Kerre Woodham Mornings Podcast

Yesterday the National Party announced its much-anticipated tax policy and now you’ve had a night to sleep on it – how does it stack up for you?    Over the last 24 hours, Nicola Willis has done a good job of selling this policy – but this was also a policy that was designed to sell itself.    The Party is promising tax cuts through a tax bracket adjustment, credits and rebates which will cost $14.6 billion and paid for through a combination of new taxes and cuts to public spending.    The devil is in the detail and whether Willis’ novel ideas for increasing revenue by a move to user pays immigration, taxing offshore online gaming, and taxing foreigners who purchase a property over $2 million will actually be able to raise the $6.2 billion required is anyone’s guess.    Surely, it’s a collective hallelujah to see both parties promise to reduce spending on government consultants and contractors, but National’s more aggressive approach to reducing back office government spending might concern you. Or maybe after years of spending on media mergers, harbour bridge crossings and various other projects that never saw the light of day – you’re thinking about time!   Just to make sure it doesn’t sound too concerning, the National Party has been very careful to say that frontline and core agencies such as Te Whatu Ora, Ministry of Education, Education Review Office, Corrections, Oranga Tamariki, Police, Defence Force and Waka Kotahi and Kainga Ora are excluded from the reductions – they will have to make savings but these would be directed back to these services. Once again – a clever move. These are the Ministries and agencies that deal with the big issues up for debate this election.    But regardless of concerns about spending cuts or how we’re going to raise the revenue, are we at the point where you’re prepared to take the risk and get that money in your back pocket?    The distinctions have been made clear now between the two main parties – would you prefer to tackle the cost of living crisis by trimming everyday expenses – removing the GST of fresh fruit and veggies, cheaper public transport as we’ve seen from Labour – or cash in the hand to make your own decisions about how best to save or spend your hard-earned money.     It’s hard to overlook the appeal of more cash in the hand. And that’s why the optics of National’s policy is so good.    For many, this tax policy might have been the final piece in the puzzle when it comes to finalising your vote. Does it clarify your thoughts?    What do you see as best for New Zealand? Which policy do you see working best for you? The tax cuts, and spending cuts of National, or the everyday trimming of costs by Labour, or do neither of these policies go far enough for you? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On Thursday the Government announced a multi-agency approach in response to 111 mental distress calls.   It means paramedics will be able to attend mental health-related police callouts, and will be available nationally within five years.  Police Minister Ginny Anderson says they've piloted co-response teams in six police districts, with great success, and they've seen data showing how it helps people, and saves resources.   According to Police Association President Chris Cahill, officers attended 77,000 mental health callouts last year.  He's in favour of the approach but is concerned about the lack of detail around costs and resources.     Mental Health Foundation Chief Executive, Shaun Robinson, joined Francesca Rudkin. LISTEN ABOVE   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

National has unveiled their much-anticipated tax policy.  From July next year, it would shift income tax brackets for inflation and expand tax credits - giving an average family with kids a maximum $250 fortnightly bump.  To pay for it - National would slash back-office spending in the public service, roll out a 15 percent foreign buyer tax on multi-million dollar homes - and end the tax break on commercial building depreciation.  Dentons Kensington Swan Partner and tax expert, Bruce Bernacchi joined John MacDonald to discuss. LISTEN ABOVE  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I’m channelling my inner John McEnroe today. If there is such a thing.  This $4 billion cut to public service spending over the next four years that the Government has announced six weeks out from the election.  There’s only one response to it, isn’t there? And this is where tennis legend John McEnroe comes into it.  You cannot be serious!  You cannot be serious Grant Robertson. You cannot be serious Chris Hipkins. If you expect us to believe that this is anything other than a desperate attempt to cook the books and make life more difficult for whoever is running the country’s finances after October 14.  Except it’s more of a 'microwave' cooking of the books, isn’t it? On the table in no time because there’s no time to fiddle around with the slow cooker when we’re just six weeks out from an election.  Programmes like the Covid-19 Emergency Response have been cut or have had 'underspends' returned to till because they’re no longer needed. But the biggest cuts are being made to government department and agency budgets.  Not surprisingly, National and Act are saying it’s too little, too late. That’s because they’ve been banging on for a long time now about public sector spending. And they're right. It is too little, too late.  National’s already said that, if it forms the next government, the big consultancy firms can expect an end to the gravy train. And that seems to be one area where the Government has suddenly discovered it can turn the tap off. It’s announced it’s cutting spending on consultants and contractors by $165 million a year.  So that’s Labour trying to beat National at its own game.  Other cuts include $110 million from MBIE’s budget. It's is one of the government departments that Act wants to downsize. So, that’s Labour trying to steal the march on Act, as well.  MBIE’s budget cut is the biggest. Followed by the Ministry of Education, which is going to have just under $70 million less.  This will all be happening after Barry Soper reported a few weeks back that the Finance Minister had called all the Government department honchos into a meeting to demand cost cuts.  So, they’ve obviously all gone away from that meeting and have come back to him saying ‘here’s what we can do’.  The Government’s also taken the knife to the operating allowance for the 2025 and 2026 budgets.  This is the amount of new money a government can allocate in its annual Budget.  So, by doing this, the Finance Minister is doing what he can to make it difficult for other parties to pay for their election promises if they find themselves in government after the election.  Which, as far as I’m concerned anyway, makes this whole exercise reek of desperation.  As National’s Finance spokesperson Nicola Willis puts it: “Grant Robertson has reached peak Labour. After six years of spending New Zealanders’ money with reckless abandon, he’s now finally admitted he has a problem - six weeks out from an election."  A problem Grant Robertson somehow thinks he can fix - or at least try and make look a little bit better - in time for when the Government opens its books for the final time before we vote.  This is the pre-election fiscal update, which is going to be happening on September the 12 - two weeks from today.  And, by all accounts, it’s not going to be pretty. Not pretty for Labour and not necessarily pretty, either, for the other parties because it will probably raise questions about big-spending promises.  But there’s only one way to respond to this cynical move by the Government.  You cannot be serious. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Crikey, a week is a long time in politics, especially with an election looming! Thomas Coghlan from the New Zealand Herald wrote this last week, “It's been a scratchy week in parliament.” He was talking about last week with MP's embarrassing themselves at every opportunity. Well, this week they've done it again. We've got National MP Tim van de Molen being stripped of all his portfolios after being a total oik and making a tit of himself in a Select Committee. He was accused of threatening behaviour and while it's not threatening behaviour on a Mallardian scale, or the handbags at dawn in Parliament with Tau Henare and Trevor Mallard again, that sort of testosterone engorged behaviour is totally unacceptable, and Christopher Luxon was quite right to strip him of his portfolios until van de Molen has learned to calm the farm and learns how to behave like a professional.     Still, with National … what the Dickens are they doing sticking with the fees free first year policy? It was a policy they roundly mocked in 2017. Simon Bridges, the then leader, called it an expensive failure. Subsequent leader Judith Collins said they wouldn't have the fees free farce that cost taxpayers $300 million, yet saw fewer people actually doing tertiary education. And yet now with an election looming we have Nicola Willis, who sees it as an important support for students and families. No, it's not. No Nicola, no. The numbers show it's a costly failure, like so many of Labour's policies. If they must stick with it, if they must try and get students on side, make it fees free for the third year so that people actually have the motivation to get the degree, not drop out halfway as they do costing taxpayers and costing the young people. This is a nonsense. And it's a big thumbs down.   Thumbs up though for ruling out granting government contracts to gangs. By all means, give contracts to community groups that something Christopher Luxon has said he's very big on. He wants ground up community support and he's happy to fund that. That's something Labour does as well, but Christopher Luxon says that actually works. He can see the value of it. By all means give contracts to community groups and former gang members. Not to those who are still actively working with gang members. So thumbs up there, good job.   Tthumbs down to Jan Tinetti. Yesterday, she sent out a press release trumpeting the free lunches and schools program as improving in attendance. It's not. She gave no figures. Treasury has done the report and looked at the data. In her press release yesterday she said teachers are reporting better attendance. Self reporting is not analysis of data. I can show her texts from teachers that say it's a waste of money in their school. Treasury did an actual report looking at actual data, not self-reporting from some teachers, either Jane's teachers or mine, and said that the program is not reaching the kids it should. So no Jan, free school lunches are another Labour costly failure. I'm not against free lunches and schools, I just want a program that works. Call me old-fashioned. I'd just like to see a return on investment, not blindly operating ideology and faith and self-reporting from some teachers.     And finally, to round up the week, what on Earth is David Seymour smoking? At the Moutere Hills Community Centre on Thursday, the ACT leader was reported as saying,  every country that has ever tried to do what this government has tried to do regarding co-governance has either ended in disaster or successfully campaigned to reintroduce liberal democracy. So far, so valid. You know, it's a point of view. And based on looking at history and. I think he's well qualified and well capable of saying that. Then he goes on and says, I dare say if Nelson Mandela was alive today, he'd be campaigning for Act. Would he, David really? I know it was a live speech and I don't want to be held accountable for everything I say when you're talking live as well. I mean, when you're doing a live audience. Sometimes you just sort of carried away with the with the crowd, and you sort of get a bit hyperbolic on it. But come on, he's the Act leader with a real chance of getting into government. Even if it’s a joke, it really doesn't read well. Did you earn nothing from Meghan Markle? Do we really think that Nelson Mandela would have the yellow rosette on going door to door in Epsom? Unlikely!   Seriously, as Thomas Coughlin said last week … “Weeks away from the last sitting day in the Parliament's dissolution, there could be no surer sign that politicians are ready to get out of the building and on to the hustings and day upon day of grumpy, unforced errors from some of our MP's.”See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Government and councils affected by this year's floods are slowly working their way towards a resolution of the buyout of residents of the most affected properties in Hawkes Bay, Auckland, Coromandel and the Far North. The Auckland relief package has just been announced, well, in excess of a billion dollars in terms of costs, however, the Government and council contributions will be net of any insurance proceeds. So once the insurance comes in, then Government and council, or taxpayer and ratepayer, will meet the rest. The Council's been desperate to reach a deal with the Government, or the councils collectively have been anxious to reach a deal with the Government as early as possible, so that people who are in dire straits can make a decision and start to pick up the pieces and get on with their lives. The Hawkes Bay region has received $203 million towards flood protection and $260 million for roading and bridge repairs. The Council may cap some of the voluntary buyouts and you can understand why - some of those cliff top homes in Auckland that were affected were valued at more than $10 million each. One billion is not going to get you far once you start looking at those homes. But the weird thing about, in particular the Auckland floods, was how random it was. You got the $10 million homes affected and you got half million dollar homes affected. It certainly was egalitarian in terms of the houses that were impacted. It's likely no one is going to be satisfied. Not the people who've lost their homes and their livelihoods and certainly not the ratepayers and taxpayers who will be stumping up the bill through taxes and rates. But what else can we do? Insurance will only cover so much. And if the insurers decide not to reinsure a home and you still have a mortgage, you are stuffed.  I know that there are people who are very grumpy indeed about any money going to a family whose home has been devastated. But in many cases, it's not the fault of the owner for not doing due diligence. Some of these people will have been living in properties that were built years ago, late 30s, 40’s, 50s. They've been sitting there perfectly happily, never having been flooded, never had an issue until the Council did too much, approving subdivisions that altered the landscape. Failed to require the necessary infrastructure that would mitigate the flooding or doing too little, as in the case of Hawkes Bay, where the people said if you'd dredged the rivers of silt, if you’d dealt with the problem of slash, if you'd built the stock banks, none of this would have happened. It's a mess.   And that's for people who have insurance. What about those that don't? I read of a number of cases in Hawkes Bay where people had paid off their homes, and then they'd stopped paying insurance. Where does that leave them? Are there any lessons to be learned from Christchurch? One thing is for sure, we had better start taking heed of the things that do work, and the things that don't in this process. Because we're going to be repeating it in the years ahead. This is our future. But it's also been our past. This is not new to the world, it's not new to built up communities. Our ancestors, dating back to the day dot have had to deal with precisely this. The floods, the pestilence, the fire, the natural disasters. As communities, we've learned to live with nature and those that survive have evolved with nature. The danger is thinking that things can stay the same.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With the news that Auckland Council are expected to approve a buyout package for about 700 properties damaged in extreme weather events - Hastings Mayor Sandra Hazelhurst joined Kerre Woodham Mornings to provide an update on where the process sits currently for residents following Cyclone Gabrielle. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Auckland Council is expected to approve a buyout package for about 700 properties damaged in extreme weather events. Our newsroom understands the measure will cost well in excess of $1 billion and could be paid for by extra borrowing and rates rises. Mayor Wayne Brown and Finance Minister Grant Robertson sealed the deal on Tuesday and its understood the deal will have a 50/50 cost sharing approach like the Hawke's Bay deal. It's unclear how the council will value properties, whether it will apply a discount and how it will treat insured and uninsured properties. The council may also cap the voluntary buy outs, which could affect clifftop Auckland homes, some of which are worth more than $10m. John Goddard is an Insurance Barrister who was part of the claims resolution service after the Canterbury earthquakes, he joined Kerre Woodham. LISTEN ABOVE  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We were rather overtaken by events yesterday, but it didn't really matter because Labour kept changing its views on the best policy to combat youth vaping. In June, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins and Health Minister Ayesha Verrall announced the Government would be stopping new vape shops from being allowed to open within 300 metres of schools or marae, cutting down on disposable vapes and restricting the descriptions on product flavours. Potentially enticing names like ‘cotton candy’ and ‘strawberry Jelly doughnut ‘which accompany products will be prohibited and only generic names describing the flavour, such as ‘berry’, to be allowed. All vaping devices sold will soon need to have removable or replaceable batteries. So far, so good, but not good enough for a party that sees itself facing a political spanking. They thought there might be more votes in coming down tough on vapes, so yesterday the Government announced it would cap vape shops at 600. Currently there are more than 1300 specialist vape shops and as you'll know, just about every corner dairy, service station sells the product too. The Government says it will also set up a licensing system for vape shops if they're elected, a process that will take about six months. National has indicated it's broadly supportive of the direction the Government’s travelling, so they too will be looking at restrictions on sale to try and prohibit kids getting their digits on them.   Possibly cutting the number of outlets is too little, too late - and at the same time that Ayesha Verrell and Chris Hipkins were announcing that you couldn't open a vape store within 300 metres of school or marae, dozens have gained approval from the Ministry of Health to open near schools. So they all madly got in before September 21 and the damage is done, so I would really like to hear from those of you who are concerned about your kids vaping. Is there anything you can do about it? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

National pledges $280 million to fund 13 cancer treatments, not available in New Zealand. They argue it's a better use of taxpayers' money than providing free prescriptions. The impact of drug funding on patients is discussed, highlighting the politicization of funding decisions.