A weekly podcast about the political landscape in New Zealand and around the world. Proudly going beyond the headlines, looking at the structural challenges, challenging the status quo and explaining our place in the complex geopolitical stage. Hosted by Phil Goff and Chris Finlayson. <br/><br/><a href="https://crosspartylines.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast">crosspartylines.substack.com</a>
Cross Party Lines
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39 episodes
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Podcast Overview
A weekly podcast about the political landscape in New Zealand and around the world. Proudly going beyond the headlines, looking at the structural challenges, challenging the status quo and explaining our place in the complex geopolitical stage. Hosted by Phil Goff and Chris Finlayson. <br/><br/><a href="https://crosspartylines.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast">crosspartylines.substack.com</a>
Language
🇺🇲
Publishing Since
10/29/2025
1 verified contact email on file for Cross Party Lines
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Recent Episodes
July 13, 2026
Red Carpets, Empty Roads and Pacific Diplomacy
<p>Hosted by Phil Goff and Chris Finlayson, Cross Party Lines opens with a tribute to Sam Neill — actor, environmentalist and proud New Zealander. Then it’s into a packed episode that moves from Modi’s visit to Pacific power plays, and closes with a verdict on the Roads of National Significance that is not kind.</p><p>Thanks to our Foundational Partner, Frank Risk Management, the 100% Kiwi owned insurance brokerage.</p><p><strong>In this episode:</strong></p><p>* <strong>Modi in Auckland — a historic visit with an unresolved $35 billion question</strong> — Phil gives the visit its due — India is on track to become the world’s third largest economy, the FTA could do for New Zealand-India trade what the China agreement did after 2008, and Modi has genuinely modernised India and lifted millions out of poverty. And the $35 billion investment commitment — mentioned three times by Modi, described as a promise by Indian trade officials, and quietly reframed as an “aspiration” by Christopher Luxon — has the makings of the 21st century version of the Treaty of Waitangi.</p><p>* <strong>The Pacific power vacuum — and how New Zealand got left flat-footed</strong> — Phil and Chris are in agreement: New Zealand has dropped the ball, Foreign Affairs has missed the moment, and Penny Wong has run rings around us diplomatically. The deeper story is the vacuum created by Trump cutting US aid by 95% and declaring climate change a hoax — the two issues Pacific Island nations care most about — while China fills the gap with construction projects and red carpet treatment for small-nation leaders.</p><p>* <strong>Roads of National Significance — over promised, under costed and running out of road</strong> — The announcement that multiple Roads of National Significance have no start date, no finish date and no funding lands with a thud. Phil puts the blame squarely on Simeon Brown, who as transport spokesperson costed 17 roads at $24 billion in 2023 — a figure that has since more than doubled to $56 billion. Chris asks the question nobody has answered: why does everything cost so much in New Zealand, and why does analysis paralysis set in every time a project reaches the implementation stage?.</p><p>Wide-ranging, this episode is a reminder that the decisions made in Beijing, Canberra and Washington about the Pacific are not abstract — they show up in aid cuts, missile tests and the vacuum that small nations fill however they can.</p><p><strong>Cross Party Lines exists to lift political literacy and create space for calm, good-faith political conversation. New episodes every Tuesday. If you value thoughtful debate, follow the podcast and share it with someone who might too.</strong></p><p><a target="_blank" href="http://tapliveevents.com">🎟 Auckland live show at Q Theatre — Saturday 8 August with special guest Helen Clark. Nearly 70% sold. Get your tickets now at tapliveevents.com.</a></p> <br/><br/>This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit <a href="https://crosspartylines.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1">crosspartylines.substack.com</a>
July 6, 2026
Pacific Missiles, Zombie Candidates and Unpopular Anniversaries
<p>Hosted by <strong>Phil Goff</strong> and <strong>Chris Finlayson</strong>, <strong>Cross Party Lines</strong> opens with breaking news — a Chinese missile test heading for the South Pacific — before working through a packed episode that moves from America at 250 to Brexit at 10, and closes with a forensic dissection of New Zealand Firsts increasingly chaotic behaviour inside the coalition.</p><p>Thanks to our foundational partner <a target="_blank" href="http://frankrisk.co.nz">Frank Risk Management</a>, the 100% Kiwi-owned insurance brokerage.</p><p><strong>In this episode:</strong></p><p>* <strong>China’s missile test and a new American ambassador</strong> — The episode opens with China’s announcement of a test missile launch into the nuclear-free South Pacific. Phil is direct: the message to all nuclear weapon states, and particularly China, should be blunt — we don’t want your war games in our part of the world. The new American ambassador Jared Novelly gets a measured welcome the same week a survey showing New Zealanders now see China as a closer friend than the US should tell him everything he needs to know about why.