The Mike Hosking Breakfast

A Rotorua toastmaster is taking the term chatterbox to a whole new level today.

Richard Perkins is giving 24 different speeches over 24 hours, each in a different location with a different audience in a world record attempt.

He told Mike Hosking each of the speeches has to be unscripted and videoed.

"I'm quite sure I can do it, but I'm still pretty nervous about it. Sitting here this morning, it is possible, but it's not that easy at all."

Perkins said the hardest part has been organising the audiences. He's put out ads around Rotorua asking for crowds at the likes of the Aquatic Centre.

He said he's sure at least 20 of the 24 groups will be there.

LISTEN ABOVE AS RICHARD PERKINS SPEAKS WITH MIKE HOSKING

Newstalk ZB's Andrew Dickens went to Adele last night, and joined Mike Hosking this morning to talk about the show. 

"The voice was amazing, the staging was amazing, she spends $2 million on every show so it all comes out."

WHAT YOU SHOULD HAVE HEARD (highlights from Thursday's Mike Hosking Breakfast) 21st Century Telly/Skodafone Not Dead Yet/Who'll Do All This Work?/The Guy Who Makes Bondmobiles/Wall Decisions

Andy Palmer, the CEO of luxurious car company Aston Martin, is in the country, and joined Mike Hosking for a chat.

Prime Minister Bill English has stopped short of ruling out an inquiry into allegations that SAS troops were involved in a raid that left Afghan civilians dead, but within the government attitudes are firming up against another investigation.

LISTEN ABOVE AS NEWSTALK ZB'S CHIEF POLITICAL REPORTER FELIX MARWICK JOINS MIKE HOSKING

Mr English was on Wednesday briefed by officials about the claims in Hit and Run, the book written by investigative journalist Nicky Hager and war correspondent Jon Stephenson.

It alleges SAS troops planned and led an operation in Afghanistan in 2010 targeting insurgents believed to have been responsible for the death of New Zealand soldier Tim O'Donnell, killed by a roadside bomb.

It went horribly wrong and six civilians were killed and 15 wounded when two villages were attacked, according to the book.

None of the insurgents were killed or captured.

Soon after the raid, an inquiry carried out by Afghan authorities and the International Security Assistance Force reported there were no civilian deaths and that 12 insurgents were killed, later corrected to nine.

The book's detailed account the operation directly contradicts that conclusion.

However, Mr English said on Wednesday that so far officials had found nothing in it that was new or warranted an inquiry.

"The book, very recently published, doesn't yet appear to have substantiated enough of the allegations, or any of the allegations, to warrant an inquiry," he told parliament.

"We will continue to be briefed. We are simply not going to be rushed into such a serious undertaking."

He will talk to Defence Minister Gerry Brownlee and the chief of the Defence Force, Lieutenant General Tim Keating, when they return from Iraq.

Mr Brownlee has already made his views known.

He told the New Zealand Herald the allegations had been widely investigated.

"Those accusations have not been proved at all accurate - quite the opposite," he said.

"The allegations that are made simply have not been substantiated in any way whatsoever."

Mr Brownlee said he saw no reason why another investigation should be held.

Lieut-Gen Keating strongly defended the SAS against the allegations, and also said his staff had found nothing in the book that required investigating.

Former Defence Minister Wayne Mapp, who held the portfolio at the time of the raid, was the only one out of step.

He conceded in a Newshub interview that he had been told in 2014 a young girl had been killed in the raid.

"We didn't achieve the objective we sought ... one of the disasters of war is these terrible things happen," he said.

At the time of the raid, Dr Mapp said there had been no civilian casualties.

A back to basics approach has won over the judges for the Primer Minister's Science Prizes.

Kids at Koraunui School have been building, growing vegetables, trapping predators and keeping bees.

Their teacher, Dianne Christenson, is the first primary school teacher to win the Science Teacher Prize.

She told Mike Hosking her kids take more interest in the lessons outside.

"We had a little girl that finished at our school last year, who was a real bookworm, and her final reflections on leaving school was: 'Surprisingly, I learned more doing hands on stuff than I did reading books!' And that said it all for me."

Dianne Christenson won $100,000 for the school and $50,000 for herself.

LISTEN TO DIANNE CHRISTENSON SPEAK TO MIKE HOSKING ABOVE

WHAT YOU SHOULD HAVE HEARD (highlights from Wednesday's Mike Hosking Breakfast) Difficult to Disagree/Bill Ain't No John/Hyping Poll Numbers/The Right to Choose Kilts

A top government minister says there's already been an inquiry into the raid at the centre of Nicky Hager's new book.

The book titled "Hit and Run" alleges six civilians were killed in an operation involving the New Zealand SAS in Afghanistan in 2010.

But Finance Minister Steven Joyce told Mike Hosking Mr Hager "only ever talks to one side of the story."

"He never talks to anybody else, and then he makes major accusations and sweeping statements."

Mr Joyce said there was an Afghani inquiry at the time, and he doesn't see the need for another.

"Defence have spoken up overnight and said look, we've been through all of this, there isn't significant new information in the book from their perspective and they stand by the results of the inquiry at the time."

LISTEN ABOVE AS FINANCE MINISTER STEVEN JOYCE AND LABOUR MP STUART NASH SPEAK WITH MIKE HOSKING

Nuts, crazy, and likely to backfire.

That's the warning to Labour as it pulls its Maori MPs from the list, and puts them in the fight for electorate seats only.

Leader Andrew Little said he's not worried about losing senior MPs because the party's taking a stand.

But AUT history professor Paul Moon told Mike Hosking it's unbelievable politics that blackmails voters.

"So Labour's saying if you don't give us your candidate vote, you'll lose these MPs and Labour won't have them in Parliament.

"Well the Maori electorate certainly will care about this and if anything it's likely to backfire on Labour and encourage them to support parties that don't blackmail them.

"Crazy politics, because what they're effectively doing is condemning the voters, almost blackmailing them, saying that if don't vote for us, you will lose these Maori MPs."

LISTEN ABOVE AS PAUL MOON SPEAKS WITH MIKE HOSKING

UPDATED 9.57AM Nicky Hager says something was seriously wrong with the SAS when they conducted a raid resulting in civilian deaths.

It's the subject of his book Hit and Run, co-authored with Jon Stephenson.

It alleges a 2010 operation in Afghanistan was a retaliation to the killing of a New Zealand soldier, and could have involved war crimes.

Mr Hager told Mike Hosking he heard there was a mood of rage about the operation.

"For the SAS to be in a town and be burning down and blowing up houses while they went around is not normal. They normally race into a place and creep into a place. There was something about this that was seriously abnormal."

Mr Hager said the Defence Force needs to allow an independent inquiry to keep its reputation clean.

"The New Zealand military prides itself constantly of being different from other militaries like the United States," he said.

Intelligence analyst Paul Buchanan told Mike Hosking if the New Zealand Defence Force stands by its soldiers, it should allow the independent inquiry.

"The NZDF has maintained all along that Hager and Stephenson are out to get them. If in fact the SAS operated professionally, then this will exonerate the NZDF and will justify their criticism of these authors."

LISTEN ABOVE AS NICKY HAGER AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST PAUL BUCHANAN SPEAK WITH MIKE HOSKING