Kerre Woodham Mornings Podcast

A public law expert says he won't be surprised if the Government back tracks on moves to entrench part of the controversial Three Waters reforms. Under a last minute change, 60-percent of MPs would have to agree to overturn part of the Bill protecting water assets from privatisation. A group of legal academics have written to the Government, raising concerns about the entrenchment of non-electoral law. Otago University's Andrew Geddis says even if it's motivated from a good place...it's not been done properly. He says even if it was motivated by really not wanting to see water go into private hands, the process that's been used is a bit shoddy. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sunny Kaushal, Chair of the Dairy and Business Owners Group, has been saying it for ages. This is a quote from an interview he gave some months ago. “Be under no illusion, it's just a matter of time before someone is killed or seriously injured and the Government will be to blame because they've taxed cigarettes to be worth more than a bottle of whiskey.”   That was when he was talking about the cigarette taxes.  There are also numerous times he's warned that with the ram raids, it will also only be a matter of time before somebody is killed and Sunny was right. Last night, a neighbourhood dairy in Sandringham was robbed at knifepoint. The person behind the counter was stabbed and later died in hospital of their wounds.  Of course somebody was going to be killed. You cannot have this level of lawlessness, this level of disregard for property and people without the inevitability of somebody being killed.   This is entirely on the Government and its softly, softly approach with criminals and lawbreakers.  I am really, really angry this morning. It is utterly needless.  It's been like watching a car crash in slow motion. Of course this was going to happen. It was simply a matter of time. And the naysayers say well, what are you going to do about? I'd do exactly what Mark Mitchell has suggested. Ban the gang patches. Don't allow them to associate together. Get tough on the truants and the parents who allow their kids to truant. Start having consequences for actions. Throw out the violent, aggressive tenants and the Kainga Ora establishments. Give those rooms to the people on the social housing list. Start having meaningful consequences for actions. This didn't happen overnight. We've seen, basically, civil society eroded over the past few years, and enough is enough. There’s got to be a line in the sand, and unfortunately, it took the death of an innocent for that to happen.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

National Party leader Christopher Luxon joined Kerre Woodham mornings to take calls and discuss the biggest issues New Zealand is currently facing. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The fatal stabbing of an Auckland dairy worker is being described as inevitable and entirely preventable. An offender entered Sandringham's Rose Cottage Superette about 8 last night, armed with a knife and took the cash register. The worker was stabbed, later dying in hospital from his injuries.   The offender is currently on the run. Dairy and Business Owners Group chair Sunny Kaushal joined Kerre Woodham. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Yesterday, after a young caller called in talking about the fact he hadn't been able to go into work because of issues around his mental health, I was surprised at the number of texts and emails I received almost immediately. These were from people who were either experiencing similar stress and anxiety themselves, or had family members who were. The texts came flooding in and now seeing the data this morning from a survey of 1000 New Zealanders, I understand why.   73 percent of the respondents aged between 18 and 34 said they had been so stressed in the past year they could not cope. That’s 73 percent of 18 to 34 year olds.   More than 60 percent of those young adults said they'd felt sad or hopeless almost every day for a couple of weeks or more. 40 percent of 18 to 34 year olds had seriously considered suicide or self-harm in the past year. 40 percent. They felt so desperate that they seriously considered hurting themselves. It is a damning, damning statistic.   I always considered it to be like the equivalent of winning Willy Wonka’s Golden ticket - to be born here, to be born in this country where everybody has a chance, everybody has an opportunity, everybody will be looked after if they need to be. If, through some awful stroke of fate, you're unable to care for yourself, here is a community that will help you look after yourself. It doesn't feel so lucky anymore, and certainly it would appear that young New Zealanders don't feel they've won the Golden ticket at all by being born here. It's just a damning, damning indictment on this country when you see how miserable so many young people are.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Now the news that the Supreme Court has ruled that the current voting age of 18 is inconsistent with the Bill of Rights came through late yesterday morning. We had a little bit of discussion on it, and as expected it dominated the news and the rest of talkback for most of yesterday. Most people reacted as though 16-year-olds would now be running the country. They bemoaned the ‘wokeism’ of the Supreme Court, but the court hasn't actually granted 16 year olds the right to vote. What it did say was that the voting age of 18 is inconsistent with the section of the Bill of Rights that said there must be freedom from discrimination on the basis of age.   The thing that got me is that there seemed to be this attitude that young people are simply incapable of independent thought or analysis, or sensible decision making when it comes to voting. You know, ‘16-year-olds can't even get out of bed in the morning’, and ‘anybody who had a 16 year old wouldn't want them voting’. Have you listened to talk back? Have you listened to some of the views held by people well past 16 who are Ill-informed, misinformed and have completely the wrong end of the stick?  People who are over 18, people who are over 30, people who are over 40, don't necessarily have a good grasp of politics either.   The idea that 16 year olds are batty with mad ideas. Well, hello. You could say that about every voter. I mean far from having an age limit, I would much rather see a competency test for all. It doesn't have to be a terribly sophisticated one. Just name the leaders of all the main parties or of all the political parties that have been in Parliament perhaps? Explain the party vote. Name three issues that you're concerned about in the country at the moment.  I mean it doesn't even have to be a terribly complicated competency test, but that's what I'd like to see. I'd be quite happy to lower the voting age to 16, provided everybody who registered to vote could pass that competency test.  