Episodios
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New Zealand’s health and safety performance seems to be dire still.
In 2013, an independent taskforce identified three key failures in the country’s health and safety system in the wake of the Pike River tragedy.
Eleven years later, Newsroom reveals that despite knowing these faults, not much has changed.
Legislation continues to be poorly implemented with insufficient follow through, the primary regulator is still under resourced, and there is still poor coordination across the agencies tasked with injury prevention, they said.
Mike Cosman, Chair of the New Zealand Institute of Safety Management, told Kerre Woodham that he was part of that taskforce, and sadly only about half the job was done.
He said that whilst other countries we would normally compare ourselves to —Australia, the UK, Europe— have continued to improve, our performance has staggered along.
It’s not getting worse, Cosman said, but it’s certainly not getting better at the speed that you would hope.
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Gerry Brownlee, the Speaker, wants to boost security for politicians while they're out and about in the community before something goes very wrong. Something has gone pretty wrong in that Green MP James Shaw was assaulted in the street as he walked to work. You'd have to say that was a pretty nasty episode. Gerry Brownlee is considering giving Parliament’s security guards powers to arrest and detain, and to be able to coordinate more with the police diplomatic protection service, which usually looks after the Prime Minister and Prime Minister only.
His comments came at a Select Committee on the budget for parliamentary service and Labour's Rachel Boyack asked about the security of MPs, saying when MPs were out in public they didn't necessarily know where they might face risks, and that security was often reactive rather than proactive. The issue of security for MPs has been percolating for quite some time. Back in April, a report was released by Frontiers in Psychiatry and it revealed that more MPs are reducing their public outings. They fear being home alone, they change their routines regularly, and they lose time from work as a result of abuse and harassment. The research surveyed 54 MPs in 2022 and it had found threats had increased and were of a more disturbing nature when compared to a similar study done in 2014. The intensity of abuse increased hugely during the heights of the Covid-19 pandemic (you can imagine that, given how heightened everything was), and it simply hadn't fallen away after Covid-19, which is a bit alarming.
The author of the report said disturbingly, women were at a significantly higher risk of certain types of social media harassment, including gendered abuse, sexualised comments, threats of sexual violence, and threats towards their family. Who finds that surprising, though? Whenever anybody abuses women, even if you're out and about somewhere where the drink is flowing at a festival or at the pub or anywhere, the way women are abused is completely different to the way men are abused. It's how they look. It's who they may or may not have bonked. It's whether they'd be likely to be up for it. This is nothing new. This has not come about since Covid. Women have always been abused and it's always been around sexual violence and how they look, and their family.
Of the 54 MPs who participated, 98% of them said they'd experienced harassment, ranging from disturbing communication to physical violence. Nearly half of the women were fearful for their safety at home, compared to just 5% of men. And as I say, I can well believe the misogyny. You should have seen the texts that came in when Jacinda Ardern was on the radio. I didn't mind criticising her and for the decisions she made when she was in power, it had nothing to do with the way she looked or because she was a woman or because of the relationship she had. The abuse that her child got was simply unforgivable. Mercifully not on this text machine, because that would make me question humanity, it was more on the deep net, but I mean sick.
I've had death threats. I've had stalkers, I've had abuse. More recently, social media campaigns, and while 99.9% of the time, it really doesn't bother me, occasionally you do get wobbly, not for yourself, but for your family. You don't want them subject to that sort of vileness just because of your job. For me, I don't think they're necessarily genuine threats. People get angry, people get upset, people feel you're misrepresenting them, or you're a figurehead for a cruel, cruel world that doesn't understand them. And I get that people feel really, really angry sometimes at the world, and you as a mouthpiece are a symbol for all that’s wrong with that world. And I kind of understand it. Do I think I need extra security? No, I don't. I'm willing to go out in public, interact with people, chat to people and absolutely have faith that even if people don't like you, they won't necessarily come up and scream abuse at you or assault you in public. And I think it's the same with the MPs.
But there are plenty of people who do need protection, and those are the people who are working in retail, who get abused on a daily basis. People working in jewellery stores. There are people who are in relationships, they try and end them - they are at very real risk of coming to harm. Genuine risk.
