The Mike Hosking Breakfast

The Trump administration has announced it will exclude electronics like smartphones and laptops from his 125 percent reciprocal tariffs on China  It means American's may be spared a price hike on electronics that aren't usually made in the United States.  Processors and chips are included in the exemption.  Devon Funds Management's Greg Smith joins the show to discuss the decision.  LISTEN ABOVE. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Keir Starmer is fast becoming a new political hero.  For a bloke who stumbled into office not on his brilliance or a nationwide passion for the Labour Party, but more because the Tories had spent 14 years slowly messing the place up, he turns out to be quite the operator.  He is reforming public health because it's fat and useless. He is trimming welfare because there are too many layabouts.  He has handled Trump as well as anyone, and better than most, both on tariffs and the war.  Now he has rejected that hackneyed old sop of a patriotic "Buy British" campaign in response to America's moves.  Canada hasn’t. They are flat out hating on America, and in some senses, it's working. Tourism is down in America as Canadians go elsewhere. But all the rest of it is anecdotal as they pull American booze off shelves in a massive huff.  So the idea was, like it was here a number of times over the years and like it is currently in Australia as part of their election campaign, you run the flag up a pole, get everyone fizzed up about their country and their heritage and their ability to make stuff and whittle and dig and toil and sweat and the punter, so enamoured with your skills and graft, buys the locally made brilliance.  And we all live happily ever after.  There is value in patriotism and pride in some local stories.  But even in Britain, where a lot of stuff was born or invented, the world has moved on and Starmer knows it.  People buy on either quality or price and sometimes a bit of both.  They don’t buy blindly, they don’t want crap and they won't support their own for the sake of it. If they did Temu would never have been invented.  This whole tariff thing will pass and this Starmer gets. Free trade will survive, if not thrive. Starmer gets it. President Xi gets it.  Good ideas don’t die with the arrival of an economic Neanderthal. They may be paused or dented, but they don’t die.  Land Rover thrives because, yes it's British, but also because it's good, as do Fortnum and Mason and Barbour wax jackets.  Buying local is isolationism. Most of us worked that out a long time ago.  This is no time to regress.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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.    Donald Trump: 1/10  Complete and utter chaotic clown. You don’t treat the world economy like this.    Clowns: 2/10  In order: Scott Bessent, Howard Lutnick, Pete Hegseth, and Karoline Leavitt.    The IRD: 6/10  Collected close to a billion dollars in unpaid tax, simply by looking – quite a good concept!    Paul Goldsmith: 6/10  Is it ingenious or worrying when you're asking the Mike Hosking Breakfast for policy ideas?    Wool: 8/10  Wool deserves a break. In pure economic terms I'm not sure this is on the Government to spin the line, far less the yarn. But it's Winston's baby and he's 80-years-old today so, why not?    Andrew Little: 6/10  Is he the answer for Wellington, or a retired politician looking for work?    LISTEN ABOVE FOR MIKE HOSKING'S FULL WEEK IN REVIEW See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Is it gall, is it cheek, or is it comedic?  The Waitangi Tribunal has been reviewed, and the review recommends it needs more people and more money.  It is strained, says the review. They are of course technically correct. It is strained because the Waitangi Tribunal is busy.  It is busy with “urgent”, and we use that word loosely, numbers of gripes and grievances around the general state and status of Māori, or more accurately, a small selection of Māori who have seen for years and decades now the Tribunal as an almost endless source of respite in their never-ending list of grievances.  This is a classic make-work programme.  Puff your chest out, inflate your sense of self-importance, busy yourself with a myriad of invented tasks and then in the review, guess what? You are overworked and under-resourced.  The Government is going to do something about all this and, unfortunately for people like me, they are not moving nearly fast enough.  As we have said a number of times, the Tribunal is well past its useful life.  The idea that it addressed historic wrongs has come and gone.  Deadlines should have been placed years ago on those wanting to argue their case, with expiry dates on applications and negotiations.  All Governments have failed miserably to this point on the discipline required in that area.  But now it's down to ongoing dabbling in matters of the day that carry no weight and have a growing amount of political agitation about them.  It's simply a jacked-up, grievance mechanism funded by the taxpayer to supply ammo to the gravy-trainers for an ongoing, if not neverending, list of woe.  It takes gall in a broke country with cutbacks all around you to then go and ask for yet more resource.  But then that’s the Tribunal isn't it? Political, wasteful, past its use-by-date and clearly arrogant. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the Mike Hosking Breakfast Full Show Podcast for Friday 11th of April, the Treaty Principles Bill is dead, so where does David Seymour go now?  And we need to look at how the US’ 145% tariffs on China will impact us.   Tim Wilson and Kate Hawkesby discuss whether Mike would be the perfect host of the Chase as four episodes are being filmed in New Zealand.   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.

New Zealand is finally getting its own version of popular British television quiz show The Chase.  TVNZ has commissioned a four-episode special of The Chase New Zealand to be filmed in Sydney, Australia.  The Host has not yet been announced, and Kate Hawkesby and Tim Wilson pondered whether Mike would be a good fit as they Wrapped the Week.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Supercars driver Andre Heimgartner is getting behind plans for a Supercars round to take place in Christchurch.  Ruapuna Park's the likely candidate to join Taupo as the only New Zealand events on the calendar next year.  Heimgartner's very familiar with the proposed venue.  He told Mike Hosking it’s great for New Zealand motorsport.  He says they’ve been longing for this for a while, and it’s great that they’ve finally decided to give it to them – plus, it’s great for the South Island fans.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Markets have been losing many of yesterday's historic gains.  US markets climbed steeply after Donald Trump paused higher tariffs on most countries – locking them at 10%.  However, they plunged again after the White House confirmed tariffs on Chinese goods are now at 145%.  Business journalist Peter Lewis told Mike Hosking the up-and-down is likely to continue until investors have certainty about what's happening.  He says while there is a pause, the tariffs haven’t gone away altogether, and that will lead to a lot of volatility in the market.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Chief Children's Commissioner says we're still dropping the ball in providing some of the basics for our young people.   The Government's Child and Youth Strategy report shows improvements in attendance, smoking, drinking, and offending rates.  However material hardship, immunisations, food insecurity, and avoidable hospitalisations have all worsened.   Claire Achmad told Mike Hosking she wants the Government to put a bigger focus on children.  She says around half of children live in benefit dependent households, which doesn't provide enough for children to thrive.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Education Minister's looking to set it in stone what a school's ultimate goal should be.  Erica Stanford's introducing a new Bill requiring boards to have attendance management plans.  It includes amending school board objectives to make educational achievement the ultimate goal.   Stanford told Mike Hosking she wants to make it clear.  She says under the previous government it became very convoluted and it took away from the previous goal of having students achieve.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.