Christopher Luxon

Well, I wasn't there to hear them, but um, you know, again, uh, you know, uh it was him and Jacinda are doing the end of the oil and gas uh exploration, which puts massive pressure on our country. It was him and Shane Jones wanting to plant a billion trees and do farm to forestry conversions. It's it's frankly, Winston that doesn't support a China FTA, let alone an Indian FTA. So um, so I don't I'm not too worried about that. Um I I'm more focused on I just believe let's do the right things. Let's focus on what our farmers need us to be focused on as government, which is get out of farming, we'll get welling out of farming, simplify the regulations, open up opportunities overseas, get our products produced, increase and produce more, um, and get the job done.

Well, I just think, you know, first and foremost, they're two separate issues. We can talk about Paris and we can talk about ETS, we can talk about wild and pines. Wilding pines are an environmental disaster. Um I met with a gentleman from South Marlborough who'd been working on this issue for 43 years. He first raised it with Rob Muldoon um back in the early 80s. Uh they are an environmental disaster. They, you know, threaten productive farmland with a sensitive water supplies, they're impact the biodiversity, got a massive risk of wildfires. There's more than two million hectares across the country affected by them, left untreated. They sort of expand about five percent a year, and that's about almost four billion dollars of economic threat over fifty years. So, you know, there's a real uh economic and environmental reasons for why we need to do something about that, and that's why we've increased funding two and a half times, and then working with in partnership with councils, farmers and owners, and uh to to work our way through that. Uh with respect to Paris, I mean, um, and what we're trying to do there. I mean, as I said to you before, um, you know, it's in our interest, our economic interest, our national interest, uh, to remain in Paris at this time. We compete with other countries that want to take us down. Large multinationals want, would love nothing if we came out of Paris to throw our products off shelf. That would just punish our farmers and make all Kiwis poorer. So, and we want agriculture increasing production uh um and our economy growing. So it's not um, you know, and it's not Paris ranking that hurt farmers, it was labor that hurt farmers and went to war with farmers back in the past. So from from a bit equally, we are working in our Paris you know commitments. We're committed to the net zero twenty fifty goals, which are the domestic goals that we've committed to. We're gonna give the 2030 a go, but um I've seen some reports I want to reassure everyone we're not sending billions of dollars on in jobs offshore like the last lot had proposed. That's just not going to happen. We're not gonna make New Zealanders poorer by taking money out of this country and sending it out to to someone um overseas for um something else. So we're not doing that stuff. So a different approach.

I think we should be celebrating success in this country. I think you know, people who are wealth creators or wealth generators that create jobs and opportunities for Kiwis is something that's a good thing. Uh what we know for sure though is a wealth tax would just put a wrecking ball right through this economy. Uh that is not the right message. We've seen that you know fail in many other countries around the world. But it's not surprising. I mean, this is a green party that wants to add $88 billion worth of new taxes, uh, $44 billion more of borrowing, having used up the Rainy Day fund, maxed out the credit card and getting, you know, letters from the banks about our credit rating. Uh, that's not the way forward. Uh so you know, the fastest way in which we'll see capital leave this country is the introduction of a wealth tax.

Filling in a 13 bit of 13 bits of information as I understood it in the past in my past life that actually we can provide the government. And actually very few of those pieces of paper are actually sampled. So no very good challenge. Really good challenge. We should be using technology a lot more. This is what I'm talking about. This is how we get more efficient, more effective, better service. Um these are the things we have to do. Um I'm not quite sure why we haven't got that. Yeah, yeah. Hey, welcome home. He's he's listening, he's fired up two weeks away. Isn't that a good idea? No, no, no, I agree with you. Like, you know, I was in Singapore recently, much more seamless experience. I mean, I know Auckland's trying to improve with the investments they're making there at the airport. Yeah. Um but I think it's a very fair challenge because I actually, you know, I I had thought several years ago that we'd got rid of the forms, or where that was the whole point was that we were providing as airlines a lot of the information the government needed around your background, you know, but just the basic stuff that's on the form.

Or do you just think Yeah, I think they should, and I think they are. Like, I mean, I was very clear at the beginning of the year that we won't have a lolly scramble budget. We talked about national security and financial security being a big part of that. We went through a budget where I think people recognised we were being responsible and and doing the right thing, because we've maxed out the credit card, we've used up the rainy day fund and now we're getting sort of letters from the credit agencies. So, you know, but New Zealand has, you know, when you came through the budget and you see 2.7% growth, 220,000 jobs, you know, uh a budget surplus emerging, which means for the first time in a long time in a decade, we've got you know revenue greater than our costs. Um all of that is at risk. And so, you know, they owe it to be responsible to come forward and say how they're gonna fund it. Now they may well, I mean, they may well have plans to fund it and secret plans they haven't told us. That could be cranking up more tax or increasing borrowing. I don't mind that. But they've got they've got a front with it. Yeah, and I think they should be held accountable for it. Just explain it and um say we're gonna get it from. Yeah, exactly.

