Barry Soper: ZB senior political correspondent on Minister Paul Goldsmith removing Māori greetings from Matariki invitation

The Prime Minister has brushed off his faux pas yesterday, when he seemed to be taking a crack at Australians.

Minister Paul Goldsmith was being questioned over removing Māori greetings from his Matariki invitation to an Australian Minister.

In his defence, Chris Luxon said in his dealings with Australians, it pays to be incredibly simple.

ZB political correspondent Barry Soper said the Government had bigger things to worry about on our shores.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Barry Sober, Senior Political Correspondence with US. Hey Barry, good afternoon,
Heather Doss. He seemed to be taking this comment from
Chris Luxon as it's intended, which is just a bit
of banterak.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
You said in your editorial there are much more important
things to be talked true about, and I think you're
absolutely right that. You know, when I heard the story initially,
I thought, oh, somebody in the public service is leaking,
trying to embarrass the minister. If I was sitting in
the minister's chair I was writing a letter to my
counterpartner Australia, I certainly would have written it in English

(00:31):
and not in Maldy. And you know, I think that
was to be expected. So what all the brew hahas about,
I'm not quite sure. But anyway, it's been sort of
built up into this government being out of step with
Maldi in some way. And I thought that quit from
Luxon in the House yesterday saying it pays to be

(00:52):
incredibly simple and clear and use English when you're writing
to Australians, and the rejoined it today by Alban Easy
that you know when you understood, If you understand, listen
to New Zealand. You have to understand that you might
need an interpreter sometimes. I mean, it's good natured banj
but you know, I think Paul Goldsmith was absolutely in

(01:15):
his right to do that. And there are more important
things to be talking about, and I noticed the mainstream
media hasn't been talking about it, and that is the
speech that was made in Parliament yesterday by Riewa Packer,
the co leader of the MALDI party. And another thing
that's probably more important to be talking about too here
that is Darlene Tanner.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
She got her first question today.

Speaker 3 (01:39):
She got her first question today. It was boring and
it was quite funny because the minister standing in for
Shane Jones happened to be Winston Peters.

Speaker 2 (01:53):
Now he was awfully polite to her. It gave her
the answer and I thought he could have made as
I'd remark, but he didn't. And Darlene tada. She asked
about three questions, no follow up from anybody else in
the house, and she sat down about oceans. Yes, that's right,
that's about effective as an independent MP can be. And

(02:14):
the Greens, of course, as we know, they'll be considering
it again, whether they'll be using the waker legislation. They'll
be considering that on September first.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
So they give Karen Saw a hard time in parliament again.

Speaker 2 (02:25):
They did, And look, I really admire Karent Sure. I
think you know she was brought up in a very
difficult circumstance. She's had all sorts of racial abuse about
her not being a maldi. I think she has one
thing and she's beaten her gums about it constantly. The
only thing that she's concerned about is the safety of children,

(02:48):
and I think everyone would empathize with that. And now
we see her on a tamariki that I've got to
report essentially now every quarter to the minister to make
sure things that have only been reported on once a
year don't happen. Sure faced, as you said, here a
barrage of questions in the house today, But she was

(03:10):
unflinching in a view that Arama arounga tamariki needs to
be more accountable.

Speaker 4 (03:15):
Clearly things need to change. When a child is killed
every five weeks in this country, and so many more
are abused and neglected by those who are meant to
care for them, than a new approach is desperately needed.
By making ordering a Tomadique report every three months and
making these reports public it will give ordering the Timidiki
the focus it needs to ensure that it is delivering

(03:37):
on its core purpose keeping children and young people safe.

Speaker 2 (03:40):
And on that note, you know, I was reading a
story in the online today that basically five men and
Nelson are facing illegal weapons charges. In fact, officers in
June that were serving a search warrant on a house
three loaded rifles leading up against a wall in a

(04:01):
bedroom next to a child's cot were found and all
of the weapons were loaded with round's chambered in and
they didn't have their safety switches on. You imagine that
right next to a cop with little children.

Speaker 1 (04:17):
Pretty crazy people do some weird things, aren't you. Listen
this water plan that's been announced by Simmy and Brown,
how far does this go to fixing the funding concerns.

Speaker 2 (04:24):
Well, it creates big loans, doesn't it for councils. And
what it does is by splitting off the taking apart
the three waters issue, and I think it had to
be taken apart, makes councils responsible for their own water supplies.
What it means is that councils that have been able
to afford in the past to look after water supply

(04:46):
like Auckland for example. They won't be impacted terribly on
this at all. They'll have to note how it come
up with more infrastructure. But what this does, is you
said Hither just before I came on that, what it
does it allows counsels to get money at a much
more cheaper rate. More but in the end, more and

(05:07):
cheaper is the key to this. In the end, the
debt is still there and who ends up paying the debt?
That's unavoidable though precisely well, we have to spend money
on war totally.

Speaker 1 (05:18):
You're right, Barry, Thank you appreciate it's very sober, Senior
political correspondent.

Speaker 3 (05:22):
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