June 29, 2025 • 9 mins
Legislation will soon be introduced bolstering the maximum sentences for those who assault first responders and Corrections offices. Will it be supported across Parliament?
Also, a New Zealand First MP has announced her resignation from Parliament after just 18 months. Why is she leaving?
To answer those questions, Newstalk ZB political editor Jason Walls joined Nick Mills for the Beehive Buzz.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Wellington Mornings podcast with Nick Mills
from News Talk.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Said B.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Direct from News Talk, said be's team at Parliaments the
beehive buzz.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
It's that time of the week when we go to
the beehive and we've been joined by news Talk, said
b's political editor Jason Wolves.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Good morning Jays, Oh, good morning Neck. I'm so glad
to hear that you're back. You're feeling a bit better.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Yeah, I'm back on top of my game. A couple
of things I wanted to go over with you today,
Laura and order announcement from the government. How's it gone down?
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Well, I mean you're not going to hear many people
that are complaining about this. I mean this is people
that are assaulting ambulance and first lane response workers. And
it's not exactly a proportion of New Zealand that has
a lot of love with their fellow Keywis, the Prime
Minister was on with Hosking this morning. Here's how he
described it.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
It's quite frightening if you're a paramedic or a fire officer, firefighter,
or a police officer or prison officer. This saults on
these guys has been profound like there's been nine hundred
assaults I think last year on the prison officers, eleven
hundred on police officers. And these are key weis that
go and try and help us into these difficult circumstances.
They don't deserve to get best or assaulted.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Absolutely, and I don't think you're going to find anybody
out there that's going to disagree with the Prime Minister
over this one. It's quite interesting because I've now been
in Parliament long enough to see a kind of things
happening in cycles. And I think it was Derek Ball,
who was an MP for New Zealand First, he's now
in New Zealand First's chief of staff that actually tried
to do a similar bill back in twenty eighteen. But
(01:40):
it looks like Luxon's gone the whole hog here. And
it was his Justice spokesperson Paul Goldsmith that was talking
about it yesterday. There is some questions around you know
what happens if a judge doesn't play ball when it
comes to this conviction. And Luxon had a very swift
but clear message for those judges this.
Speaker 4 (01:57):
Morning, Well they need to we'll look at it again.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
If they don't, they'll look at it they'll see if
they can do anything more if the judges don't play ball.
So it's, as I said, it's not a it's not
a policy that's going to lose national any votes. I think,
as I said, like, you're not going to see anybody
that's going to look at this and say, hang on
a second. I don't think that people that his sole
ambulance workers should get have a harder have a harder line.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Yeah, I see. I thought myself when I read it
and looked at it and thought about it, I thought
it should be instead of a minimum maximum top a round,
so that if you're you know, they're saying a maximum
of two years, well that should be the minimum, I'd say.
I mean, I think they've got to go harder, That's
what I think. Especially those numbers. Those numbers are horrific.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
Yeah, this is a government of law and order, so
you'd be they'll be chomping at the bit to get
these sorts of announcements out there. And as I understand it,
there'll be more law and order announcements this week, so
strap in for a law and order weeks.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
It looks like, okay, right, why has suddenly an MP
resigned from Parliament after just eighteen months. Who is it,
Why has she resigned? And it's the story behind it?
Speaker 3 (03:08):
Well, it's a bit unclear at this stage. This is
Tanya Unkovich. She's a New Zealand First List MP. And
if you haven't heard this name before, while you're with
ninety nine point nine nine nine percent of the population,
She's not exactly somebody that did a lot of press.
She's not exactly somebody that was speaking in question time
or in the House all that often, just sort of
(03:28):
a stock standard back bench New Zealand first MP. And
she quit last week saying that she could personally be
of more service to New Zealanders through various avenues in
the private sector as well as coaching and consultancy. And
maybe that says something about the impact that they've had
in parliament that they think that they could do more
help to people in New Zealanders with coaching and consultancy.
But I digress. Here's an interesting quote I'm just reading
(03:51):
from the press release here. She said, it has always
been my deepest desire to serve mankind and my work
as a member of Parliament, I have had the privilege
to be the voice to many in the country who
need it the most, which is an interesting phrase. And
isn't it the the deepest desire to be of service
to mankind? I thought was quite interesting. But no, she's
(04:12):
away now there's somebody new coming on the New Zealand
first list as well, and so they'll be here relatively soon.
There's no by election because she's a list MP, so
it's out with one, in with the other. But in
terms of you know, if there is another reason behind this,
or if there is something like a little bit more
than has been led on, that's those are questions that
we're still asking. She hasn't done a press stand up
(04:35):
yet or as I understand it, any sort of interviews
with any media, so we're just gonna have to take
her word for it at the stage that she wants
to go back into coaching and consultancy.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
So tell me how often does this actually happen and
when does it normally happen? Is it midterm? You just
tending up after eighteen months.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
Having enough and just calling it quits halfway through is
relatively It's not unheard of, but it doesn't happen very often.
Usually people at least do a term. I mean, there
was Emily Henderson from Labor. Last time around, she got
to the end of the term of Labor and which
is like, this is actually.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Not for me.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
I don't enjoy being an MP. So she said that
she was going to be residing at the election, but
not to go the full way through is quite unusual.
I mean it is you basically, when you're elected, you
take on the commitment to do it election by election
at the very least, So to quit halfway through, it's
not like other jobs. We could just be like, ah,
not really feeling this anymore, I'm just going to quit now.
(05:27):
You kind of do have a contract to the people
that elected you, and there would be people out there
that voted for New Zealand first because of Tanya Unkovich.
I don't know how many people that is. It might
not be a lot, but there are still people, and
you do have a bit of a service to your constituents.
So quitting halfway through like this, unless there are some
health reasons or the issues going on with the family,
it's very It is quite unusual, and it doesn't seem
(05:50):
to be the case there. It just seems like, you know,
she had enough and wanted to go back into cold coach.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
All right, let's move on. There's a couple of week
recess where the Parliament isn't sitting. What actually the mp
is just like a couple of week holiday for them?
Did they get a couple of weeks? So if I
mean ministers has been traveling all over Europe and doing
this big thing, does he come back and have a
week off where he sits at home and has cups
and teeth?
Speaker 3 (06:14):
No?
Speaker 1 (06:14):
No, no, no.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
The Prime Minister is I mean he's having a post
cabinet press conference today, so he's back at work in
Wellington and chairing the Cabinet meeting as well. So there
is still work that goes on. Basically, I mean, if
you're an electorate MP, you do have as I was
just talking about there, you do have obligations to your
constituents and that comes in the form of going back
to your electorates, having meetings and doing things in the community.
(06:36):
And if you're a minister, obviously there is still the
business of running government, so there is still things to do.
It just means that they're not down in Wellington and
doing things like attending select committees or attending the House.
So it might seem as if they're slacking off for
a while. It's not the case. However, I will note
that this is usually the time of year the MPs
do take a little bit of time off. It's a
bit of a strange contract that you have as a
(06:58):
member of Parliament because technically you don't get annual leave
or sick leave. You just kind of have to work
it in with the whip schedule and if you can go,
then you can go. And so I mean it's not
that bad that they take a little bit of time
out this time of year. There's not a ton going
on legislatively. I mean the government will tell you otherwise.
But they pushed a bunch through last week as well
(07:19):
to get it out of the way, so they're still working.
It's just not as public facing as we used to.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
And what percentage would be actually based in Wellington right now,
oh very small.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
You've got Nikola Willis, Tarmatha, Paul greg O'Connor. Who else
are you going?
Speaker 2 (07:35):
So the out of town is don't come the out
of town iss have this whole two weeks off, they
don't even come to town.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Well, they're back in their constituents. Yes, I wouldn't say
they've got it off. But they're not in Wellington. They
stay in their respective constituencies across the country.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Well means they can do whatever they want, doesn't it.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Really you're you're pretty pessimistic today, old Nick Mills. We
get things done.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Hell, I know you're not going to have a hell
of a lot on over the next couple of weeks,
are you. I mean, if everyone's out of town.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
True, Oh well, I'll tell you what. There's Youth Parliament
for the next couple of days. I'm I'm extensively involved
in the Youth Press Gallery in the Youth Parliament in
my capacity as Press Gallery chair down here. I'll still
have things to do, okay, and I talk to wonderful
people like yourself every day.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
All right, Any any snippets to give me any bits
of news that we need to know from the Beehive,
Even though that no one's here apart from Nicola Willis
Chris Bishop.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
I would keep an eye on Youth Press Gallery. It's
always quite a lot of fun. I think these I
wanted to be a Youth Press Gallery member when I
was in high school. I did not get selected. But
there's also the Youth Press Gallery as well as the
Youth Parliament, which is a It's a really interesting and
novel concept because they go up to the house and
sit where the usual press gallery does. So keep an
eye out for that to see if there's any developments.
