Budget In, Stuart Out — and Is Australia Actually Better?

Budget In, Stuart Out — and Is Australia Actually Better?

Hosted by Chris Finlayson, Cross Party Lines welcomes a familiar face from across the Tasman, special guest co-host Annette King — beaming in from Sydney while Phil is in China. All thanks to our foundational partner, Frank Risk Management. [http://frankrisk.co.nz] The 100% kiwi owned insurance brokerage. 🎟 Live shows — Auckland 8 August, Wellington 12 August. Podcast listeners get pre-sale access. Head to tapliveevents.com [http://tapliveevents.com] and use code CPL26 (all caps). In this episode: * Nicola Willis’s budget — a bit of this, a bit of that — Annette gives her verdict: not easily named, cautiously welcomed on health and defence, but carrying the familiar ring of a surplus promise that every New Zealand government makes and few deliver. The conversation deepens quickly into the long shadow of the Muldoon decision to abolish the contributory super scheme in the 1970s — a move both Annette and Chris agree was one of the great shames of New Zealand politics. * Australia’s CGT tweak, broken promises and the lessons for New Zealand — Jim Chalmers’ budget included changes to capital gains tax concessions for investors — not promised, immediately attacked by the Liberals as a broken promise, and now a test of whether Labour can hold its nerve. Annette has enormous respect for Chalmers as a treasurer and thinks the changes are defensible — but acknowledges that the optics of doing what Bill Shorten proposed in 2019 and lost an election over are not straightforward. * The Liberal Party’s death spiral, One Nation’s rise and the Barnaby Joyce problem — Tony Abbott, newly installed as Liberal Party president after losing his own seat to a teal in 2019, is Chris and Annette’s exhibit A for a party that has lost the plot. The old Liberal heartland — Wentworth, Warringah, North Sydney — is now teal territory. One Nation has won its first lower house seat. And the Liberal response, apparently, is to move further right. Both agree this is a guaranteed path to irrelevance. Cross Party Lines exists to lift political literacy and create space for calm, good-faith political conversation. New episodes every Tuesday. If you value thoughtful debate, follow the podcast and share it with someone who might too. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit crosspartylines.substack.com [https://crosspartylines.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Cuts, Culture Wars and the Cost of a Frigate

Hosted by Phil Goff and Chris Finlayson, Cross Party Lines dive into a budget week episode that is almost entirely domestic: 8,700 public service jobs cut, state house rents going up, culture war bills clogging Parliament, and a defence announcement both men broadly welcome but want to interrogate. Cross Party Lines is made possible by Frank Risk Management [http://frankrisk.co.nz], the 100% Kiwi owned insurance brokerage. In this episode: * 8,700 jobs — efficiency or ideology dressed as savings? — The government’s announcement of a 14% public service reduction draws a forensic and at times sharp response from both sides. Phil’s theory: this was never about efficiency — it was about finding $2.5 billion before the credit rating agencies moved again, and the justification was built around the number, not the other way around. * Social housing - who pays the bill?— The social housing changes draw Phil’s sharpest words of the episode: $31 a week more from people who are, by definition, at the bottom of New Zealand’s social and economic heap. Chris asks whether Margaret Thatcher had a good idea selling council houses to their occupiers and we pass judgment on Nicola Willis’ “lotto” comment. * Defence — necessary, expensive and long overdue — The pre-budget defence announcement draws broad agreement: New Zealand spent two decades at 1% of GDP on defence during what Helen Clark correctly called a strategically benign environment. That environment no longer exists. The frigates are nearly 30 years old. Ships sit at Devonport without enough crew to sail them. Any government serious about defence has to make the career attractive enough to keep the sergeant majors you can’t simply replace. Along the way: a tribute to Jules Topp, Stuart Nash’s road-to-Damascus conversion to New Zealand First forensically dismantled, ministerial housing horror stories including Phil’s garage demolished by the USA and Chris tormenting Annette King about childhood dentistry Cross Party Lines exists to lift political literacy and create space for calm, good-faith political conversation. New episodes every Tuesday. If you value thoughtful debate, follow the podcast and share it with someone who might too. Live shows announced — Auckland 8 August, Wellington 12 August. Podcast listeners get early access to tickets next week. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit crosspartylines.substack.com [https://crosspartylines.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Budgets, Basics and Bilaterals

Hosted by Phil Goff and Chris Finlayson, Cross Party Lines returns — fresh off the stage at Featherston — for an episode that opens with a tribute to one of New Zealand’s greatest legal minds and moves through a week of elections, populist tremors and an education debate that has been going around in circles since the 1990s. Thanks to Frank Risk Management [http://frankrisk.co.nz], the 100% Kiwi owned insurance brokerage. In this episode: * The Trump-Xi summit — pomp, ceremony and a ridiculous mouse — Chris reaches for the Latin poet Horace to deliver his verdict: all the hype, all the ceremony, and nothing of substance emerged. No breakthrough on Taiwan, 200 Boeings ordered instead of the promised 500, and none of the Nixonian moment that a genuine Sino-American summit could have been. * The pre-budget squeeze — $300 million less and nowhere to hide — The government has cut its operational allowance from $2.4 billion to $2.1 billion, meaning $300 million less new spending in a budget that already has to find money for defence, health, education and law and order. Phil is blunt: there will be cuts, the lolly scramble is off, and Labour faces the same fiscal straitjacket as the government it hopes to replace. * NCEA — a debate going around in circles since the 1990s — Phil and Chris both remember this argument from when they were on opposite sides of the House. The OECD’s early 2000s push toward skills over knowledge went too far; the pendulum is swinging back; but the question is whether it’s swinging with the evidence or against it. Phil is particularly troubled by a cabinet paper that acknowledges the reforms will likely reduce achievement rates for Māori, Pasifika and low-income students — a problem New Zealand already has and cannot afford to worsen. Along the way: a tribute to Sir Ken Keith, New Zealand’s only ever ICJ judge; the opera about Nixon in China that Chris thinks was pretty bad; why nationalising the BNZ for $24 billion is both impossible and unaffordable; a mystery special guest joining Chris in two weeks while Phil travels to China; and a big live show announcement coming next week. Cross Party Lines exists to lift political literacy and create space for calm, good-faith political conversation. New episodes every Tuesday. If you value thoughtful debate, follow the podcast and share it with someone who might too. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit crosspartylines.substack.com [https://crosspartylines.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Question Time: Live from Booktown (Bonus)

Hosted by Phil Goff and Chris Finlayson, this is a special bonus episode of Cross Party Lines — the live Q&A from the Featherston Booktown Festival, released separately so nothing from that remarkable afternoon gets left on the cutting room floor. Before the questions, Sam takes the temperature of the 400-strong room with four quick audience polls. The audience then takes over: * Could the Opportunity Party break Winston Peters’ cycle? * Should political parties be state funded? * The Electoral Act rollback — disenfranchisement by design? * Is voting for the two big parties really enough to stop populism? Along the way: Trevor Mallard in the audience demanding short questions, Judith Tizard’s advice on grand coalitions, Marion Hobbs telling Chris not to read The Economist during Question Time and Sam’s emotional farewell to his first and last live audience. This bonus episode is a reminder that when you put 400 curious New Zealanders in a room and give them a microphone, something rather good happens. Cross Party Lines exists to lift political literacy and create space for calm, good-faith political conversation. New episodes every Tuesday. If you value thoughtful debate, follow the podcast and share it with someone who might too. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit crosspartylines.substack.com [https://crosspartylines.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Amalgamation, Press Release Policy and the Populist Threat (Live From Booktown)

Hosted by Phil Goff and Chris Finlayson, Cross Party Lines goes live for the first time — recorded on stage at the Featherston Booktown Festival, with Sam Collins moderating one final time before he heads to the campaign trail as Labour’s North Shore candidate. All thanks to our foundational partner Frank Risk Management [http://frankrisk.co.nz], the 100% Kiwi owned insurance brokerage. In this episode: * Council amalgamation — good idea, terrible process — The government’s three-month ultimatum to councils to amalgamate or be reorganised from Wellington draws a forensic dissection from both Phil and Chris. Phil draws on his experience overseeing the Auckland supercity — broadly a success, but built on a Royal Commission, proper legislation, and time. Chris notes the Local Government Act 2002 is long overdue for reform, and that no minister in recent memory has been willing to do the unglamorous work of actually fixing it. * Policy by press release — BSA, citizenship tests and the art of bad lawmaking — A slew of government announcements prompts Chris to lay out what good lawmaking actually looks like, drawing on the intelligence legislation reform he led under Key — two years, bipartisan support, no urgency, proper select committee process. The proposed scrapping of the Broadcasting Standards Authority gets short shrift from Phil: abolish something, fine, but replace it with something that works better, not voluntary self-regulation with 1.25 staff members and eight meetings a year. * Populism, Farage, One Nation and the Iran quagmire — The live audience gets the full international picture. Reform UK’s surge in the UK local elections gives Chris the heebie-jeebies. Phil traces the money: Gina Rinehart bankrolling Pauline Hanson with a $1 million donation and a $1.5 million plane; a British tech expat dropping £5 million on Farage; Elon Musk contributing $251 million to Trump. These are not insurgents — they are billionaires buying political movements that claim to fight elites. Along the way: the mayor of South Wairarapa’s legendary gravy, Trevor Mallard spotted in the audience, the CIA being politely addressed for the benefit of anyone listening. Cross Party Lines exists to lift political literacy and create space for calm, good-faith political conversation. New episodes every Tuesday. If you value thoughtful debate, follow the podcast and share it with someone who might too. 🎙 This was our first ever live show. If you were there — thank you. If you weren’t — follow us so you don’t miss the next one. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit crosspartylines.substack.com [https://crosspartylines.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]