Politics Central

Could a Chinese company be the answer for frustrated residents of Auckland's burgeoning Whangaparaoa Peninsula?
A Chinese infrastructure firm is offering to pay for the Penlink route, connecting the peninsula with State Highway 1.
It would collect the toll for 20 to 25 years in return.
Auckland Business Chamber chief executive Michael Barnett told the Weekend Collective congestion is only getting worse - and thousands more houses are on the way.
"If I have a look at the interchange at the morning, that queue has gone from 500 metres to about five kilometres each morning, so there's a need for it, and we can't get it with Auckland money."
Barnett says New Zealand is dependent on foreign investment, and we shouldn't be afraid of where the money comes from.
"Being afraid of where the money comes from to my mind is foolish. What we need to do is ensure that the rules and regulations around construction and the way it is managed is done and done well." 
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ACT Party leader David Seymour joined the Weekend Collective after his party's annual conference today.
He outlined a potential rebrand of the ACT Party, after the party managed to recoup just 0.5% of the vote in the last general election.
Seymour said a name change is possible, although believed the ACT brand was still well known across New Zealand.
Suggested alternatives to ACT include The Liberal Party, The Reform Party, or just simply, The Taxpayers Party.
"I'm a bit inclined to change - but I'm just one member of the party ultimately," Seymour said.
His preferred choice? The Reform Party.
"ACT is a party of reformers... we are fundamentally different from the National Party because we want to reform," he said.
Seymour earlier announced his plan to slash the number of MPs to 100 - and erase the Māori seats.
After being criticised by some for copying a previous NZ First policy - Winston Peters campaigned on a similar policy before the last election - Seymour told the Weekend Collective that the now deputy PM is doing nothing about it.
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Australian writer Simon Copland joined the Weekend Collective today, after he attended the Sydney event of far-right speakers Lauren Southern and Stefan Molyneux last night.
He live-tweeted the whole event on Twitter, saying Molyneux argued that Australia Aboriginal culture is backward, and that Southern spoke against multiculturalism.
Copland told the Weekend Collective that New Zealanders attending next week's speaking event can likely expect a similar talk based around Maori culture. 
The controversial duo are set to talk in Auckland on August 3, at a currently undisclosed venue.
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Security Expert Paul Buchanan joins the Weekend Collective to talk about the Football World Cup - have we seen the 'true face of Russia' in this World Cup?
Why has it been such an incident-free event?
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The Herald's Business Editor Liam Dann joins the Weekend Collective to talk about his article 'Business still feels pained by Labour'.
It comes after surveys that show businesses are feeling pessimistic about the economic outlook and – more worryingly – increasingly down about their own prospects.
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Tessanee Vejongsa, an AP Video Journalist based in Bangkok, Thailand, joined the Weekend Collective to give an update on the Thai caving rescue operation.
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Green Party MP and Minister for Women Julie Anne Genter joins the Weekend Collective to talk about gender equality in the workplace. 
She says while quotas are not a "priority" in order to get gender equality on boards in the private sector, they are a possibility if the private sector doesn't "up its game".
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The Herald's Business investigations reporter Matt Nippert joined the Weekend Collective to talk about a slightly bizarre story from this morning.
Nippert has been working on a series of stories exploring the nexus between the Wellington-dominated film industry and the Beehive.
One such example features a pavlova - in an effort to attract people to our country, $1.6 million was paid to producers of the TV show Power Rangers in return for references including having a New Zealand-born character spend an entire episode trying to bake a pavlova. 
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TVNZ Political Editor Corin Dann joined the Weekend Collective for their weekly political wrap.
They started by chatting about Winston Peters and his conversation with the US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo.
Dann says they almost certainly would have discussed North Korea, as well as the steel tariff issue which is still hanging over the relationship between New Zealand and the United States.
The Weekend Collective also talked about the new Families Package which has been implemented today.
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Teaching seems to be on life support in New Zealand, with shortages in parts of the country - particularly in Auckland.
The Weekend Collective spoke with Tim O'Connor, the headmaster of Auckland Grammar school to get his opinion on how (or if) teaching can be saved in New Zealand.
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