Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Chris Penk: Building and Construction Minister on the liquidation rate of construction companies

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Chris Penk: Building and Construction Minister on the liquidation rate of construction companies · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: New figures from the Building Research Association show construction companies
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: making up a third of all businesses in liquidation. That's
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: up from twenty five percent and twenty twenty two. Chris
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Penk they building a construction minister with me this morning.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Good morning minister, Good morning to you Jee. Not a
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: great number to have on your watches, as the minister.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Not a great stat to have liquidations up thirty seven
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: percent in the year of February.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, not a great stat but I mean
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: more importantly than for me is minister or the government.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: He has a lot of real world paine out here.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: It's been really hard for the last few years. So
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: we're obviously focused on the things within our control, which
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: is turning it around in terms of the rules and
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  Speaker 2: regulations that actually make it easier, not hardner. So when
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: people can climb out of that hole, it's a bit
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: easier to do so. But the more important big picture,
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: Staff is all the macroeconomic conditions around inflation, ocr coming
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: down and so on, and part of taking our medicine,
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: to use your metaphor of a minute ago.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and we'll come to that in a second. How
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: many tradees have left the country do we know.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: I mean, we don't know to the precise number, but
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: it's a combination of people having gone to Australia or
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: or decided to do other things. So obviously that's a
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: real problem in an issue. And you know, we say
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: when a Kiwi family set shopping.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: Do they not give you numbers on that? The officials
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: they don't give you numbers on how many traders have
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: left New Zealand.
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: No they don't. I mean, we don't make people say
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: when they leave the country. But I mean anecdotally, at
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: least we can say it's a massive problem. And the
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: point I was just going to make is it's a
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: problem for them, But obviously it's also a problem for
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: the sector because when we start to pick up the
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: levels of activity again, people to do the work.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: Which leads me to my next question. Are we in
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: a perfect storm? The OCRs coming down, prices are stabilizing
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: or increases, builders have gone to the wall, and traders
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: are going to Australia. Is this the perfect storm when
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: it does crank up for a repeat of the housing crisis?
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: Well, I mean I don't. I don't think so in
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: terms of the capacity to bounce back, but it will
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: be slower than it otherwise needed to have been. And
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  Speaker 2: unfortunately this is the long run passion of the construction sector.
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  Speaker 2: We have a deeper sort of boom and bus cycle
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  Speaker 2: than we need because you know, there is a lag
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: effect basically. So I mean one of the things we
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: can do is just to try and be clear headed
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: about that and to say, well, we know that times
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: will be better and to avoid them being tougher for
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: longer until we climb out of that hole. We need
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: to do everything in our power to make it quicker
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: and easier so that people can crank up the work
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: more quickly and not shed people along the way.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: Monster appreciate your time. Did you see the poll last night?
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: What can you sum up your vision in one word
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  Speaker 1: for us Minister?
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: I think tougher is not bad actually or no best
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: and it might not be sexy, but actually it's we're
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: at the country, you know, the post COVID spending spurges
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: has finished and we've got to you know, get out
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: of that hole. So I think that's what we're doing.
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: And it's slow bit sure, but a lot of people
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: are really had to do it, and I think.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: We'll give you Chris Pink Building and Construction Minister. For
• 3:04
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• 3:08
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• 3:11
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