The Mike Hosking Breakfast

Grant Robertson is confident there's enough Covid-19 support in place for families.
There's concern people who should be self-isolating are going to work because they can't afford not to.
However, the Finance Minister told Mike Hosking agencies like Whanau Ora have been providing support and the Ministry of Social Development has been reaching out to families.
"The Government has the systems in place and we are encouraging families to make contact with the Ministry of Social Development."
Meanwhile, the Government seems open to the ideas of senior business leaders, on how to navigate the country out of the pandemic.
A group representing major NZX companies wants more clarity from the Government on its plan for getting the country to Covid normal.
Finance Minister Grant Robertson says he'll always listen to the views of business leaders, like SkyCity chair Rob Campbell.
He says the Government sat down with the business community recently to discuss the vaccine roll-out.
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A group of the country's top business people are calling for more openness and clarity from the Government on its plan for getting New Zealand back to "Covid normal".
It comes after New Zealand marked one year with the virus on its shores and as Auckland settles back into level 3 lockdown following the emergence of new Covid-19 community cases.
The group includes the chairman of Chorus NZ and Auckland Airport, Patrick Strange; Mercury Energy chair Prue Flacks; The Warehouse Group chairwoman Joan Withers; chairman of SkyCity, Summerset and Tourism Holdings Rob Campbell; and University of Auckland chancellor and Fisher & Paykel Healthcare chairman Scott St John.
Strange said the events of the past few weeks had shown Covid-19 was firmly part of how we live and work in New Zealand and globally.
"While widespread vaccination will mean the pandemic phase will pass, the virus will continue to be a risk that threatens poor health outcomes and overwhelming the health system.
"As a group we share the strong desire of the New Zealand business community to support the country's response to Covid-19 in any way we can."
Withers said while big businesses had the capacity to deal with the uncertainty and change of Covid-19, smaller businesses that they worked with didn't have the same resilience.
"We are ready and willing to play our part in ensuring New Zealand's long-term success in managing Covid-19 and building the resilience in New Zealand necessary to cope with potential future pandemics. We have all discussed this widely with other chairs and colleagues and believe there is widespread support across New Zealand for our approach."
Finance Minister Grant Robertson said he would look at the group's comments.
"We'll always listen to the views of people like Rob and others," he told Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking. "I certainly respect the role that they play for us. We are involving the business community and I think it was a couple of weeks back, we actually had a sit down with about 50-odd business leaders around the vaccine roll-out, for example, talking about how we can work together ... around logistics and so on.
"They've been heavily involved in the response so we'll take a look at what they're saying and make sure that they get involved as well."
Campbell told Hosking that they were supportive of the political leadership and response to Covid-19 and enormously appreciative of the work of the people on the front line.
"But when you are in a war, it is a good time to be planning for the peace and if you don't you will make major mistakes. That is what we are suggesting could be done a lot better."
Campbell said it wanted information to be shared in an open-source way rather than the ministry holding it close to its chest.
"Business has a role to play in it. Small business has a role to play in it. Communities have a role to play in it. We think this is a way of helping us move forward so certainly not a shot across the bows."
Campbell said there had always been an openness at the most senior political level but the ministries, in particular the ministry of health but also other government agencies involved, had tended to put their heads down and try and get on with it themselves rather than take a more open-source approach.
"And that is really all we are proposing. We are not asking for any special favours for business here, we are just asking for the ability to understand what the plans are, understand what the data is and make our input."
Campbell said he believed the Government had a number of plans for New Zealand's future.
"Business is quite good at organising and implementing things not necessarily the core competency of many government agencies and just as communities I think are pretty good at organising contact distribution all those sorts of things that are vital here.
"I think there has been a tendency in the ministries and other...

The fate of those who breached lockdown and isolation rules, plunging Auckland back into lockdown, now sits squarely in the lap of director general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield.
But Bloomfield has indicated he won't ask the police to take action over the Covid breaches.
Meanwhile, Bloomfield says there were no new community cases overnight.
Bloomfield told Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking he was looking for zero days of community cases to determine when lockdown should come to an end and the alert level lowered.
He said one of the cases which sparked Auckland's lockdown had been about for a week while infectious and that was a key reason why the alert level was raised.
He said he wasn't getting the police involved so far this lockdown because the families needed support to navigate isolation.
On not getting police involved at the outset, Bloomfield said: "In the first instance we get our health providers to go out because often what it is the families just need support to stay isolated safely. If we have any issues or challenges or if we can't find people then we don't hesitate to involve the police."
He said he spoke to the Police Commissioner yesterday who told him they are "willing and ready and standing by as they need to".
He said in this outbreak close contacts were being called daily and if no one was at home, health officials would then involve the police.
He said he did not think a punitive approach was the best way to counter the virus and get people on board.
Bloomfield imagined the MIT student that sparked this lockdown "wasn't having a great time" at the moment.
"I imagine he's extremely remorseful at the moment. It's a pretty heavy burden to bear," he said.
Bloomfield said with the current cluster with 15 cases and high infection rates in families, the positive tests from casual exposure was a concern in this outbreak.
Bloomfield said it was difficult to cordon off a community in this outbreak, unlike what happened in Sydney during a recent outbreak.
He revealed officials discovered the connection between the two families on Sunday morning
"It really helped our investigation to enlist that information early. It was volunteered early and that's actually really helpful with what next steps we take."