I just found it interesting listening to the comments about young people - and I'm like wow. Some of them would be helpless and hopeless. Some of them would just be along for the ride. Some of them would be well researched; they would know exactly what was most important to them. They would vote accordingly, just like people in their 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s. You will find equally hapless individuals in all of those cohorts. Give me a competency test over an age limit any day when it comes to voting. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Supreme Court has ruled the law preventing 16 and 17 year olds from voting inconsistent with the Bill of Rights Act. Lobby Group Make it 16 raised the claim in a bid to support its campaign to lower the voting age to 16 years old, however, only Parliament is able to change the law itself. Co-Director of Make it 16 Caeden Tipler joined Kerre Woodham after the Supreme Court’s ruling. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Anyway, another grim toll too, is the number of drownings this year. 74 preventable drownings, with the holiday season still to come. Water Safety New Zealand says although knowing how to swim is the best prevention method against drowning, too few New Zealand children are having swimming lessons. 48% of our kids are not having lessons. Despite the fact that 2/3 of parents aren't confident their children have the skills to help themselves if they get in a water emergency. If they're pulled out to sea over their heads, if they fall into a swimming pool, if they fall off a wharf, get tipped out in a boat, that sort of thing. Water Safety NZ CEO Daniel Gerard told Early Edition that cost means swimming lessons for a family is prohibitive. “You're looking at about $20 plus for a 20-to-30-minute lesson, so there's no question at all that it's a major barrier. For a number of families, and anecdotally, we're hearing. But if it comes down to it, we will just send one child to swimming lessons this year and the other two will just see what we can do.” Let's start with the very basics. You need to have a parent. Who has the time? To take the children. To the swimming lesson. So you have to find a swimming lesson that fits in with your work schedule. If you're working on Saturday mornings and that's the reality for many, many families. Yeah, you've got. Sure you've got after school. You've got Saturdays and Sundays, but again, you've got to have somebody who. can mind the children who aren't going. And then what? You take the whole damn family along when you take the child to or something less. And then you've got to be able to get there. They're not at the end of the street. You have to be able to transport the kids. Too swimming lessons. I know that there is a faction within this country that wants us all on buses, but try and get to swimming lessons. When you've got a family in tow. Even if you can get the time off. There needs to be a parent who believes in the value of swimming. Lessons who understands the importance, who's confident and watered themselves. Who knows the joy? That being able to swim can bring. It's a lifelong pleasure. But unless you know that you can't know what you don't know, so you have to have somebody who believes in the value of it, and you've got the cost and everything. Everything is being looked at in families these days. Certainly families with young children, families with mortgages. Everybody is looking at their budgets. We all need to swim. I absolutely believe that. But we can't dump this one on the schools as well. But if you've got parents who are doing it tough anyway. Who is going to teach these kids how to swim and give them a gift for life?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A new report emphasizes the need for parents to prioritise their children's swimming skills. Water Safety New Zealand figures show just under half of children don't take regular lessons. Last year, 90 people drowned - the highest since 2011. Daniel is the President of Swim Coaches and Teachers of New Zealand and he joined Kerre to have a chat. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Statistics released yesterday showed that New Zealand's smoking rate has fallen to an historic low of 8% of adults smoking daily, down from 9.4% a year ago, probably down from 99.4% about 50 years ago. I might have just made-up that last one. Associate Minister of Health Doctor Ayesha Verrall said the Government's plan to reduce smoking is working. The number of people smoking fell by 56,000 over the past year, despite the pressures and stress of the pandemic, which is a good point and smoking rates are now half of what they were ten years ago.   However, the numbers of people vaping are up and that concerns the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation. These rates continue to climb dramatically they say, particularly amongst young New Zealanders aged between 15 and 24 and amongst Maori women.   According to the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation, vaping has been promoted by the Ministry of Health as a smoking cessation tool. If it's working then we should see the rates of smoking falling across the board, but that's not what the stats show. It's particularly worrying, they say, that youth smoking rates are static after falling for many years, while vaping rates continue to rise rapidly in this group.  They've got a pilot program. And they're hoping to roll that out in the regions next year. We've all got something, haven't we? Is there anybody who does not have a bad habit? You know, even if you're not a drinker or smoker or drug taker. You might be a nail biter, a teeth grinder, or something. We've all got something. We know that smoking is bad for you. We've made it so expensive that we're helping you help yourself, even if you don't want to. I mean there would be very few people who could afford to smoke a couple of packs a day. It's become almost socially unacceptable to be a smoker, a vaper, however, is another matter. Goodness me so many people who smoke, end up with lung disease. End up literally coughing their lungs out in their dying days, huh? How can this be? And we haven't got that yet for vaping. It appears that the jury is still out. So while you don't know it's bad for you, you can keep doing it. Yet for a lot of people smoking vaping it's the inhalation, and the acceleration of breath that is the calming. That's the calming action. It's not so much the nicotine, it's the fact that you're doing the deep breathing. It's an adult version of a pacifier. Putting something in your mouth calms you down.  I get where the asthma and respiratory foundation are coming from saying that anything, any foreign bodies, inhaling any kind of chemicals, any kind of substance you inhale is going to be bad for you. But is it really as bad as smoking? Do we really need programs working with youth to educate and help quit vaping? I know there are people who are absolutely into it. But like I say we've all got something, haven't we? And if this is the lesser of two evils, why not? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.