Adam Pearse: NZ Herald political reporter on NZ First's annual conference

New Zealand First faithful are hammering out policy ideas at their annual conference in Hamilton. 

More than 250 delegates are in attendance in a turn-out leader Winston Peters has dubbed the 'best crowd in decades'. 

 NZ Herald political reporter Adam Pearse is expecting a 'lively' atmosphere at the party's first event since they got into Government. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
EDB joining me now to talk politics. Is is Zealand.
Here a political reporter Adam Pearts live from Hamilton.

Speaker 3 (00:19):
How are you, Adam, I'm good. I'll try and make
this I'll try to make this quite positive for for
your listeners.

Speaker 1 (00:25):
Boy.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
I am sure that Winston Peters is feeling very positive
at the New Zealand first Annual Conference.

Speaker 3 (00:35):
Yes, he certainly is, and as his members, I mean,
I think it's pretty obvious you'd expect a lot of
the party members to be quite excited to come together
after obviously getting into getting back into Parliament and then
obviously to government and at the cabinet table. So a
number of people here are excited. They're looking forward that
we've had some pretty lively policy proposal sessions it called

(00:57):
remit discussions where they're crafting the party's future policies. We
have some great speeches as well, Shane Jones delivering his
deliver speech in his usual emphatic style, talking about energy,
which is a big space that the party's moving into
at the moment, and it's all building up to Winston
Peter's closing address or leader's address later on this afternoon, And.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
Are you anticipating any major policy announcements in this address.

Speaker 3 (01:25):
Yeah, well that's the interesting thing. I mean when we
go to New Zealand First Party events obviously in the
past pre twenty twenty three, when they were out of parliament,
you know they're proposing party policy. But now as part
of the coalition coalition government, with coalition agreements that already
state their policies, it's an interesting kind of dynamic where yes,

(01:45):
we do have Winston Peter's looking to propose a policy
it's supposedly relating to overseas investment, looking to attract or
incentivize foreign entities to come and invest in New Zealand
law to grow the economy. But how that works with
the coalition agreement, I'm not quite sure. You know, you've
already agreed your policy proposals going forward, so how this

(02:07):
works in with National and Act is yet to be seen.
So interesting times ahead.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
Tell me a little bit about the Green Party and
where they are at with this invoking the Wroker jumping legislation.

Speaker 3 (02:19):
Yes, well, it looks like we may finally be able
to get a resolution out of this. So your listeners
will probably know very well by now that this Darling
in Tana situation started in March when we first heard
those reports of alleged migrant exploitation involved in her husband's business.
And now we finally have the special meeting that the

(02:43):
party delegates will be coming together in the coming days
talking about or voting on whether they will look to
Walker jump Darling Tanner out of the party. Obviously something
that the party has been opposed to in the past,
which is why co leaders Chloe Swarbrick and Madima Davidson
pushed us out to their members. Obviously very very democratic

(03:05):
party themselves, but it's something that's taken a long time.
It's taken months since those first allegations, and then we
had the scheduled meeting which was put off because Darling
Tanna appealed it through the courts and that failed. So
we finally got to this meeting and I can imagine
if you're the Greens, you're hoping you can put this
all behind you and actually get on with holding the
government to account.

Speaker 2 (03:24):
Yes, sure what, Adam, Enjoy the rest of your afternoon
that you're at the New Zealand First Conference and your
General Meeting.

Speaker 1 (03:31):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to News Talks it B from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio