October 26, 2024 • 10 mins
Leaders from around the world gathered this week in Samoa for the Commonwealth Head of Government Meeting.
Our own Prime Minister had the chance to meet the King and Queen in person and was full of praise for Queen Camilla after sitting beside her at a gala dinner to mark the end of the meeting.
Luxon also announced the New Zealand Government will contribute $20 million for the Pacific Resilience Facility, to help the Pacific prepare for natural disasters and support resilience against climate change.
Newstalk ZB's Political Editor Jason Wall joins Tim Beveridge with more.
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
You're listening to the weekend collective podcast from News Talk
zed B.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Chicken, wasn't he anyway? Leaders from around the world gathered
in some more for the Comonworth heads of government meeting.
Our own Prime Minister, Christoph Luxen had the chance to
meet the King and Queen in person, was full of
praise for Queen Camilla after sitting beside her at a
gala dinner. To mark the end of the meeting, Christopher
Luxon also announced the New Zealand government will contribute twenty
million dollars for the Pacific Resilience Facility to help the
(00:32):
Pacific prepare for natural disasters and support resilience against climate change. Anyway,
over there. Jason Walls is zedb's political editor and he
spent some time at Chogham this week and he joins
me now, Jason, good afternoon.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Good afternoon. It's a horrible acronym, isn't it Chogham. It
sounds like it's not like a cat would throw it.
I've never been a fan of it.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Sounds like I've a reflex, doesn't it.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Yeah? Sugum, Yeah, not a fan.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Where are you at the moment.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
I'm back in Wellington. We've got back from Samoa. We
got back late last night and we flew up via
Auckland and then back down to Wellington. So I've been
back for about a day now and I was gonna
say already missing the Samo and son. But it was
rainy for basically the whole time that we were there.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Overall had a little guy.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Oh, you know, pretty much as expected. I mean, these
things are very choreographed and they're always going to go
exactly as planned because they planned down to the moment
and the detail that it happens. I mean, the Prime
Minister met with the King, which was probably the highlight
of the trip, who he said was very charming, very
hospitable and had a deep, deep knowledge of New Zealand.
(01:38):
And then he says, you said, he sat next to
Camilla as well, where the pair of them spoke again
about New Zealand and how much they loved it, and
he said the Prime Minister said, you know, of course,
we would love to have the pair of them in
New Zealand. It just is a question about his health.
So I doubt we'll get to see him anytime soon,
given the health journey that he's on. But the rest
of the trip yeah, as I said, quite formulaic. They
(02:01):
came armed with an announcement that was that twenty million
dollars fund to help attract private and public capital to
do a climate resilience fund. So there was that that
they announced. The Prime Minister, our deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters,
was speaking about this, said that this has been in
the train for quite some time and it wasn't actually
(02:21):
the King in his speech that urged more unity and
more action on climate. He said that New Zealand have
already had this in the can.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Oh what the the twenty million was in the can?
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Was it?
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Yeah, they've been planning this for quite some time. So
it wasn't exactly the King's word that spurred them into action,
but they said that you know, every little bit helps
or something around about those lines.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
How big a deal is it that Charles was there?
What was your take on? Did you see him in
the in the flesh or get to stay high or
were you are at the distance I was?
Speaker 3 (02:49):
I didn't, So these things are. There was sixty media
alone that were with the British contingent, and then you've
got people from all the other fifty six countries as well.
So they have to what we call is a media
pool where a few of us go and they share
the footage or the or the the photos with the
rest of us. So unfortunately, as a radio reporter and
a going and writing for the Herald, I wasn't in
(03:11):
any of the pools. But to be honest, that was
fine because you wait around for about five or six
hours for something to happened, and then it eventually goes
over time and had they had to hire out a
whole cruise ship because there were just not enough hotel
rooms left in Samoa. So it just meant that I
got to hang out on the cruise ship for the morning.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Poor thing.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Yeah, I know, being a journalist is so hard.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Tell me why should Why should I care or we
care about Chogham, Because if I was to be cynical,
I think for a lot of people, what they see
is a few smiling politicians during the group photo, a
few platitudes being mumbled, a bit of money handed out
and let's all go home.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Oh mate, you're asking the wrong person. I'm in the
same boat with you. I was at Chogham and I
still can't work out why it's important. I mean, you know,
it's it's one of those things where they all come together,
they discuss things, they come out with their communicate about
the oceans, and then they all go there separate ways.
