The Mike Hosking Breakfast

There is growing pressure to introduce mandatory masks on Sydney's public transport, as NSW deals with a concerning spike in mystery cases.
There is growing pressure to introduce mandatory masks on Sydney's public transport, as NSW deals with an outbreak of mystery cases.
Government officials have been urging residents to wear masks on public transport but only one in three commuters are heeding the advice.

University of NSW epidemiology expert Mary-Louise McLaws told the Sydney Morning Herald that mandatory masks needed to be brought in before it was too late.

"How many people have to get Covid before they realise that it's a simple act of precaution?" Professor McLaws said.
It comes as health warnings were issued for multiple trains and bus routes this week, with a trainee bus driver working for days while infected with Covid-19.

Victoria recorded 113 Covid-19 cases and 23 deaths on Thursday, while NSW recorded nine new cases.

Another day of the NBA playoffs will be postponed, but players have reportedly decided that they want to continue the season.
The NBA released a statement that three games scheduled for today will not be played, joining the three that weren't played Thursday (NZT), saying it was "hopeful" to resume games this weekend.
"NBA playoff games for today will not be played as scheduled," the statement said. "We are hopeful to resume games either [Saturday or Sunday].
"There is a video conference call meeting scheduled later this afternoon between a group of NBA players and team governors representing the 13 teams in Orlando, along with representatives from the National Basketball Players Association and the league office and NBA Labour Relations Committee Chairman Michael Jordan, to discuss next steps."
Play was set to resume this morning with Game 6 of the Western Conference series between Utah and Denver. Boston and Toronto were also to begin their second-round series before the Clippers and Dallas met.
Both the Lakers and Clippers reportedly voted to boycott the remainder of the season in a players meeting yesterday, however, reports suggest the meeting was more of a informal meeting among players.
The players have now agreed to resume the rest of the playoffs, according to reports. However, it isn't clear when games will start again.
It was the Raptors and Celtics who had been most vocal about the idea of a boycott, but the Milwaukee Bucks acted first when they opted to remain in their locker room instead of playing their Game 5 against Orlando on Thursday.
The NBA's board of governors met separately Friday to decide next steps.
One potential remedy for the schedule, one of the people said, was to play the three games that were postponed Thursday on Saturday, and the three games scheduled for Friday on Sunday, though that had not been decided.
Starting with the Bucks, who refused to take the court for their game Thursday against the Orlando Magic, players from six teams made the extraordinary decisions to protest the shooting by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin on Sunday of Jacob Blake, a black man, apparently in the back while three of his children looked on.
Kenosha is about 40 miles south of Milwaukee.
NBA players didn't come to Disney solely for a restart to their season. They also wanted social reform, as did other sports leagues — many of which followed the NBA's lead Thursday by calling off games. Some NFL teams did the same Friday, choosing not to practice.
It followed a similar pattern as what happened in March: The NBA was the first league to shut down because of the coronavirus pandemic, and other sports followed then as well.
"The biggest thing that we all understand is if we're not playing, what are we doing? What are we doing to show and to help what's going on outside this bubble?" Boston Celtics forward Grant Williams said, shortly before the Bucks were scheduled to tip off their game against the Magic.
Instead, the Bucks players remained in the locker room, finally emerging hours later to read a statement demanding action from lawmakers and encouraging voting by citizens.
They changed the narrative across the entire sports landscape, putting the focus squarely on social justice reform in protest of the shooting of Blake.
While players and teams from baseball, the WNBA and MLS sat out their competitions Thrusday, NBA players and coaches met for nearly three hours in a Disney hotel to determine next steps, including whether the season should continue. They did not come to a consensus, a person with knowledge of the meeting told AP on condition of anonymity because details weren't revealed publicly.
More talks took place in the early hours of Friday, followed by the player meeting that morning to decide to continue the season.
The Western & Southern Open won't be played Friday, with the U.S. Tennis Association, along with...

