The Mike Hosking Breakfast

Praise for the Government's loosening of climate reporting rules. It's proposing to lift the climate reporting threshold for listed companies worth 60 million dollars to one billion. The changes would also see directors no longer have personal responsibility if their company breaks climate reporting rules. NZX Sustainability Manager Simon Beattie told Mike Hosking that they're common sense changes. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It seems the labour party has not learned a thing about running a country. Their first policy for next years vote is out, so congrats on that. The first cab off the rank is a wealth fund. The idea is not necessarily a bad one. You take money from dividends and distribute it out about the place to create jobs. The obvious questions though …were not answered. How much does it cost? …don't know. What industries or entities or businesses are involved? …don’t know. How many jobs will it create? …don't know. Who decides who gets what? …don’t know. Those are the specific  faults in what really is just a very broad brush sort of thought bubble. The more pressing issue economically comes in the form of a simple truth. And the simple truth is, given you haven't magicked up the money it has come from a business, lets say it’s a power company, the company pays the government a dividend...that already happens...currently that dividend goes into the consolidated fund i.e. the government's coffers. That money pays bills, currently one of the biggest bills is the interest on our debt. That bill is getting close to 10 billion dollars a year. Now if you aren't using the dividend money to pay bills because you have siphoned it off to pay for your wealth fund, where is the money for the bills going to come from? At all points you only ever have a finite amount of money. If some of those dollars go one way, they cant go another. And unless you can explain  how you cover the gap, you are merely prioritising one thing over another. Its like increasing the car payment, but doing it by paying less on the mortgage Which in this case brings in labours attitude to debt. Given they are the ones who dug our current debt hole, It looks like they still haven't worked out that it wasn’t a very smart move. If they are to stand a chance next year, they will need to sharpen their policy act up considerably to something a lot better refined than some blue sky psycho babble. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Listen to the Mike Hosking Breakfast Full Show Podcast for Tuesday 21 October. Get the Mike Hosking Breakfast Full Show Podcast every weekday morning on iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Armageddon Expo is taking place this weekend in Auckland.   Several actors such as Elijah Wood, Andy Serkis and John Boyega will be attending the convention, along with voice actor Alan Tudyk.   Alan Tudyk told Mike Hosking that his knack for voice acting came from a play, where he played 20 different characters.   LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

New Zealand's first sports school will open next year, in a partnership with Wellington Phoenix. The New Zealand Performance Academy in Upper Hutt will operate as a charter school for serious aspiring sportspeople. The academy will initially offer elite football training alongside the Wellington Phoenix Academy, as well as rugby training. Other sports will be added over time. The school will teach a nationally recognised curriculum along with key skills such as leadership, mental health and nutrition. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The country's second-largest electricity gentailer says rising electricity prices are the result of rising lines charges. Inflation's now back up at three-percent. The single biggest driver is electricity prices - which have increased 11.3 percent in the past year. Contact Energy Chief Executive Mike Fuge says electricity firms are having to pass on the fixed lines charges that cover the cost of infrastructure. He says they rose by about 20-percent last year and about 16-percent this year. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Experts now say it's unlikely the jewels, most recently stolen from the Louvre will ever be seen again. The thieves rode a basket lift up the museum's facade, forced a window and fled with France's Crown and Napoleonic jewels - in just seven minutes.  The museum had just opened on Sunday - local time. Newstalk ZB's Paris correspondent Catherine Field says it's already been 24 hours, and authorities have no idea who they're looking for. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A balancing act is underway to decide which Roads of National Significance will begin construction next.  The Government's funnelling $1.2billion into the programme's 17 projects - which includes highway sections in Northland, Nelson, Hamilton, and Wellington. Transport Minister Chris Bishop told Mike Hosking they're now going through a prioritisation exercise as a Government.  He says they have all the investment cases, and they're working out a rough order of sequence.  Bishop says they can't build them all at once, noting they want to ensure a regional spread.  LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There are concerns that Labour's trying to fix a capital problem that kiwis don't have.  The party's pitching a $200million Future Fund that re-invests dividends from specified Crown assets,  into businesses and infrastructure projects. It'll invest solely in local projects.  Icehouse Ventures CEO Robbie Paul told Mike Hosking the policy is agreeable and directionally correct,  but wonders if there's a gap in the capital market.  LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Listen to the Mike Hosking Breakfast Full Show Podcast for Monday 20 October. Get the Mike Hosking Breakfast Full Show Podcast every weekday morning on iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.