The Mike Hosking Breakfast

An expert who's studied dolphins for 35 years is critical of the Government's new plan to save endangered Maui and Hector's dolphins.
Otago University dolphin researcher Elisabeth Slooten believes tighter trawling and set net fishing restrictions announced yesterday won't help them.
Professor Slooten told Mike Hosking the Government is trying to save fishing jobs and the dolphins.
"I think they are trying to balance money and jobs, which is a lose-lose game for the dolphins."
She warns small populations will be lost on the east coast of North Island and the Otago coastline.
Slooten says the focus on saving large populations to reduce the total number being killed is too narrow.
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News that New Zealand First put the brakes on the Government's plans to start work on Auckland's Light Rail is just the latest in a string of planned policies kiboshed by Winston Peters' party.
From a Capital Gains tax to rent relief for landlords, failure to get New Zealand First onside at Cabinet has resulted in some significant policies being blocked, modified or killed altogether.
Although she admits it is frustrating at times, Prime Minister Jacinda said this is just a reality of modern-day New Zealand governments.
Political commentator Neale Jones says NZ First is polling around 3 percent, so it's life or death for them.
"They can't go into the election saying they are just like Labour, the people NZ First have to win are generally more conservative. "
Political commentator Ben Thomas says the handbrake appeal is the last option for NZ First.
"Winston Peters is taking an aggressive stance this time ahead of the election."
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Health Minister David Clark has effectively thrown Ashley Bloomfield under the bus while the crestfallen health chief stood next to him - and it was all caught on camera.
Speaking about quarantine bungles at a media stand-up yesterday, Clark said: "The director-general has accepted that the protocol wasn't being followed. He has accepted responsibility for that and has set about putting it right."
In the background, Dr Bloomfield looks down briefly, appearing dejected at the comment - a moment captured by a MediaWorks camera operator and described as 'brutal' by MediaWorks political editor Tova O'Brien.

#Brutal pic.twitter.com/FjbEYxGJv8
— Tova O'Brien (@TovaOBrien) June 24, 2020
The clip - which follows controversy over New Zealand's lax quarantine rules - has gone viral on social media.
Many people have been quick to defend Dr Bloomfield while also heavily criticising Clark, who broke lockdown rules on two occasions himself, and was demoted in the Cabinet by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
"Bloomfield was fronting every day doing what the Health Minister should be doing. Meanwhile, Clark was swanning around mountain biking," one Twitter user wrote.
"He didn't even follow lockdown himself," another said.
A week into the country's full-scale alert level 4 lockdown in April, a photo of Clark's van - complete with his face plastered on the side of it - was spotted at a Dunedin mountain bike park.
He admitted going for a bike ride and later revealed he had also taken a 20km trip to the beach, also during lockdown.
'Bloomfield has more class than that'
Reacting to the footage, other members of the public labelled Clark's move and failure to take any responsibility for the botch-ups as "spineless and cruel" and called for his resignation - again.
"Dr Bloomfield, the professional that he is, has been front and centre for months speaking for whole response while Clark has been (missing in action). Clark should be fired."
"Ashley Bloomfield fronted up nearly every day of the lockdown - probably didn't even rest on his rare days off," another tweeted.
"He kept us informed, didn't dramatise, just gave us the facts. He could have made mince meat of David Clark over mountain bike-gate, but the man has more class than that."
As of yesterday, New Zealand has 11 active Covid-19 cases all connected to recently arrived overseas passengers.
None of those people are in hospital and all are being quarantined.

Perhaps the most outlandish statement made these past three years came from Julie Anne Genter who stated that we were aiming for a zero road toll.
Nothing encapsulated the deluded theoretical view of the world more than a fanciful number that was never going to be achieved.
Of all the things this lot have promised, 100,000 KiwiBuild houses, light rail, rent relief, three billion on the PGF, a feebate on EVs, a zero road toll was in a league of its own. Now we discover we aren't getting a zero road toll. The stuff they are supposed to be doing to make our roads safer is not being rolled out at anywhere near the rate they promised.
They promised $1.4 billion two years ago to save 160 deaths.
Where are they at? So far only $470 million down the track, a billion yet to be spent.
They promised 198 kilometres of median barriers. As of July last year they'd done 16 kilometres. As of now, 18 kilometres. So two kilometres in a year.
Side barriers? 150 kilometres out of 320. Lower speed limits? Only 35 kilometres of roads have new speed limits. They're a little better on the rumble strips. 3000 kilometres out of the 3500 promised.
So all in all, like so much of what they talk about, delivery once again is the issue. Promise big, get a headline, but then fail to deliver and hope no one notices.
It's debatable as to how much of this stuff, even if it was installed, would help save lives. But Genter's defence of this lack of action is consultation. She says there has been a lot of consultation. The irony being she's the one who wanted the consultation.
No one gum flaps like this government. Years for the Health Review to come back, we're still waiting for the sexual abuse review. No one sets up more committees, orders more reviews, and gabs more than this lot.
But surely it's a new low to  blame your own approach for a non delivery of your own policy. Genter's having a tough time. Her feebate EV plan got bowled the other day, and now this.
As we approach the vote, ask just what has been delivered, what was promised three years ago, and what do we have delivered?
This lot are going to be scrambling for answers, and few more so than Julie Anne Genter.

