Kerre Woodham Mornings Podcast

Around 200 people packed out the Mt Eden Village Centre in Auckland last night, and they were pretty riled up. In fact, many were furious over plans for high rise apartments and the loss of special character status for hundreds of villas and bungalows in the wider neighbourhood. And this is the kind of feeling that is being felt across many different Auckland suburbs, and it will be coming to a city or town near you.  

As we w...

The Education Minister says there was no option to do nothing when it came to changing NCEA.

The proposed changes include replacing the qualification with a system emphasising literacy and numeracy more.

Erica Stanford told Kerre Woodham changes were already underway with Labour updating the Level 1 curriculum, so there was no option to do nothing.

She says they either had to continue rolling out Labour's plan, or look at what a be...

A new visa to attract businesspeople to New Zealand has been established by the Government, and really, it's only a matter of days, perhaps weeks, before a loosening on restrictions for foreigners being able to purchase residential property here is announced. Christopher Luxon, the Prime Minister, when he was last in-studio with me, said we’ll be announcing that shortly. I said you’ll never get that past Winston Peters, but he said...

More money could soon circulate through the economy as the Government opens up the country to more overseas businesspeople.   

Under its new Business Investor Visa, foreign investors who put at least $2 million into a Kiwi business will be granted a 12-month fast-track to residence pathway. 

People who invest $1 million will be given a three-year work-to-residence option. 

ABC Business Sales Managing Director Ch...

We all know that New Zealand is a trading nation. We need to sell stuff to make the money we need to build hospitals, pay our teachers and police officers, pay for benefits and Super, pay for roads and cycleways, and the like. To maintain our standard of living we have to earn our keep, and that's what our exporters do. We need good exporters, and we need to be able to get our stuff to market.  

However, port inefficiencies ar...

Do younger Kiwis still have that No.8 wire mentality? 

While some are concerned the younger generation is settling as opposed to striving and investing in their ideas and futures, others believe the worry is unfounded. 

Icehouse Ventures, a venture capital company that backs Kiwi startups, hosted their 15th Annual Showcase last week, in which nine Kiwi founders presented to over 1,500 investors. 

CEO Robbie Paul told...

There’s a call to completely reset our supply chains.  

The Cargo Owners Council says there's been a 30% drop in productivity since 2019. 

Chair Brent Flavey says New Zealand is in the bottom 20% for port efficiency, and we aren’t keeping up with the rest of the world. 

NZ Customs Brokers and Freight Forwarders Federation CEO Sherelle Kennelly told Kerre Woodham without some hard conversations, we aren’t going to get...

I don't know about you, but I was truly surprised to hear Judge Russell Collins send a young drug driver to jail on Friday. In the Napier District Court, Judge Collins heard Alexander Kerr had dope in his system when he crashed his car - killing his mate and leaving another in a wheelchair for life. Kerr had no previous convictions.  

His mate, the one in the wheelchair, the one he didn't kill, had forgiven him, but Judge Coll...

Labour's Tāmaki Makaurau candidate Peeni Heare is standing by a comment that he’d repeal the gang patch ban. He agreed with the notion at an event on Wednesday night. Now, this is despite Chris Hipkins saying no, no, that's not true, we're not going to repeal the gang patch law. Peeni Henare told RNZ he was asked his personal view on the issue, which is informed by whanau experience. He understands that differs from the Party's vie...

Finance Minister Nicola Willis all but invoked the old adage ‘the beatings will continue until morale improves’, when commenting on the state of the economy yesterday. In a stand up with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon after the Reserve Bank cut the OCR by 25 basis points to 3%, she blamed the sluggish economy on doomsayers from the opposition benches who were talking the economy down, and all but instructed Kiwi households to be ...

More students are attending school regularly.  

Figures released today show 58.4% of students regularly attended school in Term 2 - the highest since 2021.  

It's a drop from Term 1 where 66% of students showed up regularly, but this is partially explained by winter illness.  

Associate Education Minister David Seymour says messaging from the government has changed to remind parents school is important. 

However...

Former Speaker Trevor Mallard is returning early from Ireland, ending his job as Ambassador. 

Winston Peters has appointed senior foreign affairs staffer Angela Hassan-Sharp as his replacement, saying his behaviour during the anti-mandate occupation at Parliament should've disqualified him from the role. 

Peters says only experienced diplomats, not former politicians, should be posted overseas. 

Former MP and former ...

The secondary teachers are out again.  

They're appalled and insulted by the Government's latest pay offer. For the record, the Governments offered a 1% pay rise every year for three years in collective agreement negotiations. PPTA President Chris Abercrombie says the offer is the lowest increase in a generation and 18-19,000 teachers will be out protesting today. Chris Abercrombie said the Government's offer was appalling, an...

Two stories in the Herald today - one about the announcement from Christopher Luxon and Chris Penk yesterday, changing the building liability settings so ratepayers aren't burdened with picking up the tab that shonky developers, builders, or architects are responsible for. In the Herald story, they cite a case in Queenstown: the Oaks Shores body corporate filed a $160 million claim for weather type defects. The developer had been p...

It seems hard to believe, but the Maxim Institute reckons New Zealand can lead the world in sustainable AI infrastructure. They warn, however, that the window of opportunity is closing quickly because everybody wants to be in on it.  

Every other country wants the rewards that come from hooking their carriages to the AI machine, the choices we make now will determine whether New Zealand becomes a leader in the AI economy or is...

It was our gorgeous night last night, absolutely beautiful. The kids were training for football up at the local park, and while I waited to pick up my daughter and grandson, I went for a lovely walk along the estuary – there were Tui and Kereru, families and joggers were out, and it was just glorious.  

But at the same time, as I was thoroughly appreciating just how lucky we are to have such a gorgeous amenity close by, I was ...

Auckland Council's cracking down on dog owners in a bid to lower a surge in attacks. 

It's made more than 611 prosecutions since 2020, targeting owners with dogs that have seriously injured people or other animals. 

Nearly three thousand dog attacks and more than 15 thousand cases of roaming dogs have been reported in Auckland over the last financial year. 

Jo Clough, Director of The Dog Safe Workplace, told Kerre Wo...

Foodstuffs North Island says it's working hard to re-employ staff from an Auckland New World that caught fire in June.

CEO Chris Quin says of 183 people, 121 are working at other stores, 12 have found roles elsewhere, and 10 are taking a break.

He told Kerre Woodham that leaves about 40 staff they still need to place.

Quinn says they're trying to match employees to about 50 positions in Auckland stores.

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There's an old saying, one generally used by mothers: I’m not angry, I'm just disappointed.  

Yesterday, hearing that the unholy Triumvirate of Ardern, Robertson, and Hipkins —Ayesha Verrall doesn't count— were choosing not to appear publicly at the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Covid-19 Response, I was both angry and disappointed. The second set of public hearings for the Royal Commission has been axed after key witnes...