The Mike Hosking Breakfast

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is issuing a stern warning to promoters bringing in overseas performers without going through the proper MIQ steps – such as the case with The Wiggles.
"Don't go out and put a poster up and sell tickets before you've guaranteed your MIQ place."
She is also looking for a "practical solution" to the issue, which could potentially leave thousands of parents out of pocket.
The Wiggles risk being shut out of New Zealand due to managed isolation and quarantine woes, despite having already sold thousands of tickets.
The issue became a political hot potato when National's Simon Bridges said that he had written to the "powers that be" asking what can be done to make sure The Wiggles could play their 25 scheduled shows.
"The cast and crew have all approvals, they need to come from Aussie but due to visa approval delays the MIQ slots that were available aren't anymore," Simon says.
He disclosed his conflict of interest in the letter, as his two eldest children have grown up "adoring the Wiggles".
More than 40,000 tickets have been sold to their We're All Fruit Salad Tour!, which is due to kick off on March 19 in Invercargill for a 14-day tour.
Speaking to media in Nelson this afternoon, Ardern said she empathised with those who had bought tickets and had lost out "through no fault of their own".
"We obviously have to find a practical solution – that would be my expectation that a practical solution be found."
She did not outline details as to what the solution could be, saying it's up to officials to work though the issues, and find a solution.
In response to the developments, Bridges said on Twitter: I dunno. Maybe the Wiggles made the mistake of believing Jacinda when she said we'd have a Transtasman bubble in the first quarter.
But she was highly critical of event organisers who sold tickets and promoted events before sorting out MIQ slots, saying it is "common sense" to have the former issues sorted before ticket sales have begun.
"Do not promote an event until you have everything in place – that includes booking your quarantine places."Meanwhile, an Immigration New Zealand spokesperson confirmed that a request for a border exception under the "other critical worker" category was approved on December 24, 2020, for 18 people relating to The Wiggles.
Some 10 of the 18 people submitted a visa application just yesterday and these are currently being processed.
The remaining eight people are yet to submit visa applications.
"These types of visa applications are currently being processed within two weeks."

There is scepticism from a local economist at a suggestion New Zealand will be the first country in the pandemic era to put interests rates back up.
The forecast comes from London-based research consultancy Capital Economics.
Former Reserve Bank economist Michael Reddell believes this is a little too optimistic.
He told Mike Hosking if there's a change in rates in the coming year, it'll probably be a fall, rather than a rise. 
"If anything, interest rates will only fall in the coming year.
"Beyond that interest rates will rise - but it's impossible to say what's going to happen to the world economy before then."
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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.
Joe Biden.
8/10.
"A level of normality has been restored.
No, he's not the best the Democrats can produce, far less America, but he's more normal, less angry, and a damn sight more honest."
Donald Trump.
4/10.
"A sad, pathetic sort of end.
A self-absorbed, introspective exit that doesn’t serve him well."
NZ's Covid Vaccine Rollout.
2/10.
"This has the potential to be the government's Achilles heel, if not undoing.
We are not front of the line. Medsafe is an excuse for our non-delivery.
We are not in lockstep with Australia. They are making this up."
Helen Clark.
7/10.
"Good on her for telling it like it is with China and the W.H.O.
Both have a lot to answer for, let's hope someone is asking the questions and holding them to account."
The Australian Open Covid Dramas.
4/10.
"Melbourne did the right thing by fighting to hold it.
A handful of players didn’t help with their Trumpesque fit of pique. Hopefully it's smoother sailing from here."
The Media.
2/10.
"The research this week exposing the shocking bias on the cannabis vote, despite their ongoing dishonesty around their claims of being fair and balanced, is a wake up call to us all.
Nothing wrong with an agenda or opinion, just be open and honest about it."
New Childcare Centre Lunch Rules.
1/10.
"In its own specific way, it's a reflection of all that’s wrong with the world in 2021.
Common sense be gone, we've let the madness overtake us."
The Prada Cup.
9/10.
"Highlight of the summer.
Pictures of New Zealand to the world, technology to boggle your mind, a genuine contest, and American Magic reminding us why we love this sort of sport. You never know when it can all come disastrously unstuck.
It has been absolutely brilliant."
Bridgerton.
3/10.
"Really? I didn’t get to the end of episode one."
LISTEN ABOVE FOR MIKE HOSKING'S FULL WEEK IN REVIEW

