Kerre Woodham Mornings Podcast

There was a spirited community meeting in the Coromandel township last night over recent gang violence.  Locals called the emergency meeting after a video, obtained by Newstalk ZB, showed Rebel gang members attacking people in the town last weekend.  Police say no complaints have been laid, but they're aware of three people receiving hospital treatment.  National's Mark Mitchell was at that meeting and he said that the town is tired of the gang presence and are drawing a line in the sand.  He said that the challenge now is for the mayor, their councillors, and their local MP to come up with a solution that works.   LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I was really interested to hear the broad outline of ACT’s education policy goes a little further than National’s, but still with the aim of working towards a lift in New Zealand children's educational outcomes through rigour and testing.   It includes standards for early childhood education providers because educators are concerned at the number of children arriving at school completely unprepared for the classroom. The littlest one in our house is due to start school in the next couple of months, and when her mother had to fill out the before school checks, she was stunned at some of the questions that were covered off in the in the questionnaire. Is your child toilet trained at nearly five? Can they hold a pencil? Do they know how to hold a book?   Anecdotally, there are children turning up to school who don't have the language skills necessary to participate in class. Without language skills, they can't read, they can't articulate their needs. It is absolutely extraordinary the range of abilities new entrant teachers have to deal with.   And that's something that ACT says they want to address through the early childhood education providers. Of course, to benefit from the ECE, you'd have to send your child off to an early childhood education provider. And short of having people going around and lifting the children from the homes they're in and actually physically taking them there, there are going to be some who miss out.   Broadly, schools would be able to develop their own curriculum under ACT’s policy. It would just have to be approved by a central body and any curriculum would have to cover off the standards that would be tested at the end of the school year.   I like it. I need to read more of it. I've only read the news reports. I'd like to read the policies themselves. But then any party that says we have a problem with low achieving kids and who knows that education is vitally important in getting children out of poverty, that education will empower children by giving them more choices as adults, will absolutely get my vote.   For me, education and the economy are the two big issues. I was thundering away about this policy to anyone who would care to listen to. My poor friends, you know you'd think I'd have enough opportunity to air my views between 9am and midday, but no, they get it on my down-time. So I was banging on about education yet again and that really is something that I am utterly, utterly passionate about, it’s a way of it's a way of being able to level the playing field as much as you can. Education and the economy are the two big ones for me.    And I'd love to know what you're focused on. A million viewers tuned into the leaders debate on Tuesday night, not all at the same time. I think those figures also take into account on demand viewing. But for terrestrial television, that's not bad going. It means that people are interested, that they're engaged, that they're invested in the future of this country.   What do you consider are the most important issues that we're facing and that we have to deal with? There is so much that needs to be done by the next Government. Where would you list the priorities? Where, where would you start? What do you consider are the most important issues we're facing and who do you think is doing a better job of presenting the best management plan for getting us back to where we should be? What's the best way of getting our groove back?   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

ACT is promising a huge shake-up to the education system.  Its new education policy would crack down on ECE providers that don't teach children the basics.  The B4 School Check would be extended to include education progress.  Under ACT, the checks will make sure kids can read their name, know the alphabet, hold a pencil, pick up a book, and communicate thoughts and ideas.  Dame Lesley Max, Co-Founder of the Great Potentials Foundation, told Kerre Woodham that an idea seems to have developed that the raising of children is done externally to the home.  She said that relying on external agencies to raise and guide our children is how we have wound up in the place that we’re in.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I know people are complaining that last night's debate between the leaders of Labour and National was boring. But seriously, give me a ‘let's get on with business, steady as she goes’ Prime Minister any day.   I am sick and tired of 'rockstar razzle-dazzle' prime ministers who give up when the going gets tough, be they ‘ponytail pulling, catwalk modeling’ Prime ministers or ‘unicorn riding, fairy dust sprinkling, jazz hand waving’ Prime Ministers. Give me somebody solid, sensible, reliable, who understands policy, who understands how to get things done, and I will be happy.   It wasn't so much a debate. I don't think either leader was given enough space to debate the serious issues. It seemed odd that a question about what's your favourite beach was given the same weighting as Te Reo in schools, and some of the questions did seem absolutely bizarre. Speculation over whether China would invade Taiwan? Anybody with a passing interest in politics knows how prickly China is. Any suggestion of an answer from either man would have had diplomatic repercussions.    I was gobsmacked when that question was posed. The only reason I could see for asking it was to test how much of a political rookie Christopher Luxon was. If he’d answered that in any kind of speculative fashion, all hell would have broken loose, but he had the great good sense to concur with the Prime Minister that it was absolutely ridiculous to speculate over a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.   Christopher Luxon coped far better than he had predicted he would. Beforehand, there was a lot of tussling for the position of underdog between Chris and Christopher, and I thought he was actually quite telegenic. He looked better on the telly than he does in the newspaper, certainly better than in the CTU’s unflattering portrait they used in their ads.   Chris Hipkins I thought look tired. I suppose he would be given he's running the country and campaigning, but it's television, you can't afford to look knackered. And while Chris Hipkins got in a few jabs with how the tax cuts will be funded. ‘Are you really going to be selling off that many houses to overseas buyers?’ ‘And are you depending on New Zealanders to gamble more to fund your tax cuts?’ I thought there were a couple of good jabs in there. ‘The boot camp's not working. You know, they didn't work the first time around.’ Christopher Luxon was able to respond to them. He managed to repeat the line of Labour’s Coalition of Chaos with Labour, Te Pati Maori, the Green Party, and the gangs often enough for it to hit home.   There was a lot of agreement between them and I think that's something that everybody has picked up on, particularly in this election. There isn't that much difference between National and Labour, and to be honest, I found that reasonably reassuring.   They're not mad ideologues, they're not frothing at the mouth to completely disestablish a New Zealand that we know, it's just how we get there. Everybody wants people to have the opportunity to own their own home if that's what they wish. Nobody wants to see the gangs in charge. Nobody wants to see kids going into crime following the family trade. Everybody wants to see New Zealand prosper.   It's just how you deliver that, where there is the difference between the parties. And I thought Christopher Luxon had the upper hand because it is very hard for Chris Hipkins to defend his government's record, their record on just about everything is abysmal and indefensible. Campaigning during a time of rampant inflation, a cost-of-living crisis, and a crime wave, has got to be tough going.   Most commentators agreed Christopher Luxon was the winner on the night. Even the Spin-off commentators, and you know, they traditionally take a younger, lefter view on political matters. And I tend to agree. He came across as energetic, upbeat, and not nearly as threatening as the CTU ads have tried to paint him. Chris Hipkins came across as tired and there's still a long way to go until polling day.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As you have heard in our news, a hikoi has begun from Northland to Parliament to oppose National and ACT’s gang policies and to highlight the negative impact those policies could have on the Whanau of gang members.   The hikoi is also stopping off at marae and gang houses along the way to encourage people to vote (presumably not for National or ACT). The policies the hikoi organisers are concerned about include National’s proposal to make gang membership an aggravating factor at sentencing, with the intention of gang members facing tougher consequences for their crimes. The banning of gang patches in public places, boosting police numbers to enable warrantless searches, preventing some gang members from communicating and restricting public meetings. ACT wants to introduce gang control orders to crack down on gang members and increase the power police have to seize assets of members found with illegal firearms.   The organiser of the hikoi, Matilda Kahotea, says she feels the policies are ill informed and that gang whanau want to be included in solutions that are made for them. They have no idea about how we live, she said, what actually we have to offer within our healing spaces for our people. She says family connections are a lifeline. We are already feeling that the men are getting incarcerated away and our families and our mothers and their kids are being left to tend to themselves.   Quite a bit to unpack in there.  I get you feel aggrieved and misunderstood, and nobody really understands how you operate and that not all gang associates are bad people. Sure, fine. But the passive our men are getting incarcerated away, as though they're being spirited off while quietly toiling in the field or working away at their inside office on their accounts or whatever it is they're doing, as if they're being plucked for no reason at all and being spirited away to be incarcerated is complete and utter bollocks. Under this regime, it's actually quite difficult to get put in the slammer. And Matilda, to be quite frank, a little more light incarceration for gang members would be a bloody good thing, in my opinion.    