The Mike Hosking Breakfast

New Zealand should learn from others' mistakes in our Covid-19 vaccine rollout.
Australia's community pharmacies are currently awaiting the green light to start administering the vaccine.
Health professionals say they should've been involved in the process right from the start.
Pharmacy Guild chief executive Andrew Gaudin told Mike Hosking we need to take note and use our pharmacists early.
"Community pharmacies are being used very effectively in international settings, in the UK, US, and now in Australia."
He says it's critical community pharmacies play a part in New Zealand's vaccine rollout.
"Community pharmacies need to play a key role. We absolutely need to use our 1800 vaccinators."
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Joseph Parker says the best is yet to come after his first win under new trainer Andy Lee.
The Kiwi heavyweight has conceded he took his "foot off the accelerator" against Derek Chisora but blamed an elbow injury, sustained during the fight, for slowing him down.
Parker won a split decision in Manchester after suffering a knockdown in the first round.
It was the final fight in his deal with Matchroom Boxing and he is now eyeing an immediate re-match with Chisora, while Dillian Whyte and Andy Ruiz are the other possibilities.
The Parker-Chisora fight took place in an empty stadium because of Covid-19 and Parker told Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking it was a strange experience.
"It was weird in a stadium with no crowd…I could hear specific voices, I could hear my opponent breathing heavily, it was very weird," he said.
"Usually I can hear the crowd cheering and chanting.
"I haven't watched the fight back yet but I was suffering problems with my right elbow – I think it was caused in the middle rounds.
"I must have taken the foot off the accelerator – the killer instinct sort of kicked in at the end. But I'll have to watch the fight to see what I did wrong."
The outspoken Whyte is among those claiming that Chisora should have been awarded the fight.
Parker conceded it was a very close call, and was unsure how it would go after the 12th and final round.
"It was very hard for us to tell, when the hand was raised I was very happy, very delighted that we got the win," he said.
"I wasn't quite sure…I felt I did enough mid rounds and picked him off with jabs at the end of the fight.
"It was a very close fight. A lot of people are questioning it but I believe I did enough to win.
"From the sound of it they want a rematch, and I'll take that in a heartbeat. A lot of people thought it went my way, a lot of people thought it went his way.
"The only way to solve this problem is to have a rematch and to see who the actual winner was.
"If we can make it on to the undercard of the Tyson Fury-Anthony Joshua fight it would be a great experience, and will be a great fight.
"I want to show exactly why I won the fight in the first place."
Parker will remain in England to train under Lee, who replaced Kevin Barry after Parker's battling win over Junior Fa in Auckland this year.
"I know it will be a long term thing (with Lee)," Parker said.
"I showed glimpses of what I have worked on…it's early days, it's great to get away with the win, and keep progressing.
"I'll stay here to continue training, to work on the things I need to work on, and fight in July or August.
"Hopefully I'll show a lot more improvement in the next fight."
Parker said he would leave the match-making up to his manager David Higgins, as he positions himself for another shot at a world title.
"I don't care who I fight – I just want to be involved in the most exciting fight out there," he said.
"If it is Andy Ruiz I'll take it in a heartbeat…if it is Dillian Whyte I'll take it with both hands. We have to position ourselves for when the belt becomes available."

