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Speaker 1: It's hard to hide from a number that bad, isn't it.

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Speaker 1: Zero point nine is not zero point three or anywhere

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Speaker 1: close to it. And what we felt in April and

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Speaker 1: May and June was in fact very real. The calls

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Speaker 1: were already out for the Finance Minister to quit. Sir

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Speaker 1: John Key is back with us. Good morning, Mike. Has

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Speaker 1: the government mister trick and could have should have gone

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Speaker 1: harder earlier.

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Speaker 2: Look, there is saying that Ruth Richardson once had, which

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Speaker 2: was montary policy needs mates, and that was her argument

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Speaker 2: when she was really tightening up the economy, that the

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Speaker 2: Reserve Bank needed that support because they were in tendem

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Speaker 2: working with the government. I think what you've seen over

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Speaker 2: the last eighteen months or so is a government that

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Speaker 2: has been working hard to get the economy straightened up

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Speaker 2: after frankly the mess it inherited, but it hasn't had

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Speaker 2: a mate in the Reserve Bank. And the Reserve Bank's job,

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Speaker 2: very clearly over time has been to say in straits

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Speaker 2: need to come down. And I mean, look two months

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Speaker 2: ago I got hammereds are saying instracts need to come

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Speaker 2: down one hundred bases for as well. They came down

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Speaker 2: twenty five. They're going to come down another fifty. You

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Speaker 2: can put a ring around it in the next Montary

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Speaker 2: policy statement and they'll come down another twenty five by Christmas.

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Speaker 2: So the person that's not doing the job, or the

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Speaker 2: people that are not doing their job, are the Reserve Bank, who, frankly,

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Speaker 2: if they just walked around Auckland and Wellington for five minutes,

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Speaker 2: could have felt the fact that the government needed help

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Speaker 2: through Montreal policy.

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Speaker 1: Right, So here's our registrates, here's your next problem. So

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Speaker 1: Luxeon's on this program a couple of weeks ago and

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Speaker 1: he goes at the the way you just have all

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Speaker 1: the op ed writers in the country start going, you

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Speaker 1: can't do that. It's independent. So what does a government

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Speaker 1: do when you've gotten competence not helping you.

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Speaker 2: Well, I mean, I guess they've done the things they

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Speaker 2: can do. In the end of the Reserve Bank governor

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Speaker 2: has left, the Reserve Bank chairman has left. You know,

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Speaker 2: they only can do what they're able to do, which

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Speaker 2: is a point, and new governor make it clear that

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Speaker 2: they're frustrated by that. I don't think the government is

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Speaker 2: either trying to or needs to sit around and just

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Speaker 2: solely blame the Reserve Bank. I mean the Reserve Bank

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Speaker 2: pleys a role in this because anyone can tell you

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Speaker 2: that in straight they have been too high, particularly when

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Speaker 2: you look at as say the auk and Wellington economy

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Speaker 2: over the last week. While I think what the government

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Speaker 2: can do is pull the levers that are within its

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Speaker 2: control now, the bigger levers around how it spends money,

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Speaker 2: being a bit tighter with the economy, getting rid of waste,

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Speaker 2: fast tracking things like RMIN, all those good things that

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Speaker 2: they do, which by the way, take quite a long

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Speaker 2: time to flow through. They're doing those. But the bits

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Speaker 2: that they can do in the short term to help

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Speaker 2: support a lower monetary policy stance they are starting to do.

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Speaker 2: I mean these business visas high with visas, minor changes

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Speaker 2: they made to foreign buyersed ban, migration changes that sit

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Speaker 2: around those visas. Some of those things are really good

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Speaker 2: stuff and again they will flow through. So I'd sort

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Speaker 2: of say to you, look, there's quite a number of

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Speaker 2: different things going on. This is a very unusual period

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Speaker 2: in New Zealand history because this has been the one

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Speaker 2: time that you've seen a very significant pullback in housing

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Speaker 2: in Auckland and Wellington. So about twenty five percent in Auckland,

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Speaker 2: about thirty percent in Wellington and all of that, whether

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Speaker 2: all these people who hate housing and don't like in

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Speaker 2: all those argments. What that's done is it's had two things.

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Speaker 2: One that's slowed down the construction sect and you can

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Speaker 2: see those numbers yesterday. And the second thing is because

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Speaker 2: people feel like they're going backwards in their biggest assey,

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Speaker 2: it strips them of confidence. And that's my whole point.

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Speaker 2: I think the one thing the prime Is can and

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Speaker 2: will continue to do is try and talk about the

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Speaker 2: future because all these things are behind us. Actually what's

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Speaker 2: coming in front of us is a lot better. But

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Speaker 2: we need to get our mojo back. We need to

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Speaker 2: start feeling confidence again. It's the you know, whether a

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Speaker 2: government loosens migration and whether the Reserve Bank has re

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Speaker 2: stracts a little bit lower, they all count for a

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Speaker 2: certain amount, but what really counts is do we feel

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Speaker 2: like we're going forward? And if as a country you do,

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Speaker 2: we'll all start doing things again and investing in moving right.

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Speaker 1: So to the poll this week that has a good

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Speaker 1: number of people blaming this current government for the economic woes.

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Speaker 1: The politics of it. You enter next year into an

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Speaker 1: election Douglas says, Sack Willis your prime minister, what do

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Speaker 1: you do.

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Speaker 2: Well? First, don't lose your nerve. I mean, Nichola Willis

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Speaker 2: is by far in the whole lineup, the best person

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Speaker 2: to be Minster of Finance. She worked for me. I

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Speaker 2: know Nikola very very well, and she's outstanding, so she

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Speaker 2: is not blind to all of the challenges we have.

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Speaker 2: So firstly, don't lose confidence. The second thing I'd say

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Speaker 2: is don't lose confidence with the really good macro things

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Speaker 2: the government is doing. So yeah, if there are some

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Speaker 2: short term things that you can continue to do to

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Speaker 2: stimulate the economy, do all of those. But my point

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Speaker 2: to you would be when someone asks the pulses today, look,

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Speaker 2: the economy's bad, your jobs at risk? Are are you

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Speaker 2: going to blame? Well, by definition of course, you're going

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Speaker 2: to blame the government of today. Just don't forget that.

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Speaker 2: Next year when we have the ultimate poll called an election,

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Speaker 2: it's not actually about is the economy good or bad? Today,

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Speaker 2: it's about choice of who over the next three years

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Speaker 2: do you want leading the country. And frankly, given this

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Speaker 2: mess was delivered to us by the very same people

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Speaker 2: who lead the Labor Party today, and then throw it

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Speaker 2: a very radical marorw Party and a very radical Green Party.

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Speaker 2: You tell me why the economic cocktail that New Zealand

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Speaker 2: would be operating under would be anything other than catastrophe.

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Speaker 2: So I think when middle New Zealanders face that choice,

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Speaker 2: they will continue to give their support to the right

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Speaker 2: block of National New Zealand first and that well.

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Speaker 1: I's appreciate your time. Having good weekend, Sir John Keith.

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Speaker 1: For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to

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Speaker 1: news talks they'd be from six am weekdays, or follow

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