Exhausted by the general election campaign, horrified by the twilight zone of coalition negotiations, distracted by the silly season and waiting for the honeymoon to begin, Raw Politics has been in hibernation since October.
From today, we’re back. Our weekly political video show and podcast returns for a second season, and in a week with ups and downs for almost all the parties in Parliament.
With our anchor, our rock, Jo Moir having graduated to a higher class of audio banter at RNZ, Raw Politics is led by Newsroom political editor Laura Walters, with co-editor Tim Murphy and senior political writer Marc Daalder.
This week: We do a fast rewind on the missing six months of this three-way coalition’s gestation and early days.
We look at Act leader David Seymour’s deft politics on school lunches and daft politics in using ‘woke’ to describe sushi. Then the panel analyses the separate meltdowns of the Greens Julie Anne Genter and Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell.
Our reader question on how much MPs get paid also focuses attention back on the double-dipper from NZ First, MP Jamie Arbuckle, who wanted to keep both his parliamentary salary and that from his councillor duties in Marlborough.
And we end with recommendations for you to read, watch or listen to over your weekend:
Tim: Steve Braunias’ brilliant courtroom observations in The persecution of Liz Gunn in the NZ Herald
Laura: Pete McKenzie’s fascinating deep-dive in The Tiny Nation at the Vanguard of Mining the Ocean Floor in the New York Times
Marc: Our own panelist Laura Walters’ revealing interview, Meet the man behind the Govt’s education policy on Newsroom.co.nz
Raw Politics will be available wherever you get your podcasts every Friday morning, and you can watch it on YouTube above.
Wonderful to have this programme back. The sharpness of the trio is marvellous, as is their exemplary use of plain, uncliched language. Perhaps buy a better backdrop to cover that death-spiral inducing grey wall. Heather Murray
Fantastic the show is back! Laura’s a star. Great stuff!