The Mike Hosking Breakfast

Private companies trying to solve the housing crisis.
Community Finance is trying to raise millions of dollars to build new homes, and ANZ and Generate KiwiSaver Scheme are already on board.
Chief Executive, James Palmer, told Mike Hosking it's off to a good start.
"While we are seeking $100 million, we have officially launched to market today and have already pledges of $51 million from some quite well known companies.
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Thousands of Hamiltonians are set to take part in a test census today.
It's being conducted to see how changes made to the data collection process would work in a real nationwide setting.
Stats NZ is keen to avoid a repeat of the 2018 Census, which had the lowest turn-out in half a century.
Census General Manager Kathy Connolly says the test will run in Hamilton East and Hamilton West, and involve more than 17,000 people.
"We hope to learn whether their changes are working and if further tweaks need to be made for the next nationwide setting in 2023."
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Prince Harry and Meghan’s explosive TV interview divided people around the world on Monday, rocking an institution that is struggling to modernize with claims of racism and callousness toward a woman struggling with suicidal thoughts.
During the two-hour appearance with Oprah Winfrey, Harry also revealed the problems had ruptured relations with his father, Prince Charles, and brother, Prince William, illuminating the depth of the family divisions that led the couple to step away from royal duties and move to California last year.
The palace has not yet responded to the interview, in which Meghan described feeling so isolated and miserable inside the royal family that she had suicidal thoughts and said a member of the family had “concerns” about the color of her unborn child’s skin.
The family member was not Queen Elizabeth II or Prince Philip, according to Harry, sparking a flurry of speculation about who it could be.
Leaders around the world were asked about the interview, and citizens of many countries had an opinion.
In Accra, Ghana, Devinia Cudjoe said that hearing that a member of the royal family was worried about the color of the skin of an unborn child was insulting to people of the Commonwealth, the grouping of Britain and its former colonies that is headed by the queen.
“That is pure racism,’’ Cudjoe said. “(The) Commonwealth is supposed to foster unity, oneness amongst black people, amongst white people. But if we are hearing things like this … I think that is below the belt.”
In Nairobi, Kenya, Rebecca Wangare called Meghan “a 21st- century icon of a strong woman. She has faced racism head-on.”
Asma Sultan, a journalist in Karachi, Pakistan, said the interview “is going to tarnish the image of the royal family.”
“There is so much controversy ever since Diana’s death, so it is new Pandora box which is opened up,” she said.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson refused to comment on the interview, praising the queen but saying that “when it comes to matters to do with the royal family the right thing for a prime minister to say is nothing.”
Asked whether U.S. President Joe Biden and his wife Jill had any reaction to the interview, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Meghan’s decision to speak about her struggles with mental health “takes courage” and “that’s certainly something the president believes in.”
But she said she wouldn’t offer additional comment on the situation “given these are private citizens, sharing their own story and their own struggles.”
The allegations are especially damaging because many observers hoped Harry and Meghan, who is biracial, would help the tradition-bound monarchy relate to an increasingly multicultural nation. In the early days of their marriage, Harry and Meghan joined William and his wife, Catherine, in projecting a glamorous, energetic image for the young royals.
That partnership was severed when Harry and Meghan left the country, saying they wanted to earn their own living and escape what they called intrusive, racist coverage by the British media.
But the interview brought that criticism into the palace itself, with the couple directing allegations of racism at an unidentified member of the royal family.
Meghan said that when she was pregnant with her son, Archie, Harry told her that the royal family had had “concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he’s born.”
Harry confirmed the conversation, saying: “I was a bit shocked.” He said he wouldn’t reveal who made the comment. Winfrey later said Harry told her the comment didn’t come from Queen Elizabeth II or Prince Philip, his grandparents.
Meghan, 39, acknowledged she was naive at the start of her relationship with Harry and unprepared for the strictures of royal life. A successful actress before her marriage, she said she bridled at the controlling nature of being royal, squirming at the idea that she had to...

A grim outlook for Tauranga's economy.
The region is projected to lose $2.5 billion and more than a thousand jobs, unless more investment is made into housing and infrastructure.
It's a long term prediction of what could happen, if action isn't taken.
Tauranga City Council Commissioner Chair Anne Tolley says the region's housing has been failing to keep up with the growth in population.
"If they don't invest in housing they will be about 5000 houses short, and will be looking at an average house price of close to a million dollars."
Tolley says the council plans to invest four billion dollars on fixing the issues, as part of its long-term budget.
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New Zealand Cricket (NZC) is hoping its leading players will be some of the first people in the country to receive Covid-19 vaccinations; outside of border workers, their families and front-facing health workers.
The organisation confirmed with Newstalk ZB on Monday that it is in discussions with the Government ahead of a busy year of touring for the Black Caps, including competing in the inaugural World Test Championship final in June.
NZC CEO David White told AAP that negotiations were under way with the Government as part of a scheme to free up international travel for workers for whom it is deemed essential to their livelihood.
"We've had very positive discussions," White said.
"The Government has got a scheme for workers who travel overseas, there's a possibility to get vaccinated.
"So we've commenced discussions with the Government about that."
However, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told media on Monday that she had not had any conversations with NZC.
She did acknowledge the situation though, saying "we know it's an issue."
"We will be weighing up all the factors," she said when asked if sports teams will be prioritised.
"We have a number of different groups that may have the job of representing New Zealand abroad who will be asking for advice on how to manage vaccine in amongst that.
"So that's something we need to give consideration to, we haven't made decisions yet."
Government Cabinet ministers have received advice regarding a nationwide vaccination schedule but have yet to finalise or publish a complete plan.
Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said last week that frontline health and emergency workers would be up next, after border workers and their families, but further decisions had yet to be signed off by Cabinet.
When asked in February about the possibility of athletes who required international travel, to events such as the Olympics, receiving vaccinations before the general public, Ardern avoided a direct answer.
"That's a conversation for further down the track," she said. "We are focusing on those domestically who are at the greatest risk."
After completing a home series of ODIs and T20s against Bangladesh on the first of April, some of New Zealand's top players are set to travel to India to take part in this year's Indian Premier League beginning April.
Those players - some of whom expect to spend up to 10 months overseas in 2021 - will then join a wider squad in England in May to begin a tour that includes two test matches against England and the World Test Championship final.
Following the England jaunt there is a return to Pakistan, the World T20 in India and a tour of Bangladesh where every port of call carries the risk of players contracting Covid-19 and putting those fixtures in jeopardy.

Police are being accused of racism after their own figures confirm officers are more likely to use pain to subdue Māori suspects than for other ethnicities.
Police Association president Chris Cahill says the figures only relate to a small number of incidents.
He told Mike Hosking Police go to hundreds of thousands of events every year, and made tens of thousands of arrests over that period.
"Police deal with drunk people, violent people, people on drugs, and mentally ill people, and many of them don't do what they're told."
Cahill says it's important to put the whole issue in context.
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A royal watcher says the fall-out from Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's interview with Oprah has been sensational.
The two-hour interview aired in the US yesterday and screens here tonight.
More previously unreleased footage has aired in the US overnight, in which Prince Harry revealed racism played a role in the couple's decision to leave the UK.
Royal biographer Ingrid Seward told Mike Hosking the couple are seeking sympathy, but aren't getting much.
“There's a big anti-Megan feeling, as people feel it's her, and not Prince Harry, running this interview.”
In it, Harry claims Prince Charles stopped taking his calls after he decided to step back from royal life, and he feels let down by his father.
Seward says Harry wasn't pleasant in the way he talked about his father, which will only sour the relationship even more.”
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Dare I bore you with the fallout to yesterday's decision from the Prime Minister to no longer appear on this show each Monday morning?
When asked at her post Cabinet conference yesterday she uttered something about not being able to do everything. No one ever asked her to do such a thing, just what each Prime Minister had managed to do for the past 30 odd years.
She clearly isn't up to that standard.
She also uttered something about reaching an audience. This is the biggest audience going. The simple truth is, as I said yesterday, she's running for the hills because she's scared, she hates a hard question, she hates fact, she hates accountability, and she hates not being fawned over.
I ran past the dairy yesterday and saw the magazine cover she currently graces. That's her. In magazines you get to dictate the copy and approve the photo. That’s her. Complete control, air brush away the reality and fact.
What wasn’t reported yesterday because sadly this show got the headlines, is the fact that Morning Report, the breakfast show of the state-run radio station, has apparently agreed to re-arrange the Prime Ministerial schedule to allow the Prime Minster to come on the day of her choosing, on the topic of her choosing.
If true, and God I hope I am wrong, the fact they have allowed this is little short of a scandal. I note by the way, in all the coverage yesterday of the Hosking-Ardern fall out, Radio NZ didn’t touch the story. Why not? It was, without question, a legitimate story and covered by the majority of the rest of the media.
Dare I ask, ahead of time, whether the taxpayer funded in-house naval gaze they call Mediawatch, will be examining the issue this week? Or will they like, the embarrassing expose of the media's bias around the cannabis referendum, particularly their own, conveniently ignore it?
Anyway, on the state-funded radio station the Prime Minister now apparently dictates what day she appears, and on what topics.
Hello? Anyone at home? You and I pay for this place. The government runs it and at no point the Prime Minister dictating terms to what I thought was still claiming to be an independent operator draws attention? Are the media literally asleep? Or just so compliant, and apologetic to Labour, that this is their dream scenario?
On balance, the Prime Minister lost yesterday. There was enough reaction both from you and the commentators, that showed the Prime Minister has been exposed for what she is.
Enough of you saw this as a reaction to accountability. And thank God enough of you, still hold accountability as a critical part of leadership.
Like her or don’t like her, like me or don't like me. That’s not the point. The point is to be Prime Minister, you have to be up for it. You have to be willing to be up for it. You have to defend your corner. You have to argue your corner. You have to know your facts. You have to deal with people like me.
You have to be better than what Ardern is. 30 years of Prime Ministers have shown it.

