The Mike Hosking Breakfast

I don’t know Elisha Milmine and I wish her nothing but the best. But as it turns out, she is your new councillor in the Kahuranaki ward for the Hastings District Council. She was standing against one person, that person withdrew, so she wins by default. She has no experience. She put her hand up, was the only one standing so, congratulations, the job's yours. What a stupid system. This story is far from unique. Plenty of elections aren't even held because no one stands, or people who may or may not be any good don’t get opponents so they win by default. So, here is an idea. Accepting we are fantastically over-governed and clearly there are nowhere near the number of people interested in filling the jobs, how about we run a system whereby you have a minimum number of candidates, like a quorum? If you don’t get that number then the vote is off. The people, if there are any, don’t contest and either the seat is vacant for a term and/or a commissioner or overseer is appointed, like they have done in Tauranga and other places when the council falls apart. In other words, you bring in an experienced expert. Having a vacant space might lead to more interest next time, or the realisation that there are too many seats. Having an expert or commissioner might lead to a realisation that amateur hour is no way to run a city, town or district. We don’t hand out regular jobs by default. Why on Earth do we do it at the highest level of civic leadership? The scenario is so desperate we literally take anyone. That’s not smart when you're running a raffle, far less a population. And yet here we are with any number of councils mired in debt and handing out cost-plus-accounting rate rises because they don't have a clue how to run anything properly. If someone from Mars came down to review the way we do this they would fall over laughing at our stupidity. So, it’s a contest, it’s a quorum, or we do some appointing of some actual talent. Tell me it isn't a bad idea.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Two new seasonal visas have been unveiled, allowing the likes of rural contractors or chairlift operators to return for up to three years or stay for up to seven months. It follows the unemployment rate reaching a five-year high of 5.2-percent.  Malcolm Pacific Immigration Director David Cooper told Mike Hosking it's hard to get New Zealanders into domestic seasonal work. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Christopher Luxon says he and Anthony Albanese are on the same page about standardising regulations on both sides of the Tasman.  The New Zealand and Australian Prime Ministers have wrapped up an annual catch-up in Queenstown.  Luxon told Mike Hosking that they've also asked big business CEOs from both countires, to identify where things could be standardised more.  He says Australia's states can have lots of differences in regulations, and they're keen to see where that can be standardised.  LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Extra police officers are being called to Northland to contend with a squeeze on resources from rising violent crime.   In the past three months, 90 officers from across the country have been brought in to work five-week shifts.   Northland District Commander Superintendent Matt Shroj says the region saw four homicides in quick succession, which was the tipping point.   He told Mike Hosking that the district's been in a much better place with this extra support - but these are busy people, and they have their own areas to get back to.  LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Belgian company Parkwind is exploring plans to build a large scale offshore wind farm in South Taranaki.  Parkwind Country Manager Peter Spencer says that Europe and Australia have already put these systems into place. 'The Europeans are the masters of it. The Australians are doing very well.' He said these offshore wind farms could be up and running in the next decade. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I have at least partially changed my mind on charging tourists.  The idea that you can wander around our conservation estate for free is, of course, nuts.  Like the various charges that we have placed on tourists, whether it be at the border, or potentially in a hotel with a bed tax, the simple truth is if we got our act together in terms of marketing and seat capacity to the country, people would be happy to pay them.  Why? Because everyone pays for everything all over the world and if post-Covid travel has taught us anything, it's that you can basically rob a tourist blind and they are still happy to pay.  That’s before you get to the bit where our dollar is so pathetic that most people coming here can't believe what they get on the exchange rate.  But as part of the conservation announcement over last weekend what we also got was New Zealand's other great problem – the negative reaction.  As much as we love our open spaces and clean air and national parks you have never seen a group of people more determined not to have anyone touch them.  God forbid we should open the place up to a bit more business. We have seen it for years in the RMA and groups like Forest & Bird, who must have spent millions on lawyers in the environment court looking not to change anything.  The Quiet Sky group at Waiheke and various other locations are determined never to see a chopper polluting their environment ever again.  There is this default position whereby we are happy to be left alone, we don’t like interlopers, intruders or *ick* tourists. And we certainly don't want them tramping over our stuff, far less *ick* landing a helicopter and then tramping over our stuff.  We don't like cruise ships either so we have made them ruinously expensive to park here. So, they don’t.  Yay, a win for the greenies.  What we do like though is lots more pay, lots more hospital beds, much better education, lots of welfare and generous dollops of free stuff, all paid for by the money tree in Wellington.  The fact tourism, the conservation estate, ships and rich Americans in E130's pay for a lot of it doesn’t seem to have registered. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

At the end of each week, Mike Hosking takes you through the big-ticket items and lets you know what he makes of it all.    Sheds: 8/10  The new garden shed rules are what good governance should be about – simple and common sense. How hard can it be?    Local body elections: 4/10  Nominations close and, once again, a whole bunch of races are not being run because we don’t have enough candidates.    15% tariffs: 1/10  Biggest blow of the week in an economy that needs it like a hole in the head.    Coal: 7/10  Good cooperation with the gentailers, some cold, hard reality at last, and a good kick in the pants for the idiots who closed the oil and gas.    Downtown Auckland: 3/10  Wake up call of the week from the real estate bloke who said we look more like Suva than Sydney. Ouch.    Jobs: 4/10  Because the simple truth is this aint over. There is more where that came from in a year that was supposed to be showing real signs of recovery.    LISTEN ABOVE FOR MIKE HOSKING'S FULL WEEK IN REVIEW See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I said earlier this week that the Government will be re-elected next year because, all things being equal, history tends to show you get two terms.  Plus, the Opposition remain the same people who stuffed the place a year and a half ago and the pain of that, the closeness of that, is still real for too many of us.  Unless of course they rejuvenate the party or say sorry – none of which is going to happen.  This was all backed up by Treasury who, in one of their latest papers which is well worth reading, basically says the Government overspent. They were told not to overspend.  And whatever spending they were doing should've been targeted and directly linked to Covid. None of that advice was followed.  They sprayed money at a rate that equated to $66billion, or 20% of GDP, and when the worst was over they kept spraying.  And here we are a couple of years later bogged down in their economic incompetence.  The politics of it all is in full swing as Labour tried to blame the current Government for the mess. What's making that argument slightly complicated is the ongoing criticism, which is justifiable if you ask me, that for all the announcements and noise, this is a timid Government that really had licence to go for broke and they have largely chickened out.  They have dabbled and poked and prodded and done some decent, common sense stuff. In just the past few weeks we've had changes to building products, garden sheds, speed limits, RUC's and NCEA.  There is no shortage of bits and pieces but it's not transformational, hence the slow progress and the opening for Labour to have a crack.  Labour are praying you forget all this is on them. But it is and the Treasury paper very clearly says so.  They told Grant Robertson to tighten it up, to be disciplined, but socialists with majorities and egos are not for turning and so the ruinous money party was on.  Writing about it doesn't fix it. But it is proof positive that this lot inherited one of the most ill-disciplined, ill-advised, arrogant, bungling, fiscal messes of the modern age and if you don’t believe the National Party, believe Treasury.  Labour don’t have a leg to stand on.  And the same people who did that to us are still there wanting you to forget and give them another crack in a years time.  That is why they will not win. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s Friday, which means Kate Hawkesby and Tim Wilson are back with Mike Hosking to Wrap the Week that was.  They discussed Mike’s potential career in reality TV, car troubles, and AI in language learning apps.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Warriors are just holding onto their position in the top four.  Saturday will see them face off against the Bulldogs – a must win match after their last two losses.  But the question remains, with the spotty performances from the New Zealand team, will they be able to defeat a top four side?  Former Warriors Captain Monty Betham told Mike Hosking the Warriors have yet to lose three matches in a row this year, and experts believe that pattern will hold true.  He says both teams will be looking to bounce back in this clash, vying for a higher position in the top four.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.