Kerre Woodham Mornings Podcast

Chef Tony Astle from Parnell’s iconic Antoine’s restaurant joins Kerre Woodham to dive into his the good and the bad of dining experiences both around New Zealand and internationally.  He digs into the service, the decor, and of course, the food, inspiring listeners to give new dining experiences a try.  Also on offer is the Recipe of the Week, and this week he’s serving up Leek and Potato Soup.    Ingredients:  2 large leeks, finely sliced  3 large onions, roughly chopped  3 large agria potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced  1.5 litres chicken or vegetable stock (may be instant, but beware of saltiness)  1tsp white pepper  150 grams butter     Method:  1. Cut the leeks in half lengthways (wash and finely slice)  2. Roughly chop the onions  3. Thinly slice the potatoes  4. In a large pot, melt the butter. Add the onions, leeks and potatoes (plus white pepper)  5. Slowly cook (sweat, don't brown) for approximately 5 minutes, stirring constantly.  6. Add the hot stock. Stir and bring to a boil, then simmer for 25 minutes.  7. Cool slightly, then blend until smooth in a food processor (or stick blender), depending on the texture required (you may strain or not).  8. When reheating, add cream to taste.  9. The soup may be frozen after blending.  10. Instead of leeks, you may like to replace with carrots or pumpkin.    LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Every two weeks on a Friday, I send a silent thank you to the payroll people at NZME who put the pot of gold into my account that pays my bills. My paycheques are bit like one of those jump jets that lands on an aircraft carrier ever so briefly before bouncing off and up again. Pay packet comes in to land, pops down and whoosh, off again into the wild blue yonder. Still, it's there. My bills are paid, and I appreciate the work our team do to make that happen. It is not a job I would ever want to do or be particularly good at, especially in this modern working environment with sick days off here and new annual leave days off there, and entitlements here and wanting to take a holiday even though you haven't worked for the company for a year so that puts you into negative leave there. I mean it would be a headache every time you got up in the morning before you'd even got to it.   It all sounds incredibly complicated, which I guess is why Workplace Minister Brooke Van Velden is looking at updating the Holidays Act. She announced the review in her speech at the Pacific Economic Development Agency yesterday and said changes in a draft bill could include pro-rating sick leave to basically make sick leave proportionate to how many hours the employee works.  “One of the areas that I've heard a lot of concern by is that businesses have struggled to adapt to the last governments increase in the sick leave to 10 days, and I'm trying to bring in a bit of proportionality there and say yes, if you've got part time staff members, is it proportional for all of those part time workers to also have 10 days? And I'll give you a really good example of how this works, I had a person who works in a dental practice reach out to the office, they said this person who's a dental hygienist works two days a week for them, two days a week for another company, they're entitled to 20 days sick leave under the law. That's disproportionate to what a full-time worker would get. So, we're making it easier to understand and comply with, for a whole range of different work environments.”  Okay. So, I notice that those who are against everything, basically anything that comes out of the coalition government, they’re against, but in this particular case, those who are against said, oh, it means they're not going to get as much sick leave as the full-time worker. That sick leave will be reduced under this bill. Well, yes, if you're working two days a week, should you get the same amount of sick leave as somebody who works full-time? In some cases, right now, the government of unintended consequences saw somebody getting 20 days when they should have only had ten. That seems fair, doesn't it? Brooke van Velden also said that annual leave would be under review. She has proposed shifting to an accrual system.  “Well, annual leave is currently a proportionate, so you might get four weeks annual leave at the end of 12 months of continuous employment. We're bringing that back to accruing annual leave, which means that you'd accrue it over time. Doesn't matter that you've been there for 12 months or not. But one thing I'd make clear is that doesn't mean that people would get less annual leave than what they currently get. That is part of one of those technical changes that you're talking about.”  Ahh technical changes! That was Brooke van Velden the Workplace Minister talking to Heather du Plessis-Allan last night. So, if you are one of those magic people that puts the pots of gold into all of our accounts at different times of the month, is it complicated? You know, there are entire software departments set up for payroll, so I imagine it is. And with the modern working environment where you're working from home, and you're working part time, and you've got flexy leave and what have you, I can imagine it would be a real nightmare. What is fair and what is not?  As a result of the unintended consequences, are we seeing people who are getting more than they're entitled to compared to their full-time colleagues? Nobody wants to be ripped off. We don't want to go back to the days of slave labour. And yes, you should get days off for part time work if you're sick.    As the boss was saying, if Helen gets sick, we call in a part-timer to fill in for Helen. They get sick, so he has to get somebody else. So, he's paying three people now. And if you're a larger company, you can take a deep breath and absorb that. If you're a smaller company, how on earth do you sustain that? And there are people who know how to play the system. Most don't. I based that on no figures whatsoever. I just made that up. I'm assuming that most people appreciate going to work. That they even if they don't enjoy the job, they enjoy getting paid and standing on their own two feet and making their own destiny. If you're lucky, you enjoy what you do as well. So, I'm assuming most of us don't play the system.   And think right, I'm going to have a couple of well days, which I think a lot of companies even supply anyway, but I'm going to take a couple of well days because I haven't used my 10 days sick leave. I know I only work two days a week and I've taken 8 days sick leave, despite the fact I only worked two days a week, but I'm going to take what I'm entitled to and just lie in the sun and read a book. I don't think that's fair. I think you should only take it when you're sick or when your children are sick.   Call me old fashioned but I don't think 10 days sick leave is an entitlement necessarily. I think it's insurance for if you get sick. You don't take it as a matter of course. And I think there are plenty of cases where employers show a generosity beyond what they're legally required to do. If somebody does get genuinely sick with a long-term illness.  If you're a valued employee, they will look after you. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ahead of Dry July, Canterbury Rugby teams are being challenged to pick alcohol free alternatives.  Throughout June, South Canterbury Rugby Football Union is teaming up with Te Whatu Ora, Fire and Emergency, the Police, and South Canterbury Road Safety, asking people to ‘Be a Hero: Try Zero’.  Club members are being encouraged to choose zero alcohol beverages in an initiative aimed at reducing alcohol related harm in the community and destigmatising zero alcohol choices.  Tim Hyde-Smith, CEO of South Canterbury Rugby, told Kerre Woodham that it’s all about looking after their players not only in regard to alcohol, but also their mental, emotional, and physical health, as well as supporting them in their relationships.  He said that whichever club drinks the most zero alcohol beverages will win a tackle mat worth $1,200, plus a pizza shout.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When I was hunting around trying to find a new home a couple of years ago, looking at everything, among the everything I looked at was a number of apartments in the city. City life appealed. I could walk to work, walk to the theatres, walk to the Comedy Club, the library, the art gallery, cool cafes and shopping precincts just a couple of blocks away, all a single woman of a certain age could possibly want. As it was, my circumstances changed and my family and I ended up buying a home together, and I have to say that I am jolly glad my dream of a bougie inner city pad did not come to fruition. Because that's all it would have been, a dream.   The reality is that the inner city, just like every other inner city in New Zealand, has changed beyond recognition. Name me one inner city in the country that's thriving, doing really well. Bustling, happy, energised, retailers thriving, cafes gorgeous, just people milling around, having a lovely time?  I'll wait.   During the Covid years, when the homeless and the needy were put into inner city motels and backpackers, and when city residents abandoned the inner city itself and stayed within their suburbs, the CBD was given over to the halt, the lame, and the dispossessed. The sad and the bad. And we have yet to reclaim those urban spaces, or at least to make room for ourselves in those urban spaces. There should be a place for everyone in our communities. There used to be a place for everyone in our communities. You know, people who were living in halfway homes were part of the community and they were considered as such. But now we seem to be simply overwhelmed and no one seems to know how to move on beggars, drug pushers, the idle, the violent.   The City Mission says if you move on rough sleepers, it's simply a case of Whack-A-Mole - they'll pop up somewhere else and probably you're right. And Police Minister Mark Mitchell says things are improving as a result of a stronger police presence.  “We know that we've got a long way to go. I mean rough sleepers, you heard the Commissioner, talking about that. That's not something that police can fix and that's why I'm meeting with all stakeholders, including the Mayor next week, so that we can have a joined-up approach to continue to move in the right direction. But we are, we are starting to see crime trend down in the CBD. The police are doing a good job, they have increased their foot patrols by 60%. They are more visible, and the feedback was very positive around that.”  Are things better? I've been into inner city Auckland twice in the past month and although I wasn't accosted by a strange ranty person this time, I did park pretty close to my destinations and I did not linger. Inner cities are not places for promenading or taking in the sights. I'm thinking of Wellington here. Not great. What are the other inner cities I've been to recently? Tauranga dead. I'd say in the last two months Auckland, Tauranga, Wellington, none of them have been thriving. I'm not saying none are. I'd love to hear from you if you are in a city where you think the hub of the city is alive and well.   But the inner city, it used to be a treat to go into town in all our inner cities. But now when I think inner city, I don't think high end shops, a treat, an occasion. I think I hope I don't get yelled at or, in the worst-case scenario, bashed. The footage of that absolute Neanderthal who elbowed an elderly woman in the throat last month just ripped my nighty. It was on Newshub last night. The incident happened last month, but they replayed it, the sort of random act of mindless violence that you could encounter when you're in the inner city. I urge you to look at it because in this case, a picture does indeed paint 1000 words. It's right in the heart of Federal Street where there are the very popular cafes, Sky City, and an elderly, a little frail lady, a tourist as it transpired, is walking along the street, minding her own business, harmless. This absolute thug comes striding down the street and not even looking at her, doesn't even glance at her and shoves his great meaty elbow into her throat, and she goes straight backwards. Hits the ground with a thud. Doesn't see it coming because nobody in their right mind would expect that sort of violence. Nobody in their right mind would commit that sort of violence. I can't even imagine what is going on in those synapses to make him think that that was okay.  Here's the frailest little person I can see, so I'm going to hurt her. She was in a serious but stable condition in hospital last time and a 43-year-old man has been arrested. Honestly.   And that's unfortunately, what you think of when you think of inner cities. And I would love to hear from you if you are in the inner city if it's your home, or it's your place of work. Right around the country who can say hand on heart that their inner city hub is thriving? That they consider it a joy to be there, to be in amongst vibrant inner city living? The unintended consequence of putting people who had nowhere else to go into the backpackers in the inner city motels means that the number of people who are in desperate need of some sort of professional help far outweighs those who just want to get about their business. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Six thousand years ago these words were inscribed on an Egyptian tomb: “Young people no longer respect their parents. They're rude and impatient. They frequently inhabit taverns and have no self-control.” And then along came Plato in the 4th century BC, and this is probably the one you're more familiar with if you've heard the quote, “What has happened to our young people, they disrespect their elders, they disobey their parents. They ignore the law. They riot in the streets, inflamed with wild notions. Their morals are decaying. What is to become of them?” Plato bemoaned four centuries before Christ. He could have been writing about the oiks in Horowhenua in 2024.   More than 200 cars, each with a number of passengers on the inside, gathered in a car park at around 8pm on Saturday in Levin, and then convoyed through the streets at the intersection of Queen Street and State Highway 57, attempting to do burnouts at the location. Police tried to disrupt the activity and move them on, but they were hopelessly outnumbered, and the patrol cars were kicked by bystanders, who also threw bottles at the cars. Two officers suffered injuries. Police Minister Mark Mitchell said this morning on the Mike Hosking Breakfast that police have become punching bags for these oiks. (Oiks is my word, not his, but I'm sure he'd have used it if he thought he could get away with it.) They have no respect for police and it's time to get tough.  “The problem is at the moment, they seize the vehicles, they’re impounded for a while and then they go back. I want to seize the vehicles and keep them because I think that would be a real deterrent. If these boy racers realise that they come out, they're actually going to lose their vehicles.”  