The Mike Hosking Breakfast

Owner of label Maggie Marilyn, Maggie Hewitt has tasted success in recent years with the likes of Megan Markle and Michelle Obama wearing her designs.
But as part of a movement from boutiques around the world, they are going to remove clothing from their stores, not have any discounted sales and stop producing new designs for new seasons.
Hewitt told Mike Hosking that a lot of designers are getting behind this movement and want their customers to shop consciously.
“We believe that… to affect will change in our industry we still need scalability… we’re motivated to move away from the traditional fashion calendar.”
She says for her fashion is gate way to create change in the world and through her company’s new journey through this movement she hopes to educate her customers on how to shop consciously.
 
LISTEN ABOVE

Australia has recorded no new locally transmitted coronavirus infection for the first time in five months.
In Melbourne, the capital of Victoria state, which had the highest number of cases in the country, residents on Sunday enjoyed the first weekend of cafes, restaurants and pubs reopening to walk-in customers.
The city only has one mystery case without a known source. There are 61 active cases left across the state, down from 70 on Saturday.
State Deputy Premier James Merlino hailed Sunday’s zero figures as “another great day for Victoria,” but urged caution ahead of Australia’s most-prestigious horse race on Tuesday, the Melbourne Cup, known as the “race that stops a nation.” Australians traditionally gather in bars or in private homes to watch the event, a public holiday.
The race attracts crowds of more than 100,000 at Melbourne’s Flemington race course, but this year it will held without fans because of restrictions on public gatherings.
Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton urged Victorians to enjoy the Cup but to continue obeying guidance on mask-wearing and social distancing.
“The great majority of Melburnians know what do to,” Sutton said. “There will be a few who may be a bit liberal in their behavior."
Sutton said the new wave of infections in Europe showed how quickly the coronavirus can reassert itself.
“What Europe is going through now is a consequence of not being able to get to this point where you can stay on top of very low numbers,” he said. “What we have created is very precious and we need to hold onto it tightly.”
Western Australia state on Sunday recorded one new case of COVID-19, a woman who returned from overseas and is in hotel quarantine.

Has Prince Charles' time finally arrived?
Royal correspondent Robert Jobson believes the Queen will step down next year when shes turns 95, making Charles... at 71...Prince Regent in her stead.
Jobson told Mike Hosking with all due respect to the Queen, realistically the Royals need a plan.
He says in a modern world and with covid-19, there's a need for an active monarch.
Jobson says the Prince of Wales already carries out most of the Queen's duties.
 
LISTEN TO AUDIO ABOVE

A surge in coronavirus cases across the country, including in key presidential battleground states, is creating mounting health and logistical concerns for voters, poll workers and political parties ahead of Election Day.
In Iowa, where both presidential campaigns are competing feverishly, county officials said they were preparing for scores of confirmed or potentially infected people to vote curbside. It's an option typically used by disabled people that must be available outside every polling place.
Linn County Supervisor Stacey Walker, in Cedar Rapids, encouraged people to cast their ballot but said they should take safety precautions at polling places to protect themselves and their neighbours.
"We can't afford to have Election Day serve as a superspreading event across the state and country," he said.
 

People wait in line in the rain outside of an early voting site in Miami, as Florida begins in-person early voting. Photo / AP
 
At a news conference this past week, Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate said his office had distributed 145,000 gloves, 200,000 masks and 11,000 social-distancing markers for use by voters and poll workers.
In Wisconsin, Governor Tony Evers sought to assure voters in the critical swing state that going to the polls would not be risky, even as officials announced more than 5000 new confirmed coronavirus cases on Friday.
"For those who are voting in person now, I believe it's safe," Evers said, adding that polling places have adequate supplies to protect voters.
Across the country, Republicans worked to downplay any concerns that health risks will keep some of their voters home, after Democrats heavily promoted mail-in and early in-person balloting to their voters.
Republicans are counting on a huge Election Day turnout among their supporters to offset the big leads in early voting among Democrats in states that are pivotal to the presidential race.
"If you were worried about voting at the polls on Election Day, you've probably already voted," said John March, a spokesman for the Republican Party of Virginia.
Like many other states, Iowa this week reported its highest number of average daily new cases and hospitalisations to date.
In Cedar Rapids, public health officials called a news conference Friday to express alarm at the spike in cases in Linn County, including a single-day high reported Thursday of more than 200. They urged residents to avoid gatherings while advising those who visit polling places to wear masks, stay 6ft apart and wash their hands afterward.
Linn County Auditor Joel Miller said a woman who acknowledged she was positive for coronavirus voted curbside Thursday at a mall where early voting is taking place, the first known infected voter in the county. Poll workers gave her a face shield and gloves and isolated everything she touched, he said.
 

The line for early voting at a polling place in Oklahoma County. Photo / AP
 
Several other voters who were awaiting test results or wanted to avoid the line for health reasons also used it, and county auditors were preparing for a major increase in the rarely-used option Tuesday.
Under curbside voting, residents call a phone number for assistance from their vehicle and a bipartisan poll worker team is sent to help them cast ballots.
Miller, 65, said he is concerned about contracting the virus after spending hours this week assisting voters and will get tested again Sunday. He said he was worried about the virus spreading at polling places Tuesday, noting that voters cannot be required to wear masks.
"Heck yes I'm concerned. I'm going to have 500 people working on Tuesday. I don't want it on my conscience that somebody caught Covid at a polling place and got sick," he said. "It could happen. It could happen to me."
County auditors have small full-time staffs and rely on experienced polling place workers to run...

The drug testing agency Know Your Stuff hopes the Government moves quickly to enable more festival-goers to check what they are taking.
At a signing ceremony for a deal with the Greens this morning, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said it was something the Government could make progress on, now New Zealand First was no longer in the picture.
Know Your Stuff offers pill testing at events around the country but its director Wendy Allison said it relied on donations from the public, and the hard work of a small team of volunteers.
She wanted legal clarification so the agency could seek more sources of funding and expand its services this summer.
"While this is effective on a small scale, it is the Police Minister's goal of being at every major event, which is where the most harm could be prevented," she said.
She said testing had been under way at venues around the country since the return to alert level 1, and the agency would continue to operate regardless of whether the government takes action or not.
However, she said expanding the services was a matter of urgency.
"We know there's a lot of MDMA around, we know that there are a lot of MDMA knock-offs around, and we know that there are a lot of people concerned that they may not be able to party," she said.
Ardern said any changes would be about recognising the value of drug-checking schemes.
"It's about saying that actually there is evidence overseas that those regimes save young people's lives. Who would we be to turn away from that," she said.
- RNZ

f Jacinda Ardern's mind in deciding senior Cabinet roles.
The Prime Minister will today reveal those positions, and of particular interest will be the roles of Deputy PM, Health Minister, Winston Peters' successor in Foreign Affairs, the number of Māori ministers, and how far Phil Twyford might fall.
Finance Minister Grant Robertson is expected to be given Infrastructure so he can oversee the roll out of the $12 billion NZ upgrade programme and the $3 billion shovel-ready fund.
Yesterday, Ardern gave nothing away over whether Chris Hipkins would keep Health, Education or both, or continue with parts of either.
But she has been mindful of Covid-19 in deciding Cabinet positions, she said.
"Covid is having another devastating effect in Europe, in particular, at this time. That is a sign to us we cannot be complacent."
Yesterday the UK went into a strict four-week lockdown, following lockdowns in France, Belgium and, to a lesser extent, Germany.
"It is a tricky virus and it is only swelling once more. That's all the more reason for us to continue a very concerted effort here," Ardern said.
"I have been mindful of that when forming this Cabinet."
Health next term will include not only the Covid-response, but implementing reforms set out in the Heather Simpson review.
Yesterday Labour deputy leader Kelvin Davis wouldn't be drawn on whether he wanted to be Deputy PM.
Ardern will also reveal the fate of David Clark, who resigned the health portfolio following his lockdown indiscretions, and Meka Whaitiri, who was stripped of ministerial roles after an alleged assault that she has denied.
Twyford, who presided over the failure of KiwiBuild and the lack of progress on Auckland light rail, is expected to be demoted but may keep his seat at the Cabinet table.
There are six empty seats at the Cabinet table: those vacated by the four NZ First ministers, and the unfilled vacancies of former Labour Party ministers Iain Lees-Galloway and Clare Curran.
Ardern said she wanted to balance expertise and experience with caucus talent.
That could include promotions for, among others, chief whip Michael Wood, junior whips Kiri Allen and Kieran McAnulty, and former primary school principal Jan Tinetti.
Cabinet usually has 20 ministers, and Ardern said the size of the executive would be largely unchanged.
There are currently 25 ministers in the executive council, which includes ministers outside Cabinet, and 27 members of executive government, which includes two under-secretaries.
Two ministers outside Cabinet will be Green Party co-leaders James Shaw and Marama Davidson, who yesterday joined Ardern and Davis in formally signing the Labour-Greens co-operation agreement.
Shaw will be Climate Change Minister and Associate Environment Minister (Biodiversity). Davidson will become the Minister for the Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence and Associate Housing Minister (Homelessness).
They will represent the Government in their respective portfolios, but differences between the Greens and the Government can be noted in Cabinet minutes.
Standard agree-to-disagree provision also apply, and they are free to oppose the Government on matters outside their portfolios.
"We're both agreeing that we don't actually need to agree," Ardern said of the deal.
"The Green Party can make it clear where they don't agree while we get on with things. We have the numbers that we need, but equally that isn't a reason not to work [together] in areas where we agree.
"That is what makes this a unique agreement."
Davidson added: "We agree to agree to disagree."
She stressed the ability of the Greens to maintain an independent voice, adding that she could stand against the Government on Ihumātao because it was an issue outside of the Greens' ministerial portfolios.
And she said the party could continue to be a loud voice on its proposed wealth...

