Raw Politics: National’s hard-ass golden boy

He’s hardening his own thinking and that of the Government on everything from gang patches to Māori customary marine rights, and smashing or blundering through official guardrails. Is Paul Goldsmith the National Party’s quiet hatchetman?
Newsroom senior political reporter Marc Daalder, Newsroom Pro managing editor Jonathan Milne and co-editor Tim Murphy discuss the minister’s harder-line push this week on laws cracking down on gangs, changing his mind to allow police to search private homes for evidence of patches.
We ask if he is a natural anti-crime hardman or if he’s being egged on by the fringe parties in the coalition and is enjoying their approval.

The Waitangi Tribunal report on the Government’s planned amendments to the Marine and Coastal Areas (Takutai Moana) Act would have shamed any other minister at any other time, but its criticisms of Goldsmith for his motivation, facts, process, consultation and evidence have been ignored by the Government.
The panel discusses the latest industrial closure, of the Oji mill at Penrose, and how these kinds of events can unfairly, or fairly, lie at the feet of an incumbent government. Could the coalition have done more to save jobs here and in earlier regional closures, and would a Labour government have done anything differently?
Our reader question asks if Chris Hipkins is taking a risk heading to the UK for that country’s Labour Party conference when a poll shows his personal rating plummeting for preferred Prime Minister. The panel is unmoved, despite Government MPs delighting in teasing Labour’s caucus this week about a coup.
Finally, the panelists recommend something to read, listen to or watch on the weekend ahead:
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