Episodes

  • Talking tax - and the rest - with Labour leader Chris Hipkins

    Talking tax - and the rest - with Labour leader Chris Hipkins
    Sep 5 2024
    Chris Hipkins was our very first guest one year ago. He was Prime Minister then - a lot’s changed. After leading Labour to electoral defeat, he and the party have regrouped and started formulating the platform they hope will return them to the Beehive. On his birthday (as well as ours), Hipkins joined us for a candid interview. We talked policy, policy bonfires, health, our ageing population, the economy, Winston Peters and tax, tax, tax. Plus, from Tūrangawaewae Marae, Julian Wilcox on the new Māori Queen, Kuini Ngā Wai hono i te po, and what she means for the kotahitanga movement her father, Kīngi Tuheitia, inspired.
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    1 hr and 16 mins
  • SOS - Save Our Stores: Behemoths of fashion, retail and hospo join forces to solve the sectors in crisis

    SOS - Save Our Stores: Behemoths of fashion, retail and hospo join forces to solve the sectors in crisis
    Aug 29 2024
    Retail spending is lower than during the GFC. Retailers are going to the wall more than any other business and Retail NZ’s latest survey shows 43% of businesses are unsure they’ll survive another year. In hospo, a swathe of high-profile restaurants have shuttered and last year - for the first time in two decades - the number of cafes and restaurants was lower than the year before. We assembled some of the sectors’ most brilliant brains to work out what went wrong, how we fix it and the prognosis for the future. They are fashion icon Kate Sylvester, hospitality legend Luke Dallow and designer Jessie Wong - a member of the Wellington Mayor’s new business advisory group. On the agenda: skyrocketing rents, transport woes, how the Government can help, the power of big events and whether New Zealand should become a tipping economy.
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    54 mins
  • Champion or showman: An extended interview with Shane Jones

    Champion or showman: An extended interview with Shane Jones
    Aug 22 2024
    New Zealand First's de facto deputy is a self-proclaimed champion of the regions and unashamedly pro-mining, fishing and forestry. His hobbies include waging war on supermarkets, banks and - this week in particular - energy companies. We wanted to speak to him after the fiery showdown at Tūrangawaewae Marae, where the Government was accused of throwing Māori under the bus and running them over. Also on the agenda: the foreshore and seabed, the equally contentious fast-track consenting bill, why he called a High Court judge a "communist", and the future of his party and its leader, Winston Peters.
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    52 mins
  • Sir Ashley Bloomfield on the health of our health service

    Sir Ashley Bloomfield on the health of our health service
    Aug 15 2024
    In an exclusive interview, perhaps the most famous health figure in Aotearoa takes aim at talk of a failing system and bloated bureaucracy - but doesn’t dispute that both staff and patients are at risk. He talks hospitals without doctors, how the reforms have been handled, funding, patient equity - and has strong words about the tobacco industry and its newly-gained tax breaks.
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    1 hr and 6 mins
  • Can he fix it? How new health kingpin plans to resuscitate a system in crisis

    Can he fix it? How new health kingpin plans to resuscitate a system in crisis
    Aug 8 2024
    After losing confidence in the leadership and financial acumen of Health New Zealand-Te Whatu Ora, the Government has parachuted in an all-powerful specialist to fix the broken service. Health Commissioner Lester Levy has his work cut out - long waiting lists, budget woes, staff shortages, protests, doctorless hospitals, ramping ambulances, police pulling out of some mental health call outs ... Can he fix it? “I will do whatever I have to that's ethical and legal to get patients what they need and deserve,” he promises in an extended interview.
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    1 hr and 10 mins
  • ‘These questions are revolting’ - an interview with Children’s Minister Karen Chhour

    ‘These questions are revolting’ - an interview with Children’s Minister Karen Chhour
    Aug 1 2024
    The welfare of children, particularly the at-risk and vulnerable, is rarely far from the headlines. The Royal Commission report on abuse in care, the opening of the Government’s pilot youth justice facility (AKA military-style academy) ((AKA bootcamp)), cuts to Oranga Tamariki community providers … we had a lot to ask the Children’s Minister. We ran out of time and the interview ended rather abruptly, but there’s plenty to chew on, whatever your politics.
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    54 mins
  • Money, morale and mobsters: An extended interview with Police Minister Mark Mitchell

    Money, morale and mobsters: An extended interview with Police Minister Mark Mitchell
    Jul 25 2024
    As the fallout from an acrimonious pay dispute continues, frontline cops told the Tova pod this week that the Government had “destroyed morale”. The minister responsible fronts to talk about rebuilding the relationship, how the gang unit is shaping up, delivering 500 extra cops and who’ll attend mental health callouts if not the police. Plus, in the week the Royal Commission released its mammoth report on abuse in care, a survivor tells us that sorry - on its own - won’t be enough. WARNING: For 24/7 support and advice around mental health, call or text 1737.
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    1 hr and 12 mins
  • Bonus opinion: 'This is the worst of us'

    Bonus opinion: 'This is the worst of us'
    Jul 25 2024
    Tova offers her thoughts on the outcome of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into abuse in care.
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    3 mins