The Mike Hosking Breakfast

Whakatane Mayor Tony Bonne says the council and residents are well prepared for what comes next.

LISTEN ABOVE: Mike Hosking talks to Whakatane Mayor, Tony Bonne and Civil Defence Controller Garry Towler, about what's yet to come with Cyclone Cook.

He told Mike Hosking the Matahina Dam and local rivers are being monitored around the clock in a bid to prevent further flooding.

"The regional council is totally responsible for all the river systems and protection and they seem to have things under control there."

Meanwhile, a major evacuation operation is getting underway on the Coromandel Peninsula.

All low-lying residents are to be evacuated.

"We're going to try and get them all out to safety- we are opening our Civil Defence Centres around 10am, we've got the support of the Defence Force coming in to help."

Labour MP Annette King and Finance Minister Steven Joyce join Mike Hosking for their weekly chat.

A political expert says North Korea is a bigger threat to world security than ISIS.

A US naval strike force has been deployed to the Korean Peninsula in response to Kim Jong Un's ballistic missile tests.

Pusan National University political science professor Robert Kelly told Mike Hosking the rogue state is constantly advancing its military firepower.

Kelly said both sides want to avoid conflict, but the US is keeping a close eye on North Korea.

"The Trump Administration just finished a policy review of options for North Korea.

"The word has leaked out that the North Koreans could have a missile that could go straight to the United States in the next five to ten years."

LISTEN TO THE FULL INTERVIEW ABOVE

Video stores are on their way out - but one is coming up with inventive ways to stay open.

LISTEN ABOVE: Mike Hosking talks to video shop owner, Andrew Armitage, about his new idea to keep people buying DVDs. 

The Aro Street Video Shop in Wellington is launching an 'adopt a movie' scheme - where you can pay to a have a lifetime rental of your favourite film.

Shop owner Andrew Armitage said customers only have to pay between $20 and $35.

He told Mike Hosking the scheme will keep their doors open in the face of online streaming.

"Just because you're streaming doesn't mean to say that you wont hire a DVD, the main market that we have are people that are interested in old fashioned customer service."

The Department of Corrections is being blasted for suggesting it protects inmates from gang culture.

Corrections is putting the blame for high Maori re-offending rates at the feet of gangs, saying they drive ex-inmates back into a life of crime.

It comes after the Waitangi Tribunal said the government has failed to reach its obligations, to reduce Maori numbers in prisons.

Waipareira Trust CEO John Tamihere told Mike Hosking Corrections' claim that its rehabilitation work is undone outside of prison, is not true.

"To suggest that they gang-proof you while you're in prison is not true. It is a recruitment factory," he said.

"There is a culture where, to protect yourself, you become aligned with a gang."

LISTEN TO THE FULL INTERVIEW ABOVE

Calls for more police in rural areas appear to have been answered.

LISTEN ABOVE: Mike Hosking talks to Thames Coromandel Mayor Sandra Goudie about the lack of on-call police responses in rural areas. 

It's understood a 24 hour police presence will be brought back to 20 areas, including the Thames Coromandel region.

Mayor Sandra Goudie told Mike Hosking she's eagerly waiting confirmation.

"I certainly know that for us it's about response times and when you've got a woman being terrorised in her home in the middle of the night and the response time is half an hour, well do you think that's acceptable? We don't."

Police are expected to make an announcement later today.

A petition is on its way to Parliament, calling for the Government to take action against pornography.

More than 22,000 people have signed the document asking the Government to look at health and societal harms of online porn.

Labour's Aupito William Sio, who is presenting that petition, told Rachel Smalley pornography is "more prevalent now than ever before".

School councillor Sarah Maindonald said 90 percent of boys under 16 watch porn, which can be addictive and damaging.

She told Mike Hosking teenagers don't always talk to their parents about sexuality so it's time the Government step in.

"They're actually learning about sex from pornography, rather than other sources, and it does really then influence and shape their perceptions of relationships," she said.

Maindonald said better resourcing would help school health programmes tackle the problem.

"Every community will be quite different, there will be religious and cultural considerations. Often the guidance staff and the health teachers are in the best position to look at the appropriate programme."

LISTEN TO THE FULL INTERVIEW ABOVE

The Government's released a scientific definition for Mānuka honey, in hope of safeguarding the authenticity of the products that New Zealand exports overseas.

LISTEN ABOVE: Mike Hosking talks to the head of the Unique Mānuka Factor Honey Association, John Rawcliffe, who welcomes the new Mānuka honey definition.  It means overseas regulators and consumers can have confidence in that the honey they're receiving is genuine New Zealand Mānuka honey, as it's a premium product, exported at a premium price. Food Safety Minister David Bennett said it was those overseas regulators and consumers who've been pushing for an independent, Government-backed definition. "[It] will provide an important starting point for the industry to promote New Zealand Mānuka honey in world markets," he said.

John Rawcliffe, head of the Unique Mānuka Factor Honey Association, told Mike Hosking said the new definition could help local industry.

He said honey products incorrectly branded as Mānuka, will be barred from export, which will protect the Mānuka brand.

The scientific definition has taken the Ministry for Primary Industries more than two years to develop, which the Ministry said was necessary because questions had been raised in overseas markets about the authenticity of some honey being sold as New Zealand Mānuka honey. Ministry of Primary Industries experts collected over 800 honey samples from over 20 different honey types, from 16 different countries. It studied the samples to find what the identifying attributes were from the Mānuka plant that ultimately made up the Mānuka honey product. Those experts then developed and validated test methods to make sure those attributes can be tested for, and worked out a criteria for identifying monofloral and multifloral Mānuka honey. The UMF Honey Association said the announcement of a scientific definition is a step in the right direction for its 100 plus members, that collectively export over 80 percent of all Mānuka honey products from New Zealand. “A robust regulatory definition implemented by MPI across all of the industry will help protect an important New Zealand product which is in huge demand internationally.

“The UMFHA has undertaken its own extensive science programme over the past five years. We look forward to incorporating the perspectives and learnings of our international science team during the six weeks’ review and consultation phase.

“At the end of that process, we hope to see in place a regulatory definition that provides greater support and increased confidence to our members, consumers and regulatory authorities worldwide.” MPI is implementing the definition of mānuka honey through changes to export requirements.

Public consultation on the definition and the export requirements opened on 11 April 2017.

Sarah Robb O'Hagan is one of New Zealand's most successful businesswomen. She talks to Mike Hosking about her new book, Extreme You.

She has waited seven years for justice, and now Tamsin Trainor has seen her attacker sentenced.

Neihana Rangitonga has been sentenced to jail for two years and four months for wounding Ms Trainor in a Tauranga park in 2010.

However, it only came about after Rangitonga was initially acquitted, and Ms Trainor launched a private prosecution.

In the first trial, the police chose to drop the wounding charge against Rangitonga, in order to push a rape charge.

Ms Trainor told Mike Hosking she is still upset about that decision.

"I think that put a huge question into the jury's mind. It made them question the rape charge a lot," she said.

Ms Trainor said she's happy they got some kind of justice in the end.

LISTEN TO THE FULL INTERVIEW ABOVE