Kerre Woodham Mornings Podcast

Well, the Reserve Bank has got what it wanted. Maybe not what it wanted, it's possibly the hard landing that they were hoping to avoid, but it got what it engineered.  

Back in 2022 the Reserve Bank told a Select Committee that, yes, it was deliberately engineering a recession to rein back inflation after being slow to raise interest rates. Governor Adrian Orr said as a result of raising interest rates to slow s...

New Zealand police officers have overwhelmingly rejected the government's latest pay offer and have given the government one last chance to lift its game. The latest offer was put to the vote on April the 8th by the New Zealand Police Association. More than 75% voted against the offer. That is overwhelming. President Chris Cahill said the outcome sends a clear message to the government that the offer falls well short of addre...

Back in the day when I lived in Ponsonby and it was only just starting to evolve as a shopping and cafe destination, we didn't have beggars per say. More, they were people who were living in community houses who would walk up and down the street, and they were simply absorbed into the community.  

They were given cigarettes from the smokers who were sitting at the outside tables of the cafes that had established...

Inflation is continuing to ease, particularly for essentials. 

Latest Stats NZ figures show the Consumer Price Index increased 4% in the year to March, down from 4.7% in the year to December. 

Housing's been the biggest contributor to inflation and rents rose at the fastest rate since records began in 1999. 

But the Herald's Liam Dann says the cost of most other day-to-day essentials ...

When I broke my arm just before the end of the year, I was very grateful to our health system for picking up the pieces, quite literally. They found a bit that was missing at the top of my arm that they weren't expecting, and put me back together again, and it's pretty much back to normal.  

I'm very, very grateful for the skill, the ability and the kindness of North Shore Hospital, and I was grateful too for th...

Those suffering from Long Covid are afraid of what will happen to them under the Government’s benefit reset. 

Social Development Minister Louise Upston announced that sanctions for those on the benefit will begin to ramp up from June. 

Long Covid has left some suffering from symptoms such as fatigue, brain fog, cognitive impairment, and severe pain, forcing them to leave work where they subsequentl...

As police in NSW work to establish the motives behind the knife attack at Sydney's Westfield Mall, that left six people dead, 12 in hospital, spare a thought for the families of the victims who were receiving texts up to minutes before all of a sudden, randomly, without any warning or notice their lives were gone. And spare thought too for the family of Joel Cauchi - because they have been left reeling too.  

Ca...

New Zealand’s unions are up in arms over the major cuts to the public sector. 

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon told reporters that if the PSA and Council of Trade Unions actually cared about low and middle income workers, they’d support the Government’s planned tax cuts. 

PSA National Secretary Dunane Leo said they’re standing firm in defending their jobs, claiming services are being sacrificed fo...

You don't really need to watch or read the news at the moment, at least not for the first couple of stories, because all we're really getting at the moment is a union campaign from the PSA and the CTU dressed up as news, with stories about how cuts to the civil service are going to bring the country to ruin.  

#Newsalert, the country is already on the brink of ruin and the bloated civil service would have contri...

Yesterday saw the cancellation of New Zealand’s second longest running television shows: TVNZ’s Fair Go. 

The consumer affairs show has been airing since 1977, featuring a roster of well-known hosts including Newstalk ZB’s Kerre Woodham and Kevin Milne. 

Kevin Milne was the longest serving host on the show, appearing from 1983 until 2010. 

He told Kerre that what disappoints him about...

Love a target, love a list, and yesterday, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon released a new list of to-dos, this time in the form of targets. And while some on the left have roundly criticized him for having the temerity to set targets, what on Earth have they got against realistic goals? I didn't hear them shouting and jeering when Jacinda Ardern announced that her government was going to build 100,000 houses in 10 years. If ...

Two researchers are arguing that the decision to cut longitudinal studies will worsen inequities and increase costs in the long term. 

In the past two weeks, funding has ceased for two of New Zealand's foremost longitudinal studies. 

The Ministry of Social Development did not renew the contract for the ‘Growing Up in New Zealand’ project at the end of February, the study that has tracked more than ...

First up, the changes to immigration.  

Guess what? High-trust models don't work when it comes to work visas. A stunning revelation to start the week. Credit where it's due, Radio New Zealand have been on to the story. They applied for information around the new immigration visas under the Official Information Act and found out that even after Immigration New Zealand was told of concerns over lax checks and migr...

Police stats supplied to the Dairy and Business owners group showed that in 2023, 148,599 crimes were reported at retail locations. 

Kotahi te Whakaaro brings together government, non-government, and iwi daily to review cases of young people involved with Police in the preceding 24 hours. 

The approach is designed to prevent escalation into or through the youth justice system. 

Senior...

The government is restoring the ability to hold referenda on Māori wards as part of its coalition agreement with ACT and NZ First. It's highly unlikely that National would have acted alone, but as part of the Coalition agreement, as part of the horse trading, they committed to holding referenda on the Māori wards.  

Local government Minister Simeon Brown announced the move yesterday, saying a bill will soon be i...

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said the government had put “hundreds of millions [of dollars] more” onto the table for a “much more enhanced offer” to police last week.

That offer was going out for voting by police in the next few days.

Luxon took questions for an hour on Kerre Woodham’s Newstalk ZB show today.

He said he disagreed that National had used law and order issues as a marketing tool during the election, only to sti...

Didn't Erica Stanford sound impressive talking to Mike on the Mike Hosking breakfast this morning? This is a woman who has clearly been working on her passion portfolio while in opposition, who has come into government ready to go.  

I remember Chris Hipkins when he was in a couple of weeks ago saying we weren't really ready to come into government. What the hell were you doing for the past nine years? Seriously...

The Government is changing the Building Act to address a shortage of building supplies and long wait-times for new products to be approved. 

That includes signing-off on products with a reputable overseas certification and recognising approval schemes used in countries like Australia. 

Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says it will ease building costs and make our building products bett...

The Government is bulldozing barriers for bringing in new building products to New Zealand. 

Minister for Building and Construction, Chris Penk, has unveiled changes to the Building Act in a bid to increase the availability of products and cool down costs. 

That includes approving products with a reputable overseas certification and recognising product standards from trusted overseas jurisdictions....