Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Canterbury Mornings podcast with John McDonald
from News Talk ZB.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Now it's time for a regular fortnight you catch up
with Labor and Opposition leader Chris Hapkins. Going, Chris, good, John,
How are you very well?
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Now?
Speaker 2 (00:20):
I saw you before I went to sleep last night.
One of the last things I saw was you on
Facebook making some sort of big announcement about some big announcement,
about some big announcement this week. What is it?
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Oh? Yeah, you want the scoop. I'm sure you do.
Everybody wants the scoop. You just have to wait another way.
More sleep and we'll let you know tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
We have got some policy announcements coming up this week,
absolutely all right?
Speaker 2 (00:45):
And what areas?
Speaker 3 (00:48):
I said that our focus is on jobs, health, homes
and re election, on the cost of living, and you
know that our early announcements are going to be on
those areas.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Did you read some of the comments to the after
that post last night?
Speaker 1 (01:01):
No?
Speaker 3 (01:02):
I generally don't read the Facebook comments. All right.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Some people wondered if the announces so what it was.
Some people were wondering if the big announcement was you
moving to Australia and then other people were saying, haven't
you learned from last time about not making announcements of
announcements of announcements.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Of course, there are a record number of people leaving
to Australia. I don't need to be amongst that group.
But I think that is exactly that's exactly the reason
why we do need to change things that we're doing
in this country. I don't want to see all of
our young people upping sticks and heading across the testment.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
That was very nicely handled. Then let's let's look at peace.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Maybe a lot of material to work with.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
What do you mean, what do you maan I'm on pushover?
Is that what you're saying? That's to party Mary? What
did you mean when you said yesterday that it's unclear
how many Maori parties there are.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Well, they're clearly a very factied group at the moment.
I think that was the point that I was making,
So you know, the question to put it into context,
The question was whether i'd sit down and meet with
the leadership of the Malori party. And it's clear at
the moment that having some internal issues they need to
work through before they're in a position to be.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Able to do that, which is a really polite way
politicians always say of saying that they're a bit of
a basket case.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
They clearly have some issues that they need to work through.
You know, they're not in a position, I think, to
have conversations about moving forward at this point because they
need to sort out their situation that they've gotten from
them right now.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
That way, you laughed, Do you agree that they're a
basket case?
Speaker 3 (02:33):
No, Well, well look I'm not going to use that.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Come on publicly, Well have you hold on? Have you
made it privately?
Speaker 3 (02:43):
I'm not getting into that, John. They've clearly got some
issues that they need to work through. I think anybody
looking at that from the outside can see that they
have some you know, they've got some internal conflicts that
they really need to work through.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
How you've been around for a while, how common is
it for an MP to blow their budget by more
than one hundred thousand bucks?
Speaker 3 (03:02):
That would certainly be at the house they have a limit.
I don't know, I can't recall having seen there before,
and so that's something that they'll, you know, they should
be looking at. But also I mean issues around guests
to Parliament, abusing the security staff and so that's just
utterly unacceptable. Then they need to get on top of
that pretty damn quickly.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
How long was it going to be? Do you think
before you actually distance yourself from them, because they the
longer you're connected with them, the more damage they do
to labor, don't they?
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Well, what I mean, we're not connected with them. What
I've said is that before the next election, we'll set
out who we can work with, who we can't, What
the parameters around that might be, if you know, in
terms of what kind of relationship we could have with
other parties. I think people expect that under MMP. You know,
there's only ever been one majority government under event that
was a very extraordinary set of circumstances. So parties do
(03:53):
need to be open to working with other parties. But
I'm going to make those judgments closer to the election,
because an awful lot can happen between now and the
next election.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Well, let's say if there was an election today, what
would your position.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
Be if you if you if.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
You had to decide right now whether you'd work with
them or not, what would you decide?
Speaker 3 (04:11):
I think it's highly unlikely that they are in a
position or I think I think They're not in a
position at the moment, as I've said, to play a
constructive role in a future government.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
The Greens any better.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
We've had a pretty constructive working relationship with the Greens.
