Mike Hosking

Michael Noel James Hosking IV^[1] (born 1965) is a New Zealand television and radio broadcaster. He currently works as the weekday breakfast host on radio station Newstalk ZB.

A supporter of the centre-right National party, Hosking is often openly critical of the Labour-led government.^[2] He has lived and worked as a broadcaster in Wellington, Christchurch and currently, Auckland.

Career

Hosking's early career was in radio, working on the Radio New Zealand (he continues to work for Radio New Zealand network to this day) in the early 1990s hosting The Tonight Show nationwide, with a music and talkback format. He then went on to co-host Morning Report on National Radio with Geoff Robinson. Hosking first joined TVNZ in 1997, when it began its Breakfast show. He was then axed from the show in 2004. He made his return to television in 2008 when he filled in on TVNZ's Close Up programme. He hosted the game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? New Zealand, which began in September 2008 on TV ONE. In 2014, he and Toni Street joined Jesse Mulligan on the Seven Sharp panel for the show's second season. Hosking and Street left Seven Sharp at the end of 2017.

Personal life

In 1989, Hosking married Marie Angela Hosking,^[3] and, in June 2001, she gave birth to twins Ruby and Bella.^[3][4] They parted in August 2002.^[3] In 2003, they were involved in a court case against women's magazine New Idea, involving photos taken by tabloid journalist Jonathan Marshall^[5] in December 2002 of Marie and her two daughters.^[3]

In 2012, Hosking married fellow broadcaster Kate Hawkesby.^[4] She has three children from her previous marriage^[6]

Politics and business interests

In an interview with North & South in 1990, Hosking described himself as "a money person, I’m a capitalist. I’m to the right of Roger Douglas."^[7]

In 2012, Hosking was revealed to have received $48,000 in payments and perks from SkyCity Auckland Casino for doing regular work for them, while still working as presenter for TVNZ.^[8] During controversy over proposed taxpayer subsidies for Sky City building a national convention centre, Hosking wrote in defence of the subsidy, describing the convention centre as an "aspirational investment".^[9]

In 2013, he was the master of ceremonies at Prime Minister John Key's state of the nation speech, which he also endorsed.^[10] Hosking is a climate change skeptic, stating on Seven Sharp that he doesn't believe in the IPCC report.^[11]

In 2015, Hosking was accused of overt political bias by NZ First leader Winston Peters and Labour leader Andrew Little,^[12] a claim strongly denied by Hosking and Prime Minister John Key.^[13][14]

During the 2017 election campaign, Hosking was appointed moderator of one of the televised leader debates, and was again accused of political bias by much of the New Zealand public. This led to a petition for his replacement being widely circulated, and collecting over 75,000 signatures. Debate host and organizers TVNZ responded that it would not placate the petition signers, and affirmed that it will keep him on as moderator.^[15]

Controversy

In 2016 the Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA) received complaints about comments by Hosking critical of New Plymouth Mayor Andrew Judd who resigned from office following abuse Judd received for proposing a Māori ward on the local district council. Complaints referred to racism implicit in Hosking's remarks.^[16] The BSA did not uphold the complaints, noting that the Seven Sharp presenters regularly give their opinion on issues, and the outspoken and opinionated presenting style of Mr Hosking is well known to viewers. The BSA believed that overall Mr Judd was not unfairly treated and his comments balanced Hosking's view.^[17]

On 23 August 2017, a month before New Zealand's general Parliamentary election, Hosking asserted that only those enrolled in a Māori electorate were able to vote for the Māori Party. He said “…you can’t vote for the Māori Party because you’re not enrolled in the Māori electorate”. Members of the Māori Party and the general public criticised his statement as being misleading.^[18] The Māori Party lodged formal complaints with broadcaster TVNZ and the Electoral Commission over Hosking's comments.^[19]

Hosking made further comment the following night saying, “The fact that anyone can vote for [the Māori Party] as a list party I automatically assumed we all knew given we have been doing this for 20 years… and it went without saying. So hopefully that clears all of that up.”

The Māori Party complaint was referred to the Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA) which upheld the complaint. The BSA ruled Hosking breached its accuracy standard when he said to his co-presenter, "…you can't vote for the Māori Party because you're not enrolled in the Māori electorate". The comment was made on August 23, just under a month out from the 2017 general election. The BSA found Hosking's comment could have misled voters. The BSA found that the potential harm caused by this broadcast, in leaving viewers misinformed about their ability to vote for the Māori Party, outweighed the broadcaster’s right to freedom of expression. The BSA consider that Mr Hosking’s statement during the 23 August 2017 broadcast was inaccurate and misleading, and that the clarification subsequently provided was confusing and insufficient to correct the inaccuracy. This was an important issue, particularly during the election period, and had the potential to significantly affect voters’ understanding of the Māori roll and of New Zealand’s electoral system.^[20]

The results of the 2017 general election saw the Māori Party lose its electorate seat. It also failed to meet or exceed the five percent voting threshold needed for election and the Party lost its representation in Parliament.^[21]

See also

• List of New Zealand television personalities

References