Jono, Ben & Megan - The Podcast - How the Prime minister inadvertently ended up at the Eras Tour!

Episode Date: February 29, 2024

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The Hits, with the Jono and Ben podcast. Thanks to Challenge, putting the service back into service stations. Minister Christopher Luxon joins us in the studio right now. Good morning. Good morning, good to be with you guys. Lovely to see you. Actually, last time you were in the studio was the Monday directly after the election. And we texted you on Sunday, we were like, we'd love for you to come in. And it was just you and your mate Jake, your press guy Jake, turned up. And now, jeez, you come with a whole team. Entourage.

You've got people coming before you arrive checking the building. I think they're checking you guys out. Probably. Is that kind of unusual to get used to? Is it weird? Yeah, look, it is a change because you've got security with you 24-7. And I've got to say, we've got the amazing police officers and great protection services folk.

And, yeah, they're just so good to Amanda and I and the kids and the family. And they're doing their job. And, you know, they look after us fantastic. So we invite them to come to Christmas dinner. Oh, really? Do they come for Christmas dinner? Yeah, it was awesome. There's a guy out there right now, earpiece.

He's just wandering around. He's just wandering around. It's quite unnerving for us. I'm like, what have we done? What's going on? He could end me right now. Yeah. I think he's actually just saying, look, Jono's quite a risk there, risk there isn't it obviously you just can't whip down the road to the dairy or anything

like that by yourself anymore no so when you whip down to the dairy or you decide to do something spontaneous um it takes about a bit more time so i i just wanted to i don't know how it's been for you with these two yeah how's your coalition going all right how's your coalition they got lumped with me to be honest but i don't know out of that coalition who i would be i'm winning no these guys are lovely you know what i'm going to um but the smoke-free laws that got repealed this week everyone is saying lots of people are going to lose their lives can you tell us why you felt the need to repeal yeah look i mean um the first thing I'd say is

nothing that the previous government enacted has actually come into effect, right? So it takes a long time before some of the changes they wanted to make in the previous government actually take effect. So all we're doing is sticking with the current legislation that has actually served New Zealand incredibly well, has been world-leading,

and even that same legislation drove smoking rates, daily smokers down from, I think, 8.6 down to to 6.8%, another two points, just in the last 12 months. So smoking rates have halved in the last decade, last 10 years. So that legislation actually is working really well. And our goal is, of course, to get to 5% daily smokers. And then, you know, that's the smoke-free target that we've been all working towards for some time. And I think that'll happen in the next year. So it's sort of a misunderstanding that we're sort of junking all the smoking stuff. All we're doing is carrying for some time. And I think that'll happen in the next year. So it's sort of a misunderstanding

that we're sort of junking all the smoking stuff. All we're doing is carrying on with the legislation that's still in effect, essentially has been in effect up until about a month ago. Yeah, so I get it. There's a lot of conversation about that, but that's really much our focus.

News Hub shutting down. Yeah, it's sad, isn't it? A bit of a shock, eh? A bit for us too, yeah. It's a real shock. And it's, you know, industry is immune from that at the moment. There's job losses happening all over the place.

What do you see the next 12 months looking like for the work? Because I just saw yesterday the cost of items. There was a World Vision survey done, New Zealand's items. And I know you've just taken it over, but it's gone up by 50% essential items. I mean, this is the basic guts of what has happened in the last six years, is that government spending went up 84%. And the problem with that is all that money goes into the New Zealand system and it drove what's called inflation. So prices start going up. And if you don't tackle that problem early, then you end up with a whole

bunch of other consequences, which is the next thing is that interest rates start going up. When interest rates go up, what happens is then the economy slows down because businesses and people don't spend as much because they're having to pay interest rates. So that's why for the last two years, and I've been banging on about it, no one seems to want to listen, but the point is you've got to go sort inflation out. So that's job number one. We've got to deal with inflation. So do you see that happening over the next 12 months? Is there some relief on the way?

Yeah, I mean, inflation started to come down. There's a lot more business confidence has gone positive, which is great. We're working hard to get the government's savings in place. Most of us took it for granted, right, that we could actually, you know, every year we just roll into and prices might have gone up 1% or 2%, but not what we've seen over recent years. I know you're busy, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, but before we go, you're a good talker.

There's a game that we've got in the studio right now. We've got to describe the people, and these guys are going to try and guess it. So I'm going to give you some of these cards. John and Megan can guess. You just go with the... And I can't give their name away. Can't give their name away but you can say what they do or whatever you want to describe how they was we'll see how many you can do in say 60 seconds so for

example goes to waitangi and drops a bomb okay david seymour all right yeah yeah that's something yeah okay all right here we go okay go drives the uh economic growth of most countries this person visits. Taylor Swift. Yeah, here we go. Very good, very good. What a political way to put Taylor Swift. She does so. She brings it along. I have to say, I am a big Taylor Swift fan. My daughter and I used to go along when she was young. And then the other night, my daughter calls me from Melbourne

because she lives there. And she's had a few margaritas with a few friends. And it's two in the morning. And lo and behold, Dad, we're at Taylor Swift with 96,000 people at the MCG. And I just thought you'd enjoy the concert. I'm propped up in bed. Because you've seen her multiple times, haven't you? I have, actually, yeah.

My daughter's actually met her a couple of times, I think. What about next time just sing Shake It Off? He didn't prepare this. You got it right. He's into the 60 seconds here, guys. Probably an outstanding Kiwi singer. World famous. Lord.

Close, but not quite close enough. Benny. No. Oh, Kiri Takanoa. There you go. Oh, wow. Very good, very good, very good. I'm going to voice you as my favourite.

From Benny to Kiri Takanoa. This person would claim to be the greatest media goat of all time. Hosking. There you go. Okay, this dude is probably one of the wealthiest guys in the world, period. Bezos. Getting close, very close.

Musk. No, getting close. Keep going, keep going. You're on the right. Is that Bain, though? Bezos, Musk. Microsoft guy. What's his name?

Bill. No, not Bill Gates, but it's in the technology space. You're right, you're right. Ah, text. Do you know the answer, Ben? Zuckerberg. Yeah.

There you go. How did we forget Zuckerberg? See, look, he answered most of them, right? Hey, Christopher Luxon, lovely to see you. Good to see you guys too. You're doing great work. And I hope it goes all right, this coalition. Yeah, thank you.

I might call you for tips. Anytime. I appreciate it.