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Speaker 1: Thomas Coglan, the Herald's political editors with us.

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Speaker 2: Now, hey, Thomas, good afternoon.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so the sick leaf kerfuffle that was unnecessary, wasn't it?

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Speaker 2: It was quite unnecessary. The Prime Minister on his morning

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Speaker 2: media around this morning, was asked about whether or not

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Speaker 2: the government was looking to reduce the number of sick

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Speaker 2: days that that workers get. He basically alluded to the

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Speaker 2: fact that brook van Velden was doing work in this

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Speaker 2: area and that, you know, options were open to the government.

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Speaker 2: So everyone quickly he wrote up stories that suggested that

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Speaker 2: that said that the government was open to, you know,

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Speaker 2: halving people's sick leave in titlements. Brook van Velden quickly

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Speaker 2: poured cold water on this. The government is looking at

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Speaker 2: a system for part time workers, like a pro rated

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Speaker 2: style system. So that's so brooklyn Veldin's exact quote, as

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Speaker 2: we might need to do things about pro rating sick

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Speaker 2: leave as well, because people who are on time part

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Speaker 2: time contracts are getting full time ten day equivalency. Pardon

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Speaker 2: me that was that was Prime Minister Christopher UX's remark.

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Speaker 2: But but we're we're not looking it completely. Having the

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Speaker 2: the the entitlement from ten days to to five days,

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Speaker 2: so a bit of a bit of a miss.

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Speaker 1: So he caused his own governments kerfuffle for the day.

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Speaker 1: Now would you expect I would have. I would expect

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Speaker 1: that he knows better than this what's going on? Right?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? He it is. He does have quite an executive

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Speaker 2: or chair of the board style where he's not in

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Speaker 2: the weeds any pre minister's portfolios. I think that has

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Speaker 2: a benefit. I think you'd see, like just into a

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Speaker 2: doing sometimes would would get quite in the weeds and

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Speaker 2: other people's portfolios. Christopher Latson is that isn't on Thomas.

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Speaker 1: There are better examples there. Helen Clark was across absolutely

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Speaker 1: every single piece of detail, even if she wasn't a micromanager,

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Speaker 1: and so was John Key, they would never make mistakes

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Speaker 1: like this.

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Speaker 2: Yes, and that is the other side of it, you know.

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Speaker 2: I mean Helen Clark and John Key remarkable for for

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Speaker 2: probably knowing more about some portfolios than the ministers that

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Speaker 2: held them.

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Speaker 1: And even if you didn't know, right, even if you

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Speaker 1: weren't across all of these details, surely you just it

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Speaker 1: would occur to you as a politician that taking away

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Speaker 1: fifty percent of someone sickly would be a reasonably big

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Speaker 1: political issue and maybe you wouldn't just say that out loud.

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Speaker 2: Well, I am surprised, as you say, I'm surprised that

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Speaker 2: that there isn't a book of you know, red flags

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Speaker 2: that the pre Minister is aware of. That it was

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Speaker 2: sort of like like that old mind sweeper game that

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Speaker 2: used to play on old computers. I'm surprised that that

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Speaker 2: that that he doesn't have it at a hand, a

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Speaker 2: sort of a knowledge of the very real issues that

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Speaker 2: the government's going to face in the next six months

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Speaker 2: and knows how to handle them delicately. But but yeah,

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Speaker 2: you know, yeah, it is. It is. He probably lost

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Speaker 2: a very valuable morning when he probably want to be

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Speaker 2: talking about I mean.

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Speaker 1: Not the biggest, not the biggest mistake in the world,

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Speaker 1: right but but but it's forming a bit of a

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Speaker 1: pattern because it's not the first time he's done this, is.

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Speaker 2: It he is He is very easily he very easily

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Speaker 2: talked White ties himself in knots on the morning there.

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Speaker 2: I just did it myself on the on the morning

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Speaker 2: media circuit. He it is that detailed issue. And when

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Speaker 2: when when people smith sniff that he has gone off

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Speaker 2: topic or he doesn't know what he's talking about. You know,

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Speaker 2: that's where he really he really leads leads himself astray.

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Speaker 2: And it didn't it didn't need to be the spad

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Speaker 2: he I mean just into doing it again. She could

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Speaker 2: quite definitely sort of stone more people. It was annoying

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Speaker 2: because you knew she wasn't giving you the whole answer.

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Speaker 2: It was very annoying from time to time, but it

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Speaker 2: did avoid situations like this.

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Speaker 1: Now he will be much happier. I think this is

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Speaker 1: his happy place when he's off around the world doing

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Speaker 1: doing foreign policy. So he's heading to China tomorrow.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, very early in the morning, so he's he's

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Speaker 2: he's catching the dreaded boeing to China. It's it's a

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Speaker 2: you know, the government's defense force plane doesn't have a

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Speaker 2: very long range, so it's going to take three flights

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Speaker 2: to get to to get to China. It is his

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Speaker 2: happy place. Tourism and international education are the big goals

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Speaker 2: of the trip. Chinese visitor arrivals. The Chinese tourism market

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Speaker 2: is sixty percent of pre co level, so we really

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Speaker 2: need to get that back up. There's a visa announcement

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Speaker 2: this weekend to make it easier if you're a Chinese

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Speaker 2: tourist with a visa for Australia. Much easier now to

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Speaker 2: hop across the ditch to New Zealand. So that's that's

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Speaker 2: that seems like a really really positive initiative. International education

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Speaker 2: is the other big one for New Zealand schools and universities,

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Speaker 2: so they're trying to ang some deals to get a

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Speaker 2: bit of that, a bit of that coming back to

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Speaker 2: New Zealand as well. It is his heavy place. He

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Speaker 2: likes that he's quite good at it. He hasn't been

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Speaker 2: to China before his Prime Minister, so we'll see how

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Speaker 2: he does there.

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Speaker 1: Good stuff. Hey, Thomas, as always, thank you so much,

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Speaker 1: made appreciated. That's Thomas Coglan, the Herald's political editor. For

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Speaker 1: more from Heather Duplassy, Alan Drive, listen live to news Talks.

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