On The Nation: Xmas Special

Lisa Owen: Kia ora. Good morning and happy holidays, and welcome to the final Nation of 2015. I’m Lisa Owen.

Patrick Gower: And I’m Patrick Gower. We are here at the Sweat Shop Brew Bar in downtown Auckland with just a few friends on the show.

Owen: There are about 60 people here, actually, and over some brunch, we’re going to take you through the highs and lows of the year – the victorious and the vanquished of 2015. But first here’s a taster to get us started.

Gower: 2015 kicked off with a political pundit’s dream.

John Key: My office was advised Mr Sabin would resign.

Winston Peters: Standing in a by-election is not an easy decision to make.

Owen: John Key says Peters has no chance.

Key: Absolutely zero.

Mark Osborne: Ten single-lane bridges across Northland.

Peters: Of course there’s a bribe, but these people are not going to fall for this.

Peters: I belong here, and I’ve come home early.

Gower: Within weeks too, the PM faced another PR disaster.

Owen: ‘One day I’ll snap and I’ll punch him in the face.’

Key: It was all in the context of a bit of banter that was going on.

John Oliver: John Key can’t pass any dangling hair without pawing at it.

Annette King: Somebody suggested it’s some sort of fetish.

Peters: Well, it’s called trichophilia.

Gower: It was also a year of leadership changes and challenges.

Russel Norman: All good things must come to an end.

James Shaw: I’m very comfortable with my metrosexuality.

Paul Henry: It makes a fool of Maurice Williamson.

Colin Craig: I have never sexually harassed anyone.

Ron Mark: A lot of bizarre things have been said over the last week, and we’re not responsible for that.

Gower: Some new leaders found their feet.

Shaw: Where is the statesman in you, Mr Key, when it comes to the climate?

Marama Fox: The government has turned into the biggest slumlord that we have in this country.

Gower: And others put one in their mouth.

David Seymour: The French, for instance, love the coq.

Andrew Little: Some sort of fiscal gender reassignment or something. Who knows what it is?

Gower: National forged ahead with its agenda.

Gower: Will you allow Australians to buy New Zealand state houses?

Bill English: Yeah, that’s possible.

Tim Groser: Complete elimination of all tariffs on everything New Zealand exports, with two exceptions.

Key: And it pulled out some surprises as well.

Key: The first government to raise benefits in 43 years!

Paula Bennett: We’ve declined this because of how big it is.

Henry: Forget even looking at that flag. It is not a runner.

Key: No, because it’s not part of the final four.

Key: If you want to have five, I’m happy to have five.

Gower: The opposition landed a few blows.

Phil Twyford: Offshore Chinese buyers have a major impact in the Auckland market.

Kelvin Davis: People are dying because of Serco.

Gower: And there were government own goals too.

Gower: Most New Zealanders would think mini golf is low-risk.

Michael Woodhouse: I think that would probably be right.

Gower: It’s in the high-risk category?

Woodhouse: Yeah.

Key: You back the rapists!

Gower: And while the PM has had to apologise once this year, it’s Ron Mark who wins the award for worst-behaved MP,...

Order!

Mark: Shut the up.

Gower: …with three objections and three apologies, and three sitting days still to go.

Order!

Gower: Yes, well, we saw some pretty decent scraps there, and speaking of scrappers, I’m here with one of the ultimate political scrappers – in fact, the guy that won the biggest political scrap of the year, Winston Peters, my politician of the year for winning that by-election in Northland. Winston, looking back now on that victory up there, what went on? What’s behind it? What have we learnt from it?

Peters: Well, look, it was a huge risk and a huge cost, but we thought we should put it all on the line because of the way Northland was. I’m proud of my parliamentary team, my parliamentary colleagues and, above all, the party members and the people of Northland who took the risk as well, because I think it was so important to make a stand there, and we are glad we did.

Yeah, and what’s the lesson for the government out of it? What were they taught there when you basically gave them a thrashing?

Well, stop taking the provinces and the regions for granted, and stop being focused just on one city, like Auckland, at an enormous cost to the people in the South Island and the Far North and the East Coast and the Taranakis of this world. That’s the message to them, and I don’t think they’re getting it.

And on that, Winston—I mean, thanks for coming on today. I take it that you wandered down from up home and came down here today.

No, no, I’ve come back from Nelson overnight, and I’m heading up to the Whangarei Show very shortly.

Because you promised that you would move to Whananaki.

I’ve been—

And I don’t think you have.

