Thomas Coughlan: NZ Herald deputy political editor ahead of Winston Peters State of the Nation speech

Winston Peters will deliver his State of the Nation speech this afternoon - off the back of high level talks in the United States last week. 

Similar speeches have come over the past months from the Prime Minister, the Opposition leader, ACT and the Greens - and today it's New Zealand First's turn. 

The address comes days after Winston Peters returned from Washington DC, where he met with senior players in the Trump Administration. 

NZ Herald deputy political editor Thomas Coughlan speculated what the focus of the address could be.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News Talks EDB and.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Joining us as talk politics New Zealand Herald Political New
Zealand Herald Deep for the political editor Thomas Coglan. It's
a mouthful sometimes.

Speaker 3 (00:22):
Thomas mouthful, a lot of words in there.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
Good morning, Good to have you with us.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Look, there is no doubt the government is working very hard,
but they have been struggling to control the narratives in
a positive light. But this was a bitter week for them.

Speaker 3 (00:37):
Yeah, it was often. I often gets the end of
the weekend when it comes to it comes time to
write that column on a Friday, and I think, you
know who who who sort of ended up on top
this week. I have to say most weeks, most weeks
this year, I thought the Opposition has probably had it.
I think the lunches, the lunches have been a bit
of a disaster this year. Obviously, then anything you've had

(00:58):
the reshuffle which seems to have been propped them by
the health system, and then the Andrew Bailey to the situation.
So I think you'd have to say most weeks what
we've had eight weeks really since the political year got
under way and earnest at the end of jam. Most
weeks this year probably been got on the opposition's way.
I think this week was sort of remarkable because I
really think the government probably ends up on top. It's

(01:20):
been a recess week. Obviously there hasn't been too much politics,
so readions of that what you will. But the Prime
Minister's trip to India was clearly a success starting those
trade talks. It's a really that's a really really big
deal for New Zealand. It is pretty difficult to get
India to the table on that. Obviously, you know, we
don't have a deal yet, and and any deal that

(01:41):
we do get, if we get one, might involve some
pretty nlely compromises. So that's a case of very much
not counting one's chickens. But still it's a big deal
to get that underway. And then and then Labor I
think scored a few own goals this week regarding its
own at tax on the government. It's p PP position

(02:02):
was very unclear, still quite unclear.

Speaker 1 (02:05):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (02:05):
And then they scored a bit of an own goal
when they tried to have a go at the government
over the number of working groups that they sort of
there was some miscounting on both sides really going on,
I think, but they ended up almost proving that the government,
the government actually had had start a few working groups
in the last Labor government did so, I thought for
the first time in a very long time, and the

(02:25):
government probably ended up on top comprehensively. At the end
of this week, Thomas.

Speaker 2 (02:29):
Winston Peters is presenting the State of the Nation speech
today at two pm. Do we have any idea what
is going to cover?

Speaker 3 (02:35):
No, He's he's actually been quite quite tlight looked about
about this. I was having always poke around at the
end of last week and everyone's sort of keeping money
about it. I've heard that there might be he might
have a have a bit of a discussion about the
GMO legislation that's currently going through parliament Absolete committee. At
the moment, there's some criticism of this, this this change

(02:59):
to our genetic genetic modification laws. It's come from not
just the Greens and Labor who who you expect, but
also some people in the sector, you know, Fonterra. I
think it's called for. They're not antiet, but they're calling
for some for for stronger oversight measures and and you know,
clear rules around it, so you know, you could see

(03:21):
you can see a strong opposition built around that. And certainly,
you know, given Winston Peters and New Zealand firsts, you know,
historic positioning of themselves as is as quite conservative on
issues like that, it would certainly be a logical one
for for for Winston Peters to get into. He is
set to speak for an hour. The speech time is

(03:42):
set as an hour, and he can go even longer
than that if he if he feels like it. So
it might be the case that we've actually got a
very long, a very long speech today.

Speaker 2 (03:53):
Wins the Peter's just got back from his trip to
the US. We haven't actually heard a huge amount of
detail about what has been going on. Do you think
and I don't expect that in today's speech, but do
you think we will hear more about meetings and discussions
he's had in the US?

Speaker 3 (04:06):
Yes, yeah, it's interesting to read that. Raise Next, this
is a that's very much on everyone's vinds. He wanted
to get to He he himself done and said that
his reasons for going over the US was to just
sort of, you know, hear from the Trump administration's mouth,
what they what they wanted out of the relationship with
New Zealand. He had a stand up after that meeting

(04:28):
with Marco Rubio, the Secret True State, where he talked about,
you know what they discussed the subject matter. So they
did discuss cariiffs, They did discuss security, but beyond that,
we really obviously we thought, we know that they probably
would have discussed tariffs. But we want to know what
they said. And he is he's he's quite keen to
He hasn't been he hasn't been very clear about what

(04:48):
about what what was discussed. He said. He said in
those remarks that he wanted to come back home and
brief cabinet on what he was what they had discussed
with the Americans. So we might we might find out
a bit more tomorrow on on Monday, after the after
the cabinet meeting.

Speaker 2 (05:03):
Thank you so much, Thomas. Enjoy the rest of your Sunday.

Speaker 1 (05:06):
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