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  • Kerre Woodham: Netball's struggle to attract eyes

    Kerre Woodham: Netball's struggle to attract eyes
    2026/09/02
    Now if you were to wander down to your local netball court on any given Saturday morning in winter, you would see hundreds, no matter how small the town might be, you would see hundreds, and in the biggest cities, thousands of parents and young women on the courts, on the sidelines, waiting in the queue for a park in the car park, checking to see if they're blocking a bit of your driveway as they try and desperately find a park down a side street to get to the game on time. It is our national women's game – netball's played by nearly 30,000 secondary school students and more than 60,000 juniors in New Zealand. It's the most popular participant secondary school sport for girls in New Zealand and has been for years and years and years. Moms who played netball come down to watch daughters, and sons up until secondary school, playing netball. Dads who watched the moms play netball back in the day when they were just courting are now watching daughters on the sidelines. Huge supporters. But why does that support, that love of the game, that passion for the game – because on some of those wet, cold, icy mornings, it's a lot to get up out of your warm bed and head down to the courts. All very well and good to be playing, but when you're standing shivering on the sideline, that's commitment. So why does that support, that passion and commitment not translate into being able to sustain a money-making professional league for our very, very best players? The annus horribilis of Netball New Zealand, or really, it's an anni horribiles, have been well traversed. But one of the main problems that Netball New Zealand encountered was that there just weren't enough people watching the game to support televising the league, and without high rating broadcasts, it's really hard to secure sponsorship and a long-term future for the league. Netball New Zealand will argue that viewer numbers were improving. The average live television audience for an ANZ Premiership fixture was 51,800 – a 32% increase on 2025, which means that in 2025 they were miserable numbers. But then compare that to the hundreds and thousands who watch rugby on the telly for the Super Rugby matches. The ranks of our best netballers have been gutted as Netball New Zealand worked to find a way to continue with some form of a premier competition. They just couldn't get it nailed down quickly enough, so 13 of our elite players have headed across the Tasman to play, they've been snapped up. Five are heading to the UK's Netball Superleague. If people weren't watching a competition with our very best netballers, some of the best netballers in the world, will we watch with only the up and comers? Chief executive of Netball New Zealand Jennah Wootten is confident we have the talent for a new competition. "I've been talking to a lot of former Silver Ferns and a lot of people that are deeply involved in the technical side of our sport. And I think one of the things I'm hearing from a lot of them, Mike, is yes, 18 players have signed to go offshore and we totally respect and understand why, we couldn't give them certainty early enough. But if you look at the ANZ Premiership this year, we had around 60 players in that competition. So there's actually an enormous amount that are still here. And what I'm really excited about is seeing what new talent's going to come through. You know, there'll be a whole lot of people that have been on the cusp of getting into these teams in the past. This is going to be their moment, and I reckon we're going to learn a whole lot of new names in netball that are going to be the stars of the future." Well, you hope so. And that's certainly what angel investors Anna Mowbray and Ali Williams are hoping, who are the backers of a private domestic competition as of next year. They know about sport, they know about business, they know how to get people along, they know how to drum up passion for a team, and hopefully they can do the same for this tournament. Mowbray and Williams will determine the competition format, the team structure and the season dates. And Jennah Wootten said having them come to the rescue gives the netball community clarity on the direction of travel after a lengthy period of uncertainty. But what is it that makes a sport watchable? There is no doubt that there are hundreds of thousands of people involved in netball in this country who take an interest. And they put their money where their mouth is, they travel, they get up on a Saturday morning, they take the kids to the practices, they travel from city to city too, if the kids get into the top leagues to watch the inter-sport competition. They play social netball. There's a lot of interest in the game that does not translate to eyes on screens. Why? I'll watch a sport I've never played and really enjoy it. Love watching the league, love watching the union, never played it. Really enjoy it. Love watching tennis. You'd argue that netball's more ...
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    7 分
  • Kerre Woodham: Hiking the fuel tax would take political courage

