As two of Aotearoa's sharpest political journalists prepare to launch their Election 2026 vodcast, we subject the pair to a 1News Grill.
Which three adjectives best describe the vibe of the 2026 General Election?
Jack: Oppositional. Reactive. Disgruntled.
Tova: I think people are worried it will be bland, apathetic and uninspiring. But because it’s so close, with so many wildcards it will actually be thrilling, do-or-die and scrappy.
Which political journalist is or was the greatest ever?
Jack: Interviewers: Jeremy Paxman and Kim Hill; Reporter: Maggie Haberman; Story: Tova O'Brien on the Paora Goldsmith fiasco – the undisputed greatest New Zealand political report of all time.
Tova: I don’t think there can ever be any single GOAT because the work political journalists do is always so big and important in any given moment. It’s so cliché but we are greater than the sum of our parts. Just look at what happened with the White House Press Pool this week. Competing media, united to fight for a free press. That’s as important as Watergate or any other major political story. In saying that, of course, Jack Tame of Tame and Tova fame is right up there.
What's one great political memoir or documentary that everyone should read or see?
Jack: The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York, by Robert A Caro.
Tova: A couple of NZ political documentaries I love to watch and rewatch are Campaign (about the 1996 Wellington Central race) and the Revolution series (about this country's 1980s to early-90s social and economic reforms).
Jack, what's one thing you've learned about your craft by watching Tova?
She is tenacious AF! And in an industry where everyone is always spinning a yarn or working an angle, Tova won't be moved. She is principled, connected, charismatic, and tough.
Tova, what's one thing you've learned by watching Jack?
So much. Years ago, when I started doing long-form political interviews, one of the first things I'd do is search up: ‘Jack Tame [insert politician's name] interview’. I still do that before big political interviews. He’s the master. I know how much research, work, agonising over structure, questions – and the rest – goes into those interviews, but to then bank that knowledge, draw a line and just be fully present in the interview itself, that’s Jack.
What's one election-night memory that lives rent-free in your head?
Tova: Stapling my dress together at the 2014 NZ First election-night party. Having panic-bought the outfit that day, it was patently too short. Undeterred (once-stapled), as a cub political reporter I was determined to get the first interview with Winston Peters and chased him and his entourage into an elevator as they arrived. It was less interview, more telling off by Peters but we were first and we were live – and my dress held together. Win.
Jack: The bewildered expressions of Hillary Clinton supporters filing out of what was supposed be her victory party in 2016.
Which political dark horse do you think might step up and get attention over the next few weeks?
Jack: Statistics New Zealand! The next inflation data drops in the last week of October and the Reserve Bank has to make another call on interest rates just ten days before polling day.
Tova: Mt Albert. The Opportunity party is the obvious one that could turn this thing on its head. There’s been a lot of focus on whether the party can get over the 5% threshold after failing to do so for the last three elections but the dark horse could actually be the once-predictable electorate of Mt Albert. Opportunity’s leader Qiulae Wong is running in the historically safe, and symbolically significant Labour seat, which nearly flipped to National in a nail-biter race last election. Could Wong win it? Or will she split the vote and make the high-stakes race even more suspenseful?
Which interview still makes you sweat in retrospect?
Jack: I once interviewed Australia's then Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop while in the middle of a dental procedure. I'd been working to get the interview for months and she ended up calling an hour earlier than arranged. Faced with the prospect of forfeiting the interview altogether, I asked the dentist to stop his work and sat up in the chair, exaggeratedly annunciating my questions to try and counter the anaesthetic.
Tova: Any interview – like this one – where I am the interviewee.
Watch Tame and Tova on TVNZ+ from Thursday (October 1), or catch it on any of the main podcast platforms.
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