The F#$%ing News flips the script on the news - short, upbeat, inspirational and f%$#ing good fun journalism with the nation’s favourite everyman reporter, Paddy Gower. TFN sees Paddy talking to Kiwis who are the good, the great and the brains of our nation. This podcast is hosted by Paddy Gower and Executive Produced by Jon Bridges. It's made in partnership between Stuff and Believer Media. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Sep 29, 2024•40 sec•Transcript available on Metacast National once called him the “wokester” commissioner, now they’ve secured him a plum new job heading up the government’s new social investment agency. Police Commissioner Andrew Coster is leaving the job of top cop early and joins us to discuss gangs, guns, police pay and being called names by politicians. Plus, it’s the hot topic of the week thanks to a Nicola Willis directive. To work from home or not, that is the question. A chief executive and a prominent researcher debate the pros and cons....
Sep 26, 2024•54 min•Ep 46•Transcript available on Metacast As the Government ramps up its war on crime, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith joins us to talk anti-gang laws and why the Attorney-General made no “specific statements” on whether late changes to them further breach human rights. Also on the agenda, the possible unintended consequences of tougher sentences, boot camps and keeping coalition promises to New Zealand First. Plus, we continue our coverage of the state of the health service, with the exclusive results from a new survey of junior doctor...
Sep 19, 2024•54 min•Ep 45•Transcript available on Metacast ACT’s push for a Treaty Principles Bill was a lightning rod throughout last year’s election campaign and has never been far from the headlines since. This week has seen significant developments - the principles released with changed wording, the select committee ‘debate’ period set for six months and official advice criticising the plan revealed. But ACT leader David Seymour is unmoved. On this week’s pod he tells us why - and why he maintains the Prime Minister could still support the bill. The...
Sep 12, 2024•1 hr 13 min•Ep 44•Transcript available on Metacast Chris Hipkins was our very first guest one year ago. He was Prime Minister then - a lot’s changed. After leading Labour to electoral defeat, he and the party have regrouped and started formulating the platform they hope will return them to the Beehive. On his birthday (as well as ours), Hipkins joined us for a candid interview. We talked policy, policy bonfires, health, our ageing population, the economy, Winston Peters and tax, tax, tax. Plus, from Tūrangawaewae Marae, Julian Wilcox on the new ...
Sep 05, 2024•1 hr 16 min•Ep 43•Transcript available on Metacast Retail spending is lower than during the GFC. Retailers are going to the wall more than any other business and Retail NZ’s latest survey shows 43% of businesses are unsure they’ll survive another year. In hospo, a swathe of high-profile restaurants have shuttered and last year - for the first time in two decades - the number of cafes and restaurants was lower than the year before. We assembled some of the sectors’ most brilliant brains to work out what went wrong, how we fix it and the prognosis...
Aug 29, 2024•54 min•Ep 42•Transcript available on Metacast New Zealand First's de facto deputy is a self-proclaimed champion of the regions and unashamedly pro-mining, fishing and forestry. His hobbies include waging war on supermarkets, banks and - this week in particular - energy companies. We wanted to speak to him after the fiery showdown at Tūrangawaewae Marae, where the Government was accused of throwing Māori under the bus and running them over. Also on the agenda: the foreshore and seabed, the equally contentious fast-track consenting bill, why ...
Aug 22, 2024•52 min•Ep 41•Transcript available on Metacast In an exclusive interview, perhaps the most famous health figure in Aotearoa takes aim at talk of a failing system and bloated bureaucracy - but doesn’t dispute that both staff and patients are at risk. He talks hospitals without doctors, how the reforms have been handled, funding, patient equity - and has strong words about the tobacco industry and its newly-gained tax breaks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Aug 15, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Ep 40•Transcript available on Metacast After losing confidence in the leadership and financial acumen of Health New Zealand-Te Whatu Ora, the Government has parachuted in an all-powerful specialist to fix the broken service. Health Commissioner Lester Levy has his work cut out - long waiting lists, budget woes, staff shortages, protests, doctorless hospitals, ramping ambulances, police pulling out of some mental health call outs ... Can he fix it? “I will do whatever I have to that's ethical and legal to get patients what they need a...
