The Mike Hosking Breakfast

Abusers are using bank transfers as a way to send disturbing messages to their victims, according to the Bank of New Zealand (BNZ).
According to the bank, people who have been blocked on social media or other ways of communication have used the reference fields in their bank transfers to send inappropriate messages to others.
BNZ says it is cracking down on this type of behaviour and says it has a message for abusers: "We see you and we'll put a stop to it."
"If you are using bank systems to abuse and harass people, know that we see you and will put a stop to it," BNZ general manager for customer assistance Martin King said.
The bank says it will terminate the accounts of anyone caught using the reference fields to send abusive messages.
"Domestic and economic abuse is unacceptable, and if it's a BNZ customer doing this, you can expect a call from us. If the abuse doesn't stop, we'll end your banking services with us. Simple as that," he says.
According to King, BNZ has spent the past six months analysis its data and building up capability to find people who use their bank transfers to harass people.
"While the number of messages we've found hasn't been large, we are absolutely appalled that this is happening at all," he said.
BNZ has found about 2000 messages per month that it deems "problematic". Most of these include swear words or other abusive terms.
However, King says that is not the full extent of the concerning behaviour.
"Around 20 transactions per month are for very small amounts – a few cents, a couple of dollars. It's clear the amount is irrelevant, what they are doing is using the transaction to send messages to a person," King said.
"The only reason someone would do this is to get around a block or a ban on social media, on messaging applications or SMS. Our analysis shows us these are situations where someone has very clearly said they don't want to hear from another person who's then resorted to using the banking system to get around the block. They do this knowing full well that unlike messaging platforms, bank transactions can't easily be blocked," he added.
BNZ has also found instances of inappropriate messages being sent, alongside larger sums of money.
"In these situations we can see people are using their child support payments to carry out the abuse. This is particularly disgusting as that money cannot and should not be blocked, so the receiver has no choice but to see the abusive messages," King added.
"We're putting a stop to it. Our dedicated domestic and economic abuse banking team will be contacting those receiving these transactions to see what they need and what we can do to help.
"We want our customers to know that they do not have to put up with this. We will listen and work together with them, helping them to set up new bank accounts to escape the abuse, and our specialist team can refer them to support organisations such as Women's Refuges and Good Shepherd NZ," he added.
If you're in danger now:
• Phone the police on 111 or ask neighbours of friends to ring for you.
• Run outside and head for where there are other people.
• Scream for help so that your neighbours can hear you.
• Take the children with you.
• Don't stop to get anything else.
• If you are being abused, remember it's not your fault. Violence is never okay
Where to go for help or more information:
• Women's Refuge: Free national crisis line operates 24/7 - 0800 refuge or 0800 733 843 www.womensrefuge.org.nz
• Shine, free national helpline 9am- 11pm every day - 0508 744 633 www.2shine.org.nz
• It's Not Ok: Information line 0800 456 450 www.areyouok.org.nz
• Shakti: Providing specialist cultural services for African, Asian and...

Abusers are using bank transfers as a way to send disturbing messages to their victims, according to the Bank of New Zealand (BNZ).
According to the bank, people who have been blocked on social media or other ways of communication have used the reference fields in their bank transfers to send inappropriate messages to others.
BNZ says it is cracking down on this type of behaviour and says it has a message for abusers: "We see you and we'll put a stop to it."
"If you are using bank systems to abuse and harass people, know that we see you and will put a stop to it," BNZ general manager for customer assistance Martin King said.
The bank says it will terminate the accounts of anyone caught using the reference fields to send abusive messages.
"Domestic and economic abuse is unacceptable, and if it's a BNZ customer doing this, you can expect a call from us. If the abuse doesn't stop, we'll end your banking services with us. Simple as that," he says.
According to King, BNZ has spent the past six months analysis its data and building up capability to find people who use their bank transfers to harass people.
"While the number of messages we've found hasn't been large, we are absolutely appalled that this is happening at all," he said.
BNZ has found about 2000 messages per month that it deems "problematic". Most of these include swear words or other abusive terms.
However, King says that is not the full extent of the concerning behaviour.
"Around 20 transactions per month are for very small amounts – a few cents, a couple of dollars. It's clear the amount is irrelevant, what they are doing is using the transaction to send messages to a person," King said.
"The only reason someone would do this is to get around a block or a ban on social media, on messaging applications or SMS. Our analysis shows us these are situations where someone has very clearly said they don't want to hear from another person who's then resorted to using the banking system to get around the block. They do this knowing full well that unlike messaging platforms, bank transactions can't easily be blocked," he added.
BNZ has also found instances of inappropriate messages being sent, alongside larger sums of money.
"In these situations we can see people are using their child support payments to carry out the abuse. This is particularly disgusting as that money cannot and should not be blocked, so the receiver has no choice but to see the abusive messages," King added.
"We're putting a stop to it. Our dedicated domestic and economic abuse banking team will be contacting those receiving these transactions to see what they need and what we can do to help.
"We want our customers to know that they do not have to put up with this. We will listen and work together with them, helping them to set up new bank accounts to escape the abuse, and our specialist team can refer them to support organisations such as Women's Refuges and Good Shepherd NZ," he added.
If you're in danger now:
• Phone the police on 111 or ask neighbours of friends to ring for you.
• Run outside and head for where there are other people.
• Scream for help so that your neighbours can hear you.
• Take the children with you.
• Don't stop to get anything else.
• If you are being abused, remember it's not your fault. Violence is never okay
Where to go for help or more information:
• Women's Refuge: Free national crisis line operates 24/7 - 0800 refuge or 0800 733 843 www.womensrefuge.org.nz
• Shine, free national helpline 9am- 11pm every day - 0508 744 633 www.2shine.org.nz
• It's Not Ok: Information line 0800 456 450 www.areyouok.org.nz
• Shakti: Providing specialist cultural services for African, Asian and...

A 6-year-old boy was fatally shot Friday in a suspected road rage incident while sitting inside a car being driven by his mother in Orange County, according to the California Highway Patrol.
The child was sitting in a booster seat in the back seat of the car traveling northbound on the 55 Freeway, said CHP Officer Florentino Olivera at a news conference on Friday. The boy was transported to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead, Olivera said.
Authorities are looking for a white sedan and are asking for the public's help in locating it. Olivera said police are interested in talking to anyone who was driving northbound on the 55 Freeway between Chapman Avenue and the 22 Freeway from 7:55 to 8:15 am, especially if their car has a dash camera.
"If you were driving by, you saw something that was not right, call it in," Olivera said. "Even if it wasn't something major, call our office. We want to hear from witnesses."
The shooting was an isolated incident, unrelated to a recent string of pellet and BB gun shootings in Riverside and Orange counties, Olivera said.
Police do not know how many shots were fired or what led to the shooting, according to Olivera.
"We don't have the details of what transpired," he said.
The 55 Freeway is shut down while police investigate the incident and Olivera said the freeway would remain closed until Friday evening.
US correspondent Richard Arnold told Mike Hosking so far in 2021, more than 7,000 people have died from gunshot wounds in the United States.

Questions continue to be raised around the Act Party's cash bonus idea for top teachers in the country.
The party is floating a $250 million fund to reward teachers who are performing best in the classroom.
Act has also proposed new standards if teachers wish to renew their practicing certificates.
Albany Senior High School Principal Claire Amos told Mike Hosking it is a fraught policy proposal.
Amos says it may result in teachers focusing only on NCEA results - at the expense of those who are not top students.
"On this superficial surface level it sounds like a great idea, but actually the delivery of a policy like this has got a whole to of potential, unintended consequences that might not have been thought through," she says.
"The idea that principals can reward high-performing teachers, I think that is a real issue... I think when you give a whole lot of freedom and flexibility as to how you might reward these high-performing teachers, you've got some real potential issues. I would be asking questions about how we would define that."
Amos says we need to up-skill teachers across the board.
"If you're going and throwing a whole lot of money at schools, I would much rather see it spent on things like increasing our teacher non-contract hours, getting smaller students to teachers ratio. We need to get ahead and close that digital divide."

I don’t want to dwell on the Budget.
But if there is one thing that was missed as the two camps reacted to the handouts for benefits and beneficiaries, it's that the point was completely missed. We are talking about it all wrong.
Camp one, it wasn’t enough, and it wasn’t transformational. Camp two, the gap between welfare and work is too little and therefore you're going to have massive labour issues on top of the labour issues we already have.
But surely the point is the context. I wouldn't mind if welfare was more generous, if it was used the way welfare is supposed to be used.
If welfare was a genuine emergency, a genuine stop-gap, entered into with a belief that there is no way you want to be on it and you're doing all you can to get off it, within weeks if not a month or two max, then why not make it generous? Why not soften the blow of a lost job?
But that’s not the way it's seen anymore, if in fact, it was ever seen that way at all. The reason the money handed out last Thursday is not "transformational" is because too many receiving it aren't on it temporarily. They are on it long-term, if not permanently.
I watched those the news services had lined up saying it would help. It will buy some lunch for the kids, someone was buying a car to drive their kids to school, and someone else was hopping on the bus to go somewhere nice with the kids for the weekend.
In other words, they had seen it as a pay rise.
No one said, "it's been hard for the past 6 weeks but fortunately my new job starts Monday, so any raise will simply help cover the gap and pay the bills that have piled up a bit since I got laid off."
You never heard that because for far too many it isn't like that.
The reason it isn't like that is a multi-faceted social mess that many a government has tried to untangle but failed. What we have ended up with is a welfare state that is growing and an expectation that is shrinking.
Socialism is dangerous in this area. Ask the 36-plus states that are dropping Joe Biden's enhanced welfare because they can't get people into work the states that are re-engaging their demands that if you're on welfare, you look for work and prove it, or else your benefit is cut.
The simple truth in this country is there are record levels of job ads and yet thousands on long-term welfare.
Make welfare a genuine stop-gap and make it generous. But as long as it's a lifestyle for too many, we will reap what we socially sow.

