The Mike Hosking Breakfast

In a world of pressing problems one of the bigger, longer term ones is due a good looking at because if we don’t, when we get there we will want to shoot ourselves. IRD has been looking at the cost of stuff and where that money comes from. The trouble, and this is not new, is we have more older people needing more money and fewer younger people to work to raise the money to pay the bills. This is more than Super. It's health. It's pretty much everything. Currently 16% of the population is over 65-years-old. By 2060 it will be a quarter. The IRD conclusion is that people will likely have to pay more tax. Really? Is that it? Well, no. Somewhere in the advice they mutter something like "we could always cut costs". Bingo! Give those people a prize. And why that idea is not top of the pile of ideas, I don’t know. Because here is what I do know. Most of the money to pay for all this comes from you and me. Personal tax is over 50% of Government income, its 52%. Companies pay 17%. GST is 25%. A lot of GST is us as well. In fact our top tax rate is 39cents. Add GST on to that you are at 54%. Add the bits and pieces on top - the ACC, the road user charges - and top income earners will be parting with 56-57% of everything they earn. And the IRD advice is we will need more please. So how much more? And at what point does it become ruinous? At what point do the young, bright things move offshore? The ones of course that haven't already. So let's take stock. We are highly taxed. Remember at the other end we have no tax free component in income. We are a low wage economy. We have a massive savings issue with KiwiSaver at an average of $30,000-ish and a fiscal cliff in a bunch of years where the main idea is we will bleed you some more. Spot the red flag. So, what to do? And how urgently do we do it? Ideas please.   LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the Mike Hosking Breakfast Full Show Podcast for Monday the 30th of June, we've got some good retail crime changes coming to a store near you and the Government's Retail Crime Advisory Group spokesperson Sunny Kaushal is on the show. The Prime Minister has some questions to answer around Whanau Ora, Section 127b and NATO spending. Andrew Saville and Jason Pine talk Liam Lawson's best ever F1 result, the Warriors' loss and how the All Blacks will go in their first test against France. Get the Mike Hosking Breakfast Full Show Podcast every weekday morning on iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Prime Minister is introducing new laws focused on protecting first responders and prison officers.  Luxon told Mike Hosking that no ambulance driver, firefighter or police officer should face aggression and assault while trying to help people.   Also in discussion is the new IKEA store, which has faced trouble during the planning phase.   Luxon said that he has more concerns about the planning than IKEA do, and blames the struggles on ‘Māorification’.   LISTEN ABOVE  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The deadline for rental properties to meet the Healthy Homes deadline is less than 24 hours away, and some properties are still not up to scratch. Betta Group CEO Matt Mason told Mike Hosking that although many proactive landlords have made the required changes, some have left it to the last minute. He says audits will be carried out and fines will be issued in the coming months to help enforce these regulation changes. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Paramedics are giving the Government a thumbs up, as it moves to crack down on assaults towards first responders and prison officers.  It's proposing higher penalties, with five years maximum imprisonment for assault with intent to injure, and a seven year maximum for injuring with intent.  St John Ambulance Operations Manager Stu Cockburn told Mike Hosking this is a step in the right direction. LISTEN HERESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There's excitement over expected changes to the way authorities deal with retail crime.  Newstalk ZB understands Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith will be confirming shoplifting policy changes this week, relating to Retail Crime Ministerial Advisory Group recommendations.  Group Chair Sunny Kaushal told Mike Hosking that the announcements are ones retailers across the country have been screaming out for.  Kaushal says offenders believe police won't respond and the courts will let them go, so they're working to stop this sense of impunity.   LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The One Roof Velocity house value index has revealed a drop in property value across the country.  Major cities like Auckland, Wellington and Hamilton have all experienced drops. However, more rural areas such as Southland, Canterbury and Northland have all seen a rise.  CEO of real estate at Velocity Helen O’Sullivan told Mike Hosking that although the prices have dropped, the real estate market is still healthy.  She said ‘Volumes are a key indicator, and we’re seeing those pick up’  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A friend of ours opened a new business last week.  It was a soft opening and will be full steam ahead by the school holidays.  