June 23, 2026 • 11 mins
THE BEST BITS IN A SILLIER PACKAGE (from Wednesday's Mike Hosking Breakfast) I'm Begging You/The Trouble with Solar-Powered Calculators/Why Aren't We Singapore/Waiting for the Port to Change/This Time You've Gone Too Far
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
You're listening to a podcast from Newstalk sed B. Follow
this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
The Rewrap Okay, yeah, and welcome to the Rewrap for Wednesday.
All the best bits from the my Casking Breakfast on
news talk s ed B in a sillier package. I
am Glen Hart and today the Green Party just simply
can't add up. We'll dig into that shortly. Why isn't
New Zealand more like Singapore? Why isn't the Port of
(00:42):
Taroga more like the Port of Singapore? And long haul flights?
Are they just getting a little bit too long? But
before any of that, why are we still having poles?
I thought we weren't doing this anymore. What's happening right?
Speaker 3 (00:56):
So here's how we're going to do this going forward.
There are too many poles and too many people are
wasting too much of their money. So here's why last
night's pole doesn't work and it's not real. Labour's down
five points. Do you leave that a major part who
has done essentially nothing is down five points. No, they
haven't fallen five points the same way they don't go
up five points. My assumption is that they were never
(01:18):
as high as they were reported to be. Therefore this
probably reflexible realistic number. So in other words, they never
dropped five percent because they never had five percent to
lose in the first place. The critical part that's wrong
about the poll last night is the assumption, the assumption
that the Maori Party gets six Now, you can't have
it both ways. They will tell you, any polster will
(01:40):
tell you. A pole is a snapshot in time. Now,
the snapshot in time is based on the mood. I
ask you a question, who would you vote for today?
That's the snapshot. But the pole doesn't do a snapshot
on the Marray Party. The snapshot on the Married Party
is one point eight percent. But then they assume that
the Marory Party holds six seeds. You can't assume and
(02:00):
have a snapshot. They're two completely different things, and therefore
the poll is null and void at that point. And
of course the six points gets the center left block
over the edge, so no one believes that the Marry
Party are going to win all six electorates or seven
as it is now. So therefore that's the point that
Now then top gets interesting. Do you believe that top
is at four point something I'm open to the idea
(02:20):
it could be, and I'm open to the idea it
could be based on the fact that there's always a
group of people in an election year, in an election
campaign that wander around going, you know what, I'm bitsick
of labor, bitsick and national, bitsick of the mainstream. I
might vote for something a little bit different. TOP represents
a modest, middle of the road ish type option. So
at this point in the electoral cycle, four points something
(02:41):
percent is not bad what they need and what will
change the whole scenario and make me wrong because I'm
telling you TOP won't make five percent. But if I'm wrong,
what needs to happen now is TOP needs to be
in the next half dozen to ten poles above five.
If they get above five and enough polls, the psychology
changes because the people who think they might vote TOP
(03:01):
then go, that's real. I'm on board. It becomes a thing.
So watch that. But as for Labor, going town five
and you're assuming something when you're looking at a snapshot,
that's why that pole doesn't work.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
So I just don't understand why we haven't banned well
like we banned Popera on The Breakfast Show. Long time ago. No,
no popera people coming in. Why are we not banning
talking about poles, doing poles, taking any notice of poles?
Why come on, guys, the rewrap anyway, regardless of where
(03:37):
the Green Party are coming in the poles, they're coming
last in maths and accounting.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
Just to update you on the Green's letters, Green's cock up.
I won't relitigate all the things. I mean, the eight
hundred million dollars is spectacular, but anyway, they had a
cracky yesterday at the Kickstart breakfast program. Just twenty three
thousand dollars. That's all they're giving. Miserable government. It tells
you everything, Just twenty three thousand dollars. Another number they
got wrong. What is it with them in numbers? Because
(04:02):
it's actually two hundred and thirty four thousand dollars. The
program has been boosted by is it zero's they struggle
with don't understand anyway, they claim twenty three. It's actually
two hundred and thirty four. They've had to correct it.
It would be nice if they apologized at some point,
but we haven't seen that yet.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Surely you can't blame Surely their calculators are solid powd calculators,
so there shouldn't be a battery issue there is. It
just that not even they think that any of these
policies will either see the light of day and any
kind of coloristion agreement should Labor be able to cobble
together some kind of government after the election. So the
numbers are really irrelevant even to them. Maybe right now
(04:43):
if he didn't have a bee in his bonnet about
how awesome Singapore is compared to New Zealand the four
he went away man has Hosking been going on about
it a lot since he's got back now.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
The question has been asked many times before, and it's
been asked again last week and the listener, if you
read the listener, could New Zealand This was the headline,
Could New Zealand e would be the Singapore or the
South Pacific? The answer, of course is yes and no. Yes,
because you or I or any of us can be
anything we want to if we're determined enough. But sadly
it's no, because not enough of us actually want to
(05:13):
be better than what we are. It's odd business. Having
been in Singapore a week or so back, it's the
same as it always as easy, friendly, well organized, It
starts with their national airline, which we happen to be
flying on. I would rate at the best in the world.
The government owns it. They've been consistently excellent forever. You
then land at the best airport in the world. That's
not me, everyone says. So they win awards every year.
So these experiences then lead to the obvious question, why
(05:35):
aren't we all like that? How is it a small
island nation of five million, and by that I mean Singapore,
not New Zealand can do things so well and others can't.
The answer is attitude. Crime is not an issue. Social
upheaval is not an issue. They're technologically advanced. Life is easy.
It's reasonably expensive, but not alarmingly so. There's choice in
terms of retail beyond the population size. I mean, yes,
(05:56):
they're a hub and that helps in things like trade
and tourism. You might want to argue their political system
could be seen as somewhat repressive. I've never noticed it personally.
My brother lived there for years, he loved it. I've
visited many times, love it. There's a culture of service.
They want to help. There's a culture of kindness. You
can't fake that. And so after a while, we all
end up asking the same question every time, and the
(06:17):
question once again the listener poses, could New Zealand be
the Singapore of the South Pacific? Is the cultural divide
so wide it's simply not possible. As our democracy so
far removed, it simply isn't possible. These are I guess,
reasonable questions to ask. Or is it simply our lack
of wherewithal an attitude to life and hard work that
holds us back? In other words, we could, but we
(06:37):
just can't be bothered And that's true. What's that say
about us?
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (06:41):
There is that, just that nagging every time it brings
us up. That's just that little nagging thought about the
whole bringing in cheap labor from other countries and not
really giving them very good conditions or paying them very much.
I feel like that's a thing that perhaps the New
Zealand public wouldn't really go for. We really wanted to
be exactly like Singapore, don't get me wrong, lovely place
(07:03):
to visit, the rerap massive port of course, Singapore. I'm
sure they never had anybody saying, oh, I know, you
can't extend that thing.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
Let me ask you, this is if fast track is
the answer. If fast track is the answer, then why
do we still have the Port of Twoma. I mean,
surely I don't need to go through the fine detail
of what is one of this country's most embarrassing modern travesties,
a story in which a successful business wants to expand
so they can be more successful, and yet can't because
the court process is never ending. Latest chapter, of course,
(07:34):
involves local Murray wanting compensation. It's not like this business
is a nuclear waste or mind tailings. It's simply part
of the main way of making money, exports, selling stuff
to the world. That's what we do. If ever, there
was a case for an overarching let's stop the bs
and time wasting law, the port of towering, asaga is said,
it's hard to know who's fault more those who started
(07:56):
the scrap i e. Local Mara or those who allow
it to drag i e. The judicial process. But you cannot,
I mean, can you not mount a case that if
a business cannot be allowed to be a business because
they are hindered by one argument and to the process
that allows the argument, at some point a line has
to be drawn and an overarching authority, presumably the government
comes in to settle the matter once and for all. Arbitration.
(08:19):
Arbitration is a possibility and compulsory arbitration that that I
for years argued for it in union disputes, especially the
ones like teachers and nurses constantly scrapping with stop work
meetings and protests and days off state your case, claiming counterclaim.
If you're stuck, enter the referee. The call has made.
It's over. If fast track was the solution, it's patently
(08:39):
evident in this case it isn't working. And the port
in the fast track process having failed in the non
fast track process. So all the processes and there's still
no further ahead. See in my system, the arbitrator would
ask is this legal? Is this societally acceptable? And is
it beneficial for the country? And I would ask that
(08:59):
at eight thirty when the hearing starts, and I reckon,
we'd be done by morning tea. If an exporting nation
can't expand to export more, how broken and backward are
weve God's sake.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
And that's the best port in the country. So you
can only imagine what they're not fest ports are doing.
Oh well, the rewrap, get off the boat and get
on a plane now, although you might not make it
all the way to where you're going, depending on which
plane you're flying on.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
Quantas overnight had to land their Dreamliner in the middle
of nowhere in Western Australia, which is ironic because this
past week they've been busy spooking this let's fly from
Sydney to London thing in one go, or Sydney to
New York. It's the old in New Zealand problem. Out
of New York. The thing ran out of gas, so
the headwinds that this is the London Perth thing, and
so the head winds turn around. They weren't expecting the headwinds,
(09:47):
but the headwinds turned up. Guy looked at his petrol
tank and went, I don't have enough petrol to get
to Perth. So we landed in the middle of the pilbra.
Fortunately there was something to land on in the middle
of the pilbra, and they had some gas and they
gassed back up. But if you're flying seventeen hours, you're
right at the edge of this tech. And I'm all
for tech, but when you're running a plane so close
that the red light's on as you land, you're thinking
(10:08):
to your jeez, are you pushing it a bit?
Speaker 2 (10:10):
There are very few things in this world I enjoy
doing less than flying long haul, and certainly I've got
no interest in the kind of hours we're talking about
on those sorts of flights. And I can only imagine
how out of your mind you must be thinking that
you're nearly at your destination and then you've got to
land in the middle of a desert um, and then
(10:35):
probably that you're only to be told that there are
no eggs left, so you've got to have the konj
for breakfast instead. I may be conflating two different things
that happened to me on a flight on my recent
trip away. Everybody else went for eggs for some reason.
Nobody really wants to have dinner for breakfast, as it
(10:57):
turns out, So yeah, we just have fruit. We just
to bring us an extra prop or fruit, please, we
didn't want chicken for breakfast. Call us weird. I am
Glen Hart. My weird breakfast tastes. I'll cit you back
here again more of that sort of stuff tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Therap for more from News Talks at b listen live
on air or online, and keep our shows with you
wherever you go with our podcast on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to a podcast from Newstalk sed B. Follow
this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
The Rewrap Okay, yeah, and welcome to the Rewrap for Wednesday.
All the best bits from the my Casking Breakfast on
news talk s ed B in a sillier package. I
am Glen Hart and today the Green Party just simply
can't add up. We'll dig into that shortly. Why isn't
New Zealand more like Singapore? Why isn't the Port of
(00:42):
Taroga more like the Port of Singapore? And long haul flights?
Are they just getting a little bit too long? But
before any of that, why are we still having poles?
I thought we weren't doing this anymore. What's happening right?
Speaker 3 (00:56):
So here's how we're going to do this going forward.
There are too many poles and too many people are
wasting too much of their money. So here's why last
night's pole doesn't work and it's not real. Labour's down
five points. Do you leave that a major part who
has done essentially nothing is down five points. No, they
haven't fallen five points the same way they don't go
up five points. My assumption is that they were never
(01:18):
as high as they were reported to be. Therefore this
probably reflexible realistic number. So in other words, they never
dropped five percent because they never had five percent to
lose in the first place. The critical part that's wrong
about the poll last night is the assumption, the assumption
that the Maori Party gets six Now, you can't have
it both ways. They will tell you, any polster will
(01:40):
tell you. A pole is a snapshot in time. Now,
the snapshot in time is based on the mood. I
ask you a question, who would you vote for today?
That's the snapshot. But the pole doesn't do a snapshot
on the Marray Party. The snapshot on the Married Party
is one point eight percent. But then they assume that
the Marory Party holds six seeds. You can't assume and
(02:00):
have a snapshot. They're two completely different things, and therefore
the poll is null and void at that point. And
of course the six points gets the center left block
over the edge, so no one believes that the Marry
Party are going to win all six electorates or seven
as it is now. So therefore that's the point that
Now then top gets interesting. Do you believe that top
is at four point something I'm open to the idea
(02:20):
it could be, and I'm open to the idea it
could be based on the fact that there's always a
group of people in an election year, in an election
campaign that wander around going, you know what, I'm bitsick
of labor, bitsick and national, bitsick of the mainstream. I
might vote for something a little bit different. TOP represents
a modest, middle of the road ish type option. So
at this point in the electoral cycle, four points something
(02:41):
percent is not bad what they need and what will
change the whole scenario and make me wrong because I'm
telling you TOP won't make five percent. But if I'm wrong,
what needs to happen now is TOP needs to be
in the next half dozen to ten poles above five.
