Episodes

  • Really, really urgent

    Really, really urgent
    May 7 2025
    An overhaul of the pay equity process has been whisked through parliament under urgency. The changes, which tighten the criteria for making a claim for workers in female-dominated sectors and summarily halt 33 existing claims in the pipeline, have prompted a major backlash, in part for their substance and in part for the decision to push the reform through without the usual consultation under a select committee process or regulatory impact statement. Annabelle Lee-Mather, Ben Thomas and Toby Manhire discuss the unexpected announcement, the rationale for urgency, whether it’s plausible to claim it’s not primarily motivated by the billions that will be saved ahead of a tight budget, and what impact, if any, it might have on the women’s vote. The trio also discuss Christopher Luxon’s enthusiastic backing of a bill that would follow Australia in banning social media for under-16s. What is with the surge in member’s bill as mechanisms for party campaigning, what is the polling telling politicians about young people and social media, and does Luxon know he’s the prime minister? Plus: Australians have returned Labor and Albanese to power in what is being called a “bloodbath”, hot on the heels of Mark Carney’s big comeback in Canada. How big is the Trump effect, is it good news for the left or good news for incumbents, and how might New Zealand politicians look to seize upon the Trumpy moment? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    Show More Show Less
    53 mins
  • Australian election special with Ben McKay

    Australian election special with Ben McKay
    Apr 30 2025
    This Saturday Aussies will (compulsorily) head to the polls. At the start of the year, Labor under Anthony Albanese was staring down the barrel of defeat and the first one-term government for almost 100 years. But with a few days to go, the pollsters are all picking that he'll return to power. What changed? Where did Peter Dutton's makeover go wrong? What happened to the Coalition campaign? Did Donald Trump play a role? To tackle these questions, complete with yarns about salmon and wallabies and paddling pool anomalies, is Ben McKay, Pacific editor for AAP and an illustrious former inhabitant of the New Zealand press gallery. In a special edition of the podcast temporarily renamed Gone By Brunchtime in recognition of the time difference, he talks to Toby Manhire about all that, the New Zealand influence across the Tasman, and what parties here might learn from there. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    Show More Show Less
    38 mins
  • Christopher, champion of the free trade world

    Christopher, champion of the free trade world
    Apr 23 2025
    The PM’s speech and free-trade phone tree with like-minded leaders in response to Trump’s tarrif binge impressed many commentators, but not all of them: leading pundit and deputy prime minister Winston Peters was indignant and he said so. Christopher Luxon said it was media beatup, but was he right? Should he have consulted more thoroughly with his foreign minister? Should his foreign minister have slapped him down in public? Was Peters right that it was too early to be assembling pro-free-trade coalitions? Was he right that there was too much bellicose language being used? And how much of all this is about domestic, rather than global, politics? Toby Manhire, Annabelle Lee-Mather and Ben Thomas assemble to tackle these questions and more such as: is there more than idle speculation and scuttlebutt to snap election chat? And what is up with the indefatigable Mr Peters’ (happy 80th birthday, by the way!) latest salvo in the anti-woke culture wars, seeking to “define ‘woman’ and ‘man’ in law”? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    Show More Show Less
    42 mins
  • Live in Auckland with special guest Rebecca Wright

    Live in Auckland with special guest Rebecca Wright
    Apr 10 2025
    At a sold out Q Theatre on Wednesday night, Annabelle Lee-Mather, Ben Thomas and Toby Manhire grapple with the new Trump world order, preview the Peters-Seymour handover and assess the state of play ahead of the term halfway mark. With special guest Rebecca Wright. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    Show More Show Less
    51 mins
  • Home and away with Christopher Luxon

    Home and away with Christopher Luxon
    Mar 18 2025
    After a drum beat of conjecture about his job security, the prime minister enjoyed something of an elixir in the investment summit and a trip to India that began with a breakthrough announcement: the launch of talks on a comprehensive free trade agreement. A big moment in itself felt bigger given the emergence of a US-led trade war, but also a confidence boost for Luxon. Ben Thomas, Annabelle Lee-Mather and Toby Manhire discuss the import of those developments, and whether Luxon's good time abroad can travel back to New Zealand with him. Plus: Winston Peters meets Marco Rubio, an extended chew over the latest in the school lunch saga, and David Seymour's suggestion that it highlighted "two New Zealands", and the Act Party announcement it will stand candidates in local elections. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    Show More Show Less
    45 mins
  • A conversation with David Parker about the world and NZ’s place in it

    A conversation with David Parker about the world and NZ’s place in it
    Mar 14 2025
    The Labour spokesperson for foreign affairs joins Toby Manhire for a special podcast casting a view across a turbulent world. New Zealand, like pretty much every country in the world, is suffering from geopolitical whiplash in processing the torrent of activity emanating from the Trump White House. A postwar order cemented across eight decades is crumbling as a newly expansionist, protectionist United States emerges under Trump’s second presidency. In a discussion spanning everything from Ukraine and Gaza to China and the Pacific, security guarantees and defence spending, Aukus, Five Eyes, Trump’s tariff bender and the impact of inequality and social media, Parker offers his assessment of where it all leaves New Zealand. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    Show More Show Less
    56 mins
  • The Curious Case of Christopher Luxon's Hosking Equivocations

    The Curious Case of Christopher Luxon's Hosking Equivocations
    Mar 3 2025
    Ambiguity surrounding the precise nature of the "animated" behaviour by Andrew Bayly towards a staffer, which led to his resignation as commerce minister, seeped into the prime minister's media response. Speaking to Mike Hosking, Christopher Luxon danced around the question of whether he would have sacked Bayly had he not quit, then danced around it again, and again, to the audible displeasure of the ZB superstar. Ben Thomas, Annabelle Lee-Mather and Toby Manhire try to get their heads around this double bill of The Thick of It and Clarke & Dawe. First, however, it's to the Tasman Sea, and the unexpected appearance of a trio of Chinese warships and live-fire exercises that left commercial airlines re-routing. What message was being sent, should it spur New Zealand to boosted defence spending, and how, in the naval wake, would Winston Peters have approached his visit to Beijing? Plus: the proposed reforms to citizen's arrest laws and a step towards a referendum on a four-year term, with one big condition attached. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    Show More Show Less
    47 mins
  • David Seymour and his Prince Hal epoch

    David Seymour and his Prince Hal epoch
    Feb 19 2025
    The leader of the Act Party has been in plenty of headlines in the last two weeks, ranging from a controversial (and historic) letter written on behalf of constituent Philip Polkinghorne to an attempt to drive a Land Rover up the steps of parliament. Remarkably, he had a pop at an "ill-advised" Christopher Luxon. And that's just scraping the surface; there are the questions around the response to Tim Jago, the teacher-only days, the school lunches. Across the board, he is steadfast in insisting he's erred not even a skerrick. Is it an obduracy born of being a one-man band for so long, or is he going through a Prince Hal phase, getting some stuff out of his system before he becomes the king (or deputy prime minister, at least)? Annabelle Lee-Mather, Ben Thomas and Toby Manhire thrash all that out. Plus: how much alarm are the latest cluster of opinion polls causing for National and Luxon? Does a cavalcade of health issues represent a serious political headache for the government? What should we make of the findings in the much-delayed Manurewa Marae data inquiry? And a word on the Cook Islands, Mark Brown and China. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    Show More Show Less
    51 mins