The Mike Hosking Breakfast

A damning Government report reveals the skyrocketing number of New Zealanders with type 2 diabetes is expected to cost our health system $3.5 billion a year by 2040.
That's up from the $2.1 billion our health system currently spends annually on treating the chronic condition that can lead to blindness, amputation and a life hooked up to a dialysis machine.
Researchers of The Economic and Social Cost of Type 2 Diabetes report - launched in Parliament today - are warning urgent Government action is needed to halt or even reverse that steep curve.
"By changing from an ambulance at the bottom of the cliff approach to a fence at the top, we could be avoiding more than 600 amputations a year in people with type 2 diabetes," Heather Verry, CEO of Diabetes New Zealand said.
They are calling for regular foot screening for every New Zealander with type 2 diabetes, community centres targeted at managing and preventing prediabetes lifestyles, better education of the condition through schools and throughout the community, and a national strategy rather than each District Health Board having their own.
Associate minister of health who is responsible for diabetes, Peeni Henare, said diabetes was an urgent priority for this country and the Government's investment during Budget 2019 started to rectify this.
"I know from seeing this around me, that diabetes is a disease that places a huge burden on our people and our health system, and it is really affecting Māori and Pacific people," Henare said.
Type 2 diabetes is a chronic condition that affects the way the body processes blood sugar (glucose) and resists insulin. It can cause increased thirst, frequent urination, hunger, fatigue and blurred vision.
Along with amputations and blindness, it can also lead to heart disease, kidney failure, stroke and cancer.
Currently, there are 228,000 New Zealanders (4.7 per cent of the population) living with type 2 diabetes. By 2040, it's expected between 390,000 and 430,000 New Zealanders (6.6 to 7.4 per cent of the population) will be diagnosed with the condition.
"I've been looking after people with diabetes for 40 years. I knew the findings were going to be terrible but I didn't think it was going to be anything like this," Professor Jim Mann, of Otago University's human nutrition department, told the Herald.
He said the main driver behind the steep rise was the amount of New Zealanders living unhealthy lifestyles.
"Yes, type 2 diabetes can be genetic but diet and exercise are major contributing factors and that's proven in the dramatic growing rates of young people getting type 2 diabetes.
"A few decades ago I remember saying to my colleagues 'you won't believe this, I've seen a 30-year-old with type 2 diabetes. Now, it's common to see teenage patients and sometimes even pre-teens," he said.
Mann - who is also an adviser for the World Health Organisation (WHO) - said not only were more people getting type 2 diabetes but they were also getting diagnosed much younger.
The costs of type 2 diabetes included, but were not limited to, surgeries to amputate, inability for those with the disease to work, hospital admissions and medication.
He said the report came from concerns among health professionals that diabetes had slipped out of the Ministry of Health and District Health Board's agenda in terms of taking action.
Inequities and health outcomes will worsen for Pacific, Asian and Māori populations if no action is taken now, Mann said.
The associate minister of health said the Government's Living Well with Diabetes plan aimed to reduce the personal burden of disease for people with diabetes by providing integrated services along with the tools and support people need to manage their own health.
He hoped it would reduce the cost of diabetes on the public health system, and the broader societal impact in the longer term.
Healthy Active Learning is another...

