Kerre Woodham Mornings Podcast

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.

I cannot go past Trevor Mallard's actions this morning. Maybe it's just me, but I find what he's done utterly appalling.It’s bad enough to call a man a rapist, when he is not one. I can’t think of many things worse than being called a rapist.Mallard than issues a personal apology on the very same day the inquiry into the mosque shootings are released.In effect, he was hiding under cover of the inquiry. He knew damn well what he was doing. It’s a time honoured parliamentary trick. Covering bad news under a big story, it’s cowardly and wrong.And at the same time Speaker Trevor Mallard was being sued for defamation, he changed the rules so other MPs could also be covered by the taxpayer without disclosing their dumb mistakes publicly.It has also now come to light that the rules for when MPs can claim legal costs when they're being sued were expanded by the Speaker in August so damages and settlements can come from the public purse.Those applications have to be signed off by the party leader, the Speaker and chief executive of Parliamentary Service. I find that absolutely appalling but I wonder if I'm one of the few.  People aren't generally interested in the machinations of government - but surely you would be interested if you thought taxpayers would end up covering the costs of MPs lack of caution and carelessness and arrogance, and inability to get things right.For years lawyers have been saying MP’s need to be more responsible and accountable for what they say rather than hide behind parliamentary privilege and the taxpayers purse.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the wake of the Government announcing a climate change emergency and a move to buying EV's, Genesis Energy has announced it's plans to replace its fossil-fueled electricity with renewables.Genesis wants to cut its annual emissions by 1.2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide by 2025.The plan will double the pace of Genesis’ earlier goals – and is equivalent to removing more than 272,000 petrol cars from the road for a year.CEO Marc England joins Kerre McIvor to talk about the announcement.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Finally, the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Christchurch mosque shootings was released yesterday and I don't think there was anything that was news to us was there. The intelligence agencies were focused on terrorism being solely the domain of Islamist extremist. The police stuffed up when it came to granting the terrorist a firearms licence.  The officers didn't pay enough attention to the suitability of the terrorists referees. There will be a beefing up of the laws around hate crimes and hate speech - offences for inciting racial or religious disharmony will be added to the Crimes Act. The report advised that strong government leadership and direction is needed to build social cohesion including social inclusion. So tick to the team of five million slogan, but really, the report seemed to suggest that if a disaffected murderous loser wants to harm a whole lot of unarmed innocents, they can pretty much do that if they're living in a free society. In return for our freedoms, there is a mutual trust between one another that we won't do harm to each other. If we do want to live in a lockdown situation, there will be less likelihood of harm coming to you. Intelligence agencies, the report says, didn't know and probably couldn't have known that the attack was being planned. And while it’s easy to look back with the benefit of hindsight and say 'ahhhh, missed a trick there', with the hospital admission and the travel and dodgy referees for the gun licence, there plenty of people are admitted to hospital with gunshot wounds who aren't murderous terrorists or even criminals. Systems around gun licencing have been sloppy without people going on to commit atrocities. And Kiwis are an adventurous lot - we travel the world and most of us manage to visit exotic locales without becoming radicalised. It's all very easy to say 'this was missed, this was missed', ultimately, we live in a free and open society. You get someone with a sick and distorted view of the world who comes into our country and decides to take advantage of those freedoms and liberties, I don't think there is an intelligence agency in the world could have picked up on that. It’s where we go from there that's the real question.  The Government's already said it's going to accept the findings of the report. Some of them are sensible. We don't want to go overboard and lose many, many, many of the hard won freedoms that we so enjoy just because of one sick loser. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Prime Minister and the Police Commissioner have apologised for failings connected to the Christchurch terror attack.The Royal Commission of Inquiry found police didn't meet required standards when they granted Brenton Tarrant a firearms licence.Police Commissioner Andrew Coster accepts they could have done more.He unreservedly apologised and says that administration of the Arms Act has not always been at the level the public would expect.Police Association President Chris Cahill joins Kerre McIvor to talk about the findings.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If Santa's listening, I wouldn't mind a Tesla for Christmas. They're gorgeous looking cars, and by all accounts, go like stink.  But I wouldn't be able to head up to the Hokianga in it.  Wouldn't be much use on the metal roads or for actually doing any grunt work.  You wouldn't see many of them with pigs tied to the bonnet outside the Opononi pub.Yesterday, while announcing a climate emergency, the PM also announced that The Government will require all its agencies and ministries to exclusively buy electric vehicles and will mandate all public sector buildings to be up to a "green standard". That should put an end to police chases then: the police will hardly be able to go after boy racers if they're putting along in their Noddy cars, will they?  The commitments mean Government agencies will be required to measure, verify and report emissions annually.They will also need to set gross emissions reduction targets, as well as introducing a plan for how they will reduce emissions.When it comes to vehicles, Government agencies will be required to "optimise their car fleet" by purchasing electric vehicles or hybrids where EVs are not appropriate for the required use.That is unless their operational requirements or other circumstances require – such as military vehicles where there is no electric alternatives.As well as this, Ardern has announced that the Government has begun phasing out coal boilers in its ministries and agencies.There are roughly 200 coal-fired boilers currently heating water and buildings in the State Sector – the largest and most active will be phased out first.This, and the purchasing of a greener fleet, will be funded through the previously announced $200 million State Sector Decarbonisation Fund.There is no doubt that the creation of clean energy, the monitoring of waste, the drive to reduce emissions is a good thing - if only they would take that same energy to reduce waste in spending within the government departments.The government believes this is the way of the future, that the days of the bogan fanging round town in the gas guzzling V8s are numbered, that they will go the way of the dodo. But they've got a long way to go, as the top 10 new vehicles sold in this country were gas guzzlers.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What on earth does declaring a climate emergency actually mean? Is it any more than hot air - which as we all know is damaging for the environment?  In the past that's all it has been. Jamie Morton from the NZ Herald has written an excellent piece on this - he points out that, as of this year, 28 countries have declared a climate emergency along with 1400 local governments. Nelson City Council declared an emergency in May last year, followed by Wellington and Auckland councils a month later.  But declarations don't actually mean anything - it doesn't commit a body to any binding set of actions, there's no expectation of any specific plan. A declaration also means that there are no inherent statutory or legal implications - but will that stop insurance companies and the like from hiking up premiums around, for example, sea front properties?Tim Grafton, CEO of the Insurance Council,  told Mike Hosking this morning that a combination of rising sea levels, which the insurers and the banks believe is inevitable, combined with the lack of decent drainage systems mean that ultimately coastal properties are going to become too risky for financial institutions to want a far of.So ultimately, it doesn't really matter whether you believe declaring a climate emergency is virtue signalling or not or whether it’s a whole lot of nonsense. The insurance companies and the banks are looking at these reports and they're taking them seriously and the decisions they make based on climate science reports will impact large numbers of us. We can debate ad\nauseum the benefits or otherwise of electric cars - but change is coming. The government might be dithering on an actual climate emergency plan - but the private sectors charging ahead and makings its own decisions accordingly - and that's what's going to affect us.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The MP who first proposed a climate emergency declaration, hopes it will result in real change.Jacinda Ardern will introduce a motion to Parliament today to declare a emergency, similar to those passed by many councils around New Zealand and governments around the world.Green MP Chloe Swarbrick proposed a similar motion last year.Swarbrick told Kerre McIvor she's glad Ardern has taken up the idea, as it will create a standard to hold the Government to in the years to come.She says it will put pressure on the Government to treat climate change as an emergency.National says it will vote against the motion.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The government has acted with alacrity and introduced legislation requiring employers to offer all their employees 10 days annual sick leave.   A number of employers already do that – we have 10 days sick leave at this company, and I think half of the employers in New Zealand offer more than the legal limit.It has opted not to increase the maximum amount of sick leave that can be stockpiled by an employee however, keeping it at 20 days.  The increase to the legal minimum will kick in from late 2021 – the Greens wanted it in before Christmas, but Labour said ‘no no, no need to rush things’ – and employers are adding up the cost of this new feature to employment law.  Workplace relations and safety minister Michael Wood told Mike Hosking that this morning that while it might be an upfront cost for employers, it will cost the country a lot more if workers drag themselves and their germs into work because they've run out of sick days.There is a cost to the country if people become unwell and haul themselves in and spread their germs because they have no sick leave and need to put food on the table.I've said it before and I'll say it again - I don't think this financial burden should be solely born by business people. We all benefit when people stay home when they're sick – so therefore it should be a taxpayer funded cost.  What happened to the team of five million? National says it’s the wrong time to extend sick leave - doubling sick leave just piles more costs onto businesses at a time when they can least afford it coming on top of minimum wage increases and the proposal for an extra public holiday. You’ve got all these extra stresses on business after a very very busy year. At the same time, you’ve got stresses on employees, especially those who work in slightly less paid jobs who do not have the luxury of 10 days sick leave, so they are going to haul themselves in as they simply cannot afford to come in.But surely if we as a country all benefit from this, don’t pile it all onto the shoulders and backs of business people. Let it be a taxpayer funded cost – put it on this magical tab that we’ve got, where we’re writing off everything.I really would love to see this spread across all of society.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Agri-Women’s Development Trust recently celebrated it's 10th birthday.The organisation came about as while women made up half of New Zealand’s primary sector, from farms to boardrooms, they had little involvement in decision-making but much to offer.AWDT has been quietly dismantling the idea of ‘the farmer’s wife’ - cultivating a new generation of female farmers and primary leaders one person and small town at a time.Agri-Women's Development Trust General Manager, Lisa Sims joins Kerre McIvor to talk about women in farming.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.