The Mike Hosking Breakfast

Tsunami sirens are still being stolen in Auckland. Auckland Council has revealed 21 siren units have been stolen from sites across the city since the last update in October. That brings the total number of thefts to 52 since May last year, with all newly reported thefts reported to Police. It's suspected the units are being used for 'siren battles'. Sirening is the subculture that sees music playe...

It is more common to see kids with an iPad in their hands than without them nowadays. And according to new research higher levels of screen time in children has been linked to poorer developmental outcomes. With children aged between nine months to five years old that spend more time on screens scoring lower on measures of language and educational ability, but higher on parent-reported peer proble...

Auckland Mayor  Wayne Brown  has made a last-minute bid to build support for a $2.3 billion sale of the council’s airport shares ahead of releasing his final budget proposal today. Councillors were called to two confidential meetings yesterday, one in the morning on the sale of the airport shares and one yesterday afternoon to discuss a draft of the mayor’s final budget proposal. Brown will releas...

Increasing concern has come that the forestry sector isn't being run in a sustainable way, with businesses on the chopping block. A 23-year-old business is shutting up shop due to a raft of troubles, including rising costs, slim margins and export log prices continuing to fall. Stubbs Contracting owner Robert Stubbs told Mike Hosking it's been a slippery slope for the last three years, since Covid...

Cost of Living pressures don't look like they are abating anytime soon but we may actually just be acclimatising to our new norms. The latest Centrix credit indicator shows that for the first time in eight months, there's been a reversal of the increase of arrears in home lending or mortgages. Arrears were sitting at 11.8 per cent in march but have now dropped to 11.3 per cent with a decline in th...

A victims' advocate says her experience is that there is more crime happening. The number of people charged with non-traffic offences has halved since 2009. The Herald analysis found between 2017 and 2022 the total number of people charged and convicted for all offences dropped by a quarter. That number fell the most under Sir John Key's National party governments - and rose the most under Helen C...

If you are a regular to this show, then you will know my interest in the Jan Tinetti scandal.   There is not a shadow of a doubt in my mind, or I suspect anyone who has followed this, that she misled Parliament.   It has been going on for several weeks now and her conduct has, at last, caught up with her. You could argue this is a bit beltway - and it is. But it's important because it is represent...

Some good news has come for the screen production industry with the Government proposing a tweak to the current Screen Production Grant, starting with a name change to the screen production rebate. The say the rebate will be made simpler, more competitive and easier to access. This includes the post-production, digital and visual rebate returning to a flat rate of 20 per cent, and the qualifying e...

Air New Zealand's boss isn't taking its latest award for granted. The company has been crowned AirlineRatings.com's Airline of the Year, beating the last winner Qatar Airways. Air New Zealand Chief Executive, Greg Foran told Mike Hosking there's still more for them to work on. He says they'll reflect on the win, but he wouldn't say the airline is fully back to normal following the pandemic. LISTEN...

National's U-turn on housing density is one of many factors leading developers to put their projects on ice. The party has pulled out of its bi-partisan agreement with Labour, confirming it will allow councils to opt out of legislation allowing three-storey homes on most residential land. Subdivide Simplify Head of Strategy Troy Patchett says it will put developers off making decisions. But he tol...

It has been hard to keep up with the National Party's ever-changing opinion on bilingual road signs. But after their clarification the party does in fact support the te reo Māori   signs, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins is now accusing them of dog whistling. National Party leader Christopher Luxon joined Mike Hosking to respond to the Prime Minister's comments. LISTEN ABOVE   See omnystudio.com/liste...

Disappointment at the idea of hiking fuel taxes. Treasury warns rising costs in the transport sector and a large loan granted to Waka Kotahi may mean an increase in Fuel Excise Duty and Road User Charges is needed. It says they may need to go up from July 1 next year. National Road Carriers Chief Executive Justin Tighe-Umbers told Mike Hosking first we need to spend on what's essential - and then...

