A healthier, wealthier and wiser 2014

The risks of drilling must be understood and managed. Photo/File

Happy New Year, Whanganui and South Taranaki.

I'm sure many of you, like my family and I, have taken the chance to get away over summer, to relax, unwind and to reflect on the year ahead. Now we all face the daunting task of getting back into another year - never made easier when the good summer weather arrives as everyone returns to work!

One thing many find themselves pondering in the New Year is "what's next?" How do we take the next step forward, to something bigger and better? At a national and regional level, "what's next?" can be an equally challenging question.

How do we find the next step that will make life better for everyone? How do we make our country more successful, safer, healthier, wealthier or wiser? These are the grand questions that politics - at its best - confronts.

So much of that debate hinges on the economy. It's much easier to pay for a happier, safer, healthier and wiser country if we're wealthier, and a wealthier country doesn't happen by accident. It happens when businesses feel confident enough to hire another person or invest another dollar. It happens when entrepreneurs have policy settings that support them to try something new, in the hope they're on to the next Trade Me or this generation's Buzzy Bee.

With New Zealand's economy picked to be the "rock star" economy of 2014, the National Government's happy to let the facts speak for themselves as to whether we've got the right prescription to build a wealthier and more productive country.

Part of that prescription that is working so well, especially in the South Taranaki end of our electorate, is the sensible use of our natural resources. Almost everything we use in our daily lives is affected by oil and gas - even if only in transporting it from A to B.

The modern world runs on the stuff. If we leave it sitting in the ground, we deny ourselves an income that can help pay for all the other things we want and need.

There are risks in anything we do, and the risks of oil and gas drilling must be understood and managed. Every day we assess risks, think about how we can minimise them, weigh up the costs and benefits, and then live our lives. Yet when it comes to oil and gas, some people seem unable or unwilling to calmly think about the risks, how we mitigate them, what the benefits are, and make a rational decision about what is best for the whole community.

I challenge those who are claiming that oil and gas exploration is "immoral", a black-and-white evil, and should "frack-off" to at least have the courage of their convictions to try and live their life without any product made from, transported by or powered by oil and gas. Then let's have a sensible discussion about the risks and benefits of oil and gas.

For the rest of us, we'll just continue to enjoy taking that next step forward towards a happier, healthier, wealthier, wiser and better 2014.