Kerre Woodham Mornings Podcast

Well, hasn't taken that cranky old curmudgeon long to rark up the media and play to his supporters, throw his fans a bone.  

Winston Peters has a hate-hate relationship with the media, which served him very well in this last election campaign. Some people have always had a mistrust of the media. Some have a recently discovered mistrust of the media and believe all journalists to be the servants of the UN or whic...

Scams are becoming increasingly more detailed, catching increasingly more people. 

After a close call of her own, Kerre Woodham brought Netsafe’s Chief Technology Officer, Sean Lyons, on the show to give listeners tips and tricks to stay safe from scams. 

He also gave some advice on what to do if your Facebook is hacked and how to get it sorted. 

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As Mike Hosking and I exchanged morning pleasantries today, I said to him “Wasn't Dr Shane Reti a breath of fresh air?”  

“Breath of fresh air?” said Mike, “He was a howling Nor Westerly of fresh air!” 

And by crikey, he was. Even those who didn't vote National must surely appreciate that here is a knowledgeable, passionate man in charge of his portfolio. He is under no illusions that New Zealand's...

Now the new Government has officially signed in this morning, and as Christopher Luxon said on Friday, he and his coalition Government cannot wait to get stuck in.

The RMA reforms will be rolled back before Christmas, Three Waters gone, the ute tax is expected to be gone as well, and in a controversial move, the Government will not proceed with Labour's planned legislation that would restrict the number of retailers allowed to sel...

Te Whatu Ora is standing by its $100 million consultant spend. 

This is despite it dropping from $139 million the year prior. 

Chief People Officer Andrew Slater told the Mike Hosking Breakfast they've tightened where they're using contractors and consultants and are focusing on making sure they have the appropriate expertise. 

He says it doesn't make sense to have some of these skill...

The talk is over, the ink is dry on the contracts, let the governance begin.  

Prime Minister-in-waiting, Christopher Luxon, is due to speak this morning, giving us the broad shape of what the 54th New Zealand government will look like. And let's hope that once they start the governing proper, we see the last of these sorts of headlines: “Te Whatu Ora’s more than $100m consultant bill”.  

A $100 mi...

Long coalition negotiations from the new about-to-be Government have seen a major economics consultancy downgrade its perception of New Zealand's political stability to its lowest rating in more than a decade.  

BMI, not the body mass index, but a consultancy group owned by the Fitch Group and one of the three big ratings agencies, docked New Zealand a couple of points in its Short-Term Political Risk Index (STP...

So it appears the policy has been hammered out, and it's just a matter of dealing with the positions within the new government. But when you're dealing with politicians and egos, it's no simple process.  

Some of the posts surely are obvious. Minister for Agriculture must be Andrew Hoggard, former Federated Farmer's head. Mark Mitchell for police, he's been in training for that job his whole working life. Erica ...

My mouth began to open in gobsmacked incredulity and then just as quickly snapped shut again. 

Yes, the Herald investigation that found Auckland Transport is spending on average $470,000 a pedestrian crossing is shocking. But those of us with memories, and indeed arses, like elephants, remember how much the Wellington City Council spent on their pedestrian crossing on Cobham Drive out towards the airport.

Now, a little bit of background. I'm no manager. I have only ever managed a couple of restaurants briefly and I wasn't a terribly good manager.

I ended up about 3 months into my managerial position being sued for constructive dismissal after trying to say somebody was a bit rubbish at training the other waitresses, but he was still very good at what he did and he could stay on the same money. Apparently that's constructive dismiss...

A survey of our 200 largest and fastest growing tech exporters shows the sector is booming  

Revenue for the so-called tin 200 increased 11.8 percent to 17 billion dollars in the past year... 

The Former Managing Director at TIN, Greg Shanahan, told Heather Du Plessis-Allan that “the sector is reaching maturity, and the number of large companies is growing dramatically”. <...

Just when you thought it was safe to turn on the radio... Covid.  

We're experiencing a fifth wave of Covid-19 infections, with an increase in the number of infections. The officials are going by wastewater testing, which gives us a far better idea of the levels of Covid within the Community than the self-reporting numbers.  

When you test, when you find out you've got Covid, you're supposed to rep...

Te Whatu Ora is reminding us about the availability of Covid-19 antiviral medications for people at high risk, as we see a spike in cases. 

Recent testing has showed an increase in the virus in wastewater and there's been a rise in reported cases and deaths. 

They're also recommending that if people haven't had the booster that was recommended in April and May, they should get it now. 

Congestion charging... coming soon to a city near you!  

It might be Auckland Mayor, Wayne Brown, floating the idea for now, although he doesn't call it congestion charging. Last night with Heather du Plessis-Allan, he called it ‘time of use charging’, but you know potato, potato. But you can bet the dollars that will be flying out of your wallet that once it's in place in Auckland, other cities will be quick to...

A couple of good news stories in the news cycle today - a rare and marvellous and wonderful thing!  

In light of the traffic and roading conversation we were having yesterday, great news that State Highway 25A between Kopu and Hikuai will reopen to traffic in time for Christmas, three months earlier than anticipated and under budget. I mean, it shocked me.  

The decking is complete on the new 124 m...

So another week, another five days of negotiations it appears as National, Act and NZ First hammer out the conditions required for forming a government.  

Christopher Luxon, the Prime Minister-in-waiting, was on with Mike Hosking this morning and he says while the three parties may agree on most issues, there are sticking points - tax and ACT’s referendum on the Treaty clearly being two of them, given the pause ...

I am absolutely confident that there is no corruption within our Electoral Commission.  
 
I do not believe for one wild second that they have been manipulating the voting system to get the result they want. Nor do I believe that they're being paid by Russia to produce the results Russia wants. And the reason I'm so confident is that they are so incompetent they wouldn't be able to...

In December 2021 Brittany Kremers, a then 25-year-old woman who was denied desperately needed facial surgery at the eleventh hour by the Christchurch DHB. 

The reason given was there was no funding available. 

Brittany had had her jaw and skull base removed, along with a life-threatening tumour, in 2006. 

A family friend set up a Give-a-little page which raised over $280 thousand doll...

A record surge of first-home buyers are in the market as prices come down. 

CoreLogic data shows people looking to buy their first home accounted for 27% of all purchases in the past three months. 

Despite stretched affordability, high interest rates, and cost of living pressures, first-home buyers still want a 'foot on the ladder'. 

CoreLogic Chief Property Economist Kelvin Davidson ...