The Mike Hosking Breakfast

Do you think we will learn some lessons or change our mind now that the war is essentially over?
Do we need to be more oil independent or, overall, is the way we do it for good reason i.e. it's cheaper to buy refined product?
Do we need to seek out new markets for products that have previously been brought blindly through the Strait, like plastics and gases?
In Canada the left-leaners are in a lather. The NDP (New Democrat Party) have a new leader and he's very green and very pro-climate change. He's in trouble because his party leaders in places like Alberta and Saskatchewan are riding the oil wave. Alberta's deficit is being wiped out as oil money rolls in, in a way they never forecast.
So you can be a leftie but still understand the economic reality, if not necessity, of fossil fuels. You may not like them, but they work, they are needed and they pay the bills.
Here, surely, if we have learned nothing else it's just how dependant we still are on stuff we allegedly hate, can't get rid of fast enough and thought we were living without.
Power is renewable, broadly, and that is good. But it was very quickly determined cars are no such thing and, more importantly, nothing that carried anything was an EV.
Trucks and cranes and diggers and industry generally is a fossil fuel game and it's not changing. Would we not be better to accept that and get on with it rather than wrestling, clearly hopelessly, with an ideology that, when push came to shove, got found out badly.
The quote of the week came from Plastics NZ when they said "plastics are in everything.
Whoops. I thought getting rid of the straws and supermarket bags was it? There's a small problem though with the downpipes, or pipes in general, not just through the Strait. Are we making pipes out of paper too? Where are those renewable pipes?
So how about we accept that as well? Plastic is real and it isn't going anywhere.
Covid sort of gave us a taste when the place closed down, but the war has been a better wake-up call.
Our actions don’t match our words. The conversation has been hijacked by zealots. We are doing our bit for climate, which is good, but we are not getting rid of plastic, and we are not moving on from oil. We are not giving up the stuff that makes the world go around and life actually work.
In these past five and a bit weeks reality has had its mic drop moment.
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UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer's travelling to the Persian Gulf to help shore-up the US and Iran ceasefire.
Both sides have accepted Pakistan's proposal to pause fighting two weeks, which looks shaky after Israel bombed Lebanon overnight.
Global oil prices have since plunged below US$100 a barrel.
UK Correspondent Rod Liddle told Mike Hosking Starmer’s looking to replace Donald Trump as an ally Middle East countries can have some conviction in.
He says the UK Prime Minister has improved his standing both within his own country, and likely in the Middle East as well by being very wary of Trump’s ambitions.
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On the Mike Hosking Breakfast Full Show Podcast for Thursday 9th of April, Iran and the US have agreed to a ceasefire that looks increasingly tenuous – what will happen in the next two weeks?
Reserve Bank Governor Anna Breman and Finance Minister Nicola Willis discuss the OCR remaining at 2.25% and the economic impact of the ceasefire for New Zealand.
Kiwi Supercars driver Matt Payne speaks ahead Taupō this weekend and the first ever South Island race next weekend.
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Taupō and Christchurch are set for high-octane V8 Supercars action over the next two weekends.
It’s the first time the Supercars championship has held two rounds in New Zealand, and the driver who collects the most points over the two rounds will be awarded the Jason Richards Memorial Trophy, named after the Kiwi driver who succumbed to cancer in 2011.
Matt Payne is one of three Kiwis racing and will be hoping for the same success he had last year, when he won in Taupō.
He told Mike Hosking that it’s been a while since they’ve had back-to-back rounds, especially in New Zealand.
“It’s a little bit different logistically,” Payne explained.
“Everyone gets used to it, but for everyone, I think it’s good to stay on the roll.”
“Obviously the more racing we can do, the better, and two weekends in New Zealand is, yeah, dream come true for me.”
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A US national security expert believes Iran is gaining leverage out of the ceasefire, showing it can open and close the Strait of Hormuz at will.
“The real question here is: what is Iran holding back?”, New Haven University's Dr Matthew Schmidt told Mike Hosking.
“Can they restart their threats over the Strait of Hormuz six weeks from now, two weeks from now, right, six months from now?”
Gulf states were “desperate” for the strait to open and to have Iranian drones and missiles under control.
"They're being fired directly at their oil and gas facilities, which are going to cost hundreds of billions of dollars - if they are taken offline - to restart.”
The key question was what would happen in two weeks’ time - whether Iran would “flex their muscles” and threaten to close the strait, or control which ships could travel through.
Schmidt believed the Iranian regime was weakened and would not last long-term, but it could still be in control for a decade or more.
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