Barry Soper: Newstalk ZB senior political correspondent on whether Chris Bishop could replace Chris Luxon

There's growing speculation Chris Luxon is at risk of being rolled ahead of the election, with Chris Bishop being touted as a potential replacement. 

An opinion piece by Audrey Young was released today, and it claimed that Labour was going extra hard on Bishop over the cycleway project because he was likely to take over the party by 2026.

Newstalk ZB senior political correspondent Barry Soper says National's taking a hit in the polls and there's discussions about Luxon's leadership abilities taking place.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Very so to senior political correspondence with us. How Barry,
good afternoon. Hell have you read Audrey Young's piece? No,
I haven't, okay, Audrey Young's piece title Bishop has a
Target on his back and she's basically written a piece
where she reckons the reason that Labors going at him
over that cycle and walking Bridge and his part of
the world news is because he's the guy most likely
to roll Chris Luxen.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Interesting, that, isn't it. Unfortunately I normally do read Ordery,
but I haven't today. But look, the thing is, when
you've got a party polling like National has, and you've
got twenty first term back benches in that party out
of forty eight MPs, you know you're going to be

(00:40):
looking at that polling and you're going to be saying, well,
can we last? Can we hold up the vote? And
at the moment they would the answer to that would
be no. But that's not to say that Chris Lucksen
is going to be rolled.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
What are you hearing? Well, so I'm hearing that he is.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
Well, there's certainly talk in the Rational Party at the
moment about Chris Luxon's leadership, and who knows, it may
come to a debate in caucus next Tuesday when they
meet in Wellington. But the views that I've had, they vary.
They vary from his leadership being untenable which is one

(01:18):
description that was given to me, to the detractors being
steered down if it did come to that debate in caucus.
So I think my view is that this party would
be ridiculous to ditch Chris Luxen as their leader at
the moment because you've got look at the opposition benchres

(01:42):
and you see the Moldy Party falling apart in the
nowhere near back together again. Yet you see the Greens
talking about revoking licensing permits for offshore oil and whatever
it is.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
And paths the victory for Labor with Winston Well, well, no.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
I can't, for the life of me see Winston voting
with Labor again. I think he realizes the mistake that
he made, you know, the last time he did that
with Justin Dern. But my view is that you know, if,
if if there was to be a change, you've only
got to think back to Jenny Shipley rolling Jim Boulger

(02:27):
about a year out from the election and what happened
to the National Party. Then you could say, I could
say that it wasn't going, you know, because it would
have been their fourth term, so she was ready to
go anyway, and she was up against Tallon Clark who
had done her time. And yeah, well that's right. But
there is there's a lot of talk, let's put it

(02:49):
that way, a lot of talk within parliamentary circles and
outside as well, within the business.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
Okay, let me what's happening on Tuesday.

Speaker 2 (02:58):
Well, this, the fact that we're airing this now tends
to cause a discussion about the leadership, and no doubt
there will be more discussion on this and come Tuesday,
who knows, they may have out of a showdown.

Speaker 1 (03:12):
So I'm hearing that National Party MPs are very unhappy
with Chris Luxon. I'm hearing that there is now some
talk about who could be a potential replacement, but the
replacements don't have the numbers just yet.

Speaker 2 (03:24):
That's Chris Bishop we're talking about here.

Speaker 1 (03:26):
He would be the most likely and he doesn't have
the numbers just yet. Is that what you're hearing.

Speaker 2 (03:30):
That's what I'm hearing. Absolutely. And the other thing that
you've got to convince, of course, is David Seymour and
Winston Peters. If they, for example, went against any change
in leadership at the top of the National Party which
would weaken their chances of getting back, then it wouldn't
happen at all, because the coalition would simply fall apart.

Speaker 1 (03:51):
Okay, do you accept, though being the cheerleader for Chris Luxon,
that you are a cheerleader for Chris Luckxy that he
does need to lift his game. Well, no, I think
he's doing a good job.

Speaker 2 (04:02):
Well, no, the thing is, Heather, if you look at
what they're what they've been confronted with when they took
over the Treasury benches, no one is going to look
glowing coming into a government like that. So I think
you'll find and as I've said on this program before,
and I'm not cheerleading for Chris, well yes you have,

(04:25):
and because I don't cheer lead for any particular politician,
but certainly not Chris Luxen. But I think you'll find
when things start turning around next year, as they're showing
signs of doing now, then it'll be a very different piece.

Speaker 1 (04:39):
Hey, should we talk about the Transport Minister, Well, we
have been his views on the electric vehicles, Well, he.

Speaker 2 (04:46):
Was he acknowledges fully the clean car changes to the
legislation they were passed through Parliament today, so Chris Bishop
freely acknowledges the bottom fell out of the electric car
market after the government made these changes. Bishop flagged away
criticism from the Greens Julianne Jener who says the scheme

(05:08):
benefited the wealthy who were able to go out and
buy electric cars at the expense of mother. That's Chris
Bishop was saying.

Speaker 3 (05:15):
That farmers and tradees who were stun with a ute
tax in order to transfer the money to largely middle
and upper income consumers who wanted to go out and
buy a tesla. That regressive, inequitable, stupid scheme this government
did away with.

Speaker 1 (05:37):
Does his government have an active policy to transition its
own fleet.

Speaker 2 (05:41):
By prioritizing the purchase of electric vehicles and if not,
why not?

Speaker 3 (05:45):
The government's focus is not on transitioning its own fleet
to electric vehicles. This government's focus, as that member should know,
is on cost effective solutions and value for money.

Speaker 1 (06:00):
There you go, ruined my day ruined. I forgot about Julianne,
and now my day is too.

Speaker 2 (06:06):
Insult to injury.

Speaker 1 (06:08):
I appreciate a very sober senior political correspondent.

Speaker 3 (06:11):
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