Episodios

  • Kerre Woodham: New Zealand's conflict of interest problem

    Kerre Woodham: New Zealand's conflict of interest problem
    Mar 17 2026

    What I found more outrageous on the internet yesterday was yet another example of this country's propensity for doling out jobs for the boys and indeed the girls. Every political party does it, every government does it, rewards the party faithful and their generous donors and backers with cushy sinecures. Grafter-in-chief would have to be Trevor Mallard's posting to Dublin – although would it? Because there are plenty of other opportunities to point the finger. Look at Simon Bridges, the ex-National Party leader was appointed as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency, Waka Kotahi, in March 24.

    There are many, many examples of political cronyism. And in the latest one, a KiwiRail director has quit the board two years early after only a couple of months in the role. That's not the news. What is news is that he was appointed to the board at all given his conflict of interest. Scott O'Donnell is a big player in trucking and freight. And given some of the 10 companies he's involved with supply services to KiwiRail, what on earth was he doing being made a director of KiwiRail? The conflicts required Treasury to put a management plan in place.

    The conflict of interest mitigation plan contained seven measures to manage conflicts, including recusing himself from board meeting discussions where there was a conflict of interest. It was simply unsustainable. He was being paid to do a job that he simply could not do because of the conflicts of interest. He ended up leaving meetings early and missing agenda items and, you know, became apparent that this wasn't going to work. He'll be stepping down next week and thanked for his service. But he should never ever have been appointed in the first place.

    So not only are there existing conflicts of interest, he's one of four directors of HW Richardson's Transport Tapunui, which donated $20,000 to New Zealand First in July 2024. The company's also involved in a project that recently received a government regional infrastructure loan, Shane Jones slush fund of $8 million. And then he's appointed by Winston to the board of KiwiRail. It's just another example and it's so common that it barely registered. I mean, I have to give credit to Radio New Zealand who were following this all the way through and BusinessDesk pointing it out going, No, no, no, this isn't good, this isn't right, this doesn't work.

    Do we have so few people in this country of five million who can do governance jobs and chief executive jobs that we have to accept there'll only be one or two degrees of separation, if that? That there is always going to be a conflict? If you think of the five million of us, how many of us could do a chief executive job or be on a board, take a director's role on a board?

    Look at the yawning vacancies that we have for our major companies, with a new one with Fonterra now. I mean, Miles Hurrell could walk into about 20 jobs in this country right now, either in sports governance or in business. There are so few people able to do the job. Do we have to accept that there is going to be a conflict of interest in just about every single appointment made?

    Do more of us have to put up our hands and do the directors' courses so that you can find maybe somebody somewhere who doesn't, hasn't made a donation or hasn't worked or hasn't been a politician who can then do the job? Or are we just simply too small?

    How we haven't appeared on the dirt list of corruption is beyond me. It shows either a really, really principled closed doors approach to business in this country, being able to separate your different business interests and focus on them solely and leave everything at the door when you go in, or we just haven't uncovered it yet. I'd really love to see an end of the appointments of jobs for the girls and the boys, but then who would do the job when you look at the vacancies that exist right now.

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    5 m
  • Chris Pugsley: Historian slams culture ministry for axing Heritage Trails website for Gallipoli

    Chris Pugsley: Historian slams culture ministry for axing Heritage Trails website for Gallipoli
    Mar 16 2026

    Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage is removing the Ngā Tapuwae Heritage Trails website for Gallipoli and the Western Front in what Historian Chris Pugsley believes is a cost cutting measure and a result of firing historians.

    Pugsley spoke to Kerre Woodham, slamming the move.

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    10 m
  • Kerre Woodham: The entire fuel situation is a mess

    Kerre Woodham: The entire fuel situation is a mess
    Mar 15 2026
    How about that petrol, eh? I filled up on Thursday, as usual, that's my usual day. Just the car, no jerry cans, no oil drums, thanks very much, and I thought to myself, $2.95 - she's getting up there. Bargain now, looking at the pumps. Our colleague Kylie, who has to travel north most weekends, reckons she paid an extra $80 above what she would normally pay for her weekend tikitouring. The boss and Helen desperately need to fill up their cans so they can mow their lawns, but they're too scared to take their cans to the petrol station in case they go, "crippers, you're crazy, you're hoarding petrol." The CEO of one of New Zealand's largest independent fuel suppliers says there is no need for people to panic buy fuel as motorists fret about the rising prices. Petrol stations across the country are seeing a surge of drivers filling up, and the petrol prices will keep climbing. And you'd have to wonder how much of that is passing on the real cost, how much of that is opportunistic. 91's tipped over the $3 a litre mark in some areas because of the conflict in the Middle East. US President Donald Trump is calling for countries to send ships to secure the Strait of Hormuz, which is effectively closed as Iran launches attacks to halt maritime traffic. Around 20% of the world's oil consumption usually passes through the strait. Even the most ardent of Trump supporters, and I know there are a lot and, you know, you have your reasons, but even the most ardent of Trump supporters surely would have to concede he's no Sun Tzu, is he? For those who don't know, Sun Tzu was an ancient Chinese military general and strategist. He lived about 500 BC, and his book, The Art of War, described as a profound text about military strategy and philosophy, has endured from 500 years BC to now. The lessons are still being taught today. Don't think we're going to see the US President's thoughts on military strategy enduring for the ages. Even forgiving him using military excursion when I'm pretty sure he means military incursion. I was a bit perplexed about that excursion. That's normally, you know, a trip down to Hamilton for Homegrown, that's an excursion, but we all choose wrong words and malaprop from time to time and that's okay. But, not knowing the size of Iran's navy or musing aloud or kind of forgetting how big it was, I mean, that's a classic. Military strategist knows the importance of your enemy's strengths and weaknesses. And sending out an SOS to help keep the Strait of Hormuz open might have been a better idea to have a coalition of the willing and able sorted before attacking Iran, rather than doing it on the fly and saying, "hey, is there any frigates out there?" But whatever. I'm not attempting to effect regime change in the Middle East, he is, and presumably there is somebody advising him. As it is, the European nations have said, "thanks, but no thanks." France is not a country at war today, thanks very much. At this point, there's no question of sending any vessels to the Strait of Hormuz, says France. And Germany says that we'll only get security for the Strait of Hormuz if there's a negotiated solution. The UK's considering all options. I mean, they could decide, Keir Starmer could decide something one day and flip flop on it on the next. They don't seem to have a very coherent strategy there. So it's all a bit of a mess, really. You're better off being in Hamilton at Homegrown or Eden Park watching the footy ... but when it comes to the fuel, where it's actually affecting us, has the price of petrol changed your habits? Or are you just putting up with it and thinking, sighing heavily and thinking, oh well, it is what it is until such time as there is a resolution? Have you decided to forgo trips? Have you decided to forgo a tikitour of the South Island, perhaps, or a tikitour of the North? Is it impacting the decision making yet? I know that there are some people who are buying fuel and storing it, and do be careful with your insurance, as people have said time and time again. But there are also people buying fuel because this is the time of year when they do, as our farmers told us. This is normally what we're doing. It's harvest, you know, there's still haymaking going, there's harvesting, fertiliser's being put down. It's just that people haven't noticed before that they're filling up large amounts of diesel to take out onto the farm. But because there is a renewed interest and focus on people buying gas and diesel and fuel at the pumps, everybody's noticing and thinking it's stockpiling. Has it changed what you're doing right now? Are you looking at having to increase your prices, because the oil companies have not been, their profits are soaring, but they have not been slow in passing on the extra costs? LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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    6 m
  • Hera Eruera: Certified Plumber at Auckland Plumbers Group on the job and lack of women in trades

    Hera Eruera: Certified Plumber at Auckland Plumbers Group on the job and lack of women in trades
    Mar 12 2026

    Women are still underrepresented in the trades.

    Despite employing more than 300,000 people, women only make up around 16% of those working in the construction sector.

    Chair of construction firm Naylor Love, Jackie Lloyd is interested in seeing more women enter the industry and play a role in leading it as well.

    Auckland Plumbers Group’s Hera Eruera is one of only fifteen certified female plumbers in New Zealand, and told Kerre Woodham that the sector’s still a bit of an old boys’ club.

    When she first came across Auckland Plumbers Group, Director Andrew Durrans was one of the few people looking to take on a female apprentice.

    “All the other companies that I had gone to, they were just not wanting to have a bar of it,” Eruera said .

    The stigma of plumbing being a “dirty job” may also be keeping women away from the trade, and while some elements can be, that’s not all they deal with.

    “It’s such a huge variety – you've got your hot water systems, you’ve got all your piping systems, guttering, spouting, roofing. We’ve also got gas fitting, draining.”

    “It's just a huge variety and it’s not always a dirty job like what most people would think it is, and it’s quite enjoyable as well."

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    9 m
  • Kerre Woodham: Are you feeling fuel anxiety?

