The Mike Hosking Breakfast

Jason Pine and Andrew Saville join Mike Hosking this morning to discuss the weekend's sports. On the table today: Auckland FC suffered a loss at home amid monsoon-like rains. Should the game have been called off?  The F1 Driver's Championship is headed to the final race of the season, with three contenders for the title.  And the V8 Supercars Championship has changed up their format, but is it too confusing?  LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

US President Donald Trump's working to force Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro out of office. Trump's warned airlines and travellers to avoid the country on social media - and says land strikes on Venezuela could come 'very soon'. The Trump administration has pinned illegal migration and drug trafficking on Venezuela's Government - amid a crackdown on the issue. Foreign Policy Institute Senior Fellow Jeffrey Price told Mike Hosking that it's hard to tell what the strategy is from here, but it's clear Trump wants Maduro gone. He says it's not clear how he'll do this - but the US is willing to do it with force. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

An anti-smoking group says young people don't think vaping is as cool as it used to be.  Action on Smoking and Health has released the results of its survey which asks more than 30-thousand Year 10 students about their smoking habits.  It shows 7.1-percent of the age group vape daily - down from the 10-percent peak in 2022 - and less than a third have ever tried it.  ASH Chair Robert Beaglehole says Government policy has played a big role in the change.  He says it took some time for the regulation to catch up with the issue - but it is clearly working now.  LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Chris Luxon says banks need to be passing on their OCR cuts to customers - and customers should be switching banks if they don't. Mortgage rates have been falling significantly, following recent OCR cuts. But the Reserve Bank says the banks still have room to move, to be cutting the rates further. The Prime Minister says [told Mike Hosking] banks should be competing for customers, and customers should be trying to get the best deal they can. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Local Government Minister is pleased to see councils joining forces under the new water infrastructure model. The Department of Internal Affairs expects councils to spend nearly 48-billion dollars on Local Water Done Well over the next decade. The reforms could create more than 40 water entities, with some councils joining multi-council-controlled organisations. Simon Watts told Mike Hosking that 38 councils have already combined to form 12 entities. But he says it's never been about the number of entities - the critical part is whether it's financially sustainable. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Repeatedly low wheat prices are driving more farmers to turn to dairy. The Canterbury Regional Council says up to 25-thousand more dairy cows could be added to the region this year - with 32 new farms given the green light. Federated Farmers' confidence survey in July found 81 percent of dairy farmers surveyed were making a profit, compared to just 40 percent of arable. National Dairy Chair Karl Dean told Mike Hosking that dairy has a more consistent cash flow. He says arable farmers are the ones with the land to convert. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If you follow the carbon market, and you should, it is yet another lesson in the abject failure that almost certainly results in gerrymandering markets.  Four times a year you bid for credits (offsets) to counter your polluting habits.  You do this because we signed up to Paris and made a bunch of promises we were never going to be able to keep.  By selling credits the Government has the potential income of about $2 billion a year. Except little, if any, of that happens because by and large people don’t turn up and bid.  And they fail to show up, broadly speaking, because people don’t believe a word the Government says on climate.  It's not just this Government. The last one was even worse.  They have tried to set a price for carbon credits, remembering of course that it's an entirely invented market. So it's a dart-at-a-board stuff at the best of times.  Of late the price was $52. Then it was $33 before settling back to about $40-something.  Enter Climate Minister Simon Watts. Now, he doesn’t normally talk about the market because that’s interference, the same way the Prime Minister doesn’t talk about the Reserve Bank.  But Simon has talked about the market, and he has done that because the Government are panicked.  He issued a reassurance that despite all the changes they are making around climate, the carbon market and the ETS are still a thing. We are still committed, it's still going to happen.  His commitments, he said, are firm.  Except, Simon, that’s the problem – no one believes you.  This is a Government that says one thing and does another. Don’t get me wrong, what, roughly, they are doing is the right thing.  The tide has gone out on climate. The promises are a bust. No one is going to make Net Zero, so the answer is stop pretending you are.  Science might come to the rescue and if it does, fantastic.  But the governmental promises around carbon and the ETS and car import duties is all BS. There is no better proof of that than the carbon market.  The market is calling the Government's bluff.  Carbon credits or snake oil? Same thing.  No one's buying figuratively and literally. 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.    Education: 8/10  The maths trial results this week were a tangible example of the simple truth that if you concentrate on something and work hard, you will win.    The All Blacks: 6/10  They did better than the critics seem to suggest. Rugby has changed but the attitude on expectation and winning hasn’t. This isn't 1986.    Regional councils: 8/10  Bold call, good call. We will be better off for the call.    Ginny Andersen and steak: 6/10  Who had her down as a surreptitious food stealer?    Rachel Reeves: 2/10  Have a look at her work on taxes and ask yourself how far-removed Barbara Edmonds is - or isn't.    Surrender by Thursday: 4/10  Wasn't that yet another harebrained thought bubble by a bloke who looks increasingly unhinged, or tired, or old, or mad. Or possibly all of those things.    LISTEN ABOVE FOR MIKE HOSKING'S FULL WEEK IN REVIEW See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the Mike Hosking Breakfast Full Show Podcast for Friday 28th of November, Judith Collins speaks on the public inquiry to be held into the disappearance of Tom Phillips and his children.  Could we grow more coffee in New Zealand? And who knew we grew any sort of decent coffee here in the first place?  Kate Hawkesby and Tim Wilson talk about the installation of Mike’s new TV and the legacy and impact of Simon Dallow as they Wrap the Week.  Get the Mike Hosking Breakfast Full Show Podcast every weekday morning on iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s the simple question with seemingly no simple answer: why aren't more people excellent?  Naylor Love reported this week they are cracking the $1 billion revenue mark. They are an old company that has never cracked a billion.  Naylor Love are in construction. Construction is apparently having, or has had, a hell of a time of it.  So how is it a business in a tough sector can be so outstandingly successful?  They put it down to being good at complex projects. They do those well, the reputation grows, the word-of-mouth spreads and so it goes.  The other day I discovered a coffee roaster made by a company called Kaffelogic. Their machine is made in New Zealand.  The sadness is they are one of a handful left that produce appliances of any sort in New Zealand. The thing is their machine is world class because the bulk of professionals who enter roasting competitions use that machine.  So what that means is we can produce appliances, but don’t. Mostly that will be price related but like wine, or kiwifruit, or salmon, it seems there is nothing stopping us producing in small numbers if it is at the top end.  The same way there is nothing stopping Naylor Love booming in an industry that isn't booming.  The same way I can name you any number of restaurants and cafes that are doing very nicely, thank you, in a sector that is, according to press releases, in a world of trouble.  The same way, as we heard just this week, that despite all the job market downturns and tough times, at no time did it get any easier to find great talent.  No shortage of people. Just a shortage of excellence.  There seems to be a pattern here.  It seems a truism that no matter what you are surrounded by, no matter what the circumstances are, excellence will always shine and do well.  That if you are good, or dare we suggest excellent, at what you do, there is always a place for you not just to participate, but to succeed and even excel, while those around you flounder and complain and blame their lot.  Excellence is your ticket to wherever it is you want to go.  Don’t tell anyone. Heaven forbid it catches on. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.