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Speaker 1: Okay, here we go. Winston Peters says he's writing to

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Speaker 1: the COVID nineteen Royal Commission, volunteering to answer any questions

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Speaker 1: they have in public and he's with us. Now, Hello Winston,

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Speaker 1: Hello Winston. What could you tell them that they need

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Speaker 1: to know given that you weren't in government in the

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Speaker 1: period that they're looking at.

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Speaker 2: Look, first of all, it's the right thing to do.

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Speaker 2: Don't forget. The public was promised transparent accountability, and the

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Speaker 2: inquiry was designed so that we don't make the same

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Speaker 2: mistakes again, and you can't hide behind lawyers and giving

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Speaker 2: all sorts of excuses when in fact there should be accountability,

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Speaker 2: transparency and getting to the public's trust so that they

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Speaker 2: can have confidence that we've learned something from this experience.

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Speaker 1: Look, I agree with you on all of that, But

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Speaker 1: what can you tell them about that period that they

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Speaker 1: need to know because you weren't in government.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, but take the first inquiry they set up. I said,

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Speaker 2: from the moment I thought it was a sham. I

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Speaker 2: was w Prime Minister when the pandemic first started. The

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Speaker 2: original query never even asked me to submit, and that's

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Speaker 2: how shallow and pointed it were. And that's why we

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Speaker 2: demanded and disagreed with the Active National for a proper

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Speaker 2: inquiry with public submissions and the decision makers, including me

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Speaker 2: appearing at it.

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Speaker 1: So would you like this inquiry to just go slightly

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Speaker 1: beyond its remit in its terms of reference and actually

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Speaker 1: look back at the time when you were in government.

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Speaker 2: Well, I'm very happy to do that. In most astonishing thing,

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Speaker 2: the Deputy parytmentist at the time were not even asked.

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Speaker 2: So there's something funny here, and that's why we asked

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Speaker 2: for a proper inquiry and we're volunteering it now. And

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Speaker 2: even though at the time we were not in governments,

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Speaker 2: nevertheless we were seriously part of watching this process and

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Speaker 2: indeed ended up supporting those people who were protesting on

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Speaker 2: the grounds of Parliament. In some cases had lost thirty

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Speaker 2: five years of their job and the employment or their businesses.

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Speaker 2: It was massive and I saw lawyers and doctors and

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Speaker 2: norsels of people there and they weren't going down a

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Speaker 2: rabbit hole. They were demanding account of.

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Speaker 1: Do you regret any COVID decisions that you made?

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Speaker 2: Look, I did regret very soon to the piece, because

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Speaker 2: I can tell you what happened. I was there one

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Speaker 2: day and when I made a sapt in the Australian

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Speaker 2: media correcting something that they were running. It was the

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Speaker 2: allegation supported by sint Adn and Bloomfield, that the COVID

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Speaker 2: had got to New Zealand from a company called America

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Speaker 2: hold Out of Melbourne, Australia. And the moment I heard,

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Speaker 2: I thought this has got to be fictitious, because there

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Speaker 2: were twolve hundred workers there and two had it, so

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Speaker 2: they could have got it from the factory. Now, the

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Speaker 2: point that held that and Blomfield of Magan was that

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Speaker 2: it came here by way of product, and this was

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Speaker 2: an ugment. They maintained for three days against what I

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Speaker 2: was saying, until the merry old head person rang up

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Speaker 2: and said, excuse me, we haven't sent you any product

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Speaker 2: for four and a half months.

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Speaker 1: Wow, So what part of that do you regret?

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Speaker 2: And the second part and the second part was I'm

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Speaker 2: sitting there and I'm hearing people giving absolute answers and

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Speaker 2: I thought, they can't possib me that's certain. They can't,

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Speaker 2: boss know?

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Speaker 1: Why were they that certain? Was it was? It? Was

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Speaker 1: it a deliberate attempt to mislead the public with providing

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Speaker 1: them some sort of a cockonball story, or did they

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Speaker 1: genuinely believe it.

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Speaker 2: Well, you got two answers to your question. Either they

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Speaker 2: were being deliberately deceptive or they were just being wantonly naive.

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Speaker 2: Take a pick.

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Speaker 1: Okay, hey, you didn't really get Trevor back early, did you.

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Speaker 1: I mean, if he's he's due to finish in January

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Speaker 1: and he comes back in November, that's not really early,

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Speaker 1: is it.

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Speaker 2: Well, if you don't think four months earlier, I do.

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Speaker 1: It's not four months. What are you talking about? December?

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Speaker 1: That's only two.

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Speaker 2: Months, three months early. It is not the full term

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Speaker 2: at all. And there are others that I've extended their

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Speaker 2: term for two more years.

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Speaker 1: Why didn't you call him? Why didn't you call him back?

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Speaker 1: Recall him much much earlier you've had, you've had almost

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Speaker 1: two to do.

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Speaker 2: It, because we've been making the claim at the very

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Speaker 2: beginning that all I was being was vindictive, as being

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Speaker 2: like Muldoon and hear what's going way back when? I

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Speaker 2: bet you can't remember that time because you weren't, but

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Speaker 2: I was, and I wasn't being accused of that sort

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Speaker 2: of behavior, And I thought, no, no, he should have

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Speaker 2: offered his resignation to me from the go anyway.

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Speaker 1: Okay, Winston, thank you. I appreciate your time as always,

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Speaker 1: Winston Peters, New Zealand First Leader. For more from Hither

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Speaker 1: Duplassy Allen Drive, listen live to news talks. It'd be

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Speaker 1: from four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio