Liam Dann is business editor-at-large for the New Zealand Herald. He is a senior writer and columnist, and also presents and produces videos and podcasts. He joined the Herald in 2003.
OPINION
Mānawatia a Matariki! Happy Māori New Year. This long weekend seemslike a good time to celebrate New Zealand’s uniqueness and show a bit of national pride.
We’re not those places and never will be. We’re an archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean with a society founded on a treaty between the Māori people and the British.
For many years, we were very much a British colonial relic. In many ways – when you look at our legal system, the way we structure the economy, our sporting passions and our sarcastic and self-deprecating sense of humour – we still are.
I’m proud of my European cultural heritage with its long and twisted roots, winding back through the Industrial Revolution, Renaissance and classical antiquity. I feel all that in my bones.
But in the last 40 or so years, New Zealand has embraced both its Māori heritage and its physical place in the world, taking in migrants from the South Pacific and South East Asia. We’ve become a dynamic, multicultural society.
I’m proud of that too. I’ve never understood why some people see the rise of cultural diversity as a threat to their own place in the world.
It all makes for a complex and sometimes contentious mix but it’s pretty benign stuff compared to the conflict and strife in many parts of the world right now.
As far as I can see, our unique cultural mix has to form the foundation for any plans to transform and improve this nation’s fortunes.
It’s all we have. The good news is that there’s nowhere else on Earth like this place. That’s exciting.
All of this is a slightly long-winded way of saying: I’ve been to Switzerland and that ain’t us.
I’m not averse to looking abroad for good social and economic policy.
I won’t stop banging on about the fact that all small, wealthier nations save more money than we do and invest more productively.
But there is a risk, as we battle through this grim winter post-Covid rebalancing, that what makes New Zealand special is being lost in a mire of self-flagellation.
Let’s pause for a moment of self-reflection this weekend and remember that we live in a great country. Shocking statement, I know.
We’re in a tough economic cycle but look around the world. Who isn’t? And it is turning, slowing but surely, in the direction the Reserve Bank has prescribed.
“The medicine is working,” as ANZ chief economist Sharon Zollner put in the latest Business Outlook report.
Inflation is falling and interest rates will follow.
Sure we’ve got debt to pay down, infrastructure issues to resolve and a crime rate that is too high. These are big, structural issues but the Government is addressing them.
Some things will be resolved, others won’t. In the more than 40 years I’ve been reading the news, I don’t recall a time when the front page declared everything to be hunky-dory.
In the long list of grim statistics out there right now, the worst of them might just be the record number of Kiwis departing these shores long-term.
More than 81,000 Kiwis left long-term in the year to April for a net loss of 56,500, exceeding the previous record of 52,000 in the year to March.
People (young people mostly) are voting with their feet.
Rising unemployment and a high cost of living are probably the biggest drivers for those heading offshore. But most are headed for Australia, which has always had higher wages than us. And unemployment is still historically lower.
I think there is more at play. I worry that the long white cloud of negativity hanging over these islands is just compounding things.
New Zealand, as Christopher Luxon pointed out on the election campaign trail, needs to find its mojo.
We need to rediscover a sense of self-belief and that, as Luxon correctly identified last year, comes from leadership.
The jury is still out on whether that’s being delivered from the top.
Turning the economy will take time. And the new Government deserves our patience.
But creating some buzz and excitement about the future and instilling some optimism back into the national discourse is a more esoteric thing.
It’s the same weird magic that sees some sports teams start winning and keep on winning, while others, equally stacked with talented players, just can’t seem to get a break.
That stuff is a switch that can turn on or off at an unnerving speed. Just witness the different versions of the Warriors that can turn up on any given week.
They are capable of playing like champions at times, but struggle to retain that focus over full seasons.
Scott Robertson surfs or swims at the beach near his Sumner home most mornings before getting in his car and driving to work at 7am. Photo / Getty Images
Perhaps we should look at this economic rebuild the way that Scott Robertson is planning the next All Blacks era.
Robertson is a keen surfer and claims it has inspired his approach to coaching.
He’s adept – as surfers are – at holding two mindsets in his head. He’s chilled and relaxed, he goes with the flow. Surfers quickly learn you can’t fight the ocean.
But he also understands the stakes are high and approaches the important stuff with life-or-death intensity.
Surfing is all about balance – both physically and mentally.
When we look at this economy, we need to find that critical balance. We must retain our realism about the challenges without falling into pointless pessimism.
