Beehive Buzz: Jason Walls on the PM's trip to China, possible changes to sick leave entitlements

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon departs early tomorrow morning for China, leading a business delegation to Shanghai, where he hopes to boost the country’s profile as a tourism and education destination. 

He'll also meet with president Xi Jinping. So what is he hoping to achieve on the trip? 

Also, Luxon hinted this morning at possible changes to legislation surrounding sick leave entitlement. Could the government revert back to the five days sick leave that was in place prior to the last government changing the law?

Newstalk ZB political editor Jason Walls joined Nick Mills for the Beehive Buzz. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Wellington Mornings podcast with Nick Mills
from News Talk said B direct from News Talks edb's
team at Parliaments, the bee Hive Buzz.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Joining us with the Bee high Buzzes News Talk said B.
Political Etiquette editor Jason Wolves.

Speaker 3 (00:26):
Good morning, Jason, Oh, good afternoon, Good afternoon, Good morning, Nick.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
How are you good this morning? In my world? I
don't know where you are, but this morning, Uh, the
Prime ministers off on a big tip trip this week.
Explain where he is going, what he's doing for.

Speaker 3 (00:42):
What Well, he's going to China and then he is
going to NATO right afterwards, so he's kind of packing
the two together during these recess week down here in Parliament.
So it's its first stop is Beijing where he's going
to be doing the political rounds. He's going to be
talking to Sijing Xijing Bing and Premier Lee, and he's

(01:03):
going to be talking about sort of the usual things
that in New zealandrime minister talks with a Chinese president with,
and that's the likes of trade, it's business to business links,
all those things. But also you know, as is the
line that prime ministers usually raised with New Zealand media
before they go, they will be raising some areas of concern.
Obviously there are some human rights issues within China and

(01:26):
some of the ways that they're behaving around Taiwan, but
the Prime Minister says, you know, he's going to raise
those cons consistently, predictably, the same way he does in
private that he does publicly, and that has been the
sort of the go to phrase for New Zealand prime
ministers when they're heading over to China. So then after
that they go to Shanghai. Shanghai is more of a

(01:48):
focus on the business side of things, trying to get
some deals done. He was talking about costing this morning
and saying there's absolutely some things to do and some
deals to be signed on the dotted line. So we'll
wait with baited breath to see what those are. Before
he goes over to NATO. In Europe, it's an interesting
one because he's talked about the sort of this ANZAC
visit to Ukraine and meeting with President Zelenski over there,

(02:12):
and this will be Luckson's best opportunity to do that
given that he is going to be in Europe. So
we'll wait to see if that's what he's doing as well.
So a busy couple of weeks for the Prime Minister.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
Well, I mean this opportunity for China. Obviously, there's going
to be more opportunities. What's happening in America.

Speaker 3 (02:30):
Yeah, I mean there's going to be heaps of opportunities indeed,
and to meet with China and to Chinese leaders, and
obviously with what's going on in America right now, that's
raising some eyebrows. So Donald Trump will be at NATO.
It's not confirmed as to whether they were locked in
a meeting at this stage, but Luxlin was saying that
he would he would think if there was a meeting,

(02:52):
it would be sort of on the sidelines of NATO,
what we like to call a Polcide meeting, in the
corridors of the halls of power. So we'll wait to
see if that one eventuates.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
Now this morning, there was hence on the Mike Hoskins
Show with the Prime Minister about some changes to Sickly.
What do you know about that, if anything?

Speaker 3 (03:10):
Well, i'll tell you what. It kind of came out
a bit out of nowhere because Hoskin was just kind
of talking about us mate who was talking about the
fact that we have ten days sick leave and isn't
that a little bit strange? And here's what the Prime
Minister told.

Speaker 4 (03:20):
Them, why do we have ten days sickly?

Speaker 5 (03:22):
Yeah, well there's some changes coming through on workplace.

Speaker 4 (03:24):
Relationship where we go. So we had five sick days
until just decided we needed ten correct for COVID covids. Now,
can we agree that it's gone, Yes, and we might
need to do something about sickly.

Speaker 5 (03:37):
We might need to we might need to do things
about pro rataing sick leave as well, because you know,
people who were on part time contracts are getting full
time ten day equivalency. So Broke van Velden's working through
some of those.

Speaker 3 (03:48):
When we saw it, there's something going on in the
sickly department. And this was as the Prime Minister alluded to,
under just SINDA are doing during the COVID era. They
upped it from five days to ten days. And there
has been some chat within the sort of the business
community that that is a lot of time and is
it's really analizing businesses. But there will be people on

(04:08):
the other side of things. Obviously, the unions will be
the advocates of this that say it really helps people
with those the more chronic pain in the areas where
you need to have a little bit more sicklyve. So
to see what Brook van Velden comes up with, whether
it is going back to five or she splits the
difference and calls it maybe seven, we'll have to wait
and see. But it's very interesting to see some movement

(04:29):
on this in this area from the Prime Minister. And
the way that it came about today was quite random.

Speaker 2 (04:35):
Actually, I thought, yeah, now you're a fit young guy.
How many sick days have you had off so far
this year?

Speaker 3 (04:41):
So myself and Sophie trigger who's in my office as well,
we were just talking about this. We don't really take
all that many at all. I mean we'd probably take
maybe two or three a year. I've taken a couple
this year because I was hit with the lurgy at
some point. But I wouldn't touch the sides of a ten.
But it's you know, I often thought, when you have ten,

(05:02):
you kind of don't think twice about using sicklyave. But
if you've only got five, you kind of a little
bit more. It's just just in case you get up
to that level.

Speaker 2 (05:09):
So yeah, I don't know whether that's good or a
band thing though. I mean, I don't know whether it's
a good thing. When you're feeling absolutely down and you're
feeling a big crop and you can't get yourself out
of bed, you go to work. I don't like the
idea of spreading the bugs, you.

Speaker 3 (05:22):
Know, No, no, no, no, I wouldn't.

Speaker 2 (05:25):
I'd never do that, you know what I mean though,
I mean people, if you only had five days, you
push yourself to go to work, you think you know
tomorrow I might be feeling worse and might need to
take another day off.

Speaker 3 (05:35):
Yeah, yeah, it's an end. It's about mitigating that risk
as well. So we'll be interested to see what Brook
van Velden says about that, because there, as you point out,
there's a lot of questions that need to be asked.

Speaker 2 (05:44):
And now it's scrutiny work week at Parliament now. Last
year when this was on, this is b yes, isn't it.
I just can't what what the Hell's scrutiny week?

Speaker 3 (05:52):
Come on?

Speaker 2 (05:53):
They should be under scrutiny every damn week they get
there because I'm not there enough.

Speaker 3 (05:58):
It's a fair comment. Let's call it double scrutiny. Week.
Then because you make a good you make a good point.
But it's basically the week that select committees are an
overdre So every what non ministerial MP or non leader
is in a select committee. Essentially, what that is is
a group of MPs that are responsible for governance and
administration or finance and expenditure, and they sit down and

(06:21):
they appropriate bills, They look through a various different pieces
of legislation that are coming through, and they also hear
from members of the public who are submitting on legislation
as well. And another thing they do is they get
they sit ministers down and kind of go through what
they're doing in that area of their work as well.
And that's what's happening this week. So we had Mark

(06:41):
Mitchell this morning. We have a lot more of Mark
Mitchell today. He's before us at one pm, one thirty
or two thirty. He's again three thirty five and four forty,
as well as being up at nine to thirteen and
he's just getting a bunch out of the way because
he's going to the China China with the PM. But
it's essentially a way that ministers sit down and held

(07:03):
accountable to other MPs. Now you might be saying, doesn't
that happen in the house, and I would say, absolutely
it does. This is just on a little bit more
of a micro level. So keep your eyes peeled for
those sweet, sweet scrutiny Week stories because they're going to
be coming in thick and fast.

Speaker 2 (07:18):
Exactly what I said in the first place, I was right.

Speaker 3 (07:22):
Well, you're very rarely wrong, Nick, Well.

Speaker 2 (07:24):
No, I mean, I do get it wrong. I'm just saying,
but this scrutiny week is bs to me. Pee. I
know that you know, political geniuses like yourself, love them
and get the opportunity to talk about.

Speaker 1 (07:34):
Oh do not.

Speaker 3 (07:35):
It's a lot of extra work for us. It's a
lot of a list, So I don't love it, per se.
I love a bit of scrutiny and accountability, but you
know there's a lot going on this week, right.

Speaker 2 (07:45):
Well, take it easy and don't work too hard and
scrutinize the government for us. Keep an eye on them,
make sure they're doing all the right things. Jason Wills
is News Talks, There be Political Editor.

Speaker 1 (07:56):
For more from Wellington Mornings with Nick Mills. Listen live
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