Raw Politics: Draining the swamp and entrenching the Treaty

This week on the Raw Politics podcast: Labour’s search for its second wind, hands up for a public supermarket, and Paris in election timeEight weeks until the election and Labour gets shocked out of its sleepwalk to possible defeat.Today, the Raw Politics panel discusses how Labour can and will react to one, yes, one poll placing it at 25.9 percent public support but its own internal polling obviously drifting lower as well.Join senior political reporter Marc Daalder and associate editor Sam Sachdeva at Parliament and Newsroom co-editor Tim Murphy in Auckland for analysis of Labour’s acknowledged shift on to the front foot and concentrating on its policies now rather than its years of “oppositional” politics.The panel also examines a steady strengthening of the Greens’ polling and the party’s bold – and much criticised on the right – policy to create a state-owned supermarket chain by forcing the two big players to give up stores and distribution centres across the country. Is it a Soviet-style dead hand of government or a breakthrough?Our third topic is the politics of climate change. A big conference this week brought the main parties to the same stage and indirectly led to sharp accusations from Labour over “National and its mates” wanting to withdraw NZ from the Paris climate agreement, and an aggressive denial.Finally, we offer recommendations for you to read, watch or listen to over your weekend:Tim: An important interview on Stuff by Patrick Gower with the family of the man who died in a bathroom at the waiting room of Waikato Hospital’s A&E earlier this year.Marc: The NZ Herald’s team coverage of the Government’s late Thursday dump of its documents related to the development of the May Budget.Sam: Analysis of Labour new AI policy, by Newsroom’s own Fox MeyerRaw Politics will be available wherever you get your podcasts at the end of each week, and to watch on YouTube.

This week on the Raw Politics podcast: the coalition eyes drastic change in the public service, Te Pāti Māori eyes drastic change in our constitution, plus why health imperils every governmentThe Government's making no secret of its plan to cull, reshape and redirect government departments and ministries if it gets a second chance after November 7. Today, the Raw Politics panel discusses the scale of the planned abolitions, mergers and straight out headcount cuts ministers want to line up through 2027 and beyond.Join senior political reporter Marc Daalder and political editor Laura Walters at Parliament and Newsroom co-editor Tim Murphy in Auckland for analysis of the radical overhaul planned for the public service in a potential second term. The panel also examines Te Pāti Māori's plans for constitutional reforms and paramountcy of the Treaty and how big an appeal its announcements will have among Māori voters, with the risk of likely coalition partner Labour copping any electoral backlash from voters on the general roll.  Our third topic is the perennial political landmine of the health system, a threat to the prospects of any government. While National and Labour feud over the number of additional nurses in the system under this administration, real world events like a death in an A&E waiting room and a hospital's nurses declaring a state of emergency have the potential to derail any minister's bid to talk up health investments. Finally, we offer recommendations for you to read, watch or listen to over your weekend: Marc: Azaria Howell of Newstalk ZB's scoop on the Brian Roche cutting the public service letter.  Laura: Māni Dunlop of Te Ao Māori News' in-depth explainer on TPM’s bottom lines, where other parties sit, and the history and future of constitutional reformTim: Our own Marc Daader's magisterial piece on Newsroom on the latest UN environment report: Global warming will pass 1.5C - what are you going to do about it?Raw Politics will be available wherever you get your podcasts at the end of each week, and to watch on YouTube. 

The country’s two biggest political parties found common ground this week not once, but twice. Well, kind-of, temporarily, with not much grace or real commitment.Today, the Raw Politics panel discusses Labour’s decision to back National’s bill on limiting social media access for under 16s, and Labour’s grudging acceptance of a move to force a legislative cap on council rates.Join senior political reporter Marc Daalder and associate editor Sam Sachdeva at Parliament and Newsroom co-editor Tim Murphy in Auckland, for analysis of the two big blue-red (purple) agreements of this campaign.Both big parties have correctly read the public mood in belatedly proposing, then agreeing to back at the outset, a social media ban. Polls show support for measures to protect young people from social media harm.The rates cap probably has strong public support as well – who wouldn’t want increases in their rates bills forced under 4 percent? But that policy is fraught with risks for both reducing council services to the public and cutting local government’s investment in maintenance and infrastructure.Our third topic is the National Party’s walking away from a Government-Auckland Council deal to “explore” an accomodation bed levy to fund tourism promotion, events and infrastructure. Such 30-year-deals are often all talk and this one is already fraying after just four months.Finally, we offer recommendations for you to read, watch or listen to over your weekend:Marc: Our Newsroom colleague Andrew Bevin’s story on the under-funded wildlife hospitals on the frontline of the bird flu outbreak.Sam: Henry Cooke’s profile of a legend of political journalism Richard Harman, in The PostTim: Phil Smith of RNZ’s excellent piece analysing the number of extra nurses added under this Government.Raw Politics will be available wherever you get your podcasts at the end of each week, and to watch on YouTube.

The election is 78 days away so it’s over time to start tuning in to what’s going on in the world of politics.Our Raw Politics podcast is here to help. From today, Raw Politics returns every Friday to dissect the major issues in politics and the political strategies playing out around them.Today, join senior political reporter Marc Daalder and associate editor Sam Sachdeva at Parliament and Newsroom co-editor Tim Murphy in Auckland, who look ahead into this perpetual election campaign and pick the people and moments to watch.Finally, we offer recommendations for you to read, watch or listen to over your weekend:Sam: Our press gallery colleague Hanna’s interview with long-time Opportunity Party candidate Jessica HammondMarc: The NZ Geographic feature West Side Story, about the youth in Huntly who have ditched dirt bikes for horses.Tim: Lilian Hanly’s piece on RNZ asking a very pertinent question: Can one Minister handle 11 portfolios?

On this week’s Raw Politics podcast: We honour the standout performances and policies, good and bad, of this year, plus make our predictions for 2025Four different MPs are nominated by our four Raw Politics panelists for the honour of standout politician of 2024 – and consensus is hard to come by for many of our other accolades.The Raw Politics podcast weighs the good and bad for 2024 – leaders, new MPs, policy pushes, controversies and cringeworthy moments. A sneak preview: the cringe of the year is shared by two big names in Parliament, both for their actions captured on video.A full bench this week of Newsroom political editor Laura Walters, senior political reporter Marc Daalder, national affairs editor Sam Sachdeva and co-editor Tim Murphy shows we don’t succumb to groupthink on this podcast.The nominations, and the predictions for next year, are broad and varied, including a preview of the Newsroom press gallery’s more considered ‘Awards of the State’.The panel pitches forward into 2025 with predictions of big Budget cuts, exits for parliamentary heavyweights, failure on international deals, and critical moments in climate policy. --------------------This week's recommendations:Tim: Predictable, I imagine, but mine is Aaron Smale’s big series at Newsroom on the Crown-cover-up over the legal cases taken by victims of abuse in careMarc: Joel MacManus’ Budget debate dispatch – I laughed when I read it in May and I laughed when I read it this morning tooSam: Guyon Espiner’s reporting on Casey Costello and tobacco policyLaura: Marc Daalder’s fantastic early scoop on the PM claiming the $52k accommodation allowance. It was the story that kept on giving, and continues to be referred to in the context of whether the PM is in touch with struggling, everyday NZers--------------------Raw Politics will be available every Friday here on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube too.Read more on Newsroom - https://newsroom.co.nz

This week on the Raw Politics podcast: what voters want on climate change policy, will ministers ditch the foreshore repeal, plus Ayesha Verrall's faux pasClimate change is hard and changing New Zealanders' attitudes and behaviour seems harder still for this Government and its predecessors. Should the coalition accept that's the reality and go slow and low in its ambitions for change?The Raw Politics podcast looks at the coalition's latest report on methane from farm animals – a dense scientific fig leaf that could allow ministers to let NZ do less to cut emissions.Newsroom political editor Laura Walters, senior political reporter Marc Daalder and co-editor Tim Murphy ask if the national and international mood on dealing with climate change is enabling National, Act and NZ First to give up, even if just a little, on our national targets.For our second topic, Murphy recaps the short history of the foreshore, seabed Māori customary rights and the Marine and Coastal Areas Act. And he explains the Government's latest options to either withdraw its urgent repeal Bill or stay staunch and restrict Māori from winning claims in the courts.Would the ruling coalition get egg on its face if it backs down, or would that act to lower tensions that exist in Crown relations with Māori over other controversial measures like the Treaty Principles Bill?The panel asks if Labour's Ayesha Verrall went too far in her personal comments against Health NZ chair Lester Levy – and whether that took the focus off the actual scandal of the health commissioners trying to game their annual budgets.--------------------This week's recommendations:Tim: Jonathan Milne’s scoop revealing Health NZ and Lester Levy were stopped by the auditor-general from shifting costs from this year into last, in what could have been embarrassing for the last, Labour governmentMarc: RNZ’s story on the oil and gas lobby asking the Government to underwrite fossil fuel explorationLaura: A piece by Tom Hunt from The Post on the Vision for Wellington lobby group and their communications with the PM and other senior Government ministers --------------------Raw Politics will be available every Friday here on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube too.Read more on Newsroom - https://newsroom.co.nz

