Chapter 1: What is the significance of the diesel stockpile deal discussed by Shane Jones?
Your trusted home for news, sport, entertainment, opinion and Mike. The Mike Hosking Breakfast with Range Rover Sport SV, the ultimate performance SUV. News Talk ZB.
Morning and welcome. Today, the extra fuel, the ill good news on personal finances. Most of us turn out to be just fine, thank you. Some concern over yet more power price rises. Mark and Ginny Politics Wednesday. Richard Arnold, Steve Price, they're along for the morning ride as well. Welcome to the middle of the week already, and that's the beauty of a short week, isn't it? Seven past six.
Greatest sadness, you know, out of the India free trade deal for me to this point is that the rhetoric has not paid due respect to where free trade basically began. New Zealand, we are the pioneers. Well, the modern pioneers anyway. The concept, if you study it, goes back to the mid-1800s.
Chapter 2: How are power companies impacting consumers with price hikes?
where Britain and Europe had various deals. The GATT agreements of the 1940s made significant progress, but the deal with Australia in the 80s put it well and truly on our radar. And along with Roger Douglas, Mike Moore made a name, if not some fame for himself, with the desire to do cross-border business free from the impediment of tariffs.
And for a while, free trade deals had their time in the sun. They got, I thought anyway, a bit watered down with these block deals, the CPTPPs, your classic. Even our EU deal is widely accepted as being inferior to proper one-on-one deals like China or now India. Because when you get 27 nations, of course, in the EU, there's bound to be a bunch of protectionists in there.
India is also worth respecting because... It's India, and it's been a prize for many, many years. It's the last truly large country, and not just that, but a truly large country actually going places. If this country has an international calling card, it is trade. We box above our weight. We do business on quality. We buy and sell on fair price, not a jacked up protected price.
Within all deals, you will find critics and clauses that aren't perfect.
Chapter 3: What insights does Mike provide on the Maiki Sherman saga?
I mean, it's free trade, not perfect trade. And even a free trade deal technically can and does host tariffs. But with the intent and indeed the outworking of them all is that business between two countries is better, freer and bigger than it was before signing. New Zealand First are on the wrong side of this. And irony,
It cannot be lost, surely, that its leader is a foreign minister who spends his time globally looking to engage and encourage engagement between countries, and nothing encourages engagement more than doing business. Labour says it's not the deal they would have done, isn't it? What is the deal they did when they were in power? Oh, that's right, there wasn't one.
This, without a shadow of a doubt, in 20 years will be like China. Big, bold, successful, constantly being upgraded. We will all see it eventually. But in the ensuing years, sadly, since we were free trade evangelists, we've become increasingly myopic, if not racist. Free trade is what we are good at. We should celebrate what we're good at more.
Chapter 4: What are the implications of drinking culture in Parliament?
News of the world in 90 seconds.
Well, we've been watching the Commons in the last hour or so debating whether they should do something about Keir Starmer and his ever-evolving story around Mandelson. Our vote was held a couple of minutes ago. Before all that happened, a former chief of staff fronted the committee, looking into it, and came to Starmer's defence.
When I saw the pictures, when I saw the Bloomberg questions in September 2025, I have to say it was like a knife through my soul. I did not expect that level of connection.
This bloke formerly at the Foreign Office gave some insight into the broad incompetence. As a member of the House of Lords, he did not require developed vetting. I thought that was odd and insufficient to do the job properly. Effectively, you have to be party to some of the deepest secrets that the UK government holds. Yeah, and the chair of the committee seems to have come to this conclusion.
On the 20th of January, they wanted him to be in America to be at the inauguration. That simply wasn't enough time to do everything that was expected. And it meant that everything was rushed. And that did mean that there was pressure being put on everybody.
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Chapter 5: How is AI influencing business performance according to the latest report?
Anyway, the vote was held 335, 223, 92 abstentions, so Starmer survives another day. Meantime, across the pond, the King has listened to the President wax lyrical. Let us remember what has made our countries the two most exceptional nations the world has ever known. Your Majesties, thank you once again for making this important visit. We are so honoured.
The Mandelson debacle has also followed the king via Epstein and the Giuffre family. He certainly stood a lot stronger than our own president here of the United States. I do commend the king for that. We need to have a world leader step up in a way that we haven't seen from our own president here. Indeed, the King speaks to Congress, I think, about 7 o'clock this morning, our time.
