The Mike Hosking Breakfast

The fuel tax subsidy extension has alleviated fears from the trucking sector. Prime Minister Chris Hipkins yesterday announced the fuel price subsidy, and half-priced public transport fares will be extended until the end of June. The extension, originally due to end in March, is estimated to cost $718 million. Prior to the extension, trucking groups said that had it ended in March, consumers would...

New figures are laying bare the failings of Oranga Tamariki. The Independent Children's Monitor has found the agency is placing a third of children into care, before completing caregiver assessments. Social workers are only making 29 percent of their planned visits to children in care. Executive Director Arran Jones told Mike Hosking these children come into care because their home life is unstabl...

If you are looking for work, there is still one job left at the highest level of the Three Waters structure. They have announced they have appointed three of the four chief executives to lead what they have gloriously called Entity A, Entity B and you can guess the rest. Here are several questions for you: Who in their right mind would want to work for Three Waters? In signing on now, do you even...

Simon Bridges is calling on the new Minister of Auckland, to listen to the concerns of businesses in our largest city. Mount Roskill MP Michael Wood is taking on the new portfolio. The senior minister was previously an Auckland Council local board member, and is the husband of an Auckland councillor. Auckland Business Chamber Chief Executive and former National Leader Simon Bridges told Mike Hoski...

Principals are welcoming the appointment of one of their own, to the role of Minister of Education. Jan Tinnetti is replacing Chris Hipkins in the portfolio. The former Associate Education Minister has decades of experience as a teacher and principal in Tauranga. Principals' Federation President Leanne Otene told Mike Hosking she's a great appointment. She says Tinetti has a deep understanding of...

Airlines will working to clear the backlog at Auckland Airport as quickly as possible. Air New Zealand Chief Customer and Sales Officer Leanne Geraghty told Mike Hosking the national carrier is making good progress. “What we have moved to now is actually the second layer of the response which is to bring people forward onto new flights.” LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy informa...

Aucklanders are being warned to remain alert for ongoing dangers, as this morning's heavy rain starts to ease. Red and Orange Heavy Rain Warnings remain in effect for Auckland, Great Barrier Island, the Coromandel Peninsula, the Bay of Plenty, and the northern Gisborne District. Auckland and Northland remain in a state of emergency, with emergency services receiving dozens of calls for assistance....

The new Minister of Health is keen to reduce hospital waiting lists. Ayesha Verrall is taking over the portfolio previously held by Andrew Little. Latest figures from the national health agency, Te Whatu Ora, show about 30,000 people were overdue elective surgery at the end of October. Verrall told Mike Hosking she'll be going back to the taskforce Little set up to investigate the issue. She says...

Brace for turn-around in the labour market. Stats NZ is due reveal announce the latest official unemployment rate later this morning. Some economists expect it remain unchanged, while some expect to it drop to a new record low. But ANZ Economist Finn Robinson told Mike Hosking it won't necessarily reflect what will happen over the coming year. He says there will likely be a softening of the labour...

To be honest, there are a lot of other things I want to be talking about, and we will try and get to them all later. But the Auckland mess, which may or may not be a bigger mess as of today or tomorrow, depending on the forecast, and its accuracy is starting to take on a life of its own. Schools are closed until next week - is that an overreaction? We have any number of inquiries and apologies fro...

It's fair to say it's been a tumultuous first two years of Joe Biden’s presidency. What started with approval ratings in the 50s with an economy on the rise turned into record high fuel prices and inflation, withdrawal from Afghanistan, a Republican power grab in the midterms that semi-worked and the majority of his party's independents not wanting him to go for a second term. No one may have more...

There would have been a sigh of relief last night. Not just from the Labour Party, but in the two newsrooms who put the polls out. It's rare two polls come out on the same day, and last time it happened they didn’t match, and therefore you had no idea who was accurate or not. The two this week show pretty much the same thing - Labour get the predictable bump from a leadership change, which althoug...

How does a glass of wine with a side of altitude sound? Kiwi wine company Invivo are offering a chartered wine flight from Auckland to Queenstown. While in the air, guests will enjoy a tasting onboard before the decent into Queenstown where they will go on a vineyard tour, setting passengers back $1,149 per person. Invivo founder Tim Lightbourne joined Mike Hosking. LISTEN ABOVE   See omnystudio.c...

