Latest / Best of Business / John MacDonald: Christopher Luxon's people don't even get him

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John MacDonald: Christopher Luxon's people don't even get him · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talk zed B.
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  Speaker 2: You know how the Prime Minister always seems to do
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  Speaker 2: a very good job of batting away pole results and
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  Speaker 2: having something like a bit of a Devil may care
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  Speaker 2: attitude and saying that his focus is fixing up the
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  Speaker 2: joint after the last lot, and he's not going to
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  Speaker 2: worry about pole results too much, and he'll wait until
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  Speaker 2: election data for judgment. He'll wait for election day to
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  Speaker 2: be judged. You know how he does all that, does
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  Speaker 2: that all the time. I don't think you will find
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  Speaker 2: it quite as easy to do that with these results
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  Speaker 2: out today from the New Zealand Herald's annual Mood of
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  Speaker 2: the Boardroom Survey. I'll tell you why in a second,
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  Speaker 2: but first let's run through the numbers. So this annual
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  Speaker 2: survey talks to about one hundred and fifty business leaders,
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  Speaker 2: one hundred and twenty five of them being the CEOs
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  Speaker 2: of major New Zealand companies. People for example like Paul
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  Speaker 2: of Auckland Boss Roger Gray, the head of Tar Insurance,
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  Speaker 2: Paul Johnston, Forsyth Bar boss Neil pay their Smith. You
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  Speaker 2: get the gist pretty high powered people. And one of
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  Speaker 2: the things that comes out in the survey results is
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  Speaker 2: the ranking of the performances of our cabinet ministers. What
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  Speaker 2: all these business leaders think of how each minister is doing.
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  Speaker 2: Top of the list this year, Eric Stamford, She's the
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  Speaker 2: highest ranking. Winster Peter's in second place. Chris Bishop he's third.
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  Speaker 2: As for the Prime Minister, keep going down, keep going down,
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  Speaker 2: keep going down. Tenth note, keep going down, keep going down.
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  Speaker 2: The Prime Minister is ranked fifteenth and last year's survey
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  Speaker 2: he was sixth. This year's down to fifteen. Even Building
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  Speaker 2: and Construction Minister Chris Penk who actually sits outside cabinet,
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  Speaker 2: he ranks higher than the PM. He's at tenth place.
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  Speaker 2: The other big name outside the top ten is Finance
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  Speaker 2: and Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis. The bosses and our
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  Speaker 2: biggest companies, they've ranked her in thirteenth place. We talked
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  Speaker 2: about Nicola Willis last week, didn't we Si'm keen to
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  Speaker 2: focus today on the result for the Prime Minister and
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  Speaker 2: what we can read into it and what you're reading
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  Speaker 2: into it. Either way, it's not good reading, it's not
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  Speaker 2: good listening. For the Prime Minister is it? Because what's
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  Speaker 2: coming through loud and clear is that the business community
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  Speaker 2: has no faith that the prime minister's government has a plan,
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  Speaker 2: that the Prime Minister has a plan to get the
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  Speaker 2: country back on track. Here we are more than halfway
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  Speaker 2: through the government's current term and our most senior business
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  Speaker 2: leaders are asking, what's your plan, Prime Minister? We don't
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  Speaker 2: know what your plan is? What is it? And I
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  Speaker 2: think this pole result out today, or the survey result,
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  Speaker 2: I think it's way worse for the government than any
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  Speaker 2: political pole results so far. When you've got business leader,
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  Speaker 2: the top business leaders in this country ranking the Finance
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  Speaker 2: Minister thirteenth and the Prime Minister fifteenth. This is a
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  Speaker 2: government and strife, isn't it. And the reason why I
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  Speaker 2: think this will hurt Christoph Luxen more than any of
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  Speaker 2: the other pole results that he's managed to bat away
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  Speaker 2: or put a brave face on full. The reason why
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  Speaker 2: this one will really be hitting him is that these
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  Speaker 2: are his people. These are his people. Until he entered politics,
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  Speaker 2: he was one of them. He probably even took part
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  Speaker 2: in these surveys when he was chief executive at Air
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  Speaker 2: New Zealand. He's the people he's talking to when he
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  Speaker 2: goes on about signs of green shoots in the economy.
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  Speaker 2: These are the people he's talking to when he goes
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  Speaker 2: on about getting runs on the board. The people have
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  Speaker 2: said he's the fifteenth best performing cabinet minister. The people
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  Speaker 2: he's talking to with his quarterly action plans. These are
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  Speaker 2: the people he's speaking to when he talks about deliverables, KPIs,
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  Speaker 2: decision gates and value chains. But his people still don't
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  Speaker 2: know what he's trying to do. They still don't know
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  Speaker 2: what the plan is. And if his people don't know,
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  Speaker 2: how can the rest of us be expected to know?
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  Speaker 2: Which is why I think he will really be feeling
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  Speaker 2: this today. On the positive side, what comes through in
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  Speaker 2: the survey results is that these business leaders have no
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  Speaker 2: doubt in Christopher Uxen's ability to be a cheerleader for
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  Speaker 2: New Zealand around the world. As Dame Terres Walsh, who
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  Speaker 2: was the chair of New Zealand and ASB, is saying
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  Speaker 2: today about what she sees when she goes on these
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  Speaker 2: trade delegations with him. Quote the PM and their company
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  Speaker 2: and team New Zealand are so unified and powerful on
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  Speaker 2: trade delegations offshore, She says, everyone gets behind the course
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  Speaker 2: and can see the impact the PM has in these markets.
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  Speaker 2: But she goes on to say harnessing the sense of
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  Speaker 2: togetherness further back home to spur on economic growth is
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  Speaker 2: critical to our success. Someone else, the Downer CEO, Mary
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  Speaker 2: robertson same same thing quote, having joined the Prime Minister
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  Speaker 2: on his visit to New Way to open the airport runway.
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  Speaker 2: I was struck by his relentless focus and energy. His
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  Speaker 2: clear commitment to driving economic improvement is commendable. So he's
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  Speaker 2: brilliant overseas, not so brilliant at home because he doesn't
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  Speaker 2: have a plan, because his government doesn't have a plan.
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  Speaker 2: And that's why business leaders are saying he is the
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  Speaker 2: fifteenth best performing cabinet minister.
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