Andrew Dickens: We're all talk, no action

It was a big deal for Rod Duke to go public with his concerns about his country yesterday.  

The Managing Director of Briscoe’s was announcing his company’s full year result.  

His company did well. Holding on to it’s revenue in a difficult year.  

Rod and his team have been praised for their performance over a number of years. They’re smart operators who can wring blood out of a stone. 

But it’s not part of the job description to pass comment on the government of the day. But he did.  

Which is symptomatic of today's climate.  

We’re sick of the doldrums and we want a captain to lead out out of the quicksand.  

So, Rod as a Corporate Leader said the government needs to get it’s arse into gear and do something.  

He said it’s been a year since the last lot so there’s been more than enough time to get proactive.  

He believes the closer we get to an election the more pro-active the government will get but he’d like more action now.  

But when asked what, he said it’s not his business.  

And that’s the New Zealand problem right there.  

We’re good at identifying problems but not finding solutions.  

We ask our government to do something. They don’t so we vote for the other lot. They say have the answers but they don’t. And so we flip flop again with nothing happening.  

Then yesterday we had the IMF coming out saying that New Zealand needs to lower it’s corporate tax because we’re becoming uncompetitive.  

But they also say we need a capital gains tax because a country needs to balance it’s budget.    

We need to spend but we also need to raise the revenue to spend.  

So, the IMF come up with an answer.    

Is the Government reducing corporate tax. Not so far.    

Meanwhile is the Labour party championing a capital gains tax. Not so far.   

Is any party offering both? 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
And it was a big deal for Rod Duke to

(00:01):
go public with his concerns about the country. Yesterday, the
managing director of Brisco's was announcing his company's full year result.
He did well, He held on to its revenue in
a difficult year. They are smart operators at Brisco's. They
can bring blood out of a stone, it seems. But
you know, it's not part of the job description for
the managing director to pass comment on the government of
the day, but he did, and he turned up on
Ryan Bridges' show. But it is symptomatic of today's climate

(00:25):
because we are desperate, We are sick of the doldrums.
We want our captain to lead our way out of
the quicksand so Rod, as a corporate leader and a
leader in society, said the government needs to get its
us into gear and do something. He said, it's been
a year since the last lot, so there's been more
than enough time to get proactive. But then when he

(00:45):
was asked, well what should they do, he said, well,
that's not my business. I just want them to get
their ars into gear. And that's kind of the New
Zealand problem right there. Because we're really good at identifying
problems but we're not good at finding the solutions, so
we moan about them all the time. Now, interestingly, yesterday
we had the IMF come out and they said that
New Zealand needs to lower its corporate tax because we

(01:05):
were becoming uncompetitive. But they also said we need a
capital gains tax because the country needs to balance its
budget and we don't have enough revenue. So they were
saying we need to spend, but we also need to
raise the revenue to spend. So the IMF ha come
up with an answer as the current government reducing corporate tax,

(01:26):
not so far. Meanwhile, is the Labor Party championing a
capital gains tax? Well, no, not so far either. Is
there any a party that's offering both, No, not so far.
So where are the solutions? But thank you so much
Rod Duke for telling us the problems. For more from
early edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live to News Talks

(01:48):
at b from five am weekdays, or follow the podcast
on iHeartRadio