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Speaker 1: And with us now is The Herald's political editor, Thomas

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Speaker 1: Cognane Thomas Okay, So Nikola has rained in the spending

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Speaker 1: on the Reserve Bank, but has she actually.

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Speaker 2: Very very very good question. So the Reserve Bank, the spending,

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Speaker 2: I think inarguably has gone a wee bit nuts the

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Speaker 2: last few years. It was about fifty million dollars a

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Speaker 2: year in the agreement signed by the last National Government

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Speaker 2: labor up to that, spending to about one to one

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Speaker 2: hundred and twenty million dollars a year from twenty twenty onwards.

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Speaker 2: Now thing's got a wee bit weird. In twenty twenty

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Speaker 2: three the Reserve Bank got some new responsibilities and got

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Speaker 2: some additional money to compensate for those new responsibilities. So

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Speaker 2: the funding goes up to about one hundred and sixty

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Speaker 2: million and twenty three, one hundred and fifty million and

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Speaker 2: twenty four to twenty five. But the bank has then

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Speaker 2: it appears, spent an additional fifteen million dollars on top

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Speaker 2: of that, taking this year spending to two hundred million dollars.

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Speaker 2: So all of those numbers apologies for them. So if

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Speaker 2: you take that two hundred million dollars as your baseline,

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Speaker 2: then yes, there's a funding cut, but if you look

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Speaker 2: back over the last of five years, then actually spending

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Speaker 2: is roughly level and might even be a wee bit

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Speaker 2: a wee bit higher. So it really depends who you're asking.

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Speaker 1: So the agreement for the last financial year was one

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Speaker 1: hundred and fifty million and nicol and but they spent

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Speaker 1: two hundred million because they blew their budget. But now

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Speaker 1: Nicola is saying we've cut it back to one hundred

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Speaker 1: and fifty million. That's not a cut, that's level.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's and and if that's if that's the way

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Speaker 2: that you're which I think, to be honest, is that's

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Speaker 2: the way that I look at it. So I think

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Speaker 2: I think you could say she's cut it from I mean,

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Speaker 2: I've asked them Reserve Bank, what on earth was going

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Speaker 2: on was going on this year? They meant to get

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Speaker 2: back to me by the end of the day, so

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Speaker 2: I guess I'll hear back from them then. But I

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Speaker 2: don't know what's going on with with this two hundred

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Speaker 2: million dollars that they spent this year. It's I mean,

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Speaker 2: when you think about it, you know, it wasn't two

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Speaker 2: thousand and nineteen was not that long ago, and in

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Speaker 2: twenty nineteen everyone at the bank was fine with fifty

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Speaker 2: two million dollars. Fast forward to this year and two

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Speaker 2: hundred million dollars is what they're spending. It's it's it's

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Speaker 2: it's incomprehensible. What what has happened here that the bank

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Speaker 2: needs needs this much money? And to me, frankly, it's

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Speaker 2: incredible that the bank doesn't sort of front up a

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Speaker 2: little bit more and explain why it's spending all this money.

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Speaker 2: That's some of it is necessary. I think with the

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Speaker 2: deposit takers stuff that they're changing, there is some some

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Speaker 2: reason behind it. But quadrupling the amount of spending, I

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Speaker 2: don't know.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know either. And why did Adrian all

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Speaker 1: quit over this? I mean, this is hardly if he's

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Speaker 1: maintaining that the extraordinary level of funding that the Reserve

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Speaker 1: Bank has got, whydey pack a tandy and pack off.

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Speaker 2: Well, I mean the other the other, I mean the

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Speaker 2: interesting the other interesting thing with this, this agreement today

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Speaker 2: is that the bank wanted a billion dollars, over a

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Speaker 2: billion dollars over five years, and Nicola Willis paid them

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Speaker 2: back to about seven hundred and fifty million dollars so

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Speaker 2: the bank wanted even more money. It's it is, there is,

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Speaker 2: of course, the irony here is is that there is

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Speaker 2: an institution in New Zealand which is meant to ensure

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Speaker 2: that there is price stability and that you don't need

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Speaker 2: more and more money every year just to stand still.

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Speaker 2: And that institution.

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Speaker 1: Is the Reserve Bank.

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Speaker 2: Wow, that's the reserve bank.

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Speaker 1: Okay, this is the this is the thing I don't understand.

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Speaker 1: So the Marty party comes up with its latest cooked idea,

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Speaker 1: which is that Mary people should be able to take

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Speaker 1: the pension and therefore retire ten years before everybody else.

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Speaker 1: The question is asked of labor what do you make

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Speaker 1: of it? And labor goes, I'm not saying yet, why

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Speaker 1: don't they just kill it?

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Speaker 2: Kill the oda? It's terrible, it is, it is, it

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Speaker 2: is an I think this. This idea is also difficult

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Speaker 2: to get head around. I mean Willie Jackson was actually

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Speaker 2: asked it a few weeks ago by by Order Young

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Speaker 2: and he said it would cause division and wasn't a

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Speaker 2: good idea and he didn't want to go down that route.

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Speaker 2: So so one one labor person has actually said they

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Speaker 2: don't want to do it. Barbar Readmonds, I think today

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Speaker 2: was in that in that story saying.

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Speaker 1: That she's not making policy upright, she's not.

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Speaker 2: Making policy up right now, which I'm not sure how

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Speaker 2: tenable that is. I mean, barbar Riadmonds as well last

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Speaker 2: week in the House was asking Nikola Willis, will she

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Speaker 2: rule out and come testing the best art payment? Will

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Speaker 2: she rule out and come testing the winter energy payment?

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Speaker 2: So you know, Barbara Humans is starting to play the

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Speaker 2: rule out game with Nicola Willis, the Finance Minister, but

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Speaker 2: she's not so keen on playing it when people start

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Speaker 2: to ask you to rule out coalition partner promises and

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Speaker 2: this one is, as you say, this one's an easy

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Speaker 2: one to rule out. Labor can't find four billion dollars

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Speaker 2: to do this idea. Regardless of whether whether or not

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Speaker 2: you think it's fair, there is not four billion dollars

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Speaker 2: lying around to spend, you know, not just this year,

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Speaker 2: but every year going forward to the future. Four billion

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Speaker 2: dollars that is that is an enormous amount of money.

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Speaker 2: It's it's it's huge. I think I think it's it

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Speaker 2: would be roughly comparable I think to our justice spending

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Speaker 2: at the moment, law and order spending. It's it's it's

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Speaker 2: it's money that you cannot find down the back of

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Speaker 2: the couch. So I I really don't know why, why labors,

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Speaker 2: why I was opted to be ambiguous on that one.

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Speaker 2: Because it's not going to happen. I can tell you

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Speaker 2: right now, come election time, because it just ruled out,

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Speaker 2: it won't happen.

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Speaker 1: Thank you, Thomas, will talk to you again tomorrow. Look

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Speaker 1: after yourself. That's Thomas Coglan, the Herald's political editor. Head

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