The Mike Hosking Breakfast

This time around the Brooke van Velden-led employment law changes have been described as a shake-up, even a major shake-up.  But as someone who well remembers the Employment Contracts Act and Bill Birch, what is being offered is merely a righting of a badly out of whack employment market.  The usual whining from unions has ensued. In a nutshell, there is a limit on personal grievance procedures. It defines what a contractor is, as opposed to an employee, and the 30-day trial rule is gone.  If you earn a lot i.e. over $200,000 you can't go to an employer for wrongful dismissal.  I have experience in this area. I was effectively sacked by TVNZ about 25 years ago and I was on over $200,000. Under this new law I couldn’t have gone after them.  But guess what? I didn’t go after them anyway. Why? Because who wants to work for people that treat you that way?  And in that is a lot of what the workplace is about.  There are bad employers and good employers and a lot of employers in between. Rules are based on worse-case scenarios.  It has never been a better time to be a worker in this country. Yes, jobs are tight as of late. But if you're good and determined you can get work, because good people are hideously hard to find, and you can succeed quickly.  Most people, and I cite 45 years in the workplace here, at the very least mean well. Many are actually quite good.  Work should be about enjoyment and learning and development of skills and the climbing of ladders. If you are bogged down in worse-case scenarios, you go nowhere.  Equally as an employer, how do you grow your business when you are ankle tapped by a mindset that infers you are bad news, so all sorts of guard rails need to be enacted in law?  Bill Birch's law was not the end of the world. Brooke van Velden's won't be either.  The workplace recipe should not be complex; if you work hard, you do well.  If you're slack and entitled, you need to be sacked. If you're young and inexperienced you don’t get to be the boss in your second week. Not all your personal problems are your employers' problems, and not all employers are out to get you.  By and large unions are trouble, negative, and potentially ruinous and I have yet to see one that has the country's best interests at heart.  We're all in this together. Too much employment law pits us against each other, and no one wins.  Brooke van Velden's laws are fine. No one is going to die. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Another country star on the rise.   Jason Aldean is performing at Spark Arena tonight, and he’s bringing with him Corey Kent – the latest Red Dirt star, according to Rolling Stone.   Despite having been performing since he was a kid, it was a bumpy road to reach this point, complete with a happenstance performance with Willie Nelson, a change in jobs, and a lot of dedication.   Kent’s since gone triple platinum, released four albums, and had over a billion streams.  He joined Mike Hosking for a chat about his career to date, and regaled him with stories of country legends Willie Nelson and Paul Simon.   LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the Mike Hosking Breakfast Full Show Podcast for Thursday 19th of February, we cover the OCR, yet another report reinforcing our inability to protect our most vulnerable children, and the rising use of hard drugs.   Reserve Bank Governor Anna Breman explains her OCR call and whether she or the economists got it right.    Country music star Corey Kent is in the country with Jason Aldean, and popped in to regale us with stories of Willie Nelson and Paul Simon.  Get the Mike Hosking Breakfast Full Show Podcast every weekday morning on iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Reserve Bank's kept the OCR unchanged at 2.25% and isn't forecasting any change until the end of the year.  Governor Anna Breman says inflation should be back within target this quarter.  She says the economy fundamentals are consistent with inflation falling to, and remaining at, 2% over the medium term.  Infometrics Principal Economist Brad Olsen told Mike Hosking the Governor is playing with a pretty straight bat.  He says it’s a tricky balance, as the economy doesn’t quite feel like it has recovery momentum, and they don’t want to cut that off at the knees by spooking anyone, but they do have to be focused on inflation.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Independent Children's Monitor says it's clear our child protection system is under immense stress.  Its review shows carers killed 24 children between December 2021 and June 2025.  It finds no improvement, despite recommendations in a review of the murder of five-year-old Malachi Subecz in 2021.  Children's Monitor CEO Arran Jones told Mike Hosking that while there are deep-seated issues that go beyond what the agencies can respond to, there are certainly things that can be improved.   He says the lack of progress up to this point is an issue of prioritisation, and it’s about making sure the problem is front of mine not only for Oranga Tamariki, but for all the agencies that have a role to play.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

New workplace testing results reveal cocaine detections have sharply risen across the country.  The Drug Detection Agency's results for the three months to December show cocaine was present in 3.7% of positive tests – more than double the amount from last quarter.  Bay of Plenty, Auckland West, and Waikato were identified as the regions with the sharpest rises.  Chief Executive Glenn Dobson told Mike Hosking that New Zealand already has a strong use base of methamphetamine, and now they’re starting to see a real increase in cocaine usage, which is a real concern for them.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Signs the job market is on the up.   New Seek data shows job ads have grown by 1.5% since October and are now 11.7% higher year on year.   Gisborne's led monthly growth with an almost 4% increase, while Marlborough's the only region with a record annual decline in ads, at -6%.   However Seek Country Manager Rob Clark says the fact growth stretches across regions and industries is a marked improvement on this year.  He told Mike Hosking they’re hopeful the growth will continue.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Our new Reserve Bank Governor says she has full confidence in the people making OCR decisions.  The Monetary Policy Committee, chaired by Anna Breman, has decided to keep the OCR unchanged at 2.25% for now.  It says while inflation is above the target band, the economy still needs some time to recover.  Breman told Mike Hosking the committee will make the best decisions it can, based on the data and forecasts it has access to at the time.  She says something might look obvious in retrospect, but they're dealing with lots of global shocks constantly hitting the New Zealand economy.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As I watch Chris Hipkins, presumably gleefully, mess about with the India Free Trade deal, I'm reminded this is not the Labour Party that did the FTA with China.  Hipkins is no Helen Clark and in that is a great sadness.  For all those who occasionally contact me and ask of the possibility of a so-called “grand coalition” —a relationship between the Labour and National parties— before you ask, next time look at the way Hipkins plays these games and there is your answer.  Even in areas of broad agreement, they still can't act like grownups.  It's also a lesson in name vs substance.  The Labour Party of the past few years is nothing like Labour of the late 90's and early 2000's. That was a centrist version.  Yes, they still handed out free money to people like students to bribe them in election year. But the rest of the time they actually ran the economy in growth. Compared to Barbara Edmonds, Michael Cullen was a conservative.  In the early parts of 1984 Labour, with David Lange, was similar, and here is your irony that Hipkins fails to recognise: when Labour are, broadly speaking, middle of the road they are actually popular.  Ask Bob Hawke or Paul Keating or Tony Blair – centrist Labour is successful Labour.  By the time you take modern Labour with Hipkins and Sepuloni, and add the Greens in the mix, you are seeing the left wing “group think” that not only keeps them out of office, but leads to the sort of game playing we have with an FTA.  Yes, the Government probably shouldn’t have to rely on them and for all the games Labour plays, New Zealand First is just as bad with their xenophobic nonsense. But Labour once had a global view.  It's not like the Chinese weren't thought of with great suspicion prior to 2008. But the bigger picture was at play. The realisation that large countries and their economies could be good for everyone was a driving force.  What Labour would do well to do is put this country first. Not score points, not look like children, and not pretend they actually had anything to do with negotiating this thing at all.  FTAs are big picture, not a three-year electoral cycle game.   I don’t think I'm alone in wishing there were more adults in the room. Labour 1999-2008 put the current lot to shame. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Reverend Jesse Jackson is being remembered as a leader who served the oppressed, the voiceless, and the overlooked around the world.  The famed US civil rights campaigner has died aged 84.   In a statement posted to social media his family say he died peacefully surrounded by family.  After being mentored by Martin Luther King Junior he went on to become one of the most influential African-American leaders.  US Correspondent Richard Arnold told Mike Hosking Jackson was a singularly powerful speaker.   LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.