The Mike Hosking Breakfast

On the Mike Hosking Breakfast Full Show Podcast for Thursday the 20th of February, Winston Peters says we need a reset in our relationship with the Cook Islands.  Reserve Bank Governor Adrian Orr joined to talk our future plans after they cut the OCR by 50 basis points.  One of our most successful entrepreneurs Rowan Simpson has some ideas about how to turn this country around, and it's all laid out in his new book ‘How to be Wrong’.  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.

A researcher's warning better security is urgently needed as New Zealanders become soft targets for scammers.   Independent Research Solutions Director Jarrod Gilbert has found people earning more than $100 thousand are significantly more likely to become victims, with rates increasing 10% since 2018.  He told Mike Hosking it's the country's most prominent crime, and we need to act as at the moment, we're slipping behind.  Gilbert says if measures aren't put in place, Kiwis will become an even more significant target.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The timeframe for the 500 officer increase in policing numbers is shrinking.   Police News magazine reports there are actually fewer cops in the country than when the target was set 14 months ago.  Associate Police Minister Casey Costello says they've lost 150 through attrition, but they're expecting to put 650 recruits through in the first half of the year.   She told Mike Hosking it won't just be new recruits who help bolster the numbers.   Costello says more than 100 former officers have applied to rejoin the force.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Pressure is mounting on banks to pass OCR cuts onto their customers.  The Reserve Bank's signalling yesterday's double cut to the cash rate will be followed by at least two more single cuts.  All major banks have started dropping their rates.  But Governor Adrian Orr told Mike Hosking they need to go further.  He says they need to be doing better, looking at their own margins, and chasing and competing for customers much more vigorously.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Borrowers may want to be shopping around more for better deal following yesterday's double cut to the OCR.  The Reserve Bank's signalling more cuts in April and May.  All banks have started dropping short-term rates.  New Zealand Home Loans Chief Executive Kip Hanna told Mike Hosking that's likely to continue as banks fight it out for available lending business.  He says banks are becoming more competitive on rates and offers, and the structures can be just as important as the rates themselves.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Foreign Minister's calling for a 'reset' of the relationship between New Zealand and the Cook Islands.  New Zealand claims Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown is not sharing all the documents on his recent agreement signed with China.  Some details have been released, including working together on seabed mining, and looking at setting up embassies.  Winston Peters told Mike Hosking the leadership of the Cook Islands needs to tell people what's in the agreement.  He wants to trust them, but also verify what's in the agreement.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The latest cuts in the US Government have been described as a “total farce”.  The Trump Administration has reversed the firings of hundreds of employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration, the department tasked with working on the nation’s nuclear weapons programs.   The cuts were part of a DOGE purge across the Department of Energy.  US Correspondent Richard Arnold told Mike Hosking they attempted to walk back the sackings and rehire the workers, but were unable to contact many of them since they’d been cut out of the email network.   LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You have to read it to believe it and even in reading it, it might well be you still can't believe it.  A report, one of a number of investigations now underway, has reported back on whether personal Census and Covid intel collected at Manurewa Marae was misused for electoral purposes.  It's important to point out that this particular report didn’t have it within its scope to find out whether the marae did anything shonky. That's still to come.  The marae, if you recall, was managed by Takutai Tarsh Kemp, who was also a Māori Party candidate, and she went on to win the electorate by a handful of votes.  What this report does find is proof, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that even when you stack the public service full of people the way the Labour Government did, they are still incompetent.  The head of Stats NZ is going. He won't be reappointed. Each of the departments looked into —Stats NZ, Health New Zealand, and the Ministry of Health— have all been found hopelessly wanting.  It was a combination of not really having any oversight on information that may, or may not, be protected and that may, or may not, be inappropriately used, plus when concerns were raised still doing nothing about it.  "High trust models" were in place. Remember the golden Ardern and Hipkins days of high trust models?  It basically confirms the Public Service Commissioner's findings last week that the public service isn't fit for purpose. It has too many meetings, there are too many departments, we need a few gotten rid of, and if you designed it today it wouldn’t be like it is.  There are no safeguards, no regard for privacy, and the issues around privacy in the report shows it's just a litany of uselessness.  Remember the alleged skullduggerous part of whether the Māori Party used some of this intel to help their election campaign? That outcome is still to surface.  It's bad enough as it is. If they get pinged, it’s a full-blown scandal.  At least one head has rolled, but you can't make this stuff up. It's gliding on, it's worse than most would have thought and it's not even over.  The worst may well still be to come. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Another large cut to the Official Cash Rate's on the cards today.  Economists and markets are almost certain the Reserve Bank will slash the OCR by 50-basis points.  That would take the cash rate from its current 4.25% to 3.75%.  BNZ Chief Economist Mike Jones told Mike Hosking that things are tracking as the Reserve Bank expected when they last met in November of last year.  He says that in that meeting, the Reserve Bank essentially said they would cut 50 points unless something threw them wildly off track, and he doesn’t believe that’s happened.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There's controversy over a New Zealand MP taking part in an anti-government protest in the Cook Islands.  Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer has taken part in a rally against Mark Brown's government over its new strategic partnership with China.  The deal will see the countries cooperate more on trade, investment, and tourism, with China providing a $4 million grant for future projects.  Labour’s Ginny Andersen told Mike Hosking it’s not something she would do, but different things do it for different people.  She says that if she wants do go and do that and she’s not breaking the law, then alright.   National’s Mark Mitchell agreed, saying that if he was travelling on personal business he wouldn’t join a protest or interfere with the internal matters, but Ngarewa-Packer has chosen to inject herself into this situation, and that’s up to her.   LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.