To wrap up the year, the Iron Duke Studios team unravel all that was the year of 2024.

A Jesse and Henry special this week while Maddy is abroad. We discuss Luxon’s performance and the changing priorities as the Coalition Government passes their first year in power, the benefits and future of the Healthy Homes programme, how maybe things are not quite as great over in Australia as some of our peers make out, and the latest in Auckland with Brown vs Brown.

Your Iron Duke trio are joined today by Jamie Miller, a former Executive Director and expert campaigner for the Republican Party in Florida. Jamie is also an author and continues to write on the Reasonable Arguments Substack. We discuss with our first ever international guest what happened in the US election, including on the ground insights from Florida, where Trump succeeded, where the Democrats lost it and what this all means going forward.

All three podcasters are back in Iron Duke Studios to discuss the latest in policy and politics from New Zealand and around the world. We discuss our highs of this week including the Government’s formal apology to those abused in state care, the not-so-bad change in the unemployment rate and the rallying US share market. Getting us down include Trump’s clean sweep and potential first policies, the introduction of the Treaty Principles Bill to Parliament and the latest in the IRD data breach.

2024 US PRESIDENTIAL SPECIAL – votes are still being counted, but we have a clear winner. President Donald Trump will become the first to win non-consecutive terms since the 19th century. Jesse and Henry discuss what has happened, how it happened, possible implications going forward for the next four years, and the biggest winners and losers of this outcome. Tune in so you can keep up with all the presidential chat down at the pub on Friday night - no doubt we will be back again next week with some extended details too.

Get ready to learn more about space than you ever thought you needed to know! Also on this week's episode, Henry has an alarming Ozempic hype segment, we talk the Labour party, the banking review, silly thoughts on taking GST off sunscreen and builders self certification.

Another hefty week in policy and politics in New Zealand and around the world. The Iron Duke Studio trio peaks of the week include the end (hopefully) of the Darleen Tana saga and now Golriz appealing her shoplifting conviction, the US presidential election coming in hot and how the candidates are lining up in the polls, and David Seymour’s controversial potential success over the school lunches reform. Getting us down this week includes Central Government’s failing of promised localism agenda with the WCC intervention and preventing Otago from implementing their own fresh water plan, plus the Minister Andrew Bayly dilemma.

After an unintended hiatus, the Iron Duke trio is back in the studio to bring you your weekly recap of all things policy and politics. We discuss the newly appointed and well awaited Public Service Commissioner, the checks and balances of the building and construction reform and the latest polls which are a bit dire for some. Then we end with the never-ending Wellington Councillors debacle with threats of Central Government intervention, Foodstuffs’ latest approach of attacking the methodology used to prove New Zealand has a grocery pricing problem and the sinking of our Navy ship HMNZS Manawanui.