Early Edition with Kate Hawkesby

With all this pre-Budget talk I’m just not sure how invested we are in it - how much attention we’re paying it. I mean we should be. We’ve never been fiscally in such dire straits, we are laden down with debt, inflation is rampant, outlooks and optimism levels do not look flash. So what the Government and the opposition want to do with our money should be something we’re laser focused on. Luxon said a couple of things yesterday at the Auckland Business Chamber which resonated with me – one that we tend to confuse activity with achievement in this country. That if people are busy, we think they’re being productive or doing something, when many times, particularly in the public sector, this isn’t true. They’re pushing paper, but productivity outcomes don’t match. There are more people doing more ‘stuff’ but what have we got to show for it? We have a government who has never spent more money, yet what have they got to show for it? What infrastructure project have they started - and finished? How many sectors hav