Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
You're listening to a podcast from News Talk s ed B.
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iHeartRadio Rewrap.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Oh, good day there and welcome to the Rewrap for Wednesday.
All the best butts from the mic co hosting breakfast
on News Talk sed B and a Sillier package. I
am Glenn Hart and yes you've got Heather for three
more of these, including this one. We're going to have
a look and to see if the Well Income Council
is all back on track now after the big meeting yesterday,
(00:48):
the Russian general who's been blown up using a lime scooter,
we're definitely going to be talking about that, but before
any of the economy, Oh, get a complete basketcase. So
don't worry about it or hang on or worry about it,
which is what we're supposed to be doing.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
I think we knew that the government books were going
to be bad, right, but I don't know that we
knew that it was going to be this. There is
no way that we're going to get to the surplus
that we expected in twenty twenty eight. In fact, that
is now so far away it's not even in Treasury's
forecast period. Anymore. It'll be some time. Who knows when.
Sometime in the twenty thirties, We're going to have to
borrow another twenty billion dollars in debt to tide us
(01:25):
over the next four years. That's going to push our
interest payments over ten billion dollars every year. So we
are already spending more, will be spending even more on
our debt interest than we spend on defense, corrections, police
and customs combined every single year. Now, this is not
the current government's fault. This is caused by a recession
that was caused by Adrian Or and the Reserve Bank
(01:46):
to try to deal with labors over spending in the
bank Zone problems. But national are not doing what they
need to be doing right now. I mean, these guys
need to be cutting way harder than they are right now.
There is a measure that we use to look at
how much government spending is adding to or reducing from
economic growth. It's called public consumption. Nikoli Willis was supposed
to cut public consumption by one point four percent. This year.
(02:07):
She cut it by zero points two percent. I mean,
there's basically no cut at all. It's so close to
zero next year it was supposed to be cut by
two point two percent. It's going to be cut by
another zero point two percent. Again, no cut. There is
not much being cut here. We still pay the wages
of fourteen thousand more public servants than we did in
twenty eighteen. The government has only cut one public agency,
(02:30):
which is the Productivity Commission. Nikola Willis spent more in
her last budget than Grant Robertson ever did in any
of his budgets. Now National keeps saying they have to
do this. They can't cut more because they don't want austerity.
We are so far from austerity. It's not funny. We
are spending more money. We are hiring more public servants
than we did six years ago. Now, the trouble with
that is that currently, with all this big spending, we're
(02:52):
in a recession. Six years ago, we were not in
a recession. National needs to treat this like the economic
train wreckord is and cut their cloth accordingly. They might
not be responsible for the mess that we're in, but
they are responsible now for fixing it, and so far
they're not really fixing it.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
I mean, I've been working with Heather for a little
while now, and she strikes me as a get the
job done, do it now, get it done right? Now?
What are you waiting for? Stop facking around and get
the job done kind of a person. And I'm not
saying that as a criticism at all. I admire it.
I've of course I'm not capable of that, and that
(03:28):
should probably cause some very amusing conflict eventually on air.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
It's the rewrap.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Don't get me wrong. I'm not as bad as what
were they called, That's right, the Labor Party. I think
they used to be in charge.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
The quoting the Labour Party about fixing the economy as
akin to pretending the arsonist didn't light the fire, knowing
that he did and will again. This is I mentioned
this much earlier, but the Labour Party press release on
this is actually quite a treat so it says Labor
calls fiscal update and night'smare before Christmas for Nicola Willis.
Labour says Finance Minister Nichola Willis's reputation is in tatters
after her failure to return the government's books to surplus.
(04:02):
Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds says the half year Economic and
Fiscal Update is the rotten cherry on top of will
first year as the finance minister. The damage she has
done to the economy means the recession will be longer
and the recovery harder. Ha ha lols. He as if
you didn't even as if you're not even responsible for it.
Let's just remind everybody the reason that we are in
(04:25):
probably the third recession is because we've been put here
by Adrian or to try to get inflation down, and
inflation was up because Grant was spending the dollars. So
don't pretend you got nothing to do with that.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Why would anybody take any notice of anything that they
say or do anymore they unless they come back with
an entirely different bunch of people running the ship. If
you can call the labor partiership now really it's more
of a beat up dinghy, then we're not interested, are
(04:56):
we rewrap. I kind of the other thing I admire
about here that, as apart from me and you know,
need to get the job done now. Attitude is the
way that she makes terrible news still sound fun.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
If you had to pick a theme for this particular
week that we're in right now, it would be the
theme of just a week of bad economic news. Isn't it.
I mean, we've got the government books opening yesterday which
were horrific, got the current account deficit which will be
laid bare today. And then we've got the recession that
we're probably in, which should be confirmed tomorrow. So it's
a tough week, right, It's it's a week that's going
to tell us things are not going very well. So
(05:30):
it's a weird week, don't you think For the unions
to be as agitated as they are over the minimum
wage increase which came out yesterday. Found out yesterday it's
going to be thirty five cents an hour. Unions are
desperate to paint this as miserly. It's actually not that miserly.
If you've been tracking the minimum wage increases in the
last I don't know however long go back a decade.
The increase came in at twenty five cents quite a
(05:52):
few times under the last National government. It only looks
miserly when you compare it to the excessive increases that
we've seen under the Arderne government, which were often around
about a dollar twenty or thereabouts. It was like really
high stuff that they were passing through. This one comes
in at a percentur ray of one point five percent,
which isn't actually that far behind inflation at the minute,
(06:12):
which is two point two percent. Actually, when you look
at it, over the last few years, minimum wage workers
have done pretty well, and I would say probably better
than most of us. If you look from twenty eighteen,
when the last labor lot started adjusting the minimum wage,
the minimum wage worker has increased their pay by forty
two percent. Hands up. Who else's pay went up by
(06:34):
forty two percent? That way out strips even the inflation
rate over the same period, which I worked out as
being around about twenty six percent. So they're definitely doing
okay on this. Now, I know a worker who's not
on the minimum wage who was about to sign a
contract that's got no pay increase in it. They're taking
the same pay as they took about three years ago,
and they're grateful for it because at least they have
(06:55):
got a job. Given the state of the economy. The
Defense Force, look at what's going on there, they've just
been offered a zero percent pay offer. Now, despite the
way that the unions see the world, this is not
a decision that only affects one party, right, It's not
just about the worker. It's also about the employer who
has to pay that bill, and it's very hard to
be an employer right now. Now. I know unions have
got a job to do, which increasingly does appear to
(07:17):
just simply be publicly losing their minds over anything that
this government does. But they need to read the room
on this one. The economy is kind of stuffed. Any
pay rise right now is a good thing because it
shows you still have a job.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Yeah, it's not really the time is it for when
you open your present and it's a phone to then
turn around and say, oh, I was hoping you are
going to give me a case for that as well,
and a charger and a pair of evidss. Rewrap right now,
Tory fun We haven't mentioned her for a little while,
(07:50):
I don't think have we, But anyway, she was right
back into it with the big meeting yesterday.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Quick update on the situation with Wellington City Council because
it was a big day for them yesterday. They actually
managed to pass the long term plan. They managed to headline.
They managed to pass the long term plan was their
last chance for the year to do it, which is,
you know, this is what all the kafuffle about the
Crown Monitor, the Crown observers and stuff. Anyway, side note,
though that's not even the real story. Torri Faro has
(08:18):
balls is the real story because after they pass the
long term plan, oh mate, who I think we all
know is massively off side of the government, Oh mate
gets up and she's like, I've got a word for
the government. She goes, We're a local council making decisions
for our local people. So with all due respect to
the government, it's not their decision. Just to remind her
of the government to stay in their lane. Wow, Like
(08:42):
for a woman who's just had the grown ups called
in on her, she's got courage, doesn't she. Anyway, The problem,
of course for her is that she is their lane
now because they've got the Crown Observer in there, and
you know, so you know that seems a little bit difficult.
But anyway, whatever, you know, you got to give her,
got to give her, you know, a little bit of
credit for the fact she ain't going to go down
without a fight. So anyway, because because because we were
(09:04):
fascinated by this fighting talk, we said, Tory, you want
to come on the show. Nay to Lourie her Deputy
Lorri Foon, you want to come on the show. Naw
surprised me to find out. Sam was telling me Tory
hasn't been on the show since she became mayor, which
is I'm alarmed by that. I'm shocked by that. Sounds
to me like she only got fighting talk when you're
not and actually just for the government, not for Mike Hosking. Anyway,
(09:27):
there's a little bit of a laying down the gauntlet. Tory,
come and talk to Mike next year. See how you
go with that.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Took me fair. Quite often when you say to Mike Hosking,
you know, do you want so and so on the show,
because you know satan sta just happens every now and
again he does say, no, well what I want to
talk to them for? And I'm not saying that that
Tory Fano was one of those people that just does
happen sometimes. We're going to finish up here with the
(09:55):
the the apparent assassination of a high ranking general in
the Russian military. Really quite interesting details on this one.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
Some of the big news out of the Ukrainian conflict
overnight is that Ukraine has managed to take out Lieutenant
General Igor Kirilov over in Russia, who is running the
nuclear system over there and was used to us accused
of all kinds of crimes against against people and whatnot.
So there is foot it. There's actually footage of his
assassination online and like obviously the media is being reasonably
(10:27):
responsible about it and blurring out all the significant but
so you don't have to watch anything particularly horrific. But
basically what you see is how the thing unfolds. So
it looks like it's outside some sort of a uh,
I guess an apartment block or something like that in Russia.
And he comes out that there's a scooter that gets
placed like and we're not talking about a scooter. I'm
not talking about like a moped. I'm talking about you know,
(10:49):
like a Lime scooter, one of those electric scooters. There's
a scooter that's just casually placed to lean against the
apartment building at four am, a couple of hours past.
Oh mate comes walking out at six a m. Boom,
off it goes, and all of a sudden that massive noise.
To flax concid it was it was, it was. It
was just really bad timing and like wrong, it was
a case of wrong place, wrong time, Do you know
(11:10):
what I mean?
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Scooters do be you.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
Know, they do occasionally, they do occasionally do that. It's happened.
It's happened here as well. So you get you get
the flash, you get the blast, you get the smoke,
you get the glass breaking and the snow sliding off
the cars, and you get the alarms going off and
all of that stuff. And he's gone. And then afterwards
you can see the little scooter lying there and the
handlebars have been blown off because apparently what they've done
(11:33):
is they've strapped about three hundred grams of explosive into
the handlebars, enough to kind of small enough to be
hidden underneath the handlebars, but enough to kill him. And
it's worked in that assassination. And very few people are
in the diplomatic community, in the international community apparently sad
about the situation as it's played out.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Yeah, the British Defense Secretary heely, he described this guy. Oh,
he said, make no mistake, this is a bad man.
I guess he's a former bad man. Now, isn't it
death by scooter? I mean it's not the first yet
by scooter obviously, but yeah, usually people are writing in
(12:14):
that way I am Glenn Hart. That was the rewrap.
We'll be back with Hither and You again for the
penultimate time tomorrow. See then, I love saying penultimate, Don't you?
Speaker 1 (12:33):
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