The Mike Hosking Breakfast Newstalk ZB

New Zealand wool is having its time in the limelight as it features in a documentary on the world's largest public broadcaster. 

Germany's national channel will play the 8-minute documentary which has the potential to reach around 60% of the country. 

The crew is filming at wool carpet manufacturer Bremworth and will travel to other processing plants and farms around New Zealand. 

Bremworth CEO Greg Smith told Andrew Dickens that this is huge for the industry. 

He says having millions see New Zealand wool could help give a much-needed boost to the industry. 

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There have been several major announcements made of late, most notably the reintroduction of charter schools and the creation of the National Gang Unit. 

National's Mark Mitchell and Labour's Ginny Andersen joined Andrew Dickens on Politics Wednesday to dig into the announcements. 

Mark Mitchell said that the Labour Government left them with a real mess.

He told Andrew Dickens that they're like an arsonist returning to the scene of the crime to watch how long it's going to take to put the fires out. 

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On the Mike Hosking Breakfast Full Show Podcast for Wednesday 15th of May, Andrew Dickens filled in for Mike Hosking. Police Commissioner Andrew Coster spoke on the new gang taskforce and what they want the unit to achieve. 

Charter schools are back and they're a contentious issue, can they be done well? Alwyn Poole has set up a couple and explained how it needs to be done. 

Ginny Andersen and Mark Mitchell sparred over the new gang unit and charter schools on Politics Wednesday. 

Get the Mike Hosking Breakfast Full Show Podcast every weekday morning on iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts. 

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Netball fans will have easy access to games as Netball New Zealand confirms a partnership with TVNZ. 

The 12-month contract secures free-to-air coverage of next year’s ANZ Premiership Saturday matches. 

The sport will also be broadcast on Sky next year, as the existing broadcasting partnership is extended by a year. 

Netball NZ CEO Jennie Wyllie told Andrew Dickens that ideally they’d want longer contracts and more certainty, but what was really important was getting clarity for coaches and players for 2025.  

They only had one game a week free-to-air in 2024 and are getting great numbers, she said, and being able to continue and expand on that is going to be significant.  

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It's heating up within the New York Court room as Donald Trump's lawyers grill his former fixer. 

Michael Cohen was an attorney for the ex-president from 2006 to 2018 and the prosecution's last witness in the hush money trial. 

He's told the prosecutors he allegedly paid adult star Stormy Daniels on behalf of Trump, to ensure the story would not come out before the 2016 election. 

US correspondent Richard Arnold told Andrew Dickens that it's already a tense cross examination. 

He says Trump's lawyer started by calling out Cohen for posting rude Tiktoks about him. 

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A founder of two charter schools says the model could work. 

The Coalition's putting aside more than $150 million in the Budget for 15 new charter schools and converting 35 state schools. 

Head of Innovative Education Consultants, Alwyn Poole, told Andrew Dickens they saw improvement in the past and students would spend four years in their middle schools. 

He says 88% of Māori and Pasifika students would go on to achieve level 1 NCEA. 

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