The Mike Hosking Breakfast

The US Defence Secretary seems to be in hot water.  A Department of Defence report concluded that Pete Hegseth put military personnel at risk when he shared information of a planned airstrike over Signal.  The incident came to light when a journalist for the Atlantic was accidently added to the chat in which sensitive details of the strike on Houthi fighters in Yemen back in March.   US Correspondent Richard Arnold told Mike Hosking Hegseth refused to take part in interviews for the investigation, claiming he has the power to declassify material mentally.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For the final time this year, Tim Wilson and Kate Hawkesby joined Mike Hosking to Wrap the Week that Was.  They discussed the gift exchange that happened earlier on the show and Mike’s reaction to the Prime Minister's interesting gift.  Plus, they got into the price of postage, shopping, and good service.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Retirement Commissioner's unfazed at the prospect of a potential retirement village price rise.  The Government's announced changes to the Retirement Villages Act 2003, aiming to ease the experience of elderly people and their families.   Changes include ensuring money is paid back within a year after a resident leaves.  Commissioner Jane Wrightson told Mike Hosking it’s been a five-year process with painstaking consultation and assessment, and the Government has done a very careful balancing act, going straight through the middle of most of the disputes.  She says that both parties, the operators and the residents, are pleased about some things and not so pleased about others, which suggests the changes are mostly right.   LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Education Minister's pleased to see secondary school teachers vote yes for their new collective agreement.   PPTA members have accepted the Government's offer, which includes a 4.6% pay increase over two years and a million dollar a year fund for professional development.   Minister Erica Stanford told Mike Hosking it's a good resolution and she's happy for teachers.   She says they've worked hard to raise achievement and close the equity gap, and they deserve the pay rises they're getting over the next two years.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

‘Tis the season for the annual swapping of gifts between the Prime Minister and broadcaster Mike Hosking.  For Prime Minister Christopher Luxon the festive season has begun with meal tray tables bearing the longtime broadcaster’s face, after the pair exchanged gifts in a Christmas tradition that dates back several years.  As for Hosking, he’ll leave the Newstalk ZB studio today with a bespoke calendar with a range of dates highlighted, from sports events to Parliament’s Question Time and random world elections.  “I get a lot of unsolicited advice when I’m in Parliament during question time. So, I’ve marked out in green all the times that you can give me that unsolicited advice,” Luxon said.  “And then the other two big interests in your life are obviously F1 and the Warriors games, so they’re all mapped out there on the planner. And then sometimes you love to give a bit of esoteric advice to the listeners around sort of the Cameroonian election that might be taking place. So, down this side, I’ve just given you a list of random world elections.”  Luxon also gave the broadcaster two wine glass rubber lanyards, briefly alarming Hosking as he unwrapped his gift, which was “only for you and [wife] Kate”, Luxon said.  “Oh my Lord, what is it?” Hosking replied before the Prime Minister revealed the lanyards were bought at Ikea after the Swedish giant opened its first New Zealand store in Auckland yesterday.  Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Newstalk ZB host Mike Hosking after the pair exchanged Christmas gifts on the Mike Hosking Breakfast this morning. Photo / Cameron Pitney “I was the first person in the country to make a physical purchase in the store at Ikea. And I bought Mike ... wine glass lanyard[s], because as he ponders his estate ... him and Kate go wandering around and they often have a glass of wine in hand.  “As you’ve got older, I don’t want you to trip and fall, because that’d be a real problem.”  You can listen here to the exchange.  The tray tables were inspired by a comment Luxon made this year about him and wife Amanda eating dinner on their laps while watching Netflix.  “Stop eating dinner on your knee, it’s not healthy”, Hosking scolded the Prime Minister.  “All I ask of you when you’re sitting with that on your lap looking at me … is not to spill your food.”  The Prime Minister described the trays as having “lovely wood surrounds” and the image of Hosking as being “very wistful”.  “It’s ponderous and thoughtful,” Hosking said.  “The question I’m asking you with my eyes is, ‘Do you really think you’ll win the election next year?’”  The Government has been struggling in the polls as economic challenges continue, with Luxon himself the subject of ongoing speculation that his leadership may face a challenge from within his own party.  But the Prime Minister’s response was to the point.  “Oh hell yeah, don’t you worry about that.”  ‘The Complete Guide to Surviving a Mike Hosking Interview’  Last year, after Luxon’s first full year in the top job, Hosking gave the Prime Minister a gift he described as “one of one” and a “prototype”.  It was a book titled “The Complete Guide to Surviving a Mike Hosking Interview”, which Luxon described as “genius”.  Luxon gave Hosking a Christmas card with a family photo on it and some “furikake seasoning,” a Japanese seasoning typically made with toasted sesame seeds and nori.  “People like me, who are men of the people, just use salt, I mean, I come from a very humble background,” Luxon said.  “This is what really posh people do.”  “Absolutely love it,” Hosking said in response to the gift.  Prime Minister Christopher Luxon on Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking Breakfast with host Mike Hosking in October. Photo / Mike Hosking  Luxon also gave Hosking a “special energy Voost” that was described as “posh Berrocca”.  Former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern also exchanged gifts with Hosking during her time leading the country.  This included in 2018 a framed photo given to Hosking of the pair riding Lime scooters together and, in exchange, a T-shirt with a picture of Hosking holding a vacuum cleaner.  Broadcaster Mike Hosking proudly wearing his Christmas gift from Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern - a T-shirt immortalising a verbal stoush between the pair. Photo / Supplied  The following year Ardern – who in 2021 would cancel her regular weekly interview on the Mike Hosking Breakfast – gave the broadcaster a T-shirt showing the pair mid-verbal stoush and with the slogan “I heart Tuesdays”.  “This could go wrong,” Hosking then said as he prepared to give Ardern her gift, a miniature “one-off Mike Hosking vacuum cleaner”.  “And I don’t want you to think it’s a sexist gift either because … no one loves to vacuum more than me.”  Broadcaster Mike Hosking gifts Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern a miniature vacuum cleaner in their annual gift exchange in 2019.  In 2020, Ardern pranked Hosking by gifting him a Labour billboard featuring the ZB host alongside the Prime Minister herself, a present she said Hosking will grow to love as the years roll on.  “Do you want me on board? Have you seen my magnetism as a vote-getter?” Hosking joked.  Ardern then unwrapped two presents from Hosking, one for daughter Neve and one for herself.  Hosking gave Neve a Mickey Mouse soft toy with Neve’s name engraved before pranking Ardern back with his own gift to her, a series of face masks with his face printed on the front.  “When I first opened it, I briefly worried it was a g-string,” Ardern said.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Australian social media ban has started.  Well, sort of. It came in on Monday but begins officially on the 10th of December.  The worrying thing is one of the big proponents of the idea said she believed with all her heart that "we were saving a generation".  That is not true. Saving them from what? Themselves?  Theory vs reality is very powerfully at play in this move. We are dealing with too many intangibles.  Between Monday and this time next week, teens are busy finding new apps that aren't covered by the ban. Influencers are busy directing traffic to these new outlets in order to work around the rules.  The Government is smart to this and has announced a new series of apps that will be covered. So we are in a sort of whack-a-mole stage.  As far as I can work out a lot of pressure has been placed on the tech companies to make sure kids don’t lie.  How literally that works I have no idea.  Like alcohol, you will be asked what age you are.  Whether a tech company can be held liable for dishonesty, I suppose in some way, shape or form, will end up in court.  With face recognition user profiles can be used, I guess. But at some point, a market the size of Australia may end up being more trouble than it's worth.  It's far better to battle, as they do, with places like the EU where privacy and trading laws are constantly under review and fines are handed out on an almost continual basis.  Never forgetting of course, we are now dealing with businesses worth more than many countries and Governments.  However, on the flip side this could of course be the Trojan horse. Australia is at the forefront of a major global movement that is going to somehow shift the nature of technological interaction of an entire generation.  Studies may be launched. They'll look at things like if you were banned before you turned 16, when you got to the golden age did you go nuts? Remember repression is a problematic trait in a lot of social activity.  So we watch with interest. I don’t think it will lead to a lot. It has a touch of virtue signalling about it.  But theory in Australia is now reality. I bet a lot of parents wish them well. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

