July 14, 2026 • 13 mins
Labour leader Chris Hipkins joins Nick Mills on Wellington Mornings to chat the latest in politics, including Paul Henry's entrance into politics with the ACT Party.
Hipkins shares his thoughts on famous faces entering politics, and how he thinks broadcaster Paul Henry will fit into the beehive. "Shane Jones is going to have a bit of competition for parliament's biggest blowhard."
Then how is Labour reacting to the shifts in National's plan for the Roads of National Significance. Would they follow through with all projects put on the back burner?
When asked if Labour would prioritise the second Mt Victoria tunnel project, Hipkins says he doesn't think anyone will be driving through it in the next decade.
Plus, his meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the talks to join an Ocean of Peace Alliance and remembering Sir Sam Neill.
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Wellington Mornings podcast with Nick Mills
from News Talk said b it's promised.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
We have Opposition leader Chris Hipkins on the show. Good
morning Chris, and welcome to the show.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Good morning. That great to talk to you, right.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Oh, yes or no answer to start the show please
to start your interview? Yes or no? Mount Victoria Tunnel
your old mate, Chris Bishops basically put us on hold.
It's like being on the hold on hold for your
insurance company. We just don't know what the hell's going
to happen and how long we're going to wait. Are
you going to go ahead with the second Mount Victoria
(00:43):
Tunnel because the shovels are in the ground.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Eventually, so I know that's not a use or no,
but yes, it will happen eventually, but you know the
current government. I can't commit to something that the current
government haven't committed to because there's no money for it.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
So it's a no.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Well no, it's inevitable that there's going to have to
be as you can Mount Victoria Tunnel at some point,
but the current I'm going to put it on the
back burner effectively, and they spend all the money else
we in.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
So if I'm going to decide who I'm voting for
come November the seventh, and I'm thinking that this really
important to me. To get a second Mount Victoria Tunnel
and the p Toni to Granada Highway is going to
be really important to me. It won't matter who I
vote for because the answers the same pretty much.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
I mean, the reality is the National Party committed the
country to about sixty five billion dollars worth of roading
projects at the last election, and they had an absolutely
zero idea how to pay for it. So now most
of those roading projects have gone on the back burner.
They never should have promised that much in the first place.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
So where does it sit? Well, you know, I mean
you must have a good view of what's going on.
Where does it sit? Does it sit that it won't
start getting built for twenty years? I mean, it was
going to take ten years anyway. And if we're now
behind it, is it It's not going to be in
my lifetime?
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Is it?
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (01:58):
I don't know. I doubt it's going to be. I
doubt you're going to see I don't think anyone will
be driving through it in the next decade. Now, the
reality is Chris Bishop, you know, he did a fairly
dramatic about two and a week ago. He was claiming
that there were shovels in the ground and construction was underway,
and now it's been put on the never never. You know,
it might happen at some point in the next ten years,
or construction might start at some point in the next
(02:18):
ten years.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Man, but you're not speeding it up in any way.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Well, the reality is we have to deal with what
we've bequeathed by this current government. Should we've become the
government after the November election and they've committed the country
road building projects and we can afford.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Let me clarify that. So everything that this government's promised
in the next when you become government, you're going to
adhere to because that's the way it is. No.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
Well, the reality ni because if we then say, okay,
we're going to put everything that they've been doing on
hold and we're going to start again and we're going
to do different priorities. We know how that ends up,
because that's what successive governments have been doing for the
last twenty years. How it ends up. Everything takes longer,
everything costs more and New Zealanders end up getting worse
roading as a result of that, and we've got to
(03:04):
stop this kind of constant stop start. So they've made
their decisions about the roading projects that they think we
can go ahead with right now. We're going to continue
with that because if we stop it, all that's going
to happen is you and every other New Zealand it
will pay more money and get less while we go
ahead and change the priorities all the time.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Where are you sitting right now the India Free Trade Agreement?
I can't quite work out whether you're support it or
you don't support it. Where are you sitting right now
with it?
Speaker 3 (03:29):
Well, we're going to support the India Free Trade Agreement
because it does give New Zealand businesses extra market access
to India and it could be very good for our exporters.
But we also have some reservations about it. It's got
some risks involved in it that our other trade agreements
don't have, including the fact that these extra concessions that
we've got, So the extra market access that we've got
now could be clawed back fifteen years from now because
(03:51):
New Zealand hasn't invested the thirty three billion dollars that
our current government says that we're going to invest in
India in the next fifteen years. Can you's never going
to happen.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Can you change anything if you become government then the
can you change anything with the agreement?
Speaker 3 (04:04):
No, Well, the reality is any changes of it our
end would have to be agreed by India's end. And
this is clearly a big thing for them. They now
expect that New Zealand's going to invest twenty billion US dollars,
so about thirty three billion New Zealand dollars in India
over the next fifteen years, and that's what they think
they signed up for. Our government is saying, naanah, we
just said that we'd promote investment in India. And that's
(04:24):
an irreconcilable difference. You know what. We've tested our government
viterorously on it. We've tested the Indian government on it,
and there is no common ground there. They have a
very different interpretation of what that clause means.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
You met with Prime minister. They're into Moodi one on one.
I believe is that right am.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
I right now it was a bilateral misting. So you
generally have a lineup of officials and others with you
as well. But we certainly had a one on one conversation.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Okay, how did that go? What was said?
Speaker 3 (04:52):
It was pretty good, It was very warm. Obviously New
Zealand's and India are both committed to improving the relationship
between both countries, and the trade agreement does provide New
Zealand businesses some pretty exciting opportunities. Ironically, right now, while
New Zealand first claim that they're opposed to the free
Trade Agreement, their own minister Mark Patterson, who's Minister by
(05:12):
wool is over there promoting the fact that the free
trade agreement gives our will produces more access to the
market in India. I mean, how ironic is that?
Speaker 2 (05:21):
So did you feel that it was genuine the arrangement?
Was it like he was generally trying to do business
with New Zealand or was it just a like a
fly on the on a dog's backside?
Speaker 3 (05:32):
Well, no, I think there is a genuine commitment to
improving the relationship between the economic relationship between our two countries.
But we've got to be really mindful. What India is
after here is more investment in India We're after more
investment in New Zealand and they think that we're going
to send our money to them, and I don't think
that's ever going to happen. So, you know, if you'll
think about it, In the China Free Trade Agreement, the
(05:55):
outbound investment from New Zealand in the first fifteen years
was about one and a half billion dollars. Our current
government have signed us up to twenty billion US dollars
in the same period of time into India. It's just
not going to happen.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
I'm trying to think who said it, but someone from
the government said that in twenty or thirty years this
steal is going to be worth the same as China.
Do you agree or disagree?
Speaker 3 (06:15):
Not necessarily it doesn't have dairy in it. So if
you look at that one and a half billion dollars
of outbound investment from New Zealand into China to really
build that trade agreement, most of that came from the
dairy sector, and the dairy sector is excluded from this
trade agreement with India. So you know, there's opportunities. It
could be very big for New Zealand, but I don't
think it's going to be as big as China.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Where do you sit on Paul Henry deciding to join politics?
Speaker 3 (06:39):
Oh, well, you know, Shane Jones is going to have
but a competition for parliaments because blowhard.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Wow, that's pretty pretty out there. You don't think that
he's got a genuine concern for his grandkids like you said.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
Oh, look, Paul Henry's all about Paul Henry. It always
has been. But you know, I wish it, Blake.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
So what do you help? What's your sort of take
on high profile people joining politics? Do you like it
or dislike it? I mean, you're you're what I call
a career politics, but somebody that actually has made a
name for themselves, done well for themselves and entered politics
because they have got the money in the bank and
don't need the job. What are your thoughts.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
You've got to have a balance of skills in politics.
You want a people with a wide range of different
life experiences, but you also actually have to have people
who understand how government works. I've watched plenty of people
come into parliament from very distinguished careers outside and be
absolutely failures as politicians because they can't figure out how
the system of government works. Because it's not a private business,
it's not a household. It's a much bigger and more
(07:39):
difficult to manage beasts. And you do have to have
people with the experience and they know how about you
know to manage that.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
So how will you go?
Speaker 3 (07:48):
I suspect you'll probably find it quite frustrating. I think
you'll enjoy the limelight for a period of time and then,
like a lot of people who come from those high
profile roles, have you get frustrated that he's not the
center of attention all of the time and that he
doesn't get his way all the time. And he'll probably
end up leaving frustrated like a lot of other people
who come from his kind of background too when they
get into politics.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Can you tell me what the whole idea of the
Ocean's Peace alliances? I mean, you're broadly supportive of the
proposed Ocean of Peace alliance. Didn't you broadly tell our
listeners why and what it means?
Speaker 3 (08:19):
Well, we have one military one formal military alliance left
in New Zealand after the dissolution of and this and
that's Australia. If Australia signs up or further alliances with
Pacific neighbors who are also very close to New Zealand
and also very strong partners for New Zealand. But of
course we need to be having conversations about what that
all means. The idea that the Pacific Ocean continues to
(08:42):
be an ocean of peace, that we continue to commit
to sort of almost the demilitarization of the Pacific Ocean,
then that's something that New Zealand of course should be
part of. We don't want to see the Pacific Ocean
becoming a theater of global conflict, which it has the
potential to do. You know, given current tensions around the world,
I think that US New Zealand Australia are Pacific neighbors
(09:04):
putting our hands up and saying, look, we're actually going
to work to that to keep the Pacific Ocean peaceful.
Then we don't want to see military escalation in the Pacific.
I think that's probably quite a good thing in New
Zealand to be part of.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Police are reopening fifty four child abuse investigations after concerns
about how they were handled. Is that simply unacceptable?
Speaker 3 (09:23):
It is unacceptable. But I'm very mindful that, you know,
the police have to make these decisions independently. But if
they've dropped the ball here, if they've let these people down,
that is a serious manner.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Is this the point to look at it and say
is it a resourcing problem or is it a leadership problem?
Or is it actually both of those?
Speaker 3 (09:42):
It's hard to know. I don't necessarily have the details
to know that, but it's certainly something that we going
to have to look very closely at. So they've reopened
these investigations. Let's see what comes out of that, and
then we can make some judgments on whether or not
there should be other consequences for that.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Some of the economic indicators are improving, but do actually
households feel any better? Is life any better?
Speaker 3 (10:05):
Well, one of the number one questions I ask people
when I travel around the country is do you feel
better off now than you were three years ago? And
overwhelmingly the answer is no. And it doesn't feel like
it's getting better for most of the people that I
speak to. You know, there's still there's still got huge
uncertainty about whether they're even going to have a job
come Christmas time, and that's a big, big thing for people. Well,
(10:25):
the current government boast about the fact they're going to
cut another nine thousand jobs for people who are sitting
there wondering whether they're going to have a job. That's
a life altering thing. And you know that's one of
the big uncertainties that is mean that they're not going
out and spending money, They're not enjoying life because they're
worried that they're not going to have an income.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
On Monday Night, New Zealand lost a true icon. Sir
Sam Neil. There's no bigger personality person in our country.
Did you ever meet him? Did you do you think that, well,
obviously we're going to miss him.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
Oh, we're going to miss him enormously. Yeah. I did
get to meet him as a kid. I remember watching
Jurassic Park and being very excited about Jurassic Park, and
then to meet him in the flesh. It was quite
an amazing experience because as an individual, he was very humble,
He could even be a bit quiet. He was very
kind and warm, and then you put him in front
of an audience and he really light up the light
(11:22):
up the room and light up the audience. So just
one of the truly wonderful New Zealanders who has done
us so proud. Around the world. And it's really really
sad to see him go, particularly so suddenly and unexpectedly,
because I think he still had some more to give,
you know, I think there was still more that he
could have done.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Where do you rank him in giant New Zealanders? Does
he sit up there with you know, some of the
great New Zealanders? I personally think he does.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
Oh, I think he does. You know, if you look
at what he's done and on the on the big
screen and film, you know he's up there with people
like Sir Edmond Hillary and Dame Kitty Ticana are people
who have really put New Zealand on the map around
the world, you know, household names and other countries around
the world recognized for their achievement. And Sam Neil was
absolutely one of those really iconic New Zealanders.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
He really started it for the modern era, didn't he.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (12:14):
Absolutely. You know, film in New Zealand started from very
very modest beginning, so you know, of course he was
right there at the beginning. The likes of him and
Peter Jackson. Remember Peter Jackson used to make you indie
movies because you know, taking on the establishment is now
one of the biggest names in the establishment, but you
know that's our film and television industry has really blossomed
and it's people like Sam Neil that have made that possible.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
Now, I know you've got to go, But what policies? When?
When's the next policy?
Speaker 3 (12:41):
Oh? More policy to come? You know, if you ever
seen the policies that we've announced, We've got announce solar
panels since you and I last talk, we've announced policies
around increasing solar around getting more apprentices on the job
so people can earn and learn. At the same time,
we've announced more help policies around cutting the cost, like
free prescriptions, like making maternity scans free so a woman
(13:02):
who are expecting babies plenty. More policy to come.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Didn't you just pinch the National's on the solo?
Speaker 3 (13:08):
Well, I think it's probably the other way round. But
our policy is actually a lot more comprehensive than these
because they're ignoring renters, they're largely ignoring businesses, and we've
got answers for both of those.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Thank you for joining us. I know you've got a
fly take it easy. Thank you appreciate it. Chris Sipkins,
opposition leader, joining us on the show this morning.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
For more from Wellington Mornings with Nick Mills, listen live
to news talks There'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 it's promised.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
We have Opposition leader Chris Hipkins on the show. Good
morning Chris, and welcome to the show.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Good morning. That great to talk to you, right.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Oh, yes or no answer to start the show please
to start your interview? Yes or no? Mount Victoria Tunnel
your old mate, Chris Bishops basically put us on hold.
It's like being on the hold on hold for your
insurance company. We just don't know what the hell's going
to happen and how long we're going to wait. Are
you going to go ahead with the second Mount Victoria
(00:43):
Tunnel because the shovels are in the ground.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Eventually, so I know that's not a use or no,
but yes, it will happen eventually, but you know the
current government. I can't commit to something that the current
government haven't committed to because there's no money for it.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
So it's a no.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Well no, it's inevitable that there's going to have to
be as you can Mount Victoria Tunnel at some point,
but the current I'm going to put it on the
back burner effectively, and they spend all the money else
we in.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
So if I'm going to decide who I'm voting for
come November the seventh, and I'm thinking that this really
important to me. To get a second Mount Victoria Tunnel
and the p Toni to Granada Highway is going to
be really important to me. It won't matter who I
vote for because the answers the same pretty much.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
I mean, the reality is the National Party committed the
country to about sixty five billion dollars worth of roading
projects at the last election, and they had an absolutely
zero idea how to pay for it. So now most
of those roading projects have gone on the back burner.
They never should have promised that much in the first place.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
So where does it sit? Well, you know, I mean
you must have a good view of what's going on.
Where does it sit? Does it sit that it won't
start getting built for twenty years? I mean, it was
going to take ten years anyway. And if we're now
behind it, is it It's not going to be in
my lifetime?
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Is it?
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (01:58):
I don't know. I doubt it's going to be. I
doubt you're going to see I don't think anyone will
be driving through it in the next decade. Now, the
reality is Chris Bishop, you know, he did a fairly
dramatic about two and a week ago. He was claiming
that there were shovels in the ground and construction was underway,
and now it's been put on the never never. You know,
it might happen at some point in the next ten years,
or construction might start at some point in the next
(02:18):
ten years.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Man, but you're not speeding it up in any way.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Well, the reality is we have to deal with what
we've bequeathed by this current government. Should we've become the
government after the November election and they've committed the country
road building projects and we can afford.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Let me clarify that. So everything that this government's promised
in the next when you become government, you're going to
adhere to because that's the way it is. No.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
Well, the reality ni because if we then say, okay,
we're going to put everything that they've been doing on
hold and we're going to start again and we're going
to do different priorities. We know how that ends up,
because that's what successive governments have been doing for the
last twenty years. How it ends up. Everything takes longer,
everything costs more and New Zealanders end up getting worse
roading as a result of that, and we've got to
(03:04):
stop this kind of constant stop start. So they've made
their decisions about the roading projects that they think we
can go ahead with right now. We're going to continue
with that because if we stop it, all that's going
to happen is you and every other New Zealand it
will pay more money and get less while we go
ahead and change the priorities all the time.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Where are you sitting right now the India Free Trade Agreement?
I can't quite work out whether you're support it or
you don't support it. Where are you sitting right now
with it?
Speaker 3 (03:29):
Well, we're going to support the India Free Trade Agreement
because it does give New Zealand businesses extra market access
to India and it could be very good for our exporters.
But we also have some reservations about it. It's got
some risks involved in it that our other trade agreements
don't have, including the fact that these extra concessions that
we've got, So the extra market access that we've got
now could be clawed back fifteen years from now because
(03:51):
New Zealand hasn't invested the thirty three billion dollars that
our current government says that we're going to invest in
India in the next fifteen years. Can you's never going
to happen.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Can you change anything if you become government then the
can you change anything with the agreement?
Speaker 3 (04:04):
No, Well, the reality is any changes of it our
end would have to be agreed by India's end. And
this is clearly a big thing for them. They now
expect that New Zealand's going to invest twenty billion US dollars,
so about thirty three billion New Zealand dollars in India
over the next fifteen years, and that's what they think
they signed up for. Our government is saying, naanah, we
just said that we'd promote investment in India. And that's
(04:24):
an irreconcilable difference. You know what. We've tested our government
viterorously on it. We've tested the Indian government on it,
and there is no common ground there. They have a
very different interpretation of what that clause means.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
You met with Prime minister. They're into Moodi one on one.
I believe is that right am.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
I right now it was a bilateral misting. So you
generally have a lineup of officials and others with you
as well. But we certainly had a one on one conversation.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Okay, how did that go? What was said?
Speaker 3 (04:52):
It was pretty good, It was very warm. Obviously New
Zealand's and India are both committed to improving the relationship
between both countries, and the trade agreement does provide New
Zealand businesses some pretty exciting opportunities. Ironically, right now, while
New Zealand first claim that they're opposed to the free
Trade Agreement, their own minister Mark Patterson, who's Minister by
(05:12):
wool is over there promoting the fact that the free
trade agreement gives our will produces more access to the
market in India. I mean, how ironic is that?
Speaker 2 (05:21):
So did you feel that it was genuine the arrangement?
Was it like he was generally trying to do business
with New Zealand or was it just a like a
fly on the on a dog's backside?
Speaker 3 (05:32):
Well, no, I think there is a genuine commitment to
improving the relationship between the economic relationship between our two countries.
But we've got to be really mindful. What India is
after here is more investment in India We're after more
investment in New Zealand and they think that we're going
to send our money to them, and I don't think
that's ever going to happen. So, you know, if you'll
think about it, In the China Free Trade Agreement, the
(05:55):
outbound investment from New Zealand in the first fifteen years
was about one and a half billion dollars. Our current
government have signed us up to twenty billion US dollars
in the same period of time into India. It's just
not going to happen.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
I'm trying to think who said it, but someone from
the government said that in twenty or thirty years this
steal is going to be worth the same as China.
Do you agree or disagree?
Speaker 3 (06:15):
Not necessarily it doesn't have dairy in it. So if
you look at that one and a half billion dollars
of outbound investment from New Zealand into China to really
build that trade agreement, most of that came from the
dairy sector, and the dairy sector is excluded from this
trade agreement with India. So you know, there's opportunities. It
could be very big for New Zealand, but I don't
think it's going to be as big as China.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Where do you sit on Paul Henry deciding to join politics?
Speaker 3 (06:39):
Oh, well, you know, Shane Jones is going to have
but a competition for parliaments because blowhard.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Wow, that's pretty pretty out there. You don't think that
he's got a genuine concern for his grandkids like you said.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
Oh, look, Paul Henry's all about Paul Henry. It always
has been. But you know, I wish it, Blake.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
So what do you help? What's your sort of take
on high profile people joining politics? Do you like it
or dislike it? I mean, you're you're what I call
a career politics, but somebody that actually has made a
name for themselves, done well for themselves and entered politics
because they have got the money in the bank and
don't need the job. What are your thoughts.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
You've got to have a balance of skills in politics.
You want a people with a wide range of different
life experiences, but you also actually have to have people
who understand how government works. I've watched plenty of people
come into parliament from very distinguished careers outside and be
absolutely failures as politicians because they can't figure out how
the system of government works. Because it's not a private business,
it's not a household. It's a much bigger and more
(07:39):
difficult to manage beasts. And you do have to have
people with the experience and they know how about you
know to manage that.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
So how will you go?
Speaker 3 (07:48):
I suspect you'll probably find it quite frustrating. I think
you'll enjoy the limelight for a period of time and then,
like a lot of people who come from those high
profile roles, have you get frustrated that he's not the
center of attention all of the time and that he
doesn't get his way all the time. And he'll probably
end up leaving frustrated like a lot of other people
who come from his kind of background too when they
get into politics.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Can you tell me what the whole idea of the
Ocean's Peace alliances? I mean, you're broadly supportive of the
proposed Ocean of Peace alliance. Didn't you broadly tell our
listeners why and what it means?
Speaker 3 (08:19):
Well, we have one military one formal military alliance left
in New Zealand after the dissolution of and this and
that's Australia. If Australia signs up or further alliances with
Pacific neighbors who are also very close to New Zealand
and also very strong partners for New Zealand. But of
course we need to be having conversations about what that
all means. The idea that the Pacific Ocean continues to
(08:42):
be an ocean of peace, that we continue to commit
to sort of almost the demilitarization of the Pacific Ocean,
then that's something that New Zealand of course should be
part of. We don't want to see the Pacific Ocean
becoming a theater of global conflict, which it has the
potential to do. You know, given current tensions around the world,
I think that US New Zealand Australia are Pacific neighbors
(09:04):
putting our hands up and saying, look, we're actually going
to work to that to keep the Pacific Ocean peaceful.
