Kerre Woodham Mornings Podcast

Sir Cullen Michael says Labour's historic victory is a green light for much needed changes in climate action and transport infrastructure.But it is not a mandate for a lurch to the left in terms of tax or welfare reform, and any attempt to do so quickly could risk "middle-ground voters jumping off a cliff", the former Finance Minister told the Herald.Last night Labour secured a parliamentary majority with 64 seats, the party's best result under MMP and its strongest showing since 1946, when Labour won 51 per cent of the party vote.National plunged to 26.8 per cent, its second-worst result ever, with 2002 being its only worse result.He said Labour played a "very safe" campaign, including its tax policy that would only affect 2 per cent of income earners."I can understand their nervousness ... but without additional revenue, and given the Covid-19 flow-on, they are somewhat restricted."We're locked into programme for three years in terms of tax generally. Its more immediate problem is that any feasible tax programme is going to have a very minor bearing on the size of deficits in the next three years."I do have to admit that one or two points I was worried they were being too safe. But in the end, that paid off and allowed Jacinda to project that image of competence, combined with kindness, and an occasional spark of severity when dealing with Judith Collins."He said Labour had a strong mandate on climate change action, transport infrastructure and tackling poverty, though on the latter he agreed with Ardern that lasting change came in increments rather than in leaps and bounds."Jacinda has a mandate for some quite significant change, but in areas like the welfare system and poverty, it is a matter of progressive change over a period of years."Cullen said National voters had shifted to Labour over the Government's successful Covid response and, to a much lesser degree, to strengthen Labour's hand against Green influence."And there were definitely Labour people who were worried the Greens might not make the 5 per cent threshold and who switched their party vote to ensure that happened."He noted National's issues with leadership changes and campaign bungles including caucus leaks and signs of disunity."People were disillusioned with National. It was a bit like 2002, when National got a lot less than in the polls as people gave up on them. Clearly a lot of National people voted Act this time."NZ First leader Winston Peters also played the wrong hand in criticising "wokeness" and "pixie dust", he said."Winston spent two or three weeks attacking Labour, and attacking Jacinda in code-language."He should have been making more of what NZ First had done positively, sort of hugging Jacinda close to him in the same way James Shaw did. Shaw seemed to be getting as close to Jacinda under the umbrella as he could."His advice to Peters?"Retire. Imagine him coming back at 78 next time around. What as? The grumpy old vote is almost by definition declining, despite the fact the population is getting older, and his time has passed."He said the Greens should be careful about getting into a coalition arrangement, nothing how poorly minor parties have fared in the past, including the fate of NZ First in 2008 and in 2020."Think very carefully before getting too closely locked in to the web of government. The history of minor parties who do that, if and when the Government starts to get a little unpopular, is not encouraging."The minor parties have a real struggle coping with the stresses and responsibility for decisions that aren't popular with everybody. We've had a variety of loose arrangements under MMP, and the looser the better."They can still have an influence, but that will be limited anyway because ultimately they don't have the votes to stop Labour from doing anything."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A former National Finance Minister believes many of those who voted for Labour - will have been holding their noses as they did so.Steven Joyce told Kerre McIvor he believes a lot of people voted strategically."With the discussions around the wealth taxes the past few weeks, I knew some people who are normally National voters saying they will vote for Labour, just to keep the Greens out."Joyce congratulated Labour on a historic win and said Ardern could be proud of her campaign.On Winston Peters losing and leaving Parliament, Joyce says politics is a cruel business."I feel for everybody losing their seats," he said, adding it was always better to go on your own choosing.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Chloe Swarbrick says it's phenomenal to have won Auckland Central.Special votes haven't been counted but she's leading by 500 votes.Swarbrick told Kerre McIvor she doesn't want to count her chickens before they hatch, but says it was a very good night."When you give every fibre of your being to something, we built up a massive campaign and did things everyone ruled out."Swarbrick says everyone thought it was impossible but she made it across the line.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Act expects to have power in Parliament - even on the opposition benches.The party is set to go from one MP to ten, after winning Epsom and soaking up eight percent of the party vote.Leader David Seymour says the defeat of the right overall is disappointing.But he told Kerre McIvor Act have proven they can still influence government policy from the opposition."Labour said they were going to introduce hate speech laws, Act really led a campaign against that."We played an honourably role of protecting freedom of speech."LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