You’ve got to be joking. I’ve been there since the by-election started. I’ve spent nearly every weekend there. And I make one commitment to you, because—

Okay, all right, all right. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. All right. All right. You also promised Gold Card ferry. You also promised Gold Card ferries from Paihia to Russell. Where are they?

Paddy, can I just finish off what I was saying? I’ll guarantee I’ve spent more time in my electorate in the brief time I’ve been there than John Key has in his whole career.

Where’s the Gold Card ferry? Where is the Gold Card ferry rights?

The application has gone in to Fullers– Fullers in the Paihia to Russell ferry and also for the Kohukohu to Rawene ferry. Now, that’s what’s happened already.

You mentioned the Prime Minister.

You want the answer, Paddy? What do you want?

Here’s a good question. The Prime Minister’s already just recently not ruling you out as Deputy Prime Minister and working with you again at the next election. Could it be Winnie P, Deputy PM 2017?

The Prime Minister’s going to have to row his own leaky boat, and we’ll get our super-fast craft going all by ourselves. We’re not wasting our time with these conversations talking about anything else but the New Zealand First policy and the plan for 2017.

But are you happy to be John Key’s deputy prime minister in 2017? Rule it out.

How did you slide from that very clear answer…

You’ll get on—

…to something so nonsensical as that?

You’ll get on his leaky boat, won’t you?

Oh, you’ve got to be joking. We’re not going to—

Now, here’s a quick question before we go. Is New Zealand First interested in winning the Whangarei seat? You’re off to the A & P Show afterwards. Is New Zealand First interested in winning the Whangarei seat next election?

All I’ve got to say is we’ll campaign hard all around this country.

Will Shane Jones be sitting there, standing there?

I thought we’d had the last question already.

Yeah. Got to go now, Winston.

You have a good Christmas.

Thank you very much. You have a good Christmas too. It’s been good working with you.

Owen: I’m here with the leader of the Labour Party, Andrew Little. Massive skydive for you on Friday. It must have taken you back to the old days of Labour free fall.

Little: No, there is a very exciting moment of freedom and a new opening in front of me. No, it was fantastic, actually. I thoroughly recommend it to everybody.

All right. Well, you had a big reshuffle this week, got rid of a few, shall we say, inconveniences. Was the big win for you that there was no back-biting, no legs, no scrapping in public over it?

Yeah. The process I used building up to it involved interview – not just one but several interviews of every MP. So I think people were pretty clear about where my thinking was at. So there weren’t a lot of surprises in that for people. Little bit of, sort of, refinement in the day or two before the announcement, but I’m pleased. I think it reflects the strengths where we need to have them, and it’s a good line-up, it’s a good look, and I’m feeling very confident now about the next couple of years.

What was the highlight of the year for you? Was the Chinese-name saga one of the highlights?

Well, that got a lot of attention. I mean, it certainly drew attention to a very important issue. There are a lot of things. I think—I’m very pleased that we’ve ended the year with a good caucus and a good heart. The party have got one or two things left to do there, and we’ve had a pretty steady rise in the polls.

So was it a lowlight, then, the Chinese names?

No, it was an event. It was neither, you know, a highlight nor a lowlight. It was just an event. It happened. It was one that attracted a lot of attention. It attracted attention because it’s a story that, actually, a lot of Aucklanders know about, and I know we were labelled all sorts of various things, but the reality is there is an issue with what is happening in the Auckland house price—house market, and we depicted that. However ham-fisted as some say it might have been… It was crude, but it told the story that people know is there, and so it was important we got that story out.

Quick-fire question for you. Behind you is a billboard with the flag choices.

Yes.

Which one is your number one?

Honestly, I haven’t filled my ballot paper out yet. It’ll be a subject of considerable internal consultation. I said if Red Peak was on the ballot paper, that would get me to vote in the first referendum. I’ll have a closer look in the remaining days, but in the end I just have a terrible sense that we’re going to have spent $26 million and this time next year we’ll still have the same flag.

I want to ask you about a story that came up this week – melanoma drug, a new melanoma drug. Annette King all but committed you to funding that. So would you? Are you taking over--?

Yes.

Oh, you’re taking over PHARMAC’s job?

No. Melanoma is a huge problem for New Zealand. We know that the amount of money that PHARMAC spent over the last 10 or 15 years has reduced considerably. That’s why the health budget has reduced considerably but we have this major problem with melanoma. And a drug that we know at least two other countries use because it works – why would we have that here? So there is a decision to take, to say, ‘We need to do this.’

All right. Thanks very much, Andrew Little.

Thank you.

Gower: Yes, now, I’m here with Nikki Kaye, the government minister and the MP for this wonderful electorate. Nikki Kaye, thanks for joining us. Now, Andrew Little, we just heard from him. He’s been skydiving. You’ve just run the New York marathon. What was that like?

Nikki Kaye: It was actually pretty tough. I think I was crying for the last 3 miles, because I probably didn’t do enough training. But it was an amazing event. There was about a million people that lined the streets, so it was pretty cool. I ran it for the CatWalk Trust.

Yeah, sure. Judith Collins, one of your colleagues, has said it’s not easy being a woman in the National Party. So what’s easier – running 42 K’s or—running 42 K’s or being a woman in the National Party? What’s easier?

Oh, look, I’ve been really fortunate. I’ve had some amazing men, like Bill English, who have supported me in my career, but I think the marathon was definitely way harder. I’m still sore from it, so, yeah…

We’re standing in the middle of your wonderful electorate, as we said, right now, where the average house price is 930,000 bucks – a rise of 24%. What’s the good bit about that?

Oh, it’s not good. I think that’s why all politicians across the spectrum are taking it very seriously. We put in special housing accords. There’s about 23,000 houses consented. In fact, I think this year is the highest number of consents, but we’ve got more to do, and everybody’s very focused on it.

And if it’s not good, that an admission of failure by the government, isn’t it?

No, look, I think for decades, people are acknowledging — in fact Phil Twyford did it the other day – that land supply is an issue and the Auckland Unitary Plan is going to be crucial to be able to deal with some of those issues.

Sure. 24%, though – ouch.

Look, and that’s why I think whether it’s the bright-line test, which has just come in—I think that’s the other good thing – is that whether it’s the home-start subsidies, which are about $450 million, that we’re putting in or the bright-line test, we’ve still got some things in the can that are going to kick in.

Sure. This new melanoma drug that hasn’t got funding from PHARMAC, do you think there will be some discussions from the cabinet this week about whether the government should step in and fund that?

Well, look, it’s a tough situation. One of the most heartbreaking moments I had as a constituency MP was a couple who came in, they wanted me to—the government to fund a cancer drug. We’ve got to look at both the scientific evidence around it, and we’ve always had this independent model, because you will always get people who really want certain drugs to be funded. And so I think it’s really important that you look at the science.

There could be some discussion this week, don’t you think?

Well, I think there are discussions happening, generally.

Sure. And one quick-fire before we go.

What was that?

One quick-fire question before we go – should Judith Collins come back to cabinet? Yes or no?

Whatever the Prime Minister wants to happen.

I thought you might say that.

Thank you.

Owen: And joining me now is Metro’s Simon Wilson, Susie Ferguson from Morning Report and NZME’s Fran O’Sullivan. If I can come to you first. What was the highlight of the political year for you?

Simon Wilson: The highlight of the year? Goodness, I think probably the fact that John Key has had such an extraordinary year. Not a personal highlight, I have to say, but it has been remarkable to watch pretty much everything go wrong for the government this year and yet to see him come through it unscathed. He is in as strong a position now as he ever was, in my view. And that is a remarkable thing to do.

So he’s your winner – your political winner – for the year? What about you, Susie? A winner or a loser from the year.

Susie Ferguson: I’d say Kelvin Davis has got to be the winner from the year. He’s had, really, an extraordinary year where he’s frankly been leading on quite a lot of the major issues – the detainees, particularly. He also reported on Serco. As for a loser, I would say it might be his opposite number, Sam Lotu-Iiga.

Yeah, well, Kelvin can certainly find a headline. It’ll be interesting to see how he develops next year as well. What about for you, Fran? Highlight, lowlight.

Fran O’Sullivan: I think the highlight is probably John Key’s still standing up there on the high wire brilliantly. But also another highlight is actually the guy in the engine room, Bill English, finally getting to a surplus. Facing some tough times ahead, though, however, as potentially the issues around the milk prices, all of that and potentially El Nino. So it’s been a highlight for me that they’ve held it together, but they’ll get tested as they move forward. Lowlight to me is just the ongoing issues around the economy.

So how do you think Andrew Little’s tracking?

Wilson: I think Andrew Little’s done extremely well in uniting his caucus and turning them back into a disciplined unit. It is surprising that he hasn’t been able to build support at the same time in the wider public, but I think we’ll see that—we have to see that in the next six months, or he’ll be in trouble.

So being dull is a triumph for Labour this year – no back-biting, no talking out?

Wilson: It is.

