August 22, 2024 • 5 mins
Newstalk ZB Political Reporter Sophie Trigger joins Craig Cumming to chat the latest in politics this week.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now our time talks and politics. That's welcome in the
news talks, he'd be political reporter Sophie Trigger Good morning.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Sophie, Good morning, Craig. How are you?
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Ah? Very well. I enjoyed doing the show and filling
in because I get up to speed with what's going on.
It's been another interesting week and politics local government conference
has been on as well.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Yes, absolutely, I've spent the last couple of days at
the Local Government New Zealand Conference here in Wellington, where
mayor's and councilors from all over the country have come so.
Prime Minister Chris Luxen was one of the first to
address the conference on Wednesday, and he began by giving
local government a bit of a stern talking to telling
them to constrain their spending to just the basics, all
(00:40):
face restrictions from central government and to use an example,
he took particular aim at the Taquina Events Center where
he was speaking, saying Wellington City Council had decided to
spend one hundred and eighty million dollars of rate payers
money on that rather than fixing pipes and other infrastructure.
So we basically told them were the central government are
(01:00):
doing our bit to cut down on wastefle spending and
it's time for you to play your part, and he
announced a number of changes, including removing well Being from
the Local Government Act, looking into performance benchmarks for council
and options to limit council spend on things considered nice
to have now. Councils didn't take these comments lying down.
(01:23):
There were audible groans and scoffs from the audience while
Luxelm was speaking, and New Zealand President Sam Broughton said
that councils already do look quite closely at their spending
in long term plans and that while it's good to
hear what the Prime Minister thinks, ultimately councils are accountable
to their communities. Yesterday, Local Government Minister Simeon Brown announced
(01:47):
a new framework for regional deals, through which five regions
will be invited to provide proposals and one will be
finalized next year. So a regional deal will be a
long term agreement between local government and central government, based
on a thirty year vision and negotiated with ten year
strategic plans. The government has three priority areas for these deals,
(02:09):
Economic growth and Productivity, Critical Infrastructure and affordable housing, and
it will be focusing on projects which support these objectives. So,
echoing Luxen's sentiments the previous day, Brown said the government
would only finalize deals with regions that are focused on
the basics, and he said he didn't want to see
proposals coming on any glossy brochures paid for through consultants.
(02:32):
So the regional deals were much more warmly received by
local government New Zealand, with brought in saying councils want
to work more collaboratively with central government and that many
aspects of this new framework were in a draft proposal
from lgnzed in May. So a bit of a carrot
and a bit of a stick approach from the government
in terms of cutting down council spending. And this morning
(02:55):
the conference will hear from Opposition leader Chris Hipkins. Labour's
already been quite to call the Prime Minister's speech as
the government kind of hanging councils out to dry. So
it's fair to assume hipkom speech will likely strike quite
a different tone and it'll be interesting to see how
he is received compared to the Prime Minister.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Yeah, I did right, I can just tell you by
the rates down here and dided it's certainly going through
the roof right. Jamie mckuye has been onto the banks.
This week ComCom report on banking finds his little competition
and the siktor with the dominant Big four Australian name
banks making high profits while reserve bank rules make it
difficult for smaller banks and new entrants to challenge.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
That's correct. This week, as you say, we heard the
findings of the Commerce Commission study on Competition in the
retail banking sector. The study the previous Labor government had
asked it to do, and the Commission's final report said
a stronger Kiwi Bank and open banking could shake up
the oligopoly in New Zealand's banking sector. It suggested the
(03:56):
government could increase Keiwibank's access to capital in order for
it to to the extent that it can compete with
the Big four Australian banks. So Finance Minister Nichola Willis
used some really strong language in her delivery of the
report's findings. She characterized competition among the country's big banks
as a cozy pillow fight, with profit margins coming first
(04:16):
and everyday Kiwi's coming second. So in terms of what
could happen next, Willis repeated what she's previously said that
she's open to diluting the government's one hundred percent ownership
of Kiwi Bank so it can access more capital, and
she's asked Treasury to engage with Kiwibank's parent company, Kiwi
Group Capital, on ways to do this. She says she
(04:38):
doesn't want to sell down the government's stake in the bank,
but would be open to receiving capital from the likes
of New Zealand super funds, accee Wee, Kimi, Saber providers
and other investors now. In the longer term, the Commerce
Commissions wanting to see the process of open banking sped up.
The idea of this is to enable bank customers to
(04:59):
share personal bank data with third parties such as financial
tech firms that provide banking services like making payments or
helping with budgeting, and Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew
Bailey said things were on track to having open banking
operational by twenty twenty six, in line with what the
Commissions recommended. So Nicola Willis said she'll take proposals for
(05:22):
Kiwibank's future to Cabinet no later than December this year,
so we'll be staying tuned to this one for news
on what's to happen next.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Yeah. Absolutely, we did have one more talk. I've got
to keep moving, Sophie. You enjoyed the last day at
that local conference with the opposition leader and there today
and you have a great weekend.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
You too, Craig. Thanks very much.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
There we go, So Sophie trigger the news talk as
ZBI Political Report
Now our time talks and politics. That's welcome in the
news talks, he'd be political reporter Sophie Trigger Good morning.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Sophie, Good morning, Craig. How are you?
