/on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/opinion/rss ¾ÅÒ»ÐÇ¿ÕÎÞÏÞ Fri, 31 Jan 2025 02:49:41 Z en /on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/opinion/mark-the-week-we-are-in-deep-deep-trouble-with-the-economy/ /on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/opinion/mark-the-week-we-are-in-deep-deep-trouble-with-the-economy/ At the end of each week, Mike Hosking takes you through the big-ticket items and lets you know what he makes of it all.    Donald Trump: 8/10  Yes, there's some madness and puffery and stuff you know will never happen, but he has a lot of energy and “buy in”. This will be a dramatic and, I think on balance, successful four years.    Our economy: 2/10  While we distract ourselves with frippery over Mexican barbs and asset sales that aren't happening, listen to the Reserve Bank or HSBC or any financial commentator of note. We are in deep, deep trouble, with no growth and growing debt. It never ends well.    Charter schools: 7/10  One of the good news stories of the week. Not only did more schools apply than they had money for, but more pupils applied to those schools than they had desks for.    Jobs: 6/10  Another good news story. We grew jobs at the end of last year, not by much, but we didn’t go backwards.    Speed limits: 6/10  This week is a start but really, does it have to be this hard and slow for the rest?    Sail GP: 7/10  One of the highlights of the holidays. That thing is slick, it's well run, and it makes New Zealand look great. Coutts is awesome.    Winston Peters: 4/10  The race thing I thought he had moved on from. He looks better than that these days, until he doesn’t.     LISTEN ABOVE FOR MIKE HOSKING'S FULL WEEK IN REVIEW  Thu, 30 Jan 2025 21:39:19 Z /on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/opinion/mikes-minute-is-hospitality-about-how-hard-youre-prepared-to-work/ /on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/opinion/mikes-minute-is-hospitality-about-how-hard-youre-prepared-to-work/ Proving life is what you make it, I walked into a local restaurant over the holidays.  It's Italian and very good, and they have a new owner.  Who was this person, I inquired?  He came from hospitality, had worked in the city, but he and a mate had decided to, as he put it, take a punt. "It's better to be an owner than work for someone," he said.  I immediately admired him.  The restaurant had been put up for sale because it wasn’t making any money.  That's a familiar story in hospitality and yet I can tell you why this place hadn't made any money.  It was because it was only open five days a week. For dinner. For limited hours.  The first thing our new owner did was open seven days a week and open for lunches.  He even opened on Christmas day and did 20 covers on short notice.  By the time we left town he was more than happy with how things were humming.  So, is hospitality in trouble, or are there too many owners who don’t want to do the work?  Over the holidays I noticed too many people who weren't open, or weren't open long enough, then the cafes that close at 4pm and when you walk in at 3.40pm they say "sorry, the kitchen is closed".  Sorry, the sign on the door says, we are having a well-earned break. "Back on the 3rd of January", or the 6th of January or whenever. This was in tourist country and, let's be honest, I thought all of New Zealand was supposed to be tourist country.  So how much pain is real and how much of life is made harder simply by not trying hard enough?  Is David Seymour right? There are two camps these days - the change makers and the ones who sort of open, but not really, then wonder why things are a bit slow.  Our mate at the restaurant, my bet is, will make a good go of it because he is invested and he is determined and he did a couple of simple things the others could have done but didn’t, so they had to bail.  Winners and losers. Most of it is about choice.  Thu, 30 Jan 2025 21:00:15 Z /on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/opinion/mikes-minute-the-banks-arent-reading-the-mood/ /on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/opinion/mikes-minute-the-banks-arent-reading-the-mood/ There is little in life more nauseating than a sycophant.  These are people who do not what they believe is right, but bend to the whim, flavour, or mood of the day.  The corporate world is full of it.  The tech giants have been badly exposed as they decide fact checking is for losers now that big Don is running the place.  The battle is being fought locally as well. There is word New Zealand First are looking at a members bill to make banks do business properly.  Currently, and this is also a major debate in Australia, banks have taken the stance that there are some businesses that they don’t like. Those dabbling in fossil fuels is one of them.  They have made getting money hard work. They have not done this because there isn't profit or because these businesses default. They have done this because fossil fuels are out, and climate change is in.  The coalition in Australia, who at this stage are odds on to become the Government midyear, are going hard because fossil fuels are of greater importance to them than they are here.  But the role of the banks, once again, is being called into question.  In this country the Government is gunning for them over margins and competition. The last thing they need is another fight over their right, or predilection, for doing business with some people and not others.  As the former chair of our biggest bank John Key quite rightly pointed out on this programme a number of times said, banks have a very large social licence. They are a backbone of an economy. It is not their job to play politics, or trend setter to the groovy mood of the day.  Fossil fuels remain vital for keeping the lights on. You might not like that but it's true.  If it changes, that's brilliant. Right now it isn't, or hasn’t been, enough.  Morals are personal choices, not business ones, and certainly not in businesses with the influence banks have.  The thought that a Government might have legislate to make a business behave itself shows you how badly these places are reading the mood.  Wed, 29 Jan 2025 21:29:26 Z /on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/opinion/mikes-minute-the-govt-need-to-move-on-foreign-buyers-this-year/ /on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/opinion/mikes-minute-the-govt-need-to-move-on-foreign-buyers-this-year/ The good people at OneRoof were hinting at it the other day.  They were reacting to what I know to be a bit of a buzz within the real estate community that the Government are going to move on foreign buyers this year.  I talk to a lot of agents. They range from telling me it's on, to those who hope it's on, to those who want it to be on but aren't holding their breath.  Currently you can buy a house if you are Australian or Singaporean. Apart from that there are hoops and hurdles for some foreigners, but mainly you are blocked.  This of course is nonsense and National had a very elegant solution that carved out houses under $2m, which is the vast majority of sales, so the American who wanted to open a company and invest in jobs and expansion could also fork out $9m for a lovely place at Lake Hayes.  Winston was having none of that, so we are stuck.  The hope is Winston can be moved. The rumour grows that Winston might be about to be moved.  I hope so.  The latest word is $5m. If you have $5m or above anyone is welcome.  What we have to fear from that I have no idea.  What we know for sure is we are desperately short of money. We have a pile of work that needs doing and we need all the help we can get.  In my area right now are a handful of $10m+ houses that have been on the market for over a year. They haven't sold because no one here has that money for a house and those who do already have houses.  If you open the foreign investment door they would be snapped up.  We either want to do business or we don’t. We are either open to the world or we aren't.  