Kerre Woodham Mornings Podcast

It’s hard enough to chase a scientific breakthrough.  But as New Zealand company Ārepa found out it's even harder and more expenisve to defend your breakthroughs time and time again. Ārepa was founded in 2017 and the so called “brain drink” company was growing at a rapid pace when at the end of 2023, they hit a massive speed bump. That's when the Ministry for Primary Industries and an Auckland University scientist came out and said the company hadn’tactually proven better brain function at all. Ārepa found itself in the headlines, but for all the wrong reasons. The company's co-founder and co-chief executive Angus Brown told their story with Kerre Woodham on the latest episode of Bosses Unfiltered. LISTEN ABOVE NOTE: This interview was recorded on June 4th 2025. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Violence against women remains one of the world’s most persistent and under-addressed human rights crises.  A report from the World Health Organisation says that 1 in 3 women, an estimated 840 million globally, have experienced partner or sexual violence during their lifetime, a figure that has barely changed since 2000.  In Australia and New Zealand, 24.5 percent of women have been sexually or physically abused by a partner.  She Is Not Your Rehab co-founder Matt Brown told Kerre Woodham that society has done a great job in normalising anger as the best outlet for men, which looks like rage and violence towards the people they say they love the most.  He says there need to be more systems in place to educate men in emotional regulation, making things like grief or sadness a normal part of conversation.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A new report from the World Health Organization has found (old news really), a quarter of women have been physically or sexually abused by a partner. It's 24.5% for Australia and New Zealand, so about the same. And there are calls for a public awareness and education campaign in this country about domestic violence. Really? Who needs to be taught that assaulting someone, hurting someone is wrong? You know it's wrong. Children know it's wrong.  There have been public campaigns for as long as I can remember, warning people that domestic violence lasts, endures, infects through generations. That if a child is raised in a violent family, then chances are that's what they see as normal, a way of responding to stress. There have been education campaigns warning you need to walk away when you feel your temper rising, that you need to walk away when you feel threatened. But apparently, according to the experts, this sort of education campaign is precisely what we do need. In the mid 2000s, and you might remember it, the It's Not Okay campaign was on our televisions. Importantly, it was backed up with 150 community-based prevention projects, and that what was made the impact, and then it was dropped and the experts say this is what we need to bring back. Our stats are dreadful. I mean, you can scoff at the World Health Organization and you can say, "Oh, well, we measure crime differently," but I don't think you can argue that our stats are absolutely appalling. And I say this against the backdrop of the deaths of those three beautiful children in Sanson, which has to be one of the more heartbreaking stories we've ever reported in this country.  We have the highest rate of family violence in the OECD. They're across all socio-economic groups. Each year New Zealand police conducts more than 100,000 investigations related to family violence. Nearly half of all homicides and reported violent crimes are family violence related. One in four females, one in eight males, experience sexual violence or abuse in their lifetimes, and many of them before the age of 16.  The head of Women's Refuge, Ang Jury, says until such time as men realise they don't own their women, nothing is going to change, but who would put up their hand and say that's genuinely what they think? That they have a woman, they love her, they have children together, and if she argues or if she wants to do something that you don't want to do, or if she wants to leave you, that you then have the right to meet out violence upon her, to prevent her from going, or to take her life so nobody else can have her. Nobody would put up their hand and say, "This is what I genuinely think." Surely to goodness. So what happens?  I received a text a couple of weeks ago when we were talking about the impact of drugs on mental health. And this text said that relationship breakups had more of a detrimental impact on his mental health, and that of his mates, than any drug he'd consumed. That the relationship breakup stuffed with his head far more than the drugs. So do you not know you have a problem until you have it? You might think that you've got a really well-ordered life, that you've got yourself together, that you're a perfectly, perfectly normal human being. You can cope with life's slings and arrows, and then your partner leaves you, and what? You are catapulted to a place and into a being that you simply do not recognize? That you lose all reason?   