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Speaker 1: Right, let's talk about the National Party accident accidentally letting

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Speaker 1: slip that they're selling tables at a dinner with Chrysltion

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Speaker 1: lux And now the story is that the Mainland dinner

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Speaker 1: will be held in christ Church next month and if

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Speaker 1: you have a few thousand dollars spare, you can go along.

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Speaker 1: Dinner at Chris Luxen's table will cost you ten thousand dollars,

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Speaker 1: Dinner at a minister's table, a senior minister's table will

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Speaker 1: cost you eight thousand dollars. And then just a dinner

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Speaker 1: with just you know, normal punters, normal civilians will cost

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Speaker 1: you five thousand dollars. Now we only know about this

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Speaker 1: because Maureen Pugh shared a copy of the invitation on Facebook,

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Speaker 1: not her first mistake, and then news Talk zb sort

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Speaker 1: and then they deleted it, but it was too late

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Speaker 1: by then, and queue the outrage. Now, I'm not outraged

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Speaker 1: by this at all, because this has been going on

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Speaker 1: since at least John Key's time. Just Sinda did it

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Speaker 1: as well, and I don't think it's any different from

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Speaker 1: every other example that we have in our democracy of

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Speaker 1: cash for access. This is how power has always worked.

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Speaker 1: If you have money, you get access to people. In power,

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Speaker 1: money for lobbyists who then secure you meetings with ministers,

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Speaker 1: money for donations that mean the candidates make time for you,

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Speaker 1: money for tables at the mainland dinner. In fact, I,

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Speaker 1: and this is my personal opinion, I quite enjoy reading

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Speaker 1: about these dinners because they give me a real time

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Speaker 1: market valuation on a political leader. So Chris Luxen is

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Speaker 1: selling his table for ten thousand dollars in twenty twenty six.

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Speaker 1: Four years ago twenty twenty two, he was selling it

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Speaker 1: for fifteen thousand dollars, So he's running at a discount

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Speaker 1: at the moment, isn't he. Jacinda was selling tickets to

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Speaker 1: a conference where ticket holders could have access to her

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Speaker 1: for eighteen hundred dollars. That was five years ago. So

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Speaker 1: she was more valuable at eighteen hundred dollars in twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty one than Luxin is right now, or that he

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Speaker 1: was a year later. If you split it down and

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Speaker 1: just look at the cost per seat. John Key, now

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Speaker 1: you want to hear about a baller. John Key sold

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Speaker 1: a table at a dinner for one hundred thousand dollars.

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Speaker 1: That's real market political valuation, isn't it. Now? This tells

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Speaker 1: us how much voters and stakeholders. This is why I

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Speaker 1: think it's valuable. It tells us how much voters in

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Speaker 1: stakeholders A like various leaders B want to be seen

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Speaker 1: with them and see rate the chances of these leaders

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Speaker 1: being elected and therefore useful. So make of that what

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Speaker 1: you will when you look at the numbers. But if

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Speaker 1: you are outraged by this, you are going to be

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Speaker 1: outraged forever because cash cash for access will probably never change.

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Speaker 1: For more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive, Listen live to

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Speaker 1: news Talks. It'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow

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Speaker 1: the podcast on iHeartRadio