris Bishop has been busy this year. He's the Minister for Infrastructure, and also holds the portfolios for Transport, Housing, RMA Reform, and the role of Leader of the House. While wrapping up 2025, Bishop told Kerre Woodham he's proud of how the Fast Track legislation has been tracking. He says things like the Waihi North mine expansion and the Port of Auckland expansion would have normally taken years to break ground, but the legislation means they're both underway. Plus, he told Woodham, there are big housing developments, renewable energy projects, and many more coming through his office. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hornets are on notice as the Government commits $12 million to stamp them out in Auckland. The yellow-legged hornet was detected on the North Shore earlier this year. They pose a serious threat to honeybees and, by extension, to the agricultural sector. Biosecurity Minister Andrew Hoggard says since the start of November, 37 queen hornets and 28 nests have been destroyed. More than 730 traps have already been deployed. Hoggard told Kerre Woodham they've searched over 6000 properties so far. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You can take the girl out of Waihi, but you can't take the Waihi out of the girl, I tell you. News that Oceana Gold's Waihi North project has been approved makes good sense, as far as I'm concerned. The permit that was confirmed yesterday guarantees the securing of 350 existing jobs, the creation of 100 plus new roles, the project to be in operation until at least 2042, so that gives some continuity, some certainty, which is fantastic, and a billion-dollar investment from Oceana Gold. Now, having lived there for five years when I was growing up, gold is a huge part of who Waihi was and is. It was also a really strong union town as well. Gold was first discovered in Waihi in 1878 and by 1905, Waihi not only possessed the most productive gold mine in New Zealand, but was the third largest inland town in New Zealand because of the gold. You had the 1912 Waihi miners' strike. That was a six-month pitched battle that ended in violence and a miner killed by police, and shaped New Zealand politics for the next 60 odd years. And that's very much a part of the town. It's a gold mining town, it's a working town. It's a beautiful town. The Martha Mine was and is living proof that there is gold in them there hills. The Martha Mine extracted 174 tons of gold, and the total district surrounding district, there was more than 31 million pound in gold value in the old currency from 1882 to 1954. So this is an area that has been mined for more than 100 years and is a community that knows mining, that is mining. When Dad was the bank manager in Waihi, I'm pretty sure, and it's not me making things up, but memory is an unreliable witness, I used to work in the bank in the school holidays and there were gold ingots in there, and that was fascinating, in the vaults, like you see in the cartoons. So this is an area that knows mining and for any kind of permit to be denied, it would make no sense whatsoever. Anti-mining activists have their place, and nobody wants to see pristine conservation parks torn up and destroyed, but that's not modern mining anyway. Even if they were to go into a conservation park, you don't tear it up and destroy it. That's not how you mine these days. As Oceana Gold president and CEO Gerard Bond says on the Heather Du Plessis-Allan show this morning, it shows that the new fast-track consenting process is working well. GB: I think New Zealand has the best development permitting system globally presently. It's rigorous. It is difficult to get something permitted anywhere in the world, and New Zealand is no different. Our application was substantial. We did a lot of work, but the great thing about this process is that it's done in a timely way. GB: New Zealand leapt up the mining attractiveness index in a annual global survey this year already off the base basis of that legislation being passed, and I think our success will further solidify New Zealand as a place that you can do business in. HDPA: Part of the problem in New Zealand though is attitudes towards mining. Do you think that's changing? GB: Well, we have tremendous support where we mine from local communities, and I understand during the course of last year, we saw the public support for mining has improved dramatically in New Zealand. And I think that's because people see that we do it safely, we do it responsibly, have done so for 35 years, and will continue to do so. And this is an industry that generates real high-paying jobs that are very, very productive. So, I'd like to think that New Zealanders would welcome the fact that they have a a robust mining industry. So, yes. I just simply cannot see the problem. Had the permit been denied, it would have made no sense whatsoever. And those who do live in towns where there are where mining is an industry, do well. You know, people have good jobs. They're not subsistence jobs, they're not service jobs, they're not tourism jobs depending on the season. They are all year-round jobs. I think we've got so hung up on mining and it's like the no nukes movement. It becomes a badge of pride to wear your I'm an anti-mining activist badge next to your pounamu without doing any kind of rational thought about it. Again, it's that kind of you're either in my tribe or you're not. I support mining in Waihi for the reasons as outlined. Do I support it everywhere? No, but then they're not asking to mine everywhere. Do I want conservation parks kept pristine? Yes, I do. Do I want all of New Zealand kept like that? No. So, I would really love to hear from those people who live on the West Coast, who live in Waihi, who live in areas where there are mines. You can actually grow up in and around the mines and there is still beautiful, lush, green land, there are still native birds, but there's also a thriving industry that provides well-paid jobs to men and women who would otherwise have to go to Australia to get them. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's been a tough run for the economy this year, but the Finance Minister is celebrating the progress that was made. Nicola Willis told Kerre Woodham the economy is growing, which means that when they look back on 2025, they'll be able to say it ended a lot better than it started. She says that looking into next year, it's set to grow much faster, with many more jobs being created. “People can look forward to their incomes rising faster than inflation and ongoing low interest rates – that's a positive way to start the next year.” LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For those who have been here over summer, Auckland is a lovely place to be. A lot of residents push off, and it feels like the city is yours to explore, and visitors are very welcome and make a welcome addition to the city, new people with new energy and seeing things that you don't see, seeing the city through new eyes. But it's going to be a little bit tricky to get around, unless you fancy a bus on a sweltering day or you bring your car, because Auckland trains have announced that they're delivering the last big push on the rail network rebuild and other critical city rail link preparations. There'll be more than 1,300 people involved in repairing tracks, building new platforms, pedestrian bridges, removing level crossings, and testing the timetable. So, thank you very much to those 1,300 who will be working in the heat over summer to get the CRL up and running, but it does mean the closure of the Auckland rail network from the 27th of December to the 28th of January. It'll be fully closed for most of the time, with the exception of some southern eastern and Ōnehunga line services returning between the 19th and the 26th of January. Auckland Trains say balancing delivery with minimising disruption to passengers and freight is tricky to get right. So, using holiday periods when demand is lower means we impact fewer people, they say. For those staying in Auckland or working right through, we understand this is frustrating – and it will be. If you're one of those essential workers working right through, it will be frustrating to know that an efficient public transport option is closed to you, quite literally. And for those who are looking to be the first people in the world to welcome in the new year in Auckland City Central, I mean, it's a hell of a spectacle. You've got SkyCity with the fireworks display and Vector with their lights, great music and it is a happy fun time, but imagine having good times and energy and well factor and then hopping on a bus crammed to the gunnels, chugging back out to Pukekohe. Is that really how you want to begin your new year? It's hardly the hoots wahay you're looking for, is it? A bus is not a train. Showing that I understand mechanics and engineering, a bus is not a train. Several buses are not one train. I do get it. I really do. There has to be some short-term disruption for long-term gain. And I do want to be able to travel hither and yon on public transport if I can do so safely and efficiently, as I do in other cities, I love jumping on the subway or the metro and even the buses. But Auckland's so far behind the eight ball. London opened its first deep-level tube line with electric trains in 1890. The New York subway opened in 1904 and Paris's metro a few years earlier in 1900. So, it's taken us a hot minute to get with the program, even allowing for economies of scale. People will use public transport if it's efficient and it's safe and it's going. They're not going to use it when it's shut. We're seeing increasing numbers of people choosing other modes of transport other than the car, according to the latest AA survey. Now, you'd expect people who belong to AA, you know, to love their cars, and they do. 97% of the 7,000 members who responded drove in the four weeks before taking the survey, but 60% also walked where they needed to go, 15% had cycled, 15% had bussed, and 6% had hopped on a train. Imagine how many more there would be if we did have an effective public transport system that was actually running. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

New Zealand's economy grew more than expected between July and September. But between April and June, it shrank more than previously thought. GDP rose 1.1% in the September quarter, surpassing all expectation but Stats NZ has revised the numbers for the June quarter, finding GDP actually fell 1%, not the previously-reported 0.9%. That means the economy shrank 0.5% in the year to September. NZ Herald Business Editor Liam Dann told Kerre Woodham the data is showing there's some momentum in the economy, especially within manufacturing and business services. He says consumers take a bit longer to feel upbeat, but the business core of the economy is picking up. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Trains will be offline across the Auckland rail network from December 27 to January 28. KiwiRail says the closure is needed to allow for urgent repairs and maintenance which is needed for the upcoming City Rail Link, set to open in the second half of 2026. Public Transport Users Association National Coordinator Jon Reeves told Kerre Woodham that shutting down the trains over the summer for maintenance purposes is the classic cliché that's been going on for about 25 years. He says it's become a bit of a joke, and a different way to make these upgrades needs to be found. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

