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Andrew Dickens: Can we really say the rock star economy is back? · The SME Stream

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Ladies and gentlemen. The corner has been turned. The five
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: year pandemic pandemonium has been tamed. This was the headline
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: at the end of last week. Inflation is down and
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: the very first interest rate cuts since the Reserve Bank
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: realized that overstimulated everything five years ago finally happened. It's
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: proof that tax cuts were not inflationary, said the finance minister. Well,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: that's true, but it's not a sign that the cost
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: of living crisis is over. Is it just me? Or
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: do you think inflation and the cost of living increases
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: are two heads of the same monster, and they're measured
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: in different ways. So it's true that tax cuts are
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: not being sucked up by discretionary spending so causing inflation,
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: but they are being sucked up by the increases and
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: charges brought about by a cut in government spending, a
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: continued housing shortage and its costs, and local government trying
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: to bridge the infrastructure deficit has been grown for decades.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: So that's where my tax cuts are going. I can
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: tell you exactly. My family's tax cuts are going straight
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: into increased rates and because we're on the end of
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: a ferry line, increased public transport costs now that the
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: subsidies had ended, because we've got three people using ferries
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: of the house, so all the tax cuts are going
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  Speaker 1: straight pretty much into that to be fair. So I'm
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: not spending it on discretionary items, I'm not firing on
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: the inflation. So it's still great news. The corner has
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: been turned so much so that Thomas Coglin and the
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: Herald said, put on your dancing shoes. The rock star
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: economy is back, and we can thank Luxon and Willis,
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: which is true, they did their part. It's also true
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: that the economists have been saying this would happen for
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: over a year now. It's also true that economists have
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: been saying all year that a lot of money has
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: been dormant, waiting for a turn in the interest rates
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: as a signal that it's all back on again. That
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: has finally happened, and so here we go, the rock
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: star economy on the return. But was the rock star
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: economy that we remain so fondly really ever a rock
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: star in the first place, and do we really want
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  Speaker 1: it back? The rockstar economy was an economy of growth,
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  Speaker 1: spurned on by high immigration, low interest rates, and beg
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: capital gains from a strangled housing market that was then
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: spent by houseowners. It was a rock star as long
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: as you had property that you could raise capital on.
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  Speaker 1: And throughout the glory days many warned that there was
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  Speaker 1: no productivity gains in our rockstar economy, that there was
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  Speaker 1: too much reliance on dairy and tourism in our rockstar economy,
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  Speaker 1: that there was too much spending on fripperies in our
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: rockstar economy, and that there was too little investment on
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: infrastructure that will make us more competitive in our rockstar economy.
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: Can we really say a rock star economy is back
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: when we wait a month for a doctor's appointment or
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: three months for surgery in a rotting past its use
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: by hospital. Can we really be a rockstar economy if
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: we can't make enough electricity to keep the pulp and
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: paper mills operating. Can we really say we're a rockstar
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: economy when half our water is lost in leaks? So
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: here's the truth. The return of a key government style
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  Speaker 1: rock star economy will benefit me, It may indeed benefit you,
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: It will be benefit anyone with equity. And look, I
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: know I'm grateful and those people vote, But don't you
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: want something better than that. Don't you think it's time
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: the country point it's big boy pants on and fixed
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: up the stuff that's been plaguing us for decades and
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: makes us seem like a third world country. Because if
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: we can do that, then we will be a true
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: rockstar economy, and the people that manage that feat will
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: be hailed as the true masters of this economy.