We worked, you know, constructively with them in government. All
parties out there in dual issues. You only need to
look at the years.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
That wasn't the question, and I wasn't asking about your
record of performance with them. Are saying are they a
similar sort of basket case?
Speaker 3 (04:45):
We've had a good working relationship with the Greens. Right
at this point you say are a party that we
can work with?
Speaker 2 (04:50):
All right? What do you think about the loosening of
mortgage rules? What what is that a response to and
how supportive are you?
Speaker 3 (05:02):
We want to make sure that people who you need
to get access to finance can get access to finance,
particularly first time buyers. But at the moment, I'm not
sure that this is going to make much difference. It's
going to make it maybe make us a little bit
of a difference at the margins. But there's been plenty
of scope for banks to be lending to people with
low deposits already and THICCT they have been doing that
(05:24):
so I'm not sure that these latest wool changes will
make will sort of provide any immediate sugar hit to
the property market.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Why do you think they're being made?
Speaker 3 (05:34):
I mean, I think the government would love there to
be a bit of a sugar hit to the property market,
because you know, they would rather see house prices going
up again, because the economic philosophy is based on rising
house prices. But I'm not sure that that's going to
work for New Zealand anymore. I think house price is
kind of topped out, and I don't think that it's
sustainable for us to get right back up to that
peak again.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
All right, I've got a couple more things to take off.
First of all, just briefly, the survey which found that
one seven people think that political violence needs to be
considered to get the country back on track. What do
you read into that.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
It's pretty concerning number. I've seen other surveys not from
New Zealand but from around the world incruiting people saying, look,
they don't particularly younger people saying they don't see that
they're better off in a democracy than in a dictatorship.
And we should take those sorts of things seriously. The
fact that there is a growing disillusionment with the institutions
of democracy. It's something that all politicians need to take
(06:30):
very very seriously. We need to restore faith in government
because if we don't, we have the potential to lose
the sort of democratic foundations that we've taken for granted
for a very long time.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
All right, now, don't take this the wrong way. Don't
think I'm getting weird here. But what are you wearing
right now?
Speaker 3 (06:47):
Oh? Goodness me, John, I wasn't expecting that I'm wearing
a navy blue suit and a white shirt.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
I asked that because, as you're aware, speak of Jerry
brownly what's to crack down on standards in Parliament? And
after what happened last week with the carry on with
the maiden speech by Party Party's new MP, the unsanctioned Harker.
But one of the changes that Jerry wants to see
is an improvement in dress standards. Do you think there's
(07:13):
a need for that.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
I've always worn my own. A bit of a traditionalist,
I've always want to tie on Parliament's debating chamber. I
think it sort of seems a message about, you know,
the professionalism that you associate with the job that you're doing.
Other people make different judgments. I'm not sure that making
men wear ties again is going to necessarily improve the
quality of debate in Parliament's debating chamber. But you know
I've continued to wear a tie and will continue to
(07:38):
do so regardless of what the rules is.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Do you require that of your MPs to dressed to
a certain standard?
Speaker 3 (07:45):
How they have to follow Parliament's dress coded. I don't
have a different standard to them to know what everybody
else is, but I set a standard for myself and
I tend to see that standard recently high.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
How do you feel about old Karen Magan audio in
the house there with the tie loosened? What's that all about?
Speaker 3 (08:01):
Ah? Fuddily enough, Kieren and I both agree on the
importance of wearing a tie and the debating chamber.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
He has slightly differently than you than you do, though.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
If he was caught with a loosen tires, I spect
there was an adversion rather than deliberate.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
I reckon, I reckon, it's it's I reckon. It's part
of his long term strategy to be the next leader,
just to look like the common name.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
I think that's a bit of a long bit of
a bit of a streech for your job.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
All right, I'll let you go with your double windsor
we'll catch saven a fortnite. Gee good as, Thank you, Chris.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
For more from Caterbory Mornings with John McDonald, listen live
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