The Prosper Podcast

Victor Billot is the Alliance Party's candidate for Dunedin and communications officer for the Maritime Union of New Zealand, one of the party's first big institutional backers since it relaunched. He joined the original Alliance (a merger that included the New Labour Party) as a 17-year-old in 1989, watched it win 10% of the vote in 1996, go into government with Labour in 1999, split over the invasion of Afghanistan in 2002, and deregister in 2015 after dropping below 500 members. Now it's back, campaigning on a wealth tax, a 35-hour working week on the same pay, and public ownership of the parts of the economy still in private hands.We get into how he'd tax a farming couple with $6 million in land and $80,000 a year in income, why the GST-off-food promise from his February speech didn't make the final policy, what a financial transactions tax with no published threshold actually means, and the difference, in his own words, between business and capitalism. Also covered: the Maritime Union's dual affiliation to both Alliance and Labour, buying back the 49% of Meridian, Mercury and Genesis the Crown doesn't already own, opposing new coal mines while wanting the existing ones renationalised, and why he doesn't think an Alliance vote is a wasted vote for National.

ProsperNZ, because we all deserve to prosper.linktr.ee/prospernz

Wellington is down to one high-reach ladder truck. On Saturday 19 September a 32m ladder truck from Thorndon caught fire in its own engine bay, not even on a call-out. It came in the same week the Minister said she'd lost confidence in Fire and Emergency's chief executive over information withheld for a year, and FENZ confirmed the matter is with the Serious Fraud Office. Harrison and Tyler go through the fire levy you pay on your insurance, the trucks ordered in 2017 that never arrived, a fleet that's now 52% past its target age, up to $254,000 spent on PR and lawyers for a select committee, and why this lands hardest on young Wellingtonians in high-rises.

We open with digital ID: Westpac becoming the third accredited issuer into the government wallet, NEC and the unnamed second company, the UK's flip-flop and Australia's audit, and why the "slippery slope" argument might actually hold this time. Then the government's plans to make the Official Information Act harder to use, a $50m immigration IT write-off, Woolworths moving 130 jobs to Sydney, the Regulatory Standards Act failing twice in a month, $40m in concert funding, the new stalking and citizen's arrest laws, Liz Dotcom's run in Kaipara ki Mahurangi, new policy from National, Labour, the Greens, ACT, NZ First, and Te Pāti Māori, the Taxpayers' Union debate boycott, and the numbers.

New episode every week, available wherever you get your podcasts.

ProsperNZ, because we all deserve to prosper.

linktr.ee/prospernz

Daniel Leamy is President of the Otago University Students' Association (OUSA), with three months left in the job. We asked him what OUSA has changed this year. His answer: "Honestly, bugger all." But that, he says, doesn't stop OUSA being a "good lobby group" for Otago students.

We get into why: an executive that turns over every year, a president who sits on 24 university committees, and a governance structure he calls "nuts for the size of what OUSA is." Then we go through the record: the bookshop OUSA stopped propping up, Healthy Homes with next to no enforcement, $5 lunches and the student hardship fund, why the student bar isn't coming back, university cuts and 6% fee rises, and why humanities and commerce students now pay about half their own tuition. We also put the MAPAS entry grade boundaries to him, and ask him to grade his own year.

OIA responses on medicine entry grades:
https://fyi.org.nz/request/33205/response/137569/attach/html/2/Jess%20OIA%20Response.pdf.html
https://fyi.org.nz/request/31143/response/125527/attach/html/2/Sara%20OIA%20Response.pdf.html

The government's review of Māori and Pacific medical entry pathways:
https://waateanews.com/2026/09/04/act-targets-maori-and-pacific-medical-entry-pathways-but-government-review-remains-hidden/

Healthy Homes standards:
https://www.tenancy.govt.nz/healthy-homes/

Enrol to vote before the 7 November election:
https://vote.nz

ProsperNZ, because we all deserve to prosper.⁠https://linktr.ee/prospernz

Harrison and Tyler recap the week that was. Hoarding vandalism, potential deduption in the dational darty, immigration, polling and more!

Fuel, power, groceries: the price of everything keeps going up, and in almost every one of those markets only two firms set it.This week's big topic is New Zealand's addiction to oligopoly. Not just the supermarkets everyone talks about, but the pattern underneath: one forced-Kiwi or government-propped company sitting opposite one foreign competitor, repeated across hardware, fertiliser, ports, ferries, airlines, cell towers and plasterboard. Tauranga exports more than every other port combined. Air New Zealand holds 86% of the domestic market. GIB controls 97% of plasterboard. The gentailers made $959 million while power bills rose 20%, and the Crown owns half of three of them.Then the policy: every party's plan for the supermarkets and the gentailers, National's new $300k First Home Loan cap, ACT on net zero and the Waitangi Tribunal, and 10,000 public servants walking out. In the Debate Room, the rural debate out of Morrinsville. In The Numbers, the first run of our weekly election tracker.ProsperNZ is independent New Zealand political media. New episode every week. Subscribe to keep up to date!

