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Francesca Rudkin: What does Labour's list tell us? · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So the Labour Party yesterday announced its final candidate list
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: ahead of the election. Did you find it encouraging list?
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: What do you think of it? It looks like there
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: are some very capable, accomplished newcomers with real life experience
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: quite high on the list and quite a few activists,
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  Speaker 1: while several more experienced current MPs find themselves down the list,
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  Speaker 1: most likely further than they'd like. So what does this
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  Speaker 1: tell us? Well, not much more than any other list president.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Party President Jill Day said they were proud of the
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: diversity and the depth of talent and that we represent
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: our whole community with the skills and life experiences we
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: need to bring real progressive change. But every party promotes
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: their list this way. At the end of May, ACT
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: released their first batch of candidates, saying ets candidates are
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  Speaker 1: a true representation of modern New Zealand. They include farmers,
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  Speaker 1: legal experts, business owners, tradees, parents, military veterans, policy exerts, teachers,
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  Speaker 1: engineers and community leaders. They all come from all walks
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  Speaker 1: of life that they share one thing in common, a
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  Speaker 1: belief that New Zealand can and must do better. Anyway,
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: Hopefully the new Bees do bring fresh ideas and get
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: it done attitude, but I reckon we have to wait
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  Speaker 1: and see it. All looks good on paper, but until
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: we see the candidates in action do we get a
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: real sense of them. But the list was notable for
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: a couple of things. Of course. Greg O'Connor, the Assistant
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  Speaker 1: Speaker who at the beginning of the year said I
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: don't think I'm ready to give up politics yet. I
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: think I've got a lot to offer, has not picked
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: up a spot on the party list, or maybe one
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: that he was happy with after his seat was disestablished,
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: so is stepping away. The highly placed Superintendent Raikesh nai Do,
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  Speaker 1: number thirteen on the list, has annoyed his boss, the
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: Police Commissioner, who expressed severe displeasure over the process that
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: led to a superintendent being on the label list. Current
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: Police Minister Mark Mitchell isn't terribly happy either. He said, Look,
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  Speaker 1: it's critical that the public can have confidence that police
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: are politically neutral. Not the smoothest announcement there, But I
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: think what really caught our attention was the accidental announcement
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: about tax relief by another newcomer on the list, Kingy
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: Kirry Honor. Now he got a little ahead of himself
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: by saying he gathered there would be some tax relief
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  Speaker 1: policies to be announced and then very quickly referred back
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: to his leader. You know what I actually felt for
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  Speaker 1: the guy. The first media stand up as a candidate
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  Speaker 1: is intimidating. I wouldn't want to do it, wouldn't want
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  Speaker 1: have to deal with the media. So it was a
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  Speaker 1: learning experience. He now knows why politicians try to stick
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: to a message. Obviously there is some media training to
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: come and we know what that entails, don't we. But
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  Speaker 1: in the meantime, it was probably the most interesting thing
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: to come out of yesterday's announcement. Maybe this was just
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: a really good tease to get us excited that Labour
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: are about to start releasing policy in a couple of
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: days apparently, so it will be really interesting to see
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: if that policy has, you know, the real progressive of
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: change they keep talking about. For more from Early Edition
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: with Ryan Bridge, listen live to News Talks it be
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: from five am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.