Teenager Michael Wood's purchase of Auckland airport shares, and his failure to get rid of them as transport minister, have left Chris Hipkins with another big headache. Toby Manhire, Annabelle Lee-Mather and Ben Thomas assess the mess and its implications. Plus: Simeon Brown and the many intersections of the National Party position on te reo and road signs; a Voyager media award for the Birkenhead Bowling Club interrogators; Christopher Luxon snookered on contraception fees while Labour goes full panto with Handmaid's Tale allusions; and all the big calls from the electoral review panel – are they right, and to they stand a chance of coming to pass? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Toby Manhire crosses live to our correspondents in Wairoa and Ponsonby, Ben Thomas and Annabelle Lee-Mather, for an assessment of Grant Robertson’s attempt to thread the needle in the so-called no-frills budget and a National Party response that had a hint of artificial intelligence about it. Plus: is the $140 million being handed to foreign-owned NZ Steel for an electric furnace money well spent? Was Chris Hipkins’ whistlestop visit to Papua New Guinea time well expended? And is there anything more absorbing than the moody upheavals of Mayor Ben Bell and the Gore District Council? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With the political and economic gravities pulling in various directions, the finance minister was tasked with providing support for the hardest hit by the cost-of-living crisis without heaping sugar in an already high-inflation sauce. And on top of that, it's an election year. To assess whether Grant Robertson managed to thread that needle, Gone By Lunchtime’s Toby Manhire sits down with When the Facts Change’s Bernard Hickey to discuss their Budget 2023 reactions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christopher Luxon has ruled out working with te Pāti Māori, lambasted the “coalition of chaos” and invoked “separatism”. Ben Thomas, Annabelle Lee-Mather and Toby Manhire assess the strategy, the timing and the rhetoric. Plus: the latest on Meka Whaitiri and the reasons for her defection, the resignation of Elizabeth Kerekere and what it means for the Greens, and important discourse on the oiling of Charles III, king of New Zealand. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Big news: The MP for Ikaroa-Rāwhiti and government minister, Meka Whaitiri, has jumped from the Labour Party to the Māori Party. Were Toby Manhire, Ben Thomas, and Annabelle Lee-Mather as blindsided as Chris Hipkins, as he lived it large in London ahead of the Coronation? What exactly were her reasons for defecting? How damaging is it to the government? And, if she has really notified the Speaker that she has quit Labour, doesn't the waka jumping law dictate that she should no longer be an MP at all? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices