Kerre Woodham Mornings Podcast

In 2013 Sir John Key announced a second harbour crossing at an Auckland Chamber of Commerce meeting when he was outlining the then-National Government's transport policy. A decade later Prime Minister Chris Hipkins and Transport Minister David Parker announced the proposal for a second Waitematā crossing: two three lane tunnels and a light rail linking Albany to the CBD. Sir John Key joined Kerre Woodham to discuss the proposal. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Criticism is coming in thick and fast for the Government's plan for a second Waitemata Harbour crossing. It wants to build two three-lane tunnels for vehicles and a light rail tunnel, with a route eventually linking Albany and the CBD. Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown claims both National and Labour have failed to cooperate with the Council on big transport plans. He says it's exploring better, faster and cheaper plans. Wayne Brown joined Kerre Woodham to discuss the proposal.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bleak news has come for dairy farmers this morning. Fonterra has drastically reduced its forecast Farmgate Milk Price for the current season due to ongoing reduced demand from China. The midpoint has plummeted from $8/kg of milk solids, to just $7. Fonterra boss Miles Hurrell is blaming a recent 12 percent drop in the price of whole milk powder, due to much lower than expected demand from China. The Country host Jamie McKay says this will be make-or-break for many farmers. Jamie McKay joined Kerre Woodham Mornings. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Act’s Deputy leader Brooke van Velden, gave the Government’s Willow Jean Prime  an uncomfortable few moments in Parliament yesterday. She questioned her on the fact that pregnant mothers are receiving $50 Prezzy cards simply for turning up to pregnancy assessments, and then when the child is born, the six week assessment. The catch? You have to identify as Maori to get the Prezzy card. Van Velden said the funding for this devise of policy has been taken from Community Services card funding. Labour is taking money from a scheme which benefits the economically vulnerable to give it to a scheme which exclusively benefits mothers from one ethnic group. As you can imagine, outrage and ensued in some quarters, especially when you then add in the bribes for participating in the census. 12,000 people received $934,000 worth of supermarket, petrol and movie vouchers and thousands more were offered Warriors tickets at a cost of $96,000 simply for doing what is required by them by law, the rest of us just ticked away merrily without a word of thanks, not so much as a free coffee for filling in the census form. Kebabs, burgers and vouchers were offered to encourage people to get vaccinated. Remember the huge parties that were put on to encourage people to get vaccinated? Who could forget the sight of Doctor Ashley Bloomfield dancing in the streets at the carnival atmosphere designed to get people vaccinated. That would it cost a bit. Anybody who’s worked in health for a decade or more, anyone with a memory for news stories will know that there is nothing new in this. This is no new policy on the part of the Labour government to bribe people to try and get results. People have been offered incentives slash bribes for years and years and years now.   Is it about the Ministry itself trying to meet targets? Do they work? I would love to know if they work. Is it a matter of breaking down barriers? There's a mistrust of institutions and once you get people who have been on the margins of community, once they see that actually you're there for their own well-being and their own good, they keep coming. They become part of the system and they know there's nothing to be feared. Are there any results to show that this works? Anyone who's worked in health will back me up, won't you? For years and years and years, I'm going to say 25 years that I can think of, incentives or bribes have been offered so bureaucrats can box tick and say yes we've reached the required percentage. Does it help? Who knows? Love to see the results.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In a new documentary that screens tonight, community leader Dave Letele explores the impact of alcohol and addiction in Aotearoa New Zealand. Heavyweight with Dave Letele retraces his own personal journey of gangs, addiction and alcohol and looks at the issues facing communities now. Whether it's pokies, fast food, drugs or alcohol, Dave says to create change and break cycles, we all need to have some heavy conversations. Dave Letele joined Kerre Woodham. LISTEN ABOVE  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As we all know there are lies, damn lies and statistics. Just read the New Zealand Herald series on the claims and counter claims being made by National and Labour around crime and you'll be left none the wiser as to whether crime is indeed out of control in New Zealand and whether Labour is indeed soft on crime. For example, Labour has claimed youth offending is down 60 percent over the past decade, the data used to make that claim is from the Ministry of Justice, looking at the total number of children and young people charged in court. While it does indeed show a significant drop over the past decade, it's also a measure of how often police choose to prosecute. So rather than show that youth offending has decreased. It shows how few times police are choosing to prosecute. There’s a big difference.   Sunny Kaushal, chair of the Dairy and Business Owners Group says this year already, and we're only at the beginning of August,  a massive of 45,046 offences have been reported to police to by retailers and they've made just over 1000 arrests. So, 45,046 offences reported leading to just over 1,000 arrests at 2.3 percent. He says it's out of control and he's seen that coming for a while. Watching people march out with this righteous kind of, ‘you can't touch me and entitled attitude’. Watching them March out with a trolley full of goods, with their entitled bloody attitude, ignoring common decency and the ties that bind us, and indeed the rules of the land leaves me feeling powerless. When they aren't even brought to account for their crimes, that leaves me bloody angry.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A slighter higher rise to the unemployment rate than expected. Stats NZ figures show it reached 3.6 percent for the three months to June. That's up point-two percent, on the preceding quarter. Most economists were predicting a point-one increase. Herald Business Editor at Large, Liam Dann, told Kerre Woodham it means there's more tension in the labour market. He says it's been seen through more people applying for fewer job ads - which makes life easier for employers. LISTEN ABOVE  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Now this is another tricky one and we have talked about it before, and it's in the news again. I am all for personal responsibility in owning your own mistakes. Case in point is me overpaying my insurance premiums by thousands and thousands and thousands for about 10 years because I hadn't checked the fine print. Nobody to blame but me. Unfortunately, as much as I had tried to squirm and writhe in my own mind, ultimately me, I'm the one, it’s me. But when it comes to banking scams I tend to side with Jon Duffy, the Consumer NZ Chief Executive. He says our consumer protection ecosystem is massively out of step with many jurisdictions we like to compare ourselves to. He says, most big banks in the UK are signatories to a voluntary code where they typically refund scam victims for their losses. He would like to see a similar stance taken by the banks in New Zealand. He says we expect banks here to argue they should not be liable for the customer’s perceived mistakes, but the way we see it right now, customers are carrying pretty much all the risk and the fight against scams.   The case in point is the story doing rounds in media this morning. BNZ is refusing to reimburse scam victims who lost $430,000 between them, this particular one was a Citibank scam. They argue they should get the money refunded because the Citibank scam was known to the New Zealand banking industry and had been for at least a year and the BNZ should have known about that.   Scammers are really good at what they do. They hone their craft. And work it for each community. Should there be a kind of trust fund for people who have been ripped off? If you pass the criteria, the banks can all contribute to this and all take a collective responsibility to ensure they don't have to keep popping up the trust fund each and every time somebody has ripped off.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

BNZ is under fire for refusing to reimburse scam victims who lost nearly half a million dollars in an elaborate scam. Consumer NZ is urging banks to raise their game and provide better protection to New Zealanders who fall victim to scams. Most big banks in the UK are signatories to a voluntary code where they typically refund scam victims for their losses. Consumer NZ would like to see a similar stance taken by the banks in New Zealand. Consumer NZ Chief Executive Jon Duffy joined Kerre Woodham to discuss. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Timely indeed for National to release its transport policy, given that infrastructure groups are tearing their hair out, growing increasingly frustrated by the months-long delay in the Government publishing its direction for land transport. We have been hearing about this for some time, the Government said yes, yes, yes, yes, it's coming.  They're putting the delay down to the fact that they have a new Transport Minister in David Parker, and he has to come up to speed with the portfolio after a former transport minister, Michael Wood, was sacked from his role as a minister. So they've said the plan should be released in August, three months after it's due, and five months after the previous draft statement in 2021 was released.  So we've known about this for a wee while, but Newsroom has spoken to the groups involved and they say the delay puts real pressure on the transport sector without knowing what they're supposed to be doing, what jobs are in the pipeline, they can't invest in the specialist equipment and personnel to carry out the jobs.   Effective, efficient roads are the arteries of this country. You simply cannot clog them. You cannot neglect them. You cannot let them wither and die or the economy itself will die. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.