That’s not to say a tunnel in Wellington isn't a solid idea, but it's not hard to announce a tunnel.
Productivity is one of the great handbrakes on allowing this country to be great. We have talked about it for years and failed at liftoff every single time.
Part of it is the make up of our economy. Productivity is hard to grasp in certain areas because simply doing more is not necessarily more productive. Being in tech is an area more open to productivity gain than say farming corn, for example.
But as Act quite rightly point out, we place an emphasis on the Treaty and we look at things through climate lenses, so why not productivity?
Imagine if every major call had to pass the same hurdle a road does. That is why you end up with the road and a cycleway and a bus lane. It's why this Government has carved out Lord knows how many examples of race based policy exclusively for Maori.
Act are specific around productivity - cut taxes, reduce barriers to investment, revisit all old and new regulations and cut red tape. It's the sort of thing you can't really argue with. But you can let it creep if you don’t give it priority.
Now, this is big picture stuff. But it does go back to what we were saying yesterday.
Is anyone interested in policy, in actual specifics? Or are we just on a vibe of "I like these guys and I don’t like those guys".
By the end of this campaign, will anyone be able to articulate a policy on productivity? Or will it have been reduced down to a few headline grabs?
I note yesterday the media coverage of one of the debates being held involved Willie Jackson and him calling people thick. So that’s the news coverage is it? No policy, just the one line grab.
Is that this campaign is it? Pop your head over a fence, disrupt a meeting, call someone a name and, bang, you're guaranteed a headline?
Act deserve credit for offering up actual ideas that are broad based and full of potential and also by being one of the few so far that talk about the future of this country beyond October 14.
Mike Hosking is a New Zealand television and radio broadcaster. He currently hosts The Mike Hosking Breakfast show on NewstalkZB on weekday mornings - where this article was sourced.
But as Act quite rightly point out, we place an emphasis on the Treaty and we look at things through climate lenses, so why not productivity?
Imagine if every major call had to pass the same hurdle a road does. That is why you end up with the road and a cycleway and a bus lane. It's why this Government has carved out Lord knows how many examples of race based policy exclusively for Maori.
Act are specific around productivity - cut taxes, reduce barriers to investment, revisit all old and new regulations and cut red tape. It's the sort of thing you can't really argue with. But you can let it creep if you don’t give it priority.
Now, this is big picture stuff. But it does go back to what we were saying yesterday.
Is anyone interested in policy, in actual specifics? Or are we just on a vibe of "I like these guys and I don’t like those guys".
By the end of this campaign, will anyone be able to articulate a policy on productivity? Or will it have been reduced down to a few headline grabs?
I note yesterday the media coverage of one of the debates being held involved Willie Jackson and him calling people thick. So that’s the news coverage is it? No policy, just the one line grab.
Is that this campaign is it? Pop your head over a fence, disrupt a meeting, call someone a name and, bang, you're guaranteed a headline?
Act deserve credit for offering up actual ideas that are broad based and full of potential and also by being one of the few so far that talk about the future of this country beyond October 14.
Mike Hosking is a New Zealand television and radio broadcaster. He currently hosts The Mike Hosking Breakfast show on NewstalkZB on weekday mornings - where this article was sourced.
6 comments:
Productivity would improve markedly if we 'net zeroed' the government.
You’re right Mike, productivity is important, in health no less than anywhere else.
Imagine the productivity gains if New Zealand Health suddenly accessed thousands more dedicated, qualified and healthy workers who already reside here!
This gain could be achieved with the stroke of a pen and a hefty dose of humility by simply banning hospitals from continuing with compulsory covid vaccination ( with the threat of more to come on a regular basis) for workers.
One hospital explains to this day that the requirement to be covid vaccinated is because “without the vaccine, there is a risk that you may contract covid” and that “There is also a risk you may pass covid 19 to other staff or patients”.
but even worse, they demand not only that you submit, but that you agree that YOU think it’s an OK thing they are requiring of you, by enforcing you “acknowledge that due to the risk of exposure to covid 19 associated with your position and the requirement under this clause to be vaccinated is reasonable for the position.” (Sic).
How this incorporates proven research that covid vaccination fails to stop transmission, and now new, highly concerning mainstream research recently published that those covid mRNA vaccinated have damage to their immune markers for fighting both bacteria AND viruses other than covid, and that with moderna mRNA vaccination one in every thirty five healthcare workers shows direct blood marrker evidence of heart muscle damage, is beyond me.
In fact, I would go so far as to say that any organisation continuing to demand such vaccination, or any person overseeing such systems should be held not just liable for sub optimal productivity but for coercing workers into taking risky experimental products in breach of their human rights AND for the ongoing harms they are thereby causing.
ACT want to improve our productivity on the one hand, on the other they want open immigration of cheap workers.
The first will never happen while we have the second.
Spot on Mike.
Singapore's sustained economic growth – and subsequent wealth – is the result of decades of committed economic policy and its openness to international capital and technology, investment-friendly policies and support for a competitive market.
Israel's quality higher education and the establishment of a highly motivated and educated populace is largely responsible for ushering in the country's high technology boom and rapid economic development by regional standards.
NZ's rocket-lab, Otago University R & D, FFF (fishing farming forestry), Gaming, to mention but a few progressive and future-proofing economic initiatives, may all come to nought unless we stop throwing $$millions onto the altar of sickly white liberal guilt about past history. The so-called Climate Crisis is laughable in the light of over-whelming evidence, and farmers are being hammered for no reason whatsoever.
Let's get this show on the road to recovery, instead of continued life support for bad ideas.
Productivity per worker will never improve as long as the employers are immune to the pressures of the market.
Over here at the epicentre of the Cyclone damage, the job is so big that operator efficiency appears to be irrelevant when tendering for contracts.
I’m not privy to what the Government is paying for the work that has been done but judging from the number of people in each road crew, one would think that it has cost the taxpayer a lot more than it should have.
Maybe, l am basing my arithmetic on a time when competition was the name of the game. These days, monopolies get paid however long it takes or whatever the cost. Clauses in the contract protect the contractor from unforeseen cost overruns, the taxpayer ends up footing the bill
and no politician is held accountable.
If farmers made the same miscalculations, they would have to exit the industry before the banks forced them to do so.
There can be no other country so efficent at extending te reo, or providing state houses for the inefficent un and under employed.
Many Council and other contracts now require favouritism of maori companies and emloyees which probably explains the bloated gangs on the East Cape.
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