Podcasts about nicola willis

Labour has announced a reduction in student debt of 10%, applying to students who stay in New Zealand for three years after their degrees. The first reduction is set for April 1st 2027. Furthermore, Labour has announced a reversal of government changes to pay equity, indicating the reversal as a key policy in the first 100 days. The National government has announced an expected government surplus of 4 billion dollars, portraying their own government spending as a success. Labour has yet to announce the intricacies of its' political fiscal policy but has often been criticised by Nicola Willis about apparent gaps in its' policy. Youth enrolment remains low with a rate of only 61% of 18-24 year olds currently enrolled to vote.  Flo spoke to Labour MP Shanan Halbert about these subjects.  

Well, the Chlöe-for-Finance-Minister debate has gone up a level. She has been asked what her qualifications are. David Seymour is making fun of the idea, I think for good reason. And Chlöe herself has hit back, specifically at Nicola Willis, because there was a poll that showed a touch more people actually trust Chlöe on the economy than Nicola. Touché from Chlöe. But I'm of the view that Chlöe is actually overplaying her hand here. No disrespect to her because I personally like her a lot and I really rate her as a political campaigner. But she's 32 years old and she has no business background other than a few of those fun projects you run when you're 20 and then shut down again. I mean, literally, what are her qualifications for this job? The reason the Nats and ACT keep going on about this, now for the third day, is because they know, like I know, that this is bad for the centre-left and the prospects of a centre-left Government. There is polling data from Curia that I've seen a couple of times and it shows that National Party voters actually have a net positive opinion of the leaders of their coalition partners on the right, David and Winston. National Party voters do not really stress out at all about the prospect of giving jobs to Winston, giving jobs to David, and so on. But Labour Party voters are not the same. They do not feel the same way about their left-wing coalition partners. Their opinion of the leaders on the left is negative across the board. It is unsettling for Labour voters to think of the Greens having that much influence. Now, I can see what Chlöe is doing here. She's trying to gee up her base with the idea that if they get enough votes, they may gain some real power around the Cabinet table. She's also obviously starting the negotiations with Chippy from a very high position, so that whatever the consolation prize turns out to be, it's also significant and not just some Green-aligned portfolio like DoC. But she might well be doing both the Green Party and the broader left some damage here. They may not make it into Government if this is the kind of thing that people freak out about. She knows she's not going to get this portfolio, right? She hasn't got any leverage. Back when Winston got Treasurer, and really the only time Finance has gone to a coalition partner, he was negotiating with both sides. He was talking to both Helen Clark and Jim Bolger, so he could play them off against each other. Chlöe doesn't have that ability. She is bound to Labour. She is not going to get Finance. So I can see what she's doing and it's not all bad for the Greens. But it could be bad for the chances of the left because the thought of Chlöe as Finance Minister might just drive away some of those swing voters that Labour desperately needs. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The current Government earlier indicated they could be looking to make changes to NZ Super and adjust the eligibility age, but they've changed their tone ahead of election season. Chris Luxon and Nicola Willis recently declined opportunities to explicitly back the policy when asked about it after Treasury released its Pre-Election Economic and Fiscal Update earlier this week. NZ Herald Wellington business editor Jenee Tibshraeny says it seems like there's a shift, but they haven't unveiled any campaign announcements related to NZ Super yet. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A mighty Totara has fallen as former Speaker of the House Adrian Rurawhe passes away.Chris Hipkins keeps baring is teeth, this time with Mike Hosking.Nicola Willis defends her PREFU report while Chloe is painted as the boogeyman++++++++++++++++++++Like us on Facebook.com/BigHairyNetwork Follow us on Twitter.com/@bighairynetworkFollowing us on TikTok.com/@bighairynetworkSupport us on Patreon www.patreon.com/c/BigHairyNewsCheck out our merch https://bhn.nz/shop/Donate to our work https://bhn.nz/shop/donation/

The current Government earlier indicated they could be looking to make changes to NZ Super and adjust the eligibility age, but they've changed their tone ahead of election season. Chris Luxon and Nicola Willis recently declined opportunities to explicitly back the policy when asked about it after Treasury released its Pre-Election Economic and Fiscal Update earlier this week. NZ Herald Wellington business editor Jenee Tibshraeny says it seems like there's a shift, but they haven't unveiled any campaign announcements related to NZ Super yet. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How big is his hole? Nicola Willis was asking Grant Robertson back in 2023, where are you going to find the money to fill that Government's financial fiscal hole? And now yesterday, she says that Labour has another fiscal hole to fill and it's a beauty. She told us yesterday when she was a guest in studio that there is no way Labour can afford to fund their pay equity promises, far less many of the other promises they're making to voters. Labour in response has said, well just taihoa, all will be revealed when our fiscal plan is produced sometime soon. Now some of this is electioneering and there's a surprise given we're in the middle of an election campaign. For example, National says that Labour's promise to fund public transport for many parts of the country, up to a certain point, will come out of the Crown balance sheet. Labour says absolutely not, they'll take the money from the Land Transport Fund. They won't pay for something that's been promised out of the Land Transport Fund. They won't pay for that, they'll pay for their public transport fares. It's called reprioritisation – the money does exist for the public transport fares, they just won't pay for something else. Some of the funding though is a mystery. I have no idea where they think they're going to get 11, 13, 14 and counting billion dollars for pay equity. Chris Hipkins, opposition leader, is adamant the money can be found within the budget as he told Mike Hosking yesterday. CH: We're going to set out in our plan, you know, we're going to demonstrate in our fiscal plan, you know, when we set out our breakdown of numbers that we have room there to pay for pay equity. What I said yesterday, and you know, there's a bit of divining tea leaves has been going on here, is that we're not going to have a specific line item, but the, our fiscal plan will clearly demonstrate that there is money in there to be able to meet the cost of pay equity. MH: So why isn't it a line item? CH: Because you don't basically, when you're going through a bargaining process, you don't tell the other side what's in the envelope. And you know, we wouldn't do that with any other process of bargaining. We've never done that with pay equity. The Crown has never put a line item in the budget that said here's how much we're setting aside for pay equity, but it has been there. And our fiscal plan will be the same. MH: It'll be about $12 or $13 billion. Is that fair though? Within that ballpark, that's what we're dealing with. CH: We certainly expect it to be a big number. Yeah, so it's going to be a big number. If it's coming from the budget, that's 13, 14, 15, whatever billion —billion, not million— that won't be spent on something else. And I don't know that there's that much wiggle room. The free doctors visits aren't going to be funded by a capital gains tax, I think surely even Labour's accepted that, given that Treasury forecasts house prices not going up anytime soon. Something else will have to be cut to fund those. Nicola Willis has accused Labour of fiscal fraud, but until Labour finally comes up with their fiscal plan, it's a bit like waiting for Keri Hulme to come up with a sequel to The Bone People. You should, I suppose, give them the benefit of the doubt. But do you believe it is in any way possible for any party to find —let's be generous— $10 billion from the budget without ripping the guts out of the essentials and without undoing the hard work that we have endured over the past three years? Where the hell do you imagine it's going to come from? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nicola Willis has been given a pre-election lift, with Treasury painting a brighter picture of the government's finances in the short term. But the recovery has been largely driven by an increased tax take due to "higher and more persistent" inflation. So - what does it all mean for the election? Deputy political editor Craig McCulloch reports.

Now that Labour's got its hands on the government's books, the pressure's piling on for them to explain how it'll pay for its promises, particularly pay equity. But it's not the only political party on notice. National will need to explain where it plans to cut costs if it wants to make the rosy projections a reality, and while Nicola Willis has raised the possibility of tax cuts, economists are saying: not yet. Political reporter Russell Palmer has the story.

Higher tax revenues are helping the Government's books, with the Treasury yesterday unveiling rosier than expected forecasts. The Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Update is picking a return to surplus in the 2028/29 financial year, with deficit predictions also lower in the years leading up to it. Treasury says uncertainties remain, particularly from the risk of further oil shocks from the Middle East conflict. And longer term Treasury Secretary Iain Rennie said the country's financial position is "unsustainable" because of the aging population. Finance Minister Nicola Willis spoke to Ingrid Hipkiss.

Nicola Willis discusses Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Update; Political Panel: Paul Goldsmith and Arena Williams; Chloe Swarbrick discusses rise in polls; Jo Moir and Corin Dann discuss pre-election fiscal update.

On the Mike Hosking Breakfast Full Show Podcast for Wednesday 30th of September, it's time for Chris Hipkins to provide the details on how Labour plans to pay for their policies. Finance Minister Nicola Willis explains when we might get back to surplus, but unfortunately, it's based on the fact we've never been taxed more. Ginny Andersen and Mark Mitchell discuss the passing of Adrian Rurawhe, strategic voting, and Chlöe Swarbrick's desire for the Finance portfolio on Politics Wednesday. Get the Mike Hosking Breakfast Full Show Podcast every weekday morning on iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Finance Minister has her eye firmly on returning to surplus after a pre-election look into the books. Treasury forecasts predict the next two years' deficits will be much smaller, and the 2028/29 surplus nearly $2 billion larger than expected. But much of that improvement is down to income-tax bracket creep, and more revenue from GST and company tax. Nicola Willis told Mike Hosking it would be irresponsible to be talking about how they'll spend a surplus on things like tackling the tax bracket creep before it's arrived. She says circumstances could change, not because they won't remain focused, but because the world is volatile and forecasts could shift. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Why did Chris Hipkins choose to announce that he will restore the pay equity regime within the first 100 days of a Labour-led Government? Why did he do that? I'm really confused by it because it's not as if there was a special event or venue that he tied the announcement to. He was just at a public meeting in Spreydon and then seemed to blurt it out. This is hugely consequential for the Labour Party. What it's done is change the focus. It should be about the PREFU and about holding the Finance Minister's feet to the fire over why she's still taking on more debt and why she's trying to sell us a set of figures based on, quote, "heroic assumptions" that essentially ignore the current price of oil and bond yields. But instead of doing that, Chippy has inserted himself into the conversation. Rather than focusing on Nicola Willis, what I'm now much more interested in is this: where is Labour going to find the apparent $13 billion needed to fund its pay equity promise? I don't know if you've seen what's in the PREFU but even though the outlook is much rosier than it was four months ago, we're still borrowing as a country and will continue to do so for the next three to four years. And that's based on optimistic, even heroic, assumptions. We are still, to quote Nicola, "borrowing for groceries". We are still on track to pay $13.7 billion a year in interest costs on our existing debt. And that's without Chippy adding even more to it. So where is he going to find the money for this pay equity promise if it's not going on the debt? Or is it going on the debt? This is the weirdest strategy from Chippy. Frankly, up until now I expected Labour's announcement to be that it would ditch this policy, just as it ditched the so-called landlords' tax policy, albeit for different reasons. Labour has clearly demonstrated it's willing to change its mind and scrap policies that simply aren't going to work. The books have just been opened and shown that we have no money and that our debt is already costing us a fortune. Yet here we are, wondering where Chris Hipkins is going to find another $13 billion for pay equity. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive Full Show Podcast for Tuesday, 29 September, 2026, Nicola Willis "opens the books" before the election - and it's looking better than even four months ago at the Budget. We delve into the numbers with the Finance Minister, Labour spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and on the Huddle with Maurice Williamson and Mike Munro. A big stink in central Otago. Why Federated Farmers are upset about some plans for "poo". Plus Scott Barrett on his All Blacks comeback and why he's wary of the Wallabies. Get the Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive Full Show Podcast every weekday evening on iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's a milestone day for election 2026, with the pre-election fiscal update – Prefu, to you – staged in Wellington. Bernard Hickey emerges blinking from the lockup to assess the state of the accounts. The finance minister, Nicola Willis, has welcomed numbers showing the deficit this year and in years to come down by many billions of dollars. But how much of that is thanks to “fiscal drag”? Does it give Labour meaningful room to pursue its policies? And how likely is it really that the fiscal squabbles will be staunched?Plus: In How Good, Chris Schulz is utterly intoxicated by Elizabeth Holmes and Nathan Fielder in the trailer for You Can See Everything.At Large with Toby Manhire is produced by Te Aihe Butler, Bridget Mills and The Spinoff. Read more at ⁠thespinoff.co.nz⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

National's Nicola Willis is putting the rosier Government books - unveiled today - down to Kiwis' hard work, but won't say whether they'll be repaid a dividend in the form of tax cuts. Forecasts predict the next two years' deficits will be much smaller, and the 2028/29 surplus nearly $2 billion larger than earlier expected. But much of that improvement is down to income-tax bracket creep, and more revenue from GST and company tax. Willis says her focus is getting debt down, to buffer against any future shock. "Those are National's budget responsibility rules - we have to deliver on those before we start dishing out the dividend." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

