Podcasts about New Zealand First

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned on Aug. 23 that an “economic D-Day” is coming for the Iranian regime, with the United States taking strong measures to sever Tehran's economic lifelines, including imposing consequences on Iran's trade partners. Bessent will address the media on Monday and is expected to announce further U.S. sanctions targeting Iran and its trading partners.Tens of thousands have been evacuated from the Reno, Nevada, area as the fast-moving Hawk Fire threatens the city. About 42,000 residents are under evacuation orders, with another 45,000 in an evacuation warning zone. The fire has burned 15,000 acres since it began on Saturday. Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo has declared a state of emergency and deployed National Guard resources. At least six people have been injured, including three civilians and three first responders.New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said on Aug. 24 that his party will introduce a bill in Parliament that seeks ‌to ban children under 16 from using social media, proposing fines of up to 10 percent of a platform's global revenue for noncompliance. The bill would require social media platforms to take reasonable steps to verify users' ages, including using existing account information, facial technology, and digital identity documents. It was not immediately clear whether the bill would garner sufficient support to pass through Parliament, with one of Luxon's coalition partners, the New Zealand First party, saying it would not support it. The proposal follows Australia's move last year to ban social media for children under 16.

A warning there's no magic wand to keep teens off social media. National has introduced a Bill which would legally require platforms like Instagram and TikTok to bar under-16s from making accounts. It would impose an online safety regulator and introduce significant financial penalties for companies' failure to comply. ACT and New Zealand First don't support it, and Labour has still to decide its view. Technology Users Association Chief Executive Craig Young told Mike Hosking this is not an issue the Government can legislate away. He says looking at Australia, eight out of ten teens are still on social media – the same number as before that country's ban. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Education Minister's confident she'll get the support needed for a social media ban. National's introduced a Bill which would legally require platforms like Instagram and TikTok to bar under-16s from making accounts. The bill puts the pressure on social media companies to comply, establishing an online safety regulator and setting up a penalty regime. ACT and New Zealand First don't support it, and Labour's yet to decide. Education Minister Erica Stanford told Mike Hosking she's worked hard to give Labour everything it needs to come to a view on it. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week on the Wednesday Wire... A National Party leadership vote casts its vote over the show. For our weekly catchup w/ the Green Party, host Manny spoke with MP Ricardo Menéndez March about the ructions within the National Party, the fallout of New Zealand First's racially charged comments targeted at him and his colleague, Lawrence Xu-Nan, and jobseeker policy changes that he'd like to see. Producer Jude spoke to the University of Auckland, Senior Lecturer, Dr. Ulrich Speidel about what AI should be used for.  And for this week's Get Action, producer Theo spoke to Layba Zubair on her campaign to progress affirmative consent law reform.  

As we recorded our Green Party Catchup this morning, the National Party was just about to sit down for a Caucus Meeting to once again test the support for sitting party leader, Chistopher Luxon.. But what has motivated such a crisis in the party leadership? Was it the seemingly spur-of-the-moment captain calls by Luxon to rule out the Opportunity Party and put forward a third Referendum on MMP? Or was it the lack of pushback against comments from their coalition partner, NZFirst. Two weeks ago, NZFirst Leader directed comments in the House against Green MP Lawrence Xu-Nan, targeting his Chinese heritage, suggesting everyone in China lied. This created a huge amount of criticism both locally and internationally, making headlines across the Globe, not least as Peters is the coalition's Foreign Minister. But consequences the minister who unleashed sho much damage? Nill. So for this week's catch-up with the Green Party's Ricardo Menendez March, we discuss the ructions within the National Party, the fallout from New Zealand First's racially charged comments targeting him and his colleague, Lawrence Xu-Nan, and changes to jobseeker that he'd like to see.  

In an announcement without warning, Labour's leader Chris Hipkins has finally ruled out working with New Zealand First in any government he leads. Deputy political editor Craig McCulloch spoke to Melissa Chan-Green.

Labour's definitively ruled out a coalition deal with New Zealand First post-election. Leader Chris Hipkins says his MPs have unanimously decided they won't work with Winston Peters' party, after comments made by Peters and Deputy Shane Jones were labelled 'racist'. Hipkins says a pattern of behaviour's escalated and he won't put up with the overt racism NZ First indulges in. Newstalk ZB senior political correspondent Barry Soper says new polling data shows the left-leaning parties are seeing a drop in the polls and the coalition is in a good position to get a second term. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Labour leader Chris Hipkins has categorically ruled out working with New Zealand First if elected in November, unfortunately for Labour and Mr Hipkins the response from the media and many voters is "why did this take so long?"Simeon Brown faced off against Jack Tame on Q&A over the weekend where he struggled to firmly back leader Christopher Luxon and couldn't explain why one of the targets for the health service is to increase staffChristopher Luxon was on RNZ this morning where he had to explain Nicola Willis' "no new tax on working people" when they are going to reverse the discount to fuel excise tax etcMight check out poll of polls in NZ Herald, and check out how St John Ambulance is overworked like never before++++++++++++++++++++Like us on Facebook.com/BigHairyNetwork Follow us on Twitter.com/@bighairynetworkFollowing us on TikTok.com/@bighairynetworkSupport us on Patreon www.patreon.com/c/BigHairyNewsCheck out our merch https://bhn.nz/shop/Donate to our work https://bhn.nz/shop/donation/

We discuss conspiratorial narratives and dogwhistles in the 2026 election with M Dentith. New Zealand First, 'globalism' and 'great replacement', media malpractice, and the Atlas Network.M's website & contact details: https://www.mrxdentith.com/This episode's co-hostsKyle, Philip, MTimestamps0:00 Opening / Introductions4:42 How Dangerous Ideas Propagate8:27 The Atlas Network15:45 Talking About Conspiracies23:45 Cryptofacism33:30 Polite Articulation 42:05 Loss of Facility44:20 Media Passing Ideas On55:40 ClosingsIntro/Outro by Jiahu SymbolsSupport us here: https://www.patreon.com/1of200

Is Luxon's MMP vote a stroke of genius to avoid an otherwise problematic week? His apology for Rotorua was a cluster, the Māorification issues that haven't been resolved despite all the talk, the Corrections massages, MBIE, Treasury love-ins, the Justice Department cock-up on the Harrison bloke, and the unemployment rate to the upside – it's all looked like very bad news. But then out of nowhere, "let's have a look at the entire way we elect Governments". It makes sense to the extent we are going to vote on four-year terms anyway. But here is your trouble with revisiting MMP; it's been too long between drinks. There is an entire generation of voters, and I include my kids, who have never known anything else. Constitutional change needs to be debated when an obvious issue has arisen i.e. Governments keep falling over and we lack stability, or we have recently had the debate and the ideas are still fresh in our minds. Neither scenario is in play here. Making it also problematic for the first-past-the-posters is Labour 2020-2023. They were an FPP Government and an example of why you would not in a million years let a single party near anything. Good parties take you good places. Ardern and Hipkins blew the place up. Is that a result of FPP or a singular example of incompetence? And do you want to run that risk? Obviously the counter is, on balance, our small players have not proved to be wonderful representatives of the broad idea that MMP brings wider representation. The representation they have brought is more calamity and chaos, than insight and brain power. The Māori Party have imploded, again, the Greens are insane and quite possibly dangerous, and not really "green", and New Zealand First are racists and stirrers. Having said that, if we insist on MMP overall, this current Government is the first full example of the art i.e. three parties in a full arrangement. It's been executed pretty well so Luxon comes off a strange run-up, given he's conducted it professionally and successfully. If you want to run a book it was 58% for MMP last time. I reckon it would be even more this time. And that's from a person who, push comes to shove, would probably vote FPP. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Yeah, well, if Chris Luxon's week wasn't already bad, it's not much better. Not after he apparently announced off the cuff on ZB Mornings with Kerre that he's going to hold an MMP referendum if he wins the election. Now, where do I start with the problems with him doing this? The first is that it looks incredibly desperate. No one was asking for a referendum. It's not a topic of discussion. I mean, sure, we can all see that MMP is giving Chris Luxon heaps of trouble because he can't fire his Foreign Minister for being racist without ending the coalition and forcing a snap election. But that has not led to a clamour for a return to FPP. In that context, him suddenly announcing that he wants to get rid of MMP, which is basically what he said by calling for a referendum on the thing, looks like he just wants to get rid of the system that's to blame for his party polling around 30 percent and sometimes below 30 percent. That just looks incredibly desperate. Now, I'm not saying that he is desperate because I actually think what happened here is that Chris Luxon fell into the trap of doing what Chris Luxon often does: agreeing with the person he's talking to. And because Kerre really liked the idea, all of a sudden he liked the idea and off he went on a tangent. But for people who didn't hear the whole exchange and just see the headlines, this looks desperate. The second problem is that this is now dominating what should really be a very good news day for the National Party. Their star minister, Erica Stanford, has just released the new subjects for students in Years 12 and 13. Chris Bishop has finally revealed the date for Auckland's new train system. We should be talking about that but instead we're talking about the Prime Minister saying the second weird thing in a week. For the record, if there were a referendum, and there will not be a referendum, which is why this idea is cooked, it would fail. Look at how many people vote for parties that are only there because of MMP: the Greens, ACT, New Zealand First and The Opportunity Party, if you believe the polls. Meanwhile, the two old FPP parties, National and Labour, can't get themselves out of the low 30s. So it's going to fail and that is the third problem. A Prime Minister should never, if they can avoid it, back an idea that is destined to fail. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Christopher Luxon says he supports having another referendum on the MMP voting system if he's re-elected as he encourages greater support for National so the party can avoid working with “some yahoo and numpty” in Cabinet. Act leader David Seymour says he's not opposed to another referendum but suggests Luxon “may not have thought through what he's saying” regarding ministers from other parties, noting the number of National ministers who had been dismissed this term. Speaking on Newstalk ZB this morning, Luxon made the statement in response to a listener who had texted in asking whether the PM would address the power held by minor parties in governing arrangements. Luxon initially pointed to the Government working towards a referendum on whether to extend government terms from three years to four, before saying he was “open” to asking voters whether they were “still supportive of MMP”. Asked if he would do so if he were Prime Minister next year, Luxon replied: “Yeah, I think I would.” He added: “I think I would because I actually think, you know, that it is quite right to check in constitutionally and say, is this the system, New Zealand, you still want? “You know, you voted for this in the 90s, we've had a check-in in the [20]10s, 20 years down the road or whatever it has been, is it still where you want to be?” Luxon went on to talk about his 20-person Cabinet, currently made up of ministers from National, Act and New Zealand First. He argued the best way to provide a “strong and stable government” was to have as many National ministers in Cabinet as possible. “When you have to form coalition governments, you don't have the same values, you don't have the same policies, you're not talking to the same people. “You try and find the common ground and I feel like I have done the best I can in two and a half years to find common ground on the economy, law and order, education and health. “I think you've got to ask the question, I feel like I've got responsible, sensible ministers delivering: Mark Mitchell, Todd McCay, Erica Stanford Nicola Willis, Simeon Brown, Chris Bishop, you know, I've got amazing people doing incredible work who take it very seriously. “The question is, I keep saying, I don't need some yahoo or numpty from some other party around that table, I can do a lot more to get the centre-right agenda, centre being the operative word, done and out the door so think about your vote, November 7, it's important.” Asked if his current coalition partners were yahoos and numpties, Luxon replied: “No, I'm just saying I can do better with National Party ministers, I think New Zealand's better served by that.” Asked by ZB host Kerre Woodham if he'd prefer Mitchell around the Cabinet table over former National MP and current NZ First candidate Michael Laws, Luxon replied: “You said it.” Act leader David Seymour defended the work of his ministers. Photo / Mark Mitchell Speaking to the Herald, Seymour said he wasn't certain whether Luxon was calling his ministers yahoos and numpties. “Who knows, I suspect that he's being a bit free-wheeling and may not have thought through what he's saying there.” Seymour noted how several National ministers had been dismissed during this term before pointing to work achieved by Act ministers, including on school attendance and reforms concerning the Holidays Act, Arms Act and the Resource Management Act. “I'm not here to start bagging other parties' ministers but I think anyone who's an objective observer would say that Act ministers have been pretty effective.” On a referendum, Seymour said he wasn't opposed but said any change would be unlikely to be implemented until the 2032 or 2035 elections and there were “more urgent problems” to address. In a statement on social media, Peters commended MMP for having “broke the stranglehold” of Labour and National on “running roughshod over our economy without social licence”. “Now that the two old parties are losing their grip on power, they want to change the electoral system to favour their falling fortunes.” Referencing the previous referendums in 1993 and 2011, Peters said people wanted different representation in Parliament than what Labour and National could provide. “The old parties' weak and inept attitude to economic sovereignty, immigration, and woke nonsense has seen people move to a party that is offering common sense, patriotism, and old-fashioned Kiwi values. “Shutting down and taking away true democratic representation from the people of New Zealand should be seen for what it is – a power grab and an ignorance for what it means to be a democracy.” Adam Pearse is the deputy political editor and part of the NZ Herald's press gallery team based at Parliament in Wellington. He has worked for NZME since 2018, reporting for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei and the Herald in Auckland. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In Episode 68 of Leaders Getting Coffee, our guest is former All Black captain and New Zealand First candidate, Taine Randell. He was appointed captain of the Otago NPC rugby team in 1995 at the age of 19 and All Blacks captain by the time he was 23. Taine Randell says he was lucky, but to plenty of observers, he was a young man with something special about the way he played and the way he led others. He grew up in the Hawkes bay, and after many years in Dunedin and then London, he and his family have been back there for the last 18 years. Despite hanging up his professional rugby boots some twenty years ago, he’s still coaching and even occasionally playing the game that he loves. But business has been his focus since returning home, and he’s built and sold a family owned business as well as working in governance roles to support local businesses and the region at large. Earlier this year Taine Randell announced his decision to enter politics and he’ll be contesting this year’s general election as a NZ First candidate. On the Leaders Getting Coffee podcast, Taine Randell speaks about the fact that rugby wasn’t a career option until professionalism arrived on the scene just as he did. And he discusses playing with his heroes in a rugby career that surpassed even his own expectations and a couple of losses that obviously still hurt. There’s also an extensive life in business since stepping off the field. Thereafter, the aspiring politician talks to Bruce Cotterill about his aspirations for the country and the reasons he’s putting his hand up for another step in his leadership journey. He has plenty of good ideas too, and we can expect a very active champion for the small business community. And of course, on the eve of the All Blacks very challenging assignment in South Africa, he has plenty of advice about what his former team are up against and even a prediction of what the outcome might be. Leaders Getting Coffee – Episode 68 with Bruce Cotterill and Taine RandellSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Everybody's talking about the Opportunity Party and I'm not quite sure I believe they're anything more than a bit of a sideshow. They haven't cracked 5 percent yet but anyway, there we go. Sir Ian Taylor wrote an opinion piece that was published by Stuff. In it, he said that throughout his life he's been a centre-left voter. That's been his political home. But during the whole Covid period, with the Labour Party's response to Covid and the way it wasted its supermajority when it had, you know, all the power in the House, he became disillusioned. He started talking to people from the National Party and saw that they were having conversations. They were talking to business as well and he says that's what he wanted. He didn't want a party telling him what to do in the way he felt Labour did. So he changed his allegiance, after a lifetime, to the National Party. But now he's becoming disillusioned with National as well, because he believes the tail is wagging the dog. He thinks that, on issues such as the Treaty Principles Bill, pay equity, school lunches and so on, ACT and New Zealand First have too much power. He even suggests that Winston Peters has more influence in the coalition Government than Christopher Luxon and the National Party. So he's disillusioned with them too, and he's starting to say, "I'm flirting with Opportunity because they want to have a conversation." That's what their leader has said: "I want to get away from tribalism." Sir Ian has found himself hacked off with the Labour Party, hacked off with the National Party and hacked off with the whole MMP system. He's been quite beguiled by Opportunity, which says it wants to have a conversation. Now, the problem I have with that is that you don't vote for a party simply because it isn't one of the other two parties that have dominated politics for the past 40 years. You don't vote for someone because you don't want to vote for someone else. You vote for them because of the policies they have. And with Opportunity, as soon as they mentioned a universal basic income, I thought, "Well, I'm out." I've been reading about universal basic income for 30 years. I don't believe it's going to work. Many economists say it's not going to work. Then they added a land tax and I thought, "Well, that's not going to work either." In fact, as we've seen in the costings, all of this is going to cost the country an enormous amount of money. So I'm not voting for Opportunity. It's a sideshow. Sure, it's getting some publicity but I was amazed that Sir Ian Taylor, like too many New Zealand voters, seems to vote for people simply because they're not the people he doesn't like anymore. And that's his only reasoning. Crazy. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A friend of mine said to me the other day, “do you have the cliff notes of Labour's policies going into the election? I haven't heard much from Chris Hipkins.” I said, “well, you haven't heard much from Chris Hipkins because he doesn't need to say much.” The best tactic for Labour right now, and they've they copped onto that very early, was to stay shtum and let National and its coalition partners do their very best to lose the election. Christopher Luxon's suck it up cupcake to business owners in Rotorua and then the subsequent apology was yet another case of him having to explain himself. “I didn't mean it like that, you know what I'm saying.” He's done it so many times before. He did it with the bottom feeders comment, he did it with the sorted comment. He doesn't mean it, but it comes across badly, it's mischaracterised, it's misrepresented, he has to explain himself, and when you're explaining, you're losing. He doesn't trust journalists because he feels he's misrepresented, mischaracterised, misspoke every time he opens his mouth, but then that makes it very difficult to get the message across that National is the best party to lead the country. Why should Hipkins open his mouth? He'll only cop flak every time he does. Far better to stay shtum. He doesn't need to say anything. And it's Luxon's inability to connect with the public. One on one, he's absolutely fine as anyone who has met him can attest. As an orator, yeah, not so much. It's costing National. I mean, look at Jacinda Ardern. She was able to sell us a whole bunch of nothing in 2017, and then during Covid was able to sell us a whole bunch of draconian, and then increasingly odd, nonsensical rules that people, a lot of people just swallowed. And that was because she had the ability to communicate and connect. It's a shame that personalities play such a big part in politics, but that's the reality. Always has been. If you go back to the fourth Labour Government, David Lange was selected, elected, voted in as a leader because he could sell incredibly divisive and game changing and society changing policies to the electorate. You had a group of people who were working very hard on completely transforming New Zealand, and he was sold to the New Zealand public as “you can trust me, nothing can go wrong while I'm in charge”, and people believed it. They would never have got away with introducing as many of the radical policies that they introduced without having a brilliant communicator at the helm. When I read Sir Ian Taylor's opinion piece in Stuff this morning, I thought, yeah, I could have written this myself, but I didn't, and I probably wouldn't have written it as well. But I am so exactly like Sir Ian Taylor, apart from the brilliant creative and millionaire bit – I'm just nodding along as I'm reading it. Like Sir Ian, for most of my life, I have been a centre left voter. Like Sir Ian, I too turned off them in Covid when their ability to deliver on the most basic of the policies became abundantly clear and that there were a bunch of numpties trying to put legislation in place. Like Sir Ian, I found National MPs were willing to listen and they were coming up with good sound policy they'd been working on in Opposition. I liked many of their would-be ministers and I really hoped that by voting centre right, we'd find a clear path through the mess that had been left behind. But then along came ACT and New Zealand First, and as Sir Ian says, and I quote, “I was left with the uncomfortable realisation that my vote had helped create a coalition increasingly shaped by minority party ideologies that ran directly against many of the things I believed in.” Amen, Sir Ian, that's exactly how I feel. I'm okay with with centre right, but with those divisive policies from ACT and now —now that it's election year— from New Zealand First, they don't sit well with me. And that's why people are looking at TOP and that's why Sir Ian says he's listening. I know their policies are ill thought out and poorly costed, but so are New Zealand First's. And if I'm going to have a difficult minor party in a coalition or sitting on the benches, I'd rather have young people there than a bunch of old men who represent self-interest and dog whistle politics. How on earth can you have Winston Peters doing a brilliant job as Foreign Affairs Minister and then he turns into a foaming racist in election year? If he was racist to his core, you'd be like, okay, well, he's a rac, but he's not. He's just appealing to racists because he knows that's where he'll get his votes. He knows that there will be a lot of people who vote for New Zealand First because they don't like others. I mean, probably as far as I'm concerned, reason will prevail. I'm doing the whichparty.nz almost weekly, which helps you sort out who to vote for. I'm looking at the ministers in the Coalition Government and comparing them to their counterparts on the left, and the vast majority of government ministers are head and shoulders above the alternative in my mind. But I do not think I have ever felt less inspired, less hopeful about an election, ever. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Labour leader Chris Hipkins has ruled out working with New Zealand First's Winston Peters at the next election. New Zealand First's leader responded to heckling in the House on Wednesday last week by attacking the Greens' Lawrence Xu-Nan, telling him to go back to his "own country".Police investigate Tamaki after ‘heaven's hitlist' video. Police are investigating a “threatening video” posted by Destiny Church leader Brian Tamaki after he called on organisations and individuals to repent, “or have the fear of God on you.” Tamaki has listed, what appears to be, every person in NZ on the list and we speak to one tonight as Johnathan Dove joins us to unpack it all.Winston Peters met with PM Christopher Luxon and word on the street is that he refused to the PM and now refuses to the public to apologise for his blatant racist statements towards Green MP Lawrence Xu-Nan++++++++++++++++++++Like us on Facebook.com/BigHairyNetwork Follow us on Twitter.com/@bighairynetworkFollowing us on TikTok.com/@bighairynetworkSupport us on Patreon www.patreon.com/c/BigHairyNewsCheck out our merch https://bhn.nz/shop/Donate to our work https://bhn.nz/shop/donation/

