{"podcast":{"title":"Cross Party Lines","slug":"cross-party-lines-7562106","podcast_index_feed_id":7562106,"rss_url":"https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/6741293.rss","website_url":"https://crosspartylines.substack.com/podcast","image_url":"https://substackcdn.com/feed/podcast/6741293/e9a8cf48c31f0e62acfae7772e0130fd.jpg","author":"Cross Party Lines","episode_count":39,"summary":"A show and community that help you unpack New Zealand politics in a fast-changing world order, hosted by Phil Goff and Chris Finlayson.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-14T06:22:42.588851+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/cross-party-lines-7562106"},"episode":{"title":"Budgets, Basics and Bilaterals","slug":"budgets-basics-and-bilaterals","published_at":"2026-05-18T21:37:28+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/cross-party-lines-7562106/budgets-basics-and-bilaterals","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/cross-party-lines-7562106","url":"https://crosspartylines.substack.com/p/budgets-basics-and-bilaterals","audio_url":"https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/198327303/e64f797167c252938be0bd7a0c9b26d4.mp3","summary":"Hosted by Phil Goff and Chris Finlayson , Cross Party Lines returns — fresh off the stage at Featherston — for an episode that opens with a tribute to one of New Zealand’s greatest legal minds and moves through a week of elections, populist tremors and an education debate that has been going around in circles since the 1990s. Thanks to Frank Risk Management , the 100% Kiwi owned insurance brokerage. In this episode: * The Trump-Xi summit — pomp, ceremony and a ridiculous mouse — Chris reaches for the Latin poet Horace to deliver his verdict: all the hype, all the ceremony, and nothing of substance emerged. No breakthrough on Taiwan, 200 Boeings ordered instead of the promised 500, and none of the Nixonian moment that a genuine Sino-American summit could have been. * The pre-budget squeeze — $300 million less and nowhere to hide — The government has cut its operational allowance from $2.4 billion to $2.1 billion, meaning $300 million less new spending in a budget that already has to find money for defence, health, education and law and order. Phil is blunt: there will be cuts, the lolly scramble is off, and Labour faces the same fiscal straitjacket as the government it hopes to replace. * NCEA — a debate going around in circles since the 1990s — Phil and Chris both remember this argument from when they were on opposite sides of the House. The OECD’s early 2000s push toward skills over knowledge went too far; the pendulum is swinging back; but the question is whether it’s swinging with the evidence or against it. Phil is particularly troubled by a cabinet paper that acknowledges the reforms will likely reduce achievement rates for Māori, Pasifika and low-income students — a problem New Zealand already has and cannot afford to worsen. Along the way: a tribute to Sir Ken K…","meta_description":"Hosted by Phil Goff and Chris Finlayson , Cross Party Lines returns — fresh off the stage at Featherston — for an episode that opens with a tribute to one…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2233,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/cross-party-lines-7562106/episodes/budgets-basics-and-bilaterals/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/cross-party-lines-7562106/budgets-basics-and-bilaterals.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}