If we want assurance that Brenton Tarrant does his time, we need to suck up the cost.
There are calls for the Christchurch mosque gunman to serve his life sentence back home in Australia.
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters is calling for the "depraved" mosque gunman to be extradited back to Australia to avoid this country having to pay to keep him locked up for life.
But barrister Philip Morgan QC disagrees, saying there's no guarantee Australia wouldn't release him from prison early.
He told Mike Hosking it's a necessity to keep Tarrant here.
"The cost is ridiculous,  but now he's a serving prisoner, I doubt it will be anything like the millions being bandied about by Corrections."
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Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced hundreds of millions of dollars to help secure access to a Covid-19 vaccine as soon as one becomes available.
The specific amount, from the Government's Covid-19 Response and Recovery Fund, cannot be disclosed due to commercial sensitivity - but it is not part of the $14 billion still in reserve.
But a vaccine might be as long as two years away, according to Professor Graham Le Gros, programme director of funding recipient Vaccine Alliance Aotearoa New Zealand – Ohu Kaupare Huaketo, a partnership between the Malaghan Institute, Otago University and Victoria University.
Le Gros said he didn't want to give people false hope about when a vaccine might be ready.



"The brutal truth is we don't know a lot about this virus and how to make an effective vaccine against it," he said.
"I don't want to depress anyone, but it is going to take time. We have to be patient. My guess is two years."
Professor James Ussher, who is the alliance's science director said some vaccine candidates might be shown to be "efficacious" early next year "at the earliest".
But getting a vaccine through trials was only the first step, and then making and distributing it was a challenge, he added.
"We're not necessarily going to get all the vaccine we need in one go because of the massive global demand. It may be some vaccine comes in initially for those at the most risk.
"That's something that needs to be worked out."

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.
Level 3.
2/10.
"We should already be at level 2, the rest of the country should be at level 1.
We have been held hostage by a government overwhelmed in conservatism, and no real understanding of the economic damage they're doing."
Masks.  
6/10.
"If they led to more freedom like they were supposed to, and like Michael baker argues, then maybe it would have been an 8/10."
Masks v Social Distancing.
4/10.
"Bloomfield v Baker, who's right?
And in that, is the complexity and conundrum of this whole mess, who's right? And how do we know?"
Quarantine Testing.
0/10.
"Yet another pile of poop.
We test on day 3 and day 12. Ooops, unless we don’t."  
The NZX Cyber Attacks.
4/10.
"Three days in a row is embarrassing.
This is 2020."
Team New Zealand.
8/10.
"Nothing to see here, that’s what Grant Dalton said, and that’s the way it turned out.
But in between far too much finger pointing and scurrilous stirring from those who should know better."    
Housing Market.
8/10.
"Everyone seems on board.
Housing in this world of economic carnage is okay, if not even better.
Forecasts are being rewritten, expats are spending, money is cheap and getting cheaper, and first home buyers are in like robbers' dogs."
Free NCEA Credits.
7/10.
"Students have done it tougher than most this year, there is an unfairness beyond their control.
But ask Britain if they think making stuff up for exams works well."
The Warriors.
8/10.
"A beacon of hope, they could still finish fifth this year.
Can you imagine it? All things considered; they'd win the Halberg for Team of the Year."
LISTEN ABOVE FOR MIKE HOSKING'S FULL WEEK IN REVIEW

Cigarette sales are plunging faster than any time before as smokers turn to alternatives like vaping - with 410 million fewer smokes sold annually than just two years ago.
Dr Murray Laugesen, a trustee of the End Smoking NZ charity, analysed tobacco company returns that are published by the Ministry of Health and found a remarkable drop in sales.
About 2132 million cigarettes were sold last year - 193 million fewer than 2018, and following a 217 million drop the previous year.
The rate of decline from 2017 to 2019 has been about 8 per cent annually - roughly three times the rate across the first six years of the Government's Smokefree 2025 project, started in 2011.
The trend is driven by factors including cost (a 25-pack of cigarettes was $16.39 in 2011 and is now about $41.89) and alternative products like vaping e-cigarettes - but needs to be accelerated if the December 2025 goal of less than 5 per cent smoked tobacco prevalence is to be met.

