Manifesto for New Zealand

The following are what I believe to be the critical policies to get New Zealand back on track and leading the world again. Seriously, at one stage little old NZ was top in the OECD, but that was so long ago there are few alive now who remember.

Keys to New Zealand success:-

1. Defence 

The opposite of the problem the United States has, NZ does not spend enough on defence. NZ needs to raise its defence spending to 2% of GDP. I suggest it take the 1.1% of GDP it now spends, take that as a constant and on top of that use the balance to (a) set up a professional Coast Guard service and (b) establish a permanent and full-time disaster relief agency, both bodies to be part of the defence force.

Rationale: think about employment and training, many young people would get the opportunity to learn something and make a contribution. They are denied the chance now. Add to that a readiness to deal with poaching of the fisheries, search and rescue and a better earthquake and tsunami response.

2. Immigration

Freeze immigration until house prices stabilise. The exceptions; marriage and family reunification and refugees.

Rationale: numbers equivalent to the population of New Plymouth arrive every year and many of these new immigrants add very little, they're either too old, over educated or they scarper to Australia at the first opportunity. NZ needs to think very carefully about its immigration policy, to start with, the housing stock has to exist to accommodate them. That isn't the case right now, so Kiwis should put themselves first and halt immigration until housing construction rises.

3. Manufacturing

Back manufacturers in tangible ways and raise the profile of NZ's quality manufactured goods.

Rationale: NZ fools itself into thinking there is such a thing as free trade. Every nation protects its own, it's just that tariff barriers have been lowered.

I'll give you three examples of protectionism; (a) Japan and their vehicle registration which means it's very hard for a car or truck to stay on the road for longer than six years, (b) US defence procurement and the Boeing and Lockheed Martin et al tie ups, (c) Australia and its not letting NZ apples in or bananas from anywhere and its strange requirement for 'lock-out' on industrial machines that means all imported machines must undergo alteration before being put to work - they're all protectionist.

New Zealand has an anaemic economy, with too many service and primary sector businesses and not enough secondary producers.

Industrial sectors NZ should dominate but don't - land clearing, logging, shipping, transport, aircraft.

* Land clearing: NZ was at one time covered with forest but it is now largely farmland with some forest. NZ makes virtually none of the types of machines used to do this work. You'd think that with Africa and South America needing this type of thing that NZ would be there with boots on but it just isn't.

* Logging is huge in NZ. It does make Yarders for pulling logs off hills, and some stuff; wire ropes and the like, but the big brands are from Finland or somewhere else. Why? Oh that's because the Finns and others back their manufacturers.

* NZ has a long coastline and relies on ships to trade, but it doesn't make any cargo ships. Just super-yachts, which don't carry cargo.

* Trailers are made in Kiwiland, but no tractor units or trucks of any kind, name that big Kiwi brand of truck.....Scania, that's Sweden.

* Pacific Aerospace is NZ's only aircraft manufacturer, which is very strange when you consider that NZ invented powered flight and use aircraft extensively (Richard Pearse was the first to fly, not the Wright Brothers, the latter just had the better propaganda machine).

4. Crime

Bring back the death penalty for crimes that have an aggravating factor, like murder with torture, or serial rapists. Bring back hard labour for repeat offenders that are violent.

Rationale: It costs too much to incarcerate these criminals. Execute the bad ones, and work the almost as bad ones. Consider remote locations like building a road from Karamea to Collingwood in the South Island, and a rail line from Gisborne to Whakatane in the North.

5. Education

Take education seriously by making teachers teach.

Rationale: Since the 1970's the system has been skewed toward promoting able teachers out of the classroom and into management. If NZ wants to see better results, it must pay good teachers to stay in the classroom.

6. Social Policy and Full Employment

Anyone registered unemployed should be given a meaningful job.

Rationale: Anyone who wants to work should work. Those not registered or on a sickness benefit clearly either don't want to or cannot. One way of doing this - getting everyone a job - is to take all employers with 10 or more employees and pay them to employ people on the minimum wage, with the government topping up between that amount and a living wage. Rock and hard place approach, each employer would be told how many new hires they have to take, if they decline, any penalty interest on overdue sums to Inland Revenue would double.

