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Speaker 1: Right now, Azaria, how News talks. He'd be senior political

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Speaker 1: reporter with us. Azaria. Good afternoon, good afternoon, It's good

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Speaker 1: to be with you. And we have an election date.

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Speaker 2: We have an election date. The Prime Minister has announced

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Speaker 2: the twenty twenty sixth general election will be held on

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Speaker 2: November the seventh. Chris Luxon says setting the election date

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Speaker 2: early in the year sort of gives it more certainty

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Speaker 2: to New Zealanders. The government also intends for Parliament to

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Speaker 2: rise on the twenty fourth of September and then Parliament

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Speaker 2: to dissolve on October. The first advance voting will start

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Speaker 2: on the twenty sixth of October. That's in the current plans.

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Speaker 2: The PM's also spoken about the significant economic turnaround plan

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Speaker 2: that Nationals hoping really gets felt more widely across the

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Speaker 2: country this year. Another big aspect though of this election date,

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Speaker 2: coalition talks. The Prime Minister has reiterated he's confident that

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Speaker 2: those talks would be able to be sorted out by

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Speaker 2: Christmas with that November seventh date. Although Luxe and he

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Speaker 2: says he is willing to work with act in New

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Speaker 2: Zealand four again, although he is pushing for people to

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Speaker 2: party vote. National Labor leader Chris Hopkins responded to this.

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Speaker 2: He said, it's a relatively late election, usually sort of

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Speaker 2: October the time to do it. He's claiming that this

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Speaker 2: means that the Prime Minister wants to hold on for

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Speaker 2: as long as possible, also saying that it could be

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Speaker 2: a challenge to have those coalition talks done before Christmas.

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Speaker 1: Right now, and what about Chris Hipkins, He's given his

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Speaker 1: first speechure of the year to his caucus in West

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Speaker 1: Auckland today and I saw he gave a bit of

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Speaker 1: a serve to Bishop and to Luxe and over the

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Speaker 1: housing thing. What else has he been saying?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, the big deal here really the party wanting to

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Speaker 2: win back the super city flip some of those seats.

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Speaker 2: Hipkins really putting emphasis on how important that is, saying

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Speaker 2: that Labour wants to win back the biggest city and

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Speaker 2: that there will be a dedicated strategy around Auckland. So

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Speaker 2: it really does seem like having more of a focus

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Speaker 2: on this. Auckland has been a bit of a pressure

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Speaker 2: point for the party especially last election. Another pressure point

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Speaker 2: though policy which may continue to be a bit of

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Speaker 2: a worry over the year. Chris Hopkins is promising the

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Speaker 2: party will announce new policies going ahead.

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Speaker 3: However, the fiscal plan, so how we will balance up

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Speaker 3: the government's books and any spending many major spending commitments

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Speaker 3: and so on, those things will come later in the year.

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Speaker 2: So major decisions around spending seem like they may have

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Speaker 2: to come after the budget. That's something Labour's said in

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Speaker 2: the past. It does, though bring about questions, notably do

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Speaker 2: they have enough time from budget day to election day

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Speaker 2: to really sell those policies to people.

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Speaker 1: Now finally we've got a retirement announcement already, So Duncan

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Speaker 1: web from Labor had already said he was going and

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Speaker 1: now Adrian Ruafi, the previous speaker, is out.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, the former Speaker, Adrian ududa Fe has announced his

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Speaker 2: resignation from politics. He'll be standing down at White Honey

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Speaker 2: Day so quite soon, and he's wanting to do this.

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Speaker 2: It's been announced before the Adults in a Church movement

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Speaker 2: as well, essentially, so he doesn't go to that with

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Speaker 2: this kind of resignation looming over his head. He will

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Speaker 2: then be replaced by Georgie Danzy on the Labor list.

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Speaker 2: Chris Hepkins also confirmed he's not expecting any more labor

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Speaker 2: resignations to announce, but he's confirmed. A bit of a reshuffle.

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Speaker 3: Goot, a bit of a game of chess, you know,

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Speaker 3: you move a few pieces around, it always involves a

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Speaker 3: few subsequent changes from that.

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Speaker 2: Well, on the other side of the house, the PM

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Speaker 2: did flag potential changes in the National Party earlier in

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Speaker 2: the week. He said there may well be a reshuffle

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Speaker 2: in the next month or two. We may well have

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Speaker 2: some retirements. There has been some speculation. It is just

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Speaker 2: chatter rumors at this point, nothing substantiated. However, former National

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Speaker 2: Party Minister Chris Finlayson has said, speaking to the podcast

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Speaker 2: Cross Party Lines, that there were rumors about whether or

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Speaker 2: not Judith Collins is going to call it a day.

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Speaker 2: Her press team, though, has emailed me a statement saying

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Speaker 2: Collins was confirmed as the National Party candidate for the

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Speaker 2: Papacuda electorate in October last year. I mean, you would

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Speaker 2: think it would be quite strange to select her in

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Speaker 2: a seat and then have to replace her. Here's what

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Speaker 2: Chris Bishop had to say about it all earlier today.

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Speaker 2: Not really wanting to get involved in this discussion.

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Speaker 3: If she is, there is a position for her and

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Speaker 3: Amna announcement for her to make it is not for

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Speaker 3: me to make it.

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Speaker 2: So a bit unclear there about Collins. Obviously, it's an

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Speaker 2: IF at this point, not a yes or a no.

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Speaker 1: Interesting stuff, Azaria, Thank you for that. Zara Howell out

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Speaker 1: of Parliament for us.

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Speaker 3: For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to

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Speaker 3: news Talks.

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Speaker 1: It'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast

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Speaker 1: on iHeartRadio