https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/rss NZME KERRE WOODHAM MORNINGS Audio Opinion This is the show that delivers a little bit of everything. News, opinion, analysis, lifestyle and e Wed, 27 May 2026 13:43:00 Z en https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/jess-strange-southern-cross-travel-insurance-chief-customer-officer-on-what-travel-insurance-covers-the-cost-of-not-having-it/ https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/jess-strange-southern-cross-travel-insurance-chief-customer-officer-on-what-travel-insurance-covers-the-cost-of-not-having-it/ No matter how meticulously you plan, there’s always a chance something will go wrong while travelling.  New data from Southern Cross Travel Insurance shows it’s often the small moments that end up costing the most, whether it’s a simple fall on a walking track or a broken bone before even leaving the country.  Chief Customer Officer Jess Strange told Kerre Woodham that as costs increase across the board, they’re seeing more Kiwis cutting corners on travel insurance – opting to go with a less comprehensive policy.  She says a lot of people don’t realise what travel insurance covers. Comprehensive has cover for things like pre-trip cancellations, Strange says, an example of which being a $40 thousand payout for a family who had to cancel their overseas because their child broke their ankle.  LISTEN ABOVE  Wed, 27 May 2026 01:32:51 Z https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-have-you-crunched-the-numbers-with-your-new-rates-bill/ https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-have-you-crunched-the-numbers-with-your-new-rates-bill/ Have you done the sums yet to work out how much more you're going to have to pay, how much more you're going to have to find to pay the rates bill? We were talking before the show, for some of my colleagues it's an extra $45 per fortnight, they're in an apartment out of the main city. I can't even imagine how much the increase will be for people living in the leafy suburbs.  Auckland Council has locked in a 7.9% rates rise, according to Wayne Brown it's to fund the City Rail Link. They've managed to keep everything else, they've managed to cut costs and reduce spending and keep everything level, this is purely to fund the City Rail Link. He's unapologetic. He said we've got this railway, if we don't pay for it this year, then we're just going to have to pay for it next year. And that's quite true, you can't just keep deferring essential spending. And that's what a lot of councils are finding around the country, that they might have deferred spending, put off investing in the vital infrastructure that needs to be spent, Moa Point anybody, and now they're going to have to, now they're going to have to do it. It's this lot of ratepayers that is going to have to pay because previous years' ratepayers didn't want to. Councillors didn't want to because they might get voted out, ratepayers didn't want to because they said we've got nothing extra in our pockets. Well now we're just going to have to find it.  In effect, the rates increase is only an average, many Aucklanders will face an effective rate rise of between 12% and 15%. But pity the people of Waitaki, councillors there were looking at rates increases of up to 45%. Eventually they opted for a 22% rates rise because they've got to fund their three water scheme. Now that's been put off, put off, put off, they can't put it off any longer and now the people of Oamaru and the surrounding districts are going to have to find the money and pay for it.   Many, many people are doing what the councils around the country are doing and what the Government is doing. They're looking at the bills, they're slashing what is not essential, trying not to slash everything that's not essential because you need something that's a bit of a morale booster. But when you've got a finite amount of money coming in, it has to cover so many, many increases. Fuel, insurance, rates. When there's two of you working, it's tough enough, if you're on a fixed income with very little in the way of other money coming in, you've already pared down the spending to the bone, it's even harder.   Is this the time you look at selling the house if you have one? You're told when you go into retirement that you have to have a house, that this is one way that you'll be able to ensure a comfortable retirement, you have your own home, you have a roof over your head. But how do you make economies to cover the rates bill to pay for the house when you're already stretched so very thin?  If your rates bill has come in, have you crunched the numbers, where are you at? I mean Auckland like Rotorua, and number of other councils around the country, even the Far North, they're trying to keep it into single digits, just skimming the 10%, but other councils, they're having to pay for that work that they deferred for so long and those rates increases are going to hurt.  Wed, 27 May 2026 01:09:08 Z https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/hannah-mcqueen-age-brightly-founder-discusses-options-for-those-with-fixed-incomes-struggling-with-rates-increases/ https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/hannah-mcqueen-age-brightly-founder-discusses-options-for-those-with-fixed-incomes-struggling-with-rates-increases/ Fear the cost of living crisis may be getting worse for Aucklanders following the super city's largest ever rates increase.   The 7.9% rise will see the average ratepayer's bill increase by $320 a year.   The Auckland Ratepayer's Alliance says the council's budget is bloated and it needs to focus on cutting costs, and they already hear from people on fixed incomes and pensioners struggling to make ends meet.   Age Brightly’s Hannah McQueen joined Kerre Woodham to discuss some of the options available for those on fixed incomes, who might struggle with the increase.  LISTEN ABOVE  Wed, 27 May 2026 00:48:25 Z https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/andrew-dickens-gas-rationing-and-transition-schemes/ https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/andrew-dickens-gas-rationing-and-transition-schemes/ Thirty years ago, I was the station manager and breakfast announcer at a very small experimental talk station in Auckland called ‘The Point’ on 1476 AM. It lasted for about three years. It was a lot of fun. Now I mention this because I clearly remember 30 years ago a morning when we discussed what happens to New Zealand when the Maui and Kapuni gas runs out, because even then scientists were warning that supplies were limited and they were dwindling. That was 30 years ago, and the alarm bells were already ringing.   Our failing gas is not some new problem and yet you have to say in the 30 years that have passed, as a country we have done little to pre-empt the impact. In the years since then we have become more efficient at using the gas we've got, we've become more efficient at extracting the gas we've got and so the deadline has been extended, but now it appears we're coming to the pointy end. The end of gas in New Zealand. In the past 30 years we've not found more and we have, you could argue, used our remaining stocks willy nilly. Industries have become more dependent not less.   Now the last Labour Government was part of the problem. Yes, they curtailed gas exploration, but at the same time nobody found gas for the last 30-50 years and we've been looking. But what the Labour Government did do was suggest a gas transition scheme, and if you've forgotten about it, it was called the Government Investment in Decarbonising Industry fund, GIDI, otherwise known as Giddy. It directly subsidised large businesses using fossil fuels like natural gas and coal to help them switch to renewable electricity or biomass.   But when the latest government came in two years ago, they scrapped that. They didn't like the way it was sheeted home to the emission reduction plans because that was far too green for them, and they didn't like the way the taxpayer was directly funding industry so they cancelled it. And they banked $640 million that had been set aside for it. But they didn't have anything to replace Giddy with two years ago. Now they do and it's called the Gas Transition Loan Guarantee Scheme. It's worth about $1.2 billion. It will only directly cost the Government about $48 million. They guarantee the loans, right? Well, I'll tell you how it works. They underwrite 80% of each loan which allows banks to offer lower interest rates. The loans can be up to $50 million, must be new lending, it'll run for 10 years, and the budget has set aside $48 million to cover potential costs and losses. So it's much cheaper than the Labour scheme. It depends on the commercial banks to loan to businesses.  My question to you is will they, would they, can they? The goal of course is to help firms switch to alternative fuels, to protect jobs, and to leave remaining gas —because there is some there— to help the industries that are absolutely dependent on it. The scheme sits within the Government's broader budget focus. They've got four pillars of national security: international security, energy independence, social cohesion, and financial security. And the Prime Minister when announcing all this yesterday said New Zealand cannot compete globally without abundant affordable energy, obviously. To qualify a business must use natural gas and consume at least 1,000 gigajoules a year. That's about 40 times the usage of a typical household. That would be a commercial kitchen in a restaurant, wouldn't it? That'd basically be everybody except those people using gas at home to cook and to heat their water. Eligible sectors include food processors, brewers, hotels, aged care facilities, greenhouse growers. Some of the country's largest gas users they use 300,000 gigajoules annually. The Energy Minister is Simeon Brown and he says the loans will help businesses switch to electricity or bioenergy or other efficient technologies.  “We are running out of gas very quickly. We have had a 23% reduction in New Zealand's gas reserves in the p... Tue, 26 May 2026 01:15:00 Z https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/andrew-dickens-local-council-amalgamation-could-see-less-say-for-smaller-towns/ https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/andrew-dickens-local-council-amalgamation-could-see-less-say-for-smaller-towns/ I was in the Coromandel over the weekend and I was reading their regional paper which still exists, The Informer, and in it was an article by Jeffrey Robinson, who's a local affairs reporter with decades of experience, and he points out the debate that is happening all over the country. The government is ending New Zealand's two tier regional and district council system, it has to happen by 2028 and every district must choose a new unitary council model. The only rule is, well you can't go with the status quo. There's got to be change, there's got to be a rationalisation, it's got to be amalgamation, it's got to be smaller. Now for Coromandel residents, they believe this means choosing between two options. One, create a small eastern Waikato focused council that looks after the Hauraki Plains and the Coromandel Peninsula that reflects the rural and coastal communities of interest, a Hauraki Plains Coromandel unitary authority. Or the other choice is be absorbed into a Hamilton based Waikato super city scenario. Despite not having asked its ratepayers what they want because there's just not enough time and the government has demanded the action, they're all debating it. And the Waikato Regional Council has already said what it wants: one giant unitary authority based out of Hamilton for the entire region. I mean it's the 07 isn't it? It's all got the same phone number, let's all have the same council. Now under that model, the Coromandel with just 32,000 people would hold one seat on a 16 member governing board based out of Hamilton. Hamilton alone would hold seven seats. They have the advantage, they have the influence. Decisions on rates and infrastructure and environmental management and long term planning would be made far from the Coromandel, while a Coromandel local board with only one seat to represent it would be left with minor matters they'd worry about parking and Christmas decorations, but they think they've got bigger fish to fry. And, of course, a Hamilton based super block of seat holders would mean that Hamilton would be able to dominate decisions and funding. Yeah we could do a new bridge in the Coromandel, or we could make sure that new suburb of Peacocke has more stuff. I think we'll go for the Peacocke, won't we? What do you think? Yeah, there's only one guy to vote against it, that's what we'll do. The Coromandel and Thames are very wary of that. This may be efficient, but they believe it would also be unfair. This eastern Waikato unitary council by the way, this idea has deep roots. Back in 2012 Coromandel and Hauraki residents gathered more than 1,500 signatures calling for just that, a council that represented Hauraki and Coromandel, keeping the decision making local. And such a model would return regional rates and jobs and environmental management to the communities they actually affect rather than happening in Hamilton, and ensure representatives live with the consequences of their decision. Thames Coromandel councillors will be discussing this on May 26th. Here's the thing though, have they asked their ratepayers? No they have not, because the government said you've got three months to do this, it's 10 weeks away, you've got to do it, just do it. They don't have the time to consult. Nobody does up and down the country. And this is happening up and down the country. In the Wairarapa, Masterton, Carterton and South Wairarapa are considering a combined rural unitary council because they don't want to be ruled by Wellington. In Taranaki, iwi and local mayors support splitting the region into two unitary councils that represent the natural north south and urban rural division. Hāwera does not want to be ruled by New Plymouth. Waitomo and Otorohanga are developing a King Country unitary proposal because they don't want to be run by Hamilton. And in the South Island, Selwyn's mayor also wants to protect Selwyn's identity because there they're talking about the Canterbury councils merging into a Grea... Sun, 24 May 2026 23:48:31 Z https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/andrew-dickens-the-social-housing-overhaul-creates-both-winners-and-losers/ https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/andrew-dickens-the-social-housing-overhaul-creates-both-winners-and-losers/ The Government has unveiled a major overhaul of social housing, creating both winners and losers.  So what is social housing? Social housing provides subsidized rental properties for those who cannot afford private rentals. Homes are managed by Kāinga Ora or various Community Housing Providers (CHPs). Tenants typically pay an Income Related Rent. To qualify, you must be a New Zealand citizen or resident, meet housing need criteria, and fall under specific income and asset limits.  Single with no kids, income must be under $832 a week after tax. If you’re a couple with two kids, so four of you, you must be earning in the hand, under $60,000 a year before you could actually claim either the accommodation supplement or get onto the waiting list and get yourself into a state house and pay the State rent. For current social housing tenants, minimum Income Related Rent contributions are 25% of your income. But now the Government is changing the rule to make the system “fairer” and more targeted.   From April 2027, the minimum rent contribution for social housing tenants will rise from 25% to 30% of income. This saves the government nearly $400m, which will be reinvested into higher Accommodation Supplement rates. Those privately renting and receiving the Accommodation Supplement, they'll get a bit more. As a result, 110,000 families renting privately will gain about $15 a week, but 84,000 social housing families will be around $30 worse off. Another 45,000 families receiving Temporary Additional Support will also lose about $11 a week.  Housing Minister Chris Bishop says the current system is “backwards and inequitable”, with social housing tenants often hundreds of dollars better off than similar families renting privately. The reforms will tighten access to social housing, focusing on people with the most severe and persistent barriers — such as mental health challenges, addiction, disability, or family violence. Affordability alone will no longer be enough to qualify.  The Government also wants to improve people getting out of social housing. That includes exploring tenancy duration limits, more regular eligibility check-ins, and better support for people who could move into private rentals. Bishop says many tenants will still need lifelong support, but others can transition out — freeing up homes for those in greatest need.  As a result, 110,000 families renting privately will gain about $15 a week, but 84,000 social housing families will be around $30 worse off. Another 45,000 families receiving Temporary Additional Support will also lose about $11 a week. Bishop says the changes “narrow the gap” between social and private renting, encouraging work and independence. He argues the system must be financially sustainable —with housing supports costing $5.5b last year— and better targeted to those with the highest needs.  In essence it shows that this Government prefers social housing to be provided by private landlords. But they're wary of a wholesale change because of what it would do to the housing market at a time 20% of townhouses are being sold at a loss. They don't agree with social housing for life. They probably don't agree with the State owning housing stock at all, but they're too chicken to go the whole hog.  This is all about ideology and the response will come down political lines. Those tending right will support it and feel that finally the Coalition is walking the talk they've talked for years.  And those tending left will reflexively call this the move of a heartless Government who just don't care about poor people. And they are poor people, which is why Nicola Willis' won the lotto comment was so tone deaf and required an immediate apology.  It is a major shift, but it could have been a lot heavier. What will come from it? Will it bring more private properties into the social housing market? Will it break the back of those people at the edges of society? A... Fri, 22 May 2026 00:48:57 Z https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/andrew-dickens-should-there-be-incentives-to-increase-our-ev-fleet/ https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/andrew-dickens-should-there-be-incentives-to-increase-our-ev-fleet/ Let's talk EVs. And I better make the declaration straight away; I am an EV driver. There is a new state of the nation report from an organisation called Drive Electric which has been released. It's calling for consistent cross-party support. The report shows just 11% of new vehicles registered in New Zealand are electric – that is down from 27% in 2023 when we had the rebate. But countries like Norway, they're sitting at, wait for this, 98%. New Zealand also has one of the lowest EV to fast charger ratios in the OECD, despite 88% renewable electricity generation and promises from the Government to actually help. Drive Electric's State of the Nation report, which was launched at Parliament, is calling for long-term cross-party policies to speed up EV uptake and charging infrastructure. And the board chair of Drive Electric New Zealand, Kirsten Corson, spoke to the Mike Hosking Breakfast this morning about how far behind the rest of the world we are.  “I think the interesting thing that this report shows is there's been a shift. This isn't an environmental decision anymore, this is an economic one. And what we've seen in the last three years is a massive emergence of countries like Ethiopia, 60% electric, you know, new vehicle sales are electric, Vietnam 40% Thailand 28% Turkey 22%. These are all emerging nations that are making the transition purely from an economic perspective because they do not want to import fossil fuels.”  We're at 11%. Drive Electric's report goes on to say that New Zealand has a major advantage because we've got renewable energy, but the recent policy changes, the scrapping of that incentive, has really slowed progress. So EVs, by Drive Electric, they're now being framed as more than just transport that doesn't use fossil fuel. The report wants to call them mobile energy assets, so they can store electricity and feed it back into the grid when the demand is high.   Now transport currently accounts for about 18% of our total emissions and nearly half of the CO2 emissions as well. But electrification could boost energy security and reduce the country's $7 to $9 billion annual fuel import bill. There are of course health gains because the air pollution is a little bit lower. The key opportunity they say is vehicle to grid technology, which allows EV owners to sell stored power back to the network while their car's sitting there. Maybe it's on 80% or 90% and it could actually be providing the electricity that does the hot water heating and take the load off the entire network. Vehicle to grid technology. And of course they're asking for government money.   Now look, as I say, I have an EV and I did take advantage of the EV rebate when it was in place, just like the Prime Minister did. But the thing about that, and I felt a little guilty about it, is I didn't agree with it because EVs or a car or any product really have to rest on their own competitive advantage. Mike called it this morning the artificiality of a market, and that's not right. But the current fossil fuel crisis, it is bringing that competitiveness up without us providing any government money. So if we could help, how should we?  I thought about it for a while and thought, well, how could we do it? And one possibility might be the subsidy of home-based smart chargers. If they are capable of feeding back into the grid, and the Drive Electric claims are correct, that if 30% of EV users feeding back into the grid could in fact rival our entire generation capacity at any given time, then isn't that an investment in improving our electricity infrastructure? Which would be good for everybody and would mean that while it might be a subsidy to an EV driver to put in a smart charger that can feed back into the grid, it's actually an investment into the entire electricity network. Can you see the logic in that maybe?   I do not have an EV charger at home. I use fast chargers at the supermarket. I don't have an EV ch... Thu, 21 May 2026 01:12:34 Z https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/andrew-dickens-is-the-government-counting-its-chickens-before-they-hatch/ https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/andrew-dickens-is-the-government-counting-its-chickens-before-they-hatch/ Let's start with the big story of the day: the Finance Minister yesterday unveiling a major plan to shrink the public service. It's putting thousands of jobs on the line, but it is booking, potentially, billion-dollar savings into this year's Budget. So the interesting thing about her announcement —there were precursors to this, so this is stuff we knew, but it's all brought it into focus— is the pure numbers that we're talking about.  So the Government wants to reduce the size of the core public sector. At the moment it's at 1.2% of the population. 1.2% of working New Zealanders work for the Government – they want to bring that down to 1%. So as we learned the other day, New Zealand's population sits at around 5.3 million. That, if you do the maths, means about 6–8,000 roles should go. The actual number they mentioned though was closer to 9,000. The savings will come from trimming staff numbers. They want to merge departments, and they want to increase the use of AI to improve efficiency.   Now, of course some of us had thought that the cull of the public servants had already started. Wellington's economic stagnation has been blamed on that first round of efficiency cull, but it appears that not much was achieved. And here again, the numbers tell the real story. Back in 2017 there were 48,000 public servants. This ballooned under the Labour Government to 63,000. But despite all the angst in Wellington about bureaucratic redundancies over the past two years, the fact is there has not been a dramatic reduction in head count. In 2023, there were 63,000 public servants in this country. Today, in 2026, there are still 63,000 public servants.   It's a dynamic world, the world of business and employment, and it's a bit like whack-a-mole. You cut here, but then you have to increase the cohort there every time you launch a new programme. If David Seymour gets his immigration policy over the line and we're going to crack down on overstayers more, they're going to need a whole lot more immigration workers – but they just fired a whole lot of those. Our search for 500 extra police officers was proof of how difficult all this can be. As fast as we hire a new cop, an old cop quits. So, we're running as fast as we can to stand still.   These 63,000 people in the core public service, guess how much they cost the country? Guess how much? $11 billion a year. On average, and wait for this, each role costs about $175,000. I know. Well actually, the average wage is more like $100,000, but there's a whole lot of guys who are paid a whole heap more, so that brings that up a bit. Also it's the cost of disestablishing the role. But anyway, the fact of the matter is reducing those numbers will save hundreds of millions of dollars annually and potentially billions of dollars over the Government's four-year forecast period.  Here's the thing, it's forecast over four years and even though these job cuts won't happen immediately, the Government plans to count these savings in this year's Budget, which is a week away. Based on the firm target that they're going to reduce head count by 9,000. So they're already talking about it. They're already saying before they've done a thing, hey, we've got an extra $2.4 billion and we'll be able to buy more services with that. And they're going to be doing that this election campaign; they'll be doing it next week over the course of the Budget. That's a very pretty $2.4 billion, isn't it? It sounds really good, but it'll take four years to achieve it if they achieve it. And I would ask you, is that counting your chickens before they hatch?  So the process is easy to say, but I think you'll find it's much harder to do. And if you lay down an arbitrary target, we're cutting 9,000 jobs, that doesn't necessarily mean that the target will be met or met appropriately. So look, it's your show. What do you have to say about it? Are you confident that this can be done? Are you confident tha... Wed, 20 May 2026 00:59:02 Z https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/andrew-dickens-have-we-forgotten-how-to-safely-put-babies-to-bed/ https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/andrew-dickens-have-we-forgotten-how-to-safely-put-babies-to-bed/ A five month old baby boy by the name of Bodhi lived in Hawke's Bay, and in October 2022 was found unresponsive in his sleeping pod. The sleeping pod was placed inside the cot. He was lying on his stomach. He had blankets around his face. His parents, distraught, immediately called emergency services, but he could not be revived and we lost Bodhi. And after these losses, of course, coroners then look into it. And we've had a coroner look into it and found that Bodhi's death was likely caused by suffocation or re breathing and pointed out the risk factors that Bodhi was experiencing: sleeping on his tummy, loose blankets, and the use of a soft sleeping pod. Experts say babies this young cannot lift their heads to clear their airways, so if you're on your tummy, you've got some loose blankets and you've got these soft sleeping pods all over the place, they can suffocate.   The coroner is now urging urgent action to prevent similar deaths. She's called on MBIE, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, to work with the Ministry of Health to introduce clear safety standards for infant sleep products like sleep pods, which apparently at the moment currently face no specific regulation in New Zealand. She says they could use the unsafe goods notices under the Fair Trading Act to restrict or remove dangerous products from the market. She's basically saying it's the sleeping pod, the sleeping pod is dangerous, and experts agree as well. Many of these sleeping pods are actually sold as lounges, but they're also of course sold for sleep, and all the experts say we need some stronger warnings and potentially an outright ban.   And of course the coroner came out and said the obvious thing, she wants better education for parents whose health providers are encouraged to actively discourage the use of these products, right? So remember your guidelines, I still remember them from 25 years ago when I was looking after babies: always put your babies on their backs, always put them on a firm, flat surface, don't have loose blankets or soft items around them, and avoid unapproved sleep devices altogether.   Have we just forgotten how to do this very basic thing? Because we've had talkback about this, sudden infant death syndrome, cot deaths, for ages, but then suddenly we have not. Put it this way, back in the 1980s, we used to have about 250 public health campaigns a year about how to put baby to bed. These days we have about 50 – that is a huge cut in public health campaigns. Can you remember the last time you saw an ad in a paper or on the telly or on the radio saying look after baby, put baby to sleep on back? And the thing I remember from back in the day was swaddling, making sure that baby is securely wrapped, restraining their movement, preventing them from rolling on their tummy and preventing the blankets to go and block their noses and their mouths. Have we forgotten this?  Tue, 19 May 2026 00:29:52 Z https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/andrew-dickens-parents-are-responsible-for-avoiding-credit-crunching/ https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/andrew-dickens-parents-are-responsible-for-avoiding-credit-crunching/ The government has confirmed major changes to New Zealand’s secondary school qualification system, officially replacing NCEA with a new subject-based model. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Education Minister Erica Stanford announced the shift in Orewa, saying the current NCEA system is too complex and doesn’t clearly show how well students have mastered their subjects. From 2029, Year 12 students will begin the New Zealand Certificate of Education, followed by the New Zealand Advanced Certificate of Education for Year 13 in 2030. Level 1 will be removed in 2028. Under the new structure, students will take at least five subjects, and must pass a minimum of three to earn the qualification. Every subject will include internal assessments and an exam, and results will be reported using a six-point grading scale from A+ to E. Certificates will list each subject and the grade achieved, with endorsement awards for top performers. Year 11 students will face new compulsory subjects — science, English or te reo rangatira, and mathematics — and all students will need to pass the new literacy and numeracy Foundational Award. The curriculum will also expand to include new subjects such as Civics, Politics and Philosophy, Advanced Mathematics, and Journalism and Media, alongside industry-developed subjects like building and construction and primary industries. Stanford says the changes are designed to move students away from “credit crunching” and toward genuine learning progress. Current Year 9 students will be the first full cohort to move through the new system. So all the statistics point to NCEA failing but like all tools it's because of the people who used the system not exclusively because of the system A common reaction amongst older New Zealander is how tis resembles the School C, UE system we grew up with so it was less of a revolution and more of a return to basics that were well understood The easy criticism for older folk was the marking system.  For some reason parents and employers did not understand the Excellence, Merit and Acheived rankings when obviously Excellence means an A, Merit a b and Acheived a C.  The A to E system is one that parents grew up with but in the cold light of day is just as abstract as the NCEA rankings. The real problem lay in the rorting of the credits with students choosing easy to pass subjects and avoiding anything that seemed challenging.  But the real responsibility for the credit crunching surely lies with the parents as well And the strength of NCEA was recognising that there is not one education for all.  That some people don't cope with maths or English or Science and the system recognised what talents they had. My youngest and I had a big to do over his Year 13 subject choice.  He detested maths and wanted to study photography.  I said you have to have maths.  he argued that he had as much maths as any average student would need for real life.  He won.  And now he is a successful photographer doing his own taxes and playing Sharesies particularly well. So he was right.  But I'm just lucky he's such a rounded individual But while the new system re-emphasises 3 basic pillars of knowledge in English Maths and Science a lot of those BS credit crunching subjects remain. Other arguments are amongst those who say exams are artificial and how do you sit an exam on Food Technology which is the new fangled name for cooking. Or photography which still exists. The question exists is this a brave new world or will the old problems still remain. Luxon also used the event to comment on global instability, national security, and recent speculation about a potential National–Labour coalition, dismissing the idea outright. LISTEN ABOVE Sun, 17 May 2026 23:36:36 Z https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/john-hart-blues-board-member-on-the-inaugural-blues-hall-of-fame/ https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/john-hart-blues-board-member-on-the-inaugural-blues-hall-of-fame/ The Blues are celebrating their 30th anniversary with their inaugural Blues Hall of Fame.  It’ll honour the legends, stories, and defining moments that have shaped the club since its inception in 1996.  The first class of inductees will be honoured at a formal lunch today.  Former All Blacks coach and Blues board member John Hart told Kerre Woodham that initially, while they catch up on history, the Hall will focus on the players and coaches.  But after that, he says, the ‘Guardians’ class will be added, which honours people like managers, administrators, supporters, or sponsors.   LISTEN ABOVE  Fri, 15 May 2026 00:45:58 Z https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-if-theres-a-fix-for-obesity-related-costs-why-wouldnt-we-use-it/ https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-if-theres-a-fix-for-obesity-related-costs-why-wouldnt-we-use-it/ Obesity related illnesses, as you well know, cost this country a fortune. The direct healthcare costs of obesity, well, they estimated it at $2 billion per year, per year, and that was in 2021, so it'll be a hell of a lot more now. It's more difficult to calculate the total economic impact that obesity has on this country. Estimates range between $4 to $9 billion per year. It depends whether you include lost productivity and how you quantify the loss of quality of life. If you are chair bound and you're in your 20’s, how do you calculate the cost of that? Cardiovascular disease linked closely to obesity costs New Zealand a minimum of $13.8 billion.   We're looking for hundreds of millions at the moment to try and balance the books with the Budget coming up – look at the billions being spent on healthcare costs. Type 2 diabetes, that costs an estimated $2.1 billion annually. Over two in three adults and nearly one third of children in New Zealand are overweight or obese, placing a severe strain on the health system. So it costs the country a lot. It would make a meaningful difference reducing the numbers of people who are obese and then see that obesity is triggering all kinds of health conditions. The cost in terms of New Zealanders not being able to live their lives, fulfil their potential, that too is staggering. So if there is a way to fix it, why wouldn't we fix it? If somebody said there's a pill for that, you'd take it.  And indeed, turns out there is. Pharmac thinks we can and should solve the problem through medication. It has added the semaglutide drug to its list of medicines suitable for future funding. In a decision released yesterday, the drug funding agency confirmed it had added Wegovy, as you know it, to its list of options for investment. The options for investment includes all the medications Pharmac would fund if the budget allowed. It's currently unfunded, and if you want to buy it yourself, Wegovy costs someone about $400 a month. The order of Pharmac's list isn't made public for commercial reasons, as Radio New Zealand writes, but if chosen, the drug would be available to people with a BMI of more than 50 and also to those with a BMI of more than 35 with at least two comorbidities.   There is a cure for obesity, but there will be a group of people, and you might be one of them as you're standing or sitting here listening to me, who don't want to fund obesity drugs despite the clear cost benefits, because you see fat as being a moral failing, and fat people as being inferior beings. You think it's simply a matter of willpower. There were no fat people during wars, food was scarce, and that's the end of that. Pull up your socks, go for a walk, say no, put down the fork, problem solved. Despite the fact that medical experts and psychiatrists say it is way more complicated than that. The ads we're running for weight loss drugs at the moment on this station give an indication of what it's like to see food as a reward and as an enemy. It's the voice chatter that Oprah Winfrey talked about when she went on Ozempic. She said the medication stopped the constant mental chatter about what to eat, what to resist, the constant negotiation about food, which was a feeling she'd experienced for 50 years. The okay, well, if I have an egg for breakfast, that's protein, that's good, but then there's the toast and that's carbs, should I try and put it on say a rice cracker? That doesn't feel very nice. Okay, I've been for a walk so I can reward myself with a piece of cake. Constant. And that's what the ads give an indication of, that's what Oprah Winfrey was talking about. She had an aha moment when she realised that overeating doesn't cause obesity, it's obesity that causes overeating. It is not a moral failing. And I know that when you exercise and when you restrict your food, you lose weight. I've done it before. I'll do it again. I'm in and out like an accordion – I can still hear the chatter somet... Thu, 14 May 2026 23:52:11 Z https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/ben-gray-otago-university-associate-professor-of-primary-health-care-and-general-practice-says-patient-consent-rules-may-be-hindering-medical-training/ https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/ben-gray-otago-university-associate-professor-of-primary-health-care-and-general-practice-says-patient-consent-rules-may-be-hindering-medical-training/ Are our patient consent rules making it harder to train the next generation of doctors?  An article in The Conversation argues that the strict requirement for patients to content to the involvement of junior doctors in their care is hindering medical training.   Author and Associate Professor of Primary Health Care and General Practice at Otago University, Dr Ben Gray says it’s limiting hands-on learning, especially in critical situations.  He told Kerre Woodham the interpretation of the rules has narrowed over time, and doesn’t include situations where patients are unconscious or distressed.  Gray says it means students potentially won’t have the chance to learn about those patients and how to treat them, if they can’t get consent.   LISTEN ABOVE  Thu, 14 May 2026 01:39:52 Z https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-this-is-a-budget-that-shouldve-already-been-delivered/ https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-this-is-a-budget-that-shouldve-already-been-delivered/ Guess what? New Zealand's in economic trouble. I know, I know, who would have thought it? Well, we did. You know it, I know it. We've known it for a very, very long time, right from the very start when Labour began throwing money around. There were the Cassandras coming on the radio saying, “Oh, you're going to have to pay it back. All very well and good now, probably the right thing to do, but at some point we're going to have to pay it back."  “The outlook is negative, so it indicates that there is a chance of a downgrade.”  Okay, and what does that mean? Well, it's not just national pride, it means that it will cost us more to borrow money, which will add even more to our outstanding debt. And it's all very well and good for Finance Minister Nicola Willis to start putting the brakes on now. As has become common these days, the Budget will be no surprise. You know the details of the Budget pretty much before it's announced. But I would argue her budget is a budget that should have been presented three years ago. She told Mike Hosking this morning that getting the books back in order is more important than ever.  “We have to be very careful about the choices we make. And gone are the days, I think, when political campaigns will be about what new spending program you can design to dish out more lolly in a creative way. We're now in a time where the task for sensible leaders is to say, “What are the investments required to drive the things that will support growth, living standards, and affordability into the future?" And that's why, of course, we've made that decision. Actually, the Fees Free program, it doesn't cut it in this new age. It's not delivering results. That is investment that should be made elsewhere in things that really matter. And there have been choices like that throughout this budget process.”  Good, but I would argue the tax cuts were a dumb choice. It was an election bribe. Spending on capital infrastructure, which is an investment in the future, that's not dumb spending. Silly tax cuts that made no meaningful difference to people's lives, I'd say that was a dumb choice. National came in saying that they had the answers, they had the lever, they knew which levers to pull to get the economy back on track. I think they made some dumb choices along the way, and this is the Budget that should have been delivered in Nicola Willis's first term as Finance Minister.   They are streets ahead of a Labour-Greens coalition in terms of economic prudence. I mean, there is just absolutely, absolutely no choice if you're looking for economic prudence. Labour hasn't even got a plan, hasn't even released the plan – at least the Greens have released a plan. You might not agree with it, but they do have a plan. Labour, no, they're waiting till after the Budget and let's see what miracles they can put up. But how the hell are they going to pay for pay equity, which is going to cost billions and billions of ongoing dollars? If they promise that, then that should be enough to consign them to oblivion.  Thu, 14 May 2026 00:27:31 Z https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-its-time-to-commit-to-the-infrastructure-we-need-to-future-proof-new-zealand/ https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-its-time-to-commit-to-the-infrastructure-we-need-to-future-proof-new-zealand/ It will be the single biggest piece of infrastructure that New Zealand will build. Remember when Shane Jones' Northport was going to be the single biggest piece of infrastructure? Well, now that's gone the way of the dodo. So the single biggest piece of infrastructure that New Zealand will build in our lifetimes, will come when the Government makes the decision on what a new Auckland Harbour crossing will look like. The time for discussion and debate is over, there simply isn't that luxury. We've been faffing around another crossing for decades.   New Zealand Transport Agency released two June 2025 reports relating to the current bridge's —the only bridge's— state of wear, and the documents show that many areas of the bridge are vulnerable and increasingly fraying under use. The annual maintenance and repair costs now surpass $25 million. And I suppose when you're 67 years old, you're not as strong as you used to be and you need a bit of extra work. You might have seen the images of the bridge wobbling and wavering. As someone who uses the bridge just about every single day and makes at least two crossings, I feel like I'm playing Russian roulette on wheels every time I drive over it. I think, well, here we go. She's been a good life. No one can say I was taken too soon. Hoots away and off we go. And then when you get to the other side, you think, well, we live another day.   There are approximately 170–180,000 vehicles crossing that bridge daily, with some days having more than 200,000 crossings. It is considered the busiest section of State Highway in New Zealand, serving as a critical transport connection for more than 64 million vehicles annually. It's not just about Aucklanders; it affects far more New Zealanders than that. But from the day the Harbour Bridge opened in 1959 there have been calls for another alternate crossing. In 1987 and 1988, studies for tunnels and additional bridge structures were conducted. In 2008, Option 2C was developed – a major plan involving two new tunnels. In 2021, I remember that a $785 million walking and cycle bridge was announced, oh, and then cancelled within four months. But the consultants earned themselves a good whack. 2023, the Government revealed five new distinct options including tunnels, light rail, and bridges. And ‘24 to ‘26 continued debate over the bridge versus the tunnel options. And you had Mayor Wayne Brown's Meola Reef Bridge proposal, which seemed absolutely barking to me – none of the benefits of that were explained properly.   So now it's been narrowed down to two options, and Transport Minister Chris Bishop is confident he can make it happen. And as he told Heather du Plessis Allan, he is engaging with all the other parties for their support.  “I do not want to be the Transport Minister who announces, you know, a big pie in the sky plan and says we're going to do this and we're going to do that and it all turns to custard and it doesn't actually end up happening. I'm going about this in a very deliberate way. We're taking a very evidence-led approach. We've been engaging with the market. We've had a barge in the harbour doing geotech work. We've had extensive studies into it. So I'm just going about this in the right way and it's going to the NZTA board for a decision in terms of a preferred option next month, and then it'll come to Cabinet and we'll be engaging with other parties around it.”  Right, so next month, what do you think? What's it going to be? A tunnel or another bridge? It would be great to see other options, like the cycling, like the walking. As a tourist attraction, it'd be fantastic to have the cycling and the walking options. But ultimately, we need to commit. This country, successive governments, and successive generations of voters, has put off doing the hard stuff for far too long. Next month will be about a decade too late, but at least there'll be an option on the table, and we have to act on it, and we have t... Wed, 13 May 2026 01:02:39 Z https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/judith-collins-retiring-national-mp-reflects-on-her-career-in-parliament/ https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/judith-collins-retiring-national-mp-reflects-on-her-career-in-parliament/ Judith Collins is bidding farewell to politics.  The senior National MP has delivered her valedictory speech, saying goodbye after 24 years in Parliament, as she prepares to move on to heading the Law Commission.  Collins held numerous ministerial portfolios in her time in politics and led National to the 2020 election.  She told Kerre Woodham she feels as though she’s done everything in Parliament that she really wanted to.  LISTEN ABOVE  Wed, 13 May 2026 00:48:00 Z https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-what-is-keeping-you-from-moving-to-australia/ https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-what-is-keeping-you-from-moving-to-australia/ We start this morning with something you already know: the number of New Zealanders moving to Australia is at its highest level in 12 years. And most of those moving are going to Australia – around 58% of those who are leaving say they're heading for Oz. Yet in the World Happiness Report, in terms of happiness, we rank ahead of Australia. We're 11th happiest, they come in at number 15 – the Nordic countries always take out the top spots. The report suggests New Zealand's more equal and less corrupt than Australia with greater freedom and social support, but these positives appear to be outweighed by per capita GDP. And if you're looking for reasons why 58% of those leaving New Zealand are moving to Oz, follow the money, honey. When you feel like you're being ground down by life, that you're working every hour God sends but you're not getting anywhere, it would be very tempting to see the pot of gold at the end of a short three hour flight across the ditch as the answer to everything. And sometimes it is. But there are downsides. Jack Tame looked at the reasons why the people he interviewed had left for Australia, what the advantages were, what the disadvantages were, and found that despite the money and the sun, the grass isn't always greener. James Houston left Palmerston North and the New Zealand Police, one of those we were talking about yesterday, to join the Queensland Police Service.  “I did about six years back home in New Zealand in Palmerston North before resigning and coming over here. You've got the lifestyle, you've got the sun, you've got better pay. I think I increased my salary coming over here by about 60% and that's without any overtime. I've got two other officers here at Ferny Grove from my actual station back in Palmerston North, so it's not only me coming over to do it, it's a lot of other people. Some of the challenges I'd say is, you know, you don't have your family support around, especially in a role like this. In all honesty, mate, if we were to get the same perks back home as what we have over here, like you get a better salary, you know, you're looked after a bit better, I'd give up the sunshine, I'd give up the lifestyle. There'd be no doubt in my mind, mate, I'd go home.”  That was James Houston speaking on Jack Tame's 1News special, “You, Me and Aussie”. And that's the thing though, isn't it? Like 60% more in your salary, we're never ever going to be able to offer that sort of money. Australia's economy is so much bigger than ours, there are so many more people, and their money is based on things that we won't countenance in this country, like mining. So we're not going to be able to pay the sort of money and that's the sacrifice you make. You know, as James said, he would he would give it up in a heartbeat if he got the same money back home because of the family support he gets. But he's not going to get that money, so that's the trade off.   My kids sacrificed money for lifestyle, friends, and family support. They were living in London, they always said they would come home when they started a family. And selfishly, I'm very, very glad they did, although they had to weigh it up. They were earning really good money in the UK, but once they had kids, they wanted to come home. Money's important, very, very important, but so too are family ties and friendship groups. I've never lived and worked in Australia or indeed any other country, but I have many friends and family members who have, and it's family and friends that brought them back. As Jack's show referenced, it can be really lonely moving to a new country, especially if you don't have children. If you've got the children, then you can tend to meet people through the school groups, but if you don't have children, all you've got is your healthy salary. You have to work for it too. You know, those who are working in the mines, it is not a doddle. You have to be strong and you have to have a strong relationship to be able... Tue, 12 May 2026 00:06:45 Z https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/mark-mitchell-police-minister-says-bad-fiscal-situation-prohibiting-paying-our-police-more/ https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/mark-mitchell-police-minister-says-bad-fiscal-situation-prohibiting-paying-our-police-more/ New figures reveal hundreds of Kiwi officers are continuing to head across the Tasman, nearly one in three police resignations are now linked to the move. But, the Police Commissioner didn't seem too worried when he spoke to Mike Hosking this morning, saying they prioritise quality over quantity.  