Mike's Minute: A mindset shift is needed to recapture our brightest

I am increasingly impressed by Iain Rennie, who is the Treasury boss.

He seems to say a bunch of interesting and insightful stuff.

Last year he warned about our growth rate, our debt and our inability to grow our way out of our troubles. He advocated for asset sales.

This past week he was at the Waikato University Economic Forum where he talked about our problem of exporting our best and brightest.

Dr Oliver Hartwich: Treasury returns to economic rigour

“First and foremost, there is the need to maintain fiscal space for fiscal policy to play a shock-absorber role. That means paying our debt down during normal economic times.”

With these words, Treasury Secretary Iain Rennie signalled a welcome return to sound economic principles in his speech launching the draft Te Ara Mokopuna 2025, the Treasury’s Long-term Insights Briefing on how to manage government finances sustainably.

Michael Reddell: Willis and Rennie speaking

Last week various of the great and good of New Zealand economics and public policy trooped off to Hamilton (of all places) for the annual Waikato Economics Forum, one of the successful marketing drives of university’s Vice-Chancellor.

My interest was in the speeches delivered by the Minister of Finance and by Iain Rennie, the newly appointed (by this government) Secretary to the Treasury. The Minister also used her speech to announce the launch of a Going for Growth website complete with a 44 page document (15 of which are photos and covers, and another 9 are lists of things (being) done) titled “Going for Growth: Unlocking New Zealand’s Potential” – in the Minister’s words, “Going For Growth outlines the approach the Government is taking to turbo-charge our economy”.

Michael Reddell: The Secretary to the Treasury defending govt fiscal policy

I wasn’t envisaging writing anything more for a while, but….Welllington’s weather certainly isn’t conducive to either the beach or the garden, and the Herald managed to get an interview with Iain Rennie, the new Secretary to the Treasury (not usually the sort of stuff for 27 December either).

I’ve always been rather uneasy about heads of government departments doing interviews, on anything other than operational/internal matters for which they have specific personal responsibility. When they get onto policy it is never quite clear whether they are expressing their own views or championing those of the minister, and even if the former they are inevitably somewhat constrained by the views and tolerances of the minister. The primary responsibility, after all, of heads of policy agencies is provision of free and frank policy advice to the minister.