Leighton Smith Podcast #270 - February 5th 2025 - Shane Jones

It’s no secret that New Zealand is confronted with numerous and problematic issues.

There is a common belief that leadership is a major cause of those problems. And not just political leadership; it is widespread.

There is a weakness that can only be confronted by strength of character and a determination that is in short supply.

Deputy Leader of NZ First, Shane Jones provides “character” that may not please some, but is worthy of consideration by those who come up short of requirements.

And, after the Mailroom with Mrs Producer, we consider a couple of those matters.

File your comments and complaints at [e-mail]

Haven't listened to a podcast before? Check out our simple how-to guide.

Listen here on iHeartRadio

Leighton Smith's podcast also available on iTunes:
To subscribe via iTunes click here

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
You're listening to a podcast from news talks it B.
Follow this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
It's time for all the attitude, all the opinion, all
the information, all the debates of the now the Leighton
Smith Podcast powered by news talks it B.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Welcome to podcasts two hundred and seventy for February five,
twenty twenty five, and may I welcome you to the
seventh year of the Laten Smith Podcast.

Speaker 3 (00:37):
Now.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
At the end of last year, I had the idea
of leading twenty five with someone whose opinion would not
only be interesting but also useful and not to forget, entertaining.
Shane Jones, Deputy Leader of New Zealand. First, I thought
qualified on all counts. We were due to record on
the same day that Donald Trump was sworn in, but

(01:01):
I had technical issues and we had about three different
attempts and couldn't overcome, so it was done the next day.
But the reason I mentioned that is because he was
most courteous, most obliging, in fact extremely obliging, and fulfilled
my expectations with what I thought he would provide. Now,

(01:23):
if you're wondering why we recorded that earlier, it was
because he was going to be tied up at this
particular time with White TANGI matters now at the back end,
following the mail room with missus producer, I draw your
attention to if you don't already know what the present
government is absconding from in its responsibilities, Well that's my

(01:45):
interpretation of the way things are coming about. I expect
that most of you will be agreeable with that, but
you'll have to make your own judgment call at the time.
But what is taking place at the moment is I
believe undesirable and incompetent and a betrayal. And I'm sure

(02:07):
that most of you will agree, but you'll have to
make up your own mind and do let me know,
by the way, So in just a moment, mister Jones.

Speaker 3 (02:22):
Layton Smith.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
Leverrix is an antihistamine made in Switzerland to the highest quality.
Leverix relieves hay fever in skin, allergies or itchy skin.
It's a dual action antihistamine and has a unique nasal
decongestent action. It's fast acting for fast relief, and it
works in under an hour and lasts for over twenty

(02:45):
four hours. Lebrix is a tiny tablet that unblocks the nose,
deals with itchy eyes, and stops sneezing. Lebrix is an
antihistamine made in Switzerland to the highest quantity. So next
time you're in need of an effective antihistamine, call into
the pharmacy and ask for Leverrix lv Rix levrix and

(03:08):
always read the label. Takes directed and if symptoms persist,
see your health professional. Farmer Broker Auckland. Jane Jones is
the deputy leader of the New Zealand First Party. He
has a number of number of roles covering energy, finance,

(03:31):
oceans and fisheries, regional development and resources, Associate Minister for
some and Minister for others. If you look at his history,
he's got a hell of a lot of positions. Therefore,
one presumes experience building and instruction, forestry, immigration, infrastructure, regional
economic development which continues at the moment, trade, transport, etc. Etc.

(03:56):
Is also a reputation for being a talented racon term,
but that may depend on your opinion of the man
or what he's saying at any given time. So it
is with the great pleasure I welcome you to the
Late and Smith Podcast. The first of twenty twenty five,
and Shane, we're releasing this on the fifth of February,

(04:18):
the day before White Tangy Day, but we are recording
it on the twenty second of January. And there's a
reason that I wanted to outline this and make it
clear because yesterday both of you and I, separately and
independently spent quite a bit of quite a bit of
time watching the inauguration of Donald Trump in Washington, d C.

(04:41):
So again, welcome to the podcast. What did you take
out of yesterday?

Speaker 3 (04:46):
Well, greetings, Yes.

Speaker 4 (04:48):
Well, I went out of my way to actually watch
the speech.

Speaker 3 (04:55):
Live, and then I went back and listened to it again.

Speaker 4 (04:59):
For me, the speech, if I start, there was an
experience of unmanling af I think what Trump is giving
voice to and articulating, he is giving license to people,

(05:21):
not only in the States, but through the OECD through
a lot of Western countries, to move beyond the culture
of being shamed, the culture of feeling personally responsible or
being burdened with a sense of being the author of injustice.

(05:46):
It may or may not have been perpetrated over centuries,
and this has been perfected through the woke ideology, and
he put all of that to the sword yesterday in
that speech. And I don't think we should underestimate how
that's going to unfetter and unmanicle a host of constraints

(06:07):
that have had the effect of censoring people, had the
effect of causing them to be cocoon.

Speaker 3 (06:15):
And I think nothing else. That's why he won power.

Speaker 2 (06:19):
And I've not heard it put like that before, and
I congratulate you on it. I think I think you're
absolutely right. There was plenty of discussion, plenty of print
with regard to the politicization of the stepping outside the
usual and arguably accepted boundaries of what that inauguration speech is,

(06:41):
no matter who the president might might be. But that's him,
from beginning to end, step outside the norm and fix
things that appear or really are broken. And there was
a hell of a lot broken in the United States,
and as a result, and I think that you will agree,

(07:01):
as a result, a hell of a lot that's been
broken elsewhere in the world.

Speaker 3 (07:06):
I couldn't agree more.

Speaker 4 (07:07):
We've got, well, we've got a situation even in our
fair isles here in the South Pacific, where sure have
imported some of the excesses that have lighted the United States.

Speaker 3 (07:21):
And we're.

Speaker 4 (07:24):
Embodied when Kamala Harris sought to be a patriotic fighter,
she wasn't a fighter of freedom.

Speaker 3 (07:34):
She was a far left fundamentalist.

Speaker 4 (07:38):
And she ran an ideology just because she was a woman,
a person of color, that people would naturally support her.

Speaker 3 (07:46):
And we've got here that in New Zealand. Look at
the Maori Party.

Speaker 4 (07:50):
Who continually say to Winston and I that our Maori
ancestry is diluted. It makes a mockery of what it
means to be a champion for maldi things. I mean,
Winston and I detest that foul conception of where the
mild dimension in New Zealand culture and society sit. Which

(08:13):
is why every day we stand up in Parliament, why
every day we say in the media, it's a contributing,
key feature of what it means to be a New Zealander.
But stop using it as a crutch, Stop turning it
into a basis for a new set of moral pleadings,

(08:38):
as if history has burdened people that they can never
ever fulfill their potential. Now all of that has been
put to the sword by Trump's victory, and I look
forward with Wanston to continuing that message here in New Zealand.
I know, look, I'm diverting a bit, but you did ask.

Speaker 2 (08:56):
Me, No, you're not diverting, you're saving me to You're
saving me the trouble and asking the question that to
would have let us down the same path. Having watched
you on X make some commentaries where you said, amongst
other things, colonialism and colonization are not responsible for jail numbers,

(09:18):
and then talked about this is in a very short
space of time, talked about responsibility as in personal responsibility
to stop off loading to aspects of history and current
day failings and trying to line them up as one
responsible for the other. Then you said, the Treaty of
white An you should not be evoked to explain why

(09:40):
ram raiders or other types of criminality exist. And you
said a lot more, what sort of reaction do you
get from that?

Speaker 4 (09:52):
Well, obviously out in the wasteland otherwise known as TikTok
and other such intellectual deserts, you can imagine it's pretty
extreme language. But the difficulty is it's very difficult to
engage on the basis of ideas because this goes for

(10:13):
the heart of what does it actually mean to be
a New Zealander. And how do you define the essence
of what is the substance that holds identity and holds
a society together?

Speaker 3 (10:33):
And I'll tell you what corrodes.

Speaker 4 (10:35):
It is the continual drip of polarizing poison that is
poured out both by the Green Party and partially the
deluded souls in the Labor Party, but in the Malti Party.
And what, in my view is happening is that there
are not enough of us in politics who are calling

(10:57):
out that corrosive, destructive influence. I mean, it's akin to
a virus and it's going to attack the essential organs
of our community and society unless we can newly rail
against it. So I've got a mandate from our caucus. Fortunately,
I believe in what I'm saying. My dad was one
of seventeen children, like a lot of people of Kaitai area,

(11:20):
of the Katai area and the north West, the Bobby
Carbs that have been killed at birth, or a mix
of the influences that made the north the Galleys, the Maldi's,
the early pioneers came from the Parkers. We came from
Wales in England, and it's just that we grew up
in a certain way where church was important Mom and dad,

(11:42):
and we house next to the Jaci stallone it next
to the Madai. But none of that has turned into
an ideological motive or fig leaf that you use to
define everything about yourself, the particularities of your identity becoming
the sole basis upon which, how upon which you project

(12:06):
whether or not you're fit for a particular role, or
whether you should be considered for a particular role. And
we're just going to move beyond that. And at the moment,
the left has seized upon, seized upon the treaty, and
seize upon conceptions of history as meaning that you cannot

(12:30):
be Milordi unless you go back and bring them worst
interpretation of history to justify why things aren't working out
to the satisfaction of some a tiny minority in the
Maori world.

Speaker 3 (12:46):
But of course the politicians and.

Speaker 4 (12:48):
The Maori Party in other areas it using that as
a recruitment device.

Speaker 3 (12:51):
They're radicalized in their new generation.

Speaker 4 (12:54):
Those who don't want to be radicalized are too busy
paying their bills, or they're buggering off to Australia.

Speaker 2 (13:00):
And there's been plenty of that. I am speaking of Australia.
Arrived from Australia in nineteen eighty, so we're talking now
forty five years ago.

Speaker 4 (13:12):
I remember when you arrived in nineteen eighty, you and
I were in a law class together. How long did
you stay in that class? Ah? Sadly, you and I
we were treotored by a chap called Stephen Koch, who
went on, I think you might be on the Supreme Court.

Speaker 3 (13:28):
And I did two years of law and then moved on.

Speaker 4 (13:31):
I certainly could see in quick order I was never
ever going to be a practicing lawyer, although I was
attracted to concepts of law and whatnot.

Speaker 3 (13:39):
But that's where I first met you.

Speaker 2 (13:41):
Well, it's interesting, and what was your impression by the way.

Speaker 4 (13:45):
Of yourself? Well, a memorable personality. Because I'm able to
recite the fact that that's where I met you in
the tutorial to do with law.

Speaker 2 (13:56):
Then it seems that we have some more in common
than I might have imagined. Because I got as far
as the second year, yes, myself as well myself, and
then decided that well, I'd always wanted to do what
I what I ended up doing, so let's just leave
it at that. And I moved on But what I

(14:16):
was going to say was that when I arrived, I
garnered an opinion in the first nine months, and I
told you why. I remember that because I was working
for Radio New Zealand and in September, if I remember correctly,
we all were taken to the Marai up on the

(14:39):
up on the coast, oh Okay, and we and we
spent we spent a weekend there, two nights, okay. Now
part from the fact that on the after the after
the first night, I went across the road and went
to the races for the day and skipped skipped class.
I recall that we're all lined up in rows in

(15:01):
the marais and there were a lot of people and
we started at the beginning and we went down the
roads one by one and everybody had to make commentary
m and there was a guy who from from Radio
New Zealand Rural who stood up and started apologizing for everything,
everything that he could think of that I deserved to

(15:25):
be apologized for. And there was a response to it
straight after, and it was from a woman who I
understood shouldn't have been up on stage because that's not protocol,
but she got up there and I don't know exactly
what she said, but her tone was angry and shed
asused him for much the same sort of reason that

(15:48):
you would have done the same, and that made that
made a very big impression. Now, the real reason I
mentioned this was because I have I've said on a
number of occasions recently that in the in the when
I got here, there was much discussion going on about
race relations the Treaty of Waitangi, and nothing has changed now.

(16:11):
If you want confirmation of that, yesterday I was told
of the commentary of a man who is very successful,
who said that he thought that race relations in New
Zealand now was worse than it was forty years ago. Now,

(16:31):
this had no connection with what I've just told you
about my thoughts, none at all. It was told to
me by an intermediately. But that race relations in New
Zealand it is worse now than it was forty years ago,
you would say.

Speaker 4 (16:46):
I think what he may be referring to is the
echo chamber that social media represents, the.

Speaker 3 (16:56):
Fact that we.

Speaker 4 (16:58):
Live in a climate and a culture of microaggression and
small perceived slights are immediately exaggerated and amplified. And because
I wake up every day as a professional politician willing
to argue my case. And if it comes to pass

(17:20):
that a few awkward things are said by me, I
don't lose any sleepover it. And if you say angry, challenging,
offensive things to me, I just wear it like a boxer.
I don't turn it into a new form of grievance.
But we live in a time where grievance culture too

(17:43):
often is celebrated and.

Speaker 3 (17:49):
The most sort of kind of.

Speaker 4 (17:53):
Ugly examples of it are in the transgender walls, the
extreme interpretation of Maori entitlements, which have completely distorted the
meaning of the treaty, completely derailed the proper and appropriate
place of the multi dimension as a part of New

(18:15):
Zealand society. So I feel that where people can see
that our situation is worse than maybe it was in
the sixties, I think it's more a comment that the
tools that you can promote and exaggerate and amplify are
a lot more potent. And it's the same as in
the States and my personal experience. What has changed is

(18:41):
the level of dysfunctionalism, the level of.

Speaker 3 (18:45):
Welfare, the level of violence.

Speaker 4 (18:51):
That we are not holding people responsible for these hideous
acts that we see on a regular basis and with
the diminution of being responsible facing.

Speaker 3 (19:03):
Up to the consequences.

Speaker 4 (19:05):
And I don't fully understand how the calculus works when
the judges take account of various upbringing factors or your
ethnicity and all that sort of stuff. I mean, I
worried about it in the newspaper, but honestly I don't
fully understand it. But I think it's turned into an industry,

(19:27):
and there's a whole legal arm there's a whole legal
fraternity who knows how to lessen the impact of a
person's wrongdoing. And the victims, I think, just give up
and try and put their lives back together. And then
these men and women who do these hideous things often
don't face the full costs of what society demands that
they should face. So in that way, if I can

(19:49):
find a biblical analogy, I'm very much of the Old Testament, meaning, well,
if you are, you don't know, if you know, if
you know a little, these bloody, hideous things mate that
we read about on a regular basis, and the punitive
response seems adversely related. Sure, I mean, as a society

(20:14):
we should have that Christian dimension. If you're willing to
change your ways and stretch my hand out of helping.
But if you're not going to change your ways, I
really don't care. Just get the hell out of my face.
And if we condemn you to be excluded and held somewhere,
I don't care.

Speaker 3 (20:33):
Just get the hell out of my face.

Speaker 4 (20:34):
I find my life complicated and challenging enough without suffering
the prospect of you further blighting it.

Speaker 2 (20:41):
You went to Yale, No, it wasn't Yale, it was
Harvard and the kids Kennedy School. What did you study?

Speaker 4 (20:49):
I went with my wife and four young children and
spent a small fortune getting over there. I was fortunate
enough to have a we scholarship, our scholarship, shall I say,
from the Harkness Fellowship, And I did economics.

Speaker 3 (21:03):
I did.

Speaker 4 (21:06):
What else did I do? Economics? Local economy, finance strategy.
I did a paper offered by an American academic called Fisher.
He wrote a book, Getting to Yes on Negotiations. That

(21:27):
was in nineteen ninety nineteen ninety one. And as a
part of the fellowship that I had been awarded, we
had the ability to move around the States over a
four or five month period and stayed at the campgrounds
of America and visited and saw large parts of America,

(21:47):
and I remain eternally grateful, which is why I always say,
don't ever bet against America.

Speaker 2 (21:53):
It's a sensible saying. I draw your attention to the
fact that not just from yesterday and the executive orders
in large numbers that were signed by I was going
to say, the new president, well, the old new president,
the new old president have already had had some effect.
That it started, it started before that, it started after

(22:15):
the election, and a lot of things have changed. And
by that I mean there is now a I saw
a headline just this morning about the reduction in the
reduction and withdrawal of a number of large companies from
matters like DEEI and wocism, and it's amazing. It's amazing

(22:42):
to see this happen so quickly, because it indicates, it
indicates to me that it was only ever adopted in
the first place for shall we say, politically correct reasons,
and to be looking to well to get the tick
from wherever you needed to get the tick from the
stand up and take this previous abomination that has affected

(23:05):
so many, so many countries, so many companies, so many people,
and the fact that it's changing now. It flowed down
from America in the first place. I talk about woke matters.
Do you imagine that the eradication of it will follow
the same path.

Speaker 3 (23:27):
If we have public figures.

Speaker 4 (23:30):
Like Winston who are willing to call it out on
a regular basis, who are willing to expose how absurd,
self serving it is, and how it's inversely related to
the interests of the people that it's purported to serve.

Speaker 3 (23:49):
I mean, look no further than the high.

Speaker 4 (23:52):
Priests of American wocism, which was Disneyland. So they no
doubt were channeling what they conceived to be the power
culture of that time. That's coming gone now and we're
going back. As I said at the beginning, we're going
I mean, I think what's really needed in New Zealand

(24:16):
And I mean, obviously we're a smaller country and we've
got a village complex in many respects. However, it's often
said about Kiwis that we constantly look for affirmation. Apparently
we ask people who come here or we bump into
people and we ask and what do they think about
us in a wall and whatnot? And what New Zealand first,

(24:40):
and what Winston and I are very keen to do.
Is that we're not going to solve our social cultural
dysfunctionalism unless we grow economically. We're not going to grow
economically until we unleash the animal spirits that actually drove
the innovation, the risk taking, and the frontier mentality that's

(25:04):
almost been driven out of us through excessive regulation, the
inability to call a spade a spade, the kind of
censorship of language it's it is. It is truly astounding
how far it's gone. And the only way you can
push back on it is that Number one, there has
to be some public figures at the vanguard who are

(25:26):
continually articulating what people are feeling. And I think there's
a genuine political market there and it's one that I
think that Wiston on our behalf tapped into. And it
doesn't need to be particularly ascetic or offenses, but it
has to be based on authenticity.

Speaker 2 (25:44):
Can you name any other politicians in government at the
moment that would fall into that category apart from the
two of you.

Speaker 4 (25:54):
Well, I mean, obviously we've got to we've got to tend,
but we've got to attend our own, our own estate.
Perhaps Judith Collins has got some very firm views about
these things. Obviously, she showed that she's not going to
be bullied. For example, in terms of how science funding

(26:17):
is utilized, I saw her in Parliament prior to Christmas
pointing out that some of the money being allocated under
the rubric of social progressivism was nothing short of a
random nonsense and it was being used to advance the
peculiar careers of a limited number of people who kind

(26:40):
of set up a little echo chamber in our universities.
So that's an example. But at the end of the day, mate,
we've got to get out there, we've got to put
our own shingle up and convinced Kiwis that we've got
the fortitude, the lucidity of thought and language to give

(27:02):
voice to anxiety that Qui families have.

Speaker 2 (27:05):
The same as I would suggest that if you went
to Harvard now to Harvard Kennedy, you wouldn't you wouldn't
be learning, you wouldn't be taught the same things and
in the same way. And that has spread to as
far as I'm aware, every university in this country. Now
there are exceptions within it, but if you take my

(27:27):
favorite example, which is a target the people now who
have been appointed to run a targo or the hangovers
from a failed government of this country of most recent times,
and after what they did to this country, why on
earth would you want to go to an institution that
is run by people that failed so dismally. Well, the

(27:52):
universities are in the midst of a significant crisis. Unless
they can offer a product, unless they can offer an experience.
We're people so much are willing to pay, but they
can continue to generate value, then they are going to

(28:16):
wither because the days are over of continually shelling peas
to deliver courses that are inversely related to what the
economy needs.

Speaker 4 (28:27):
This is what I'm telling you. We've ended up creating factories.
And those factories have been built recently on a moral philosophy,
which is a type and a secular society, a type
of religion as to how you should think, your thoughts,
your beliefs are curated by these pharisees in these universities.

(28:52):
And I've been upgraded. Nowhere has it been more damaging
in the whole area of how the meaning of Maldi
custom Tikanga, the treaty has been trusted. This notion that
you can't for example, extract Ironsand's thirty kilometers off the
coast of Taranaki because it's offense of Tikkung and Maui.

(29:16):
There is probably the most brightest example of intellectual folly.
If we don't use the resources of the country, if
we don't produce wealth from our natural bounty, then we're
going to go broke. There's no wealth to be created

(29:37):
from doing each other's washing or continually selling.

Speaker 3 (29:40):
Property to each other. We need to use.

Speaker 4 (29:44):
The kind of legacy of mother nature, exploit it, turn
it into a flow of goods and services, like every
other successful economy is doing. It's one oh one mate.

Speaker 2 (29:56):
So the export of our products at this point of
time is we're on a scale of one hundred.

Speaker 3 (30:03):
Do you think, oh, we'll declined. We've declined markedly.

Speaker 4 (30:07):
Remember there were always there expectation that we go to
a third and beyond third.

Speaker 3 (30:10):
We well below a third.

Speaker 4 (30:12):
Now, look, I'm giving a major speech on the thirty
first of January because we're unveiling the critical Mineral strategy
and hyh and that speech which I'm giving is to
asfirm that this is a government, this is a minister
not going to be Caud, not going to be shouted down,
not going to be intimidated about affirming and accentuating the

(30:35):
key role that minerals should have, can have, and will
have in our economic equation. I mean the perversity that
we believe that we're clean and green, but we're importing
Indonesian coals, so we export jobs and import carbon. I
mean it is so absurd words are likely to fail

(30:57):
me as difficult as people.

Speaker 3 (30:58):
Might think that is likely to take place.

Speaker 2 (31:02):
Indeed, I'm looking at a list of gold production from
nineteen ninety three to twenty twenty three in measured in
killos kilograms, and there it's an all inclusive list, but
it's attributed to mccraze, including production from open cast and

(31:23):
underground operations from two thousand and eight onward. Why he
includes production of open cast and underground operations from two
thousand and six onward and other which doesn't really matter,
but there's a lot of minuses there. In other words,
the total production is down. And if I go to
more recent times, let me see twenty sixteen minus twenty

(31:48):
two point two percent, up four point three percent, the
following year down two point four percent, down eighteen point
two down, twenty eight point seven. Gold production intrigues me
a great deal because the gold and silver have been
a hobby, if you like, if not physically so much

(32:09):
as interest over a lengthy period of time. And both
of those particular elements have shall we say, struck gold
at this particular point of time, so totally New Zealand.
New Zealand has how much potential for profiting from that?

Speaker 4 (32:31):
Look, I'm going to Auckland, Atlanta today to meet a
delegation of investors who are coming here and they are
signing off an investment program of hundreds of millions of
dollars to expand gold production. They haven't just suddenly discovered gold,

(32:59):
but what is now available in New Zealand as a
regime that gives you confidence there is light at the.

Speaker 3 (33:07):
End of the statutory tunnel number.

Speaker 4 (33:09):
Two that there is a backchop where this type of
extractive industry is no longer going to be demonized. The
investors won't be stigmatized, and they will not be subject
to this ongoing molestation from small groups who know how

(33:32):
to use social media, who know how to manipulate politicians,
and who try to close down these industries.

Speaker 3 (33:38):
Those days Agne in a thousand million years.

Speaker 4 (33:43):
I'm never going to back down to that type of
green peace thuggery. And that's how you get jobs, that's
how you boost economic export earnings.

Speaker 3 (33:55):
We have no shortage of goal in New Zealand.

Speaker 4 (33:58):
We've got Santana that is expanding in Bendigo, that's in
central Otago. Coramndel is riddled with gold and sadly there's
some well organized hippies and of doll blodging anti capitalist
people over there who have ruled the roost for far
too long, and with fast track, their views will be

(34:21):
only one consideration that will be given due regard to
and there's not only a host of other minerals. But
we have a regime now where people can make those
applications and they won't be held hostage to will no
longer be able to make their lives misery over years

(34:46):
and years of delay, where they treat as a deity
some obscure snail, some largely irrelevant insect, or some frog
that's likely to be eaten by a captain cooker pig
before it disappears under the track of a bulldozer. These

(35:08):
fairy tales, all of this fiction is now going to
be swept Aside.

Speaker 2 (35:13):
Talked to us about fast Track.

Speaker 3 (35:17):
Well.

