This week on the Raw Politics podcast: How good a PM might Christopher Luxon be, why Chris Hipkins shouldn't think of quitting, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori the big winners, and silence from Winston.


Raw Politics signs off for 2023 with our panel's take on the government that might emerge from an election that had something for everyone, other than the Labour Party.

Some raw takes: National's victory is a remarkable turnaround but hardly an epic triumph, the Greens' three seats will be a longer-term guarantee of making it back to Parliament, Te Pāti Māori stunned and buried the old wisdom that Labour is the party of tangata whenua.

The Raw Politics panel looks at the first week of shadow governing among the three parties of the centre-right and concludes the public will probably welcome the political silence after such a raucous campaign.

We argue why Chris Hipkins should hold his nerve and stay on and see what kind of Opposition leader and possible election contestant in 2026 that he could be. And we look at who else might follow Andrew Little off the party list and out the parliamentary door in the early days of this term.

We have some final recommendations: things we read or listened to this week that are well worth your while catching up on over the long weekend - including an analysis of Labour's demise, a report from a sad night at Lower Hutt, and a poignant New York Times commentary from an Arab member of Israel's parliament on the war with Hamas.


Every week for almost seven months leading to the election, Newsroom editors and political journalists have talked through the big issues and scrutinised politicians’ performances in a lively, 25-minute show aiming to take viewers and listeners inside the actions and motivations of our elected leaders.