The Mike Hosking Breakfast

The age of oral care is upon us - and we have Covid to thank for it.
Because we are all looking at ourselves on Zoom, we are apparently seeing more flaws in ourselves and teeth seem to be at the top of the list.
It's estimated in the US alone last year more than nine billion dollars was spent on oral care as part of the new self-care beauty boom.
Or as one beauty expert put it, teeth have become the new boob job.
Auckland dentist Dr Tony Dey spoke with Mike Hosking.
“Previously it used to be people who would get on television or see themselves on video, now you’re doing it every day and they want to fix those little issues.”
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Returnees from India may still bring Covid-19 to our border, because of a gap in pre-departure testing.
The country's travel ban ends at midnight but entry will be restricted to only New Zealand citizens, their partners, parents and children.
They'll need to show a negative PCR test up to three days before flying. 
Canterbury University modeller Michael Plank told Mike Hosking a test isn't likely to pick up Covid-19 one or two days after infection.
“Really that leaves a whole week long period when someone could get infected and they could have a perfectly valid test, that test will come back negative.”
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There are calls for increased education around illegal rubbish dumping.
Gisborne District Council is pushing for law changes around fines which can be issued for fly-tipping.
Currently the most offenders can be fined is 400 dollars.
But Keep New Zealand Beautiful chief executive Heather Saunderson told Mike Hosking it's not just about penalties.
“I think we need to build on evidence based, create public awareness, provide education, roll out targeted programmes and take strategic regulatory action.”
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Fish and Game's facing its biggest shake-up in decades.
More than 35 recommendations have been made following an independent review that's found the organisation lacks good governance.
They include reducing the number of Fish and Game regional councils, and encouraging more Maori participation.
Fish and Game National Chair Ray Grubb told Mike Hosking the governance structure hasn't changed since 1990.
“So you had one against the other, more so than we needed and we need to reduce the number of regions, get good governance in there and concentrate on getting our results of our license holders where it matters.”
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THE BEST BITS IN A SILLIER PACKAGE (from Tuesday's Mike Hosking Breakfast) What Are We Getting for Our Money?/Just On Last Week's News Again/Ah, Those Ads/The Future Is Now/CrocTalk ZB

Andrew Little admits our funding model for GP visits is flawed and outdated.
The Herald's found enrolled patients can pay between 10 and 70 dollars for an appointment in Auckland, or 90 dollars if they're not enrolled.
The Health Minister says the model doesn't take account of things like people living in poorer areas and ethnic differences.
Little says told Mike Hosking for a lot of patients, particularly older ones, it takes longer than 15 minutes to go through all their issues.
“The funding which allows for a 15 minute consult is incredibly inadequate for the purpose.”
Andrew Little is looking at the system, saying it will be several months before any decisions are made around funding.
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The talent I admire among many a politician, but particularly this current lot, is the ability to spout complete crap and do it with a straight face.
It doesn’t get a lot clearer than an Auditor-General telling you your Ihumātao deal is unlawful.
Something is either lawful or it isn’t. Turns out Ihumātao wasn’t, but that didn’t stop the government pretending illegality wasn’t really a big deal.
It was a technicality. Of course it was, easily solved. Sort of like taking something from a shop without paying isn’t theft, it’s a technicality.
When you’re caught you go back put the item back, apologise, offer to pay for it, say you’ll never do it again – see, easy, a technicality.
They figured that the money taken from housing was sort of going to housing anyway, so if a house got built, did it really matter where it was?
The fact they had no idea whether any houses would be built shouldn’t diminish from the simple misunderstanding between a technicality and illegality: after all, both words end in “y”.
You knew this stunk right from the start. You knew something was up from the very day the poor old PM who couldn’t help herself waded in and told Fletchers to stop building until something got sorted.
That something took an age as it was always going to, because the Ardern  wade in was in fact an over reach, and once she had spouted off, everyone else had to scramble to try and work out what the hell to do without turning it into an almighty Treaty free-for-all.
That’s why they slipped it out just before Christmas. We’d all gone on holiday and we’d forget about it by February.
Except, of course, until it turned out to be a stitch up, and the Auditor-General ran the ruler over it.
The weird thing for me was they knew it was a mess from day one and yet, knowing that, clearly not once did anyone go and get some legal advice.
No one even clearly thought about asking the question: why not?
You’re either startlingly arrogant or thick or quite possibly in this case both, that you can stitch up something as shonky as this, not ask a single legal mind a single question, slip it out at Christmas, and then assume nothing is going to come back to bite you.
Add it to the list of stuff they’ve cocked up and we’ve paid for. If National and ACT are taking notes, they’re going to have an astonishing list set to go by 2023.

A concert promoter says Saturday's Six60 concert at Eden Park isn't likely to be repeated with international acts, any time soon.
50,000 people packed the Auckland stadium for its first ever concert, which is believed to be the biggest concert in the world since the Covid-19 pandemic began.
Eden Park says it's now receiving interest from other acts keen to play at the venue.
But concert promoter Phil Sprey told Mike Hosking a number of things are keeping international acts away, including a lack of MIQ spaces.
He says he'd like to be able to host artists in a separate MIQ facility, completely at the cost of the promoter.
"One of our game plans was to, totally at the cost of the promoter, bring artist here, put them in managed quarantine and I don't mean the government hotels in Auckland."
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Chinese-American director Chloe Zhao is setting precedents.
This year her film Nomadland dominated the Oscars, winning best picture, best director and best actress.
She's the first woman of colour and only the second woman ever to win the directing Oscar.
Kiwi Chinese director of the new TVNZ series Creamerie , Roseanne Liang told Mike Hosking Zhao is breaking down stereotypes.
"She is heartful, she is so human. It goes against the narrative of China being this great evil behemoth."
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Americans vaccinated against Covid-19 could soon take a Summer holiday in Europe.
The European Commission has announced free movement within the EU, for United States residents who have used approved vaccines, starting around July.
European Travel Commission executive director Eduardo Santander told Mike Hosking it's incredibly good news, as demand for visitors is at an all time high.
"People have money to spend so there is a lot of appetite for travelling and we all want to go out and enjoy ourselves and the beauties of Europe."
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