The Mike Hosking Breakfast

Some Canterbury farmers are waking to a mountain of work - and stranded livestock.
Federated Farmers Mid-Canterbury President David Clark told Mike Hosking his farm is unscathed - but it's not the same story for his neighbours.
He says nearby farmers have isolated stock and half of their farms under water.
They have prioritised their stock over infrastructure and are looking at getting their stock back out as soon as possible.
"The priority today is getting back out the stock and getting them fed, yesterday was about safety and making sure nobody got killed in this event."
Inland from Ashburton, Clark said it has been a rugged for a couple of days, but it looks as though they have peaked and are on the road to improvement.
 
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Kate Hawkesby and Tim Wilson join Mike Hosking to wrap the week that was.
It's the one Kiwis have been waiting for - and last night just under a million fans tuned in to watch the long-anticipated Friends reunion special.
The three debate whether Mike is holding Kate back in her bid to become Auckland's next mayor.
And finally, they rounded the conversation off discussing the perils of growing up in the Internet Age, making mistakes that end up permanently on social media for the whole world to see.
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Premier Daniel Andrews says Victoria is “actively pursuing” the construction of a purpose-built quarantine centre, potentially near Avalon or Melbourne airports.
The facility will be a cabin-style, village-style environment, based on the Howard Springs model in the Northern Territory.
Mr Andrews told reporters on Tuesday that a delegation will be sent to Howard Springs to see how the facility is set-up.
“We are going to get on and build a facility,” he said.
“It’s just a matter of how big it is and the more precise details of where, but Avalon and Melbourne Airports are stand-out candidates and I’m very grateful to them for the partnership and work they’ve already done with us.”
He said the new purpose-built facility would serve to replace, although maybe not entirely, the work of inner city hotels.
“I think there is a compelling argument for this, not just in Melbourne, not just in the Northern Territory,” he said.
“I know the Queensland Government are working in partnership with the around a facility of similar structure.”
It comes after experts called for Australia’s hotel quarantine program to be reformed after coronavirus leaks from facilities in several states, and ahead of the country’s vaccine roll-out.
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At the end of each week, Mike Hosking takes you through the big-ticket items and lets you know what he makes of it all.
 
Fonterra 9/10
"A midpoint price we never thought we would see again.
It's demand for a product globally that is literally saving us."
 
Adrian Orr and Govt's Prediction that House Price Growth Will Slow Dramatically 3/10
"The worry is these people are supposed to know what they are talking about.
Call me if it ever happens the way they say it will."
 
Spending Numbers 8/10
"We spent like drunks, according to the statistics this week.
So much so, it may, they think, have saved us from dropping into a recession."
 
Our Vaccine Rollout 2/10
"Delayed, slow, and still, they pretend it's all good."
 
ACT's Idea on Teachers' Pay 8/10
"Given what we know about our performance in the classroom, who can argue with it?
And yet they do. It's a recipe for going nowhere fast."
 
Long Term Benefit Numbers 2/10
"It's the social crime of the age. People are rotting helpless and hopeless for extended periods.
And the government's answer is more money."
 
Liam Lawson 8/10
"Won in Monaco but got robbed through a technicality.
But he's another New Zealander, along with Scott Dixon's pole this Monday at the Indy 500, flying the flag in the most patriotic of ways."
 
Phil Mickelson PGA Championship Win 9/10
"Sports story of the week.
Turning back the clock, most watched final round in years, and mad uncontrolled crowds.
It is why we love sport."
 
Wellington Phoenix Crowd 8/10
"A reminder of the value of crowds and the value of being at home."
 
