Auckland oyster farmers are facing another blow just weeks after a major wastewater spill into the Mahurangi River.

Watercare says heavy rain on 19 November caused 86 cubic metres of wastewater and stormwater to overflow into the river from a Warkworth pipeline.

The Ministry for Primary Industries has suspended harvesting while tests are carried out, but growers say the spill has already wrecked their busiest season.

Matakana Oysters owner Tom Walters told Kerre Woodham that, 'it's been a gutting year, and it seems to be the gutting cherry on top of it at the moment.'

LISTEN ABOVE

Auckland oyster farmers are facing another blow just weeks after a major wastewater spill into the Mahurangi River.
Watercare says heavy rain on 19 November caused 86 cubic metres of wastewater and stormwater to overflow into the river from a Warkworth pipeline.
The Ministry for Primary Industries has suspended harvesting while tests are carried out, but growers say the spill has already wrecked their busiest season.
Matakana Oysters owner Tom Walters told Kerre Woodham that, 'it's been a gutting year, and it seems to be the gutting cherry on top of it at the moment.'
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

Tom Walters: Matakana Oysters owner says industry is struggling after heavy rain and wastewater spill

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/7784f840-c291-422a-924b-ad9000bbad71/clips/fb016c69-f331-4d0d-8020-b3a501828ce2/transcript

Whether-or-not you saw former police commissioner Andrew Coster’s TV interview yesterday, you’ll know about the allegations he’s making.

He thinks people are running for the hills after the Jevon McSkimming scandal and aren’t telling the whole story in terms of what they knew and when they knew it.

Especially current police minister Mark Mitchell and former police minister Chris Hipkins.

Isn’t it weird that someone who served in the police for more than 25 years - who, I imagine, determined at some points during that time that there wasn’t enough evidence to prosecute - thinks he can make all sorts of accusations without one shred of evidence to prove it?

That’s what I took away from yesterday’s interview. Can you imagine the police charging anyone with an offence with zero proof or zero evidence? Yet that is exactly what Andrew Coster did yesterday.

He made these allegations that Chris Hipkins and Mark Mitchell aren’t being upfront. Then, in the next breath, admitted that he had no record or evidence to prove it.

That would be “case closed” if it was a police investigation. And, because he can’t prove it, I can’t believe him.

This is someone who spent 28 years looking for evidence of guilt. He’s got no evidence to back-up what he’s saying - so I’m not buying it.

Chris Hipkins and Mark Mitchell are both denying Coster’s claims.

Chris Hipkins says he “was never briefed on Jevon McSkimming's relationship with Ms Z during his time as minister of police or prime minister.

Andrew Coster claims he told Hipkins in 2022 in the back of a car while they were on an official trip in the South Island, when Hipkins was police minister in the Labour government.

And, Mark Mitchell is pushing back big time on Coster’s claim that he knew earlier than 6 November last year.

On Newstalk ZB this morning, he said Coster’s claims were “absolute nonsense”.

He said this morning - as he has since the Independent Police Conduct Authority report came out last month - that he first became aware on 6 November 2024, when Andrew Coster was told by the Public Service Commission to brief him on the situation.

Mitchell says he didn’t buy Coster’s narrative that McSkimming was the victim. He says he’s a father and that he pushed as much as he could as a minister to make sure the woman at the centre of all this was looked after.

So it’s “he says-he says”. But Andrew Coster has no evidence to prove his allegations so I can’t believe him.

