Duncan Garner - Editor In Chief

We told you co-governance was alive and kicking in local councils, and now the government has finally stepped in to stop it. While mainstream newsrooms looked the other way, local communities were left in the dark about major agreements affecting their rates and properties. Duncan is joined by Far North councillor Davina Smolders to break down what went wrong and how we fix local government.

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New Zealand First wants to spend one billion dollars surveying what lies beneath our oceans to find oil and gas. Is this total madness during a cost-of-living crisis, or is it common sense to audit our resources?

Duncan gets the hard answers from Resources Minister Shane Jones on how we fund it and if the big rigs are coming back

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Forget what the pundits are saying about who is packing boxes for the ninth floor of the Beehive. The rolling poll of polls shows New Zealand is heading into one of the closest elections in modern political history, and the country is split straight down the middle.

We break down the razor-thin margins alongside Ashley Church and Maurice Williamson. From the National Party strategy friction to the minor party wild cards, it all comes down to coalition mathematics.

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Nearly one in five young Aucklanders has completely pressed pause on life. Shane Jones says New Zealand First has a radical plan to deploy unemployed youth into the military to learn basic discipline and routine.

Critics will scream conscription, but doing nothing is a complete surrender. We ask if structured national service is exactly what our drifting generation needs.

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The uncomfortable truth National MPs won’t say out loud is that nothing is moving the dial. With eight consecutive polls putting the party under 30%, Christopher Luxon has a massive messenger problem.

Plus, the man himself, Paul Henry, joins the podcast. He reveals why he’s trading his runway for a run at Parliament with Act, and whether he can actually survive the mundane reality of Wellington.

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Christopher Luxon just delivered one of the most animated speeches of his prime ministership to 10,000 Kiwi Indians at Spark Arena. He went all out, laying down massive praise for the community.

But not everyone is happy. Coalition partner Shane Jones is calling out immigration overreach, and some viewers feel regular Kiwis were completely thrown under the bus. We look at the tight politics behind it all.

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A new Conservation Amendment Bill is moving through Parliament, and it is ringing alarm bells. Elected member Luka Jansen joins us to blow the whistle on a hidden clause that completely removes civil and criminal liability for board members.

We look at the reality of co-governance on the ground, from burnt-down huts in the Urewera to wild dogs and blocked public access. Is this bill just a stalking horse for development and bureaucracy?

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Another generation of kids is disappearing down the digital rabbit hole while politicians tie themselves in knots over complicated online bans. We talk to political commentator Ani O’Brien about a brilliant, simple solution: stop overcomplicating the technology and just ban the smartphone hardware for under-16s.

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The Reserve Bank just delivered an interest rate hike that the National Party desperately wanted to avoid. This completely shatters their script, yet Nicola Willis is trying to spin this as a sign of a strengthening economic recovery.

We check in with Ani O'Brien and Ashley Church to see if this economic turnaround is actually real or just more Wellington spin.

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We are focusing on victims today as we look at Act's three strikes proposal for repeat burglars. Burglary is a home invasion, not a property crime, so why does our system treat it so lightly? Plus, Minister Shane Jones is in the studio. He is fired up about West Coast mining, the India trade deal, and why co-governance is growing like a tapeworm.

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