Foreign Minister Winston Peters sent a blunt message to the Prime Minister as Donald Trump's tariffs continue to spark uncertainty around the world.
Peters indicated Chris Luxon was premature in joining global talks calling for free trade, in opposition to the tariff rollout.
NZ Herald political editor Claire Trevett says Peters expecting Luxon to follow his lead was unusual - but a courtesy call was warranted.
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News Talks EDB.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
It is time to Talk local politics and were joined
by New Zealand Held political editor Create Trivet.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Good morning, Clear, Good morning Francesca.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Lovely to have you with us now. Winston Peters told
of the Prime Minister for his spring of phone calls
with world leaders this week about US trade war. Was
this something that really should have been made public or
was this a conversation to have around the cabinet table?
Speaker 4 (00:35):
Yes, that was an entertaining, entertaining exchange, wasn't it. Both
sides of that are slightly gobsmacking. The first one is that, yes,
the Prime Minister does tend to outrank their foreign minister
on any given day of the week. And if Christopher
Luxen thinks it's a good idea to ring his trade partners,
(00:57):
and he knows those trade partners relatively well. Now he
was speaking to the ones around mainly around Asia who
are and the CPTPP such as Malaysia, VAM, Singapore, Philippines.
He's met them all a fair a few times because
he's focused on those areas. He was responding to the
Trump terriff and basically had given a speech earlier on
(01:18):
Thursday before he started making those phone calls saying that
he wanted the existing kind of trade agreement partners such
as the CPTPP and the EU things to kind of
start to talk, basically, to hold the line on free
trade rather than see everyone starting to retaliate to Trump's
(01:40):
tariffs and breaking all though usual kind of standards of
free trade agreements and stuff like that. He wanted to
kind of get in early on that. And Winston Peters
had taken off on his trip around the pacifica bit.
He had also been to DC ahead of the terrorist
announcements being made to try and kind of protect New
Zealand's position and those, and he voiced some surprise in
(02:05):
quite blunt terms actually that Christoph Luxen should have held
held as fire and just sat there and waited to
see what ended up happening under Trump and everything like that,
and hadn't given him a call to talk to him
about it. And he was the one with the experience
and stuff like that. So it's quite unusual a that
(02:26):
Winston Peters would publicly call Christopher Luxen out about that
and expect Christopher Luxen to kind of take his lead
rather than vice versa when he was dealing at the
leadership level. And also that Christoph Luxen had't hadn't given
Winston Peters their heads up or had a chat to
him before he had given that speech and called those leaders.
(02:50):
Christopher Lutson would of course, he's been thinking of it
in the trade capacity. He did have Todd McLay on hand,
who is the actual trade minister. But at courtesy, a
courtesy might have merited giving Winston a quick call.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
A little courtesy on both sides. Maybe now we're talking
about alcohol again and public holidays. What's going on here?
Speaker 4 (03:13):
Ah? This was just a little thing that didn't actually
get that much notice because it happened in the dead
of night and and other things were happening, such as
the Winston Peters Christopher Lutson contamp and Donald Trump's daily
dawn announcements on what tariffs would be, what tariffs we're
(03:34):
going where it was Kiaren McNulty's Little Members Bill, which
is a bill a normal MP takes and they all
vote on it, and his proposal it is around the
kind of easter well not really trading laws, but in
that area there's restrictions on what pubs and restaurants and
(03:54):
stuff can and can't do on all the Easter and
antique days and Christmases and all that kind of stuff,
and it keeps coming up for votes and members bills
and the like, and they always lose for various reasons.
And this time around he's gone for a more precision approach,
which is, at the moment, you have to buy a
meal to be able to have a beer or a
(04:17):
wine on those particular days. The rules differ from day
to day, depending what time of day and all that
kind of parlava. And he decided it's ridiculous that you
can go into a pub and buy a beer on
the Thursday before Easter, but you can't on Good Friday,
and then you can on Saturday, and then you can't
again on Sunday and all that kind of stuff. So
(04:38):
he's proposed that they just streamline those rules basically and
let pubs sell beers in the old day of the year,
regardless of whether it's those days anyway. The notable thing
is that this one actually passed its first reading by
sixty seven votes. It's a conscience vote, which means or
a personal vote which means their MP's votes according to
(05:00):
how they feel. They're quite often derailed by party politics.
I think that Act Party had a similar bill up
recently in that loss because all of Labor and Pas
voted against it this time around, and the National Party
vote was quite split. The cons more conservative end MPs
voted against the bill, whereas quite a few of them
(05:23):
voted for it, and that has now gone through to
Select committee. So it's not a massive overhaul of the
easter laws. It's a kind of small tweak which has
kind of been sold as making it a lot easier
for businesses. The hospitality industry have kind of welcomed it
because they don't have to change rules. There was some
concern from the Greens, who voted against it by and
(05:45):
large because they thought it would mean that, you know,
more workers would have to work on those days now,
because they'd have to staff the pubs more for people
who are only going in to have a bear and
all that kind of pilava. There were a lot of confessions.
I went back and had a quick skimmer that first
reading speeches, starting with Kieren mcinnulty. A lot of people
(06:05):
who were so that they were Catholic, but they were
not very good Catholics, and nonetheless pointing to the kind
of oddity of the rule and that the Bible doesn't
exactly ban having a beer on east of Friday or Sunday.
So the usual arguments arise. I raised it mainly because
(06:26):
it was it has actually made it for its first reading.
It has become unusual. So there you go, there we go.
It won't be it won't It won't happen in time
for this Easter. All your listeners out there, one time
to run down and have a beer alone on Good Friday.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
You'll still need to buy that meal. And look just quickly,
David Parker has resigned from Parliament.
Speaker 4 (06:47):
Yeah, well he's about to. Yeah, he's announced that he's
stepping down. Not not a massive surprise, but he has
had a long, a long career and there he first
came in in two thousand and two and he announced
that he was pretty much done and it's been Yeah,
he's one of they're more I guess stalwart guys. I've
(07:11):
always seen him as a little bit of a geminy
cricket for labor and that he's how it consistently held
the line around tax in particular, he's long been a
promoter of something along the lines of a wealth tax
or a capital gains tax. He thinks the tax system
is unfair and puts taxes every dollar basically that lower
(07:32):
and middle income New Zealanders get, whereas wealthy and New
Zealanders don't have a lot of their wealth kind of text.
He was kind of behind the wealth tax proposal that
Labor was initially running on before the last campaign. He
has said that that's not the reason he's leaving. He's
(07:52):
more or less just done his term and has kind
of done everything he wants to do in both his
foreign affairs portfolios. He's kind of on the same line
as Christopher Luxon on that at the moment, but that's
by the bye and that the text has nothing to
do with it, and he's quite happy with Labour's current
relook at the tax stuff. But yeah, it's a bit
(08:15):
I mean, yeah, I've kind of been there for a
lot of his career. He's a very considered and thoughtful
politician actually and quite measured. It's a what's the word
coincidental time come think of the word for him to
be going as well, because he was the trade minister
(08:35):
when the country signed up to the CPTPP. So before
he announced his resignation, he'd made some comments about that
kind of the trade area and foreign affairs and stuff
like that. And he'll be stepping down I think in
early May now, just ahead of the budget.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
And look clear somebody else.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
Along and quite respected politician, as has your career been
with the New Zealand Herald, and you were leaving us
on Tuesday, and I just want to say thank you
very much to you for all your contribution to us
here on the Sunday Session.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
It's always a pleasure to talk to you.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
Claire boost to Luck, thank you, thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
For more from the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to News Talks it Be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News Talks EDB.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
It is time to Talk local politics and were joined
by New Zealand Held political editor Create Trivet.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Good morning, Clear, Good morning Francesca.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Lovely to have you with us now. Winston Peters told
of the Prime Minister for his spring of phone calls
with world leaders this week about US trade war. Was
this something that really should have been made public or
was this a conversation to have around the cabinet table?
Speaker 4 (00:35):
Yes, that was an entertaining, entertaining exchange, wasn't it. Both
sides of that are slightly gobsmacking. The first one is that, yes,
the Prime Minister does tend to outrank their foreign minister
on any given day of the week. And if Christopher
Luxen thinks it's a good idea to ring his trade partners,
(00:57):
and he knows those trade partners relatively well. Now he
was speaking to the ones around mainly around Asia who
are and the CPTPP such as Malaysia, VAM, Singapore, Philippines.
He's met them all a fair a few times because
he's focused on those areas. He was responding to the
Trump terriff and basically had given a speech earlier on
(01:18):
Thursday before he started making those phone calls saying that
he wanted the existing kind of trade agreement partners such
as the CPTPP and the EU things to kind of
start to talk, basically, to hold the line on free
trade rather than see everyone starting to retaliate to Trump's
(01:40):
tariffs and breaking all though usual kind of standards of
free trade agreements and stuff like that. He wanted to
kind of get in early on that. And Winston Peters
had taken off on his trip around the pacifica bit.
He had also been to DC ahead of the terrorist
announcements being made to try and kind of protect New
Zealand's position and those, and he voiced some surprise in
(02:05):
quite blunt terms actually that Christoph Luxen should have held
held as fire and just sat there and waited to
see what ended up happening under Trump and everything like that,
and hadn't given him a call to talk to him
about it. And he was the one with the experience
and stuff like that. So it's quite unusual a that
(02:26):
Winston Peters would publicly call Christopher Luxen out about that
and expect Christopher Luxen to kind of take his lead
rather than vice versa when he was dealing at the
leadership level. And also that Christoph Luxen had't hadn't given
Winston Peters their heads up or had a chat to
him before he had given that speech and called those leaders.
(02:50):
Christopher Lutson would of course, he's been thinking of it
in the trade capacity. He did have Todd McLay on hand,
who is the actual trade minister. But at courtesy, a
courtesy might have merited giving Winston a quick call.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
A little courtesy on both sides. Maybe now we're talking
about alcohol again and public holidays. What's going on here?
Speaker 4 (03:13):
Ah? This was just a little thing that didn't actually
get that much notice because it happened in the dead
of night and and other things were happening, such as
the Winston Peters Christopher Lutson contamp and Donald Trump's daily
dawn announcements on what tariffs would be, what tariffs we're
(03:34):
going where it was Kiaren McNulty's Little Members Bill, which
is a bill a normal MP takes and they all
vote on it, and his proposal it is around the
kind of easter well not really trading laws, but in
that area there's restrictions on what pubs and restaurants and
(03:54):
stuff can and can't do on all the Easter and
antique days and Christmases and all that kind of stuff,
and it keeps coming up for votes and members bills
and the like, and they always lose for various reasons.
And this time around he's gone for a more precision approach,
which is, at the moment, you have to buy a
meal to be able to have a beer or a
(04:17):
wine on those particular days. The rules differ from day
to day, depending what time of day and all that
kind of parlava. And he decided it's ridiculous that you
can go into a pub and buy a beer on
the Thursday before Easter, but you can't on Good Friday,
and then you can on Saturday, and then you can't
again on Sunday and all that kind of stuff. So
(04:38):
he's proposed that they just streamline those rules basically and
let pubs sell beers in the old day of the year,
regardless of whether it's those days anyway. The notable thing
is that this one actually passed its first reading by
sixty seven votes. It's a conscience vote, which means or
a personal vote which means their MP's votes according to
(05:00):
how they feel. They're quite often derailed by party politics.
I think that Act Party had a similar bill up
recently in that loss because all of Labor and Pas
voted against it this time around, and the National Party
vote was quite split. The cons more conservative end MPs
voted against the bill, whereas quite a few of them
(05:23):
voted for it, and that has now gone through to
Select committee. So it's not a massive overhaul of the
easter laws. It's a kind of small tweak which has
kind of been sold as making it a lot easier
for businesses. The hospitality industry have kind of welcomed it
because they don't have to change rules. There was some
concern from the Greens, who voted against it by and
(05:45):
large because they thought it would mean that, you know,
more workers would have to work on those days now,
because they'd have to staff the pubs more for people
who are only going in to have a bear and
all that kind of pilava. There were a lot of confessions.
I went back and had a quick skimmer that first
reading speeches, starting with Kieren mcinnulty. A lot of people
(06:05):
who were so that they were Catholic, but they were
not very good Catholics, and nonetheless pointing to the kind
of oddity of the rule and that the Bible doesn't
exactly ban having a beer on east of Friday or Sunday.
So the usual arguments arise. I raised it mainly because
(06:26):
it was it has actually made it for its first reading.
It has become unusual. So there you go, there we go.
It won't be it won't It won't happen in time
for this Easter. All your listeners out there, one time
to run down and have a beer alone on Good Friday.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
You'll still need to buy that meal. And look just quickly,
David Parker has resigned from Parliament.
Speaker 4 (06:47):
Yeah, well he's about to. Yeah, he's announced that he's
stepping down. Not not a massive surprise, but he has
had a long, a long career and there he first
came in in two thousand and two and he announced
that he was pretty much done and it's been Yeah,
he's one of they're more I guess stalwart guys. I've
(07:11):
always seen him as a little bit of a geminy
cricket for labor and that he's how it consistently held
the line around tax in particular, he's long been a
promoter of something along the lines of a wealth tax
or a capital gains tax. He thinks the tax system
is unfair and puts taxes every dollar basically that lower
(07:32):
and middle income New Zealanders get, whereas wealthy and New
Zealanders don't have a lot of their wealth kind of text.
He was kind of behind the wealth tax proposal that
Labor was initially running on before the last campaign. He
has said that that's not the reason he's leaving. He's
(07:52):
more or less just done his term and has kind
of done everything he wants to do in both his
foreign affairs portfolios. He's kind of on the same line
as Christopher Luxon on that at the moment, but that's
by the bye and that the text has nothing to
do with it, and he's quite happy with Labour's current
relook at the tax stuff. But yeah, it's a bit
(08:15):
I mean, yeah, I've kind of been there for a
lot of his career. He's a very considered and thoughtful
politician actually and quite measured. It's a what's the word
coincidental time come think of the word for him to
be going as well, because he was the trade minister
(08:35):
when the country signed up to the CPTPP. So before
he announced his resignation, he'd made some comments about that
kind of the trade area and foreign affairs and stuff
like that. And he'll be stepping down I think in
early May now, just ahead of the budget.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
And look clear somebody else.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
Along and quite respected politician, as has your career been
with the New Zealand Herald, and you were leaving us
on Tuesday, and I just want to say thank you
very much to you for all your contribution to us
here on the Sunday Session.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
It's always a pleasure to talk to you.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
Claire boost to Luck, thank you, thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
For more from the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to News Talks it Be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
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