Latest / Best of Business / Perspective with Heather duPlessis-Allan: The GDP numbers are the fault of the Reserve Bank, not Nicola Willis

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Perspective with Heather duPlessis-Allan: The GDP numbers are the fault of the Reserve Bank, not Nicola Willis · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talk st B.
• 0:12
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• 0:17
  Speaker 2: How is it that we are having a conversation today
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: about whether Nichola Willis needs to quit her portfolio because
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: of yesterday's shock GDP number. This is crazy. What happened
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: yesterday is not Nichola Willis's fault. It is the Reserve
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: Bank's fault. It is not a matter of opinion. It
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: is a fact. The Reserve Bank ratcheted up the official
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: cash rate to slow down the economy and engineer a recession.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: To quote Adrian Or, it's what he wanted to do.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: It is what he has actually done successfully. We now
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: have had an enormous recession and we are struggling to
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: come out of that. That is not Nikola Willis's fault. Now,
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: sure I can lay some blame at Nichola Willis's feet.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: I can blame nichol Willis for not doing enough to
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: fix the state of the government's books, probably not doing
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: enough to get run down places like Auckland Central going again.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: But that GDP number, that is fair and square, largely
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: the Reserve Bank's problem. So she should not quit over
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: what happened yesterday. However, I am prepared to admit that
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: the fact that this discussion is even happening does speak
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: to the enormous political pressure that she is under at
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: the moment. Because it is enormous. She is under a
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: lot of political pressure. She is very much playing at
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: a political disadvantage because a lot has gone wrong for
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: her this year. Buttergate was all Nikola Willis pulling in
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: Miles Hurrell for a chat, Gavin the camera's run after him.
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: That was she created. That she has only just managed
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: to save herself from being talked, from being accused of
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: being all talk and no action over the supermarkets redeemed
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: with a Hail Mary at the last minute. And for
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: all the criticism that she lobbed at Grant Robertson for
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: spending too much, she spends more than him every single budget.
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: And here here we are, two years into this administration,
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: still waiting for their big plan as to how we
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: turn this economy around. That is, as Finance Minister and
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: Economic Growth Minister, her job. But she doesn't need to
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: quit over what happened yesterday. Look, the bar for any
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: minister to quit is very high, but for a Finance minister.
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: Even more so, just have a look at how badly
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: Rachel Reeves in the UK is stuffing things up and
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: crying in public. She is still in her job. Nichola
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: Willis is nowhere near that, mainly because the GDP figure
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: out yesterday is not her fault and the fact that
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: this is actually a discussion is somewhat mind blowing.
• 2:22
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