Kerre Woodham Mornings Podcast

Well, as the experts have been saying it was only a matter of time. A 56 year old woman, who completed her managed isolation after returning from overseas, has tested positive for Covid 19 after returning two negative tests.  She left MIQ on January 14th and on January 22nd, she was tested and shortly afterwards she received confirmation that she had the virus. That's why Ashley Bloomfield was telling everyone to check in and use their Bluetooth over summer - so that if the virus managed to make it out of MIQ, contacts could be traced quickly and the transmission chain could be stamped out. When I heard the woman had visited a number of places around Northland, I did a quick check on the website - I was back in Auckland by the 14th so all clear but it really does make you think about where you've been and how you'd account for your movements if required to do so. Predictably there have been calls for tighter restrictions on the movements of people in MIQ - and there are even some who are saying that the borders should be closed altogether to New Zealanders.Israel has just announced it is closing its borders to nearly all flights as they battle to stay on top of their latest outbreak.  The highly contagious variants have come into Israel and that coupled with the fact that the ultra Orthadox Jewish communities are flouting the rules around the virus, preferring to trust in God, means that Israel now has one of the world's highest rates of infection. So they've slammed shut the doors to all but medical patients and cargo flights.   Should we do the same here?  It seems very harsh. If you have already booked flights and managed isolation vouchers, to deny New Zealanders entry would leave them without homes, jobs, visas and any way to earn money.  Much really depends on how quickly health officials are able to get on top of this latest outbreak, and because the woman has been assiduous in the way she used her app, we've all had a very good idea about where the poor thing's been. It hasn't stopped people from piling on. People saying "What was she doing outside of the country anyway?" You are allowed to leave. If you want to, you can. You have to pay for your own isolation on your return, but you are able to leave the country and come back in. I don't think we need to be tougher. I think where there are things that perhaps could do with tweaking is that there doesn't seem to be a consistent level of enforcement around our isolation. When people who have done it compare stories, there's varying degrees of enforcement and interpretation of the rules. Some are very, very strict; others not so much. For the rest of us, we have a job to play as well. It's exactly what the health officials have been saying. This is how they are choosing to respond to the virus. So far, they have been proved right, so surely we have to do our bit. We do have a role to play, we can't sit back and say 'keep us safe'.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

These double standards around MIQ places has really get me riled. Covid is supposed to have levelled us all. Those in jobs that were previously considered glamorous - airline pilots, adventure tourism operators, entertainers - have been left reeling from the international lockdown of countries. Those who are among the most poorly paid have shown just how vital they are in keeping communities going - the security guards, the supermarket workers, those in aged care. So it galls me when I see the PM saying she will look at finding a practical solution to getting the bloody Wiggles into the country.The Wiggles - a hugely popular Australian group whose fan base comprises the 5 and unders - announced a series of 25 shows throughout New Zealand.  Forty thousand tickets have been sold for the 'We're all Fruit Salad Tour' which is due to kick off on March 19. The PM yesterday said she empathised with those who had bought tickets and had lost out through no fault of their own, but promoters should not be promoting events until they have everything in place - including the booking of quarantine places. She says its up to officials to work through the issues and find a solution. Come on.What about the officials working through the issues and finding solutions for Kiwi citizens stranded overseas after their flights were cancelled and now they're left homeless because although they can book other flights, they can't get places in MIQ because they are told there is simply no space available. If the officials can suddenly, magically find places for the Wiggles and their entourage, why can't they magic up places for young people who have no jobs, no homes, no visa in other countries?They booked their flights home, they booked their place in MIQ - flights are cancelled and officials simply wash their hands of them.  Or those who want to get home to visit ailing relatives - they're left helpless on the other side of the world refreshing time and time again the MIQ home page, praying that a Willie Wonker like golden ticket into MIQ will pop up before it's too late.  It's not on.You cannot privilege one group over another - especially when that group was simply slack. When the prospect of a transTasman bubble was announced, the promoter simply went ahead with concert dates without doing any due diligence.  It's entirely their stuff up.  They're not the innocent party here.  However, I agree with promoter and owner of Capital C Concerts, Phil Sprey, that there should be a process by which acts can be brought into New Zealand.  He told Mike Hosking this morning that the entertainment industry has been trying to work with the government to bring in acts safely and they've come up against a brick wall.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

