Kerre Woodham Mornings Podcast

The Government yesterday announced the launch of a new youth intervention programme, designed to deal with the small group of recidivist young offenders who are responsible for so much damage being done by ram-raiding.   The little oiks and their families will be assigned an intensive support social worker to develop a plan for the young person and to provide ongoing support to the wider family. Services could include mentoring, alcohol and drug treatment, surely a game the whole family could play, access to housing and education, mental health support and cultural support.   This is very, very like the social investment policy Bill English and Dame Tariana Turia put together all those years ago. Identifying complex cases in their families and putting resources into them so that the problems aren't exacerbated and the problems don't become intergenerational. Other countries do it. And in fact, New Zealand has been doing it in a in a minor form within the last year or so. Ten to 13-year-olds are being given wrap around support within 24 hours of being caught offending. Within 48 hours, the different agencies and community organisations come together to create a plan with the family, to give them the help and support that they need, and apparently it's working.    Since its launch, 230 children have been involved. Of those 230, 78% have not reoffended. And given that they were basically on a merry go round of offending - they're being caught, picked up, put back on the streets, out again offending -  you would have to say that that sounds like a success.   And if it's working, let's keep doing it.   I think I saw a piece with John Campbell going out to visit the wider group that had been formed after a young person had been caught ram raiding. And it was police, and it was Oranga Tamariki, and it was social welfare workers, sitting around a table working out a plan tailored to that person and their family, but obviously, there were broad brushstrokes that they can apply to each family that they are involved with.  Now, for those who are still offending, the Governments announced the launch of an even more intensive program. I have never and I have no problem with spending money on these sorts of programs because if we don't spend the money now, it's only going to cost us a mountain more down the track. As Chris Cahill from the Police Association said on the Mike Hosking Breakfast this morning, the program might be expensive, but it is worth it in the long run.   We've heard on this show from parents who are doing their best. We've had a couple of parents ring in and say I don't know, I don't know how this happened. The other kids are absolutely fine but this one has decided that he wants to go looking for trouble. You know, the other kids are doing OK. We don't know what it is in terms of our parenting.   Then of course, we know that there are parents who shouldn't even have the classroom guinea pigs in their care for the weekend. You wouldn't let them pat a stray cat for fear of what might happen. These woeful parents, though, have come from somewhere.   Think of all the dead babies and you'll have your favourites that you remember in your heart. All of those babies that we were forced to meet over the past 30 years when their killers went on trial. All of those dead children had siblings. Some of them may have escaped the horror of their reality. The vast majority would have been trapped within the same toxic environment where they would have seen a small child brutally beaten to death.   So what skills would the ones who escaped have once they started their own families? If intensive supervision helps turn around lives, and so far it appears it does. If intensive supervision can take an adrenaline-addicted young person who sees only for the moment, only that they've managed to get more than 300 likes on TikTok or whatever, if you can help see a kid, get beyond that it is a worthwhile investment.  It's not every kid that needs it. It's not every family that needs it. If it's the money, we'll be saving ourselves a fortune in the long run. If it's the realization of human potential, I truly believe we're going to be that much richer if we give it a go. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Well, with senior doctors and dentists within our public health system set to strike for a couple of hours this afternoon, you might be thinking this would be a very bad time indeed to have the need to whip up to A&E.   In actual fact, staffing should probably be better than it normally is on a wet weekend in winter, given how stringent the conditions are before public health staff can actually strike. There are all sorts of protections for the public around staffing levels and as I say, it may not be as bad as trying to get up there on a Friday night.   It's very, very hard for public health sectors to strike at all, and very difficult for nurses and doctors. It just goes to show how fed up they are doesn't it?    This is the very first time senior doctors and dentists have chosen to take strike action, Nurses have gone on strike before, but not specialists. Te Whatu Ora says it's frustrated and extremely disappointed that the doctors have rejected what they offered. That was a salary increase of between 7 and 12.9%, but the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists says all very well and good, but that's over 17 months and it's not in line with inflation, we're simply asking, asking them to meet what we claimed, which is reasonable.   As one of the doctors too said, the system is failing and unless we make a stand, who will? It’s important, it's dramatic. It's not a decision that these specialists have taken lightly. It's not happened before.   