The Mike Hosking Breakfast

With stimulus talks stalled, President Donald Trump announced he would go around Congress to deliver aid to Americans affected by the pandemic.
But a close read of the actual text of executive actions he signed Saturday suggests that even if they are deemed constitutional, they will not quickly deliver the aid Trump promised. They may not deliver much at all.
Here's a breakdown of the actions, the many strings attached and questions about what they actually accomplish.
Unemployment benefits
Trump described the memorandum signed Saturday as an action providing "an additional or extra $400 a week and expanded benefits."
But in reality, the additional unemployment aid is more complicated than the White House acknowledged and experts say it may not help a lot of the unemployed.
Under the previous unemployment benefit passed by Congress, millions of Americans received an additional blanket $600 a week from the federal government on top of their state unemployment benefits.
States have to chip in. Now, under Trump's measure, the federal government is requiring states to pick up the tab for 25% ($100) of the as much as $400 additional benefit each person may be able to receive weekly in additional aid. On top of that, a state must agree to enter into this financial agreement with the federal government for any unemployed person living there to get any of the additional benefits.
States are in dire financial straits. Many states have already asked the federal government for major financial help. Several experts told CNN there are major questions about how many states may be able to afford the extra cost.
If a state says that it does not have the funds or does want to enter into the agreement with the federal government, the unemployed person in that state receives zero dollars in extra federal benefits (they would still receive the normal state unemployment insurance).
In fact, states have asked Congress to provide them with an additional $500 billion to help shore up their budgets, which have been crushed by the loss of tax revenue amid the pandemic. This has been one of the main points of contention between Democrats, who want to allocate additional aid, and Republicans, who don't want to bail out what they say are badly managed states.
The millions of Americans who've filed for jobless benefits also have drained several states' unemployment benefits trust funds. Already, 10 states have borrowed nearly $20 billion from the Treasury Department to cover their share of payments, which typically last 26 weeks.
Requires a new system. Because Congress has not authorized an extension of extra federal unemployment assistance, the state will have to set up an entirely new system to deliver the additional aid.
"The state has to enter an agreement saying not only can they pay the benefit, but that they have some ability to administer the benefit," said Michelle Evermore, an unemployment expert at the National Employment Law Project.
Building a brand new program could take states months to accomplish, Evermore said. She added Trump needed to do it this way because "in order for states to administer a benefit it has to be authorized by Congress, so they can't use their administrative systems to pay a benefit that hasn't been authorized by Congress."
Few will be helped. Evermore, one of the nation's leading experts on unemployment, told CNN she considered the chances of this effort helping many of the newly unemployed due to Covid-19 "low."
Lastly, according to the memorandum, an individual can only receive the $300 federal benefit if he or she first qualifies for $100 in aid from their state. Evermore said this will cut out a large group of people. "There are so many problems with people getting a benefit under this," she said.
Evictions
The executive action signed by Trump does not reinstate the previous moratorium on evictions, which lapsed in July....

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says she has not had a Covid test because she hasn't had any symptoms, nor has she been asked to have one.
"None. I haven't had any, Mike, because I haven't had any symptoms or any cause to," Ardern told Mike Hosking today.
Hosking: "You haven't said yes to the test?"
Ardern: "I have never been offered a test and just to be clear when I said 'say yes to the test', that was a request that when people are offered them by their GP, they say yes. We have had reports and surveys that suggest a reasonable portion of people being offered them by their GP because they were unwell... were saying no. To suggest that people should continue to say no was worrying to me."
Hosking: "So the pop-up centres you put in places like Queenstown to check the community spread for people to voluntarily go down, you haven't felt the need to do that and lead the way?"
Ardern: "Those community testing stations were established specifically to make sure we had additional community surveillance as a precautionary measure after we had seen the positive offshore test, in particular. That's why we were targeting those areas. And we continue to keep those pop-up stations in South Auckland in particular because that's the region where we have some of our managed isolation facilities."
Hosking said he had watched her on the campaign trail at the Grey Lynn farmers' market at the weekend and she hadn't been practising social distancing.
"No, and nor do we ask anyone to continue practise social distancing because we are at level 1," she said.
Hosking said he had seen a poster that encouraged social distancing at level 1.
Ardern said at level 1, people had to wash hands, stay home if they were sick, and get advice from Healthline or their GP about being tested. Plus the restrictions at the border continued.
She said she could not comment on the poster, "but we have never been encouraging social distancing at level 1".
"I am happy to clarify for you, Mike. I was frankly a little worried when you started suggesting that people shouldn't take the test the doctor offered to them. We have had 100 days of no community transmission but that doesn't lessen the risk... Vietnam got to 99 days and had an outbreak.
"The reason we are asking people to keep a mask on hand is if we experience a resurgence. It would be false hope to claim that everything is done and dusted."
Ardern still asked people to go into community testing stations.
Asked whether New Zealand went too hard too quickly, Ardern denied that, after being asked about a new report about mortality and productivity.
"Mostly the comparisons are going the other way. Many other places are asking whether they should have done what New Zealand did."
On the possibility of a Cook Islands travel bubble, she said she would be giving an update today. Asked if the bubble was coming, she said "yes" but there were no confirmed dates yet.
Cabinet has been discussing plans to open the border with the popular South Pacific island of Rarotonga and other hotspots like Aitutaki Island with its large lagoon, coral reefs and sandy inlets.
New Zealand's largest airport, Auckland International, says it will be ready to operate a travel bubble with Covid-free Pacific countries by August 17, if given the green-light.
Business groups and some Pacific countries, including the Cook Islands, have been urging the Government to open travel with some parts of the region.
Hosking asked about Helen Clark's suggestion letting more people into the country. Ardern said she was asking what more the country could do with border controls.
She said there still had to be health checks conducted by health authorities, with swabbing carried out twice. A critical difference between New Zealand and Victoria was that we've had arrest powers. "I haven't ruled it out but there are still things that would need to be required."

