Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Andrew Dickens: Is the Greens' co-leadership a thing of the past?

Transcript

Andrew Dickens: Is the Greens' co-leadership a thing of the past? · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So yesterday's talkback outrage was all about the MPs meeting
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: the mongrel mob, a meeting condemned by both the Chris's
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: and the leaders' debate. And despite all this weight of
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: opinion about what a bad move that was, Marama Davidson
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: doubled down on the visit yesterday, and then she promised
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: more funding for gang-run social programs. I'm not sure that
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Marama completely grasps the situation and understands the issue. I,
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: like others, actually don't mind MPs talking with criminals to
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: better understand where the criminals are at, and I don't
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: mind them talking with the gangs. There are 11,000 gang
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: members now. They have tens of thousands of related whānau,
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: many of whom need intervention from the state, so you
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: need to know where they're at, whether it's support for
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: single mothers or there's rescuing of children from abusive homes
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: or housing, whatever. So it's good to see these issues
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: firsthand with your own eyes. However, the real problem with
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: that meeting with the mongrel mob was the social media
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: posting of the photos. It legitimized the gangs. It even
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: celebrated their existence to a wider public. To not see that,
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: I think, silly and naive of Marama, particularly in a
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: week where the Greens are polling better than ever and
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: then she went and ruined it. The fact that it
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: was done so close to the election means it's been
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: weaponised and once again cast doubts around the Greens being
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: equipped to have their hand on the tiller of this country.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: And what I also found interesting is that Chloe Swarbrick
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: has said nothing about this. In fact, she was asked
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: if the event was acceptable and Ms Swarbrick did not
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: give a definitive yes or no. Instead, she said, I
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: need to understand more of the context as to what
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: is played out here. She knows better. She has learned
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: over the years, unlike Marama Davidson, the reason the right
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: attack Ms. Swarbrick so much and not Marama Davidson is
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: that they know that one is actually a threat who
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: kind of knows what she's doing and the other is
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: an irrelevancy. And so you get the feeling that that
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: co-leadership thing between Chloe and Marama might be a thing
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: of the past. For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge,
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: listen live to News Talk ZB from 5 a.m. weekdays
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.