The Mike Hosking Breakfast

Labour's promise to ban conversion therapy is being welcomed by the Greens, rejected by Act, while National is staying tight-lipped.
The Labour Party announced its Rainbow policies in central Wellington yesterday.
As part of the policy package, it also promised more gender-neutral toilets in schools and additional funding for mental-health services.
Conversion therapy is described by US-based charity The Trevor Project as "dangerous and discredited practices aimed at changing an individual's sexual orientation or gender identity".
A 2018 TVNZ documentary found conversion therapy is available in New Zealand and is most often practised in private and faith-based institutions.
A recent survey, Counting Ourselves, found that more than one in six research participants reported that they had experienced reparative therapy - that is, a professional had tried to stop them from being trans or non-binary.
"Conversion therapy is based on the misguided idea that people are wrong or broken because of their sexual orientation or gender identity," Labour's Rainbow spokesperson Tāmati Coffey said. "This is fundamentally wrong."

Labour's Rainbow spokesperson Tāmati Coffey says conversion therapy is a practice which causes harm and which would be banned under a re-elected Labour government. Photo / Andrew Warner
Labour joins the Greens as the only parties to have promised to ban conversion therapy.
"Conversion therapy has been linked to severe adverse mental-health issues, including depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation," Coffey said.
"That's why it will be banned under a re-elected Labour government.
"It is a practice that causes harm and is out of place in the kind, inclusive and modern country we are."
The damage of conversion therapy
The policy for Labour has been shaped by Paul Stevens, who was featured in the TVNZ documentary. He was sent to a counsellor by his church when he was a child.
"He told me I wasn't gay, and said I could change who I was," he said.
"He told me that I didn't need to be gay.

Paul Stevens, Labour's Rainbow Representative, chats with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern at Big Gay Out in Auckland.
"I realised later how much damage that did - it really held me back in terms of my journey because I wasn't able to accept myself when I was told by someone in a privileged position - someone I respected - that I didn't have to be gay."
Stevens now works as the Labour Party's Rainbow representative and has helped push this policy to the fore.
Two petitions were presented to Parliament in 2018, calling for the banning of the practice. They had amassed 20,000 signatures between them.
The director of Auckland Pride, Max Tweedie, presented one of the petitions to Parliament in his previous role as leader of the Young Greens.
"A ban from the government would send quite a strong message, not just to those who have those backwards beliefs, that practise it.
"But also to the Rainbow community in general, that there's nothing wrong with them, and they can't be changed, and they should be accepted and loved for who they are."
It's not known how many people are subjected to conversion therapy. One recent New Zealand-based study found one in six people had a professional try to stop them from being trans or non-binary.
"It's proven to be harmful - there have been studies done in the United States specifically that show that conversion therapy is extremely harmful to the mental health and wellbeing of members of the Rainbow community, especially young people."
Parties offering mixed responses to the plans
In their Rainbow policy package, Labour is promising to create better access, support and treatment through the health system to the needs to trans, intersex and gender diverse people.
The Greens rainbow spokesperson, Jan Logie, said they support the proposals, but would also want to see...

French authorities placed the Paris region on maximum virus alert on Monday, banning festive gatherings and requiring all bars to close but allowing restaurants to remain open, as numbers of infections increased rapidly.
Paris police prefect Didier Lallement announced the new restrictions would apply at least for the next two weeks.
“We are continuously adapting to the reality of the virus. We are taking measures to slow down (its spread)," he said.
French authorities consider bars to be major infection hot spots because patrons don't respect social distancing rules as much as they do at restaurants.
Starting on Tuesday, bars will be closed in Paris and its suburbs. Student parties and all other festive and family events in establishments open to the public will be banned.
Restaurants will remain open under strict conditions. They include a minimum one-meter (three-foot) distance between each table, groups limited to six people instead of 10 previously, and a request to register customers' names and phone numbers to help alert those who may have been exposed to someone with the coronavirus .
Indoor sport facilities, including swimming pools, will only be open to children aged under 18. Gyms are already closed.
Cinemas, theaters and museums will remain open with strict sanitary rules, but fairs and professional shows won’t be allowed.
Authorities have maintained the limit of 1,000 spectators per day at big sports events, allowing the Roland-Garros tennis tournament to continue as planned this week.
The director of the Regional Health Authority, Aurelien Rousseau, said about 3,500 new cases of infection are confirmed on average each day in the Paris region, and 36% of ICU beds in the area are occupied by COVID-19 patients.
The owner of one Paris eatery north of the Bastille felt relief that the measures mean only reasonable constraints for restaurants. He even saw a silver lining.
“I'm relieved that I don't have to close and that the rules are not more stringent,” said Virgil Grunberg, who owns Le Square Gardette.
“It's even worse for bars, because they are going to be closed, so people are going to need places to have a drink and hang out,” Grunberg said. "So I think (customers) are not going to be scared by the new restrictions.”
For Adele Fardoux, 26, a client at Cafe des Anges around the corner from the Place de la Bastille, there is some logic to what sometimes feels “like it's a mess.”
“I think it's an unprecedented situation for everybody — citizens, companies, government — and I think collectively we're all trying to do our best.”
The alert has already been raised to the maximum level for 12 days in the southern city of Marseille and nearby Aix-en-Provence, as well as the French overseas territory of Guadeloupe, in the Caribbean.
Authorities ordered the shutdown of all public venues, including bars and restaurants in these areas, which prompted several demonstrations from angry business owners in Marseille.
On Monday, local authorities announced restaurants in Marseille and Aix-en-Provence would reopen on condition they respect the same restrictions as in Paris.
French health authorities reported on Saturday 16,972 new cases of infection, the highest daily number since the country began widespread testing. The number of new daily cases dipped on Monday to 5,084.
France, one of the hardest hit in Europe, has reported 32,299 virus-related deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.

The British government has launched an investigation into how nearly 16,000 new coronavirus infections went unreported as a result of a technical glitch, a failing that could have given fresh impetus to an outbreak that critics say could easily get out of control.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock told lawmakers Monday that the problem related to the “automated transfer of files." The problem is widely thought to be connected to the file size limitations on Excel spreadsheets used in the test-and-trace program.
“This is a serious issue which is being investigated fully,” Hancock said. “Now it is critical we work together to put it right and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
Hancock's appearance at the House of Commons came after the weekend disclosure that 15,841 virus cases weren’t tabulated from Sept. 25 to Oct. 2. Though those testing positive had been told of their status, their contacts — potentially around 50,000 people — weren't traced, a failing that could have allowed the virus to flourish.
He said 51% of those testing positive were contacted again and that their contacts were reached immediately after that.
Despite the addition of so many new cases, he said the government's chief medical officer “has not substantially changed" his opinion about the epidemic's path in the U.K., which like other countries in Europe is witnessing a second spike of the virus.
Jonathan Ashworth, Hancock’s counterpart in the main opposition Labour Party, said the failing showed how “shambolic” the Conservative government’s plan to fight the pandemic was and that the latest problem afflicting the country’s testing regime was “putting lives at risk.”
Lawmakers from all parties have criticized Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government for a shortage of testing capacity that's meant some people have been asked to travel hundreds of miles for a test, and delays in notifying people of their test results.
The latest problem appears to have been caused by an Excel file maxing out during an automated process. Though the software is a staple in consumer settings, experts say it has a number of limitations for use in much grander projects.
“If this was Excel as is being reported, the limitations of Excel, which is generally a very decent piece of software, in terms of Big Data are well known," said Jon Crowcroft, a professor of communications systems at the University of Cambridge.
For the test-and-trace program to work well, contacts should be notified as soon as possible, within hours preferably. So authorities’ failure to inform people potentially exposed to the virus could lead to many more positive cases and the subsequent need for the government to impose further unwanted restrictions on everyday life.
Ashworth slammed the government for its latest failing “at one of the most crucial points in the pandemic,” adding that the contacts of those unreported new cases may have been “blissfully unaware they’ve been exposed to COVID, potentially spreading this deadly virus at a time when hospital admissions are increasing and we are in the second wave.”
“This isn’t just a shambles — it’s so much worse than this — and it gives me no comfort to say this, but it’s putting lives at risk,” Ashworth added.
The unreported cases were added to the government’s daily new infections total over the weekend, boosting Saturday’s number to 12,872 cases and Sunday’s to 22,961. That compared to an average of 7,000 new cases a day the four days before. The number of new cases reported Monday fell to 12,594, but given the adjustments related to the missing cases, it was impossible to figure out a trend.
Paul Hunter, a professor in medicine at the University of East Anglia, called the glitch “very disappointing.”
“For the test, track and trace system to have a real impact on reducing transmission of COVID-19, it is essential that test results are communicated rapidly,” he said.
Like other...

