Yesterday's package by itself breaks little new ground, but shows how far we have come since Sir Roger Douglas began his "level playing field" policies in 1984.
Given any set of resources, any country can lift its living standards only by bringing more of its people into the workforce, and then by using extra capital, technology and ideas to make better use of their work.
At last count in 2000, 28 per cent of all New Zealanders aged 15 to 64, or 693,000 people, were subsisting on welfare benefits or superannuation. Many - probably most - of them would prefer to be working.
Other countries actively help people to move off benefits into work. Denmark, for example, provides training or job subsidies for the unemployed, including permanent wage subsidies for people with disabilities. Childcare is also subsidised, encouraging parents to go back to work.
In Ireland as well as Denmark, unions, employers and community groups agree on what pay increases the country can afford without pricing workers out of jobs.
In Queensland, officials interview all workers affected by major redundancies and help them to retrain, get new jobs and if necessary move towns.
Australia also helps refugees to get jobs by guaranteeing them 510 hours of English tuition.
In New Zealand, the Government has introduced a bill to let widows and sole parents keep 70c out of every extra $1 they earn between $80 and $100 a week, compared with only 30c at present. Social Services Minister Steve Maharey said last week that the change might be extended to unemployment beneficiaries if it was successful.
Paid parental leave may also encourage more parents to go back to work.
But the Government still leaves hundreds of thousands of people on benefits because it has not been willing to pay job subsidies for them, or to negotiate national wage deals or to meet the full need for English classes for immigrants.
Ministers have been much more willing in the past two years to subsidise businesses into investing more in new facilities, technology and ideas - in effect, sharing the risks of new investments because society as a whole will often benefit from an investment even if an individual investor loses money.
Like Israel and Taiwan, this Government now subsidises business "incubators".
Like Taiwan, Singapore and Australia, it subsidises private-sector research and is beginning to encourage research consortiums linking businesses, universities and crown research institutes.
Like Israel and Singapore, it is sinking $100 million of public money into venture capital investments in private companies.
Yesterday's package added possible support for Irish-style "beach-head" offices for NZ exporters to use in foreign markets.
All of this falls well short of the large-scale "industrial parks" developed by Governments in Ireland and Singapore and avoids the massive subsidies that have been paid by Ireland and by some Australian states to attract foreign investors.
Instead, the latest package proposes only a gradual increase in spending on attracting foreign investment, plus a possible cut in the tax rate on foreign-owned companies.
The package points out that "New Zealand's size and location mean that it is unlikely to attract the type and levels of foreign direct investment that were attracted to countries like Singapore and Ireland". The South Pacific is a much smaller market for anyone than Asia or Europe.
In New Zealand, higher living standards will have to be achieved primarily by New Zealanders. After leaving that job to the private sector for 15 years, the Government is finally playing a more active supporting role.
Read the full reports:
Government of New Zealand
Growing an innovative New Zealand
Part 2
Herald features
Catching the knowledge wave
Global Kiwis
Proud to be a Kiwi
Our turn
The jobs challenge
Common core values
