Kerre Woodham Mornings Podcast

Residents of West Auckland are once again complaining that they are being tortured by the sound of Celine blasting through loudspeakers while they try to sleep. The reason? Siren Battles. Siren Kings is a street subculture devoted to the volume and clarity of music, channelled through emergency-evacuation sirens that are attached to cars or bicycles. Soni Taufa features in the documentary Young and Siren King and is the Team Leader of Noizy Boys, he joined Kerre McIvor. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

About one dollar for every litre of fuel bought at the pump in Auckland is tax. 91 is currently at almost three dollars per litre, with the Prime Minister blaming the tough international market for higher prices at the pump. The National Party is calling for the regional fuel tax in Auckland to be scrapped in order to give motorists in that region some relief. Gull New Zealand Chief Executive Dave Bodger spoke to the Mike Hosking Breakfast this morning and he says excise tax is 89 cents and the fuel tax is 11 and a half cents. He says every month they write a $30 million cheque to the Government for excise and $1.5-2 million for regional fuel tax. To discuss the rising cost of fuel AA Fuel Spokesperson, Terry Collins joined Kerre McIvor. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I find it remarkable 30% of Kiwis cannot swim or float in the ocean for more than a few minutes. Although, I'm a confident swimmer, I think it's far better to take my grandchildren for lessons, rather than try to teach them myself. But what happens if you don't have a spare $40 odd per week to enrol your two children into lessons? They are expensive and they deserve to be so given the quality of the facilities and the quality of the instructors. I absolutely think it's worth it, but there would be a lot of families who simply do not have that kind of disposable income. A couple of Christchurch city councillors are calling for free access to swimming pools and lessons for the city's children as a way around the financial barriers. Their request will be discussed at a Council meeting on Thursday. Somebody has to teach our kids how to swim. I grew up in a generation where we all had schools with pools, and that's where most of us had our first lessons. Now kids don't learn at school. If you have parents who cannot swim or who cannot pay for lessons, then you and your children are going to be disadvantaged. One of the best things about living in this beautiful country is the access to our beaches and rivers and it is a crying shame if we're raising a generation of children who will see them as death traps and not aquatic playgrounds.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There are renewed calls for pregnant New Zealanders overseas to be given MIQ spots.These calls come amid New Zealand-born journalist Charlotte Bellis’ attempts to come back to New Zealand from Afghanistan for her child’s birth.National MP Erica Stanford raised this issue with Covid Response Minister Chris Hipkins back in October.Erica Stanford joined Kerre McIvor.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Yet again, the cruel and unnatural Hunger Games-style MIQ lottery has been in the spotlight. This time because a high profile journalist has been denied permission to return home so she can have her baby.  Christchurch native and former journalist at Al Jazeera, Charlotte Bellis, has made headlines around the world after she revealed that the Taliban offered her asylum in Afghanistan - when New Zealand refused to allow her in.  You can just imagine the tabloids take on that. But her’s is just another example of the hurt, the frustration, the fury, the tragedy of an unnecessary system.  MIQ could be justified when Covid was an unknown. When there was no vaccine.  When people didn't know what they were dealing with and when Covid wasn't in the community. It's here.  Both Delta and Omicron variants are doing the rounds in this country and there has finally been an acceptance - if not from the PM, at least from Chris Hipkins and Grant Robertson - that we have to learn to live with Covid.  Contact tracing is a farce - the PM found out she was a close contact of an Air New Zealand flight attendant a week after she flew from Kerikeri to Auckland. A week's a long time in politics and during that time she was out and about doing what a PM should be doing. As ACT leader David Seymour says if they can't trace the PM in a week, perhaps it's time to relax the isolation rules for everyone else.  Quite right.  I had a friend on that flight and I was the one who had to tell her she too was a close contact. Nobody from the Ministry had been in touch - and yet there's a passenger manifest.  She's hardly the Scarlet Pimpernel - she would have been quite easy to contact.  But nope. Not a dicky bird. We're a small country. We're a mobile country - when we're not locked down. Deem us all close contacts. Accept that it's inevitable that someone we know, sometime soon, will get Omicron. Understand that that is not a death sentence - most people will barely know they have it. Get on with life - and let New Zealanders come home, pregnant, not pregnant, young, old. Let this unjustifiable farce finally end.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Finally, businesses receive approval to bring RATs into the country and they have been operating very well. Until, the ministry decides to play catch up and has consolidated orders into this country. They call it consolidate, others say, requisition. Even if there was a problem, what in the name of all that is holy makes the Ministry of Health think it can rollout Rapid Antigen Tests? Show me the evidence that the ministry could in fact see a problem and solve it. It has shown itself to be inept when it comes to the distribution of PPE, and worse than that, it refused to listen to the pleas from the people on the ground who are most at risk in that first wave of COVID, who said there isn't enough PPE. They utterly refused to listen to the people on the ground, so not just inept, but cruel. The ministry is bunkered down and refusing to listen. It refuses to take advice even from the Government's own task force that has found time and time again that there are many failings - and refuses to acknowledge them.  It is incredibly slow to respond to emails and requests. Ask anybody who said any dealings with the Ministry of Health over anything. When it does, its responses and decisions are incredibly hard to rationalise and nobody will be accountable. This is yet another egregious example of an incompetent, shambolic ministry that was in utter disarray for many years. They are showing that they are out of their depth and playing catch up yet again and sensible, proactive, nimble New Zealanders who have foresight and preparedness are the ones who pay the price.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Annual inflation has reached 5.9 percent - the highest in more than three decades. It's the biggest movement since a 7.6 percent annual increase in the year to June 1990. However, it's lower than many economists were predicting. NZ Herald Business Editor at Large Liam Dann joined Kerre McIvor. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The new mask mandates, the increased use of RATs and the continuing saga of MIQ . People who are essential workers in vaccine-mandated jobs must wear medical-grade masks.  This is where the Government is going to have to come to the party and pay for them as many of these workers are essential but low paid. They haven't got the money to be forking out on medical-grade masks, even if they could find them. And when it comes to MIQ, surely to goodness we're going to have to give up on MIQ and as a means of keeping New Zealanders out of their own country. If you've got Omicron circulating in the community, where is the advantage of denying New Zealanders access to their home?  I know there is still a significant group of people that think that we need to pull up the drawbridge and stay there for the next 10 years. There are legal challenges underway against the Government saying you simply cannot keep shutting New Zealanders out of their home for whatever reason. Double vaxxed, boosted and negative tests. And you've got Omicron in the community. How on earth can you deny New Zealand does the right to come home?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's been extraordinary times absolutely, but especially for those who are trying to stay productive while looking after the children.Young people are set to return to school next week. While some schools are going back January 31, latest February the 8th for others.Chris Hipkins says he is painfully aware that Covid has meant children have missed out on months of face-to-face learning, and that the priority this year is getting children back into the classroom and an interview over the weekend. He said that a single case will not force a school closure and that we are going to have to get used to the idea that it's a virus.We want less wholesale disruption this year. My message for families is to be prepared if someone in your household is sick and you'll need to isolate. He wants children back in the classroom. How are you feeling about heading back to school?Is there a sense of unease or a sense of excitement, especially given that children as young as eight will have to wear masks at school if the red traffic light setting is still in place and it's highly likely it will be?If people are nervous about their children going back to school, I can kind of understand it.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Te Puea Marae in South Auckland has been preparing for an Omicron outbreak.They've been stocking up on supplies for whanau who need to isolate at home and creating a dedicated isolation facility on the marae grounds.Te Puea Marae chair Hurimoana Dennis joined Kerre McIvor.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.