Kerre Woodham Mornings Podcast

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Join Kerre Woodham one of New Zealand’s best loved personalities as she dishes up a bold, sharp and energetic show Monday to Friday 9am-12md on Newstalk ZB. News, opinion, analysis, lifestyle and entertainment – we’ve got your morning listening covered.

  1. 4h ago

    John Armstrong: General Practitioner on GPs being overwhelmed due to a lack of doctors and influx of patients

    General practices around New Zealand are still overwhelmed, thanks to a shortage of doctors and a influx of patients.  Dr John Armstrong returned to general medicine after seven years of retirement as the practice, taken over by his daughter, was overwhelmed with demand.  With more than 6,500 patients on the books, the wait time for a routine GP visit was around four months.  Armstrong told Kerre Woodham GPs up and down the country are doing 15-20 minute consultations, but it's difficult when you have so many patients to deal with the multitude of problems people come in with.. He says if people are on a waitlist for three or four months, they often come in with a list of issues. LISTEN ABOVE  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  2. 5h ago

    Kerre Woodham: How could you have someone like Michael Laws in politics?

    Michael Laws. It should come as absolutely no surprise that he has shown his colours, he's shown them time and time again. When Winston Peters was in studio with me when we were doing the leaders discussions and you were phoning in and asking questions of the leaders, I thought I'd said it to him on air, but I must have said in a commercial break after I'd talked about the sort of calibre of the candidates and I said to Winston, "Michael Laws, what on earth are you doing with him?" Winston looked a bit surprised and said, "No, he's very intelligent. What's wrong with Michael? Very intelligent." I said, "He's awful, he's. No, I don't think he's going to be an asset to you. Oh, no, no." And the thing about Winston is he is very loyal, he and Michael Laws go way back, but I could not understand the rationale. Are there not enough candidates of sufficient calibre wanting to stand for New Zealand First? Why on earth would you bring Michael Laws back into the fold unless you were myopically loyal to somebody with whom you'd had a long-standing professional relationship?   And what do you know? Just a few short days later, he's proving a problem for New Zealand First and a distraction, a major distraction. I know we live in a world where you can have a US president who boasts about grabbing women by the p***y, but still, that's the US. We don't have to follow suit. Winston Peters told Ryan Bridge this morning that they haven't had time as a party to decide what they're going to do about Laws, they'll deal with that after the election.  WP: It's careless, it's not thinking the issues through and thinking out loud is a silly way to behave, especially if you're a candidate for a party in an election. And it's all of those things and worse. So we've just made it very clear to Michael how we feel about it. The party's brassed off, the women in the party are very annoyed because they've done so much work to get this party where it is.  RB: After Stuart Nash?  WP: Well, you know, Stuart Nash was never. When he made the comments he wasn't an approved candidate, so it was not difficult to deal with.  RB: Right.  WP: I'm going to make sure that the party's fully aware of all the circumstances of this and the moment this election's over, but we are flat out with two days to go in a campaign. Is it a serious difficulty or is it a handicap in what we're trying to do? Of course it is. It's all of those things and we are brassed off the beat the band, make no bones about it.  I'm glad he didn't try and minimise it because the dichotomy is that you have Winston Peters as leader of the party and whatever criticisms I have of Winston, he is a chivalrous man. I do not believe for a second he would make the sort of comment that Michael Laws did or the previous candidate Stuart Nash has made about women, not even in private, he wouldn't even think those thoughts. And yet his party attracts men who seem to have extremely odd views of women. Michael Laws' sexualising of women in the Opportunity Party, which was gross, comes on top of Stuart Nash's comments about his former opponent in Napier taking parental leave and also his crude definition of a woman, let's not forget that. And Ron Mark's linking the sinking of the Manawanui, which was captained by a woman, to the appalling diversity in the New Zealand Defence Force.  Thomas Coughlan has written an excellent piece in the Herald this morning and as he says, this shouldn't rattle what people think of New Zealand First. It has always been scandal prone and like the lost boys without Wendy, has always been a home for candidates, often male, who have a habit of saying outrageous, often offensive things. Lost boys without Wendy, excellent line. But it's true. I mean, here you've got and that's what the dichotomy is, that's what's so dichotomous. You've got Winston Peters, who is a gentleman. You can, and I have, fulminate against all sorts of things that he does, but he's never crude. I don't believe for a second he thinks women are just sex bits or lazy cows for taking parental leave or whatever, and yet this is what the party attracts. And he is going to have to deal with Michael Laws after the election because these are the comments from the party leaders. Christopher Luxon: "He will not be a minister in my government," referring to Michael Laws. Chlöe Swarbrick: "It's just gross." Yes, it is. "He's from another era, he should go back to Noah and the Ark," Nicola Willis. Barbara Edmonds said, "Women have a place in politics, we have a place in leadership. The fact that we have three finance spokespeople who are wāhine shows that women have a place here. We should be respected as opposed to being talked down to." And Qiulae Wong, "He makes my skin crawl," which sums it up beautifully.   But still, I have never voted for New Zealand First and I can't imagine doing so. Stranger things have happened and hopefully I've got a few elections left in me, but I've never voted New Zealand First, so what I think doesn't really matter. It's not going to affect my vote and it's certainly not going to affect my opinion of Laws because it's pretty much what I thought of him before he made the comments, he's done it before, he'll undoubtedly do it again. But it makes me wonder, is there a place in politics for this sort of party? Are there people who yearn for the days where women were just two t**s and a p***y? Is there a cohort of people who think that? Maybe so. I don't know any of them, it doesn't mean they don't exist. I mean, how could you possibly have somebody like that in politics? It is going to be a problem for New Zealand First the way I see it, but as I say, never voted for them and it's not going to change my vote. Will it change yours? If you're a New Zealand First supporter, do you scratch your head about the candidate selection? And if you are leaning towards New Zealand First, does this change your opinion whatsoever or do you still think it's basically a Winston Peters party, you love Winston, he would never say anything like that, so therefore your vote goes to Winston? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  3. 1d ago

    Ngaio Neumegen: Rewiring Aotearoa Policy Spokesperson on their push for politicians to adopt an EV Salary Boost scheme

    Politicians are being urged to adopt stronger electric vehicle incentives ahead of the election.  Climate and energy advocacy group Rewiring Aotearoa is arguing that EVs are one of the most effective long-term solutions for rising transport and energy costs.  They're promoting an EV Salary Boost proposal, which would allow workers to access EVs through pre-tax salary arrangements – similarly to already existing schemes in the UK and Australia.  Policy and Government Relations Spokesperson Ngaio Neumegen told Kerre Woodham that even with the rising cost of power, it's still cheaper to run an EV than a car running on imported fuel.  LISTEN ABOVE  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  4. 1d ago

    Kerre Woodham: Are electric vehicles on the up again?

    It looks like EVs are having a hot girl summer. They first had their time to shine when the previous Labour Government brought in subsidies for New Zealanders to buy EVs. In July 2021, the very first month that the rebate scheme kicked in, overall EV sales increased by more than 200% depending on the specific brand and model. Pure electric and hybrid light vehicle new regos nearly quadrupled to 1,944 units in July '21, compared to just 521 the previous month. Look what happens when you give people free money – they use it. At the peak of the subsidy scheme, battery powered EV market share rose from less than 4% of new light vehicle registrations in January 2022 —so less than 4%— to just over 20% by December 2022. It was big.   Conversely, when the National-led Coalition Government axed the clean car discount at the end of December '23, or to put it another way, asked the purchasers of cars to pay for them themselves rather than expecting a subsidy from the taxpayer, new EV sales sharply dropped from 20% of market share to less than 10%. Now though, we're seeing another surge in popularity of EVs, this time driven by buyers, not by free money, given the high price of fuel. EV regos rose sharply last month, up 174.1% on this time last year.  Now Rewiring New Zealand wants to see either of the Chrisses, Luxon or Hipkins, offer an EV salary boost policy based on similar schemes in the UK and Australia. Rewiring NZ said petrol is the largest upward contributor to the inflation rate, and when we're looking at ways of easing the cost of living on households, EVs is one of the biggest ways to go. If you're not paying for petrol, then that's $150-odd in your pocket straight away. The EV salary boost is a policy that would let employees lease a new or used electric vehicle using pretax salary deductions, similar to Australia's scheme.  Lease costs, the vehicle, the insurance, and maintenance are deducted from an employee's gross before tax pay, so that lowers their taxable income.   Rewiring Aotearoa, who's putting a very positive spin on it, says workers could save an average of $36 a week compared to a standard car loan, and then there's the petrol, and second hand market supply would improve because after the three to five year lease ends, the vehicles enter the second hand market and that makes it more affordable for other motorists who might not be eligible for the employee lease scheme. Do we have to pay for it? Yes, we do. Yes, we do. Proponents estimate the income tax reduction costs the Government roughly $5,000 per vehicle.  But you know when politicians, and Chris Hipkins was specifically asked this when he was on with me between, they're asked how are you going to ease the cost of living? How are you going to make life easier for households who have to pay rates and insurance and mortgages or rents and food and petrol? Well, says Rewiring Aotearoa, Rewiring New Zealand, here's a way you could do it almost immediately. Reduce the upward pressure on inflation and ease the cost of buying petrol and the maintenance and the like on employees. Doesn't cover the self-employed and the small businesses, but then I guess you can claim back vehicle costs when you submit your tax forms at the end of the year, tax returns at the end of the year.    What do you think of it as an idea? This was a question that was asked of Chris Hipkins: how? How will you ease the cost of living for your average household? He said public transport, capping public transport fares. What else did he say? I think that was it. Capping public transport fares. Rates were too hard, insurance was too hard, food was too hard. So this is a way of doing it. For those who took advantage of the Government's, the previous Labour Government's clean cars discount, you must be laughing all the way to your electric charge in the middle of town. How many of you have decided to go the EV way? You were on the fence, but then the price of fuel went astronomically high, and you thought to yourself, no, now's the time to do it.   Is there more choice and more range? Just looking at the different utes and work vehicles available, more and more of them seem to be coming onto the market as hybrids or EVs. But then you also look at Ford, who's reporting billions of dollars in losses in their EV division. Many of them have shelved plans to make workhorses that operate on electric motors. Is there more range for you to have a look at when it comes to finding a workhorse for your business? And would this be something you'd be interested in? If your boss says to you, all right, well you won't get as much money in your pocket, but you will get brand new EV for the term of your employment.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  5. 1d ago

    Brad Olsen: Infometrics Principal Economist on the unemployment rate rising to 5.7% in the September quarter

    Elections at home and abroad may have a played a part in the latest rise in the number of people out of work.  Unemployment's hit 5.7%, up from 5.6% three months ago.  The unexpected rise has coincided with an increase in casual and fixed-term roles, and a move towards more part-time employment.  Infometrics Principal Economist Brad Olsen told Kerre Woodham businesses appear to be holding off on making decisions.  He says they want to see both what happens in our election, but also how the mid-terms affects the war in Iran and global fuel prices.  LISTEN ABOVE  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  6. 2d ago

    Kerre Woodham: If we have a cure for a problem, why wouldn't we invest in it?