(08:51):
That'll be the main thing this week.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
I'd say youth geeks always a place.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
Nothing wrong with being a youth bringing.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
No no, nothing wrong with Jason Walls News Talks. The
best political edits are coming to us live from the
bee Ive. Very empty beehive. I wouldn't mind going to
have a coffee at the cafe. There would be empty
or the food would be nice and fresh Gus. Thanks Jason,
always a pleasure.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
For more from Wellington Mornings with Nick Mills, listen live
to News Talks It'd be Wellington from nine to am weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the Wellington Mornings podcast with Nick Mills
from News Talk.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Said B.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Direct from News Talk, said be's team at Parliaments the
beehive buzz.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
It's that time of the week when we go to
the beehive and we've been joined by news Talk, said
b's political editor Jason Wolves.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Good morning Jays, Oh, good morning Neck. I'm so glad
to hear that you're back. You're feeling a bit better.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Yeah, I'm back on top of my game. A couple
of things I wanted to go over with you today,
Laura and order announcement from the government. How's it gone down?
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Well, I mean you're not going to hear many people
that are complaining about this. I mean this is people
that are assaulting ambulance and first lane response workers. And
it's not exactly a proportion of New Zealand that has
a lot of love with their fellow Keywis, the Prime
Minister was on with Hosking this morning. Here's how he
described it.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
It's quite frightening if you're a paramedic or a fire officer, firefighter,
or a police officer or prison officer. This saults on
these guys has been profound like there's been nine hundred
assaults I think last year on the prison officers, eleven
hundred on police officers. And these are key weis that
go and try and help us into these difficult circumstances.
They don't deserve to get best or assaulted.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Absolutely, and I don't think you're going to find anybody
out there that's going to disagree with the Prime Minister
over this one. It's quite interesting because I've now been
in Parliament long enough to see a kind of things
happening in cycles. And I think it was Derek Ball,
who was an MP for New Zealand First, he's now
in New Zealand First's chief of staff that actually tried
to do a similar bill back in twenty eighteen. But
(01:40):
it looks like Luxon's gone the whole hog here. And
it was his Justice spokesperson Paul Goldsmith that was talking
about it yesterday. There is some questions around you know
what happens if a judge doesn't play ball when it
comes to this conviction. And Luxon had a very swift
but clear message for those judges this.
Speaker 4 (01:57):
Morning, Well they need to we'll look at it again.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
If they don't, they'll look at it they'll see if
they can do anything more if the judges don't play ball.
So it's, as I said, it's not a it's not
a policy that's going to lose national any votes. I think,
as I said, like, you're not going to see anybody
that's going to look at this and say, hang on
a second. I don't think that people that his sole
ambulance workers should get have a harder have a harder line.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Yeah, I see. I thought myself when I read it
and looked at it and thought about it, I thought
it should be instead of a minimum maximum top a round,
so that if you're you know, they're saying a maximum
of two years, well that should be the minimum, I'd say.
I mean, I think they've got to go harder, That's
what I think. Especially those numbers. Those numbers are horrific.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
Yeah, this is a government of law and order, so
you'd be they'll be chomping at the bit to get
these sorts of announcements out there. And as I understand it,
there'll be more law and order announcements this week, so
strap in for a law and order weeks.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
It looks like, okay, right, why has suddenly an MP
resigned from Parliament after just eighteen months. Who is it,
Why has she resigned? And it's the story behind it?
Speaker 3 (03:08):
Well, it's a bit unclear at this stage. This is
Tanya Unkovich. She's a New Zealand First List MP. And
if you haven't heard this name before, while you're with
ninety nine point nine nine nine percent of the population,
She's not exactly somebody that did a lot of press.
She's not exactly somebody that was speaking in question time
or in the House all that often, just sort of
(03:28):
a stock standard back bench New Zealand first MP. And
she quit last week saying that she could personally be
of more service to New Zealanders through various avenues in
the private sector as well as coaching and consultancy. And
maybe that says something about the impact that they've had
in parliament that they think that they could do more
help to people in New Zealanders with coaching and consultancy.
But I digress. Here's an interesting quote I'm just reading
(03:51):
from the press release here. She said, it has always
been my deepest desire to serve mankind and my work
as a member of Parliament, I have had the privilege
to be the voice to many in the country who
need it the most, which is an interesting phrase. And
isn't it the the deepest desire to be of service
to mankind? I thought was quite interesting. But no, she's
(04:12):
away now there's somebody new coming on the New Zealand
first list as well, and so they'll be here relatively soon.
There's no by election because she's a list MP, so
it's out with one, in with the other. But in
terms of you know, if there is another reason behind this,
or if there is something like a little bit more
than has been led on, that's those are questions that
we're still asking. She hasn't done a press stand up
(04:35):
yet or as I understand it, any sort of interviews
with any media, so we're just gonna have to take
her word for it at the stage that she wants
to go back into coaching and consultancy.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
So tell me how often does this actually happen and
when does it normally happen? Is it midterm? You just
tending up after eighteen months.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
Having enough and just calling it quits halfway through is
relatively It's not unheard of, but it doesn't happen very often.
