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Speaker 1: Look, I know that we're all going to have different

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Speaker 1: points at which we think media reaction to a news

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Speaker 1: story gets silly. But for me, it was this morning

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Speaker 1: members of the media chasing the Prime Minister through Wellington

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Speaker 1: Airport asking him whether he was considering resigning and if

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Speaker 1: he has the full support of his caucus. To me,

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Speaker 1: seems a little bit silly. Silly because it's not as

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Speaker 1: if he's gone to ground for the last four days,

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Speaker 1: is it. I mean, he was on morning media this morning,

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Speaker 1: he did two radio interviews and at least one TV

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Speaker 1: appearance appearance, and is also going to front for a

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Speaker 1: post cabinet press conference which should be kicking off now,

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Speaker 1: so they're not starved of opportunities to talk to the

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Speaker 1: Prime Minister without chasing him through a crowded hall. It

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Speaker 1: also creates the impression of drama where really no drama exists.

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Speaker 1: There is no coupe. All of his ministers are backing

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Speaker 1: him publicly. Privately, yeah, maybe a little less so, but

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Speaker 1: publicly they are luxon is the leader until he has

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Speaker 1: talked out of being the leader, and there's no indication

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Speaker 1: that that's happening either. In short, nothing is happening in

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Speaker 1: the short term. Now, if I have to try to

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Speaker 1: understand why the media wanted to chase him through the airport,

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Speaker 1: maybe it's because they sense that things have sh and

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Speaker 1: that is true. Since the poll on Friday morning that

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Speaker 1: put the National Party at twenty eight percent, two things

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Speaker 1: have changed. The first is that ministers who previously gave

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Speaker 1: complete backing too Luxen are now privately doing it with

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Speaker 1: a caveat. Yeah, I support him, there's a butt, but

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Speaker 1: he is quite bad at taking advice. But he made

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Speaker 1: a bad call with XYZ whatever. They've dropped their full

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Speaker 1: confidence in him. That tells me something is going on

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Speaker 1: in their heads. The second thing is that he has

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Speaker 1: now entered I think publicly dead man walking territory. Every

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Speaker 1: bad poll from here on in, every big mistake that

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Speaker 1: he makes from here on in, and he will will

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Speaker 1: revive talk about his leadership. And that is a slow

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Speaker 1: bleed out for a leader. It ends in one of

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Speaker 1: two ways, a spanking on election day or the leader

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Speaker 1: finally calling it quits and going now. I think he's

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Speaker 1: in that space. I don't think the coalition government loses

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Speaker 1: the election at this rate, but I think the National

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Speaker 1: Party comes back as a mini version of itself, and

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Speaker 1: that's not a good thing for them now. Maybe that

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Speaker 1: electoral prognosis is what's got the media so excited that

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Speaker 1: the chasing him through the airport that, though, I think

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Speaker 1: is a medium term thing today, I think the brief

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Speaker 1: excitement of the weekend and just before the weekend is

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Speaker 1: over and nothing is going to happen. For more from

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Speaker 1: Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to news talks it'd

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