Early last month, I headed off to visit four of the five capitals of most relevance to New Zealand’s future – Washington, London, Beijing, and Canberra. It was a very interesting series of meetings, which gave me a great opportunity to get up to speed on current thinking on a range of issues, including of course views on Iraq.
But the trip also gave me an opportunity to look at New Zealand from afar, and catch up on some “important but not crucially urgent” reading sitting in aircraft.
What struck me was the number of areas where we are on absolutely the wrong track, with the Labour Government’s nanny state sending us all the wrong signals. Three quite different items illustrate the point.
First, I read a book entitled “Creating Equal: My fight against race preferences”, by Ward Connerly, an African American who fought for a colour-blind society in California in the 1990s. And as I read it, I was struck by its relevance to New Zealand. In California, well-meaning people had insisted on a system of affirmative action designed to assist black and Hispanic Americans get into the University of California. But the tragedy was that the supposed beneficiaries of the policy were psychologically damaged by the policy, with all blacks and Hispanics effectively told that they only made it into university by virtue of a racial preference, while more able or better educated whites and Asians were denied access to the university – all racial groups were thereby hurt by the policy.
Perhaps worse still, the policy allowed policy-makers to salve their consciences while doing nothing to deal with the real source of black and Hispanic underperformance, namely the dysfunctional families from which too many of them come and the poor public schools which too many of them attend.
And that surely is a close approximation of the situation in New Zealand, with markedly lower entrance standards expected of Maori and Pacific Island students wanting to attend university. But such lower standards tell all students – Maori, Pacific Island, European and Asian – that Maori and Pacific Island students are somehow inherently less able than other students, with disastrous effect on the morale of Maori and Pacific Island students and equally damaging effect on the image of such students in the eyes of European and Asian students. The policy also denies access to some more able European and Asian students, which is grossly unfair to them. What on earth can that do for the future of race relations in New Zealand?
The policy may assuage the feelings of guilt in the breasts of left-leaning Cabinet ministers, but at terrible cost. National would move to eliminate all such racial preferences. No race is inherently inferior, and if Maori and Pacific Island students are poorly educated when they apply to enter university, let’s deal with the problem at source, not by lowering entry standards.
Secondly, I reflected again on Michael Cullen’s recent Budget, and the signals it sent to New Zealanders. That Budget said to people that if you are hard-working and responsible, perhaps saving up to put down the deposit on a first home, or saving to put something aside for retirement, or struggling to establish a small business, the Government is not interested in helping you. If you have had more children than you can support yourself, however, then there will not only be no tax to pay but this Government will provide you with a hand-out.
And this was something which few people were willing to say out aloud when a Sunday newspaper ran the story of a couple finding it tough to support four children on one income. But some people did ask why, with that income, they chose to have four children and why they should now expect other hard-working New Zealanders to bail them out of their situation.
In seeking to help such families, the Labour Government has created a situation where it becomes hardly worthwhile for many people to earn more for themselves.
Compare two families in South Auckland, one earning $38,000 gross and the other $60,000 gross, both with two parents and two young children. Before Michael Cullen’s Budget, the gap between the net incomes of the two families was $9,266 per annum, after tax and ACC levies have been deducted and family assistance and accommodation supplements have been added.
By 2007, when the Budget’s measures are fully in place, the gap in net income between the two families will narrow to just $2,375. How can this be? Because the family earning $38,000 effectively pays no tax and receives additional support taking its net income to $42,860, while the family earning $60,000 will receive only a net $45,236.
So a gap in gross incomes of $22,000 shrinks to a gap in net incomes of only $2,375 – what kind of signal does that send to those contemplating working an extra shift, or acquiring an additional skill, or taking on more responsibility? It is obvious the signal which the Labour Government wants to send to New Zealanders: we’ll help you if you are low income, but don’t try to help yourself because we’ll make sure it is not worth your doing so.
And thirdly, as I prepared for a speech on the way this Government is failing to deal with crime in New Zealand, I reflected on the signals being sent to persistent criminals – violent criminals, criminals with a long history of burglary, criminals with a long history of driving dangerously or under the influence of alcohol or drugs. As my colleague Tony Ryall has pointed out, there are cases of men convicted of literally hundreds of offences being allowed back into our communities. Maybe “three strikes and you’re out” is too tough, but “three hundred strikes”? New Zealanders should not have to tolerate those people living in their communities, and a National Government will ensure that they do not have to tolerate such people as neighbours.
Let’s send a clear signal: we want a society where all New Zealanders are treated equally under the law, where there are no racial preferences, where the tax system encourages people who are doing their best to look after their own families, and where persistent criminals are locked up for a very long time. We need a National Government.
Copyright © 2024 Don Brash.