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Speaker 1: Eve been coming up in the next hour. Shane Soley's

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Speaker 1: going to talk us through the markets around the world,

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Speaker 1: pricing in interest rate carts, Ryman's boss on why they're

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Speaker 1: raising prices in the hints is that people are living

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Speaker 1: longer and hanging around longer, basically, and then we'll have

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Speaker 1: a chat to Gavin Gray out of the UK. It's

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Speaker 1: seven past six and with us now as the finance

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Speaker 1: minister Nichola will I say, Nikola.

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Speaker 2: Good evening, Heather.

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Speaker 1: What are we going to do about the shambles we've

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Speaker 1: got in health at the moment?

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Speaker 2: Well, we're on UCH. We've got a commissioner in there.

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Speaker 2: He's making sure that that organization is focused on its targets,

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Speaker 2: which are about delivering more surgery to people, reducing wasting

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Speaker 2: times and being more efficient, and he is working very

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Speaker 2: hard on that. We've put more funding in, and we've

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Speaker 2: guaranteed that we will be putting more funding in at

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Speaker 2: each future budget. But you and I both know it's

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Speaker 2: not just about money. It's also about improving the systems

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Speaker 2: that doctors and nurses when they're doing their jobs, are

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Speaker 2: well supported to be as efficient as effective as possible.

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Speaker 1: Do you reckon there? Is efficiencies that can be found

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Speaker 1: in there.

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Speaker 2: Yes, I'll tell you when I think of it a lot,

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Speaker 2: and that is when you go to your GP or

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Speaker 2: you go to see your pharmacist, they're quite limited sometimes

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Speaker 2: in the roles that they're allowed to perform, and some

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Speaker 2: of the things you go to a GP for, maybe

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Speaker 2: a nurse could help with. Some of the things that

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Speaker 2: you go to a nurse with, maybe a pharmacist could

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Speaker 2: help with. So expanding the range of things that different

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Speaker 2: medical practitioners can perform, I think could help reduce wasting

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Speaker 2: times and deliver more efficiency in the system. And that

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Speaker 2: is something we're looking at.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, what do we do though about the funding? Because

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Speaker 1: I totally take your point and I think you're right.

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Speaker 1: But doctors, the gps themselves, we are so short on

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Speaker 1: them and they are completely underfunded. So are you prepared

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Speaker 1: to throw more money at them?

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Speaker 2: Well, we have put more money into GP not our

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Speaker 2: budget for a year. Well actually in this YEW budget

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Speaker 2: we added more than sixteen billion to the health system.

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Speaker 2: Over the next few years. Our health is the biggest

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Speaker 2: area of our budget and will be of every budget

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Speaker 2: that I deliver, So we ensure that it gets top ups.

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Speaker 1: And yeah, I know, I appreciate that, but they have

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Speaker 1: a look at what the GP's got, didn't they get

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Speaker 1: four percent?

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Speaker 2: Yes, that's correct.

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Speaker 1: That's not a lot, though, is it.

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Speaker 2: Well, that's of course above what inflation is now at.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, but I mean we're talking about it in a context,

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Speaker 1: and I appreciate that too, But we're talking about it

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Speaker 1: in a context where where we have to possibly completely

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Speaker 1: reinvent the way that we're doing this. Throw lots of

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Speaker 1: money at primary care so people don't get sick and

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Speaker 1: end up in hospital. So it's got to be like

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Speaker 1: multiples of four percent, doesn't it.

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Speaker 2: Well, I think we're also going to have to look

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Speaker 2: for new ways of using technology and new techniques and

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Speaker 2: talk to doctors themselves in our communities about what they

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Speaker 2: think is needed to free out more than more of

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Speaker 2: their time. So a lot of doctors choose to work

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Speaker 2: partial time, not full time. Often that's because of the

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Speaker 2: nature of the desire to balance family and work place.

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Speaker 2: So what are we doing actually to use technology so

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Speaker 2: that they can work some of their hours from home

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Speaker 2: like many other people do. How could we be using

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Speaker 2: apps and other technology so that some of them works

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Speaker 2: that they currently do could be done by others to

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Speaker 2: minimize the amount of administers of time they're having to spend,

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Speaker 2: for example. So I'm actually quite hopeful that with technology,

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Speaker 2: that with a more latural view of the roles of

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Speaker 2: different health providers, there is more productivity to be got

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Speaker 2: out of the system, not just a matter of more money.

