Prime Minister Christopher Luxon is out of Cabinet’s top 10 performers, according to the results. (File photo)
Photo: Nick Monro
The Prime Minister has ranked 15th in Cabinet in a survey of senior business leaders, who are also casting doubt on the country’s economic performance.
The New Zealand Herald released its latest Mood of the Boardroom which attracted 150 responses from chief executives.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Finance Minister Nicola Willis were out of Cabinet’s top 10 performers, according to the results.
Luxon scored on average 2.96 out of 5 where one is “not impressive” and five is “very impressive”.
Herald head of business, Fran O’Sullivan, told Morning Report there were some standout themes in the survey.
“While people’s confidence is starting to increase again it’s not across the board, various sectors are thriving, others are not,” she said.
“There’s a bit of a question as to whether there needs to be more assistance in the economy for those firms, particularly those who have been hit by energy issues.”
The chief executives who took part rated their confidence in the economy at 2.81 out of 5.
On the Prime Minister’s performance, O’Sullivan said there were mixed findings.
“The big issue is I think he probably needs to listen more, he’s got a mantra that has started to grate, and he knows that,” O’Sullivan said.
“But those people who have travelled with him internationally do rate him, they see him as focused and driven and really acting in New Zealand’s best interests,” she said.
“He rates very highly also when it comes to ensuring his Cabinet ministers are focused and delivering, he actually rates reasonably well on keeping a coalition together.”
But O’Sullivan said Luxon did not score well for building business confidence, his own political performance and on transforming the economy.
“So on those areas he’s got work to do.”
O’Sullivan said for Finance Minister Nicola Willis, the findings were not about where she was going wrong but about where she could be putting her efforts.
Finance Minister Nicola Willis. (File photo)
Photo: Samuel Rillstone
“They’ve embarked on an economic transformation and growth agenda and at this stage of the game there’s only marginal support for that,” she said.
“She’s still got to build confidence in that and roll it out in a concerted way.”
O’Sullivan said respondents did not like Willis “personalising issues”, and cited a meeting at the Beehive over butter prices with Fonterra chief executive Miles Hurrell.
“That didn’t go down well… I think really it’s tone as much as anything,” O’Sullivan said.
National’s Chris Bishop, told Morning Report, the government would take the feedback from the survey on board and it reflected the tough time New Zealand had gone through as a country.
“We are working hard to deliver growth… there’s some quite good things mentioned in there that the government is working on, making good progress… always want to do more and go faster.
When asked how he felt about being ranked higher than Luxon by the survey, Bishop said he “didn’t focus much on that stuff”.
Labour’s Kieran McAnulty, told Morning Report, the survey showed people across the board were interested in an alternative approach to the government.
The Mood of the Boardroom also showed a strong majority of business leaders backing further cuts in the Official Cash Rate, with 78 percent saying it should fall further.
Just 11 percent opposed further cuts to the OCR while another 11 percent were unsure.
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