Latest / Best of Business / Nicola Willis: Finance Minister on what the US-Iran peace deal means for fuel prices and the economy

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Nicola Willis: Finance Minister on what the US-Iran peace deal means for fuel prices and the economy · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talk SEDB. Follow
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: With us right now as Nikolaulus, the Finance Minister, Heinnikeoler
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Hi now on the Iran war. How do you rate
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  Speaker 2: the chances this is the end of it?
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  Speaker 3: Well, we've had a number of moments that felt like
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  Speaker 3: a big breakthrough over the past few months, only for
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  Speaker 3: there to be backsliding. So I'm steeled for possibly bad news,
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  Speaker 3: but hopeful that this is going to stick because we've
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  Speaker 3: already seen the global oil price come down pretty significantly
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  Speaker 3: as a result, and I'd love to see it keep
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  Speaker 3: coming down.
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  Speaker 2: So are you bracing yourself for possibly having to remove
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  Speaker 2: that help that you're giving to the poorest families in
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  Speaker 2: about maybe four to six weeks.
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  Speaker 3: Well, there's a lot of water to go under the bridge,
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  Speaker 3: because the first thing is that those lower oil prices
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  Speaker 3: need to be sustained. Then that needs to flow through
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  Speaker 3: into the fuel price at the pump for a consecutive
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  Speaker 3: four weeks, and then we would have to as a
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  Speaker 3: cabinet review that and make the change. But look, a
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  Speaker 3: world in which petrol is less than three dollars a
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  Speaker 3: later on average for kiwis that is a great world
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  Speaker 3: to look forward to. So I thought that happens, we'll
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  Speaker 3: have fewer problems on our hands.
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  Speaker 2: So I thought, given the way that you'd outlined it,
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  Speaker 2: when you rolled this money out, I thought it was automatic.
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  Speaker 2: If the price of petrol was under three dollars for
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  Speaker 2: four weeks consecutively, you'd be taking this help away. But
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  Speaker 2: you're now saying you might actually at cabinet level not
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  Speaker 2: decide to do that.
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  Speaker 3: No, it's just that it still requires order and council,
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  Speaker 3: so that can't happen automatically. It still needs to go
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  Speaker 3: to cabnet. OK.
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  Speaker 2: So do you feel satisfied with Barbara Edmond's answers as
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  Speaker 2: to why she hasn't got all the costings for you
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  Speaker 2: just yet?
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  Speaker 3: No, Because the reality is labor have tough choices ahead
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  Speaker 3: of them. Either they're going to have to back down
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  Speaker 3: from some of the commitments that they have made because
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  Speaker 3: those come with a very heavy price tag and eighteen
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  Speaker 3: two billion dollar price tag and counting. Or they're going
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  Speaker 3: to announce new tax measures to pay for all of that.
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  Speaker 3: Or they're going to come clean with the public and say, look,
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  Speaker 3: we've decided to torpedo the surplus and rebuild the debt mountain. Now,
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  Speaker 3: she can delay making those tough choices, but ultimately Labor
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  Speaker 3: will have to make them because we don't live in
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  Speaker 3: an alternative reality. We Labor have access to a secret
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  Speaker 3: source of money. It either comes from your pocket or
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  Speaker 3: it's borrowed.
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  Speaker 2: I think your timing is just a bit of like,
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  Speaker 2: I think you're going to be proven right in the end,
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  Speaker 2: but I think your timing is off because I just don't.
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  Speaker 2: I think it's too early for them to be expected
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  Speaker 2: to have this these answers just yet. It's five months
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  Speaker 2: to the election.
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  Speaker 3: No, that's the complete context for the selection campaign. All
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  Speaker 3: political parties are campaigning in a world where the country
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  Speaker 3: is in deficit, where we're trying to get over the
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  Speaker 3: debt mountain, and so every time a political party is
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  Speaker 3: promising you something that costs more money, I am urging
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  Speaker 3: New Zealanders to then turn around and say, okay, yeah,
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  Speaker 3: but where's the money coming from? Are you going to
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  Speaker 3: text me for it? Are you going to borrow it?
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  Speaker 3: And Labor so far haven't been facing those questions. They've
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  Speaker 3: just merely announced billions of dollars worth of commitments, and
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  Speaker 3: I think New Zealanders deserve to know are they going
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  Speaker 3: to pay for?
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  Speaker 2: What are you talking about? What have they announced? It's
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  Speaker 2: billion dollars worth of commitments.
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  Speaker 3: They've said that they will completely reinstate the former but they.
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  Speaker 2: Haven't given us s right, so when they come out
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  Speaker 2: and they go here, this is the announcement, here of
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  Speaker 2: the details, that is when the questions are.
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  Speaker 3: Asked, No, it's right now, heither because this is a
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  Speaker 3: case in point. We as a government have a pay
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  Speaker 3: equity regime in law and we have funding in our
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  Speaker 3: budget for it. What they've said is they would restore
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  Speaker 3: completely the previous region. That's the commitment they've made to
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  Speaker 3: the unions, to the workers, to New Zealanders. Now we
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  Speaker 3: know exactly the cost of that because Treasury have given
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  Speaker 3: us the cost of that, and the cost of that
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  Speaker 3: is more than ten billion dollars. So that's non so either,
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  Speaker 3: what you're telling me is they're going to backslide. And
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  Speaker 3: actually they didn't really mean it when I said they
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  Speaker 3: were going to revert to the previous regime. Actually they're
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  Speaker 3: going to do something different, or they're going to have
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  Speaker 3: to come up with that ten billion dollars. It's actually
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  Speaker 3: that simple. And if what they're saying is, look, we're
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  Speaker 3: going to weeaezle out of it later and actually we
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  Speaker 3: never meant it when we said we were going to
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  Speaker 3: fully restore it, that's fine, but come fleeing with New
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  Speaker 3: Zealander is now.
