Latest / Best of Business / Nicola Willis: Finance Minister outlines plans for 2025 as she takes on Economic Growth portfolio

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Nicola Willis: Finance Minister outlines plans for 2025 as she takes on Economic Growth portfolio · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talks be follow
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  Speaker 2: Welcome to the Year of growth, as pointed out by
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  Speaker 2: the Prime Minister Christopher Luxon yesterday, and that economic growth
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  Speaker 2: and the economic recovery of New Zealand has been placed
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  Speaker 2: firmly into Nicola Willis's lap. Nicola the Finance Minister. She
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  Speaker 2: is now though also the new Minister for Economic Growth
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  Speaker 2: in addition to being financed. Chris Luxon says twenty twenty
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  Speaker 2: five is all about going for growth, and Nichola is
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  Speaker 2: the one to do it, and Nikola joins. Who Now,
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  Speaker 2: congratulations Nicola, and happy new Year.
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  Speaker 3: Thanks Andrew, Happy new year to you too. And this
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  Speaker 3: is going to be the year in which we drive
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  Speaker 3: growth the New Zealand economy forward. That is the way
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  Speaker 3: we can afford all of the things New Zealanders deserve. Now,
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  Speaker 3: let's get a job, better incomes, investment in our public services.
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  Speaker 2: Let's talk about this new portfolio. So economic development now
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  Speaker 2: becomes economic growth and it goes from Melissa Lee's hands
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  Speaker 2: to yours. Why wasn't in your hands right from the
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  Speaker 2: get go?
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  Speaker 3: Well, traditionally these two portfolios Finance and what has been
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  Speaker 3: previously called Economic Development haven't been held by the same minister.
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  Speaker 3: What the PMS identified is, given how important growth is
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  Speaker 3: to our agenda, he wants me driving that across government.
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  Speaker 3: So in this portfolio I will lead the Ministry for Business,
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  Speaker 3: Innovation and Employment. Yes, and through that role, I will
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  Speaker 3: be making sure that we're responding to businesses, industries, small
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  Speaker 3: business owners about what they need to have the confidence
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  Speaker 3: to be investing, to be hiring, to be innovating. And
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  Speaker 3: there are a lot of things we can do to
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  Speaker 3: reform New Zealand to remove the barriers to all of
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  Speaker 3: those about that progressing a big agenda, but there's more
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  Speaker 3: to do.
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  Speaker 2: We'll talk about that. But MB was created by Stephen
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  Speaker 2: Joyce who was the Minister of Finance as well, and
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  Speaker 2: it is a big unit full of a lot of
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  Speaker 2: big brains who work on economic development. In many cases
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  Speaker 2: you are starting to use their forecast as well as
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  Speaker 2: Treasury more and more and again I gave come back
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  Speaker 2: to the question it just beggars belief that the two
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  Speaker 2: were separated in the first place.
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  Speaker 3: Well, look, MB does things that are very specific to
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  Speaker 3: particular sectors, so they're looking at the whole immigration area,
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  Speaker 3: they look at the science and innovation area, regulation, employment law,
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  Speaker 3: so it's a broad span. Whereas Treasury's focus is more
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  Speaker 3: on the big picture of what are we doing to
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  Speaker 3: manage the books, ensure that inflation and interest rates are
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  Speaker 3: in the right place, and those questions of where we
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  Speaker 3: allocate funding and the budget and across our various public services.
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  Speaker 3: So they are distinct roles. There are a huge scope
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  Speaker 3: for MB The point for me is, let's make sure
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  Speaker 3: we're prioritizing that work properly. We're doing the things that
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  Speaker 3: will really shift the dial, and we're doing them at pace,
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  Speaker 3: and we're being responsive to the people who will actually
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  Speaker 3: create growth, which in the end won't be a government minister,
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  Speaker 3: and it'll be every entrepreneur who decides to invest in
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  Speaker 3: that next step. It are we every exporter who says
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  Speaker 3: let's take on a new market. It will be every
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  Speaker 3: manufacturer who says, let's buy that next piece of machinery.
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  Speaker 3: Where both comes from.
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  Speaker 2: I understand that, well, let's talk about growth and let's
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  Speaker 2: talk about productivity. Because Roger Partridge from the New Zealand Initiative,
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  Speaker 2: but an article in the Herald last week, did you
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  Speaker 2: read it.
