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Speaker 1: To the mood of the boardroom at twenty three to seven,

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Speaker 1: What have we got? The views of one hundred and

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Speaker 1: fifty of the country's leading business executives are the consensus.

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Speaker 1: New Zealand's at an inflection point, desperately needing clearer leadership

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Speaker 1: and direction. We've got growing for you as our complacency

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Speaker 1: potentially pushing us towards second world status now. Neil Pavia

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Speaker 1: Smith is the managing director of for Soth. Barron is

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Speaker 1: with us.

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Speaker 2: Good Morningding, Mike.

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Speaker 1: Do you generally agree with the consensus of your fellow

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Speaker 1: business leaders?

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Speaker 2: Yes, I do. I mean there's no sugarcoating things at

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Speaker 2: the moment. Yeah, it's pretty hard messages and here for

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Speaker 2: the government to take. But I think it does reflect

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Speaker 2: every tough times in the economy. It reflects at tough

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Speaker 2: times in real New Zealand, and there's concerns being expressed

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Speaker 2: about the need to tackle the really hard issues, the

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Speaker 2: structural efforts that we have and some of the longer

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Speaker 2: term issues that are are being raised through the comments.

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Speaker 1: They would come back and say we're doing everything we can.

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Speaker 1: Every leber is being pulled, Is that true?

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Speaker 2: I think the government's working very hard there's a lot

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Speaker 2: of energy. I think outside of economic matters, you'd certainly

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Speaker 2: give them a strong tick. And you know, I expect

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Speaker 2: them to do well across areas like education, crime and

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Speaker 2: so forth, foreign trade and foreign relations and what have you.

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Speaker 2: But when it comes to economic matters, I think there

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Speaker 2: is concern that there we're lacking sort of the long

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Speaker 2: term focus areas like infrastructure, some of the long term savings,

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Speaker 2: other matters and Crown's fiscal position which really acts as

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Speaker 2: a ball and chain around the economy. So you know,

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Speaker 2: those are big concerns and I think there is a

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Speaker 2: need for the government to be much clearer around what

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Speaker 2: plan is in those areas.

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Speaker 1: Having looked at the choices, which is a center left,

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Speaker 1: center right government. Have your critical of center right, the

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Speaker 1: center left comes out even worse. So I mean, are

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Speaker 1: we in a parlor state in that sense?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think there are there are concerns about the

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Speaker 2: whether the Labor Party is ready to form government, and

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Speaker 2: there are certainly real concerns about to coalition parts parties

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Speaker 2: they would form with the Grent and around economic matter,

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Speaker 2: it's no doubt. So you know that that's a concern

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Speaker 2: that I think it gives an opportunity for the government

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Speaker 2: to deten some of the key issues, but it also

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Speaker 2: potentially takes the pressure off around some of the core

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Speaker 2: matters as well.

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Speaker 1: Have they missed a trick? One of the criticisms of

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Speaker 1: this government is they could have gone harder sooner and

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Speaker 1: we might not be sitting here in the latter part

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Speaker 1: of twenty five in the state we're in. Is that

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Speaker 1: fair or not?

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Speaker 2: I think it's difficult to argue two years in that

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Speaker 2: they inherited a real mess and not to be sort

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Speaker 2: of going much harder and to continue to blame the

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Speaker 2: previous when you take a softer approach than could have

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Speaker 2: been done. So yeah, I agree with that, and I

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Speaker 2: think that's been reflected through a lot of comments that,

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Speaker 2: you know, while things are probably picking up right now

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Speaker 2: and we see lots of evidence of that, you know,

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Speaker 2: some of the core structural concerns, the long term issues

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Speaker 2: that the Zealand faces haven't been seized through. This opportunity

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Speaker 2: that I've been given.

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Speaker 1: Is lux and a problem. I don't know how much

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Speaker 1: weight you place on these scooes of cabinet ministers, but

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Speaker 1: he's not right up there. Is that on him and

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Speaker 1: him specifically or not.

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Speaker 2: I think that there is a concern about both his

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Speaker 2: leadership around some of these longer term issues and also

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Speaker 2: Finance Minister, and that's been noted through the survey. So

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Speaker 2: this is not a catastrophic outcome, but there's certainly a

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Speaker 2: very strong message in here that you know, while business

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Speaker 2: is innovating and addressing costs and focusing on issues of

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Speaker 2: concern adapting to the sort of geo environment we're in,

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Speaker 2: there's little structural reform addressing those deeper issues around the

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Speaker 2: economy and the longer term matters as well. So there's

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Speaker 2: no doubt that quarter three will probably see an increase

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Speaker 2: in the economy, a pack up that'll be agri lead

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Speaker 2: if the straits coming down and so forth, that should

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Speaker 2: lead into a more confidence around the housing sector, more

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Speaker 2: business confidence and so on, and gradually seeing an increase

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Speaker 2: in the economy, improvement and right track long track type

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Speaker 2: polls and an election outcome. So there are reasons to

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Speaker 2: be optimistic, but hoping it's not a strategy, and the

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Speaker 2: business community is looking for stronger leadership from the Prime

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Speaker 2: Minister and Finance Minister around some of those core long

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Speaker 2: term issues and the structural gifts.

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Speaker 1: Of New Zealand well so appreciated very much. Neil Pavio Smith,

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Speaker 1: who's the ForSight Bud Managing Director, part of the Herald's

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Speaker 1: mood of the boardroom this morning. For more from the

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Speaker 1: mic Hosking Bakfast, listen live to News Talks at b

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Speaker 1: from six am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio