Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the carry Wood and Mornings podcast from
News Talks.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
He'd be Judith Collins. He and Pepper Papacuta has retired
from Parliament after a twenty four year career. She delivered
her valedictory speech in Parliament last night and it was
just wonderful to be there to see it and to
see Parliament in action, which I haven't done for gosh,
I can't recall the last time I saw the House sitting.
Judith Collins has been Minister of at least eighteen different portfolios,
(00:33):
three of those twice with roles that included Attorney General,
Defense and our first Minister of Space. And we're just
talking the highs and lows of that twenty four year career,
with the low undoubtedly being the third leader of the
National Party in seven weeks in the middle of a
global pandemic, and also up against a Prime Minister who
had fairy dust all around her, a protection of fairy dust.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
That's right, and in fact we'd have you know, if
I said anything against or questioned anything, I was a
cute by people all over the country of trying to
kill them.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
I know. I was a granny color too, Yeah, Oh,
as Judith close enough to the mic.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Oh, you might get closer.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Yeah, there goes, You'll get closer.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
There we go.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Not like you to be shy and retiring.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
Is that well, it's it's just been a big day yesterday.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Carrie and I'm quite emotional friends there, and I was.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Just really happy. So I didn't have any tears because
I was just felt like twenty four years for me
was enough. I've got a great position to go to,
and but more importantly, I felt that I've done everything
there that I really wanted to do. And if I
think about, you know, some of the big portfolios like
(01:53):
health and the social development and education, I would run
a mile from them because they are all consuming and
I don't see the fun in them. And I like
to have a bit of fun. And and you know,
so whether it's the police or even corrections or you know,
or defense or the spies, you know, it's great fun.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Text are as thing as we've just been talking about
conspiracy theorists and Canadian giant raccoons and her role as
Minister of Space, could you just confirm that the Earth
is not flat and is indeed a sphere.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Apparently it's it's a sphere. It's a it's a roundy thing,
and what it's not is it's not flat. And yeah,
we're the third country in the world for verifiable vertical launchers.
We're like really big after the US and China, and
for the last couple of years we've been beating Russia,
(02:49):
so that's like huge. And yeah, there's a big difference
between US launches now is numbers, but you know, we're
way ahead of most other countries.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
And what which of your portfolios of the eighteen were
your favorites.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
Well, I think I would have to say Police was
a huge favorite at the time, but then really Defense
and the Attorney General roles as as well. I guess
a space and because space is just fascinating. Yes, and
it didn't really cost us any money. That was the
(03:26):
even better thing because it's all paid for by the
commercial side of things rather than government, So that was good.
Didn't have to go and get great big budgets off
the Minister of Finance. But Defense is so critical to
us in terms of just anything that goes wrong, whoever
we're going to call, and to have turned it around
(03:49):
to the point that we are now well on our
way to getting two percent of GDP for our defense budget.
There's a huge turnaround. I mean it's just like massive,
and it hasn't been that for well over thirty five years.
So yeah, I feel really happy about that now, men
and women defense. Every time there's an earthquake, every time
(04:11):
there's a cyclone, pandemics, even they're the ones who are
called along to do the job that nobody else wants
to do. And they're the ones who have to go
into places that other people don't have to. So they've
been great and they're two in general, is just a
dream for someone who's a lawyer like me, who just
(04:31):
loves being a lawyer. It's just it's really great news.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Talk said be We have Judith Collins and studio who
has retired from politics after twenty four years.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
Now.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
It's interesting because Torri Fano is testifying at the White
Tonguey Tribunal and she says racism, sexism, and women hating
abuse drove her out of the country. She said it
was online harassment, sexualized rumors, media scrutiny, political attacks. This
wouldn't be new, would it. You would have experienced your
(05:04):
fair share of misogyn and yep abuse.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
And racial attacks too. So my advice to everybody who
gets subject to this is to block, delete, report, and
just you don't go off social media. They go off
because of their behavior and you don't have to take it.
You just deal with it that way. And the people
(05:31):
who do that sort of thing, they are invariably anonymous,
gutless wonders, and they are obviously people who have very
pathetic little lives. So just do not let them own
your space.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
You own it.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
But are there enough rules and regulations around that kind
of abuse? I mean, there was a documentary recently on
stalking laws and they've only just been tightened up, and
women's lives in the main it's women have been ruined
because of stalking, and online is a part of the
weaponization of that.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
Well, I think you're right, there's a lot that's being
done at the moment around the behaviors towards towards anybody,
frankly when it comes to abuse or particularly children young
people online. But what tends to happen is our laws
are often quite behind technology, and so the trouble is
(06:29):
when you try and shut down these people yourself. As
governments in parliament, you create laws that then get worked
around because of advances and technology. So one of the
ways I think we need to say to the major
social media players who make a lot of money out
(06:50):
of this, by the way, they've got to take some action.
And I think that's what Paul Goldsmith and others and
Erica Stanford are working on. So it's the sort of
legislation that's likely to get a lot of support in
Parliament because number one, we've all been subjected to it.
