Speaker 1: Hilda. I'm Chelsea Daniels and This is the Front Page,
Speaker 1: a daily podcast presented by The New Zealand Herald. While
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four may not have brought the shocks of cyclones,
Speaker 1: prime ministerial resignations or election campaigns, there's a lot to
Speaker 1: digest from the last year. The government delivered tax relief,
Speaker 1: gang crackdowns and a fast Track bill while dealing with
Speaker 1: controversy over Maulti relations, smoking laws and apartment entitlements. Tibatti
Speaker 1: Maldi led the fight against the Treaty Principal's Bill, while
Speaker 1: Labor began to rebuild from its election loss and the
Speaker 1: Greens contended with rogue MPs and personal tragedy. Inflation started
Speaker 1: to fall, but a tough economy saw thousands loose their jobs,
Speaker 1: including the end of iconic news brands, Maulti dam farewell
Speaker 1: a King and welcomed a new Queen, while the British
Speaker 1: monarchy was dealt a double cancer below. Globally, conflict continued
Speaker 1: across Ukraine and Gaza, while the year of elections delivered
Speaker 1: a new PM for the UK and an old president
Speaker 1: for the US, and fans around the world found time
Speaker 1: to hold space for brat Summer Wicked, the Menendez Brothers
Speaker 1: and the Errors Tour. Today on the front page for
Speaker 1: our final episode of twenty twenty four, we're discussing all
Speaker 1: the highs and lows of the year with Coast host
Speaker 1: Lorna Riley and Enzied Herald business editor at Lange, Liam Dan.
Speaker 1: Let's start with politics. One year in and the Coalition
Speaker 1: government has achieved a lot, but it doesn't feel like
Speaker 1: their successes have cut through their more controversial policies. Hey,
Speaker 1: and we've seen multiple polls show doing a pretty even
Speaker 1: split between the two sides. Lorna, what are you hearing
Speaker 1: from callers? Are people liking this government?
Speaker 2: I think the consensus is that they are achieving a
Speaker 2: number of things, but they seem to be things that
Speaker 2: nobody asked for. Cell phone bans and schools, for example.
Speaker 2: I know they say there was a great call from
Speaker 2: schools and children apparently, but it seems to be not
Speaker 2: that way at all. My daughter is using her phone
Speaker 2: at school. They're all doing it undercover. It's all the
Speaker 2: book camps. I probably don't need to go into details
Speaker 2: about those. Nobody really asked for those, and they don't
Speaker 2: necessarily seem to be working raising speed limits on certain roads. Again,
Speaker 2: I don't recall great lobbying for that, changing Waka Kotahi
Speaker 2: New Zealand Transport Agency to New Zealand Transport Agency.
Speaker 1: Work them around.
Speaker 2: I don't think that was necessarily a priority. All these things.
Speaker 2: They've been in doing all these things, but nobody really
Speaker 2: asked for them. And I'm pretty sure nobody asked for
Speaker 2: one point four billion dollars to be from our health sector.
Speaker 2: But nevertheless, here we are. So they've certainly been busy.
Speaker 2: I'll give them that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Liam, do you reckon? They've been busy.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Look, I agree with Lorna. I think they've been
Speaker 3: chipping away incrementally at some pretty important things for the economy.
Speaker 3: So business will say great, there's been some regulations shifted
Speaker 3: around to make doing business a bit easier. They've been,
Speaker 3: you know, getting the fiscal situation under control to some extent,
Speaker 3: but they're still getting beaten up by the right and
Speaker 3: the left on that because they're not going as far
Speaker 3: as the right would like, further than the left would like,
Speaker 3: so they kind of.
Speaker 4: Get caught there.
Speaker 3: But yeah, it's sort of it's all been overshadowed a
Speaker 3: bit by these some of those other things that Launa mentioned,
Speaker 3: policies that they've had to do for the coalition partners.
