Latest / Best of Business / Barry Soper: Newstalk ZB senior political correspondent on reports indicating economy was recovering before Iran war?

Transcript

Barry Soper: Newstalk ZB senior political correspondent on reports indicating economy was recovering before Iran war? · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talks Be follow
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Very Sober Senior Political Correspondence with Us.
• 0:18
  Speaker 3: Hello, Barry, Good afternoon, Heather.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: GDP number.
• 0:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Well, you know, I heard you going on about statistics,
• 0:25
  Speaker 3: and I guess it gives lie to that damn lies
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: and statistics, because you know, it seems that they adjust
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: things that are unbeknown to us how it comes about.
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: But look, the GDP figures for the March quarter at
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: zero point eight percent. That's more than double what Treasury
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: was predicting. And there's another government department, I suppose in
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: this year's budget, and our economy grew three times faster
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: than Australia's in the first three months of this year,
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: and twice as fast as the United States. So you know,
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: we were seeing some progress at the beginning, and then
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: Old Donald decides to with his turning trade on its
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: head with his tariffs, and then whammo goes into Iran
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: and look what we've seen out of that. Petrol price
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: is rising. So you know, I think we've probably done
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: as well as we could possibly expect to have done.
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: So it's more of a fizz rather than a pop
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: of the champagne corks in the beehive. Today. Three months on,
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: here's Nichola Willis.
• 1:34
  Speaker 4: I expect next time we get a GDP update it
• 1:37
  Speaker 4: won't be as sunny as today's. But what I'm also
• 1:40
  Speaker 4: seeing is a real bounce back and confidence. And we
• 1:43
  Speaker 4: are seeing that the lower oil prices is giving New
• 1:47
  Speaker 4: zealand is more confidence about their own household spending. It's
• 1:50
  Speaker 4: giving businesses more confidence about what the future looks like.
• 1:53
  Speaker 4: The reality for New Zealand is we're a small trading
• 1:56
  Speaker 4: nation at the bottom of the world. What happens internationally
• 1:58
  Speaker 4: affects us, so the ceasefire and its endurance really matter
• 2:03
  Speaker 4: to us. But I'm buoyed by the fact that our
• 2:06
  Speaker 4: fundamentals are strong. We're growing strongly at the beginning of
• 2:10
  Speaker 4: this year, and is every reason to believe will bounce back.
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: Well, she'll certainly be hoping so on that, but you know,
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: it does say a lot that we were beginning to
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: show signs and I think that the economy is starting
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: to rebound. I mean, all the indicators are not too bad.
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: So as long as this peace deal lasts and Trump
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: doesn't start bombing people on the top of their heads,
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: as you so politely put it, you know we'll be
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: looking okay, okay.
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: What is your take on Shane Jones's travel bill?
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: Travel bill, Well, he was attending the Prospectors and Developers'
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: Association of Canada convention. There are about thirty thousand people
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: that go along to that and it was promoting our
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: government's mineral strategy. Now, the business class flight and the
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: personal limo on standby for hours on end saw him
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: massively blow as budget. Essentially, he said that he was
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: going to spend about thirty three thousand and that was
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: the proposedly put up to cabinet and it came out
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: at sixty three thousand dollars. After initially declining an interview
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: on the matter, Shane Jones fronted up to reporters Day
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: and is attempting to distance himself from any decision about
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: the spend, So here he is. Jones had this to say.
• 3:36
  Speaker 5: These matters they're tended to by the officials. With all
• 3:39
  Speaker 5: those details, I'm up in the wheelhouse. All those details
• 3:43
  Speaker 5: would have been attended to by the trip organizer. To
• 3:47
  Speaker 5: the best of my knowledge, there was some sort of
• 3:50
  Speaker 5: cockup with the original booking and then it was corrected,
• 3:56
  Speaker 5: and by the time they corrected it, there must have
• 3:58
  Speaker 5: been a change in the cost structure of the trip.
• 4:01
  Speaker 5: I mean these things had detached from the politicians so
• 4:04
  Speaker 5: that there's accountability and the system runs the budget terry
• 4:08
  Speaker 5: travel and then it's signed off I think by the
• 4:10
  Speaker 5: Prime Minister's department or something like that.
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: So well, his leader, Winston Peters, he jumped to his
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: defense today. He said that when he saw the original
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: figures he was astounded. They were far too low, he said,
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: And don't forget this man travels virtually constantly. However, if
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: you look at certainly Shona or Nikola Willis, she's totally
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: unhappy about it, and she sounded off about it, saying
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: that look, any budget that she puts up would be
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: adhered to, so a bit of a caning from her.
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: But if it doesn't do Chris Luxen from christ Church
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: he said that it's genuinely it was an administrative era
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: that was his department that had to eventually sign it off.
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: It was a year virtually after the trip, but they
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: signed it off and so the Prime Minister of seeing it,
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: it would seem Shane Jones's.
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: Way what is the administrative era.
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: Well that clearly the bookings for the fears were mistakenly
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: put in it. Probably economy, I don't know, but upgraded. No,
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: I'm with you. I think if you are traveling on business,
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: you have to go to meetings, you have to be
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: fresh when you get there.
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: I don't know, prom with the business class. I have
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: a problem with keeping a limousine on Stanine.
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: Well, yeah, I think that's but he said, look it
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: was cold in Toronto.
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: Really, this is ridiculous. Mary, Thanks very much. We'll talk
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: to Shane Jones. Actually he's with us after five o'clock.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: For more from News Talks at b Listen live on
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: air or online, and keep our shows with you wherever
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: you go with our podcasts on iHeartRadio.