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  Speaker 3: I did. I thought it was a good article, and.
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  Speaker 2: He points out that New Zealand ranks near the top
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  Speaker 2: of per capita resources and assets, but New Zealand ranks
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  Speaker 2: seventh globally for average private adult wealth. This is all great,
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  Speaker 2: but we are only ranked twenty second in the OECD
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  Speaker 2: for GDP per capiture. So in other words, where's all
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  Speaker 2: the money going. We've got it, but it's not going
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  Speaker 2: into productivity, that's right.
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  Speaker 3: So actually our fundamentals are good. We are a wealthy
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  Speaker 3: country when you think about our natural resources, our talent,
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  Speaker 3: our capability. The problem is, for actually decades, we've done
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  Speaker 3: badly on what people call productivity, which is how much
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  Speaker 3: we produce for an hour of work. How people who
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  Speaker 3: can they work big hours, but we don't get enough
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  Speaker 3: value out of that, and that's because our economy hasn't
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  Speaker 3: been as efficient as it needs to be. The question
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  Speaker 3: for us is.
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  Speaker 2: New Zealanders to take their wealth and they invested in
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  Speaker 2: bricks and watar because the residential market has been so
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  Speaker 2: profitable for them, and then that's locked up money, you know,
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  Speaker 2: and you've met it even easier for investors to lock
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  Speaker 2: up money which should be going into businesses to expand.
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  Speaker 3: Well, I'd argue that actually we will continue to need
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  Speaker 3: rental properties available so that we have stabilization and rents
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  Speaker 3: in New Zealand. But you're right, I do want to
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  Speaker 3: see more investment in our industries and our export exporters
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  Speaker 3: because they're the ones actually making us a living in
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  Speaker 3: the world. And when you talk to farmers, when you
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  Speaker 3: talk to people in the digital services industries, they say
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  Speaker 3: for them to make those investments, they need to feel
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  Speaker 3: that in New Zealand they're not going to face too
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  Speaker 3: much red tape. They can get skilled workers, that they've
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  Speaker 3: got good trading relationships that if they want to access capital,
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  Speaker 3: that is funding from other parts of the world, that
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  Speaker 3: that investment can come in, that we have a good
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  Speaker 3: science and innovation system to support them. So those are
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  Speaker 3: the sorts of issues we have to get into. The
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  Speaker 3: nitty gritty of it is actually an area that is
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  Speaker 3: about the detail of each of those areas. And as
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  Speaker 3: a government, we've been driving reform across the resource management
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  Speaker 3: system so people can get a consent. We're looking to
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  Speaker 3: cut through the red tape and the Health and Safety Act.
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  Speaker 3: We've been doing things with employment law. But there is
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  Speaker 3: more to do Roger.
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  Speaker 2: And Roger also talks about five hundred billion dollars worth
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  Speaker 2: of Crown held assets that he believes locks up the capital.
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  Speaker 2: He believes we need to get into asset recycling, just
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  Speaker 2: like New South Wales have done over the last decade.
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  Speaker 2: Do you agree.
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  Speaker 3: I agree that we need to manage the significant assets
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  Speaker 3: that the government owns much much better. When you look
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  Speaker 3: across the Tessman Sydney Melbourne. Part of what has allowed
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  Speaker 3: them to have much more advanced transport systems is that
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  Speaker 3: they have embraced public private partnerships. They've allowed new mechanisms
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  Speaker 3: for funding public transport projects and major roads. And that's
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  Speaker 3: exactly the reforms that we put in last year with
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  Speaker 3: our National Infrastructure Agency now open for business and we
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  Speaker 3: are actively seeking investment from partners around the world to
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  Speaker 3: do a better job of delivering that infrastructure.
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  Speaker 2: Well, because when you talk about asset recycling, that's just
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  Speaker 2: a new politically correct term for a little bit of
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  Speaker 2: privatization and that actually causes some willy wobbles, which and
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  Speaker 2: I know that causes willy wobbles because Christopher Luxen in
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  Speaker 2: his campaigns, we're saying we're not going to be doing
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  Speaker 2: this sort of stuff. So in a way you said
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  Speaker 2: we will.
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  Speaker 3: Well, what I've said is the first step is to
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  Speaker 3: manage our existing assets better. The second step is to
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  Speaker 3: make sure that when we're creating new assets, new roads,
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  Speaker 3: new hospitals, that we're doing that much more efficiently. And
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  Speaker 3: then down the line are potentially at the election we
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  Speaker 3: should have a conversation in New Zealand about are our
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  Speaker 3: investments in the right place. Are there things that we
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  Speaker 3: would rather have than some of the things we currently have.
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  Speaker 3: That's a conversation for down the line. But first step
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  Speaker 3: manage what we've got a lot better and deliver the
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  Speaker 3: new things we're committed to much more efficiently.
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  Speaker 2: Now I apologize, but this is it has to be said.
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  Speaker 2: Labor Minister Stuart Nash has written an opinion piece today
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  Speaker 2: in the newsroom. I don't know if you've read it
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  Speaker 2: or not, and then it and I quote for those
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  Speaker 2: who have not read it. There is a term circulating
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  Speaker 2: amongst the business community around the country. It's called being Willis.
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  Speaker 2: Being Willis happens to senior businessmen and women who attend
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  Speaker 2: meetings with the Finance Minister Nikola Willis and leave having
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  Speaker 2: received a lecture on how to run a business and
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  Speaker 2: what they should do to be successful, despite the fact
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  Speaker 2: that Nicola Willis has not been in the business sector
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  Speaker 2: apart from one job at Fonterra. What do you make
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  Speaker 2: of what Stuart's has written?
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  Speaker 3: Well, I was so cross when I read that, because
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  Speaker 3: it's so far from what I say to business audiences
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  Speaker 3: and such a false depiction of my role at Fonterira
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  Speaker 3: that I actually rang Stuart today to ask him where
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  Speaker 3: he's coming from. Unfortunately, he hasn't picked up my call yet,
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  Speaker 3: So if you're listening, Stu, give me a call, because
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  Speaker 3: one of the first things I say to business audiences
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  Speaker 3: wherever I am in the country is it's not the
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  Speaker 3: government who should tell you how to run your business.
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  Speaker 3: You know how to do it better than we do.
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  Speaker 3: Our job is to create the conditions in which you
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  Speaker 3: can succeed. And I'll also defend myself. At Fontira, I
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  Speaker 3: had a range of roles including trade strategy with some
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  Speaker 3: of our critical trading partners around the world, deploying our
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  Speaker 3: commercial strategy, and ultimately running an operational unit with farms
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  Speaker 3: and waste management. So his characterization of my experience is wrong.
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  Speaker 3: We will make mistakes ste so you are open to
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  Speaker 3: correct that one. All right.
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  Speaker 2: Now, Look, you've just hired the visitor levee from thirty
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  Speaker 2: five dollars to one hundred bucks per traveler counselors, and
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  Speaker 2: of course the Department of Conservation want that money. They
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  Speaker 2: feel it's being sucked up into the consolidated fund or
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  Speaker 2: some slush fund somewhere. Are you going to give councils
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  Speaker 2: and dock more to manage our assets that are stressed
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  Speaker 2: by tourism.
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  Speaker 3: Yes. Our view is that having more international visitors come
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  Speaker 3: to New Zealand is the really good thing, and I'm
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  Speaker 3: delighted that the numbers for our foreign visitors through December
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  Speaker 3: and January are the highest I've been in five years.
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  Speaker 3: That does create pressure both on our conservation estate, our
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  Speaker 3: national parks and the infrastructure needed to support those visitors,
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  Speaker 3: and it creates pressure in our regions in terms of
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  Speaker 3: what tourists coming in require. So we haven't made as
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  Speaker 3: our cabinet decisions yet on what we will do specifically
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  Speaker 3: with that additional revenue, but our intention is to support
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  Speaker 3: both conservation activity and to support tourism and to keep
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  Speaker 3: that pump going so that we keep attracting tourists and
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  Speaker 3: the they bring to our businesses, our retailers, our hospitality providers.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and as I said at the beginning of the program,
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  Speaker 2: of New Zealand certainly has a mojo at the moment.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, did you see what happened now on this
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  Speaker 2: past weekend. Everywhere, everybody's out, everybody's making things happen. The entrepreneurially,
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  Speaker 2: we're up for it, mate. A year of growth is
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  Speaker 2: what we all want. Nicola, I thank you so much
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  Speaker 2: for your time today. That is Nicola Willis, the Finance Minister.
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