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Speaker 1: Off to the northern hemisphere. We go Gavin Gray from

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Speaker 1: the UK. Hello Gevin either Andrew, how's is it cold?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well last night was cold and people still suffering,

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Speaker 2: I'm afraid from the storm of last week, very heavy

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Speaker 2: rains and so forth. But yeah, not too bad. It

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Speaker 2: doesn't look at the moment in the long term forecast

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Speaker 2: like a white Christmas.

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Speaker 1: However, no, this is true, but there are floods in Spain,

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Speaker 1: and of course there is snow on the Alps, and

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Speaker 1: everyone's getting quite excited about this. Let's get down to business.

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Speaker 1: The French Prime Minister Michel Beagnier faces a no confidence

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Speaker 1: vote today. This was, of course, after everything we're on

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Speaker 1: hold during the Paris Olympics. But it's all full born.

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Speaker 2: Now, yes, it's sure is and Michele Barnier and indeed

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Speaker 2: the French government facing I think a very very important

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Speaker 2: day for French politics. Plenty of people believing that the

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Speaker 2: political spectrum could enter a period that we've never seen

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Speaker 2: before in France. So what has happened, of course, is

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Speaker 2: that back in the day, as it were, Emmanuel Macron

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Speaker 2: called an election. He thought he would strengthen his party.

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Speaker 2: Instead it led to a really bad cobbled together coalition

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Speaker 2: party and then he put in place the president that

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Speaker 2: put in place the Prime Minister Michelle Barnier to try

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Speaker 2: and sort things out. Now, Michelle Barnier put before politicians

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Speaker 2: this really tough cost cutting, tax rising budget. Unsurprisingly, people

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Speaker 2: and the politicians don't like it. They keep voting it down.

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Speaker 2: He has then said, well, I'm just going to push

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Speaker 2: it through, which he did using special powers. And now

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Speaker 2: today they're holding a vote of no confidence in him,

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Speaker 2: in which both the far right and the left wing

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Speaker 2: parties are uniting to vote against him. So he is

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Speaker 2: set to become the shortest reigning prime minister in the

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Speaker 2: fifth Republic of France's history, just three months. He says,

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Speaker 2: there is no better way forward. We have to do

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Speaker 2: these things. They're unpleasant, but we've got to cut costs.

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Speaker 2: Others are saying, well, not on my watch.

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Speaker 1: No, No, has anything ever happened that was good. After

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Speaker 1: someone's used special powers to push through an attractive legislation,

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Speaker 1: It's very autocratic, isn't it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it seemed an odd thing, but he felt forced

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Speaker 2: to do it. He kept having to water it down

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Speaker 2: so that people would agree to vote for it. But

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Speaker 2: in the end, he just couldn't water it down anymore,

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Speaker 2: so it wasn't worth it. And he pleaded on television

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Speaker 2: last night, to our time last night to say to people, look,

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Speaker 2: you know, this will plunge the country into crisis because

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Speaker 2: a general election cannot be held until July, which means

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Speaker 2: the parties are just going to have to muddle along

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Speaker 2: for that period and that is where the stock exchanges

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Speaker 2: have taken fright as well in France.

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Speaker 1: French are quite good at muddling. But anyway, years okay,

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Speaker 1: thank you very much. Right, you've got a COVID corruption commissioner.

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Speaker 2: Yes, and the staffing work and this is all about

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Speaker 2: how much PPE personal protective equipment was ordered for health

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Speaker 2: workers during COVID and it was an amazing amount. Some

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Speaker 2: eighteen billion New Zealand dollars worth of PPE was bought

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Speaker 2: during the pandemic that now has had to be written

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Speaker 2: off from the government's books. Now there are reports that

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Speaker 2: some of it didn't meet the standards, some of it

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Speaker 2: fell apart, some of it was ordered the wrong way,

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Speaker 2: it's alleged, and today we're now finding out this COVID

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Speaker 2: corruption Minister Tim Haho is going to look at that

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Speaker 2: amount that was written off in the government books and

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Speaker 2: also likely to review the previous government's abandoning of attempts

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Speaker 2: to reclaim the money from deals that were said to

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Speaker 2: be worth at least one point four billion New Zealand

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Speaker 2: dollars and the government simply let the trails go cold

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Speaker 2: because it was felt many people were deliberately trying to

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Speaker 2: rip off the taxpayer. There is a separate investigation with

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Speaker 2: criminal offenses potentially at stake committed in the procurement system.

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Speaker 2: Of course, in truth Andrew it was chaotic. One wanted ppe.

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Speaker 2: People were just trying to get it from anywhere, and

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Speaker 2: people were offering it as having never made any PPE before.

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Speaker 2: And this is this what this new COVID Corruption Commissioner

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Speaker 2: is going to have to wait through.

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Speaker 1: What I found amazing is that in fact, sitting members

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Speaker 1: of the House of Parliament were also trying to get

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Speaker 1: into the record, you know, and I thought, what are

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Speaker 1: you doing there, boy?

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Speaker 2: You know, yeah, yeah, there's some lots of oddities, including

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Speaker 2: a fast lane, a fast track lane of vip lane

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Speaker 2: as it was called for certain companies. Well you know,

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Speaker 2: why were they allowed to bed you know, extra fast?

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Speaker 2: And of course the answer as well, sometimes allegedly friends

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Speaker 2: of friends and sometimes because yeah, the government was just desperate.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, now how's quin Camilla.

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Speaker 2: Not well? So the Kataris have had a state visit

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Speaker 2: here to the UK. The red carpet has been rolled

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Speaker 2: out quite literally. I visited the House of Parliament for

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Speaker 2: the emmett and also a state bank quit and on

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Speaker 2: show was the King and Prince William and Princess Catherine.

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Speaker 2: So Princess Catherine's first state visit since sending her chemotherapy,

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Speaker 2: but no sign of the Queen. She apparently has taken

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Speaker 2: part of the state visit, but not having taken part

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Speaker 2: in any event that's outside. We're now being told her

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Speaker 2: chest infection, which she's had for several weeks and was

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Speaker 2: told it would be over in a couple of days,

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Speaker 2: that's been off for several weeks but has transformed and

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Speaker 2: she's struggling with the side effects of a form of pneumonia.

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Speaker 2: And that's the first time the seventy seven year old

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Speaker 2: has had the word pneumonia described about her from the

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Speaker 2: press officers, and so it does look a little bit

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Speaker 2: more serious than perhaps we were all being told.

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Speaker 1: Yes, we still don't know what happened to Princess Kate.

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Speaker 1: But we do know she's back.

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Speaker 2: Yes, and many people delight it, of course to see

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Speaker 2: that it might make mark a full return now to

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Speaker 2: Ryle duty for her, and she was remarkably good. I

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Speaker 2: think you know, those sorts of things you never potentially

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Speaker 2: quite recover from. But doing it in the full face

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Speaker 2: and glare at the media is going to be tough.

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Speaker 2: And of course yes, all eyes were on rather than

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Speaker 2: anyone from Qatar or the king himself, just to see

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Speaker 2: how she was looking.

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Speaker 1: Brilliant stuff. Kevin Grave from the UK, I thank you

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Speaker 1: for your time.

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