December 9, 2025 • 7 mins
The Prime Minister ponders an FTA with India, the RMA reforms, the latest 1News poll, and whether lamb beats ham for Christmas in the Luxon household.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
For the penultimate time and twenty twenty five the Prime
Minister on the country on a Wednesday. I want to start,
Christopher Luxen with our free trade agreement with India. Todd
mcclay's doing great work. How close are we?
Speaker 2 (00:14):
We're getting closer. I mean, you know, as you can imagine,
the Indians are really tough negotiators and you know it
all spoils down to a few issues at the end,
but you we're making really good progress. In fact, Todd,
we'll probably be heading up to India this week the
next couple of days again as well, so you know
we're getting to the business end of it. But you know,
I've done a lot of business India over the years,
(00:36):
and you know, one of the things that they are
outstanding negotiators. We're also really good too. We've got some
really great trade negotiators and we've got an outstanding trade minister.
But again, you know, I've spoken with you know, Prime
Minister and Foreign Minister and the Trade Minister myself, and
you know, we're all committed to doing the deal, but
we have to get something that is the best possible
deal we can be and what I'm interested in is
(00:56):
just beating Australian So that's my focus.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Could you get to the stage where you'd say this
is not good enough, I'm going to walk away from it,
or we just have to take what we're given.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
I think you know, over the last year, you know,
the trading environment globally has actually incentivized parties to want
to work together, in particular India, which previously wasn't really
you know, we've worked really hard to build a relationship
to prioritize New Zealand to head of the EU and
other bigger places. They're obviously a country that's dealing with
(01:28):
a lot of pressure from the US and others. So
I've got an appetite to do a deal. We want
to do a deal. I don't like the fact that
today we are well behind Australia in some of our
categories that we trade in, and I think we can
do you get ourselves a really good deal on a
good basis and a starting point to move forward with.
So you know, we're going to do the best deal
we possibly can for New Zealand and for all our sectors.
(01:51):
And there's a lot of opportunity in India and you know, Jamie,
since we started this conversation. I remember thinking, They'm going
to be the third biggest economy in twenty thirty. Twenty
thirty one happen in twenty twenty eight, so in a
couple of years, So you know, that is a major
we've got to be in. You know, they just added
in their growth and economy the size of South Africa
last year, so you know, they are growing fast and
(02:14):
quickly and large. So there's a lot of opportunity. Obviously,
it's a country that's probably per person, about a fourth
as wealthy as China. So China's moved into middle income
status over the period of our free trade agreement, which
is create an opportunity. These guys are about to go
through that same ride, and we want to get on
that way early and ride that well.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Absolutely their most populous nation on Earth as well. Now, okay,
let's move on to yesterday's announcement from Chris Bishop, and
I think he's done a really good job on this,
on getting rid of the rama, simplifying the consenting process
not only if you want to build a deck, but
also if you want to stay farming.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Oh yeah, I mean this is something we've been focused
on from an opposition day so that's why you've seen
us kill off the labors approach. Make sure we get
the fast track in place as quickly as possible to
get the show moving. This is what our dreams is
to get down to two very simple bills, planting bills,
Natural environment bell we reckon forty six percent of consents
won't be needed going forward. We want this show radically
(03:09):
simplified because we've just become a country of bureaucrats, lots
of red tape, lots of green tape not adding any value,
endless meetings, lots of discussion, lots of debate, and particularly
for farmers, I mean like I mean, I spent a
lot of time with farmers, as you know, and you
know they tell me horrific stories of huge amounts of
money being spent on consenting every Tom Dick and Harry
consulting and having input into what they're doing. You know,
(03:32):
you've got property, it's your land. You should have property rights.
You should be able to crack on and get going with
what you need to go to. You s there'll be
a couple of people who genuinely are affected by what
you're doing, but it shouldn't be what it's been so
I'm really excited about this, I reckon, you know, no
government's really taken this on, you know, and fundamentally reformed
it over the last twenty years or so, thirty years
(03:53):
or so, and it needed to be done, and otherwise
we just carry on having all these meetings and red
tape and not doing and cost us a lot. I mean,
it's been the costs continuing costs of increased seventy percent,
it's one point three billion a year. And actually the
time it takes together consent has increased one hundred and
fifty percent on the last time.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Are you going to be brave enough, Prime Minister to
stop EWE having an overbearing presence on the consenting process.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Well, a lot of it is making sure that the
people who actually are consulted actually are going to be
impacted by the effects of what's happening. And that's where
it's got out of control. And so we are simplifying
all aspects of consultation. We need to honor treaty settlements.
But the other thing, I Jamie is a lot of
EWE have a lot of commercial interests across this country,
(04:40):
and actually many of them are very pro this because
they are also recipients and have been frustrated by the
RAMA process themselves. So it's so we're going to strip
it all down, make it much simpler, much clearer. And
as you've seen, the companion piece of this is also
then reforming local government and removing regional council. So you
know that's a part of what we're going to do.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Hellelujah, Now the latest One News variant pole, and I
know you'll trot out the old cliche. I don't comment
on poles, but you must be quite happy with this.
Were you smugly looking at that when it came out
on Monday?
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Well, I don't comment on poles, Jamie.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Can I ask you do you think Chippy is conflicted
over the collapse and the to Party Maori vote because
it's a double edged sword for him. If he gets
to Party Maury winning all the Maori seats, he gets
an overhang, it makes it easier for him to get
into Parliament. But if they collapse completely, I think it
will drive some middle voters, perhaps towards Labor, thinking they're
(05:41):
not going to be such a crazy lot if to
Party Mary's out of the mix.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Yeah, look, I mean, as you can see on our site,
you know, it's pretty solid and that's that's solid Eve
in a really difficult economic part of the cycle. But
we're coming out of that. I you know, really it's
really for him. I mean, ultimately he wants to be
in business with the Greens for goodness sake, into party MARII.
All I know is that just means capital gains tax, wealth,
(06:06):
ba's death tax, inheritance tax, you know, tax everything, borrow everything,
and that's what got us into this mess. So, you know,
to be honest, Hipkins hasn't learned a single thing in
three years. He's going back to the same failed radical
economic tender of spend more, tax more, borrow more. I'm
telling you that ain't in the future for New Zealand.
That is not how we That's what got us into
this mess. That's what's caused the pain and suffering. But
(06:28):
if he wants to horse around and muck around with
the Green Party and to party, Maury, you know that's
not what I'm doing.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Just finally, latest poll, not the one News variant pole,
but the poll and what reading for Christmas? Lamb beats
Ham this Christmas? Forty two percent say Lamb. I think
thirty percent say Ham. Beef's probably too expensive. It's only
thirteen percent. What does the lux and household do?
Speaker 2 (06:50):
We're all in on ham. But the other weird thing
that we've thrown into the mixed since living in america's turkey,
believe it or not. And so it's been a bit
hit and miss. I'll be honest, and I luck some
household where the oven hasn't worked at the right time
on Christmas Day to cook the turkey. So we've been
but we have ham turkey and and peas are actually
our thing as well. There's a bit of shelling of
(07:11):
peas that goes on on Christmas Eve as well, which
is pretty cool. So and some new potatoes. You gotta
get your potatoes in the mix as well.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
And a path. Hey, Christopher Luxlan, thanks for your time.
We've got one more show to do next week, and
I need you to put your thinking cap on because
next Wednesday I'm going to ask you for your agg
Person of the Year.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Okay, Oh there's some worthy candidates actually when I think
about that, okay, I'll think about that over the week.
But mate, you have a great week, wan't you take
care
For the penultimate time and twenty twenty five the Prime
Minister on the country on a Wednesday. I want to start,
Christopher Luxen with our free trade agreement with India. Todd
mcclay's doing great work. How close are we?
Speaker 2 (00:14):
We're getting closer. I mean, you know, as you can imagine,
the Indians are really tough negotiators and you know it
all spoils down to a few issues at the end,
but you we're making really good progress. In fact, Todd,
we'll probably be heading up to India this week the
next couple of days again as well, so you know
we're getting to the business end of it. But you know,
I've done a lot of business India over the years,
(00:36):
and you know, one of the things that they are
outstanding negotiators. We're also really good too. We've got some
really great trade negotiators and we've got an outstanding trade minister.
But again, you know, I've spoken with you know, Prime
Minister and Foreign Minister and the Trade Minister myself, and
you know, we're all committed to doing the deal, but
we have to get something that is the best possible
deal we can be and what I'm interested in is
(00:56):
just beating Australian So that's my focus.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Could you get to the stage where you'd say this
is not good enough, I'm going to walk away from it,
or we just have to take what we're given.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
I think you know, over the last year, you know,
the trading environment globally has actually incentivized parties to want
to work together, in particular India, which previously wasn't really
you know, we've worked really hard to build a relationship
to prioritize New Zealand to head of the EU and
other bigger places. They're obviously a country that's dealing with
(01:28):
a lot of pressure from the US and others. So
I've got an appetite to do a deal. We want
to do a deal. I don't like the fact that
today we are well behind Australia in some of our
categories that we trade in, and I think we can
do you get ourselves a really good deal on a
good basis and a starting point to move forward with.
So you know, we're going to do the best deal
we possibly can for New Zealand and for all our sectors.
