August 11, 2026 • 14 mins
Former chairman of Beef + Lamb NZ, former Special Agricultural Trade Envoy and the current chairman of Scales Corp. Today, we buy some time with him while we wait for news from the Beehive.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
We are waiting with baited breath for something to come
out of the bee hive. Let's just see if there's
anything on our direct link to Wellington. No, there is not,
so Michelle, you keep monitoring that in the meantime, it's
the next best thing. Mike Peterson, a former chair of
Beef and Lamb, New Zealand's former Special Agricultural Trade Envoy.
(00:24):
These days the chair of Scales, You've spent many at
many an hour day months treading the corridors of power.
What are you picking?
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Well, Jamie, it's really heartening to know that I'm not
exactly the main course here. You know, I'm definitely a
substitute until the news comes through. But now look, and
I've always been picking that the current PM will be
the PM that takes a party to the election. So
I've been always quite clear that they need to be consistent.
(00:52):
I've heard Nathan Guy earlier. A change at this time
I think would be quite destructive. And so my bed
is on Chrystal Luxen to lead national and for the
Center Right to actually win the election.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
And I'm just repeating what I said earlier, but I
think it's a comment worth making. He's been a good
prime minister for farming, the primary sector and agriculture.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
No doubt about it, Jamie, And I think the trouble
is we are seeing two economies in New Zealand at
the moment and if you're an agri or regional New
Zealand by and large, you're doing pretty well. But the
big challenge, of course that politicians have got is that
Auckland is the challenge. And so unless you can win
a good proportion of the seats in Auckland, it's pretty
(01:38):
hard to win the election in spite of the regional
buoyancy that's happening out there. So part of this discontent
will be particularly the big urban centers like Auckland and
Wellington to a lesser extent, that are really struggling.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Still, what do you make of Winston's relative silence. He's
hardly said anything. David Seymour was on with Hosking this morning.
He said this is all very destabilizing and he's dead
right there, but cunning on one. He hasn't said much
at all.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
No, and would you expect that.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
I mean, I think he has been in the Pacific
Island somewhere over the last few days, but no, look
he's an experienced operator, Jamien. You've seen that coming through
in spades the guy. I think there was a couple
of points made earlier in the week is that you
know this coalition. Yes, they're fighting each other for votes,
but they're not fighting. They're all pretty much aligned on
(02:34):
the direction of travel. And you're always going to get
individual parties coming out with different views. At the stage
of the election, the center right is really scrabbling to
try to earn votes of each other.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Mike, it's meat matters week here on the country. Have
you ever known red meat to be better? You've had
a long and distinguished farming career.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Oh, it's exciting times, Jamie. And certainly for the meat sector,
the meat industry, this is not just a fed or
something that's going away. Correct with each yelp ones are
making a difference. There's a no doubt a trend and
certainly a rush to protein rich, naturally produced proteins, and
(03:16):
that's what New Zealand does so so well.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
So I know the sectors in good heart. We've got
a couple of.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Challenges, of course, and always do around things like tariffs
and some of those issues, even like the China import
quotas that have come up, which is putting a bit
more pressure on the US peach market at the moment
because Brazil and Australia are sending more product to that market.
But the fundamentals of naturally produced graph fed meat are
very strong, Jamieen.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
It's exciting to see you're the.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Chair of Scales Corp, one of our biggest horticultural companies,
but you make most of your money out of pet food.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
We do, Jamie.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
It's three divisions and their logistics of course, which has
been challenging, but in their pet food Ingredients and of
course culture the other food divisions, so and Petford Ingredients
is going pretty strongly, to be honest, and we've been
partnering with others and various markets around the world. It's
a truly global business now, so we're pretty happy with
(04:13):
we we're tracking there. And horticulture, of course has had
a bit of a bad name lately with a couple
of high profile Apple companies that have gone into liquidation,
and that's a bit of a shame because actually the
sector is fundamentally strong and the good players.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
In the sector are making good money.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
And performing well, so having bad publicity in the sector
unfortunately has been difficult for us, but you know, we
still fundamentally believe it's a great sector to be involved with.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
How is the farming season going and Central Hawk's Bay where.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
You love, Yes, Central Hawks Bay, it's a normal winter, Jamie.
