Kerre Woodham Mornings Podcast

A reminder to construction workers to keep looking out for each other on World Suicide Prevention Day.    MATES in Construction's recent survey finds 85% of workers reported good mental health last year, an improvement from previous years.   But also last year, 80 workers died from suspected suicides, a jump from previous years.  Dr Chris Bowden, MATES in Construction’s Academic Director, told Kerre Woodham the participants in their study group talked a lot about the bullying, harassment, aggression, and conflict that was common on job sites, as well as the ritual hazing that often comes with being a new member of the community.  But on the plus side, he said, they heard that things are slowly changing in that culture, and people are starting to take safety and mental health and wellbeing a lot more seriously in the workplace.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is one that has been discussed before and will no doubt be discussed again. Can pine forestry and livestock farming coexist in this country, or does one have to make way for the other?   For the last decade, there have been major concerns about productive farmland, not only being converted into subdivisions, but being converted into forests. These concerns were ramped up in recent times with the previous administration’s One Billion Trees project.   The area of land planted in trees is actually down from where it was two decades ago. New Zealand has about 12.1 million hectares in farmland. Another 1.7 million is in forestry, down from 2 million hectares in 2002, but reaching the 1 billion trees target by 2028 will require the planting of an estimated 43,000 hectares per year.   Of course there's a distinction to make between the different sorts of forestry – plantation forestry is different from carbon forestry.    Plantation trees will eventually be harvested. Carbon trees will never be harvested because the owners make enough through carbon credits alone. So what happens when a farmer sells their land for carbon farming or turns it over to plantation farming?    It really does take a village to maintain a farm, to keep a farm alive. Dairy farms, beef farms, sheep farms require people and those living in rural communities are worried that as the trees advance the sharemilkers jobs will go, shearing jobs will go, along with the shepherds and the truck drivers and the families. The vets will go, the mechanics, the retailers, the schools. They'll become ghost towns filled with trees.   Beef and Lamb NZ's sheep numbers fell 4.3% in the year to June. There was a 2.8 percent decrease in beef cattle numbers. And the lamb crop for spring 2025 is expected to fall nearly 5 percent.   Now part of that is farmers reacting to the low prices they get for their stock. Some parts of the country it's drought, but the primary driver, according to Beef and Lamb, is land use change, as a result of the conversion of livestock farms to forestry.   The Ministry for Primary Industries Todd McClay says the government is concerned in regards to excessive conversion of food-producing land to forest, however, he says it's also important that farmers retain choice over what they do with their land.   Imagine you've slogged your guts out all your life, you and your husband, you and your wife. You have worked every hour God sent from sunup to sundown. Finally, after 40 years, the kids don't want the farm. They have gone off to university or they've gone overseas and they're living their best lives. The kids don't want to get into the farm. What do you?   Imagine if the government said no, you cannot sell it to a nice fat cat overseas buyer who's going to put it all in trees because we need that land for you to produce food. No, you keep producing food until you collapse in the field. I mean, no government's going to do that.  Farmers have every right to do what they wish with their land. I mean it really is under threat, that kind of productive land is under threat as we heard the other day from alternative energy sources, from subdivisions, from plantation forestry, from carbon forestry.   It's like watching different armies advancing towards these poor farmers standing there going, bloody hell, what am I going to do? I'm not getting enough on the international market for my product. I love farming. I don't want to sit there and watch pine trees growing, that's not my life’s dream but what am I to do? What can we do? What makes it worth a farmer's while to keep their land in livestock?   For those of you who have stock, who have beef, who have lamb, who have dairy, do you sometimes look at the trees and think imagine, I wouldn't have to do a bloody thing.   I could sit on the porch, think my thoughts, never have to go out because it's raining and wet and cold, and the baby lambs are going to die unless they get some shelter. Never have to get up early again. Just acres and acres of pine trees. Do any farmers think bliss?   And when it comes to the rural communities, how are you going? How are you surviving? Do you see yourself as under threat or are you regaining lost ground?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A new white paper warns there will be a significant transition of sheep and beef farms into pine forestry unless current Government policies and economic signals are reconsidered.  Called “Why Pines?”, the paper summarises the results of four recently completed research programmes, funded by Our Land and Water.  The four research programmes used different techniques and perspectives, but all found a likely increase in pine plantations on land currently used for sheep and beef farming.  White paper co-author and director of Our Land and Water, Dr Jenny Webster-Brown, said while the results “raise significant concerns”, they were not a prediction of an unavoidable future.  Dr Jenny Webster-Brown joined Kerre Woodham.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Well, that's one way, isn't it, to deal with your problematic pupil attendance record – do away with attendance requirements altogether.   Hagley College in Christchurch will allow some of its students to work from home two days a week, in a trial to believed to be a New Zealand first. The college is offering 20 NCEA Level 2 students the chance to do hybrid learning. There'll be 16 hours of math, science, and English, and they will be required to be at school three days a week for in person learning and two days will be online via scheduled video calls. Hagley representative Nathan Walsh said the school had tried to get students to attend the traditional five-day face to face education model, otherwise known as school, but they'd really struggled, especially when it came to getting kids back into the classroom who'd experienced mental or physical health issues, or children who had extracurricular activities they prioritised. Gaming, you know, that's an all-night thing —you're knackered by the time the morning rolls around— all sorts of other extracurricular activities that are best done in twilight or by dark of night.   So the prospective hybrid learners would need to prove their ability to work independently when out of school, and caregivers had to be clear on their responsibility to support ongoing learning. It's a trial for now, but if it's successful, if students achieve well, and if they attend their classes, hybrid learning will be offered to pupils for NCEA levels 2 and 3 in 2026, at Hagley College.   Now the old school amongst us may think this is a load of lefty tosh. But have a look at all the adults who claim to be just as productive working from home as they are in the office. There are so many people who have incorporated working from home as their working model. Students, especially the older students, see their parents working from home and think why not? Especially if they are part of that cohort who was told to stay home, who were kept out of classrooms for two years. If we have been told that you can learn just as well outside of the classroom, why wouldn't you give hybrid learning a go?   And then there are the young people who have really struggled to get back into the rhythm of going to school. I remember a youngish mum ringing in, and she had a great big giant of a 16-year-old son who would not go to school some days. He said I can do it in three hours, I can do what I need to learn in three hours. It's all a crock, most of it is just time wasting. I can get it done and still do my own thing. And he was too big for her to drag to school. He was too old for her to bribe, and she was at her wits end. Good family, an expectation that school was part of a young person's life, but she said he was right, he could do the learning in three hours and then do his own thing.   So surely any learning is better than none if young people will not go to school. We've seen many who don’t want to go, can’t go, are too anxious to go, surely getting some learning into them is better than them dropping out altogether?   My initial response was oh for God's sake, for the love of all that is Holy, there aren't many expectations on young people but going to school is one of them. But then you think about it and you know, going to work used to be an expectation. Not now. People will work from home, and if their employer’s reluctant for them to do so, they'll find another employer. You're a kid, you see Mum and Dad working from home, then you're going to want to do the same thing if it suits you better.   And if you are one of those parents who has struggled to get their young person back into the classroom, would you welcome the opportunity for hybrid learning? We've heard from parents who have said, look, I negotiate with my child and say three days out of the week you’ve got to go, two days you can stay home. For some parents, I imagine this would be a blessing.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A Christchurch school hopes to address falling attendance rates by allowing some students to work from home two days a week.  The trial will be run by Hagley College, who will be offering 20 students the opportunity to do “hybrid learning”.  Students will attend 16 hours of the core subjects —maths, science, and English— a week, with three days of in-person learning, and two days of online learning.  Tim O’Connor, Headmaster at Auckland Grammar, told Kerre Woodham that Hagley is entitled to make whatever decisions they see fit for their school community, but from his point of view, they need students attending school on a daily basis.  He said there’s much to be learned from being in a physical classroom, such as socialisation skills, routines and scheduling, and the Socratic style of learning that occurs within a classroom environment.    LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s been nearly a year since the Government changed hands, and Opposition Leader Chris Hipkins is back with Kerre Woodham to answer the hard-hitting questions.   Hipkins is pointing his finger at the coalition for slowing infrastructure down because of a lack of bipartisanship.  Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop has been urging parties to work across the House to secure a solid building pipeline.   But Labour leader Hipkins says it's the new Government which has been more partisan on infrastructure investment.   He told Kerre Woodham the coalition put a whole lot of things on hold already underway after the election.  Hipkins says many of those projects need to happen anyway, so when Labour regains power they won't stop things already started just because it wasn't their priority.  WATCH ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We're going a little bit back to the future today because the annual report card into the grocery industry came out yesterday, and we were overrun with health talk. So we'll go back to that report and look at the ramifications for the industry, for the suppliers, and for us, the consumers.   So according to the report, we are paying higher prices, specials are confusing, and loyalty schemes aren't delivering overly significant rewards. Paying $10,500 for a glass container isn't really enough in terms of loyalty (if you're collecting the stickers from New World, you'll know what I mean). According to the ComCom’s first annual grocery report all major supermarkets experienced an increase in price cost margins, which means retail prices were increasing faster than the cost of the goods. Those wanting to enter the market are not finding it easy. Despite 150,000 members signing up to Costco by March, Costco still suffered a $20 million loss. Restrictive land covenants were hampering new entry for new players and existing ones. The Commission has already prosecuted Foodstuffs North Island for historical abuses, grabbing land and holding on to it so nobody else can build there.   We also saw alternative grocery shopping places like Huckleberry shut down – that's been around forever and that's been placed into liquidation. Online retailer Supie failed, Bin Inn closed 5 stores, so it's tough, it's a tough market out there. And it's tough for Foodstuffs and Woolworths too, I'm sure. They've had to pay increased costs, and security guards, and thefts and the like, it has not been easy for them. They've had to look after their staff, who face relentless barrages of abuse, and probably this report card won't help.   So, it's not an easy industry to be in right now. It's a much, much tougher one to get into if you want to. While the number of covenants around land had decreased, the Commission has expressed concern at the more than 100 properties currently owned by major retailers that are not being used for stores, with no immediate plans to put a supermarket there. The Commissioner said, well, yes, I suppose some of these properties could be used for car parks or storage, but they certainly included potential expansion sites when properties held for more than 20 years were considered. Sue Chetwin from the Grocery Action Group, told Ryan Bridge on Early Edition that the government needs to show its teeth if we want to see any significant change to the market.   “All of the rules that they've put in place, all very well meaning, but have not worked. They have really just tinkered around the edge, so unless you make some structural change to encourage competition or to allow competition to happen, then we're just going to get more of the same.”  Yeah, and that's the thing. There was a Commerce Commission report, there were some prosecutions, the duopoly of Foodstuffs and Woolworths were put on notice, and nothing happened. If anything, it's got slightly worse. So the government is interested in turning up the heat, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says he plans to seek advice on the sites currently being land banked, alongside broader regulatory reviews that could lead to potential change, including the Overseas Investment Act and the Fair Trading Act.   What about the concerns of suppliers? We've looked at consumers and said, yep, you're paying more than you need to for food, even taking into account seasonal fluctuations, even taking into account everything's more expensive, what the report says is that the increase in price cost margins has given them a greater profit than they needed to have. The report says a monthly index of suppliers prices produced by Informetrics for Foodstuffs North Island and pumped out to the media —in fact it was referred to in the press release following the release of the ComCom report yesterday— has consistently failed to include the impact of so-called trade spend, the impact of rebates, discounts, and payments that run to billions of dollars annually on the prices supermarkets actually pay to their suppliers. The report stopped short of calling this lying, Business Desk said let's settle for embarrassing.   So what does this all mean? We are a very small country. We're not even as big as most cities in the United States, so anybody who's interested in coming here from overseas has to know that they'll make a profit. Even if the government arranged for a prime piece of real estate in the middle of Auckland, New Zealand's biggest city, and earmarked it for an overseas player and said come, haere mai, haere mai, this land is yours, put your supermarket up there, fill your boots. I'm not entirely sure they'd make a profit. It’s a huge investment. It's a huge investment in building up relationships that cannot happen overnight with suppliers. It takes time, and the reason that Foodstuffs and Woolworths are so successful is that they are old companies. They're very old. Certainly with Foodstuffs when you trace their whakapa back, they are part of the landscape back to the 60s. So this has taken time to build, to get into this position of strength. And while there might be huge players overseas, they don't have that network of contacts, that history, that the others do here. It's got to be worth their while. They've got to know that they're going to make money if they up sticks and invest here. How likely is that?   Is there any real likelihood of a third player? What's it going to take to get real competition? Is it going to take a coalition government that really doesn't like regulation? Are they going to have to swallow a dead mouse and say we'll have to regulate this industry because they're not doing it themselves?   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A new recycling scheme has launched today.  