Speaker 3: I mean, the Treaty Principles bill stands out to me
Speaker 3: as one that just maybe there's a debate there, but
Speaker 3: right now New Zealand needed to come together after COVID
Speaker 3: and obviously it's sort of David Seymour thinks it works
Speaker 3: for him and his party, but you know, it just
Speaker 3: has felt like a lack of leadership probably from the
Speaker 3: top to sort of get a cohesive narrative about bringing
Speaker 3: New Zealand together. We just didn't need that division this year.
Speaker 1: Well it's unclear that that was even one of act's
Speaker 1: bottom lines. Nevertheless, it did enter the coalition agreements, and
Speaker 1: of course the big winner out of it would be
Speaker 1: David Seymour, and I bet he's going to bring it
Speaker 1: up again in twenty six.
Speaker 3: But saw of the latest polls and was he the
Speaker 3: big winner or was it actually to party Maori. You know,
Speaker 3: like ACT didn't shift that much. It looked like they'd
Speaker 3: got a little bit, he had gone up a bit,
Speaker 3: they'd taken a bit off New Zealand first, because that's
Speaker 3: sort of the space they're playing.
Speaker 4: I don't know. I think ACT.
Speaker 3: You know, that's there's plenty of things ACT could be
Speaker 3: doing to reform the economy. They're getting if you listen
Speaker 3: to the commentators that you'll read in the you know,
Speaker 3: the Business Herald from the right, there are a lot
Speaker 3: of things they'd like to be see focus on that
Speaker 3: aren't this, that are actually to do with the economy,
Speaker 3: and that's you know, really what bottom lines should be
Speaker 3: for ACT as economic stuff.
Speaker 1: Well, Liam, what are you hearing from the business community,
Speaker 1: what do they want to see from the coalition?
Speaker 3: Well, you know, because ident to get so use the
Speaker 3: word productivity this early in the part. You know, so, look,
Speaker 3: they're actually quite the mainstream business community is actually quite
Speaker 3: happy with some of the changes that have been made.
Speaker 3: Inflation is under control, whether you say, you know, Nikola Willison,
Speaker 3: Christopher Luxen claiming that you know that's that's to do
Speaker 3: with their policies working with the Reserve Bank, or whether
Speaker 3: it would have happened anyway, whatever, you know, we've got
Speaker 3: inflation under control, interest rates coming down, some of those
Speaker 3: top line economic statistics are starting to head in the
Speaker 3: right direction. But I think there is a feeling that
Speaker 3: there's a need for a bit more urgency around the
Speaker 3: kind of economic reform and change and innovation that will
Speaker 3: drive some real economic growth, because it looks pretty flat
Speaker 3: from here, there isn't much driving it.
Speaker 4: Und percent of people say you're out of time.
Speaker 5: Well I just say to you, I think I am,
Speaker 5: because I'm out and about talking to New Zealanders. I've
Speaker 5: done that right from when I've come to politics. It's
Speaker 5: been a belief system of mine. If you don't talk
Speaker 5: to the customer, to the to the public, to the people,
Speaker 5: the voters and actually find out what their concerns are,
Speaker 5: and their concerns are really play back in. It's interesting
Speaker 5: to use.
Speaker 4: That word though, Ay you just used the c word customer.
Speaker 5: Well, just because of my background of it, when you've
Speaker 5: lost in business.
Speaker 4: Do you need to ditch down on him?
Speaker 1: Just talk a little bit more normally. Prime Minister Christopher
Speaker 1: Laxon is bearing the brunt of criticism at the moment. Lorna,
Speaker 1: how would you rate his performance out of ten so far?
Speaker 2: Oh? Oh, I'd say you've got a problem. For a start,
Speaker 2: when your deputy says that you're struggling.
Speaker 1: That was unbelievable.
Speaker 2: Unbelievable, And when your deputy says that the tax cuts
Speaker 2: you put forward are unaffordable. That's problematic, although Winston did
Speaker 2: vote for them. So it's interesting that he says that.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: I'd probably give him a I think a six, maybe
Speaker 2: a six and a half. I think nobody envies him
Speaker 2: pulling together a coalition that includes Winston and David Seymour,
Speaker 2: but he hasn't shown it. I don't think any decisive leadership.
