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Dear Prime Minister,
So, you’ve started the new year with a cabinet reshuffle. Seriously?
Isn’t that designed to look like things are happening and that your government is all action, giving us the (false) sense that you’re moving along apace? I suppose it’s all about perception and you’re as desperate as the rest of us Kiwis for the economy to kick into life.
You declared 2025 to be all about economic growth, but, really, shouldn’t every year be about economic growth?
Sadly, it seems the more you want it to happen, the more stubborn and difficult it is to achieve. Maybe – just maybe – could you have your policy mix wrong? And shouldn’t you have been focused on this last year, too, rather than the nonsense distractions of race politics?
Anyway, I can see why you’ve done your mini-shuffle thingy.
In health, the headlines don’t match the hype. That’s hurting you in the polls and Simeon Brown appears to speak in commonsense sound bites and to get things done. Hopefully, that might sort the health system but, of course, if might prove to be more complex.
After all, Shane Reti was an actual GP with direct experience of working in the health system. Maybe, as you’re finding out, Reti knew it would be hard to fix something as gnarly as the health system within a year or two.
Perhaps the new minister will “kick some ass” and sort it that way – here’s hoping – but, in any event, this looks like momentum: start the year in charge, no nonsense, get the economy moving.
And Nicola Willis is now Minister for Economic Growth. Being Finance Minister as well has got to help. Because the economy is where it really matters. You can’t have a strong health and education system if you have a faltering economy.
I bet your National Party and business mates told you during the Christmas break to spend less time on pointless scraps over a race relations bill you’ve said you’ve got no intention of supporting in the long-term and to get back to the bread and butter of why you were put in charge.
It’s time to stop blaming coalition negotiations for a scrappy first year. You set the tone, you set the priorities, you’re the PM, stop laying blame elsewhere, take control of the agenda, do something and make this second year count.
Kiwis aren’t consumed with the reshuffle or Rātana or what will happen at Waitangi. What really matters to Kiwis, whether they be Māori, Pākehā, Asian, is whether they earn a decent crust and have a good job with good prospects.
That’s your challenge, Prime Minister, creating well-paid, secure jobs and a future where our young ones aren’t leaving for Australia because prospects there look more certain. Right now, it appears to many Kiwis that the best option is to up sticks and settle in another country.
They’re continuing to vote with their feet and that’s a vote of no confidence in you and your government if I’m being really harsh.
It’s time to stop blaming coalition negotiations for a scrappy first year. You set the tone, you set the priorities...
Right now, all I see are Kiwis paying the price of a one-way airline ticket – I’m calling it an F U fee – of $300 to leave New Zealand for the Australian job market. (Yes, the F U fee is just how it reads, no explanation needed.)
I just saw it with my own eyes, spending nine days on the Gold Coast, where eight planes a day from New Zealand land at the local airport. That’s in addition to the 11 flights a week from Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch into Brisbane. Some days, the F U fee goes as low as $240.
I met part-time uber driver Matt, born in Switzerland, but to a Māori mother from Te Hāpua in Northland. Matt has Swiss, Māori and Norwegian heritage and Australia has largely always been home.
Now that he’s semi-retired, Matt has thought about retiring to New Zealand but there’s simply more to keep him in Australia: more money, better weather, infrastructure, standard of living, cheaper groceries and more opportunities for his kids.
He’s not wrong about the groceries; I fed two 14-year-old boys for nine days and the basics were cheaper, hands down.
Matt reckons he picks up at least three Kiwis a day from the airport who plan to stay and work.
The Olympics are coming to Brisbane in 2032, so billions of dollars’ worth of construction and new infrastructure is either under way or scheduled. Thousands of workers will be needed, and that search starts by looking across the Tasman.
That’s fuelling demand from other sectors. Police officers, nurses, teachers, retail workers, if you’re keen, they’ll pay $30-40K more than what you’ll earn in NZ, plus a whole pile of perks which can include free housing, transport and reimbursed relocations costs.
That’s what we are up against, so how do you stop the stampede?
Honestly, if I was in one of those sectors I’d leave! But I picked a career in media and, as in New Zealand, there ain’t many jobs in Australia. Then again, I got talking to a former Massey High School student who works in retail in Harbour Town, north of Surfers Paradise, and he offered to hook me up with a retail job with similar pay to what journalists earn in NZ these days.
Given that I returned home to the news that NZME, owner of the NZ Herald, BusinessDesk and Newstalk ZB is laying off 40 staff, I’ve got to say that it was tempting.
Remind me, where did we get to with Melissa Lee and Paul Goldsmith on the future of the media? That’s right, nowhere. I guess it’s our demise, not yours, and you can’t wait for the government to do something. But it all looks hands off and ineffectual.
I suggest if we don’t somehow bond our people to NZ, we face another year where we’ll lose record numbers of professionals. But you can’t do this alone; you need local businesses to back you and back us. Are they even in a position to do so?
Lest you think I’m all “the grass is greener”, I acknowledge finding rental accommodation in Australian can be tough – a bigger place means more people lining up for one home – and there are additional taxes and costs we don’t have in New Zealand.
There’s also the racism issue. In one touristy shop in Surfers, an older woman behind the counter pointed at my son, a big strapping boy who is Māori with dark skin, and declared, “It’s people like you we ask to leave this shop because it’s people like you who steal.”
She wasn’t accusing him of stealing, but she was using him as an example. It was highly embarrassing and offensive. When we left, Buster said, “That’s just racism right, Dad?” I replied, “Yeah mate, I suppose it is. Not good, is it?”
I looked back into the shop and the younger woman behind the counter looked embarrassed and put her hand up as if to say sorry.
But that’s Aussie, I suppose. Bigger, brighter, brasher and in your face, yet arguably, due to the location, our best chance of making it right now.
Prime Minister, is there anything you can do to close this gap or turn things around, or has the horse already bolted?