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  Speaker 2: Listen, what do you make of the view that this is?
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  Speaker 2: You guys now in the polls, you're at twenty nine
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  Speaker 2: in the freshwater the post pole, and there is now
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  Speaker 2: a view firming up that this may be about as
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  Speaker 2: high as you guys get.
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  Speaker 3: Well, I disagree with that view. I think there's a
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  Speaker 3: long time to go between now and the election. And
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  Speaker 3: if Labour keep on making up policies on the back
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  Speaker 3: of an envelope and fail to get their hands on
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  Speaker 3: a calculator, then I can't see their poles getting any better.
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  Speaker 2: Is your strategy relying on them stuffing up?
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  Speaker 1: No.
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  Speaker 3: Our strategy is to be a good government and the
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  Speaker 3: National Party strategy is to come up with compelling ideas
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  Speaker 3: to make this a better country in future, that is
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  Speaker 3: more prosperous, that can pay people more, that has better jobs,
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  Speaker 3: that is solving the underlying challenges which have held our
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  Speaker 3: economy back will campaign on that vision, but will also
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  Speaker 3: campaign on being honest with New Zealanders about the very
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  Speaker 3: real fiscal constraints we face that mean that I can't
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  Speaker 3: magic up free cash for everyone without being completely Irresponsibley.
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  Speaker 2: How do you feel about tidying up the MP perks?
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  Speaker 2: Because I know the Prime Ministers asked for advice, but
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  Speaker 2: that's not really an indication one way or the other.
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  Speaker 2: What do you think.
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  Speaker 3: Well, look, this is a subject that I find really
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  Speaker 3: challenging because the simple truth is MPs are paid more
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  Speaker 3: than your average New Zealander and if you look across
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  Speaker 3: the Parliament, yep, there are people who are working really hard.
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  Speaker 3: There are also people who are so hard.
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  Speaker 2: With your perks, your perks, no one would get those
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  Speaker 2: perks in the real world. The perks are ridiculous.
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  Speaker 3: Well, the way that the Independent Remuneration Authority looks at
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  Speaker 3: it is they sum up together the salary, the allowances
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  Speaker 3: and the superannuation and then they set that in accordance
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  Speaker 3: with what the equivalents are that they look at across
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  Speaker 3: the rest of the workforce internationally and what they think
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  Speaker 3: is reasonable. And yes, the entitlements are part of what
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  Speaker 3: they look at. The actual eligibility rules for the entitlements
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  Speaker 3: and how that all plays out. It's a complicated mixture
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  Speaker 3: of the Speaker, the Ministerial Authorities, DIA, various others. And
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  Speaker 3: I appreciate there have been questions about the way various
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  Speaker 3: MPs have applied those I don't think there's been evidence
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  Speaker 3: that anyone has definitely broken the rules. They should absolutely
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  Speaker 3: adhere to the rules. I can understand it's.
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  Speaker 2: Under defending it and it just the whole thing just
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  Speaker 2: looks wrong.
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  Speaker 3: Look, I agree with you that it doesn't look good
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  Speaker 3: for MP's to be getting access to things that New
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  Speaker 3: Zealanders don't think are fair. That we got point, I think, yes,
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  Speaker 3: that's right. I totally understand that. The point that I'm
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  Speaker 3: making is that the overall some of what that's worth,
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  Speaker 3: that's done by the Independent Remuneration Authority. Now how that's
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  Speaker 3: all comes together and whether it's reasonable and fear. As
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  Speaker 3: the Prime Minister said today, he is asking for some
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  Speaker 3: advice on that, including the entitlements of former MPs and
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  Speaker 3: prime ministers, and of course he will be considering that
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  Speaker 3: advice when he receives it. And I think that is
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  Speaker 3: a good thing because actually it's a plague on all politicians,
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  Speaker 3: right when one politician appears to be doing something unfair,
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  Speaker 3: and so we do need rules actually that protect all
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  Speaker 3: of us from other ones taking the Mickey Hey thoughts.
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  Speaker 2: On Matthew Houston as editor of the Post in Sunday
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  Speaker 2: Star Times.
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  Speaker 3: Well, obviously that is a decision for the Post and
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  Speaker 3: the Sunday start works for me.
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  Speaker 2: You worked, what do you think?
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  Speaker 3: I think he's a smart man. I think he writes
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  Speaker 3: very well. Some of the things he has written I
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  Speaker 3: entirely disagree with and he's got completely wrong, but that
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  Speaker 3: is very much the spirit of journalist said, you've said
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  Speaker 3: the old You've said the old thing. I don't agree
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  Speaker 3: with that.
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  Speaker 2: That's just the odd thing, Hey, for the odd thing.
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  Speaker 2: This could go. This is either going to be horrific
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  Speaker 2: or it's going to be brilliant.
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  Speaker 3: What do you think, Well, I always hope that everyone
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  Speaker 3: it's the success that they deserve.
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  Speaker 2: Ah, And I don't know what that means. Nicholas, Thanks
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  Speaker 2: very much.
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  Speaker 3: Enjoy yourself.
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