Talkback radio, dominated by just two stations - Newstalk ZB and Radio Live - is home to that rump of New Zealand society often referred to as redneck. Under the cover of anonymity they fearlessly attack lefties, beneficiaries, Maori and anyone else who they consider isn't ' a proper New Zealander'.
Feeding the bigotry and stupidity are hosts like Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking (brought to you by Sky City Ltd).
Mike Hosking ( brought to you by Sky City Ltd) is a consistent basher of beneficiaries so it comes as no surprise that he thinks drug testing smelly beneficiaries is a fantastic idea
Why does he thinks its such a peachy proposal?
He actually isn't able to provide an even remotely cogent answer - so he just tells fibs instead.
According to Mike Hosking (brought to you by Sky City Ltd) one of the hurdles that the Government has encountered is that 'when asked if you would pass a drug test, alarming numbers are saying no.'
He doesn't provide any actual evidence for this claim. Who has been asked if they would agree to be drug tested? Who was asking? What are these 'alarming numbers' he is referring to?
Mike Hosking (brought to you by Sky City Ltd) provides no answers. Yes folks, he's just making things up.
He then goes on to say that Helen Kelly of the Combined Trades Union 'doesn't like drug testing. She thinks it’s unfair, it’s a waste of money, it targets the wrong people.'
What Mike Hosking (brought to you by Sky City Ltd) doesn't say is that the CTU has found out , after making a request under the Official Information Act, that the government has “received no advice,briefings, papers or reports in the last twelve months about complaints from employers about beneficiaries failing drug tests.'
The CTU requested the information when another fibber, Minister of Finance Bill English, claimed that he had received many complaints from employers in his electorate who had told him 'they often can't employ our own locally unemployed young people because they can't pass a drug test."
But Mike Hosking (brought to you by Sky City Ltd) thinks it makes 'common sense' to drug test beneficiaries on the basis that the majority of people who answered a Close Up poll on Friday night thought it was a good idea.
It makes 'common sense' then, eh?
That means we can just simply disregard the opinion of the Ministry of Health and make policy on the basis of an unrepresentative television poll run by a tabloid news show. Great.
A memo obtained by Radio New Zealand - who actually did some real journalistic work, unlike Newstalk ZB, - indicates the plan to cut benefits for job seekers who fail drugs tests could cost up to $14 million per year - double what the Government is setting out to save.
The memo also says the move could have a dubious effect on people's health and overall welfare. Which would presumably put even more pressure on an already over-burdened health system.
While he likes to put the boot into the weak and powerless, Mike Hosking (brought to you by Sky City Ltd) loves to kiss the fat bottoms of the rich and powerful.
Back in 2010, for example, he told his radio listeners that Mark Hotchin of Hanover Finance infamy was 'being unfairly hounded by the media'.
According to Mike Hosking (brought to you by Sky City Ltd) ) Mark Hotchin hadn't done anything wrong because "What he did was make some bad decisions, borrow too much, gear too highly, and the company fell over."
Mark Hotchin has helped to ruin the lives of many of Hanover's Finance's 16,000 investors. The Serious Fraud Office froze $540 million worth of assets in 2008 and began a probe into Hanover in 2010.
In June Serious Fraud Office boss Adam Feeley told Parliament's law and order select committee. that the Hanover Finance investigation was dwarfing all previous finance company probes
"It is without precedence in size in New Zealand...it is bigger than South Canterbury Finance, bigger than Equiticorp, bigger than any of the finance companies that we've looked at," said Feeley.
But according to good old Mike Hosking (brought to you by Sky City Ltd). Mark Hotchin has done nothing wrong. That's just 'common sense'....
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