The irony for me is Winston Peters of all people in his role as Foreign Minister seems to get that, as much if not more than anyone else and yet on housing he remains the xenophobic old relic he played so well 20 years ago.  Let's hope the year brings a bit of enlightenment and we can at last get on with it.  Tue, 28 Jan 2025 20:48:58 Z /on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/opinion/mikes-minute-trump-is-fantastic-nuts-but-fantastically-nuts/ /on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/opinion/mikes-minute-trump-is-fantastic-nuts-but-fantastically-nuts/ We have to talk about Donald Trump.  He is fantastic.  What I like about what he has done so far is none of it’s a surprise. He actually does what he said he would do.  The mainstream media still can't get their head around it. I watched CNN twisting themselves into a knot over the pardons and the fact a lot of what he says isn't true.  It's as though they still think by moaning about it anything is going to change.  The Trump era is the most legitimate democratic thing you will see anywhere in the world.  He won the presidency by way of the college vote and the popular vote, he has the House, the Senate, and he has the Supreme Court, but that was more luck and not tied to an election.  So what he has is a mandate. You can't argue with that.  He said he would deport - he is.  He said he'd get out of the Paris Agreement - he has.  Not all of what he said he would do will happen, because some of it like birthright citizenship is constitutional and changing that takes a lot of court and more than four years.  Melania has clearly had a come-to-Jesus moment, given she seems front and centre. I watched them in Carolina and Los Angeles on Saturday and Las Vegas on Sunday, and she said nothing but seems keen this time around.  I watched the inauguration. Kamala couldn't hide her misery; Barron couldn't hide his sense of humour. Who knew?  Much is being made of the fact he doesn’t have to face the voters ever again, as though that doesn’t apply to every President who gets a second term, so he'll go nuts.  He won't go nuts. He is already nuts, but a lot of people like that kind of nuts.  He comes off the back, as the Wall Street Journal so decisively portrayed, one of the great crime families of modern America: the Biden's. The senility hidden from day one, all the family pardoned, and Hunter singled out, despite Joe saying he wouldn't. What a liar. What a crook.  As I said last year, the first time Trump came and went the world didn’t end. It won't this time either.  But so far it's going to be a hoot watching and I, for one, am loving it.  Mon, 27 Jan 2025 21:10:05 Z /on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/opinion/ryan-bridge-make-movies-short-again/ /on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/opinion/ryan-bridge-make-movies-short-again/ The Oscars nominations have come out and guess what? Wicked the Musical with Ariana Grande is on the list for Best Picture.   It's two hours and 40 minutes long. It doesn't have an ending because there's two parts. So you get half a story, and it takes half your life to watch. We should not be encouraging this type of time wasting. Cinemas are not comfortable places. I've got a bad back, I've got a low tolerance for people bursting into song – sitting in a cinema seat for almost 3 hours, listening to Ariana Grande singing her feelings is like, well, it's like being held in a small torture chamber.   In three hours you can achieve many things. You can fly to Australia, you could run a marathon, hell, you can even get an operation in three hours. My grandma's knee replacement she had done recently took less than three hours. Actually, I would rather get my knee replaced than listen and watch Wicked. Because it's a two-parter, you could actually get both knees done.   And it's not just Wicked that's dragging on - Dune. Did you see that the sci-fi space thriller that’s approximately 600 hours in length?   And I know what you're thinking: If you don't like a movie, Ryan, just don't go and see it. Ah. I never wanted to see Dune – my partner did. And as a married man, as you will know if you're married, some things you do even though you don't want to, and directors arrogant, self-indulgent Hollywood types, don't think about us.  They just think about themselves. They just think about this amazing emotional movie that they've created, inspired piece of art that they'll happily dump on the world's cinemas and expect everybody else to love.   The Brutalist. That's also on the list – three and a half hours long, nominated for Best Picture. Poke me in the eyes, Brutalist by name and brutalist by nature. I estimate half of cinemas are filled with people who don't want to be there, trapped in their own little torture chambers, battling through musicals and romcoms and war biopics, all for the sake of their marriage or to please a friend.   Our attention spans are far too short for this now. We have TikTok, we have Instagram, we have small brains, we have Twitter. What used to be a novel is now 140 characters. People abbreviate their speech because we can't be arsed with full sentences.   Hollywood and today's Oscars nods have totally missed the public mood. I propose a new category: Best Picture in under 90 Minutes.  Thu, 23 Jan 2025 20:51:22 Z /on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/opinion/ryan-bridge-our-economy-is-still-in-the-wilderness/ /on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/opinion/ryan-bridge-our-economy-is-still-in-the-wilderness/ So we have an inflation number, which is better than not knowing, but it doesn’t tell us much. 2.2 percent for the year to December, no change from the quarter before it and crucially non-tradable inflation, the stuff we should have more control over domestically is sticky at 4.5 percent. Two main problems here, one for us and one for the Government. If the exchange rate keeps tanking, the stuff we buy from the rest of the world - like fuel and food - will get more expensive. And if that stuff gets more expensive, you know what that means, more inflation. Add that to your sticky domestic number and you may have a problem. If that happens, you watch the Reserve Bank get the jitters and hit pause on rate cuts. And then we all get the jitters and pull back on spending. Then we're riding this seemingly never-ending rollercoaster ride that is the cost of living crisis. The gift from Labour that keeps on giving. The other problem in these numbers is for the Government. At the election they promised rents would come down once they delivered landlord interest deductibility relief. I agree with them doing that - it was mad that Labour took it away. But they were wrong to claim it would bring rents down when rents are, by-and-large, dictated by supply and demand. How much the market is willing to pay for a 3-bedroom place in Mount Victoria is what the market is willing to pay. So now 80 percent deductibility has kicked in and guess what? Rents are up 4.2 percent in yesterday’s numbers. So not exactly what was promised. Now, to be fair, they’ll be hoping once the full landlord deduction kicks in and it’s given more time it may help. But it would only be at the margins. It is not and won’t be the main driver of slashing rents - and yesterday’s numbers proved that. LISTEN ABOVE Thu, 23 Jan 2025 07:53:42 Z /on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/opinion/ryan-bridge-labour-could-learn-from-the-dems-failures/ /on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/opinion/ryan-bridge-labour-could-learn-from-the-dems-failures/ Donald J. Trump has been inaugurated as the 47th President of the United States.  Behind the pomp and ceremony are lessons for politicians on the left here and around the world.  Labelling your opponent a racist, a nazi, an extremist, a homophobe, a sexist, anti-trans, a threat to democracy, a tyrant, and sexist won’t win you an election.  Biden, and then Harris, threw the kitchen sink of threats about Trump at the public and none of it stuck.  The Obama's, the Pelosi's and the Clinton's of American politics did their best to paint Trump as a dystopian dictator, hell-bent on crucifying immigrants and minorities.  And what happened? They lost. He won.  A clean sweep of the battlegrounds.  The House. The Senate. The electoral college. The popular vote.  And around half of Latino voters, the highest ever for a Republican, even higher than George W. Bush in 2004.  Record numbers of minorities voted for Trump.  His election was of course run against a backdrop of a tough economy and inflation hitting punters hard. Plus, Joe Biden was, well, literally stumbling to the finish line, struggling to walk and talk.  But the fact remains voters picked the guy who’d been labelled all these awful things because they trusted him to turn the economy around, and some also to stop the free speech moderators and pronoun police.  So, what’s the lesson here? For Hipkins it doesn’t matter how many times you call Seymour and/or Luxon a racist - it won’t get you back for the greasy benches.  Labour and its allies are gearing up for a fresh onslaught of attacks on race as the Treaty Bill goes to select committee.  But here’s the thing - most Kiwis aren’t listening. Look at the polls.  The Ipsos issues monitor from late last year showed that. Inflation, health, economy, crime, housing, poverty etc were the big issues. Race relations? 15th on 6%.  Those in the left would do better —and we’d all benefit from this— if they’d stop the name-calling and start coming up with serious, credible, alternative economic plans to get this country firing again.  Labour was supposed to be a party for the workers. They’ve let provincial New Zealand down badly with economic mismanagement and energy policies that may have suited a speech at UNGA in New York, but certainly not the good people of Ruapehu.  And that’s the lesson Trump is giving the left today. The recipe used over the past decade of window dressing, performative politics, identity politics, virtue signalling, and demonising your opponents no longer works on the people who matter most.  The voters.  Mon, 20 Jan 2025 21:06:55 Z /on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/opinion/mike-hosking-for-tohu-harris-it-ended-too-soon/ /on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/opinion/mike-hosking-for-tohu-harris-it-ended-too-soon/ I feel bad for Tohu. This is not the way to end a great career.  In life, once you have been around a while, proven yourself, developed a track record and a reputation that is admired, you reach a stage where you have earned the right to exit on your terms. An injury you can’t come back from is not that way. He deserves better. The trouble with contact sport of course is sometimes these things are beyond your control. Not that he didn’t look permanently injured. In talking with Harris in 2023, I joked about the tape and whether he had an endorsement from some bandage company given he covered himself to toe in the stuff in a “walking wounded” sort of way. Lord knows how long it took to put on each week. What surprised me was the revelation that most of it was for show. He didn’t need it but had got used to it so carried on with it each game. What the Warriors will miss is the leadership. Yes, he is a great player. Yes, he has a presence. Yes, he is respected, effective and probably feared. Imagine him coming at you full tilt and thinking about stopping him. But the greats also had the leadership quality about them as well - from Price to Wiki, Harris joined the group of big blokes who also led the way. In Harris’ case, he was eloquent with it as well. He always seemed to have something considered to say. He avoided the league wide passion for cliché and actually said something. When I watched Webster and him in the post-game presser when things hadn’t gone so well (and let’s be honest, there was far too much of that sort of game last year) you were left in no doubt that loss hurt, that lack of performance was unacceptable. Any number of professionals can explain away a bad day on the field, but you are never really sure whether it’s a line or they are out to make things better next week. Harris left you in no doubt. Given those skills, I hope he has some sort of future in the game if he wants it. It would be a shame to lose all that talent and experience, and 32 is too young to walk away with so much left to give. League or not, I hope he has a plan. I will miss his relentlessness - so many hard-fought yards when he had already run and earned so many hard-fought yards. When he played, he played a lot. On big guys, that drains you. On some, you can see the tank emptying in front of your eyes. Not Harris. Captain? That is for later this year. Fortunately, they have several good contenders but between the talent, the power, the pace, and the eloquence, he leaves big shoes. For Webster and co, what a blow. What an unexpected, unplanned surprise out of leftfield. With Johnson, it was a lovely send off, but he had done his best and the time was right. With Harris, fate intervened. It ended too soon. Thu, 09 Jan 2025 00:00:06 Z /on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/opinion/heather-du-plessis-allan-luxon-has-made-the-right-call-re-waitangi/ /on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/opinion/heather-du-plessis-allan-luxon-has-made-the-right-call-re-waitangi/ Christopher Luxon’s made the right call not going to Waitangi next year.  He's probably going to cop it from the press gallery for being a wuss but most of us have been around long enough to see the logic in this.  We know by now that Waitangi is volatile and unpredictable at the best of times. You can cop a dildo in the face for doing nothing.  So imagine how intense it will be next year with the Treaty Principles bill debate in full swing and the select committee progress already underway.  Already Willie Jackson has warned the Prime Minister about his safety if he goes up there because apparently Māori are angry.  And as Willie Jackson says, "you just never know".  It’s hardly as if Luxon is being made to feel welcome.  He’s apparently been told he’s allowed to come on the 6th but not on the 4th because he’s not welcome at the big meeting the National Iwi Chairs Forum hosts every year.  He’s had a letter from the hikoi organisers telling him he’s not welcome at Waitangi at all.  Luxon loses nothing by giving it a miss. I doubt very much he’ll win votes by going.  But he could actually lose votes by going and standing there like a piñata, taking a verbal bashing over a bill that’s actually not his.  He’s better off leaving the defending to the guy who’s actually responsible for the bill, David Seymour, who says he is going.  So Luxon I think can say he’s done enough, he's been there two years in a row already, he’s shown respect and defended his corner and he’s not being made to feel welcome.  He’s been threatened.  Right-minded people will absolutely, I think, understand why he may not want to go and why he frankly shouldn't.  Thu, 19 Dec 2024 20:55:35 Z /on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/opinion/heather-du-plessis-allan-the-judge-who-yelled-at-winston-should-lose-her-job/ /on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/opinion/heather-du-plessis-allan-the-judge-who-yelled-at-winston-should-lose-her-job/ One of the most surprising things about that judge allegedly yelling at Winston Peters in the Northern Club is that she is still in her job.  I want to be clear; I don’t want her to lose her job over this, and I don’t even want to be seen to be calling for her head.  I’m just pointing out that she should lose her job.  Because what happened was actually quite serious. We are talking about a judge yelling, not denied, at the deputy Prime Minister, the second most senior politician in the country.  She also accused him, again not denied, of lying in front of a room of people.  Now, you flip that around and imagine it’s a senior minister doing the same, yelling at very senior judges and saying they’re lying in front of a room full of people.  Tell me, does that minister keep their job?  No way. They go.  