More readers' views

Save up and spend properly

I have read and listened with great interest to the latest series of commentators telling us what is wrong with New Zealand and what should be done about it.

My overall response so far can be summed up in one word: disappointment.

It is suggested that NZ has to enter the incentives race and encourage overseas companies to invest here.

Why? One of the reasons our balance of payments is so bad is because so many overseas-owned businesses are taking money out of the country.

Why do we want to increase this trend? One commentator suggested that NZ does not have either the business expertise or the capital.

What rubbish! New Zealanders are highly sought after by overseas companies because they are good at business.

Kiwis are innovative, flexible and generally have a wider range of skills and common sense than many of their overseas counterparts.

As to the lack of capital, there is plenty of money available in NZ. It's just that we are spending on the wrong things.

Dr Cullen wants to save $80 billion for future superannuation. This is nonsense.

It's no good saving for a rainy day when the roof leaks so much now that people have to move out of the house.

Spend $80 billion on creating wealth and business, and this country will generate plenty of money for savings.

The commentators do not address the key problem in NZ.

That is that we take money from people who earn it and give it to people who don't.

We can support the sick, disabled and needy, but while we pay for superannuation and the wide range of other welfare benefits from the wages of workers and business, we will never be truly successful.

Running the economics of a country is not all that different from running a business. There are just more zeros.

Until we manage our economy in a planned and business-like manner, we will continue to be poor.

I have business owners asking me what the magic answer is for their business.

I tell them it is creating a good plan and following it. This is how we should run our country.

First, we need to set ourselves some proper goals.

Politicians set goals that are really dreams. They cannot be measured, and they avoid any responsibility being taken by those who introduce them. Examples of current goals are having a fairer society, closing the gaps, having a growing economy, becoming a knowledge economy.

How will we know when we have achieved any of these? What do they mean?

No one knows, least of all the ordinary people who have to pay for them.

We need better goals. Some suggestions: increase our GDP from $100 billion to $150 billion no later than 2010; increase the value of our sharemarket from $45 billion to $100 billion within eight years; have 85 per cent of our schoolchildren gain School Certificate within five years.

Have 65 per cent of our schoolchildren gain tertiary qualifications within (how many?) years; have an unemployment rate that is among the best 10 per cent in the OECD within (how many?) years.

Once we have agreed on these goals, we need a leader who will create a vision that includes these goals and encourages us all to achieve them.

The next thing to do is create a plan to achieve these goals.

In a business, the first thing to be done is to identify the competitive advantages of the company. This is what NZ needs to do.

What do we have that no other country has?

Here are some suggestions.

1. Our isolation. Commentators talk about overcoming our isolation. What rubbish. We need to cherish our isolation and use it as our most significant competitive advantage.

2. Our climate. Not only are we isolated, but we have a fabulous climate for people to live in and for things to grow.

So what will we do with these competitive advantages?

We need to plan to be the best producer of the best food, agricultural and related products in the world.

We need to plan to sell 100,000 tonnes of beef at $45 a kilo each year to the top restaurants and delicatessens in the world.

We need to plan to sell 10 million flower stems at $20 a stem to people in Japan, the United States and anywhere else who wants the best.

We need to have the cleanest and greenest country in the world because we are going to produce the best food, wool, leather, flowers, breakfast foods and so on.

We need to take the knowledge economy and connect it to our food and agricultural economy.

We should be producing the best food and animal scientists in the world.

We should double the student fees for lawyers and accountants and make scientific degrees free with a 10-year bond.

These notes are only the beginning of what is needed to make NZ work. Making a business work is like making a cake. There are lots of ingredients.

There are a hundred things we need to do differently. Examples:

* Change our school system.

* Make local government more effective and efficient.

* Change the parliamentary term to five years.

* Enter into a real partnership with Maori.

* Get the Government out of business.

* Reduce the cost of running a business.

NZ has the potential to be a successful and wealthy country.

It will happen only if we set real goals and then put a plan in place to achieve these.

If we pursue these types of policies there will be jobs for everyone who wants them. We will be so successful that young people from Ireland will move here to take advantage of the opportunities.

Eddie Mann

Penalised for sin of success

I spent 18 years in Southeast Asia, working and living in the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia. I also travelled for business purposes to most other Asian countries.

Five years ago I returned as chief executive of Helicopters (NZ) for several reasons, but mostly for lifestyle and the education of our children.

I also was happy at the then top tax rate of 33 per cent, which, coupled with GST, still left me with half of my salary to do with as I pleased.

This tax rate was acceptable.

Times have changed and now I am penalised for working hard and earning a high salary.

My job entails long hours and extensive overseas travel, expanding our export earnings - which assists the country in foreign exchange.

I am also using my overseas experience to help in this effort.

In return for this, I am abused by the likes of Deputy Prime Minister Jim Anderton, and called a fat cat who can afford to be taxed for the benefit of social closing of the gaps.

I have cost this country nothing.

My children went to NZ private schools, and I have financed both through university. We as a family carry our own medical insurance.

I am considering moving back overseas, where one is rewarded for hard work and not penalised by high taxes.

With this Government, it seems, it is a sin to be successful.

While we continue to breed this type of culture in NZ we will not change economically or encourage people to stay.

In the United States and other countries, successful and hard-working people are admired.

Here, the tall poppy syndrome is alive and well and encouraged by the Government.

Until this culture changes, we will continue to lose our brightest young people to overseas business that rewards and supports success.

Brian P. McDonald


Three Ps can beat pessimism


I write as a grandmother, and in my mind the future of New Zealand hinges on the three Ps - population, passion and patriotism.

Firstly, population - New Zealand should have opened its doors years ago to the right kind of immigrants - innovative people willing to set up new ventures and create more jobs.

We cannot rely forever on our farming and dairy industries. We desperately need to move into other fields, such as technology, science, and manufactured goods which we can export.

We also need to make sure our children have the best education possible. We need more innovators - we already have an over-abundance of lawyers and the like.

Secondly, passion. Years ago Gordon McLauchlan wrote a book called The Passionless People. In those days that description of a New Zealander was probably apt.

The "she'll be right" attitude prevailed, and those who voiced opinions different to the flock were quickly labelled whingers.

But passion now seems to be creeping into the New Zealand psyche at last.

It's the passionate who will return this country to its former glory, by hounding the Government to bring about change.

Lastly, we have patriotism, or rather the lack of it. Where are the New Zealand flags? Let's get them flapping atop the buildings of our towns and cities, including all schools.

While we're at it, let's all take the trouble to learn the words to our national anthem, and sing them loudly and with pride whenever the occasion arises.

So away with all this pessimism, let's look towards the future with renewed optimism.

Marjorie R. Jones, Thames

Business won't, Government can

We have had nearly two decades of learning that corporate business cannot and will not provide full employment, and nor can an economy dominated by corporate business do effectively many of the jobs essential to the well-being of society and the ecology.

Full employment, and with it the removal of the causes of poverty, will come only when the state and local governments again resume their roles as employers on a scale sufficient to fulfil effectively their various roles in education, health, the environment, transport, town planning and so on.

If the Government had the courage to re-nationalise some of the former state agencies , such as the railways and ferries, then not only would permanent employment increase, but so would the level of public service and the welfare of all New Zealanders.

Bernard Gadd, Papatoetoe

* These letters have been abridged.

Herald Online feature: The jobs challenge

We invite your responses to a series of questions such as: what key policies would make it easier for unemployed people to move into and generate jobs?