The Mike Hosking Breakfast

The country can finally head back to the cinemas – and one of the new releases is Love Sarah.
It stars famed British actress Celia Imrie, as a woman who wants to fulfil her mother’s dream of opening a bakery.
Imrie is best known for her roles in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and Bridget Jones franchise. She's also been described as an icon by Variety, and is a Women in Film and Television 'Lifetime Achievement Award' winner,
Imrie joined Mike Hosking to discuss her new movie, how her career has changed with age, and how she has spent her lockdown in Nice.
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When it comes to infrastructure in this country, our problem has always been a shortage of labour.
We've heard in recent years how tens of thousands of workers will be needed, especially now to get through the government's $68 billion worth of work.
So as a solution, the industry has launched "BuildNZ Now" - it's being billed as a one stop shop where all of our construction projects can be displayed so we know what jobs are needed where right across the country.
Hamish Price is the director at HainesAttract and spokesman for BuildNZ Now. He joined Mike Hosking to talk about the country's labour shortage in the building industry.
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Mallorca's first tourists in 93 days touched down Monday, saying they feel safe in the popular Spanish island and ready to make the most of the beach and sunny weather without the hordes of visitors found there in normal times.
As borders opened up across Europe three months after closures that began chaotically in March, Spain prioritized the entry of a first batch of thousands of Germans who were allowed to fly to its Balearic Islands. The country waived its 14-day quarantine to test out with them the best practices in the coronavirus era.
Spaniards themselves are still not allowed to travel to the archipelago and it will take one more week for the rest of country, one of the hardest hit by the pandemic in Europe, to catch up with other countries in the region, where border checks dropped overnight on Monday..
The European Union's 27 nations, as well as those in the Schengen passport-free travel area, which also includes a few non-EU nations such as Switzerland, aren't expected to start opening to Americans, Asians and other visitors from outside the continent until at least the beginning of next month, and possibly later.
Announcing Monday's reopening of borders and Paris restaurants, French President Emmanuel Macron said it's time “to turn the page of the first act of the crisis” and “rediscover our taste for freedom.”
But he warned: “This doesn't mean the virus has disappeared and we can totally let down our guard. ... The summer of 2020 will be a summer unlike any other.”
That caution is widespread after more than 182,000 virus-linked deaths in Europe. The region has had more than 2 million of the world’s 7.9 million confirmed infections, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.
Even so, social distancing was in short supply as London's Oxford Street shops reopened and crowds jammed the entrance to London’s Niketown store despite efforts by employees to have an orderly line. Paris bistros like Café Des Anges welcomed back regular customers.
“It’s very hard to get people who are sitting at the bar to respect social distancing," said cafe manager Virgile Grunberg. “People have missed this, because they come in every morning before work, have a little coffee and a discussion, so of course it’s part of Paris.”
The need to get Europe's tourism industry up and running again is urgent, especially for Mediterranean nations like Spain, Italy and Greece, as the economic fallout of the crisis mushrooms.
In a sign of that anticipation, workers in a Mallorca hotel welcomed with cheers the bus ferrying the first guests from the airport. The visitors had gone through temperature checks on arrival and had to leave their contact information and health status registered with authorities.
“We are totally happy that we can get out,” said Martin Hofman, who traveled on the first flight from Duesseldorf, adding that his holiday couldn’t be postponed “and to stay in Germany was not an option.”
Daniel Borgerding, who squeezed in the last-minute visit before his wife is due to give birth, said the couple was looking forward to having “a quiet and relaxed time, empty beaches, restaurants, bars and a little more space than usual.”
Regional officials have expanded the capacity of the archipelago's health system in case any tourists shows signs of infection. They said the lessons from the trial in the islands will be taken into account for the country's full re-opening.
“We have got the pandemic under control, (but) the reopening of our frontiers is a critical moment,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said over the weekend as he announced he was bringing forward Spain’s opening to European travelers by 10 days to June 21. “The threat is still real. The virus is still out there.”
On Monday, Greece welcomed the first international flights whose passengers didn’t face compulsory COVID-19 tests to Athens and Thessaloniki. Direct international flights to regional...

Australia’s prime minister said Monday that his government is “very sad and concerned” by China's sentencing of an Australian man to death for drug trafficking, and that he had repeatedly raised with China the case of the 56-year-old former actor and motivational speaker.
Karm Gilespie was arrested in 2013 at Baiyun Airport in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou on charges of attempting to board an international flight with more than 7.5 kilograms (16.5 pounds) of methamphetamine in his check-in luggage.
The Guangzhou Intermediate People’s Court announced Saturday that Gilespie had been sentenced to death and ordered the confiscation of all of his personal property.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Foreign Minister Marise Payne and other Australian officials had raised his case with their Chinese counterparts on a number of occasions.
“I and the government are very sad and concerned that an Australian citizen, Mr. Karm Gilespie, has been sentenced to death in China,” Morrison told Parliament.
“We will continue to provide Mr. Gilespie with consular assistance and engage China on his case. Our thoughts are with him, his family and his loved ones,” he added.
The death sentence comes as bilateral relations are under extraordinary strain over Australia’s call for an independent investigation into the coronavirus pandemic, which started in China late last year.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said Monday that the sentence was unrelated to those tensions.
“Applying the death penalty to drug crimes that cause extremely serious harm can help in deterring and preventing drug crimes,” Zhao said.
Australia should “earnestly respect China’s judicial sovereignty. And the above-mentioned case has nothing to do with bilateral relations,” he added.
Trade Minister Simon Birmingham has been trying without success to persuade his Chinese counterpart to accept a phone call over China’s decision to effectively end trade in Australian barley through crippling tariffs last month.
China has also banned beef exports from Australia’s largest abattoirs and warned Chinese against visiting the country because of pandemic-related racism.
Gilespie is among 62 Australians in detention in China, Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said. Most were arrested on drug trafficking and fraud charges, The Australian newspaper reported. The department would not comment on what they were detained for.
The Australian prisoners include Henry Chin, 40, who was sentenced to death in 2005 for attempting to send 270 grams (9.5 ounces) of methamphetamine to Australia a year earlier.
Birmingham called Gilespie's sentence “distressing,” but said it shouldn’t necessarily be linked to disputes between China and Australia.
Paul Monk, former head of China analysis for the Australian Defense Department, suspected there was a link.
“He’s been in jail for seven years and only now has he been put through a Chinese-style trial and condemned to death for drug smuggling, so I think it’s hard not to see it in the present context of diplomatic confrontation,” Monk told Australian Broadcasting Corp.
“It’s spiteful, it’s vicious really,” he added.
Gilespie’s family asked friends not to speculate on his case.
“Our family is very saddened by the situation,” the family said in a statement. “We also request that friends and acquaintances of Karm refrain from speculating on his current circumstances, which we do not believe assists his case.”
Gilespie has 10 days to appeal his sentence.
Gilespie made occasional appearances as a character in the popular Australian television crime drama “Blue Healers” in the 1990s and toured the country performing a one-man stage show he wrote about Australian poet Banjo Paterson before reinventing himself as an entrepreneur and motivational speaker.
Singapore-based business coach Roger J. Hamilton said on social...

Under-funding could be contributing to the country's lag time for modern medicines.
An Independent International report has revealed among the 20 comparable OECD countries, New Zealand has the slowest rate of access to modern medicine.
On average it takes 659 days to fund the medicines, compared to 273 days for the other countries.
Medicines New Zealand chief executive Graeme Jarvis told Mike Hosking the level of investment is only part of the problem.
“There’s an issue around New Zealand's medicine decision making, it’s a very slow process which isn't as transparent as it could be.”
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For many in England, it's been a day of much-needed retail therapy.
Long lines stretched down streets in England on Monday as shops selling items considered as nonessential during the coronavirus pandemic, such as sneakers and toys, welcomed customers for the first time since the U.K. was put into lockdown in late March.
Starved of the retail experience for the best part of three months, the keenest of shoppers rushed to make up for lost time, to pick up a bargain, browse or just have a chat.
Most appeared to abide by the rules of the “new normal” to remain two meters (6-1/2 feet) apart as they awaited their turn to enter the stores, though pushing and shoving was evident in some places, like the NikeTown store on Oxford Street, London's famous shopping district.
For Pamela Crystal, 46, it was a far more relaxing experience at the nearby upscale Selfridges department store.
“You don’t realise how much you miss physical shopping until you actually come into the shop. It’s great," she said. "It’s nice to see people, talk to salespeople. It feels like we’re normal again.”
