Kerre Woodham Mornings Podcast

Mistakes happen. We get that, we've all made them. Some are more serious than others. Some are fixable, some are not. But as old Mr. Martin said in the LV Martin and TV ads, it's the putting right that counts.   There was no doubt, almost from the time the Transpower pylon tower hit the ground, that somebody within that crew had made a fundamental error. We had callers in, the morning of the tower collapse, who pretty much delivered the same findings that the official investigators produced days later. The tower fell because the crew that was performing routine base plant maintenance work didn't follow standard practice and they removed all of the nuts from three of the tower four legs, and it fell over. That human error caused the incident that cut power to tens of thousands of people and cost an estimated $60 million to householders and businesses.   Northland's been hit pretty hard over the past few years with the Covid lockdowns, major closures and weather events, and then the pylon collapse. Some of the events have been acts of God, and you just have to accept that life is not always easy. Sometimes bad things happen to good people. You take a deep breath, and you carry on. But when a major company is responsible for a seismic interruption to business, when there was insufficient supervision of inexperienced workers who hadn't received any formal training for the work they were doing, who weren't certified for the tasks they completed unsupervised, that the inexperienced team member who removed the nuts from the foundation legs was not adequately supervised while performing the task... come on, this is not one of those things! This is not an oh well, we can't control the weather or well, it's a tricky little virus that needs to be controlled situation, this is a SNAFU. This is a FUBAR. And companies should take responsibility when they make fundamental errors or their contractors do.   Ultimately, Transpower is responsible for delivering the part of the region. They shouldn't be trying to weasel their way out of their obligations. Transpower acting CEO John Clarke said compensation for businesses won't be happening: “Given the challenges and practicalities for utilities, of all the things that can happen to interrupt supply, there's not any way that we can compensate them.” It is simply not good enough. This is under oh well you know, one of those things. It's not one of those things, it's a major stuff up.   North Chamber Chief Executive Darryn Fisher says Transpower needs to front up.   “In a place like Kaitaia, where 600 people are reliant on one big business staying alive, the direct result of what has happened here with Transpower puts those things in jeopardy. And I'm calling for the board and that management team to put their big boy pants on, get on an airplane, get up here, and front up to these local communities and explain why their negligence is putting their livelihoods at risk.”   “Transpower have got values on their website talking about how they're good social citizens, and how they're good community people, well what they're about to do through their negligence and avoiding all of this conversation is absolutely crush a workforce and small community towns like Kaitaia.”  And Northland MP Grant McCallum says transfer needs to open up their chequebook for Northland.   “People like myself, the leaders of Northland, sit down with Transpower and say, actually you owe the people of Northland. There's a lot of anger out there. You've heard it from the business community this morning. They're really frustrated. They feel that they have their owed something. And actually the wider community, which has been my pitch, is for the wider community to get a decent cheque from Transpower which we can use to benefit all of Northland, because everybody was affected, the power went out to the whole province.”  It's just not good enough. I mean, come back to what John Clarke said, the Acting Chief Executive: “Given the challenges and practicalities for utilities, of all the things that can happen to interrupt supply”. Well sure, weather events. I totally understand that Transpower can't control those. There are things that can happen that are beyond your control, this is not one of them. This is contracting out to a crew who weren’t up to the task quite clearly. If it had happened to any one of these businesses that had been affected, if they'd made an error of that magnitude, that could be traced back to incompetence and inadequate supervision, you can bet your bippy that they would have to pay, that they would have to recompense their customers. This is a fundamental human error, it is not one of those things, and it is high time in this country that when we made mistakes, we owned to them, and we did our best to mitigate them.   I'm sick and tired of people washing their hands of responsibility. Of going, you know what, you know it happens, we stuffed up and you know, so what? $60 million to householders and businesses who are already doing it tough. Like the man said, put your big boy pants on, own this, it's on you. Not on the businesses, not on the householders who were affected, they're already dealing with enough that they can't control, this is something that should have been controlled, it wasn't. Pay up. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dave Letele is a former rugby league player, retired professional boxer, and community and social activist.   He’s retracing his personal and confronting journey with gangs, addiction, and alcohol in his documentary series ‘Heavyweight’, uncovering rarely told stories and doing a “vital reality check” on life in Aotearoa.  Tonight’s episode focuses on the rise of gangs and associated criminal activity, investigating the complexities of gang culture in New Zealand, along with its impact on communities and individuals.  Letele joined Kerre Woodham to give a bit of a preview of what the episode has to offer, as well as well as look at a few of the challenges gang members face in moving away from that life.