Free to Disagree: The social media ban National couldn't sell to its coalition episode artwork

EPISODE · Sep 1, 2026 · 31 MIN

Free to Disagree: The social media ban National couldn't sell to its coalition

from The New Zealand Initiative · host The New Zealand Initiative

Here is a full episode of Free to Disagree, our new weekly show with Oliver Hartwich and Damien Grant. National has introduced a bill banning under 16s from social media, and both coalition partners have refused to back it. Oliver and Damien ask whether such a ban could work, and whether the state should be involved at all. Next, Oliver reports back from a capital gains tax event at a centre-left think tank, where nobody in the room liked Labour's version of the tax. And finally, Iceland votes on Saturday on whether to resume talks about joining the European Union, and they get to the Cod Wars, a banking collapse and what a country of 400,000 people manages to do. Free to Disagree is a weekly conversation about New Zealand politics and economics with Oliver Hartwich and Damien Grant. Two friends on broadly the same side of politics who find plenty to disagree about anyway. Each week they discuss three big issues, leading up to the election. Free to Disagree lives on its own feed where you will find every episode. So if you are enjoying it, follow the show directly. Search Free to Disagree in your podcast app and follow it there. Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/free-to-disagree/id6800933200 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/03465zUGiOtfO38Yg0wVip Produced by The New Zealand Initiative.

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published Sep 1, 2026

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Free to Disagree: The social media ban National couldn't sell to its coalition

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