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Speaker 2: Of course it's more money, but not just that.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so how long before how long is it going

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Speaker 1: to take you do you think Lester Levy dealing with

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Speaker 1: Health New Zealand the GP's finding efficiencies before we can

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Speaker 1: all look at it and go, hey, that's working a

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Speaker 1: lot better now.

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Speaker 2: I think you're going to see continued progress over the

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Speaker 2: next year. I think it's going to be a big

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Speaker 2: turnaround job that he's got on his hands and that

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Speaker 2: we've got on our hands. But I think by the

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Speaker 2: end of this term of parliament you will be seeing

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Speaker 2: significant improvements. But we have an expectation of progress every

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Speaker 2: year and you will see that.

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Speaker 1: Hey, what do you think is going on with the

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Speaker 1: toast and the maternity Ward and Wellington? Are they idiots

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Speaker 1: canceling this or are they deliberately are trying to.

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Speaker 2: I just hated that story because I have one of

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Speaker 2: those really firm poor memories of the moment after our

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Speaker 2: first son was born, of the nurse bringing me a

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Speaker 2: cup of milky tea and veg might on post and

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Speaker 2: me just feeling an even big ratitude towards her, and

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Speaker 2: it was so wistful, and the thought that new mums

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Speaker 2: wouldn't get that really upset me when I read it,

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Speaker 2: and I think it's just one of those things that

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Speaker 2: someone somewhere made a silly decision. The decision was that

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Speaker 2: it would better if people got a full meal after

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Speaker 2: they gave first rather than posts. But then in practice,

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Speaker 2: of course, that would be harder to deliver it, so

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Speaker 2: it didn't happen to some people. And look, doctor Reshi's

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Speaker 2: made it very clear to healthy.

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Speaker 1: Do you reckon that's what it was like? Bs on

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Speaker 1: that story from them. I reckon that they just did

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Speaker 1: this because of funding cuts.

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Speaker 2: Well, I take them at face, tell you, and that's

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Speaker 2: what I read as their explanation.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, but I mean, you know, if you're in hospital,

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Speaker 1: you have to wait till the prescribed meal time. So

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Speaker 1: if you're giving birth, I don't know, let's say nine o'clock,

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Speaker 1: you're waiting until midday one to have some meals no.

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Speaker 2: Argument to me, hopeless ideas and I'm just glad that

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Speaker 2: the woman at Wellington Hospital will be getting their time.

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Speaker 1: Common senses prevailed. But hey, listen, can you actually rule

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Speaker 1: out the fact though, that there are a bunch of

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Speaker 1: people working in the public service who are determined to

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Speaker 1: get you negative headlines and this is one of those examples.

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Speaker 2: Well, in politics there are always people who want to

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Speaker 2: search out the negative, and our job is to make extraal,

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Speaker 2: tangible progress so that people experience that. And I'm confident

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Speaker 2: that are across a range of domains people are seeing that,

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Speaker 2: you know, inflation's coming down, interest rates are coming down,

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Speaker 2: tax releases and bank accounts and ungry please, business confidence

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Speaker 2: is up. These are real things. So Nancy negative can

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Speaker 2: go on, but we've actually got to focus on delivering results.

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Speaker 1: Did you see Carolyn McLeish suggesting that we sell down

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Speaker 1: some assets.

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Speaker 2: Yes, I did.

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Speaker 1: It's becoming a regular in our slot. I'm just going

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Speaker 1: to advocate right at your nikola to sell down some assets.

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Speaker 2: What did you think, Well, I thought that that was

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Speaker 2: consistent of the advice that Treasure we gave us after

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Speaker 2: the election. Obviously, as we're discussed on your show. Previously,

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Speaker 2: the Prime Minister has said that we don't intend to

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Speaker 2: be selling those state owned enterprises this term. We are

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Speaker 2: looking at the purpose of the ownership we have in

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Speaker 2: many state assets to ensure that we're using that money

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Speaker 2: to the best advantage for New Zealanders and that they're

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Speaker 2: performing well. So they're doing that work.