</p><p>* <strong>America at 250, Brexit at 10 and the John Major interview everyone should watch</strong> — Trump’s 4th of July celebrations at Mount Rushmore — labelling opponents communists, smashing down the historic East Wing of the White House — prompt a comparison with Gerry Ford’s dignified handling of the bicentennial in the shadow of Watergate. We then turns to the tenth anniversary of the Brexit vote, anchored around what Chris calls the most devastating political interview he has seen in years: John Major’s conversation with The Independent. Both strongly urge listeners to find it.</p><p>* <strong>New Zealand Firsts zombie candidates, voting rights attack and Peters sabotages the India FTA</strong> — The second half turns entirely domestic. Andrea Vance’s description of New Zealand Firsts new candidate line up — a cast of embittered zombies shuffling back to reanimate their dead careers — gets enthusiastic endorsement from both Phil and Chris. And on the India FTA — Peters, as Foreign Minister, has been publicly claiming the government is discriminating against Indians, directly contradicting his own party’s prior claims of a migrant tsunami, and doing so the week before Prime Minister Modi visits New Zealand. Phil’s verdict: this is deliberate sabotage of the free trade agreement.</p><p><strong>Along the way:</strong> Helen Clark confirmed as special guest for the Auckland live show at Q Theatre, Chris’s law clerk Oliver from Leeds asking why he can’t vote and a reminder that the lessons of Brexit are the lessons of every populist movement that has come before it.</p><p>Cross Party Lines exists to lift political literacy and create space for calm, good-faith political conversation. New episodes every Tuesday. If you value thoughtful debate, follow the podcast and share it with someone who might too.</p><p><a target="_blank" href="http://tapliveevents.com">🎟 Auckland live show at Q Theatre — 8 August. Helen Clark joins Phil and Chris on stage. Tickets at tapliveevents.com.</a></p> <br/><br/>This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit <a href="https://crosspartylines.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1">crosspartylines.substack.com</a>
June 29, 2026
Trade Skills, Clean Energy and Opportunities Up
<p>Hosted by <strong>Phil Goff</strong> and <strong>Chris Finlayson</strong>, <strong>Cross Party Lines</strong> goes fully domestic this week — a weekend of wall-to-wall policy announcements gives the panel plenty to work with, a centrist party is suddenly polling close to the threshold, and a government that spent three years going hard on conservation and fisheries has quietly started walking backwards.</p><p>All thanks to <a target="_blank" href="http://frankrisk.co.nz"><strong>Frank Risk Management</strong></a>, the 100% Kiwi Owned Insurance Brokerage.</p><p><strong>In this episode:</strong></p><p>* <strong>Labour’s apprenticeship push, National’s solar moment and a rare weekend of good policy</strong> — Labour’s congress produced one headline announcement: fully funded apprenticeships for the first two years, reinstating a scheme National halved in government. National’s solar panel policy gets a warmer reception than expected from both sides: electricity prices up, panel costs down, and every party bar ACT now backing some form of solar subsidy.</p><p>* <strong>The Opportunities Party — four percent and rising</strong> — With TOP polling at 4.1% in the Herald poll of polls and as high as 4.6% in some variants, Phil and Chris give the centrist party its most forensic examination yet. Chris invokes Peter Dunne’s historical observation — in MMP, no party has ever entered parliament from outside without an existing MP.</p><p>* <strong>Conservation backdowns, fisheries farce and the ninth floor asleep at the wheel</strong> — Tama Potaka’s partial retreat on the Conservation Amendment Bill draws a pointed parallel from Phil: this is John Key’s 2010 Schedule Four debacle replayed, almost scene for scene. Forty thousand people marched up Queen Street then. The same constituencies — trampers, Forest and Bird, Greenpeace, coastal communities — are mobilising now.</p><p>Along the way: Key as the ultimate Teflon politician and the heartbreak of trying to make things stick to him, wallabies crossing the Rangitāiki River as an emerging conservation crisis and Pauline Hanson’s maternity leave blunder costing her three points overnight.</p><p>Cross Party Lines exists to lift political literacy and create space for calm, good-faith political conversation. New episodes every Tuesday. If you value thoughtful debate, follow the podcast and share it with someone who might too.</p><p>🎟 Wellington is sold out. Auckland tickets still available at <a target="_blank" href="http://tapliveevents.com">tapliveevents.com.</a></p> <br/><br/>This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit <a href="https://crosspartylines.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1">crosspartylines.substack.com</a>
39 total episodes available
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- What is Cross Party Lines?
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This podcast updates daily.
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This podcast is available on 4 platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more. You can also use the RSS feed directly.
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No, this podcast does not typically feature guests.
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