Northland MP and New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has leapt to the defence of the regions against the Maxim Institute's claim that declining communities should 'exit'.
He said Maxim were "peddlers of failed economic policy, which has run a ruler over the country and decided 44 out of 67 territorial authorities could be on the cusp of decline and suggests 'communities' should make a decision to 'exit' or not."
The institute forgot that governments had failed in the fundamentals of economic policy to ensure the wealth creators - regional exporters - had their fair share of wealth returned to them, he said.
"That's why New Zealand's inflated dollar, admitted by most economic economists, continues on unaddressed. Even the IMF has pointed this out, but when you are on the big city consumption tap governments refuse to act."
"Despite the regions creating much of the wealth of this country, the high dollar and failure of infrastructural investment means they are losing ground.