Speaker 1: You're listening to the Weekend Collective podcast from News talks'd.
Speaker 2: Be Winston Peters has just recently wrapped up a State
Speaker 2: of the Nation speech and there were well, he covered
Speaker 2: a lot of ground, everything from having a crack at
Speaker 2: the protests as the economy, co governance and the war
Speaker 2: on woke and he had a good crack at labor
Speaker 2: in their record, as well as talking about Paris climate commitments.
Speaker 2: So I won't try and sum up the whole thing.
Speaker 2: Of course, the focuses were of course New Zealand's place
Speaker 2: in the world as well. He called for re evaluations
Speaker 2: of our Paris climate commitments and focusing on our own
Speaker 2: country compared to what we're seeing internationally in New Zealand.
Speaker 2: First Leader Winston Peters is with me now, Good afternoon.
Speaker 1: Good afternoon.
Speaker 2: Do you love a good protest? What was what was
Speaker 2: that like?
Speaker 1: Look? What matter was that we packed the place and
Speaker 1: some couldn't get in and then there were some protests outside.
Speaker 1: But before the expected that and we made sure that
Speaker 1: they weren't going to win in terms of a democratically
Speaker 1: lawful meeting.
Speaker 2: Is there a part of you that, just as a politician,
Speaker 2: when you see those protests. It sort of gives you
Speaker 2: a bit of a launching pad, something to push back
Speaker 2: on to get cracking with your speech. So sort of
Speaker 2: is there a part of you that's sort of like,
Speaker 2: oh good, let's get into these guys no more.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean? Oh, you're quite right. I
Speaker 1: mean I said, it's like Elvis the Stamos trouble. You've
Speaker 1: come to the right place.
Speaker 2: What do you want people to take from your speech?
Speaker 2: You did? You went into It was a lengthy speech,
Speaker 2: covering a lot of ground. I noticed that the first
Speaker 2: thing was you really wanted to put labor in their
Speaker 2: places to maybe do you feel some frustration that they
Speaker 2: are doing so well on the polls despite, as you
Speaker 2: would say, being the author of our misfortunes.
Speaker 1: Well, the reality is that getting away with a lie.
Speaker 1: For example, in the months before the Polly three election,
Speaker 1: they put out a forecast back by a treasury that
Speaker 1: was a litany of lies. And we've proven that, and
Speaker 1: it's taken all this time to turn the economy from
Speaker 1: recession into recovery. And that's why we are looking at
Speaker 1: a gross now of almost three percent as we're in
Speaker 1: the session. As a consequence of their policies which takes
Speaker 1: a long time to turn around, but turn around we have.
Speaker 1: And so that's what I was trying to talk about,
Speaker 1: the positive things and the need to sw some really
Speaker 1: a reserved reaction to international circumstances, to read things right
Speaker 1: and ensure that whatever their outcome is and that New
Speaker 1: Zealand does extraordinary well at a time of great change
Speaker 1: but also great potential opportunity.
Speaker 2: Do you feel frustrated that a lot of sort of
Speaker 2: thrown on the current government. Of course you have been
Speaker 2: in powerful a little bit now, but there's the reasons
Speaker 2: for the problems that you're facing are sort of ignored.
Speaker 1: Yes, we do feel that way, but also we're not
Speaker 1: so concerned about the mainstream media in this context. We've
Speaker 1: out there and we're going to gang buses on social media.
Speaker 1: We have barely started yet. But these sorts of meetings
Speaker 1: where you've packed the place a wall to war, where
Speaker 1: they equity until after all at last year when they
Speaker 1: had their meeting there, that tells me that we're on
Speaker 1: the right track.
Speaker 2: What about the Paris climate commitments, it does seem that
Speaker 2: there are some moves to step away from that, given
Speaker 2: the amount of money that we're going to have to pay.
Speaker 2: Where do you think we're going to go with Paris?
Speaker 1: Well, I'm asking for reevaluation and logic. I've set out
Speaker 1: the four nations where they are most sexty percent of
Speaker 1: the problem. If that is a problem, and we're only
Speaker 1: point one seven percent of the situation, so what can
Speaker 1: we actually do? And what's at risk is a trend
Speaker 1: through of twenty two billion plus to foreign economies in
Speaker 1: an endeavor to solve this problem, which will be disasters
Speaker 1: for the even and will not help the problem at all.
