A new report from Retail NZ has revealed the state of retail crime in New Zealand - 99% of the membership of Retail NZ has experienced some form of crime or antisocial behaviour in 2023/24, that's up from 93% the year prior.

I remember thinking that's a lot, National want to be working on that because they were very strong in opposition and in the election campaign saying they were going to get tough on retail crime – it seems to have got worse. It ranges from credit card fraud, shoplifting, threatening behaviour, criminal damage, or physical assault. Retail NZ’s membership recorded 140,746 incidents of retail crime over that period.

What I find really interesting from the report is that almost 40% of those retail crimes were not reported to police. There were a range of reasons why respondents didn't report to police. Apparently it was because of low value items not being worth the effort, the retailer discovered the offence too late, or they dealt with it directly. There were also concerns that what was the point? What was the point of telling the police? Nothing's going to happen.

I would love to know from retailers at what point do you give up caring? 40% of retail crimes are not reported to police. That's a hell of a lot. When do you reach the stage of simply shrugging your shoulders and saying, what are you going to do about it? Have you become so inured to retail crime, to abusive language, to people just putting something in their pocket or putting something in their bag and walking out, you're like, well another day?

I remember Chris Quinn from Foodstuffs when we were talking about people walking out with trolleys full of groceries. And I said, well, why don't you put in the measures that people have told me about overseas, where you scan your receipt and then the gates open, and your trolley and you, can walk out. If you don't have a receipt, the gates don't open – make it jolly hard to walk out with a trolley full of groceries. He said, I just don't think the public could put up with that. Yeah, we would, wouldn't we? I thought that was a really defeatist attitude. He said, you know, the majority shouldn't be punished for the minor, obviously, but I mean that is the way society works. We have rules and legislation to cater to the numpties and the low lifes and the stupid and the criminal.

I personally don't mind putting my receipt to a scanner and having the gates open if it means that some arrogant arse is prevented from walking out with a trolley full of groceries and sticking two fingers to us all. I really don't mind. It would be minimal in terms of hassle, in terms of hold up. The same would be true of many retail security measures. It makes more sense to have security measures in shops and supermarkets than it does at the airport. Me taking my boots off does not help us find the Malaysian Airlines plane that crashed. It makes more sense to me to be held up slightly at the supermarket, ever so slightly if it means that people aren't getting away with it.

They seem to take great delight in it, and that's what annoys me. We've got to have a zero tolerance policy to this sort of retail crime. And that means you and I have to be part of the solution. It's not just retailers, it's not just police that are going to make a difference. It's when you and I are willing to accept a little bit of inconvenience to tell the toerags and the freeloaders and the criminals that up with this we will no longer put. Draw a line in the sand and for once let the good guys prevail.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I don't know if you caught the story over the weekend - Ngāpuhi, the iwi of Northland, are calling for police to round up the drug dealers in Northland using the same strong tactics they used in drug raids on Ōpōtiki last year.

You'll remember there was criticism of how the police dealt with some of the individuals in Ōpōtiki, mainly coming from the individuals and their families themselves. Now Ngāpuhi is saying bring it on. The leader of the country's largest iwi, Mane Tahere, said he asked the Police Minister for decisive action after recently seeing a group of youngsters smoking a meth pipe in broad daylight in the Main Street of Kaikohe, just down the road from the police station.

As somebody who has been going to the Far North for the past eight or nine years, I've certainly seen a change for the worse in Kaihohe. There are tiny little fragile grass shoots of hope, but the meth is a huge problem there, an absolutely huge problem.

Locals in Opononi stand outside the local dairy, the local shops on benefit day to try and stop the dealers from getting to the kids first. The community is trying to do what it can to stop the dealers getting a strong hold in the community, to try and thwart their attempts to get more young people hooked on the drug. But they are a tiny, tiny, tiny bastion against what is a multimillion-dollar business.

The cold, harsh reality is that Northland has the highest consumption of methamphetamine in New Zealand. Nearly 2000milligrammes per day consumed per 1000 people. And Mane Tahere has said we are doing what we can as a community, as an iwi, as a people but we can't do it on our own and we need the police to step in. He said a crackdown isn't the solution to all problems in Northland but it's a major part. He knows he is calling down a whole heap of criticism on his head by asking the police to step in, but he says our hard, staunch kind of hate for the police is not the future.

Compare his pragmatic, proactive hard line on drugs with the words of Green MP Tamatha Paul. You'll remember she criticised Wellington's beat patrols. She accused the police of rounding up the homeless, without providing any evidence other than the musings of a couple of street people themselves. She said some people felt less safe because of the police’s presence.

Right. This is a very bright young woman, Tamatha Paul has won numerous scholarships for academic excellence. She has graduated with the Masters in Resource and Environmental Planning. This is a very bright young woman talking to other very bright young people on a university campus, postulating and theorising and coming up with all sorts of grand plans about how a different world could look, and that's what you do at a university when you're young, when you're bright, when you've got all the answers, when you're at a peace action conference. You have the luxury of theorising.

I would venture to suggest most of the young people there were just like Tamatha Paul. They may not have started in a world of privilege, but they've taken the opportunities offered to them, they've worked to realise a future for themselves. And that's a future that looks very, very different to the lives of the same young people in Kaikohe. The sort of people that Mane Tahere is trying to help every single day.

He knows to combat the absolute evil of drugs, his people don't need to read another thesis on colonisation, Hauora and whenua in Aotearoa published in 2019, among many. He knows what they need are not the academics, but addiction and rehab specialists. They need to keep up that community involvement, that community fight against the drugs. And they desperately, desperately need police boots on the ground.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The leader of the country's largest iwi is calling for the police to crackdown on drug dealers and methamphetamine use in Northland.

