Gone By Lunchtime

Just when you thought the two main parties were fixed on a do-little election, the National Party bursts out the triangulator and gazumps its Labour rivals with a pledge to pursue a breakup of the Foodstuffs group of Pak’nSave, New World and Four Square. Annabelle Lee-Mather, Ben Thomas and Toby Manhire race their trolleys to the studio to ask: will Nicola Willis’s bold call cut through the blancmange like a Smeg blade through an Ooshie? Will the popular appeal outweigh the pushback from local businesses? Are the KiwiMart Greens, NZ First and their "copycat" pals National now natural partners? Where does it all leave Labour? And does Annabelle deserve more respect for her "menage-opoly" bit?Plus: The report on the four-year ordeal for the Phillips children has been released and it's a horror show. What are the lessons for agencies including Oranga Tamariki and the Police, and is New Zealand suffering from an “accountability sink”?And what to make of the moves to wind down the Waitangi Tribunal?
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This just in: we have nine more weeks of this. Can National's indefatigable campaign manager Simeon Brown sustain the unremitting tax focus all the way to election day, can Labour move the discussion to somewhere that suits it better, and with politicians across the board shrugging off requests for factual corrections and apologies have we waded into a post-truth, alternative-fact mire? Ben Thomas, Annabelle Lee-Mather and Toby Manhire convene to tackle these question. Plus: Is Chris Hipkins hugging National close or spooning them? Is Te Pāti Māori's policy to entrench te tiriti as radical as some have suggested and how did Willie Jackson do in outling his own party's Māori campaign?
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Christopher Luxon sailed into NZ politics six years ago as a champion of localism. Since becoming prime minister, his government has fallen deeply out of love with devolution. Changes including a rates cap and National’s ruling out of a bed tax have especially irked Wayne Brown, mayor of Auckland and the most powerful local politician in New Zealand. He’s gone from denial to anger to … what exactly? Joel MacManus and Hayden Donnell – fresh from interviewing Brown – join Toby to tell the story.

Follow At Large with Toby Manhire now on ⁠Spotify⁠, ⁠Apple Podcasts,⁠ ⁠YouTube⁠, or wherever you get your pods.

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In the nine days since he stared down his second caucus uprising within just a few months, Christopher Luxon has really bounced back. Toby Manhire, Annabelle Lee-Mather and Ben Thomas assess that rebound and the rapidfire tax attack lines against Labour. Plus: thoughts on Te Pāti Māori's overhang strategy and the Opportunity Party has its feet held to the fire.But wait: here's a special guest. It's only Chris Penk, the MP for Kaipara ki Mahurangi. He joins the pod to discuss what he's been up to since Christopher Luxon sacked him for caucus insurrection, as he enters the baby-yak phase of his career. And he addresses, of course, the "elephant in the room".
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Christopher Luxon has survived a showdown vote in caucus, a lot like he survived a showdown vote in caucus in April. Toby Manhire, Annabelle Lee-Mather and Ben Thomas convene in the cause of making some sense of the failed coup (if that's what it was), where it fell apart, whether Luxon outsmarted the plotters, and where it leaves his leadership and the state of the election.

(Note: this podcast was recorded before Chris Penk was sacked from cabinet by Christopher Luxon.)
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