So, do politicians need protection more than any other group in the community? I wouldn't have thought so. There's been the horrible attack on James Shaw, there's been all sorts of online abuse and what have you, but it's the people in the supermarkets, the people in the retail stores that are targeted by thugs, I would have thought they needed the beefed up security guards, not privileging MPs over the shop workers. And if we're going to be able to give extra powers to security guards to protect our parliamentarians, then why can't we get security guards with beefed up powers to protect our retail workers? Their threat isn't imagined, isn't perceived, isn't just around the corner. There are retail workers going to work today who will be physically attacked somewhere around the country. The threat is real for them. So why can't they get security guards with beefed up powers?
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Boosting Parliament security is a work in progress.
MPs have shared experiences of threats and intimidation, and some say the Parliament protests were a catalyst for greater concerns.
The Speaker's looking into the possibility of giving Parliament security guards arrest powers.
Security Association Chief Executive Gary Morrison told Kerre Woodham that having Police support is key.
He said that security guards act as a visible deterrent and can keep situations safe.
Morrison says there's not support across the board for letting security guards detain people, as that requires appropriate training which comes at a cost.
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Let's start with the announcement yesterday from Chris Bishop allowing people to build small granny flats without requiring consent. It's followed through, the coalition government, on its promise to cut red tape around the resource consent process. The announcement was made yesterday, and they said it will be easier for people to put a granny flat in their backyard without having to go through the hoohah of a costly consent process.
Housing Minister Chris Bishop said there are already some councils in the country that allow for that but there's a lack of consistency, so some councils do, some don't. Thus, the proposal for a national environmental standard which would apply nationwide, and which could come into force more quickly.
Winston Peters said yesterday that unlocking the space in the backyards of families will open the door to a new way of living. Oldies, you might want to bring them closer to you if they're no longer able to live in their own home, but not ready for a rest home, a granny flat out the back would be perfect. University aged kids who want a little bit of independence but don't want to move away from home. You know the drill.
However, New Zealand Certified Builders CEO Malcolm Fleming, who spoke to Early Edition this morning, sounded a note of caution. He says removing consents does take away safeguards.
“What it also boils down to is whether a homeowner wishes to save the cost of a building consent, which MBIE is indicating their documents sits between $2000 and $5000 range on a $ 350K build, while also removing the ongoing safeguard of having the council share responsibility when build failures may arise in the future, and some homeowners may see as a viable trade off, others may not.”
Yes, Malcolm, sure, I would love to know when any council ever around the country has said, oh my goodness, my bad. We shouldn't have given that consent here. Let us fix it at no cost to you. We'll do it immediately. The safeguards he's talking about, what exactly are they? When you’ve applied for resource consent, do they say no no no, don't do that, you're going to be in a world of trouble. Or do they give you the consent and then when things go pear shaped, they say sorry, we shouldn't have given it to you, we'll repair it. I can't really see how that has safeguarded many builders in the past. I'd love to know if that is if that is the case.
I've never tried to build anything, for very good reason. Anytime I've done renovations on the house we went through our project manager and builders, and it worked a treat, there were no problems whatsoever. So I can see it working for our family later down the track though as the little ones grow into teenagers. I can imagine them colonising my downstairs and Nana being booted out of the two-story apartment I’m in and plonked into a wee granny flat out on the back section. But can you see it working for you?
And I'm really interested because there's been a bit of pushback through texts, through emails from people saying that consent process is necessary. I wouldn't have thought it was for a small dwelling out the back. I thought this was the very thing that people were railing against; the nanny state interfering. But a number of people are saying no, it really does provide a valuable safeguard, so I would very much like to hear from those who know far more than I do about this.
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Labour's leader continues to call the Government tax cuts poorly timed.
The Government's pouring $14.7 billion into it and giving landlords a $3 billion boost.
The tax changes kick in late July against advice from officials who recommend waiting until October.
Chris Hipkins says 12 billion dollars has been borrowed to fund the cuts.
He told Kerre Woodham that he agrees tax brackets need adjusting, but you have to carefully choose when it's done.
Hipkins says this is the worst time to do it, with inflation high and Government revenue declining because of the economic downturn.
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You do not have to go back very far to find a news story about a New Zealand Prime Minister having his or her trip disrupted by a shonky 757.
The Prime Minister's trip to Japan, with an accompanying trade delegation, was disrupted over the weekend after the Air Force 757 broke down, again. And it was this time last year, to within a week, that the plane ferrying Chris Hipkins to China set off on its flight with a backup plane flying in reserve, in case the first one broke down.
