The Mike Hosking Breakfast

Isn’t it interesting that organised crime, gangland, is being lined up by a swathe of political parties for special attention this election?
National set the stage in its discussion document late last year, with the big splash on Strikeforce Raptor. Whether that policy idea has survived the leadership change remains to be seen, but National is sure to go after the gangs.
Ditto for New Zealand First. Shane Jones particularly only too well knows what a venomous, life-destroying cancer on Northland communities the gangs and their drug trade is.
But the surprise package is ACT. David Seymour and Nicole McKee have unveiled a targeted policy that seeks to smash the gangs by seizing all of their assets.
There’s no question that ACT is gunning for New Zealand First’s vote, particularly on the back of the fury over illegal firearms, the buyback and the ongoing reforms affecting licensed owners.
And they have tapped into that vein of discontent by taking aim at gangs.
Under the ACT Party’s new policy, the Criminal Proceeds Recovery Act would be dramatically changed to make life decidedly easier for the police. If the police find illegal firearms at an unlawful gang-run operation, that would be sufficient to seize all of the assets, under court order.
Currently, the Recovery Act requires a vast range of tests to be met including proving a link between illicit money and the purchasing of assets. But the biggest hurdle the police must cross is proving that the drugs for supply, for example, carry a value of more than thirty thousand dollars.
Gangs aren’t dumb and this prompted many organised criminals to decentralise their operations into a vast array of subsidiary satellites, to try and keep the street value of their product per site, below the threshold, to avert seizure proceedings against their loot and gold-rimmed motorbikes.
It may strike some libertarians as a little too invasive, but this is smart, surgical policy by ACT. And it’s another reason why this niche party is enjoying real and sustained voter traction.

There's uncertainty and unease amongst the people of Hong Kong.
Tensions are rising following China's decision to pass a controversial national security law, allowing it to punish political uprising more easily.
Hong Kong correspondent Jennifer Creery told Mike Yardly one pro-democracy figure has already fled.
She says others are making contingency plans.
"Many of the popular countries of choice are Taiwan, UK, Canada and Australia, so at the moment there is uncertainty but it is very much still early days." 
Creery says those born before the 1997 British handover to China, hold a British National Overseas passport.
She says the UK is offering them the opportunity to work and study in the UK for five years - with a path to citizenship.
"I am sure the UK Government is also sceptical over whether or not 2 million people are just going to uproot their lives and move to the UK, but certainly there is this avenue available for the time being."

Police say the failure of a major law change around drugs is due to lack of available services.
Under the Misuse of Drugs Amendment Bill, police officers can use their discretion to issue drug users with a health referral, rather than a prosecution.
Roughly 2800 people have been brought to court for drug use/possession between mid-August 2019, when the law came into effect, and the end of March this year, according to police data released under the Official Information Act.
There is little difference in monthly prosecutions for drug use/possession before and after the law change, except for a small spike in prosecutions in April, May and June 2019, which is mainly due to charges for cannabis use.
Police Association president Chris Cahill told Mike Yardley the idea is good in theory, but there are holes in the system.
"The reality is that being able to reach people just isn't in the case, because this doesn't exist. 
"Professional help for addiction was never going to work until we had those services available." 
He says the numbers don't show the full picture.
"If they bring them back to the police station, the sergeant then decides that, if it's only possession or use of drugs by itself, they get a pre-charge warning."
Cahill says the drug charges represented in the recent figures are usually part of larger offences, not first offences or possession.

