This week on the Raw Politics podcast: National struggles to deal with race relations and Labour and National fall out over housing density - plus the risk of a caucus breakdown for ACT.

The Raw Politics team takes a look at how National's leader and MPs are dealing with questions at public meetings that have a race relations element to them and whether it's a problem for other parties too.

We also discuss the housing density rules that Labour and National signed an accord on in a rare moment of bipartisanship and what has brought that to an end. Is there any hope of bipartisanship on anything in the future, ever? And, we discuss the latest government announcement following a string of severe weather events earlier this year, and what a voluntary buyout will look like for people who have lost their homes and told they can't be rebuilt.

A listener wants to know the panel's view on whether there's a danger with so many new high-profile ACT candidates that some incumbent MPs are going to miss out on winnable list spots, and what will that mean for caucus unity?

And the panel recommends a fact-check on whether the World Health Organisation is about to deprive New Zealand of its sovereignty, an interview with National's housing spokesperson on that 2021 deal that was struck with Labour, and lots of not-so-subtle hints to go buy a copy of Sam Sachdeva's new book, The China Tightrope.

Every Friday, Jo Moir, Sam Sachdeva and Tim Murphy talk through the big issues and scrutinise politicians’ performances in a lively 25-minute show aiming to take viewers and listeners inside the actions and motivations of our elected leaders.

This week Murphy is on a well-deserved break so Newsroom Pro editor Jonathan Milne joins Moir and Sachdeva as a special guest.Moir is Newsroom’s political editor, having been in the gallery for eight years also with Stuff and RNZ, Sachdeva is our national affairs editor, former political editor and was a Stuff political writer and Murphy is Newsroom’s co-editor, a former member of the Parliamentary press gallery and former editor-in-chief of the NZ Herald.

Watch Raw Politics on YouTube, or download or listen to it as a podcast on Spotify, or via Apple Podcasts. And send us your burning political questions to jo.moir@newsroom.co.nz and we’ll endeavour to find the answer and explain the issues.