The Mike Hosking Breakfast

A new Rabobank report reveals within the next 10 years, New Zealand agriculture will begin its largest-ever inter-generational transfer of wealth.  More than half of farm and orchard owners will reach the age of 65 in the next decade, but only a third have a formal succession plan.  It's estimated $150 billion worth of farming assets will change hands.  Rabobank CEO Todd Charteris told Mike Hosking the challenge is farms are getting better, but there are fewer farm owners, so the capital requirements are big.   He says we need to continue to explore different ownership models.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

So having looked at every council in the country and the pending rate rises we are all going to have to pay, a couple of inescapable conclusions are to be drawn.  1) We need central Government to cap rates.  2) We need fewer councils.  If you were to roughly use inflation as a guide, Waitomo and Whanganui are your only councils to get under the wire at 2.93 % and 2.2% – so congratulations to them.  I'm sure every council could, and would, mount an argument as to why whatever it is they have come up with, whether it be the 12.9% in Taranaki or the 15.5% in Hamilton, is in some way, shape, or form, justifiable.  A lot of it will be historic. In other words, if previous councils had done their job and been fiscally prudent the work being undertaken today would not be the current burden it is.  But a lot of it if you were DOGE-like, or brutal, would not in fact be needed at all.  Councils have become fiefdoms. They have entered areas they have no business in, but like so much in life, once you have ventured there is no turning back.  Apart from the specific, like the 9.76% for Otorohanga or the 12.4% for Central Otago, you also have the more general impact. In other words, you are adding cost to the economy, and you are charging fixed-income folk who don’t have the money.  What you are doing is inflationary.  None of us have the ability to simply add more charges. We don’t simply get the pay rise we want, or up our hourly rate to the poor sap we are servicing. Life isn't like that.  We cut our cloth. Could we buy more? Could we do more? Could we spend more? Of course we could, but we can't. Unless you're a council.  Even if a council could say "look at what all that money got you, look at the gold plating and the shiny baubles and the tens of thousands who have flocked to our region because of our expenditure", but they can't say that because none of that has happened.  15% doesn’t buy you utopia. It merely sets you up for another 15% next year because councils know a sucker when they see one.  So, cap those rates and can those councils. It might well be the most popular thing this central Government does in three years. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

New Zealand’s largest bank is lending less cash to businesses than it was half a decade ago.  Figures from the Reserve Bank show a softening across all bank business lending since the pandemic, with ANZ the only one going backwards.  The overall growth rate across all banks has slowed to just 1.5%, down from 6% in 2013.   ANZ CEO Antonia Watson told Mike Hosking much of the drop is caused by a decrease in lending to commercial property.  She says their decision was to support their existing customers through rising interest rates and tougher circumstances as opposed to taking on new customers.   However, she confirmed the bank is back to taking on new customers.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the Mike Hosking Breakfast Full Show Podcast for Tuesday 24th of June, our golden visa has done better in the last few months than it had under two and a half years of Labour. People want to come here, and they are bringing millions of dollars with them.  Local Government NZ respond after Christopher Luxon and Shane Jones proposed getting rid of regional councils.  All Blacks coach Scott Robertson tells Mike what he's been doing during the offseason and his expectations for the 2025 season.  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.

Scott Robertson has called up five new faces for his first All Blacks class of 2025, with his 35-man squad for next month’s series against France named.  All Blacks regulars Dalton Papali'i, Ethan Blackadder and David Havili have been left out of the squad instead.  The trio’s exclusion comes with the inclusion of Ollie Norris, Brodie McAlister, Fabian Holland, Timoci Tavatavanawai, and Du'Plessis Kirifi.  Coach Scott Robertson says it wasn't easy to leave out players like Papali'i, Blackadder, and Havili.  He told Mike Hosking that you need to give opportunities to players over this period of time and get to know what they’re going to be like in action.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The leader of the country's local government association says there's global evidence a rates caps can have detrimental effects.  The Government's mulling a cap as part of its wider reform to refocus local government.  Sam Broughton —Mayor of Selwyn District Council and Local Government NZ President— says if core infrastructure like water and transport aren't included in a cap, it can lift a council's borrowing costs.  He told Mike Hosking Australia is seeing the negatives: New South Wales has a cap, and has seen higher rates increase than those states without one.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

US and UK law enforcement will soon be using a New Zealand-developed strategy to help boost police performance.  Vantaset utilisises research into people’s breaking points to assist elite athletes in performing their personal bests, at a rate of 87%   Now they’ve signed long-term deals with global law enforcement agencies to reengage frontline officers.  Founder and CEO Craig Steel told Mike Hosking that agencies such as the police understand the performance of their people is really critical for their success.  He says they’re really looking for better ways to be able to engage their people and ultimately help them deliver the outcomes that matter.   LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The application process for New Zealand's 'golden visa' scheme' is firing up and going strong.   The Government's confirmed almost 200 applications have been received from overseas investors since settings loosened in April.   Queen City Law Managing Director Marcus Beveridge told Mike Hosking he's predicting a tsunami of capital into our little economy.   He says he wouldn't be surprised if we don't exceed $10 billion a year from immigration alone, and with those migrants bringing more money, we could end up with up to $30 billion per annum.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

New Zealand First says the country can no-longer afford a drawn-out Treaty settlement with the largest iwi.   The party's drafting legislation to require a single settlement with Ngāpuhi, rather than multiple agreements.   However, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith has signalled he's open to settlements with smaller groups within iwi.  NZ First MP Shane Jones told Mike Hosking the $20 million process is holding up Whangarei Hospital redevelopments.   He says one group is hijacking the claim by introducing notions of sovereignty at the cost of the taxpayer.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If you didn’t know, ACC is in some fiscal trouble again. This isn't new. ACC has been in trouble for years. Last year, 1.6 million of us managed to do something to ourselves which involved money - $4.5 billion dollars worth. That's just on rehab. The total is $7 billion paid out. It's an astonishing amount of money - and the problem is what we pay in doesn’t cover what goes out. ACC run a scheme whereby money is invested in the hope the returns offset the bills. I personally pay thousands a year and have done for decades. To this day I have never claimed a cent. The original idea was a no-faults scheme, as opposed to a U.S style scheme where we lay blame and get lawyers. 16,000 people did something to themselves in the garden last year and claimed millions. Previously physio has been the issue. When does physio stop? Who knows, but let's have another three sessions while we decide. Go to any doctor with anything that hurts and the first thing they do is start tapping away on the ACC claim. Like most of these altruistic ideas somewhere along the way we lost the plot. It might be that we need to tidy this up. Foolishly perhaps, I have always seen ACC as work related. If you injure yourself and can't work, this is its value. Not if you cut your finger pruning hydrangeas. We had a family member who was off work for months, I think too many months. They wouldn’t let him back even though he wanted to go back. But they kept saying "oh, just in case". I wonder if there is too much "just in case". The risk payments work to a degree. 40 percent of payouts are in construction, manufacturing, agriculture and fishing. I pay as a journalist, even though I'm not a journalist, but they can't work out what I am or how to charge me. Part of a journalist's risk is being in a war zone. I can tell you journalists generally in New Zealand don’t go to war zones. Anyway, 1.6 million people with two million claims and all up it cost $7 billion. In barely over two years basically every single one of us makes a claim. That's not right, it's not normal and it's why they can't pay their way. The system doesn’t work. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.