1
00:00:00,160 --> 00:00:03,120
Speaker 1: And New Zealand Herald Deputy political editor Thomas Coggins with

2
00:00:03,200 --> 00:00:06,600
Speaker 1: us this evening kild to Thomas cleaving Jack. So, mood

3
00:00:06,600 --> 00:00:09,360
Speaker 1: of the boardroom this morning, what has the response been?

4
00:00:10,280 --> 00:00:13,800
Speaker 2: Yeah, really interesting mood of the boardroom this morning. Unsurprisingly,

5
00:00:14,520 --> 00:00:17,320
Speaker 2: businesses are feeling pretty positive. They tend to like a

6
00:00:17,360 --> 00:00:20,040
Speaker 2: center right government and tend to be pretty skeptical of

7
00:00:20,040 --> 00:00:22,040
Speaker 2: a center left government. So you've seen a lift and

8
00:00:22,480 --> 00:00:26,800
Speaker 2: sentiment across the board. Interestingly, we've got Erica Stamford coming

9
00:00:26,800 --> 00:00:31,360
Speaker 2: out on top. Typically you have well, certainly the Finance

10
00:00:31,360 --> 00:00:33,800
Speaker 2: Minister tends to be number one. That was the case

11
00:00:33,840 --> 00:00:36,440
Speaker 2: under Label where Grant Robinson tended to come first, and

12
00:00:36,520 --> 00:00:39,200
Speaker 2: under National where the last National government where Bill English

13
00:00:39,320 --> 00:00:43,199
Speaker 2: came first. And but but you know, quite interestingly this

14
00:00:43,240 --> 00:00:46,320
Speaker 2: time round under the last under the last National government,

15
00:00:46,360 --> 00:00:50,080
Speaker 2: John Key obviously very popular, tended to come second. Christoph

16
00:00:50,159 --> 00:00:54,000
Speaker 2: Luxon this time round coming a distant sexth after Judith

17
00:00:54,000 --> 00:00:57,240
Speaker 2: Collins even who's obviously the former National Party leader. So

18
00:00:57,240 --> 00:00:59,280
Speaker 2: so some positive stuff for the in there for Christopher

19
00:00:59,360 --> 00:01:02,240
Speaker 2: Luxon obviously that that people tend to like what businesses

20
00:01:02,240 --> 00:01:04,360
Speaker 2: tend to like the government. Uh and and tend to

21
00:01:04,400 --> 00:01:07,600
Speaker 2: be pretty favorable to what it's doing, but some concerning

22
00:01:07,760 --> 00:01:11,200
Speaker 2: kind of signals to him that he is not, you know,

23
00:01:11,280 --> 00:01:13,840
Speaker 2: in that top kind of top three. So the rankings

24
00:01:13,880 --> 00:01:17,119
Speaker 2: are are Erica Stamford, Simeon Brown, Nichola Willis, christ Bishop

25
00:01:17,160 --> 00:01:18,759
Speaker 2: due to Collins, and then Christopher Luxon.

26
00:01:19,400 --> 00:01:22,520
Speaker 1: I don't think nothing too surprising the ra you know,

27
00:01:22,560 --> 00:01:25,160
Speaker 1: there's no no real bolter in those kind of results.

28
00:01:25,640 --> 00:01:28,880
Speaker 2: No, there's nothing, there's nothing. There's nothing that would suggest

29
00:01:29,360 --> 00:01:32,120
Speaker 2: that the boardroom as we're seeing something different from the

30
00:01:32,120 --> 00:01:34,360
Speaker 2: general public. I think if you were to asked the

31
00:01:35,520 --> 00:01:39,280
Speaker 2: public for their own rankings of the cabinet, provided they

32
00:01:39,360 --> 00:01:41,000
Speaker 2: knew who they were, because people tend not to know.

33
00:01:41,920 --> 00:01:44,000
Speaker 2: I have a deep knowledge of of who they were.

34
00:01:44,040 --> 00:01:46,560
Speaker 2: But but I think it would be fair to say

35
00:01:46,560 --> 00:01:49,080
Speaker 2: that those that those are all quite high performing ministers.

36
00:01:49,440 --> 00:01:51,640
Speaker 2: Christo Relucance said as much today. He said, you know,

37
00:01:51,680 --> 00:01:53,640
Speaker 2: obviously he would say this, but he said he was

38
00:01:53,640 --> 00:01:57,080
Speaker 2: proud to have a clearly have a good team around him. Yeah.

39
00:01:57,160 --> 00:02:00,520
Speaker 1: Right. The government is to consider hiking road charges and

40
00:02:00,560 --> 00:02:03,280
Speaker 1: tolls to help NZTA before the end of the term.

41
00:02:03,720 --> 00:02:06,240
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is a really really interesting one. It's sort

42
00:02:06,240 --> 00:02:08,520
Speaker 2: of been bubbling away in the background even since Labor

43
00:02:08,639 --> 00:02:13,480
Speaker 2: Labor was in charge, as anyone paying attention to so

44
00:02:13,520 --> 00:02:16,720
Speaker 2: the news would know, we've had some pretty incredible infrastructure

45
00:02:16,720 --> 00:02:20,960
Speaker 2: cost inflation recently, and that hasn't been helped by some

46
00:02:21,000 --> 00:02:24,760
Speaker 2: incredible infrastructure promise inflation. We both Labor and National have

47
00:02:24,800 --> 00:02:29,239
Speaker 2: promised some very expensive infrastructure projects towards the end of

48
00:02:29,680 --> 00:02:33,360
Speaker 2: the term and certainly towards the end of the decade.

49
00:02:33,960 --> 00:02:36,880
Speaker 2: What this means is that the revenue nz TA gets

50
00:02:36,919 --> 00:02:39,880
Speaker 2: from fuel taxes and road user charges that is not

51
00:02:39,960 --> 00:02:42,840
Speaker 2: going to be sufficient for their expenses, which tends to

52
00:02:42,840 --> 00:02:46,480
Speaker 2: be on maintaining infrastructure, potholes, that sort of thing, and

53
00:02:46,840 --> 00:02:49,160
Speaker 2: also building new infrastructure. The deficit by the end of

54
00:02:49,200 --> 00:02:51,880
Speaker 2: the decade is expected to be six billion dollars, so

55
00:02:51,960 --> 00:02:57,079
Speaker 2: that's really quite an eye watering some NZTA was wanted

56
00:02:57,080 --> 00:02:59,600
Speaker 2: an assurance from the government that if it got into trouble,

57
00:02:59,639 --> 00:03:03,960
Speaker 2: the government that would bail them out, and and uh

58
00:03:04,080 --> 00:03:07,720
Speaker 2: so the government has given ZTA the assurance and said, well, look,

59
00:03:07,800 --> 00:03:10,360
Speaker 2: you know, if you'reet into trouble, we will consider helping

60
00:03:10,400 --> 00:03:13,320
Speaker 2: you out with with these new revenue increases. But obviously

61
00:03:13,320 --> 00:03:16,480
Speaker 2: that rather cuts against the ideological commitment of the government,

62
00:03:16,480 --> 00:03:18,920
Speaker 2: which is to keep revenue low.

63
00:03:19,160 --> 00:03:24,000
Speaker 1: Yeah. Right, And Wellington's long tunnel investigation is taking longer

64
00:03:24,040 --> 00:03:26,600
Speaker 1: itself than expected and then costing more as well, So

65
00:03:26,680 --> 00:03:27,079
Speaker 1: that's good.

66
00:03:27,560 --> 00:03:31,200
Speaker 2: Yeah, yes, this is an incredible project. So that this

67
00:03:32,040 --> 00:03:34,720
Speaker 2: if you come into Wellington, you will know that there

68
00:03:34,760 --> 00:03:37,480
Speaker 2: is a very bad good luck this proposal. It's quite

69
00:03:38,000 --> 00:03:40,440
Speaker 2: quite an incredible sort of pie in the sky's proposal

70
00:03:41,040 --> 00:03:43,360
Speaker 2: that that you would you would essentially go into a

71
00:03:43,360 --> 00:03:46,160
Speaker 2: tunnel at Mount Victoria and you would pop up on

72
00:03:46,200 --> 00:03:49,119
Speaker 2: the other side of Wellington CBT CBD. It would effectively

73
00:03:49,120 --> 00:03:53,640
Speaker 2: bypass the entire CBD. It's quite incredible. People think it

74
00:03:53,680 --> 00:03:56,640
Speaker 2: was potentially too expensive. D TA is having a look

75
00:03:56,680 --> 00:03:59,640
Speaker 2: at it, but the investigation they were meant to, I

76
00:03:59,720 --> 00:04:02,680
Speaker 2: mean the Transport Minister said he would like this investigation

77
00:04:02,760 --> 00:04:05,320
Speaker 2: wrapped up by the middle of the year. It is

78
00:04:05,440 --> 00:04:07,400
Speaker 2: well past the middle of the year. They are still

79
00:04:07,400 --> 00:04:11,440
Speaker 2: looking at it and the investigation has called. The consultants

80
00:04:11,480 --> 00:04:14,760
Speaker 2: have built one point six million dollars on this, so

81
00:04:15,000 --> 00:04:17,080
Speaker 2: costing got as well. I know, this thing's never come cheap.

82
00:04:17,200 --> 00:04:19,520
Speaker 1: No, no, that's it. Hey, thanks Thomas appreciate it. That

83
00:04:19,640 --> 00:04:23,320
Speaker 1: is Thomas Coglin, the New Zealand Herald Deputy Political editor.

84
00:04:23,480 --> 00:04:26,440
Speaker 1: Right now, it is eight minutes to five. For more

85
00:04:26,520 --> 00:04:29,839
Speaker 1: from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to news talks

86
00:04:29,839 --> 00:04:33,040
Speaker 1: it'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast

87
00:04:33,120 --> 00:04:34,160
Speaker 1: on iHeartRadio