The south Sydney pub at the centre of a growing coronavirus cluster reportedly failed to take the names and contact details of some patrons, as more infections were linked to the venue on Sunday.
At least nine of the state’s new virus cases have been linked to the Crossroads Hotel in Casula, with Australia’s deputy chief medical officer Nick Coatsworth telling reporters Sunday afternoon it was “critically important” that anybody who visited the pub isolates for 14 days and seeks a test.
“We are at a critical point in the fight to contain the virus,” NSW Health director of health protection Jeremy McAnulty said.
“It’s essential that the community works together to limit the spread of the virus by always maintaining good hand hygiene, adhering to physical distancing rules whenever possible and getting tested whenever symptoms develop, however mild.”
Hundreds of NSW residents are now waiting to receive their test results, with a pop-up testing site set up outside the venue seeking to determine how many other patrons might be infected.
But Lauren, a customer who attended the hotel on Wednesday night, said neither her name or any other contact details were recorded when she visited the pub – leaving her disappointed that more precautions weren’t taken.
News.com.au has approached the Crossroads Hotel for comment.
The 26-year-old told news.com.au that the venue had been “relatively busy, as it would’ve been on any given night pre-COVID” but with less of a crowd.
And while the pub did have some social distancing measures in place – tables marked with signs telling people not to sit at them – she said it was mainly up to the patrons to ensure they were physically distanced from each other, and that her name, phone number or other contact details weren’t taken at the door like other businesses had implemented since reopening.
“At the time I didn’t think about it too much, to be honest,” Lauren said.
“Reflecting on it now, it angers me. During the media conference they mentioned having a list of patrons … is this only the people who booked tables? Where was this list located?
“If they only had one list, why didn’t they lock off the rest of the entrances and have everyone walk through the same entry to sign it?”
On Friday, when news of the first infections linked to the pub broke, she was at work and contacted the coronavirus hotline once she arrived home.
She was told she didn’t need to be tested or self-isolate “as they were only cautioning people who had been there on the Saturday”.
After patrons who attended the venue any time between July 3 and July 10, though, were asked by NSW Health Sunday morning to isolate or present for testing, Lauren went to Liverpool Hospital to get checked.
“I went to get tested this morning when the press conference finished,” she said.
“I knew I had been there (at the hotel) in the window and went to Liverpool hospital to get tested.
“They asked me if I had been at Crossroads Hotel as soon as I got there. They also had a sign in the door, stating anyone who had been at the hotel between the 3rd and 10th of July must isolate regardless of test results.”
The trip to the pub was Lauren’s first outing in five months – but she said she felt “stupid” for going out to eat.
“I do feel disappointed, but mostly in myself,” she said.
“I’ve been working hard to stay isolated since the beginning of this pandemic for my own health as well as my family’s and colleagues’.
“I know I didn’t break any rules, but you can’t help but feel guilty about it, because essentially it was my decision to go out.”
She said after her two weeks of self-isolation, she won’t be dining out or leaving her house unless it’s for work “until there is a vaccine”.
“Realistically this could happen anywhere. All it takes is for one person to not know they have it and it can just take off from there,” she said.
“I just think...

Florida shattered the national record Sunday for the largest single-day increase in positive coronavirus cases in any state since the beginning of the pandemic, adding more than 15,000 cases as its daily average death toll continued to also rise.
According to state Department of Health statistics, 15,299 people tested positive, for a total of 269,811 cases, and 45 deaths were recorded.
California had the previous record of daily positive cases — 11,694, set on Wednesday. New York had 11,571 on April 15.
The numbers come at the end of a grim, record-breaking week as Florida reported 514 fatalities — an average of 73 per day. Three weeks ago, the state was averaging 30 deaths per day. Since the pandemic began in March, 4,346 people have died in Florida of COVID-19, the state says.
Testing has doubled over the last month, going from about 25,000 tests per day to almost 50,000, but the percentage of people testing positive has risen even more dramatically. A month ago, fewer than 5% of tests came up positive on a daily average. Over the past week, the daily average exceeded 19%.
About 10.7% of Saturday's 143,000 tests came up positive, with an average age of 38. "I still think we need to increase our testing a little bit more," said University of Florida epidemiologist Dr. Cindy Prins, adding that the state and local health departments should ramp up their contact tracing.
Prins said that she's still concerned about large crowds, gyms and some restaurants as being places of mass transmission. Reports of illegal clubs and raves in South Florida is also a worry, she said.
"I really do think we could control this, and it's the human element that is so critical. It should be an effort of our country. We should be pulling together when we're in a crisis, and we're definitely not doing it," she said. "I know people want to live their lives. There have been a lot of other times, people have made those sacrifices in order to benefit our society. It's almost like a war effort. That's what we need right now."
Terry Shaw, AdventHealth's president and CEO, said Sunday on CBS' Face the Nation that the peak of COVID-19 hospitalizations in Florida will be "sometime in front of us in July."
While on the program, he said that the health system, which has hospitals in nine states including 30 in Florida, has adequate PPE, a stockpile of ventilators and a clinical team that's learned how to better treat the disease.
"I give you an example. Our length of stay in our ICU for COVID patients has dropped in half. The number of people coming in to our hospital with COVID that need a ventilator, we've also been able to cut that in half. And because of those things, our death rate has also been cut in half" since the beginning of the pandemic," he said
The health system's ICU capacities in Florida are currently running at about 85% to 90%. He said the system could turn some "progressive care units" into ICU units if needed.
Hospitals in several counties have stopped doing elective surgeries. HCA West Florida have ceased inpatient elective procedures at hospitals in Hillsborough, Pinellas and six other nearby counties, said an HCA spokeswoman on Sunday. Florida ceased elective surgeries statewide from March until early May in order to free up beds, and to reserve personal protective equipment for health care workers caring for COVID-19 patients.
Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach are the top three counties for hospitalizations, with 3,232 people hospitalized — 42 percent of the 7,542 people in hospitals statewide for coronavirus.
Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez told CNN on Sunday that his county's hospitals will soon reach capacity, but he said more beds can be added, including for intensive care.
"We still have capacity, but it does cause me a lot of concern," he said.
Throughout May and into June, the state reopened much of its economy with some restrictions — and...

