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>> CHLOE: The trip started with us in San Francisco.
Some of the highlights for me were going to City Hall with the Office of Cannabis,
I believe it was called.
And that was really fascinating, because it was where we got into the nitty-gritty of
how they fleshed out the legislation and the framework for medical, and then moving on
towards recreational cannabis.
>> TAMATI: I was also really keen to check out a cannabis distribution centre.
Drug reform is something that we have conversations about here in New Zealand.
San Francisco was actually leading the charge in terms of making cannabis recreationally
available.
>> CHRIS: One thing that I really enjoyed in San Francisco was visiting Google and Airbnb.
So it was really great to meet with the quite senior representatives from those companies,
actually, and find out about how they've grown and prospered, and what we need to do in
New Zealand to grow equivalent-sized companies.
>> TALANI: The head offices of Google, of Airbnb, of these huge multinational companies,
and actually see how they work in an everyday environment.
And it was just utterly eye-opening.
>> ANDREW: Yeah, so then we continued on to Sacramento, which is the state capital of
California.
We got paired up with state senators.
So I started out with Anthony Cannella in the morning, who is a Republican.
>> CHRIS: Senator Ben Allen, a state senator, we were partnered with him.
And I've got to say, it was the highlight of the trip for me as a fellow legislator,
a chance to spend some time in his office.
And he was incredibly open.
What was really interesting to me – I know you found this too, Andrew – is that the
work of even a Californian state senator is very similar to the work of an MP in New Zealand.
So a really, really awesome day, and it made feel quite good actually about what we
do down here, to be honest.
>> TAMATI: I got paired up in Sacramento with
Hon. Senator Ricardo Lara.
He is the chair of their LGBT caucus.
As the son of two people that were undocumented, he was able to provide real insight into how
their community works, and how they fight for change, and the kinds of things that he
does to help them fight for change.
>> CHLOE: I was following Senator Holly Mitchell and watched her thrashing out a piece of legislation
and submissions from the general public on something to do with trade unions' ability
to employ ex-prisoners.
>> TALANI: I was able to shadow a Chief of Staff for the day.
The lobbying day in a state senator's office is one day a fortnight, for example, and there
are 15 minute slots.
What that does in terms of productivity and time effectiveness is huge.
>> CHLOE: So then we headed to Washington DC.
We also did a huge number of things, but the highlights for me were going to a local high school
Woodrow Wilson, where I got to speak to the principal and a number of the teachers,
and actually also the staff, about what they're doing in the curriculum and how it differs
to here in New Zealand.
What I was really fascinated by, actually, was the discussion around the testing regimes
in America, because we're obviously going through a very similar review right now in
New Zealand when it comes to NCEA, but also the overview of our education system as a whole.
>> ANDREW: We managed to catch up with some really influential politicians there as well,
a congressman and also a senator.
The congressman in particular has got a great love for New Zealand and talked about some
of the work that he's been doing in trying to get the Kiwi Act passed, which has now
gone through, which is fantastic.
And we talked to him a bit about that.
Also spoke to the Senator about that as well.
>> CHRIS: I got to live out a bit of a fantasy from my student politics days when I used
to watch The West Wing a lot.
So we did one of those corridor walk-and-talks, which The West Wing made famous.
So we got to meet Rep. Darrell Issa, who as Andrew says is a very staunch friend of NZ.
He was running late for the House, he had to go onto the floor of the House for a vote.
We had literally a minute and a half, and the meeting consisted of us – mainly me
actually, because I happened to be in the lead, just the way it was – walking from
his office down to the travelator.
So think we had probably 85 seconds, and it was literally a walk-and-talk.
And I think we got about two questions out, like, 'Hi, how are you, what's your name,
and how's the Kiwi Act going?'
>> TAMATI: I missed that actual meeting with that particular senator, but I hear it was
a good three minutes.
>> TALANI: We were fortunate enough to have dinner with Ambassador Groser, who hosted
us at the residence.
There was some great conversation around how we as a nation deal with foreign policy and
influence in the wider context.
>> CHLOE: The timing of when we were there coincided with the massive March For Our Lives.
We got to attend and observe the protest, or rather actually the march.
It was a million-odd people there.
>> TAMATI: A million people.
[LAUGHS] It just blows your mind.
It was off the back of a shooting that had happened at one of the primary schools.
So there were a lot of people that were fired up about it, and you felt their passion on
that day of the protest.
>> CHRIS: We are very grateful to the ACYPL for what was a fantastic trip and something
that I'm never going to forget.
>> TALANI: We got a really nice balance across the political divide.
>> CHLOE: To engage with the intricacies of the American political system, but also to
see how they do things at a really localised level.
>> TAMATI: Meeting with lobby groups, meeting with big business, meeting with senators,
and learning a few things along the way.
And that's something that I've come back a wee bit richer for.
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