The Mike Hosking Breakfast

The country's youngest national snooker champion expects to turn professional in a couple of years. 

16-year-old Riley James took out the title at the 2025 NZ National Snooker Championships over the weekend. 

He told Mike Hosking that going into the tournament, he thought his changes were high. 

“I always knew if I was in the right headspace, I play some of the best snooker in the country.” 

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On the Mike Hosking Breakfast Full Show Podcast for Tuesday 14th of October, we are seeing real progress, huge progress, in our kids’ learning with the release of the results of structured literacy. 

We've got winners across the board – Sauv Blanc in the UK is hitting record marks and 16-year-old Riley James made history as the youngest ever winner of the NZ Snooker Champs. 

Speaking of winners, Kiwi Supercars driver and ...

Matt Payne has become King of the Mountain in a wet weather shemozzle at the Bathurst 1000. 

He has joined the high-octane New Zealand pantheon of Jim and Steven Richards, Greg Murphy, Shane van Gisbergen and Scott McLaughlin. 

The 23-year-old and his co-driver Garth Tander climbed from 18th to take the title in minimal visibility, sneaking into the lead for the first time when James Golding and Cooper Murray collided wit...

The tourism industry is feeling bullish with business heading back towards being on track post-Covid.  

Visitor arrivals reached 92% of pre-pandemic numbers for August – up on July's 87%.  

Tourism Holdings Chief Executive Grant Webster told Mike Hosking it's the time of year and the success of tourism campaigns working their magic. 

He says growing air capacity and visas being sorted are other momentum points that m...

An expert believes there's still a number of Kiwis returning to New Zealand, despite a falling net migration rate. 

It's fallen to 10,600 for the year to August 2025. 

Overall, Stats NZ figures show migrant arrivals dropped 16% to more than 138 thousand, while departures increased 13% to just under 128 thousand. 

Massey University sociologist Paul Spoonley told Mike Hosking it's still a major net loss, but Kiwis are ...

The components of a Gaza ceasefire agreement seem to be falling into place.  

The heads of the US, Egypt, Turkey, and Qatar have signed off the deal at a summit of world leaders in Egypt. 

Hamas has released 20 living Israeli hostages and four of the 28 deceased in exchange for Israel freeing about two thousand Palestinians.  

CBS Radio's Steve Linde told Mike Hosking the fact the Trump administration's so firmly beh...

The Education Minister's confident successful primary school literacy results aren't just low hanging fruit.

Results from the new phonics literacy programme show 58% of students are at or above expectations after 20 weeks.

More than 40% of students exceeded expectations in Term 3 – more than double the first term.

Erica Stanford says they're tracking where they hoped.

But she told Mike Hosking this couldn't be achieved by just anyo...

I have read the latest KPI's for the Government.

This is the things they are going to do before the end of the year.

"Drag this dump out of the quagmire" would have been my number one, but theirs is introducing new planning legislation to replace the RMA.

Which is no bad thing. But introducing stuff isn't the same as ticking stuff off, is it?  

And in this list, which is 33 "things" long, is part of this Government's image iss...

Turnout in the weekend's local elections has fallen even further this time around.

By the end of Friday, less than 33-percent of Kiwis had cast their vote.

Local Government New Zealand President Sam Broughton - who was unseated as Selwyn Mayor - says we should be aiming for much higher turnout.

He says general elections get double the turnout and we should expect the same for local elections.

Prime Minster Chris Luxon told Mike Hos...

Outgoing three term Selwyn Mayor Sam Broughton says rates increases played a part in his job loss. 

Former Councillor Lydia Gliddon has taken the top spot in the country's fastest growing district, unseating the incumbent.

She unseated the current Local Government NZ President by more than 13,000 - he was seeking a fourth term.

Broughton believes Selwyn's larger than average rates increases contributed to voting behaviour.&nbs...

Assurance for farmers with the latest methane target update. 

The Government's set the 2050 targets to 14 to 24-percent below 2017 levels - which is 24 to 47-percent lower than the previous. 

Federated Farmers President Wayne Langford told Mike Hosking they'd been advocating for lower, but this at least gives farmers a clear direction of travel. 

He says the numbers are scientific rather than idealistic, which is goo...

The annual report by ACC revealed a $1.5billion deficit, taking the total debt up to $13.8billion. 

ACC Chief Executive Megan Main told Mike Hosking that the numbers are improving, but it's a 'big ship to turn around.' 

She said that the costs for services from providers have risen more than inflation, hindering ACC's ability to provide rehabilitation for those who need it. 

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So soybean farmers, like a lot of American farmers, are having a very tough time of it. 

Soybean farmers particularly so because most of their product goes to China. So far this season, China has bought no beans. 

A lot of countries, when they can, are doing business with other countries and avoiding the American tariff regime. 

China in particular is caught up in an ongoing shambles around trade generally, so China ...

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. 

Attention seekers: 1/10 

What a dreadful week as we gave far too much energy to narcissists who masquerade as people with causes, both at sea and on land. 

Noeline: 2/10 

Still nothing. How badly handled can a badly handled scandal be handled? 

Winston Peters: 7/10&nb...

US President Donald Trump's confident the momentum will continue beyond the first phase of a Gaza peace plan.  

The Israeli Government's voting this morning on whether to implement the terms agreed with Hamas yesterday.  

It would see hostages released early next week and Israeli troops withdraw to agreed lines.  

US Correspondent Richard Arnold told Mike Hosking the remaining hostages are believed to be held by spli...

I argued it because I thought it was the right thing to do. 

Winston Peters entered the Fonterra brands sale debate yesterday, I suspect because he thinks there are points to be scored. 

Not because he is wrong, because he isn't, but if you really cared about the sale that Fonterra has been involved with for some period of time, you might have stumped up a bit earlier. 

In a way it's none of our business, neither min...

The Bathurst 1000 returns this weekend. 

The first practice has seen New Zealanders Ryan Wood, Matt Payne, and Andre Heimgartner sit first, fourth and eighth respectively. 

Brodie Kostecki is the current champion, looking to obtain back-to-back victories. 

Former Supercars driver Paul Radisch told Mike Hosking at the end of the day, everything just comes down to luck. 

He says that even if you’re leading the rac...