New Zealand's economy grew more than expected between July and September. But between April and June, it shrank more than previously thought. GDP rose 1.1% in the September quarter, surpassing all expectation but Stats NZ has revised the numbers for the June quarter, finding GDP actually fell 1%, not the previously-reported 0.9%. That means the economy shrank 0.5% in the year to September. NZ Herald Business Editor Liam Dann told Kerre Woodham the data is showing there's some momentum in the economy, especially within manufacturing and business services. He says consumers take a bit longer to feel upbeat, but the business core of the economy is picking up. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mark Mitchell is acknowledging the wins he had in 2025. It's been a busy year, the Minister dealing with a range of emergencies across the country, plus the hefty police portfolio. He told Kerre Woodham that although there's a lot of negative headlines throughout the year, we should be extremely proud of ourselves as a country. Mitchell says there's a lot more going on than there is bad. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Treasury's Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update shows more delay to getting the books back to black. The deficit's expected to deepen to a depth of $16.9 billion and not narrow to $60 million dollars until 2029-30. Economic growth is expected to be just 1.7% next year. NZ Herald Business Editor Liam Dann told Kerre Woodham that the problem isn't in how much we borrow, but the efficiency of government spending. He says there's a big lack of trust in the government, as people would be able to cope with higher borrowing if it was going towards amazing infrastructure projects, but we haven't seen that over the last decade. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We're going to start this morning with the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update, which was actually the Three-quarter Year Economic and Fiscal Update. It delivered news we all expected, and that is that we're getting there as a country. It's just taking longer than we thought. Treasury's half-year update, published on Tuesday, predicted a return to surplus in 2029/30, a year later than it forecasted in May. Finance Minister Nicola Willis said she'd continue to aim for 2028/29 and said we're on target to return the books to surplus faster than they will in Australia, the UK, Canada, and many other advanced economies, while maintaining a prudent debt position. She's doubled down on what she calls her disciplined plan for returning the books to surplus, and says she's not willing to implement more brutal spending cuts, as the Taxpayers' Union have been advocating for, warning that their prescription would deliver human misery and hurt frontline public services and depress already weak demand in a recovering economy. She points out that the Taxpayer Union proposed, among other things, scrapping all Working for Families tax credits, reducing the average weekly income of the recipients by about $180. She said beneficiaries and low-income families would be at the brunt of any change like that, delivering a level of human misery she was not prepared to tolerate. She said of Labour's criticism, that their approach to spending is reckless and would further delay a return to surplus. She said that the Government had delivered about $11 billion a year in savings during its term. Without this disciplined approach, she says the year's deficit would be $25 billion, and debt would be on track to blow out to 59% of GDP. So, according to Finance Minister Willis, she and her government are on track, and that being castigated by the Taxpayers' Union for being too soft, too wimpy, and being criticized by Labour for being too harsh, means she's charting the right course. It is a fine balance she has to strike. You, me, everybody can see where she can make cuts. The winter energy payment, making it a needs-based payment, making a number of allowances needs-based, the fees free, that sort of thing. There's a lot of low-hanging fruit you could pluck off and save a few cents here and a few cents there. What a lot of households have done over the past few years. But she is bound by her agreements with coalition partners. There are some things she cannot touch. She's working in an MMP environment. There are plenty of things I'm sure she'd love to do, things that Ruth Richardson could do, but even allowing for the human misery factor, there are coalition partners she has to placate, and the Government wants to get re-elected. It is utterly pointless steering the right course, but only for three years. It is utterly pointless saving a few billion here, only for it to be squandered next time round. So what do you suggest she does? I'm sure she gets plenty of reckons from all sorts of people – the most recent and the most high profile was former Finance Minister Ruth Richardson, who really should pipe down. I'm glad that debate's off. That was just farcical. But Ruth Richardson needs to pipe down because she could do things, and did do things, that simply aren't possible for this Finance Minister to do under MMP. And also, it's a lot harder to get elected under MMP and to have a big say in the direction of the government unless you've got a big platform. So anything Nicola Willis does has to be with an eye to being the biggest party to form a government. So, I tend to think she's right, that if you've got the Taxpayers' Union going, you're too soft, you're too wet, you're too pathetic, you've got Labour going, you're too cruel, you're too harsh, you're too brutal, then she's pretty much on the right track. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I remember back when I first started talkback, a million years ago at nighttime, it must have been the semicentennial of the waterfront workers strike of '51, or the lockout, depending on which side you're on. It was the biggest industrial confrontation in New Zealand's history for those who don't know of it. It was 151 days from February to July, and at its peak, 22,000 waterside workers, or wharfies, and associated unions were off the job, out of a population of just under 2 million. It took place at a time of Cold War tensions, so name calling was rife. The opposing sides denounced each other as Nazis or commies, traitors and terrorists. Not all unions were on board with the Waterside Workers Union. Some of them thought they were way too militant, way too stroppy, so the unions weren't completely aligned. There was even the difference between the strike, which is what the employers and government called it. For the unionists, it was a lockout. Things got so bad that a railway bridge near Huntly was dynamited at the time of the tensions. An act of terrorism, basically – that's certainly what the Prime Minister at the time Sid Holland called it. No one was hurt, but coal supplies were severely disrupted. So, we've got bridges being blown up, we've got people on strike, we've got families who would have starved were it not for supporters feeding them. But if you were found out that you were supporting a wharfie's family, you could be ostracised, even if you were a working-class family, it hit you. Your union had to be aligned with the waterfront workers. So it was incredibly divisive. On the 1st of June, police dispersed up to 1,000 marchers in Queen Street, using truncheons and heavy-handed, fairly heavy-handed tactics. There was a lot of argy-bargy. There were fractured skulls and lacerations and concussions. The Government broke the strike really by bringing in new unions, and new unions of workers. They were denounced by the unionists as scabs, and the wharfies' position was becoming increasingly hopeless. Eventually, after five months, they conceded defeat on the 15th of July. So after 151 days. But the ugliness and the bitterness remained, because we were talking about the strike, and a man rang me from Huntly, and he said there was a scab living in his town, and he wouldn't be in the same shop, he wouldn't be in the same pub, and he would cross the street. 50 years later, that bitterness and that anger remained. Then we had in '81, probably the only comparable thing in recent times, was the Springbok tour, and the protests over that. That was the largest civil disturbance seen since '51. More than 150,000 people took part in more than 200 demonstrations. 1,500 were charged with offences that resulted from the protests. It was a clash between baby boomers and war veterans, between city and country, between young versus old. It's the Britain of the South versus an independent Pacific nation. There were real tensions and families were divided within themselves. And then along came Covid, more recently. I guess what I'm wondering about is how do we heal ourselves? Because we're at a time in history and at a time globally where tensions are running really, really high. Can we learn any lessons from our past? Our own past. We can't look at the world and try and fix that, but we can certainly try and heal ourselves here. We can look at the civil, not civil wars here, but civil division, civil fractures. I mean, if you look back and you and your family were divided over the Springbok tour, not expecting anyone still to be around from 1951, but if you look at the division you might have had with your parents during the Springbok tour, you can't cut ties forever with your parents, can you? You can't cut off your kids because they went on a protest march. So surely on a micro level, if you can heal your differences and still come together at Christmas and birthdays and things, despite the pain and the anger and the absolute incomprehension of each other's stances, then surely we can do it on a national level, can't we? And the same with Covid. There probably wasn't as much violence, physical violence, but certainly the violent rhetoric online was painful and awful. And it was probably more, I don't know, those who did not get vaccinated feel they were very much othered by the whole of society, that they were outcasts and punished unfairly and unnecessarily. But that was more an anti-authority, in my mind anyway, when it comes to Covid. You didn't agree with all the decisions being made, or you did. And anybody who dissented was a traitor and wanted to kill old people. We're at a really tricky time, but we have been at tricky times before. We have thought how on earth are we going to get over this before, many times in our history. I guess I'm looking at stories from a micro level. If there were real differences within your family, how did you get past them? How did you get past the pain and the hurt and come together as a community again? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The NZ Blood Service is encouraging people to donate, saying the demand doesn't stop. Although the amount of hospital activity and the number of surgeries slow down over the holiday period, CEO Sam Cliffe says things like accidents, births, and long-term conditions are still prevalent. She told Kerre Woodham that they try to over-collect in the two weeks up to Christmas and for a little bit after, as their stocks tend to get a little bit spikey in January. Additional mobile donation stations have been set up across the country, so even if you're not at home, there are options available. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A year into the job Health Minister Simeon Brown is celebrating early signs of success on reducing wait times. He took over the heath portfolio in January of this year, succeeding Dr Shane Reti. Brown told Kerre Woodham he attributes reinstated health targets as one aspect that's made a difference. He says the number one focus remains improved access to health care. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

At least 16 people are dead and 38 others injured in a terrorist attack at Bondi Beach in Sydney. Hundreds of people had gathered at Bondi for an event to celebrate the first day of Hanukkah, when gunmen opened fire. Massey University Centre for Defence and Security Studies Senior Fellow John Battersby told Kerre Woodham that police responded as quick as they could, but it can be difficult to predict these attacks. "Law enforcement agencies and intelligence agencies are pretty good at what they do, but they do not have a crystal ball." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the Mike Hosking Breakfast with Heather du Plessis-Allan Full Show Podcast for Friday the 12th of December, Primary Principals have turned down the latest pay offer from the Government, saying it doesn't acknowledge their workload. It's been revealed that water infrastructure is going to cost $9 billion more than originally expected after every council submitted their plan for Local Water Done Well. Tim Wilson and Kerre Woodham talked AI, Air NZ, and the Willis v Richardson debate as they Wrapped the Week. Get the Mike Hosking Breakfast Full Show Podcast every weekday morning on iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Friday has come and Heather du Plessis-Allan was joined by Kerre Woodham and Tim Wilson to Wrap the Week that Was. They discussed Air New Zealand's new safety video, the Willis v Richardson debate, the quote of the year, and artificial intelligence. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A New Plymouth lake is being drained in an effort to stop invasive clams. Lake Rotomanu's been closed to motorised watercraft since the gold clams were found there last month, marking the first discovery of the species outside of the Waikato River. The lake's outlet was opened yesterday, and it will take about four days to drain completely. Dave Cade told Kerre Woodham it's the worst biosecurity threat to New Zealand's freshwater that the country's ever faced. He says the clams reproduce asexually, and they'll smother the bottom of lakes, smothering native organisms and clogging hydro stations. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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. Kiwiblog author and co-founder of the Taxpayers' Union, David Farrar told Kerre Woodham that putting aside personalities, it's not a bad thing for people to realise we still have a real fiscal challenge in New Zealand. He says that while the Government has cut spending in a number of areas, we're still spending more than we're bringing in in taxes. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 Taxpayers' Union is a pressure group, a ginger group, founded in 2013 to scrutinise government spending, publicise government waste, and promote an efficient tax system. Its basis is its membership is mainly conservative, centre-right, right-wing figures, and it's regarded as a right-wing pressure group. Normally you would think they'd be scrutinising Labour and Labour's spending. Last week, the Taxpayers' Union sent out a provocative pamphlet and an accompanying box of fudge, accusing Nicola Willis of not delivering on her election promises to rein in reckless spending, unsustainable borrowing, and the hiring of endless bureaucrats. The Union accused Willis of failing to deliver the goods and fudging it, hence the fudge that arrived with the press release. Provoked and incensed beyond reason, Nicola Willis swiped back. She said, "My message for Ruth Richardson is a very clear one: come and debate me face-to-face, come out of the shadows. I will argue toe-to-toe on the prescription that our government is following. I reject your approach, and instead of lurking in the shadows with secretly funded ads in the paper, come and debate me right here in Parliament. 'm ready anytime, anywhere, I will debate her." So you can see she was a little bit brassed off. Willis said she stood by her decisions in government and wanted Richardson to defend her legacy, having introduced the infamous Mother of All Budgets in 1991, when her government under Bolger came in and were left with, I would argue, an even worse fiscal mess than this government inherited. It's all got very personal. I don't think there's anything wrong in critiquing decisions made by government ministers, looking at how they're going, giving updates, having a reckon, especially when the ministers came in on a campaign of fixing the economy and reining in irresponsible spending, it's fair enough to say, "Okay, have you?" The Coalition Government possibly hasn't done enough, been innovative enough to suit the Taxpayers' Union agenda. They wanted more. They wanted cuts in spending, they wanted slashing of and wholesale firing of bureaucrats. That's what they wanted, but the Government's in the tricky position of having to be responsible stewards of the public purse and get re-elected. And that's a tricky one. The Taxpayers' Union doesn't have to worry about getting elected. It's a stand-alone lobby group. The Taxpayers' Union has criticised Nicola Willis for a measly 1% reduction in public servants, but as David Farrar from Kiwiblog points out, this may well be the first government in history to actually reduce the number of public servants. They're the first ones to have done it. It was never going to be easy inheriting the situation left by the previous government, and it never is. The Labour governments spend, that's what they do. But there's also nothing wrong with critiquing the performance of the government. The Taxpayers' Union shouldn't have made it so personal. Nicola Willis should have showed superhuman restraint and not lashed back. The debate is a pointless waste of time in my view. I know that we're all political tragics here and we take far more interest than the average person does and if I thought there was any merit whatsoever, and if lessons could be learned or if as a country we would benefit from having these two Finance Ministers thrashing out points of economic order, fine. I just don't see it. I think it's egos have been wounded and it is the equivalent of challenging somebody to 50 press-ups – a pointless exercise. Just because you can, doesn't mean you should. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 look at a headline and think, "Oh, you know, subscriber only, I'm not going to pay. I'm just going to draw my own conclusions from the headline," which they know is flawed and ridiculous. You have to read the body of the story. If you just go on the headline, then you are going to be misinformed. It's a bit like the cancer diagnosis headline that's in the news today. "Cancer diagnosis numbers set to skyrocket by 50% over the next two decades". As soon as I read that, I could write the text to this show myself. Example: Yeah, have a look at how many of them were vaxed. Join the dots, and variations on that theme. Or I could imagine people thinking, "Oh my god, cancer diagnoses are up. I'm going to die." Or putting my young activist cap on, Māori are around 1.6 times more likely to die from cancer than Pākehā or other ethnicities. So the young activists are like, "Yeah, that's right, man, institutional racism inherent in the system. Yeah. It's colonialism. That's what's causing that." In fact, when you look beyond the headlines, when you read beyond the headlines, there's actually a lot of good news in the story, if you are willing to take the time to read it or listen to the interviews. Since the first state of cancer report five years ago, there has been encouraging progress in key areas of prevention, early detection, and treatment. Cancer diagnoses might be skyrocketing, but that's because they've got better diagnostic tools. We can find it before it does the damage. The chance of surviving cancer has improved over the last 20 years. The five-year net survival for all cancers has improved by 15% in the last 20 years, probably due to the screening and the advances in treatment. And even better is the news that many, many of the cancers that afflict us can be prevented by us. We have the power to reduce our risk of some cancers, as Dr. Chris Jackson, Professor of Oncology at University of Otago and practising medical oncologist, explained to Heather du Plessis-Allan this morning. CJ: 20% of all cancers are related to smoking, 20%. So if you get rid of smoking, you would cut the number of cancers by 20%. So that is undisputed. HDPA: Even though the numbers are so small nowadays? CJ: Yeah, well, it's probably going to, certainly it is going down, but those people who've been smoking are still going to be going through the system for that amount of time. The number the number two cause is obesity. So New Zealand's what, the third most obese country in the world now, I think? And we're seeing a rise in some obesity-related cancers now also, and I think if we could fix that, that would be the other big thing in terms of prevention. The other key thing, which is a very New Zealand thing, is our love affair with the sun. And as we come into summer months, I think we have to reflect on the old slip, slop, slap thing. Australia has done the sun prevention thing better than we have, and our skin cancer rates are now higher than theirs. Absolutely. There are still many, many mysteries around cancers. There are cancer clusters within families, there are rising rates of healthy young people being diagnosed with bowel cancer. There is much work for cancer researchers to do. But they've also done a lot of work in the field of many cancers and have found the cause and effect. Smoking increases your risk of cancer, obesity increases your risk of cancer, ignoring sun warnings increases your risk of cancer. So we need to pay heed, if we want to. Make the changes you need to your lifestyle, you improve your chances of a healthy active life. Don't, get sick. Take advantage of the free buses that will take you to the free screening because early detection is the best prevention, or don't. And you'll pay the ultimate price. I mean, the headline, if you just simply looked at it, you could form your own conclusion. You could absolutely go off onto an interpretive dance of your own misinformation, your own prejudice, your own beliefs. Cancer diagnosis numbers set to skyrocket by 50% over the next two decades. In fact, beyond the headlines, there is so much good news in there. And one of the key messages I think that we need to take from it is the fact that we have a little bit of control and agency over our own lives, that it is not inevitable that we get cancer, we get sick and we die. There is much we can do to prevent it. Early detection is the best prevention. The treatments are good, provided you go along and you get the screenings, and you keep up to date with your health, you pay attention to your body, and you think that you're worth it. When we look at the numbers who are disproportionately affected by cancer, you have to ask how many are helping themselves. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 one and will hurt more than our honey sector. He says bees support our dairy, kiwifruit, and avocado industries, and if they get established it will be a real problem. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 coaches. Highlands Motorsport CEO Josie Spillane told Kerre Woodham they're deeply committed to making generational and legislational change around driver training in New Zealand, but until they get to that point, they're doing what they can to ensure young drivers have the tools to make key split-second decisions. The Trust has launched their first lottery to fund the programme, giving Kiwis the chance to win one of three 2025 Subaru WRXs, and go into the draw for three once-in-a-lifetime motorsport experiences. With only 10,000 tickets at $100 each, Spillane says the odds are better than Lotto, and help make a life-saving difference for youth on the roads. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 they do are hopeful the Supreme Court decision paves the way for other carers who are in a similar situation. The case was brought by two parents, Christine Fleming and Peter Humphreys, who each care for their severely disabled adult children. Their physical and intellectual disabilities require constant supervision and around the clock care. Were it not for the care provided by their families, the two adult children would be needing 24/7 care somewhere, and some substandard accommodation, and that would be funded by the taxpayer. The decision to deem the parents to be employees was unanimously reached by the five judges of the Supreme Court, and it comes seven years and seven months after the case was first filed in the Employment Court, and more than two decades after family carers first went to court, complaining they had the right to be paid for the care they provided that the taxpayer would otherwise have to provide. From what I recall of the story over those two decades, it's complicated because there are some family members who believe it is their sacred duty to care for their children, and that by becoming employees it diminishes that bond. So not everybody thinks the same way. You know, you might share similar circumstances, but you look at it in different ways. But it just makes sense, doesn't it? That if you have a child, be they seven months, seven years, 17, 27, however old they are, and it has been deemed that they need 24/7 care, and you are providing that care, you should be reimbursed for it, whether you've got a sacred bond between parent and child or not. Otherwise, we, the taxpayer, would have to fund it some other way. It's similar to a story I covered on Fair Go a trillion years ago. A young man had been left tetraplegic in a car accident. He was legally entitled to 24/7 care, but he only received limited funding to cover that care. So unless his caregivers gave their time voluntarily, and many chose not to, and fear it, they weren't being paid, but he would be left alone and abandoned. He nearly died a couple of times because there was nobody there, despite the fact he was entitled to it, but the money didn't cover 24/7 care. It seems that some government departments rely on the bonds between parents and their children and the kindness of strangers to provide the care that legally, by right, should be afforded our most severely disabled New Zealanders. I can't imagine what it would be like as a parent of a disabled child, knowing that time is ticking by. You try to set your children up so that they will be looked after when you're gone. But it would be terrifying having to try and care for the child in the here and now, while making provision for them in the future. Quite often it falls to other siblings to provide that care. There's a need to try and work to afford the sort of care that the adult child is going to need now and in the future. Like the love you would get from knowing your child, fabulous. But there's also the basic needs you have to provide for. You know, you get a lot out of being with your child, no matter what age. You know, it's a relationship that you have. It is one that is special, unique, but it's also a job, and if you weren't doing it, somebody would have to. So I would love to hear from those families who are in that situation and what that means for you from here on in. Not all family members will want to be workers of disability support services, and I get that, but at least the pay it paves the way for there to be the option for them to be recognised as such. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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've been bungling along with a system that results in us all having horror stories. He says there's continuous subjectivity in the Resource Management Act, and the Government's doing the right thing in replacing it. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 into extinction. It all started so well. And by started, I'm going back to 2004 when Labour MP Tariana Turia's protest against her own government's Foreshore and Seabed Bill led to her establishing Te Pāti Māori. Despite it being pretty much a single issue party at genesis, it lasted the distance thanks to the political pragmatism and mana of Dame Tariana and Sir Pita Sharples, the other co-leader. They were able to walk in both the Pākehā world and Te Ao Māori, and they kept the party together. Te Pāti Māori winning six out of the seven electorate seats in the 2023 election was a triumph. As was its opposition to the coalition government's Treaty Principles Bill and galvanising everybody together. But since then, Te Pāti Māori has turned upon itself and the ugly mudslinging being played out in the public arena has seen support for the party plummet. This time last year, Te Pāti Māori got 7% in the 1News Verian poll. Last night in that same poll, they recorded just 1%. Bang, crash, pow, brace for impact, as Maiki Sherman might have said, but didn't, when reporting the results last night. Te Pāti Māori threw out two of its MPs amid accusations of a dictatorial style by its leadership. The dispute took a new twist in court last week though, when a judge ruled MP Mariameno Kapa-Kingi should be reinstated as a party member. John Tamihere emerged from the party's AGM in Rotorua over the weekend absolutely triumphant and grinning like a Cheshire cat, the cat that's got the cream. Those opposed to his presidency simply didn't have the numbers to get rid of him. According to the party's constitution, it appears the only way Tamihere can be removed from the role of president is if there is consensus among the electorate council representatives. So he has a stranglehold on Tāmaki Makaurau, Waiariki, and Te Tai Hauāuru – Waikato seems to be neutral. Ikaroa-Rāwhiti said they weren't happy about the expulsion of Whaitiri and another MP, Ferris. Te Tai Tokerau, Te Tai Tonga, they want John Tamihere gone. But it looks like he'll be clinging on. May well be a Pyrrhic victory. If Te Pāti Māori can't find a way to work through their differences, and I don't see how they possibly can. Tamihere will be the head of a political party that isn't in Parliament, that is completely and utterly irrelevant. He'll have his toys, but no one to play with. While all of this infighting is occurring, as Christopher Luxon said, not one single piece of legislation has been crafted by Te Pāti Māori MPs to further the betterment of their constituency, of their people. As he said, not one of them has turned up with ideas, with a plan, with a way to make the world a better place for the people who voted them in, to use the machinery of Parliament to advance the cause of their people. They are simply not doing their job while they're involved in this sort of infighting. I would very much like to hear from those who have supported Te Pāti Māori in the past, who as recently as 2023 might have installed a Te Pāti Māori MP in Parliament by voting in the electorate – where to now? Is there still a place for Te Pāti Māori in Parliament? They look like they're doing their level best to disembowel themselves and eat their own entrails in front of us all. It's unedifying, but worse than that, it is letting down the very people who voted them into Parliament. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 level of the economy. The summer break, he says, seems to be extending, leaving less room for leave later in the year. But the most concerning part is the circle back mid-February mentality, which means that while many are at work, they aren't doing much productive work. And the mentality of circle back Feb seems to start late November or early December. He says having 10 weeks of no productive conversation simply isn't good for business. He points out our productivity has grown at around 1.2% per year since 1996, while Australia's has grown at around 1.8%, and we're getting left behind. We need to work longer as we're producing less. We are 30 to 40% below top performers like the US, Norway, and Ireland. He also points out that March and April are the peak months for business arrears. This, he says, is not by chance, it's driven by business habits over December and January. Additionally, our GDP quarterly volatility is in the top third of the OECD. Again, he says, this is the Christmas season. For retail, we have a huge October to December quarter, then everyone stops spending all of January, creating cash flow problems for our businesses. He says while we all need to recuperate at times, in a country where our recovery is so fragile, we need to work hard up to the break, take some well-deserved time off, then get back into it and get our lives and businesses moving again swiftly. Thank you very much Toss and The Post for doing the heavy lifting on the editorial for me this morning. He does have a point though, doesn't he? Because we have our very own Mike Hosking who's, even as I speak, roaring down the motorway in his fine European vehicle, heading off on his hols before December's been here for a week. The Chrissy decks have barely been put up around the office, and he's gone. And it's unsettling for people when the routine is disrupted. I myself will be heading off – I don't go until the 19th, but I won't be back for a while. Most of January I'll be gone. It's a long time. They're the sort of holidays I could only dream of when I was a junior woodchuck reporter. Penny and Robert, our favourite coffee shop downstairs, they're paying rent on their space. They don't stop paying rent over Christmas and New Year, so they'll be back. Heaven knows who'll be around to buy the coffees and the excellent muffins that Helen barely ever touches because our people are clearing off apart from a skeleton staff. The council offices over the road will be deserted too, I imagine, apart from the skeleton staff. I'd be really interested to hear from you as to what you want. If you are one of the many, many small business owners, small to medium business owners, do you work like a navy right up until Christmas Eve, and then think, thank heavens, put the closed sign up on the shop and head off for three weeks, four weeks, and think, no, I'm not doing anything over January. I'm done. Do you wish that you could take two weeks off, recover, and then come back and everybody else came back too and business as usual, like Toss is saying. He got a fair bit of flak for this when he posted this initially on LinkedIn. People were really grumpy, saying he begrudged people holidays. And he doesn't. He says he just wishes they were spaced out throughout the year, rather than having the great Christmas shutdown. Do people order their bathroom or kitchen renos in December and January, or do you wait until February? Is it a case of, oh well, might as well take the time off because my supplier's taken the time off and customers aren't responding to calls, and then it becomes a domino effect. One topples and the next thing, you know, we all fall over and lie in the sand with a cool drink by our side, thinking, well, circle back February. How many weeks for you is optimum for a holiday? How many would you like other people to take? When it comes to the schools and the teachers, when it comes to radio stations and the hosts, when it comes to businesses, when it comes to suppliers. Is it six weeks, four weeks, three weeks? What to you would be the optimum? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 level of the economy. The summer break, he says, seems to be extending, leaving less room for leave later in the year. But the most concerning part is the circle back mid-February mentality, which means that while many are at work, they aren't doing much productive work. And the mentality of circle back Feb seems to start late November or early December. He says having 10 weeks of no productive conversation simply isn't good for business. He points out our productivity has grown at around 1.2% per year since 1996, while Australia's has grown at around 1.8%, and we're getting left behind. We need to work longer as we're producing less. We are 30 to 40% below top performers like the US, Norway, and Ireland. He also points out that March and April are the peak months for business arrears. This, he says, is not by chance, it's driven by business habits over December and January. Additionally, our GDP quarterly volatility is in the top third of the OECD. Again, he says, this is the Christmas season. For retail, we have a huge October to December quarter, then everyone stops spending all of January, creating cash flow problems for our businesses. He says while we all need to recuperate at times, in a country where our recovery is so fragile, we need to work hard up to the break, take some well-deserved time off, then get back into it and get our lives and businesses moving again swiftly. Thank you very much Toss and The Post for doing the heavy lifting on the editorial for me this morning. He does have a point though, doesn't he? Because we have our very own Mike Hosking who's, even as I speak, roaring down the motorway in his fine European vehicle, heading off on his hols before December's been here for a week. The Chrissy decks have barely been put up around the office, and he's gone. And it's unsettling for people when the routine is disrupted. I myself will be heading off – I don't go until the 19th, but I won't be back for a while. Most of January I'll be gone. It's a long time. They're the sort of holidays I could only dream of when I was a junior woodchuck reporter. Penny and Robert, our favourite coffee shop downstairs, they're paying rent on their space. They don't stop paying rent over Christmas and New Year, so they'll be back. Heaven knows who'll be around to buy the coffees and the excellent muffins that Helen barely ever touches because our people are clearing off apart from a skeleton staff. The council offices over the road will be deserted too, I imagine, apart from the skeleton staff. I'd be really interested to hear from you as to what you want. If you are one of the many, many small business owners, small to medium business owners, do you work like a navy right up until Christmas Eve, and then think, thank heavens, put the closed sign up on the shop and head off for three weeks, four weeks, and think, no, I'm not doing anything over January. I'm done. Do you wish that you could take two weeks off, recover, and then come back and everybody else came back too and business as usual, like Toss is saying. He got a fair bit of flak for this when he posted this initially on LinkedIn. People were really grumpy, saying he begrudged people holidays. And he doesn't. He says he just wishes they were spaced out throughout the year, rather than having the great Christmas shutdown. Do people order their bathroom or kitchen renos in December and January, or do you wait until February? Is it a case of, oh well, might as well take the time off because my supplier's taken the time off and customers aren't responding to calls, and then it becomes a domino effect. One topples and the next thing, you know, we all fall over and lie in the sand with a cool drink by our side, thinking, well, circle back February. How many weeks for you is optimum for a holiday? How many would you like other people to take? When it comes to the schools and the teachers, when it comes to radio stations and the hosts, when it comes to businesses, when it comes to suppliers. Is it six weeks, four weeks, three weeks? What to you would be the optimum? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 conviction for an offence, it becomes a matter of public record. And there might be people who say, "Well, what about the privacy? What about the privacy concerns of offenders who have done their time?" I think we need to stop being concerned about the privacy of offenders and start being concerned about the safety of individuals, especially women and children who are generally the ones who end up most damaged. A man who harassed and stalked a woman, hid behind a tree waiting for her to get home with her children before fatally stabbing her 55 times. In 2012, Nathan Bolter was jailed for eight years and six months for kidnapping and assaulting his ex-girlfriend over a 38-hour ordeal on Great Barrier Island. In November of this month, he pleaded guilty in the High Court at Christchurch to murdering another woman. Had she known about his previous convictions, you'd have to wonder about whether she would have entered into a relationship. He was recalled to prison. Presumably that's when she found out about it because she terminated the relationship and that's when he went ballistic. I have another one for you. Colombian national, Juliana Bonilla-Herrera, was attacked and stabbed to death in her Addington flat by Joseph James Brider in January 22, after he was paroled to the flat next door. She knew nothing of his criminal history of sexual violence. She wasn't warned. I have another one. I could go on and on. This is particularly vile. An Australian deportee who murdered two women in Oz in the 80s was jailed a few years ago for 16 years for sexual assault. Johnny Harding received the prison term for 19 charges including sexual violation and assault. The offences were mostly against two young sisters. He had entered a relationship with the children's mother, then offended against the children. To ensure the children didn't tell, he used violence and threatened to harm their mother if she knew. I could go on and on, but I won't. You get the picture. There are so many examples. Google can only tell you so much about a person. If you're an employer, you can do a police check, and that's relatively simple. You get the signed consent of the employee; you then fill out a form online. You have to be registered as an agency authorised to request police vetting. You submit the request online, you get the results back - clean as a whistle, absolutely nothing wrong with this person, go for it. If you want to check the background of someone you're bringing into your life, your home, your children's home, and your bed, it's a lot more difficult. The then-National Government put a scheme in place in 2015, the FVIDS, and that was designed to allow people concerned for their own or their family's safety to be made aware of a person's history of family violence. Police officers could also instigate disclosure to a person of concern using the scheme. So say if they had concerns about Juliana in Christchurch, the fact that she had a dangerous sexual offender moving in next door, might have been nice to tell her. The scheme, the FVIDS, followed similar initiatives overseas. However, in this country, when victims and family violence support workers attempt to apply for the information, they're being turned away by police who don't seem to know that the scheme exists. They don't know that it's there. And even when they do know, there's no online portal to help people to apply for the scheme. It can take up to three visits in person to a police station. How much do you need to know and how much do you want to know? We had a caller whose daughter was being very in a relationship with a man who was being very coercive. And he knew something was up. This was only a couple of weeks ago, you might remember him. And he said, "No, this isn't good. You've got to come home." And he owned the house that his daughter and the chap were living in. And when he started making inquiries about this guy, whose behaviour was suspect, he found out that he had form. Done it before to other women. And he wanted her out of there now, and he wanted the guy out of the house. And how did he best go about doing that? How much do you need to know? How much do you want to know, and how easy is it to get that information? Might not be you. You might have sparkly eyes, and you've just met the girl or the boy of your dreams, and you think they're absolutely amazing. Parents or friends might think, "Really?" When something's too good to be true, it generally is. I don't know about this one. How much should you be entitled to know? I would say that the death list would indicate that the concern for the safety of families, men, women, and children, should absolutely override the privacy of convicted offenders. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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. Back in March of this year, the latest Ministry of Justice Crime and Victim Survey found 69% of people had trust and confidence in police, up slightly on the year before. That was 67% probably after the Coster years, and then the police involved in the occupation of Parliament, and there was a little bit of argy-bargy going on between some members of the public and police. And then people felt that violent crime was getting out of control and the police weren't doing anything and providing escorts for gangs rather than arresting them. So, I can understand how trust might have slipped a little. He said the measure had slipped to its lowest ever in recent years, and although trust in police had improved slightly in the past 12 months, he conceded it could take a hit after the McSkimming scandal and other controversies. I'd say almost certainly. But the Commissioner has set some targets, and as he told Mike Hosking this morning, he's certain the police will achieve them. RC: We've been at 80% before, some years ago, but sitting at the moment around about 70%. So, we have seen a slight increase over the last 12 months, which is great. I know that we can do it. Trust and confidence matter and 80% is aspirational, but I'm determined to get there. MH: As regards confidence post this whole shambles of McSkimming and Co., if I suggested to you that most New Zealanders think no differently of the police because of this specific set of circumstances, would you agree broadly or not? RC: Absolutely agree with you, Mike. That's the feedback that I'm getting from across communities in New Zealand, that they appreciate this comes down to a group of former leaders of New Zealand Police, not the 15,000 outstanding men and women who do a great job day and night, they understand that. Yeah, and I think we do, don't we? We're still going to call the police when we've got somebody coming in the window, when a member of the family goes missing, in any of the myriad everyday tragedies that take place on a daily basis. The police are the first port of call, even if you are somebody like Tamatha Paul who doesn't instinctively and intuitively trust the police. They're who you go to when you're in trouble. They're the ones you ask to put their lives on the line to save yours or members of your family. I can appreciate that victims of sexual crime might think twice before going through a gruelling investigation in light of, you know, the police hierarchy seeming to believe their colleague over a woman complainant. But they shouldn't, because remember it was a police officer, a rank-and-file working police officer, I mean high ranking, but nonetheless she was on the front line, who highlighted the appalling treatment of the woman at the centre of the McSkimming cover up. Detective Inspector Nicola Reeves was the one who stood up to her bosses and told the IPCA. In her words, "I personally think it should be very simple in every police officer's world. It doesn't matter who the hell you are. We speak to the person, we take a complaint, and we investigate it. It's all very simple." Yeah. I mean, she got the brief. She understands her job. And as far as I'm concerned, I absolutely trust the police. I trust them to do their job well and professionally. And the cover up at Police HQ, I don't think has anything to do with the police who are going to work every single day, working for us. Richard Chambers has set four new targets. They'll be introduced early next year, and that is that 80% of New Zealanders have trust and confidence in police, 80% of New Zealanders being satisfied with service from officers, a 15% reduction in public violence, which is ambitious, and a 15% increase in retail crime resolutions, which would be gratifying for retailers. When it comes to having trust and confidence in police, it'd be interesting to see how the survey is worded. I was talking to someone recently who as part of a long-standing study that fills out their thoughts and opinions on different matters. And he said the way the questions were worded almost invites you not to have trust in the police, not to have trust in the justice system. It's all in the wording, as we well know. So I'd be interested to see the wording of this particular survey. What does satisfaction with service from officers mean? In recent times, I had the car appropriated from an underground locked garage. The police couldn't have been more helpful. Admittedly, the car was used by a 501er to commit an aggravated robbery, so, you know, the car got into bad company, so therefore it was found more quickly perhaps than if it had just been taken by a joy rider. But professional, they were helpful, they had a completely holistic understanding of crime, of the importance of the victims, of not me particularly, but the those at the wrong end of a firearm in the aggravated robbery. I was really, really impressed. What does satisfaction with service from officers look like to you? Have you received it recently? I would be very, very interested to hear your thoughts. What will it take to get 80% of New Zealanders having trust and confidence in police, 80% of New Zealanders being satisfied with service? What do the police need to do? I would argue the police on the beat, the police out there investigating don't need to do much. They're doing their job and doing it well. It's the bosses that need a long hard look in the mirror. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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. The courts are incredibly successful in the United States, resulting in some prisons in Texas closing due to lack of need. Dr Doug Marlowe, a global expert on drug-court policy, told Kerre Woodham early studies of the system showed low rates of people committing new crimes and high rates of people completing treatment, avoiding jail sentences, and avoiding probation revocations. He says that when Judges take a personal interest in the treatment the participants are receiving, their influence and authority in the community helped to bring more resources to bear for their clients. Marlowe told Woodham that treatment courts raised all ships – raising the quality of treatment, the quality of defence council representation, and the quality of probation supervision. “Treatment is the core of the model, and if you don't have good treatment, you know, your outcomes are severely limited.” LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 in 2010. For the average household wondering what on earth to do with all the extra money that comes into their bank accounts, annual rates will climb from $4,023 to $4,341. Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown's rates announcement came shortly after Christopher Luxon announced at his post-cabinet press conference yesterday afternoon that the Government's going to introduce a rates cap of 2 %to 4% from January 27. The cap will exclude water charges and non-rate revenue such as fees and license fees and things like that. Very good politically. Who doesn't want somebody to say, "Hey, you greedy grasping councils, stop taking our money and delivering nothing in return." But as Wayne Brown pointed out, how would Auckland be able to pay for its city link if it didn't have the facility to raise rates? Wayne Brown told the Herald, putting a cap on rates isn't going to solve anything, it'll just defer it for a couple of years, then ratepayers will be paying even more. He said councils are faced with making decisions that involve significant investment and should not be restricted by governments telling us what we can and cannot do. All very valid, provided of course that councils are sensible husbands of their ratepayers' money. We can all think of absolutely barking mad vanity schemes that have been undertaken with ratepayers' money that incense us and infuriate us. And there's very little we can do. You could always try voting, those 70% of you that don't, but you won't be listening to this radio show probably. And if you've got a council that doesn't really know what it's doing and doesn't know how to keep control of the different departments and can't really manage long-term investment infrastructure and a long-term rates plan, suddenly turning off the money tap is not going to turn them into brilliant budgeters. They're not going to suddenly gain the skills overnight because there's less money to pay with, play with. If you're making dumb decisions now, you're still going to be making them in 2027. Rate capping or rate pegging has been in force in New South Wales and Victoria for several years and is loosely based on the rate of inflation or the consumer price index, which is what we've done. We've looked at Australia and thought we can do this here. In New South Wales and Victoria, the councils can apply for higher caps, but the process is complicated and deeply controversial with their rate payers, not surprisingly. Ratepayers like not having to pay significant rate increases, but the sorts of things they want to see, swimming pools, sports facilities, libraries, lifestyle infrastructure, are getting further and further away from local councils to deliver because they're under the pump financially. They just haven't got the money to do it. If you reduce your rate collection, you won't have as much money to maintain services or implement them. So what do you want as a ratepayer? We were talking about this earlier and, you know, one of our young producers doesn't use his local swimming pool. He said, "Can I opt out of funding that?" And I'm like, "Well, I'm all in. Our family uses the local swimming pool, uses the local library, loves it." We can opt in. Can it be like a car wash, where you get your basic car wash and then you can do the add-ons? Do you want the wax? Sure. Tick. Could they have a bare bones rate structure, or would it be simply too difficult to implement? At least in Auckland you can see what you're paying for, and I assume it's the same if you're in Hamilton or Timaru or New Plymouth. You can actually see the projects. When you're paying rates in places like the Hokianga, we don't get rubbish collection, we don't have water that comes from the sky. We have sewage that is collected on site in septic tanks, don't have lighting, any pest control I'm doing. You don't get a lot for your $3,000. So at least in the cities you can see what you're getting. There'd be some of you paying rates wondering what on earth you're paying them for. I'd be very interested to hear your rate stories. Could you have, would it be too difficult to implement? It probably would, but would you like to see an option? You can have economy, business class, or first class in terms of what you pay for in rates and what services you can access. Does a rates cap appeal to you or can you see it just being a gradual erosion of services and facilities?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 their busiest season. Matakana Oysters owner Tom Walters told Kerre Woodham that, 'it's been a gutting year, and it seems to be the gutting cherry on top of it at the moment.' LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 systemic change. Yay! Cue loud rapturous applause. Barbara Edmonds, Labour's Finance Minister in waiting, stressed to the crowd, and the way the attendant media, that she would be a firm, fit and frugal Finance Minister. She and her husband have raised eight children. They have lived on one income. As a tax lawyer for small businesses, she knows, she said, how to manage money responsibly and make every dollar count. She repeated that ad nauseam throughout the day. Gone are the days of profligate spending. No, no, no. Not with Barbara at the helm. Not with Barbara in charge of the bank accounts. She knew how to be frugal. She knew the value of a dollar. She would make sure that money was spent wisely, judiciously, and not everybody who came knocking at the door with policies would get the money they wanted. And yesterday, Labour Party leader Chris Hipkins announced a future Labour government would offer doctors and nurse practitioners low interest loans to set up new practices or buy into existing ones. New Zealand, and this will come as no news to you, New Zealand currently has a GP shortage, which is expected to worsen. We have an aging GP workforce. GPs are looking to retire and they can't find anybody to take their place. A recent survey found two thirds of GPs are expected to retire in the next decade. Many in the sector have also warned of a an emerging duopoly, large primary healthcare providers buying up practices from the small family-owned GP practices. So Labour has announced that initially it will offer up to 50 loans per year, prioritizing areas that have no GPs or practices with closed or partially closed books. They will only be available for owner and or community operated general practices. The loan will have to be repaid over 10 years. They will be interest-free for the first two years. Novel. It aligns with Labour's messaging of health, jobs, homes, as it goes into next year's election. But just as the three free GP visits per year, is a gift that a lot of people don't need or want, is this what GPs and practice nurses want? Do you actually want to own your own practice? I'm sure there are some that do. But just because you're a brilliant GP, does that make you a brilliant manager? Running a business, a successful business, requires a very specific skill set. Times are tough for small businesses. And the problem for GPs practices doesn't appear to be having access to loans to buy into a business. It's that the business model doesn't seem to be working. You've got the very low cost access practices serving high needs populations. They face financial challenges, especially the community trust owned clinics that have been operating at a deficit. Increase costs for GPs, inabilities to raise fees, growing patient debt due to the cost of living. Those are the problems for GP practices, not necessarily the fact they haven't got the money to buy it. They've also got the problem of trying to recruit and retain healthcare professionals. There's a shortage of locums and a high level of burnout because there aren't enough people to replace them. They're working longer than they wanted to. They've got more difficult healthcare problems presenting because people put off going to the doctor because they can't afford it. Pay parity concerns are particularly severe for the very low cost access GP practices. They can't afford to pay the going rates in the employment market as they don't have the ability to increase fees. So is the ability to buy into a practice what's holding GPs back? I wouldn't have thought so. That poor little targeted capital gains tax is going to be working overtime, isn't it? As more and more policies are heaped upon it onto its little fragile base. And good luck with to Barbara Edmonds, the want to be Finance Minister, when she says not everybody who comes knocking on the door is going to get money. When you've got the Council of Trade Unions head Sandra Gray whipping everybody up in the front rows, you bet your bippy the firefighters and the police and the nurses and the teachers are going to be banging on the door saying, "Give me, we've been under a National-led coalition government for three years. Those bastards have screwed us down. We gave you support, we got you into power. Give us more". You can you can say what you want to get into Parliament, to get into government but once you're there, there will be expectations and obligations.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 their busiest season. Matakana Oysters owner Tom Walters told Kerre Woodham that, 'it's been a gutting year, and it seems to be the gutting cherry on top of it at the moment.' LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 a significant proportion of those injuries happened after 10:00 at night on a Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, or Saturday, when the rider was pissed as a parrot and there were three to a scooter, tooting their hooter. Putting e-scooter riders into cycle lanes isn't going to stop them falling off their perches, but it might protect innocent passers-by and pedestrians. National MP for Tukituki, Catherine Wedd, says the rules around where people were allowed to ride e-scooters were outdated and dangerous, and the government had work underway to change it. Flamingo Scooters co-creator Jackson Love told Mike Hosking that it clears up confusion. He says bike lanes are clearly lot safer than the road, and it also helps keep footpaths clear for pedestrians. And the cycling action spokesperson Patrick Morgan agreed, as he told Ryan Bridge on Early Edition this morning. PM: This is long overdue. It makes sense for this to happen. Pedestrians really don't want e-scooters on the footpath, and often our streets can be quite hostile for people. So, it makes sense to put e-scooters on bike lanes. But we're going to need a lot more bike lanes, aren't we? RB: How many more bike lanes do you reckon we need? PM: We don't need a bike lane on every street. No one's asking for that. What we need is bike lanes on busy streets where people want to go, so to get people to our schools, workplaces, shops. There's a there's a trend in modern cities for people to get around by bike, e-bike, and scooter. So, I think councils and the government need to restart building bike lanes to meet public demand. It would be interesting to know what that public demand is, given that cycle lanes are not swollen and congested. You do not see long, lengthy queues on cycle lanes. There are some that are better patronised than others. But there is clearly a heck of a lot more room for people on scooters, for people on bikes, for people on skateboards, for people on bloody horses to use the cycle lanes because they are not at capacity now. I love a cycle lane. I love cycling. But it's some cyclists I'm less keen on. They want cycle lanes and they want them in most places, and I would love a cycle lane from my home to work. So I could get to and from work over the bridge on a fine day. I want to be able to use my car if it's raining or the bus. But I'd love to be able to cycle safely without aggressive nasty drivers taking aim at me. But cyclists want cycle lanes and more of them, but they also want to be able to use the road when it suits them too. The man mules say they want to, they're way too fast to go into cycle lanes, mate. You should see the clicks I can get up to on my bike. They don't go into the cycle lanes because they're too fast and they say it's dangerous. So they need to be on the road and everybody needs to look out for them. And despite the fact that there's a beautiful cycle lane that's been built on Meola Road in Auckland, and you could probably substitute Meola Road for just about any road in any city around New Zealand. There's a beautiful cycle lane there, wide, safe, glorious. But my lovely producer Helen came to work quite discombobulated because she'd had to slow down to go behind a lady commuter on her electric bike who was adjacent to the cycle lane, in the middle of the road, pootling along, not quite at the same speed as the traffic, but and there was a yawning, vast, empty cycle lane right next to where the lady cyclist was. There are special bike lights to let cyclists know where it's safe to go and when they need to stop. Yesterday I was coming up Franklin Road in Auckland, again substitute any road in any city, and there's a lovely cycle lane there, and there were three cyclists on it from bottom to top, which is great. And the first cyclist got the green light, the green little cyclist, so through they went. That changed to red by the time the second cyclist got up. Did that deter them? Not a jot. They wove through the pedestrians like the pedestrians, who were on the pedestrian crossing, were oddly shaped obstacles in a fun obstacle course. Weaved around them, the little cyclist, and nobody died, nobody got knocked into. Clearly very good at weaving through pedestrians and off he went. I agree that the cycle lanes should be for anything that's motorised. Footpaths, it's in the name, foot. For people with feet to walk on. Not for scooters, not for bikes. I am all for different forms of transport being incorporated into everyday life. It makes no sense. I mean, you see it all the time in the cities where people have an appointment across town, so they'll hop on an e-scooter. Makes so much more sense than taking 45 minutes to walk or taking an Uber. Much more sense to hop on a scooter. Makes much more sense to hop on a bike if you've got a cycle lane that's close by you. And there's some really well patronised ones in Auckland that are just a godsend for many people. There is a place absolutely for bikes, scooters, skateboards, cars, buses, ferries. But is it too much to ask that everyone stay in their lane and follow the rules? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 this point now, here, is rock bottom. I know we've been told things are nearing the bottom, nearing the nadir, but this is it. And now things are on the up. So how confident are you feeling? I know when we've talked about this in the past, you've been bruised by past events, and that's informed the way you're thinking and who could blame you. The world has been a very uncertain place over the past five years, and nobody could blame you for hunkering down and keeping your nuts hoarded away. Nobody. Some of you have said, those of you that have got the readies to invest, you've said, "I'm not willing to. I'm just not willing to. I'm not willing to grow my business. I'm not willing to take risk in case Labour gets back in." Well, where are you at right now? The Reserve Bank lowered the OCR to 2.25%, the ninth reduction since August 2024. The bank said economic activity is picking up, inflation is forecast to fall to 2% by mid 2026, and that will help households. And listen to Roger Gray from the Ports of Auckland, who was on with Heather Du Plessis-Allan last night. “Nine months ago, I was in Miami talking to the cruise lines to try and understand why they were dropping off their bookings and the feedback across the whole lot of the four cruise lines I went to was they felt that New Zealand was just simply too hard to deal with because people were so negative about things. What I think is interesting is that's where we were and that was their perception, but the cool thing is now, I think there's a real change going on amongst people. There's a real starting to be a positivity amongst a lot of people and you know, I think the Bledisloe Wharf is a great example. If you can just get on and do stuff, we've created 250 new jobs for Aucklanders and that wharf will be finished by the end of next year.” He was saying, "Yeah, we used to be known as “No Zealand” and it was all like, 'Oh no, no. No, don't bother investing here. It's all too hard. No, you'll lose your money.'" He says it's quite different now. Quite different. He's picking up the positivity, he's seeing more of it. Where are you at right now? You know, as we go into Christmas, there's a month of business for many companies and many businesses and many workers. It's a busy time of year up until a couple of weeks before Christmas, then as we go into Christmas and the Christmas holidays, how are you feeling about going into 2026? Are you feeling optimistic? Can you feel the tide is turning? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 this point now, here, is rock bottom. I know we've been told things are nearing the bottom, nearing the nadir, but this is it. And now things are on the up. So how confident are you feeling? I know when we've talked about this in the past, you've been bruised by past events, and that's informed the way you're thinking and who could blame you. The world has been a very uncertain place over the past five years, and nobody could blame you for hunkering down and keeping your nuts hoarded away. Nobody. Some of you have said, those of you that have got the readies to invest, you've said, "I'm not willing to. I'm just not willing to. I'm not willing to grow my business. I'm not willing to take risk in case Labour gets back in." Well, where are you at right now? The Reserve Bank lowered the OCR to 2.25%, the ninth reduction since August 2024. The bank said economic activity is picking up, inflation is forecast to fall to 2% by mid 2026, and that will help households. And listen to Roger Gray from the Ports of Auckland, who was on with Heather Du Plessis-Allan last night. “Nine months ago, I was in Miami talking to the cruise lines to try and understand why they were dropping off their bookings and the feedback across the whole lot of the four cruise lines I went to was they felt that New Zealand was just simply too hard to deal with because people were so negative about things. What I think is interesting is that's where we were and that was their perception, but the cool thing is now, I think there's a real change going on amongst people. There's a real starting to be a positivity amongst a lot of people and you know, I think the Bledisloe Wharf is a great example. If you can just get on and do stuff, we've created 250 new jobs for Aucklanders and that wharf will be finished by the end of next year.” He was saying, "Yeah, we used to be known as “No Zealand” and it was all like, 'Oh no, no. No, don't bother investing here. It's all too hard. No, you'll lose your money.'" He says it's quite different now. Quite different. He's picking up the positivity, he's seeing more of it. Where are you at right now? You know, as we go into Christmas, there's a month of business for many companies and many businesses and many workers. It's a busy time of year up until a couple of weeks before Christmas, then as we go into Christmas and the Christmas holidays, how are you feeling about going into 2026? Are you feeling optimistic? Can you feel the tide is turning? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 govern regional councils instead. The Government wants these new CTBs to decide the future of local government in their regions over a period of two years. They'll look at whether to share services across councils, form shared council-owned companies, whether there's a case to amalgamate into larger unitary authorities, as Auckland has. The government will have the final say after that two years. If they don't like what the mayors come up with, the Local Government Minister will provide a top-down blueprint for how the board will look and what its purview will be. Right now, there are 11 regional councils in this country, alongside 12 city councils, 54 district councils, and six unitary authorities. The unitary authorities act like a local council and regional council combined. If you have a regional council in your area, it's responsible for the land, water, and air resources, flood control, environmental monitoring, and public transport, things like that. And councillors are voted in by you and me to make decisions on behalf of ratepayers. Not that we care. Nobody seems to care particularly if you look at the voter turnout as Minister for RMA Reform Chris Bishop told Mike Hosking this morning. “Well, I think no one cares partly because they can't understand it, right? So you vote for your regional councillor, then they elect a chair. I mean, how many people out there listening could actually name the regional council chairs who don't live in Auckland? I don't think anyone, not that many people be able to name a regional councillor. And then of course you've got all the confusion, right? “So in Wellington where I'm from, for example, the regional council runs the buses, but the Wellington City Council basically works out where you can actually put a bus stop, for example, and they do all the road closures and things like that. So there's enormous levels of complexity and complication that people just don't understand. And people say, well, hang on a minute, why am I voting for all these people? I don't understand who most of them are. I don't know who they are. And so there's enormous duplication in the system. So I think that partly explains why voter turnout rates are so low.” He makes a good point. Chris Bishop argues that the changes will reduce the cost of doing business and lower the amount we pay in rates, or at least keep a downward pressure on rates, by removing layers of duplication and bureaucracy. And you would have to say, surely, rates would come down if you're not paying the salaries of hundreds of people per region, their vehicles, the fuel required to power the vehicles, the office space they rent. There's 300-odd in Otago, more than 500 full-time staff in the Bay of Plenty, in the regional council alone. What do these people actually do? And I'd really love to know, how is it that you make life better for the people in your region? As Otago Regional Council chair Hilary Calvert told Ryan Bridge this morning, staff at the Otago Regional Council have doubled in six years. Has life improved for Otago residents by 100% in the last six years? I would very, very much doubt it. You could look at regional councils as like a modern version of the Ministry of Works - a make-work scheme for people in regions. Is that a good enough reason to keep them? Obviously, you're going to have people retained by the Combined Territories Boards. You're not going to see the wholesale sacking of hundreds of people across the region, but it will be streamlined. I mean, it has to be. You cannot tell me that having 500 full-time staff in Bay of Plenty for the regional council can be justified and nor can the number of councillors. People don't care. They don't understand it. It's a whole other level of bureaucracy. It needs to be streamlined. Maybe you think that the increase in your rates, making a make-work scheme for councillors and staff in a regional council is a worthwhile proposition. It's a money-go-round. You pay to have an inflated regional council. And the money comes back to you if you're a retailer because they will spend. To me, it just seems completely and utterly redundant and unproductive, and the sooner it's streamlined into a territorial board, into a streamlined service, the better. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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, I struck the jackpot. I am one lucky little fur baby. But cats and dogs that have been abandoned and live miserable lives eking out an existence in the bush and on the edges of the city are dangerous pests and they're in the sights of DOC. The New Zealand Veterinary Association and its Companion Animal Veterinarian Branch are the latest organisations to come out in support of feral cats' inclusion in the Predator Free 2050 Strategy. And there have been calls for wild dogs to be officially labelled pests too, so there can be more freedom to eradicate them. With the dogs, it comes after so many attacks in the Far North, the latest, an international ultra runner and his support crew were attacked by dogs on the Te Araroa Trail in January of this year and I believe there's still a wild dog warning along the Te Paki Coastal Track near Cape Reinga. There are limited options to tackle an animal problem if it is not labelled a pest. The dogs, for instance, you can only do what DOC is doing, and that's the authorised hunts but farmers are allowed to kill dogs on their own property if they're threatening them or their animals. And there have been numerous instances of herds and flocks being savaged by these feral dogs who are starving and desperate and also don't mind a little light sport of murdering and ravaging. So farmers are able to attack those dogs. You can also humanely trap them legally. But once you put an animal into the Predator Free 2050 charter, it will align national efforts, improve clarity, and support reasonable feral animal management practices, such as desexing, microchipping and containment. The vets say feral cats, while sentient, pose a serious threat to native wildlife and are implicated in the spread of diseases such as toxoplasmosis. So cats are in, but at this stage, dogs are still out. The vets say it's critical that humane destruction methods are employed for all pests included in the strategy, and I'd support that. You don't want any animal to suffer needlessly, but a country that prides itself on its native flora and fauna, sells itself to visitors on its flora and fauna, needs to be able to control the pests that threaten that. It's the human pests who neglect their pets, who dump unwanted litters of kittens and pups who are at fault here. A Far North dog advocate says as the economy worsens and people get poorer, the situation is getting worse because people don't have the money to fence their properties, they don't have the money to feed their dogs properly, they're exhausted, so they don't walk the dogs wander. The current laws, advocates for change say, do not serve communities well and lead to inconsistencies in the way councils around the country approach the roaming dog problem. The advocate says mandatory desexing, except for dogs belonging to registered breeders, would help but the absolute key to changing behaviour is community education about how to care for dogs and be safe around them. The Far North Mayor Moko Tepania supports a push by Auckland Council for greater powers to be able to desex roaming dogs when they're picked up. So your dog might have been a fully kitted out male when you let it go wandering off your property, but it'll come back to you neutered. Same with the females. And I don't have a problem with that either. Trapping, desexing and freeing feral cats was the strategy of choice of the wealthy cat ladies who were my neighbours when I was living next to a big park in Freeman's Bay in Auckland. These beautifully dressed women would take it in turns, there was a roster, to go around Western Park, trapping the cats, taking them to the vets, paying for them to be desexed, and then they'd set them free again. 