Ferguson: Well, perhaps. I mean, like you say, the caucus is absolutely united. You’re not hearing anything; there’s no background briefing against the leader, which has got to be seen as a win for Andrew Little. However, the polls aren’t moving for him. He’s not getting that kind of cut-through, and as Simon’s saying, that’s something that’s really going to have to shift, otherwise he’s going to face increasing problems.

A grade for him out of 10, 10 being the best. Fran? What do you say?

O’Sullivan: Well, I’d only give him a six. On one thing, he has managed to quieten dissent. He has—Basically what he has done is renewed his top team and done that without too much fallout. But what he hasn’t done is actually staked Labour’s flag to the mast and what it actually stands for. I don’t know what it stands for. He’s repudiated some very good, strong policies that, in my view, the economy needs at some stage in the game – particularly around intergenerational fairness. If he can’t stand for that, what can he stand for?

What do we expect from Winston Peters in 2017?

O’Sullivan: Deputy prime minister, possible prime minister, depending on how—

Wow, big call, Fran.

Wilson: I don’t agree with that, and I think one of the things we’ve discovered about New Zealand First this year is that although Winston Peters had an extraordinary success in Northland, his deputy, Ron Mark, has shown himself to be clearly out of his depth. Now, that’s a one-person party still, and New Zealand First will be in trouble.

All right. Well, let’s move over here. We’re going to have a word to David Shearer. Hey. Do you miss being leader of the Labour Party?

Shearer: I think I’d rather be singing on national television, actually.

Well, it’s given you some spare time to write a few tunes. Look, coming up after the break, we’re going to be speaking to Helen Kelly and Auckland’s mayoral candidates, but before that, we’re going to hear this tune from Mr Shearer – an original composition called Poll-Raising Blues – withCameron Bennett. Take it away.

Shearer: John Key, so, he went to the doctor at the hospital. He said, ‘Your poll is too high.’ But that’s impossible. Ponygate,…

Shearer, Cameron Bennett: …carpets don’t match the drapes.

Shearer: Oh, Hilary and Mike, Paddy too, they’ve got those TV3 ratings blues. Oh, ratings…

Shearer, Cameron Bennett: …running all around my brain. Well, mama, won’t you come here quick?

Shearer: That Nielsen poll, it’s making me sick.

Shearer, Cameron Bennett: Oh, ratings running all around my brain.

Shearer: Well, leaders come, and leaders go. You never see it coming…

Part two

Ariane Rummery: New Zealand has said it will take 100 Syrian refugees, and that’s on top of its normal quota.

Lisa Owen: How could this happen under the nose of your staff?

Rupert Soames: Well, it shouldn’t happen.

Ben Rachinger: Cameron Slater asked me for financial benefit to hack into The Standard website.

John Stringer: It’s not just about Colin Craig. This is not a personality movement.

Lisa Owen: Are you Mr X, Colin?

Colin Craig: I am. That’s right. It’s a nom de plume.

Lisa Owen: So you’ve taken some already?

Helen Kelly: Yeah, I’ve inhaled.

Lisa Owen: Well, those were some of our top stories that we broke on The Nation last year—this year, rather. I just want to give you a bit of an update on the police investigation there into Cameron Slater’s alleged plan to hack into The Standard. Well, the lawsuits never came. The police say that the case is being finalised, and that means we understand that the file is with the Crown Law Office, and they will make a decision whether to follow up with charges or not. Well, I’m joined now by Helen Kelly, the former president of the CTU. How are you doing, Helen?

Helen Kelly: I’m doing all right, you know, hanging on in there.

Yeah. So, what have you been up to since you resigned from the CTU?

Working. I’m doing the government’s equal pay committee. I’m very involved in the meatworkers’ dispute. Those meatworkers at AFFCO Talley’s are still locked out and not being taken back despite the court ordering that they should be. I’m doing all sorts of work, yeah.

Well, we just saw you in a little montage that we played there, admitting you had inhaled. You said you inhaled. You were using cannabis oil and are using cannabis oil for your cancer pain. How are you going with your application to Peter Dunne to make that legal for you?

Well, it’s still not filled in. I’ve got it here.

Got your papers.

But it’s incredibly complicated. I have to decide with my doctors what product to apply for, to import, basically. Instead of them having a range and making them available and being able to get familiar with them, I have to somehow convince them that this product’s got the right amount of this and the right amount of that. These are products that are readily available everywhere else. So in the meantime, I keep taking it unlawfully. It’s effective, incredibly effective for me. And I’ve got a bag full of morphine, which I can replace it with if it all goes wrong.

ENDS

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