Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Barbara Edmonds: Labour's Finance Spokesperson on CPI falling to 3.7%

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Barbara Edmonds: Labour's Finance Spokesperson on CPI falling to 3.7% · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Inflation is down for the year to September. The official
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: CPI number came in at 3.7%, down 0.4%. But economists
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: reckon that this is a brief reprieve before we start
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: seeing the effect of the second wave of fuel price shock.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Barbara Edmonds is Labour's finance spokesperson, and she joins me now.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Thanks for your time this morning, Barbara.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: Good morning, Francesca.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Is 3.7% good in context?
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: So it is out of the band, and as you
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: just said, economists are expecting... inflation to go up. The
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: pre-election fiscal update, when the books were open just before
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: we started really campaigning, that also shows that inflation is
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: projected to go up, stay up for a little bit longer,
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: as well as unemployment. So this all has a flowing
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: impact into the rest of the economy.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: Does it work against you that there's a dip in
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: inflation right before the election?
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: Well, overall, you've got to look at the bigger picture.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: And the number one issue New Zealanders are saying is
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: the cost of living is really biting them hard. You know,
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: when National in 2023, they said they promised to fix
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: the cost of living. But we're now in debate after
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: debate after debate. There's still no plan around the cost
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: of living.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: The dip, as you mentioned, thought to be short-lived. I mean,
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: we're being warned that global fuel and diesel prices are
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: widely predicted to remain tight and elevated well into 2027.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: So what would you do to bring inflation down by
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: this time next year?
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  Speaker 2: Well, I think the first point is that the irony
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: of the National Party blaming international fuel prices, when we
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: were talking about that too, when inflation was higher as
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: well under our term, they just batted it off and
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: they said, well, you need to do more. So what
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: it comes down to us is that you need to
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: lift wages in order to meet those inflationary pressures and
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: also provide some cost of living relief. So we've obviously
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: got a big suite of cost of living policies like
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: fairer grocery prices, three free GP visits, Something that will
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: really help in the transport space is public transport fare caps,
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: you know, $ 20 in the main centres and $ 10 everywhere else.
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: We're not going to be able to stop what's happening
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: in Iran. You know, obviously there's a conflict that's happening there.
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: It is impacting on fuel prices. So what do we do?
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  Speaker 2: We need to help the New Zealanders here and to
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  Speaker 2: be able to deal with those cost of living pressures,
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: which includes part of it is inflationary.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: Would pausing tax, the fuel tax, is that a good
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: idea or is that just going to kick higher prices
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: down the road a couple of years later?
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: Well, I think for many New Zealanders, there will be
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: some relief to them that their petrol prices aren't going
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: to go up by 25 cents in the next few years.
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: You know, Labour has committed to freezing that fuel increase
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: because those are the types of levers that governments can actually,
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: you know, pull forward. So we do believe we have
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: a better plan to help with the cost of living.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: The other contributors to inflation was construction industry, electricity, council rates,
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: international airfares. Is there anything that government can do within
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: these industries to make a difference?
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: Well, the central and local government charges, that's up in
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: the last three years by 27.2%. So when you think
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: about those sorts of charges, it is around rates, it's
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: around the charges that government charges. puts on the user
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: for charges and administration for government services, etc. So there
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: are some areas where we can look at, such as
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: fuel tax freezes, because that would be part of a
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: government charge as a tax. But the main thing that
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: we're focused on is providing that cost of living relief
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: because we can't control what's happening overseas. So what do
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: you do to help people here today and tomorrow with
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: the cost of living pressures that they're under? And again,
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: National promised to fix it, but they haven't.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: Electricity's a cost of living issue. The price of electricity.
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: Yes, and we've got a really good solar saver policy
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: to help more people be able to put solar panels
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: on their roofs, you know, community batteries to make it
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: cheaper for those in the surrounding areas to bring down
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: their electricity prices. And that includes businesses who can apply
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: for that too. So we have a real opportunity now
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  Speaker 2: to transition New Zealand, you know, more away from dependency
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  Speaker 2: on those fossil fuels where we can and bring down
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: those energy prices. And SolarSaver, our package, is one of
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: the ways to be able to do that, to be
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: able to offer low-interest loans through ICA and through them accessing,
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: for example, a rates assistance scheme to help bring down
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: their power prices.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: There is some good news for Costa Living, Barbara. The
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: olive oil, butter and veggies are cheaper. It's got to
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: be good.
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's cheaper in the sense that the increase is
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: not as large, but there's still the price plus a
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: little bit more. And if you've got a family of
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: 10 like mine who love butter, yeah, it's still costly.
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: Trying to bring some positivity before a long weekend, Barbara,
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  Speaker 1: but really nice to talk to you. Appreciate your time
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: this morning. Thank you so much.
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: to Newstalk ZB from 5am weekdays or follow the podcast
• 5:00
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