The Mike Hosking Breakfast

Pushes for systemic change, as high suicide rates among doctors are highlighted. Today's New Zealand Medical Journal editorial discusses burnout, depression and anxiety being extremely common in the profession. It suggests a reduction in workload and improved teamwork, appear to be most effective at improving doctors' mental health. Psychiatrist and co-author, Roger Mulder, says the creation of Te...

More and more farm land is being turned into forestry. An independent report commissioned by Beef + Lamb New Zealand has found more than 52-thousand hectares was bought by forestry interests in 2021. That's a 36 percent increase on the previous two years. Beef + Lamb Chief Executive, Sam McIvor, says over the past six years the country has lost 775-million dollars worth of export income. He says t...

The fair pay law is another of those ideas that has come to fruition that in and of itself won't swing a vote. It's sort of like the media merger. You might not think much of it but you are not going to protest or swap your vote because of it. It's no Three Waters. And to be fair to the government, it is the sort of thing you would expect them to do. They're promoting unions and unionisation is a...

Christopher Luxon is taking a break from serving up policies today, to serve up burgers. He's going back to his first ever job, working a shift at Merivale McDonalds in response to the current low employment figures and worker shortages. New Zealand's unemployment rate is at 3.2 percent, with 50-thousand people on work benefits. The National party leader told Mike Hosking that the importance of a...

Ian Callum is one of the most famous and successful names in car design. He grew up wanting to be a car engineer - after falling in love with a Jaguar E-Type. Since the 1980’s he has worked for Jaguar, Ford, and Aston Martin. He designed the Jaguar XK, XJ, plus the famed Aston Martin DB 7, 9, and Vanquish. He's in New Zealand to celebrate 100 years of Jaguar, joining Mike Hosking in the studio tod...

The voice of college rugby says the decision to stop live broadcasting of school rugby is incomprehensible. Principals of schools competing in Auckland's 1A First XV competition, have made the decision to block live broadcasting of games from next year. The decision was made with an emphasis on player wellbeing, saying the boys are subject to unhealthy scrutiny on and off the pitch. Commentator Ke...

The pressure is coming on home owners. A new forecast from the country's largest bank, ANZ, suggests house prices will fall to 18-percent of the peaks reached last year. When recent wage inflation is taken into account, the fall will be about 27-percent. ANZ Chief Economist Sharon Zollner told Mike Hosking that at the same time, interest rates are likely to keep rising -- with the Official Cash Ra...

The Police Association isn't surprised by a gang leader's conviction on drugs charges. The second-in-charge of a Waikato gang chapter that had been taking a tough stance against meth, has admitted importing and selling "commercial quantities" of the drug. Stuff reports Mark Anthony Griffiths from the Waikato Mongrel Mob Kingdom has pleaded guilty to charges of importing, possessing and supplying m...

More than four-thousand primary care nurses will strike today, seeking pay parity. Nurses Organisation members claim primary health care and Plunket nurses earn around 20 percent less than their Health New Zealand counterparts, despite doing the same work. They will walk off the job for four hours today in hopes to bring attention to the value primary health care nurses bring. GP Owners Associatio...

I assume you saw the story of the poor old 80-year-old woman in New Plymouth who has been put into hotels by her family to give her a break from her Kainga Ora neighbours. The claim is she has been terrorised. These stories aren't new. Earlier this year we got the revelation that the agency had not evicted anyone despite behaviour no normal person would even come close to tolerating. If this Gover...

MPs Michael Wood and Mark Mitchell joined the Mike Hosking Breakfast to wrap the week's political news. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

An expert says low immigration numbers have contributed to a population decline in most regions. StatsNZ figures show populations declined in Auckland, Wellington, Nelson, West Coast, and Southland in the year to June. Internal migration, people moving around the country, is the main driver of population change in 12 of the 16 regions. Massey University sociology professor, Paul Spoonley says more...

Business New Zealand is poking holes in the proposed Fair Pay Agreements legalisation. The rules mean if a thousand employees, or 10 percent of a workforce, agree to start the collective bargaining process, that process is automatically triggered. The Fair Pay Agreements legislation is expected to pass its third reading in Parliament later today. Business New Zealand Chief Executive Kirk Hope told...

The decision by Adidas to cut ties with Kanye West is expected to cost them both. The German clothing giant has dropped the rapper after he made anti-Semitic comments on social media, which saw his Twitter and Instagram suspended. Ye is no longer a billionaire and Adidas is expected to lose around 430-million dollars, and their shares have fallen by 8 percent. US correspondent Richard Arnold told...

The decision yesterday to grant four Uber drivers workplace protection as employees may have been greeted with celebrations by some, but it was short lived. Uber will appeal the decision, but the wider conversation now turns to the gig economy companies and contractors and what this will mean for them. Max Whitehead is an employment relations expert and he joined Mike Hosking. LISTEN ABOVE See omn...

So Te Whatu Ora, or Health New Zealand, has completed its first big taskforce review and has found a solution to help cut surgery wait times. 101 recommendations have been made, some of these recommendations are already in place, but some, Health NZ says, could take years to implement. National director of the Nurses’ Society, David Wills, joined Mike Hosking. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/liste...

Preliminary data shows students are failing to meet minimum writing standards. Data from trials of the NCEA literacy and numeracy tests prove students from lower-decile schools are falling behind, as only two percent of decile 1 students passed the exam's writing section. Some say income inequality's to blame,  as well over half of learners from higher-decile schools passed the writing standards....

A 100-year-old grandstand at Christchurch’s Riccarton Racecourse is set to be demolished. Canterbury Jockey Club has been granted permission to bowl over the historic grandstand, despite opposition from heritage campaigners. The club sought approval to knock down the stand because repairing it would send the club into financial ruin. Chief executive Tim Mills told Mike Hosking the stand has seen s...

I like people who put it simply. Hancock Prospecting said it is unnecessary for sports organisations to be used as the vehicle for social and political purposes. Hancock Prospecting was, the emphasis on was, the sponsor of Netball Australia. It was a $15 million deal that got pulled by the head of the company, Gina Rinehart. As we explained last week, sport these days is less about sport and more...

In the end, all of Boris Johnson’s bluster couldn’t hide the facts: He didn’t have the votes to win the Conservative Party leadership contest and stage a political comeback just weeks after being forced out as prime minister. The former Tory leader raced back from his Caribbean holiday to test the waters and try to garner the support of enough MPs to proceed to the next round. But as British media...

Andrew Saville and Guy Heveldt joined the Mike Hosking Breakfast to wrap the long weekend's sport. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Since the clean car rebate came into effect of April this year, $35 million has been paid out to buyers of Teslas - which have a starting price of about $70,000. And while subsidising Teslas, the Government has taxed farmers and tradies who currently have no alternative vehicle option to do their job. National spokesperson for Transport, Simeon Brown, joined Mike Hosking. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystud...

Doctors are delaying their retirement due to the current workforce shortages. Medical Council data shows the average age of doctors is 52 for 2022 -  up from 48 in 2005. At least 50 percent of GPs plan on retiring in the next decade according to the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners. Medical Director Dr. Bryan Betty says there's concern from doctors about who will replace them whe...

A barrister says Covid-19 isn't a suitable excuse to allow people to skip serving criminal penalties. Newstalk ZB can reveal in the year to August, about 82,000 hours have been cancelled under the now-expired Epidemic Preparedness Notice. That notice was used to clear the hours, with Covid restrictions making it difficult for sentences to be completed. Criminal barrister Steve Cullen told Mike Hos...

A report puts New Zealand among the worst for physical activity, with declining levels of school-children opting for walking and cycling. Out of 57 countries, New Zealand's scored a D for what's known as active transport, with school-aged children receiving a C+, with data getting worse as kids grow older. The data shows 55 percent of trips to school are car trips, which account for our overall la...