Ryan Bridge: Luxon needs a game plan to deal with Winston

Luxon’s stuck.

Poor old Luxon, he's stuck between a rock and a hard place really, isn’t he?

And it's only going to get worse as we head into next year.  

Just when he's done dealing with David Seymour on the Treaty Principles Bill - he never wanted to go with but agreed to get into government.

That was shut down on Thursday and now the fire kicks off - he's having to hose that down too.  

He's been hosing it down since last Friday now.   

That's Winston and his big noting about how to deal with Trump, right.  

The phone calls that Luxon hastily arranged to avoid being in the House for the death of the Treaty Principles Bill are the same phone calls that have now started this tussle with Winston?  

He just can't win.  

Either way, there's coalition land mines to step on.  

Here's the thing, Winston first made these comments last Thursday.  

He said Luxon should have called them or whatever the words were.  

So, he should have just picked up the phone, called them straight away, squared it off, have it out, whatever, move on. Instead, you're trying to announce a tourism boost at Sky City on Monday and it's still dragging out. 

Some journalist in the press conference yesterday even asked Luxon whether he'd apologised to Winston Peters.

For goodness sakes, what an outrageous question.  

For the record, Luxon gave a speech basically saying he supports free trade. Big deal we all do.  

Then he calls a couple of world leaders he's met and tells them he likes free trade. Big deal, guess what? That's fine because he's the Prime Minister.  

That's actually his job. He is the boss.  

Winston's just feeling a bit left out over in Tonga obviously, so he's running his mouth off.  

What does Luxon do?  

Does he just have a private call and hope that Winston calms down? Or does he take a harder line in public with Winston? Call him out?  

Tell us he's only the Foreign Minister, not the Prime Minister, and he should stay in his lane. 

Whatever the strategy, he needs to figure it out quick smart. 

As I wrote about at the weekend, Winston's only just getting started.  

There's an election to fight next year and he'll be unshackled from the Deputy PM reins next month.  

Then it's all on for young and old. 

And Luxon this week has been warned. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Luxon's stucky. Poor old Luxon stuck between a rock and
a hard place, really is. And it's only going to
get worse as we head into next year. Just when
he's done dealing with David Seymour and the Treaty Bill
he never wanted to go with but agreed to to
get into government that was shut down on Thursday, another
fire kicks off. He's having to hose that down too.
He's been hosing it down since last Friday. Now that's

(00:23):
Winston and his big noting about how to deal with Trump. Right,
the phone calls that Luxon hastily arrange to avoid being
in the House for the death of the Treaty Principal's
Bill are the same phone calls that have now started
this tussle with Winston. He just can't win either way.
There's Coalition land mines to step on. Here's the thing.

(00:45):
Winston first made these comments last Thursday. He said Luxon
should have called him or whatever the words were, so
he should have just picked up the phone, called them
straight away, squared it off, have it out, whatever, move on. Instead,
you're trying to announce a tourism boost at SkyCity on Monday,
and it's still dragging out. Some journalist in the press

(01:08):
conference yesterday even asked Luxon where the head apologized to
Winston Peters. For goodness sakes, what an outrageous question. For
the record, Luxon gave a speech basically saying he supports
free trade, big deal. We all do. Then he calls
a couple of world leaders he's met and tells them
he likes free trade, big deal. Guess what, that's fine

(01:28):
because he's the Prime minister. That's actually his job. He
is the boss. Winston's just feeling a bit left out
over and tonguer obviously, so he's running his mouth off.
What does Luxeon do. Does he just have a private
call and hope that Winston calms down, or does he
take a harder line in public with Winston call him out,

(01:50):
tell us he's only the Foreign Minister, not the Prime
Minister and he should stay in his lane. Whatever the strategy,
he needs to figure it out quick smart. As I
wrote about at the weekend, Winston's only just getting started.
There's an election to fight next year, and he'll be
unshackled from the Deputy pm rains next month. Then it's
all on for young and old and Luxon this week

(02:13):
has been warned for more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge.
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