The Mike Hosking Breakfast

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Erica Stanford is this Government's MVP.    Once again, she is taking an inexplicably stupid thing in schools, ditching it, and going back to common sense.  This is something close to my heart at the moment because I have to make a decision in the next six months or so about which school we send our son to.  But I’ve basically already made the decision, and it will be the one school in the area that has single classes instead of open plan, modern learning spaces.  It’s the school his best friend from kindy is now going to. It’s also the school another parent I know has just sent their child to.  All of us are doing it for the same reason: we want to avoid open plan learning spaces.  We know, like most parents know, that if you stick a hundred kids in a big room and tell them to pay attention to the teacher in front of them, they can’t.  They get distracted by the loud noises coming from the other kids over there.  Why the Ministry of Education forced this in schools will probably baffle me for the rest of my life, because there is no logic to it.  No one who has kids, or spends time with kids, can really believe kids can concentrate and learn with 100 voices chirping all the time.  Which idiot came up with this? I’d love to know.  I tell you what, the legacy of this Government could well be that it finally turns around our up-to-now decades long decline in education stats.  That, along with the ban on phones in schools, and the hour a day of reading writing and maths, and the expectation that kids must pass existing standards, actually gives our kids a chance to learn as well as kids in any other developed country, like we used to.  And if that is what happens, given how crucial education is to a country’s success, Erica Stanford will remain as I see her:  The MVP of this Government, if not of the decade.  Or, of this generation. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After more than ten years in the musical game, Lachie Hayes has released his sophomore album.  The Kiwi musician hails from the deepest of the deep south, blending rural blues, alt-folk-country, and soul rock to deliver a new wave of alt-country music.  ‘Subsatellite’ is an eleven-track album, produced by prolific musician and producer Delaney Davidson, filled with the colourful stories of ordinary people.    He joined Heather du Plessis-Allan for a chat about the rising popularity of country music and where his career is headed next.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Could Roger Tuivasa-Sheck make another code switch in 2027?  The Sydney Morning Herald reports the Warriors great is a target of the proposed Rugby360 competition for when he comes off contract after next season.  The newspaper estimates the value of the offer at over one million dollars per season – double what Tuivasa-Sheck is currently earning with the Warriors.  Former Kiwis Captain Richie Barnett told Heather du Plessis-Allan this is a massive threat to the NRL.  He says they’ve always had to contend with competitions trying to recruit across codes, but the money and consortiums that are coming up now have too big a pool of money to say no to.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the Mike Hosking Breakfast Full Show Podcast for Thursday the 17th of July, Erica Stanford continues rolling back bad education policies – this time we're getting rid of open classrooms.  The National Library is looking at getting rid of tens of thousands of copies of books, including religious texts, as they prioritise New Zealand books and authors.  Kiwi singer Lachie Hayes has a new album, so the Catlins-based musician joined to talk the rise of alt-country and where is career is headed.  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 believed new RMA planning systems will relieve at least 50% of unnecessary work from councils.   The Government is putting a halt on council planning work before the new RMA planning system comes into force.  It's also moving to force councils to focus on core services and may move to cap future rates increases.  RMA Advisory Group Chair Janette Campbell told Heather du Plessis Allan councils will still remain very busy.  She says it’s going to be a big job to get ready for and impliment the new system, and councils will not be twiddling their thumbs.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A belief the cost of propping up retail crime advisors is money well spent – and that's from a key member of the advisory group.   It's been revealed $500 thousand has been spent on the Retail Ministerial Advisory Group in the 102 days to June 30. Group Chair Sunny Kaushal told Heather du Plessis-Allan the group's coming in under budget, and money is required for their proposals.   He says retail crime is costing $2.8 billion, and if laws are to change, they need to produce quality reports.   Kaushal says the money's coming from the Proceeds of Crime Fund.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Electricity companies could face further rules if the latest measures to drive down prices don't work.  The Electricity Authority's moving to require power companies to charge less for power during off-peak periods and pay more for solar and battery power during peak periods.  But it hasn't stated how much lower off-peak prices actually need to be.  Commerce Commission Chair John Small —a member of the authority's Energy Competition Task Force— told Heather du Plessis-Allan they're hoping competition will drive down off-peak prices.  He says they want to see how things go, but the regulator will need to consider further action if things don't go as planned.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Internal Affairs Minister's being criticised for allowing improper destruction of religious texts from the National Library.   The Government plans to shred around half a million books which include the Bible, the Qur'an, and the Torah, to save on storage costs.  Massey University Professor Emeritus of Religion Peter Lineham told Heather de Plessis-Allan religious texts should be offered to the relevant communities.  He says Minister Brooke van Velden suggested they can do what they want with the books because New Zealand's secular.   But Lineham says being secular doesn't mean being careless with other people’s beliefs.  Lineham told du Plessis-Allan religions have strict beliefs about how texts should be handled and destroyed - if at all.   He says only preserving New Zealand books fails to recognise our society contains —and is stemmed from— many cultures.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Many principals are welcoming the Government's decision to scrap open plan classrooms as a no-brainer.  Education Minister Erica Stanford says all new builds will have more traditional layouts, reversing the decision from John Key's government.  Christchurch's Shirley Boys' High School's paid $800 thousand to transform its open plan classrooms to single cells.  Headmaster Tim Grocott told Heather du Plessis Allan they noticed an immediate improvement.  He says they're a secondary school teaching individual subjects, so individual classes for teachers is crucial.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I’m as interested as anyone on this mystery about whether David Seymour is in trouble over the letter he sent to the UN.  Whether the media reporting is right that the Prime Minister gave Seymour a telling off, or whether David was right that it was just a nice chat, or whether the media reporting is right that Winston is cross with David for sending the letter, or whether David’s right that Winston is fine and is basically going to send the same letter again, or whether Winston is right when he says that’s not true – I’m as interested as you are in what the truth is.  But regardless of whether David is in trouble, he was right when he called the letter "presumptive, condescending, and wholly misplaced".  I personally think he did us a favour giving the UN a slap-down for piping up on the Regulatory Standards Bill with their letter, which started the chain of correspondence.  In particular, what the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples got wrong is his assertion that the bill fails to uphold indigenous rights guaranteed in the Treaty, including partnership.  There is no partnership guarantee. It’s not in the Treaty. It was a judge's comment in the mid 80's and was subsequently misinterpreted to mean partnership.  He apparently also claims Māori have been excluded form consultation, which is again not true, because we’ve just had a full week of select committee hearings which included submission from Māori.  Both of these facts could’ve been discovered with a simple Google search.  Unfortunately for the UN this makes the case, again, for the thing being scaled back to what it was originally set up for: preventing WWIII.  They should get out of everything else —climate change, indigenous rights, advocating for wealth taxes— because it’s gone way beyond its original remit.  It's too political and it's frankly not very good at any of it. Just look at the fact that it hasn’t stopped climate change.  So thank you to David Seymour for giving the UN a well overdue slap-down.  Even if he wasn’t really supposed to. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.