If they get above five and enough polls, the psychology
changes because the people who think they might vote TOP
(03:01):
then go, that's real. I'm on board. It becomes a thing.
So watch that. But as for Labor, going town five
and you're assuming something when you're looking at a snapshot,
that's why that pole doesn't work.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
So I just don't understand why we haven't banned well
like we banned Popera on The Breakfast Show. Long time ago. No,
no popera people coming in. Why are we not banning
talking about poles, doing poles, taking any notice of poles?
Why come on, guys, the rewrap anyway, regardless of where
(03:37):
the Green Party are coming in the poles, they're coming
last in maths and accounting.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
Just to update you on the Green's letters, Green's cock up.
I won't relitigate all the things. I mean, the eight
hundred million dollars is spectacular, but anyway, they had a
cracky yesterday at the Kickstart breakfast program. Just twenty three
thousand dollars. That's all they're giving. Miserable government. It tells
you everything, Just twenty three thousand dollars. Another number they
got wrong. What is it with them in numbers? Because
(04:02):
it's actually two hundred and thirty four thousand dollars. The
program has been boosted by is it zero's they struggle
with don't understand anyway, they claim twenty three. It's actually
two hundred and thirty four. They've had to correct it.
It would be nice if they apologized at some point,
but we haven't seen that yet.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Surely you can't blame Surely their calculators are solid powd calculators,
so there shouldn't be a battery issue there is. It
just that not even they think that any of these
policies will either see the light of day and any
kind of coloristion agreement should Labor be able to cobble
together some kind of government after the election. So the
numbers are really irrelevant even to them. Maybe right now
(04:43):
if he didn't have a bee in his bonnet about
how awesome Singapore is compared to New Zealand the four
he went away man has Hosking been going on about
it a lot since he's got back now.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
The question has been asked many times before, and it's
been asked again last week and the listener, if you
read the listener, could New Zealand This was the headline,
Could New Zealand e would be the Singapore or the
South Pacific? The answer, of course is yes and no. Yes,
because you or I or any of us can be
anything we want to if we're determined enough. But sadly
it's no, because not enough of us actually want to
(05:13):
be better than what we are. It's odd business. Having
been in Singapore a week or so back, it's the
same as it always as easy, friendly, well organized, It
starts with their national airline, which we happen to be
flying on. I would rate at the best in the world.
The government owns it. They've been consistently excellent forever. You
then land at the best airport in the world. That's
not me, everyone says. So they win awards every year.
So these experiences then lead to the obvious question, why
(05:35):
aren't we all like that? How is it a small
island nation of five million, and by that I mean Singapore,
not New Zealand can do things so well and others can't.
The answer is attitude. Crime is not an issue. Social
upheaval is not an issue. They're technologically advanced. Life is easy.
It's reasonably expensive, but not alarmingly so. There's choice in
terms of retail beyond the population size. I mean, yes,
(05:56):
they're a hub and that helps in things like trade
and tourism. You might want to argue their political system
could be seen as somewhat repressive. I've never noticed it personally.
My brother lived there for years, he loved it. I've
visited many times, love it. There's a culture of service.
They want to help. There's a culture of kindness. You
can't fake that. And so after a while, we all
end up asking the same question every time, and the
(06:17):
question once again the listener poses, could New Zealand be
the Singapore of the South Pacific? Is the cultural divide
so wide it's simply not possible. As our democracy so
far removed, it simply isn't possible. These are I guess,
reasonable questions to ask. Or is it simply our lack
of wherewithal an attitude to life and hard work that
holds us back? In other words, we could, but we
(06:37):
just can't be bothered And that's true. What's that say
about us?
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (06:41):
There is that, just that nagging every time it brings
us up. That's just that little nagging thought about the
whole bringing in cheap labor from other countries and not
really giving them very good conditions or paying them very much.
I feel like that's a thing that perhaps the New
Zealand public wouldn't really go for. We really wanted to
be exactly like Singapore, don't get me wrong, lovely place
(07:03):
to visit, the rerap massive port of course, Singapore. I'm
sure they never had anybody saying, oh, I know, you
can't extend that thing.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
Let me ask you, this is if fast track is
the answer. If fast track is the answer, then why
do we still have the Port of Twoma. I mean,
surely I don't need to go through the fine detail
of what is one of this country's most embarrassing modern travesties,
a story in which a successful business wants to expand
so they can be more successful, and yet can't because
the court process is never ending. Latest chapter, of course,
(07:34):
involves local Murray wanting compensation. It's not like this business
is a nuclear waste or mind tailings. It's simply part
of the main way of making money, exports, selling stuff
to the world. That's what we do. If ever, there
was a case for an overarching let's stop the bs
and time wasting law, the port of towering, asaga is said,
it's hard to know who's fault more those who started
(07:56):
the scrap i e. Local Mara or those who allow
it to drag i e. The judicial process. But you cannot,
I mean, can you not mount a case that if
a business cannot be allowed to be a business because
they are hindered by one argument and to the process
that allows the argument, at some point a line has
to be drawn and an overarching authority, presumably the government
comes in to settle the matter once and for all. Arbitration.
(08:19):
Arbitration is a possibility and compulsory arbitration that that I
for years argued for it in union disputes, especially the
ones like teachers and nurses constantly scrapping with stop work
meetings and protests and days off state your case, claiming counterclaim.
If you're stuck, enter the referee. The call has made.
It's over. If fast track was the solution, it's patently
(08:39):
evident in this case it isn't working. And the port
in the fast track process having failed in the non
fast track process. So all the processes and there's still
no further ahead. See in my system, the arbitrator would
ask is this legal? Is this societally acceptable? And is
it beneficial for the country? And I would ask that
(08:59):
at eight thirty when the hearing starts, and I reckon,
we'd be done by morning tea. If an exporting nation
can't expand to export more, how broken and backward are
weve God's sake.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
And that's the best port in the country. So you
can only imagine what they're not fest ports are doing.
Oh well, the rewrap, get off the boat and get
on a plane now, although you might not make it
all the way to where you're going, depending on which
plane you're flying on.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
Quantas overnight had to land their Dreamliner in the middle
of nowhere in Western Australia, which is ironic because this
past week they've been busy spooking this let's fly from
Sydney to London thing in one go, or Sydney to
New York. It's the old in New Zealand problem. Out
of New York. The thing ran out of gas, so
the headwinds that this is the London Perth thing, and
so the head winds turn around. They weren't expecting the headwinds,
(09:47):
but the headwinds turned up. Guy looked at his petrol
tank and went, I don't have enough petrol to get
to Perth. So we landed in the middle of the pilbra.
Fortunately there was something to land on in the middle
of the pilbra, and they had some gas and they
gassed back up. But if you're flying seventeen hours, you're
right at the edge of this tech. And I'm all
for tech, but when you're running a plane so close
that the red light's on as you land, you're thinking
(10:08):
to your jeez, are you pushing it a bit?
Speaker 2 (10:10):
There are very few things in this world I enjoy
doing less than flying long haul, and certainly I've got
no interest in the kind of hours we're talking about
on those sorts of flights. And I can only imagine
how out of your mind you must be thinking that
you're nearly at your destination and then you've got to
land in the middle of a desert um, and then
(10:35):
probably that you're only to be told that there are
no eggs left, so you've got to have the konj
for breakfast instead. I may be conflating two different things
that happened to me on a flight on my recent
trip away. Everybody else went for eggs for some reason.
Nobody really wants to have dinner for breakfast, as it
(10:57):
turns out, So yeah, we just have fruit. We just
to bring us an extra prop or fruit, please, we
didn't want chicken for breakfast. Call us weird. I am
Glen Hart. My weird breakfast tastes. I'll cit you back
here again more of that sort of stuff tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Therap for more from News Talks at b listen live
on air or online, and keep our shows with you
wherever you go with our podcast on iHeartRadio.
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