'Oh yes, they'll kill a few birds and, but, you know, ultimately it will be a problem solved in the future'. They couldn't bear to see the cats put down, even humanely, but they could live with desexing them knowing that there wouldn't be future cats who would be living on the edges of the city. I just don't think it's a viable option, given how many feral cats there are in New Zealand. Nobody knows how many. The range from 2.5 million to 14 million is so wide, it makes it meaningless, but we do need to be able to treat feral animals as pests. Cats and dogs who belong to a family get all the protection in the world. You desex them, you microchip them, you love them. Cats and dogs that are neglected, unloved, and have turned feral, they should be fair game. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 example of that is his commitment not to have a wealth tax, which he intends to hold to. Hipkins isn't laying out his plan for interest deductibility but says he hears landlords' argument for it. National brought back the scheme after Labour removed it in 2021, but its fate is still unclear if Labour makes a comeback in 2026. Hipkins told Woodham the decision will come out next year in Labour's alternative budget. He says he's heard from landlords who couldn't continue renting out properties after Labour's change in 2021. WATCH ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 contribution rate, although of course in Australia, the whole contribution comes from the employer because they can afford it. The figure would come from hiking the default contribution rate from 3%, where it is today, to four, then 6% by 2032. The employer contribution would also rise to 6%, achieving that combined rate of 12% by 2032. Christopher Luxon said under the changes, a 21-year-old who's earning $65,000 a year today would retire with a KiwiSaver balance of about 1.4 million, bare minimum. No one, it appears, thinks that this is a bad idea. The only concern is that the tinkering with KiwiSaver doesn't go far enough. Commentators say KiwiSaver needs to be compulsory, otherwise people would just opt out, thinking they can't afford the contributions. They do not realise when they're 21 that they can't afford not to contribute to KiwiSaver, because 65 comes far faster than you can ever possibly imagine. Others, like Milford Asset Management Kiwi Saver head Murray Harris, says National needs to look at improving other moving parts. Fundamentally, this is a good announcement, but there's a lot of moving parts with KiwiSaver. And I think what we need to see is what's the long-term strategic plan for KiwiSaver and what are the settings that are going to be set for the long-term future? Because at the moment you do have the so-called total compensation where your employer can pay you out of your pay, the employer contribution. Now that should be scrapped. That's another one of the settings that National haven't announced or included in this announcement. And there's there are others as well that we need New Zealanders to be really confident that KiwiSaver is going to be set for the future, there isn't going to be tinkering with it every time we get a change in political party, and that they can be confident that their long-term savings and retirement savings for the future are going to be as they expect. Yes. Chris Hipkins says it's a good thing to increase retirement savings. The transition is the key. The policy may encourage employers to Uberise their workforces by turning erstwhile employees into contractors. I would love to hear from those of you who have just started in the workforce perhaps, who have been in the workforce for about two or three years. Where does your pay packet go? In terms of what you're paying back. You might have a student loan. When it comes to KiwiSaver, how much can you afford to put in? Do you accept, as somebody who has just entered the workforce, that you're going to need to save for your retirement? I I'm pretty sure that message has got through to the next generation that there's going to be a real necessity for feathering your own nest. You might think when you first start off with your paying back of your student loan and the like, saving for a house, that KiwiSaver's just there to get that deposit on a home. Or you might want a couple of years of lavish spending because you've been living as a student, living on the low-cost pittas from the takeaway shop and the two-minute noodles. You want to know what it feels like to have money to splash around so you'll pay back your student loan and then you'll think about KiwiSaver. How many of you are squirrelling away your nuts, so to speak, because you understand that the sooner you start saving with compound interest, the better off you're going to be. When it comes to those who have recently retired, I'd really like to hear from you too. So you might have stopped work a couple of years ago. Do you have enough invested and saved to get by? Did it come as a bit of a shock? Or was it pretty much as you expected that with the investments you had, the savings you had, the house that you'd paid off, that combined with the super, you're just fine. There are a lot of people, I think, who don't realise that when it comes to being poor, it's pretty rubbish - but being poor and old is doubly rubbish. And unless you start saving at a very young age, even a little bit, like look at the Rich Dad Poor Dad, even putting 10 bucks a week away, getting into that habit of saving is the best thing you can possibly do for yourself. I wish I'd had it hammered home to me when I first started work. There are good savers, like being good at languages. People are who are good at budgeting, and then there are hopeless ones. But even hopeless ones need to know that even a little bit set aside every payday is going to pay off in the long run. I think that message has got through, but I'd love to hear from those of you who have just started work and those of you who have just finished work. Do you have enough to save if you're younger? And if you're older, do you have enough to live on? LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 Auckland University scientist came out and said the company hadn'tactually proven better brain function at all. Ārepa found itself in the headlines, but for all the wrong reasons. The company's co-founder and co-chief executive Angus Brown told their story with Kerre Woodham on the latest episode of Bosses Unfiltered. LISTEN ABOVE NOTE: This interview was recorded on June 4th 2025. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 Auckland University scientist came out and said the company hadn'tactually proven better brain function at all. Ārepa found itself in the headlines, but for all the wrong reasons. The company's co-founder and co-chief executive Angus Brown told their story with Kerre Woodham on the latest episode of Bosses Unfiltered. LISTEN ABOVE NOTE: This interview was recorded on June 4th 2025. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 sexually or physically abused by a partner. She Is Not Your Rehab co-founder Matt Brown told Kerre Woodham that society has done a great job in normalising anger as the best outlet for men, which looks like rage and violence towards the people they say they love the most. He says there need to be more systems in place to educate men in emotional regulation, making things like grief or sadness a normal part of conversation. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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? You know it's wrong. Children know it's wrong. There have been public campaigns for as long as I can remember, warning people that domestic violence lasts, endures, infects through generations. That if a child is raised in a violent family, then chances are that's what they see as normal, a way of responding to stress. There have been education campaigns warning you need to walk away when you feel your temper rising, that you need to walk away when you feel threatened. But apparently, according to the experts, this sort of education campaign is precisely what we do need. In the mid 2000s, and you might remember it, the It's Not Okay campaign was on our televisions. Importantly, it was backed up with 150 community-based prevention projects, and that what was made the impact, and then it was dropped and the experts say this is what we need to bring back. Our stats are dreadful. I mean, you can scoff at the World Health Organization and you can say, "Oh, well, we measure crime differently," but I don't think you can argue that our stats are absolutely appalling. And I say this against the backdrop of the deaths of those three beautiful children in Sanson, which has to be one of the more heartbreaking stories we've ever reported in this country. We have the highest rate of family violence in the OECD. They're across all socio-economic groups. Each year New Zealand police conducts more than 100,000 investigations related to family violence. Nearly half of all homicides and reported violent crimes are family violence related. One in four females, one in eight males, experience sexual violence or abuse in their lifetimes, and many of them before the age of 16. The head of Women's Refuge, Ang Jury, says until such time as men realise they don't own their women, nothing is going to change, but who would put up their hand and say that's genuinely what they think? That they have a woman, they love her, they have children together, and if she argues or if she wants to do something that you don't want to do, or if she wants to leave you, that you then have the right to meet out violence upon her, to prevent her from going, or to take her life so nobody else can have her. Nobody would put up their hand and say, "This is what I genuinely think." Surely to goodness. So what happens? I received a text a couple of weeks ago when we were talking about the impact of drugs on mental health. And this text said that relationship breakups had more of a detrimental impact on his mental health, and that of his mates, than any drug he'd consumed. That the relationship breakup stuffed with his head far more than the drugs. So do you not know you have a problem until you have it? You might think that you've got a really well-ordered life, that you've got yourself together, that you're a perfectly, perfectly normal human being. You can cope with life's slings and arrows, and then your partner leaves you, and what? You are catapulted to a place and into a being that you simply do not recognize? That you lose all reason? Helen and I were talking about this before we came on air. We just do not know men who react with violence. Not our friends, not our family members, not our work colleagues. Well, you know, the ones we're close to, our friends. I find it utterly inconceivable that in this day and age you can think that if a woman, or a man, decides to leave the relationship that you can therefore mete out violence - that it's justified. And I would guarantee nobody listening would think that was a legitimate and reasonable course of action. So what happens? After tragedies, people say, "Well, we didn't see it." Either they say it's been happening for a long time and it was inevitable, or we knew it was going to happen and one day she was going to end up dead, so there's been a pattern of abusive behaviour, or it comes completely and utterly out of the blue. There is no halfway house. How can people still think this? Like Ang Jury says, until such time as men realize they don't own their women, nothing is going to change. What man genuinely can put up their hand and say that is what I think? So clearly something must happen. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.