Kerre Woodham Mornings Podcast

The Government is pushing forward with its overhaul to the governance of water. The Three Waters reforms will see council-owned drinking, storm and waste-water services amalgamated into four regional bodies.They also announced yesterday it will be mandatory for councils to join the changes, removing the opt out clause.Dr Muriel Newman is the Director of the New Zealand Centre for Political Research, a public policy think-tank, and she joined Kerre McIvor. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It was only a matter of time. In fact, Chris Hipkins said that yesterday - it would only be a matter of time before Covid reached the South Island and it’s arrived;  via two members of the same household who had recently returned to Christchurch from Auckland. There is very little information at this stage - we will be bringing places of interest to you as they come to hand - but the Covid 19 Response Minister CH updated the Mike Hosking Breakfast with what information they DID have. The Minister said it's too soon to say whether Christchurch or the South Island would be moving up an alert level - remember Auckland was put into a lockdown 70 odd long, long days ago on the basis of one case. But here's hoping the South Island dodges a bullet.   Remember the Australian traveller to Wellington - he had the most splendid time visiting all sorts of hip locations and he also had Covid but mercifully no-one else got it.  The Coromandel - nobody else got it there either.   So, fingers crossed for our brothers and sisters in the South, although - and here's a thought - do you WANT to go up a level?   If you're sitting in Auckland or Waikato, most of us can't imagine anything worse than being under any kind of restrictions, whether you're vaccinated or unvaccinated.  People in those regions have pretty much made their choices and are ready to go.   But if you're in the South Island, you haven't seen a case of Covid in a year.  There was the Blenheim case, but that seems to have been contained.  And that was only recently.  Vaccination rates in the South Island are pretty good - bar the West Coast. This revelation of Covid reaching Canterbury must surely give those who have just been sitting the on the fence the push they need to get to their nearest vaccination clinic.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Government is set to force through its Three Waters reforms, u-turning on a previous promise to make it voluntary for councils to join up to the amalgamation plan. National party leader Judith Collins joined Kerre McIvor.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Government is set to force through its Three Waters reforms, u-turning on a previous promise to make it voluntary for councils to join up to the amalgamation plan.Act leader Daivd Seymour joined Kerre McIvor to discuss.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Well, the PM sure came out thundering at yesterday's presser.   When I heard the extent to which she was going, with mandating vaccinations, I thought she has clearly had her people read the mood of the room.   You have 86% of the population with at least a first dose, 71% fully vaccinated. That is the vast majority of us.   That is the vast majority of New Zealanders who have said, yes, if the vaccine is what we need to get out of this mess, or who have said yes, we believe the science and we have asked questions - why did it take so long?  And they have been answered to our satisfaction, and we've had our vaccination, or are people who would rather travel to see family and friends than go down a rabbit hole with imaginary friends on social media. Whatever the reason, the overwhelming majority of us have had the jabs, as requested, and have sat and waited. Vaccinated businesspeople wanting to open up to vaccinated customers and they have been unable to do so for weeks and weeks and weeks.  And the compliant are becoming non-compliant.   Two vaccinated friends might meet up inside, on the deck, for a cup of tea.  Your kids might play with the kids from two houses down the road, racing each other on their bikes down the empty street.  And you wonder why you're still at this point when you and everyone you know has done what's needed to lift these restrictions on our everyday freedoms.   Surely, when there's a bus out of restrictions and into freeland and people are on board, ready to go, and somebody says, What about the family up the valley?  They don't have a car to get to the bus stop - we need to go and get them.  Fair enough.  They deserve to be given a chance.  So, everybody on the bus, drives up the valley and stops outside of the door of the family and explains that there is the opportunity to get out of a restricted way of living and drive to freedom and the family goes 'yeah, nah, I don't like the that Phizer bus, I'm going to wait for the Novovax bus.  You guys should too.   That bus could be months away.  It's not even on the timetable.  I think, in that case, it's perfectly reasonable for the kids on the Pfizer bus to roar off down the valley, through the quiet streets of a locked down Auckland and make their way to the Waikato to pick up their locked down cousins there.   The PM was speaking for the vast majority of exasperated people - both vaccinated and unvaccinated, who are ready to open up now.  And the very best thing she did was take the pressure off businesspeople, who would otherwise have had to police vaccination certificates and have lengthy negotiations with staff.   