The Mike Hosking Breakfast

U.K. lawmakers criticized the government's handling of the COVID-19 testing crisis for a second day Wednesday, as opposition leaders claimed Prime Minister Boris Johnson lacked a cohesive plan to tackle the virus at a time when the country faces a second wave in the pandemic.
Johnson defended his efforts to increase testing capacity, telling the House of Commons that the government was responding to a “colossal'' increase in demand and arguing that Britain is testing more people than other European countries.
But Angela Rayner, who led the weekly questioning for the Labour Party, said he should “get some skates on” to ensure the country is ready for the colder winter months ahead when infection rates are expected to soar.
“They’ve had six months to get this right and yet the prime minister still can’t deliver on his promises," Rayner said. “The health secretary said yesterday it would take weeks to sort this situation out. We don’t have weeks.”
The squeeze on tests comes amid a surge in COVID-19 cases across the U.K. that has pushed daily new infections to levels not seen since late May and has forced the Conservative government to impose limits on public gatherings. Figures released Wednesday showed 3,991 new confirmed infections during the previous 24 hours, up markedly from 3,105 a day earlier.
Widespread testing is seen as crucial to controlling the spread of the virus because it allows those who are infected to self-isolate while helping health officials identify hotspots and trace those who are infected.
Johnson said Wednesday the government would ration coronavirus testing, giving priority to health workers and care home staff after widespread reports that people around the country were unable to schedule tests.
“We have massively increased our capacity,'' he told lawmakers on a key oversight committee. “I know many people have had infuriating experiences and I do sympathize, but 89% get their results within 24 hours.''
Justice Secretary Robert Buckland told Sky News that the government was drawing up a new priority list for testing, suggesting that students and their families could be next in line after the National Health Service and social care.
Over the past two days, lawmakers from all parties have bombarded the government with a litany of complaints from constituents desperate to get tests so they can return to school or work and visit elderly loved ones.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock told the House of Commons on Tuesday that it may take weeks to sort out the problems. In the meantime, people have been turning up at emergency rooms due to the lack of availability of testing, with one hospital official in the northwestern city of Bolton saying that 100 people showed up seeking a test in recent days.
The Association of School and College Leaders warned that schools could struggle to remain open unless testing capacity increases as more cases emerge.
“Teachers need to be counted as key workers in order that you can at least keep that maths teacher in front of 30 young people if their test is negative,” Geoff Barton, the group’s general-secretary, told the BBC.

The tourist sector is reeling at how long it will be before international tourists can return.
Treasury is predicting New Zealand's border won't be fully open until 2022, basing its forecast on the assumption all border restrictions are lifted by the start of 2022.
Tourism Export Council chief executive Lynda Keene told Mike Hosking the organisation was shocked by that, saying they felt physically felt sick.
Lynda Keene says there's still no international tourism recovery plan, despite asking the Government for it for many months.
She says inbound operators plan a year or two in advance, so need guidance and dates from the Government to help businesses recover.
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An effort to educate conspiracy theorists and sceptics about 5G is underway.
A survey by NZ Telecommunications Forum shows nearly half of New Zealanders are unsure, neutral, or untrusting of the new mobile technology.
Thirty six percent say they don't know anything about 5G, and just 23 percent say they know a reasonable amount.

In response to sceptics and conspiracy theorists, the forum's created 5gfacts.org.nz to help Kiwis put their fears aside.
Chief Executive Geoff Thorn told Mike Hosking there are always suspicions when new technology is rolled out, but the country has a reputation to uphold.
"New Zealand has been ranked number three in the world, so we need to keep our place there."
Thorn says the explanation for why we didn't have massive conspiracies over the last few upgrades, is actually quite simple.
He says social media wasn't as rife back then, and information flows differently now.
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The detail is all out there, if you want it. And the great question of this election is, who does?
Oliver Hartwich for example wrote in the Herald on Tuesday, about this mess being the biggest bailout in history. He's right, the debt being produced all over the world is going to haunt us, if not destroy us, for years to come.
Another piece of writing sights the cruise ships, they average $1.5 billion apiece. They are generally leased, and someone owes someone a lot of money. Planes all leased, it's the same deal, and are parked up in the desert. We have hotels that are empty, and those property developers lease to operators. Who is paying all those bills?
The banks are at the end of the debt line, and yes, they have had a good decade of growth to grow the books and soak up the bad days.
But when you combine it all, the debt racked up to businesses that aren't actually in business any more in a proper sense, and the government's whose sole answer is another cheque using printed money, this is going nowhere good.
Oliver Hartwich also points out, and this is where the election comes in, that for a lot of people none of this is front and centre right now. Those who have jobs, those who would be travelling, but aren't and now off to the car yard or out to dinner, those who received government largesse and stuck it in the bank, those who borrowed using government programmes at zero percent then went and paid their mortgage off, are all having a half decent time.
No, they can't go to a rugby match, or travel to Denarau, but a lot of life is pretty good. And what debt Grant Robertson has racked up on the credit card is neither here nor there.
So, you don’t care, if you haven't read where this is going, if you don’t want to know, or even if you do but you dismiss it, then all of this is no big deal, it's someone else's problem, or it's to be dealt with another day.
And that's how governments get away with calamity, Muldoon did it 45 years ago. Thing big, carless days, and high taxes.
"They wouldn't know a deficit if they saw one." That's what he said, and he was right. It's kind of the same again, a lot of harm is being done. But unless it's harmed your doorstep, maybe it's not worth worrying about.
Until it harms us all. And then, it's too late.

