Inflation set for 30-year high, could Waiwera make a comeback and polyamorous relationships under the microscope at Immigration NZ in the latest New Zealand Herald headlines. Video / NZ Herald
OPINION:
I felt bad last week when I asked Megan Woods and Mark Mitchell what the cash rate and unemployment rate was.
I asked because Anthony Albanese, the leader of the opposition in Australia, was asked the same question, came up short, got days' worth of ridicule and, if you'veseen this week's poll, has suffered significantly, with Scott Morrison the preferred Prime Minister and the Labor Party having dipped 4 points.
That's because people expect their leaders to know their stuff.
The reason I asked Woods and Mitchell was not to embarrass them, because I foolishly assumed after the Albanese gaffe, everyone in the Beehive would've seen it, realised it's not a mistake you want to make, and have schooled themselves up on the data of the day.
When they answered correctly I was then going to ask the broader question, what are the things our leaders should know? We never got to that part given Mitchell didn't know either number and Woods got the employment rate right but didn't know the cash rate.
You can argue that Woods should have known, whereas Mitchell, who doesn't have a finance portfolio, didn't necessarily need to, or you could argue that it's not election year so who cares anyway.
Associate Finance Minister Megan Woods. Photo / Mark Mitchell
You can also ask are these sorts of questions relevant, and are you straying into the "gotcha" area where the headline outranks the substance.
The Greens leader in Australia was asked by a journalist what the trade-weighted index was and, quick as a flash, Adam Bandt shot back: "Google it."
The power of the question though is simple: if you are running a country or want to run a country and you don't know the cash rate, what else don't you know?
Famously, a couple of years back, Jacinda Ardern on my programme got confused between GDP and the current account. That lapse actually saw the dollar move, such is the danger of the powerful being found wanting.
Which brings us to our current predicament ... the economy.
We are in a world of trouble.
There isn't a confidence survey out there at the moment that has numbers to be encouraged by.
Sectors are shrinking, the mood is dour, the outlook is even worse.
It's a bad time to buy a large household item, it's a bad time to buy a household, prices are rising and set to rise further, everyone who sells anything is forecasting their prices to continue to rise while their profits shrink.
Inflation is at dangerous levels, the Reserve Bank is pedalling frantically to get it under control, while at the same time telling us there is nothing really to see here.
The Government is playing the same game, everything you think is wrong is the war's fault.
Even though it isn't.
What they are hoping is that you don't understand.
There isn’t a confidence survey out there at the moment that has numbers to be encouraged by. Photo / Alex Burton
It's possible they don't understand, it's possible they've been told to tell us it's the war's fault.
If most of us couldn't name the cash rate, even fewer understand non-tradable inflation.
That lack of knowledge or interest suits the people who run the country.
Because in that understanding is the scandal that is our economy.
We are currently paying the price for our Covid over-reach.
The obsession with hospitals and deaths has in large part led us to where we sit this morning.
In a world of debt, in an economy that is either stalled or going backwards, with a cost of living most of us are struggling with or just plain can't afford.
With a housing market out of reach for growing numbers, with money getting more expensive by the week, with a brain drain well and truly underway and no immigration policy to replace the outflow.
With a skills shortage that is at crisis levels.
Exports are solid, prayers are being offered for the tourism industry and what that might bring later this year but, those two sectors aside, the New Zealand economy is haemorrhaging.
They will tell you everyone has inflation, and that's true, but not everyone has it as bad as us.
The countries that fire-hosed their economies with more money than needed, with money that went to unproductive sectors, are now paying the price for the largesse.
Look at the United States, Britain and good old New Zealand.
Even if you don't know the cash rate, you know your mortgage rate, you know the cost of your grocery shop, you know what your wages have gone up by, you know what going backwards feels like.
They told you a good economic response was a good health response, well enjoy it, this is your good economic response.
