A senior National MP insists the party is focused on governing, despite growing unrest around Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s leadership.
Our newsroom understands from three sources that a fortnight ago, Luxon didn’t respond to the party’s whip Stuart Smith, who tried to raise concerns about his support in caucus.
It’s understood MPs pushing for change could make a move in the next fortnight, with the Prime Minister likely to be formally presented with concerns.
Chris Bishop told Mike Hosking there's no coup, but won't say whether he’s aware of other colleagues seeking to replace Luxon.
He says many people —including Luxon— want the party to do better.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
So finally getting the changes to the WAFT system off.
Your wheels are four to fourteen years old, you just
need every two years. Now older than fourteen, it's now yearly.
Big savings they say, four point one billion over thirty years.
Big support. Seventy four percent of us they say, are
behind it. Anyway, Chris Bishop, as Minister of Transport, is
with us morning good one. Is it really about the savings?
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Yeah, well, I mean basically our regulatory regime is out
of step with the rest of the world. Many other
countries like Japan and Australia, Germany, they have a far
less frequent regime for wassts and costs, and our system
is just not well calibrated to risk. So basically, the
older your car, the more dangerous it potentially is, or
you know, it needs to be checked. But these newer cars,
(00:41):
you know, the modern safety standards that have been coming
in over the last ten years in particular, are very
safe and need checking less frequently. And so we're aligning
that with the actual reality.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Do you see a problem with tires. See I had
a new car and you don't. When you get a
new car, you don't have to have a warrant for
three years, but the problem is you can burn through
a set of rubber than that period of time, you
never get your waft done.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Yeah, and so it's really important to note that the
law still requires you to maintain a roadworthy vehicle, okay,
and so that's still your obligation and people should still
do that. But the evidence is in relation to new
cars in particular, that we can take it to four
years safely. And so that's what we've done. So you
won't asking the new who told you that? Officials Ministry
(01:26):
Transport and they went out and did quite a lot
of extensive work on this and we've been sort of
working away on this for about a year or so.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Well, i'll tell you so. Well, yeah, but I'm looking
I'm on your side. I get this, and I think
it's a good idea. But having had new cars, there's
no way I'm running a new car on tires for
four years because they won't go the distance. But you're saying, oh,
it's the law, I've got to do something about it.
But I why, I can't be bothered. I'm not knowing
checks me.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Yeah, sure, but the issue is you shouldn't do that obviously,
whether or not we should make people go and do it,
you know, every every year or so. And basically we've
decided that the benefits outweigh the costs of the system
we're adopting and the official and ELSA. So it's two
point six to four point one billion dollars of net benefits.
(02:12):
Like you know, you've got you've got to David on it.
They've seen more on of it, going on about cost
benefits all the time. Well, this is a pretty persuasive
cost benefit. You know, it's going to mean millions out
hundreds of thousands, millions of people not able to go
every two years. But that's where the big games are.
It's the cars age between four and fourteen years of age,
which which are currently on your and your loss. It's
(02:33):
you know, you've got to go bock it earm and
find a time, take an hour off work, pay your money,
you wait around in the waiting room. It's annoying, right,
it's frustrating. And they don't have to do it every
two years now, so I think people will widely welcome it.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
What about my ninety three AUDI that was on six months?
Is that now out to a year?
Speaker 2 (02:51):
You're ninety three Houdy, Yes, I think so is that
a vintage car, because.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
It's not quite vintage, it's in that it's in that
gray areas. Talk the mechanic about that, and I said,
we're going one year, and he goes, no, I don't
think you are. So I said, I'm going to ask
bish is how that keeps calling you? And so I'm
asking you, what's the story?
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Yeah, I think I think you go to one yet.
But don't quote me on that, Mike. That'll be in
the devil of the detail.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Hey, what about the Coglin piece this morning? You read that.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
I haven't really read it, To be honest, I just don't.
I've sort of to be honest with you. I've rolled
out of bed and I'm having a cup of coffee
and I'm talking to you.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
I was going to say, were you too busy crunching
the numbers to read the article.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Staying up all night working on reform? To be I'll
try to have a slight sleep in this morning.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Right. Is there a coup on or not? Is there
agitation within your party or not? Are you going for
something or not? Don't dick us around what's going on?
