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Sir Roger Douglas
First published May 2024: This article calls on all New Zealanders to be clear-eyed about the state of social services in this country - particularly health, education, welfare and superannuation - and to acknowledge that without major changes the system will inevitably collapse under its own weight.
Most politicians are tribal, they support their political party right or wrong, often in the hope of getting a ministerial job down the line. I never fitted into that category of politicians. For me, policy always came first - that is policy I believed to be in the best interests of New Zealand. Today, I still find it impossible to stay silent...
This article calls on all New Zealanders to be clear-eyed about the state of social services, particularly health, education, welfare and superannuation, and acknowledge that without major changes the system will inevitably collapse under its own weight. No government has had the courage to face up to the fundamental structural flaws of our present system.
The Ardern government, like the Key and Clark governments before them, tried to tax the nation to prosperity. The principal outcome being to cut productivity growth in the same way it has in the past.
We no longer live in a world where old divisions between left and right, socialist and conservative suffice. We live in a new world, where new ways of thinking are required. We need to throw off the failed policies of the past 20 years and rethink what it means to govern. If we do that, there is hope, not only for our country but the myriad individuals who call it home.
Governments will need to remove the blinkers of self-interest and look to implement imaginative policies that are focused on the medium to long-term, rather than the toxic desire to hold onto power for three more years.
In the aftermath of the economic fall-out caused by the Covid-19 outbreak, the Labour Government must introduce the framework for policies which address the systemic weaknesses that have undermined our economy and society for so long, and which threaten our future.
The Covid-19 outbreak has not only precipitated a health emergency, but an economic crisis unparalleled in modern history. For New Zealand to emerge from that crisis in a healthy state, the Labour government will need to provide a clear framework for recovery.
The current welfare system has failed the people of New Zealand and led to too much inequality. We need to move away from the current welfare system of tax and spend via government-owned institutions to a system based on individual choice, competition, and personal savings...
The only effective safeguard for ordinary people is the ability to make a free personal choice among competing suppliers whose livelihood depends on satisfying the final consumer. Dedication to that principle from 1984 onwards is what places that Labour government squarely in the established Labour tradition of putting the needs of the common people first.