Speaker 4 (35:17):
Fast Track is a piece of legislation that's traceable back
to the coalition agreement between New Zealand First and the
National Party, and what we agreed to do with the
support of the Egg Party was to create a one
stop shop where large projects could make an application that

(35:40):
would not be held hostage to buy nimbiism or suffer
the problems that have constantly blighted larger projects in regional
New Zealand. A panel of specialists who have competencies relevant

(36:01):
to the application. So if it's a mining application, we'll
get engineers involved to understand geology. If it's a housing issue,
will get engineers who are civilly trained. We won't have
all these worthies who have done half a dozen courses
and then who arrive and visit upon us fanciful interpretations

(36:24):
of the law which makes the rest of us poorer
and they suffer no accountability for their wayward decisions. So
it's kicking off this year. There'll be a variety of
panels that have the authority to receive these applications and
they will be processed and turned around in short order,

(36:45):
and in my view, it will be the most permissive
efficient regime certainly in all the states, including New Zealand
of Australasia, and it's already captured the attention of investors
from Canada in the United States. And indeed, the first
thing that Trump said in the resource management space is
that he's going to pass a fast track piece of legislation.

Speaker 2 (37:08):
Indeed, interestingly, I interviewed on the podcast an American who
was here last year early last year, and it's involved
with why he or something a new mine or potential mine,
and why he undoubtedly he or the organization that he

(37:29):
represents will be there, will be there today. I look,
there are so many other aspects of life that I
want to raise with you, so let me hit on
a few. I suppose you could say we touched on
education with universities, but just briefly, how is the education

(37:51):
system in this country working? From your perspective?

Speaker 4 (37:56):
Well, a fear I have, and it's a matter that's
been discussed on numerous occasions with New Zealand, first amongst ourselves.

Speaker 3 (38:04):
Is that we fear that.

Speaker 4 (38:08):
Too much power has been taken from the principles and
the key people in schools so that you do have
and there and they're presenting themselves with more of These
kids are presenting with more frequency, they are able to
be far too disruptive and the options of dealing with

(38:31):
their disruptiveness are limited.

Speaker 3 (38:35):
So that's that's something I see in Northland.

Speaker 4 (38:39):
At a deeper level, our Prime Minister is absolutely correct.
We have drifted away from the quality of robust basic
education that I grew up with, ensuring that you can read, write, count,
and insisting that those are the essential building blocks for

(39:03):
a well adjusted New Zealand teenager and New Zealand adult. Fine,
it's good to have the ability to pursue the humanities
or the sciences and the disciplines, et cetera. But the
first building blocks can you count, can you compute?

Speaker 3 (39:21):
Can you read? Can you write?

Speaker 4 (39:24):
And if you can't do that, then the education system
is simply creating a new range of criminals.

Speaker 2 (39:34):
It's also reflected in the standard quality of the teachers
that are failing some of those students, is it not.

Speaker 4 (39:46):
Yeah, I mean, obviously teacher training is a matter that's
always in the need of attention. But my mum was
a teacher, okay, and then occasionally last year mom would
go and help the young teachers endeavoring to get.

Speaker 3 (40:04):
The wee kiddies whose parents, Oh.

Speaker 4 (40:08):
I don't know what ever happens, whether they're on drugs
or booze or whatever, any of the kids are lighted.
So she's a very very gifted teacher and turned eighty
six yesterday. Actually, so I think it's not only the
quality of the trading for a teacher. It's not and
there are various emolguments, but it's the environment that they're

(40:29):
working in. Where you have an environment and you maybe
it's an issue with larger schools and you have particularly
disruptive and increasingly violent kids, you cannot allow that disruptiveness
to infect negatively the learning environment of the majority of
your kids.

Speaker 3 (40:48):
Just cannot tolerate it.

Speaker 2 (40:51):
You're also Associate Minister for Finance. You've had things to
say about Treasury and about the Reserve Bank. Would you
like to update.

Speaker 4 (41:02):
Oh, well, obviously, the party and myself with our leader,
I mean, we we only see one way. We came
in and we said unless we grow the economy, we're
not going to overcome our obvious problems. You can't cut
cut and effect growth outcomes. Sure where we find egregious

(41:25):
examples of stupid expenditure or expenditure that there's no longer
sustainable or it's unaffordable by all means.

Speaker 3 (41:34):
Rationalize that.

Speaker 4 (41:36):
But as I said, unless we unleash the animal spirits
of entrepreneurialism, risk taking, and minimize the imposition of red tape,
you're not going to get that new wave of economic
renaissance in New Zealand.

Speaker 3 (41:54):
And that's what Treasury now needs to focus on.

Speaker 4 (42:00):
I think that I think that economic policy is beyond
fiscal policy. Economic policy, I'll tell you one thing there
we did and I lead, which was to enable the
marine farming industry to grow by extending all current permits
till twenty fifty. Just think about what I said. If

(42:22):
you have a marine farming permit at the moment, bang,
you don't need to renew it until about twenty fifty.

Speaker 3 (42:28):
Well, the dough is.

Speaker 4 (42:29):
Pouring in as I speak, into that segment of the
New Zealand economy because people know that they won't be.

Speaker 3 (42:40):
They won't be done over.

Speaker 4 (42:42):
By zealous bureaucrats, they won't be gained by environmental groups
or Hapoo's trying to close down their business on the
spurious basis of I don't know rare sea sponges or
something like that. All of those opportunities for gaming I've stopped,

(43:05):
and we need to do the same thing with vegetable growing.

Speaker 3 (43:08):
Verse.

Speaker 4 (43:08):
We're about to bring vegetables in from Thailand, I'm told
because vegetable growers cannot meet these exacting water quality standards
that have been imposed on them. It is truly astounding
that we're allowing this sort of thing to happen in
New Zealand's in my view, in terms of economic policy
and what treasure can help us. Shep it through. There's

(43:32):
a lot of those statutory consent barriers. We should just
be done away with them. Well, how did they such
other challenges? How did such are the challenges? How did
they invade? How did they invade in the first place? Well,
successive groups of politicians have blindly followed the advice of officials,

(43:52):
not pushed back.

Speaker 3 (43:55):
And past.

Speaker 4 (43:59):
Blithely a variety of policy statements, and then they've been
interpreted by regional and local government.

Speaker 3 (44:05):
You already know this story.

Speaker 4 (44:07):
I recall Building saying a few years ago that town
and country planets of Auckland had more power than the
Prime Minister. And of course, when the regional councilors try
to rain in the town and country planets or whatever
the how they're called. Now they're told, oh, you're at governess,
this is executive, so then they have the ability to
exercise a normalous authority.

Speaker 3 (44:26):
I'll give you a perverse example in New Zealand, if
you want to.

Speaker 4 (44:31):
Put up a shelter about, it has to be three
meters in from the road, if it's an artificial shelter about.

Speaker 3 (44:37):
So just think about this.

Speaker 4 (44:38):
Were meant to be looking after elite soils, so you
can grow tuck up, but you're not allowed to use
the three meters in from the road. You have to
have a shell about if it's an artificial and three
meters but if, however, if it's planting a row of trees,
it can be right on the road. I mean, just stupid,
my numbingly foolish things like that. And if you add

(44:59):
them all up, it does impede productivity. But who's responsible
for that. You go to the mayor doesn't even know
it's happening. You go to the councilors. They try to
something about it. Oh you're going to go to the CEO,
goes to the head of planning, and nothing happens, so
I believe, which is what I've done for the regional

(45:20):
sorry for resource consents for marine farming not flew away
with them.

Speaker 3 (45:24):
That's what's happened.

Speaker 4 (45:26):
Places going to flower and those of us who enjoy
eating the bounty of the ocean, We're going to see
lots more of it for exports and domestic purposes.

Speaker 2 (45:39):
I should ask you your your thoughts on the current
debate and battle, even with regard to the ownership of
the coastline.

Speaker 4 (45:54):
Well, I read this morning that a judge and I
have to I don't want to revisit big fight I
had last year and I dismissed the judge as a communist.

Speaker 3 (46:04):
I've moved on from that.

Speaker 4 (46:06):
But I saw that a judge has needed to allocate
customary title. I think that Court of Appeal decision that
liberalized the interpretation and simplified the process for hapo's to
get their rights recognized in the Seabedd and Foreshaw environment.

(46:32):
It's being largely corrected by the Supreme Court passing and
issuing a judgment late last year. But at a deeper level,
the more uncertainty that one introduces, then the more barriers
you're putting in the way of those who want to

(46:54):
invest or those who want to turn those spaces into enterprise,
whether it's expanding ports, whether it's creating other enterprises, and
we just can't afford it. Look, look, look, we've created
a situation in New Zealand where we've got a regulatory

(47:15):
edifice that is unaffordable for a tiny population of five
million people an economy of four hundred billion GDP. We
just cannot afford to bear the dead weight burden of.

Speaker 3 (47:30):
All of these regulations.

Speaker 4 (47:33):
And obviously David Seymour's endeavoring to strip them everywhere I
find them in my area, they are being eviscerated. I
told you what I don't know marine farming. I'm about
to do a similar thing with fishing. We're going to
do a similar thing with mining. But as I said,
these are relatively smallest areas in our economy, but in

(47:56):
some regions they're incredibly important because they're large scale employers
and they generate doe for us and for the listeners
who understand economics, said no, that exports beings, fresh money
from an alternative, from an external source absolutely what the
country needs.

Speaker 2 (48:14):
There are two areas that that are of a considerable concern.
Let me let me deal with electricity first, the power
supply and the government. The government launched a review to
ensure electricity market is fit for purpose. The one person
that I that I rely on for solid, sound, sensible,

(48:39):
accurate information it says. It says we are on the
verge of total total collapse. Mm hmm, well you've I
might have exaggerated that, but only very slightly.

Speaker 4 (48:52):
Yeah, now you've followed what I said I once den
I in New Zealand. First, we've long concluded that the
current structure that represents electricity industries no longer fit for purpose.
It was, it was introduced and it's calcified since the

(49:13):
mid to late nineties. Sadly, we only got six percent
six percent of the vote last time around, so we're
unable to bring our.

Speaker 3 (49:24):
Reform agenda, which was substantial.

Speaker 4 (49:27):
And where I'm the Associate Minister of Energy and there's
a new guy, Minister Watts. I'm hoping he brings substantial
wattage rhythm and the options that may be contained in
the reports by the Commerce Commission and the Electricity Authority,
that we make a move on them, because it's going

(49:50):
to have a deathly.

Speaker 3 (49:51):
Impact on our economy.

Speaker 4 (49:53):
If our economy, if our if security continues to diminish,
but affordability.

Speaker 3 (50:00):
Continues to spin out of control.

Speaker 4 (50:03):
And I put productivity problems in New Zealand at the
feet of energy before I put it anywhere else.

Speaker 2 (50:13):
I've not heard anybody say that before. They may have,
but I haven't heard it. And it's sound and principled
and correct. The new rules to be introduced that require
fuel companies to hold at least ten days of jet
fuel near the country's busiest airport to provide resilience against

(50:35):
supplied disruptions currently either being introduced or have been introduced.
You update me.

Speaker 3 (50:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (50:45):
So, several years ago there was an incident south of
Fargada where a digger ruptured the pipeline coming out of
Marston Point.

Speaker 3 (50:55):
That pipeline was eventually.

Speaker 4 (50:58):
Repaired and a report was inevitably produced. Amongst other things,
it called for the fuel companies to store more fuel
for aviation purposes on site somewhere near the airport. Fast

(51:18):
forward five or six years jacket happened. So at the
end of last year told the fuel companies the game's up,
passing regulations. If you want to stay in New Zealand,
you have to do it, and surprise, surprise, they all
agreed to do it. The sad thing is that they've
been promising to do it for the last five or

(51:38):
six years, but for reasons I don't even go into
all this program, it never happened.

Speaker 3 (51:44):
Is it a good thing to do?

Speaker 4 (51:45):
Well, it's never a good thing to rely on regulation,
certainly when market participants keep promising to do it. But anyway,
that's why it's going to take places. We're going to
boost our resilience.

Speaker 2 (52:01):
All right. Was the destruction of that pipeline and its
entirety warranted.

Speaker 4 (52:08):
Well, the pipeline was ruptured somewhere near Marson Point.

Speaker 3 (52:12):
It still exists. Now.

Speaker 4 (52:14):
The difficulty is, in the event that we have a
similar outage, we need to have a backup source of fuel.
That's the guts of it. There will now be a
backup source of fuel. I'm not saying that the pipeline
will be molested again, but hey, one needs to have contingencies,

(52:37):
and that's basically what the outcome is.

Speaker 2 (52:41):
Indeed, in conclusion, let's go back to where we started.

Speaker 3 (52:45):
Sure, the.

Speaker 2 (52:48):
New president who was the old president. It's waste of
time saying that. Now Trump yesterday late last night signed
an executive order with regard to the World Health Organization.
America is pulling out of it. It's also pulling out
of the Paris Accord as well, which was to be expected.

(53:10):
But the World Health Organization is the one that attracted
my attention most of all because I agree with Well.
I agree with his interpretation of things and his attitude
toward it. I don't know about you exactly, but I
would I would welcome a government that withdrew New Zealand

(53:31):
from the WY show.

Speaker 3 (53:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (53:34):
Well, I wrote an article before we came back into
politics pouring spawn upon that organization and basically saying that
it had failed New Zealand of course, but it's a
sort of place where you're likely to find Helen Clark
and her ilk so they don't like the way New

(53:56):
Zealand first thinks about these things. But look, we're definitely
doubting Thomas's about the usefulness and quite frankly, the fact
that the World Health Organization has proven to be an
institution that undermines the sovereignty of nations like New Zealand.

(54:16):
As the position of the party, but once again you
have a situation where New Zealand first, until we can
garner more electoral support at a future election. Our ability
to unilaterally force any governments that were a part of
to withdraw from international global organizations.

Speaker 3 (54:37):
Heah, as should I say? As we can progress?

Speaker 4 (54:39):
But any of your listeners, they simply have to google
our historic position and they'd see that we're very much
doubting Thomas's about that particular organization?

Speaker 2 (54:50):
Was that article you wrote published and.

Speaker 4 (54:52):
The New Zealand Herald. Yes, was published in the New
Zealand Herald. So when was that off? Say, let me
think twenty twenty three, maybe August, September, July, somewhere back there.
I've got a lot of I got an enormous amount
of feedback for it.

Speaker 2 (55:11):
It's worth following up. Put it that way.

Speaker 3 (55:15):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I would say so.

Speaker 2 (55:17):
Now, if you were to draw up a list of
matters that we haven't touched on, I suspect it would
be fairly lengthy. And I know what's I know what's
going to happen, that there's going to be requests for more.
So can I get a commitment from you down the track?

Speaker 3 (55:35):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (55:35):
No, I've always regarded a sort of peer in your pocket.
But I've always regarded Laton your style of journalism, but
also you're an interrogative style as being very rare and
extremely extremely valuable for those of us who occupy not

(55:56):
only positions of public importance, but I also enjoy listening
to public public discourse. You have a great role to
play and I'm and I'm up for talking to you again, mate,
I mean obvious white HONGI.

Speaker 3 (56:09):
This year.

Speaker 4 (56:11):
We will will be served up some polarities. David will
come defending the work that he's doing in relation to
the Treaty Principal's Bill. The Maori Party will turn up
with a various set of verbal diarrhea flows, which will

(56:32):
be a type of recruitment device and further evidence of
trying to radicalize a new generation.

Speaker 3 (56:38):
But the vast majority of.

Speaker 4 (56:39):
Us, Mate, will be in the middle, wanting to focus
on the economy and focus on the issues that draw
people together, because we know that Boss, our constitution and
the Treaty and entitlements are very important and citizenship must
be always defended. Unless we can continue to grow the economy,

(57:02):
we're not going to have the surplus to maintain the
quality of life that we've taken for Grunted.

Speaker 2 (57:08):
Very well, stated, I suspect no, I don't. I would
like to think that what we've witnessed so far in Washington,
in the last in the last couple of days, and
even back to back to the election, would have an
influence on some leadership in not just New Zealand, but

(57:32):
in Australia specifically outside of outside of our borders, because
there is inspiration needed and there are some people who
need a good kick in the backside. I appreciate your commentry.
I don't adjust to flattery well, but I will suggest

(57:53):
that my wife will accept it with gratitude.

Speaker 3 (57:55):
Ah go make you take care.

Speaker 5 (57:58):
Bye, Thank you Shane, by bye.

Speaker 2 (58:16):
Missus producer, Welcome Back Later, Podcast number two hundred and seventy.
You've had about sixteen weeks up only twenty twenty five.
Did you have fun? Why do you look?

Speaker 6 (58:27):
I think we had great a tremendous amount.

Speaker 2 (58:30):
I don't know about we. Did you have fun?

Speaker 6 (58:32):
Great fun? Every day is a good day. And we
had a wonderful Christmas and New Year, spent it with
wonderful friends. Christmas and then you are their close friends.

Speaker 2 (58:42):
This was in This was in Sydney, and we sort
of overdid things of it On the occasion.

