Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Bryce Edwards: Political Commentator on the Opportunity Party campaigning on reforming parliamentary allowances

Transcript

Bryce Edwards: Political Commentator on the Opportunity Party campaigning on reforming parliamentary allowances · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: The Opportunities Party has come out with a wild new idea,
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: don't take more than you need MPs. They've committed to
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: all their MPs when and if they get any, they
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: will not be able to use taxpayer funded entitlements in
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: an unfair way. So that means no inflated keep we
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: save it by holiday homes, no one thousand dollars a
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: week for your mortgage free property, and no saying you
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: live outside of Wellington when you've actually lived in the
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: city for the last twenty years. Bryce Edwards is a
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: political commentator director of the Democracy Project. Joins me now, Bryce,
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: good morning, Good.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: Morning, Andrew.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: Do you like this idea?
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: I do? I love this idea. I think that this
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: is going to connect with a lot of voters who
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: are getting quite a seck of politicians that are perceived
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: to be rauting the system and feeling that they won't
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: stick the problems themselves because they're the ones that benefit
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: from it, and so having an outside force actually campaigning
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: on this might be what it needs to change some
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: of this.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: Why do the policy icians who wrought the system actually
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: wrought the system because they must know that it's going
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: to make a headline and it's going to end up
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: reputationally damaging.
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: Oh, they can't help themselves, I guess. I mean these
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: lucrative benefits, and mostly they're not discussed. I mean mostly
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: the public haven't been focusing on this in recent years.
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: And suddenly it's come up in the last few weeks
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: and we're seeing story after story about not just MP pay,
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: but it's the perks, So those allowances, it's the supernuation schemes
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: that allow you know, Chris Hopkins to buy his whole
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: day home, etc. And so I think politicians would probably
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: have been caught up by this, not realizing the public's
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: growing anger about these things.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: I was talking to the chair of the Remuneration Authority
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: the other day when I was doing the drive time show.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: I was asking, you know, can MP's changed their wage? Yes,
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: they can. You know, he's seeing maximum limits of all
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: these sorts of things. You don't have to do it.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: Why is the Remuneration Authority seeing as this untouchable entity
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: that ministers and politicians and government have no control over.
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's quite a useful sort of justification
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: by politicians. It's like kicking for touch really that they say, oh,
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: this is just all that this independent authority has. It's
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: their decisions, nothing to do with us. But the rules
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: are actually set by the politicians. They make the rules,
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: they just get this independent authority to carry out the rules.
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: And so, yeah, I think it's a bit it's.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: A raw in itself that it's a smoke screen. It
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: is a smoke screen legitimizor.
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, indeed so. And it's attempt to say, well, it's
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: nothing to do with us, but no, it's everything to
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: do with the politicians. They can change any of these
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: rules if they want to.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: Here's the thing for the Opportunities Party. Though I said
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: at the beginning, when and if they get any MPs,
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: do you think they they do seem to be causing
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: a stir this time more than before. Do you think
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: it's possible five percent? Is it possible? In a seat?
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: Five percent is a really high threshold under MMP And
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: so it's it's going to be a pretty challenging task.
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: So I think it's unlikely they'll get there. You know,
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: in previous years they've got to the right twenty percent.
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: But it's really psychologically difficult because people don't want to
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: waste their vote if they think that they're going to
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: be below five percent, but they have had a few
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: polls getting around that and so, and they do seem
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: to be more coherent than in previous elections. Their current
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: leader is a bit more likable than previous ones. I
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: think so. And somehow I think they might just be
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: the sort of party that appeals to a lot of
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: voters that are either discontented with the current government but
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: not convinced by the opposition, or even people on the
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: left that just think Labor haven't put out enough policies
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: so not haven't really got things together, and New Zealand
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: First is kind of not really that responsible. So maybe
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: a central party like this might be it might be
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: the time.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: Good luck for them, and I thank you Bryce Edwards,
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: director of the Democracy Project.
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: to News Talks. It'd be from five am weekdays, or
• 4:24
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