Kerre Woodham Mornings Podcast Newstalk ZB

Fieldays is in full flow at Mystery Creek in Hamilton and there’s a bit for farmers to celebrate this week. Or at least sigh with relief over.   

On Tuesday, the Government announced agriculture would not be included in the Emissions Trading Scheme, and the climate change initiative He Waka Eke Noa would be disestablished and replaced with a new initiative, the Pastoral Sector Group.   

And yesterday the Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced an inquiry into banking competition with a focus on rural banking.   

There are three terms of reference for the inquiry which will be undertaken by the Finance and Expenditure and Primary Production Committees and they are to examine:  

1. The state of competition in the banking sector, including business and rural lending  

2. Barriers preventing further competition in the sector, and   

3. Any possible impact of the regulatory environment on competition and efficient access to lending.  

Nicola Willis believes this will benefit us all and assured us on the Mike Hosking Breakfast this will bring about change. 

“Change needs to happen, and change will happen in the banking sector in New Zealand so that New Zealanders are better served. And I know that the banks are powerful but democracy is more powerful, and this inquiry is going to get to the bottom of these issues.” 

But back to the farmers.   

Also on the Mike Hosking Breakfast this morning was ACT MP and former President of Federated Farmers Andrew Hoggard, who explained why farmers are dissatisfied with banks at the moment. 

“There is definitely a mood of dissatisfaction amongst farmers around how the banks are working with them, and I guess the margins in particular have really... The additional margins over house lending has really hit a lot of farmers, particularly with where interest rates are at the moment. So from a lot of people, the main concern they’re telling us is, you know, interest rates are the key thing that’s creating the hurt right now.” 

So we’ve got this massive increase in the cost of interest charges. Last year an on-farm inflation survey by Beef + Lamb New Zealand found interest costs for sheep and beef farmers increased 86.5% in the year to March. According to the survey, this has been driven by floating interest rates which doubled over that time while fixed, and overdraft interest rates increased by about 50%.  

I think we can all understand how stressful and challenging that would be and the flow on effects to towns and communities that rely on the primary sector to keep them afloat.   

There’s also been a change in behaviour from banks. It’s become harder for farmers to access lending as banks are reportedly more risk adverse and restricted under new regulatory rules from the Reserve Bank, and these are issues that hopefully the inquiry will define and present solutions to.   

One of the other issues is around customer service. There is no doubt that being able to have a conversation with a bank representative who understands your business is a must. Having that one-on-one relationship with one person who understands your needs, your community, and where you’re going is vital. But I would argue, you don’t need a branch to have that relationship.  

It might just be a representative in your area, it might be a relationship over Zoom —companies like One New Zealand are working hard to make sure we have 100% coverage around the country— so maybe farmers, like the rest of us, have to move with the times and understand that relationship with your banker might look a bit different.   

So, if you are a farmer, how important is this inquiry and the issues you’re facing regarding banking? Is it an issue across the board? What impact is banking having on your confidence?   

I am crossing my fingers we will see some action out of this inquiry —call me an optimist or naïve— but I think we’d all like to see more competition in

This week is Men’s Health Week, aiming to cull the number of Kiwi men dying from preventable illnesses. 

They encourage men to start with the small steps that can enable them to turn their health issues around. 

On their website they say that ‘living longer, more enjoyable lives takes a little work, but we’re all up for it’. 

Scotty ‘Sumo’ Stevenson is an Ambassador for Men’s Health Week and told Francesca Rudkin that after his wife died of cancer a few years ago, he’s very aware of how important it is for his children to make sure he’s around for as long as he can be. 

He’s also coming from a background in sports broadcasting, and thinks that while we look at athletes as role models, but don’t tend to take the same consideration for our health as they do. 

“We forget that while we might not be competing for Olympic gold medals, we can still do our best every day to get our exercise in and to make sure that if we’re not feeling 100%, then we go and do something about that.” 

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As emails keep hitting the inbox—or the letters hitting the letterbox if you’re still supporting the postal system—telling us of price increases for all sorts of things. From the cost of our energy, to insurance premiums, to our favourite streaming service, we're all still keeping a close on our household budgets and doing what we can to try and keep them under control.   

So, how far do you go to make sure you are paying the best price for petrol? 

For those of us who do not live somewhere with accessible or reliable public transport, or don’t have the guts to put our lives at risk and get on a bike, or can afford an EV, we are at the beck and call of petrol companies and what they can charge us to fill our vehicles.   

Now the Commerce Commission is getting in on the act.   

Their latest analysis of fuel monitoring data shows retailers are quick to put fuel prices up in response to increased costs, but slower to bring prices down when global oil prices fall or exchange rate changes reduce costs.  

It’s known as the rocket and feather approach: prices rocket up with increased costs but float down slowly when those costs decrease.   

They have estimated that if fuel companies drop prices as quickly as they increase them when costs change, motorists would benefit by around $15 million a year.     

Now that is quite considerable and worth keeping an eye on. But what can the Commerce Commission really do about it? There have been some changes already...  

BC: What’s actually changed is that companies like Waitomo and Gull can now more readily get fuel at more reasonable prices. And we’ve seen that, they’ve been much more able to open stations than was the case in the past, and that is driving down prices for Kiwi motorists. So we’ve got evidence that it is working. 

MH: How much does the punter play a part in this? In other words, if I wanted to put a bit of energy into it, get a Gaspy app, shop around, there’s, there’s plenty of competition and there’s plenty of price variability? 

BC: Yep, especially in a place like Auckland. Look, Terry Collins from the AA has been talking about that in the last day or so, he’s absolutely right. If everyone shops at the lowest priced station, the others are going to have to match. 

Now it’s important to note that there is no suggestion of collusion here – or illegal practices, these are large corporates operating in a supply and demand market. There is competition between them – but often the consumer determines as to whether they need to act on that competition. So do you?   

Do you use your GASPY app? Do you make an effort to go to the cheapest local station around? Are you doing your bit to inform the petrol companies that you understand the choice you have? 

I don’t think the Commerce Commission will be able to do much about this—much like the supermarket situation—except say they will be keeping an eye on things. Terry Collins, the AA Principal Policy Advisor, spoke to Heather du Plessis-Allan last night saying it is a warning to the fuel companies. 

TC: I mean, this is a classic shot across the bow by the Commerce Commission, but I’ve been talking to contacts within the industry and they’re very keen because of the optics on it, not least by the media and by the Commerce Commission to ensure that the Auckland Motorists get their full 11.5 cents discount or rebate, the decrease in price, come 1 July. I know one of the large major’s got a big team working on it, trying to get it done by midnight. On that day, it comes into effect across all these stations. 

Of course, the big test of the ComCom warning, and consumers power will be in Auckland when the fuel tax is removed from the 1st of July. Aucklanders will expect their gas to be 11.5 cents cheaper immediately, wouldn’t you? 

The attention from the Commerce Commission is good. It's a reminder to us all to use whatever power we have, but it’s up to

New Zealand’s largest Build to Rent complex opened this morning. 

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Housing Minister Chris Bishop cut the ribbon of Resido, a new development in Auckland’s Mount Wellington. 

Bishop said that there is no silver bullet to solving New Zealand’s housing crisis, and so they need to take every option available to them, Build to Rent being one such option. 

The new units are located next to Sylvia Park, with rents starting at $845 a week for a two bed, two bath. 

Kiwi Property CEO Clive MacKenzie told Kerre Woodham that they want people to settle down roots and call the units home, offering long-term leases and the ability to customise their space and bring their pets. 

He said that the prices are slightly higher, but the services, amenities, and security included in for tenants matches up. 

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Ram raids are down more than 80% for the month of April, compared to last year. Police have identified 12 ram raids in April 2024, compared to 64 in April 2023. Sixty-four! That wasn't even the highest. There was a peak in August 2022 when there were 86 ram raids. There was a total of 433 ram raids in 2022, 288 in 2023, and 67 in the first four months of this year.  

To what can we attribute the drop in ram raids? It would be nice to think that the tougher measures, The Ram Raid Offending and Related Measures Amendment Bill passing its first reading would have contributed. This bill will add smash and grabs to the Crimes Act and give police the power to prosecute ram raiders as young as 12 years old. And who do you think proposed that? It was Labour. They had seen the writing on the wall by that stage. You know the number of ram raids were just beyond the pale and people were absolutely fed up with what looked like inaction on the part of the Labour government, so they were the ones who introduced The Ram Raid Offending and Related Measures Amendment Bill and it passed its first reading with support from National and ACT, the Greens and Te Pati Māori opposed it (In a stunning narrative twist you probably picked that up?).  

Or it could be the Kotahi te Whakaaro Programme. You might remember that when we interviewed the police officer involved with that, John Campbell also highlighted that it was a multi-agency approach, a wraparound approach to dealing with young ram raiders. Because these kids are young, and as soon as they got the first report, then they would get the schools involved, the families involved. It was so multi agency and seemed to be working and we had high hopes. I'm pretty sure it got continued funding because it was showing positive results in terms of young people not reoffending after completing the programme. So it could be that.  

Or it could just be that ram raids have gone out of fashion. You know, there have been enough of them on TikTok, enough of them on social media, and now they're just not cool. Word on the street, they're not cool anymore. I don't know.  

Presumably, there was an end purpose to the ram raids, with the jewellery being targeted. There was conjecture that perhaps the gangs were looking for gold as a way of buy, sell, and exchange - that they would take the jewellery, melt it down, and use it as currency. That was just conjecture. I don't know, but I am just jolly glad that the number of ram raids have gone down because the reduction in ram raids is a reduction in trauma. It's a reduction in upset. It's a reduction in financial loss and the expense of policing these wee oiks. Kotahi te Whakaaro was not cheap, but if it was working, all well and good.  

I don't know about you, I have noticed fewer gang patches on the street, less obvious swaggering, but that is only anecdotal. I would love to hear from you as to what your anecdotal experience is. Is the message that's been sent, and you would have to say it started with Labour when it went to The Ram Raid Offending and Related Measures Amendment Bill, they were the ones that introduced it because they knew the public had had enough. Is the general message of ‘up with this we will not put’, made so loud and so clear that the gangs have had to pull back a bit from the obvious swaggering, from the we own the streets, we own the stores, we'll do what we like. Or is it just a change in business in inverted commas, direction from them? Or is it simply that ram raids have gone out of fashion? If only murdering babies would go out of fashion.   
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Questions have been raised after the death of a baby boy in Te Kuiti.  

A homicide investigation's been launched after the 10-month-old couldn't be revived on Saturday afternoon. 

His injuries are thought NOT to be accidental and Oranga Tamariki's assisting Police. 

The father is insisting that he’s done nothing wrong, saying that he was trying to save his baby’s life, not take it. 

The investigation has sparked a question as to how difficult it is to make an arrest and convict someone when a child is killed. 

Neil Hallett, Private investigator with Helix Investigations told Kerre Woodham that one of the main challenges stems from the deaths occurring in private settings. 

He said that when you have a homicide in a public setting you have outside witnesses who will come forward, but in private settings where everyone knows each other, a cone of silence comes down. 

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