He said his company spent $37 million re-tooling and building new factories. ”We invested heavily in [automation]. We looked very carefully, strategically, about where we wanted to go.
“I did everything he said that they should become adults and do. What I didn’t do was destroy the economy.”
Barrett said the Labour Government destroyed the economy and people voted in National to go in and fix it – but the party had failed to do so.
“I’m disappointed in National and I voted for them my whole life.”
Barrett said he will not be voting National in the next election. Asked which way he’d vote, he said that with the two main parties, “you’ve got dumb and dumber”, so he feels “the smartest thing people can do” is to give smaller parts of the coalition more power.
“I turned 64 last weekend. In the last three years, when I should have made a ton of money, I didn’t. At my age, you don’t get another chance. We can’t stay until we’re 80 or 90 to rebuild what someone externally did to our business, so I guess you get a bit annoyed about that,” he said.
The manufacturing boss says his is not a unique view in the industry.
“It’s not just me, it’s everyone in our industry. We’re all … at that level, there’s no one at 30 who’s got a brilliantly large company. We’re all in our 60s. We want to pass it on to someone, we want to have someone to sell it to. In an economy where you don’t have that opportunity and your business is worth less than you want it to be, then how do you live the rest of your life?”
Rotorua business leaders spoke to Luxon about the city’s economic struggles during a visit on Friday, and the Prime Minister suggested businesses needed to “be adults”.
Luxon said if businesses were not “retooling and radically disrupting” their business, “you ain’t doing your job”.
The Prime Minister said he knew the “reality” of running a business.
“The last person I wanted to ever talk to as a CEO was the Government.”
Luxon never wondered whether he could “get some grant money to do something”.
“No,” he said. “I was building a kick-arse business” like an “adult”.