The Mike Hosking Breakfast

New Zealand's economy could look to benefit from Fonterra’s proposed sale. The proposed sale of Anchor and Mainland brands to French company Lactalis could unlock around 4.5 billion in additional spending. ASB Chief Economist Nick Tuffley says they estimate around 60 percent of shareholding farms could receive at least 200-thousand dollars. He says the likely pay out would happen in the first half of next year, so after then,  the impacts on farm investments or consumer spending would be seen. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ah the lament. Poor, old RNZ's obituary of the climate-related disclosures (CRD) makes you weep. "New Zealand guts climate policy it bragged about to the world". That's their headline. What's misleading about the headline is the Government who “gutted” it isn't the Government who bragged about it. As for the gutting and the world leading - "world leading" in what sense? We were simply the first to the line with a pointless idea. The first country, if you believe it, was the previous Government that made it increasingly hard to get foreign money invested in the country because they had just produced another hurdle. It included all banks, insurers and listed companies - what for? It's very labour to just rope everyone in whether its relevant or not. Why didn’t they make us all write climate reports? We all have a footprint. Airlines? Sure, they have a lot of emissions. Tell us about them in your annual report. Issues for insurance companies? Surely they would have done it anyway, given that’s their business? But Turners, as in cars and Tina, raised relevant issues; 1) It wasn’t similar to Australia, 2) They opened themselves up to prosecution, 3) It cost a fortune to get someone to write all the mumbo jumbo that for many companies wasn’t remotely necessary. Even MBIE wrote a report saying the costs of all this nonsense were prohibitive. But don't worry - as long as we are "world leading"! What Labour never understood, and I doubt they do now, is putting the cost of business up is counter productive. Having our competitors outpace us because we are bogged down is counter productive. Even if we all wrote glorious page after page after page about our footprints and climate intent, what difference did any of it make to the environment? What got changed? Or saved? Or solved? The tragedy was too much of the media got sucked in, and clearly still does, to the “feels”. All you had to say was "look, it's a world first! A climate world first!" And you had them hook, line and sinker. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the Mike Hosking Breakfast Full Show Podcast for Thursday the 23rd of October, deputy Prime Minister David Seymour takes questions on the mega strike today. The European Union Ambassador to New Zealand Lawrence Meredith talks a new business summit to explore more FTA options with the EU. New Air NZ CEO Nikhil Ravishankar gives his first interview as CEO and details how he will handle the top job and turn the airline around. Get the Mike Hosking Breakfast Full Show Podcast every weekday morning on iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the North Island, Red Wind Warnings are in place for Wellington and southern Wairarapa. There are extensive public transport and flight cancellations. Air New Zealand says it's already cancelled almost 100 flights today. CEO Nikhil Ravishankar says told Mike Hosking that it will only operate flights if it's safe to do so. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Auckland's playing host to a landmark business summit between New Zealand and the European Union. Minister of Trade and Investment Todd McClay will meet with senior European Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič and 400 top business and political leaders. It's the first high-level business summit between New Zealand and the EU. EU Ambassador to New Zealand, Lawrence Meredith says there are plenty of meaty issues on the table. He says Agritech is definitely on the agenda, along with infrastructure. Meredith says they'll also discuss investment in areas like clean tech, deep tech and AI, and aerospace and defence. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Government has released a new energy plan.  The 'Wood Energy Strategy and Action Plan' aims to fire up the bioenergy sector. The strategy claims would energy could replace 40% of fossil-fuelled process heat by 2050, displacing 300,000 tonnes of coal at Huntly.  Executive officer of bioenergy association Brian Cox told Mike Hosking that 'what the government did yesterday is a little step in the way, but we've got to do a lot more.'See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Zespri have won a legal battle on the intellectual property front.  They won a legal battle in Chinese courts against two defendants involved in the unauthorised production, sale, and marketing of their 'GOLD3' Kiwifruit. Zespri CEO Jason Te Brake told Mike Hosking that China are getting better at protecting intellectual property rights.  'It really does show that China is starting to move around protecting IP rights, not only for trademarks, but also plant variety rights.' LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The final farewell for former Prime Minister takes place today.  His funeral is being held at his local Catholic parish in Kapiti today at 11am, and thousands are expected to attend. Bolger served as Prime Minister from 1990 to 1997, and passed away last week aged 90.  Sir Don McKinnon served as Deputy Prime Minister to Bolger, and joined Mike Hosking to pay tribute to Bolger and his legacy.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Deputy Prime Minister says health and education unions need to be realistic about their pay demands. Tens of thousands of workers across health and education are walking off the job today today in their fight for better pay and conditions. It could be the largest strike action in the country in a generation, but a number of events are expected to be affected by the weather. David Seymour told Mike Hosking that there isn't a single member of the Cabinet who wouldn't like to pay nurses, doctors and teachers more, if they could. He says there seems to be a disconnect between what some of these unions are demanding, and the reality most New Zealanders are actually facing. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Our default to futility worries me. It's the same sort of thing as the "No Kings" march over the weekend in America. What actually is the point of waving placards, or in the "burn the bill" case, lighting fires on beaches? The bill they want to burn is the Marine and Coastal Area Amendment bill. The amendment part is the bit where it is being returned to what it was a few years back. It got messed with in court, given the courts are increasingly interventionist, and all that is happening is the law is being returned to what it was. And what it was is, have you had ongoing access to the bit of water or coastline since the 1800's? If you haven't, you might not have an argument. It is of course all angsty because it's race-based. David Seymour calls the lighting of fires on the beach "unenlightened" and "anti-intellectual". He is a mixture of right and, I suspect, slightly antagonistic. But here is my question - to what point? To what end? I get that there are those who are exercised and don’t like it, fair enough. But guess what? Lighting a fire at a beach isn't going to change it. The petition, because they had one of those too, had 20,000 signatures. That’s not even a big petition. 76,000 signed one to stop me hosting the election debates on TV in 2017. If 76,000 doesn’t stop a TV host then 20,000 doesn’t stop a law. Trump won the election in America easily. He is doing nothing he said he wouldn’t do. It's as mad and unhinged as his biggest critic feared, but he is doing it because he has the support of enough people to do it. The same way this Government is amending a law because they said they would and they won the election. We must always retain the right to protest, unless its over the Auckland Harbour Bridge. But that’s about geographics, not rights. But protest loses, and has lost, a lot of its impact because it's become a habit. It’s a default. It’s the pastime of the bored and obsessed. It's become a cottage industry. If we put the same energy into productive outcomes then this country could be amazing. So you lit a fire on a beach last night - how did that work out for you? LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.