Fear the cost of living crisis may be getting worse for Aucklanders following the super city's largest ever rates increase.  

The 7.9% rise will see the average ratepayer's bill increase by $320 a year.  

The Auckland Ratepayer's Alliance says the council's budget is bloated and it needs to focus on cutting costs, and they already hear from people on fixed incomes and pensioners struggling to make ends meet.  

Age Brightly’s Hannah McQueen joined Kerre Woodham to discuss some of the options available for those on fixed incomes, who might struggle with the increase. 

LISTEN ABOVE 

Fear the cost of living crisis may be getting worse for Aucklanders following the super city's largest ever rates increase. &nbsp;
The 7.9% rise will see the average ratepayer's bill increase by $320 a year. &nbsp;
The Auckland Ratepayer's Alliance says the council's budget is bloated and it needs to focus on cutting costs, and they already hear from people on fixed incomes and pensioners struggling to make ends meet. &nbsp;
Age Brightly’s Hannah McQueen joined Kerre Woodham to discuss some of the options available for those on fixed incomes, who might struggle with the increase.&nbsp;
LISTEN ABOVE&nbsp;

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

Hannah McQueen: Age Brightly Founder discusses options for those with fixed incomes struggling with rates increases

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/7784f840-c291-422a-924b-ad9000bbad71/clips/58fa0b8c-ff68-40ba-bbe5-b457000d6795/transcript

Labour leader Chris Hipkins says smaller parties shouldn't be able to veto National and Labour working together, as he eyes greater bipartisanship. 

This term, the two major parties have sided together on issues like the Indian free trade deal, a social media ban for under-16s, and modern slavery legislation. 

Hipkins told Kerre Woodham there's more work to do on issues like infrastructure and climate change.  

He says it's a bottom line for him that minor parties can't veto any bipartisan work, which he says ACT and NZ First have threatened to do this term. 

Hipkins is also confident the party will be able to find enough GPs to cover its three free visits policy, should it win government.  

The party's promising three free visits a year, funded through its capital gains tax on residential and commercial property.  

The Labour Leader told Woodham the number of medical graduates will rise in the coming years, and the party needs to attract them into primary care. 

He says the party will offer low interest loans to help graduates buy a stake in local GP practices. 

He also says GPs will be recruited from overseas, and his Government will grow the number of nurses able to prescribe medications. 

LISTEN ABOVE

Labour leader Chris Hipkins says smaller parties shouldn't be able to veto National and Labour working together, as he eyes greater bipartisanship.&nbsp;
This term, the two major parties have sided together on issues like the Indian free trade deal, a social media ban for under-16s, and modern slavery legislation.&nbsp;
Hipkins told Kerre Woodham there's more work to do on issues like infrastructure and climate change. &nbsp;
He says it's a bottom line for him that minor parties can't veto any bipartisan work, which he says ACT and NZ First have threatened to do this term.&nbsp;

Hipkins is also confident the party will be able to find enough GPs to cover its three free visits policy, should it win government. &nbsp;
The party's promising three free visits a year, funded through its capital gains tax on residential and commercial property. &nbsp;
The Labour Leader told Woodham the number of medical graduates will rise in the coming years, and the party needs to attract them into primary care.&nbsp;
He says the party will offer low interest loans to help graduates buy a stake in local GP practices.&nbsp;
He also says GPs will be recruited from overseas, and his Government will grow the number of nurses able to prescribe medications.&nbsp;
LISTEN ABOVE

Chris Hipkins: Labour Leader takes talkback, discusses bipartisan policy, GP visits, Capital Gains Tax

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/7784f840-c291-422a-924b-ad9000bbad71/clips/cced1866-ea9f-433e-bc41-b4c801850e54/transcript

Now for some time, I'd say this would be over a number of years, I've been receiving texts from firefighters who are extremely unhappy with the way their organisation is being run. It hasn't just been over this latest pay dispute and the strikes. This has been ongoing for a couple of years now. 

There haven't been outright accusations per se, but a deep-seated uneasiness, and in some cases anger, about the way FENZ is running the organisation and the way they're treating firefighters. Now a scathing report has confirmed what they have been saying. The board is under fire and under threat of removal, and questions are being asked as to whether FENZ is capable of buying its own fire trucks, sourcing its own materials. Brooke van Velden, the Minister for Fire and Emergency, says she has absolutely no confidence in the chief executive Kerry Gregory, nor indeed of the board. 

National MP Tim Costley, who's the deputy chair of the Governance and Administration Committee, said the report into FENZ lays bare years of failings. For example, FENZ bought 30 new fire trucks in 2019. Well, that's good, isn't it? That's what the firefighters have been striking for. Well, yes, they're still not being used. They're almost obsolete before they've put a tyre on the road. Costley says the evidence shows FENZ has not been able to deliver. They've consistently had delays, they've consistently had issues with the trucks, and it looks like they have a culture of changing the design halfway through the process regularly, which would be a bit tricky for the manufacturers. 

