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Speaker 1: Wayne Brown and Auckland has refreshed his magnificent manifesto for Auckland.

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Speaker 1: He says work with the government has been mostly good,

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Speaker 1: but he wants the bed tax. He's like a broken

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Speaker 1: record with the bed tax and the visa waivers for

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Speaker 1: China for Brazil. He reckons these can help turbocharge growth

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Speaker 1: Auckland and in turn save the entire country. Simon Bridges,

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Speaker 1: the Auckland Business Chamber of CEO with me this morning, Simon,

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Speaker 1: Good morning, a morning Ryan.

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Speaker 2: Yes, what a magnificent manifesto. Indeed, I just wanted to

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Speaker 2: say that, actually because I like the way I rolled

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Speaker 2: off the tongue.

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Speaker 1: We'll get you that into a second. But this China US,

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Speaker 1: well it's not a deal, but at least it's a pause.

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Speaker 1: Has got to be a good thing for us.

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Speaker 2: Right, Oh yeah, good news indeed, hallelujah. I mean, well,

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Speaker 2: as you say, I'm none of us are naive, but

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Speaker 2: I think those two country is really the biggest superpowers.

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Speaker 2: You'd argue in you as well. But in the world

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Speaker 2: we need things to be sort of predictable, certain and

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Speaker 2: you know, at a level as much as it can

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Speaker 2: be harmony for the world of global economy and so yeah,

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Speaker 2: good news. We'll see how it all goes, but good

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Speaker 2: news so far.

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Speaker 1: Now, Wayne Brown and the he wants the visas, the

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Speaker 1: visa waivers, and you've spoken about this before for China

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Speaker 1: and for Brazil. And I'm assuming the reason that the

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Speaker 1: government's not moving on the stuff is because they're worried

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Speaker 1: about overstayers.

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Speaker 2: Well, if they are, it's seems a strange concern to me.

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Speaker 2: I mean, you know, I think that Wayne Brown is right. Again,

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Speaker 2: my point be this, I don't see a single public

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Speaker 2: policy reason not to do this. Now, you could argue

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Speaker 2: with some other Southeast Asian countries overstaying I think probably

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Speaker 2: would be in other countries a really significant issue that

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Speaker 2: they're frankly poorer, less developed countries. It's not the China today.

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Speaker 2: You know, you go to those cities, but they're more advanced,

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Speaker 2: more developed than New Zealand. And you know what we

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Speaker 2: what we would see is I think a real sugar

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Speaker 2: hit the economy if you had some kind of reciprocal visa,

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Speaker 2: right that is, you know, no visa for a period

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Speaker 2: of time. If the government was really worried about that issue.

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Speaker 2: You're mentioning there are things they could do right. What

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Speaker 2: they could actually do is say, you know what, it's

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Speaker 2: only going to be for those who fail at the

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Speaker 2: front of the plane. That would still be a sugar hit.

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Speaker 2: And right now, I don't think I've said before, they'd

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Speaker 2: be beggars, can't be choosers. So I cannot see a

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Speaker 2: reason not to do it. I'm totally with Wayne Brown

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Speaker 2: on this, and I just say that, you know, given

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Speaker 2: some of your colleagues when you're there saying how amazing

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Speaker 2: Erica Stanford is, she hasn't moved on this and she should.

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Speaker 1: Yep, no fair enough too. I happen to agree with you.

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Speaker 1: What about the bed tax, because he's harping on about this,

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Speaker 1: but it's not going to happen because I well, it

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Speaker 1: probably needs a rebrand. They should take the word tax

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Speaker 1: out of it for a secon exactly.

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Speaker 2: You know, that's the problem. I think that's the issue. Look,

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Speaker 2: I'm not saying this sort of weazelways right. I'm agnostic

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Speaker 2: whether it's actually a quote bad text right, But I

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Speaker 2: think the issue that Wayne's talking about is right for Auckland,

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Speaker 2: and therefore, ye know, I think for New Zia and

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Speaker 2: the government does need to do something. I mean going

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Speaker 2: me give you my sort of maybe slightly self serving perspective.

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Speaker 2: But I was Minister of Economic Development in the last

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Speaker 2: days of the keep slash English government. We get a

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Speaker 2: steady pipeline of major events for the likes of Auckland

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Speaker 2: that there's just no pipeline that's in the end, that's

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Speaker 2: the funding.

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Speaker 1: So we need something again, but politically get it across

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Speaker 1: the line. Is there any way you can just charge

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Speaker 1: foreigners the bad tax? You know like that. That's the

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Speaker 1: problem for the central government, isn't it. They don't want

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Speaker 1: to introduce another tax that's going to hurt key with you.

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Speaker 1: So we're coming from christ it's for a concert at

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Speaker 1: Eden Park.

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Speaker 2: My simple point would be, look, okay, so you don't

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Speaker 2: like my sensors. And I'm not close to the internal

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Speaker 2: politics within the coalition on this. My sense is your

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Speaker 2: your first point was one, which is in the end,

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Speaker 2: I think they said no new taxes. This this says

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Speaker 2: text and so that's the sort of issue. Well, look,

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Speaker 2: the question is not tax, it's funding, right if they

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Speaker 2: want to do it through some other mechanism, But in

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Speaker 2: the end, both central and local government are failing Auckland

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Speaker 2: when it comes to major events and activations that you

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Speaker 2: need for tourists, that you need for people coming in,

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Speaker 2: but you also just need if you want a dynamic,

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Speaker 2: exciting city that our kids want to stay in and

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Speaker 2: work in right rather than buggering off to it to

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Speaker 2: Sydney in London.

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Speaker 1: If you want excitement in Auckland, you just read Wayne

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Speaker 1: Brown's manifesto. Simon, thank you for that. Simon Bridge's Auckland

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Speaker 1: Chamber of CEO with us this morning.

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Speaker 2: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen live

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Speaker 2: to news Talks. It'd be from five am weekdays, or

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