Retail spending in July was "strong", with the underlying value of payments up 11.4 per cent, according to the latest data from Paymark.
Spending grew in most retail sectors in July, particularly in cafes, restaurants and bars.
Accommodation merchants in the regions also enjoyed strong spending for the first time in recent months and after lockdown restrictions lifted.
Paymark figures show the accommodation spend was above last year levels in the Bay of Plenty, Gisborne, Hawke's Bay, Taranaki, Wanganui, Wairarapa, Marlborough, Nelson, West Coast and South Canterbury. Despite this, the overall spend in the category was 10.9 per cent below July 2019 levels.
Accommodation merchants in Southland and Otago were still running below year-ago levels, suggesting the strong domestic school holiday surge outside the major centres was not enough to counter the international downturn in all tourism hotspots, Paymark said.
Spending at travel merchants in the month remained well below last year's levels.

Every Friday morning, Mike Hosking is joined by Tim Wilson and Kate Hawkesby to wrap the week in news.
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We're making moves to protect the authenticity of where our fruit and veges come from.
The $6 billion industry has come under increased pressure recently to let consumers know about food safety and the environmental impact of some of their favourite products.
And although some organisations are doing this now, there is no one industry standard that everyone abides by.
Project director for United Fresh, Anne-Marie Arts joins Mike Hosking to discuss the authenticity of our fruit and vegetables.
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An energy company has been given the green light to establish a network of hydrogen fuelling stations.
The Infrastructure Reference Group has approved $20-million to Hiringa Energy for the nationwide roll-out.
Chief executive Andrew Clennett told Mike Hosking it will make heavy trucking more sustainable.
“There’s a clear role for technology like Hydrogen to make this happen.”
Clennett says they're hoping to have 24 stations by about 2025. 
He says this will cover the main transport hubs, and although diesel is cheap now, we need to think about long-term sustainability.
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Big changes to Australia’s JobKeeper scheme will be announced on Friday in the wake of the “Victorian wave” of COVID-19 cases that is expected to cost taxpayers an extra $15 billion.

