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Speaker 1: Some very good news from the government on the crackdown

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Speaker 1: on consultancy spending though, so they're looking to save eight

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Speaker 1: hundred million dollars over a couple of years, being they've

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Speaker 1: done at four hundred million dollars a year. Numbers out yesterday,

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Speaker 1: they've been successful. Finance Minister Nikola Willis, good morning, Good

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Speaker 1: morning rain. I watched Youth Collins in the house yesterday.

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Speaker 1: She's seemed proud as punch with these numbers, as indeed

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Speaker 1: she should be, shouldn't she.

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Speaker 2: Indeed, we've over delivered and this is an area where

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Speaker 2: there's no doubt money was being wasted, taxpayers money and

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Speaker 2: that money is now going to much better purposes, including

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Speaker 2: into the back pockets of Kiwi's dealing with a pretty

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Speaker 2: high cost of living.

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Speaker 1: How are you doing How are you doing that? So

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Speaker 1: is this four hundred million eight hundred eventually is that

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Speaker 1: going to be spent or is it going to be

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Speaker 1: to retire debt or what?

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Speaker 2: Well, this was part of our plan at the last

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Speaker 2: budget to help fund tax relief without having to borrow

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Speaker 2: for that tax relief. So by delivering these savings, we've

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Speaker 2: been able to, for example, deliver the Family Boost policy

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Speaker 2: which is giving family support with their early childhood education costs.

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Speaker 2: By reducing waste for spending in one pace of place

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Speaker 2: of government, we've been able to make sure that kiwis

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Speaker 2: can hang on to a bit more of what they earn.

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Speaker 2: Good result.

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Speaker 1: What literally was the money spent on? Because it's easy

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Speaker 1: to lose jobs and it's easy to cut spending, But

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Speaker 1: the counter argument from the unions and such is that

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Speaker 1: stuff isn't being done anymore. What was eight hundred million

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Speaker 1: dollars being spent on?

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Speaker 2: Well, in my opinion, a lot of it was being

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Speaker 2: spent on reports by very expensive firms that then set

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Speaker 2: on shelves and gathered a little bit of dust. I

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Speaker 2: think we had developed a culture in the public service

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Speaker 2: where if you wanted to get someone to say that

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Speaker 2: your idea was a good idea, send it to a

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Speaker 2: consultant put the stamp on. If you wanted to get

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Speaker 2: someone to give you some graphs and some numbers, send

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Speaker 2: it to a consultant, get them to do a PowerPoint

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Speaker 2: set of slides for the minister. And it had become

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Speaker 2: so endemic that the money being spent had just sowed

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Speaker 2: up quite dramatically to more than a billion dollars, and

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Speaker 2: the minute that we came in and said, ah, not

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Speaker 2: happening anymore, those numbers drove down quickly. I still catch

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Speaker 2: public servants every now and then sort of out of

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Speaker 2: the old habit saying, oh, we'll get a consultants report,

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Speaker 2: But ultimately public servants are capable. They can do this

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Speaker 2: stuff themselves, and that costs the taxpayer a lot less.

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Speaker 1: Judith Colin says, there's more weathers came from. How much

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Speaker 1: more do you reckon?

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Speaker 2: Well? I think that the public service itself is going

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Speaker 2: to get a lot better at using digital tools and

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Speaker 2: new technology to deliver a lot of the work it does,

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Speaker 2: and then over time that's going to free out more

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Speaker 2: money in their budgets for the frontline services that we're

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Speaker 2: wanting them to focus on. But with the consultants, we

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Speaker 2: haven't set a target beyond where we are now. That's

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Speaker 2: something I'm thinking about because I've found the targets that

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Speaker 2: we put in place in our first year were really

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Speaker 2: useful in driving these numbers down. So I'm sure that

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Speaker 2: that's something that Judith will look at.

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Speaker 1: Now, is some you're making the supermarket's announcement or Saturday

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Speaker 1: Sunday Okay, Sunday, because I've got the warriors Sunday. Is

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Speaker 1: this worth it or not?

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Speaker 2: Well, what I'm announcing, Mike, is the next steps that

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Speaker 2: the government is taking to push grocery competition along. We

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Speaker 2: want Kiwis to get fear of prices at the checkout.

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Speaker 2: We're convinced by the case that says it's not a

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Speaker 2: very competitive market here. In fact, it's one of the

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Speaker 2: least competitive in the world. And when you don't have

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Speaker 2: good competition, consumers don't get the best steel. So you're

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Speaker 2: a call. A month ago, I said, look, I want

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Speaker 2: someone else to come to this market. Let's look at

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Speaker 2: what the regulatory burdens are. I've now gone back to

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Speaker 2: Cabnet and on Sunday, I'm going to announce where we've

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Speaker 2: got to.

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Speaker 1: He So those are specific, So you're not toying with

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Speaker 1: me here. These are specifics. Something tangible will happen out

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Speaker 1: of your announcement Sunday.

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Speaker 2: Well, I'll announce where we've got to. So what I've

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Speaker 2: gained from going out to the market and saying what

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Speaker 2: are you interested in? And then I am going to

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Speaker 2: announce where we're going next. There's two things I need

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Speaker 2: to achieve here. Mike one is sure pace patient, sorry

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Speaker 2: not patients in this coast. There'sh offers have been waiting

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Speaker 2: for a long time for progress on this one. On

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Speaker 2: the other hand, when you're dealing with a two and

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Speaker 2: a half billion dollar market, you don't want to move

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Speaker 2: so fast that you're not moving with care and consideration.

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Speaker 2: So I'm going to announce what the next steps are,

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Speaker 2: what progress we've made, and what progress New Zealanders can

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Speaker 2: expect over the next six months.

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Speaker 1: I hope it's good, Appreciate it. Nikola Willis win and

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Speaker 1: it's minister for more from the Mic Asking Breakfast.

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Speaker 2: Listen live to news talks there'd be from six am weekdays,

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