An astonishing opening play from the Prime Minister upon her return from holiday.
"I will fix the housing crisis."
Are you kidding me? You will do what? No one else has fixed it, because they can't. This is the year of delivery, not, 2.0.
She comes to the “I will fix the housing crisis” headline with what? Kiwibuild?
The government's credentials on housing are abysmal. The social housing programme they tout as a success, doesn’t even begin to cover the increases in the lines of people queuing up for a roof.
It's up 1000 in the last two months. 22,409 in line now. Record broken, after record broken, and their work so far is 8000 houses. And when I say 8000, that’s a promise not actual houses.
By 2024, as in beyond the next election, the promise is 18,000 houses. That doesn’t even cover those here right now, far less the many thousands more than will join between now and then. And that’s just social housing.
The major mistake she makes around a so-called crisis, is the same mistake others have made before her.
She thinks governments affect prices. They don't. You know why they don’t? Because if they did, they would have done it by now.
Then ask yourself the simplest of questions, what does “fix” mean? When is it fixed? Answer, there is no answer.
The same way there isn't a crisis, unless you want there to be one.
The same way a 10 percent drop in value might be a crash, or a correction, or an adjustment depending on who you are, and what your agenda is.
Here's our status, here's what she lines her mad promise up against, we can't get access to builders, we are already building flat out, materials are hard to come by because of shipping, prices are rising, money is cheap, and demand is through the roof.
And she is going to do what?
The last smokescreen they ran before Christmas was the Robertson letter to Adrian Orr, which essentially got put in the bin.
Governments don't control the housing market, and promising stuff that makes it sound like they do is a mad combination of ignorance, arrogance, and a con.

Exam results in some Auckland schools have jumped - raising questions over whether bonus credits awarded because of the Covid-19 lockdowns were too generous.
Mt Albert Grammar School headmaster Patrick Drumm said pass rates in all three levels of the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) were "the best we've ever had".
Auckland Secondary Schools Principals' Association president Steve Hargreaves said about a tenth of the students who sat NCEA levels 2 and 3 at his school, Macleans College, would not have passed without bonus "learning recognition credits" that were awarded to compensate for time lost in the lockdowns.
"I did look at some students' learning recognition credits. They got 12 when they only needed three [to pass], that sort of thing, so in the end we possibly did err on the side of being slightly generous," he said.
But lower-decile schools, which had more students who struggled to learn during the lockdowns without internet and with family financial problems, said they were grateful for the extra credits which kept results to "about the same as last year".
Secondary Principals Association national vice-president Vaughan Couillault said his results at Papatoetoe High School were "in a similar place to this time last year at level 1 and in a slightly better position for levels 2 and 3".
"That means we have got it about right in terms of adjustment for the lockdown," he said.
The country's 140,000 NCEA students were able to access their results from just before 8am today.
Hanah Tayeb, a Year 13 student at Western Springs College last year who feared that she might not get NCEA level 3 because she did not have internet access in the lockdowns, ended up passing all her exams and earned level 3 with Merit.
"I fully thought I was going to fail but I got Merit endorsement. It's not far from my initial goal of an Excellence endorsement," she said.
"I'm really pleased with the way it turned out because last year was really, really difficult for me. Not only did I not have any wi-fi, but I also lost two family members."
The NZ Qualifications Authority (NZQA) has not yet collected national statistics or official pass rates for each school, so principals' comments so far are based only on their own preliminary analysis of their students' results.
The results include up to 16 learning recognition credits at level 1 and up to 12 at levels 2 and 3 in Auckland, and up to 10 at level 1 and up to eight at levels 2 and 3 elsewhere.
One bonus credit was awarded for every four actually achieved in Auckland and one for every five achieved elsewhere.
University Entrance (UE) requirements were reduced from 14 to 12 credits in three approved UE subjects.
Drumm said Mt Albert's pass rates increased marginally from 83 per cent to 86 per cent at level 1 and from 90 per cent to 92 per cent at level 2.
But they jumped from 75 per cent to 90 per cent at level 3, including a jump from 61 per cent to 71 per cent of students achieving UE.
"We had a good Year 13 cohort, but that has really exceeded expectations," he said.
"We are absolutely delighted. These are easily the best results we have ever had."
Hargreaves said the picture at Macleans was complicated because about half his students sit Cambridge exams rather than NCEA, but Cambridge results were also "no different" from previous years despite the lockdowns.
He said 16 of the college's 240 students who sat NCEA level 2, and 20 of the 200 who did level 3, passed only because of the bonus credits.
"Knowing some of them, I know that some of them will have been impacted by it [the lockdowns], they would have been disadvantaged, so the credits that have been added are probably well justified," he said.
About 76 per cent of students at Tangaroa College passed NCEA even without adding in bonus credits. Photo / File
Davida Suasua, principal of decile-1 Tangaroa...

