Throwing in the towel on climate and the foreshore

This week on the Raw Politics podcast: what voters want on climate change policy, will ministers ditch the foreshore repeal, plus Ayesha Verrall's faux pas

Climate change is hard and changing New Zealanders' attitudes and behaviour seems harder still for this Government and its predecessors. Should the coalition accept that's the reality and go slow and low in its ambitions for change?

The Raw Politics podcast looks at the coalition's latest report on methane from farm animals – a dense scientific fig leaf that could allow ministers to let NZ do less to cut emissions.

Newsroom political editor Laura Walters, senior political reporter Marc Daalder and co-editor Tim Murphy ask if the national and international mood on dealing with climate change is enabling National, Act and NZ First to give up, even if just a little, on our national targets.

For our second topic, Murphy recaps the short history of the foreshore, seabed Māori customary rights and the Marine and Coastal Areas Act. And he explains the Government's latest options to either withdraw its urgent repeal Bill or stay staunch and restrict Māori from winning claims in the courts.

Would the ruling coalition get egg on its face if it backs down, or would that act to lower tensions that exist in Crown relations with Māori over other controversial measures like the Treaty Principles Bill?

The panel asks if Labour's Ayesha Verrall went too far in her personal comments against Health NZ chair Lester Levy – and whether that took the focus off the actual scandal of the health commissioners trying to game their annual budgets.

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This week's recommendations:

Tim: Jonathan Milne’s scoop revealing Health NZ and Lester Levy were stopped by the auditor-general from shifting costs from this year into last, in what could have been embarrassing for the last, Labour government

Marc: RNZ’s story on the oil and gas lobby asking the Government to underwrite fossil fuel exploration

Laura: A piece by Tom Hunt from The Post on the Vision for Wellington lobby group and their communications with the PM and other senior Government ministers

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Raw Politics will be available every Friday here on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube too.

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