O'Sullivan: They're waving but PM is missing the signals

By FRAN O'SULLIVAN

Launching a charm offensives in an election year is simply what you would expect from any experienced Government politician. Or opposition player for that matter.

But it may take more than smoked salmon and some excellent Hawkes Bay chardonnay - even if served up by the Prime Minister herself - to keep business tamed in 2002.

Instead of triumphantly revelling in the successful launch of a broad innovative framework to transform the economy, Helen Clark will this week return home from the Progressive Governance forum in Stockholm - a gathering of social democratic leaders - to a mounting feeling that influential business players who have collaborated with the Government to develop such policies have "been had".

Yesterday some key members of the Knowledge Wave Trust - some of whom had contributed to superbly researched reports which are now little more than Prime Ministerial doorstops - were working up another strategy to try to get the knowledge society push back on the Government's agenda.

They were concerned - and miffed - that Clark has basically seemed to have ignored the prime contents of three excellent reports released last week dealing with how to boost economic growth by increasing foreign direct investment, becoming a talent-based nation and swiftly implementing a full-scale innovation strategy.

But there will be no outright blasts from the business pulpit - yet.

Science and Innovation Minister Pete Hodgson got a taste of their concern when he met members of the trust's advisory board at Auckland University on Thursday evening. From all accounts Hodgson was himself a bit perplexed that trust members - and business in general - had been hesitant to praise the agenda that the Prime Minister laid out in Parliament on Tuesday.

Hodgson has repeatedly said the Government is taking an incremental approach to transforming the economy.

But the group of chief executives, educationists and other luminaries who had initially been brought together by Auckland University vice-chancellor John Hood to lay the groundwork for last August's Knowledge Wave conference were not easily assuaged.

Yesterday, some key members met again to develop a strategy to try to persuade the Prime Minister to get the programme going.

As one player said: "It's not off the rails - it isn't even on them yet."

The timing could not have been more ironic with Clark overseas promoting her Government's economic transformation moves.

The Clark Government's decision to cold-shoulder recommendations from Boston Consulting Group, LEK Consulting and her own Science and Advisory Council might seem personal. But it should be pointed out that other reports - Hamish Keith's Heart of the Nation recommendations on arts funding springs to mind - have similarly been left languishing.

But the Prime Minister risks another business standoff if she does not respond to the concerns.

It's not yet looking like a repeat of 2000's Winter of Discontent, when the Prime Minister was finally forced to hold a forum under Hood's leadership to placate a business community upset at the tone of her new Government's policies.

But Clark is faced with placating the very same of influential businesspeople who had got behind her at the October 2000 forum and accepted her invitation to combine on a new strategy.

Yesterday, none of the high-profile Knowledge Wave Trust members was prepared - just yet - to break ranks on their agreed strategy and come out blasting against the Prime Minister.

There is suspicion that "hard line" Labour philosophy is constraining action on a number of fronts.

The situation is not irretrievable.

Too many high-profile business players have invested too much time, and frankly, there is too much ego on the line to toss in the towel by admitting failure.

But by yesterday - at their second meeting within four days - key members of the Auckland-based Knowledge Wave Trust had hardened their resolve to use all their influence to persuade Clark to implement more of the task force's recommendations within this year's Budget.

What is developing is a perception that the Government is too clever by half; that Helen Clark's team has exploited the perception of business support while evading responsibility for delivery.

The Government is proving very skilled at placating business but business will not let these issues remain in their "PM-controlled holding pattern" for much longer.

One suggestion is forming a "Growth Coalition", bringing together a range of groups from Knowledge Wave Trust and Competitive Auckland to get a unified voice.

An August conference which was to deal with leadership issues may be revised to focus on growth.

The most critical factor in the Knowledge Wave Trust's favour is that this is election year.

Clark must watch out that National's Bill English does not take the body bag off her good idea.

Part 2

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Catching the knowledge wave

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