Duncan Garner - Editor In Chief

Warning: This interview contains discussions of sexual assault and violence

Qiulae Wong spent weeks riding high, but an uncomfortable interview exposed serious questions about party rules, political donations, and who actually calls the shots. Plus, Chief Victims' Advocate Ruth Money joins us to break down the Opportunity Party's youth justice policy and why extending the youth court up to age 25 leaves victims behind.

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Elections always come down to one simple test: are you better off than you were three years ago?

We crunched the numbers across 20 key economic indicators to strip away the political spin. With prices up 17 percent and wages lagging, most Kiwis are feeling the pinch. Economist Ed McKnight joins us to break down who is actually winning and who is losing.

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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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Christopher Luxon has finally done something we weren't sure he had in him: he expressed a genuine, unscripted opinion. The Prime Minister suggested a referendum on MMP, asking whether our 30-year-old electoral system still works or has just created political paralysis. Is Luxon finally showing real leadership, or is this an unwanted distraction from an economy doing it tough? Plus, New Zealand First Minister Shane Jones joins us to talk mining, energy, and coalition politics.

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Why are we importing 111,000 foreign workers when thousands of New Zealanders cannot find a job? Unemployment has hit an 11-year high at 5.6%, youth unemployment is nearing 14%, and real wages are falling. Yet the government continues issuing tens of thousands of work visas to overseas workers. We ask why Christopher Luxon and the government are letting Kiwis miss out in their own country.

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The latest Roy Morgan poll has the Opportunities Party at 8%. Is this a real political shift or just an outlier? Duncan Garner sits down with political commentators David Farrier and Jordan Williams to break down what this means for Labour, National, and the rest of MMP. Plus, we take a look at TOP's radical policies and ask whether voters actually know what they are backing.

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