Monday's reopening of shops only applies to England. Scotland and Wales are taking a more tentative approach to the easing of the coronavirus restrictions. Northern Ireland's stores reopened last week. England also saw zoos, safari parks and drive-in cinemas reopen on Monday.
The new shopping experience is anything but normal, though.
Shops are limiting numbers and are providing hand sanitizers as well as creating one-way traffic systems inside. Plastic screens protect workers from shoppers at payment counters and some shops won't accept cash. At the Apple store on Regent Street in central London, staff checked customers' temperatures and insisted upon face coverings.
Roger Shakles, managing director of Sewcraft, a small haberdashery shop in the central England town of Swindon, said people have to sanitize their hands before entering.
“We’re a very tactile shop, people have to feel and touch to get an idea of what they’re buying," he said.
Not all shops in England are reopening. Many say the social distancing guidelines are just too difficult and are urging the British government to reduce the 2-meter requirement.
Critics have also accused the government of being too hasty given still-high levels of daily coronavirus infections. Though the country’s daily virus-related death rates have fallen to below those seen before the lockdown, there are worries of a second spike. The U.K., as a whole, has recorded 41,736 coronavirus-related deaths, the third highest in the world behind the United States and Brazil.
Customers are being encouraged to “be sensible” as the government seeks to reopen the economy “gradually and carefully.” Figures last week showed that the U.K. economy, which depends heavily on retail, shrank by 20% in April alone.
On Oxford Street, businesses have installed scores of signs to ensure social distancing. Some sidewalks have been widened and extra bike stations were put up to encourage shoppers to travel there without using the city’s Underground subway.
With virtually no tourists in town, London’s entire West End shopping and theater district is expected to see just 10% to 15% of its normal customers this week. International tourists now face a 14-day quarantine upon arrival in Britain.
Linda Pilkington, who owns a high-end perfume boutique off London’s designer and jewellery hub of Bond Street, says the shopping experience will inevitably be dulled because restaurants, theaters and other entertainment facilities remain closed.
“People like the social side of shopping. When you hit Bond Street and all the grand shops, it’s an exciting event,” she said. “All those people coming to London for a show, making a weekend of it, that won’t be there. It’s just not going to be the same.”
Pilkington’s tiny shop, Ormonde Jayne, will only let one customer in at a...

The Wellington Phoenix fear a travel delay to Australia may severely compromise their efforts to complete their best ever A-League season.
Football Federation Australia announced on Monday it had agreed with the 11 clubs and the PFA an extension of the season until August 31 with matches to begin in mid-July, followed by a finals series.
The proposal requires Wellington's players and staff to relocate to New South Wales until the end of August, the first two weeks of which will be spent living and training in quarantine. But the club received a bombshell on Monday when they learned clearance had not been granted for them to enter Australia.
Football Federation Australia had been negotiating with NSW health officials to grant an exemption for the Phoenix to enter, similar to that given to the Warriors to continue their NRL season.
"We had been receiving a number of assurances this was all underway and would be expedited through, a la the Warriors, but this afternoon we've found out it still has not been approved," said Phoenix General Manager David Dome.
"We were under the impression the NSW government understood the urgency behind (our entry) and we were fully expecting it to be (sorted) over the weekend or at the latest, Monday.
"We found out Monday afternoon things haven't progressed and we're looking at late Tuesday before we get any idea of whether we'll be able to get into Australia.
"We're not Sydney FC, we're not coming from just down the road. We have to spend time booking our flights to get there, then do our Covid testing and wait 48 hours for the results of that to come back before we can start training.
"Some clubs have picked up training today, so if you work backwards from those timelines, you're looking at 6-7 days before we can start training. That's one week of a four-week window we've lost due to bureaucracy and road-blocks being put in our way.
"It's extremely disappointing given we will be making a greater sacrifice than any other club," said Dome.
Adding to the frustration is that club bosses are completely in the dark as to the reason for the hold-up.
"We can't get an answer," Dome said.
"We're not being given a reason why this hasn't been processed through. We're coming from a Covid-free country to Australia where we're going to have to put some fairly serious protocols in place to ensure the safety of our players and staff and yet we still can't get in.
"The implications of us not being able to get there in time to do our training are pretty serious for us. We're just disappointed that message isn't getting through."
An FFA spokesperson told the NZ Herald through a statement the process is ongoing.
"We are working through a complex process with Government to grant Wellington Phoenix an exemption and move them to a private training facility. Given we are dealing with public health the matter is neither straightforward nor can it be rushed."
The Phoenix have already spent time in quarantine once this year, travelling to Sydney in mid-March in an attempt to continue the A-League season, before it was called to a Covid-enforced halt.
During that time, defender Tim Payne was charged with drink-driving charge after a late-night joy ride in a golf cart. Payne entered a guilty plea last week and will be sentenced later in the month. Dome says the incident has played no part in negotiations around the Phoenix's return to Australia.
"This is part of the challenges Wellington as a club has always faced," Dome said.
"They've put out a press release (announcing) the season is ready to go, but they haven't considered the implications of not having the Wellington Phoenix being approved to enter Australia.
"We've done the work from our side, we've got work visas in place for all players that need them and we've built our protocols for once we arrive. The disappointing thing is we can't get any traction from the NSW...

A series of 'fast tracked' infrastructure projects are ready to go, but still need resource consents.
The Government's unveiled 11 projects that have been brought forward to create jobs and boost the economy.
Environment Minister David Parker told Mike Hosking it's not as simple as starting tomorrow.
He says there'll likely be some contracting issues for the larger projects, and the legislation lasts for two years but more projects can be added during that time.
The list of projects includes Auckland's Skypath, electrification of rail from Papakura to Pukekohe - and a roading upgrade in South Auckland.
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Do you have a sinking feeling over Todd Muller?
The MAGA hat that was a non-story he refused to make a non-story by keeping on answering dumb questions about it until he stuck it in a box. Thus indicating that if you ask enough dumb questions, he'll turn it into something.
Then the possum in the headlights reaction to the ethnicity question over the new front bench, which was only partly his fault but because he didn’t sound like he owned it. Nikki Kaye, who I also have a sinking feeling about, decided making Paul Goldsmith Maori was a good idea.
And then she doubled down when Paul Goldsmith decided to make "stick to your knitting" a headline grabbing story by suggesting they weren't the best choice of words when in fact there was nothing wrong with them, nor has there ever been.
It all lacked a self confidence. It all looked like you could say anything and they'd wet themselves in fear over what you meant, what you might have meant, or what it could mean. Ah, for the good old days when Sir John Key just laughed most of it off, was light-foot having the time of his life, and treating the idiots with the lack of respect they deserved.
Of course the trouble with trouble is, if you get off on the wrong foot, you're shaken. If you're shaky to start, making a hash of it doesn’t help. So it's hardly a surprise when Muller, who's also been charged with being largely absent of late when it comes to holding the government to account, reappeared on Sunday for a big speech.
David Seymour, it must be said at this point, deserves real plaudits for his role as de-facto opposition leader. He says more, makes more cogent points, holds the government to better account currently, and does it with far less resource than the National Party. Not that a lot of wider New Zealand will have noticed.
It's still early days, and in that is the hope for Muller. Most people won't be switched on and in to the election and it's detail until the end of July, maybe even August.
But anyway poor old Muller turns up in front of an upside down flag in Te Puna and tells everyone how he wanted to join the Labour Party before asking whether he should start again. If it was only that easy. It is the game of confidence, and he clearly doesn't have any.
My great fear is the great fear I have with all non-naturals, and that is when tough times strike too many people get in your ear and spook you further. Authenticity is what gels with people, and the more you are manufactured, the more you trip yourself up.
Muller's shambolic start can be fixed, because by August no one will remember any of this stuff if he's got his act together by then. But the key is, does he have an act to get together? If he doesn’t, if he's a busted flush, no amount of gerrymandered papering over the cracks will fix it. The race is done.
But he has to be more present, he has to get more aggressive, he has to stop being frightened of questions, and short on answers.
At best, as we sit here this morning, it’s a four out of ten start.

There is high expectation and anticipation ahead of the Government's review of the health system this morning.
The review, by Helen Clark's former chief of staff Heather Simpson, is expected to come down hard on District Health Boards.
Otago University Business School Dean Robin Gauld told Mike Hosking he is expecting a raft of changes.
He suspects better collaboration and coordination within DHBs.
"DHBs should be taken out completely and be replaced with a chain of managers working collaboratively across the health system."
Gauld says regardless of what the changes are, it's likely they'll take a long time come into effect,  unless legislation is passed swiftly.
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