Andrew Dickens: The country is desperate for growth, the question is how?

The country is desperate to go for growth. The question is: how?

We got 3 points of view over the weekend - Friday it was the turn of Matthew Hooten. His piece was called New Zealand needs a strategic approach to building wealth like Singapore's Temasek.

Temasek own and manage assets that are held directly by its government. They operate a major bank and insurance company, Singapore airlines, the country’s main port, and a load of other things.

It's as if we’ve been investigating it for decades. Even Grant Robertson was interested but nothing’s ever happened. So it has cross party appeal, but why hasn’t it happened? Who knows. Ask the politicians - all talk no action. 

On Sunday, it was the turn of Don Brash and Michael Reddell who in a shared piece said our problem is our low productivity.

No kidding! Every politician says that and none have come up with an answer.

Brash and Reddell's only proffered solution is to lower company tax rates to attract overseas and local investment. They claim we have the one of highest company tax rates in the world, which is balderdash. We sit at 28 per cent. Australia at 30, the US and the UK around 26.

We're slightly above median and no disrespect to Don Brash, you had terms as a reserve bank governor and leader of a couple of political parties and plenty of opportunities to lift productivity and failed.

then there was Sam Stubbs who said if we’re selling public assets lets sell them to new Zealanders like super funds so the wealth stays in New Zealand instead of being exported.

To me that’s the key. Stop saying productivity and start saying wealth creation.  

find out how to make or supply stuff that the world wants and then keep the profits and the workers in New Zealand, then we start generating wealth and then we recycle it to create more great businesses..

That's Denmark's trick. That's why they operate the second largest container ship operation in the world, to import capital rather than export it. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So the country is desperate to go for growth for
obvious reasons, and that means we're having a good old
debate and I like it. The question is how and
you go to a barbecue, you go anywhere, people start
talking about the economy. What should we do? What should
we do? We're going to have to do something because
what we've been doing over the last thirty years hasn't worked.
We've got three points of view over the weekend. So
first of all, Friday it was the turn of Matthew

(00:20):
Houghton and the Herald. He had a piece called New
Zealand needs a strategic approach to building wealth, like Singapore's Temasek. Now,
Temasek owns and manages assets that are held directly by
the Singapore government. They operate a major bank and an
insurance company, Singapore Airlines, the country's main port, the Marina Bay, Sandstel, hotel,

(00:41):
a load of other things, biggest company in Singapore. It's
a good idea and we have actually been investigating it
for decades. Even Grant Robertson was interested in having a
New Zealand agency like Temasek here, but nothing's ever happened.
So it has cross party appeal. Why hasn't it happened?
No one knows. Politicians all talk, no action. Honestly, twenty

(01:03):
or thirty years have been talking about this. Nothing's happened anyway.
Then on Sunday it was the turn of Don Brash
at Michael Riddell, who in a shared piece said our
problem was low productivity. Good lord, If I had a
dollar for every time someone said our problem as low productivity,
I'd be a very rich man. People say this all
the time, every single politician says that, but nobody has
an answer to it. They just go, what we did
is better productivity. Well, how do we do that? I

(01:25):
don't know, but I know we need better productivity. So
in their piece, Brash and Roddell the only profit solution
that they offered in the piece was to lower company
tax rates to attract overseas and local investment. And they
sat there and claimed that we have one of the
highest company tax rates in the world, which is balderdash.
We said it around twenty eight percent. Australia is at

(01:46):
thirty percent, the states in the UK are around twenty
six percent. Were actually slightly above median And no disrespect
to Dom Brash, you had terms as a Reserve bank
governor and a leader of a couple of political parties
and plenty of opportune unities to lift productivity, but you
failed too. And the third piece was from Sam Stubbs,

(02:07):
who said, if we're selling public assets, let's sell them
to New Zealanders like super funds, so the wealth stays
in New Zealand instead of being exported. And I agree
with this. Stop saying productivity, start saying wealth creations, Start
creating some wealth, keep it in New Zealand, find out
how to make or supply stuff that the world wants,
and then keep the profits and the workers in New Zealand.

(02:27):
Then we start generating wealth. Then we recycle it to
make more wealth. And that is Denmark's trick. You know,
you know that Denmark operates the second largest container ship
operation in the world. And the reason why to import
capital rather than to export it. For more from early
edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen live to News Talks it

(02:48):
be from five am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.