Kerre Woodham Mornings Podcast

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern joined Kerre McIvor live in studio this morning to wrap up the year and answer questions from Newstalk ZB listeners.Topics discussed include the latest on the White Island recovery mission, what is happening with the sexual assault allegations against a Labour Party staffer, and the government's performance over the year.LISTEN TO THE FULL INTERVIEW ABOVE, OR WATCH THE VIDEO BELOW .See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We continue our series celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the Brain Research Centre at Auckland University.Professor Anne Young is an American physician and neuroscientist who works on neurodegenerative diseases, with a focus on movement disorders like Huntington's disease and Parkinson's disease. Professor Anne Young collaborates with our most distinguished neuroscientist, Sir Richard Faull, on research into Huntington’s disease. She joined Kerre McIvor this morning. LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The man behind a scheme to reconnect Kiwi's with the land and where their food comes from says too many people have lost touch with the land.  The Open Farms initiative, launched earlier this week, aims to reconnect rural and urban Kiwis through a nationwide farm open day on March 1.Founder Daniel Eb told Kerre McIvor 60 per cent of urban Kiwis didn't visit rural New Zealand."That's a huge proportion of our entire country which is disconnected from the land and where our food comes from."LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We continue our series of interviews celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the Brain Research Centre.Dr Brigid Ryan is a neuroscientist working at the Centre for Brain Research at the University of Auckland.Her research is focussed on younger onset dementia, and frontotemporal dementia in particular.Dr Ryan is currently leading a multi-disciplinary longitudinal study of the earliest changes that occur in dementia.Dr Brigid Ryan joined Kerre McIvor to explain further.LISTEN TO INTERVIEW ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Centre for Brain Research celebrates 10 years of research this week.The team are committed to researching and understanding all aspects of brain disease and doing their part to help those who are affected by it here in New Zealand.One of those is Dr Jessie Jacobsen who has established a genetic research programme for autism spectrum disorder in New Zealand.Dr Jessie Jacobsen joined Kerre McIvor to discuss the latest research into autism.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There's disagreement within the National Party over Auckland's port.Sir John Key has joined forces with fellow former Prime Minister Helen Clark in supporting relocating the port from prime waterfront land.But his former senior minister, Steve Joyce, believes the port should stay.Joyce told Kerre McIvor moving operations to Whangarei or Tauranga would require a huge infrastructure upgrade."The idea that you'd be able to do that without massive expense and dislocation of the existing communities, I think there's no way in the existing transport corridors that it wouldn't make things a lot worse."He says shifting to Northland isn't exactly like hopping over the fence."It's a very strange for a port city to have its port 160 kilometres away. They tend to shift a lot shorter distances. If you look at Sydney, they shifted out to Botany Bay, but it's literally only 12km's still from the middle of Sydney."Sir John told Mike Hosking this morning that it does not make sense to keep the port where it is. "It's very expensive to move it, but the problem with that argument is that it's also very expensive to maintain it. The differential between the two is not nearly as big a number, I think, as what people say."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Young entrepreneurs who have been helped through courses facilitated by the Princes Trust, yesterday met with their patron, Prince Charles.Launched in October last year, the Prince's Trust New Zealand was established to support young New Zealanders on their journey to adulthood.His Royal Highness established the charity in the UK in 1973, which has since worked with over 970,000 young people enabling life, learning and work opportunities.The Prince’s Trust New Zealand CEO Anya Satyanand told Kerre McIvor it was a beautiful engagement with some incredible conversations had between the entrepreneurs and Prince Charles.LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lanaco CEO Nick Davenport joins Kerre McIvor to discuss his company's scientific programme on what wool can do.Lanaco been researching the uses of wool for nearly a decade, and have invested into a scientific program that helped reveal that wool can make the world's best respiratory air filters.Davenport says it's taken them as long ass they can afford to move."it's been a very expensive exercise, we've had to really delve into the whole genetics breathing and science biology of wool fibre." See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

National Finance Spokesperson Paul Goldsmith joins Kerre McIvor to talk about the Government's consideration of buying back the land at Ihumātao from Fletchers.National believe a $40 million payment from the Crown to purchase Ihumātao will open up full and final treaty settlements with the relitigating of previous claims.Construction of nearly five-hundred houses has been halted by protesters occupying the site - which is ancestral land that was confiscated.National finance spokesman Paul Goldsmith says it's a complete muddle. "The president that it sends is private land is now no longer secure and full and final settlements can be re-litigated, and that would have very negative consequences."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A third of people are failing their restricted driving tests because of obvious mistakes.VTNZ has listed the five main reasons why people fail. Forgetting to give way topped the list, accounting for 24 percent of fails.Driving 10 kilometres over the speed limit and not stopping at stop signs were other common breaches.Driver Testing Manager James Law says new drivers should pay attention to why people fail, so they can improve. LISTEN ABOVE AS JAW LAW SPEAKS TO KERRE MCIVORSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.