The Mike Hosking Breakfast

No jab, no Olympics.
A former Olympian and sports administrator says athletes unwilling to get the Covid-19 vaccine, should give up their place on the team.
Athletes going to Tokyo will be able to join the "national significance" lane,  to be fast-tracked for vaccination before they leave the country.
They'll still have to do two weeks of quarantine when they come back.
Dave Gerrard is now an official with the World Anti-Doping Agency and told Mike Hosking it's a no brainer.
He says if they don't have a vaccination, an Olympian's place on the team should go to someone who's more conscious of the science and what's being done to keep the country safe.
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Westpac's New Zealand arm could end up in public ownership, but that outcome's considered unlikely.
The Australian banking group is weighing up whether to sell off its New Zealand arm, following changes to capital requirements in New Zealand.
It may consider a listing on the New Zealand stock exchange, or a sale to another offshore bank.
KPMG head of banking and finance John Kensington told Mike Hosking some public entities could also be interested.
He says ACC, Kiwibank and the Super Fund are being floated as buyers, but in effect, it would be a large reverse takeover.
Kensington says that's not the only option on the cards.
He says Westpac could launch a partial IPO and retain partial ownership, or it could sell to another bank, either here or offshore.
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It was a year ago today we locked down.
Level 4. We'd never heard of level 4. And in the ensuing days talkback was littered with people who displayed one of the, if not the, most annoying habits of the past 12 months. The inability to use common sense and think for yourself.
Remember it? We were told to stay local, but local was a movable concept, apparently.
"I normally drive 12 kilometres for a walk, am I still local?"
We also got the email to dob people in who weren't following orders. Yes, we became a nation of narks. A trait reprised recently in the South Auckland lockdown when the Prime Minister was exposed for having overreacted to a so-called super spreader risk. She decided to blame the poor family and told us to dob in those who weren't doing as they were told.
We shared the global trait of panic shopping. Those of us deemed essential workers loved the quiet streets. But little did we know so many would never return, and this new working from home lark would become a “thing” and CBDs would be in real trouble.
We were, lest we forget, only here this day a year ago because the screaming got so loud over locking the border the government finally caved. But little did we know once they shut it, what a control exercise they would turn it into.
The MIQ system was finally set up. That was only after they thought their self-isolation, their “high trust model” would be a hit, but it wasn't. The MIQ system they set up, turned out to be the ongoing weak link. Although never proven the Americold lockdown and the Sky Chefs lockdown were border issues.
The MIQ facilities themselves, with their hopelessly lax testing, caused more issues.
Essentially in a year, a full 12 months, we've gone nowhere. We've locked the border, set up a half-baked hotel system that leaks, and that’s that. PPE and flu jabs were a shambles.
This new Ashley Bloomfield bloke we quite liked, until he turned out to be in charge of a useless department that was constantly caught out. Even a report commissioned by his government, penned by Sir Brian Roche and Heather Simpson told us just how hopeless they were.
Yes, we sort of held the virus at bay. But the word elimination became a joke. We were told a year ago the value of level 4 was we wouldn't have to yo-yo in and out of lockdown. Whoops.
Yes, we have done better than many, but not as well as Vietnam, Taiwan, or Australia. And our economy is paying a horrific price.
The one o'clock lectures have become a source of real anger, especially given they claimed they were delivered at the pulpit of truth. We still don’t have a vaccine rollout to talk much of, despite so many millions of jabs already dispensed globally.
We have lived, rested, and even got smug on our laurels. Our one trick a year ago has been worked, reworked, sold, and resold for 12 long months now. More people every day see it for what it is.
The bubble has become a farce. The catch phrases seem tired.
If shutting the door to re-group and hunker for a short period was the thinking, we did well, and better than most.
If it was supposed to buy us time for a plan, an aspirational opportunity to be grabbed to propel us into the new world more invigorated and opportunistic than ever, we have failed abysmally.
Overall, I wanted better for us. I still want better for us. We can do more and be more.
But between a combination of fear, ineptitude, arrogance, and dishonesty, the government aren't up for it, a lot of New Zealanders aren't up for it.
So, 12 months in, we are at a crossroads.
This has been a 5/10 experience at best. I pray the next 12 are way better than our last.

THE BEST BITS IN A SILLIER PACKAGE (from Thursday's Mike Hosking Breakfast) We've Learned Nothing/Vaccine Reality Check/Bing Back the Wall/We're Never Coming Back

Another example for you this morning on the weaknesses of democracy especially at local body level.
The Whangārei mayor is against fluoridation of water. Is the Whangārei mayor a medical professional? Looking her up, she appears not to be.
I’m not even sure she represents the view of the people who elected her.
But that’s democracy isn’t it? We appoint or anoint people with experience and skill in little if anything and expect them to run important stuff.
What makes her fluoridation objection so ironic is the fact she’s from Northland and it is Northland that would appear to have the disproportionate amount of trouble in the social areas - one of them being dental health.
Not sure how many stories we’ve seen over the years of exasperated dentists with young kids from the area having their teeth extracted due to lack of care.
And yet when presented with an answer - not the whole solution or answer, but a very decent step in the right direction – they don’t appear to want it.
And they don’t appear to want it based on, what? What they call mass medication – very emotive term that – generally used by the anti-fluoride brigade.
Science as it stands and very clearly pointed out on this programme just last week by professor Sir Peter Gluckman, the former chief science advisor to John Key, told us the science supports fluoride when it comes to dental health.
And the simplest form of fluoride is fluoride in the water; otherwise you’re reliant on people doing it themselves. And as we have already seen when we leave it to people, the old doing it for you model doesn’t work.
You either want solutions or you don’t, and in fluoride we have a fairly easy and simple one.
And in the call to centralise decision making we have corrected an anomaly that never should have existed.
In a tiny country like this, a lot of the stuff we need is universal. We are not divergent communities with special needs, certainly not in health, in general or fluoride specifically.
Our kids will be better off because of this, so what value does a non-expert local politician add? The answer: none.

Out with the socialising - and in with the surfing. 
Outdoor equipment and clothing business Kathmandu is having a surge in profits after buying surfing merchandiser Rip-curl.
The water sport's taken off in popularity internationally under social distancing demands.
Surfing New Zealand General Manager Ben Kennings told Mike Hosking it's helping Kiwis deal with pandemic blues.
"You can't go overseas so you buy a wetsuit to stay warm - and you go to the coast and having a good time with your family and get in the water and have some fun."
He says our industry is struggling to keep up.
"Selling out of all their wetsuits, struggling to get a lot of product in. Some companies are between two and fourfold."
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Heavy rainfall and damaging winds are expected to hit Victoria on Tuesday as a nightmare weather system wreaking havoc in NSW dips further south.
A severe weather and flood warning has been issued by the weather bureau for parts of eastern and southern Victoria.
“A deepening low pressure system will move southeast across NSW (on Tuesday), reaching the southern NSW coast late tonight then becoming slow moving over eastern Bass Strait on Wednesday,” the bureau said.
“Peak gusts to 110km/h are possible about the southern Gippsland coast.”
Locations likely to be affected include Wonthaggi, Mallacoota, Cann River, Chandlers Creek, Combienbar and Bonang.
The bureau said heavy rainfall could lead to flash flooding during Tuesday afternoon and evening.
Senior meteorologist Richard Russell said the system would bring increasing rainfall across east Gippsland before spreading into southern Gippsland, particularly the Strzelecki Ranges, and the Otway Ranges.
“(On Tuesday) we‘re looking at this low pressure system rapidly intensifying across NSW and it will track quite quickly towards the south coast of NSW by late Tuesday afternoon and early evening,” he said.
“It will intensify further and then move over the East Gippsland coastal waters where it sit for most of Wednesday before finally moving away.”
He said from midday Tuesday through to Wednesday night, localised rainfall totals of 80-120mm were possible east of Orbost, with 150-200mm possible about the Strzelecki Ranges and Wilsons Promontory, and 100-150mm possible about the Otway Ranges.
“The heavy rainfall that we’re looking at could also lead to some localised flooding, so that’s rapid water rises not just involving rivers but gullies, creeks and areas that don’t generally get a flood warning associated with it,” Mr Russell said.
“We have some quite significant winds around that low pressure system that will intensify late (on Tuesday) with some potential for some damaging wind gusts across much of the Gippsland coast.”
He said Melbourne had “missed the worst of it” with just patchy showers through until Wednesday afternoon.
“If that low centre does unfortunately move west of the Prom, the impacts will be much higher in Melbourne, but having said that the expectation for rainfall in Melbourne is around 5-15mm,” he said.
Mr Russell reassured Victorians the impact in the state wouldn’t be anywhere near that of NSW and Queensland.
“The quite humid tropical air mass feeding across eastern Australia is more intense and feeding onto the NSW and Queensland ranges so the orientation of the Great Divide plays a big role,” he said.
“Also the position of the high pressure system for much of the week over the southern Tasman Sea has kept most of that activity further north from us.”
A flood watch has been issued for the Bemm, Cann, Genoa and Snowy River catchments, with a minor flood warning current for the Snowy River.
The State Emergency Service warned residents in affected areas to avoid dangerous hazards, such as floodwater, mud, debris, damaged roads and fallen trees and to stay inside away from windows if possible.

The Race Relations Commissioner is copping more criticism over his claims of systemic racism within the police force.
Meng Foon is backing calls for TV show Police Ten 7 to be changed or cancelled, following controversy about its portrayal of Māori and Pacific offenders.
But he's told Newstalk ZB the show also reflects widespread bias within the force that needs to be addressed.
National's public service spokesman Mark Mitchell, himself a former police officer, has condemned the comments, labelling them "very irresponsible".
He says police officers don't get to choose who they deal, they simply front up to work.
And Labour’s Stuart Nash isn't impressed with Meng Foon's claims of systemic racism in the police force either.
Nash, who was police minister until last year's election, says  most police staff aren't racist, and Foon's comments are disappointing.
He says police officers do the job that most of us don't want to do, and keep us safe at night.
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There is disappointment over a lack of action from Australia's Prime Minister on women's treatment in Parliament.
Scott Morrison has acknowledged criticisms of his handling of the Brittany Higgins rape allegations - and reports of staffers posting footage of performing lewd acts on female MPs' desks.
The PM's press conference comes after a Liberal staffer was sacked on Monday following revelations he had sent an image of himself performing a lewd act on a female MP's desk to a group of fellow staffers.
Morrison has been criticised for saying he had viewed Higgins' allegation through the prism of his own daughters. He accepted he could have "chosen different words" but said the comments were made "in the best of faith" and no offence was intended.
Sky News host Laura Jayes told Mike Hosking Morrison still doesn't understand how angry women are.
She says they want to know what he's going to do about it.
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Democrats said Tuesday that they are pushing toward a vote on expanded gun control measures as the nation reels from its second mass shooting in a week. President Joe Biden said “we have to act,” but prospects for any major changes were dim, for now, in the closely divided Congress.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer vowed Tuesday morning to bring to the Senate floor legislation passed by the House that would require background checks for most gun sales and transfers. He said the Senate “must confront a devastating truth” after a lack of congressional action on the issue for almost three decades.
“This Senate will be different,” Schumer, D-N.Y., said a day after a shooting at a crowded Boulder, Colorado, supermarket, killed 10 people, including a police officer. “The Senate is going to debate and address the epidemic of gun violence in this country.”
While a Senate vote on new gun control would be the first in several years, Democrats do not have the votes to pass any significant reform. They are not even united themselves, as Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., told reporters Tuesday that he opposes the House legislation on background checks.
The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing Tuesday on proposals for gun control. It is unclear whether any of the bills up for consideration — most of them involving more restrictive background checks — would have made a difference in the Colorado case. A 21-year-old man charged with killing eight people in the Atlanta area last week had purchased a 9 mm handgun hours before the murders, prompting advocates to push for longer waiting periods for purchases.
In brief remarks responding to the shooting, Biden urged Congress to move quickly to close the loopholes in the background check system and to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines — an effort that would be even more difficult to achieve politically. According to a police affidavit, the Colorado shooter had purchased an assault rifle six days earlier.
“It should not be a partisan issue,” Biden said. “This is an American issue. It will save lives, American lives.”
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who has aggressively pushed for expanded gun control since the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School that killed 20 children and six educators, expressed optimism about the chances for new laws with Biden in the White House and Democrats controlling the House and the Senate. He called it “the dawn of a new era.”
Reality is likely more complicated. Senate Democrats do not currently have deep enough support among Republicans to pass new gun control legislation in the 50-50 Senate, as they would need 60 votes to do so. While expanding background checks is generally popular with the American public, even with some conservatives, Congress has been unable to find a successful compromise on guns in decades, making it one of the most intractable issues in American politics.
The gun debate also highlights a larger difficulty for Senate Democrats as they try to move forward on gun legislation and other policy priorities of the Biden White House. With the filibuster in place, forcing a 60-vote threshold for most legislation, House-passed bills on issues like gun control and voting rights are effectively nonstarters unless Democrats secure significant GOP support.
Some Republicans hinted that they would be open to negotiations, though it was unclear if there were any real bipartisan discussions. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said he was opposed to the House legislation, but “I’m certainly open to the discussion.”
Manchin and Republican Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, who have worked together for years to find compromise on background checks, both said they were opposed to the House legislation, which would close loopholes to ensure background checks are extended to private and online sales that often go undetected, including at gun shows, with some limited exemptions for...