1/200 PodcastS

We discuss the failed Treaty Principles Bill and potential for a geopolitical restructuring in the political economy instigated by Trump's tariffs. Where to from here? How can we make the most of the moment?

We guest Paris Marx for thoughts about the upcoming Canadian Election with parallels to the electoral situations across the rest of the west.

We discuss the continuing atrocities in Gaza, the blackbagging of activists across the west and declining US hegemony accelerated by an absurd tariffs regime. Closer to home we touch on the Treaty Bill submissions and the horrific hit job on a Green MP by far right muckrakers and politicians.

Waning trust in media alongside a failure to uphold standards and whitewashed investigations has NZ outlets in a bad spot. We discuss the examples of negative framing for Tamatha Paul’s comments about police, and the direct engagement between media leadership and far-right astro-turf groups. When will NZ political and media leadership pull in line with the electorate and reject the accelerating fascism in the US under Trump?

We start with a school lunch update. The NZ Govt is trying to take back control of the economic narrative with an Infrastructure Summit, amid global trade uncertainty. The UK Labour Party is abolishing 'NHS England' and making life harder for disabled people.

As Callaghan Innovation prepares to shut up shop it’s making one last pitch - a hackathon to design a “NZ DOGE”. What the fuck does that even mean? And what is happening with the transplant of US tech culture and propaganda into the NZ discourse?

We get the chance to swing at Labour for their latest fumbled PR and what looks like a signal of further centrism. School lunches remain on the agenda as one student gets second degree burns. And multiple high profile political roles are on the way out.

The media/pol class are finally admitting that Luxon is not fit for purpose, while his coalition partners go from disaster to disaster, and his own Ministers propose wildly destructive policy. Meanwhile, NZ still isn’t anywhere near close to the speed of decline faced by the US.

Last weekend Destiny Church was directed by their leader, Brian Tamaki, to undertake terrorism. They duly complied, storming a library to attack a children’s story event, injuring at least one person and forcing children and caregivers to barricade themselves in a room. We discuss the conditions that led to this and the need for a strong, ongoing response in the face of a political and media climate that, at best, isn’t interested.

We discuss the destruction of public services in Education and Health and the purely extractive nature of neoliberal privatisation. We then peer through time (at the current situation in the US) to understand where these decisions by the National Party coalition government are going to end up.

We weigh in on the accelerating fascist destruction of the administrative state in the US and consider how this impacts NZ, possible steps to take, and the way that media and politics here is being set up in a way to clear the path for rabid extraction and decline, particularly via the ACT Party.

We talk education and ECE reforms, the issues with Labour alongside the role of unions, and the news about ex ACT Party President Tim Jago having name suppression lifted after 2.5 years, following his convictions for sexually abusing two teenage boys in the 1990s.

We discuss the current state of western politics, modern day fascism and its roots.

With Trump’s inauguration so close what did the Biden presidency offer the world and what impacts might we see under a president roundly labelled as an outright fascist? Why are all the political parties in “western democracies” so avidly breaking institutional norms for reactionary reasons?

What are the early signs of discourse for 2025, and what might they signal in politics and culture for the year ahead?

Will the rightwing implode in 2025 or is it all theatre? What’s on the cards for Western and NZ politics as we enter a new year.