Kerre Woodham: We need to get better faster

Well, I might have been swanning about on holiday for an unseemly amount of time but the Government was back at work. You have already discussed, I have no doubt the PM's reshuffle of the cabinet, specifically Dr Reti losing Health to Simeon Brown in a bid to see change happening, change happening better, and there has been much chat about getting the country moving again.  

In the last couple of days, economist Paul Bloxham, the man who coined the “rockstar economy” phrase back in 2014, confirmed what we all know: New Zealand's economy has suffered the biggest hit in the developed world. Specifically, interest rate increases in response to post-pandemic inflation had pushed the country into a recession and unemployment increased sharply across the developed world. HSBC, for whom Paul Bloxham works, estimates suggest that New Zealand's economy had the largest contraction in GDP in 2024.  

So that was all inherited issues. This government was elected to put it right. How are they going? Well, not so great. The PM was on with Mike Hosking on the Mike Hosking Breakfast this morning and got a gee up from Mike. 

MH: My criticism of you is that you're too much yak and not enough do. If you don't like what the Commerce Commission is doing... 

CL: You're just all fired up because of Trump's executive orders, my friend. Because of? Yeah. 

MH: But that's what you need, exactly what you need are executive orders. You need to get a bloody marker pen and start scratching out a few signatures and doing some stuff. 

CL: And the difference between a presidential system and a parliamentary system is quite profound in that regard. 

MH: Look you and I are sick of the same things, you and I are sick of the same things. 

CL: I just say I think we've done more in a year than most governments. 

MH: But what I'm watching here is a Commerce Commission that's been looking at petrol and supermarkets and building products and everything else for eons and nothing’s happening. 

Well things are happening, but I do get Mike's frustrations. We need to do better, and we need to do better faster. The first poll of the year —a Curia-Taxpayers Union poll at that— puts Labour ahead of National for the first time since the 2023 election. And it's no good blaming the last lot this year, it's going to have to be all on National and the coalition government to get cracking.  

I'm not entirely sure the new growth plan announced a couple of days ago by Christopher Luxon in his State of the Nation speech will do the business either. Focusing on tourism is not going to lead to long-term prosperity. Being a service industry, which is ultimately what tourism is, isn't going to lead to long-term prosperity. The rest of the world is pushing back against over tourism, hell, we were pushing back against too many tourists back in 2019, so that's not going to do it.  

Foreign investment’s good, but the right sort of foreign investment is what's required. And that's a little bit more difficult to find. We don't want to become tenants in our own land and good luck getting a lot of that past NZ First. Digital nomads, sure. This is something that's long overdue. People visiting New Zealand on short stays will be allowed to work remotely for their employers back home under the digital nomad scheme launched by the government yesterday. It's a popular concept overseas and it allows visitors to travel to New Zealand while continuing to work for their offshore employer. Internationally, the Harvard International Review puts the global economic value of digital nomads at US$787 billion per year. Which is great, we'll get a tiny share of that. Is that going to fix the economy?  

You know, we have a lot to offer in this beautiful country, as you will have seen yourselves. A lot. But we need to get better, and we need to get better faster. I was listening yesterday to a young man who was 27 saying the last of his friends have left to go overseas. He’s got nobody left. He loves his job. He doesn't want to leave it, but he has no friends, they’re gone. And while I accept that this is a rite of passage and many young New Zealanders head overseas, there are a lot of people who are seeking better opportunities overseas because they are not finding them in their home country.   

We have so much to offer, but is focusing on tourism the way to go? I did like the focus on science and a knowledge-based economy. Come in Helen Clark, what happened to that knowledge-based economy? But that is where New Zealand made its name, New Zealand made its fortune was around the science. Science, scientific brains – entrepreneurs have been leading this country for such a long time, since refrigerated shipping. That's what made our fortune and that's where our fortune lies. That, I agree, is where the focus needs to be. But that takes time and I'm not entirely sure that this government has got the amount of time it needs to turn this country around. 

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