The Mike Hosking Breakfast

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 minutes 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 om...

The New Plymouth District Council are creating a pothole poll asking people whether the Government should fund maintenance to reverse the decline in the average age and condition of our state highway network. If the poll gets signatures of 10 percent of the electorate nationwide, it will lead to a citizens initiated referenda on state highway maintenance. New Plymouth Mayor Neil Holdom joined the...

Disappointment vaping law changes won't stop new sales near schools and marae. A loophole in the law banning specialist vape stores from setting up within 300 metres of schools or marae from October, exempts dairies and supermarkets. The Health Ministry has confirmed general retailers which don't currently sell vapes can still set up after October 1. Cambridge Middle School Principal Daryl Gibbs t...

Federated Farmers says some North Island maize growers are facing financial disaster after a poor season. It's expected there'll be a 13 percent decrease in the harvest, despite a four percent increase in the size of the planted crop. Vice President Jamie Blennerhassett says weather events have destroyed crops. He says this year has also seen record-high input costs and growers have had to replant...

East Coast residents' direct line to the Prime Minister's office has been cut, following Kiri Allan's resignation. The former Justice Minister has thrown in the towel on both her Cabinet and MP roles after crashing a car while drink driving on Sunday night. Wairoa Mayor Craig Little told Mike Hosking there are no locally based central Government leaders at the moment. He says there's no one to run...

An Auckland councillor is gobsmacked at the spend on lawyers and consultants. The council has paid out $190-million to the Big 4 global accountants and large law firms over the past five years. It's an average cost to ratepayers of more than $100,000 a day. Councillor Mike Lee told Mike Hosking it's deeply troubling and there's been a lack of transparency. He says the scale of spending was hidden...

After missing out on  Lionel Messi , Saudi Arabian football team Al-Hilal made a record €300 million ($535m) bid for  Kylian Mbappé  overnight, an offer which could see the France striker join Cristiano Ronaldo in the oil-rich kingdom. Paris Saint-Germain confirmed the offer for its player and has given Al-Hilal permission to open negotiations directly with Mbappé. The 2018 World Cup winner is in...

The joke story of the weekend was the revelation that DOC, as in the Department of Conservation, is handing out money it doesn’t have to reward people for learning to speak Māori . I say money it doesn’t have because DOC has a multi-million dollar operating shortfall. What makes the story a tragic tale of our times is that there is no actual requirement in any of the jobs they do for there to be M...

Time now to catch up with one of our greatest ever All Blacks, Dan Carter. When he wasn't busy with his NFT company, charity, Chemist Warehouse or his new fragrance - he's been writing a new book. It's called The Art of Winning and is about the next generation of leaders. Dan Carter told Mike Hosking in studio that he doesn't want his rugby career to define him for the rest of his life as he embar...

After their historic win on Thursday, the Football Ferns are taking to the field again tonight in Wellington. The New Zealand side will be going against the Philippines, who lost to Switzerland in their first match on Friday. Former Football Fern Katie Duncan joined the Mike Hosking Breakfast. LISTEN ABOVE   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Former Cabinet Minister Peter Dunne says the next political poll will confirm a trend he's seen developing, over the past few months. Kiri Allan has resigned from the Justice portfolio after crashing a car on Sunday night - she's been charged with careless driving and refusing to accompany police. Police Minister Ginny Andersen is taking over the role. Peter Dunne was also forced to resign as mini...

The Prime Minister admits it hasn't been a great couple of weeks - but he fully believes he can win the election. And Chris Hipkins told Mike Hosking the last 48 hours with Kiri Allan's car crash and the fall-out from it have been very difficult. Hipkins won't say whether the Quay Street gunman should have been behind bars. Two people died and four people remain in hospital in stable conditions, a...

A new kind of eye drops developed in the United States could save people from needing to wear reading glasses. A pharmaceutical company has been granted FDA approval for prescription-only use for the drops, to target blurry near vision. They work by constricting the pupil to increase the depth of focus. The product isn't yet available in New Zealand, but researchers here are set to take a closer l...

