This week on the Raw Politics podcast: Financial woes at Health New Zealand and the Royal Commission report challenges the Government’s gang crackdown-------------------Recommendations:Sam: Analysis from Derek Cheng at the NZ Herald on how the Royal Commission’s recommendations will clash with the Government’s prioritiesLaura: Marc Daalder’s reporting on why the Government’s renewable energy promise has been side-tracked by fast-track workMarc: Jack Tame’s probing interview on Q+A with Climate Change Minister Simon Watts Raw Politics will be available on Apple podcasts or wherever you get your favourite shows every Friday..-------------------Raw Politics will be available wherever you get your podcasts every Friday, and you can watch it on YouTube.

This week on the Raw Politics podcast: The Government drops a new climate plan and inflation falls faster than expected-------------------Recommendations:Emma: The exclusive TVNZ interview with Darleen Tana, where she claims she's been silenced and isolated but doesn't give straight answers to big questionsMarc: A scoop from his hated rival, RNZ climate correspondent Eloise Gibson, on the Government's plans to rollback insulation regulationsJonathan: Looking overseas, an analysis in The Economist on big business fears about Donald Trump's new vice presidential pick-------------------Raw Politics will be available wherever you get your podcasts every Friday, and you can watch it on YouTube.

On this week’s Raw Politics podcast: Why the Greens' annus horribilis hasn't sunk them in the polls, plus Biden, Peters, Luxon, ageing and diplomacy-------------------Recommendations:Laura: The scoop from The Post on the leaked internal safety bulletin that shows Aratere crew couldn’t turn off its autopilot (as Winston Peters kinda suggested)Tim: RNZ political reporter Anneke Smith's scoop obtaining a leaked copy of the report to the Greens into the behaviour of MP Darleen TanaMarc: Andrew Bevin's story on Newsroom on Auckland's mayor being far from impressed with the city's 'embarrassing and expensive' new ad campaign-------------------Raw Politics will be available wherever you get your podcasts every Friday, and you can watch it on YouTube.

On this week's episode of the Raw Politics podcast: Who might be next as the cleanout of senior public servants and directors gathers momentum.-------------------Recommendations: Emma – a piece from Australia's ABC: Disability organisations 'on life support' say budget cuts will force them to wind back servicesTim – Our Newsroom foreign affairs editor Sam Sachdeva’s analysis of just what important defence deals came out of the Luxon visit to JapanLaura  – Emma Hatton and Jonathan Milne’s Newsroom scoop on the Three top civil servants who ‘won’t have contracts renewed’  -------------------Raw Politics will be available wherever you get your podcasts every Friday, and you can watch it on YouTube.

In this week’s episode of Newsroom’s weekly politics podcast, we ask who needs evidence for policies, we talk ferries and pull apart the latest polls-------------------Recommendations:Marc – A telling article from the US on Heatmap about that country’s troubles building one big power line:Laura  – An Associated Press backgrounder on what led to thousands storming Kenya’s Parliament in what started as disputes over new taxes and ended up in a deadly clashTim – Geoffrey Palmer’s speech we carried on Newsroom: NZ is an executive paradise, not democratic paradise -------------------Raw Politics will be available wherever you get your podcasts every Friday, and you can watch it on YouTube.

In this week’s episode of Newsroom’s weekly politics podcast, we look at the PM’s foot-in-mouth over low-level business types, scrutinise Scrutiny Week and work out what species we should pay up to save-------------------Recommendations:Tim – A good look in The Guardian at the political weaponising of videos of Joe Biden – and Donald Trump to a degree – looking old and bewilderedMarc – The New York Times article about key editorial figures at the Washington Post’s involvement in British phone-hacking scandalsLaura  – Marc Daalder’s article on David Seymour’s Snapchat interactions with school kids-------------------Raw Politics will be available wherever you get your podcasts every Friday, and you can watch it on YouTube.

In this week’s episode of Newsroom’s weekly politics podcast, we look at the chance of a Labour rebound, NZ's climate retreat and problems for Act.-------------------Recommendations: Laura  – A documentary from the late Stuff Circuit team on Chinese interference in New ZealandTim – An American corporate/conservative view on the import of the European elections, by Gerard Baker, ex editor of the Wall St JournalMarc – Laura Walters' interview with Labour leader Chris Hipkins predicting a 'very good chance' of a return in 2026 -------------------Raw Politics will be available wherever you get your podcasts every Friday, and you can watch it on YouTube.

In this week’s episode of Newsroom’s weekly politics podcast, we look at the allegations against Te Pāti Māori over the misuse of personal data, and unpick the party’s political strategy.-------------------Recommendations: Tim – Professor Chris Jackson’s commentary for Newsroom on the flaws in the Government’s failed promise to fund 13 new cancer drugs from this Budget.Marc – Bill McKibben’s latest newsletter on record heat: Intensity.Laura  – David Wallace-Wells' New York Times newsletter on what’s driving the American – but also global – school attendance crisis -------------------Raw Politics will be available wherever you get your podcasts every Friday, and you can watch it on YouTube.newsroom.co.nz

In this week’s episode of Newsroom’s weekly politics podcast, we peer over a fiscal cliff and search for the hits and misses of Budget 2024.-------This week's recommendations: Laura - Joel MacManus' hilarious Spinoff Budget debate sketch from the HouseMarc - Tim Murphy's view on Newsroom of Nicola Willis' big Budget speechTim – Tova O'Brien's story from the Budget lock-up revealing Willis overstated a crucial tax number -------So many numbers, so many claims and counter claims, and so much planned so far into the future that we might never see it bear fruit. This week's Raw Politics tries to sift the real from the risible in this year's Budget and to judge whether the coalition will get political bouquets or brickbats from the voting public.First, the panel of Newsroom political editor Laura Walters, senior political writer Marc Daalder and co-editor Tim Murphy run their abacuses over the Budget's costly, broad-based tax cuts. Are the sums 'meaningful' as the finance minister hoped, or just 'not meaningless' for people's back pockets. Then we look at one aspect that Nicola Willis surely can't be happy about – a big increase and stubbornly high budget deficits for the next few years and a net debt refusing to budge down below her 40 percent of GDP target for the entire forecast period.We have a go at the game of find-a-pithy-name for the Budget, examine the political hypocrisy of ongoing 'fiscal cliffs' and nominate the big things conspicuous by their absence. -------newsroom.co.nz

National promised a “back pocket boost” when it unveiled a tax package before the election, and now in Government in tough economic times its Budget next week will sort the easy promises from reality.The tax bracket changes and other in-work and family payment adjustments might need to land with a thump rather than a flutter for hard-pressed Kiwi households – but that isn’t easy to achieve.-------Recommendations:Tim - A great exchange in the House on housing between Kieran McAnulty and Chris Bishop. Watch here.Emma - David Seymour’s inner circle, by Audrey Young in the Herald.Marc - The Return of Evan Price, by Emma Hatton on Newsroom. -------The Raw Politics panel this week, Newsroom senior political writer Marc Daalder, politics and business writer Emma Hatton and co-editor Tim Murphy, look ahead to a Budget that will put the confident Finance Minister Nicola Willis and her new Labour counterpart Barbara Edmond to the test.The panel weighs the gains and losses from the mass layoffs in the public service as the coalition parties make good on their promise to cut what they called a bloated sector. Do back-office cuts really allow those in the front line to keep doing their jobs effectively? The example of the corporate world would suggest not.Our reader question asks why the National-led Government axed the first home grant suddenly (spooked by a Newshub scoop that it was going). And the panel discusses former PM Bill English’s radical proposals to change our public housing landscape. The bottom line is we won’t have as many state houses, or as much Crown-owned housing land after this process is underway.