Kerre Woodham Mornings Podcast

What an absolute mess our waters are in.   Drinking water regulator Taumata Arowai has put 27 councils on notice to have a plan and funds locked in to fix their drinking water supplies by June of next year. I was actually surprised that so many councils still have issues with their drinking water. Still haven't put in barriers to protect against the cryptosporidium and guardia that can be spread through drinking water supplies, especially given the Campylobacter outbreak in Hastings in August 2016.   More than 5000 people were violently ill and the outbreak has been linked to three deaths. So I would have thought that any Council that didn't have treatment in place would have made it a priority to get those barriers put in to prevent their people getting contaminated, getting sick from contaminated drinking water.   But no, here we are in 2023, with a cryptosporidium outbreak in Queenstown.   Since 2016, we've also had issues with drinking water in east Otago, although that was lead contamination not Protozoa which is the all-encompassing name for the bugs. We've had issues with wastewater run off again in Queenstown. The Council sought permission in 2018 for untreated wastewater, sewage basically, to continue being pumped into the lakes and rivers in Queenstown for the next 35 years. Those beautiful pristine lakes getting pumped full of literal crap.   We've got issues in Wellington with wastewater going into the harbour. We've got people in Inner city Auckland being issued drinking water and dealing with sewage bubble ups as engineers try to fix a huge sinkhole in Parnell. There are other examples.   There is an absolute urgent need to overhaul and upgrade our three water systems, hence what the Labour Government was trying to do with its Three Waters. But they made an absolute hash of it. So Taumata Arowai has put the councils yet to do the necessary work on notice.  Queenstown Mayor Glyn Lewers was on Early Edition this morning. He believes water regulator Taumata Arowai is undermining the very industry they're trying to regulate, and the costs will be passed on to ratepayers.  The bit that concerns me is I think the regulators are probably undermining the industry they're trying to regulate, that's the fear I've got. So what's going to happen is they're all competing against each other now against the scarce resource, and that's the industry resource and also the supply resource. So you can just imagine the consultancy rates and the supply rates are only going go one way and it's up. It just gets passed straight on the ratepayers, so ratepayers can expect a fair increase in rates, I'd suggest.  Yeah again, I don't quite follow the reasoning. So Queenstown knows they haven't had a barrier to protect the drinking water for years. They know they've got problems with their wastewater pumping out into the lakes. The other 26 councils presumably know that they have no treatment in place to protect their drinking water. The Campylobacter outbreak in Hastings was in August 2016, so here we are seven years later and now all of a sudden saying, oh man, we're going to have to really scramble for resource.   Well, if you'd pulled your finger out and got the job done and prioritised it, you wouldn't all be competing at the same time, would you? So it's no good pointing the didgeridoo at Taumata Arowai and saying, oh, now you're forced us into this position and now we're going to have to compete for a scarce resource. There wouldn't be a scarce resource if you had used the seven intervening years between when there'd been a Campylobacter outbreak that made so many people so very, very ill to do something.   Seven years later what have you been doing? You leave it till you run the risk of prosecution. You find yourself competing with the same consultants, the same equipment.  The price goes up. That's on you. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

New Zealand's water regulator is cracking down on councils to ensure the country's drinking water supplies are up to standard.  Water regulator Taumata Arowai has found that 27 councils, affecting more than 310,000 people, are lacking sufficient protozoa barriers.  National has pledged to scrap Three Waters and deliver local water well, but what does that mean?  National's Local Government Spokesperson Simon Watts joined Kerre Woodham to break down the Party’s plans, and how they’ll impact kiwis.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The curriculum is shaping up to be a battlefield of education policies in this election with concerns about declining literacy and numeracy rates across New Zealand.   New Zealand is not the only country that's having a look at maths and the way it's taught, in an article in the Atlantic Dr Brian Conrad, Stanford mathematics professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies, critiqued the teaching of maths in the state of California.  He wrote that California is promoting an approach to maths instruction that's likely to reduce opportunities for disadvantaged students, the opposite of what they’re trying to achieve.  He joined Kerre Woodham to discuss the situation.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Not even Covid can keep Chris Hipkins down. He joined Kerre Woodham over Zoom to take calls and answer questions. WATCH ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We thought we'd have a look at the different health policies from the various parties and get your thoughts on what would benefit you, your community, those you love the most.   National announced yesterday that after birth hospital stays for mothers would be extended to three days, an extra 24 hours. That children and young people under 18 with type one diabetes would be provided free continuous glucose monitors, and that they would increase the number of training places for psychologists and psychiatric registrars.   ACT announced yesterday a medicine strategy that would require Medsafe to approve, within one week, any drug or medical device that has been approved by two foreign regulatory bodies that have the same, or more robust systems, compared with New Zealand.   