    Kerre Woodham: Hiking the fuel tax would take political courage
    2026/09/01
    It's not often you hear people moaning that taxes should be put up, but we live in interesting times, people. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Transport Minister Chris Bishop yesterday announced that the Government had scrapped the 12 cents per litre fuel increase, with equivalent increases to road user charges, that were planned for January 1st next year. It's kind of expected that they would – they'd staged on for so long and it's an election year – are we seriously going to expect a government that is fighting to be re-elected to put up any costs for consumers in the next few months? Not really. So the next expected increase of 5 cents per litre will be on January the 1st 2028. To cover the lost revenue, the Government plans to top up the National Land Transport Fund at an expected cost of $1.5 billion over the forecast period, using its $450 million rainy day fund and finding the rest somewhere else. They're not saying where it's going to come from, they're saying that they'll release that later. Transport Minister Chris Bishop told 1News last night the increases couldn't be delayed indefinitely without damaging the transport network. Unless they begin again soon, the financial foundations of our land transport system will be undermined. Luxon argued the extra breathing room before the hike gives New Zealanders more time to recover from a prolonged period of post-Covid economic pain and ongoing global uncertainty around the energy prices. The pair also said, look, the regular fuel hikes that are planned in later years are necessary and people will be able to pay for them because they're saying that the country's economy will strengthen in the years to 2030, so we'll all be able to afford them. Labour has said it will freeze fuel excise hikes for the three-year electoral term if it becomes government. Either way, we're not going to be paying anything whether Labour or National gets in for the next year. But transport and infrastructure leaders aren't happy about that – they've said both parties are playing politics. Well, yeah, it's an election year, they've got to be re-elected. AA fuel spokesperson Terry Collins said the "what to do" about the fuel was a problem of the Coalition's own making. When they came into power, they wiped the 3 cent annual increases that Labour had announced. If they'd maintained those, they wouldn't be in the same predicament that they are today. Infrastructure New Zealand Chief Executive Nick Leggett said the decision was because of election season and ultimately would end up costing the country more. He said, I understand the politics, but it's become a race to the bottom. The right decision for New Zealand now and in the future would be to let those fuel excise increases continue as planned. It would take political courage to do that. I don't think there's much courage around with just a few short months and the polls looking the way they're looking. Every vote will count and raising excises, duties, taxes, tariffs, whatever you want to call them, is not going to be popular. Even the Greens say bring on the fuel excise tax. The Greens say freezing the fuel excise will make our roads worse, defer maintenance we badly need, and leave people with fewer options for getting around. They say it also shows that neither party is committed to the recommendations in the National Infrastructure Plan. Now, it's hard to believe if you are new to this country or new to this radio station, but potholes were a major election issue last time round. Remember when we had entire hours devoted to potholes? A pothole hotline was set up as a way of getting elected, a promise to set one up and then delivery on that promise from ACT. The state of our roads is an election issue, and we need money to pay for them. It's expensive, it's time consuming, it costs productivity if the roads are in poor shape. Everybody has got their favourite stretch of road or their bête noire of a road that is just hell to drive. Potholes and the state of the roads were shredding tyres and we had collectively, if you add up all the hours we spent talking about it, probably days before the last election talking about the state of our roads. Helen reminded me that we received a text a few days ago saying the roads have never been in better shape according to a truckie who travels the route regularly. He said that potholes are vastly improved, that the roads are in much better shape. Can you say that the Coalition Government has delivered on their roading promises? Will they be able to keep those promises without the money going into the roading and maintenance coffers over the next year? I mean it is going to come from somewhere, National have said that they'll top it up, but that's debt we're not paying back. What is the right thing to do? I mean yes, it would take political courage, but as the Opportunity Party says, you've got to be in power, you've got to get into Parliament to be able to enact your...
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    7 分
  • Kerre Woodham: It's about time the Government cracked down on debt dodgers