A Government Minister’s appearance at a Mongrel Mob event over the weekend has been described as “unbelievable” and an “insult”.
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson and Human Rights Commissioner Paul Hunt attended a Mongrel Mob gathering at their headquarters in Hamilton where they discussed human rights, justice and racism.
Speaking at the event, Davidson called it “a fabulous community event for justice" for "diverse communities who have been subject to enduring and systemic racism".
Co-leader of the Sensible Sentencing Trust Darroch Ball told Mike Hosking that it’s insult for a minister to stand in front of an organisation known for “peddling misery”.
"What's most surprising to me is the Minister for [Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence] is standing up there, representing the Government at some sort of hui."
He says it doesn't surprise him as there is an environment in the country where 
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SpaceX safely returned four astronauts from the International Space Station on Sunday, making the first U.S. crew splashdown in darkness since the Apollo 8 moonshot.
The Dragon capsule parachuted into the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Panama City, Florida, just before 3 a.m., ending the second astronaut flight for Elon Musk's company.
It was an express trip home, lasting just 6 1/2 hours.
The astronauts, three American and one Japanese, flew back in the same capsule — named Resilience — in which they launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in November.
"We welcome you back to planet Earth and thanks for flying SpaceX," SpaceX's Mission Control radioed moments after splashdown. "For those of you enrolled in our frequent flyer program, you've earned 68 million miles on this voyage."
"We'll take those miles," said spacecraft commander Mike Hopkins. "Are they transferrable?" SpaceX replied that the astronauts would have to check with the company's marketing department.
Within a half-hour of splashdown, the charred capsule — resembling a giant toasted marshmallow — had been hoisted onto the recovery ship, with the astronauts exiting soon afterward. NASA and SpaceX managers marveled at how fast and smooth the operation went. The company's senior adviser, Hans Koenigsmann, said "it looked more like a race car pit stop than anything else."
Hopkins was the first one out, doing a little dance as he emerged under the intense spotlights.
"It's amazing what can be accomplished when people come together," he told SpaceX flight controllers at company headquarters in Hawthorne, California. "Quite frankly, you all are changing the world. Congratulations. It's great to be back."
The 167-day mission was the longest for a crew capsule launching from the U.S. The previous record of 84 days was set by NASA's final Skylab station astronauts in 1974.
Saturday night's undocking left seven people at the space station, four of whom arrived a week ago via SpaceX.
"Earthbound!" NASA astronaut Victor Glover, the capsule's pilot, tweeted after departing the station. "One step closer to family and home!"
Hopkins and Glover — along with NASA's Shannon Walker and Japan's Soichi Noguchi — should have returned to Earth last Wednesday, but high offshore winds forced SpaceX to pass up a pair of daytime landing attempts. Managers switched to a rare splashdown in darkness, to take advantage of calm weather.
SpaceX had practiced for a nighttime return, just in case, and even recovered its most recent station cargo capsule from the Gulf of Mexico in darkness. Infrared cameras tracked the astronauts' capsule as it re-entered the atmosphere; it resembled a bright star streaking through the night sky.
All four main parachutes could be seen deploying just before splashdown, which was also visible in the infrared.
Apollo 8 — NASA's first flight to the moon with astronauts — ended with a predawn splashdown in the Pacific near Hawaii on Dec. 27, 1968. Eight years later, a Soviet capsule with two cosmonauts ended up in a dark, partially frozen lake in Kazakhstan, blown off course in a blizzard.
That was it for nighttime crew splashdowns — until Sunday.
Despite the early hour, the Coast Guard was out in full force to enforce an 11-mile (18-kilometer) keep-out zone around the bobbing Dragon capsule. For SpaceX's first crew return in August, pleasure boaters swarmed the capsule, a safety risk. Leisure boats stayed away this time.
Once finished with their medical checks on the ship, the astronauts planned to hop on a helicopter for the short flight to shore, then catch a plane straight to Houston for a reunion with their families.
"It's not very often you get to wake up on the space station and go to sleep in Houston," chief flight director Holly Ridings told reporters.
The astronauts' capsule, Resilience, will head back to Cape Canaveral for refurbishment for SpaceX's...

The Morrison government has defended its international travel restrictions, maintaining they are consistent with international human rights law, despite strong criticism from the national watchdog.
The Human Rights Commission revealed it had “serious concerns” about threats to jail or fine Australian citizens returning from India under a new travel ban.
From Monday, people who have been in India within the previous fortnight before their intended arrival in Australia will face a $66,600 fine, as well as five years imprisonment for entering the country.
The government has staunchly defended the tough move saying it was necessary to protect Australia’s public health and the quarantine systems, as India records more than 300,000 new COVID-19 cases a day.
The subcontinent nation reported more than 400,000 new cases on Saturday, the highest ever daily count globally, after 10 straight days of more than 300,000 new daily cases.
But the human rights watchdog said the shock move “raises serious human rights concerns”.
“The commission holds deep concerns about these extraordinary new restrictions on Australians returning to Australia from India,” it said in a statement.
“The need for such restrictions must be publicly justified.
“The government must show that these measures are not discriminatory and the only suitable way of dealing with the threat to public health.
“The commission is approaching the Australian government directly with its concerns.”
The watchdog has also urged a Senate COVID-19 committee to immediately review the restrictions.
A government spokeswoman said it took its obligations under international human rights law “seriously”.
“Australia’s inward and outward travel restrictions are consistent with international human rights law,” she said.
“The right not to be arbitrarily deprived of entering one’s own country can be subject to restrictions.
“Delaying or imposing restrictions to enable government to appropriately manage returns to Australia is not arbitrary.
“Restrictions necessary for the protection of public health are a valid reason for delaying or restricting return in the context of a global pandemic.”
The government will reconsider the travel ban on May 15 following advice from Australia’s chief medical officer.
But opposition defence spokesman Brendan O’Connor said flight bans alone would have been sufficient.
 “I don’t believe the government should be focusing on how to criminalise or jail Australians for wanting to return,” Mr O’Connor said.
“I think that is a deliberate political strategy to distract from their failure to build quarantine facilities that would have enabled Australians returning home more effectively.”
Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne said 57 per cent of positive cases in quarantine were people returning from India, up from 10 per cent the previous month.
Senator Payne said the high infection rate had placed a “significant burden” on health and medical services in states and territories, and the quarantine program.
“It absolutely does not prove that we are not confident about the hotel quarantine arrangements,” she said in defence of the system.
 “Pausing the returns process allows the system to manage those infections.”
Senator Payne said eight repatriation flights were booked to return Australians from India in May.
“When the review occurs, we will plan what the resumption of those flight will be and if we are able to increase them,” she said.
Senator Payne also ruled out Christmas Island being used to quarantine returning traveller as it was not suitable and was being used for other purposes.
Labor has called on the government to do more to assist India, as thousands of people are dying daily with COVID-19.
Australia has agreed to provide emergency medical supplies, including more than 1000 non-invasive ventilators, and has offered to supply...