A survey has found more than half of doctors think working conditions have worsened, since Te Whatu Ora was established. NZ Women in Medicine surveyed 936 doctors. Only six percent working in primary care and 11 percent in secondary care say they've seen an improvement. Chair Dr Orna McGin told Mike Hosking very few expressed any hope things will improve in the coming year. She says the impression...

The Twitter bird has flown the coop. The platform's logo has officially changed to a white "X" on a black background overnight, replacing the familiar blue bird symbol. It's the latest change by new owner Elon Musk. Greg Smith at Devon Funds Management told Mike Hosking everyone knew the change was coming. He says tweets will now be called 'Xs' - but Musk is still thinking of what to call re-tweet...

There is a debate brewing over housing. We all seem to agree that we have reached the bottom of the market and some places are seeing real life. Spring will help and so will interest rates, once we see that they aren't going up anymore and the Reserve Bank is done with the cash rate. That is still an open question. But the demand for houses is there and then, what if, the National Party come into...

The Government's spent only a fraction of the amount it promised to spend on a meth programme. Last election, it said it'd spend $38-million this Parliamentary term to expand the Te Ara Oranga programme to four thousand more people. But figures released to RNZ show it’s spent less than a fifth of that. It has a 34% harm reduction rate. Methcon Managing Director Dale Kirk told Mike Hosking that the...

Director Christopher Nolan's new blockbuster Oppenheimer is opening old wounds. The film follows the story of its namesake, the father of the atomic bomb Robert Oppenheimer, as he's tasked with creating the deadly nuclear weapon. But Newstalk ZB's US correspondent Richard Arnold told Mike Hosking that the radiation from his work has persisted, and local activists are fighting for recognition. He s...

ACT's new transport ideas are being applauded, but some say the devil is in the details. The party's latest policy announcement promises to replace fuel excise taxes with road tolls, and also includes foreign investment in infrastructure projects. Transporting NZ Interim Chief Executive Dom Kalasih told Mike Hosking that tolling can be a real barrier to use. He says when you look at the Penlink Ro...

The ACT Party's disputing the Police Minister's claims around prison numbers. In an interview on Newstalk ZB, Ginny Andersen claimed the reduction in prison numbers is primarily due to fewer people in prison on driving and low level drug offences like cannabis. However, Stats NZ figures show since 2017 the largest drop was offences against justice procedures, government security, and operations; f...

Winston Peters is refusing to claim any of his party's new policies are bottom lines. New Zealand First's planning to remove GST from fresh foods. It's also promising to adjust income tax brackets to inflation, as well as offering tax incentives. Winston Peters told Mike Hosking that they want to make sure they get to make as much of their policy a reality as possible. He says they've never campai...

Time now to catch up with one of our youngest and brightest in the music scene. Anna Robinson, otherwise known as Robinson , has been in the game since she was a bright eyed 21-year-old releasing her first music in 2017. But it was 2018 that things really picked up and the last time we spoke to her was in 2021. Since then she has changed management, made the move to London and there's new music on...

As we end the week there's a question to be asked as to why, in this election campaign, people support who they support. There was much debate about a year back over the disappointment from some that the Labour Government hadn't been transformational the way Jacinda Ardern had suggested they would be. Things like child poverty and the climate were nuclear moments and crises. And yet, each year pas...

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 All Blacks: 8/10 For a side under a lot of scrutiny and a lot of angst around the coach, being two for two, and the way they did it, is the best start to a World Cup year you could ever ask for.   The Warriors: 8/10 When you think one week they look amazing and then they go...

It was historic win for the Football Ferns last night - as they won New Zealand's first ever match at a FIFA World Cup finals. With a 1-0 score against Norway, in front of a crowd of 42,137 - a record attendance for a football match in New Zealand. Former Football Fern Wendi Henderson joined Mike Hosking to discuss the result and what it means for for the tournament and football in New Zealand. LI...