So most people it means absolutely nothing. But I guess
the one thing I will say for it, and it
is probably becoming more important these days, is there's just
(04:12):
more of a forum for politicians to kind of have
what's called a pulicide where they are both at the
same event and they kind of meet each other on
the sidelines, as the Prime Minister did with serki Istarma.
So the rest of it, you know, it's quite cosmetic.
It doesn't really change much. I mean, then the Ocean's
agreement isn't going to do anything. No, it wasn't going
to be done anyway, but it's just yeah, it's a
(04:34):
good place for them to meet.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
What's the most significant meeting then that Luxon would have
been looking forward to, like okay, you're going over to chogging,
but his eyes would have been like, right, this is
the one where you really it's going to be important,
I would guess Kiostarma.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Oh yeah. In terms of bilateral meetings, it was absolutely
I mean I can't even remember the other ones that
he did, they weren't really that significant at all. I mean,
he did say that he had breakfast with the I
think it was the Prime Minister of Singapore and a
few others that I mean, it is quite important for
New Zealand. Singapore is a big trading hub and of
course New Zealand needs good relations with Singapore. I mean,
(05:06):
outside of course the meeting with the King, which is
obviously the highlight. The finlatteral one so Kiyo Starma. Even then,
they didn't really it doesn't sound like they talked about
anything that was that substantial. They have this thing where
they send out a bit of a redoubt of what
they talked about, and they both talked about the domestic
agenda and the conflict in the Middle East and the
conflict in Ukraine and various other things. So there's no
(05:28):
substance to what they talked about, and there was no announcibles.
I'm sure they got into the details and some interesting stuff.
It's just that what they told us that they talked
about was very, very very surface level.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Any sort of any talk about the Manoau. He's just
sitting off the coast there under underwater.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
Yeah, well, I mean it was always going to be
quite a big topic of conversation, just given the fact
that there is a shipwreck off on the coast of
Samoa that is New Zealand's fault, and he basically said
that it's not as bad as it could have been.
The pollution has been mitigated. It's not spilling oil that
has had been foreseen at the beginning. There's not two
(06:05):
hundred thousand liters of diesel flowing out into the samo
And Ocean. In fact, the environmental impacts had been very mitigated,
and of course there was no loss of life. So
you know, it sounds a bit weird, but as far
as shipwrecks go, this is probably one of the better
ones in terms of the damage that came afterwards. So
that was what the Prime Minister was saying, and it
was now looking towards the next step in terms of
(06:25):
how to make sure that the wreck is salvaged in
an environmentally sustainable way.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
How was the reaction to the announcement of that twenty
million dollars was specifically, it's happy with that.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
Yeah, I mean it made about an hour before we
left Samoa, so it meant that we didn't really get
to gauge anybody's reaction to it. But we do know
that the US have already stomped up with about forty
million New Zealand dollars and the Australians have come forward
with one hundred million, and interesting, Saudi Arabia is the
fourth partner, and that at the stage it's New Zealand,
Australia and the US and Saudi Arabia, which is an interesting,
(07:03):
interesting grouping of country them well, for Saudi Arabia, yeah,
that's probably why they did it, but it's in terms
of what happens next. I mean, Chris Luxon and Winston
Peters are really encouraging other countries to get involved because
you know, in terms of these initiatives, you can just
throw money at a problem and it can be hundreds
of millions of dollars to set something up or have
(07:25):
a group investigate something. But something a little bit more
long lasting as a fund like this, where you would
try to attract public and private capital and a way
to they can actually be free to investigate various different
projects themselves rather than to be tied down by a
government initiative. So I think it probably might have some
legs and to be honest, twenty million dollars isn't going
(07:45):
to break the bank for New Zealand. It's not a
massive sum of money in the scheme of things.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Yeah, did we get anything in particular out of it
that we go hooray? That's been a great trip.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
You know, it's one of those meet and Greek trips.
You know, there was nothing in it that I think
specifically New Zealanders are going to sit back and say
so glad that the Prime Minister was at Shogum and
Samoa this week because my food prices are going to
be X amount of dollars less expensive, nothing like that.
They're very high level, they're very diplomatic. But I think
that you know, it did wonders for our diplomatic relationship
(08:20):
with Samore, for example, because New Zealand said about sent
about five hundred defense force and police another sort of
personnel over to make sure that the event ran smoothly,
and the event did run relatively smoothly. I mean, I'm
not hearing any complaints. I think everything ran quite well,
so I think that that was probably a big bonus.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Yeah, what was the name of the ship that you
were on? The cruise ship that they put you up on.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
It was a p and O cruise line. I can't
remember the name.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
That something wasn't it.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
Yeah, it's almost at the end of its life. It's
got one more trip and then it's being scrapped. So
I was quite tempted to find someone and carved my
name into it.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Actually, just one last sort of molddly trivial question. So
we get the images on the news, What would be
more interesting if I was over there? Would I have
more fun observing the goings on with the heads of
government or would it be more interesting actually looking at
the hordes of media and how they conduct themselves.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Mate, I made specific points to not be anywhere near
the other media. There is absolutely no way that I'm
going to be anywhere near a press pack of Australian
and UK media together. I mean, it would just be
probably one of the most feral places in the world,
because you remember some of the UK media when they
(09:33):
came to New Zealand for the Royal tour, and some
of the stories that you hear from some of the
photographers here and the journalists covering the trip just about
their behavior is absolutely rancid. So I was glad to
not be anywhere near them.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
To be honest, maybe we can turn that into a
headline and talks news talks, it'd be Jason Walls describes
Australian and English media as rancid and ferle.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
I didn't say feral, I just said rancid that I think.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
I heard far earlier. Anyway, Hey, I appreciate your time.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
Thanks very much, Thanks mate, a good weekend.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
There we go, Jason Walls. I'm pretty sure he said fair.
Oh that would be a fun headline, wouldn't it. But
I did, I just did get that question. With all
the media around that maybe that would be the most interesting,
would be to be watching the watchers in a way.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
For more from the Weekend Collective, listen live to News
Talk said Be weekends from three pm, or follow the
podcast on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the weekend collective podcast from News Talk
zed B.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Chicken, wasn't he anyway? Leaders from around the world gathered
in some more for the Comonworth heads of government meeting.
Our own Prime Minister, Christoph Luxen had the chance to
meet the King and Queen in person, was full of
praise for Queen Camilla after sitting beside her at a
gala dinner. To mark the end of the meeting, Christopher
Luxon also announced the New Zealand government will contribute twenty
million dollars for the Pacific Resilience Facility to help the
(00:32):
Pacific prepare for natural disasters and support resilience against climate change. Anyway,
over there. Jason Walls is zedb's political editor and he
spent some time at Chogham this week and he joins
me now, Jason, good afternoon.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Good afternoon. It's a horrible acronym, isn't it Chogham. It
sounds like it's not like a cat would throw it.
I've never been a fan of it.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Sounds like I've a reflex, doesn't it.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Yeah? Sugum, Yeah, not a fan.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Where are you at the moment.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
I'm back in Wellington. We've got back from Samoa. We
got back late last night and we flew up via
Auckland and then back down to Wellington. So I've been
back for about a day now and I was gonna
say already missing the Samo and son. But it was
rainy for basically the whole time that we were there.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Overall had a little guy.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Oh, you know, pretty much as expected. I mean, these
things are very choreographed and they're always going to go
exactly as planned because they planned down to the moment
and the detail that it happens. I mean, the Prime
Minister met with the King, which was probably the highlight
of the trip, who he said was very charming, very
hospitable and had a deep, deep knowledge of New Zealand.
(01:38):
And then he says, you said, he sat next to
Camilla as well, where the pair of them spoke again
about New Zealand and how much they loved it, and
he said the Prime Minister said, you know, of course,
we would love to have the pair of them in
New Zealand. It just is a question about his health.
So I doubt we'll get to see him anytime soon,
given the health journey that he's on. But the rest
of the trip yeah, as I said, quite formulaic. They
(02:01):
came armed with an announcement that was that twenty million
dollars fund to help attract private and public capital to
do a climate resilience fund. So there was that that
they announced. The Prime Minister, our deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters,
was speaking about this, said that this has been in
the train for quite some time and it wasn't actually
(02:21):
the King in his speech that urged more unity and
more action on climate. He said that New Zealand have
already had this in the can.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Oh what the the twenty million was in the can?
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Was it?
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Yeah, they've been planning this for quite some time. So
it wasn't exactly the King's word that spurred them into action,
but they said that you know, every little bit helps
or something around about those lines.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
How big a deal is it that Charles was there?
What was your take on? Did you see him in
the in the flesh or get to stay high or
were you are at the distance I was?
Speaker 3 (02:49):
I didn't, So these things are. There was sixty media
alone that were with the British contingent, and then you've
got people from all the other fifty six countries as well.
So they have to what we call is a media
pool where a few of us go and they share
the footage or the or the the photos with the
rest of us. So unfortunately, as a radio reporter and
a going and writing for the Herald, I wasn't in
(03:11):
any of the pools. But to be honest, that was
fine because you wait around for about five or six
hours for something to happened, and then it eventually goes
over time and had they had to hire out a
whole cruise ship because there were just not enough hotel
rooms left in Samoa. So it just meant that I
got to hang out on the cruise ship for the morning.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Poor thing.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Yeah, I know, being a journalist is so hard.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Tell me why should Why should I care or we
care about Chogham, Because if I was to be cynical,
I think for a lot of people, what they see
is a few smiling politicians during the group photo, a
few platitudes being mumbled, a bit of money handed out
and let's all go home.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Oh mate, you're asking the wrong person. I'm in the
same boat with you. I was at Chogham and I
still can't work out why it's important. I mean, you know,
it's it's one of those things where they all come together,
they discuss things, they come out with their communicate about
the oceans, and then they all go there separate ways.
So most people it means absolutely nothing. But I guess
the one thing I will say for it, and it
is probably becoming more important these days, is there's just
(04:12):
more of a forum for politicians to kind of have
what's called a pulicide where they are both at the
same event and they kind of meet each other on
the sidelines, as the Prime Minister did with serki Istarma.
So the rest of it, you know, it's quite cosmetic.
It doesn't really change much. I mean, then the Ocean's
agreement isn't going to do anything. No, it wasn't going
to be done anyway, but it's just yeah, it's a
(04:34):
good place for them to meet.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
What's the most significant meeting then that Luxon would have
been looking forward to, like okay, you're going over to chogging,
but his eyes would have been like, right, this is
the one where you really it's going to be important,
I would guess Kiostarma.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Oh yeah. In terms of bilateral meetings, it was absolutely
I mean I can't even remember the other ones that
he did, they weren't really that significant at all. I mean,
he did say that he had breakfast with the I
think it was the Prime Minister of Singapore and a
few others that I mean, it is quite important for
New Zealand. Singapore is a big trading hub and of
course New Zealand needs good relations with Singapore. I mean,
(05:06):
outside of course the meeting with the King, which is
obviously the highlight. The finlatteral one so Kiyo Starma. Even then,
they didn't really it doesn't sound like they talked about
anything that was that substantial. They have this thing where
they send out a bit of a redoubt of what
they talked about, and they both talked about the domestic
agenda and the conflict in the Middle East and the
conflict in Ukraine and various other things. So there's no
(05:28):
substance to what they talked about, and there was no announcibles.
I'm sure they got into the details and some interesting stuff.
It's just that what they told us that they talked
about was very, very very surface level.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Any sort of any talk about the Manoau. He's just
sitting off the coast there under underwater.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
Yeah, well, I mean it was always going to be
quite a big topic of conversation, just given the fact
that there is a shipwreck off on the coast of
Samoa that is New Zealand's fault, and he basically said
that it's not as bad as it could have been.
The pollution has been mitigated. It's not spilling oil that
has had been foreseen at the beginning. There's not two
(06:05):
hundred thousand liters of diesel flowing out into the samo
And Ocean. In fact, the environmental impacts had been very mitigated,
and of course there was no loss of life. So
you know, it sounds a bit weird, but as far
as shipwrecks go, this is probably one of the better
ones in terms of the damage that came afterwards. So
that was what the Prime Minister was saying, and it
was now looking towards the next step in terms of
(06:25):
how to make sure that the wreck is salvaged in
an environmentally sustainable way.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
How was the reaction to the announcement of that twenty
million dollars was specifically, it's happy with that.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
Yeah, I mean it made about an hour before we
left Samoa, so it meant that we didn't really get
to gauge anybody's reaction to it. But we do know
that the US have already stomped up with about forty
million New Zealand dollars and the Australians have come forward
with one hundred million, and interesting, Saudi Arabia is the
fourth partner, and that at the stage it's New Zealand,
Australia and the US and Saudi Arabia, which is an interesting,
(07:03):
interesting grouping of country them well, for Saudi Arabia, yeah,
that's probably why they did it, but it's in terms
of what happens next. I mean, Chris Luxon and Winston
Peters are really encouraging other countries to get involved because
you know, in terms of these initiatives, you can just
throw money at a problem and it can be hundreds
of millions of dollars to set something up or have
(07:25):
a group investigate something. But something a little bit more
long lasting as a fund like this, where you would
try to attract public and private capital and a way
to they can actually be free to investigate various different
projects themselves rather than to be tied down by a
government initiative. So I think it probably might have some
legs and to be honest, twenty million dollars isn't going
(07:45):
to break the bank for New Zealand. It's not a
massive sum of money in the scheme of things.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Yeah, did we get anything in particular out of it
that we go hooray? That's been a great trip.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
You know, it's one of those meet and Greek trips.
You know, there was nothing in it that I think
specifically New Zealanders are going to sit back and say
so glad that the Prime Minister was at Shogum and
Samoa this week because my food prices are going to
be X amount of dollars less expensive, nothing like that.
They're very high level, they're very diplomatic. But I think
that you know, it did wonders for our diplomatic relationship
(08:20):
with Samore, for example, because New Zealand said about sent
about five hundred defense force and police another sort of
personnel over to make sure that the event ran smoothly,
and the event did run relatively smoothly. I mean, I'm
not hearing any complaints. I think everything ran quite well,
so I think that that was probably a big bonus.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Yeah, what was the name of the ship that you
were on? The cruise ship that they put you up on.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
It was a p and O cruise line. I can't
remember the name.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
That something wasn't it.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
Yeah, it's almost at the end of its life. It's
got one more trip and then it's being scrapped. So
I was quite tempted to find someone and carved my
name into it.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Actually, just one last sort of molddly trivial question. So
we get the images on the news, What would be
more interesting if I was over there? Would I have
more fun observing the goings on with the heads of
government or would it be more interesting actually looking at
the hordes of media and how they conduct themselves.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Mate, I made specific points to not be anywhere near
the other media. There is absolutely no way that I'm
going to be anywhere near a press pack of Australian
and UK media together. I mean, it would just be
probably one of the most feral places in the world,
because you remember some of the UK media when they
(09:33):
came to New Zealand for the Royal tour, and some
of the stories that you hear from some of the
photographers here and the journalists covering the trip just about
their behavior is absolutely rancid. So I was glad to
not be anywhere near them.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
To be honest, maybe we can turn that into a
headline and talks news talks, it'd be Jason Walls describes
Australian and English media as rancid and ferle.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
I didn't say feral, I just said rancid that I think.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
I heard far earlier. Anyway, Hey, I appreciate your time.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
Thanks very much, Thanks mate, a good weekend.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
There we go, Jason Walls. I'm pretty sure he said fair.
Oh that would be a fun headline, wouldn't it. But
I did, I just did get that question. With all
the media around that maybe that would be the most interesting,
would be to be watching the watchers in a way.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
For more from the Weekend Collective, listen live to News
Talk said Be weekends from three pm, or follow the
podcast on iHeartRadio.
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