Kerre Woodham Mornings Podcast

Now you might have heard this on Drive yesterday. The Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling for a temporary wind freeze and she says, well, if that encourages some landlords to sell up, all well and good. The Greens say the situation is dire and that the Government can freeze rents it as.The will does not seem to be there, despite the fact the number of New Zealanders renting has risen exponentially as the cost of housing in this country has gone through the roof.Rents have risen in 2019. Nearly 1/3 of Kiwi households spent 30 percent of their income on housing costs. A quarter of renters spent 40 percent or more. There have been numerous reports into this. One of those is the spotlight on housing produced last year, which found the proportion of people renting is increasing, that homeownership is at its lowest in years and years and years.A third of Kiwis are half of the adult population are now renting. It also notes that 32 percent of rental properties are poorly maintained, compared with 14 percent of houses occupied by their owners. The rents have risen in the past year, just in the last year by 5.8 percent and so on and so forth. I'm not going to check.There will always be a place for renting, always. It's not everybody bag to own their own home, but if you are sitting there paying rent which is more than the mortgage you could be paying if you could get that deposit together, it must be galling. And it must be really tough seeing those rents go up and up and up.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Last Thursday we had a two-hour discussion on planning for your retirement.When you're in your 20s and 30s retirement seems a million years away, but it was interesting to hear from some of our younger callers that they are thinking about and putting plans in place to be comfortable in retirement.According to figures released by Massey University, a two-person retiree household, living in the city where they had choices by which Massy means some luxuries, would need to have saved $809,000.In the provinces, it's around $500,000, but that is contingent on having paid off the mortgage.Martin Hawes is a financial author with his new book out about how to make your retirement savings go the distance and joined Kerre Woodham for an hour.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Who on Earth would be a copper these days? Maybe the job is more rewarding than the news reports suggest. Certainly, the young men and women I dealt with from about 7 different countries and ethnicities who were all part of the New Zealand police when my car got stolen –they were onto it. They seemed positive they had a really wonderful worldview. They were good people and they seem to have enjoyment in their job. They were proactive in finding the little former 501s that had ripped off my car and used it to commit some armed robberies. They were really, really wonderful young men and women. And I thought, well Police are in some pretty good stead if young people like that are joining. But the stats seem to tell a different story. A report out last night on One News shows that police response times have become remarkably slower under this government and police have come under criticism for that. Now you can't be across everything. I get that. But if you're a minister, don't you want to get your teeth into the portfolio and get into it and make it your own? Wouldn't you make it your business to know operational matters? I think police response times are something that a government minister should know. Let's face it, the pay doesn't keep people in jobs. You're not going to be a police officer because of the pay, are you? You're going to do it because you believe in your community because you believe in service because you believe in people because that's ultimately what the job is all about. Job satisfaction keeps people doing what they do. How many officers can still hand on heart say this is the job they signed up for? When it comes to the public, how many of you have faith that the police will be there when you need them? The vast majority call the police because they need them, not because they quite like them to be there.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

An alarming rise in the time Police take to respond to serious crime. New figures show average response times increasing in most parts of the country – doubling in Northland, and tripling in Auckland and Waikato over the past five years. In Auckland City, the response time has increased from 25 minutes to an hour and 50 minutes. National's Mark Mitchell told Kerre Woodham Government needs to look at how to reinforce the front line. “That might be reassigning staff off day duties back onto the front-line to actually support them because the anecdotal information that I get is that they are under enormous strain and they just don’t have the numbers and they just can’t get to the jobs.” LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Pedigree have got behind a new kid-to-canine reading programme called "Dogphonics". The aim of the Dogphonics books is to boost the confidence and literacy of children by encouraging them to read to a dog. For young kids, one of the biggest challenges when learning to read is the anxiety that comes from stumbling over words or making mistakes in front of people. Studies show that reading to your dog can help overcome this. Dr Emma Woodward, a child psychologist and mum to four boys, joined Kerre Woodham. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ashley Bloomfield's resignation hasn't come as a thunderbolt.The Director-General of Health has announced he'll step down from the role in July, well ahead of his term's official end in June next year.An acting Director-General of Health will be appointed before he leaves.Political editor Barry Soper told Kerre Woodham it's been a hell of a job.“It’s virtually 24/7. He’s had to front the pulpit of truth with the Prime Minister ever since this broke out two years ago.”Soper says there are more than a dozen deputies who could fill the role and the most likely contender is the DHB support and Infrastructure Deputy Chief Executive Officer Robyn Shearer.“But in this, who knows? Because it may be that Peter Hughes, who’s the don of the public service if you like, may look for total new leadership.”LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As you have heard in our news, the Defence Minister Peeni Henare says he's asked his colleagues in Cabinet to send some anti-tank missiles to Ukraine as part of different options to help the embattled country in its war against Russia. But so far, he says, Cabinet has put the kibosh on any aid initiative that would involve actually hurting somebody. Blankets yes, uniforms yes, anti-tank missiles, no. Megan Woods was on with Mike Hosking this morning as part of a regular Wednesday morning panel. She says that's not as she remembered the conversation and that everything is still on the table. That there hasn't been a firm no, but so far she says, the aid that they've sent Ukraine is very happy with. New Zealand imposed more sanctions on Russia yesterday after reports of Ukrainian civilians being abused, murdered and buried in mass graves, you will have seen those images and the images of children with their names and addresses and next of kin being written on their bodies was also particularly heart-breaking.  ACT leader David Seymour says send the missiles already. New Zealand might need anti-tank missiles in the next three years but Ukraine needed them and then next needs them in the next three days, well really, they needed them yesterday. I do have some sympathy for the for the Prime Minister. It is a tricky one as a civilian. Right now, being me, I say send the bloody missiles, send everything we can right now. As a Prime Minister, however, if you're sitting there, there were wider geopolitical considerations. You haven't got the luxury of wading in and condemning somebody a war criminal without there being international implications and ramifications. You know our Prime Minister, she would wait in there if she could. If she thought she could. She would be in their boots and all decrying Putin. But she's not, and there has to be a reason for that.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When I checked the ZB website yesterday afternoon to check where we were with the level changes, I didn't feel anything at all when I saw we were going to be staying at red.I think I'm just desensitized to it all now, but then I'm not somebody whose livelihood depends on indoor audiences or customers being inside. I can't even begin to imagine how you're feeling.I did suggest yesterday that the Prime Minister's characteristic abundance of caution might mean we would stay exactly where we are and that's what happened. According to the Director General of Health, it's because our health system is under stress.Listening to Dr Ashley Bloomfield on the Mike Hosking Breakfast, Omicron isn't causing particular stress on the hospital system. The health system has always been under strain, and presumably will be under strain in perpetuity, forever more. As winter arrives, some flus and viruses, and sundry illnesses hit the population, the health system is going to be under stress. So what Dr Ashely's saying is that we have a pretty much a substandard health system that cannot cope with the strain on it, with or without Omicron. So does that mean Red forever?I found that really interesting that Dr Ashley Bloomfield said it's not Omicron in particular, that's causing stress, so even without it, if we have to stay in red because the hospital system in the health system is under stress, we should have been locked up back in 1973 when the health system was first to fail. It's bizarre.Can you ever seeing us getting out of it? Unless we can build brand spanking new state of the art hospitals right across the country, when's it going to end?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Concert promoters are crossing their fingers for a change in traffic light setting.Cabinet meets this afternoon to decide if all, or regions, of New Zealand should ease Covid-19 restrictions.A move to Orange would see an end to indoor gathering limits and the chance for larger concerts.Live Nation New Zealand Managing Director Mark Kneebone joined Kerre Woodham.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With the rising cost of petrol and diesel fuelling inflation, companies are looking at new technologies to lower costs, as well as carbon emissions. In a comment piece in Newsroom, the CEO of Hyundai New Zealand said hydrogen-powered trucks are set to have a major impact on our transport industry as a clean transport alternative. Hyundai NZ CEO Andy Sinclair joined Kerre McIvor. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.