Developed by the Packaging Forum, it aims to capture and recycle the myriad of plastic and metal caps and lids that currently make their way to landfill.   Approximately 16,000 tonnes of caps and lids are in circulation annually, the equivalent of approximately 900 trucks of waste.  Collection boxes will be placed in supermarkets in Auckland, Christchurch, and Tauranga, with more to be added in coming weeks.  Packaging Forum CEO Rob Langford told Kerre Woodham the metal lids will be sold to metal recyclers across the country, the money then going to the Lions Foundation’s KanTabs programme to support kids with cancer.  The plastic, he said, will be prepackaged in Auckland before it’s shipped over to Australia for processing, with the aim of collecting enough that processing can be moved back to New Zealand.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There’s another option for those struggling to access a GP.  General Practitioners Aotearoa have said the concept of a “family doctor” is dead as the sector is crushed by rising costs, shortages, and high demands.  It can be difficult for people to get a consultation, with many clinics offering video calls instead of in-person consultations.  Southern Cross Health Insurance offers free online GP consultations for its members, the information from the appointment then going to the person’s primary GP.  Chief Medical Officer Dr Stephen Child joined Kerre Woodham to discuss the option and the struggles plaguing our crumbling health system.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I did want to have a look at the state of our primary healthcare – this is something we've looked at before, and I have absolutely no doubt that we will look at again. I do tend to agree with the GP advocacy group, General Practitioners Aotearoa, that the concept of the family doctor is dead. You're not going to get a Dr Finlay's Casebook again any time soon on the telly. You're not going to see a doctor who has not only looked after your primary health for much of your life, but also that of your family’s. These are the kinds of doctors that have gone the way of the moa.   Where I would disagree with the GPA is that they said you wouldn't see the sort of queues for GPs that we saw in South Auckland, in Remuera. I would argue it's just as difficult for people in the blue chip suburbs to get in to see a GP as it is in the poorer areas. It's just the people with disposable incomes can have other options.   A briefing given to Dr Shane Reti when he took over as Health Minister warned that New Zealand is at least 485 GPs short across the country. Remember trying to find the GP in Tokoroa? A GP was looking for somebody to take over the practice - all sorts of offers were put out there, nobody was interested. This number’s expected to grow to a shortage of between 750 and 1050 doctors in the next ten years. At least a quarter of a million Kiwis aren't enrolled with a practice. Many of them won't take on any new patients. 1,034,000 people said they struggled to access GP services because of cost in 2022/23, double the number of the previous year. And the impact of this of course is pressure on hospitals, emergency departments, specialist consultations and immunisation rates. Waiheke Island’s only afterhours medical clinic closed its doors yesterday; 24 practices and clinics in Canterbury, the Southern Region, Hawke’s Bay, and mid Central that provide after hours or urgent care experienced closures or reductions in hours in 2023 because there aren't enough GPs.   There is a tiny bit of good news... in March, the Health Minister pointed to work beginning on setting up a third medical school and record numbers of GP registrars as green shoot, but added, “I understand there are other parts of retention and remuneration we need to collaborate on.”   There is so much need everywhere, across every field, but GPs are in crisis. If a crisis can be something that continues for many, many years, because they have been saying for at least the past five years that they are struggling. Pre-Covid they were struggling. GPs were getting older, new doctors weren't training in the field, they were getting stressed and burnt out because they were seeing so many patients with so much need, and yet without them, they are such an important component of the country's overall health plan that you cannot have a healthy country without healthy GPs. Difficulty in accessing GPs results in pressure on EDs and poorer health outcomes once people do finally get treatment.   I've been with the same GP practice for about 25 years. I don't see the same GP; I've had a succession of really lovely, fabulous GPs come and go. The last one I was absolutely fabulous, but she now only works mornings because she's trying to manage herself, and her family, and her practice, and it's all just overwhelming. It was three weeks before I could get in to see a GP. You expect to have to wait. If it's urgent, they do their best. If it's urgent, you try and get into an afterhours clinic, but you have to have the money to pay and there has to be an afterhours clinic open near you.   So like I say, difficulty in accessing GPs no matter where you are in the country, but if you have money, if you have disposable income, you can get a result a lot more easily. Do we try and attract them from overseas? Do we try and attract young people, pay their student loans if they become a GP?  We've seen what happens when you try and attract somebody with money and all the add-ons and the bells and whistles to get to Tokoroa.  If they don't want to, they don't want to. Have the days of the family doctor gone the way of the moa? We just have to adapt to a new way, a new style of doing things.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.