Govt needs to do more to catch Australia - Brash
The National Government has not done enough to rectify the country's serious economic problems nor catch up with Australia, its former leader Don Brash says.
Dr Brash made the comments in a speech in Orewa last night, his fifth at Orewa since his infamous one in 2004.
While the Government and Prime Minister John Key were doing well in the polls Dr Brash was deeply worried about some issues, including economic decline relative to Australia.
Dr Brash chairs the 2025 Taskforce set up to advise the Government on how New Zealand can catch up with Australia.
"But we will certainly not catch Australia on our current policy track and nobody that I've spoken to thinks that we will."
The only way to catch Australia was for the Government to look at every policy through a growth lens, he said.
"We need to govern in a way which builds prosperity and recognises the magnitude of the problems we face as a country."
Getting the Government's fiscal deficit under control, reducing tax on business income, selling state-owned enterprises and reducing regulation were areas where major change was needed to achieve faster and sustainable economic growth, Dr Brash said.
New Zealand must also be open to foreign direct investment, he said.
"The Labour government began withdrawing the welcome mat and I regret to say that we've continued that trend...if we want to catch Australia that attitude needs to change."
National had "not done nearly enough" to rectify the economic situation nor catch Australia.
Dr Brash also returned to his old stamping ground, saying there was no case for treating Maori differently in general legislation, no grounds for separate Maori seats and the replacement foreshore legislation had serious implications.
"We urgently need to reaffirm that what the Treaty of Waitangi plainly meant was that New Zealand would be one nation not two, that in return for Maori chiefs ceding sovereignty to the Crown their property rights would be respected and that all New Zealanders, regardless of race, would be equal before the law."
He said New Zealand was at more risk today than at any time since World War 2.
"It's safe to say that our relative decline -- both in terms of our economy and in terms of racial harmony -- will never be reversed if our political leaders allow themselves to be driven entirely by political polls," he said.
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Comments and questions16
Don Brash is one of the very few to have the courage to speak out on Maori issues. He is giving voice to what many think. The Coastal and Marine areas Bill is a potential disaster.
We should also listen to what Dr Brash has to say on the economy, and take his advice.
what he is saying is totally true but these so called right wing politicians have dsstroyed this country NZ las lagged begind because the whole labour market was deregulated & nearly every asset sold off, Australia didn't sell offf all their assets, at the same time he is trying to grab the headlines !
At least we are trying to catch up, kiwis.
Here we go again, Mr Stuck Record banging on, sell off the power, airline, railway etc, then what? buy them all back in another 10 years.
It's time we started listening to some new voices with creative ideas that could really make a difference, like driving the cost of power to as low as it can go, lowering tax on foreign exchange earning, putting a fee on forex transactions over a certain amount to get a return from currency speculation that gets to play with our currwncy for free and so it goes on. Brash doesn't get it, no one got rich out of lowering overheads ahead of increasing sales and earned revenue.
Button your mouth Brash your day in the sun has affected your brain.
Better than Key's approach which is basically the same as Labour's but with more government spending, & secretly giving the beaches to maori. Or we could have Labour back again I suppose, but I doubt anyone wants that do they?
The Nats need to grow a backbone & get a real leader. Populist politics is weak and leads to bankruptcy, and unless Key does what needs to be done they'll be out on their a**es sooner than they think.
Agreed
John Key has been a huge disappointment - he has no balls has created no major policy since he came to power.
He spends the whole time feeding his huge ego constantly hogging the limelight at any chance for a photo shoot. The last three months have been a blessing for John Key with the Christchurch earthquake and the Pike River disaster - he thrives on drama.
Well John - your time is coming to an end and if yiou don't watch it you will end up like Anna Bligh in Queensland with no popularity before the enxt election - at least Anna Bligh became unpopular because she had the balsl to make some tough decisions that were the best for the economy over there.
Well here we go again, still missing the point, We are behind because we don't earn enough simple as that.
Perhaps if the politicians actually concentrated on devising policies to see that the country actually produced more, (Rather than an almost complete occupation on how to spend the cut up the tax take)
We would make some progress to equality with the Aussies. it's about earning not spending, and when we do spend we need to spend to earn.
A lot of Holyoake and a little bit of Muldoon policy, might be a good place to look for some of those ideas they just could get us some where,
After all they built much of earning asset we had, the assets that the ultra free marketers flogged off.
Add value to our raw export commodities, wool and logs could be a place to start.
Don look at what did work, continuing to push what has failed does you no credit, open your mind, cast back in to deep dark history, you will be amazed at what did work to create wealth.
Regarding productivity growth in New Zealand:
http://rogerkerr.wordpress.com/2010/11/19/friday-graph-new-zealandaustralia-productivity-growth/
We outperformed Australia until 1995 as a result of Douglas' reforms. Perhaps we should continue with what is proven to work, instead of reverting back to a failed, archaic system.
It's probably a clever ploy to stymie Winnie Peters only soap box platform issue - to "steal his thunder" with the blue rince brigade - to stop him getting any form of traction and further marginalising his only platform prospect. That's gotta be a good thing for NZ politics long term - minimising the impact a tiny minority can have for the good of the entire country.
If only Labour and the Unions can keep Goof and Little at the helm also - that would further Nationals chances come election time also...
How to make NZ more profitable.. hhmm, how about you start by making it more uncomfortable to do nothing by: caping the DBP, introducing food stamps. then perhaps we should stop improting unskilled labour (extended family legislation is a joke), how many taxi drivers do we really need... Then you shouldincrease the MMP threshold to 20% (up from 5%) to eliminate the influence the minorities have in parliment. Make those chnges and we'll be heading down the right path to catching Australia.
What's the big deal about catching Australia?
Like every other country around the world they have rich people and poor people relative to their standard of living. Their poor are no better off than our own.
I'm an Australian living in NZ.... trust me, Australia has some very big issue's to face in the coming decade.
NZ is not that bad a place to live.
The big deal is that Kiwi's are leaving NZ to emigrate to Aussie in massive numbers.
Add to the suggestions: get rid of the emissions trading scam. This takes money out our pockets for no environmental or economic reasons. We can't invest what we have removed from our pockets.
National lost my vote on this issue, though there have been more reasons since.
The big deal is that the way welfare is applied, we are growing more poor poeple.
The gap continues to grow not narrow.
Get rid of the DOC NZ, a hindrance to NZ's progress.
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