The Mike Hosking Breakfast

A challenge to the Government's 2018 announcement that it would immediately stop offering offshore oil and gas exploration permits begins today, with a gas producer claiming the move breached the rule of law.
Greymouth Gas Turangi Limited is suing the Minister of Energy and Resources Megan Woods over the way the Government gave effect to the offshore permit ban, as well as the refusal of the company's application for a permit in Taranaki in 2017.
The case is being heard in the High Court in Wellington.
Greymouth Gas boss Mark Dunphy told Mike Hosking the ban shouldn't have come into effect until the law was changed.
"The rule of law is an important thing. One would think that the most important people who need to comply with the law will be the Prime Minister and her ministers.
"What goes around, comes around."
He says they've been seeking a permit in Taranaki, and the government is obliged to grant it.
"It's likely to be about two to three years worth of gas for the nation, a couple hundred million dollars in value, so it's no trifle."

Temel Atacocugu will undergo his fifth major surgery on Tuesday after being shot nine times during the Christchurch terror attacks.
But first, he will stand in court today and tell gunman Brenton Tarrant how his actions that day have changed his life.
The New Zealand Herald front page today, on the first day of sentencing of the Christchurch mosque gunman.
"I'm quite nervous about it because the last 18 months have been a long journey," said Atacocugu, who is one of 66 people giving victim impact statements. His brother has travelled from Turkey to stand at his side when he does.
"This is the day for justice that we have long been waiting for. It's been very challenging physically, emotionally, and mentally," Atacocugu told the Herald before today's sentencing, which is expected to take four days.

Temel Atacocugu, who was shot nine times at Masjid Al Noor on March 15, 2019, will give his victim impact statement at the gunman's sentencing today.
Justice Cameron Mander has acknowledged the sentencing will be "a difficult experience for victims and their families" - whether they are attending in person or watching via secure, private livestream feeds.
The victims and their loved ones have also been warned by specialist victim support officers that the sentencing process will be emotional, upsetting and potentially re-traumatising.
It will start with the official version of events – the Crown's summary of facts – being read for the first time shortly after proceedings begin at the High Court in Christchurch this morning.
Some of the victims and their families will be watching remotely. Dozens of others will be there in person but some, like Rahimi Ahmad will stay away.
Ahmad was shot in the back during Friday prayer on March 15 last year at Al Noor Masjid where 42 fellow Muslims were murdered. Another nine were killed shortly after when the gunman continued his deadly rampage at Linwood Islamic Centre 7.3km away.
Ahmad played dead to survive and spent six days in a coma. He has spent the past year learning to walk again.

Rahimi Ahmad was severely wounded in last year's terror attacks after he was gunned down in the Al Noor Mosque.
The father-of-two feels some trepidation about this week's sentencing, especially since his personal victim impact statement will be read aloud in court by a Victim Support officer. He won't be in court himself – he feels it would be too much for him and his family.
Ahmad and his wife Azila don't believe sentencing will bring any feelings of closure or finality.
"For myself, I have to stay with this injury for the whole of my life," he told the Herald.
Even though the 29-year-old Australian gunman has admitted his heinous crimes and will be jailed for life, Ahmad hopes he will stay behind bars for the rest of his life.
Feroze Mohammed Ditta, shot twice in the leg at Al Noor and who is now general secretary of Muslim Association of Canterbury (MAC), believes this week – although "somewhat very foreign ... and also daunting" - is important.
He believes it will give the Christchurch Muslim community "some closure and an opportunity to move on".
"The prospect of facing the offender in itself is very daunting but necessary for our community to move on and heal," Ditta said.
Security will be tight in and around the Christchurch Justice Precinct which houses the courthouse where Tarrant will appear in person – along with seven overflow rooms for families, support people, and journalists who can't fit into the main courtroom.
Canterbury District Commander Superintendent John Price says there will be "an increased and highly visible presence" around Christchurch before and during the court process.
After initially pleading not guilty, Tarrant admitted 51 charges of murder, 40 counts of attempted murder and one of engaging in a terrorist act laid under the Terrorism Suppression Act 2002.

While public health experts are urging caution about moving Auckland down to level 2 this Wednesday night, businesses say it's imperative if they are to survive and save jobs.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will tell the country at 3pm today whether alert level settings will be eased or extended as the number of new cases continues to fall.
The Cabinet's decision comes as the conflict between public health and economic factors becomes even starker.
Research at the weekend revealed 89 per cent of businesses in Auckland are on the wage subsidy and an Auckland Business Chamber survey showed almost 20 per cent of businesses did not believe they would survive.
Chamber chief executive Michael Barnett said today he was surprised to hear some experts wanting a lockdown extension of up to two weeks.

"We are hearing some tough stories, people losing their businesses, threats to their homes," Barnett told Mike Hosking. "The call from business is widespread - it's about survival, it's about minimising job losses.

"I would be absolutely saying [move to level] 2, but I am almost wanting to go... is it possible to do a 1.5? The messaging needs to be clear from Government that they will manage the border.
"We need to give business confidence that they are going to be able to survive and be able to minimise those job losses.
"The lockdowns we are seeing at the moment are unsustainable. We need to come up with a better model. I'd be saying businesses can only open with a QR code - food and beverage, look they are good at hygiene, they are good at the QR codes. Give them a better break than what we have done at the moment."

Public health experts are urging caution about moving Auckland down to level 2 this Wednesday night.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will tell the country at 3pm today whether alert level settings will be eased or extended as the number of new cases continues to fall.
The Cabinet's decision comes as the conflict between public health and economic factors becomes even starker.
Public health experts are cautioning that it may be too soon to lift Auckland out of level 3 and the rest of the country from level 2 at 11.59pm on Wednesday.
Otago University epidemiologist Professor Michael Baker yesterday predicted a lockdown extension, to be sure that a downward trend in cases was sustained. Other experts are also urging caution.
There was only one new case in the community yesterday and two new cases in managed isolation and quarantine.
The falling number of new community cases - nine on Friday, six on Saturday and one yesterday - was "good news", according to Auckland University Professor Shaun Hendy.
But he said his team's modelling showed that level 3 should be extended in Auckland "to be really sure".
He noted that in May, when the Government last decided to move from level 3 to 2, the case numbers had been lower for longer.
"We'd had almost two weeks of these kind of numbers. So relative to where we were back then, it's quite early for a shift," Hendy said.
"This is still a really tricky disease to manage, and you can't take risks because asymptomatic spread makes it hard to control. We wouldn't want to see a bounce-back and have to go back into level 3 later."
Tools to contain an outbreak - including contact tracing and genome sequencing - had improved since May, he added. "It's a really tough call."
Otago University infectious disease expert Professor David Murdoch believed the Government would be conservative and err on the side of caution.
"This will be a decision based on the confidence that the Government has contained community transmission and that there are no loose ends," he told Mike Hosking.
"That's the big question. We need to see the data. I am sure there will be a cautious approach if there are any concerns."
"We really have got to keep this in perspective. No one in the world knew how to manage this right from the start of the year. We are all doing our best, we are learning as we go along.
"There are some areas where we have been disappointed. The systems weren't really tight enough. The important thing is that systems are tightened up and that we refine and nuance the alert levels and other systems."

Every Friday morning, Mike Hosking is joined by Tim Wilson and Kate Hawkesby to wrap the week in news.
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We are obviously still a bit starved for sport because a stationary golf ball has caused quite the stir. 
The play in question was during the Wyndham Championship on the PGA tour - Rafael Cabrero-Bello was putting but his ball stopped right on the lip of the hole. 
But Rafael didn't tap the putt in - the rules say you can walk up to the ball and wait around ten seconds but Rafael waited and it took 27 seconds for the ball to drop in. 
Cue the controversy. 
New Zealand golf pro Phil Tataurangi joined the show to explain the situation!
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It's not just the workers whose jobs are being affected by the Auckland border checkpoints.
Waitakaruru Honey Limited say around two and a half million bees have starved to death because workers were unable to travel from Waikato to Auckland to feed them.
And a number of other beekeepers have applied for an exemption but have so far been turned down.
Chief executive of Apiculture New Zealand Karin Kos joined Mike Hosking to share her concerns.
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More of Canterbury DHB's senior leaders are leaving - and medical staff want some say into who replaces them.
Executive Director of Nursing Mary Gordon and Chief Digital Officer Stella Ward resigned yesterday - joining five others who'd announced their departure in recent weeks.
Association of Salaried Medical Specialists director Sarah Dalton says she understands two more resignations are to be announced.
This would leave just two of the 11 executives in their positions.
Dalton says they're pretty concerned about how the Board will find replacements.
Listen above as Sarah Dalton speaks to Mike Hosking.

Qantas Group has suffered a $A2.7 billion ($2.9b) statutory loss before tax because of aircraft write downs and redundancy costs and a 91 per cent plunge in underlying pre-tax profit.
The airline said that in the second half of the financial year to June 30 it had suffered a $A4b drop in revenue because of the near total collapse in travel demand due to the Covid-19 crisis and associated border restrictions.
The airline predicts resuming international air travel in July 2021, with a transtasman bubble earlier if possible.
Underlying profit before tax sunk to $124 million and this is forecast to fall deeply into the red next year.
The $2.7b loss before tax was due mostly to a $1.4 billion non-cash write down of assets including the A380 fleet and $642 million in one-off redundancy and other costs as part of restructuring the business for recovery.


Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said the second half the financial year was the toughest set of conditions the national carrier had faced in its 100 years.
"The impact of Covid on all airlines is clear. It's devastating and it will be a question of survival for many. What makes Qantas different is that we entered this crisis with a strong balance sheet and we moved fast to put ourselves in a good position to wait for the recovery.''
At least 6000 staff had lost their jobs and about 20,000 more would be stood down for a long time. More than 100 planes had been parked, including its Airbus A380s, and its Boeing 747 fleet's retirement had been brought forward.
"Recovery will take time and it will be choppy. We've already had setbacks with borders opening and then closing again. But we know that travel is at the top of people's wish lists and that demand will return as soon as restrictions lift. That means we can get more of our people back to work," Joyce said.
Covid was reshaping the competitive landscape and that presented a mix of challenges and opportunities. Most airlines would come through the crisis a lot leaner, which meant his airline would have to reinvent how it ran parts of its business to succeed in a changed market.
Joyce said the FY20 result showed how the Covid crisis had derailed what would have been a strong financial performance.
"We were on track for another profit above $1 billion when this crisis struck. The fact that we still delivered a full year underlying profit shows how quickly we adjusted when revenue collapsed.



Covid would continue to have a "huge impact" and Qantas was expecting a significant underlying loss in the next financial year.
"Looking further ahead, we're in a good position to ride out this storm and make the most of the recovery," Joyce said.

Joe Biden is poised to accept the Democratic presidential nomination Thursday night, achieving the pinnacle of his nearly five-decade political career in the climax of the most unorthodox national convention in modern history.
He's also hoping for initial steps to not only unify the diverse Democratic Party but a deeply divided America as well.
The former vice president, who at 77 years old would be the oldest president ever elected, will be feted by family and former foes as he becomes the Democratic Party's official standard bearer in the campaign to defeat President Donald Trump in November.
A day after California Sen. Kamala Harris became the first Black woman to accept a major party's vice presidential nomination, Biden campaign co-chair Lisa Blunt Rochester, a Delaware congresswoman, predicted that Thursday would be “a whole 'nother level of special."
Above all, Biden is expected to focus on uniting the deeply divided nation as Americans grapple with the long and fearful health crisis, the related economic devastation and a national awakening on racial justice.
“I knew that of all the incredible candidates we have across that platform, Joe Biden was the one who could unite us. From Harlem to the heartland, he was the one who could unite us,” Blunt Rochester said in a briefing previewing the final night of the four-day convention.
The positive focus expected Thursday night marks a break from the dire warnings offered by former President Barack Obama and others the night before. The 44th president of the United States warned that American democracy itself could falter if Trump is reelected, while Harris and 2016 presidential nominee Hillary Clinton declared that Americans' lives and livelihoods are at risk.
Throughout their convention, the Democrats have summoned a collective urgency about the dangers of Trump as president. In 2016, they dismissed and sometimes trivialized him. In the days leading up to Biden's acceptance speech, they cast him as an existential threat to the country.
The tone signals anew that the fall campaign between Trump and Joe Biden, already expected to be among the most negative of the past half century, will be filled with rancor and recrimination.
Beyond Biden's highly anticipated speech, Thursday's program is designed to highlight the diversity of the Democratic Party and the nation he hopes to lead.
Speakers include four former rivals: Pete Buttigieg, who was trying to become the nation’s first openly gay president; New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker; New York ultra-billionaire Michael Bloomberg and entrepreneur Andrew Yang. Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms will also be featured in addition to Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth, who lost both legs while serving in Iraq.
Biden's Democratic Party has sought this week to put forward a cohesive vision of values and policy priorities, highlighting efforts to combat climate change, tighten gun laws and embrace a humane immigration policy. They have drawn a sharp contrast with Trump's policies and personality, portraying him as cruel, self-centered and woefully unprepared to manage virtually any of the nation’s mounting crises and policy challenges.
It's unclear if tearing down Trump will be enough to propel Biden to victory in November.
Just 75 days before the election, the former vice president must energize the disparate factions that make up the modern Democratic Party — a coalition that spans generation, race and ideology. And this fall voters must deal with concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic that has created health risks for those who want to vote in person — and postal slowdowns for mail-in ballots, which Democrats blame on Trump.
The pandemic has also forced Biden’s team to abandon the typical pageantry and rely instead on a highly-produced, all-virtual affair that has failed to draw the same television ratings as past conventions.
The silence was noticeable Wednesday night,...