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Speaker 1: Did you look at TV and Z whether it's multimillion

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Speaker 1: dollar loss this year and think, well, I'd love to

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Speaker 1: get rid of you.

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Speaker 2: Well, look, it's a real worry what's happening with the

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Speaker 2: media generally. And I acknowledge that I'm onney getting many

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Speaker 2: who are still managing to operate a profitable business, So

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Speaker 2: good on you. But across the world the media is

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Speaker 2: finding things challenging with new revenue models, and TV enged

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Speaker 2: is caught in that, and it's our expectation that they

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Speaker 2: do perform better financially. It is a disappointing result and

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Speaker 2: we're expecting them to work towards a plan to rectify it.

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Speaker 1: Did you look at a New Zealand's tiny, tiny little

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Speaker 1: profit and think I'd love to get rid of you.

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Speaker 2: No, that wasn't my reaction. We'd actually expected their result

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Speaker 2: not to be as good as last year they have

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Speaker 2: been having those engine issues. There is a difficult economic context.

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Speaker 2: Then they are arrange of factors, but of course at

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Speaker 2: the same time always saying how can you perform better?

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Speaker 2: How can you do better next year? That's our job

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Speaker 2: as a key sheholder.

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Speaker 1: And what about New Zealand Posts lost? Did you think

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Speaker 1: I'd love to divest myself of you?

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Speaker 2: Well, the challenge on envied Post, of course is that

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Speaker 2: I don't think there's anyone else who would want to

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Speaker 2: take over sending the letters to everyone in New Zealand.

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Speaker 2: It's a challenging business to run. It's an important public

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Speaker 2: service and so they balance that, of course with your

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Speaker 2: career business and the other functions. Again, as for all

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Speaker 2: of these entities, they've got tax payer dollars that have

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Speaker 2: funded them through the years, and we want to see

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Speaker 2: those dollars performing the best they can for New Zealanders.

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Speaker 1: Nicholas Michael Hill has just posted its results right, and

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Speaker 1: of course they operate across Australia, Canada and New Zealand

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Speaker 1: in Australia, and I'm talking about this financial year, the

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Speaker 1: one that we're eight weeks into. Canada's same store sales

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Speaker 1: have gone up four percent. Ozsies have gone up five

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Speaker 1: percent and ours have gone down six percent. What's going on?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Look, I think that there has been some real

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Speaker 2: challenges with crime. That's a real focus for us coming

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Speaker 2: in as a government, and we are making progress. In

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Speaker 2: the first five months of this year, there were fifteen

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Speaker 2: percent fewer burglaries, ten percent for you, aggravated robberies. So

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Speaker 2: we are seeing signs of progress, but there's a lot

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Speaker 2: more work to do, and we're doing it.

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Speaker 1: Are you worried that if it carries on like this

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Speaker 1: with the crime that you will Actually I mean, Michael

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Speaker 1: Hill's only shot two stores, but are you worried they're

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Speaker 1: going to shut more? Other businesses may fold up and

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Speaker 1: just decide it's not worth doing business here.

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Speaker 2: Well, we don't want that to happen, and that's why

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Speaker 2: we're taking fighting crime so seriously. It's why we're introducing

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Speaker 2: measures to have stronger centers while we're going hat on

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Speaker 2: the gangs and people will have observed what happened to

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Speaker 2: the common chios last week. It's why we're doing everything

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Speaker 2: we can to disrupt criminal behavior because ultimately it's a

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Speaker 2: threat to public safety also a threat to business. We

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Speaker 2: don't like that and we're acting hard list.

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Speaker 1: Do you know where that sentencing law is at?

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Speaker 2: I know that the Minister in charge, Paul Goldsmith, is

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Speaker 2: progressing that and we'll have more to say about it.

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Speaker 1: So oh brilliant. Okay, give them the hurry up, Nicholas,

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Speaker 1: thank you very much, really appreciated. It's Nichola Willis, the

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Speaker 1: Finance Minister. For more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive, Listen

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Speaker 1: live to news talks. It'd be from four pm weekdays,

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Speaker 1: or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio