Kerre Woodham Mornings Podcast

We know that times are tough for GPs, just trying to get into one in parts of the country is almost impossible. I've been taken back talking to you over the last few months about some of the wait times that you're experiencing when it comes to getting into your GP or being able to sign up with the GP if you're looking for a doctor if you've moved to a new area. It is now even more disappointing to learn that some family doctors are cutting services such as childhood immunisations due to chronic staff shortages and underfunding. They call it a crisis. If you take a look at the number of people turning up at emergency departments and 24-hour care departments it’s hard to disagree.  The General Practice Owners’ Association undertook a survey, and the results show us that GP services are at a critical crossroads. So more than half, 53 percent, of essential family doctor clinics have reduced their services, and over a third, 36.5 percent, have completely withdrawn some services altogether. I'm wondering if this is something you have noticed at your family doctor's clinic?  185 responses from member GPs across the country show that practices are struggling to find and retain doctors and nurses. They’re showing increasing waiting times for appointments, as we know, feeling that they're compromising patient health and are putting a burden on after-hours and emergency departments.   Look, it was also good news to hear that the Government is prepared to train 300 GPs, up from 200. Only problem is where do those extra 100 people come from? General practice isn't exactly selling itself at the moment is it? These junior doctors aren't coming out of med school going yeah, that's for me! That looks fantastic, that looks like good lifestyle choice!  How do we encourage junior doctors to jump into the sector to be those hundred extra people that we can train? Look, we know that by 2030, half of the current GPs will no longer be working. We've known this for a really long time.  So we have to work hard to incentivise junior doctors to come into general practice. And we need to incentivise practices to take them on as well.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

People are unable to access some essential family doctor services as the services are being cut due to chronic workforce shortages and underfunding in general practice. A survey of general practices has found more than half of essential family doctor clinics have reduced the services they are offering. The General Practice Owners Association of New Zealand (GenPro) survey found a significant number of practices have completely withdrawn some services altogether. Questions have been asked as to how we take the pressure off our family GPs and also, how we recruit students to the profession. Northland GP and GenPro Board Director Dr Geoff Cunningham joined Francesca Rudkin to discuss. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I don't mind telling you that I get a little tense talking about the sort of stuff that came out of the events that we witnessed in Albert Park on the weekend, because passions, as we saw, ran very high.  I've taken a bit of time over the past 24/48 hours to think about those events and also look at a bit of video coverage, and I think we should be deeply worried about the way we engage with each other and with other points of view with which we might not agree. It's almost become a distraction to talk about any of the substance of the opinions surrounding the personalities involved around Posie Parker, otherwise known as Ms Keen-Minshull, and the Pride movement. Because it seems now that when it comes to the big issues, we've reduced the level of our discourse or discussion to that of a pantomime, where we have to find the big bad villain or the wicked witch. Where everyone can boo and hiss when they come on stage. And I hate to say it, but it was a lot worse than that on the weekend. And, understandably, we have politicians commenting on it like Christopher Luxon, who understandably tiptoes gently through the tulips, pointing out that there were many peaceful, people there and making some sensible comments to defending the right to free speech. But closer to the action, I'm going to steal the words of Brendan O'Neill at The Spectator when he said that this what it must have been like when women were marched to the stake. He compared it to the ritualistic shaming of a witch and a violent purging of a heretic. Some would say simply for having a different opinion, but here's the thing. Regardless of the substance of the arguments, we have to be better than this. We have to be able to discuss things.  Shout and make a noise if you like, but we have to be able to debate the substance of the issues.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Yesterday we were wondering what Nationals announcement was going to be around education, today we know. From where I'm sitting, it's pretty good. The basics are primary and intermediate schools will teach students for at least one hour a day on each of the topics of reading, writing and maths, and children will be tested at least twice a year to make sure that they've got it, that they understand what they're being taught. It's a commitment to New Zealand's children that their education will ensure they will be literate and numerate when they leave school. It's a commitment that New Zealanders will once again see our education system ranked as one of the best in the world. A commitment that wherever you and your child are in the country, your education, or your child's education won't be left to chance or fate. And of course, the unions and Labour have come out and criticised it.   