March 23, 2025 • 10 mins
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has delivered his state of the nation speech, decrying wokeism and DEI, and calling to "make New Zealand first again". How has his speech gone down?
Also, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has returned from a trip to India. What will come out of the trip?
Newstalk ZB political editor Jason Walls joined Nick Mills for the Beehive Buzz.
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Wellington Mornings podcast with Nick Mills
from news Talk, said B direct from news Talk said
B's team at Parliament's the Bee Hive.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Buzz joining us for the Bee High Buzzers. News Talk
said be Political editor Jason Walls Morning.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Jayson, Morning Neck. How are you finding the new Digs?
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Mate? Unbelievable? Once you come up, you're gonna be so jealous,
you're gonna leave your job. You know how you wanted
this job?
Speaker 4 (00:34):
Right?
Speaker 1 (00:34):
You know?
Speaker 5 (00:34):
You know when I fierst tell me that, don't You're
the one that told me when I first got the job,
you know that's my dream job. And I said, well,
wait a while, buddy, go back to Parliament, Wait a while,
would you come and have a look at the new
dig If you're going to go to me your words,
not my words, Digs, you're going to go to me?
Speaker 2 (00:49):
How old are you again?
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Nick?
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Anyway, the knives will be well and truly out counting
down the days, my friend.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Especially when you did so well over the summer break.
I mean, you know you're born, you know you're a
born host. Let's talk Winston Peters. He's delivered his Date
of the Nation speech. What was your honest opinion.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Yeah, I mean it was very, very Winston Peters. It
was one of the longest, if not the longest, of
the State of the Nation's speeches that we've seen so far.
You know, the thing with Winston is that you get
some speeches, we get what's called an embargo beforehand, so
we get to read out of what the speeches and
you can see what he's going to say, so you
can prepare news stories in anticipation for that. That completely
goes out the window with one Winston Raymond Peters because
(01:30):
he goes off script so much, and often the best
parts are where he goes off script, so it always
pays to tune in and watch it. And this one,
with all the interruptions and all the going off the cough,
was around about fifty minutes, which is, you know, it's
not like a Trump speech, which goes for about two
and a half hours, but it's getting quite up there.
But it's a very fascinating listen, and I think that,
(01:51):
you know, the first point that I would make is
there was obviously some goobers in the crowd that wanted
to stand up and make a bit of a deck
of themselves. And just just yell out a little bit,
well quite a lot actually, and they got escorted out,
which actually I think probably played into Winston's hands quite well.
I mean, there's nobody that can work a room like
Winston in terms of when it comes to heckling and
things like that, so I think he kind of came
(02:12):
off quite well. The other thing was where his focus
was throughout the entire speech, because it was Labor Party,
Labor Party, Labor Party. In fact, my learned colleague Thomas
Coglin counted thirty mentions of the Labor Party during his speech,
and that's not including references to Grant Robertson and Chris
Hopkins and other people as well. And it kind of
(02:34):
got me thinking, you know, like Winston Peters can have
as many cracks as he wants at the Labor Party,
but don't forget who was it the one who was
the person that gave the Labor Party power back in
twenty seventeen. It was Winston Peters and it was New
Zealand first, and so for three years he was in
a coalition with the Labor Party. So it's very convenient
(02:55):
that he quite often forgets that part of it and
he'll say things like, all in that set in the
COVID years from twenty twenty to twenty twenty three is
where all the bad things happen. Well know, I mean,
for example, the oil and gas ban that happened under
when New Zealand First was in coalition with Labour. So
it's very hard for Winston to try and wiggle his
way out of that one, and he has in the past.
(03:15):
He talks about how it wasn't brought before cabinet, it
was just something that the Labor Party did, which I
find very very hard to believe because it's such a big, big,
fundamental part of New Zealand First's COPAPA. They're what they're
they're ethos for governance, and for them to just let
it slide because it wasn't something that came up in
cabinet really beggars belief. But if you're really jonesing for
(03:37):
a bit of Winston, here is a little bit of
what he said about the protesters who are outside and
in his speech over the weekend.
Speaker 4 (03:44):
Their objectives don't include freedom of speech or democracy. They
seek to impose their absolute minority view on the mess
majority of his illness.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
And it was a lot of that sort of rhetoric
throughout the entire speech. So it was a pretty classic Winston,
pretty classic New Zealand first and it comes at a
time where they're just hovering above the five percent threshold,
so expect some more. I would say, well, you know
what it is.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
This is my humble opinion, right, it's Whinston Peters gets
down on you. Right, He's down on the Labor Party
at the moment, isn't he. They have always come out
and said that they wouldn't join him and that they
wouldn't take him in the coalition if they became power.
So I think it's he's just that guy. He just
gets very tough on you if you're not wanted in
his camp, doesn't he?
Speaker 3 (04:28):
Oh yeah, big time, big time, big time. And I
think that you know, Labor have said that they don't
want to work with him. He said he doesn't want
to work with Labor. But I honestly wouldn't be surprised
if there was an about turn closer to the election.
I mean, I think it's quite unlikely, given how much
of the water that has gone under the bridge has
been poisoned by the things that both parties have said.
To each other. But it's just it's never seen never,
especially with Winston.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
And power and power absolutely right, Jo. So if he's
got an opportunity to be in power still and have
still have the international travel, you'd be a braver man
than me to say it wouldn't.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
I wouldn't. I would never either. That's the thing that
I've learned over my near ten years in Parliament is
never right Winston off will never count them out.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Okay, the Prime Minister has just returned from India. What
do you reckon? Came out of the trip and I'm
going to give you my opinion after you give me yours.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Yeah, well, I mean I think for the most part, Look,
he went there to say that we're going to bolster
relations with the Indian government so we can work on
a free trade agreement, and that's exactly what happened. I mean.
There's some all sorts of photos and videos of him
with Prime Minister narendram Modi, and they're very warm, They're
very kind, inviting to each other, very very upbeat on
(05:35):
this idea of a free trade agreement, which the previous
Labor government they tried but essentially said it's a difficult
thing to do, So we're going to focus on other
free trade agreements instead. So Chris Luxon really coming back
and saying this is the market that we want to
tap into. And I think that's exactly what he did. Obviously,
we weren't expecting a free trade agreement to be signed
while they were in India. That would just be way
(05:58):
too soon. There was some commentary from some on the
Indian side actually that they could see something within sixty
to ninety days, and the Prime Minister left that and said, yep,
that's a little bit too quick. But you know, having
a free trade agreement that quick, I'd like into going
to a takeaway shop and getting your food about five
minutes after you've ordered. It's great, but it's suspiciously quick,
(06:18):
you know. And you look at that and you think,
maybe this isn't the best that I could be getting
for my money. That's exactly how it is for free
trade agreement. So I think good initial first steps for
the Prime Minister and he'll be pleased because it's exactly
what he wanted to accomplish over there.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Now.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
I want your opinion, Nick.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
I reckon that we're going to get absolutely nothing or
very very little out of it. That's my honest opinion,
and I think that, yes, I totally agree. I totally
agree that one point five billion people, you know, a
great number to do business where and all those things.
Doing business with India is not going to be easy
and it's not going to be on anything that we want,
(06:54):
and it'll involve bringing a lot more Indians into New Zealand,
which I'm not sure that we need. Not that I'm
saying that in a racial term. I'm just saying it
in a straight up and down term. What is the
population all contendency and already I just don't think that
that deals. I don't think that the deal is going
to amount to nothing. And I reckon that it was
a very very very expensive trip to take the entourage
(07:17):
and what he did over there. So let's wait and see.
I hope, I hope I'm wrong. I'm praying I'm wrong,
But just wait and see now, right.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
I mean, I think the point that I would make is, like, listen,
I'm fine with Indian immigration. I think that obviously it
needs to be the same as are the places around
the world as well, and we're wanting to get the
top tier people into New Zealand in terms of the
jobs we need. You know, we've been very clear the
government has we need more doctors, we need more nurses,
we need more people that are registered in various different
(07:45):
parts of the economy. So I think that if we
have more people from those backgrounds, I think, yeah, I
have at it and.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
I'm not and I'm exactly the same. But I don't
want to open up to any country on with unfair
against another country. That's my humble once again my opinion
on let's talk about what's happening in parliam this week.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Absolutely, it's a setting week. So the politicians are back.
We've got Winston back, We've got lux And back, we've
got Hipco. Everybody you pointed a politician, they'll be here
apart from abet Party Marti, because their absence has become
quite notable in the house. They hear a lot of
the time, but they are also a lot of the
time away, so we'll be keeping an eye on that.
There are a number of things to keep an eye
(08:28):
out on this week. There's one of things that I've
been noticing happening in question time, and it happens close
to these big financial events such as the budgets such
as PREFOO, which is the pre economic fiscal and all
these acronyms, you know what they are. Nikola Willis tends
to drop what I like to call fiscal breadcrumbs in
the house where she stands up with a patsy question
(08:50):
and she's asked usually it's what do you think about
what reports have you seen on the state of the economy.
And her tone has shifted recently from really talking the
governor government up to actually forecasting a bit of a
warning in terms of the budget, and she was doing
that before the break as well. So keep an eye
out for Nikola Willis, keep an eye out for those
down beat commentary on the economy that she's basically laying
(09:14):
the foundations to say, Hey, things are worse than we
already thought that they were, and they already thought that
things were quite bad.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
You're getting me really, really nervous towards this budget. My
next hour, I'm talking about more cuts and all that's
going on. You're making me even nervouser. Do you reckon
that there's something significant going to come out?
Speaker 3 (09:34):
I think that this budget is going to be quite
different to the budgets that we've seen in previous years.
They have the operating allowance, which is essentially the amount
of new money that you can put into the budget,
which is two point five billion dollars. That's not a
lot in the scheme of things, but what Nicola Willis
has said is to pay for the things that they
want to do, they're going to have to be a
lot of reprioritization within government. Listen, this should have been
(09:56):
happening for decades. It probably was at some level. But
I think the recycling of capital and taking projects that
weren't working and putting it into those that they think
will be will be the level that we've never seen
before at this budget.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
You're not making me feel more relaxed, buddy.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
I'm not trying to make you feel relaxed. I mean
I'm preparing you. And that's what Nicola Willison is doing.
She's she's laying these fiscal breadcrumbs so that people aren't
shocked when the books look a lot worse than people
think that they would be.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
I don't want to be prepared. I don't want to
be shocked.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
I want to be a bad boy scout.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
I want to see some good things happening, and I
want to see them happening now. Jason always, I'm really
good to talk to you, Joe. You know, it's always
amazing anyway, New News Talks, the Beast, Political edits at
Jason Walls and joining us for the Beehive Buzz, which
he does when he's in the country and when he's available.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
For more from Wellington Mornings with Nick Mills. Listen live
to News Talks It'd be Wellington from nine am weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the Wellington Mornings podcast with Nick Mills
from news Talk, said B direct from news Talk said
B's team at Parliament's the Bee Hive.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Buzz joining us for the Bee High Buzzers. News Talk
said be Political editor Jason Walls Morning.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Jayson, Morning Neck. How are you finding the new Digs?
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Mate? Unbelievable? Once you come up, you're gonna be so jealous,
you're gonna leave your job. You know how you wanted
this job?
Speaker 4 (00:34):
Right?
Speaker 1 (00:34):
You know?
Speaker 5 (00:34):
You know when I fierst tell me that, don't You're
the one that told me when I first got the job,
you know that's my dream job. And I said, well,
wait a while, buddy, go back to Parliament, Wait a while,
would you come and have a look at the new
dig If you're going to go to me your words,
not my words, Digs, you're going to go to me?
Speaker 2 (00:49):
How old are you again?
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Nick?
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Anyway, the knives will be well and truly out counting
down the days, my friend.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Especially when you did so well over the summer break.
I mean, you know you're born, you know you're a
born host. Let's talk Winston Peters. He's delivered his Date
of the Nation speech. What was your honest opinion.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Yeah, I mean it was very, very Winston Peters. It
was one of the longest, if not the longest, of
the State of the Nation's speeches that we've seen so far.
You know, the thing with Winston is that you get
some speeches, we get what's called an embargo beforehand, so
we get to read out of what the speeches and
you can see what he's going to say, so you
can prepare news stories in anticipation for that. That completely
goes out the window with one Winston Raymond Peters because
(01:30):
he goes off script so much, and often the best
parts are where he goes off script, so it always
pays to tune in and watch it. And this one,
with all the interruptions and all the going off the cough,
was around about fifty minutes, which is, you know, it's
not like a Trump speech, which goes for about two
and a half hours, but it's getting quite up there.
But it's a very fascinating listen, and I think that,
(01:51):
you know, the first point that I would make is
there was obviously some goobers in the crowd that wanted
to stand up and make a bit of a deck
of themselves. And just just yell out a little bit,
well quite a lot actually, and they got escorted out,
which actually I think probably played into Winston's hands quite well.
I mean, there's nobody that can work a room like
Winston in terms of when it comes to heckling and
things like that, so I think he kind of came
(02:12):
off quite well. The other thing was where his focus
was throughout the entire speech, because it was Labor Party,
Labor Party, Labor Party. In fact, my learned colleague Thomas
Coglin counted thirty mentions of the Labor Party during his speech,
and that's not including references to Grant Robertson and Chris
Hopkins and other people as well. And it kind of
(02:34):
got me thinking, you know, like Winston Peters can have
as many cracks as he wants at the Labor Party,
but don't forget who was it the one who was
the person that gave the Labor Party power back in
twenty seventeen. It was Winston Peters and it was New
Zealand first, and so for three years he was in
a coalition with the Labor Party. So it's very convenient
(02:55):
that he quite often forgets that part of it and
he'll say things like, all in that set in the
COVID years from twenty twenty to twenty twenty three is
where all the bad things happen. Well know, I mean,
for example, the oil and gas ban that happened under
when New Zealand First was in coalition with Labour. So
it's very hard for Winston to try and wiggle his
way out of that one, and he has in the past.
(03:15):
He talks about how it wasn't brought before cabinet, it
was just something that the Labor Party did, which I
find very very hard to believe because it's such a big, big,
fundamental part of New Zealand First's COPAPA. They're what they're
they're ethos for governance, and for them to just let
it slide because it wasn't something that came up in
cabinet really beggars belief. But if you're really jonesing for
(03:37):
a bit of Winston, here is a little bit of
what he said about the protesters who are outside and
in his speech over the weekend.
Speaker 4 (03:44):
Their objectives don't include freedom of speech or democracy. They
seek to impose their absolute minority view on the mess
majority of his illness.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
And it was a lot of that sort of rhetoric
throughout the entire speech. So it was a pretty classic Winston,
pretty classic New Zealand first and it comes at a
time where they're just hovering above the five percent threshold,
so expect some more. I would say, well, you know
what it is.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
This is my humble opinion, right, it's Whinston Peters gets
down on you. Right, He's down on the Labor Party
at the moment, isn't he. They have always come out
and said that they wouldn't join him and that they
wouldn't take him in the coalition if they became power.
So I think it's he's just that guy. He just
gets very tough on you if you're not wanted in
his camp, doesn't he?
Speaker 3 (04:28):
Oh yeah, big time, big time, big time. And I
think that you know, Labor have said that they don't
want to work with him. He said he doesn't want
to work with Labor. But I honestly wouldn't be surprised
if there was an about turn closer to the election.
I mean, I think it's quite unlikely, given how much
of the water that has gone under the bridge has
been poisoned by the things that both parties have said.
To each other. But it's just it's never seen never,
especially with Winston.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
And power and power absolutely right, Jo. So if he's
got an opportunity to be in power still and have
still have the international travel, you'd be a braver man
than me to say it wouldn't.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
I wouldn't. I would never either. That's the thing that
I've learned over my near ten years in Parliament is
never right Winston off will never count them out.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Okay, the Prime Minister has just returned from India. What
do you reckon? Came out of the trip and I'm
going to give you my opinion after you give me yours.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Yeah, well, I mean I think for the most part, Look,
he went there to say that we're going to bolster
relations with the Indian government so we can work on
a free trade agreement, and that's exactly what happened. I mean.
There's some all sorts of photos and videos of him
with Prime Minister narendram Modi, and they're very warm, They're
very kind, inviting to each other, very very upbeat on
(05:35):
this idea of a free trade agreement, which the previous
Labor government they tried but essentially said it's a difficult
thing to do, So we're going to focus on other
free trade agreements instead. So Chris Luxon really coming back
and saying this is the market that we want to
tap into. And I think that's exactly what he did. Obviously,
we weren't expecting a free trade agreement to be signed
while they were in India. That would just be way
(05:58):
too soon. There was some commentary from some on the
Indian side actually that they could see something within sixty
to ninety days, and the Prime Minister left that and said, yep,
that's a little bit too quick. But you know, having
a free trade agreement that quick, I'd like into going
to a takeaway shop and getting your food about five
minutes after you've ordered. It's great, but it's suspiciously quick,
(06:18):
you know. And you look at that and you think,
maybe this isn't the best that I could be getting
for my money. That's exactly how it is for free
trade agreement. So I think good initial first steps for
the Prime Minister and he'll be pleased because it's exactly
what he wanted to accomplish over there.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Now.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
I want your opinion, Nick.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
I reckon that we're going to get absolutely nothing or
very very little out of it. That's my honest opinion,
and I think that, yes, I totally agree. I totally
agree that one point five billion people, you know, a
great number to do business where and all those things.
