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Ryan Bridge: Former PMs need to stay away from current political debate · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

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  Speaker 1: I'm not a huge fan of former pms sticking their
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  Speaker 1: ore into the water of current political debates. Not only
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  Speaker 1: are their thoughts they tend to be rooted in briefings
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  Speaker 1: that were given by officials years ago, back in their heyday,
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  Speaker 1: but when attacking a sitting prime minister, they also tend
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  Speaker 1: to sound a bit wingy and out of touch. This
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  Speaker 1: is the case of Helen Clark and Don Brash, who
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  Speaker 1: issued a statement condemning Chris Luxen for comments he made
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  Speaker 1: to The Financial Times at NATO. Luxon said a couple
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  Speaker 1: of things, and I'll run you through it. One, we
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  Speaker 1: need to call out China more for spying. Two he
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  Speaker 1: wants to sign a deal that would see US able
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  Speaker 1: to deploy military assets to the Philippines. And you'll know
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  Speaker 1: the Philippines has long running and regular disputes with Beijing
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  Speaker 1: in the South China Sea. Three he's keen on our
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  Speaker 1: military joining the US and Australia and conducting joint military
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  Speaker 1: exercises inside the Philippines. Easy four he spoke about New
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  Speaker 1: Zealand being a quote force multiplier for Australia, the US
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  Speaker 1: and other partners. Now Clark and Brash are touching this,
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  Speaker 1: which comes off the back of the Orchest debate and
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  Speaker 1: wades into another long running one, and this is the
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  Speaker 1: thirty eight billion dollar debate. That's what two way trade
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  Speaker 1: between China and New Zealand is worth. Remember it was
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  Speaker 1: Clark and then Foreign Minister Phil Goff who signed the
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  Speaker 1: FTA that got us there. And they reckon that this
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  Speaker 1: tough talk from Luxen, this so called cozying up to
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  Speaker 1: the US, is undermining our independent foreign policy, whatever that
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  Speaker 1: means now, and could lead to us being punished by
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  Speaker 1: China at the port. China, they reckon, is no bigger
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  Speaker 1: Aspire threat to US than other countries. Here's the thing, though,
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  Speaker 1: Luxin hasn't actually changed much in the way of foreign
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  Speaker 1: policy yet. Plus the full Financial Times article also quotes
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  Speaker 1: him saying we're pursuing a balanced strategy with China on trade,
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  Speaker 1: renewable energy and people to people ties. What's more, the
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  Speaker 1: current PM is getting more up to date briefings on
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  Speaker 1: China's cyber threat than Clark or Brash. And when it
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  Speaker 1: comes down to it, most of us would agree that
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  Speaker 1: we'd side with America and Australia ESL if war returned
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  Speaker 1: to the Pacific theater wouldn't we isn't luxon just laying
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  Speaker 1: out and saying what's realistically bound to happen, and saying
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  Speaker 1: all of that Australia the hard way that poking the
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  Speaker 1: bear and what it can do to your exports. So
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  Speaker 1: it's an area in which we should tread carefully, but
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  Speaker 1: perhaps some are now better placed than others to walk
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  Speaker 1: that tightrope. For more from News Talks' b listen live
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