The Mike Hosking Breakfast

Boeing has recommended that airlines ground all 777s with the type of engine that blew apart after takeoff from Denver this past weekend, and most carriers that fly those planes said they would temporarily pull them from service.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration ordered United Airlines to step up inspections of the aircraft after one of its flights made an emergency landing at Denver International Airport on Saturday as pieces of the engine's casing rained on suburban neighborhoods. None of the 231 passengers or 10 crew were hurt, and the flight landed safely, authorities said. United is among the carriers that has grounded the planes.
FAA Administrator Steve Dickson identified the focus on the stepped-up inspections as hollow fan blades unique to the Pratt & Whitney PW4000 engine model and used solely on Boeing 777s. Dickson's statement said the conclusion was based on an initial review of safety data and would likely mean grounding some planes.
Robert Sumwalt, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, said during a virtual news conference Monday night that a fractured fan blade found in the engine had visible signs of “damage consistent with metal fatigue.” The broken blade hit and fractured the blade next to it as the engine broke apart, according to a preliminary investigation.
Sumwalt said the blade that fractured first was being flown on a private jet to Pratt & Whitney’s headquarters Monday night to be examined under the supervision of NTSB investigators.
“Our mission is to understand not only what happened, but why it happened, so that we can keep it from happening again,” he said.
Boeing said there were 69 777s with the Pratt & Whitney 4000-112 engines in service and another 59 in storage and affirmed they should be grounded until the FAA sets up an inspection regime.
United had 24 of the planes in service; it is the only U.S. airline with the engine in its fleet, according to the FAA.
Two Japanese airlines have another 32. Japan ordered the planes out of service, according to the financial newspaper Nikkei, while noting that an engine in the same family had trouble in December.
In South Korea, Asiana Airlines grounded nine, seven of which were in service, and Korean Air said it grounded 16 aircraft, six of which are in service.
“We are working with these regulators as they take actions while these planes are on the ground and further inspections are conducted by Pratt & Whitney," Boeing said in a statement, referring to American and Japanese regulators.
The engine maker said it was sending a team to work with investigators.
The emergency landing this past weekend is the latest trouble for Boeing, which saw its 737 Max planes grounded for more than a year after two deadly crashes in 2019 and is suffering amid the huge reduction in air travel due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Max planes began returning to the skies late last year — a huge boost for the aircraft maker, which lost billions during the grounding because it has been unable to deliver new planes to customers.
Video posted on Twitter from Saturday's emergency showed the engine fully engulfed in flames as the plane flew. Freeze frames from different video taken by a passenger sitting slightly in front of the engine and also posted on Twitter appeared to show a broken fan blade in the engine.
Passengers, who were headed to Honolulu, said they feared the plane would crash after an explosion and flash of light, while people on the ground saw huge chunks of the aircraft pour down, just missing one home and crushing a truck. The explosion, visible from the ground, left a trail of black smoke in the sky.
United says it will work closely with the FAA and the NTSB “to determine any additional steps that are needed to ensure these aircraft meet our rigorous safety standards and can return to service.”
The NTSB said the cockpit voice recorder and flight data...

What is it they say about statistics and damn lies?
The poverty measure we use is all wrong. That's because wrong because it doesn’t include the initial Covid period, therefore is pointless. And it looks at poverty from a very crude pre-determined set of statistics and is predicated on the simple idea that if the government tosses money at something, it can change it.
We have got extra excited about it this year because the government, mainly through the Prime Minister made such a big deal of doing something about it, and up till today has failed spectacularly.
So, to this year's lotto draw of numbers, is it better? Well, who would know? In some senses, yes.
For example, 14.6 percent of kids lived in households with income less than 50 percent of the median wage before housing costs. That was down from 16.5 percent in 2018, so a win.
But it was up on last year when it was 13.5 percent, so it’s a loss.
So, the obvious question is, is the government winning? No. There are more kids than last year doing it hard.
