Latest / Best of Business / Barry Soper: Newstalk ZB senior political correspondent ahead of the GDP figures coming out

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Barry Soper: Newstalk ZB senior political correspondent ahead of the GDP figures coming out · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talk st B.
• 0:12
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• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Very Senior Political Correspondence with That's Hallo Barry.
• 0:19
  Speaker 3: Good afternoon, Heather, So has Nichola Will.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Has been asked about the GDP?
• 0:23
  Speaker 3: No, she was well, she was asked about it in parliament.
• 0:27
  Speaker 3: Was the indication was that the economy is not doing
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  Speaker 3: what it should.
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  Speaker 2: Be doing because the numbers coming out tomorrow.
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: The GDP number is coming out tomorrow, but it covers
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  Speaker 3: April to June, so it's well out. It's way back.
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  Speaker 3: You've got to say economists anticipate a contraction on the
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: economy forecasts for between zero point three and zero point
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  Speaker 3: five percent. It should be remembered though, that that followed
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: a zero point eight percent at the beginning of the year,
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  Speaker 3: So we started off quite positively and then started going downhill.
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  Speaker 3: And this one is not going to be good news.
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: And you'd have to say the Finance minister was it
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  Speaker 3: pained to emphasize that tomorrow's number is not going to
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: be a good one. Nikola would have told Parliament this afternoon,
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  Speaker 3: it's important to put the figure into some sort of perspective, though.
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  Speaker 4: This is a good example of backward looking data. The
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  Speaker 4: second quarter started on the first of April, before the
• 1:22
  Speaker 4: Liberation Day tariff announcements, the biggest hit to trade openness
• 1:27
  Speaker 4: since the nineteen thirties, and we are now only a
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  Speaker 4: couple of weeks away from the fourth quarter. Peering in
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  Speaker 4: the rear view mirror. Forecasters are picking a negative number
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  Speaker 4: for growth in Q two, somewhere between negative zero point
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  Speaker 4: three percent to negative zero point five percent, So.
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: Not going to be good. She's certainly softening the blow,
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  Speaker 3: there's no doubt about that. But she did say that
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  Speaker 3: she believes now the quarter we're in at the moment
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  Speaker 3: will be plus zero point five percent with the final
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: quarter this year. So she said this publicly just under
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: one percent. So one can only hope the economy is
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  Speaker 3: turning the corner. And we see the trade deficit today
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: was quite minimal compared to what it has been.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, she's obviously feeling sensitive about it because those
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  Speaker 2: that poll that came out yesterday, yep, was that you know,
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  Speaker 2: she she and the current government are copying the blame
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  Speaker 2: for this.
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  Speaker 3: They are copying the blame.
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  Speaker 2: Sara's voters a concerned all right, So Shane Jones has
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  Speaker 2: been elected to a position that probably all of us
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  Speaker 2: assumed he had anyway.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't think we've even thought about a deputy
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  Speaker 3: Leader of New Zealand first. I mean it's dominated so
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  Speaker 3: much by Winston Peter.
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  Speaker 2: Doesn't Ron Mark the deputy once?
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  Speaker 3: Yes, he was, although she wanted deputy, although I remember
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  Speaker 3: he wanted to be leader, that's right. I think he
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  Speaker 3: was deputy. Fletcher Tabatou he was deputy between seventeen and twenty. Yeah,
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  Speaker 3: when they first went into coalition with the Labor Party.
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  Speaker 3: So it's an interesting one and I think what it
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  Speaker 3: does is it could signal two things. One to Stuart
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  Speaker 3: nawh who's clearly wanted to enter the New Zealand first
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  Speaker 3: fray and will no doubt be nominated as a candidate
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  Speaker 3: somewhere along the track.
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  Speaker 2: Well it's telling him Shane still soon.
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  Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, that's right. The other thing it could indicate
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  Speaker 3: is that Winston Peters is considering his own retirement, although
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  Speaker 3: I wouldn't put any money on that at all. I
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  Speaker 3: mean he might be eighty, but as an octagenarian Winston
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  Speaker 3: performs still pretty well. He's a good Foreign minister and
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  Speaker 3: I think he quite likes the job and he will want,
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  Speaker 3: I think probably to run again next year of his
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: healthholds up. And it looks as though it's holding up.
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: For question not why if he was prepared to hand
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  Speaker 2: it out to others beforehand, like Fletcher and Ron. Why
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  Speaker 2: he makes Shane work so bloody hard for it?
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: Does he?
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: Because they've been deputyless this entire term.
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  Speaker 3: Well, nobody's noticed though that that's the thing. And look,
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  Speaker 3: Shane Jones is a performer. I think he's one of
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  Speaker 3: the better performers in Parliament. He hits the nail on
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  Speaker 3: the head. He might get up the back of many,
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: but he's a very good orator and I think is
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  Speaker 3: a very colorful member of New Zealand first. And they
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  Speaker 3: could do worse in appointing him as the leader after
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: Winston finally calls it quit.
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  Speaker 2: So has National got in trouble for making the announcements
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  Speaker 2: of announcers? Oh well they are want to do well.
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  Speaker 3: This gave me a fit of dejacuvus, I've got to say, though,
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  Speaker 3: it was a case of the pot calling the kettle black.
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  Speaker 3: When Chris Hopkins went after the government for making announcements
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  Speaker 3: of an announcement. Labor made an art form of it.
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  Speaker 3: You'll remember when it was in government in its own
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  Speaker 3: right and we were constantly talking about it on this program.
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  Speaker 3: Still Tippy seems to have a short memory because he
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: was pointing the finger at Chris Laxen for doing exactly
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  Speaker 3: the same thing here he is.
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  Speaker 5: He's more interested in announcements than actually funding and delivering
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  Speaker 5: the infrastructure that New Zealand needs.
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  Speaker 2: A crocodile tears. Crocodile tears, you're on a gas like
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  Speaker 2: the nation here.
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  Speaker 3: Let's just be clear. You crashed the joint. You didn't
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  Speaker 3: deliver anything. It's an incredibly.
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  Speaker 5: Disappointing after six years, three years with an absoute enjot,
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  Speaker 5: you did so very very little.
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: South Entry Sewall.
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  Speaker 5: Is the government committed to construction projects that are actually
• 5:26
  Speaker 5: constructed or is there any circumstance where it would ever
• 5:30
  Speaker 5: content itself with announcing bike bridges and light rail that
• 5:34
  Speaker 5: doesn't get built for years and years and years.
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: We have real projects, not phantom projects.
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: I'll tell you that Baby Boomer's bike bridge to Birkenhead.
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: We will never forget that. I mean, I think they
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  Speaker 3: spent what fifty million dollars on that, and we're still
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  Speaker 3: waiting on the bike bridge to Burken here.
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  Speaker 2: I think we're still waiting for an idea quite as
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  Speaker 2: stupid as that. Thank you, Barry, exactly appreciate A Barry Sober,
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  Speaker 2: Senior political correspondent.
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