I mean we should be.
We’ve never been fiscally in such dire straits, we are laden down with debt, inflation is rampant, outlooks and optimism levels do not look flash.
So what the Government and the opposition want to do with our money should be something we’re laser focused on.
Luxon said a couple of things yesterday at the Auckland Business Chamber which resonated with me – one that we tend to confuse activity with achievement in this country.
That if people are busy, we think they’re being productive or doing something, when many times, particularly in the public sector, this isn’t true.
They’re pushing paper, but productivity outcomes don’t match. There are more people doing more ‘stuff’ but what have we got to show for it?
We have a government who has never spent more money, yet what have they got to show for it? What infrastructure project have they started - and finished?
How many sectors have been transformed for the better? What do we have to show for all the spending? More consultants? Yes. More advertising? Yes, more branding and rebranding – yes - but what tangible better outcomes have we seen for us the taxpayer?
I mean take mental health, for example. Lots of words, promises, and numbers bandied about on how they were going to fix that. In reality, what’s happened? Nothing, money unspent, the sector still on its knees, outcomes no better for those involved.
Luxon mentioned speaking with a nurse and a teacher – both in their 20’s, saving to buy a house, the rent had just gone up by $50 that week, they were looking at their outgoings compared to their income and they told him they’d actually started looking at jobs in Australia because they didn’t feel they could get ahead in New Zealand.
And that’s a real travesty.
If we’re seen as such an expensive place to live, that New Zealand is such a prohibitively costly existence for young people that they’re actually planning a future elsewhere, then we’re doing it all wrong.
We have to do better for our kids and their futures and the future of this country. And that’s the bit that worries me – the malaise that’s wafted over this country – during Covid – and is still not lifting.
The pandering to the lowest common denominator, the lack of targets, as Luxon pointed out which have been so debilitating for this country on every metric – health, crime, education, we seem to have decided that just scraping the barrel is good enough.
There’s a collective lack of ambition, lack of desire to be better or want for more.
Where’s our aspiration gone? Where is that 'can do' spirit that our grandparents had?
I worry we’ve given up, and we’re happy to just plod along and as David Seymour put it, basically just be a big Fiji.
The polls are tight – which means, if you believe them, there are a lot of people in this country happy with status quo.
That worries me.
Kate Hawkesby is a political broadcaster on Newstalk ZB - her articles can be seen HERE.
5 comments:
100% Kate!
If this government is reelected there will be a stampede across the Tasman of those wishing to better themselves. Most likely those with marketable skills the country needs most and those paying the lion's share of the taxes.
I doubt most people realize how close to the edge of a precipitous slope this country is!
GDP does not distinguish useful production from useless or negative, or what should be unnecessary. Building a flood proof bridge vs wwallowing in maori twaddle, repairing ram raids, loafing security guard in a library or WINZ office etc.
The public seem content because a huge number are barely aware of developments. Few now read in full newspapers in any form, and the content usaully backs the current and only indulges very lightly in serious analysis of where we are headed. Most have alos given up on tv largely because of the protracted show form of presentation and the degree of te reo and the fact that no subatantial programmes follow the news..
I agree kate. It's hard these days to talk about politics in nz with your friends and family because it divides. There serm to be just two camps. You are seen as either a champayne socialist or a hard right racist and there seems to be no middle ground. Even at work it's somewhat taboo. Even my john key loving indian colleagues want the british monarchy removed from nz. They don't like the english after what happened many years ago in india, so have a somewhat sympathetic view to the maori party and their totally flawed, incorrect messaging as being the oppressed people. They didn't grow up here in nz, and don't know what a beautiful, peaceful, colour blind country we used to be. So mostly it's strange isn't it. So who knows what the outcome of the election will be.
Kate, how many new ICU beds have they bought since COVID ?
Or aren't the consultants reports in yet ????
It is obvious who not to vote for. It is not obvious who to vote for.
And MMP makes it incredibly complicated.
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