The Premium Debate: New Zealand needs collective leadership to smash our crises

OPINION: We need good, collective leadership to tackle our crises in New Zealand. Photo / NZME

OPINION

Columnist Merepeka Raukawa-Tait talks about the number of crises affecting Kiwis at the moment. These crises require all political parties to put the wellbeing of New Zealand citizens front and centre of their policies and work programme. She says collective leadership is required to smash crisis after crisis out of existence. Here are some opinions.

It's encouraging to read an article that refers to us all as NZers and the problems that we face in this country.
There are many NZ families that are doing it hard.
- Gordon L

Labour have failed to recognise the reality of what the country is going through.
It's way past the point of no return for them.
- Ian U

The fundamental roadblocks to these issues are 1) a belief by the electorate that the government is the answer to all of society's woes, and 2) long term fixes are beyond the three year election cycle and therefore never vote winners.
Many of the issues we face are simply down to a welfare system that over 40 years has removed aspiration from a growing percentage of our community. More welfare will never reduce welfare.
That and an education system that allows 18-year-olds to leave school as failures.
The major causes of income inequality are age, marital status and family composition. Governments can do little about any of these issues. But for a start, we should remove access to welfare from under 25s. Let the families be the first port of call, not government.
- Gavin L

Read the full story: Merepeka Raukawa-Tait: Crises need firm action from all parts of government

All true. It's also true that not enough money exists in government coffers to fix them all. In actuality, there's not enough money in government coffers to fix even one. Reference health. A report a couple of years ago mentioned the health sector needed an extra 22 billion dollars just to stand still. In short, they're falling further behind, and that falling behind significantly sped up starting 2009. The cops are another example. They need a similar amount. So that's getting towards 50 billion dollars out of our 200 billion dollar economy: health and law and order would suck up a quarter of what we have at our disposal...just to stand still. Then to improve, they need more again. I have no idea what the answer is, other than we're at the apex of health in NZ. Our young today will never have the access to health services that we all have today. It'll simply become unaffordable. And no government will be able to fix it...unless they create an industry to make money to subsidise health.
- Timothy T

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We have only ourselves to blame. We voted the kids in.
- Greg S

I am still stunned that it took bad press (locally and internationally) and lower polls than National, that finally forced Labour to acknowledge a crisis and to offer some financial assistance; reduced petrol, half-fare on public transport. I noticed the almost unbelievable high costs at the supermarket, rising every week for months unabated (lettuce $6, box tomatoes $ 6.95 in recent weeks) at the supermarket has mysteriously dropped back to affordable prices. Amazing how fear of loss of power results in action that directly benefits the public.
- Rita R

- Republished comments may be edited at the editor's discretion.