The Health Minister says a new isolation facility for Australian deportees will be secure but it won't be a prison.
A new single dedicated isolation facility is being established this week.
The Government's been forced to set it up at an undisclosed location, after Australia advised it would resume its controversial deportation programme.
Chris Hipkins told Mike Yardley there'll be extra security and support arrangements in place, to make the facility as safe as possible.
"Ultimately, these people have done their time. They've been deported by Australia but there is actually no grounds to detain them. We couldn't put them in prison, for example, that wouldn't be justified." 
He says New Zealand can't stop the deportees coming here, so it's trying to make the process as safe as possible.
"We're doing this because we have to, not because we want to. This is Australia exporting their problems to New Zealand, and we've long disagreed with this policy of deportation."
Hipkins is also rejecting calls for tougher prison-style rules for returning New Zealanders at quarantine facilities.
Four people have allegedly escaped managed isolation facilities in the past week.
The Minister says anyone who breaks out of isolation will face the consequences, including criminal charges and potential prison time.
But he told Mike Yardley the Government doesn't want to treat law-abiding Kiwis as criminals, and make the quarantine process more stressful than it needs to be for returning families.
"We do have to treat people who are coming back into the country with a little bit of humanity.
"They are a people who have not done anything wrong, have not broken any laws, and are just New Zealanders trying to come home."
He says the quarantine facilities are just ordinary hotels full of ordinary New Zealanders -- not prisons full of criminals.
"These are mums and dads with their kids, these are backpackers, grandparents who have been on their overseas holiday. These are law abiding people who are doing the right thing."
He says Cabinet will have more to say on the issue of quarantine fees in the next two weeks.

How many times have we heard of entertainers, sportsmen or aspiring stars with bright futures appearing in court for their thuggish crimes, only to be discharged without conviction.
How many times have we heard the tired old sob stories from their legal counsel, about how a conviction for an assault, no matter how brutal or depraved , would cause irreparable damage to their clients career prospects and their ability to travel overseas? That a conviction against their name would inflict lasting damage on their potential to pursue their chosen profession and full earning potential. It’s a cynical old canard which is wheeled out on cue.
And many members of our judiciary will dutifully oblige, issuing a discharge without conviction – even when the gravity of the assault is at the higher-end of offending.
It completely undercuts society’s expectation that the courts will hold violent offenders to account and uphold our revulsion of domestic violence.
Enter Robin Ihaka Ainsley. A twenty one year old who pleaded guilty in the Dunedin District Court to assault, after a vile, terrifying and sustained physical attack on his former girlfriend. What’s worse, he hounded her demanding she seem him, before unleashing this attack. I’ll spare you the raw details of his onslaught. But check out the Herald if you want the blow by blow.
Ainsley is a national sporting representative, in rugby and wrestling. He’s got huge international prospects, he’s a much-lauded student-athlete. But his lawyer’s bid for a discharge without conviction, given the quote “dire” ramifications was skittled. Judge Michael Crosbie wasn’t buying it, despite accepting a conviction will impact on his life. Hopefully for the better. And he sentenced Ainsley to nine months supervision. Ainsley should count himself lucky he wasn’t jailed.
But consequences do matter. And don’t get me started on this trumped up nonsense about not being able to travel to the likes of the US if you’ve got a conviction. Kiwis routinely get granted exemptions to that hurdle, if you’ve kept yourself out of trouble. That’s the task before Ronin Ainsley, now. Turn a new leaf. And I wish him well. Bravo, Judge Crosbie.

Helen Clark has taken on what she's calling  "mission impossible".
The former prime minister has agreed to lead a major international review into the coronavirus pandemic.
The World Health Organisation has appointed her to co-chair an independent panel, reviewing how the UN agency and governments around the world responded to the virus.
It will consider how the coronavirus pandemic happened,  and how such a thing can be prevented in the future.
Mike Yardley is joined by Tim Wilson and Kerre McIvor to discuss this, along with the other issues making news this week.
LISTEN ABOVE

5G is currently rolling out across the country, despite the best efforts of protestors who are blaming it for ills from cancer to coronavirus.Karime Kuri is an expert in the introduction of emerging technologies around the world.
She's about to appear virtually at the festival for the future, a New Zealand event where entrepreneurs and leaders from around the world share ideas for the future.
Karime joins Mike Yardley to discuss the latest developments in the virtual world.
LISTEN ABOVE

A solid jump in retail spending and higher-than-forecast sales tax revenue point to consumers being in good heart.
Seasonally adjusted retail card spending jumped 16.3 per cent in June compared to May when it spiked 78.9 per cent from the lockdown month of April, Stats NZ figures show. Core retail spending – which strips out expenditure on fuel and vehicles - was up 15.3 per cent from May when it was climbed 72.6 per cent.
Actual retail spending hit $5.7 billion in June, up 8 per cent from a year earlier, and the highest level since January.
The lift was led by spending on durable goods - furniture, hardware, appliances, and recreational goods – which rose $310 million or 24 per cent from a year earlier. And at $1.6b, it was the highest it has been since December last year.
"Businesses that sold furniture, supplies for DIY home projects, and snow gear, among other goods, experienced a decent boost this June," Stats NZ retail statistics manager Kathy Hicks said in a statement.
Supermarkets, specialised foods, and liquor stores – consumables - had the second-largest increase, up $205m, or 11 per cent, at $2.15b from June 2019.
Only two of six industries experienced a drop.
Fuel spending was down 15 per cent from the year-earlier month at $466m while hospitality spending dropped 7.3 per cent to $934m.
"The drop in fuel spending would have been affected by cheaper pump prices and flexible working arrangements – many businesses only started returning to the office after the move to alert level 1 on June 8," Hicks said.
"While the hospitality industry is being propped up by domestic travel and tourism, it is still constrained without international tourism to boost the spending."
Meanwhile, government accounts published today showed that the tax take was $79b in the 11 months to May 31, $1.5b, or 1.9 per cent, above the Budget forecast in May.
"This is mainly due to higher than forecast GST revenue, which was not as adversely affected by lower economic activity as assumed in the GST forecast, Treasury said.
The data is "indicating consumers are out spending again – a positive sign for the economy post lockdown," said Finance Minister Grant Robertson.
Westpac NZ economist Satish Ranchhod said some of the recent strength in retail spending was probably pent-up demand after the lockdown that won't be sustained, and that the end of the government's wage subsidy will likely slow spending down as well.
"Even so, the recent strength in household spending is an encouraging sign. It points to underlying strength in household spending appetites despite some powerful headwinds, including a rise in unemployment," Ranchhod said.