Speaker 2: He's come out with some I think fatuous statements, like
Speaker 2: he said that he said that the Crown and Marty
Speaker 2: relationship was the worst, was worse now than it was
Speaker 2: a year ago, but he blamed that on labor for
Speaker 2: their treatment of Marty. Now, that is just being blind,
Speaker 2: I think to the division that the Treaty Principals Bill
Speaker 2: has brought in. So I think that's really disingenuous on
Speaker 2: his part. And for that, yes, six and a half
Speaker 2: I think.
Speaker 4: Liam yeah somewhere around that.
Speaker 3: I mean, I do feel some sympathy for him, because
Speaker 3: you know, he's not a career politician, he's a career executive,
Speaker 3: and so he is used to things being organized around
Speaker 3: him and things, you know, generally having the team all
Speaker 3: going the same direction and he's got to deal with
Speaker 3: Winston Peters and David Seymour, who loved them or hate them,
Speaker 3: two of the savviest political operators country scene for generations,
Speaker 3: and you know, he's struggling there.
Speaker 2: So unfortunately for him though he you know, in recent memory,
Speaker 2: we've had John Key, who also was not a career politician,
Speaker 2: who came in and got stuff done. And so even
Speaker 2: though I take your points, you can't help but compare
Speaker 2: to John Keys, and it.
Speaker 4: Is a tough comparison.
Speaker 3: I think I might have talked about it before on
Speaker 3: this podcast, but you know the difference between Key, who
Speaker 3: was a trader compared to a corporate executive and a
Speaker 3: trader as a decision maker. He ended up managing people
Speaker 3: as a currency trader, but essentially he made his way
Speaker 3: by making split decisions, trusting his gart learning how to
Speaker 3: sort of make calls. I don't think Christoph Luxe is
Speaker 3: terrible at that, but he's not. Where he's not been
Speaker 3: great is probably articulating it really strong, too much corporate gobbledygook.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, the corporate speak. Actually I spoke to Christopher
Speaker 1: Luxan for that end of your chat yesterday and he
Speaker 1: was it was a surprise to him. I pointed out
Speaker 1: that he says what I what I say to you
Speaker 1: is and he said, nobody's ever told him that he
Speaker 1: says that much. Incredible, And I thought to myself, I
Speaker 1: cannot be he first, do you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: I cannot be the first person to let you know
Speaker 1: that this is yours.
Speaker 3: We talked about that in advance and I thought he
Speaker 3: said it so much now and he said it again
Speaker 3: as press as a joke that I thought what he
Speaker 3: was leaning into it to sort of make it a
Speaker 3: thing and they would be just having these discussions in
Speaker 3: the background about you know, it's a classic just Andra
Speaker 3: dun had her version is a classic way in a
Speaker 3: press conference or whatever to buy yourself seven seconds to
Speaker 3: think of an answer.
Speaker 2: Sure, you know, And that's part of but never noticed apparently.
Speaker 1: So on the other side, the opposition really isn't really capitalizing.
Speaker 1: I guess on this negativity. Was it a good year
Speaker 1: for labor greens into part Maori in a nutshell?
Speaker 2: No, I don't think so. I think in a year
Speaker 2: where they really could have made some traction, they've been
Speaker 2: relatively quiet. And I say that mainly about labor. I think, yeah,
Speaker 2: they've just been invisible.
Speaker 1: To my mind, the opposition in recent memory has just
Speaker 1: been to PARTI Mali.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, I guess because that issue has dominated so much.
Speaker 3: But you know, it's been a bit of a disaster
Speaker 3: of the year for the Greens with all sorts of
Speaker 3: personal internal issues, so that sort of put them on
Speaker 3: the back foot a bit.
Speaker 4: I guess.
Speaker 3: Chloe Swarbrick would normally be really out there attacking things,
Speaker 3: and she hasn't been as much. And you know, it
Speaker 3: isn't an election year, and look, it makes it kind
Speaker 3: of makes sense given the mood of the public that
Speaker 3: Labor's stepped back a bit, because you know, they are
Speaker 3: the party that's just been in charge, and all the
Speaker 3: inflation and the recessionary stuff. It's pretty easy to look
Speaker 3: back and say.
Speaker 2: Well, you know that was on your watch here.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, and people are pretty unhappy about it. So
Speaker 3: you've got to let a bit of time go, I think,
Speaker 3: and almost give that the new guys a chance to
Speaker 3: do things and maybe get some things wrong, and then
Speaker 3: you're away again as an opposition.
Speaker 1: Well, speaking of division, we're a month away from Trump
Speaker 1: two point zero. What do you think we can expect
Speaker 1: from the next four years from the US launa.
Speaker 2: I'm hoping more great memes like they're eating the dogs,
Speaker 2: They're eating the cat.
Speaker 1: As soon as they made that into a remixed track,
Speaker 1: I couldn't, I couldn't get out of my hand.
Speaker 2: It's my meme of the year. I know we're not
Speaker 2: talking of means of the year, but it is anyway,
Speaker 2: well interesting that you said, Liam, that you know we're
Speaker 2: looking forward to more interest rate cuts, and yet you know,
Speaker 2: some experts are predicting that with Trump and his tariffs
Speaker 2: coming in, the interest rates could actually swear here. So
Speaker 2: that is a problem for US, the hight tariffs. It
Speaker 2: may create some opportunities with other trading partners like China.
Speaker 2: So I guess we're gonna have to suck it and see.
Speaker 2: But if he brings in the tariffs, that's the thing
Speaker 2: he's promised them. But I mean, he's got a free
Speaker 2: trade agreement with Australia. How's it all going to work.
Speaker 2: I guess we just have to wait and see a
Speaker 2: little bit.
Speaker 1: And on the campaign trial his numbers were everywhere. I
Speaker 1: think he was promising fifty percent tariffs, eighty percent pariffs,
Speaker 1: like all of the percentage more.
Speaker 3: On everything, and so nobody knows. I mean, nobody knows
Speaker 3: exactly the extent, and that's the big variable. Market people
Speaker 3: are very bullish at the moment. They do think the
Speaker 3: US economy will continue to be pretty strong, which I
Speaker 3: guess implies that they don't believe he will tank the
Speaker 3: economy with tariffs. I think the expectation is that he'll
Speaker 3: do something around tax cuts and something around tariff's, but
Speaker 3: it won't be as much as he talked about on
Speaker 3: the campaign trail. Whether that's the case, who knows, You
Speaker 3: know that that's the sort of central case that the
Speaker 3: market's pricing in. I guess at this point, he's already
Speaker 3: backed down on a big one, you know, like he
Speaker 3: was going to take control of the US FED and
Speaker 3: he was going to sack Jerome Powell, fed chairman, and
Speaker 3: they asked Jerome Powell if he'd be resigning or anything
Speaker 3: like that, and Jerome Pale said nope, And can he
Speaker 3: can he be sacked?
Speaker 1: Nope?
Speaker 3: And just the other day Trump said, oh no, let him,
Speaker 3: you know, finish his term. So you know, he's pretty
Speaker 3: good at backing away from the things that people don't
Speaker 3: don't remember, like who's going to remember the exact numbers.
Speaker 4: No one these days, apparently back home.
Speaker 1: Did either of you feel much benefit from the tax
Speaker 1: cuts this year?
Speaker 2: No, no, not at all. Again, didn't ask for it,
Speaker 2: didn't really need it. Eighteen dollars a week or whatever.
Speaker 2: I don't know. I haven't even for eighteen.
Speaker 4: Teenage boys my grocery bill.
Speaker 2: You know, that's not gonna change.
Speaker 4: So it was. It wasn't a big variable. I wish that.
Speaker 3: I don't know how broke they are around things, you know,
Speaker 3: talking about things like health and.
Speaker 2: Things, and just police force.
Speaker 4: Seem worth it.
Speaker 3: I mean, I think, aren't they looking at the acc
Speaker 3: levy going up? Wasn't it just going to be like
Speaker 3: take with one you know, give one handtake with the other.
Speaker 4: Just you know.
