The Mike Hosking Breakfast Newstalk ZB

It’s not boding well for the Tories in the wake of the local elections. 

The Conservative Party has lost over 500 councillors, making it the worst result not only in living memory but in the party’s history. 

UK Correspondent Rod Liddle told Mike Hosking that the results came in during a glorious week for Rishi Sunak, but it did him no favours at all. 

He said they’re in a position now where there’s pretty much nothing they can do. 

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We have a lot to thank Jamie Arbuckle for. 

Jamie is a Marlborough councillor and an MP for New Zealand First. 

He is this week's political headline because he has two jobs and two salaries and has, for now, decided to keep all of them. 

We thank him because it proves without a shadow of a doubt that one, if not two of these jobs aren't actual jobs as you and I might know them. Thus, it allows him to do what he calls, and the system calls, two jobs for salaries and seemingly not work himself into an early grave. 

At council level, as well as being a regular councillor, he is also on the Economic Finance Committee, which is extra work and extra money. 

In Parliament, of course he is a hard-working MP, deputy chair of the Justice Select Committee as well as being on the Finance and Expenditure Committee and he is also the party whip. 

It is possible these are proper, full time, energy-sapping, time filling jobs and Jamie is superhuman and has skills few, if any others, possess and he works 18 or 19 hours a day. 

Or they are not real jobs. 

The council especially, as in so many council jobs around the country, is a make-work scheme for well-meaning and/or bored people. 

We are over councilled, over regulated and, as such, we have too many Jamie's wandering around pretending they do things. 

The arrival of MMP has badly exposed the work, or lack of work, required to be a list MP. You represent no one and you are answerable only to your party. If you are a Prime Minister or a Cabinet minister you can argue less electorate and more important work of national significance can be justified. Although you will note that many don’t. Jacinda Ardern, Chris Luxon, as well as John Key and Helen Clark all were/are electorate MPs. 

It's not about the money. In the grand scheme of things, he might earn a quarter of a million for a couple of jobs. 

The point is they aren't proper jobs. We know that now because he can sit on several committees, be a whip, commute between two cities, collect two salaries, represent a lot of people and still not claim to be part of that absurd survey last week that says most of us suffer severe burn out. 

The lesson is we don’t need nearly as many councillors as we have and we certainly don’t need as many MPs. 
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There are calls to boost foreign investment in local businesses to get our economy going again. 

The OECD's biennial report has found a lack of competition and restrictive foreign investment rules are barriers to improving productivity. 

Employers and Manufacturers' Association chief executive Brett O'Riley says getting more foreign investment in is one of many simple fixes we can make. 

He told Mike Hosking that when we had the right settings under the Key government it put a lot of new money into our most successful companies. 

O'Reilly says we need to get foreign investment in so we can get that money in at a time when it's very hard to raise it. 

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On the Mike Hosking Breakfast Full Show Podcast for Tuesday 7th of May, we talked to the Corrections Association about the Government's new $1.9 billion plan to make NZ safer. 

The Prime Minister joined the show to talk about the cluster that was their press conference and whether we're getting fleeced by the banks and Air NZ. 

Kiwi singer Mel Parsons dropped by after the release of her new single, giving us a special one-off performance. 

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

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See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the Mike Hosking Breakfast Full Show Podcast for Tuesday 7th of May, we talked to the Corrections Association about the Government's new $1.9 billion plan to make NZ safer. 

The Prime Minister joined the show to talk about the cluster that was their press conference and whether we're getting fleeced by the banks and Air NZ. 

Kiwi singer Mel Parsons dropped by after the release of her new single, giving us a special one-off performance. 

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

LISTEN ABOVE 
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Performing never gets old for kiwi folk-country singer Mel Parsons. 

Having just released her newest single and with her sixth album on the way, Parsons is set to have a quick release tour in New Zealand before heading off to Canada for more live shows. 

Having previously lived in Canada, Parsons told Mike Hosking that it’s kind of like being in a movie. 

“It’s a good place to draw inspiration from.” 

Her newest album is called Sabotage, and Parsons admitted that she feels lucky that to still be making music and it still bringing her joy. 

“I feel like I might be a lifer, to be honest." 

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