Kerre Woodham Mornings Podcast

You have to feel for Chris Hipkins as a person, don't you? As a boss, fresh from dealing with the shootings in downtown Auckland on the eve of the FIFA Women's World Cup, a few days later he then has to deal with one of the few remaining ministers formally known to be competent, self-destructing in spectacular fashion. The former Justice Minister Kiri Allan resigned this morning, after being charged with reckless driving and resisting arrest in Wellington last night.   Now, I know it's probably an unpopular thing to say, but I really liked the cut of Kiri Allan’s gib. I only had dealings with her through the wireless and conducting interviews with her, but she was so refreshing. After one interview, I was moved to say my God, it's just so wonderful to deal with somebody who answers questions, who doesn't do the whole bureau speak. I think that was when she was Civil Defence Minister. I have no idea what it would be like to report to her or clearly some people within the public service found it difficult, and it's also clear that she has been struggling with her job or succession of ministerial portfolios for some time.   Does anyone have confidence in this Government? I mean, even members of the Government must be starting to lack confidence in their own management. If I was Hipkins, I'd throw in the towel and say, you know what? We're not doing this right. I don't have enough good people to steer the good ship New Zealand. It does feel like a rudderless ship, lurching and listing towards the election. Who would you describe as competent enough to be in charge of multi-billion dollar portfolios? I know it's only a few months to the election, but there's no guarantees that any one party is going to form the next Government. It just seems in the last few years that people are being elected to Parliament who are really struggling, and that's on all sides of the House, not just this lot. Is that the nature of the job, the nature of people right now?  Social media?   How many months to the election? Three? A rudderless ship for three months. What could possibly go wrong?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kiri Allan has resigned from Cabinet after being charged by Police over a crash in Wellington overnight. Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has confirmed the Justice Minister was taken into custody after the crash on Evans Bay Parade in Roseneath just after 9pm. She was charged with reckless driving and resisting arrest, and was released about 1am. Newstalk ZB Political Commentator Barry Soper joined Kerre Woodham to discuss the situation. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If you were listening to the Mike Hosking Breakfast this morning, and why wouldn't you be? You would have heard the Police Commissioner and the Police Minister trying to explain the inexplicable. How a young man with violent tendencies had assaulted his partner, threatened to take out her family, was able to get his hands on a shotgun and wreak havoc with it in downtown Auckland, killing two, wounding eight. Ultimately, it comes down to a call by an individual judge - and they will never be able to get it right 100% of the time. Christie Marceau was murdered by a young man out on bail after previously offending against her.  Blessie Gotingco was run down, raped, and murdered by a man on electronic monitoring. And now we have Matu Reid who joins the roll call of shame.   I feel for the judges. I really do. As Andrew Coster said this morning, there is no perfect equation that will allow judges to get it right 100 per cent of the time. And when they do get it wrong, the consequences are just awful. For some of us in our jobs, we can make mistakes and the consequences are not fatal or devastating.   I make mistakes in my job - and people get really annoyed and cross with me and I feel terrible about it but. At least I know I haven't got somebody's death on my hands. You're a doctor. You're a judge. You're a police officer. You get it wrong. There are major consequences - and there is no perfect solution.   Listening to Andrew Coster, at the end of the interview it sounded to me like he was constitutionally bound to not say a single solitary thing, but he was jolly well encouraging Mike to do so. I don't think that ‘good on you’ sounded sarcastic or ironic. I don't know what the Police Commissioner was thinking, but what it sounded like he was saying is I have my job to do, you keep doing yours. You keep questioning. You keep asking. You keep pointing out that cutting prison numbers has not made New Zealand a safer place to be. That when you allow discount, after discount, after discount, after discount and you're encouraged and exhorted to apply discount, after discount, after discount as a member of the judiciary then you run the risk of having what happened yesterday, happen again.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Following the shooting in Auckland's CBD yesterday, there has been much discussion around the merits of reducing prison numbers and scrutiny has come again on judges around sentencing.  Labour might say there is no interference between the Government and the judiciary, but they campaigned on cutting prison numbers by a third.   To discuss this, criminal lawyer, Marie Dhyrberg KC, joined Kerre Woodham Mornings. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There’s no doubt about it; New Zealanders are hard workers. But according to the productivity stats, we work hard and we worked dumb - like good, solid oxen. We put our necks under the yolks and we trudge up and down our respective paddocks, but our output simply doesn't match our input. The Productivity Commission released a report earlier this month and it shows that we work more hours per week than any other country in the OECD, but we are only 68 percent as productive. So we work way more and can barely make it to a B- in terms of productivity - this wasn't always the case. New Zealand's economy has gone from being one of the most productive, to one of the least productive in the OECD. That's not all on us. I mean, other countries have caught up and superseded us, but we haven't kept pace and we have dropped further and further behind. Working more hours and putting more people into work has been the main way that production and income have grown over the last decades. And why productivity matters, is that it matters for the national well-being.   