“The people you talk with are the most important of all.”Since departing the mid-morning slot on Newstalk ZB, Smith has hosted his own-named podcast, now with more than 300 episodes. John Roughan has also been appointed a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for his services to journalism. He joined the New Zealand Herald in 1981 and was posted to the Parliamentary Press Gallery two years later. He wrote his final column in the New Zealand Herald in May 2023 after 27 years. He was a New Zealand Press Council member from 2014 to 2018, representing the Newspaper Publishers Association and in 2014 wrote a biography of then Prime Minister Sir John Key.

Source: New Zealand Herald December 30, 2025 20:21 UTC