Barry Soper: ZB senior political correspondent on the Government's response to today's OCR cut

The Prime Minister says this afternoon's double cut to the OCR is another sign the economy's improving.

The Reserve Bank is also signalling it'll follow up with at least two more 25 point reductions by the end of May.

Despite low productivity and net migration, our economy is expected to gradually pick up, in part due to rising dairy and beef prices - and the low Kiwi dollar.

ZB senior political correspondent Barry Soper says the Government's feeling proud of today's OCR update. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Barry Soper, senior political correspondent with US.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
Hey Barry, good afternoon.

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Right, so we've had the Oca Adrian Oors come out.
He's done as press conference, which you have to admit
he likes doing, doesn't he.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Well now he does, although he seemed to quite enjoy
it when he engineered the depression in the.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
First Exactly, I think he dislikes a press conference period.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Well, that's right.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
But anyway, the dancing in the aisles at Parliament.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Well he's certainly dancing from the government side, and on
a rare occasion, both act and nationalist singing from the
same hymbal. But they're both praising the efforts of the
government collectively for where we are at at the moment.
So it had to come down though it was inevitable

(00:42):
that you know, inflation was clearly under control. The squeeze
the economy had been squeezed so hard by Adrian Oran.
When you look at you know, the years twenty twenty three,
twenty four, I mean it ranged between I think it
was four point seven five and five point five and

(01:03):
only started coming down on October last year. So it's
been a long, hard grind, mainly for the mortgage interest holders,
and a lot of people ask me about the OCR
what does it mean three point seventy five. Well, that's
the rate that the banks can borrow money at and
the margin that the bank set is above that for

(01:24):
your mortgage and interest rates. So you know, it'll be
interesting to see if those margins are reduced or stay
the same, and what real effect that it will have
on our interest rates.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
Well, it's interesting today listening to that press conference, them
saying basically, your longer term rates, so anything two to
five years, don't expect much of movement because most of
that is influenced by your bank swap rates and your
international money markets rather than the OCR. So, but your
floating rates will certainly go up and down. Hey, John tammaheaty,
he came out this morning.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
Well, long bhold John tamer Harry is speaking to somebody.
He essentially agreed that some photocopy copying had taken place
at the Mudrai at the center of all this, and
his candidate, of course won the election, who was the
chief executive of the Mrai. But it's interesting. Tama here

(02:17):
has been approached by news Talk z BE on many
occasions for an interview, but calls go unanswered, but the
phone was unanswered from Radio New Zealand this morning, and
he seemed to suggest the whole thing was a pakiha conspiracy.

Speaker 3 (02:34):
I think it's in the interest of all pakia that
they want it sorted out right, because the only people
that get investigated constantly. And there's not one rule for
law in this country by long shot, from suppression orders
all the way through, because we suffer a significant microscope
have done since I that school have done today plays
out in different ways. So we will continue to participate

(02:56):
in the democratic process, whether people like it or not,
and we're growing forced politically in this country. That will
continue whether people like it or not.

Speaker 2 (03:07):
Hang on though, wasn't the Maori Party that called the
police and to investigate in the first place. If John's listing,
you can't have it both ways.

Speaker 1 (03:17):
And also it was a Mary MP and Penny Hennade
who said that they were ripped off.

Speaker 2 (03:22):
I mean, honestly, I'll tell you what the interesting question
at the end of all of this, if electoral wrong
doing is found by the police against the Maori Party
and they vehemently decided to deny that done anything wrong,
the whole balance of Parliament has been decided on the
seats like the one that they won. As a result,

(03:46):
some would say of the vote being jacked up. Now
where does that leave.

Speaker 1 (03:51):
Parliament and where does it And obviously there's a police
investigation going on all that privacy commission and then also
the question for the Electoral Commission, I mean why did
they let a booth go in first place?

Speaker 2 (04:04):
Exactly?

Speaker 1 (04:04):
You know, because it's their job in legislation. It's their
job to run a friend fair election and.

Speaker 2 (04:09):
To separate it from what our best at interests.

Speaker 1 (04:13):
Now, the Mexicans stand off, as Shane Jones once eloquently
put it, between the Greens and New Zealand First is
continuing today.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
Yes it is. And it came down to a bit
of a history lesson. I mean, Mendis March was born
in Mexico, his father is Mexican, his mother was Key.
Where in Key when he came to New Zealand with
his mother. The question that led to the debate today
was to the Immigration Minister, and it started all the

(04:43):
kerfuffle that led to the history lesson. Does she think
it's fair to deport people who have been born in
t or separating them from communities and their families. It
was the use of a t or that infuriated Winston
Betters and his nick Shane Jones.

Speaker 4 (05:01):
Here they are, that is, someone who applied to come
to a country called New Zealand as immigrant in two
thousand and six allowed in this House to change the
country's name without the mandate the approval of referendum of
the Zealand people. A person asking the question, is an
elected member of this.

Speaker 1 (05:16):
House go to the treaty?

Speaker 5 (05:18):
New Zealand is transliterated as new TDNY. Pember Reeves popularized
the word altahor.

Speaker 1 (05:24):
Would you also be willing to consider whether it is
appropriate for any member of this House to openly question
the legitimacy of the presence of another member in order
to make a political point.

Speaker 4 (05:37):
Okay, oh, think about that.

Speaker 6 (05:39):
I do think that is worth while considering those comments
actually reflect outside of a chambers, off this place into
a broader communities. This incentiveizing people who may have been
one overseas from participating in our democracy.

Speaker 5 (05:53):
So can you also contemplate the appropriateness of recent immigrants
telling mild Is what the name of our country should be?

Speaker 2 (06:01):
Goodness, it was pember Reeves, of course, he wrote the book,
and he was a politician at the turn of the
nineteenth century in New Zealand, and he wrote the book
The Land of the Long White Cloud, which is where
at Roll came from. And Shane Jones being moldy himself,
Winston Peter's being moldy himself. They are right. This is

(06:23):
not a moldy word. It's a word that was taken
by a European politician and popularized.

Speaker 1 (06:30):
Does it. I think he's running into a bit of
a problem, probably not electorally for him, but continuing to
go down the foreign born route.

Speaker 2 (06:40):
Oh you know that, that needling, needling and needling. It's
just it's pure political theater and they love it.

Speaker 1 (06:48):
They do, I think, so we run. Oh it's bloody, enjoyable.
Very Soper, Senior political correspondent.

Speaker 6 (06:55):
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