Ethan Griffiths: Newstalk ZB political reporter on Prime Minister Luxon departing for Asia

The Prime Minister heads to Asia today, for crucial meetings on trade and the economy.

Chris Luxon's first travelling to Malaysia for the East Asia Summit and mark a milestone of 50 years of diplomatic ties with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Newstalk ZB political reporter Ethan Griffiths says Luxon will be meeting with other world leaders at APEC to discuss trade.

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Episode Transcript

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

Speaker 2 (00:13):
It's time to talk politics now and I'm joined by
Newstalk ZB political reporter Ethan Griffiths.

Speaker 3 (00:17):
Good morning, Ethan, Good morning Francesca.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Hey, I believe the Prime Minister left yesterday for Malaysia
and Apec. Is that correct?

Speaker 3 (00:25):
This morning? Actually about half an hour ago?

Speaker 1 (00:27):
A Q.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Ok, So what's he doing in Malaysia?

Speaker 3 (00:30):
Well, he's going over there to take part in the
East Asia Summer that's of course, with the big Asian
leaders plus US, Australia and the US. Now it's a
pretty important meeting. President Donald Trump is attending the meeting
this year, which is kind of unusual. It appears he's
taken a bit of an interest in trying to broke
a peace deal between Cambodia and Thailand after some border

(00:51):
squirmishes earlier this year. Now, Luxan, of course, will be
focused on trade. Asia is our biggest trade market and
Southeast Asia growing very very fast, So expect a few
meetings with Asian leaders there. But the d who with
we aren't sure yet.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
Okay, Look, I know that there's gonna be a lot
going on, but I think in the next week everyone's
going to really have their eyes on Trump and Shushiping,
aren't they.

Speaker 3 (01:16):
Yeah, exactly, And of course that meeting will be taking
place at APEC, which is straight after the East Asia Summit.
Trump will be there Canada's leader, President She Japan's new
prime minister, who Trump is also meeting with, so that
meeting between Trump and She is going to be absolutely
the biggest highlight of the APEC events. Trump has kind

(01:38):
of threatened that he might not go ahead with it,
depending on what happens with China's response to some of
his latest tariffs, but we'll see what happens there. And
of course Luxem will be holding out for a meeting himself.
He's only ever spoken to Trump once on the phone.
They've never properly met, so he'll certainly be hoping for
a meeting there. But while lots of time is reserved

(02:00):
for bilateral meetings at both the East a Summit and APEK,
there are no confirmed meeting with any leaders yet.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
Okay, I'm sure that trade is kind of top of
the list of things that's going to be discussed.

Speaker 3 (02:12):
Yeah, without doubt. I mean new Zealand is currently on
a slightly higher tariff rate than the base. Christah Luxen
will be hoping, of course, that new helicopters and planes
that we're ordering from the United States will help with that. Obviously,
New Zealand is in a what's called a trade deficit
with the United States, very marginal, so I think there

(02:32):
is lots of room there for the US to sort
of have a look at our case and think, actually,
these guys are all right, we have a pretty even
trade trade relationship, so potentially some room there for moves
on the tariffs. But of course we'll have to wait
and see on that. Trump is pretty set in his
ways when it comes to tariffs.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
Ethan really quickly. Labor released it's future fun policy this week.
How's it been received?

Speaker 3 (02:55):
Yeah, I mean it's only taken two years, hasn't it.
But they're finally bringing some ideas to the table. I
mean the problem here is, you know, putting the merits
of the policy aside. It's very very light on detail.
It's kind of like the super Fund, that's what they're
comparing it to. But it will only be four Kiwi projects,
nothing overseas, few problems. They're going to see it with

(03:16):
two hundred million dollars of government funding as well as
government assets. They haven't said what assets there's going to be.
The problem is those assets return a fair chunk of
money six hundred million dollars and dividends every year. Now
if they're all going into the fund, then the government's
left with a pretty sizable hole in its box. So
that's of course been the criticism from the National Party.

(03:39):
New Zealand First have got quite a different criticism. They
claimed that the idea was stolen from them, so some
an interesting criticism there, but of course we need to
wait and see for the party's fiscal plan to actually
see how they're going to fund this.

Speaker 1 (03:53):
For more from the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
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