1
00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:01,520
Speaker 1: Barry Soper here this afternoon.

2
00:00:01,560 --> 00:00:04,760
Speaker 2: Hey Barry, good afternoon, Ryan, how a good thank you.

3
00:00:04,960 --> 00:00:06,720
Speaker 1: Now should we be able to get rid of and

4
00:00:06,760 --> 00:00:08,479
Speaker 1: how would we go about getting rid of a prime

5
00:00:08,480 --> 00:00:10,320
Speaker 1: minister if they had lost their marbles?

6
00:00:10,400 --> 00:00:15,320
Speaker 2: Well quite easily, really, just hatch a coup and get

7
00:00:15,400 --> 00:00:17,280
Speaker 2: rid of them, you know, I mean a caucus can

8
00:00:17,320 --> 00:00:21,000
Speaker 2: get rid of the prime minister. But this is research

9
00:00:21,160 --> 00:00:23,440
Speaker 2: that's been done. And they looked at four New Zealand

10
00:00:23,520 --> 00:00:28,800
Speaker 2: prime ministers. They were, you know, Michael Joseph Savage when

11
00:00:29,280 --> 00:00:32,919
Speaker 2: he served between thirty five and forty, Norman Kirk, who

12
00:00:33,000 --> 00:00:35,240
Speaker 2: of course was the leader in seventy two to seventy

13
00:00:35,240 --> 00:00:39,320
Speaker 2: four when he died. The third was Joseph Ford. Finally,

14
00:00:39,360 --> 00:00:41,960
Speaker 2: the one that to me is well, the one that

15
00:00:42,040 --> 00:00:45,000
Speaker 2: I knew and is more interesting. They didn't look at

16
00:00:45,000 --> 00:00:48,360
Speaker 2: ill necessarily ill health. They looked at his problem with

17
00:00:48,400 --> 00:00:51,720
Speaker 2: a bottle. And there was no doubt that Rob Muldoon

18
00:00:52,240 --> 00:00:56,120
Speaker 2: in his final years had a significant problem with a bottle.

19
00:00:56,400 --> 00:00:59,560
Speaker 2: I'll give you just one example. I remember on the

20
00:00:59,600 --> 00:01:04,000
Speaker 2: Thursday night before the poll in the eighty four snap election,

21
00:01:04,440 --> 00:01:07,440
Speaker 2: which was known by many as the Snap's election for

22
00:01:07,560 --> 00:01:10,920
Speaker 2: obvious reasons, but I said to Muldoon, can I come

23
00:01:10,959 --> 00:01:14,480
Speaker 2: and interview you after you've finished your wind up speech

24
00:01:14,920 --> 00:01:18,200
Speaker 2: here in Auckland And he said, ay is come up

25
00:01:18,200 --> 00:01:21,200
Speaker 2: to my hotel room an hour after I finished speaking. Well,

26
00:01:21,240 --> 00:01:23,200
Speaker 2: I got up to his hotel room, which was the

27
00:01:23,200 --> 00:01:26,480
Speaker 2: old South Pacific. He was slumped in a chair. There

28
00:01:26,480 --> 00:01:29,400
Speaker 2: was an empty wine bottle lying on its side, and

29
00:01:29,480 --> 00:01:32,400
Speaker 2: I gin inflected in front of him, put the microphone

30
00:01:32,440 --> 00:01:34,520
Speaker 2: up to his mouth and said, do you think you've

31
00:01:34,520 --> 00:01:38,080
Speaker 2: won the election? Prime Minister? And he went nope. No,

32
00:01:38,120 --> 00:01:40,679
Speaker 2: he didn't say nap. He shook his head and I

33
00:01:40,720 --> 00:01:43,360
Speaker 2: said radio, Prime Minister, do you think you've won the election?

34
00:01:43,840 --> 00:01:46,000
Speaker 2: He said nope, and he went on how he had

35
00:01:46,080 --> 00:01:49,720
Speaker 2: lost it. Well. The next morning, at we were going

36
00:01:49,720 --> 00:01:53,920
Speaker 2: to air with it that Muldoon had conceded defeat, he

37
00:01:53,920 --> 00:01:56,280
Speaker 2: held a news conference at about eight in the morning,

38
00:01:56,600 --> 00:01:58,960
Speaker 2: denying all knowledge of it. And I went, well, hang on,

39
00:01:59,200 --> 00:02:01,480
Speaker 2: I was sitting in the front row. It's going to

40
00:02:01,520 --> 00:02:05,400
Speaker 2: wear now, prime minister. So you know that's an example,

41
00:02:06,000 --> 00:02:09,160
Speaker 2: I guess of a prime minister being out of control.

42
00:02:09,200 --> 00:02:13,240
Speaker 2: And that was just one little vignette of many many

43
00:02:13,280 --> 00:02:18,240
Speaker 2: instances that I witnessed with Muldoon in the four years

44
00:02:18,280 --> 00:02:21,000
Speaker 2: that I worked in the gallery when he was the

45
00:02:21,000 --> 00:02:21,600
Speaker 2: Prime Minister.

46
00:02:22,320 --> 00:02:25,160
Speaker 1: In part fascinating story Berry by the way, in part

47
00:02:26,040 --> 00:02:29,040
Speaker 1: and what we just had David Seymour on He's I

48
00:02:29,200 --> 00:02:32,280
Speaker 1: love politely saying no, we're not giving you any money.

49
00:02:32,760 --> 00:02:35,799
Speaker 2: Well, you know one hundred and ten million is going

50
00:02:35,840 --> 00:02:39,280
Speaker 2: to cost to I guess put on a retractable roof

51
00:02:39,760 --> 00:02:45,680
Speaker 2: and increase the seating and create a pedestrian promenade. Incidentally,

52
00:02:45,720 --> 00:02:49,040
Speaker 2: I think the council made exactly the right decision. These

53
00:02:49,080 --> 00:02:52,079
Speaker 2: pretty pictures that you can see down on the waterfront

54
00:02:52,160 --> 00:02:57,360
Speaker 2: look fantastic, but between that and the realization of seeing

55
00:02:57,639 --> 00:03:01,600
Speaker 2: the actual actual structure is going to be much more

56
00:03:01,639 --> 00:03:04,560
Speaker 2: than the billion dollars that they were saying it was

57
00:03:04,600 --> 00:03:07,640
Speaker 2: going to cost. This is what one hundred million dollars.

58
00:03:08,840 --> 00:03:11,040
Speaker 2: Unless they can get good business backing, and they've got

59
00:03:11,080 --> 00:03:14,640
Speaker 2: a pretty strong board, the eden Park Board. They're not

60
00:03:14,680 --> 00:03:17,040
Speaker 2: going to get government money in the short term, There's

61
00:03:17,080 --> 00:03:19,320
Speaker 2: no doubt about that. But I think the council have

62
00:03:19,360 --> 00:03:22,760
Speaker 2: made the right decision. It was an overwhelming decision. Only

63
00:03:22,800 --> 00:03:26,240
Speaker 2: two dissenters. I think Eden Park had to be it

64
00:03:26,760 --> 00:03:29,520
Speaker 2: and don't forget that this is going to be rail

65
00:03:29,760 --> 00:03:33,239
Speaker 2: enabled in a very short time. And the biggest criticism

66
00:03:33,639 --> 00:03:36,280
Speaker 2: I think of people that go to and from Eden

67
00:03:36,320 --> 00:03:40,520
Speaker 2: Park is actually getting from it after an event. You

68
00:03:40,560 --> 00:03:42,480
Speaker 2: can pay a lot of money in a taxi to

69
00:03:42,480 --> 00:03:46,200
Speaker 2: get a very short distance. But rail hopefully will overcome

70
00:03:46,520 --> 00:03:49,000
Speaker 2: that problem. But it's a wonderful venue and we saw

71
00:03:49,320 --> 00:03:52,320
Speaker 2: it used what four times in the last week for

72
00:03:52,400 --> 00:03:56,000
Speaker 2: big events, and I've been to several concerts there. It's

73
00:03:56,040 --> 00:03:59,480
Speaker 2: phenomenal and you know, even the residents are on board,

74
00:03:59,520 --> 00:04:02,000
Speaker 2: with the excs of one perhaps Helen Clark.

75
00:04:02,640 --> 00:04:06,000
Speaker 1: You know, it's actually quite interesting how they've turned that around.

76
00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:08,680
Speaker 1: They've turned the local residents around, and they clean up

77
00:04:08,720 --> 00:04:11,520
Speaker 1: after themselves and they've totally changed the vibe for the

78
00:04:11,680 --> 00:04:12,440
Speaker 1: local neighborhood.

79
00:04:12,440 --> 00:04:13,880
Speaker 2: So well, I think that's got a lot to do

80
00:04:14,000 --> 00:04:15,320
Speaker 2: with the chief executive thing.

81
00:04:15,440 --> 00:04:18,880
Speaker 1: Yeah, now these supermarkets are we are you expecting big

82
00:04:18,920 --> 00:04:19,800
Speaker 1: things on Sunday?

83
00:04:20,080 --> 00:04:23,280
Speaker 2: Well, I would have loved to have said, yes, there's

84
00:04:23,320 --> 00:04:26,599
Speaker 2: going to be a third player announced on Sunday, because

85
00:04:26,640 --> 00:04:29,640
Speaker 2: don't think that we had that investment conference and maybe

86
00:04:29,720 --> 00:04:32,120
Speaker 2: somebody was there and they said we would like to

87
00:04:32,160 --> 00:04:35,599
Speaker 2: open a supermarket chain in your country. No, they're not

88
00:04:35,640 --> 00:04:37,680
Speaker 2: going to an outside on Sunday. What you'll see on

89
00:04:37,720 --> 00:04:42,560
Speaker 2: Sunday is basically the process that the government will enable

90
00:04:42,680 --> 00:04:45,240
Speaker 2: to get a third player into the market here, to

91
00:04:45,240 --> 00:04:47,840
Speaker 2: make it easier for a third player to start up.

92
00:04:47,880 --> 00:04:50,320
Speaker 2: And one can only hope that that happens in the

93
00:04:50,360 --> 00:04:55,200
Speaker 2: fairly short term because the duopoly, as we've seen, hasn't worked.

94
00:04:55,240 --> 00:04:58,960
Speaker 2: It's not competitive. Prices are too high at the supermarkets,

95
00:04:59,240 --> 00:05:01,840
Speaker 2: and a bit of competition is exactly what it needs. Yeah.

96
00:05:01,839 --> 00:05:04,760
Speaker 1: Absolutely, as somebody is pointing out, and I didn't want,

97
00:05:04,800 --> 00:05:08,200
Speaker 1: but the one hundred million dollars is just for stage one.

98
00:05:08,240 --> 00:05:11,039
Speaker 1: It doesn't even get you the wrong That just gets

99
00:05:11,080 --> 00:05:15,080
Speaker 1: you the seating of changes. Then the stage two, this

100
00:05:15,120 --> 00:05:19,400
Speaker 1: is the PPP that gets you your accommodation. Stage three

101
00:05:19,520 --> 00:05:20,920
Speaker 1: under the PPP is the roof.

102
00:05:21,040 --> 00:05:23,520
Speaker 2: I mean honestly, oh well, thank you for that listener.

103
00:05:24,080 --> 00:05:24,720
Speaker 1: It's from Peter.

104
00:05:25,000 --> 00:05:25,920
Speaker 2: Yeah, go on your pete.

105
00:05:26,000 --> 00:05:28,320
Speaker 1: Another one asked, and I actually wondered about this the

106
00:05:28,360 --> 00:05:30,360
Speaker 1: other day. We've got one minute, but are you going

107
00:05:30,400 --> 00:05:32,680
Speaker 1: to Is Barry going to write a book? I'd love

108
00:05:32,760 --> 00:05:35,160
Speaker 1: to read it. I wanted the same thing the other

109
00:05:35,240 --> 00:05:35,760
Speaker 1: day Barry.

110
00:05:36,839 --> 00:05:38,320
Speaker 2: Well, yes, I'm in the proceeds on.

111
00:05:38,480 --> 00:05:38,880
Speaker 1: There we go.

112
00:05:39,440 --> 00:05:42,880
Speaker 2: So a publisher has approached me about five years ago

113
00:05:43,440 --> 00:05:48,040
Speaker 2: of equivocated, equivocated, equivocated, and I finally agreed.

114
00:05:48,160 --> 00:05:51,560
Speaker 1: So the timetime future, you'll have to mend your finger

115
00:05:51,600 --> 00:05:53,800
Speaker 1: before you write a book, I'd imagine, Oh I can

116
00:05:53,839 --> 00:05:57,320
Speaker 1: still right, Well, there you go. You've got the scoop

117
00:05:57,440 --> 00:06:00,240
Speaker 1: whoever that was texting, and thank you for that. For

118
00:06:00,320 --> 00:06:03,599
Speaker 1: more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to News

119
00:06:03,640 --> 00:06:06,520
Speaker 1: Talk Set B from four pm weekdays, or follow the

120
00:06:06,560 --> 00:06:08,240
Speaker 1: podcast on iHeartRadio