It’s another slow patch for the property market, with some who bought in the post-Covid boom now tossing up their options.

Cotality's latest data shows property sales down 2.4% in March, compared to the same time last year – the third consecutive month to fall.

Property investment coach Steve Goodey says they’re seeing a large number of people struggling with whether to swallow a paper loss or rent out the property.

He told Kerre Woodham when it comes to waiting it out, people don’t necessarily do the numbers and account for how long that may take.

Goodey says someone could be losing $200 a week in cash and be down $200,000 in equity, and recovery may take quite a few years.

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Labour's written to the Prime Minister supporting the India Free Trade Deal being signed in New Delhi next week.

National needed their support to pass the deal into law, since it was opposed by coalition partner New Zealand First.

But Chris Hipkins remains concerned about the commitment to promote billions of dollars of investment in India, saying it's not affordable.

Labour’s Trade Spokesperson Damien O’Connor told Kerre Woodham the slow dribble of information was frustrating, but they’ve reached a point where the balance looks good for New Zealand.

He says it does come with risks, but there are huge opportunities as well, and they needed to make sure the Government was going to commit to them.

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Remember back in February, the Government announced it was proposing to give police officers the power to issue move on orders to deal with, as it's described, disorderly behaviour in public places. What they mean is antisocial homeless people who are startling the horses, putting people off coming into the city, creating all sorts of disgusting messes for business owners to clean up. People who don't comply with the move on orders could be fined up to $2,000 or face three months in prison. Documents proactively released by the Ministry of Justice show that officials estimate up to six people a year could be jailed for noncompliance with the move on orders.

The Labour Party obtained some documents under the Official Information Act, and those documents quoted Treasury saying it didn't support the orders given the benefits of the proposal are not clearly evidenced and implementation will exacerbate justice sector cost pressures. Treasury also questioned the highly uncertain modelling suggesting six people could be jailed per year. Treasury seems to think there will be far more than six.

I don't know why they would think that. You can kill somebody as a drunk driver and not go to prison. You can commit all sorts of heinous crimes and be excused because you had a dreadful upbringing again, having been excused the previous two to three times you appeared before the beak. So I don't know why Treasury suddenly thinks that all of a sudden the judges are going to grow some cojones and send people to prison, because if they're not doing it for people who kill others because of their drunk driving and dangerous driving, they're not going to do it for some poor hapless soul who's got nowhere to go and addiction issues, are they?

Paul Goldsmith, the Justice Minister, said just like the gang legislation, which prompted similar warnings from similar agencies, the Government was confident in its policy. He said police can operationalise this —what an ugly, terrible word, but nonetheless, that's the one he used— in a way that's highly effective. He said the policy was about reclaiming the streets and city centres for the enjoyment of everybody. He reiterated that only people who refuse the orders will face prosecution and said a move on order is not a criminal charge, although refusing to comply with one is.

I have an awful lot of sympathy for retailers, business owners, those who live in the city or the cities around New Zealand having to put up with antisocial behaviour from very odd people. Not everybody is like that. There are a lot of people who are on the street who are lovely, who are perfectly reasonable humans who have had a string of bad luck – there but for the grace of God go you or I. They are not all the same at all.

But having wandered the length of Queen Street at the end of last year, it was a beautiful day, I had to be somewhere, and I thought I'd take the long way and see for myself what the city was like. Yeah, there are real issues to deal with within, certainly within Auckland, Auckland's Queen Street, and no doubt in your main centre as well. There were drunken shirtless men brawling very close to the Louis Vuitton and the Christian Louboutin shops. There were troubled individuals displaying aggressive and frightening behaviour, the yipping, yelping man that jumped out at passersby. He wasn't bad, he was just sad, but you know, it was alarming, and especially if you had the kids with you while you were doing some last minute Christmas shopping. It wasn't conducive to an easy, pleasant experience. And it should have been, it was a beautiful day, you know, there are some lovely historic buildings, there's some nice parks where you can sit. It should have been lovely.

But because of the unpredictable and in some cases aggressive behaviour of a small number of people, it wasn't. And I haven't been back since. But when the inner-city motels were opened to the homeless during Covid and communities were formed and made, it created a whole new vibe, if you will, in the city. When you have nothing, a routine, a bunch of mates, a place you know can be everything. So once they arrived, they stayed. I have some sympathy for those who are homeless for myriad reasons, but unacceptable behaviour is unacceptable behaviour. When people are brawling, when they're being public nuisances, when they're impinging on the right of other individuals to walk freely, when they're using shop entrances as bathrooms that other people then have to clean up, that is behaviour that needs to be curbed. And if move on orders help restore order to the cities, if move on orders sharpen the focus of social agencies to find permanent homes for those without them, so much the better.

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The reputations of the five MPs believed to be frustrated with Christopher Luxon’s leadership are suffering.

