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Speaker 1: I want to talk about the times when the media

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Speaker 1: and the academia are their worst enemy. This weekend, Sunday

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Speaker 1: Star Times published a think piece of why Christopher Luxon

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Speaker 1: is not popular and he's not as popular as possibly

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Speaker 1: he should be. Yesterday's poll showed that Chris and the

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Speaker 1: Sorry Christopher and the National Party should be better actors

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Speaker 1: mopping up the Conservatives. Unhappy with Nashville anyway, So the

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Speaker 1: Sunday Star Times interviewed UNI professors and their typewriters, and

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Speaker 1: the article came up with answers like no one likes

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Speaker 1: anyone who demands to be called Christopher, and one professor

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Speaker 1: even speculated that New Zealanders have a funny attitude towards

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Speaker 1: bald people. Apparently we don't like them. Could someone tell

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Speaker 1: Monty beat them that. I thought the Sunday Star Times

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Speaker 1: were plucking at straws there and the Nationals and Luxeon's

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Speaker 1: lack of popularity, I can tell you why it's called

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Speaker 1: the economy stupid. That's what everything is about. These are

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Speaker 1: tough times. We always blame the sitting government no matter

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Speaker 1: what they inherited. But I would add that mister Luxon

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Speaker 1: has not made it easy for him when he inherited

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Speaker 1: our damaged economy. The Reserve Bank was already acting on

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Speaker 1: inflation through interest rate hikes. That is the most effective lever.

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Speaker 1: Squeezing private debt in the economy is the fastest thing

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Speaker 1: way to slow things down. Private debts huge, much bigger

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Speaker 1: than government debt, so that works. But the National Coalition

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Speaker 1: then came in and kept on with their cost of

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Speaker 1: living crisis solution, which was tax cuts and government spending

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Speaker 1: crackdowns and layoffs. So what we had was our country

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Speaker 1: having a two pronged attack on inflation, cost of living,

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Speaker 1: and the economy. None of the solutions made life better

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Speaker 1: in the short term. It has made everything worse. So

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Speaker 1: all the people who are collateral damage believe this government

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Speaker 1: are monsters, and all the people not affected who can

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Speaker 1: see how this austerity, perhaps austerity overkill, will be good

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Speaker 1: for the economy and the country in the medium and

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Speaker 1: long term, they'll be thinking mister Luxon and his team

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Speaker 1: are heroes. So here's the thing. The government will be

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Speaker 1: hoping that by the time the only poll that counts

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Speaker 1: comes round in twenty twenty sixty election, that more voters

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Speaker 1: will view them as heroes and not as Monsters. For

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Speaker 1: more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, Listen live to

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