    Kerre Woodham: It's about time the Government cracked down on debt dodgers
    2026/08/31
    Over the weekend too, Nicola Willis announced policy around student loans. And finally, finally, finally, we have a government that's going to get tough on overseas student loan defaulters. Finance Minister Nicola Willis said yesterday that National will introduce harsher penalties on Kiwis who move overseas and simply refuse to pay back the New Zealand taxpayer. This is about making it a bit easier for people who have a student loan and are in New Zealand and sending a stronger message to those offshore that they're expected to repay their loan. We've got to get that balance right. Ultimately, if you do study in New Zealand, you're being heavily subsidised by the New Zealand taxpayer, and we do that because we want you contributing to our economy and our community. It will always be the case that some Kiwis will take their qualifications offshore, but when they do that, we expect them to pay New Zealand back. Yeah, not that harsh, really, is it? At the same time, Nicola Willis said at the press conference yesterday, the party if re-elected will reduce the compulsory student loan repayment rate for those who stay in the country to 10 cents on every dollar earned above 24,128 It's down from 12 cents currently. That's not going to set the world on fire, but I think going after the defaulters is a good move. What does annoy me though, every time the story is written about, generally by Generation Z reporters, New Zealand's student loan scheme was introduced in 1992 by the Jim Bolger led National government, replacing a long standing system of near free tertiary education. The implication being those vile right wing fascists from National took away a God given right for every New Zealand young person to be able to attend university for free and put in a student loan scheme. What they don't say is that there were incredibly tough conditions around getting into university in the first place. Not everybody could go. It was academically rigorous and it was kept to the very highest marks generated by young people around the country. You couldn't just saunter into a BA while you faffed around and decided what you wanted to do. It was really, really tough to get into university. After it became a bums on seats model where you could pay and go if you wanted to, sure, it became more open so people were able to go to university even if they didn't have the very highest marks. Great. So that was a change in policy. But I do wish they'd keep, or at least remind people, that sure, loans were introduced replacing the free system, but it also meant that more people could go to university and get a tertiary education if they wanted one and if they were willing to pay for one. But anything that's going to help get back the billions of dollars those freeloaders refuse to pay back is a good thing. But do you know what? I can almost write the script on this one. Bear with me. National is re elected and as part of a coalition government introduces tough measures targeting overseas loan defaulters. Six months down the track, an extremely attractive young person working for a not for profit in London or Melbourne will have a mental health crisis. Their grieving family will point to the student loan debt as the catalyst for the mental health crisis and blame the heartless actions of a brutal centre right regime. A grim faced young reporter on the old man's news at 6:00pm will conclude with dire warnings of more mental health crises if the government doesn't pull back on its vicious crackdown of Aotearoa's best and brightest. That's One News. Can you not write the script? I mean, it won't be an unattractive person that they'll profile. There may well be mental health crises as people realise actually they're going to have to face their debt mountain. They're going to have to enter into negotiations with IRD. They're going to have to start paying it back. It is, it's tough. It will be tough. But anybody unattractive won't be profiled. It'll be somebody gorgeous who works for Greenpeace or Save the Panda or something. Something lovely. I can absolutely write the script. And I know how tough it is when you get behind on bills and payments, especially when you're young. I remember it well. It's a sick feeling in the pit of your stomach, a sense of hopelessness, I'll never be able to get on top of this, so why do I even try? But I also know that the only way you can overcome that mountain of debt is by tackling it head on and digging away at it one automatic payment at a time. Burying your head in the sand and hoping it goes away is not a strategy, certainly not for the best and the brightest, you'd think they'd know better. We have been trying for decades now to get these bludgers to pay back their loans. We've appealed to their better natures, to their patriotism. It is time now to get tough and finally we have a government that's committed to doing so. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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    6 分
  • Adina Thorn: Lawyer chats NZTA South Auckland property acquisition twist

    Adina Thorn: Lawyer chats NZTA South Auckland property acquisition twist
    2026/08/28

    A New Zealand Herald article a couple of weeks ago revealed 87 properties across South Auckland have either been purchased, are being purchased, or are earmarked for acquisition to make way for the Mill Road corridor.