There’s no way that would be tolerated because no Government would want to be seen to tolerate that kind of behaviour, and it’s got to be the same for the judiciary. They cannot be seen to tolerate verbal attacks on ministers of Government.  Particularly right now. Maybe a few years ago it wouldn't have mattered quite as much.  But right now, there is actually considerable tension between the judiciary and the Government to the point it's actually boiling over at times.  We’ve got courts and lawyers taking cracks at Parliament and that Parliament passing multiple laws to reign in judges.  We’ve got accusations of the Waitangi Tribunal overreaching, Shane Jones making comments about so-called "activist judges" and there is a real concern that comity, which is the mutual respect between the two, is breaking down.  This is so fundamental to a democracy likes ours working.  It is so bad for the judiciary to be perceived to be this hostile towards the current Government.  I can’t see how Ema Aitken keeps her job.  Wed, 18 Dec 2024 21:14:39 Z /on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/opinion/heather-du-plessis-allan-the-government-arent-fixing-our-economic-mess/ /on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/opinion/heather-du-plessis-allan-the-government-arent-fixing-our-economic-mess/ We knew the Government books were going to be bad, but not this bad.  No way we’re getting to the surplus we expected in 2028. That is now so far away it’s not even in Treasury’s forecast period anymore.  It’s some time, who knows when, in the 2030's.  We’ll have to borrow another $20b in debt to tide us over for the next four years. That’ll push our interest payments over $10b every year.  So we’ll be spending more on our debt interest than we spend on Defence, Corrections, Police, and Customs combined.  Now, this is not the current Government's fault. This is a recession caused by Adrian Orr and the Reserve Bank to deal with Labour’s overspending.  But National are not doing what they need to.  They need to be cutting way harder than they are.  There is a measure we use to look at how much the Government is adding to, or reducing from, economic growth.  It’s called public consumption.  They were supposed to cut that by 1.4% this year. They cut it by 0.2%.  That’s basically no cut.  Next year it's supposed to cut by 2.2%. Now, it's by another 0.2%, which is to say they’re actually not cutting much at all.  We still pay the wages of 14,000 more public servants than we did in 2018. They’ve only cut one public agency, which is the Productivity Commission.  Nicola Willis spent more in her last budget than Grant Robertson ever did.  National keeps saying they can’t cut more because they don’t want austerity, but we are so far from austerity it’s not funny.  We are spending more and hiring more public servants than five years ago.  The trouble with that is we’re in a recession, which we weren’t five years ago.  National needs to treat this like the economic trainwreck it is and cut their cloth accordingly.  They might not be responsible for the mess we’re in, but they are responsible for fixing it and so far, they’re really not fixing it.  Tue, 17 Dec 2024 20:37:59 Z /on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/opinion/heather-du-plessis-allan-councils-forced-the-govt-to-bring-out-the-big-stick/ /on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/opinion/heather-du-plessis-allan-councils-forced-the-govt-to-bring-out-the-big-stick/ Even people who think councils do a fantastic job must by now understand why the Government is going to have to pass law to get councils to focus on doing their jobs.  It has been clear to councils for about four months now that the Government wanted them to drop the distractions and just do their work.  Yet, councils just can’t help themselves.  Even last week Tauranga City Council voted to install unelected Māori representatives on the council, who will not improve ratepayers lives at all but will cost them money.  Hastings Council did the same thing three months ago with the youth councillors. No extra benefit for ratepayers, but extra cost.  Wellington City Council is today going to debate whether they should submit their feels to the Government on the Treaty Principles Bill.  That's not their job.  A bunch of other councils have done that too.  These guys up and down the country show no sign that they understand they are supposed to be cutting out unnecessary spending and focusing their minds on doing their actual jobs.  So it’s come to this – the Government announcing yesterday it will pass legalisation to force them to do their jobs.  The four wellbeing pillars that task councils with looking after economic wellbeing, social wellbeing, cultural wellbeing, and environmental wellbeing will be scrapped.  That was a bad idea from the last Labour Government anyway, which was so broad and meaningless it gave councils an excuse to expand their meddling into pretty much anything, because everything is a wellbeing.  Councils will be forced to report clearly and simply, and publicly, on what they’re spending money on and what they’re charging ratepayers.  Hopefully getting out the big stick will mean the excuses are cut, distractions are dropped, and these guys focus their minds on doing more work for less cost to ratepayers.  Because hoping they get the message and do it voluntarily hasn’t worked.  Mon, 16 Dec 2024 20:59:26 Z /on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/opinion/heather-du-plessis-allan-my-politician-of-the-year/ /on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/opinion/heather-du-plessis-allan-my-politician-of-the-year/ At this time of year it’s traditional for political commentators to pick their politician of the year. And interestingly, the NZ Herald this past weekend went for Simeon Brown. Now, I think Simeon’s right up there. There’s a reason he’s called Golden Balls. But I don’t think he’s the one. I think that honour has got to go to Erica Stanford and it’s not even a competition as far as I’m concerned. No disrespect to Simeon Brown, because he is fixing up a bunch of stuff that needs fixing up like speed limits, potholes, Wellington City Council, speed bumps, Transpower etc. And he’s done it without causing days of drama. He’s decisive and rarely makes mistakes. You get the impression he’s absolutely not taking BS from public officials behind the scenes. But that's all regular running-a-Government stuff. Erica Stanford though, has done something pretty special - she banned phones in schools. Now, I have a feeling this is going to sound silly to some people as my reason for picking her as the politician of the year. But that will only be if you don’t realise how distracting and addictive those phones were being in school time and how much they were hurting kids’ grades and social skills and ability to just be kids, like we were. Remember how we ridiculed her when she did it? Now, you find me a teacher who doesn’t think it’s a wild success. This is so important that international experts who study the impact of phones on kids say this is one of about four things we must do to help kids out, and she’s done it. She didn’t have to be begged. She didn’t have to be cajoled. She just did it. Watch the impact it will have on a generation of kids. As far as I’m concerned, no politician has made a call this significant for a group this important, all year. So never mind any of the other stuff she’s done, like the State Abuse Inquiry, for the phone ban alone she’s the MVP of 2024. LISTEN ABOVE Sun, 15 Dec 2024 21:14:38 Z /on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/opinion/heather-du-plessis-allan-png-in-the-nrl-is-just-politics/ /on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/opinion/heather-du-plessis-allan-png-in-the-nrl-is-just-politics/ It looks like we were never really in with a chance to get a second team alongside the warriors in the NRL, were we?  Because it was always going to go to Papua New Guinea.  Because it wasn’t a rugby league decision in the end, it was a political decision.  It turns out, and they’ve been pretty explicit about it, that giving PNG the NRL team is to keep them out of military and security deals with China, and if they sign any deal like that, they lose the team.  That's why the Australian Government is giving them $600 million to fund the team.  This is obviously great for regional geopolitical manoeuvrings to cut China’s lunch but I very much doubt this is going to be good for the NRL.  Do you actually think this team’s going to be any good?  Who’s going to want to join a team based in Port Moresby, which has one of the highest crime rates in the world?  There's probably not a lot of players, which is probably why this team is getting a tax exemption, so players get to keep more of their pay packets to make it more attractive to join the team.  It’s also definitely why the team are building a gated compound for their players.  So are fans ever going to travel to PNG to watch games there?  Are they even going to bother watching this team’s games if they perform as expected? It remains to be seen, but you can probably hazard a guess.  So sure, smart political move to cut China’s lunch, but the NRL doesn't exist to cut China’s lunch.  It exists for the fans to enjoy.  And you can’t say this is great for the fans.  Thu, 12 Dec 2024 21:25:33 Z /on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/opinion/heather-du-plessis-allan-the-ferry-announcement-is-embarrassing/ /on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/opinion/heather-du-plessis-allan-the-ferry-announcement-is-embarrassing/ I think we can all have a guess at why the Government announced the ferry decision two weeks before Christmas.  Because this is embarrassing, isn’t it?  What have they been doing for the last year?  How do you go a year after cancelling the mega ferries and still have nothing to show for it?  No deal. No ferries. No price tag.  Not even any detail on how much it's costing to break the deal on the mega ferries.  All we’ve got is rumours and if those rumours are right, then we are going to spend more than twice what those two mega ferries were going to cost to buy two smaller ferries.  Those mega ferries were $550m. The medium sized ferries will apparently cost $900m, plus a $300m break fee for the mega ferries.  That’s $1.2b.  We’d have been better off keeping the big boys, onselling them and using the money to buy the little ones.  And don’t expect anything anytime soon. It won't be until the second half of next year before we actually know what’s happening.  Time is of the essence because our existing ferries are running on hopes and prayers and masking tape.  We’ve had one floating without power in the Cook Strait, another run aground on a sandy beach and various other mishaps.  Now, I don’t think the mega ferries were the solution.  But I’m starting to feel like this deal, whatever it is, could be even worse. I’m starting to think this might make the mega ferries look like value for money.  And that's not a great outcome from National and Nicola Willis, who’ve told us they’re great at striking deals and managing money.  Because this does not look like that at all.  Wed, 11 Dec 2024 20:48:14 Z /on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/opinion/heather-du-plessis-allan-im-with-nz-post-stop-delivering-to-letterboxes/ /on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/opinion/heather-du-plessis-allan-im-with-nz-post-stop-delivering-to-letterboxes/ It looks like NZ Post might finally pull a trigger they haven’t pulled yet and stop delivering mail to some letterboxes.  It's kind of been on the cards for some time, but up until now the proposal has mostly been to not deliver to new houses.  Now, what they're talking about is not delivering to existing houses, houses that already have letterboxes and have been getting mail in them for years.  So, no more mail. Instead it will be replaced with clusters of boxes where we have to go get our mail.  According to the plan they would cut out 5% of letterboxes every year, so presumably within 20 years it’s all done and we have no more mail arriving in any letterboxes.  Look, I’m surprised.  I'm pleasantly surprised they are prepared to be as bold as this, because this has got to be done.  Letters are a luxury that cost us a lot of money.  This is what we have to understand. It’s not free.  NZ Post lost $14m in the last financial year and it lost $56m the year before.  That’s money the taxpayer could be spending on something more worthwhile.  Most things you can get on email now, things like your power bill, water bill and rates bill.  Some things still come in the mail, like credits cards and the registration for your car. But that can be switched to courier, and sometimes already are.  I get that there are communities that will be hit harder than others if the mail stops arriving, especially the elderly and rural communities.  But frankly it’ll be a schlep for everyone to have to wander down to the cluster letterbox in town to retrieve the mail items. But at least we’ll all be in it together.  The writing has been on the wall for ages.  The trend on letters has only been in one direction. It’s not a surprise it’s coming to this.  It’s just a pleasant surprise NZ Post has got the courage to actually start doing it.  Tue, 10 Dec 2024 21:29:52 Z /on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/opinion/heather-du-plessis-allan-banks-arent-the-moral-police/ /on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/opinion/heather-du-plessis-allan-banks-arent-the-moral-police/ Yesterday a long running court case came to an end – at least for now. BNZ has won permission to shut down Gloriavale’s bank accounts. Now I actually feel quite uncomfortable about this. I’m no fan of Gloriavale – I’d like to see the place close and the people there realise how weird their situation is. So I should, on the face of it, like what BNZ is doing because it will effectively, probably, shut down Gloriavale. Because without a bank, how can Gloriavale continue? No one else will bank them – they’ve tried, no other bank will take them. This is why they took the court case, to try to force BNZ to keep their bank accounts open, because without it, they basically can’t do business anymore. They can’t do anything really, because in a modern world you can’t survive without a bank account. It’s how you get paid, how you pay your power bills, how you get a mortgage to buy a house, how you order things from overseas. But I still don’t think this is the right thing, because of the precedent this sets. Banks can shut your account if they don’t like what you’re doing —doesn’t have to be criminal— and there’s too much of this moral policing already. Australian banks here are imposing penalties on our dairy farmers who they don’t think are cutting emissions by enough. Kiwibank’s pledged to stop banking coal mining businesses. BNZ won’t let a couple of women running a sex toy shop open bank accounts because they sell sex toys. There is a massive debunking scandal playing out in the US where even Melania Trump reckons her account was shut down after the Jan 6th riots. And to be fair to banks, it’s not as if this is new.  Remember they wouldn’t let women take out mortgages unless a male relative said it was okay as recently as the 1980s. I get that it’s a bank’s right to stop doing business with whoever it wants to, I just don’t like the bank’s reason.   Because if it’s Gloriavale today, a couple of girls selling sex toys tomorrow, who comes next?  