Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Nicola Willis: Finance Minister discusses making KiwiSaver easier to access for rural workers

Transcript

Nicola Willis: Finance Minister discusses making KiwiSaver easier to access for rural workers · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Good news for farmers this morning. Government's allowing them to
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: use their can we saveor to buy their first home
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: or farm. Previously you miss out because you have to
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: live in the property while work requires you to stay
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: in some employer housing. Not just farmers wh will benefit
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: by the way, Nicola, what is the finance minster with
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: us this morning? Mister, good morning, Good morning man. Hey,
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: before we get to this, have you had any updates
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: from officials anything to worry about with the Middle East?
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: But you know read the economy re oil.
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: Yes, I have had briefings from the Treasury. So at
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: this stage, because we don't know the duration and the
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: scale of what's happening in the Middle East, that's too
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: early to properly assess the economic impacts. Of course, what
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: we'll be watching today is what happens with the price
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: of oil, which of course could be impacted by the
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: disruption in the structure, and that obviously has implications for
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: inflation and economic activity. So we will be watching that closely,
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: and that and also for any possible supply chain impacts
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: for our exporters. And then in due course, as this unfolds,
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: there will be the question of whether it has an
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: impact on overall global economic growth, which of course always
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: has implications for New Zealand.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: Lots of risks there for US then, and these the
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: Golf Cooperation Council that together there are six largest export markets.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: Yes, that's right. And of course what we saw during
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: the life strikes on around last yourn was that initially
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: you saw or old price of spike in the morning,
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: they came down by the evening. You saw initial disruption
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: and markets and then eventually actually the SMP the cupboard.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: But of course this is a very different event and
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: so it's difficult to predict what we'll see over the
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: next twenty four hours.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: Do you want the Americans to stop? Do you want
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: these rallies to stop?
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: Well, of course New Zealand always calls for diplomatic engagement.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: In this case, we do want the leftover regime in
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: Iran engaging in diplomatic talks.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: Right, so we do want that. We do want the
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: Americans to stop bombing and the Israelis to stop bombing
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: and to start talking. That is our position.
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: Well, we join the international community and wanting this crisis
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: to end as quickly as possible, So we don't want
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: the regional escalation. We want a resumption of negotiations. We
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: want adherence to international law, and we're urging the Iranian
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: leadership to seek a negotiated solution.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: Are you urging the same of Trump?
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: Obviously, negotiation requires both side.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: Hey, let's go to talk about the key. We saber changes.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: This is great for farming, not just farmers, though I
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: want to make clear, it's basically anyone who has to
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: live somewhere else for their job.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: Well, it's people typically in rural communities, because if you're
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: a teacher at a remote school, if you're a police
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: officer and a remote community, often the reality of your
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: work is that your employer provides you a house close
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: to that workers, and often the case for people working
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: on farms. And what that has meant is many rural
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: workers are locked out of using the key. We save
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: a provision by which you can use your savings to
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: buy a house, and our viewers, if you're working hard
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: to get ahead, the fact that you have to live
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: where your workers shouldn't exclude you from getting on the
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: property ladder.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: Do you know how many might actually take it.
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: Up, Well, it's difficult to estimate because we don't have
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: the number of service tendancies. On farms, there are thousands
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: of farms and many many workers have a servance tendency.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: In terms of government employees, we know that there are
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: around eight hundred defense personnel living in service tendancies, about
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: two hundred education personnel, two hundred police, about five hundred
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: health workers.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: All right, we'll see we would get to with that. Hey,
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: what the IPSOS issues monitor I mentioned at the start
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: of this interview. How can you be ahead of you
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: in cost of living even though inflation is lower and
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: interest rates are coming down. Is this the sales job
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: that you're not getting across.
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: Well, I just think the cost of living has been
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: and is so tough on people because they've gone through
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: several years in which inflation was really high, prices spiked
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: up really high, and the reality is that while incomes
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: have been rising, they haven't caught up with those price
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: rises yet. So every aquis are funding it tough when
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: they go to the supermarket, when they fill up at
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: the tank.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: So the fail marks fear, the fail marks fear.
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: Well, I think the reality is people are really feeling
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: the cost of living. The question that the election should
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: center on is what is the plan for addressing that
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: and our commitment as the government has been you've got
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: to keep the basics right, spending and inflation under control.
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: You've got to make sure you do that, or will
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: go back to the big inflation spikey head under labor.
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: I'm not hearing any solutions from later yet. I get
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: that it's a major issue. It's the big issue people
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: raised with me. But the question is what would later do.
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: I think that'd make it worse.
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: But you're still spending more than grant though, aren't you.
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: Well, not as a proportion of the economy. We've produced
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: spending the proportion of the economy while investing in the
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: frontline services that keywis.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: Realized very quickly on supermarkets. I heard that Tesco didn't
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: have a meeting with you last year. Are we going
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: to get anything out of these RFIs you would asked
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: for a year ago.
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: Well, the RFIs were directly what resulted, and the changes
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: we have made to the fast track legislation for SIS markets,
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: to the building content requirements for suser markets, the digital
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: labeling trialing trial we're embarking on those are all direct
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: feedback from the RFI. I'm as disappointed as anyone else,
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: but the big international players don't seem interested in coming
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: to the New Zealand market. The reality is we've got
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: two none of them very big incumbents. Well in terms.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: Of you've made a change, you've got the rfs, you've
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: made the changes, none of them want to come. I
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: mean it is shame, But isn't it just because we're
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: too small and far away? You know it was never
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: going to happen.
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: Well, Actually, what we do is we've got a market
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: where you've got two really dominant players in the North
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: and South Island and that makes it a difficult market
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: to enter profitably, and so we are seeing some expansion occurring.
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: Costco's indicated interest in that expansion. We are seeing some
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: New Zealand operated grocery providers with plans to do more
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: in the future. We want to encourage that. We want
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: to support that.
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: All right, min it's to appreciate your time this morning.
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: Thanks for being up and early with me. Nichola Willis,
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: the Finance Minister.
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen live
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: to news Talks it'd be from five am weekdays, or
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.