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Speaker 1: Can you trust Winston Peters not to go with Labor

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Speaker 1: next year? That is the question on everybody's lips, and

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Speaker 1: the answer is no, you can't. He hasn't ruled it out.

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Speaker 1: And remember you will remember that he went with Desinda

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Speaker 1: in twenty seventeen, even though National got a high proportion

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Speaker 1: of the vote. Labour has not ruled Winston out. Winston

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Speaker 1: has not ruled Labor out. Winston has ruled Chippy out.

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Speaker 1: So all that means is we could see a leadership

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Speaker 1: swap in the last seven weeks of the campaign, bug

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Speaker 1: of the unions and even during negotiations. All these things

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Speaker 1: are possible. Hopkins is a party man and if the

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Speaker 1: choice was opposition for his caucus or the Treasury benches,

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Speaker 1: he would fall on his sword. So it's a live scenario.

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Speaker 1: Is Labor and New Zealand first? If they, I should

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Speaker 1: say Labor and New Zealand first get enough to form

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Speaker 1: a coalition together, wouldn't Winston prefer that to another threesome

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Speaker 1: on the right. He hates Chippy because of COVID and

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Speaker 1: what is a woman malfunction at that press conference. But

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Speaker 1: the party's been working hard to shake the overly wokey

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Speaker 1: dopey vibe since then. Also, Winston doesn't like Seymour, and

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Speaker 1: if there was a chance for him to extract big

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Speaker 1: spending policies, some regional funding, you know they love that

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Speaker 1: at New Zealand first manufacturing energy deals, more gold card benefits,

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Speaker 1: whatever it might be, I reckon he would go for it.

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Speaker 1: The scenario becomes much less likely if the Greens and

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Speaker 1: whatever might be left of Tapati Mardi needing to prop

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Speaker 1: them up. He hates them much more than he hates

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Speaker 1: Seymour and would look stupid going into government with a

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Speaker 1: green handshake and a hongy. The rule with Winston is

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Speaker 1: pretty simple. All options are on the table, and this

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Speaker 1: time next year, as summer approaches in the weather warms,

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Speaker 1: will be staking out his beach house and the Crowbar

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Speaker 1: villa in Auckland, waiting on the Kingmaker for more from

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Speaker 1: Early Edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen live to News Talks

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Speaker 1: it Be from five am weekdays, or follow the podcast

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Speaker 1: on iHeartRadio.