Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Does Roger Gray have a point about our 'no' culture?

So the Ports of Auckland boss Roger Gray is onto something, isn't he? Because we are a country that loves to say no.

He said in a speech to a crowd at the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron in Auckland that he went to Miami to speak to four major cruise liners to find out why the cruise ships aren't coming here as much as they used to.

And he apparently says that they call us 'No Zealand' because we just say no to everything. Is he wrong?

I mean, look at the news that's been around just for the last couple of days, right?

Santana wants to dig $7 billion worth of gold out of the ground near Cromwell. The locals say no.

Eric Stanford wants to change the curriculum so our kids can actually get a decent international education and have a future ahead of them. The unions say no.

Chris Bishop wants to scrap regional councils because they just waste everyone's time and money and say no to things, and the perpetually concerned looked at that and said no.

We say no so much that the Government has created the fast-track approvals process to basically bulldoze through all the 'no's' they know are gonna come.

Some of it is the rules that we've created for ourselves, right? Because the RMA is just one giant no factory.

But some of it, I think, is actually cultural.

We have a great life here in New Zealand, even if you're rich or poor, whatever your circumstances, you can enjoy your life in New Zealand.

Temperatures aren't too extreme, there aren't creatures trying to kill you all the time like in Australia, foreign enemies aren't trying to kill us all the time like places in Europe, and we don't actually really have to struggle too much to get by.

So we can cruise, and so we do cruise. So we just don't try. We just say no, we just don't want to change that much.

On the bright side, I think this attitude is changing at the minute. 

I mean, I hate to make things about politics all the time and look to politicians for help, but I think it is because we have some brave political leaders at the moment who are prepared to ruffle some feathers.

The mayor of Auckland who was just getting on with changing the port and making money for the city, and the RMA minister Chris Bishop who's scrapping the regional councils, which is a massive thing to do.

And everyone's crush, Erica Stanford, who's completely overhauling education despite the educators saying no to her.

So when we have to say yes, when the going gets tough like it is right now, I think that we can say yes.

My hope is, though, that we get stuck in the yes setting and we stay here and break the habit of the constant no setting.

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