The Mike Hosking Breakfast

Perhaps the Labour Party's small target election year strategy has started to unravel as one of their MPs, Helen White, told us all of her desire for house prices to fall.
She wants them to come down.
They have already come down of course, through a series of events that included her last Government's approach to the economy.
The booming inflation they created, the bulging debt from all the spending and the general fiscal waste that saw interest rates spike, the country failing to collect the migrant numbers it had previously had, as well as the cost of building skyrocketing. As a result, the property market has broadly gone backwards for what many suggest now is a historic period of time.
So she should be happy.
Which is the problem with economic illiterates like her.
The Labour Party of course don’t see things the way she does for obvious reasons. Two-thirds of New Zealanders own homes and many see them as a nest egg for retirement.
Watching prices fall undermines our futures.
Helen made herself a headline because she was asked about the Opportunity Party, the leader of which is standing in her Mt Albert electorate.
They too want to wreck the property market with the land tax. Helen didn’t know much about that, all she knew was she wanted prices to fall.
Sadly, this is the sort of trouble Chris Hipkins is going to have to start to mop up.
Once you get into election mode a lot of random questions get asked of previously unheard-of MPs, some of whom manage to almost immediately display the attributes the party had been hoping could stay hidden, at least until election day.
Helen is already infamous given Mt Albert is deep Labour territory, and she almost lost it in 2023. So, her start to 2026 doesn’t bode well.
But the overarching message here is the bedrock of many New Zealanders savings strategies is under fire from increasing numbers of political operators.
They want your retirement blown sky high with a property crash.
I'm backing that approach not to be overly popular.
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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.

Netball's gold medal: 8/10
The story of the Games and for Noeline, a gargantuan middle finger to the fools who ran the sport and did what they did to her.

The Commonwealth Games: 6/10
It seemed a success, but it also seemed an open question as to its need, or real interest.

The Strait of Hormuz: 2/10
We seem to be there or thereabouts, again, this morning. Trump has got to be losing sleep over this because it’s a gargantuan humiliation.

Car sales: 7/10
How come if we are so glum we go buy new cars? New car sales are rocketing.

Election enrolments: 8/10
Change the rules and cue the moaners, until the facts get published and, what do you know, more people are enrolled than the past three elections. So, it's not actually a problem at all proving, yet again, attitude is everything.

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Is Luxon's MMP vote a stroke of genius to avoid an otherwise problematic week?
His apology for Rotorua was a cluster, the Māorification issues that haven't been resolved despite all the talk, the Corrections massages, MBIE, Treasury love-ins, the Justice Department cock-up on the Harrison bloke, and the unemployment rate to the upside – it's all looked like very bad news.
But then out of nowhere, "let's have a look at the entire way we elect Governments".
It makes sense to the extent we are going to vote on four-year terms anyway.
But here is your trouble with revisiting MMP; it's been too long between drinks.
There is an entire generation of voters, and I include my kids, who have never known anything else.
Constitutional change needs to be debated when an obvious issue has arisen i.e. Governments keep falling over and we lack stability, or we have recently had the debate and the ideas are still fresh in our minds.
Neither scenario is in play here.
Making it also problematic for the first-past-the-posters is Labour 2020-2023. They were an FPP Government and an example of why you would not in a million years let a single party near anything.
Good parties take you good places. Ardern and Hipkins blew the place up. Is that a result of FPP or a singular example of incompetence? And do you want to run that risk?
Obviously the counter is, on balance, our small players have not proved to be wonderful representatives of the broad idea that MMP brings wider representation. The representation they have brought is more calamity and chaos, than insight and brain power.
The Māori Party have imploded, again, the Greens are insane and quite possibly dangerous, and not really "green", and New Zealand First are racists and stirrers.
Having said that, if we insist on MMP overall, this current Government is the first full example of the art i.e. three parties in a full arrangement. It's been executed pretty well so Luxon comes off a strange run-up, given he's conducted it professionally and successfully.
If you want to run a book it was 58% for MMP last time. I reckon it would be even more this time.
And that’s from a person who, push comes to shove, would probably vote FPP.
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It’s Friday, which means Kate Hawkesby and Tim Wilson are back with Mike Hosking to Wrap the Week that Was.
They discuss Christopher Luxon’s comments around a MMP referendum, ZB’s upcoming 100th anniversary, Joseph Parker, and some surprising breaking news for Mike.
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The All Blacks begin their first tour of South Africa for 30 years in Cape Town against the Stormers, a team they have never played in their modern form.
Dave Rennie named an experimental side for the test, with Patrick Tuipulotu as the captain and Siale Lauaki and Josh Jacomb scheduled to debut off the bench.
And an illness has forced a late change to the team, Anton Segner replacing Wallace Sititi as openside flanker while Peter Lakai moves to number eight.
Newstalk ZB’s Voice of Rugby Elliott Smith told Mike Hosking that Rennie has pretty much locked in his team for the first clash against the Springboks, but has been open that there’s room to move.
He says a handful of players such as Tuipulotu, Fabian Holland, and potentially Peter Lakai and Anton Segner could be in conversation for that team.
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