Helen and I were talking about this before we came on air. We just do not know men who react with violence. Not our friends, not our family members, not our work colleagues. Well, you know, the ones we're close to, our friends. I find it utterly inconceivable that in this day and age you can think that if a woman, or a man, decides to leave the relationship that you can therefore mete out violence - that it's justified. And I would guarantee nobody listening would think that was a legitimate and reasonable course of action. So what happens?  After tragedies, people say, "Well, we didn't see it." Either they say it's been happening for a long time and it was inevitable, or we knew it was going to happen and one day she was going to end up dead, so there's been a pattern of abusive behaviour, or it comes completely and utterly out of the blue. There is no halfway house.  How can people still think this? Like Ang Jury says, until such time as men realize they don't own their women, nothing is going to change. What man genuinely can put up their hand and say that is what I think? So clearly something must happen. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Rail Minister Winston Peters yesterday confirmed we are to get two new rail-enabled Cook Strait ferries.  The Government's signed a fixed-price contract with a Chinese shipbuilder and is securing teams to build port infrastructure in Picton and Wellington.  Rail Minister Winston Peters claims the total cost will come in under $2 billion and delivered on time in 2029.  Ferry Holdings' Chris McKenzie told Kerre Woodham that while it’s not the Sydney Opera House and the Taj Mahal, the port infrastructure they’re creating is more than fit for purpose.   LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A little bit husky, a little bit hoarse, not as bad as Heather, but a little bit husky from belting out the classics at Eden Park last night with Metallica. Oh my god. Oh my god. What a show. What an event for the city. If you were there, you know, and you'll still be buzzing, and you will still think that is one of the best concerts you've ever been to.  I used to quite like Metallica. I mean, you can't grow up in the 80s and not know who they are and not appreciate them as a consummate as consummate performance, but I wasn't a die-hard fan. I went down after work yesterday to get some merch because I was taking my eight-year-old grandson to the show last night because he loves them. I thought I like them, I'll go, I'll get him a T-shirt. A three-hour queue to get the merch!  And the town was heaving with people in Metallica T-shirts, and I thought, wow who on earth would queue for three hours? Who would travel from the far ends of the country and from across the Tasman to go to Metallica? After that show last night, I'll tell you who will be queuing for three hours, me, I will be.  I've gone from they're good to oh my god. And I've got all of these years of music to catch up on. How fabulous. And just for the vibrancy it brought to the city. And I have to say Eden Park, and a number of us at ZB were invited along by Eden Park, so bear that in mind when I say what I say, but Eden Park is a fantastic venue. Everybody it seemed had great seats. The show itself, the stage was amazing. There were no problems for us getting out. We walked for 15 minutes, got picked up by his dad and out we went. The crowd was lovely. Honestly, I could rave all morning, but I'm not going to. I shan't. It was amazing and perhaps we can compare notes a little later.  We do have news to talk about. And finally, finally, finally after years of wrangling, and after years of cost blowouts, and after years of political infighting, ladies and gentlemen, we have two new ferries. Well, not exactly – we have a contract for two new ferries.  And yes, wait, yes, we did have a contract for two new ferries with the South Korean shipyard. That contract got torn up. Now we have a new contract for two new ferries with a Chinese shipbuilder. Port infrastructure will have to be rebuilt to accommodate the larger ferries while much of the Wellington side infrastructure can be rebuilt and upgraded. Picton they'll need new stuff, Wellington they can make do.  And that's where the real savings are to be had for the taxpayer. The new ferries will be hybrids, able to switch between using diesel and electric power, and will have more capacity for trucks and rail wagons that exist at present. Winston Peters, who's been all over this from day one, said the new no-nonsense infrastructure programme was helping save the taxpayer money when the two ships enter service in 2029.  The iRex project, that was the one ditched by the Coalition Government when it came to office, which included substantial costs for landside infrastructure, had ballooned to approximately $3 billion at the time of its cancellation. In 2023, Treasury officials said, yes, we know it looks like $3 billion, we think it could be more like $4 billion when we look at the cost overruns, when we benchmark it against average cost overruns and other similar projects. When even Grant Robertson, the former Finance Minister, says, oh no, we're spending way too much money, this is very concerning. When he says that, you know that it's getting out of control.  There was no guarantee it was going to be around $4 billion. And the problem seems to have been, rather than delivering the much oft-quoted phrase of Nicola Willis', a Toyota Corolla, under the spell of the former government, there were consultants and officials going, oh my god, we can build a state-of-the-art shipping infrastructure within New Zealand, and it's going to have all the bells and whistles and the very latest technology, and yes, we do have to build completely new infrastructure to service it, but my god, can we look what we can do. And they were given full rein to go off and design something and create something really beautiful that just kept getting more and more expensive.   The new ferries are expected to replace the current fleet by the end of 2029, and possibly there will be cost overruns, and possibly it won't be 2029. I spoke to the chair of Ferry Holdings, Chris Mackenzie before we came on air, wait till you hear the attitude he takes, the pragmatic, no-nonsense, no-frills, let's just get the job done approach. That's what was needed and that's what we've got. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's the 15th anniversary today of the Pike River mine disaster, and on this anniversary, unions are calling for a corporate manslaughter law to be enshrined in legislation, as it is in other countries like the UK, Australia, Canada.  29 men were killed when an explosion ripped through the Pike River mine on the West Coast of the South Island. And despite reforms following Pike River, including the creation of WorkSafe in 2013 and the Health and Safety at Work Act in 2015, New Zealand continues to record twice as many workplace deaths as Australia, four times as many as the UK per capita. Workplace injuries and illnesses cost the country an estimated $5 billion each year.  A new Public Health Communication Centre briefing by leading health and safety experts finds that weak enforcement, inadequate fines, and a poor understanding of legal duties by employers and political leaders are key reasons for the lack of progress.  And it warns that proposed changes to shift the regulator's focus from enforcement to advice, alongside ACC's move to deprioritise injury prevention, risks further undermining worker protection.  And yet, when you look at the health and safety legislation and the red tape and the orange road cones, not a single road cone seems to have helped in preventing workers' lives being lost. We're 25th in the OECD. Australia is a dangerous place to work. And yet somehow, we manage to record twice as many workplace deaths as they do. What is it? Are workers in high-risk jobs depending on the rules to keep themselves safe? To keep their mates safe? Rather than using their own nous and judgement they think, well, the rules are there, I don't have to think about it. I don't have to think about what I'm doing.  Are too many workers turning up impaired by alcohol or drugs, and that impairs their judgement? They don't see things, or they cut corners, or they're tired, fatigued. Are bosses cutting corners and risking people's lives? Or are the bosses putting in health and safety protocols that workers are simply ignoring?  What is it about this country that means we are so bad at either looking after ourselves and our mates, or finding ways to protect our workers? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today marks the 15th anniversary of the Pike River mine disaster that killed 29 men.  Despite reforms following the incident, New Zealand's workplace health and safety record remains poor, with fatality and injury rates among the highest in the developed world.  Workplace injuries and illnesses cost the country an estimated $5 billion each year.  Victoria University workplace health and safety lecturer Dr Chris Peace told Kerre Woodham that putting ACC in place has taken away a lot of stress and angst, but a strong regulatory system needed to be put in place and wasn’t.   He says that the legislation imposes a duty of care on businesses, but the problem is that most people don’t understand what that amounts to.   LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Business NZ Chief Executive Katherine Rich says the Supreme Court's ruling that Uber drivers are in fact employees of Uber, not contractors, could have far-reaching implications for businesses that hired contractors, and she says it could collapse the gig economy. What's the gig economy? Well, when we're talking about the gig economy, we mean people who work on single projects or tasks, gigs, on demand. They're often hired through a digital marketplace, think Uber, Airbnb, and gig workers can be anyone from part-timers looking to make extra dosh from a second job that they can work around their own hours, to full-time freelancers. They can also be from a range of backgrounds across a range of industries.   On the plus side, if you're a gig worker, there's more flexibility for hours and remote work, high earning potential —the keyword there is potential—, the option to work for various companies, you're not tied to one, and the ability to become your own boss.  