The Mike Hosking Breakfast Newstalk ZB

The teacher shortage has hit a new crisis point. 

A Post Primary Teachers Association Survey has found that 56% of principals had to employ untrained or unqualified teachers because they were unable to find qualified staff. 

President Chris Abercrombie told Mike Hosking that a lot of it comes down to those being hired having a limited authority to teach. 

He said this might be someone without a qualification or it may be hiring people to teach subjects they aren’t specialised in. 

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Do you want some savings? 

I have found a couple of hundred million for you then. 

A report out has looked at who gets the Winter Energy Payment. It's a shedload of money that is yet again going to be doled out this month for the colder period, so oldies don’t freeze to death. 

It's one of the more shameful decisions of this new Government and reminded me of the Christchurch Call, which they also inexplicably carried on with. 

The Christchurch Call isn't that expensive, but it is a grandiose truckload of virtue signalling, psychobabble that, as information revealed this week shows, has achieved basically nothing but “feels”. 

If a new Government was looking for easy day one savings, that would have been a goodie and the Winter Energy Payment would not have been far behind. 

So, the detail is that 53% of those getting superannuation don’t need a heating top up. They have enough to look after themselves. 

So why do they get it? 

Well, that’s Labour all over, isn't it? It's a high trust model. You can opt out if you like. But who does? No one. 

So, the waste builds. With that 53%, if you didn’t hand it out you have just saved $205 million. 

Now, you can only blame Labour until someone else comes along to re-introduce a bit of reality to the room. 

Except the new lot decided not to. 

It's not dissimilar to John Key who thought Working For Families was communism by stealth, until he decided to carry on with the programme. Here it is to this day, churning through billions as you work and pay your taxes only for them to take your money, have an entire battalion of public servants rifle through your entitlements and, if you are lucky, hand some of it back. 

It is ruinously wasteful. 

I assume someone, somewhere thought about the slightly simpler idea of you keeping the money in the first place so you don’t need the paperwork and hassle of trying to repatriate it. Of course, if they did it that way they wouldn’t have a financial hold over you, which of course is what a previous Labour Government had in mind when they invented it. 

So, we end up with $205 million in wasted money. 

Clearly not all money saving ideas have been exhausted. 
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One small step for peanut butter, one giant leap for New Zealand foods. 

Kiwi nut butter brand Fix & Fogg has launched 50 pouches of various products into space for astronauts aboard the International Space Station. 

Fix & Fogg Chief Executive Roman Jewell told Mike Hosking that it also has wider implications for New Zealand food products. 

He says it proves to NASA kiwi producers can be trusted to work with. 

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A New Zealand Initiative report details potential hidden risks in China's Belt and Road Initiative. 

The pro-free-market think-tank points to potential implications for our foreign policy, independence, and development.  

Director Oliver Hartwich says it's not just about infrastructure investment. 

He told Mike Hosking that we need to be wary about China trying to draw New Zealand into its sphere of influence.  

Hartwich says when you have to do something political in return, you are no longer the client of the project but the product. 

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Kiwis have had enough of being on hold after more than 22 million hours on the phone for customer service. 

ServiceNow commissioned research surveyed more than a thousand people, finding wait-times rose for the second year in a row. 

On average it takes businesses six days to solve a customer's issue despite more than half of Kiwis saying they won't wait longer than three. 

ServiceNow Country Manager Kate Tulp told Mike Hosking that the current economy has inflated the issue. 

She says customers' expectations have continued to rise, while our dollar hasn't. 

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On the Mike Hosking Breakfast Full Show Podcast for Thursday 2nd of May, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters joined to dig into AUKUS and the likelihood of New Zealand joining. 

Two Green MPs were in the news last night, for very different reasons. Mike reviewed James Shaw's valedictory speech and Julie Anne Genter's moment of madness in the House. 

Heath ‘Chopper’ Franklin joined Mike in studio to talk about his New Zealand tour and how long his iconic character can last. 

Get the Mike Hosking Breakfast Full Show Podcast every weekday morning on iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts. 

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