New Zealand First has announced a policy to pay parents $5000 a year for the first three years of a child's life, for up to three children per family. Party Leader Winston Peters says the cash will encourage Kiwis to have more kids, and counter declining birthrates. Massey University's Professor Paul Spoonley is an expert in the demographics and social change and spoke to Ingrid Hipkiss.

From the cradle to the classroom to the board room, it's been a busy weekend for politicians. ACT and New Zealand First both announced new policies and the PM has defended himself against comments deemed "out of touch". Political Reporter Tuwhenuaroa Natanahira reports.

A sociologist believes New Zealand First's latest policy won't tackle falling birth rates. The party's announced a Kiwi Kids Fund, which would give citizen families $5000 a year for the first three years of a child's life. The grant would be limited to a family's first three children and would be tax free and not means tested. Massey University's Paul Spoonley says fertility rates are low, but this won't fix that. He says it's a concern, but the Government doesn't have the ability to change that. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There are about 97 days until we vote in the general election. I hope most of those days are better spent than with this week's spite and showboating. Winston Peters has spent decades proving he can bluster his way through most controversies, but his performance in the house has brought his role as Foreign Minister under scrutiny. Let's be clear, neither Peters nor the Green MP Lawrence Xu-Nan covered themselves in glory in the House this week. Their exchange during a public debate where Peters told Xu-Nan to "go back to your own country" was attention seeking and designed to generate headlines as these days viral clips are valued more in modern politics than persuasive arguments and debate. Xu-Nan interjections about Peter's vaccine status were provocative but, considering his position, Peter's response was worse. If Peters was simply the leader of New Zealand First this week, the temptation would be to shrug, roll your eyes and file the skirmish away under “classic Winston”. Political theatre has always been part of his brand, and he probably calculated the exchange would resonate with his base. Election campaigns reward sharp elbows. But Peters is also NZ's Foreign Affairs Minister and spends his time, we would hope, nurturing our relationships with other nations. When your words prompt a formal diplomatic protest from China and make headlines around the world, they stop being just domestic political theatre. China is New Zealand's biggest trading parter, and the Foreign Minister's job is to advance New Zealand's interests, not create diplomatic fires. Ministers often survive offensive remarks, but Foreign Ministers should be held to a different standard because every word can have a diplomatic consequence. Peters knows this better than anyone. Decades of experience don't excuse the lapse, they make it harder to defend. Christopher Luxon's response - 5 out of 10. He deserves some credit for calling the comments “outrageous”, “very offensive and completely inappropriate", and racist, but stopped short of imposing any consequences, and expressed confidence in Peters as Foreign Minister. So, strong diagnosis, weak prescription from the Prime Minister. As you would expect the opposition has called for Peter's sacking, a position backed by former leaders Helen Clark and Don Brash. Everyone is using this spat as a means to campaign. Luxon's told a public meeting on Friday that the answer was "pretty simple." "Party vote National," he said. With three months until the election we can unfortunately expect more provocation, more culture war politics and more headline chasing. This may energise parts of New Zealand First's base, but it risks alienating other voters who are sick of the drama and desperately looking for rational, thoughtful conversations about issues and what matters. There is a reason the Opportunity Party is doing well in the polls. It's not necessarily about their policies - the party also appeals to people who are fed up with the status quo and the same politicians playing the same tiresome games. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The prime minister says Winston Peters' comments about a fellow MP are racist, but he still has his confidence as Foreign Minister. Pressure has been building on Christopher Luxon to do something after the New Zealand First leader said a Chinese-born Green MP should go back to his own country, and that is where 'they lie like flatfish'. Former leaders Helen Clark and Don Brash have weighed in, saying there's a strong case for sacking the foreign minister but it would likely trigger a snap election. Political reporter Russell Palmer spoke to Melissa Chan-Green. 

Did you see even Don Brash reckons Luxon should fire Winston as Foreign Minister? Before anyone gets their hopes up, this never going to happen. If the PM cut Winston loose, the government would fall apart. That would kill not only Luxon's current term but his ambitions for a second. MMP is a game of swallowing dead rats. Campaign-mode Winston is the political equivalent of one of those giant New York sewer rats. With the plague. Gross. Unsightly. A pain the arse. But impossible to get rid of. The PM has so far handled the situation well, using the playbook of Jacinda Ardern and Helen Clark to deal with his brain farts. Those calling for his sacking are hypocrites to their party. Carmel Sepuloni sat round the cabinet table with Winston POST two Wongs don't make a White. The faux shock and outrage only make their own leader look weak. If 'Go Home Gate' is so outrageous and egregious, why hasn't Chris Hipkins ruled Winston out? He did so about this stage of the election cycle in 2023. Why not last night? Why not this morning? I text Hipkins today to ask exactly this question. Why not rule him out ever being foreign minister, at least? Guess what? Crickets. Radio silence. Why? Same reason as Luxon. They need him. Or might need him. Luxon, because he's no John Key and doesn't have the arty vote to govern without New Zealand First. And Hipkins, because if he did get enough support to cross the finish line, he'd rather do it alongside Winston Peters than Te Pati Maori. The fact is, Winston can say what he likes and he knows it. His comments aren't popular with most fair-minded kiwis, but then, really, neither are the Chrises'.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The opposition is demanding the Prime Minister take action after Winston Peters said a Green MP who moved to New Zealand should go back to his own country. The New Zealand First leader in Parliament responded to some heckling from Lawrence Xu-nan with an abusive rant. Political reporter Russell Palmer spoke to Melissa Chan-Green.

Winston Peters is defending his comments, which coalition partners Chris Luxon and David Seymour have labelled 'attention-seeking'. The New Zealand First leader yesterday responded to Chinese-born Green MP Lawrence Xu-Nan heckling over vaccinations, by telling him to go back to his own country. Luxon says Peters has a long track record of inappropriate comments designed to get people talking about him. Newstalk ZB reporter Azaria Howell says Labour has also condemned Peters' comments and called for his resignation. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Stuart Nash thought he'd found a political lifeline with New Zealand First. Instead, one text message triggered another spectacular downfall. RNZ deputy political editor Craig McCulloch breaks down the week. Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Mums of parliament have united against Stuart Nash, the New Zealand First candidate who was forced to resign. The former Labour Cabinet minister labelled his rival Napier candidate lazy after taking time away from Parliament to look after her newborn. MPs who've had babies while representing their electorates say they're anything but. Political reporter Lauren Crimp has more.

Tonight, on The Panel, Wallace Chapman is joined by panellists Tim Wilson and Jo McCarroll. First up, in a whirlwind week for colourful political language, New Zealand First candidate Stuart Nash has resigned after calling a National MP lazy for taking maternity leave. So where is the line for what political figures can or can't say? Then, power prices have surged by 12 percent in the last year - Consumer NZ lead researcher Rebecca Styles explains why.

Stuart Nash is out of politics for good after another massive, self-inflicted wound. After falling out of Cabinet under Labour and trying to rebuild his career with Winston Peters and New Zealand First, Nash lasted just one week before sending a text to former National minister Chris Finlayson criticizing a local Napier candidate. We look at how Winston Peters acted quickly to force him out, why Christopher Luxon ruled him out of Cabinet, and how Nash repeatedly ruined his own political comebacks through a lack of discipline and poor judgment. Plus, we speak with Mark Hooper, a Taranaki farmer with Federated Farmers, about the government stepping in to halt iwi co-governance agreements with local councils. We discuss what needs to replace these agreements under the new planning rules, the high costs and delays of cultural impact assessments for regular landowners, and why New Zealand needs a transparent, high-trust planning system that works for all farmers and ratepayers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On the Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive Full Show Podcast for Thursday, 23 July, 2026, we ask New Zealand First deputy leader Shane Jones if Stuart Nash's criticism of a rival taking maternity leave really was a resignation-level offence. We talk to the brother of builder Michael McGrath, murdered by his childhood friend David Benbow in 2017, about the no body, no parole bill. One Year Out author Charlotte Bell tells us about her story of getting sober. And on The Huddle, Oscar Kightley and David Farrar on whether too much has been made of ACT candidate Paul Henry's "shoot, shag or marry" radio gag. Get the Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive Full Show Podcast every weekday evening on iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Right, is it just me, or is there anyone else out there who thinks it's mighty rich of New Zealand First to force Stuart Nash to resign, given the candidates and MPs they have defended for some of the most outrageous things they have said? Is it not rich that Shane Jones was on the radio saying, "Mm, yeah, sensible for Stuart Nash to have resigned," when he is the guy who referred to the Prime Minister needing to get out the kneepads for Narendra Modi when he visited, and he is the guy who used the phrase "butter chicken tsunami"? Now, I was aware of what was happening about 7pm on Wednesday. What was going on was basically that New Zealand First told Stuart Nash that he needed to quit or be fired. He tried to fight his corner but he was unable to do so and he was basically told that was the end of it. I have to be honest, I was really surprised by this. If this were any other party, it'd be fine, but it's New Zealand First. It feels off-brand for New Zealand First. This is a party that's made a virtue of resisting the wokesters and resisting the mainstream media. And then, the minute the wokesters and the mainstream media get upset at Stuart Nash, New Zealand First doesn't even hold its line for 12 hours. It just folds immediately. I mean, that has got to shake the confidence of voters who are attracted to New Zealand First because they think the party is going to provide some sort of bulwark against the creep of political correctness and so-called wokeness. Apparently not. They will fold within 12 hours. Now, I can only guess at why New Zealand First has folded on Nash and not on Jones. I'm guessing it's because there are more women voters in New Zealand than there are Indian voters. I'm guessing it's because Winston Peters prides himself personally on chivalry towards women and this would actually personally offend him. I'm guessing it's because Nash was already on his last chance after the "What is a woman?" thing and the aggro texts to Todd McClay. I'm guessing it's because Nash was not going to win the seat of Napier anyway so this gets New Zealand First out of an embarrassing defeat by a woman who's apparently distracted by her toddler. Because otherwise, immediately agreeing with the wokesters and the mainstream media does seem like quite a weird thing for New Zealand First to do, don't you think? LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

