Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Brigitte Morten: Political Commentator on Paul Henry standing for ACT in the 2026 election

Transcript

Brigitte Morten: Political Commentator on Paul Henry standing for ACT in the 2026 election · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So we all need saving. The country needs saving. Who's
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: going to do it? Apparently Paul Henry in act.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: You know, I'm enormously disappointed with national Yes, if I
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: want to be a minister, why do I want to
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: be a minister? As I said before, I'm sixty five
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: years old. I'm not doing this to waste my time at.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Bridget Morton political commentator with us this morning. Hey Bridget,
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: good morning. Do celebrity candidates swarm a broadcast that kind
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: of thing? Do they ever really change the dial in
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: terms of polling?
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: I think they do, and that they bring attention, and
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: I think, particularly with someone like Paul Henry, you've seen
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: act sort of stagnate in the polls. They haven't gone
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: dizziery down, but sitting around that seven to eight percent
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: whilst they are others are a Coalish and part in
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: New Zealand services actually skyrocketed in the polls. So they
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: actually do need a bit of attention currently in a
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: crowded stead of market going into the election, and Paul
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: Henry has the power to do that.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: Anyone going to roll Luxeon.
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: I don't think anyone's going to roll Lutson at the moment.
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: I don't think it's Paul Henry for instance, it's going
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: to roll on them.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: But I mean the bad polling numbers that changing now
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: is not going to change those numbers necessarily, are they No.
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: I think one of the key things that every political
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: party is always aware of is that generally the voters
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: don't reward you for spending time talking about yourself rather
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: than talking about them and what's happening in their households.
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: So any kind of leadership discussion is trying to keep
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: it minimum as possible. Hence why luxon, you know, push
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: the vote earlier in the year that to rely on
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: under it and it has been very quiet since then.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: If we assume that we are going to get the
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: result that the polls assume we're going to get right now,
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: it'll be a very different government, won't it. With maybe
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: a quarter of cabinet made up of New Zealand first,
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: if they get a bump from Paul Henry, act could
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: have a few more as well, and you start to
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: look at half national in caucus, sorry, in cabinet.
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah, You've also got to take into account that actors
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: campaigning on having a smaller cabinet as well. That's one
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: of the things I said is really important that actually
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: they want less ministers, and they said they're prepared to
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: have less act ministers as well, so that's going to
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: have quite a change dynamic on what that cabinet looks like.
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: Bridget Mordern Political Comment had a good TV on the
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: show this morning.
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: to News Talks it'd be from five am weekdays, or
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.