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Listen above to Mike's thoughts on The Queen's rare move discussing her private experiences 
Queen Elizabeth II is encouraging people to be vaccinated against COVID-19, saying the shot is quick, harmless and will help protect others against the disease.
In a video call with the officials responsible for rolling out the vaccine, the 94-year-old monarch compared the effort that's gone into Britain's national vaccination campaign to the way people worked together during World War II.
"Well, once you've had the vaccine you have a feeling of, you know, you're protected, which is, I think, very important," the queen said on a tape of the call broadcast Friday. "And as far as I can make out it was quite harmless, very quick. And I've had lots of letters from people who've been very surprised by how easy it was to get the vaccine."
The queen also highlighted the fact that being vaccinated helps protect everyone, not just the person who gets the shot.
"It is obviously difficult for people, if they've never had a vaccine, because they ought to think about other people rather than themselves," she said.
Though the queen had made her vaccination known earlier, her comments during a video call with health leaders recorded Tuesday will get the word to more people who might be hesitating, and could possibly prove persuasive given Elizabeth's huge name recognition.
The queen and her husband, Prince Philip, 99, received their first dose of the vaccine last month. In an unusual move, the palace made the information known to prevent speculation about their health.
The call with health officials this week showed the queen continuing with her duties even as Philip rests at King Edward VII's Hospital in what royal officials called a precautionary measure. Buckingham Palace said Tuesday that he was being treated for an infection.
During the conversation, the queen described COVID-19 as a "plague" that has swept across the globe. She urged the vaccination drive leaders to "keep up the good work."'
She likened the community spirit to get vaccinations done to the experience of the country during World War II.

National's Judith Collins believes public support for the Government's Covid-19 response is shifting.
The Opposition leader told Mike Hosking people want to make sure that if they're following the rules - other people are too.
Collins says Jacinda Ardern's constantly telling people to be kind - but sometimes you can be so kind to a few people, that everyone else ends up paying the price.
"Being kind to someone who has a test, is told to stay home, has the symptoms and goes to the gym, I'm sorry but how is that being kind to everyone else?" 
She says the Government's apathetic about the pandemic.
They started off with a hiss and a roar, but a year later, Collins says if people don't self isolate or do what they're supposed to, they basically just get told they're a naughty boy or girl.
"Just listen to it. It's all about 'only if people do the right thing' - yeah, that's why we have laws."
National's Covid-19 response spokesperson Chris Bishop said that was a good move, but the Government needed to go further.
He told RNZ that New Zealand's "high-trust model" was starting to break down and a new approach was called for.
"It is time to start knocking on people's doors and making sure that when people are meant to be isolating for two weeks, they actually are doing so," Bishop said.
"And if they're not, let's appropriately punish them and make sure people know about that so other people don't do it as well."
Offenders should be fined, Bishop said.
"People haven't felt the pressure to follow the rules because there are no sanctions."
"Other countries have faced similar problems," he said. "Taiwan does have strict requirements around self-isolation and the key point there is they actually go and check and that's not really what's happening at the moment ...
"We should be going to check up on those people, we should be calling them, we should be knocking on their door, and potentially looking at video-conferencing them."
- with text from RNZ

