Jono, Ben & Megan - The Podcast - BONUS: Chris Hipkins, New Zealand's Brand New Prime Minister!

Episode Date: February 1, 2023

We chat to New Zealand's PM Chris Hipkins about his crazy first week in power, his thoughts on Chris Luxon and Barrack Obama!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

He's the brand new Prime Minister of New Zealand and he's with us in the studio right now. Chris Hipkins, good morning. It's fantastic to be here. Now imagine, we were just saying to you before, off here, your schedule would have changed quite a lot over the last couple of weeks. Yeah, look, as I said, I finally got an hour or two last night to just sort of sit back and go, what just happened? You know, like, it's been, it was only two weeks ago yesterday that we all headed up to Napier

for our first meeting for the year and it was two weeks ago yesterday that we all headed up to Napier for our first meeting for the year. And it was two weeks ago today, actually, that Jacinda Ardern announced that she was standing down. And it's been a pretty full-on couple of weeks. I can imagine. Looking at you, I think you've done more work in seven days than I've done in seven years. What personal errands have you like, oh, damn, I haven't got that done?

Funnily enough, over the summer I thought, right, I'm going to get my life in order because it's election year. And so even before I knew that Jacinda was standing down, I thought, right, I've got to get everything sorted out. Got to get the house sorted out. Got to get the lawns done, cut the hedges, you know, do all that stuff. So I did all that over the summer holidays so that I could just forget about that for a wee while. So those lawns are just going to grow for 12 months now? Yeah, pretty much. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Be like a wildlife park. Now, obviously, you've gone from the guy creating a lot of memes with Spread Your Legs and also recently with your sunnies and your hat as well. And now you're Prime Minister. That's quite a change. Yeah, yeah. Well, look, I've had some amazing messages.

After I made a comment about Ashley Bloomfield's eyebrows the other day, he sent me a very nice message saying his eyebrows are available in the national interest whenever required. But, you know, look, it's been an incredible couple of years. And, you know, I'm just, it's an amazing opportunity to take it up. What happens with the transition? All of Jacinda's stuff just go boom out of the office one day and then yours is in by the afternoon. Yeah, well, I was in the car on the way up to Government House

to be sworn in by the Governor-General as Prime Minister and Jacinda, by protocol, she goes up before me and she tenders her resignation. And as I was driving up the driveway, I got a message from her that said, tag, you're it. And that was pretty much the transition. That was it?

That was it. And then we got back to the building and her office was more or less cleaned out and my team was starting to move in. Do you message her at all or is it all on you now? Like you don't get to go, hey, what would you do in this situation? Yeah, it's mostly all on me. Look, she's still a good friend of mine and so, you know,

she's checked in on me just a couple of times to make sure, you know, see how I'm landing and how it's going. But, yeah, no, it's pretty much down to me now. What was the most surprising thing so far that you found about the job? You know, like imagine getting even used to the security would be something totally different. Yeah, that's actually probably the thing that does take a bit of getting used to. You know, you're never by yourself anymore.

And so having, you know, people follow you around, that can be quite good too. You know, you've got people going ahead of you and stuff. But, yeah, that takes a bit of adjusting too. Looking at you walking, I was like, he looks more important. You can tell with the people around you, you look more important. Maybe that's what we need. We need more people hanging around with us.

You just need those guys with the earpieces. Now, obviously a tough couple of days for the North. I saw footage of you in a helicopter. Was that the first time you'd been in a cool helicopter without a door on it? Yeah, it was kind of a weird feeling, actually. It was an Air Force helicopter, and I sort of jumped in, and I thought, oh, this looks a bit small. So I sort of went into the corner thinking, you know,

I'll be in the corner, it'll be all good. And then we got strapped in, and then we flew up in the air, and we're looking out the window, and next thing you know, the wall just sort of disappeared. And I thought, well, that's quite a long way down. But it actually did, it provided quite a vantage point for looking at what's exactly happened across Auckland. I think the damage is more extensive than people might see

if they're just looking from the ground. When you look at it from up high, you know, particularly some of those slips, they're pretty dramatic. And a big thing for you to have to deal with in the first seven days as well, how do you think Waino handled it? Oh, well, you know, look, I've said that I'm not going to provide a commentary on other elected officials. But what I can say is, you know, look, I've said that I'm not going to provide a commentary on other elected officials. But what I can say is, you know, from seeing across Auckland, I reckon disasters like this bring out the best in Kiwis.

You see Kiwis just supporting each other and looking out for each other and doing what needs to be done. Yesterday, I visited a couple of the places where people are being encouraged to go to get information. And you just see everyone just doing what needs to be done. They're providing food. They're providing clothes, blankets. They're working with the insurance companies, the power companies. We've got volunteer armies out there

just helping people to clean out their houses. It's just really fantastic to see the way Kiwis just do this. We saw it after Christchurch. We saw it after March 15. We've seen it through all of these things we've been through. We definitely saw it during COVID. Kiwis just do what needs to be done. Have you had any messages from overseas

since taking the job? Like anyone, like Obama text you or Joe Biden or anything like that? You're like, wow, they've got my number now. Look, I had a great phone conversation with the Prime Minister of Australia, Albo. Albo, yeah. I think we're going to get on fine. And I've had a few sort of written messages from other leaders

wanting to catch up, and we'll try and do that in the next little while. So that's going to be interesting, yeah. Who's the one leader you'll all can't wait to shake their hand? It must be a big banger. Hey, look, I admire Obama enormously. If I get the opportunity to meet him, that'll be fantastic. I'd love to sit down and have a chat with him, but there are some amazing world leaders out there which I may well have the opportunity to meet him, that'll be fantastic. You know, I'd love to sit down and have a chat with him. But there are some amazing world leaders out there

which I may well have the opportunity to meet, and that will be great, and a good opportunity to push New Zealand's interests. Yeah. Now, it's been an election year, obviously, and you coming into the Labour Party seems like it's helped you out in the polls. Look, I think it's good to have that opportunity

to sort of really refocus in on the stuff that Kiwis want us to talk about. I think we needed a bit of a reset. I think after the last few years, you know, we were really, really focused on getting the country through COVID-19. And I think by sort of middle of last year, particularly by the end of last year, people were kind of like, we're a bit over this. We want to move on. We want to talk about the future. So we've got an opportunity to talk about the future now. I think, you know, people want to look forward. And of course, election year, as John mentioned before, and I imagine there's going to be lots of slinging around, conversations had about

opposition and stuff, but what's something nice you could say about Chris Luxon? Obviously the two Chris's for the main job. Hey, look, I mean, I spoke to Christopher Luxon when he was the Chief Executive of Air New Zealand, and I was doing some education reforms, and I went to talk to him to talk about, hey, how does business view this?

And he was really great. We had some really good conversations about that. He helped to connect me up with some other people in the business community. He had strong views about that. Get you in the lounge? Get you in the lounge? On a personal level, I've gotten on pretty well with him. But, you know, I'm still not in that little elite private-y New Zealand lounge. Even as Prime Minister, I get into there.

Well, you should be able to get in there now, surely. You're the Prime Minister. No, apparently not. Hey, well, congratulations on the new gig, and good luck for this year. It's going to be a very busy year, and thank you very much for coming in this morning. Great to be here. Thanks, guys.