Then we don't want to see military escalation in the Pacific.
I think that's probably quite a good thing in New
Zealand to be part of.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Police are reopening fifty four child abuse investigations after concerns
about how they were handled. Is that simply unacceptable?
Speaker 3 (09:23):
It is unacceptable. But I'm very mindful that, you know,
the police have to make these decisions independently. But if
they've dropped the ball here, if they've let these people down,
that is a serious manner.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Is this the point to look at it and say
is it a resourcing problem or is it a leadership problem?
Or is it actually both of those?
Speaker 3 (09:42):
It's hard to know. I don't necessarily have the details
to know that, but it's certainly something that we going
to have to look very closely at. So they've reopened
these investigations. Let's see what comes out of that, and
then we can make some judgments on whether or not
there should be other consequences for that.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Some of the economic indicators are improving, but do actually
households feel any better? Is life any better?
Speaker 3 (10:05):
Well, one of the number one questions I ask people
when I travel around the country is do you feel
better off now than you were three years ago? And
overwhelmingly the answer is no. And it doesn't feel like
it's getting better for most of the people that I
speak to. You know, there's still there's still got huge
uncertainty about whether they're even going to have a job
come Christmas time, and that's a big, big thing for people. Well,
(10:25):
the current government boast about the fact they're going to
cut another nine thousand jobs for people who are sitting
there wondering whether they're going to have a job. That's
a life altering thing. And you know that's one of
the big uncertainties that is mean that they're not going
out and spending money, They're not enjoying life because they're
worried that they're not going to have an income.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
On Monday Night, New Zealand lost a true icon. Sir
Sam Neil. There's no bigger personality person in our country.
Did you ever meet him? Did you do you think that, well,
obviously we're going to miss him.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
Oh, we're going to miss him enormously. Yeah. I did
get to meet him as a kid. I remember watching
Jurassic Park and being very excited about Jurassic Park, and
then to meet him in the flesh. It was quite
an amazing experience because as an individual, he was very humble,
He could even be a bit quiet. He was very
kind and warm, and then you put him in front
of an audience and he really light up the light
(11:22):
up the room and light up the audience. So just
one of the truly wonderful New Zealanders who has done
us so proud. Around the world. And it's really really
sad to see him go, particularly so suddenly and unexpectedly,
because I think he still had some more to give,
you know, I think there was still more that he
could have done.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Where do you rank him in giant New Zealanders? Does
he sit up there with you know, some of the
great New Zealanders? I personally think he does.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
Oh, I think he does. You know, if you look
at what he's done and on the on the big
screen and film, you know he's up there with people
like Sir Edmond Hillary and Dame Kitty Ticana are people
who have really put New Zealand on the map around
the world, you know, household names and other countries around
the world recognized for their achievement. And Sam Neil was
absolutely one of those really iconic New Zealanders.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
He really started it for the modern era, didn't he.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (12:14):
Absolutely. You know, film in New Zealand started from very
very modest beginning, so you know, of course he was
right there at the beginning. The likes of him and
Peter Jackson. Remember Peter Jackson used to make you indie
movies because you know, taking on the establishment is now
one of the biggest names in the establishment, but you
know that's our film and television industry has really blossomed
and it's people like Sam Neil that have made that possible.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
Now, I know you've got to go, But what policies? When?
When's the next policy?
Speaker 3 (12:41):
Oh? More policy to come? You know, if you ever
seen the policies that we've announced, We've got announce solar
panels since you and I last talk, we've announced policies
around increasing solar around getting more apprentices on the job
so people can earn and learn. At the same time,
we've announced more help policies around cutting the cost, like
free prescriptions, like making maternity scans free so a woman
(13:02):
who are expecting babies plenty. More policy to come.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Didn't you just pinch the National's on the solo?
Speaker 3 (13:08):
Well, I think it's probably the other way round. But
our policy is actually a lot more comprehensive than these
because they're ignoring renters, they're largely ignoring businesses, and we've
got answers for both of those.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Thank you for joining us. I know you've got a
fly take it easy. Thank you appreciate it. Chris Sipkins,
opposition leader, joining us on the show this morning.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
For more from Wellington Mornings with Nick Mills, listen live
to news talks There'd be Wellington from nine am weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
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