Editorial: Children flee poor prospects

One memory I have of my move to Northland was how helpful my parents were before we left our hometown. They helped me and my wife load the truck and clean our house. Now 25 years later I realise why. They wanted to spend time with me and their grandchildren. It was their way of preparing themselves for the emotional wrench a parent feels when their last child leaves.

I know this because that is what I was doing when I helped my daughter and her partner load their possessions into a container on the day before my last child left Northland.

I am disappointed that after seven years at university my daughter could get only part-time work at the hospital. I am disappointed Labour and the Greens insult us by calling the Puhoi motorway extension the holiday highway, when it will help keep our children here. I am disappointed that the children of Northland queue to mine in Australia because rampant environmentalism prevents them doing it here.

I am disappointed that Northland is not prospering and because of that if I want to see my children and my grandchildren I have to get on a plane.

Arresting a 40-year decline in our region and country's economic fortunes will take more than a motorway extension, however. It will take fortitude and strong government and we have neither.

John Key shares with his predecessors a lack of any feasible plan to reverse decades of economic decline and lift the New Zealand economy, and with it the economy of Northland.

Bill Birch tried with Think Big and Helen Clark tried with the knowledge economy; both failed. John Key has tried nothing; he will at least accomplish that.

I love Northland, I would rather live here than anywhere. I am glad and proud that my children are driven to pursue their opportunities. These feelings overwhelm my sadness that it has driven them so far away. I realise too that Northland and New Zealand's economic woes are but one part of the story, the strength of our people is the other. An immigrant's courage runs in the blood of us all, and part of the toughness that allows us to pick up our homes and follow opportunity comes from that heritage. It is a good thing.