My greatest concern for New Zealand presently is our historic and current day tendency to curtail and underwrite all reasonable behaviours with legislation. Without a doubt, New Zealand is one of the most over-legislated countries in the world when it comes to “preventing”, “disabling” and “prohibiting”. The “rod that we’ve successfully made for our own backs” is that the plethora of legislation that now pretty much defines most “permissible” behaviours of people who reside in or visit our fair lands, is essentially devoid of provisions which are about “enhancing”, “allowing” and “enabling”.
In my view, we’ve allowed legislation to go too far in shaping the lives of New Zealanders…at the detriment of enabling Kiwis to remain at the forefront of innovation and creativity. With fewer significant innovations being realised now – due to legislative and other constraints in force – I feel that this will do little to help improve the productivity and production volumes of N.Z. businesses. And at the end of the day it is productivity (when matched by corresponding demand) that creates revenue and tax streams. With stagnating levels of tax revenue received by central government as a consequence of stagnating/ reducing productivity, we can expect three key consequences:
a) A greater proportion and amount of tax revenue will be relied upon to be contributed by so-called “middle income N.Z.”, and
b) The number of people who reflect “middle income N.Z.” will keep on reducing…as more and more of these people slide into the “low income N.Z.” bracket simply as a consequence of income redistribution practices of central government, and
c) Overall, successively lower levels of expenditure will be incurred (be able to be afforded) by central government, as the overall “income tax pot of gold” becomes smaller and smaller, year on year.
One of the commerce Degree courses that I teach at the Eastern Institute of Technology is called “Strategic Marketing”. As the students in the 2017 class of this course currently work their way through the remaining parts of a large assignment that serves as the “assessment backbone” for this paper, my underlying and repetitive message to them is that they have full licence to think as innovatively as they can so that they can demonstrate their ability to challenge the status quo and present new angles/ perspectives/ ideas for consideration.
My lecture deliveries comprise less than 50 % text book based information. I dedicate by far the greater portion of time spent in the classroom on helping students develop their thinking capabilities – to think differently…to think at odds to mainstream thinking. Why ? Because I firmly believe that this skill is what is going to separate “great” business people from “mainstream” business people going forward. The ability to originate thought (to realise new wisdom) which creates comparative advantages for the given organisation is the human skill that is going to be rewarded with the highest levels of income as we step further into the information age.
I believe in this prediction so much so that I have told students in each of the 3 x courses that I teach that I would be only too happy to act as a Referee for those highest performing students who can demonstrate their skill at applying considered innovative thought to the answers that they provide in their written work. And on top of this, if I can see commercial grade/ level work coming through which relates to N.Z. businesses that have served as the basis for the given case study/ assignment, I will be working with my EIT colleagues to expose that work to the businesses concerned – to show such businesses what talent is coming through the likes of EIT as a new generation of thinking individuals who can conceive innovative new ideas for commercial application.
So my message to those who wield a legislative/ regulatory pen is…please think VERY carefully about the next pen stroke that you make, to ensure that what you write next will indeed empower and enable Kiwi businesses to think and act innovatively…to elevate their productivity…to create employment opportunities…to increase outputs…to ensure sustainable levels of tax are paid from incomes…to enable central government to redirect expenditure in areas of the “New Zealand Operation” that need such support (which by the way includes the business community).
And please, remain open-minded as to the measures/ practices/ resources that N.Z. could be employing to help raise the quality of life for all Kiwis. Have a look at what Holland is doing…have a look at what Sweden is doing. These countries are leading the world significantly in many ways. N.Z. doesn’t have to keep trying to re-invent the wheel to design a better future for all…in many cases the “blue print” is already written…it’s just a matter of being willing to adopt and adapt “the good bits” that other countries have managed to develop.