7. Oil, Gas and other Minerals

Establish a State mineral exploration company, focussing on New Zealand and the Pacific Islands.

Rationale: NZ should be exploring all the time. There is a lot of oil and gas and other minerals in NZ, just no-one looks very hard. Take the Takaka Hill for instance, it has iron ores, marble, limestone, soap stone, but it is hardly mined. Parliament and the Beehive is made of beautiful marble from Takaka but if you asked at any school, the children would likely guess the marble was from China or Italy.

8. Political reform

Make government a lot smaller, return to first past the post elections and have fewer representatives and fewer state and public servants. Let people get on with their lives without the ever-present government meddling.

Rationale: structure NZ more like a multinational company. It has only 4.5 million people but a bureaucracy more suitable to a country with ten times the existing population.

9. Taxation reform

Reduce GST to the same rate as Australia, reduce the excise tax on cigarettes, scrap tax refunds like Working for Families which favour a certain few.

Rationale: keep it simple with a GST rate that is easy to calculate and apply, and does not act as a disincentive to consume (lower prices). Thresholds could be lowered from the $60,000 now to $30,000, bringing more into the tent who must pay GST.  With cigarettes, the poor have few pleasures and they're increasingly going to more harmful drugs, like meth and alcohol.

Then Working for Families sets poorer families with children apart, they are more favoured than anyone else. The young and childless along with the rich of any kind, subsidise the lower earners with kids. Here's a radical idea, how about not taxing that much to begin with and let people just get on and make their own choices. Hmm? Working for Families simply funds someone's TAB, booze and tobacco budget. It's cynical vote buying and both Labour and National are guilty.

10. Promote NZ 

Establish a 24 hour news service and broadcast on cable television in the USA and Europe. NZ has brilliant documentaries and newscasters, the rest of the world needs to see them, and they then learn and buy our stuff.

Rationale: most of the world forms its opinions from what they see on the TV and the rest of the world sees very little of NZ. The cost of setting this up could be quite cheap, just sell off TV2 as a commercial channel and put TV1, both state owned, onto the news and doco format. Or buy TV3 when they next go bust and do the same with them, sell of the profitable radio stations (or float them on the NZX) and put the TV3 channel over to news and doco. A deal could be struck with the excellent Maori Television for content.

11. Sport 

Get all children into sport, whether cross-country running or chess, what that sport is doesn't matter.

Rationale: When it comes to sporting potential, someone good at something finds the sport fun. NZ needs to find what children are good at and support them. Right now, finding that right sport is a grab bag of wrong-headed thinking.

Take every child from birth, blood test, register them then test at age 6, 9, 12, 15 and 18. Test for everything, then send them to the right class and the right school and the right sport.

NZ has many Steven Adams out there, I know as I played basketball alongside them, they need developing and promoting. Why is NZ not all over this?

12. Infrastructure

Build infrastructure and do not favour one sector over another.

Rationale: the Kaikoura earthquakes remind us how fixated NZ has become on one form of transport, in this case road transport. NZ was caught with its pants down, State Highway 1, the national road is blocked and now how to move stuff? Air is expensive, rail blocked as well and little or no coastal shipping. That is a serious headache for anyone living in the South Island.

But NZ can't just stop there; the sewer pipes will need replacing, bridges right across the nation are in the same boat as the sewer pipes. People may remember that when the rail network last went bust, the government subsequently got it up and running but had to put in a huge amount toward repair or replacement of the rail bridges. That work was due and rail is a lot older than the road network. By my calculation thousands of NZ's road bridges, which are largely managed by often poorly governed local authorities, will be due for major upgrade or replacement in about 20 years. This is an expenditure far more serious than the ballooning retired population. Being brutal about this, at least the oldies like me will one day die. But when those bridges collapse, that's it, NZ will be finished.

The chickens are coming home to roost, get those prisoners to work.

13. Maori

No more handouts via the treaty settlement process. Offer semi-autonomy to certain tribes.

Rationale: bulk fund the noisy tribes. See if they can hack it on their own. Don't allow them to raise taxes, an army, or conduct foreign policy, but let them be like Wales. Wales is part of the U.K. but still a principality.

The benefit for NZ would be winning first, second and third place at the Rugby World Cup. That wouldn't happen of course as the IRB would ban NZ, that kind of thinking is for the 'home' nations only (just joking, NZ'd win first, second, and third of both Rugby World Cups - Union and League). And think about two things, change the national anthem to be only sung in Maori, that way it sounds acceptable, and change the name of NZ to Aotearoa, initially Aotearoa New Zealand or Aotearoa Kiwiland. NZ'd enter the Olympics ahead of Australia, which is key I think.

New Zealand, why call a country New when it isn't, and Zealand when that's a territory in the Netherlands; a country that supposedly 'discovered' NZ but the discoverer didn't set foot on land, he ran away when the Maori killed one of his men for having the temerity to invade. Do you see my point? NZ is not Dutch and does not run away.

Kiwis are not that imaginative with names I know, hence Short Vly (sic) off the road between Blenheim and Nelson, at least the signwriter had a sense of humour. Plus too many Bull Creek, Small Creek, Long Valley, and of course the very imaginative North and South Island because New Ulster and New Munster was too complicated. Don't get me started on all those places called N****r something, usually called that after a black Labrador, which are traditionally called N****r (watch the Dambusters movie from the 50's if you don't believe me). When it comes to naming things, Kiwis are not at all imaginative, so Aotearoa makes a lot of sense as it's easy to use. Like Zimbabwe is better than Southern Rhodesia, though it's the bottom of the alphabet, but at least they dropped the name of a genocidal maniac.

14. Regional Development

Send government departments to the regions - disperse.

Rationale: this protects NZ in case of natural disaster by not concentrating services and spreads incomes, it means government would be cheaper. Along with Maori semi-autonomy, the regions get a boost from the employment and construction.

15. Health

Concentrate on day clinics and reach into schools and workplaces. Take healthcare to the masses, don't sit behind the desk at the hospital. Expand free healthcare to include basic orthodontic for children up to age 18 and dental surgery for adults once every four years. Free teeth cleaning annually.

Rationale: NZ is getting ever bigger hospitals and worse services. Reverse this by going small, locate clinics for same day procedures close to the people.

16. Police

Freeze the existing police budget but create a new force similar to the Federal police in Australia dealing with serious and international crime.

Rationale: drug dealers, precursor shippers, organised crime, internet scammers look out. The existing police do a good job at the lower level but they're out of their depth on the serious stuff. Arm these Federal police officers heavily and give them sweeping powers of arrest and seizure. That'd sort the gangs out, lock em up on sight; this is possible if you create a force with the powers to do so.

17. Retirement

Over the next decade the baby boomers will be retiring and they'll begin drawing on National Superannuation. This is really not a problem as they're investors and enterprising, they'll manage and so will NZ.

There is really nothing that needs to be done, apart from two innovations; look at retirement being on a sliding scale, paying less if retiring from age 60 (you can retire as early as 55 in Australia), or paying more from age 68. By taking bets like this, the government can smooth expenditure, some people who take a later retirement age (and more money) may actually die early and be no cost at all. Those going for early retirement would receive less over the subsequent 15 years, only catching up on those who retire at age 65 when they reach 75, again they may die before getting there.

The other problem is retirees are strongly incentivized to invest in rental housing as the capital gain is not taxed. There are peculiar whiz bang rules that make a genuine international portfolio of shares almost impossible for the small investor. By simply changing the rules to put capital gains from share investment onto the same footing as rental housing, as well as only paying tax on actual income from dividends, would diversify investors into stocks on the NYSE and Nasdaq and make retirement savers more independent and less vulnerable.

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There you have it, follow this prescription and watch NZ take off. Right now it's sinking, sorry to have to tell you that, but it's true.