Speaker 3: I got into a bit of trouble arguing the case
Speaker 3: over and over again, and eventually gave up the idea
Speaker 3: that they were you know, the tax cuts were inflationary,
Speaker 3: and the tax cuts weren't neutral and all that sort
Speaker 3: of stuff. That was one of the bigger arguments of
Speaker 3: the year. But I think we ended up going down
Speaker 3: a bit of a rabbit hole of economics talk about
Speaker 3: whether or not you could define them as fiscally neutral
Speaker 3: or not, And there was a lot of semantics, and
Speaker 3: so we sort of gave up. But you know the
Speaker 3: end of the day, if they hadn't done them, they'd
Speaker 3: have had some more money for something else.
Speaker 2: Actually, I hate to double back, but that is kind
Speaker 2: of a hallmark of this coalition government, is that giving
Speaker 2: with one hand and taking back with the other. Like
Speaker 2: a lot of people celebrating the rise in frontline cops,
Speaker 2: so that's fantastic, but not realizing that actually they're pivoting
Speaker 2: away from domestic violence callouts. And we have such a
Speaker 2: problem in this country with domestic violence. It counts for
Speaker 2: so many of our police callouts. If they're not attending,
Speaker 2: who is, what's happening? What's going to happen to our society?
Speaker 2: So you know, there is a lot of.
Speaker 6: It freaky news. The alleged CEO killer Luigi Manngoni denied
Speaker 6: bail as many people are sympathizing with him online tonight,
Speaker 6: the book Delay, Deny, Defend, which is about the health
Speaker 6: insurance industry's tactics, jumping to number two on Amazon's nonfiction
Speaker 6: bestseller's list. Those three words delay, denied, defend were almost
Speaker 6: identical to the ones found on shell casings near the
Speaker 6: crime scene and on yelp. The McDonald's where he was apprehended,
Speaker 6: has been hit with a flood of one star reviews
Speaker 6: following the employees quote snitches and rats.
Speaker 1: We have to talk about one of the biggest stories
Speaker 1: of the year, and that's only slipped in right at
Speaker 1: the end, Luigi Mangioni and the alleged murder of health
Speaker 1: insurance boss Brian Thompson in the US.
Speaker 2: What do you think it.
Speaker 1: Says about us as a society and where it's at
Speaker 1: that you've got a thousands, if not millions of people
Speaker 1: on social media celebrating Luigi and the death of a
Speaker 1: health boss CEO in the US.
Speaker 3: Lamb, Well, I think it's a bit of a mess
Speaker 3: and it shows you how messed up people are. I mean,
Speaker 3: and this is often on the liberal or the left
Speaker 3: or the use the word woke side. Well, how does
Speaker 3: that work?
Speaker 4: I mean?
Speaker 3: You know, in my day, if you were liberal, you
Speaker 3: are against the death penalty, and I still am. And
Speaker 3: there's some horrible, horrible people who you have to then
Speaker 3: sort of make the case for why you don't want
Speaker 3: a death penalty for some horrible So you can't be
Speaker 3: celebrating an execution of anybody. I mean, it's just just crazy.
Speaker 3: And I don't know. I guess it just goes to
Speaker 3: the polarization and the sort of amplification of things on
Speaker 3: social media, on the Internet, which is one of the
Speaker 3: worst things about the whole political discourse at the moment.
Speaker 4: Really.
Speaker 2: Having said that, it's hard for New Zealanders with our
Speaker 2: healthcare system to understand just how broken the American system is,
Speaker 2: and that was, you know, the whole manifesto behind this
Speaker 2: guy's assassination. I guess yeah.
Speaker 1: And do you think it's this generation that we're hearing
Speaker 1: more of Generation Z and Alpha? I think now coming
Speaker 1: growing up on social media. I mean this year as well,
Speaker 1: we got Gen Z's on TikTok celebrating Osama bin Laden's
Speaker 1: Dear America letter. Now we're all old enough to remember
Speaker 1: and live through September eleven, and you've got kids on
Speaker 1: TikTok saying well as have bin Laden has a point.
Speaker 1: I also see this saw the other week they're celebrating
Speaker 1: Aileen Wernos.
Speaker 3: But isn't the problem the fact that they can actually
Speaker 3: self publish. I mean, kids say stupid stuff. If you
Speaker 3: go to the playground. You know, fourteen year old boys
Speaker 3: horrible misogynists. I don't want to slander every fourteen year
Speaker 3: old boy, but you know, it's it's kind of like
Speaker 3: in the playground and going all the generations.
Speaker 4: Kids are idiots.
Speaker 2: No offense to kids, but I'm educated. Now they've got that.
Speaker 3: Now they get a platform, and yeah, it's right and
Speaker 3: it's dangerous. Really yeah, I guess Australia's banning. So that's
Speaker 3: something of twenty twenty four. Australia's looking at banning social
Speaker 3: media for under sixteens. And you know, on that basis,
Speaker 3: you maybe there's a.
Speaker 2: Lot of point hit the whole TikTok trend around how
Speaker 2: hot the healthcare assassin was as well.
Speaker 4: He didn't turn out to be as hot as it.
Speaker 2: I didn't want to say that, but yes, all the photos.
Speaker 4: Because when he wears that, yeah he had a good
Speaker 4: he's a nice smile.
Speaker 2: He's got a great smile. But when they I thought
Speaker 2: they've got the wrong guy.
Speaker 1: I love how out of the three of us, Liam,
Speaker 1: you're the one to point that out.
Speaker 2: Just had cross my just impact.
Speaker 4: I don't support the guy.
Speaker 1: So if we get into some quick fires, now, first,
Speaker 1: who would your person of the year be, Politics, business, entertainment,
Speaker 1: what have you and who do you think dominated twenty
Speaker 1: twenty four? Starting with you, Lorna.
Speaker 2: I really think the Coleman family are to be celebrated.
Speaker 2: They're the Paquihar family from up north who regifted the
Speaker 2: Napui Pa back to the local ewi. It had been
Speaker 2: confiscated wrongly I'm trying to think of another word, but
Speaker 2: wrongly in sixty seven and so it was fantastic for
Speaker 2: them to be able to do that. And it's a
Speaker 2: bit symbolic because I saw Pakiha and Maori working together
Speaker 2: to fix a wrong and move forward together and I
Speaker 2: thought that was absolutely brilliant, coming as it did around
Speaker 2: about the same time as the Treaty Principals Bill was introduced.
Speaker 2: So to me, I think I think they were pretty heroic.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, I think perhaps sadly this is not an
Speaker 3: endorsemith think of these as like my Time magazine. But
Speaker 3: you know, in the States it's Trump and in New
Speaker 3: Zealand it's probably David Seymour. So in terms of the
Speaker 3: politicians have been able to make the discourse about them
Speaker 3: or their cause or their issue, and you know, I'm
Speaker 3: not a huge fan of either. I would say I've
Speaker 3: talked to David Seymour. I had a really interesting conversation
Speaker 3: with David Seymour on a podcast. But you know, just
Speaker 3: stepping back and going, well, look, they really they're the
Speaker 3: two people that stand out as having sort of dominated
Speaker 3: the political debate and the Trump and the world, I guess,
Speaker 3: and US and the world and Seymour here.
Speaker 1: Well interesting. My next question Liam is do you have
Speaker 1: a Villain of the Year.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I want to be more a bit more esoteric
Speaker 3: on that. I sort of debating. I really am getting
Speaker 3: sick of AI, and I don't know who the villain is.
Speaker 4: There.
Speaker 3: May be my villain's Elon Musk, because he's sort of
Speaker 3: jump jumped the shark completely and become an anti woke warrior,
Speaker 3: a Trump supporter and all these things, and he's building
Speaker 3: his own of even more annoying AI, as annoying as all.
Speaker 4: The AI is.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I just sick a death of AI. Low
Speaker 3: grade rubbish what they call kids call it slop, just
Speaker 3: just filling up our feeds, and it just bothers me
Speaker 3: that you know, people say, oh, you know, have a
Speaker 3: debate about whether or not AI will be able to
Speaker 3: do things as well as humans. It's not going to
Speaker 3: be an issue because we're just going to accept it.
