Christopher Luxon: Real, but it's actually out there in the real world, it's not happening,
it's not getting done.
And so you can talk about orders that might arrive from March to May but the reality is
they're not here today, and as a consequence the government's now commandeering supplies
out of corporate customers.
many of those people have been using rapid antigen tests for a long period of time and
over the year to keep their employees safe and now those stocks have been commandeered.
We've only just approved after a whole year of denying rapid antigen testing, now sort
of saying we're looking into it, it'll be in phase 2 or phase 3, or whatever it is.
The bottom line is we've only approved 7 actual supplies, we've got another two maybe online,
but there's over 50 who have already been approved in Australia.
So, and these companies, these rapid antigen testing producers have actually been coming
to the government over the last year and saying 'hey listen, we'd love to help, we've got
these products you could maybe use'
So again, I'm not trying to be critical for the sake of being critical, but I'm trying
to say there's a very big difference between talking about stuff and executing stuff and
getting it done and whether you see it around spending, whether you see it around rapid
antigen testing, those are the things I think we need to start focusing on
Reporter: And on boosters, are the technical advisory groups working fast enough to drop
the wait from 4 months?
Christopher: Well again I think you know as someone who's used to getting things done,
I don't understand why you wouldn't pick up the phone and say 'you've got 24 hours to
give me a straight answer on that'
because there must be a bunch of desk research that's sitting around the world, there's a
number of other medical authorities.
We live in a world of 195 countries, 7.8 billion other people and there's good practice and
learnings happening in lots of other places
so we should be able to find an answer very quickly for that as to what's the right number
and we should be very guided by the public health advice as a consequence.
Reporter: Do you think it's a supply and resource issue that is bringing to them now going forward
with three months?
Christopher: I don't know, to be honest Jo, I haven't really, I don't understand and I
don't see the advice that they would see about what's going on there.
But it seems very straight forward either academically and in an expert sense you either
know that four months is better than three months, or three is better than four.
That's the key answer you'd get and then you'd worry about whether the supply comes through
quickly.
So I don't know what's holding it up, but I would've thought, I would've given someone
a day to give me that answer.
[Inaudible question from a reporter]
Christopher: Well look I think it's been pretty silly and unwise those actions and I'd say
to you I want all my MPs focused on their portfolios and on the things that matter most
to New Zealanders.
I've made that pretty clear in my expectations for them and that's what I expect going forward.
I haven't spoken to Harete [Hipango] today, but Nicola Willis has.
[inaudible question from reporter]
Christopher: I've been pretty crystal clear about expectations, what I'd say to you though
is people actually aren't that interested in this story, they're much more interested
in inflation and much more interested in rapid antigen tests.
[inaudible question from reporter]
Christopher: Those conversations will stay private but I can say to you it's pretty silly
and unwise and I really want all the MPs focused on their portfolios and what matters most
to New Zealanders.
Reporter: Did you get a sense of what conversation Harete had with Nicola Willis?
Christopher: No that's a private conversation between Nicola and Harete.
Reporter: But is it basically she's on thin ice?
Christopher: The expectations are crystal clear to all of our caucus about the standards
we expect and as I said I can tell you people are much more fascinated and interested in
New Zealand at the moment around inflation and why they're going backwards with the cost
of living going faster than wages, and certainly with respect to rapid antigen tests and other
things as well.
Reporter: Can you tell us if she'll resign?
Christopher: Okay, any other questions?
Reporter: On TVNZ, a new poll coming out tonight, are you confident?
Christopher: Um well we have to wait and see.
But what I'd say to you is, you know, as you saw me say last year, we're off to a positive
and encouraging start but most importantly I'd say to you is that we've got a lot of
work to do and you know our job is to make sure that team is firing, people are focused
on what they need to do and opposing the Government, as hopefully you've seen, in a constructive
way on rapid antigen tests about what they need to be doing.
But equally also proposing ideas through the course of the year and that's what I'm expecting
from our MPs as we go forward.
Reporter: You've got the caucus retreat coming up in a couple of days, what is the work .. [inaudible]
Christopher: Yeah look it's a two days caucus and really it's a chance for us to say how
we're going to work together, it's the what and why we're doing our agenda, but also how
we're going to be doing it.
And again it's a chance to lay out expectations very clearly about what I expect on delivery
from each and every MP, what are the key deliverables I'm expecting from them by their portfolios,
how I expect them to be out there in the real world engaging with stakeholders, and industry
and voters and people and actually finding out what their needs are.
And so we'll talk a lot about what does it take for us to get from where we sit today
to where we need to be in 2023, we'll talk a little bit about the plan quarter by quarter
as to how we might do that, I want to talk a little bit about some of those big themes
and things we want to talk about like mental health and other things as well.
[inaudible question from reporter] ... what have you and Nicola been doing? ... policies
.... [inaudible]
Christopher: Yeah so we've been working on all those things and so a lot of that for
us has just been planning out very clearly about right I want to make sure each MP's
crystal clear about what they need to do in their job and laying up the criteria by which
we'll be judging their performance, and making that crystal clear as an internal process.
There's a lot of conversation around what are the key themes for the year and what's
our position and thinking and how do we come forward with proposals about those years.
Reporter: What kind of policy ... are you re-writing ... [inaudible]
Christopher: No, we're coming at it from a point of, and if, unfortunately we've delayed
the state of the nation speech by virtue of the Covid constraints but we'll look to do
that very shortly as well
But a lot of the themes are no we've got good policy, but I want it sharpened up, I want
it really clear what are the three or five things you're gonna do in each individual
portfolio that actually we think will make the biggest difference for New Zealanders.
Sometimes we get lost in too much intellectualism and too much intellectualisation and the big
policy document and the big book.
75 - 80 pages, isn't particularly helpful, I just want to know what are the four or five
things you're gonna do in your portfolio that we think will make the biggest difference
to move the agenda forward for the country.
[inaudible question from reporter]
Christopher: Well what I say to you is look the prime minister and Grant Robertson are
gonna tell you that this is all an international problem, it's happening everywhere around
the world while Australia's just delivered in the same period of time a 3.5% inflation
rate versus us at 5.9, almost 6%.
[inaudible question from reporter]
Christopher: Within the domestic, you know, consumption, domestic inflation number, it's
running about I think 5.3% a big focus on that you'll see will be oil and construction
and it's actually also about rates, and some other things, and rents are the big drivers
of that.
But even within, here's an example, you know, probably any one point in time a third of
the fuel price can be up to tax, and we've got a regional fuel tax in Auckland that's
raised $500 million dollars and actually has only spent just less than half of that on
actual projects, on transport projects within Auckland.
If you want to do something tomorrow, here's an idea, why don't you actually ... the regional
fuel tax as a result because that would make it easier on Aucklanders doing it tough, it
means they've got more money in their pocket rather than paying it into a tax where it's
just sitting there in a bank account doing nothing as those projects aren't happening
so there's a simple example
if you want to get the price of fuel down, seriously look at the tax component of it.
And when you've got a regional fuel tax in Auckland that's not being spent, there's a
good example, knock it on the head.
Reporter: [inaudible] ... would you have done anything differently?
Christopher: No that's a good spend and I'm not undermining that we shouldn't not spend
money, but I guess what I'm trying to say is as good prudent managers of the economy
and making sure that we're doing the right hting as you would in your personal finances,
running a small businesses and as you should running the country that that signal of inflation
being the highest it's been since 1988, a more than double wage growth is a good wake
up call to say hey listen, we need to reign in public spending, government spending
and we need to think really carefully about where those funds are directed, where they
can have the most impact.
Do the must-do stuff, not the nice to do stuff for now and start to get it sharpened up and
focused.
We're not saying have massive budget cuts, we're just saying let's be really intelligent
about how we actually spend that money.
Be a bit more intentional and a bit more purposeful about what they're supposed to be doing for
us.
Okay with that, thank you very much guys, have a great day and we'll, see you the rest
of the week.
See ya.