Podcasts about National Party

Tonight, on The Panel, Wallace Chapman is joined by panellists Kanoa Lloyd and Ed McKnight. First up, the National Party is promising that if re-elected, it will modernise laws on sexual consent, saying there must be consent before sex every time. Advocate Louise Nicholas shares her reaction. Then, just how hard is the job market for graduates? The Panel catches up with Auckland University graduate Lucy Parsonson about the uphill battle she's fighting.

Federated Farmers have quite rightly raised what you would loosely call "the alarm" around a rush of new deals between councils and local Māori. The rush is on because of the Government's new Natural Environment and Planning bills. They were released late last year, saying you can't do local Māori deals under it. It's passed its first reading and is sitting at committee level and due back soon. Like rust, councils don't sleep, so the deals are being inked. Canterbury is the latest, but deals have already been done in Manawatu, Whanganui, Northland, and Taranaki. Obviously, we could focus on the duplicitous nature of all this. We could focus on the fundamental dishonesty of giving people a say over major matters without having to ever face a voter. But let us, for this moment in time, wonder aloud whether this very sort of thing might be a reason for the softness in the National Party vote at the moment. We are late in the term and, yes, there was a lot to do to try and stitch up the chaos Labour left behind. But the Māorification of this country was a centrepiece for all the players in the current Government, and yet you can argue, and I do, that it never got the attention it needed. It never seemed to have the urgency. It started with the smaller, you could argue, simpler stuff i.e. Māori names for everything. There should have been stroke-of-pen edicts that ended the nonsense on the spot. We had the vote at local level around Māori wards. That was democracy in action as some kept them, some didn't. But at least we had a say. But stitch-up deals with local tribes who decide what gets done and doesn't, simply because of race, is a gargantuan example of what needed addressing on day one. Here we are on day 962 and we still haven't closed it off and, given it's July and Parliament rises in September, there are only a handful of sitting days left. ChatGPT tells me there's only ten. I assume they plan to pass it in that time, but in the ensuing period the piss is well and truly being taken. Delivery is everything in government. On this, even if they deliver, they have looked lackadaisical in their approach, hence the bleeding of support. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Forget what the pundits are saying about who is packing boxes for the ninth floor of the Beehive. The rolling poll of polls shows New Zealand is heading into one of the closest elections in modern political history, and the country is split straight down the middle. We break down the razor-thin margins alongside Ashley Church and Maurice Williamson. From the National Party strategy friction to the minor party wild cards, it all comes down to coalition mathematics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If anyone on a council at the moment can't understand why so many of us ratepayers are so hostile towards them, sometimes bordering on hatred, can I just suggest they take a look at what's going on with these agreements with iwi? That might actually give them a bit of an idea. If you haven't followed this, Chris Bishop is planning to replace the Resource Management Act shortly and his replacement law will not allow councils to sign any more of these agreements. These agreements are called Mana Whakahono a Rohe agreements. In some cases, and certainly in the more extreme examples, they effectively cede significant decision-making power to iwi. The new law will not allow any further agreements to be signed but it will allow existing agreements to continue. So, of course, what's happening is that councils are rushing to sign as many of these things as they can before the law changes. The Far North District Council is trying to sign five of them, apparently without involving elected councillors in the process. They're reportedly not even allowed to see the detail. I've had a letter today from the Mayor of Carterton drawing my attention to the fact that Greater Wellington Regional Council, which covers Carterton, is doing exactly the same thing, despite objections from two of its constituent councils: Carterton and Kāpiti. Environment Canterbury tried to rush one through this week, then got busted and pulled it from the agenda. The fact that councils are being cynical like this will come as no surprise to anyone because they did exactly the same thing with Māori wards when they knew that, in many cases, their own ratepayers did not support them. But this gets much more difficult for the Government because it, particularly the National Party and ACT, said this co-governance stuff would end. Yet they are allowing it to continue under their new RMA laws by permitting these agreements to carry over. They need to change that law. They need to change it before it becomes law if they really meant what they said. Importantly, if they want to retain the faith of the voters who backed them to end this stuff, then they need to act when they have the chance next week, when the select committee report on the RMA reforms comes back. They need to say that these agreements will be rendered void under the new law and that whatever has been signed in a last-minute rush will count for nothing. This is the Government's big test. It's the chance to prove that what it said about co-governance wasn't just hot air. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On today's REX Daily Podcast, Dom talks with West Coast dairy farmer Katie Milne about running in the West Coast-Tasman electorate for the National Party in this year's election, why she's decided to throw her hat in the ring and her recent trip to Antarctica... And he talks with Shaun Clouston, Beef + Lamb NZ Platinum Ambassador Chef, about being awarded a Michelin Star at Wellington restaurant Logan Brown, which he co-owns and where he's Executive Chef. They also discuss whether having the Michelin Star programme in NZ is a good thing and his passion for NZ grass-fed red meat. Tune in daily for the latest and greatest REX rural content on your favourite streaming platform, visit rexonline.co.nz and follow us on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn for more.

The ACT Party's not really a “ban” sort of a party. I've always thought they supported the idea of letting people go to hell in their own way. If you want to make your own decisions, fill your boots – if they're bad ones, live with the consequences. And perhaps they do still support the idea of adults going to hell in their own way, but not when it comes to kids. Leader David Seymour did not support the National Party ban getting kids off social media. They've said that's a dumb idea, there's no way you can police the internet. But what David Seymour has proposed is a total ban on smartphones for under 16-year-olds. He says Parliament could prohibit the purchase, possession, and supply of smartphones in much the same way we prohibit young people from purchasing alcohol and tobacco, and we prohibit adults from supplying minors with these substances. He's putting smartphones in the same category as tobacco and alcohol. He says teenagers are perfectly able, in his world, to have dumb phones, but given the known link between smartphones and the social media apps you can access on them and anxiety, depression, and self-harm, he says we should consider a smartphone yet another harmful substance that should only be available to adults. Now, of course, if you don't want your child to have a smartphone, you don't have to get them one. You can make your own rules in your own house for your own kids. But it's really hard to make a rule for your child that other parents don't have for their children. It's really hard too, in this day and age, to access notices at school about upcoming events, sports practices, lifts that people are offering to get your kid to training and back again. Everything's on platforms these days that you need the phones to access. There must be a way around it. We can just get the Gestetner out and get the school notices home again. There was a time where we had a perfectly functioning community and civilisation that did not have smartphones, so there must be a way to do it. And if the Government is willing to do the heavy lifting and play bad cop so you don't have to, so much the better. “I want a smartphone, everybody else has got one," says the 13-year-old. “I'm sorry, it's against the law. In the same way I can't give you alcohol or cigarettes, I can't give you a smartphone." It makes it easier if there's a ban. Of course, kids will still get them in the same way they will do workarounds if there's a ban on under 16s going onto certain social media apps. There'll be a workaround. But if the general accepted norm is that young people do not have access to smartphones until they're 16, it's just one of those things. Children, young people, don't drink until they're 18. Of course, some of them do, but the general accepted norm is that they don't. The general accepted norm is that you don't buy cigarettes for children. Could it be possible that the general accepted norm becomes young people do not get smartphones until they're 16? It doesn't seem impossible. Yes, smartphones are everywhere now, but it's not that long ago that they didn't used to be. You don't have to have them. Some people don't, some people still don't. The world can perfectly capably function without them. And certainly, in the world of a teenager, you should be able to function without them. There is no doubt that the anxiety, the bullying, the depression, the self-harm, the self-doubt has got worse. Social skills have got worse. The ability to function in the real world has got worse because you can hide away, you go through a portal into an app, through the other side, through your smartphone, and you don't have to face reality. No good has come of allowing the kids access to smartphones. There are kids as under 13 who are able to use them and accessing them. Once you see something, once you get embroiled in something beyond you, that's it. You can't unsee something, you can't unhear something. Keep the ugly, unpatrolled, unpoliced dark side of the web away from our kids until they're able to cope, they've got to build up a bit more resilience to cope. David Seymour says banning smartphones will be a lot easier than trying to police the internet, and he's right. So if you're looking for a way to protect our young people, do you go with David Seymour's total ban on smartphones for under 16s, or do you try and patrol the internet by denying them access to certain apps? I think I'd just go for the ban. Quicker, easier, simpler. Cigarettes, alcohol, smartphones – no access till you're an adult. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dom talks with West Coast dairy farmer Katie Milne about running in the West Coast-Tasman electorate for the National Party in this year's election, why she's decided to throw her hat in the ring and her recent trip to Antarctica. Tune in daily for the latest and greatest REX rural content on your favourite streaming platform, visit rexonline.co.nz and follow us on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn for more.

The Reserve Bank just delivered an interest rate hike that the National Party desperately wanted to avoid. This completely shatters their script, yet Nicola Willis is trying to spin this as a sign of a strengthening economic recovery. We check in with Ani O'Brien and Ashley Church to see if this economic turnaround is actually real or just more Wellington spin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Let's not pretend that this roading announcement is not a massive letdown for anyone who voted for the National Party believing it would deliver the roads it promised. It is a huge letdown. Of the 15 Roads of National Significance promised following the last election, only six have construction dates: Takitimu North Link Stage 1 in Tauranga, Ōtaki to north of Levin, the Hawke's Bay Expressway, Warkworth to Te Hana, Cambridge to Piarere and the Ōmanawa Bridge. I don't even know where that is. The rest of them? Well, good luck to you. The second Mount Victoria Tunnel, which is one of my personal obsessions because of how badly Wellington needs it, has no construction date. In fact, the pre-construction work could take us all the way through to 2037. That is incredibly disappointing. I've heard rumours for months that this was the case. I've kept asking Chris Bishop about it on this show and he has assured me the project was all go. But it's not really, is it? And remember what National said at the last election: spades in the ground in the first term. That is now a broken promise. Now, I have to give credit where credit is due and that is to Chris Bishop because he fronted up and got honest with the public about this. That can't have been easy for him to do - for his own reputation and for the political fallout facing the National Party ahead of the next election. I know he's been anxious about this day coming and it has come. I think he's handled it as well as he could.But this is a mistake that Chris Bishop and the Nats cannot blame on anyone but themselves. They cannot blame Trump. They cannot blame tariffs. They cannot blame the conflict with Iran. They cannot blame inflation. They cannot blame the Labour Party. It was obvious in 2023 that they were being too ambitious in promising all these roads. They were warned they were being too ambitious and the warnings were correct. Now there will be significant numbers of disappointed voters who will have to wait so long for the roads they were promised that - given how changes of Government work - they may never actually get them. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There's hopes compulsory KiwiSaver can help New Zealand catch up to Australia's economy. The National Party is campaigning on making KiwiSaver mandatory for all workers, and for gradually raising the matching rate to six percent. NZ Herald Business Editor at Large Liam Dann says he wants to see a bipartisan effort and for the Labour Party to get on board. He says people will need to get used to that six percent figure. "They're at higher levels than that in Australia - it's painful in the short term, but they do cope. And then, you move on and then you forget about it and you just look at that giant figure on your KiwiSaver statement." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There's hopes compulsory KiwiSaver can help New Zealand catch up to Australia's economy. The National Party is campaigning on making KiwiSaver mandatory for all workers, and for gradually raising the matching rate to six percent. NZ Herald Business Editor at Large Liam Dann says he wants to see a bipartisan effort and for the Labour Party to get on board. He says people will need to get used to that six percent figure. "They're at higher levels than that in Australia - it's painful in the short term, but they do cope. And then, you move on and then you forget about it and you just look at that giant figure on your KiwiSaver statement." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“P” is for Progressive Democratic Party. Aware that many White Democrats in South Carolina opposed President Franklin D. Roosevelt's reelection to a fourth term, African American activists sought to demonstrate their loyalty to the National Party by mobilizing Black support for the president. By May 1944, that effort had morphed into the Progressive Democratic Party (PDP).

Let me hit you with absolutely the weirdest political news of the day. Michael Laws, it's being reported, is going to announce he's running for New Zealand First. The '90s called and want their man back. It's not a good move for New Zealand First, it's a bad move. Michael Laws is trouble. He was trouble in the National Party when he was an MP. He was trouble in New Zealand First when he was an MP. He was trouble at Radio Live. He was trouble when he was Mayor of Whanganui. He is trouble right now in his role on the Otago Regional Council. He's a really, really smart guy, don't get me wrong, but he is not the guy New Zealand First should be trying to bring on board if they want to convince voters they are capable of running this country. Michael Laws is not their guy. He is fringe. He's been running a show on a media outlet - no disrespect to it - that has a very small audience of loyal followers and to everybody else it looks a bit weird and fringe. New Zealand First's biggest challenge right now is to appear credible because they really, really want to be supersized in this coalition. And if you believe the rumours going around, Winston Peters wants to finally, after all these years, have a crack at being Prime Minister. A few weeks and months ago, that kind of seemed possible because they'd captured the zeitgeist. They were promising bold policies that were cutting through to a large group of voters who had become incredibly frustrated by the normal run of things - run-of-the-mill politicians, policies, parties and so on. But in the past few weeks, that momentum seems to have evaporated and things have got a little bit weird, haven't they? Winston might have pushed it a bit far with the infighting involving his colleagues and the anti-Indian document, which seems to have given him what he wanted, yet now he's complaining about it and narking on us to the Indians. Then you've got the Michael Laws announcement which, if it happens, is going to double down on that weirdness. Taine Randell was a great get for New Zealand First. Stuart Nash was a good get for New Zealand First. But Michael Laws is a bad get because he brings the whole party down by association. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Federated Farmers' national board member Mark Hooper is applauding the National Party for its plan to make it much easier for farmers to install solar. The party plans to make it a permitted activity not requiring resource consent.

Tonight, on The Panel, Wallace Chapman is joined by panellists Denise L'Estrange-Corbet and Michael Moynahan. First up, the National Party has announced a very Green-looking policy today: low interest loans for solar panels. Andrew Eagles from the Green Building Council shares his reaction. Then, Conservation Minister Tama Potaka has walked back on a controversial clause of a bill that generated widespread outrage.

Speech on campus is the defining issue of higher education today. Many call for a return to the past when nearly anyone was received with respect. So, this week we look back to a moment in 1965 when the National Party of America, an openly fascist and anti-semitic political party was invited to speak at Reed College in Portland Oregon.Read Seth's writing: https://rightlandia.ghost.io/For a transcript of this episode: https://bit.ly/campusfiles-transcripts

Could these be the biggest KiwiSaver changes since the scheme began?James and Mike break down the National Party's proposed KiwiSaver reforms, including compulsory contributions, higher employer contributions, a $1,500 KiwiSaver kickstart for newborns, parental leave support, over-65 contributions, and whether these changes could improve retirement outcomes and help New Zealand close the wealth gap with Australia.Next steps: If you're unsure whether your KiwiSaver is on track for retirement, get in touch with the Lighthouse KiwiSaver team for a personalised review.For more money tips follow us on:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The content in this podcast is the opinion of the hosts. It should not be treated as financial advice. It is important to take into consideration your own personal situation and goals before making any financial decisions.

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Do you know what's real and what's not when you're scrolling through your news feeds? When you're scrolling through your social media? AI generated “news” pages and political deepfake ads are swamping social media feeds. They've been around for a while, but there's more and more and more of them and they're becoming harder to detect as the technology gets more sophisticated, as people understand how to use the tools they're discovering. When it comes to the ads, think of Mike Hosking's cryptocurrency investment scheme scam and Toni Street's weight loss drugs scam – all AI generated, all false. But if it looks like them, it sounds like them, how do you know it's not them? It's the same as true with news stories. How do you differentiate between what is real news and what is fake news? And it's getting even harder now that some news is becoming fakeish. The Herald reports this morning in their story that many posts are on pages with more than 100,000 followers, so you'd think, well, that would be legit. The phonies take existing stories, news stories that begin as real, then run them through AI to rewrite them and then republish them with fake images, again in many cases using the original image and then oomphing it up. The Herald used an example of the attack on Christopher Luxon's electorate office. They showed the real photo, which was of a pretty much undamaged facade of the building with two police officers standing outside. Next to it, somebody had vamped up the image by showing it completely gutted with fire appliances and many fire officers standing around with the two original police officers. So you take the original, then oomph it up. Particularly spurious is the spate of fake social media articles that have been targeting New Zealand athletes and their families. Recent posts have featured former and current All Blacks, and Warriors coach Andrew Webster and his family were targeted with a post claiming his wife had died when in reality she is very much alive. Why would anyone be so stupid and so cruel? TVNZ spoke to Massey University marketing professor Bodo Lang, and he said the people posting these fake articles were likely seeking clicks and followers. They're people who make their living out of posts on social media. There are many of them who do that. Some are just eking out some kind of existence – they would far rather be an influencer, or run a YouTube channel, or run a page and make their money that way. That's what they think. It's actually a hell of a lot of hard work from what I understand from people who do in fact make a sizeable income out of their social media. It's a lot of effort and I don't think these people understand nearly how much it is. And as many of the young influencers, the young YouTubers who start off life with followers because they're doing something they love doing, when they monetize it and have to put the work in, they end up crashed on the shores of their own fame, shipwrecked. They give it up by the time they're 22/23 if they don't come to a worse end. But initially, these young people think, well, this has got to be better than a real job. They'll take anything they can and use it to get the clicks in an attempt to monetize it. So how do you spot the difference between what's real and what is not? In the story this morning in the Herald, there's a photo or an image that the Herald's used showing me in the big studio where Mike normally broadcasts and where we tend to film the interviews with leaders of political parties. It's got me in the big studio with Christopher Luxon and Chris Hipkins. Now, there's a number of things immediately wrong with that AI image. If I was moderating a debate, no matter what you think about my Tokyo Rose tendencies and my snuggling up to the National Party, I would not be sitting so close to the PM. A moderator always sits smack bang in the middle. And even though I'm looking at him with a kind of outraged expression as he lunges across the table pointing his finger at AI Chris Hipkins, I would not be sitting that close to him. Chris Hipkins looks like Clutch Cargo – he's got this big manly jaw. Looks nothing, well, I mean, I'm sure he's got a very nice jaw, but it looks nothing like him really. Christopher Luxon's about right, although he looks to be towering over the rest of us when in real life, he wouldn't be. At first glance, if you were looking at that, you'd think, oh yes, when was the leaders' debate on? I must have missed it. If you weren't looking at it closely. My mum got taken in when Pope Leo was anointed Pope. Did you see that lovely video about him with the alcoholic friend that he found in the Vatican City? Had him come and stay with him the first week. She showed me, and that wasn't even using particularly sophisticated AI, this was just a series of images of random people and the Pope. I'm like, Mum, no. No, that's simply not true. He did not take in his alcoholic friend from America and put him up in the papal chambers and get him sorted and reunite him with his family within the first week of his papacy. Well, how would you know? She said. Well, have a look at the papal calendar. And she's not a stupid woman; she just wants to believe nice stories. So how do you know what is real and what is not? Have you been caught out before? I mean, if it's there for entertainment, if you know it's there for entertainment, you can enjoy it and jog on. But it does get damaging, it does get harmful when you believe that Mike Hosking is offering cryptocurrency investment advice. People have been taken in by politicians who are deepfakes, media personalities who are deepfakes. When you lose your money, when you are the victim of it, when you wake up one morning to find out that you're supposed to be dead, I mean, disconcerting to say the very, very least, and then having to tell people, no, I'm very much alive. And as we head into an election, how do you know what is real and what is not? When you look at all the information you're consuming across all the different media, how do you know what's true? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Last week, during Scrutiny Week, Housing Minister Chris Bishop was asked about the government's changes to social housing rent in this year's budget, prompting an explanation and defence for this government's approach to social housing. Last week also saw the tangible possibility of a peace deal between the US and Iran emerge, with talks progressing between the two parties to bring conflict to a close. THis, of course, will have an effect on New Zealand's fuel situation, with the fuel crisis caused by the conflict having widespread effects on the country. And the Conservation Amendment Bill has roused concern and criticism over what some worry will lead to the selling off of large chunks of conservation land, despite the Government's comments to the contrary, as it seeks to how Conservation land is organised, and how it can be sold. Host Alex spoke with National Party MP Ryan Hamilton about these topics, starting with Minister Chris Bishop and the government's social housing changes.

Today on the Tuesday Wire... For Dear Science this week, our expert, Professor Allan Blackman, chats with us about Japan's Islands moving, nuclear clocks, and recycling with barcodes For our weekly catchup with the National Party, Host Alex speaks with MP Ryan Hamilton about Housing Minister Chris Bishop's comments on social housing, the potential end of the Iran War, and the Conservation Amendment Bill. Producer Liam speaks to Professor Richard Easther about the government's approach to science funding and the impacts that budget 2026 and other measures will have on science and scientists in New Zealand.  Liam also also speaks to Professor Aeron Davis, about Keir Starmer's recent resignation, how this came about and what we might expect the future of the labour party to look like, with the likely appointment of former Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham as Prime Minister.

The National Party has outlined numerous changes to KiwiSaver they would enact if re-elected. National's finance spokesperson Nicola Willis spoke to John Campbell.

Neale, Brigitte and Kathryn discuss recent events in politics including the National Party's annual conference. Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

There's one thing I like about the National Party's KiwiSaver announcement. And there's one thing I don't like.Let's start with the good bit. Making it compulsory for everyone to have a KiwiSaver account. It's amazed me how we say in one breath how critical it is for Kiwis to be saving for their retirement and then, in the second breath, tell people they only have to do it if they want. Which is like saying to people, what would you prefer? Getting your hands on every last cent of your pay right now? Or would you prefer to have some of it taken away and locked up in a KiwiSaver account? It's just like those TV shows where they tell kids they can have one lolly now or two lollies in five minutes. Most of them go for instant gratification. And that's how a lot of people are with KiwiSaver. But, if it was compulsory, they wouldn't have a choice.Which is why I'm a big fan of this part of what National announced yesterday. The other bit, though. I'm not keen on. This is where National wants employers to be forced to make KiwiSaver contributions for people working beyond the retirement age. At the moment it's voluntary. National wants that to change that. And says, if re-elected, it will make it compulsory for employers to continue making KiwiSaver contributions for staff who work past the age of 65.I'm not a fan. For several reasons. For starters, the retirement age is 65. And, until that changes, employers shouldn't be forced to pay into people's KiwiSaver if they decide to keep working beyond the retirement age. Another reason I'm not a fan, is that someone over the age of 65 who is still working is not only getting their wages or salary, but they're also getting the NZ Super pension from the government. And, looking at it from the perspective of employers, if National makes it compulsory for everyone to have a KiwiSaver account - as I think it should - that, on its own, will be an extra cost for businesses and organisations.This from a party that claims to be on the side of businesses. I also see it backfiring on the people themselves who don't want to stop working at 65. Because employers will be way less inclined to keep them on if they know they're going to be forced to keep paying into the KiwiSaver accounts of these older workers. Which would be a shame. Because no one can argue that people still have a lot to offer beyond the age of 65.But surely a wage or salary and the NZ Super pension is enough, without forcing employers to throw more money into their KiwiSaver accounts. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Neale, Brigitte and Kathryn discuss recent events in politics including the National Party's annual conference.

The National Party announced major changes to KiwiSaver at the party's annual conference in Wellington over the weekend. Political reporter Lillian Hanly reports.

The Prime Minister and National Party faithful are gathering in Wellington for the party's 90th annual conference. With less than five months until the election, the biggest party in parliament is preparing to switch into campaign mode, with Christopher Luxon set to announce new policies. 1News senior political reporter Benedict Collins joins Q+A live from Wellington. Join Jack Tame and the Q+A team and find the answers to the questions that matter. Made with the support of NZ on Air.

Helen Clark: New Zealand's unsolved problems and fragile peace in Iran Productivity, sensible taxation and the ballooning cost of superannuation are among the uniquely thorny, long-lasting issues that New Zealand hasn't been able to conquer. It's a politically-motivated cycle of short-term flip-flopping on these important issues that The Helen Clark Foundation's new book, Facing Up To Our Future, diagnoses as the problem - released, strategically, in a general election year. Former prime minister Helen Clark joins Q+A to speak to the book's message, and to the latest developments from the war in Iran, where a MOU toward a peace deal has been signed between Iran and the US, but the Strait of Hormuz has shuttered again as Israel strikes Lebanon. Live from National's 90th annual party conference The Prime Minister and National Party faithful are gathering in Wellington for the party's 90th annual conference. With less than five months until the election, the biggest party in parliament is preparing to switch into campaign mode, with Christopher Luxon set to announce new policies. 1News senior political reporter Benedict Collins joins Q+A live from Wellington. Real estate agents, doctors shouldn't be punished for free speech: ACT policy The ACT Party has introduced a new campaign policy which it says will stop professional regulatory bodies - like the Medical Council, or Real Estate Agents Authority - from policing workers' privately-held beliefs. ACT says these regulators are increasingly overstepping their statutory roles and enforcing ideological views across their industry. ACT MP Simon Court joins Q+A. Will newcomer Andy Burnham oust PM Sir Keir Starmer? Yet another challenge has been made to the embattled UK prime minister Sir Keir Starmer's leadership. Former Manchester mayor and newly-elected Labour MP Andy Burnham is calling on the PM to consider his options for a handover of power just two years into the government's five-year term, the legacy party searching for renewed energy in the face of surging support for Nigel Farage's Reform party. 1News UK correspondent Kate Nicol-Williams joins Q+A from London. Join Jack Tame and the Q+A team and find the answers to the questions that matter. Made with the support of NZ on Air.

The National Party is addressing party faithful at its annual conference ahead of the election. National's campaign boss has compared ACT and NZ First to bickering children - but he saved the strongest criticism for Labour and the Greens and said the opposition parties would 'ruin' the country's books. Prime Minister Chris Luxon will soon address the conference and announce a Kiwisaver-related election policy. Newstalk ZB political reporter Ethan Griffiths explained further. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Okay, so we've had the first little parry of the election campaign, with Nicola Willis calling a news conference to accuse Labour of numbers that don't add up, and then Barbara Edmonds responding. I'm going to call this - by the slimmest of margins - for Edmonds. I think she actually won this exchange purely by holding her ground, sounding confident and pointing out that she doesn't actually have to have public numbers that add up just yet. It's June. The election is five months away. Labour hasn't announced all its policies yet - heck, it's only announced about three or four. They are entitled to have a little bit of time to roll out the full suite of policies and the full fiscal plan in the next few months. Now, this is not to say that Willis is wrong in her assertion. I think, in time, she's going to be proven right that Labour's numbers don't add up. That $20-a-week public transport policy has been hugely under-costed. Reinstating pay equity will cost billions of dollars Labour doesn't have; they're just going to have to put that on the debt. The capital gains tax is not going to bring in the amount of money that Labour says it will. So Willis is right - Labour hasn't got the money - but her timing is wrong. She has gone too hard, too early. But Willis also has a significant side issue of her own here, which is that she doesn't hold the economic high ground. She doesn't have the money either for what the National Party has promised, particularly regarding the Roads of National Significance. They promised 17 of them. We are not going to get 17 of them while these guys are in power. These roads are now being downgraded - as in the case of Mill Road and one other - or they're being delayed to the point that we only had one of these roads delivered in the latest Budget. Now, obviously, an early parry doesn't win an election. I think this is a case of Labour having - yep, sure - won an early battle but they're still going to lose the war. But what this should tell you is that Edmonds is maybe just a little bit better than some people would estimate her to be. And timing, as they say, is everything. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The National Party says Labour's policy plans carry a multibillion dollar bill it has no way of paying for. Lauren Crimp reports.

ACT and New Zealand First are in favour of a minimum non-parole period of 8 years for offenders who commit manslaughter by a strike to the head or the neck - the coward punch. But, National and the opposition parties are not keen. Board member of the Walk Without Fear Trust, Mike Angove, told Andrew Dickens he is disappointed in National's lack of support. "National have indicated that they're going to look at bespoke law, but essentially, remembering that Matt King, originally a National Party member, started this 8 years ago, almost 9 years ago. National has been right behind this the whole way, but they've faltered at the hurdle." LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Doubling funding for the QEII National Trust would be the best bang for buck conservation investment the next Government could make, Federated Farmers says. The National Party recently announced it will double the trust's funding if it's part of the next Government. The Country's Jamie Mackay explained further. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If you are worried about China taking over due to having better robots than the yanks, I got mixed messages for ya here. This was created using DeepSeek v4 Pro. Remember when DeepSeek could do the same thing as chatGPT but on shitty processors and not much RAM? All those stocks shit themselves? Oh what memories. Would have been a great time to buy NVIDIA stocks. I didn't, if you're asking....It's pretty good but it really didn't follow the instruction in the prompt that Joel Hill is Jack the Insider on the transcript. So that's a minus point. But also, this took fucking ages to generate. It's better than lots of the yankee slop but damn son this took MINUTES. So they might take over if we are patient or whatever. Enjoy the episode. ----------------------------------------------Joel Hill (Jack the Insider) and Hong Kong Jack return for a sprawling episode that tackles two of the biggest stories shaping politics in 2026. The pair open with the jaw-dropping Redbridge poll putting One Nation at 31% of the primary vote — a number that would all but wipe the National Party off the federal map and potentially deliver Anthony Albanese a strengthened majority government by splintering the right. Joel and Jack clash over whether culture-war grievances or material concerns are driving the surge, while drawing historical parallels to Joh for Canberra and the DLP split of the 1950s.The conversation then crosses hemispheres for a tour through UK chaos: Peter Mandelson's leaked dossier exposing a rudderless No. 10 under Keir Starmer, Nicola Sturgeon's estranged husband pleading guilty to embezzling SNP donations on a surreal shopping spree of Lalique salt shakers, seven Dysons, and a motorhome with four miles on the clock, and a deeply troubling police body-cam incident that has reignited the two-tier policing debate ahead of three critical by-elections.The centrepiece of the episode is a sober, hour-long deep dive into the COVID-19 pandemic and what Australia has refused to learn. The Two Jacks lay out the true death toll (perhaps 22 to 69 million globally), the devastating scale of long COVID, the vaccine rollout failures, the absurdities of hotel quarantine with rubbish bags over heads, and why governments and public health officials are desperate to avoid a Royal Commission. They close by asking whether the next pandemic will meet a population that has permanently lost trust in its leaders — and whether we'll simply repeat the mistakes of both COVID and the Spanish flu.Sport provides a lighter coda: the Carlton revival under an interim coach, James Hird's awkward candidacy at Essendon, the expanded 48-team World Cup that nobody seems excited about, and a formidable New Zealand Test side taking on England at Lord's.00:00:25 — Introduction Joel welcomes listeners to Episode 159, recorded 4 June. Today: Australian political news, a check-in on the UK, and a deep dive into the COVID-19 pandemic.00:01:21 — The Redbridge Poll: One Nation at 31% The AFR's Redbridge poll: One Nation 31%, Labor 28%, LNP 20%, Greens 12%. The two-party preferred is now being calculated as One Nation versus Labor — a seismic shift in how Australian politics is measured.00:03:12 — Not Just a Protest Vote Jack argues this is real, not a re-run of Hanson's 1990s flash-in-the-pan. The South Australian state election and the Farrah by-election suggest One Nation support is durable. Joel counters that protest votes can be expressed at the ballot box and that Australians are tiring of pluralism.00:04:09 — If One Nation Succeeds, Labor Wins The cruel irony: One Nation's rise probably delivers Labor government. The National Party could simply disappear. The DLP kept the Coalition in power for decades as an anti-Labor party; One Nation may do the reverse.00:05:46 — Scrutiny and Splintering Joel notes One Nation's policies are "two-sentence fragments" and motherhood statements. When proper scrutiny arrives, the contradictions will surface. Hanson's parliamentary attendance is as poor as imaginable.00:08:22 — The Third Rail Jack argues populists succeed because they discuss what polite society won't: immigration, culture wars, welcome to country rituals. The major parties must engage these topics or cede the ground entirely.00:11:34 — Feeling Unheard The core driver, Jack contends: voters feel sneered at and silenced by mainstream politics. It's not about flag counts, it's about being listened to.00:13:50 — What Actually Drives Votes Joel pushes back: voting determinants are the household economy, migration, climate change — not culture war trivia. Culture wars "don't amount to a hill of beans" at the ballot box.00:14:51 — The DLP Parallel Both agree the One Nation phenomenon most closely resembles the DLP split of the 1950s and 60s — a right-wing fracture that delivered Labor government after Labor government.00:17:18 — The Republic Referendum Lesson Jack recalls the 1999 republic referendum: pro-republicans split between models rather than uniting, scuppering the whole project. Voters will vote their preference even knowing it helps their enemy.00:19:32 — UK Parallels: Accommodate or Fight? Significant figures in the UK Tory party are debating whether to fight Reform or reach an accommodation. Tony Abbott recently said the Liberal Party won't criticise Pauline Hanson.00:21:48 — Joh for Canberra Redux Imre Salusinszky's comparison: this is "Joh for Canberra" all over again. But Joel notes Joh's moment lasted months; One Nation's has already lasted years.00:24:08 — State Election Previews Joel predicts the Victorian state election will be chaotic and peculiar — a government that's been in power too long, an opposition that may not be up to the task, and One Nation peeling votes from safe Labor seats. NSW will give a clearer reading.00:25:44 — Hanson "Ready to Govern" — from the Senate? Pauline Hanson announced she's ready to govern. Joel asks: shouldn't she contest a lower-house seat first? Jack recalls the only precedent: John Gorton became PM while still a senator, but had to be eased into Kooyong.00:28:20 — The Mandelson Dossier: Starmer's Empty Suit Jack's read of the leaked Mandelson documents: ministers don't know what the PM wants, there's zero respect or fear of his authority. Starmer comes across as an empty chair. One minister's text: "Every meeting with Labour MPs — it's all about who can we tax to pay benefits to other people."00:30:50 — Mandelson's Legal Peril Mandelson is under police investigation for misconduct in public office. Could face charges — the seriousness depends on whether it's mere misconduct or genuine bribery for foreign interests.00:31:49 — The Nicola Sturgeon Saga Her estranged husband has pleaded guilty to embezzling roughly £400,000 in SNP donations. The shopping list: six high-end coffee machines, seven Dyson vacuums, Lalique salt and pepper shakers, Montblanc pens, Swiss watches, an iJag, part of a Volkswagen, and a motorhome with four miles on the clock parked at his 92-year-old mother's house. Nicola claims she "didn't go in the kitchen much."00:34:20 — The BBC Interview Laura Kuenssberg's forensic interview with Sturgeon — "not quite Prince Andrew, but not much better." Sturgeon has been cleared by Police Scotland, but her reputation, already damaged by the Alex Salmond trial, is now in tatters.00:35:05 — Will He Go to Prison? £400,000 is a substantial sum. With another £600,000 unaccounted for, a custodial sentence seems likely. The money was ring-fenced for a second independence referendum push.00:36:50 — Money Laundering or Conspicuous Consumption? Joel wonders if the bizarre purchases — multiple watches on the same day — were an amateur money-laundering attempt: buy goods with SNP funds, sell them quietly for cash.00:38:23 — UK By-elections: Makerfield Looms Three by-elections on 18 June, including the critical Makerfield contest. Andy Burnham, Greater Manchester's high-profile mayor, is the tepid favourite. Low turnout could help him return to Westminster.00:39:30 — The Body-Cam Incident A white teenager accused of racially vilifying a Sikh man was stabbed — and police arrested the bleeding victim, not the attacker. Body-cam footage shows the victim saying "I can't breathe, I've been stabbed" while officers dismiss him. Joel calls the footage "just awful."00:41:22 — Two-Tier Policing Jack traces UK policing's overcorrection: after the Macpherson/Lawrence report, guidelines were rewritten so aggressively that they've produced a pattern of questionable enforcement that devastates community trust — and plays directly into Tommy Robinson's hands.00:42:08 — NSW Police on Four Corners Joel recommends the harrowing Four Corners investigation: bashings in custody, false arrests, an officer who threw body-cam footage into Sydney Harbour, and two undercover officers jailed for a savage assault. The problem today is general duties policing, not the specialist squads of the 1980s. Some command areas are far worse than others — a leadership failure.00:44:55 — Victoria Police: Under-Resourced, Not Corrupt Joel shares an anecdote: two divisional vans for 80,000 people in outer-east Melbourne. Tough work being a police officer; even tougher being a good one.The COVID-19 Reckoning00:45:09 — Why This Matters Joel sets the frame: we parked COVID in 2023 with a hangover but never understood what we'd been through. Today's episode aims to crack that problem.00:45:51 — The True Death Toll Officially: 7 million dead. But most countries stopped testing and stopped reporting cause-of-death data to the WHO. Using excess mortality, the real toll is between 22 and 69 million — at the high end, exceeding the Spanish flu.00:47:02 — Long COVID's Shadow Roughly 400 million people globally (6% of the population) have experienced long COVID. In Australia alone, between 200,000 and 500,000 people are living with or have lived with the condition. Second infections can be worse. Emerging links to cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and accelerated dementia.00:49:43 — The Collective Amnesia Governments worldwide have "a collective embarrassment" about how they handled the pandemic, Jack says. They want it in the history books and forgotten. Joel says this is a grave mistake for public trust — and for public health, given COVID is now a permanent fixture alongside flu season.00:50:50 — Why Excess Deaths Are the Only Honest Metric All other figures are "kind of made up" because attribution methods vary wildly between countries. Excess deaths remain elevated in Australia and most nations.00:51:25 — Children and COVID Bobby Kennedy Jr. removed under-18s from government-supported vaccines in the US. Joel argues this is a disastrous move given mounting evidence that childhood COVID infection leads to higher rates of long-term chronic illness.00:52:47 — Why No Royal Commission? Not just politicians protecting themselves — public health officials and much of the media wanted to avoid scrutiny of their judgments and actions during the pandemic.00:53:32 — The Media's Abdication Jack watched "a lot" of Daniel Andrews's daily press conferences. Only two journalists ever asked pertinent questions: Rachel Baxendale and Leigh Sales. Nobody asked why curfews, why beach arrests, why the disparate impact on tradies and cafe owners while the "laptop class" actually made money working from home.00:56:14 — Andrews's Immense Popularity Joel adds context: Andrews was wildly popular at the time, which partly explains the media's deference — though Jack insists that shouldn't have mattered.00:57:34 — The Curfew Nonsense Curfews were about giving law enforcement the easiest possible environment, Joel says — and should have been acknowledged as such and wound back sooner. Meanwhile, Bondi's wealthy swam en masse while Western Sydney's working-class communities were treated harshly.00:57:59 — The Vaccine Rollout Failure The Morrison government bet everything on AstraZeneca — the non-mRNA, first-available vaccine. Then rare blood-clotting issues emerged (seven deaths, mainly men aged 40–49). Meanwhile, Australia was left waiting for Pfizer and other mRNA vaccines because no other supply deals had been secured.00:59:37 — Omicron Breaks the Pandemic's Back The Omicron variant emerged from South Africa: more infectious but far less lethal. Combined with 95%+ vaccination rates among Australians over 18, it effectively ended the acute phase — though at the cost of entrenched mistrust.01:00:38 — Government Overreach and Broken Trust Jack's core criticism: governments outsourced decision-making to public health officials rather than making political judgments that balanced competing interests. Joel counters that it would have been a "bold move" for politicians with no scientific background to contradict public health advice.01:02:19 — "Just Let It Rip" Was Never an Option The three countries with the highest COVID mortality — Brazil (highest), United States (second), India (third) — were all led by populist governments that largely refused mandates. Letting it rip was devastating.01:03:27 — The ADF Quarantine Scandal Scott Morrison refused to allow ADF quarantine facilities to be used for returning travellers. Instead, people were crammed into hotels with gaps under the doors. Joel recalls the "rubbish bags over heads" episode in Victoria — dark green plastic bags as infection control.01:05:00 — The Inquiry's Recommendations Create a proper Australian CDC. Release expert advice publicly. Better national planning with clear political accountability. And critically: politicians must own the big decisions on freedoms and spending instead of hiding behind experts.01:06:01 — The Next Pandemic There will be another one. If it's a respiratory, airborne pathogen like COVID, similar circumstances will return. Are we ready? Probably not. Will we close the country again? The economic damage — unemployment hitting 7.5% in 2020 — was enormous, even if it recovered to 3.5% by pandemic's end.01:08:06 — Who Was Left Behind? The arts community was inexplicably excluded from JobSeeker and JobKeeper. Meanwhile, the "laptop class" working from home effectively got a 15% pay rise by eliminating commuting costs. Bunnings did very well; so did companies that kept JobKeeper without passing it to employees.01:11:14 — The Human Cost of Lockdowns Public housing towers in Flemington were locked down. Joel recalls one family: an African-Australian single mother with nine children in a two-bedroom commission flat, trapped. Jack calls what happened with schools "disgraceful." But Joel notes the evidence now shows childhood COVID infection has serious long-term health consequences, complicating the retrospective judgment.01:13:59 — Will We Learn Anything? Jack's bleak prediction: the next pandemic is probably far enough away that we'll take no notice of COVID's lessons and make the same mistakes. Joel agrees — we didn't learn from the Spanish flu a century ago either.01:15:51 — Malcolm Roberts and Vaccine Misinformation The One Nation senator claims 70,000 Australians died from COVID vaccines — a figure with no evidentiary support, built by misattributing excess deaths. In reality, mRNA technology is now being deployed as a cancer treatment, showing promise against bowel and pancreatic cancers.01:17:36 — Trust Destroyed If the next pandemic arrives within this generation, governments will face a population that has lost faith. If it takes 50 years, the damage may have faded. Western Australia, meanwhile, locked itself down with negligible deaths and actually loved the isolation — provided the iron ore and LNG ships kept moving.01:20:37 — The Spanish Flu Echo Joel's closing historical note: Australia's response to the Spanish flu in 1919–1921 was nearly identical to COVID — lockdown disputes, police arresting people for not wearing masks, states fighting the newly created federal Department of Health. The whole thing collapsed into acrimony the moment state rivalries flared. A century later, nothing had changed.01:21:48 — Federation as Fatal Flaw Jack adds: the three high-mortality COVID countries (US, Brazil, India) share a feature beyond populist leaders — they're all federations where central government power is limited. When "the emperor is far away and the mountains are high," coordinated pandemic response is nearly impossible.01:23:40 — No Appetite for Truth Jack's final word: nobody wants a proper inquiry. Not politicians, not public health officials, not much of the media. Joel disagrees on the importance — the pandemic's legacy still shapes how Australians think, vote, and trust.Sport01:27:40 — AFL Coaching Carousel Essendon and Carlton both need permanent coaches. Joel asks: is James Hird the right man for Essendon? Jack: 17 other clubs wouldn't give him an interview, but the Bombers may have backed themselves into a corner where appointing him is the only way out.01:28:53 — Merit vs Member Sentiment Rowan Connolly's question: would you take James Hird or John Longmire (five grand finals, one premiership, 60%+ win rate)? The answer is obvious on merit — but members and fans want the fairy tale.01:29:47 — Carlton's Astonishing Revival Three straight wins. Ranked 16th in forward-50 entries a month ago; now second. The game style is unrecognisable — no more bombing the ball to non-existent power forwards. Mitch McGovern's low, flat kick to Patrick Cripps for the match-winner against Geelong was emblematic of the transformation. Seven players aged 21 or younger are now getting games and bringing energy.01:33:18 — FIFA World Cup 2026: Nobody's Excited Expanded to 48 teams, Scotland are going — and a Scot in his 30s told Jack that neither he nor any of his mates (all doing well financially, normally first on the plane) have any interest. Ticket prices are "extraordinary." The final is at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey — which Jack describes as "Waverley on steroids, but even more bleak."01:36:08 — Australia's Draw Socceroos face Turkey first up, then the United States. Jack suggests marketing it as "Gallipoli Round Two." Spain are favourites; England, Brazil, and Germany are in the chasing pack.01:37:06 — Cricket: England v New Zealand, First Test at Lord's Joel runs through New Zealand's likely top seven — Latham, Conway, Williamson, Ravindra, Mitchell, Blundell — noting the first four have all made Test double-centuries. "Just about the best first six in Test cricket." With O'Rourke's express pace and Henry's quality, this is a formidable Black Caps side.01:38:40 — Stump Speech & Next Week Listener mail (including an "exposé of who Jack is") held over for next episode. For the record: Hong Kong Jack's CV includes HSC at Assumption College Kilmore, a stint as a carpenter, a law degree from Melbourne University, stints at Holding Redlich and Slater & Gordon, work as a litigation and immigration lawyer, and an appointment to the Refugee Review Tribunal as a federal cabinet appointee.01:40:39 — Outro Joel thanks listeners for hanging in for an extra ten minutes. Back next week.The Two Jacks is recorded weekly. Send your questions and feedback to the show.

