Fran O'Sullivan: Too many wrongs in our quest for rights

Schmoozing around the Christmas party circuit (as you do) I've been quite invigorated by the myriad conversations all sorts of Kiwis are having about the necessity of ensuring New Zealand does not join the PIIGS club.

Admittedly, I've tossed in the occasional verbal firecracker to get things going.

"Hey Prime Minister, why don't you sneak onto www.nzherald.co.nz some night when your poll-obsessed staffers aren't looking and have a peek at the views expressed by the 86 readers at last count who have come up with plenty of good ideas to match my own 'Ten ways to beat our snowballing debt'."

I'll pick up on some of the best ideas in my weekly business column next week just to reinforce the vibe.

It's obvious many of us want our Government to stop overspending and overborrowing before the ratings agencies decide we belong with the PIIGS - Portugal, Ireland, Iceland, Greece and Spain where angry citizens have taken to the streets to protest against the savage cuts brought on by enforced austerity regimes.

John Key's rash pledge not to raise the national super age while he is Prime Minister, and his Government's decision not to put everything on the table in the various tax, welfare and savings reviews, does leave the country in a surreal cul de sac.

Let's face it, our welfare state will go into a death spiral if our governments - yes Labour's Phil Goff also lacks the cojones to front up to this national issue - do not address the national super bubble.

The problem we face as a nation is that too many Kiwis still believe they have squatters' rights when it comes to their welfare entitlements and tax breaks.

It's the mentality that says, "Mess with my right to be paid National Super at 65 and I'll give my vote to Winston Peters, and stuff all you younger people because you have to pay for my entitlement".

Or, "I'll have another baby on the State - that's my entitlement".

Or,"I'll give my vote to Phil because he'll direct even more family tax credits my way even though we are going broke because that's my entitlement".

Or, "I'll despoil our pristine waterways to irrigate my dairy farm and the state (ie, the rest of us) can pay for the cleanup" - the old game of privatise the profits and socialise the losses that the backbone of our country does so well.

Or, "I don't see why I should be hit with a capital gains tax because I contribute to the national wealth. It's also my right to flog my farm to a rich overseas buyer because our young people these days can't afford it. Besides it's my entitlement."

And so it goes on, and on and on.

The problem with our dopey, sponging society is we have created a welfare monster that threatens to engulf us. National Super is the big kahuna but our politicians would rather preserve our present retirement benefits and the automatic imposition they will cost our young.

New Zealanders are alert to political bribery.

Nearly three-quarters of the 1291 New Zealanders surveyed this year by Transparency International in its Global Corruption Barometer believe corruption has increased here in the last three years.

Political parties were rated the most corrupt group, then Parliament and lastly the private sector.

Transparency International was alarmed that 4 per cent of its survey respondents admitted to paying a bribe in the past year.

But the real issue, surely, is that "bribery" is also now institutionalised by the MMP system.

The kind of bribery which allows the Maori Party to screw inside commercial deals from the Government to enrich its iwi backers. Deals - like the foreshore and seabed - which are not subject to full parliamentary approval or a court challenge.

The kind of deal that would be called insider trading in the commercial world. Deals for votes.

So, here's a few more questions for MPs X, Y, Z.

Why do Maori iwi who run some of our most successful firms still get preferential tax rates? Why can't Ngati Pakeha?

And while you are about it, what's the real game with the "foreshore and seabed" legislation?

Don't you know this paves the way for Maori iwi to get a major share in our valuable ironsands resource and our coastal riches?

Why can't our large tribe, Ngati Pakeha, make cosy in-house deals to enrich its race commercially at the expense of other New Zealanders.

Unfortunately our current crop of politicians will be long departed when we ultimately do have to face up to the fact that the "social contract" with our ageing society and ethnic special interests is unaffordable.

But until then, they'll keep on bribing us with our children's money.