The new prime minister faces mounting pressure over his support for a bill that would deliver a referendum that he says would be ‘divisive’.

The political year has begun with a sharp focus on the new coalition government and te ao Māori. In the first pod back for 2024, Gone By Lunchtime’s Annabelle Lee-Mather, Ben Thomas and Toby Manhire discuss the messages from the packed Kiingitanga hosted hui ā motu and an unusually politically barbed Ratana.

How is Christopher Luxon dealing with questions – and fury – over the Treaty Principles Bill agreed to as part of the deal with Act? Should David Seymour have shown up? And what is NZ First – the third bonce of what Rahui Papa of Waikato-Tainui called at Ratana a “three-headed taniwha” – looking to gain?

Also in this episode: Is New Zealand’s deployment of NZDF to the Red Sea as part of the retaliatory action against Yemen’s Houthis a smart move, and is it plausible to say there is no link to the Israeli action in Gaza?

And the resignation of Green MP Golriz Ghahraman returns questions around mental health, abuse and responsibility to the foreground. 

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