    I know that there are people who think that being fat is indicative of moral weakness. You're a slave to the pleasures of the flesh if you're fat. You can't control your appetite. No self-control. Being greedy is an unattractive trait, in fact gluttony is right up there in the list of the seven deadly sins, all of which I seem to commit on the daily. And sure, if back in the day food was scarce, if you had to grow or gather your dinner, it was a precarious business. It was difficult to store food in times of plenty, hard to find food in winter, during famine, during difficult times. So anyone whose belly hung over their belt would have been looked at askance. You wouldn't have trusted him, or her for that matter. But times have changed and now we all have enough, at least in this country.   But some of us don't stop when we reach enough. And because we're a little more sophisticated than we were in the 18th century, we know now that it's not a sign of moral weakness, moral corruption, but merely different bodies processing food differently and the brain playing a bigger part than the stomach when it comes to obesity. It makes sense surely to treat obesity differently. Rather than castigating people for their lack of self-control or for their poor decisions, you look at the brain and work on that.   Obesity related illnesses cost us a fortune as a country. The direct costs are $2 billion a year, the indirect costs are around 7 billion a year. Surely if there's a way to keep people out of hospital, out of the healthcare system, we take it. Pharmac certainly thinks so. Pharmac's cardiovascular experts have recommended funding a weight loss drug for people with cardiovascular disease and a BMI of 27 or more as a high priority. Fat jabs are already used widely in New Zealand, but they're unfunded, meaning that patients have to cover the cost.   In May, Pharmac added Wegovy, one of the fat jabs, to its list of medicine suitable for future funding specifically for weight loss, but this too remained unfunded. The most recent recommendation, which comes from the cardiovascular team, is a high level provisional outcome, so it doesn't reveal the reasons behind the recommendation, which are surely obvious to even those of us who haven't done six years at med school. And we're not certain how many New Zealanders would qualify for treatment if the drug was funded specifically for cardiovascular disease.   According to Health New Zealand, about a third of New Zealanders over 15 were considered obese, giving New Zealand one of the highest adult obesity rates in the OECD. Cardiovascular disease is responsible for almost one in three deaths in New Zealand, and maintaining a healthy weight helps you manage cardiovascular risk. So we have a problem on the one hand, we have a way to solve it on the other hand. Why don't we get over the pursed lips and the moral judgment of 1762 and accept that the cost benefit ratio of funding Wegovy or something similar would save lives and save the country billions. It's a no brainer, isn't it?   I would love to hear from you on this one. We've heard from people who have taken Wegovy before or the other fat jabs, whatever they are. It helps with the weight loss, it helps with appetite, it helps with nail biting, compulsive shopping, drinking, smoking. I've heard that from all of you, or not from all of you, from those of you who rang in talking about taking the jabs. Doesn't just help you with the weight loss, it helps with all sorts of things.  If we have a problem and we have a cure for the majority of people who take it, doesn't it make sense to invest in it and stop spending billions and billions of unnecessary dollars?  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  7. 2d ago

    Chris Hipkins: Labour Leader takes talkback, discusses tax, coalitions, voters, campaigning

    The Labour leader's promising other parties' tax proposals are off the table under his watch – even if the Greens get a good chunk of the seats in Parliament.  The Green Party's campaigning on new taxes and increases to the corporate tax rate, as well as taxes on earnings above $160,000.  Labour's pledging what it calls a simple, targeted capital gains tax.  Leader Chris Hipkins told Kerre Woodham the Greens will not force him to do things he's promised are not happening.  He says they can continue to make their case, but says Labour will not betray its voters.  Hipkins is expecting a high turnout this election if the early voting momentum's maintained.   But the Labour leader says it's unfortunate 260 thousand people aren't on the roll to vote.   He says many of these people are young and may have only started tuning into the election in the past week, but now it's too late.   Hipkins told Woodham we need a robust electoral process, but the main issue we encounter is people voting more than once, quite often older people who might not realise.   He says there's a human element – it's not an intention to defraud the voting system, it's just what happens.  LISTEN ABOVE  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  8. 3d ago