Queenstown has gone from being described as tourism's crown jewel to a community facing vitriol - and told it's getting what it deserves.
Businesses say it's not just the iconic destination that's been in the cross-hairs of online hate, with the tourism sector also copping a lot of flak.
Here's just a sample of some of the social media hate Queenstown businesses have faced recently:
"Queenstown have made their own bed and now they have to lie in it. No pity from someone who like everyone else was overcharged in that town."
"Yes, we get it. Queenstown didn't have a Plan B and now the place is choking. Boo hoo. The whole ghastly place operated on the basis that the international tourism market would never change. Then it did. These constant news stories about pompous Queenstown business owners bleating about their lost business are getting a bit repetitive. Most of us really don't care."
"Queenstown, cry me a river, then set up a jet boat ripoff operation on it."
Villa del Lago hotel owner Nik Kiddle has heard it on talkback radio, and anecdotally from other operators and online.
"I thought that the whole Government approach to managing Covid-19 was to be supportive of each other. This is definitely not supportive of each other. I just don't get why New Zealanders want to do that," Kiddle said.
"We have been making such a solid contribution to people's enjoyment of this country for such a long time. We're now paying the highest price for the health protection and we remain welcoming of New Zealanders and international travellers alike, so why try to kill us off?"
Tall poppy syndrome was a phrase that kept on cropping up, he said.
"People here feel that we're being victimised because we were a shining success for a long time. The leading light of New Zealand's largest services export sector and people aren't necessarily always going to embrace that as a positive thing.
"We feel that we've made a fantastic contribution to the welfare of this country both in terms of public health and its economic growth."
He challenged the perceptions that Queenstown was unaffordable, saying it was a misconception and businesses had worked hard to cater for and welcome New Zealanders to the resort town.
Many operators RNZ spoke to acknowledged the vitriol was there, but said they did not want to stick their necks out or feed it.
While online vitriol is not new, the volume is increasing.
Haka Tours and ANZ Nature Tours general manager Eve Lawrence has experienced it first hand.
"I get it all the time in LinkedIn with comments saying 'tourism is getting what it deserves'. But I just think that it's crazy and this is coming from people who really don't truly understand the value of what we provide," Lawrence said.
She suggested a campaign was needed to showcase what tourism contributed to communities and the environment.
Before the pandemic, tourism was the country's biggest export earner - worth roughly $42 billion a year and employing close to 15 per cent of the working population either directly or indirectly.
"To be completely vilified by people who have very little understanding of the industry as a whole, is quite frankly a little bit condescending."
Active Adventures chief executive Wendy van Lieshout said her business had escaped the online hate.
"I don't think people realise in general that mostly the tourism operators here in Queenstown particularly, they're just family-run small businesses. We're not talking large corporates here. We're no different to anybody else and any industry ... we're absolutely no different and we're just trying to make ends meet so please be kind."
There had been more talk about tourism having a hard time in the last few weeks, she said.
"We're at a stage now where we know what's happened and why. We all need to find our own way through it in some shape or form and it's certainly not very...

Team New Zealand have finally let their emotions spill over after pulling off a stunning comeback to win Race 8 of the America's Cup Match.
And America's Cup veteran Dean Barker says the Italians will be feeling equally emotional at the other end of the scale: "It will really, really hurt".
The rollercoaster race 8 on Monday was summed up by a Team NZ member aboard Te Rehutai who was heard letting out a relieved – and colourful – celebration as they crossed the finish line, after an eight-minute lead turnaround.
"I'm so f*****g stoked with it. F***," the crew member was heard saying on the broadcast.
Barker said the Italians, who were leading by more than four minutes at one stage after Team NZ came off the foils, were let down by one bad manoeuvre - a final tack into the top mark, when they dropped down off their own foils.
"The boat dropped in and the unfortunate thing for them is the top of the course had a lot less breeze than the bottom, so it was all about surviving those couple of manoeuvres in that part of the race course," Barker told Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking.
"It will really, really hurt, I know from my own experience - not that I have been through an eight-minute lead change like that - but when you make one small mistake and it costs you dearly, I'm sure they're feeling hard done by this morning."
Two more wins today will see Team NZ retain the Auld Mug but Barker predicted another slow afternoon, with light breezes forecast again.
Barker described Team NZ's efforts yesterday as "unbelievable" and "incredible".
"I think it was unbelievable how good Team New Zealand's speed was. To come back from that start and to just basically sail away with the race, it was really incredible."
The drama in race 8 unfolded after Team NZ came off their foils midway through the second leg following a mistake by helmsman Peter Burling. Luna Rossa were handed a huge lead and looked like inevitable winners of the race.
But a twist came in the third leg when it was Luna Rossa's turn to come off their foils in the light and inconsistent conditions, allowing the Kiwis to not only catch up but cruise away to win by almost four minutes.
American yachtsman and sailing commentator Ken Read said the emotions on Te Rehutai were unlike those seen before from the New Zealanders.
"That's emotion out of the Kiwi," Read said on the official America's Cup broadcast, after the swearing could be heard. "That was emotion like I've never seen out of a Kiwi."
"You think the fans are relieved? How about that crew out there," added fellow commentator Stephen McIvor.
After the race, Team NZ foil controller Blair Tuke was similarly stoked with the "unreal fightback".
"Yeah, wow what a race," Tuke said. "It's definitely one to keep. It was a pretty unreal fightback from the guys there.
"Obviously we made a pretty costly error gybing right behind them on the first downwind and came off the foils but we got it back up reasonably quickly, and then sailed a great race from there.
"They made a mistake in one of their tacks in the top mark … and we never looked back."
When asked if he had ever sailed in a race like that before, Tuke said: "Probably not with this many people watching. That was unreal.
"Another great turnout even on a weekday here," he added. "Obviously we were finishing at the top mark so we were right in by the spectators underneath Motuihe. It was some race and we were on the wrong jib there in real bottom-end conditions, which made it even harder.
"All the boys went to the end there. When you have a race where you're doing a lot of take-offs like that and big control changes to the sails, it's tough for the boys. So huge effort by those lads."
Team NZ also took out the earlier race by a convincing margin, showcasing a significant speed difference and completing what was the first lead change of the regatta so far.
The defenders...