So far he is going gangbusters. There's a lot of local support and it looks like a good news story.  He is however, if you believe the headlines that have been supplied by his industry association, in very dark and difficult days.  They don’t look difficult at his place.  The GDP figures came out as we were away on the long weekend - up 0.8% for Q1.  The Reserve Bank thought it would be 0.4%. Most banks thought it would be 0.7%. The reality was better than everyone thought.  Nick Tuffley, the ASB's head man on economics, also on Thursday told us he still had growth in the second quarter just gone, April, May and June. He had us 0.3-0.4% up.  Other commentary last week from manufacturing and services said we had hit a brick wall. If Nick is right there is no brick wall, the same way Q1 was not 0.4%, it was 0.8%.  The point is this: is it possible we are in such a funk we don’t want to see reality?  You know what else I read? Australia, the repository of so many disillusioned New Zealanders, is now losing more people than it has since Covid. A mass exodus is on.  People are bailing out of Australia, healthcare is chronically bad, you can't get seen, the Government is sinking in debt, house prices have spiked past an average of a million everywhere, there are more people than ever since records began and people are working multiple jobs just to make ends meet.  This is Australia, the golden answer for the miserable Kiwi looking for better.  Maybe better is here? Maybe in a turbulent, troubled world the Land of the Long White Cloud is actually coming right and people like our mate and his new business sees it.  And a lot of what's in front of us is attitude. Is there trouble in some areas? Yes.  Are there issues still unresolved? Yes.  But do we have growth and prospect? Yes.  Do the numbers back that up? Indeed they do!  Maybe the grass is in fact nice and just as green here. You just got to want to see it.     See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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.    Trump: 7/10  All in all, 5% defence spending at NATO, a ceasefire that holds, and talks with Iran next week. It's not bad.    Rob Penney: 8/10  From last year to this. That's one of sports great stories, and I assume involves tremendous amounts of well-deserved satisfaction.    Whanau Ora and Tama Iti and Moana Pasifika: 2/10  Central Government yet again missing the politically triggering stuff they promised to address.    David Seymour: 7/10  As Acting Prime Minister in the house and in media, he is a very solid, considered set of hands with good wit to go with it.    Golden visas: 8/10  That is practical thinking, making tangible difference. 189 applications and $800million worth of business - let's go NZ!    Wealth and the pension: 2/10  Bum note of the week. Targeting those who actually worked hard to save to help in retirement should never be used as a punishment. And the Retirement Commissioner might like to ask herself whether she understands her job.    LISTEN ABOVE FOR MIKE HOSKING'S FULL WEEK IN REVIEW See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We've got more ageism, this time in education.  Unions are "concerned" as more teachers work past retirement age.  This in part is the trouble with unions.  1) They aren't keen on work to start with,  2) They are bogged down in old fashioned rules and views of the world.  What is retirement and how do you know you are past it?  They refer of course to Super and this tired, old business of thinking that when Super kicks in you must check out.  Obviously, the world has changed and is changing, just not that quickly in union land.  At 64-years-old if you're loving teaching, somehow chronologically at 65-years-old that desire and love of pursuit needs to be shelved, as you wander off collecting your retirement income and presumably filling your days with bowls and walks.  8000 people teaching are 65-years-old or over. That’s double what it used to be 10 years ago.  But then a lot is different to what it was 10 years ago.  Beyond the numbers, does anyone ask any questions?  Like, are they doing it because they have to, as opposed to want to? Bit of a difference I would have thought.  Most importantly for teaching, given the unions insist on the mad-cap business of time in the classroom being the measure for income, are these oldies any good?  Could they be better given their experience and institutional knowledge than the 21-year-old just into the classroom and looking for all the world out of her depth?  In sex education in 6th form at Linwood High in the late 1980's, we were 16 and 17-years-old and the teacher might have been 20-years-old. She looked like she wanted to die as the diagrams of the you-know-what's came out.  As you can tell the memory is seared in my mind 40 years later.  New isn't always best. Young doesn’t always trump older and passion and skill above all else is what should drive presence in the workplace or classroom.  Are you good? Do you like what you do? Are you making a difference?  If the answer is yes, then at what point would you be remotely interested in age, far less be concerned? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.