It comes as a group of young people were caught smoking a meth pipe in broad daylight in Kaikohe.

Northland MP Grant McCullum says locals need something constructive to do during the day.

"We've got to commit to helping these people get into the habit of getting out of bed in the mornings and going to work."

LISTEN ABOVE.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The leader of the country's largest iwi is calling for the police to crackdown on drug dealers and methamphetamine use in Northland.

Ngāpuhi leader, Mane Tahere says he saw a group of youngsters smoking a meth pipe in daylight on the main street of Kaikohe - just down the road from the police station.

He's met with Police Minister Mark Mitchell - asking authorities to use tactics similar to the drug raids carried out in Opotiki last year.

Police Minister Mark Mitchell talks to Kerre Woodham about the issue.

LISTEN ABOVE.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

David Seymour is absolutely on the money with his call to cut the number of ministers in Cabinet and outside of Cabinet. In his speech yesterday, he proposed capping the number of ministers at 20 —currently there are 28— and scrapping the position of minister outside of Cabinet.

“Right now, there are ministers that have seven different departments. There are departments such as MBIE that answer to 19 different ministers. There are portfolios, just to give you one example, not to pick on it, but the Minister for Auckland that Labour created – there's no Auckland department, there's no Auckland vote in the budget, it's just a made-up thing, frankly. And I think that really, we should be moving to a world where each department has only one Minister, no portfolios exist unless they have an actual department with a budget and a thing to do, and there should be no ministers outside of the Cabinet, everyone should be sitting around the same table. That's going to take a lot of people making a concession, but if we could get there, I think the whole thing would just get stuff done faster.”

Couldn't agree more. I've always seen the roles of Minister for Women, Minister for the Voluntary Sector, Minister for Auckland, Minister for the South Island, sops to lobby groups. As David Seymour said in his speech, it's symbolism. Portfolios, he said, should not be handed out like participation trophies.

Could not agree more. Michael Wood was made Minister for Auckland at the beginning of 2023 in Chris Hipkins government. Did he do anything? No. Did he have any power? Not really, no. As David Seymour said, there's no budget. So why create it? Because Chris Hipkins realised he needed to get Auckland back on side after the Covid response, after the crime waves that affected so many retailers in Auckland. It was a sorry guys, here's a Minister for Auckland we prepared earlier. Didn't work, too little, too late. Later on in ‘23, the red wall crumbled in Auckland and Labour strongholds went to National. Labour knows they need to win them back and Chris Hipkins understands they need to do more than appoint an Auckland spokesperson, but I suppose it's a start.

Not everybody sees them as a waste of time – when the very sound James Meager was made Minister for the South Island, the Ashburton Mayor Neil Brown said it was a good move. South Island councils had told the government they felt their voice wasn't being heard, having a local MP promoted to minister outside of cabinet would provide a more direct connection with Wellington. Again, I don't think there's any real merit in having a minister for the South Island other than as a sop to South Islanders. You think we neglect you? You think Auckland's getting all the attention here? He is a minister, a fine young man we prepared earlier, have a Minister!

In fact, everybody have a Minister! Minister for Hospitality, Minister for Racing, Minister for the Voluntary Sector. It nullifies the effect of having a Minister. If you don't have a budget and you don't have a vote, what is the point? If you make everybody a head prefect, what is the point? It devalues the position. It might make the minister themselves feel a little bit better, a little bit special, but if everybody's special, nobody is. The only good reason, perhaps to have a minister for anything, other than as a sop, is because you do have fine young talents like James Meager who are given a bit more responsibility. But are they? It's like an apprenticeship for becoming a real minister. It's an absolute nonsense.

I couldn't agree with David Seymour more. We've had our disagreements in the past and this one I'm absolutely on board with them. There should not be a minister unless they have a budget and something to do. And government departments should only have one minister to report to, not 19. How could anybody argue with what David Seymour has proposed?

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A Hawke’s Bay group is helping households tackle food waste.

An average of 130,000 tonnes of food is wasted each year in New Zealand – 86kgs per household, resulting in $1326 down the drain.

Every Bite is a four-week programme run by Sustainable Hawke’s Bay, designed to help households become more food resourceful and reduce waste.

Acting General Manager Sam Paterson told Kerre Woodham the programme is teaching a variety of things – not only how to cook, but how to substitute ingredients, and make new things.

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Government has set a deadline for the new Interisland ferries.

Two new ferries are due to arrive in 2029, and the wharf currently home to the Aratere ferry is set to be demolished within a year to make room for infrastructure that can support the new ships.

Ferry Holdings Ltd has initiated discussions with KiwiRail and the Port of Marlborough to understand the infrastructure required to meet the deadline.

Chair Chris Mackenzie joined Kerre Woodham to delve into what is being planned for the ports.

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Can you copyright a recipe?

Two Australian cookbook authors are clashing over claims of plagiarised recipes.

Nagi Maehashi, who runs the popular food blog RecipeTin Eats, says influencer Brooke Bellamy's new cookbook ‘Bake with Brooki’ contains uncannily similar ingredients, quantities, and instructions for a caramel slice and baklava.

Food writer and cookbook Author Allyson Gofton told Kerre Woodham that since baking doesn’t differ that much on a basic level, where copyright would come into the argument would be in the method and how it’s written.

She says that unless the text is copied word for word, it would be very hard to prove, especially for classics like baklava.

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.