Kerre Woodham Mornings Podcast

Independent economist Benje Patterson has looked into businesses that have started across New Zealand while the country was in lockdown.He found the entrepreneurial spirit alive and well, with 3,136 businesses starting up.Benje Patterson joined Kerre McIvor on the show this morning.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kerre McIvor visited Auckland's Depot restaurant last night. And while the food and service was perfect, she found the atmosphere soul destroying with the government's social distancing rules meaning only a limited amount of customers were allowed to dine in when the popular restaurant often has queues waiting outside the door."Being open doesn't mean you are making a profit. Why are we being held to ransom and prolonging this agony?"What possibly justification can this government and Saint Ashley offer for forcing people to endure these arbitrary and random rules. It doesn't make any sense at all."Listen to the audio aboveSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dr Chris Smith is a medical consultant of virology at Cambridge University but is probably best known as founder of The Naked Scientists - the award-winning science podcasts and science radio shows.He was interviewed on this station back in March and we thought it would be good to catch up with him about all things Covid.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Cruise Milford is a Milford Sound sight seeing boat cruise, operating in the Milford Sound-Fiordland World Heritage area, and now they want to show off the area to kiwis.Post lockdown, the company has made changes to the way they operate to keep visitors and crew safe.Cruise Milford's Sarah McDonald says after road closures and the Covid-19 pandemic, it has been a trying period for the area."But we've made it work, everyone just keeps tron trucking."We get the job done."McDonald says they are typically heavily reliant on international tourists, so are now having to turn to domestic tourists.Visit Cruise Milford's website here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Newstalk ZB radio host and musician Tim Beveridge who is mourning the loss of his mother has slammed the Government for its "cold and heartless" coronavirus funeral rules.Mary Rae Beveridge passed away on Monday surrounded by her loving family.Her son Tim told fellow ZB radio presenter Kerre McIvor this morning that it's been "surreal" trying to organise a funeral capped at 10 people – immediate family and just one of his mother's close friends - for such a sociable, loving person."It just seems to me there's this coldness around the whole things that really matter," he said."So you can go a cinema, you can go to cafes but when it comes to something really important like a funeral or a wedding … heaven forbid people might mix with one another and show some emotion. I'm really struggling with the idea of the way it's implemented"We're better off than people a few weeks ago but I just think it's heartless stuff."He added: "If people could walk for a mile in the shoes of those who have lost someone, they might have a different perspective on it, rather than just talking about kindness and leaving it to someone else."The Government has been widely criticised for its "inhumane" limit on funeral and religious gatherings under alert level 2, prompting Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to this afternoon announce an urgent review of the 10-person limit for funerals under alert level 2. An announcement is expected this afternoon.Ardern has defended the 10-person limit because of public health concerns, citing mass gatherings at services overseas that had led to new coronavirus outbreaks.Those concerns increased for funerals and tangi, she said, because of people's tendencies to hug each other for comfort when they are grieving.But Leader of the Opposition Simon Bridges says it's not fair to have 30 people on a rugby field playing close contact sport when no more than 10 people at a funeral can grieve together.Today, the National Party has launched a petition to allow up to 100 people at funerals, weddings and places of worship."Our team has been inundated with heart-breaking messages from people who are grieving. Most extended families have more than ten people and that's before you get to friends and other loved ones," Bridges says.Oliver Christiansen, who took the Government to court and won the right to leave mandatory isolation to visit his dying father, yesterday told the Herald the Government's funeral rules have dealt his family another cruel blow.Beveridge described his mother as a "lioness" who was incredibly loyal and the life of a party.It was "heartbreaking", he said, that there won't be many there to farewell her.He held a "forlorn hope" that the Government would back down on its rigid rules, but said his family wouldn't be waiting for others to make decisions."The thing that's struck me is that kindness seems to a word that's been turned into something that supposed to belong to people of a part political persuasion and that's just absolute bollocks," he said."Kindness is something that is seen in people's actions and not in what they say they are going to do. And we've had a lot of kindness and love – as other families would've had as well and I feel for them as well. There's nothing like the solidarity you feel with friends and family and workmates and everything … nothing brings people together like something like this."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

High profile restaurateur Al Brown has Depot Eatery & Oyster Bar, Federal Delicatessen and Best Ugly Bagels in his stable.His three businesses have been closed under level 4 and level 3 lockdown.Al Brown joined Kerre McIvor on the show this morning for a chat.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Covid-19 has shown it's time to rethink public toilets, and with design innovation, hygiene could be greatly improved.Public health experts, designers and architects say the Covid-19 pandemic has exposed fundamental flaws in the design of public toilets that risk spreading a second wave of coronavirus, and possibly even new pandemics.Sarah Bookman is a Wellington based architectural graduate, who investigated the political and cultural implications of public toilets in her thesis for Auckland University.She believes there are inherent design issues with the hygiene of these facilities that “can no longer be neglected”.Sarah Bookman joined Kerre McIvor to discuss her research.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Green MP Chloe Swarbrick and Paula Bennett have shared their points of view on the cannabis referendum. On Friday, the Government released the legislation Kiwis will vote on in a referendum at this year’s general election.Swarbrick and Bennett are the spokespeople for their parties on the referendum. Swarbrick told Kerre McIvor despite prohibition attempts over the past 40 years, cannabis flourished in the shadows.She says both sides accept it's a drug and can cause harm."If we agree on that, the grown-up conversation progresses in the direction of what is the best way to reduce that harm?"We have the opportunity to create a semblance of control." She says it's better to have regulation and some control and extra funding for addiction support.Swarbrick says her flatmate committed suicide after their cannabis use spiralled into harder substances."The gateway drug is prohibition pushing people into the shadows where they continue to self-isolate and aren't able to access help."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Auckland Transport chief executive Shane Ellison talks to Kerre McIvor about the installation of temporary cycleways and walkways around Auckland. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Epidemic Response Committee is meeting today and will hear from a range of voices – including entrepreneur Rod Drury, academic Max Rashbrooke and New Zealand Initiative Executive Director Oliver Hartwich.National’s Finance spokesperson and Member of the Response Committee, Paul Goldsmith believes small to medium businesses are paying a heavy price for the Government’s extension of the lockdown period and they urgently need more support.Kerre McIvor speaks to Paul GoldsmithLISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.