United Future
Hon Peter Dunne

UNITED FUTURE’S VISION FOR NEW ZEALAND

There are two keys to our future. First, we need to understand who we are as a nation, and second, we must never forget that traditional Kiwi pragmatism will always be the fundamental yardstick against which policies succeed or fail. We need leadership that reflects and builds upon traditional Kiwi values, rather than seeks to create new ones altogether.

The Family

Consistent with United Future’s commitment to the role and importance of the family, our ambition is to make New Zealand the best place in the world to live, raise a family and call home. We want to celebrate the richness and diversity of all our people, while acknowledging the contribution the wisdom and importance of traditional values make to our society. We want New Zealand to be a bold and politically progressive state, confident of its identity and place in the world, and not afraid to refine its constitutional procedures to match. And we must become more positive in embracing and promoting success, in rewarding talent and enterprise, and in encouraging new ideas and innovation.

Over the next 30 years, the traditional European New Zealander will become an ethnic minority in this country, as the combination of both the Maori Renaissance and the new patterns of migration take hold. Belief in the concept of family is deeply rooted in Pacific and Asian cultures, which makes Norman Kirk’s famous declaration that if a measure is good for the family we should be for it, and if it is bad for the family we should be against it even more relevant. 

Immigration

We need a more active population and immigration policy to boost our population. We need to be much more aggressive in both attracting and then retaining truly skilled migrants. A permit to enter New Zealand should carry with it the right to practice one’s skills here, rather than just be the admission ticket to a set of arcane professional registration processes the way it is now. People should not be given permission to enter New Zealand until all these issues have been resolved.

The constitution

Our political and constitutional structures need to be aligned with the nation we are developing. Resolving the role and place of the Treaty of Waitangi is vital. Is it a living foundational document for our country, or no more than an historical backdrop to the development of contemporary society, establishing core principles in much the way Magna Carta did in England after 1215? Or should we heed the views of many, and simply tear the Treaty up completely as a meaningless anachronism that never really stood for much and has no relevance today? We cannot go on refusing to face these issues. The establishment of a select committee to carry out a “stocktake” of our existing constitutional arrangements is a very useful start, but it is only that. Issues like republicanism cannot be ignored for ever.

The New Zealand of the future must be a genuine home for all its citizens - a country  that not just basks in the successes of its people in so many different areas, but which actively celebrates, encourages and promotes the talents and ingenuity in our country.

Education

All these building blocks need to be based on a world class education system that promotes excellence and is accessible to all; a competitive and dynamic economy that marks us out as one of the world’s smart nations; and where, at home, our citizens can feel safe, secure and valued and able to look forward to a dignified retirement.

Our school system is caught in a pincer movement of conservative bureaucrats and a highly unionised teaching profession, with the common ambition to ensure as little change to the status quo as possible. All the while, successive governments’ funding policies and rigid employment practices have meant that the ability to be truly innovative has been all but snuffed out. It is absurd that we cannot pay good teachers more to retain and encourage them; or that we cannot develop attractive exit packages to encourage older, burnt out teachers to leave the profession to make way for younger ones.

What is most telling about what is happening in education at present is that very little of it has anything to do with the students. Teachers are critical to the success of students. But we have to turn the emphasis away from the current focus on teachers themselves, and place much more emphasis on ensuring our teachers are able to perform at the best levels for their students. School boards ought to be resourced to pay good teachers more to retain them, and ought to have the flexibility to offer attractive entry packages to new teachers, or exit packages to those who are getting to their use-by date. 

Equally, we cannot continue to have a tertiary education system which trains graduates across a range of disciplines and professions for export. We need to be doing more to address the mounting student debt burden, by ensuring that tertiary institutions are adequately funded and that there is a reasonable student allowance available to most students, regardless of parental income. We must also look at some form of rebating a portion of student loan debt for each year after graduation that a graduate works in a designated area of speciality within New Zealand.

And we need to look to the structure of education at both the secondary and tertiary levels. The quest for excellence is insatiable, but its achievement is presently highly variable and random. Why not make much greater use of technology to bring the best teachers from around the country (or the world) to the greatest number of students possible? And why not extend that idea to bring the best educational brands to the widest number of students possible too? Or allow the top schools here to franchise their brand throughout the country, to help many more students gain a quality education?