The rise of vaping products is a major factor in the drop in sales of cigarettes. Photo / Stuart Munro
"Continuation of a 9.5 per cent annual per-capita decline in tobacco use, suggests the goal will still not be met until at least 2029, four years overdue," said Dr George Laking, an oncologist and chair of End Smoking NZ.
"Success in the goal would imply a further reduction of tobacco imports by 5 per cent per year from 2021 onwards."
Tobacco prices had been hiked by elective successive excise increases since 2011, but Budget 2020 broke that pattern and didn't include an increase.
Laking said increasing the cost was one of the best ways to drop smoking rates, but prices had reached a point where doing so might create more harm than good.
"Hardship experienced by disadvantaged people is so severe ... if everyone in New Zealand enjoyed a middle class standard of living then we would not be in a grey area - we would say, 'this is the most effective tool that we have'.
"But everyone in New Zealand does not enjoy that standard of living. That has perhaps hamstrung us, to some extent."
Setting aside cost, Laking said other effective measures would be to reduce to availability of tobacco, and offer hardcore smokers an acceptable alternative.
The latter had advanced from nicotine patches and gums to e-cigarettes and "heat not burn" devices, which heat tobacco to lower temperatures than cigarettes.
"Although electronic cigarettes and heat not burn products are not perfect - the best thing is to not use any of these products at all - actually, if we were to convert our smoking epidemic into a situation of people using reduced-harm products, that would actually be a much better situation."
University of Auckland research has surveyed 14 and 15-year-olds and found a quarter of those who had tried an e-cigarette had never smoked tobacco, and critics of vaping worry about its appeal to young people, with schools speaking out about having to confiscate devices every day.
This month, legislation banning advertising and restricting e-cigarette flavours was finally passed, 620 days after Associate Health Minister Jenny Salesa promised to regulate the industry in November 2018. The bill will come into effect in November, and will also allow the Ministry of Health to recall products, suspend them and issue warnings.
Laking noted the new legislation sought to strike a balance between helping people quit smoking, and avoiding uptake of vaping and new products by non-smokers including young people.
"You have to strike a balance between those two things, and the question is, where do you strike it and how do you strike it?
"Those of us who support vaping-to-quit do often feel somewhat overwhelmed by the barrage of claims asserting the risks of vaping, that are, scientifically, very poorly constructed."
Laugesen's analysis factored in sales of loose tobacco and found, on a per-population basis,...

One of the strongest hurricanes ever to strike the U.S., Laura barreled across Louisiana on Thursday, shearing off roofs, killing a least four people and maintaining ferocious strength while carving a destructive path hundreds of miles inland.
A full assessment of the damage wrought by the Category 4 system was likely to take days. But initial reports offered hope that Laura, despite leaving entire neighborhoods in ruins and more than 875,000 people without power, was not the annihilating menace that forecasters had feared.
“It is clear that we did not sustain and suffer the absolute, catastrophic damage that we thought was likely," Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said. “But we we have sustained a tremendous amount of damage," he said.
He called it the most powerful hurricane to strike Louisiana, meaning it surpassed even Katrina, which was a Category 3 storm when it hit in 2005.
The hurricane’s top wind speed of 150 mph (241 kph) put it among the strongest systems on record in the U.S. Not until 11 hours after landfall did Laura finally weaken into a tropical storm as it plowed north and thrashed Arkansas.
The storm came ashore in low-lying Louisiana and clobbered Lake Charles, an industrial and casino city of 80,000 people. On Broad Street, many buildings had partially collapsed, and those didn't were missing chunks. Windows were blown out, awnings ripped away and trees split in half in eerily misshapen ways. Police spotted a floating casino that came unmoored and hit a bridge. At the local airport, planes were overturned, some on top of each other.
“It looks like 1,000 tornadoes went through here. It’s just destruction everywhere,” said Brett Geymann, who rode out the storm with three family members in Moss Bluff, near Lake Charles. He described Laura passing over his house with the roar of a jet engine around 2 a.m.
“There are houses that are totally gone. They were there yesterday, but now gone,” he said.
Not long after daybreak gave the first glimpse of the destruction, a massive plume of smoke visible for miles began rising from a chemical plant. Police said the leak was at a facility run by Biolab, which manufactures chemicals used in household cleaners such as Comet bleach scrub and chlorine powder for pools.
Nearby residents were told to close their doors and windows and turn off air conditioners. State and federal aircraft headed into the skies over the coast to look for signs of any other industrial damage.
The fatalities included a 14-year-old girl and a 68-year-old man died when trees fell on their homes in Louisiana, authorities said. No deaths had been confirmed in Texas, which Republican Gov. Greg Abbott said would amount to “a miracle." President Donald Trump said he would visit the Gulf Coast this weekend to tour the damage.
More than 580,000 coastal residents were ordered to join the largest evacuation since the pandemic began and many did, filling hotels and sleeping in cars. Although not everyone fled from the coast, officials credited those who did leave for minimizing the loss of life.
Forecasters had warned that the storm surge of 15 to 20 feet would be “unsurvivable” and could push 40 miles inland. Edwards said the storm surge wound up being measured in the range of 9 feet to 12 feet — still bad, but far from the worst forecast. He was hopeful that damaged homes could quickly be made habitable.
The priority, Edwards said, was search and rescue, followed by efforts to find hotel or motel rooms for those their homes. Officials in Texas and Louisiana have both sought to avoid traditional mass shelters for evacuees over fears of spreading COVID-19, and Edwards was concerned that the storm would inhibit coronavirus testing at a time when schools and universities are reopening.
Bucky Millet, 78, of Lake Arthur, Louisiana, considered evacuating but decided to ride out the storm with family due to concerns about the coronavirus. He said...

A Christchurch mosque victim has slept through the night for the first time since her husband was killed 18 months ago.
The woman was finally able to sleep after seeing "the bad man in shackles", a senior police officer says.
Canterbury District Commander Superintendent John Price shared with the Herald part of a powerful letter he'd received from an non-profit organisation about one of the victims of the mosque shootings.
"Up to Sunday night, she hadn't slept probably since her husband was killed and was very stressed and afraid constantly in spite of the good support," Price said.
The letter said: "She told me that when she went to court and saw security, the police, the court staff all working to keep them safe - and she saw the bad man in shackles and felt safe for the first time since the 15th of March last year."
Price said he was so moved by the letter he read it out to his team this morning.
"It really encapsulates why we do what we do as police."
It comes after the mass killer, Brenton Harrison Tarrant, was today sentenced to life imprisonment without parole – meaning he will never be freed.

Abdul Aziz Wahabzadah told Tarrant he should feel grateful there were no bullets left in the gun, "or it would have been a different story".
It is the first time in New Zealand history this sentence has been imposed.
Price said it was a relief for everyone involved.
"I saw aroha, I saw forgiveness, I saw closure for many but I also saw courage - you think about what was a day that tore out their hearts and this was an opportunity to see justice be done for them."
Price said the atmosphere at the start of the sentencing was tense for the victims but as they became more familiar with the courtroom environment victims were found their confidence.
"It was all about giving he victims a voice and making sure they were heard."
"The theme for me since the 15th of March has always been about unity."
He stressed that it was not about the police and that it should be seen as a "partnership of peace".
Price said a moment that stuck with him was the victims hugging the liaison officers after the verdict.
"It shows they can have trust and confidence in the New Zealand police and also a bond and unity that had occurred."
In the last couple of days, Price said he had three people express their interest in joining the police force as a result of the trial.
Police Commissioner Andrew Coster said while today's sentencing was an important milestone in the judicial process, "it should not overshadow the incredible stories of determination and survival of victims, heard over the course of this week".
He also acknowledged the hundreds of hours police staff worked over many months to ensure justice was ultimately served today.
"The investigation was one of the largest and most complex in New Zealand history, and I'm extremely proud of the team's exceptional policing through meticulous attention to detail and commitment to putting victims first."

I don't know if policy outside of Covid will ever see the light of day.
One would hope, as of next week, when we are in level 2 around the country, maybe we can get around to talking about good tangible ideas that might go some way to helping this country get off it economic knees and start to slowly rebuild.
National, in releasing their small business policy, are bringing back the 90-day trial. This was a policy, and a successful one, that got dismantled by the current government. They would have gone further, and driven by nothing more than union ideology, butchered the whole thing completely. But credit where credit is due, New Zealand First stepped in and saved part of it.
But in simple terms the 90-day trials allowed employers to take on new hires for a period with no great risk, in that if it didn’t work out, they could move them on with no hassle and no penalty.
The unions, pre-National enacting it, cried black and blue about abuse, and the powerless being taken advantage of. What actually happened, and research showed it, is people weren't abused, they were hired.
Because what the policy did in the real world, as opposed to the theoretical world of the unions, was allow employers, especially smaller employers, the life blood of the economy to take a leap of faith, to take the risk, and actually employ people. What these people told us was that the policy made a tangible difference, indeed the difference between hiring and not bothering.
These sort of polices are what we need more of, those are the polices that go beyond the one stop shop of the current plan which is welfare. Subsidies, welfare, free money, whatever form it comes, is no answer long term. We simply don't have the money.
The only way an economy grows is by people doing real work, making real products and services, and earning real money. That money converts to incomes, to spending, and to tax.
This is the scandal of the election. We are not seeing enough real policy that provides enough real incentive to get on with it.
Too many have been hypnotised into believing free borrowed money, a lot of closed shops and businesses, and a social catastrophe of people losing their livelihoods is an excellent response to a health issue. And going forward Grant Robertson and his printed cheque book will suffice.
So, before we hear the receivers at the door, let us hope there is more 90-day trial type material coming our way, that there are those who care about the future of this country beyond locking us down, sending us broke, pretending people working hard, and taking risks isn't actually the way forward.

Researchers say they have evidence that a woman caught coronavirus on a flight -- perhaps in the jet's restroom.
The 28-year-old woman was among about 300 South Koreans evacuated from Italy at the height of the coronavirus pandemic in Milan last March, the researchers wrote in the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.
"On the flight from Milan, Italy, to South Korea, she wore an N95 mask, except when she used a toilet," they wrote.
"The toilet was shared by passengers sitting nearby, including an asymptomatic patient. She was seated three rows away from the asymptomatic patient," they added.
The South Korean officials who organised the flight had put into effect full infection control measures and tested everyone before they boarded. All the passengers and crew were quarantined when they got to South Korea, as well. Six passengers tested positive soon after arrival in South Korea.
The 28-year-old woman developed symptoms eight days after she got home and was hospitalised.
"Given that she did not go outside and had self-quarantined for three weeks alone at her home in Italy before the flight and did not use public transportation to get to the airport, it is highly likely that her infection was transmitted in the flight via indirect contact with an asymptomatic patient," the researchers at Soonchunhyang University College of Medicine in Seoul wrote.
There has been very little evidence about whether people can catch coronavirus on a flight, although many airlines have policies leaving more space for passengers, are cleaning aircraft more frequently, and are encouraging passengers to stay in their seats and not move about the aircraft. Evidence already shows aircraft ventilation systems clean the air quickly and thoroughly.
"This study was one of the earliest to assess asymptomatic transmission of COVID-19 on an aircraft. Previous studies of inflight transmission of other respiratory infectious diseases, such as influenza and severe acute respiratory syndrome, revealed that sitting near a person with a respiratory infectious disease is a major risk factor for transmission similar to our own findings," the researchers wrote.
The researchers said the officials organising the flight took many precautions.
"When the passengers arrived at the Milan airport, medical staff performed physical examinations, medical interviews, and body temperature checks outside the airport before boarding, and 11 symptomatic passengers were removed from the flight," they wrote.
Passengers got N95 respirators -- masks shown to protect the wearer for viral infections -- and were kept six feet apart before boarding.
"Most passengers wore the N95 respirators except at mealtimes and when using the toilet during the flight. After an 11-hour flight, 299 asymptomatic passengers arrived in South Korea and were immediately quarantined for two weeks at a government quarantine facility in which the passengers were completely isolated from one another. Medical staff examined them twice daily for elevated body temperature and symptoms of COVID-19."
Researchers in Germany reported earlier this month that two people may have become infected before, during or after a flight from Tel Aviv to Frankfurt in March.
They were seated near the back of the aircraft, directly across the aisle from seven passengers who later turned out to have been infected.