THE RE-WRAP: Public Scrutiny or Tall Poppy?

THE BEST BITS IN A SILLIER PACKAGE (from Tuesday's Mike Hosking Breakfast) When's a Good Time to Sell?/Things You Shouldn't Say When You're In Charge/Hard to Believe There's No Demand/Who's Key Talking To?/A Complicated Man

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
You're listening to a podcast from News talks'd be follow
this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio, Rerap.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Okay there and welcome to the Rewrap for Tuesday. All
the best, but it's from the Mike Hosking Breakfast on
News Talks. D be in a sillier package starring Heather
Duplessy Ellen for you this week. Of course, we're going
to have a little word on what Labory MPs should
and shouldn't say this morning. Why have they canceled the

(00:46):
flight from Wellington to and Viicago. John Key has a
word about Donald Trump, and Heather has a word about
Elion Musk. There's a lot of words, but first of
all she'll talk about Luckson's massive property profits. What a
what a homeowner?

Speaker 3 (01:09):
So we've got a fascination with prime ministers and their money,
it turns out, and Last News One last Night One
News did the calculation that Christopher Luxon stands to make
four hundred and eighty thousand dollars off the sale of
his apartment in Wellington. He's moving out because he's going
over to Premier House and also also a rental property
that he's selling in South Auckland. Now, the implication of
the story was basically, Christopher Luxen's making too much money

(01:31):
off these properties, he should be taxed. Over the weekend,
a newspaper in Wellington also reported that Jacinda Rdurn is
earning three hundred and sixteen thousand dollars per appearance every
time she speaks on the international speaking circuit, and the
implication there was certainly in commentary afterwards, that it's unethical
for her to be doing that. It's damaging her reputation

(01:53):
by showing that she really does love money over doing
good after all, and if prime ministers keep on doing
stuff like this, how do we know that they're actually
making the right decisions when they are in power and
not thinking about what kind of money they're going to
earn afterwards. Now, look, I don't mind the fascination with
prime ministers and former Prome ministers earnings. I think it's
completely human nature to be into it. And well, we're
fascinated by what our colleagues earned, right, so why wouldn't

(02:14):
we be fascinated by what Luxin and dun earn. However,
that is where I think it should stop at fascination.
There's nothing wrong with jain ardun earning that much money
off the speaking circuit. Frankly, if we're honest about it,
talking was about the only thing she was actually good at,
and she'd be a fool not to take that kind
of money if it's on offer. Same goes for Luxon.
He was a well paid businessman before politics. You would

(02:35):
expect him to have plenty of money. You would expect
him to put some of that money into property, and
unless things have gone very bad for him in his calculations,
you would expect him to make money off a property,
especially one that he has apparently renovated. Nothing wrong here
to suggest that Luckson's capital gain on his property is
evidence that we need a capital gains tax and to
suggest that just in the speaking circuit means that we

(02:56):
need to put some sort of restraint of trade on
future Prome ministers is just taking it a bit far,
isn't it. I mean, it's fine to be fascinated.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
Just leave it at that, Yeah, I mean, are you
not supposed to sell your house when you move into
another house? A bit strange anyway, rewrapped something that is
undeniably a bad look though, is hot takes on the
Middle East conflict dory. I'm not about to make one,

(03:22):
but some of the Labor Party MPs seem to want to.

Speaker 3 (03:27):
I feel like the Labor Party might just want to
put out a we'd directive to its MPs to just
be a little bit careful with the things that they're
saying about Israel and the posts that they make about
Israel and the Gaza situation at the bond at the moment.
You will have seen by now Damian O'Connor had to
delete a tweet that he reposted yesterday which said quote
Palestinians have every right to do whatever they did on

(03:47):
October seven. Now, I'm sure you can understand how offensive
that is because especially given what was actually done on
the day, because nothing would justify that. And actually Damien
should know better. He's been around a long time. He's
a pretty cool guy. He's the Foreign affairs spokesperson. So
you know, this is a rookie mistake he shouldn't be making,
not the first one because duncan web. You remember he
got in trouble for doing a so the thing had

(04:09):
to delete the post as well. Not a good look,
I would say for a major party in New Zealand
to be this careless with something that is as controversial
and inflammatory and upsetting as that situation at the moment.
So maybe if they I don't know, I mean, it
could be quite simple what the Labour Party has to
do about it, just to say nobody says anything about
this at all. Done.

Speaker 2 (04:27):
Yeah, there's some things. Really it's just best to keep
your nose out of it's. Yeah, it's and it's it's.
I'm pretty sure it's definitely not New Zealand's job to
get wildly involved in what's going on over there, but
maybe it is. Who could say, right, So they've canceled

(04:51):
the flight from Wellington to Southland because apparently nobody wanted
to go from Wellington to Southland on the regions.

Speaker 3 (04:59):
Look, we've got to talk about this. I feel for
Southland over the news that in New Zealand is cutting
the Wellington to m Vicargol route. But this is business, right.
If that route was not making money, it had to
be cut a New Zealand's not a charity. This is
a company, and it's a company that's actually bleeding money
at the moment. You have a look at what's just
happened in the last financial year. In the second half
Air New Zealand made no money. They made no money. Now,

(05:22):
in better times you could probably make the argument that
there is a social license that Air New Zealand needs
to fulfill to the regions. Even then, frankly I wouldn't
buy it, but someone might. But no one in their
right mind can seriously think that a company losing money
in the last six months should run a flight to
in Vicargol that compounds that loss. Now I feel like
Invercargo needs a gentle reality check here. And I say

(05:45):
gentle because I realized, you know that the last thing
they need is probably a reality check when they're hurting
as much as they are over this. But there is
still a direct route from christ Church to in Vicargo,
and much more importantly, a direct route from Auckland to
in Vericagol, the gateway to the world. Not every region
can boast that. And also gentle reality check for the

(06:05):
local MP, Penny Simmons. She's complained about the that she's
now not going to be able to get home after
Parliament on a Thursday because the Wellington Wellington in the
Cargo flight has been cut in. The only way around
it now is basically to leave at four o'clock leave
the office then is far too early. Now, the reason
that this flight has been cut is because of her
government's public service cuts. Right, That's why Wellington is the

(06:28):
only leg that has been cut, because Wellington's the one
with the spending that's ride up. I wouldn't be surprised
if there are more Wellington routes in and out of
the Capitol that are changed for the same reason, because
there's just no money in the Capitol anymore. Now. I
don't mind that Penny Simmons government has done this. In fact,
I applauded it because I don't want our taxes to
be used to buy flights just to keep a route running.
But reality checks all round, Right, this is business and

(06:51):
Air New Zealand is still social license or not at
the heart of it a business.

Speaker 2 (06:56):
Now, I'm still confused. Is it people who don't want
to go from Wellington to Southland or is there people
who don't want to go from Southland to Wellington? Think
about that. Oh, it's both. It's a combination of No,
that's not quite so interesting or funny.

Speaker 1 (07:13):
It's the rewrap.

Speaker 2 (07:14):
Now, somebody I've ever found particularly interesting or funny is
John Key? That for some reason, somebody asked him who
he thinks is going to win the American election.

Speaker 3 (07:23):
I said, I was going to get to what John
Key has said about the US election. So he did
an interview with Stuff and said before Biden pulled out,
he was about ninety eight percent sure that Trump would win.
But now Kamala Harris has dramatically changed the game. So
what's his pick.

Speaker 4 (07:37):
I think it's fifty five to forty five. He wins it.
It's not straightforward because it is so hard, like all
of those swing states seem to be in the margin. Neva,
We've still got quite a lot of days to go.
But nevertheless, anyway, I think it'll it'll be too close
to call for quite a while. But if Donald Trump
can wrestle the debate back onto the economy, I think

(07:57):
he wins. I think if it's on all these other issues,
he potentially loses.

Speaker 3 (08:02):
But I've still got him.