Whether-or-not you saw former police commissioner Andrew Coster’s TV interview yesterday, you’ll know about the allegations he’s making.
He thinks people are running for the hills after the Jevon McSkimming scandal and aren’t telling the whole story in terms of what they knew and when they knew it.
Especially current police minister Mark Mitchell and former police minister Chris Hipkins.
Isn’t it weird that someone who served in the police for more than 25 years - who, I imagine, determined at some points during that time that there wasn’t enough evidence to prosecute - thinks he can make all sorts of accusations without one shred of evidence to prove it?
That’s what I took away from yesterday’s interview. Can you imagine the police charging anyone with an offence with zero proof or zero evidence? Yet that is exactly what Andrew Coster did yesterday.
He made these allegations that Chris Hipkins and Mark Mitchell aren’t being upfront. Then, in the next breath, admitted that he had no record or evidence to prove it.
That would be “case closed” if it was a police investigation. And, because he can’t prove it, I can’t believe him.
This is someone who spent 28 years looking for evidence of guilt. He’s got no evidence to back-up what he’s saying - so I’m not buying it.
Chris Hipkins and Mark Mitchell are both denying Coster’s claims.
Chris Hipkins says he “was never briefed on Jevon McSkimming's relationship with Ms Z during his time as minister of police or prime minister.
Andrew Coster claims he told Hipkins in 2022 in the back of a car while they were on an official trip in the South Island, when Hipkins was police minister in the Labour government.
And, Mark Mitchell is pushing back big time on Coster’s claim that he knew earlier than 6 November last year.
On Newstalk ZB this morning, he said Coster’s claims were “absolute nonsense”.
He said this morning - as he has since the Independent Police Conduct Authority report came out last month - that he first became aware on 6 November 2024, when Andrew Coster was told by the Public Service Commission to brief him on the situation.
Mitchell says he didn’t buy Coster’s narrative that McSkimming was the victim. He says he’s a father and that he pushed as much as he could as a minister to make sure the woman at the centre of all this was looked after.
So it’s “he says-he says”. But Andrew Coster has no evidence to prove his allegations so I can’t believe him.

John MacDonald: Coster has no evidence to back up his claims

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/7784f840-c291-422a-924b-ad9000bbad71/clips/3efab3dc-50e2-4eff-a4e6-b3ad0004dce8/transcript

This morning, I'm going to pretty much let Toss Grumley do the opener for me.  

Who's Toss Grumley? Well, Toss is a New Zealand business advisor and investor. The Post has run an editorial he wrote, bemoaning the Christmas shutdown. In it he said New Zealand's Christmas break has started to become way too extreme, and it's impacting our productivity on an individual business level and at the level of the economy. 

The summer break, he says, seems to be extending, leaving less room for leave later in the year. But the most concerning part is the circle back mid-February mentality, which means that while many are at work, they aren't doing much productive work. And the mentality of circle back Feb seems to start late November or early December. 

He says having 10 weeks of no productive conversation simply isn't good for business. He points out our productivity has grown at around 1.2% per year since 1996, while Australia's has grown at around 1.8%, and we're getting left behind. We need to work longer as we're producing less. We are 30 to 40% below top performers like the US, Norway, and Ireland. He also points out that March and April are the peak months for business arrears. This, he says, is not by chance, it's driven by business habits over December and January. Additionally, our GDP quarterly volatility is in the top third of the OECD. 

Again, he says, this is the Christmas season. For retail, we have a huge October to December quarter, then everyone stops spending all of January, creating cash flow problems for our businesses. He says while we all need to recuperate at times, in a country where our recovery is so fragile, we need to work hard up to the break, take some well-deserved time off, then get back into it and get our lives and businesses moving again swiftly. 

Thank you very much Toss and The Post for doing the heavy lifting on the editorial for me this morning. 

He does have a point though, doesn't he? Because we have our very own Mike Hosking who's, even as I speak, roaring down the motorway in his fine European vehicle, heading off on his hols before December's been here for a week. The Chrissy decks have barely been put up around the office, and he's gone. And it's unsettling for people when the routine is disrupted. 

I myself will be heading off – I don't go until the 19th, but I won't be back for a while. Most of January I'll be gone. It's a long time. They're the sort of holidays I could only dream of when I was a junior woodchuck reporter. Penny and Robert, our favourite coffee shop downstairs, they're paying rent on their space. They don't stop paying rent over Christmas and New Year, so they'll be back. Heaven knows who'll be around to buy the coffees and the excellent muffins that Helen barely ever touches because our people are clearing off apart from a skeleton staff. The council offices over the road will be deserted too, I imagine, apart from the skeleton staff. 

I'd be really interested to hear from you as to what you want. If you are one of the many, many small business owners, small to medium business owners, do you work like a navy right up until Christmas Eve, and then think, thank heavens, put the closed sign up on the shop and head off for three weeks, four weeks, and think, no, I'm not doing anything over January. I'm done. Do you wish that you could take two weeks off, recover, and then come back and everybody else came back too and business as usual, like Toss is saying. 

He got a fair bit of flak for this when he posted this initially on LinkedIn. People were really grumpy, saying he begrudged people holidays. And he doesn't. He says he just wishes they were spaced out throughout the year, rather than having the great Christmas shutdown. 

Do people order their bathroom or kitchen renos in December and January, or do you wait until February? Is it a case of, oh well, might as well take the time off because my supplier's taken the time off and customers aren't responding to calls, and then it becomes a domino effect. One topples and the next thing, you know, we all fall over and lie in the sand with a cool drink by our side, thinking, well, circle back February. 

How many weeks for you is optimum for a holiday? How many would you like other people to take? When it comes to the schools and the teachers, when it comes to radio stations and the hosts, when it comes to businesses, when it comes to suppliers. Is it six weeks, four weeks, three weeks? What to you would be the optimum? 

This morning, I'm going to pretty much let Toss Grumley do the opener for me. &nbsp;
Who's Toss Grumley? Well, Toss is a New Zealand business advisor and investor. The Post has run an editorial he wrote, bemoaning the Christmas shutdown. In it he said New Zealand's Christmas break has started to become way too extreme, and it's impacting our productivity on an individual business level and at the level of the economy.&nbsp;
The summer break, he says, seems to be extending, leaving less room for leave later in the year. But the most concerning part is the circle back mid-February mentality, which means that while many are at work, they aren't doing much productive work. And the mentality of circle back Feb seems to start late November or early December.&nbsp;
He says having 10 weeks of no productive conversation simply isn't good for business. He points out our productivity has grown at around 1.2% per year since 1996, while Australia's has grown at around 1.8%, and we're getting left behind. We need to work longer as we're producing less. We are 30 to 40% below top performers like the US, Norway, and Ireland. He also points out that March and April are the peak months for business arrears. This, he says, is not by chance, it's driven by business habits over December and January. Additionally, our GDP quarterly volatility is in the top third of the OECD.&nbsp;
Again, he says, this is the Christmas season. For retail, we have a huge October to December quarter, then everyone stops spending all of January, creating cash flow problems for our businesses. He says while we all need to recuperate at times, in a country where our recovery is so fragile, we need to work hard up to the break, take some well-deserved time off, then get back into it and get our lives and businesses moving again swiftly.&nbsp;
Thank you very much Toss and The Post for doing the heavy lifting on the editorial for me this morning.&nbsp;
He does have a point though, doesn't he? Because we have our very own Mike Hosking who's, even as I speak, roaring down the motorway in his fine European vehicle, heading off on his hols before December's been here for a week. The Chrissy decks have barely been put up around the office, and he's gone. And it's unsettling for people when the routine is disrupted.&nbsp;
I myself will be heading off – I don't go until the 19th, but I won't be back for a while. Most of January I'll be gone. It's a long time. They're the sort of holidays I could only dream of when I was a junior woodchuck reporter. Penny and Robert, our favourite coffee shop downstairs, they're paying rent on their space. They don't stop paying rent over Christmas and New Year, so they'll be back. Heaven knows who'll be around to buy the coffees and the excellent muffins that Helen barely ever touches because our people are clearing off apart from a skeleton staff. The council offices over the road will be deserted too, I imagine, apart from the skeleton staff.&nbsp;
I'd be really interested to hear from you as to what you want. If you are one of the many, many small business owners, small to medium business owners, do you work like a navy right up until Christmas Eve, and then think, thank heavens, put the closed sign up on the shop and head off for three weeks, four weeks, and think, no, I'm not doing anything over January. I'm done. Do you wish that you could take two weeks off, recover, and then come back and everybody else came back too and business as usual, like Toss is saying.&nbsp;
He got a fair bit of flak for this when he posted this initially on LinkedIn. People were really grumpy, saying he begrudged people holidays. And he doesn't. He says he just wishes they were spaced out throughout the year, rather than having the great Christmas shutdown.&nbsp;
Do people order their bathroom or kitchen renos in December and January, or do you wait until February? Is it a case of, oh well, might as well take the time off because my supplier's taken the time off and customers aren't responding to calls, and then it becomes a domino effect. One topples and the next thing, you know, we all fall over and lie in the sand with a cool drink by our side, thinking, well, circle back February.&nbsp;
How many weeks for you is optimum for a holiday? How many would you like other people to take? When it comes to the schools and the teachers, when it comes to radio stations and the hosts, when it comes to businesses, when it comes to suppliers. Is it six weeks, four weeks, three weeks? What to you would be the optimum?&nbsp;

Kerre Woodham: Productivity and the great Christmas shutdown

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/7784f840-c291-422a-924b-ad9000bbad71/clips/315ff9da-db29-4fee-8e48-b3a90182f4b8/transcript

Now, surely, it should be a straightforward exercise. You're about to embark on a relationship with someone, and you want to do a police check. Does this person have previous convictions for violence? Seems charming, seems a lovely, but you hear horror stories. So, why wouldn't you want to check on somebody before you invite them into your life? Why can't you know? Surely, once you have a conviction for an offence, it becomes a matter of public record. 