That was Mark Mitchell, the Police Minister, saying don't just impound the vehicles for a period of time - take the ringleaders, take their cars and keep them. Society has always been at a loss as to what to do with problem children as you've heard. Six thousand years ago, the Egyptians were bemoaning them. New Zealand's own Mazengarb report was produced in July ‘54. Oswald Mazengarb was a lawyer who was appointed by the Government to chair a special committee on moral delinquency in children and adolescence, after a teenage sex scandal in Lower Hutt and other high-profile incidents such as a milk bar murder in Auckland and the Parker-Hume killing. The report was sent to every New Zealand home and basically blamed juvenile delinquency on inadequate parental supervision. And Oswald advocated a return to Christianity and traditional values. Working mothers also had the finger pointed at them, excessive wages paid to teenagers, the influence of American films, comics and other literature all contributed to the problem, and Oswald's findings were that there should be new legislation introducing stricter censorship and restrictions on giving contraceptive advice to young people. Brilliant.   And now in 2024, we're still bemoaning the youth of today in their anti-social behaviour. I do not think in the case of the Levin car hoons restricting contraceptive advice will do the trick and bring them to heel. It didn't work in 1954, it won't work in 2024. But for their own good, the minority of those who behave badly need to know there will be consequences for when they're behaving badly. You cannot just say ‘oh well kids will be kids’. We used to need them to be bold and reckless when we had citizen armies because they were the heroes, they were the brave ones, they were the ones who would be the first to put up their hands and race across hostile terrain to take out the sniper's nest, thus saving the battalion. We don't need them for that anymore, thank heavens. But it doesn't mean they get a free ride. It doesn't mean they get to ride through the streets of whichever town or city in New Zealand they choose and get away with it. You can't outnumber them. It's the same with the gangs.  There aren't enough police to outnumber them, to go Mano a Mano, one-on-one. But you can do it smart. You can use the technology to work out who the ringleaders are, who the worst of them are or just use a few as an example.    ‘It's not fair. I was just looking.’ Don't care, you were there. It’s for their own good, and I'm sure Plato would have said that, Socrates would have said that, the unknown Egyptian tomb writer would have said that, and Oswald Mazengarb would have said that. It really is for your own good to know there are limits to what you can do and what you can get away with. I think taking the cars off them is a very, very good start. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

David Seymour says they had no choice over leaving 13 new cancer drugs out of the Budget, breaking a National campaign promise.  The ACT leader told Kerre Woodham that the Government inherited a financially struggling Pharmac, and made some tough choices.  He says a Coalition Government can't keep all promises.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A deal's been made with New Zealand’s Aluminium Smelter to keep the smelter at Tiwai operating for the next 20 years.   The agreement includes a significant demand response deal to make more electricity available for the country when it may be required during times of high demand.  It also has commitments for the environmental remediation of the smelter site.  Invercargill Mayor Nobby Clark told Kerre Woodham that this is outstanding news for the region.  He said that there was a nervousness as to how much power Tiwai needs and where that power could be diverted to other industries, but it seems as though power companies are able to deal with both.  It’s outstanding, Clark said, as they have other industries wanting to make their way into Invercargill.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Donald Trump has become the first former US president to be convicted of a crime.  The former US president's charges are in connection to a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels in the final weeks of the 2016 election.  He was found guilty of 34 felony charges but will appeal the outcome.  US Correspondent Katherine Firkin told Kerre Woodham that now that the verdict has been reached, Trump will try to turn it around and turn himself into a martyr.  She said that there’s already Trump supporters who support him no matter what, and there are already people saying that the trial is a political witch hunt, and he’s a victim for the cause.