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Ah? Very well. I enjoyed doing the show and filling
in because I get up to speed with what's going on.
It's been another interesting week and politics local government conference
has been on as well.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Yes, absolutely, I've spent the last couple of days at
the Local Government New Zealand Conference here in Wellington, where
mayor's and councilors from all over the country have come so.
Prime Minister Chris Luxen was one of the first to
address the conference on Wednesday, and he began by giving
local government a bit of a stern talking to telling
them to constrain their spending to just the basics, all
(00:40):
face restrictions from central government and to use an example,
he took particular aim at the Taquina Events Center where
he was speaking, saying Wellington City Council had decided to
spend one hundred and eighty million dollars of rate payers
money on that rather than fixing pipes and other infrastructure.
So we basically told them were the central government are
(01:00):
doing our bit to cut down on wastefle spending and
it's time for you to play your part, and he
announced a number of changes, including removing well Being from
the Local Government Act, looking into performance benchmarks for council
and options to limit council spend on things considered nice
to have now. Councils didn't take these comments lying down.
(01:23):
There were audible groans and scoffs from the audience while
Luxelm was speaking, and New Zealand President Sam Broughton said
that councils already do look quite closely at their spending
in long term plans and that while it's good to
hear what the Prime Minister thinks, ultimately councils are accountable
to their communities. Yesterday, Local Government Minister Simeon Brown announced
(01:47):
a new framework for regional deals, through which five regions
will be invited to provide proposals and one will be
finalized next year. So a regional deal will be a
long term agreement between local government and central government, based
on a thirty year vision and negotiated with ten year
strategic plans. The government has three priority areas for these deals,
(02:09):
Economic growth and Productivity, Critical Infrastructure and affordable housing, and
it will be focusing on projects which support these objectives. So,
echoing Luxen's sentiments the previous day, Brown said the government
would only finalize deals with regions that are focused on
the basics, and he said he didn't want to see
proposals coming on any glossy brochures paid for through consultants.
(02:32):
So the regional deals were much more warmly received by
local government New Zealand, with brought in saying councils want
to work more collaboratively with central government and that many
aspects of this new framework were in a draft proposal
from lgnzed in May. So a bit of a carrot
and a bit of a stick approach from the government
in terms of cutting down council spending. And this morning
(02:55):
the conference will hear from Opposition leader Chris Hipkins. Labour's
already been quite to call the Prime Minister's speech as
the government kind of hanging councils out to dry. So
it's fair to assume hipkom speech will likely strike quite
a different tone and it'll be interesting to see how
he is received compared to the Prime Minister.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Yeah, I did right, I can just tell you by
the rates down here and dided it's certainly going through
the roof right. Jamie mckuye has been onto the banks.
This week ComCom report on banking finds his little competition
and the siktor with the dominant Big four Australian name
banks making high profits while reserve bank rules make it
difficult for smaller banks and new entrants to challenge.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
That's correct. This week, as you say, we heard the
findings of the Commerce Commission study on Competition in the
retail banking sector. The study the previous Labor government had
asked it to do, and the Commission's final report said
a stronger Kiwi Bank and open banking could shake up
the oligopoly in New Zealand's banking sector. It suggested the
(03:56):
government could increase Keiwibank's access to capital in order for
it to to the extent that it can compete with
the Big four Australian banks. So Finance Minister Nichola Willis
used some really strong language in her delivery of the
report's findings. She characterized competition among the country's big banks
as a cozy pillow fight, with profit margins coming first
(04:16):
and everyday Kiwi's coming second. So in terms of what
could happen next, Willis repeated what she's previously said that
she's open to diluting the government's one hundred percent ownership
of Kiwi Bank so it can access more capital, and
she's asked Treasury to engage with Kiwibank's parent company, Kiwi
Group Capital, on ways to do this. She says she
(04:38):
doesn't want to sell down the government's stake in the bank,
but would be open to receiving capital from the likes
of New Zealand super funds, accee Wee, Kimi, Saber providers
and other investors now. In the longer term, the Commerce
Commissions wanting to see the process of open banking sped up.
The idea of this is to enable bank customers to
(04:59):
share personal bank data with third parties such as financial
tech firms that provide banking services like making payments or
helping with budgeting, and Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew
Bailey said things were on track to having open banking
operational by twenty twenty six, in line with what the
Commissions recommended. So Nicola Willis said she'll take proposals for
(05:22):
Kiwibank's future to Cabinet no later than December this year,
so we'll be staying tuned to this one for news
on what's to happen next.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Yeah. Absolutely, we did have one more talk. I've got
to keep moving, Sophie. You enjoyed the last day at
that local conference with the opposition leader and there today
and you have a great weekend.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
You too, Craig. Thanks very much.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
There we go, So Sophie trigger the news talk as
ZBI Political Report
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