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Speaker 1: Back to the Cooks and their big day out in

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Speaker 1: Beijing as they incad deal that seems to suggest China's

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Speaker 1: making major inroads into the Pacific. The issue this time

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Speaker 1: we appear to be out of the loop on this.

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Speaker 1: And further, if you saw Cooks PM Mark Brown last night,

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Speaker 1: he's suggesting the Cooks pay us, not the other way around.

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Speaker 1: So how does all this work? Foreign Minister Winston Peters

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Speaker 1: is what this very good morning to you? Good morning

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Speaker 1: on a scale of one to ten, ten year apoplectic?

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Speaker 1: How aggrieved are you?

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Speaker 2: Oh? Well, I wouldn't like to put it that way.

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Speaker 2: It's just a simple fact that since nineteen oh one

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Speaker 2: and we've had this special constrasual relationship. It was further

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Speaker 2: enhanced with the Helen Clark Prime Minister Malite two thousand

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Speaker 2: and one agreement, and out of left field this has happened,

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Speaker 2: first of all in a demand to have a separate sport,

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Speaker 2: so to speak, which would be dramatic in terms about

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Speaker 2: constitutional arrangements, and also the upcoming visit to China which

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Speaker 2: has come on the back of this, which is blindsighted

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Speaker 2: both the Cook Island people and ourselves. We have asked

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Speaker 2: over a number of months and did time for and

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Speaker 2: the chronology of evidence is there for that for information

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Speaker 2: and as we have found out, it has not been

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Speaker 2: shared with us all the cook and people. So that's

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Speaker 2: where things stand.

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Speaker 1: So is this a Mark Brown thing or a Cook's thing?

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Speaker 2: Well, not much have personalized this, but a few on

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Speaker 2: the receiving end. As we are and as I am

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Speaker 2: numerous aquitists. What's going on when the answer lies in

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Speaker 2: the Cook Islands and when the Cookarden, cookarens and news

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Speaker 2: are recent articles have been asking for that and not

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Speaker 2: getting answers, then the answers lie elsewhere as to what's

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Speaker 2: exactly going on. However, in any reason we have the

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Speaker 2: Cook Gardens people will be talking to all the people

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Speaker 2: both in the Cook Gardens and the Cook Garlands abroad

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Speaker 2: as to what they want and whether this is what

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Speaker 2: they agree to.

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Speaker 1: Brown was on the news last night saying you've been

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Speaker 1: talking for ages. It's just he was disappointed at got leaked.

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Speaker 1: Have you been talking for ages? Do you know this

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Speaker 1: was coming or not?

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Speaker 2: Well, we've been talking for ages and we have made

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Speaker 2: sure that we had written it to put it in

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Speaker 2: record record for a long time. As to the answers

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Speaker 2: to these questions and to frame us being disappointed at

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Speaker 2: the conversation not working is not something I could possibly

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Speaker 2: agree with, nor could I possibly agree with. The economic

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Speaker 2: statement was made last night that a billion dollars coming

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Speaker 2: to Cogan so US and peanuts are going back. I mean,

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Speaker 2: this is well extraordinary in the extreme.

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Speaker 1: Did he make that up? I mean where does he

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Speaker 1: get a billion dollars from?

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Speaker 2: I've got no idea.

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Speaker 1: What would your numbers be? Do we give them sixty million?

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Speaker 2: Well? That and much more and over the years, I

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Speaker 2: mean we were on a long way back underwriting the amies.

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Speaker 2: You'll travel to Coogans to and answer their tourism. All

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Speaker 2: these things are huge. We put an over well our

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Speaker 2: sure fortunately into fixing up the water system there that

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Speaker 2: we were in tandem with China working on, and every

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Speaker 2: part of their work had failed massively. I raised this

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Speaker 2: with four months of long year, A long long time ago.

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Speaker 2: He told me you'd get it fixed up. And now

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Speaker 2: these are things that are going to be out in

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Speaker 2: the ether very shortly. If this comes down to a

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Speaker 2: dispute us of what's happened, And sadly that should not

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Speaker 2: be the case. We've had this special relationship and I

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Speaker 2: believe the mass majority of Cook Islanders wanted to go on.

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Speaker 1: Actually that water is a good example. So it was

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Speaker 1: you was China, and it was the Cook Islands is

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Speaker 1: are we blaying the oude of proportion? So they signed

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Speaker 1: a deal with China. So what we like China, we

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Speaker 1: do business with China was really an issue.

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Speaker 2: It was an issue to the extent that a number

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Speaker 2: of the constructions where the Chinese were involved in the

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Speaker 2: Cook Islands have simply failed. Some have failed within ten years.

