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Speaker 1: Morning, seven past seven. So we hauled ourselves out of

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Speaker 1: recession in the first quarter. That's the good news. The

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Speaker 1: worries some bit as virtually everyone thinks the current quarter

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Speaker 1: isn't going to be quite as good. The Finance Minister

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Speaker 1: Nikola Willis is well us very good morning to you.

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Speaker 2: Good morning mate.

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Speaker 1: Is this part of your first one hundred days? Get

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Speaker 1: some growth?

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Speaker 2: This is the long shadow that we always ward would

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Speaker 2: be there. You take over after a government pump the

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Speaker 2: economy for a cash field and inflational crisis. Infrastrates have

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Speaker 2: gone very high, and now the economy is hurting and

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Speaker 2: it is very tough. It's a part of the economic cycle.

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Speaker 2: It is difficult for people to enjoy. But what we

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Speaker 2: know is that we're going to come out of it.

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Speaker 2: Interest rates are going to come down. That will breathe

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Speaker 2: life into the economy and we've got a plan to

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Speaker 2: grow it from there.

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Speaker 1: Well, that's good to hear, but interest rates aren't coming down.

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Speaker 1: And that's the problem with yesterday's number because it will

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Speaker 1: allow the Reserve Bank to come back yet again and

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Speaker 1: say everything's going to plan and we're not cutting until

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Speaker 1: next year. What happens between now and next year because

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Speaker 1: that's a lot all that time.

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Speaker 2: It is a long time. What Treasury are forecasting is

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Speaker 2: for inflation to keep coming down, to come back into

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Speaker 2: band and they're forecasting that from there you'll seet interest

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Speaker 2: rates coming down. Now when the Reserve Bank choose to

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Speaker 2: make that as their independent choice. But what we are

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Speaker 2: seeing in our forecast is that this is kind of

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Speaker 2: what the reserve banks said they were engineering. They said

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Speaker 2: they wanted to see this slow down. Well, this is

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Speaker 2: a slowdown, that is for sure. And what we want

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Speaker 2: to see is productive growth coming back into the economy.

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Speaker 2: And we're doing the right things. We're getting our own

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Speaker 2: spending under control. We're also making sure that New Zealanders

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Speaker 2: have more cash in their own back pockets this winter

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Speaker 2: sales tax release coming at the end of July. And

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Speaker 2: where we're working on the underlying drivers of productive growth.

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Speaker 2: You know, it is the sensible thing. Education and skills, infrastructure,

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Speaker 2: more competition, less red tape, stronger global connections, getting some

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Speaker 2: capital into the country, smarter approach to science and innovation.

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Speaker 2: Those are the things we have to do. It's not

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Speaker 2: a silver bullet, but unless we do those things, this

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Speaker 2: economy will keep bouncing along the bottom. So we're taking

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Speaker 2: that challenge very seriously.

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Speaker 1: All of that is true, but it doesn't get fixed

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Speaker 1: next week, next month, and maybe you could argue not

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Speaker 1: even next year, because what you've just outlined a big

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Speaker 1: picture things you're asking New Zealander is to endure a

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Speaker 1: very long period of very difficult times.

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Speaker 2: No, I'm also delivering things this year. I think it

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Speaker 2: is really important that tax reduction is coming at the

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Speaker 2: end of the July that is sunlight and what would

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Speaker 2: otherwise be a very challenging winter. I think it is

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Speaker 2: important that we're significantly increasing local road maintenance projects because

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Speaker 2: actually that funding goes straight into people wearing hard hats

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Speaker 2: and hivers. They are projects that can start quickly. They're

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Speaker 2: not long term infrastructure projects that consist of a picture

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Speaker 2: of light rail on a page. They're actual people filling

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Speaker 2: actual pop So we are doing practical things. I know

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Speaker 2: that's what New Zealanders require of us. Right now. We're

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Speaker 2: getting on with it. We have and hear it's at

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Speaker 2: a mess. I completely acknowledge that, and I know that

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Speaker 2: some people hear that and they say we'll fix it overnight.

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Speaker 2: But you know what Grant Roberts punts the economy with cash,

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Speaker 2: he's through inflation very high, much higher than in other

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Speaker 2: countries than the world assisted for longer, and now here

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Speaker 2: we are. Economics has its own gravity, and we're going

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Speaker 2: to focus on giving the economics right.

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Speaker 1: Is good news coming this afternoon on the drug front,

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Speaker 1: we will do and it is what times the announcement?

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Speaker 2: No, No, it's not. I don't like building expectations. No

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Speaker 2: it's not.

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Speaker 1: Okay, So the reportage this morning is wrong. Is the

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Speaker 1: next week an announcement on the far make money?

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Speaker 2: I look, I've been saying all week we'll be making

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Speaker 2: announcements shortly.

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Speaker 1: Okay, So the reporters this morning is wrong. It's not

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Speaker 1: coming today.

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Speaker 2: That's not coming today.

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Speaker 1: Will it be signed off by cabinet on Monday and

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Speaker 1: then coming next week after that?

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Speaker 2: As we've said, we've been working very hard on this policy,

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Speaker 2: mart and we're going to make an announcement very shortly.

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Speaker 2: We can't a lot of people want to hear it.

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Speaker 1: Good stuff, You have a good weekend, appreciate it very much.

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Speaker 1: That's all we needed to hear. So the reports this

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Speaker 1: morning that it's coming today is wrong, and they should

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Speaker 1: have worked that out because the story they wrote and

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Speaker 1: I think this is stuff strikes again. They're saying it hasn't.

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Speaker 1: On one hand, they're saying it's been announced this afternoon,

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Speaker 1: six hundred million for the drugs. And what's interesting about it,

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Speaker 1: it's not specific to the thirteen that gets David Seymour

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Speaker 1: out of jail. It's just a general increase for FARMAC.

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Speaker 1: Could increase their budget by forty percent. We're talking six

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Speaker 1: hundred million dollars. That's over four years. And then halfway

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Speaker 1: through the story they then say it hasn't been signed

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Speaker 1: off by cabinet, So join some dots person who wrote

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Speaker 1: the story. If something hasn't been signed off by cabinet,

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Speaker 1: you can't announce it this afternoon. In Cabinet aren't meeting

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Speaker 1: this morning. Small clue. So when they meet next week Monday,

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Speaker 1: they'll sign it off and then they'll announce it next week.

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Speaker 1: But that seems to be potentially some good news. Twelve

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Speaker 1: and it's past.

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