Barry Soper

No topic off limits, no holding back, no scripts, no rules, no bull.

Barry Soper, Josie Pagani, Trish Sherson, Heather Du Plessix Allen, The Front Bench, on your home for election 2026, Newstalk ZB.

Welcome to the show.

Coming up today, Brad Olsen will assess National's fiscal plan for us after 5:00.

Please, dear God.

The Front Bench.

And with us on the Front Bench, we have Barry Soper, senior political correspondent, Trish Will- uh, Trish Sherson-

[laughs]

I don't think he loved that.

Barry Soper, senior political correspondent.

We'll wrap the political week.

That was Barry at quarter past six.

Evening coming up in the next hour, we have a little bit of a problem with the toxic haze in Singapore ahead of the Grand Prix.

We'll go to our correspondent in Asia after half past.

We'll wrap the political week that was with Barry Soper and then Gavin Gray on Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor winning that court case at seven past six.

Now, if you haven't already clocked it, our economic recovery is really now a 2027 story, not for this year.

I've got trouble-

Barry Soper's gonna be with us on politics in just the next 10 minutes.

Um, the WHO, World Health Organization, is now publicly involved in the plague situation in Russia.

So Russia says there's nothing to worry about.

Uh, listen, Consumer New Zealand does not like Labor's policy that they've released today on trying to make airfares a little bit more fair for you, so we're gonna have a chat to them after half past five.

Right now it is 14 away from 5.

Barry Soper's with us.

Hello, Barry.