Usually people at least do a term. I mean, there
was Emily Henderson from Labor. Last time around, she got
to the end of the term of Labor and which
is like, this is actually.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Not for me.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
I don't enjoy being an MP. So she said that
she was going to be residing at the election, but
not to go the full way through is quite unusual.
I mean it is you basically, when you're elected, you
take on the commitment to do it election by election
at the very least, So to quit halfway through, it's
not like other jobs. We could just be like, ah,
not really feeling this anymore, I'm just going to quit now.
(05:27):
You kind of do have a contract to the people
that elected you, and there would be people out there
that voted for New Zealand first because of Tanya Unkovich.
I don't know how many people that is. It might
not be a lot, but there are still people, and
you do have a bit of a service to your constituents.
So quitting halfway through like this, unless there are some
health reasons or the issues going on with the family,
it's very It is quite unusual, and it doesn't seem
(05:50):
to be the case there. It just seems like, you know,
she had enough and wanted to go back into cold coach.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
All right, let's move on. There's a couple of week
recess where the Parliament isn't sitting. What actually the mp
is just like a couple of week holiday for them?
Did they get a couple of weeks? So if I
mean ministers has been traveling all over Europe and doing
this big thing, does he come back and have a
week off where he sits at home and has cups
and teeth?
Speaker 3 (06:14):
No?
Speaker 1 (06:14):
No, no, no.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
The Prime Minister is I mean he's having a post
cabinet press conference today, so he's back at work in
Wellington and chairing the Cabinet meeting as well. So there
is still work that goes on. Basically, I mean, if
you're an electorate MP, you do have as I was
just talking about there, you do have obligations to your
constituents and that comes in the form of going back
to your electorates, having meetings and doing things in the community.
(06:36):
And if you're a minister, obviously there is still the
business of running government, so there is still things to do.
It just means that they're not down in Wellington and
doing things like attending select committees or attending the House.
So it might seem as if they're slacking off for
a while. It's not the case. However, I will note
that this is usually the time of year the MPs
do take a little bit of time off. It's a
bit of a strange contract that you have as a
(06:58):
member of Parliament because technically you don't get annual leave
or sick leave. You just kind of have to work
it in with the whip schedule and if you can go,
then you can go. And so I mean it's not
that bad that they take a little bit of time
out this time of year. There's not a ton going
on legislatively. I mean the government will tell you otherwise.
But they pushed a bunch through last week as well
(07:19):
to get it out of the way, so they're still working.
It's just not as public facing as we used to.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
And what percentage would be actually based in Wellington right now,
oh very small.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
You've got Nikola Willis, Tarmatha, Paul greg O'Connor. Who else
are you going?
Speaker 2 (07:35):
So the out of town is don't come the out
of town iss have this whole two weeks off, they
don't even come to town.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Well, they're back in their constituents. Yes, I wouldn't say
they've got it off. But they're not in Wellington. They
stay in their respective constituencies across the country.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Well means they can do whatever they want, doesn't it.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Really you're you're pretty pessimistic today, old Nick Mills. We
get things done.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Hell, I know you're not going to have a hell
of a lot on over the next couple of weeks,
are you. I mean, if everyone's out of town.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
True, Oh well, I'll tell you what. There's Youth Parliament
for the next couple of days. I'm I'm extensively involved
in the Youth Press Gallery in the Youth Parliament in
my capacity as Press Gallery chair down here. I'll still
have things to do, okay, and I talk to wonderful
people like yourself every day.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
All right, Any any snippets to give me any bits
of news that we need to know from the Beehive,
Even though that no one's here apart from Nicola Willis
Chris Bishop.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
I would keep an eye on Youth Press Gallery. It's
always quite a lot of fun. I think these I
wanted to be a Youth Press Gallery member when I
was in high school. I did not get selected. But
there's also the Youth Press Gallery as well as the
Youth Parliament, which is a It's a really interesting and
novel concept because they go up to the house and
sit where the usual press gallery does. So keep an
eye out for that to see if there's any developments.
(08:51):
That'll be the main thing this week.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
I'd say youth geeks always a place.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
Nothing wrong with being a youth bringing.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
No no, nothing wrong with Jason Walls News Talks. The
best political edits are coming to us live from the
bee Ive. Very empty beehive. I wouldn't mind going to
have a coffee at the cafe. There would be empty
or the food would be nice and fresh Gus. Thanks Jason,
always a pleasure.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
For more from Wellington Mornings with Nick Mills, listen live
to News Talks It'd be Wellington from nine to am weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
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