At the political half-time mark, we assess the ritual changeover, a brace of new surveys and a very New Zealand altercation at the music awards.

We’re officially in the second half of the term, a milestone marked by the historic handover of the hallowed deputy prime minister amulet from Winston Peters to David Seymour.  The moment comes with pageantry, a flurry of interviews and a pair of new polls, which deliver intriguing, and sometimes divergent results.

In a new episode of Spinoff politics podcast Gone By Lunchtime, Toby Manhire, Annabelle Lee-Mather and Ben Thomas pore over the results and what they mean for the parties and the politicians in the post-budget, post-pay-equity-reshape wash-up.

Plus: Jim Bolger and Jacinda Ardern have both been in the headlines in recent days. What do these returns tell us about the performance of their Chris-themed successors?

And Chris Bishop found himself in a media moshpit after the Aotearoa Music Awards for calling the Stan Walker Toitū Te Tiriti parade “crap” and earning the most painful denunciation imaginable: being called a dickhead by living legend Don McGlashan.

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