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July 9, 2026 11 mins

Tonight on The Huddle, Thomas Scrimgeour from the Maxim Institute and artist and local Government politician Oscar Kightley joined in on a discussion about the following issues of the day - and more!

National has recently confirmed some of the Roads of National Significance and similar transport projects will be placed on the back-burner, with this new scheme being rolled out in 'phases'. Did we think this was too ambitious? Are we disappointed with this? 

The US-Iran conflict has started up again, with both nations launching fresh strikes at each other. Are we surprised by this? Did we think the ceasefire was going to last? 

Will Prince Harry suffer for taking on the British tabloids? 

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The huddle with New Zealand Southerby's International Realty, a name
you can trust locally and globally.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Little of us this evening. Thomas Scrimser Maxim Institution, Oscar
kindly artist and local government politician. Hell are you too?

Speaker 1 (00:13):
You like Thomas?

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Like the lotto guy? Literally struck lotto, didn't he?

Speaker 3 (00:17):
I mean, it's a great gig if you can get it's.

Speaker 4 (00:20):
What's the career path you go through to get there
in life?

Speaker 3 (00:22):
Because and obviously not really working out well from now,
but I'm kind of keen on the gig of getting
paid for a few years not doing much.

Speaker 4 (00:29):
I mean you advice you.

Speaker 5 (00:30):
Have for me?

Speaker 2 (00:31):
I don't know. I mean, Oscar, you're in the entertainment business.
How do you become a lotter guy then do some
gold smuggling and then do nothing for five years but
get paid sweet tax payer?

Speaker 6 (00:39):
Well it was because he just got that job right
with the Justice Department, and oh.

Speaker 5 (00:45):
That's the end. Then there was but I think there
weren't much.

Speaker 6 (00:48):
There wasn't much they could do because there's that old
thing called, you know, the presumption of it has still
proven guilty, and I don't know if they could have
suspended him, assuming he was guilty. So I think it's
a shame that it took stretched out for five years.
But I know Russell, and you know he's it was
sad to hear that he had made this.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
Mistake in Okay Oscar.

Speaker 6 (01:11):
Now, Yeah, I wish him all the best as he
as he comes back from this.

Speaker 5 (01:15):
It's it's it's pretty sad.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
Because what he did. I mean, like I reckon if
somebody said to me, bro, meet me in a cemetery,
I'm going to give you hundreds of thousands of dollars
and then I want you to get some gold and
then I want you to fly to Turkey and give
it to the chapter runs the common cerros or whatever.
I'd probably got this, I might get in trouble.

Speaker 7 (01:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
Is he naive or all desperately?

Speaker 7 (01:36):
Yeah?

Speaker 6 (01:36):
I think I think a combination of of all those things.

Speaker 5 (01:42):
Possibly.

Speaker 6 (01:43):
I think you know, I'm no expert psychologists, but I imagine
at a time like this, your your mind seeds to
be fixated on what you're imagining to happen, rather than
looking at the reality that's right in front of you.
And I am very sad for saw in his family,
and he's I do still consider him a mate, and
I hope he he you know, he takes his punishment

(02:06):
and still comes back from this.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
It's tough tough thing to get in trouble for now, Thomas,
were you surprised at all to find out that most
of the roads of national significance have not been funded
and will probably not be built anytime soon.

Speaker 3 (02:19):
No, it wasn't a surprise, And so then I've been
kind of sitting here today wondering, well, what do I
do with that information? It seemed like, you know, a
ludicrously ambitious promise at the election, they say what they're
going to build a large number of unaffordable infrastructure projects
and got in. And then now they've kind of gone
through the process and we're not going to get them all.
Now they're backing down from stuff they count afford like

(02:41):
a good thing, but they promised it. I don't know
how do we actually get past this when he'll make promises.

Speaker 4 (02:48):
And then I feel a.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
Little bit like you do on this, Thomas, which is
I kind of knew at the time that all of
it wasn't going to happen because it wasn't possible, But
I did I did ask Chris Bishop so many times
about that man for tunnel, and he really tried to
mislead me into believing that it was going to happen.
And there's a part of me that does feel a
little bit of tiny bit disappointed about that.

Speaker 6 (03:09):
Yeah, and you should be and you should be here
that it was an extraordinary admission. I thought it was
kind of a polite way of saying, Okay, we were
kind of lying and.

Speaker 5 (03:22):
You know, five months from an election, when you.

Speaker 6 (03:24):
Know they'll be coming out with more promises, you know,
and we still have no fairies three years later, you know,
to cover that big bit of road between the North
and the South Island, and it will kind of make
you I think, I think it will make votus thing
twice before they believe anything that comes out of their mouths,
you know, in the next few months. Or it should
because that's because that's a huge thing that they promised

(03:46):
and then didn't deliver.

Speaker 2 (03:47):
But then, Oscar, I find myself only a little disappointed,
kind of like you know when you when you think
one of your children's kicked the other child and you say,
did you kick mackay? And you go tell me the truth?
And I won't get cross with you, and then he goes, yeah,
i'd it, and you go, okay. It kind of takes
this thing out of it when they face up and
faced up.

Speaker 5 (04:05):
Yeah, but yeah, but we should yeah, I guess so,
but we hold them to a higher standard.

Speaker 6 (04:09):
They're the government, and that should you know, I would
I would rather be saying I would rather be sat
you know, I would rather you know, we're all adults.

Speaker 5 (04:19):
We can handle the fact.

Speaker 6 (04:20):
That we have less money, so we have to think
more and and and I hate that the electorate still
get sucked in by these grandias promises that they don't materialize.

Speaker 1 (04:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (04:32):
On the other side, Oscar, you say, we're all adults,
and I think that's probably why we're taking the wrong
approach here. I think either, if you've got politicians making
grand promises about what they build, what you need to
do is, like, you know, make them sign up to
a promise if they don't deliver. And it can't be money.
We can't get them to gamble. But we say, you know,
if you can't deliver this project in the timeframe, you

(04:52):
promise to sit in a chair with a dunce camp
by where you said it would be for twenty four
hours you know, we get Chris yeah by by Victoria,
so sit there in a chair for a day because
you see you do it and you haven't.

Speaker 2 (05:04):
Or even or even just get him to do an
Instagram video in which she said I lied to you all,
and then we can just watch it every time we
feel like punishing him a little bit, because that's quite
big punishment for a politician. I'd be okay with that.
All right, let's take a break, come back to these guys.
Shortly sego the huddle with.

Speaker 1 (05:19):
New Zealand Southeby's International Realty, the only truly global brand.

Speaker 2 (05:23):
You're back of the huddle, by the way, thirteen away
from six Thomas Scrimger and Oscar Kiteley. Oscar explain something
to me. So we've got the US striking Iran again,
and everybody's crossed with Trump for starting this up again.
But from where I'm sitting, it looks like a ran
started this up again by striking the three vessels first.

Speaker 5 (05:39):
Maron. But well, yeah, I mean that is one way.

Speaker 6 (05:44):
But I never quite bought into the cease fire because
it was never both sides sitting in the same room,
smiling at the deer, shaking hands and saying.

Speaker 5 (05:52):
This is what we've agreed on.

Speaker 6 (05:53):
It's always being President Trump's version, and there was like
I think thirty eight times where he said it was
finn and that was before the cease fire. So I
always kind of, even though I was hopeful, I always
thought that it was something shaky and I was just
waiting for the next kind of turn in the news event,
you know, because they never both presented a united front

(06:14):
and said we have agreed, this is us together signing this,
and this is going to be a thing that never happened.

Speaker 5 (06:21):
So you know, I didn't bite in the first place.

Speaker 2 (06:24):
Yeah, fair enough, did you, Thomas No.

Speaker 4 (06:27):
I was also pretty pessimistic.

Speaker 3 (06:28):
And then even in the kind of alleged terms of
the agreement, they hadn't figured out all the tough questions anyway,
what's happening with the nuclear program, you know, which ostensibly
this is all about. So, you know, I think you're
right it would be wrong to blame Trump specifically for
the latest flare up in tensions, But it does go
back to the original sin of the war, which was

(06:49):
what was the plan. There wasn't an actual strategy in
place for what a victory could look like here, Yeah,
obviously you're running bad.

Speaker 2 (06:56):
Was that there wasn't an outcome that he well, at
least if there was an outcome that he was looking for,
we do not. We don't know what it was.

Speaker 7 (07:02):
Well, no, maybe it was to distract us from the
from the football they're embarrassing lost to Belgium after his
lobbying of FIFA didn't really work.

Speaker 6 (07:16):
So you've always got to look at the timing of
these things here there and how connection.

Speaker 2 (07:22):
You are joking Because so anyway, Thomas, we talked over you.
What were you saying?