Up to 1300 people were able to walk out of managed isolation facilities without being tested since a negative test result was meant to be mandatory.
But director general of health Ashley Bloomfield said a very low risk was posed by the 2159 people who had left those facilities between June 9, when the policy was meant to be in place, and June 16, when it was actually put in place.
That was because almost all of them had spent 14 days in isolation before leaving, which is the global standard to minimise the risk of anyone spreading Covid-19 into the community.
Bloomfield announced one new case yesterday, but confirmed an unofficial case when asked directly about whether there was a case at a managed isolation facility in Rotorua.
He said he was aware of the Rotorua case but it had not been included in the daily update because the test result had not been confirmed before the 9am cut-off time.
Those cases were contained and there was no evidence of domestic transmission of Covid-19, but Bloomfield said he couldn't categorically rule it out.
There were 54 people who were higher risk because they were allowed to leave managed isolation before they completed 14 days for compassionate reasons.
Of those, 39 have tested negative, 11 won't be tested because of health reasons or because they are children, and three are still awaiting test results.
One hasn't returned calls since being tested, but Bloomfield said the person had not tested positive.
That person has still been referred to enforcement services, as had five people who had yet to be contacted and who may have been in contact with two Covid-infected sisters while they were staying at the Novotel Ellerslie.
Bloomfield said the police could be called in, if necessary, and anyone could be required to be tested if there were grounds to believe they had Covid-19.
One of the new cases is a woman in her 60s who flew into the country on June 18 on a repatriation flight from India.
The case in Rotorua caused the city's Ibis Hotel to be put into lockdown.
Since June 16, when the two sisters returned positive tests after being allowed to drive from Auckland to Wellington, there have been more than 45,000 tests across the country.
Heightened anxiety over the case of the sisters had seen a surge in demand. A record 9174 tests were conducted on Tuesday.
Public buses in Auckland had to be diverted because of huge queues of traffic around testing stations on Tuesday, and one man said it took more than a day to find somewhere that could test him.
There are 37 community assessment centres compared to 62 on April 4 during lockdown, but Bloomfield said more can be reopened if necessary.
The number of designated practices, swabbing centres and mobile stations has increased from 47 to 80.
Yesterday morning Auckland University medical professor Des Gorman said the people released without first being tested may have released Covid-19 into the community.
"While we don't want to over-egg the souffle, we have to make the assumption these people have reseeded the infection in the community," he told Newstalk ZB.

National MP Michael Woodhouse is standing by his claim that a homeless man enjoyed 14 days at the Crowne Plaza on the taxpayer. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Of the 2159 people, Bloomfield said the proper protocols were applied to at least 800 of them because they tested negative before leaving managed isolation.
That leaves 1359 who may have been wrongly allowed to leave without a test, and that has happened with at least 449 people: 210 have since tested negative and 239 are awaiting results.
There are 791 still being contacted, and 119 will not be tested for various reasons, including refusing a test.
People can't be forced to be tested once outside managed isolation unless there was good reason to think they were Covid-infected. Bloomfield said he had no reason so far to...

Farmers say land conversions for carbon offsets are seeing the rich getting richer, while doing nothing for climate change.
The Government's looking into restricting the amount of land that can be turned from farms to forestry.
But some farmers argue it's too late: prime land is already being planted, and rich polluters are getting richer by offsetting with exotic trees that will probably never be harvested. 
Sheep and beef farmer William Beetham, Federated Farmers provincial president for Wairarapa and Wellington, says a lot of conversion is happening there.
He told Mike Hosking that they have seen quite a few purchases by large consortiums and forestry companies, and he doubts that many are focused on harvestry.
"We certainly know that with one particular foreign investor, the investment was not focused on forestry, it was focused on carbon."
He says that they cannot blame farmers as the market has been created by policy, and farmers have to do what's best for them in this environment. 
Beetham does not believe that this policy will contribute anything to tackling climate change.