Sir John Key says our Government is entitled to take an independent stance on China.
The former prime minister is among business leaders, government officials and political figures, speaking at today's China Business Summit in Auckland.
This year's events come amid global controversy about China's human rights record, and New Zealand's relationship with China.
Sir John told Mike Hosking our Government should be able to take a different position on China than other members of Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance.
"That's what it is, an intelligence sharing, not a platform for peddling views on any or all other issues. I think it should be kept for security."
He says the souring of relations between China and the west - sparked in part by Donald Trump - is having very real consequences for New Zealand.
Sir John says it's in New Zealand's interests to continue to maintain an independent and civil relationship with our largest trading partner.
"We know that China is a massive market, we know it's going to continue to get wealthier, we know it will become a superpower, and within that there will be enormous opportunities for a country like New Zealand."
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Government-funded truancy services are so poorly resourced that more than 30,000 students who miss at least three days of school a fortnight are out of reach.
The figures are contained in a Ministry of Education briefing note, obtained by the Herald, from December 2020 to Associate Minister of Education Jan Tinetti.
The note says that tackling truancy was the shared responsibility of students, parents, schools, communities, contracted Attendance Services (AS) and the Ministry of Education.
"The $9.676m allocated annually to Attendance Services reaches only around 12,000 frequently-absent students and another 10,000 students not enrolled in any school, the majority in Years 8-11," the briefing says.
"Based on Attendance Survey data, we estimate that there are more than 30,000 ākonga (students) in Years 1-11 attending less than 70 per cent (of learning days)."
Graph showing attendance by year level, comparing 2015, 2018 and 2019. Source / Ministry of Education
AS is a national service, with 21 providers including nine schools throughout New Zealand, which works with students aged 6 to 16 and their families to address root causes of non-attendance.
"Current funding provides for, on average, four hours per case for an Attendance Adviser to follow up on a student, develop a plan, and support a return to school. These funding settings will place limitations on progressing this work as schools will need to try and work differently within the same level of funding."
The briefing note says 25 per cent of students in 2019 were irregularly absent (80-90 per cent attendance), 9 per cent were moderately absence (70-80 per cent attendance), and 7 per cent were chronically absent (less than 70 per cent attendance - or missing at least three days of school every fortnight).
National Party education spokesman Paul Goldsmith called it a "truancy crisis".
"And the Government cares more about ending first-year tertiary fees for middle-class families (via its fees-free scheme) than it does about kids missing out on an education.
"We have a lot of rhetoric from the Government about how much they care about the kids who are missing out, but the rhetoric isn't matched with reality."
The briefing note follows a police truancy overview from July last year that showed a single truancy officer for the 80 schools in the Waitematā East area, despite truancy being on the rise.
The overview said that local schools wanted to hire their own truancy officers instead of the current model of contracted services via the ministry.
"Some attendance officers are reportedly not easily contactable, not willing to accept cases or providing poor results for priority cases," the overview said.
Tinetti said truancy services were being reviewed, but would not say whether this year's Budget would boost more funding.
She said there were many elements in the equation of how to engage students - including the school lunches and period products in schools programmes.
"In 2020, the Attendance Service supported 18,369 ākonga - that's a huge effort.
"There is great work already happening but yet more work to be done - we all want all students to be attending school regularly."
The briefing note added that school attendance had dropped substantially from 2015 to 2019, and across all regions, ethnicities, deciles and year levels.
"In 2019, only 58 per cent of students attended school regularly during term 2 (that is, 42 per cent of students were absent from school for the equivalent of one or more days per fortnight)."
Attendance was poorer in lower decile schools and among Maori and Pasifika students, and attendance at the primary and intermediate level - Years 1 to 8 - had fallen by 14 percentage points since 2015. Half of that drop had happened in 2019 alone.
While attendance increased in term two in 2020, following the national lockdown for the Covid-19 response,...

THE BEST BITS IN A SILLIER PACKAGE (from Monday's Mike Hosking Breakfast) We Voted For Them. I Guess/At Least Grab a Credit Card/Double No-Show Show/Round and Round/This Week It's Their Year

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.


New Zealand Rugby's Silver Lake Deal: 8/10

"The more I know, the more it makes sense.

And why the Players Association, in other words the union, don’t want it, I don’t get."


Auckland's Queen Street: 1/10

"A symbol of all that is wrong with this country's biggest city and engine room.

A failed shambles and an ideological minefield.

When business owners are suing the city, you know it's out of control."


Singapore: 8/10

"A signal for the rest of the planet. They have a date for their bubble with Hong Kong.

They want Australia in, they want the world back, and they want to be seen as the country leading the way.

That's what we need more of, aspiration.

And that’s why they got made number one for their Covid response this week."  


Disneyland Reopening: 7/10

"It's open again, and was part of a real week of global hope.

From Britain, to Italy, to the US and beyond, restrictions are being lifted, needles are in arms, and there is hope in the air."


The Oscars: 2/10

"The Queen Street of entertainment.

Once fun, enjoyed, followed, and watched.

Now each year they still set records, but for the number of people who no longer can be bothered."


EU Wanting Control over Halloumi: 3/10

"In a week they officially put Brexit to bed, a reminder of just what a bunch of narrow minded, miserly navel gazers the EU are."


Crocs: 7/10

"I don’t like them, but so what?

They're hot, they're the “it” shoe of the pandemic, and they're a success story.

They go along with all the other success stories we heard from this week in the US reporting season."


The NRL: 7/10

"Conferences and an expanded competition, it's got real potential."


Shaun Johnson Wanting to Come Back to the Warriors: 4/10

"Still good, but not that good.

Proof that the Warriors have moved on."


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A headline caught my eye the other day.
A local site I will not name, but a site with a predilection for climate change coverage, had the headline "2021 is a make-or-break year; UN warns dramatic climate change action needed."
My first thought was just how many times has that warning been issued? And how many times does it get issued before it’s a cry wolf special and people roll their eyes? Or have they already cried wolf and we already are rolling our eyes?
That's before we get to that mad march last week as angsty teenagers yet again hit the streets to proclaim we are already at the exit, the last offramp, and it's already too late.
At this point I looked up a few alarmist headlines to check dates. I was sure they used to tell us we only had until the end of the century, as in 2000, before it was too late.
First thing that popped up, "the hellish monotony of 25 years of IPCC climate change warnings.” Believe me; once you start looking, it’s a rabbit hole.
This story was published March of 2014. It starts "island nations rendered uninhabitable, millions of people to be displaced by floods, uncertainties over global food supplies, and severe impacts on human health across the world."
It went on, "changes in the availability of food, fuel, medicine, construction materials, and income are possible as these ecosystems are changed."
The day this story was published, 2014, was the day of the latest block buster IPCC report. But the aforementioned alarmism wasn’t actually from that report.
It was taken from the one in 1988, 26 years earlier, and first published in 1990, 24 years previous, or 30 years as of now.
So, for over a generation, the alarm bells have been ringing. This isn't to say there isn't an issue, and let's not get into whose fault it may or may not be.
But what is unavoidable is that most of what they said would happen, hasn’t.
The calamity has not come to pass. We still have our medicines, we still build our houses, and really, most of the efforts we have made towards addressing these crimes have come to little. If anything, more than a few documents cobbled together out of international gabfests concluded with the obligatory communique that in the following years gets largely ignored.
To get a message across you need credibility. Thinking of the worst thing that can happen, whether it will happen or not, and yelling it loudly has no credibility.
The fact we are still doing this 30 years after our so-called destruction, demise, and ruin, lays that truth out pretty clearly.
Perhaps it's time the zealots checked themselves and tried something a little less alarmist, and a little more realistic.
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