Ben Thomas never attends a party without a whakataukī in his pocket, and he does not disappoint in this week's edition of Gone By Lunchtime.

Along with Annabelle Lee-Mather and Toby Manhire, Ben sprinkles the wisdom on everything from the Māori Party policy to jettison "New Zealand" in favour of "Aotearoa" to the Labour Party policy to suffocate the tax debate in the 2020 campaign.

Are National and Labour about to pull muscles in their scrap for the centre ground? Why can't the Greens make an impression in the space left unclaimed? Does Winston Peters have a point in lambasting the cabinet decision to extend the current alert levels? How excited does the word "Prefu" make you? Plus: why is Jami-Lee Ross?

All this and more on this week's edition of Aotearoa's only(?) politics podcast.

– Sign up to The Spinoff's newsletter Rec Room for weekly recommendations along with all our latest videos and podcasts.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices