August 13, 2024 • 7 mins
The PM ponders the OCR announcement this afternoon from the Reserve Bank and we ask if it's realistic, or too ambitious, for the Government to double export earnings in the next decade. He then answers a farmer's question on our "pathetic communication network" when it comes to rural mobile reception and broadband coverage. And finally, are there any risks in overturning the nearly 30-year ban on gene tech outside the lab?
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Wednesdays on the Country. The PM kicks off the show
Christopher luxon you know how there was the bringback Buck campaign.
I want to start one. Bring back Steven Joyce. I
heard him talking to the HOSK this morning. What a
lot of common sense that former Minister of Finance talks?
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Well, I agree. I think he is a common sense
kind of guy, and he has a great record and
legacy of public service as well, and he was genuinely
a very critical minister from that previous government. So he's
someone I talked to quite regularly because I think he's
had a lot of good insights and practical advice. But
I think he's done with politics.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Can we bring back Bill English while we're on the job. Hey,
listen what he did say, basically because Hoskin was asking
him about the ocr announcement this afternoon, he said, Adrian
or should cut but he won't. Is that how you actually?
I can't even ask you that. But look, honestly, I
was just talking to our coffee guy here in Dunedin
and he was telling me how tough it is for retail.
(00:58):
A lot of the clients that come along and buy coffee,
he said that they're closing their shops.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Yeah, well, let's be really honest about it. It is
incredibly tough times for New Zealanders at the moment, and
the reason, as we know the cause. The cause was
wasteful government spending that drove up inflation. When inflation goes up,
you've got to drive up interest rates, and that then
leads to recession, that leads to unemployment. That is the
history of economics, whether you like it or not.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
We know all that stuff. But don't want a slogan
airing election campaign from you. No, I want or to
drop interest rates. I'm getting angry, are you sure?
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Well no, let me tell you why. What has to happen?
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Though?
Speaker 2 (01:31):
You don't just drop interest rates and Kevin dealt with inflation.
You don't just drop inflation if you haven't dealt with
government spending. If you have high interestrates, you get a recession,
you get unemployment. So that's why we're focusing on the
bit that we can or to fiscal policy and discipline.
We've got to get inflation under the three percent ban.
I'm not making predictions. Reserve Bank is you know they're
independentively and everyone, but you know I'm doing my job,
(01:52):
which is to control the fiscal bit the Reserve Bank
needs to deliver. It's a bit on the monetary policy piece,
and then we get inflation under three, we get interest
rates falling, we get the economy growing, we get people
in work.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Okay, let's move on. I was talking to Cameron Bagri,
another man who knows a lot about the economy, on
yesterday's show, and he was not having a crack at you,
but saying it's probably not realistic for you guys to
double export earnings in the next decade. For instance, we've
got an energy crisis. We're not going to have the
power to do it. And even if we wanted to
double our biggest export earner, Derry, we can't, even if
(02:26):
we wanted to.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
I disagree. I think we should have some pretty big
ambitions to be a bigger exporting country. We know one
of the five things we do to have to make
this country welfare is have stronger international connections. Part of
that is two parts. One is doubling the value of
our exports over the next ten years. It's a pretty
audacious goal, but man, we want to focus people on
getting out in the world and selling good new zelling
(02:48):
products and services to rapidly rising middle classes all across
the end of Pacific, of which we sit Ban smack
in the middle of. And then we've also got to
use it as an opportunity to attract foreign investment to
New Zealand so that actually we can get the public
infrastructure we want built as well. So look, I mean
you can have economists, pine and all sorts of things,
but the bottom line is we're setting some goals and
some ambition because that's what we need in this country.
(03:10):
We need to rediscover ambition, aspiration, positivity can do, celebrating excellence.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
How are you going to double the export earnings from,
for instance, the dairy sector.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Well, I think there is still a lot of value
to come out of and yeah, you've only got to
get primary industries growing at two percent and you create
huge growth. There's no other sector in the country that
can deliver that, you know, that level of growth that
we're going to need going forward in New Zealand. But
we've also you know, it's been really interesting as I've
been traveling around the region. Are very open to New
(03:40):
Zealand products and services. We just haven't had as much
presence or been present enough in those markets. You know. Look,
I think you've got to have an export mentality. When
you're five million people in the South Pacific Ocean, in
the middle of the Pacific at a world of one
hundred and ninety five countries and eight billion, we ain't
going to get rich selling stuff to each other inside
this country. We have to go sell it internationally.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Here's a comment I picked up on Twitter or the
artists formerly known as Twitter these days X from a farmer,
and it's a good one. He was driving around the
Haieraki planes dead flat. He said he couldn't even do
business while he was driving, and he talked about apathetic
communication network were well behind the eight ball when it
comes to mobile reception and broadband coverage. We talk about
(04:24):
improving infrastructure, not only the roads, but we really need
to improve rural connectivity. What are you going to do
about that?
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Yeah, I agree with that because I drive around a
lot as well, going into rural New Zealand and get
frustrated with my phone drops out as well. I mean this,
We've just actually put the five hundreds I think rural
connectivity mobile tower into the country just the last few
last month actually, and there's about five hundred those towers
(04:52):
that are sort of trying to get to thirty four
thousand homes for memory and cover about fifteen hundred k
state highways. But I agree, I still think there's challenges
in a network, in the connectivity of it in rural
New Zealand. Paul Goldsmith's the Ministry of Media and Communications.
He's got out a discussion document in May which he
fired out to sort of say what else do we
need to do about regultary and funding frameworks for rural communications.
(05:14):
As a result, he'll get feedback from that and then
we'll see what else we have to do. But I
have real sympathy for that because you know, and what
the solution oftimately is. It gets really expensive faming if
you think about that last five percent of running fiber
cables into the country, and that's what I think some
of the challenge has been that. Irrespective of that, with
mobile towers, five G other options available, we should be
(05:37):
looking at everything.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Hey, Prime Minister, I've only got about thirty seconds left.
Are there any risks? And what you did yesterday Judith
Colin is announcing overturning the thirty year ban on gene
tech outside the Lab. I'm fully supportive of it. But
could it come back and bite us on the backside.
Could we become Day of the Triffids.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
No, absolutely not. It's really super exciting. It's one of
the things I'm proudess about the nine months have been
Frominister so far. This is a nineteen ninety six rules
and of course the technology has moved on. It's got
huge implications for primary industries, for agricultural emissions, for healthcare.
Other countries around the world have these really modern rules
(06:16):
and laws around it. Will do it safely. We'll have
a biotic regulator model off Australia. But you know, when
you look at things like, for example, wilding conifers, that
you could use this fort to shut that down. When
you look at things like white clover technology, when you
look at which is helpful our pasture based system. When
I looked at what was happening with respect to horticulture
(06:37):
and the projects that I saw yesterday about you know,
actually faster breeding, faster maturity of plants and all those
sorts of things, and dealing with some of the crisper
technology that's available to make crops much more resilient. All
of that is just fantastic for New Zealand and our
competitors have it, you know, and we have great scientists.
We do amazing things with institutes and they can't take
(06:58):
them out of a lab. And yet they do it
in Australia, in the US, and then they build a
business and then they make billions of dollars off the
back of it, but not us.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Christopher Luxon appreciate the time of the Prime Minister weekly
here on the country.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Great to talk with Jammie sa
Wednesdays on the Country. The PM kicks off the show
Christopher luxon you know how there was the bringback Buck campaign.
I want to start one. Bring back Steven Joyce. I
heard him talking to the HOSK this morning. What a
lot of common sense that former Minister of Finance talks?
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Well, I agree. I think he is a common sense
kind of guy, and he has a great record and
legacy of public service as well, and he was genuinely
a very critical minister from that previous government. So he's
someone I talked to quite regularly because I think he's
had a lot of good insights and practical advice. But
I think he's done with politics.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Can we bring back Bill English while we're on the job. Hey,
listen what he did say, basically because Hoskin was asking
him about the ocr announcement this afternoon, he said, Adrian
or should cut but he won't. Is that how you actually?
I can't even ask you that. But look, honestly, I
was just talking to our coffee guy here in Dunedin
and he was telling me how tough it is for retail.
(00:58):
A lot of the clients that come along and buy coffee,
he said that they're closing their shops.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Yeah, well, let's be really honest about it. It is
incredibly tough times for New Zealanders at the moment, and
the reason, as we know the cause. The cause was
wasteful government spending that drove up inflation. When inflation goes up,
you've got to drive up interest rates, and that then
leads to recession, that leads to unemployment. That is the
history of economics, whether you like it or not.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
We know all that stuff. But don't want a slogan
airing election campaign from you. No, I want or to
drop interest rates. I'm getting angry, are you sure?
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Well no, let me tell you why. What has to happen?
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Though?
Speaker 2 (01:31):
You don't just drop interest rates and Kevin dealt with inflation.
You don't just drop inflation if you haven't dealt with
government spending. If you have high interestrates, you get a recession,
you get unemployment. So that's why we're focusing on the
bit that we can or to fiscal policy and discipline.
We've got to get inflation under the three percent ban.