New Zealand: Change Needed

At some stage New Zealand will implode. Everything will simply stop working, and it'll be back to basics. What went wrong? I explain it like this: New Zealand gave up the British Empire model which concentrated on national development above all else and adopted the US consumerist approach, and since then everything has gone downhill.

This is not to say that everything the United States does is wrong, they've developed a pretty impressive economy, and there's the rub, when adopting the American way foreigners often cherry pick. What consumers end up doing is buying lots of pretty things, and the hard work involved in building a complete infrastructure is avoided.

New Zealand is one such country. Any visitor to NZ will find a modern set-up; roads. bridges, ports, airports, cities, when you flush the toilet the waste runs somewhere and is treated, and when you turn the tap on fresh water flows limitlessly. Put your rubbish bin out on the right day and voilà, the contents are spirited away. You get the idea.

Thing is, almost all of this infrastructure was put in place during a time when it was hard to buy something. If you wanted to buy a car, you needed permission to do so unless you had overseas funds. And assuming you could buy that new car, you had to take the colour it was delivered in. As a result, secondhand cars could sell for more than new ones. This sounds really bad, right? In a way it was but the upside was a country got built in less than a hundred years.

I will illustrate using the example of the bridge I use every day, just down the road from where I live. It's a solid structure, put there back in the 1940's. The steel on it was made in London, how I know this is under the bridge I can see the name of the manufacturer stamped onto each beam. Yet the bridge was built at a time when it was hard to even buy a car to use that bridge.

Here's what I'm getting at, does anyone believe for a minute that that bridge can be replaced easily, even though I can now buy whatever car my heart desires? Which is better, car not so good and wonderful bridge, or luxury car and bridge falling down?

I won't be alive to see the inevitable, but my children will be and I'm worried about them. Things will go bad very quickly, it will be when the pipes in the ground expire, the bridges finally give up the ghost, when the roads become so potholed or congested you can't get anywhere. It will seem to happen all at once because all of these things were built at about the same time, so they will expire at about the same time.

What is the solution? Given that New Zealand has drifted for so long, the solution needs to be radical. I don't believe the current crop of politicians have it in them to make the hard decisions. What is needed is complete reform of the political process in New Zealand.

New Zealand can begin by reducing the size of government. At the central government level, there are currently over 40 ministries and departments, add to that other entities that are government owned or controlled, as well as local and regional government. This in a country of only 4.5 million people. No wonder nothing gets done, the only employment available is in endlessly planning what not to do (I'm being facetious).

Look at it like this; if California was to exit the United States, Calexit, it would likely form into six independent states, all being part of the newly independent California which would be the world's fifth largest economy. Any one of those six Californian states would be larger than all New Zealand. Has that sobered you up?

Reform New Zealand by taking the following steps; get rid of the Governor-General and instead elect a President and Vice-President who run the country like CEO and Deputy CEO (the President takes over the Governor-General's residence, the Vice-President gets Premier House). The President would appoint an advisory committee to oversee things, and this would replace the current Cabinet. The advantage of a system like this, like that of the USA, is specialist skills can be recruited that would not otherwise be elected. I wouldn't call them ministers however, but rather something like adviser or secretary.

Reduce the size of parliament from over 120 now, to only 60, do away with MMP, each member of parliament would represent a territorial electorate, elected on first-past-the-post.

Merge all those central government ministries, departments and agencies into eight, no more than ten departmental groups.

From a further eight, no more than ten industry groups, the job would be to design the framework for output, set goals and referee the game played within the economy.

Have a board running each sector and industry group, the majority on each board to comprise members of parliament, the balance directly elected from employers, unions, Maori, church, and members of the public.

Do away with all regional and local body authorities.

How would this work? There would be sixteen, no more than twenty state sector, public service and industry groups. Each sector group would, apart from running things, propose laws by referring anything to the President for signature. These become regulations within existing legislation. How many laws do you need for heavens sake? New legislation would need to be passed through parliament but I'd restrict their sitting days to one calendar month for this purpose. Laws could be sent down to the parliament from the office of the President, or arise from the sector groups, or the members themselves.