Minister of Police Mark Mitchell told Kerre Woodham "of course we want to pay our frontline police, all of our police personnel as much as we can, but we are limited. We are in a pretty bad fiscal situation at the moment as a country but we'll do our best without a doubt." LISTEN ABOVE Mon, 11 May 2026 01:12:45 Z https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-fees-free-would-be-nice-if-it-actually-worked/ https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-fees-free-would-be-nice-if-it-actually-worked/ Well, Winston let the cat out of the bag on Friday afternoon with Heather du Plessis Allan. Oh, we're scrapping fees free in the third year, he said, you'll find that in the budget. And Finance Minister Nicola Willis has confirmed that yes indeed, the scheme will be ditched in the upcoming budget.  Those students completing their tertiary studies this year in their final year will remain eligible for fees free. So, all well and good. It was a dog of a scheme, it was an absolute bribe, we all knew that. It was one of those nice policies that Labour brought in and ultimately, yet again, it didn't work. On paper it looked as though it might, but it didn't. It's a nice to have and right now we are a country that cannot afford nice things. Had it been doing what it was intended to do, what on paper it looked like it might do, then the coalition government might have found the money to continue the scheme. However, it never did, never achieved the goal of increasing the number of students participating in tertiary education. It was also really bad at getting people who were disadvantaged to take up the scheme and that was the intention behind it when Jacinda Ardern announced the policy at a decile 5 school all those years ago. Didn't work when it was first year fees free. It was a flagship policy from Labour to pay for the first year of tertiary education and then as the numbers swelled and children from decile 1 schools trooped off to university and raised themselves to the excellence they needed to find within themselves and just be fabulous, it was going to be free for anybody to go to university. Didn't work. The original intentions were to help people overcome economic barriers to higher education while also growing the numbers of those enrolled. In fact, the disparity between university entrance from low decile schools and higher decile schools got worse. The Herald applied under the Official Information Act and it showed that in 2017 the year prior to the scheme being introduced, 38% of first year students at uni came from school deciles 1 to 5, the remaining 62% from deciles 6 to 10. In 2021 that gap had widened, there were just 28% taking up the fees free policy coming from deciles 1 to 5, 72% from deciles 6 to 10. So, you know, there's any number of reasons for that. It was a period of high unemployment in 2021 because we hadn't been opening the borders to workers so you might go straight into work rather than uni. There's a number of reasons for that, but ultimately the reason for the scheme being introduced was to have a greater representation of young people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. Didn't work. And it also doesn't work having the final year fees free in terms of encouraging people to complete their degrees because we've still got about a third of bachelor's degree level students not completing their qualifications even if they take six years to do it. So that's not working. I thought the final year fees free might encourage people to to stay on. No, data shows it hasn't. So let's be done with it. Absolutely let's be done with it. Put the money where it can better support the education and vocational needs of young people maybe. I mean university just does not have the cachet it once had and that's because it's a bums on seats model. It used to be that universities were centres for higher academic learning. And they're not now. It used to be that only a few people went to university and the taxpayer paid for them, all of their fees. Now hundreds of thousands of people go to university with a third of them never even completing their degree while the taxpayer picks up the tab for 80% of the course costs. Are we getting value for money? I don't think we are. As a model, and because the world is moving so fast, a lot of what young people are learning is out of date by the time they sit down and open their textbooks. It's not for everyone, so put that money, a lot of that money into where... Sun, 10 May 2026 23:36:46 Z https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-the-super-situation-what-poison-are-you-willing-to-swallow/ https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-the-super-situation-what-poison-are-you-willing-to-swallow/ New Zealand, according to the OECD, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, needs to reform the electricity sector, expand and strengthen capital markets, speed up digitisation of the health sector, and reform the pension. The OECD joined other international agencies in calling for the age of eligibility for super to be raised by indexing it to life expectancy with measures to take account of different ethnicities and work backgrounds. A bit like in Australia, if you're in a tough job that is tough on your body and you physically cannot work any longer, then you can get the pension a bit earlier, it just won't be as much as the full pension.  If Bill English had been able to form a coalition government when he was leading National, we would have raised the age of super by now to 67. But it doesn't, for those of you who are concerned, go from 65 to 67 overnight. You'll remember when National was looking at raising the age to 67 – it would just increase six months each year and it wouldn't have started until the 1st of July 2037. So it doesn't happen overnight, there's plenty of time for people to get used to it, it's phased in slowly, it's not a huge seismic shock. What is a huge seismic shock is the cost of super to the national economy.  Simplicity Managing Director Sam Stubbs says super is a huge problem that needs to be addressed urgently. He says without change, by 2060 all of our income tax will only be able to pay for health and national super, there'll be no money left for anything else – unless we suddenly get incredibly wealthy. But if things stay as they are pretty much, our GDP stays the same, the increase in the number of people needing healthcare and national Super will be such that our income tax will only pay for that. There'll be nothing for roads, nothing for schools, nothing for any of the things we like to have.  “What about the Cullen Fund?” I hear you ask, and that's a good question. The fund was never a fully funded Super scheme; it was just designed to smooth out some of the population shocks so that it wouldn't completely cripple the economy as a big cohort of the population reached superannuation age. It's expected to contribute roughly 3.3-3.5% of the total super cost by 2040. It may well get up to covering 10% of the costs by 2080, but certainly not 100%  Finance Minister Nicola Willis was sort of trying to calm things down. She told Mike Hosking that changes don't need to be as dramatic as the OECD suggests, but do need to happen.  “In the 1960s there were around seven New Zealanders of working age for every person aged 65 or older. Today there are four and by 2065 there will only be two. So that burden on our taxpayers is increasing significantly. Already between last year and the end of the fiscal period, the cost of New Zealand superannuation will increase by about $6 billion a year. It's rising as a proportion of what we tax you for, so it's currently just over 16%, it's going to rise to over 20%. And every dollar we're spending on superannuation is a dollar not available for education, for health, for infrastructure. So gradually over time some changes will need to be made. They don't need to be as dramatic as the OECD suggests, but some adjustments will be needed.”  Well, it will need to be as dramatic unless political parties bite the bullet. And in this case, there would need to be, and Chris Hipkins said himself, that he was open to having cross party discussions about what to do around the super. Because without change, without sensible, orderly change, it will need to be dramatic. Independent economist Cameron Bagrie told Heather du Plessis Allan last night he's a fan of means testing the super.  “We're on an unsustainable fiscal path. You know, the Government needs to bite the bullet in regards to making some pretty big, hard, bold decisions. We've been talking about this sort of stuff for 30 years. I can remember modelling th... Fri, 08 May 2026 01:17:38 Z https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/christopher-luxon-prime-minister-takes-talkback-discusses-coalitions-superannuation-immigration-health-insurance/ https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/christopher-luxon-prime-minister-takes-talkback-discusses-coalitions-superannuation-immigration-health-insurance/ The Prime Minister's signalling he'd prefer a one-party Government, rather than a coalition.  Parties appear to be moving closer to campaign mode, announcing policies ahead of Election Day on November seventh.  The Government's also promising further cost-savings to be re-invested into the frontline ahead of this year's Budget.  Christopher Luxon told Kerre Woodham New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters could work with Labour – something he calls a risk.  He says if push comes to shove, he can work with ACT and New Zealand First.  And although National’s campaigning on raising the retirement age, it seems as though not everyone is on board.  A major OECD report is the latest to call for the age of eligibility for Superannuation to increase.  Luxon told Woodham the age should be 67, and it will be an election policy.  He says they'd want to do it as soon as they get in for a second term, but other parties need to come on board and say it's a good idea too.  Meanwhile, Labour's leader has said the party's open to a conversation with other political parties about potentially means-testing the pension.  LISTEN ABOVE   Thu, 07 May 2026 21:45:01 Z https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-are-backyard-fireworks-really-worth-the-cost/ https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-are-backyard-fireworks-really-worth-the-cost/ It looks like setting fire to small explosives in the backyard will be one of those wacky stories you'll tell the grandkids about. You were able to set fire to explosives, Grandma? In the backyard? In your own home you let off little bombs? Yes, we did. Those were the days. A Parliamentary Select Committee has finally backed a ban on the public sale and use of fireworks.   No one can really say they're shocked, surprised, knocked over with a feather by this, because momentum for a ban on public sales and use of fireworks has been building over the years, based on concerns over animal welfare, danger to life and property, and the number of police callouts. Danger to life is probably over-egging the omelette – certainly danger to limb. ACC's seen a number of cases every single year. 14 previous petitions have been presented to Parliament calling for a ban, but this is the first time the committee has recommended one. Committee member Greg Fleming, who loved a double happy and a skyrocket in his backyard, was initially against a ban but said the evidence presented was overwhelming.  “We had three petitions come to us at pretty much the same time, and so we did the unusual thing of bundling them all up. So we heard from a range of submitters, and overwhelmingly the advice was to move towards seriously exploring a ban. In the end, the committee felt that we really didn't have almost any choice but to recommend that given the weight of evidence.”  The Government has 60 days to respond to the committee – it's not done and dusted yet. But as well as the public backing, there's been support from Fire and Emergency New Zealand, the SPCA, New Zealand Veterinary Association, Veterinarians for Animal Welfare, and Animates. A formal process including cabinet consideration would follow, and it won't be done before this year's election. It’ll probably end up being an election issue – you can see New Zealand First jumping on this one.   I love fireworks, I absolutely love fireworks, but I do accept that the harm outweighs the enjoyment I get in my backyard. I'm happy to go to public displays, they can afford far better fireworks than I. It makes perfect sense to let off fireworks in Great Britain in winter, which is where the tradition began, but in New Zealand it's spring and it's nesting time. In England the sun sets at 4:30pm in November. In New Zealand it's after 8pm. ACC, as I referred to earlier, accepts roughly 300 new claims for fireworks related injuries in New Zealand every year. The costs exceeded $760,000 in 2023. Most injuries involve burns to hands and wrists, and in a shocking revelation, males aged 15 to 19 are most at risk. Children under 10 make up around 25% of all those injured. There were more than 1,500 firework related service calls for New Zealand Police. I can't even imagine how many there were for fire. Is it worth that kind of cost, that kind of disruption, to cling on to having bangers in your backyard?   It's not an end to fireworks full stop. There will still be public displays of them. People will still be able to enjoy the incredible spectacle of fireworks filling the sky, choreographed fireworks, which are just beautiful. If it was an end to fireworks full stop, then I might dig my toes in, but on this one, this is not a hill I'm going to die on. Is it really worth it? It's the wrong time of year, it's not our tradition. I accept it as fun, but is it, given the cost, given the disruption, given the terrible, terrible injuries inflicted on animals every single year, is it really worth it?  Thu, 07 May 2026 00:35:52 Z https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/olivia-blaylock-icehouse-ceo-on-the-ignite-growth-summit-small-and-medium-businesses-in-new-zealand/ https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/olivia-blaylock-icehouse-ceo-on-the-ignite-growth-summit-small-and-medium-businesses-in-new-zealand/ The Icehouse is celebrating 25 years of powering Kiwi business growth.  They’re a non-profit dedicated to training and mentoring the small to medium enterprises that make up 97% of New Zealand’s economy.  And today is their Ignite Growth Summit, in which they bring together legendary founders who have gone from the garage to the global stage to inspire the next wave of business talent.   CEO Olivia Blaylock told Kerre Woodham there are so many great businesses around New Zealand, and while some, like Pic’s, are well known, there are plenty that we don’t hear about.  She says we need to tell more of their stories and create a culture where it’s okay to put your hand up and say you’re doing well.   LISTEN ABOVE   Wed, 06 May 2026 01:41:27 Z https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/clare-de-lore-journalist-on-the-launch-of-the-new-brainstorming-podcast/ https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/clare-de-lore-journalist-on-the-launch-of-the-new-brainstorming-podcast/ A brand-new podcast from the University of Auckland’s Centre for Brain Research, journalist Clare de Lore and Newstalk ZB, 'Brainstorming' launched today. Clare sits down with world-class scientists and those living with brain disorders, from dementia to CTE. She joined Kerre Woodham to explain further.  LISTEN ABOVE Wed, 06 May 2026 01:13:04 Z https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-is-there-a-case-for-amalgamation/ https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-is-there-a-case-for-amalgamation/ Government ministers gave councils an ultimatum yesterday: come up with your own plans for amalgamation within three months, or the Government will do it for you. Local Government Minister Simon Watts and RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop said there was broad support from councils – some were already gung-ho and proceeding with plans to amalgamate. One of them is Nelson Mayor Nick Smith. He's long held the view that merging with Tasman is the right thing to do for his city and cites common interests and unnecessary duplication. Back in 2012, Nelson voted in favour of amalgamation, Tasman voted against it. Tasman Mayor Tim King still prefers an arranged marriage – he wants to wait for the Government's backstop process, which would force reform before the 2028 local elections. King says he'd rather have central government just do it, decide on the country's local government model, rather than have all the arguments that come with trying to hash out, thrash out these sorts of governance arrangements for themselves. As King pointed out, the biggest problem councils face right now is financial pressure, and amalgamation won't necessarily save money, and it won't necessarily make everything magically better.  Come on in, Auckland Super City! A prime example of amalgamation. Did it make things better? Back in 2010, the 1st of November to be exact, eight councils became one. And from that one big Super City Council, 21 local boards were created to focus on community issues. The council managed regional issues like transport and planning. The aim was, as Nick Smith said, to avoid unnecessary duplication and improve services. And I guess on paper it makes sense but back in 2020, on the 10 year anniversary of the Super City, some districts felt amalgamation hadn't really worked for them.  