Speaker 3 (07:29):
Sorry, Oh, I think they've had several alleged reasons for
why they were going to you know, going to war
with Iran. It was initially early on they were kind
of talking about regime change briefly, you know, the nuclear
program was the concern. And the problem is is that
that they've had great tactical successes. The American military is
very good at what it does, but there wasn't a strategy.

Speaker 4 (07:48):
There wasn't a plan for what would good look like.

Speaker 3 (07:51):
So we just find ourselves back here because the original
problem still remains.

Speaker 4 (07:55):
There wasn't a plan.

Speaker 2 (07:56):
Too right now, ask her how much troubled yourick and
Harry is in with the male.

Speaker 7 (08:02):
Oh.

Speaker 5 (08:02):
I mean it's a big come gun, isn't it.

Speaker 6 (08:04):
But I read also today that even before at the trial,
that they were looking to settle. But that was in
the Daily Mail, so I wasn't sure if it was true.
I do hope, I do hope something changes, though, I
just you know, I mean, I don't know if it
was true or not. You know, it was a crazy time,
that whole news of the world time.

Speaker 2 (08:24):
Yet you know, the Daily Mail is the best day.
You know, it's the best. Like the best journalists and
I'm not going to name names, but some of the
best journalists in this country go to the Daily Mail
first because are really oh yeah, because these guys just
kick it out of the park all the time, either
the first to break the news. They've got the great angles,
they've got the scoops. He he's in big trouble when

(08:45):
they come to him, don't you reckon to us?

Speaker 4 (08:47):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (08:47):
I think he's in big trouble. I don't know if
it gives me any joy to see it. You know,
Harry is a troubled guy and just seems pretty unhappy.

Speaker 4 (08:57):
I don't know why you'd take the Daily.

Speaker 3 (08:58):
Mail to court over this, and clearly they've come back
hitting hard. So yeah, I don't think he's got a
winning hand to play against them.

Speaker 4 (09:06):
I mean, what could he do?

Speaker 3 (09:08):
Daily Mail all has and clearly Harry's got himself in
a lot of trouble.

Speaker 5 (09:13):
Have either of you read his book Spare?

Speaker 1 (09:15):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (09:15):
Yeah, have you.

Speaker 1 (09:18):
Was?

Speaker 5 (09:19):
It was kind of one long wine.

Speaker 6 (09:21):
It took months, so you know, I think for all
the people that backed him, I would have done some
due diligence and read the book first. But yeah, he's
still He's still living in la you know, he's still
got his beautiful wife and family and he doesn't even
live there anymore. So I think he'll be able to
escape any pending trouble.

Speaker 2 (09:43):
Yeah, well, as long as he stays there. Guys, thank
you very much. Oh by the way, what are you
guys doing for the long weekend? You Thomas? What are
you doing?

Speaker 4 (09:50):
I am studying on the side of my jobs.

Speaker 3 (09:52):
I'm trying to write a dissertation that's due next week
on what no fun for Me?

Speaker 4 (09:58):
What is it on?

Speaker 2 (09:59):
Thomas?

Speaker 3 (10:01):
New Zealand fiscal policy during the Great Depression and why
the Minister of Finance resigned?

Speaker 2 (10:06):
Which minister resigned?

Speaker 3 (10:08):
William Downey Stewart Junior resigned and protest because the government
was going to devalue the currency.

Speaker 2 (10:14):
Oh wow, was he right to do that?

Speaker 1 (10:15):
Wow?

Speaker 3 (10:16):
Oh yeah, I reckon he was right and just kind
of put my big pension here.

Speaker 4 (10:21):
You know.

Speaker 3 (10:21):
It was the reform United Government that got us through
the depression before before Labor was elected, when economic growth returned.
So it's a really interesting era of history and a
forgotten New Zealand's statesman.

Speaker 2 (10:33):
I'm so looking forward to finding out more about him
in Oscar. What's the dissertation that you're writing this weekend?

Speaker 6 (10:40):
So this weekend I'll be resting, tiding the house and
also taking a moment to remember loved ones have passed on.

Speaker 2 (10:48):
Oh that is actually what you're supposed to do at Mataiechi. Guys,
thanks very much, I appreciate it. Look after yourselves, enjoy
the long weekend.

Speaker 1 (10:54):
For more from Hither Duplicy Allen Drive, listen live to
news talks it'd be from four pm weeks or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.
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