    The properties collectively represent around $2 billion worth of taxpayer funded land acquisition.

    It was now revealed that NZTA has sent a number of householders within the affected area an email saying, "With no confirmed construction timing nor funding for Mill Road, we advise that NZTA will not be purchasing your property at Redoubt Road at the present time and will be formally withdrawing from negotiations. We appreciate the time you've taken negotiating with us in good faith and understand that this may not be the news that you were hoping for."

    Lawyer Adina Thorn is acting for people who have been waiting in limbo for their lands and homes to be acquired, and she joined Kerre Woodham to discuss.

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    10 分
  • Dr Tom Robinson: Senior Lecturer discusses the risk of events like Nepal's flood

    Dr Tom Robinson: Senior Lecturer discusses the risk of events like Nepal's flood
    2026/08/28

    Families are desperately waiting to hear from loved ones thought to be caught in the deadly flash flood and mudslide along the Nepal-Tibet border.

    Almost 400 people were killed in yesterday's torrent - caused by a glacial collapse and landslide, and hundreds remain missing including five New Zealanders.

    Dr Tom Robinson of the school of earth and environment at University of Canterbury joined Kerre Woodham to discuss how these events occur and the likelihood of one taking place in New Zealand.

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    10 分
  • Kerre Woodham: Politicians need to stop ruling out raising the fuel tax

    Kerre Woodham: Politicians need to stop ruling out raising the fuel tax
    2026/08/28
    Labour has jumped on the no new taxes bandwagon, promising that if they're elected, there'll be no increase on the fuel excise duty for their first term. I don't know why Labour and National don't just join forces and be done with it and leave the left hand side to the Greens, Te Pāti Māori and the Opportunity Party. The fuel excise duty is due to rise by 12 cents a litre from January, followed by a 6 cents per litre rise in 2028 4 cents per litre in subsequent years. The thing with taxes and excise duties, tariffs, whatever you want to call them, they provide an income. Without money coming in, as Transporting New Zealand pointed out, there'll be no money for new roads, for roading repair and maintenance, and any money saved from not having to pay more for petrol will show up in the cost of living through the increased price of goods because it's going to take longer for trucks to get places. The government's position is that it is unlikely the fuel excise duty will be increased in January, although there'll be discussion around the cabinet table and a decision will be announced soon. National's view is that the increase should be delayed. But the fuel excise duty is set at a flat rate per litre, currently around 70 cents, and that has meant that as inflation and the cost of petrol rises or falls, the excise duty stays the same, and in real terms it means the fuel excise duty has fallen by 21% since the last increase in 2020 while at the same time the cost of repairing and maintaining and building new roads has risen. Finance Minister Nicola Willis told Mike Hosking on the Mike Hosking Breakfast this morning that they don't want to raise the fuel tax at all, but they accept down the line they just might have to. We can't forever put it off. The current circumstances are not only the heightened oil price, but also we are still recovering from that heightened inflation that the oil price has come on, and we recognise that things are still very challenging for people. Ultimately, where we want to get to is that we've got growing economy, low inflation, and actually we can lift the petrol tax in small, modest, regular increments so that we know there is funding going in to maintain your local roads. Because the issue is, if you're not putting more money into roads, you get potholes everywhere, you get bridges that get washed away in major cyclones that can't be rebuilt, you get road closures that can't be fixed up. These are problems that occur for everyone. And so that's what we're conscious of. I think, you know, Chris Hipkins' policy yesterday, it's really just a fig leaf because we're putting him under heat on his tax plan. Like it or not, we need to pay taxes if we expect to keep services running and to build stuff. If we haven't got money coming in, then there isn't the money to spend on the services. And what it's kind of a trust, a pledge of faith between ourselves and the government. Yes, we will pay taxes, you will spend them wisely on the services that we as a community need. And I think we've been let down by successive governments in terms of how they've spent the money. They've spent it thoughtlessly, they've spent it carelessly, they've spent it on vanity projects, pet projects, all the things they accuse councils of doing, governments have done themselves. The last lot were just wanton in their irresponsible, irrational spending. Even taking into account the spending, the necessary spending that needed to be done during COVID, so much of it was wasted, and that's not coming from me, that is coming from my old boyfriend who was the Auditor General, whose comments I just loved, whose reports I just loved because he was able to get the information. He's not my boyfriend, that was in my mind. I just loved his reports, I loved the way he wrote and the way he pulled no punches. So you have an accord between the taxpayer and the government. We will pay taxes, you will spend it sensibly and wisely, and we have been let down, so I think we're a bit anti tax because of that. But we do need to contribute either through taxes, through duties, through tariffs, through GST, whatever you want to call it, we need to contribute to keep the country going. And a fuel tax seems to be one of the fairest. You can also see where it's going. A tax by consumption has always been the fairest way to tax. It's a bit like GST. The more you spend, the more GST you pay, and that seems about right. If you've got the money to spend, then we can take the GST off you. The more fuel I buy, the more road I'll be using, the more tax I will then pay to maintain the roads I'm using, and that seems fair. If you're somebody who does not drive, yes, you might have to pay a little bit more if the fuel tax goes up because the price of goods will go up, because perhaps the buses will go up, public transport, but only a little bit, and you won't have to pay as much as I do if I'm using petrol to get from point A to point B. Of all ...
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    6 分
  • Kerre Woodham: What will it take for public servants to be held accountable?