Speaking to Radio New Zealand, former Franklin District Mayor Mark Ball said his community felt like a cash cow for the big smoke, that they had specific regional interests that weren't being represented at council level. He conceded that the water had got a lot better, the drinking water under the new structure was a lot better, but he said vital infrastructure like upgrading roads down south had been passed up in favour of bike paths in Auckland's CBD. He said elected members all love to build the shiny things, they love to have their Aotea Squares and go to the openings of this and that. Nobody ever wants to bury pipes. And he said, as an example of where your own region's specific needs are overlooked or misunderstood or not taken into account, some roads that had been built were too narrow for farming vehicles. Why would you possibly need a wide road? Says somebody driving a smart car in inner city Auckland. Because I've got a whopping great combine harvester, you numpty, would be the answer – and he said the town centres have been stripped of car parks.    The thing that concerns me is that so few people take an interest in local body politics. So few. People could be getting up to God knows what with God knows who and you wouldn't have a clue until it's all too late because nobody takes an interest, nobody goes to the meeting – well, very few. I'm exaggerating for effect. Very few people go along to the council meetings, very few people bother to vote. So they can decide what you like and you go, oh, I don't think this is very good, I don't like this, and well, too bad. You didn't care. You care now. I find it really interesting that when it comes to amalgamation, trying to get these disparate interests all working together as one, and the case that Mark Ball cites is a really good one. Franklin needs new roads. Right then, let's build them. Oh, they're not big enough for farming vehicles – you know it's because nobody knew.  The Far North seems to be quite keen to amalgamate. They're first out of the blocks. Far North, Whangārei, Kaipara, and the Northland Regional Councils are looking to merge into one or two aut... Wed, 06 May 2026 00:47:18 Z https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/alf-filipaina-auckland-councillor-on-the-review-into-the-navigation-bylaw/ https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/alf-filipaina-auckland-councillor-on-the-review-into-the-navigation-bylaw/ Auckland Council is aiming to reduce drownings and improve safety by upgrading its Navigation Bylaw.  The most significant change would make life jackets mandatory for everyone on vessels under six meters long whilst it’s in motion.  Current rules only require for them to be carried, with the person in charge of the vessel making the decision on whether it’s necessary.  Auckland Councillor and Bylaw Review Panel member Alf Filipaina told Kerre Woodham this is the first review since the bylaw’s approval, and five years on, they want the community to have their say.  He says they’re hopeful the majority will come in and say wearing life jackets while a vessel is on the water and in motion is common sense.   LISTEN ABOVE   Tue, 05 May 2026 01:38:37 Z https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-is-it-necessary-to-make-wearing-a-life-jacket-a-legal-requirement/ https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-is-it-necessary-to-make-wearing-a-life-jacket-a-legal-requirement/ Auckland Council wants to hear from you. It's consulting on proposed changes to the Auckland Navigational Bylaw. Right now, Clause 20 of the bylaw requires personal flotation devices, also known as life jackets, on vessels six metres and under. Unless, and here comes the thorny bit, unless the person in charge gives permission not to wear one. So that makes it all pretty cloudy, doesn't it? The proposed changes aim to clarify expectations and support safer decisions on the water. The proposed change to Clause 20 makes the rule clear, according to the council, and protects everyone on board.  What they want to change to is personal flotation devices must be worn on recreational vessels six metres or less in length. So no faffing around with, oh, the person in charge says I don't have to – if you're on the boat, you wear them. Submissions opened yesterday and are open until the 7th of June 2026, so you've got a bit over a month to have your say.   Is this sort of explicit rendering of the law necessary? Well, if you look at the stats, yes, it is. On average, between 15 to 20 people die every year in recreational boating accidents. And the majority of the accidents don't happen in rough seas miles from shore, they occur in the northern part of the North Island and in coastal waters within two kilometres of shore, and when you drill down, within 400 metres of shore. Vessel types: kayaks, canoes, small powerboats under six metres are the ones most frequently involved. Capsizing and falling overboard are the primary causes of accidents, often happening suddenly, and over half of those who died in the boating accidents were, guess what, not wearing a life jacket.   So you can understand the frustration from Coastguard New Zealand, from the first responders turning up seeing the devastation that occurs when a loved one dies from what was supposed to be a fantastic day out. And it's all so unnecessary. With the right flotation device, you get wet and you go home, and a family's not torn apart. I understand that for a lot of people, going out on the boat is the last freedom. You know, the wind through your hair, if you've got any, the salt water and sound of the seabirds, the light glinting off the water, and you're catching food for dinner. It's a fantastic experience, but it can all go wrong so quickly. And being sorry is all very well and good. “Oh my god, I should have insisted they wear a life jacket.” Yeah, you should have and it's too late now.  Do we leave it to God's little pruning fork? Like if you choose not to wear a life jacket and you know the stats, for heaven's sake, if you're a boatie, you know the stats. But is it a case of other people? Oh, it'll happen to other people. I'm very cautious, I'm very careful, I know what I'm doing. I can swim well. I was a lifesaver 42 years ago, I can look after the grandkids if anything happens. It's always other people until it isn't. But do you still want to be able to make your own choices and if the worst happens, oh well, there we go, it's just one of those things? Or should people be saved from their own stupidity and poor decisions? Every single boatie I know has really strict rules around their boat. When the kids go on board, they understand that the captain's in charge, you follow the rules, what he or she says goes, and life jackets are compulsory for everybody. It's not just for the kids and the adults don't wear them. Everybody wears them.   I understand people want to go to hell in their own way, but I can also really understand the frustration of first responders and Coastguard who have to deliver the news to people back on shore that because the person they loved was wilful and obstinate and refused to believe that they were mortal, they're not going to be with them ever again.  To me, it seems a no brainer. And I'm sure if you're that sort of boatie, you'd be like, how can you not? How can you not insist that people stay safe? It's... Tue, 05 May 2026 01:08:03 Z https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/dr-ezekiel-emanuel-us-health-policy-expert-chats-ahead-of-nz-summit/ https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/dr-ezekiel-emanuel-us-health-policy-expert-chats-ahead-of-nz-summit/ The Health Innovators' Summit takes place in Auckland tomorrow with this year's discussion centring around ideas to create a world-class, high performing health system for New Zealand. The keynote speaker is one of the world’s foremost health policy experts and author of Which Country Has The World’s Best Health Care?, Dr Ezekiel Emanuel. He joined Kerre Woodham to chat about the state of New Zealand healthcare and how other countries operate differently. "New Zealand is exactly where there's a line how rich a country is versus how much it spends on healthcare, and New Zealand's exactly on that line for the per capita GDP," Emanuel said.  LISTEN ABOVE Sun, 03 May 2026 23:39:18 Z https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-acts-immigration-plan-is-not-exactly-ground-breaking/ https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-acts-immigration-plan-is-not-exactly-ground-breaking/ It's good to see some parties releasing policies, looking at you Labour, whether you agree with them or not, given it's less than six months to the election. ACT released its immigration policy over the weekend, a six point plan that ACT says will welcome people with shared values and who play by the rules. ACT leader and Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour said New Zealand was a settler society that had been built by people willing to make a journey to try and build something better, which is true, wave after wave of immigration has made New Zealand the New Zealand it is. But the six point plan, is it really designed to build a better New Zealand or is it designed to get voters to ACT?  As in the party, not as in to galvanise voters. Deport serious offenders, number one on the list. ACT will ensure that resident visa holders convicted of offences carrying sentences of 10 years or more will be deported, no matter how long they've been here. Well, we already do deport a lot of people back from whence they came if they commit serious crime, and the government has a proposal to extend liability to 20 years, so that if you've been here for 20 years, you'll still get sent back. So, really? Hardly ground-breaking.  Two, skilled visas for skilled jobs. Too often ACT says the gaps close and categories remain wide open. ACT will have each skill category automatically expire every year to remain open, so you can say, look, I need a worker, you have to prove that there is a need, you have to show up to date evidence of demand, which sounds like a lot of unnecessary paperwork and not at all like ACT. ACT will introduce a five year welfare stand down for all residence class visa holders, no jobseeker support, accommodation supplement or income tested benefit for a migrant's first five years here. Fair. ACT will introduce a $6 per day infrastructure surcharge on temporary work visas on top of the existing charges. The fee is expected to raise around 80 million a year while remaining more affordable than comparable visas in Australia and the UK. Stronger English language requirements. Lower standards will still be permitted for seasonal workers. Well, you can lead a horse to water, you can't make it drink, you can lead a horticulture but you can't make it think. You know, it's like you can demand it, and it would be nice if everybody did speak a lingua franca, but at the same time, it's the same in any migrant countries like the US, there are pockets of the US where they still speak Polish and they still speak Yiddish and they still speak Italian because that's the comfort of home.  And, there are 21,000 non overstayers in New Zealand right now, there'll be a dedicated overstayer enforcement unit within Immigration New Zealand. Right. Fair to say the policies have been met with eye rolling from the business and the rural community. Immigration lawyer Queen City Law Marcus Beveridge was very dismissive when he spoke to Ryan Bridge this morning: I just see it as it's not really worth getting out of bed for this because most of it's already here, it's superfluous, it's posturing. Minister Stanford's actually tidied most of this up already and I thought Mr Seymour could have done much better helping to refine the business categories rather than sort of dorking around with something that's already been fixed. Well, quite, really. And somehow you expect more from ACT. No, you might not agree with it, but you expect it to be better reasoned. Federated Farmers employment spokesperson Karl Dean talked to the Mike Hosking Breakfast this morning and he says, well, it's not going to help us compete on the international stage: I think the six bucks a day is one thing, you know, how would that look on the international stage? We struggle to get skilled migrants now, they look at Australia, they look at Canada, they choose those over New Zealand. This is another barrier. But it's also the fact of renewing or looking at the accredited... Sun, 03 May 2026 22:46:47 Z https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-the-road-toll-still-needs-reducing/ https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-the-road-toll-still-needs-reducing/ You'll have heard it in our news, since Monday the 20th of April, 18 people have been killed in 14 separate crashes on our roads. As of this morning, 12 more lives have been lost on New Zealand roads so far this year compared to the same point last year. To give some context though, our road tolls today are nothing like the bad old days. Back in 1973, long before many of you were born, when we had a much smaller population and fewer cars on the road, the road toll was around 850 deaths. And you can only imagine the injuries involved in those as well. In 1975 seatbelts in cars became compulsory and the road toll began to decline. It was around about 625 in 1975 – that was considered cause for celebration. And over time, it's come down to fewer than 300 deaths on the road thanks to seatbelts, thanks to better engineering of cars, thanks to improved medical outcomes and rigorous enforcement of traffic rules.   But the fact that things are better than they used to be will be cold comfort to the families of those killed, to the first responders and to the poor bloody truckies who are travelling along the highway, minding their own business, doing the speed limit, big heavy load on the back, and then watching as inevitable disaster unfolds right in front of them as a car veers across the centre line and heads towards them at 100km/h. There is nowhere for them to go. They cannot stop in time. They just have to wait for the inevitable, which would be horrific. Preliminary findings found 16 of the 18 deaths over these past 10 days occurred on open roads with 100km/h speed limits and no traffic safety barriers. Of those 18 deaths, six of them weren't wearing seatbelts. So there's an obvious fix – buckle up.   The other must be looking at wire median barriers. There's a barrier stretching around three and a half kilometres on the Kapiti Coast along Centennial Highway. That used to be a dreadful section of road – there was nowhere to go. There was a sheer rock face on one side and the sea on the other. A very narrow stretch of road around the coast. In the decade before the first part of the wire median barrier went up in 2005, 16 people were killed, 14 seriously injured in 15 major crashes. So the $15 million barrier was extended in 2007, and between 2007 and 2015, there were no deaths or serious injuries on that part of the highway. The barrier had been struck 122 times since it was installed, but no deaths or serious injuries. Goodness knows what that number would be today in 2026, 11 years later.   I know motorcyclists are wary of the cheese cutters. There are all sorts of dreadful stories about decapitations from the wire barriers, but the numbers don't lie. They save far more lives than they take. Even so, you cannot put a barrier down the length of New Zealand. I mean, even if we had the money, would it be advisable to do so? You just have to look at the numbers I suppose and see where the most fatals occur, and put the wire barriers there. And in the meantime, as a road user, you just have to rely on people doing the right thing. You have to rely on them driving roadworthy cars, not driving while they're tired, not driving under the influence of drugs and or alcohol, and paying attention to the conditions. That doesn't seem too much to ask.   But in the meantime, what are your fixes? You know, the police are tearing their hair out and I just feel for the truckies. You more than anyone must see the near misses, must know how bad those figures could really be, were it not for divine providence. What would you like to see as the people most on the road, most at risk of being an unwilling and faultless participant in fatal crashes? I mean, buckling your seatbelt, I thought as a generation we all did. We all grew up where you buckled your seatbelt and you told your parents because they hadn't grown up with that. Everybody knew. The boss was reminding me of the olden, olden days, and I can vaguely remember wh... Fri, 01 May 2026 00:22:05 Z https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-funding-cancer-prevention-is-a-no-brainer/ https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-funding-cancer-prevention-is-a-no-brainer/ You know it's an election year, don't you? You know it's an election year when Winston's fermenting merry mischief, when the leader of the opposition is happy to put himself up for an hour of questions on talkback, and when lobby groups are releasing their election wish lists.  The Cancer Society has released its election manifesto and is calling on the next Government, however it looks, to spend dollars to save them. For example, if you invest $5.5 million a year to deliver a national skin cancer prevention and early detection programme, more than 90% of cases will be prevented – nearly all cases are treatable when detected early. Every dollar invested, according to the Cancer Society, returns $11.90 in savings.   