Doing business with India is not going to be easy
and it's not going to be on anything that we want,
(06:54):
and it'll involve bringing a lot more Indians into New Zealand,
which I'm not sure that we need. Not that I'm
saying that in a racial term. I'm just saying it
in a straight up and down term. What is the
population all contendency and already I just don't think that
that deals. I don't think that the deal is going
to amount to nothing. And I reckon that it was
a very very very expensive trip to take the entourage
(07:17):
and what he did over there. So let's wait and see.
I hope, I hope I'm wrong. I'm praying I'm wrong,
But just wait and see now, right.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
I mean, I think the point that I would make is, like, listen,
I'm fine with Indian immigration. I think that obviously it
needs to be the same as are the places around
the world as well, and we're wanting to get the
top tier people into New Zealand in terms of the
jobs we need. You know, we've been very clear the
government has we need more doctors, we need more nurses,
we need more people that are registered in various different
(07:45):
parts of the economy. So I think that if we
have more people from those backgrounds, I think, yeah, I
have at it and.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
I'm not and I'm exactly the same. But I don't
want to open up to any country on with unfair
against another country. That's my humble once again my opinion
on let's talk about what's happening in parliam this week.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Absolutely, it's a setting week. So the politicians are back.
We've got Winston back, We've got lux And back, we've
got Hipco. Everybody you pointed a politician, they'll be here
apart from abet Party Marti, because their absence has become
quite notable in the house. They hear a lot of
the time, but they are also a lot of the
time away, so we'll be keeping an eye on that.
There are a number of things to keep an eye
(08:28):
out on this week. There's one of things that I've
been noticing happening in question time, and it happens close
to these big financial events such as the budgets such
as PREFOO, which is the pre economic fiscal and all
these acronyms, you know what they are. Nikola Willis tends
to drop what I like to call fiscal breadcrumbs in
the house where she stands up with a patsy question
(08:50):
and she's asked usually it's what do you think about
what reports have you seen on the state of the economy.
And her tone has shifted recently from really talking the
governor government up to actually forecasting a bit of a
warning in terms of the budget, and she was doing
that before the break as well. So keep an eye
out for Nikola Willis, keep an eye out for those
down beat commentary on the economy that she's basically laying
(09:14):
the foundations to say, Hey, things are worse than we
already thought that they were, and they already thought that
things were quite bad.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
You're getting me really, really nervous towards this budget. My
next hour, I'm talking about more cuts and all that's
going on. You're making me even nervouser. Do you reckon
that there's something significant going to come out?
Speaker 3 (09:34):
I think that this budget is going to be quite
different to the budgets that we've seen in previous years.
They have the operating allowance, which is essentially the amount
of new money that you can put into the budget,
which is two point five billion dollars. That's not a
lot in the scheme of things, but what Nicola Willis
has said is to pay for the things that they
want to do, they're going to have to be a
lot of reprioritization within government. Listen, this should have been
(09:56):
happening for decades. It probably was at some level. But
I think the recycling of capital and taking projects that
weren't working and putting it into those that they think
will be will be the level that we've never seen
before at this budget.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
You're not making me feel more relaxed, buddy.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
I'm not trying to make you feel relaxed. I mean
I'm preparing you. And that's what Nicola Willison is doing.
She's she's laying these fiscal breadcrumbs so that people aren't
shocked when the books look a lot worse than people
think that they would be.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
I don't want to be prepared. I don't want to
be shocked.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
I want to be a bad boy scout.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
I want to see some good things happening, and I
want to see them happening now. Jason always, I'm really
good to talk to you, Joe. You know, it's always
amazing anyway, New News Talks, the Beast, Political edits at
Jason Walls and joining us for the Beehive Buzz, which
he does when he's in the country and when he's available.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
For more from Wellington Mornings with Nick Mills. Listen live
to News Talks It'd be Wellington from nine am weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
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