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Speaker 1: The government is looking to free up some cash by

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Speaker 1: selling an investment in Chorus. Now, this is money that

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Speaker 1: the government leant Chorus during the Ultra Fast broadband rollout.

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Speaker 1: That rollout is now finished, so the government's looking to

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Speaker 1: on sell that debt. But Labor says this is an

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Speaker 1: asset sale. Chris Hipkins is the Labor leader and with

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Speaker 1: us now Chippy.

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Speaker 2: Hello, Hello, Heather.

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Speaker 3: It's not an asset sale, though, is it.

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Speaker 2: Well, a security is an asset, and the government said

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Speaker 2: in the National Party said they weren't going to sell

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Speaker 2: any ethics. Christopher Luxen said, I'm not interested in sir,

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Speaker 2: sales won't be happening. Now they're talking about an asset sale.

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Speaker 2: You know. I think they're trying to create some technical

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Speaker 2: distinction that doesn't exist the security the government owned our assets.

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Speaker 1: I mean, is that that's not really fair, though, is it?

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Speaker 1: We would understand in the context of talking about asset sales,

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Speaker 1: how most of us rational voters would understand it is

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Speaker 1: that we own some sort of a company or an

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Speaker 1: entity and we're selling our stake in it. We have

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Speaker 1: no stake in Chorus. We're not selling down a shareholding.

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Speaker 2: Well, we do have a steak in Chorus. We spent

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Speaker 2: billions of dollars rolling out the broadband and now right

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Speaker 2: at the time when we're the public is going to

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Speaker 2: reap some financial dividend from that and the form of

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Speaker 2: those securities having to be repaid, they want to privatize

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Speaker 2: those profits. So you know, the public, the New Zealand

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Speaker 2: taxpayer has already laid out the cost of building the

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Speaker 2: broadband network. That was that was what these securities have

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Speaker 2: arisen from. Now at the point when we actually start

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Speaker 2: to see some money coming back the other way, the

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Speaker 2: government wants to sell the air set off.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so this is money that would be paid back

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Speaker 1: within the next five to ten years. In any case,

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Speaker 1: what's the problem with bringing it forward?

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Speaker 2: Because the only way that it'll be profitable for somebody

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Speaker 2: to buy them is that we sell them at a discount.

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Speaker 2: Earth would we do that when that is money that

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Speaker 2: would come back to the New Zealand taxpayer and recognizition

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Speaker 2: of the fact the New Zealand text player paid for

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Speaker 2: the role out of the broody.

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Speaker 3: Know how much of a discount was selling it at?

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Speaker 2: Well, no, we don't, but I mean, why would anyone

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Speaker 2: buy it?

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Speaker 1: But isn't that material I mean to be. If it's

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Speaker 1: a discount of two percent, then hoe care is let's

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Speaker 1: get the money now and build the schools we need.

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Speaker 1: If it's a discount of thirty percent, well maybe it's

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Speaker 1: a stupid idea, right, So that number is important to know,

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Speaker 1: isn't it.

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Speaker 2: Well you'd have to weigh that up against the alternative

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Speaker 2: costs of financing the things that you were talking about, Heather,

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Speaker 2: which you know, government can actually actus other forms of

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Speaker 2: finance relatively cheaply, So this is likely to not be

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Speaker 2: the cheapest way of us financing those things like schools

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Speaker 2: and hospitals you just mentioned.

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Speaker 1: Hey, so are you impressed with the reset from the

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Speaker 1: Maori party yesterday to make you want to have them

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Speaker 1: in your cabinet.

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Speaker 2: I think they've got a little bit of work to do, Heather.

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Speaker 2: I think I think that they probably need to work

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Speaker 2: a little bit on their media relationships.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, well there's that. I mean, there is that?

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Speaker 1: What is it?

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Speaker 3: What part of it? What happened do you think yesterday?

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Speaker 2: Is?

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Speaker 3: Is this a party that is a like?

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Speaker 1: It seems like they may not be in agreement on

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Speaker 1: where they want to go with us, Like some of

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Speaker 1: them maybe want to want to, you know, tone it

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Speaker 1: down and get in cohotes with you and the others

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Speaker 1: want to remain radical.

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Speaker 3: Is that how it looks to you.

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Speaker 2: Look, I don't have a read on that, to be honest.

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Speaker 2: I mean, I think, as I said this morning, politicians

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Speaker 2: don't necessarily like some of the questions that we get asked.

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Speaker 2: No politician either stands in front of the media feeling like, oh,

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Speaker 2: these are great, we really enjoying myself, but I still

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Speaker 2: need to answer them. Oh, look, the hacker. I'm a

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Speaker 2: bit more relaxed about the Hucker. You know, I've seen

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Speaker 2: Hawker performed at the end of people's maiden speeches or

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Speaker 2: valedictory statements before. That's nothing new.

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Speaker 3: And it was in breach of an agreement with Jerry,

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Speaker 3: wasn't it.

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Speaker 2: I think the bigger issue there. I mean, I wasn't

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Speaker 2: in the house, so I've got to be careful commenting

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Speaker 2: on something that I didn't see myself. But I think

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Speaker 2: the bigger issue there was that she probably went from

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Speaker 2: what again went on well passed to her time allocation

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Speaker 2: and that probably may be annoyed your environment more.

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Speaker 1: No, well, maybe it's hard to know, but no, it

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Speaker 1: seems to have been the hooker Chippy. Thanks as always

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Speaker 1: Chris Hopkins, Labor Party Leader.

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