Speaker 1: We say, refocus this money on our own investments, our
Speaker 1: own economy and the defeating pollution and things like that.
Speaker 1: Backing is but the last thing we can afford to
Speaker 1: do is to have this glorified ideological position that's not
Speaker 1: working and at the same time being destroy so much
Speaker 1: for our provincial economy. A wake up court that I
Speaker 1: renewed after magnetic statement months ago.
Speaker 2: Do you think that we get I think you alluded
Speaker 2: to this in your speech, that we get a bit
Speaker 2: distracted by a lot of things that are happening internationally.
Speaker 2: Of course, we have the Trump presidency and a lot
Speaker 2: of uncertainty that do you think that that confuses us
Speaker 2: as to how we just stick to our own netting
Speaker 2: and how we might forge our own way ahead.
Speaker 1: Well, precisely what you just said is the sounds advice
Speaker 1: for our country, But of course there is that propensity
Speaker 1: to jump to conclusions rush often make comment which could
Speaker 1: damage us internationally, and that's not the way to go
Speaker 1: in these very difficult times.
Speaker 2: I know that you won't be sharing much information with
Speaker 2: us until you've spoken with your cabinet colleagues about your
Speaker 2: meeting with Marco Rubio, But I guess what's your vibe
Speaker 2: on our relationship with the new administration.
Speaker 1: Well, we've put a lot of work into it, months
Speaker 1: and months of work and conversations face to face to
Speaker 1: and they were very, very positive, and so we've got
Speaker 1: something to look forward to. If there are things that
Speaker 1: obviously we will await developments on, but as we now stand,
Speaker 1: things that are in a much better position than they
Speaker 1: were before we went to the United States.
Speaker 2: Do we need moving on to issues like provincial growth
Speaker 2: and resource extraction? And you've talked about how we must
Speaker 2: fully develop our natural resources. Do we need to Are
Speaker 2: you talking about having particular ledge sort of change to
Speaker 2: make it easier for us to do that, or is
Speaker 2: it simply talking about the direction the government needs to
Speaker 2: continue to take.
Speaker 1: No, precisely, We've got to have a better set of change.
Speaker 1: We've got to get out of the way of progress.
Speaker 1: I asked them to look around the room that we
Speaker 1: were in. Ninety six percent of it is extraction or
Speaker 1: mining and using our own natural flora, that's forests and waters.
Speaker 1: We have got to stop our potential recovery because of
Speaker 1: both work obstructive policies and interference in the economic future
Speaker 1: of our country, which so many people depend upon for
Speaker 1: a better future. We just have got a look at
Speaker 1: countries that are going gang buses doing what we're advocating
Speaker 1: and making so much progress, whereas we have been dragging
Speaker 1: the chain, and in the end, not of our planning
Speaker 1: laws have become so out of date that they have
Speaker 1: to be utterly re examined.
Speaker 2: Just one which might be seen as more controversial. You've
Speaker 2: talked about fluoridation and arguing about the rights of counsels
Speaker 2: to make these decisions. Whereas central government does make a
Speaker 2: lot of decisions for people, such as our smoking regulations
Speaker 2: and all sorts of public health decisions, why would that
Speaker 2: decision be best left with counsels.
Speaker 1: Because for decades, in all my life, the local council
Speaker 1: had the right to have a decision made by their
Speaker 1: rate beayers on those matters. It's not about whether you're
Speaker 1: for or against FLY, it's whether you're against for democracy,
Speaker 1: and they, the Labor Party, just changed the law with
Speaker 1: an enormous punishment, including imprisonment for local government members who
Speaker 1: could want to have a democratic decision made by their
Speaker 1: own voters before they decided. It's pretty basic why that
Speaker 1: should be such a horotic, horrific outcome. I don't know,
Speaker 1: what do.
Speaker 2: You reckon our chances are of avoiding some sort of
Speaker 2: tariff when it comes to the States.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to be, as I put it, I'm
Speaker 1: not going to be uncautious about this. But we've done
Speaker 1: our best and we'll go on doing our best to
Speaker 1: ensure that we come out of this on the right side.
Speaker 1: And of that I am confident.
Speaker 2: Winston Peters, I really thank you for your time this afternoon.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for more from the Weekend Collective.
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