‘Tis the season for the annual swapping of gifts between the Prime Minister and broadcaster Mike Hosking.
For Prime Minister Christopher Luxon the festive season has begun with meal tray tables bearing the longtime broadcaster’s face, after the pair exchanged gifts in a Christmas tradition that dates back several years.
As for Hosking, he’ll leave the Newstalk ZB studio today with a bespoke calendar with a range of dates highlighted, from sports events to Parliament’s Question Time and random world elections.
“I get a lot of unsolicited advice when I’m in Parliament during question time. So, I’ve marked out in green all the times that you can give me that unsolicited advice,” Luxon said.
“And then the other two big interests in your life are obviously F1 and the Warriors games, so they’re all mapped out there on the planner. And then sometimes you love to give a bit of esoteric advice to the listeners around sort of the Cameroonian election that might be taking place. So, down this side, I’ve just given you a list of random world elections.”
Luxon also gave the broadcaster two wine glass rubber lanyards, briefly alarming Hosking as he unwrapped his gift, which was “only for you and [wife] Kate”, Luxon said.
“Oh my Lord, what is it?” Hosking replied before the Prime Minister revealed the lanyards were bought at Ikea after the Swedish giant opened its first New Zealand store in Auckland yesterday.
“I was the first person in the country to make a physical purchase in the store at Ikea. And I bought Mike ... wine glass lanyard[s], because as he ponders his estate ... him and Kate go wandering around and they often have a glass of wine in hand.
“As you’ve got older, I don’t want you to trip and fall, because that’d be a real problem.”
You can listen here to the exchange.
The tray tables were inspired by a comment Luxon made this year about him and wife Amanda eating dinner on their laps while watching Netflix.
“Stop eating dinner on your knee, it’s not healthy”, Hosking scolded the Prime Minister.
“All I ask of you when you’re sitting with that on your lap looking at me … is not to spill your food.”
The Prime Minister described the trays as having “lovely wood surrounds” and the image of Hosking as being “very wistful”.
“It’s ponderous and thoughtful,” Hosking said.
“The question I’m asking you with my eyes is, ‘Do you really think you’ll win the election next year?’”
The Government has been struggling in the polls as economic challenges continue, with Luxon himself the subject of ongoing speculation that his leadership may face a challenge from within his own party.
But the Prime Minister’s response was to the point.
“Oh hell yeah, don’t you worry about that.”
Last year, after Luxon’s first full year in the top job, Hosking gave the Prime Minister a gift he described as “one of one” and a “prototype”.
It was a book titled “The Complete Guide to Surviving a Mike Hosking Interview”, which Luxon described as “genius”.
Luxon gave Hosking a Christmas card with a family photo on it and some “furikake seasoning,” a Japanese seasoning typically made with toasted sesame seeds and nori.
“People like me, who are men of the people, just use salt, I mean, I come from a very humble background,” Luxon said.
“This is what really posh people do.”
“Absolutely love it,” Hosking said in response to the gift.
Luxon also gave Hosking a “special energy Voost” that was described as “posh Berrocca”.
Former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern also exchanged gifts with Hosking during her time leading the country.
This included in 2018 a framed photo given to Hosking of the pair riding Lime scooters together and, in exchange, a T-shirt with a picture of Hosking holding a vacuum cleaner.
The following year Ardern – who in 2021 would cancel her regular weekly interview on the Mike Hosking Breakfast – gave the broadcaster a T-shirt showing the pair mid-verbal stoush and with the slogan “I heart Tuesdays”.
“This could go wrong,” Hosking then said as he prepared to give Ardern her gift, a miniature “one-off Mike Hosking vacuum cleaner”.
“And I don’t want you to think it’s a sexist gift either because … no one loves to vacuum more than me.”
In 2020, Ardern pranked Hosking by gifting him a Labour billboard featuring the ZB host alongside the Prime Minister herself, a present she said Hosking will grow to love as the years roll on.
“Do you want me on board? Have you seen my magnetism as a vote-getter?” Hosking joked.
Ardern then unwrapped two presents from Hosking, one for daughter Neve and one for herself.
Hosking gave Neve a Mickey Mouse soft toy with Neve’s name engraved before pranking Ardern back with his own gift to her, a series of face masks with his face printed on the front.
“When I first opened it, I briefly worried it was a g-string,” Ardern said.