Speaker 6 (58:49):
Speak for yourself, buddy.

Speaker 2 (58:50):
That was coming home too early.

Speaker 6 (58:53):
We had a great time, and I hope everybody else
did too, because it's been a lovely summer.

Speaker 3 (58:57):
All right.

Speaker 2 (58:57):
So Podcast two hundred and seventy, let's see what we've got.

Speaker 6 (59:02):
Laighton Gin says in twenty twenty four, we learned three
important lessons from history. First, miracles do happen. Despite the
constant defamation from mainstream media, the weaponization of law by
the Democrats, and the second assassination attempt on his life.
Donald Trump's return as the forty seventh president of the
US is nothing short of a miracle. Secondly, one person

(59:24):
can make a difference. You mentioned Robbie Starbuck, a Hollywood
music video director who turned into a one manned army
against DEI. He and his team manage to pressure Walmart Harley,
Davison Ford, and many others to abandon their DEI policies.
And Thirdly, boundaries are compulsory for human flourishing. We have

(59:45):
to protect children from being castrated by trans ideology, protect
the country's borders from unwanted immigrants, and protect free speech
from being stifled. In twenty five, I look forward to
three things firstly that Justin Trudeau will be deposed in Canada.
Secondly that more woke companies go broke, starting with Jaguar,

(01:00:07):
and third lee that I get to listen to Leyton
Smith's podcast three hundred. I know it's been said many
times by others, but it's worth repeating. Thank you for
doing God's work and speaking truth to power in your
podcasts later you make every Wednesday a real joy. Can't
wait for this year.

Speaker 2 (01:00:25):
And here we are in this year of twenty twenty five,
and it's only the beginning. I listened intently to your
replay podcast. Now before I go on, I've got a
number of letters on this particular podcast that was replayed.
I'm not going to read them all because you can
share them or share them response, but it was very interesting.

(01:00:48):
I listened intently to your replay podcast The best of
Professor Paul Merrick on January fifteenth, following Your Query, he
mentioned that prior to the pandemic, he was a regular
reader of publications such as Scientific American, The Lancet, and
other related publications, but has since realized that much of

(01:01:12):
the information appears to have a bias. Your query relating
to his views on Staatens is of concern to me because,
as my own doctor has suggested, I consider their use
due to my personal cholesterol levels and atrial fibrillation. Best
regards from Karl. The one thing I would say, and

(01:01:33):
this applies to everyone when it comes to statin's. I
know I've had my thing to say about them. I
would put it this way. As far as advice is concerned,
and I don't give advice, it's my personal thoughts. What
you need to do is, if you're concerned about staatens
is research them for all your worth, talk to as

(01:01:54):
many medical people as you get the chance to, and
make your own decision, because there are people around who
swear by them. Actually, I know somebody who's been on
one for twenty years and recons It's kept all Leydon.

Speaker 6 (01:02:10):
Liz says, firstly, best wishes for a happy, successful and
healthy New Year. I emailed you last year when you
celebrated fifty years in broadcasting, saying that I hoped to
achieve the same thing in my own career. In April
this year, the gold card will arrive. And although that
through years of tax paying I have earned it, I'm

(01:02:30):
fortunate enough not to have to rely on it. At
the ripe old age of sixty four, I have been
promoted to head a fifty million New Zealand dollar business,
something I am so pleased to have achieved while I
still have health and mental capacity on my side. As
a very wise old and still working boss of mine
said when I told him, the news age is nothing

(01:02:52):
only a number. What is important is passion, energy and talent.
As I head into twenty twenty five in my new role,
I'd be lying if I said I wasn't just a
little nervous. However, his words and your example will stay
with me as I take on the challenge of driving
our business forward. Liz, from me somebody of a similar age,
I salute you. It's amazing.

Speaker 2 (01:03:14):
I guess who got their goal card over Christmas? Now
from Steve, Welcome back, Laden and missus producer. I trust
that you had a great refreshing break and a recharge
to tackle the year ahead. I have no doubt that
this coalition will live or die by its performance in
this calendar year. The Maori nonsense of partnership and co
governance must be put to bed once and for all.

(01:03:36):
When mari Elites can finally be forced to accept and
understand the treaty was signed by hundreds of individual chiefs
and not a united nation deserving recognition as a unified
country pre European settlement. If they were unified, then why
is there not one settlement encompassing one nation. It has

(01:03:57):
become tiresome that we still have Marie government named entities.
This coalition needs to live up to its promises. The
year needs to put climate change to bed once and
for all. CO two is the source of oxygen through
photosynthesis and is zero point zero four of the gas.

(01:04:18):
So when will these thick, uneducated individuals start telling the truth.
I wish my wife and I were twenty years younger
so we could leave this joke of a country. I
wish you all the best and keep up the good fight.
Steve plenty of value in that letter, and you're going

(01:04:39):
to get plenty of what you want. Well it it
feels that I've said this elsewhere. It feels like the
I don't know that the douve has been lifted off
the bed in the height of summer and we are
free to say what we want to, and damn it
we will.

Speaker 6 (01:04:59):
Leyden Brett says, isn't it interesting the world over that
the same basic manipulations of people goes on today as
it always has. Nothing new under the sun. These things
are extremely well known and well studied, yet we keep
falling prey to manipulation as if we are unaware entirely,
and humanity has learned nothing from its own history, which

(01:05:19):
we keep repeating. It's like humanity can't or won't break
free of our primitive hard wiring and bad habits, even
though we have the potential within us to do so.
In New Zealand, we suffer from long term poor governance,
yet can't seem to find our way out of the
cycled trap. The blind leading the blind, as it were,

(01:05:40):
What will it take to shift us out of our
malaise and find a path firmly anchored in integrity, wisdom
and highest good? Are we even brave enough to undertake
such a journey? That's from Brett.

Speaker 2 (01:05:54):
Brett very well said what do we need? Not do
we need? Isn't hasn't it? I mean this is being
said all along, but seeing that we've been away and
not had a chance to broadcast, I will just keep
saying it in various ways.

Speaker 6 (01:06:11):
We need clever people from overseas who want to come
and live here.

Speaker 2 (01:06:15):
We need to add to thee and people with money,
and people with money who wish to dispense with it appropriately.

Speaker 6 (01:06:23):
Business acumen is what we need.

Speaker 2 (01:06:25):
We need fewer people with no brains.

Speaker 6 (01:06:28):
Okay, well that's short and sharp.

Speaker 2 (01:06:30):
Thank you so much, Latent for replaying your interview with
Paul Merrick. I was fortunate enough to listen to your
first interview with him when his book Cancer Care was
banned from Amazon. Listening to your introduction to this replay
was very welcoming, with you stating the book is now
available on Amazon again, the second edition which I received today. Nathan,

(01:06:53):
I hope that you get out of it, or you've
got out of it what you're looking for. Let me know.

Speaker 6 (01:06:58):
Layton David says, maybe the answer to the woes of
education are summed up in this quote from Winston Churchill.
Schools have not necessarily much to do with education. They
are mainly institutions of control where certain basic habits must
be inculcated in the young. Education is quite different and
has little place in school, and one might say that

(01:07:21):
until the end University, says Dave. The children are pupils
and on entry to higher education, the term student may
become applicable depending on results.

Speaker 2 (01:07:34):
So I listened to your podcast with Michael Johnson of
the New Zealand Initiative. I ah, this is a very
good email listener from Rob. I listened to your podcast
with Michael Johnson of the New Zealand Initiative. I recently
retired as a UK trained educational psychologist who worked in

(01:07:55):
New Zealand for fifteen years and can inform you as
to the reasons for the many failures within the educational
system here. There is a lack of standards and a
consistency so that school and classrooms range from excellent to appalling.
This was described in a Radio a New Zealand article
and podcast which I contributed to in twenty nineteen. If

(01:08:18):
your ideological views are a barrier to such a national
mandate over regulation, I would point out that the Leaky
Homes FIESCO was quickly resolved with a building code of practice,
short to the point and said with some.

Speaker 6 (01:08:37):
Experience Latin Chris says, welcome back to a world that
seems saner now that President Donald Trump has brought common
sense to the Oval Office. The attached article and he
attaches something to you from the spectator Laton from the
thirteenth of July. It's oddly prophetic, he says, as to

(01:08:58):
the lead policies of Donald Trump. The article describes a
coming populist revolution, which I think started at the fifth
of November election in the States. Perhaps news A politicians
would do well to understand what their people really want,
lest they fulfill Jordan Peterson's prediction of a silk war
sparked by people feeling hated on because they have the

(01:09:19):
wrong color of skin. That's from Chris and he says
success is when you look back and the memories make
you smile.