Speaker 2 (03:44):
No, I haven't barely seen the article to be honest
and if it sounds like people have been talking a
bit about, you know, possible corpus matters, there's a lot
of sort of what you know, it's rumored this, it's
rumored that. But you know every now and then articles
like that appear. It's untidy and unhapful.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Obviously, can you rule that rule what out a coup,
a pressure on the Prime minister, a group visiting him
asking him to consider his position, any of those things
remotely related to you upending the party.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
I'm not trying to upend the party and that that
is not happening.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
So there is no coup happening.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
No, there's no coup happening.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
Is anyone monitting Luson asking him to consider his position?
Speaker 2 (04:32):
I'm trying to fix the RMA and trying.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
To forget the RMA, Chris, we move beyond that, mate.
Are there people within the party looking to get rid
of Luxen? Yes or no?
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Not, to my knowledge, Are you one of them?
Speaker 1 (04:45):
No? Will you be the leader of the National Party
before the election?
Speaker 2 (04:50):
No? Hand On Hart, I won't be the leader of
the National Party. What we've got to do is head down,
bump up in the next six months and try and
govern this country in very difficult times with the geopolitical
instability and then the least in fuel crisis, and try
and set New Zealand up for success into the twenty
thirties and beyond.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Do you know anybody within the party who's agitating for
Luxan to fall?
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Well, I think it would be fair to say that
everyone wants us to do better. I think that's a
that's a statement of reality, and you know that that
we will people. People want us to do better, and
I know the Prime Minister wants us to do better
as well.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Indeed, so did Luxon go Stuart Smith.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
I don't know that that's the sort of article I
have barely read. I don't. I don't that's news to
me and I don't know anything about that.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Do you understand that if you roll lucks and or
luckx and quits your toast and you won't be government?
Speaker 2 (05:52):
What do you mean by that?
Speaker 1 (05:53):
If you roll lucks and all Luckson quits, you will
lose the election?
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Well? I instability is not a good thing, and I
think that's the broad point you're making. And we've got
to focus on governing this country. We've got a lot
of work to do. This country is in not great
shape and we've got a lot lot of work to
do to improve our fiscal situation and our living standards.
Is a country and deal with the short term, hopefully
short term, hopefully short term issue with the fuel situation,
(06:19):
but we don't know exactly how long it's going to
last for Do you reckon?
Speaker 1 (06:22):
You wish you got up earlier because you didn't know
this was coming.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
I suspected you might ask me, Mike, I've had I
have had a brief scan of the article. Whatever I say,
I have barely read it properly.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Good on you, you go read it now over that
cup of tea. Nice to talk to your Chris Buship,
Minister of Transport. For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast,
listen live to news talks the'd be from six am weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
So finally getting the changes to the WAFT system off.
Your wheels are four to fourteen years old, you just
need every two years. Now older than fourteen, it's now yearly.
Big savings they say, four point one billion over thirty years.
Big support. Seventy four percent of us they say, are
behind it. Anyway, Chris Bishop, as Minister of Transport, is
with us morning good one. Is it really about the savings?
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Yeah, well, I mean basically our regulatory regime is out
of step with the rest of the world. Many other
countries like Japan and Australia, Germany, they have a far
less frequent regime for wassts and costs, and our system
is just not well calibrated to risk. So basically, the
older your car, the more dangerous it potentially is, or
you know, it needs to be checked. But these newer cars,
(00:41):
you know, the modern safety standards that have been coming
in over the last ten years in particular, are very
safe and need checking less frequently. And so we're aligning
that with the actual reality.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Do you see a problem with tires. See I had
a new car and you don't. When you get a
new car, you don't have to have a warrant for
three years, but the problem is you can burn through
a set of rubber than that period of time, you
never get your waft done.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Yeah, and so it's really important to note that the
law still requires you to maintain a roadworthy vehicle, okay,
and so that's still your obligation and people should still
do that. But the evidence is in relation to new
cars in particular, that we can take it to four
years safely. And so that's what we've done. So you
won't asking the new who told you that? Officials Ministry
(01:26):
Transport and they went out and did quite a lot
of extensive work on this and we've been sort of
working away on this for about a year or so.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Well, i'll tell you so. Well, yeah, but I'm looking
I'm on your side. I get this, and I think
it's a good idea. But having had new cars, there's
no way I'm running a new car on tires for
four years because they won't go the distance. But you're saying, oh,
it's the law, I've got to do something about it.
But I why, I can't be bothered. I'm not knowing
checks me.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Yeah, sure, but the issue is you shouldn't do that obviously,
whether or not we should make people go and do it,
you know, every every year or so. And basically we've
decided that the benefits outweigh the costs of the system
we're adopting and the official and ELSA. So it's two
point six to four point one billion dollars of net benefits.
(02:12):
Like you know, you've got you've got to David on it.
They've seen more on of it, going on about cost
benefits all the time. Well, this is a pretty persuasive
cost benefit. You know, it's going to mean millions out
hundreds of thousands, millions of people not able to go
every two years. But that's where the big games are.
It's the cars age between four and fourteen years of age,
which which are currently on your and your loss. It's
(02:33):
you know, you've got to go bock it earm and
find a time, take an hour off work, pay your money,
you wait around in the waiting room. It's annoying, right,
it's frustrating. And they don't have to do it every
two years now, so I think people will widely welcome it.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
What about my ninety three AUDI that was on six months?
Is that now out to a year?
Speaker 2 (02:51):
You're ninety three Houdy, Yes, I think so is that
a vintage car, because.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
It's not quite vintage, it's in that it's in that
gray areas. Talk the mechanic about that, and I said,
we're going one year, and he goes, no, I don't
think you are. So I said, I'm going to ask
bish is how that keeps calling you? And so I'm
asking you, what's the story?
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Yeah, I think I think you go to one yet.
But don't quote me on that, Mike. That'll be in
the devil of the detail.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Hey, what about the Coglin piece this morning? You read that.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
I haven't really read it, To be honest, I just don't.
I've sort of to be honest with you. I've rolled
out of bed and I'm having a cup of coffee
and I'm talking to you.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
I was going to say, were you too busy crunching
the numbers to read the article.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Staying up all night working on reform? To be I'll
try to have a slight sleep in this morning.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Right. Is there a coup on or not? Is there
agitation within your party or not? Are you going for
something or not? Don't dick us around what's going on?
Speaker 2 (03:44):
No, I haven't barely seen the article to be honest
and if it sounds like people have been talking a
bit about, you know, possible corpus matters, there's a lot
of sort of what you know, it's rumored this, it's
rumored that. But you know every now and then articles
like that appear. It's untidy and unhapful.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Obviously, can you rule that rule what out a coup,
a pressure on the Prime minister, a group visiting him
asking him to consider his position, any of those things
remotely related to you upending the party.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
I'm not trying to upend the party and that that
is not happening.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
So there is no coup happening.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
No, there's no coup happening.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
Is anyone monitting Luson asking him to consider his position?
Speaker 2 (04:32):
I'm trying to fix the RMA and trying.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
To forget the RMA, Chris, we move beyond that, mate.
Are there people within the party looking to get rid
of Luxen? Yes or no?
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Not, to my knowledge, Are you one of them?
Speaker 1 (04:45):
No? Will you be the leader of the National Party
before the election?
Speaker 2 (04:50):
No? Hand On Hart, I won't be the leader of
the National Party. What we've got to do is head down,
bump up in the next six months and try and
govern this country in very difficult times with the geopolitical
instability and then the least in fuel crisis, and try
and set New Zealand up for success into the twenty
thirties and beyond.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Do you know anybody within the party who's agitating for
Luxan to fall?
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Well, I think it would be fair to say that
everyone wants us to do better. I think that's a
that's a statement of reality, and you know that that
we will people. People want us to do better, and
I know the Prime Minister wants us to do better
as well.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Indeed, so did Luxon go Stuart Smith.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
I don't know that that's the sort of article I
have barely read. I don't. I don't that's news to
me and I don't know anything about that.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Do you understand that if you roll lucks and or
luckx and quits your toast and you won't be government?
Speaker 2 (05:52):
What do you mean by that?
Speaker 1 (05:53):
If you roll lucks and all Luckson quits, you will
lose the election?
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Well? I instability is not a good thing, and I
think that's the broad point you're making. And we've got
to focus on governing this country. We've got a lot
of work to do. This country is in not great
shape and we've got a lot lot of work to
do to improve our fiscal situation and our living standards.
Is a country and deal with the short term, hopefully
short term, hopefully short term issue with the fuel situation,
(06:19):
but we don't know exactly how long it's going to
last for Do you reckon?
Speaker 1 (06:22):
You wish you got up earlier because you didn't know
this was coming.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
I suspected you might ask me, Mike, I've had I
have had a brief scan of the article. Whatever I say,
I have barely read it properly.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Good on you, you go read it now over that
cup of tea. Nice to talk to your Chris Buship,
Minister of Transport. For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast,
listen live to news talks the'd be from six am weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
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