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Michael Noel James Hosking IV is a New Zealand television and radio broadcaster who has worked for Radio New Zealand and TVNZ and from 2008 has been the weekday breakfast host on Newstalk ZB with "The Mike Hosking Breakfast". He is a supporter of the centre-right National party and is often openly critical of the Labour-led government. He has lived and worked as a broadcaster in Wellington, Christchurch and currently resides in Auckland.
The Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA) has received several complaints against Hosking. In 2016 Andrew Judd, the Mayor of New Plymouth, was unsuccessful with his complaint that Hosking's comments related to a local issue were racist, but in 2017, a complaint by the Māori Party alleging he made misleading comments about who was eligible to enroll in Māori electorates was successful. During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the BSA also upheld a complaint that Hosking's comments about death rates for Coronavirus breached the Radio Code of Broadcasting Practice.
In November 2020 he was named one of the best dressed men in show business on David Hartnell Best Dressed List.
In 2012, Hosking married fellow broadcaster Kate Hawkesby. She has three children from her previous marriage.
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. 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".
In 2013, he was the master of ceremonies at Prime Minister John Key's state of the nation speech, which he also endorsed. Hosking rejects the scientific consensus on climate change, stating on Seven Sharp that he doesn't believe in the IPCC report.
In 2015, Hosking was accused of overt political bias by NZ First leader Winston Peters and Labour leader Andrew Little, a claim strongly denied by Hosking and Prime Minister John Key.
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 organisers TVNZ responded that it would not placate the petition signers, and affirmed that it will keep him on as moderator.
Hosking is opposed to Māori wards.
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. The Māori Party lodged formal complaints with broadcaster TVNZ and the Electoral Commission over Hosking's comments.
Hosking made further comment the following night saying, “The fact that anyone can vote for the 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 23 August, 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 broadcast on 23 August 2017 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.
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.
The BSA concluded that upholding the complaint was a reasonable limit on free expression, given Hosking’s influential position, and emphasised the importance of factual accuracy in opinion-based programming. No formal order was made, with the publication of the decision deemed sufficient.
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