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Speaker 1: What Heather do for see us.

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Speaker 2: So the Reserve Bank's getting a funding boost. It's five

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Speaker 2: year budget is going to go from six hundred and

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Speaker 2: forty million dollars to seven hundred and fifty million dollars. Now,

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Speaker 2: this is interesting because this is the reason that Adrian

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Speaker 2: or apparently quit because he wanted more money. Finance Minister

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Speaker 2: Nikola Willis is with us. Now, Hey, Nikola, Hi, why

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Speaker 2: are you giving them more?

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Speaker 1: Well, that's not quite right, Heather. You're basing that on

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Speaker 1: our release from the Taxpayers Union and not for the

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Speaker 1: first time. They haven't got their facts quite in a row.

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Speaker 1: So the Reserve Bank requested initially a billion dollars for

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Speaker 1: the coming five years. We've paired that back to seven

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Speaker 1: hundred and fifty million. Now, when you compare their funding profile,

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Speaker 1: what's been happening is it's been increasing every year such

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Speaker 1: that in the current year they were budgeting to spend

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Speaker 1: two hundred million. We've said, actually next year one hundred

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Speaker 1: and fifty million. One hundred and fifty million is twenty

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Speaker 1: five percent less than two hundred million. It's fifty million less.

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Speaker 1: And what's more, not just are we taking it back

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Speaker 1: to that figure, but we're saying we want want you

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Speaker 1: to stop this pattern of the number escalating every year.

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Speaker 1: We want that to hold steady, but having to require restraint.

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Speaker 2: Wasn't the funding agreement for the twenty twenty four to

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Speaker 2: twenty twenty five year just one hundred and forty nine

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Speaker 2: million dollars. They just managed to save fifty million dollars across.

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Speaker 1: The press twenty So.

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Speaker 2: It's actually you paired it back to exactly the same

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Speaker 2: amount as the last financial year.

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Speaker 1: Well, what you're omitting is the fact that the agreement

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Speaker 1: was then increased in twenty twenty three. So in addition

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Speaker 1: to what they agreed back in twenty twenty, they came

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Speaker 1: back for seconds in twenty twenty three, added another forty

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Speaker 1: eight million to the operating budget that year, and then

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Speaker 1: another thirty million the following year.

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Speaker 2: So those did that not take that to one hundred

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Speaker 2: and fifty that I'm talking about.

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Speaker 1: Well, that was additional to what they had previously agreed

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Speaker 1: under the five year agreement. They came back for more

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Speaker 1: in twenty twenty three, meaning by the time they got

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Speaker 1: to this year, the budgeted spending was two hundred million.

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Speaker 1: Taking the combination of the five year agreement and the

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Speaker 1: increases the Robertson granted them. So we've said, okay, let's

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Speaker 1: start again. Let's take that two hundred million figure that

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Speaker 1: you've got yourselves, to peer it back to something more

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Speaker 1: sensible one hundred and fifty million, and then let's hold

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Speaker 1: that steady over time. Rather than continuing this collection.

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Speaker 3: Why not harder? I mean, this is this is consistently.

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Speaker 2: The problem that I have with your government is that

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Speaker 2: you guys, you'd tinker right, you could take I mean,

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Speaker 2: these guys are spending three times what they spent in

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Speaker 2: twenty fifteen. Ten years ago, they were spending fifty million.

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Speaker 2: Now they're spending one hundred and fifty million. If you

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Speaker 2: wanted to, you could slash properly.

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Speaker 3: Why don't you?

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Speaker 1: Well, because they do have very important statutory functions. They're

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Speaker 1: there to deliver monetary policy, stable inflation. They've also had.

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Speaker 3: But they were we're going to be fair financial.

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Speaker 2: They were doing it okay with two hundred and twenty

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Speaker 2: five employees only six years ago.

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Speaker 3: Now they've got six hundred and sixty. That's bloated.

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Speaker 1: That is bloated, and that is why I've delivered to

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Speaker 1: twenty five percent. That is why Heather I've delivered a

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Speaker 1: twenty five percent funding reduction. And to put this in context,

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Speaker 1: when we negotiated this between the Treasury and the Reserve

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Speaker 1: Bank Board, their starting position was they wanted a billion bucks.

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Speaker 1: We've got them back to seven hundred and even point

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Speaker 1: starting position.

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Speaker 3: Ten billion doesn't mean you have to second.

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Speaker 1: The second point that's very important here is that the

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Speaker 1: Treasury's view was that the lowest number that they would

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Speaker 1: have comfort with was seven hundred and twenty million. So

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Speaker 1: we put that to the Bank and they said, we

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Speaker 1: think that that would curtail our ability to deliver our

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Speaker 1: very important core statutory functions around financial stability and monetary policy.

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Speaker 1: I want to look everyone in the eye in New

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Speaker 1: Zealand and in our international markets and say the Reserve

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Speaker 1: Bank is getting enough funding to do its statutory functions. Well,

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Speaker 1: that's an important undertaking for me to be able to make,

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Speaker 1: and I'm satisfied that this figure puts me in the

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Speaker 1: position to make that commitment. That's the balance that we've struck.

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Speaker 3: Nicola, as always, thank you so much for your time.

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Speaker 3: That's Nicola Willi's Finance Minister. For more from Heather duplessy

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Speaker 3: Ellen Drive Listen Live to news talks'd be from four

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