So where are the companies? How do you become more productive? I imagine at the moment it's just a sheer hard grind doing what you do, without looking to refine, improve, streamline. It's been a grind for the past three years and trying to find those highly skilled employees has also been difficult. There's a small pool of them, they get snapped up and it becomes a bidding war. But for New Zealand Inc. to do better, to be able to afford all the luxuries that we did take for granted. We were a productive and efficient economy, so we were used to a standard of living that has slipped and dropped. We work blooming hard, everybody agrees with that, but we're not working smart. How do we change that?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

New Zealand's inflation rate has taken another tumble - dropping from 6.7 percent to 6. Today's 0.7 point drop in the Consumer Price Index represents the largest fall in annual inflation in more than two years. Despite the drop, prices are still increasing at rates not seen since the 1990s. Food prices remain a major driver of the inflation - up more than 12 percent annually. NZ Herald Business Editor at Large Liam Dann joined Kerre Woodham to discuss the results. LISTEN ABOVE  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There's an interesting piece in Newsroom about social media groups tackling crime. More and more community groups are forming to report and sometimes solve local crime. The Hutt Valley Security Noticeboard has 14,000 members and was started by Jonathon Gilbert five years ago, after he was robbed and police couldn’t help. Jonathan Gilbert joined Kerre Woodham to discuss. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In an article in the NZ Herald, Police admitted that it's impossible to identify overseas scammers, and investigators aren't focused on solving International scam crimes. Nigel Latta is hosting a new show that focuses on the growing issues of scams, called ‘You've Been Scammed.’ Nigel Latta joined Kerre Woodham to chat about the situation. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What a weekend of sport.  It's been exhausting — and that's just watching it. The All Blacks, the Warriors, a new Wimbledon champion who looks to be beginning a new era in men's tennis, and we have the FIFA Women's world cup kicking off this Thursday.  So, a lovely weekend of escapist exhilaration — and now it's back to reality. Back to an election campaign, and a busy weekend for our politicians. ACT released its list, Chris Hipkins announced Labour's campaign slogan ‘In it for you,’ and Christopher Luxon announced that National would be fixing potholes.  Not terribly sexy as far as policy goes but that's exactly what I want to any new Government to be: a bit boring, nothing too sexy, and fixing stuff up.  I drove to the Hokianga for the weekend, and there'd be half a billion dollars worth of potholes just on State Highway 12. He says he'll divert the money required to fix the potholes from reprioritising spending within the National Land Transport Programme, including a reduction in expenditure on blanket speed limit reductions, and excessive speed bump installations. And, the failed Road to Zero advertising campaign, which has cost us a pretty penny and has not delivered in terms of reducing road deaths. I had no idea speed bumps were so expensive to install, but speaking to the MHB this morning, National Party leader Chris Luxon pointed out a few speed bumps would definitely fill in a few potholes. I find it interesting that Transport Minister David Parker is saying that National is proposing to fix a problem they themselves created. He says that National chose to freeze road maintenance funding during its time in office in order to fund high profile new highways.  Oh, come on.  For one thing, you just can't blame the government that came before you when you've had two terms. You've had six years to do something about the roads, but what have you done? Lowering speed limits, the light rail project, plans for a boomers bike bridge to Birkenhead that never came about, the Road to Zero campaign — lot of money there for a lot of potholes.  You had the opportunity to do something about road maintenance Mr Parker, you just chose to spend that money on pet projects that have ultimately failed in every single respect.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Watching Chris Hipkins igniting the bonfire of Labour's vanity projects when he took office earlier this year reminded me of the old Groucho Marx quote: “These are my principles, and if you don't like them, well, I have others.” I was reminded of this again when I heard Chris Hipkins rule out a wealth tax and capital gains tax as long as he is leader of the Labour Party. This had been something that dyed in the wool Labourites had prepared to die in a ditch for, until it looks like it's going to cost them votes. Labour had a plan to introduce a wealth tax in the May budget to pay for a tax free threshold for New Zealanders, and in the discussions they some were very strong about wanting this wealth tax but Hipkins pulled the pin at the last minute. And why did he do that? Not because he'd had a road to Damascus conversion and decided that a wealth tax was not the right tool to bring about a fairer, more equitable society. Not because he had something up his sleeve that was better than a wealth tax, and would bring about that fairer, more equitable society. But because Labour has taken a deep dive on the polls and he knew a wealth tax would cost them votes.   LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.