Barry Soper: Newstalk ZB senior political correspondent on Treasury review of state asset ownership

Newstalk ZB senior political correspondent Barry Soper talked to Heather du Plessis-Allan about today's political hot topics.

Ex-Police Commissioner Andrew Coster resigned from his role as the CEO of the Social Investment Agency amid an inquiry into his involvement in the McSkimming case.

The Treasury is over halfway through a review of state asset ownership, but they say the review is not driven by hope of asset sales. 

And, Donald Trump says he can abolish income tax because of how successful the tariffs are. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Very so, per senior political correspondence with US.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
Hello Berry, good afternoon, Heather Cattle's Costa.

Speaker 1 (00:04):
What did I tell you yesterday?

Speaker 2 (00:05):
No? What I tell you? What did I tell you?
I said he wouldn't be sacked, and he wasn't sacked.
He resigned, Barry, No, he resigned, And no doubt, my
mate Brian Roach will tell you exactly the same.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, okay.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
But look, I must say I do feel sorry for Costa,
because you know, he obviously took the word of Javon
mxcimming from the beginning and never obviously followed up. He
took the word of a senior officer over what was
going on in the background. And I guess you could say,
and I'm not really justifying what happened, but you could say,

(00:45):
as a commissioner of police, you can't be across.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
Every Why are you smirking the whole time when you're
saying I'm not serious? I don't know whether to take
you seriously or not? Do you Are you really feeling
sorry for Costa?

Speaker 3 (01:00):
Not?

Speaker 2 (01:02):
I was trying to show you my new gentleman.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
I don't know what is going on with you today, honestly, Okay,
we will deal with you know what, park the subject
because you clearly cannot deal with this seriously on talk
to Brian roach about it in a few minutes.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
So don't care.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
All right, how's it going with scrutiny week?

Speaker 2 (01:17):
Well, in the hot seat today was Treasury and interestingly
they told the MPs that they're a little over halfway
through reviewing the state asset ownership, but they insist that
it's not driven by a desire to sell the assets,
although they went on to say that you know they

(01:39):
will if the ministers require it, say what value it
is of holding onto these assets? So I think reading
between fairly simple lines, you know this has been asked
for I assume by the government and they will be
seeking advice like on New Zealand Post for example, they'll
be looking for advice on with a these assets should

(02:01):
be retained. And there's an argument I guess you can
it cuts both ways, but it's one that will go
on and it'll be I think an election issue that's coming. Well.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
I mean Nationals made it pretty clearly, they got a
campaign on it.

Speaker 2 (02:14):
They want yes, they want to, but then should the
question is should they be using treasury to arm them
going into an election, you know. I mean they are advisors,
but when it comes to policy, they've got to be
able to make it without using treasury.

Speaker 1 (02:30):
Okay, maybe so, but I mean they can, But how
do you get I mean, it's a legit question that
they can. No, I'm just trying to figure out a
way to phrase this correctly. I mean the other government,
as the government, they are considering selling the assets as
ministers of the Crown. So the difference between the government
doing it versus the governing party then using that information

(02:52):
to campaign. I just don't know that you can draw
a distinction. Well, I don't know that you can.

Speaker 2 (02:56):
Well, you've got one part you're totally opposed to set sales. Well,
New Zealand first indeed has opposed, and then you've got.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
More between labor and New Zealand wors just saying.

Speaker 2 (03:10):
Yeah, well, I would say you're barking up the wrong
tree there.

Speaker 1 (03:13):
Okay. So I know that you were watching Donald Trump
videos today in the office.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
I just enjoy them because there wasn't much news going
on around the place today. So I thought, look, my
old mate, the man that I revere in the presidency
of the United States, I'll ever look what he's saying, Well,
he believes that federal income taxt could soon be abolished
because of the wonderful tariff money that's being brought in

(03:38):
to the United States. He's serious. I've found it rather extraordinary.
He basically struggled to stay awake during the cabinet meeting
that he was holding, but when he did have his say,
he said the United States citizens could soon see themselves
not having to pay any income tax because of the gray.

Speaker 3 (04:00):
There's never been anything quite like it.

Speaker 2 (04:02):
It's been amazing.

Speaker 3 (04:03):
So we're taking in, think of it, hundreds of billions.
Next year it'll be a trillion dollars or more. But
we're taking in all this money at the same time
protecting our country and we're respected again.

Speaker 2 (04:13):
They actually respect us.

Speaker 3 (04:15):
But we'll be cutting income tax, could be almost completely
cutting it because the money we're taken and is going
to be so large.

Speaker 2 (04:22):
Yeah, and he also had to say about the wonderful
strike on Iran taking out some nuclear plants back there
in June, and he was very impressed with the stealth
bomber pilot.

Speaker 3 (04:36):
To him, we have a country that's so respected again.
But when the pilots came to see me, and I
gave him a medal. All of them, there were a
lot of handsome people. It looked like Tom Cruise. Actually
it was very good casting. But I like Tom Cruise,
the last of our movie stars probably. He said, did
you really enjoy it? They said, Sarah, we loved it.
We loved it.

Speaker 2 (04:55):
Yeah, so we've got nothing to worry about too.

Speaker 1 (04:57):
What's your point bearing nothing? I was just no, I'm
just I'm just wondering, why you, why that? What? What?
What your point is of this, this particular segment about
Donald Trump.

Speaker 2 (05:07):
I was thinking of your listeners and how they would
like to hear from Donald Trump.

Speaker 1 (05:11):
Okay, all right, thank you, Barry, appreciate it. Vision nine
away from five Very Sober.

Speaker 2 (05:16):
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