THE BEST BITS IN A SILLIER PACKAGE (from Tuesday's Mike Hosking Breakfast) Where's My Vaccine/When the Shine Wears Off/Geez, Tauranga. What Happened?/Good Job, Oscars/Alabama Yoga

We start as we mean to go on – 1-nil, 19-6  - Warriors, this is our year!
Sport over the weekend once again reminded us of its value and place in our lives.
Not everyone is as obsessed with the warriors as i am, but most of us have our passions.
That flotilla on the water for example. Think about the pictures to the world: Thousands on the New Zealand waters, blues skies, you can’t buy that sort of publicity and branding.
Extraordinary technology, a contest for the ages, and yet again need I say it, but when the America’s Cup actually starts, all the misery and woe from the bitter and twisteds who call it a millionaires folly fade away and are replaced by the vast majority of us who see this for what it is.
A show case of sport, of technology, of perseverance, of dreams and aspirations.
In other sports, the Crusaders did what the Crusaders do, and whether you support them or not, Super Rugby is still to my eye as exciting as it was last year: every contest is a headliner given the quality and depth available to us in this country.
But back to the warriors. Their sacrifice yet again cannot be over stated.
If we had a government of aspiration, there would be a two way bubble – just ask Scott Morrison.
But we don’t, and they’re stuck there, which makes what they’re doing even more admirable and remarkable.
The Titans had a good chunk of the ball but didn’t do enough with it. When we got it, we looked sharp, we looked fit and fast, and we looked like the winners we turned out to be.
The recruits looked like good buys and repaid the faith. Three tries, three conversions, a drop goal on full time, some new rules that may or may not help the game.
But a win - you can’t start a season any better than being 1 and zip.
Sport, it’s amazing. Yachting, rugby, golf, league, motor racing, pick your favourite, but what a joy a weekend and sport is.
As for the Warriors? This is our year.

London's police commissioner on Sunday local time defended her officers' actions and said she didn't intend to resign, after coming under heavy criticism for the way police treated some protesters during a vigil for a woman whom one of the force's own officers is accused of murdering.
Hundreds defied coronavirus restrictions Saturday to protest violence against women and remember Sarah Everard, a 33-year-old London resident whose disappearance and killing prompted a national outcry. But the vigil ended with clashes between police and those attending, and many questioned whether the police force was too heavy-handed.
Home Secretary Priti Patel said scenes from the vigil in south London were "upsetting." The capital's mayor, Sadiq Khan, said the police response was "at times neither appropriate nor proportionate." Both said they were not satisfied with the force's report of events and were seeking a full and independent investigation.
Police were seen scuffling with some women at the event, and one woman was seen pinned to the ground by two officers. Video widely shared on social media showed a woman was pulled up from the ground by officers who then shoved her from the back. Several women were led away in handcuffs as other attendees chanted "Shame on you" at police. The force later said four people were arrested for violating public order and coronavirus regulations.
On Sunday, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick, who is the first woman to head the force, said she was personally appalled by the attack on Everard and she was more determined than ever to lead the organization. She said she fully understood the strength of feeling in response to Everard's case, but stressed that Saturday's vigil was an unlawful gathering and officers had been put in a "very difficult position" trying to police a protest during a pandemic.
She said that as big crowds gathered, officers needed to act to counter the considerable risk to people's health. She added that she welcomed a review into her force's operations.
Many of those attending the vigil were already wary of police because a serving Metropolitan Police officer, Wayne Couzens, was charged with the kidnap and murder of Everard, who vanished March 3 while walking home in London. Her body was found a week later.
The case has sparked a heated debate on women's safety in the public space. Organizers had planned an official vigil at Clapham Common, a park near where Everard was last seen alive, but were forced to cancel the event because of COVID-19 restrictions. A huge crowd turned up Saturday nonetheless.
Khan, London's mayor, said Sunday the police force had assured him the vigil would be "policed sensitively" but that this wasn't the case.
Jamie Klingler, who organized the canceled "Reclaim These Streets" event, blamed police for denying women their right to have a silent vigil in the first place. The force got the angry reaction Saturday because they refused to facilitate a peaceful rally, she alleged.
"I think we were shocked and really, really sad and to see videos of policemen handling women at a vigil about violence against women by men ... I think it was painful and pretty triggering to see," Klingler said Sunday.
Patsy Stevenson, who was pictured pinned to the ground by two officers during Saturday's clashes, said she was considering whether to challenge the 200-pound ($278) fine she received.
"We were there to remember Sarah, we all felt deeply saddened and still do that it happened, so I brought a candle with me but unfortunately wasn't even able to light it to put it down because the police turned up and barged their way through," she told LBC radio.
Emotions were still running high Sunday, as several hundred demonstrators gathered outside London police headquarters. The crowds, which were peaceful, then marched to Parliament and laid down on the ground for a minute of silence to remember Everard.

Sugar taxes work overseas, and should be introduced here based on already successful models, the Dental Association has told the Government.
A new report, led by the researchers from the University of Cambridge and published in the British Medical Journal, found the UK's tax on sugary drinks resulted in a 10 per cent decrease in peoples' sugar consumption.
The British government pushed through the levy in April 2018.
It is a two-tiered tax levied on soft drinks manufacturers, to encourage them to reduce the sugar content in their products.
The study found one year on from that tax coming into effect, the overall volume of soft drinks being purchased did not change, but the actual sugar levels did, by about 10 per cent, per household.
Dental Association spokesperson Dr Rob Beaglehole told Mike Hosking that they are very happy with the study.
And there is indication that other countries will follow suit.
"If we've got less sugar, we've got less tooth decay, less suffering, less obesity."
The Government has already said they won't introduce new taxes, but Beaglehole hopes other changes will be put in place instead.
"What we're calling on the Government is to show leadership and instigate other policies like water only policy in schools, which is a no brainer, and restrictions around junk food marketing to kids, particularly around sports." 
LISTEN ABOVE
with text from RNZ