National Party leader Judith Collins has today defended the absence of her crusher persona, saying it hasn't disappeared - it's just not appropriate to be steely all the time.
Defending criticism that Crusher Collins was missing in action and she had gone soft, the Opposition leader reassured Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking it was definitely not the case.
"She's here, she's definitely here," laughed Collins.
"But when I'm putting out a dental health policy or an education policy you're going to see a softer side of me. You just can't do those things with a crusher look on your face!"
She also added she was far from one-dimensional.
"Like everyone else I have a tougher side, a fun side and a very serious side."
The Opposition leader this morning revealed the party would be releasing its economic policy tomorrow."What you're going to see from us is all about growth. We can't tax our way out of this. What we have to do is boost jobs, boost businesses and keep people working," said Collins."More welfare is not going to do it."She said there would be "substantial points of difference" that Labour would "scream" about.Everything in the policy was costed independently by NZEIR economists.
In one of the stranger moments in politics this week, the Opposition leader was immortalised in a tattoo depicting her as the Bond girl of New Zealand.
Te Aroha man Nik Given took political devotion to a new level by getting a likeness of the National leader inked into his thigh.
Collins said she was extremely flattered by the gesture and hoped it would become a trend.

New Zealand's economy is said to be living on a prayer, in the wake of Covid 19.
Treasury's Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Update shows the Government is $23 billion in the red, with higher than expected deficits in future years.
Former Finance Minister Steven Joyce says the Reserve Bank is running out of wiggle room on monetary policy, with the OCR edging closer to zero percent.
He told Mike Hosking the Government is now running out of fiscal levers too.
"Let’s be hoping and praying there is no big earthquake or any event in the next decade, because there’s not much money left."
Treasury is predicting unemployment to peak at 7.8 percent in March 2022,  and there's expected to be at least 15 years of Government deficits.
Joyce says the impact will hit young people twice as hard as it does adults.
"So whatever figure you see, it’s going to be higher for young people."
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THE BEST BITS IN A SILLIER PACKAGE (from Thursday's Mike Hosking Breakfast) Hard Hole to Get Out Of/Money Talk/Lift Your Game, Southland/Andrews Worse Than You Thought/Quite the Memo

We are one of the most open economies in the world - heard it before?
Yes, you have. It’s the Prime Minister sprooking our Covid success. She is comparing our economy to others. The fact it’s all a myth is separate to the fact she’s making the comparison.
Most of the world is open they’re not crippled the way we are with a handful of cases. But the comparison part is important, because over the next two days the government are going to be bending over backwards to avoid comparisons, because when we look to Australia, it will be confirmed they’ve spanked us economically: Their lockdown was superior and the facts and the numbers will prove it.
Grant Robertson last week on this show told me it’s not a game of rugby. It certainly isn’t - we don’t know how to host games of rugby. The Australians do, as we also learned last week with the championship debacle. 
 
The government’s line is that Australia has a different economy to ours. That’s true too. But, and here’s the bit they won’t mention, that’s also our fault.
What do Australia have in their arsenal that has served then up a fortune for generations? Natural resources. They dig gold, literally and figuratively, out of the ground and sell it to the world.
We don’t. Why not? Because we have chosen not to.
Our call, no one else’s, from Taranaki and its oil to the west coast and its coal and gold. To Waihi and the endless resource  trouble they’ve had adding jobs and bringing in income, we have selected not to be a part of a global market that offers billions every year to those who want it.
So what then happens? We become more reliant on what we do want to do. As it turns out that’s dairy and tourism.
One of which is now buggered - lack of diversity will bite you every time. The other this government has spent a lot of time on making increasingly difficult - ask any farmer.
We are economically our own worst enemies.
The money, the revenue streams, the jobs are all there. We just don’t want to exploit them.
So when the figures are produced and yet again Australia teaches us what good economic policy and decision making is about, don’t let the Robertson’s pull the wool over your eyes with spin.
They have been out played, as it turns out given last week, off the field, as well as on it.

The two rescheduled Bledisloe Cup tests in New Zealand will bring tens of millions of dollars to the economy if crowds are able to attend the tests.
The dates for the two Bledisloe Cup matches were yesterday confirmed by New Zealand Rugby, with the All Blacks to play the Wallabies at Wellington's Sky Stadium on Sunday October, 11 and a week later at Eden Park in Auckland (Sunday October, 18).
Whether fans will be able to attend will be dependent on updates to the Government's Covid-19 Alert Levels. Super Rugby Aotearoa games were able to hold crowds under level one.
NZR chief executive Mark Robinson told the Mike Hosking Breakfast on Newstalk ZB that going off previous measurements, the two tests would bring in tens of millions to the country.
"[Holding] Six match days, we've already said is in excess of $100m into the country so if you work back from that around two big events days, it's obviously in the tens of millions of dollars.
"It's great but I think more importantly than that, at this time the country just needs a bit of a lift and some top-class sporting action and something to support and get in behind is obviously going to be something positive for peoples mindset and wellbeing as we go forward as well. So we're excited about playing a leadership role in that space too," Robinson said.
"It's nice to have this resolved. It's fantastic for the country and for rugby fans. It can breathe a bit of life hopefully into our smaller businesses and communities around the place," Robinson added.
NZR should expect sellout crowds at both Sky Stadium and Eden Park if fans are able to attend.
Cabinet will review Auckland's Covid-19 Alert Level settings on September 21 with a view to increasing gathering limits in Auckland if it is deemed safe, which would come into effect on September 23.
Cabinet will also look at moving the rest of the country to level 1, which would come into effect at 11.59pm on that day - September 21.
Under the new Government guidelines, the Australian squad will be able to train fully as a squad four days after arriving in the country, dependent on all squad members returning a negative Covid-19 test on day three.
"We acknowledge that this has been a complex and challenging puzzle to solve and we're grateful that both rugby organisations, together with our Government, have come together to get these matches across the line," Robinson said in a statement yesterday.
"We're also pleased that the All Blacks team and management now have certainty and can plan accordingly, and we wish them all the very best for the Bledisloe Cup campaign."
NZR also confirmed the matches will kick off at 3.30pm on both Sundays.
"Our fans both here in New Zealand and around the world have long been looking forward to the resumption of international rugby and we're excited to finally lock the details into the calendar," Robinson said.
Robinson told Hosking that there will be a Sanzaar meeting tomorrow which should confirm the plans for the Rugby Championship tournament which will be held in Australia.
There have been concerns members of the All Blacks squad and management would still be in quarantine during the Christmas period once returning home at the conclusion of the Rugby Championship.
"At this stage we've got a strong sense we'll be able to get the team out soon after the 5th or 6th [December] and have them cleared by Christmas," Robinson said.

No job, no visa, no health care -- and barred from returning home. This powder keg of misfortunes is the current reality for tens of thousands of expats who hold the world's ninth most powerful passport.
While situations differ, one point remains the same -- Australians abroad feel abandoned by their government during the coronavirus pandemic.
Sunday marked two months since Prime Minister Scott Morrison introduced a cap of just under 4,000 international arrivals per week. He made the move in response to the country's second coronavirus wave, which was sparked by a hotel quarantine security scandal.
The cap has resulted in a barrage and backlog of cancelled flights, with ticket prices skyrocketing.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) says at least 25,000 Australians, many of who are financially and medically vulnerable, have registered their need to come home since July. However, the Board of Airline Representatives of Australia estimates the true number of those stranded is closer to 100,000.
Prior to the pandemic, the Aussie accent echoed across the world, with over one million Australians living and working overseas at any given time.
Before the cap was put in place, Australia already had some of the world's strictest coronavirus travel measures. Since March, hotel quarantine has been mandated, foreign tourists have been barred from entry and citizens banned from leaving.
Those trying to return home now are Australian citizens who left the country prior to the pandemic, not holiday makers.
"You should have come home"
In the first three months following international border closures, over 357,000 Australian citizens returned home, according to DFAT.
Contrast that to the past two months, where the cap restricted entry to just over 30,000 Australian citizens. It's the argument of critics, including Trade Minister Simon Birmingham, that citizens should have returned in the early stages of the pandemic.
"If you wanted to come back you should have already come back in most circumstances," said Birmingham.
A number of Australians currently stranded abroad told CNN that while the government did urge citizens to return home in March, it was a message aimed at short term travellers.
Those who had a permanent job, home and savings were advised by their consulates to stay put. No one in March could predict the trajectory the pandemic would take, nor the impact it would have on their lives. Six months on, many still have a secure income and home, while others have had their lives crumble apart.
For Stephen Spencer in Abu Dhabi, returning to Australia in March would've meant quitting his job, uprooting his kids' education and abandoning his house -- with nothing secured on the other side. Spencer and his wife Kate chose the most stable option for their kids, which was to ride it out in Abu Dhabi.
Several months later, Spencer lost his job and is now struggling to get his family home. As the sponsor of his wife and teenagers, once he cancels their visas, an act he must do before they leave, they will have just 30 days to exit the country.
"If we are unable to get on a flight to Australia, we are effectively living as refugees, with no legal right to remain in the UAE and a home country that will not allow us to return," he explained. "I cannot believe how quickly the Australian government abandoned its citizens overseas."
It's a story retold by many of those stranded.
Sarah Tasneem was living in Canada when the invisible enemy caused the world to go into hibernation. She had a stable job and was undergoing the process of permanent residency. However, her application was canceled by the Canadian government in June, resulting in the loss of employment. She is now running out of money and is unable to work while she fights to get home.
"I am worried I will eventually face deportation," Tasneem said. "I am running out of time."