Kerre Woodham Mornings Podcast

Obesity and the state of children’s dental health is in our news regularly.New research out has once again prompted the call for the Government to introduce a levy on sugary drinks.An extensive review of policies from around the world where taxes are in place, and let’s remember over 45 countries have already taxed sugary drinks, shows the tax leads to 15% lower sales on average.The research, which looked at studies from across 12 countries and 5 US states, showed that while these taxes lifted the price of products and lead to fewer sales, it did not affect jobs within the beverage manufacturing industry.We know that the consumption of sugar sweetened beverages is associated with dental decay and diet related disease. We know 8000 children have had a general anaesthetic to have their teeth out.It seems like a no brainer to me to bring this into place here in NZ, however, yesterday Associate Health Minister Peeni Henare, who is responsible for nutrition, made it very clear, the Government is not considering a sugar tax.The taxes work overseas, so they should be introduced here, I think.It seems like a pretty simple way to get our sugar consumption down. As much as I feel that we might need a tax on sugary drinks, we also need to be looking at how we promote and educate good eating habits in general.I am disappointed the Government isn’t acting on this.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Very early this morning, the Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern met with US President Joe Biden. The meeting went longer than it should, it went over time and it was warm and friendly. Is that enough for you? On the agenda, of course, was trade and the CPTPP, there was global security, the Indo-Pacific economic framework.They talked climate change, the Ukraine and various things and of course, the CPTPP has been a focus for New Zealand and a discussion between New Zealand and the US for quite a while.It is unlikely we'll probably ever get a free trade agreement with the States so the CPTPP really is our best bet.  President Trump pulled the US out of the agreement in 2017, so it's very much back on the cards.This wasn't going to be a meeting that was going to produce a whole lot of accountables.You know, the Prime Minister said that we're not going to be announcing any new initiatives. It was made very clear before the meeting so that our expectations were kept in check; we weren't to expect any great announcements.So was it worth it this trip that the Prime Minister has just undertaken to the United States? I would say yes, because the more you hear from politicians we understand the importance of face-to-face talks and it has been a long time since we visited, seven years or so.  Sir John Key made the point in the last week about the importance of having that personal relationship with the US. If it benefits New Zealand, if it benefits the tourism industry which has been decimated over the last two years, then surely that on its own makes this trip worth it.We're this amazing little country at the bottom of the world. You can't actually just pop there for the weekend if you're coming from the States. You need a bit of time to plan, you need to put the seed into people minds.Yeah, come back, we're open. Come back and enjoy this amazing country and I think she did a very good job in achieving that. So, are you impressed with what the Prime Minister has achieved?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Yesterday, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister David Clark, alongside Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson, announced the Government response to the Commerce Commission's findings on the supermarket sector.The Government will match 12 of the Commission's 14 recommendations and it will go further with the other two recommendations. But the main message to the supermarket duopoly was that the Government is putting the sector on notice and to change at pace or face regulation.The bulk of the reforms will be included in the Grocery Industry Competition Bill, and Minister Clark intends to introduce that later this year. So if you're looking for something that was going to make a difference to your weekly shop over the next wee while, you're out of luck.Yesterday's announcement was meant to look like action on dealing with inflation and rising costs, but we all know it's not just supermarkets that are solely responsible for rising costs. They're part of a mix, but not the whole solution, and a long-term solution is needed.This is a little bit cheeky by the Government using these new regulations to take action on the cost of living and trying to sell it to us like that. But if you want to look at these regulations as an attempt to change decades worth of a lack of competition between supermarkets, then there are some positives here, especially when it comes to enabling new players into the market.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You know, I was not at all surprised to see the headline on the front of the New Zealand Herald today talking about the state of mental health care for children and teenagers in New Zealand.A briefing document that was provided by the Ministry of Health, to the Health Minister Andrew Little in September last year, has been obtained by the Herald and it paints a grim picture. Mental health crisis teams operated by DHBs saw 50 per cent more young people in urgent distress last year than they did 10 years earlier in the past decade.There has been a 177 per cent increase in the number of young people taken to hospital emergency departments in crisis. Andrew Little admitted to Mike Hosking on the Mike Hosking Breakfast this morning that children and adolescent mental health services are in crisis.I appreciate Andrew Littles's honesty on the situation, this is not a problem that can be solved overnight. But after $1.9 billion was allocated to mental health in 2019 you would have thought we might have a little bit more to show for it than an increase in GP services and youth specialist services.Not to say that they're not important, but you know, as Andrew Little just mentioned, these problems are easy to pinpoint. It's always been about funding and staff. We've known that they've been issues with staff shortages for a long time. DHBs are struggling to find enough psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses and other skilled staff to fill vital frontline roles. And yes, you can say it's we've had our borders shut for two years, and it's been really difficult to get these people in, but there's actually a worldwide shortage and this problem was around before Covid hit.There isn't an overnight solution. Obviously, we don't want situations to get to an acute place, so there are other things that we can be doing to help support our kids and our adolescents?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Fears China's latest plan for a security pact with the Pacific is designed to give them more influence in the area.China has sent a draft to 10 Pacific countries, outlining a plan for policing, security and data communications cooperation.It comes ahead of a meeting Foreign Minister Wang Yi is hosting in Fiji next week.National's Foreign Affairs spokesperson Gerry Brownlee says it's deeply concerning and shows China's desire to deepen its involvement in Pacific affairs.Sir Don McKinnon is not just our longest serving Foreign Minister but a Foreign Minister who annually took a plane load of MPs, NGOs, students, traders and civil servants around Pacific.Sir Don McKinnon joined Kerre Woodham.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

More than 150 people have marched through Kaikohe this morning to take a stand against gang violence.The Mid North town has been drawn into ructions that began in Auckland between rival gangs the Tribesmen and Killer Beez, with shots fired at a house in Kaikohe before dawn on Tuesday.Today's hikoi is fronted by leaders of the hapū of Ngāti Ueoneone, Ngāti Whakaeke, Ngāti Tautahi, Te Matarahurahu and Te Uri o Hua.Event organiser and spokesperson for hapū collective Te Tiahotanga, Mane Tahere joined Kerre Woodham.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As you will have heard by now, the Reserve Bank increased the official cash rate by 50 basis points to 2 percent. This delivered what many commentators saw as a hawkish monetary policy statement, pointing to much higher rates ahead as it chases down inflation.The Monetary Policy Committee says it sees the cash rate rising to at least 3.25 percent this year and that it was resolute in its commitment to ensure consumer price inflation returns to within the 1 to 3 percent target range.We need to get inflation down, there's absolutely no doubt about that. That impacts everybody, impacts all of our wallets, but to do that is going to take a little bit of pain.And although UM changes to first home grants and first home loans will technically enable more New Zealanders to access support to get into their first home.New Zealanders and, particularly first home buyers, are looking at the housing market.They're looking at the Reserve Bank.They're looking at the increase in mortgage rates and thinking, maybe we hold off just a wee bit longer.In the second half of 2021, 26 percent of homebuyers were first home buyers and the first three months of 2022, 22.5 percent of all buyers were first home buyers.So people are looking at the market, they're looking at the domestic economy, they're looking at the global economy, and they're thinking “should we just hold off?”They're also thinking that if mortgage rates are getting higher and you need to be able to supply more evidence that you can serve as a higher mortgage rate, we can't do it.It's not that we don't want to, but we just don't think we'll be able to meet the threshold.For those who are holding off I would love to hear the reasons.Is it because you worry about your capacity to serve as a mortgage as interest rates go up?Is it that the increase in deposit that the banks were asking for is making you hold back?Are you waiting to see what happens in the world before you commit to a mortgage?For those who already have mortgages, for those of us who bought homes for eye-watering amounts of money over the past two years, it's all very well and good for the banks to say look, don't worry about it.“We stress test.”“We don't look at your ability to pay the mortgage. We look at your ability to pay a mortgage that is set at a far higher interest rate, so we're not surprised and you're not surprised.”When interest rates go up, mortgage rates go up and all of a sudden you have to spend more on your mortgage.You will be able to do so in theory, but theory is quite different from practice.And what about those who are already running pretty tight?Things are getting tough, and how are you going to cope?If you are looking at buying a first home, are you holding off because you're choosing to?You're looking at the circumstances around the world and in this country you're looking at the news headlines.You're thinking, well just wait a bit.Or are you holding off because, with the new interest rates with the new deposit requirements, you don't think you'd be able to service that loan?And for those who already have mortgages, as the Reserve Bank hunts down inflation and raises the cash rate, the interest rate and the mortgage rate.Do you have the wiggle room to get through this rocky patch? I’d imagine there could be two to three years of it, that's what it generally is.Do you have the ability and the willingness to tighten your belt?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Now historically, communities have relied on their particular version of God to keep their people in check and if God is always watching, then the theory is that you should be on your best behaviour and do no wrong.Of course, people are flawed and imperfect. Inevitably, we will do wrong, but given that God is always watching, their sins will be exposed and they will be punished.In this increasingly secular century and society, 48 percent of New Zealanders said they had no religious affiliations in the last census, technology has become our all-seeing,  all punishing deity. We have CCTV cameras, we have mobile phones and people are willing to use them against their neighbour to record the slightest transgression. And now, we have safety cameras monitoring what we do inside our cars.A trial has begun in Auckland today monitoring how many people drive while using their mobile phones or who drive while not wearing seatbelts, which all seems very Sir Bob Jones in 1973, but apparently there are people who choose not to wear their seat belts.No enforcement action will be taken during the trial. People's privacy will be protected as images will be automatically deleted after 15 minutes if there is no evidence of driver distraction. Waka Kotahi says the trial is needed because the agency needs to understand the scale of the problem of distracted drivers. Having a camera coming inside your car to record everything you do, may well be seen as an invasion of your privacy, an invasion of your own little kingdom. I don't have a problem with it, I do believe in the technology. I think if I'm not using my mobile phone or if I'm not putting on makeup as I'm crawling down Onewa Road at 15kpm an hour then I'll be fine.I was interested to see that distracted driving is the third most common cause for fatal car accidents - and that's not even taking into account the frustrating fender benders.So it's an issue. People do get distracted, they take their attention off the road and that's when accidents happen and you can be very sorry after an accident, but that's not going to fix it if you're injured or killed someone.If the problem is that great, Waka Kotahi says it is and the stats say it is, then fine, record what we're doing. If we're behaving badly, punish us accordingly. $150 is neither here, nor there.Well, it was for me at the time. $150 was a big hit in the wallet and it did change my behaviour for a while. $1500 would have probably changed it for a lifetime.When you're driving distracted, that impacts other people. If it's that big of a problem, get the cameras inside the car, work out who is transgressing and punish accordingly.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Anthony Albanese will be sworn in as Australian Prime Minister today, ending conservative rule in Australia that lasted nearly a decade. Counting from the election is yet to confirm whether he has enough seats to establish a majority government. As things stand, Labor's one seat short -- and needs 76 to form a majority government. Questions have been asked as to what an Anthony Albanese election means for New Zealand. University of Auckland Public Policy Institute director, Professor Jennifer Curtin joined Kerre Woodham to discuss. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I don't mind telling you that prior to yesterday's budget, I was kind of over it already.The question is whether this budget announcement yesterday was a win for the Government? Was it that enough to turn the tide in the polls?For most of us though, the immediate question is what's the Government going to do for us, and our focus on the cost of living and the constant headlines around inflation?The Government answer to this is $27.00 a week for three months, making a total of $350.00 for low income earners.Wow, is that it? What a shame.It leaves me wondering whether the obvious solution has been avoided simply because it was the opposition's idea.Grant Robertson was asked what he was doing for the "squeezed middle". His response was to note that 81 percent of New Zealanders are now getting some form of support, either through the Winter Energy Payment or the cost-of-living payment.So 81 percent of working age New Zealanders receiving some level of state support.  So in response to inflation and the cost of living, his response is to turn 81 percent of us into beneficiaries of the Government, and that is the problem.That's why I think that this Budget, for most New Zealanders, is a fail.Over the past couple of years, with lockdowns increasing Government involvement and intrusion into our lives, we've also seen a massive growth in government bureaucracy and more and more, I reckon, the Government is turning us into a nation of people who look first toward the Government for answers and not to ourselves.For me, I would have seen a simple adjustment to the tax thresholds as a common-sense answer to putting money in the pockets of New Zealanders, so they can make their own choices. Instead, we're turned into beneficiaries.Financial commentator, Bernard Hickey, made the observation that next year there's plenty of room for the Government to spend a lot more prior to the election. Well frankly, that observation was probably accurate.In a way, it's disappointing, but unsurprising. But make no mistake when it comes to handing out the money, the Government is saving up for its top priority and that is buying your vote at the next election. Everything else is second best.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.