Surrogacy laws are set to be updated to move with the times. Currently, parents have to adopt their child using adoption laws, which are 70 years old. The changes remove the need for parents to adopt their child born by surrogacy, establish a register for babies and provide clarity over payments surrogates receive from parents. Wellington Fertility Associates Medical Director Simon McDowell told M...

What possible, sensible, and the key word here is 'sensible', reason can there be to introduce Māori road signs? The idea is out for consultation as we speak. I wonder how much of a rort that is. Is there really consultation? Is anyone actually listening? Or is it a smokescreen to pretend they asked a few people? The simple truth is the vast majority of us don’t speak Māori. So, in a sheer practic...

The King of Christmas albums is coming back to our shores. Grammy award winning Michael Bublé is on the road and will be here this June as part of the Higher Tour . The songs will mostly be from his album Higher which was out last year, along with the classics mixed in. He's playing at Spark Arena in Auckland and Michael Bublé joined Mike Hosking. LISTEN ABOVE   See omnystudio.com/listener for pri...

At the end of last year Tauranga City Council re-introduced paid on-street parking. But it ended up meaning less people were coming into the City Centre and therefore reduced spending at local businesses, so to get business back, the free parking is returning during weekends and after 5pm on weekdays. General Manager of City Development and Partnerships at Tauranga City Council Gareth Wallis joine...

In September, the UK's Metropolitan Police will officially stop attending emergency calls related to mental health incidents. Police are not trained to deliver mental health care but UK police officers are estimated to spend 20-40 per cent of their time dealing with such incidents. With rising police call outs to mental health related issues here, questions have been asked as to whether it time we...

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins says legislation currently before select committee will introduce tougher penalties for those who flee police. But he told Mike Hosking it may not be passed before the election. "We are running out of time in terms of the overall legislative programme, there's no question about that. There's a lot of legislation before Parliament at the moment. I'm sure this will be a...

Beef and Lamb are forecasting a 30 per cent decrease in average farm profit. A new report shows on farm inflation is at 16.7 per cent, which the highest it has been in 40 years and is two and a half times the consumer price inflation rate. Beef and Lamb NZ Chief Executive Sam McIvor joined Mike Hosking. LISTEN ABOVE   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Police Association says changes to the fleeing drivers policy is bigger than just pursuits. The new Fleeing Driver Framework gives officers more scope to pursue offenders. Under current policy, numbers of people failing to stop for police rose 106 percent. Police Association President Chris Cahill told Mike Hosking the public wants more police out there on the streets full stop. He says they w...

Why wait until 3am to party on Auckland's Karangahape Road when you can smell like it 24-7? The limited edition perfume "Road by Karangahape" is being dubbed 'K Road in a bottle - with notes of dance floor sweat, nicotine, and wet concrete. Motion Sickness’ executive Creative Director Sam Stuchbury says that the scent's quite musky and has the atmosphere of the notorious road. The perfume will be...

A bit of good news for the National Party over the weekend. The attack came from Labour that we are going to be $100 worse off under National. The word poor is used. It's very deliberately emotive, the word poor. What is 'poor'? Who is poor? Who decides? Anyway, we will see a bit of this in the campaign, the rich vs poor divide. The idea is to create envy - if you don’t have it, you don't want oth...

National says it'll give central government "reserve powers" if councils don't deal with housing intensification the way it wants. The party has confirmed it will allow councils to opt-out of legislation which allows for high density housing on all residential land. Last week, leader Chris Luxon said his party was wrong to join the Government for a bi-partisan commitment to greater housing intensi...

A positive reaction in the trades followed the Government's promise to make its Apprenticeship Boost scheme permanent. The programme —which was introduced during the pandemic— was set to finish this year. It pays employers 500 dollars per month for the first two years of an apprenticeship to support training their employees. Registered Master Builders Federation Chief Executive David Kelly told Mi...

The Speaker of the Republican controlled US House of Representatives believes that changes to a deal to lift the debt ceiling will be transformational. Kevin McCarthy and US President Joe Biden have agreed in principle on a plan to raise debt in order to pay the country's bills. US correspondent Richard Arnold says that in reality the changes are small. He says there's a bit more Defense, less for...