Mon, 09 Dec 2024 21:26:14 Z /on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/opinion/heather-du-plessis-allan-we-shouldnt-get-rid-of-the-boot-camps/ /on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/opinion/heather-du-plessis-allan-we-shouldnt-get-rid-of-the-boot-camps/ I do not buy the argument, which seems to have taken hold, that the boot camps trial has to be shut down immediately because two kids escaped and got arrested after allegedly stealing a car. If you haven't caught up on this, what’s happened is that those two boot camp kids who ran away after the tangi last week have now been found... because they’ve been arrested. They allegedly hooked up with each other, found another couple of mates, went and nicked a car, ran from the cops and when the cops busted them one legged it with a machete (allegedly), tried to carjack another vehicle and then the police then apparently found knives and balaclavas. As a result Labour and the Greens are losing their minds, calling on the Government to end the boot camp trial immediately. But why? If anything this tells me how badly we need the boot camps to continue, because these are obviously very bad kids. You don’t put a balaclava in your car unless you’ve got some pretty dark plans. This is already after you’ve committed two crimes that carry a maximum sentence of ten years each, which is why you’re in the boot camp already. The boot camps haven’t turned these kids into criminals. They already are criminals. Which is why they’re in the boot camps. Ask yourself this - if we shut down the boot camps, what’s the alternative? Jail? Letting them roam free, in which case they keep on committing these kinds of crimes? I don’t see these two going on the run as a failure of the boot camp trial. I see it as a reason to keep doing the boot camp trial. Because how much do these kids need intervention if they are prepared to allegedly run around in a stolen car with balaclavas, knives and a machete? Sun, 08 Dec 2024 20:08:36 Z /on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/opinion/mark-the-week-joe-biden-is-a-liar-and-inexcusable/ /on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/opinion/mark-the-week-joe-biden-is-a-liar-and-inexcusable/ At the end of each week, Mike Hosking takes you through the big-ticket items and lets you know what he makes of it all.    Yoon Suk Yeol: 2/10  What the hell was that about?    Joe Biden: 0/10  A liar and inexcusable, with any amount of damage not just to his reputation but to the party for Lord knows how long.    Labour and AUKUS: 4/10  Having run with it in Government, nothing changes in between, and now it's off with no real explanation as to why.    Notre Dame: 8/10  Five years and look at it! That is a restoration.    Zelenskyy: 6/10  The first sign of concession. This thing will be negotiated away by this time next year.    Eden Park: 9/10  More events! Gosh, who would have thought that was a good idea?    Fonterra: 9/10  Come on! $10! And I am not sure there isn't more where that came from.    LISTEN ABOVE FOR MIKE HOSKING'S FULL WEEK IN REVIEW  Thu, 05 Dec 2024 21:13:57 Z /on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/opinion/mikes-minute-insights-from-putting-five-kids-through-school/ /on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/opinion/mikes-minute-insights-from-putting-five-kids-through-school/ We paid our last school fee last week.  One more term and the high school years at our house are over.  One of the great insights we have been lucky enough to have over the years is in having five kids you see a lot of school and schools.  We have pretty much touched every part of the New Zealand education system.  We have been to private school, public and integrated, single sex, and co-ed. We have been to primary, intermediate, and high school.  We have been to good schools, ordinary schools, and exceptional schools.  The overarching view is several-fold.  1. Principals make or break a place.  We have seen a school who's reputation had been good, suffered badly when the principal left and the replacement wasn't seen as particularly good, only to see it markedly improve when a new one came along with a fresh focus and a firm determination.  2. Private school buys you options.  In things like extra help and facilities, money buys choice and expertise.  3. Teachers vary dramatically.  In all schools we have seen a selection of everything, from lazy to brilliant, from effective to hopeless.  4. All kids are different.  This is possibly the most enlightening thing of all. A school isn't a one-stop shop. We had kids at a school you might have thought would do it all. For one child it was brilliant and for another it was a mistake.  5. A lot of it is down to the child.  I am convinced a child who is determined will succeed in any school. A brilliant kid who can't be bothered, won't.  6. Parents have to be engaged.  Schools have become a whipping boy and a social welfare department. They are expected to take on any kid, with any problem, from any home and fix them. That attitude is criminal and too often it's led by shocking parenting.  7. There is too much wastage.  If you take the stuff out of a day that isn't needed, you'd be at school I reckon about two hours a day. We can do way better.  8. I am not sure it's all that different in 2024 from when I was there in '81.  Good teachers are rare, most schools are fine, and most kids would rather play sport. It's essentially like life – you get out of it what you put in.  The only major difference is you pay a shed load more now, than you used to.  Thu, 05 Dec 2024 21:05:57 Z /on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/opinion/mikes-minute-our-farming-land-is-our-calling-card/ /on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/opinion/mikes-minute-our-farming-land-is-our-calling-card/ An interesting, but good, move on forestry and farming.  It is another example of practical thinking and application in an area that relied, to be frank, on laziness to solve a problem.  Ever since we became obsessed with climate change and we became obsessed with things that might or might address climate change, the low hanging fruit has been trees and carbon markets.  Carbon markets, as we have seen yet again this year, don't work. The government has mucked with the rules, changed the prices, freaked the market out, and all the credits that go up for sale by and large don’t get sold.  They all pile into the next auction and don’t get sold until they get to the fourth auction of the year where, after they aren't sold again, they then get dumped.  Dumped as in they never actually existed in the first place. It’s a mad, invented idea that only works if people believe it works.  So far they don’t.  Then we plant trees. Why? Because it's easy.  So a paddock of trees - or a paddock of sheep, or crops, or cows.  In a country where we already build too many houses on productive land, planting trees on that sort of land is criminal and stupid.  What this country does is feed the world. Our ability on quality in many areas is unmatched, and we get the price return for it.  But, and here is where the old freedom of movement thing comes in, if you have 100 hectares and you want to sell it and the person who wants to plant trees is offering more than the bloke next door who wants to expand his farm and keep sheep, you are now potentially limited by a government that has decided for you what you do with your property.  That’s always a tricky area.  Ultimately though governments must act in these circumstances on behalf of the nation and if we weren't so reliant on food production, if we were a tech centre, or a space centre, or an oil centre of a strategic global base like Singapore or Dubai, it might be different.  But land is our calling card and one day we will work out trees aren't the answer to climate change.  But by the time we work that out re-converting wont be possible, so in that sense this decision has saved us from ourselves.  Wed, 04 Dec 2024 21:53:41 Z /on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/opinion/mikes-minute-we-told-you-it-would-work-fine/ /on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/opinion/mikes-minute-we-told-you-it-would-work-fine/ From our “it worked fine, even though many didn’t think it would” file, there are two things to mention.  Thing number one is the benefit sanctions the handwringers argued were unfair and not nice.  It turns out virtually no one has hit red. Remember it was the green, orange, red system? All the Government ever asked in introducing them was for you to do your bit.  You are not sanctioned for not having a job. You are sanctioned for not trying.  Virtually everyone is doing their bit, as only 1% are in red. Those are the ones you can't help. They don’t want help, they don’t want work, and they don’t want to contribute. That’s on them.  The most interesting thing the Prime Minister said on Monday, as they announced their new support programme for those looking for work, is in many respects we are down to the nitty-gritty. The current rate of a bit under 5% jobless isn't high, historically.  Mostly, if you lose your job, you get another one.  So, is moving town reasonable? I answer, yes.  If you are 62 years old and laid off, maybe not.  But I noted with interest when the mill in the central North Island closed, a lot instantly said they are off to Australia. A lot of people have been off to Australia lately.  So moving for lifestyle, or work, or finances clearly isn't a major hurdle, so why would we think it would be one to find work locally?  The simple truth is you either want to work or you don’t. You are either driven, or you aren't.  So some sanctions and the threat of a kick in the pants is not really the end of the world that it was made out to be.  The second thing is Te Papa. Remember the debate about charging tourists? This was bad news apparently. We would put people off, apparently.  Reality? $750,000 in two months. They've sold pretty much exactly the number of tickets they thought they would. They are now filling a funding gap by letting people know, especially internationals, that nothing is free.  So, once again, it's not really the end of the world.  My guess is the new entry visa will be the same. The price is going up so it will be "the end of the world".  A cost to enter the national parks will be the same. They start charging and it will be "the end of the world".  The cost of a visa will be the same. The price went up so "they won't come".  We need to break the mentality that the Government i.e. you and me, pay for everything. It isn't real, but it is a habit.  What is real, is a few rules and a few charges are only an impediment if you think they are.  Tue, 03 Dec 2024 21:25:30 Z /on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/opinion/mikes-minute-councils-should-stop-playing-games-with-fluoride/ /on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/opinion/mikes-minute-councils-should-stop-playing-games-with-fluoride/ Fluoride is a funny thing.  I like it. Not too much, but just enough to help out in the water.  Not everyone shares the view, but science is on the right side.  Before he left his job Ashley Bloomfield (remember him?) issued an edict to a number of councils to fluoridate the local water. He had the power to compel them to do it.  Most have, some have had a bit of an angst about it. Tauranga wasn’t thrilled, but the problem was if you didn’t, you could be fined a couple of hundred grand and then $10,000 a day for each day after that if you don’t follow the rules.  On Friday Whangarei voted not to.  Their argument was several fold. It was a tight vote of 7-6. The public gallery was full, and I can bet who it was full of.  The mayor says fluoride won't help the local area's dental hygiene, which is of course complete nonsense and probably why we have people specialising in the health area as opposed to councillors who generally specialise in nothing.  They also argued the area doesn’t want it. A decent question to ask is - does that matter?  Are there areas and issues where the locals actually don’t get a say, kind of like how we don’t get to set our own speed limits or whether we pay our taxes?  Or do you argue at local level democracy is everything?  Mind you, even if you did argue that, they didn't poll everyone so who knows what the locals think in totality.  The interesting thing for me is, is this an issue you really want to die on a hill over?  If you're a council in the northern part of this country, are you honestly telling me this is as pressing as it gets?  Forget the dilapidated state of the place, the fact it gets cut off from the country too often, or the grinding poverty and health issues. How long do you want that list to be?  No, we will defy Wellington and get fined over fluoride.  Too many councils nationally of late are not giving local representation a good name and this lot aren't helping.  Mon, 02 Dec 2024 21:14:26 Z /on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/opinion/mikes-minute-who-is-breaking-up-the-industry-stopping-us-from-doing-business/ /on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/opinion/mikes-minute-who-is-breaking-up-the-industry-stopping-us-from-doing-business/ The National Public Health Service is exactly what's wrong with this country. The Health Minister, who shouldn't have had to, intervened in their submission to the district council looking at the application for McDonald's in Wanaka. Why was the health service offering a submission? Because the council asked them to. So who is more at fault (the answer is of course both of them), the council for creating work and waste, or the service for creative work and waste? The health service, among other things, talk of health. They talked of health in the wildest of contexts, like the World Health Organisation context, which essentially means anything can be dragged into the health sphere if you are determined. And my word, were they determined. They won't be in future because Shane Reti told them to stop wasting everyone's time. The irony of the outcome is the submission wasn’t even correct, hinting perhaps that these people have little, if any, knowledge of what they are actually doing and simply fill their days with pointless exercises. They sighted Te Tiriti of course. What Te Tiriti has to do with fries and a chocolate shake, I have no idea, and I suspect they don’t either. But that is why all this is so criminal. Te Tiriti is everywhere for no particular purpose. Its overreach has reached the point of absurdity. So hundreds of submissions, days of hearing, the Treaty and a Government department admonished by the minister. That is why nothing gets done and that is why the country is in the state it is. These people want to sell a hamburger. They want to employ locals, they want to contribute to the growth of the community and they want to pay their tax. They simply want to do business. Why is the industry and apparatus in not doing business so vast, so complicated, so expensive and so wasteful? And who is blowing it up? LISTEN ABOVE Sun, 01 Dec 2024 21:16:18 Z /on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/opinion/mark-the-week-a-ceasefire-is-a-reason-for-hope/ /on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/opinion/mark-the-week-a-ceasefire-is-a-reason-for-hope/ At the end of each week, Mike Hosking takes you through the big-ticket items and lets you know what he makes of it all.    The war: 6/10  A ceasefire is reason for hope and not a lot of that has been floating about the place recently.    The UK election petition: 4/10  Small clue, they already had one of those. It's called an election.    Capital Gains Tax: 6/10  The debate and the vote this weekend. If Labour wants to enhance their chances of two, if not three, terms in Opposition, yes is the way to vote.    The Covid Inquiry: 4/10  Because the coverage of what I would argue is as big a deal as anything this year, was scant to say the least.    The coalition's first year: 7/10  Some good progress, some good co-operation and not a lot of fall out. But it's lacking the real bite that is needed to turn this shambles around. They must try harder.    TJ Perenara: 4/10  We didn't talk about the game or the tour and that is why it's a problem.    LISTEN ABOVE FOR MIKE HOSKING'S FULL WEEK IN REVIEW  Thu, 28 Nov 2024 22:55:17 Z /on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/opinion/mikes-minute-the-real-reason-for-the-covid-report/ /on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/opinion/mikes-minute-the-real-reason-for-the-covid-report/ I am glad the Covid report has been released.  Why wouldn’t it be? It's ours, we lived it and are living through it.  It says a lot of stuff you thought it would say; compulsory mandates were one of the most controversial measures. No kidding.  The country was not prepared for border closures or MIQ. Really?  They run the line that we had fewer infections and therefore fewer deaths than other countries.  I note Chris Hipkins yesterday was still rejecting the idea that vaccine mandates were a mistake. And in that is the problem.  Incompetent Governments lead to incompetent responses. Arrogance leads to an inability to do things differently, which is I think in part, the point of the report, to give us a blueprint for next time.  The blueprint says mandates were a mistake. Hipkins, who could be Prime Minister as soon as 2026, seems to think he is more right than the inquiry. So are we any further ahead?  You need to also factor in that phase one, despite what Tony Blakely told us yesterday, is not the full picture. It’s a comprehensive picture within the guidelines he was given.  The guidelines he wasn’t given are why we are having phase two.  I still argue it would have been better if we had taken the British route, the adversarial approach. Put Ardern and Hipkins and Bloomfield on the stand and ask some penetrating questions.  It doesn’t have to be a court to illicit material this report hasn’t found.  The really important part for me is not what we did then, but what the outworking of what we did then produced what we have now.  What we are still living through and why, because what we have now is so badly damaged. We must learn not to do what we did last time.  The kids not at school, the behaviour of so many that has been out of control, the moral fatigue, the social decline and the malaise. That is not measured totally in statistics.  But the overarching feeling is this country is a shadow of what it once was. That's the real story of Covid.  But I still maintain that you can write all the reports you want and inquire until you are blue in the face, but a pandemic is luck.  If the Government that’s in on the day the pandemic arrives is good, you will be OK.  If it's Labour 2017-23, well, you don’t need the report.   Just look at us.  Thu, 28 Nov 2024 21:15:51 Z /on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/opinion/mikes-minute-is-the-ceo-to-blame-for-work-and-safety/ /on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/opinion/mikes-minute-is-the-ceo-to-blame-for-work-and-safety/ I am more knowledgeable about the Pike River tragedy than Tony Gibson's Auckland Port court case.  But out of Pike River came the law that got Gibson, as former boss of the Port of Auckland, over the death of a worker.  He has been found guilty. He may appeal.  You would imagine if the verdict stands and a penalty is imposed, it would have a severe chilling effect in the world of CEOs.  Just where is the line for a boss in looking after the safety of the staff, beyond the broad-based and widely understood rules?  Do court cases like this now reset those boundaries as to what you must, or might do, in regards safety in a large workplace?  Some workplaces are inherently dangerous because of their nature.  Rules will be in place, but how tight do those rules need to be? And it's out of that sort of expectation that life in general can sometimes be brought to a sort-of standstill by the “just in case” mentality.  Work and safety is driven by good intention but is stifling in the real world.  In taking the very specific responsibility right up the chain to the corner office for a person falling off, or falling over, or into something, that's a tremendous amount of very specific expectation – especially in a large company when the numerical gap between the boss and a bloke on the floor, or the machine, might well be large. It's an interesting concept, to judicially skip any number of people between the victim and the CEO. What I know about Pike River was it was a top-down mess. If you were looking for blame, there was no shortage of it to spread around. A lot of people wanted Peter Whittall to pay, but that was more predicated on him being an easy target, not because he, and he alone, was responsible. How much of the new law came out of the same mentality?  "Don't worry about the detail or fairness, let's just look to have someone pay". And if that is what drove it, is that good law? Or is it a lot of potential trouble and a reason not to be the boss? Wed, 27 Nov 2024 21:19:17 Z /on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/opinion/mikes-minute-tj-perenara-haka-is-a-sign-of-the-times/ /on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/opinion/mikes-minute-tj-perenara-haka-is-a-sign-of-the-times/ Surely the TJ Perenara performance is a sign of the times? How far back (small clue, not far) do you need to go to think that this sort of extra curricular activity would never have even been close to being countenanced by an All Black squad? Not long ago, essentially, sport was sport. It got political in the Springbok apartheid era, but that was politics from the outside in, not the other way around. It was Perenara's last time in the jersey, so why not leave with a message? I think that would be the argument for many but, what sort of message? If one of the blokes from rural New Zealand decided to slip in some support in the post match interview for the current gun reform, or the gang patch laws, how do you think that would go down? David Seymour, who quite sensibly asked in response to the Perenara views just what bit of equal rights do you not support, is kind of on a hiding to nothing. We have entrenched camps on this one. No one is in the middle. You either believe in the idea that we are all equal, or you don’t. Perhaps more worryingly Perenara's performance was spoken about with management and supported by them, so credit to him that it wasn’t some mad, spur-of-the-moment outburst. For the record, when he says it's important to him, no one doubts him. But lots of things are important to lots of people. But within all our lives are constraints. One of the constraints around being an All Black is you represent the country as an elite athlete, not a politician or an activist. As we saw in a much lesser way last week, the woman who may well head up content and news for the state-owned TV station took leave to go on the Treaty protest. Quite rightly, many asked whether that was wise. We can ask the same question of Perenara and, given he had All Black mangement blessing, we can ask that question of them too. If the criteria for protest as an All Black is passion, then we are asking for trouble. What we want in All Blacks are sports people of integrity, professionalism and, preferably, an ability to win a lot. The rest of it risks damaging the brand, insulting fans and distracting us from the main point of the outing. Sun, 24 Nov 2024 21:18:40 Z /on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/opinion/mark-the-week-the-gang-laws-represent-a-turning-of-the-tide/ /on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/opinion/mark-the-week-the-gang-laws-represent-a-turning-of-the-tide/ At the end of each week, Mike Hosking takes you through the big-ticket items and lets you know what he makes of it all.     Basketball: 7/10  The most popular school sport in the country. Who doesn’t love a pick-up game and a lay-up?    The gang laws: 7/10  Because they represent a turning of the tide, a restoration of some common sense and some realisation of just how shabby this place had become.    World War III: 3/10  Let's keep our powder dry, shall we? A missile does not an escalation make. You might remember we are still waiting for Iran to respond in the other war and that was an age ago.    Dairy: 9/10  If we hit $10, that's a record. What a year, and what a time to have a year.    Glastonbury: 8/10  Sold out in 35 minutes, costs $700 and you got no idea who's on stage.    Taylor Swift: 3/10  With an education system like ours in the state it's in, is it really wise to spruik a Taylor Swift course? Is that really your calling card?    LISTEN ABOVE FOR MIKE HOSKING'S FULL WEEK IN REVIEW  Thu, 21 Nov 2024 22:31:55 Z