Here are some headlines. The number of gang members breaching their home detention conditions has increased 60 percent in six years, nearly one in three breaches now involves a gang member. OK, so those are numbers and statistics, here are some real people. Who are these gang members? Thank you for asking. A teen, a mongrel mob member who broke into the home of a pregnant woman and indecently assaulted her, was sentenced to home detention. Stevie Taunoa thanked the judge after receiving the home detention sentence, then walked from the dock and yelled, cracked it.    A 22-year-old mongrel mob member was on bail when he tried to kill a woman in her home after she refused to give him a cigarette. K-Cyn Nathan became angry when he asked his neighbour for a cigarette and she declined. He stabbed her 13 times to the head and neck, 10 times to the chest and limbs. He kicked her in the throat and stamped on her face four times. She required emergency surgery, spent several days in intensive care and suffered permanent injury. After the attack, Nathan returned to his Kainga Ora home and told a friend I had just popped a bitch.    Makaere Puata Chaney, a patched Head Hunter, was on electronic bail for his part in a gang shooting when he murdered his former partner and her father in their home. Nui Rangirangi was on electronically monitored bail when he stabbed a Killer Bees member in the head in a dispute over 50 bucks. Oh, and if anyone knows where Naya Wharaekura is, he's wanted for murder. He's gone walkabout after being given electronically monitored bail. So could you please, if you know where he is, let the police know? Goes without saying, don't approach him.    I could go on for the entire hour. These are just a couple from this year. There are many, many more. If you want your men to be around raising their babies and looking after their women, don't commit crime. It's really easy. Millions of New Zealanders, Māori, Pakeha, Pacifica, Indian, Chinese, all ethnicities, all New Zealanders, millions of them, never been to prison. Will never look like going to prison. Have never stabbed somebody 23 times in the head, neck and body because they were declined to cigarette. Never, not once. Millions of New Zealanders have not been incarcerated, of all ethnicities, because they don't commit crime. You want your men around? You tell them don't shoot people, don't stab people, don't sexually assault people, don't manufacture and sell drugs. You need to get the message through Matilda, you are not the victims here. The people who are dead or who are left with permanent injuries are. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As you have heard in our news, a hikoi has begun from Northland to Parliament to oppose National and ACT’s gang policies and to highlight the negative impact those policies could have on the Whanau of gang members.   The hikoi is also stopping off at marae and gang houses along the way to encourage people to vote (presumably not for National or ACT). The policies the hikoi organisers are concerned about include National’s proposal to make gang membership an aggravating factor at sentencing, with the intention of gang members facing tougher consequences for their crimes. The banning of gang patches in public places, boosting police numbers to enable warrantless searches, preventing some gang members from communicating and restricting public meetings. ACT wants to introduce gang control orders to crack down on gang members and increase the power police have to seize assets of members found with illegal firearms.   The organiser of the hikoi, Matilda Kahotea, says she feels the policies are ill informed and that gang whanau want to be included in solutions that are made for them. They have no idea about how we live, she said, what actually we have to offer within our healing spaces for our people. She says family connections are a lifeline. We are already feeling that the men are getting incarcerated away and our families and our mothers and their kids are being left to tend to themselves.   Quite a bit to unpack in there.  I get you feel aggrieved and misunderstood, and nobody really understands how you operate and that not all gang associates are bad people. Sure, fine. But the passive our men are getting incarcerated away, as though they're being spirited off while quietly toiling in the field or working away at their inside office on their accounts or whatever it is they're doing, as if they're being plucked for no reason at all and being spirited away to be incarcerated is complete and utter bollocks. Under this regime, it's actually quite difficult to get put in the slammer. And Matilda, to be quite frank, a little more light incarceration for gang members would be a bloody good thing, in my opinion.    Here are some headlines. The number of gang members breaching their home detention conditions has increased 60 percent in six years, nearly one in three breaches now involves a gang member. OK, so those are numbers and statistics, here are some real people. Who are these gang members? Thank you for asking. A teen, a mongrel mob member who broke into the home of a pregnant woman and indecently assaulted her, was sentenced to home detention. Stevie Taunoa thanked the judge after receiving the home detention sentence, then walked from the dock and yelled, cracked it.    A 22-year-old mongrel mob member was on bail when he tried to kill a woman in her home after she refused to give him a cigarette. K-Cyn Nathan became angry when he asked his neighbour for a cigarette and she declined. He stabbed her 13 times to the head and neck, 10 times to the chest and limbs. He kicked her in the throat and stamped on her face four times. She required emergency surgery, spent several days in intensive care and suffered permanent injury. After the attack, Nathan returned to his Kainga Ora home and told a friend I had just popped a bitch.    