Latest / Best of Business / Nicola Willis: Economic Growth Minister reveals another supermarket player is interested in setting up in New Zealand

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Nicola Willis: Economic Growth Minister reveals another supermarket player is interested in setting up in New Zealand · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: right now.
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  Speaker 2: Nikola Willis is the Finance Minister. Good evening, Good evening, Ryan, Minister.
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  Speaker 2: I know that this is not your particular purview the FMA,
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  Speaker 2: But have you been told anything about an arrest in
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  Speaker 2: the DEVL case today?
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  Speaker 3: No? I have not been briefed on that, Ryan, Okay, are.
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  Speaker 2: You aware of it?
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  Speaker 3: No? I'm not Okay.
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  Speaker 2: Inflation, we're obviously going to get a decision from the
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  Speaker 2: Reserve Bank this week and I won't ask you to
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  Speaker 2: comment on it because I know you can't. But Robert McCulloch,
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  Speaker 2: who's the economist, he came on the show tonight and
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  Speaker 2: he said, actually, they in terms of what they are
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  Speaker 2: legally required to do the Reserve Bank, they have met
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  Speaker 2: the standard. They have got inflation in the target range
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  Speaker 2: and that's all they're required to do under the changes
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  Speaker 2: that you made to their remit have listen.
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  Speaker 4: Sole maintain eight of the Reserve Bank by law is
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  Speaker 4: price stability and that's to find as getting inflation in
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  Speaker 4: that one to three percent bracket. And like you said
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  Speaker 4: in your introduction, whereas it now it's exactly at the midpoint,
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  Speaker 4: it's two percent.
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  Speaker 2: So in terms of what their remit is, Minister, have
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  Speaker 2: they achieved it?
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  Speaker 3: Well? They are back on target, which is good news.
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  Speaker 3: But there's also plenty of indicators suggesting there's a lot
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  Speaker 3: of sphere capacity in the economy. So the risk is
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  Speaker 3: that interest rates are kept restrictive the nactual inflation goes
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  Speaker 3: below the target ban. So those are the factors that
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  Speaker 3: the Reserve Bank has to weigh up when it's making
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  Speaker 3: its decision on the future of the official cash rate.
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  Speaker 2: Was taking out the requirement to look at the wider
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  Speaker 2: economy and to look at an employment etc. A mistake?
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  Speaker 2: I mean, they could potentially not move down this week
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  Speaker 2: on Wednesday because you took that out of their remit.
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  Speaker 3: Absolutely not, that's not the case. They still have to
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  Speaker 3: have a view to the stability of the economy. That's
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  Speaker 3: still part of the way which they make their considerations
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  Speaker 3: under that statute, And they do have to have avert
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  Speaker 3: a view on where inflation is going. And as I say,
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  Speaker 3: it's not okay if inflation gets below one percent, and
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  Speaker 3: they'll have a mind to that.
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  Speaker 2: Inflation is as we're kind of in alluding to the
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  Speaker 2: beast is kind of being tamed and growth in you
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  Speaker 2: focus for you.
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  Speaker 3: Do you have a target in terms of growth? No,
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  Speaker 3: I don't. I do want to see that the forecast
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  Speaker 3: return to growth this year occurs. That's what both the
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  Speaker 3: Reserve Band and the Treasury are forecasting. My role is
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  Speaker 3: to influence the conditions in which growth can occur. Ultimately,
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  Speaker 3: it will be up to individual employers to harm or people,
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  Speaker 3: individual businesses to decide to expand individual entrepreneurs to start
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  Speaker 3: a business. What I need to do is set conditions
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  Speaker 3: in which all those decisions are a little easier.
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  Speaker 2: Is it not a bit odd that this is a
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  Speaker 2: government so focused on targets and quarterly reports and numbers
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  Speaker 2: and aspirations, and to not have a target on your
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  Speaker 2: biggest aspiration.
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  Speaker 3: Well, let's remember what this is all about, Ryan. Ultimately,
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  Speaker 3: this is about New Zealanders who have gone through a
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  Speaker 3: massive cost of living crisis. Is still finding it pretty
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  Speaker 3: tough with the cost of living actually, And what we're
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  Speaker 3: saying is we're going to deliver the things that will
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  Speaker 3: make a difference to your cost of living. So that's
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  Speaker 3: first stopping out of control inflation, so prices aren't increasing
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  Speaker 3: as quickly. Two creating conditions in which interest rates are
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  Speaker 3: coming down so your mortgage isn't as expensive. And three
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  Speaker 3: setting the condition so the economy can grow, so that
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  Speaker 3: you actually have the opportunity for faster growing wages which
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  Speaker 3: allow you to get on top of those costs. So
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  Speaker 3: we're doing a broad range of things to support all
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  Speaker 3: of that, from delivering infrastructure to bringing on competition in
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  Speaker 3: the supermarket sector, to improving our education system. All of
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  Speaker 3: those things support growth. Ultimately, as I say, it is
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  Speaker 3: the decision of individual businesses and entrepreneurs and others whether
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  Speaker 3: they invest in growth.
