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Speaker 1: Thomas Coglan, the Herald's political editors with us high Thomas.

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Speaker 2: Good afternoon.

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Speaker 1: See Grant Spencer's back.

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Speaker 2: Yes, Grant Spencer is back. So the former acting Reserve

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Speaker 2: Bank Governor, who was obviously out of the picture under

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Speaker 2: the Adrian or regime, has now returned. So he has

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Speaker 2: been appointed to the Reserve Bank Reserve Bank Board by

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Speaker 2: Finance Minister Nicola Willis for a five year term. Will

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Speaker 2: be very interesting to see what he does there. He

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Speaker 2: actually spoke to me on my podcast a little while

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Speaker 2: ago fairly critical of the Bank's COVID era stimulus, that

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Speaker 2: money printing and the low interest rates that clearly caused

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Speaker 2: a massive housing bubble in twenty twenty one. So he

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Speaker 2: told us back in twenty twenty two that that clearly

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Speaker 2: the bank got that wrong, and I think has probably

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Speaker 2: been born out as having the correct view on that.

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Speaker 1: Interesting. What's nice to have somebody on the board who

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Speaker 1: actually like this is his bread and butter, right, this

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Speaker 1: is the thing that he's an expert in.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it is. You know, I think it's been maybe

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Speaker 2: the better part of a decade now that you've You've

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Speaker 2: had a lot of criticism from the likes of I

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Speaker 2: think Eric Crampton at the New Zealand Initiative was one

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Speaker 2: of the big critics of just the lack of expertise

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Speaker 2: at the Bank itself and Treasury to across the road

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Speaker 2: at Treasury as well, just a declining influence of economists

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Speaker 2: and a bit of a mission mission drift. So I

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Speaker 2: think here Nicola Willis, if you if you read the

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Speaker 2: tea leaves and ask yourself, what's Nichola Willis? What's the

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Speaker 2: messages she's sending. She's probably sending a message of you know,

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Speaker 2: back to basics to please.

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Speaker 1: Now speaking of what did she say this morning?

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Speaker 2: Speaking of Yeah, she went on on neck Mills on

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Speaker 2: the Wellington's Wellington Mornings with with the emails this morning

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Speaker 2: and was asked, you know, as as as as a

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Speaker 2: lot of politicians are asked down here, what does she

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Speaker 2: think of the vibes of Wellington and was pretty frank

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Speaker 2: that that the city's you know, feeling a bit glum.

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Speaker 2: But she pointed the finger at the council and was

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Speaker 2: pretty critical of the rates that Wellingtons and Wellington businesses pay.

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Speaker 2: And we've actually, if you'll pardon a bit of cross

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Speaker 2: promotion here on the herolds. We did, we did a

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Speaker 2: bit of digging onto those rates and they are really

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Speaker 2: high in Wellington. Wellington's average commercial rates bill was forty

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Speaker 2: seven thousand dollars. Comparing that compares to twenty thousand dollars

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Speaker 2: in Auckland in eighteen thousand. In christ Change, it's nearly

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Speaker 2: doubled in about sixty years. So Wellington businesses, Wellington commercial

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Speaker 2: landlords are really feeling it down here and it does

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Speaker 2: sort of speak to some of the malaise that you

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Speaker 2: see on the streets. So that was interesting that she

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Speaker 2: chose to raise that issue because obviously she cops a

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Speaker 2: bit of flack for the public service cuts, which obviously

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Speaker 2: won't be helping. But the council probably has a bit

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Speaker 2: of a bit of blame that it has to wear

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Speaker 2: as well, a bit of blame Thomas, a bit of

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Speaker 2: quite a lot of blame.

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Speaker 1: Well, thank you, Thomas. Now, what do you make of

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Speaker 1: the idea of partially privatizing the enter Islander service?

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Speaker 2: I look, I don't, I don't hate that idea. You'd

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Speaker 2: have to say the Blue Bridge. The Blue Bridge theories,

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Speaker 2: which have been running for a long time in Wellington

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Speaker 2: have been running pretty well and Key Rail who have

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Speaker 2: been running the inter islander service have have you know,

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Speaker 2: I think customer actually just say well, you can probably

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Speaker 2: say that I thank you. They they have displeased customers

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Speaker 2: and that even displeased their owners. I don't think the

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Speaker 2: government likes them like.

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Speaker 1: I guess Winnie p who loves a bit of you know,

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Speaker 1: national ownership of an assets, is not going to partially privatize,

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Speaker 1: is he?

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Speaker 2: No, that is it is Winston Peters is very long

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Speaker 2: held views on privatization or partial privatization, so he is

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Speaker 2: not going to move in that direction. Ax is very

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Speaker 2: keen to move in that direction introduce a bit of

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Speaker 2: private capital. And the National Party I'd say the National

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Speaker 2: Party are more keen on it than not. And Nicola

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Speaker 2: Willisons sort of made some supportive sounds, but it hasn't

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Speaker 2: really committed to anything.

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Speaker 1: No, no, because they're planning to run on it for

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Speaker 1: the next or I don't know if they're going to

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Speaker 1: run on it, but they're certainly planning to execute it

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Speaker 1: in the second term.

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Speaker 2: Right, it's that the mood music is being played very

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Speaker 2: loudly for a discussion about asset sales from the National

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Speaker 2: Party at the next election. I'd look at places like

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Speaker 2: Land Corp. And qv things like that, and maybe the

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Speaker 2: Urreland is when they eventually arrive in twenty twenty nine. If, perhaps,

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Speaker 2: perhaps if is better than when.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I like that. Thank you very much, Thomas appreciated.

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Speaker 1: Thomas Coglan, the Herald's political editor.

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Speaker 2: For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to

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Speaker 2: news talks.

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Speaker 1: It'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast

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Speaker 1: on iHeartRadio