Christopher, champion of the free trade world
Our hosts unpack the prime minister’s pro-free-trade pivot in the face of Trump’s tariffs, Winston Peters’ furious pushback, questions around foreign policy coordination, the domestic politics behind bellicose rhetoric, growing chatter about a snap election, and Peters’ latest anti-woke campaign to legally define “man” and “woman.”
Audio is streamed directly from the publisher (podtrac.com) as published in their RSS feed. Play Podcasts does not host this file. Rights-holders can request removal through the copyright & takedown page.
Show Notes
The PM’s speech and free-trade phone tree with like-minded leaders in response to Trump’s tarrif binge impressed many commentators, but not all of them: leading pundit and deputy prime minister Winston Peters was indignant and he said so. Christopher Luxon said it was media beatup, but was he right? Should he have consulted more thoroughly with his foreign minister? Should his foreign minister have slapped him down in public? Was Peters right that it was too early to be assembling pro-free-trade coalitions? Was he right that there was too much bellicose language being used? And how much of all this is about domestic, rather than global, politics?
Toby Manhire, Annabelle Lee-Mather and Ben Thomas assemble to tackle these questions and more such as: is there more than idle speculation and scuttlebutt to snap election chat? And what is up with the indefatigable Mr Peters’ (happy 80th birthday, by the way!) latest salvo in the anti-woke culture wars, seeking to “define ‘woman’ and ‘man’ in law”?
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices