HOW MUCH OF A TOSSER IS MIKE HOSKING?

Mike Hosking thinks protesting about poverty and inequality is a waste of time, especially when it makes the National Government look bad....

THERE WAS A PR0TEST  outside the Sky City conference venue in Auckland  yesterday. This was the venue for a lunchtime speech by the Prime Minister  to the Transtasman Business Circle

The protest, organised by  Auckland Action Against Poverty, was  in response to the Government' s Budget. Demonstrators shouted "stop the war on the poor" as they tried to enter the convention centre.

In a press  statement  Alastair Russell said: “The disconnect between English’s talked-up ‘rock star’ economy and the reality experienced by low-income New Zealanders is startling. We work with people every day who face the choice between feeding the kids or paying the power bill. This Budget provides very little meaningful relief for those at the very bottom.

The protest was 'covered' by TVNZ's  Seven Sharp last night by reporter Tim Wilson. Rather than talk about the issues that AAAP were addressing Wilson  thought it would be a really great idea to satirise the protest by comparing it with protests overseas. Protest scenes were spliced with comments made by judge  Simon Cowell on American Idol.

It amounted to a hatchet job on the protest, an attempt to delegitimise the issues that the AAAP wanted to raise.What can we expect next from Wilson? A 'fun' piece about domestic violence perhaps?

If this  wasn't enough, National Party cheerleader Mike Hosking had to make his opinions known. He clearly regards Seven Sharp as an extension of his NewstalkZB  radio show because he  never misses an opportunity to peddle his dismal politics. Having talked up the Government's budget on his radio show,  he was predictably dismissive of the protest.

Turning to his co-host Toni Street (whose main job is to try and make Hosking seem vaguely human)  he said 'Don't you think those protesters energy would of been better spent on their own lives instead of  protesting?'. 

In a better world Toni Street would of retorted; 'Listen you right wing prick, they were protesting  about poverty and inequality and welfare cuts.You got a problem with that?'

But, of course, she didn't. In the world that we do live, Street now refers to John Key's biggest fan as  'Hosko'.