Kerre Woodham Mornings Podcast

Charter schools are making a comeback.   So, what happened last time?   When ACT was in confidence and supply with the John Key government, they were able to establish charter schools and they managed to establish 11 of them.  Charter schools were designed to be a place for children who didn't fit into mainstream education. They had different structures, a different layout, and a different form of teaching. They still must follow a curriculum, but it is different from your normal education.   I was wondering, given this story on neurodivergent children yesterday, are parents really feeling that the education system is failing their children? It's not just parents of neurodivergent children who feel the education system is failing them, though, is it? To be clear. Your average kiwi kid is going to their local state school, and they’re learning with great teachers who are doing their best, and their best is very good. They have a great relationship with their teachers and with the principal. They have a great relationship with each other. They're having fun and they're learning.   But if you have children who are particularly bright, or if they are neurodivergent, or if they're incredibly anxious, or if they come from families where education is not a priority, what do you do?   We've seen falling rates of international achievement, the nonattendance of children in our public schools has reached all-time highs or lows depending on which way you look at it. As a parent, have you looked at alternative forms of education? Homeschooling is up for all sorts of reasons that came out of the COVID-19 years, but it's still starting from a very small base, and homeschooling is not for everyone. It's more a lifestyle than just homeschooling.    Private schools are prohibitively expensive. We saw a story in the Herald this morning where middle-class families who were looking to upgrade the home are being turned back by the banks because they have too much debt. They've got the private schools and the cars, but they are struggling to meet the payments on the credit cards. It's not just first-home buyers. The religious schools, the integrated religious schools have waiting lists as long as your arm.   So, what do you do if you feel that the local school is failing your child or grandchild? And I know that we're in an era where every child is special, every child is unique, and every education system needs to cater specifically to that one child, but there are large groups of kids for whom state school doesn't work. And we've seen that both in the falling achievement rates and in the fact they are not turning up for school at all.   And it is not just kids from families who do not care. They're parents who care very much, but they cannot get their kids to school. I could not imagine how awful the battle would be to try and make your child go to school every single day, and I've heard from parents that they bargain. They barter, they plead, they pay.   Would an alternative form of education from David Seymour work? Would that be an option for you? We used to have a great education in this country. It was something we were known for and now it is gone. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How on earth can the IRD allow child support arrears to get to more than $1 billion?    I could understand it if chasing up payments involved men and women using telephones and ledger books, sharpening their pencils to make fresh calculations - but in this age of technology and electronic payments and with IRD having the power to rifle through bank accounts, it seems inconceivable that it could be allowed to get to this.   Even taking into account much of the money owed will be made up on interest and penalties... $1 billion. $1.023 billion to be precise, is a staggering amount. One of the overdue payments is a debt of $2.5 million, now 10 years old. Inland Revenue (IRD) won’t say how it came to be that size. All it will say is that the amount is “currently under a payment arrangement”.  Nor will the IRD be drawn on just how the amount of unpaid child support reached $1.023 billion, owed by 97,597 debtors as at April 30 this year. Nearly $434.2m of the total is in penalty fees. The oldest debt dates back 32 years since the IRD began administering the Child Support Act in 1992.  Family lawyer, Sharon Chandra, says it comes down to resourcing.    “They either don't have sufficient resources to allocate towards the debt recovery side of things or that I suppose it's not enough of a priority to reallocate some of their existing resources. And the natural consequence of that is that you've just got this accumulating debt which obviously has, has reached a billion dollars." Now, how can chasing up a billion dollars, a billion with a bit, not a myth, a billion dollars not be a priority.  It seems extraordinary and I know that there are all sorts of different areas that IRD you know, can be working in with student loans and with companies and with Covid payments and with chasing up small business holders and the like and also the rich people who use sophisticated accounts to hide as much of their funds as possible.  So, they don't have to pay tax on them.  So, I get that they've got plenty to be getting on with.  But a billion dollars we could do a lot with.  Would an amnesty work?  According to an AUT senior lecturer in taxation, it could.  Ranjana Gupta says that offering voluntary disclosure would substantially reduce administrative costs in cross-checking the millions of lines of additional data received under the AEOI policy.  To administer such a program effectively, the IRD must use the best strategies to encourage voluntary declaration. For example, the opportunity to declare should be offered once only. Enforcement strategies and sanctions for non-compliance should be credible, consistent and clear.  Tougher penalties and interest would apply to those who choose not to take advantage of the program. Research shows a well-administered tax amnesty program facilitates strong engagement. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Consumers will be feeling unsettled as the reliability of electricity supply is tested.  A cold snap and low wind generation meant the country faced a potential supply shortfall, and Transpower asked people to reduce electricity use between 7 and 9am.  Consumer Advocacy Council chair Deborah Hart says this kind of situation is not new, but the market model is obviously not working.  She said that we need to turn our attention from only building infrastructure to delivering energy efficiency and innovation.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ah, another cold snap, another example of our power industry being unable to cope. I hope you all had cold showers and turned off the heated towel rails and ate cold gruel this morning to do your bit to reduce power consumption. The reason for the latest orange alert is that there has been a surge in demand and the wind turbines haven't been turning - yada, yada, yada. Different excuses same result. It gets cold, and our electricity suppliers can't cope. David Seymour says it's Third World stuff —it is— and Simeon Brown says it's all the fault of the last lot.  To be fair, according to the experts, there's been a lack of investment in new renewable generation during most of the past 10 years. Although generators will be quick to point out the renewables they're in the process of developing, and New Zealand’s electricity supply is set for a welcome boost in the second half of winter with Meridian’s newest wind farm on track for early completion. When completed, Harapaki will be the country’s second largest wind farm, offering enough electricity to power most of Hawke’s Bay.   So one of the reasons for the shortage in power this morning, one of the reasons given was that the wind hadn’t been turning the turbine. So if the wind doesn’t turn them, you need a backup, you need a plan B.  Gentailers were also reluctant to invest too much into new energy sources as they waited to hear the fate of the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter. Had it closed, it would have released 572 megawatts of excess generating capacity on to the market. The electricity market model provides strong disincentives against power companies bringing on extra capacity until they are sure it will be fully absorbed.  The International Energy Authority noted arguments that the kind of market model New Zealand has adopted could result in underinvestment in new generation as far back as in 2001. And you can see that if your primary motivation is to make money, you’re not going to dump the market full of the product that you’re trying to sell, you’re going to hold of.  Okay they’re building a new hydro lake. Oh, no they’re not. Tiwai Point might close and we might get more electricity into the market. No it isn’t. So then they try and play catchup with major electricity users.  Major Electricity Users Group chairman John Harbord warned in April that generators were incentivised to keep the market on the “precipice of shortage”.  And that is precisely where we are this morning. Ladies and gentlemen, where we are on the precipice of shortage yet again, while successive governments argue who did least, and as power companies claim to be doing their bit to invest and build in alternative energy sources. We shiver in our kitchens, while the Teslas languish in the garage, having cold gruel and dripping on untoasted bread to do our bit.    Just as we did last winter and the winter before that and will no doubt continue to do so until our grandchildren have grandchildren. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There are more calls to further lower the bowel cancer screening age.  An Otago University study shows rates of early onset colorectal cancer have risen by 26% each decade over the past 20 years.  Rates for Māori aged under 50 years rose 36%.  Professor Frank Frizelle told Kerre Woodham that the screening age needs to be lowered from the current age of 60 to at least 45.  He said that a lot of the issue is that young people having bowel cancer is unexpected, so symptoms are often ignored.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You have to wonder whether the strident critics of the coalition government ever stop and look at the facts. Maybe read the press releases. Listen to the interviews. Do they just see something coming from the office of the Honourable Shane Reti or the Honourable David Seymour and bin it? Hear Christopher Luxon on the wireless and just switch off and go “Oh! Can’t come bear it! Let me replay some of the 1o’clock briefings during COVID and restore my equilibrium.”  You know, do they ever stop and think that what they're saying is absurd. Like, this government is racist, and anti-Māori, and wants to exterminate Māori. There's been some hysterical rhetoric coming from some quarters, dangerous and hysterical rhetoric. Two of the party leaders that make up the coalition government can whakapapa back to their Māori ancestry. There are more Māori in Parliament than in any other time in Parliament's history, 155 years after New Zealand's first Māori MP's were elected. And so we've been, you know, mostly have been part of democracy for a very, since we all sort of came together. We now have more Māori representation than ever before. There are 33 Māori MPs across all of the parties in Parliament. Nine in Labour, Te Pati Māori, obviously six. Green, six, National, five! Shock me. New Zealand First, four, ACT, three.   