Anyway, the Dems are piling the Epstein pressure on. It would be a tone deaf for him not to speak to the plight of the survivors and the crimes of Epstein. Well, we'll see what he has to say. We'll cover it for you this morning. And that is News of the World at 90.
Chapter 6: What are the current trends in the job market for farm workers?
The Moose is open, perhaps not the way you thought it would, but we found a super yacht that's wandered through, happens to be connected to Putin. It's 142 metres long, so it's not like they could have missed it. It's called the Nord, went from Dubai to Muscat. Over the weekend, no one seemed to do anything about it. 12 past six.
The Mike Hosking Breakfast full show podcast on iHeartRadio, powered by Newstalk ZB.
Tell you what, the big news this morning, if not a surprise, some are calling it a shock. The UAE are out of OPEC. They're leaving as of May 1. They're the third biggest producer in OPEC. No one knew this was coming, apparently. They've got a stated aim that they want to get into the business of about 5 million barrels a day. And they want more freedom of action to pursue the goal.
One of the members of OPEC is, of course, Iran, so that might have something to do with it. But as of May 1, the UAE are out.
Chapter 7: What are the potential economic impacts of the ongoing Middle East conflict?
15 past 6.
From Generate, Greg Smith, a very good morning to you. Very good morning to you, Mike. Have you got good job news for me? I most certainly have. So our labour market was quietly gaining momentum before these tensions were ramped up. So full jobs, they rose 0.3% in March. That's nearly 6,000 additional jobs, so it takes the total to... 2.35 million. So stronger than expected.
Actually continues to run in modest gains. And more good news, Mike. Annual growth back in the black. We're up 0.3% year on year. Not exactly off to the races, but positive nonetheless.
Chapter 8: How is the current political climate affecting public trust in media?
So the economy's added about 7,500 jobs more than a year ago. I suppose the issue on the other side, we have got population growth around, I suppose it's 0.7, 0.8%. So a little bit of a shortfall there. But as an optimist, which we are, you could say there's been a gentle recovery taking shape. But of course, then we've got the war to contend with.
But yeah, just drilling down the numbers, public sector, that's still leading the charge. Healthcare public administration, they added around 5,000 jobs. Tourism, that's helping on the edges. But parts of the economy are still struggling. So manufacturing, construction, perhaps no surprise, they've lost jobs. Around about 3,000 each over the past year, or 1.5% former.
We've still got that regional divide, which we've seen in plenty of places. So South Island doing well. Canterbury up 5,800 jobs more. Otago up by 1,900 jobs. North Island mixed. Waikato fairly bright, up 1%, but north and down a couple of percent, and Wellington also half a percent lower. So, yeah, big picture. We can take some comfort that the market has been improving in terms of jobs.
But, of course, any fallout from the Iran conflict is still to come, and we'll hit with a bit of a lag.
Yeah, exactly. So, US, I saw a beat for Coca-Cola, a beat for UPS. I haven't seen GM. What happened there?
Yeah, it's bellwether day, so a bit mixed. Coca-Cola, they delivered a strong beat. So revenue up 10%, $11 billion. That's the best growth in five quarters. Earnings also ahead of expectations. Net income $3.4 billion. That was up 5%. And they're doing a good job playing both ends of the consumer. So those mini cans are flying off the shelves. Smaller sizes, cheaper single-serve packs.
They're doing well with stretched households, which is what they're being targeted at. And the premium products are also going to Those that have got a bit more money, so they're growing as well. Product-wise, Coke Zero Sugar, Mike, that is the star. Sales up 13%. Guidance lifted overall, and I reckon they're going to get earnings growth of 8% to 9% this year, which is pretty good.
So markets like that, shares up around about 6%. Then we come to UPS, obviously the delivery giant. They've been on paper, but revenue's slightly lower, $21 billion. Net income actually fell 27% to $864 million. Volumes in the U.S. declined, so softer demand there. Fuel charges, interestingly, actually said they've yet to see a material impact, but stay tuned there.
They're taking a bunch of costs out, taking around $3 billion in savings. But, yeah, markets unconvinced, margins disappointed. Guidance wasn't upgraded, so these shares are down around about 3%. And then in the middle, you've got General Motors. That's actually a big earnings week, but revenues are down 1%, earnings up 22%, $4.25 billion. Why is that?
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