I'm not making predictions. Reserve Bank is you know they're
independentively and everyone, but you know I'm doing my job,
(01:52):
which is to control the fiscal bit the Reserve Bank
needs to deliver. It's a bit on the monetary policy piece,
and then we get inflation under three, we get interest
rates falling, we get the economy growing, we get people
in work.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Okay, let's move on. I was talking to Cameron Bagri,
another man who knows a lot about the economy, on
yesterday's show, and he was not having a crack at you,
but saying it's probably not realistic for you guys to
double export earnings in the next decade. For instance, we've
got an energy crisis. We're not going to have the
power to do it. And even if we wanted to
double our biggest export earner, Derry, we can't, even if
(02:26):
we wanted to.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
I disagree. I think we should have some pretty big
ambitions to be a bigger exporting country. We know one
of the five things we do to have to make
this country welfare is have stronger international connections. Part of
that is two parts. One is doubling the value of
our exports over the next ten years. It's a pretty
audacious goal, but man, we want to focus people on
getting out in the world and selling good new zelling
(02:48):
products and services to rapidly rising middle classes all across
the end of Pacific, of which we sit Ban smack
in the middle of. And then we've also got to
use it as an opportunity to attract foreign investment to
New Zealand so that actually we can get the public
infrastructure we want built as well. So look, I mean
you can have economists, pine and all sorts of things,
but the bottom line is we're setting some goals and
some ambition because that's what we need in this country.
(03:10):
We need to rediscover ambition, aspiration, positivity can do, celebrating excellence.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
How are you going to double the export earnings from,
for instance, the dairy sector.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Well, I think there is still a lot of value
to come out of and yeah, you've only got to
get primary industries growing at two percent and you create
huge growth. There's no other sector in the country that
can deliver that, you know, that level of growth that
we're going to need going forward in New Zealand. But
we've also you know, it's been really interesting as I've
been traveling around the region. Are very open to New
(03:40):
Zealand products and services. We just haven't had as much
presence or been present enough in those markets. You know. Look,
I think you've got to have an export mentality. When
you're five million people in the South Pacific Ocean, in
the middle of the Pacific at a world of one
hundred and ninety five countries and eight billion, we ain't
going to get rich selling stuff to each other inside
this country. We have to go sell it internationally.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Here's a comment I picked up on Twitter or the
artists formerly known as Twitter these days X from a farmer,
and it's a good one. He was driving around the
Haieraki planes dead flat. He said he couldn't even do
business while he was driving, and he talked about apathetic
communication network were well behind the eight ball when it
comes to mobile reception and broadband coverage. We talk about
(04:24):
improving infrastructure, not only the roads, but we really need
to improve rural connectivity. What are you going to do
about that?
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Yeah, I agree with that because I drive around a
lot as well, going into rural New Zealand and get
frustrated with my phone drops out as well. I mean this,
We've just actually put the five hundreds I think rural
connectivity mobile tower into the country just the last few
last month actually, and there's about five hundred those towers
(04:52):
that are sort of trying to get to thirty four
thousand homes for memory and cover about fifteen hundred k
state highways. But I agree, I still think there's challenges
in a network, in the connectivity of it in rural
New Zealand. Paul Goldsmith's the Ministry of Media and Communications.
He's got out a discussion document in May which he
fired out to sort of say what else do we
need to do about regultary and funding frameworks for rural communications.
(05:14):
As a result, he'll get feedback from that and then
we'll see what else we have to do. But I
have real sympathy for that because you know, and what
the solution oftimately is. It gets really expensive faming if
you think about that last five percent of running fiber
cables into the country, and that's what I think some
of the challenge has been that. Irrespective of that, with
mobile towers, five G other options available, we should be
(05:37):
looking at everything.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Hey, Prime Minister, I've only got about thirty seconds left.
Are there any risks? And what you did yesterday Judith
Colin is announcing overturning the thirty year ban on gene
tech outside the Lab. I'm fully supportive of it. But
could it come back and bite us on the backside.
Could we become Day of the Triffids.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
No, absolutely not. It's really super exciting. It's one of
the things I'm proudess about the nine months have been
Frominister so far. This is a nineteen ninety six rules
and of course the technology has moved on. It's got
huge implications for primary industries, for agricultural emissions, for healthcare.
Other countries around the world have these really modern rules
(06:16):
and laws around it. Will do it safely. We'll have
a biotic regulator model off Australia. But you know, when
you look at things like, for example, wilding conifers, that
you could use this fort to shut that down. When
you look at things like white clover technology, when you
look at which is helpful our pasture based system. When
I looked at what was happening with respect to horticulture
(06:37):
and the projects that I saw yesterday about you know,
actually faster breeding, faster maturity of plants and all those
sorts of things, and dealing with some of the crisper
technology that's available to make crops much more resilient. All
of that is just fantastic for New Zealand and our
competitors have it, you know, and we have great scientists.
We do amazing things with institutes and they can't take
(06:58):
them out of a lab. And yet they do it
in Australia, in the US, and then they build a
business and then they make billions of dollars off the
back of it, but not us.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Christopher Luxon appreciate the time of the Prime Minister weekly
here on the country.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Great to talk with Jammie sa
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