For the final time in 2017, Annette King and Steven Joyce join Mike Hosking for their weekly sparring session. 

Steven Joyce provoked gales of laughter by suggesting that Annette King might be making a pitch for the Labour leadership by standing down in Rongotai, a point that he returned to repeatedly.

King stood by her call for an early election in place of a Mt Albert by-election, saying that Labour were more than ready to go to the country. 

Joyce insisted that it was pointless for National to bother standing a candidate in Mt Albert, and said that it was such a safe seat that it wasn't worth the bother. 

Joyce also insisted that he had no involvement in what Hosking described as "knifing all those people who left last week" - a reference to a huge swath of National MPs and Ministers deciding to stand down.