Oct 2, 2026 · 33 min · 11 segments
With just over one month to go until Kiwis cast their ballots, Jesse and Ben sit down to unpick the discussion about strategic voting on both the left and right, the newly announced bottom lines from…
Ben CravenHostIf you're the government, I think you'd, you'd try and argue it's good news, definitely.
if you're the opposition, you probably think it's decent news as well because you've got, uh, more money in the kitty for your spending commitments.
Growth was higher going into the fuel crisis, uh, and so that means there was a, the rosier picture compared to May.
So basically, uh, what we thought was happening wasn't quite as bad as what was actually happening.
Um, in spite of the fuel crisis, there was still a bit of growth happening in the economy, and that's, that's pretty surprising given how high fuel has been.
There's a, uh, also in the PREFU, uh, there's suggesting that there's gonna be a surplus a year earlier, so '28, '29 rather than-
... 'cause in real terms, that means, I think, $15 billion less in debt that we need to take on over the next four years.
Yeah, it's, uh, it's kinda decimal point changes compared to the May forecast, which is considering the phase we've just gone through with the fuel crisis, looking pretty good.
Um, but it's not, it's not entirely rosy for the government, right? So I think, uh, in, in this, in the PREFU, Treasury's also said, "Hey, uh, this, this does rely on some big assumptions," uh, particularly around the spending program that, they, the next government was gonna have.
If you're the government, I think you'd, you'd try and argue it's good news, definitely.
if you're the opposition, you probably think it's decent news as well because you've got, uh, more money in the kitty for your spending commitments.
Growth was higher going into the fuel crisis, uh, and so that means there was a, the rosier picture compared to May.
So basically, uh, what we thought was happening wasn't quite as bad as what was actually happening.
Um, in spite of the fuel crisis, there was still a bit of growth happening in the economy, and that's, that's pretty surprising given how high fuel has been.
There's a, uh, also in the PREFU, uh, there's suggesting that there's gonna be a surplus a year earlier, so '28, '29 rather than-
... 'cause in real terms, that means, I think, $15 billion less in debt that we need to take on over the next four years.
Yeah, it's, uh, it's kinda decimal point changes compared to the May forecast, which is considering the phase we've just gone through with the fuel crisis, looking pretty good.
Um, but it's not, it's not entirely rosy for the government, right? So I think, uh, in, in this, in the PREFU, Treasury's also said, "Hey, uh, this, this does rely on some big assumptions," uh, particularly around the spending program that, they, the next government was gonna have.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.