The Spinoff

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Channel • 10 Shows

Politics

Politics

Updated Weekly
News Commentary

News Commentary

Updated Weekly
Politics

Politics

Weekly Series
Business News

Business News

Updated Weekly
Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship

Updated Weekly
Music History

Music History

Series
Society & Culture

Society & Culture

Updated Fortnightly

6 DAYS AGO

Live at Auckland Writers Festival with Tova O'Brien guest star

In a special six-months-to-the-election edition, Toby, Annabelle and Ben, joined by a special surprise guest who may or may not be the brilliant Tova O'Brien of TVNZ Breakfast, size up the State of Things across the parties and putative combinations.Recorded live at the Kiri Te Kanawa theatre for the Auckland Writers Festival on Friday May 15, 2026. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

6 days ago

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1hr 6min
18 MAY · BONUS

Jane Wrightson on Super squabbles, Seymour and the state of the media

In a special edition of Gone By Lunchtime, Toby talks to Jane Wrightson, who is retiring after two terms as retirement commissioner. She shares her thoughts on the political football around Superannuation and KiwiSaver, the reforms to retirement-village legislation. Reflecting on a career that includes senior roles as chief censor, at the BSA and NZ on Air, and as an RNZ board member, Wrightson responds to recent remarks by David Seymour, the plan to dismantle the broadcasting regulator, and the debate over merging NZ on Air and the NZ Film Commission. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

18 May · Bonus

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43 min
12 MAY · BONUS

The book everyone, politicians especially, should read in 2026

In a bonus episode of Gone By Lunchtime, Toby Manhire talks to Asher Emanuel, author of The Valley: Crime and Punishment in a New Zealand City. A gripping, true story of a group of people whose lives keep winding back to the Hutt Valley District Court, it offers an eye-opening insight into the human impacts and systemic fractures at the heart of the New Zealand criminal justice system. https://www.unitybooks.co.nz/products/valley-1 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

12 May · Bonus

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39 min
6 MAY

The deepest breach in the Luxon coalition, and a National reboot

Messages suggesting the prime minister sought to support the US-Israel attacks on Iran landed with more than one explosion. Not only did it undermine Luxon’s position on the war and its impact, it delivered the deepest fissure yet in the coalition, with the PM saying his foreign minister had put politics ahead of the national interest. Annabelle Lee-Mather, Ben Thomas and Toby Manhire peer into that chasm to assess the severity of the wound and work out just what Winston Peters is playing at as the election draws closer. Plus: Is a new, rebooted, freshly assertive National Party strategy becoming clear? How wrong were we about Luxon’s pledges to secure a free trade deal with India? And a new, grumpy-parent style ultimatum has been issued to local councils: sort out your amalgamation or we’ll do it for you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

6 May

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56 min
6 DAYS AGO

Emergency pod: Toby Manhire interviews Duncan Greive about his shiny new project Lume

Sharp-eyed and longtime Spinoff readers might have noticed that The Fold host Duncan Greive has been staggeringly unproductive as a writer lately. For once, there is a good explanation for that: a new and quite ambitious new music app and platform named Lume. To manage the colossal conflict of interest that entails, The Spinoff’s editor-at-large Toby Manhire guest hosts The Fold to ask Duncan all about Lume. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

6 days ago

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31 min
18 MAY

Unhappy endings for Maiki Sherman and the BSA, and Seymour’s war with RNZ

Media is a fraught place at the moment, less due to persistent economic challenges than external forces acting upon it. Glen Kyne returns to The Fold to discuss the end of Maiki Sherman’s time as political editor at TVNZ, the shutdown of the BSA and David Seymour’s pointed provocations of RNZ. Finally, they talk about the travails of rugby in Auckland, after a weekend that showed the strength of the Auckland FC and Warriors brands, and the comparative flakiness of the Blues (producer Te Aihe joins as Hurricanes correspondent to ensure we acknowledge their part in rugby’s issues in the big smoke). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

18 May

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39 min
22 APR

Luxon stares down rebel moan squad across 100 white-knuckle hours

On Friday morning a bombshell report revealed a group of unnamed National MPs questioning Christopher Luxon's leadership, with the chief whip, Stuart Smith, said to have been "ghosted" by the PM. One hundred hours later, Luxon called their bluff and put a motion of confidence in himself. Annabelle Lee-Mather, Ben Thomas and Toby Manhire step through that extraordinary period, taking on a string of questions. Including: Who are the moany five MPs and what do they actually want? How bad was the Sunday night poll for him and his party? How did the prime minister manage in response? What was Stuart Smith up to and where did he disappear to? Did Luxon show tactical nous by calling the vote? How about that broadside against the media? Do Labour want him in or out? Does this draw a line under the speculation? And if you aren't yet shattered by this endless procession of question marks, is it possible to have a political soap opera without the matinee idol and grandmaster of the great New Zealand political story, Winston Peters, stepping in and stealing the scene? Oh, and also: was it ever really a coup? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

22 Apr

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48 min
26 MAR

Is NZ getting the fuel crisis right? Here's your timely, targeted and temporary analysis

Covidesque in crisis-mode, but anti-Covid in substance, the government response to the economic shockwaves released from the war on Iran is playing out in New Zealand this week. Have Nicola Willis and Christopher Luxon got it right with a $50 weekly payment that will help many, but miss out many more? Has a small-target-fixated Labour Party missed an opportunity? Are we all Hormuzologists now?Winston Peters, meanwhile, is pulling the crowds and playing the hits with a big speech in Tauranga that emphasised gentailer breakup and social conservatism, and unveiled, a little awkwardly, a new party candidate in former minister Alfred Ngaro. Has he nailed the in-power and in-opposition challenge, or is it just the populist-nationalist global winds blowing his way? And just what, by the way, is going on with the U-turn on commercial fishing size limits that everyone seems to be claiming credit for?Plus: how the claims about Chris Hipkins, made on Facebook by his ex-wife, made its way to the tiles of parliament. And Brooke van Velden is resigning from politics to spend more time with the public sector. What legacy does she leave, and what does it mean for the yellow-blue paradise of Tāmaki? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

26 Mar

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1hr 9min
11 MAR

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

11 Mar

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59 min
9 APR

The force majeure election

Donald Trump has gone within hours from genocidal threats against Iran to talking about a joint venture with Tehran tolling the Strait of Hormuz. A fragile ceasefire is very good news, but the havoc is set to continue to flow down into the New Zealand economy. Now with the perilous Cyclone Vaianu bearing down on New Zealand, perhaps the government should just declare it a force majeure election. Toby, Annabelle and Ben gather to discuss the swirling crises, Winston Peters' encounter with Marco Rubio at the State Department in Washington, and whether the government is getting its response right. Plus: is it "overthinking" to detect some retribution in Christopher Luxon's decision to strip the roles of leader of the house and campaign chair from Chris Bishop, how might Simeon Brown adjust the campaign rudder, and did the PM really just forget about Tama Potaka? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

9 Apr

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41 min

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