Jason Walls: Newstalk ZB political editor on the Government outlining economic priorities at caucus retreat

National's sending a strong message about its goals for 2025 - to grow the economy. 

The party's holding its annual caucus retreat today, and Prime Minister Chris Luxon earlier addressed media with his goal for growth. 

Newstalk ZB political editor Jason Walls says the Government is looking to get back to basics with their latest plans.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Jason Walls is our political editor in joining me now
hala Jason, Oh.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Good afternoon.

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Are you at the National Caucus Retreat.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
I'm not. I'm down in Wellington. I've been handling business
down here.

Speaker 1 (00:10):
But Sophie Trigger is there. But we've got the State
of a Nation speech tomorrow from Christopher Lackson, Prime Minister.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Indeed we do this. It's been you know, when it
rains at paus down here in politics Land. We have
nothing for a couple of months and this week we
have National's Caucus Retreat, Labour's Caucus Retreat, National State of
the Nation, Act, State of the Nation in Ratina, all
in one week. But it was The Herald's Jamie Ensil
who's actually been up there at the Caucus retreating. He

(00:38):
says it's been rather dull in yester years as a
bit of backyard cricket. There's barbecues. Everybody's in Polos or
in Sunnis. Jamie said, there's none of that, and he
told me that the meetings are just in bland beige
conference rooms and it was corporate with the capital CE.
Kind of makes sense, really, I wasn't expecting a jovial
affair from the nats back to basics from them really

(01:00):
and then meanwhile Luxin's getting ready for his State of
the Nation speech tomorrow. The theme of that is you
guessed it, economic growth, and there'll be an announcement as
I understand it, but nothing hugely major. I mean, the
Shane of Etty cabinet reshuffle earlier this week was the
main bit of news, if you will. There's going to
be some interesting information about how they plan to solve

(01:22):
some of the more systemic ten to twenty or even
thirty year economic plans. And I do understand that there
is going to be a new refocus on opening up
minds in New Zealand. So the Greens are going to
love that one.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
Absolutely and we're hearing rumors we're talking about this. We'll
talk about this with Nicola Willis as well. It's a
Simon Bridges idea that we'll get rid of the visa
obligations for the Chinese, and Simon rickens there is a
billion dollars worth of extra tourism that will get from
that alone. You reckon that will be in the State
of the nation. You reckon that might be a policy
he announces, because that's an immediate benefit a short term.

Speaker 2 (01:59):
Oh, I don't think that'll be in the announcement tomorrow.
I've it hasn't from what I understand it. It hasn't been
billed as a major announcement, and that's what I would
consider to be something quite major, and that's something you'd
need to get Winston Peters on board with as well.
So I haven't heard any soundings to say it's anything
along those lines.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
All right, very good. We have another political poll out
and warning it's a Roy Morgan. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
So it just goes to show how up in the
air everything really is. Last week, you know, there was
the taxpayer union funded Courier poll showing that National had
dropped four and a half points to twenty nine and
that were actually leap frogged by the Labor Party. Well,
this new Roy Morgan pole shows that over the December
period the NATS were actually up two point five percentage
points to thirty one. Act was on thirty in New Zealand,

(02:41):
First on seven point five. In fact, the three parties
remained well ahead of Labour which is on twenty six percent,
Green's thirteen point five and Tea Party Marty on five
point five to sort of split that out for the
right block the coalition government, it's fifty one point five
percent and forty four for the left. Hence, I don't
think last week's bad poll for National would have been

(03:03):
the focus of the caucus retreat today. They're just kind
of moving. The poles are moving around too much. We
don't tend to focus on Roy Morgan as much as
the others. But it's a good little snapshot to just say,
you know, things are really really up in the air
right now. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (03:16):
True, But of course the only public council is in
two years time, and I think the Courier poll will
just remind everybody. It's like a kick out the backside. Really,
you know, you've got to work hard if we're going
to keep the benches in two years time. So then
we go. Now a trigger warning. You are about to
hear a voice you haven't heard for a while. But
tell me the story about a book, Jason.

Speaker 2 (03:38):
Well, it's by one just Cinda Ardurn. Remember her. June
third is when her book is coming out. It's called
a Different Kind of Power, And you'll never guess what
the theme is. Well, here's a little bit of what
she said.

Speaker 1 (03:50):
As I say trigger warning, I've.

Speaker 3 (03:53):
Written about things that I haven't shared before, but I've
also tried to share how it feels to leave, especially
if you're surprised to find yourself in leadership. And see
anyone who has ever doubted themselves. I really hope there's
something in it for them as well.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
They go only nineteen seconds, and at least we didn't
show the visuals as well, because she smiled brightly through
the entire presentation of what was a two minute video.

Speaker 2 (04:23):
Yeah, and it's I mean, nobody's going to be surprised
by the fact it's a book about kindness and empathy.
And if you're expecting a brutal takedown piece, you'd be
out of luck, although I can't imagine why you'd be
expecting that, So I expect to see a lot more
of just send our dourness she goes to promote this book.
I'm interested to see whether she actually comes back to
New Zealand and does the book launch here, or if
she does it in Harvard or Buckingham Palace or somewhere

(04:45):
like that. So we'll have to wait, But yeah, brace
yourself with some more just send ardn.

Speaker 1 (04:49):
Apparently she has a documentary out next week as well.

Speaker 2 (04:52):
And yes, yes, I've heard. I've heard a fair bit
about that documentary as well by Clark Gayford, who was
documenting behind the scenes the whole time.

Speaker 1 (05:00):
It's called Prime Minister. And I'm getting some very funny
texts coming up, I have to say, And I thank
you Jason Walls here on News Talk ZIBB.

Speaker 3 (05:09):
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