Look at it another way, and this is yet another reason why this thing is a complete mess, too many measurements that make little, if any sense. Kids in households with income less than 50 percent of the median income after household costs for the 2017/18 base financial year, that number is 18.2 percent. That’s down from 2018's 22.8 percent but only just lower than 2019's 18.3 percent. In all reality, it's gone nowhere.
So, so far of two measurements, we've gone backwards and barely moved. Is that a success?
Material hardship got a good going over at the election. That's shoes, doctors, power bills etc. That’s sitting at 11 percent, down from 13.3 percent in 2018 and 13.2 percent in 2019.
So, a win for the government. Or is it? Even that last number, from 13 to 11, we feel good about that, do we? Is that the sort of progress this government really wanted? Are these numbers to crow about?
And I haven't even got to the Pacific Island and Maori part of the statistics. They're the mess you'd expect. They're hopelessly over-represented in everything bad.
What solves poverty is growth. Jobs, skills, attitude, desire, hard work, progress, innovation, and productivity. The list is long, detailed, and, sadly, not featured in our report.
What the report reflects is the government throw money at stuff. They threw billions, and what did the billions get us? At best a tiny improvement in material hardship, essentially nothing elsewhere.
People's lives, outlooks, hopes, and dreams are reduced to statistics poured over by wonks with magnifying glasses. And like all statistics there will be something for a government spin doctor to stick a headline to.
But if this is what we get on the issues the government is most passionate about, and most free with the money on, we are buggered.
Transformational? What a joke.

There's expected to be 'nothing to see here' when the Reserve Bank makes its Official Cash Rate announcement today.
It will also be giving a Monetary Policy Statement.
Westpac chief economist Dominick Stephens told Mike Hosking he's not expecting the central bank to change much today.
He says it will conclude monetary policy settings are about right at the moment, and leave things on hold.
Stephens is expecting them to start winding back the quantitative easing programme later in the year, but not today.
“There's a bit of inflation at the moment but that's mainly due to goods stuck at the wharf.
“It’ll be a short term spike and thinks the Reserve Bank will agree that inflation's likely to drop over the next two years.”
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Health officials are taking no chances, with Auckland's latest community cases of Covid 19.
Another student at Auckland's Papatoetoe High School tested positive for the virus yesterday -- and two of her siblings tested positive last evening.
One of the positive cases worked at Kmart Botany on Friday and Saturday nights.
Director General of Health Ashley Bloomfield told Mike Hosking anyone who visited the store after 4pm Friday or Saturday needs to self-isolate immediately.
Bloomfield told Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking that genome sequencing overnight had shown the same strain of virus as the first student who tested positive for Covid-19 at Papatoetoe High School.
"Our genome sequencing results in from overnight show a very direct link back to cases A and B, so that first student in the school, so that's reassuring that we're not dealing with a different potential line of transmission here," Bloomfield said.
There was no reason to raise alert levels in Auckland, he said.
"We had a really good discussion about this last night - I had a formal discussion with my chief science advisor and director of public health - we didn't see any reason to go up alert levels," Bloomfield said.
Good testing and isolation was the key to get through this latest outbreak, he said.
He said authorities were not taking any chances with this latest set of cases; putting the family into quarantine and being "very precautionary" with health alerts issued to affected Kmart and a vape customers.
It was being treated very similarly to this year's earlier outbreak involving a Northland woman who had left the Pullman. That had been contained, preventing a large-scale outbreak.
Bloomfield did not think the family at the centre of the latest case were deliberately trying to evade authorities but nonetheless it was "frustrating" contact tracers hadn't been able to speak to the family and ensure they were tested for 10 days.
"We will be doing some doorknocking over these next coming days with any of these students who don't have their second test just to make sure."
Anyone who was at Kmart Botany last Friday (February 19) and Saturday (February 20), between 3.30pm and 10.30pm, is considered a "casual plus" contact and must stay home and get tested today.
And every one of the 1500 students and 150 staff at Papatoetoe High School is being told to isolate and get re-tested despite the initial case not attending school yesterday.

Have a look at an interview with a bloke called Keith Bradsher.
He’s an American car industry commentator and was on the television last weekend on Q+A.
It was an interview about electric cars. it’s an excellent insight into the delusion and mind-set that has captured so many when it comes to future uptake of a product that under any normal circumstances would be seen as a commercial failure - and if it wasn’t so heavily linked to governments, and climate change obsession would have been binned by now.
The stats are stark. We are a country of cars; we love cars - more cars per head of population than just about anywhere outside the states.
There are 4 million cars. 24000 of those 4 million are EVs.
Stats don’t lie. The uptake is abysmal, has been abysmal and will remain abysmal and the disciples know it
And this is where Bradsher comes in.
He says – and he’s right – the market doesn’t lend itself well to EV ownership here. What he means by that, is the market hasn’t been specifically tilted enough the EVs way for the sales to take off.
And by tilt he means tax. We do not have, he says, especially high taxes for which it can then exempt electric cars.
Now this of course is to be celebrated.  We don’t have especially high taxes on goods and services for trade either. In trade they’re called tariffs.
We used to and it almost ruined us. When we took the tariffs off and traded with the world based on merit, we went gang busters and still do. We are the pioneers of free trade.
In a free market where EVs area readily available, we choose not to buy them. The Bradshers of this world don’t like that, so the campaign begins to artificially stack the deck.
It’s the car version of social engineering: entice people using someone else’s money, take a failed product and make it so cheap people go ‘why wouldn’t I’.
The point is these guys know they’ve lost their argument. Their original pitch was it saves the world, they’re quiet, they’re cool, they’re cheaper to run. All good arguments but the consumer who is always right didn’t take the bait.
And so we are left with the default position of bribery via the tax payer. Scott Morrison rejected it last week as part of his countries emission reduction plans because they weren’t an effective use of taxpayer’s money. He’s right, but that didn’t stop the EV lobby blowing their stack.
Our government aren’t as bright so the Bradshers of this world may get luckier here. If so, every EV you see will in part be yours, because even though you’re not behind the wheel, you paid for it.

Warriors coach Nathan Brown is accepting the pressure that comes with coaching a new NRL team.
Brown signed a three year contract with the Warriors last year after coaching the Newcastle Knights for the past four seasons.
He told Mike Hosking his previous experience has put him in good stead.
"I've been coaching for a long time now so pressure's there no matter where you work or who you're coaching, there's always pressure in professional sports to get results, and it's obviously a job we all do because we enjoy doing it." 
Brown also says it's unlikely the Warriors will play in New Zealand this season.
He says it's not a decision the club would be able to make themselves.
Meanwhile, Phil Gould's role with the Warriors is a consultant to the owners and management, but he offers more than that.
Gould played 104 first grade rugby league matches, coached the Canterbury Bulldogs and Penrith Panthers to NRL premiership titles, and coached New South Wales to State of Origin series wins.
He told Mike Hosking he's been heavily involved in the Warriors pre-season preparations.
"During the pre-Christmas period, I'd go down to Kiama and watch them train, and I went up to Tamworth for four weeks in January."
The Warriors will play two trial games on Saturday against the Gold Coast and Newcastle, before their season opener against the Titans on March 13.

The Horticulture sector's still bleeding money without enough workers to fill jobs.
Apple growers in Hawkes Bay are reportedly struggling to pick more than 40 per cent of their crop.
A marketing consultant for growers reveals the sectors missing 80 per cent of their seasonal workers.
Only 2000 RSE scheme workers have been let into the country for the summer months.
Agriculture Minister Damien O'Connor told Mike Hosking that the sector is short, but there are people in New Zealand who could shift across to a seasonal job.
He accepts that there is a shortage, but some orchardists have no trouble finding workers and others do. 
"Some employers will have plenty of workers, and some won't. I guess there's a whole lot of paying conditions, access to accommodation, many things that incentivise people to come and work, do a seasonal job, make sure they get a decent pay for what they do." 
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An assurance people's information will be kept private when using a health travel passport.
Air New Zealand and Emirates will start using the IATA Travel Pass app from April.
It will hold information like Covid-19 test results and vaccinations, and will let people know where to get a test and what's required by their destination.
IATA airport, passenger and security products head, Alan Murray Hayden, told Mike Hosking passengers' data will stay in their phone, and they'll send it to airlines themselves to prove they're okay to travel.
"There's no central database, no big brother, and IATA doesn't have access to passenger data or store any of it."
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A new Kiwi developed low cost Covid immunity test is looking increasingly promising.
The Government funded study led by a team at AUT looks at a platform called Kode.
What kode does is attach molecules to any surface in only a couple of minutes, to modify any type of virus.
The test, carried out in a just-published , uses a clever platform pioneered by the Auckland University of Technology team of engineering professor Steve Henry, who joined Mike Hosking to talk about the study.
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The longer Devon Conway is held out of all three formats for New Zealand, the longer Gary Stead and company are hurting their cause.
While that might be an unconventionally sweeping and subjective way to start a match report, it can be objectively stated that the 29-year-old with 18 first-class centuries and three 50s in his first five T20I innings was the levee that stood between the Black Caps and a dramatic top-order collapse.
More than that, it was the key contribution to a comprehensive 53-run win.
His 99 not out off just 59 balls propelled New Zealand to 184-5 in the first T20I against Australia at Hagley Oval, a match held on the 10th anniversary of the devastating Christchurch earthquake.
It was more than enough after Australia were reduced to 19-4 thanks to brilliant new ball spells by Tim Southee and Trent Boult, then 99-8 when the a superb Ish Sodhi (4-28) accounted for the dangerous Mitchell Marsh (45) and Ashton Agar (23) in the space of three balls.
Conway, needing 12 from the final three balls of the innings to score a deserved century, slogged Kane Richardson for six over cow corner, worked him to boundary along the ground and then was desperately unlucky to miss three figures when he creamed a ball straight to the cover sweeper.
In case you were wondering, there was no chance he could have returned for two.
His last five professional T20 innings have returned 99 not out, 93 not out in the Super Smash final, 91 not out, 69 not out and 50 – a staggering return in the most fickle of formats.
There was no sense that anything special was in the works after Australia won the toss and inserted the hosts.
Martin Guptill did nothing to assuage fears that his loss of form has moved from temporary to something more terminal. He watched two deliveries from Daniel Sams pass harmlessly between off stump and the wide line when he was served up a genuine half-volley right in the four-through-covers slot.
A Guptill in any sort of form pumps this through the off side, holds the pose for a second longer than needed, then scratches out his guard again. This version of Guptill is a touch late on it, skews it straight to Ashton Agar in the gully and walks off with one of those wry grins that scream, "What is going on"?
If the under-fire opener was seeking comfort he could reflect on a pleasant streak of 69 innings without a duck in T20Is, stretching back to 2010 when he was part of a top four that was all dismissed for ducks by Pakistan's new-ball attack.
Tim Seifert, who followed a strong international T20 campaign with some dubious form for Northern Districts, failed to fire also, scratching just a single before being bowled by IPL millionaire Jhye Richardson.
A rotten start turned to putrid when Williamson, whose form cannot be queried, bottom edged a nothing ball to be caught behind.
At 19-3 after four overs the game was spiralling out of control for the home side and you could have struck a line through it if Sams had held his position on the boundary and caught a Conway flick that landed just over the rope.
As it was, Conway found a willing partner in Glenn Phillips (30 off 20). The pair had put on 184 together against West Indies earlier in the T20 season. This partnership was 110 runs shy of that record, but it was critical to getting the Black Caps back in the match.
A 47-run partnership with James Neesham (26 off 15) and an unbroken stand of 44 with Mitchell Santner (7 off 5) off just 19 balls provided New Zealand with a total to defend.
Australia's reply mirrored that of New Zealand's, with quick wickets falling in the power play.
Captain Aaron Finch was the first to go, debutant Josh Philippe quickly followed, as did Matthew Wade and Glenn Maxwell.
The visitors needed a Conway, he wasn't available.