National's Nicola Willis is putting the rosier Government books - unveiled today - down to Kiwis' hard work, but won't say whether they'll be repaid a dividend in the form of tax cuts. Forecasts predict the next two years' deficits will be much smaller, and the 2028/29 surplus nearly $2 billion larger than earlier expected. But much of that improvement is down to income-tax bracket creep, and more revenue from GST and company tax. Willis says her focus is getting debt down, to buffer against any future shock. "Those are National's budget responsibility rules - we have to deliver on those before we start dishing out the dividend." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The centre-right bloc is at odds over voting strategies. Christopher Luxon and former leader John Key implored voters at National's campaign launch to simply party vote National and ignore any call for strategic voting. The strategy is aimed at creating an overhang and maximising the number of aligned MPs in Parliament. Key told Kerre Woodham for the Coalition, it would result in a lot more ACT and NZ First ministers, trading talented National ministers like Nicola Willis, Chris Bishop, or Paul Goldsmith for people voters have potentially never heard of and don't want. He says if you broadly want a National Government, then vote for what you want instead of potentially ending up with buyer's remorse. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Finance Minister says tough choices aren't just made for the sake of it with the Crown books now opened for pre-election scrutiny. It shows we're on track for a good surplus in the 2028/29 financial year, with a much smaller current deficit than expected. But it's not entirely rosy, with predictions slashed on house price growth, more money needed for health, and concerns over Super costs Nicola Willis told Kerre Woodham she's pushed to re-prioritise spending for a reason. She says she's reduced back-office costs and stopped programmes that weren't working, so she could find the money to invest in things Kiwis really want. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How much cash will we get back from tax cuts? Nicola Willis will soon make an announcement about their timing and potential value, if they get back to the Treasury benches. The good news out of yesterday's PREFU is that the books are out of structural deficit this year. That means when the Government borrows new money going forward, it will be for capital spending, not to keep the lights on. We've essentially been borrowing money by issuing bonds to pay for day-to-day spending. Fixing potholes with a credit card when the cost of borrowing is heading north is not a particularly smart way to run the books. The books are helped by the economy growing. When the economy grows, our wages grow with it. Inflation pushes our wages into a higher tax bracket. It's what they call bracket creep. You end up paying more tax because the tax brackets don't change, even when our wages do. So, the Government's books are improving off the back of Kiwis paying more taxes. How much is that worth? The PREFU reckons around one third of the extra revenue comes from bracket creep. Patrick Smellie at Business Desk estimates $15 billion will be collected over five years. That creates about $3 billion a year in a potential tax cut kitty created by wage inflation. So, the question now is when might cuts happen and will Nicola's coalition partners allow them? As the old saying goes, to the victor goes the spoils. Taxpayers are the real victors here, the real heroes, and more money in the pocket to offset higher prices will surely be a welcome thing. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I'm no fan of the current Government. In fact, I'm no fan of any of the political parties at the moment. That said, you've got to give the current lot credit for what we saw in yesterday's Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Update (PREFU). Is it enough for them to get another term? I'll tell you what I think shortly. But the overarching result is that the government's finances are better than expected. The books could be out of the red a year earlier than forecast. With a $4 billion surplus, $1.5 billion higher than was forecast just a few months ago, expected within three years. When I first heard those numbers, I thought, “Why would you change course now?” For me, there is a lot not to like about the current government. Despite what it says, I think it has a general disdain for people who are down on their luck. ACT, especially. And that doesn't sit well with me. Then there's all the culture war nonsense pushed by NZ First. Making English an official language. Laws to define what a woman is. Proving you're Kiwi enough to live here. So there's a long list of all the things I don't like about the current government. But you've got to give them credit for the state of the books. So do I think they deserve another term? Based on yesterday's results, I would say yes. Reluctantly. But there's another reason too. I think Labour has blown it and doesn't deserve to be back in government. I've got no idea what they've been doing these last three years. It seems that Chris Hipkins thinks all he has to do is start swearing in speeches and get fired up during interviews and he'll be Prime Minister again. He's dreaming. And the state of The Government's books could be the final straw. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Treasury will today reveal the state of the Government's books, and it may lead to more tax policy announcements. Nicola Willis, in her role as National's finance spokesperson, has said she's interested in the possibility of tax brackets adjustments, and indicated there may be more for her to say after today's announcement. But is now the time to move the thresholds? Money correspondent Susan Edmunds has been looking into it and spoke to John Campbell.