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention vaccine advisers voted Sunday to recommend the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine for the US. It is the first of the three authorized Covid-19 vaccines that comes in a single dose.
It is a vaccine one member called "highly effective."
The US Food and Drug Administration authorized the J&J vaccine on Saturday local time.
The CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is a group of vaccine and public health experts that helps set guidelines for the CDC concerning the best practices with vaccinations. Members voted unanimously, with one recusal for a potential conflict of interest, to recommend the vaccine. They did not make any recommendations about specific groups who should receive the vaccine.
A vote from this group is one of the last federal regulatory steps needed before the vaccine can be sent out to states and vaccination programs. CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky is expected to sign off on the recommendation quickly, and the federal government may then begin distributing the vaccine, perhaps as soon as Monday.
"I just want to state explicitly how very grateful I am that we now have three highly effective vaccines," said ACIP member Dr. Matthew Daley of the Institute for Health Research with Kaiser Permanente Colorado.
The vaccine, made by Johnson & Johnson's Janssen vaccine arm, can be kept at regular refrigerator temperatures, which experts said would make it much easier to distribute than vaccines made by Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech.
"During a pandemic, the data show that the best utilization of resources is to employ all available vaccines with acceptable vaccine efficacy. This will save cost and lives," the CDC's Dr. Sara Oliver told the ACIP meeting. A single-dose vaccine has an advantage, particularly in settings where a second dose "would be challenging." For example, it could be used to help protect the homeless, people in the justice system, and those with limited access to health care like people who are homebound or live in rural areas, Oliver said.
The vaccine was tested in more than 44,000 people in the US, South Africa and Latin America. Globally, it was 66.1% effective against moderate to severe/critical Covid-19 at least four weeks after vaccination, according to an FDA analysis. In the US, it is considered 72% effective, and offered 86% protection against severe forms of the disease.
Overall, non-fatal serious adverse events were infrequent, according to the FDA's analysis, and there were no reported cases of anaphylaxis following vaccination in the trial. There have been a small number of severe allergic reactions with the Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines. For example, in the first week of the Pfizer vaccine rollout, there were only 29 cases out of 1.9 million doses administered, according to the CDC.
More research is needed to now for sure, but the FDA analysis also hinted that the J&J vaccine may help prevent asymptomatic infections.
A January study from the CDC showed that most coronavirus cases are spread by people without symptoms. If a vaccine prevented asymptomatic infection, it might help reduce opportunities to transmit the disease -- not just keep the vaccinated from getting sick.
There is some concern among public health leaders that some people will think the J&J vaccine is "second class," because its efficacy is lower than the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, but the experts say it is important that people remember these are totally different vaccines.
The J&J vaccine was tested at a time when there were more variants in circulation. Tested in South Africa and in Brazil, an FDA analysis found that the majority of the Covid-19 cases in the J&J trials were due to variants that are thought to be more contagious.
"The Johnson & Johnson vaccine was tested against the South Africa variant in South Africa, tested against the variant in Brazil. The Moderna and Pfizer...

A Federal Labor MP has been accused of rape in an email, Liberal Senator Sarah Henderson has revealed in the latest in a series of sexual assault allegations against senior politicians.
The Victorian senator said in a statement released late on Sunday that she had received an email from a woman and had passed it on to the Australian Federal Police.
“Late this afternoon, I forwarded to the Australian Federal Police an email I received this afternoon from a woman alleging she has been raped by a man who is now a Federal Labor Member of Parliament,” Senator Henderson said in a statement published on Twitter.
The Liberal senator said she had immediately referred the matter to the AFP, following the procedures set out by police commissioner Reece Kershaw on February 24.
“In immediately referring this matter to the AFP, I have followed procedures set out by Commissioner Kershaw in his letter of 24 February 2021,” she said. “I make this statement in the interests of full transparency.”
The latest email comes after a woman accused a minister in the Morrison Government of raping her in 1988, before entering Parliament. The Prime Minister was sent a letter detailing the rape allegation, which was then referred to the AFP.
The woman left behind a trove of emails, letters and other correspondence before taking her own life in Adelaide last year. Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull earlier on Sunday called for an inquest into the woman’s death.
The bombshell claim followed Brittany Higgins’s allegation that she was sexually assaulted in Parliament House in March 2019. The former Liberal staffer alleges that she was raped by a colleague in her boss Defence Minister Linda Reynolds’s office after a night of drinking, and that she later felt pressured not to make a formal complaint.
Since Ms Higgins told her story to news.com.au, a surge of women in Canberra have also alleged they were sexually assaulted.
Three women have claimed they were assaulted by the same man as Ms Higgins, while others made allegations about other incidents that happened at Parliament House or in public service.
A Labor spokesperson told the ABC of the latest statement: “The Australian Labor Party has seen media reports that Senator Henderson has received an allegation of sexual assault and has referred any relevant correspondence to authorities as is appropriate.”
text by news.com.au staff

Deja vu for the New Zealand events industry.
Countless events have been affected or cancelled as a result of the return to Covid Level 3 in Auckland, and level 2 elsewhere.
They include the Southland A&P show which has been held every year since World War 2, alongside delays to the Auckland Arts Festival and the cancellation of the Auckland Lantern Festival. 
New Zealand Events Association general manager Segolene De Fontenay told Mike Hosking the impact on the industry comes in many forms.
"If we're knocked down and change alert levels, there's a financial impact, on top of mental impact, on top of putting a dent in the confidence." 
The T20 double-headers against Australia and England on Wednesday will now be played in Wellington -- and the America's Cup has also been postponed until March 10.
Auckland Mayor Phil Goff says it's pretty tough on the hospitality and accommodation industry.
He says it's money lost by Eden Park, the people holding the concessions there -- as well as local bars, restaurants and hotels.
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Auckland's lockdown has left one restaurant owner with a sour taste in his mouth.
The region is back under Level 3 restrictions, while the rest of the country is at Level 2.
Cafes, bars and restaurants are not allowed to let customers dine-in, under the strict rules.
Celebrity Chef and restaurateur Josh Emett told Mike Hosking it's having a major impact on his businesses.
"Two outlets in Auckland that I'm focused on, we can't do takeaways.
"So you shut down and go home, that's it."
He says it's another blow to the industry.
"You need momentum, and shutting down for a week or three days just knocks your momentum.
"You don't switch it back on on Monday morning and it fires up and you're good to go again, it doesn't work like that."
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