The Front Page: Immigration, infrastructure, bickering politicians - How to fix a broken NZ

Ongoing infrastructure has left many frustrated. Photo / File

New Zealand has faced enormous upheaval in recent years.

Covid-19, economic turmoil and an enormous backlog of infrastructure have left many feeling frustrated by the current circumstances in the country.

Trust among business leaders in local and central Government is also wavering, amid the enormous pressures they continue to endure.

And on top of all this, we’ve also seen growing divisions between New Zealanders as they dig their heels into their preferred political position and refuse to budge.

So how do you build back better when no one seems to agree with each other? Is it enough for politicians to serve up only criticism instead of ideas? And what is the unified objective that New Zealanders should be striving for during a period of enormous change?

These are just some of the questions we put to Steve Armitage from events and tourism consultancy Daylight and Georgina Stylianou from Government relations PR firm BRG on today’s episode of the NZ Herald’s Front Page podcast.

Our discussion covers a wide range of issues including:

• Why have businesses lost faith in the Government?
• Are the Opposition’s criticisms actually helping to improve anything?
• Is it time for a four-day week in NZ?
• Is there any light at the end of the tunnel when it comes to Auckland’s infrastructure backlog?
• Does the country have too many politicians?
• How do you get politicians to focus on long-term problems rather than short-term campaign winners?
• As borders reopen, how do we get the immigration balance right?
• Is New Zealand’s international reputation broken?
• And what’s the one thing we need to fix right now?

The point of this discussion was not to blame anyone for what’s gone wrong, but rather to look at ways society can move forward and achieve the target of actually building a society that functions as it should.