THE HYPOCRISY OF MIKE HOSKING

Mike Hosking : Corporate welfare? Never heard of it.

Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking isn't upset about the Labour-led government's recent demonstrations of corporate welfare, but he is upset about another form of welfare...

NEWSTALK ZB'S Mike Hosking doesn't appear to have had any difficulties reconciling his neoliberal-supporting views with the Labour-led Government bailing out his 'free market' and saving the business sector from collapse. 

As one who has monotonously championed the business sector's 'risk taking' and 'creativity' while at the same time, lambasting the State for its 'bureaucracy', 'red tape' and its failures to get on board with the market's 'aspirational' ethos,' suddenly the State is Mike's new best friend. Its just dandy that the 'interfering' State is interfering in the form of such things as a $12 billion business rescue package. The phrase 'corporate welfare' has not passed Hosking's lips.

But Mike Hosking is upset about another kind of welfare. And there's a copy of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged in the mail to you if you can guess what's making Mike unhappy. No, that's too easy. It will come as no surprise to anyone that Hosking is upset that the casualties of capitalism have been provided with some minimal assistance.

The recent $25 increase in main benefits, which took effect on April 1, will do little to lift beneficiaries out of poverty and subsistence living but, according to Hosking, 'All it does is make life easier for the person who loses their job. It's not efficient spending, it's unproductive, and a monumentally large, missed opportunity.' He has also described it as 'criminal'.

It should be noted that in 2018 he and his partner, fellow Newstalk ZB presenter Kate Hawkesby, sold their Remuera abode for $9.8 million and bought a lifestyle block in Matakana for $4.5 million.

According to Hosking we're rich enough to bail out the business sector but not only are we not rich enough to increase benefits, however minimally, but we're also not rich enough to raise the minimum wage either.

But the coronavirus-induced recession is beginning to lap at the feet of even someone like Mike Hosking. The closure of Newstalk ZB's sister station Radio Sport and magazine publisher Bauer Media NZ underlines that all is not well within New Zealand's struggling corporate media. And with employees of Mediaworks now expected to take a 15 percent wage cut, the chances are that even someone like Mike Hosking might be asked to take a salary 'adjustment'. Maybe Mike might strike in protest...