I could not be more pleased for the hundreds of Auckland businesses that can, at last, try and deal to the damage that has been foisted upon them as a result of two months of what I think most now would argue, was yet more needless knee jerk overreaction from a government whose most effective policy has been fear.
If this is the way we handle a small localised outbreak, then we are in trouble, if not sunk.
The government were right to say we must expect some cases. The danger, in case we have forgotten, is they still don’t know how the original cluster broke out.
It was the border, of course, despite their many attempts to tell us it could be all sorts of things from frozen food to the port, it will have been an isolation facility.
All these months later if they're still climbing out windows with sheets, I think we can safely say it was lax security of some sort. And given they have no evidence otherwise, they can't say it isn't. And interestingly, or perhaps disappointingly, they still refuse to take the Australian approach which is to keep people in their rooms.
Further adding to the danger is the fact that Auckland is the arrival point, so any further problems or weaknesses will be in Auckland. So if Auckland gets two months' worth of level 3 and 2.5 every time we get a leak, then one can only imagine the damage.
This, once again, highlights the real overarching problem. Given we overreacted, given a small outbreak is level 3 and two months of economic damage, and given there is little to stop it happening again, surely it has now become painfully obvious to everyone that short of a vaccine, there is no plan. There is no ability to function at any level of normality.
This government has two levers it pulls. Lockdown and welfare with borrowed money. And even that lately has been cutback. 
The stuff that could help economically from New South Wales and South Australia, to international students, to private facilities for isolation, they don’t want to know.
It's lockdowns and welfare. And the economic carnage, whether it be the GDP figure, the “for lease” signs in the windows, or the ghostly absence of people in downtown CBDs, this is the real result of the so-called health response.
For now, those directly affected by level 1, those that need crowds, movies, performances, shows, sports, events, and community gatherings, enjoy it, spend up, support those that need it, give some hope and life to those who have been at the mercy of the fear mongering.
Because like last time, and given what we now know about the response, the good days of open doors and a sort of normality are precious, fragile and, too often ,short lived things.

President Donald Trump said Monday he's leaving the military hospital where he has been treated for COVID-19 and will continue his recovery at the White House. He said he's feeling good and despite his attack the nation should not be afraid of the virus that has killed more than 209,000 Americans.
Trump's expected return comes after he has received an exceptionally aggressive course of treatment and a standard of care well above what is available to average Americans. His doctor, Navy Cdr. Sean Conley, said the president would not be fully out of the woods for another week, but he said Trump had “met or exceeded all standard hospital discharge criteria.”
Trump himself made a point of sounding confident. He tweeted, "I will be leaving the great Walter Reed Medical Center today at 6:30 P.M. Feeling really good! Don’t be afraid of Covid. Don't let it dominate your life. ... I feel better than I did 20 years ago!”
Conley was also upbeat at an afternoon briefing and said the president could resume his normal schedule once “there is no evidence of live virus still present.” According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, those with mild to moderate symptoms of COVID-19 can be contagious for as many — and should isolate for at least — 10 days.
Trump's expected discharge raised new questions about how the administration was going to protect other officials from a disease that remains rampant in the president's body, and came as the scale of the outbreak at the White House itself is still being uncovered. Press secretary Kayleigh McEnany announced she had tested positive for the virus Monday morning and was entering quarantine.
Conley repeatedly declined to share results of medical scans of Trump’s lungs, saying he was not at liberty to discuss the information because Trump did not waive doctor-patient confidentiality on the subject. COVID-19 has been known to cause significant damage to the lungs of some patients. Conley also declined to share the date of Trump's most recent negative test for the virus — a critical data point for contact tracing and understanding where Trump was in the course of the disease.
Trump's nonchalant message about not fearing the virus comes as his own administration has encouraged Americans to be very careful and take precautions to avoid contracting and spreading the disease as cases continue to spike across the country. For more than eight months, Trump's efforts to play down the threat of the virus in hopes of propping up the economy ahead of the election have drawn bipartisan criticism.
Only a day earlier, Trump suggested he had finally grasped the true nature of the virus, saying in a video, “I get it.”
On Sunday afternoon, Trump briefly ventured out of the hospital while contagious to salute cheering supporters by motorcade — an outing that disregarded precautions meant to contain the virus.
White House officials said Trump was anxious to be released after three nights at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where doctors revealed on Sunday that his blood oxygen level had dropped suddenly twice in recent days and that they gave him a steroid typically only recommended for the very sick.
Trump’s experience with the disease has been dramatically different from most Americans, who do not have access to the same kind of monitoring and care. While most must cope with their symptoms — and fear of whether they’ll take a turn for the worse — at home and alone, Trump has been staying in the presidential suite of one of the nation's best hospitals and has been given experimental drugs not readily available to the public. He returns to the White House where there is a team of doctors on call with 24-hour monitoring.
Trump was to leave the hospital after receiving a fourth dose of the antiviral drug remdesivir Monday evening, Conley said. He will receive the fifth and final dose Tuesday at the White House.
Less than one month...