It's been pretty cold of lates, but we hedden into
the winter in really good shape.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
Look, we've had some you.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Know, rather heavy rain events, but it hadn't carried on
and I think if you looked around today, you'd actually
say we could keep We want to keep getting rain.
There's a bit of nervousness about the superl Nino that
they're talking about developing in regions like Hawks Bay of
course are particularly vulnerable to those types of weather patterns,
(05:19):
and so there is a bit of nervousness, and I
suspect there'll be a lot of early decisions made in
the Hawk's faate around you know, selling stock in the
spring of things do stay dry. But at the moment,
I'd say we're in good shape, but obviously looking for
more rain and consistent rain as we get into the spring.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Kate Ackland was on kicking off Meat Matters Week on Monday,
and she's saying carbon farming is still a threat. And
I know that you know you're not a carbon farmer, Mike,
but you're into the business, so I mean, talk to me.
Is it still a threat? And we still losing good
pastoral land to forestry and I'm talking about land that
should be growing food, not trees.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Well, we don't appear to be, Jamie.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
And I heard the interview, and look, you know, we
have had some high profile farms planted in this region
in Hawk's Bay in recent times, and certainly the IKEA
portfolio has been on the media in the media quite
a bit.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
But look, the reality is that actually that seems to
have stopped.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Yes, I wouldn't deny that there are still some planting happening,
but it's nowhere near what it was. And in fact,
I would say that the government regulations have really effectively
killed that, alongside you know, the claps and the carbon
price of course, which is a distincentive for those wanting
to do that.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
One more to throw across your bell. You haven't been
out helping you, mate, Steve. When Harris look for meteorites,
have you, Mike?
Speaker 3 (06:48):
No, I haven't, Jamie.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Ivn't quite crossed the threshold into that. And look I
need to have a lot more time on my hands, frankly,
to spend five or six days in the wire rapper
looking for a piece of rocket from space. But you know,
good on them, and he's an amazing guy the way
he pursues these these pieces of fragments that are coming
into Vieu's atmosphere.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
So well, you've got to you've got to, Mike. You've
got a question a bloke who's sitting in a hot
tub at tens thirty at night looking for asteroids flying
across the horizon.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Eh, Jamie, you're going to lose viewers very quickly if
you start putting visits of that. And I can tell
you when Harrison a hot tub at ten thirty at
night is not more.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
No, no, no, no, not hate Mike, just stay online
if you can, just in case, because we've been we're
under strict starters orders here and not to go to
a break because we're expecting something. Let's just see if
there's anything coming down the line. No, there's nothing coming
down the line. So what we'll do is Mike will
just keep Mike there because we're going to have to
buy some time. But in the meantime, let's get some
(07:51):
of your feedback in there, or we could display hall
and notes, but I'll do your feedback and politics, Jamie.
When it comes to giving out jobs, I would remind
you of the saying keep your friends close and your
enemies closer, presumably so when you can see what they're
up to. From Bern and manuwatu ps your focus on
(08:12):
meat week is really good. Thank you Bern and manor
Tu Jamie. If they roll us, and I think I
will vote ACT first time ever. I think there's a
lot of people who are thinking on the center right
that they they may be disgruntled if they change the leader,
and they may go with ACT or New Zealand first. Yes,
(08:36):
and the Todd Muller fiesco raises its head once again. Right, So, Michelle,
didn't you did you a degree in politics or is
it psychology?
Speaker 4 (08:48):
Psychology? But I do love politics and psychology has a
lot to do with it.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
All right, we'll bring you in and we'll bring Mike
and because we're just buying time. Hello, Mike, you're back.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Are you right here?
Speaker 1 (08:58):
We'll let Michelle have hers? Where are you going? Me say, well,
only if only if I agree with it?
Speaker 4 (09:05):
Oh, you never agree with me. Jamie. As you know,
I'm a political when I'm in this room, so I
won't allow anything to come out. But I do think
at the stage Luckson is probably going to come out
and be safe.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Yeah. The interesting thing is, Mike, and I've mentioned this,
but it's worth repeating. A good story is worth repeating.
