Parliament has not even returned for 2024 yet, but we’ve already got our first political scandal of the year. Green Party MP Golriz Ghahraman has quit Parliament after multiple allegations of shoplifting surfaced over the last few weeks. Citing mental health concerns in her statement, it has once again raised questions about the stress placed on MPs and their suitability to serve, while the Green Party again faces scrutiny over their handling of the case. NZ Herald deputy political editor and ho...
Jan 16, 2024•13 min
Auckland Light Rail is finally dead. The National-led Government has killed off the scheme first proposed by Labour on the 2017 campaign trail. Millions were spent on the project, which went through multiple iterations but never quite managed to get on track. The failure of the project has raised questions about how our Government’s approach to infrastructure will work, and why these schemes are so expensive and difficult to get off the ground. Today on The Front Page, NZ Herald senior writer Si...
Jan 15, 2024•19 min
Shark sightings have dominated Kiwi headlines this summer, with Surf Life Saving New Zealand recording several dozen reports over the holiday period. While some may view this as summer hysteria, the sightings did prompt water evacuations at certain beaches, and one woman suffered significant injuries to her leg after being attacked by a shark while walking through an estuary. So is global warming playing a hand in bringing these sharks close to shore, and what, if anything, can Kiwi water users ...
Jan 14, 2024•20 min
While we’re on our summer break, The Front Page has been taking a look back at some of the biggest news stories and top-rated episodes from the podcast this year. Back in April, two record drug busts within Aotearoa’s borders prompted us to take a look at why more and more drugs were passing through our borders. In the months since, more stories have landed in the NZ Herald newsroom of record hauls, including 140 kilograms of cocaine seized at the Ports of Auckland, 25 kilograms of meth found in...
Jan 11, 2024•17 min
While The Front Page is taking its summer break, we are shining a spotlight on some of the biggest podcasts and news events from the NZ Herald network over the last year. For years, Kiwis have pondered the identity of the ‘prominent businessman’, who, after several eventful court cases, was found guilty of sexually assaulting three men over a number of years. In 2023, he was unmasked as James Wallace, at the time a knight recognised for his services to the arts as one of our country’s biggest pa...
Jan 10, 2024•20 min
While we’re on our summer break, The Front Page is looking back at some of the biggest news stories and top rated episodes from the podcast this year. One of the big talking points in Aotearoa for years has been the state of our education. Concerns over falling test results, and dropping numeracy and literacy rates have worried parents, educators and politicians for some time – and this all became worse during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. The new National-led government has vowed to tack...
Jan 09, 2024•17 min
While The Front Page is taking its summer break, we are shining a spotlight on some of the biggest podcasts and news events from the New Zealand Herald network over the last year. Cold cases are relatively few and far between in Aotearoa. And that’s what makes the case of Donald Fraser stand out. 90 years after Fraser was shot dead in his bed at the Racecourse Hotel in Christchurch, questions linger about who was responsible, and why no one was ever brought to justice. Open Justice journalist Ri...
Jan 08, 2024•37 min
While we’re on our summer break, The Front Page is taking a look back at some of the biggest news stories and top rated episodes from the podcast this year. No family ever expects to find themselves in court – but for thousands in Aotearoa, that is the reality they find themselves in. In August, the NZ Herald ran a series on the Family Court , poring through the case files and talking to those at the coalface of a part of our legal system that is under crisis. Herald senior writer Jane Phare dis...
Jan 07, 2024•16 min
While The Front Page is taking its summer break, we are shining a spotlight on some of the biggest podcasts and news events from the NZ Herald network over the last year. It’s a new year, and many of us will be looking for ways to improve our lives as we try to keep up with our new year resolutions. In the Herald podcast series, The Little Things , hosts Francesca Rudkin and Louise Ayrey are trying to do the same, by looking at what the science says about living a healthier life. In this episode...
Jan 04, 2024•37 min
While we’re on our summer break, The Front Page is taking a look back at some of the biggest news stories and top rated episodes from the podcast this year. For decades, Waiwera Thermal Resort was one of the go-to places for Kiwis looking to cool off on a hot summer’s day. This year though marked the final nail in the coffin for the once popular destination. For six years, the complex has sat empty, but 2023 saw demolition crews come for the iconic slides, statues and pools. So how did this tour...
Jan 03, 2024•17 min
While The Front Page is taking its summer break, we will be shining a spotlight on some of the biggest podcasts and news events from the New Zealand Herald network over the last year. In February 2015, Goy Thongsi went on a diving expedition in Christchurch with four men she hardly knew. Within a few hours of setting out onto the water, Goy was dead and missing, and a cloud of suspicion surrounded her diving companions. In this season of the Herald’s true crime podcast, Chasing Ghosts, Open Just...
Jan 02, 2024•17 min
While we’re on our summer break, we’re taking a look back at some of the biggest news stories and top rated episodes from the podcast this year. Debt is one of those talking points we hear about from politicians constantly. How much should the nation’s finances go into arrears in order to pay for the things we need? And on a personal level, private debt is also increasing at a time when the largest asset for many families – their house – faces an uncertain future. Back in July, The Front Page ca...
Jan 01, 2024•16 min
While The Front Page is taking its summer break, we are shining a spotlight on some of the biggest podcasts and news events from the NZ Herald network over the last year. In the last year, Journalist and legal columnist Sasha Borissenko embarked on a mission to investigate the truth - and debunks the myths - about weight in Aotearoa. She teamed up with the NZ Herald for Chewing the Facts , a podcast about how society has conditioned us to feel about our weight, looking at everything from the mes...
Dec 31, 2023•41 min
While we’re on our summer break, The Front Page is taking a look back at some of the biggest news stories and top-rated episodes from the podcast this year. New Year’s Day, 2024 will mark 26 years since Ben Smart and Olivia Hope disappeared. In the early hours of New Year’s Day, 1998, the two accepted an offer to stay aboard a man’s yacht while staying in the Marlborough Sounds. They were never seen again. Their disappearances and presumed deaths have been pegged on Scott Watson for over two dec...
Dec 28, 2023•22 min
While The Front Page is taking its summer break, we will be shining a spotlight on some of the biggest podcasts and news events from the New Zealand Herald network over the last year. In 2023, the New Zealand Herald partnered with broadcaster Sonia Gray for a new podcast called No Such Thing as Normal . Based on Gray’s experiences as a parent of a neurodivergent child, and living with her own neurodivergence, this series saw her talk to experts and those with lived experience, to better understa...
Dec 27, 2023•29 min
While we’re on our summer break, we’re taking a look back at some of the biggest news stories and top rated episodes from the podcast this year. In a year of big changes for New Zealand’s media industry, one moment stood out from the rest. Talk radio station Today FM came to a dramatic, expletive-laden end back in March. After only a year on air, Mediaworks made the shock decision to close it – sparking an on-air outburst by Today FM’s top talent. While the station had struggled to chip away at ...
Dec 26, 2023•14 min
While The Front Page is taking its summer break, we will be shining a spotlight on some of the biggest podcasts and news events from the New Zealand Herald network over the last year. This year marks 70 years since the Tangiwai rail disaster. 151 people died after the Wellington to Auckland express derailed, due to a lahar washing out the rail bridge over the Whangaehu river. The tragedy is remembered as our worst ever rail disaster, but did we learn any lessons from this incident? In this colla...
Dec 25, 2023•17 min
While The Front Page is taking its summer break, we will be shining a spotlight on some of the biggest podcasts and news events from the New Zealand Herald network over the last year. Growing up in Australia with a Danish father and a Māori-Pakeha mother, Myjanne Jensen always had this sense of not feeling Māori "enough". After moving back to the Far North in 2021, she started her journey of coming home and trying to better connect with her roots. In The Māori in Me , a podcast series from the N...
Dec 24, 2023•26 min
Despite headline-grabbing ram raids becoming less common, crime was clearly still on many New Zealander's minds and a key part of many political parties’ election campaigns in 2023. Today on The Front Page, we present some of the biggest crime stories we’ve covered this year including the Auckland CBD construction site mass shooting, and an exploration of how meth kingpin Xavier Valent became only the third NZ drug importer to be sentenced to life in prison. We also hear from psychotherapist and...
Dec 21, 2023•22 min
2023 was a year dominated by extreme weather. In late January, some heavy rain in Auckland quickly turned into a city-wide disaster that caught everyone by surprise. It was pegged as a once in a century event – but barely a fortnight later, Cyclone Gabrielle swept down the upper North Island. While much of Auckland withstood the onslaught, the East Coast was devastated. Nearly a year has passed since the incidents though, and while pockets of Auckland and the Hawke’s Bay are still dealing with t...
Dec 20, 2023•28 min
One of the year’s biggest shocks came only a few weeks into the new year. Back in January, Jacinda Ardern stunned the world when she used her first press conference of 2023 to announce her resignation as Prime Minister. It brought to an end the five year tenure of the reluctant premier, a politician who never sought the country’s highest office, yet found herself at the coal face for one of the most tumultuous periods in New Zealand’s history. There throughout her time on the ninth floor were Ne...
Dec 19, 2023•24 min
What a year. In 2023 there seemed to be no end to turmoil and conflict around the world. Wars, coups and disasters – natural or otherwise sprang up seemly without a break. On The Front Page we’ve done our best to make sense of what’s been happening around the globe, and our place in all this turmoil. Today we revisit some of the interviews that have helped expand our understanding of a planet that sometimes seemingly defied explanation - including the Gaza conflict, the Wagner Coup attempt in Ru...
Dec 18, 2023•26 min
The early weeks of 2023 were dominated by an ugly family feud on a global scale. Prince Harry’s memoir, Spare, gave an unprecedented glimpse at the inner-workings of the Royal Family and laid bare the tensions between Harry and Meghan and the rest of the family. This set the tone for a year that was meant to be a celebration that King Charles had waited his whole life to enjoy. By the time his Coronation arrived in May, serious questions still lingered over how badly these divisions would hurt t...
Dec 17, 2023•20 min
Where to begin with 2023? The year started in a big way, with the resignation of Jacinda Ardern and two once-in-a-century weather events in a row. And it didn’t slow down from there. Ministerial car crashes. An exploding submarine. World Cup highs and lows. The threat of AI. An active shooter at rush hour. A radio station that got effed live on air. Crime, the economy, trans rights, global conflict. And the coronation of both a new King, as well as the swearing in of a new government. There’s so...
Dec 14, 2023•28 min
2023 has been quite a year, and many of us are ready and waiting for our summer break to begin. With music festivals and other entertainment on offer, a lot of us need a break. But after a year of violent weather, what state are our key roads and highways in before the busy traffic period? And are we going to get the summer weather we missed out on last year, or could we be in for more of the same? In this episode, Damien is joined first by NIWA meteorologist Ben Noll for a preview of the weathe...
Dec 13, 2023•18 min
One of the biggest talking points of 2023 has been migration – not just who is coming to New Zealand, but how many of us are leaving the country. This year has seen record numbers of New Zealanders flock across the ditch and set up shop in Australia. There’s nothing new about a move across the Tasman, but the sheer volume of Kiwis leaving has sparked concerns over a potential brain drain. In among the stories of higher wages and more job opportunities, there have been some stories about some who...
Dec 12, 2023•17 min
For the last two months, the world has been watching as the bloodshed in the Gaza Strip continues with no end in sight. Over 18,000 Palestinians have died as Israel continues their bombing campaign, and global efforts for a ceasefire are going ignored, even failing at the highest echelons of international politics. Yet while this conflict may be dominating headlines, war continues to rage in Ukraine, and the future of the country’s fight against Russia seems up in the air as US politicians battl...
Dec 11, 2023•18 min
The new Government is only a week in but there have already been some fiery exchanges. National’s Christopher Luxon and Labour’s Chris Hipkins crossed swords in parliament and we’ve already seen Kiwis take to the streets in protest. Te Pati Māori, holding its largest-ever caucus, has promised that this only the start and that there will be further protests to come. Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters has made a number of controversial comments that have left the Luxon red-faced. So w...
Dec 10, 2023•16 min
New Zealand has a new Government – and this means a new Minister for Foreign Affairs. Winston Peters will take over from Nanaia Mahuta in a role that’s getting more complicated with every passing day. Trade wars, environmental devastation, and open military conflicts have returned to the globe on a level not seen in decades, to name just a few of the diplomatic tightropes that Peters will have to walk as he navigates this role. So is he still the right man for the job after all these years? And ...
Dec 07, 2023•19 min
The thought of a job with unlimited leave might seem splendid. You could ostensibly take weeks off whenever you feel like it and have a work-life balance that most could only dream of. But this isn’t always how these things work out. Jarrod Haar, Associate Dean at Massey Business School, has looked into the details of how having holidays when you want actually works in practice and found that there can be some worrying unintended consequences. Follow The Front Page on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts...
Dec 06, 2023•18 min
