Kerre Woodham Mornings Podcast

Today marks the 15th anniversary of the Pike River mine disaster that killed 29 men.  Despite reforms following the incident, New Zealand's workplace health and safety record remains poor, with fatality and injury rates among the highest in the developed world.  Workplace injuries and illnesses cost the country an estimated $5 billion each year.  Victoria University workplace health and safety lecturer Dr Chris Peace told Kerre Woodham that putting ACC in place has taken away a lot of stress and angst, but a strong regulatory system needed to be put in place and wasn’t.   He says that the legislation imposes a duty of care on businesses, but the problem is that most people don’t understand what that amounts to.   LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Business NZ Chief Executive Katherine Rich says the Supreme Court's ruling that Uber drivers are in fact employees of Uber, not contractors, could have far-reaching implications for businesses that hired contractors, and she says it could collapse the gig economy. What's the gig economy? Well, when we're talking about the gig economy, we mean people who work on single projects or tasks, gigs, on demand. They're often hired through a digital marketplace, think Uber, Airbnb, and gig workers can be anyone from part-timers looking to make extra dosh from a second job that they can work around their own hours, to full-time freelancers. They can also be from a range of backgrounds across a range of industries.   On the plus side, if you're a gig worker, there's more flexibility for hours and remote work, high earning potential —the keyword there is potential—, the option to work for various companies, you're not tied to one, and the ability to become your own boss.  On the downside, there is the potential to make very little. The gig economy is unsteady, and for many it's an unsatisfactory alternative to a secure and stable full-time job with all the associated benefits, sick pay, annual leave, and the like. Now, a lot of young ones say they want the flexibility that comes with having a gig and a side hustle and doing a bit there. The idea of turning up and working 9am to 5pm is absolute anathema to them, until they get sick or until they realise that they need to set aside money for holidays or until say they want parental leave. And then all of a sudden, a secure job doesn't look so bad after all.   Now, with the Supreme Court ruling, in effect, contractors can have their cake and eat it too if it flows on to other industries. The drivers who brought the case against Uber said they were seeking fundamental human rights in relation to the work they did for the company.  Uber says, "Oh, come on, you knew what you were getting into when you signed the contract. Drivers are in control of business decisions in a manner not typical of an employee situation. They can decide whether, when, where, and for how long to drive, or whether they want to do other work instead." They also had the ability to and did make decisions around assets, business costs, and organize their own tax affairs.  Uber accepted in court that drivers didn't have input into the structure. For example, when Uber decided to slash the fares in Auckland and Wellington, it was a bit of a promotion, drivers had no say over that. But they say the drivers know what the platform looks like, they accepted and they use it. They enter into a service agreement, and they act accordingly.  Workplace Minister Brooke van Velden told Mike Hosking this morning that the Government's looking to make changes to define exactly what it means to be a contractor. She outlined it very, very clearly, and we will get that to you. Basically, she says that the law hasn't really kept up with the new economy. The workplace law hasn't kept up with the new economy. That, you know, the way Uber wasn't around 10 years ago. Airbnb wasn't around 10 years ago, and workplace law hasn't kept up with it. But can you really have your cake and eat it too? If you don't like turning up to the same employer 9am to 5pm, you know what your job is, you know what your hours are, the very regularity of it that makes a job like that so attractive to some people, Makes it a turn off to others. They don't want that regularity in their lives. They want to be free to work when they want to.  It doesn't seem right that you have your cake and eat it too, does it? Brooke van Velden says she'll make changes. The Supreme Court says Uber has to treat its drivers like employees. Would love to hear from you on this one, especially if you've worked for Uber. I know a number of people have. I ran into an old film director of mine from Television New Zealand days who was driving an Uber. Really enjoyed it. Loved the in effect retired, but still really loved meeting people, kept them out of the house, enjoyed driving, really enjoyed it. All sorts of people have done a bit of Uber.  Do you feel like an oppressed member of the working classes with the corporate boot on your neck? Did you know what you were getting into when you signed up? And what implication does this have for employers who do use contractors? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bowel Cancer NZ's new report lays bare the realities of 350 people under 50 living with the disease.   It’s the second deadliest cancer in New Zealand, and the leading cause of cancer death among people under the age of 50.  Every year around 3,300 New Zealanders are diagnosed and 1,200 die from the disease, despite it having a cure rate of over 90% when caught early.   