And while the overhaul is largely designed to help Melburnians who face the loss of up to 400,000 jobs, the changes to the turnover test and employee eligibility will apply to all companies across Australia.
The stunning national cost of the state’s bungled hotel quarantine program and coronavirus tracing dramas will be outlined by the Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Treasurer Josh Frydenberg.
The new rules will help thousands of Melbourne businesses to qualify for the scheme with the Treasury predicting 1.5 million Victorian workers will soon be forced to rely on the scheme to survive.
“The introduction of stage four restrictions by the Victorian Government will have a severe economic impact on the Victorian and Australian economy,’’ Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said.
“Under the changes that will apply nationwide, to be eligible for JobKeeper post 28 September, organisations will only have to demonstrate that their actual turnovers have significantly declined in the previous quarter.
“As a result, organisations that are able to demonstrate a significant decline in turnover in the September 2020 quarter will be able to access the JobKeeper extension in the December 2020 quarter.
“They will no longer be required to have also suffered a significant decline in the June quarter in order to remain eligible or access the payment for the first time post 28 September.”
New rules on the turnover test announced just weeks ago on July 21 will be scrapped and superseded by the JobKeeper 3.0 scheme.
However, the reduction in the $1500 a fortnight wage subsidy to $1200 from October will remain in force as previously announced.
Thousands of new full-time employees will also be eligible for the wage subsidy across Australia for the first time, with the Morrison Government allowing any eligible workers employed on July 1 to apply for the wage subsidy.
Previously, workers needed to be employed on March 1, 2020 to be eligible under the scheme but the requirements that casuals be employed for a minimum of 12 months to be eligible will remain.
Instead of being forced to prove a company’s turnover is down by 30 per cent or more in the June and September quarters, the new rules will only require proof that income is down in the September quarter compared to the same time last year.
Previously, companies had been told they needed to demonstrate a fall in turnover in the June, September and December quarters to qualify for JobKeeper from 4 January.
The turnover test changes will also allow thousands more businesses to qualify for JobKeeper for the first time or keep the payments for longer than expected.
Those changes will cost taxpayers an extra $11 billion while the number of new businesses in Victoria that will be forced onto the scheme in Melbourne will cost an extra $4 billion.
More employees will also qualify for the wage subsidy scheme if they were recently employed on a full-time basis.
“We also recognise that businesses have experienced employee turnover since JobKeeper was originally introduced,’’ Mr Frydenberg said.
“To allow more employees to access the payment, we will now allow employees who were on the books from 1 July 2020 to access JobKeeper.”
Treasury advice is that as a result of the changes to Jobkeeper, a further 530,000 Victorians are expected to get the wage subsidies in the September quarter.
That means JobKeeper will soon support the jobs of 1.5 million Victorians and in the March quarter, 60 per cent of all workers on the wage subsidy will be from Melbourne.
The Prime Minister confirmed this week that Victoria’s COVID-19 mess will cost the economy $12 billion in reduced GDP. The cost of the JobKeeper changes to the federal budget...

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.
The Border.
4/10.
"We need to do better.
No, we don’t need to open it for all, but we need to do more.
Sir John Key says so, Helen Clark says so, Sir Peter Gluckman in that report some weeks back says so, and Rob Fyfe says so.
Our complacency is economically dangerous and ruinous."
Our Airports.
7/10.
"They're sorting a post Covid border opening by splitting terminals.
Our government isn't moving, why not?"
Jobs.
7/10.
"Because although the headline number is wrong, we still appear to be on the decent side of the trouble.
In other words, it could be a hell of a lot worse."
Jetstar.
7/10.
"They're back to 90 percent of their domestic schedule.
That’s demand, that's people spending money, flying, and that’s welcome."
Car Sales.
8/10.
"A July record.
Yes, some of it's pent up. But what wasn’t reported was the last couple of Julys were records.
So records on records."
The Provincial Growth Fund.
5/10.
"A good idea gone wrong, the Auditor General has flushed it out."
Valedictory Speeches.
6/10.
"Only for the wonks and obsessives to watch in detail, but they were odd this year.
They seem to reflect a time we are in. They were mean spirited, negative, and sort of sad.
Why do something you don’t love?"
Todd Payten.
7/10.
"Admired his honesty on the coaching job.
But it tells you something about the reality of the Warriors this year."
Blake Green.
6/10.
"Thanks for the contribution.
A good hire, a good contribution, but a shabby end."
LISTEN ABOVE FOR MIKE HOSKING'S FULL WEEK IN REVIEW

Māori leaders say they have no faith in Oranga Tamariki and the chief executive needs to go after the latest report into the organisation found it was routinely taking newborns without whānau consultation.
The Chief Ombudsman's report He Take Kōhukihuki, A Matter of Urgency, found that Oranga Tamariki was routinely taking newborns without whānau consultation, using emergency court orders.
It found that in most cases, Oranga Tamariki knew about the child before it was born, which was the best time to engage parents, whānau, and other parties.
Despite this, decisions were often made late, without expert advice or scrutiny and without whānau involvement.
That resulted in other options going only partially explored and, in almost all cases, a without-notice uplift application was made.

Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency Chair Merepeka Raukawa-Tait. Photo RNZ, Supplied
The Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency Chair, Merepeka Raukawa-Tait, told First Up the report confirmed what a lot of Māori leaders have been saying - herself included.
She said many whānau and Māori mothers aren't given the chance to engage with the organisation and the latest report is 'the most damming report of all I have read'.
"They're not respected, they're not trusted and they continue with their practices that are actually harmful for the wellbeing of the child."
Raukawa-Tait said she hears from people all over the country about their experiences with Oranga Tamariki.
"They're still a despised organisation and are not putting the welfare of the children at the centre of their activities and practices.
"This organisation is putting the boot in to Māori mothers. There is no respect or any willingness to even work with Māori mothers and their families - that's what I'm hearing."
She said after all the reports into Oranga Tamariki, little has changed.
"I'm over them. I'm absolutely over Oranga Tamariki, as are so many other Māori leaders... something is rotten in that organisation."
Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier told Checkpoint yesterday he believed Oranga Tamariki Grainne Moss was genuinely committed to change.
Raukawa-Tait disagrees: "From what I'm continuously seeing and hearing, I don't believe that she is.
"The culture of that organisation is toxic. It is not changing, Māori despise it, the children are not getting the best services they should be getting, and that really is what they're there for.
"When you see an organisation using the full might of the state against Māori mothers and their children, then something is wrong."
Moss told Checkpoint she's not going anywhere and she's in it for the long haul. Raukawa-Tait said her being the head of the organisation is harmful.
"This is abuse of state power - to remove newborns without notice. And that is not the exception, that is the rule.
"Our Māori leadership is not going to wear this - absolutely not. There will be more coming down the pipeline where this is concerned."
Raukawa-Tait's message to families who have been adversely affected by Oranga Tamariki was that there are people out there working on their behalf.
"We're going to do everything we can to alleviate the suffering you're going through and that has been inflicted on you by a state organisation.
"Rest assured, we are coming to give you the assistance that we can."

Oranga Tamariki chief executive Grainne Moss said they were committed to continuing to improve the way they worked with whānau, hapū and iwi. Photo / File
The chair of the National Urban Māori Authority, Lady Tureiti Moxon, agreed it was abuse of state power and both Moss and Minister for Children Tracey Martin should resign.
"They're just removing our babies like that's what you do. Unfortunately, it really is an indictment on our country. It's an absolute abuse of power," she told Morning Report.
The report has proposed changes and the...

President Donald Trump said Wednesday he'll probably deliver his Republican convention acceptance speech from the White House now that plans to hold the event in two battleground states have been foiled by coronavirus concerns and restrictions.
Such a move would mark an unprecedented use of public property for partisan political purposes, and congressional leaders in both parties publicly doubted Trump could go ahead with the plan. Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said flatly that he "can't do that.”
The president leaned into the idea during a television interview.
“I think it’s a beautiful setting, and we are thinking about that," he said on Fox News Channel's “Fox & Friends.” "It’s certainly one of the alternatives.”
He said the convention will be a mix of virtual events and live speeches, including his remarks and a speech by first lady Melania Trump. “I’ll probably do mine live from the White House,” he said.
The Republican National Convention is scheduled for Aug. 24-27. Trump is to be formally nominated on Aug. 24 in Charlotte, North Carolina. But the venue for his speech accepting the nomination has been up in the air.
All four days of the convention, including the speech, were planned for Charlotte until Trump feuded with the state's Democratic governor over coronavirus health restrictions. Trump then moved the speech and other elements of the convention to Jacksonville, Florida, a move welcomed by the state's Republican governor. But the president later canceled those plans because of a resurgence of the coronavirus in Florida.
That cancellation limited his options with the clock ticking.
Trump said holding the speech at the White House would be the “easiest from the standpoint of security” and the least expensive option because he — and the many staffers, Secret Service agents and others who typically accompany him — wouldn’t have to travel.
Trump said a final decision hadn't been made, but he seemed to be leaning toward a White House setting for what traditionally is the highlight of a national political convention.
“If for some reason somebody had difficulty with it, I would, I could go someplace else," he said. "The easiest, least expensive and I think very beautiful would be live from the White House.”
Pelosi, D-Calif., said overtly political events aren't held at the Capitol or the White House and accused Trump of trying to divert attention from his handling of the coronavirus.
“He can’t do that. You can’t do that,” she said on MSNBC.
The No. 2 Senate Republican, John Thune of South Dakota, noted that the Hatch Act limits the ability of federal government employees to participate in partisan political activity — though Trump and Vice President Mike Pence are exempt.
“I think anything you do on federal property would seem to be problematic,” Thune told reporters at the Capitol. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, expressed similar concern.
“I would have to have somebody show me where it says he could do that. I would think on government property would be problematic,” Cornyn said at the Capitol.
Trump also said journalists will be allowed to cover his renomination in Charlotte. Reports last week said the proceeding would be closed to media coverage because of coronavirus restrictions.
The Washington Post reported Tuesday that Republican officials were considering using the White House South Lawn to stage Trump's acceptance speech.
Presidents typically seek to hold their nominating conventions in a state seen as crucial to their chances of winning the election, but this year's coronavirus outbreak has forced candidates to change the way they campaign. Democrats are holding their convention in Wisconsin, though the event will be almost entirely virtual.
Democratic candidate Joe Biden will not travel to Milwaukee to accept his party’s nomination. Delegates also are not traveling to the site, and all business, including the...