Victoria has recorded a double-digit increase in another blow to the state as panic over its virus spike returns, with 17 new cases of COVID-19.
The surge in numbers has resulted in the closing of two primary schools and a childcare centre in Melbourne.
State Premier Daniel Andrews said there was “significant community transmission” among the new cases.
Andrews said one of the new cases was from a person in hotel quarantine, two were from known outbreaks, three were from routine testing and 11 were under investigation.
“What we can be certain of is that there will be some significant community transmission within those numbers,” Mr Andrews said.
“We simply can’t pretend that the virus is gone, that the virus is somehow not in our state. It’s here, it travels so fast, it is so infectious.”
Two schools have been closed for thorough cleaning after students from both schools tested positive for the coronavirus. Keilor Views Primary School and Brunswick East Primary School will be closed for three days.
Villa Bambini Early Learning Centre, in Essendon, has been named as the childcare centre closed due to the outbreak.
“They’ll be the subject of deep clean and the contact tracing that our 1,000 strong coronavirus detective squad is engaged in,” Andrews said.
The suburbs where the schools are located are two of six local government hot spots in recent weeks.
Its six current COVID-19 hot spots are the local government areas of `Hume, Casey, Brimbank, Moreland, Cardinia and Darebin.
Residents of those hot spots should not be moving around the community, the premier said on Tuesday.
Victorians are rushing out in droves to get tested for COVID-19 as the number of cases across the state continues to rise.
The sudden increase in demand has caused some testing facilities to be overwhelmed, leaving people waiting up to four hours for a test in some areas.
Andrews apologised for testing delays but said he was “proud” of the people coming forward to be tested.
“I apologise for any delays. In the circumstance it will be inevitable, there will be some waiting,” he said.
“I’m always pleased to see large numbers of people coming forward and getting tested. It makes you proud seriously, the notion that people would give their time like that.”
Andrews said large family gatherings had been the catalyst for the virus taking off again in some areas after lockdown rules were eased.
“We have seen many families, large families, that have gathered in numbers beyond the rules,” he said.
“I know and understand that all Victorians want this to be over but we simply can’t pretend the virus is gone.”
In Canberra, Health Minister Greg Hunt says Australia’s borders will remain closed for “a very significant” amount of time. Hunt says coronavirus infection rates were accelerating around the world.
“For the time being we are an island sanctuary,” he told ABC radio.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian bluntly warned families and business travellers planning trips to Melbourne “don’t go there” as cases spike.
In an extraordinary warning, she also urged holiday resorts to reject school holiday bookings from families from hot spot Victorian suburbs, describing the option as “basic pandemic management”.
“You should not be travelling to Melbourne at this time because of the rate of community transmission,’’ she said.
“I call on all organisations not to interact with citizens from Melbourne at this stage,” Ms Berejiklian told reporters.
“Have activity elsewhere and I note a number of organisations have already taken on that advice.
“And as for resorts and other locations in NSW, they are at liberty to accept or reject any traveller.”
NSW recorded just one COVID-19 case – in a returned traveller in hotel quarantine – in the 24 hours to 8pm on Monday from more than 8000 tests. Some 3150 COVID-19 cases have been reported in NSW to date,...

Dogs of Auckland can ride for free.
After a trial of pet travel on the city's trains, the practice has now been declared permanent.
Auckland Transport has carried out two trials and surveyed train travellers, with only 12 per cent opposing it.
Auckland Councillor Cathy Casey told Mike Hosking it's exciting.
"There’s 117,000 registered dogs in Auckland. That’s a big travelling public.
"What that means is that now you can take your dog to a far flung park on the train."
Dogs must wear an approved muzzle and lead or a pet carrier, and can only travel at off peak times.
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Australian are taking steps to high cost University courses.
They're lifting the cost of Humanities courses to allow for for cheaper degrees in the Sciences.
The cost of an arts degree and communications courses is set to double to $14,500 a year as the Morrison Government tries to dissuade students from studying courses without a clear job pathway.
Law degrees and economics will also face fee hikes of nearly 30 per cent rising to $14,500.
Universities New Zealand CEO Chris Whelan told Mike Hosking Australia has a demand driven university system.
"New Zealand doesn’t have a system like that, which has led to massive cost increases over there. This is one of their tactics to reign it in.”
Whelan says they've been trying to reduce costs for the past decade.
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There is confidence a significant trade deal across 16 Asia-Pacific nations will be signed by the end of the year.
New Zealand's been at the negotiating table for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership - alongside China, Japan, Australia and Asean countries.
Associate Trade Minister Damien O'Connor told Mike Hosking the deal would complement existing deals the countries have with one another.
“Sometimes the goods are raw materials from one country, then manufactured in others and then move into another country. Having fair rules allows economic growth for us all.’
He says it won't overnight deliver billions in benefits, but it's essential to get into a deal with pretty much half the world's population.
India was absent from the latest negotiations - but O'Connor and other world leaders are pushing for them to return.
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