The Mike Hosking Breakfast

Nico Porteous is walking away from competitive free skiing, retiring at age 23.  The Kiwi Olympian has admitted his 2022 Olympic gold and 2018 bronze in the freeski halfpipe have contributed to his decision.  He told Mike Hosking he set out with a number of goals when beginning his career at age 12, and he’s now achieved those goals.   “I feel as if the ‘more, more, more’ mentality can often lead to doing damage or leaving a sour taste in your mouth,” Porteous said.  “So I just wanted to call it.”  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Israel’s operation against Iran is expected to "take weeks, not days", as tension escalates between the countries.  224 Iranians and 24 Israelis have been killed since hostilities began after Israel's initial attack on Friday.  Features editor at Jewish News Syndicate, Steve Linde told Mike Hosking Israel has a few days to try to end this, before they alienate the world and go too far.   He says Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to change the face of the Middle East by realigning forces for and against Iran, while the Americans want to strike a deal diplomatically.   LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Government's confident it's getting on top of youth vaping, with more rules coming in today.  New rules come in today including stricter advertising restrictions for vape retailers and a ban on disposable vapes.  It's in an effort to clamp down on youth vaping, with around 10% of teenagers currently regular vapers.  Associate Health Minister Casey Costello told Mike Hosking she believes we'll see further declines in youth vaping.  She says Action for Smokefree data shows youth vaping rates have declined over the last three years.  However, she says New Zealand isn’t ready for a full crackdown, and Australia’s prescription only approach won’t work here.   She says Pasifika and Māori continue to have the highest smoking rates, and reducing availability for those who aren't engaging with the health system is problematic.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Government's work to tackle emergency housing appears to be paying off. Only about 500 families remain in emergency housing after one year of the Government's Priority One policy.  It bumps families to the top of the social housing waiting list if they have dependent children and have spent more than 12 weeks in emergency housing.   Almost a thousand families with more than two thousand children have been moved from emergency housing motel rooms into homes, since the policy took effect  Housing Minister Chris Bishop told Mike Hosking they're well on the way to solving the problem.     He says under Labour's government, there were more than four-thousand families living in motels permanently.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As much as we tried to celebrate last week's excellent economic numbers regarding the food and fibre, the bullishness of Fieldays, the boost in elective surgery and the boom in teacher numbers, what you can't ignore is the manufacturing read for April. It hit a brick wall. It fell over six points and is below the 50 point expansionary mark. A couple of key things about that - while services and sentiment and spending figures have been bad manufacturing, for months now, has been on the increase each and every month. It has been above 50, it has been growing. It has been a significant green shoot in the overall economic picture. The other thing is employment. That is a sub category that had its biggest reversal in the history of the index. What makes this worse? For those of you saying "oh, it will be Trump", the experts don’t think it is. So the big question is, how much of it is the world? Remember the World Bank last week reduced global growth all over the place. So how much of it is the world vs how much of it is the U.S? Has New Zealand Inc hit a tough spot? For trainspotters it was suggested fairly far and wide at the time that April and May seemed to be an issue. All the momentum that we felt we had at the start of the year had suddenly run out of puff. These numbers would tend to suggest the vibe was real. Ironically this week we get the GDP figures for Q1, that’s January, February and March, and the broad consensus is that we will have seen good growth. They think about 0.7% for the quarter. If you annualised that out it gives you a number very close to 3%, which anyone would take in this troubled and turbulent world. But we can't annualise it out, not with manufacturing numbers like this. It might be short term. It may involve the Reserve Bank and that idea they had that things were a bit neutral and therefore not needing a gee up. They may well be hopelessly wrong. Politically it’s a hole in the head the Government don’t need, because its not like they aren't pedalling fast. But when one of your major economic reads that was good, now isn't, it doesn’t take an economics degree to recognise a big, fat, red flag. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Prime Minister has laid out his goals ahead of his visit to China. Chris Luxon is about to leave for Shanghai with a business delegation, before making his way to Beijing to meet with President Xi Jinping. Luxon says he also wants to broaden the countries' trade relationship with a focus on red meat, tourism and education. LISTEN ABOVE OR WATCH BELOW See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the Mike Hosking Breakfast Full Show Podcast for Monday the 16th of June, the police are starting the ball rolling on putting bodycams on our frontline police. The Prime Minister is gearing up to head to China but before that he pops in to talk the economy, balancing world egos and why we still have 10 sick days. Andrew Saville and Jason Pine talk the F1, the Super Rugby semifinals and Auckland City getting pumped by Bayern Munich. 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 makes another step forward in upping Chinese visitor numbers, with a tweak to visa settings and processes.  From November, the Government will trial a visa waiver status for Chinese passport holders travelling from Australia, allowing them to visit for up to three months. They must have a valid Australian visitor, work, student or family visa, with the trial lasting a year.  Immigration lawyer Arran Hunt says the number of Chinese visitors hasn't bounced back post-Covid, but believes this is a step in the right direction.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The death toll continues to grow as the conflict between Israel and Iran escalates. Israel's initial attack on Friday has triggered a response from Iran as the two countries exchange air strikes. According to The Associated Press, at least 406 Iranians have been killed with 654 wounded compared to the Israeli death toll of 13. Israeli Journalist, Gideon Levy told Mike Hosking this is bearable for the short term, but what is unbearable is if it goes on for months. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Police Minister Mark Mitchell says told Mike Hosking that police bodycams would help clear up misconceptions in the field. He says he was talking to a young constable who was coward punched and a body camera would've made for compelling evidence. Police Commissioner Richard Chambers wants the cameras to be implemented after a decision was put off last year.  Police are still looking into ways to deal with transparency issues laid bare when new tasers for frontline officers didn't include a camera. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.