Kerre Woodham: In this instance, a bit of support is necessary

If Trump's envoys weren't talking to Iranian officials, who the hell were they talking to? When you get older, you expect that you can make more sense of the world, but I've got to be honest here, I am struggling to make sense of anything. I was reading the headlines at about 5 this morning. Trump talking about the good and productive talks having been conducted by special envoy Steve Witkoff, his son in law Jared Kushner. There'll be no nukes. No, the Iranians have said, yep, absolutely, we'll open the Straits of Hormuz and there's no nukes. 

So that's good. It's a great way to start the day, until you then read that Iran's Parliamentary Speaker says, um, no, no talks have happened. It's all fake news. Normally, you could understand perhaps that talks have taken place and that people might take different messages out of the discussions or things might be highlighted and others glossed over to show respective countries in good light. But in this case, they're saying it didn't happen at all. 

Got to admit, that was a head scratcher. Whether the talks happened or not, Trump's announcement that somebody had talked to somebody on Truth Social led to a US stock market rally and global oil prices to drop as fears were assuaged that Trump would now not go ahead with his threat to bomb Iranian nuclear power facilities. Who knows? Honestly, who knows what's true and what is not? There's very little we can do. We don't even, we can't even begin to speculate as to who might have been talking to whom. 

In the meantime, here at the bottom end of the world, as we deal with the fallout and wait for sanity to prevail, the Government's expected to announce a support package for families today with an emphasis on low to middle income households and working families with children. The emphasis is on low to middle income. It's also on temporary support, so that temporary, timely, targeted support. 

If you are in a low to middle income household, if you are working parents with children, do you welcome such support? Is it right and proper that the focus be on working families rather than all and sundry? I tend to think it is. Is it right and proper that any such support is offered at all? I know there are grave fears from some that this is just another Covid situation where money is being sprayed everywhere. That is not the case. 

There are no payments being made to everybody. Remember the payments that were made to dead people? The IRD said and Treasury said, I don't think this is a very good idea. No, no, let's just dole out the money. There were Covid payments made to businesses on a high trust model. Payments were made to everybody under a certain income at one point. Remember those? Even to dead people. We're not doing that. This is not what it's about. It's about targeted assistance for working families who are having to pay through the nose at the pump to get to work, to get the kids to school. 

And all of those who say, well, we weathered stock market crises and the global financial crisis. Yep, sure you did. High interest rates. Absolutely you did. But this is coming on five years of just knock after knock after knock after knock for people trying to do the right thing. So I'm okay with it. It's not normally something I would advocate, but in this instance, I think it is necessary for all those workers who are absolutely essential, who have to live out of the main centres because of the cost of housing, who don't have public transport to be able to get from point A to point B, who need to get their kids to school, who just want to be able to go to work and earn enough to look after themselves and their family. A little bit of targeted assistance out of the enormous extra tax money that's coming in from the government's fuel tax is fine by me. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Kerrywood of Morning's podcast from News Talks,
he'd be.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
If Trump's envoys weren't talking to Iranian officials, who the
hell were they talking to. When you get older, you
expect that you can make more sense of the world.
But I've got to be honest here, I am struggling
to make sense of anything. I was reading the headlines
at about five this morning, Trump talking about the good

(00:35):
and productive talks having been conducted by Special envoys Steve Witkoff,
his son in Lord Jared Kushner. There'll be no yukes. No,
the Iranians have said, yep, absolutely, We'll open the streets
of a muslm. There's no nukes. So that's good. It's
a great way to start the day until you then

(00:56):
read that Aram's parliamentary speaker says, no, no talks have happened.
It's all fake news. Normally, you could understand perhaps that
talks have taken place, and that people might take different
messages out of the discussions, or things might be highlighted

(01:24):
and others glossed over to show respective countries and good light.
But in this case they're saying it didn't happen. At
all god to admit that was a head scratcher, whether
the talks happened or not. Trump's announcement that somebody had
talked to somebody on truth social led to a US
stock market rally and global oil prices to drop as

(01:46):
fares were assuaged that Trump would now not go ahead
with his threat to bomb Iranian nuclear power facilities. Who knows, honestly,
who knows what's true and what is not. There's very
little we can do when we don't even we can't
even begin to speculate as to who might have been
talking to whom. In the meantime, here at the bottom

(02:11):
end of the world, we deal with the fallout and
wait for sanity to prevail. The government's expected to announce
a support package for families today, with an emphasis on
low to middle income households and working families with children.
The emphasis is on low to middle income. It's also
on temporary support, so that temporary, timely targeted support. If

(02:39):
you are in a low to middle income household, if
you are working parents with children, do you welcome such support?
Is it right and proper that the focus be on
working families rather than all In Sundry, I tend to
think it is. Is it right and proper that any

(03:03):
such support is offered at all? I know there are
grave fear from some that this is just another COVID
situation where money is being sprayed everywhere. That is not
the case. There's no payments being made to everybody. Remember

(03:23):
the payments who were made to dead people? I said,
and Treasury said, I don't think this is a very
good idea. No, No, let's just role out the money.
There were COVID payments made to businesses on a high
trust model. Payments were made to everybody under a certain
income at one point, remember those, even to dead people.

(03:45):
We're not doing that. This is not what it's about.
It's about targeted assistance for working families who are having
to pay through the nose at the pump to get
to work, to get the kids to school, and all
of those as I well, well, we weathered stock market

(04:07):
crises and the global financial crisis. Yep, sure you did
high interest rates, Absolutely you did. But this is coming
on five years of just knock after knock after knock
after knock for people trying to do the right thing.
So I'm okay with it. It's not normally something I

(04:30):
would advocate in this instance. I think it is necessary
for all those workers who are absolutely essential who have
to live out of the main centers because of the
cost of housing, who don't have public transport to be
able to get from point A to point B, who
need to get their kids to school, who just want

(04:52):
to be able to go to work and earn enough
to look after themselves and their family, a little bit
of targeted assistance out of the enormous extra tax money
that's coming in from the government. It's fuel texts fine
by me.

Speaker 1 (05:09):
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