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Speaker 1: Right now. Nikola Willis is the Finance Minister. Good evening,

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Speaker 1: Good evening, Ryan, Minister. I know that this is not

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Speaker 1: your particular purview the FMA, But have you been told

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Speaker 1: anything about an arrest in the devail case today?

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Speaker 2: No? I have not been briefed on that, Ryan, Okay.

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Speaker 1: Are you aware of it?

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Speaker 3: No?

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Speaker 2: I'm not Okay.

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Speaker 1: Inflation, we're obviously going to get a decision from the

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Speaker 1: Reserve Bank this week and I won't ask you to

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Speaker 1: comment on it because I know you can't. But Robert McCulloch,

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Speaker 1: who's the economist, he came on this show tonight and

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Speaker 1: he said, actually, they in terms of what they are

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Speaker 1: legally required to do the Reserve Bank, they have met

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Speaker 1: the standard. They have got inflation in the target range,

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Speaker 1: and that's all they're required to do under the changes

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Speaker 1: that you made to their remit.

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Speaker 3: Have listen, the sole mainainate of the Reserve Bank, by

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Speaker 3: law is price stability, and that's to find it as

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Speaker 3: getting inflation in that one to three percent bracket. And

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Speaker 3: like you said in your introduction, where is it now,

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Speaker 3: it's exactly at the midpoint, it's two percent.

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Speaker 1: In terms of what their remit is, Minister have they

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Speaker 1: achieved it.

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Speaker 2: Well, they are back on target, which is good news,

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Speaker 2: but there's also plenty of indicators suggesting there's a lot

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Speaker 2: of spere capacity in the economy. So the risk is

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Speaker 2: that if interest rates are kept restrictive, the nactual inflation

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Speaker 2: goes below the target ban. So those are the factors

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Speaker 2: that the Reserve Bank has to weigh up when it's

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Speaker 2: making its decision on the future of the official cash rate.

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Speaker 1: Was taking out the requirement to look at the wider

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Speaker 1: economy and to look at an employment etc. A mistake?

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Speaker 1: I mean, they could potentially not move down this week

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Speaker 1: on Wednesday because you took that out of their remit.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely not, that's not the case. They still have to

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Speaker 2: have a view to the stability of the economy. That's

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Speaker 2: still part of the way in which they make their

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Speaker 2: considerations under that statute. And they do have to have

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Speaker 2: avert a view on where inflation is going. And as

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Speaker 2: I say, it's not okay if inflation gets below one percent,

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Speaker 2: and they'll have a mind to that.

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Speaker 1: Inflation is, as we're kind of been alluding to, the

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Speaker 1: beast is kind of being tamed and growth in you

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Speaker 1: focus for you.

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Speaker 2: Do you have a target in terms of growth, No,

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Speaker 2: I don't. I do want to see that the forecast

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Speaker 2: return to growth this year occurs. That's what both the

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Speaker 2: Reserve Band and the Treasury are forecasting. My role is

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Speaker 2: to influence the conditions in which growth can occur. Ultimately,

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Speaker 2: it will be up to individual employers to harm or people,

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Speaker 2: individual businesses to decide to expand individual entrepreneurs to start

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Speaker 2: a business. What I need to do is set conditions

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Speaker 2: in which all those decisions are a little easier.

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Speaker 1: Is it not a bit odd that this is a

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Speaker 1: government so focused on targets and quarterly reports and numbers

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Speaker 1: and aspirations, and to not have a target on your

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Speaker 1: biggest aspiration.

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Speaker 2: Well, let's remember this is all about Ryan. Ultimately, this

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Speaker 2: is about New Zealanders who have gone through a massive

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Speaker 2: cost of living crisis. Is still finding it pretty tough

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Speaker 2: with the cost of living actually, And what we're saying

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Speaker 2: is we're going to deliver the things that will make

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Speaker 2: a difference to your cost of living. So that's first

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Speaker 2: stopping out of control inflation, so prices aren't increasing as quickly, too,

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Speaker 2: creating conditions in which interest rates are coming down so

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Speaker 2: your mortgage isn't as expensive and three setting the condition

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Speaker 2: so the economy can grow, so that you actually have

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Speaker 2: the opportunity for faster growing wages which allow you to

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Speaker 2: get on top of those costs. So we are doing

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Speaker 2: a broad range of things to support all of that,

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Speaker 2: from delivering infrastructure to bringing on competition in the supermarket sector,

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Speaker 2: to improving our education system. All of those things support growth. Ultimately,

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Speaker 2: as I say, it is the decision of individual businesses

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Speaker 2: and entrepreneurs and others whether they invest in growth.

