Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Wellington Mornings podcast with Nick Mills
from news Talk said by Monday's mean business. It's the
business panel on Wellington Mornings with Quindovic Property Management, a
better rental experience for all. Visit Quinovic dot co dot insid.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Let's get down, let's get down to business. You want
Monnight mo Night characters, you've had a million million join us.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
For the business panel this week is Head of Business
Growth at Wellington in Z Jackson Harpetter. Good morning, Jackson,
good morning, Thanks arving me next, thanks for coming on.
Tell our listeners what Head of Business does at Wellington
in Z.
Speaker 4 (00:48):
I'm glad you asked. Yeah, So I work for the
Wellington Economic Development Agency. So our job really is to
encourage the economy to grow. Broadly speaking, how do you
do that? Well, we want more people here, we want
more people coming to events. We want businesses to start here.
We want businesses to say vive here. We want major
(01:08):
events and business events to be here, want screen things
to be here. So it's a really broad set of
different things that we do. My area is focused on
business growth, so that's the small to medium enterprises. So
of course in Wellington that's a lot of hospitality businesses,
it's a lot of innovation businesses, and what we're trying
to do is make sure that those businesses know what
(01:30):
supports out there available to them in the government ecosystem.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
We will talk about that later in the hour. And
Jeremy Smith, who is a director of Trinity Group which
owns a whole lot of hospitality places around Wellington, but
also on hospitality New Zealand's national what do you call it?
National body? National body? National? So how you doing, Jeremy,
how's it been? How's it been?
Speaker 5 (01:53):
I am I'm doing really well. And how's it been?
It's been tough. Look, it's good coming off a busy
weekend and it's good to have people in town, a
good full stadium and so yeah, so it's nice to
come into your show on a positive weekend.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Yes it is, I mean, And did it feel like
a positive weekend? Did it feel like it was Test
match week like of old?
Speaker 5 (02:19):
Look, the stadium was full, which was great. The Cambridge Bar,
which is one of mine, we were packed all day
Saturday afternoon, and the hotels were full on Saturday night.
I wish they were both Friday and Saturday, but they
were all full Saturday night. And when you've got full hotels,
you got people out in the street. Wellington's got a
completely different feel about it.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
Now. We were talking fair before we came on here
about Wrexham, which is another big event, huge event this weekend.
Now you're talking, I mean, and both of you said
you felt that it might be more Valentonians for Wrexham. Now,
traditionally we know Jackson that the All Blacks are farmers
from all over New Zealand coming. They followed the All
Blacks and they come from all over New Zealand. Is
(03:01):
that what happened last this weekend?
Speaker 4 (03:04):
It seems to be will be a good mix of
local and people traveling from across the country what I'm
hearing when I'm talking to businesses this morning, And you
don't know until the dust settles a little bit. It's
probably too early to say who was actually here, but
there's probably people who are not spending money as longer
in our hospitality establishments. Talking to bakeries, they're seeing that
(03:26):
it was really really busy, but probably not quite what
they expected. But it's hard to say if people are
going out to our regional locations. It's also a good
thing of people are staying further upstate higher one and
further over the hill, then that's a good thing for
the greater region as well.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
And Jeremy, we know that money is tough, so we
aren't going to spend like they used to. I mean
it used to be the farmers and their wives would
come to town and the wives would go down Lampton Key.
I was at the Hugo Boss shop on Saturday, just
walking past saying hello, and he said he's been not
as busy as what it expected to be for a
test match.
Speaker 5 (04:00):
Yeah, we absolutely see that. Even with hotel rates, people
don't book to nights because of the costs. And absolutely
people a lot more careful and cautious when they do
come in and limit hummus they drink or whether they eat.
You know, a difference between a full meal and a
bottle of fries does make a big difference of the
bottom line.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Both of you are sort of in charge of making
this city. You know, rock can happen. So I'll ask
you both how do we actually Jackson'll start with you,
how do you actually get that happening in Wellington? Where
I keep thinking of, I don't know stupidly like the
Seventh Weekend where people came to Wellington for an event
for two nights, made it a great weekend, partied hard,
(04:44):
loved Wellington, did all the touristy things and left.
