The Kiwi No 8 wire approach to solving problems needs to be ditched, emerging young leaders were told today at the Knowledge Wave conference in Auckland.
Justine Munro, a lawyer and management consultant specialising in advising indigenous groups in Australia and New Zealand, said it may sound like heresy, but she
did not see what a piece of No 8 fencing wire had to do with New Zealand.
"I think it's time we ditched that image and its notions of cobbling things together in favour of something which recognises our increasingly world-class technological prowess.'
In a session where delegates were asked to give their notions of the defining characteristics of New Zealand in the year 2020, Ms Munro said the challenge was to decide which traditional values New Zealand should uphold and what new values needed to be created.
She said New Zealand needed two core beliefs to underpin the society people wanted for the future. The first, a "fair go society", was a familiar one but the second, individual social responsibility, was new.
The heart of what defined New Zealanders was a belief that everyone was entitled to a fair go, to a basic standard of living and an equal opportunity to succeed regardless of their background.
"It's a compelling belief, it's strongly rooted in our past and it continues to inspire us in the present.
"What is becoming increasingly apparent, however, is that for a significant number of New Zealanders, and particularly New Zealand children, this is a hollow vision."
She said statistics showed 13 per cent of New Zealand women said their families could afford to eat properly "only sometimes"; 40 per cent of Maori and 30 per cent of Pacific Island students in Manukau City left school with no qualifications; and New Zealand languished near the bottom of the developed world for youth suicide, drug use, teenage pregnancies and youth unemployment.
New Zealand faced a danger of becoming a "two-thirds" society where two-thirds of the population lived in the fabled Godzone, enjoying a clean, green country and developing world-class skills.
The other third, often Maori or Pacific Islanders, lived in a world of poverty and limitations with little possibility of breaking the cycle.
She said the second core belief to develop a future everyone wanted was for all New Zealanders to recognise and accept "individual social responsibility".
"At the moment most of us hold the view that achieving equal opportunity is the Government's problem."
Most were appalled by the statistics but felt little personal responsibility and were often affronted by the suggestion they should.
"There is, many of us believe, a social contract that says that once I pay my taxes, I can leave all community and social issues to the Government.
"It's time to move on and put what has become a fairly unthinking excuse for inaction to bed.
Auckland, Feb 19 - The Kiwi No 8 wire approach to solving problems needs to be ditched, emerging young leaders were told today at the Knowledge Wave conference in Auckland.
Justine Munro, a lawyer and management consultant specialising in advising indigenous groups in Australia and New Zealand, said it may sound like heresy, but she did not see what a piece of No 8 fencing wire had to do with New Zealand.
"I think it's time we ditched that image and its notions of cobbling things together in favour of something which recognises our increasingly world-class technological prowess.'
In a session where delegates were asked to give their notions of the defining characteristics of New Zealand in the year 2020, Ms Munro said the challenge was to decide which traditional values New Zealand should uphold and what new values needed to be created.
She said New Zealand needed two core beliefs to underpin the society people wanted for the future. The first, a "fair go society", was a familiar one but the second, individual social responsibility, was new.
The heart of what defined New Zealanders was a belief that everyone was entitled to a fair go, to a basic standard of living and an equal opportunity to succeed regardless of their background.
"It's a compelling belief, it's strongly rooted in our past and it continues to inspire us in the present.
"What is becoming increasingly apparent, however, is that for a significant number of New Zealanders, and particularly New Zealand children, this is a hollow vision."
She said statistics showed 13 per cent of New Zealand women said their families could afford to eat properly "only sometimes"; 40 per cent of Maori and 30 per cent of Pacific Island students in Manukau City left school with no qualifications; and New Zealand languished near the bottom of the developed world for youth suicide, drug use, teenage pregnancies and youth unemployment.
New Zealand faced a danger of becoming a "two-thirds" society where two-thirds of the population lived in the fabled Godzone, enjoying a clean, green country and developing world-class skills.
The other third, often Maori or Pacific Islanders, lived in a world of poverty and limitations with little possibility of breaking the cycle.
She said the second core belief to develop a future everyone wanted was for all New Zealanders to recognise and accept "individual social responsibility".
"At the moment most of us hold the view that achieving equal opportunity is the Government's problem."
Most were appalled by the statistics but felt little personal responsibility and were often affronted by the suggestion they should.
"There is, many of us believe, a social contract that says that once I pay my taxes, I can leave all community and social issues to the Government.
"It's time to move on and put what has become a fairly unthinking excuse for inaction to bed.
She said such a social contract no longer existed in New Zealand, if it ever did.
New Zealand did not and was unlikely to have the wealth needed to provide the level of social services needed. Individuals and businesses could not cope with the tax needed to fund it and while the Government could be expected to fund the bulk of the work, there would be gaps it could not fill.
"I propose that we recognise that the buck stops with us -- that we are all responsible, individually as well as collectively, for the welfare of our community."
Establishing that as a core belief would require the country to develop a national culture which celebrated and reinforced individual and corporate social responsibility.
The country had done well with the environment and it was time to do the same for social responsibility.
Ms Munro said the contribution to social responsibility had to be seen not as a gift but an investment for which there should be a return.
"Our personal social responsibility is not met by dropping $5 in the collection box and walking away feeling virtuous."
She said donors should ask what problem the money would address and how important it was, and if the organisation did not have impact on the problem, then why not?
The health of the non-profit sector needed real attention.
Many non-profit bodies lacked the organisational capabilities to grow, reduce duplication and fragmentation and to achieve their full potential.
- NZPA
The Kiwi No 8 wire approach to solving problems needs to be ditched, emerging young leaders were told today at the Knowledge Wave conference in Auckland.
Justine Munro, a lawyer and management consultant specialising in advising indigenous groups in Australia and New Zealand, said it may sound like heresy, but she
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