Remember that? ACT leader David Seymour said, at the time, the extra emissions were the equivalent of driving a Ford Ranger the distance of a trip to the moon three times. I don't know if that's accurate, might have been hyperbole, but knowing David Seymour, he would have crunched the numbers and done the sums.
But it was literally this time last year that Chris Hipkins set off to China with a backup plane. Which was needed. Former prime ministers Dame Jacinda Ardern, Sir John Key - they've also become stuck when they were flying around the world after 757’s and the Hercules aircraft broke down.
In 2022, Ardern was left stranded in Antarctica overnight after the Herc broke down and she managed to hitchhike home on an Italian plane from McMurdo Sound travelling to Christchurch.
A 757 broke down on Ardern’s official visit to the US in June 2023, while she also took a commercial flight home from Melbourne in 2019 after another engineering issue. The then Defence Minister Peeni Henare and a 30 strong delegation were stuck in the Solomons in August 2022. In 2019, former Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters needed that second RNZAF plane to pick him up after breaking down in Vanuatu.
And a trade mission to India, headed by Key in 2016, was cut short after a 757 was grounded in Townsville, forcing the Prime Minister and his entourage to stay the night in far North Queensland while they waited for the AA or the aviation equivalent of the AA. “We've broken down. We're stuck on the side of the road. Can you come and get us? Sure. Give us 24. We'll be there.” I mean, seriously.
The miracle is that anybody gets into the bloody things. Would you? I mean, bless the RNZAF engineers for getting the dear old girls up off the ground and into the air again. But holy heck, it's all bound together with gaffer tape and rubber bands and #8 wire and the like.
When Chris Luxon was opposition leader, he criticised Chris Hipkins' use of a backup plane on environmental grounds - and also said it speaks to concerns about the reliability of those aircraft breaking down as we've seen in past times.
Well he might be singing another song entirely after this. And this was after saying to Mike only last Tuesday: ‘ Oh, no, I've got every confidence, every confidence.’ Wrong.
So back in 2023, when we were talking about Hipkins' trip to China and taking two planes just in case, Chris Hipkins office came back to us last year and said using RNZAF aircraft is cheaper than a commercial charter and has other benefits such as security assurance, and the ability to travel point to point to reduce time away from home and additional costs such as hotels which would be required if there were stopovers.
Well, I think we can pretty much rule out the cost factor, can't we? Using an RNZAF charter does not appear to be cheaper - and there have been numerous instances where it hasn't been cheaper, where they've needed either two planes to fly or they've needed to get in commercial charters or you've had to say to your Italian mates - 'can I please get a lift back to New Zealand?'
I mean, how embarrassing. So I think we can rule out the cost factor. Let's just take a chartered aircraft that can get from point A to point B. I'm just stunned anyone gets on them.
The other point they made was that the 757s are around 30 years old and nearing the end of their economic lives and due for replacement between 2028 and 2030. Bring it forward.
They've got to be replaced anyway. I get that no Government wants to be the one that signs the cheque for a new aircraft, but if it's an Air Force aircraft that's going to be used for humanitarian work, if it's going to be used to police our economic zone, if it's going to be ferrying trade delegations, do you really have a problem with us moving forward the purchase date of an aircraft that we're going to have to buy anyway?
It's not like it's going to be Air Force One kitted out only for the President with whale scrotum skin bar stools and like Aristotle Onassis had on his yacht. We're not talking plush Penthouse for Daddy kind of fit out, are we?
We're talking about a utilitarian aircraft that comes under the auspices of the RNZAF, that the Prime Minister can then get into with a trade delegation and safely go from point A to B point B. I don't think that's unreasonable.
Yeah, they're due to be replaced between ‘28 and ‘30. It's 2024. Bring it forward a bit, because it is not cost effective flying in a lemon. It's unsafe flying in a lemon. You don't want to be budging on your mates when you're stuck in Antarctica or Australia. These trips are important. God, no wonder Nanaia Mahuta stayed home.
Looking at this aircraft - would you really want to park your buns on that and buckle-up? Not really, no. Just bite the bullet. We're just going to have to do it. It's a necessary expense.
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A report by the Ministerial Advisory Group reviewing English and maths learning, has recommended annual checkpoint tests for students.
It recommends children in Years 4-6 learn handwriting, including cursive handwriting, and study the "conventions of text structure and style".
Children would also be encouraged to write by hand as much as possible in their first three years at school.
The Write Lesson managing director Belinda Blick-Duggan says more schools have turned their back on teaching handwriting than ever.
"Something like handwriting can be so settling and consistent - and actually a really good routine for a lot of those children."
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General consensus our Defence Force plane is embarrassing New Zealand.
The Prime Minister and his delegation were stranded in Papua New Guinea - en route to Japan - after two fuses blew while the 757 was refuelling.
Chris Luxon took a commercial flight to Japan - and Air New Zealand's diverting a flight to collect his 52-strong delegation, which has taken a slow trip to Brisbane in the 757.
ZB political correspondent Barry Soper says flying on the Air Force plane gives an important signal on trade visits.
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So it turns out we suck at saving for retirement.
We’re really good at ticking the box and signing up for KiwiSaver, go us! The Retirement Commission said yesterday that 90% of people getting paid a wage or salary have signed up to KiwiSaver, and around 80% of self-employed people have. However, when it comes to self-employed people – I wonder how many are just putting in the minimal amount of $521.33 to get the government’s contribution, and that’s it.
So, we’re pretty good at deciding to jump on board, but we’re not very good at saving what we will need for retirement.
A recent study called ‘Money and You: The Perception Gap’ found that 56% of New Zealanders, an estimated 2.8 million, aged 18 or over aren’t financially prepared for retirement, increasing to 67% among women. The study also discovered that our understanding of financial concepts isn't as good as we think it is, and we don’t know how much we would need to retire. In other words, I think they are gently telling us that just ticking that box and feeling like we’re being proactive isn’t enough to make sure we can live the retirement we want.
Yesterday, the Retirement Commission released a comprehensive analysis on how KiwiSaver is working and have made 15 recommendations to improve this scheme. They too acknowledge we all need to be saving more for our retirement but know it is challenging against the current backdrop of high inflation and cost of living crisis.
There is talk of making the scheme compulsory – but the numbers signed up to the scheme would indicate we’re pretty keen to be involved already.
However, one of the main changes the Retirement Commission would like to see put in place is a higher default contribution rate of at least 4%, with employers required to match that level or higher. The current default rate is 3% but you can choose to contribute 3, 4, 6, 8, or 10%. Apparently 42% of New Zealanders contribute only the minimum of 3%.
The default rate hasn’t changed in 17 years since KiwSaver began, and we’re a long way behind Australia and other developed countries when it comes to being prepared for retirement.
I like it being voluntary – I like that you can make your own decisions depending on what is going on in your life. Are you using extra savings to pay off a mortgage, meet a new higher interest rate, or making investments on your own which you can access when you like? Maybe you just can’t manage any more than 3% at present.
But for as much as a I like the freedom this system gives us, we’re not likely to pay more unless we have to, so legislating to raise the default setting for both employees and employers isn’t a bad idea, as long as it’s done sensibly.
Sam Stubbs, founder of KiwiSaver Scheme Simplicity spoke to Mike Hosking about the Retirement Commissioner wanting to increase contribution rates by individuals and employers.
“Well she wants the contributions to rise 1%, but if you look at Aussie, you know, they’re paying 12%. So the Aussies have got five times our population, but they’ve got 35 times our savings. So we are saving, but we’re not saving nearly enough. But she has to introduce this idea gradually because, you know, everyone’s going through a cost of living crisis right now, right. You know, if she was to say that KiwiSaver contributions were going to go from 3 to 12%, everybody would laugh. But that, that’s possible, it just takes a long time. I think we should do it about half a percent a year and take an awful long time to get there, but we have to go there.”
So keen to hear your thoughts and as Sam Stubbs said, we have to go there, and I think we have to do it in a really common sense way for both employers and employees. Half a percent. Maybe you do that year on year until it rises, 2, 4, or six? Sounds like the way to go.
We’re not saving enough. I’m not so sure we need to make it compulsory. I feel like an increase in a default rate is a good approach, as long as it's done sensibly. I like the idea of a half a percent increase, but as an employee, is that doable for you at the moment with what may be going on in your life, because we’re all dealing with different things aren’t we? Do you kind of admit to yourself that actually, unless somebody raises that right, you’re probably not going to think about it. You’re probably just thinking right, I’ve got my 3% contribution going and I’m doing the right thing. Yeah, tick the box, I’m not going to think about it again. So actually, is it what you need to motivate you to increase.
If you are an employer, is doable? Could you manage half a percent increase a year? I’m sure there are probably some small or medium sized businesses out there who are just wincing at the idea right now as we deal with these difficult economic times. So, keen to hear from you.
We’ve got to save more, we’re way behind everybody else. I don’t necessarily think making it compulsory is going to make a huge difference, but I do think raising that default rate at a sensible common sense amount each year for the next few years might just do the trick.
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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 banking.
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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 us to make an impact that will help us out at the pumps.
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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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In an ideal world, I would rather not dig up the ground and the sea bed to extract their resources. But we created certainly not an ideal world, but a comfortable world precisely because mankind learnt how to do that, to extract the riches from beneath the Earth's crust. Mankind's gone from living in a harsh and inhospitable environment to living in relative comfort thanks to the extraction of those aforementioned resources that give us light and warmth and convenience and communication, just about every modern technology needs oil or gas or minerals. Whether we like it or not the world needs to mine and drill. In 2021, New Zealand was at its lowest levels for self-sufficiency and energy since reporting began in 1990. While renewable energy sources are increasingly providing more of our energy, it's nowhere near enough and it's not reliable - yet. We have the resources. Crude oil is produced in New Zealand, but it's exported because it's not suited to current refining capabilities and it can achieve a higher price on international markets. We can import oil cheaper than we can make it ourselves. Half our national coal production is exported, and so in 2021 we became a net importer of coal, again for the first time since reporting began. Where were the protesters calling out the Labour government for the importation of coal? Like it or not, we are dependent on resources that come from below the ground. And if we don't get it, we rely on other people to do so. As Shane Jones says, some people argue against minerals extraction, but gladly rely on the conveniences of modern society that are enabled by these resources. The protesters taking selfies of themselves protesting for climate change, protesting against the the weakness of governments and instituting reforms that will bring about lower emissions, they wouldn't be able to take their selfies if somebody, somewhere, that they hadn't seen hadn't extracted minerals from the ground. As long as it's not in my backyard, it's okay. Shane Jones says the problem is that we're relying on other countries to meet many of our minerals needs and their supply can be fragile, volatile, unreliable and sometimes, without the regulatory rigour, he says, we apply to our own operators. And if we want to diminish our reliance on oil, coal and gas, he says we're still going to need to mine to do it.
If Kiwis want greater resilience and less vulnerability to overseas geopolitical vulnerabilities, we've got to turn around and we've got within the context of what's reasonable and wise, extract our own minerals. Look, I've got the authority of cabinet to roll out the strategy today, encourage investment and remind people that unless we use our own resources. We're going to continually depend on countries and other sources of natural minerals that are not as stable as New Zealand.
Exactly. That was Shane Jones talking to Mike Hosking back on the 24th of May when he announced that this government was going to look at opening up certain fields for exploration. It's just hypocritical in the extreme to say New Zealand can't do it, but will get poorer countries to extract the mines from their backyard, so long as it's not ours. We can do it better. We can do it more expensively. We can do it cleaner, but no, we'd rather march in the streets taking selfies of ourselves doing so, relying on equipment that's being produced by other people's mining, doing the very thing that you're protesting against. It is utterly, utterly hypocritical. In an ideal world, you don’t despoil the earth but we don't live in an ideal world. It's a hell of a lot better than it was before we started mining and extracting, that's for sure. And we've come to take those comforts for granted without questioning where they come from, how they get here, how they're put our hands. You have to own it, if you want it you have to be prepared to acknowledge where it came from. It's the same with anything, if choose to eat meat, you can't then complain to the butcher that there are carcasses hanging in the shop, which has happened. You have to acknowledge where it came from. And if we have it, then we should do it and we should do it properly.
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Mark Story is the Deputy Editor at Hawkes Bay Today – he recently wrote an opinion piece about working remotely at cafes, after being banned from Smiths in Napier for ‘table-hogging.”
He interviewed hospitality owners from around the country, to shed some light on what’s reasonable.