    Kerre Woodham: What will it take for public servants to be held accountable?
    2026/08/27

    What will it take for public servants to be held accountable for their most egregious mistakes? Not even talking the little faffy silly ones. We're talking really, really big mistakes. Never was a group of people more misnamed than public servants. The current generation are not servants of the public, for the most part – many of them appear to have absolute contempt for the public they are supposed to serve.

    The latest and perhaps the most salutary is the MBIE boss Nick Blakeley. The Privileges Committee has found that Blakeley and former Immigration New Zealand head Alison McDonald deliberately misled, what you and I might call lying, deliberately misled Parliament. And the Privileges Committee said their conduct was an insult to the public service. That is damning. The reason why, in a select committee hearing back in March, Blakeley and McDonald were asked about the progress of an expensive biometric upgrade program, and they failed to disclose that the project had already been cancelled. When the truth was revealed that the people responsible for the failed program had just kept going, just kept taking taxpayers' dollars knowing that the money was going to be wasted, when asked direct questions about it, they lied.

    Immigration Minister Erica Stanford was quite rightly apoplectic. Blakeley has offered his resignation to Public Service Commissioner Brian Roche, who rejected it on the basis that Blakeley had only been in the role six weeks. Yeah, but he lied, and so did Alison McDonald. And despite Blakeley uttering weasel words on Heather du Plessis Allan's show last night, explaining just how the lie came about, he should have been sacked.

    NB: The committee found that the incomplete information that we provided amounted to a contempt of Parliament, to deliberately misleading Parliament. That's extremely serious and I'm deeply disappointed that the ministry and myself have fallen well short of expectations. At the time, there were budget and commercial sensitivities that we understood couldn't be discussed in a public forum. We got that wrong, we should have taken a different approach. That's what I said to the Privileges Committee when I gave them evidence.

    HDPA: So you went to Brian Roche, and you said that you're prepared to quit, and he said don't?

    NB: I offered my resignation. He came to his judgment. He pointed out one of the factors.

    HDPA: What was his judgment, Nick? Did he say don't quit?

    NB: One of the factors that he took into account was that I hadn't long been in the role. That was also noted in the Privileges Committee.

    HDPA: Who cares? You're the one sitting there fibbing. That's the most important thing. Nick, did he say to you don't quit?

    NB: He said he thought that would be the wrong response and that he will be holding me account for how I respond and that is what I'm focused on doing now.

    HDPA: Yeah, well, that's disappointing. I think you should have quit because how are we going to know next time that you're telling the truth or just giving us a Nick special?