Sentencing laws are back in the headlines - and will likely play a part in this year's election campaigning. This week, a news article about the sentencing and early release of George Starling, a repeat sexual offender, reignited the debate about New Zealand's sentencing laws. It's easy to see why - it's one of many examples of how a punishment doesn't appear to fit the crime, and gives the impression we have a system favouring offenders over victims. Starling was convicted of drugging and raping a woman in 2011. She was one of two victims on the same night. He was not charged until 2020, and by then had served time for a 2011 rape of a third woman. He was found guilty and the judge set a sentencing start point of 10 years' imprisonment. However, once discounts had been applied - for youth and prior good character - the final sentence was reduced by 40 percent, resulting in a prison term of six years. He was also credited for his prior jail sentence, which judges are required by law to take into consideration, and a head injury he sustained after the offending. Then comes how parole works - under New Zealand law, offenders who are not subject to a minimum non-parole period and are serving sentences of more than two years become eligible for parole after serving one-third of their sentence. As a result, a six-year sentence may lead to parole consideration after two years. Release is not automatic, but if the Parole Board determines an offender no longer poses an undue risk to the community parole may be granted. In this case, the parole board cited Starling's low risk, and that he had not offended after his first prison sentence. After all this maths, the result was Starling was released after serving less than two years. This case highlights the ongoing tension between rehabilitation-focused justice and public expectations of accountability and deterrence. The arguments for sentence discounts are that they encourage guilty pleas, reduce court costs, acknowledge personal circumstances and promote rehabilitation, while parole provides incentives for prisoners to address their offending behaviour. This is all well and good, except that this approach fails to adequately reflect the harm suffered by victims. It's little wonder victims of serious violence or sexual offending feel the legal process focuses heavily on the offender's circumstances while giving less weight to the long-term impacts of on their lives. One of Starling's victims stated they had only just began to put the ordeal behind them when they were notified by the parole board that Starling's first parole hearing was coming up. The challenge for policymakers is finding a balance between protecting victims' interests, ensuring public confidence in the justice system, and maintaining principles of fairness and rehabilitation for offenders. The National Party has already instigated sentencing changes, which came into force in June 2025, but recently announced that if it wins re-election it will prohibit judges from treating an offender's "good character" as a mitigating factor when sentencing for sexual offending, as well as increasing support for victims. It is a step in the right direction - because at present, cases with large discounts and early parole simply undermine public confidence in the justice system. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A summit in Portugal last weekend laid bare the growth in a pan-European remigration movement, with speakers who ranged from an MEP to Greg Bovino, a former US border patrol official who, before retiring, became the public face of the Trump administration's immigration crackdown in US cities.The term means deporting not just illegal immigrants but all people judged to be unassimilated in western society, including citizens and the children of non-white immigrants.In Ireland, the push for remigration is being led primarily by the National Party and its members Keith O'Brien (who goes by the name Keith Woods) and James Reynolds attended the event which took place behind tall gates and amid tight security.The Irish Times gained access to the summit to see activists and elected representatives from across Europe, many of whom have close links to neo-Nazi groups, being cheered by delegates.Critics say remigration is essentially a sanitised way of describing state-sanctioned ethnic cleansing. So does this represent a new phase in far-right activity in Ireland?Irish Times investigative reporter Conor Gallagher, who has been tracking far-right groups in Ireland, reports.Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by John Casey. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We're going to start today's show talking about our nuclear policy. That's because at a forum in Singapore Defense Minister Chris Penk said it could be "helpful" to have a conversation about Nuclear Free New Zealand. He made the comments in reference to Australia's agreement to acquire three nuclear powered Virginia Class submarines from the United States. Speaking on Morning Report today Prime Minister Christopher Luxon comprehensively ruled out any such conversation. Labour leader Chris Hipkins also dismissed the idea. But is it actually a conversation we should be having? Liam Hehir thinks so. The lawyer and former active National Party member joins Jesse to discuss.

It's Wednesday, May 27. Here are today's top stories around Central Indiana. Want to go deeper on the stories you hear on WFYI News Now? Visit wfyi.org and follow us on social media to get local news every day. WFYI News Now is hosted by Barb Anguiano and produced by Zach Bundy. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

0000019e-694a-d4a6-a5be-7dda5ea80000https://www.wvik.org/podcast/good-morning-from-wvik-news/2026-05-27/iowa-democrats-pitch-national-party-leaders-to-reclaim-early-spot-in-presidential-nomination-processJoseph LeahyIowa Democrats pitch national party leaders to reclaim early spot in presi

It's been a busy start to the week, and Mark Mitchell and Ginny Andersen are back with Mike Hosking to delve into some of the biggest political stories so far on Politics Wednesday. They discussed Labour's Future Fund policy, which is light on the details, Winston Peters' idea to buy back BNZ, and the Government's cuts to and plans for the public service. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A defence lawyer believes removing good character references for sexual offending is unlikely to make much difference at sentencing. The National Party's latest policy would see judges no longer be allowed to consider positive testimonies about offenders. Law Association Vice President Samira Taghavi told Mike Hosking that those references already carry limited weight in court. She says judges don't put a lot of emphasis on good character references - unless they see one as completely relevant. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Erica Stanford: NCEA, immigration and "anti-Māori" criticism Minister for education and immigration Erica Stanford joins Jack Tame to discuss the new scheme replacing NCEA, facing down public criticism over removing school boards' Treaty of Waitangi obligations, and why the National Party is toughening its rhetoric on immigration. She also pushed back on education ministry plans to remove ESOL funding for year 0 and year 1 students in the second half of this year, saying the ministry had “got ahead of itself” and that wouldn't now be happening. Stanford also touched on the government's pause in rolling out a social media ban for under-16s, saying there was a legislative programme still under way, and that the National Party was still committed to moving something on age verification. Where's the policy? Chris Hipkins on Labour's election plans Less than six months out from a general election, New Zealand's highest-polling party has only revealed a handful of policies. On big issues like the cost of living, fuel security and immigration, Chris Hipkins says the Labour Party will be sharing their vision for the country after Budget Day. Chris Hipkins joins Jack Tame for his first appearance of 2026 to discuss his flagship education policy of the previous government, Fees Free - now set to be cancelled, with a price tag to date of $2 billion. He also considers whether Labour in New Zealand can take any lessons from Sir Keir Starmer's turmoil in the UK. “Oligopoly”: How a lack of competition hurts public pockets OECD economist David Haugh joins Q+A with Jack Tame to talk about a major new report detailing the weak state of competition in the New Zealand economy, and why ordinary New Zealanders are being economically hurt by the structure of key markets. His report also critiqued the government's LNG plans, and he responds to an assertion from PM Chris Luxon that those sections of the report are “a load of rubbish”. The “global Goliath” and risk of worldwide societal collapse Cambridge researcher of existential risks Luke Kemp talks to Q+A about the threats facing the continued survival of humanity, why wealth inequality is such a major risk factor, and how in such a globalised world, a collapse would be much more difficult to survive than previous societal collapses. Kemp's book is Goliath's Curse: The History and Future of Societal Collapse, and he's been in New Zealand as part of the Auckland Writers Festival. Join Jack Tame and the Q+A team and find the answers to the questions that matter. Made with the support of NZ on Air.

Last week the government announced plans to scrap the Broadcasting Standards Authority, the entity that serves to ensure television, radio, and internet broadcasters remain accountable to members of the public. While the government saysit trusts broadcasters to self regulate, it's unclear what this regulation could look like, especially without the all encompassing BSA to ensure that a universal standard is met.  In addition, ACT Party Leader David Seymour has expressed dismay at some of the recent publications by state funded broadcasters TVNZ and RNZ. Since Seymour is one of the ministers responsible for appointing the board for each organisation, his comments and criticisms are being compared to threats of censorship.  Lastly, the government has announced a new test for prospective immigrants to New Zealand, which would see them quizzed over topics relating to New Zealand values, our Bill of Rights, and our system of government. While the government is proposing this standard of knowledge for immigrants, many New Zealand citizens could be unable to answer the questions.  For this weeks catchup with the National Party's Ryan Hamilton, News Director Castor asked about these topics, beginning with the BSA.

Judith Collins says she has no regrets about spending the last 24 years in Parliament. The senior National MP has delivered her valedictory speech as she prepares to move on, to head the Law Commission. Collins has held numerous ministerial portfolios in her time in politics and led National to the 2020 election. She told Mike Hosking she's grateful for everything she's been able to do. Collins says it's been an interesting career, and she never held a portfolio she got bored with. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dale Husband is a long time broadcaster and Radio Waatea presenter hosting a Maori focused current affairs programme. Liam Hehir is a Palmerston North lawyer, political commentator and a National Party member.

At the end of each week, Mike Hosking takes you through the big-ticket items and lets you know what he makes of it all. Christchurch: 9/10 The stadium, the opening, the spend, the party, and the vibe. That is what all of New Zealand should be. The Washington Hilton: 1/10 Between yet more violence and yet more conspiracy from all sides, too much of America is irreparably sick. King Charles: 8/10 By any standards or count, a tour de force. Solid, statesman-like, witty, clever and brilliantly executed. It is soft power, awesome diplomacy, brilliant engagement, all wrapped up in a flash royal bow. Winston vs the National Party: 4/10 I get it's election year. I get National are bleeding support to NZ First. But if they're not careful someone is going to say one thing or do one thing a bit edgier than they might have been expected, and it will all hit the fan. The diesel deal: 8/10 Another reminder that when Peters isn't stirring, the Coalition has actually handled the real issues pretty damn well. LISTEN ABOVE FOR MIKE HOSKING'S FULL WEEK IN REVIEW See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Prime Minister emerged from closed door meeting, that lasted more than two and half hours and said he has the support of his MPs, as their leader. In the face of speculation, bad poll results and dissent in the ranks Christopher Luxon confirmed he moved a motion of confidence in his leadership. Former National party chief press secretary and political commentator Janet Wilson.

Another poll with National's support below 30 percent has kept the fires of speculation around the prime minister's leadership burning. Last week ended with Christopher Luxon repeatedly asserting he had the support of his National Party colleages. And after the disastrous poll results last night, he spent his morning media round admitting there are a handful of MPs dissatisfied enough to speak to media. Political reporter Russell Palmer has more.

* National Party - new is old again* The Washington Buffoon reincarnated as the light-shines-out-of-my-arse messiah* A few Australian values that should be included in the Liberal Party's new migration policy* Nine million Isralis hold the world hostage* International Law - laws without consequences not worth the paper they're written on* The Alternative Liberal Party formerly known as the Australian Labor Party gives on giving the corporate sector tax payer money

When a family sailing journey ends in capture by child soldiers during Mozambique's civil war, a man must protect his children while confronting the unsettling truth that his captors are both perpetrators of violence and children shaped by it. Today's episode featured Dave Muller. Dave has written about his experiences in a book entitled, “Not Child's Play”, available where books are sold or at https://notchildsplay.co.uk/ You can email Dave at dave.muller@notchildsplay.co.za Dave is on Instagram @davenotchildsplay, on Facebook @Dave Muller and on YouTube @DaveMuller-NotChildsPlayIn the 1960s and 1970s, both South Africa and Mozambique were part of the larger decolonization of Africa, with South Africa gaining full independence from Britain in 1961 and Mozambique gaining independence from Portugal in 1975. However, in the decolonization process, both were thrown into proxy battles, between old structures clinging to power and the larger global cold war between communist and capitalist superpowers. South Africa, even after independence, was still ruled by a white minority government, under the National Party. The National Party was populated mostly by the white ethnic group known as Afrikaners who spoke a language called Afrikaans. The National Party instituted apartheid, a brutally oppressive system of institutionalized racial segregation and white supremacy enforced in South Africa from 1948 to the early 1990s. South Africa shares a northeastern border with Mozambique. When Mozambique gained independence in 1975, they were ruled by the Communist party known as FRELIMO. FRELIMO became a major force opposing apartheid in neighboring South Africa. The South African apartheid government, in response to FRELIMO's opposition, actively destabilized Mozambique from the inside by propping up a rebel group known as RENAMO. This led to a violent 15-year civil war in Mozambique, between the ruling, communist-backed FRELIMO party and the South African-backed RENAMO rebel group. In the first part of today's episode, you'll hear our storyteller speak about growing up in South Africa during apartheid as a white man, but he was not an Afrikaner, and grew up in a family that was opposed to apartheid. The second part of the story takes place in Mozambique, where he and his family are held by the RENAMO rebel group and caught in the chaos and fighting between FRELIMO and RENAMO, the two warring factions in the civil war there. Of course there is much more to say about all of this, and Dave will speak to some of these issues as he experienced them. I encourage you all to read more about the brutal and complex history of decolonization and apartheid in Africa. And one final note, you'll hear Dave talking about “Arwen” several times. In case it isn't clear right away, he is referring to his boat that he built. Producers: Whit Missildine, Andrew Waits, Aviva Lipkowitz Content/Trigger Warnings: War and armed conflict, Child soldiers, Kidnapping / hostage situation, Graphic violence, Murder (including stabbing / bayoneting), Violence against the elderly, Exposure to blood, Threats of execution, Weapons (guns, rockets, mortar fire), Terrorism / militant groups, Civil war, Psychological trauma, PTSD, Panic attacks / emotional breakdown, Spiritual distress, Political violence, Forced recruitment of children, Coercion and intimidation, explicit language Social Media:Instagram: @actuallyhappeningTwitter/X: @TIAHPodcastFacebook: This Is Actually Happening Discussion Group Website: thisisactuallyhappening.com Website for Andrew Waits: andrdewwaits.comWebsite for Aviva Lipkowitz: avivalipkowitz.com Support the Show: Support The Show on Patreon: patreon.com/happeningAudible subscribers can listen to all episodes of THIS IS ACTUALLY HAPPENING ad-free right now. Join Audible today by downloading the Audible app or visit Audible.com. Shop at the Store: The This Is Actually Happening online store is now officially open. Follow this link: thisisactuallyhappening.com/shop to access branded t-shirts, posters, stickers and more from the shop. Transcripts: Full transcripts of each episode are now available on the website, thisisactuallyhappening.com Intro Music: “Sleep Paralysis” - Scott VelasquezMusic Bed: Sparse_Reflections__a__APM ServicesIf you or someone you know is struggling with the effects of trauma or mental illness, please refer to the following resources: National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline: Text or Call 988 National Alliance on Mental Illness: 1-800-950-6264National Sexual Assault Hotline (RAINN): 1-800-656-HOPE (4673)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.