Jan Tinetti, the Education Minister, says that forcing children to do an hour each of reading, writing and maths every day isn't going to make them enjoy it or learn better. More intensive testing isn't going to make school a place they want to be. She says Labour has invested in our kids, upgraded nearly every school in the country, improved teachers’ pay and introduced programmes that help parents and make kids want to be at school. So why are the truancy rate the highest they've ever been, Jan? Why are your teachers on strike? Why are we the worst in just about every single category? So fine, grizzle and moan all you like about a standardised education system, but that's what we had before when we produced literate, numerate young people from our schools. I've banged on time and time again about how we're letting down our kids, this generation of kids, and we are. If you go back to the 90’s, young New Zealanders were better educated than they are now. We are going backwards. What we have right now in our schools is some sort of interpretive dance. We've far too many young people, and I'm not going to say they're failing, they are being let down. The teachers, too, are being let down by not having the resources and the structure they need to deliver the results they want. Good on Christopher Luxon for making education an election issue. I couldn't believe it when I read Matthew Hooton's column that education doesn't make the top issues concerning voters, according to their own pollsters, and it’s a lowly 11th in Ipsos’ New Zealand Issues Monitor. It shouldn't be. Education should be top of mind for every single New Zealander.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Finally, finally, a political party is grasping the nettle and telling it like it is. This education system is failing our children and it's been failing it for two decades. Parents and teachers have been saying this for years. The kids themselves are voting with their feet. They're simply not turning up for school. And why should they? I've been saying for years, as have others, that it is inconceivable that a child should turn up its secondary school functionally illiterate. They have had five to seven years at primary school and come out of it unable to read, to write, to do basic maths, far less anything else. How can this possibly happen? It's not the fault of the teachers. There are many, many fine teachers who are doing their level best with an incoherent curriculum with many, many kids with multiple and diverse needs in big classrooms. It's not the same as it used to be. They are doing the very best they can, but you've seen the level of their frustration. Now, National has announced its Teaching the Basics Brilliantly policy.   I am so sick of our young people being let down on so many counts. Nathan Wallis the educator and psychologist says the first three years are absolutely vital. If you have $100,000 to put it towards a child's education, he says, don't save it for university. You put that into the first three years, after that it's the next five years and after that it's basically toast. You're done and dusted. You either got a child with an inquiring mind, a child who believes that they can do whatever they want to do, that they can read, they can write, they can create their own worlds with their own imaginations. They can see the magic and numbers they can see the magic in learning. That's what teachers live to do, and so few of them are given the opportunity to do that. We have got to draw a line in the sand when it comes to our children's education. I cannot recall how long I've talked about this, ever since the figures first started coming out. That we were slipping and we were slipping further behind and the answers were all ‘tests aren't everything you know. You've got to let these children evolve at their own pace in their own time’. Sure, if it was one-on-one teaching, perhaps that would be so. But right now you've got overcrowded classes with children, with so many diverse needs that cannot possibly be met by one teacher. They are doing the best that they can. They need the support of the community, they need the support of a country that cares and understands that an investment in a child's education is an investment for the country as a whole.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Data from the Ministry of Social Development, comparing June 2020 to June 2022, shows almost 25-thousand fewer people are relying on the Jobseeker benefit. Minister for Social Development and Employment, Carmel Sepuloni, says two MSD reports show its investment in the Covid response helped drive record numbers of people off benefits and into work. Wairoa Deputy Mayor and Young Achievers Trust Youth Services Manager, Denise Eaglesome-Karekare, is someone who works alongside young people to get them work ready and place them into employment joined Kerre Woodham. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 2004, the New Zealand Labour Government introduced the Working for Families Package as part of the 2004 budget. The package, which basically began in 2005, had three primary aims to make work pay to ensure income adequacy and to support people into work. There was concern about the number of young women who were on benefits, they were a valuable resource, it was important they get into work. But getting into work is really expensive when it comes to childcare and when it comes to transport and when it comes to all sorts of things and getting the wardrobe for work you can't just have somebody work ready overnight. Working had to be worth it. And there was also a letter from, as I recall, the wife of a Waihi school teacher who said how is it that we are working, my husband's doing an important job, and yet we're materially worse off than people on benefits. Thus, Working for Families was born, and right now, there are about 350,000 families receiving the tax credit.   A review of the Working for Families system has found that while the system is largely fit for purpose, there are some ‘serious design issues’ with the way some of the tax credits are applied. One of the tax credits was so flawed that half of the families that received it were accidentally overpaid, creating a tax debt they needed to pay back. A really unexpected and unpleasant surprise to receive. Most of the other half of the families were underpaid during the year and only got paid the credit as a lump sum at some point. So the way in which it's being delivered, there are some design flaws as the review saw.   It also warned that despite the tax credit system in work, poverty is becoming an increasing issue for families. No surprises there for many families, I'd imagine. There is no doubt that Working for Families has been a lifesaver for many working families, but there are critics of the scheme who basically say it's tax payer subsidies of employers. That employers would have to pay more if taxpayers weren't topping up working New Zealanders incomes with the Working for Families tax credit.   So when it comes to the Working for Families package, the Government has promised to act upon the review that has been delivered. They're not committing to anything just yet. Carmel Sepuloni said no decisions have been taken, we can continue to consider the advice that we've been given. Any decisions would have to be part of a budget process if there were going to be any changes to Working for Families.   Carmel Sepuloni said she can't pre-empt whether or not it's going to be part of this budget. Doing away with Working for Families would be very difficult, as the New Zealand Initiative points out, many low income families have taken on mortgages on the understanding that these tax credits will continue. Therefore, to remove them would be incredibly unfair. And yet, at the same time, is it fair that taxpayers support employers to pay wages that New Zealanders can live on?  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A review into the Working for Families tax credit system has found "serious design issues" in the way some of the tax credits are applied. Working for Families was introduced by the Helen Clark Government in 2004 and currently pays out over $3 billion in tax credits to around 350,000 families. The review also warns that despite the tax credit system, "in-work poverty" was becoming an increasing issue for families. Economist and Honorary Auckland University Associate Professor, Susan St John joined Kerre Woodham to discuss. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For your edification this morning, a little history lesson. In 1940, while working as a street painter for the city of Los Angeles, Charles D. Scanlon designed a hollow conical marker to keep cars from driving over wet paint. And he was the one who painted the rubber traffic cone in 1943.   In his patent filing, Scanlon explained his three main objectives for his invention were to provide a marker that is readily visible, yet which causes no damage to an automobile if the automobile strikes it; that it may be stacked so as to require a minimum of storage space and to be easily transported; and that it will return to its upright position after a glancing blow and which may be dropped from a moving truck and assume an upright position. Before the cones there were wooden barriers and wooden tripods, and they weren't easily seen. They were often broken. They had to be assembled for each project and they were bulky to store. So the cone has stayed pretty much as Charles D. Scanlon invented it in 1940.   It's estimated, according to this website, that there are 140 million traffic cones in use worldwide, and I would say that there are 139 million, 990,000 of them in New Zealand, the rest dispersed around the world. An all-out war has now been declared on the humble road cone by no less an adversary than Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown. He has, in his own words, had a few hissy fits at Auckland Transport and demanded that they reduce an unjustifiable $145 million spend on road cones and traffic management. Contractors, he says, are taking up more space than is necessary for their own parking, material storage and lunch rooms, increasing the cost of disruption to road users at minimal cost to themselves. Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown spoke to the Mike Hosking Breakfast this morning and said what used to be safety at a reasonable cost is no longer the mantra.  I think it is absolutely worth having a look at seeing whether you need to keep those road cones there. Sometimes they seem to stay there long after the job has been done. No problem at all at looking at traffic management plans, full stop. $145 million in Auckland alone and this is being replicated right around the country and you will attest to that. Wherever you are you'll know the trucks, you'll know the cones and you will be scratching your head going, why are they there? How can this be justified? I think as long as we leave the actual personnel alone, these are questions well worth asking. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The health system is in crisis, and surgeons are being forced to decide which patients to treat, and which need to wait. Counter to Te Whatu Ora’s statement that 73% of planned surgeries had been delivered in the year to date, surgeons are saying its closer to 50% or less. High-profile colorectal surgeon Frank Frizelle joined Kerre Woodham Mornings to discuss the situation. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.