Aug 08, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Ep 39•Transcript available on Metacast The welfare of children, particularly the at-risk and vulnerable, is rarely far from the headlines. The Royal Commission report on abuse in care, the opening of the Government’s pilot youth justice facility (AKA military-style academy) ((AKA bootcamp)), cuts to Oranga Tamariki community providers … we had a lot to ask the Children’s Minister. We ran out of time and the interview ended rather abruptly, but there’s plenty to chew on, whatever your politics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit ...
Aug 01, 2024•54 min•Ep 38•Transcript available on Metacast As the fallout from an acrimonious pay dispute continues, frontline cops told the Tova pod this week that the Government had “destroyed morale”. The minister responsible fronts to talk about rebuilding the relationship, how the gang unit is shaping up, delivering 500 extra cops and who’ll attend mental health callouts if not the police. Plus, in the week the Royal Commission released its mammoth report on abuse in care, a survivor tells us that sorry - on its own - won’t be enough. WARNING: For ...
Jul 25, 2024•1 hr 12 min•Ep 37•Transcript available on Metacast Tova offers her thoughts on the outcome of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into abuse in care. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jul 25, 2024•3 min•Transcript available on Metacast Wow. They say a week is a long time in politics. In the United States, the last two have seen the political landscape change perhaps forever. Bullets, conventions and nominations on the Republican side; presidential gaffes, Covid and calls for a new leader in the Democrat corner. Rolling Stone magazine political reporter Nikki McCann Ramirez joins the pod from Washington D.C. to dissect an incredible fortnight. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jul 18, 2024•46 min•Ep 36•Transcript available on Metacast The first US presidential debate of 2024 was at once historic, agonising, painful and deeply troubling. Have your toes unfurled? Your stomach un-knotted? Your wince de-winced? Joe Biden and Donald Trump putting the fear of god into the free world in what was a truly tough watch with, unfortunately, such incredibly high stakes. To discuss what on earth happened, the fallout and what it all says about the US political system, our special guest on the Tova podcast is Brian Tyler Cohen, avowed liber...
Jul 04, 2024•36 min•Ep 35•Transcript available on Metacast 2024 has been tough for the Greens. Multiple MPs - Golriz Ghahraman, Darleen Tana, Julie Anne Genter - have been making headlines for the wrong reasons and there have been heartbreaking challenges, including the death of Fa'anānā Efeso Collins and Marama Davidson’s breast cancer diagnosis. On her birthdfay, co-leader Chloe Swarbrick makes time for an extended interview. She talks handling the pressure, where she wants to take the party - and the latest on those major controversies. Learn more ab...
Jun 27, 2024•41 min•Ep 34•Transcript available on Metacast The battle lines are being (re)drawn in the world of geopolitics: wars in Europe and the Middle East, tension over Taiwan, Putin visiting North Korea. So, more than three decades after the Cold War ended, what are the chances of a nuclear war? How could it start, play out - and how would New Zealand be affected? And, with Aussie politicians procuring nuclear-powered subs and proposing nuclear power stations, are we ready for a conversation about our identity-defining nuclear-free stance? Learn m...
Jun 20, 2024•1 hr 9 min•Ep 33•Transcript available on Metacast No one knows exactly how much fraud costs New Zealand each year, but it runs into the billions. Yet significantly fewer people are being convicted than two decades ago. Why? And is the system - an alphabet soup of agencies with a range of responsibilities - fit for purpose? In a specially extended investigation, victims share stories of devastating loss, a leading investigator explains why he thinks too few people are getting justice, and the Minister charged with scam-busting acknowledges the n...
