Barry Soper: Senior political correspondent on Nicola Willis and New Zealand's GDP

Former finance minister Roger Douglas has called for current finance minister Nicola Willis to resign. 

He says that the decrease in the country’s GDP is not in line with the global economic downturn and that Willis should be held accountable. 

Senior political correspondent Barry Soper told Heather duPlessis-Allan that a resignation is unlikely. 

'You'd have to go back then to the 1930s to find a finance minister who has stood aside from the portfolio.’ 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Barry Soper, Senior political correspondence with us Ella Barry.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
So here you want to hear me tell it how
it is here? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Go on, then tell us you think the whole thing
is just a nonsense?

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Well I do. I think of course Nikola Willis would
speak to Luxon about GDP. I mean, why wouldn't she.
The government would no doubt be having a corn flab
amongst themselves about it, and how dreadful the Second Court
it was. But I got to say that Chris lux
In and Auckland here today laid it on with a
trial when he was asked for his reaction to Roger

(00:30):
Douglas calling for her resignation. Absolute rubbish.

Speaker 3 (00:34):
Nikola Willis is the best person to be Finance Minister
and Economic Growth Minister in this whole country. She is
absolutely outstanding. I see how hard she works. I know
what she's wrestling with. She has inherited the biggest recession
in thirty five years. We've inherited the longest hangover of
COVID from any Western country. We've inherited a situation where
the last lot ran up the debt three times and

(00:55):
we write out a ten billion dollar interest bill each
and every year and have nothing to show for it.
So she is cleaning it up and she's doing an
exceptionally good job. And I don't think there's a single
New Zealander that could do a better job than Nichola Willis.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
Well, make no mistake about it, Heather. But you know
it's interesting, isn't it that Tim You know clearly where
she goes, the prime minister will go as well. Sounds
a bit like David Loggie and Roger Douglass because the
resignations of finance ministers are very very rare. Indeed, you

(01:30):
know Roger, yes, exactly, Roger Douglas stood aside because he
end of falling out with David Long and you stopped
for his cup of tea and didn't like the way
things were going, and I remember it well. But the
other one is that Ruth Richardson, who understand you're going
to be talking too shortly. She was essentially sacked from
the job. She won't admit to that, but it was
after the nineteen ninety three election that she was the

(01:54):
Finance minister. After the election, she wasn't the Finance minister.
So and you'd have to go back then to the
nineteen thirties to find another finance minister who stood aside
from the portfolio because he did so on a matter
of principle. Downey Steward I think was his name.

Speaker 1 (02:12):
We're nowhere near second territory or resignation territory.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
It was just what the hell. It's absurd to even
entertained the notion. And the thing is, as I said yesterday,
the one person who's done a great job in all
of this is Adrian or he engineered a recession. By god,
did he get one?

Speaker 1 (02:30):
Jesz. None of us were wondering did Adrian get recession?
We all felt that and we still laugh. Now, what's
going wrong with Stu Nash again?

Speaker 2 (02:39):
Oh, poor old stew I mean talk about you know,
he put his foot in it telling us what he
thought a woman was. And it would seem that I
think that's rebounded far too heavily on him. It was
very crude. He admitted to it, and he said that
he was He groveled and said he was terribly sorry
at making it. He let himself down the comment that is,

(03:03):
and you know, obviously he's learnt something from it. Well,
it seems there's a mission off now to the US
that stude Nash was meant to be on. It was
a government lead mission by Erica Stanford about visas, and
he had a lot to do with visas when he
was in the labor government. But he's been dropped from

(03:23):
that delegation because they think it would be too much
of a diversion of interest in what he had said
about what a woman was. I mean, honestly, I think
that's taking wokeism to the extreme. I mean, really, he
made an apology, made a stupid remark, but he should
most certainly have been on that mission.

Speaker 1 (03:44):
But Barry, it was the most crash thing that a
position has ever said.

Speaker 2 (03:49):
Look, I'll be thrown out of the house if I
said it.

Speaker 1 (03:52):
I just all I'm trying. I just am wondering if
your tolerance of the comment, and maybe even mine, is
on account of the fact that we really like Nash.

Speaker 2 (04:01):
Yes, I do like stud Nash, but no, it's a
comment pretty bad.

Speaker 1 (04:04):
It's a terrible.

Speaker 2 (04:05):
Comment, and I don't think we could even remind your
listeners of what the comment was.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
So bad, I think you get one go at explaining it.
No more, that's right, it's too hard out Hey, Okay,
So Winston Peters is off to the UN this weekend.

Speaker 2 (04:17):
Is ease. We've only only got seven sleeps to go
here that before we find out whether we're going to
recognize Palestine as a state. But the interesting thing to
me is we're going to hear on Saturday morning our time.
That means, and I've been to these UN General assemblies
with leaders on many occasions, the New Zealand delegation get

(04:40):
or the minister, and usually the Prime Minister gets to
speak to an empty auditorium because by that time on
a Friday night, most people have gone home. So the
only ones really interested in Winston Peter's speech will be
New Zealanders to see if we do in fact recognize Palestine.
And I can't see how we couldn't, although don't forget

(05:00):
Old Trumpy when he was in Britain told a Keir
Starmer off for doing the same thing recognizing Palestine. So
maybe we are playing the Americans game at the moment.

Speaker 1 (05:11):
Yeah, very so, Thank you, very much, very so. For
senior political correspondent. Will be back with us quarter past
six throughout the political week that was. For more from
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