The Association of Salaried Medical Specialists say Te Whatu Ora and the Government are the target of these strikes, not the patients. They say doctors care about their patients, but they've decided the failure to protect the value of their work will only result in more doctors leaving New Zealand or declining to apply for jobs here. Te Whatu Ora already acknowledges we are 1700 senior doctors short across the country. And the Association thinks that's an extremely conservative estimate, they say it's much, much worse. Already, hospitals are critically short staffed, with senior doctors increasingly trying to run services with insufficient senior and junior doctors, nurses and allied health staff. And they say overseas doctors have largely stopped applying for jobs due to pay and the working condition issues. Anyone who spent any time at all in the public health service recently knows just how tough it is for these professionals to do their jobs. Mike made reference this morning on the Mike Hosking Breakfast to the number of code greys that hospital staff are dealing with, where security has to be called because the patients lost the plot.   Nurses and doctors are not just dealing with the lack of staff and a shortage of resources, they're dealing with increasingly physically and mentally ill people, who are packed together in a small space for hours while staff do their very, very best.   Now you might think that doctors earn quite enough. Well, quite frankly, when I'm lying unconscious on an operating table while skilled surgeons have spent 15 to 20 years honing their skills to do their best to improve my quality of life, or even save my life, they can earn what they like.   Cabinet ministers get more than our senior surgeons and I know who gives a better return on my taxpayer dollar.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

ASB is hiking mortgage rates again.  The bank is lifting its one-year and 18-month rates by 20 basis points, increasing them to 7.45%  and 7.15% respectively.  It's also raising its two and three-year rates by 16 points, becoming 7.05% and 6.85%.  This comes at a time when many kiwis are struggling with the cost of living, and banks are reporting high profits.  In August ASB reported a net profit after tax of $1,550 million for the year ending on the 30th of June 2023, an increase of $132 million from the previous year.  Infometrics CEO and Principal Economist Brad Olsen told Kerre Woodham that international funding rates such as the 10 Year Bond Rate have been increasing, impacting rates in New Zealand.    LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

So Labour and National kicked off their respective campaigns over the weekend to Labour's big wizz-bang attention-getter was the promise of free dental care for under 30s, but not until 2026.   National, having already announced 37 different policies, decided to stick to a pledge card detailing the party's eight main commitments, if and when elected. Both took potshots at one another over the weekend, Hipkins said that National's tax plan was sneaky.   He questioned the costings and he said National are people who want to win the election, whatever it takes and bugger the cost. Talk about pot calling the kettle black there.   Luxon fired back at Hipkins saying power doesn't concede easily and Labour's campaign was one of fear and disinformation.   Certainly, the CTU's gone all out with the attack ads. If you see the cover of this morning's Herald newspaper, it's pretty much a rich prick assault on the leader of the National Party with the ad they've taken out.   Still, that's democracy.   And if Citizens and Ratepayers decided to put something out about Hipkins' inability to be an effective Prime Minister, then I'm quite sure the Herald would take the money and wrap the ad around the newspaper.   You've got to survive in the media, you gotta take the ads. I did think Hipkins' whatever the cost comment was a bit rich, given that Labour's committed to free dental health care for under 30s, a policy Labour’s considered before, but did the numbers and said it was too expensive and unworkable.   And while the Labour Party luvvies got terribly excited about the announcement, it won't be rolled out until the next election. Health Minister Ayesha Verrall was on with Mike Hosking this morning and says the free dental rollout will take until the next election because of staffing.  So much to unpack from that. For a start, we've got the mental health system that's seen a million people. Has it? Has it really, Ayesha?   And this would be the same mental health system where mental health workers at Capital Coast and Hutt Valley say that they're at their wit's end, the system is in crisis, we're overwhelmed. It's an increasingly unsafe mental health public system. We have a desperate shortage of skilled and experienced clinicians.   That would be that mental health service would it Ayesha?  That one. Because it doesn't sound like it's coping terribly well.   It sounds like the staff themselves are about to have mental breakdowns because of the pressure that they're under. The unworkable conditions that they're having to work under. So there's that.   And then we've got the dental service, the free dental care to under 30s that has been dismissed by Labour before as expensive and unworkable.   There was a story about a dentist in the Weekend Herald whose kids can't get into dentistry school despite their A+ pluses, and he's packed a stroppy, rich guy sad and said my children want to be dentists and I want to give my dentist clinic to them and they can’t get into Otago.    And so Ayesha Verrall was asked why there are only 60 places offered at the University of Otago, when you get more than 500 applying every year. And she said it's very expensive, it's specialised and high cost to deliver dentistry training. And then she said there is a relatively small labour market in New Zealand for graduates.   So she's basically saying we only need 60, so this vision of universal free healthcare for under 30s must have been a relatively recent vision. Because how in the name of all that is holy are 60 new dentists going to be able to deal with the expected influx of people wanting their fangs checked?    You've also got Labour and Chris Hipkins telling the Newsroom media website last month, so not even 30 days ago, he said the health system doesn't have the capacity to deliver free dental care for all, and there would likely be a significant investment required just in order to build capacity, to meet the need for additional dental care.   