Newstalk ZB Mike Hosking Leaders’ Breakfast: Jacinda Ardern’s vision for the next three years

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says she will reconsider the decision to deny entry of a grieving British family to New Zealand.

Ardern said this morning that he stood firm in the decision not to allow yachts on the Pacific permit to dock here during the Covid-19 pandemic.

He said he didn’t want a scenario where people couldn’t fly to New Zealand, but could sail.

Some yacht owners wanted to come to New Zealand for insurance reasons, because it was cheaper to dock in this country, and that was no reason to come here, he said.

But he said he would go back and reconsider whether a British family whose son had died while at sea should have been allowed to dock here.

“I’m going to go back and take a look at that one,” he said.

Barbara Genda and Harry Jarman have been stranded in French Polynesia since the death of their son Eddie. They were denied access to New Zealand, where they wanted to dock so they could sail their boat and fly home.

Ardern is being interviewed by host Mike Hosking this morning on the latest installment in the Newstalk ZB Leaders Breakfast series.

LISTEN LIVE HERE OR SEE ABOVE

COVID-19 AND CANNABIS

Ardern said he did not believe that Chief Health Officer Ashley Bloomfield had been too conservative in his response to Covid-19.

She said he was an optimistic leader and pointed to the 30,000 people at the All Black test in Wellington yesterday as evidence of “how far it has helped us get to where we are today.

Ardern said he has no regrets about keeping his vote on the cannabis referendum secret.

He said he had often spoken about his positions on recreational cannabis use in the past.

He had previously said that young people should not be able to access cannabis and that people should not be unnecessarily criminalized for using cannabis.

ACCOMMODATION

Ardern defended the widespread use of reviews and task forces by his government, saying they had led to proposals for significant health sector reforms and the Resource Management Act.

“I am not resisting the use of experts who come and help us with reform when necessary.”

Hosking noted that housing had not become more affordable in New Zealand under the supervision of his government.

Ardern said that housing costs had accumulated for decades, not just the last three years, and that the key solution was to increase supply.

He noted that there are now more new buyers on the market. He rejected the suggestion that this was solely due to low interest rates, saying the government had provided new products for this group and eased demand through policies such as a ban on non-resident buyers.

At Kiwibuild, Ardern said it was difficult to build at the original proposed scale – 10,000 houses a year.

He said the government was also trying to attract early home buyers to new areas, and some people couldn’t be convinced to buy inside new housing developments.

He had no regrets about Kiwibuild’s policy and said that people had underestimated the effect it had on the housing market.

“It has created an additional trigger for affordable housing,” he said.

Regarding social housing, he rejected the suggestion that making it easier for people to stay in state houses longer has contributed significantly to the growing waiting list.

He said it was largely because this government did not turn away applicants in the same way as the previous government.

His government had stepped up the construction of social housing, he said.

“If we keep building at the rate we are at, we will get rid of that waiting list.”

Ministers

She did not agree that her match lacked depth.

“I support everyone who sits at my desk.”

He defended the controversial ministers Phil Twyford and Kelvin Davis.

Speaking of Davis, the Minister of Corrections said that the prison population had been safely reduced and that the work he had done on Crown-Maori relations was “leading us into a new era.”

He noted that Labor had not lost 19 members, as National had.

When asked about the three-strike policy, he said the judge should be able to determine the sentence of a repeat offender.

Under three strikes, there could be “perverse results,” such as a person who commits low-level property crimes being locked up for an extended period.

AGRICULTURE AND FAIR PAYMENT

Ardern said that every election there was talk of an urban-rural divide and he didn’t believe it existed.

The opposition had tried to promote the idea that farmers hated their government.

He said the Labor approach to agriculture was adding value to an already valuable sector.

Ardern confirmed that the government would try to advance fair pay agreements if reelected, as it was unable to do so this term due to coalition disputes.

He said that having sectoral agreements was important to “avoid a race to the bottom.”

When a company hired security services, the contracts often went to companies that had the lowest standards and conditions, and the government wanted to change this.

The deals would not affect all workplaces and were sector specific, he said. There would be no strike as a result of the agreements.

COALITION PARTNERS

The first section of the interview focused on potential Labor coalition partners and their main policies.

Ardern said the Green Party wealth tax was not a Labor policy and would not be part of any post-election negotiations. She said that the main party that forms a government should set the direction of fiscal policy.

“We have ruled it out. And I have done it several times.”

Ardern also said that he had not had negotiations with other parties about possible ministerial portfolios, and said it was presumptuous.

When asked about possible new taxes, Ardern said his party’s “main” proposals were a new top tax rate and a tax on digital services.

Hosking said the most popular question for Ardern from the listeners was about Ihumātao.

Ardern said only one person had raised it during the campaign.

She blamed MMP for the impasse over Ihumātao, saying that NZ First leader Winston Peters had impeded any progress on the site.

There was no secret deal, he said: “We have to find a way.”

The historic site near the airport in South Auckland was occupied by protesters last year who opposed a proposed development. Construction has been postponed until an agreement can be reached between the government, various groups within iwi, and construction company Fletchers.

Ardern said his conclusion to the situation was that he could not “undo” the Treaty process.

“Any donation of land would be problematic in that regard.”

THE ECONOMY

Ardern was then asked how long the government could continue to support the tourism industry if the borders were closed for an extended period.

He said the government was backing strategic industries with one-time payments, like Whale Watch in Kaikoura.

When asked how he would describe New Zealand’s economic position, he cited a Bloomberg article that described New Zealand as one of the most attractive places to do business.

“[We are] well placed in relation to others and that matters, “he said.

“We have an opportunity here, not just because we have an open economy, we have an opportunity around investment.”

LEADERS BREAKFAST

The extensive two-hour interview will cover:

• Labor policy platform

• Your reaction to criticism of the policy

• What a second-term Labor-led government will focus on

• Controversies during the last three years

• The performance of workers as part of the coalition government

• Current survey

Ardern presented a longer-term vision for New Zealand yesterday at a party rally in Wellington.

He said he wanted the state’s housing waiting list to be zero by 2030 and for child poverty to be cut in half.

The waiting list for the House of Representatives is currently around 20,000, up from 6,000 when the current government took office. It has built around 4,000 new state houses, but that has not responded to demand.

And halving child poverty by 2030 is actually less ambitious than the government’s 10-year goals, announced in January 2018, to achieve it in 2027/28.

His vision for 2030 also included a New Zealand without health inequalities based on race, wealth or geographic location, with rivers where you can swim, and with farmers selling intellectual property to the world on how to reduce emissions.

With less than a week to go by Election Day, the Labor leader is in the box.

The latest poll from last week showed that his party had a big advantage over National.

But with 47 percent of the party’s votes, he still needed the Greens (6 percent) to form a government. National was at 32 percent and the Law at 8 percent, which means that they did not form a center-right government.

Ardern published new policies on law and order and climate change last week, and made visits to Christchurch, Nelson and Dunedin.

Previous Leaders’ Breakfasts

• Judith Collins

• Winston Peters, James Shaw and David Seymour