Makaere Puata Chaney, a patched Head Hunter, was on electronic bail for his part in a gang shooting when he murdered his former partner and her father in their home. Nui Rangirangi was on electronically monitored bail when he stabbed a Killer Bees member in the head in a dispute over 50 bucks. Oh, and if anyone knows where Naya Wharaekura is, he's wanted for murder. He's gone walkabout after being given electronically monitored bail. So could you please, if you know where he is, let the police know? Goes without saying, don't approach him.    I could go on for the entire hour. These are just a couple from this year. There are many, many more. If you want your men to be around raising their babies and looking after their women, don't commit crime. It's really easy. Millions of New Zealanders, Māori, Pakeha, Pacifica, Indian, Chinese, all ethnicities, all New Zealanders, millions of them, never been to prison. Will never look like going to prison. Have never stabbed somebody 23 times in the head, neck and body because they were declined to cigarette. Never, not once. Millions of New Zealanders have not been incarcerated, of all ethnicities, because they don't commit crime. You want your men around? You tell them don't shoot people, don't stab people, don't sexually assault people, don't manufacture and sell drugs. You need to get the message through Matilda, you are not the victims here. The people who are dead or who are left with permanent injuries are. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Demand for counselling services in schools continues to soar as mental health issues become more complex.  New research from OfficeMax and Barnardos highlights the growing need for counselling in school-aged children, and the importance of free services in plugging the access gap.  60% of school staff surveyed say they’ve seen an increase in students requesting counselling services in 2023, and 38% said the on-site services they have do not adequately meet the needs of students  Barnardos General Manager, Jo Harrison, told Kerre Woodham that there’s a range of different pressures and stresses affecting children and young people.  She said that the impact covid has had on families, employment, and their sense of security has contributed, as has the recent extreme weather events.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

According to Act, drug addicts will face the prospect of losing their benefit if they refuse treatment or don't make more effort to find work. Act also wants to reduce the current number of 4000 people who receive the supported living payment because of stress.   70 percent of them have been receiving that payment for more than five years. ACT argues stress is a condition that can be treated over time, not a permanent incapacity.   Act also says 4100 people receive a benefit because they're addicted to drugs, and that's costing taxpayers $76 million a year.   About 2700 of them are on the job seeker benefit, almost 30 percent of them have received that for more than six years.   David Seymour says someone who demonstrates no intention of, or motivation to, address their incapacity and become independent may find themselves ineligible for a benefit.   So when I heard that, I thought that's the kind of hardline stuff many of us want. In fact, I may have railed about that in the past - just how frustrating it is that you've got so many jobs are begging, you have job seeker expos where people can turn up, but most of the people who turn up wouldn't be able to get the job because they have drugs in their system.   They would fail any kind of drug testing and it’s infuriating and it's frustrating. And now finally, we've got someone who's got a realistic chance of getting into a role of decision making and now my trembling, wobbly lefty self is starting to manifest itself going but these people are not well, you know, they're addicts.   It's unfair. You know, I don't think once you're in the grip of that kind of addiction, you're capable of making rational choices.   We heard from a couple of former drug addicts on Friday when we were talking about shoplifting and they said they were shoplifters because they spend all their benefit on drugs. That was the priority.   One of the women said there was plenty in the benefit, absolutely you could live on the benefit if you live a relatively frugal life, but they spent the benefit on the drugs and then they stole the necessities they required food, personal toiletries and the like. Everything they had went on drugs.   So if they're not getting money legitimately, they will do what they have to do to get drugs. And that will probably mean stealing more.   And where are these mythical drug and alcohol dependency counsellors? So many people we've heard from who are trying to get their children or their loved one's psychological counselling. Just can't get it.  Counsellors themselves are frustrated that they can't offer counselling this and you happen to be Maori, Pacifica or young.   I don't know much about stress and how that might incapacitate you or anxiety. But the one thing I know is do people really want to move on a benefit? I don't think so.   I don't think there are many people who would choose that as a lifestyle. Sme sure, augmented by a but little light criminal activity on the side, but I think for many people it's an existence. It's not a living. You exist and barely.   If there are huge drug and alcohol rehabilitation clinics that are just begging for people to come in and be treated successfully, and drug addicts aren't making the most of it? Well, fine. But I don't think there are.   You can go private and that costs an absolute fortune. For anyone who has somebody who they love who's been in the thrall of addiction, is it going to work cutting off the benefit?   And just say get treated, get well, or you're on your own. I'm not entirely sure. I am no expert at all, but I would love to hear from people who are and people who have been there, done that.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

