The Mike Hosking Breakfast

Potential knock-on impacts here in New Zealand after the second biggest bank failure in US history. US regulators have seized the assets of Silicon Valley Bank after customers rushed to withdraw money. Rocket Lab has about 62-million New Zealand dollars in the bank -- about 7.9 percent of its total cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities. Devon Funds Management's Greg Smith told Mike Hos...

Health, as it so often has over the years, is shaping up to be a nightmare for the Government come election time. Yesterday's Emergency Department numbers, that were so farcical no one believes them, ends a couple of weeks of absolute disaster for a Government that will go to the vote with nothing more than an ideological rejig of head office to show for hundreds of millions of dollars in upheaval...

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.   ED numbers: 2/10 Scandal of the week. Numbers so implausible that no one believes them and yet Minister Verrall used them to spruik progress in waiting times.   The immigration scam: 2/10 When it came to nurses and midwives next to no one turned up. Proving, yet again, we misse...

Patients in New Zealand's emergency departments are labelling wait times 'agonising'. Data comparing 2017 to 2022 shows the severity of the situation; during that period patients to Palmerston North Hospital saw a 126 percent jump in wait times. Auckland City Hospital has seen a 98 percent rise. Meanwhile, Te Whatu Ora is working to correct a more recent set of "real time" emergency wait time data...

Next week's teacher strike comes in the wake of mass frustration in the profession. Both secondary and primary teachers will hit the streets next Thursday in one of our country's biggest ever strikes. It will affect 50,000 educators. NZEI President Mark Potter says conditions are a bigger factor in the strike than pay. He told Mike Hosking teaching is not an attractive profession anymore. LISTEN A...

A New Zealand chemist is on the brink of history, with her breakthrough treatment for Rett Syndrome. Distinguished Professor Dame Margaret Brimble and her team has been working on the drug for 20 years. They expect to hear within days whether their treatment Trofinetide has been granted final approval by the US Food and Drug Administration. Brimble told Mike Hosking it'll be a life changer for bab...

A medical expert is blaming chronic under-funding for emergency care delays. Figures released under the Official Information Act show 32 out of 37 Te Whatu Ora emergency departments have faced a jump in patient waiting times. Spanning over five years to 2022, hospitals have faced a rise of up to 126 percent in the time people are spending in the waiting room. Northcare A&E Director Peter Boot...

National says build to rent housing should be playing a larger part in the New Zealand housing market. The party has announced plans to fast-track legislation for build to rent housing. It would amend the Overseas Investment Act, making it easier for foreign developers to invest in the market Build-to-rent developments would also be eligible for depreciation deductions. Housing spokesperson Chris...

Can we call the public service neutrality issue a shambles? I think we can. So, Rob Campbell gets sacked because Rob is a off-piste on social media. Steve Maharey doesn’t get sacked because he's off-piste in a column he writes. And Ruth Dyson may or may not get sacked because she's off-piste due to having never read the rules. Dyson is the funniest of the lot. Not only didn’t she read the rules bu...

A popular celebrity weight loss jab will be rolled out in the UK's NHS in a few weeks. It will be available for people who have a BMI of 35, meaning they are morbidly obese. The weekly jab Wegovy works by hijacking your brain to suppress appetite. Twitter owner Elon Musk uses the drug, while Kim Kardashian is rumoured to use it. Warwick University's Associate Clinical Professor Steven Lawrence tol...

Morgan Wallen’s journey to music stardom has been unlike so many others. The country music star joined Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking this morning and told him that he “never dreamed” his music career would take off the way it did. What started as a brief stint on reality television grew into a successful music career with multiple chart-topping singles and the only country album in the 64-year histor...

Are people about to jump across the ditch? Dozens of Queensland Tourism representatives are taking a trade roadshow to New Zealand. The aim of the trip is to keep Queensland top of mind with trade partners in order to convert demand for travel into actual bookings. Tourism and Events Queensland Consumer PR and Marketing leader Shelley Winkel joined Mike Hosking. LISTEN ABOVE     See omnystudio.com...

A former trade negotiator says companies shouldn't rely completely on China. New briefings seen by Newstalk ZB's newsroom reveal the Government is worried foreign powers may use economic issues to back us into a corner. It shows trade officials have been widening the country's portfolio to strengthen resilience against economic coercion. Charles Finny told Mike Hosking the Chinese economy isn't gr...

