The Mike Hosking Breakfast

I feel there should be a rule, and the rule is around balance.  Part of the media's demise is its unfairness in coverage, the latest example of which is the school lunch programme.  We have a smattering of coverage. When I say smattering, I have found two things.  One is by Radio NZ, who have the same stats as story number two by the Herald.  Radio NZ, once they produced the stats, clearly couldn't help themselves, given it was good news, so they went and found a miserable principal to moan some more about the lunch programme.  Their moan was, given the previous moaning didn’t work and things aren't going back to the way they were, they must have given up.  By the way these are the numbers: 99%+ delivered each day, complaints down by 92% and students positive feedback through the roof.  The Herald's story contained the term 3 testing news: new meals, with students in the trial posting 73% positive feedback.  By any standards these numbers are a success story. Where there was trouble at the start, the trouble has been fixed.  So, to fairness. Very little the Government did this year got more media spotlight than school lunches. The TV news in particular went to town on it, night after night, after night, melting plastic, burnt kids, shots of mush, finger pointing, union representatives and delivery delays. It was a feeding frenzy, and the media were in, boots and all.  So where are they now?  Apart from two stories, where are they now? We have stats and detail, we have a fix, we have happy kids and, do remember, the reason for it all in the first place, we have money saved and a lot of it.  And not just money saved, but more kids actually getting fed.  So as an exercise we are doing more with less and the recipients are happy.  So where are the stories? Where is the balance? Where is the fairness?  The rule should be minute for minute, column inch for column inch. If you loved the pile on, you have to be back to present the end result.  You have to do the right thing. You have to provide the other side, the balance and the outcome. If you don’t then the charge of bias sticks.  You look like an attention seeking, clickbait warrior and your pleas for the value of journalism fall flat. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The scorching heatwave sweeping Europe has claimed lives.  Six people have died as temperatures top 40C, with three deaths in Italy, two in Spain, and one in France.  In parts of Italy, admissions to emergency units has risen by 15-20%, with a majority of patients being elderly.  Italy Correspondent Jo McKenna told Mike Hosking that the government is issuing alerts saying that those working in construction or working outdoors should be out of the sun between 12:30 and 4pm.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

New Zealand’s property values are ticking back up again.  New data from Cotality has revealed a 0.2% national increase in June, reversing the 0.1% falls that came in April and May.  The medium house price remains around the $815,000 mark, with Tauranga and Christchurch both increasing by 0.6%.  Chief Property Economist Kelvin Davidson told Mike Hosking property values are fairly flat when averaged out over a few months.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There won’t be many in the world who would argue that Jason Aldean’s not a country music superstar.  He moved up to Nashville at age 21, and after signing and being dropped by a couple of agencies, he got picked up by Broken Bow Records, launching his debut single and album in 2005.  From there the rest is history – 30 number 1 country singles, almost 20 billion streams, 20 million albums sold, multiple platinum records, as well as being named ACM’s Artist of the Decade, among other things.  It’s all culminated in his ‘Full Throttle Tour’ going international, and Aldean will be making his way to our shores early next year.  He told Mike Hosking the music industry is a tough business to break into.  “We’ve been around for twenty years, so it’s been a good ride, but it’s definitely a tough business,” Aldean said.  “Not for the faint of heart, for sure.”  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the Mike Hosking Breakfast Full Show Podcast for Thursday 3rd of July, ACT and NZ First have shut down the proposal for a publicly funded body to cost election policies.  Remember when the previous Government gave Proceeds of Crime funds back to the Mongrel Mob for a meth program? This Government is changing it so that can never happen again.    Country music superstar Jason Aldean is heading to our shores and with Mike’s love of the genre, we had to get him on for a chat.   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.

The Government hopes to further separate itself from its predecessor with new changes to the Proceeds of Crime Fund.    The latest round of funding has granted three programmes a collective $5 million to address youth offending and meth harm.    Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee says recent changes mean there's a clear and consistent assessment for new initiatives.    She told Mike Hosking they want to ensure the projects are workable as opposed to throwing taxpayer money at the sky and hoping for results.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A nine-year fight to create a publicly funded election policy-costing unit has come to an end.  Act and New Zealand First have shot down Finance Minister Nicola Willis's proposal to create one.  Metiria Turei, then-Green Party co-leader, first proposed the idea in 2016.  Former Finance Minister Steven Joyce told Mike Hosking Willis's proposal was different from those that have come before.  He says to cost individual policies at the request of parties would have dealt with a problem that happens when you're in Opposition.  Joyce says that's when you don't have access to the information.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A clear message from the Government: New Zealand can't succeed if Auckland doesn't succeed.  The Government's agreed to negotiate with Auckland Council on a 10-year deal to boost housing, infrastructure, and economic growth in our largest city.  It's also agreed to negotiate similar deals with Western Bay of Plenty and Central Otago.  Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop told Mike Hosking the deal will align local and central government on up-zoning, rapid transit, and innovation precincts.  He says Auckland is New Zealand's main international city and is a big driver of economic growth around the country.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A watchful eye is on the $41 million allocated to upskill staff working in youth care homes.  Minister for Children Karen Chhour has announced the boost, which aims to improve support to kids in care.  It follows a review of Oranga Tamariki in 2023 that found parts of the workforce relatively unskilled.  Chief Children's Commissioner Claire Achmad told Mike Hosking she'll be watching how the money's used to ensure good outcomes for young people.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's only the start of Wednesday so let's be honest we've only had two days of news, and we already have two stories around power.  The first was Transpower saying we need to find more avenues of power generation and we need to do that quickly, because until all the promised transition stuff comes online, we are going to be short of capacity.  No kidding.  They said we have a lot of promises on renewables, but the delivery isn't happening all that quickly.  No kidding.  The second was Genesis saying they are looking at what they call a fast-start generation plant at Huntly.  Hasn’t Huntly become quite the “thing”? A while back Huntly was the ugly girlfriend of the power generation family.  Poor, old, ugly, fat Huntly. That was when promises around wind and sun were flying and the future was renewable, and we would all save the planet.  What a gargantuan cock-up that turned out to be. Now for at least the third winter in a row the industry is falling over itself to tell us what's not right, what's not delivered and drumming up new ideas that, dare I suggest, should have been drummed up a long time ago.  As regards Huntly gas and coal, could I ask why is it now that they are dreaming up these ideas?  The coal pile, by the way, has never been larger, but gas and coal take 12 hours to get going. In short, fast start, it says what it does, and you turn it on like a light.  Can I ask why is it now that all the power companies are cooperating around Huntly to keep it going for years to come?  Why is it we wait until we are broken to actually find a few solutions?  When Jacinda made her captain's call to kill the gas industry, why did no one in power go “hold on, we aren't ready"?  Why are so few proactive? Why is so little preventative planning done?  Why do we have winters of angst around rainfall and businesses cutting production and Methanex selling their power to others?  Why is it we wait until we don’t have it to think of what to do about getting it back?  NZ Inc, eh? Very 1986.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.