    NB: Look, I have accepted the finding, I've apologised, I'm fronting up and I'm going to be fixing it. We're going to be much better prepared in future for select committees.

    God, I love my colleague. While I do believe that nothing short of a public flogging in the town square will begin to drive the message home to public servants that they need to be more accountable, more responsible, more careful in how they spend our money, more like the private sector and taking ownership for snafus, until the public floggings begin, a good grilling from Heather du Plessis Allan will do as a good down payment. No wonder she's the broadcaster of the year, second year running. A "Nick Special" may well enter the lexicon as a euphemism for a lie.

    We think 'Gliding On' and 'Yes Minister' are clever, funny comedies from yesteryear, but public service incompetence, public service lies, public service cover ups, public service treating ministers like children, it's alive and well. And when it involves the wasting of so much taxpayer money, when it involves complete and utter contempt of Parliament, nothing my Minister needs to worry her pretty little head about, I'll deal with this, throwing good money after bad so your own incompetence is not exposed, when you're asked directly about it, you lie, when it involves bringing the good hard working members of the public service into disrepute, there is nothing bloody funny about it.

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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    5 分
  • Kerre Woodham: A rates cap won't suddenly balance council books

    Kerre Woodham: A rates cap won't suddenly balance council books
    2026/08/26

    The Government has decided it will cap annual council rate increases at 4%. We've been talking about it for more than a year now, but the cap will take effect in 2029 – councils will need to consider the cap from next year. Local Government Minister Simon Watts told Mike Hosking the reason for it was to ease pressure on households, and although the national average will be savings of just $34 a week, Simon Watts said for many ratepayers the cap will be meaningful.

    "The key of $34 is across the country, but if you're living in Waitaki, down the bottom of the South with a 17% increase, that's a $600 increase on an average bill of three and a half grand, and you know, that's not immaterial by any stretch. And also then you've got to think about the compounding as well. You know, as these bills increase, three numbers: 14.2% increase last year, 9.2% average increase in rates this year, under us it's going to be 4% going forward. That's going to be the limit, and if you think about the compounding effect of that over years, that's some pretty big savings over a 5 to 10 year period for a household."

    As I say, we've been talking about a rates cap ever since National got into office – I still don't think it's a good idea. If a council doesn't know how to budget properly, a rates cap, having less money coming into the coffers, is not going to suddenly make them sound husbands of the ratepayer dollar overnight. They're not going to be able to balance their books all of a sudden just because they have less money coming in. And yes, I'm sure we can all think of barking mad vanity projects that our rates money's been spent on, and that incenses us but the Australian experience shows us that a rates cap will see reduced services, delayed infrastructure repairs, and outdated facilities. Duh, of course it will. There's been a rates cap in some Australian states for around 40 years, and work just gets deferred and deferred and deferred or not done at all.

    And if the political aim of a rates cap for local government is to ease the financial pressure on households, impose fiscal discipline, and get back to the basics of what councils should be doing, why don't we have a tax cap right back at you, central government? How about you lead by example? I'd really love to see the central government impose fiscal discipline and get back to the basics rather than the nice to haves and the glory vanity projects.

    Are you for or against a rate cap? In some ways it'd be lovely to see a tiered approach to rates given that we've got away from the sense of community where we give a bit so that others might gain. You could have economy, premium economy, and business rates. Economy, you get the absolute bare minimum, but it means you don't get access to swimming pools, libraries, art galleries, and we'll fence off the playgrounds and the beaches, and you'll have to pay to get in. It's not a serious suggestion, but something will have to give.

    As Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown said last year, putting a cap on rates is not going to solve anything. It will just defer it for a couple of years, then in the end, when it has to be done, ratepayers will be paying even more. He says councils are faced with making decisions that involve significant investment and should not be restricted by governments telling us what we can and cannot do. So are you Team Simon Watts or Team Wayne Brown? Are you for the rates cap or are you saying this is just going to be deferred expense and a bleaker, less enjoyable community in which to live?

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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    4 分