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Speaker 1: Three strikes for Old Chippy in the last seven days.

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Speaker 1: Politics is all about perception, as everyone keeps saying, and

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Speaker 1: the perception of his last time on the ninth floor

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Speaker 1: was bad for three reasons. Crime they were too soft, spending,

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Speaker 1: too much waste and debts, too much of that with

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Speaker 1: nothing to show for it. All of this fed into

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Speaker 1: the cost of living crisis right basically, labor was too

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Speaker 1: loose on the purse strings and the gang's too heart

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Speaker 1: on business and Middle New Zealand. Yesterday, Hipkins stood up

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Speaker 1: in Parliament argued for shortest sentences. For some MPs, this

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Speaker 1: is the gun gesture Gate, the Hucker sideshow, whatever you

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Speaker 1: want to call it. Arguing for a reduced sentence from

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Speaker 1: twenty one days to one was probably ill advised no

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Speaker 1: matter where you sit on the actual debate. Politically, for Chippy,

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Speaker 1: in the eyes of your average voter, it was a

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Speaker 1: bad move. Arguing for a ninety five percent discount on

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Speaker 1: sentencing just plays into a narrative they ought to avoid,

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Speaker 1: like the plague that was Strike three. Strike two, who

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Speaker 1: came earlier in the day. On debt, he refused to

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Speaker 1: commit to the debt ceiling of fifty percent of GDP.

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Speaker 1: It's the sacred threshold that Treasury warns we just shouldn't cross.

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Speaker 1: It's the same threshold even Grant Robertson said we shouldn't cross,

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Speaker 1: the same threshold even Barbed from Accounts said we shouldn't

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Speaker 1: cross a day earlier. So now National can run around

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Speaker 1: till the elections screaming debt monster till they're blue in

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Speaker 1: the face, and they won't be wrong until he commits otherwise.

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Speaker 1: Strike one, of course, came courtesy of the Greens last week,

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Speaker 1: the Mad Hatter alternative Budget, the plan so toxic it

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Speaker 1: had killed growth like round up on your weeds. Chippy

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Speaker 1: first said he hadn't read it, which no one believed.

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Speaker 1: Then he said he'd read it and wouldn't rule anything out,

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Speaker 1: so he might allow some or all of the roundup

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Speaker 1: to be sprayed on our economic prosperity. Then he says

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Speaker 1: some of the stuff was bad, some of it was okay,

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Speaker 1: but still not committing to anything. Obviously, this is going

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Speaker 1: to be the high time mark on a Green Party

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Speaker 1: negotiation position post election, and most of it will never

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Speaker 1: see the light of day and actually happen in the

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Speaker 1: same way the Privileges Committee thing is not that big

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Speaker 1: of a deal to most voters and doesn't reflect their

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Speaker 1: crime and justice policies. But if politics is about perception

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Speaker 1: and perception is reality, it's three own goals in a week,

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Speaker 1: three strikes for Chippy. For more from Early Edition with

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Speaker 1: Ryan Bridge, listen live to news Talks it'd be from

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