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: We need to break this stereotype in NZ

   Here is a stereotype we have to break, especially given the solution is now available. There was a young woman in her 20s, in the beauty industry, training as a nurse and will go into the private sector. She has a plan and good on her. As part of this particular conversation though, she says she can never see herself owning a house. Of our five kids, one or possibly two, I suspect they feel the same, and yet the National Party's 5% deposit announcement made over the weekend changes all of that. Of all the policy released so far from any party, this is by far the most consequential. There is no Government-owned supermarket, they won't be breaking up gentailers, or buying BNZ back. This campaign has been full of fanciful nonsense. But the 5% is not only real, it's doable. It's so doable it looks likely the Labour Party will copy it and, above all else, it's the most important thing a policy can be – practical. 5% of a $700,000 house is $35,000. For most young people they can see that. 20% of that house is $140,000. That’s not real. At last, the biggest issue around housing is solved. It used to be solved, and we used to do this routinely, until we ballsed it up in yet another example of taking a problem that never existed and messing it about. 20% was never needed. The only thing preventing 5% deposits was Adrian Orr and the Reserve Bank and an unhealthy fear of carnage. Even if you end up for a period in a flat market, as we have now with negative equity, it will pass. It always does. Even if housing in New Zealand never grows at 10% a year ever again, it will grow. And what I know, as sure as night follows day, is we love houses. We dream of owning our own place. That is the constant in this whole mad debate that too many people have made too complicated. Banks should never have been dictated to by the central bank because retail banks know what they're doing. Between a government-insured scheme and KiwiSaver and retail banks, there should never have been a hurdle as large as it was. There should never have been a generation for whom owning a piece of their country was seemingly beyond them. The 5% policy sorts it. The trick now is to get that message out to people like the trainee nurse, who still don’t know how close they might be. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

   September 08, 2026·3min
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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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