Kerre Woodham Mornings Podcast

Dumping landline surveys won't stop Colmar Brunton's poll capturing all of New Zealand.The company's latest poll has ditched house phone calls, and now makes contact through mobile phones and online polling.Concerns have been raised about whether older generations are able to be contacted.But Kantar head of analytics Jason Shoebridge told Kerre McIvor they have a harder time getting young people to respond."Older generations are a little bit easier, but in terms of doing this poll, we make sure we quota so we are getting a representative sample of New Zealanders which we tie back to the Census." He says they are ensuring that young and older people can take part."We have maintained calling in respect of the political poll, and we are even now calling mobiles, because it does give us a robust methodology."LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

An Auckland bar owner who was forced to sell his home to keep his businesses afloat is angry the move to Alert Level One has taken so long.Mat Jorgensen told Kerre McIvor his blood boil is boiling, as he has been burning through $10,000 a week to keep his business alive from the Government's crippling Covid-19 restrictions.He says they were never able to make money under Level Two.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Government's investigation into a pumped hydroelectric scheme to make New Zealand become totally powered by renewable energy resources will take at least a year longer than anticipatedLabour's promise that 100 percent of New Zealand's electricity will be renewably generated by 2030 could be jeopardised by delays to its flagship NZ Battery project.Dr Jim Hinkley is a Senior Lecturer in Renewable Energy Systems, and he joined Kerre McIvor to talk about the issue.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A confronting topic is being brought to the forefront in a moving new series. A New Zealand Herald series "The Brains Trust" is looking at dementia, a terminal disease that can last up to eight to 10 years, and has no cure.The cruel disease is growing rapidly in our ever-ageing population.Deborah Pead, who's mum suffers from dementia, told Kerre McIvor it's hard to watch someone go through it."There are many different ways it manifests itself. And it's hard when your mum is so dynamic and powerful and everything in your life, to see that decline."LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This tricky virus seems to be playing very hard to get, doesn't it? I know that Covid 19 exists and that if you get it bad, it's a very nasty virus to get.But given that we've had a young man sweating it out in an enclosed space with other gym goers and a previously undisclosed dodgy lodger going door to door and STILL nobody has it - surely even the most hysterical Covid alarmist would have to concede that perhaps the threat to civilisation has been somewhat overstated.Surely the government is going to have to temper the safety first, abundantly cautious approach with a bit of common sense.  You might have heard Aysha Verrall - the deputy health minister - this morning with Mike.So surely that means region wide lockdowns in the future simply can't be justified.  If the chain of transmission is so confined, keep the lockdown confined. And when we come out of lockdowns, we need to come out of them immediately. If the government decides at 4pm we all come down to Level 1, then we should be in Level 1 at 4.01.  It is unconscionable to keep people constrained against their will for a second longer. And between now and the next outbreak, the Ministry of Health needs to lift its game. We went into a lockdown because there seemed to be no known contact for the young man who went to the gym - and that's because two of the families didn't disclose to contact tracers that there'd been contact between them. Once that contact was established, the young man became part of a tightly contained cluster.  There was no need for the lockdown.  One of the families also failed to disclose they had a lodger at home.  If you were contact tracing, how could you not know this?  Their methods need to improve, they need to have more people available to man the phones in the immediate aftermath of an announcement that there has been an outbreak, and those people manning the phones need to have the correct information. As has been typical from the start, messaging from the Ministry has been inconsistent, confusing and just plain wrong at times.  We have had countless examples of that over the week.  They simply have to do better.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

No new community cases - good.  The entire country in a form of lockdown - bad. I get that Auckland needs to take precautions given the level of faffing around done by people deemed to be infectious but why on earth is the South Island locked down?  Why in fact is anywhere south of Hamilton locked down? We might have an easier case to make for opening up the rest of the country if hordes of Aucklanders hadn't saddled up their late model sedans and fled for the hills or their holiday homes.The fact that they did that, that they were given a window of time to escape the city makes it more difficult to justify opening up south of the Bombay and north of the Brynderwyns, but surely the South Island should be free to go about its business unencumbered by restrictions on gatherings. Richard Prebble has written an excellent piece in the NZ Herald about the need for the government to hold an inquiry and god knows it loves an inquiry into the failings of the Covid response. And he's right.  We have the Ministry via the Prime Minister saying that they sent 15 messages, via phone text and email to a KFC worker and her family relaying the health advice to stay home. I hope the PM has seen each and every one of those messages because given the misinformation that came out of the ministry at the start of this pandemic, I no longer accept anything I hear from the Ministry of Health as the truth.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Should the New Zealand government cancel student loan debt?That’s the argument being made in an opinion piece on Newsroom.London-based reporter Laura Walters writes: "As part of a generation that’s been hit by one economic challenge after the next, student loan debt is just one of myriad factors that is making me reconsider what my life will look like."Rather than offering interest-free borrowing, or expecting people to refinance their loans, the Government could try something more ambitious (such as debt cancellation) "Walters joined Kerre McIvor to further discuss her argument and how debt is holding people back from being productive members of society.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Land Rover Horse of the Year organisers have cancelled the 2021 event after 48 hours of discussions left them realising they wouldn't be able to clear the hurdles put up by Covid uncertainty.A spokesperson for the Hastings event wrote on Facebook on Monday night that it was not a decision that had been made lightly.Horse of the Year, a fixture of the Showgrounds Hawke's Bay Tomoana, draws 1500 competitors and tens of thousands of spectators each year and sits alongside the Art Deco Festival and Royal A&P Show as one of the region's biggest yearly events.After squeezing the 2020 event in just before Covid Level 4 lockdown, New Zealand's biggest equestrian competition was set to run in 2021 on March 9-14.There is a possibility alert levels 2 for NZ and 3 for Auckland could have been lifted by the Government in time for the event's start date, but organisers had already indicated there was little chance of it going ahead if all, or almost all, of NZ was not in Level 1.The HOY spokesperson said:"We worked through all possible scenarios for Land Rover Horse of the Year 2021 during NZ's ever changing Covid19 situation."We know there is huge support for us to go ahead however there are many factors we have had to consider."These include financial implications for our show and its ongoing sustainability, the travel and time pressures for riders, the experience we can deliver for our riders and spectators, and most importantly of all, the health & wellbeing of everyone who attends the show."The spokesperson said it was a "heart-breaking" decision to have to make, "particularly when the majority of our expense has already been incurred"."We are truly devastated and send all our best wishes to our Land Rover Horse of the Year family from all corners of New Zealand."Rest assured we already have 2022 firmly in our sights and will come back bigger and better than ever."text by Hawkes Bay TodaySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A review of the Government's drug buyer Pharmac will focus on the timeliness and transparency of its decisions.Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Health Minister Andrew Little announced the independent review's terms of reference at Parliament today.The Pharmac review will focus on two areas:how well Pharmac performs against its current objectives and whether this could be improvedwhether Pharmac's current objectives maximise its potential to improve health outcomes for all New Zealanders as part of the wider health system and whether these objectives should be changed.It will also consider factors including:the timeliness of Pharmac's decision makingthe transparency and accessibility of its decision makingequity - including access to medicines and devices for Māori and Pacific peoples.The independent review panel will be chaired by the former Consumer chief executive Sue Chetwin and will include corporate governance consultant Frank McLaughlin, experienced health and governance expert Heather Simpson, pharmacist prescriber Leanne Te Karu, preventative and social medicine professor Sue Crengle and disability advocate Dr Tristram Ingham.The review is intended to run until the end of the year with an interim report in August and a final report in December."I expect that the review committee will decide its own consultation process but that it will include at a minimum the appropriate input from consumers, Māori, Pacific peoples, clinicians and industry," Little said.The budget for the review is expected to be between $1.5 and $2 million.Ardern said the review would help New Zealanders have confidence in the system.Ardern said broadly the Pharmac model worked well but they'd heard concerns about the model and the Government believed there was scope to improve it."Pharmac is a model that's critically important to the health sector and viewed as world leading - but let's make it better if we can."Little said concerns raised about the drug-buying agency included access to new medicines, timeliness of decision making and its priorities."In addition there have been concerns about the safety of substituting medicines due to cost and availability, and access to products that are funded in other countries but not here in New Zealand."Nearly 4 million New Zealanders received medicines procured by the drug agency.The review was committed to by Ardern during an election debate with National leader Judith Collins who also promised to review the agency if elected.Ardern said when asked if Labour would commit to a review, she said: "If it gives people faith in our system, then yes."Newsroom reported this morning the review will investigate how the government drug-buying agency can better respond to specific government health priorities relating to emerging drugs and more.In 2019 the Health Select Committee voted against a politician-led inquiry into the agency. The National Party said it appeared Labour only committed to the independent review when it was "politically palatable".Little confirmed the Government was planning an independent inquiry into Pharmac and that Labour just didn't support it being led by politicians on the Health Select Committee.Little said they wanted it to be independent and considered it "inappropriate" for MPs to do it."It needs to be at arm's length from politicians. It's not right for politicians making political judgments about Pharmac and its decisions."There are high-level policy decisions but it is better that they are reviewed at arm's length and independently," he said last year.He said work is under way to establish terms of reference and an appropriate review body.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We've talked before about the shocking state of our kids' teeth.  More than 5000 children and teenagers have dental surgery under general anaesthetic every year for problems associated with neglect. Dental decay is the most common chronic health condition in New Zealand and it causes serious problems for the children who have rotting teeth. I have heard some parents say, what does it matter?  They lose the teeth anyway. But in the interim, their children suffer, with problems ranging from extreme pain and spread of infection to poor self-esteem and reduced quality of life.Now the government is looking to put a fence at the top of the cliff to prevent the ambulance being needed at the bottom. The Prime Minister has promised to pass a bill that's been on hold for nearly four years - a bill that would give water fluoridation powers to District Health Boards and probably extend water fluoridation from 50 per cent of the country to at least 85.Dental Association president Kate Ayers told Mike Hosking that would have an immediate impact, and can reduce decay rates by 40 percent.The government is also giving preschoolers free toothbrushes, which is all well and good but they have to be used and used properly. I know it can be a faff at the end of the day making sure the little ones are brushing their teeth properly, after you've had a full day of child minding, and you've just got through the bath, and there's still bedtime stories and questions to answer and streams of consciousness that are really just delaying tactics to get through but its part of the job. Perhaps if the government shook the money tree once again and provided a nanny at the end of the night to oversee correct brushing - that would have more of an impact.But to be fair, a similar programme in Scotland - giving toothbrushes and toothpaste to little ones - has been successful and its hoped that the combination of fluoride and supplying tools for teeth cleaning will end up saving the country more than 600 million dollars over 20 years - and thousands and thousands of children a life time of pain and embarrassment.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.