To smokefree or not smokefree? That is the question our guests grapple with on the pod this week, as the world reacts to the shock decision by our new Government to repeal legislation that would have phased out cigarette sales in New Zealand. We talk to a public health professor who offers an evidence-based debunking of the justifications offered by the new National-led Government - and the consultant involved in a report that rejected Labour's case for introducing the laws in the first place. Plus, Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall let’s rip, the new health minister's apparently shifting stance and the campaigning teen who wants our leaders to protect his community from nicotine.

Up in smoke: The end of NZ’s world-first smokefree laws

Tova O’Brien hosts Stuff’s political podcast holding the powerful to account and putting the concerns of real people front and centre.
With regular guests Andrea Vance, picking the winners and losers of the week in Snakes and Leaders, and Luke Malpass, calling key moments for the coming week  in Beehive Buzz.
You can read analysis supporting this podcast on stuff.co.nz.
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Email tova@stuff.co.nz.
CREDITS
Host and producer: Tova O'Brien.
Senior journalist and producer: Aaron Dahmen.
Sound design, audio editing and mixing: Connor Scott and John Ropiha.
Executive producer: Chris Reed.

News

Politics

News Commentary

Happy Budget Day! The Tova pod takes you behind the scenes at Parliament as Nicola Willis unveils the Government's first bash at the books. We bring you expert reaction from inside the lock-up, the zingers and stingers from the debate, reaction from our panel of everyday Kiwis and, in an interview with Stuff, the Finance Minister explains how she got one crucial number so wrong.

Big Budget Special

With the cost of living crisis hitting hard, we assemble a panel of Kiwis doing it tough or feeling the pinch in what politicians love to call the squeezed middle. We ask how they're coping and what they're hoping for in next week's Budget. And, with rising food prices the great unifier, we check out the work of the Grocery Commissioner - the man charged with easing the challenge at the checkout.

Bills, bills, bills and the Budget

What started as the home of song and dance videos is beset by claims of spying by the Chinese government and fears about the mental health of young users. A cybersecurity authority whose company cracked the TikTok code reveals how much data it collects and what it does with it. And, if you’ve noticed kids behaving differently after too much screen time, public health expert Dr Samantha Marsh explains why in a sobering but must-hear interview. Plus the PM on whether he restricted his kids’ access to social media, where he stands on the proposed US TikTok ban and how he’s TikToking so furiously around the Beehive if the app’s gone from all parliamentary devices.

TikTok: The antisocial network?

This week a deep dive into water. We all need it - clean drinking water, working sewerage systems and somewhere for stormwater to go. But with buggered pipes and faeces at the beach, we’ve been getting it woefully wrong for far too long. In the wake of Three Waters, will we really pay less for better services? We tap the man leading the Government’s water reforms, Local Government Minister Simeon Brown, and the man who drove them under Labour, Local Government Spokesman Kieran McAnulty, for answers.

Not Three Waters

This is an audio version of Tova O'Brien's analysis piece titled The week politics completely blew its gasket, from stuff.co.nz

Up in smoke: The end of NZ’s world-first smokefree laws

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