And there might be people who say, "Well, what about the privacy? What about the privacy concerns of offenders who have done their time?" I think we need to stop being concerned about the privacy of offenders and start being concerned about the safety of individuals, especially women and children who are generally the ones who end up most damaged. 

A man who harassed and stalked a woman, hid behind a tree waiting for her to get home with her children before fatally stabbing her 55 times. 

In 2012, Nathan Bolter was jailed for eight years and six months for kidnapping and assaulting his ex-girlfriend over a 38-hour ordeal on Great Barrier Island. In November of this month, he pleaded guilty in the High Court at Christchurch to murdering another woman. Had she known about his previous convictions, you'd have to wonder about whether she would have entered into a relationship. He was recalled to prison. Presumably that's when she found out about it because she terminated the relationship and that's when he went ballistic. 

I have another one for you. Colombian national, Juliana Bonilla-Herrera, was attacked and stabbed to death in her Addington flat by Joseph James Brider in January 22, after he was paroled to the flat next door. She knew nothing of his criminal history of sexual violence. She wasn't warned. 

I have another one. I could go on and on. This is particularly vile. An Australian deportee who murdered two women in Oz in the 80s was jailed a few years ago for 16 years for sexual assault. Johnny Harding received the prison term for 19 charges including sexual violation and assault. The offences were mostly against two young sisters. He had entered a relationship with the children's mother, then offended against the children. To ensure the children didn't tell, he used violence and threatened to harm their mother if she knew. I could go on and on, but I won't. You get the picture. There are so many examples. 

Google can only tell you so much about a person. If you're an employer, you can do a police check, and that's relatively simple. You get the signed consent of the employee; you then fill out a form online. You have to be registered as an agency authorised to request police vetting. You submit the request online, you get the results back - clean as a whistle, absolutely nothing wrong with this person, go for it. 

If you want to check the background of someone you're bringing into your life, your home, your children's home, and your bed, it's a lot more difficult. 

The then-National Government put a scheme in place in 2015, the FVIDS, and that was designed to allow people concerned for their own or their family's safety to be made aware of a person's history of family violence. Police officers could also instigate disclosure to a person of concern using the scheme. So say if they had concerns about Juliana in Christchurch, the fact that she had a dangerous sexual offender moving in next door, might have been nice to tell her. 

The scheme, the FVIDS, followed similar initiatives overseas. However, in this country, when victims and family violence support workers attempt to apply for the information, they're being turned away by police who don't seem to know that the scheme exists. They don't know that it's there. And even when they do know, there's no online portal to help people to apply for the scheme. It can take up to three visits in person to a police station. 

How much do you need to know and how much do you want to know? We had a caller whose daughter was being very in a relationship with a man who was being very coercive. And he knew something was up. This was only a couple of weeks ago, you might remember him. And he said, "No, this isn't good. You've got to come home." And he owned the house that his daughter and the chap were living in. 

And when he started making inquiries about this guy, whose behaviour was suspect, he found out that he had form. Done it before to other women. And he wanted her out of there now, and he wanted the guy out of the house. And how did he best go about doing that? How much do you need to know? How much do you want to know, and how easy is it to get that information? Might not be you. You might have sparkly eyes, and you've just met the girl or the boy of your dreams, and you think they're absolutely amazing. Parents or friends might think, "Really?" When something's too good to be true, it generally is. I don't know about this one. 

How much should you be entitled to know? I would say that the death list would indicate that the concern for the safety of families, men, women, and children, should absolutely override the privacy of convicted offenders. 