Last night everyone was telling me that he was toast
and Erica Stanford had the numbers. Something changed overnight and
this morning. And the other thing they're saying is the
longer the meeting lasts, and it's been going for over
three hours. Now, the better chance we have, or the
(09:40):
better chance Christopher Luckxon has of remaining National Party leader
and Prime minister. What do you think.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
I think that's right, Jamie.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
You've got to remember Christopher Luckson's He's an incredibly proud
person and there's no doubt in my mind that if
he felt he did not have the ability to carry
the caucus, he would resign quite quickly, and you make
it clean and easy. So as I say, I'm still
confident that he could and should come through, but you know,
(10:08):
these caucus politics are really difficult to read, so I
could be proven wrong in a few minutes.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
Time, but it must he's an incredible you know.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
I think one of the things about Crystal Laxon, he's
misunderstood a lot because if you talk to people who
meet with him and interact with them and talk with him,
they all say that he's an incredibly intelligent and incredibly
nice guy and that they enjoy spending time with him.
But you know, it seems to me that when the
media get a bit of a be in the bottom
(10:37):
around some of these issues and they start to whip
them for a freezy, it gets a bit meant him
all one of town. And I don't believe those calls
from last night, to be honest, that he was toasted
last night.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
I just don't accept thee.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Okay, well, they may looks like they might be proven
to be wrong. The other thing about him is, and
if you see him in his comfortable space, Matt's often
rural in New Zealand or field days or primary industry
awards or whatever. He's very gregarious, very comfortable moving amongst
large crowds and chatting to literally anyone. My observation of
(11:10):
Chris Sipkins, who I don't know as well as Chris Luxon,
is that I think he's a wee bit of an introvert.
I'm not sure he's totally comfortable being in public.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
No, they are very different people.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
And you know, one of the things I think that
the Crystal Reluction's so good at, which I think would
be really tough for a lot of people, is actually
bringing over all of the issues at the same time.
It doesn't matter whether you're talking agriculture primary sector one minute,
you could be talking about education sector the next door,
what's happening in overseas markets and trades.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
So and he's got a really good handle on all
of that information.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
So look, that's going to be an interesting call today,
but let's just wait and see. Well, I did notice
that Damian o'connorm, a friend of the Country of Gordon,
was handing outcorn to the media there today Chiki bar, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
I thought that.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
I thought that was Michelle passed me that note as well.
Yea are n Z live labor MP. Damien O'Connor has
dropped off a few bags of popcorn to the press
gallery waiting for the National Party Caucus to conclude this morning.
I say, well played, Damian O'Connor.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Oh absolutely, And of course, on the other side of
the house. I'll be watching this with a lot of glee,
and I guess there are other parties too that might
be quite quite interested in this. And no doubt the
Opportunities Party will say, here we go. This is old
politics playing out in the public arena and that's not
what we should be doing.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Okay, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, we might have to
go to Wellington hold fire.
Speaker 5 (12:49):
Great, Hey, well Ciro, Good morning everyone. As you know,
this is an absolutely pivotal election with some very very
serious issues at stake for New Zealand. I think we
have made tremendous progress as a government, rebuilding economic growth,
financial discipline, restoring law and order, and certainly strengthening education
and healthcare. But we also acknowledge that we have a
(13:11):
lot more to do. Our plan to fix the basics
and to build the future is a positive plan, a
very positive plan to help New Zealand realize the innate
potential that it has. There was a confidence vote in
my leadership this morning at our caucus meeting, and I
have the full support of our caucus, and our caucus
is united and it is determined to win this election.
(13:32):
Our focus is on national's positive plan to fix the
basics and to build the future so that we realize
the incredible potential that sits in this country and that
we set it up for our kids and our grandkids
so they can do better than we can. It's also
an opportunity to frame the choice for voters, which is
crystal clear on November seventh, an opposition that wants to
(13:53):
take New Zealand backwards or a national government that wants
to fix the basics and build the future of the
plan that takes New Zealand forward. With that, I want
to say, thanks everyone. We're going back to work and
we're moving on.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Thank you very much. You're going to get rid of.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
A well and I'm guessing from those noises that he
has decided to in the press conference. Yeah, that's it. Okay.
What we're going to do is quickly go to a
break and come back and wrap today's proceedings.
We are waiting with baited breath for something to come
out of the bee hive. Let's just see if there's
anything on our direct link to Wellington. No, there is not,
so Michelle, you keep monitoring that in the meantime, it's
the next best thing. Mike Peterson, a former chair of
Beef and Lamb, New Zealand's former Special Agricultural Trade Envoy.