Trade

Regional trade agreements, consistent with the principles of the World Trade Organisation, are critical to our economic future. They provide renewed opportunities for New Zealand exporters by giving them better access to more international markets, and challenging New Zealand manufacturers and producers to become more innovative and efficient. And that will require the government to become smarter too, to assist New Zealand businesses to prosper in this environment. Issues such as accelerated depreciation rates for new products, research and development assistance, and specific help towards gaining new markets are all issues the government needs to take a strong line in promoting.

Infrastructure

Equally important is the issue of our national infrastructure – our roads, utilities, and major transport services. The cumulative effect of years of under investment, is inescapable. A country that is unable to provide for its basic infrastructural needs is a country that is struggling, and not the best place in the world to live, work, raise a family and call home.   

The only medium term way we can overcome this chronic infrastructure deficit and lack of investment is through the involvement of private sector investors alongside the government. We should also be developing the concept of infrastructure bonds, offering an attractive rate of return over a specified period, to encourage more investment in infrastructure development. The Superannuation Fund and the Accident Compensation Corporation come readily to mind as government bodies with significant investment capacity that could be readily persuaded to invest in local infrastructure needs if the return was sufficiently competitive. Also, we should be looking at concession arrangements or other forms of partnership which allow an investor or service provider to develop a particular form of infrastructure and operate it for a specific period of time, make their profit, and then transfer it back to community ownership at either the national or local level.

Communities

Families are not isolated units, but are always part of a wider community. The family is the core economic, social and educational unit of our society. The strength of the community and, ultimately, the country derives from the strength of the family. Just as every member of a family should expect to be safe and valued within that family, the same should apply for families living in wider communities. Amenities like parks, art galleries, museums, sports stadiums and a healthy environment are important elements of strong communities. While the government clearly cannot fund all the demands around the country for new museums, art galleries, sports stadiums, or swimming pools, there is scope for a more co-ordinated civic amenities policy built around equal participation between central and local government, and the private sector.

Sport

Alongside ensuring our communities have the best of facilities, there is also an important role to be played, especially today, in promoting high performance sports achievement. We should be viewing investment in sport in the same positive way we now view investment in tourism and high technology industries.

Law and order

All our individual citizens have the fundamental right to be physically safe in the communities in which they live. The rule of law, and the role of the Police and the Courts in upholding that is an important element of this, but we ought also to be encouraging a wider community response as well. Neighbourhood Support Groups have flourished since the 1980s and 1990s as a front line local response to crime prevention. However, surely it is now time to broaden their horizons to include all aspects of community safety and emergency preparedness.

Superannuation

We owe it to our older citizens to ensure they have stability and dignity in their retirement years. I have always believed that the only viable long-term solution to superannuation is through a robust multi-party accord. Labour’s approach that any party that dares repeal the Cullen fund is dicing with political death misses the point. It ensures the issue remains a political one, when the very thing most people want is to depoliticise the issue.

Coalitions

These goals can only be achieved through smart, sensible and pragmatic government, which does not change direction, or stop for a cup of tea, every time there is an election. United Future is the only party that can work equally well with either Labour or National. We are sensible, reliable and unfailingly moderate – we are neither scary extremists like the Greens, nor erratic populists like New Zealand First. Our confidence and supply agreement with Labour over the last three years has kept the government honest and provided stable government which has given New Zealand families their most sustained period of economic prosperity in more than a generation, as well as putting family issues centre stage once more.

But we have no automatic commitment to Labour beyond this term. At the election voters will decide whether they want Labour or National to lead the next government. United Future is prepared to work with the people’s choice to ensure New Zealand has a stable government, committed to promoting the interests and wellbeing of New Zealand families, and not subject to the whim of the extremists or the populists.

But we need the numbers to ensure that government is not dominated by either more political correctness, or a harsh and uncaring approach, but rather, reflects the values and concerns of mainstream New Zealand.  

Conclusion

In the next government we will ensure that family issues are top of the agenda. We will promote major tax reform to put more money in the pockets of families. We will protect New Zealanders’ rights to enjoy the recreational opportunities of our great outdoors. We will make it easier for young people to get their qualifications without being crippled by debt. We will make sure older New Zealanders have certainty and dignity in their retirement. We will take a strong line against drugs. And we will keep our streets and suburbs safe and secure for all. 

We will achieve our vision for New Zealand.