{"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":50,"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":"2026-09-22T16:18:12.660915+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/cross-party-lines-7562106"},"episode":{"title":"Numpties, Captains Calls and the Populist Menace (LIVE with Helen Clark)","slug":"numpties-captains-calls-and-the-populist-menace-live-with-helen-clark","published_at":"2026-08-10T16:32:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/cross-party-lines-7562106/numpties-captains-calls-and-the-populist-menace-live-with-helen-clark","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/cross-party-lines-7562106","url":"https://crosspartylines.substack.com/p/numpties-captains-calls-and-the-populist","audio_url":"https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/210550652/9f6a5ebfe60d8be2637c15288d27f0c7.mp3","summary":"Hosted by Phil Goff and Chris Finlayson , Cross Party Lines goes live at Q Theatre in Auckland — with a very special guest: the Right Honourable Helen Clark, former Prime Minister, former UNDP Administrator and member of The Elders. An episode that moves from a government having a terrible week to the West Bank, and doesn’t pull a single punch along the way. All thanks to Frank Risk Management, the 100% Kiwi Owned Insurance Brokerage. Find out more at frankrisk.co.nz. In this episode: * A bad week for Luxon, a worse week for Peters — and a referendum nobody asked for — The week opened with unemployment at 5.6% nationally, 6.5% in Auckland — the highest in eleven years — wages up 2% against inflation running at 4.1%, and Labour leading National on all five of the top issues in the Ipsos poll. Then came Luxon’s comments to small businesses — essentially telling them to stand on their own feet — which he backtracked on within hours. Helen’s verdict is pointed: to change something as fundamental as the electoral system, you need a royal commission, a proper process and a mandate — not a prime minister who’s sick of his coalition partners. * Populism, The Elders and the rise of the illiberal right — Chris is reading a book called Centrists of the World Unite and using it as a frame for the episode’s most wide-ranging conversation. He is genuinely alarmed: a potential President Le Pen next year, the AFD in Germany and Pauline Hanson in Australia. Helen welcomes Andy Burnham as a confident new leader capable of dispatching Farage and makes the structural point: social democratic and liberal centre parties have failed to build the kind of cross-bloc flexibility that the German FDP or the British Liberal Democrats offered at their best. The Opportunities Party, both Chris and H…","meta_description":"Hosted by Phil Goff and Chris Finlayson , Cross Party Lines goes live at Q Theatre in Auckland — with a very special guest: the Right Honourable Helen Cla…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3728,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/cross-party-lines-7562106/episodes/numpties-captains-calls-and-the-populist-menace-live-with-helen-clark/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/numpties-captains-calls-and-the-populist-menace-live-with-helen-clark.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}