The Mike Hosking Breakfast

The looming dissolution of our twenty DHBs is a striking reminder of how over-burdened we are by bureaucracy-building. Layer upon layer of governance structures. Armies upon armies of administrators, replicating the same role and needlessly costing us a bomb. There is no economy of scale.
And as I’ve banged on about this week, democratic representation around these health boards is just feel-good window dressing. It’s tinsel for the masses.
Just imagine if we wrapped every police district with a publicly elected board of ernest amateurs and turned them into silos. How pointless would that be.
But the biggest cesspit of duplicated waste would have to be local government. Does New Zealand really need to be governed by eleven regional councils, fifty three district councils and thirteen city councils? Seventy seven in total.
We don’t eagerly engage with them. We hardly vote in council elections with any greater enthusiasm, than we do for health boards. And beyond that, we try and ignore them. My council has just closed submissions on its Budget, the Annual Plan. Zero point six per cent of the population felt there was any point having a say.
Increasingly, all of these councils are dependent on taxpayer handouts. Look at water infrastructure. Roading. Feel-good spend ups on public transport and cycleways. The state coffers are shelling out a shedload to these local authorities, who can’t clean their own face, despite the obscene scale of their rates rises. I actually think rates should be axed and local government should be bulk-funded via general taxation. It would curb the vanity projects. But that’s an issue, for another day.
Now the notion of amalgamation arouses mixed feelings. I get that. Rodney Hide talked a big game on Auckland as a Super City - and what a cluster that council is. But I don’t disagree with the Waikato Chamber of Commerce. It is ludicrous that the four hundred thousand people of the Waikato are governed by twelve councils and one hundred and thirty six councillors.
Could there be a more glaring example of over-governed inefficiency.

More calls this morning to teach kids some real world skills in school.
A LearnCoach survey found 32% of high school students want more classroom focus on how to launch a small business.
It comes amidst a rise in high school students having their own "side hustles" like selling clothes and crafts on social media platforms.
Business coach and author Steve Hockley joined Mike Yardley to speak on how we can get more school kids involved in business.
“I think probably more engagement between the schools and the business community and more things like the Young Enterprise system.”
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The leaders of Russia and China put aside their raw-worded disputes with U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday long enough to pledge international cooperation on cutting climate-wrecking coal and petroleum emissions in a livestreamed summit showcasing America's return to the fight against global warming.
Neither Vladimir Putin nor Xi Jinping immediately followed the United States and some of its developed allies in making specific new pledges to reduce damaging fossil fuel pollution during the first day of the two-day U.S.-hosted summit. But climate advocates hoped the high-profile — if glitch-ridden — virtual gathering would kickstart new action by major polluters, paving the way for a November U.N. meeting in Glasgow critical to drastically slowing climate change over the coming decade.
The entire world faces “a moment of peril” but also “a moment of opportunity,” Biden declared, speaking from a TV-style chrome-blue set for the virtual summit of 40 world leaders. Participants appeared one after the other onscreen for what appeared to be a mix of live and recorded addresses.
“The signs are unmistakable," Biden said. "The science is undeniable. The cost of inaction keeps mounting.”
Biden's new U.S. commitment, timed to the summit, would cut America's fossil fuel emissions as much as 52% by 2030. It comes after four years of international withdrawal from the issue under President Donald Trump, who mocked the science of climate change and pulled the U.S. out of the landmark 2015 Paris climate accord.
Biden’s administration this week is sketching out a vision of a prosperous, clean-energy United States where factories churn out cutting-edge batteries and electric cars for export, line workers re-lay an efficient national electrical grid and crews cap abandoned oil and gas rigs and coal mines.
But Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell dismissed the administration’s plans as costly and ineffective.
“This is quite the one-two punch,” McConnell said in a Senate speech Thursday. “Toothless requests of our foreign adversaries ... and maximum pain for American citizens.”
At the summit, Japan announced its own new 46% emissions reduction target and South Korea said it would stop public financing of new coal-fired power plants, potentially an important step toward persuading China and other coal-reliant nations to curb building and funding of new ones as well.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, one of the leaders shown watching summit proceedings in the coronavirus pandemic's familiar Brady Bunch-style multibox conference screen, said his nation would up its fossil fuel pollution cuts from 30% to at least 40%.
Travel precautions under the pandemic compelled the summit to play out on livestream, limiting opportunities for spontaneous interaction and negotiation. Its opening hours were sometimes marked by electronic echoes, random beeps and off-screen voices.
But the summit also marshaled an impressive display of the world's most powerful leaders speaking on the single issue of climate change.
China's Xi, whose country is the world's biggest emissions culprit, followed by the United States, spoke first among the other global figures. He made no reference to disputes over territorial claims, trade and other matters that had made it uncertain until Wednesday that he would even take part in the U.S. summit. And he said China would work with America in cutting emissions.
“To protect the environment is to protect productivity, and to boost the environment is to boost productivity. It’s as simple as that," Xi said.
Putin and his government have been irate over Biden's characterization of him as a “killer" for Russia's aggressive moves against its opponents, and he is under pressure this week over the declining health of jailed opposition figure Alexei Navalny. But he made no mention of those disputes in his own climate remarks.
“Russia is genuinely interested in...

