The Mike Hosking Breakfast

Mike Hoskings and Prime Minister Chris Luxon sat down in the studio this morning for a discussion on electricity and gas in New Zealand.

“The oil and gas ban was one of the dumbest, most insanest moves I’ve seen happen.” said the PM this morning.

According to Luxon, New Zealand must steer back away from coal in favour of gas as a source of energy. “We’re the only country I’m aware of in the world that’s actually transitioning from ...

The polling industry, whose only answer to fairly obvious questions seems to be “this is just a snapshot in time”, may have trouble explaining the past week of polling in this country. 

There was one on Tuesday night and one on Wednesday morning. They have completely different results. 

One has Luxon as the most popular leader. 

One has Hipkins as the most popular leader. 

One has National leading Labour. 

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At the end of each week, Mike Hosking takes you through the big-ticket items and lets you know what he makes of it all. 

David Seymour: 7/10 

In Britain, debating as we speak. But last weekend he ascended to Deputy Prime Minister and gave an excellent speech about what our country can be. It was uplifting, and uplifting is good. 

Chris Bishop: 7/10 

Was at the music awards and expressed an opinion....

I've struggled with a couple of authors this week – Jacinda Ardern and Jake Tapper. 

What I struggle with is one of them is making money out of the fact they made an astonishing hash of their job, quit, bailed out of the country and is now collecting money for retelling what happened in a way that would suggest no carnage was left behind. 

The other is making money by exposing what he watched unfold in front of his eyes f...

The public breakdown between the Donald Trump and Elon Musk is snowballing - as the Tesla CEO calls for the US President's impeachment. 

Musk criticised Donald Trump's spending bill days after his departure from the President's administration.  

Trump says he's very disappointed, as Musk knew every aspect of the bill and never had a problem until he left.  

Musk's hit back, sharing a post saying Trump should be impea...

The Super Rugby Pacific playoffs are upon us. 

The three-week series kicks off tonight, and the Chiefs are currently sitting in the top spot on the table.  

They’ll clash with the Blues tomorrow night in the only Kiwi derby in the qualifying finals. 

CEO Simon Graafhuis told Mike Hosking a good game can always be expected between the two teams. 

However, when it comes to the finals, he’s expecting the Chiefs wil...

On the Mike Hosking Breakfast Full Show Podcast for Friday 6th of June, the farce in Parliament over the Te Pati Māori MPs is over and we can finally get back to fixing our country.  

The Super Rugby playoffs begin this weekend, so we need to catch up with the table topping Chiefs ahead of the only Kiwi derby in this round. 

Kate Hawkesby and Tim Wilson celebrate Newstalk ZB’s and the Mike Hosking Breakfast’s success at t...

Positive news from the manufacturing sector. 

Data from inventory management software company Unleashed shows that both revenue and profitability is up. 

In the first quarter of the year, revenue across the sector was up 7.5%, and profitability was up 30% compared to the same time last year. 

Food, beverage, and the building industry are the big winners. 

Alan McDonald, EMA Head of Advocacy, Finance and Strategy...

Researchers say the Vape industry and regulators needs to show they're taking consumer safety seriously. 

A study in today's Medical Journal shows more than half of vape juices have incorrectly labelled how much nicotine they contain. 

Most of the mislabelled products had significantly less nicotine than advertised – some by over 50%. 

Otago University Senior Research Fellow Jude Ball told Mike Hosking this is sugges...

Inland Revenue's cracking down on unpaid tax bills. 

It's been allocated an extra $35 million in Budget 25 to boost its tax compliance and collection activities. 

The tax department expects to return an additional $4 for every dollar in the first year, and $8 in year two. 

IRD Commissioner Peter Mersi told Mike Hosking it's hard to estimate how much tax is owed across the board. 

He says they don't really know t...

A focus on boosting our gas supply in the short-term from the Resources Minister. 

New Zealand's gas reserves have dropped by 27% over the past year.  

Last month, the Government committed $200 million to new gas projects following removal of a ban on offshore oil and gas exploration last year.  

Shane Jones told Mike Hosking there's a lot of interest in the South Island, but new projects need to be well-thought out....

Satisfaction the Privileges Committee stood its ground over Te Pati Māori's viral haka in Parliament.  

The harshest sanctions in Parliament's history have been handed down, with co-leaders Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Rawiri Waititi suspended for 21 days.   

Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke's been suspended for seven.  

Privileges Committee Chair Judith Collins told Mike Hosking the committee was almost universally appal...

Keir Starmer has signalled a potential U-turn regarding the winter energy payments. 

Back in March, the UK government changed the rules for the Winter Fuel Payment, so that from winter 2024/25, it was only available to households that received the Pension Credit or certain other means-tested benefits. 

This made it so that only 1.5 million pensioners received the payment, down from 10.8 million.  

UK Correspondent Ro...