It has been a year since the coalition Government took office. Various changes have been made to taxes, regulations, employment laws, education and divers other areas and on the whole they’ve done a good job. We all have a list of things Mr Luxon and his team ‘should’ be doing but it is difficult to point to something undertaken by the government and say it was a grave error. This contrasts notably with the first year of previous National Governments – the disastrous train wreck of Jim Bolger’s first year still gives me nightmares, for example.
What has been notable about the first year is the sluggish economy and a number of my fears have come home to roost. Everyone should be deeply concerned about them, but due to beer in the fridge, All Black test matches and videos on TikTok, we aren’t, so I will explain it to you.
In the last five years, New Zealanders have paid themselves 27 per cent more. This has occurred not through economic growth, export growth or actually producing anything, but rather by a Veruca Salt-style tantrum demanding more and more for doing basically the same. In that same five-year period, gross national product has risen by six to seven per cent. And each year, parliament continues to legislate higher and higher wages for doing less and less.
Far from it being a situation where there was a change of government and right wingers took over and foreign investment poured into New Zealand – as you may have expected – that is not happening in any meaningful sense. Foreign businessmen look at the overpaid, underperforming workforce, the days off, the working from home scam, the Māori stuff, the wokeism and the requirement to employ the mentally ill who think men can have babies and the punishments which will befall them if they don’t…and pass us by. That is certainly the view of every single business customer of mine in Sydney. And who can blame them?
There is also a view outside of New Zealand that has taken hold – a genie which cannot be put back into the lamp – that property rights will not be respected. Peeling away the wokeness and getting down to business, in financial centres of the world there is a view that if a Māori tribe (or gang) decide to help themselves to your assets, then the courts and government will allow it, shrug their shoulders and say ‘We don’t want to look like racist a***holes, nevermind, eh?’ Add to that, no confidence in property rights being respected if there is a future change of government after Ardern cancelled the oil and gas industry. It does not look good. You should be concerned about this for the long-term future of the country.
No amount of goofy smiles, Facebook videos, or gauche clichés – we’re the greatest country in the world – by Mr Luxon is going to restore foreign investor confidence, certainly not to the extent of someone dumping a couple of hundred million dollars into NZ to set up some high-value manufacturing and exporting business employing 1500 people.
The fact is, folks, something has to give: it is inevitable. Only question is, what? The easy route to restoring confidence and getting NZ back on track – throwing the Māori elite overboard – is not an option, so it will be something else. Time to panic, or maybe just get another beer from the fridge and pretend it isn’t happening.