Remember, the government is embodied in the office of the President, so there is no reason for the parliament to vote on any grounds other than what is in the best interest of the nation. Political parties may be useful to advance policy, but would be meaningless in terms of trying to defeat a government as that can only happen upon the outcome of the vote at the general election.

In practical terms let's look at transport and use that example to see how things would function.

The transport group would own and control all roads, ports, rail and airports. It could be overseen by a board of nineteen members, a chairperson, and eighteen other members, nine of whom, along with the chairperson must be elected parliamentarians. The other nine board members come from sector groups who hold their own elections; two from employers, two from unions, one Maori, one church, plus three members of the public voted for in the general election.

This group then sets about building and repairing the infrastructure, with the chairperson reporting directly to the President or Vice-President (CEO's). This is how to get something done. Think multinational companies and how they operate.

New Zealand would be better off with this structure. Citizens would have almost direct access to the top, and they'd get a vote in matters that directly affected them; if a bridge needed repair or replacement the locals would contact the area manager, who reports the matter to the area committee, then on to the board as a whole who sign off or reject the proposal. Decisions would be made in weeks, perhaps months, not the decades it sometimes takes now.

Politically, the President and deputy are forced to work with the parliament, but the House of Representatives becomes a body that chooses who will sit on the state sector and industry groups, the government is essentially the President and advisory committee and the President appoints sector group chairpersons.

The result would be a cost-effective way of doing things, as well as a speedy way of developing the country. General elections would be held every three or four years, with the sector groups voted on at the same time.  There would be no local body elections, and staffing could change, with general managers and area managers taking over from mayors and council CEO's.

Services would likely improve. Take healthcare as an example. Each city would no longer have a divided health board. The hospitals would be run by an area manager, reporting to a general manager and chairperson. Those employees would have performance pay based on their health outcomes. The risk is they may prune waiting lists to make it look like they're doing a swell job. But then it just comes down to how their performance is measured, and to eliminate possible anomalies.

The great part of this approach is that each state sector and industry group can be measured and a report card issued. Ultimately a report card can be produced on even the President, resulting in an overall negative or positive score. Clearly the state sector group led by the Auditor-General would need independence from political interference to achieve this aim.

The report card could be issued just before the general election, putting anyone standing for re-election on the spot.

Taxation would need to change. I propose that with this much smaller government, that GST be reduced to 10%, the same as Australia. Direct personal tax would stay the same, but I'd scrap Working for Families, which is the silliest thing I've ever seen. I'd make cigarettes cheaper, I don't see the need to pay poor people to smoke, just make the ciggies cheap to begin with (what I'm saying is that families on low earnings are paid for each child through Working for Families, and the parents then buy cigarettes at $30 a packet, why not make the smokes $10 a packet and do away with the middleman, Inland Revenue in this case).

Council rates would become property tax, paid directly to central government, it could even come out of each pay packet.

I'd scrap user pays. If you're a citizen or permanent resident, all government services would be free, including obtaining a passport.

At birth all New Zealanders would be registered and documented, being issued an identity smart card. This would hold all biometric information; health data, criminal history, test scores and the like (backed up in the cloud of course). When applying for work in the public sector, this card must be produced (not in the private sector this would breach privacy and not be valid).

The first thing this identity system would deliver is the ability to teach children based on their needs, and deliver Olympic medals. Using this system I'd have all children tested at age six, nine, twelve, fifteen and eighteen. The test would be of personality, dexterity, attention span, intelligence, muscle, physical dimensions (height, wingspan etc), stamina, speed, and overall health.

Then based on the result, children would be placed in classes (and schools) that best suited their needs and they'd be directed to sports that suited them as well. Tall to basketball and volleyball, fast to sprinting, supple to gymnastics, geniuses to mathematics, practical to engineering and trades. New Zealand has the Plunket book, why this has not been extended and digitised I have no idea, the country is sitting on a gold mine (get it, gold mine boom boom).