The Mike Hosking Breakfast

It's time to catch up with one of New Zealand's favourite musical acts.
Sol3 Mio have wowed us for years, with three number albums and sold out nationwide tours.
Well, they're getting back on the road with a whole of New Zealand tour starting next week.
Moses Mackay, Pene Pati and Amitai Pati joined Mike Hosking live in studio.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE

The populist 5-Star Movement, the largest party in the Italian Parliament, put on hold Wednesday its commitment to back the new government that former central banker Mario Draghi is working to assemble to mend Italy's pandemic-devastated economy.
Even without the backing of Movement lawmakers, the former European Central Bank president has enough pledges of support from other parties, ranging from political left to right, to clinch the required votes of confidence in the country's two-chamber legislature.
Still, in tapping Draghi to try to form the next Cabinet, Italian President Sergio Mattarella wanted to see the country pull together behind a government not beholden to any one political leaning and focused on managing the health, social and economic crises caused by the pandemic.
Although prominent Movement lawmakers who met with Draghi indicated the premier-designate deserved support, comic Beppe Grillo, a founder of the 5-Stars, abruptly postponed online voting by registered members on whether to back a Draghi-led government. The 5-Stars consider themselves an anti-establishment grassroots movement and online democracy.
Before the online voting set for Wednesday and Thursday started, Grillo said “"Let's wait a moment” in a Facebook video posted hours after he and other Movement leaders met with Draghi. In the video, Grillo insisted that Draghi first publicly announce his policies before the membership vote.
Draghi didn't immediately respond, but he has not made any public comments since he set to work last week consulting party leaders and listening to their suggestions while seeking support. Usually, premiers lay out their goals and policies in Parliament just ahead of the confidence votes required to govern.
Draghi spent Wednesday meeting with union and business leaders and environmentalists. All are keen in making their voices heard on how Italy should spend more than 200 billion euros ($240 billion) in European Union pandemic recovery funds.
Just when Draghi will report back to Mattarella and whether his proposed Cabinet would be made up of only technocrats or include political figures was unclear Wednesday evening.
But while Grillo urged caution, other prominent 5-Star members encouraged the Movement to close ranks behind Draghi.
"It's beautiful to see a united Italy,'' Deputy Health Minister Pierpaolo Sileri, a 5-Star who is involved in promoting the country's COVID-19 vaccination campaign, said. "We're all rowing in the same direction,'' Sileri told Sky TG24 TV.
The Movement's cracks have widened into clear factions ever since it became the main coalition partner in 2018 in back-to-back governments led by Giuseppe Conte.
The first saw the 5-Stars partner with the right-wing, euroskeptic League party. In Conte's second coalition government, the 5-Stars governed with left-wing and center-leaning forces, including loyalists to ex-premier Matteo Renzi.
Renzi's withdrawal of coalition support last month ultimately forced Conte's resignation. That prompted Mattarella to tap Draghi as a widely respected figure who could marshal wide, solid support in Parliament for Italy's pandemic-recovery efforts.

Roughly 300 people have come off benefits in a week in Hawke's Bay in a bid to seek out a decent pay packet during the apple picking season.
Growers still say they don't believe every apple on the region's bulging trees will be picked between February and May, but Wednesday's Pick the Bay employment expo in Hastings showed glimmers of hope.
Hastings Mayor Sandra Hazlehurst told Mike Hosking they have pulled the community together.
"There is lots of works available in Hastings, with a very good pay rate as well.
"People are responding to the labour shortage, and we will pay people accordingly."
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Local potato growers are hurting after a controversial dumping of frozen fries into world markets by European producers.
Exports of our potato chips fell 40 percent in December, led by a 77 percent drop in the Philippines and nearly 50 percent into Australia.
Potatoes New Zealand CEO Chris Claridge told Mike Hosking they've put a protest in with MBIE about the dumping, and a report should be out next month.
"The dumping is against international trade rules.
"This is exactly what we thought would happen, as these excess frozen fries have to go somewhere."
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New Zealanders are reluctant to call in sick despite feeling unwell because there was no one to cover them or there was too much work to do, a new survey has found.The report for recruitment agency Onestaff revealed the top five reasons people were hesitant to take sick leave - with 53 per cent blaming being short-staffed as the number one reason.The survey of more than 6000 people focused on the trade sector but the findings were typical across industries, said Onestaff CEO Jonathan Ives.Ives said the results should serve as a reminder to businesses to have a contingency plan in place for staff to take leave - especially with pressures from Covid-19."The hesitancy to take sick leave was quite surprising, especially as there's been so much public health messaging around staying home when unwell."However, the reasons cited for not taking sick leave were due to staffing shortages and heavy workloads, which shows that Kiwi workers are very dedicated to the success of their workplaces and to their colleagues."The reasons that people are hesitant to take sick leave included:53 per cent – There was not enough other staff at work.49 per cent – There was too much work on to take time off.34 per cent – They were the only ones with a certain skill in their workplace.26 per cent – They were running out of paid sick leave.15 per cent – They were saving sick leave for when kids are sick.Ives urged businesses to create plans such as buffers between workers or making sure there were temporary options to cover sick staff."From a business owner perspective, these results show that it's really important to have some contingency planning in place for staff leave – and to make sure you can provide cover for vital jobs to keep your operations going."
Encouraging staff to take a day or two off when they first fall ill was better for business than them feeling pressured and spreading illness around the workplace, Ives said."Staff who are unwell need to feel it is ok to take a day off."This is especially true at the moment with the warnings around Covid."The survey results come as the Government Short-term Absence Payment (STAP) kicks in.The $350 payment to employers to pay workers who need to self-isolate while awaiting a test but can't work from home started this week.STAP also supports people who have a dependent who needs to stay home.Ives said the extra payment to employers would help address the issue for workers who were told to stay home because of Covid-19 contact but who had run out of leave.Around 26 per cent of those surveyed said they were reluctant to call in sick because they were running out of paid sick leave.
Around 15 per cent were saving sick leave so they could stay home when their children fell ill.
The Government also promised to double sick leave during the election campaign and a Bill is expected to pass in mid-2021.The survey results were part of the What's my Rate? Industrial and Trades Wage Report 2021.The report looks at work attitudes, experiences, and pay from workers in the industrial and trades sectors: manufacturing, production and logistics; commercial and hospitality; trades and services; construction and infrastructure; and engineering.The anonymous responses were collected through an online survey tool between August and December 2020.

There are hopes the government won't rush the RMA reform.
Labour's scrapping the Resource Management Act, and putting three new Acts in its place.
They'll revolve around land use and regulation, development, and climate change.
Brosnan Construction managing director Phil Brosnan told Mike Hosking this will take time to do properly.
He says it's an important step for New Zealand, and if false promises are made about timeframes, it will unsettle development.
"Rules around land use need to be streamlined if the government wants projects delivered more quickly than present."
Brosnan says a plan across New Zealand rather than broken up into various councils would make life easier.
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Ties are no longer deemed essential attire for Parliament.
A Standing Orders Committee meeting last night on the matter didn't reach a consensus, but the majority was in favour to remove ties.
Speaker Trevor Mallard says he's guided by the committee's decision, and ties will no longer be deemed appropriate business attire for men.
It follows a dress code stoush between him and Maori Party co-leader Rawiri Waititi, which saw Waititi kicked out of the debating chamber for not wearing a tie.
Former United Future leader Peter Dunne told Mike Hosking the Speaker has badly mishandled the situation.
"Trevor Mallard has made a pigs breakfast of the whole thing. He was over the top from the very beginning, he has made a mountain out of a molehill."
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THE BEST BITS IN A SILLIER PACKAGE (from Thursday's Mike Hosking Breakfast) Your Mental Image for the Day/Nobody's Squeaky Clean/Fruit Is Back/The Size of the Virus/Try This at Home

