Kerre Woodham Mornings Podcast

Helen Clark is throwing her weight behind cannabis legalisation because she says the drug's already widely available.The Former Prime Minister told Kerre McIvor the referendum is a once in a generation opportunity to get this law right.Clark says there is currently an illegal market where organised crime profit.“It doesn't make sense to criminalise people who take this widely used drug. “Helen Clark joined Kerre McIvor for an hour of talkback, taking listener's calls on their questions and concerns about the referendum'.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the past, I have been all for easing border restrictions, letting in foreign students, opening up travel corridors with safe countries. That's because I assumed that what was happening WAS actually happening.  That border staff were being tested, that new arrivals were being kept apart from those who'd been quarantined longer and that they were being tested for Covid before being allowed back into the community, that Ministry of Health officials were on top of contact tracing, and that there was a plan to actually manage this virus. But as has become abundantly clear over the past few weeks, none of what was said was true.  Border staff were not being regularly tested.  Those in managed quarantine facilities were allowed to mingle.  There is no gold standard tracing and there doesn't appear to be a plan other than lockdown immediately.  And even that was a shambles when you look at the way the Auckland borders are being managed. So when Mike Hosking calls for foreign students to be allowed in as Australia is now doing, I now understand why the government is reluctant.  It’s because they know they haven't got a clue. They are not on top of this virus at all.  The systems and processes aren't in place to allow them to do that.  The reasons why we haven't seen this thing sweep through the country is because of the goodwill of the population, many of whom sacrificed a great deal for their fellow Kiwis, the fact that we are sparsely populated and spread out and the fact that we are an island. Any country that has been able to report a good result is an island.  So saying look at what is happening in America and the UK is pointless. I actually feel sorry for the government - they have had expectations of the Ministry of Health that simply have not been delivered.  And they should have been. If there wasn't time and there weren't the resources, then the government should have been told that by officials.  Not left to offer utterly meaningless assurances to the government. I'm stunned that people think that this good enough. If this level of haplessness is considered good enough by the majority of people we are destined to be a mediocre island nation at the bottom of the world in perpetuity.  Or, as I am wont to say, the Gloriavale of the South Pacific.  And that's not a future I want to see for this country.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Prime Minister's election decision was inevitable.Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced the election will now be held on Saturday 17th October, four weeks after it was due to be held on September 19th.While the Electoral Commission said voting could safely happen under Alert Level Two, Ardern says she also had to factor in participation of voters, fairness and certainty.However, Ardern says Covid is the world's new normal and gave the assurance she won't change the election date again.Parliament will reconvene tomorrow, and its dissolution will now be September 6th. Newstalk ZB's political editor Barry Soper told Kerre McIvor Ardern needed to push back the date to ensure a free and fair election."You've got to give your opponents time to go out and campaign."That's what democracy is all about, so they will be able to do that now."He says Ardern's decision will ensure people feel safe enough to participate in public voting."We're one of the oldest democracies in the world, and it's very important for us to go out and exercise our democratic right every three years."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Gerhard Sundborn, epidemiologist at University of Auckland and member of the Covid Plan B group, called into Kerre McIvor Mornings with his thoughts on the Government's Covid response. LISTEN ABOVE.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As the country went back into lockdown yesterday, Auckland level 3 and the rest of the country level 2, it seemed a lot of people were mentally more fragile, despite knowing what was ahead.To share some advice, psychotherapist and co-host of the Nutters Club on Newstalk ZB Kyle MacDonald joined Kerre McIvor.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sorted's Money Week kicked off yesterday - this year's theme is about encouraging people to ask questions about money.'Just wondering' reflects the explosion of questions about money Sorted have seen since the start of Covid, which for many has been a time of change and financial uncertainty.To answer your financial questions, Retirement Commissioner Jane Wrightson joined Kerre Mcivor in studio.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

"Right from the very start of the coronvirus response, I have been confused by the government and the health ministry's response. For the first three or four days, you had the police and the health ministry contradicting one another over what was and wasn't allowed under Level 4 lockdown.Neither the Police Commissioners office nor the Prime Minister's office could agree, initially, on what people would be permitted to do when it came to bubbles, travel, exercise - the whole gamut. Very frustrating when you're the medium charged with disseminating the correct information but once the dust settled, you could forgive them because - repeat after me - this is an unprecedented situation and we - the team of five million - was in a war against Covid 19.But then right throughout the management of the Covid 19 response, it's been very odd.  Because Ashley Bloomfield and the PM were on the telly or the wireless every single day, telling us what was happening, keeping us up to date, reassuring us and they were warm, and they were believable and they were empathetic and the sun was shining and the world was scary but everything was going to be OK because Ashley and Jacinda were there.We were all going to be fine so long as the team of five million played their part.  When Simon Bridges dared to question the accuracy and the screening of information being delivered by the Health Ministry he was excoriated."Listen to Kerre's full editorial aboveSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

National will require car insurer details to be displayed on registration labels if it wins the election.Leader Judith Collins revealed the policy on Newstalk ZB during an hour of talkback.National also wants to link the motor vehicle database with insurer details, to help assist in the smooth exchange of information.Collins told Kerre McIvor it'll make things easier for insured drivers.“What we want to do is encourage people to take car insurance and make it a lot easier for everyone else who’s on the receiving end of a crash or involved in a crash.”She says the policy is a cheaper alternative to mandatory insurance.“This is the first step to give people the opportunity to do the right thing, and the issue has always been that the cost of that and the enforcement of it and the verification can be very difficult.”She also revealed National would completely repeal major rental reforms.The Residential Tenancies Act - passed under urgency last week - includes a ban on rental bidding and no-cause evictions, and limits rent increases to annually.A bid to remove a tenant will also have to go through the Tenancy Tribunal.Collins says those changes would be out the door.“Why would you send out that kind of message, that you can have your rowdy parties, you can have your dogs all over the place, you can abuse your neighbours, you can cause all kinds of mayhem and actually cause tremendous stress.”The opposition leader also believes we will see the demise of New Zealand First this election.The latest 1 NEWS Colmar Brunton Poll has the party on two-percent -- falling short of the five-percent threshold.A poll on candidate support also has National's Matt King sitting at 46-percent in Northland -- far ahead of New Zealand First's Shane Jones on 15.Collins says National won't work with New Zealand First -- and they won't be back.“There are people in the NZ First party I get on very well with. I don’t have any personal animosity for Winston Peters. You’ve got to give someone credit for hanging in there so long.“But the best thing we ever did in the 2008 campaign was rule them out.”Collins committed National to ending the tahr cull, calling it unfair because people pay a lot of money to hunt them.She says when we can loosen border restrictions, some people will pay around $50,000 to come to New Zealand to shoot a tahr - boosting the economy.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Long-time landlord and founder of Ockham Residential, Mark Todd, has written an opinion piece in The Spinoff titled, "Important message from a landlord: Calm the hell down about the new renting law".The article argues that the new legislation is welcome and hysterical critics need to get a grip.Todd also says "It is a privilege to be a private landlord. And it comes with a responsibility to be decent, to treat tenants as you would like you and your whānau to be treated."LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A former Cabinet minister fears a line has been crossed in exposing extra-marital affairs of politicians.In an interview with Kerre McIvor, Steven Joyce said cheating by politicians was being "weaponised" and those levelling accusations and exposing the actions needed to press pause."I think some of it has crossed the line because everyone is human," said Joyce."Nobody is perfect and there's aspects of everybody's lives that they're not proud of. I would just say to the people that bring these things up is, 'let's just take a breath'."With sacked Labour Cabinet Minister Iain Lees-Galloway using his valedictory speech to apologise to his wife and family after an office affair ended his political career a fortnight ago, Joyce said we had entered disturbing territory."There's probably not a lot of benefit if a truck driver misbehaves but unfortunately people are starting to use that sort of thing as a political weapon. That is a problem," said Joyce.He said it was very easy to attack individuals without considering their families who were impacted by the publicity.It was to important to focus on the job they were doing above everything else, said Joyce.While working away from home came with challenges, Joyce said many who worked under similar conditions weren't subject to the same level of media critique."Where it's tough it's probably like any job where you are working away from home three or four days a week for the whole year. The difference is probably that there's not 30 or 40 journalists camped outside your door the entire time and ready to keep scrutiny on you. That is the unusual aspect of the job."Joyce also lamented the negative parting words of so many retiring politicians leaving Parliament this term."The whole idea of the valedictory is to reflect on your time, show a bit of the human side you normally don't get to show in all the speeches you make, thank the people who have supported you and generally leave the place on a good note."It just seems it's a pity that that seems the bookend on somebody's political career because it is a tough life and you think well, maybe you should walk out the door with a smile on your face."He singled out dumped Cabinet minister Claire Curran who used her speech to lash out at the media."Politicians and the news media focus on conflict, perceived or real slip-ups rather than substance in the quality of ideas," the Dunedin MP told Parliament in her final speech yesterday."Politicians should be held accountable. But we are not prey. The accountability lacks perspective. If you don't believe me, go ask the public.He took issue with Curran's attack on the media, saying it was "naive" to expect the Fourth Estate to "gloss over" issues.The former minister, who retired last election, revealed it was vital to be surrounded by key people you trusted in your home electorate in order to keep grounded."In Wellington there's 360 degrees of advice and stuff that can sound really stupid somewhere around Auckland somebody can make it sound eminently reasonable in Wellington."I had a colleague who's wife would hand him a toilet brush when he got home just to ground him again and send him to work on the bathroom so that he understood that there's a real life out there."He said it would be great to have more people in Parliament who "had a life" before becoming a politician."There's a number of reasons why that works. One is you're probably a little bit more self-confident in some ways, you generally have more life experience in dealing with people, if you've managed an organisation that's very helpful if you should become a minister."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.