Ladder trucks that FENZ bought have also suffered significant delays. Despite a final inspection in July 2025, they're still sitting with the original manufacturers, not yet delivered to FENZ and far from being put into operational use, which puts the firefighters at risk. They don't have the equipment they need to do the job. How the hell can you have 30 new trucks that were bought seven years ago that are still not being used? 

The pay disputes are ongoing. Every time I go past my Birkenhead fire station between just after midday when I finish work and there they are, standing on the side of the road, placards and horns tooting. Yesterday Brooke van Velden said she had no confidence in the CEO of FENZ or its board, specifically because of a serious breach of the no surprises clause as she told Mike Hosking this morning. 

BvV: There's always been issues with Fire and Emergency. We've always known that. Lots of historic issues, payroll, the fleet procurement, asset management. But at least when I've known about it, I've been able to actively hold them accountable to their plans and processes and we have actually seen some progress. This was active withholding of information and I think it reeks of people thinking they're above the law. 

MH: Indeed, what is it about FENZ because as you say it's been going on for years in various different guises. What is it about FENZ in and of itself that's so uniquely hopeless? 

BvV: Well, I've asked my officials specifically that question, which is is it because it is a Crown entity so at arm's length from government ministers that they are essentially a law unto themselves. And so I've asked for some immediate advice on whether or not there does need to be a better change to the law to allow for better accountability. Is it the fact that it is a Crown entity that is leading to these widespread cultural issues at play? 

Why are they not under the purview of the Crown? Make them like the Police, have a Fire Commissioner. Ensure that their funding is steady and reliable and within the budget, not dependent on people paying insurance levies. Because at the moment that's how a significant amount of their operational budget is raised: through levies. And when people cut back on their insurance when times are tough, hello, like right now, then that is felt by FENZ. If they were like the Police, then their budget would be assured. They'd always want more, of course, but at least surely to God they'd get trucks on the road and ladder trucks that could be used by the firefighters.  

And what is it about public servants that they don't understand their very titles? They serve the public. No, they appear to be serving themselves or they appear to be so hopeless they don't know how to do the job properly. We've seen that with immigration and an ongoing case in immigration. We've seen that now with the board and chair of FENZ. Is the job beyond them? Is it so big that they don't know what they're doing? Are they just not being, for want of a better word, are they not being ridden properly? When you're a minister you have to be on top of your department. Given that this isn't a government department per se, would it be better to have them under a good minister? But then the department is only as good as its minister. When you've got weak ministers, you've got lazy ministers, then the public servants know they can get away with anything. Well, I'm not going to call them public servants because a lot of them are not. Some of them are, a lot of them are not. I'll call them bureaucrats. They know they can run rings around their new minister and they do so. So you'd need to have a minister who is on top of their portfolio to get any kind of better outcome than we've seen so far. 

I imagine too that for those firefighters who've been sending in the texts, this will be vindication for you. I mean, there'll be no great joy in it because you still haven't got the equipment you need. It's still all that money has been invested with little to show for it. 

Now for some time, I'd say this would be over a number of years, I've been receiving texts from firefighters who are extremely unhappy with the way their organisation is being run. It hasn't just been over this latest pay dispute and the strikes. This has been ongoing for a couple of years now.&nbsp;
There haven't been outright accusations per se, but a deep-seated uneasiness, and in some cases anger, about the way FENZ is running the organisation and the way they're treating firefighters. Now a scathing report has confirmed what they have been saying. The board is under fire and under threat of removal, and questions are being asked as to whether FENZ is capable of buying its own fire trucks, sourcing its own materials. Brooke van Velden, the Minister for Fire and Emergency, says she has absolutely no confidence in the chief executive Kerry Gregory, nor indeed of the board.&nbsp;
National MP Tim Costley, who's the deputy chair of the Governance and Administration Committee, said the report into FENZ lays bare years of failings. For example, FENZ bought 30 new fire trucks in 2019. Well, that's good, isn't it? That's what the firefighters have been striking for. Well, yes, they're still not being used. They're almost obsolete before they've put a tyre on the road. Costley says the evidence shows FENZ has not been able to deliver. They've consistently had delays, they've consistently had issues with the trucks, and it looks like they have a culture of changing the design halfway through the process regularly, which would be a bit tricky for the manufacturers.&nbsp;
Ladder trucks that FENZ bought have also suffered significant delays. Despite a final inspection in July 2025, they're still sitting with the original manufacturers, not yet delivered to FENZ and far from being put into operational use, which puts the firefighters at risk. They don't have the equipment they need to do the job. How the hell can you have 30 new trucks that were bought seven years ago that are still not being used?&nbsp;
The pay disputes are ongoing. Every time I go past my Birkenhead fire station between just after midday when I finish work and there they are, standing on the side of the road, placards and horns tooting. Yesterday Brooke van Velden said she had no confidence in the CEO of FENZ or its board, specifically because of a serious breach of the no surprises clause as she told Mike Hosking this morning.&nbsp;
BvV: There's always been issues with Fire and Emergency. We've always known that. Lots of historic issues, payroll, the fleet procurement, asset management. But at least when I've known about it, I've been able to actively hold them accountable to their plans and processes and we have actually seen some progress. This was active withholding of information and I think it reeks of people thinking they're above the law.&nbsp;
MH: Indeed, what is it about FENZ because as you say it's been going on for years in various different guises. What is it about FENZ in and of itself that's so uniquely hopeless?&nbsp;
BvV: Well, I've asked my officials specifically that question, which is is it because it is a Crown entity so at arm's length from government ministers that they are essentially a law unto themselves. And so I've asked for some immediate advice on whether or not there does need to be a better change to the law to allow for better accountability. Is it the fact that it is a Crown entity that is leading to these widespread cultural issues at play?&nbsp;
Why are they not under the purview of the Crown? Make them like the Police, have a Fire Commissioner. Ensure that their funding is steady and reliable and within the budget, not dependent on people paying insurance levies. Because at the moment that's how a significant amount of their operational budget is raised: through levies. And when people cut back on their insurance when times are tough, hello, like right now, then that is felt by FENZ. If they were like the Police, then their budget would be assured. They'd always want more, of course, but at least surely to God they'd get trucks on the road and ladder trucks that could be used by the firefighters. &nbsp;
And what is it about public servants that they don't understand their very titles? They serve the public. No, they appear to be serving themselves or they appear to be so hopeless they don't know how to do the job properly. We've seen that with immigration and an ongoing case in immigration. We've seen that now with the board and chair of FENZ. Is the job beyond them? Is it so big that they don't know what they're doing? Are they just not being, for want of a better word, are they not being ridden properly? When you're a minister you have to be on top of your department. Given that this isn't a government department per se, would it be better to have them under a good minister? But then the department is only as good as its minister. When you've got weak ministers, you've got lazy ministers, then the public servants know they can get away with anything. Well, I'm not going to call them public servants because a lot of them are not. Some of them are, a lot of them are not. I'll call them bureaucrats. They know they can run rings around their new minister and they do so. So you'd need to have a minister who is on top of their portfolio to get any kind of better outcome than we've seen so far.&nbsp;
I imagine too that for those firefighters who've been sending in the texts, this will be vindication for you. I mean, there'll be no great joy in it because you still haven't got the equipment you need. It's still all that money has been invested with little to show for it.&nbsp;

Kerre Woodham: This report is vindication for firefighters

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/7784f840-c291-422a-924b-ad9000bbad71/clips/f61916c3-85ac-4bb3-834e-b4c80181b67a/transcript

A Morrinsville grocer is disheartened by National's plan to split up Foodstuffs. 

The party's campaigning on splitting Pak'nSave from New World and Four Square in a bid to increase competition. 

It would give the Commerce Commission six months after the election to make the final decision. 

New World Morrinsville Owner-operator Kym Samuels told Kerre Woodham this is heartbreaking, especially coming from National, who is a party that's meant to stand up for business. 

She says if the Government actually wants to bring down prices, they should look at reducing or removing GST on products like meat and seasonal produce that are impacted by inflation. 

LISTEN ABOVE  

A Morrinsville grocer is disheartened by National's plan to split up Foodstuffs.&nbsp;
The party's campaigning on splitting Pak'nSave from New World and Four Square in a bid to increase competition.&nbsp;
It would give the Commerce Commission six months after the election to make the final decision.&nbsp;
New World Morrinsville Owner-operator Kym Samuels told Kerre Woodham this is heartbreaking, especially coming from National, who is a party that's meant to stand up for business.&nbsp;
She says if the Government actually wants to bring down prices, they should look at reducing or removing GST on products like meat and seasonal produce that are impacted by inflation.&nbsp;
LISTEN ABOVE &nbsp;

Kym Samuels: New World Morrinsville Owner-operator responds to National's plan to split Foodstuffs to drive competition

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/7784f840-c291-422a-924b-ad9000bbad71/clips/448301c5-93d0-460e-b9e6-b4c8001dd3c9/transcript

Hannah McQueen: Age Brightly Founder discusses options for those with fixed incomes struggling with rates increases

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