Christina Pickwell

So it is up there.

Excise tax hurts us because it's not tax deductible because it is a tax.

So...

For us, yeah, it hurts our bottom line a lot because our GST payments then go up and everything else.

And it does, it goes up every year.

So it's a cost that we have to, we can't suck it up.

You know, we used to be able to absorb it, but one year it went up by like seven and a half percent.

And that's massive.

It is, absolutely it is.

It is, yeah, terrifying actually to see how hard business is at the moment to do.

You know, we've been running, you know, we started Liberty in our garage in New Plymouth and so that was 16 and a half years ago.

And this is, these are coming into some of the hardest years we've had actually running this business.

And I start to see the light at the end of the tunnel and I just think, yes, yes, we're going to get there and then something else will happen.

I'm like, yeah, like the fuel crisis.

And I was like, God, just as we were getting there and then we just get hit again.

And I'm still optimistic.

I still, I feel like we are collectively, we are all going to be okay and we're going to get there.

but there's some things that we need to do to look after the industry and look after each other.

Too many of us get into the, well, I have to worry about myself and I have to worry about myself right now, but you won't be here if the rest of us aren't.

We just need to keep...