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Speaker 1: Barry Sober, Senior political Correspondence with US.

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Speaker 2: High Barry, Good afternoon.

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Speaker 1: Okay, we're standing by right now for Chippy to start

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Speaker 1: his press conference, which hasn't kicked off just yet. But

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Speaker 1: talk me through what you understand is going on here.

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Speaker 2: Well, I don't think the press conference is going to

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Speaker 2: tell us a hell of a lot. If he's taken

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Speaker 2: legal advice, I'm sure the lawyer will have said to him,

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Speaker 2: don't address the issues one by one, because there were

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Speaker 2: several allegations made in the initial post on Facebook. I've

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Speaker 2: been talking to his ex wife for some time this afternoon.

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Speaker 2: In fact, I knew her around Parliament, so we had

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Speaker 2: quite a long chat about what she claims went on,

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Speaker 2: and the reason essentially I think that she's now talking

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Speaker 2: about it is what she sees as the hypocrisy of

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Speaker 2: Chris Hopkins, some of the stuff that he espouses which

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Speaker 2: doesn't ring true to her, given what she says was

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Speaker 2: pretty unpleasant treatment by him of her when they were together.

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Speaker 2: They were together more than a decade, so it wasn't

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Speaker 2: a short it was a short marriage that they'd been

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Speaker 2: together for some time. She, like any mother, would be

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Speaker 2: as concerned for her children and then you'd have to ask, well,

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Speaker 2: why go public on this? And I think she obviously

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Speaker 2: feels that this is bigger than that. She says everything

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Speaker 2: she said in public is the truth, and she called

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Speaker 2: it the verifiable truth. So she says she's got evidence

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Speaker 2: to back up.

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Speaker 1: Well, why do this, because I mean, this is all

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Speaker 1: stuff that can be litigated behind closed doors. Why make

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Speaker 1: it public?

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Speaker 2: Well? She clearly and I didn't ask her specifically this,

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Speaker 2: but clearly she believes this man could potentially be the

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Speaker 2: Prime Minister of New Zealand again, and she believes that

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Speaker 2: he isn't the sort of character that should be holding

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Speaker 2: that particular role. So that's why she's doing it. I mean,

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Speaker 2: you'd have to say, dare I say it Philly vindictive?

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Speaker 2: But you know, marriage, split up, sir, never easy situations

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Speaker 2: to be in.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean you think you'd be you'd be stoked.

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Speaker 1: For your children they can say their father is the

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Speaker 1: prime minister.

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Speaker 2: Well they can say it because he has been so.

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Speaker 1: Oh well this is true. And lest anyone think for

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Speaker 1: one second that I want the Labor Party back in

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Speaker 1: power of him as the prime minister. Now, our prime minister,

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Speaker 1: the one we currently have has moved on to Tonga,

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Speaker 1: has he so he's free of the troubles that would

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Speaker 1: be caused by the Sarmuran prime minister's mouth.

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Speaker 2: Well, look, quite sincerely, this is exactly what happened. The

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Speaker 2: High Commissioner for Apia in Samoa, he talked to the

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Speaker 2: Ministry of Foreign Affairs and said, will a Mattie chieftain

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Speaker 2: ship be delivered to Chris Luxen when he arrives, because

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Speaker 2: several under other prime ministers have had that honor bestowed

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Speaker 2: on them, so it's not uncommon for New Zealand prime ministers.

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Speaker 2: And that was interpreted by the High Commissioner going to

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Speaker 2: the officials in RP and saying is this on? Will

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Speaker 2: this be happening? And they in fact said yes, it

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Speaker 2: is happening, and for some unknown reason it's been transmitted

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Speaker 2: to the primester are saying that our prime minister asked

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Speaker 2: for it, and I think, you know, I can feel

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Speaker 2: for Chris lux and it's pretty bad.

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Speaker 1: But what about him? Then old mate heading back with

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Speaker 1: the second one and saying.

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Speaker 2: He tried to get the ceremony aborted, and you know,

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Speaker 2: I can understand trying to get the ceremony abort it,

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Speaker 2: abort it because well it was just bloody terrible what happened.

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Speaker 2: So is this guy new to the job, Schmidt, Yeah,

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Speaker 2: six months in the job. You remember there's a female

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Speaker 2: prime minister there before him. But look, prime minister's in

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Speaker 2: my toingueho have received matt eyes from Muldoon, David Longey,

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Speaker 2: Jim Bolger, John Key and Bill English. Interestingly, Helen Clark

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Speaker 2: was never offered one, and neither was Justin Deurn who

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Speaker 2: offered the apology to the Sarmons for the Dawn raids

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Speaker 2: which her father incidentally was involved in, which it was

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Speaker 2: a story of mine at the time. So at a

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Speaker 2: political level, Muldoon, of course, who was responsible for the

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Speaker 2: raids on Sarmons living in this country, he's got one

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Speaker 2: as well, so well he did have one. It just seems,

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Speaker 2: you know, they handed out philly Willy nilly Is it

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Speaker 2: because of it?

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Speaker 1: It seems a gender thing.

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Speaker 2: Is it a gender No, it's not. No, you can

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Speaker 2: a female can be sworn into that as well. But

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Speaker 2: you know the thing is, it's a it's a common

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Speaker 2: thing for New Zealand prime ministers to get and there's

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Speaker 2: a bit of descent now in Sarmonon you can understand

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Speaker 2: this from the younger generations saying, look, these are revered titles. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: and they have to work generations to get one themselves.

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Speaker 2: And you got some white bloke from a New Zealand

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Speaker 2: coming over and claiming we'll not claiming one but being

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Speaker 2: good point.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, but fair point actually, Barry. Thanks very much, Barry

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Speaker 1: so for senior political correspondent.

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