Duncan Garner - Editor In Chief

Hastings District Council has just appointed five unelected iwi representatives to every single council committee, giving them full voting rights and payment. We ask where Local Government Minister Simon Watts is hiding while co-governance rules are blatantly ignored. Plus, Maurice Williamson and Ashley Church join Duncan to break down a chaotic week of National Party leadership drama and its implications for the upcoming election.
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Hastings District Council has voted to place unelected, paid mana whenua representatives onto every council committee with full voting rights. The government told councils to hold off, but Hastings pushed ahead anyway. We speak to Councillor Steve Gibson about why he is fighting this decision, what it means for ratepayers, and whether Three Waters-style co-governance is slipping back in through local water entities.
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Christopher Luxon survives a dramatic confidence vote, but has National just destroyed its own election campaign?

In this special live episode, Duncan Garner is joined by political commentator Ani O’Brien and former National minister Maurice Williamson as the leadership crisis unfolds in real time.

They take you inside the National caucus room, examine the attempted coup against a sitting Prime Minister and deliver a brutal verdict when Luxon emerges victorious, declaring his deeply divided party “united”.

With just 87 days until the election, the coup has failed. The damage may be permanent. And National is left with the same leader, a shattered caucus and a mountain of unanswered questions.

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We were promised a functional train tunnel for $2 billion, but Auckland’s City Rail Link blew out to $5.5 billion. Unaccountable council staff and ministers went missing while gold-plating stations and dropping over a million dollars on public art installations. We take a hard look at the $3 billion cost overruns, who signed off on the lavish designs, and why long-suffering Auckland ratepayers will be paying off this massive bill for decades.

PLUS, Minister Simon Court joins us to discuss who signed off on this gold-plated blowout and why Auckland ratepayers are left holding the massive bill.
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National is demanding Labour "show me the money" on tax and spend, but their own numbers face serious scrutiny. Plus, former Opportunity Party candidate Matthew Phillips joins us to explain why he walked away, what goes on behind closed doors, and why ruling out TOP might backfire on Christopher Luxon.
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