Kerre Woodham Mornings Podcast

On the face of it, you'd have to say, it makes sense. Looking at it on paper; amalgamation, joining forces, strength in numbers. It gives you more oomph, more heft, more bargaining power, the ability to deliver bigger and better We've seen the failings of many of our DHBs, surely on the face of it; a centralised health system makes sense. Can a country of 5 million people sustain 16 polytechs and numerous industry training organisations? On the face of it, you'd have to say no. So a centralised polytech makes sense. Surely, a whole lot of little councils don't have the same ability to deliver services to their ratepayers in the way a Supercity can. Hence eight scrappy, litigious local bodies were amalgamated into one Auckland Supercity back in 2010. And how's that worked out for the residents of the Greater Auckland region? Well, according to some studies, Auckland Council has estimated that, in cash terms, it's running $316 million a year cheaper than if the eight councils had remained. And they've reached savings of $1.9 billion, which, if true, is a very good thing. It was interesting hearing Wellington Chamber of Commerce chief executive Simon Arcus this morning talking about the extra power a Super Wellington would be able to wield, should all the Wellington regional Councils merge. This has been bubbling away for some time since 2015. According to the Wellington Chamber of Commerce pre-election report ahead of this year’s local body elections, Wellington businesses feel overshadowed by central Government. They feel that the city is now synonymous with bureaucracy and politics, rather than business and innovation, for getting the very essence of the heart of the city. I think we'd be all agreed on that, wouldn't we? I would be really interested to hear from Wellingtonians as to whether this is the sort of initiative you would support. Do you believe that creating a Wellington super City by combining Wellington pudding or in the Hutt councils?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Newstalk ZB Political Editor Barry Soper joined Kerre Woodham following Dr. Gaurav Sharma's expulsion from the Labour Party. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There are renewed calls for a new super city, combining Wellington, Porirua and Lower Hutt. A new Wellington Chamber of Commerce pre-election report suggests business leaders would like the cities to merge. Chamber Chief Executive Simon Arcus says a Wellington super city would be able to deal with issues more efficiently and effectively than the current councils. He says a combined council would be a bigger economic voice to deal with the government. David Shand, a former Wellington City councillor and part of Auckland’s Royal Commission, which formed the supercity council in 2009, joined Kerre Woodham. LISTEN ABOVE    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today, Jan Tinetti, the Associate Education Minister, is launching a nationwide school attendance campaign.  It's called Every School Day Is A Big Day. School attendance has been a long-term challenge, declining across the board since 2015, and that trend was of course further accelerated by Covid-19. Only two in five kids attend regularly. 40 percent. Even more of a concern is that only 5 percent of Kiwis consider attendance a top of mind issue. 5 percent.  Tinetti says she launched the attendance and engagement strategy in June of this year, which set some tough targets, and she wants to see the number of kids attending school regularly increase from 59.7 percent in 2021 to 70 percent in 2024, 75 percent in 2026. It’s going to be complicated; it is going to be tough because there are a number of issues at play here. We have poverty and we have housing insecurity, which makes it difficult to get kids to attend school regularly.  We've had Covid and the school closures; the online learning has meant kids have got out of the habit of attending school.  Parents have got out of the habit of getting them up, dressed and ready to go. Some children are anxious about going back to school because of the climate of fear that surrounded Covid.  There's bullying. You're not going to want to go to school if your life is going to be made misery and hell.  Can we all have a show of hands of how many think that this education system as it stands now is failing our children?  They have been let down by so many decisions made over the last couple of years. We need to give them better. They deserve better. Right now, any child that succeeds at school and comes out with incredible qualifications and is ready to face the world is the outlier, they are the exception, not the rule. Every child deserves to have a decent education and we are failing. We give ourselves an ‘F’ for failure, because that’s what we're delivering.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Government's hoping to balance out Covid messaging that has played a part in low school attendance. A campaign's launching today highlighting the importance of school attendance. Associate Education Minister, Jan Tinetti, says attendance has been declining since 2015, but Covid messaging has exacerbated the problem. She told Kerre Woodham asking students to stay at home when they're sick, has led some parents to think kids don't have to be at school every day. She says the campaign highlights how our kids are given the most choices and chances to succeed, when they are attending school. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Extraordinary this morning really, wasn't it? Did you hear the interview? I hope you did. Former Labour MP Louisa Wall gave us a hint that all was not necessarily light and love among the Labour Party faithful in her valedictory speech earlier this year. Remember when she said she was forced out of her Manurewa electorate before the last election by quote, the unconstitutional actions of the Party President and some members of Labour's governing body. She said she was devastated and she labelled the ouster corrupt. We thought that was quite something. Fancy that, Louisa Wall coming out and saying that she was being forced out of Parliament. She was told she was not wanted as an MP. She was unconstitutionally forced out of her own electorate and we thought things are bit grim there, not all is well. Then Dr Gaurav Sharma pressed the red button in a form of mutually assured destruction. The disgruntled Hamilton West MP claims he's been let down by parliamentary services and he says the system at Parliament is rotten and alleges a rampant culture of bullying within the Labour Party. He detailed his grievances with Mike Hosking this morning. He finished the interview by saying we could all draw our own conclusions when he was asked by Mike if the Prime Minister is lying. He didn't say yes or no, but he said draw your own conclusions. Where do you stand on this one? It's pretty clear his parliamentary career is over, he will be expelled. Should there be an official inquiry, you would have to say that Labour, in general, loves a good, enquiry. Should there be one into the matters that Doctor Sharma has raised? I would have thought yes.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kerre Woodham was moderating a panel yesterday about environmental issues. The panel was at The Packaging forum which is all of the people involved in packaging; the consumers, the marketers, the creators, the recyclers. It's a forum designed to reduce the amount of waste we have and be turned it into something good. Woodham says she was very impressed by Jerome Wenzlick and his company Future Post, who take soft plastic bags and turn them into fence posts and palings for garden beds. Future Post's founder and CEO Jerome Wenzlick joined Kerre Woodham Mornings. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

New Zealand Rugby has unanimously voted to keep Ian Foster in the head coaching role through until the world cup next year, despite winning just two of five tests this year. Former All Black captain Wayne ‘Buck’ Shelford said this morning that Foster may have the backing of the board and the executive, but the pressure remains on him. To discuss this, Former All Blacks Coach John Hart coach joined Kerre Woodham and said he was disappointed in some of the comments made toward Foster and the team. “Sure, none of us were happy that we were losing tests, but the personal attacks and what has followed, I just don’t think that is New Zealand and I’ve been very disappointed.” LISTEN ABOVE  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Some coastal communities are now facing the very real prospect of having to desert their homes due to climate change. There has been a rise in extreme weather events, especially flooding of cities and towns near rivers or streams. So what do you do? Rebuild and hope that it is indeed a once in a one hundred year event? If you want to move, what do you do with your property? Insurance Council Chief Executive Tim Grafton told Kerre Woodham we need to act sooner, rather than later to safeguard our vulnerable communities. "We really do need to start doing that work right now, we can't wait another three years for a Climate Adaptation Act to finally start to be implemented, we've got to start looking at the hardest-hit communities now." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I've been watching with fascination as Dr Gaurav Sharma blows up his political career. I think it's fair to say that Sharma’s career is pretty much over. He feels betrayed, disillusioned, and let down and it's probably fair to say his Labour caucus colleagues feel much the same. They see a politician gone rogue, airing dirty laundry in public, telling all the secrets. He sees a broken system that supports and protects bullies and the party, at the expense of the public. As former United Party leader Peter Dunne said this morning, there's probably a bit of truth in both positions. As he says, both the Uffindell and Sharma affairs show that there's fault on both sides when it comes to the selection and preparation of new MPs under Parliament. I was looking at the meet our new MP's video that was on the Labour Party website, these were the 23 new MPs that were elected in the landslide in 2020. They all came from careers of service or business or a lot of lawyers. Doctor Sharma was there looking newly minted and squeaky clean as all the others did. They all looked so excited about being there. They all looked like this was the fulfilment of a lifelong dream. And they probably aren't prepared for the reality of Parliament. For the hierarchical nature of it, for the fact that there are staff there that have seen 1000 of you come and go, and they're not that terribly impressed by you. And when you go, there will be another one to take your place.   Probably a lot more could be done to prepare wannabe politicians for a life in the fish bowl that is Parliament. It is a very odd place. You know, having been around the periphery of Parliament for some years, it's like a vacuum. It sucks in you and you believe that everything that happens there is the only thing that matters. On balance, National, I think, has handled their scandal better than Labour has handled theirs. You do really have to wonder about the culture of the place.   There have been attempts to work out what needs to be fixed in Parliament. But when you have the biggest bully boy of all being rewarded with a sinecure in Dublin and when loyalty above all … above ability, above efficiency, above common decency is what matters the most within the Labour Party, you realise that it's going to take a seismic shift in attitude to bring about any change at all.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.