Christopher Luxon says he wants nothing to do with the Greens while he's Prime Minister.  Luxon's confirmed a National-Greens Coalition wasn't off the cards when James Shaw was co-leader of the Green Party.  But he says the party has changed significantly under new leadership.  The Prime Minister told Kerre Woodham he had great respect for Shaw and his commitment to the environment, and would have been prepared to work with him.  But he says the Greens have since moved to what he calls a more "socialist" position.  Luxon says the Government has not handled changes to Oranga Tamariki contracts well.   A children's charity is suing the Ministry for allegedly cancelling a $21 million contract which still has two-and-a-half years to run.   Stand Tū Māia says losing funding will end the service, which has a 100 year history of providing trauma care for children and whanau.  Luxon told Woodham the organisation has done some great work.   He says the matter is before the court so he can't comment much, but he has raised the issue with the Children's Minister this week.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Salvation Army is reiterating pleas for donations for Kiwis in need this Christmas and beyond, saying every cent adds up.  The charity says its appeal this year —which launched last month— is especially important, with one in five New Zealand children living in households struggling for food.  But it says they're in a Catch-22 this year – demand is rising, but donations are declining.  Captain Andrew Wilson, Director of Community Ministries for the Salvation Army, told Kerre Woodham that they’re grateful for every gift, whatever size it is.   He says that even if it’s just a dollar from every person coming through, that very quickly adds up into something they can very easily put together to support their families.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Watercare’s seven year Central Interceptor project is over halfway complete.   The aim of the project is to reduce water overflow in the central Auckland area with the construction of New Zealand’s largest wastewater tunnel.  The team is about to hit the penultimate breakthrough before arriving at Point Erin Reserve in Herne Bay in March/April of 2025.  Watercare Chief Programme Delivery Officer Shayne Cunis told Kerre Woodham that Auckland is going to get a lifetime of benefits from the project.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How did you learn about sex? Was it your parents? Your friends? A nice, dry, factual at school, or Heaven forfend, the internet? I was at a Catholic girls’ school in the 80s —that would be the 1980s, not the 1880s just for clarification— and we got pretty much nothing, as you'd expect. I received the bare basics about body functions when I was at intermediate. Girls went one night to the school hall where a projector played an ancient movie about girls and boys developing bodies, and then the boys went the next night for the same screening.   Until I discovered Judith Krantz and Jilly Cooper's bonk-busters I had absolutely no idea, I knew they were there, but I didn't know what they were there for. Those books were absolutely great. I smuggled them into the boarding school because they described not only the sex itself, but the emotions and the passions that are tied up with sex. It’s like the difference between knowing that West Coast beach is a risky and then getting caught in a rip. You know that it's dangerous, but until you're in the middle of it, into the middle of those seas and thinking oh my God, this is more than I can handle. Until you experience it, you can know something, but until you experience it, you don't really know it.   A report out today says too many young people are leaving school without the knowledge they need to navigate the sexual landscape. Issues like consent, managing feelings, and online safety, and as a result, the Education Review Office says schools should not be required to consult parents about the content of relationships and sexuality lessons. Misinformation, bigotry, threats of violence for heaven's sake have derailed some schools attempts at consultation and prompted some schools to reduce or avoid teaching the topic. Which is bad enough, but a lot of that interference is coming from people in groups who have absolutely no relationship with the school. They don't have kids there, they're just sticking their beaks in and demanding that sex be taught their way.   Chris Abercrombie, the PPTA President, said on Early Edition this morning, there needs to be one clear curriculum taught in all schools across the country.   “The problem at the moment is in the hands of these schools, and it's not meeting really anyone's needs. As report said, 3/4 of recent school leavers said they didn't learn enough, so the idea of a national curriculum is that everyone knows what's expected, everyone’s got a clear understanding of what's happening, so parents could withdraw their students if they chose to or supplement their students learning if they chose to. It's just giving everyone a clear baseline.”  Quite. Well, that seems fair enough, doesn't it? If you don't want your child to be taught the national curriculum, you take them out of class and you teach them. And good luck to your kids if you think the curriculum is too tame, you can add in what you see as the necessary bits at home.   Since when did parents consult about the English curriculum? Maths or science curriculum? The one thing you don't want is your child to discover sex through the Internet. Sex education, like English, like maths, like science, needs to be taught the same way right around the country, so that our children have the best possible chance of making the right choices in their lives. Ignorance is not bliss when it comes to sex education. And believing that real life relationships are what you see on internet pornography is positively dangerous. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The hooha over the efficacy of the boot camps hasn't gone away anytime soon, although over the weekend we did hear supporters of the scheme, along with the critics. I frightened the horses on Friday morning when I suggested that this iteration of the boot camps - and there have been many, as you know, had got off to a very bad start with one young man dying in a car accident and then two young people fleeing from their community placements. Good news, the two youths have since been found. Bad news, the two were reportedly among four people taken into custody in Hamilton on Saturday night after a stolen Toyota Corolla was spotted on Cobham Drive in Hamilton. The driver allegedly fled after being signaled to stop until the car hit road spikes. Then wielding a machete, tried to carjack another vehicle which drove away. They were then arrested along with two others, the fourth being found about 5 minutes later by a dog unit. In a statement, Karen Chhour said the circumstances were disappointing, but she was relieved the pair had been found. She said the military style academy pilot programme is just that, a pilot programme. It consists of a three month in residence stay, then another nine months back out in the community with mentor support. Oranga Tamariki does not have the ability to restrict the movement of these young people or the choices they make once they're back in the community. The young people have been in either family or community placements where they're trusted to comply with their legal orders. End of statement. And as we all agreed on Friday, nobody is expecting there to be a 100% success rate. These kids are extremely troubled, that's why they're there. The key will be the successful execution of the support they've been promised out in the community. And over the weekend, as I say, we did hear from supporters of the scheme, along with the critics. Of those supporters was Phil O'Reilly, for Business NZ Chief Executive, but spoke to Heather du Plessis-Allan this morning as former welfare expert advisory group member. He says we should stick with the boot camps -they work.  I was on one not as a participant, but as a sponsor of one in the John Key government, that version of it. I was not necessarily an advocate turning up to see this thing work, but boy, at the end of it, these kids had their lives changed for the better and the only issue was afterwards they just went back to their old ways and then this new one I'm told attempts to solve that issue. But now these are troubled kids, and they've had tough upbringings, so who knew sometimes they might abscond and do bad things. I know that's a terrible thing that’s happened, but you can't blame the whole system just on that issue. And I think we need to see it through now because I can tell you from personal experience of seeing one of these things in action, these kids walk out better, sober, you know together more team building and so on and they just need support to reintegrate back into a better life ahead. The Chief Children’s Commissioner, Dr. Claire Achmad, also came out in support of them and I must admit I was surprised. Which is my own stereotyping, my own prejudice about what the Chief Children's Commissioner might think or not think. I would have thought she’d be dead against them - not at all. She said, and I quote - “I don't think we could say that the programme is a failure. The key here is that we must not give up on these mokopuna. I've been to the military style academy pilot. I spent a few hours there while the rangatahi were there.  I saw how hard the staff there were working to put in place that multi-discipline support around these young people.  She says she saw how active and willing the boot camp participants from both sides were and hopes to see it continue with some finding employment and furthering their education. If somebody had said to you, do you believe the Chief Children's Commissioner is for or against the boot camps? I bet there are a few of you, like me, who would have said, oh, she'd be dead against them. Not all. Been there, seen it, likes what she’s seen. There's an amendment bill before Parliament that creates a framework. For the government's new attempt at military style academies and looking at extending them. But people who have worked on the boot camps, who I spoke to, who can't go on the record, say it's not the length of time that you spend on the boot camps. While you're on the boot camps you're safe, insulated from all these stresses, from all the temptations, from all the lure of your old. You're protected. People care about you. They give a damn about you. You're important while you're there. It's all about you and what you need. And the kids do respond to that. They want to be good; they want to be sober. They want to get off the drugs, they want to get away from the gangs. And then they go home. Now the difference between previous boot camps and this one is that there has been the promise of wrap around care, community support, that the young people will get what they need to make the right choices. And let's face it, sending them to prison is not going to help. There are only two young adult units in prison and none for young women, so I guess we’ve got to try everything because there's nowhere else for these young people to go. There has been the promise of support for these young people to help them make the right decisions.  