But number two, we're fully aware that not everybody has
(07:13):
the ability to call in help like we can.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Yeah sometimes, and not everybody's a tough nut.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Oh well, look Carrie, I don't know about you, but
I mean I have had people who just rang me
all through the night and it would be hey, you know,
we love you, all that sort of stuff, with these
guys in the background carrying on like this. So I
ended up getting police involved, and it was hard to
(07:41):
get anything to happen. But in the end, you know,
some people were spoken to and they were oh, it
wasn't me, it was someone else, and someone got my
phone all this nonsense. In the end, I just I
just ended up getting the phone settings changed because technology
moved on by the stage and got the phone settings changed,
(08:01):
so I don't receive calls some people I don't know
their number, and I don't take calls some unknown numbers
and or elso just turn my phone to sign it
at night. I mean, that's the sort of thing you
shouldn't have to do. But that's what happens, because people
get your phone number from press releases or various other
things over the years, or they find someone gives it
to them, and next thing they're harassing it all through
(08:23):
the night. So that's, you know, that's what happens.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
You don't want society to be full of tough nuts, though,
do you. And you don't want parliament to be follow
like I'm tough and I know and I laugh at it, and.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
You're you're tough, but you shouldn't have to be tough,
you know. And the thing is, we don't get tough
because you don't. We one day we'll go to go
off and be tough. You get tough because if you don't,
you don't survive in that place. And you'll find you know,
you know the same from your business because you're out
in the public and therefore everyone has an opinion on
(08:57):
you if they know who you are they have an
opinion and you know you're not allowed to have one back.
But that's okay. But I think truly the way in
which some people use technology to abuse others is just outrageous.
And you're seeing it all the time with you know,
people clever little things on social media attacking the Prime
(09:20):
Minister or the leave of the opposition or something like that. Okay,
go to their policies, but this personal stuff is just vile,
mind you. I see it in cartoonists too. To be frank,
I have some pretty nasty stuff on cartoons about me
and others over the years, some very nasty personal stuff.
And you know, guys, I know you're really clever, but
(09:46):
do you actually have to be so mean? Yeah, it's
really nasty stuff for some I don't I just like
refuse to deal with.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Yeah, and you can do that too. You can withdraw
any kind of support. Boy, what lovely texts. I was
a taxi driver for Judah. The best hugging tackle I've
ever seen was when your son just about tore my
door often dived into his mother's arms.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
So sweet.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
We'd like to thank Judith for all she did for
our uncle Tom Ritchie, one of the last members of
the Long Range Desert Group forever remembered. And thank you
Judith for the care and compassion you showed our police
up to the Naper siege. I don't meant a lot
to have you around, so very very nice. We haven't
even got any mean ones. Please forward onto judas she's
(10:30):
been a fantastic politician, strong, great values and a fighter.
Sadly they're qualities which are few and far between in
politicians these days, shall be missed. Good luck for the
future you've served. Well you can hold your head high
when it comes to working with the other team. How
well do you think we can do that in this country?
Speaker 3 (10:50):
Well, I think most of the time we do. Actually,
it's quite interesting. People don't always realize that quite a
lot of what goes through Parliament, law changes and others
gets a lot of cross party support. And sometimes it's
just to Select Committee because of the stages. It goes
to Sleep Committee and then it gets thrashed out there
and the public gets there say on it, and more
(11:14):
changes get made, and then it comes back into Parliament
second and later on committee stages and then third reading.
So there's actually quite a lot of cross party support
on a lot of legislations. Yeah, and people don't. It
just doesn't make the news to rank so, but it is,
and I think it's good to do that. You're not
(11:35):
always going to get it. I mean you're not going
to get the opposition voting for the government's budget. Yeah,
I mean that's it doesn't happen. So, but a lot
of stuff we do.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Could there be more to get us out of the pooh?
Speaker 3 (11:51):
Well, I think you know, people this idea that's been
thrown around by a couple of people not in Parliament
that we should have this grand coalition. Well, we normally
do that when we're in a major war, and that's
pretty much what happens. Then it's all like, look, we've
got a common enemy, and that's what people do. But
we're not not in that situation. And frankly, I think
(12:14):
it's good to have a contest of ideas because what
people don't always realize, of course, is democracy requires a
contest of ideas. Otherwise it's not a democracy. It actually
becomes a one party state, and that is actually not good.
So you do need that contest of ideas. You need
someone saying I don't agree. And this is why I
(12:34):
think you should be doing this instead. So otherwise it's
just it's like you're in government and you just do
whatever you feel like.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Goad point and what are you most looking forward to
about not being in parliament.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
I'm really looking forward to this thing that's called a weekend,
a weekend. Yeah, I'm looking for something. I was doing
like four to ten hours a weekend every weekend on
my weekend papers and cabinet papers, and then of course
there's all the functions. So I'm quite really excited about
(13:06):
not having it, and I'm really excited at to be
finishing work about five o'clock like most people do instead
of ten o'clock, which we do in parliament. It just
makes for very long day. So I when I was
no longer a minister, when that was switched across I was,
(13:27):
I came home and I slept for twelve hours the
first night. In the second night I set for ten hours.
Yet so much sleep deprivation. And I felt really good
since that because I've just been sleeping so much better. Well,
I've still been in parliament, thank you. I think it's
(13:48):
a lipstick.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
Well, this is your pack for going out on. Couldn't
think of a better song. They are just no, I'm
not censoring mean texts are vida, I'm not at all.
There's just I've just got lovely ones. I'm sure Judith
is the type of woman Margaret Thatcher would have had
your cabinet both sharon, no nonsense approach to life. I
wish Judith all the very best, says John. You might
(14:11):
have been Margaret's bosse. She would have been in New.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
York cap she is. She was great. I mean, she like,
look what she had to deal with.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
Absolutely, enjoy your new life, enjoy your new iteration, and
we'll leave you with Aretha Franklin and respect.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
For more from carry Wood and Mornings. Listen live to
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