So, when you say we have a racist, extremist government, do you mean they're just not the right sort of Māori for you? They don't think like you do. They don't do the things you want them to do, in your way. Or say the things you want them to say. Well, you know, this is diverse community. Even if you're Māori you’re allowed to have a different point of view from another Māori. News alert! Same with women. Same with men. You know, so when you say that this government is racist and anti-Māori, we'll tell that to the 33 Māori who are in Parliament.   Is it really the same with school lunches? We had David Seymour on yesterday around 11:30. So we didn't have much time and we won't take much time, it'll just cover it off a little this morning. But people are so anti the coalition government that even when they keep the school lunches, and even when they keep the school lunches and then extend it to pre-schoolers, so not only have they not scrapped it, they've extended it, the critics are vocal and fevered. Some are even anxious.   This is Haeata Community Campus Principal Peggy Burrows on Heather Du-Plessis Allen last night.   PB: If the government is going to be buying food and the argument is that they have the, you know, the buying power to save money, what does that look like? Does that mean that we're going to get huge cartoons of pre-packaged food and generic food and things like that? And that's not what we have been used to.  HDPA: Yeah, but what's wrong with that, Peggy?  PB: Well, if you have a. Child. That's celiac. Then you have to have a diet that is accommodating a better you have a vegetarian child. If you have a child that has, you know, those sorts of things have to be taken into consideration, I think.  I'm sure they will be Pegs. You know. For heaven's sake, when she talks about saving money she spits out the words like they’re anathema to her. Heaven forfend that we keep a close eye on the taxpayer dollar. It's not the government paying for it, it’s you, me and her. And you know, news alert, food is pre-packaged. If you go and buy a sandwich from the dairy, it's in a package, it's been made hours earlier. It's pre-packaged. And I'm absolutely certain David Seymour's not going to be serving up lamb chops for all and you don't get up from the table till you've eaten it. You know, everybody understands these days that serving up food involves catering for special needs.   And this is Boyd Swinburn, Auckland University's Boyd Swinburne on the Mike Hosking Breakfast. He has not much faith in the changes.   MH: If you wanna get a sandwich and some fruit in a kid's stomach, that's no bad thing. That's what we're doing. And there are more kids getting it than were previously. BS: Well, that's what he's claiming. But I don't see how I can do it when he so brings the money down.  Claiming he said that about three times, that's what he's claiming. What David Seymour’s lying? About being able to produce sandwiches? And I don't know about you, but when it was first discussed about feeding hungry kids at school, I was all for it, but I didn't imagine it would be butter chicken, and vegetarian nachos, and lasagne, and all being delivered by numerous providers right around the country. I thought it would be a no-frills lunch that would feed hungry kids. The sort of lunch that your kids get, my kids get, our grandkids get. There were some providers who were doing a really great job and there were some providers who simply were not. Schools were ordering lunches for ghost kids. Food was going to waste. There was no evaluation on whether the lunches were doing their job or not, other than comments like I feel good when my tummy is full. Me too.   I have no problem with providing a basic lunch for kids at school at all, but my hackles rise when I hear these people going ‘hmph. Government. Looking to save money. What about these beautiful, delicious, nutritious meals that we've been able to offer kids for hot cooked meals? Food from around the world? Just not right.’   Well, you know what's not right? What is not right like are hungry kids, kids who cannot learn because they're starving, that is plain wrong. And if we can fix that, we should. Does that mean we have to offer an extensive, international range of hot and cold food that is designed to cater to every single individual taste we have? We have breakfast in schools that is no frills that has been working for years. Nobody has complained about that and we're now going to have to have an international smorgasbord buffet for these kids instead of the Sanitarium products, the milk, and the toast. That's been working just fine. Nobody's worried about shame about going along to The Breakfast Club. Nobody's been concerned about, what about the coeliacs? What about halal? What about the vegans? Nobody. They've just fed hungry kids. Going about their business.   And on a day when David Seymour said not only am I not going to scrap it, despite the fact I think he really wanted to, not only am I not going to scrap it, I'm going to extend it. There's just been strident criticism. What the Dickens? What is this world coming to? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Associate Education Minister says a revamped school lunches programme is better bang for buck.  Every student who received a free school lunch under the previous Government will still be fed, but the programme will save $107 million a year.  David Seymour told Kerre Woodham that instead of having multiple providers, schools will order lunches from an online portal.  He says they'll look less like couscous and quinoa, and more like sandwiches and fruit.   