The Never Too Young report found more than half of those surveyed didn't know the symptoms prior to diagnosis, and many faced delays in diagnosis.  Bowel Cancer NZ Chief Executive Peter Huskinson told Kerre Woodham if the screening age was lowered to 45, it would go a long way to catch the majority of people with early onset bowel cancer.  He says that way they’d be caught by the screening, rather than waiting for symptoms to develop.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the front page of the New Zealand Herald today there was a poll, and it shows that we're split as a nation on the issue of capital gains tax. So, the question for us here in this room and you in your room and all of us together is, should we have another discussion on the CGT? And my answer to that is, of course not. And why? We have no real idea of what it looks like, so we don't know what we're talking about. People who have assets that are accruing capital do not want it because they've never had to pay tax on it before, and no one likes paying more tax. People who do want a capital gains tax might want it if it means there's more money for health and education or benefits, but then if they start getting assets, will they be happy paying more tax? All the policies we've had so far on capital gains tax are so wishy-washy and indeterminate, we have no idea what it means. When will the valuations be calculated? Will we pay tax on mythical unrealized gains? How much money will it really raise? Have we had any answers to any of those questions? No, we have not. Could we have answers to those questions? Maybe. David Parker, before the last election, apparently came up with a comprehensive capital gains tax plan, but we never saw it. So how can we debate it? Labour's policy is such a once over lightly, we can't answer any of this. We are split on the general concept of capital gains tax and always have been, so why discuss it? It is a ridiculous Russian doll situation, and we go round and round, and we've decided let's not talk about that today. But we can talk about real taxes. And real taxes are increasing. And if you don't believe me, take a look at your rates bill, because rates are a tax. There are all sorts of different taxes in this world. And it's the sneaky ones that don't call themselves taxes that are the really sneaky ones. We had a real tax come at us, a couple of them actually, over the weekend. On Saturday, the front page was all about the legislation that's been introduced, meaning that councils can charge congestion taxes in the future. Awesome. So we'll be paying taxes on roads we already paid taxes to build. And if not taxes, then rates, because the council builds a lot of our roads. And of course, as I've said already, rates are also taxes. Talk about double jeopardy. We're paying taxes on taxes. It's two bites of the pie. And then you have to wonder why the National-led coalition wants to increase our taxes when their mission has always been to reduce them. They hate taxes, they say. Some of them say we're overtaxed. They want them gone.So the motivation for taxes has many faces. They're used to punish the rich because of the politics of envy, I get that. They're used to redistribute wealth because some people are poor and some people are not. And of course, they're all used to fund health and education systems. And we also use taxes to punish or to change behaviour. So I guess if we're talking about congestion taxes in this instance, we're talking about changing our behaviour. Is that enough reason for National to want to do this? The behaviour they're trying to change is to make more of us drive off-peak and less of us on-peak, making the roads flow better. I say good luck with that. Good luck with your tax, because in this age of cost of living increases and rate rises and water costs, I believe that no one at this moment wants to pay more tax. And no wonder Wayne Brown in the paper on Saturday said the council is not going to use this new power anytime soon, because he knows a vote killer when he sees one. I mean, who's going to vote for that? Turkeys do not vote for Christmas. And you have to ask, would it actually work? It might make mums on the school run think twice about using a motorway at peak hour. But, you know, tradies and the people who carry all our goods and the transporters, they won't have the option. They'll have to pay, and that is a further cost on their bottom line. And whenever a business gets a further cost on the bottom line, you know what they do? They pass it on. Who to? You and I, increasing the costs of services. The very fact, and I said this yesterday, the very fact that a young modern city like Auckland or Tauranga or Wellington, well, let's say Auckland, just over 1 and a half million people, it's a small city internationally, has got itself into a position where a centre-right government thinks the answer is a congestion tax is a complete and utter failure of our civil planning over the last generations. Sure, I understand congestion taxes in London. I mean, that built and built and built, and there's no more room for roads, and they've got undergrounds, and they've got buses, and they've got trains, and they've got everything, and still they're congested. So sure, put a congestion tax on in London. But really, Auckland? Hello? Really? Tauranga? Tauranga is our most taxed roading system. Got a couple of them there. You had the K-Road ages ago. Did it work?  