Kerre Woodham Mornings Podcast

As we all know there are lies, damn lies and statistics. Just read the New Zealand Herald series on the claims and counter claims being made by National and Labour around crime and you'll be left none the wiser as to whether crime is indeed out of control in New Zealand and whether Labour is indeed soft on crime. For example, Labour has claimed youth offending is down 60 percent over the past decade, the data used to make that claim is from the Ministry of Justice, looking at the total number of children and young people charged in court. While it does indeed show a significant drop over the past decade, it's also a measure of how often police choose to prosecute. So rather than show that youth offending has decreased. It shows how few times police are choosing to prosecute. There’s a big difference.   Sunny Kaushal, chair of the Dairy and Business Owners Group says this year already, and we're only at the beginning of August,  a massive of 45,046 offences have been reported to police to by retailers and they've made just over 1000 arrests. So, 45,046 offences reported leading to just over 1,000 arrests at 2.3 percent. He says it's out of control and he's seen that coming for a while. Watching people march out with this righteous kind of, ‘you can't touch me and entitled attitude’. Watching them March out with a trolley full of goods, with their entitled bloody attitude, ignoring common decency and the ties that bind us, and indeed the rules of the land leaves me feeling powerless. When they aren't even brought to account for their crimes, that leaves me bloody angry.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A slighter higher rise to the unemployment rate than expected. Stats NZ figures show it reached 3.6 percent for the three months to June. That's up point-two percent, on the preceding quarter. Most economists were predicting a point-one increase. Herald Business Editor at Large, Liam Dann, told Kerre Woodham it means there's more tension in the labour market. He says it's been seen through more people applying for fewer job ads - which makes life easier for employers. LISTEN ABOVE  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Now this is another tricky one and we have talked about it before, and it's in the news again. I am all for personal responsibility in owning your own mistakes. Case in point is me overpaying my insurance premiums by thousands and thousands and thousands for about 10 years because I hadn't checked the fine print. Nobody to blame but me. Unfortunately, as much as I had tried to squirm and writhe in my own mind, ultimately me, I'm the one, it’s me. But when it comes to banking scams I tend to side with Jon Duffy, the Consumer NZ Chief Executive. He says our consumer protection ecosystem is massively out of step with many jurisdictions we like to compare ourselves to. He says, most big banks in the UK are signatories to a voluntary code where they typically refund scam victims for their losses. He would like to see a similar stance taken by the banks in New Zealand. He says we expect banks here to argue they should not be liable for the customer’s perceived mistakes, but the way we see it right now, customers are carrying pretty much all the risk and the fight against scams.   The case in point is the story doing rounds in media this morning. BNZ is refusing to reimburse scam victims who lost $430,000 between them, this particular one was a Citibank scam. They argue they should get the money refunded because the Citibank scam was known to the New Zealand banking industry and had been for at least a year and the BNZ should have known about that.   Scammers are really good at what they do. They hone their craft. And work it for each community. Should there be a kind of trust fund for people who have been ripped off? If you pass the criteria, the banks can all contribute to this and all take a collective responsibility to ensure they don't have to keep popping up the trust fund each and every time somebody has ripped off.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

BNZ is under fire for refusing to reimburse scam victims who lost nearly half a million dollars in an elaborate scam. Consumer NZ is urging banks to raise their game and provide better protection to New Zealanders who fall victim to scams. Most big banks in the UK are signatories to a voluntary code where they typically refund scam victims for their losses. Consumer NZ would like to see a similar stance taken by the banks in New Zealand. Consumer NZ Chief Executive Jon Duffy joined Kerre Woodham to discuss. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Timely indeed for National to release its transport policy, given that infrastructure groups are tearing their hair out, growing increasingly frustrated by the months-long delay in the Government publishing its direction for land transport. We have been hearing about this for some time, the Government said yes, yes, yes, yes, it's coming.  They're putting the delay down to the fact that they have a new Transport Minister in David Parker, and he has to come up to speed with the portfolio after a former transport minister, Michael Wood, was sacked from his role as a minister. So they've said the plan should be released in August, three months after it's due, and five months after the previous draft statement in 2021 was released.  So we've known about this for a wee while, but Newsroom has spoken to the groups involved and they say the delay puts real pressure on the transport sector without knowing what they're supposed to be doing, what jobs are in the pipeline, they can't invest in the specialist equipment and personnel to carry out the jobs.   Effective, efficient roads are the arteries of this country. You simply cannot clog them. You cannot neglect them. You cannot let them wither and die or the economy itself will die. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

National is promising a radical shake-up of roading priorities if it wins the election. Leader Christopher Luxon said that the party will prioritise 13 roads of national significance, including the previously announced four-lane highways between Tauranga and Whangārei. He reckons the projects can be fully funded without raising fuel excise taxes. Labour has slammed the Nat's transport projects as "laughable at best". Transport Minister David Parker says the costs are as woefully light, as is the explanation of how it would be funded. Infrastructure NZ CEO Nick Leggett joined Kerre Woodham to discuss the policy and its viability. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I was about to write my opener this morning on Labour's widely anticipated move to announce the removal of GST on fruit and veg, when an ACT party press release landed in my inbox and I thought David Seymour said it best: “If Labour announces a policy to remove GST from fruit and vegetables, that's not a sign they want to address the cost of living. It's a sign of a truly desperate political party willing to throw any semblance of sensible policy making out the window to snare some votes.”  Absolutely right. I thought that Labour had shown desperation when both Kelvin Davis and Chris Hipkins stood there and said that they would build youth prisons. Neither of them believes in that at all. They are vehemently opposed to locking anybody up, far less kids. But no, quite willing to make an announcement and a statement on that if it's going to get them some middle ground voters and the same is true with the removal of GST from fruit and veg.   And probably, if somebody phoned me out of the blue and said would you like to see GST removed off fruit and veg Kerre?  I'd say, yes, I would. But there's no point to it. It's a slippery slope as well, to other products that people need. Why not just take the GST off power in winter? Why not take the GST off fuel so you can fill up the car and drive to work.  Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

National's claiming Labour is poised to announce scrapping GST from fruit and vegetables, however, Labour won't confirm or deny, saying we all have to wait for their announcement. Is it just a vote buying exercise or does it have merit? Dentons Kensington Swan Partner and tax expert, Bruce Bernacchi spoke to Kerre Woodham.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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.