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Nicola Willis: Finance Minister addresses protesters chained outside her electorate office · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talks'd be follow
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  Speaker 1: this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
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  Speaker 2: With us Now as Nichola willis the Finance Minister.
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  Speaker 3: Evening Nikola, Good evening, Heather.
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  Speaker 2: Do you have an opinion on whether Watties cans should
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  Speaker 2: have New Zealand peaches in them?
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  Speaker 3: I haven't followed this story. I think it's really a
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  Speaker 3: matter for what he is and as long as they're
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  Speaker 3: upfront and transparent with their consumers about it, then it's
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  Speaker 3: their business and a fewer people buy them. If they're
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  Speaker 3: not key we then surely they'll take down into.
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  Speaker 2: Account, like do you go to the supermarket and pick
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  Speaker 2: up the can turn around go I no, no, that's
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  Speaker 2: not from New Zealand, or buy something else?
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  Speaker 3: Well, I have my husband doing most of the supermarket
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  Speaker 3: shopping for our house, is the honest answer to that question.
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  Speaker 3: We don't buy that many peaches. What I worry about
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  Speaker 3: is whether they've got extra sugar, because I don't want
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  Speaker 3: our kids juicing up on that before school.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, this is a very big problem, speaking of which
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  Speaker 2: you actually because then you're sending them to school hyperactive.
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  Speaker 2: For the teacher, who are on strike. Have you got
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  Speaker 2: a year twelvel, year thirteen home today?
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  Speaker 3: Well I have a year eleven? Who will? So you're
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  Speaker 3: tomorrow be home tomorrow you again again. That's disruptive to
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  Speaker 3: my husband's life, our main caregiver, and we'll have to
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  Speaker 3: rearrange his life accordingly. But look, it's the it's all
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  Speaker 3: of the families who are disrupted, some of home. It's
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  Speaker 3: really difficult to reorganize their lives around that. They're expecting
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  Speaker 3: their kids to be at school. And I've just got
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  Speaker 3: one observation, which is we want to bargain in good faith.
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  Speaker 3: You do that at the bargaining table. You can't do
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  Speaker 3: that while you're striking. And I noticed that teachers never
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  Speaker 3: seem to strike in the school holidays.
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  Speaker 2: Isn't that a surprise? So what you going to do?
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  Speaker 2: Is it going to take time off work or is
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  Speaker 2: he going to work from home and chuck the boy
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  Speaker 2: on the device?
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  Speaker 3: He'll work from home and he'll have to manage the
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  Speaker 3: device use because that will be a strange magnet to
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  Speaker 3: which my son will be drawndoubtedly.
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  Speaker 2: Now, what is this Phillips inquiry that the Prime Minister
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  Speaker 2: was hinting at this morning, Well.
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  Speaker 3: There are naturally a lot of questions around how the
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  Speaker 3: situation was handled over the past four years, and a
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  Speaker 3: range of government agencies involved, not just the police but
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  Speaker 3: obviously oring a Tamadiki and other agencies, and so the
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  Speaker 3: government is taking advice around what an inquiry would look
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  Speaker 3: like to have that whole of government perspective.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, Will this inquiry also look into whether the police
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  Speaker 2: did the right things?
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  Speaker 3: Well, that will be an aspect of it, I'm sure,
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  Speaker 3: because it's about the way that different agencies have interacted
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  Speaker 3: and engaged and the ultimate decisions that were made.
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  Speaker 2: Will one of the questions be whether the police should
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  Speaker 2: have gone in earlier.
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  Speaker 3: Well, I don't want to get ahead of the terms
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  Speaker 3: of reference because those haven't been set yet, but those
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  Speaker 3: are the sorts of questions that people are asking, and
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  Speaker 3: I'm sure that the police are fully expecting to address
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  Speaker 3: those questions anyway. They have their own inquiries underway, but
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  Speaker 3: you would expect that a whole of government inquiry would
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  Speaker 3: consider that.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and will just take the place of the IPCA inquiry.
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  Speaker 2: Sure will have to happen anyway.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, Well, that's really important, but of course that's about
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  Speaker 3: the ultimate shootout rather than the wider set of events.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, so the IPCA looks at the shootout, this other
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  Speaker 2: inquiry will look at the whole operation, whether the right
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  Speaker 2: things were done.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah. Look, and I understand that police and the normal
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  Speaker 3: course of events review an operation of this magnitude and
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  Speaker 3: national significance, So that would happen anyway. But what the
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  Speaker 3: Prime Minister is looking at is the broader inquiry on
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  Speaker 3: and the way all the government agencies involved have come
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  Speaker 3: together on this matter and the consequences of their decision making.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, now, look on the eden Park thing, why don't
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  Speaker 2: you guys, I mean, we all understand that Eden Park
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  Speaker 2: is playing with its arms tied behind its back, right,
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  Speaker 2: So why not instead of launching an investigation and dragging
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  Speaker 2: it out for the next six months or whatever, why
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  Speaker 2: don't you guys change the rules? We know what the
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  Speaker 2: rules are.
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  Speaker 3: Well, none of this would be possible if we hadn't
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  Speaker 3: passed law this year which for the first time ever
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  Speaker 3: allows us to get and modify provisions in local plans.
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  Speaker 3: This is all part of the resource management hat, so
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  Speaker 3: we now have that power. What the law requires Minister
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  Speaker 3: Bishop to do is do a proper investigation to demonstrate
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  Speaker 3: that this is something that's negatively impacting economic growth, and
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  Speaker 3: then he recommends changes. So that's about following the process
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  Speaker 3: and the law.
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  Speaker 2: That's right. That's right enough. What is the game with
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  Speaker 2: you know, what's the goal with the Christians tied up
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  Speaker 2: in your office?
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  Speaker 3: Well, obviously I support the right to protest, but I
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  Speaker 3: would point out that by then going ahead in the
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  Speaker 3: way that they are chaining themselves to the office and
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  Speaker 3: the like, they're just getting in the way of good
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  Speaker 3: people who want to come to that electorate office to
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  Speaker 3: have help with constituent matters. My electorate staff member has
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  Speaker 3: had to work from home. It means he can't meet
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  Speaker 3: face to face with people, which is really disruptive and
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  Speaker 3: I don't think positive for their course.
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  Speaker 2: Do do you have to have people there sort of
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  Speaker 2: guarding the place overnight?
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  Speaker 3: I understand that security have been engaged by Parliamentary Services,
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  Speaker 3: who take operational responsibility for these matters, and security have
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  Speaker 3: been engaging with the police. I also understand the protesters
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  Speaker 3: turned up with muffins this morning, so it was news
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  Speaker 3: to me that they're in fact going to be fasting.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, I thought, oh, so they weren't like muffins like
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  Speaker 2: a coreha it was like muffins for themselves.
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  Speaker 3: Well, I think it was, as a core hear, it
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  Speaker 3: was a rooster try and get in the door so
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  Speaker 3: that they could do as they have attempted in other offices.
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  Speaker 3: And I have a very onto it electorate agent. Oh
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  Speaker 3: no could see what was brewing.
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  Speaker 2: It's like a fishes and loaves type situation, isn't it?
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  Speaker 2: Except and now we're chained. Okay, now what have you heard?
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  Speaker 2: What's going on here with taku to feris because no
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  Speaker 2: one can get hold of the Maori Party to understand
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  Speaker 2: why they can't get on top of them. What are
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  Speaker 2: you hearing?
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  Speaker 3: Well, I just think they're in a complete mess. I
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  Speaker 3: mean they'll be seeing the writing on the wall, which
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  Speaker 3: is that when you have members making openly racist statements
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  Speaker 3: and disenfranchising huge numbers of New Zealand, you don't look
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  Speaker 3: like a party that could ever be in government. And
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  Speaker 3: presumably someone into party Marty is smart enough to work
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  Speaker 3: out that if you can't ever be in government, then
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  Speaker 3: you can't ever really get anything done. So I imagine they're
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  Speaker 3: having an internal war about that. I know that their
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  Speaker 3: whip last week was pretty upset to have her whip promoved.
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  Speaker 3: I don't know what relationship that has with all of this,
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  Speaker 3: but look, just more entics from party Marty.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, interesting, Now listen, can you explain to me how
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  Speaker 2: you guys racked up a forty four thousand dollar bill
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  Speaker 2: for the Pavlova on the Mountain date?
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  Speaker 3: Well, look, talking to the Prime Minister's office, I understand
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  Speaker 3: that this was about promoting New Zealand.
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  Speaker 2: At I know what it was about. Listen, listen, let
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  Speaker 2: me just let me come clean with you. Okay. So
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  Speaker 2: I had a look at it, and I see that
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  Speaker 2: you can get a two group private Queenstown charter on
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  Speaker 2: the Chopper for thirteen and a half thousand dollars. Now
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  Speaker 2: I want two choppers because that's what you people had.
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  Speaker 2: So now it's twenty seven thousand dollars. So where's the
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  Speaker 2: other seventeen thousand dollars come from?
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  Speaker 3: Look, I haven't been involved in looking at the costings
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  Speaker 3: of that. I'm sure those are questions which the Prime
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  Speaker 3: Minister's Office would happily answer. Basically, this was about showcasing
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  Speaker 3: the best of New Zealand scene. Predaturism provision was made.
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  Speaker 2: There wasn't that wasn't there was that much media co problem.
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  Speaker 3: Well, an interesting point that's probably relevant to the overall
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  Speaker 3: price was that provision was made to have journalists come along,
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  Speaker 3: but ultimately the Australian Prime Minister wasn't comfortable with them
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  Speaker 3: being in the chopper, so it ended up being just
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  Speaker 3: for social media, but it did receive wider reporting.
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  Speaker 2: It's interesting elbow under the bus.
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  Speaker 3: No, well, I don't think I'm throwing them under the
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  Speaker 3: bus at all. I think that's a perfectly reasonable position
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  Speaker 3: for any leader to take, is when they want media
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  Speaker 3: accompanying them and when they don't. Doesn't like totally, that's
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  Speaker 3: totally the program, Nichola.
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  Speaker 2: So are you telling me if I go to the
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  Speaker 2: Prime minister, our Prime Minister's office and say, Nicholas said,
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  Speaker 2: you have to tell me how you racked up the spill,
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  Speaker 2: they will be honest with me.
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  Speaker 3: Well, I think that they'll be able to give you
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  Speaker 3: some sort of a breakdown.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, great, I shall do this. Thank you very much,
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  Speaker 2: appreciate it. Nichola Willis Finance Ministane. Good luck for tomorrow
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  Speaker 2: with the boy at Home.
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