So last month we didn't have the capacity in the health system to deliver universal dental care. So less than 30 days later, all of a sudden, we finesse it by saying, okay, it's gonna be for the end of 30s and it’s not going to start until 2026.   Newsroom went back to him and said, how can you do this? And he said, well, every election you have a different set of priorities.   And he said it won't be too little too late, even though it takes 6 years to train a dentist and the first tranche, won't be funded till May of next year. I mean, they're basically saying whatever it takes to get votes and we shouldn't be surprised because it's an election campaign. But can they just be even a little bit clever about it?   Last month we didn't have the capacity for universal dental care. This month we do. Because the polls say it would be a good thing. I still think the most egregious turnaround and absolute disposal of any morals and principles was when Hipkins and Kelvin Davis announced they'd build two youth prisons when they realised how badly they'd lost the room when it came to law and order.   And this despite the fact it goes against everything they believe in. But they announced they'll build 2 youth prisons, no start date. But they just say it, because they realize they're losing the room on law and order.   Sacrificing everything they believe in. Just to try and get up in the polls. This universal dental plan for under 30s comes pretty close to that egregious turnaround. Labour reckons National wants to win the election quote, whatever it takes and bugger the cost.   Really, Chris Hipkins? National weren't the ones spraying around expensive, unrealistic and unachievable promises over the weekend. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I thought we would start perhaps with power companies who appear to me making rapacious profits. Are they charging too much for electricity? Now the profits would suggest they are.  The four big players —Contact, Genesis, Meridian, and Mercury—  made a combined 2.7 billion, with a 'B', billion dollars last year. Historically high profits. So surely that would suggest that they are rorting little old pensioners who are having to go to bed early in the depths of winter, because the aforementioned little old pensioners can't afford to heat their flats. Certainly Electric Kiwi chief Executive Luke Blincoe thinks the big four have excessive market power, but then you would if you're a little player in a big boy's game, wouldn't you? He told Heather du Plessis Allan last night that the market is broken, especially when Consumer New Zealand estimates that 40,000 households couldn't afford power, while the big four were making $7 million a day. The Energy Retailers Association said the transition to a zero carbon economy means that power companies have to make a profit, as investing in new developments does not come cheap. They say that they're not lying on their profits like Scrooge McDuck covering themselves in money. They are plowing their earnings back into new initiatives like solar and wind farms that will ultimately lead to more affordable power prices for anybody.  So is it as simple as saying that this is an example of paying it forward? That we haven't really seen much of this generation. That's the way it used to work in this country. One generation would pay for infrastructure, so the next generation could benefit from the improvements and then they in turn would pay for the next lot of infrastructure. It's all come to a screaming halt this time round. You can't really have it both ways can you? You can't have cheap power prices, and investment for the future. Somebody has to pay for it and that somebody is us.  Do you see it that way? I mean you can see on the websites all of the different initiatives that they're investing in, and probably if you live near some of these developments you will see it for yourself. They're not lying when they're saying they're investing in new forms of energy. It costs money and that's got to come from this generation because surely we've learnt one thing from this Government, you cannot keep borrowing money and printing money. Sometimes you actually have to suck it up and pay for it right here right now.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Questions remain over whether Air New Zealand will match its competitor and remove the expiration on Covid flight credits. Qantas is ditching the expiration dates for more than $500 million worth of travel credits that were due to run out at the end of the year.   Air New Zealand CEO Greg Foran joined Kerre Woodham Mornings in studio to answer questions around what the airline's next move is. LISTEN ABOVE  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Yesterday the National Party announced its much-anticipated tax policy and now you’ve had a night to sleep on it – how does it stack up for you?    Over the last 24 hours, Nicola Willis has done a good job of selling this policy – but this was also a policy that was designed to sell itself.    The Party is promising tax cuts through a tax bracket adjustment, credits and rebates which will cost $14.6 billion and paid for through a combination of new taxes and cuts to public spending.    The devil is in the detail and whether Willis’ novel ideas for increasing revenue by a move to user pays immigration, taxing offshore online gaming, and taxing foreigners who purchase a property over $2 million will actually be able to raise the $6.2 billion required is anyone’s guess.    Surely, it’s a collective hallelujah to see both parties promise to reduce spending on government consultants and contractors, but National’s more aggressive approach to reducing back office government spending might concern you. Or maybe after years of spending on media mergers, harbour bridge crossings and various other projects that never saw the light of day – you’re thinking about time!   Just to make sure it doesn’t sound too concerning, the National Party has been very careful to say that frontline and core agencies such as Te Whatu Ora, Ministry of Education, Education Review Office, Corrections, Oranga Tamariki, Police, Defence Force and Waka Kotahi and Kainga Ora are excluded from the reductions – they will have to make savings but these would be directed back to these services. Once again – a clever move. These are the Ministries and agencies that deal with the big issues up for debate this election.    But regardless of concerns about spending cuts or how we’re going to raise the revenue, are we at the point where you’re prepared to take the risk and get that money in your back pocket?    The distinctions have been made clear now between the two main parties – would you prefer to tackle the cost of living crisis by trimming everyday expenses – removing the GST of fresh fruit and veggies, cheaper public transport as we’ve seen from Labour – or cash in the hand to make your own decisions about how best to save or spend your hard-earned money.     It’s hard to overlook the appeal of more cash in the hand. And that’s why the optics of National’s policy is so good.    For many, this tax policy might have been the final piece in the puzzle when it comes to finalising your vote. Does it clarify your thoughts?    What do you see as best for New Zealand? Which policy do you see working best for you? The tax cuts, and spending cuts of National, or the everyday trimming of costs by Labour, or do neither of these policies go far enough for you? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On Thursday the Government announced a multi-agency approach in response to 111 mental distress calls.   It means paramedics will be able to attend mental health-related police callouts, and will be available nationally within five years.  Police Minister Ginny Anderson says they've piloted co-response teams in six police districts, with great success, and they've seen data showing how it helps people, and saves resources.   According to Police Association President Chris Cahill, officers attended 77,000 mental health callouts last year.  He's in favour of the approach but is concerned about the lack of detail around costs and resources.     Mental Health Foundation Chief Executive, Shaun Robinson, joined Francesca Rudkin. LISTEN ABOVE   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

National has unveiled their much-anticipated tax policy.  From July next year, it would shift income tax brackets for inflation and expand tax credits - giving an average family with kids a maximum $250 fortnightly bump.  To pay for it - National would slash back-office spending in the public service, roll out a 15 percent foreign buyer tax on multi-million dollar homes - and end the tax break on commercial building depreciation.  Dentons Kensington Swan Partner and tax expert, Bruce Bernacchi joined John MacDonald to discuss. LISTEN ABOVE  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I’m channelling my inner John McEnroe today. If there is such a thing.  This $4 billion cut to public service spending over the next four years that the Government has announced six weeks out from the election.  There’s only one response to it, isn’t there? And this is where tennis legend John McEnroe comes into it.  You cannot be serious!  You cannot be serious Grant Robertson. You cannot be serious Chris Hipkins. If you expect us to believe that this is anything other than a desperate attempt to cook the books and make life more difficult for whoever is running the country’s finances after October 14.  Except it’s more of a 'microwave' cooking of the books, isn’t it? On the table in no time because there’s no time to fiddle around with the slow cooker when we’re just six weeks out from an election.  Programmes like the Covid-19 Emergency Response have been cut or have had 'underspends' returned to till because they’re no longer needed. But the biggest cuts are being made to government department and agency budgets.  Not surprisingly, National and Act are saying it’s too little, too late. That’s because they’ve been banging on for a long time now about public sector spending. And they're right. It is too little, too late.  National’s already said that, if it forms the next government, the big consultancy firms can expect an end to the gravy train. And that seems to be one area where the Government has suddenly discovered it can turn the tap off. It’s announced it’s cutting spending on consultants and contractors by $165 million a year.  So that’s Labour trying to beat National at its own game.  Other cuts include $110 million from MBIE’s budget. It's is one of the government departments that Act wants to downsize. So, that’s Labour trying to steal the march on Act, as well.  MBIE’s budget cut is the biggest. Followed by the Ministry of Education, which is going to have just under $70 million less.  This will all be happening after Barry Soper reported a few weeks back that the Finance Minister had called all the Government department honchos into a meeting to demand cost cuts.  So, they’ve obviously all gone away from that meeting and have come back to him saying ‘here’s what we can do’.  The Government’s also taken the knife to the operating allowance for the 2025 and 2026 budgets.  This is the amount of new money a government can allocate in its annual Budget.  So, by doing this, the Finance Minister is doing what he can to make it difficult for other parties to pay for their election promises if they find themselves in government after the election.  Which, as far as I’m concerned anyway, makes this whole exercise reek of desperation.  As National’s Finance spokesperson Nicola Willis puts it: “Grant Robertson has reached peak Labour. After six years of spending New Zealanders’ money with reckless abandon, he’s now finally admitted he has a problem - six weeks out from an election."  A problem Grant Robertson somehow thinks he can fix - or at least try and make look a little bit better - in time for when the Government opens its books for the final time before we vote.  This is the pre-election fiscal update, which is going to be happening on September the 12 - two weeks from today.  And, by all accounts, it’s not going to be pretty. Not pretty for Labour and not necessarily pretty, either, for the other parties because it will probably raise questions about big-spending promises.  But there’s only one way to respond to this cynical move by the Government.  You cannot be serious. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.