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Speaker 1: Jason Wall's political editors with US. Hello Jason, Hello, Hello.

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Speaker 1: Fiscal holes. Ay, so the Greens reckon they found one.

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Speaker 2: Don't say it. Don't say the word I'm sick of.

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Speaker 2: I had flashbacks to the press conference in Steven Joyce's

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Speaker 2: off us back in twenty seventeen. But no, so it's

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Speaker 2: I'll take you through it because it's not a fiscal

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Speaker 2: hole per se. But it doesn't mean the government's completely

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Speaker 2: clean either. The Green said the government had not accounted

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Speaker 2: for the increase for its own employees and its books.

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Speaker 2: When it comes to that three to four percent increase

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Speaker 2: in the ki ki we saver changes and the government,

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Speaker 2: you know it would hit the government quite hard. The

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Speaker 2: government employees about sixty two to sixty five thousand people,

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Speaker 2: so having that liability on your books it was always

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Speaker 2: going to be a fair chunk of change. The Greens are,

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Speaker 2: They're correct. There's no specific line in the budget that

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Speaker 2: says how much this is actually going to cost the government.

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Speaker 2: There are no actual numbers, but what it is in

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Speaker 2: is something called the Specific Fiscal Risks section of the budget.

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Speaker 2: That is a sex section where officials kind of note

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Speaker 2: some of the bigger issues that will cost a lot

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Speaker 2: of money that can't necessarily be quantified at this given time,

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Speaker 2: think of like a big earthquake in Wellington or something

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Speaker 2: like that. So it is in the specific Fiscal Risk section.

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Speaker 2: It is very thin. It's very thin. It's on page

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Speaker 2: ninety two of the Budget and Economic Fiscal Update the BIFU,

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Speaker 2: and it says, in addition, when it's talking about public

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Speaker 2: sector employment agreements, there may be increased costs arising from

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Speaker 2: increases in employer can we savor contributions following budget twenty

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Speaker 2: twenty five decisions. So it's way for thin in terms

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Speaker 2: of the details. The Greens say it's between six hundred

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Speaker 2: and seven hundred million of thereabouts, but it's technically the

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Speaker 2: thing is and Nikola Willis kind of explains it this,

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Speaker 2: she explained it this afternoon, is that the government have

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Speaker 2: been unable to quantify that, and she decided to when

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Speaker 2: she was talking about it today kind of take a

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Speaker 2: aim at the Greens rather than the issue itself.

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Speaker 3: Well, I won't be taking any mass lessons from Chloe's warbrick.

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Speaker 3: The only whole I've seen is the eighty eight billion

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Speaker 3: dollar hole she wants to dig in New Zealander's pockets

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Speaker 3: with her proposed new taxes and the forty four billion

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Speaker 3: dollar debt hole she wants to dig for our country.

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Speaker 2: And you know, it's an easy hit for the minister.

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Speaker 2: But then she actually goes on to kind of confirm

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Speaker 2: what the Greens have been saying.

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Speaker 3: The specific issue she refers to was specified as a

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Speaker 3: fiscal risk in the budget documents, and we will now

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Speaker 3: be working with individual government agencies to identify what potential

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Speaker 3: costs they could face in order to meet these new

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Speaker 3: key we saver requirements. Will assess that information and then

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Speaker 3: make a judgment about where the agencies do in fact

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Speaker 3: need any additional funding to meet those commitments. We don't

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Speaker 3: have that information yet, so it's too soon to make

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Speaker 3: a judgment.

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Speaker 2: So in conclusion, the government does need to come up

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Speaker 2: with the money. It wasn't in this year's budget. But

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Speaker 2: it's not a whole per se because the government always

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Speaker 2: knew that they had to fund it, they just didn't

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Speaker 2: know how much.

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Speaker 1: How much it was.

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Speaker 4: Yes, Now, what do you think of the People's sounds

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Speaker 4: very very communist. China doesn't the People Select Committee it does.

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Speaker 2: That was the first thing that I thought when I

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Speaker 2: went to the press conference this morning. It does have

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Speaker 2: sort of big Communist, big grand Hall of the People

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Speaker 2: in China vibes, but you know it to be fair,

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Speaker 2: it is a pretty stacked cast of people on this committee.

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Speaker 2: It's Marilyn Wearing, of course, needs no introduction. You've got

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Speaker 2: Jackie Blue a former GNAT, Joe Hayes a former NAT.

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Speaker 2: You've got people like Lean Deeza Dezel there, You've got

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Speaker 2: Steve Chadwick. Nanaima Huta is there as well in Sue Bradford.

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Speaker 2: So it's actually a good mix of National New Zealand

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Speaker 2: first with a couple of Labor and the Greens sprinkled

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Speaker 2: in as well. And it was Marilyn Wearing that put

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Speaker 2: this whole thing together. And it's not that she's opposed

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Speaker 2: to the changes for pay equity per se. It's more

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Speaker 2: that she's not happy that the Select Committee process had

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Speaker 2: been somewhat circumvented. Here's what she told us.

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Speaker 5: I'm hardly one to worry. I sat on a parliament

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Speaker 5: bel that was the deviled by urgency under Muldoon for

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Speaker 5: you know, many on many occasions.

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Speaker 2: So I asked this it was it was it Robert

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Speaker 2: Muldoon was was he in mind when she was forming

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Speaker 2: this group.

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Speaker 5: No, No, I don't think of him at all.

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Speaker 2: Been there, done that, being there, done that on Robert Muldoon.

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Speaker 2: She's one of the few people that can say something

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Speaker 2: like that. But I guess the question comes back to

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Speaker 2: will this have any impact on the government's planned pay

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Speaker 2: equity plans. Here's what Nicola Willis told us.

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Speaker 3: Well, we've already passed the law, so people are free

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Speaker 3: to share their views on it and to have debate.

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Speaker 3: But with the government has already made up its mind

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Speaker 3: on this issue.

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Speaker 2: So that's a it's a firm no. But this issue

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Speaker 2: isn't going to go away quietly as long as this

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Speaker 2: committee is around.

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Speaker 1: You ever heard of Belinda Vernon before?

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Speaker 2: I have heard of Belinda Vernon. Yes, she was one

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Speaker 2: of the people that because she's on this committee and

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Speaker 2: that before that. Honestly, now, are you going to tell

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Speaker 2: me that she's really important I'm about political editor.

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Speaker 1: No, No, not at all.

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Speaker 4: No, No, I think you took enough beating from me

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Speaker 4: last week. You will have heard of Jackie Blue and

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Speaker 4: Joe Hayes, right, because they were jack time.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Jackie Blue was my MP at Mount Roskill when

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Speaker 2: I was yeah. And I actually went up to Jackie

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Speaker 2: Blue one day and I said, what what does it

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Speaker 2: take for me to become a politician? And she give

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Speaker 2: me this whole long list of things and not going

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Speaker 2: to do it from my mind, but.

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Speaker 1: It was just like, yeah, Lynn Play do you remember her?

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Speaker 3: Uh?

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Speaker 2: No, no, that one.

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Speaker 4: I think You've made my point for me. It's hardly

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Speaker 4: Paula Bennetts and Helen Clark's is it.

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Speaker 2: You got to get Nanaiama hooter.

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Speaker 3: You know.

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Speaker 1: Sue Bradford, like Nanoia, was one of the laziest MPs around.

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Speaker 2: But she was still a minister of the crowd.

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Speaker 1: The ministers and they sit around doing nothing and she's

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Speaker 1: the prime example of it.

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Speaker 2: And you should be on the Bradford.

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Speaker 1: I just quite like what they're doing. Sue Bradford.

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Speaker 4: You're right, Sue Bradford is a Sue Bradford actually doesn't

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Speaker 4: deserve to be in this list with all of these people.

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Speaker 1: Anyway, Thanks very much, Jason, appreciate it. Jason Wall's News

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Speaker 1: Talks'd be Political. Send more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive.

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