The Country 11/09/26: Barry Soper talks to Jamie Mackay

Our political correspondent reflects on 9/11 and a better week for the Nats.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Barry Soper, 9-11. Where were you? What were you doing?

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Oh, it's an incredible thing, isn't it, Jamie, to think
it's 25 years ago. And for many of us, it
seems like just yesterday. I was telephoned in the middle
of the night from a guy I went to primary
school with and have been friends ever since was Ian
Phillips from Gore. And he had an office in the

(00:24):
financial district and called me up in the middle of
the night and said, turn on CNN. And I said, Ian,
it's in the middle of the night. And he said,
turn it on. You'll want to see it. And one
plane had already hit. And the second one was just
about to hit as I switched on the television. The
lights went on in my house, of course, as I
set up to watch the aftermath at night. And lo

(00:47):
and behold, there was a knock on the door. And
one of my neighbours, Chris Finlayson, who later, of course,
became a minister in Bolger's cabinet, or not later, in
John Key's cabinet, came across and we sat the night
looking at this dreadful event unfolding.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
Hey, let's go to another dreadful event coming up unfolding
the election. Depending on the result.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
Of course.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
Have we seen a bit of a sea change in
the past week or so?

Speaker 2 (01:15):
Well, you know, the incredible thing is it seems that
Labour has been very slow in getting out of the
starting blocks because they effectively had their first campaign meeting
this week, and it was advertised fairly widely out in
the Hutt Valley, and it was in, I believe it
was in Upper Hutt, and they managed to only scrape

(01:35):
in between 100 and 150 people, which is small for
a campaign meeting, and a cat, I mustn't forget that.
And that was Chris Hipkins. It's his own electorate. And
so he was there holding forth. But you compare that
with the other side. Winston Peters has been on the
road now for the last couple of months and pulling

(01:58):
in several hundred every time he speaks. And similarly, so
has Chris Luxon. He's been out on the campaign trail
pulling in big crowds. He's had 20 meetings. so far.
And I don't know, Labor has got to get up
to speed if it wants to have a good chance
of winning. It reminds me of the campaign that Mike

(02:19):
Moore once ran, couldn't get the numbers out and couldn't
get the numbers out to vote for him.

Speaker 1 (02:26):
Not to mention David Seymour and Paul Henry. He's drawing
big crowds around the country as well. Hey, Baz, got
to go, mate. You enjoy your weekend.

Speaker 2 (02:34):
Nice talking to you, Jamie.

Speaker 1 (02:35):
There we go. Barry Soper, a political correspondent here on
The Country.