Latest / Best of Business / Neil Paviour-Smith: Forsyth Barr Managing Director on the results of the Mood of the Boardroom survey

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Neil Paviour-Smith: Forsyth Barr Managing Director on the results of the Mood of the Boardroom survey · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talks EDB. Follow
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• 0:16
  Speaker 2: To the Mood of the Boardroom at twenty three to seven,
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  Speaker 2: What have we got? The views of one hundred and
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  Speaker 2: fifty of the country's leading business executives are the consensus.
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  Speaker 2: New Zealand's at an inflection point, desperately needing clearer leadership
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  Speaker 2: and direction. We've got growing fore as our complacency potentially
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  Speaker 2: pushing us towards second world status now. Neil Pavias Smith
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  Speaker 2: is the managing director of Forsath Barron is with us.
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  Speaker 3: Good morning Moning. Mike.
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  Speaker 2: Do you generally agree with the consensus of your fellow
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  Speaker 2: business leaders?
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  Speaker 3: Yes, I do. I mean there's no sugarcoating things at
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  Speaker 3: the moment. Yeah, it's pretty hard messages and here for
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  Speaker 3: the government to take. But I think it does reflect
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  Speaker 3: every tough times in the economy. It reflects a tough
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  Speaker 3: times in real New Zealand, and there's concerns being expressed
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  Speaker 3: about the need to tackle the really hard issues, the
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  Speaker 3: structural deficis we have and some of the longer term
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  Speaker 3: issues that are being raised through the comments.
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  Speaker 2: They would come back and say we're doing everything we can.
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  Speaker 2: Every leber's being pulled. Is that true?
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  Speaker 3: I think the government's working very hard. There's a lot
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  Speaker 3: of energy. I think outside of economic matters, you'd certainly
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  Speaker 3: give them a strong pick. And you know, I expect
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  Speaker 3: them to do well across areas like education, crime and
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  Speaker 3: so forth, foreign trade and foreign relations and what have you.
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  Speaker 3: But when it comes to economic matters, I think there
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  Speaker 3: is concern that there we're lacking sort of the long
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  Speaker 3: term focus areas like infrastructure, some of the long term savings,
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  Speaker 3: other matters, and Crown's fiscal position which really acts as
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  Speaker 3: a ball and chain around the economy. So you know,
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  Speaker 3: those are big concerns, and I think there is a
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  Speaker 3: need for the government to be much clearer around what
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  Speaker 3: plan is in those areas.
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  Speaker 2: Looked at the choices, which is a center left, center
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  Speaker 2: right government of your critical of center right, the center
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  Speaker 2: left comes out even worse. So I mean, are we
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  Speaker 2: in a parlor state in that sense?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think we are. There are concerns about the
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  Speaker 3: whether the Labor Party is ready to form a government,
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  Speaker 3: and there are certainly real concerns about to coalition parts
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  Speaker 3: parties they would form with the Greens and around economic matter,
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  Speaker 3: it's no doubt, so you know that that's a concern
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  Speaker 3: that I think it gives an opportunity for the government
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  Speaker 3: to degen some of the key issues, but it also
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  Speaker 3: potentially takes the pressure off around some of the core
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  Speaker 3: matters as well.
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  Speaker 2: Have they missed a trick? One of the criticisms of
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  Speaker 2: this government is they could have gone harders sooner and
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  Speaker 2: we might not be sitting here in the latter part
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  Speaker 2: of twenty five in the state we're in. Is that
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  Speaker 2: fair or not?
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  Speaker 3: I think it's difficult to argue two years in that
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  Speaker 3: inherited a real mess and not to be sort of
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  Speaker 3: going much harder and to continue to blame the previous
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  Speaker 3: when you take a softer approach than could have been done.
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  Speaker 3: So yeah, I do agree with that, and I think
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  Speaker 3: that's been reflected through a lot of comments that you know,
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  Speaker 3: while things are probably picking up right now and we
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  Speaker 3: see lots of evidence of that, you know, some of
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  Speaker 3: the core structural concerns, the long term issues that the
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  Speaker 3: Zealand faces haven't been seized through this opportunity that've been
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  Speaker 3: given is lux and a problem.
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  Speaker 2: I don't know how much weight you place on these
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  Speaker 2: scores of cabinet ministers, but he's not right up. There
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  Speaker 2: is that on him and him specifically or not.
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  Speaker 3: I think that there is a concern about both his
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  Speaker 3: leadership around some of these longer term issues and also
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  Speaker 3: finance minister, and that's been noted through the survey. So
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  Speaker 3: this is not a catastrophic outcome, but there's certainly a
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  Speaker 3: very strong message in here that, you know, while business
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  Speaker 3: is innovating and addressing costs and focusing on issues of
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  Speaker 3: concern adapting to the sort of geopolitical environment we're in,
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  Speaker 3: there's little structural reform addressing those deeper issues around the
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  Speaker 3: economy and the longer term matters as well. So there's
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  Speaker 3: no doubt that quarter three will probably see an increase
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  Speaker 3: in the economy, a pack up that will be agri led,
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  Speaker 3: the straits coming down and so forth. It should lead
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  Speaker 3: into a more confidence around the housing sector, more business
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  Speaker 3: confidence and so on, and gradually seeing an increase in
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  Speaker 3: the economy, improvement and right track long track type polls
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  Speaker 3: and an election outcome. So there are reasons to be optimistic,
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  Speaker 3: but hoping is not a strategy, and the business community
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  Speaker 3: looking for stronger leadership from the Prime Minister and finances
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  Speaker 3: around some of those core long term issues and the
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  Speaker 3: structural gifts of.
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  Speaker 2: Museum well said, appreciate it very much. Neil Paviasmith, who's
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  Speaker 2: the Forsyth Barb Managing Director, part of the Herald's mood
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  Speaker 2: of the boardroom this morning.
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