The Mike Hosking Breakfast

On the Mike Hosking Breakfast Full Show Podcast for Friday 27th of June, it's accountability Friday! Paul Goldsmith, Tama Potaka, and Erica Stanford have questions to answer about scandals, non-scandals, and accusations.  After the unfortunate passing of Takutai Tarsh Kemp, what is the process going forward in filling her seat?  Tim and Katie talk Tim's latest injury and Mike's best musical discovery of the week 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.

A vast change to what's been promised for Auckland City Rail Link's opening capacity.   In 2022, it was reported 27 thousand peak passengers would be using the rail line from opening day next year.  That's now gone down to 19 thousand passengers an hour at peak times.  AT Public Transport Director Stacey van der Putten told Mike Hosking the 27 thousand figure merged a few different elements including design capacity, timetabling, and patronage.  She points out that 19,000 is still a significant increase on current numbers, as it’s still a 50% increase in patronage.  Van der Putten told Hosking it will take some effort to rebuild confidence in the rail network after the prolonged disruption, but there’s plenty of enthusiasm for the new line.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A lot of interest is expected in the by-election to fill the seat left empty by the death of Takutai Tarsh Kemp.  The 50-year-old Te Pāti Māori MP died yesterday.  Otago University law expert Andrew Geddis told Mike Hosking the Tamaki Makaurau seat was won by just 42 votes in 2023 and will be very tightly contested again.  The complicating factor this time is likely to be sympathy, he says, suspecting that Te Pāti Māori will likely run strongly on a kind of legacy argument.   The by-election could clash with local body elections.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Concerns are being raised around the use of taxpayer money to fund Moana Pasifika.  Our newsroom's revealed the Super Rugby franchise received some $8 million in taxpayer loans, grants, and funding.  The Pasifika Medical Association —which took over ownership of the team last year— has received funding from Whānau Ora contracts.  Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka told Mike Hosking there's some uncertainty about how that Whānau Ora money was spent.  He wants to know it's being used for proper purpose and has asked for an explanation ASAP.  LISTEN ABOVE  Note: The original story from the NZ Herald has been updated to clarify that Whanau Ora funds flowed to the Moana Pasifika Charitable Trust, and the current owner of the Trust and the team, Pasifika Medical Association, has emphasised that no Whānau Ora funds have been used to fund the Moana Pasifika professional rugby team. The Herald has removed from the story the contention that Whānau Ora funds were directly used for the professional team in the fiscal years 22/23 and 23/24.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

From the "we can't get out of our own way" file comes the question, as posed this week by the Retirement Commissioner, as to whether people who have money in the bank should get the pension.  The first part that is wrong with that is I thought we had decided many a decade ago, rightly or wrongly, that Super is an entitlement.  Its trigger, rightly or wrongly, is age, therefore the other criteria you might like to add to the equation like height, weight, job, brain power or savings, are null and void because age is what does it.  So are we changing that, are we? Because that is the inference in the question.  The inference is also this sneering socialist bend some people have around success.  "Don’t be too successful" is the message, and that’s what savings generally are. You had a plan, you worked hard, and you put a few dollars aside.  Interestingly the numbers are depressing. This is where the question came from.  There are 33,000 over the age of 65 who earn between $100-200k a year. There are 9,000 who earn more than $200k.  That’s not a lot of people. It shows you how poorly paid we are, how bad at saving we are and how expensive life is to stop you saving. A whole bunch of stuff leads us to not being a very well-off sort of country.  I have said this many times – I'm not fussed. I didn’t join KiwiSaver and I'm not relying on a pension.  Why? Because when I started work in 1982 it was very well established that the pension may or may not be around at all, so why take the risk? And in 1982, on the minimum wage as I was, I had 45 years to get my act together and do something about it.  The problem with keeping on asking these questions is it messes with people and their intentions.  Governments have been bad enough already with their constant changing of the rules and their contributions, the last thing we need is thought bubbles on what should be a long term, leave it alone, get out of the way, understanding among us all that the pension is our society's recognition of a life's work.  Change the age if you want. But penalising success is the opposite of what we want to promote. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

New Zealand has taken home the Gold at the Oscars for wines.  Craggy Range’s Martinborough Pinot Noir took home Best in Show at this year’s Decanter World Wine Awards.  This makes it in the 0.3% of all wines in the world.  Chief Winemaker at Craggy Range Ben Tombs told Mike Hosking they knew there was something pretty special coming out of the 2024 vintage.  He says it shows the kind of provenance unique to Martinborough, and winning the award is an incredibly achievement.   LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When you hear the name ‘James May’, it’s likely you think of cars, Top Gear, and The Grand Tour, but much like his co-stars, May has plenty of other projects.  He owns his own pub and gin line, and has done countless shows visiting other countries, rebuilding toys and machines, and exploring life’s questions.  May’s now onto his next journey – a live theatre performance that brings the stories of explorers to the stage.  It’s called ‘Explorers: The Age of Discovery’, and May’s bringing it to Kiwi audiences in August.  It’s been quite a busy year for May – something he told Mike Hosking was quite unintentional.  “This year was going to be my, what I called a ‘dry run at retirement’, to see how much I liked it,” he revealed.  “But I’ve ended up doing a live tour, a couple of TV shows, various other odds and ends – it's actually the busiest year I’ve had for probably a decade, in terms of demands on my time.”  “But maybe that’s a good thing,” he said. “Maybe if I was left to my own devices, I’d sit in the garden and rot.”   Despite his vast experience in the entertainment industry, May isn’t terribly experienced with live performances.  “We used to do Top Gear Live and then Clarkson, Hammond & May Live, but there were three of us doing it, plus our stunt driving team and various other circus performers,” he explained.  “This one is quite intimidating because it just me."  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the Mike Hosking Breakfast Full Show Podcast for Thursday 26th of June, Nicola Willis is still unhappy with the supermarkets, sending them another letter – when is it time for action?  Moana Pasifika is in serious financial strife, but it was revealed that Whanau Ora, using taxpayer money, gave them $8 million in funding. How does a company, whose job it is to improve wellbeing in poorer communities, spend millions on a rugby team?  Former Top Gear and Grand Tour host James May is coming to NZ with his new stage show about the world's best explorers, joining out of the UK for a chat.  Get the Mike Hosking Breakfast Full Show Podcast every weekday morning on iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts.  LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Government's instructed Auckland Council to allow apartments at least 15 storeys high near key City Rail Link train stations.   Density requirements around the Mt Albert and Baldwin Ave stations require at least 10 storey apartments, and requirements around the Maungawhau, Kingsland, and Morningside rail terminals have been increased from six storeys to 15.  Simeon Brown and Chris Bishop say it will ensure Auckland takes economic advantage of the transformational investment in the city.  AUT Future Environments Professor John Tookey told Mike Hosking that even the proposition of consenting a 15 storey building in the middle of a city isn’t a five minute undertaking.  His suspicion is it will take at least a decade to see any kind of measurable mass urban densification around the stations.  He also told Hosking that the Government’s interference in running Auckland is likely to cause significant political issues.   Tookey says NIMBY-type arguments will likely crop up: why here, who’s going to fund it, and how will it impact everyone else in the area?  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Infrastructure Minister agrees we're getting bad value for money and need trans-government systems to improve. The Infrastructure Commission's released a 30-year draft plan revealing its first look at how New Zealand needs to invest in our future.  Chris Bishop told Mike Hosking half of all capital-intensive government agencies don't have asset registers, so don't know what they own or how to maintain it.   He says what all parties need to agree on is focusing on asset maintenance, because we don't look after what we've already built.    LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.