If you want to deal in fact, as in real numbers, the hypocrisy of the Air New Zealand Saudi scandal is laid bare.
This was a $3 million contract. A contract so small the CEO didn’t even know about it.
And yet the yapping was yet again a display of how a small introspective country like ours gets so easily side-tracked on issues of little importance, and certainly no consistency.
This went all the way to the Prime Minister who said it failed the sniff test. Her sniff credentials, sadly, have been shot to pieces this week on Trevor Mallard. If anything fails the sniff test, it's him. So that makes her an opportunist at best, more realistically a hypocrite.
As for Golriz Ghahraman, who screeched war crimes, ask her sometime how Mr Bikindi is, or Mr Karadzic. Happy to be ropeable at an airline, perhaps not so critical of her own actions, another hypocrite.
I must say Air New Zealand's back-down was a sign, sadly of the age. Not just an investigation, which is fair enough given the new CEO knew nothing of this work, but a cancellation of the contract, and a bag of bits from the remaining unworked engine bundled into a bubble bag and sent back to the Saudis.
Be as exercised as you want about the work, but a deal is a deal. A simpering cancellation is a breach, it's bad faith, and bad business. Don't take any more work if that’s the way you want to play it, but finish what you said you would.
Back to the numbers, $753,256,176. That’s what we sell the Saudis every year. Where is the outrage? Where are the cancellations? The boycotts? The barricades?
$406,066,414, that's what we buy off them each and every year. So, in other words, well over $1 billion in two-way business every year, with the very same people that caused so many to be gobsmacked, outraged, and apoplectic over a $3 million deal.
Which is it? Are we dealing with them or not? Do we cancel everything with everyone who does stuff we don’t favour of? Or do we just do it with people who we barely deal with anyway? Like Myanmar.
Why, when the Chinese do a series of things we can barely stomach, do we march forward with $20 billion worth of free trade? Not just that, but we just finished upgrading our FTA a week or so back. We love the Chinese, or do we?
If we did $20 billion worth of business with Myanmar, would we still be cancelling contact? Of course not.
The hypocrisy is outrageous. The shock and horror over Air New Zealand is pathetic. The world at times, and in places, is ugly. But we still have to be in it, work with it, and make our way.
Foe upset is for the deluded hand wringer who wants to pretend they're above the rest of us.

There are some more things we can learn from Australia.
1: They’re holding a short sharp snap inquiry into their immigration settings so they can get the economy moving.
They recognise unlike our government that letting people in to do the jobs we can’t and won’t is the best way to fire up an economy
We cancel cruise ships and seasons, they’re looking at how they get them and other industries back up and running
2: They’re building a private large scale purpose built MIQ facility so they can bring more Australians back home.
We are emptying hotels because unlike Australia we let people wander round spreading virus thus leading to our facilities being booked out until June. Australia looks at ways of expanding.
3: As of Friday, the Australian government has ruled out subsidies for EVs as part of their transmission to a low emissions economy.
Our government, having rejected it too last term, is now sadly making noises that look like tax payer subsides are on the way.
Australia says subsides would not represent value for money: why can’t we see what they do?
Answer: because our government is driven by blind ideology. Australia is practical. If it works, do it, if it makes sense, do it. If it’s a waste, flag it. Good ideas stand on their own.  
The EV has never taken off for varied but obvious reasons, it they have in latter years garnered a religious like fervour among a few who have swallowed far too much Kool-Aid.
As I have said a million times, if you like them, buy them ,but don’t expect the rest of us to partially foot the bill, and that’s what governments are looking to do.
Ask yourself why they don’t stand on their own two feet. If they saved the world to such an extent, if they played such a critical role in climate change and emissions standards, if they were so much better than petrol or diesel, why hasn’t the stampede ever started?
EVs are the carbon credits of motoring: don’t actually cut your own emissions, pay someone else to do it.
Plant pine trees to collect the tax break, it’s all window dressing. Make a pledge at a conference that will never actually be enacted and just for super ironic measure take a plane or two to do it.
There is too much spin PR and green washing in the industry. Morrison sees it: I wish Ardern would too.