Speaker 2 (01:09:27):
Just re listening to some old podcasts podcast two sixty
one with Anthony Willie. In this one you mentioned some
new climate change research that had just been released. Just
wondering if you could please direct me to it. Listen
intently to your podcast and re listen to a few,
especially now as there is a gap in new releases.

(01:09:49):
Keep up the great work. Don't know what we would
do without your diligent work. Regards to missus producer. Also
she is a delight to listen to. Peter Peter Peter,
thank you, Anita. I don't know that I've heard from
Peter before, but I could have. It's been quite a
few Peter, appreciate all of that. With regard to that

(01:10:12):
podcast two sixty one, I honestly cannot remember what it was,
but if I get a chance, I will re listen
to podcasts two six to one and see if that
can direct me. But I'm going to have to find
some spare time somewhere. I don't know quite how I'm
going to do it.

Speaker 6 (01:10:31):
I'm looking forward to Leyden having his next holiday because
now that he's back, he is in the studio twenty
three hours a day. Yes, and you enjoy it so much, Layton,
don't you?

Speaker 2 (01:10:43):
Twenty two hours a day. I enjoy it. The other
hour is a reserve for frustration, Leighton.

Speaker 6 (01:10:50):
The last one from me is from Paul. As a
chef by trade, albeit one who has been in and
out of the hospitality sector for over thirty years. It
was comforting to reflect whilst listening to the conversation with
the great Tony Estell. I have worked as a chefferd
and around Auckland for years. To Tony Astell reflect on
his time as the chef at Antoine's brought forth a

(01:11:12):
flood of memories In the restaurants where I worked. The
conversation occasionally broached the subjects of the best restaurant and
chef in Auckland. On many occasions, the answers were unanimous.
Tony Astell and Antoine's. Your conversation with Tony was a
nice change from some of the more serious topical discussions
over the last year. All those discussions were of massive importance,

(01:11:35):
but chatting with your friend Tony Astell was a great
way to end this year's series of podcasts. And then
Paul says, I look forward to next year's run of podcasts.

Speaker 2 (01:11:44):
And again here we are, and wasn't.

Speaker 6 (01:11:46):
Tony listening to Tony fantastic?

Speaker 2 (01:11:49):
Tony was the first person in the worl. We've made
a meal of this at the time as our pardon
the pun. Tony was the first person to do it
from the studio here. Now that's at least one more.

Speaker 6 (01:12:01):
We walked past Antoine's what was Antoins the other day,
didn't we? And I hope it's a very six tessful
business because somebody else is in there. But it was
so sad to see that it was.

Speaker 2 (01:12:14):
It's not a restaurant he bought, It's a tailor shop.

Speaker 6 (01:12:16):
Yes, exactly. It's a shame anyway, Tony's wonderful.

Speaker 2 (01:12:20):
Finally, this was sent to me by someone. Well, I'll
read I'll read it. I sent an email long ago
but never received acknowledgment. So this time I found a
definitive way great living in a country was no parliament
in operation. Trudeau truly, yes, he's writing from Canada. Trudeau

(01:12:41):
truly has screwed Canadians into the ground. Over nine years,
He's rejected over half a trillion dollars of investment, purely
because he's been captured by his Prime Minister's Office advisor,
mister Butts, who has to be a communist. Tragic is
how tragic is how I describe Canada today? Three point

(01:13:03):
listen to this. Three point seven five million visits in
twenty twenty four to just one Ontario food bank alone.
Hundreds lined streets in a line in the snow just
to hopefully sign up for a doctor who offered five
hundred new patients for the opportunity. One man in the

(01:13:24):
line hadn't been able to get on a doctor's patient
list for ten years. These people have no doctor, So
you get the picture. Trump tariff threat goes down this
Saturday for every one. Canadian government has done nothing to
stop precursors for fentanyl manufacturing coming through Vancouver Port and

(01:13:45):
subsequently used by Mexican cartels in BC Canada to manufacture
fentanyl then shipped to the US and everywhere else there
that you're still above ground. Apparently our souls live on,
so I may bump into you in the afterlife. God
bless you, you old bugger. I hope this gets to you.

(01:14:08):
The plumber Bill wrote to me quite a while back.
He did, and I'm positive that I responded to him,
but it was a goodbye letter, so you'll never hear
from me again. Well, here you are, and I think
you're realizing that I might have had a point or
three when you decided to go. And it's sad, but
I miss you. I have to say that there's a

(01:14:30):
lot of people I miss, but I do miss you,
and I do think about you more more than you
think of me. So there this is produced. On that note,
we shall see you next week.

Speaker 6 (01:14:41):
By the way, I've just googled Liz who wrote the letter.
She's just starting the new business.

Speaker 3 (01:14:45):
Liz.

Speaker 6 (01:14:45):
I want to know what you're doing now, and you
look amazing. You do not look anything like sixty four.
I'm off now.

Speaker 2 (01:14:53):
It's just a beauty consultant with you know.

Speaker 6 (01:14:55):
We people have to we sixty four year olds have
to stick together.

Speaker 2 (01:14:59):
You look younger by the day. Anyway, we shall see
you next week, shall we?

Speaker 3 (01:15:03):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (01:15:04):
Is that all right?

Speaker 6 (01:15:05):
It's the date?

Speaker 2 (01:15:05):
Okay, Maybe we'll put it together better next week. It's
probably not. It's been so exciting getting back. So let

(01:15:29):
me pick up on some issues that are very important
and need much more attention, and I'll do it this way.
I was at dinner recently, and also at the dinner
was and I was sitting next to me actually was
a twenty three year old from overseas, and the subject
came up about what bothers young people these days, and

(01:15:51):
the one thing he said, nothing bothers me, really, except
I'm concerned about climate change. And he wasn't addressing me
at that time, but I said to him when he paused,
I said, where did you get this information about climate
change that's got you so upset? He didn't seem that upset,
to be honest, but he said that that was his
greatest concern, and he said, well, from school. And I

(01:16:14):
asked him what they were taught, and basically he outlined
what we all know. So I told him he had
been misled badly, and he said, well, where am I
going to find the information that will back up what
you're saying? So I thought about it for a couple
of minutes, and I suggested to him that he listened

(01:16:34):
to the two podcasts that we did in the early
days with doctor Tim Ball, because both of them were
very good, and I know that he has now would
have listened to them because he was very keen. He said,
and if you got any books, I'll get them and
I'll read them. So I recommended Tim Ball's book. I

(01:16:56):
went through my list of books at home, my pilot
books on this particular subject. I thought, no, Tim Ball's
actually very good. Well he was, because he's now deceased, sadly,
and I want to quote you from the Deliberate career
eruption of climate science by Tim Ball, and I could
read your half the book, but I won't. There have, been,
of course, other sad deceptions throughout history, but all of

(01:17:19):
them were regional or at most continental. The deceptive idea
of human generated CO two causes global warming or climate
change impacted every person in the entire world. Thus it
reflects Marshall mcclewan's concept of the global village. This book
shows how the deception was designed to be global by

(01:17:41):
involving every nation through the agencies of the United Nations. Historians,
with the benefit of twenty twenty hindsight, will wonder how
such a small group was able to achieve such a
massive deception. There are several reasons why the public was deceived,
and there's nine of them. They're all short. The objective
and therefore the science were premeditated. The scientific focus was

(01:18:04):
deliberately narrowed to CO two from the start. Accountable government
agencies were involved and in control science and political structures
and procedures were put in place to enhance the deception.
Actions were taken to block or divert challenges. The people's
natural fears about change and catastrophe were exploited. You think

(01:18:29):
the public's lack of scientific understanding, especially with regard to
climate science, was exploited. You think times two. People find
it hard to believe a deception on such a grand
scale could occur. That's a very important one. People find
it hard to believe a deception on such a grand
scale could occur, and finally number nine opponents were ruthlessly attacked,

(01:18:53):
causing others to remain silent. Then I turned the page
and is using examples, considered this brave but late admission
by German physicist and meteorologist Klaus Echard plus plus plus
And here is what Klaus Eckhart plus wrote ten years ago.