Speaker 4 (04:49):
I think what we're hearing from a lot of businesses
that are struggling at the moment, and there's also good
stuff as well. We're seeing more of new businesses starting
now in Wellington than hearing about the businesses who not
hear anymore. But what they want to see is greater
regional focus. I think, because if if you think about
our you know we've got wided up and just over
there we've got wineries, we've got accommodation options. Over there,
(05:11):
we've got Carpety, which is a special place of the
business community and the wider community are working together to
actually offer something tangible for people to be here longer.
That would surely be a good thing, and then you
would get those numbers from out of town and in
spending longer.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
To be fair, we've always struggled with that too, haven't
we have. Yeah, So Jeremy, what do we do?
Speaker 5 (05:35):
I think, first off, we've got to start talking our
city up again. And I think it's not as bad
as it's made out to be. We've definitely got issues,
so I think we've got to stop focusing the negative.
My view is that Wellington and Z need to be
spending more money on functions, events and things. August we've
got nothing happening. And then my thing is we're happy
(05:56):
being a tourist gateway. So we're happy with one night,
two nights. We've got to start thinking of a tourist destination.
We've got everything, we just got to invest better. We've
got the film capital of New Zealand, let's utilize that more.
Let's get four nights in people's mindset. So when you
come to Wellington, it's not just for one night for
a concert or a rugby game, but you're coming and saying, yeah,
(06:18):
four nights is what we need to do. So tourism
has got to be a massive focus, and it's got
to come from better investment come out of Wellington and Z.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
What are you hoping for over the next couple of months.
You just said August is a tight month. I mean
we still and we keep getting teased that we've got
some big events about to come. And I'm sure Jackson
knows that there is some big events about to come
that we're not allowed to be talking about yet. But
how do we actually get that vibe back going right now?
Speaker 5 (06:47):
It's got to be event driven. So July, even with
the rugby match and the rexum My hotels are sitting
at forty five percent occupancy for the month August. I'm
sitting at about thirty percent to date, and we see, what.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
Do you break even on that? I mean, you can't
be breaking even on that.
Speaker 5 (07:05):
Break evens closer to seat.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
Yeah, So how do you actually get through that stuff?
Speaker 1 (07:09):
How do you?
Speaker 3 (07:09):
I mean, this is a business panel, that's what we
hear to talk about, and there be you know, you're
looking in a mirror looking at me. But so we
all we all know how tough it is. How do
you actually get through that?
Speaker 5 (07:21):
Two things? One failure is on an option. We can't
we can't fail share holders of putting money in to get
us through these tough times. So the bars we can
sort of just get head to around break even. It's
accommodation sector. People are working from home, people aren't traveling.
Government is still not spending money. The more people work
(07:41):
from home, the more government becomes diverse. You can live
in Auckland and work for the government, you don't have
to come to the office that often. So we've got
to rethink. And that's why I'm saying tourism is a
key thing and events do work. You look at October
where it's September October, We've got Wow, we've got the
Springbok game. My occupancy is now sitting at fifty percent
already for September October because we've got events that people
(08:04):
want to come to.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
But to be fair, and I will come to you
on this, Jackson, because you'll be hearing this as well.
To be fair, five seven years ago, your occupancy rate
right now in July for well would have been seventy
or eighty percent. Yeah, I mean been real Springbok test
in Wellington seventy eighty percent months out.
Speaker 5 (08:27):
Absolutely, and we would have had a two ninth minimum
Friday Saturday. Now people went by tickets have come to
Wellington if you forced him to do a to night stay.
So last weekend Saturday was full, Friday was about seventy
percent full. And I'm currently the same with the Springboks,
is that you know the Friday is not full yet
(08:48):
and so we've lost that Mojo and Wellington that people
want to come here to have a good time, and
that's what we've got to work at getting back.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
I mean that Jackson, that Mojo has to come back,
and that's your response. Your organization's responsibility, isn't it.
Speaker 4 (09:03):
Yeah, well a mixt Yeah, we do have a big
part to play making Wellington grad in a great place
for people to come and visit, plan and invest. But
I was over in Greaytown over the weekend, went to
the wide ed up and enjoyed the accommodation over there,
the experience over there, and went to the Greytown Winter Festival,
which of course is something that's been created by local
business people. They take the lead on that and that
(09:26):
brings in a huge amount of people to that region
during what can be a pretty troubling time through our winters.
So I think we probably could be. Yes, there's always
more and more events that we can do, and I'm
not sure on the August stuff, but there's more to
events than just big musicians and big things, you know,
(09:47):
there's also small things that can be done well. When
I talked to hospitality up in Auckland, some places that
have done really well up there, some breweries who have
done well have their own entertainment that they offer and
that's something different than ordering a restaurant meal delivered to
your house. That brings out those local people as well.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
And we forget about Like Friday night there was the
Burleys show on at the Saint James, there was ten
CC on at the Opera House. I mean, they are
the sort of events that bring people out.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
They don't go.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
People don't leave home and go to ten CC. People
leave home, come and have a beer, something to eat
in town, get a five of it and then go out,
don't they Ji.
Speaker 5 (10:26):
Yeah, absolutely, And that's very much what we've got to
keep on doing and work on it. Just to Jackson's
point is that we run and I'm very involved in
a group that's called now Vitalized Wellington where we are
trying to work with council businesses to make events in
Wellington bigger and better. So a small example is that
(10:47):
for the Burger Wellington, we're saying, let's create some Burger
trails and get each mental candidate to name their five venues,
get a bit of media, get a bit of fun, going,
bit of tongue in cheek and if you like in
particular the candid go and follow their burger trail, get
some social media picks.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
And create your own every great that we're doing.
Speaker 5 (11:07):
The same with the Jazz Festival. We're doing the Eat
Drink play along with Wow. We've got the Courtney Carnival
again this year, closing Courtney Place over the New Year's
Eve and running a series of street performers and stuff
like that. Challenge being I've raised seventy eighty thousand dollars
from local businesses. I'm waiting for counsel to say they'll
(11:30):
do some fun matching so we could actually hit the
go button and hit the ground running. So some days
it's good ideas get bogged down in process and bureaucracy, bureaucracy.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
Business panel today we have joining us head of Business
Growth for Wellington and said Jackson Hartbetter and Trinity Group
Director Jeremy Smith. The latest figures that came out of
Stats in New Zealand that said that thirty thousand Kiwis
moved to Australia in the twenty and twenty four year. Now,
if we looked at Sky Stadium on Saturday night, there
(12:02):
was thirty three or thirty two or thirty three thousand people.
So you and watching an on TV the queues and
cues of people walking into them. We lost that many
people to Australia, Bang Jackson. Should we be worried about that?
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (12:18):
Absolutely. These are not people who are just sitting around
doing nothing. There's a real skilled people. They are doctors, nurses,
teachers and innovators who are going over to Australia, and
I think we need to keep them here, particularly in Wellington,
because we need all those things, and particularly in hospitality,
we need people to host people. But they're going there
(12:38):
because cost of living is that much harder here. So
that is the answer.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
That's your That's once again I'm throwing everything at you.
I mean, that's kind of your job, isn't it. That's
what your brief is, So how do you do that?
Speaker 4 (12:52):
I think probably the big one, obviously is housing. We
hear a lot of people talk about how unaffordable it
is to live here in Wellington. If you can't afford
your first priority cost of actually living somewhere, then that's
a problem. So perhaps we need the market and different
people and all people who are involved in housing to
think of some different options and modern options that actually
(13:13):
keep young people here because those are the ones that
are going and those are the people that need to
do the jobs of the future.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
Right, Jeremy, how do you feel when you have that
person and I don't tell me you don't get it
because we're in the same industry, and you will come
up to you and say, look, thanks for the job.
It's been wonderful working here. I love working for your organization.
But I'm going to the Gold Coast.
Speaker 5 (13:33):
Yeah, it happens all the time, and I can't, you know,
say good luck to you and if you ever come back,
we'll offer you a job. But yeah, Jackson's right, it's
cost of living, getting property.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
But I also think it goes further.
Speaker 5 (13:48):
We seem to be a bit of a limbo in
New Zealand about feeling good about ourselves and being nice.
