Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Simon Bridges: Auckland Business Chamber CEO on Wayne Brown's manifesto for Auckland

Transcript

Simon Bridges: Auckland Business Chamber CEO on Wayne Brown's manifesto for Auckland · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Wayne Brown and Auckland has refreshed his magnificent manifesto for Auckland.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: He says work with the government has been mostly good,
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: but he wants the bed tax. He's like a broken
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: record with the bed tax and the visa waivers for
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: China for Brazil. He reckons these can help turbocharge growth
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Auckland and in turn save the entire country. Simon Bridges,
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: the Auckland Business Chamber of CEO with me this morning, Simon,
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Good morning, a morning Ryan.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Yes, what a magnificent manifesto. Indeed, I just wanted to
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: say that, actually because I like the way I rolled
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: off the tongue.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: We'll get you that into a second. But this China US,
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: well it's not a deal, but at least it's a pause.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Has got to be a good thing for us.
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: Right, Oh yeah, good news indeed, hallelujah. I mean, well,
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: as you say, I'm none of us are naive, but
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: I think those two country is really the biggest superpowers.
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: You'd argue in you as well. But in the world
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: we need things to be sort of predictable, certain and
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: you know, at a level as much as it can
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: be harmony for the world of global economy and so yeah,
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: good news. We'll see how it all goes, but good
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: news so far.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: Now, Wayne Brown and the he wants the visas, the
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: visa waivers, and you've spoken about this before for China
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: and for Brazil. And I'm assuming the reason that the
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: government's not moving on the stuff is because they're worried
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: about overstayers.
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: Well, if they are, it's seems a strange concern to me.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: I mean, you know, I think that Wayne Brown is right. Again,
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: my point be this, I don't see a single public
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: policy reason not to do this. Now, you could argue
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: with some other Southeast Asian countries overstaying I think probably
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: would be in other countries a really significant issue that
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: they're frankly poorer, less developed countries. It's not the China today.
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: You know, you go to those cities, but they're more advanced,
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: more developed than New Zealand. And you know what we
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: what we would see is I think a real sugar
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: hit the economy if you had some kind of reciprocal visa,
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: right that is, you know, no visa for a period
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: of time. If the government was really worried about that issue.
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: You're mentioning there are things they could do right. What
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: they could actually do is say, you know what, it's
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: only going to be for those who fail at the
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: front of the plane. That would still be a sugar hit.
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: And right now, I don't think I've said before, they'd
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: be beggars, can't be choosers. So I cannot see a
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: reason not to do it. I'm totally with Wayne Brown
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: on this, and I just say that, you know, given
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: some of your colleagues when you're there saying how amazing
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: Erica Stanford is, she hasn't moved on this and she should.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: Yep, no fair enough too. I happen to agree with you.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: What about the bed tax, because he's harping on about this,
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: but it's not going to happen because I well, it
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: probably needs a rebrand. They should take the word tax
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: out of it for a secon exactly.
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: You know, that's the problem. I think that's the issue. Look,
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: I'm not saying this sort of weazelways right. I'm agnostic
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: whether it's actually a quote bad text right, But I
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: think the issue that Wayne's talking about is right for Auckland,
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: and therefore, ye know, I think for New Zia and
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: the government does need to do something. I mean going
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: me give you my sort of maybe slightly self serving perspective.
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: But I was Minister of Economic Development in the last
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: days of the keep slash English government. We get a
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: steady pipeline of major events for the likes of Auckland
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: that there's just no pipeline that's in the end, that's
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: the funding.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: So we need something again, but politically get it across
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: the line. Is there any way you can just charge
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: foreigners the bad tax? You know like that. That's the
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: problem for the central government, isn't it. They don't want
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: to introduce another tax that's going to hurt key with you.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: So we're coming from christ it's for a concert at
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: Eden Park.
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: My simple point would be, look, okay, so you don't
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: like my sensors. And I'm not close to the internal
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: politics within the coalition on this. My sense is your
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: your first point was one, which is in the end,
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: I think they said no new taxes. This this says
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: text and so that's the sort of issue. Well, look,
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: the question is not tax, it's funding, right if they
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: want to do it through some other mechanism, But in
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: the end, both central and local government are failing Auckland
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: when it comes to major events and activations that you
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: need for tourists, that you need for people coming in,
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: but you also just need if you want a dynamic,
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: exciting city that our kids want to stay in and
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: work in right rather than buggering off to it to
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: Sydney in London.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: If you want excitement in Auckland, you just read Wayne
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: Brown's manifesto. Simon, thank you for that. Simon Bridge's Auckland
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: Chamber of CEO with us this morning.
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen live
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: to news Talks. It'd be from five am weekdays, or
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: follow the podcast on iHeartRadio