Latest / The SME Stream / Carmel Sepuloni: Deputy Labour Leader discusses capital gains taxes, new safety measures for public transport workers, and Andrew Coster

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Carmel Sepuloni: Deputy Labour Leader discusses capital gains taxes, new safety measures for public transport workers, and Andrew Coster · The SME Stream

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: As you know, we normally catch up with laboring the
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Crescepkins every fortnight, this time every fortnight, but he is
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: in the UK, sleeping on a mate's couch attending the
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: British Labor Party conference. So who Deputy Carmel Cepalone's with us? Morning?
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: Comel, good morning?
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: What time is it on Treasure Island?
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: I wouldn't know because I'm not there anymore.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: But of drama last night, wasn't there?
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, a little bit of drama. It was a bit
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: of It was a bit of tragedy and triumphs on
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: the same night.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: I think, all right, how would you how would you
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: assess the experience.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: A once in a lifetime experience? And I had the
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: opportunity to challenge myself in lots of different ways. But
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: I'm glad to be back to reality rather than reality TV.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: I don't think I'll be doing it again.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: I was going to say, would you say once in
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: a lifetime do you really mean never to be done again?
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: Never to be done again? But that doesn't mean that
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: I wouldn't encourage other politicians to something like this ago.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: But yeah, well, knowing what they're.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: Getting into, all right, Andrew Costa he's on the move,
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: he's got a new role. How much is he a
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: victim of your government's approach to law and order? Do
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: you think? Oh?
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: I don't think so at all. He has strong duty
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: of care. Whilst he was the Police Minister, he led
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: the police through some extraordinary time, very tough and challenging times.
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: I think he did it to the best of his ability.
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: And I don't have a bad word to say about
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: any costa.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: Do you believe the kind words that are coming from
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: the government.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: Well, it's very interesting given that Simon Bridges was so
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: critical of him back in the day. Reminded to the
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: government to be very careful about the way in which
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: they criticized public servants. However, from my point of view,
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: he's a man with integrity and I wishing the best
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: for what he's going on to do.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: He said on radio this morning that he noticed a
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: significant change, or he said the police's work got tougher
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: during and after COVID. Do you think that that was
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: because of the what should we say, the pandemic itself
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: or when New Zealand's response to the pandemic.
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: Look, I think that we wouldn't be alone with regards
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: to what was experienced with crime and the angst that
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: New Zealand and probably the rest of the world was
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: feeling at that time because of the pandemic, both during
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: and after, anxiety levels were high and the police would
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: have been feeling the brunts of that. But I don't
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: think that would have been just New Zealand. I think
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: that that was something that was experienced by other countries
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: as well.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: All Right, other sectors that are also feeling the heat
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: on the receiving end of some of that agro there
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: are public transport workers and bus drivers in particular. So
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: the government's talking about tougher center things for people that
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: you know, abuse and injure the bus drivers for example,
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: and then you've got the bus operators saying, well, what
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: we're going to do is we're going to put cages
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: around the drivers as well. Do you accept that this
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: is something that did get worse during your time in government?
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: Oh? Look, I hadn't seen any statistics to show that
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: it got worse in our time in government. But we
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: share a concern for our bus drivers. No one likes
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: to see our bus drivers attacked and assaulted. I mean,
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: these are people's mums and dads and quite often grandparents
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: that are driving the buses and they do not deserve
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: to be treated like that. So we would get behind
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: whatever the government is going to do to actually support
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: protections for bus drivers in the workplace. Sadly though, I
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: did notice they put out a PRS and they're going
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: to put fifteen million into this. However, they didn't note
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: that they actually took forty six point nine million out
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: of the budget which was set aside for public transport
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: workforce sustainability and this skill improvement program which would have
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: helped towards protection, and that was something that was in
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: place under our government when we were in Well, do
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: you accept that you accept that enough?
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: I'm not asking you to take good culpability for it,
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: but do you accept that things are worse for public
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: transport workers these days than these to be?
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: I do, and I mean I think we can see
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: it with New Zealanders. You know, anxiety is high and
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: that plays out in lots of horrible ways, including what
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: we're seeing with our bus drivers.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: All Right, there's some your leaders in Britain at the
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: moment at the at the Labor Party conference. What is
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: he there? What do you guys want to learn from
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: from labor, how to win an election, or how to
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: be a decent government, because it seems to me that
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: they're starting to fail on the decent government.
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: But already, look, you know, he's gone over there to
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: gain whatever insights that he thinks will be helpful for
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: us to maybe with respect to how they run campaigns,
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: that there may be some policy ideas that will be
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: helpful in spaces. That doesn't mean that he's going to
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: pick up everything that they may be rolling out over there,
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: but there's always something to learn.
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: Interesting points been made today by the chief executives of
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: A and Z. This is Antonia Watson, and she's saying
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: that if people buy houses with the intention of making
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: a capital gain, then that makes it another form of
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: income and we should be paying tax on that profit
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: once we've sold up and we've got the money in
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: the bank. She's advocating there for a capital gains tax.
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: What's your response to that.
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: Well, we're having discussions about what a progressive tax policy
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: could look like for us going into the next election.
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: We've been really clear that a capital gain tax is
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: not off the table. There's lots of things that we're considering.
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: I think that she makes some good points, but we're
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: still going through that policy process and we suddenly don't
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: have anything to announce.
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: Would it give you more confidence or does it give
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: you more confidence to pursue that type of policy When
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: you have the likes of Antonio Watson saying what she's
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: saying today.
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: I think that things have changed. I mean, I can't
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: remember whether it was around twenty eleven or twenty fourteen
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: when we took the capital gains tax to the election
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: and there was no appetite for it whatsoever. Then there's
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: been lots of conversations over the last years, and I
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: think that there is more of an interest in just
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: looking at it by a range of people. And this
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: is just one example. Now I'm not preempting that we
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: might do this. I'm just saying it's certainly not off
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: the table, and we are looking at our progressive tax
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: policy and.
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: What would and what would encourage you more people like
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: the chief executive of the ain Z saying we're all
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: for it, or the voters saying they're all for it.
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: First, we have a democratic process that we've got to
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: go through with our own party, and that's where it starts.
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: It's not just the caucus that gets to decide what's
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: on the table going into any election. It's our Policy
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: Council and it's the membership.
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: Brilliant. Thank you for time t take our lead from
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: there all right, appreciate your time today. Thank you very much.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: As Carmel Sibiloni, Deputy Labor Leader, standing up because a
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: conserves in the UK