(01:19:14):
I simply parroted what the IPCC told us. One day
I started checking the facts and data. First, I started
with a sense of doubt, but then I became outraged
when I discovered that much of what the IPCC and
the media were telegus was sheer nonsense and was not
even supported by any scientific facts and measurements. To this day,

(01:19:38):
I feel shame that as a scientist I made presentations
of their science without first checking it scientifically. It is
sheer absurdity to think we can get a nice climate
by turning a co to adjustment. Knob now Timbore comments,
if someone so knowledgeable about the subjects of meteorology and

(01:19:59):
atmospheric physics can be so readily deceived, it is not
surprising that the general public was deceived to scores the
effectiveness of the deliberate and carefully orchestrated climate science deception. However,
it also underscores the problems of writing a book that
identifies what they did and how it was done. Just

(01:20:22):
a short take from the deliberate corruption of climate science,
and you can still buy the book. Of course, Timball died.
I think it was in twenty one, very sadly well,
not too long after we interviewed him with regard to
his victory over Michael Mann. Now let's turn attention to

(01:20:42):
something a little more local across the Tasman. Ala Moran
wrote in on January twenty nine, actually wrote in Spectator magazine,
to rescue our economy, quote unquote, Trump signed Day one
orders to end all Biden restrictions on energy production, terminate
his insane electric vehicle mandate, cancel his natural gas export ban,

(01:21:06):
reopen anwrn a lee Asca, the biggest site potentially anywhere
in the world, and declare a national energy emergency. So
he terminated Biden's Green New Deal, pulled out of the
Paris Accord, and castigated the Davos elites who could do
nothing more than acquiesce in his triumphant procession. Among the

(01:21:26):
measures is a freeze on two hundred and eighty billion
dollars for green energy said to have a very negative effect,
and the Wall Street journalist declared climate change ideology is
dying and the corporate world is reacting. Goes On gives
some from examples, including in Australia. Now when we come

(01:21:48):
to some New Zealand matters, and they're very recent, firstly
by data publication on January twenty nine, headline Luxon's credibility
on the line was tomorrow's climate target announcement. There we
go to what followed. Simon Watts just harpooned the Prime
Minister's Going for Growth plan was published on the twenty

(01:22:11):
sorry published on the thirty first of January. Added is
damning from the New Zealand Taxpayers Union. At eight pm
last night, presumably to avoid pickup on the morning news shows,
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts released New Zealand's twenty thirty
five nationally determined contribution to combating climate change under the

(01:22:34):
Paris Agreement. The target, which locks unavoidable agricultural omissions into
New Zealand's international targets, are even more ambitious than the
twenty thirty targets made when Jacinda Aderner James Shaw flew
to Glasgow. They will cost future taxpayers literally tens of

(01:22:55):
billions of dollars in penalties. The Taxpayers Union executive director
Jordan Williams said Adern's fifty percent emissions reduction by twenty
thirty target was ludicrous. Treasury estimates that in just five
years taxpayers will be on the hook for up to
twenty four billion, that is twelve thousand per New Zealand household.

(01:23:18):
The government has now signed us up for another bill
for five years later to not only lock this cost
in but go even harder for twenty thirty five is
economic sabotage. What city's cabinet colleagues are not going to
be around in a decade to have to pay the bill,
but are doubling down on Paris at the very time,

(01:23:38):
the very time our trading partners are pulling back. Robert McCulloch,
by the way, professor of economics at Auckland's University, wrote
a very good piece Christopher Luxon's Ministry of Economic Development
may as well be a ministry of silly walks. I
recommend its reading. There is one more from the Taxpayers' Union.
The National Party was once seen as the Party for farmers,

(01:24:03):
but it seems that's no longer the case. The Taxpayers
Union can confirm that CLI Change Minister Simon Watts refused
multiple requests by New Zealand's largest farming group to meet
ahead of his decision to ramp up the countries already
twenty four billion dollar Paris Agreement contributions. Taxpayers Union spokesman
James Ross said, what is Simon Watt's job because if

(01:24:27):
it's taking a balanced approach to stakeholders, is not doing it. Quote.
Publicly disclosed ministerial diaries show Minister Watts is happy to
get cozy with anti agriculture activist groups like Greenpeace, the
World Wildlife Fund and the Ayata Rower Circle, but his
staff would not even reply to emails from Federated Farmers.

(01:24:51):
Nor did Watts meet with Beef and Lamb or even
a Chamber of Commerce in formulating his Paris target agriculture
accounts for half hour missions. Forget just Mann policy. Not
meeting with major stakeholders in the industry the minister has
announced he plans to decimate is either extreme arrogance or
severe incompetence. Well, how about a combination of both national

(01:25:15):
MPs We're more than happy to join protest marches against
James Shaw and Jacinda Adurn's climate policy. It's one thing
to get into government and adopt the same policies, It's
quite another to ghost the stakeholders who got you there.
And finally, if you'll bear with me, because I think
it's important. I received this from Ellen Mandeno or Mendano

(01:25:38):
from the Methane Science Accord, who asks and says I
would appreciate it if you could please share this press
release from the Methane Science Accord regarding the recent emissions
reduction targets. Thank you in kind regards. Now, I don't
think I've ever spoken with Helen, or certainly never met her,
but I looked at it, read it, and I thought

(01:25:58):
this must be shared. New Zealand government nagh eve and confused.
New Zealand farmers are aghast at the environmentally ignorant and
economically inept greenhouse gas emissions targets announced by the coalition
government last week, even worse than previous targets from the
Green Party playbook. The Nets have now shown their anemically

(01:26:20):
weak understanding of science and have instead taken the impotent
option of simply demanding higher generic targets. We thought we
had a coalition who understood the economy, who could see
through rampant extremism in climate change positioning, and would acknowledge
the fact that Kiwi farmers are the best in the
world producing more food with lower emissions. We are the

(01:26:45):
only sector in the world that actually utilizes a greenhouse
gas as part of our food production through photosynthesis process
and the only sector with an offset. Pasture raised livestock
are net sequesters of greenhouse gases, but is ignored by
our own sector as this doesn't suit their current ideology.

(01:27:07):
These targets are not only unnecessary and misguided, they now
fast track the destruction of the integrity of our world
class red meat protein production as we loom towards feed
additives and expensive interference with natural methane processes through a
myriad of pointless vaccines, boluses and misguided genetics. The real

(01:27:30):
shame is the waste of taxpayer money and science resources
that will be diverted even further toward chasing methane fairies.
ILike that toward chasing methane fairies instead of genuine R
and D. The government is asking for a fight on
this and a fight they will get. We will need
individual farmers mobilized in order to do this, as our

(01:27:54):
own sector leaders have simply appeased and agreed all in
the name of gaining accolades, funding and avoiding embarrassment around
the one billion dollars that has been squandered on methane
reduction to date. Us to Watts needs a cold bath
of reality. At the very same time that his own
government demands increased production and growth. He has just cut

(01:28:17):
the wings off the golden goose that would have paid
for hospitals and healthcare that we already cannot afford. The
sad reality is that all New Zealanders will pay for
these misguided targets through even higher energy and food costs
and continued slower economic growth. Prepare for more pine trees
at a further decline in our sector. From James Smith,

(01:28:41):
Methane Science Accord founding member, New Zealand Representative, Global Farmer,
Roundtable environmentalist and free range farmer. The very, very powerful
and potent and I repeat myself commentary and I hope
it inspires many of you to react accordingly. Who would

(01:29:02):
have thought that this government that got swept to power
would have taken such a dumb, ignorant idiotic approach. Now,
I do you think that's too dramatic? You're not yet
aware of the damage that's being done by this supposedly
supposedly conservative government or is that an exaggeration? Now, anyone
from the government is welcome to get in touch and

(01:29:24):
we'll talk further if you wish to defend it. But
on the fact or on the basis that Simon wants
mite even talk to the biggest farming people, I don't
expect any acknowledgement. And on that happy note, we shall
depart from podcasts number two hundred and seventy but it's
time for people to speak up more than they ever

(01:29:46):
have before. I'm still stunned that this government is taking
this approach. Now, if you want to correspond with us,
go for your life later at NEWSTALKZB dot co dot
nz and Carolyn with a why don't forget crol Yn
at NEWSTALKZB dot co dot Nz. We shall return in
a few days with podcasts number two hundred and seventy one.

(01:30:08):
Until then, thank you for listening, thank you for your patience,
and love to hear from you, and we'll talk soon.

Speaker 4 (01:30:23):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:30:25):
For more from US Talks at b Listen live on
air or online, and keep our shows with you wherever
you go with our podcasts on iHeartRadio