The Mike Hosking Breakfast

The Infrastructure Minister believes a toll is a fair way of paying for a new Auckland harbour crossing.
The Infrastructure Commission’s 30-year plan makes 10 recommendations for what should be prioritised over the next decade, with hospital investment topping the list.
The plan suggests the extra crossing in Auckland, tunnel or bridge, gets a $9 toll, but the Government is still weighing up whether the existing bridge should also be tolled.
Chris Bishop told Mike Hosking ultimately, roads have to be paid for.
He says the second harbour crossing will be the biggest infrastructure project ever built in New Zealand, and they think it will wind up being tolled as it’s a fair way of paying for the project.
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Outgoing Netball New Zealand chair Matt Whineray regrets the way they communicated with the public during the drawn out Silver Ferns coaching saga.
Whineray is ending his eight-year tenure alongside three others at board level.
The governing body came under scrutiny last year for their handling of the standing down, and eventual re-instatement, of Dame Noeline Taurua.
Whineray told Mike Hosking they had the right intentions.
He says they were trying to balance the obligations they have with the need to keep people informed, but they know their communication could be better.
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Auckland and Northland are being deemed New Zealand's most vulnerable regions when it comes to infrastructure.
The infrastructure Commission has laid out a 30 year plan, with 17 recommendations for how to strengthen our delivery model.
Downer Managing Director Murray Robertson believes Auckland and Northland are exposed due to lack of electricity which other infrastructure sectors rely on.
He told Mike Hosking power largely comes from hydro in the south, to it's important to try get that reticulation closer to those key networks.
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A sharp rise in food inflation could unfortunately be out of our control.
Latest Stats NZ data reveals the rate's risen to 4.6% – well up on 4% a month ago.
Fruit and vegetable prices have jumped 6.3% in the last year, and meat, poultry, and fish rose by 8.9%.
Grocery Action Group Chair Sue Chetwin told Mike Hosking there's been a lot of uncontrollable factors impacting prices, like recent storm damage affecting crops.
She says fresh fruit and vegetables should be at their cheapest at this time of year.
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My summation of what we have heard so far in the Judge Aitken case. The “Did I yell at and interrupt and disrupt Winston?" case.
Aitken was on the stand, so to speak, yesterday, remembering none of this is criminal.
In fact, I would describe it as outrageously political.
Judge Aitken shouldn’t be here. No one should. It’s a storm in a judicial teacup.
Should she have had a pop at Winston at the Northern Club? Of course not.
The incident, much disputed in terms of angst, animosity, and volume, shows the judge in a poor light.
It was none of her business and you don't go around running commentary on other people's evenings.
Then again you don’t go dobbing interlopers in to the Attorney General, which is what has happened, and next thing you know you have a legal circus where a person's career is potentially about to be blown up.
Also disturbing for me as the casual observer, is the Chief District Court Judge's role in the apology by Judge Aitken. He involved two media advisors and amended Aitken's wording so it wouldn’t offend New Zealand First.
At all times the Chief Judge seemed to be obsessed with not offending political parties. His overt weakness worries me, not to mention Judge Aitken's inability to have her voice heard. She's not 13-years-old, she's a judge.
My sense of where we are at is we will never get to know the full story because the versions vary. Therefore, the panel doing the deciding won't come to a definitive conclusion, therefore whatever they put before Paul Goldsmith will go nowhere.
So maybe what we are seeing currently is the actual punishment. In other words, a judge, her reputation, her drinking habits, her words all being dissected, is the punishment. It is the humiliation.
Overall the insight in the legal fraternity, not forgetting the good judge's celebratory doctor partner and the KC on video, does not come off reputationally well.
If you wanted to think of them broadly as a bunch of champagne-swilling, self-serving snobs, they haven't done a lot to dissuade us.
But then New Zealand First look like a petty, point score-y, loser group of narks, who don’t mind wrecking peoples lives.
The hearing continues.
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