21 Jun 2018

The Panel with Niki Bezzant and Mark Inglis (Part 1)

From The Panel, 4:03 pm on 21 June 2018

The Prime Minister arrived at Auckland hospital this morning to give birth to her baby. She was driven there by her partner Clarke Gayford. Best wishes have flooded in from all over the world, and from her colleagues in parliament. Winston Peters is now the Acting Prime Minister. We'll keep across the latest updates. The United States has withdrawn for the United Nations' Human Rights Council, calling it baised and hypocritical. Critics say the move could hurt efforst to address human rights abuses around the world. But some, including kiwi political journalist Barry Soper, agree with Doanld Trump stance on the council. In an opinion piece, Mr Soper calls the council ineffective. We ask former diplomat David Payton his view on the move, having served at the UN many times in vairous capacities. Is the tax we're extracting from cigarettes blood money now? In light fo the recent stabbing of two dairy workers, the panelists discuss listener solutions to the problem. Some ask why we don't remove cigarettes from the shops or use the tax earned from the sale of smokes to subsidise dairy owners to do this? Further discussion on the topic of house prices. The panelists weigh in on listener solutions to the high cost of owning a home, including putting restrictions on how many houses people may own. Housing expert Leonie Freeman joins the show to respond to comments from listeners about big players keeping the cost of materials high. Plus deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters has called the changes to the Government's overseas buyers' ban a "smartening" of the policy, not a softening. Some multi-storey apartments are now exempted as are Australian and Singapore citizens and residents.