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If protecting yourself against Covid-19 isn't incentive enough to get the vaccine, how will winning a million dollars or a full ride scholarship to college?
That's what two lucky Ohio residents are now enjoying, all because they got vaccinated.
The state announcing the first winners of its vaccine lottery, a recent college graduate took home the $1 million prize and 14-year-old Joseph Costello won a four year full ride scholarship.
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They're the most popular Friends around, but it wasn't easy creating the group.
The much-anticipated Friends reunion has aired, with the cast talking about their favourite times on the iconic sitcom.
Casting director Ellie Kanner says many actors had already booked other shows, because it was being put together late in the pilot season.
She told Mike Hosking David Schwimmer - Ross - didn't want to do another TV show.
“But the producers had worked with him before and I was close with his agent. Together, we convinced him to read the script and then to just come out and do one audition and he fell in love with it.”
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Covid anxiety is trumping lockdown fatigue in Victoria -- as the state wakes up to another Covid-19 lockdown.
The state's begun a seven day lockdown, to contain a community cluster of 26 cases.
New Zealand has also suspended quarantine-free travel with Victoria, and is urging New Zealanders who visited locations of interest to self-isolate and get tested.
Victoria Opposition MP Tim Smith told Mike Hosking people are genuinely nervous and scared.
“The last lockdown in Victoria in February, there was only a half a dozen cases. There was a breach out of hotel quarantine, no one could work out why on earth did we lock down. This time it’s a bit different, this time people are very nervous.”
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A Dutch court on Wednesday ordered Royal Dutch Shell to cut its carbon emissions by net 45% by 2030 compared to 2019 levels in a landmark case brought by climate activism groups, which hailed the decision as a victory for the planet.
The Hague District Court ruled that the Anglo-Dutch energy giant has a duty of care to reduce emissions and that its current reduction plans were not concrete enough.
The decision could set a precedent for similar cases against polluting multinationals around the world. Activists gathered outside the courtroom erupted into cheers as the decision was read out loud.
"The climate won today," said Roger Cox, a lawyer for the Dutch arm of Friends of the Earth, which was one of the organizations behind the case.
"This ruling will change the world. Worldwide, people are in the starting blocks to take legal action against oil companies following our example," Cox added.
The Hague court did not say how Royal Dutch Shell should achieve the ordered cutback, saying the energy giant's parent company "has complete freedom in how it meets its reduction obligation and in shaping the Shell group's corporate policy."
In a written reaction, Shell said it expects to appeal the "disappointing court decision."
The company said it is already "investing billions of dollars in low-carbon energy, including electric vehicle charging, hydrogen, renewables and biofuels. We want to grow demand for these products and scale up our new energy businesses even more quickly."
At a hearing in December, Shell lawyer Dennis Horeman said a ruling against the company could create a situation "in which countless parties can hold each other accountable for their role in that (energy) transition through the courts" and give judges "a central role in an active and delicate political process."
Shell says it has set "an ambition to be a net-zero emissions energy business by 2050, or sooner."
The court said in an English language summary of its ruling that Shell was not currently in breach of its obligation to reduce emissions, as the environmental groups had argued, because the parent company was tightening its emissions policy.
But it ruled that Shell's policy "is not concrete, has many caveats and is based on monitoring social developments rather than the company's own responsibility for achieving a CO2 reduction."
"Therefore, the court has ordered RDS to reduce the emissions of the Shell group, its suppliers and its customers by net 45%, as compared to 2019 levels, by the end of 2030, through the corporate policy of the Shell group."
A group of seven environmental and human rights organizations and some 17,000 Dutch citizens filed the case in 2018, calling on the court to order Shell to cut emissions in line with the global goals set out in the Paris climate agreement. That equates to Shell cutting emissions 45% by 2030.
The court ruled on the claims by six of the groups.
The case in the Netherlands is the latest in a string of legal challenges filed around the world by climate activists seeking action to rein in emissions, but it is believed to be the first targeting a multinational company.
One of the first successful climate cases also was in the Netherlands, where the Supreme Court two years ago upheld a 2015 ruling requiring the government to cut emissions at least 25% by the end of 2020 from benchmark 1990 levels.
In February, a Paris court ruled that the French government had failed to take sufficient action to fight climate change in a case brought by four nongovernmental organizations. Last month, Germany's top court said the federal government must set clear goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions after 2030.
Donald Pols, director of Friends of the Earth Netherlands, called the ruling in The Hague, "a monumental victory for our planet, for our children and a big leap towards a liveable future for everyone."
- words by MIKE CORDER...

Tennis player Naomi Osaka is refusing to speak to media during the French Open, saying people have no regard for athletes' mental health.
The world's highest-earning female athlete says she hopes the $100,000 she will be fined for not speaking will go towards a mental health charity.
In a statement posted to Twitter, she said "We’re often sat there and asked questions that bring doubt into our minds and I’m just not going to subject myself to people that doubt me."
Sports psychologist and Emeritus professor Gary Hermansson told Mike Hosking Osaka is in a unique position in a sport that is unique in the way media and athletes interact.
“It’s a little bit unique in tennis compared to other sports where you have a bit more time to process what’s going on.”
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Act leader David Seymour says we need to stop labelling people - and treat each person with respect.
Newstalk ZB has been leaked audio from a tape played to teachers at a teacher's only day.
In it, it instructs teachers to list their own privilege - including the likes of white privilege.
Earlier this month, a student at a Whangārei primary school had to stand up in front of their classroom and say what they'd done to acknowledge their white privilege.
Act leader David Seymour told Mike Hosking imagine you're a child who is unloved, and perhaps abused, who goes along to school and told you're privileged because of your colour.
“And then you might say ‘well hang on, don’t we want to treat each person with respect and dignity, take them as we find them.’”
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