The Mike Hosking Breakfast

Not perfect, but a good start is the way teachers are describing a potential pay offer. An arbitration panel has recommended secondary teachers get a 14.5 percent increase over three instalments. President of the Deputy Principals' Association Lisa White says she'd like to see other problems like time and workload challenges. She says told Mike Hosking teachers are having to take on more and more...

New research has uncovered how many university staff are working in non-academic roles. The New Zealand Initiative study found there are up to 50 percent more non-academics than academics. Compared to other countries, New Zealand has the highest ratio of non-academic to academic staff. Research fellow and Victoria University professor Dr James Kierstead says they're not recommending universities j...

There was no shortage of irony on Friday as UN boss Antonio Guterres, who might just suffer from a dose of alarmism, was declaring global boiling. It was also announced by the International Energy Agency that the world this year is using more coal than ever, and there are no real signs of that changing. Guterres says a lot of alarmist stuff and my fear is that this sort of language turns people of...

Questions are being raised over whether interest for the Women's World Cup will remain high now the Football Ferns have been knocked out. The Ferns had a goalless draw with Switzerland in Dunedin last night but needed a win to get through to the last 16. The match was watched by nearly 26 thousand at Forsyth Barr stadium, the largest ever football crowd in the region. Newstalk ZB's Jason Pine told...

Criteria for the Government's support schemes for homeowners is being tweaked. Changes to the Progressive Home Ownership programme will allow eligible people to buy existing homes, instead of just new builds. The income cap is also rising, from $130,000 to $150,000. Queenstown Lakes Community Housing Trust Executive Officer Julie Scott told Mike Hosking that they welcome the lifting of the cap. Sh...

The tourism sector is focusing on the future a year after borders were fully opened following the pandemic. Tourism Industry Aotearoa Chief Executive Rebecca Ingram says last summer was a good start, producing two-thirds of the pre-Covid tourism numbers. Ingram says they knew it wouldn't be a quick switch and she expects it could take a couple of years to get back to normal. She told Mike Hosking...

The National Party has announced that if it is elected to govern at the general election, four-lane highways from Whangārei to Tauranga will be built at a cost of $6 billion. However, critics have hit back, claiming the data used for the cost estimate is “laughable at best”. The four projects are: Whangārei to Port Marsden - $1.3b and to start in the next one to three years. Warkworth to Wellsford...

A GST expert says it is possible to remove the tax from fruit and veges, but whether it's good policy is another question. National's Nicola Willis claims it's part of Labour's election tax policy, that's been leaked to her. Labour won't confirm or deny it. Deloitte GST specialist Allan Bullot told Mike Hosking we can make rules to do just about anything, but it might not be the best use of resour...

We've got another successful kiwi artist looking to make waves in the solo music game. You might not know the name Thomas Powers but you will know the band - he's one half of 'The Naked and Famous', the multi award winning electronic band. But now Thomas has decided to go out on his own and release some solo music, following in the footsteps of his bandmate Xayalith. Thomas joined Mike Hosking fro...

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.   Kiri Allan: 2/10 "Not for her specifically, because we wish her the best. But for what it represents." What Kiri Allan Represents for Labour : 1/10 "It's now beyond a joke. It's Lange-esque. It's what you see when the wheels have completely come off." Labour's Wheels Coming Com...

Surely, Grant Robertson has to quit. Although David Parker resigning from Revenue had a touch of the tantrum about it, it had also an element of principle as well. If you believe in something substantive like wealth tax, and the rug is pulled out from under you, you can do one of two things. One, be like Grant Robertson, ex express disappointment but say you are a team player, grit your teeth, and...

All Blacks coach Ian Foster spoke to Mike Hosking about tomorrow night's Bledisloe Cup test against the Wallabies. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How is your emotional quality of life now, with 100 being perfect and 0 being the worst imaginable? That single question could be all GPs need to differentiate if they should be treating patients for a health issue or a mood issue. A study has found when asked that question patients who rated their emotional quality of life as less than 60 indicated a mood issue was likely to exist. Study author a...

Social media giant META argues its platforms don't cause greater political polarization. Researchers have been given access to three months worth of data, during the 2020 US Presidential election. It shows Facebook and Instagram feed users more content which supports their political views. Victoria University AI lecturer Andrew Lensen says the platforms are designed to keep people engaged, and one...

An economic expert says homeowners are disproportionately feeling the pain of the cost of living crisis. Latest figures from Stats NZ show the average household's cost of living increased 7.2%in the year to June. The official inflation rate for the period was six percent, but interest payments went up 28%. New Zealand Initiative Executive Director Oliver Hartwich told Mike Hosking there's been a d...

While everyone that might hold any level of responsibility and accountability ducks for cover under the old "there is an inquiry going on, so let's see how that goes” line, here's what I have learned out of last Thursday's killings in Auckland. Firstly a week on, how quickly we move on. Once we hit the weekend I made a conscious note to keep checking each day on coverage. Who was saying what, how...

Europe Correspondent Catherine Field talked to Mike Hosking about the latest with wildfires, the impact it will have on tourism, and the EU getting tough on mobile manufacturers. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in New Zealand for his first official visit. And it seems instead of Hipkins doing the honours of showing him around; our Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta is taking the reins of the bi-lateral meeting. International relations professor at Otago University Robert Patman told the visit will be short, but it is significant. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listene...

In the past few months we have seen a record amount of interest in small businesses from potential buyers, but actual sales of small businesses is down nearly 10% in that same period. It seems people like to look but they aren't actually willing to put their money where their mouth is. Managing director of ABC Business Sales Chris Small talked to Mike Hosking. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/liste...

How many times have you had to prove you aren't a robot with those little puzzles that ask you to click on boxes with all the bikes in them? Well those annoying little riddles are called Captcha tests. And these tests don't do a great job of stopping the actual bots, but finally better technology could be coming. One suggestion is for our computers to solve a puzzle to prove you are human, without...

The Government has done a U-turn on the settings of the Emissions Trading Scheme. The change is following an order from the High Court to Climate Change Minister James Shaw to reconsider the original settings, due to a collapse in carbon prices. Climate change minister and Green Party co-leader James Shaw talked to Mike Hosking. LISTEN ABOVE. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

More children are living in poverty than ever before. Ministry of Social development figures shows more than 200,000 children are living in benefit-dependent homes. The National Party says as the recession bites it's likely to get worse. Spokesperson for Child Poverty Louise Upston told Mike Hosking benefit dependency has spiralled out of control. She says there's no excuse when there are employer...

There was a fascinating poll off the back of yesterday's comment on this show around DOC paying employees to learn Māori . To recap, you get $3500 if you speak Māori but it's not necessary for the job. No job is not done because of a language issue. It's merely part of the public services desire, driven by Government demand, that we introduce a level of Māoridom that, in theory, addresses past wro...

Claim and counter-claim in the ongoing political debate over Kiri Allan. The Labour front-bencher has resigned from Cabinet and is leaving politics, after crashing her car on Sunday night while she was over the legal alcohol limit. This morning on the Mike Hosking Breakfast National's Mark Mitchell told Labour Party Campaign Chair Megan Woods her job of winning the election has just become harder....

In a stressful encounter for Kiwis - the Football Ferns lost to the Philippines last night in Wellington, with a final score of 0 -1 to the Philippines. The Ferns fell behind to a 23rd minute goal and despite several chances they just couldn't seem to get on the scoreboard. Former All White Fred de Jong joined Mike Hosking to discuss what went wrong for the New Zealand side. LISTEN ABOVE   See omn...