(00:24):
These days the chair of Scales, You've spent many at
many an hour day months treading the corridors of power.
What are you picking?
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Well, Jamie, it's really heartening to know that I'm not
exactly the main course here. You know, I'm definitely a
substitute until the news comes through. But now look, and
I've always been picking that the current PM will be
the PM that takes a party to the election. So
I've been always quite clear that they need to be consistent.
(00:52):
I've heard Nathan Guy earlier. A change at this time
I think would be quite destructive. And so my bed
is on Chrystal Luxen to lead national and for the
Center Right to actually win the election.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
And I'm just repeating what I said earlier, but I
think it's a comment worth making. He's been a good
prime minister for farming, the primary sector and agriculture.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
No doubt about it, Jamie, And I think the trouble
is we are seeing two economies in New Zealand at
the moment and if you're an agri or regional New
Zealand by and large, you're doing pretty well. But the
big challenge, of course that politicians have got is that
Auckland is the challenge. And so unless you can win
a good proportion of the seats in Auckland, it's pretty
(01:38):
hard to win the election in spite of the regional
buoyancy that's happening out there. So part of this discontent
will be particularly the big urban centers like Auckland and
Wellington to a lesser extent, that are really struggling.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Still, what do you make of Winston's relative silence. He's
hardly said anything. David Seymour was on with Hosking this morning.
He said this is all very destabilizing and he's dead
right there, but cunning on one. He hasn't said much
at all.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
No, and would you expect that.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
I mean, I think he has been in the Pacific
Island somewhere over the last few days, but no, look
he's an experienced operator, Jamien. You've seen that coming through
in spades the guy. I think there was a couple
of points made earlier in the week is that you
know this coalition. Yes, they're fighting each other for votes,
but they're not fighting. They're all pretty much aligned on
(02:34):
the direction of travel. And you're always going to get
individual parties coming out with different views. At the stage
of the election, the center right is really scrabbling to
try to earn votes of each other.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Mike, it's meat matters week here on the country. Have
you ever known red meat to be better? You've had
a long and distinguished farming career.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Oh, it's exciting times, Jamie. And certainly for the meat sector,
the meat industry, this is not just a fed or
something that's going away. Correct with each yelp ones are
making a difference. There's a no doubt a trend and
certainly a rush to protein rich, naturally produced proteins, and
(03:16):
that's what New Zealand does so so well.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
So I know the sectors in good heart. We've got
a couple of.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Challenges, of course, and always do around things like tariffs
and some of those issues, even like the China import
quotas that have come up, which is putting a bit
more pressure on the US peach market at the moment
because Brazil and Australia are sending more product to that market.
But the fundamentals of naturally produced graph fed meat are
very strong, Jamieen.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
It's exciting to see you're the.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Chair of Scales Corp, one of our biggest horticultural companies,
but you make most of your money out of pet food.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
We do, Jamie.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
It's three divisions and their logistics of course, which has
been challenging, but in their pet food Ingredients and of
course culture the other food divisions, so and Petford Ingredients
is going pretty strongly, to be honest, and we've been
partnering with others and various markets around the world. It's
a truly global business now, so we're pretty happy with
(04:13):
we we're tracking there. And horticulture, of course has had
a bit of a bad name lately with a couple
of high profile Apple companies that have gone into liquidation,
and that's a bit of a shame because actually the
sector is fundamentally strong and the good players.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
In the sector are making good money.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
And performing well, so having bad publicity in the sector
unfortunately has been difficult for us, but you know, we
still fundamentally believe it's a great sector to be involved with.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
How is the farming season going and Central Hawk's Bay where.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
You love, Yes, Central Hawks Bay, it's a normal winter, Jamie.
It's been pretty cold of lates, but we hedden into
the winter in really good shape.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
Look, we've had some you.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Know, rather heavy rain events, but it hadn't carried on
and I think if you looked around today, you'd actually
say we could keep We want to keep getting rain.
There's a bit of nervousness about the superl Nino that
they're talking about developing in regions like Hawks Bay of
course are particularly vulnerable to those types of weather patterns,
(05:19):
and so there is a bit of nervousness, and I
suspect there'll be a lot of early decisions made in
the Hawk's faate around you know, selling stock in the
spring of things do stay dry. But at the moment,
I'd say we're in good shape, but obviously looking for
more rain and consistent rain as we get into the spring.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Kate Ackland was on kicking off Meat Matters Week on Monday,
and she's saying carbon farming is still a threat. And
I know that you know you're not a carbon farmer, Mike,
but you're into the business, so I mean, talk to me.