Schools and tertiary institutions across Auckland have been told not hold in-person classes this week. Auckland Primary Principals' Association Vice President Kyle Brewerton says told Mike Hosking while the directive was last minute, it makes sense. “You’ve still got a huge number of roads and infrastructure that is needing sorting, then we need to give time and space for that to happen without an...

Christopher Luxon isn't too worried about Labour's latest uptick in the polls. Two new polls, released last night, show support for Labour has surged since Chris Hipkins took over from Jacinda Ardern as leader. In both polls, Labour is up about five points to 38 percent, and National is trailing by about one point. The National leader told Mike Hosking the scale of the poll change is a bit unexpec...

Just as building supply demand was heading back towards normal, more than 9000 insurance claims have now been made following the Auckland flooding, a large proportion of which will be for building repairs. The building sector is already stretched and there are concerns as to whether we have capacity to handle more. Chairperson of the Combined Building Supplies co-op Carl Taylor joined Mike Hosking...

Some MPs will be getting a promotion when Chris Hipkins unveils his Cabinet reshuffle this afternoon. Senior Political Correspondent Barry Soper says Hipkins will keep Grant Robertson in Finance, and Andrew Little is determined to keep Health. But he told Mike Hosking some new faces will also pick up portfolios, like Chief Whip Duncan Webb. He says Webb could be given the Conservation role, and De...

Aucklanders are being warned to remain cautious and prepared, ahead of another onslaught of heavy rain. Red Heavy Rain Warnings are now in effect, for dangerous heavy rain in Northland and northern Auckland from this morning, and the Coromandel Peninsula from this evening. Orange Heavy Rain Warnings have been issued for the rest of Auckland and Bay of Plenty. Auckland is still under a state of eme...

The ashes of five New Zealanders —and 42 others— are about to be blasted off into space. New Zealand start-up Stardust Me has sold spaces on one of Elon Musk's Space-X rockets for families who want to send their loved one's ashes into the stratosphere. The rocket was due to take-off this morning, but it's now been delayed until tonight. Co-founder Stu Potter says that the ashes are being put into...

Time now for Chris Hipkins to show us what he's made of. He's done what was required of him and showed up in Auckland over the weekend, now his role is to butt out and leave the rest of the job to the people who know what they're doing. What the Prime Minister has to get stuck into now is the more serious business of getting the country back on track. Or as he'll see it, getting Labour back on tra...

Auckland's Mayor was on a hiding to nothing with Friday's freak weather event. He's copped criticism from a lot of quarters over the timing of the emergency declaration, but Wayne Brown insists it wouldn't have been appropriate for him to do anything sooner than he did. “This is a formal process," he said. "It's not to be taken lightly, I've listened to the professionals in the field." And then he...

The weather danger certainly isn't over yet in Auckland. Our largest city remains in a state of emergency this morning after another night of heavy rain and more on the way. Four homes in the west Auckland suburb of Titirangi have been evacuated due to further slips, and fire crews have been been busy with about 30 rescues and call-outs overnight. About 45 arterial routes and local roads are close...

Metereologists say the severe weather is being caused by an "atmospheric river". NIWA Principal Scientist Chris Brandolino told Tim Dower that that "river" is actually a high mass of moisture in the air, stretching all the way to New Caledonia. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The evacuations are continuing in Auckland after another night of heavy rain. Auckland remains in a state of emergency, with an Orange Heavy Rain Warning and Heavy Thunderstorm Warning still in effect. Fire crews have been been busy with about 30 rescues and call-outs overnight, and four homes in the west Auckland suburb of Titirangi have been evacuated due to further slips. At least 30 homes have...

The Waihou River has burst its banks north of Te Aroha, blocking State Highway 26. And in the Coromandel Peninsula, people are being urged to stay off the roads until further notice, with extensive road closures in effect. State Highway 25 is closed between Coromandel Town and Whitianga. And Thames Coromandel Mayor Len Salt told Tim Dower that State Highway 25A between Kopu to Hikuai is likely to...