The Mike Hosking Breakfast

Conference goers are abandoning big cities in favour of the regions.

Our convention market is booming with 3000 more conferences last year than the year before, bringing in more than $580 million in spending.

But a lot of conference delegates are staying away from the big cities and heading to the regions.

Chief executive of Conventions and Incentives New Zealand, Sue Sullivan, told Mike Hosking regional New Zealand has areas of expertise that the cities don't.

"Wine growing in Hawke's Bay, forestry in Rotorua, so conferences are often held where there are areas of expertise," she said.

LISTEN ABOVE AS SUE SULLIVAN SPEAKS WITH MIKE HOSKING

Authorities are worried about the destruction Cyclone Debbie may have caused overnight, with Queensland ready to survey the extent of the damage at first light.

The effects of the cyclone on tourism and local producers are also a key concern.

Early this morning Debbie was downgraded from a cyclone to a tropical low. Heavy rains are still expected as it moves southwest, with a severe weather warning in place.

LISTEN ABOVE: Murray Olds speaks to Mike Hosking

The Productivity Commission wants the Resource Management Act ditched once and for all, to give people more say in deciding how best to use their land.

It says the law has an emphasis on the protection of the environment, with development often held up by endless consultations and disputes.

Productivity Commission chair Murray Sherwin told Mike Hosking the RMA is past its use-by date.

"It's been with us 25 years, it's been back in front of Parliament 18 times for amendment, it's more than doubled in length since it started, and I think those who work with it would say it's lost it's shape and coherence."

LISTEN ABOVE AS MURRAY SHERWIN SPEAKS WITH MIKE HOSKING

WHAT YOU SHOULD HAVE HEARD (highlights from Tuesday's Mike Hosking Breakfast) Some Should Pay, Some Shouldn't/Can I See the Bill Please?/A Smack on the Bottom Line/The Army's Funny, Isn't it?

Designers Juliette Hogan and Kathryn Wilson join Mike Hosking in studio to talk about the state of New Zealand's fashion industry. 

Listen to the full interview above.

Could the solution to the Commonwealth Games' woes be to split team sports and individual sports?

A former New Zealand Chef de Mission says yes.

LISTEN ABOVE: Mike Hosking talks to former NZ Chef de Mission, Bruce Ullrich, about the potential to split the sports.

Bruce Ullrich said the next Games are in real trouble now that they've been taken off Durban - the only city that bid for 2018.

He said to reduce the costs for the Games, and get more cities interested, only 10-to-12 individual sports should go ahead.

Mr Ullrich told Mike Hosking a separate team event should happen the same year.

"I'm suggesting that other commonwealth countries bid to host the team sports, could be one or more team sports could go around a number of cities."

The Chair of Marlborough Road Transport says speeding's the problem on State Highway One, not the traffic.

LISTEN ABOVE: Mike Hosking talks to Road Transport Association Marlborough chief, Peter Heagney, about the issues surrounding State Highway One.

The coastal route's closed until at least Christmas because of landslides and cracks from the Kaikoura quake.

Now all drivers are forced to used the Inland Route.

Some truckies have called it quits, saying the volumes of vehicles is too dangerous.

Marlborough Road Transport's Peter Heagney told Mike Hosking he disagrees with their concerns.

He said tight timeframes are the problem, not the road.

"I think it's fine, I mean it's a road where you most probably [need to] treat with a bit of respect but that's all."

A crackdown on the capital's landbankers could be harder than Wellington's mayor thinks.

In his State of the City breakfast yesterday, Justin Lester said he's looking at penalties for landbankers, in a move to free up land for housing.

Lester said there was undeveloped land at the city fringes that could fit 2750 new homes.

But 90 per cent of that land was owned by just two groups, which weren't releasing it for development.

Lester said the council had tried using carrots, and now was ready to bring in the stick.

But AUT construction management professor John Tookey told Mike Hosking it's not that clear cut.

"You can't compel somebody to develop stuff. We live in a free market economy. Unless you actually apply a compulsory purchase order from government or local government."

Tookey said land banking is a difficult term to define, so penalising it isn't that simple.

"Mainly because where do you draw the line? For example one end of the spectrum if you're sitting on a very large section that's subdivisible under the new unitary plan, is that landbanking?"

LISTEN ABOVE AS AUT'S JOHN TOOKEY SPEAKS WITH MIKE HOSKING

Far-right French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen is pinning her political future on her plans to pull France from the euro currency.

She has promised to resign if that doesn't happen.

UK correspondent Catherine Field told Mike Hosking she's now saying that will only happen after a referendum.

"Perhaps she's actually listened to her advisers, who've been saying more that 70 percent of the French people are actually quite happy with the euro.

"And probably as many people as that are quite happy to be in the European Union, so they're sort of saying tone it down a bit."

LISTEN ABOVE AS CATHERINE FIELD SPEAKS WITH MIKE HOSKING

WHAT YOU SHOULD HAVE HEARD (highlights from Monday's Mike Hosking Breakfast) The Donald Fails to Deliver/That Chinese Bloke/Research VS Other Research/How the Simpsons Keeps On/Mike's Moist Crotch