Story told Kerre Woodham “I think it’s common sense – if I did stay longer than an hour or two, I’d buy something else.”
He said “People attract people – if people see that it’s being well-attended, it adds to the buzz.”
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Do you know what we need after a big night of celebrating Newstalk ZB cleaning up at the radio awards? We need pothole chat, that's what we need. Have a listen to Simeon Brown, the transport minister, talking about the $4 billion pothole prevention program that was announced this morning.
“This a step change. This is about actually ensuring that the funding goes into not just the patchwork quilt we've seen on our roads under the last three years of the last government, but actually saying we need to be resealing, rehabilitating our roads to those long term renewal standards of 2% being rebuilt every year, up to 9% being resealed every year, and actually getting drainage under control, and actually managing that to get the water off our roads. So, this is about putting long-term targets in place for the agency. It's not just giving them more money, but it's actually clear targets that they need to meet in order to actually ensure our roads are being properly maintained, rather than sort of the patchwork fix that the last government approach was to road maintenance, which was actually more expensive in the long run because you just patched over it and you had to patch over it again and again and again.”
Whoever would have thought? That was Simeon Brown talking to Mike Hosking this morning. What utter joy checks and balances and targets are. Not just chucking billions and billions of dollars into the air and walking away. Actually having targets, having percentages. Having very clear definitions about what the money must be spent on, what the expected outcomes are. Well, hopefully, hopefully, there will be measures in place —and I'm expecting there will be— to ensure that every cent goes into actual repairs and not into layers and layers of management and orange cones.
But honestly, it is work like this, programs like this, and talk like this from the Minister that makes me feel that not only can we get out of potholes in the middle of the road, we can actually get out of this economic hole. I don't know about you, but when you see the targets, when you see that it's not just patchwork stuff, it's actually a programme of work, a programme of maintenance, it's ongoing, it's designed to ensure the roads run smoothly, that we can get there on time, that we don't break axles, that we don't have to risk injury if you're a motorcyclist. I never thought I'd say it, I never thought numbers could be sexy. That expected outcomes chat could be sexy. It is.
You know, you just know that there is money that has been set aside and that the money will be looked after and that's all I ever wanted personally, was not to have my tax money squandered or treated with cavalier contempt. I understand that I have to give up some of my money so that I can live in a society where there is infrastructure and there are public services and that's fine. What is not fine is having that money disappear and then gone on projects where there is no accountability where even the government auditors go, well we don't know, we can't measure if this programme is a success because there's nothing by which we can measure it. That's what got my goat. And to hear this gives me hope. And I'm going to be checking in, because it's all very well talking the talk, but I want to make sure that exactly what does happen. I want to know that when Mike, or myself, or Heather says to Simeon, so where did that money go? He can say one moment please, and he'll have it all there. And if he does, then that hope that I have will be fulfilled. Good chat. It sounds organised. It sounds capable. Let's just see if it is.
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Chef Tony Astle from Parnell’s iconic Antoine’s restaurant joins Kerre Woodham to dive into his the good and the bad of dining experiences both around New Zealand and internationally.
He digs into the service, the decor, and of course, the food, inspiring listeners to give new dining experiences a try.
Also on offer is the Recipe of the Week, and this week he’s serving up Leek and Potato Soup.
Ingredients:
2 large leeks, finely sliced
3 large onions, roughly chopped
3 large agria potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
1.5 litres chicken or vegetable stock (may be instant, but beware of saltiness)
1tsp white pepper
150 grams butter
Method:
1. Cut the leeks in half lengthways (wash and finely slice)
2. Roughly chop the onions
3. Thinly slice the potatoes
4. In a large pot, melt the butter. Add the onions, leeks and potatoes (plus white pepper)
5. Slowly cook (sweat, don't brown) for approximately 5 minutes, stirring constantly.
6. Add the hot stock. Stir and bring to a boil, then simmer for 25 minutes.
7. Cool slightly, then blend until smooth in a food processor (or stick blender), depending on the texture required (you may strain or not).
8. When reheating, add cream to taste.
9. The soup may be frozen after blending.
10. Instead of leeks, you may like to replace with carrots or pumpkin.
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Every two weeks on a Friday, I send a silent thank you to the payroll people at NZME who put the pot of gold into my account that pays my bills. My paycheques are bit like one of those jump jets that lands on an aircraft carrier ever so briefly before bouncing off and up again. Pay packet comes in to land, pops down and whoosh, off again into the wild blue yonder. Still, it's there. My bills are paid, and I appreciate the work our team do to make that happen. It is not a job I would ever want to do or be particularly good at, especially in this modern working environment with sick days off here and new annual leave days off there, and entitlements here and wanting to take a holiday even though you haven't worked for the company for a year so that puts you into negative leave there. I mean it would be a headache every time you got up in the morning before you'd even got to it.
It all sounds incredibly complicated, which I guess is why Workplace Minister Brooke Van Velden is looking at updating the Holidays Act. She announced the review in her speech at the Pacific Economic Development Agency yesterday and said changes in a draft bill could include pro-rating sick leave to basically make sick leave proportionate to how many hours the employee works.
“One of the areas that I've heard a lot of concern by is that businesses have struggled to adapt to the last governments increase in the sick leave to 10 days, and I'm trying to bring in a bit of proportionality there and say yes, if you've got part time staff members, is it proportional for all of those part time workers to also have 10 days? And I'll give you a really good example of how this works, I had a person who works in a dental practice reach out to the office, they said this person who's a dental hygienist works two days a week for them, two days a week for another company, they're entitled to 20 days sick leave under the law. That's disproportionate to what a full-time worker would get. So, we're making it easier to understand and comply with, for a whole range of different work environments.”
Okay. So, I notice that those who are against everything, basically anything that comes out of the coalition government, they’re against, but in this particular case, those who are against said, oh, it means they're not going to get as much sick leave as the full-time worker. That sick leave will be reduced under this bill. Well, yes, if you're working two days a week, should you get the same amount of sick leave as somebody who works full-time? In some cases, right now, the government of unintended consequences saw somebody getting 20 days when they should have only had ten. That seems fair, doesn't it? Brooke van Velden also said that annual leave would be under review. She has proposed shifting to an accrual system.
“Well, annual leave is currently a proportionate, so you might get four weeks annual leave at the end of 12 months of continuous employment. We're bringing that back to accruing annual leave, which means that you'd accrue it over time. Doesn't matter that you've been there for 12 months or not. But one thing I'd make clear is that doesn't mean that people would get less annual leave than what they currently get. That is part of one of those technical changes that you're talking about.”
Ahh technical changes! That was Brooke van Velden the Workplace Minister talking to Heather du Plessis-Allan last night. So, if you are one of those magic people that puts the pots of gold into all of our accounts at different times of the month, is it complicated? You know, there are entire software departments set up for payroll, so I imagine it is. And with the modern working environment where you're working from home, and you're working part time, and you've got flexy leave and what have you, I can imagine it would be a real nightmare. What is fair and what is not? As a result of the unintended consequences, are we seeing people who are getting more than they're entitled to compared to their full-time colleagues? Nobody wants to be ripped off. We don't want to go back to the days of slave labour. And yes, you should get days off for part time work if you're sick.
As the boss was saying, if Helen gets sick, we call in a part-timer to fill in for Helen. They get sick, so he has to get somebody else. So, he's paying three people now. And if you're a larger company, you can take a deep breath and absorb that. If you're a smaller company, how on earth do you sustain that? And there are people who know how to play the system. Most don't. I based that on no figures whatsoever. I just made that up. I'm assuming that most people appreciate going to work. That they even if they don't enjoy the job, they enjoy getting paid and standing on their own two feet and making their own destiny. If you're lucky, you enjoy what you do as well. So, I'm assuming most of us don't play the system.
And think right, I'm going to have a couple of well days, which I think a lot of companies even supply anyway, but I'm going to take a couple of well days because I haven't used my 10 days sick leave. I know I only work two days a week and I've taken 8 days sick leave, despite the fact I only worked two days a week, but I'm going to take what I'm entitled to and just lie in the sun and read a book. I don't think that's fair. I think you should only take it when you're sick or when your children are sick.
Call me old fashioned but I don't think 10 days sick leave is an entitlement necessarily. I think it's insurance for if you get sick. You don't take it as a matter of course. And I think there are plenty of cases where employers show a generosity beyond what they're legally required to do. If somebody does get genuinely sick with a long-term illness. If you're a valued employee, they will look after you.
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