Mike's Minute: Winston Peters is wrong about the Pacific

I am sad to report that Winston Peters is wrong.

His thinking that the Pacific favours friendship has been proven naive.

As I have always said, chequebooks win and we don’t have a chequebook and even his goodwill gesture in 2017, when he lined up along side Labour and handed out a billion dollars, has proven woefully short.

The Chinese have shown over the weekend that the world is changing, and in a dramatic way, and we haven't even mentioned the word Trump yet.

The Cooks deal is about mining the seabed. It's about things at great depth in the ocean that are worth a fortune.

In the meantime the Chinese navy has arrived locally and we are busy diverting planes while having no idea why they have done what they have done.

The best reasoning I have seen so far is from Mick Ryan, who appears on this show periodically. He is ex-military and a great thinker and is deeply worried. If he is, we all should be.

His theory is the Chinese are reminding Australia that you might want to stay local instead of wandering off and doing your exercises in places like, oh, I don’t know, Taiwan?

If you don’t know what's coming and when, staying local makes sense. They are sending a message. 

Is it legal? Yes. It's international waters so it's international law and nothing has been broken, apart from the fact they are rude by not letting anyone know. 

But then that's the point.

There is also a sense that some sort of picking of sides is coming i.e AUKUS or no AUKUS. 

We might like to think about that as well. We might also like to look at our defence forces and wonder, yet again, if we have tried our luck just a little too long and what's left of what we have, might need a bit more dough spent on it.

But, as for the Pacific, Mark Brown will say nice things. But money talks and it has talked. 

The Pacific generally are being, or have been, bought off by Chinese money, whether its security like the Solomons or mining like the Cooks. 

Friendship doesn’t solve any of it. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm sad to report that Winston Peters is wrong. His
thinking that the Pacific Favor's friendship has been proven nave
As I've always said, checkbooks win, and we don't have
a checkbook. And even his goodwill ges Durre in twenty
seventeen when he lined up alongside Labor and handed out
that billion dollars has proven wayfully short. The Chinese have
shown over the weekend the world is changing, and in
a dramatic way. And we haven't even mentioned the word

(00:22):
Trump yet. The Cook's deal is about mining the sea bed.
It's about things at great depth and the ocean that
are worth a fortune, and the Chinese want their hands
on it. Meantime, the Chinese Navy's arrived locally. Of course,
we're busy diverting planes while having no idea while they've
done what they've done. Best reasoning I've seen so far
is from McK ryan, who appears on this program periodically.
His ex military and a great thinker. He's deeply worried,

(00:43):
and if he is, we should be as well. His
theory is the Chinese reminding Australia that you might want
to stay local instead of wandering off and doing your
exercises in places like Oh, I don't know Taiwan. If
you don't know what's coming and when you stay local,
makes sense they're sending a message. Is it least legal? Yes,
international waters, international law. Nothing's been broken apart from the

(01:04):
fact they're route by not letting anybody know. But then
that's the point, of course. There's also a sense that
some sort of picking of sides is coming orcus or
no orcus. Oh, we might like to think about that
as well. We might also like to look at our
defense forces of Judith Collins mentioned earlier on the program,
and wonder yet again if we've tried our luck on
just a little bit long and what's left of what

(01:24):
we might need needs a bit of dough spending on it.
But as for the Pacific, Mark Brown will say nice things,
of course he will, But money talks in it has talked.
The Pacific generally are being or have been bought off
by Chinese money, whether it's security like the Solomon's or
mining like the Cook's. Friendship doesn't solve any of it.
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(01:46):
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