An Auckland events company is hitting a brick wall seeking Health Ministry approval for an offshore conference.Promoters are finding applying for international acts more difficult.Fortis Events had planned a ship charter for a corporate client, to a replace a conference slated for Bali last year.Managing Director Joelle Talbot told Kerre McIvor the Ministry has suddenly limited them to 100 passengers, instead of the planned 174."We haven't been given any reason to the 100 person limit, when there are other events around the country with up to 23,000 people attending."LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sympathy from a New Zealand tennis tournament director, for the Australian Open tennis players facing quarantine across the ditch.Seventy-two players are now in hard quarantine and unable to train outside their hotel rooms for 14 days,  after positive Covid-19 tests on tournament charter flights.Authorities have ruled out giving them an exemption from the strict isolation rules.But Karl Budge, the director of Auckland's ASB Tennis Tournament, told Kerre McIvor  they're in a different situation from other incoming travellers."Players are right to be concerned about going from two weeks confined in their hotel room, to playing a five-hour match in 40-plus temperatures."This year's ASB Classic in Auckland was cancelled, due to the uncertainty around Covid 19.Budge says he doesn't regret cancelling the tournament."The volume of uncertainty, with the new strains would have made lot extremely challenging, along with not having the revenue of a Grand Slam tournament."LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The happiest of New Years to you all - with all the nonsense in the States it looked like it was shaping up to be 2020 redux, but if we focused on what was happening in this country, things were rosy. Beautiful, beautiful weather - young and not so young Kiwis heading off to music festivals - swimming, fishing, travelling the country and making the most of exploring stunning locations. For many of us, it was a perfect summer made all the more glorious by watching and hearing stories of the lockdowns in other parts of the world.My own family in London had their flights cancelled by Singapore Airlines when the UK variant was wreaking havoc in the country. The cancellation of the flight wasn't a problem - Emirates and Qatar were still flying - it was trying to find a place in one of the isolation hotels that caused the angst. At one stage it looked as though they wouldn't be able to be back until April - leaving them homeless, jobless and visa-less as they'd arranged their affairs around their departure date - but in Christmas miracle, on Christmas Eve a place came up in managed isolation.Kate grabbed it, managed to book flights that synced and packed up the family in three days.  And now they're in heaven and their friends back in London can't quite believe the lifestyle here. The managed isolation was brilliant according to my daughter.  The team at the Stamford Plaza couldn't have been more professional but at the same time welcoming and kind.  The entire family was swabbed including the two year old and three year old - the parents were happy to ensure the UK Covid strain wasn't  brought into the country on their watch and now they're all at the grandparents farm feeding calves swimming in the pool running on the soft lawn - all luxuries they hadn't enjoyed for more than a year. We are in a very privileged position and obviously we want to keep it like that.  Which is why the government is poised to extend compulsory pre-flight Covid tests - right now compulsory tests have just come into force for arrivals from the US and Britain, and why it’s inevitable that vaccinations will become a pre requisite for international travel once mass vaccinations are completed around the world. Nick Wilson Professor of Public Health at Otago University also believes it would be wise to move some of the isolation centres out of Auckland so that any community transmission can be contained.The Government, meanwhile, has stressed and stressed and stressed again that one of the tools we can use to ensure that, if there is a community transmission, the chain is broken quickly, we can sign in.I wanted to be good but you really do get lulled into a false sense of security when you're miles away in the Hokianga. Now I'm back to reading the news and seeing what's happening around the world, it's very, very real. We've seen how countries respond when there are outbreaks, we've seen how this country responds when there's a risk. Surely we should be doing everything we can to mitigate against any further outbreaks.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The New Zealand Foodbank Network is a new charity that opened in July in a bid to address food poverty from the Covid-19 pandemic.With a huge team behind them, The New Zealand Food Network will be delivering food to more than 650 frontline community groups across the country, feeding 15,000 people as this Christmas will be tougher than usual for a lot of New ZealandersNZ Food Network CEO Gavin Findlay told Kerre McIvor that food banks usually can't take big volumes of food donations, but they've set up a way to take large donations of surplus food. "When you've got hundreds of pallets or tens of tonnes of produce that just can't quite make it to market, we've been set up to ensure that doesn't go to landfill."He says they have really strong partners up and down the country that are able to store the food and then reach out and get the food out to the community. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The dairy sector says they are already cracking down on nitrogen use on farms. Earlier this week, Heather du Plessis-Allan spoke Nieve O'Flynn, the Greenpeace New Zealand Programme Director. Asked her what her top call to action for Climate Change was, O'Flynn says that there needs to be a phase out of synthetic nitrogen fertilisers.The very same day, Fonterra and Nestlé announced they are teaming up with DairyNZ to expand a plantain trial to help improve waterways and reduce on-farm greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.Incorporating certain varieties of plantain into a cow’s diet has been shown to reduce the nitrogen concentration in their urine, which can leach through soil into groundwater.DairyNZ’s General Manager for New Systems and Competitiveness, Dr David McCall, says the dairy sector has a wide range of work underway to reduce nitrates entering waterways and reduce on-farm emissions.McCall told Kerre McIcvor that dairy is vital to our economic well-being, and is important to nutrition across the planet. "People do need a level of animal protein in their diet."He says for the last 10 years they've looked at reducing their surplus nitrogen into the environment from dairy farming. McCall says that these things do take time, and it's important that they are fully accepted. "We found the plant has some great properties in the sense that there's less surplus nitrogen. But then we're working on these co-developments with farmers to make those properties work in practice."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After months spent in lockdown, Kiwi musicians are getting back out and about around the country for the summer festival season.Amongst those heading on the road again is country star Marlon Williams. His latest album, Plastic Bouquet, came out last week, his first in two years, and he is heading on tour in February and March, with multiple dates already sold out.Williams joined Kerre McIvor to discuss adjusting to life under Covid-19, how a random Spotify discovery teamed him up with Canadian folk duo Kacy and Clayton, and performed his new song, Arahura. WATCH ABOVE View this post on Instagram A post shared by marly Marly Marl (@marlonwilliamssings)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier has released a report after a surprise inspection of the Paremoremo facility, that claims there is a culture of containment, rather than rehabilitation.Just how we rehabilitate prisoners is the million dollar question. By the time you get to a prison like Paremoremo, is there an ability to change?Brain development educator Nathan Wallis joins Kerre McIvor to share his expertise on the issue.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced yesterday the Government has agreed in principle to a travel bubble with Australia next year, subject to decisions by Australian ministers.As we gear up to travel again, many people are wondering how travel insurance will work in the post-Covid world.Emirates was the first airline to offer complimentary global Covid-19 cover for travellers back in July, - the cover is the first of its kind in the airline and travel industry.Emirates New Zealand Regional Manager Chris Lethbridge told Kerre McIvor they were the first to offer travel insurance post-Covid , and they are pleased with the result."The response was very good. There were displaced families trying to get to events, so had no choice but to travel, so when we introduced the cover it was good to give assurance to people when they step on a plane."LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.