Or Wellington. And I'll talk more about Wellington later because today is a big day for Wellington transport.The fact of the matter, if you don't like the congestion taxes, all we had to do was provide alternatives to the car that were affordable and efficient. Every time we talked about public transport options or alternate modes or God forbid cycleways, they've always been shouted down by people who think we still live in a rural village and not a modern cities, and we should all have the human right to drive from doorstep to doorstep. Well, that's a lack of foresight, is it not? Because we kept on growing and growing. Unfortunately, transportation, like public transport, is the answer, because there's very little room for more roads. But then again, we'll have to figure out how to pay for that transport system, and again, that will fall on you and me and our wallets, just the same as it would with any tax. At the moment, unbelievably, under a National-led coalition, another tax is coming, and do you think our roads are going to suddenly clear out? I don't. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

New Zealand produces enough food to feed 40 million people. Some of it we consume and some some we export.  But a staggering 30% of the food we make or grow goes to waste.  Fruit and vegetables need to look a certain way to make it onto supermarket shelves – or they get tossed.   Angus Simms and his partner Katie Jackson wanted to tackle that problem - so they started Wonky Box three years ago.  This is the subscription food box full of wonky fruit and veg that’s delivered to your door.  Their business has grown way bigger and faster than they ever thought, but it hasn’t been smooth sailing along the way.   Angus joined Kerre Woodham in the latest episode of Bosses Unfiltered to share his story.  LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As you'll have heard in the news this morning, the Retirement Commissioner has called for a 10-year roadmap and cross-party agreement, following the release of its review of New Zealand's retirement system.  More Kiwis are living longer, working differently, and facing pressures around housing and care. We're facing a huge rise in the number of older people. At the same time, we're facing fewer working Kiwis who can pay for the associated costs of aged care. Current data shows that right now, for every 100 people of working age, we have 28 retirees. Those numbers are changing quickly. By 2050, just 25 years away, we're looking at 38 retirees per 100 workers. By 2060, we'll have twice as many retirees compared to workers.  In 2019, those older than 65 received $13 billion more in government services, mainly super and healthcare, than they contributed in taxes. I mean, that's just the way it is. You end up using the health system more when you're young, very, very young, like under five, but mainly when you're very, very old. And in the middle, you shouldn't really be accessing it at all. Of course, we're seeing those numbers going up as well, but that's just the way it is. It's the Western world over. It's just life.  Treasury has been screaming for more than a decade now that we simply don't have enough money coming in to keep the lights on. Last week it gave another warning. Debt is not only being used for capital expenditure, but to cover operating costs. So it's like using your credit card to pay the necessary bills. It's unsustainable.  And this is occurring as the books haven't yet recovered from Covid and Cyclone Gabrielle, and as the costs associated with an aging population are set to soar. As I said, we're not alone in this. The Western world over is struggling with this. Japan's been staring down the barrel of a shrinking workforce and a rising number of oldies for years now. The Prime Minister Fumio Kishida made an interesting point in January 2023 that Japan is standing on the verge of whether they can continue to function as a society, facing as it does the twin threats of falling birth rates and an ever-increasing elderly population. And when I say elderly, they live a really long time – they've got really healthy oldies who are regularly hitting 100. In 2022, almost half of Japanese firms relied on workers over the age of 70. So they're trying to encourage older people to still participate, to continue if they're up to it, if they can.  So we could work longer. We could make use of the technology and the digitisation and the AI if you want to continue working. We could shift health to be rather than end-of-life care, try and put an emphasis on preventing people getting health issues and try and keep people out of hospital with preventable illnesses. We could prioritise health and well-being to ensure we stay healthy for longer.  When it comes to providing a broader tax base, we'll be competing with every other Western country to import workers, because I think it's pointless telling young people, and certainly other countries have found this, to have more babies. There's financial incentives for young couples to have more babies, but a couple of 100 bucks here and there is not going to make people have children.   What makes young families want to have children is a belief in the future, a belief in the society in which they live, a belief that they can support the children and give them what they need in terms of and it's not just financial things, it's time. If you're working seven days a week to provide for your family, you're going to limit the number of children you're going to have. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A warning New Zealand needs to act quickly on strengthening our retirement income system.  The Retirement Commission's income policy review has found a longer-term political focus is needed to ensure future generations' certainty.   It makes 12 recommendations, including moving more quickly to implement KiwiSaver reforms, and harder strategies such as a new cross-party accord.   Policy and Research Director Patrick Nolan told Kerre Woodham we now have people over 65 than we have under 15, so we need to act now.  He says New Zealand is going to look very different into the future, so these conversations need to be had.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How common is it for people to be living double lives?  Former Deputy Police Commissioner Jevon McSkimming is awaiting sentence after pleading guilty to having child sexual exploitation and bestiality material on his work devices.  An IPCA report also found complaints of McSkimming being a sexual predator were ignored, the emails the woman sent instead being used to prosecute her for harassment.   Private Investigator Julia Hartley Moore told Kerre Woodham that the number of people living double and secret lives is an epidemic.   "I think they just do it because they can,” she said.  “People have an endless capacity to deceive each other – I think that certain people will never and there’s certain people that will, and there’s a hell of a lot that do.”  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How is it that the woman, who's at the centre of a cover-up by top brass within the Police, still has to go to court to defend two charges of causing harm by posting a digital communication? She's charged with harassing a police officer who was apparently investigating her accusations against that pervert McSkimming and with harassing the investigating police officer's wife.   She was charged in May of last year with causing harm by posting digital communication in relation to over 300 emails she sent to McSkimming's work email address between December 23 and April 24. That charge against the woman was withdrawn in the Wellington District Court in September because McSkimming did not wish to give evidence. You bet your bippy he didn't. It would have been all shades of Oscar Wilde, bringing a court case against someone and having it spectacularly backfire, and then you are the one who ends up in strife.   When Richard Chambers spoke to Mike Hosking yesterday, he said the charges against the young woman had been withdrawn.   RC: The matters that resulted in her being charged in the middle of last year, no, that is now, that is no longer in the court.   MH: So that has been taken out of the court and resolved in some way, shape or form. Is there a cheque being written? How does that being, or how is that being handled?   RC: I reached out to her legal representative late yesterday to express an apology on behalf of New Zealand Police for what had occurred, and I did say to him that I had no doubt there would be further conversations at an appropriate time in the future.   So no mention of further charges and that they were still before the court. If you were listening to that as I was, you would be left with the clear impression that any charges against the young woman had been wiped, that the Police were very sorry, and that they would be compensating her for what she'd been through. No mention of the further charges. We approached the Police Commissioner, and this is the written statement from the office:    "The matter is before the court. Police has instructed a senior criminal barrister in this proceeding. It would be inappropriate for me to comment about the merits, including public interest of any case that is before the court. However, what I have done and what I can say is that I have assured myself that proper process has been followed in bringing this case."   Reading between the lines, if he interfered now that it's before the court and asked for it to go away, it would be shades of a cover-up. Because it's underway, because the presumably policeman and his wife have not dropped the charges, it must go before the court and due process must be followed.   This statement's attributable to Assistant Commissioner Mike Johnson: "Ms Z is the defendant in a prosecution in the District Court. In these circumstances, it's not appropriate to comment publicly on the merits of the prosecution, including the public interest."   So I kind of vaguely, if I'm being generous, and I'm not particularly feeling all that generous, but as a as an intellectual exercise, I'll try and be generous, I can see that to interfere with a matter that's before the court, making something disappear and go away, is shades of exactly why the top brass have been cleared out.   But come on. I'm sure it was very distressing for the police officer and his wife to be inundated with emails, and goodness knows what was said in it. They were, what was that lovely word that Jared Savage used about the emails that he received? Incoherent. So there was a lot of high drama and emotive language used in the emails. God only knows what was said but she'd been driven unhinged by what had happened to her in terms of not being spoken to, not being listened to, not being regarded.   Surely there has to be an element of mercy in this. I mean, even if she has to go through the whole process of appearing before court any kind of conviction against her name would be a gross miscarriage of justice. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The revelation that the Deputy Commissioner of Police Jevon McSkimming was a predatory pervert was one thing. To find out that our most senior police officers were complicit in not only covering up his inappropriate behaviour, but then prosecuting, persecuting his victim is quite frankly horrifying.   I knew, many of you knew, Andrew Coster was an ineffectual toadying eunuch. Does anyone remember his one and only hour in the studio when he spoke in slogans and was completely incomprehensible? I couldn't have been more delighted when Police Minister Mark Mitchell moved him on and replaced him with a proper cop, Richard Chambers.   The fact that Jevon McSkimming came so close to the top job defies belief, given the accusations swirling around him. And he only came so close to the top job because Coster, Kura, de Wattignar, and Basham needed him to be in the top job to hide their moral and professional failures.   This is absolutely appalling. McSkimming is a sick pervert. He needs help, professional help. The rest of them were just motivated by saving their sorry skins and were willing to throw a vulnerable young woman to the wolves to allow her to be prosecuted to save themselves. The young woman in question sent multiple emails to ministers, MPs, the media, she wrote on LinkedIn, she phoned the police complaints line. She might have appeared to be obsessive, but nothing makes a woman more unhinged than being gaslit, than being ganged up on, than being not believed.   You can imagine McSkimming – ‘mate, she's a bunny boiler. Yeah, crazy’. If they were any sort of cops, any sort of people, they would know that is manipulation 101. Dismiss her as a lunatic. You know, confess, yes, what was I thinking? I was 40, she was 21. I shouldn't have had the affair, but, you know, I ended it and saw the error of my ways. And now she's trying to ruin my career. You've got to save me. You've got to help me. And they did.  Not one of those former top cops, the very top cops in the country, ever thought to have a chat to her, or to get one of their staff to have a chat to her, to hear her side of the story. Did they not find it odd that McSkimming didn't say, look, talk to her, you'll see for yourself? No. Not only did they not do anything, they prosecuted her. They put her through hell.   It's appalling, it's horrifying, it adds grist to Tamatha Paul’s anti-police mill. Richard Chambers has a hell of a job ahead of him in rebuilding faith in the Police, and he knows that.   “My job right now is to ensure that I take on board all the recommendations and work swiftly to put everything in place to ensure that this never happens again.   “And, you know, in terms of other stuff out there, well, I only know what I know. I'm not aware of anything else, and God, I hope that's not the case because, you know, the people of New Zealand, when they reach out to New Zealand Police, deserve the best possible service they can get, and they need to be taken seriously.   “And I've been very clear about that since I took over as the Commissioner. Our priority is supporting the frontline staff of my organisation who do this work day and night. And, and I'm really proud of that. And, you know, my focus now will be putting a new leadership team in place, and they will be working with me to help steer New Zealand Police, in the right direction and ensure that these appalling situations never happen again.”  Oh, hello 2007. Police Commissioner Howard Broad, after the Royal Commission of Inquiry, after the ghastly Scholllum Shipton cover-up there.   “I will now ask all serving members to join with me to make the changes necessary to prevent this sort of behaviour ever happening again. The work's already started. We're moving quickly on this. A draft code's been fully consulted. There'll be a reform of the 1958 Police Act”.  At the heart of the issues looked at by the Commission of Inquiry has been abuses of power. Yes, policies, processes, and sanctions can only go so far. That's quite right. There were processes in place that were circumvented by these abusers. Abusers of the woman and abusers of power. What happens to people that they become like this? Coster's on the record as saying he entered the police because of his Christian faith, his Christian duty to serve.   I feel for the good, honest men and women wearing the blue uniform who turn up to work every day trying to make New Zealand a better, safer community. They have been so badly let down by their bosses. But a number of them knew how hopeless Coster was. The number of texts and emails I received over the years that he was Commissioner were extraordinary. I'm not sure if they knew the depths to which he would go to save his skin and his salary, but they knew he was a wrong'un. They had a copper's nose to sniff out when something was wrong.   I would love to hear from you on this one. I still trust the Police. I still back the Police. My faith in the Police hierarchy was shaken with Coster in the top role, and it's been absolutely rocked with the revelations of yesterday. With Richard Chambers as Commissioner, the ship has been righted. The oversight being introduced will help ensure corrupt officials won't be able to circumvent the processes designed to prevent and detect wrongdoing. But by bloody crikey, the Police will not be able to endure another scandal like this one, that's for sure. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.