Latest / Best of Business / Nicola Willis: Finance Minister on the search for new Reserve Bank Governor Anna Breman

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Nicola Willis: Finance Minister on the search for new Reserve Bank Governor Anna Breman · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from newstalk ZEDB. Follow this
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  Speaker 2: Your Reserve Bank governor is Swedish doctor Arna Breeman is
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  Speaker 2: her name to Icee at Sweden's Central Bank, former chief
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  Speaker 2: economist at a retail bank big CV. Nicola willis Finance
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  Speaker 2: minister with US Good.
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  Speaker 3: Evening, Good evening Ron.
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  Speaker 2: Did she apply for this job or was she shoulder
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  Speaker 2: tap to apply for this job?
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  Speaker 3: She made a formal application for this job. The Reserve
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  Speaker 3: Bank went through a process of both advertising and also
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  Speaker 3: doing a large international search to consider people that could
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  Speaker 3: be qualified for the role.
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  Speaker 2: So she got shoulder tapped then applied.
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  Speaker 3: I actually don't know what the sequence was with her,
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  Speaker 3: but I know that she was one of the eleven
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  Speaker 3: candidates who formerly submitted an application for the role.
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  Speaker 2: Only eleven people applied. What would have thought they'd be
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  Speaker 2: a bit more.
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  Speaker 3: Well formerly submitting an application for the role as a
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  Speaker 3: commitment to a significant process. Of those eight were international
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  Speaker 3: applicants run which tells you that there were a number
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  Speaker 3: of people internationally who were prepared to make that move
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  Speaker 3: to New Zealand to take up this esteemed position.
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  Speaker 2: What was the caliber like of those applicants.
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  Speaker 3: Well, the Reserve Bank Board tell me that a very
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  Speaker 3: high caliber of applicants with extensive experience and skill across
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  Speaker 3: a range of backgrounds finance, central banking, government, and they
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  Speaker 3: were very happy with the choices that were made available
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  Speaker 3: to them.
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  Speaker 2: Very big on transparency, which I like the sound of.
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  Speaker 2: And over in Sweden they do things like actually publish
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  Speaker 2: the minutes of the Monetary Policy Committee meetings. They tell
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  Speaker 2: you which way a member voted, They tell you the
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  Speaker 2: reasons why their justification, a whole bunch of stuff they do.
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  Speaker 2: Will that be up to doctor Breman to decide or
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  Speaker 2: is that a board decision or is that a you decision?
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  Speaker 2: Changing that time?
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  Speaker 3: Well, that's certainly something that doctor Breman will have and
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  Speaker 3: input into. Along with her board. I issue something called
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  Speaker 3: the Monetary Policy Charter, which sets out a greed expectations
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  Speaker 3: between me and the Reserve Bank about how the Monetary
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  Speaker 3: Policy Committee conducts itself. And those are conversations that I
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  Speaker 3: expect will happen once doctor Breman has come into the
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  Speaker 3: role in December.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, you would like to see more transparency around that
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  Speaker 2: stuff though.
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  Speaker 3: Look, I'm a big fan of transparency and openness, because
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  Speaker 3: I think it leads to two things, one greater trust
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  Speaker 3: and two greater accountability, and I think both of those
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  Speaker 3: are good forces. And what is a really important economic institution? Right?
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  Speaker 2: This stuff about the fitula long term fiscal track for
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  Speaker 2: the government. This is treasuries forty years ahead. Look, and
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  Speaker 2: it's more of what we kind of expect that we
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  Speaker 2: will run out of money as a government and not
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  Speaker 2: enough revenue and expenses will keep going up with health
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  Speaker 2: and aging and all that kind of stuff. Is this
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  Speaker 2: what do you do about this? Is this why you
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  Speaker 2: come to the election next year with something to do
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  Speaker 2: with super and something to do with Kewy savor?
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  Speaker 3: Well, look, we know that changing demographics are already having
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  Speaker 3: an impact on the government's fiscal position and that will
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  Speaker 3: continue to grow. Is there a fewer working aged people
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  Speaker 3: to support a larger number of people who require superannuation
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  Speaker 3: and higher amounts of health services. But what the Treasury
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  Speaker 3: highlights in that report is that it's not one big
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  Speaker 3: radical change that needs to be made all at once.
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  Speaker 3: They're highlighting that lots of individual changes will have to
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  Speaker 3: be made over the longer term and to achieve fiscal sustainability.
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  Speaker 3: Over a period of decades is something that successive governments
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  Speaker 3: will all have to chip away at over the next
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  Speaker 3: few decades. And I've made clear that one of the
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  Speaker 3: important first steps is that we return the books to
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  Speaker 3: surplus and bring deet down to more prudent levels. That's
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  Speaker 3: what we're working hard on, and I have highlighted that
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  Speaker 3: our super annuation and key we saver settings are something
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  Speaker 3: that I think over time all parties will have to
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  Speaker 3: come to positions on and come to the campaign trail with.
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  Speaker 2: You made some comments this morning at the mood of
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  Speaker 2: the boardroom which have irked a few people in the
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  Speaker 2: business community. Have been contacted by some of them today,
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  Speaker 2: some of them have texted in this afternoon. It went
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  Speaker 2: on like a bit of a cup of cold sick.
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  Speaker 2: This comment that one hundred and fifty people in that
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  Speaker 2: room not representedive of the five million kiwis that you represent.
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  Speaker 2: Some of them felt like it was punching down on
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  Speaker 2: the business community, which is something you've done with They
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  Speaker 2: argue with the grocery sector, with power companies, a whole
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  Speaker 2: bunch of stuff.
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  Speaker 1: Do you accept that, well, No, I think.
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  Speaker 3: That comment's been taken really grossly out of context. Because
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  Speaker 3: I prefaced my remarks at mood of the boardroom today
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  Speaker 3: extensively with a few comments. One that the people in
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  Speaker 3: that room matter incredibly to the New Zealand economy because
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  Speaker 3: their decisions impact on job creation, income growth, investment and
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  Speaker 3: actually a determinative of the economic growth that we want
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  Speaker 3: to see. And I also said that their feedback really
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  Speaker 3: matters to me, that their perspectives that they share with me,
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  Speaker 3: have shared with me throughout the year and will continue
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  Speaker 3: to share with me inform my thinking and are very important.
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  Speaker 3: My point was that the survey itself, Ryan surveys one
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  Speaker 3: hundred and fifty representatives from a small set of companies,
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  Speaker 3: and of course, as we know, all of those companies
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  Speaker 3: have sometimes hundreds, sometimes thousands of employees who will have
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  Speaker 3: a range of perspectives. There are a range of small
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  Speaker 3: businesses in the country that of course weren't represented in
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  Speaker 3: that room today. And my point is we as a
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  Speaker 3: government need to listen to a range of perspectives. That's
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  Speaker 3: a very important part of governing well, not to just
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  Speaker 3: take the perspectives of one group of people.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, on, just while we're speaking of power companies, the
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  Speaker 2: gen Taylors have you got. When's that report? Sometime in
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  Speaker 2: the next week we will find out whether you're going
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  Speaker 2: to break them up.
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  Speaker 1: Well.
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  Speaker 3: Cabinet has been working hard on that and announcements will
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  Speaker 3: be made in due course.
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  Speaker 2: Think of the well as Finance ministered.
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