    Kerre Woodham: Are you feeling fuel anxiety?
    Mar 12 2026
    Today we thought it would be Fuel Friday because we haven't really touched on the oil crisis so far, have we? I filled up at my local on the way to work and it was certainly more expensive than it was last week, but nowhere near the heights we've reached previously. Back in the day I had to give up driving the Club Sport, which was a beast of a car —loved that car— when fuel topped $3 a litre. I loved her, but I couldn't afford to keep her. There's a lot of things like that really. With the war in Iran effectively closing the Strait of Hormuz, the only tankers going through are the most tenacious or those with a death wish as they attempt to negotiate the waters. I mean, there is oil getting through, but it seems to be a, ‘well, let's give it a bash’ rather than with any kind of certainty. So, one of the main sources of oil and fertiliser has, in effect, been blocked and Iran's doubling down on that. They're just going to shut up shop and that will be that. The whole world is looking at their country's respective fuel gauges, wondering if they have enough in the tank to see them through the conflict. Ministers here have joined forces and are getting advice on how, well the relevant ministers are joining forces for a special advisory group and getting advice on how low fuel supplies have to go before the Government should introduce demand measures such as reducing the amount of petrol people can buy or only allowing fuel outlets to open on alternate days. So instead of car-less days, we'd have petrol-less days, appealing to people's better natures and saying please only travel if you absolutely have to. We have about 50 days supply including what we have in the country and what's on its way here, which hopefully will not be diverted to other countries. Shane Jones was on with Heather du Plessis Allan last night and when she said what about other countries? Can't they just divert it? Can't they tell the oil companies come on, we're a bigger customer and we should be able to have that oil that's heading down to that tiny little island nation at the bottom of the world? And he said they were hoping the strength of the contracts they had with the various oil companies would be sufficient to withstand that sort of pressure from other countries to in effect hijack our shipments. The Associate Energy Minister told her the Government had asked officials to come up with all sorts of contingency plans and yes, car-less days were included in the briefing, but they weren't a likely option. SJ: No, it's too early to identify any specific intervention. I mean, perhaps this thing's all over in a week, who knows? But the reality is. HDPA: But why are you taking advice on it if you're not seriously considering it? SJ: Well, no, Kiwis expect their government to be proactive. Kiwis expect us to deal with the fact that other countries are hoarding their fuel. They're introducing export restrictions. So what we need to do is ensure that we've exhaustively looked at every option so if things do deteriorate and we make decisions, they're made on the basis of quality information, not some grasshopper attitude. I thought he answered that pretty well and you know, of course car-less days makes great headlines and that seems to have been dominating the media over the last 24 hours, but I thought Shane Jones was quite right. They're looking at every single option that's on the table and they're weighing the relative merits of each option, which makes sense. So those of you with EVs, I don't know if you feel like you'd like to join the discussion, feel free. It probably doesn't have much to do with you as we all pile into the petrol station and try to get the petrol on the specials days, everybody refreshing their Gaspy, seeing which petrol station in your neighbourhood has the cheapest petrol. But it's so much more than that. It's more than just the petrol in the car to get us from point A to point B. It's the petrol within the supply chain and the diesel within the supply chain to get our goods around the country. It's the growers and their fertiliser and the farmers and their diesel stocks. How are you feeling? It's very easy to whip yourself up into a panic and a frenzy, but it is sensible to be prepared. You don't have to panic, but you can, I would have thought, certainly be prepared if you can. There was a petrol special on at my local service station so I filled up on the way to work and got the 95 for $2.88, which I was relatively happy about – who knows what it will be next week. And while I'm not in the habit of Sunday drives, I probably won't start them until this particular conflict is over. I think we can take sensible measures as your average commuter-consumer without panicking. If you're dependent on fuel for your work, like farmers, like growers, like Uber drivers, it might be a different story. There might be a higher level of fuel anxiety and if so, I'd love to hear from you. You ...
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    8 m
  • Kerre Woodham: Is the primary teachers' union causing friction?

    Kerre Woodham: Is the primary teachers' union causing friction?
    Mar 11 2026
    For nine months now, the Public Service Commission has been negotiating with the primary school teachers union over pay and conditions. Every other union in the education sector has settled, but not the NZEI Te Riu Roa. There have been strikes, there have been rejected pay offers, in some cases offers haven't even been presented to union members to vote on, and there have been accusations of bad faith from both sides. In interviews, the Public Service Commissioner Sir Brian Roche has sounded increasingly grumpy and frustrated, and when he spoke to Mike Hosking last week, he said that he was exploring options, looking for a way to offer non-union teachers, about a third of the primary teacher workforce, a pay increase so they didn't have to wait for the union to find an offer acceptable. And now he has, as he explained to Heather du Plessis Allan last night. BR: There are 10,000 non-unionised teachers who have been deprived of a settlement. In the normal course of events, we would have kept going with the NZEI, and we are still keeping going with them, but I got to the point where I could no longer justify withholding an offer. So they, the non-union members, have the option now of accepting or not accepting. I don't think it impacts at all on our good faith bargaining and our strong commitment to reach a settlement with NZEI. HDPA: Is it lawful? BR: Of course, but it is risky and that's playing out now. But this is a question of equity. Why would somebody who's not in the union be deprived of being able to benefit from something? They're under no obligation to accept it, I fully respect that, but 10,000 people where I can make their lives better and get greater stability is worth doing. So that was what Sir Brian Roche was doing, looking at the legality of it, whether they could do it. He's found a way that they can, and he says it's risky because he fears the unions will kick off. They'll go hardline, they'll take the strikes and go all sort of waterfront union on it. The union says it will cause a division, but as Education Minister Erica Stanford told Mike Hosking this morning, she thinks it's fair and reasonable that nearly a third of primary school teachers who are not part of the union should be offered a contract now so that they can receive the pay increases now that the government has already offered. ES: I know that the unions, of course they're not happy with it, and they're trying to say, look, it's causing division. But I would say there's already division. A third of their workforce are not in a union, you know, and if they seriously think it's about division, they should ask themselves why a third of the workforce don't want anything to do with them. Interesting. This will equate to approximately 50 to 76 bucks every week, which is not inconsiderable. And it's pay that teachers could be receiving already, were they not impacted by the ongoing holdout from the union. They would say that it's the Government's failure to meet their perfectly reasonable demands, so there'll be stories from both sides. But good on the Public Service Commission. I mean, if unions want to keep going because they believe they can get a better deal for their union members, that's what their members pay their dues for, that they want to get the best possible conditions for their members, fine, fill your boots, keep going. But if I was a non-union teacher, I'd be getting more and more brassed off. It's not just the parents and young people too who are fed up with the ongoing negotiations and ongoing industrial action. Plenty of teachers are too, if the text traffic is anything to go by. A number of teachers told me they were only in the union for the legal protection it afforded them. They certainly didn't agree with the hardline stance being taken by negotiators. Will it cause friction? More friction than there already is in the staffroom when you have some teachers earning more while others are having to wait for their union to settle? I mean, when we were talking about the waterfront workers’ strike lockout depending on which side you're on, there were people who would cross the street to avoid scabs, you know, in Huntly or Otahuhu and different parts of the country. Those old resentments lingered and lingered and lingered. Surely we're beyond that now. You shouldn't have to join a union to be able to negotiate fair pay and conditions, and I wouldn't have thought teachers particularly would need one. They know their worth, they're articulate. Why would you need a union per se? I bet, as a number of them said, they're only there for the legal protection. If there was a way of insuring yourself privately for a reasonable fee against malicious lawsuits, then perhaps there'd be no need for the union at all. How many of you belong to unions and why? Do you see the benefit it brings you? How many of you would like to be in a union and how many of you are perfectly confident that you can negotiate ...
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    7 m
  • Sharon Zollner: ANZ Chief Economist on New Zealand's economic response to the Covid pandemic

    Sharon Zollner: ANZ Chief Economist on New Zealand's economic response to the Covid pandemic
    Mar 11 2026

    New Zealand’s economic response to the Covid pandemic is under scrutiny.

    The second phase of the Covid Inquiry found New Zealand’s overall pandemic response effective, but some restrictions went too far, and the Government moved too slowly in some areas.

    It highlights our Covid increase on health spending was one of the OECD's largest.

    ANZ Chief Economist Sharon Zollner told Kerre Woodham that debt is likely going to be permanently higher, and we have a lot of medium-term fiscal challenges as a result.

    She says in broad terms, we’ve used up two crises worth of buffer for a single crisis.

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    10 m
  • Johan Norberg: Cato Institute Senior Fellow on Sweden's Covid response compared to New Zealand's

    Johan Norberg: Cato Institute Senior Fellow on Sweden's Covid response compared to New Zealand's
    Mar 11 2026

    Comparisons are being drawn between New Zealand’s approach to Covid, and Sweden’s.

    The findings of the second phase of the Covid Inquiry were released yesterday, and the response was found to be broadly effective, but slow to adapt and poorly communicated.

    It also found some mandates to be overly restrictive, and the Auckland lockdown went on too long.

    In Sweden, they had a less restrictive approach, focused on keeping life moving as normal as much as possible.

    Cato Institute Senior Fellow Johan Norberg told Kerre Woodham that the population voluntarily engaged in social distancing and reducing travel, and so they only felt the need to briefly enforce limitations when a new wave hit in 2020.

    He says the focus was on normalcy, as they didn’t know what would happen next, but they knew it would be a bad idea to hurt themselves further by shutting down schools and the economy.

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    12 m