Paula Bennett: We have become a nation of ‘can’ts’ - and we can’t blame the Government

Is the number 8 wire attitude still around in New Zealand? Photo / Warren Buckland

OPINION

We have become a nation of “can’ts”. Once we prided ourselves on our number 8 wire mentality. We could get on and do anything. Fix anything. Now we can’t.

Wikipedia states: “Accordingly, the term ‘number 8 wire’ came to represent the ingenuity and resourcefulness of New Zealanders, and the phrase ‘a number 8 wire mentality’ evolved to denote an ability to create or repair machinery using whatever scrap materials are available on hand”.

Now, there is always someone saying we can’t. We are experts at getting in our own way, over-regulating and making excuses on why we can’t. From housing to roads (or for that matter pretty much any infrastructure needed) we spend so much time saying we can’t that we are doing damage.

Here we are a year on from the damage caused by Cyclone Gabrielle. People still stuck in limbo land. Paying both a mortgage and rent as they can’t go back to their homes. Paying water rates on a home they can’t go into.

The upside down car which smashed through the side of a family home during the cyclone. Photo / Warren Buckland

There are 1500 homeowners still waiting for an assessment. Waiting for council to come and assess their homes. Just waiting because we can’t seem to get our act together and just do what is right in a timely manner.

We are told the road to recovery is long. The far north of Queensland had their worst floods on record when Cyclone Jasper hit on December 17. Planes submerged, thousands homeless and roads destroyed. Sound familiar? The difference is the Aussies said: “Yes, we can”.

I arrived in Cairns for a planned holiday on December 23. I just couldn’t get over their can-do attitude of getting on with it. Where we would have 100 cones, they had one. They presumed that you would use some common sense and drive carefully.

We arrived in Mossman, one of the hardest hit areas, and found remnants of the floods. Damaged furniture and carpets out on the side of the road and a lot of trees and silt everywhere. But pretty much everything was open.

The Government were just getting on with it and a bit of number 8 wire was used where needed. We were just astounded at how quickly they were pulling it together.

We need to put a stop to not only the over-regulating but our own mentality. There is no law that can be written to stop stupid so we shouldn’t try and dictate every detail that only prevents innovation and our ability to get on and do it.

We also can’t blame the Government or someone else when bad stuff happens. As the saying goes; s**t happens. It always will. We don’t take self-responsibility any more as we like to blame someone else.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon with Act leader David Seymour and Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters. Photo / Michael Cunningham

We accept $500,000 per pedestrian crossing in Auckland. We laugh manically when they put in a roundabout, then pull that out and put in lights, then switch back to a roundabout in a matter of 24 months.

We think we can’t make a difference but we can. Call out the madness, claim back some common sense and let’s tell ourselves we can.