The Government is assessing the ramifications of a landmark High Court ruling, on the customary rights of iwi.
Te Whakatōhea has won a three-decade legal battle to carry out customary practices on the foreshore between Whakatāne and Ōpōtiki.
The High Court has granted a new property right called "customary marine title".
As part of the ruling Te Whakatōhea had to prove they had uninterrupted use of the area since 1840, which they succeeded in doing, despite having the land confiscated more than 100 years ago.
Treaty Negotiations Minister Andrew Little told Mike Hosking it could affect how the area is used but is not likely to affect ordinary people.
"It doesn't stop anybody who goes to the beach, do their fishing and all the rest of the recreational stuff we do. But it does give iwi the rights to be consulted over conservation plans, RMA applications - those sorts of things," he says.
"When you look at the legislation and you look at the way the judge has applied it... there's nothing that stands out as being completely left field or completely radical. It's quite a sensible application of the law as it is."

Frustration from a major New Zealand software company over the Ministry of Health's failure to put a new vaccination management system out for competitive tender.
A memo, released under the Official Information Act, shows the ministry signed a major contract for the system without a tender.
The incumbent Orion Health claims they could have built the system costing from $1 to $3 million.
Orion Health chief executive Ian McCrae claims the ministry had a clear and predetermined desire to work with Salesforce and Deloitte instead.
He told Mike Hosking his and other companies were not considered when they should have been.
"The problem here was that that's wrong, they're completely wrong... it's a joke, it's a scam and a waste of $60 million or more in the name of Covid.
"For this amount of money, they should've asked the market."

A big day lies ahead in Samoa after a constitutional crisis over the weekend.
Fiame Naomi Mata'afa and her Faatuatua ile Atua Samoa ua Tasi (FAST) party are due to be sworn in today, after winning the election on a one seat majority.
But it sounds as though the antics are far from over.
On Saturday the Head of State suspended the opening of Parliament before the Supreme Court overturned the decision.
Then, Parliament's Speaker attempted to cancel it, but the Clerk of Parliament says he is not the speaker anymore, so the official convening will go ahead as planned.
Auckland University Pacific studies associate professor Damon Salesa told Mike Hosking the incumbent Government has said it will not turn up today.
"The incumbent Government has said that it's not going to turn up to Parliament," he says.
"They're kind of setting a course towards a showdown between them and the rule of law essentially."
Salesa believes Samoa's problems will drag on for some time.
"25 of 51 members look like they're not going to show, and then there's a whole range of petitions which are contesting individual electorate races, and that's going to take a while to work it's way through."
"Some things are still really up in the air, so today's going to be a really big day."

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.

The Budget.
 
6/10.

"In a non-election year with a socialist government, what more did you want?

But as we've said, Labour is doing what they said they would and they're going for broke with a majority the likes of which they’ll never see again.

So, can you blame them?"

Newshub Poll.
 
2/10.

"Methodology is now a real issue. Offering people names to answer isn't polling in my book.

People signed up for marketing isn't polling either.

#grainofsalt."

First Home Buyers.
 
3/10.

"This is trouble. Statistics this week have first timers at the lowest levels in years.

And that's after a policy that was supposed to do the opposite."

House Prices.
 
7/10.

"Yet more statistics that show prices at record levels.

We still love bricks and mortar, and we're still lining up for the open homes."  

MIQ Debt.
 
2/10.

"Another sad and sorry reminder about how this government handles other people's money.

They don't care.

You stay two weeks in a hotel and don’t pay. What an awesome business model."

Tokyo Olympics.
 
2/10.

"It gets madder by the day,

Can you hold an Olympics in the middle of a Covid emergency with one percent of your population jabbed?

The fact we even ask is how mad it is."

Stoush between New Zealand Rugby and Players' Association over Silver Lake.
 
6/10.

"At least they are talking.

But a good deal is a good deal, and the sooner they get on with it the better."

Super Rugby Trans-Tasman.
 
7/10.

"A couple of decent results that indicate they might not be as useless as feared."

Damien Grant Being Allowed to Continue his Career.
 
7/10.

"Won in the end on the principle that you can make a mistake, but it shouldn't haunt you forever.

I am stoked for him.

If you don’t know the story, look it up, it's uplifting."

LISTEN ABOVE FOR MIKE HOSKING'S FULL WEEK IN REVIEW

The House of Representatives in the United States has approved an independent commission to probe the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, led by supporters of former President Donald Trump.
The House voted by 252-175 to approve the commission which received pushback from House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who worked to kill the bipartisan bill.
However, a battle awaits as the bill now needs approval from 10 Republican senators to usher it into law.US correspondent Richard Arnold told Mike Hosking it does not look possible.
"Donald Trump seems to be calling the shots when it comes to Republicans in Washington senate, backing for a September 11 style commission to investigate the January riots seems to be lacking.
"In the Senate... it seems unlikely to impossible because it would anger one former President sitting in Florida and it would extend debate over the Trump era into the mid-term election campaign cycle as Republicans hope to get back into power without talking about any of that stuff."