Chris Hipkins on Parliaments drinking culture, Labour supporting the India FTA, and the PM cancelling regular media appearances

Labour leader Chris Hipkins says Christopher Luxon is running away from scrutiny after he cancelled his regular weekly interview on TVNZ's Breakfast programme. "The reality is that's part of the job. You're going to be subjected to scrutiny, you're going to be asked tough questions." Speaking on Canterbury Mornings, Hipkins was asked by John MacDonald whether he held the same view when former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern cancelled her weekly interviews with Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking in 2021. "I thought she should have continued to do it, but ultimately that was her choice. I made a different choice, and that was to keep doing those interviews." When Hipkins became Prime Minister in 2023, he reinstated the weekly prime ministerial interview on the Mike Hosking Breakfast. They also discussed Labour’s support for the India free trade agreement, his views on drinking culture in parliament, and his reaction to a parent being taken to court by the government over their child’s chronic absence from school. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.