Kerre Woodham Mornings Podcast

Crikey, a week is a long time in politics, especially with an election looming! Thomas Coghlan from the New Zealand Herald wrote this last week, “It's been a scratchy week in parliament.” He was talking about last week with MP's embarrassing themselves at every opportunity. Well, this week they've done it again. We've got National MP Tim van de Molen being stripped of all his portfolios after being a total oik and making a tit of himself in a Select Committee. He was accused of threatening behaviour and while it's not threatening behaviour on a Mallardian scale, or the handbags at dawn in Parliament with Tau Henare and Trevor Mallard again, that sort of testosterone engorged behaviour is totally unacceptable, and Christopher Luxon was quite right to strip him of his portfolios until van de Molen has learned to calm the farm and learns how to behave like a professional.     Still, with National … what the Dickens are they doing sticking with the fees free first year policy? It was a policy they roundly mocked in 2017. Simon Bridges, the then leader, called it an expensive failure. Subsequent leader Judith Collins said they wouldn't have the fees free farce that cost taxpayers $300 million, yet saw fewer people actually doing tertiary education. And yet now with an election looming we have Nicola Willis, who sees it as an important support for students and families. No, it's not. No Nicola, no. The numbers show it's a costly failure, like so many of Labour's policies. If they must stick with it, if they must try and get students on side, make it fees free for the third year so that people actually have the motivation to get the degree, not drop out halfway as they do costing taxpayers and costing the young people. This is a nonsense. And it's a big thumbs down.   Thumbs up though for ruling out granting government contracts to gangs. By all means, give contracts to community groups that something Christopher Luxon has said he's very big on. He wants ground up community support and he's happy to fund that. That's something Labour does as well, but Christopher Luxon says that actually works. He can see the value of it. By all means give contracts to community groups and former gang members. Not to those who are still actively working with gang members. So thumbs up there, good job.   Tthumbs down to Jan Tinetti. Yesterday, she sent out a press release trumpeting the free lunches and schools program as improving in attendance. It's not. She gave no figures. Treasury has done the report and looked at the data. In her press release yesterday she said teachers are reporting better attendance. Self reporting is not analysis of data. I can show her texts from teachers that say it's a waste of money in their school. Treasury did an actual report looking at actual data, not self-reporting from some teachers, either Jane's teachers or mine, and said that the program is not reaching the kids it should. So no Jan, free school lunches are another Labour costly failure. I'm not against free lunches and schools, I just want a program that works. Call me old-fashioned. I'd just like to see a return on investment, not blindly operating ideology and faith and self-reporting from some teachers.     And finally, to round up the week, what on Earth is David Seymour smoking? At the Moutere Hills Community Centre on Thursday, the ACT leader was reported as saying,  every country that has ever tried to do what this government has tried to do regarding co-governance has either ended in disaster or successfully campaigned to reintroduce liberal democracy. So far, so valid. You know, it's a point of view. And based on looking at history and. I think he's well qualified and well capable of saying that. Then he goes on and says, I dare say if Nelson Mandela was alive today, he'd be campaigning for Act. Would he, David really? I know it was a live speech and I don't want to be held accountable for everything I say when you're talking live as well. I mean, when you're doing a live audience. Sometimes you just sort of carried away with the with the crowd, and you sort of get a bit hyperbolic on it. But come on, he's the Act leader with a real chance of getting into government. Even if it’s a joke, it really doesn't read well. Did you earn nothing from Meghan Markle? Do we really think that Nelson Mandela would have the yellow rosette on going door to door in Epsom? Unlikely!   Seriously, as Thomas Coughlin said last week … “Weeks away from the last sitting day in the Parliament's dissolution, there could be no surer sign that politicians are ready to get out of the building and on to the hustings and day upon day of grumpy, unforced errors from some of our MP's.”See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Government and councils affected by this year's floods are slowly working their way towards a resolution of the buyout of residents of the most affected properties in Hawkes Bay, Auckland, Coromandel and the Far North. The Auckland relief package has just been announced, well, in excess of a billion dollars in terms of costs, however, the Government and council contributions will be net of any insurance proceeds. So once the insurance comes in, then Government and council, or taxpayer and ratepayer, will meet the rest. The Council's been desperate to reach a deal with the Government, or the councils collectively have been anxious to reach a deal with the Government as early as possible, so that people who are in dire straits can make a decision and start to pick up the pieces and get on with their lives. The Hawkes Bay region has received $203 million towards flood protection and $260 million for roading and bridge repairs. The Council may cap some of the voluntary buyouts and you can understand why - some of those cliff top homes in Auckland that were affected were valued at more than $10 million each. One billion is not going to get you far once you start looking at those homes. But the weird thing about, in particular the Auckland floods, was how random it was. You got the $10 million homes affected and you got half million dollar homes affected. It certainly was egalitarian in terms of the houses that were impacted. It's likely no one is going to be satisfied. Not the people who've lost their homes and their livelihoods and certainly not the ratepayers and taxpayers who will be stumping up the bill through taxes and rates. But what else can we do? Insurance will only cover so much. And if the insurers decide not to reinsure a home and you still have a mortgage, you are stuffed.  I know that there are people who are very grumpy indeed about any money going to a family whose home has been devastated. But in many cases, it's not the fault of the owner for not doing due diligence. Some of these people will have been living in properties that were built years ago, late 30s, 40’s, 50s. They've been sitting there perfectly happily, never having been flooded, never had an issue until the Council did too much, approving subdivisions that altered the landscape. Failed to require the necessary infrastructure that would mitigate the flooding or doing too little, as in the case of Hawkes Bay, where the people said if you'd dredged the rivers of silt, if you’d dealt with the problem of slash, if you'd built the stock banks, none of this would have happened. It's a mess.   And that's for people who have insurance. What about those that don't? I read of a number of cases in Hawkes Bay where people had paid off their homes, and then they'd stopped paying insurance. Where does that leave them? Are there any lessons to be learned from Christchurch? One thing is for sure, we had better start taking heed of the things that do work, and the things that don't in this process. Because we're going to be repeating it in the years ahead. This is our future. But it's also been our past. This is not new to the world, it's not new to built up communities. Our ancestors, dating back to the day dot have had to deal with precisely this. The floods, the pestilence, the fire, the natural disasters. As communities, we've learned to live with nature and those that survive have evolved with nature. The danger is thinking that things can stay the same.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With the news that Auckland Council are expected to approve a buyout package for about 700 properties damaged in extreme weather events - Hastings Mayor Sandra Hazelhurst joined Kerre Woodham Mornings to provide an update on where the process sits currently for residents following Cyclone Gabrielle. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Auckland Council is expected to approve a buyout package for about 700 properties damaged in extreme weather events. Our newsroom understands the measure will cost well in excess of $1 billion and could be paid for by extra borrowing and rates rises. Mayor Wayne Brown and Finance Minister Grant Robertson sealed the deal on Tuesday and its understood the deal will have a 50/50 cost sharing approach like the Hawke's Bay deal. It's unclear how the council will value properties, whether it will apply a discount and how it will treat insured and uninsured properties. The council may also cap the voluntary buy outs, which could affect clifftop Auckland homes, some of which are worth more than $10m. John Goddard is an Insurance Barrister who was part of the claims resolution service after the Canterbury earthquakes, he joined Kerre Woodham. LISTEN ABOVE  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We were rather overtaken by events yesterday, but it didn't really matter because Labour kept changing its views on the best policy to combat youth vaping. In June, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins and Health Minister Ayesha Verrall announced the Government would be stopping new vape shops from being allowed to open within 300 metres of schools or marae, cutting down on disposable vapes and restricting the descriptions on product flavours. Potentially enticing names like ‘cotton candy’ and ‘strawberry Jelly doughnut ‘which accompany products will be prohibited and only generic names describing the flavour, such as ‘berry’, to be allowed. All vaping devices sold will soon need to have removable or replaceable batteries. So far, so good, but not good enough for a party that sees itself facing a political spanking. They thought there might be more votes in coming down tough on vapes, so yesterday the Government announced it would cap vape shops at 600. Currently there are more than 1300 specialist vape shops and as you'll know, just about every corner dairy, service station sells the product too. The Government says it will also set up a licensing system for vape shops if they're elected, a process that will take about six months. National has indicated it's broadly supportive of the direction the Government’s travelling, so they too will be looking at restrictions on sale to try and prohibit kids getting their digits on them.   Possibly cutting the number of outlets is too little, too late - and at the same time that Ayesha Verrell and Chris Hipkins were announcing that you couldn't open a vape store within 300 metres of school or marae, dozens have gained approval from the Ministry of Health to open near schools. So they all madly got in before September 21 and the damage is done, so I would really like to hear from those of you who are concerned about your kids vaping. Is there anything you can do about it? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

National pledges $280 million to fund 13 cancer treatments, not available in New Zealand. They argue it's a better use of taxpayers' money than providing free prescriptions. The impact of drug funding on patients is discussed, highlighting the politicization of funding decisions.

First up, and this is something that I know is near and dear to all our hearts: ACT has vowed to crack down on the public services. As they pointed out yesterday, Government spending has grown from $80.6 billion a year in 2017 to $137 billion in 2023. New Zealanders, including Labour voters, according to ACT’s polling, believe that public services are far worse now than they were a few years ago, and I think we’d agree with that, wouldn't we? ACT says there's a growing disconnect between what the Government considers priorities and good performance, and the quality of services the public experiences. So, looking at the expensive and poorly thought out pet projects like restructuring the health or polytech systems, or the light rail, they are treated as goals in and of themselves. Ministers are so focused on getting their pet projects through that they lose sight of whether it's actually going to improve New Zealander’s lives. And ACT says that the problem is that performance reporting of public services is haphazard. Measures can be cherry picked. Results can be reported in a way that isn't coherent, and it's difficult or nigh impossible to track trends over time.  So you don't know whether a policy or a plan is delivering because they don't track it. And we've seen that.  I've had interviews with public officials on this show who haven't had a clue how to measure the success of a policy that is costing you and I millions and millions of dollars a day.   So really at first reading, doesn't this make sense?  We've been demanding to know the results of so many of the ideologically driven projects that Labour has put in and they can't tell us. But for those who do work in business or have worked in the public sector, can a Government department, should a Government department be run like a widget factory? Is it even possible to do so? There are so many competing priorities for our tax dollars right now, and over the next few years, that we simply cannot afford to throw good money after bad. I want to know if these projects are working. If they're not, we get rid of them, we try something else. But are there any pitfalls in requiring the public service to perform professionally. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The FIFA Women's World Cup has been an absolute feast of sport, culminating in Spain winning its first ever Women's World Cup, last night in Sydney. It was a triumph for not just 'women's sport’ but sport in general. Almost 2 million people attended 64 matches across nine host cities. In Australia, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has promised $200 million to improve sporting facilities and equipment specifically for women and girls, following the history-making performance of the Matildas. How will the World Cup's success translate here in New Zealand? Kerre Woodham was joined by Group Chief Executive of Sport New Zealand, Raelene Castle, to discuss what the impact may be. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Government's making it compulsory for every school in the country to teach reading, writing, and maths the same way. Education Minister Jan Tinetti said it's not always clear how core areas should be taught - and this will set out a clear mandate. This follow's yesterday's announcement that if elected, financial skills would become a core part of the school curriculum. The Party's promising to make teaching financial literacy compulsory from 2025. Minister of Education Jan Tinetti joined Kerre Woodham to discuss the proposals. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What the Dickens is this Government doing? They take away GST on fruit and veg with one hand, in a blatant vote buying grab, then they slap on 12 cents to the fuel tax with the other hand. Admittedly, over a period of years, but they seem to have absolutely no idea what they're doing. Having demanded that we all jump on our unicycles and use cycleways over the past six years, having halved the cost of public transport so that we fall in love with sitting, sweaty cheek by unshaved jowl with one another on the buses. After having sneered at anyone who has the temerity to suggest that actually be quite nice to drive your car from point A to point B now, with an election approaching, they've fallen in love with roads.   $20 billion worth of love in fact.  Road improvement up the ying-yang. You've got a road, they'll improve it.   I just don't understand how the Government can say, oh, cost of living crisis, here, let's take GST off fruit and veg. And by the way, we're going to add 12 cents to fuel tax. How is that supposed to help the poorest and those who need assistance more most? There have got to be other ways of doing it.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.