He says previously a quarter of a million lunches were being ordered each day, at a cost of $8.60, and the Government's going to get a much better deal than that.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lifeline is calling for a lifeline as they celebrate their 60th anniversary.  The Mental Healthline is struggling to keep up with demand, taking around 7,000 calls and 20,000 texts a month.   On average, 17 people at high risk of self harm or suicide call Lifeline every day.  Presbyterian Support Northern is the charity behind Lifeline, CEO Dr Bonnie Robinson telling Kerre Woodham that while the Police are often called to do mental health checks, they don’t want them doing that.  She said that Lifeline would love to take on more of the demand but they’re unable to as they simply don’t have the staff.  Robinson said that even if organisations were to consolidate, the capacity issue wouldn't go away, as demand currently outstrips the resources the sector has as a whole.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You will remember there was some alarm in some quarters when the New Zealand Police Service announced they'd be looking to step back from attending calls from people in psychological distress.   Over the past decade police say the number of mental health events officers attend has increased by more than 150% to 77,043 in the past year. The vast majority of these were low to moderate risk and safety and didn't require a police presence, they were simply there as empathetic, compassionate, highly skilled babysitters. So, the police are saying that it could be a better use of our time, but because they say there is nobody else to attend to these people who are suffering horribly, then they do it. They're the last man standing, last man and woman standing, they are the ones that have to step into the breach.   So, these are people, when they dial 111 or their families dial 111, who have varied reasons for experiencing distress. Not all of them have a diagnosable mental illness. One consistent thing, though, is that services can be fragmented, confusing, unresponsive, and hard to access when these people need help. So, they can't get the help they need, they or their families dial 111 as a last resort.   So they go through to 111, where under the existing arrangements the police are looking to change, the only practical assistance a dispatcher can usually provide is sending a police officer to check on the distressed person and that's when the police officer talks them down, not necessarily off a literal ledge, but a metaphorical one, takes them to hospital, then sits with them while they wait for the hospital to see them. Generally, it's a jolly long wait because they're not acute. They're fine now that they've got somebody there, somebody cares about them, somebody who knows what to say and do, and there the police officer sits for 7, 8, 9 hours.   But why do these 77,043 people call 111 when in psychological distress when there are so many organisations getting funding from the taxpayer, getting funding from kind souls to provide the sorts of services that deal specifically with these sorts of people and that sort of pain. You know, low to moderate risk and safety, not necessarily a diagnosable mental illness, but somebody who's just exhausted from having to put one foot in front of the other, who has reached the end of their rope. They don't know what to do anymore. They just want to stop. Make everything stop, I can't cope anymore.   If there were no charities, organisations and services available you could understand the calls to the police. But there are so many that say they deal specifically with that sort of distress. We have the national helpline 1737. Did you know it existed? There's a website, there's an app, there's a phone. 1737. We have Youth line free text 234, we have Samaritans, we have Suicide Crisis Helpline, we have depression helpline free text 4202. We have Outline, we have The Lowdown, especially for children. We have What's Up with 24/7 trained councillors, come on, how many do we need? How many can we continue to justify funding when for all the pretty advertising billboards, all the high profile people fronting the different services, all the different niche specific councillors you have them for gay men and women, gay kids, you have them for young people 5 to 18, you have them for young adults, you have them for adult adults. We've got all of these. There's probably more than I've missed. But we have all of these helplines and yet it's 111 and the police that people of all ages turn to in distress.   More than a billion dollars in funding for mental health services from the previous administration, with specially trained nurses at GP practices being one of the jewels in this particular funding crown. We've got funding drives every month for a different mental health service and everyone rings 111 and calls the police. What is the point of these services if they're not being used to their full capacity? Can they be amalgamated so that you only have to remember one number? And then it can direct you to the perhaps a Councillor who's trained, specifically worked for Rainbow Youth, or specifically for a young child who's suffering anxiety?  So you got more than a billion dollars in funding for mental health. We've got funding drives every month for a different form of this service. The latest is Lifeline, who's launched a public appeal to help it keep going as it celebrates its 60th year, it says that it needs to keep going as it fills a big gap in the primary mental health space that people may otherwise simply fall through. Well, they'll only fall through to the next telephone number, or they'll only fall through to 111 and the poor old cops have to go out again. Why do we have so many? Surely, surely, surely, they cannot all be sustainable. And given that the police are the first port of call and are actually doing the job of picking up these very distressed people and helping them see that there is another day. What are the rest of the organisations doing?   