And I think we've got to have an economy that
people can believe in. And right now I'm struggling a
little bit in terms of national labor. Used to be
very close in terms of how they're around the economy,
and the gap seems to be getting bigger and bigger.
(14:09):
And I want to see an American style thing where
you know, one comes in and changes everything the other
one did, and you don't actually get any progress. So
I'm a fairy big believe in having some sort of
long term plans about infrastructure, health, education. That is a
political and we have fifty year plans and thirty year
(14:29):
plans so that we've got somebody who can believe in
going forward because that's what people need is saying, yeah,
my futures here. Because I can see what that future
looks like right now. I don't think people look at
it and say we've got any faith in the way
the country's been run.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
We are in the next period of time going to
ask you about the government's performance. But I want to
change tacked a little bit because we started talking about
it and I want to get onto it a little
bit stronger. We heard last week that Wellington has seen
the rental market trending downwards Jackson. So likely that's because
people are leaving town now Jeremy wants I know the
(15:06):
Jeremy's got the same tact as me that we're losing
a lot of the young to christ Church for Canterbury University.
What is actually going on? Why are we not keeping
you know, you said that you thought that rentals were
too expensive we know they're tracking down, why are we
not holding people in Wantington?
Speaker 4 (15:23):
Well, it's still expensive. Just because they've come down by
a few percent tour you know a few hundred or
maybe one hundred dollars a week, they're still expensive. If
you think about discussions we're having before COVID times, there
was no big discussion being had that Oh, it's definitely
an affordable place to be. So yes, it has come down,
and I think the main reason for that is obviously
(15:44):
interest rates to owner properties a little bit more affordable,
So those savings, there's less pressure on landlords to actually
put up a rent, but they are still it's still
an expensive place to live. So thinking about different, more
modern options. I think I heard Rod Jerry from Zero
talk about maybe the country needs to think about what
(16:05):
dormstar living would attract young people to stay in our
major cities and be part of our workforce and keep
them there longer. So the answer, yes, three bedroom houses
are probably more affordable than they were two years ago
because interest rates have come down. But do we need
to think a bit broader about some different, more affordable
options that are not just set traditional housing.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
But we have got that though, don't we we have
got that dorm style living because a lot of our
staff that come from overseas live in those dorms and
that's how they just stay like that. We have got
that in Mornington, don't we jerem.
Speaker 5 (16:37):
We have some of it. We've got too much social housing.
In my honest opinion, that is probably not helping to
some of the fabric of what we're bringing into Wellington.
But I also think it's the government of cutting jobs
and there's a lot of people out there who are
job hunting and can't find work so looking for reasons
to leave Wellington and other people coming in. There's not
(16:59):
as many job opportunities as there were, so why come
to a city that you can't find employment. So I
think some of the rents going is landlords can't find tenants.
And then on top of that you're looking at rate
increases of ridiculous numbers going forward. Insurance is still not
coming down, and those are two massive expenses for people
(17:19):
that have got in either apartment buildings or rental properties
that their costs are going up all the time. And
it's that uneasy balance. At what point in time do
you say it's not worth doing it and put out
of the market.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
We're at the business panel with Jeremy Smith and Jackson
harp Here. Jackson, I want to ask you, do you
I mean, in your capacity, we're dealing with businesses, right,
I mean that's what you're there. You're trying to make
them feel good about the Wellington. You're trying to create
more business. You're trying to bring people in here. Do
we really care? Do they really care? Are they talking
to you about the second phase of the Royal Commission
(17:54):
into the Government's response to COVID nineteen. I mean it's
currently underway. Do they really do people? Do business people
care what happened before and want to look at what
could have been done better? Or do they just want
to get on.
Speaker 4 (18:07):
I haven't heard anything about it, to be honest. I
think we do hear a lot about COVID and the
time of COVID and all the good things, but also
the learnings that have come from it. I think we're
all pretty bright people across the country who know what
not to do next time and don't need a second
thing to tell us about what we need to do. Differently,
(18:29):
I think people are more focused on, particularly in the
business world, about what is going to happen in the
next five years rather than what happened five years ago.
Some of it might be worth it, but certainly not here.
What about it?
Speaker 3 (18:41):
What about doing it better the next time because a
lot of businesses are struggling today because of the consequences
of what happened during COVID. Now I know as a
business person that I don't want to look backwards either,
and you're right, but surely we should have a plan
in place that will make it better next time.
Speaker 4 (18:59):
Yeah, definitely, the absolutely will be learnings from it on
what we could do differently. I mean, you're kind of
navigating in the dark then, I guess, so there will
definitely be learnings and it will definitely be probably more
situations like that where the world might come to a stop.
There's been multiple in my lifetime, whether the world has
had pandemics or endemics I think they're called. So we
(19:19):
need to be ready for if something like that happens again.
And just like the christ Church recovery, learnings were taken
from the christ Church recovery after the earthquake and used
in that COVID setting. So you can't just limit yourself
to pandemics for when businesses have to shut down these
natural disasters. As we've seen that happening more and more often,
so we should absolutely take those learnings and work out
(19:41):
how we could do things better for businesses next time.
But I don't think you truly know until it actually happens.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
No, Jeremy Smith, as a business person and involved with
hospitality in New Zealand, do people really care about an inquiry?
Are they interested in fixing some of the things that
went wrong?
Speaker 5 (20:01):
Look, we always like having people to blame. But I
think you're right that as long as a plan came
out of there of saying this is what we should do,
or a bit of a blueprint of saying these are
the things of steps we should take, there possibly is
some value. I mean, I'm just daily living the consequences
of COVID and so I don't need any more reminders
(20:22):
about it. It's we feel it in everyday life, and
one of them being people working from home and not
coming to the city and the impact it has on
the economy and all the other things that flow on
from there. So yeah, if they can come with a
blueprint of how to do things differently, then they're fine.
But otherwise they's spend the money on something more positive, Jackson.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
Just working from home thing, right, I mean that's your
area of expertise, helping businesses. How are we going to
generate that to develop getting more people back into the office.
Everyone wants to talk about it, but no one wants
to do anything about it.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:58):
I mean it's a hard one because again it's a
terrain that we've not navigated before, right, like this whole week.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
Is it going to be the norm?
Speaker 4 (21:05):
I think it will be the normal. Absolutely, it will
be the normal. I come from the private sector as well.
It's not just government where people are working from home.
There's a lot of big organizations that have people working
from home as well. I think people have worked out
that actually a mix is pretty good for organizations and
people's well being and all that good stuff. So it
will be just something that will have to accept, and
I think the answer is probably working out who else
(21:27):
can be in the city on those days where someone
is working from home, because there's also other benefits for
other businesses who live on city fringe and live in
suburbs who are doing well. You go to pi Ka
Kadiki and they're busier than effort right with people going
there and enjoying their hospitality and making that a bit
more of a destination for Wellingtonians and people wanting to
(21:48):
live in those further areas Carpity live in. In some
cases there's good parts of it, but we have to
work out how and who is going to fill that
slot in the city to help stimulate the economy locally
as well.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
Jeremy Smith is a bit of a blank look on
your face right now, because you know so you know
that businesses in the city will not survive long term
until people are coming back in the numbers that used
to be there.
Speaker 5 (22:15):
Absolutely, we need maybe a more structured process. I don't
think we'll ever go back to five days a week
in the office, but I think there needs to be
maybe one day week at home or possibly two at
a maximum. I mean, I heard a stat I believe
it's true. I believe that Bunning's and Co. They're busy
as day. Now is a Friday afternoon where people are
(22:38):
going to do their weekend supplies, shopping and in the city.
Friday used to be such a great day. People would
go to work after work, socialize together, mixed together, and
it's good for the company. Culture. It's good for us
these days. Friday is one of our quieter's days because
people work from home, stay at home. If they go out,
they might go out locally in the suburbs. So things
(23:02):
need to change. We can't keep on.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
Doing this and or can I throw it back on
you do? The businesses have to change. I mean society
is going to say if you can work from home,
you're going to work from home? Is it a society?
So the CBD? Could it be gone? I mean LA's
got no CBD.
Speaker 5 (23:22):
Yeah, Well, look, we're fortunately. We saw a lot of
people live in the city and more apartments are going up,
so I think we're rather fortune and Wellington that we
do have quite a few people who live in the
inner city. But yeah, businesses do change, and that's why
I'm saying is that we can't keep on depending on
you know, the business sect or the government sector to
save Wellington. We've got to have something else. My view
(23:44):
is tourism and become a tourist destination rather than just
be that gateway. And we've got to do things differently.
And if we don't, yeah, then there's going to be
a surprise.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
If we don't survive Jeremy. I'm going to start with
you on this one, being a well known and respected
businessman in Wellington. We're halfway through the Coalige and government's
first term. Do you think we're better off? Do you
think that they are really helping businesses? Don't laugh at me,
smile there's no camera. Yeah, you go to talk.
Speaker 5 (24:17):
The answer is yes, and the answer is no. Yes.
I think they are trying to pull as many levers
as possible to stimulate business, stimulate the economy. They are
dealing with, you know, post recession, post COVID and a
whole lot of things. So I believe that on the
(24:38):
right path, it's just very slow in seeing the benefits.
We talked a bit earlier about Australia, and Australia have
the mindset of saying, let's use every tool we've got
available on the tool shed, if it's coal mining or
steel or various other things, let's use what we've got
to make sure we've got a strong economy. And I
think we've got to go back to that in New
Zealand a little bit. We've got a lot of tools,
(25:00):
but we're only saying we can only use three of
them because of various other reason, and I respect that,
but let's not be surprised if economy is not as
strong as it could be. When we're sort of trying
to do battle with one hand tired behind our back.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
I'm going to go deeper. I'm going to ask you.
I won't ask Jackson this question, but I'll ask you.
Are we better off with this coalition than we would
have been with Labor?
Speaker 5 (25:23):
Absolutely, without a doubt. I think Labor got themselves caught
up in, as I said earlier, feeling good about ourselves
well being the touchy fairly stuff, spend our pay, find
the revenue later, and that doesn't work. You reach a
point where you just run out of runway and you
end up with a situation where you've got more debt
(25:44):
than you know what to do with and nothing to
show for it. So my view is the last Labor
government spent a lot of money and had nothing to
show for it. This government, I believe, are going to
have something to show for it. It's just taking a
long time to get traction.
Speaker 3 (25:58):
Jackson, who have you sat back and thought, gosh, that
minister's good. I mean, you're looking, you know, do you
see people that you think in that the car government.
You say, yeah, I feel good. I feel that they
are going to help the businesses that I'm trying to help.
That's your job. Do you look at any of them
and go, yeah, I think we're on the right path.
Speaker 4 (26:16):
Oh yeah, definitely. I mean you have to think about
the promises that they made before the election, and you know,
kudos to them, they've delivered on the promises that they
said they were going to do to their voter base.
Chris Pink, the Minister of Small Business, is fantastic. I've
seen him and he looks after manufacturing and probably various
other portfolios. He's out there listening to businesses and hearing
(26:38):
about what they actually need and what they're actually struggling with.
So I've seen him in action doing that and have
a lot of time for him in that space.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
Right, do you feel that we're on the right path?
I mean you're talking to business people, you're talking to
business people that want to start something, You're talking to
business people that are in trouble. Do they feel that
they're on the right path.
Speaker 4 (26:55):
I think it's probably a lot of policy change, and
policy change takes a long time to feel and when
you're living in reality, we saw the tax deductibility that
twenty percent thing come in. That's something tangible for businesses,
but not everyone's out there buying big guess it's to
deduct from their revenue at the end of the day.
So they are helping. They said they were going to
(27:19):
be out there helping businesses and I think that they are.
But they're trying to navigate issues with workforce. Right, we
can't afford to have. It's all well and good having businesses,
but what good are they if people are going over
to Australia. So when you do one thing, something else changes,
and it's about navigating that.
Speaker 5 (27:35):
It's about confidence in the economy and I think the
government are putting some building blocks that provide confidence. I'm
willing to invest and take risk if I'm confident that
I can see the steps the government are taking to
support me as I go forward. If I don't see that,
then I'm not going to do so. And that's where
we come with some of the Wellington stuff is I
(27:58):
can't see the plan in Wellington going forward, which makes
me less confident in investing currently. I think the government
are doing the right things to build that confidence and
that I feel it's worth investing in the economy.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
Have you gone out in your business organization and purchased
any big purchases because you've got twenty percent off at
the moment.
