The most played episodes among Podcast App listeners.

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   Number 1: Mike's Minute: Rate caps – not a moment too soon

   So the Government has moved on rates. The cap is 4%, unless there are exceptional circumstances. Of all the price pressures that are out of control, rates would have to be the worst. As we have heard this week, insurance is starting to curtail, if not fall, in some areas. Power is actually falling for commercial users, although not to what it should be. Certainly, the cost of generation is down and once the build out of solar and wind is complete there can be no excuse not to see prices drop domestically. Food is back down within the Reserve Bank band. 1.9% was your last reading. Petrol is all over the place but beyond our control, which basically leaves rates. Look at the last inflation read and look at the part that rates played in driving it up. And the difference between rates and all the other examples I have just given is there is no sign of it ever ending. Oh they have excuses! "There is no shortage of jobs to be done." And even if you strip out the frippery, the nice-to-have nonsense, the multi-cultural nods to Lord-knows-what, you are still left with genuine and real tasks that need attending to. But the reason those jobs are so overdue and urgent is because they were never done in the first place because the frippery always took precedence, and it took precedence because it got headlines and they knew the ratepayer was a never-ending pot of money. Well, no more. What makes it tricky of course is councils will have to fund work through debt. The trouble is for too many they are tapped out. They drained that well, as well. So in a purely numeric way they are between a rock and a hard place. But then they have no one to blame but themselves. They will hope Labour wins the election of course, because Labour will open the tap up. Which leads to the question, if Labour let councils charge bed taxes and let them charge whatever rates they want, is that a broken promise given they said there is only one new tax? Anyway, 4% is restraint and reality and fiscal discipline. Not a moment too soon. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

   August 25, 2026·2min
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   Number 2: Mark the Week: Was the ceasefire expiring Trump's worst hour yet?

   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. GDP: 9/10 The Infometrics Q2 read is the final nail in the misery merchants' coffin – the turnaround is real. Chris Hipkins: 4/10 Between the streaming bill he didn’t know he had and the Prime Minister interviews he didn’t listen to, does this look like a guy who is razor sharp and ready to rumble in an election campaign? Ginny Andersen ruling out all taxes: 7/10 Big call and had to have made Chlöe choke on her oats. The ceasefire: 2/10 Is that Trump's worst hour yet? Think of all the things he said versus all the things that didn’t happen. It's almost as though he makes it up or doesn’t have a clue what's going on. Liam Lawson: 9/10 Oh, the irony of hand injuries and Zandvoort. Can we really rule a podium out? LISTEN ABOVE FOR MIKE HOSKING'S FULL WEEK IN REVIEW See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

   August 20, 2026·3min
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   Number 3: Mike's Minute: Fast-track needs to get back to infrastructure, not housing

   The prediction we made some weeks back over fast-track housing is starting to come true. Fast-track in and of itself is working. The Tauranga Port has the green light after literally years of regulatory BS that had it tied up in court, going nowhere. If you put RMA v fast-track, then fast-track wins hands down and our country will be better for it. But housing is becoming political. The latest situation is in Waimauku. In Pukeatua they want 1600 homes. A petition has been signed by hundreds, furious at what they see. It joins Delmore in North Auckland, Pegasus in Christchurch, and the Arrowtown development, all of which have the same blueprint – a lot of houses and angry locals. Obviously, you can lay the charge of nimbyism, and in some cases it may well be true. The very thing that stopped so much progress is back for more under new rules: moaning locals. Shane Jones has spotted it though he argues, and I think correctly, that what NZ First had envisaged was more infrastructure, not so much housing. What this country needs is more bridges and roads and mines and factories. Yes, it needs houses, but not in the same proportion. Mayors have now joined forces and are after change, and if you want to look at this purely from a political point of view, then the Government would be wise to listen. Somewhere between the neighbours hating everything new and a Delmore with 1000 houses getting wastewater trucked out until 2050, is an answer. But it can't be so hard to shift housing out of fast-track and leave it for the big stuff. I think Chris Bishop gets it as well. The fact Pegasus in Christchurch never actually got to an expert panel tells you he sees the trouble ahead. If Delmore can be given the go ahead then why would Pegasus not? Well, problem solved by never giving it to the panel in the first place. Fast-track needs, apart from anything, reputational heft. It needs to be seen to be doing good. Housing clearly is getting in the way. Sort it now and save yourself a headache post-election. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

   August 31, 2026·3min
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   Number 4: Mike's Minute: What a waste of time the social media bill was... this year

   In the end, was this a “to do” about nothing? The social media ban for under 16s is a global bandwagon that we were already late to. And by the time it arrived on Monday, it turns out the party that wrote it didn't have the numbers. Of a three-party Government, two parties wouldn’t back it and so they went to the major party on the other side of the House. They had 79 questions. No one has 79 questions, and the second one, even if you did have 79 questions, should not be about Te Tiriti. So, so far, so messy. And you can quite rightly ask the question at this stage whether our Parliament is in fact wildly out of step with the majority of New Zealand. My gut says a ban is popular. No, it is not effective in its entirety. Yes, a French court has blocked theirs. No, Australia has not got it right when they led the world off on the idea. But socially and morally, big tech is increasingly seen as a pariah and a bottom-line fiend that does whatever is necessary to stoke their engine of commerce. So the sense of it is we want to be seen to at least give this a good crack. At least be seen to be on the right side of the increasingly alarming stats around kids and harm and online life. And yet Labour, who should not have been needed, got there in the end and said, 'we've read all 79 answers (yea right) and we will back it to the first committee'. And then it turns out that didn’t matter because the Government doesn’t have time anyway. What a gargantuan waste of energy. No, it's not dead. Yes, it will still be an issue next year. And yes, in some way, shape or form we will probably get it across the line. But this thing started as an MP's bill, not a party idea. After it spent several years being “thought about”, it finally got revealed to a group of politicians who didn’t want it and wouldn’t vote for it. And by the time it got the numbers to get underway, time was up! On an energy-in/energy-out sort of equation, it's right up there in the waste-of-time stakes. So if you got excited, and this week looked a bit historic, see you next year. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

   August 28, 2026·3min
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   Number 5: Mike's Minute: The only thing deciding this election is the economy

   Right, a poll the Government should be worried about - whose fault is the economy? The importance of this is based on the simple premise that this election is about one thing, which is the state of the place. Is it getting better, or not? Do you see a brighter future, or not? Forget all the other issues and policies because they're frippery. All that matters is the state of your wallet, your finances, your lifestyle, your hopes and your aspirations. The Government will argue they inherited a mess and it was so big that it takes time to turn it all around. For a while they had us onside. We believed them, mainly because it was true. History will show what labour did 2017-23, and particularly 2020-23 is one for the record books. Things were coming right until the war then the momentum was lost. It's now back, to a degree. GDP is growing and major sectors like manufacturing and services are in expansion. Jobs are still an issue and confidence is fragile. So their job is to re-convince you that they had it in hand but Trump got in the way. "Just stick with us and she'll be right". So, to the poll Horizon did in the early part of this month. 31% say yep, it's Trump's fault. 17% say it was Labour. But 29% say it's on this Government. Now like all polls, you can read it a million ways. The 31% who say Trump and the 17% who say Labour makes 48%. That is not a majority. 31%, 17% and the 29% blaming the Government makes up 77%, so that’s 23% who don't know. Between the "don’t knows" and the 48% you can talk your way to victory. But if the 23% of "don't knows" go with the 17%, at 40% that's a lot of people who don’t believe you and you're in trouble. You could be positive and suggest that the 29% who think it's on the Government is not actually that many, so their argument is landing well. But they would need to swing a few of the "don’t knows" their way to make sure. Either way, this is what this vote comes down to. The evidence, although there and growing, is not cemented in enough yet to feel really confident. On these numbers I would rather be the Government than not. But on these numbers it is still all there to play for. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

   August 23, 2026·3min
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