Mike Hosking Leaders Breakfast: Jacinda Ardern

Labour Party leader Jacinda Ardern joined Mike Hosking this morning for Newstalk ZB’s final Leaders Breakfast event of the 2020 election campaign.
Ardern yesterday laid out her vision for 2030, but her party will need to be re-elected if she hopes to achieve those goals.
Covid-19 response, Ihumātao, coalition partners, the economy and trade were all on the agenda in a wide-ranging, two hour interview.
COALITION PARTNERS
The first section of the interview focused on Labour potential coalition partners and their main policies.
Ardern said the Green Party's wealth tax was not Labour policy and it would not be part of any post-election negotiations. She said the major party forming a government should set the direction on tax policy.
"We have ruled it out. And I've done it multiple times."
Ardern also said she had not had any negotiations with other parties about possible ministerial portfolios, saying it was presumptuous.
Asked about any possible new taxes, Ardern said her party's "primary" proposals were a new top tax rate and a digital services tax.



Hosking said the most popular question for Ardern from listeners was about Ihumātao.
Ardern said just one person had raised it on the campaign trail.
She blamed the impasse over Ihumātao on MMP, saying that NZ First leader Winston Peters had prevented any progress at the site.
There was no secret deal, she said: "We have to find a way through."
The historic site near the airport in South Auckland was occupied by protestors last year who opposed a proposed development. Construction has been put off until an agreement can be made between the Government, various groups within the iwi, and the construction company Fletchers.
Ardern said her bottom line for the situation was that it could not "unravel" the Treaty process.
"Any gifting of land would be problematic in that regard."
THE ECONOMY
Ardern was next asked how long the government could keep supporting the tourism industry if the borders were going to be closed for an extended period.
She said the Government was backing strategic industries with one-off payments - such as Whale Watch in Kaikoura.
Asked how she would describe New Zealand's economic position, she cited a Bloomberg article which described New Zealand as one of the most attractive places to do business.
"[We are] well placed relative to others and that matters," she said.
"We have an opportunity here - not just because we have an open economy - we have an opportunity around investment."
FARMING AND FAIR PAY
Ardern said talk of an urban-rural divide came up every election and she did not believe it existed.
The Opposition had tried to promote the idea that farmers hated her Government.
She said Labour's approach to farming was adding value to an already valuable sector.
Ardern confirmed that the Government would try to progress fair pay agreements if it was re-elected, having been unable to do so this term because of coalition wrangling.
She said having sector-wide agreements were important to "avoid a race to the bottom".
When a firm was contracting for security services, contracts often went to companies which had the lowest standards and conditions - and the Government wanted to change this.
The agreements would not affect every workplace and were sector-specific, she said. There would be no strike action as a result of the agreements.
PIKE RIVER
Ardern stood by the recovery mission at the Pike River coal mine, despite rising costs and no discovery of remains.
"We have always known that there might be a chance that we might not find human remains," she said.
She said the Government owned it to the family to attempt a recovery. It would remove a question that had hung over families and the country for a decade, she said.
GANGS
Ardern said the large rise in the number of gang...

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