Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Roger Patridge: NZ Initiative Co-founder and Chair on the results of the Mood of the Boardroom Survey

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Roger Patridge: NZ Initiative Co-founder and Chair on the results of the Mood of the Boardroom Survey · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We've got the Herald's mood of the boardroom, and in
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: a word, it's grim. Our business leaders are calling for
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: more bipartisanship when it comes to tax retirement and the
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: long term outlook for New Zealand. A big talking point
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: was Trump's tariffs, with CEO's confidence plummeting in light of
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: the president's aversion to free trade. Roger Patridge is the
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: co founder and chair of the New Zealand Initiative, and
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: he joins me now, good morning, Roger, thanks for your time.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: Good morning, Francesca.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: So if you could describe the mood of the boardroom
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: in one word, what would it be.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: Well, I think grim is quite a good word. Troubled.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: Everybody's are ware the economy's struggling, cost of livings high,
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: and the business communities looking for a clear direction from
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: the government and not feeling that they're quite delivering.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: There's pretty much unanimous agreement that the economy isn't taking
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: off in the ways that we were promised. What are
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: those key issues holding us back?
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: Well, one of the big issues is the extent of
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: government spending. That's meant that it's taken longer for interest
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: rates to come down and with interest rates high productive
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: activity has not rebounded in the way you'd hope after
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: a recession. I think the government underestimated the extent of
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: the problem they inherited from the last government, and underestimated
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: how much pain it was going to take and cause
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: to firms, workers and consumers. Probably should have managed expectations
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: better on how long it was going to take to
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: turn things around.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: You've called for bipartisanship on our economic future. What's stopping
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: this progress? Is it the fringe parties?
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: No, I think it's worth We're always tempted to think
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: about what divides us politically, but it's worth thinking a
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: bit about how much we agree on and trying to
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: broaden the scope when you step back and think about
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: the issues that aren't so object to political flip flops
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: every time there's an election. We've got bipartisanship on free trade,
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: on an independent foreign policy. We've had by partisanship and
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: probably still do on the need for a broad based
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: tax system with a clean GST. We don't have a
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: successive governments tinkling this talk of it every now and then,
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: not tinkering with our GSD. But it's the envy of
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: the world. It's a very efficient tax. We've had cross
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: party support for more than three decades on treaty settlements
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: and cross party support on climate change. So there's a
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: lot that unites us, and I think that's a strength
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: of our political system. One of the challenges is to
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: broaden that out. We've had bipartisan support for a prudent
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: fiscal policy and low levels of debt, keeping debt at
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: around twenty percent of GST our GDP, and that lasted
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: until the pandemic, and then the trading wheels came off.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: The spending constraints came off with both parties. So I
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: think we should think about the important areas where we
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: can agree politically on issues like retirement savings, infrastructure pipeline.
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: There are a whole host of policy areas just crying
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: out for certainty.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: A lot of feedback about Trump's tariffs and the impact
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: that's had on confidence. Trump did what he said he
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: was going to do. Should we have been more prepared
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: for the reality of these tariffs.
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: I think people were misled globally about what Trump term
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: two was going to look like. Trump said an awful
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: lot of things before term one, which he didn't do,
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: and I think people thought he might have been messing
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: with America and the world more than he actually was,
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: so we weren't alone in not taking what he said
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: at face value.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: There we go and really quickly, Roger, do you think
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: the Prime Minister will be happy with his ranking?
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: He won't be happy. No, it's it's for him. It's
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: definitely work in progress.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much. Really appreciate your time this morning.
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: That was Roger Patridge.
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen live
• 4:10
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• 4:13
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