This week on the Raw Politics podcast: Is the Minister of the Week, Paul Goldsmith, an ideologue? Plus, awkward business closures for the coalition and Chris Hipkins' leadership.

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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This week's recommendations:

Marc: Our own Jonathan Milne’s piece at Newsroom delving into a major fisheries Treaty case brewing in the background

Tim: Audrey Young’s timely explainer on all the Government’s law changes targeted at things Māori

Jonathan: The Economist reports on a British Medical Journal study on why Australians live so long.

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Raw Politics will be available every Friday, and you can watch it on YouTube too.

Read more on newsroom.co.nz.