The Government's books are being opened today, giving a financial read of the state of the economy. Treasury's Pre-Election Economic and Fiscal Update will show how Crown debt, expenditure, and revenue are tracking. National's Nicola Willis has let some small details slip, saying people will like what they see. Infometrics' Brad Olsen told Ryan Bridge they expect a slightly rosier look than what was seen in the Budget, but timing will have an impact. He says Treasury would've finalised the numbers towards the end of August, but things like fuel prices and bond rates have lifted quite materially in the weeks since. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I'm all for pay equity for women, but. Which I'll get to. First, though. At a public meeting in Christchurch last night, Labour leader Chris Hipkins was asked what the most important thing a Labour-led government would do for girls and women. He said reversing last year's pay equity changes. And that he would do it within his government's first 100 days in office. He said: "I think probably the most reprehensible thing I have seen in my time as a member of Parliament was the Government's decision last year with no notice, with no warning, with no consultation, to pass under urgency a law that cancelled pay equity for tens of thousands of women." I agree with him there. The way it played out was appalling. There were about 180,000 workers with pay equity claims underway. They were all dismissed pretty much overnight under urgency. Hipkins went on to say: "I want to give you a reassurance that within the first 100 days we are back in Government we will reverse that change." Adding that care and support workers will be first in the queue, because he says they have waited long enough. That's because when the coalition rushed through its pay equity changes, and there were those tens of thousands of workers with pay equity claims underway, about 80,000 of them were care and support workers. It was May last year when the Government announced it was pulling the plug on any existing claims and was going to make it harder for any future claims to get through. Saying it was doing it because the pay equity rules were “muddied and unclear”. The truth was, it was doing it to save $12.8 billion and save Nicola Willis' skin. Because it was just days out from the Budget. ACT leader David Seymour was even crowing that Brooke van Velden had single-handedly rescued the Budget. So it was smoke and mirrors and, the way it was done, was an absolute shocker. I'm all for pay equity. I find it so dismissive of people who say “Oh yeah, equal pay and all that but, sorry girls, we just can't afford it.” So no argument from me that something needs to be done to make good for that appalling move by National, ACT and NZ First. But I can't support the way Chris Hipkins wants to go about it. And, instead of the usual 100 days' nonsense, I want to see this thing looked into properly. I want to see a thorough select committee process, or something similar, used to get the facts. Which would then allow an approach to be developed to sort out real inequities in a realistic way. So it's a yes from me. But do it properly. Don't rush it. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's not quite Briscoes sale level, but 10% off your student loan is not to be scoffed at. Unless you're not a student, never had a student loan, and don't plan on sitting in a lecture theatre for three years. Then you don't really care about this policy except for what it costs you as a taxpayer. The unfortunate thing about democracy is that we're all taxpayers. It'll cost almost half a billion dollars next year, totalling almost $600 million over five years. This is an old trick in Labour's playbook. Helen Clark secured a third term in power after introducing interest-free student loans in 2005. But this week, the Nats will hit back with their own little sweetener. The books are open tomorrow for everyone to have a peek under the hood. Listening to the sounds Nicola Willis was making yesterday, and to the bank economists on Friday, growth and the surplus should be looking a bit better than they did in the last update in May. And then Nicola Willis will use those numbers to release policy: tax cuts. She dropped hints about this at the BusinessNZ election conference a few weeks ago. She's going to try to do something about bracket creep. Which, unlike Labour's student loan bribe, is a bribe that almost all Kiwi taxpayers will benefit from.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nicola Willis and Carmel Sepuloni joined Morning Report this morning for the Weekly Political Panel.

The Finance Minister believes the report on the Reserve Bank's performance during Covid affirms decisions made by the current Government. An external review of Bank's Covid monetary policy during the pandemic finds it was right to cut the OCR early but was slow to react when the economy bounced back sooner than expected. Nicola Willis told Mike Hosking the results show the importance of the guardrails they implemented – having a single inflation-busting mandate and the change to voting to create more accountability. She believes the report matters as it also shows the Reserve Bank can keep getting better as long as it has an attitude of ongoing improvement. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the Mike Hosking Breakfast Full Show Podcast for Wednesday 23rd of September, the Finance Minister responds to the independent review of the Reserve Bank's monetary policy during the Covid pandemic. It's not just our Sauvignon Blanc; we've got a good news story about our Chardonnay going up against the best in France and winning. Ginny Andersen and Mark Mitchell discuss the last week in the House, Labour u-turn on interest deductibility, and the National crime video on Politics Wednesday. Get the Mike Hosking Breakfast Full Show Podcast every weekday morning on iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Labour is promising it won't change interest deductibility for landlords, and the Finance Minister has been quick to condemn this development. Leader Chris Hipkins said that since the party has already pledged a capital gains tax, it'll keep deductibility as it is, despite reducing the claimable interest last time they were in Government. Nicola Willis says Labour and Hipkins have been consistently blaming National's changes to interest deductibility for the cost of living crisis - only to make an eleventh hour change ahead of the election. "Unbelievable - and this is why people can't take him seriously. He's all about the soundbite and ultimately doesn't have a coherent agenda, he's just copied National's homework." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Debbie Ngarewa-Packer dropped the C-bomb and got booted from Parliament, while Willie Jackson followed right behind her. We ask whether it's a genuine double standard or pure political theater from Te Pāti Māori. Plus, National is threatening to forcibly break up the supermarket duopoly. We look at whether Nicola Willis has abandoned core party principles just to chase a short-term electoral bounce. Retail NZ Chief Executive Carolyn Young, Jordan Williams, and ex-National MP Maurice Williamson join the show. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Supermarket owners all over the country have raised concerns over National's election promise to split up Foodstuffs. The party wants to create a third player by separating Pak'nSave from New World and Four Square, subject to Commerce Commission agreement. New World owner-operator Eric Rush says he's been working in this business for 16 years and putting 'long, hard' hours in - and he's raised doubts over this campaign promise. "That just goes to show that they have no understanding of actually how it works. We'll find a way if we have to, but it's not going to be the same." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

National's deputy leader Nicola Willis has promised more than 2000 new nurses will be on the job by the end of the year. Labour has been critical of the government's record on hiring nurses. Labour's health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall spoke to Ingrid Hipkiss.

On the Mike Hosking Breakfast Full Show Podcast for Thursday 17th of September, National has announced a surprising plan to drive supermarket competition by splitting up Foodstuffs. We got an explanation from Nicola Willis and the reaction from the corporation itself. It seems we can't get enough of the sporting merchandise in this country. Dynasty Sport's Tyler Rakich discusses the jump in sales. New Breakers coach Gordon Herbert describes how he plans to handle the new gig alongside his main job of coaching the Canadian national team. Get the Mike Hosking Breakfast Full Show Podcast every weekday morning on iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

So the battle of the supermarket beat-down unfolded for us lucky voters. Labour and National have gone head-to-head over how much head kicking they can do to, mainly, supermarkets. But seemingly in Labour's case it could be the financial sector i.e. banks, or air travel i.e. Air NZ, as well. Both party's ideas, let the record state, are fanciful. National are probably the worst offenders given: 1) They have been in office virtually a full term and they have only now got to the business of putting out an actual policy. 2) The trouble with the policy is it's merely a review by the Commerce Commission and because of that may never happen. 3) No one has jawboned groceries like Nicola Willis, so her hot air outpaces any action. That's before you get to the bit where it's entirely possible our perceived high prices at supermarkets is a result of a five million person market, not a lack of competition. The exact same grievances are aired almost daily in Australia. Their prices are "too high" and "rising", there "aren't enough supermarkets" etc, etc. As was pointed out to me the other day, Auckland actually has a lot of competition. Independents have a third of the market and it's not like the food price complaints are only coming from out of Auckland. As for Labour they say they'll look at large companies. They didn't define "large". They said they'll look at excessive profits. They don't define it other than to say the Commerce Commission has a formula. The Commerce Commission came up with the famous "$1 million a day" excess profit line for supermarkets, which may or may not actually be a thing. On air travel, when you ping Air NZ for excess prices from Nelson to Invercargill, that will affect the bottom line, increase their losses, and push them closer to insolvency. That's a cool policy. Large company with excess prices, but losing money. What's the plan? Bankrupt them? So National look like a side that panicked because they talked a big game and delivered little. Labour is, once again, in the realm of theory and whiteboarding, with clickbait one-liners and no real-world workings of how any of this actually works or doesn't. They both look like amateurs. They are both disappointing, which might explain why the third-party vote has increased so much. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

National's finance spokesperson is holding firm that breaking up Foodstuffs is the best solution. If approved by the Commerce Commission, the party would carve off Pak'nSave from New World and Four Square to compete with each other and Woolworths. Foodstuffs is promising to fight the plan, saying it could increase food prices by making business less efficient. But Nicola Willis told Mike Hosking it's been a lengthy, analytical process. She says there's no doubt this restructure would benefit the Kiwi shopper given how unusual our grocery sector is. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Finance Minister says the National's bid to break up Foodstuffs would be the most low-cost measure to ensure Kiwis can get cheaper groceries. National is campaigning on separating Pak'nSave from New World and Four Square - if the Commerce Commission believes it stacks up. Nicola Willis says there's less benefits and more costs around restructuring Woolworths, as the retailer would have to set up an entirely new operator and brands. "Whereas, Foodstuffs already has two different brands, it already has Pak'nSave vs New World. So the costs of that restructure are lower - and once you add in all of the extra costs of the Woolworths restructure, you end up with lower net benefits." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On today's episode Simeon Brown responds to concerns over health care system; Weekly Political Panel with Nicola Willis and Carmel Sepuloni; Aroturuki Tamariki reacts to Phillips investigation; Should Christchurch invest in commuter rail?

Nicola Willis and Carmel Sepuloni joined Morning Report this morning for the Weekly Political Panel.

Tonight on The Huddle, lawyer Liam Hehir and NZ Herald senior correspondent Katie Bradford joined in on a discussion about the following issues of the day - and more! Auckland mayor Wayne Brown and Local Government Minister Simon Watts have traded strong words after the Government announced it was moving to ban voting rights for non-elected members of council committees. What do we make of this? What's really going on with Wayne Brown? The findings of the Tom Phillips inquiry have been released today, and the report has revealed the extent of how the relevant officials have mishandled the case. Who looks worse - the police or Oranga Tamariki? How could this have been handled better? Nicola Willis has hinted more tax cuts could be on their way - once the books are back in surplus. Are we excited for this, or does the wait put us off? LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nicola Willis is hinting National could introduce more income tax cuts if the party's re-elected, but Kiwis may have to wait for them. Speaking on a panel at BusinessNZ's election conference in Wellington, Willis said the party has been monitoring 'bracket creep' and adjustments could be made after a return to surplus. OliverShaw Tax Partner Robin Oliver says there's a case for indexing the tax rates, and the Government should be transparent if they need to make changes. "We should legislate that each year, the Government should be transparent, it should go to the public and say - actually, we need to increase the tax rates on middle-income New Zealanders because we're going to spend it on healthcare, ED, what have you." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Finance Minister's brushing off concerns about the government's fast track programme. Local Government New Zealand is calling on central Government to pause all referrals on housing projects - claiming they're bypassing council decisions. It wants a review to clarify the housing fast track's role within the new planning system. Nicola Willis says she wants to make clear fast-track approval doesn't give developers a free pass to charge ahead. She says expert panels still impose conditions - requiring roads, wastewater and other infrastructure to be in place, before construction. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nicola Willis and Vanushi Walters joined Morning Report this morning for the Weekly Political Panel.

Both major parties took a hit in the recent Taxpayers' Union-Curia poll, with both Labour and National dropping below 30 percent. National holds the lead at 29 percent, while Labour has tumbled to 25.9 percent - and the Greens have jumped to 13.9, ACT is on 10.5 and Opportunity has fallen all the way to 4.5 percent. National's Nicola Willis says the party is committed to reminding voters that it aims to fix the basics and build the future - and to highlight the proposals of the opposition parties. "We've been delivering a lot of policies, whether that's universal KiwiSaver, extending paid parental leave, extending eligibility for first home loans, reducing the student loan repayment rate - we've been delivering a lot." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Finance Minister says major gas user Methanex shutting up shop doesn't change the Government's argument for a Liquified Natural Gas terminal. The methanol producer is closing its Taranaki plant after more than 30 years. It cites the continued decline in domestic natural gas and no clear pathway to meaningful new supply. Nicola Willis told Mike Hosking they'd already predicted Methanex would close and had factored this into their LNG plans. She says they decided the gas Methanex uses being released back into the market wouldn't be enough to solve our problems, believing another option is still needed. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the Mike Hosking Breakfast Full Show Podcast for Thursday 3rd of September, Finance Minister Nicola Willis discusses the Reserve Bank hiking the Official Cash Rate and Methanex closing their Taranaki plant. Reserve Bank Governor Dr Anna Breman explains their decision to lift the OCR by 25 basis points. Arguably the number one wine critic in the world, James Suckling talks about investing into the NZ wine scene and why we're one of the last frontiers able to produce great wine. Get the Mike Hosking Breakfast Full Show Podcast every weekday morning on iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I think Nicola Willis may be right when she suggested to us the other day Chris Hipkins might not be very numerate. He is undoing himself in front of us. As he does, he reminds us why he has basically done as little as possible these past few years, because when he does he is either in office blowing the place up, or putting out policy in Opposition that makes literally no sense. He has blocked petrol excise increases for three years. The bill for that is $4.6 billion. He said yesterday he didn't think that number was right, even though it is. He had an idea what the number was but wouldn't say. Cool policy. By the end of the day, he wasn't ruling out borrowing it. Now, you can't borrow it because in another policy he told us we were returning to surplus by 2028/29. You can't run a surplus as you borrow more. Do you think he realises this? Then we get to the pay equity bit, which they haven't told us how they are paying for. That's $12 billion. So $16 billion and counting and all paid for by a capital gains tax that, so far, will produce exactly nothing given housing is flat. And even if it wasn't, it takes years to fire up. Oh, and the capitals gains is already paying for free doctors visits we don't need, or mainly, want. To try and come to his defence, is there $4.5 billion worth of stuff you can cancel and cover the excise hole? That's a lot of money on something that gets cancelled and given we are already running things tight, because we have no money, you inevitably come back to the borrowing bit he mentioned late yesterday. I cannot overstate the danger of more debt. In the next couple of years, the world is going to go through another financial crisis, driven by debt and overcapped nonsense around chips and AI. You do not want to be a small economy at the bottom of the world in a sea of debt reliant on people bailing you out. It is literally the path to ruin. We already pay $9 billion a year interest on our debt and people like Fitch have warned us our credit rating is on watch. Yet Hipkins has diametrically opposed policies that get us to surplus and have us borrowing more, all at the same time. It's all embarrassingly amateurish, short-sighted and dangerous. I cannot overstate the idiocy if you think any of this is a path forward. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the Mike Hosking Breakfast Full Show Podcast for Tuesday 1st of September, as expected, the Government has made the call to delay increasing fuel taxes by a year. Finance Minister Nicola Willis defended the decision. Our Privacy Commissioner wants to review the law as the rising use of smart glasses spark concerns. Kiwi musician Miller Yule is back with new music after three years, so he's in the studio for a song and a chat. Get the Mike Hosking Breakfast Full Show Podcast every weekday morning on iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Finance Minister's defending the decision to delay fuel tax and road user charges, saying it won't add to the country's debt. The excise was due to rise 12-cents a litre in January, but has been pushed back a year and cut to five cents. The Government now needs to put an extra $1.4 billion into the Land Transport Fund. Nicola Willis told Mike Hosking it's not the right time to raise fuel taxes. But she says GDP growth will be double this year's in 2028, while inflation is also forecast to be coming down by then. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the Mike Hosking Breakfast Full Show Podcast for Friday 28th of August, Finance Minister Nicola Willis discusses fuel taxes and Labour's promise to freeze them for a full term. Will Jordan joins us out of South Africa to preview the All Blacks' second test. Kate Hawkesby and Tim Wilson remember Dolly Parton and discuss Kate's illness and Mike's week spent looking after her as they Wrap the Week. Get the Mike Hosking Breakfast Full Show Podcast every weekday morning on iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nicola Willis and Barbara Edmonds joined Morning Report this morning for the Weekly Political Panel.