Now, surely, it should be a straightforward exercise. You're about to embark on a relationship with someone, and you want to do a police check. Does this person have previous convictions for violence? Seems charming, seems a lovely, but you hear horror stories. So, why wouldn't you want to check on somebody before you invite them into your life? Why can't you know? Surely, once you have a conviction for an offence, it becomes a matter of public record.&nbsp;
And there might be people who say, "Well, what about the privacy? What about the privacy concerns of offenders who have done their time?" I think we need to stop being concerned about the privacy of offenders and start being concerned about the safety of individuals, especially women and children who are generally the ones who end up most damaged.&nbsp;
A man who harassed and stalked a woman, hid behind a tree waiting for her to get home with her children before fatally stabbing her 55 times.&nbsp;
In 2012, Nathan Bolter was jailed for eight years and six months for kidnapping and assaulting his ex-girlfriend over a 38-hour ordeal on Great Barrier Island. In November of this month, he pleaded guilty in the High Court at Christchurch to murdering another woman. Had she known about his previous convictions, you'd have to wonder about whether she would have entered into a relationship. He was recalled to prison. Presumably that's when she found out about it because she terminated the relationship and that's when he went ballistic.&nbsp;
I have another one for you. Colombian national, Juliana Bonilla-Herrera, was attacked and stabbed to death in her Addington flat by Joseph James Brider in January 22, after he was paroled to the flat next door. She knew nothing of his criminal history of sexual violence. She wasn't warned.&nbsp;
I have another one. I could go on and on. This is particularly vile. An Australian deportee who murdered two women in Oz in the 80s was jailed a few years ago for 16 years for sexual assault. Johnny Harding received the prison term for 19 charges including sexual violation and assault. The offences were mostly against two young sisters. He had entered a relationship with the children's mother, then offended against the children. To ensure the children didn't tell, he used violence and threatened to harm their mother if she knew. I could go on and on, but I won't. You get the picture. There are so many examples.&nbsp;
Google can only tell you so much about a person. If you're an employer, you can do a police check, and that's relatively simple. You get the signed consent of the employee; you then fill out a form online. You have to be registered as an agency authorised to request police vetting. You submit the request online, you get the results back - clean as a whistle, absolutely nothing wrong with this person, go for it.&nbsp;
If you want to check the background of someone you're bringing into your life, your home, your children's home, and your bed, it's a lot more difficult.&nbsp;
The then-National Government put a scheme in place in 2015, the FVIDS, and that was designed to allow people concerned for their own or their family's safety to be made aware of a person's history of family violence. Police officers could also instigate disclosure to a person of concern using the scheme. So say if they had concerns about Juliana in Christchurch, the fact that she had a dangerous sexual offender moving in next door, might have been nice to tell her.&nbsp;
The scheme, the FVIDS, followed similar initiatives overseas. However, in this country, when victims and family violence support workers attempt to apply for the information, they're being turned away by police who don't seem to know that the scheme exists. They don't know that it's there. And even when they do know, there's no online portal to help people to apply for the scheme. It can take up to three visits in person to a police station.&nbsp;
How much do you need to know and how much do you want to know? We had a caller whose daughter was being very in a relationship with a man who was being very coercive. And he knew something was up. This was only a couple of weeks ago, you might remember him. And he said, "No, this isn't good. You've got to come home." And he owned the house that his daughter and the chap were living in.&nbsp;
And when he started making inquiries about this guy, whose behaviour was suspect, he found out that he had form. Done it before to other women. And he wanted her out of there now, and he wanted the guy out of the house. And how did he best go about doing that? How much do you need to know? How much do you want to know, and how easy is it to get that information? Might not be you. You might have sparkly eyes, and you've just met the girl or the boy of your dreams, and you think they're absolutely amazing. Parents or friends might think, "Really?" When something's too good to be true, it generally is. I don't know about this one.&nbsp;
How much should you be entitled to know? I would say that the death list would indicate that the concern for the safety of families, men, women, and children, should absolutely override the privacy of convicted offenders.&nbsp;

Kerre Woodham: Should convictions for violence be public record?

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/7784f840-c291-422a-924b-ad9000bbad71/clips/2c777693-9e54-44e5-b347-b3a8017556b8/transcript

Tom Walters: Matakana Oysters owner says industry is struggling after heavy rain and wastewater spill

Kerre Woodham Mornings Podcast

In 1 playlist(s)

Kerre Woodham Mornings Podcast

Social links

Follow podcast

Recent clips