With a burst of executive orders, President Joe Biden served notice Thursday that the nation's COVID-19 response is under new management and he's demanding progress to reduce infections and lift the siege Americans have endured for nearly a year.
The 10 orders signed by Biden are aimed at jump starting his national COVID-19 strategy to increase vaccinations and testing, lay the groundwork for reopening schools and businesses, and immediately increase the use of masks — including a requirement that Americans mask up for travel. One directive calls for a addressing health care inequities in minority communities hard hit by the virus.
“We didn’t get into this mess overnight, and it will take months to turn this around,” Biden said. “Despite the best intentions we’re going to face setbacks “ But he declared: "To a nation waiting for action, let me be clear on this point: Help is on the way.”
The new president has vowed to take far more aggressive measures to contain the virus than his predecessor, starting with stringent adherence to public health guidance. He faces steep obstacles, with the virus actively spreading in most states, slow progress on the vaccine rollout and political uncertainty over whether congressional Republicans will help him pass a $1.9 trillion economic relief and COVID response package.
“We need to ask average Americans to do their part," said Jeff Zients, the White House official directing the national response. “Defeating the virus requires a coordinated nationwide effort."
Biden officials say they're hampered by lack of cooperation from the Trump administration during the transition. They say they don’t have a complete understanding of their predecessors’ actions on vaccine distribution. And they face a litany of complaints from states that say they are not getting enough vaccine even as they are being asked to vaccinate more categories of people.
Biden acknowledged the urgency of the mission in his inaugural address. “We are entering what may well be the toughest and deadliest period of the virus,” he said before asking Americans to join him in a moment of silence in memory of the more than 400,000 people in the U.S. who have died from COVID-19.
Biden’s top medical adviser on COVID-19, Dr. Anthony Fauci, also announced renewed U.S. support for the World Health Organization after the Trump administration had pulled out of the global body. Fauci said early Thursday that the U.S. will join the U.N. health agency’s efforts to bring vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics to people in need, whether in rich or poor countries and will resume full funding and staffing support for WHO.
The U.S. mask order for travel being implemented by Biden will apply to airports and planes, ships, intercity buses, trains and public transportation. Travelers from abroad must furnish a negative COVID-19 test before departing for the U.S. and quarantine upon arrival. Biden has already mandated masks on federal property.
Although airlines, Amtrak and other transport providers now require masks, Biden's order makes it a federal mandate, leaving little wiggle room for passengers tempted to argue about their rights. It marks a sharp break with the culture of President Donald Trump's administration, under which masks were optional, and Trump made a point of going maskless and hosting big gatherings of like-minded supporters. Science has shown that masks, properly worn, cut down on coronavirus transmission.
Biden also is seeking to expand testing and vaccine availability, with the goal of 100 million shots in his first 100 days in office. Zients called Biden's goal “ambitious and achievable.”
The Democratic president has directed the Federal Emergency Management Agency to begin setting up vaccination centers, aiming to have 100 up and running in a month. He's ordering the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to begin a program to make vaccines available through local...