On the downside, there is the potential to make very little. The gig economy is unsteady, and for many it's an unsatisfactory alternative to a secure and stable full-time job with all the associated benefits, sick pay, annual leave, and the like. Now, a lot of young ones say they want the flexibility that comes with having a gig and a side hustle and doing a bit there. The idea of turning up and working 9am to 5pm is absolute anathema to them, until they get sick or until they realise that they need to set aside money for holidays or until say they want parental leave. And then all of a sudden, a secure job doesn't look so bad after all.   Now, with the Supreme Court ruling, in effect, contractors can have their cake and eat it too if it flows on to other industries. The drivers who brought the case against Uber said they were seeking fundamental human rights in relation to the work they did for the company.  Uber says, "Oh, come on, you knew what you were getting into when you signed the contract. Drivers are in control of business decisions in a manner not typical of an employee situation. They can decide whether, when, where, and for how long to drive, or whether they want to do other work instead." They also had the ability to and did make decisions around assets, business costs, and organize their own tax affairs.  Uber accepted in court that drivers didn't have input into the structure. For example, when Uber decided to slash the fares in Auckland and Wellington, it was a bit of a promotion, drivers had no say over that. But they say the drivers know what the platform looks like, they accepted and they use it. They enter into a service agreement, and they act accordingly.  Workplace Minister Brooke van Velden told Mike Hosking this morning that the Government's looking to make changes to define exactly what it means to be a contractor. She outlined it very, very clearly, and we will get that to you. Basically, she says that the law hasn't really kept up with the new economy. The workplace law hasn't kept up with the new economy. That, you know, the way Uber wasn't around 10 years ago. Airbnb wasn't around 10 years ago, and workplace law hasn't kept up with it. But can you really have your cake and eat it too? If you don't like turning up to the same employer 9am to 5pm, you know what your job is, you know what your hours are, the very regularity of it that makes a job like that so attractive to some people, Makes it a turn off to others. They don't want that regularity in their lives. They want to be free to work when they want to.  It doesn't seem right that you have your cake and eat it too, does it? Brooke van Velden says she'll make changes. The Supreme Court says Uber has to treat its drivers like employees. Would love to hear from you on this one, especially if you've worked for Uber. I know a number of people have. I ran into an old film director of mine from Television New Zealand days who was driving an Uber. Really enjoyed it. Loved the in effect retired, but still really loved meeting people, kept them out of the house, enjoyed driving, really enjoyed it. All sorts of people have done a bit of Uber.  Do you feel like an oppressed member of the working classes with the corporate boot on your neck? Did you know what you were getting into when you signed up? And what implication does this have for employers who do use contractors? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bowel Cancer NZ's new report lays bare the realities of 350 people under 50 living with the disease.   It’s the second deadliest cancer in New Zealand, and the leading cause of cancer death among people under the age of 50.  Every year around 3,300 New Zealanders are diagnosed and 1,200 die from the disease, despite it having a cure rate of over 90% when caught early.   The Never Too Young report found more than half of those surveyed didn't know the symptoms prior to diagnosis, and many faced delays in diagnosis.  Bowel Cancer NZ Chief Executive Peter Huskinson told Kerre Woodham if the screening age was lowered to 45, it would go a long way to catch the majority of people with early onset bowel cancer.  He says that way they’d be caught by the screening, rather than waiting for symptoms to develop.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the front page of the New Zealand Herald today there was a poll, and it shows that we're split as a nation on the issue of capital gains tax. So, the question for us here in this room and you in your room and all of us together is, should we have another discussion on the CGT? And my answer to that is, of course not. And why? We have no real idea of what it looks like, so we don't know what we're talking about. People who have assets that are accruing capital do not want it because they've never had to pay tax on it before, and no one likes paying more tax. People who do want a capital gains tax might want it if it means there's more money for health and education or benefits, but then if they start getting assets, will they be happy paying more tax? All the policies we've had so far on capital gains tax are so wishy-washy and indeterminate, we have no idea what it means. When will the valuations