Christopher Luxon joined Kerre Woodham for an hour of talkback, taking questions from listeners and delving into their plans for the upcoming months.

The Prime Minister says our housing development has been running like it's 1975. 

The Housing Minister is today announcing planning changes agreed by Cabinet in an effort to address the housing crisis.

It will reform council powers on urban boundaries, liberalise planning, and require councils to plan for 30-years of growth.

Christopher Luxon told Kerre Woodham that he recently opened a great build-to rent-development in Auckland's Sylvia Park. 

He says we've ended up in a crisis because we haven't evolved laws to unlock those kinds of developments, or to encourage investment in build to rent programmes.

With politics heating up all over the world, Luxon is keeping his thoughts about major overseas elections to himself. 

Democrat US President Joe Biden and former Republican President Donald Trump are facing off again on the 2024 election campaign trail. 

Meanwhile, people vote today in the UK on whether to support Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's Conservatives or flip to Labour and Keir Starmer. 

Luxon told Kerre he can work with either Biden or Trump. 

He says it's his job to advance New Zealand's interests, and he will do the same in the UK with Sunak or Starmer.

LISTEN ABOVE

Christopher Luxon joined Kerre Woodham for an hour of talkback, taking questions from listeners and delving into their plans for the upcoming months. 
The Prime Minister says our housing development has been running like it's 1975.  
The Housing Minister is today announcing planning changes agreed by Cabinet in an effort to address the housing crisis. 
It will reform council powers on urban boundaries, liberalise planning, and require councils to plan for 30-years of growth. 
Christopher Luxon told Kerre Woodham that he recently opened a great build-to rent-development in Auckland's Sylvia Park.  
He says we've ended up in a crisis because we haven't evolved laws to unlock those kinds of developments, or to encourage investment in build to rent programmes. 
With politics heating up all over the world, Luxon is keeping his thoughts about major overseas elections to himself.  
Democrat US President Joe Biden and former Republican President Donald Trump are facing off again on the 2024 election campaign trail.  
Meanwhile, people vote today in the UK on whether to support Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's Conservatives or flip to Labour and Keir Starmer.  
Luxon told Kerre he can work with either Biden or Trump.  
He says it's his job to advance New Zealand's interests, and he will do the same in the UK with Sunak or Starmer. 
LISTEN ABOVE

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

Kerre Woodham Mornings Podcast

Christopher Luxon takes talkback on Kerre Woodham Mornings

I may not have been flying to Brazil, but it took me almost as long to get from the North Shore to Auckland city on Friday night.

There was a serious crash just before the Harbour Bridge and as fate would have it, I was due to meet friends to go to the Chelsea Handler show. Had I known what Chelsea Handler was going to be like, I wouldn't have made the effort. I'm sure she was all very risky and shocking and wowseballs when she first came on the scene, but it was all a bit dull really.

But never mind, at least I have an opinion - and it was a night out and you meet your people.

But an hour and a half to get there in what would normally be a 25 minute trip? An hour and a half. It would be great to have a better alternative than a 1 hour 30 minute trip into town when something happens.

I can't see a second Harbour Bridge in my lifetime, or indeed the lifetime of the next two generations, but bring on the Roads of National Significance. Seven roads are being fast tracked and they may well be tolled to help pay for them.

It will be up to NZTA to decide whether and which roads will be tolled, but the Transport Minister, Simeon Brown supports a user pays approach.

We're open to all types of funding and financing arrangements to get infrastructure built in New Zealand. The reality of the country is that we have an infrastructure deficit. We have had six years where we've had nothing done and we need to get actually make things, get things done faster in New Zealand.

And so we've said all options are on the table to get infrastructure built faster in New Zealand and that's why we're putting fast track on the table because otherwise these roads would take years to get consented.

New Zealanders are sick and tired of how long it takes to get anything done in New Zealand and as a Government we are we're frustrated about the time it takes that we're breaking through all of those barriers so we can get things done in New Zealand.

Yes, what he said.

I mean, maybe not all New Zealanders are frustrated at the length of time, but I am. I'm frustrated and annoyed that in six years, there was no progress made. And I don't have a problem at all with having tolls on some roads because by law, an alternative must be offered.

So, if you don't want to pay the toll, you don't have to. You don't like tolled roads? Don't drive on them. Really simple.

Perhaps Tauranga listeners are in a better place to judge, though. I mean I have no problem at all with paying the toll going north. The road is fantastic and it makes a difference when it's open.

So no problem at all with that, because if I didn't want to pay it or felt like taking the scenic route, I could. But perhaps Tauranga is a better place to judge because they have two of the three tolled roads in the country in their district. So perhaps you might be able to offer an insight into what it's like to have the toll roads more than I.

I only travel up there every few months and I'm very grateful and happy to pay my $5 or whatever it is for the round trip. But these roads have been in the planning for a decade. Let's get cracking.

And absolutely we should just fast track it and get going. A number of the projects have already had the lion's share of the work needed done on them.

So all the work was done – costings, measurements, soil engineering, preliminary reports - all ready to go, and then they were shelved and left to gather dust under the previous administration. Communities change in 10 years, so NZTA said they'd have to go back and take a look and see whether some changes were needed, but they won't be starting from scratch.

The soil composition is not going to change in ten years. Belfast to Pegasus, Hawke's Bay expressway, SH 1 Cambridge to Piarere, SH 29 Tauriko, Takitimu Northlink Stage 2, Mill Road and Warkworth to Wellsford. Bring it on!

LISTEN ABOVE

I may not have been flying to Brazil, but it took me almost as long to get from the North Shore to Auckland city on Friday night.
There was a serious crash just before the Harbour Bridge and as fate would have it, I was due to meet friends to go to the Chelsea Handler show. Had I known what Chelsea Handler was going to be like, I wouldn't have made the effort. I'm sure she was all very risky and shocking and wowseballs when she first came on the scene, but it was all a bit dull really.
But never mind, at least I have an opinion - and it was a night out and you meet your people.
But an hour and a half to get there in what would normally be a 25 minute trip? An hour and a half. It would be great to have a better alternative than a 1 hour 30 minute trip into town when something happens.
I can't see a second Harbour Bridge in my lifetime, or indeed the lifetime of the next two generations, but bring on the Roads of National Significance. Seven roads are being fast tracked and they may well be tolled to help pay for them.
It will be up to NZTA to decide whether and which roads will be tolled, but the Transport Minister, Simeon Brown supports a user pays approach.
We're open to all types of funding and financing arrangements to get infrastructure built in New Zealand. The reality of the country is that we have an infrastructure deficit. We have had six years where we've had nothing done and we need to get actually make things, get things done faster in New Zealand.
And so we've said all options are on the table to get infrastructure built faster in New Zealand and that's why we're putting fast track on the table because otherwise these roads would take years to get consented.
New Zealanders are sick and tired of how long it takes to get anything done in New Zealand and as a Government we are we're frustrated about the time it takes that we're breaking through all of those barriers so we can get things done in New Zealand.
Yes, what he said.
I mean, maybe not all New Zealanders are frustrated at the length of time, but I am. I'm frustrated and annoyed that in six years, there was no progress made. And I don't have a problem at all with having tolls on some roads because by law, an alternative must be offered.
So, if you don't want to pay the toll, you don't have to. You don't like tolled roads? Don't drive on them. Really simple.
Perhaps Tauranga listeners are in a better place to judge, though. I mean I have no problem at all with paying the toll going north. The road is fantastic and it makes a difference when it's open.
So no problem at all with that, because if I didn't want to pay it or felt like taking the scenic route, I could. But perhaps Tauranga is a better place to judge because they have two of the three tolled roads in the country in their district. So perhaps you might be able to offer an insight into what it's like to have the toll roads more than I.
I only travel up there every few months and I'm very grateful and happy to pay my $5 or whatever it is for the round trip. But these roads have been in the planning for a decade. Let's get cracking.
And absolutely we should just fast track it and get going. A number of the projects have already had the lion's share of the work needed done on them.
So all the work was done – costings, measurements, soil engineering, preliminary reports - all ready to go, and then they were shelved and left to gather dust under the previous administration. Communities change in 10 years, so NZTA said they'd have to go back and take a look and see whether some changes were needed, but they won't be starting from scratch.
The soil composition is not going to change in ten years. Belfast to Pegasus, Hawke's Bay expressway, SH 1 Cambridge to Piarere, SH 29 Tauriko, Takitimu Northlink Stage 2, Mill Road and Warkworth to Wellsford. Bring it on!
LISTEN ABOVE

Kerre Woodham: I don't have a problem with road tolls

Two billion dollars was poured into mental health by the previous administration, and it just proves that chucking money at a problem doesn't solve it. The Mental Health Foundation at the time was sceptical that the huge boost in funding would be spent in the right areas. Education about maintaining and boosting mental health and well-being, they said, should be just as important as the services needed when people are in crisis. But the government was more about funding the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff. 

So what was the result of that huge investment in mental health? Nearly half a decade later what do we have for that money? Well, as many of you know, it's now harder than ever to see a counsellor or a psychologist, even privately, even if you've got the money to see them privately, you'll be waiting. Workforce shortages continue to cripple existing services and impede the rollout of new ones. When it comes to hospital beds, well, acutely unwell mental health patients will still find themselves in a makeshift bed in a staff room, or on a hospital ward not fit for purpose. Resources are so stretched that children harming or starving themselves are typically only admitted if they've tried to take their own life. It's been like that for some time. In several regions, young people in crisis are having to wait twice as long as they did five years ago to see a specialist mental health service. And that's with $2 billion poured into the sector. 

Meanwhile, research shows the mental health and well-being of New Zealanders has been in decline over the last decade, while the number of adults unable to get help for their mental distress or substance abuse has risen. Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey is hoping to turn that around, (and good luck to him) with five mental health and addiction targets announced yesterday with some funding. And promising that there would be a big focus on prevention and early intervention and that's a focus mental health campaigner Sir John Kirwan supports.



“Look, there's three things that are really, really important for me. You cannot centralise mental health, so it needs to be a community issue. I travel the country, there's some amazing people in the community that are doing great mental health work so we need to finance them. The second thing is we've got to start talking about preventative mental health, how do we stop pushing people off the cliff? And you know, I think what this government has said, if we give 10 million this year and these people come back to us and say this is working in the community, you know, we've got this program that's working. Here's the proof. They're going to extend on that money. So community is where it's at. And if you're out there and you've got these programs in place where you know you're making a difference in mental health, then I would say apply for it. Innovation is the word we need. You know, this is a worldwide problem here, as you know. I mean there there's 800,000 people committed suicide last year, so this is a crisis around the world and our beautiful little country is way up there in the bad stats. So what we've been doing and I don't think this is anyone's fault, what we've been doing is not working so we need to try and attack this differently. So innovation, giving money to the community, then proving back that it works and then giving them more money is definitely what I think we should be doing.”



That was Sir John Kirwan talking to Heather du Plessis Allan last night. So I'd love to hear from those of you who have been trying to get help for a loved one, trying to get help for yourself. What's the wait time? What are the treatments offered to you if you do finally get to see someone. And for those who are initiating community responses, for those who are trying to help out on a local level, I would love to hear from you as well. What are you doing that's different? How are you helping? You know we tried with the gangs to see if it worked putting money with gang members, because they can reach the hard to reach people. I think at best you would say the results were indeterminate from Harry Tam’s programme. But I would very much like to hear from those who have been trying to access support or help for someone they love or for themselves. And I'd love to hear from any initiatives that actually work, they might be little, they might be small, they might be bespoke, but they might be working.

Two billion dollars was poured into mental health by the previous administration, and it just proves that chucking money at a problem doesn't solve it. The Mental Health Foundation at the time was sceptical that the huge boost in funding would be spent in the right areas. Education about maintaining and boosting mental health and well-being, they said, should be just as important as the services needed when people are in crisis. But the government was more about funding the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff.  
So what was the result of that huge investment in mental health? Nearly half a decade later what do we have for that money? Well, as many of you know, it's now harder than ever to see a counsellor or a psychologist, even privately, even if you've got the money to see them privately, you'll be waiting. Workforce shortages continue to cripple existing services and impede the rollout of new ones. When it comes to hospital beds, well, acutely unwell mental health patients will still find themselves in a makeshift bed in a staff room, or on a hospital ward not fit for purpose. Resources are so stretched that children harming or starving themselves are typically only admitted if they've tried to take their own life. It's been like that for some time. In several regions, young people in crisis are having to wait twice as long as they did five years ago to see a specialist mental health service. And that's with $2 billion poured into the sector.  
Meanwhile, research shows the mental health and well-being of New Zealanders has been in decline over the last decade, while the number of adults unable to get help for their mental distress or substance abuse has risen. Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey is hoping to turn that around, (and good luck to him) with five mental health and addiction targets announced yesterday with some funding. And promising that there would be a big focus on prevention and early intervention and that's a focus mental health campaigner Sir John Kirwan supports. 
 
“Look, there's three things that are really, really important for me. You cannot centralise mental health, so it needs to be a community issue. I travel the country, there's some amazing people in the community that are doing great mental health work so we need to finance them. The second thing is we've got to start talking about preventative mental health, how do we stop pushing people off the cliff? And you know, I think what this government has said, if we give 10 million this year and these people come back to us and say this is working in the community, you know, we've got this program that's working. Here's the proof. They're going to extend on that money. So community is where it's at. And if you're out there and you've got these programs in place where you know you're making a difference in mental health, then I would say apply for it. Innovation is the word we need. You know, this is a worldwide problem here, as you know. I mean there there's 800,000 people committed suicide last year, so this is a crisis around the world and our beautiful little country is way up there in the bad stats. So what we've been doing and I don't think this is anyone's fault, what we've been doing is not working so we need to try and attack this differently. So innovation, giving money to the community, then proving back that it works and then giving them more money is definitely what I think we should be doing.” 
 
That was Sir John Kirwan talking to Heather du Plessis Allan last night. So I'd love to hear from those of you who have been trying to get help for a loved one, trying to get help for yourself. What's the wait time? What are the treatments offered to you if you do finally get to see someone. And for those who are initiating community responses, for those who are trying to help out on a local level, I would love to hear from you as well. What are you doing that's different? How are you helping? You know we tried with the gangs to see if it worked putting money with gang members, because they can reach the hard to reach people. I think at best you would say the results were indeterminate from Harry Tam’s programme. But I would very much like to hear from those who have been trying to access support or help for someone they love or for themselves. And I'd love to hear from any initiatives that actually work, they might be little, they might be small, they might be bespoke, but they might be working.

Kerre Woodham: What is working in our mental health sector?

The Government will officially announce this morning a plan “to flood the market” with land for development in a bid to end New Zealand's housing crisis. Chris Bishop will use a speech to the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand later this morning, to announce a slew of changes to New Zealand's planning laws.  He wants to flood the market with affordable land to develop and to make it easier and cheaper to develop that land into housing as he told Mike Hosking this morning.



CB: We're going to let cities grow, Mike, it's really important. We've got a housing crisis. We need to allow our cities to grow. We need to get rid of the Auckland metropolitan urban limit. Let Auckland grow out at the fringe, but also do sensible density around transit corridors and around our train stations. More apartments by train stations, more mixed-use zoning, let our cities grow and get on top of this multi-generational problem of housing affordability.

MH: Is this mainly metropolitan? Rural New Zealand, provincial New Zealand doesn't really need to worry about any of this, cause it's not really a problem for them or not?

CB: Yeah, what we call tier one and two cities, so Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch, Hamilton, Tauranga, we're not talking about provincial and, and regional rural councils, you know, they've got growth ambitions as well, but we're really talking about our big cities.  



Excellent. We need more homes. The lack of affordable housing has left a generation feeling locked out of home ownership and the lack of social housing has led to a myriad of social problems. 

But. But. But. There must be protections for future homeowners around the quality of the builds for the community, for all of us who call a city home. Just look around Auckland City if you've visited, if you live here, so many of the apartments chucked up in the 90s are aesthetically abhorrent. They are not fit for purpose. There was no thought put into building them, just chucking them up to basically factory farm people. There must be some rules around what developers can build and how they build. Green spaces, community spaces, homes, just as a basic, that don't leak or have bits drop off into the street. Parkwood Apartments, City Garden Apartments, Victopia, Harbour Oaks, The Pulse, Westmount, St Lukes Gardens, Stonefield villas, that is on the first 2 seconds of a Google search of Auckland apartments that need to be remediated. And the human misery that goes along with sinking your money into a spanking new apartment, only to have it fall around your ears a decade later cannot be overestimated. 

So fine, do quality apartments with community spaces, green spaces, that allow for people to live in them. Not just shelter overnight but to live in them. And to live in them for as long as they want, not have to move out while dangerous buildings are repaired. There has got to be some comeback on the developers. So that is one concern. 

The other is the idea of moving beyond the city limits. I mean, Auckland is a great sprawling metropolis anyway, it's just about at Hamilton already. Wellington, the geography sort of precludes you from sprawling, but you're certainly inching your way out there. Urban areas expanded by 15% from 1996 to 2018, with 83% of that land converted from farmland. The area of highly productive land lost to housing increased by 54% between 2002 and 2019. And market pressures (this is a story from 2021) will increase with more demand as the population grows here and overseas. Only about 15% of land is flat with good soil and climate, that makes it ideal for food production, which means it needs lesser irrigation and fertilizers. The Ministry for the Environment said if productive land was not available for agriculture, it forced less suitable areas to be used, requiring more fertilizer and more irrigation, which could then hurt the wider environment. 

I am absolutely not against building more homes, building more apartments, building more houses, we have to, there's no two ways about it, but we have to do it properly. We have to recognise that if we don't do it well, all we're doing is taping up a problem in the short term, while creating a much, much bigger problem down the line. And I think future generations will have more than enough to deal with, without us giving them even more problems.

The Government will officially announce this morning a plan “to flood the market” with land for development in a bid to end New Zealand's housing crisis. Chris Bishop will use a speech to the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand later this morning, to announce a slew of changes to New Zealand's planning laws.  He wants to flood the market with affordable land to develop and to make it easier and cheaper to develop that land into housing as he told Mike Hosking this morning. 
 
CB: We're going to let cities grow, Mike, it's really important. We've got a housing crisis. We need to allow our cities to grow. We need to get rid of the Auckland metropolitan urban limit. Let Auckland grow out at the fringe, but also do sensible density around transit corridors and around our train stations. More apartments by train stations, more mixed-use zoning, let our cities grow and get on top of this multi-generational problem of housing affordability. 
MH: Is this mainly metropolitan? Rural New Zealand, provincial New Zealand doesn't really need to worry about any of this, cause it's not really a problem for them or not? 
CB: Yeah, what we call tier one and two cities, so Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch, Hamilton, Tauranga, we're not talking about provincial and, and regional rural councils, you know, they've got growth ambitions as well, but we're really talking about our big cities.   
 
Excellent. We need more homes. The lack of affordable housing has left a generation feeling locked out of home ownership and the lack of social housing has led to a myriad of social problems.  
But. But. But. There must be protections for future homeowners around the quality of the builds for the community, for all of us who call a city home. Just look around Auckland City if you've visited, if you live here, so many of the apartments chucked up in the 90s are aesthetically abhorrent. They are not fit for purpose. There was no thought put into building them, just chucking them up to basically factory farm people. There must be some rules around what developers can build and how they build. Green spaces, community spaces, homes, just as a basic, that don't leak or have bits drop off into the street. Parkwood Apartments, City Garden Apartments, Victopia, Harbour Oaks, The Pulse, Westmount, St Lukes Gardens, Stonefield villas, that is on the first 2 seconds of a Google search of Auckland apartments that need to be remediated. And the human misery that goes along with sinking your money into a spanking new apartment, only to have it fall around your ears a decade later cannot be overestimated.  
So fine, do quality apartments with community spaces, green spaces, that allow for people to live in them. Not just shelter overnight but to live in them. And to live in them for as long as they want, not have to move out while dangerous buildings are repaired. There has got to be some comeback on the developers. So that is one concern.  
The other is the idea of moving beyond the city limits. I mean, Auckland is a great sprawling metropolis anyway, it's just about at Hamilton already. Wellington, the geography sort of precludes you from sprawling, but you're certainly inching your way out there. Urban areas expanded by 15% from 1996 to 2018, with 83% of that land converted from farmland. The area of highly productive land lost to housing increased by 54% between 2002 and 2019. And market pressures (this is a story from 2021) will increase with more demand as the population grows here and overseas. Only about 15% of land is flat with good soil and climate, that makes it ideal for food production, which means it needs lesser irrigation and fertilizers. The Ministry for the Environment said if productive land was not available for agriculture, it forced less suitable areas to be used, requiring more fertilizer and more irrigation, which could then hurt the wider environment.  
I am absolutely not against building more homes, building more apartments, building more houses, we have to, there's no two ways about it, but we have to do it properly. We have to recognise that if we don't do it well, all we're doing is taping up a problem in the short term, while creating a much, much bigger problem down the line. And I think future generations will have more than enough to deal with, without us giving them even more problems.

Christopher Luxon takes talkback on Kerre Woodham Mornings

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