I suspect most of us would agree that too much of the world is a strange, sad, and, at times, dangerous sort of place at the moment.
Rational thought, freedom of speech, calm reason has been largely suspended in too many circles and replaced by insanity.
It's a minefield, depending, of course, on who you are. Woke? Handwringer? Say whatever you like, if you're not, you need to be cancelled.
Baroness Jenny Jones, a member of the House of Lords suggested men need a curfew. It came after a murder in Britain. In that comment is the microcosm of all that’s wrong.
Once, a murder was something of horror, upset, and sadness. And it came, at times, with a debate as to whether there were issues to be addressed. Things like police investigations, whether clues were missed, whether the person known to the police, whether justice was served, what sort of sentence was dished out, and if sentences were hard enough.
But that has been replaced by Ms Jones, whose suggestion is that men need a curfew, men not allowed out at night. Now, even in a mad world, this sets new standards for idiocy. And yet within 24 hours the headline was to be found in a local outlet here, "Why a man’s curfew isn't such a bad idea."
And so it goes.
If you're on the right side of the PC ledger you can literally say anything and get away with it.
I also saw over the weekend stories about the Oprah memes, post the interview. I haven't seen the memes, given I'm not on social media, but there are, I am told, lots of them and they sort of make fun of Oprah, her gasping, and facial expressions over the so-called royal bombshells that were dropped on that California patio past week.
Sadly, if you were part of that, and you aren't black, you are a racist. It was deemed so, by some tragic social media warrior that you could only post those memes if you're black. Because if you're not, it's the equivalent of digital black face.
The bigger picture is this. Are we eating ourselves?
My wife asked me if the 1960s were like this. That obviously is ageist, and she needs to be cancelled. I wasn't around in the 60s - well, I was, but I was three years old.
Anyway, the question was asked by way of comparison. Was the bra burning, the rampaging, the sit ins, and the riots just their version of the cancel culture now pervading the 21st century? And if it is, how long before we wake up, grow up, and get back to some semblance of normality?
There is no doubt these are sad and pathetic times. And I'm in no doubt it’s a phase.
But until Ms Jones and the Oprah meme nonsense came along last week, I sadly would have guessed we were at peak stupidity.
But more fool me.

Thousand of people flocked to soak up the America's Cup action in Auckland over the weekend.
America's Cup Events senior advisor Richard Lindroos told Mike Hosking there were 48-thousand people through the village in the Viaduct yesterday.
He says that's on top of the nearly 50-thousand through on Saturday.
"If you were out on the water on Saturday, 2,000 boats, phenomenal number, and on Sunday, 1,300 boats. Given the scale of the event, that's massive."
LISTEN TO NEWSTALKZB'S LIVE COMMENTARY OF THE AMERICA'S CUP FROM 4PM TODAY
He says anecdotally people were spending bill - and those figures will come through.
"It's important to realise it's been a difficult month of delivery, but getting that weekend trade in is just fantastic."
Team New Zealand and Luna Rossa are locked at three wins each after a lack of wind yesterday meant there was no racing.
LISTEN ABOVE

Scott Morrison has recorded the worst Newspoll result since the 2019 bushfires and his Hawaiian holiday after a month of controversy over an alleged rape at Parliament House and the furore over the fate of the Attorney-General Christian Porter.
In the latest Newspoll, published exclusively in The Australian, Labor leader Anthony Albanese has secured an election winning lead in the two-party preferred vote with a 52:48 result.
The poll was taken amid controversy over Defence Minister Linda Reynolds calling alleged rape victim Brittany Higgins “a lying cow” and going on medical leave, the Attorney-General going on mental health leave after separate historical allegations of rape in 1989 and concerns over the speed of the vaccine rollout.
Mr Porter completely denies the allegations and has not been charged with any offence, nor is he under police investigation.
The primary vote for the Liberal and Nationals parties has tumbled three points to 39 per cent after four weeks of damaging headlines since news.com.au broke Brittany Higgins story on February 15.
Labor’s primary vote has increased by two points, to 39 per cent, delivering Labor an election winning lead of 52:48 on a two-party preferred basis.
The shock poll result follows a string of multi-billion dollar announcements by the ­government in the last fortnight including a permanent increase to JobSeeker payments and half price airfares for 800,000 holiday-makers.
There was some good news for the Prime Minister Scott Morrison with his personal approval ratings remaining high and only falling two points to 62 per cent.
text by Samantha Maiden, news.com.au