Kerre Woodham Mornings Podcast

It's hard enough accepting a much loved mum or dad needs to leave their home and go into assisted living. First the retirement village, then the rest home, then the hospital.  You want to ensure their last few years are full of life, full of fun then when the good times get fewer and farther between, that they are treated with care and respect as their bodies and minds start to let them down.  And yet, for those trying to find rest home level care for their parents, the past few years has been a nightmare.  Registered aged care nurses are reportedly working up to 16 hours in shifts and managers are sleeping on site for several nights a week to make sure rosters are covered amid critical staffing shortages. Aged care facilities issued 2004 Section 31 notifications – a legally mandated report of health and safety risks – by the end of August this year. It's a stark jump from the 260 submissions in 2020 and 851 for 2021. Aged Care Matters Convenor Norah Barlow says closed borders, lengthy immigration process, more attractive wage offers from overseas and unresolved pay equity problems have exacerbated a nursing shortage that’s been coming for some time. Without aged care facilities – which have had to close more than 790 beds this year – elderly Kiwis who needed care would be sent to public hospitals, Barlow said. “No one wants to get old and sick, but if it happens, and if we’re not here, then God save New Zealand because we won’t be getting any electives [planned surgeries].” In the past six months, rest homes have been forced to reduce the number of available beds by more than 1000 due to staffing shortages, and the sector requires 1200 more nurses to continue providing adequate care. "Yes we've had struggles before but this is by far the deepest and most prolonged crisis that the industry has faced... and it's not just now it's the future that I'm really concerned about," Hendry said. And with good reason. Over the next 20 years, the population over the age of 85 is set to double. Those bearing the brunt of the shortage say the temporary changes announced by the Immigration Minister don't go far enough. "We would have liked to have seen an announcement around nurses, for nurses to be given immediate residency," said New Zealand Aged Care Association (NZACA) CEO Simon Wallace. "We're a nursing-led organisation and sector and without the proper cover, we can't continue to function as we should. Immigration will help but predominantly it's a pay parity issue with nurses working in the public sector," Hendry added.  So where are we getting the nurses from, those men and women who will give older New Zealanders the care and dignity in their later years? Immigration Minister Michael Wood said 2300 nurses were able to enter New Zealand via border exemptions, between 2000 to 3000 were likely to attain permanent residency through the 2021 residency visa, and the two-year pathway was in place now as well.  So how many have arrived in the country?  On the 8th of August, only nine nurses applied to come to the country in the first four weeks of a new residency visa, according to Employment Ministry figures released to RNZ. How many now? Who knows? But hardly the number we need.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Mood of the Boardroom has been taken and the mood is decidedly grumpy.   This is a yearly survey undertaken by the New Zealand Herald. The survey of New Zealand major CEOs - 90 CEOs and 18 directors responded to the survey - found that confidence in Jacinda Ardern and Grant Robertson’s leadership is on the wane, as the Government struggles to push through its major reforms. Skills and labour shortages, immigration settings, inflation here at home, the Ukraine, supply chain disruptions and aggressive monetary tightening abroad have all contributed to this optimism in the boardroom and less confidence in the Government. This is being replicated right around the country, right around the world. But there is no doubt that as this Government term has progressed, people are starting to lack confidence that they will be able to deliver on what they've promised. And while they are focused on pushing through these big reforms, there's a feeling that they've taken their eye off the ball when it comes to important domestic issues like crime, like education, like health. I don't want to be negative. I'm not by nature a negative person. Anyone who has only ever met me through these airwaves probably doesn't believe it, but I'm generally positive and optimistic. But you call it like you see it. What happens, I think, is that governments, and this would be successive governments as they stay in power longer, become less and less aware of what is actually happening in communities. They're in their own bubble. They're in their own bubble with their own people, their own people who believe what they believe, their own people who are paid to say they believe in the ideology that's being promulgated, who are being paid to implement some of these big ideas that Labour came in with.   In the meantime, on the ground, in homes, you've got people whose operations are being cancelled, you've got kids who are struggling at school and not getting the help that they need, you've got retailers who just want to give up after two years of the pandemic and then have been hit time and again by ram raiders. You know, I think there is a real disconnect between what Labour thinks it's done, what Labour thinks it's doing, how well Labour thinks it's doing, and what the Mood of the Boardroom and the mood of the people actually is.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I want to start with the hooha around Nanaia Mahuta, and more specifically her husband. I want to be outraged. I really do. And when I first heard about all the contracts being awarded to Nanaia Mahuta’s husband, burning embers of outrage were flickering. Because how can someone married to a Government minister be awarded so many Government contracts, without there being a steaming rat? As a result of all the bubbling consternation about this, Public Service Commissioner Peter Hughes has decided to have a long, hard look at how the four Government agencies that hired Gannin Ormsby, the minister’s husband who owns consultancy company Ka Awatea Services. He’s looking at how those Government departments have managed conflict of interest issues. Now that's an investigation the Minister herself has been calling for. She's not immune to it. She knows that there have been finger pointing and grumblings and insinuations and what have you. She herself went to Chris Hipkins and said look for heaven sake, can we have an official investigation to show that I have had nothing to do with the appointment of my husband to these contracts? She wrote to Chris Hipkins, Public Services minister asking him to get Peter Hughes to have a look at whether the Government departments had managed the issue properly and well. New Zealand has a very, very small pool of talent of people who can do specific jobs that require specific skills. And it's got smaller without closed borders. Ka Awatea Services deal with Māori consultation. And given that, every public department, public service department, now has to have the box ticked that says have we consulted with Māori , have we taken a te ao Māori view of the world. He's the man for the job. I really wanted to be outraged but on this one the outrage factor is pretty minimal. It's happened before to other politicians from other parties whose family members have been employed to do jobs for the huge Government bureaucracy, and it will no doubt happen again.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As it's been reported, youth crime now is much lower than it has been for decades.   The number of children under 16 being charged is just a quarter of those facing the courts 20 years ago. Stats NZ says in the year to June, 1344 children and young people - aged 10 to 17 - faced charges. That's down from 1782 in the 2017-2018 financial year. According to Justice Minister Kiri Allan it's an indication that the Government's policies and parts are working.  LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

So we wake to a glorious morning … crime is down. Record low crime numbers. Is that what it feels like Are we living in some kind of alternate universe where on the one hand, there's a proportion of the population living in a glorious, bucolic paradise where no crime is committed, where children go to school to learn and go on to become productive, hardworking citizens of this country. The rest of us are living in our country where you're a bit scared to go to your local mall in case some oiks burst in and start smashing up the local jeweller shop. Which universe do you live in?   You look at the crime stats and you drill down a bit further and you look at the wording and you look at when the measurements were taken and it starts to make a bit more sense. The devil is indeed in the detail.  For one thing, and this is something that Justice Minister Kari Allen acknowledges, Covid-19 lockdowns had an effect on the lower numbers. According to stats, it's the lowest number of adult convictions on record, youth charges are down 10%. So we've got Covid, the lockdowns, take that into account. Then you look at how it's worded, a record low number of people charged with offences. Charged. If you don't charge people then of course the crime stats will look good. If you do charge people but you don't convict them, of course the crime stats will look good. If police are conducting fewer drink drive roadblocks, then the numbers will come down. So again which universe are we in? The one where crime is on the decrease and the Government says that's because our policies and parts are working. Or are you living in the universe where you're a bit nervous about going to your local mall, just in case you happen to be here, there at the wrong place, wrong time? There are lies, damned lies and statistics. I suppose if you, if you want to be a cheerleader for the Government, you will say, yay, look at this crime has dropped. If you want to be a realist, you’ll say has it? Have a look at these stats, crime’s gone up. So when I see the headline saying record low crime numbers. In the words of our Prime Minister, I reject the premise of that assertion! LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Every generation thinks they can do something newer and better, starting with sex and going through to politics and how to manage the planet and, you know, everything. We all think we know better than the previous generation. But seriously, when the Ministry of Education started banging on about bringing back modern learning environments, I rolled my eyes and thought they don’t work. I've seen these before, they simply don't work. They might work for a couple of kids, but not for the majority. Factory farming children isn't a great way to teach, that's why schools went back to educating children in classrooms. Oh no, say the modern ideologues, no, no, no, no, no. Let's put 90 children together in one room and there can be self-taught learning and the more capable children in one area can coach children and bring them up to speed and gain lessons from one another and teachers will be able to work cooperatively. It didn’t work back then, doesn't work now. And that has been backed up by a report from the New Zealand Initiative’s Senior fellow Doctor Michael Johnson. Can we please get all political parties to promise from henceforth, that when they're bringing in a bold new idea, they try it out first and then they evaluate it, they see if it works. And if the answer is no, you scrap the idea. Call me old fashioned, but I'd like to see a result. If it works great, keep going. Keep putting money into it. If it doesn't, scrap it. Like scrapping the modern learning environments.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Queen has finally been laid to rest in a private burial service inside Windsor Castle surrounded by her loved ones. It looked very, very personal, despite the pomp and circumstance, it was a funeral for the country, for the people and a very impressive and historic moment. Newstalk ZB's Mike Yardley was in London, Kerre Woodham spoke to Mike and asked him what his motivation was for layering jetlag upon jetlag to be there.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We have all seen the stories of the broken abused babies and children from this country - the Nia Glassies, the Kahui twins, Hale Sage McClutchie, Saliel Aplin, Olympia Jetson – there's way too many of them. More than 60 children in the past several years who have been horribly abused and killed by the people who should have been protecting them. The roll call of dead children in this country is a long one, and it makes for harrowing reading. The abuse that these babies, these children, these preteens, suffered is utterly appalling. But whenever these stories are told in the media, I always wonder what happens to the siblings.They have brothers and sisters under the same roof. What happens to the survivors of this horrific abuse?What happens next to them? It would appear that for many of them, they go on to perpetuate the cycle of abuse. Probably won't surprise you to learn they don't need full and rich lives full of potential and promise that is fulfilled. It's not a given, but it takes a monumental effort to move away from the environment you've grown up in and that is something that's acknowledged by our courts. Two key players in a Mongrel Mob meth ring have had significant reductions in their sentences for, in part, the horrific circumstances of their childhood, the trauma of which a judge said led to their gang affiliations and criminal offending later in life. Many of them have no family structure at all, hence the attraction of the gangs where there is at least somebody who purports to care about you, although that would only be for as long as it was convenient. Surely a child who has been horribly abused, who is functionally illiterate, who has no family - surely they have fewer options than most of us who were raised in loving families, given the basic necessities of life, food, shelter, protection, love. Surely we have sympathy for the child who isn't given the basics? It's a fact of developmental growth, if you don't get what you need, you won't grow up as you should. So all the dead babies have siblings, and those siblings have grown up into adults. We had sympathy for the child. Where does that sympathy go when the child becomes an adult?  LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

James Smith and Richard Heller have been sentenced for their roles in a sophisticated meth ring in Waikato. However, they've received hefty reductions in their prison sentences for admitting guilt, and the circumstances of their childhoods. Criminal Bar Association President Fiona Guy Kidd KC told Mike Hosking this morning, adverse childhood experiences have an impact - and they can contribute to who a person becomes and the offence they commit. To discuss this I'm joined by Neuroscience Educator Nathan Wallis. LISTEN ABOVE  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Incredibly, despite the fact that this is the Government that seems hell bent on not prosecuting anybody or not putting people into prison, the number of monthly crimes recorded in Auckland has increased by 19.1 percent. If you look at 2021 to 22 and compare it to 2017 to 2019, 2020 being taken out of the mix because of lockdowns, Waikato and Nelson crime increased by more. The frequency of crime in Waikato increased by 20.5 percent, Nelson 19.9 percent. There were some parts of the country that saw a decrease. The West Coast dropped off 22 percent, but overall the number of crimes recorded in New Zealand has increased by more than 15 percent. I don't think this will come as any surprise to you, will it? If you don't know someone who has been a victim of crime, if you haven't been a victim of crime, I'm surprised. You'd be you're very lucky. You will know from the headlines in the papers that crime is on the increase but the prison population is down and the Government will tell you that's a good thing. But is it? It's only down, really, because people who should be in prison aren't being sent there. You might have heard police officers and former police officers on this show telling us how dispiriting it is to bring a prosecution against an individual, only to see the offender convicted and then walk from court. It happens with minor offenses.  And all of that work, and all of that preparation, and all of that paperwork that takes you away from being out on the street counts for nought once you get inside the courtroom. It happens with minor offenses, and it happens with the biggies as well. How have we come to a place where the wants and desires of the offenders count for more than their victims? Why are their lives worth more than the lives of the innocent people that they injure and destroy. I totally understand the reasons for keeping low level offenders out of prison. I absolutely get that and I support that. And I totally understand that rehabilitation is a vital tool to try to generate long term changes of behaviour that ultimately will benefit us all, rather than just locking people up and throwing away the key. But we're talking about rapists and killers. Somebody who drives a vehicle drunk, having been convicted five previous times, knows exactly what they're doing, the risks they are taking. So when you've got rapist and killers having home detention to allow for the rehabilitation, where the hell does that leave their victims and where the hell does that leave us as a community?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.