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We need information. To create a functioning society, there's certain information that we need to know. How many of us there are in the country for starters. How old we all are, so we know where we need to build schools and what sort of aged care we might need in the future. Roads, public transport, all that sort of stuff depends on knowing where we all are, who we all are, where we work. So many questions and so many answers needed. And since 1851, we've been getting that information via the Census.   People from the statistics department would come on foot, or by horse, or on boats, or by tram, or by train, or by bus, or by cars and drop off forms to dwellings, as they're called, and New Zealanders filled them out. Then the stats people would come along and collect them. Then the number crunchers would sharpen their pencils and do their thing every five years.   But times change and attitudes change, and not everybody trusts the government the way they used to. There was a great big data dump from Stats New Zealand yesterday with all sorts of factoids coming out of it. But are the factoids worth the paper they are printed on? The backbone data system effectively broke during the Census of 2023 causing significant failures, according to internal Stats New Zealand documents. The Azure Cloud Storage System used simply wasn't capable of handling the torrent of responses and that led to an estimated 100,000+ unnecessary field visits. At the backlogs peak a million individual and dwelling forms were queued, and the backlog wasn't cleared until April the 3rd. So, really? You've got all of this data coming in. I mean, bring back the pencil sharpeners really, and bring back the accountants, and bring back the men with the pocket protectors, and the walk shorts, and the knee socks, because they seem to do a far better job than the Azure Cloud Storage System has ever done.   Then you have the human frailties factor. People on Heather's show yesterday were texting and saying they've ticked all sorts of boxes that bore no relation to reality. That they wanted to get the jab, and they wanted to get it early so they ticked the Māori box because they wanted to get the vaccination when Māori did. They said I know loads of people that did it, why shouldn't they? I identified as Māori, says Tim, for the Census and it works well for me. I also identify as Māori for all medical work, it improves Māori stats for health, crime, and income, all of the stats says the texter. A friend of mine, who's as white as anyone you could imagine identified as Māori, within a couple of weeks he was notified he was eligible for some free screening, whereas if he had put European, it would have been another seven or so years. When you when you take into account the fact that a lot of people don't trust the government, a lot of people will just tick whatever when people don't trust the government to be able to protect the information they're giving them, when some of the questions seemed very, very odd in the last Census.   I remember when I was doing nights on talk back and asked to fill out the Census between a specific set of hours. I wasn't there. I was at work. So, they rang me and said right, we need you to sit down and do it with us, when are you free? And I said, well, from about 12:15 to 2:00am, plenty of time. That's when I relax and I've got nothing to do. That's when I usually do my paperwork. Oh well, we don't have anybody on. Well, you asked me when I was free, I'm a shift worker. And presumably when you have shift workers who can't fill out their Census because they're at work then you might have to look at stats and Census information seekers who can work beyond 9 to 5.   So, all sorts of issues with the Census. Is there any way to collect the information we need to run our society effectively that you would trust?  When it comes to the Census, did you fill it out accurately and correctly and properly and with due diligence? Or did you extract the Michael?  Did you take the Mickey and think this is just all a load of nonsense? It really isn't. You understand that we need the information to know where to build the schools, to know where the population is, to know where you're working so we can get the public transport, to know how many oldies there are going to be twenty years from now, so we can have the aged care ready for them. You understand that? You don't trust government or government systems and you've seen them fail, so how do we get the information that we need? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The result is in for New Zealand Rugby’s long-awaited governance vote.  Proposal Two, the structure put forth by the country’s provincial unions has won with 69 votes.  The proposal includes a stipulation that at least three of NZR’s nine board directors must have experience serving on a provincial board, in contrast with proposal one —backed by NZR and the players— which wanted all nine directors to be entirely independent.  ZB’s Rugby Correspondent Elliott Smith told Kerre Woodham that it hasn't been a pleasant period, and the arguments and division hasn’t been a great look for the game.  He said that what happens next is anyone's guess.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.