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Speaker 1: Afternoon. Now we have been told that the budget is

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Speaker 1: not a lolly scramble, but the film industry is getting

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Speaker 1: six hundred million dollars worth of lollies in the form

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Speaker 1: of subsidies. The rules stay unchanged. Eligible productions can get

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Speaker 1: a rebate of up to twenty five percent of production

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Speaker 1: costs and the Finance Minister, Nicola Willis's with us, he

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Speaker 1: Nicola high Heather. Now that sounds really cynical, but the

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Speaker 1: truth is we actually don't have an option as a country,

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Speaker 1: do we.

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Speaker 2: We don't. If we don't do this rebate, then our

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Speaker 2: film industry will pack up its bags and leave overnight.

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Speaker 2: And that's because around the world there's about one hundred

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Speaker 2: countries who do different rebate schemes. Australia, the UK, all

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Speaker 2: of the countries we're competing with, and it's your ticket

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Speaker 2: to the game. If you don't do the rebate, people

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Speaker 2: won't even think about filming here. With the rebate, we

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Speaker 2: can then say well, we're the best place to come

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Speaker 2: to because we've got the best landscapes, the best post production,

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Speaker 2: the best digital effects. Our rebate's actually at the lower

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Speaker 2: end of the scale internationally, but because of all of

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Speaker 2: those other factors. It keeps it going, and it supports jobs,

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Speaker 2: it supports growth, we get income tax return, so it

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Speaker 2: works for New Zealand's economy apparently.

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Speaker 1: Is it true that they've taken about a billion dollars

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Speaker 1: in subsidies just in the last five years, I mean,

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Speaker 1: is that worth it?

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Speaker 2: In the past ten years, they've taken one and a

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Speaker 2: half billion dollars worth of rebate. But in return, New

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Speaker 2: Zealand has got seven and a half billion dollars worth

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Speaker 2: of investment from that industry, and that has meant that

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Speaker 2: there's been money spent in the economy. There's been people

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Speaker 2: that have been hard jobs that have been created, tax

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Speaker 2: paid by those people in those jobs, and these are

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Speaker 2: highly paid jobs, highly skilled and it leads to really

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Speaker 2: great development. So all in all, it's one of those things.

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Speaker 2: I'm not a big fan of subsidies. I'm not a

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Speaker 2: fan of industry incentives, but with this one, I can't

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Speaker 2: keep a straight face and say I care about the

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Speaker 2: growth of the New Zealand economy and then kill an industry.

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Speaker 2: That wouldn't be right. So we're making sure the funding's there,

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Speaker 2: just really quickly.

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Speaker 1: It's technical, but I see you're bumping up the amount

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Speaker 1: that is allocated for this financial year. The one that

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Speaker 1: we're at is that because it's oversubscribed.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's because there have been a number of productions

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Speaker 2: which will be applying for rebates that apply to this year,

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Speaker 2: so we're making sure the funding's there. Part of this

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Speaker 2: is a story about fiscal cliffs and all of that

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Speaker 2: sort of thing, which is traditionally this has only been

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Speaker 2: funded just in time, and we're making sure there's enough

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Speaker 2: money in the baseline for future years so that the

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Speaker 2: industry can have certainty and confidence. This scheme is around

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Speaker 2: to stay. Come to New Zealand to make your movies.

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Speaker 1: Okay, hey, did you see Wilworth's is blaming GST for

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Speaker 1: the grocery prices in this country.

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Speaker 2: Well, I think that's a bit rich. I mean, seriously,

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Speaker 2: they have every opportunity to lower their prices. They choose

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Speaker 2: not to because it's not very competitive. And my view is, yep,

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Speaker 2: the government has some things that does. It needs to

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Speaker 2: keep inflation under control, it needs to keep other costs

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Speaker 2: down where it can. But Wilworth's has a big job

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Speaker 2: to do and trying to deflect like that is very disappointing.

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Speaker 1: Nichola, Thanks very much for your time. Nichola Willis Finance

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Speaker 1: Minister and Economic Growth Minister.

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