Full Show Podcast: 18 December 2024

On the Mike Hosking Breakfast Full Show Podcast for Wednesday 18th of December, the Government books are in a shocking state, so Heather du Plessis-Allan asked Nicola Willis how much is on the last Government, and how much is on her. 

Did you hear the one about the judge, the doctor, and NZ First at the Northern Club? Trust us, it's a doozy. 

For the final time this year Mark Mitchell and Ginny Andersen talk the books, political scandals, and what they're getting each other for Christmas 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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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Demanding the answers from the decision makers. Ken the duplic
Ellen on the my casking Breakfast with a Vida, Retirement, Communities,
Life Your Way, News togs.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
That'd be good morning and welcome to you. Coming up today,
Nikola willis on the government's box. There is a lot
of redd in there. What she's going to do to
get it back into the black and how long is
she going to keep taking this softly softly approach. We'll
speak to her after half past seven. The Commerce Commission
on capping those credit card vis finally how high should
a door handle be in an early childhood center? We

(00:31):
finally got the red tape review out, and David Cima
will talk us through that, and then we have politics
Wednesday after eight o'clock.

Speaker 3 (00:37):
Heather Duplicy Ellen, Look, I think we knew.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
That the government books were going to be bad, right,
but I don't know that we knew that it was
going to be this bad. There's no way that we're
going to get to the surplus that we expected in
twenty twenty eight. In fact, that is now so far
away it's not even in Treasury's forecast period anymore. It'll
be sometime who knows when sometime in the twenty thirties
we're going to have to borrow another twenty billion dollars
in debt to tide us over the net four years.

(01:01):
That's going to push our interest payments over ten billion
dollars every year. So we are already spending more, will
be spending even more on our debt interest than we
spend on defense, corrections, police and customs combined every single year. Now,
this is not the current government's fault. This is caused
by a recession that was caused by Adrian Or and
the Reserve Bank to try to deal with labors, overspending

(01:21):
in the bank zone problems, but national and not doing
what they need to be doing right now. I mean,
these guys need to be cutting way harder than they
are right now. There is a measure that we use
to look at how much government spending is adding to
or reducing from economic growth. It's called public consumption. Nikoli
Willis was supposed to cut public consumption by one point
four percent. This year, she cut it by zero points

(01:43):
two percent. I mean, there's basically no cut at all.
It's so close to zero. Next year it was supposed
to be cut by two point two percent. It's going
to be cut by another zero point two percent. Again,
no cut. There is not much being cut here. We
still pay the wages of fourteen thousand more public service
than we did in twenty eighteen. The government has only

(02:03):
cut one public agency, which is the Productivity Commission. Nikola
Willis spent more in her last budget than Grant Robertson
ever did in any of his budgets. Now National keeps
saying they have to do this. They can't cut more
because they don't want austerity. We are so far from austerity.
It's not funny. We are spending more money. We are
hiring more public servants than we did six years ago. Now,
the trouble with that is that currently with all this

(02:25):
big spending, we're in a recession. Six years ago we
were not in a recession. National needs to treat this
like the economic train record is and cut their cloth accordingly.
They might not be responsible for the mess that we're in,
but they are responsible now for fixing it, and so
far they're not really fixing it.

Speaker 1 (02:41):
What views of the world in ninety seconds.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
We'll finally have some justice for Sarah Sharif this morning.
This is the young girl killed and tortured by her
father's stepmother and uncle.

Speaker 4 (02:51):
Sara's death was the culmination of years of neglect, frequent assaults,
and what can only be described as the torture of
this child. This happened in plain sight, in front of
the rest of the family.

Speaker 2 (03:06):
Her mother gave an impet statement, you are sadists. Although
even this word is not enough for you. I would
say you were executionist. As the Post Office scandal inquiry
wraps up, Fujitsu are throwing all in sundry under the bus.

Speaker 5 (03:20):
Fijitsu has identified at least seventy seven zero individuals within
Post Office and Royal Mail in relation to whom the
inquiry has received unequivocal evidence of their knowledge of bugs,
errors and defects.

Speaker 2 (03:34):
Now do you reckon that the UK is said that
the head of the Russian nuclear forces has been assassinated,
And make.

Speaker 6 (03:39):
No mistake, this was a bad man and he has
a proven and admitted record of using chemical weapons against
troops on the battlefield.

Speaker 2 (03:51):
Yes, staying in the UK. Despite the Ombudsman recommending that
the waspy women get paid, they won't get a dime.

Speaker 7 (03:56):
I do understand, of course, the concern of the waspy women.
But also, of course I have to take into account
whether it's right at the moment to impose for the
burden on the taxpayer, which is what it would be.

Speaker 2 (04:10):
And a lawyer for one of p did He's accusers
has done in an interview and outlined some of the
allegations against the men.

Speaker 8 (04:15):
She alleges that she was groped and grabbed, that by
Shaan Klms, that she witnessed him physically assaulting other women,
that he restrained her, locked her into cars and other places,
falsely imprisoned her.

Speaker 2 (04:30):
And finally, the fan experience for the twenty thirty four
Football World Cup is going exactly the way that everybody
expected when Saudi Arabia was controversially given the hosting rights
last week, being widely reported booze is not going to
be sold to those attending the Game's alcohol has been
banned from the country since nineteen fifty four. Easy's seventy

(04:52):
three to have even been there at the time when
it was being sold. But anyway, but there are special
exceptions or seventy one I suppose maths special exceptions for
non Muslim diplomats and some special tourists who are able
to get their hands on a drink for football fans.
Nap not going to be special under these particular rules.
No drinks for you guys that has news of the
world in ninety seconds. Now, this is probably going to

(05:12):
be absolutely no surprise to you, but it's something slightly
groom about it, like a little maccarb. Documentary makers are
already clamoring, apparently to get their hands on the story
of Luigi Mangioni, who is the guy, the hot guy
accused of killing the United Healthcare boss.

Speaker 9 (05:27):
Now.

Speaker 2 (05:27):
One of the documentary makers is an award winning filmmaker
called Alex Gibney, and he's paired up with an entertainment
company Anonymous Content they want to make a docer. The
other one is Steven Robert Moose, who produced Amanda Knox
for Netflix, which actually did really well, has also been
nominated for Emmy, and on that subject, Michael Moore, who's
of course another reasonably famous documentary maker's got actually really

(05:49):
nothing to do with this, but he's weighed in on it,
and he's actually backing the people who are lionizing. The
hot shooter says some people who's written on a substack.
Some people have stepped forward to condemn this and anger.
I'm not one of them. The anger is one thousand
percent justified. It is long overdue for the media to
cover it. It is not new, it has been boiling,
and I'm not going to tamper down or ask people

(06:10):
to shut up. I want to pour gasoline on that anger.
So very responsible. Thirteen past six.

Speaker 1 (06:17):
The Mic Asking Breakfast Full Show podcast on iHeartRadio powered
by News Talk sep.

Speaker 10 (06:24):
Hey.

Speaker 2 (06:25):
By the way, we've got the first North Korean troops
killed in the Ukrainian War. Apparently they've up to now
it sounds like they've been doing some support work and
stuff like that for the Russians, but now they're on
the front lines as of about a week ago in
infantry positions, and so the boekend about thirty of them
were killed or wounded in the Kursek border region. And
I am quite looking forward to seeing how that's going
to go down in North Korea, because, Yeah, I just

(06:47):
wonder if they thought that all the way through when
they sent them over to do support work. Sixteen past
six Andrew kelliher JMI wealth is worth us last time
this year? Andrew? Is that right?

Speaker 9 (06:59):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (06:59):
There's good, all right? Well then let's get stuck into
an absolutely positive subject, which is high school. What do
you make of it?

Speaker 11 (07:06):
Well, there wasn't just Christmas chair in those numbers yet
they was that. I mean, we've been talking a fair
bit about the last year about the week's stay.

Speaker 10 (07:11):
Of the economy.

Speaker 11 (07:12):
Now we can see the impact that that's had on
government accounts. So there's a lot of facts and figures
here at Heather. There's one hundred and forty nine pages
of them, to be exact. Now, we had expected the
figures to be weaker. The degree of weakness is higher
than expected.

Speaker 12 (07:26):
You know.

Speaker 11 (07:26):
We compare the numbers to what we saw in the
budget twenty twenty four documents and they are worse and
at a very high level. This is a story of
slow economic activity and a deterioration in the recent tax outcomes.
So look, there's lots of numbers, so we'll try and
pick out the key ones. So when listeners out there
head along to their staff Christmas party in the next
couple of days, they'll know what to talk about, because

(07:47):
I know everybody really wants to do that. They want
to talk about the high food Now GDP growth is
low than expected, so you can express growth at a percentage,
or you can do it in dollar terms, and now
tulously over the four years to twenty twenty, it's twenty
billion dollars lower. Now government over those years receives thirteen
billion dollars less in revenue than previously expected, so that

(08:09):
there's lower tax revenues. You've got on the government spending.
You've got a couple of kinds of government spending. Got
operational that's day to day. You've got capital spending that's
new stuff. They have been revised up, so less money
and more money out each year the government has that
allows for extra spending. The day to day spending that
was two point four billion in the budget in the

(08:30):
budget documents. That hasn't changed, so it's still at two
point four billion twenty five, twenty six, twenty seven. When
you look at when do the book's balance, when have
you got earned more than you spend? As you've said,
that's now been pushed out a year to twenty eight
twenty nine. There's a growth number here which captures my
eye because we know growth is negative for the twenty
four year, it's very small for the twenty five year,

(08:52):
but then it accelerates to three point three percent of
the twenty six Yeah, that's a big bounce. We're going
to have to wait and see whether that's achievable or not.
Unemployment four point eight percent, the annual average peaks at
five point four percent. You may get a quarteringly number
higher than that. So it's gonna get a little worse
before it gets better. And we've got this new measure,
this obigal X. And now if obigal wasn't bad enough,

(09:15):
we've now got obigal with ACC taken out of it
as well, because ACC is quite volatile. So they're all
the numbers.

Speaker 2 (09:21):
Yeah, okay, So what does it actually mean for the government,
do you think? Right?

Speaker 9 (09:25):
Yeah?

Speaker 10 (09:25):
Right?

Speaker 11 (09:25):
So the first point is there's there's no wriggle room here.
There's no regle room at all. Without changing their plan,
they now need to borrow more because the deficits are bigger.
So compared to the twenty twenty four projections, they now
need to borrow twenty billion dollars more. Now we're already
borrowing a lot more than we were before. The other
thing that's not being talked about quite a bit here

(09:45):
head we're in the middle of what we call quantitative
tightening at the moment. So the Reserve Bank bought a
whole lot of government bonds off the government in the
COVID that was called quadsative easing. That that created money
that's now being unwined unwound, So the is selling those
back to the governments at the moment. That's increasing the
borrowing requirement. There's cause for that process to be slowed.

(10:07):
Lower activity, lower tax take projected forward, the government had
decided to not reduce spending further.

Speaker 10 (10:13):
You just talked about this.

Speaker 11 (10:15):
That means they now have to sell one hundred and
sixty eight billion dollars worth of government bonds over the
forecast period. They have to include They've had to increase
the short term borrowing as well, so it just compounds.
They put that target out there of having net core
crown dead is a percent of GDP at forty percent,
we're not going to make that now it's forty six
and a half at the peak and at the end

(10:36):
of the forecast period forty five point two. This simply
isn't money for new spending initiatives. Cost pressures on your
existing spending could soak up quite a bit of operating allowance. Look,
we haven't even had time to talk about productivity. I
want to make one final point, Heather, this obigal X,
this new measure that we've got taking ACC out of

(10:58):
obigal is that okay, like ACC is supposed to be
self funding in the long term. So the logic is
the government doesn't want to be forced into short term
changes to their fiscal strategy to deal with short term
volatility to the ACC ledger. That's okay. I think if
ACC is actually self funding, because the reality is, under

(11:20):
the old rules, these numbers would have looked a lot worse.
And I just have to make the point we gave
it to Grant Robertson, didn't we when he changed the
rules on debt and he bought the New Zealandero, So
we kind of got to inspect this change as well.
To be fair, we've got to ask is it okay?
And I'm still not sure about that. I'm still trying
to figure it out.

Speaker 2 (11:37):
Yeah, okay, run me through the numbers really quickly.

Speaker 11 (11:39):
Sure, the Dow Jones is Dow on half a percent,
The S and P five hundred is down point three
eight percent, and then NAASAC is down point three five percent,
The fort to one hundred, lost three quarters of percent overnight,
and thei Ka was down a quarter of a percent.
Shanghai composite down three quarters of percent. The ASX two
hundred is at eight to three one four. They gainedero

(12:00):
point seven eight percent yesterday. The insects fifty twelve nine
hundred and fourteen. We had a good day up point
nine percent. Kimi dollar point five seven five six against
the US point nine oh eight three Aussie point five
four eight to Euro point four five two eight pounds
eighty eight point three seven against the Japanese end gold
two thy six hundred and forty bucks and break cruit
seventy two dollars and eighty three cents.

Speaker 2 (12:22):
Andrew, go, are you going to get some son over some?
Are you well?

Speaker 11 (12:25):
If we if we get some some'dy down the coromandel, Heather.
But I hope you have a great time.

Speaker 10 (12:30):
Take it easy.

Speaker 3 (12:30):
There and you will really well.

Speaker 11 (12:33):
I told you what you look like.

Speaker 2 (12:34):
But I'll make sure I google you and then and
then I will be old and gray. I'll stalk here, hey,
and you look after yourself. Enjoy the coramandeal Son. That's
Andrew callaher j my wealth You're right plenty to get
you through in the next half and hour, So let's
get into it. Six twenty two The.

Speaker 1 (12:49):
Vike Asking Breakfast Full Show podcast on iHeartRadio powered by
News Talks at B Well.

Speaker 2 (12:55):
This has just got really weird, hasn't it. Andrew Callaher
turns out has a beach house in the very same
town in the kram that I have a beach house,
and it's not a big town. And now I know.
I've googled him, and now I know what he looks like.
And I one hundred percent am going to bump into
him over Christmas. And I'm just saying this to you
right now so that when it does happen, I can't
be accused of stalking, because it is an inevitability that
this is now going to happen. I'm very excited. Actually,

(13:17):
six twenty.

Speaker 1 (13:17):
Five Trending Now Warehouse your home for Christmas shopping.

Speaker 2 (13:23):
Hello Adele, a Brazilian judge is hoping you can hear him.
In what's being called a landmark case, a judge has
ordered Adele's twenty fifteen track million years ago must be
taken down worldwide, not just in Brazil, worldwide, including on
streaming services because of plagiarism. Now, the claim was brought
by a Brazilian composer who said that Adele's song copied

(13:43):
his somber classic called Melchis. The judge agreed with the Sky,
specifically in regards to the first verse of the song. Okay,
so here's a dall song.

Speaker 13 (13:53):
Won to have m learning to fly learning Durham I
led my ho they here is.

Speaker 2 (14:10):
A squish ludge convincing that's basically exactly the same as
a down you copycat you anyway, the song must sound
like a lot of other songs because Turkish people also
accused her back in twenty fifteen of ripping off one
of their singers for exactly the same song. Now, this
guy is seeking royalties from the song. He wants three
hundred thousand dollars New Zealand in moral damages and songwriting credit.

(14:35):
Sony Brazil and Universal Brazil will be fined fifteen thousand
dollars every day that the song remains up and if
it is if they also get pinged for every stream
I've streamed of a loss this sing it's exactly the same.

Speaker 14 (14:51):
She's an English they I think hard to know that
that doesn't cat don't.

Speaker 2 (14:57):
Think so, Hey, we go to speak to David Seymour next. Well,
that's a miss about high food show.

Speaker 3 (15:01):
We new stalks dB, you're trusted source for news and views.

Speaker 1 (15:13):
Heather Duplicy Allen on the mic Hosking breakfast with the
range Rover Villa designed to intrigue and use talks that'd.

Speaker 2 (15:20):
B on the state of the government's books. We're going
to have a chat to Nikolaulus after half past seven
about what the plan is because part of the problem,
obviously is that we're just spending way too much money,
so there's some deeper cuts that need to happen there.
But quite apart from that, GDP growth is just pretty average,
so we've got to think about ways to start getting
that going quick smart. We'll ask her about that as
well after half past seven. But Jeff Nightingale of PwC,

(15:42):
the tax partner formerly, will be with us just after
seven to give us his hot takes on it first
twenty three away from sevenbafting. So the Ministry of Regulations
completed its first task actually very fast. It's done its
report into the early childhood sector and it's recommended cutting
three quarters of a list of ninety eight different licensing
rules regulation. But mister David Seymore's with us now morning,

(16:04):
David good. So does this mean when they're not going
to have to maintain the old eighteen degrees in doors
all day long?

Speaker 15 (16:12):
Yeah, that's exactly the sort of thing that we want
to either remove the regulation or clarify, because right across
the sector you feel a lot of anger from people
who say all I wanted to do was keep kids safe,
obviously and help them discover their potential. All I actually
do is to maintain a plethora of documents fear getting

(16:34):
inspected and answered to multiple regulators, from HERO to the
Ministry of Educations at Fire and Emergency in New Zealand,
often with each regulator having conflicting and positions on the
same basic questions. So I'm really soaked with the report
that the Ministry for Regulations produced. As you say, I

(16:55):
think they've done it pretty quickly. They've only been in
existence for nine months, notus up. You know, I had
submissions from twenty three hundred different people in the sector,
and in the new year we're basically going to roll
up these changes.

Speaker 2 (17:09):
So what is actually going to happen with the door handles,
because this is one of these examples where you've got
conflicting things. Right, the building code says the door handles
have to be at a certain heights, but the EC
needs editor different heights. So where do you end up.

Speaker 15 (17:23):
Well, where we'll end up is that we'll have one
regulator and one rule, so that if you're running an
EC you know what the rule is and you can
get on with it. Exactly which ones will change to
align them. There's a bit of work to do, and
you to go backwards and boards of the different ministries
and so you've got a movie yours. So exactly how

(17:44):
that plays out is for next year. But the clear
issue is we've identified this is a problem by asking
people and it's pretty obvious what needs to happen. You
need rule, one regulator on one question and in some
cases it's something that maybe doesn't need to be regulated.

Speaker 2 (18:00):
Have you heard from the easies on this they stoked
about this or what.

Speaker 15 (18:04):
Yeah, there's been a bit of commentary from some of
the people who are commentators in the sector. I see
Kelly Seberg there, who was a pretty knowledgeable and vocal
operator of several ecs and someone that's been involved in
the review and she as far as I can see
us saying, yes, this is exactly what we need.

Speaker 2 (18:24):
David, listen, what are you thinking about the high food?
Why aren't you guys cutting harder to get back to surplus?

Speaker 15 (18:31):
Well, a couple of things. I mean, if you look
at where government is as a percentage of GDP under
Robertson in eighteen twenty nineteen, they were spending about twenty
eight dollars out of every hundred in the economy. During
COVID they went nuts, went up to about thirty five
dollars out of an extra seven bucks out of every hundred,

(18:53):
ye earn goes to government. Now it's sitting around thirty
three and we're going to get it in a couple
of years down to thirty one. Now you say, well,
how can you be spending three percent more of duty
than Robertson was before COVID. The answer to that is
that every year there's about thirty thousand more people on

(19:16):
super healthier costs rise at a similar rate. That's a
factor of having a rising aging population compared with a
number of taxpayers. And also because dear Old Brant borrowed
about one hundred billion dollars when interest rates were low,
and of course now the higher we're paying almost ten

(19:38):
billion a year.

Speaker 2 (19:39):
But are you comfortable, I mean fair enough you hit
it in the right direction. Are you're comfortable with the
slow pace at what you're doing or do you think
should be doing it faster?

Speaker 15 (19:47):
Well, I mean, look, there's no surprise from ACT when
we have these budget meetings, like generally the ones saying
that I think we need to go harder and faster.
But you know, obviously we're in a coalition and other
people as you're here and Nicole Assay and you heard
Chris lux And say yesterday, we don't want to go

(20:09):
to what they would call austerity. So obviously there's a
natural tension there and no surprise that ACT, being the
association of consumers and taxpayers and a tech ronym, would
like to do that. But I also think that where
we are in this government is an awful lot better
than where we would be with the alternatives. So ye, look,

(20:30):
I mean there's no surprise I'd probably like to go faster,
but I'm pretty happy with we and the governments it
ended up because I know what the alternative is.

Speaker 2 (20:37):
Okay, David, thanks very much, really appreciate this, David seem
more regulation, Minister Heather, you want the Coalition to make
harder and deeper cuts, but you forgot the borderline trees
in this public service would revolt and the lefties would
march down the streets and then come next selection, Hipkins
would wave from the pulpit again. I don't know that
it would play out like that. There's no how it's
played out in Argentina where they've done the big cuts. Anyway,

(20:58):
I run because we've got even more data coming out
Argentina overnight that shows that they are cutting hard and
fast and it's the right thing to do. There are
more just remember there are more people who want to
see this the books get back in order, I believe,
than there are public servants. So I actually think cutting
public servants may be a good political move. Seventeen away
from seven, the.

Speaker 1 (21:18):
Mike Hosking Breakfast Full Show podcast on iHeartRadio powered by
News Talks that.

Speaker 2 (21:23):
Be Hey, we've been waiting for a little while for
the Commus Commission to tell us what it's going to
do with the credit card fees. You know, when you
go up to the f boss machine, you go to
the dairy you want to buy yourself chocolate milk, you
go to scan, you you go to tap your card
because you're lazy, and then they charge you for that.
Commos Commission's been looking into how much they're charging for that.
They've just released their draft decision just this morning, just
about an hour ago, on how much they're going to

(21:43):
where they're going to cap it and stuff they reckon.
They'll save us two hundred and sixty million dollars a
year and what we're paying on those things. So we
have a chat to the chair of the Commerce Commission.
Will be with us after seven. Right now, it's fourteen
away from seven.

Speaker 1 (21:53):
International correspondence with Ends and Eye Insurance, Peace of mind
for New Zealand Business with.

Speaker 2 (22:00):
Courts one of Richard Arnold' let us hey, Richard, Hey,
so what's the latest on the shooting in Wisconsin.

Speaker 16 (22:05):
Well, you know it was a seven year old, a
seven year old kid who called police emergency from her
classroom to let people know that there was, yeah, another
deadly mass shooting in her school this time. So he
says Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes of the situation with this, I'll.

Speaker 17 (22:20):
Let that so camp for a minute a second grade
student call nine one one.

Speaker 16 (22:27):
Yeah, let it soak in so adding to the gun
crazy casually told. A teacher and a student were killed
in this Wisconsin attack. Five other students are dealing with
gunshot injuries. Two of these are in critical condition at
the minute. Another seven year old girl who witnessed all
of this.

Speaker 18 (22:43):
Says, I just heard sighting in.

Speaker 2 (22:46):
There was a teacher and she.

Speaker 14 (22:49):
Was going to be like, oh my lag hel hell.

Speaker 16 (22:52):
So a memory that will stay with that child forever,
no doubt. Another student twelve years old says of the
shooting and after math and the fifteen year old with
a handgun open fire on a mixed age study group.

Speaker 9 (23:04):
They're crying somewhere, scared, Yeah, hugging each other.

Speaker 16 (23:08):
The young shooter took her own life after the rampage,
says the police chief.

Speaker 17 (23:12):
She was a student at the school and evidence suggests
she died from a self and afflicted gunshot.

Speaker 16 (23:18):
Wine. So it's a girl this time. That is uncommon. Typically,
of course it's young boys. How does a fifteen year
old get a gun like this? Her family is said
to be cooperating, so we'll see this girl also left
behind a note. Wisconscinous Democratic Party Governor Tony Evers course,
is a gut wrenching tragedy. President Biden calls the shooting
quote shocking and unconscionable, and is calling on the US

(23:40):
Congress to act immediately on gun control. Fat chance of
that four hundred and eighty eight no shootings here this
year so.

Speaker 2 (23:46):
Far, Jesus quite something, Richard. Listen, what's going on with
RFK Junior? Is he backing away from this anti vax stance?

Speaker 16 (23:54):
Seems to be under pressure. You know, he is to
pick by Donald Trump to head the Health and Humor
and Services Department. He is on Capitol Hill right now
where his presence is raising questions about the polio vaccine
because you know how much about polioid these days, because
of the vaccine that was introduced in nineteen fifty five,
the Solt vaccine. Before that, it was one of the

(24:14):
most feared diseases in the world and in this country.
He said, in nineteen sixteen, over two thousand people died
of it, and in the worst year fifty two, more
than three thousand died. Many others was left with lifelong effects,
including FDR President Roosevelt, who got polioidt age thirty nine.
Had to get around in a wheelchair for the rest
of his life because he was partially paralyzed.

Speaker 10 (24:35):
So Robert F.

Speaker 16 (24:35):
Kennedy Junior has been questioning the use of the polio vaccine,
and the AP is reporting that r of case lawyer
petitioned recently to suspend approval for the vaccine. So this
was very much the issue on reporter's minds a short
time ago.

Speaker 1 (24:49):
Mister Kennedy, do you believe in the polio vaccine? What
do you say to Americans who were worried you're going
to take away their vaccines?

Speaker 16 (24:54):
Mister Kennedy, Yeah, So in the spotlight right now, he
seems to be rever seeing himself. But just days ago,
this is what he was saying about it.

Speaker 19 (25:03):
Do you say to me that the you know, polio
vaccine was effective against polio? I'm going to say yes.
If if you said to me, did it kill more people?
That did caused more? Doin I've heard, I would say
I don't know, because we don't have the data.

Speaker 16 (25:17):
Not enough data after sixty nine years of use and
polio being largely eradicated. The incoming president he said he
wanted arfk to go wild right on health issues. Now
is putting it this way.

Speaker 5 (25:29):
I'm a big believer in it, and I think everything
should be looked at.

Speaker 2 (25:33):
But I'm a big believer in the polio vaccines.

Speaker 16 (25:35):
Well I didn't say that during the campaign, did he?
Then there is measles. Back in twenty nineteen, RAFC Junior
discourage people in Samoa from using measles vaccine. They followed
more than five thousand cases of measles and eighty three
children died of it. Meantime, Trump's choice to hit the
Pentagon a former Fox News Weekend co presenter, Pete Heggsas
still is seeking congressional backing. This is still all playing

(25:57):
out now. We find that Hexas is being escorted around
the Capitol by a fellow named John hasn't By, who
was deployed to Iraq eight times and won two Bronze Stars.
So quite a long military record there with all kinds
of new courageous interventions. But he also faced a court
martial which ended in a mistrial because a mate of
his had been talking to one of the jurors. They

(26:17):
didn't bother to do a second trial. But account say
that hasn't By a tack a civilian trainer knocking his
fellow into a concrete pillar, giving him quote hammerfist strikes
to his ribs and knee kicks to his face until
he was left hog tied in a pool of his
own blood. So part of the newly proposed Pentagon team.

Speaker 2 (26:34):
Richard, thanks very much, very exciting, Richard Arnold UIs correspond.
I love listening to RFK June. Don't you always look
forward to it? This is like a malfunctioning AI every
time you hear him. Nine away from seven.

Speaker 1 (26:45):
Heather Duplessy Ellen Bond the Mike Hosking Breakfast with Bailey's
real Estate News Talk.

Speaker 2 (26:50):
The quick update on the situation with Wellington City Council.
So it was a big day for them yesterday they
actually managed to pass the long term plan. They managed
to headline they managed to pass the long term plan.
Was their last chance for the year to do it.
Just you know, this is what all the kafuffle about
the Crown Monitor, the Crown observers and stuff. Anyway, side
note though that's not even the real story. Torri Faro

(27:12):
has balls is the real story because after they pass
the long term plan, oh mate, who I think we
all know is massively offside of the government. Oh, mate,
gets up and she's like, I've got a word for
the government. She goes, We're a local council making decisions
for our local people. So with all due respect to
the government, it's not their decision. Just to remind her
of the government to stay in their lane. Wow, Like

(27:36):
for a woman who's just had the grown ups called
in on her, she's got courage, doesn't she. Anyway, The problem,
of course for her is that she is their lane
now because they've got the Crown Observer in there and
you know, so you know that seems a little bit difficult.
But anyway, whatever, you know, you got to give her,
got to give her, you know, a little bit of
credit for the fact she ain't going to go down
without a fight. So anyway, because because we were fascinated

(27:59):
by this fighting talk, Tory, you want to come on
the show, Nay said to Laurie, her deputy Lorri Foon,
you want to come on the show. Nah surprised me
to find out. Sam was telling me Tory hasn't been
on this show since she became mayor, which is I'm
alarmed by that. I am shocked by that. Sounds to
me like she'd only got fighting talk when you're not
in Actually just for the government, not for Mike Hosking anyway.

(28:21):
There's a little bit of a laying down the gauntlet, Tory.
Come and talk to Mike next year. See how you
go with that five away from seven, all the.

Speaker 1 (28:29):
Ins and the ouse. It's the fizz with business timer,
take your business productivity to the next level, all right.

Speaker 2 (28:36):
So the Bank of England might be holding off on
the next interest rate lowering because we've got new stat
growth numbers which show workers are going to be happy
heading into Christmas, aren't they. This is Official Office for
National Statistics data showed UK pay growth jump five percent
five point two for the month of October. Now it's
significant because it had been slowing down all over over
the year. It was the manufacturing sector and the private

(28:56):
pay that led the way. Wages rose four point four percent,
four point nine percent and five point two percent in
three consecutive quarters. Factory workers pay rose six percent. The
annual average regular earnings growth was five point four percent
for the private sector and a lower four point three
percent for the public sector. That's a gap that's got wider.
So that's growth and reserve banks don't like growth. When

(29:17):
they're trying to bring interest rates down. So now it's
likely to hold any further cups until next year because
they're going to want to drop from four point seventy
five to about four point one by the end of
twenty twenty five. Keep and I on. That's that's the
difficulty we don't have. We've got it coming down. We
ain't got no growth, which we're going to speak about
next actually with Jeff Knightingale, former tax partner at PwC,

(29:38):
give us take on the government's box opening yesterday. It was,
as we well know, we've discussed it. It's pretty ugly.
And then after that the immigration ministers have another look
at the old visas and trying to get the migrants
and make it a little bit easier to get them
in for longer at lower pay and more of them.
Talk to Business New Zealand about that. Newstalk z B.

Speaker 10 (30:00):
Merry Christmas Boy.

Speaker 1 (30:04):
Setting the news of Jedder and digging into the issues.
Heather Duplessy Ellen on the My asking Breakfast with Bailey's
real Estate, your local experts across residential, commercial and rural
news togs, that'd.

Speaker 2 (30:16):
Be good morning to you. Well, we were expecting the
government's books to be bad, but probably not as bad
as they ended up being. Surplus won't happen by twenty
twenty eight that's now been pushed out so far doesn't
even show up in the Treasury forecast, meaning it's going
to be some time in the twenty thirties and we're
going to have to take on twenty billion dollars worth
of debt in the next four years just to make
the ends meet. Joining me now is former PwC partner

(30:37):
and independent tax expert Jeff Nightingale. Good morning, Jeff, good morning.
Here are you expecting this?

Speaker 20 (30:43):
Well, it's actually but grimmer than even we were expecting.
The economy has deteriorated faster in the last six months,
and I think many of us expected.

Speaker 2 (30:52):
So based on that. Given that that it's worse than
we expect, and we look at the figure showing that
we're going to grow somehow at three point three percent
and twenty twenty sixty that.

Speaker 9 (31:01):
Yes, I do.

Speaker 20 (31:02):
I think growth is coming. Interest rates coming down is
very important. That there are green shoots of economic activity
that you can see around US. Unemployments not as bad
as it was, wages are rising faster and all of
those things will contribute to the growth, So I don't
think the growth forecasts are optimistic, too optimistic. But the

(31:25):
worrying trend is that the government expenditure is persistently higher
than the government revenue. So we're running efforts, as you said,
right through to twenty twenty nine.

Speaker 2 (31:34):
Yeah, I was just about to ask you about that.
Why do you think they can't get on top of
the expenditure.

Speaker 20 (31:39):
Yeah, Look, it's really hard. They've taken a lot of
political hits and used up a lot of political capital
to drive cuts in government expenditure. But what the forecast
shows that they're really not getting traction. And you know,
as you said in your opening, we're going to borrow
another fifty billion dollars over the next four years, and

(32:02):
you know most of that will be on operation expenditure
rather than capital expenditure. So you know, bad debt not
good debt. There's three big drivers that are really hard
to get on top of. What one has benefits in
the biggest component of that as national super The second
one is the finance costs of the debt we've already
wrapped up so that we're paying interest of about eight

(32:23):
or nine billion a year now. And then the third
thing is new spending just because of population increases and
residual inflation that you know, just to stand still, we
have to spend more. And so it's a pretty tough
ask and I think what the four car shows is
they're not yet getting on top of it.

Speaker 2 (32:38):
You're quite right, Jif, thank you very much, really appreciate
your expertise. Jef Nightingale form PwC partner in independent Taxics.
But Nicola will is the Finance minister on that after
half past it's ten past seventh togeather do for Sea
Allen Immigration Minister is making it easier for businesses to
hire migrants. She's changing work visa requirements again, meaning businesses
can pay them less, higher more and have them stay longer.
Business ends. It's Eocatherine Riches with us. Morning, Catherine, good morning.

(33:03):
You like the look of this.

Speaker 21 (33:05):
Oh look this is great to step in the right direction.
There are lots of areas where businesses can't get the
skills and the experience they need, and the changes of
Erica Stanford have made will be really welcomed.

Speaker 2 (33:17):
Was that threshold that they were being forced to pay,
which is at least the media in wage too high.

Speaker 21 (33:22):
Yes it was. It ended up being an artificial proxy
for skill and experience. But what happened in effect was
that in some cases when businesses were hiring in people
from offshore, they ended up having to pay more than
their key we counterparts, and you can imagine that caused
a bit of friction.

Speaker 2 (33:39):
Is it weird timing to be doing this at a
time when we're probably in recession again and we're laying
people off or is that too simplistic. You don't just
lay people off and they find a job in a
sector that needs them. No.

Speaker 21 (33:51):
I think that is a bit simplistic. There are just
some areas in the economy where we either don't train
enough people or we don't train at all. And there
are some examples, for example in manufacturing where if you've
got to have someone who runs a particular piece of
pharmaceutical manufacturing kit or makes aluminium cans, you just simply

(34:13):
can't get enough people locally. There are lots of areas
where in New Zealand, because it's small, we simply don't train.

Speaker 2 (34:21):
Catherine's really good to you to talk to you. I
really appreciated as Katherine Rich Business New Zealand CEO Heather
do for see ala the quoting the Labour Party about
fixing the economy as akin to pretending the arsonist didn't
light the fire, knowing that he did and will again
this is I mentioned this much earlier, but the Labour
Party press release on this is actually quite a treat
so it says. Labor calls fiscal update and nightmare before

(34:42):
Christmas for Nikola Willis. Labour says Finance Minister Nichola Willis's
reputation is in tatters after her failure to return the
government's books to surplus. Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds says the
half year Economic and Fiscal Update is the rotten cherry
on top of Willis's first year as the finance minister.
The damage she has done to the economy means the
recession will be longer and the recovery harder. A haa lols.

(35:06):
Hey as if you didn't even as if you're not
even responsible for it. Let's just remind everybody the reason
that we are in probably the third recession is because
we've been put here by Adrian Or to try to
get inflation down, and inflation was up because Grant was
spending the dollars, So don't pretend you got nothing to
do with that.

Speaker 16 (35:24):
Twelve past seven, The Mike Asking Breakfast Fall Show podcast
on iHeartRadio, Howard By News talks.

Speaker 2 (35:31):
At b whether it sounds like we need to take
a look at the Argentinian president's success. Actually, thank you
for raising that. I'm going to run you because there's more.
I'm going to run you through that shortly, and then
we're going to talk to Nichola Willis after half past
It's quarter past seven at the minute. Now, good news
for you. Credit card fees are coming down. The Commas
Commission has this morning finally released a plan for how
they're going to deal with these excessive fees when you're going,
you know, you tap your card to buy your chocolate

(35:53):
milk at the dairy. The end result is that we
should all be about two hundred and sixteen, two hundred
and sixty million dollars better off and joining us now
as the Commerce Commission's chaired doctor John.

Speaker 12 (36:03):
Small John, Hello, Hey, good morning, Heather.

Speaker 2 (36:06):
I love the sound of this. How do master Card
and Visa feel about it?

Speaker 12 (36:10):
Oh, look, there's a lot of people who are not
very happy about it, and yeah, they are on the
list for sure. I look at it. I described as
a balanced decision, which means that it is going to
annoy quite a few people. But what we're doing here
is taking to cost out of the system. We've consulted
pretty widely on it, and we think that we've got

(36:31):
ourselves to a point where we can simplify these rates,
bring them down, and then once that costs out of
the system there next year we're going to look at
how to deal with the surcharging on top of that
lower cost.

Speaker 2 (36:43):
Boat how much is it dropping as a proportion of
what we're paying.

Speaker 12 (36:46):
At the moment, the around about a quarter of the
total cost of accepting payments is coming out, So we
think about two hundred and sixty million a year out
of the out of a cost that's.

Speaker 2 (37:02):
Ending up with much creaming it, aren't they.

Speaker 12 (37:07):
Look, there's what's important here is that there's quite a
few people. To understand, it's quite a few people in
this chain that need a little bit of money, but
they only need a little bit each. So you know,
you've got the banks who are serving the merchants, You've
got the town providers, you've got the payment service providers.
So we're going for as a system where everybody gets

(37:27):
a little bit enough to keep them going, but the
end result was not excessive.

Speaker 2 (37:32):
Now, something that you were kind of just touching on before,
how do you actually how are you going to make
sure that when I go to the dairy and I
do tap my card, that I am actually not paying
more than I'm supposed to.

Speaker 12 (37:43):
Yeah, so we do have power to regulate surcharges, and
that's what that's the next step after we get through
this consultation. Remember this is a draft decision. We're going
to be flooded with stuff in the new years and
feedback from people who so much were and understand things,
and you know, so once we get through that and

(38:03):
we get a final decision on this, then we turned
to surcharging off. Whatever the cost base happens to be.
We've got we can put in rules about it. But
it's also going to be really important to see an expectation,
I think, for the public about what they can what
they can expect to be surcharged, and what seems excessive.
So we'll be relying heavily on public understanding of what's

(38:28):
reason and what's not.

Speaker 2 (38:29):
Brilliant, John, thank you so much. Appreciated doctor John Small
Commerce commission share all right. So on Argentina. The case
of Argentina is an interesting one because the Argentinian election
was not that far apart from ours. So our government
has been in power for about a year, and Javier
Malay has also been Wolverine has also been in charge
of Argentina for around about a year. So the news

(38:50):
that yesterday I mentioned it yesterday because what happened yesterday
was they got inflation down to two point four percent,
WHI would be roughly where we are right now, right,
but they were coming from I think was it had
peaked at about twenty five percent. They mentioned it, they
measure it monthly. Twenty five percent down to two point
five percent is an incredible effort by them. How and
then overnight we also got the news that they've just

(39:12):
come out of recession. So they've been in recession for
about a year and they just the last quarter July
to September got a bounds of three point nine percent growth. Now,
what's going on here? How he's managed to make this
work is he's just gone and done exactly the thing
that I think that our government needs to do, and
he's cut public spending hard, cut thirty thousand public servants,
cut thirty percent of government spending. The risk of default

(39:35):
by JP Morgan, as measured by JP Morgan, has fallen
from around two thousand when he took office late last
year to about seven hundred and fifty now. It's lowest
level in five years. He has cut eighteen ministries down
to eight. He's halted the vast majority of public works,
ended most transfers to provincial governments. He's gone and cut
red tape, which was in everything from air travel to

(39:55):
apartment rentals, to divorce to satellite internet and all of
these things. Right, so he has done all of the cutting.
It's been brave done the cutting. Our government is not
so keen to do exactly that, and it's actually ended
up being reasonably popular, reasonably popular as a result. It's
not to say that this is not going to hurt people.
It will hurt people. There are always people who are
hurt when you stop spending government money. But you have

(40:17):
to wonder whether the pain is worth the gain that
you get. Nikola willis with us after half past seven
on why she doesn't go down a similar path.

Speaker 1 (40:24):
Seven The Mike Asking Breakfast Full Show podcast on iHeartRadio
powered by News Talks.

Speaker 10 (40:32):
That'd be.

Speaker 2 (40:34):
Seven two listen. If you had to pick a theme
for this particular week that we're in right now, it
would be the theme of just a week of bad economic news,
isn't it. I mean we've got the government books opening
yesterday which were horrific, got the current account deficit which
will be laid bare today. And then we've got the
recession that we're probably in, which should be confirmed tomorrow.
So it's it's a it's a it's a tough week, right,
it's gonna it's a week that's going to tell us

(40:56):
things are not going very well. So it's a weird week,
don't you think for the unions to be as agitated
as they are over the minimum wage increase which came
out yesterday, found out yesterday's going to be thirty five
cents an hour. Unions are desperate to paint this as miserly.
It's actually not that miserly. If you've been tracking the
minimum wage increases in the last I don't know, however long,

(41:16):
go back a decade. The increase came in at twenty
five cents quite a few times under the last National government.
It only looks miserly when you compare it to the
excessive increases that we've seen under the Arderne government, which
were often around about a dollar twenty or thereabouts. It
was like really high stuff that they were passing through.
This one comes in at a percent of straate of
one point five percent, which isn't actually that far behind

(41:38):
inflation at the minute, which is two point two percent. Actually,
when you look at it over the last few years,
minimum wage workers have done pretty well, and I would
say probably better than most of us. If you look
from twenty eighteen when the last labor lot started adjusting
the minimum wage, the minimum wage worker has increased their
pay by forty two percent hands who else's pay went

(42:01):
up by forty two percent. That way outstrips even the
inflation rate over the same period, which I worked out
as being around about twenty six percent, So they're definitely
doing okay on this. Now, I know a worker who's
not on the minimum wage who is about to sign
a contract that's got no pay increase in it. They're
taking the same pay as they took about three years ago,
and they're grateful for it because at least they have

(42:23):
got a job given the state of the economy, the
Defense Force. Look at what's going on there. They've just
been offered a zero percent pay offer. Now, despite the
way that the unions see the world, this is not
a decision that only affects one party, right. It's not
just about the worker. It's also about the employer who
has to pay that bill. And it's very hard to
be an employer right now now. I know unions have
got a job to do, which increasingly does appear to

(42:44):
just simply be publicly losing their minds over anything that
this government does. But they need to read the room
on this one. The economy is kind of stuffed. Any
pay rise right now is a good thing because it
shows you still.

Speaker 3 (42:55):
Have a job, Heaver Duplessy Llen, You.

Speaker 2 (43:01):
Want to see what a district court judge and the
boyfriend have been up to. Are you ready for this?
Brace yourself, okay, because you don't get this kind of
behavior down at the living Cosmopolitan club, do you, judge.
Emma Aiken and her boyfriend, the intensive care specialist David Galla,
were at an end of year bash for district judges
at Auckland's exclusive Northern Club last month when they realized

(43:23):
that Winnie P and New Zealand First were next door
for a private function, so they gate crashed it. What
happened was Judge Emma was going to do the wheeze,
She's go off to the toilet when she heard, oh,
that's Winston talking next door. So she thought, I know,
I'll get myself invited to the party. And when she
couldn't get in the room, she shouted, hey, hey's lying.
How can you let him say that? So she got

(43:46):
stopped by the party secretary. Just remind her this is
a district court. Judge got stopped by the party secretary,
and eventually, after the party secretary wouldn't let her in,
she decided to leave. But then the boyfriend arrived. He's
the doctor, and he hung around there for about twenty minute,
at which point Winnie P had done his speech and
he decided he was going to leave. So the doctor
blocks when he's exit and says, you're doing a shit

(44:08):
job in government. So at this point the Chief of Staff,
Derrek Bull, who used to be an MP, turns up
to try to help Winnie to actually get through the
room and pass. The doctor gets him out. He comes back,
he finds the doctor allegedly verbally attacking Casey Costello because
the doctor's upset about the smoking stuff. Then I know
you're like, can this actually get into it? Yes, it

(44:28):
can get worse. Then prominent barrister Michael Reid Casey allegedly
turns up starts taking photos of New Zealand First guests,
including Shane Jones's wife Dot, despite the Northern Club saying
you can't do this, he won't stop. The staff try
to intervene, someone starts filming him. The videos out there now.
He says to one of the staff members, don't touch
me because you will be sued for a lot of money.
He did not respond to any requests for comment. Then

(44:52):
the staff apparently identified the doctor go and they're like, oh,
that's him right there. He was one of the troublemakers.
And apparently the doctor allegedly then says to the staffer,
who's Indian, this used to be a respectable place. Since
when did we start allowing Indians to enter this club.
Hay denies all of this, by the way, says it
never happened, but admits he did make some response remarks

(45:12):
to Winston Peters and Casey Costello because, as I say,
he cares about smoking, so dispute it. But out there
and I think clearly some people were having a good
time on the ras. Don't you think news is next?

Speaker 16 (45:28):
The next.

Speaker 10 (45:33):
The breakfast show? You can throw us?

Speaker 1 (45:35):
Heather dup c Allen on the mic, hosting Breakfast with Alvida,
Retirement Communities, Life Your Way, News, Togs, Dead vs.

Speaker 10 (45:44):
Right.

Speaker 2 (45:44):
Mart and Jinny are with us for Politics Wednesday after eight.
Right now, as we said earlier, the state of the
government's box is worse than expected. We're not going to
be getting to surplus anytime this decade. So the government's
changed the way that we actually measure the surplus. Leaving
our acc makes it look a little bit better, gets
us to surplus by two nine. Productivity is down, growth
is down, tax takers down. Only two things that are
going up is debt and interest repayments. Finance Minister Nikola

(46:07):
Allis is with us now, Hey, Nicola.

Speaker 22 (46:09):
Hey, the other thing that's going up is growth next year.

Speaker 2 (46:11):
So that's a positive zero point five percent, yeah.

Speaker 22 (46:15):
And then it recovers beyond that. But after several years
bouncing along the bottom and recessionary conditions, that period of
sustained growth will feel a lot better. We do need
to drive it higher. That's a big focus for the government.

Speaker 2 (46:25):
Look, I take your point, but we are still going
backwards poo capita next year, aren't we. I mean so
I'm literally going to be getting poorer.

Speaker 22 (46:31):
Oh look, there's no sugarcoating it. Yesterday what the Treasury
presented was a tough set of books that represent significant
economic challenges for New Zealand. Now the government is going
to do the right things. One we're going to stick
to a medium term path of fiscal consolidation, being very
disciplined about the spending due and two get very serious

(46:52):
about addressing this productivity disease that New Zealand has been
suffering now for a couple of decades. So driving those
growth leaders is going to be essential for New Zealand
to pay down its debt and provide better opportunities for
its people.

Speaker 2 (47:05):
Why don't you cut harder so that we get to
surplus faster, so we pay down our debt faster.

Speaker 22 (47:10):
Because there are commitments that we have made to the
New Zealand people. One that we are going to keep
improving frontline services and that will require more resources p
US schools, for our health system, for our police and
two because what we've said will do is do that
in a sensible way. So we will have to deliver
savings in order to provide those extra resources elsewhere. Just

(47:32):
to make sure that we're meeting frontline service demands will
require significant reprioritization across government. We're doing that work now. Actually,
in our last budget we delivered twenty three billion dollars
worth of savings, so I have conviction that we will
be able to deliver significance by spending.

Speaker 2 (47:49):
I mean, if you look at the public consumption figures
you've owned that you were expecting to cut by one
point four percent, you've only cut by zero point two percent.
That's not even a cut.

Speaker 22 (47:58):
Well, the major factor there is that when, as when
any economy is smaller than it was forecast to be,
which is the case, then actually spending is proportion of
the economy looks larger. And so that brings me back
to the point I'm making. Yes, more discipline about the
spending that's important, but also driving growth is going to
be really relevant in these next few years.

Speaker 2 (48:20):
Regardless of the size of the economy, in real terms,
your spending is far higher than Grant Robinsons you can't
be proud of that.

Speaker 22 (48:26):
We are having far less discretionary spending than he did
so his operating allowances. That's the amount of discretionary additional
money you put in at each budget average more than
four billion dollars. We're sticking to a path where they
are only two point four billion dollars. They haven't been
that low since Steven Choice delivered a budget. So we

(48:46):
are sticking to a very disciplined path. And yes, it
is true that we could have much more significant reductions
in spending. The judgment that we have made is that
that could sacrifice the economic recovery and lead to diminishing
frontline services, and that's not the path we take.

Speaker 2 (49:03):
Quically, you don't have to cut frontline services. When there
are a whole bunch of ministries and quangos in government
that are completely useless. You could cut them. You could
save a whole bunch of money.

Speaker 22 (49:12):
I can tell you Heather, we are after the wasteful spending.
We're going to have to be because that is the
only way that next year's budget will be able to
be delivered with such a low roof for spending. We
are going to have to cut more of the waste,
there's no question about it.

Speaker 2 (49:26):
I think probably what's going to happen is you're going
to be bombarded with comparisons with Argentina. Have you taken
a look at how hard they've cut and thought about
whether you should be doing the same thing.

Speaker 22 (49:34):
Well, I would start by saying that they did start
from a much much worse place than us. Their inflation
rates still on a monthly basis is higher than our
annual inflation rate, So I think people need to bear
that in mind when they're making the comparisons.

Speaker 2 (49:48):
Before versus our two point two it's not that much higher.

Speaker 22 (49:51):
Well, New Zealand, by comparison, looked at by international fiscal institutions,
is regarded as having a much better set of books,
are much better economic and fiscal path.

Speaker 2 (50:01):
Yes, turnaround is better than yours, isn't it.

Speaker 17 (50:05):
Well.

Speaker 22 (50:06):
I think that we need to be judged by the
results we deliver for New Zealanders, and what we are
looking to is a path with growth restored, with inflation
under control, which we've delivered in our first year, interest
rates dropping and ensuring as are said, that we can
continue to deliver good frontline services. So it's going to
be challenging either, and we are making more significant trade

(50:27):
offs and reprioritizations the New Zealand has experienced for several years.
Just about every day round Parliament there's a Labor Party
or Green Party politician screaming that we shouldn't be reprioritizing
things in the way that we are pretending there's a
magic money tree. But we're going to stick stick to
the course. It's the prudent, responsible thing to do.

Speaker 2 (50:45):
Do you think that you can actually make surplus in
twenty twenty nine the new obergallex X measure that you use,
and can you actually meet that or we're going to
Are we going to get there next year? And we
just get posted out again?

Speaker 22 (50:54):
In fact, our short term intention is to hit an
ober galex surplus in the twenty seven twenty eight year
that we're currently forecasting a small deficit that year, but
we intend to turn that into the surplus year.

Speaker 2 (51:09):
Do you reckon you're going to hit your operating allowance
next year?

Speaker 10 (51:12):
Yes?

Speaker 22 (51:12):
I do?

Speaker 2 (51:13):
And what's the plan to get us growing? Because obviously
cutting enough to get to surplus is one thing, but
actually getting the economy going again it's quite another challenge.
So what's the plan there.

Speaker 22 (51:23):
Yeah, well, there's five key things that we're focused on,
and I want to start by saying not all of
these things will lead to accelerated growth tomorrow, but you
do have to get your underlying foundations right. So one,
that's about education and schools. We've got to have better
equipped school leaders too. It's about overseas investment and trade,
allowing people to invest in New Zealand industries and jobs

(51:44):
and getting rid of that red tape.

Speaker 2 (51:46):
Three, it's about.

Speaker 22 (51:47):
Actually getting rid of red tape across the economy that
told things back, including through better competitive frameworks in our
major industries. For it's about a smarter science system with
better regulation there and also more commercialization of the big
investments the government. And then finally about delivering infrastructure smarter,
partnering with the private sector using modern funding and financing tools.
All of those things is literally dozens, if not hundreds

(52:10):
of initiatives occurring across the ministries. Collectively, it will make
a difference. We are focused on how we earn it,
not just how we spend it.

Speaker 2 (52:18):
Do you think the foreign capital is the key here?

Speaker 22 (52:20):
I think that's going to be an important part of
New Zealand's future economics.

Speaker 2 (52:24):
How do you get it in?

Speaker 22 (52:26):
Well, one you process the applications to the Overseas Investment
Office a lot faster, which we've been doing. And two
you reform the Overseas Investment Act to welcome more investment.

Speaker 2 (52:37):
Nicol like doing in Ireland and dropping the corporate tax rate.

Speaker 22 (52:41):
Well, the thing I worry about with doing that is
if I drop the corporate tax rate tomorrow, I'd also
be rewarding the big banks and the big tailcos and
very profitable companies with a windfull game. So it's how
you target the extra investment you want, because we're not
in a position where we can be giving away revenue
for free.

Speaker 2 (52:57):
Okay, Nicholas, and thank you very much. I really appreciate
your time. And Merry Christmas because I think it's probably
hopefully the last time we talk this year.

Speaker 22 (53:05):
Merry Christmas.

Speaker 2 (53:06):
Only hopefully because every time it's about bad economic news,
look after yourself and have a good time with your family.
That's Nicola Lillis, the finance minister that's coming up.

Speaker 1 (53:14):
Call to the Mike Asking Breakfast Full Show podcast on
iHeartRadio powered by News Talks.

Speaker 2 (53:20):
That'd be hither let's get Grant on and ask for
his opinion on what to do now. It'd be a
great Listen, Heather, it doesn't matter how you dress it up. There,
failing Luxan is too scared to do the hard things.
He's too busy trying to be liked. It won't happen.
It's just not going to sort out the economy, Nicola, productivity,
you cut your cloth there. Maybe US Middle New Zealand
might try harder with productivity. It tests just keep coming
in like this, Heather, after the economic news yesterday, we

(53:41):
really need reform of our whole economy. Look at Argentina.
That's the answer. Remember nineteen eighty four reforms. Unfortunately, that
is what's needed. I feel much the same. I feel
like there was a time where we were very happy
for the incrementalism of John Key and just kind of
keeping things going nicely and tacking along and so on.
And I feel like the vibe has changed, don't you,

(54:01):
Because I think we realize what kind of struck we're in,
and I think that there is an increasing appetite here
for reform. And we're not all going to agree on
what reform we want. We're going to have fastly different
ideas of what the reform you know, should look like.
But I think we're all kind of gearing up. We're
starting to gear up, aren't we, for some significant changes?
And this is the problem with this particular government right now.
You can't tell me it's reform When the biggest amount

(54:23):
of money that Grant spent in his expenditure was one
hundred and sixty two billion dollars, and then Nicholas spending
one hundred and eighty billion, and then one hundred and
eighty seven billion, and then one hundred and ninety one billion.
It just keeps going up. And by the way, it's
past the rate of inflation, right Affalantia doesn't account for
that. That's way way more. Anyway, I feel, if I could
sum it up, it feels a little bit like better

(54:44):
than labor. Not quite what I hoped for, if you
know what I mean. Hey, listen, little bit of intel.
By the way, the judge's boyfriend, I'm not telling you
about the judge. Just before the judge, the judge and
the boyfriend, the doctor boyfriend, the intensive care specialist David Galla,
judge's boyfriend, has been holding for fundraisers for Labour's Camilla
Balich in EPSOM So there's a Facebook photo of it.

(55:05):
You go up have a look. I think it's on
her Facebook page. She put up a photo in twenty
twenty with Icehevril and somebody else there three ladies and
then said thank you to David Galla for hosting us.
So maybe when David and his judge girlfriend were yelling
at Winston Peters and Kasey Costello and everybody else allegedly
it was because he cared, yeah about the smoking quite

(55:27):
a lot, but also about the Labor Party. Don't you
think that a politics involved in that anyway? Hashtag be
kind ten away from.

Speaker 1 (55:35):
Eight Heather duple c Allen on on the My Costing
Breakfast with Alveda Retirement Communities News togs dead b.

Speaker 2 (55:42):
H here the many years ago what Ireland actually did
was it offered ten percent tax for ten years to
new businesses to start up an island. And that's when
the tech companies like Google arrived. And I suppose that
gets around the problem of giving the old banks who
are already here a bit of a tax break as well. Listen,
some of the big news out of the Ukrainian conflict
overnight is that Ukraine has managed to take out Lieutenant

(56:02):
General Igor Kirilov over in Russia who was running the
nuclear system over there and was used to us accused
of all kinds of crimes against against people and whatnot.
So there is foot it. There's actually footage of his
assassination online and like obviously the media is being reasonably
responsible about it and blurring out all the significant but
so you don't have to watch anything particularly horrific. But

(56:23):
basically what you see is how the thing unfolds. So
it looks like it's outside some sort of a uh,
I guess an apartment block or something like that in Russia.
And he comes out that there's a scooter that gets
placed like and when I'm talking about a scoter, I'm
not talking about like a moped. I'm talking about you know,
like a Lime scooter, one of those electric scooters. There's
a scooter that's just casually placed to lean against the

(56:45):
apartment building at four am. A couple of hours pass
oh mate comes walking out at six a m boom,
off it goes, and all of a sudden that massive noise,
big flat it was it was, it was, it was
just really bad timing. And like wrong play. It was
a case of wrong place, wrong time, do you know
what I mean? They do occasionally, They do occasionally do that.

(57:05):
It's happened. It's happened here as well. So you get
the flash, you get the blast, you get the smoke,
you get the glass breaking and the snow sliding off
the cars, and you get the alarms going off and
all of that stuff, and he's gone. And then afterwards
you can see their little scooter lying there and the
handlebars have been blown off because apparently what they've done
is they've strapped about three hundred grams of explosive into

(57:27):
the handlebars, enough to kind of small enough to be
hidden underneath the handlebars, but enough to kill him. And
it's worked in that assassination. And very few people are
in the diplomatic community and the international community apparently sad
about the situation as it's played out. Five away from eight.
Now onto politics again. You probably haven't seen this. This

(57:47):
was drawn to my attention last night, so I'm going
to draw it to yours. There is a picture doing
the rounds on social media of what the Unite Union
got up to at the Christmas party in Auckland, and
I think was on Great South Road. I think the
Christmas party was this last weekend. The picture is of
Sam from Unite Union grinning madly. He's very very pleased

(58:08):
with himself because he is standing behind a pinata of
Christopher Luxen mounted on what looks like a gillatine. Sam
obviously thinks it's going to be a really great time
at the Christmas party getting the Union staffers to smash
the face of an effigy of our prime minister. The head,
it's just the head. It's head on like a little box, right,

(58:28):
the head of the Prime Minister mounted on a guillotine.
Now whatever I mean. I'm not going to judge Unit
Union for this, you know, because we've got a bunch
of examples of very bad behavior on the show today.
This is just one of them. You do, you boo whatever.
But I just want to point out the double standards
here just for a minute, okay, Because when we had
a crack at to Cinda, not we like collectively, I

(58:49):
had nothing to do with it. But when people had
a crack at to Cinder, I remember when that guy
was going around turning the books around it it was
turn at urdournal whatever it was. Well, people flipped out
about that, didn't they That represented, apparently, according to the media,
a simmering hatred of women. And you remember when somebody
had the sign and it said pretty little communist, well
misogyny writ large. Or what about when someone had the

(59:12):
old noose hanging outside the parliamentary protest? Remember that? Wow,
that was a little violent retrek and stuff and imagery
and stuff. But apparently when a union has an effigy
of the Prime minister on a guillotine and it's going
to have people presumably smash the face of the Prime minister,
that's just radio silence on that. Just saying, just wanting

(59:34):
to point out, if you're going to flip out for Jacinda,
you probably want to flip out for him as well,
don't you.

Speaker 14 (59:39):
Anyway more flipping out least.

Speaker 2 (59:42):
I just want I want equal opportunity flipping out, That's
all I want. I just want us to flip out
like proportionate. Maybe it is propriety.

Speaker 14 (59:50):
I guess not flipping out at all might be an
option or not.

Speaker 2 (59:54):
Or that we could go with that anyway. The Politics
Wednesday's Guy Wednesday Guy's Mark Mitchell and Ginny Anderson with
us next, and we've got lots to talk about news
talks eb.

Speaker 3 (01:00:06):
What Big News fold opinions.

Speaker 1 (01:00:08):
Heather Duple see Allen on the Mic Hosking Breakfast with
the Range Rover vi LA designed to intrigue and use
talks dead bable.

Speaker 2 (01:00:22):
In the sea. Righty, Hi? So this is Vince Gill
and Amy Grant who are a couple being being together
for twenty four years, and they put out a Christmas album.
When I think of Christmas? Now what you need to
know about this couple? She loves Christmas.

Speaker 3 (01:00:47):
Let's all child.

Speaker 2 (01:00:49):
And he hates it. He hates it, but he loves her.
And because she loves her, he's done the album. Isn't
that nice? I love that? They're sweet? Ah, when you
do the thing for your partner because you're like, I
love you, I really hate this thing. I love you.
I'll do it for you.

Speaker 14 (01:01:05):
I don't know what you're talking about. I've never done anything.
You have to do anything.

Speaker 2 (01:01:08):
I do that every day with the dishes. Get home
at nine, it's just dishes everywhere, and I go, I
hate doing the dishes, but I love you, so.

Speaker 18 (01:01:16):
I'll do your dishes for you.

Speaker 2 (01:01:18):
There we go. This is kind of a little bit
the same, except they've got an album as a result
of I just got a clean house and with me
right now. For politics Wednesday, we've got Mark Mitchell and
Jinny Anderson. Hello are you too? We're going to be
poor for ages, aren't we, mich.

Speaker 23 (01:01:34):
Well, I mean, look, when you have a government, a
laboring queen's government that we're not. We're dealing with the
hangover and the countries the hangover. But the good news
is we know how to deal with that.

Speaker 10 (01:01:47):
So I do you?

Speaker 24 (01:01:49):
I'm not sure you do them?

Speaker 10 (01:01:51):
Well? You guys put us in this situation, you guys
a mistake. You guys put us in the situation.

Speaker 2 (01:01:58):
If the shoe fits Jenny.

Speaker 24 (01:01:59):
And it does well, I think that what what what
New Zealanders are seeing after this year is that austerity,
which is cutting back, is driving us deeper into sterity.

Speaker 2 (01:02:10):
You're talking about they are spending more And don't even start, Mitch,
because I'm gonna come after you too. But spending more
than grant is what austerity are you're talking about?

Speaker 10 (01:02:20):
What is she?

Speaker 24 (01:02:20):
But she spent it on things like tax cuts for landlords.
So that's still.

Speaker 10 (01:02:27):
Well.

Speaker 24 (01:02:28):
You see, if you look in Wellington, we've seen eleven
percent of the jobs gone in Wellington. That hits our
local bars, our restaurants, our local businesses, and that slows
down the economy. And when you had all of these
really big infrastructure projects that got canned, the workers took
off to Australia and it's hard to restart. So those
things have slowed the wheels of the economy down.

Speaker 2 (01:02:49):
Do you honestly have a lower text? You don't think
that Adrian or having a crack at us with the
ocr has had more of an impact.

Speaker 24 (01:02:57):
Well, it has an impact in terms of makeing a
little bit a lease in those mortgage repayments, but there's
a whole bunch of keys who are renting who haven't
seen that, and that means lease money, and well they.

Speaker 2 (01:03:08):
Lost their jobs and stuff.

Speaker 15 (01:03:09):
Jenny.

Speaker 2 (01:03:09):
I mean, he literally said he was going to do
it to engineer a recession, and he has three. He's
been very successful at that mark. Now why I'm coming
at you is because yeah, sure labor did this, but
you guys aren't really fixing it, are you, Because you're
still spending like like drunken sailors.

Speaker 10 (01:03:24):
Well we're not spending like drunken sailors, but we did it.

Speaker 23 (01:03:26):
Here An awful economy with massive bond fires that we
have to host down. Look, listen, listen to Ginny. Just
then we dodged a bullet with a changing government, they
would have us bankrupt us, So us.

Speaker 10 (01:03:36):
Lock venus sailer. We can't afford the theories that blew
out to four billion dollars, they're going to be five billion.
We can't. We can't afford as a country.

Speaker 23 (01:03:44):
The other night, we can't afford a country that you
increase the bureaucracy by fourteen thousand. We cannot afford that.
It was It was insane. So we've had to make
some changes. Nikola is doing that. She is doing an
outstanding job of that. She's taking a very measure approach.
We are having, we are we are having. We are
having to write size and make the cuts that's appropriate
for us as a country, and that is sustainable and

(01:04:06):
it puts us in a solid position to grow.

Speaker 10 (01:04:08):
And that's exactly what she's doing.

Speaker 24 (01:04:10):
It doesn't put us in a solid position to grow
all I say, it puts us out another couple of years.
Even with the wicked way she's cutting the books and
cutting out stuff. The over gals a different way of
counting Yeah, we're still not going to be in the
in the in the pink until in the good space
until twenty twenty nine. It's pushed us out a whole
nother year, even with your dodgy counting see any zero growth?

Speaker 23 (01:04:33):
What you know what we're driving towards making sure that
we're sustainable.

Speaker 24 (01:04:38):
The driver towards it, let's read, Yeah.

Speaker 10 (01:04:40):
But you drove us into a ditch a one hundred balls.
Now we could afford it. We got the and you're
driving towards children.

Speaker 2 (01:04:47):
I'll tell you that. I'm sitting here going I don't
like either of you. Want to put both of you
in time out on this particular subject. How's it going
with the gang Tonguy? Actually are they behaving themselves?

Speaker 10 (01:04:56):
Yeah?

Speaker 23 (01:04:56):
The gang tongue has have been outstanding. I just want
to give a shout out to our our police officers.
They have done an outstanding job for us this year.
The whole organization, whether you're sworn or non sworn, I
want to thank them. They have definitely, without a doubt,
responded to the new government's priorities. You've seen outstanding policing
of gang tongues. You're not seeing gangs taking over provincial
towns anymore. You're seeing police more presence on the streets

(01:05:19):
with three Assurance, the outstanding they're doing, engaging with our
retail sector in our communities.

Speaker 10 (01:05:23):
I'm really proud of the work that's done.

Speaker 2 (01:05:25):
They did they come through your electric, Ginny at all,
because I think there was some talk they might have had.

Speaker 24 (01:05:29):
Yes, that the tongue was held in and then that
the tongue he was over on the other.

Speaker 2 (01:05:34):
Coast and the behave themselves.

Speaker 24 (01:05:36):
Yeah, I've had no. I've got an Electric office and
and also Tony so both around that area. And we've
had no reports of nice, you're.

Speaker 23 (01:05:46):
Much, You're much save for Jinny, which is great news,
isn't it.

Speaker 24 (01:05:49):
Well maybe maybe people Chris.

Speaker 23 (01:05:54):
And Chris Bishop is now providing great, great leadership of.

Speaker 24 (01:05:57):
The Electric was here, The tonguey was there.

Speaker 10 (01:06:02):
He's everywhere. He's visible, people see him.

Speaker 2 (01:06:05):
Police being so weird about going on that.

Speaker 10 (01:06:07):
Trip to China, Well, I'm not sure if they're being
weird about it.

Speaker 2 (01:06:11):
They were, they're being weird about it. They're like, nah,
it wasn't work, it wasn't organized through work. Now they
took it and you'll leave. They paid for it themselves.
Now and Jenny organized. Jessica at work organized that, but
Jessica wasn't doing it in work hours. And then they
sent us an email to tell us, yeah, that it
was a good trip. I had nothing to do with work,
Come on.

Speaker 10 (01:06:27):
Yeah, but no.

Speaker 23 (01:06:28):
But look, let us really fear is that every single
sworn or non sworn member that went on that trip,
they were on leave and everyone takes leave. They paid
for the trip because they paid for it themselves, but.

Speaker 24 (01:06:40):
It was for cultural competency.

Speaker 10 (01:06:42):
Is that what?

Speaker 24 (01:06:43):
That's not a holiday, that's cultural competency.

Speaker 2 (01:06:47):
Leave much, but it's still work related.

Speaker 23 (01:06:49):
Well, all that I wanted to be satisfied about was
that protocols were followed, and the information I had was
that protocols were followed. I'm not gonna there is no
way that you're going to catch me, especially coming to Christmas,
criticizing our police officers because they want to be more
culturally competent, they want to be more sensitive to them.

Speaker 10 (01:07:05):
Here's the thing, right, but they do an outstanding.

Speaker 2 (01:07:08):
Which why didn't they just say, Look, it was privately
funded and it was done on their own time. But
we're cool with it, we really like it. We're like
that they'd taken this initiative with their own days off
and kind of own it rather than trying to pretend
that it had nothing to do well.

Speaker 23 (01:07:20):
I think they well, certainly I did, and I think
they did as well. And listen, at the end of
the day, there are whenever you've got groups of police
officers traveling overseas, whether they're on duty or off duty,
on league or not, there's always protocols to be followed,
regardless of what country they're going too.

Speaker 10 (01:07:36):
I wanted to be satisfied that those protocols were followed.
They were.

Speaker 23 (01:07:39):
They went over there when you look at their itinery,
they were sightseeing, they went to Tenneman Square and everything else.

Speaker 10 (01:07:44):
That other keywis when they traveled to China. When they
want to go and do some sites seeing do the
same things.

Speaker 23 (01:07:49):
So but they followed the protocols that the hard working,
non swollen sworn staff, they deserve to go away and
have a bit of a holiday and enjoy themselves.

Speaker 2 (01:07:58):
We'll take a quick break and we'll come back to
you guys.

Speaker 1 (01:08:00):
Let's cut it past the Mic Asking Breakfast Full Show
podcast on iHeartRadio, it by News.

Speaker 2 (01:08:06):
Talks Back with Jenny and Mark on politics Wednesday, Ginny,
did you see the luxe and pinnata?

Speaker 24 (01:08:15):
No, but I was listening to you talking about it,
but I did not.

Speaker 2 (01:08:19):
See we flip out about it, So that we just
balance the leadire between flipping out about stuff to do
with just Cinda and stuff to do with luxem Well.

Speaker 24 (01:08:26):
If it's I guess, if it's a private party, yeah,
you could flip out about it. Who's taking photos of
it and putting it on the internet. It probably wasn't
a great idea, But I'm.

Speaker 2 (01:08:35):
Not saying it's okay to have his head on a
guillotine and then no, it's not okay.

Speaker 24 (01:08:39):
You shouldn't really be You shouldn't be doing that to anyone.
I mean, we had instances where MP's faces were put
on toilet seats and then urinated on. So anything where
you're doing something and you know, hurting a person in
terms of the way.

Speaker 2 (01:08:53):
A big scandal. I remember that being it wasn't that
a big scandal, Mitch when people were wearing on the
toilet seats.

Speaker 23 (01:08:59):
Yeah, be honest with you, I haven't heard about the
begnata or the ween on the toilet seats.

Speaker 10 (01:09:03):
I've got no idea.

Speaker 2 (01:09:10):
Seeing as we're discussing weird scandals today. Have you caught
up yet on the judge and her doctor boyfriend gate
crashing the New Zealand First Party?

Speaker 10 (01:09:18):
Yes, I had. I think that.

Speaker 23 (01:09:20):
I think the Attorney General Judith Collins has come out
very clearly and condemned that, and and it's some very
clear expectations around her response.

Speaker 2 (01:09:29):
Yeah, this turns out this guy's are made of the
Labor Party, Jinny, I think you need to cut. You
need to cut.

Speaker 24 (01:09:35):
What do they do at the party? What was They
don't crash.

Speaker 2 (01:09:37):
It obviously drank part too much red wine, but it'll
be good bottle. It would be good bottles of red wine.
But it does the same thing to you. You still
end up like a Oligan, don't you. And then they
went crashed the New Zealand First Party and they yelled
at Winnipee allegedly in case and so on.

Speaker 24 (01:09:54):
Okay's let's not that's not nice. It's not ideal at all.
I wouldn't recommend doing that.

Speaker 2 (01:09:59):
And then maybe allegedly also made racist comments which which
they deny hashtag behind. I totally agree with you on that, Jinny. Listen,
how about the councils Okay, you mate with any of
these councils who are unhappy at the government, and if so,
why are they unhappy?

Speaker 24 (01:10:12):
Well, the Hut City heard Campbell Berry on the radio yesterday,
so well, the problem with canceling the whole three waters
is that it's left them with about eighty to ninety
percent of their budgets go on all that water infrastructure,
so there's not money left to do other stuff. But
you know, the funny thing is right we've had Sam
and come out saying, you know, you can't have flesh stuff.

(01:10:34):
All these councils going to get back to basics. We'll
tell you what. We opened a beautiful pool in the
Hut Valley last week nine nine new pool.

Speaker 10 (01:10:41):
Tell you what.

Speaker 24 (01:10:42):
Chris Bushop was the pretty flash gym and the pool
doing a bomb, saying this is awesome.

Speaker 10 (01:10:46):
I love it.

Speaker 18 (01:10:46):
It's going to be everywhere.

Speaker 24 (01:10:49):
He loves it, you know. But then you're saying, like,
none of the stuff this is going to be canned.
You always just going to have roads and binds and
that's it. No libraries, no pools, nothing.

Speaker 2 (01:10:57):
I reckon a pool though, don't you think?

Speaker 23 (01:11:01):
Well, I hope the person did a good bomb, but
the reality of Si Sibians absolutely right in most Yis agrees.
We want councilors focused on the core role in delivering
on you know, to rate pass what they expect. I
just want to say, in terms of councils, I've had
eight local states fermugency around the country this year. I
want to acknowledge the me as the councilors, the chief executives,

(01:11:24):
the controllers, our first responders, everyone that has done an
outstandings of.

Speaker 2 (01:11:28):
You are always nice about people, You're kind about anybody.
You you smack talk.

Speaker 24 (01:11:35):
I'd love to do account for the year on the
use of the word outstanding. I think Mark is really
great at owning the word love.

Speaker 10 (01:11:43):
I love the country, and I.

Speaker 24 (01:11:44):
Think I think outstanding that these just I.

Speaker 23 (01:11:50):
Personally, I personally think that we are a great little
country and I think that we've got We've had some
tough times.

Speaker 10 (01:11:56):
Either.

Speaker 23 (01:11:56):
I want to say, because it's the last show, I
want to say Smiths to you, you have been outsteady
this year without Merry Christmas, to you, to Bears and
to agg and I know that he's going to be
very close to catching his first wave and standing.

Speaker 10 (01:12:12):
Up, which is.

Speaker 2 (01:12:14):
Ginny, do you know. Mark actually gave when my son
was probably about a year old. Mark gave him a surfboard.

Speaker 24 (01:12:21):
Oh that's exciting, very good, that's proper saf.

Speaker 2 (01:12:26):
He's going to I reckon it must be like an
eight footer.

Speaker 23 (01:12:31):
Yea, no, look, it's a long board for him, without
a doubt, but it's nice and stable.

Speaker 10 (01:12:35):
It will be a really good board to learn on. Ginny.
I want to say Merry Christmas to you.

Speaker 24 (01:12:40):
Thank you, Mark.

Speaker 23 (01:12:41):
I got I got your book. It's a self help
book called Not All My Thoughts Are Correct. You can
read it over the summer. And I want to say
I want to say Mary Christmas to everyone that joins
us on a Wednesday morning.

Speaker 10 (01:12:51):
It has been a tough year for most of us.

Speaker 23 (01:12:53):
But regardless of when you arrived in New Zealand or
where you came from, we're all key. We have the
most beautiful country in the world. And there a broader
daisy here.

Speaker 10 (01:13:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 24 (01:13:00):
Oh that's lovely, Marke. And I've got you a gift too.
I've got you a year's membership for hot Yoga. The
class is there, an aeron a half each yoga and
a sauna. And I reckon we can bond doing that.

Speaker 10 (01:13:13):
That'll be well.

Speaker 2 (01:13:14):
Lord, I think we would pay for those photos. Guys,
Thank you Merry Christmas to the pair of you. Have
a lovely time and you both deserve a lovely break.
That's politics. Weenesday make mature and Jinny Anderson A twenty three.

Speaker 1 (01:13:26):
Heatherpc Ellen on the Mike Hosking Breakfast with the range
Rover the line news.

Speaker 2 (01:13:33):
Hey, just a quick heads up, bree, what's going on
in Vanahatu? Read that earthquake that happened yesterday the seven
point three. There are a couple of New Zealanders, or
at least a couple of in fat staff members at
the moment, unaccounted for. Now they are still pulling people
out of out of buildings alive, so there is some hope.
But yeah, at the moment, they've they've managed to account
for the whole team except for those two people. Do

(01:13:55):
you know what yesterday? I actually can't believe I'm telling
you this. Yesterday I was telling you, Do you remember
I was telling you about the Windyard original click which
was broken again after only being up for three days.
Again broken again for the second time. So last night
there was some technical issue and they called a safety issue.
Bes it's not a safety issue whatever. I mean, everything
to do with the bridge is a safety issue.

Speaker 12 (01:14:14):
There is.

Speaker 2 (01:14:15):
The thing doesn't work anymore, doesn't go up and down
which is supposed to do anyway. The operation of the
WinDD crossing bridge was paused this evening while the project
team investigated a censor issue. Said Ekipanuku. Now I feel
very sorry for the hospital guys who are relying on
this because they've been without this bridge for nine months
and nobody was going to the Windyard quarter. And then
they got it up on Friday and they said, oh well,
we'll just see how it goes. But Monday it's broken.

(01:14:36):
Tuesday it's broken. I don't know if it's broken at
the moment, but i'd say probably probably. I mean, this
is like I'm telling you this so that you can
all feel sharden freud for us who have to deal
with this bridge because it's it's Ikipinuku an Auckland Council outfit.

Speaker 10 (01:14:54):
Wow, what can you do?

Speaker 25 (01:14:56):
Headline's next, demanding the answers from the decision makers, Ken
the duplessy Ellen on the Mike, asking.

Speaker 1 (01:15:08):
Breakfast with Bailey's real estate, your local experts across residential,
commercial and Rural News talks.

Speaker 2 (01:15:14):
Dad Bailey, Hey, it turns out on the Barley nine.
I don't know if you've been following this, absolutely fascinating.
It turns out the parents of the Barley nine didn't
even know that it was Bally five, now, isn't it
didn't even know that they were coming home until they
were actually on the plane. So there had been a
little It wasn't altogether a massive surprise. There had been
a little bit of speculation in recent weeks that maybe
there could be a deal that could be struck to

(01:15:36):
get these guys out of Indonesia, but the parents knew.
Nothing was you know, I mean, these things aren't certain
until they're certain. Anyway, Scott Rush, who was nineteen years
old when he went into jail, it was only when
he was on the plane that an anonymous text was
sent to the Catholic Bishop of Townsville. And this guy
is relevant because he's been an advocate for the Rash family.

(01:15:56):
And this anonymous text arrives on his phone and it
says wheels up the bar on their way back to Australia.
So the bishop then picks up the phone to Russia's
father tells Russia's father your boys on the way home,
and that's the first they know about it. And as
far as I can tell, it may have changed us
in the last just overnight, but as far as I
can tell, they still haven't had any contact with each other.

(01:16:16):
The families haven't been able to get through to the
guys because they were taken straight from the airport at
Darwin to Howard Springs facility and they have to stay
there for a while. And then after they've been there
for this is an old quarantine facility, after they've been
there for a while, they'll be let out. And imagine
how massive this is for them. Right, this kid goes
to jail when he's nineteen years old, hasn't been back
to Australia, turns up thirty nine, twenty two away from.

Speaker 1 (01:16:37):
Known international correspondence with ends and eye insurance, Peace of
mind for New Zealand business.

Speaker 2 (01:16:44):
Ozzi, corresponding to Murray Olds.

Speaker 9 (01:16:45):
Was with us now, muzz Hello, good morning.

Speaker 2 (01:16:48):
Ever, muz So, I'm quite fascinated by how the coalition
coalitions promised it's going to deal with this domestic gas
supply and increase it. But how.

Speaker 9 (01:16:58):
Well the idea is I mean, for example, Victoria is
apparently sitting on the biggest ocean of gas you can imagine,
but for some reason the ve government refuses to dig
it up. That won't extract the gas. Why I'm mature.
It's in labors according to the coalition, Labor's obsession with
wind and solar energy. Now, yes, gas is going to

(01:17:19):
have to be part of the transition.

Speaker 12 (01:17:21):
To clean energy for both sides.

Speaker 9 (01:17:24):
Dutton plans to get by mid century by extending your
life of coal, using some gas and developing this nuclear
power plan. As far as Labour's concern, and this is
going to be pretty telling it the election here. Labour's
going to use gas, plasing out coal, use gas as
a transition. But then you know mid century that just

(01:17:44):
about all Australia's energy needs, according to the label, will
be supplied by renewables. Now you know it's all pine
the sky right now, eye watering figures for Peter Dutton's
nuclear program and they're just off the graph. Labor says
it doesn't stack up. The critics are saying, well, Labor,
you just wedded, you know, ideologically wedded to the idea

(01:18:05):
of green energy. So it's going to be unpacked in
more detail as we head into twenty twenty five and
people are saying, listen, you know, Peter, we do need
some more stuff from you. It's not good enough just
to float this and then run away.

Speaker 2 (01:18:17):
Yeah, fair enough, I'd imagine, speaking of energy and stuff
like that, I see that there's a bit of a
bit of a resistance from the apartments as to whether
people can charge their evs there. Yeah.

Speaker 9 (01:18:27):
Absolutely, I mean, as you know, I mean a lot
of Sydney, a lot of them, a lot of Brisbane
are apartment living. And you know, there are millions of
people living in apartments, lots and lots of electric vehicles.
But of course we've had a number of electric car
fires and these things are just about it impossible to
put out about it. You have to drown the batteries
in swimming pools full of water to stop them, you know, combusting. Well,

(01:18:52):
here's the thing. Many strata committees, Because strata committees run apartments.
Over here, you've got fifty apartments, you might have one
hundred fifty residents. They make decisions for their apartment block,
and a lot of these decisions are coming down. You
can take you by the EV and park it down
the road. And charge it. B You're not going to
do it in our underground car parker on the car

(01:19:12):
partment that sits beneath our apartments. And this is becoming
a real issue, a very big problem. Not sure where
to go?

Speaker 2 (01:19:18):
Well, that's I mean that that is it's real consideration,
isn't it. So what this presumably mass They're going to
make a whole lot of people not want to buy
evs because it just becomes too much of a faft
to go and find a charge of somewhere down the road.

Speaker 9 (01:19:32):
Exactly right. That's of course one of the greatest problems
confronting EV's over here. It's the infrastructure. But for the
lack of infrastructure, so people are putting in these you know,
the big extension calls running out from the apartment block outside,
you know, in the rain and snow into the back
of the electric vehicle. So I mean, I'm not a
hund of present sure.

Speaker 2 (01:19:50):
This is going to end up even No, Hey, where
are we at with that A and Z probe on
the dead people letters and fees and stuff?

Speaker 9 (01:19:57):
This is crazy. I mean A and Z is been
in the regulator sites for a bit now. Allegedly the
A in ZI bank kept taking fees from customers who
had actually died, not once or twice Heather. According to
the Murdoch Media over here, twenty thousand customers had passed away,
and the A and Z had their green little fingers
in their estates, the estates of the dead people. It

(01:20:19):
went on even though people were complaining. Now the corporate
regulator is very unhappy. We told the Investments and Securities
Commission it's going to prosecut was considering prosecuting the A
and Z of the new year. And this comes at
a time when it's an AGM tomorrow. I think in
Melbourne the.

Speaker 10 (01:20:37):
A and Z.

Speaker 9 (01:20:37):
We'll see how shareholders feel about the way the bank's
been performing. You've got Shane Elliott, the outgoing boss, and
the board will meet shareholders down in Melbourne. I'm pretty
sure it's Melbourne, and the mood apparently is pretty grumpy.
Is it going to be pushed back against the remuneration
packages of the executives and the Boardwork to wait to see,
but it's a bit concerning. If you're Shane Elliott as

(01:20:58):
you head into Christmas, may get a big kick in
the backside.

Speaker 2 (01:21:01):
Absolutely listening, you're going to tune in for the Ellen
Jones appearance in court today.

Speaker 9 (01:21:05):
He will be in court today. I don't think there's
going to be much I can't imagine there's going to
be a whole lot of Alan Jones may or may
not appear. He doesn't have to appear, so they can
appear for him. And look, it's fascinating. There's so much,
so much media interest in this over here. And jonesy
was such a powerful figure for all those years. And

(01:21:26):
when we saw him go to the police station, what
is it about three weeks ago, he looked like a
little old granddad, you know, with his walking stick in
his horror. Although he quitted and you just thought, well,
this guy's got no power anymore. A lot of people
are saying, well, bloody, good job. He polarized people, there's
no doubt about it. A wonderful broadcaster. But you know,

(01:21:48):
like seventy people, we've got the left side and the
right side, and let's see where they meet in the middle,
because there'd be a lot of interesting day in this court.

Speaker 15 (01:21:55):
Cache you're too right.

Speaker 2 (01:21:56):
Thanks very much, go well, look after yourself. It's Marie
old Uzzie correspond muzzles just giving shame to that track
suit that was a designer tracksuit that Alan Jones was wearing.

Speaker 3 (01:22:03):
I'll have you know hever du seen it sounds.

Speaker 2 (01:22:07):
Like a Gaza seas fire might be close to being signed.
There are a bunch of people who are confirming this,
both on the Palestinian and on the Israeli side, that
it's about days away or something like that. Would be
in a three phase plan. First, the civilians and women
soldiers who were held hostage would be released, that's within
the first month and a half, and then the Israelis
would have to pull out of various parts of Gaza.
Then the second stage is the remaining hostages are freed.

(01:22:29):
They think there's about sixty two of them alive in total,
and then the troops are completely withdrawn in the third
ist to end the war. Ben Yamnett and Ya who's
apparently on his way to Cairo for talks on this,
but his spokespeople are not confirming that at all. Now, shorts,
this has come up again, right, this is what you
should be wearing in the office when you are it's
you know, summertime or whatever. Apparently shorts are because there

(01:22:52):
was a bit of I don't know if you were
aware of it but for a little while there it
was sort of like, yeah, can you wear shorts in
the office if they designer shorts and dress shorts like
the Italians. The Italians do a little boat shoe and
stuff like can you do it? And it kind of
became okay. But apparently we're going back the other way now.
So this is a survey that's been done of Australian
workers last year. Thirty two percent of them were like, yeah,
shorts are cool, Yeah you can wear that. Now it's

(01:23:14):
forty two percent of them who say yeah, no, hold
on it, see the other way around. Wait, I'm lying
to you. Thirty two percent of them were like, no,
it's unprofessional, you can't. Now it's forty two percent. So
what I'm trying to say is increasingly people are thinking
shorts are not okay. I think that's because jobs are scarcer, scarcer,
whatever the word is. So I think when you're not
so sure about your job, suddenly you start dressing up

(01:23:34):
a little bit. That's what's going on here. Baby boomers.
Fifty percent of baby boomers say shorts are not okay
in the workforce, but only thirty one percent of Gen
zs and millennials feel the same. So over time, you
are going to see more shirt shorts in the workplace,
and I think the rule I'm actually fine with it.
But but you can't just be turning up in your
studies right or your boardies. It's got to be a

(01:23:57):
short that you could wear. If you pretend that you'll
do and ran on a yacht, that's okay.

Speaker 14 (01:24:03):
Well see, I think it's the whole combo, isn't it,
Like you can't just because shorts and then and then
it's a slippery slope to Jandles.

Speaker 2 (01:24:14):
From Sports turns up sometimes in shorts, and Jandles doesn't
he Sports is kind of a they're different.

Speaker 14 (01:24:20):
They're different.

Speaker 2 (01:24:22):
That's a nice edge of they are unusual. That's not okay.
But if you if you just imagine that you are
hungry like the wolf the music video that was filmed
on the yacht, and you're turning up looking like maybe
you're going to go to the Northern Club next. Those
shorts are open.

Speaker 14 (01:24:38):
Why were they hungry like a wolf on a yacht?
Do you reckon? I'm hmm, cocaine.

Speaker 2 (01:24:45):
I remember thinking about that far too long today. I
think maybe maybe cocaine, maybe thirteen away from knowing the.

Speaker 1 (01:24:53):
Asking Breakfast Full Show podcast on I have radio powered
by News Talks a bhither it.

Speaker 2 (01:24:59):
Was Rio, not hungry like the wolf that was filmed
on the yacht. I'm sorry about that.

Speaker 14 (01:25:03):
Like a wolf one seems to be set in a
kas bar or something which is weird.

Speaker 2 (01:25:07):
Was hungry like the wolf, not set in a jungle.

Speaker 14 (01:25:09):
No, it appears to be like maybe maybe Egypt, if
not Morocco.

Speaker 2 (01:25:14):
H lots of wolves there.

Speaker 14 (01:25:15):
Yeah, I'm just watching Simon Labond up ending a table.

Speaker 2 (01:25:18):
And those were the days, weren't they. Those were the
days of music videos where you would you would just
you'd go home. I mean it was just after school
for me, go home after school and just sit there
and just look at Juice TV for hours of there's
the thing.

Speaker 14 (01:25:31):
We had whole television channels, several television channal fantastic music videos.

Speaker 2 (01:25:35):
Yeah, it was brilliant nowadays I was. You try it
watching a music video that's made a modern music video rubbish.
You only want to watch it once because it's so
rubbish you don't want to ever watch it again. Very quickly,
can I just mention I have heat intolerance and simply
cannot wear long pants in the office shorts or a
musk good one, Ben, I'm going to try that one too.
Sam Neil is now campaigning to save that hideous city

(01:25:56):
to see bridge in Wellington, which looks like a primary
school art project has been put together by detritus collected
from the beach. He is outraged, he says, by the demolition,
to the decision to demolish it. And remember he used
to live in Wellington, so he's got some right to
be able to talk about this. He says, the most
precious part of Civic Square and Wellington is the bridge.
It is a rare thing of beauty. Has Sam lost

(01:26:17):
his sight? Did when he got Is that what's happened late?
Is that why he's not? Has he gone blind? Because
he must have. It's a work of art and definitely
gone blind. He says. It's a cultural tawinger, well whatever
and then a whole bunch of important Mahordi artists and then,
of course, says pakiher creative spirits were also included, one
of whom was of course Ian Athfield, New Zealand's greatest

(01:26:38):
ever architect. Now maybe what is not, maybe what was
lost is not his site but his mind because Ian
Athfield is not a great architect. Ian Athfield is hideous.
Everything he does is hideous. Have you seen Go and
google it. If you don't believe me. Everything he does
looks like it's like designed on a submarine meets a
Mediterranean house. There's nothing nice about demolished the bridge. It's

(01:27:01):
head yes, eight away from nine.

Speaker 1 (01:27:03):
Ever Duellen on the mic, asking breakfast with Bailey's real
estate news dogs.

Speaker 2 (01:27:09):
Hither, I'm feeling a treaty claim on Thiswellington bridge lodged
by Sam Neil. Thank you, Ben Hither. It was Oh no,
I've already mentioned that somebody was sorry that I was
recorrecting myself, which I've already corrected myself about that it
was not hungry like the wolf. But apparently somebody says
to me, in the spirit of looking at excellent videos,

(01:27:31):
go and look at the whippet video. I don't need
to look at the whippet video. That video has tormented
me for such a long time. This is the one
by I don't even know how to pronounce. The band's
name is a Devo Devo anyway, Devo, thank you. That's
the one where they've got the weird lego hats on
their head, isn't it the red lego hats? And I've
never been able to explain it, but it was esthetically pleasing,
which is more than I can say for the Wellington

(01:27:52):
Bridge A five away from nine.

Speaker 1 (01:27:54):
Trending Now will Chemist Warehouse the home of big brand vitamins.

Speaker 2 (01:27:59):
Hey, the karate is back on the big screen. Were
you expecting me to say that?

Speaker 10 (01:28:02):
No?

Speaker 2 (01:28:02):
The Cobra Kai TV show has been a surprising head
on Netflix and some of their five seasons have actually
broken viewing records. So on the back of that, they've decided, well,
why not capitalize and make a new movie. It's called
Karate Kid Legions.

Speaker 10 (01:28:17):
Our Traditions. I read it in history, Kung fool.

Speaker 9 (01:28:28):
Kladi.

Speaker 1 (01:28:30):
In life.

Speaker 18 (01:28:32):
You have for only one question? Is it worth fighting
for it?

Speaker 2 (01:28:41):
I'm not I'm doing this wrong.

Speaker 18 (01:28:45):
Forte two branches, one tree.

Speaker 2 (01:29:01):
So if you did recognize any voices, the voice that
you recognized was Jackie Chan and the other main voice
in there was the original Karate Kid Ralph pronunciation guide.
Please Marchio Marchio, Ralph Marchio is on the big screen,
and it will be on the big screen theaters in
theaters May thirty, so you got a little bit of
waiting to do. And also if you can't be bothered
waiting for that, well no, actually, either way you're going

(01:29:23):
to be waiting if you're not really into the karate
kid because the kids are too young Bluey, they're going
to make a movie out of Blue And if you're
like me right now, you're going, oh, yeah, that's what
I'm talking.

Speaker 14 (01:29:32):
Is there anyway we can get some kind of co
lab going and see Blue doing karate? I'd like to
see that.

Speaker 2 (01:29:36):
I think that might be a great idea. Why not
make it violent? Make it, make it all violent. Okay,
thank you very much for your company today. We'll be
back at you tomorrow. Look after yourselves. Kerry's next? Is
it Kerry? Or is it John? That's just Perry got
a holiday already. Is everybody else?

Speaker 14 (01:29:53):
You've only just noticed that she's been away all week.

Speaker 2 (01:29:57):
Everybody's on holiday already, and they're all in their sure anyway,
we'll all be in our shorts soon. See you soon tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (01:30:06):
For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to
News Talks at b from six am weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.