THE BEST BITS IN A SILLIER PACKAGE (from Tuesday's Mike Hosking Breakfast) Actually, Probably Too Much Hosk Love/Definitely Too Much Interview/The Trouble with Australia/Working from Home Is a Thing/Buses Aren't

President Joe Biden and fellow Democrats are racing to prove a counterintuitive lesson: with congressional majorities, sometimes less can be more.
The new President holds a slim House advantage and even slimmer Senate edge -- 51-50, and then only if he holds every Democrat and allows Vice President Kamala Harris to break ties. Yet passage of the Senate version this weekend keeps party leaders on track to overcome rock-solid Republican opposition and put a $1.9 trillion Covid relief bill on Biden's desk within days, though even some prominent Democratic economists consider it too costly.
By the standards of recent history, that would represent an audacious feat. Every Democratic president in the last half century has taken office with at least 57 Democratic senators, and still struggled to achieve top objectives.
In part, Biden's shot at pulling it off reflects the ideological cohesion that the decades-long realignment of both parties has produced. But it also represents the pressure to unite that small majorities impose on disparate partisans who know their common window to succeed is narrow.
"There's an emotional camaraderie -- we're all in this together," said Rahm Emanuel, a former House member who become President Barack Obama's first White House chief of staff. "When there's only 50 votes, it's really hard to hide."
Emanuel lived through first-year challenges as an aide to two Democratic presidents. After defections by six Senate Democrats, President Bill Clinton needed a tie-breaking vote from Vice President Al Gore to enact his economic program in 1993. Sixteen years later, recalcitrance from conservative Democrats shrank Obama's economic stimulus plan, constrained his health care program and killed his climate change bill.
The defections they faced look small compared with what Democratic predecessors had to overcome. President Jimmy Carter had 62 Senate Democrats but only modest legislative success, needing major Republican help to ratify the Panama Canal Treaty. Only an alliance with Senate Republican leader Everett Dirksen allowed President Lyndon Johnson, with 68 Senate Democrats, to overcome a filibuster by Southerners in his own party to pass the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
Johnson's feat, echoing over decades, had the ironic effect of reducing future opportunities for bipartisan cooperation. Anti-civil rights Southern conservatives abandoned the Democratic Party, while liberal Northeastern and Midwestern Republicans did the opposite, forging today's more ideologically homogenous and polarized parties.
The risks of pushing too hard
Pushing the few remaining iconoclasts too hard can backfire. Squeezed during debate over President George W. Bush's tax cuts in 2001, then-Sen. Jim Jeffords of Vermont quit the GOP and flipped a 50-50 Senate to Democratic control.
But Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia shows no such intention, notwithstanding his decision to sink Neera Tanden's nomination as budget director and hold up Senate action on Covid relief on Friday over unemployment insurance provisions.
Senate Democrats only tinkered with Biden's Covid relief bill. They maintained its overall spending level and preserved its income thresholds for full $1,400 relief checks, while phasing out the checks more quickly above those thresholds.
After hours of delay, Manchin accepted only minor changes on the extension of unemployment insurance. The loss of the $15-an-hour minimum wage provision -- felled by a Senate parliamentarian's ruling that Democrats lacked the votes to overturn -- does not appear to endanger the relief bill's final passage in the House.
It helps that Biden's first major initiative lavishes spending on key constituencies without raising anyone's taxes. Economic issues unify Democrats more than cultural concerns.
So does shared recognition that their opportunity for action may be brief. The history of midterm elections suggests Republicans...