Back Benches 25 April 2012

THIS WEEK ON BACK BENCHES: Watch Wallace Chapman, Damian Christie, the Back Benches Panel and special guests discuss the week’s hottest topics!

ANZAC DAY: It’s ANZAC Day on Wednesday—a day to remember the sacrifices made by our military. But what does the day mean to our younger generations? Is it more than a veteran’s day? Is it our national day? And do we need to mondayise the holiday?

LET’S MAKE A DEAL…: The Government’s still facing criticism over the Sky City convention centre deal. The opposition is saying the Government sold law changes for the $350m centre. While National says Sky City were the only ones with the numbers to make the build work. So, we’re getting a new convention centre and more pokies. We’ve already got 1600 pokies at Sky City—what another 500 going to do? Is it better to have pokies at the casino rather than pubs? Or are more pokies a bad idea full stop?

DRAWING A BLANK: Should cigarette packets be brand free? Tobacco companies, obviously, are not fans of the idea. Australia’s doing it and we’re thinking about it. But will this bring lawyers for the tobacco companies out in force? And will they be successful? Will the TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) give U.S. companies the right to change our laws? And should we be using plain packaging on all addictive or dangerous products?

Join us for a night of LIVE pub politics from the Backbencher Pub: Wednesday, 25th of April. Our Panel: Green Party MP Jan Logie, Labour MP Trevor Mallard, New Zealand First MP Richard Prosser and National MP John Hayes.

Wednesday at 9.05pm and Saturday at 10.05pm | TVNZ 7