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 Māori Party: 1/10  They get a '1' because they are legitimately there because of votes, and that’s democracy. As for the rest of the performance, they are a joke and an embarrassment to this country.    The Greens: 2/10  They get a '2' and not a '1' only because they get more support in the polls. But the prospect of Labour letting them round a Cabinet table? Book my ticket out.    Trump: 3/10  One better than the Greens because to counter tariffs of others is not free trade, but it is understandable. As for the rest, he's mental.    The Warriors: 7/10  Because three in a row is three in a row. And two more points this weekend, which on the Mike Hosking scoresheet, is four in a row.    The America's Cup: 4/10  I never thought it was going to held here so I wasn’t surprised, or disappointed. Although, in the spirit of being open for business, I would have liked to have seen a bit more enthusiasm from the Government. Pleading poverty is a poor man's game, not a go getter's.    The jobs report: 2/10  Saddest story of the week for me. To have over half the country regretting their career is a study in lack of planning, or lack of action, or lack of living life to the full.    LISTEN ABOVE FOR MIKE HOSKING'S FULL WEEK IN REVIEW See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The irony was not lost on me this week as two things job related happened.  The first was the survey that suggested over half of us regret our career choice.  That struck me as profoundly sad. Say whatever you want about work and work-life balance, but a lot of hours are spent in a lifetime grafting. Virtually everyone, at least at the start, has to work.  Everyone of course should work because it's good for you. But to have a lifetime of regret is to not have really lived at all, or at least not to your full potential.  Juxtaposing that was the surprise, to me anyway, that I had been here at Newstalk ZB for 25 years.  A smaller surprise was on the same day, April 1st, Morning Report at Radio New Zealand was marking 50 years. I spent a short stint at Morning Report in moderately, although ultimately, I think, successful circumstances.  Without word of a lie I have loved every day, of every week, of every month, of every year. Not just at Newstalk ZB, but the 44 years I have been in this game.  Of course I had bad days. I had bad employers, I had ropy times and I've been sacked twice by morons, but I've never regretted picking doing what I do.  Which is a small miracle, given I have never really been able to tell anyone with any clarity why I picked this game in the first place, other than it seemed appealing.  I had no mentors or people I knew in media. As a kid I listened to the radio and thought that sounds fun. As it turns out, I was right.  The other small saviour has been the fact that not only didn’t I regret it, it worked out moderately well in terms of gainful employment, because at no stage in the past four decades have I been able to conjure up an alternative.  I literally cannot think of anything else I would want to do.  I would like to think though, and this goes to the survey, that if it hadn't gone well or I did regret it, I would have done something about it.  Because life's big lesson is life is short. And if you aren't rolling with it, you are fighting it.  And that’s no fun and it wears you out. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kate Hawkesby and Tim Wilson are back once more to Wrap the Week with Mike Hosking.  They discussed going for a coffee run in the stormy weather, compulsory Shakespeare in schools, and Mike’s 25 years at Newstalk ZB.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

All eyes are on Japan this weekend as Liam Lawson races for the first time since his demotion from Red Bull Racing.  The Kiwi driver has lost his seat in the Formula 1 team two races into the season, being replaced with Yuki Tsunoda for the Japanese Grand Prix.   Former Williams Team Manager Peter Windsor told Mike Hosking the problem with motorsport and F1 today is that it's very data driven.  He says everything is done according to data and telemetry overlays from the driver in the other car, and there’s just too much information.   “Liam's a very natural racing driver, and he just needs to be allowed to get out there and race.”  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the Mike Hosking Breakfast Full Show Podcast for Friday 4th of April, we get the reaction both from New Zealand and around the world to Trump’s “sweeping” tariffs.   A lot of eyes will be on F1 this weekend as Liam Lawson hops back behind the wheel of the Racing Bulls car, and former Williams team manager Peter Windsor offers his thoughts.  Kate Hawkesby and Tim Wilson discuss 25 years of Mike on ZB and compulsory Shakespeare in school as they Wrap the Week.  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.

Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff announcement is being described as a shockingly radical shift in policy.   The US President announced 10% tariffs on almost all goods entering the US, including from New Zealand.  Many countries face much higher tariffs, including China with a combined 54% levy.  Former US Department of Treasury Economist Brad Setser told Mike Hosking it’s a fundamental break in the US’ post-WWII international economic policy approach and is an enormous political and economic risk.  He believes the magnitude of the tariff increase does threaten to push the US into a recession.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Health Minister's confident two of the Government targets will improve this year.  Health New Zealand data shows child vaccinations, cancer treatment times, and ED stay lengths have improved, but wait times for elective treatments and first specialist assessments have lengthened.  Simeon Brown told Mike Hosking the wait times are of particular concern.  He says the targets are in place to highlight these issues, and more money is being allocated to facilitate.   Brown told Hosking the elective boost aims to ease the situation by outsourcing electives to the private sector, and $50 million has been allocated to the boost.  The Health Minister also says problems at Gisborne and Nelson hospitals are being addressed.  Gisborne's facing critical staff shortages, while senior staff have spoken out with concerns about the level of care in Nelson.  Health New Zealand staff are now in Nelson, putting a plan together with local clinicians, while in Gisborne, jobs are being recruited for.  Brown says there are challenges at both hospitals, and solutions are on the way.  He says some unions are trying to make a lot of noise and is asking them to work with Health New Zealand.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Trade Minister is playing down New Zealand's chances of getting an exemption to Donald Trump's 10% tariffs.  The Trump administration says it's imposing the tariffs in response to our 20% tariff on US goods.  Todd McClay says our average tariff on US goods is actually less than 2%, and the 20% figure appears to be based on the trade balance between our countries last year.  He told Mike Hosking we may be able to correct their record, but we probably won't be able to change their minds.  McClay says even if New Zealand officials can make their case to the US counterparts, the minimum base rate for tariffs remains at 10%.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Phil Goff is standing by his comments about US President Donald Trump as he arrives back in New Zealand. The former High Commissioner to the UK was sacked from his role after questioning whether Trump understood history. Goff says Trump's treatment of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy prompted the question. He told Mike Hosking the comments weren't made flippantly. Goff says he thought about them seriously and wanted to know why the Trump administration was appeasing Russia. He also acknowledges his comments were risky, but didn’t expect to be fired for them. Goff says he thought the comments were close to the line, without crossing it. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A housing development for you.  A housing development that once again shows how reality beats theory.  Housing is a New Zealand obsession. We love housing and we long to own housing.  It encroaches on immigration and whether too many people lead to higher prices.  It encroaches on politics and the expectation as to what Governments do about housing and the prices of said housing.  It involves social housing, emergency housing, KiwiSaver, incomes, the Reserve Bank, deposits and LVR's. It is all encompassing.  In theory, if you could make building cheaper, we would be keen, wouldn’t we? Yes, I hear you say.  So what happened to Clever Core?  Clever Core is Fletcher's prefab house building factory.  The factory is closing.  Why, I hear you ask? Because, to quote Fletchers, "it had not worked".  Demand was the issue because there wasn’t enough of it.  If you had conducted a survey and asked, "could prefab housing help the so-called housing crisis in this country?" you would have got an overwhelming yes.  Yet, did we follow our enthusiasm up with sales? Obviously not.  Resistance from the building industry is another phrase Fletchers used.  You see, as I have said many times, we are happy to moan about the cost of building, the cost of GIB, how cheap it is in Australia and how much a deck out back for the BBQ would be. But prefab? Oh, no thank you.  Essentially, we are hosing snobs. It's sort of like with coffee - we moan about $6 for a flat white but pay it anyway.  Not that there is anything wrong with that. If you want to pay anywhere between $10,000-35,000 per square metre that’s great.  But what Clever Core reveals is we don’t actually want to save. Often, we don’t actually want solutions.  What we want is what we have, and like, except at a better price. We want what we can't have.  What we can have, we don’t want.  Ask Fletchers. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.