Terry Sarten: We know better than to let strife fester

We are often told that as a nation we "punch above our weight" and that for a small country we do a lot of things extremely well.

It has been a constant source of frustration, ever since I returned to New Zealand in my mid-20s after six years in Europe, to see how we stubbornly refuse to learn from the mistakes of others.

There are so many examples:

Auckland - it only required a glance across the ocean at cities in the United States to see that building more roads to accommodate more cars was always going to end in tears of frustration as commuters (and their vehicles) fume in gridlock. But no - we had to do that because why would you take any notice of the planning errors of others when we could make the same mistakes ourselves.

Why would we not look at other countries far more populous than ours to see how they deal with recycling their rubbish? Because that would be sensible and we want to make our own mistakes then wonder what went wrong.

Why would we not consider the implications of developing two nations in one, with one being peopled by those who have more than enough and another struggling to find adequate, healthy housing, working for low wages to support families where children grow up missing out on educational opportunity.

We could have looked to the two-tier societies that already exist in many countries and said: "We won't do that."

We have a small population - there are 4,636,460 of us. We rank at 121st, just ahead of Ireland in the world population stakes. Australia is at 52 with just under 23 million. Germany has 81 million, and they have just taken in another 1.5 million people fleeing war and terror in Syria. That is the equivalent of all of Auckland arriving at once.

It is not easy and it has stretched Germany's resources to the max to match the huge need but they have done it.

By comparison, with only 4.5 million people we should be able to managesocial equity with one hand tied behind our back. We should be able to manage the social dysfunction evidenced by having young people held in adult prisons. We should be able to protect children exposed to risk and assist children who grow up witnessing violence, or respond to a national suicide rate that we should be ashamed off. These are all indications of systems failing.

The dysfunction that fuels these failures is exacerbated by another layer of governance dysfunction at the political level. Rather than uniting to tackle these major social issues, the various political parties bicker, attempt to score points or simply blame each other.

Repeatedly over the years we have seen government schemes devised that duplicate and undermine existing programmes because some minister or other wants to make something happen that has their name on it rather than using concepts based in well-researched and evaluated models.

The wheels of bureaucracy are put into gear and the "new" approach is rolled out to much fanfare. A year later there are questions about where the money went and it becomes evident that most went to consultants, advisers and numerous head office staff on disproportionate salaries with only a fraction actually reaching those that needed the services.

If children are truly a political priority then Parliament would shuck off the "he said-she said" tantrums and point-scoring and work together. We are only 4.5 million people. We can do better, and we need to.

-Terry Sarten is a grandparent, social worker, writer, musician and advocate for children's rights - feedback: tgs@inspire.net.nz