Most of us made really stupid decisions when we were the age of these young ones. We just weren't involved in crime. So, making dumb decisions, multiplied by crime, equals trouble. I said on Friday that it got off to the worst possible start. That didn't mean I don't believe in them. I just said it wasn't a great look. The bad starts happened, but at least we've seen prominent supporters come out and say why they believe in it and what needs to happen for it to be a success. And that success does not mean a 100% strike rate and turning all of these young lives around. Hell, you'd take 20% and it would still be worth it.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Liam Lawson awaits his fate as his last six races are deemed an 'audition' for next year.  Motorsport Correspondent Eric Thompson says the 22-year-old has done everything required of him.  "He's young, he is quick and he is marketable, which matters at this elite level of sport." Thompson says the stars are aligned for Lawson.  LISTEN ABOVE. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Labour is accusing the Government of pushing forward with its boot camp pilot even in the face of obvious failure. This comes as two participants who fled the programmewere arrested by police officers responding to a carjacking in Hamilton yesterday. CEO of the Billy Youth Foundation David Graham says the longer the young men are in the bootcamps, the less likely they are to transition back into the community, and asks what the function of the camps is. LISTEN ABOVE.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It is customary when governments announce restrictions on farmers’ ability to do anything that there be howls of protest – but not with this one. The Government has announced sweeping changes to limit the amount of full farm to forestry conversions. And the reason that there's very little in the way of dissent is that farming groups and rural communities have been raising concerns over the amount of productive farmland being converted into forestry for several years now. You'll have seen many billboards, and we’ve discussed it before on the show.   Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Todd McClay said the changes made delivered on a key election commitment to protect food production for farmers, while still providing ETS certainty for foresters. He told Mike Hosking this morning that while New Zealand absolutely needs to do its bit in terms of reducing harmful gases, we should not be leading the charge to the detriment of our economy.   “We only need to focus on what New Zealand does. We don't need to lead the world, we don't need to do more than others, we don't need to be right out in the front. We need to focus on what our obligations are and so that's what the Government is likely to do. But the Climate Change Commission is also going to come out with their report very soon. We'll take these two bits of advice, we'll look at it, take some time to be sensible next year, and then cabinet will make a decision.   “You know, there are two views out there. We should be right at the front of the queue, leading the world. That's harmful to New Zealand consumers and it's harmful to the economy. We are very small emitters compared to almost everybody else, but that's not a reason for us not to do our fair share. We should be leading the world in innovation, not in closing down businesses.”  Absolutely. There are a number of concerns around turning farms into forests. One is that rural communities and economies are being changed due to the replacement of good quality farmland with pine plantations. So if you've got a working farm, you've generally got two or three or four families who are working that farm, their kids go to school, and they buy at the local shops, and it's a village. If you've got a forest there, you just let it grow. You plant it, you leave. There are no families there, so school rolls drop and businesses suffer.   The second major concern was that the carbon forest would only be used to gain carbon credits and produce lumber, and then balancing those concerns with the property rights of farmers to choose what they wanted to use their land for.  Many, many, many, many farmers, the vast majority, only realise the work, the human investment, and the monetary investment they put into their farms when they sell them. They work every hour God sent and then, provided they live long enough, they sell the farm. Then they've got some good years, and their hard work has paid off. If they want to get the best possible price for their farm and somebody buys it, then they turn the farm into forestry, what's the farmer to do? And they can say I didn't know it was going to be forestry. They can say I did know it was going to be forestry, but I’ve got one shot at this.   So that's what the Government was trying to do. Federated Farmers has welcomed the news. Forestry spokesman Toby Williams said it was great that the Government was taking steps to stop the relentless march of pine trees across productive farmland. But he said it was also important changes were made to the way New Zealand set international emissions targets. He said New Zealand's rural communities are bearing the brunt of misguided climate change targets, as over 200,000 hectares of productive sheep and beef land have been planted in carbon farming in the last five years alone.   The Greens say it's not enough, that they're just tinkering around the edges and that it really needs to start at the production of the gases, not trying to mitigate the gases. And it all needs to be native forest anyway – but then nothing will ever be enough for the Greens until we're roaming from sustainable village to sustainable village by torch light, because there will be no power poles, and we'll be wearing hemp loin cloths, and I'll be trading my snapper for your kauri pole, and that will be the end of that. Nothing will ever really be enough.   The farm-to-forestry changes involve a lot of numbers. For example, an annual registration cap of 15,000 hectares for exotic forestry registrations on LUC 6 farmland. I'm not going to list out what the changes are, Google them if you wish, but changes there will be. I totally accept Todd McClay saying we need to do our bit, we have to do our bit, but we do not have to be leading the charge. We don't have to be bigger, better than, or more morally robust than China or the US, or all of those countries where it absolutely matters. So there's that part of it. We must do our bit. We must be the most efficient in the cleanest possible way. That's a great goal, but setting arbitrary targets that most countries are failing to meet, just seems pointless.   I'd love to hear from the farmers themselves. You've got one shot when you sell the farm – is this going to mean you're not going to get the best possible price, or that the price will be reduced somewhat because you're not going to have the same competition when you had foresters looking to put the farm into pine forest?  And what's it going to mean for the rural communities too? Is this an injection, a rejuvenation of rural communities that have slowly been dying?   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Finance Minister Nicola Willis is promising tax changes ahead for charities and the closing of loopholes, and the details of that will be announced in next year's budget. And not before time, you'd have to say.   There's about $2 billion, it's estimated, in untaxed profit in the charitable sector, and politicians of varying hues have been eyeing up that revenue potential for some time. I think both Christopher Luxon and Chris Hipkins have said on this show that the charities loophole is something they want to look at. There's also the issue of fairness. A number of charities, operators, businesses —think high profile ones like Sanitarium and Best Start— compete with non-charitable businesses that do not have tax exemptions. The tax working group estimated that about 30% of charities were likely to have some sort of trading activity.   So when is a charity, not a charity? Michael Gousmett, from the University of Canterbury, says look at Christ College in Christchurch. He says they're shareholders in a forestry company, and he says if they're sending young men up to the North Island to teach them how to grow straight pine trees, how to mill timber, how to market it and so on, that would be advancing their education under charity law. The fact is they don't. Those boys wouldn't know a pine tree if it fell on them. It was a purely commercial operation, same as the chap down the road growing straight pine trees. The difference is one pays tax, one doesn't, and where's the fairness in that?   I think we need to tighten it up. It's not so much a loophole as what Michael Gousmett, describes as “a failure of fiscal policy”. The fact is, there's provision in the Income Tax Act for exemption for charities – he would argue that it's too broad. And you'd have to agree with him, and a number of people have said much the same thing when they have rung in when the topic has come up, and when we've had the leaders of the parties in for a chat. You've got Ngāi Tahu and their seafood businesses. Michael Gousmett said seafood production is not the same thing as advancing the purposes of iwi.   I mean, while you can get away with it, go for it. I mean, there are plenty of people who are setting up trusts to avoid paying the maximum amount of tax. They try to minimise their tax return, and that's legal at the moment as the way the law is written, but I think Nicola Willis is casting a gimlet eye over the law and looking to tighten it up. We're all agreed, aren't we, that the sooner that happens, the better? We've been going on like pork chops about Sanitarium and some of the iwi who are operating very, very successful businesses. All well and good to have a charity, set up your scholarships to send kids off to school and grants for housing and health and what have you – great, fabulous. But when the loophole exists, you know it exists, it's been pointed out people can see it, politicians of all shades have said this is a nonsense when we need every last bit of cash. Couldn't we do with Grant Robertson’s $600 million down the back of the couch right now? We need every last bit we've got.   High time the loophole was closed. I'm just sorry it's going to be next year's budget, and it couldn't happen with a stroke of a pen today.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Charities are going to be seeing some changes to their taxes from next year.  Finance Minister Nicola Willis has confirmed that there will be tweaks to the charity tax regime, but she is mindful of striking the right balance.  They want to ensure that people can’t structure their affairs as charities while building up funds that aren’t used for charitable purposes.  Best Start and Sanitarium were examples she gave of such trading entities.   Bruce Bernacchi, tax expert and partner at Dentons Kensington Swan, told Kerre Woodham that charities are well regulated in New Zealand, and running one isn't for the faint of heart.  He says that while the changes may result in additional scrutiny for smaller charities, the real focus is likely to be on business income, and whether that income is distributed and applied to charitable purposes.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.