As three parties seek to knead out a government of last resort, our own political trio reconvenes.

The special votes have confirmed a mélange à trois comprising National, Act and NZ First are set to form the next government. How much does the animosity between David Seymour and Winston Peters matter? What are the “big rocks”, “additive things” and “things we’ve got variance in” across the three parties, to use incoming PM Christopher Luxon’s language?

The Spinoff’s politics podcast team of Toby Manhire, Annabelle Lee-Mather and Ben Thomas return for the first time since the morning after election night to divine what they can from coalition talks and look at the way the special votes, which accounted for more than a fifth of the total, fell, including a strong performance from Te Pāti Māori strengthened further.

Plus: our predictions on when the new government will be announced.

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