Mentioned in this video:Limi's video on Duopoly: https://youtu.be/SrdcQzFNSC4?si=8eyHU-jnp9s9siaJGumboot Takeover: https://bookhub.co.nz/p/the-gumboot-takeover-the-story-of-the-ravensdown-co-operative?srsltid=AU7gw4UQyFPw0UJvW47tejdeX9uC_TuVq6L7ez4jCxDMlXSwJJ1SthS6Curia Poll: https://www.taxpayers.org.nz/sept26_pollnztughjkuhnQ+A Rural Issues Debate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYL4uqxmPuACommerce Commission Statement of Issues: https://www.comcom.govt.nz/news-and-media/news-and-events/2026/statement-of-issues-released-for-jpt-to-acquire-t-and-g-fresh/

New Zealand First's Dunedin candidate Kym McDonald-King is a registered nurse who got into politics because her 15-year-old emailed Mark Patterson and signed the family up to a campaign. She's running for the party vote, not the seat.We put the coalition record to her: the 500 police that never arrived, the live export ban ACT got $79m of wilding pines for, and 19 members' bills lodged with 15 quietly withdrawn again. We get into the health system she trained in, the gentailers and the supermarket duopoly, buying BNZ back off the Australians, the India FTA, the under-16 social media ban, and what New Zealand First actually has for anyone under 30.Plus the answer she keeps coming back to: "I would never tell Winston he got it wrong."

AI writes the CV, AI reads the CV, and somewhere in the middle is a generation that can't get hired. This week we get into the job market that's stopped working, a Reserve Bank hiking while the rest of the world cuts, 3,000 hospitality businesses gone in a year, the Modern Slavery Bill clearing select committee, and ACT's plan to make your crypto tax-free.Plus: a swear jar and it's election-night drinking fund that grows every time Tyler opens his mouth.

Harrison and Tyler recap this week's news including Auckland's new motorway plan, energy security, policy announcements and more!!

Chapters:

0s Cold open: everyone's about to lose their minds

254s New poll: 82% want politicians legislated to think long-term

498s Auckland's 30-year motorway plan: "we can't build our way out"

833s Dairy Flat's proposed wave-pool surf suburb

906s No funding, no dates — the insincerity behind the Harbour Bridge study

1092s Drill baby drill: NZ opens a new oil and gas hunt off the East Coast

1520s 100 bills stuck in Parliament's pre-election traffic jam

1808s 16+ to scroll: the social media age-verification bill

1886s Sidebar: Socialite, the app that kills your algorithm feed

2042s "Show me the person, I'll show you the crime" — the digital ID rant

2304s Greens reject the ban, want platforms regulated instead

2327s National's rates cap: capping rises at 2-4%

2565s Rant: you can't dump council debt on the next generation

2706s Media bias watch: who's funding the pro-digital-ID coverage?

2750s No new taxes: National drops the bed tax and bank tax

2896s Labour's fiscal plan: dual mandate back, debt to 20% of GDP

3031s ACT's $2 billion cancer hospital plan

3207s Te Pāti Māori's tax plan: five new taxes and a Kai Credit

3428s $9.7m to cull wild goats and deer across six national parks

3686s Wrap-up: touch grass, go hunting, "do it here, not elsewhere"

Episode 6 of the Prosper Pod.

Harrison and Tyler inquire into the cost of living vs quality of live, power and data centres, Te Pāti Māori's electoral strategy, and New Zealand's insincere political system and societal discourse.

Featuring Tyler ranting on: insincerity, tall poppy syndrome, and the left no longer being worker focused.

It's cringe to ask, but please follow the show and give us a five star review to help us with our mission to promote young kiwi voices in New Zealand political discourse!

Chapters:

0:00 Cold open: a possum named Jeremy

3:14 KiwiSaver raided: $244m pulled out in one month

4:17 Compulsory 6% — paying for retirement twice

9:29 The "marked improvement" in housing that isn't

12:21 Half of renters spend over half their income on rent

13:22 Do we actually have it better? Fast fashion vs community

16:21 Parents, childcare and the time money can't buy

19:32 Food prices cool — but beef mince is up 30%

21:09 Power bills: electricity up 9.5%, gas up 10.9%

22:40 AI data centres, Tiwai Point and a power-scarce grid

26:20 Coal, wind and solar — the on-demand power problem

27:47 "What do I blame? Insincerity" — Huntly and pine trees

30:31 Nuclear: what NZ law actually says

33:12 Rocket Lab, road cones and punching above our weight

36:50 Scentian Bio's insect "nose on a chip"

37:58 Tall poppy syndrome and where NZ's hope comes from

39:40 NZ First's $45,000 Kiwi Kids Grant

40:39 Why baby bonuses failed in Japan and Korea

44:31 Parliament's urgency habit hits a 17-year high

49:12 Young voters looking for a voice

50:42 Te Pāti Māori's split-vote gamble

52:01 How the overhang works — and why 7 November matters

57:45 National's law blocking climate lawsuits

1:00:20 Greens restore and expand free school lunches

1:01:33 Has the left stopped being the party of workers?

1:04:51 Paul Goldsmith's 11 portfolios

1:09:51 Vietnam and Thailand: leaning into Southeast Asia

1:11:45 Ngāi Tahu: 24 South Island councils down to five

1:16:25 Wrap-up: breaks, interviews and the end of winter

0:00 Intro & the Deputy Dan interview debrief

2:44 Opportunity Party policy deep dive

3:43 Climate: the Emissions Trading Scheme

6:08 Justice: decriminalising drugs

8:15 Education: screen time & learning

10:39 Empowering the Commerce Commission

12:39 Housing & simplifying zoning

17:28 Luxon survives another leadership challenge

21:24 OUSA leaders' debate review

25:52 The debate: party-by-party rundown

28:48 Breaking: Te Pāti Māori student policy

29:24 Greens to challenge close electorates

31:47 Debate quotes: Foster's phone & Simmons on data centres

35:44 ACT's student services fee policy

39:32 National's budget responsibility rules

42:15 Luxon's MMP referendum push

44:41 The Queenstown gondola plan

49:22 National's $100b South Island pitch

50:19 China's flying fish spy drone