Is it still a threat? And we still losing good
pastoral land to forestry and I'm talking about land that
should be growing food, not trees.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Well, we don't appear to be, Jamie.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
And I heard the interview, and look, you know, we
have had some high profile farms planted in this region
in Hawk's Bay in recent times, and certainly the IKEA
portfolio has been on the media in the media quite
a bit.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
But look, the reality is that actually that seems to
have stopped.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Yes, I wouldn't deny that there are still some planting happening,
but it's nowhere near what it was. And in fact,
I would say that the government regulations have really effectively
killed that, alongside you know, the claps and the carbon
price of course, which is a distincentive for those wanting
to do that.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
One more to throw across your bell. You haven't been
out helping you, mate, Steve. When Harris look for meteorites,
have you, Mike?
Speaker 3 (06:48):
No, I haven't, Jamie.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Ivn't quite crossed the threshold into that. And look I
need to have a lot more time on my hands, frankly,
to spend five or six days in the wire rapper
looking for a piece of rocket from space. But you know,
good on them, and he's an amazing guy the way
he pursues these these pieces of fragments that are coming
into Vieu's atmosphere.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
So well, you've got to you've got to, Mike. You've
got a question a bloke who's sitting in a hot
tub at tens thirty at night looking for asteroids flying
across the horizon.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Eh, Jamie, you're going to lose viewers very quickly if
you start putting visits of that. And I can tell
you when Harrison a hot tub at ten thirty at
night is not more.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
No, no, no, no, not hate Mike, just stay online
if you can, just in case, because we've been we're
under strict starters orders here and not to go to
a break because we're expecting something. Let's just see if
there's anything coming down the line. No, there's nothing coming
down the line. So what we'll do is Mike will
just keep Mike there because we're going to have to
buy some time. But in the meantime, let's get some
(07:51):
of your feedback in there, or we could display hall
and notes, but I'll do your feedback and politics, Jamie.
When it comes to giving out jobs, I would remind
you of the saying keep your friends close and your
enemies closer, presumably so when you can see what they're
up to. From Bern and manuwatu ps your focus on
(08:12):
meat week is really good. Thank you Bern and manor
Tu Jamie. If they roll us, and I think I
will vote ACT first time ever. I think there's a
lot of people who are thinking on the center right
that they they may be disgruntled if they change the leader,
and they may go with ACT or New Zealand first. Yes,
(08:36):
and the Todd Muller fiesco raises its head once again. Right, So, Michelle,
didn't you did you a degree in politics or is
it psychology?
Speaker 4 (08:48):
Psychology? But I do love politics and psychology has a
lot to do with it.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
All right, we'll bring you in and we'll bring Mike
and because we're just buying time. Hello, Mike, you're back.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Are you right here?
Speaker 1 (08:58):
We'll let Michelle have hers? Where are you going? Me say, well,
only if only if I agree with it?
Speaker 4 (09:05):
Oh, you never agree with me. Jamie. As you know,
I'm a political when I'm in this room, so I
won't allow anything to come out. But I do think
at the stage Luckson is probably going to come out
and be safe.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Yeah. The interesting thing is, Mike, and I've mentioned this,
but it's worth repeating. A good story is worth repeating.
Last night everyone was telling me that he was toast
and Erica Stanford had the numbers. Something changed overnight and
this morning. And the other thing they're saying is the
longer the meeting lasts, and it's been going for over
three hours. Now, the better chance we have, or the
(09:40):
better chance Christopher Luckxon has of remaining National Party leader
and Prime minister. What do you think.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
I think that's right, Jamie.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
You've got to remember Christopher Luckson's He's an incredibly proud
person and there's no doubt in my mind that if
he felt he did not have the ability to carry
the caucus, he would resign quite quickly, and you make
it clean and easy. So as I say, I'm still
confident that he could and should come through, but you know,
(10:08):
these caucus politics are really difficult to read, so I
could be proven wrong in a few minutes.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
Time, but it must he's an incredible you know.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
I think one of the things about Crystal Laxon, he's
misunderstood a lot because if you talk to people who
meet with him and interact with them and talk with him,
they all say that he's an incredibly intelligent and incredibly
nice guy and that they enjoy spending time with him.
