National's Gerry Brownlee hopes to give insight into policy discussions in a new podcast he's hosting where he has candid discussions with MPs on the opposite side of the political spectrum.
The Backroom of Politics launched earlier this month and Brownlee has, in the first two episodes, discussed climate change with Green MP Golriz Ghahraman and climate change commissioner Rod Carr.
Brownlee, National's Foreign Affairs spokesperson, spoke with The AM Show on Thursday - where he discussed what listeners can expect to learn about on the podcast.
"I think one of the problems out there at the moment is long-form interviews… around politics just don't exist," he said. "You have some that are issues-based, certainly - but they're not extensive and generally, as far as politics in New Zealand is concerned go right to the heart of issues.
"The attempt is to try to get a whole lot of people involved in particular issues and just to have a civil discussion about the challenges and then, of course, convey the message that politicians don't just dream things out of their heads - there's a whole stream of advice that goes into those discussions."
Brownlee said the podcast wasn't a "political broadcast" - rather a source of information.
He said he wanted to speak with people "actually doing things" across New Zealand.
"I've done [an episode] with Rod Carr - we talk about a whole range of things… I think if you can have that discussion, and people are interested, they'll get something out of that."
In the podcast's first episode, Ghahraman and Brownlee discussed Green and National Party approaches to climate change - where they agreed using the term "climate crisis" was "disempowering".
