The Mike Hosking Breakfast

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. 

The economy: 4/10 

Between the GDP and the current account, it’s a bad week of data. You could argue the upside is it might be the worst of it. It might be better from here on in. 

Whining unions: 3/10 

This week it was relief teachers. Name me the las...

The US Federal Reserve has cut interest rates for the first time in more than four years – a significant political boost for the Harris campaign. 

Rates have gone down by 0.5% to about 4.8%, a far bigger rate than economists had predicted. 

Policymakers expect the rate to fall another 0.5% this year and go down to around 3% by the end of 2026. 

US Correspondent Richard Arnold told Mike H...

What I would like out of the Philip Polkinghorne trial is access to the jury. 

This country has an archaic and sheltered view of certain aspects of justice. If you believe justice has to be seen to be done, it behoves us to fully understand the process. 

I have had virtually no interest in the trial. I have no real overarching interest in crime generally. 

I got fascinated by the David B...

Will Jordan’s move to All Blacks fullback has been short lived.  

Jordan shifts back to the right wing for Saturday afternoon’s Bledisloe Cup test in Sydney, with Beauden Barrett restored to fullback and Caleb Clarke on the left wing.  

It’s the same back three that started in Johannesburg against the Springboks, before Barrett switched to the bench for Cape Town.  

Coach Scott Robertson...

The Law Association says changing the threshold for the right to a jury trial doesn't make sense.   

Currently a defendant can choose between a jury or a judge-alone trial in cases where the maximum penalty is two or more years in jail.  

The Government's seeking feedback on increasing this to three, five, or seven years, saying jury trials drive court delays.  

Law Association Vice-Pres...

A million dollar boost is on its way towards methane vaccine research.  

Scientists are wanting to develop antibodies that reduce methane emissions from animals. 

AgriZeroNZ and the New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre are providing $13.5 million to Lucidome Bio to develop the treatment.  

AgriZeroNZ chief executive Wayne McNee told Mike Hosking they're on a path to ev...

The Finance Minister is seeing the light at the end of the tunnel in the wake of the latest economic figures. 

Latest Stats NZ figures reveal the GDP contracted by 0.2% in the three months to June 

In the March quarter, 0.1% growth was recorded. 

Nicola Willis told Mike Hosking we're still very much in clean-up mode, but the important indicators look good. 

She says inflatio...

The Tertiary Education Minister says AUT has good rationale behind its policy to give Māori and Pasifika staff extra points in choosing staff to attend overseas conferences.  

AUT says there's a critical shortage of those academic staff in the sector, and the policy helps address that.  

The Government's directed the public service to allocate services on need, not race.  

Minister Penny...

The good news is confidence in our economy is improving. 

It has been a decent week: farmers confidence is up and markedly, our confidence is up a bit —still overall pessimistic, but up nevertheless— and last week we saw business confidence rise a bit. 

Then come the newest numbers, our current account. 

It’s a mess. We are a mess. In essence we buy more from the world than we sell it, a...

The automotive sector is hoping to take industry-training out of Government hands.  

The Motor Industry Training Organisation supports on-job learning in sectors like automotive, logistics, and road transport.  

But the Motor Trade Association says under Government control, it has become detached from the industry.  

Chief Executive Lee Marshall wants a transition to being industry owned...

He may have stepped back from his iconic series, but that doesn’t mean Lee Child has put his pen down. 

Since his announcement last year that he was passing the character of Jack Reacher over into his brother’s hands, he’s been credited in the latest novel ‘In Too Deep’, which is being released in October.  

But before that Child has released another project of his own, an a...

On the Mike Hosking Breakfast Full Show Podcast for Thursday 19th of September, the Fed dropped by half a point, so what will happen with our GDP today? 

David Seymour says charter schools will have performance requirements, and they'll lose their status if they don't keep up. He gives ZB the exclusive. 

Author extraordinaire Lee Child is back to talk to Mike about his new short stories venture.

Organisers of a Rotorua charity garage sale are considering canning it altogether after a burglary. 

A car, trailer, and small donated items were allegedly stolen from the sale's storage area at Ngongotaha Railway Park over the weekend. 

Small electronic goods were discovered missing from the containers. 

Ray White Rotorua co-owner Tim O'Sullivan told Mike Hosking he suspects this wasn't...

Today's GDP figures are expected to show the economy weakened in the second quarter of this year.  

Analysts are forecasting a contraction between 0.1 and 0.5%.  

The first quarter of 2024 showed just 0.2% growth.  

Westpac Chief Economist Kelly Eckhold told Mike Hosking June was the weakest month they've seen in a while.  

He says they expect it to have gone backwards again...

A second wave of explosions have hit Lebanon a day after pagers used by Hezbollah detonated. 

At least 12 people are dead from the pager attacks, while 14 have been killed from exploding walkie talkies today. 

Thousands are injured, and Hezbollah believes Israel is responsible. 

Auckland University international relations professor Stephen Hoadley told Mike Hosking some academics believe...

The Government's announced attendance, achievement, and financial targets for charter schools.  

The schools must meet the targets or risk interventions, including possibly having their contract ended.  

Associate Education Minister David Seymour told Mike Hosking Charter Schools have the same goals as state schools, such as 95% getting NCEA level two and 80% regularly attending.  

He sa...

25,000 more people need to be hired if the Government wants to achieve its infrastructure goals. 

Officials have warned Minister Chris Bishop he'll need to significantly boost the civil engineering and construction workforce by more than 50%. 

It's also warning the Government hasn't funded $200 billion worth of its transport promises. 

Fraser May of Civil Contractors New Zealand told Mik...

It's only when you read the full detail in the latest Taxpayers’ Union-Curia poll that you start to get a feel for where the Government currently sits. 

Firstly, the poll is for corporate clients and reportage is usually limited to a few basic numbers, i.e. National up or down a point and added together that means “x” number of seats in the house. 

The full report has the gold and everyone in corpora...