The Mike Hosking Breakfast

GPs say the sector is on the verge of a crisis with fears the New Zealand system will end up being severely understaffed. The General Practice Owners Association claims many doctors are leaving New Zealand, as other countries pay medical professions more. The group's launching a campaign asking for higher pay and more resources to support the sector. Association Deputy Chair Angus Chambers told Mi...

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.   The Black Ferns: 9/10 "It all came together in that magical way only sport can deliver. Home crowd, underdog, tight finish, and high drama. It was sensational."   Three Waters: 3/10 "The changes from select committee were dumped this time last week in that usual Machiavellian w...

Well blow me down if we don’t have a confession from the Commerce Commission. We could, they tell us in a revelation that was plain for all to see well before Megan Woods ever came along, get a better deal on petrol if only, we went to the petrol station across the road. That's right; this is from the Commerce Commission, the group who have under this Government snooped their way through supermark...

The Canterbury Jockey Club are calling on their patrons to have a moral conscious. After heavy flooding on Saturday lead to the postponing of Cup Day, Riccarton racegoers have been offered a full refund on their tickets, but it seems to a bit of an empty gesture after Canterbury Jockey Club asked attendees to consider not claiming their share. Staff spent close to half a million dollars setting up...

Few are surprised that many Kiwis want the fuel tax cut to be extended. A new poll states that more than two-thirds of respondents want the current fuel tax cut extended until annual inflation is below 3 per cent. In the 12 months to September 2022 inflation was at 7.2 per cent. On current forecasts that would mean extending the cut until the middle of 2024, costing more than $2 billion. Gull NZ g...

All Blacks coach Ian Foster's lauding Brodie Retallick as the veteran lock brings up his 100th test cap. Retallick returns from suspension to start in the second row for the year-ending test against England at Twickenham on Sunday morning. It'll also be a record 64th test start alongside captain Sam Whitelock. Foster says Retallick is a workhorse. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for priva...

A $1.2 billion overhaul of the Special Education system was promised by the Government yesterday. Instead of a bit of buffing around the edges it is said to be a whole new system of doing things, requiring significant ongoing new investment. The overhaul would include teachers getting more specialised training for working with disabled children, along with families, teachers and ministry staff bei...

An employers group says it's been forced to play a part in the Government's new Fair Pay Agreements system. The Government had offered the lobby group funding to act on behalf of employers that need representation and play a supporting role in the system more generally. But BusinessNZ says it wanted nothing to do with the scheme, partly due to its compulsory nature. Advocacy Director Catherine Bea...

The National Party says their new policy to deal with youth crime is a result of listening to the victims. It's promising to set up Young Offender Military Academies for 15 to 17-year-olds, if it's elected next year. The party also wants to put electric monitoring devices on children as young as 10-years-old. Police spokesperson, Mark Mitchell told Mike Hosking one shop owner he's spoken to has re...

You would be a fool to rule Donald Trump out. Part of the reason Ron DeSantis got so many headlines last week was because he won well on a day the Republicans didn’t do what they thought they would do - and because a lot of people from all over the political spectrum wanted to rub Trump's face in it. DeSantis on any other day for a lot of people would be as big a problem becoming president as Trum...

Time to catch up with one of our favourite medical minds. Dr. Michael Mosley has become a household name for his television show Trust Me, I’m a Doctor and his many other specials. He's is a trained doctor, science journalist, television presenter, best-selling author of many health and wellbeing books, gut specialist and the brains behind the hugely popular ‘5:2 Diet’. And he's coming back to the...

After two years of stunted growth our local economies could be doing better than we realise. With international tourism boosting activity over the winter season, the South Island and Auckland saw some of the strongest economic gains over the last year, specifically in the September 2022 quarter. However, questions remain over how New Zealand will find the resources to support a strong summer of to...

Research is set to be conducted on sharks following a fatal attack last year at Waihi Beach. Kaelah Marlow died after the 19-year-old was attacked by a great white shark. The just-released Coroner's report  notes more information on sharks could be important. Now, a project has been launched to track sharks in an app after receiving more than $30,000 in donations. Research lead Dr Riley Elliott to...

Calls for both sides to take Donald Trump's 2024 Presidential bid very seriously. The former President announced yesterday afternoon his bid for a second stab at the White House. In his speech, he claimed the war in Ukraine wouldn't have happened if he'd been President, and also continued to deny his loss in 2020. Former Republican Party Communications Director Doug Heye told Mike Hosking it's a v...

A glimmer of hope is in sight for split migrant families. It's believed the Government is creating a priority pathway for family members stuck overseas. The issue was meant to be fixed by the Covid R21 visa, which replaced the family reunification border exemption, but instead left many waiting months in limbo. Immigration adviser David Cooper told Mike Hosking most of the holdup has been down to...

Nato member Poland and the head of the military alliance both say a missile strike in Polish farmland that killed two people on Tuesday (yesterday NZ time) did not appear to be an intentional attack, and that air defences in neighbouring Ukraine likely launched the Soviet-era projectile against a Russian bombardment that savaged the Ukrainian power grid. “Ukraine’s defence was launching their miss...

A couple of things made one of the latest robberies a little different. Firstly, one of the witnesses called it a ram raid. I'm not sure it was. It looked more like good old fashioned daylight robbery, but it shows you how quickly language is adopted and adapted. The Ellerslie jeweller in Auckland was turned over by a bunch of thugs. They were rounded up and five of them and appeared in court yest...

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

If you've been in and around Auckland this past week you've probably seen the huge amount of Samoan flags being paraded about. It comes as Samoa are set to take on Australia in the Rugby League World Cup final this weekend. Because of that, a fan zone is being set up in south Auckland as part of a last minute festival to create what they call a family-friendly event for fans. Auckland councillor A...

Hopes changes to New Zealand's resource management system will cut red tape for building homes. The Government will today unveil what it describes as simplified, modernised legislation to replace the 1991 Resource Management Act. A construction management expert wants to see the process for issuing consents, standardised. Auckland University of Technology's John Tookey says it would allow for pref...

A sociologist says migration loss is a concern. Stats NZ data shows in September there was an estimated migration gain of 2,176 people. But for the year ending September, there's still a provisional net migration loss of 8,400. Sociologist Paul Spoonley says there's been an uptick in immigrants, but it's a long way to reach pre-Covid levels. He says we've tended to operate a brain exchange where t...

The Act Party is claiming the Government is putting its head in the sand, when it comes to health worker shortages. A leaked document from the Ministry of Health to Andrew Little shows it sent a list of 30 professions it thinks should be on the immigration green list. Nurses, paramedics, physios and dentists were all included. Act Party Deputy Leader, Brooke van Velden told Mike Hosking the Health...

Up to a quarter of homes could soon be selling for a loss, if mortgages rates keep on rising. New figures from Core Logic show almost three-percent of homes sold at a loss in the three months to September. That's up from less than one percent in the three months of December. Chief Property Economist Kelvin Davidson told Mike Hosking we could reach the point where up to 25 percent of home sales are...

Mat Rogers is simply an Australian sporting legend. The dual code international played more than 200 NRL matches for Cronulla and Gold Ccoast - but also represented the Wallabies in 45 tests. It was a career that spanned nearly 20 years - from 1994 to 2011. Now he's telling his story - including his battle with addiction and losing his father, Steve Rogers, to suicide back in 2006. The book is cal...

I wonder as James Shaw sits in Egypt watching yet another COP gabfest go nowhere, whether he has worked out the $20 million our country has offered for loss and damage is essentially the same mistake they have made with the farmers in their He Waka Eke Noa response. We are one of just three countries, as I understand it, which has offered any money at all. Loss and damage is this year's pet theme....