Latest / Best of Business / Liam Dann: NZ Herald business editor at large on Prime Minister Chris Luxon's plan to grow NZ economy

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Liam Dann: NZ Herald business editor at large on Prime Minister Chris Luxon's plan to grow NZ economy · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from news Talk said be
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: follow this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: I'm talking to Liam Dan while the air brak was on,
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: which meant that I'm a bit late in coming back
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: into the radio programs. So I'm very pleased to welcome
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: back to the program, Liam Dan, our business editor at large.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: How are you leaving? Hell?
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Andrew?
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: I can say Happy New Year because it's the fast I.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: Guess we're still in January? Why not?
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  Speaker 2: All right? The Prime Minister had a State of the
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: Nation speech today. He laid out his vision to grow
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: the economy. He says a culture of saying no is
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: holding us back. There's always a reason to say no.
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  Speaker 2: But if we keep saying no, I'm telling you we'll
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: keep going nowhere. I made a slight joke about this
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: is earlier, Liam, because we asked Christopher Luxon to come
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: on and talk with us today and he said no.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: He has set himself up, hasn't, he wrote? But anytime
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: he says no to anything now, he's kind of And
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: I have a couple of ideas along those lines too,
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  Speaker 1: So I actually think I really agree with the scene
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: of the speech today I like what they're doing. I
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: think we need more foreign direct investment, we need to
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: sharpen up on the commercial side around science. I'm all
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: for all that. But he talked quite a lot specifically
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: about Singapore and Ireland and their models and how he's
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  Speaker 1: studied them and he's talked about this before, and how
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  Speaker 1: this is where we're going. We're going to have a
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  Speaker 1: specialist foreign direct Investment office invest in New Zealand, you know,
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: like the Irish. But what he's kind of missed and
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  Speaker 1: he could say yes to these ideas but he won't,
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  Speaker 1: is that and he knows this stuff too, he hasn't
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  Speaker 1: missed it. But the reason Ireland has such a fantastic
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  Speaker 1: track record with foreign direct investment is because they've cut
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: the corporate tax for foreign direct investors, so there's a
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  Speaker 1: real incentive.
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  Speaker 2: It's not just yes, well I said exactly that to
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  Speaker 2: Tom McClay said, yes, they do have government agencies, but
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: they also have foreign tax breaks as well for corporates
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: that come here. So you can't compare the two similarly. Singapore,
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  Speaker 2: you know all the businesses are owned by this state.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, there's a massive compulsory saving scheme there and
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  Speaker 1: they require. I mean, their taxes are low, but they
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  Speaker 1: require everyone who works to save about twenty percent of
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: their income, which is then matched by the employers. So
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: there's these enormous funds and that gets invested back into
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: the country and their own infrastructure and their own science
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: and technology. So that's another idea. So these are things
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: that they could just do. I mean, you know, if
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: you're talking about it can do kind of attitude, I
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: agree you could. You could just do it. Whereas, look,
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: I understand the reality is we're too broke to do
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  Speaker 1: that at the moment.
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  Speaker 2: So they're talking hot on twenty percent of something is
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: better than well, you've got to stay percent of nothing.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, you've got to start somewhere. But the tax I
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: think that. You know, there's a couple of problems. One
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: is political that on on the one hand, they've got
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: act on one side who would be happy to go
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: along with the lower tax but doesn't like the compulsory
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  Speaker 1: super And then they've got New Zealand first on the
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  Speaker 1: other side that probably quite likes the savings and investment
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: of Singapore but doesn't like like the low tax and
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: the foreign direct investment stuff. So they are a bit
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: hamstrung by the political situation around it. There also are
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: the centrists national are taking a more moderate approach. But yeah,
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: I mean I really like they're doing. I like the direction,
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: I like the vibe, the cultural shift that's required. I
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: just think that it just isn't quite transformational there yet.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: And if you wanted to really be transformational, you would
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  Speaker 1: just do stuff the way that they used to do
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  Speaker 1: in the eighties and nineties.
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  Speaker 2: And my next question for you was to use the
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: word vibe. Yeah, and it was so based on all
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: of that today's announcement. Do they have teeth or are
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: they just vibes?
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  Speaker 1: Well, I think it is. Look, it's possible that we
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: can make the whole process easier, you know, but what
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: are we saying here with that New Zealand n ZTE
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  Speaker 1: already does of stuff but maybe hasn't been focused enough.
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  Speaker 1: What are we saying that the companies that wanted to
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: invest here were finding the website too difficult to use
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: and we're going to do a better website, or you know,
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  Speaker 1: these are hard nosed investors. They will come here, you know,
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  Speaker 1: if they want to come here, they'll come here. I like,
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  Speaker 1: but but look, I accept a lot of this stuff,
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  Speaker 1: the vibe stuff needed to be said and done and
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: was always a bit disappointing because it could have been
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: done by the last government. There's no reason why a
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: center left government couldn't also be sort of one that
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  Speaker 1: supported the c P P t P all that stuff.
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  Speaker 1: So so I mean, it's it's this, it's the kind
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  Speaker 1: of stuff I think that is needed. And I get
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  Speaker 1: this thing about the culture shift and the and the
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  Speaker 1: the no thing. It's His main example seemed to be
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: that we didn't have the Taylor Swift concert, which was
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: weirdly specific. But you know, yeah, more concerts, maybe more mining.
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: I'm a little bit Luke.
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: Helps.
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