Jun 13, 2024•1 hr 22 min•Ep 32•Transcript available on Metacast Happy Budget Day! The Tova pod takes you behind the scenes at Parliament as Nicola Willis unveils the Government's first bash at the books. We bring you expert reaction from inside the lock-up, the zingers and stingers from the debate, reaction from our panel of everyday Kiwis and, in an interview with Stuff, the Finance Minister explains how she got one crucial number so wrong. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
May 30, 2024•39 min•Ep 31•Transcript available on Metacast With the cost of living crisis hitting hard, we assemble a panel of Kiwis doing it tough or feeling the pinch in what politicians love to call the squeezed middle. We ask how they're coping and what they're hoping for in next week's Budget. And, with rising food prices the great unifier, we check out the work of the Grocery Commissioner - the man charged with easing the challenge at the checkout. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
May 23, 2024•57 min•Ep 30•Transcript available on Metacast What started as the home of song and dance videos is beset by claims of spying by the Chinese government and fears about the mental health of young users. A cybersecurity authority whose company cracked the TikTok code reveals how much data it collects and what it does with it. And, if you’ve noticed kids behaving differently after too much screen time, public health expert Dr Samantha Marsh explains why in a sobering but must-hear interview. Plus the PM on whether he restricted his kids’ access...
May 16, 2024•59 min•Ep 29•Transcript available on Metacast This week a deep dive into water. We all need it - clean drinking water, working sewerage systems and somewhere for stormwater to go. But with buggered pipes and faeces at the beach, we’ve been getting it woefully wrong for far too long. In the wake of Three Waters, will we really pay less for better services? We tap the man leading the Government’s water reforms, Local Government Minister Simeon Brown, and the man who drove them under Labour, Local Government Spokesman Kieran McAnulty, for answ...
May 09, 2024•1 hr 7 min•Ep 28•Transcript available on Metacast This is an audio version of Tova O'Brien's analysis piece titled The week politics completely blew its gasket, from stuff.co.nz Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
May 03, 2024•6 min•Transcript available on Metacast In the white heat of last year’s coalition negotiations, when none of the party leaders would talk about their top-secret meetings, we convened an alternative. We brought together a senior figure connected with each of the three parties poised for power. You loved the show, and they were prescient in their predictions, so, six months into the Government’s term, and with its first Budget looming, we’re bringing it back, albeit with a reshuffle in personnel. Chris Finlayson (National), Heather Roy...
May 02, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Ep 27•Transcript available on Metacast Section 7AA: A small part of a big law causing an enormous legal and political fracas. Former Children’s Minister Tracey Martin oversaw the introduction of the Oranga Tamariki Act. She explains why it remains enlightened legislation and why children will suffer if the Government completes its plan to repeal it. She also talks job cuts at the child protection agency, having her work undermined by her old boss Winston Peters and the prospect of a political comeback. Learn more about your ad choice...
Apr 25, 2024•47 min•Ep 26•Transcript available on Metacast After our bumper mortgage episode 'Home discomforts: living on the edge', all about the people affected by interest rates hikes and the cost of living, we wanted to explore the issue even further. We drill into the state of the property market with a property economist and find out what the change of government could mean for first-time buyers and investors. We also sit down with former Reserve Bank Governor Dr Alan Bollard to better understand the thinking that drives the decisions which determ...
Apr 18, 2024•16 min•Transcript available on Metacast Interest rates and mortgage misery - the number of people falling behind on their payments has hit a four-year high. With the Government promising to help the so-called squeezed middle in its looming first Budget, we explore the issue from every angle: the property owners forced into life-changing decisions; a money adviser; the Finance Minister in charge of that Budget; and an extended interview with the chief executive of one of our big five banks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megap...
Apr 18, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Ep 25•Transcript available on Metacast This is an audio version of Tova O'Brien's analysis piece titled Claims that Winston Peters hadn’t been given media cabinet paper “bullshit” - source, from stuff.co.nz Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Apr 12, 2024•5 min•Transcript available on Metacast Off the back of our exclusive interview with former Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, which featured on the podcast this week, we caught up with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon to get his view on whether New Zealand should review our nuclear-free policy to ensure it’s fit for purpose after Morrison suggested it’s worth a look. Tova also grilled the Prime Minister on the mystery surrounding Broadcasting Minister Melissa Lee’s media support cabinet paper. Learn more about your ad choices....
Apr 12, 2024•6 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