be calculated? Will we pay tax on mythical unrealized gains? How much money will it really raise? Have we had any answers to any of those questions? No, we have not. Could we have answers to those questions? Maybe. David Parker, before the last election, apparently came up with a comprehensive capital gains tax plan, but we never saw it. So how can we debate it? Labour's policy is such a once over lightly, we can't answer any of this. We are split on the general concept of capital gains tax and always have been, so why discuss it? It is a ridiculous Russian doll situation, and we go round and round, and we've decided let's not talk about that today. But we can talk about real taxes. And real taxes are increasing. And if you don't believe me, take a look at your rates bill, because rates are a tax. There are all sorts of different taxes in this world. And it's the sneaky ones that don't call themselves taxes that are the really sneaky ones. We had a real tax come at us, a couple of them actually, over the weekend. On Saturday, the front page was all about the legislation that's been introduced, meaning that councils can charge congestion taxes in the future. Awesome. So we'll be paying taxes on roads we already paid taxes to build. And if not taxes, then rates, because the council builds a lot of our roads. And of course, as I've said already, rates are also taxes. Talk about double jeopardy. We're paying taxes on taxes. It's two bites of the pie. And then you have to wonder why the National-led coalition wants to increase our taxes when their mission has always been to reduce them. They hate taxes, they say. Some of them say we're overtaxed. They want them gone.So the motivation for taxes has many faces. They're used to punish the rich because of the politics of envy, I get that. They're used to redistribute wealth because some people are poor and some people are not. And of course, they're all used to fund health and education systems. And we also use taxes to punish or to change behaviour. So I guess if we're talking about congestion taxes in this instance, we're talking about changing our behaviour. Is that enough reason for National to want to do this? The behaviour they're trying to change is to make more of us drive off-peak and less of us on-peak, making the roads flow better. I say good luck with that. Good luck with your tax, because in this age of cost of living increases and rate rises and water costs, I believe that no one at this moment wants to pay more tax. And no wonder Wayne Brown in the paper on Saturday said the council is not going to use this new power anytime soon, because he knows a vote killer when he sees one. I mean, who's going to vote for that? Turkeys do not vote for Christmas. And you have to ask, would it actually work? It might make mums on the school run think twice about using a motorway at peak hour. But, you know, tradies and the people who carry all our goods and the transporters, they won't have the option. They'll have to pay, and that is a further cost on their bottom line. And whenever a business gets a further cost on the bottom line, you know what they do? They pass it on. Who to? You and I, increasing the costs of services. The very fact, and I said this yesterday, the very fact that a young modern city like Auckland or Tauranga or Wellington, well, let's say Auckland, just over 1 and a half million people, it's a small city internationally, has got itself into a position where a centre-right government thinks the answer is a congestion tax is a complete and utter failure of our civil planning over the last generations. Sure, I understand congestion taxes in London. I mean, that built and built and built, and there's no more room for roads, and they've got undergrounds, and they've got buses, and they've got trains, and they've got everything, and still they're congested. So sure, put a congestion tax on in London. But really, Auckland? Hello? Really? Tauranga? Tauranga is our most taxed roading system. Got a couple of them there. You had the K-Road ages ago. Did it work?  Or Wellington. And I'll talk more about Wellington later because today is a big day for Wellington transport.The fact of the matter, if you don't like the congestion taxes, all we had to do was provide alternatives to the car that were affordable and efficient. Every time we talked about public transport options or alternate modes or God forbid cycleways, they've always been shouted down by people who think we still live in a rural village and not a modern cities, and we should all have the human right to drive from doorstep to doorstep. Well, that's a lack of foresight, is it not? Because we kept on growing and growing. Unfortunately, transportation, like public transport, is the answer, because there's very little room for more roads. But then again, we'll have to figure out how to pay for that transport system, and again, that will fall on you and me and our wallets, just the same as it would with any tax. At the moment, unbelievably, under a National-led coalition, another tax is coming, and do you think our roads are going to suddenly clear out? I don't. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.