The Government will move to a new risk-based approach for overseas arrivals that will see passengers on higher-risk flights kept together for their MIQ stay, the Herald understands.
Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins will today unveil the Government's plan to minimise the risk of returnees from countries ravaged by Covid-19, including India.
He will also outline the plan for the extra 1000 to 1300 MIQ rooms a fortnight that are freed up by the transtasman bubble - but they are unlikely to be used in a way that increases overall risk at the border.
Some of them will be used for foreign seasonal workers and students from countries that are free of any community transmission.
The travel ban from India looks unlikely to be extended beyond April 28, despite the number of cases in India tripling since the ban took effect.
"That has not been part of our thinking for citizens," Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said yesterday about the possibility of extending it.
"We can't deem someone stateless. If a New Zealander is abroad, the only legal place they're able to reside, by default, is New Zealand. So we need to enable them to be able to travel home if they need to.
"We have Bora (Bill of Rights Act) obligations that we need to maintain."
Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins will today outline how the Government plans to minimise the risk of overseas returnees from countries where Covid is rampant. Photo / Mark Mitchell
The Herald understands that the Government will instead hone in on other measures to minimise risk, including keeping passengers on high-risk flights together for their MIQ stay.
Currently people on the same flight are often taken to different MIQ facilities.
Cohorting arrivals by flight rather than by country-of-departure acknowledges the potential of in-flight transmission, of which there is documented evidence.
Chief among the red flags is the flight from United Arab Emirates, which has been used as a connecting flight for travellers leaving India, but also many other countries.
The April 10 flight that was serviced by the Auckland airport worker who tested positive this week came from the UAE, for example, and carried six passengers who later tested positive: three from India, two from Kenya, and one from Ethiopia who somehow passed the virus to the cleaner.
On Wednesday, Hipkins suggested a risk-based approach to overseas arrivals rather than a one-size-fits-all model, which Otago University public health experts have been calling for for several months.
Hipkins said the high-risk cohorts will be kept in exclusive MIQ facilities with fewer occupied rooms.
"The changes we're making for very-high-risk and high-risk arrivals ... will have an overall effect. By being stricter about the way we do cohorts, it will mean a greater number of rooms won't be filled," he said.
"There's a lot of countries that are high risk, but there is a small group of them that are very high risk - and India falls into that category."
It's unclear if there will be quarantine wings within those facilities, which would mean people who test positive while in MIQ would avoid the inherent risks associated with being transported to a different facility.
Hipkins has also asked for advice on strengthening pre-departure requirements, but it is unclear if these will change given how impractical any improvements are considered.
Travellers currently need to have a negative test within 72 hours of flying, but many infected passengers on the UAE flight are thought to have caught the virus before heading to the airport in their country of departure, on their way to the airport, at the airport, or on the flight.
Preventing these types of transmission would be difficult short of requiring travellers to quarantine in an approved place near the airport before departure for several days.
Epidemiologist Michael Baker has pushed for...

