Duncan Garner - Editor In Chief

National is stuck in the twenties, Winston Peters is rising fast, and the pressure on Christopher Luxon is no longer background noise.

In this episode, we break down the latest polling and what it really means for National heading into an election. Is this just a rough patch, or something deeper? And more importantly, can the party actually win with Luxon still leading?

We’re joined by Maurice Williamson and Ashley Church to unpack the leadership chatter, the reality behind political polling, and why voters on the right are shifting. We also get into co-governance, council power, tax reform ideas, and a tough listener story that brings the cost-of-living crisis into sharp focus.
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Duncan dives into a major shift happening right now in the Far North District Council. They have held an extraordinary meeting to give full voting and speaking rights to unelected iwi and hapu members. We look at what this means for local democracy and whether shared governance works when there is no shared electoral accountability to the ratepayers.
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This country runs on diesel and without it we come to a halt. Duncan is joined by Peter Williams and Ani O'Brien on the panel, to break down the massive spike in fuel costs and why the government is caught between a rock and a hard place. We also look at the rising tensions in Northland over co-governance and whether the public service is still too bloated.
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This country runs on diesel and without it we come to a halt. Duncan is joined by Peter Williams and Ani O'Brien on the panel, to break down the massive spike in fuel costs and why the government is caught between a rock and a hard place. We also look at the rising tensions in Northland over co-governance and whether the public service is still too bloated.
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What happens when a council stops looking like democracy and starts looking like intimidation? That’s where we begin today, as Duncan digs into the government’s warning to the Far North District Council and asks whether local democracy is being pushed off course.

Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour joins us to talk through the claims, the growing pressure on the government, and what happens when elected representatives say they’re being frozen out or threatened. We also get into the wider question here: who gets to make decisions in New Zealand, and how far ministers should go when councils appear to be losing control.
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