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Speaker 1: Business test reporting that you have come to an agreement

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Speaker 1: with New Zealand first on changes to the overseas investment.

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Speaker 1: This is about the foreign home buyers. True or false?

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Speaker 2: That is not something that has come to cabinet.

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Speaker 1: So you've been Is it something you've discussed with New

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Speaker 1: Zealand first?

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Speaker 2: I haven't directly knows PM. I can't speak for the PM.

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Speaker 1: Is National talking to New Zealand first about this? Is

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Speaker 1: it fair to say?

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Speaker 2: I think both Winston Peters and me and Erica Stanford

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Speaker 2: and others have been open about the fact that there

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Speaker 2: is discussion happening about what are the conditions in which

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Speaker 2: we might want to relax those rules. How would we

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Speaker 2: satisfy ourselves that that was in the interests of New

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Speaker 2: Zealanders in New Zealand. Obviously, National came into the coalition

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Speaker 2: with a strong view on that New Zealand First and

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Speaker 2: other view, and we've continued to discuss that any.

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Speaker 1: Idea when it might go to cabinet. Nope, you said

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Speaker 1: during the election campaign you get seven hundred and forty

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Speaker 1: million a year from the two million plus. Have you

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Speaker 1: run the numbers on five million plus what you get?

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Speaker 2: No? I haven't run those numbers.

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Speaker 1: I come.

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Speaker 2: Because I haven't been asked to provide that support for

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Speaker 2: a specific proposal at the stage, right.

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Speaker 1: I see more as more. Is it fair to say

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Speaker 1: it's more at a leader to leader stage at this

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Speaker 1: point you haven't been brought in to get the numbers

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Speaker 1: or the details over that.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's a fair way to characterize it.

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Speaker 1: Fair enough. Hey, the prior event over the weekend, what

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Speaker 1: did you make of Destiny Church's protest? Well, Well, actually no,

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Speaker 1: let's put the protest to one side, because that's quite

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Speaker 1: a separate thing. It was the pushing and the shoving

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Speaker 1: and all that stuff.

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Speaker 2: Well, here's what I thought. If the complaint of the

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Speaker 2: Destiny Church was that they were worried about children getting scared.

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Speaker 2: Then actually what they did was scary because what children

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Speaker 2: saw was violence and an appropriate behavior by adults. So

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Speaker 2: in an attempt to some protect the children, I think

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Speaker 2: they did the very opposite.

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Speaker 1: Good point supermarkets. Who is this potential third supermarket player?

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Speaker 1: Is it LD?

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Speaker 2: Look? As I said, I'm not going to reveal the

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Speaker 2: interest that has come to us because there's a very

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Speaker 2: commercially sensitive expressions of interest. I can say that subsequent

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Speaker 2: to my remarks last week, we have had another unsolicited

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Speaker 2: proposal come in, which is good to see because what

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Speaker 2: we're saying is, look, if there are barriers to you

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Speaker 2: wanting to come to New Zealand, we're prepared to look

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Speaker 2: at them. Whether that's the Resource Management Act, the Overseas

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Speaker 2: Investment Act, any of the regulatory issues which may have

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Speaker 2: prevented people in the past from making these investments, we're

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Speaker 2: prepared to tackle. And that's attractive. Now. I can't promise

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Speaker 2: that someone will want to put their capital on the line,

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Speaker 2: but what I can do is do everything possible to

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Speaker 2: get a competitor in because I want New Zealanders to

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Speaker 2: have more affordable groceries, and I think the current model

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Speaker 2: is not serving us well and I'm determined to fix it.

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Speaker 1: So you've had a second, what you've called an unsolicited offer.

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Speaker 1: What exactly does that mean? Have they said we will

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Speaker 1: come to we want to come to New Zealand, here's

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Speaker 1: a list of things you need to change before we do.

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Speaker 2: In this instance, it's someone who contacted my office directly saying, look,

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Speaker 2: we have a potential proposal to enter your market. Who

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Speaker 2: can we engage with about how the government could facilitate that.

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Speaker 2: I've referred them to the National Infrastructure Agency, who are

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Speaker 2: set up to take these kinds of proposals and to

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Speaker 2: evaluate them, and we will work through that.

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Speaker 1: And is this offshore I'm assuming.

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Speaker 2: Well, actually the nature of it could be a combination

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Speaker 2: of offshore and domestic.

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Speaker 1: Okay, a little copro. Thank you, minister. Great to have

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Speaker 1: you on the program as always on a Monday evening.

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Speaker 1: For more from Heather duplessy Ellen Drive, listen live to

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Speaker 1: news Talks. It'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow

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Speaker 1: the podcast on iHeartRadio.