Despite dropping in the polls
and failing to resonate with voters on a range of issues,
Sir Bill English is confident Christopher Luxon is the right
person to lead National to victory at next year’s
election.
Speaking to 30 with Guyon Espiner,
the former Finance Minister said the government has done a
“remarkably good job”, adding that Prime Minister Luxon,
Winston Peters and David Seymour all deserve credit for what
they have achieved.
“They’ve got an equilibrium, and
I’m making those comments not just as a former politician,
but sitting outside it, involved in running businesses,
involved with a wide range of New Zealanders.
“It
doesn’t work to change Prime Ministers,” he said. “It’s
stable and it’s working.”
While suggesting New Zealand
was going through a “rough patch”, Sir Bill said it wasn’t
about the government showing “bold leadership”, but rather
the government needed to sort out “those barriers that are
getting in the way of productive investment and, more
importantly, productive employment”.
“This government,
it’s a bit less sort of clean cut and well presented, but it
is stable. The government’s got a coherence, and it’s
getting through a whole lot of serious issues. I think
they’ve done a remarkably good job, and probably an
unexpectedly good job, of managing themselves.”
Advertisement – scroll to continue reading
On the
economy, Sir Bill – who served as Finance Minister under
Prime Minister Sir John Key from 2008 to 2016 – said in
12-18 months New Zealand’s will be growing faster than
Australia’s.
The current economy feels like it is
“struggling to get up out of the mud” because the usual
cycle of house prices picking up, which makes people feel
good and spend more money, isn’t happening.
“New
Zealand’s dealing with some structural shifts in its
economy, which means its recovery is slower.
“But in a
sense, it will be a higher quality recovery, because it
won’t be dependent on some big shift in house prices, and it
won’t be as dependent on a surge in immigration.”
Sir
Bill said “this amazing, almost bipartisan view that we need
to change the rules for housing so that it’s more
affordable” is cause for optimism.
When pushed on the
increase in inequality, including rising homelessness, Sir
Bill pointed to the impacts of previous policy.
“Our
poor-quality housing policy in the past has driven a lot of
inequality. It’s driven a lot of a burden on low-income
people trying to afford housing.
“I don’t think the
housing issues were to do with neoliberalism. They were
actually to do with over-planning our city’s.
“Poor
planning causes poverty, it causes higher costs than would
otherwise be the case.”
Sir Bill was also critical of
the “state monopoly” which he said has done a “poor job for
a long time” when it comes to social housing, and called for
more housing to help tackle issues around
homelessness.
While economists and politicians have
been debating whether a Capital Gains Tax is worthwhile, Sir
Bill said “there’s a lot of complexity, not much revenue,”
and “the possibility of revenue is significantly less now
than it would have been, say, 10 years ago, and certainly 20
years ago.”
On Te Pāti Māori, whom he worked with
for three terms, Sir Bill described it as “an
often-challenging experience” but “a satisfying one”, before
saying the party as it was originally conceived was
conservative.
“I don’t mean in the sort of National
Party’s right-wing sense, but conservative in that they were
trying to rebuild social connection,
self-reliance.”
Sir Bill praised the increasing use of
te reo Māori in everyday language, and how “in the business
world dealing with iwi is now completely normal”, but said
“particularly in the public service, performative
biculturalism had got completely out of control.”
“I
think what you’ve seen recently has been a kind of general
political correction.
“What I find interesting is that
there’s a debate going on in the political world about
whether one party’s anti-Māori or whatever. In the real
world the custom and the practice of the people just moves
on.”
He added: “there’s nothing wrong with a bit of
pushing and shoving when you think the Constitution’s at
stake”.
New Zealand’s public broadcaster, providing comprehensive NZ news and current affairs, specialist audio features and documentaries.
Radio New Zealand is a Crown entity established under the Radio New Zealand Act 1995. Radio New Zealand News are vital elements in our programming, providing impartial news and information to New Zealanders every day. Radio New Zealand (RNZ) provides listeners with exciting and independent radio programmes in accordance with the Radio New Zealand Charter.
