Azaria Howell: Newstalk ZB reporter on Prime Minister Chris Luxon confirming the election date

National's not announcing any changes to the team, as parties tee-up political campaigns.

The Prime Minister's confirmed a November 7 date for this year's general election - speaking from National's annual caucus retreat in Christchurch.

Chris Luxon says any members retiring will announce it themself, and he doesn't feel compelled to reshuffle for the sake of it.

Newstalk ZB reporter Azaria Howell says Luxon will be hoping for the economic recovery to be more noticeable by the time the voting booths open up.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Right now, Azaria, how News talks. He'd be senior political
reporter with us. Azaria. Good afternoon, good afternoon, It's good
to be with you. And we have an election date.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
We have an election date. The Prime Minister has announced
the twenty twenty sixth general election will be held on
November the seventh. Chris Luxon says setting the election date
early in the year sort of gives it more certainty
to New Zealanders. The government also intends for Parliament to
rise on the twenty fourth of September and then Parliament

(00:28):
to dissolve on October. The first advance voting will start
on the twenty sixth of October. That's in the current plans.
The PM's also spoken about the significant economic turnaround plan
that Nationals hoping really gets felt more widely across the
country this year. Another big aspect though of this election date,
coalition talks. The Prime Minister has reiterated he's confident that

(00:50):
those talks would be able to be sorted out by
Christmas with that November seventh date. Although Luxe and he
says he is willing to work with act in New
Zealand four again, although he is pushing for people to
party vote. National Labor leader Chris Hopkins responded to this.
He said, it's a relatively late election, usually sort of
October the time to do it. He's claiming that this

(01:12):
means that the Prime Minister wants to hold on for
as long as possible, also saying that it could be
a challenge to have those coalition talks done before Christmas.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
Right now, and what about Chris Hipkins, He's given his
first speechure of the year to his caucus in West
Auckland today and I saw he gave a bit of
a serve to Bishop and to Luxe and over the
housing thing. What else has he been saying?

Speaker 2 (01:34):
Yeah, the big deal here really the party wanting to
win back the super city flip some of those seats.
Hipkins really putting emphasis on how important that is, saying
that Labour wants to win back the biggest city and
that there will be a dedicated strategy around Auckland. So
it really does seem like having more of a focus
on this. Auckland has been a bit of a pressure
point for the party especially last election. Another pressure point

(01:57):
though policy which may continue to be a bit of
a worry over the year. Chris Hopkins is promising the
party will announce new policies going ahead.

Speaker 3 (02:06):
However, the fiscal plan, so how we will balance up
the government's books and any spending many major spending commitments
and so on, those things will come later in the year.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
So major decisions around spending seem like they may have
to come after the budget. That's something Labour's said in
the past. It does, though bring about questions, notably do
they have enough time from budget day to election day
to really sell those policies to people.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
Now finally we've got a retirement announcement already, So Duncan
web from Labor had already said he was going and
now Adrian Ruafi, the previous speaker, is out.

Speaker 2 (02:40):
Yeah, the former Speaker, Adrian ududa Fe has announced his
resignation from politics. He'll be standing down at White Honey
Day so quite soon, and he's wanting to do this.
It's been announced before the Adults in a Church movement
as well, essentially, so he doesn't go to that with
this kind of resignation looming over his head. He will
then be replaced by Georgie Danzy on the Labor list.

(03:03):
Chris Hepkins also confirmed he's not expecting any more labor
resignations to announce, but he's confirmed. A bit of a reshuffle.

Speaker 3 (03:10):
Goot, a bit of a game of chess, you know,
you move a few pieces around, it always involves a
few subsequent changes from that.

Speaker 2 (03:15):
Well, on the other side of the house, the PM
did flag potential changes in the National Party earlier in
the week. He said there may well be a reshuffle
in the next month or two. We may well have
some retirements. There has been some speculation. It is just
chatter rumors at this point, nothing substantiated. However, former National
Party Minister Chris Finlayson has said, speaking to the podcast

(03:37):
Cross Party Lines, that there were rumors about whether or
not Judith Collins is going to call it a day.
Her press team, though, has emailed me a statement saying
Collins was confirmed as the National Party candidate for the
Papacuda electorate in October last year. I mean, you would
think it would be quite strange to select her in
a seat and then have to replace her. Here's what
Chris Bishop had to say about it all earlier today.

(04:00):
Not really wanting to get involved in this discussion.

Speaker 3 (04:03):
If she is, there is a position for her and
Amna announcement for her to make it is not for
me to make it.

Speaker 2 (04:08):
So a bit unclear there about Collins. Obviously, it's an
IF at this point, not a yes or a no.

Speaker 1 (04:13):
Interesting stuff, Azaria, Thank you for that. Zara Howell out
of Parliament for us.

Speaker 3 (04:18):
For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to
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Speaker 1 (04:21):
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