Newstalk ZB,
Sir Peter Gluckman says our thinking is too short-term.
Scientists say Kiwi innovation hasn’t progressed as far as it could or should – and now’s the time for a reset.
Economists and researchers at Auckland University’s Koi Tū says we have a unique opportunity to develop research and development and grow the knowledge economy.
Director Sir Peter Gluckman told Mike Hosking we need strategies for the economy, environment and social justice that extend beyond political cycles.
“New Zealand politics and New Zealand society is really short term in its thinking. We need to be thinking about where we will be 10, 20 years from now.”
He says creating a knowledge hub will help attract multinational companies and foreign investment.
“We have the lowest activity by large companies of any OECD country. Without large companies, we’re not going to grow economies to the scale we need.”
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NZ needs to establish a non political ‘government board’ to oversee the long term development of NZ free from the need to be re-elected.
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The board will be non partisan (a challenge) and comprised of proven NZ leaders from different facets of NZ life
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The Board’s job is to set long term goals and evidenced based strategies, then monitor the success of the government in implementing the strategies.
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The board should report back to taxpayers every 3 months to show the progress or otherwise of the incumbent government.
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Unsuccessful governments will no longer be able to hide behind economically ruinous covid responses or slick election campaigns.
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And government actions which are not evidenced based (the Labour party oil and gas ban, the Labour Party ‘road safety’ improvements, the Labour party child poverty reduction strategy, the Labour Party mental health spending, etc.) should be called out by the board before billions are wasted.
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Other spending which could have been nipped in the bud if a non partisan board using evidenced based evaluation includes the marijuana referendum, the predictably unsuccessful Pike River re-entry. the oil and gas ban,
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The Board could also help moderate the partisan misinformation pedaled by NZ’s sub par media.
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Australia set -up a high-powered National Covid-19 Coordination Commission (board) which considered the economic and long term health affects when devising Australia’s ‘much more successful’ covid response,
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Who could be on the board with Sir Peter Gluckman, Sir David Skegg, Dr Steven Elers, Rob Fyfe and to advise the government and NZ tax payers?
People who wouldn’t make the cut for the proposed government board: Professor Juliet Gerrard who remains largely anonymous except that she couldn’t find evidence marijuana legalization increases harm. All she had to do was read the statistics from Colorado’s Rocky Mountain report on marijuana legalization to see evidence of increased harm. And before I’m labelled a misogynist for an objective view of the capability of an individual who happens to be a woman, I’d appoint Dr Deb Robinson. A quiet achiever who was promoted to the top of her game, rather than appointed simply because she is a woman.
Steve Tew held the most difficult job in NZ for 10 years and used a special blend of management smarts, public communication, political maneuvering, and people managment through a very successful period for NZ rugby. Tew knows how to manage in a very difficult environment. He’d be ideal for the board.
Rod Oram could perhaps join the board, he identified the issue in his newsroom article.
Ardern’s second announcement this week only compounded the risk. She laid out her economic plans in a speech on Thursday to an audience of senior business people in Auckland.
It’s “a strong plan that we started to roll out before the election, and will now look to speed up,” she said. “Many of you will recall the foundation of that plan: 1) Investing in our people; 2) Job creation; 3) Preparing for the future; 4) Supporting small business; 5) Backing our exporters.”
But a plan is not a strategy. Worse, this plan is woefully generic. Many of the elements devised so far are worthy but geared to incremental improvement. They will ease the pain of Covid and help us achieve a modest recovery. But they won’t build our prosperous and sustainable future.