KEY POINTS:
It's up to you how you want to interpret New Zealand's showing in the latest OECD measuring-up of 30 countries. The Ministry of Social Development says New Zealand is equal to or above the median for 12 of the 20 indicators. Which is a pass, by my reckoning. But barely.
Even with a liberally NCEA interpretation, it's only just an Achieved. Not even an Achieved with Merit. New Zealand, that funny little child with the chip on its shoulder, forever trying to get one up on its more popular classmate Australia, would only scrape in with a C- if we applied the more brutal Oxford system to this OECD test of the good life. Not really a mark to crow about.
But tell that to the chappies at the ministry. The head of the department says the report card, compiled to give information on social, economic and environment indicators in developed countries, shows that New Zealand is improving strongly.
Steve Maharey, the acting head of the ministry, says the government's efforts to improve the wellbeing of New Zealanders has paid off. Well, sure. We scored very highly when it came to the number of women represented in Parliament. We were right up there when it came to getting people into work too - we have the third lowest unemployment rate out of the countries surveyed. So far so good. But then we get to obesity. And who ate all the pies? We ate all the pies - we've got more fatties than 20 of the 30 countries surveyed. As for market income per person - New Zealand's GDP divided per capita - we're not so flash either, at 22nd out of 30. Numbers are declining, but we're still fourth in the OECD when it comes to people choosing to take their own lives. Thank God there wasn't a category for killing our babies - we'd be odds-on favourites to come top.
We could do an awful lot better. But getting the ministry to admit to that would probably be like getting Graham Henry to concede that the rotation policy didn't work. It isn't going to happen.
For all that though, I love this country. However, there are plenty of things that need to improve before we can consider New Zealand to be truly Godzone. Like the cheese ad, these things take time and it may be another generation before we see some of the social policies bear fruit.