Speaker 4 (08:02):
I've still got him ahead in my in my brain.

Speaker 3 (08:05):
Yeah, interesting that he's still got Trump ahead on the economy.
I think he's bang on. I've got some information. There's
all a policy thing that's been done, a poll on
Karmla's economic policy that I'll run you through in the
next hour. But then the question, of course is, yeah, okay,
he might win, but should he win, who's better for
New Zealand.

Speaker 4 (08:21):
I think he's better for the economy. But the only
thing I'd say is that, you know, I spent a
lot of time with Barack Obama obviously to try and
get TPP across the line than we did. And the
very first thing that Donald Trump did was rip up
the free trade agreement between New Zealand and basically America.
So from that perspective, you know, I don't know how
great you know, necessarily that is. Donald Trump is driving

(08:44):
very much in America first in America, more isolationist kind
of view. Actually it's quite different. Actually, it's a very
different foreign policy than we've ever seen. So that probably
doesn't help New Zealand as much. But on balance, I
think he's probably better for the economy.

Speaker 3 (08:58):
Yeah, so he's slightly better for the economy. But they're
probably both as bad as each other, because neither of
them are you know, like, I don't know, it's hardly
as if Karmla's going to get in there and be
like free trade, let's go for it, guys.

Speaker 2 (09:08):
I don't quite understand why Sir John started sort of
talking to us like we're a six year old. At
the end there, I think I think most of us
understand that if America gets even more protectionists than it
already is and doesn't want to do international trade, that's
going to be bad for us. I think we've got bad.

(09:29):
I don't think it needs to be spelled out and
quite such simple terms. But anyway, he's there, no misunderstanding
the rewrap. Somebody who's all over this sort of thing,
of course, is Elon Musk. He's a genius.

Speaker 3 (09:44):
Apparently, new book about Elon Musk is going to be
coming out soon, and it sounds absolutely fascinating if you're
into kind of working out how somebody like Elon Musk,
quite a controversial figure, texts. It's called character limit. How
Elon Musk destroyed destroyed Twitter. I don't think that's up
for debate. I mean, the thing is completely unusable now.
It's just it's hideous since he's got a hold of it,

(10:05):
and that's something else completely clearly dging by reviews of
the book, Elon Musk is obviously something of a genius.
If he didn't already know this, because I mean example
that they use in the book is that before many
of us could see the impact that the Internet would
have on media, even before the media could see the
impact that the Internet would have, and some of them
are still struggling to come to terms with that. He
could see it as far back as nineteen ninety eight,

(10:28):
he said, I think the Internet is the be all,
in the end all of media. And how right has
he proved to be? But obviously flawed character, completely obsessed
with his own popularity and impact, obsessed with becoming the
most followed person on Twitter, like if he had any
followers tailing off or whatever, he'd launch investigations trying to

(10:48):
figure out what was going on there. And at one point,
apparently he made a tweet supporting a super Bowl team
and President Biden put out a tweet supporting the same
super Bowl team, and President Biden got more interest than
he did on Twitter, so he walked out of the
Super Bowl event, flew to San Francisco to try to
oversee efforts to figure out how on earth this had

(11:09):
happened to him. That is how crazy this guy is.
Character limit, How Elon Musk destroyed Twitter? How good is that?

Speaker 2 (11:15):
You see?

Speaker 5 (11:16):
I don't enjoy that sort of stuff. It just gives
me a headache because it's usually even worse than you
think that it is. You have a listen to.

Speaker 2 (11:26):
The doll up podcast all about Elon Musk, and you'll
hear all about how he bought a black market Russian
rocket with his dad's diamond money or animal money, dodgy
diamond and animal money, and that's basically how he got

(11:50):
the whole SpaceX thing underway. Oh you're still here. Sorry,
that was just me rubbing my eyes. The headache was
coming in and I wasn't even reading the book about
Elion mask. I am a glen heart was there you're
at We'll do it all again tomorrow and hopefully it'll

(12:10):
be slightly less painful for me.

Speaker 1 (12:13):
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