{"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":"Vacuum in the Pacific and Lies on the Billboards (Live at WORD Christchurch)","slug":"vacuum-in-the-pacific-and-lies-on-the-billboards-live-at-word-christchurch","published_at":"2026-09-07T16:30:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/cross-party-lines-7562106/vacuum-in-the-pacific-and-lies-on-the-billboards-live-at-word-christchurch","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/cross-party-lines-7562106","url":"https://crosspartylines.substack.com/p/vacuum-in-the-pacific-and-lies-on","audio_url":"https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/214521898/c8ea643fa50bc75beb7c816e6942606e.mp3","summary":"Hosted by Phil Goff and Chris Finlayson , Cross Party Lines takes to the stage at The Piano in Christchurch for a sold out live episode that opens with a tribute to the resilience of Cantabrians and closes with a plea to get on the electoral roll before 25 October. In between: the Pacific being carved up by superpowers, an election campaign built on little lies and big lies, and the strategic questions nobody in Wellington wants to answer. All thanks to Frank Risk Management - The 100% Kiwi Owned Insurance Brokerage. In this episode: * The Pacific — neglected, militarised and handed to China on a plate — Phil’s account of the Pacific Island Forum in Palau is forensic and sobering. Five leaders stayed away — all from countries with close Chinese ties — in what Phil reads as geostrategic interference turning a forum for Pacific solidarity into a proxy battleground between Washington and Beijing. The Cook Islands leveraged China against the United States and got $100 million for a port on Penrhyn — an island of a few hundred people with a deep harbour that can take warships. Chris and Phil agree on the diagnosis: for generations New Zealand neglected the islands, failed to build the courthouse in Samoa, paid peanuts in compensation for the Rena, and now wonders why China has filled the vacuum. * Election lies, ACT’s contradictions and promises that will never be kept — Chris invokes what he calls the principle of political attribution: if you’re going to say Labour is responsible for every tax floated by the Greens, Te Pāti Māori and the Opportunities Party, then National must own the BNZ nationalisation, Paul Henry’s $2 billion cancer hospitals and every other coalition promise. Phil is blunter: Simeon Brown’s nine-taxes campaign is an absolute bloody lie, and he says so…","meta_description":"Hosted by Phil Goff and Chris Finlayson , Cross Party Lines takes to the stage at The Piano in Christchurch for a sold out live episode that opens with a…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3568,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/cross-party-lines-7562106/episodes/vacuum-in-the-pacific-and-lies-on-the-billboards-live-at-word-christchurch/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/vacuum-in-the-pacific-and-lies-on-the-billboards-live-at-word-christchurch.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}