New Zealand needs a Brexit of its own

The current system is not working. What we have now is a group of established politicians who are almost impossible to remove from office, lording it over the country. It matters very little which party they belong to but National and Labour are the stand-outs.

We need to take our country back. The only way I see this happening is if a new party is established that gets control of the political process and reinstates first past the post General Elections rather than the MMP system we now have.

On that journey, this movement could stand for other things as well and not be a single issue party, which has a short shelf life. Here are some ideas:-

Defence

We know how exposed NZ is to natural disasters and just how ill prepared the country is. The latest Kaikoura earthquakes remind us only too well that NZ was very lucky. We were celebrating 75 years of the navy which meant visiting Navies could help out. The country can't rely on luck, it needs a fully functioning disaster relief programme ready to go. This is not cheap, take our bridges as an example, NZ does not have a stock of Bailey Bridges to put up in a hurry to get bridges open.

In the Kaikoura example, the HMNZS Canterbury, a so-called multi-role vessel could not put supplies ashore in a two metre swell. And we paid far too much for the NH90 helicopters, we could get this kind of lift for half the price (or double the capacity).

Additionally, there appears very little civil construction ready to go to work immediately which is quite shameful.

Manufacturing

NZ is weaker now than when it headed down the 'Rogernomics' road in the 1980's. Manufacturing jobs have been lost, with the workforce largely working in service sectors. This should be reversed, NZ needs to build a viable secondary manufacturing sector.

Immigration

With house prices escalating, immigration should be curtailed until prices stabilise.

Mining and Forestry

Drill baby drill, and let's get our trees back. Enough said.

Government

Shrink the size of central government.

Transport

NZ needs a viable air, road, rail and coastal shipping infrastructure. The blocking of rail and road on SH1 after the quakes should be a sobering lesson as to why NZ needs a coastal shipping industry.

Treaty of Waitangi

The treaty settlement process has become a boondoggle for vested interests. We need to end the treaty gravy train.

I have no idea what the name of this party would be but NZ badly needs it. Of existing parties, NZ First may look the closest, but the problem is it is dominated by one man, Winston Peters, and like National it is the party for old people. Any new party has to embrace the younger voter.