March 10, 2026 • 5 mins
The PM ponders a tough week at the office, the future of the live animal export industry and the fallout from the Covid inquiry.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Wednesdays on the Country, the Prime Minister kicks off the show.
I'm pleased to note, Christopher Luxen that you still are
the Prime Minister because you were at Golden Shares last Thursday.
I was there Friday, and all the talk on Friday
afternoon at the Golden Shares was that you were going
away to contemplate your future. You obviously decided not to
throw the towel.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
On Well, the only future I'm contemplating is out of
New Zealand and the actually for our kids, in our
Green kids, and how we set the joint up for
them to have a great future with us. So now
that's what I've been doing.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Never Mind some of the spotlight and the tension, the
heat has been taken off you because of the COVID inquiry.
Chippy probably hasn't come out of it that well. In fact,
the previous labor administration hasn't come out of it that well.
They just spent too much money.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Yeah. Look, I think that's the key takeaway from the
report from yesterday, which is that Labour spent and borrowed
too much, just for too long, and it has had
long lasting consequences. And that's heard a hell of a
lot of key weak as we've seen it. I mean,
there's some pretty startling and confronting stuff in there, Jamie.
I mean, sixty six billion dollars was spent and half
of it wasn't spent on COVID. It was just wasted away.
(01:04):
And what have we got to show for it? Are
there any better schools, roads, hospitals and the zell And
know what we've got to show for it is a
tripling of the debt and we're now paying ten billion
dollars a year on interest payments on that debts. And
so yeah, when you think about that, that's Fortneeden hospitals
we can't build each year. That's the operating budget of
defense and police and corrections and customers and justice combined.
(01:25):
So you know that's in the legacy. Was high inflation,
high asset price inflation. House prices went up thirty percent
in a year, if you remember, and high interest rates,
and that obviously then caused the tough recession of times
we've had. So yeah, but.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Playing devil's advocate, they will say only three thousand people died.
It could have been worse. We could have lost fifty
thousand people.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Well, one of the takeaways is the initial response wasn't
too bad. But actually when you see that they kept
Auckland and lockdown for way too long, the borders with
Waikato and Northland and they were in lockdown, essentially massive
damage to small businesses. Yet they were given advice they
could have opened that up. And you know, I just think,
you know, in the Iranian conflicts highly than this to us, right,
which is the work that we've done in two years
(02:06):
to strengthen the economy, the work that we got even
in the last three months, we're in better position than
we would have been three months ago. We've got some
very positive forecasts that are better than what everyone was expecting,
you know, three percent growth in the economy for the
coming year, all that good stuff. But that has meant
that responsible economic management really does matter in these crises.
And that's what we didn't get with COVID and as
(02:27):
a result, we're paying the price of that for way
too long.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
What's the latest with live animal export? Is it like
racial hunters here. It won't happen overnight, but it will happen.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Well, we always said we'd only reinstate it if we
could be reassured of having the highest possible stands of
animal welfare. We've got lots of really good feedback from
both the public and frankly also from the sector. And
the short position is that from a national party perspective,
we won't be you know when we're not going to
be reinstating live and on exports and it won't be
something will campaign on the next selection. You know, what
(02:58):
we're focused on with respect to growing the agriculture sector
is obviously getting into an FTA, making sure we're getting
bit of red tape across the system, and you know,
and making sure we get farmers back to farming, get
well ins and out of it. So you know, that's
where better to put our energy rather than on this.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Have you talked to Winston and See more about this
a live animal exports thing?
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Yes, yes, and I think they'll be on board with
those positions. That's certainly our national party position. Obviously we're
formerly in out the government position on it. Shortly I imagined,
but but I think you've seen, you know, even you
know other parties in the coalition are pretty you know,
not against this decision anyway.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
What's the latest intel on the Middle East?
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Yeah, Look, I mean from a conflict point of view,
you know, a really complex, dangerous situation. We're really concerned
about the rising death toll. It's important that the civilians
are protected. It's important in national laws upheld. But what
you're saying with Iran's retaliatory attacks on its neighbors and
into the civilian infrastructure is dangerous and unacceptable, and we
(03:58):
just want to encourage quick resolution and get their Ranian
leadership to seek negotiat a solution. So that's the kere
on the conflict. In terms of its economic impact. You know,
what we're seeing is that, you know, well, we're actually,
as I said, in good shape because of the work
that's been going on, having got inflation under control and
restrates under control and growth and control. But equally, our
(04:21):
real focus is on the fuel supply in particular, as
you've probably heard us say yesterday, we've got very good
supplies in country and also on the water outside of
the Himu Strait. We've got arrangements through something called the
International Energy Agency, and we've even got our Essential Supplies
Agreement that I signed with our Prime Minister of Singapore
to make sure that we get fuel supplies coming to
New Zealand and moments of crisis as well. So we're
(04:43):
in good shape on that. But we've formed a Ministerial
Response GRIPT just to make sure that we're engaging with
the fuel security making sure we're in SERD industry positions.
Todden mcclay's on that group to make sure that trade
and supply chain challenges as people are moving freight and
product around is important, and just the general economic impacts
as as the Commerce Commission monitoring our for your companies
to make sure that they don't engage in their price gouging.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Okay, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, appreciate your time on the country.
I'm glad you're still in office and still got the job.
I don't want to house train another one. You might
have to do that in November, don't you worry.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
We'll be having with cats next year. My friends. Yep,
good on you see you later up Okay, take care
BYEE
Wednesdays on the Country, the Prime Minister kicks off the show.
I'm pleased to note, Christopher Luxen that you still are
the Prime Minister because you were at Golden Shares last Thursday.
I was there Friday, and all the talk on Friday
afternoon at the Golden Shares was that you were going
away to contemplate your future. You obviously decided not to
throw the towel.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
On Well, the only future I'm contemplating is out of
New Zealand and the actually for our kids, in our
Green kids, and how we set the joint up for
them to have a great future with us. So now
that's what I've been doing.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Never Mind some of the spotlight and the tension, the
heat has been taken off you because of the COVID inquiry.
Chippy probably hasn't come out of it that well. In fact,
the previous labor administration hasn't come out of it that well.
They just spent too much money.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Yeah. Look, I think that's the key takeaway from the
report from yesterday, which is that Labour spent and borrowed
too much, just for too long, and it has had
long lasting consequences. And that's heard a hell of a
lot of key weak as we've seen it. I mean,
there's some pretty startling and confronting stuff in there, Jamie.
I mean, sixty six billion dollars was spent and half
of it wasn't spent on COVID. It was just wasted away.
(01:04):
And what have we got to show for it? Are
there any better schools, roads, hospitals and the zell And
know what we've got to show for it is a
tripling of the debt and we're now paying ten billion
dollars a year on interest payments on that debts. And
so yeah, when you think about that, that's Fortneeden hospitals
we can't build each year. That's the operating budget of
defense and police and corrections and customers and justice combined.
(01:25):
So you know that's in the legacy. Was high inflation,
high asset price inflation. House prices went up thirty percent
in a year, if you remember, and high interest rates,
and that obviously then caused the tough recession of times
we've had. So yeah, but.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Playing devil's advocate, they will say only three thousand people died.
It could have been worse. We could have lost fifty
thousand people.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Well, one of the takeaways is the initial response wasn't
too bad. But actually when you see that they kept
Auckland and lockdown for way too long, the borders with
Waikato and Northland and they were in lockdown, essentially massive
damage to small businesses. Yet they were given advice they
could have opened that up. And you know, I just think,
you know, in the Iranian conflicts highly than this to us, right,
which is the work that we've done in two years
(02:06):
to strengthen the economy, the work that we got even
in the last three months, we're in better position than
we would have been three months ago. We've got some
very positive forecasts that are better than what everyone was expecting,
you know, three percent growth in the economy for the
coming year, all that good stuff. But that has meant
that responsible economic management really does matter in these crises.
And that's what we didn't get with COVID and as
(02:27):
a result, we're paying the price of that for way
too long.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
What's the latest with live animal export? Is it like
racial hunters here. It won't happen overnight, but it will happen.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Well, we always said we'd only reinstate it if we
could be reassured of having the highest possible stands of
animal welfare. We've got lots of really good feedback from
both the public and frankly also from the sector. And
the short position is that from a national party perspective,
we won't be you know when we're not going to
be reinstating live and on exports and it won't be
something will campaign on the next selection. You know, what
(02:58):
we're focused on with respect to growing the agriculture sector
is obviously getting into an FTA, making sure we're getting
bit of red tape across the system, and you know,
and making sure we get farmers back to farming, get
well ins and out of it. So you know, that's
where better to put our energy rather than on this.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Have you talked to Winston and See more about this
a live animal exports thing?
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Yes, yes, and I think they'll be on board with
those positions. That's certainly our national party position. Obviously we're
formerly in out the government position on it. Shortly I imagined,
but but I think you've seen, you know, even you
know other parties in the coalition are pretty you know,
not against this decision anyway.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
What's the latest intel on the Middle East?
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Yeah, Look, I mean from a conflict point of view,
you know, a really complex, dangerous situation. We're really concerned
about the rising death toll. It's important that the civilians
are protected. It's important in national laws upheld. But what
you're saying with Iran's retaliatory attacks on its neighbors and
into the civilian infrastructure is dangerous and unacceptable, and we
(03:58):
just want to encourage quick resolution and get their Ranian
leadership to seek negotiat a solution. So that's the kere
on the conflict. In terms of its economic impact. You know,
what we're seeing is that, you know, well, we're actually,
as I said, in good shape because of the work
that's been going on, having got inflation under control and
restrates under control and growth and control. But equally, our
(04:21):
real focus is on the fuel supply in particular, as
you've probably heard us say yesterday, we've got very good
supplies in country and also on the water outside of
the Himu Strait. We've got arrangements through something called the
International Energy Agency, and we've even got our Essential Supplies
Agreement that I signed with our Prime Minister of Singapore
to make sure that we get fuel supplies coming to
New Zealand and moments of crisis as well. So we're
(04:43):
in good shape on that. But we've formed a Ministerial
Response GRIPT just to make sure that we're engaging with
the fuel security making sure we're in SERD industry positions.
Todden mcclay's on that group to make sure that trade
and supply chain challenges as people are moving freight and
product around is important, and just the general economic impacts
as as the Commerce Commission monitoring our for your companies
to make sure that they don't engage in their price gouging.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Okay, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, appreciate your time on the country.
I'm glad you're still in office and still got the job.
I don't want to house train another one. You might
have to do that in November, don't you worry.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
We'll be having with cats next year. My friends. Yep,
good on you see you later up Okay, take care
BYEE
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