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Speaker 1: Yes, the ocr is coming down fifty basis points yesterday,

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Speaker 1: bringing it to four point two five percent, but growth

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Speaker 1: well still ain't great. Nichola Willis is the Finance minister. Minister,

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Speaker 1: good morning, Good morning, Ryan. Nice to have you on

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Speaker 1: the show. So we know it's all good and rosy

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Speaker 1: and positive in terms of the OCI coming down a

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Speaker 1: bit further. But how worried are you about GDP? We

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Speaker 1: were down in June, we were down in September. We've

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Speaker 1: now downgraded our forecast going forward. This is a failure.

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Speaker 2: Well, I think about GDP all of the time because

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Speaker 2: how fast the economy grows determines what jobs, opportunities, incomes

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Speaker 2: are available for people. So of course we want to

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Speaker 2: see the economy growing faster. That's why we're so focused

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Speaker 2: on removing retape, making sure that people can get resource

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Speaker 2: contents quicker, getting infrastructure out the door. Next year, what

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Speaker 2: the numbers tell us is that the economy will be

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Speaker 2: growing much much faster than this year. That is good news,

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Speaker 2: but of course we always want to see the forecasts

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Speaker 2: getting higher, and of course it concerns me if they're

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Speaker 2: not as high as they can be.

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Speaker 1: What about the half yearly economic fiscal update next month.

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Speaker 1: We're going to have to push that surface out from

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Speaker 1: twenty seven to twenty eight.

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Speaker 2: Well, look, I will announce those forecasts on the seventeenth

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Speaker 2: of December, and I won't go into the numbers ahead

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Speaker 2: of that. What you saw the Chief Economist of the

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Speaker 2: Treasury come out with last week was that the Treasury

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Speaker 2: itself has been looking at the underlying size the economy

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Speaker 2: and revising its view about what's been happening over the

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Speaker 2: past few years. It's complicated story, but basically after COVID

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Speaker 2: they got excited about where productivity was going. They're now

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Speaker 2: revising that damping it down. Well, actually isn't quite as

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Speaker 2: good as we think, and that means that their gross

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Speaker 2: assumptions are more muted, and of course that has flow

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Speaker 2: on economies that you flow on implications of everything in

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Speaker 2: the economy, including how much revenue the government is receiving.

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Speaker 2: Make those updates in a couple of weeks.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so that's not sounding great. Hipkins says, you need

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Speaker 1: to stop throttling the economy. I mean inflations under control.

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Speaker 2: Now.

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Speaker 1: You need to stop with the austerity. You know you've

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Speaker 1: got people heading to the winds. Doll qu You've got

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Speaker 1: a housing projects that have been stalled because of funding cuts.

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Speaker 1: You've got activity that's not happening because of decisions you're making,

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Speaker 1: which is affecting that GDP number.

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Speaker 2: What do you say, Well, actually, unemployment is coming in

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Speaker 2: lower than had been forecast and predicted.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's still up.

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Speaker 2: I rejected austerity. I rejected austerity a year ago when

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Speaker 2: we came into office. That's why, despite a declining economy

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Speaker 2: left to us by Chris Hipkins and his friends, we

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Speaker 2: have increased funding dramatically for health, for education, for the police.

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Speaker 2: What we've been doing is shifting resources from more wasteful

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Speaker 2: areas of government expenditures so we can focus them on

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Speaker 2: the areas that Kiwis really care about. I don't resile

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Speaker 2: from that, because I want to see funding going into

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Speaker 2: things like hiring more police on the front line, ensuring

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Speaker 2: that we've got structured literacy in our schools, making sure

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Speaker 2: that we are hiring more doctors and buying more cancer drugs.

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Speaker 2: That's the right thing to we do. In Labour's waste

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Speaker 2: for spending was not good for the economy, and it

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Speaker 2: wasn't good for Kiwis.

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Speaker 1: What about this report and I'm sure you've seen it,

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Speaker 1: particularly in Wellington, about potential for a seventy percent increase

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Speaker 1: in public transport cost. The hell are people meant to

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Speaker 1: wear that?

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Speaker 2: Look, I've only just seen that report. Obviously, public transport

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Speaker 2: fears are ultimately a matter for counsels. They make those

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Speaker 2: decisions and so that is something which I'll have to understand.

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Speaker 2: What are adjustments with the Wellington councils and making on

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Speaker 2: that matter. The government is continuing to fund public transport.

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Speaker 2: In fact, more money is going into public transport that

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Speaker 2: it has in the past. Obviously there are pressures. We're

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Speaker 2: also funding roads. There's a lot for us to do

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Speaker 2: in transport, so that those are discretionary just and look,

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Speaker 2: I'm happy to be looking at that. We want to

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Speaker 2: see New Zealanders with more cash in their back pockets

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Speaker 2: for the combination of tax relief, family boost childcare payments,

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Speaker 2: of interest rates coming down, of inflation coming down. Many

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Speaker 2: many New Zealand families have come through a very tough time.

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Speaker 2: Can now see light at the end of the tunnel.

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Speaker 1: Have you seen, as Finance Minister, any modeling on potential

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Speaker 1: impacts of tariffs from a Trump administration or have you

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Speaker 1: had any conversations early conversations have we our embassy with

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Speaker 1: incoming US officials.

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Speaker 2: Look, it is too early to model anything like that

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Speaker 2: because a lot of what you're reading at the moment

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Speaker 2: is speculation about what an incoming Trump administration will do. Obviously,

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Speaker 2: we have the comments that he's made on the campaign trail,

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Speaker 2: but how that translates into policy in what order, at

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Speaker 2: what time, for what country are big questions. New Zealand's

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Speaker 2: job is to pursue our interests. We've had a very

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Speaker 2: strong relationship with the United States so many decades. It's

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Speaker 2: a significant trading relationship from which both countries derive values,

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Speaker 2: and the role of our diplomats and our in disease

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Speaker 2: is to put our best foot forward to make sure

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Speaker 2: we maintain a really good trading position for our exported.

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Speaker 1: Everyone's claiming that they are in charge of the government

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Speaker 1: at the moment. Have you're interesting that on the news?

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Speaker 2: We all know. I think it's wonderful, because says many fathers,

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Speaker 2: doesn't it?

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Speaker 1: We all know it's here, isn't it. We all know

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Speaker 1: that you're the real boss. You're the real boss of

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Speaker 1: the showdown in it.

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Speaker 2: In this in this world, nothing great happens without another

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Speaker 2: involved as well. And while Christopher LASLM should take the

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Speaker 2: ultimate credit, he has an extraordinary team of people with

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Speaker 2: them across our ministry, across three parties and government. And

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Speaker 2: I can tell you we all get up each day

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Speaker 2: and we give it our absolute best.

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Speaker 1: That is Nichola Willis Mother of the Nation.

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Speaker 2: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live

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