The Mike Hosking Breakfast

Labour is questioning why there's a wall of silence from the Government, around the grounds on which US Tech billionaire Peter Thiel was granted New Zealand citizenship five years ago

The founder of Pay-Pal has bought at least three multi-million dollar properties in New Zealand.

Labour's Immigration spokesman Iain Lees Galloway told Mike Hosking the Government has finally admitted Mr Thiel was given an exemption, while Nathan Guy was the Minister.

He said that allowed Mr Thiel to circumvent the normal process for gaining citizenship.

"They are normally expected to live in New Zealand - to make a commitment to New Zealand, Mr Thiel hasn't been required to make that commitment."

Lees Galloway said "the question still remains, why on earth was he given special treatment? And was it because of his wealth?"

According to the Department of Internal Affairs website, citizenship requires people to have lived in New Zealand for most of the past five years, or have been born in New Zealand, or have New Zealand parents.

Filings to the Companies Office, requiring directors to provide their residential address, have Mr Thiel only list United States addresses. Mr Thiel is widely reported to have been born in Frankfurt, Germany, to German parents who emigrated to the United States when he was an infant.

An alternate path to the above requires the Minister of Immigration to personally sign off and agree that granting the individual citizenship "would be in the public interest because of exceptional circumstances of a humanitarian or other nature".

Mr Thiel's ties to New Zealand are mainly financial, having invested around $50 million over the last decade in accountancy software company Xero and the New Zealand Venture Investment Fund.

Finance Minister Steven Joyce and Labour's Deputy Leader Annette King join Mike Hosking for their weekly chat.

They discuss when the 2017 election date will be announced, Gareth Morgan and Winston Peters trading insults at Ratana Pa Marae, the Maori and Mana parties working together, and Donald Trump's stance on trade.

Brexit could be heading for further delays.

The Supreme Court has ruled the Government alone cannot trigger Article 50 to leave the European Union. It has to be a law change through Parliament.

British Prime Minister Theresa May's office said it will respect the decision by the Supreme Court.

Downing Street said in a statement that nonetheless the British people voted to leave the EU and nothing has changed that.

"We respect the Supreme Court's decision, and will set out our next steps to Parliament shortly," the statement said.

SEE ALSO: UK Supreme Court rules PM May must consult Parliament to trigger Brexit

Associate editor of The Spectator in London, Rod Liddle told Mike Hosking the legislation could be introduced as early as next week.

"The Labour Party, by and large, and all of the Conservative Party are pretty much duty bound to support that vote, because they don't want to go against the democratic wishes of the public," he said.

However, Liddle said there are other court actions pending which might delay the Government even further.

"There's another one which says that we could leave the EU as much as we'd like but we mustn't leave the single market - all of these brought by people who are not entirely cognizant of the fact that a democratic vote was taken back in June."

LISTEN ABOVE AS ROD LIDDLE SPEAKS WITH MIKE HOSKING

WHAT YOU SHOULD HAVE HEARD (highlights from Wednesday's Mike Hosking Breakfast) Teacher Drain Starting to Pinch/Ending Entitlement/Smart Phones Are Making Us Useless/Crispy Food Rules/Anniversary Worries

WHAT YOU SHOULD HAVE HEARD (highlights from Tuesday's Mike Hosking Breakfast) ...Not Really/Hard Times for the Left/Blaming the Government/Blaming the Council/Hosking's Subconscious Rears Up

Donald Trump has formally pulled the pin on US involvement in the TPP.

He's signed his first executive orders this morning.

Among them, an order withdrawing from the Trans Pacific Partnership.

New Zealand has been pushing hard for the multi-national deal.

Financial Times world trade editor Shawn Donnan told Mike Hosking the water is murky over whether it can be salvaged.

"The crucial country to watch on this is Japan - we've had mixed messages from them on this."

Labour is dismissing any suggestion of a threat to its hold on its Maori seats.

It comes amid displays of a rekindled relationship between the Maori Party and Mana.

Mana leader Hone Harawira walked on to Ratana marae yesterday, with the co-leaders of the Maori Party.

Andrew Little has his turn today at Ratana today.

He told Mike Hosking Labour is not threatened by the alliance.

"The Maori Party totally discredited, they've been utterly shackled to the National Party for the last nearly nine years, and the conditions for Maori have got worse."

Little added that the Mana Party was "frankly pretty irrelevant" so he wasn't concerned about their alliance.

Andrew Little said Labour holds six of the seven Maori seats in Parliament, and they're not giving up on retaining them.

Destination Queenstown CEO Graham Budd joins Mike Hosking to discuss whether the poor summer weather in the tourist destination has had an impact on the local economy or visitor numbers.

This year's Ratana celebrations could mark more Māori drifting away from the Labour Party, a political analyst says.

The Prime Minister will attend commemorations of the Church's founder today, while other political leaders and parties will pay their respects at Ratana Pa tomorrow.

Labour leader Andrew Little will lead his own delegation tomorrow, which includes the party's Māori caucus.

AUT history professor Paul Moon told Mike Hosking this morning Ratana's strong relationship Labour is weakening, and many Māori are "Cutting Labour loose, gradually saying 'look Labour hasn't served us over the past several decades as well as it could have, Labour hasn't been in power for almost a decade so we want to hitch a ride with some that can affect change'."

Moon believes the stars are aligning for the Māori and Mana parties to take most of the Māori seats that Labour holds now.

 

LISTEN TO MOON'S FULL INTERVIEW WITH MIKE HOSKING ABOVE

WHAT YOU SHOULD HAVE HEARD (highlights from Monday's Mike Hosking Breakfast) Too Much Trump/New Zealand to the Moon/Mike's Movies