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Nicola Willis: Finance Minister outlines goals for 2026 · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from news Talk zed be
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  Speaker 1: follow this and our Wide Ranger podcast now on iHeartRadio.
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  Speaker 2: Right now, it's Nicola Willis, the Finance Min'sterlive. Good evening,
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  Speaker 2: Good evening, right. I hope you had a wonderful summer.
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  Speaker 2: How how was the beach?
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  Speaker 3: We were blessed by the weather gods run so it
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  Speaker 3: was really fantastic And in fact, my twelve year old
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  Speaker 3: said to us in the car on the way back, Mum,
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  Speaker 3: I think this is the best summer holiday we've ever had.
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  Speaker 3: So that's a good review.
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  Speaker 2: It's very cute, very good. You've had a good one then,
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  Speaker 2: and ready to get into the new year. What is
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  Speaker 2: this the year of by the way, because it was
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  Speaker 2: growth last year although it wasn't really what is it
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  Speaker 2: this year?
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  Speaker 3: Well? I think this is the year of growth and
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  Speaker 3: New Zealand staying the course by re electing a national
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  Speaker 3: lead government so that we can reap the rewards of
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  Speaker 3: all of the hard work that collectively our country has
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  Speaker 3: been doing.
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  Speaker 2: So it's growth again, is that because last year didn't
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  Speaker 2: I mean there wasn't much, so this year we hope
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  Speaker 2: for more of that.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, and look last year in the calendar year, the
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  Speaker 3: economy grew as a whole, but this year we all
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  Speaker 3: want to see more of it. So we see more
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  Speaker 3: job creation, more opportunities for Kiwis to get ahead. That
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  Speaker 3: is what we want to see, and that we've fixed
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  Speaker 3: the basics. We've put them in place now and the
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  Speaker 3: economy is showing real signs of progress. And we want
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  Speaker 3: every key family to feel that and their job security
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  Speaker 3: and their options and their ability to grow their own
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  Speaker 3: nesty their own income. So that's what our government's completely
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  Speaker 3: focused on.
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  Speaker 2: And every time this happens, Trump comes out and uses
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  Speaker 2: the T word again, and then you just go, you
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  Speaker 2: put your head in your hands and you can just
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  Speaker 2: shut up. Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: Well, look, we as a government have to focus on
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  Speaker 3: the things we can control and not be swayed by
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  Speaker 3: the things that are frankly outside of our control. And
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  Speaker 3: I think New Zealanders should take some confidence from the
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  Speaker 3: fact that relative to many other countries in the world,
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  Speaker 3: we're actually pretty well placed. We're exporting food that one wants,
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  Speaker 3: we've got tourists who want to come here, we've got
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  Speaker 3: an economy that people want to invest in. So of
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  Speaker 3: all of the countries in the world right now, many
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  Speaker 3: of which are be set by conflict and problems. We're
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  Speaker 3: a pretty great.
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  Speaker 2: Place to be, so why doesn't it feel like it.
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  Speaker 3: I think that the recovery has been slower to come
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  Speaker 3: than any of us would have wished it to be,
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  Speaker 3: and so New Zealanders have had to hold on tight
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  Speaker 3: for a long time. We had that period of really
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  Speaker 3: high inflation and high interest rates during COVID and everyone
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  Speaker 3: went right, let's fix it immediately, and it has taken
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  Speaker 3: some time to fix. But as we see that growth
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  Speaker 3: that we saw in the third quarter of last year,
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  Speaker 3: as we see businesses more confident, We've got now the
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  Speaker 3: highest levels of business confidence since twenty fourteen. What we
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  Speaker 3: should see is that resulting and more jobs being created,
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  Speaker 3: more firms able to offer a pay rise, people feeling
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  Speaker 3: more confident about spending money at their local business and
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  Speaker 3: their local shops. And that's when growth really feels real
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  Speaker 3: for you.
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  Speaker 2: You've gone Look, I'm completely I completely agree with you.
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  Speaker 2: I think we've bottomed out. We're on the way up.
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  Speaker 2: This thing for if for no other reason than what
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  Speaker 2: goes down must come up. It's going to happen. It's happening.
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  Speaker 2: It is happening.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right, But I think we're always conscious that
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  Speaker 3: it's a mixed experience. So some people will be really
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  Speaker 3: feeling it already, others that won't have caught up with
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  Speaker 3: them yet, and so it's one of those things that
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  Speaker 3: it happens in a number of steps. But what we
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  Speaker 3: want to see is more people experiencing it and feeling
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  Speaker 3: and feeling better about their prospects and fundamentally to know
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  Speaker 3: that we're a government is going to back them to
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  Speaker 3: get a hit. And I think that's what everyone wants.
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  Speaker 3: They want a chance, they want a fair opportunity, and
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  Speaker 3: they want to know the governments on their side if they.
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  Speaker 2: Are enough all. Hey, Anna Breman, did she give you
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  Speaker 2: a heads up before signing that letter of support for
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  Speaker 2: Jerome Power or did she ask you or ask for
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  Speaker 2: advice or anything.
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  Speaker 3: No, she didn't. She did bring me the next day
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  Speaker 3: after she'd signed that statement, and I did put to her, hey, look,
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  Speaker 3: why didn't you give me a heads up or seek
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  Speaker 3: some advice on this? And she had felt reluctant to
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  Speaker 3: do so because the call that she was on where
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  Speaker 3: she made that commitment was at three am in the morning.
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  Speaker 3: And look, I just said to her don't be too
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  Speaker 3: respectful of me at three am in the morning. That
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  Speaker 3: is literally my job to take a phone call at
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  Speaker 3: any time. And in future she would absolutely get in
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  Speaker 3: contact with me.
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  Speaker 2: So she agreed with that. She said, in future, I
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  Speaker 2: would call you. I'll check it and check it with you.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, that's right. And what I said to her is, look,
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  Speaker 3: of course there's always the chance that I don't answer
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  Speaker 3: the phone, so just send me a text, and that way,
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  Speaker 3: at least I can be onto it as soon as possible.
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  Speaker 2: And so and what would you see it?
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  Speaker 3: I would have said, Look, I suggest that we make
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  Speaker 3: sure that you have had the opportunity to reflect on
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  Speaker 3: some advice from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and potentially
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  Speaker 3: from the Treasury ultimately governor your decision. But make sure
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  Speaker 3: that you have considered all of the relevant.
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  Speaker 2: Advice, because I think she keeps saying and the Reserve
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  Speaker 2: Bank PR people came out and said, the Reserve Bank
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  Speaker 2: is independent, therefore we can say what we like, but
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  Speaker 2: independent on monetary policy. But I mean, I think it's
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  Speaker 2: sort of, as Winston said, sort of outside of her lane,
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  Speaker 2: her purview. I would have thought on Foreign affairst it, well.
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  Speaker 3: Look, there's no question about the fact that New Zealand
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  Speaker 3: supports independent monetary policy making and we respect the independence
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  Speaker 3: of our central bank and doing that. But as you say,
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  Speaker 3: I think that there would have been value in her
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  Speaker 3: considering getting input from other parts of government who would
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  Speaker 3: have a perspective on something like this, and I think
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  Speaker 3: in future she would take that advice and weigh that up.
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  Speaker 2: What is the government's view on reserve bank independence in America?
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  Speaker 3: And Jerome Peal well, we don't take a view on
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  Speaker 3: other countries' domestic politics because we are of the view
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  Speaker 3: that those are things for the American people to decide
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  Speaker 3: and take a position on.
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  Speaker 2: Did Winston tell you he was going to send that
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  Speaker 2: statement about it?
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  Speaker 3: He says, office gave me your heads up.
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  Speaker 2: Do you support it?
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  Speaker 3: Look, I think the Minister of Foreign Affairs is right
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  Speaker 3: to want to ensure that when New Zealand takes positions
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  Speaker 3: internationally that official seek advice from the Ministry of Foreign
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  Speaker 3: Affairs before doing so.
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  Speaker 2: What's going to be the thing that saves your budget
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  Speaker 2: this year? Because last time it was, arguably David Seymour
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  Speaker 2: said the pay equity thing. Can you give us a
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  Speaker 2: sense of where you're targeting this year.
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  Speaker 3: Well, we will continue to make sure that we're making
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  Speaker 3: savings on government programs or activities that aren't having the
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  Speaker 3: impact that was expected from them, so that we can
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  Speaker 3: then take that funding and put it into the frontline
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  Speaker 3: services which we know need more funding. So that's our
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  Speaker 3: health service, that's our schools, that's our police, We're going
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  Speaker 3: to have to put more fund in there. So we're
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  Speaker 3: looking across government for where are some of the areas
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  Speaker 3: where the money isn't doing as good a job as
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  Speaker 3: it could do, in our hospitals, in our classrooms, on
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  Speaker 3: the front line with our cops, and so we're looking
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  Speaker 3: for savings across the board. And I'll have more to
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  Speaker 3: say about that obviously between now and the budget.
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  Speaker 2: Have you identified a big ticket item that you will target.
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  Speaker 3: Look, the process that we run is we identify lots
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  Speaker 3: of options and I've described them as medium sized options,
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  Speaker 3: and then we do the work. We look at, Okay,
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  Speaker 3: what would the impacts of that be, what would that mean,
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  Speaker 3: who with that impact and how, And we don't make
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  Speaker 3: decisions at this stage until we've got the full set
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  Speaker 3: of options in front of us and we can weigh
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  Speaker 3: it up and then as a cabinet, we make the
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  Speaker 3: commitment to what we're going to spend, what we're going
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  Speaker 3: to save, and what the overall budget looks like, and
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  Speaker 3: we're just not.
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  Speaker 2: There yet spending priorities. There is talk today about PHARMAC
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  Speaker 2: funding weight loss drugs. Have you got advice on how
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  Speaker 2: much that might cost? Do you think that is a
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  Speaker 2: good idea?
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  Speaker 3: Well, I haven't taken advice on that. But as you know,
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  Speaker 3: the way that New Zealand's FARMAC model works is that
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  Speaker 3: FARMAC make independent decisions about which medicines they fund based
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  Speaker 3: on what will have the biggest impact for New zealanders
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  Speaker 3: lives and health. And so famously, you'll recall when we
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  Speaker 3: had the cancer drug commitment. In order to have FARMAC
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  Speaker 3: fund all of those cancer drugs, we had to fund
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  Speaker 3: a number of other drugs as well, because they have
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  Speaker 3: a list and they rank medicines and order of what
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  Speaker 3: will have the most impact, and they work through that
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  Speaker 3: list and they do that independently. But look, the case
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  Speaker 3: in terms of medicine's increasing role in reducing the prevalence
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  Speaker 3: of diabetes and obesity is clearly a global phenomenon that
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  Speaker 3: i'd expect FARMAC to be monitoring very closely.
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  Speaker 2: It's one of our biggest health costs and contributors to
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  Speaker 2: the cost of the health system is obesity. So surely
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  Speaker 2: anything we can do to to turn the title and
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  Speaker 2: that would have massive benefits for us.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, look, that's right, and FARMAC will be I am
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  Speaker 3: sure looking at that and weighing out what would the
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  Speaker 3: positive impacts of that be for New Zealanders and the
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  Speaker 3: health system versus, for example, funding some of the other
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  Speaker 3: medicines that New Zealanders are crying out for, whether that's
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  Speaker 3: medicines for blood cancers in particular or other treatments where
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  Speaker 3: people can see there would be significant benefits. So that's
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  Speaker 3: their job to do it with an independent formula to
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  Speaker 3: analyze it properly, rather than politicians waiting in and deciding
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  Speaker 3: what we think is flavor of the month.
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  Speaker 2: Appreciate your time, minister. Thank you. That is Nicola Willis
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  Speaker 2: the Finance Minister.
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