And when you think of friends and family who have been through cancer treatment, you can understand how that would stack up. If you don't have to go through the torturous and expensive and generally lifesaving treatments, you are saving so much. So much of your own energy, so much time, so much money as a result of not getting cancer in the first place or early detection. As Cancer Society Chief Executive Nicola Coom told Mike Hosking this morning, given that cancer's New Zealand's biggest killer, it makes sense to invest in early detection and treatments.  “One in three of us in New Zealand will receive a cancer diagnosis in our lifetime, but what's startling is one in three can also be prevented. So 81 people today around New Zealand are going to hear that they've got cancer. What this manifesto is about is we want those people to either A, not have that news in the first place, or B, be told it's okay, we've detected it early, your prognosis is good.”  So the Cancer Society also wants to see cervical screening fully funded at a cost of $21 million per year and deliver on the 90% HPV immunisation target by 2030. You get that immunisation rate up and that eliminates cervical cancer. Invest the $5.5 million a year to deliver the skin cancer prevention and early detection programme, fund a lung cancer screening programme and begin rolling it out over the next three years, lower the bowel screening starting age to 50 and protect children and families from the commercial drivers of cancer. It all makes sense. If you can spend a dollar to save 11, why would you not? And you can say well the money's not there, but it is. It is there within the health budget. Imagine. Imagine if you didn't have to go through that whole gruelling process of trying to treat a cancer which could have been detected early, which could have been prevented in the first place when you look at the HPV immunisation.  Cancer does not have to be a death sentence anymore. Breast cancer used to be, once you got the news about that, it was basically “set your affairs in order”. But as a result of new treatments, as a result of detection programmes, you no longer see it as a death sentence. 86% of people who are diagnosed with breast cancer survive 10 years or longer now. With skin cancers, if they're detected early, bowel cancer if you have the screening programme and can pick up the polyps that can turn into something life threatening, there is no reason for us to go through the agony of seeing somebody sicken and die.  There will still be some that are just the anomalies of cancer cells being in your body and it's just your DNA and your bad luck and hopefully next life round you have a better run of it. But for many people it's detectable and if you have the early screening, you find it, the treatments are less severe, less harsh, less gruelling, less expensive. No brainer. I'd absolutely back the Cancer Society's election manifesto on that and I'll ask Chris Hipkins about that, but I'd love to hear from those of you who know exactly what this is all about, who've been there, who've done that, who've either had early detection or because of gaps in the system did not have the early detection and had a poorer outco... Thu, 30 Apr 2026 01:28:14 Z https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/chris-hipkins-labour-leader-discusses-election-policy-superannuation-india-fta/ https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/chris-hipkins-labour-leader-discusses-election-policy-superannuation-india-fta/ Labour Leader Chris Hipkins is standing by the decision to wait until after the Budget to announce the party's election policies.   The party has come under fire from the Coalition for its lack of policies so far.   Labour's has revealed plans for a Capital Gains Tax, a Future Fund, and a plan to boost the video game sector rebate from 20% to 25%.   It's promised three free doctors visits a year, a change to GP funding, as well as a Family Doctor Loan Scheme.   Hipkins told Kerre Woodham he doesn't want to make promises that can't be kept, and waiting till the Government sets out the finances is the responsible thing to do.  He’s also signalled he’s open to discussions around potentially means-testing Superannuation.   The party is calling for the Super age to remain at 65, but at the same time, government briefings suggest keeping it the same would result in more spending.   Hipkins told Woodham he doesn't back full means-testing, but there are questions about whether someone working full-time on a six-figure salary should get the pension.  He says a conversation would have to be held in a constructive, bipartisan way.  LISTEN ABOVE   Wed, 29 Apr 2026 21:48:02 Z https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/larry-fallowfield-motor-trade-association-dealer-expert-on-whether-you-have-to-service-your-car-at-a-dealer-to-maintain-your-warranty/ https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/larry-fallowfield-motor-trade-association-dealer-expert-on-whether-you-have-to-service-your-car-at-a-dealer-to-maintain-your-warranty/ Do you have to get your car serviced by the dealer to avoid voiding the warranty?   While you don't necessarily have to, manufacturers require specific equipment and supplies to be used during the servicing process, and using alternatives can impact the warranty. The independent mechanic also has to adhere to the servicing schedule and keep complete documentation.  Motor Trade Association Dealer Expert Larry Fellowfield told Kerre Woodham that while dealerships often cost more than independent mechanics, it comes down to the specific training and equipment they’re required to have.   LISTEN ABOVE   Wed, 29 Apr 2026 01:30:23 Z https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-the-country-we-want-costs-more-than-were-willing-to-pay/ https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-the-country-we-want-costs-more-than-were-willing-to-pay/ The topic of tax has been in the news recently and it will stay in the news. It’s set to become an election issue with one of the few policies that Labour's actually committed to being a Capital Gains Tax – possibly more taxation/revenue measures. Watch the politicians dance on the head of a pin in the lead up to the election. The Fitch report, which looks at New Zealand's ability to pay its bills, said that a Labour Party coalition with the Greens and Te Pāti Māori would emphasise revenue measures as a means of making ends meet. The authors of the report said the National Party-led coalition would focus on expenditure constraint. There's been all sorts of argy bargy and we can go into that a little bit later, but already, even when we start talking about tax and about Labour introducing a Capital Gains Tax and more tax, it's said like it's a bad thing. Like it's a dreadful thing to contemplate more tax.  And yet, how else are we going to pay for the sort of country that we want, that we used to have, that we hear mythical stories about around the fireside from our forebears? Liam Dann has a column in the New Zealand Herald, Inside Economics, and in the column this morning, a correspondent writes that on a tax per capita basis, New Zealand is running materially behind Australia – roughly $13.6 billion annually. Now obviously, Aussies earn more, so their governments are going to take more tax. If you earn more, there's more to take on a percentage basis. But the correspondent writes that even closing a fraction of the tax would meaningfully shift the balance of our books into a positive light and it would change the way we talk about infrastructure and services. Even a tiny bit of that $13.6 billion would make a huge difference.   The correspondent is a blogger and, in his blog, he also writes that one of the reasons why Aussies are prepared to pay more in tax is that they have accepted a basic truth: the country they want costs more to run. And I don't know that we are willing to accept that basic truth. We are still living like some crusty old goat on our former glory. Like the Bruce Springsteen song of 'Glory Days'. We used to be somebody. We used to have a great country. We used to have a country where Jack was as good as his master, where there were no huge extremes between wealth and poverty, where if you worked reasonably hard, if you lived a good life, if you obeyed the rules, you had a great life. You could be assured of a future; your children could be assured of a future. And we're still living on the glory days.  Now obviously not everything that has happened in New Zealand is as a result of what New Zealand has done. We're a global economy now and the winds of change and fortune affect us without our politicians having to do anything at all. But over the years, successive governments have failed to invest in basic infrastructure, and the chickens are coming home to roost – Wellington's Moa Point is a metaphor for the entire country. Our politicians are to blame for a lack of political courage and a lack of political foresight, and we as voters are to blame because as soon as anybody mentions tax, we throw up our aprons and run for the hills. Never! I work hard for my money! I've paid my way, I pay more than enough, have a look at those bludging people on the dole, sort them out first! You can make all the excuses in the world, but are we willing to accept a basic truth that the country we want costs more to run than we're willing to pay.  Wed, 29 Apr 2026 01:01:09 Z https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-the-matter-of-new-zealands-shrinking-working-population/ https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-the-matter-of-new-zealands-shrinking-working-population/ The headline in the Herald read “New Zealand population bombshell” – but is the news really that much of a bombshell? We know we have an ageing population. We know that we're not replacing ourselves with babies. And we know that there's going to be a real crunch when it comes to finding sufficient workers in the next 20 odd years.   According to a report that the Herald quotes from Sir Peter Gluckman and Emeritus Professor Paul Spoonley, their new report People, Place and Prosperity says the colliding trends of a slowing population growth and a reliance on immigration to drive workforce and population growth, an ageing population requiring more public services, and growing ethnic diversity presents both opportunities and challenges. The opportunities include making the most of the skills, innovation, and creativity that such diversity can offer, but this can be undermined by political populism appealing to xenophobic tendencies – looking at you New Zealand First.   We've known for some time now that we're not having enough babies to replace ourselves. In the late 19th century, women settlers had on average seven children, but this rate halved by the early 20th century. Births per women doubled after the Second World War, then dropped in the 1970s. By December 2017, it had fallen to an average of 1.81 live births per woman, below the 2.01 average maintained between 1980 and 2015 and now annual population growth has dropped from 1.7% in 23/24 to 0.7 in 24/25 and it’s projected to remain below 1% in the coming decades.   Emeritus Professor Spoonley said the total fertility rate was at replacement level a decade ago, but last year it was the lowest it's ever been. You can't really blame young couples for not having families of five or six. I mean, what was normal a couple of generations ago seems aberrant now. Student loans, cost of housing, cost of living, an uncertain world. It's hardly surprising that families are restricting, that young couples are restricting their families. But the fact remains that even if AI fills some of the worker shortages, we're still going to need real life people to keep the country going. And if we're not making those people ourselves, then we're going to have to import them. And that's where Professor Spoonley says we have to have a reasonable, sensible discussion about what that will look like.  “Let's have an adult conversation about this. Let's not descend to pointing fingers or making jokes or you know this is a serious issue. So I think we should all be involved and interested in this debate and let's try and keep it up. We're going to need a lot of workers in the future because our population is turning at this point because of declining fertility and ageing. So we're getting people exiting out of the workforce at the top end and we're getting fewer entering the workforce at the bottom end. So immigration becomes super important. I mean you and I rocking up to a hospital today, 40% of our nurses, I don't know what the number is for doctors, are overseas trained.”   Yes, quite. I mean what would we do with a number of the essential services without our migrant workers? So less of the not particularly clever jibes from Shane Jones and a bit more respect for the people who do choose to come here and contribute to our country and our wellbeing. Because remember, other countries are facing the same issue, or the same issues – an ageing workforce, a declining population. So we will be in competition with them for migrant workers.   And it's no good thinking we can bribe or blackmail or entice or lure young women into filling their wombs. That's been tried overseas and it hasn't worked. Poland introduced a zero-income tax law for families with two or more children. Hungary, mothers who have four or more children are exempt from personal income tax. Hungary also offers a state subsidised family housing loan that provides low interest mortgages and partial de... Tue, 28 Apr 2026 00:38:01 Z https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/sir-don-mckinnon-nz-memorial-museum-trust-patron-on-french-museum-honouring-kiwi-soldiers/ https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/sir-don-mckinnon-nz-memorial-museum-trust-patron-on-french-museum-honouring-kiwi-soldiers/ The New Zealand Liberation Museum – Te Arawhata, located in the historic fortress town of Le Quesnoy, France, commemorates one of New Zealand's most daring and successful military feats of World War I. The museum opened on 11 October 2023 to provide a permanent place of remembrance for New Zealand's contributions on the Western Front. Patron of the New Zealand Memorial Museum Trust, Sir Don McKinnon, joined Kerre Woodham to chat about the 'living memorial'.  LISTEN ABOVE  Fri, 24 Apr 2026 03:02:35 Z https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-investing-in-young-kiwis-ability-to-grow-their-wealth-seems-like-a-good-plan/ https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-investing-in-young-kiwis-ability-to-grow-their-wealth-seems-like-a-good-plan/ I like David Seymour's idea of teaching children the basics of money management by giving them $500 each. He floated the idea during a speech at a business event in Christchurch. The way it would work: the roughly 60,000 Year 11 s in this country would be given $500 in a controlled investment account with a structured pathway into real investing, possibly supported by investment platforms Sharesies or Blackbull. In term one, they choose a term deposit, a safe investment, but one that introduces the basic idea of storing capital so it can be used by someone else to produce, earning a return for the investor. In term two, they invest in a managed fund. This introduces the idea of risk. In term three, they invest in New Zealand equities, which introduces the idea of companies, and in term four, they're able to invest in assets from around the world, and all of a sudden, they learn about exchange rates and how much they matter.   The ACT Party Leader said there would be regular tests of students' knowledge, which would establish whether they could progress to riskier investments. He suggested any returns could be placed in a student's KiwiSaver, it could be a credit on their student loan, or be given to them in cash. He proposed the initiative, which would cost about $30 million, could be funded from the roughly $600 million KiwiSaver annual subsidy. He said, well, you might be surprised to see ACT coming up with a policy giving out money. They normally stand on your own two feet and haul yourselves up by your bootstraps, but he argued the benefits would be realised. It's not a handout; it's an investment in young Kiwis to grow their own wealth. I really like it as an idea, and I'm not the only one. Neil Edmond is the CEO and co-founder of MoneyTime, a financial literacy programme for schools, and he was really positive about Seymour's idea when he spoke on the Mike Hosking Breakfast.  “The Ministry of Education has done a great thing by making financial literacy mandatory in schools from next year, and so students from Years 1 to 10 are going to be learning the basics of personal finance and the basics of investing. But then the next logical step is to give them hands-on real life experience, and I think just even with $500 you can learn an awful lot just by having that practical hands-on experience.   “There's a lot of that sort of entrepreneurial type experience where they have the bake stalls and the school fairs and they sell products and things like that. That's a business focused type activity, which is fantastic and it's really good that they do that. But what Seymour's suggesting or proposing is giving them experience around investing, which is a different type of creating wealth. And I think so many kids don't get that sort of opportunity, certainly not early on, and the earlier they start investing, obviously the better off they're going to be later on.”  Well, yes. I think that's quite right. I mean, there are, it's not a completely unheard of idea for schools to do these kinds of programmes. There are schools before who've used their own initiative and kids have invested in share markets either with real money or with pretend money. They each have a share portfolio once they get to the senior level at school and follow the progress of the shares they've chosen throughout the year. And as Neil referred to, they set up businesses and involve themselves in marketing and that sort of thing as well. So it's not a completely off the wall idea. At the moment it is just that, it is not ACT policy yet. It was David Seymour saying, what do you think? We can make it policy, we'll listen to feedback, we'll see what you think.   For those who are thinking, well, I'm on the bones of my bum trying to eke out daily meals from a loaf of bread and a can of baked beans, what's this bloody nonsense about giving kids $500? Well, maybe this sort of education would prevent that kind of poverty in the future.... Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:48:26 Z https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/steve-goodey-property-investment-coach-on-the-tough-decision-facing-investors-sell-or-wait/ https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/steve-goodey-property-investment-coach-on-the-tough-decision-facing-investors-sell-or-wait/ It’s another slow patch for the property market, with some who bought in the post-Covid boom now tossing up their options.   Cotality's latest data shows property sales down 2.4% in March, compared to the same time last year – the third consecutive month to fall.   Property investment coach Steve Goodey says they’re seeing a large number of people struggling with whether to swallow a paper loss or rent out the property.   He told Kerre Woodham when it comes to waiting it out, people don’t necessarily do the numbers and account for how long that may take.  Goodey says someone could be losing $200 a week in cash and be down $200,000 in equity, and recovery may take quite a few years.  LISTEN ABOVE  Thu, 23 Apr 2026 01:54:33 Z https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/damien-oconnor-labours-trade-spokesperson-on-the-party-agreeing-to-support-the-india-free-trade-deal/ https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/damien-oconnor-labours-trade-spokesperson-on-the-party-agreeing-to-support-the-india-free-trade-deal/ Labour's written to the Prime Minister supporting the India Free Trade Deal being signed in New Delhi next week.  National needed their support to pass the deal into law, since it was opposed by coalition partner New Zealand First.  But Chris Hipkins remains concerned about the commitment to promote billions of dollars of investment in India, saying it's not affordable.  Labour’s Trade Spokesperson Damien O’Connor told Kerre Woodham the slow dribble of information was frustrating, but they’ve reached a point where the balance looks good for New Zealand.  He says it does come with risks, but there are huge opportunities as well, and they needed to make sure the Government was going to commit to them.   LISTEN ABOVE  Thu, 23 Apr 2026 01:26:33 Z https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-unacceptable-behaviour-is-unacceptable-behaviour/ https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-unacceptable-behaviour-is-unacceptable-behaviour/ Remember back in February, the Government announced it was proposing to give police officers the power to issue move on orders to deal with, as it's described, disorderly behaviour in public places. What they mean is antisocial homeless people who are startling the horses, putting people off coming into the city, creating all sorts of disgusting messes for business owners to clean up. People who don't comply with the move on orders could be fined up to $2,000 or face three months in prison. Documents proactively released by the Ministry of Justice show that officials estimate up to six people a year could be jailed for noncompliance with the move on orders.  The Labour Party obtained some documents under the Official Information Act, and those documents quoted Treasury saying it didn't support the orders given the benefits of the proposal are not clearly evidenced and implementation will exacerbate justice sector cost pressures. Treasury also questioned the highly uncertain modelling suggesting six people could be jailed per year. Treasury seems to think there will be far more than six.  I don't know why they would think that. You can kill somebody as a drunk driver and not go to prison. You can commit all sorts of heinous crimes and be excused because you had a dreadful upbringing again, having been excused the previous two to three times you appeared before the beak. So I don't know why Treasury suddenly thinks that all of a sudden the judges are going to grow some cojones and send people to prison, because if they're not doing it for people who kill others because of their drunk driving and dangerous driving, they're not going to do it for some poor hapless soul who's got nowhere to go and addiction issues, are they?  Paul Goldsmith, the Justice Minister, said just like the gang legislation, which prompted similar warnings from similar agencies, the Government was confident in its policy. He said police can operationalise this —what an ugly, terrible word, but nonetheless, that's the one he used— in a way that's highly effective. He said the policy was about reclaiming the streets and city centres for the enjoyment of everybody. He reiterated that only people who refuse the orders will face prosecution and said a move on order is not a criminal charge, although refusing to comply with one is.  I have an awful lot of sympathy for retailers, business owners, those who live in the city or the cities around New Zealand having to put up with antisocial behaviour from very odd people. Not everybody is like that. There are a lot of people who are on the street who are lovely, who are perfectly reasonable humans who have had a string of bad luck – there but for the grace of God go you or I. They are not all the same at all.  But having wandered the length of Queen Street at the end of last year, it was a beautiful day, I had to be somewhere, and I thought I'd take the long way and see for myself what the city was like. Yeah, there are real issues to deal with within, certainly within Auckland, Auckland's Queen Street, and no doubt in your main centre as well. There were drunken shirtless men brawling very close to the Louis Vuitton and the Christian Louboutin shops. There were troubled individuals displaying aggressive and frightening behaviour, the yipping, yelping man that jumped out at passersby. He wasn't bad, he was just sad, but you know, it was alarming, and especially if you had the kids with you while you were doing some last minute Christmas shopping. It wasn't conducive to an easy, pleasant experience. And it should have been, it was a beautiful day, you know, there are some lovely historic buildings, there's some nice parks where you can sit. It should have been lovely.  But because of the unpredictable and in some cases aggressive behaviour of a small number of people, it wasn't. And I haven't been back since. But when the inner-city motels were opened to the homeless during Covid... Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:46:51 Z https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/barry-soper-newstalk-zb-senior-political-correspondent-on-the-five-mps-allegedly-involved-in-leaking-party-details-national-leadership-vote/ https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/barry-soper-newstalk-zb-senior-political-correspondent-on-the-five-mps-allegedly-involved-in-leaking-party-details-national-leadership-vote/ The reputations of the five MPs believed to be frustrated with Christopher Luxon’s leadership are suffering.   Luxon passed a vote of confidence at yesterday's lengthy caucus meeting, but MPs aren't revealing details of the vote, including how many of them supported Luxon.  The MPs responsible for leaks to the media are understood to be Joseph Mooney, Andrew Bayly, Sam Uffindell, Barbara Kuriger, and Tim van de Molen.  However, they’re all denying their involvement.  Senior Political Correspondent Barry Soper told Kerre Woodham that there are bound to be disgruntled people in the party, but you have to take people at their word if they deny their involvement.   He says that whoever it is, they’re in politics for the good of the country, not their own good, and it’s a pity a few of them can’t seem to get that into perspective.   LISTEN ABOVE  Wed, 22 Apr 2026 01:37:49 Z https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-put-up-or-shut-up-and-shove-off/ https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-put-up-or-shut-up-and-shove-off/ It was a masterful piece of politicking yesterday from the Prime Minister. The first time I think I've seen him as a politician rather than a CEO. He told his caucus to put up or shut up. He sent a message to the disaffected and the dissatisfied in the party to lay their cards on the table. And when it came down to it, the halt, the lame, and the dispossessed simply didn't have the numbers, the alternative, or the cajónes to make a challenge.  If you're a member or a supporter of National, of course you're not going to like the numbers the polls are delivering. You're not going to like seeing your leader languishing in the doldrums in the preferred Prime Minister poll. But I would venture you would like even less backbenchers fomenting dissent and giving the media a reason to write about the party for all the wrong reasons. Mike named the feckless five yesterday. They claim they had nothing to do with any leaks to the media. They have all pledged their fealty to their leader, Christopher Luxon, and I only hope he made them kiss his ring yesterday to prove their faithfulness and their loyalty. I think, but then I would, wouldn't I, that Christopher Luxon has come out of yesterday's caucus meeting looking stronger than he did last week. He stared them in the eye, said show me what you've got. Not quite enough is it lads and lasses? And off they went.   But what do you do if you're in one of the feckless five's electorates and you're brassed off with them? You might not want to give them your vote, but then if you don't vote for them, it harms the National Party. Do you give your electorate vote to ACT or New Zealand First and your party vote to National? And when you vote for an electorate MP, are you voting for someone who will act in your interests first or in the party's interests? When you look at anybody, I mean these five say they didn't do it. They were named as the ones and when you're talking to the media, the thing is the media know who you are. So it makes it a little difficult. Joseph Mooney, Tim van de Molen, Barbara Kuriger, Andrew Bayly, and Sam Uffindell all say it wasn't me. The old Shaggy song springs to mind. But that's the thing, they say it wasn't them; they've pledged loyalty.  But if you are, and when you look at the previous coups, if you're one of those who jumps on board a coup, who decides that they will put their money on a different horse, you're basically lazy. Because being a backbencher is hard work. There's nothing glamorous about it. It is boring, it is thankless, there are no baubles of office, no perks of the job – it is a hard grind. At least when you get to minister level you get the car, more money, and you get people who kind of respect you and you get to make a difference. You get to make change through the hard work of drafting policy and working with bureaucrats and working with other members of Parliament. But you can actually get things done. As a backbencher you can't. It's really, really boring. So what people who jump ship do is look to leapfrog over other backbenchers because they get rewarded. If they cosy up to somebody who's mounting a challenge, they can expect to get rewarded with a plum job and not have to do the hard graft. So they're lazy as well as feckless.  There are so many people who have benefited from this dissent: Labour, New Zealand First. Although yesterday with his confidence call, I'd argue Christopher Luxon did get some benefit from that. Anybody who is unhappy with the leadership, anybody who is not willing to do the hard graft on the backbenches and get the good jobs through sheer talent and hard work, anybody who is willing to sacrifice the good of the party for personal ambition, anybody who's willing to tell fibs should resign. Put up or shut up and shove off.  Wed, 22 Apr 2026 01:03:26 Z https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/nick-tuffley-asb-chief-economist-on-the-expectation-household-expenses-will-increase-by-55-a-week/ https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/nick-tuffley-asb-chief-economist-on-the-expectation-household-expenses-will-increase-by-55-a-week/ Things are getting tougher for Kiwis.  According to ASB’s estimates, households will see an average of $55 a week added to their living costs this year, thanks to global effects of the conflict in the Middle East.   This compounds the struggle for many, with Stats NZ reporting in 2025 that just over half of renters and nearly 40% of mortgage holders didn’t think their income matched their everyday needs.  ASB’s Chief Economist Nick Tuffley told Kerre Woodham the increase isn’t that much different than previous years, it’s just concentrated in one specific area this year – fuel.   He says that means some people will be able to dodge some of the extra spending by changing their behaviour, whereas in the past it was spread out across multiple areas and much more unavoidable.   LISTEN ABOVE  Tue, 21 Apr 2026 01:31:02 Z https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/liam-dann-nz-herald-business-editor-on-the-consumer-price-index-remaining-at-31/ https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/liam-dann-nz-herald-business-editor-on-the-consumer-price-index-remaining-at-31/ Inflation was higher than it should be, even before factoring in the full impact of the war on Iran.  Stats NZ data shows the inflation rate remained unchanged at 3.1% in the March quarter.  Internationally driven tradeable inflation dipped to 2.5% and the domestically driven non-tradeable rate was unchanged at 3.5%.  The Herald's Liam Dann told Kerre Woodham these figures come before fuel rises really kicked off.  He says it's disappointing we aren't heading into that crisis in a better position.  LISTEN ABOVE  Tue, 21 Apr 2026 01:02:55 Z https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-what-happened-to-common-sense-and-looking-after-yourself/ https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-what-happened-to-common-sense-and-looking-after-yourself/ They're damned if they do and damned if they don't, aren't they? Last week people were castigating MetService for overhyping the incoming storm. And I would argue it wasn't MetService who were overhyping it, it was the media making an absolute meal out of it. Today, people are calling out MetService for not getting enough warning about the life-threatening rain and winds that are slamming Wellington and the Wairarapa district as we speak.  Whatever happened to looking after yourself? Gathering the information, you need and making decisions based on that? We seem to have descended into a national state of learned helplessness. Were we like that before Covid? Were we getting to that level before Covid or has it been exacerbated because of Covid? People with brains, people with rational capability, just sitting there like inert dummies waiting to be told what to do and when to do it. That is no way to live life.  Perhaps it's a rural-city divide. If you are living somewhere where help is not a 111 call away, where you know that if you need help, you're going to have to help yourself and then you're going to have to help your mates. You're not waiting to be told what to do. Last weekend I knew that the storm was coming, you could hardly avoid it if you were listening to the radio or watching the television. So that was helpful. You know, I knew it was coming, I knew what time it was expected to hit the Far North, and I knew the Far North was in the firing line.  So you get prepared. I knew the power would go off, the power goes off all the time, so that means no cooking, no water, so I made sure I had enough drinking water to last a week, that there was gas for the barbecue. I ran the bath the night before the storm was due to land so there was water to flush the loo. The torch had batteries, a good heavy duty powerful torch, waterproof torch, and I had a grab bag in case the stream on the property flooded or there was a landslide, those were the two risks that I identified on the property.  I knew where the nearest community centre was in case I needed help or in case I could give help. And I made sure there were very few perishable foods left in the fridge, don't you worry about that, we did not go hungry. I could have probably, like a camel, lasted a couple of weeks. So, you know, you get prepared. And then I turned off the radio because I didn't need to hear breathless stories on the hour every hour, and again that's not MetService's fault, that's the media hyping it up. And I made the most of the beautiful lovely calm sunny day.  And I knew it wouldn't last. I'd checked the forecast, I knew the weather would change and when I came inside and saw the barometer had absolutely plummeted, I brought in the outdoor furniture, made sure that everything was tied down and nothing could go flying and settled in for the evening. And sure enough at ten that evening the power went off, and I knew it would and I was ready. The power stayed off until the next afternoon. Around about 4pm it came back on and thank you very much to the Northpower team for working in nasty conditions on a Sunday restoring power to the Hokianga.  And I don't have that much common sense. Nobody would ever, if I had to be summed up at my funeral, say, “Well, there was a girl with common sense." I don't have that much of it, and you don't actually need that much to get yourself ready. I don't want to be helpless, and I don't want to be dependent on other people. I was up there on my own so I made sure that I could look after myself to the best of my ability. It takes very little money, very little effort, very little time, and as it turns out, not that much common sense to be prepared.  Am I the last person in the world to use a barometer? I really think every home should have one because if you're not listening to the radio or you're not watching the television news or the cellphone towers go down and you can't look at th... Mon, 20 Apr 2026 23:52:31 Z https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-im-sick-to-death-of-polls/ https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/kerre-woodham-im-sick-to-death-of-polls/ While I was away over Easter and then another week, I was not a slave to the news cycle. I opted out for a while because I figured the insanity would still be here when I came back on duty and I was right. The Straits of Hormuz are still closed, Trump is still threatening to obliterate Iran. New Zealand homes are still being flooded, roads are still being closed in weather events, they're just in different parts of the country. And political commentators are still saying Christopher Luxon is a dead man walking. When he came in for his weekly chat with Mike this morning, the Prime Minister didn't sound as exasperated as I thought he might. I thought he'd be getting so fed up with it. He was very calm and seemed to understand I suppose a bit why the questions were being asked. He said when it came to the dissent within his own party he thought there were about five grumpy backbenchers who were the root cause of all the grumblings, who would lose their jobs if they got their wish and saw him rolled because New Zealand voters in the past have not responded well when sitting Prime Ministers are dumped if you look at David Lange and Geoffrey Palmer and Jim Bolger. New Zealand voters don't like that. So the backbenchers might be the turkeys voting for an early Christmas or an early Thanksgiving depending on which part of the country you're in. When it came to the polls, Christopher Luxon said well which one do you believe? That's the problem. I've seen polls in a given week where I've had one that has us at 36 one that would have us at 30 just a couple months ago. So you can get bounced around by polls and I listen to it to a degree, but at the end of the day the public do not want me fixated on that. We've seen examples in the Australian election where polls were all over the place. So you've got to listen to it because there's some genuinely good feedback in there about what you need to do better, which is good. Perfectly reasonable. I don't think I would have been as reasonable. Must be so frustrating. But look, if some New Zealanders think a Labour Greens Te Pāti Māori coalition would get the Straits of Hormuz open tomorrow and gas prices down, well good luck to them. They probably believe in unicorns and they probably still believe in Santa. And the polls are starting to trigger oppositional defiance in some people I've been talking to. They can work a number of different ways. They can be informative for voters, they can give parties feedback about their performance or perceived performance as Christopher Luxon was saying. But Grant Duncan from the Public Policy Institute at the University of Auckland was writing in The Conversation and they can be unhelpful when framed by media in sensationalist or biased ways. Ya reckon? He says people should be left to make up their own minds about which candidate or party best represents them rather than view an election as a contest narrated in terms of who's up and who's down. And I think people do, I think people do start to look at the polls and go don't tell me what to think or do. He says in the end we should read the polls and the media critically, check for example who's done the survey, who's sponsored it, what the methodology was, and he says remember that they don't predict future outcomes, they're only looking at past trends, they're a snapshot in time of what happened before. He says they can also, you can't even take anything from the polls like oh well with everybody saying Labour Greens and Te Pāti Māori are going to win, which was almost like coughing up a furball but there we go. If you see a poll saying that you might think 'oh well better tick them, I'll go with the winner'. Or you might think 'oh well I better give a tick to the centre right, I'll go for the underdog'. Or you might think it's a foregone conclusion and not vote at all. So, as Grant's saying, you can't even take anything from what voters will do from the polls. If you look at the US presidential e... Sun, 19 Apr 2026 22:46:45 Z https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/andrew-dickens-all-eyes-are-on-christopher-luxon/ https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/andrew-dickens-all-eyes-are-on-christopher-luxon/ The story that has made the front page of the Herald this morning and dominated the conversation was the leadership of Prime Minister Christopher Luxon. He is facing what party insiders describe as “the most difficult fortnight of his leadership”, with growing speculation about his support within National's caucus as Parliament returns next week. Sources say that the whip, Stuart Smith, tried to present Christopher Luxon with evidence that caucus backing for his leadership had weakened. He tried to do that before Easter, but Christopher Luxon did not want to hear this. They did not have the meeting. It's understood those who believe Luxon should step aside might act in the next two weeks, although a formal leadership challenge or confidence vote is still seen as unlikely. Instead, the preferred option amongst critics appears to be having a good old chat with Christopher Luxon with evidence of his diminished support within his caucus, and that might prompt him to resign or step aside and bring about a change of leader. Now, if that doesn't happen, a challenge could follow, but there's no declared challenger at this stage.   All of this is at a critical time. Parliament's back for a short sitting block before recessing again ahead of the Budget. Here comes the Budget. Political analysts say removing a Prime Minister during the Budget period risks destabilising the Government. So it's this next fortnight or not, because after that we're into Budget time and that would be even worse for National.  National Minister Chris Bishop, who has been widely rumoured as a potential contender, was on the radio with Mike Hosking this morning. He came on to talk about the changes to the Warrants of Fitness, but instead he got a little surprise of talk of a coup. Chris Bishop described the situation as “untidy and unhelpful”. He said there's no leadership challenge underway, and he said he will not be the National leader before the election. But the general consensus to that interview was that he was being a little shifty, and he knows a lot more than he was letting on. How could he not know the feeling in the caucus? He's around there the whole time. How could he not know that three guys had actually come to Thomas Coughlan? But he claimed he didn't.  Furthermore, can I just remind you that Chris Bishop is scheduled for an interview with Jack Tame on Q&A on Sunday, so you know this issue is going to continue bubbling away. Behind the scenes, tensions were already evident before Parliament recessed. We reported, everybody reported, that Christopher Luxon faced pressure from within caucus during the final sitting week and he ended up reshuffling the party, hopefully to stabilise it, but look at this, it's still rumbling on. When party whip Stuart Smith got ghosted by Christopher Luxon, he ended up raising all his concerns with deputy leader Nicola Willis instead. We've got a poll out right now and those numbers are adding to the pressure. National is currently sitting well below Labour and another major poll is due next week. So, all eyes are now on the coming days and how Christopher Luxon and his senior colleagues respond.  Fri, 17 Apr 2026 00:27:51 Z https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/andrew-dickens-facial-recognition-the-rise-of-big-brother-or-a-necessary-tool/ https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/andrew-dickens-facial-recognition-the-rise-of-big-brother-or-a-necessary-tool/ Bunnings have begun rolling out facial recognition technology in its New Zealand stores, saying it's needed to protect staff and customers because violent incidents continue to rise, despite the fact we've got tough on crime, and we've had a bit of a crackdown. The first two stores to switch on the facial recognition technology are in Te Rapa and Hamilton South, both in the Waikato, but a nationwide rollout is planned. The company says the technology will help identify serious repeat offenders, it will reduce theft, and they do this after what they say is a sharp increase in threatening behaviour.   Now this whole thing has taken forever for Bunnings. In Australia, Bunnings fought for four years to get permission to do this. There were courts involved, there were tribunals involved, there was a lot of controversy, and a four-year battle. Here, for Bunnings, it's only taken six months because Foodstuffs had already got approval from the Privacy Commissioner, so the hard work was done. But even so, six months for Bunnings to finally roll out a little bit of facial recognition in their stores. They worked hard at it, they've been taking privacy guidance. The Foodstuffs trial last year scanned 225 million faces and they deleted all the images within a minute, but there were concerns at the time about misidentification and bias and the need for strong safeguards, so Bunnings worked away at all of this. They hired a Māori digital sovereignty expert —who knew such a thing existed or was even needed— to make sure cultural considerations are built in. There is bilingual signage for the facial recognition, and if you think you've been wrongly identified as a bad guy, there are clear pathways for you to object to all of this.   But you know, all this kafuffle about getting the permission shows all of us that there are still a load of people in this world who do not like the idea. There's more issues to come, but are you worried about the rise and rise and rise of facial recognition technology? Or do you have no problem with it because it's a tool to fight crime?   Now all of this reminds me of debates I used to listen to on when Leighton Smith used to do this show. And he would do a show and it's all about freedom and liberty, and people would come on and say, “Oh, there's no problem, no problem at all, mate. If you've got nothing to hide, you've got nothing to fear." And Leighton would say, “Yes, but bit by bit, little by little, our personal freedom and liberty is being stripped and replaced by an all-powerful state monitoring our every step and then controlling the way we behave. It's the threat of Big Brother." But the difference now that time has passed, it's not actually the state that's doing all the facial recognition, it's the corporate world.   So it's not the state, it's the corporates, and the corporates seem to want to know every little thing about us. Your phone is monitoring where you are, what you do, what you look at, it's telling you what to think. And I get tired of being told what I should be listening to next by Spotify because they've looked at what I've listened to before and said, “well, this is you," and I go, “well, actually, I'm a broader, wider person than that, and stop bothering me." I'm tired of my car telling me how to drive, “your tyres are a little flat, would you like to check into the service centre?" No, I would not. I don't have the time right now. Would you shut up, car? I'm trying to drive.   Facial recognition technology, do you have any problem with it? And I know you do because look how long it's taken to get approval and how many people have had conniptions about it and had worries about it, and the Privacy Commissioner has spent millions on it just investigating this sort of thing. Is this the rise and rise of Big Brother, or is this necessary as we fight crime?  Thu, 16 Apr 2026 01:05:04 Z https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/andrew-dickens-the-debate-over-the-bendigo-ophir-mine/ https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/opinion/andrew-dickens-the-debate-over-the-bendigo-ophir-mine/ I want to start off with the Bendigo-Ophir mine near Cromwell, and the question is should it get fast track approval? The Australian company Santana Minerals has applied to build four open pits in the Dunstan Range near Cromwell, the largest of which would be one kilometre long and 300 metres deep, and it's alongside a two kilometre long tailings storage dam which would stay there forever.   The company says the project follows the most significant gold discovery in New Zealand for 40 years. There's always been gold there in the Bendigo around Welshtown, but they've found more. The company says it will generate $6 billion in revenue and more than $1 billion in taxes and some royalties, and 357 direct jobs in the Cromwell region. It's up for fast track and the fast-track panel has until October the 29th to make its decision.  Yesterday, it was reported that the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, Mr Simon Upton, has come up with a report to the panel and it's issued a stark warning about the mine. He reckons that if the fast-track panel can't receive independent assurance that the project's environmental risks can be mitigated, he says the application should be declined. Simon's submission to the panel, which was reported by Mike White in The Post yesterday, arrives as the debate intensifies. And we've all heard about Sam Neill, the actor. He gave an interview to the Guardian over the weekend and that's given the whole thing a whole international profile. So it's all on.   So what is Simon really worried about? Simon's primary concerns are water and earthquakes. This proposed tailings storage facility, which I told you is two kilometres long, would hold what he describes as large quantities of potentially hazardous mining residues in the headwaters of one of New Zealand's largest river systems and in an area which is very susceptible to very large earthquakes. He's worried about the seepage into the groundwater, and he noted that Santana Minerals' own experts could not give certain assurances that any leakage could be entirely prevented. And he says the leachate coming out of the tailings facility could continue for decades and even centuries after the mine closes.   Simon was also troubled by all the imprecise language in Santana's application, citing the objective that contamination caused by the operation is appropriately remediated or managed, and he says well that's a bit airy-fairy isn't it? What does appropriately mean in this context? He said that's anyone's guess. He says the risks of acid mine drainage and tailings failures are arguably greater in New Zealand than elsewhere else, given the country's seismic exposure. And he's not wrong, there was a map actually published the other day of all the seismic events around the world and the two most seismically active places in the entire globe is New Zealand and Japan. Little red dots everywhere. We shake an awful lot. And Simon says if what happens if things do not go to plan, that is my concern. And he says we have only one opportunity to get it right and in his opinion, we shouldn't give the Bendigo Ophir mine near Cromwell fast-track approval.  And then of course there's Sam Neill, Sir Sam, we know he doesn't want it. So he gave an interview to the Guardian over the weekend, and he was very careful to come across not as an anti-mining zealot. His quote was “I'm not against mining, I'm just against this mine." Of course he's a winemaker, he's grown Pinot in his two paddocks label in the region for 30 years. His family has been in Central Otago for 150 years. He has global influence because he's a global actor. He's his concern also extends beyond just this mine because he says Santana hold permits over a vast surrounding area and this could set off a chain reaction. He says there'll be mining all around us. He's even made a little documentary on the issue, it's called Into the Dunstan Mountains and you can find that on YouTub... Wed, 15 Apr 2026 01:05:39 Z https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/tamah-alley-central-otago-mayor-on-the-community-division-over-the-proposed-bendigo-ophir-gold-mine/ https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/tamah-alley-central-otago-mayor-on-the-community-division-over-the-proposed-bendigo-ophir-gold-mine/ A community split in Central Otago as the fast-track panel considers a gold-mine proposal from Australian company, Bendigo-Ophir.   Santana Minerals estimates it could extract $4.4 billion of gold from hills above the Clutha River with open pit and underground mining  Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Simon Upton warns it has considerable environmental risk.   Local mayor Tamah Alley told Andrew Dickens people feel strongly.  She says many are pro-mining and want the jobs and money, but others are vehemently opposed.  LISTEN ABOVE  Wed, 15 Apr 2026 00:54:40 Z