There's got to be a better way of doing this.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We thought we'd start with the announcement on law and order and Corrections, given that this was one of the big drivers for National and ACT, and indeed New Zealand First’s election campaigns, and one in which the coalition government was elected upon.   Still, when you've got a big announcement to make on law and order, one of the foundations of your government's policies, it does pay to get it right. I mean numbers. I know, but pesky journalists will drill you on them. It was unfortunate for Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell that he muddied the waters, as the PM and put it, around numbers when they made the announcement yesterday as that became the focus, not the actual announcement of what the government was promising to deliver. Still, we all make mistakes. I'm sure the announcement, whatever the numbers, will be appreciated by many New Zealanders.   It's a $1.9 billion investment that will bring hundreds more new beds to Waikeria Prison, deliver 685 new frontline staff at Corrections, including 470 Corrections officers who will be recruited and trained to respond to growing prison numbers. And $78 million, and this is one I was really pleased to see, $78 million to extend rehabilitation programs for the 45% of prisoners who are on remand. At the moment if you're on remand, you don't have access to rehabilitation programs. With this announcement, you will.   Prime Minister Christopher Luxon did the number crunching this morning. How many beds are there going to be in Waikeria? Well, I'll tell you, he said, there are 455 beds there currently. There are 600 beds that will be added next year. There's a further 810 beds and that means you'll end up with Waikeria with capacity for more than 1800 beds in total. That sounds like a hell of a lot. A super prison, if you will.   Floyd du Plessis, the corrections union spokesperson said, there is no problem with super prisons, no problem with having a large number of prisoners in one place. To me, intuitively, instinctively, there seems to be something very wrong with housing so many people in one spot. I'd rather a more bespoke boutique approach to trying to rehabilitate people and punish them, you know, which is, after all, what they're there for. It's a deprivation of their liberties. It's supposed to be a punishment, I get that, but I'm really glad to see that there is money in there for rehab. He said there is no problem with the super prisons, but all I can see in my mind's eye are those huge American prisons, which just look like places where souls go to die, really.   But what you're seeing, says Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, is a big focus on law and order. They've got tougher laws on gangs. They've got serious young offenders and military academies coming for them. They've put the three strikes back in. He says we're recruiting an extra 500 police officers, little bit hard to do until the pay dispute is settled. And now we've got this big package of $1.9 billion for Corrections, he says. We're also going to work really hard on social investment and rehab for prisoners as well. Again, that is something I think we really, really need to see the prevention as well as the “cure”. And I'd say cure with inverted commas because I don't think going to prison cures many people.   So, I'd love to hear your take on this. Is locking people up, more of them, going to make a difference long term? Probably not but locking them up short term surely will. While you're locking people up so they cannot just be put back out onto the streets and continue to commit crime, which is what we saw over the last few years. We work on social investment, the programs that work with young offenders, we keep. We invest even more money in if we have to. We work with the families where these law breakers are coming from. For some people, going to prison is enough to scare them straight. For those who haven't really got their hearts into being a crim, for those who have the foundations in their childhood to have choices, to be able to say, you know what? This is not for me. I don't like it. They can turn themselves around.   For those that are just fed up of being inside, not seeing their kids, not seeing the partner that they love, they've finally met a good one. They don't want to stuff it up. That generally, anecdotally from what ex-cons have told me, is what turns them around the most. Having the love of a good woman, as nobody has yet said it was the love of a good same sex partner, so I'm going to go with woman. The love of a good woman and their kids, that's made them think, ‘for all that is holy, I am 36 years old. I don't want to keep doing this. I don't want to keep going on the merry go round I've been on for the last 18 years.’ It has to come from the prisoner themself; to say I don't want to do this anymore. And then they need the help to be able to support them and to going straight.  So sure, lock them up in the short term, but we're going to have to have a long-term view of social investment, rehabilitation, and giving these predominantly men, a stake in society to say you can belong if you if you choose to, it's going to be worth your while to join society, to be a part of this community. So, we've all got a part to play there.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.