Kerre Woodham Mornings Podcast

Last night, the youngest in our household had an ear infection. Nothing could ease it, even with the Pamol.We rang the A&E clinics and were told to prepare for a one and half to two hour wait on a Monday night, which was as expected and then all of a sudden the tears stopped and she was fine, probably because it had burst.  We were taking it in turns to make the phone calls and you could just hear the exhaustion and frustration and despair and the voices of those who answered and thank heavens they answered the phone. Thank you for doing that.  I can't even begin to imagine just how frustrating it is to turn up to work and to know that you're in for a long, hard night ahead.  You want to do your best for people; you want to be able to help them but you've been so slammed you simply cannot. And then you have Andrew Little, Denier-in-Chief, talking to Mike Hosking asking and saying crisis, what crisis? As he has done so throughout. The only thing I can say in his favour is at least he shows up. And at least he's able to spout the party line and never deviate from the script. So I guess he's doing his job. At least he bothers to front up. But seriously, that's about all you can say for him. There is no getting around the fact that health is a tough portfolio for any minister, but bloody hell, Andrew Little is making it a whole lot tougher for himself. Paramedics say they're at breaking point. They've seen 30,000 more call outs compared to last year. Ongoing vacancies, they need 125 more paramedics right now.This very minute ambulances being delayed at emergency departments at our hospitals because they are overwhelmed and adding to their pressure. The woman in Medicines Charitable Trust says there will be a catastrophic collapse of the health care workforce. They're talking about midwives, they're talking about GPs, they're talking about nurses, they're talking about specialists. You might get tired Karen, this is a Karen who texted me yesterday saying why are you so mean and anti-government? Because, they're bloody hopeless.In this particular instance and in many others. “Your’re so mean and anti-government, Andrew Little is doing his best.” Is he? He's been given warning after warning after warning. I can't even imagine how empty his words must sound to an exhausted, frustrated and at-risk health workforce.  They were operating at 120% capacity in the ED’s in January. They knew what was coming, they were begging for help. And Andrew Little says yes it’s coming. How bloody empty are those words when you have to get up every day and try to do your best again, when you've been operating beyond capacity for so many years now?He's an absolute disgrace. To insist that it's just challenging and well, we knew it was going to be tough. And leave them to it, leave them sinking and floundering, when they were begging you for a lifeline and you chose not to give it to them? He's a bloody disgrace.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The leader of the Opposition says he's ready to make bold change.Christopher Luxon has just returned from a trip overseas - including visiting Singapore and Ireland, where he discussed infrastructure planning, public service and attracting foreign investment.He says he can see massive failure in almost every portfolio in our Government..Luxon told Kerre Woodham his own team is strengthened by having experience outside Beehive.He says National knows how to get things done because they’re not all career politicians.Luxon says the Government's done a lot of damage - and he'd like to change a lot of things quickly.He says he'd repeal Three Waters, the bright-line test and interest deductibility - but won't be getting rid of Health New Zealand, to avoid disruption.But Luxon told Kerre Woodham that doesn't mean health would be left untouched.“We will be certainly repealing the Māori Health Authortiy, we see no reason to have two systems and not one system.”WATCH ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I never ever take having a roof over my head for granted, particularly not in winter when it is raining, when it is cold. Having a place to call my own, I think it's a real privilege.And I firmly believe you're only about three major life events away from finding out what it's like to be desperate. You lose your job, your marriage breaks up, illness or injury, and all of a sudden, you find yourself in a really precarious situation, and I've been thinking about that because of the sad case in Auckland in the news at the moment.An elderly woman believed to be in her 70s was found dead in her car. She had been living in her Suzuki Swift for months, and despite neighbours and the suburb where she was parked, attempting to raise the alarm because they didn't think she'd make it through winter alive, it was months before finally, somebody contacted staff at the Auckland City Mission. They did a welfare check and they found the woman dead.There are hundreds, literally hundreds of people living in their cars around Auckland City alone, and I imagine wherever you are in the country you will have people sleeping in their cars.Nothing is certain and nothing is secure, and while it's unlikely I'll end up parked in a suburb somewhere around Auckland, sleeping in my VW, I never ever take having a roof over my head for granted.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Another job for an old mate has been announced by the Government.If as a child, you grew up and you were asked what do you want to be when you grow up and you said I want to be a Grocery Commissioner, the way is now clear for you to do so!Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister David Clark announced that a grocery commissioner is to be appointed during an update on progress being made to bring supermarkets in to line after recommendations were made by the Commerce Commission back in May. In David Clark's mind, the grocery commissioner will be a kind of referee, keeping the supermarket duopoly honest and blowing the whistle where it suspects there is a problem. And they're also going to ensure the Government reforms for the sector are implemented and that Kiwis are getting a fair deal at the checkout.All very well and good.Vegetables New Zealand chair John Murphy spoke to Early Edition this morning and he told Kate Hawkesby he believes change needs to come, but isn't sure a grocery commissioner is the panacea for his industry.Introducing the removal of covenants, that makes sense, the wholesale buying regime allowing other players onto the market, sure, but if any consumer thinks the appointment of a Grocery Commissioner is going to make a blind bit of difference to the price of many of the goods on the supermarket shelves, they are dreaming.Because if you listen to John, fruit and veggie growers have pressure on them with a shortage of labour, so they've got crops rotting on the ground, the rising price of fuel and fertiliser the rising cost of transport, they've got that perennial foe, the weather, which can have a huge impact.How the hell is the grocery commissioner going to control hail? They're not. A Grocery Commissioner, while it sounds all very well and good, is going to do very little to put more cash in your pocket.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Another farmer has appeared in court after being let down by police and authorities.This time it's a Taranaki farmer who fired a shotgun as he ran down his driveway towards a group of boy racers who had parked near his paddock and were allegedly throwing bottles at his bull.On first hearing, you might think that's a bit of an overreaction. I mean, you don't want a bunch of over-excited young people aggravating your stock sure, but doesn't really warrant bringing out the hidden weaponry in terms of the shotgun until you hear that it wasn't the first time.There had been groups of oiks gathered outside his property for more than 10 years.  For a decade boy racers have plagued the Taranaki district.  And despite a couple of deaths, injuries, numerous court cases, damaged police vehicles and a bylaw change, there has been no relief for the many law-abiding citizens who are fed up with the arrogance and the attitude from a generation of boy racers.There are so many, many examples over the last 20 years of people taking the law into their own hands. It's a sign that people are fed up with being left defenceless.Either because they live remotely and there simply aren't the resources available from the authorities. I'm sure farming communities have the resources available, but then that's what gets you into trouble.I don't want it to go to a state where your law reigns supreme because you might think differently to me, you might have a different ideas of what is right and just than I do.We're all going to have a different idea, that’s why we have common law.But when it's not being applied, when people feel let down, when people are basically left to their own devices in matters of life and death.Not just property, but in life and death, then this is going to be the outcome.  And that's not a failing of the individuals involved. That is a failing on the police and the authorities.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The hospitality sector is screaming for the Government to do its job. The shortage of workers which is affecting just about every sector in New Zealand has hit the hospo sector particularly hard.They say as New Zealand slowly gets its act together and opens up to the rest of the world, we could damage our reputation as a quality tourist destination. It’s expensive to come here, it’s expensive to travel within the country - it's expensive to live here - but if tourists are spending top dollar then they'll want a quality experience. And they're not going to have that if a shortage of hotel housekeepers means their rooms are only cleaned every three days or if pubs and restaurants are closed three days out of the week. They are calling on the Government to start processing visa applications from people wanting to come and work here - Nat Party immigration spokesperson Erica Stanford says at least 74,000 phase two residence visa applications were received since March - barely 5 per cent had been processed by June 17. New Immigration Minister Michael Wood says the Government is speeding up the processing - but that hospo should also consider how to make low wage jobs with insecure working conditions more attractive places to work. The new immigration minister clearly never worked in hospo during his student days. If he had, he would know that for many hospo workers, it's the part time nature of the job that appeals. It pays good money to young people who want to work a few shifts a week to make a bit of extra coin.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Claims emergency housing are a breeding ground for criminal activity, despite a big spend.Newstalk ZB has revealed the Government's spent one billion dollars on emergency housing since coming to power five years ago.A caller told Kerre Woodham he has been in nine different motels over the past 18 months.The man, who doesn't want to give his name, says the motels are rife with gangs, who use kids in drug deals and don't feed them properly."Me and my wife are so sad that we see it in front of us, that we end up giving some of our kai to the kids because no kid should have to go through what they go through."LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Allyson Gofton will be talking tips for cutting your food bill, cooking on a budget and also food waste off the back of much discussion around how much Kiwis waste food this week.Allyson has also shared a couple of recipes on her website.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Blogger at Large Megan Singleton has just returned from her first overseas trip in over two years. She's been in Rarotonga and talks tips for overseas travel now our borders are back open.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I was looking forward to today, and then I read something.A report from RNZ into Waka Kotahi, the agency charged with leading the Road to Zero road deaths action plan. The opening par of their story reads, and I quote "Four years after Waka Kotahi was slammed for not doing its job of keeping roads safe, a core unit of it has been labeled so ineffective it's being pulled apart.”The unit's head in an internal report a month ago said “We have lost clarity of how we add value, why we are here, and what we exist for.'"Utterly, utterly pointless.How long have they been pointless? Clearly, about four years bare minimum.For the love of all that is holy, if your boss was standing there telling you that your company, the company they ran, had lost clarity of how they added value, why they were there and what they existed for, it would be because the company had gone bankrupt.You would shortly be told that you're out of a job because you were purposeless. Your whole raison d'être of getting up out of bed and going to work was meaningless. You didn't add anything. You were hopeless. And sure the unit's being dismantled, but the hapless and the bewildered that made up that particular unit will probably just be redeployed because #publicservice.And as I read this this morning, I was reminded that while I was away, there was yet another damning report into the Ministry of Health. Another one. How many is that? I don't have enough fingers to count how many damning reports there have been and the Ministry of Health and all the many things that's supposed to be in charge of.And it's not just the Ministry of Health. What about immigration? Remember how woeful immigration was back in 2019. They had stopped processing some visa applications because they simply couldn't cope.They had a succession of hopeless ministers -  Lees Galloway then Faafoi - then along came Covid and hallelujah, that was the best thing ever for Immigration New Zealand because they could just stop.Pick a government department, any government department.All they've done to try and fix deep seated, really big issues within our Government departments is hire communication teams to again adapt the jazz hands approach and just not front, they just will not front and you kind of see why.How do you explain it? How do you justify?You can't, so you refuse interviews and you don't show. It's appalling. I don't know how you fix it.I would love to know.I mean, I imagine most of the public servants are in Wellington, but you know, there's been a lot of churn even in, for example, the immigration department.Immigration New Zealand staff churn approaches one third of its workforce each and every year.That's a lot of churn.So if you have left because you are just horrified at the ineptitude and the fact that you've been given a policy which is unintelligible to anyone who doesn't speak bureaucratese.How do you get joy out of your job?When you're basically, as Waka Kotahi were told, you basically have no clarity of how you add value.No understanding of why you were there and what you exist for?You could put that across just about any government department and it needs to change.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.