The Spinoff

•

Channel • 10 Shows

Politics

Politics

Twice monthly
Comedy Fiction

Comedy Fiction

Complete series
Politics

Politics

Weekly series
Society & Culture

Society & Culture

Updated weekly
News Commentary

News Commentary

Updated weekly
Business News

Business News

Updated weekly
Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship

Updated weekly

3 DAYS AGO

We don't know how to be any clearer, guys

It was Christopher Luxon's worst week as prime minister, beginning with flubbed attempts to explain New Zealand's position on the war on Iran and ending with a nightmare poll that put National at 28.4% and sparked headlines suggesting he was considering his position. We step through those painful days, assessing the official response to the strikes launched by the US and Israel, the criticisms levelled at Luxon, and whether he has put the matter to bed by rubbishing those suggestions he was thinking of quitting and a delivering a markedly improved performance this week. Plus: as the shockwaves of the Middle East conflict are felt as far away as the New Zealand consumer economy and an election creeps closer, is National best to lean into crisis mode? In this episode, Annabelle Lee-Mather, Ben Thomas and Toby Manhire also take a look at the High Court that Mariameno Kapa-Kingi’s expulsion from Te Pāti Māori was unlawful: what next after her "repatriation"? And the second Royal Commission on the Covid response has been issued, and swiftly subject to some high-velocity spin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

3 days ago

•

59 min
EPISODE 5

5. The Goblin Market

Convening with other clans, our goblins reveal terrible truths and put words to their darkest memories. Dungeon Master: Paddy Carroll Sly: Brynley Stent Skree: Tom Eason Smiggly: Ella Hope-Higginson Scritches: Arlo Gibson Editor/Sound Designer: Te Aihe Butler Illustrator: Lars Cawley Additional sound effects and music courtesy of ⁠⁠⁠⁠Michael Ghelfi Studios⁠⁠⁠⁠. Follow The Wild Magic Tavern on ⁠⁠⁠⁠Substack⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠. Content advisory: this episode contains descriptions of violence.

E5

•

1h 4m
SEASON 2, EPISODE 5

Episode 5: The Seven Generations Fight

The 1990s in New Zealand have dawned with images of harmony projected to the world, but longstanding divisions still acute at home. The Bolger government comes to power promising to uphold the Treaty and provide redress for injustice. Negotiations over the Sealords fishery quota and with two of Aotearoa’s largest iwi, Waikato Tainui and Ngāi Tahu face pushback from all directions: in cabinet and the National Party base, from the public, and within te ao Māori, where the concept of the “fiscal envelope” is widely considered anathema. Plus: how Jim Bolger outmanoeuvered Ruth Richardson on Te Papa. The fifth episode of Juggernaut 2: The Story of the Fourth National Government includes new and exclusive interviews with Jim Bolger, Anake Goodall, Doug Graham, Tau Henare, Jenny Shipley and more. Click here for full details of archive material used in this series Juggernaut 2 was made with the support of NZ On Air. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

S2, E5

•

1h 2m
SEASON 2, EPISODE 6

Episode 6: The Prime Minister Is Not a Person

New Zealand’s first MMP government gets off to a rocky start, beset by boxer-short scandals and lousy poll numbers. Jim Bolger declares “springtime for New Zealand”, but the economic weather won’t play ball. He leaves for Europe oblivious to the plans being cooked up by a small, secretive group of MPs called “The Te Puke Bypass Committee”. When Bolger returns from overseas, Doug Graham is there to deliver the news – Jenny Shipley has the numbers; the game is up. Many are relieved, many distraught. Winston Peters is furious. The frost between Peters and Shipley never thaws, and before long an almighty, unprecedented cabinet conflagration ensues. The final episode of Juggernaut 2: The Story of the Fourth National Government goes beyond the end of that term, to explore questions of legacy – how did this period in our history change New Zealand, for better or worse, and how will Jim Bolger, who died in October 2025 at the age of 90, be remembered? Includes new and exclusive interviews with Jim Bolger, Jenny Shipley, Ruth Richardson, Rob Eaddy, Doug Graham, Tau Henare, Helen Clark, Sandra Lee-Vercoe and more. Click here for full details of archive material used in this series Juggernaut 2 was made with the support of NZ On Air. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

S2, E6

•

1h 2m
SEASON 2, EPISODE 3

Episode 3: Bugger the Pollsters

After some of the most hectic months in the history of New Zealand politics, Jim Bolger faces a white-knuckle byelection in Tamaki. In the seat vacated by the pugnacious Rob Muldoon, even the National candidate seems to be standing against the government. With the impacts of radical and painful reforms still raw, a general election rapidly approaches. It will go right down to the wire, and serve up an unforgettable pair of election night speeches from Bolger and Mike Moore. On the left, a new force challenges Labour for supremacy: Jim Anderton’s Alliance. Helen Clark mounts a coup. And Bolger confronts a critical question: what to do with Ruth Richardson? Plus: a very strange visit to Moscow prompts a nuclear-submarines-for-butter proposition. Includes new and exclusive interviews with Jim Bolger, Ruth Richardson, Jenny Shipley, Helen Clark, Sandra Lee-Vercoe, Rob Eaddy, Bill Birch and more. Click here for full details of archive material used in this series Juggernaut 2 was made with the support of NZ On Air. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

S2, E3

•

53 min
SEASON 2, EPISODE 2

Episode 2: The Mother of All Budgets

A mood of protest sweeps New Zealand in 1991, sometimes spilling over into violence, as the reform machine powers on. Benefits are slashed, the Employment Contracts Act fundamentally reshapes the labour market, the health system is restructured, and Jim Bolger U-turns on a “no ifs, no buts, no maybes” promise around superannuation. Here Ruth Richardson tells the story of the Mother of All Budgets – what she was hoping to achieve, and how it got that indelible name. In a whirlwind first year of government, Richardson takes some drastic steps. And National’s challenges come not just from outside, but from within – Muldoon continues to lurk the halls, and there’s a charismatic, increasingly popular young MP making trouble, too: Winston Peters. Includes new and exclusive interviews with Jim Bolger, Ruth Richardson, Jenny Shipley, Susan St John, Helen Clark, Bill Birch, Rob Eaddy, Michael Laws and more. Click here for full details of archive material used in this series Juggernaut 2 was made with the support of NZ On Air. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

S2, E2

•

51 min
SEASON 2, EPISODE 1

Episode 1: A Decent Society

After the breakneck reforms of the 80s, Jim Bolger’s promise of a calmer, more inclusive New Zealand hits the spot. Emerging from the shadow of Muldoon and shaking off the nuclear baggage, Bolger leads the National Party to a landslide victory under the “decent society” banner. But even before the celebrations are done, the hangover hits: the state-owned BNZ is on the brink, and the government books are in a parlous state. Ruth Richardson wastes no time as finance minister in making the most of crisis mode, and within weeks is driving through some of the most dramatic social, economic and labour reforms New Zealand has ever seen. Picking up where the award-winning first season of Juggernaut left off, this first episode includes new and exclusive interviews with Jim Bolger, Ruth Richardson, Jenny Shipley, Don McKinnon, Bill Birch, Michael Wall, Rob Eaddy, Michael Laws and more. Click here for full details of archive material used in this series Juggernaut 2 was made with the support of NZ On Air. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

S2, E1

•

49 min
10/12/2025

Breaking: everything is good now

His summer break may only be 20 minutes long, but Christopher Luxon goes into it grinning, on the back of a poll that saw a swing to the right, boosted economic confidence data, maybe staring down a maybe-coup, and most crucially, snipping the ribbon on the big green, yellow and blue shoot: Ikea. Just how confident must he feel going into Christmas? Toby Manhire, Annabelle Lee-Mather and Ben Thomas chew it over, plus: poor poll numbers for the Greens and Te Pāti Māori, as TPM limp through an AGM with their future in the balance. Another big reforming swing from Chris Bishop with two new bumper bills to replace the Resource Management Act; how will this look and what does it mean for iwi Māori? And how did former Police Commissioner Andrew Coster fare in his feature-length interview for Q+A? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

10/12/2025

•

52 min
27 JAN

Are Peters and Luxon on a collision course?

As Christopher Luxon announced an election date of November 7, a strip of the North Island was under siege from another bout of brutal weather. As the clean-up and recovery continues, and families and communities grieve the loss of nine lives, questions swirl around the response. In the first Gone By Lunchtime for 2026, Annabelle Lee-Mather, Ben Thomas and Toby Manhire assess that response, and ask whether the bigger picture around climate adaptation and mitigation will filter through the forthcoming campaign. The year begins, meanwhile, with incessant geopolitical disorder emanating from the White House. As Mark Carney sets out his stall in compelling fashion at Davos, what does the Canadian prime minister's "new world order" approach have in common with Christopher Luxon's, where do they differ, and is New Zealand's prime minister on an election-year collision course with a foreign minister set upon below-parapet foreign relations and flirting with the thought of quitting the World Health Organisation? Speaking of Winston Peters, his New Zealand First Party has enjoyed a bump in recent polling. Could they emulate the populist-nationalist trends in Australia and the UK and climb even further? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

27 Jan

•

48 min
EPISODE 1

1. Never Meet Your Heroes

Four stalwart heroes enter a goblin cave, leaving chaos in their wake. Four frightened goblins survive to tell the tale. Dungeon Master: Paddy Carroll Rhapsody White: Brynley Stent Blustifer Greystorm: Tom Eason Karla Rose: Ella Hope-Higginson Ser Norbert Reinholdt: Arlo Gibson Editor/Sound Designer: Te Aihe Butler Illustrator: Lars Cawley Additional sound effects courtesy of Michael Ghelfi Studios. Follow The Wild Magic Tavern on Substack, Instagram, and YouTube. Content advisory: this episode contains descriptions of violence.

E1

•

49 min

Welcome to The Spinoff Podcast Network, home to a family of titles covering society, pop culture, TV, economics, media, business and more!

Provider