Early Edition with Kate Hawkesby

The Government's backdown on entrenching that part of the Three Waters legislation was about as well orchestrated as it could have been. We got the release about 8am yesterday — unusual to be honest — and Chris Hipkins was available to speak to it on ZB just after 9 with Francesca. What a stroke of luck! That opens the door to the Opposition parties to have their say and I suspect that on a bad day for them, the Government's spin team would have been willing to see it play out in the 6pm telly news. So how fortuitous that Pharmac's announcement on the drug for Cystic Fibrosis was embargoed till 6pm. And obviously, given the amount of prep work that had gone into the reports on that, there’d been a couple of days warning at least. So the Three Waters backdown came in about third or fourth — coincidence? I don't think anyone emerges covered in glory over this entrenchment. Chris Luxon's belated outrage doesn't really cut the mustard. His own team should have flagged about the constitutional issues when the pape