Unify the Waikato
Local government is under the spotlight. Many councils are under pressure for poor performance.

Given the recent damning reports on the Wellington and Hamilton City councils, the spotlight needs to intensify and make transparent all the allegations levelled by the reviews.
Council squad tasked with finding answers to buried report | Waikato Times
‘Poorly controlled’ and risky: Wellington City Council’s contract chaos | The Post
 

It is hard to believe that local council bureaucracy and governance can be so poor. It is time for a change. Our submission to the Simplifying Local Government consultation process can be read here.
 

For more than eight years, we have been advocating for a rationalisation of the Waikato councils. We are over-governed, and our bureaucracy are under delivering.
 

The never-ending growth in what we pay in rates needs to stop, and a new structure needs to be implemented. Rate capping or price controls seldom work. The electorate gave Rob Muldoon the exit after his draconian wage and price freeze. It just dammed the waters for a while and then caused the radical Lange-led Labour Government restructuring of the economy.
 

We need the efficiencies that one Waikato council should bring. Auckland did so and ironed out many of the issues, including those that concern a reduction in democracy and the diminution of the voice of smaller communities.
 

The Wellington, Southland, and Northland regions are all in the process of unifying. 2026 will see the Waikato attempt to do the same.
 

Those regions that unify and genuinely unite will have far greater pull with central government than the current split and disparate Waikato can ever dream of. For years, successive governments of all political stripes have bemoaned the number of conflicting and separate delegations they have received from differing Waikato councils, iwi, or other lobbying groups. All with their hand out, few working together, none with a vision for the Waikato. Where is our 50 or 100-year plan?
 

The natural geographic and geological barriers define the Waikato region. They should be the boundaries that unify us. Not the arbitrary lines put on a map way back in 1989 that divide us.
 

Central government needs to turbo-charge the changes, bring the Waikato together into One Waikato, and not be weak and give in to petty parochialism.
 

The Waikato will be stronger together and thus more prosperous for unification.

Export to India
On March 12 we are hosting Hon Todd McLay, Minister of Trade & Investment, His Excellency Dr Madan Mohan Sethi, Indian Consul General to New Zealand, and Vangelis Vitalis, Chief Negotiator MFAT to discuss the India/NZ Free Trade Agreement.

The opportunity of the India market for New Zealand exporters is undeniably massive. With a rising middle class of more than 700 million, the sheer volume of potential customers is daunting, but a small portion would be an exceptional win for any Waikato company.

Selling or purchasing from India will be a project that will take time and energy, but the FTA will streamline the process. It will get Kiwi companies a return much faster than we ever could have envisaged over the past decades, since Sir Edmund Hillary was the Ambassador to India.

As we have seen from the current export-led recovery currently underway, getting dollars for selling into overseas markets makes for a substantially better return than selling houses to each other.
 

House Price vs Ag and Tech-Led Recovery
New Zealand has had several economic recoveries over the past 50 years that have been led by house price fever. Putting more house buyers into the market using easy immigration settings, the attraction of low interest rates, and the lure of easy capital gain has been the hallmark of successive governments from all sides of the political spectrum.

It is a cynical way of making us feel rich, but this last spike in property prices has left many households close to underwater with their mortgages.

It raises the question of whether Kiwis will enjoy capital gains on their houses for many years to come. Given the current excess of supply over demand and the pain many are enduring who bought during the bull market, it is probable that the property market is not going to revitalise the economy for many years.
Betting that the boom years of property returns are behind us | The Post

It is therefore over to exporters to do the heavy lifting and bring foreign dollars into our economy as their return on selling our products overseas. While we are currently enjoying an agricultural export boom, prices for dairy, meat, horticulture, and wool have historically been cyclical. Farmers cannot be our only saviour. While they are exceptional on a global stage, they need other industries to add to what they are doing, for New Zealand to experience sustained economic prosperity.
 
Our future export earners - we want to see our tech, services, and manufacturing industries step up.

The good news story is that Waikato Tech as an export-earning monster is already underway. Exciting, innovative and born of years of investment in Kiwi kids getting world-class education, tech in the Waikato can truly make its mark over the next decade.

We need the tech industry and our outstanding tech entrepreneurs to continue to create new products, start new companies, develop their people, grow their businesses, and expand their footprint across the globe.  
 

Te Huia
The Te Huia train has left the station to chug on for another year. Jaw boning by its supporters will not ensure its survival longer term nor will interviews such as the one regional councillor Angela Strange gave to Mike Hosking.
Te Huia secures one year extension, with NZTA to pick up 60% of the bill
 
Te Huia will only survive if both the amount its passengers pay and annual passenger numbers increase substantially, or KiwiRail reduces the cost of their service.

Interestingly KiwiRail posted a good surplus for the year. Perhaps that could be spent reducing the subsidisation of Te Huia paid for by Waikato ratepayers.
 

Resilience
The spate of natural disasters over the past few years and the recent tragedy at Mount Maunganui have thrown resilience into sharp relief. New Zealand has been known for a long time as the “shaky isles” with its volcanic and earthquake activity, and now we are in the path of exceptionally heavy weather storms and the resultant slips.
 
Civil Defence does an absolutely marvelous job alongside SAR to rescue and restore Kiwis, but what of their businesses?

There needs to be some form of business revitalisation service undertaken to restore businesses affected by natural disasters. The sooner businesses reopen after rectifying the damage, the sooner a community gets cash flowing into the hands of its people.

The businesses affected by the tragedy at Mount Maunganui are still struggling to rebound. The sooner they can, the sooner the community heals and restores itself.

We need to create central government-initiated and funded resilience planning, systems, and assistance for companies that will restore the foundations of a community swiftly.

Regards 
Don Good