Barry Soper: Senior Political Correspondent on Barbara Edmonds Facebook mistake, the Government's commitment to replacing Air Force passenger jets and Labour, Te Pāti Māori and the Greens teaming up

Labour's finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds has posted to Facebook an incorrect graph that claims the Ardern-Hipkins government has reduced New Zealand's debt by $31 billion in its second term.

Finance Minister Nicola Willis said Edmonds mistake was extraordinary fiscal ignorance. 

The government is pushing forward with replacing the Air Force's passenger jets despite the current economic climate. 

Labour, Te Pāti Māori and the Greens are figuring out ways to team up. 

Senior Political Correspondent Barry Soper talks with Ryan Bridge. 

LISTEN ABOVE. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Barry Sopha here, hey, Barry, good afternoon. Right, So Barbara
Edmonds has this is Labour's finance spokesperson. We've had the
high food numbers out and people have been rightly so putting,
laying a bit of blame at the feet of the
former Labor government and out comes to Barbara with a
Facebook post. What she said, Well, she posted a graph.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Goodness only knows where she got it from, but she's
taken it down incidentally since it was pointed out to her.
But she said that the durn Hipkins government reduced New
Zealand's debt levels by about thirty one billion dollars in
its second term. That's when Labor, of course was governing
on her own. Well, the graph appeared to show that

(00:44):
Labor repaid debt faster than any government. That's the graph
that she posted since nineteen seventy two. Can you imagine it.
So basically, the second term of the Labor government saw
essential increasing of debt significantly by about seventy two billion dollars. Now,

(01:08):
the Finance Minister Nikola Willis, she described the incident as
either a case of extraordinary physcal ignorance or wilful deception
either way. She said she didn't think it looked good
for barb Edmunds, and she's absolutely right on that. But
then Edmunds comes back after making the correction and not
even admitting she was wrong, but she said that Willis

(01:30):
was so desperate to distract her from mismanagement of the
economy that she's going after the social media post that
has since been corrected. She said, kiwis expect more of
the Minister of Finance. Well, I'm sorry. They also expect
more of the opposition spokesperson on finance. So I mean
it was a red faced day. I've got to say

(01:51):
for barbaraam Edmunds.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
Yeah, if you make a disown, it does own it.
And I have to hey, despit all this doom and
glooing the economic climate. The government's pushing ahead with replacing
the Air Force's passenger jets Berry.

Speaker 2 (02:05):
I'll tell you what. It's not going to be a
cheap time for them. Is it that they're looking at
replacing them by the end of twenty twenty seven, which
is around the same time as they're replacing the two
cock straight ferries. So this is not going to come
cheap because they're looking at two planes at the moment
Boeing seven three seven Max eight or an Airbus three

(02:28):
to one that Chris Luxon would know very well because
it's the most common plane at Air New Zealand. But
essentially we've been embarrassed internationally by our Air Force jets,
haven't we. I mean I've been on them, You've been
on them, and they I remember running a book once
to see when would be the first port of call

(02:49):
that we would break down, and well, we're on the
way to Darwin, but we had to sidetrack at one
point to Brisbane and sent twenty four to forty eight
hours there while the plane was fixed. And if you're
leading a trade delegation overseas, you've really got to be
able to fly the flag. But you've got to ensure

(03:10):
that these planes work. So they're going to be costly,
no doubt about it. The defense the Defense Ministry says
that it's going to tender now in order to secure
the replacement by the end of twenty twenty seven. They
won't come cheap, but you know, you've got to say,
and I think everyone would agree, the current seven five

(03:32):
sevens are old, unreliable, and they're far too expensive to maintain.
And they're an embarrassment. Chris Luxon has found them embarrassing.
Remember that trip he did recently to Japan. And that's
all a costly rescue effort for the media and the
business delegation who was trended in Papua New guineas Chris
Luckson flew on before them.

Speaker 1 (03:53):
Yeah. No, if you don't even make it to Darwin,
you know you're having a bad day.

Speaker 2 (03:58):
Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1 (03:59):
We had a lot of fun on those planes Bury,
but we don't talk.

Speaker 2 (04:03):
They were party planes in the old days, so these
days I don't think right.

Speaker 1 (04:08):
No, the Maori party talking about well, this story is
quite interesting, so that there's three different versions of it
actually depending on which party you are. But apparently the Labor,
the Greens and the Party Malori are working closely to
help each other towards the government.

Speaker 2 (04:24):
Yeah, and as you say, they're all telling well, at
least one of them is telling a bit of a
different story. Labor says discussions between the three are quite
casual and informal, but the Greens say they're meeting regularly
and planning on formalizing that arrangement. The idea came from
Debi No revera packer. She says they needed to get

(04:47):
past themselves and collaborate, they said, She said, they've worked
well with the Greens in the past and they now
figure out how to team up with Labor. Well, I'll
tell you what. Some of the antics that the Maori
Party gone up to would be nothing short of embarrassing
for the Labor Party. But the Multi Party are determined
this will be a one term government and they say

(05:10):
they have to do business. Well, I would say that
would be a worry. If you think you've got the
coalition of chaos at the moment, you're going to have
the coalition of calamity if these three get together.

Speaker 1 (05:21):
Yeah, Barry, thank you very much for that. Barry Soper,
our senior political correspondent.

Speaker 2 (05:26):
For more from Heather Duplicy Allen Drive, listen live to
news Talks it'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.