Youth policy Q&A: Don Brash

Don Brash

Politicians were asked to answer questions on their policies as part of the Herald's commitment in this election campaign to informed choice - our promise to explain the real issues. We have held forums on tax, transport, health and education.

Now it's time to hear about issues facing younger voters. Here are the edited highlights of the 45-minute question-and-answer sessions with National leader Don Brash.

Young people are increasingly worried about their ability to become home owners. Do they have to accept a future of being tenants and renting?

No, they don't. In my view home ownership is important for the social stability of New Zealand. One of the problems which people have getting into a home is that home prices have risen more strongly than incomes in recent times, and we need to look at ways of getting incomes and house prices back into better balance.

Young people are also leaving making key life decisions, such as buying homes and having children, because of the cost of housing and the student loan burden.

Are you worried about this and how would you address it?

There are a variety of reasons why people are leaving the decision to form stable partnerships or have children later. It is partly because there are more career opportunities, particularly for women.

Thirty or 40 years back women often came out of school and quite quickly got married [and] had children. I'm delighted to say they've got a lot more career options now and women are tending to have children later. But there's no doubt at all that if houses were more affordable, that would be helpful. I'm committed to trying to achieve that objective.

How?

There are a variety of ways and one of them relates to the price of land in New Zealand. There are a lot of studies which suggest the price of urban land in New Zealand is quite high, relative to urban land in other major cities around the world. Part of that is a result of the zoning restrictions and the Resource Management Act. Quite a few studies have compared the price of urban sections and found them more expensive in Auckland than in similar-sized cities in the United States. Now you've got to ask yourself how can that possibly be in a country which is relatively under-populated.

So the overhaul of the Resource Management Act could have an impact on house prices?

I think there's no doubt about that.

There is a sense among some young professionals without kids who have worked hard and paid for their own education that they are the unlucky generation who have paid heavy interest on their loans and many of them have not been eligible for student allowances.

What is your attitude towards them?

Well I think that's absolutely true. I think they do feel disadvantaged. The Labour Government has offered a very substantial bribe to a very small number of people with student loans, effectively penalising those who have worked hard, saved hard, paid for their own university education.

What we're saying is, look it's perfectly reasonable to allow students to deduct the interest on their student loans against earned income, just exactly the same as a tradesperson would be able to do so if they borrow to buy tools or a van - they can deduct interest against their earned income. We think students also should be able to deduct interest against their earned income.

How well will your party support the arts?

We're comfortable with the level of Government funding which is going to the arts currently.

We don't see a major expansion of funding for the arts, but nor do we want to cut that back.

What would you do for women who want to start a family, but also want to retain their career?

There are two things, which are relevant from the National Party's point of view. We have accepted the present New Zealand tax structure is rather family unfriendly and we are committed to a substantial overhaul of the tax structure to make it more family friendly in Government.

In the interim we will use the Working for Families package, which for some reasons we don't like - it requires people to line up at a government agency to prove that they're entitled to a hand-back. We're comfortable with the level of support which Working for Families envisages. So for women particularly who want to withdraw from the workforce for a period, we're happy to pick up the Working for Families arrangement until we can make the system more friendly.

For women who want to go on in the workforce and who have childcare costs which are quite substantial, what we've said is that we want to make those childcare costs for preschool children deductible.

How you would plan to stop New Zealanders leaving the country and not coming back?

I guess the main reason I'm in politics is exactly that issue. New Zealand has been losing an increasing number of New Zealanders for 20-odd years. Unless we deal with that, the future of the country really is at some risk. If we want to reduce that brain drain we have to make incomes in New Zealand higher relative to incomes in places like Australia. Right now we're not achieving that.

How do you make that change?

There's no single policy which will affect that. Tax is one issue. We want to change the tax system, not only to get people more money in their pockets now, which is what our tax package does, but a tax system which enables people to get ahead by cutting the tax on their additional dollars of earned income.

At the moment if you earn less than $38,000 you face a 21 per cent marginal tax rate, if you earn above $38,000 you hit a 33 per cent tax rate, and $38,000 is significantly below the average wage now. We're saying "look we want to reduce that tax on additional income to 19 per cent", and that's what our package does. Tax is one part of it. But fundamentally the issue is how do we improve productivity in New Zealand relative to Australia.

In 1999, when Labour came to office, the gap between after-tax average wages in New Zealand and Australia was $5000 a year. The gap now is about $9000 a year. As long as that gap keeps on getting wider we'll still see a growing exit. There's some jobs we can't provide in New Zealand. That's fine. But if everyone feels they can make a better living for themselves by moving across the Tasman, we're in big trouble.

Do you have any plans to address the loss of respect for police among young people?

I greatly regret the extent to which the community has lost respect for police. I'm not sure that you can change that by simply urging people to be more respectful of police.

I think that part of the problem is that the police are clearly under a direction from the Labour Government to issue a lot more speeding tickets. A lot of people, even those who worry about dangerous driving, feel that issuing or requiring quotas of speeding tickets is not a constructive way of dealing with dangerous driving. We think it's not a constructive way either.

Do you believe the anti-nuclear stance is based on anything rational in terms of science?

I think New Zealanders have got beyond the point of debating whether there is a scientific risk or not. I think the anti-nuclear legislation has become a symbol of New Zealand's willingness to have an independent foreign policy. For that reason we're not, for the most part, debating whether there is actually objective risk, we're debating whether we're willing to stand up for our own independence.

So it's a symbolic function?

Yes, it's iconic in that sense. That's why we say, look there will be no change in that law. If at some future date there seems to be an argument that we should look at it, we would put that to the New Zealand people by referendum.

Environmentally, what to you is the most pressing issue?

Let me say what I think it's not: I don't think its global warming. The National Party has said on Kyoto, we should not have ratified in 2002 before our major trading partners did. Labour went ahead and ratified, because they said to do so was responsible, and to do so is worth serious money to New Zealand.

It makes no sense for us, who produce less than a half of 1 per cent of global greenhouse gases, to slow down our growth when other countries aren't willing to do the same.

I think more important is the quality of water and the quality of air. We could make a major contribution to both at a fraction of the cost that we'd incur trying to meet a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. We could look at things including vehicle emissions and all of that kind of area, water quality.

Which country in the world should New Zealand aspire to emulate?

I don't want to emulate any other country actually, because I think we are unique. We have a unique blend of people of European, Polynesian, and Asian backgrounds. No other country has quite that blend of people, no other country has quite the same history, no other country has the Treaty of Waitangi.

I want a country where every person, irrespective of their race and irrespective of their gender, has the same rights, has the same opportunities, has access to good education, has access to good health care, has the opportunity of getting a good job, and has the opportunity of getting a living standard which is at least as good as [they] could get somewhere else.

What are the characteristics you have that young people should look up to and admire as a leader?

It's a kind of a Catch-22 question. If I say what I think about that, you might accuse me of immodesty, so I'm sort of caught. I hope that as a political leader I am honest and direct and frank, and not engaged in personal attacks on other political leaders. I would sooner lose by telling what I think is truthful than win by lying.

Do you have role models?

Mandela is an incredible role model. I don't pretend to be in the same universe as Mandela.

What would your policy do for Maori in New Zealand?

It would make them in a much better position than they are. I think the huge danger of where we have been moving for some years, and moving faster under the Labour Government than previously, is that we are building a resentment among non-Maori towards Maori, which is very dangerous.

By having different hurdles to get into tertiary education if you're a Maori than if you're non-Maori, the signal we send is that Maori are not quite as competent as non-Maori. Now that is absolutely untrue. I'm not ever going to accept anyone telling me that Maori are, in some sense, not as good as anyone else. But by having these different levels of hurdles, that's the signal we send.

Do you accept that Maori have been affected by the process of colonisation and that makes them a special category? Because there is an argument that is a destructive process.

I think 160 years later, that's getting thin. The important thing is to make sure that every child, whatever their race, gets access to good quality education and good quality healthcare.

What's your vision for 50 years' time?

I want a society where people want to live, because it's a society which is at peace with itself, [is] a racially harmonious society, which will be by definition a mix of Polynesian, Asian and people of European descent. It'll be a country where every child gets a good education. Hopefully it's a country where men and women have equal opportunities and where people can aspire to fulfil their dreams and don't feel they have to go to Sydney or Melbourne or London.