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Speaker 2: So I raised all these with so far and so

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Speaker 2: one a long long time ago, and he said he'd

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Speaker 2: get them fixed up. Now, I don't want to go

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Speaker 2: over those things because we've had text the water system

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Speaker 2: up largely, but not in the way we wanted to

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Speaker 2: do it, not within the speed we want to do it,

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Speaker 2: and it's part greater cost because of the faulting construction

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Speaker 2: on their part. Now these are facts, but the reality

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Speaker 2: is that the Cook Owned people, as them is by

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Speaker 2: the news and all the requires they're making, just don't

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Speaker 2: know what's going on. And I am my government and

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Speaker 2: our government are constitutionally required to ensure we talk to them,

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Speaker 2: to ensure that we on the behalf of the usual

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Speaker 2: taxpayers know exactly what's going on, so that we're accountable

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Speaker 2: to zion taxpayer. It's their money, after all. Do not

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Speaker 2: against We're not against the soundness of our aid programs.

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Speaker 2: But our job is to monitor every dollar and make

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Speaker 2: sure it gets to west meant to go and for

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Speaker 2: the right purpose.

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Speaker 1: Is this Chinese creep? Do you worry about it? And

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Speaker 1: do you think Trump will worry about it?

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Speaker 2: Lord, I can't as for President Trump or the American people.

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Speaker 2: That I have to answer for the human people to

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Speaker 2: ensure that our purpose is corrected. Chase is pure, and

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Speaker 2: we do what we say we're going to do. And

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Speaker 2: that's been our long long record, regardless of plitical parties,

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Speaker 2: has been our long record. And here's the point that

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Speaker 2: Cook and people are entitled to know, and we are

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Speaker 2: trapped by our need to ensure that they know and

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Speaker 2: agree with what's going on.

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Speaker 1: I remember talking to you in twenty seventeen when you

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Speaker 1: did the one billion dollars when you anointed Jacindra doing

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Speaker 1: to run the place, so you hand a billion dollars

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Speaker 1: in Your argument at the time was we need to

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Speaker 1: be better or more present than the Pacific. We haven't

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Speaker 1: been as good as we could be, and I said

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Speaker 1: checkbooks will win out. At the end of the day,

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Speaker 1: checkbooks have won, haven't they. That's what this boils down to.

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Speaker 2: No, I do not believes. I believe that. But all

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Speaker 2: these other things about the leafs, principal freedom, human rights,

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Speaker 2: these are fundamentals that the Gogoleans people are also concerned

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Speaker 2: about as they are around the Pacific. They need to

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Speaker 2: know what's happening here and as a consequence with they

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Speaker 2: make their decisions, then they should be free to make it.

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Speaker 2: But they have should be free to make it in

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Speaker 2: the circumstances of the commitments that we made, going back

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Speaker 2: to Helen clap time and going back to nine o

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Speaker 2: one where we discuss and consult. That's where we are now.

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Speaker 2: I can assure you that the Resum government has done

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Speaker 2: its best to find out what's going on. And just

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Speaker 2: said this has been discussed with us is absurdly not true.

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Speaker 1: Okay, a couple of things, while I've got you are unrah.

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Speaker 1: So Trump pulls the money over the weekend or this week.

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Speaker 1: I talked to the Prime Minister. He didn't know anything

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Speaker 1: about it. But there was a hostage that was British

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Speaker 1: Israeli hostage was released. Talk to Starmer on the phone.

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Speaker 1: She said she was kept at UNRA facilities by Hamas.

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Speaker 1: Why are we still funding them?

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Speaker 2: Will you recall I stopped the funding to Honor at

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Speaker 2: the time of the nations inquiry as to what was

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Speaker 2: going on and our reconfiguration of our next payment's not

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Speaker 2: you yet and that's where things are. But this information

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Speaker 2: is something that will be of intense and quir protected

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Speaker 2: by Western nations because the proximity to armas and to

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Speaker 2: owner operations means they had to know. So, yes, this

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Speaker 2: is a new question. The next we're going to find

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Speaker 2: out what's going on before we commit one more dollar.

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Speaker 1: Good are you suspicious?

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Speaker 2: Well, you know you'd be irresponsible on the extreme not

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Speaker 2: to be seeing information, hearing information and asking yourself what

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Speaker 2: is going on here? And how can I face these

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Speaker 2: younger people if I don't make the right standard? What's right?

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Speaker 1: Exactly? Good? Just and then we come to foreign home ownership,

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Speaker 1: can you answer me this question? Just for you will

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Speaker 1: be aware that the real estate institute, or not the

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Speaker 1: real estate the real estate industry in this country is

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Speaker 1: a wash with stories that you've been talked across the

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Speaker 1: line in some way, shape or form to be able

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Speaker 1: to have foreigners come back into the real estate market

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Speaker 1: and start buying some expensive houses maybe five or six million.

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Speaker 1: Is that true or is that not true?

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Speaker 2: That's the asking. So rumors are rumors that I was

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Speaker 2: the one that said when National announced in twenty twenty

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Speaker 2: three that they were going to go for the two

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Speaker 2: million dollar house sale numbers, that their figures were massively faulty.

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Speaker 2: But they didn't work and they wouldn't bring the money

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Speaker 2: that they should bring. But if you're talking about and

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Speaker 2: this has always been Resum first time, if somebody is

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Speaker 2: coming to this country like they do to other countries,

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Speaker 2: bringing you fifty million dollars to invest in a huge

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Speaker 2: industry and to ensure that we've got employed with this

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Speaker 2: non employment now potential exports with this exportsion area, now,

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Speaker 2: then we will look at it. Certainly, that's always been

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Speaker 2: our view because that means you've got a serious investor

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Speaker 2: committed to the Zum economy and not just a bolt

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Speaker 2: hole in case they want to coming in one day.

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Speaker 1: Good is that going to be made official and articulated

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Speaker 1: from a government's point of view.

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Speaker 2: Well, these are things that are work in progress, because

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Speaker 2: we're going to have to construct an economy which answered

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Speaker 2: the question why invest in New Zealand? And that has

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Speaker 2: to be detail and specific and we're not selling ourselves out.

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Speaker 2: If you're investing in New Zealand and you're going to

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Speaker 2: build the mass apartment on our economy, if her ownership,

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Speaker 2: why should do that is part of it? That wouldn't

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Speaker 2: do to be automatic. No, but let's see the details first.

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Speaker 1: Okay, that's one. That's what I couldn't understand. You're out

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Speaker 1: in the world as foreign minister, by all accounts, seemingly

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Speaker 1: doing a very good job, and we've got an economy

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Speaker 1: that's stuck and we need help. And if an American

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Speaker 1: comes in and he's got ideas and he wants to expand,

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Speaker 1: he wants to grow, and he wants to employ some people.

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Speaker 1: He also wants to live here, he should be able to.

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Speaker 1: And if he can go to Lake Hayes and spend

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Speaker 1: nine million dollars on the house, what's the problem.

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Speaker 2: Look, I was down at the conference to Deceive a

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Speaker 2: year ago talking about a one hundred billion dollar future fund.

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Speaker 2: I'm trying to answer the question that needs to be

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Speaker 2: answered by his imparterns. Yes, but whine is you? And

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Speaker 2: there's many options of God and answered to whine is

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Speaker 2: youon has be laid out very clearly and make us

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Speaker 2: country an attractive place to invest in and your pipe blod.

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Speaker 2: But do you remember the case of Peter Teel. Yes,

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Speaker 2: Peter Teale got his old citizenhip from John te within

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Speaker 2: six days. And he's not an oven by a house.

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Speaker 2: What else is he invested. I'm not criticizing him. I'm

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Speaker 2: just saying that the National Pay at that time had

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Speaker 2: no foreign hold on.

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Speaker 1: I mean, I don't want to get bogged down on

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Speaker 1: this because amount of time. But what he wanted to

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Speaker 1: do is build a lodge and the Council prevented him

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Speaker 1: from building a lodge.

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Speaker 2: Well, the National Party's job then was to ensure that

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Speaker 2: the Council didn't have the authorities stop that sort of development.

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Speaker 2: That's what case law means.

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Speaker 1: Look, Look, you and I I hope we're on the

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Speaker 1: same page. We need to get this economy moving and

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Speaker 1: fast and if we need to do everything we can

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Speaker 1: to do that.

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Speaker 2: Look, I agree with his rubb. I know it personally

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Speaker 2: because of private conversations specifically aimed at me that we

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Speaker 2: we are people and interests seriously with the money to

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Speaker 2: start yesterday. We have to frame our country's policies wisely,

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Speaker 2: like Ireland, like Croatias, doing like a rocket now like

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Speaker 2: Singapore did, and it makes some sense for these young people.

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Speaker 2: We've got the asset, we've got the people. We just

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Speaker 2: heaven't got the structural framework that should have been so

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Speaker 2: pained us a long time ago.

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Speaker 1: Appreciate your time as all West Winston paid as Foreign Minister.

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Speaker 1: For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to

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Speaker 1: News Talks at B from six am weekdays, or follow

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Speaker 1: the podcast on iHeartRadio