New Reserve Bank Governor Anna Breman would’ve been hoping for a less eventful backdrop to just her third Monetary Policy Committee meeting scheduled for 8th April. Instead, the US and Israel’s reckless barbarism in the Middle East has thrown the global economy into a rapid tailspin of stagflation, with New Zealand’s already sluggish economic recovery now facing surging oil prices, uncertain fuel supplies, severely disrupted trade flows, and all the domestic economic disruption which inevitably follows.

We think it is important to note that all organisations (and organisers!) will mess up at some point; what matters is the willingness to repair and grow.

When Hipkins was accused of bad behaviour by his ex-wife, my first response to his teary face on the news was lol, I hate that guy–the same thing I always feel. It’s maddening to watch people stubbornly forget that Labour’s unprecedented majority win involved folding against Covid, faffing around with the most timid reforms possible, and handing power to the most unpopular National-led government in decades.

Honouring, activating, and even understanding Te Tiriti o Waitangi is not the orthodoxy in our current political environment. The past two and a half years have seen a barrage of attacks on both Te Tiriti o Waitangi as the founding partnership agreement of this country, and on how Te Tiriti o Waitangi functions in practice in organisations like Health New Zealand and Oranga Tamariki, the two largest single employers of social workers in the country. 

There is a distinction between going out to eat, and being fed. The former, for me, is something active that you do as a diner – you might dress up, head out, and spend your hard-earned money at any one of the thousand restaurants that the city has to offer.

In the immediate aftermath of violent attacks, social media often fills the information vacuum before verified facts are available. That space is increasingly occupied by AI-generated deepfakes and manipulated “breaking news” content designed to mislead, inflame, and spread fear.

We speak with Jen Shields about the ideologically motivated, against all evidence, decision by the National coalition government to effectively ban puberty blockers specifically for trans children.

The "leftist activist" who spent a decade working undercover for New Zealand police and intelligence

Transcript: 1/200 S2E149 - Sport NZ and Transgender Inclusion

This episode of 1/200 was recorded on July 26 released on July 27 2025

I was seriously disappointed to read a long article from Duncan Greive which discusses and quotes extensively from Sarah McBride's interview with Ezra Klein - one that generated extensive discussion amongst trans communities internationally a full month ago when it aired - and takes a similarly naive, centrist position along the lines of "how can we effectively argue and bargain for our rights while we compromise and allow disinformation campaigns to push the Overton window further right?"

The Government knew this was going to happen. Remember Chris Luxon chiding local government about ‘doing the basics’ and David Seymour’s announcement that ACT are standing candidates in the local elections this year. They knew this was going to happen because they made it happen. 

It’s to do with water, and water reforms - both the binned Three Waters/Affordable Water Act and the current Government’s Local Water Done Well reforms.

In the wake of pay equity blockages, a thousand or so people went to Parliament Lawn to protest the new Budget, where women and gender minorities have once again taken the fall for commerce and the army. To make the crowd show appreciation for the suffering workforces, the emcee asked us if we’d ever had an incredible teacher who changed our lives.