The Mike Hosking Breakfast

THE BEST BITS IN A SILLIER PACKAGE (from Tuesday's Mike Hosking Breakfast) If Only Someone Was In Charge/The Pile-On Continues/Pricey Piece of Toast/Don't Overthink It

Air New Zealand chief executive Greg Foran says its involvement in helping the Saudi Arabian military was a case of "poor judgement".
Foran defended the airline on Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking show this morning after revelations the national carrier's business unit, Gas Turbines, which specialises in servicing military marine engines and turbines, has been supporting the Saudi Navy.
The Green Party has criticised Air New Zealand following revelations it has been helping the Saudi Arabian military - despite the Middle Eastern nation's role in the humanitarian crisis in Yemen.
Foran said he found out about the third party contract 10 days ago and took immediate action.
"There has been some suggestion that this is some type of secret deal or conspiracy - I can really assure you this isn't the case. What it is a case of however it is a case of poor judgement.
"It is also being suggested it was some sort of conspiracy at the very top of Air NZ - that is not the case. This is something I found out 10 days ago, and I can assure you we took immediate action as soon as we found out."
Foran said the initial decision on the contract was made in 2019 when former chief executive Christopher Luxon was in charge of Air New Zealand.
"I can't tell you exactly how that decision was made but I can tell you that we are now reviewing the process for making a decision like that."
Foran said historically it was a $3 million contract which was not particularly large for the airline. It was now going back through the process to see if it got to the executive sign off level.
"This is a business that has been traditionally fixing things such as engines on offshore oil rigs. And then progressively over several years has started doing work with Navvies and those include the Australian and US Navvies- that is something we continue to look at and we will make judgement calls on those."
Air New Zealand carried out work in support of the Saudi Navy.
Air New Zealand has also been accused of running from the story and taking weeks to respond to requests for comment from 1 News.
"They reached out to us and said they had some information around Saudi Arabia, they didn't provide any more details. We realised this was a piece of business done through a third party and teams within Air NZ wanted to protect the identity of those we were doing third party work with. That once again was a poor judgement. As soon as that information became available to me which was 10 days ago we took immediate action.
"It wasn't a conspiracy it was just some poor judgement as people were dealing with a third party supplier."
Foran confirmed it would not do work with Saudi Arabia again and was reviewing all its military contracts.
Green Party human rights spokeswoman Golriz Ghahraman said her thoughts were with the Yemeni community who continued to suffer one of the worst atrocities in human history, including mass starvation and violence causing hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths, leaving millions displaced.
New Zealanders would be heartbroken to learn of our national carrier's possible links to the Yemeni crisis.
The airline's move to cease all support of the Saudi military after the matter came to light was welcomed, she said.
"However, we as a nation have an absolute legal and moral duty to investigate, and hold to account anyone in Air New Zealand's leadership," she said.
"If those in Air New Zealand HQ were not aware of what was going on, it needs to be established how that was allowed to happen."
Amnesty International campaign director Lisa Woods told 1 News she would've expected the airline to have carried out due diligence about the human rights risks and in doing so consider what impact their services would have.
"We would be appalled if there was any company here (in New Zealand) that through their activities were contributing to human rights violations and having...

Every Friday morning, Mike Hosking is joined by Tim Wilson and Kate Hawkesby to wrap the week in news. 
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Prime Minister Scott Morrison has offered hope Google will remain in Australia after holding “constructive” talks with the tech giant’s CEO this morning.
Mr Morrison and Communications Minister Paul Fletcher spoke to Google chief executive officer Sundar Pichai on Thursday morning to discuss the government’s media bargaining code.
The proposal has been met with fierce resistance from Google, which threatened to prevent Australian users from accessing its search engine last month.
Despite the threat, the federal government has pushed ahead with its plan to make big tech giants, including Google and Facebook, pay for Australian outlets for news content.
But Mr Morrison claimed after Thursday’s “constructive” conversation, he was more optimistic about Google remaining in Australia.
“I have been able to send them the best possible signals that should give them a great encouragement to engage with the process and see them conclude with the various news organisations,” he told reporters on Thursday.
“That is the best way to enable that matter to be settled.
“We discussed some of the specifics of elements of the code. They raised those matters, I think, very respectfully.
“I think we have been able to get that into a much more positive space about the ability to continue to provide services here in Australia.”
But Mr Morrison said he had made clear Australia would not kowtow to demands from the tech giant.
“At the end of the day, they understand that Australia sets the rules for how these things operate. And I was very clear about how I saw this playing out,” he said.
The government was buoyed on Wednesday by Microsoft publicly backing the code.
The US software giant claimed it would step into the void left if Google carried out its threat, saying its own search engine, Bing, could replace it.
Microsoft president Brad Smith claimed it would “take us a few months, but not years” to get up to speed in Australia.
“We know that we can invest in a way that will bring Bing and its search quality and its services for businesses on a par with what people get from Google today,” he said.
“We will need to invest, and we will. It will take us a few months, but not years. It will not be a small investment.
“We’ll take it one step at a time before we start talking publicly about numbers.”
Google and Facebook have declared the code unworkable, and launched a PR campaign in a bid to scupper it.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg lobbied Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and Communications Minister Paul Fletcher directly, but was unsuccessful.
Facebook has also reiterated a threat to prevent Australians from accessing or posting news content on its platform.
Along with its threat to leave the Australian market, Google directed Australian users of its search engine to a video of Australia and NZ managing director Mel Silva declaring the laws would “break” Google’s model.
The link has since been removed.
The tech giant also temporarily hid certain news sites from some Australian users in what Ms Silva described as an “experiment” that had been “forced upon us” by the government.
The Australian Institute Centre for Responsible Technology director Peter Lewis told a senate committee on Monday “Chairman Mao would have approved” of the tactics used by Google, which was prepared to “kill one to warn a hundred”.
The threats prompted Greens leader Adam Bandt to call on Wednesday for a publicly owned search engine.
“Google has enormous market power and they’re using it to threaten the Australian parliament and the Australian public,” he said.
“It’s time to seriously consider what a replacement would be.”
About 95 per cent of online searches in Australia are conducted via Google.

We obviously saw it with Brexit, the Scottish calls for independence, and now it seems Wexit could be next in line.


In Wales, independence is still a minority view, but a campaign aimed at making it a reality has gained momentum in the past year.


A pro independence group called YesCymru has seen it's membership grow from 2000 to 17,000 since the start of the year with 25,000 pledging to back a referendum.
The man behind YesCymru is Sion Jobbins, he joined Mike Hosking to talk about the growing movement.
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Tutoring centres are filling up fast.
NumberWorks'nWords centres across New Zealand are are noticing a 20 percent increase this year.
The surge comes after reports the Ministry of Education is calling in an expert panel to turn around record low maths scores.
NumberWorks'nWords owner Michelle Buckley told Mike Hosking tutoring centres teach kids the most efficient strategies, so as not  to overload them.
Buckley says tutoring is one piece of the puzzle, giving children the essential skills, for more difficult aspects of primary school.
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Blood tests will be offered to Otago residents who drank water from lead-contaminated supplies as authorities scramble to contain a debacle.
The free tests next week are expected to help officials work out whether the Waikouaiti and Karitāne communities north of Dunedin have experienced chronic exposure to lead.
The response comes amid gaffes that have included an email to the Dunedin City Council remaining unopened for weeks, the council publicly under-estimating a high lead reading and council chief executive Sandy Graham being out of the loop until this week.
Recent spikes in lead levels were unlikely to have created a risk of acute toxicity, but it was not impossible, particularly for young children, Southern District Health Board medical officer of health Dr Susan Jack said.
Residents have been told not to drink the water since Tuesday, and Dr Jack has appealed for calm.
A public meeting will be held in Waikouaiti tonight amid growing anger about multiple bungles.
Last night, the council conceded a lead reading from a sample taken in December was almost 40 times the acceptable limit.
Council staff had initially said the reading was about four times the limit.
Authorities did not grasp the lead limit had been exceeded by such an extent until this week, Dr Jack conceded.
But officials have so far stood by their assertion intermittent elevated lead levels recorded since August — six exceeded the limit — did not warrant a notice advising against drinking the water until Tuesday.
It had become clear at that point water at the source could be contaminated, after an elevated lead reading at the Waikouaiti raw water reservoir.
The source of the contamination is not known.
It emerged yesterday Graham did not know about elevated lead readings until this week.
That was despite her organisation receiving information about the lead readings since August and one in December that was particularly high.
The high reading from a December 8 sample — 0.39mg/L, almost 40 times the limit — happened to be one result that was sent to the city council on December 18, but was not noticed until January 7 as a staff member had been on leave.
The council's communication problems were further exposed when Dunedin Mayor Aaron Hawkins learnt during a radio interview last night the December reading was 10 times worse than the council had said.
Hawkins conceded the council could have explained the issue better, but said fixing that would not have changed the public health response.
Hawkins said he believed the error was a "misstatement" by a staff member that he repeated.
He apologised for getting that wrong.
The council had followed the advice of public health, he said.
"There will be plenty of time for a review of everything that has happened up until this point, and that will be true of not just the city council but of all authorities involved in this.
"But the people we would want to be involved in the review process are currently focused on trying to fix the problem."
Testing was stepped up from last August and contributed to the problem at the reservoir being identified.
Council 3 Waters group manager Tom Dyer said the council had tested more broadly for lead at water treatment plants in December and January and all results came back clear.
In adults, high levels of lead can cause symptoms such as mood changes, nausea, diarrhoea and memory impairment.
In children, it can lead to symptoms such as vomiting and difficulty sleeping.
The Ministry of Health was concerned about the spikes in lead readings, a spokeswoman said.
"As a precaution, public health officials have arranged for the Dunedin City Council to provide tankered water to residents until authorities are satisfied the drinking water supply is safe.
"We are working to urgently set up community screening so people who live in Waikouaiti and Karitane...

Embattled Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, facing a House vote to strip her of committee assignments, said Thursday that she regrets some “words of the past,” but she did not explicitly apologise for her racist and violent rhetoric.
Alternating between contrition and defiance, the newly elected Georgia Republican asserted in a House speech that she was “a very regular American” who posted conspiracy theories from QAnon and other sources before she began campaigning for Congress, but that those views did not represent her own.
She also looked to shift blame while falsely equating her own endorsement of violence against Democrats with those in the party who supported racial justice protests over the summer, which sometimes turned violent.
She pronounced the media “just as guilty as QAnon of presenting truth and lies.” QAnon's core theory embraces the lie that Democrats are tied to a global sex trafficking ring that also involves Satanism and cannibalism.
Democrats were expected to move forward later Thursday with the vote to remove her from her committee posts.
House Rules Committee Chairman Jim McGovern noted that while Greene expressed regret over her remarks and claimed to have had an epiphany that QAnon was false in 2018, many of her comments, including those endorsing violence against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, were more recent.
“I did not hear an apology or denouncement for the insinuation that political opponents should be violently dealt with,” said McGovern, a Massachusetts Democrat. “It’s not ancient history. She continues to fund-raise off this stuff.”
The vote will force Greene's Republican colleagues to go on the record to defend or rebuke her after she has drawn bipartisan condemnation over her past remarks. The political dilemma for Republicans underscores the tension that has riven the party over its future since Donald Trump lost the White House.
Democrats gave Republicans an ultimatum this week: Strip Greene of her committee assignments, or they would. Bipartisan pressure built after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., called Greene’s “loony lies” a “cancer” for the party.
But House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., ruled out taking action. Instead, he accused Democrats of a “partisan power grab” for targeting Greene.
Pelosi told reporters Thursday that she was “profoundly concerned" by Republicans' "acceptance of an extreme conspiracy theorist.”
“If any of our members threatened the safety of other members, we'd be the first ones to take them off a committee," Pelosi, D-Calif., said hours before the planned vote.
A few Republicans probably will side with Democrats and many have denounced Greene’s past remarks. But some warn that the Democratic majority is setting a bad precedent by meddling with Greene's committee assignments, a process that the parties have long controlled.
McCarthy's decision to back Greene comes when the GOP has been ideologically adrift after Trump's loss, struggling over whether to embrace his norm-busting divisiveness or the party's more traditional, policy-oriented conservative values.
House Republicans blocked an effort Wednesday by conservative hard-liners to oust their No. 3 leader, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo. The daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney had enraged Trump supporters by voting to impeach him over the riot at the U.S. Capitol.
In sticking by both women, McCarthy was attempting to placate both traditional conservatives and populists, like Greene, who emulate Trump. The moves were typical of McCarthy’s preference to avoid ruffling feathers as he charts his hoped-for path to becoming House speaker some day.
“You know what that’s going to mean?” he mused to reporters. “Two years from now, we’re going to win the majority. That’s because this conference is more united."
Green has made a wide range of racist remarks, while breathing life into conspiracy theories. Many of...

At the end of each week, Mike Hosking takes you through the big ticket items and lets you know what he makes of it all.
New Zealand.
7/10.
"It's been a week of very solid numbers.
Job listings, confidence statistics, unemployment figures, milk price upgrades, and house price records.
There is a lot that’s going on that’s on the right side of the ledger."
$100 Billion of Debt.
5/10.
"That’s the bill for looking like we are doing well.
And as we said some bits are, but one day the payments are going to have to start and that is a generations long road to travel."
The Vaccine Rollout.
4/10.
"We got clearance for one, at last.
We still don't have an actual date, and you get the growing sense that a lot of countries are way more urgent about it than we are."  
Falling Maths Grades.
4/10.
"This has been building for years.
It's complex, but I can't help but feel if we spent more time in the classroom it couldn't hurt."
The Climate Change Commission Report.
6/10.
"A mixture of practicality and dreaming.
More of the latter if the BBQ is a goner, but at least they see the renewable power goal for what it is."
Media's Treatment of Tom Abercrombie.
2/10.
"He and his family treated abysmally this week by a media whose obsession with a click far outweighs its desire for fact and detail.
Sick Leave.
3/10.
"What an unholy scrap this week over access to the new doubling of the entitlement.
Can we get it from day one? Who gets it when? Whatever happened to being proud to go to work and not taking a day off?"
Matariki.
7/10.
"Let's be honest most of us like another day off."
Captain Sir Tom Moore.
9/10.
"Lifting spirits is never to be underestimated.
And Sir Tom is a reminder of a generation where selflessness and service were part of who you were."
The Blackcaps.
8/10.
"A World Test Championship final at Lords.
For a country that has always struggled a bit at the long form, these are the glory days."
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The aviation industry says it's important to keep thinking about recovery, as we near the anniversary of our borders being shut.
A New Zealand Medical Journal paper, funded by Wellington, Christchurch and Auckland Airport companies, looks at a model for relaxing border restrictions, based on each country's Covid 19 risk level.
It would use daily data to increase or decrease restrictions depending on each country's changing situation.
Experts say a risk-based border system makes sense - but this model may increase the risk of community transmission and doesn't account for new strains.
Auckland Airport chief executive Adrian Littlewood told Mike Hosking they want to be able to test and trial systems.
He says it's important in planning for the future, and they have credible and science based discussion on what that could look like.
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