Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Andrew Dickens: Hipkins needs to front up and face the heat

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Andrew Dickens: Hipkins needs to front up and face the heat · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

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  Speaker 1: So Chris Hipkins was on Kerry Woodhams show yesterday, also
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  Speaker 1: with Ryan Bridges on a streaming show on the Herald
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  Speaker 1: dot co dot in Zend and he talked about the
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  Speaker 1: COVID inquiry and he insinuated that the inquiry had been
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  Speaker 1: slanted against Labor because New Zealand First is now part
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  Speaker 1: of a national government and had drawn up the scope
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  Speaker 1: of the inquiry to benefit them. It also came out
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  Speaker 1: that he has drafted written responses to the questions the
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  Speaker 1: Commission might ask of him, but he is noncommittal about
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  Speaker 1: fronting up for a verbal grilling, a good cross examination.
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  Speaker 1: Now also on the table is just Indo Addurn, who
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  Speaker 1: doesn't look like showing despite the wish of many for
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  Speaker 1: her to be held to account. But the thing about
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  Speaker 1: this commission is that it is not a trial, it's
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  Speaker 1: an inquiry. It's a show trial. Really, it's a political thing.
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  Speaker 1: And Chris Hipkins is still in the political game unlike
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  Speaker 1: just Sindra Adern, so he needs to handle this thing well.
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  Speaker 1: He was the Minister of Health during the pandemic. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: he was the Minister of just about everything because he
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  Speaker 1: was the most competent in his party. So if he
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  Speaker 1: wants to be the leader of this party going into
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  Speaker 1: the next election, he really must turn up and face
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  Speaker 1: that cross examination of what he was part of. But
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  Speaker 1: we know what he did, it's already there in black
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  Speaker 1: and white. But what we don't know is the thought
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  Speaker 1: processes that drove his actions, and we haven't had the
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  Speaker 1: chance to question him. And what we don't know is
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  Speaker 1: his thoughts with hindsight as to what he might have
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  Speaker 1: done better. So if he's honest about learning lessons about
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  Speaker 1: the pandemic management, because there's going to be another pandemic
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  Speaker 1: in the future, then he really must turn up and
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  Speaker 1: face the heat. It'll be good for him, it'll be
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  Speaker 1: good for us. If he doesn't, the conspiracy theorists that
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  Speaker 1: he mentioned yesterday will bring all their bias to bear
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  Speaker 1: against him next election. So Chris Hipkins has choices face
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  Speaker 1: up and tell the truth, stand apart and let speculation
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  Speaker 1: of what he calls or buy what he calls conspiracy
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  Speaker 1: theorists run wild, or just quit, quit his aspiration to
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  Speaker 1: become Prime Minister one more time and enjoy a retirement
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  Speaker 1: from public life. Sen You're Court Chris. For more from
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: early edition with Ryan's Bridge listen live to news talks
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  Speaker 1: it Be from five am weekdays. Follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.