Just when you thought the two main parties were fixed on a do-little election, the National Party bursts out the triangulator and gazumps its Labour rivals with a pledge to pursue a breakup of the Foodstuffs group of Pak’nSave, New World and Four Square. Annabelle Lee-Mather, Ben Thomas and Toby Manhire race their trolleys to the studio to ask: will Nicola Willis’s bold call cut through the blancmange like a Smeg blade through an Ooshie? Will the popular appeal outweigh the pushback from local businesses? Are the KiwiMart Greens, NZ First and their "copycat" pals National now natural partners? Where does it all leave Labour? And does Annabelle deserve more respect for her "menage-opoly" bit?Plus: The report on the four-year ordeal for the Phillips children has been released and it's a horror show. What are the lessons for agencies including Oranga Tamariki and the Police, and is New Zealand suffering from an “accountability sink”?And what to make of the moves to wind down the Waitangi Tribunal?
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
4 Sept 2026
Only 64 more days of tax, tax, tax, tax, tax, tax, tax, tax, tax
This just in: we have nine more weeks of this. Can National's indefatigable campaign manager Simeon Brown sustain the unremitting tax focus all the way to election day, can Labour move the discussion to somewhere that suits it better, and with politicians across the board shrugging off requests for factual corrections and apologies have we waded into a post-truth, alternative-fact mire? Ben Thomas, Annabelle Lee-Mather and Toby Manhire convene to tackle these question. Plus: Is Chris Hipkins hugging National close or spooning them? Is Te Pāti Māori's policy to entrench te tiriti as radical as some have suggested and how did Willie Jackson do in outling his own party's Māori campaign?
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
27 Aug 2026
Luxon vs Brown, and how the govt fell so violently out of love with localism
Christopher Luxon sailed into NZ politics six years ago as a champion of localism. Since becoming prime minister, his government has fallen deeply out of love with devolution. Changes including a rates cap and National’s ruling out of a bed tax have especially irked Wayne Brown, mayor of Auckland and the most powerful local politician in New Zealand. He’s gone from denial to anger to … what exactly? Joel MacManus and Hayden Donnell – fresh from interviewing Brown – join Toby to tell the story.
Follow At Large with Toby Manhire now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or wherever you get your pods.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
YouTube views
27,354,071
Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025
Apple Podcasts (US)
4.8 / 5
11 ratings
Spotify
4.8 / 5
335 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 74 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
72
Social presence
0
YouTube
93
Engagement
97
Pitching Gone By Lunchtime
Guest appearances
Books guests
Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting pitches.
Pod Engine is an independent podcast discovery and analytics service and is not affiliated with or endorsed by this podcast. Artwork and show content belong to their owners. Full legal notice.
Explore this show Podcast research with Pod Engine