Those in hospitality - an industry that has been hit so hard - were desperately looking for leadership like this.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Well, crikey.   I hope those of you outside Auckland had a lovely Labour Weekend because it was a bit grim here to be honest.  The weather was absolutely atrocious and I really felt for those of you with small children.  And those who are living alone.   I find the weather really makes a difference to the way I feel and grey skies and lashing rain just reinforced the gloominess I felt after Friday's announcement.  But it seems a lot of people are feeling the same way. Thank you to all of you who took the time to message me about my Herald on Sunday column.  I thought it was possibly a bit moany - I really do feel I've been moaning constantly for nearly two years.   And I'm not by nature a moany person - honestly.   If you've just started listening to me you probably won't believe but, pre Covid I used to be a positive glass half full kind of a gal.  A jolly Tigger, if you will.  Now, it's just endless echoes of Eeyore - but clearly there are plenty more people who are struggling to keep their Tigger bounce. A veritable drove of donkeys exists out there right now if my messages and emails were anything to go by.   And surely, we've reached peak madness when the luvvies of the Twitter verse turn on Sir Dave Dobbyn.  You couldn't get a gentler, more humane man - he embodies that much maligned word 'kindness' - Hamish Keith said the unvaccinated will feel isolated and picked on - so they bloody well should.   Sir Dave replied I thought we're fighting Covid not humanity.  The exchange continued and social media went wild.  I would be so embarrassed to have a Twitter account.  There's a group on there that are just contemptible.   Sure, the platform itself thrives on dividing people but there are some who thrive on that.  They don't bother doing the most basic research and simply shriek their outrage like over indulged four-year-olds.   For the record, Sir Dave is double vaxxed.  But he's concerned that the fight against Covid is turning into a fight against the unvaccinated and he's probably right.  He clarified his views on Facebook and has deleted his Twitter account which is the best thing anyone can do.   A social scientist says that the large groups of people in the middle with moderate views did not involve themselves in social media confrontations - so if you knew nothing about this, consider yourself a well-balanced human.  But the divisions being created or being reinforced are worrying.   It's Covid, it's the situation we're in, it's social media and yes, I'm sorry but, it's the government as well.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

An enhanced business support package has been unveiled as the country transitions to the new Covid-19 protection framework. It was announced alongside that New Zealand will move to a new "traffic light" system when District Health Boards have 90 per cent of its eligible population vaccinated. When each DHB hit this target, the new framework would come into effect. The traffic light system makes use of vaccine certificates. Businesses will be able to continue to operate at each of the risk levels, and each setting can be used in a highly targeted and localised way, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says. In a suite of announcements that establish a pathway out of restrictions, the Government is also providing up to $940 million per fortnight to support businesses through the challenging period, particularly those in Auckland. A new $120m fund has also been established to help lift Māori vaccination rates. Finance Miniter Grant Robertson said the resurgence support payment will be doubled, up to $43,000. The first applications will open on November 12 and be paid fortnightly rather than every three weeks. He said the decision was made to use this payment because it was flexible and could be implemented quickly. The wage subsidy was still available using the current criteria. The cost of both schemes is estimated to be $940 million per fortnight. There will also be a $60m package for the Regional Business Partner Programme and mental health support. Businesses will be able to apply for up to $3000 worth of advice and planning support, and then receive up to $4000 to implement that advice through the established Regional Business Partners programme. As part of the package, $10m is available for mental health and wellbeing support through a programme to be designed with the Employers and Manufacturers' Association and Auckland Business Chamber of Commerce. Robertson said more support will also be available for low income workers from November 1. Cabinet will also discuss more support for those most vulnerable. There would also be a transition grant for Auckland businesses when they move into the new traffic light framework. It will target the most affected businesses, but Robertson warned that businesses that chose not to use vaccine certificates might not be eligible. Other support might be available for businesses in the event of local lockdowns. "Please get vaccinated," Robertson said.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Now, this morning's announcement from the Prime Minister.  We had a bit of a debate yesterday afternoon about whether to take this live or not — the last thing we all want to listen to is a party political broadcast and a whole lot of flannel about how well the Government's done in rolling out vaccinations and kia kaha Auckland — great mahi coming off the motu.  We thought we might just edit it so you got the actual news rather than the self-congratulation and self-justifications.  But so many people's livelihoods — hell, their lives — depend on what kind of plan this government has come up with that we'll take the PM and Grant Robertson live from Parliament once they get there — and cut it off when they get to Jessica, then Tova.  I'm already getting a lot of emails and texts from people who are desperate — who are seeing this announcement as their last hope and by crikey, I hope she delivers.  She simply has to in terms of an end date and in terms of support for businesses that have been brought to their knees by this extended lockdown.  I don't have much hope honestly — I've been locked down into a kind of insensate torpor.  But I would love to be pleasantly surprised.  We won't do the reckons beforehand — let's just wait and see what if anything the government comes up with and react to that — so for the first hour, I'd love to talk about the decision made by Radius Care a retirement village chain.  They have made the most excellent decision to allow visitors back for the mental health of their residents, despite Ministry of Health guidelines recommending against visitors in Level 3.  It's funny — on Tuesday, I asked Helen to ring around a few retirement villages to see if they would be willing to go against the advice of the Ministry given the level of hurt so many people were feeling.  She tried a couple and then went to the Retirement Village Association and they said they would not go against guidelines and blow me down — the next day founder and Chairman of Radius Brien Cree announced the decision.  As long as people are double vaccinated and can show they've had a negative test people will be allowed in. Brien Cree says Covid is here and we're just going to have to learn to live with it.I cannot applaud this man more.  He knows his business, he knows his people, he knows he can take a calculated risk and he knows the cure can't be worse than the disease.  Double-vaxxed residents are getting shingles from the stress of being kept apart from their double-vaxxed loved ones.  They can manage visitors and they perhaps more than any other sector understand quality of life trumps existing.  I fervently hope more people follow suit.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

So yesterday’s special announcement sees senior school students being told to go back to school after Labour Weekend.  Education Minister Chris Hipkins says this will allow them to sit exams and finish NCEA assessments, something that has been worrying the many thousands of teenagers in Auckland and Waikato who've been locked out of their classrooms and attempting to study online.  All senior students will have to wear masks at school and teachers and staff must get a negative test before returning.  But the Post Primary Teachers Association says it has been blindsided by the decision — PPTA president Melanie Weber says the government seems to have gone from acting out of an abundance of caution to a reckless disregard for consequences in the blink of any eye.  She told Mike Hosking on the Mike Hosking Breakfast that there are myriad issues to work through to get kids back to school safely.But these are issues that could have and should have been worked on by Education Ministry officials and teaching organisations.  They must have known the schools would open again ONE day — I don't know why I expected there to be a plan given nobody else in any government department seems to have a plan — but I really did think that the issues of how to actually teach in a Covid environment would have been worked out before the announcement was made to go back to school.  Not in a mad rush in the days after the announcement.  Schools have reopened around the world — were there not learnings that could have been taken from other countries?  Has being locked down robbed us all of any kind of impetus and initiative?  Or just the government department and government officials?  I can understand some teachers and students being reluctant to return — when the messaging has been to stay home and save lives, when NZ's largest city has been shut down to save lives, when people's emotions have been used cynically to make them obey draconian rules, then of course there is going to be hesitation from some people about skipping back into the classroom.  How are you feeling about going back if you are one of the young people affected?  If you're in front of the class, are you ready to go back?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Judith Collins is calling on the Government to adopt her party’s Covid policy.  National's plan includes cutting taxes for small businesses and workers and giving every vaccinated Kiwi a $100 hospitality or tourism voucher.  Collins told Kerre McIvor the Government needs to outline a plan, as its do-nothing approach is hurting hundreds of thousands of people.  She says National's plan provides immediate support to businesses which have had to suffer through more than 21 weeks of lockdown. “Spending to support these businesses today will pay off for the economy tomorrow but, beyond that, the best thing we can do is to help businesses survive the next 12 months.” Collins also outlined a policy that would introduce a two-year small-business tax rate of 17.5 per cent.  Most are currently taxed at 28 per cent.   LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.