Kerre Woodham Mornings Podcast

The Piopio home invasion case.I'll be honest, my initial reaction to the not-guilty verdict was that I struggled to contain my Glee. But that was because when the case first broke and I looked at the facts and I predicted,  two or three weeks ago, that no jury was ever going to convict the father and son of the charges of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.The question is, did the jury, in finding Bill Burr senior and his son not guilty,  did the jury get it right?In my view, this was always going to be the verdict. It was the only one that the jury could deliver.  Having said that, from a legal point of view, I'm suppressing a sense of outrage in a way because I actually reckon, legally, they got it wrong.What it boils down to is whether there was a defence to the charges on the basis of reasonable force, acting in self-defence.If I was going to put my legal hat on, I would say it's quite possible to make a strong case that subduing the pair at gunpoint was all that it took and that their actions up to that point were reasonable, but that the severing of the end of the little finger was something that was done, probably out of anger and vengeance.Here's the thing though, for these charges to be proved, the jury would have had to be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt, that within the defendant's mind, this wasn't a reasonable response to the threat that they were facing.No jury was ever going to convict these guys for their response, especially given this prevailing public suspicion. We've got around New Zealand that in every other aspect of our approach to crime, we're soft. I reckon this was an opportunity for the jury to decide that's enough, we're just going to say enough. So while I could write you a lovely legal dissertation that the jury may have got the decision wrong legally, when it comes to justice in this case, they got it right.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Employment court has ruled ex-Gloriavale members were employees from six years old, not volunteers.Hosea and Levi Courage, and Daniel Pilgrim, have now left the religious community, but sought a declaration on their status after leaving school and working at the commune and its businesses.The Employment court found the work can't be described as chores or education, because of the commercial nature.The commune claimed work done from the ages of six-to 14 are chores, at age 15 it's part of schoolwork, and from 16 it was voluntary.Employment Specialist with the Whitehead Group, Max Whitehead said with more judgements to come, this could create huge implications for the community.“Now this ruling’s been set, these people are employees those other questions are going to be asked and look, this could bankrupt Gloriavale.”LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I moved to the North Shore of Auckland in November of last year. After years and years of living in the central city it was a big move to go across the bridge. I fell completely and utterly in love with the North Shore lifestyle. It's completely different to being in the city.The one big negative that people warned me about was Onewa Road.That's the main road linking many different suburbs on the shore to the motorway, yet for six months I had absolutely no idea what people were talking about.I moved during a lockdown, along came Omnicron at the beginning of the year, so people continued to work from home and I breezed along merrily enjoying a trouble-free commute.23 minutes door to door. What were people going on about?Well, last week, I found out everything changed after the school holidays. It seems there was a seismic shift, certainly in Auckland. My 20-minute commute has become a near 40-minute commute. That is a significant chunk of time.If Auckland transport and the Government have their way, not only will I be sitting in traffic for 20 minutes longer, but I'll be paying for that privilege.To be fair, it’s not just this Government that wants to see a congestion charge introduced. Labour, National, the Greens and ACT all support some form of congestion charging, but what's holding them back is the certainty that it's low-income households that will be hit hardest by congestion charges.For congestion charges to work, that is to get people out of their cars and into alternative forms of transport, we have to improve public transport options. Congestion is a huge issue in our cities. In Auckland alone, the city loses up to $1.3 billion a year in productivity and that is only going to get worse as the city grows. So given this Government, of course, is keen on introducing a congestion charge, so is National, so are the Greens, so is ACT, it’s going to be a fact of life. What needs to change before you change? Before I change?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Government is expected to announce next week that a congestion charge is on the cards for Auckland's CBD in 2025.A Helen Clark Foundation report has found such a charge could cut congestion by 12 percent, but researchers say the process needs to be brought in fairly.The Infrastructure Commission released its first long-term strategy at the start of the month. They believe we need to ease congestion in our cities and make use of tools like congestion charging to make better use of transport connections.Te Waihanga NZ Infrastructure Commission General Manager of Strategy Geoff Cooper joined Kerre Woodham.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Well, you can't say all those millions spent on PR consultants and market researchers and communications advisors and spin doctors, you cannot say all those millions of dollars have been wasted, can you? Because look at this, the public registered a vote of no confidence in Police Minister Poto Williams with the Newshub Reid Research poll out last week, we talked about that nearly 2/3 of those polled thought the Minister and by default, the Government, was soft on crime. A spooky coincidence, in a pre-Budget announcement that the Government has pledged more than $550 million to fund more frontline police, establish a new firearms unit, and they've promised businesses they'll help protect them from RAM raids. Poto Williams, the Police Minister, talked to Mike Hosking on the Mike Hosking Breakfast this morning, explaining there'd be something for businesses, once they talked to businesses about what businesses might need. And the fact that it wasn't just police who could pick up RAM raiders, it was families who could learn how to parent. It's not really going to help in the short term is that there was a promise though to tackle gangs and organized crime. There's a new firearms unit to ensure guns don't fall into the wrong hands. The sound of the stable door closing as the hoofbeats of the galloping horse disappear into the distance spring to mind.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Starship have launched a youth mental health app as self-harm events abound young people spike.Since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, admissions of children and adolescents to hospital following self-harm events have increased by 25 percent in the 15-19 year age group and 50 percent in the 10-14 year age group.  Over 5600 young people presented to hospital emergency departments around the country with self-harm in 2021 alone.Founded on the premise that it takes a village to raise a child, the app is designed to help rangatahi take control of their mental well-being by connecting them with a network of trusted individuals, friends or whānau, called “buddies”.Starship Child Psychiatrist and Paediatrician Dr Hiran Thabrew joined Kerre Woodham.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The public has registered a vote of no confidence in Police Minister Poto Williams as youth crime spirals out of control.The latest Newshub-Reid Research poll asked: Is the current Police Minister too soft on crime?More than two-thirds - 68.3 percent - said yes, while just 18.3 percent said no.Minister Williams doesn't think it's fair. She said to Newshub "For me, you're either soft or you're a thug or you're smart and I choose to be smart."National Party Police spokesperson Mark Mitchell sees it differently and he joined Kerre McIvor.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Founder and CEO of chemicals company DGL, Simon Henry, has criticised My Food Bag for putting an image of brand ambassador Nadia Lim in its prospectus, referring to Lim as 'Eurasian fluff'.National Business Review ran an article featuring an interview in which the comments were made.Kiwi Wealth in the process of adding DGL to its exclusions list in response to the derogatory comments he made.Kiwi Wealth CEO Rhiannon McKinnon joined Kerre Woodham.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If a politics wonk was to ever put the time and effort into ranking the best and worst of New Zealand parliamentary speakers, I am willing to lay good money on Trevor Mallard being cited as the worst speaker of the house in the country's history.Now obviously I can't go back to the late 19th century and the early 20th century. But I'm still willing to be it. He would be the worst.He's an unlikely speaker. In a 2000 press release by Independent MP Peter Dunne,  Mallard was labelled parliament's worst behaved MP, based on the amount of times the MP had been expelled from the chamber or asked withdraw.  He often violated the rules of the House while he was an MP, and now he's keeping them. Talk about poacher turned gamekeeper.He has a professional reputation for being a bully, pugnacious petty, and utterly incapable of saying sorry.Now in another petulant hissy fit, the Speaker has delivered trespass notices to some of the people who were at protests in Parliament grounds.Some are deserved - no problem there. But to use the occasion to dish out a little bit of light revenge is an abuse of office.It's a grim day when we have to choose between Mallard and Winston Peters. But on this occasion and on this day, I am reluctantly forced to be Team Peters, much as I think he should just push off out of public life, join a bowls club and retire with dignity. I do not know how Mallard can hold that post any longer given his history, given his current behaviour, and given the fact that nobody has respect for this referee. Helen Clark was able to just keep him in line. I mean fighting with Tau Henare in Parliament, brought it all back to me when I was going back through Mallard’s history. It was ugly. And it's just got uglier, using his position to score petty personal political points with his opponents as an abuse of the position.Jacinda Ardern will not keep him in line, but somebody has to.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Is it any real surprise that the Property Investors Federation says rolling back changes that have been made to the rental industry by this government will fix soaring rents and a shortage of rental properties? Probably not. You would expect such a position from the federation, but the real point is, are they right? Yesterday, the Property Investors Federation launched a five-point plan, which it says will fix the rental property crisis. We've seen soaring rents. We've seen limited properties available for people to rent  So, they say, if you bring in this five-point action plan, we'll see more houses come on the market, and because of that there will be competition and the prices will come down. In effect, they want harsher penalties for bad tenants. They want to return the bright-line tests to two years. They want the right for landlords to issue no-fault 90-day notices making it easier to get rid of troublesome tenants and they want mortgage payments made tax-deductible. They've also proposed that there be a public list of bad tenants, those who own money who have damaged properties or who have had antagonized the neighbours. On the positive side, they came up with a suggestion that is used in Germany, where people have security of tenure that in effect the house is theirs in everything but ownership papers. So, in effect, the landlord supplies the walls, the floor, the ceiling, and the infrastructure for water and electricity. The bare shell, the bones of a house and the tenant makes it a home and supply everything from the oven to the fridge to light fittings, and then you have it. For life, if you so wish And if you are or were a landlord, does this action plan from the Property Investors Federation make your think all right then, I'll get back into it.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.