Chapter 1. COVID’S SILVER LINING
Perhaps for many New Zealanders, the period of the March-April 2020 Covid-19 lockdown will not be remembered fondly. Shops all shuttered. Streets empty of cars. Just a few walkers getting their exercise (and keeping their distancing). Modern society as we know it, almost totally closed down. Much of New Zealand tuned into to TV1 at…
Chapter 2. SOME KEY ECONOMIC ISSUES
CRISES FACILITATE MAJOR CHANGE It is a peculiar aspect of humans that we usually need a crisis to make real change. We all know of personal examples. The guy who for years drank too much. Then he had a major car accident, and hasn’t drunk since. Societies are unfortunately similar. When life within them is…
Chapter 3. BANKING – PLENTY TO THINK ABOUT
Pretty much every modern economy has a two tiered banking system. There is inevitably a central bank which acts as the banker for the trading banks which operate in that economy. The central bank sets interest rates and significantly influences monetary conditions in its economy. The trading banks borrow funds (partly by taking deposits) and…
Chapter 4. NZ’S UNFORTUNATE LOVE OF HOUSING
I have already given you a preview that I assess New Zealanders’ love affair with housing to be perhaps our most significant economic handicap. It has unbalanced our economy and diverted funding from productive commercial investment. HOW BAD IS THE PROBLEM? The Economist produces a series of interactive charts available on the internet. They compare…
Chapter 5. TAXATION: POLITICIANS RUN SCARED
Let us start with the big picture. In the year ended 30 June 2019, the entire GDP of New Zealand was exactly $300billion. That is the value of all the goods and services produced in the country that year. Out of that total, the Government drew revenue totalling almost $92billion, or approximately 30.6%. The government’s…
Chapter 6. A WORRYING 2020/21 BUDGET
I had basically finished my book in draft when the 2020 Budget was delivered on 14 May 2020. For me it was a cue that a chapter on fiscal policy was also needed. That Budget shows the New Zealand Government has run a substantial deficit (estimated to be $28.3 billion) in the financial year ended…
Chapter 7. CORRUPTION IN NEW ZEALAND
New Zealand is extraordinarily lucky. It suffers only low levels of corruption. But are we too complacent? Consider what corruption is. If you live in a corrupt country it will likely have a suspect police force, it will almost certainly have a judicial system that is not independent of the government, and it will have…
Chapter 8. TOURISM: REINCARNATION NEEDED
Until the Covid lockdown and border closure, tourism had become our largest export earner and our largest industry. The statistics were impressive: In 2010, tourists numbered 2.5million, in 2015 – over 3million, in 2019 – 3.9million. That is a 56% increase in ten years. Revenue from international visitors in 2019 amounted to $17.2 billion and…
Chapter 9. IMMIGRATION – DID NZ GET IT WRONG?
New Zealand has seen record high immigration in recent years, much of it from Asia. In any discussion of a sensitive subject it is always best to start with facts. New Zealand’s population stood at 3.5million in 1991. It took another 12 years to reach 4 million. It took slightly less time, 11 years, to…
Chapter 10. WELFARE – IT’S THE BIG ONE
A third of all government spending goes to Welfare, which includes NZ Superannuation. Well over half of total government spending goes on Welfare and Health. With an aging population these two expenditures are set to increase significantly. In the 2019 fiscal year, we spent 9.7% of New Zealand’s GDP on Welfare; 5.9% on Health and…
Chapter 11. CLIMATE CHANGE
Climate change was a topic in front of us constantly prior to Covid. The media pushed the issue, young mothers worried what sort of planet their children will grow up on. Public opinion built up a considerable head of steam on the issue. But few topics exhibited more clearly the inadequacy of human public debate.…
Chapter 12. HEALTH – COSTS EVER UPWARD
Populations around the world are aging. Birth rates have generally fallen, people are living longer and the baby boom generation, born in the 20 years after WW2, is now reaching old age. These three factors are combining to drive population aging from all parts of the demographic spectrum. The US Census Bureau put out a…
Chapter 13. EDUCATION – COULD DO BETTER
Education again seems to be one of those polarized and politicised topics. What a pity all those in the field (including the teacher unions) can’t sit down and come up with a few sensible compromises. I have included a chapter on Education, because it is so vital for NZ’s future in every way. This applies…
Chapter 14. LEGAL PROFESSION – LOST TOUCH
In 1973, as a young lawyer just entering practice, I negotiated a commercial lease with Norman Shieff, then a doyen of Auckland commercial lawyers. The lease had to have dispute clauses in it, Norman told me. The courts system is slow, expensive and old fashioned, and if our clients ever have a problem they need…
Chapter 15: DRAWING THE IDEAS TOGETHER
LEGACY OF BABY BOOMER GENERATION The starting point for my whole thesis has been that New Zealand can and should do much better. As a baby boomer, I feel as a generation we could have done much better for New Zealand. Life has surely been easier for us, than for every generation which preceded us.…
Chapter 16. CAN WE IMPROVE THE SHORTCOMINGS OF DEMOCRACY AND IMPLEMENT THESE CHANGES?
Winston Churchill is reputed to have said: ‘Democracy is the worst form of government except for all the other forms that have been tried from time to time’. In a spirit of trying to improve New Zealand and create the circumstances to implement real change, what can be done in 2020, to improve our democratic…
Covid – Catalyst for Change 