National's Gerry Brownlee has revealed he's considering his position in the party, after last night's devastating election result.It's ended up with just 26.8 percent of the party vote, meaning 19 MPs are out of a job.Brownlee told Kerre McIvor he'll be taking a couple of days to think about his future with the party."I'll be speaking to colleagues before making a decision. The party will hold discussions, to assess what went wrong."Brownlee believes National ran a very good on-the-ground campaign, but the Covid 19 pandemic created a "herding" instinct behind the incumbent government.Brownlee took over as campaign chair in July and has been a National MP for almost 25 years.He entered Parliament in 1996, winning the Christchurch seat of Ilam and has held it ever since.But last night, he lost it by more than 2000 votes.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Judith Collins has admitted National never expected to win the election.She's spoken to Newstalk ZB's Kerre McIvor, in her first interview since last night's historic loss.She says she has no plans to step down.Collins says the loss is devastating, but it was almost inevitable."Nobody expected the miracle that I was trying to work for. People have to be realistic, it was not our time.""Covid-19 and the second lockdown absolutely whacked us in our own polling."Collins says she felt devastated for her MPs, and the fact the party vote wasn't high enough.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Greens co-leader James Shaw remains hopeful of being part of the next Labour government.He told Kerre McIvor while Labour doesn't have to include them, there's a good chance they will.“I guess the question is, what sort of government do they want?“Jacinda is a consensus builder, she wants to build a broader coalition as possible.”At this stage, Labour has enough votes to govern alone.But James Shaw says Labour would want to have as large a majority in the House as possible."That affects things like the select committee, we have got some really experienced ministers will specialist experience, who will also be wanting to think about 2023 as well."LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Labour's Grant Robertson is over the moon with last night's election result.The finance spokesman told Kerre McIvor you never take anything for granted, and he's humbled by the support the party's had."I've spent a lot of time travelling around New Zealand the past few weeks. I really felt that on the ground, people were supporting us."Robertson is confident the party would have won the election - even without the Covid-19 pandemic.He says the Government's been re-elected on the back of a strong first term performance."We managed the economy well, we were rebuilding public services, along with making sure we were laying the platform for the big infrastructure boost we needed."LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Seriously, why would you be a police officer?  You're damned if you do, damned if you don't. An Independent Police Conduct Authority report has slammed police who pursued a car load of teenagers, a car that ultimately ended up crashing into and killing a Christchurch man who was driving to work. The IPCA says the officers should not have started the pursuit and they should have abandoned the pursuit on multiple occasions. Now the Children's Commissioner Andrew Becroft says police should stop pursuing young drivers because the stakes are just too high.  Becroft says police policy should be changed to ensure no chases if police suspected a driver was under 18 because young brains hadn't developed enough to allow them to fully assess risks.  Unless it was a case of homicide or the risk of a very grave event. Well, what do you call a car full of tanked up young men in a speeding car? If allowing them to speed through city streets is not risking a very grave event I don't know what is. These are the odious little oiks who posted videos of themselves on social media and talked about the pigs being outside the drivers room. Becroft talks about these young men as if they have some merit or value in society - they don't.  They clearly don't.  I'm with the police all the way on this one. Leave them to do their job.  If they believe a car full of speeding teenagers poses a risk to society, I'm with them. The widower of the man who was killed Owen Fraser told Chris Lynch yesterday that he doesn't support the IPCA report.  He says the police weren't in the wrong.  It was the driver who wouldn't stop who is in the wrong. And he's 100 per cent correct.  The only person to blame for the crash was the driver who refused to stop. And do you know what 17 year old Jayden Richard Breakwell received as punishment for taking a life, for committing manslaughter and reckless driving causing injury?  A sentence of two years and eight months.  He'll probably be out by Christmas.It sickens me, and it sickens me to think that the Police are not supported.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The leader of the National Party's making a last-ditch plea to undecided voters ... to tick twice for blue.Judith Collins told Kerre McIvor they should vote for her Party - because it understands the economy.She says the Reserve Bank is predicting the worst economic times in 160 years.Watch the video above.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.