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  Speaker 2: Business test reporting that you have come to an agreement
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  Speaker 2: with New Zealand first on changes to the overseas investment.
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  Speaker 2: This is about the foreign home buyers true or faults.
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  Speaker 3: That is not something that has come to cabinet.
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  Speaker 2: So you've been Is it something you've discussed with.
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  Speaker 3: New Zealand first, I hadn't directly know. As PM, I
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  Speaker 3: can't speak for the PM is National talking to New
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  Speaker 3: Zealand first about this?
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  Speaker 2: Is it fair to say?
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  Speaker 3: I think both Winston Peters and me and Erica Stanford
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  Speaker 3: and others have been open about the fact that there
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  Speaker 3: is discussion happening about what are the conditions in which
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  Speaker 3: we might want to relax those rules. How would we
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  Speaker 3: satisfy ourselves that that was in the interests of New
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  Speaker 3: Zealanders and New Zealand obviously, National came into the coalition
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  Speaker 3: with a strong view on that New Zealand First and
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  Speaker 3: other view, and we've continued to discuss that.
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  Speaker 2: Idea when it might go to Kebnet. Nope, you said
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  Speaker 2: during the election campaign you get seven hundred and forty
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  Speaker 2: million a year from the two million plus. Have you
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  Speaker 2: run the numbers on five million plus what you get?
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  Speaker 3: No? I haven't run those numbers. I come because I
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  Speaker 3: haven't been asked to provide that support for a specific
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  Speaker 3: proposal at the stage, right, I.
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  Speaker 2: See mores more. Is it fair to say it's more
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  Speaker 2: at a leader to leader stage at this point you
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  Speaker 2: haven't been brought in to get the numbers or the
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  Speaker 2: details over that.
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  Speaker 3: I think that's a fair way to characterize it.
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  Speaker 2: Fair enough. Hey, the prior event over the weekend, what
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  Speaker 2: did you make of Destiny Church's protest? Well, Well, actually no,
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  Speaker 2: let's put the protest to one side, because that's quite
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  Speaker 2: a separate thing. It was the pushing and the shoving
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  Speaker 2: and all that stuff.
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  Speaker 3: Well, here's what I thought. If the complaint of the
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  Speaker 3: Destiny Church was that they were worried about children getting scared,
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  Speaker 3: then actually what they did was scary because what children
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  Speaker 3: saw was violence and an appropriate behavior by adults. So
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  Speaker 3: in an attempt to somehow protect the children, I think
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  Speaker 3: they did the very opposite.
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  Speaker 2: Good point supermarkets. Who is this potential third supermarket player?
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  Speaker 2: Is it LD?
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  Speaker 3: Look? As I said, I'm not going to reveal the
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  Speaker 3: interest that has come to us because there's a very
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  Speaker 3: commercially sensitive expressions of interest. I can say that subsequent
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  Speaker 3: to my remarks last week, we have had another unsolicited
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  Speaker 3: proposal come in, which is good to see because what
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  Speaker 3: we're saying is, look, if there are barriers to you
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  Speaker 3: wanting to come to New Zealand, we're prepared to look
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  Speaker 3: at them. Whether that's the Resource Management Act, the Overseas
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  Speaker 3: Investment Act, any of the regulatory issues which may have
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  Speaker 3: prevented people in the past from making these investments, we're
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  Speaker 3: prepared to tackle. And that's attractive. Now, I can't promise
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  Speaker 3: that someone will want to put their capital on the line,
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  Speaker 3: but what I can do is do thing possible to
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  Speaker 3: get a competitor in because I want New Zealander is
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  Speaker 3: to have more affordable groceries and I think the current
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  Speaker 3: model is not serving us well and I'm determined to
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  Speaker 3: fix it.
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  Speaker 2: So you've had a second what you've called an unsolicited offer.
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  Speaker 2: What exactly does that mean? Have they said we will
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  Speaker 2: come to we want to come to New Zealand, here's
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  Speaker 2: a list of things you need to change before we do.
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  Speaker 3: In this instance, it's someone who contacted my office directly saying, look,
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  Speaker 3: we have a potential proposal to enter your market. Who
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  Speaker 3: can we engage with about how the government could facilitate that.
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  Speaker 3: I've referred them to the National Infrastructure Agency, who are
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  Speaker 3: set up to take these kinds of proposals and to
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  Speaker 3: evaluate them, and we will work through that.
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  Speaker 2: And is this offshore I'm assuming.
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  Speaker 3: Well, actually the nature of it could be a combination
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  Speaker 3: of offshore and domestic.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, a little copro. Thank you minister, great to have
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  Speaker 2: you on. The program is always on a Monday evening.
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