We expect public servants and police to be politically neutral. Um I think it would have been advantageous for him and for uh the Labour Party, frankly, for him to have declared his and his political intentions uh to his employer, the police. I think if a candidate wants to run for um office, they need to declare that with their employer uh pretty early.

That is awesome that we've got bipartisanship on a critical idea. And if the good farmers of New Zealand can know that between uh the respective government parties they've got support, which is fantastic. Isn't that exciting? Isn't that what you want to see?

We expect public servants and police to be politically neutral. Um I think it would have been advantageous for him and for uh the Labour Party, frankly, for him to have declared his and his political intentions uh to his employer, the police. I think if a candidate wants to run for um office, they need to declare that with their employer uh pretty early.

That is awesome that we've got bipartisanship on a critical idea. And if the good farmers of New Zealand can know that between uh the respective government parties they've got support, which is fantastic. Isn't that exciting? Isn't that what you want to see?

No, no, no, not at all. It's just more that it's a state-to-state issue between New Zealand and China. So primarily the responsibility sits with me. The way the question was being worded was you know, Australia's going to go in and sort it out for us. Well, we'd we no no, we're we're quite capable of sorting that out. But we're very appreciative of the of them actually raising their own concerns about the issue as well. And we do that as well, just so you know, there'll often be things that happen in the UK and we will join uh with formal statements of support uh and and talk about that publicly. Look, I mean, on the on the MP ban, I mean it's it's it's it's um I mean, first and foremost, they're MPs, so they're in what's called the legislature branch of government, not the executive branch. They should be free to go wherever they want to. Uh there's been a long-standing practice of going to Taiwan and seeing who you want to see there. Um as a result, and we haven't changed our one China policy. We continue to you know observe it and and and and um work through that. Uh so there's been no change. So it was just uh uh just you know, for us it's an inappropriate response. That's why we raised it with the Chinese. They clearly have a view that um we're not going to find an agreement or common ground.

Very, very positive. Yeah, I mean, and we have a lot of New Zealand businesses that are already registered as Australian businesses or subsidiaries over there. Yeah, absolutely. So what I've agreed to is I've actually said I'm sending uh the New Zealand Trade and Enterprise with the building and construction CEOs and and heads of businesses there to actually go to Queens uh Queensland. Yeah. And also they're quite comfortable coming here as well and doing a bit more of a road show with some more providers here as well. So it's just trying to be my my job on those things is to be like the super salesman for New Zealand. Really is how I look at the international part of my job. And when you're a small country, how do you get share of mind? And by doing something different by going to see the 2032 organizing committee, um, you know, you register with them that, hey, listen, we're taking this really seriously, we're up for it, we're very positive about it. And actually, when you think about that Olympic games coming to our part of the world, you know, granted to Brisbane, but it's gonna have huge benefits for Australia and New Zealand tourism and all sorts of things, investment.

No, no, no. There's two things going on. Look, first and foremost, you know, we make our own decisions around defence spending. I'm really proud of what we've done. You know, we've got the biggest commitment to defence spending going forward of any previous government. We've had under investment in our defence assets for probably the last 30 years. We've got a doubling of defence spending. We've got a 15-year plan. We know we need new resources, equipment, support. We need to hire, I think, another 2,000 plus uh personnel. Uh, you know, that takes time as we work our way through getting, you know, ships built and aircraft ordered and and people recruited. But you know, we should be really proud of the fact we're doing that. And we have to do that because we've moved from a very benign part of the world where you know there hasn't been much uh threats or risks to to our futures to a more challenged part of the world now. And so it's important when you belong to different alliances that you actually step up and contribute. You don't just belong to the alliances and get the membership. You've actually got to show up and bring something to the party. So I think we've done a very good job and a very sensible program of investment in defence assets. On the nuclear-free position, um, you know, that remains unchanged. And, you know, I talk to our partners and are very clear about our position, um, and they know our stance and um they respect it, and you know, frankly, all sides of the political spectrum. There'll be people on the extremes of both sides of that debate, obviously, like Bris for every debate, but the vast majority of Kiwis um don't see a reason for us to change our position at all.