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Speaker 1: You know what that Labor and Green Party unity press

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Speaker 1: conference at Waikungi today looked to me. It looked like

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Speaker 1: to me, it looked like desperation. Parties don't generally get

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Speaker 1: other parties to stand next to them and hold their

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Speaker 1: hands in election year to convince people to vote for them. Now,

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Speaker 1: having said that, it's obviously not the first time that

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Speaker 1: we've seen something similar from Labour in the Greens, You'll

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Speaker 1: remember before the twenty seventeen election, Grant Robertson and James

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Speaker 1: Shaw did a similarish thing. They released their budget responsibility

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Speaker 1: rules to try to convince us that they could be

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Speaker 1: trusted with the government's finances. That was an active desperation

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Speaker 1: because they'd been batted by Steven Joyce's fiscal whole allegations

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Speaker 1: so long. They had to do something. And just like

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Speaker 1: in twenty seventeen, this is an active desperation because Chippy

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Speaker 1: knows his biggest problem this time round trying to get

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Speaker 1: into government is trying to convince voters that his coalition

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Speaker 1: mates are not just a bunch of nut jobs, but

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Speaker 1: can actually be trusted to run the country together, which

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Speaker 1: is why he left the Maldi Party out of that

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Speaker 1: unity press conference because that party is chaos on stilts.

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Speaker 1: The trouble for Chippy, though, is the Greens aren't exactly

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Speaker 1: the image of internal discipline, are they. What with gold

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Speaker 1: Is the thief and Bussy the awkward parent, Darlene the

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Speaker 1: questionable employer, the spate of staff are resignations, and that's

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Speaker 1: not even mentioning the electorally toxic plans to tax us

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Speaker 1: all into poverty. Chippy is off the mark here though,

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Speaker 1: if he thinks this is going to solve things for him,

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Speaker 1: because the truth is, his only realistic path to government

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Speaker 1: this year is with Winston Peters. Winston has said he's

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Speaker 1: not going to go with Chippy, but that is Chippy's

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Speaker 1: only way to government, and that's where Chippy should be

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Speaker 1: putting his energy into schmoozing Winston until Winston changes his mind.

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Speaker 1: And Winston changing his mind is not unheard of, but

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Speaker 1: doing a press conference with the Greens seems not just

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Speaker 1: like a waste of time, but maybe actually an unfortunate

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Speaker 1: reminder to us all really that a Chippy led government

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Speaker 1: comes with green colored baggage. For more from Heather Duplessy,

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Speaker 1: Allen Drive, listen live to news talks. It'd be from

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Speaker 1: four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio