The Mike Hosking Breakfast

I have learned a lot about kids and university, having had two attend and graduate and one still immersed in the experience.
Here are the takeouts.
Generally, you go for a reason. You have an idea of what you want to achieve and those who don’t, flounder quickly.
I have many examples of kids who enrolled because "that is what you do".
Schools too often give university as a default. It has a snobbery about it as if successful people only go on to tertiary learning.
It seems the wider lesson we have all learned is Jacinda Ardern's "next year is on me" was fatally flawed because funding the first year was literally a waste of money and even when it got put to the back end of study, it would seem the world hasn’t been changed.
So they are scrapping it.
The reality is people on a path will incur debt in the belief that whatever it is they are studying will serve them well, provide challenge and enjoyment, and hopefully pay a wage that allows them to pay back the loan and get on with their lives.
University has always been heavily subsidised anyway on the idea that we all benefit. But to suggest you study for anyone other than your own personal satisfaction and enhancement is farcical.
So no more first year/last year artificiality.
The money will be put elsewhere, perhaps into the more practical side of the workforce. Personally, I wouldn’t mind it being saved. It's not like we actually have the money in the first place anyway.
But the Winston Peters argument appears to be the trades, which makes it yet another of those debates that is constantly tinkered with and never really resolved.
Is paying an employer to train a person any more or less wasteful, or artificial, than paying a university to train a doctor?
We need doctors as much if not more than we need plumbers. Both are valuable, both are in short supply.
The Peters argument will of course be driven by the immigration aspect of it all.
If we don’t train who we need, we bring them in and before you know it you have a "butter chicken tsunami".
It's of course a government again picking winners and I would have thought we had already learned that lesson.
Peters’ other idea, if you remember back, was bonding students to regions, or indeed immigrants to regions. That didn’t work either.
The trick here is not to repeat past mistakes. And yet the budget is destined to include at least one.
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Is Chris Hipkins missing a gene?
Does he have a self-destructive predilection? Or is he just a pillock by nature?
He rolls into Auckland to tell the nation's biggest city and engine room in election year that she's all good and everyone has moved on from the lockdowns. His lockdowns.
The home handyman from the Hutt, telling Auckland what's what.
What an arrogant twat.
He was in Auckland to build rapport, to patch up the damage, to scope the joint and to see what sort of chance his party has come November.
Love or hate Auckland, elections are won and lost in the city. No one gets to Government without a good day in Auckland.
Even for a small country it is true to say there are countries within countries, or cultures and vibes within cultures and vibes.
It took me a while to get a grip on Wellington before I moved there. It's different to Christchurch. It's different to Dunedin, and Auckland is different to each of the other urban centres.
I think Chris Bishop has found that out by suggesting his two million home debacle. He's from Wellington too. If you are too entrenched in Wellington, you don’t get Auckland.
Hipkins suggested the only people who ever ask him about lockdown these days is Newstalk ZB.
1) That’s not true and yesterday was an example given the person who asked wasn’t from Newstalk ZB.
2) Newstalk ZB is the biggest game in Auckland and by a long way.
Dismissing the biggest radio player in Auckland, and the country, is about as stupid as saying Aucklanders have moved on from lockdown.
Ultimately, it's another example of why I have said all year that this election is over before it starts.
Labour will not win.
The pain, suffering and incompetence of 2020-23 is still too raw, real and recent to forgive and forget. Making it worse is the fact the very same people who did the damage are still there waiting for another crack.
Judging by yesterday, they’ve learned nothing, want to learn nothing and are as arrogant as last time.
Hipkins may well realise that, come election night when he loses and inevitably has to resign given he will have lost twice.
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At the end of each week, Mike Hosking takes you through the big-ticket items and lets you know what he makes of it all.

"Next year's on me": 7/10
Got there at last. In a country with less than no money, why spend a fortune on an idea that didn’t, doesn’t, and won't, work.

Sir Graham Henry: 8/10
This is an excellent idea, and Dave Rennie needs to be congratulated. Big brains and a lot of experience are not to be underestimated.

The war: 4/10
For the first time, I think Trump is stuck. Yes, he can hold out but he doesn’t have the political road. In the ebb and flow of this story, he is now the 'ebb'.

The Australian Budget: 2/10
Based on a blatant lie. They said they wouldn’t and they did. And they wonder why politicians are held in shocking regard.

Keir Starmer: 1/10
Makes Albanese look straight up and down.

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The leaders of the world's two most powerful countries haven't been able to agree on many things during their face-to-face talks in Beijing.
US President Donald Trump says Chinese President Xi Jinping is offering to help in some way with America's war in Iran, without providing military assistance.
But Xi's warned Trump the US and China could clash over Taiwan if they're not on the same page.
US Correspondent Richard Arnold told Mike Hosking that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has responded, saying US policy on the issue of Taiwan is unchanged.
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The end of the week has arrived, which means Kate Hawkesby and Tim Wilson are back on the line to Wrap the Week that Was.
They offered some viewing recommendations and discussed awards ceremonies and a significant date for one of the Breakfast team.
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