This week on the Raw Politics podcast: Remembering Nikki Kaye, assessing the Labour Party one year on, and Christopher and Winston's nostalgia trip on foreign affairsLabour's MPs and party members gather in Christchurch this weekend, a year after a humiliating defeat took them from the historic, first majority MMP government into the wilderness, watching a centre-right coalition dismantle their legacy.The Raw Politics podcast assesses where the party finds itself, with the electorate and members of the public still not answering the phone, but too early to reveal a new strategy, policies or even a new leader.  Newsroom political editor Laura Walters, national affairs editor Sam Sachdeva and co-editor Tim Murphy ask if Labour can do anything to beat the NZ aversion to throwing out one-term governments and if Chris Hipkins is the leader to pull off such a stunning upset.For our second topic, the panel assesses New Zealand's new foreign policy, Sam Sachdeva delivers his views having watched Christopher Luxon's impact at Apec in Peru, and we ask if Winston Peters' exhaustive travel schedule means he's effective at his job.  Raw Politics also marks the death of former National MP and minister Nikki Kaye, a politician with a real difference, unmatched energy and a weakness for long, long phone calls with journalists. --------------------This week's recommendations:Tim: A lovely, poignant podcast chat between Nikki Kaye and the Island Stories host Tim Higham, on politics, life, cancer and hope for the environment.Sam: Newsroom's Laura Walters and Fox Meyer's detailed analysis of Regulatory Impact Statements about new laws and policies from the Govt’s first year.Laura: Our colleague David Williams' story analysing the Brexit possibilities of a referendum here on the Treaty. --------------------Raw Politics will be available every Friday here on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube too.Read more on Newsroom - https://newsroom.co.nz

This week on the Raw Politics podcast: The hikoi’s over, now for a half year of claim and counterclaim, dissent and debate. Plus: NZ speaks out of both sides of its mouth at COP29.Prime Minister Christopher Luxon did not meet the Treaty Principles Bill hikoi crowd, sees “nothing” of merit in the Act-proposed law but the Parliament his Government dominates will spend six months debating a “divisive” measure.That’s because he has accepted there needs to be “aeration” of people’s views on the Treaty, and his party acceded to Act’s pressure to include the Bill in the coalition agreement. So, having made this legislative bed, Luxon will now have to lie in it.Newsroom political editor Laura Walters and co-editor Tim Murphy look at how Luxon has played his cards so far, and how he might withstand an ongoing storm of criticism from Māori and others.For Act’s David Seymour, a possible nominee for most effective politician of the year before this latest play, the hearings on his Bill will finish just as he receives his coalition-deal-bauble of becoming Deputy Prime Minister until 2026.While he’s successfully grabbed the political ground this year, and will no doubt use the new position to continue pushing his policies and views, is there a risk that Act will repeat the sins of its own past in straying away from economic reform, personal freedoms, minimising the state and ending waste, and be diverted by race and stunts?For our second topic, Laura talks to regular Raw Politics panelist Marc Daalder who is reporting for Newsroom at the COP29 climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan. He describes the pressures and expectations facing the 60,000 attendees in seeking answers on carbon finance and agreements to hold the world to the Paris targets.And we hear how the New Zealand climate minister Simon Watts has performed, with messages for an external audience that might not fly so easily to the domestic crowd.--------------------This week's recommendations:Tim: A story from Stuff’s Tony Wall who was with the Mongrel Mob in Ōpōtiki on the eve of the ban on gang patches and consorting. A rare example of hearing direct from the gangsters on such a policy.Laura: Also crime-related, the NZ Herald’s Jared Savage profiled the new police commissioner Richard Chambers and revealed where he’d come from and his path to the top.--------------------Raw Politics will be available every Friday here on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube too.Read more on Newsroom - https://newsroom.co.nz

On this week’s Raw Politics podcast: The Act and Māori parties at point-blank range, plus the risk of the Crown apology petering outParliament saw two historic days this week, one of great solemnity and unity, the other a raucous and high-stakes stand-off between political foes over the Treaty of Waitangi.Raw Politics looks first at the volatile reception for Act’s Treaty Principles Bill at its first reading, how parties performed to their voting bases, and what lies ahead now in select committee hearings over the next six months.Newsroom political editor Laura Walters and co-editor Tim Murphy, co-piloting the panel with both Marc Daalder and Sam Sachdeva on assignment overseas, look beyond the heat of Thursday’s drama to search for any light in the arguments both ways for a law change.Before the first reading, Act leader David Seymour had claimed the bill was not “divisive”. National leader Christopher Luxon responded that it was divisive. Parties traded allegations over the origins of division.The optics of the three opposition parties standing together in haka, but the three parties of government divided by Act’s proposed law, were a first this parliamentary term.The panel discusses the motivation of the National speakers who spoke from remarkably similar talking points, dissing Act while seeking credit for their party’s approach to individual Treaty and race measures.Then it’s onto the milestone moment of the Crown Apology to victims of abuse in state care – an occasion unlike the Treaty Principles Bill first reading, that could be the beginning of meaningful, lasting change.But will it? Or might the goodwill and hope and promises of Tuesday dissipate as the bureaucracy, politicians and voters tire of the complexity and burden of creating a just system of redress.--------------------This week's recommendations:Tim: A report by the US broadcaster ABC on satirical site The Onion swooping in and buying from liquidators the assets, brand and database of the far-right InfoWars site that went bankrupt after owner and shock jock Alex Jones claimed the Sandy Hook school massacre was fake.Sam: Marc’s morning-after opinion column on the US election and the threat of Trump to democracyLaura: Tim’s story with David Williams on Newsroom revealing Parliament’s Speaker Gerry Brownlee relented on Monday to allow journalist Aaron Smale to attend the Crown apology.--------------------Raw Politics will be available every Friday here on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube too.Read more on Newsroom - https://newsroom.co.nz

This week on the Raw Politics podcast: David Seymour floats a new law labelled the single greatest breach of the Treaty of Waitangi. Plus political editor Laura Walters joins us from the US.Each time the tide comes in, it comes further up the beach. Well, that appears to be the Act Party’s strategy launching its Treaty Principles Bill in Parliament with not a single vote in support of it passing likely from any of Parliament’s other five political parties.Raw Politics looks at the political motivations behind a Bill widely judged to be dead-on-arrival and the challenges it presents to everyone from the Waitangi Tribunal to the National, NZ First and opposition parties.Newsroom senior political reporter Marc Daalder, national affairs editor Sam Sachdeva and co-editor Tim Murphy discuss the introduction of the Bill, with no fanfare and in the absence of its solo advocate Act leader David Seymour.Parties have undermined their coalition partners in the past, withdrawing support for proposals or making untenable conditions to prevent their passing. But Act’s prize of a select committee hearing and then a dead end could be an unprecedented event in our coalition politics under MMP.In our second topic, we welcome in our usual host political editor Laura Walters from the US where she’s been reporting on the election’s final week and outcome.She joins Marc to discuss what it is like right now in an America stunned or relieved simultaneously and how voters from either side move forward now.Our home panelists offer some distant thoughts on takeouts for the rest of us from a country rocked again by Trump.--------------------This week's recommendations:Marc: An analysis piece from Politico Europe on Trump’s effect on global climate action:Sam: Marc’s morning-after opinion column on the US election and the threat of Trump to democracyTim: RNZ reporter Ella Stewart’s story looking at the people behind Toitū te Tiriti, the activist group leading protest action against Govt policies--------------------Raw Politics will be available every Friday here on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube too.Read more on Newsroom - https://newsroom.co.nz