About this episode

The episode discusses Mike Smith's climate court action and the political implications surrounding it, alongside various political topics and figures.

The story of Mike Smith's climate court action, the parliamentary response, and hard-copy briefings from lobbyists that went mysteriously missing has officially reached "saga" mode. Ben Thomas, Annabelle Lee-Mather and Toby Manhire dive into the mire and debate whether there are dots to join. Elsewhere in this GBL buffet episode, they offer their budget verdicts, assess the latest bout of entitleditis besieging our MPs, search valiantly for Labour Party policy, revisit a busy weekend for Chris Penk in Singapore navigating "freerider" chat and radioactive conversations. Plus: a celebration of the new king of Twitter, MP Joseph Mooney. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

People in this episode

Hosts: Ben Thomas, Annabelle Lee-Mather, Toby Manhire

Topics covered

• climate action
• lobbying
• political response
• budget verdicts
• MP behavior
• social media

Keywords

• climate court
• lobbying
• budget
• Labour Party
• politics
• Joseph Mooney
• Chris Penk

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Labour Party

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• Live at Auckland Writers Festival with Tova O'Brien guest star · May 21, 2026 · 1h 6m
• Jane Wrightson on Super squabbles, Seymour and the state of the media · May 18, 2026 · 43 min
• The book everyone, politicians especially, should read in 2026 · May 12, 2026 · 39 min

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