{"id":30406,"date":"2025-09-18T22:51:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T22:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/30406\/"},"modified":"2025-09-18T22:51:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T22:51:09","slug":"luxon-absolutely-backs-willis-as-finance-minister-amid-gdp-slump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/30406\/","title":{"rendered":"Luxon ‘absolutely’ backs Willis as finance minister amid GDP slump"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon maintains he has full confidence in Finance Minister Nicola Willis after New Zealand\u2019s GDP fell 0.9%<\/a> in the June quarter.<\/p>\n

The drop, which was larger than some economists had predicted<\/a>, led to calls for Willis to resign from the finance portfolio. <\/p>\n

Among those calling for her to step down were former finance minister Roger Douglas and University of Auckland Matthew Abel chair of macroeconomics Robert MacCulloch. Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said the Government\u2019s efforts to tame the economy were \u201cnot good enough\u201d. <\/p>\n

Speaking to media while at Air New Zealand\u2019s new hangar in Auckland, Luxon was asked if he still had confidence in Willis. <\/p>\n

\u201cAbsolutely,\u201d he replied. <\/p>\n

\u201cNicola Willis is the best finance minister New Zealand is ever going to have. She\u2019s an outstanding person, she\u2019s an exceptional finance minister and economic growth minister. <\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s doing an exceptionally good job in a very tough situation, and I totally back her.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"Finance<\/p>\n

Finance Minister Nicola Willis (file image). (Source: Getty)<\/p>\n

He said that since New Zealand was a small trading nation, it gets \u201csmacked around\u201d in the global economy, and US President Donald Trump\u2019s tariffs<\/a> had created a \u201chuge loss of confidence\u201d around the world and at home. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s uncertainty, and as a result, businesses don\u2019t invest, and people don\u2019t spend their money.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the GDP data was historical and expected the economy to grow stronger going into the next quarter. <\/p>\n

The PM said he had a conversation with Willis about her portfolios, where he told her she had his \u201cfull backing\u201d. <\/p>\n

Douglas and MacCulloch said yesterday that Willis was \u201csending New Zealand bankrupt by failing to get to grips with our ballooning fiscal deficits and public debt”.<\/p>\n

The GDP has now fallen in three of the last five quarters. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

“Her own Treasury contradicts her claim that NZ is on a path to surplus. It is not. Treasury’s long-term fiscal forecasts show out-of-control deficits due to pensions and health-care spending from an ageing population,” they said in a statement.<\/p>\n

“Willis is not up to the job and is not levelling with the New Zealand public.”<\/p>\n

Luxon called those comments \u201cabsolute rubbish\u201d. <\/p>\n

He pointed out New Zealand\u2019s inflation and interest rates dropping as the economic wins the Government had seen since being elected, as well as the recently secured free trade deal with the UAE. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re cleaning up a hell of a mess, and we\u2019re turning this country around.\u201d <\/p>\n

The morning’s headlines in 90 seconds, including Trump slams Kimmel ahead of UK departure, new details on Jorja Miller\u2019s injury, and is chocolate about to get cheaper? (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

Following the release of yesterday\u2019s numbers, Willis said New Zealand\u2019s economy “had the stuffing knocked out of it” when Trump’s tariffs went into effect<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe second quarter of the year started the day before United States tariffs were announced.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe economy had been growing strongly in the previous six months… I feel for people and businesses who have been affected.”<\/p>\n

Willis said there were signs the economy was growing again as the end of the current quarter approached.<\/p>\n

“Lower interest rates are filtering through the economy. There is evidence of increased mortgage lending. And the impact of tariffs has not been as disruptive as initially feared. The outlook for most export sectors remains positive.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prime Minister Christopher Luxon maintains he has full confidence in Finance Minister Nicola Willis after New Zealand\u2019s GDP…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30407,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[138,11508,219,111,43,139,69,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-30406","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-christopher-luxon","10":"tag-economy","11":"tag-new-zealand","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-newzealand","14":"tag-nz","15":"tag-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}