    Kerre Woodham: This campaign has been a head-scratcher

    This time next week we'll have voted. The preliminary results will be in, discussions will be underway to form a government. Thank heavens. Seems like a very long haul this particular election, but I have to remind myself that we are so very lucky to have the luxury of getting bored during an election campaign. Mexico, Colombia, the Philippines, Serbia, they're countries that would love the unimaginable luxury of peaceful campaign meetings and walkabouts in public and election days where you can just walk up, cast your vote, and come home to family members that might have voted differently from you, doesn't matter.  Christopher Luxon was on with Mike this morning for a couple of hours – that concludes the Leaders Breakfasts. I have Chris Hipkins on tomorrow between 10 and 11, taking your questions and that will conclude the Leaders Hour for me, and then it's just a matter of counting down to Saturday. Some of you may have voted already. I do like to cast my vote on the day because I recognise what a privilege it is to vote and the actual casting of the vote feels really special.  There's been some argy bargy about the timing of the election. With the election date being November 7th, that meant advance voting opened on Labour Day, a public holiday, and in a letter to the Prime Minister, the Chief Electoral Officer back in August of '25 warned that school and public holidays could see large numbers of voters away from home, potentially reducing voter turnout. "Our practice has been to advise on avoiding an election date during those times." But the actual election date isn't on a public holiday, it was just the advance voting opened on a public holiday. Surely people can sort it out. They can wait, they don't have to vote on the very first day. I think the Guy Fawkes night and fireworks and things like that was also a concern.  But there's been a bit of snarkiness about having to register to vote early with extreme claims of voter suppression and locking young people out of the of the election, which to me is just absolute nonsense. The ability to rock up on the day has been removed and I actually think that's a good thing. Maybe it will make people take their vote more seriously, encourage people to think about the responsibilities around voting along with exercising their right to vote. I wasn't so very concerned about that.  But where I do scratch my head when it comes to National and the coalition government is why you would introduce benefit changes involving young people with just six days to go before the final day to cast your vote. I very much doubt that 18 and 19 year olds on Jobseeker would be National voters or ACT voters or New Zealand First voters, but making it harder for them and their parents to get any kind of support at a time when youth unemployment is extremely high seems somewhat ill advised, if I can put it mildly. Why couldn't they have introduced benefit changes on April 1st, which is when most benefit changes take place and long after any kind of election?  18 and 19 year olds now need to do a parental assistance test before they receive Jobseeker support. Payments will be blocked for young people whose parents earn more than $67,000. It seems somewhat punitive at a time of high youth unemployment, as I say. But yeah, it could make undecided voters look at that and think, well that's a bit mean, it's a bit unreasonable. $67,000 is not a lot of money in this day and age. It's very, very hard to find jobs at all, but especially for young people.  This whole campaign seems to have been somewhat disorganized, honestly. I'll put up my hand for campaign manager of National and Labour next time, see who takes me, because they could have done a whole lot better. I'd love to get your thoughts on the actual campaigns that have been run by the parties and also on the 18 and 19 year olds being dependent on their parents if the parents earn more than $67,000. Sure, I was off and away at 18, I didn't need parental support from then on in, but they were vastly different times. I think it was even you, Producer Helen, you leeched off your gorgeous family for a bit longer, didn't you?   But no, I was off and away and a lot of us were. Some people were even married. Well, you didn't really go to university, it was polytech, but nonetheless, a lot of kids need to stay at home in this day and age. It just it just seems unnecessarily punitive at this particular point in time and why you'd introduce the benefit change with six days to go before voting day seems insane. Anyway, love to hear your thoughts on this. Have you voted? Do you have a problem with having to enrol and register early to vote? Do you see it as denying people their right to vote if they can't rock up on the day? I just see it as taking it seriously basically. And why would you introduce the benefit changes with a week to go before voting? Nuts.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Join Kerre Woodham one of New Zealand’s best loved personalities as she dishes up a bold, sharp and energetic show Monday to Friday 9am-12md on Newstalk ZB. News, opinion, analysis, lifestyle and entertainment – we’ve got your morning listening covered.

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