New Zealand First Deputy Leader Shane Jones says it's a sad outcome for Stuart Nash to give up his candidacy. Nash has resigned - after outcry over revelations he'd called his Napier opponent MP Katie Nimon lazy, for taking leave after having a baby. Leader Winston Peters announced the party has accepted Nash's offer to quit. Jones says Nash did an honourable thing - to avoid distracting from the election. "But look, it's not the end of the life for Stuey, he's got a lot more to offer in a variety of other contexts." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

New Zealand First has swiftly picked a new candidate for Napier after the resignation of Stuart Nash. Te Kira Lawrence, who was previously announced as the Party's East Cape candidate, will now stand in Nash's place. Stuart Nash resigned from New Zealand First last night, after a text was revealed where he called Napier MP Katie Nimon the laziest MP he'd ever come across, for taking leave after having a baby. Newstalk ZB senior political correspondent Barry Soper says politics is a 'rough-and-tumble' game, but it's surprising National stepped in over this matter. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

New Zealand First's Stuart Nash is in trouble again for his comments about women. Politicians from across Parliament are outraged after the Napier candidate accused his competition of being lazy for taking maternity leave. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon reckons Mr Nash is channelling the online manosphere, while Nicola Willis says his attitude belongs in the 1920s. Political reporter Russell Palmer has more.

New Zealand First candidate, Stuart Nash has united nearly all of Parliament against him, with MPs denouncing his latest comments as misogynistic, sexist and derogatory. Late last night New Zealand First leader Winston Peters said he had accepted Nash's resignation. Deputy political editor Craig McCulloch spoke to John Campbell.

On the Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive Full Show Podcast for Wednesday, 22 July, 2026, netball's ANZ Premiership is thrown into more doubt. We talk to Stars general manager Jane Bennett about staff contracts ending in a matter of days. Post Primary Teachers Association president Chris Abercrombie explains why barely half of students are passing NCEA numeracy tests. Napier MP Katie Nimon responds to accusations by New Zealand First rival Stuart Nash that she's lazy for taking months of maternity leave. And on The Huddle, Jack Tame and Maurice Williamson on whether they're surprised P pipes are being sold in stores. Get the Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive Full Show Podcast every weekday evening on iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The pre-election promises are coming thick and fast. One of the latest, from New Zealand First would see a $1 billion investment to survey the country's offshore basins for oil and gas supplies. The aim is to shore up domestic fuel supply. It's a pretty large chunk of change and it's not the only big number being thrown around on this issue so we wanted to know how realistic it is. University of Canterbury civil engineering professor David Dempsey chats to Jesse.

Elliot Ikilei, former New Conservative leader, key figure in Hobson's Pledge, and now New Zealand First's 2026 candidate for Takanini, joins Dane Giraud for a conversation that moves from common ground to open clash. The two grew up streets apart in Auckland's lower socio-economic suburbs, and they begin by comparing notes: absent fathers, imported gang culture, rage, and the long road back. Elliot recounts going off the rails as a young man, finding faith at 25, and how frontline youth work convinced him that family breakdown, not colonisation, was driving the alienation of our young people. A card-carrying lefty became one of the country's most prominent social conservatives. From there, it is conservatism versus progressivism head-on. Dane and Elliot debate whether Drag Queen Story Time is a free speech issue or a child protection issue, whether the trans community is helped or ultimately hurt by censorship, why Elliot's Free Speech Union membership lasted only days, and whether a traditionalist can defend speech he finds abhorrent. They finish on Elliot's campaign to take one of New Zealand's most diverse and unpredictable swing seats off National.Support the showhttps://www.fsu.nz/https://x.com/NZFreeSpeechhttps://www.instagram.com/freespeechnz/https://www.tiktok.com/@freespeechunionnz

New Zealand First wants to spend one billion dollars surveying what lies beneath our oceans to find oil and gas. Is this total madness during a cost-of-living crisis, or is it common sense to audit our resources? Duncan gets the hard answers from Resources Minister Shane Jones on how we fund it and if the big rigs are coming back Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New Zealand First wants to invest in surveying the country's offshore basins for oil and gas supplies to use domestically and export around the world. Winston Peters announced the new policy at the party's annual convention in South Auckland. Political reporter Tuwhenuaroa Natanahira reports.

Nearly one in five young Aucklanders has completely pressed pause on life. Shane Jones says New Zealand First has a radical plan to deploy unemployed youth into the military to learn basic discipline and routine. Critics will scream conscription, but doing nothing is a complete surrender. We ask if structured national service is exactly what our drifting generation needs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How good is that Paul Henry announcement, eh? How good is that? ACT sent out a little media advisory last night about 7:30pm, saying there would be a major announcement. It would not be a policy announcement, no exclusive would be offered and there would be no embargoed material. I looked at it and immediately the texts started coming in. Is David Seymour resigning? Has somebody died? Is somebody pregnant? What's going on? I looked at it and thought, that's a lot of hype right there in that little media advisory. This better be good or the chat is going to be about damp squibs. But no, Paul Henry is absolutely worth all that hype. Paul Henry, I think, is the candidate get of the election so far. Don't forget, he was the highest-rated host of breakfast television in this country. He is immensely popular. He probably, I think, will single-handedly lift ACT's vote; at the very least, he will hold it up. Paul brings two things to ACT. The first is his absolute belief in New Zealand. That is authentic. He's been raving about New Zealand being paradise for years now. He's even done a TV show about it. When he says he wants to be in Parliament to sort out New Zealand's prosperity for the sake of his grandkids, I absolutely believe that to be true. The second thing he brings is entertainment. ACT has been struggling to break through on the right. The headlines have largely been hogged by New Zealand First. Paul Henry, I think, can get cut-through with his wit alone. Go and have a look at that press conference. He was very, very funny. Now, this is not to say that Paul Henry is going to go down well with everyone. There is a small group of people out there who absolutely hate his guts, but that is no loss to ACT because those people were most probably going to vote left anyway. My only hope for Paul is that he doesn't come to regret this decision because going into Parliament very rarely ends well for people who already have public profiles and successful careers. Somehow, though, I think if that is how it goes for Paul Henry, he's not going to give a damn anyway, so it probably doesn't matter. Ten out of ten. This announcement is brilliant for ACT's campaign. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tonight, on The Panel, Wallace Chapman is joined by panellists Anna Fifield and Phil O'Reilly. First up, Kaikoura has been today's victim of ferocious weather, with the river bursting its banks. Motel owner Fiona Wei explains what she's seen. Then, China's latest missile tests in the South Pacific are "incredibly unwelcome" according to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon. International relations expert Robert Patman gives his analysis. And The Post's national affairs editor Andrea Vance has come out of the blocks with a scathing opinion piece on New Zealand First's candidate list.

On the Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive Full Show Podcast for Thursday, 2 July, 2026, reports Indian migration is being tightened up days out from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit. We ask former trade negotiator Stephen Jacobi if that's a risky move. Police Association boss Steve Watt on sweeteners being offered by Queensland to attract our cops. Opportunity Party leader Qiulae Wong explains economic policy but stumbles on some numbers. And on the Huddle, Oscar Kightley and Tim Wilson on whether "blast from the past" Michael Laws should be a New Zealand First candidate at the election. Get the Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive Full Show Podcast every weekday evening on iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The ACT Party says it has killed three birds with one stone as new workplace legislation is passed. The bill reverses a number of changes in the 2015 Health and Safety at Work Act, and will shift focus to critical risks. It passed its third reading in Parliament yesterday, despite criticisms from New Zealand First. Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke Van Velden told Mike Hosking it grows the economy, supports small businesses, and stops wasting money. However, the legislation will no longer be implemented in November – instead pushed back until April. Labour is also promising to repeal the legislation, if elected. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

National made its first major election year policy announcement this week. If elected, it would make KiwiSaver compulsory, including for those over 65 still working, automatically enroll babies and provide government contributions to those on parental leave. The suite of changes would cost more than a billion dollars over four years. New Zealand First said National had copied its own policy, and others are asking what the changes might mean for Superannuation.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has accused the government of making covert changes to immigration settings to discriminate against Indian migrants. He made the claims during the first reading of the bill to ratify the India Free Trade agreement. Winston Peters spoke to Ingrid Hipkiss.

The Trade Minister's rejecting accusations National's gone behind India's back, to impose restrictive immigration settings explicitly for Indians. Winston Peters raised the claims during the first reading of the India trade deal in Parliament yesterday - it passed last night. The New Zealand First leader says officials chose not to announce the new criteria - for fear of India's reaction. Todd McClay told Mike Hosking it feels like Peters is playing games - and it's time for him to move on. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A political scrap has broken out over the government's planned health and safety overhaul, with ACT accusing New Zealand First of last-minute politicking. Deputy political editor Craig McCulloch spoke to Ingrid Hipkiss.

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has met with some Pike River families, who fear workplaces are about to get more dangerous. The Health and Safety at Work Amendment Bill would exempt businesses with fewer than 20 workers from legally having to manage non-critical safety risk. The families are asking NZ First to withdraw it's support for the bill. Winston Peters spoke to Lisa Owen.

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