Luxon passed a vote of confidence at yesterday's lengthy caucus meeting, but MPs aren't revealing details of the vote, including how many of them supported Luxon.

The MPs responsible for leaks to the media are understood to be Joseph Mooney, Andrew Bayly, Sam Uffindell, Barbara Kuriger, and Tim van de Molen.

However, they’re all denying their involvement.

Senior Political Correspondent Barry Soper told Kerre Woodham that there are bound to be disgruntled people in the party, but you have to take people at their word if they deny their involvement.

He says that whoever it is, they’re in politics for the good of the country, not their own good, and it’s a pity a few of them can’t seem to get that into perspective.

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It was a masterful piece of politicking yesterday from the Prime Minister. The first time I think I've seen him as a politician rather than a CEO. He told his caucus to put up or shut up. He sent a message to the disaffected and the dissatisfied in the party to lay their cards on the table. And when it came down to it, the halt, the lame, and the dispossessed simply didn't have the numbers, the alternative, or the cajónes to make a challenge.

If you're a member or a supporter of National, of course you're not going to like the numbers the polls are delivering. You're not going to like seeing your leader languishing in the doldrums in the preferred Prime Minister poll. But I would venture you would like even less backbenchers fomenting dissent and giving the media a reason to write about the party for all the wrong reasons. Mike named the feckless five yesterday. They claim they had nothing to do with any leaks to the media. They have all pledged their fealty to their leader, Christopher Luxon, and I only hope he made them kiss his ring yesterday to prove their faithfulness and their loyalty. I think, but then I would, wouldn't I, that Christopher Luxon has come out of yesterday's caucus meeting looking stronger than he did last week. He stared them in the eye, said show me what you've got. Not quite enough is it lads and lasses? And off they went.

But what do you do if you're in one of the feckless five's electorates and you're brassed off with them? You might not want to give them your vote, but then if you don't vote for them, it harms the National Party. Do you give your electorate vote to ACT or New Zealand First and your party vote to National? And when you vote for an electorate MP, are you voting for someone who will act in your interests first or in the party's interests? When you look at anybody, I mean these five say they didn't do it. They were named as the ones and when you're talking to the media, the thing is the media know who you are. So it makes it a little difficult. Joseph Mooney, Tim van de Molen, Barbara Kuriger, Andrew Bayly, and Sam Uffindell all say it wasn't me. The old Shaggy song springs to mind. But that's the thing, they say it wasn't them; they've pledged loyalty.

But if you are, and when you look at the previous coups, if you're one of those who jumps on board a coup, who decides that they will put their money on a different horse, you're basically lazy. Because being a backbencher is hard work. There's nothing glamorous about it. It is boring, it is thankless, there are no baubles of office, no perks of the job – it is a hard grind. At least when you get to minister level you get the car, more money, and you get people who kind of respect you and you get to make a difference. You get to make change through the hard work of drafting policy and working with bureaucrats and working with other members of Parliament. But you can actually get things done. As a backbencher you can't. It's really, really boring. So what people who jump ship do is look to leapfrog over other backbenchers because they get rewarded. If they cosy up to somebody who's mounting a challenge, they can expect to get rewarded with a plum job and not have to do the hard graft. So they're lazy as well as feckless.

There are so many people who have benefited from this dissent: Labour, New Zealand First. Although yesterday with his confidence call, I'd argue Christopher Luxon did get some benefit from that. Anybody who is unhappy with the leadership, anybody who is not willing to do the hard graft on the backbenches and get the good jobs through sheer talent and hard work, anybody who is willing to sacrifice the good of the party for personal ambition, anybody who's willing to tell fibs should resign. Put up or shut up and shove off.

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Things are getting tougher for Kiwis.

According to ASB’s estimates, households will see an average of $55 a week added to their living costs this year, thanks to global effects of the conflict in the Middle East.

This compounds the struggle for many, with Stats NZ reporting in 2025 that just over half of renters and nearly 40% of mortgage holders didn’t think their income matched their everyday needs.

ASB’s Chief Economist Nick Tuffley told Kerre Woodham the increase isn’t that much different than previous years, it’s just concentrated in one specific area this year – fuel.

He says that means some people will be able to dodge some of the extra spending by changing their behaviour, whereas in the past it was spread out across multiple areas and much more unavoidable.

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Inflation was higher than it should be, even before factoring in the full impact of the war on Iran.

Stats NZ data shows the inflation rate remained unchanged at 3.1% in the March quarter.

Internationally driven tradeable inflation dipped to 2.5% and the domestically driven non-tradeable rate was unchanged at 3.5%.

The Herald's Liam Dann told Kerre Woodham these figures come before fuel rises really kicked off.

He says it's disappointing we aren't heading into that crisis in a better position.

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