The Mike Hosking Breakfast

The latest cab off the rank in things Australia is doing that we suggested we might, is some sort of deal with tech around local news.
Australia led off the batting with the social media ban that has been picked up and run with all over the world.
It doesn't necessarily work, but people in various jurisdictions feel good enough about it and it may well be that enough people are affected for it to be judged some sort of success. We of course are yet to do anything, almost as though we don’t want to.
It seemed odd to me that we hail the school phone ban but can't take the social media step.
Anyway, tech needs to do deals with local Australian media or face a tax. Not that it's called a tax. It’s a "charge" and the charge will be spread about local media to help offset all the money big tech is hoovering up from taking their work and monetising it through ads.
This won't work either of course. In fact, it will work even less than the social media ban has worked, but you clearly can't tell Albanese that.
He also runs the risk of infuriating Trump, who is pro-American tech and companies in the firing line like Meta are of course, American.
In the meantime, in Canada, who tried to do something similar, they have gone without Meta, or at least without news on Meta, for a while now.
Because that’s the standard play book; tax us, we're off. And as one piece I read this week said, the sky hasn’t fallen in.
I assume that if enough countries try to tax, even Meta might balk. But we are clearly a long way from that and it's entirely possible Meta and their ilk are so big they don’t care.
Fun fact – less than 1% of posts on Facebook in Australia contain a URL from a domestic news site. That's a lot of regulatory hassle for no real engagement, so what do they care?
I have always favoured government intervention when it actually achieves something. The cold, hard reality in this modern world is a single government can't contain, constrain, or manipulate a global tech giant – so why turn yourself inside out trying?
No, it's not fair, but it's life.
Canada have achieved nothing. Australia will learn the same thing.
Maybe the fact we have done nothing is smarter than many realise.
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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.

The Warriors: 7/10
There is a roll-on here, a real consistency, and two more easy points this weekend.

Food scrap bins: 2/10
They're not used, they're made of plastic, they blow all over the neighbourhood. The 40% shows a bad idea is a bad idea, whether it's on the whiteboard or on your street corner.

Citizenship tests: 6/10
A lot of ideology floating about the place this week. Does answering a question mean you are something, or subscribe to something, or believe in something? Or did you just tell the people what they wanted to hear?

Cuisine Awards: 2/10
What a bunch of pompous toffs. No one defends Vaughan Mabee if what is said is true, but Cuisine rates food and menus and dining experiences, not whether fry pan genius extends to being a prat.

The Met Gala: 7/10
Hate Jeff Bezos all you want, but it's about fundraising and it raises a lot of funds.

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Why now Sean?
I had Covid vibes when I read Sean Sweeney's thinking about the CRL.
It was Covid vibes because during that period I cannot tell you how many people I know and regularly dealt with, whether it was people in the media or people from business, who said one thing about the Government and their handling of lockdowns and the economy in private, and something completely different in public.
So Sean, having left the CRL to head to Ireland, has now left Ireland but has stopped by long enough to tell us we don’t scope our price major projects that well. Who knew?
The CRL, at well over $5 billion, is a gargantuan waste of money.
Yes, it will improve things and on paper it makes sense because it joins up some rail lines so you can go around and around. But like most things in life, convenience, improvement, or efficiency comes at a cost.
What's a terrific idea at $50 is a waste at $200. And for something that started out about $2 billion and will come in at about $6 billion, the CRL has reached the stage where no one really wants to accept responsibility any more for the price and delays, because it got embarrassing a long time ago and tipped over into "well let's just make the most of it and hope it works".
It won't of course. Not to the extent they dreamed, because what they dream of is New York and London, and we have never been that and never will be.
Anyway, part of where Sean is right is ideology blinds common sense. Too many people want a say and before you know it, everything is a combination of delayed and expensive.
Yes, the fast-track RMA reform will help. Less legal action will help. Fewer opportunities for review will help. And God forbid, cross party support would help.
But what would also help is some backbone – people who say what they believe, whether it gets them attention, or into trouble, or not.
There are too many pussies in places of influence. Too many spineless, scaredy cats who want the job, or the title, or the reputation, or the pay-packet, and just grin and bear it, or defend it, or lie about it, and babble nonsensical rubbish instead of being honest.
As much as I appreciate Sean telling it like it is, and he's right and possibly someone in charge might take notice, what I would appreciate more was the same commentary before he filed the resignation letter and scarpered.
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Chaotic scenes in Australia as three women linked to Islamic State return home to face crimes against humanity and terror charges.
The women travelled with their partners to the Middle East more than a decade ago, and they say they wanted to come home for their Australian children.
They may face court as early as today.
Australian Correspondent Murray Olds told Mike Hosking a scuffle broke out at Melbourne Airport last night involving men wearing masks waiting for the women.
He says their children face a tough time readjusting, as they will have seen things no child should ever see.
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Iran's expected to respond to the US's proposal to end the conflict sometime today.
Yesterday, Axios reported a one-page 14-point memorandum of understanding was being discussed to formally end the war.
The memo aims to set up negotiations for limiting Iran's nuclear capabilities, releasing billions-of-dollars in frozen assets, and reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
US Correspondent Simon Marks told Mike Hosking the reported content of the memo sounds very similar to the previous deal with Iran that was criticised by Donald Trump.
In the meantime, the US has confirmed it has struck Iranian targets.
US Central Command saying its forces intercepted unprovoked Iranian attacks which included missiles, drones and small boats.
It says it responded with defence strikes against the inbound threats and targeted missile and drone launch sites, along with command and control locations.
Iran is accusing the US of violating the ceasefire and targeting an Iranian oil tanker moving through the Strait of Hormuz.
Its state broadcaster reports aerial attacks were carried out along the coast and Iran immediately responded by attacking US military vessels.
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