Speaker 5 (28:19):
No, because I've got no money. If you've got no money,
you've got no money. And I'm not willing to borrow
more at this point in time because.
Speaker 3 (28:26):
So realistically, this is just twenty percent And I said
this on the show. Realistically, this is great for farmers
who are making a lot of money, but does it
actually help you know, do you know any businesses that
are going to use it.
Speaker 4 (28:38):
I think it would be in primary sector. I don't
know any small hospitality businesses in Wellington that are using that.
I think there's been with the cost of credit over
the last five years, it's been very expensive to maintain
and keep machinery. So if anything, I imagine that there'll
be farmers out here replacing tractors. Like my father who
owns a strawberry farm, He'll be replacing tractors and machinery
(29:00):
that are broken because he's not been able to afford
to do that when interest rates are so high.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
And twenty percent back that works out in.
Speaker 4 (29:06):
His Jeremy's right. The confidence will come out of knowing
what the direction is for the next five years and
having trust and businesses having trust that maybe if I'm
going to bite the bullet and borrow more money or
invest or get my shahold of this return.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
The part of the show that I really enjoy the
most at the end of the business panel is to
ask my guest Jeremy Smith and Jackson Hartpetter, where they
would take somebody. They've just left the show today twelve o'clock.
They are going out to Wellington Airport and they're picking
up someone that they really really have a close relationship
with that hasn't been to Wellington for at least ten
(29:41):
or twelve years, maybe never been to Wellington, and you
want to show off Wellington, Jackson, where are you going
to do? What are you going to do with them?
Speaker 4 (29:50):
I'd probably assume that it's my brother who lives in
Australia who's doing well in the minds, and then I'll
take them to the helicopter on the waterfront and make
them pay for it, and then we'll go for a
tour around the region and then we can show off
all the surrounding parts of our region. Wided Upper carpety
the Wellington City and then we'll back down walk past
all the amazing venues and then have a cocktail and Hummingbird.
Speaker 3 (30:11):
Oh that's nice of you to do that, because the
only reason you're going to do that is that your
first date with your wife was at Humming Big I'm
allowed to say that public. It's too late, too late.
I have those stories all the time. So that's why
it wasn't a plug for me. Jeremy Smith, what are
you going to do with that special South African friend
of yours, that Jeffer that's just arrived in at the
airport and you're going to you want to show them
how good well into what they're missing out on.
Speaker 5 (30:33):
As I said, neck, I'm going off scripts. So it's
not the jeff it's not my South African mate, it's
all those guys who are working from home every day
don't get into town enough. What I'm saying is, come
and do the staycation Friday afternoon. Bring your partner into town.
Nice walk along the waterfront, into a craft brewery for
a bear, go and see the Dracula show at Saint James,
(30:55):
down to Lulu for a bite to eat afterwards. Great
cocktails and some live music. So make a staycation, get
back into Wellington, come and love the city that you
live in.
Speaker 3 (31:05):
Can I just ask you a quick question, how long
is that jacular show? I thought it was just last weekend?
Is it either?
Speaker 5 (31:09):
My think it might be a bit longer. Oh and yeah,
there's plenty of hotels that would love to have you
for the night, So I'm not going to plug my
Trinity Hotel.
Speaker 3 (31:18):
Well you can pluck on the other ones. You can
plug whatever you like. You help out out of the day.
Speaker 5 (31:22):
I'm all about staycations, coming to Wellington and enjoy our city.
Speaker 3 (31:25):
I'm sure that we're all about trying to get people
back at the city. Eva Jackson wants those businesses to
do well. I appreciate you both taking your time out
of your busy schedules to come in and give Wellington
listeners your views on the state of businesses and Wellington
and what we can do. The whole idea of this
part particular show is trying to work together to make
(31:46):
things better in our capital city. So I appreciate you both.
Have a great week go the Wrexham weekend and go
the Saints. We have a big weekend we'll have a
party this weekend.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
For more from Wellington Mornings with Nick Mills, listen live
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