THE BEST BITS IN A SILLIER PACKAGE (from Tuesday's Mike Hosking Breakfast) Bring On Thursday/Nothing Super Here/Backing Alders On Eden/Never Too Early to Masticate

Auckland moves to alert level 1 tomorrow night but experts say it's too soon to relax all restrictions and fear Kiwis' Covid-19 complacency risks infection spreading rapidly if another outbreak hits the community.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, too, warned Aucklanders against complacency, pleading for people to scan QR codes with their smartphones, stay home if they're unwell, and get tested if feeling even slightly sick.
Ardern told Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking this morning that she had not politicised yesterday's press conference to announce Auckland's move to level 1.
She said she had merely answered reporters' questions about the campaign during the press conference in Christchurch.
The Labour leader rejected suggestions that her Australian counterpart Scott Morrison had outplayed NZ's handling of the pandemic.
Ardern noted that Morrison was frequently asked why he was not following New Zealand's strategy.
Asked about National's plan to conduct an inquiry into Auckland Council if elected, Ardern said she did not think it was necessary.
"We have more broadly had some questions about whether the CCO structure was taking more power away from elected individuals."
Asked about her portrayal in UK TV satire Spitting Image, she said she would not call herself as a socialist.
"I wouldn't call myself Mary Poppins either," she laughed.
In a recent episode, she is portrayed as a socialist and as Mary Poppins.
She pointed out she was also shown decapitating a man using a sword.
Ardern said she would not call herself a murderer either.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison's confirmed Kiwis can travel quarantine-free to New South Wales and the Northern Territory as of October 16.
But New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's holding back, saying we're not ready to have Australians enter the country without quarantining.
Tourism Holdings Limited boss Grant Webster told Mike Hosking, it's like a one way door - and our tourism industry loses out, now's the time to push conversation on a travel bubble.
He says it needs to go two ways, now's the time to push conversation on a travel bubble, that will balance it out, and both countries will benefit significantly.
“Australia reopening for us will be huge.”
Webster says the trans-Tasman bubble itself could make New Zealand’s tourism into a sustainably profitable business again.
“Between Australia and New Zealand as an overall bubble both countries will win significantly.”

The pressure is on the government to match Scott Morrison.
He stole the rugby, he produced a vastly more successful lockdown and therefore has an economy that shrank way less than ours. And now he's embarrassed us by producing a travel bubble that only has one thing missing, a change of mindset from the lot that have us prisoner on the false premise that we are in mortal danger if we step on a flight to Sydney.
The weak point of this government is pressure, they can't handle it. We saw that with their RMA announcement on Friday. More on that in a moment.
But just how long do you think it will be before the calls get so loud on reciprocation that they can't resist? Australia is worth a fortune to us in tourism and trade. Literally billions are sitting there waiting to be unloaded here.
If a government can't see the benefit of that and want a slice, given the Covid numbers, then you have to start to conclude their approach is Machiavellian, their approach is highly prescriptive towards fear and reliance on a politburo that wants to control your life, movements, and thoughts. Let's watch this space and see if they buckle.
But back to the RMA, another massive cock up and a result of pressure they could no longer stand. National spent nine years trying to reform it, Labour wouldn't help. Labour spent the last three years in government defending the very thing they're now ripping up. Why?
They suspended it after Covid for obvious reasons. But the announcement, ironically at a multi-million dollar build site in Auckland, the project owned by an offshore billionaire, oh the irony, was designed to get more affordable housing.
So, what's changed? Reality, that’s what.
National have championed reform of the RMA and Labour have been embarrassed. But, and it's a significant but, what replaces it? The headline is Labour are dumping the RMA, but for what?
You need to have regulation. So, what sort of regulation? Is it possible that the replacement won't actually be that different to what they’ve dropped, thus making Fridays call a smokescreen, a blatant vote grab, and therefore a con?
We are seeing more of this, a party that entered this race so confident of a cakewalk they didn’t have anything to announce bar fear and welfare. And now they're drumming up reform on the hoof.
Their lack of plan for anything other than coasting to victory is each day now being exposed badly. If tonight's poll shows a further eroding of their support, you watch how many panic buttons get hit.

THE BEST BITS IN A SILLIER PACKAGE (from Monday's Mike Hosking Breakfast) Why Is the RMA Still There?/Love a Poll/Get 'Em In Here/Movie Impossible/There's Nothing Funny About This