‘Song Sung Blue’, a story of hope amidst a tragic love story.  Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson star as Mike and Claire Sardina, aka Lightning and Thunder, a duo Neil Diamond tribute act that got major attention in Milwaukee.  The film is based off a documentary about the couple with the same name, that was released in 2008.   Before working together on this project, Jackman and Hudson didn't really know one another – meeting a few times but not in any great detail.  But for a movie like this, where the relationship between the two leads is the basis of the film, that can be a risk.  “On day one, Kate said to me, you know, if we don’t work, this movie doesn’t work,” Jackman told Mike Hosking.  “And she was right, but I had a lot of confidence.”   “I had a strong sense that it was gonna be great, but I didn’t know it was gonna be this great or this easy.”  For Hudson, things clicked into place when the two kissed for the first time.  “It’s like we’ve been kissing each other for years,” she said.  One review described the role as Jackman’s most ambitious yet, a sentiment the actor agreed with.  “I think it combines a lot of different things that I do, but in many ways it was asking things of me that I hadn’t done before.”  Hudson agreed, comparing it to asking a baseball player if they want to play in the major leagues.  “It’s scary, but I want that.”  “I love hard work, and I like work that gives me a little of the, you know, the butterflies.”  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the Mike Hosking Breakfast Full Show Podcast for Thursday 4th December, Sir Brian Roche discusses Andrew Coster’s resignation from his new role over the McSkimming scandal.  We've got a new ski deal with China that’s set to bring in high value tourists.  Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson talk Oscar buzz on their new movie ‘Song Sung Blue’, how easy their kiss was, and what Neil Diamond gave to each of them.  Get the Mike Hosking Breakfast Full Show Podcast every weekday morning on iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A welcome boost to New Zealand's premium meat sector, with strong growth expected this season.  Headwaters Farmers —who produce Lumina Lamb— are forecasting returns of $23.50 per lamb, up 60% on last year.  It also reports successful expansion into the Middle East.  Headwaters and Lumina Chief Executive Steve Brown told Mike Hosking these markets attract premium pricing.  He says they also want to take on producers in the UK market and show them what quality lamb looks like.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A new partnership deal in the ski industry aims to tap into the booming Chinese market.  NZSki and Sunac-BonSki have signed on, giving New Zealand direct access to 13.5 million active skiers in China.  NZSki CEO Paul Anderson told Mike Hosking while the New Zealanders and Australians make up the bulk of skiers, they’ve seen an increasing number of Chinese visitors to ski areas – particularly Queenstown.   He says they’re no longer the traditional bus tours of groups that came through from China, but high spending free independent travellers.   LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.