Speaker 3: It's not going to do it as well as humans,
Speaker 3: but it's gonna do it much cheaper, so we'll just
Speaker 3: accept this more rubbishy version of everything. It turns out well,
Speaker 3: I hope not, but it's what it feels like at
Speaker 3: the moment, so I'm happy to make that my villain.
Speaker 5: I'm not just Maga, I'm dog gothic Maga. Vote Early vote.
Speaker 3: Now, America's just not not It's just going to be great.
Speaker 5: America is going to reach heights that it has never
Speaker 5: seen before.
Speaker 4: The future is gonna be amazing.
Speaker 2: I'm taking it more literally. I'm thinking of the guy
Speaker 2: that ties the Maiden to the railway tracks as the
Speaker 2: train comes along, and mine are all the dictators around
Speaker 2: the world who are power hungry and territory hungry and
Speaker 2: are killing millions of innocent people in their wakes. So
Speaker 2: people like alas sad and we've seen some horrific stuff
Speaker 2: coming out of the prison that they liberated there putin
Speaker 2: of course, he's every year's standard favorite villain. Nettan Yahoo controversial,
Speaker 2: but that's what I'm going to put that out there
Speaker 2: and their ilk and there are many many more around.
Speaker 4: Them strong men.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and men men, this whole, this whole thing. And
Speaker 3: then unfortunately it's been a year where they've kind of
Speaker 3: made a comeback Argentinian bloke I won't pronounce.
Speaker 2: And they're almost allowed to the world is kind of going,
Speaker 2: what can we do?
Speaker 3: Yeah, they're going, oh, look, look they've got inflation under
Speaker 3: control Argentina, and then you read about it and it's
Speaker 3: actually pretty.
Speaker 2: Rough, yeah, dire.
Speaker 1: But Trump's mates with a couple of them.
Speaker 3: So yeah, because he believes in a world where he
Speaker 3: can go and see them in the room and sort
Speaker 3: everything out between mates, and you know, we're all supposed
Speaker 3: to trust them.
Speaker 1: So we love ending on predictions here on the front page.
Speaker 1: What's one thing that you both think will happen next year.
Speaker 2: Or something that you'd like to see happen? Lorna, I
Speaker 2: think we're going to see more severe weather events. So
Speaker 2: that's my definitely going to happen, and my wishful I
Speaker 2: hope it's going to happen. Is some meaningful discourse on
Speaker 2: capital gains tax, even if it's amongst opposition ranks. I
Speaker 2: don't expect it to be amongst government ranks.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think something a bit more transformational from the government.
Speaker 3: They've something that really lifts the economy. So the economy
Speaker 3: I'm predicting is going to go much better in twenty
Speaker 3: two five. And that's not rocket sciences it I mean,
Speaker 3: you know, but it's looking like a fairly flat recovery.
Speaker 3: It's not going to be an economic boom. So something
Speaker 3: bigger needs to be done. I'd like to see the
Speaker 3: government look at like they're talking about what they might
Speaker 3: do with overseas investment, with investment and infrastructure, all those
Speaker 3: sort of things, because the government can't afford it. So
Speaker 3: I think we're going to see more public private partnership
Speaker 3: and maybe if they can twist Winston's arm, look at
Speaker 3: bringing some foreign capital into this country. So yeah, I
Speaker 3: predict that that's where they should be heated.
Speaker 1: Lorna and Liam, thanks for joining us.
Speaker 2: No Ice, Judie Christmas.
Speaker 1: That's it for this episode of The Front Page and
Speaker 1: for twenty twenty four. We'll be back on January thirteenth
Speaker 1: with new episodes, but stay tuned over summer for highlights
Speaker 1: from the year from the Front Page and The Herald
Speaker 1: podcast network. You can keep up with the news at
Speaker 1: enzedherld dot co dot nz. The Front Page is produced
Speaker 1: by Ethan Sills and Richard Martin, who is also our
Speaker 1: sound engineer. I'm Chelsea Daniels. Subscribe to The Front Page
Speaker 1: on iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts, and tune
Speaker 1: in on Monday for the first of our compilation episodes
Speaker 1: of the year's big stories.