Civil servants are being urged to remain neutral in the wake of politically-charged comments and public sackings. Deputy Chair of Fire and Emergency and the Earthquake Commission Ruth Dyson is the latest to face the heat. The former Port Hills MP admitted she hadn't read her code of conduct -- her Twitter bio reads she's 'still Labour.' Pharmac Chair Steve Maharey has retained his job despite offe...

New Zealand is struggling to compete against Australia when it comes to attracting midwives from other parts of the world. Newstalk ZB can reveal almost 200 nurses, midwives and specialist doctors have been approved for the straight-to-residence pathway since they became eligible in mid-December. But only three of them are midwives; one who was already here, and two who are yet to arrive. College...

There is a key line in the latest ANZ Business Outlook survey that may well mean some of our predictions around inflation sadly come true. The line is "in New Zealand, services inflation had also continued to build even as the global inflation pulse starts to fade; domestically generated inflation and our super tight labour market will keep the pressure on the Reserve Bank to remain tough on infla...

Insistence from a senior cabinet minister that the Rob Campbell and Steve Maharey situations are completely different. The Government is taking advice on whether to accept the resignation of former Cabinet minister Maharey, now the Pharmac and ACC Chair, over his politically-charged opinion columns. He isn't expected to face the same fate as Campbell, who was fired as Te Whatu Ora's Board Chair ov...

Harry Styles took the stage last night for 40,000 fans at Mt Smart Stadium, with many dressed in feather boas. In amongst his favourites, the 29-year-old made sure to remind his fans to do their Census. Super-fan Mia Pickering waited for something like 14 hours for Styles to take the stage. She told Mike Hosking it was a night to remember. Harry Styles flew out of the country straight after the co...

The Government is confident it's on the right track to deliver, despite tough economic times ahead. Net debt is $3.5 billion less than expected, at $70.5 billion in the seven month period to January 31. Finance Minister Grant Robertson told Mike Hosking a large number of countries are expected to end up in recession. He believes if New Zealand does, it'll be shallow and the country will come out s...

Game-changing drugs for people with lung cancer. Pharmac has announced its funding of Keytruda and Tecentriq. Those with locally advanced and metastatic non-small cell lung cancer are able to access it from next month. The disease is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in New Zealand. Director of operations Lisa Williams told Mike Hosking there hasn't been treatment for lung cancer in New Z...

A road safety campaigner has lambasted Waka Kotahi over its failure to meet median barrier targets. A Road to Zero target aims to have 1000km of median barriers by 2030, but is projected to fall short by half. But the agency has surpassed its target of assessing speeds on 10,000km of road. Motorsport champion and road safety advocate Greg Murphy told Mike Hosking all he's seen from Waka Kotahi is...

Rob Campbell says he has no confidence in Health Minister Ayesha Verrall to make the right decision about Steve Maharey's future. The Government is getting advice on whether to accept the resignation of the Pharmac and ACC Chair, after he wrote politically-charged opinion columns. Verrall fired Campbell as Te Whatu Ora Health NZ Board Chair last week, for criticising the Opposition on social media...

More technology hubs could help pave a way forward in addressing communication black-outs during large storms. Some New Zealanders were left in the lurch when critical communication links broke during Cyclone Gabrielle. Earlier, a technical glitch hit ANZ, holding up overnight payments and leaving customers without access to internet banking. Rush Digital chief customer officer Terry Williams-Will...

There it was. At 7 o'clock yesterday morning Michael Wood, the lover of trains and cycleways, was on this programme waxing lyrical about the new spending priorities for our transport system. I asked him whether it was more important to get a cycleway up or give Coromandel Highway 25A back. He said they were doing both, which of course isn't remotely true. We were told just this time yesterday that...

Everyone staying in New Zealand tonight, aside from those impacted by Cyclone Gabrielle, are legally required to complete their Census forms today.  As of this morning, more than 1.4 million people have returned an Individual Form. The Census collection period for the affected areas has been extended until June first. Stats NZ Deputy Chief Executive Simon Mason told Mike Hosking they're working on...