(01:51):
And there's a lot of opportunity in India and you know, Jamie,
since we started this conversation. I remember thinking, They'm going
to be the third biggest economy in twenty thirty. Twenty
thirty one happen in twenty twenty eight, so in a
couple of years, So you know, that is a major
we've got to be in. You know, they just added
in their growth and economy the size of South Africa
last year, so you know, they are growing fast and
(02:14):
quickly and large. So there's a lot of opportunity. Obviously,
it's a country that's probably per person, about a fourth
as wealthy as China. So China's moved into middle income
status over the period of our free trade agreement, which
is create an opportunity. These guys are about to go
through that same ride, and we want to get on
that way early and ride that well.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Absolutely their most populous nation on Earth as well. Now, okay,
let's move on to yesterday's announcement from Chris Bishop, and
I think he's done a really good job on this,
on getting rid of the rama, simplifying the consenting process
not only if you want to build a deck, but
also if you want to stay farming.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Oh yeah, I mean this is something we've been focused
on from an opposition day so that's why you've seen
us kill off the labors approach. Make sure we get
the fast track in place as quickly as possible to
get the show moving. This is what our dreams is
to get down to two very simple bills, planting bills,
Natural environment bell we reckon forty six percent of consents
won't be needed going forward. We want this show radically
(03:09):
simplified because we've just become a country of bureaucrats, lots
of red tape, lots of green tape not adding any value,
endless meetings, lots of discussion, lots of debate, and particularly
for farmers, I mean like I mean, I spent a
lot of time with farmers, as you know, and you
know they tell me horrific stories of huge amounts of
money being spent on consenting every Tom Dick and Harry
consulting and having input into what they're doing. You know,
(03:32):
you've got property, it's your land. You should have property rights.
You should be able to crack on and get going with
what you need to go to. You s there'll be
a couple of people who genuinely are affected by what
you're doing, but it shouldn't be what it's been so
I'm really excited about this, I reckon, you know, no
government's really taken this on, you know, and fundamentally reformed
it over the last twenty years or so, thirty years
(03:53):
or so, and it needed to be done, and otherwise
we just carry on having all these meetings and red
tape and not doing and cost us a lot. I mean,
it's been the costs continuing costs of increased seventy percent,
it's one point three billion a year. And actually the
time it takes together consent has increased one hundred and
fifty percent on the last time.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Are you going to be brave enough, Prime Minister to
stop EWE having an overbearing presence on the consenting process.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Well, a lot of it is making sure that the
people who actually are consulted actually are going to be
impacted by the effects of what's happening. And that's where
it's got out of control. And so we are simplifying
all aspects of consultation. We need to honor treaty settlements.
But the other thing, I Jamie is a lot of
EWE have a lot of commercial interests across this country,
(04:40):
and actually many of them are very pro this because
they are also recipients and have been frustrated by the
RAMA process themselves. So it's so we're going to strip
it all down, make it much simpler, much clearer. And
as you've seen, the companion piece of this is also
then reforming local government and removing regional council. So you
know that's a part of what we're going to do.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Hellelujah, Now the latest One News variant pole, and I
know you'll trot out the old cliche. I don't comment
on poles, but you must be quite happy with this.
Were you smugly looking at that when it came out
on Monday?
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Well, I don't comment on poles, Jamie.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Can I ask you do you think Chippy is conflicted
over the collapse and the to Party Maori vote because
it's a double edged sword for him. If he gets
to Party Maury winning all the Maori seats, he gets
an overhang, it makes it easier for him to get
into Parliament. But if they collapse completely, I think it
will drive some middle voters, perhaps towards Labor, thinking they're
(05:41):
not going to be such a crazy lot if to
Party Mary's out of the mix.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Yeah, look, I mean, as you can see on our site,
you know, it's pretty solid and that's that's solid Eve
in a really difficult economic part of the cycle. But
we're coming out of that. I you know, really it's
really for him. I mean, ultimately he wants to be
in business with the Greens for goodness sake, into party MARII.
All I know is that just means capital gains tax, wealth,
(06:06):
ba's death tax, inheritance tax, you know, tax everything, borrow everything,
and that's what got us into this mess. So, you know,
to be honest, Hipkins hasn't learned a single thing in
three years. He's going back to the same failed radical
economic tender of spend more, tax more, borrow more. I'm
telling you that ain't in the future for New Zealand.
That is not how we That's what got us into
this mess. That's what's caused the pain and suffering. But
(06:28):
if he wants to horse around and muck around with
the Green Party and to party, Maury, you know that's
not what I'm doing.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Just finally, latest poll, not the one News variant pole,
but the poll and what reading for Christmas? Lamb beats
Ham this Christmas? Forty two percent say Lamb. I think
thirty percent say Ham. Beef's probably too expensive. It's only
thirteen percent. What does the lux and household do?
Speaker 2 (06:50):
We're all in on ham. But the other weird thing
that we've thrown into the mixed since living in america's turkey,
believe it or not. And so it's been a bit
hit and miss. I'll be honest, and I luck some
household where the oven hasn't worked at the right time
on Christmas Day to cook the turkey. So we've been
but we have ham turkey and and peas are actually
our thing as well. There's a bit of shelling of
(07:11):
peas that goes on on Christmas Eve as well, which
is pretty cool. So and some new potatoes. You gotta
get your potatoes in the mix as well.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
And a path. Hey, Christopher Luxlan, thanks for your time.
We've got one more show to do next week, and
I need you to put your thinking cap on because
next Wednesday I'm going to ask you for your agg
Person of the Year.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Okay, Oh there's some worthy candidates actually when I think
about that, okay, I'll think about that over the week.
But mate, you have a great week, wan't you take
care
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