National’s already announced it will allocate $280 million in ring fenced funding to Pharmac over 4 years to pay for 13 cancer treatments; for lung, bowel, kidney, melanoma, head and neck cancer that are funded in Australia but not New Zealand.   Labour has already promised a billion dollars for Pharmac to do with as it wishes and free dental care for under 30s.   And what's the Greens health policy? Well, thank you for asking.   Top priority for them is to reconfigure our health system towards recognising and acting on oppressive and intersecting biases. For example, racism, sexism, ableism, fat phobia, ageism, queerphobia, and transphobia, and the knowledge and skills required to work with affected communities such as deaf and disabled people, its top priority for them.    So which of the parties policies resonates most for you? I have to say the number of Give a Little pages I’ve contributed to recently for some gorgeous young Kiwis, young parents, some in their late 30s, early 40s, terribly ill with bowel cancer and who are having to raise money for non-funded treatments to give them a fighting chance of seeing their kids get one year older.   I've also heard how life changing the continuous glucose monitors are for families. If you don't know anything about type 1 diabetes, a) lucky you and b) you probably have no idea. I didn't. Just how traumatic and life changing it is for families.   I thought it was something you just got medicine for, and you lived life pretty much as normal. But for parents of young children who have type 1 diabetes, they have to get up throughout the night to ensure that their children's blood sugar level doesn't fall to a dangerous level. I had no idea how impactful it was on families and how dangerous and life-threatening type 1 diabetes can be, especially in younger children who can't manage it themselves. They're very expensive too for a lot of families, they have to fund raise or rely on the kindness of strangers to get a continuous glucose monitors, so I imagine that will be life changing for some people.   Three days in hospital after having a baby. I'm not so sure they'll be able to deliver on that National, and whether many people will want to. I've said before, it used to be a fantasy of mine that I'd have a minor accident that would require about a week in hospital with crisp white hospital sheets and lovely, caring, attentive nurses mopping my fevered brow, and a vase full of daffodils and open windows and fresh air and beautiful food arriving.   Well, you know, that is just that, a fantasy now. That's not what happens in hospitals now. I don't know how many hospitals would have beds for mums and babies to be able to stay for three days.  For those of you under 40, back in the day when I had my daughter, in antediluvian times, I got a week. A room of my own, a week.   There was absolutely nothing wrong with either of us, it was a perfectly straightforward birth and you got a week to loll about and receive guests and learn how to cope with this new baby. It was brilliant, but there was time, and there were beds, and there was staff, and I just don't think that's the case these days.   They've been bribing women to leave hospital early for years because of bed and staff shortages. Remember, 15 odd years ago, they were offering women a month's supply of disposable nappies if they’d buggar off and take their baby with them. Some women turned around within a matter of hours.   So I'm not sure they'd be able to deliver on three days, and I'm not entirely sure families would want to be there for three days. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I think it's a little bit rich when you've got Chris Hipkins cancelling a debate because of Covid and people send him "best wishes" and "get well soon"s, instead of accepting the good wishes graciously and using the time to recover at home, out go attack ads saying Chris Luxon is a chicken for refusing to reschedule the debate.   They offered to put up Kelvin Davis against Christopher Luxon, but that's hardly like for like is it? National said no, if it's going to be a battle of the deputies, sure, we'll put up Nicola Willis. Labour said no, that's not good enough, we need to reschedule.   These are the last few days of the election campaign. If Labour's diary is yawning and open and has plenty of spaces that says more about them, I think than it does about National. It's really, really hard to find time to reschedule. You know, we're doing that with Christopher Luxon's team. They want to come back on. They suggested Thursday, but he's already been on for two hours with Mike, we think that might be a little bit of overkill. So they're trying to find a space in their diary with the best will in the world. To call him a chicken for refusing to debate Kelvin Davis!   It's incredible to me to think that Chris Hipkins’ team did think he did such an amazing job in the last debate, like he was so brilliant, absolutely on fire, that Christopher Luxon is running scared. I don't know what debate they watched, but that's not what I saw. I saw Chris Hipkins looking better and improved, but certainly not enough to strike fear into his opponent. It just looks a bit like dirty pool. You pulled out, your problem. Don't make it Christopher Luxon’s and his teams.  Onto the announcement yesterday from Labour saying that they were going to look at bank rolling companies who want to enter the New Zealand grocery market, in a bid to break up the supermarket duopoly. They've been gunning for the supermarkets for some time –remember the Commission of Inquiry into supermarkets? Labour's commerce and Consumer affairs spokesman Duncan Webb said if re-elected, Labour's support for new companies could include finance, making sure land was available, regulatory changes, incubating innovation and accelerating competition.    Webb said the behaviour by Sanitarium, who of course refused to supply The Warehouse with Weet-Bix, citing ‘supply issues’, highlighted why the existing players couldn't be trusted to sort out the market. The inquiry into competition in the grocery business showed the two big companies that control the grocery industry are making excess profits of around $1 million a day.   I don't know what excess profits are. What's the excess? How much are you allowed to make before it becomes excess? So I've never really understood what they mean by excess profits, but nonetheless, following the inquiry, Labour established a grocery code of conduct, appointed a Commissioner, banned restrictive land agreements that locked new entrants out of locations for new supermarkets (which I think that was a good move), made unit pricing mandatory and required major grocery retailers to open wholesale offerings. But that's apparently not enough, hence the government saying, hey, if we get in anybody who wants to start up a grocery store contact us.   Why? Why would you do that? Well, the founder of online grocery retailer Supie, Sarah Balle, spoke to the Mike Hosking Breakfast, and she supports the idea of Government funding.  “Government funding has delivered us a national airline, being Air New Zealand, it has delivered us rural broadband to areas across New Zealand so that we don't have Internet poverty. We have Government funded electricity companies, so there's absolutely a case to be made to ensure that we don't have food poverty in New Zealand. The Government is investing in a supermarket that generates returns that we can pull back into supporting food producers and really improving the health of our population.”  Umm, but are they? I mean, basically all they say it would be is a loan. It's not like they're going to take any of the profits that may or may not be made by the retailer and put them back into the food supplies. All they’ve said is they'll supply a loan.   ACT says it's a form of woolly corporate welfarism. National says taxpayer money should not be used to prop up or support a new entrant into the market. There's no guarantee it'll be a success. And I do wonder at the wisdom of bankrolling wannabe grocers when the big multinational companies around the world have had a look at New Zealand and said Yeah, Nah.   Grant Robertson sees the multinationals have had a look. He cited German discount supermarket ALDI as one of the players in the Australian market that people can take a look at. A spokesman for ALDI confirmed it has no current plans to expand into New Zealand. It'd be great if it did. They set up shop in Australia in 2001 and helped drive down prices. Although it took more than a decade for it to become the country's third biggest player. It costs a lot to establish a nationwide supermarket. It costs a lot to hang in there for 10 years to become profitable.   So is that what we want to do with taxpayer money? Have a punt on another supermarket? Supie is looking to expand. It's an online grocery startup, but it says it's signed up about 55,000 customers, has about 130 staff and is now planning physical stores and has already mapped out of first location. They want to be a disruptor, much like 2degrees. Supie wants a slice of the estimated $22 billion supermarket industry, which is controlled by store-owner co-operative Foodstuffs and Australian retail giant Woolworths through its Countdown chain.    Should the government be bankrolling people who want to have the Super yachts, who want to have the lovely luxury lifestyle that they see, you know, the supermarket owners in their district having? They look at the trappings of success and think, I want a bit of that. They don't realise that these people have been working 18/19/20-hour days on the shop floor for years and years and years before the pay off.   And how would it work? Do the profits go back to the Government to go back to the food producer, as Sarah was saying? I don't think so.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

National outplays Labour according to this year's rankings from business leaders.  More than 100 CEOs and business leaders have ranked MPs in the Herald's Mood of the Boardroom survey.  Luxon comes out on top with 3.24 out of five, compared to Chris Hipkins' 2.95.  Jarden Managing Director and Co-Head of Investment Banking Silvana Schenone told Kerre Woodham that businesses are very concerned with the future because they will really need to plan for it.  She said that people would make totally different decisions based on who was in power.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I wanted to start by saying it is no secret that we're in the poo.    As a country economically, and in Auckland and Wellington's case, quite literally in the poo as aging infrastructure fails and stormwater and sewage pipes collapse. Right now, Auckland city engineers are battling to deal with a tennis court sized sinkhole and sewage flowing into Waitemata Harbour. The third sinkhole they've had to deal with in as many months and there will be many, many more to come.   There needs to be a major investment in infrastructure right around the country. One of the reasons, of course, why the Government came up with the ill-fated Three Waters plan. There's nothing sexy about pipes and engineering projects that happen under the ground. But it's even less sexy having sewage bubbling up into your home and worse, into the harbour.   But that means we have to pay for it. And councils right around the country are sharpening their pencils, looking at ways they can get blood out of a stone. Nobody wants services cut. Nobody wants rates increases.   But nobody wants sewerage in the harbour either.   The West Coast Regional Council approved a nearly 17% general rates rise during a midyear meeting, but for some households the increase is likely to be 100% increase, with ratings for flood protection schemes in the combined district plan.   And sure, the rates aren't as high as they might be in other cities or towns, but that's why you're living in Greymouth. You've chosen to live there. You've chosen to stay there if you were born there because you like the region, and you like the fact that its houses aren't going to cost you as much, rates aren't going to cost you as much, You’re not going to have as much taken out of the money coming in.   So going from $25 a fortnight to $50 a fortnight might not sound a lot, but it still means you have to find the extra.   Aucklanders have been warned the starting point for rates is 13%, and water bills could rise by more than 20%. Mayor Wayne Brown says the funding mechanisms for the Council are simply unsustainable and has called for a return of GST on rates, rates to be paid on crown properties (seems fair), and a nationally funded solution to managed retreat.   Because under the $2 billion cost sharing flood buyout scheme, where more than 700 homes that are uninhabitable are going to be bought, the Council still has to find nearly $900 million.   So in a cost-of-living crisis for all of us, households are in crisis, councils are in crisis, the Government is in crisis.   We're in for a tough couple of years.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Last night's leaders' debate was vastly more entertaining than the first one.   Was it a debate? Well, Sister Philippa, my old debating coach at Sacred Heart Girls College, wouldn't have seen it as a debate per say. I think it was more of a bit of infotainment.   Chris Hipkins, the leader of Labour, showed up and heaven knows we love a politician who shows up. He no longer looked like a dead man walking like in the first debate. He looked like he didn't care, was over it, was going through the motions. Last night he looked more like someone who's woken up to the fact he needs to fight for his political skin.   Christopher Luxon got caught a few times on not specifically answering questions and resorting to slogans but seemed composed despite the increased intensity of the set to. And I think the quickness will come with more time in the House and the ability to be able to answer on your feet.   Paddy Gower got in a couple of zingers. When Christopher Luxon said he didn't know Winston Peters, Paddy Gower was quite right in saying it's Winston Peters, who doesn't know Winston Peters?!   So ultimately it was more energetic, more peppy. But did it change anything for you? Give you any information you didn't know before? Give you an insight into the leaders of the parties that you didn't have before last night?   Apparently, these sorts of debates help to get non-voters engaged and into the voting booths, but God help us if our election is decided by people who watch 90 minutes of television infotainment and base their votes on that.   Interesting though, that in both debates policies seem to be made-up on the fly by both leaders. We're banning fizzy drinks in secondary schools in the first debate -that seemed to come out of nowhere. I mean well. Fizzy drinks are banned in primary schools, but Chris Hipkins was like right, we're going to ban them in secondary schools as well.   Both leaders said they would lower the age for bowel cancer screening in this last night's debate, which you know, both worthwhile. Don't get me wrong, both worthwhile. But I do find it a wee bit alarming that politicians can just whip a policy out of their kerchief pocket without Select Committee, consultation and the like, as infotainment.   Fine. I can't imagine the sort of people that I talk to on a daily basis on this show, I can't imagine people thinking, uh, you know what, because of that zingy one liner or because they looked more energetic, I'm going to change my vote from National to Labour or Labour to National. I just can't see that happening.   It may have confirmed people's decisions to look at the minor parties. They might have looked at both leaders and thought ‘I need more than this.’  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A little bit of politics, because we didn't really get a chance to talk about Christopher Luxon and David Seymour saying yes, okay, if we have to, we will work with New Zealand First.  Commentators have got themselves into quite the lather over that. A sign of weakness, they were saying, being bullied by the media and all that sort of carry-on. And it's not often I agree with the leader of New Zealand First, but like him, I think that the only poll that really matters is the one on Election Day.   Polls have become less reliable than they used to be, with people being mistrustful of giving any information to anybody. It's harder to reach people these days. Those who only have mobile phones, those who live in apartment buildings.   Certainly, the polls are showing that Labour support is tanking, but the Greens are picking up a lot of those dissatisfied voters. Enough to cobble together a coalition of Labour, Greens, and Te Pati Māori? Who knows? Not according to statisticians and Poll of Polls simulations.   But ultimately voters will have the final say, and I think that's what Christopher Luxon understands. He has overtaken the other Chris as preferred prime. But last night's poll also showed support for the main parties and ACT dropping slightly.  It also had TOP doubling its support, so make that what you want.   And as I say, commentators got themselves into a complete lather yesterday over National and ACT saying they would work with New Zealand First if they absolutely had to. But surely that's just pragmatism. If people insist on voting for New Zealand First (I shan't go on, but you know my thoughts about that), then parties have to work with what's voted in. Ruling out New Zealand First would have shown arrogance in the extreme by National.  Christopher Luxon comes from a business background, not a political one, and I think that's a very good thing. I think by saying he would work with New Zealand First if they absolutely had to is being respectful of democracy, the MMP process and the voters. (Although whether anyone who votes New Zealand First deserves respect is another matter entirely. But I shan’t go on).   You know my thoughts. What are your thoughts on this? We didn't get to discuss it yesterday and I'd love to hear from you whether you think that is showing respect for the parliamentary process, respect for MMP and respect for the voters. I can't see it as being a sign of weakness, which is what I heard a lot of yesterday. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.