Beer-ly a feud: Stuff and The Spinoff settle stoush over a pint

Thursday, 26 March 2026

Peace has been restored between media companies Stuff and The Spinoff after a claim an interview format was copied ended with a pint-sized olive branch.

The Spinoff politics writer Lyric Waiwiri-Smith, in a since-deleted post on X (formerly Twitter), suggested Stuff’s new “Beers and Banter” webseries was a “shameless” rip-off of her own weekly “One MP, One Pint” column.

“At least I’m funny,” she added at the end of her tweet. A similar post was shared to her Instagram.

One MP, One Pint sees Waiwiri-Smith share a beer or other beverage with a different MP each week at Parliament’s Pint of Order pub. Meanwhile, Burr’s new webseries sees the Stuff host share a beer or other beverage with a different public figure each week (some of whom might be MPs).

Stuff journalist Lloyd Burr, who hosted the first Beers and Banter episode with new Opportunity Party leader Qiulae Wong (who is not yet an MP, but wants to be), said in a statement he was a “huge fan” of Waiwiri-Smith’s work and there were no hard feelings.

“Duncan [Greive] from The Spinoff contacted me this morning to apologise for this misunderstanding and for the assumptions that Lyric made. There are no hard feelings and I’ve moved on,” he said.

“The concept of an interview over a beer is not new or unique. Heaps of people have done iterations of that concept over the years, including myself. I'm a huge fan of Lyric's work and will happily sit down with her and chat about this over a beer next time I'm in Wellington.”

His statement ended with a challenge: “I'll even try to make her laugh!”

In 2017/18, Stuff hosted a politically themed podcast called The Beehive, where politicians were interviewed over drinks.

During his time at the short-lived Today FM radio station, Burr hosted a regular segment called Beers and Ideas in which he invited famous people into the studio for a light-hearted chat over a pint (it’s understood at least one Spinoff staffer was a guest on this segment at the time).

In a statement, Waiwiri-Smith told The Post she loved her One MP, One Pint column “maybe slightly too much”.

“When Lloyd launched his new series, I got a bit protective. I suppose who can say they haven’t had a busy few days and then fired off a tweet they later regret?

“For the record, Lloyd is a legend in the [press] gallery and I probably owe him a beer.”