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bloody hell. If there is anyone who is entitled to go on a little light trauma induced shoplifting spree, it would be ACT MP Karen Chhour. For those who don't know her background, Karen grew up in the state care system. She was elected to parliament as an ACT Party MP in 2020 with the goal of reforming Oranga Tamariki, having seen rather more of it than most of us have. Before politics, she was self-employed in the New Zealand made clothing industry. She's a mother of four and she's lived on Auckland's North Shore for the past 30 years. So just the sort of person you'd like to see in Parliament: life experience, lived experience, a mum, firm stake in the future of the country for her children, self-employed, hard worker. Exactly the sort of person you'd like to see.   Well, we'd like to see. If you're a Māori Labour MP or a member of Te Pati Māori, oh no, you don't want Karen Chhour in Parliament. Because she might be Māori, but she's not the right sort of Māori, is she? For those people, it's not enough to whakapapa back. You have to be their sort of Māori. Which means that although we have a record number of Māori who have been elected to this Parliament on their merits, most of them got there because they were the best person for the job. There are 33 MPs of Māori descent across all of the six parties. Nine in Labour. Six in Te Pati Māori, six in the Greens, five in National, four in New Zealand First, three in ACT.  You would have to say that's a really good representation across all political viewpoints. But no. To the ones on the left, the ones on the right of the political spectrum do not count. They are simply not the right sort of Māori. And no one, it appears, is more wrong than Karen Chhour.   Former Labour Deputy Leader, the late and unlamented Kelvin Davis said in 2022, Chhour needs to leave her “Pākehā world” and stop looking at the world through a “vanilla lens”. Willie Jackson urged her to cross the bridge, to come over from the Pākehā to the Māori. Labour MP Willow Jean Prime called her a “sellout” during the first reading of the Oranga Tamariki Amendment bill. A comment on social media from Te Pati Māori said Chhour had a “disconnection and disdain for her people”. “If it was done right, she would have been raised mildly, should have been raised being connected to her whakapapa and having a knowingness of her Māori tongue. Instead, she was raised Pākehā with a disconnection and disdain for her people”. “Karen and her experience is exactly why we need Section 7 AA”. Later, a Te Pati Māori MP said Chhour had been made a puppet by her party. What a pack of righteous offensive bigots. No wonder Karen Chhour is feeling under siege.   “I can't control what the public is saying about my personal traits around being Māori enough or not being the right kind of traumatised person. Hearing it from other MP's that shouldn't be allowed. I'm still a person. I'm still a person and I feel like I'm getting that stripped away from me day by day in this place. I've had enough. I asked for an apology, that's all I wanted, and I didn't get one, and that is so disrespectful.”  Yeah, it is. It's disrespectful and it's offensive. And will Speaker of the House Gerry Brownlee do anything about it? Nope. He's not going to go down as one of the all-time greats, is he? ACT Party leader David Seymour says the speaker appears to be giving a green light to racial harassment in Parliament.   So what is Māori enough? Is Dr. Shane Reti Māori enough? Good luck telling Shane Jones he's not Māori enough. James Meager gave a great maiden speech... oh, he's National, so he probably doesn't count. He is Māori, but on the right of the political spectrum, so probably not Māori enough. He said the left do not own Māori. They don't own the poor and they don't own the workers. No party and no ideology has a right to claim ownership over anything or anyone, and Amen to that, James.   I'm not Māori enough to say what is Māori and what is not. I have never in the time I've read about the history of this country known all Māori to think the same way. Iwi aren’t united in their views, hapu aren’t united, and people within hapu aren't united in their views. People and families aren't united in their views. Who the hell are Te Pati Māori and those sanctimonious mealy-mouthed arses on the left to decide what it is to be Māori and whether you're Māori enough? Surely being Māori enough is having the confidence to know who you are, to decide how you want to vote, to decide which ideology you best think will improve the lot of your people, which is why you entered Parliament. How very bloody dare they. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

ACT Leader David Seymour is alleging racism in Parliament over select committee tensions and claims of personal attacks towards MP Karen Chhour.  The ACT Party says its confidence in the Speaker of the House is “falling by the day”, accusing Gerry Brownlee of failing to address racial harassment in Parliament.  Seymour told Mike Hosking this morning they wrote to the Speaker, calling the issues 'serious.'  He says the response suggested there was no issue.  Former National MP and Speaker of the House Sir Lockwood Smith joined Kerre Woodham to discuss how he’d approach such a situation.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today marks the end of Dry July, an annual campaign that challenges people to abstain from alcohol to raise funds for cancer support organisations.  For some people, July has them realising they’d rather stay sober.  Kerre Woodham was joined by Maree MacLean, the author of ‘The No B*llshit Guide to Staying Sober’ for a chat about staying sober.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There simply must be a better way of dealing with mental health patients rather than relying on police. For years now, police men and women have been left to pick up the pieces of broken minds because of a lack of resources within the beleaguered mental health sector. But more than the lack of resources is the lack of will on the part of the mental health sector. When you're overworked, when you're under resourced, and you have somebody else doing the heavy lifting, (that is the police) why on Earth would you make more work for yourself? Why on Earth would you if you were a crisis counsellor, a mental health worker, go out on strike and demand that you be given resourcing for crisis teams to go and pick up the mentally unwell and stop the police doing it? You're just not going to, are you? You've got bigger fish to fry simply putting one foot in front of the other and getting through the shift.   But it is simply not right that the police are the babysitters for the mentally ill, simply because no other government agency will do it. They won't, and they know the police are last resort. Hospital staff say they can't be left to look after people who are a danger to themselves and other people. They don't have the resources or the personnel, and I have seen the charge nurses in ED’s going no, no, you needn't think you're leaving her here to the police officers who bring them in. I haven't got the people. I cannot have two or three nurses sitting here looking after this person while we wait for them to be seen, when really there's nothing physically wrong with them. Nothing. I've got screaming babies running high temperatures. I've got people who can't breathe. I've got broken arms. I've got seven ambulances out the back.   And the police can't leave somebody who is having an episode on their own. And the reason they can't is because nobody else will take the responsibility and nobody else cares, because they have to care more about what's in front of them. Mental health workers say they simply can't produce crisis teams out of thin air, people who are trained to defuse tense situations and provide the sort of triaging necessary when dealing with somebody who's in the midst of a mental health crisis. But that's not the job of the police, either. And yet they're left with it because they can't strike. They can't lobby, and they can't strike, and they can't refuse. And so, because of that, other government agencies are using and abusing them. The police in the past haven't been able to say we haven't got the staff either, and besides, this is not our job. Until now.   Recent changes have seen officers not attending 111 calls relating to mental health if there is no immediate risk to safety or if it's deemed no immediate risk to safety. There are plans to transfer some of those 111 calls to the non-emergency 105 line, and police have been directed that they should only spend a maximum of 60 minutes waiting in ED’s with mental health patients, then it becomes somebody else's problem. I mean, 60 minutes, you're not going to be seen in 60 minutes, but they are going to have to walk away and then it becomes the responsibility of the overworked ED departments. At least they have the luxury of striking. The nurses can say no, we're not doing this until we get the staff, until we get the highly trained staff we need to be able to manage these patients. The police don't have that option. It's the mental health workers and the health agencies who need to be lobbying for extra resources, extra staff, the ability to care for these people, not the police. And what the hell are the police doing there in the first place? Most of these patients that they're dealing with are sad, not bad. They're just very sad people in the midst of a mental health crisis who haven't committed a crime. What the hell are the police doing there? They're there because it's been dumped on them, because other agencies know they can't refuse.   Mark Mitchell said yesterday that police need to draw a line in the sand.   “There's always going to be times when police are going to be required, but there's many times that there aren't, and I think that the rest of the system has got used to always having the police. The police have always been seen as that 24/7 government agency and over time, they've picked up a whole lot of work that is not their core role, and other agencies are going to have to step up. They are going to have to build out some more capability. We are going to have to get smart around triaging and, and identifying what the actual need is and how we best respond to that. I know that it's been about a 60% increase in mental health call outs for police. Like I said to you that that is not sustainable.   “Look, if I use another example, I've been out on night shift with the staff, you had an ICAR, an incident car which has two police officers in it, that was called to a young woman that was having thoughts of self harm, a 19 year old. She needs proper support. She needs proper mental health and health for support wrapped around her. Those police officers were tied up for an entire shift sitting in an ED looking after her. They’re not trained to do that. And when people are actually putting up their hands when they are having to try and survive a violent domestic and there isn't a police car to attend because they're sitting in an ED babysitting and looking after someone that should actually be getting some proper mental health support, then the system is not working properly. It's certainly not working properly for us as a country. It's not working properly for the victims that actually need that support, need the police there when they put their hand up for help.”   Amen to that.   Where should people go when a family member is having a mental health crisis? Surely to goodness the first port of call would be a mental health crisis team, not the police. When the asylums were closed, when the mental hospitals were closed, families, patients, the community were promised that there would be the care necessary for those who find life tough. That hasn't happened. And there needs to be a line drawn in the sand. Just because the police have been the last resort for so many years, it's time to stop and make the agencies that should be in charge of these people. That should be giving them the help and the succour and the sort of tools they need to try and rebuild their life. It's mental health agencies, public health agencies job, not the job of police. Let the police get back to policing. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We thought we'd start this morning looking at the Justice Select Committee’s review of the Firearms Prohibition Orders Legislation Amendment Bill. Exciting stuff, it's all in the way you say it!  This is something that is part of a suite of reforms that the government is bringing in to help crack down on gangs. It's the job of the Justice Select Committee, which is made-up of all parties, to take into account the views of citizens who make submissions to consider them, to consider the legislation, to make sure it's good legislation that it's intended to do what it says it's going to do, that there are no unintended consequences as a result of the legislation. And as you can imagine, there's a bit of toing and froing on it.   But it made me think too about one of the great mysteries and conundrums in my life, and that is why police and licensed firearms users in this country aren't besties, because you're both on the same side. You're law abiding, guarantee the vast majority of both groups enjoy the outdoors. Many police would enjoy going hunting. You're not into thugs and bullies and law breakers, that's not what you're about. You're on the side of the angels, you know how to handle a weapon, unlike most other groups in the country. You enjoy the outdoors, you understand the need for firearms where other groups might not, and yet so many times when the issue of how best to manage the firearms inventory in this country and how to manage access to firearms comes up, police and firearms users end up metaphorically yelling at each other across a divide while the bad guys continue the drive by shootings. In a way, it's a colossal diversion for the unlawful, who just sit back, grab the popcorn, watch the licensed firearms users in the different lobby groups and the police yell at each other. And then once they scoff down the popcorn, a little light drive by shooting before a drive through at Macca’s and home, and that's a good day done if you're a gangster. And none of the words, and none of the legislation, and none of the argy bargy and the lobbying has affected them one little bit.   So we've got the firearms prohibition orders legislation Amendment Bill being discussed and the Justice Select Committee has recommended softening it, restricting what can be the subject of a warrantless search. They used as an example if somebody who owned a hotel and was under a firearms prohibitions order, you couldn't search all the rooms in the hotel. They’d have to be due reason to search the rooms, you couldn't just have a blanket policy of searching every single room in the hotel.   The bill is part of the Government’s crackdown on gangs, the FPO's are meant to place restrictions on high-risk individuals by reducing the likelihood of them accessing firearms. Now, I have a problem with the basic premise of that. If introducing a piece of legislation did indeed reduce the likelihood of a gangster getting a gun, go for it. But given what we know about how gangsters access their firearms, given what we know about the illegal importation and trade of all sorts of firearms that come into this country down through the South Pacific, you can get anything you like – birds, guns, drugs, probably ancient relics, you name it, it can be smuggled into the country and there's just no way of keeping tabs on it. So sure, bring in your arms prohibition order. I see you your firearms prohibition order and raise you six containers coming in from South America or China.    FPO's are already possible under legislation that was introduced from the previous government. And they thought, oh, voters are quite serious about this law and order thing, aren't they? Best we do something about it. Now 30 FPO's had been issued in the first 15 months of the law taking effect, eight of which were to gang members. The government's new bill would give police new warrantless search powers and pivot FPO's more towards gang members and their associates. They'd also be applicable to a much wider range of people, up to 3 1/2 times as many under the current law, because lower-level offences would be included. But the Justice Select Committee wants to see some of those provisions scaled back, fearing it will give the police too many powers. Nicole McKee, who's the Associate Justice Minister, says she understands the concerns of the committee but ultimately the government wants guns out of the hands of those who are doing the most harm.  “Some of the things that they have talked about is they're looking at who's captured by firearms prohibition orders. They want to decrease the number of eligible offenses, and they've got some concerns around the warrantless searches. And I take on board what they say. Some of it I agree with, some of it I don't, but at the end of the day, we need to stop the drive by shootings of innocent families that are being held to ransom by gangs and their illegal use of these weapons.”  And again, this is my sticking point. If legislation could do that, fill your boots, draft as many laws as you like. But until you can stop basically importation at will of anything anybody in the criminal underworld wants, it's utterly, utterly pointless. I mean, sure, give them the powers of search so they can have a look, that's great. But a Firearms Prohibition Order won't be worth the paper it's printed on. I suppose it sets up a process so that if you've got a Firearms Prohibitions Order against you, it means that the police can then trigger the search, but it's not going to stop you having a firearm.  Does anybody seriously think it's going to stop the shootings that are taking place? And you've now got innocent collateral who are being used in the drive by shootings, the parents of gangsters, the siblings of gangsters, the children of gangsters, they're all getting caught up in it as well.   So sure, bring in your firearms prohibition order, will that keep guns out of the hands of gangsters? Absolutely not. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Although Federated Farmers has found farmer confidence to be slipping, not every farmer feels that way.  The latest Farm Confidence survey shows that 66% of farmers consider the current economic climate to be bad, which is up 11% since January.  However, there are farmers who are keeping a more proactive, positive outlook, knowing that farming is a longterm game.  Mark Guscott of Glen Eden Farm in South Wairarapa told Kerre Woodham that he tries to associate himself with clever and on to it people, because otherwise it just drags you down.   He said that if you associate yourself with negative people, it just becomes a spiral.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Officials have tried multiple times to build a life-saving disaster coordination system, similar to those other countries have invested in.  But, New Zealand has shied away from its latest attempt, a Common Operation Platform.  Minister for Emergency Management and Recovery Mark Mitchell tells Kerre Woodham many people are working to figure out a way to bring information together quickly during times of disaster – but it is a complex solution to find.  Mitchell praises the work of Civil Defence controllers, first responders and local leadership during national emergencies and says collectively the system will be a heavy investment for the country.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ten young men will enter boot camp 2.0, more officially known as the Military Style Academy pilot. Not much is expected of these ten.   Critics argue that boot camps are cruel and unusual punishment that don't work and have never worked, so they won't work for this lot. Supporters of the boot camps really just want to see a few of the worst oiks punished with no real expectation that they'll be able to make anything of themselves, so really not much is expected of these ten young men.   It is true that previous boot camps haven't resulted in miraculous life transformations.   Reoffending rates were in the 80 and 90 percents - but then very few programs that try to address serious youth offending result in miraculous life transformations however you go about it, life just doesn't work like that.   If you look at the evaluation from the agencies, there's a program called Pae Whakatupuranga - low completion rate for programme, majority of those completed reporting making progress. Yeah. What is that? Most of the programmes didn't have strenuous evaluation (shock me) under the previous administration, so it was very hard, though a lot of it was self-reporting.   They're expensive - anything to do with serious youth offending is expensive. When it came to Youth Services, participants were slightly more likely to be on a benefit and more likely to be serving a community sentence one to two years after the programme.   So, you have to say that's not working, scrap that one. What does seem to be working is the LSV’s. You know, similar to the boot camp style. Participants have increased income, employment, educational participation, less time in prison, but also less educational qualifications and more time on a benefit.   So, anything to do with young people is expensive, there is no guarantee that these young people will be able to suddenly have a road to Damascus experience and think yes, a life of being a worthwhile member of the community appeals to me. The key to the success of this new iteration of boot camps will be in the transitioning back into the community. If these young people go straight back to the environment that shape them into young criminals, then there's really not much hope for them. But this is where boot Camp 2.0 differs. There will be nine months where they will receive wrap-around care and that will be absolutely vital. So too though is having someone believe in them believe that they have inherent worth, that their lives are worthwhile.   Karen Chhour is the Children's Minister and the minister in charge of implementing the boot camps and as a former child of the state, she says every young person is worth trying to save.   “All kids can be helped, Mike. I could have been one of those kids. I could have gone down the wrong path, but I had that one person in my life that told me I was worth something and helped me to steer myself down the right pathway. So hopefully we can put that right person in front of this young person and show them that that actually somebody does care about them.”  That was Karen Chhour talking to Mike Hosking this morning. I'd love to know for those of you who have had some experience with kids who have gone off the straight and narrow or were never on it in the first place, is it possible to turn your life around? If you have had no role models in your family, upon which you can model a life? Where going to school is an expectation. Where succeeding as an expectation. Where fulfilling your potential as an expectation. And you have the sort of environment that proactively encourages you to be the best you can be, that that thinks you're amazing.   If you don't have that when you start where on Earth do you get it from? Is that the teachers? It always used to be. Education and good teachers used to be able to save kids who were on a fast track to nowhere.   Is it having somebody, an authority, look you in the eye and say you are worth more than the life you are living, we can help you change. Everybody wants the miraculous life transformation. Everybody wants the young people to believe in themselves, to believe they have something worthwhile to offer, to be able to participate in the community and take the best that the community can offer, while at the same time giving back. But it just doesn't work like that.   These kids have got mountains to climb. There are people willing to help them. There are also, I think, people who are making a good dollar who are setting up programmes without any kind of stringent evaluation.   So, I want to make sure that any kind of programme, including these boot camps works. And if the dollars aren't working, then put them somewhere else.    LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.