The Mike Hosking Breakfast

Both the US and UK leaders say they're committed to promoting a peaceful formation of a new government in Syria.  

Rebels are in control of the country and former President Bashar al-Assad has fled to Russia.  

UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer told the BBC his diplomats will be engaging intensively with allies in the region.  

He says there are no tears for Assad but there needs to be a peaceful transition.   

UK Correspondent Rod Liddle told Heather du Plessis-Allan that the UK Government has announced that applications for asylum from Syria are going to be put on hold, and they’re considering sending some back. 

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Yesterday a long running court case came to an end – at least for now.

BNZ has won permission to shut down Gloriavale’s bank accounts.

Now I actually feel quite uncomfortable about this. I’m no fan of Gloriavale – I’d like to see the place close and the people there realise how weird their situation is.

So I should, on the face of it, like what BNZ is doing because it will effectively, probably, shut down Gloriavale.

Because without a bank, how can Gloriavale continue?

No one else will bank them – they’ve tried, no other bank will take them.

This is why they took the court case, to try to force BNZ to keep their bank accounts open, because without it, they basically can’t do business anymore.

They can’t do anything really, because in a modern world you can’t survive without a bank account.

It’s how you get paid, how you pay your power bills, how you get a mortgage to buy a house, how you order things from overseas.

But I still don’t think this is the right thing, because of the precedent this sets.

Banks can shut your account if they don’t like what you’re doing —doesn’t have to be criminal— and there’s too much of this moral policing already.

Australian banks here are imposing penalties on our dairy farmers who they don’t think are cutting emissions by enough. Kiwibank’s pledged to stop banking coal mining businesses.

BNZ won’t let a couple of women running a sex toy shop open bank accounts because they sell sex toys.

There is a massive debunking scandal playing out in the US where even Melania Trump reckons her account was shut down after the Jan 6th riots.

And to be fair to banks, it’s not as if this is new. 

Remember they wouldn’t let women take out mortgages unless a male relative said it was okay as recently as the 1980s.

I get that it’s a bank’s right to stop doing business with whoever it wants to, I just don’t like the bank’s reason.  

Because if it’s Gloriavale today, a couple of girls selling sex toys tomorrow, who comes next? 

Cassie Henderson first reached Kiwi ears at age 14, when she made it all the way to the X-Factor quarterfinal. 

Fast forward 11 years and it’s been a big year for the Kiwi singer, returning to the music scene in a big way. 

Henderson quit her job last year in favour of pursuing music full time. 

She’s released a couple of EPs, and her latest, ‘The Yellow Chapter’, marks the midpoint of Henderson’s ‘The Chronicles of a Heart Broken’ trilogy. 

The lead single ‘Seconds to Midnight’ has dominated the airwaves, holding the #1 position for nine consecutive weeks. 

Henderson told Heather du Plessis-Allan that while she was able to juggle both her career in marketing and her music, the progress she made after quitting her job was extreme in comparison.  

“I think I can do both, and I enjoy both,” she said. 

“But I think I reached a point where I was like, I don’t want the rest of my life to be a marketing manager or a marketing assistant.” 

“I need to chase this story.” 

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There's a recommendation schools put clearer relationship and sexuality education in place. 

An Education Review Office report has found too much inconsistency in what students are learning. 

It calls on secondary schools to increase sex-ed teaching and tell parents what will be taught, rather than consulting them. 

It also found young people are being exposed to risks, particularly online. 

Education evaluation centre lead Ruth Shinoda says the curriculum should be revised. 

She told Heather du Plessis-Allan that schools should be required to inform and explain to parents what they’re going to teach, as they found that parents are more comfortable with the curriculum when they’re better informed.  

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