The Mike Hosking Breakfast

Centuries from Martin Guptill and Will Young helped the Black Caps complete a series sweep against the Netherlands and send Ross Taylor out a winner. While the retiring great was dismissed for 14 in his final innings for New Zealand, it was fitting for that pair in particular to lead the way with the bat and set up a 115-run triumph at Seddon Park tonight. Guptill, who made Taylor best man at his...

Nigel Beach is a Kiwi revolutionising the sport science space. He's been into the Wim Hof Method for a number of years - which focuses on hot/cold therapy, bio-hacking and breathing techniques. And another big focus is our physiological response to stress on our body. And he's become so successful that he's become the go-to guy for elite sportspeople here and around the world. Nigel Beach joined M...

Basketball New Zealand is optimistic they will fill the bleachers for their domestic season. Indoor sports were dealt a further blow yesterday with the government opting to maintain crowd restrictions at 200 people under the red traffic light system. Netball's ANZ Premiership has ploughed on, despite the hit in ticket sales. National Basketball League general manager Huw Beynon told the Mike Hoski...

Condemnation from the United States, over Russia's actions in Ukraine. US President Joe Biden is calling for Vladimir Putin to be put on trial for war crimes, after new images emerged of streets lined with the bodies of civilians. The US is backing a team of international prosecutors to go to the region to collect evidence of atrocities. John Bolton, former US National Security Advisory under Dona...

Businesses could be more inclined to support the Government's unemployment insurance plan, if it cut health and disability coverage. The scheme would see people who are made redundant or stopping work for medical and disability reasons, paid up to 80 percent of their salary, for up to seven months. It would be funded by a 1.39 percent levy on both employers and workers. BusinessNZ Chief Executive...

New Zealand mortgage holders are expected to feel the pinch, as interest rates rise. Kiwibank's lifted its standard 5-year home loan rate to 6.79 percent, for those with less than 20 percent equity. Chief executive, Steve Jurkovich, told Mike Hosking it's a long time since there's been a rate that high. He says most people will have an under 80 percent Loan to Value Ratio, so will be paying 5.79 f...

Experts back the "cautious" call to stay in the red Covid setting at least until Easter as, while cases are declining, Auckland still leads the country in hospitalisations per capita. Meanwhile, hospitality representatives say they are "gutted" and question why there has been no movement given low transmission rates at venues. But with the health system near bursting point, experts warn everything...

Scott Morrison is poised to call an election this week as the latest Newspoll reveals Labor’s primary vote has fallen by 3 points to 38 per cent after Tuesday’s budget offerings of cheaper petrol and cash handouts. Some Liberal frontbenchers now believe Mr Morrison will call the election this Sunday for May 21, after the ongoing mess of preselection delays in NSW sparked by factional infighting ma...

Warning: Contains graphic accounts Bodies with bound hands, close-range gunshot wounds, and signs of torture lay scattered in a city on the outskirts of Kyiv after Russian soldiers withdrew from the area. Ukrainian authorities on Sunday accused the departing forces of committing war crimes and leaving behind a "scene from a horror movie". As images of the bodies — of people whom residents said wer...

Andrew Saville and Guy Heveldt joined Mike Hosking to talk the America's Cup, the Warriors, Paul Coll, the weekend's Super Rugby, AFL, and Ross Taylor's Black Caps swansong in the ODI series against the Netherlands. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The numbers will eventually tell the story, but I assume the car yards were a bit quieter over the weekend now that the second part of the mad feebate scheme kicked in as of April 1st. Yes, along with the downpour of free borrowed money for everyone paid by the government, the cost of a regular petrol car went up. It's another one of those ideas that you thought was med when it was first announced...

A Christchurch start-up developing technology to clear fog at airports is delighted to have won government backing. Pyper Vision is in active development of a spray which is able to quickly absorb moisture from the air, clearing fog in critical areas. It could help prevent flight disruptions like those seen at Wellington Airport last week. Chief Executive Emily Blythe told Mike Hosking over 200 te...

New Zealand's Paul Coll has defended his British Open squash title with a comprehensive straight-game defeat of Egyptian Ali Farag. Coll, the world No 1, totally dominated his opponent for a 12-10, 11-6, 11-4 victory in 50 minutes to continue his run of not dropping a game in the entire tournament. In an attritional start to the final, Coll got to work on narrowing down the angles and restricting...

The events industry is holding out for the scrapping of indoor capacity limits. Cabinet is reviewing whether the country, or parts of it, can move to the Orange Traffic Light setting. Meanwhile, Auckland's Spark Arena has announced a new multi-sensory experience on surrealist painter Salvador Dali is coming to the venue in May. Managing Director Mark Gosling told Mike Hosking they hope we won't ha...

More than a million New Zealanders didn't have safe drinking water at some point last year. A new report has found many councils haven't had the right plans in place, haven't issued boiled water notices when they should have, or have had drinking water contaminated with E. coli. The findings come as the Government is planning to transfer water responsibilities from councils to four new regional au...

Russia's retreat from Kyiv may just be a chance for it to regroup. It's predicted the fighting will intensify in the east and south over the next few weeks. Despite the expected escalation, peace talks between the two nations continue. Ukrainian journalist Iryna Matviyishyn told Mike Hosking Ukrainians are sceptical. “What I can say is that peace talks kind of do not match the demand of the Ukrain...

A nationwide shortage of Gib board is sparking major delays for the construction sector. There's a waiting time as long as nine months for the product. Prices are going through the roof and there's concern a black market is developing as Gib sells for up to five times its usual price. Combined Building Supplies chairperson Carl Taylor told Mike Hosking it's quite simple – if builders can't get mat...

A concert promoter has his fingers crossed for a switching of the traffic light soon. Cabinet meets this afternoon to decide if all, or regions, of New Zealand should ease Covid-19 restrictions. A move to Orange would see an end to indoor gathering limits. Eccles Entertainment boss Brent Eccles told Mike Hosking he's hoping for some clarity of when indoor concerts can come back. He says the liftin...

I was thinking as Phil Goff got tipped about his new job in London, about how badly wrong we appear to have gone the job market.  We all seem to agree that productivity is not what it should be and we have never really been as smart at working as we could be.  And although productivity is a fairly broad based and tricky old thing to detail, far less address, we are making some fairly fundamental e...

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.     Will Smith: 0/10  "He's a thug and he made an unforgivable mistake.  I strongly suspect he only said sorry because he knows he will have to give the statue back."     Hollywood's Reaction to Will Smith: 1/10  "Cemented their already substantial reputation as mass hypocrites b...

Seaweed could become a game-changer when it comes to cleaning up some of New Zealand's most polluted waterways.   Almost a million dollars has been spent investigating the seaweed's effect on Waikato's Waihou River, and if successful it could become implemented nationwide.  Leader of the Algal Biotechnology Research Group at Waikato University Marie Magnusson is involved with all this and joined M...

In these times when business is hard to come by, we should be celebrating when a company does so well.   Silver Fern Farms has posted an annual record profit of $103.8 million, a 59% increase.   They've benefited from a market surge in demand for protein and of course we have the best here.   Silver Fern Farms chief executive Simon Limmer joined Mike Hosking.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/liste...

A Former Defence Minister says it's too soon to make a decision around Anzac Day gatherings.  Defence Force personnel have been told not to attend public commemorations due to Covid-19, instead attending them on camps and bases.  The decision could still be reviewed and revised.  Wayne Mapp told Mike Hosking Omicron may not be a problem in three and a half weeks and RATs could be used anyway.  He...

National has no tolerance for bullying.   This comes from the party's deputy leader, after two Young Nats resigned following the trolling of three Christchurch left-wing politicians.   Wigram MP and Cabinet Minister Megan Woods, Ilam MP Sarah Pallett and Christchurch City Councillor Sara Templeton were harassed online, with Woods calling the comments misogynistic and toxic.   Nicola Willis told Mi...

A discussion about pay equality - but not in the direction you might expect.   World number 5 Stefanos Tsitsipas has sparked the conversation after saying that because female tennis players get equal prize money, they might as well play best of 5 sets too, instead of the 3 they currently play. Former New Zealand tennis pro Brenda Perry joined Mike Hosking.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener...