Back in reality land, capitalism and globalisation works when every country focuses on their strengths and natural advantages. This should be the economic platform all parties base off:
1 - NZ should be massive food exporters to the world. We shouldn’t have any carbon tax on food. It’s just stupid. All parties MUST be pro farmers or they are anti NZ.
2 - NZ should be mass producers of cheap renewable energy and associated industries (data storage!). Geothermal, hydro, etc. the green should promote this instead of resource consenting dams out of viability.
3 - we should focus on knowledge industries (movie makers, gaming development, export education, etc). Our education system should be world class to support this.
4 - tourism and clean green NZ’s reputation
5 - exploit our natural resources (gas, oil, gold, etc). We use it so it’s hypocritical to not extract our own. It’s even dafter to ban it here and hold our head high while importing worse for the environment stuff.
These ‘natural advantage’ industries should be our core focus. Government should actively support these even if it’s viewed by some as corrupt. This is why I favour NZ firsts policies (but don’t like the people). They unashamedly identify these areas and push them hard.
There shouldn’t be things like unions crashing the movie industry or greenies stopping hydro schemes (so we use worse options). NZ has to be 100% behind our natural advantage industries to generate the wealth to pay for social services. All other industries should be low priority and supporting the above. Our population should be based on what these industries can support. Our immigration should be based on expanding these areas.
Finally - THIS should be the political discussions. Growing the pie instead of bitching and moaning about how to cut it up while we lose relative wealth and become poorer. Many of the subjects the media focus on are mind numbingly small minded.
www.thepost.co.nz
