Live Q&A: New Zealand’s Greatest Mistake, the Foreshore Lie and Who’s Worst

Hosted by Phil Goff and Chris Finlayson with special guests Helen Clark and Tracey Martin, this bonus episode brings together the questions from the live Q&A sessions at both the Auckland Q Theatre and Wellington Hannah Playhouse shows.

All thanks to Frank Risk Management, the 100% Kiwi owned insurance brokerage.

The audience asks, the panel answers:

* What was New Zealand’s biggest missed political opportunity? — Phil and Chris are in rare and emphatic agreement: Sir Robert Muldoon winding up the Kirk government’s superannuation scheme in 1975 — for short-term political advantage — is the single most costly decision in New Zealand’s modern history.

* Energy, health, the Crown-Māori relationship and urgency in Parliament — The audience covers the waterfront. On energy: all three panellists back pumped hydro over an LNG terminal, and Phil draws a line connecting Malcolm Turnbull’s climate pragmatism to what New Zealand’s current government is getting catastrophically wrong.

* AI, trans rights, capital gains tax and the Opportunities Party — The rapid-fire second half covers the issues the audience most wanted answered. On AI: Tracey always says please and thank you to AI, because when they take over the world she intends to be fine; Phil is more concerned about the military applications.

Along the way: a four-year term referendum that never happened and probably should have, Chris’s view that the Intelligence and Security Committee should be chaired by a senior opposition MP rather than the Prime Minister, why the UK delegation that came to study New Zealand’s select committee process now has a better system than we do.

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🎙 Christchurch is next — part of the Word Festival, second week of September. Tickets at word.co.nz.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit crosspartylines.substack.com