Dr Oliver Hartwich: New Zealand’s ‘No’ culture threatens growth agenda

“There’s always a reason to say no, but if we keep saying no, we’ll keep going nowhere.”

With these words in his ‘State of the Nation’ speech last week, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon diagnosed a critical barrier to New Zealand’s economic growth: a culture of negativity and excessive caution.

Only a few days later, his government provided the perfect test case for Luxon’s diagnosis.