THE BEST BITS IN A SILLIER PACKAGE (from Friday's Mike Hosking Breakfast) Not Back for a While/Housing Policy/More Objective Reporting of Biased Reporting/Mark the Week

It’s time to catch up with one of this country's most promising drivers.
Soon to be 19-year-old Liam Lawson was racing in Formula 1 last year.
Well 2021 has seen him move up the ranks, he's secured a gig with the Hitech GP Formula 2 team.
That's the feeder team to the Red Bull F1 team.
And his 2021 schedule gets even more packed, with him also competing with a yet to be named GT3 team with former F1 driver Alex Albon.
Liam Lawson joins Mike Hosking to talk about his career.
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A major part of being the President of the United States is the image you project, not just to your country, but to the world.
Civility counts as much as policy, and this is where Donald Trump's reputation has been torn to shreds.
He left Washington DC today refusing to meet the incoming leader, his wife refusing to meet the new First Lady, and refusing the Bidens a government jet to arrive in DC, that’s the stuff that stains your name and reputation.
Be as aggrieved as you want about your loss. I am sure Hillary Clinton couldn’t believe what happened to her, I am sure Barack Obama was stunned at the result, but they still showed up, they were still courteous, they still behaved in a dignified way.
They have all behaved in a dignified way over the years because that’s what you do, and that’s what's expected in respecting the office, not your own personal circumstances.
I watched a video of Trump talking to a reporter four years ago upon receiving the traditional letter on the desk of the Oval Office. He seemed genuinely moved by Obama's words and hopes for the next four years. In that moment, short of being a very good actor, he, at that time anyway, actually seemed to get it.
And yet look at how he's behaved this week. Great leaders are the whole package. Even if you bought into his ideas, policy is only part of the deal, the rest is who you are.
It's what makes Obama still current for millions. As an effectual President he didn't actually do much, post 2010 his numbers were gone, and the last four years he was lame duck.
But he represented his country internationally well. In fact, he was probably more popular globally than domestically.
Yes, Trump got 74 million votes and that can't be dismissed, and yes, he's onto to something, philosophically speaking, for many Americans.
But he's a thug, he is a classless buffoon, he's the spoilt brat who doesn’t have any manners, he is profoundly dishonest, and he leaves the job a miserable self-interested loser.
And if you could never understand why his wife was with him, we now have a clue. She's as bad as he is, she just pretended harder in public.
The whole thing is a shame. He was never going to be great. But he did have the seed of an idea, and there were bits especially economically that showed real potential, until Covid undid him.  
But ultimately, it's four years wasted, four years you wouldn’t repeat, and four years you won't miss.
By the end, the truth was out. The emperor had no clothes, he was stripped of any actual ongoing success and achievement. We saw him for what he was, a shark from New York devoid of class, ludicrous of look, and an interloper in the leadership stakes deposited in Washington DC by some Americans who fell for the same spin he used to sell condos.       
Joe Biden in many respects, whether you back him or not, will, at least, in terms of leadership and civility be a massive relief.

It's not just Team New Zealand and the other America's Cup competitors rallying around American Magic - a local cafe community is also playing their part.
The American Magic crew have adopted Johnny Wrays cafe as their local since being here, and after the crash the cafe made a nice gesture of delivering some free coffees.
Well it caught the eye of Team NZ, customers and even US fans as now there is a massive pay it forward system for the team as they rush to repair their boat for the semifinals.
Owner of Johnny Wrays cafe Neil Morris joins Mike Hosking to talk about the 
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