Gone By Lunchtime
by The Spinoff
Latest episode
Gerry Brownlee on 30 years in politics and the last campaign
Gerry Brownlee on 30 years in politics and the last campaign
About this podcast
A New Zealand politics podcast hosted by The Spinoff's Toby Manhire with Annabelle Lee-Mather and Ben Thomas.
Episodes
The newest 50 of 321 episodes
- Gerry Brownlee on 30 years in politics and the last campaign · 6 minThree decades of parliamentary life is coming to an end for Gerry Brownlee. He joins Toby to revisit a career that has spanned roles including deputy National leader, a range of…
- Making sense of the 2026 election · 1 h 5 minThe morning after the night before, Annabelle Lee-Mather, Ben Thomas and Toby Manhire gather to chew through the key numbers, the surprises, the scenarios that could now play out…
- Final polls, pervy trolls, and our predictions · 1 h 4 minHyperventilating, overheating and sometimes just plain cringe-making, the 2026 election campaign is at its end. Annabelle Lee-Mather, Ben Thomas and Toby Manhire gather at the…
- Panic stations with a week to go? · 40 minWho says politicians don't change? Christopher Luxon revealed his evolving approach this week by breaking his habit and commenting on a poll. A poll that delivered a horror…
- The campaign has entered its ouroboros phase · 42 minLike a self-consuming serpent, the 2026 election has begun to feed on itself. With just a few days till advance voting begins, Toby Manhire, Annabelle Lee-Mather and Ben Thomas…
- We are all covered in ash and yearning for the ocean · 45 minThree weeks to go and Chris Hipkins has put his finger on it: this campaign does have some of the post-apocalyptic survival energy of Cormac McCarthy's The Road. Toby Manhire…
- Were we watching the same debate? · 38 minRound one of the Chris v Chris debate season played out last night on TVNZ. Ben Thomas was in the pundit capsule. Toby Manhire was in the studio. Annabelle Lee-Mather was in bed…
- The debate explosion · 41 minThe Kingmakers’ Debate is the highest-profile of a burst of events in the first full-throttle week of the 2026 campaign. How did the party leaders do in the Press-Post thing, and…
- Why won’t Christopher Luxon go on Q+A? We asked Jack Tame · 9 minHere’s a taste of our new podcast, At Large with Toby Manhire: this week Jack Tame came in to talk about how he’s preparing to host the first leaders’ debate in 2026, how the…
- What is this election really about? · 51 minParliament has disgorged its politicians ahead of a Super Sunday of campaign launches, with just a month and a day until advance voting begins. Toby Manhire, Annabelle Lee-Mather…
- Fifty days out, the campaign ignites · 37 minJust when you thought the two main parties were fixed on a do-little election, the National Party bursts out the triangulator and gazumps its Labour rivals with a pledge to…
- Only 64 more days of tax, tax, tax, tax, tax, tax, tax, tax, tax · 39 minThis just in: we have nine more weeks of this. Can National's indefatigable campaign manager Simeon Brown sustain the unremitting tax focus all the way to election day, can…
- Luxon vs Brown, and how the govt fell so violently out of love with localism · 7 minChristopher Luxon sailed into NZ politics six years ago as a champion of localism. Since becoming prime minister, his government has fallen deeply out of love with devolution…
- Post-coup chat, with guest star Chris Penk · 40 minIn the nine days since he stared down his second caucus uprising within just a few months, Christopher Luxon has really bounced back. Toby Manhire, Annabelle Lee-Mather and Ben…
- Emergency pod: Do you get déjà coup? · 32 minChristopher Luxon has survived a showdown vote in caucus, a lot like he survived a showdown vote in caucus in April. Toby Manhire, Annabelle Lee-Mather and Ben Thomas convene in…
- What is Mr Luxon doing? · 43 minIt should have been a good day for the National Party. Instead, it was derailed by the latest bit of riffing by Christopher Luxon, in declaring, prompted by a listener's text on…
- Someone take away Stuart Nash's phone, please · 55 minThe resurrection of former Labour minister Stuart Nash has come to an end, much like Icarus, with Winston Peters accepting his resignation as a NZ First candidate. Ben Thomas…
- Are the Oppies unstoppable? · 53 minThe Opportunity Party has shot up to the threshold fun zone, with Qiulae Wong at the helm and running a line as an alternative to NZ First. Will the distaste for the…
- Jamboree season in an election year · 4 minFresh from the bright lights and bitter recriminations of the National, Labour and Act party bashes, Lyric Waiwiri-Smith and Joel MacManus join Toby to reveal all, in this…
- Unhappy families · 53 minThe gun for election 2026 was fired with great fury and much shrapnel on Sunday, with National campaign manager Simeon Brown sparing almost no one. Annabelle Lee-Mather, Ben…
- At Large with Toby Manhire: Britain’s great big prime minister problem, continued · 29 minKeir Starmer has walked out from Downing Street and said it’s all over, meaning Andy Burnham is almost certain to be the next UK PM, the seventh since 2016. Why did Starmer fail…
- Hardcore lobbying and the emotional senior staffer · 49 minThe story of Mike Smith's climate court action, the parliamentary response, and hard-copy briefings from lobbyists that went mysteriously missing has officially reached "saga"…
- Budget special with Bernard Hickey · 35 minBernard dashes out of the lockup to patch in to the studio and talk through with Toby the top lines from today's budget, the rosy economic forecasts on which it is built, and the…
- Live at Auckland Writers Festival with Tova O'Brien guest star · 1 h 5 minIn a special six-months-to-the-election edition, Toby, Annabelle and Ben, joined by a special surprise guest who may or may not be the brilliant Tova O'Brien of TVNZ Breakfast…
- Jane Wrightson on Super squabbles, Seymour and the state of the media · 43 minIn a special edition of Gone By Lunchtime, Toby talks to Jane Wrightson, who is retiring after two terms as retirement commissioner. She shares her thoughts on the political…
- Asher Emanuel on The Valley: the book everyone, politicians especially, should read in 2026 · 39 minIn a bonus episode of Gone By Lunchtime, Toby Manhire talks to Asher Emanuel, author of The Valley: Crime and Punishment in a New Zealand City. A gripping, true story of a group…
- The deepest breach in the Luxon coalition, and a National reboot · 56 minMessages suggesting the prime minister sought to support the US-Israel attacks on Iran landed with more than one explosion. Not only did it undermine Luxon’s position on the war…
- Luxon stares down rebel moan squad across 100 white-knuckle hours · 48 minOn Friday morning a bombshell report revealed a group of unnamed National MPs questioning Christopher Luxon's leadership, with the chief whip, Stuart Smith, said to have been…
- The force majeure election · 41 minDonald Trump has gone within hours from genocidal threats against Iran to talking about a joint venture with Tehran tolling the Strait of Hormuz. A fragile ceasefire is very good…
- Special ep with Anna Fifield on the US, Iran, and Winston in Washington · 29 minThe NZ foreign minister was in DC to meet Marco Rubio just as Donald Trump raged about destroying Iran's civilisation. Mercifully, within hours the US president had announced a…
- Is NZ getting the fuel crisis right? Here's your timely, targeted and temporary analysis · 1 h 9 minCovidesque in crisis-mode, but anti-Covid in substance, the government response to the economic shockwaves released from the war on Iran is playing out in New Zealand this week…
- We don't know how to be any clearer, guys · 59 minIt was Christopher Luxon's worst week as prime minister, beginning with flubbed attempts to explain New Zealand's position on the war on Iran and ending with a nightmare poll…
- 10th birthday special: Live with Wayne Brown and Andrew Little · 55 minThe mayors of Wellington and Auckland join Toby, Annabelle and Ben for two very special live events in recent days at the Embassy and Q Theatres. Discussion ranges from the state…
- Ben Thomas reports from the shitstorm · 59 minA catastrophic failure at the Moa Point wastewater plant in Wellington has laid bare a short-term crisis and a crisis of short-termism. Fortified by nothing but the balm of poo…
- Are Peters and Luxon on a collision course? · 48 minAs Christopher Luxon announced an election date of November 7, a strip of the North Island was under siege from another bout of brutal weather. As the clean-up and recovery…
- Summer Reissue: Bonus ep - Thoughts on the Jacinda Ardern film and book · 46 minGone By Lunchtime is taking a break over summer. We’ll be back soon with new episodes but, until then, here’s one of our favourites from 2025: Hot on the heels of the…
- Summer Reissue: Juggernaut 2 · 51 minGone By Lunchtime is taking a break over summer. We’ll be back soon with new episodes but, until then, here’s one of our favourites from 2025: After the breakneck reforms of the…
- New Year special: 2026 in NZ politics · 23 minAnnabelle Lee-Mather, Ben Thomas and Toby Manhire take a quick break from partying atop the Sky Tower to discuss the highlights from the political year that was, before sharing…
- Summer Reissue: Emergency politics Toddcast - The National Party after Muller · 39 minGone By Lunchtime is taking a break over summer. We’ll be back soon with new episodes but, until then, here’s one of our favourites from the vault: At 7.30am, just 53 days after…
- Breaking: everything is good now · 52 minHis summer break may only be 20 minutes long, but Christopher Luxon goes into it grinning, on the back of a poll that saw a swing to the right, boosted economic confidence data…
- The Luxon conundrum · 1 h 4 minThere’s a lot of talk about challenges to Christopher Luxon’s leadership. Toby, Ben and Annabelle do as they must and talk about the talk and whether there’s more to it. First on…
- The Police and the bad apple thesis · 52 minA shocking report by the Independent Police Conduct Authority has revealed a litany of serious failings in the handling of complaints relating to the disgraced former deputy…
- Good news: NZ is back on track · 51 minIn his first face-to-face encounter with Donald Trump, Christopher Luxon has exchanged hair jokes and golf banter. Does that confirm that back on track level has been achieved?…
- Meltdown in Te Pāti Māori · 53 minA 10pm email to members blew apart the reset mood in Te Pāti Māori on Monday night with a litany of allegations and appendices dating back years, as part of a “transparency”…
- Peters delivers Palestine decision in New York · 42 minAfter a protracted process and plenty of speculation, Winston Peters has announced the cabinet decision on acknowledgement of Palestinian statehood in his address to the general…
- Te Pāti Māori wrenches defeat from the jaws of victory · 54 minCelebrations for a big and bodacious Oriini Kaipara byelection victory were shortlived for Te Pāti Māori thanks to Tākuta Ferris's decision to double down on a social media post…
- Pulse check, pub quiz & predictions: live from WORD Christchurch · 1 h 3 minIn a special live edition of GBL in Ōtautahi, Toby Manhire, Annabelle Lee-Mather and Ben Thomas complete a stocktake of the governing and alternative coalitions with a little…
- Bonus ep: Thoughts on the Jacinda Ardern film and book · 45 minHot on the heels of the publication of A Different Kind of Power comes Prime Minister, an enthralling new film that applies a genuinely gobsmacking lens on Jacinda Ardern's time…
- It’s all fine apart from butter, Trump, netball, etc · 44 minChristopher Luxon took a short and sharp mindset into the National Party conference on the weekend and with good reason: there is much getting back on track still to be done. He…
- ‘The one thing they could blow up the government over’ · 45 minWe rattle through the regulatory standards bill, its advocates, its dissenters, and the tension it has created within the coalition. How serious is the fissure it has prodded…