But you know, it seems to me that when the
media get a bit of a be in the bottom
(10:37):
around some of these issues and they start to whip
them for a freezy, it gets a bit meant him
all one of town. And I don't believe those calls
from last night, to be honest, that he was toasted
last night.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
I just don't accept thee.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Okay, well, they may looks like they might be proven
to be wrong. The other thing about him is, and
if you see him in his comfortable space, Matt's often
rural in New Zealand or field days or primary industry
awards or whatever. He's very gregarious, very comfortable moving amongst
large crowds and chatting to literally anyone. My observation of
(11:10):
Chris Sipkins, who I don't know as well as Chris Luxon,
is that I think he's a wee bit of an introvert.
I'm not sure he's totally comfortable being in public.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
No, they are very different people.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
And you know, one of the things I think that
the Crystal Reluction's so good at, which I think would
be really tough for a lot of people, is actually
bringing over all of the issues at the same time.
It doesn't matter whether you're talking agriculture primary sector one minute,
you could be talking about education sector the next door,
what's happening in overseas markets and trades.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
So and he's got a really good handle on all
of that information.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
So look, that's going to be an interesting call today,
but let's just wait and see. Well, I did notice
that Damian o'connorm, a friend of the Country of Gordon,
was handing outcorn to the media there today Chiki bar, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
I thought that.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
I thought that was Michelle passed me that note as well.
Yea are n Z live labor MP. Damien O'Connor has
dropped off a few bags of popcorn to the press
gallery waiting for the National Party Caucus to conclude this morning.
I say, well played, Damian O'Connor.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Oh absolutely, And of course, on the other side of
the house. I'll be watching this with a lot of glee,
and I guess there are other parties too that might
be quite quite interested in this. And no doubt the
Opportunities Party will say, here we go. This is old
politics playing out in the public arena and that's not
what we should be doing.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Okay, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, we might have to
go to Wellington hold fire.
Speaker 5 (12:49):
Great, Hey, well Ciro, Good morning everyone. As you know,
this is an absolutely pivotal election with some very very
serious issues at stake for New Zealand. I think we
have made tremendous progress as a government, rebuilding economic growth,
financial discipline, restoring law and order, and certainly strengthening education
and healthcare. But we also acknowledge that we have a
(13:11):
lot more to do. Our plan to fix the basics
and to build the future is a positive plan, a
very positive plan to help New Zealand realize the innate
potential that it has. There was a confidence vote in
my leadership this morning at our caucus meeting, and I
have the full support of our caucus, and our caucus
is united and it is determined to win this election.
(13:32):
Our focus is on national's positive plan to fix the
basics and to build the future so that we realize
the incredible potential that sits in this country and that
we set it up for our kids and our grandkids
so they can do better than we can. It's also
an opportunity to frame the choice for voters, which is
crystal clear on November seventh, an opposition that wants to
(13:53):
take New Zealand backwards or a national government that wants
to fix the basics and build the future of the
plan that takes New Zealand forward. With that, I want
to say, thanks everyone. We're going back to work and
we're moving on.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Thank you very much. You're going to get rid of.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
A well and I'm guessing from those noises that he
has decided to in the press conference. Yeah, that's it. Okay.
What we're going to do is quickly go to a
break and come back and wrap today's proceedings.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Betrayal Weekly
Betrayal Weekly is back for a new season. Every Thursday, Betrayal Weekly shares first-hand accounts of broken trust, shocking deceptions, and the trail of destruction they leave behind. Hosted by Andrea Gunning, this weekly ongoing series digs into real-life stories of betrayal and the aftermath. From stories of double lives to dark discoveries, these are cautionary tales and accounts of resilience against all odds. From the producers of the critically acclaimed Betrayal series, Betrayal Weekly drops new episodes every Thursday. If you would like to share your story, you can reach out to the Betrayal Team by emailing them at betrayalpod@gmail.com and follow us on Instagram at @betrayalpod and @glasspodcasts. Please join our Substack for additional exclusive content, curated book recommendations, and community discussions. Sign up FREE by clicking this link Beyond Betrayal Substack. Join our community dedicated to truth, resilience, and healing. Your voice matters! Be a part of our Betrayal journey on Substack.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com