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Speaker 1: Tell you what. I cannot recommend a piece of reading

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Speaker 1: in the listener, and it's been reproduced elsewhere on a

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Speaker 1: longitudinal study that now spans thirty five years and twelve elections.

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Speaker 1: I cannot recommend this enough. It is gripping. Couple of

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Speaker 1: thousand people each election are given dozens and dozens of questions.

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Speaker 1: Now its weakness is some of those questions are a

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Speaker 1: bit vague, and they throw up the sort of responses

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Speaker 1: around things like healthcare and public services that you would expect.

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Speaker 1: Turns out, we like them, we want more of them,

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Speaker 1: but I mean, how much more? What of the money

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Speaker 1: is wasted? We don't get to know that sort of stuff.

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Speaker 1: But a history for you. The long e government of

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Speaker 1: nineteen eighty four blew at big time. According to us,

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Speaker 1: went way too far, upset too many people. I remember

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Speaker 1: it well. We love strong leaders. We are more socially

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Speaker 1: conservative than you might think. The electoral system doesn't represent

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Speaker 1: what we actually want or like. Turns out, the majority

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Speaker 1: of us, and this has been applicable for years. We

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Speaker 1: like the death penalty, yet we've never had it. A

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Speaker 1: Couple of highlights for me Labour's moves around Mari and

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Speaker 1: introducing Treaty of White Hangy Principles into some legislation. The

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Speaker 1: majority of US US decades ago didn't want it. Now

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Speaker 1: we don't have the twenty twenty three results as yet,

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Speaker 1: but I bet you nothing's changed, which I would have

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Speaker 1: thought would lead you to ask, well, why hasn't it changed.

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Speaker 1: Why hasn't it been fixed? A bad idea allowed to

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Speaker 1: fester and cause on going angst and upset for decades. Why. Secondly,

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Speaker 1: there are signs of increasing They tell us dissatisfaction, concern,

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Speaker 1: and unhappiness. The authors say, not like the nineties. Now,

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Speaker 1: I remember the nineties as well. It was Richardson and Shipley.

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Speaker 1: It was welfare reform, the mother of all budgets. It

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Speaker 1: was burning of effigies on the Parliament grounds. You can

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Speaker 1: see the edginess these days was similar discourse and protest.

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Speaker 1: But it is suggested political polarization has declined over the

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Speaker 1: past decade. Really do you believe that? I don't. I

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Speaker 1: don't think we've ever been more divided, never been more

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Speaker 1: stark in our views of the country in the world,

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Speaker 1: social media distrust, fake news, polarizing views and stands. I've

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Speaker 1: got no idea how they've concluded that, but it's a

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Speaker 1: survey and it's new Zealander is speaking. Read it and

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Speaker 1: see if you disagree. But on most stuff, and he's

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Speaker 1: the really interesting thing. On most stuff, we haven't changed.

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Speaker 1: For decades, we haven't changed. The times have changed, the

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Speaker 1: circumstances have changed, but broadly we don't. And I'm not

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Speaker 1: sure if that's good or bad. For more from The

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Speaker 1: Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to news Talks at B

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Speaker 1: from six am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.