A property commentator is warning first home buyers will be the casualties of any Reserve Bank move to introduce higher deposits.
The latest OneRoof house price index shows nationwide values are up five per cent from March 25 - just before the country went into lockdown
One Roof's Ashley Church told Mike Hosking LVR restrictions don't curb housing booms - but they do exclude first home buyers from the market.
He says those are the people who are already struggling to find a deposit, so capping loan-to-value ratios will only prevent another generation of kids from buying a house.
Church says they're the ones already struggling to find a deposit, of 160 thousand dollars in Auckland.
He says the last time restrictions went on everybody, an entire generation of new buyers were cut out of the market.
 
LISTEN ABOVE

Keeping communities free of Covid-19 and firing up the economic recovery have been front of Jacinda Ardern's mind in deciding senior Cabinet roles.
The Prime Minister will today reveal those positions, and of particular interest will be the roles of Deputy PM, Health Minister, Winston Peters' successor in Foreign Affairs, the number of Māori ministers, and how far Phil Twyford might fall.
Meanwhile, Green Party co-leader James Shaw told Mike Hosking on Newstalk ZB this morning that despite the cannabis referendum failing by 6 per cent, he was hopeful it still could cross the line with special votes still being counted.
"We will have to wait and see the results ... I know it's unlikely but if you look at what happened on election night a lot that happened was unlikely too [sighting Swarbrick's winning of the Auckland central seat]," Shaw said.
Hosking replied: "Yeah but what you're saying to me is that just because people voted in the special votes that somehow they're dramatically different from the rest of the country which of course there is no evidence of at all."
"Well I guess we will just have to wait and see," Shaw responded.
Shaw also hit back at comment around their cooperation deal with Labour and criticism from former Green party members that they didn't have any power as they were sitting outside Cabinet.
He said he was also sitting outside Cabinet during the last term of government and got several issues signed off and expected to do the same again.
"There are some anxieties about the potential to get subsumed but ultimately our party, as you say 85 per cent of them backed the deal and I think that is because they have seen over the course of the last three years that when you are in government and have ministers that you can deliver an enormous amount.
"About 99 per cent of what we did in the last term of government was not specified in our confidence and supply agreement and we were able to do that because we had ministers, because we had that constructive relationship with our colleagues."
He said the part was "delighted" with the party's result, which saw it increase its caucus size for the first time since 2011 and win its first electorate seat - Auckland Central - in 21 years.
 

Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson. Photo / NZ Herald 
 
Asked to rate the resulting deal with Labour out of 10, Shaw gave it a 7.5 because it meant it "explicitly" preserved their ability to "constructively critique the Government".
Yesterday, Ardern gave nothing away over whether Chris Hipkins would keep Health, Education or both, or continue with parts of either.
But she has been mindful of Covid-19 in deciding Cabinet positions, she said.
"Covid is having another devastating effect in Europe, in particular, at this time. That is a sign to us we cannot be complacent."
Yesterday the UK went into a strict four-week lockdown, following lockdowns in France, Belgium and, to a lesser extent, Germany.
"It is a tricky virus and it is only swelling once more. That's all the more reason for us to continue a very concerted effort here," Ardern said.
"I have been mindful of that when forming this Cabinet."
Health next term will include not only the Covid-response, but implementing reforms set out in the Heather Simpson review.
Yesterday Labour deputy leader Kelvin Davis wouldn't be drawn on whether he wanted to be Deputy PM.
Ardern will also reveal the fate of David Clark, who resigned the health portfolio following his lockdown indiscretions, and Meka Whaitiri, who was stripped of ministerial roles after an alleged assault that she has denied.
Twyford, who presided over the failure of KiwiBuild and the lack of progress on Auckland light rail, is expected to be demoted but may keep his seat at the Cabinet table.
There are six empty seats at the Cabinet table: those vacated by the four NZ First ministers, and...

THE BEST BITS IN A SILLIER PACKAGE (from Monday's Mike Hosking Breakfast) Hosk Gets the Vote He Wanted/Not Into Testing/Another Vote Goes Hosk's Way/Where Are Our Results?/Must Be That Time of Year

Every Friday morning, Mike Hosking is joined by Tim Wilson and Kate Hawkesby to wrap the week in news.
LISTEN ABOVE.