Avsnitt
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New Zealand aren’t the only ones suffering from healthcare struggles.
Italy released their 2025 draft Budget, and medical professionals in particular are unimpressed.
Nurses and doctors went on a nationwide strike, drawing 85% of support according to trade unions.
Italy Correspondent Jo McKenna told Mike Hosking that they’re saying not enough money has been allocated to healthcare, and they have insufficient resources to pay staff and keep the system functioning.
She says the system is rather rundown, and waiting lists are a big problem in the public system, which a majority of the population uses.
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It's ironic that we mention the Commerce Commission yesterday and here we are today, indulging in a bit more of its madness.
Lines charges, the cost of getting power to your house, is going to get more expensive.
Your bill will rise for the next handful of years by up to $85. That’s over $1,000 a year.
Is your power better? No.
Do you get more power? No.
You just pay more. Why?
Because the Commerce Commission decided they are going to let Transpower and local lines companies charge more so they can invest in new infrastructure.
They will be allowed to raise just shy of $6 billion.
There are a few ironies with this:
1) We also, says the Commission, understand the importance of incentivising business to invest and improve and meet consumer demands. What?! You don’t think they would charge this and more if they could?
And what incentive? Transpower are a monopoly. They have no incentive to improve anything.
2) The $6 billion is way more than it should be. What should it be? Under $3 billion.
Why? Because 55% of what Transpower is doing is because of higher inflation and interest rates. And what is 55% of $6 billion, roughly?
Now, how did we get those? That’s right - Adrian Orr.
If you want yet another tangible example, as the Labour Government and Adrian Orr years of incompetence roll on, then here you are. $3 billion worth, that is for nothing other than admin and fees.
Stuff that should not have happened if the approach in Covid hadn't been as grandiose and wasteful and plain idiotic.
More inflation than we ever needed, leading of course to interest rates we shouldn't have had to try and bring back to Earth, entirely as a result of the Covid approach that crippled the country.
Yes, there are plenty of intangibles like morals, behaviours, mental health and school attendance. But we are also paying Transpower $6 billion to do what they should have done anyway.
Awesome economics in an awesome economy.
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A researcher believes international drug smugglers are flooding the New Zealand market, bringing prices down and availability up.
The New Zealand Drugs Trends Survey found cocaine use is increasing, with 48% of respondents reporting they've used it at some point in their life.
It finds meth's also dropping in price, with a gram becoming 36% cheaper over the past six years.
Massey University drug researcher Chris Wilkins says the majority of Australia's meth comes from Mexican cartels.
He says there's now an overlap for smugglers, importing meth and cocaine together.
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On the Mike Hosking Breakfast Full Show Podcast for Thursday 21st of November, the new Police Commissioner Richard Chambers reveals his plans for the next five years, and touches on the gang patch ban that came into effect overnight.
Just how much meth, cannabis and cocaine are we consuming? We look at the annual drug trend survey.
The Naked Chef Jamie Oliver hasn't done a New Zealand interview in eight years, so after the launch of his new cookbook, he joined Mike for a chat about his 25 years in the industry.
Get the Mike Hosking Breakfast Full Show Podcast every weekday morning on iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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There's a view Netflix isn't paying enough attention to New Zealand's screen industry.
The movie and TV streaming corporation is setting up an office in Sydney to take care of Australia and New Zealand.
So far, the content and commissioning has been heavily based across the ditch.
Screen Production and Development Association President Irene Gardiner told Mike Hosking that some international productions have been shot in New Zealand, and they’ve bought the odd pre-existing show, when it comes to commissioning a local production they’ve had nothing but silence.
She says that commissioning gives us intellectual property and export dollars - which is good for our economy.
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Jamie Oliver has built a culinary empire.
He’s a household name in the kitchen, writing 23 cookbooks and selling over 46 million copies.
Oliver sprung into the spotlight 25 years ago with ‘The Naked Chef’, a BBC Two cooking show that ran for three series.
He landed the role after he appeared in the background of a BBC documentary about The River Cafe in Fulham, where he was working as a sous-chef at the time.
Oliver told Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking that he got lucky.
“It was never planned,” he said.
“I was never even supposed to be there that day ... Someone called in sick.”
25 years on, Oliver says time has given him a bit more perspective, and he tends to lean more towards experience and wisdom a little more than just enthusiasm.
Oliver is currently on tour in Australia, performing live shows to promote his newest cookbook ‘Simply Jamie’. Coming from a humble background, the chef told Hosking he never thought he’d be able to travel internationally in this way.
“I never thought I’d get here,” Oliver said.
“I just thought it was out of my reach.”
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The Government's released a new child and youth strategy, with a focus on supporting children and their families in the first 2000 days.
It aims to lift 17,000 children out of material hardship by 2027.
2000 days is just over five years.
Child Poverty Reduction Minister Louise Upston told Mike Hosking the Government needs to focus its efforts – if they attempt too many things, they won't achieve anything.
She says this is a plan to work across government ministers' departments to get things done.
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The Transport Agency's spending is in the spotlight.
The Transport Minister's calling NZTA's costs “eye-watering” and excessive after revealing a near $800 million spend on traffic management over the past three years.
Simeon Brown says a new framework is coming to reduce costs.
Traffic Direct General Manager Dev Strause told Mike Hosking it will be made, but change doesn't happen overnight.
He says it takes a bit of fine tuning to be able to redevelop and retrain all the workers, especially when some have been in the industry for over a decade.
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Police have already acted on the new gang patch ban.
The Gangs Act 2024 came into effect at midnight last night, banning the public wear of gang patches and insignia.
New Police Commissioner Richard Chambers told Mike Hosking that at three minutes past midnight, Hastings police stopped a vehicle displaying gang insignia, and they are now facing prosecution.
He told Hosking the person staff dealt with was respectful and followed the orders of police.
“I’m happy with how that went, and I suspect there will be more to come,” he said.
When asked whether he had enough resources to get the job done, Chambers said they will do their best with the staff they have.
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Minister of Justice Paul Goldsmith says people who are convicted of sexual crimes getting name suppression is “a massive issue”.
“Particularly for the victims, they can’t talk about what’s happened to them and they can’t warn others," Goldsmith told Mike Hosking.
“We’ve decided you only get permanent name suppression if you’re a convicted sex offender if the victim agrees. And if the victim doesn’t agree? Well, tough luck, you’re not going to get it and you should own up to your crimes.
“That’s the current law, that the views of the victim are taken into account. Sometimes it doesn’t get very far and the person who has been convicted continues to have their name suppressed forever. I just fundamentally disagree with that.
“Our focus in government is to reduce the number of victims of violent and sexual offending.”
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An additional two charges have been laid against former Australian broadcaster Alan Jones.
The 83-year-old is now facing a total of 26 indecent assault charges, relating to nine alleged victims over the span of two-decades.
Jones was granted conditional bail, and has been scheduled to appear at Downing Centre local court in Sydney on the 18th of December.
Australian Correspondent Steve Price told Mike Hosking that the complainants now include a prominent Olympian, a 17-year-old, and several men who were under his employ.
He says that it’s one of the most high-profile cases of its type they’ve ever seen, with two very prominent Australians —former Prime Minister John Howard and James Packer— both backing Jones.
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I think at times the Commerce Commission has an easy job in the sense it starts out life, in appearance anyway, as being on “our side. "Our” side being the people's side.
We need a hero, a protector to keep the big bad boys away from our lives and wallets.
Lately though, they look like they might have a large legal budget that someone has told them to spend or else they will lose it.
So out come the lawyers to take on Starlink over their claims about being able to text anywhere in the country.
This case looks literal. You can't say you can text from anywhere if I can literally find a place where you can't.
The room for adult interpretation appears to be devoid of presence in this case.
Then we get to Foodstuffs, who are to appeal a ruling by the Commerce Commission on its merger.
The interesting bit about Foodstuffs is that they unfortunately are a supermarket, and supermarkets are hated because they sell stuff at prices we have decided are too high.
They are in the same category as banks, telcos, petrol stations, and airlines, who are all out there to rip us off, bleed us dry, and generally make life miserable.
Foodstuffs have two bits in the North Island and the South Island. They want to join the two bits together. From a business perspective it makes perfect sense because you are playing with scale and scale is generally good.
But scale also reduces numbers in the market, and it may well reduce competition.
Where we appear a bit stuck in this country is that very fine and, quite probably, indefinable line between letting people get on with business, creating an environment in which business prospers, more businesses wanting to open, and killing business by over regulating it, driven in part by fear over lack of competition and the punter being ripped off.
What will be interesting is whether Foodstuffs can argue their case on fact, or on what clearly is an overarching zeitgeist.
The banks appeared in front of the Government committee into banking. They made a very plausible and reasonable case around their profits. It will make no difference though because the Government doesn’t want to hear it.
Maybe Foodstuffs are the same. What is a decent price? What is a decent margin?
What is the choice for a punter who sees a can of beans at a higher price in one place, so goes elsewhere?
Is a court even required if the zeitgeist around business and its success is predetermined, whether sensibly, logically, or not?
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Seasons are changing when it comes to secondary school sports.
In just over a year’s time, basketball is set to become the most popular sport, with participation jumping 61% since 2000.
However, there’s now concerns that New Zealand is 500 courts short to support the growing popularity.
School Sport NZ CEO Mike Summerell told Mike Hosking that while schools have great facilities they can only cater for the smaller games, and national competitions are maxing the current facilities out.
He says they also have to share the courts with other sports, and while they want the games to be played indoors, space is hard to come by.
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On the Mike Hosking Breakfast Full Show Podcast for Wednesday 20th of September, MPs want to change the standing orders in Parliament so that rules are followed and punishments are properly handed out. What can actually be changed?
The Prime Minister is back from APEC and joins the show for a chat the day after 42,000 people marched onto Parliament grounds.
Mark Mitchell and Ginny Andersen discuss when it is and isn't appropriate to protest and break the rules in Parliament on Politics Wednesday.
Get the Mike Hosking Breakfast Full Show Podcast every weekday morning on iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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There have been a wide range of responses to Te Pāti Māori’s haka in the House last week.
Speaker Gerry Brownlee has confirmed he’s received complaints, and both David Seymour and Shane Jones have asked him to consider changes.
National's Mark Mitchell says he doesn't know of any rule change that could rein in Te Pāti Māori.
He told Mike Hosking that he doesn’t think they care about any sanctions that will be applied in Parliament.
“They just think that they can do what they like.”
Labour's Ginny Andersen says Te Pāti Māori's rule-breaking needs to be understood in context.
She says this issue means a lot to a lot of New Zealanders, to the extent that it brought tens of thousands of Kiwis to the steps of Parliament to protest.
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There's hopes New Zealand's efforts to stop smoking don't go up in smoke.
The latest New Zealand Health Survey shows daily smoking rates have remained steady over the past year.
They were just under 7%, which is down from 13% five years ago.
Auckland University health economist Paula Lorgelly told Mike Hosking we might be tripping at the finish line.
She says we're seeing more steady drops which could have continued if New Zealand had passed legislation the previous government introduced.
However, the survey found that 1 in 4 18-24 year olds are vaping, as Kiwis seemingly replace cigarettes with vapes.
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The Prime Minister says there needs to be rules in Parliament to ensure there's debate about difficult issues, without it degenerating into chaos.
Speaker Gerry Brownlee's confirmed he's received complaints about Te Pati Māori's haka in the House last week.
David Seymour and Shane Jones have both asked him to consider changes.
Christopher Luxon told Mike Hosking there has to be respect for rules.
“You’ve got to be able to have proper conversations in a Parliament without it just degenerating into, you know, fisticuffs,” he said.
“We just don’t need any of that.”
He also believes just 'a piece' of the mass Hikoi was focused on the Government as a whole, rather than just the Treaty Principles Bill.
Police estimate around 42 thousand people joined yesterday's Hikoi, making it one of the largest protests to ever take place in the capital.
A large number of signs called out David Seymour, the architect of the Bill, by name.
Luxon told Hosking it seemed to be pretty focused on the Bill.
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Shane Jones says Parliament's standards are slipping.
The New Zealand First MP and David Seymour have both asked Speaker Gerry Brownlee to consider changes in light of Te Pati Māori's haka in the House last week.
Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke was 'named', suspended for a day, and had her pay docked for a day.
Jones told Mike Hosking the penalties have historically worked, but we live in a world of Tik Tok now.
He says we live in a world where, as a consequence of Jacinda Ardern and Trevor Mallard, the rules have been inverted.
“I mean, what the hell’s happening to New Zealand?”
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Questions are being raised as to whether Aotearoa should take a page from the United States' book when it comes to our roads.
Concrete New Zealand-commissioned research shows road maintenance costs using the material are up to 62% lower than asphalt.
It also shows that, on average, concrete roads are 17% cheaper over 40 years.
Chief Executive, Rob Gaimster told Mike Hosking America has a good model, with half of their roads concrete.
He says New Zealand has a pothole crisis and is spending billions on roads but is still building in the same way.
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The good news about the arrival of the protest is that after today, it's over.
This has been one of the more misrepresented activities in recent years.
It's hard to know what it is actually about, or whether those taking part even know what it's about.
Is it about the Treaty Principles Bill? Is it about a general attitude towards the Government and their Māori policies? Is it a PR stunt for the Māori Party?
And perhaps most importantly of all - what does it achieve?
The answer, of course, is nothing.
If it is about the bill, it dies after the select committee process and, even if it didn’t, although you are more than justified to protest, a protest doesn’t change the right of a Government to do what they promised they were going to do.
It's called democracy.
Democracy is slightly complicated by MMP, which may or may not produce what you thought it might. But democracy was what led to MMP in the first place because we voted for it.
The two winners out of this so far are the Māori Party, who have got a lot of attention and drummed up good numbers in various parts of the country for their campaign.
They have of course alienated themselves from many, but they don't care, and you were never voting for them anyway.
The other is David Seymour who, whether you agree with him or not, has argued coherently and eloquently.
Not performing so well includes the media who, yet again, have sided too often with the protest. I saw a reporter literally singing as part of her reportage. I saw a reporter dispute official figures from the police for the turn out, as though a dispute is fact.
Jenny Shipley talking of civil war was as astonishing as anything. At least Chris Finlayson, in weighing in, kept his head.
In a country with real and serious problems, a bill destined for the waste bin is not worth the energy this has been given.
Our priorities are all over the place. We have looked shabby, unhinged, violent, and low rent.
We are not living up to expectation, or our potential. This is not the country I grew up in, or indeed love.
It is a wayward place in desperate need of some serious leadership and even more discipline.
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- Visa fler
