The most played episodes among Podcast App listeners.

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   Number 1: Mark the Week: The fuel excise debate is fantastically disappointing

   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. Cars: 7/10 New car sales are up 20%. If that isn't a sign of confidence, I don’t know what is. The excise debate: 3/10 Fantastically disappointing. Labour at $4.6 billion is sad, but not surprising. The Government at $1.6 billion and borrowing. Come on, we wanted, needed, and expected better. The bond markets: 4/10 It's why we shouldn’t have done the excise business. Money is expensive and getting more so, and no one seems to see debt for what it is – a big fat red flag. Aeroplane gate: 4/10 Honestly, the coolest flyover ever until the wowsers got hold of it. And the wowsers don’t even know how to fly a plane. Less booze: 6/10 I think it’s the future. The numbers are down and they will never recover. Between health, fitness, and GLP-1s, the world is different. LISTEN ABOVE FOR MIKE HOSKING'S FULL WEEK IN REVIEW See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

   September 03, 2026·3min
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   Number 2: Mike's Minute: Why didn't the Government drop the carbon auctions?

   I'm not surprised. But because I'm not surprised, I am disappointed. Papers released publicly for the first time reveal the Government considered axing their mad carbon auctions. But, and here comes the disappointment, they didn’t. They considered dropping them because every time they mucked with the ETS, the confidence in a market they were trying to create was cratered. This is not just them, but the previous Government also, who were wedded to the idea that an invented market could work, despite the fact it didn’t. Multiple Governments have tinkered and fiddled. They have set prices and reset prices, but each and every auction has basically been a failure. Just quickly, if you don’t follow this stuff, there are four auctions a year. You buy credits, if you're a polluter, to offset your environmental damage. The trouble is no one turns up; there are no bids and the really bad thing about that is there is no revenue. If this actually worked there could be $2 billion worth of income. I can't remember how many times I've asked Governments about this, from Robertson to Watts. They all said the same thing, all defended it, and yet the irrefutable proof was, and is, they simply don’t work. Credits can be bought and sold in a variety of ways. You can plant trees, you can trade other people credits, but when you are literally dealing with an idea that is invented out of thin air and you have no faith in anyway, why on Earth would you turn up and pay the Government money? Obviously, the answer is you wouldn’t, and you didn’t. Hence the Government got to the inevitable bit where someone other than me asked "do you reckon this thing is worth sticking with?" Under Labour I was not surprised they didn’t kill them because that’s what ideology does to you. It blinds you to logic and common sense. But the current lot you would have hoped knew better. Well, as the papers show, they almost did and yet couldn't quite get there. So at the next auction, which by the way is September 8th, have a look and see what happens and call me if the answer is anything other than... nothing. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

   September 03, 2026·3min
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   Number 3: 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 4: 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 5: Full Show Podcast: 04 September 2026

   On the Mike Hosking Breakfast Full Show Podcast for Friday 4th of September, there are changes to the move-on orders – Justice Select Committee Chair Tom Rutherford unpacks them. We preview the decider All Blacks test in South Africa, and discuss whether or not the Warriors can win the minor premiership. Kate Hawkesby and Tim Wilson Wrap the Week, talking flight cancellations, parenting, and Mike's call from the Electoral Commission. 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.

   September 03, 2026·1h 31min
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