The Mike Hosking Breakfast

I asked yesterday whether Chris Hipkins thought we were stupid.
And as luck would have it, he answered our question – yes, he does.
First you have the Future Fund, a cornerstone policy, revelation that they aren't telling us who's money goes in and what sort of job creation they are expecting because they got bogged down in the Treaty issues, so we will need to wait until after the election.
That's a massive problem given they only have one policy and that policy looks to be a huge waste of our money.
Policy number two is a secret. But according to Chris, who appears to literally be melting in front of our eyes as the election year blowtorch gets pointed his way, he says on our behalf we "don't really care about the detail".
That’s what he said. Did he ask you? He didn’t ask me. But he seems confident to suggest we don't really care about the detail.
The breathtaking thing about that is I think he actually believes it.
I think he has shown a side of the limousine left. They genuinely think we are a bit thick, that they are intellectually superior, and the complicated stuff really should be left to those who know what they're doing or think they know what they're doing.
Can you name me any other party that takes their cornerstone policy and tells you that you don’t need to know the detail? And further, to go on to suggest you're not really interested anyway.
This would be bad enough if these guys hadn't been running the place for a while. But they ran the place three years ago and that very same "you're dumb, we know what we're doing" sunk them.
Hipkins in Auckland last week says everyone is over lockdown except the Newstalk ZB audience.
Hipkins this week says no one is interested in policy detail.
So one policy on tax, one policy that’s secret, and two observations that show the guy is literally either having a breakdown, or he is setting out to destroy his party in real time.
If you're remotely connected to Labour and want to help, get to him fast and hose him down.
Because he is the Government's greatest gift.
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Last month saw Russian aircrafts “repeatedly and dangerously” intercept British surveillance aircrafts over the Black Sea.
According to the UK’s Ministry of Defence, a Russian Su-35 fighter approached the Royal Airforce Plane, getting close enough to trigger its emergency systems and disable its autopilot.
On another occasion, a Su-27 jet carried out six passes in front of the plane’s nose, at a distance of six meters.
UK Correspondent Rod Liddle told Mike Hosking that Russia has become increasingly cheeky over the last four or five years.
He says that things are ratcheting up every so often, and even if it’s only by half an inch, it’s something the UK should worry about.
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Grant Baker is one of the country’s best success stories.
The Kiwi serial entrepreneur has had his hand in a number of pies but is best known for two companies – 42 Below and Turners.
It’s a career that’s spanned decades, and that’s before you get to his philanthropic efforts and work in co-founding the Gut Cancer Foundation in 2008.
He’s unravelling his career in his new book ‘No Pit Stops: The Business Of Going All In’, sharing stories of successes, setbacks, and lessons he’s learned.
While Baker has always had a bit of entrepreneurial spirit, it wasn’t until he was in his thirties that things really kicked off.
“My wife and I invested in property and those sorts of things, y’know, traditional Kiwi way, but we never got much traction,” he told Mike Hosking
Baker's true journey began with an offer from Eric Watson to join him in building a “$100 million company” in the Blue Star Group.
“When he laid out the opportunity, I just thought, well I’ve got to do something, I was in my mid-thirties at the time and thought if I don’t pull the trigger now, I never will.”
And the rest, as they say, is history.
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A record season for kiwifruit company Zespri.
It cracked $5.9 billion in global sales in its 2025/26 financial results, up from $5 billion the season before.
The company also sold a record 248.1 million trays, with strong performances in Europe and North America.
CEO Jason Te Brake told Mike Hosking that it’s a pretty uncertain world out there, so they just have to navigate some of those challenges and make sure they deliver well.
He says they see some really positive tailwinds and more global demand for the product, so they’re pretty optimistic about the future.
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On the Mike Hosking Breakfast Full Show Podcast for Thursday 21st of May, Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop discusses our tangled web of regulators and Floyd du Plessis unpacks the arrests of 14 Corrections staff.
We've heard throughout the war that people are turning to EVs, so Drive Electric’s Kirsten Corson joined to unpack their new State of the Nation report.
Kiwi entrepreneur Grant Baker talks his decades of success, and some failures, while speaking about his new book ‘No Pit Stops: The Business Of Going All In’.
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