Kerre Woodham Mornings Podcast

National is labelling emergency housing as a social and economic disaster. Since Labour came to office in 2017, $1.4 billion has been spent on putting people up temporarily in motels. National's Housing spokesman Chris Bishop told Kerre Woodham it's an extraordinary sum of money - an average of nearly a million dollars a day being paid to motel owners. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Yet again, unintended consequences have put the kibosh on the Government's best intentions. A loophole in a law designed to curb youth vaping will allow dairies and supermarkets to avoid the new proximity rule, and they'll be able to start selling vapes within 300 metres of schools and marae. Special vape retailers - basically, they're just little holes in the wall - they have been banned from selling the addictive little suckers, but dairies and supermarkets have not. General retailers like the dairies and supermarkets who do not currently sell vapes,  can still set up after October 1st, but interestingly they will be restricted to mint, menthol and tobacco flavours. I think that's a good move.   Vape Free Kids New Zealand spokesperson Marnie Wilton says the new rules from the Government are not doing enough to protect children by allowing the general retailers to set up shop. So you know, yet again it's poorly thought-out legislation. Should we go the way of Australia? I rather think we should. If the health impacts are proven, and known to be harmful, ban it and put it on prescription. Call it out for what it is, if it's a smoking cessation tool, make it available on prescription.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tammy, a board member and parent at Parakai School called in to Kerre Woodham Mornings with concerns over a new vape shop opening beside their primary school. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What I did want to talk to you about this morning was prompted by a piece written by Rob Campbell in Newsroom, talking about the dire state of aged care in this country. Aged care providers have warned the shortage of rest homes is leading to longer wait times for elective surgery, overcrowded emergency departments and other pressures on the health system. The Aged Care Deputy Chair Warrick Dunn said the rest home sector was currently short about 1000 to 1200 nurses, from a total work force of over 5000, so they need a fifth more than what they have. As a consequence, there are 1200 beds across the sector that have had to be closed, either total closures or partial and providers have had to do that to keep staff and residents safe. Put another way, last year we saw about 20 rest homes close because of a nursing shortage. So that means that these elderly, vulnerable people have to basically pick up their beds and move to a completely different environment. That's if they can find one.   The inability to provide for our elderly affects us all. Older people in the right environment can live rich and full lives right up to the bitter end. I remember emceeing an aged care conference some years ago - and the incredible initiatives being undertaken by so many providers, not-for-profit providers as well as the for profit, to give their people the best possible life right around the country, was staggering and inspirational. Done right you can live a great life. But right now there seems to be more votes in potholes than pensioners.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The former head of Te Whatu Ora, Rob Campbell believes the lack of attention given to aged care is yet another example of politicians kicking the can down the road. In an opinion piece in Newsroom, Campbell writes that chronic underfunding by successive governments, has meant there has not been enough capital or operational investment in aged care facilities. Estimates indicate that by 2040 there will be 230,000 people over 85, and that on current trends, there will be about half or less the aged care beds available to meet demand. Chancellor of AUT and former Chair of Te Whatu Ora Rob Campbell joined Kerre Woodham. LISTEN ABOVE  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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.