Grant Robertson is defending the Government's decision to give him more power over Reserve Bank decisions about lending restrictions.
Cabinet has agreed to a give the Finance Minister some oversight in the decision-making process.
Robertson says the change will put into law, a process that's currently governed by convention and memorandums of understanding.
Robertson told Mike Yardley he's confident it won't undermine the central bank's independence.
"The decisions about what LVR rules and other restrictions will ultimately remain with the Reserve Bank Governor."
"It will simply put existing practices into law and the Reserve Bank Governor will continue to make the final decision."
Robertson says they've struck a good balance where the Finance Minister plays an appropriate role in helping define the types and the scope of lending that's done.
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THE BEST BITS IN A SILLIER PACKAGE (from Friday's Mike Hosking Breakfast) Waikato Won't Be Tamed/How We're Working/Weird Lockdown Viewing/That Cup Won't Hold Water

I think most of us can agree we can, and should be able to, slash our food bill.
Well chefs Ganesh Raj and Mike van de Elzen are on a mission to teach us how.
They're fronting our version of the UK hit show, Eat Well For Less.
And the second season drops on TVNZ 1 next Tuesday.
Ganesh Raj and Mike van de Elzen joined Mike Yardley to discuss the new show.
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GPs are questioning Covid-19 vaccination criteria, saying targets are too high for smaller clinics.
The Auckland rollout will have six dedicated super-centres and targeted outreach facilities, but initial plans include only 15 GP and urgent care clinics.
Locations must deliver up to 75 vaccinations a day, along with extra administration and special storage needs.
College of GPs medical director Bryan Betty told Mike Yardley the vaccines need to be accessible.
“Travelling ten kilometres to a stadium event isn’t going to achieve the outcomes we need, we need to be in a local area, and that requires general practice.”
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It seems we're getting a bit tired of the zoom calls.
A Stanford University study found a growing number of us are suffering from zoom fatigue.
And women are finding it tougher than men, that's apparently because women look at themselves more on zoom calls which can produce negative emotions and higher levels of what is called mirror anxiety.
Women's meetings also tend to run longer and they take less breaks between zoom meetings.
Co-author of the study at Stanford is Jeff Hancock, who joined Mike Yardley to explain the results.
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Wednesday that he did nothing wrong when he exchanged text messages with a wealthy industrialist and promised he would “fix” the tax rules for him.
The BBC reported that it had seen messages between Johnson and James Dyson, the vacuum cleaner innovator and home products magnate. The texts were sent in March 2020, when the coronavirus was sweeping across Britain and the government, fearing the health service would be overwhelmed, was trying to secure more ventilators.
It approached the Singapore-based Dyson, who sought assurances that his staff members would not have to pay extra taxes if they came to Britain to work on the project.
According to the BBC, Johnson texted: “I will fix it tomo (tomorrow)! We need you. It looks fantastic.” The broadcaster reported that another message from Johnson said Treasury chief Rishi Sunak "says it is fixed!! We need you here.”
The British government denied wrongdoing, saying Johnson was seeking to source medical equipment in an emergency.
“I make absolutely no apology at all for shifting heaven and earth and doing everything I possibly could, as I think any prime minister would in those circumstances, to secure ventilators for the people of this country," he told lawmakers in the House of Commons.
Johnson said he would be “happy to share all the details” of the messages with lawmakers.
But the main opposition Labour Party said the “jaw-dropping” revelations suggested that the prime minister had “used the power of his office to personally hand public money to a billionaire friend in the form of tax breaks.”
Labour leader Keir Starmer said there was “one rule for those that have got the prime minister’s phone number, another for everybody else."
One of Britain's wealthiest people, Dyson is a prominent Brexit supporter and donor to Johnson's Conservative Party. Dyson’s company did work on ventilators, but they didn't go into full production.
Dyson said it was “absurd to suggest that the urgent correspondence was anything other than seeking compliance with rules, as 450 Dyson people — in U.K. and Singapore — worked around the clock, seven days a week to build potentially life-saving equipment at a time of dire need.”
The news comes on top of allegations of cronyism involving one of Johnson’s Conservative predecessors, former Prime Minister David Cameron.
Cameron, who led Britain between 2010 and 2016, lobbied on behalf of a now-bankrupt financial services firm, Greensill Capital, whose founder he had employed as an adviser. Greensill collapsed last month, threatening thousands of jobs at a British manufacturer, Liberty Steel, which it helped finance.
Cameron has denied wrongdoing. Both the government and Parliament have launched inquiries. Opposition parties are calling for tougher rules on links between government ministers, civil servants and businesses, saying Britain’s laxly enforced lobbying regulations leave the door open to corruption.