Kerre Woodham Mornings Podcast

Three Waters 2.0. Three Waters Let's Try This Again. What did he call it? Affordable Water Reforms? Trying to come up with something so bland, so anodyne, so completely forgettable, that we forget what it's all about.  It's still the same concept, apart from the fact that there will be ten  council entities, not four.  Local Government Minister Kieran McNulty was on with Tim Dower this morning. He made no apology for the fact that there will still be iwi representation on the ten entities. He has no problem at all with that and says nobody else should either. And says basically it all comes down to making it affordable to have clean water right across the country.  So, you know, compelling and it's true that there is the ability to borrow at better rates when you're a bigger entity. But there's still a very long way to go for the Government to get this across the line. The new name and the added entities aren't going to make a blind bit of difference as far as I can see.   The most important thing for me is to leave a positive legacy for the next generation. God knows we're leaving them with enough to sort out, including debt. It would be great if we could leave behind an efficient water infrastructure, providing clean drinking water where you could turn on the tap and not run the risk of being poisoned, and clean waterways. If I had any confidence that Labour could do this with its Three Waters 2.0, I'd be in boots and all. If I thought they could deliver on the kind of infrastructure that they're promising, I would be absolutely all for it, co-governance and all. I wouldn't have a problem with that at all. It is just that Labour's record on delivery is so poor, I have absolutely no faith they can deliver on their promise. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The International Monetary Fund is warning New Zealand is likely to be hard-hit in a global economic down-turn. Its 2023 outlook forecasts New Zealand will have one of the lowest GDP growth rates and one of the highest inflation rates in the Asia Pacific region in the coming years. In their projections for GDP, NZ's current account balance is reported as -8.6 percent of GDP, worse than Greece's at -8.0 percent, in 2023. Robert MacCulloch, the Matthew S. Abel Professor of Macroeconomics at University of Auckland joined Kerre Woodham to discuss. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Well, water, water everywhere and who knows what to think?  I think we all accept, we all understand, that we need to improve this country's water supply, this country's water cleanliness, it's how we do it that's the sticking point.   Be that as it may, the day before the Prime Minister's announcement, a report ‘Our fresh water 2023’, was released and it makes for damning reading. Produced by the Ministry for the Environment and Statistics New Zealand, it shows there have been some minor improvements. (There we go, that's the good news.)  The rest is grim on most measures. The country's freshwater sources are becoming increasingly polluted, further threatening native species on the verge of extinction, and causing more people to become sick. The report is part of a series that's produced every three years, so it hasn't come out of nowhere. Had found 45 percent of lake monitoring sites between 2011 and 2020, had become more polluted with nutrients and algae. 45 percent of the country's entire river length was deemed unswimmable, due to a risk of bacterial infection over the period 2016 to 2020.  That is a damning indictment on us all.  And everybody points the digit at farmers. Everybody says it's the farmer's fault, but that is simply not true. It's on all of us. You cannot point the finger at farmers when you see the state of the waterways in our cities and towns. When you've seen the huge urban sprawl which has had a massive effect on our waterways, our creeks, our streams, our rivers, our lakes, and our oceans.  When you see sewage and all the associated vileness spilling out into our oceans in all its raw and inglorious state. When you see waste water bubbling up in our streets. When you see people who can't turn on a tap and have a glass of water, which I would have thought was a fundamental right of living in this country. The thing is, it is all fixable. There just has to be a collective biting of the bullet and a commitment to restoring the rivers and lakes and oceans to liveable, swimmable levels and to provide clean drinking water for the citizens of the country. That is not such a big ask.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Three Waters is now a thing of the past, we now have the Affordable Water Reforms. The Government has made major changes to the controversial scheme, including ditching the four mega-organisations that would have delivered freshwater, wastewater and stormwater services. Prime Minister Chris Hipkins says they'll be instead establish 10 regionally led, local water entities. He says they believe this strikes the right balance between cost savings in the delivery of water infrastructure, while also ensuring the entities are strongly grounded in local communities. National Leader Chris Luxon told Kerre Woodham he sees three issues with what's been announced. "Just changing the name and the branding because he didn't like it isn't great, the second thing is we've just gone from four co-governed mega-entities to ten co-governed mega-entities and that doesn't make a lot of sense and the divisive co-governance structures are still in place." LISTEN ABOVE  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The debate surrounding freedom of speech versus hate speech has been exacerbated after controversial activist Posie Parker visited New Zealand. Nadine Strossen, a New York Law School Professor, a Former President of the American Civil Liberties Union is a leading expert in hate speech law. Stossen is also an author, her most recent book is titled 'HATE: Why We Should Resist It with Free Speech, Not Censorship'. Nadine Strossen is in New Zealand to speak with various agencies and joined Kerre Woodham. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We've all seen it. The strain on the health system has become unendurable for so many health professionals, who have given far more than should ever have been asked of them. Some of them have been working quite frankly illegal hours covering for sick and absent colleagues doing jobs they were never meant to do, because there is nowhere else for people with diverse needs to go. They are every day dealing with frightened, angry people, who are being let down by a hospital system and the health system beyond the hospitals, that's only being propped up by the sacrifices of those at the coalface. Bring more people in they have begged. We need more health professionals. Every single individual health professional group has been screaming for support and the Government has dragged its heels, for whatever reasons, it has dragged its heels. Eventually, begrudgingly, the Government established the Green List in July of last year, which provided pathways to residency, either immediately or after two year for 85 professions identified being most in need. But nurses were excluded, initially, from immediate residency, along with many other professions deemed to be in demand worldwide. To be fair, both the Health Minister at the time, Andrew Little, and his associate, now Health Minister Dr Ayesha Verrell, fought for nurses to be included on the immediate residency pathway. But for reasons of their own, immigration and the Government denied that request.   The Health Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall said New Zealand needed to look abroad as well as locally to fill the health sector's worker shortage.  She says we have immediate shortages we need to address. No, Dr Verrall, we had them two years ago. We had them three years ago, we've had them for ages. You hear Andrew Little say everything's fine. You know, we've got nurses at nursing school. We've got more doctors than ever before at our Med schools. The doctors say we would like to open another Med school. Oh, no, no, no, no. When we say we want them local, we don't want them local enough that we open another Med school. Everything's fine, except it's not because slowly, eventually, gradually, even the Government comes to realise that everything is not fine. And so they make the changes that were asked of them by so many professional groups, so many years ago. And it's almost too late.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Immigration Minister is expecting thousands of people to arrive on our shores as a result of immigration changes in the healthcare sector. 32 new health jobs have been added to the Straight to Residency pathway on the Green List. They include dentists, paramedics, optometrists and pharmacists. Immigration Minister Michael Wood told Tim Dower earlier this morning that some of these roles hadn't had a lot of advocacy previously, but after sitting down with the sector, they've been added. National Health spokesperson, Dr Shane Reti, heard the Minister's comments and called Kerre Woodham Mornings to refute those claims. Reti says Michael Wood is blatantly wrong, clearly out of touch and two documents attest to that. "First of all an OIA from February 2022, a year ago, that shows the Ministry of Health requesting that key health roles such as dentists, pharmacists, physios and social workers be added to the green list. "Then if we go a year further back than that, a letter from Keriana Brooking on behalf of all DHBs to the minister and to MBIE saying that if the immigration settings were not changed we would not quote 'avert a health crisis.'" LISTEN ABOVE        See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Our Government has confirmed it is discussing joining the non-nuclear part of the AUKUS alliance founded by Australia, the UK and US. Defence Minister Andrew Little said “We have been offered the opportunity to talk about whether we could or wish to participate in that pillar two [non-nuclear] aspect of it,” and "I’ve indicated we will be willing to explore it.” In the early 1980s, New Zealand walked out of the ANZUS pact on principle, rather than be an accomplice to nuclear war. Now it seems we may be becoming a nuclear ally, via the AUKUS pact. To discuss this, Director of International Studies at Otago University, Professor Robert Patman joined Kerre Woodham. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You might have heard Prime Minister Chris Hipkins on the Newstalk ZB this morning saying the Government will be making a carefully balanced decision on whether to scrap the mandatory seven-day isolation period for people who test positive for Covid. Cabinet will be reviewing Covid rules with an announcement expected sometime this in the near future. They're going to be basing their decision on the latest public health advice and the state of the health system heading into winter. Well, we can tell them that it's buggered, isn't it? I mean, it's pretty much stuffed. The Prime Minister told Tim Dower this morning it's a careful balancing act between the impact of people being unable to go to work and the impact of Covid spreading. The public health professionals, who we all saw rather too much of throughout Covid, have been urging the Government over the weekend to keep the few remaining restrictions in place. These being the seven-day isolation period and the wearing of masks in many spaces to protect against not only Covid, but the other dangerous respiratory illnesses doing the rounds including flu and whooping cough. And all of them were preaching the abundance of caution message, which I suppose is their job. This is what they're trained to do. To warn people about infectious diseases and try to prevent any deaths at all. I get it. I guess when it comes to the mandatory stand down period, what that did was give people who don't have flexibility or autonomy with their employers the ability to take time off. They had to. They had no choice in the matter. So many people during those awful years rang me and said they would be going to work regardless of whether or not they tested positive, because they simply could not afford to stay home. So where do you stand on this one? I imagine it will depend on whether you're an employee with a good boss and you'll say, yes, well, get rid of the mandatory period. You have somewhere where you can rest where you're not surrounded by ten other people. You've got the ability to get yourself better. But if you're someone and your income is the difference between having a roof over your head or not, and you are told to stand down for seven days. You're not going to do it, are you? You're going to drag yourself out of bed; no matter how sick you're feeling and go to work because that is what you have to do. So what's right in your opinion? Keep the mandatory stand down period for those who simply haven't got the luxury of taking time off, it has to be enforced before they can do it. Or rely on common sense?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The mandatory seven-day isolation period after a positive Covid test could soon be a thing of the past. Cabinet ministers are today considering whether to ease Covid rules, with an announcement expected some time this week. The Prime Minister says it's a careful balancing act between the impact of people being unable to go to work, and the impact of Covid spreading. To discuss, Kurt Krause, Professor of Biochemistry and Infectious Diseases Specialist at Otago University joined Kerre Woodham. LISTEN ABOVE  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.