David Seymour claims his welfare policy will help people help themselves.   Under Act's proposal, drug addicts could lose their benefit if they refuse treatment or don't make efforts to find a job.   It would also apply to people with mental health issues like stress who don't seek help.    Seymour told Kerre Woodham we need to ask tough questions about our system.  “Should Government policy assume that people are forever victims or should it be based on the idea that people can make a difference in their own lives?”  LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Remember the Christchurch business owner and the tradies who performed a citizens arrest back in June? They tackled a thief to the ground. I'm going to remove all the 'allegeds' and the 'supposedlys' and the 'before the courts.' They tackled a thief. He had motorbike parts in his pocket that he hadn't paid for. That's a thief. They tackled a thief to the ground after he stole motorcycle parts.   When they rang the police the police asked if the thief had any weapons and when they said no, the police said look, you're going have to let him go. Understandably, they were disappointed in the response but the police said later that they simply had no spare personnel to attend the robbery at that particular time.   Now we have another man who tackled his supermarket thief to the ground, a drunk, aggressive, foul mouthed, oik abusing supermarket staff and stealing boxes of booze. Todd Scott took matters into his own hands, literally, by tackling the thief and holding him on the ground while the supermarket store owner or the manager called the police. Next minute the store manager was telling him that the police had advised that he should let the thief go.   The officers couldn't come to the store and he couldn't make a citizen's arrest. Understandably, he's disappointed. It's happening all the time. Is there anyone who has not been to a supermarket and seen somebody steal whatever it is they wish? And unfortunately, most of the reports I have read, I have heard, and I have witnessed, have not been of desperate families stealing sausages and cheese. It's the booze that they're going for. It's happening every day. And when brave people try and do something about it there aren't the police there to back them up.    In our editorial meeting this morning, which is a rather grand name for when we sit in and chew the fat about the stories of the day, one of our group was remonstrating that at the same time as thieves are taking what they will from where they wish, we have police going into schools around the country on charm offensives.   Our team members argument was that police should be out and about arresting buggars, and if they want to do community policing, do it in the community. Principals should be controlling their schools. They shouldn't need the police.   I don't know about that, Helen and I thought it was a good thing crime prevention is part of policing. And the police simply cannot be everywhere all at once, all the time, whenever they're needed. Mental health and domestic violence callouts, which take up so much of police time, are so time-consuming and yet it's really important.   Crime prevention surely is just as important as picking up shoplifters. Stopping young people from committing crime because they've built up a relationship with police is surely worth doing, isn't it? I mean the police cannot be everywhere despite the Minister of Police crowing that there's 300 extra police and you know there's never been more police, the streets are heaving with the weight of bobbies marching up and down the streets preventing crime. It's just simply not true.   There are more people taking advantage of a complete lapse. Crime is not your fault if you happen to pick up a box of booze, it's because you've been oppressed, that kind of BS that's pervaded the community over the last six years. Crime has been excused. Forgiven. It's been explained away. The courts aren't giving any kind of decent sentences when it comes to people who actually do appear before judges. Of course, people are going to take what they want, where they want, and the police can't fix the community on their own.   I think crime prevention is as important as picking up these abusive, foul mouthed thieves. It would be lovely if the police could be everywhere all at once, all the time, but they can't. There's going to have to be a little bit of self responsibility coming into this community, into this country. And an understanding that just because you might not have as much as the next person, it doesn't mean you have a right to steal. That you should be ashamed of yourself if you're a thief. And we've tried to expunge shame from the community, saying it's a harmful thing. A little bit of shame doesn't hurt anybody. To be branded as a thief in public, I would find that incredibly shameful. I wish more people felt the same way.   So what should the police principal role be in your mind? Should crime prevention be part of it when crime is so pervasive in our community? Should they be responding to every citizen's arrest as a sign that they are backing up a community who's had a gutsfull of people taking what is not theirs and what do the police themselves want? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.