This week on the Raw Politics podcast: The latest 1News poll confirms Labour really is the underdog now. Plus: Will National's 'diverse' party list lead to a diverse caucus after the election?

Raw Politics tries to make sense of a wild political week in which a senior National MP threw in the towel with some glancing blows and faint praise, one of his colleagues was found guilty of being "objectively threatening" at Parliament, and the Prime Minister finally embraced the position of underdog.

National's party list 'reveal' left leader Christopher Luxon tongue-tied when asked if gender had played a role in the selections, but the sidelined MP Michael Woodhouse had no such hesitancy in revealing the disadvantage that he and some of his colleagues might have felt as diversity took centre stage.

The panel analyses the latest 1News-Verian poll, the one that showed the gap between the major parties opening to 8 points and Labour dipping officially under the 30 percent mark. It confirms a trend that's basically been building since late last year, except for the blip of a brief honeymoon of bonfires when Chris Hipkins took over from Jacinda Ardern in the first quarter of 2023.

Later in the podcast, we answer a question on whether departing MPs took Newsroom co-editor Tim Murphy's advice from Raw Politics last week on what not to say in their valedictory speeches. Marc Daalder wishes some of the high-minded democratic ideals on display in MPs' final 15 minutes of fame had been exhibited more openly in the rest of their careers.

This week's recommendations include a recent Beehive insider's insights to the approaches National and Labour are taking into the campaign, a big-read in the New Yorker about Mr X, Elon Musk, and an almost-live, automatically updating set of charts and tables on Newsroom displaying polling and political donations data.


Every Friday, Newsroom editors and political journalists talk through the big issues and scrutinise politicians’ performances in a lively 25-minute show aiming to take viewers and listeners inside the actions and motivations of our elected leaders.