September 4, 2024 • 11 mins
THE BEST BITS IN A SILLIER PACKAGE (from Thursday's Mike Hosking Breakfast) Especially Debt/Everything Is Actually Getting Better/How Woolworths Made Nothing/Ah, Watercare/The Endorsement You Don't Want
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
You're listening to a podcast from News Talk sed be
follow this and our wide range of podcasts now on
iHeartRadio Rewrap.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Okay, there and welcome to the Rewrap for Thursday. All
the best bits from the mic asking breakfast on news Talks.
He'd be in a sillier package. I am Glenn Heart
And today we might be turning the corner. You know,
we might just be turning the corner. Whatever that means.
War worst made no money? How to believe? Isn't it
our watercare? We've got some more watercre scandal. It's watercre,
(00:51):
isn't it? And then we're going to finish up with
the endorsement you don't really want before any of that.
Debt is bad, but it seems to be how we've
been running this country for ages.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
This week's compulsory reading is the Standard and Pause report
came out yesterday s and p into our econom some
headline gems for you. Our standard of living is going backwards.
Our current account deficit is one of the highest in
the world. The level of debt our councils carry is
some of the highest in the world. The weak economy
(01:24):
we currently have poses a risk. So is this the report.
I mean, are these the numbers that once and for
all hammer home the dangerous reality of that Labour government
seventeen through twenty and twenty three twenty three. Is this
the report, the cold hard reality and reckoning that alerts
the various councils around the country that their approach to
money is not normal, not good, not productive and could
potentially sink us. On average, council's debt is at one
(01:46):
hundred and eighty percent of gross operating revenue. It is
forecast arrived further to a cap of three hundred and fifty.
Places like Tarong, Hamilton and Queenstown s and p report
are at over two hundred percent right here, right now,
rising to three hundred percent. That is the highest, I repeat,
the highest anywhere in the world at a national level.
(02:07):
The current account deficit small clue. You don't want to
actually even be running an epicite at all. You want
a surplus. In other words, you want to sell more
stuff to the world than you buy from it. Anyway,
ours is six point eight percent of GDP. That is,
you guessed it one of the highest in the world.
Irony that six point eight percent, by the way, is
lower than it was there are those who will still
(02:28):
defend this level of ineptness and destruction. They will argue
all this stuff they need to fix, And indeed there
is but the Fife demera of councils up and down
this country as they moved away from rubbish and burms
and into road cone, cycle ways, social housing and verification
was paid for by debt, and debt costs money. And
every year is the interest bill rises, it means we
(02:48):
do less than we want, and every year we buy
more or buy more from the world than we sell
to them. We're going backwards. The end of that particular road,
by the way, is called impobishment. It's third world status.
It's the inability to make your own decisions and chart
your own course because someone else is going to do
it for you. This, of course, has been building for years,
and not enough of us have heard the alarm bell
or indeed cared. The ignorance and lack of interest might
(03:11):
well in the end sink us.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
So yeah, complete disaster. Everything's even worse than your thought
it was. It's the end of everything as we know it,
and there's no way out. It's rewrap except things might
actually be getting better. So I don't know what that
first part of the podcast is about.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
You're a regular, you might remember I started talking about
the possibility of some green shoots in light at the
end of the tunnel, and a bit of a vibe
around the economy in this country once Adrian Or did
what Adrian Or did the other day, and I'm picking
by December, by the time we walk into Christmas, we're
going to be feeling pretty good about ourselves. And I
was just trying to work out what the relationship is
between the Reserve Bank and a singular move, or the
(03:49):
inference from a reserve bank of a singular move with
more to come, and our psyche. And so we got
some insight yesterday on the retail spending they are calling
green shoots as well. No, it didn't go up retail
spending in August, but it wasn't as bad as July.
So that's about where we're at at the moment. Two
point eight nine billion was spent in August, which is
down zero point five percent, was down two point six
in July. So yes, a drop, but not as bad
(04:11):
a drop, So we might be heading might be heading
in the right direction. One of the people I was
reading about the interest rate changes from the Reserve Bank
a quote, very very strong psychological impact across all sectors,
all sectors, more people expressing interest in renting retail premises.
That's at a commercial level, So that's good in general terms.
(04:33):
We have seen a shift in psyche across the country,
so we will take that.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Ah, yeah, I mean I'll take a shift in psyche
any day. Sounds fantastic, Yes, all right, that things aren't
nearly as bad as you thought they were. Rewrap unless
you're Woolworths. And it turns out that despite how the
markets have been ripping us off, were right and the
seener they made no money.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Seriously, as part of my ongoing observations on whether we
have a real problem or just a perceived problem, I'll
give you last week's result for Woolworth's New Zealand. Their
earnings before tax were down fifty seven point two percent.
Did the Grocery to see these results before he published
his report yesterday. The fifty seven percent is the lowest
figure in ten years. This is one of the businesses
(05:16):
that is part of a sector that is apparently gouging us,
robbing us, running us rampant all over the place and
bleeding us dry with their outrageous prices and scandalous behavior,
or so the rhetoric would have you believe. They argue,
the results speak to a competitive environment and the cost
of living crisis. And by the way, look at their
Australian outlet, same story. They would appear if you look
at the numbers, to be hardly rolling in dough. Ironically,
(05:37):
one of the costs that went up for them was wages.
Wages increased nineteen percent over the past two years. Nineteen
Is that a company robbing the workers blind. That's well
above inflation and then some that's the market working. That's
an industry having trouble finding people to do a job
in sorting it by paying more money. Like everything else,
we've become obsessed with petrol, airlines, banking. At least part
(05:59):
of the problem is our size, and we just refuse
to accept it. A country of five million, and that
five million scattered all over the place is not a
recipe for lots and lots and lots of options when
it comes to pretty much anything. Once again, look at Australia.
Twenty seven million people, lots of supermarkets, but the same story.
They're not happy either. When the Commers Commission, or the
government or the Consumers' Institute talk about lack of competition,
that's the easy bit. The hard bit is actually getting
(06:22):
someone to take the risk, find the money, buy the land,
build the building, open the door and do the trade.
This country, like any country, is not sure of people
with an eye for a dollar or an opportunity. But
just saying there aren't enough players in the market isn't
all you need to provide that alternative that we allegedly
solve all our concerns with. Like banks, we actually have
quite a few grosses, a lot of places to buy
(06:43):
a carrot and a stake in a can of beans.
If Walworths reported an eighty nine percent increase in profits
year after year, and they've been doing so for decades,
we'd have some questions. But they look to me like
a lot of other companies. Successful, yes, but struggling in
tough times and hardly creaming it the way the rhetoric
would have you believed.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
I'm sorry, something doesn't quite add up here. I happen
to be driving in the car yesterday when the news
came on, with my twenty year old in the car,
and when they said that will Worth had made zero profit.
She just involuntarily with what and she's twenty didn't know
(07:22):
anything about anything. The rewrap right. So we have this
thing in Auckland called WATERCRE. They're supposed to be in
charge of doing the water and I think they're answerable
to the rate payers, but I don't know what's happening
to watercres.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Is this a scandal? Very good work yet again by
Kate McNamara, who's I don't know what they pay her
at the Herald, but she earns every cent and then
she probably deserves a pay rise. But anyway, WATERCRE is
twenty million dollar deal with e we murky benefits to ratepayers.
So water Care this goes back to when watercre this
is the Aukland water people. They had to go down
to the why Kata River, sol can we pull more
(08:00):
water out because we haven't got any because we haven't
building up dams because we're useless, so it didn't rain,
didn't have enough dams, go down to deal with the
people at the Whitecata River pull more water out of
the Waycatta River. So we all remember that because we're
all angsty about it. At the time water Care agreed
it's revealed now to an additional payment of twenty million
dollars related to its water take without the knowledge of
(08:22):
the ratepayer negotiator with EWE December last year agreement relating
to relationship matters. It's the category it falls under a
million bucks a year for twenty years to fund water
related research and environmental projects. The agreement was not disclosed
to the public. The payments it provides for are in
(08:43):
addition to considerable environmental payments already agreed to by water
Care in twenty twenty two as a condition of the
the consent. So they did all of that. So if
you're looking at that going oh yeah, but fair enough,
it's environmental, but they already cut the environmental part in
the part that we knew about why Kato Tai Nui
liaison is also a condition, including the provision for a
(09:05):
tongueata Fenua Liaison group that provides for the reasonable costs
of two katiarchy advisors guardians to monitor the water here
water take. So that's twenty million dollars. So is the
scam the fact that they got another twenty million And
if they got another twenty million out of them, do
you not go actually good on you, because if you
(09:27):
came to million you wanted my water, and I knew
you were stuffed, I'd ask you for twenty million as well.
Or is the scam that they paid the twenty million
and they didn't tell anybody about it, and of course
you know full well who's twenty million. It is good
to know that business is above board in this country,
isn't it.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Dah wow, it's only twenty million.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
The rerat.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
We're going to finish up here with a glowing review
of our Prime Minister and his attitude and performers from
not just a millionaire but a billionaire.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Luxon has sort of tweeted out over and out from Malaysia.
This was obviously a stake he's in career at the moment.
I saw a forecast for Korea. Funnily enough, it was
thirty thirty three or thirty five degrees over and up
from Malaysia. After a busy couple of days, next stop Korea.
Who then comments on the post Elon Musk No less
(10:24):
have to say, I like the new New Zealand PM,
good energy and talks directly to the public. This is
the way, Gonachy.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Do you think that might realize that that last bit
that this is a way that is what the Mandalorian says.
Do you think that Elon Musk knows that that's what
the Mandalorian says? Do we think that Elon Musk is
a kind of person that we really want saying nice
things about us, and that when a person like that
says nice things about you, you've got to start taking
(10:53):
a good, hard look at yourself. Too many questions at
the end of the podcast. Maybe I'll try and do
a few questions less Tomorrow. I'll see event.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
For more from newstalkset B. Listen live on air or online,
and keep our shows with you wherever you go with
our podcasts on iHeartRadio
You're listening to a podcast from News Talk sed be
follow this and our wide range of podcasts now on
iHeartRadio Rewrap.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Okay, there and welcome to the Rewrap for Thursday. All
the best bits from the mic asking breakfast on news Talks.
He'd be in a sillier package. I am Glenn Heart
And today we might be turning the corner. You know,
we might just be turning the corner. Whatever that means.
War worst made no money? How to believe? Isn't it
our watercare? We've got some more watercre scandal. It's watercre,
(00:51):
isn't it? And then we're going to finish up with
the endorsement you don't really want before any of that.
Debt is bad, but it seems to be how we've
been running this country for ages.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
This week's compulsory reading is the Standard and Pause report
came out yesterday s and p into our econom some
headline gems for you. Our standard of living is going backwards.
Our current account deficit is one of the highest in
the world. The level of debt our councils carry is
some of the highest in the world. The weak economy
(01:24):
we currently have poses a risk. So is this the report.
I mean, are these the numbers that once and for
all hammer home the dangerous reality of that Labour government
seventeen through twenty and twenty three twenty three. Is this
the report, the cold hard reality and reckoning that alerts
the various councils around the country that their approach to
money is not normal, not good, not productive and could
potentially sink us. On average, council's debt is at one
(01:46):
hundred and eighty percent of gross operating revenue. It is
forecast arrived further to a cap of three hundred and fifty.
Places like Tarong, Hamilton and Queenstown s and p report
are at over two hundred percent right here, right now,
rising to three hundred percent. That is the highest, I repeat,
the highest anywhere in the world at a national level.
(02:07):
The current account deficit small clue. You don't want to
actually even be running an epicite at all. You want
a surplus. In other words, you want to sell more
stuff to the world than you buy from it. Anyway,
ours is six point eight percent of GDP. That is,
you guessed it one of the highest in the world.
Irony that six point eight percent, by the way, is
lower than it was there are those who will still
(02:28):
defend this level of ineptness and destruction. They will argue
all this stuff they need to fix, And indeed there
is but the Fife demera of councils up and down
this country as they moved away from rubbish and burms
and into road cone, cycle ways, social housing and verification
was paid for by debt, and debt costs money. And
every year is the interest bill rises, it means we
(02:48):
do less than we want, and every year we buy
more or buy more from the world than we sell
to them. We're going backwards. The end of that particular road,
by the way, is called impobishment. It's third world status.
It's the inability to make your own decisions and chart
your own course because someone else is going to do
it for you. This, of course, has been building for years,
and not enough of us have heard the alarm bell
or indeed cared. The ignorance and lack of interest might
(03:11):
well in the end sink us.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
So yeah, complete disaster. Everything's even worse than your thought
it was. It's the end of everything as we know it,
and there's no way out. It's rewrap except things might
actually be getting better. So I don't know what that
first part of the podcast is about.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
You're a regular, you might remember I started talking about
the possibility of some green shoots in light at the
end of the tunnel, and a bit of a vibe
around the economy in this country once Adrian Or did
what Adrian Or did the other day, and I'm picking
by December, by the time we walk into Christmas, we're
going to be feeling pretty good about ourselves. And I
was just trying to work out what the relationship is
between the Reserve Bank and a singular move, or the
(03:49):
inference from a reserve bank of a singular move with
more to come, and our psyche. And so we got
some insight yesterday on the retail spending they are calling
green shoots as well. No, it didn't go up retail
spending in August, but it wasn't as bad as July.
So that's about where we're at at the moment. Two
point eight nine billion was spent in August, which is
down zero point five percent, was down two point six
in July. So yes, a drop, but not as bad
(04:11):
a drop, So we might be heading might be heading
in the right direction. One of the people I was
reading about the interest rate changes from the Reserve Bank
a quote, very very strong psychological impact across all sectors,
all sectors, more people expressing interest in renting retail premises.
That's at a commercial level, So that's good in general terms.
(04:33):
We have seen a shift in psyche across the country,
so we will take that.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Ah, yeah, I mean I'll take a shift in psyche
any day. Sounds fantastic, Yes, all right, that things aren't
nearly as bad as you thought they were. Rewrap unless
you're Woolworths. And it turns out that despite how the
markets have been ripping us off, were right and the
seener they made no money.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Seriously, as part of my ongoing observations on whether we
have a real problem or just a perceived problem, I'll
give you last week's result for Woolworth's New Zealand. Their
earnings before tax were down fifty seven point two percent.
Did the Grocery to see these results before he published
his report yesterday. The fifty seven percent is the lowest
figure in ten years. This is one of the businesses
(05:16):
that is part of a sector that is apparently gouging us,
robbing us, running us rampant all over the place and
bleeding us dry with their outrageous prices and scandalous behavior,
or so the rhetoric would have you believe. They argue,
the results speak to a competitive environment and the cost
of living crisis. And by the way, look at their
Australian outlet, same story. They would appear if you look
at the numbers, to be hardly rolling in dough. Ironically,
(05:37):
one of the costs that went up for them was wages.
Wages increased nineteen percent over the past two years. Nineteen
Is that a company robbing the workers blind. That's well
above inflation and then some that's the market working. That's
an industry having trouble finding people to do a job
in sorting it by paying more money. Like everything else,
we've become obsessed with petrol, airlines, banking. At least part
(05:59):
of the problem is our size, and we just refuse
to accept it. A country of five million, and that
five million scattered all over the place is not a
recipe for lots and lots and lots of options when
it comes to pretty much anything. Once again, look at Australia.
Twenty seven million people, lots of supermarkets, but the same story.
They're not happy either. When the Commers Commission, or the
government or the Consumers' Institute talk about lack of competition,
that's the easy bit. The hard bit is actually getting
(06:22):
someone to take the risk, find the money, buy the land,
build the building, open the door and do the trade.
This country, like any country, is not sure of people
with an eye for a dollar or an opportunity. But
just saying there aren't enough players in the market isn't
all you need to provide that alternative that we allegedly
solve all our concerns with. Like banks, we actually have
quite a few grosses, a lot of places to buy
(06:43):
a carrot and a stake in a can of beans.
If Walworths reported an eighty nine percent increase in profits
year after year, and they've been doing so for decades,
we'd have some questions. But they look to me like
a lot of other companies. Successful, yes, but struggling in
tough times and hardly creaming it the way the rhetoric
would have you believed.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
I'm sorry, something doesn't quite add up here. I happen
to be driving in the car yesterday when the news
came on, with my twenty year old in the car,
and when they said that will Worth had made zero profit.
She just involuntarily with what and she's twenty didn't know
(07:22):
anything about anything. The rewrap right. So we have this
thing in Auckland called WATERCRE. They're supposed to be in
charge of doing the water and I think they're answerable
to the rate payers, but I don't know what's happening
to watercres.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Is this a scandal? Very good work yet again by
Kate McNamara, who's I don't know what they pay her
at the Herald, but she earns every cent and then
she probably deserves a pay rise. But anyway, WATERCRE is
twenty million dollar deal with e we murky benefits to ratepayers.
So water Care this goes back to when watercre this
is the Aukland water people. They had to go down
to the why Kata River, sol can we pull more
(08:00):
water out because we haven't got any because we haven't
building up dams because we're useless, so it didn't rain,
didn't have enough dams, go down to deal with the
people at the Whitecata River pull more water out of
the Waycatta River. So we all remember that because we're
all angsty about it. At the time water Care agreed
it's revealed now to an additional payment of twenty million
dollars related to its water take without the knowledge of
(08:22):
the ratepayer negotiator with EWE December last year agreement relating
to relationship matters. It's the category it falls under a
million bucks a year for twenty years to fund water
related research and environmental projects. The agreement was not disclosed
to the public. The payments it provides for are in
(08:43):
addition to considerable environmental payments already agreed to by water
Care in twenty twenty two as a condition of the
the consent. So they did all of that. So if
you're looking at that going oh yeah, but fair enough,
it's environmental, but they already cut the environmental part in
the part that we knew about why Kato Tai Nui
liaison is also a condition, including the provision for a
(09:05):
tongueata Fenua Liaison group that provides for the reasonable costs
of two katiarchy advisors guardians to monitor the water here
water take. So that's twenty million dollars. So is the
scam the fact that they got another twenty million And
if they got another twenty million out of them, do
you not go actually good on you, because if you
(09:27):
came to million you wanted my water, and I knew
you were stuffed, I'd ask you for twenty million as well.
Or is the scam that they paid the twenty million
and they didn't tell anybody about it, and of course
you know full well who's twenty million. It is good
to know that business is above board in this country,
isn't it.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Dah wow, it's only twenty million.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
The rerat.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
We're going to finish up here with a glowing review
of our Prime Minister and his attitude and performers from
not just a millionaire but a billionaire.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Luxon has sort of tweeted out over and out from Malaysia.
This was obviously a stake he's in career at the moment.
I saw a forecast for Korea. Funnily enough, it was
thirty thirty three or thirty five degrees over and up
from Malaysia. After a busy couple of days, next stop Korea.
Who then comments on the post Elon Musk No less
(10:24):
have to say, I like the new New Zealand PM,
good energy and talks directly to the public. This is
the way, Gonachy.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Do you think that might realize that that last bit
that this is a way that is what the Mandalorian says.
Do you think that Elon Musk knows that that's what
the Mandalorian says? Do we think that Elon Musk is
a kind of person that we really want saying nice
things about us, and that when a person like that
says nice things about you, you've got to start taking
(10:53):
a good, hard look at yourself. Too many questions at
the end of the podcast. Maybe I'll try and do
a few questions less Tomorrow. I'll see event.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
For more from newstalkset B. Listen live on air or online,
and keep our shows with you wherever you go with
our podcasts on iHeartRadio
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