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Speaker 1: Now among the job Carnigh this week as our former

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Speaker 1: High Commissioner to London, Phil GoF who went along to

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Speaker 1: A Q and A and got a little bit cute.

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Speaker 1: Former UK High Commissioner Sir Lockwood Smith is with this, Lockwood,

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Speaker 1: very good morning to you.

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Speaker 2: Good morning mate.

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Speaker 1: Do you feel sorry for Phil?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, of course I feel sorry for him, But I

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Speaker 2: think you know, Winston Peter's horrible, Winston honorable, Winston Peter's

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Speaker 2: had no choice after what had happened.

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Speaker 1: Could you, in isolation if you saw that question just

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Speaker 1: as a piece of video, gone immediately. No, that's not right.

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Speaker 1: That's across the line, and obviously so or is Helen

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Speaker 1: Clark right? It's it's a line call.

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Speaker 2: Well, there are a couple of things make is the

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Speaker 2: High Commissioner of the United Kingdom is really the voice

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Speaker 2: of the government, and the government's position in relation to

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Speaker 2: the United States is critically important, and so the High

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Speaker 2: commission has to be very careful in representing the government.

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Speaker 2: And the second thing is that the High Commisioner the

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Speaker 2: United king shouldn't really be common on matters taking place

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Speaker 2: in the United States, and so diplomatic boundaries are really

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Speaker 2: important in the role and interestingly, I think because I've

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Speaker 2: been speaker for four years before I went over there,

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Speaker 2: I had no difficulty then moving away from political thinking

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Speaker 2: if you.

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Speaker 1: Like, that's a very good point. What sort of writing

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Speaker 1: instructions when you get the job, despitely, I mean Phil's

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Speaker 1: experienced your experience, what sort of writing instructions do you

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Speaker 1: get around the specifics of what's on, what's not, and

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Speaker 1: how to watch yourself and conduct yourself.

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Speaker 2: Well, actually, you know, even though I did a three

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Speaker 2: weeks sort of program in Wellington prior to my appointment,

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Speaker 2: they didn't really say you can't do this, you can't

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Speaker 2: do that. You can't because they expect you to be

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Speaker 2: sensible in the role. And I think where you know,

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Speaker 2: Phil Goff may have heard a little is normally a

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Speaker 2: Chatham House there. You know, Chatham House rules apply, and

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Speaker 2: normally any common So I'm not attributable to whoever might

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Speaker 2: have made them, but I think where film made a

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Speaker 2: mistake was that something as potentially inflammatory as that was

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Speaker 2: always going to sort of leak out type of thing.

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Speaker 1: Doesn't why it was a better sure? Does it go

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Speaker 1: to whether we should have Korea politicians or career diplomats,

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Speaker 1: and which is better or not in these high profile jobs,

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Speaker 1: particularly and was.

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Speaker 2: In question Mike. When I was in the UK as

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Speaker 2: High Commissioner, my wife was voted UK New Zealand of

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Speaker 2: the Year. The UK government appreciated my work so much

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Speaker 2: they asked Boris, asked me to stay involved after I

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Speaker 2: left the UK, and I've served advising them on trade policy,

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Speaker 2: agriculture policy. I helped get the New Zealand Free Trade

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Speaker 2: Agreement in place. I helped get the UK into CPTPP.

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Speaker 2: And the benefit why I was able to do that

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Speaker 2: is those senior politicians over there respected my knowledge as

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Speaker 2: a former Minister International Trader, former Minister of the Culture,

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Speaker 2: and so the fact that I'd had those experiences was

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Speaker 2: actually hugely beneficial to New Zealand and it hasn't been since.

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Speaker 1: Interesting. It seemed like a weird gathering. I don't know

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Speaker 1: if you've seen the video, but it seemed like a

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Speaker 1: you know, sort of half a dozen randoms in a room.

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Speaker 1: Do you do that as a lot as a high commissioner?

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Speaker 1: I thought it was all, you know, cocktails.

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Speaker 2: No, I didn't do that sort of thing much at all,

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Speaker 2: To be honest, I did a lot of serious work

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Speaker 2: around the Commonwealth served on a committee helping members of

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Speaker 2: the Commonwealth that had gotten into trouble. I did a

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Speaker 2: lot of work talking at conferences around the UK, giving

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Speaker 2: addresses on trade and agriculture policy, so I was more

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Speaker 2: heavily involved. I didn't do the diplomatic circuit, if you like,

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Speaker 2: much at all. I didn't go to the cocktail parties

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Speaker 2: much at all. I was so focused on trying to,

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Speaker 2: I guess, influence the way the UK was thinking about

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Speaker 2: agriculture policy and post Brexit, of course, you know, they

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Speaker 2: were very keen to keep the involved.

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Speaker 1: It does say something about, really, and you saw it

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Speaker 1: in Winston Peter space yesterday. It does say something about

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Speaker 1: the tremendous sensitivity that a small country like us, at

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Speaker 1: the bottom of the world has got to be cognizant

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Speaker 1: of at a time of extraordinary tumult. I mean, these

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Speaker 1: really are interesting times, aren't they.

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Speaker 2: Oh, fair comment, and our relationship with the United States

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Speaker 2: is just too important for a loose comment to cause problems,

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Speaker 2: you know, And I think you know, if if Phil

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Speaker 2: Goof's comments have been criticized by the Foreign Minister, I

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Speaker 2: don't think that would have been enough. I think, you know,

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Speaker 2: I've got to give the right of Winston Peter's credit.

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Speaker 2: He moved decisively and that should help minimize any damage.

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Speaker 1: Good stuff, So like what nice to talk to you

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Speaker 1: have a very good weekend to Lockwald Smith, the former

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Speaker 1: High Commissioner of Course and former Speaker of the House.

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